Architecture In Middle-Earth

A fascinating pair of videos from geeky architect Dami Lee about the reasons and ideas behind different construction styles in Tolkien's Middle-Earth.

And as a bonus, below, I've shared DnD Hunter's Building Landmarks in D&D Worlds video for some added gaming inspiration:

ASPIRATIONS FOR 2026

Don't Want To Rush These Things: After 19 years, work shall begin on my castle

As we reach the end of January (which seems to have dragged on for about 30 weeks) I thought it was about time to lock in some aspirations for 2026.

HEALTH

Obviously after last year's health debacle (losing about seven months of the year because my legs stopped working properly and being in a great deal of discomfort), I want to get better this year.

More exercise and a healthier (urrgghhh!) diet are key. Hopefully, at the very least, I can bring my blood sugar levels down so I can get the steroid injections in my spine that will allow me the freedom to do more beneficial exercises.

READING

I've already stated that I want to get back into reading more this year (eyes willing), both novels and comic books, as both have slipped in the last seven or eight months.

I'm hoping to dig into my collection of recent Conan the Barbarian pastiche hardbacks, as well as the upcoming new Philip Reeve novel, and a random assortment of other books that either I've purchased for myself or were gifts.

I also have a massive backlog of comics to get through. Even though my pull-list continues to shrink, fresh issues keep arriving every month and I keep getting further and further behind.

My Read Judge Dredd Every Day is going... okay. I read either a story from volume one of the Complete Case Files or fresh material from current issues of the weekly 2000AD or the monthly Megazine pretty much every day. Pretty much.

CASTLE

For my 40th birthday (god, I can't believe it's been that long), Rachel's dad built me a tower that I could then decorate - along the line's of Rachel's dolls house hobby - and while I've collected a lot of "bits" to go inside it, two decades on and I still haven't started proper work on it. 

I keep flip-flopping on the theme of the tower in my mind (sometimes it's a superhero HQ, sometimes it's a U.N.I.T. base from Doctor Who, and sometimes it's even a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy castle!). This year I really must get on with it.

I'D RATHER BE KILLING MONSTERS

The tabletop roleplaying Facebook group I started over six years ago, I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters, is ticking over nicely, with almost 460 members but I'd really like to kick it up a gear.

I want to make the group more interactive, get more conversations flowing.

At the moment it feels as though there's about a dozen of us doing all the heavy-lifting. I'd like to get more members of the group engaged and talking about their own games, the campaigns they're running or playing in, monster/treasure/trap ideas etc

And, of course, I'd always like to increase the membership.

PROJECT 60

This is the big one for me, my core focus for the geeky projects I want to have in place before I turn 60 at the end of this year. Yes, it includes everything I've set in stone above but the two major things I'm channelling my energies into are establishing a singular roleplaying campaign for me to run - that will have legs - and a (skirmish) wargame with painted miniatures and terrain that I can play solo or invite friends over to play.

The current top contender for a roleplaying game is the anime fantasy Twilight Sword.

When it comes to skirmish games, for a while I was spreading myself a bit thin by embracing several genres and settings, but I've finally decided that I need to concentrate on just the Western game Dead Man's Hand.

I'd hoped to get started on terrain building and painting last year, but my osteoarthritis put the kibosh on that. This year I will make up for that.

Swords, Sandstorms and Snow: What More Do You Need?

Dao Ma (Jing Wu), the "second most wanted fugitive," is entrusted by his benefactor, the chief of Mo family clan, to take on a mysterious escort mission - escorting the "most wanted fugitive," to Chang'an.

This sublimely edited teaser trailer makes Blades of The Guardians (aka Biao ren) look absolutely phenomenal.

Based on a popular manhua (Chinese comic), the wuxia film will be released in the States by Well Go USA Entertainment on February 17 in cinemas and via VOD.

Simultaneously, the film will be released in mainland China, during Chinese New Year.

The translated first volume of the manhua will be available in the UK in March, as Blades of The Guardians.

Wikipedia expands on the comic book's hook by telling us:

Hired fighters called Escorts protect targets, criminals for whom the government has issued an arrest warrant.

On the eve of civil unrest in the last years of the Sui dynasty, a government of fear and terror is gaining power in China, and feelings of hatred and enmity are emerging among some people.

A bounty hunter named Dao Ma travels throughout ancient China with his three-year-old son Xiao Qi and lives with the power of his sword.

One day Dao Ma accepts a mission for which he is guided to the city of Chang'an. He plans to pay off his debt to a therapist named Mo, and when he travels in the western desert, he accepts a simple mission that turns into a critical, dangerous issue.

Released on March 5 in trade paperback form: Blades of The Guardians, vol 1. 

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Before The Tuesday Knights

After my aneurysm and stroke, I was looking for ways to keep myself entertained and so Nick, Pete and I started our Formula Dé League, playing monthly motor races and eating a lot of very hot curry.

As the Tunbridge Wells Formula De League we would race little plastic cars around boards representing a variety of Grand Prix circuits from across the globe.

The game uses the very clever mechanic of having the vehicle's different gears represented by different polyhedral dice. 

A moment of high drama during the Chinese Grand Prix

As with our current gaming we didn't always stick to the monthly schedule that we had drawn up in advance, but we still managed to rack up enough races for a couple of years (2006/2007) to give our league a sense of verisimilitude.

We each controlled a stable of two racers, competing for both individual and team glory.

Pete was Team Clover (Paddy O'Doors & Muhat Mecoate), I was Team Zerro (Damien Dash & Brian 'Whitey' Whitehouse) and Nick was Team Flamer (Antonio Wasp & Nick Nastily). Nick's Nick Nastily retired during the '06 season and was replaced by Jock Saway.

Press coverage of Nastily's retirement

During 2007, Steve joined us as Team Classic Rock for one race.

As well as creating newspaper clippings of key race-related stories, we even held "prize giving" ceremonies at the end of each year in local restaurants, handing out trophies and wooden spoons to the winners and losers.

A third year's racing was scheduled for 2008, but a resurgence of interest in roleplaying games led to the creation of the Tuesday Knights and that overtook our toy car racing exploits.

The TWFDL: Pete, Nick & I

The release of the Hollow Earth Expedition pulp adventure system had reignited Nick's enthusiasm for roleplaying games and he ran a short and sadly unfinished Edwardian campaign for Clare and I.

But it was the publicity around the publication of the Fourth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons that got me thinking about starting our own broader gaming group, replacing our board game nights (we also played the collaborative Lord Of The Rings games) with regular roleplaying sessions.

And so was born The Tuesday Knights. In the end we didn't play Fourth Edition, opting for the more old school Castles & Crusades, which was then replaced by Labyrinth Lord, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Regular board game meet-ups resumed in 2023, with the launch of Monopoly Club, where Pete gets to show off his ever-expanding collection of themed Monopoly boards for Clare, Rachel, and I.

“What Are We? Humans? Or Animals? Or Savages?”

When a group of boys crash‑land on a deserted island, their fight for survival spirals into something much darker...

Watch Lord of The Flies on iPlayer in the UK and Stan in Australia from February 8.

This new adaptation of William Golding's seminal Lord of The Flies is attracting a lot of buzz because it's the work of Jack Thorne, creator of Adolescence (and a name strongly promoted by some fans for the role of showrunner on Doctor Who).

All four episodes of the series will be on BBC iPlayer from 6am on Sunday, February 8, and BBC One will air the series weekly from 9pm that night.

The BBC's own publicity says this about the adaptation:

Truthful to the original novel – set in the early 1950s on an unnamed Pacific island – Thorne’s adaptation delves further into the book’s emotive themes; human nature, the loss of innocence and boyhood masculinity.

Each of the four episodes is titled after a character at the core of the story – Ralph, Piggy, Simon, and Jack – offering a subtly different perspective on the boys’ collective plight and manner in which they cope with their predicament.

The series has been made with the support of Lord of the Flies author William Golding’s family.

ADVENTURE HOOK: A Town Called Abracadabra

Working my way chronologically through the original Twilight Zone episodes, courtesy of the Legend channel, this week I came upon a fourth season story, Valley of Shadow, that - superficially - reminded me of another old - but not so old - show, A Town Called Eureka (aka Eureka).

Both concerned hidden communities where "weird science" held sway as a result of their particular backstories.

This got me to thinking about how to employ such a locale in a fantasy RPG setting.

How much of a headache would it be for a Games Master if the player-characters stumbled across a secret community of eccentric magicians all working on developing new spells and potions... and even trying to create magical items?

I'm not talking about an Unseen University, Aretuza, or Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy "school" for magic, but a hothouse environment where geniuses of the sorcerous arts strive to take their science to the next level and push the boundaries of what is possible.

Would that concentration of magical energy in one space warp the fabric of reality?

Throw in some kind of "magical mishaps"  rule - either official or homegrown, depending on your system of choice - and you have a recipe for joyous chaos.

Daredevil Returns, With Jessica Jones, Bullseye & Kingpin

THE BARKING ALIEN RPG CAMPAIGN TOUR CHALLENGE!

My good friend, the inventive and industrious roleplaying blogger Adam Dickstein aka Barking Alien has long had a problem with the various online month-long challenges that rotate through the online tabletop gaming community every year.

So, I suggested to him: why don't you come up with one of your own that will hold your interest for the month?

And, gosh darn it, that's exactly what he went away and did.

Next month (February) sees the launch of the inaugural Barking Alien RPG Campaign Tour Challenge, which is designed to encourage participants to post daily elements of their campaign setting using the prompts suggested on Adam's blog.

From the basic backstory and setting of your campaign to the most popular food and drink, by the end of February you'll have introduced your home campaign setting to the rest of us through a 28-day tourist's guide.

You can find all the details and prompts here at Barking Alien.

What's Next For Dunk and Egg?

Above you will find a trailer for episode three (of six) of the fantastic A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms. Below is a short 'behind-the-scenes' featurette about this week's episode.

Why Would Your Character Want To Be Resurrected?

Buffy tells Spike about where she went when she died

I'm far too cynical/sceptical and logical to be a religious person, but I'd like to be able to believe that if there was some kind of life after death it would be along the lines described by Buffy in the early sixth season episode After Life:

"Wherever I... was... I was happy. At peace. I knew that everyone I cared about was all right. I knew it. Time didn't mean anything, nothing had form... but I was still me, you know? And I was warm and I was loved... and I was finished. Complete. I don't understand about dimensions or theology or any of... but I think I was in heaven."

Of course, Buffy had just been yanked out of there by her well-meaning friends resurrecting her after she sacrificed her life to save the world (at the end of Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Season Five), but that doesn't stop it from sounding wonderful.

Before things get too maudlin or I start waxing philosophically, let's drag this round to gaming. A lot of games fixate on their universe/world's answer to Hell (because that's a good battleground/rescue zone/artefact retrieval site), but how would you go about depicting your world's equivalent to Heaven?

In Peter Jackson's The Return of The King movie we have the famous Gandalf quote:

"No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it... White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."

Meanwhile in The Chronicles of Narnia novels there is an enormous, standing wave at the edge of the world, beyond which are the "impossibly tall" mountains of Aslan's Country (i.e. Heaven).

The final Narnia book, The Last Battle, concludes thus:

"All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page; now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read; which goes on forever; in which every chapter is better than the one before."

So let's imagine your character dies in a hard-fought conflict, and wakes up in a place like those described above (or Valhalla, if that's more their speed).

But then - back in the "real world" - they get resurrected by, or on behalf of, their companions, dragged out of this idyllic afterlife... don't you think there's a chance they'd be as pissed off as Buffy was?

HEALTH UPDATE: When Faced With A Rocky Situation, Just Climb It!

One of the latest additions to my portfolio of trees

Following the depressing turn of events the other week - in relation to my health - I promptly booked a number of appointments at my local GP's to tackle the problems head on. 

The first of these involved a series of examinations and tests with a practice nurse, who managed to extract enough blood (at the second attempt) from my tiny, evasive veins, that could be sent off for blood sugar analysis (and, I guess, other things). Height and weight were also measured and my feet were checked to ensure they had a healthy pulse (they did).

My pasty arm bearing the bruises of a difficult blood withdrawal

Next week, I've my second appointment - with a different nurse - who will give me the results of the blood tests and talk me through the options for reducing my blood sugar.

I, in turn, can tell her about my new (currently going strong) "snack free" diet and increased exercise regime (on top of my regular Biscuit Club exercise class... which is, sadly, coming to an end in a few weeks).

After last weekend's jaunt to Ashdown Forest, this week Rachel took Alice and I somewhere a bit closer to home for our walk.

At Clare's suggestion, we drove to Tunbridge Wells and took a short ramble over the rain-soaked Common. This included my first return visit to Wellington Rocks for over two decades.

Not only were there many other dog walkers there (which excited Rachel and I more than it did Alice), but Alice also seemed to really enjoy scrambling up the sandstone rocks (with me, carefully, following her) and it was another opportunity for me to snap some pictures of interesting trees to add to my portfolio (my latest hobby).

We managed to squeeze in this visit during a break in the near-constant torrential rain of recently weeks, but the Wellington Rocks and Tunbridge Wells Common are definitely somewhere we'll come back to when the weather isn't quite so grim.

While I only managed about 20 minutes at Ashdown Forest, this week I almost clocked up half-an-hour.

It's baby steps, of course, because I haven't really walked outside like this for around seven months (thanks to the osteoarthritis in my back causing my legs to fail), but every great journey starts with a single step. Or something similarly motivational.

I certainly won't be joining The Cult of Parkrun anytime soon (or ever), but going for a walk with a purpose (e.g. photographing interesting tress and landscapes) is definitely motivating me to pursue this avenue for supplementary exercise.

Rock Climbing: Alice and I on Wellington Rocks, Tunbridge Wells

13 Assassins (2010)

The theme of 'honour' is often central to samurai movies, but I can't think of another movie that has handled its complexities as well as 13 Assassins.

Directed by Takashi Miike (who I tend to associate with graphic and disturbing horror movies rather than chambara swordfighting flicks), this is the story of 12 samaurai and a woodsman, who acts as their guide, plotting the death of the Shogun's half-brother, the evil Lord Naritsuga (Gorô Inagaki).

Naritsuga isn't Darth Vader/comic book evil, but a full-on, conscience-free psychopath, whose violent appetites, arrogant ambition and total disregard for human life threaten to shatter mid-19th Century Japan's fragile peace.

Of course, because of his blood ties with the Shogun (he's also the son of the previous Shogun), he goes unchallenged, until the Shogun's advisor Sir Doi (Mikijiro Hira) gets tacit approval from the Shogun to deal with the problem "off the record".

Doi recruits seasoned samurai Shinzaemon Shimada (Kôji Yakusho) for the difficult task - Shinzaemon's only chance is to ambush Naritsuga on the road back from the capitol to his family lands, when he's accompanied by around 70 soldiers.

In this time of peace, finding trained samurai up to such a task is hard work, but eventually Shinzaemon assembles a hit squad of a dozen and comes up with a plan to divert Naritsuga's caravan through a village which Shizaemon will have had fortified and turned into a "death trap".

While the plot is very straight forward, the story can get rather complex for a Western viewer as the opening, explanatory text flashes by fast enough to give you whiplash, and then the dialogue is quite heavy with a lot of names and places (much like Game Of Thrones in that sense) and much, if not all, of the motivation for the protagonists is driven by the concept of honour - they know it's a suicide mission, but it's the right thing to do to save their country (before Naritsuga can assume the high political office that has been offered to him by his half-brother).

On the other side of the coin, Naritsuga's chief samurai Hanbei (Masachika Ichimura) - an old frenemy of Shinzaemon - knows that his master is evil, but also sees his obligation as protecting his master with his life and not questioning orders.

The first hour-and-a-quarter of 13 Assassins sets the chess pieces in place, motivations and reasons are established, the assassination team is assembled (and some have a brief tussle with some henchmen of Naritsuga's clan), but all this building up to the stunning finale, a 45-minute running battle between the assassins and Naritsuga's army (which turns out to be far bigger than they first believed).

Now, I knew in advance of the much-heralded 45-minute battle scene and wondered if Miike could pull it off. And the simple answer is: yes. It's almost a mini-film within the film, never gets repetitive or boring, allows all the assassins their moment in the spotlight, is incredibly creative and bloody (without being unnecessarily gory) and wholly convincing. It shows how a small force of highly trained individuals with a strong leader and a solid plan can take on a much larger force and achieve some sense of victory.

There are, of course, some similarities between 13 Assassins and Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, but not to the detriment of either film.

The Trollenberg Terror (1958)

In a small Swiss village near Trollenberg Mountain, a series of climbers are found decapitated. Alan Brooks, a UN investigator, is sent to the area to look into unusual radiation levels, and he helps with the investigation. While investigating he meets Anne Pilgrim, a psychic who experiences visions of the deaths and is drawn to the mountain.

Thank you to Film Masters
for making The Trollenberg Terror aka The Crawling Eye available online.

Part Quatermass, part The Thing From Another World and based on a 1956 ITV Saturday Serial  television programme, The Trollenberg Terror (or The Crawling Eye) by the legendary Hammer horror writer Jimmy Sangster, is the story of scientist Alan Brooks (Forrest Tucker) summoned to the Swiss Alps to investigate some mysterious goings-on.

On the way, he meets up with the Pilgrim Sisters, Sarah (Jennifer Jayne) and Anne (Janet Munro), a theatrical mind-reading act, heading to Geneva. Only Anne is actually truly psychic and feels compelled to disembark at the same train station as Brooks... that is, Trollenberg, where there have been a number of unexplained climbing accidents.

Visiting the mountainside observatory, Brooks is also informed of an unnatural cloud that has been hanging around the mountain and giving off radiation. This reminds him - and the observatory's Professor Crevett (Warren Mitchell) - of a similar mysterious incident they investigated in the Andes and that Crevett had attributed to extraterrestrials.

In the meantime, Anne has received a physic summons to the mountain and after she is prevented from going, a climber - presumed missing - returns from the mountain and attempts to kill her.

The Trollenberg Terror is a pot-boiler, slowly building to its dramatic climax (perhaps too slowly for modern audiences), when the true face of the monster on the mountain shows itself out of the fog.

Before that though we get a couple of decapitations and a surprising "head in a rucksack" shot that I wasn't expecting.

As well as playing out like a high-altitude reworking of The Thing, withholding the big reveal until the final act adds a layer of Lovecraftian paranoia to The Trollenberg Terror as well.

The film doesn't so much create a sense of tension as one of scientific enquiry, a desire to know what's going on and, as long as you love giant monsters, then you're not going to be disappointed by this atmospheric slice of '50s schlock horror.

War's Coming To The World of Invincible

Ultraviolence For The Masses: Action Is Uncancelled!

Those of us of a certain age will have fond memories of United Kingdom's short-lived Action comic - the foundation upon which 2000AD was built - while the rest of you may only be encountering this controversial title for the first time.

During the mid-70s, this the shocking and ultra-violent comic attracted the ire of cartoonish, self-proclaimed moral guardian, Mary Whitehouse and helped fuel a tabloid-created "panic" that led to the withdrawal of Action from the shelves.

A neutered edition of the comic followed, but this was of little interest to its readership and Action was axed in 1977, with its earlier vim and vigour laying the groundwork for the arrival of 2000AD..

On April 15, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of the first issue of Action, publishers Rebellion will be unleashing an all-new, oversized special edition.

This features:

Dredger by Garth Ennis and John Higgins. Britain’s deadliest secret agent returns, hitting the vengeance trail after the death of his partner, Breed. Dredger kills and maims his way across London, intent on delivering his own brand of justice. How much of London will be left when he’s finished?

Hook Jaw by Steve White and Staz Johnson. There’s a killer out at sea! The vicious Hook Jaw has been seen in the depths of the ocean again, the killer shark with no regard for human life – and he’s heading out on the hunt! As a crew of drug dealers attempt to complete a sale in lawless international waters, they attract the attention of the legendary shark… this isn’t going to be pretty!

Hellman of Hammer Force by Garth Ennis and Mike Dorey. Blazing battle action on the Eastern Front in 1944, as Panzer commander Kurt Hellman leads a small German armoured unit against massed Soviet forces. As the tank men struggle to survive in this frozen hell, they face a new and terrible savagery from their vengeance-crazed Russian enemies.

Look Out For Lefty by Rob Williams and Patrick Goddard. Footballer Kenny “Lefty” Lampton has the most dangerous left foot in the game, blazing the ball through the net. But Lefty doesn’t play fair, and his temper constantly flares up on the pitch, boiling over into fury and violence! After his anger leaves him stranded on the subs bench, he finally gets his chance – this could be his big comeback, a chance to regain his lost glory! As The Royal Family watch on from the stand, can Lefty keep it under control for ninety minutes?

I always enjoyed the 'future sports' stories, such as Death Game 1999, but my favourite strip was the bloody, Jaws-inspired, sharksploitation of Hook Jaw. So, I'm delighted to see that's returning in this special issue.

Darth Maul Returns In New Animated Series

After the Clone Wars, Maul plots to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: And So It Began (Again)

The first meeting of the Tuesday Knights (our gaming group) took place on August 19, 2008, when I ran the debut session of a new Castles & Crusades campaign for Nick, Pete, and Clare.

This was the first role-playing game I'd actually run for over a decade. I'd bottled out of running games several times since I'd come out of hospital in 2005 and was still very anxious about whether my health (both physically and mentally) would be up to the challenge.

In retrospect, one of the biggest mistakes I made in those early days was getting distracted by the "new shiny", switching systems to Labyrinth Lord and then grinding the game into the ground, so someone else had to run something instead.

If I could travel back to 2008, I'd tell my younger self to have faith and stick with Castles & Crusades. Who knows, if that had been the case, we could still be playing that campaign now? How incredible would that be?

In the 17 years since that fateful day in the dining room of our old house, our pool of potential players has blossomed, while Pete, Clare and I remain the consistent core. We were joined by Kevin, who has become another constant around the table, Steve, Simon, Meredith, Erica, Mark and, most recently, Mark's daughter, Rebecca.

While other demands on their time have seen Nick, Steve, Simon, Meredith, and Erica step away from the group, we still manage to corral a solid four or five people for our monthly sessions.

Despite the collapse of that original campaign, I did manage to run a three year fantasy campaign using Heroes and Other Worlds (a modern reworking of the classic GURPS-adjacent Fantasy Trip system), which ended with the destruction of the world.

Pete ran a number of Top Secret espionage games, Meredith presented us with a wholly homemade World of Warcraft adventure, Simon saw us right up to the gates of Castle Ravenloft in his 5e D&D Curse of Strahd campaign (which went 'online' during the COVID pandemic), Clare's run some memorable indie one-shots, and the other year Mark scared the bejeebers out of us with his self-penned Call of Cthulhu rural horror adventure.

In between these I've tried to run some other games, but they've invariably crashed-and-burned because of my insecurities, self-doubt, and limited attention span.

I'm hoping that, after my two recent debacles (with Shadowdark and Villains & Vigilantes) I've finally learned enough that when I'm next allowed to sit behind the gamesmaster's screen I'll be able to keep the train on the tracks.

However, our most enduring game has been Pete's "weird science" pulp adventure campaign that started as a 1950's "Atomic Horror" campaign using GURPS, then time-slipped to the 1930s for an epic Hollow Earth Expedition run, before, at the end of last year, switching systems again to Outgunned Adventures for more Indiana Jones-style shenanigans.

And through all this, my rock and number one cheerleader has been my wonderful non-geeky wife, Rachel, who may not get the delights of roleplaying games, but understands how important they are to me.

Every month she cooks our group pizza, serves up drinks, and joins in the pre-game banter as we all catch-up on whatever is going on in our lives.

Last year's gaming plans were largely scuppered by my back problems (osteoarthritis), but hopefully that's behind me now (see what I did there?) and 2026 will be a return to regular gaming for the foreseeable future.

"BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL!"

In Masters of The Universe, director Travis Knight brings the legendary franchise back to the big screen in this epic live-action adventure.

After being separated for 15 years, the Sword of Power leads Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) back to Eternia where he discovers his home shattered under the fiendish rule of Skeletor (Jared Leto).

To save his family and his world, Adam must join forces with his closest allies, Teela (Camila Mendes) and Duncan/Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba), and embrace his true destiny as He-Man — the most powerful man in the universe.

TODAY IS ROBERT E HOWARD'S 120th BIRTHDAY

It's the 120th anniversary of the birth of the greatest pulp adventure writer of all time, Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan, Solomon Kane, Sailor Steve Costigan, King Kull et al.

In the videos above people way smarter and more erudite than I share their love and appreciation for the man and his inspirational and enduring writing.

And what better time to make your own contribution to the legacy of Robert E. Howard by supporting  the Robert E. Howard Foundation, which needs funds urgently for the upkeep of Howard's former home - now a museum of his life and work.

"...the home of Robert E. Howard requires some serious repairs: its foundation and piers are rotting and collapsing, there is termite damage to a large section of an outside wall, and many of the floors are starting to buckle and drop. While the hard-working folks of Project Pride in Cross Plains have restored and cared for the House since acquiring it back in the 1980s, their small volunteer army cannot address the extensive repairs that will be needed. Professional restoration is required for this 100+ year old home on the National Historical Register, and it is needed now, before the damage gets worse.

"Because the house is on the National Historical Register and the State of Texas Historical Places list, the cost of repairs will be affected. All repairs will require contractors that have experience with this type of historical preservation, as we will need to keep the House as close to its original state as possible, during its historical period (i.e., when REH lived there)."

You can support this fundraiser here.

TWILIGHT SWORD: One Of 2026's Most Anticipated Games

Two Little Mice's Twilight Sword has ranked tenth in EN World's recent annual community vote to find the most eagerly-awaited games of the coming year.

The Italian games company is also responsible for the Outgunned range of action film roleplaying games, of which the Tuesday Knights are currently playing the pulp iteration Outgunned Adventures.

However, Twilight Sword is a game system I have a financial interest in, having backed its crowdsourcing campaign almost entirely on vibes.

To be honest very little has been revealed about the game, besides the fact that the original games engine (the Created at Twilight system) revolves around a central mechanic involving a 1d12 "roll under" check.

During the fundraising campaign, the designers shared glimpses of  monsters, character sheets, and gaming sub-systems - all of which seemed to optimise simplicity and gorgeous design.

There's a gorgeous, free introductory PDF as well, which is primarily about evoking the desired atmosphere of Twilight Sword with a broad overview of the rules mechanics, setting and the role of player-characters (Champions) in overcoming Despair and bringing Hope back to the conquered lands of Radia.

While this alone might not have been enough to lure me in, my experience with Outgunned told me these people know how to design games, so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.

At the end of last year I was toying with some ideas for an anime-inspired fantasy setting for my next campaign - having realised that I work best as a gamesmaster when running a fantasy campaign - and was looking at Break!! and Twilight Sword.

Both are beautifully-designed games, but while Break!! feels akin with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (or even Third Edition), Twilight Sword is giving off more BECMI or B/X "vibes" with its seeming simplicity. This better suits where I am at the moment with my approach to gaming and desire to run something where the rules aren't tripping everyone up every other round.

The EN World post points out that Twilight Sword "is inspired by classic video games like The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy", which makes my interest slightly perverse as I've only played Zelda once and have never played Final Fantasy. I'm just not a video gamer, but I find the worlds and mythologies created for these games fascinating.

I also love the fact that Twilight Sword is set on a world - seemingly - without humans, instead elf-like creatures are the dominant species along with anthropomorphic animals (you know I'll be bringing the ducks) and other fantastical races.

This is a million miles away from the human-centric fantasy world I have been pushing in recent years and I'm more than okay with that. I've definitely loosened up my ideas what makes a dynamic roleplaying game setting in the last 12 months or so... thanks, in large, part to watching a lot of Dungeons & Dragons-inspired anime.

Twilight Sword isn't released until the middle of 2026 (at the earliest), so that's when I'll be making my final decision on whether this is the new system I bring to the Tuesday Knights. But I'm very optimistic that this is a shoo-in.

I have a collection of ideas, names, atmospheric suggestions etc stored as notes on my phone for my, as yet undefined, Twilight Sword campaign but I won't know how applicable they are until more information about the game and its setting (the lands of Radia) comes out.

That also means I probably won't be talking much about Twilight Sword - as it is largely a mystery - either here or "in real life" until closer to the actual time it's likely to be in my hands.

What's To Come This Season For Dunk and Egg

The trailer above gives a taste of the adventures to come this season for Dunk and Egg, the charming protagonists of A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms, the latest Game of Thrones spin-off (and my favourite of George RR Martin's Westerosi books).

Below are a couple of behind-the-scenes features about this exciting new series:

OUTGUNNED ADVENTURES: A Player's Perspective

The Tuesday Knights tackle our second Outgunned Adventures session

Hopefully you've already read the write-up of what went down in this week's Outgunned Adventures session for the Tuesday Knights, but I thought I'd give you a little perspective on the game from my point-of-view, as a player.

First things first, I have to say that despite my deep-rooted dislike of "dice pool" mechanics there's something about the system at the heart of Outgunned that really appeals to me.

It takes the common "ability + skill" approach to decide the size of your available d6 dice pool, but then once you roll you're not totalling the dice or looking for specific numbers over a certain value, instead you want collections of identical numbers (such as 4,4,4 on three of the six dice you rolled). The larger that collective the better.

It's a bit like Yahtzee.

However, if you don't get a big enough set (usually three identical numbers are required for a typical, heroic action), you can elect to reroll the dice from your pool that weren't counted in the matching set, to try and get more duplicates.

Unfortunately, if this reroll doesn't add to your original total you actually forfeit one of the dice already counted towards your success total. That means if you only had two matches to start with, you automatically fail.

I loved this risk/reward gambling element. There was a definite air of tension around the table when people chose to reroll - followed by elation if they succeeded and despair if they failed.

The Outgunned game engine is a seemingly simple system at first glance, but there are definite nuances and complications that we're not totally savvy with yet.

For instance, there are issues around the rerolls - and "free" rerolls that our characters' Feats/Abilities granted them - that need to be ironed out.

And, as much as I enjoy an exciting skill challenge, I couldn't help but feel that there was a LOT of dice rolls called for in our opening scenario. Surely some of these multiple checks to advance through a certain task (such as climbing a cliff wall) could have been bundled together?

That said, I already rate these mechanics way ahead of the Ubiquity dice pool system used in our previous Hollow Earth Expedition segment of Pete's on-going weird science/pulp adventure campaign.

Having championed Ubiquity for so long in theory, it was quite sad to discover what a mess it often turned out to be in actual play whenever we tried anything beyond a straight-forward test of our skills.

It should be noted, of course, that this first two-part Outgunned adventure (Frozen Legacy) only involved our heroes facing the elements, rugged terrain, and a tricky set-piece to retrieve the "mysterious artefact".

We have yet to discover how the mechanics handle combat (usually such a key part of our games) and damage.

While we lost "Grit" (the game's version of stamina and 'hit points') through failing crucial challenges (such as keeping our balance on the violently rocking Viking longship), we have no clue how this translates to gunbattles and fisticuffs.

Pete started the evening by presenting us with nicely filled in character sheets as well as small file of papers explaining both the basic rules mechanics of Outgunned and personal explanations of our character's skills, Feats (special abilities), and equipment. This was all very handy.

It was a shame Mark couldn't make last night's session. However, on the bright side it means we'll get another refresher course on the core rules again next month, which will hopefully fill in a few of the gaps in our knowledge of the system.

I think between us - as we have some pretty smart cookies around the table - we should be able to get to grips with the subtleties of Outgunned Adventures. This will let the rules slip into the background and we can be free to carve Indiana Jones-inspired roles for our characters in this brave, new world of 1936.

EPISODE TWO: Fate Hangs In The Balance

Precariously suspended between a pillar of rock and one of ice, Erik The Red's Drakkar

Picking up from the end of the last episode, our heroes were confronted by the sight of Erik The Red's two-masted longship, The Drakkar, suspended precariously between a pillar of rock and a pillar of ice.

An enormous chasm split the subterranean cavern in which we found ourselves, dropping away hundreds of feet to freezing water below and opening to the sky far above us, causing the ice to glitter with ambient light.

Buck (my world-weary explorer), Dick (Kevin's former G-man), and Freya (Clare's photojournalist) stood at the foot of the rocky pillar, the words of our benefactor Professor Casper Wieloch ringing in our ears about his quest for a mysterious artefact from this site.

Clearly this dangerously balanced Viking longboat was the ideal place to hide such an item.

It was quickly decided that Buck would climb up to the ship, as climbing was one of his areas of expertise, and then Freya would follow to lend support.

Dick would stay on the rocky ledge to keep an eye on things outside of the longboat. 

[Unfortunately, this did mean that Kevin was rather side-lined for a vast portion of this session, which I felt rather bad about as Buck took the spotlight].

Carefully, we made our way onto the ship... but not carefully enough. We had barely taken a step onto its deck when it shifted and dropped dramatically at one end.

We could see a trapdoor hatch near the prow and so, roped together, Freya and Buck cautiously made their way along the central aisle, between the oarsmen's seats, as the boat groaned and shifted beneath us.

Buck made it through the hatch, and Freya followed. We found a cargo hold full of crates, rotting barrels, and frozen fish, but the beady-eyed Freya couldn't see any indication of treasure down here.

She did draw attention to the cracked and loose floorboards though, which gave Buck the idea of prying one up to see if anything was hidden underneath them.

This the two adventurers did. And the first thing they saw was the glint of gold coins!

They needed to lift up a second floorboard so Buck could get down there, but the ship lurched dangerously to one side, not only sending crates and barrels sliding about, but also dislodging a small collection of gold coins.

Once the ship had settled, Buck lowered himself down and, ignoring the few gold coins scattered around, immediately saw the skeleton of a Viking warrior laid to rest in the crawlspace under the hold. The long-dead Norseman was clutching a scrap of paper and a large metal disc.

Buck delicately removed both items, but that movement was the final straw for the ship. It started to noisily crack in half and was obviously going to plummet the great distance into the icy water below.

Witnessing this from outside, Dick took hold of the rope that was attached to his comrades, who were racing out of the crumbling relic. 

In a storm of rotting wood, Buck and Freya leapt to safety, secured by Dick.

Taking a breath on the ledge, Freya read the scrap of parchment:

She translated the Greek text as "Island of Atlantis".

Dick, on the other hand, examined the disc - which was actually three discs, joined together, with Latin letters on, and realised it was some form of ancient cypher.

Clearly this is what their paymaster had been seeking.

The ancient cypher

EPILOGUE:

After the bold trio made their way to Nuuk, and met up with aviatrix Oynx (Mark's character), they flew on to Austria where they met Professor Casper Wieloch at his home overlooking Lake Wolfgang.

He was delighted with what our heroes had achieved and admitted that he already had a lead on how he could crack the Norse code.

TO BE CONTINUED...

CAST:

• Buck Hannigan - Me
• Freya Larson - Clare
• Dick Tate - Kevin
• Onyx Jones - Mark (absent)

DIRECTOR:

• Pete

Everyone Is Welcome At Midnight's Lair

What kind of game do I actually wanna run?

In this episode of Midnight’s Lair RPG, I lay out my GMing philosophy — not as a list of rules, but as a clear statement of intent. This is a manifesto about high-trust play, meaningful consequences, rulings over rules, earned heroism, and characters who are more than combat builds.

If you’ve ever wondered why some RPG tables feel alive while others feel like tactical exercises, this episode is for you.

Last year, my dear, old Canadian pal Erik Ménard launched his own YouTube channel, Midnight's Lair RPG, for discussing roleplaying games, beginning with superheroes (you might notice the Acrobatic Flea makes an appearance) and gradually shifting towards fantasy.

Over the many years of our friendship, we've generally been in lockstep in our approach to gaming, but nothing spells that out quite as well as his most recent video (above), which explains his 'gaming manifesto'.

This is pretty much word-for-word my own thoughts on the subject (in a case of convergent thinking, Erik even echoes my recently stated ideas on what makes player-characters interesting).

I've known Erik for years, since discovering the gaming podcast he co-hosted waaaaay back in late 2006/early 2007.

Over the ensuing decades, Erik's always supported my various attempts to get a "dream" campaign off the ground, as I have his. This has been largely in the superhero genre as we're both fans of the classic Villains & Vigilantes system from back in the day.

At one point in 2016 we even 'teamed-up' online to test drive the Third Edition of Villains & Vigilantes aka The Mighty Protectors with creator Jeff Dee, when the new system was being Kickstarted.

• Erik has a very affordable Patreon to help cover the costs of running his new YouTube channel.

Dungeons & Dragons - Honour Among Thieves (2023)

The biggest concern for most geeks when approaching a Dungeons & Dragons film is how true to the source material will it stick?

I couldn't tell you if Dungeons & Dragons - Honour Among Thieves stuck to the letter of the rules system (I lost interest in the current, Fifth, edition, some time ago), but what this film captures perfectly is the feeling of a fun game of D&D.

Written and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, with a writing assist from Michael Gilio, there has never been a film so packed with D&D lore and Easter Eggs, yet it flows majestically like a classic heist movie.

The film brings elements of the game world to live-action better than any film before it and I really enjoyed seeing the kids from the old '80s cartoon pop up during the epic, open-air "dungeon exploration" sequence, as well as all the recognisable monsters from the pages of the legendary Monster Manual.

However, as much as I loved playing "spot the beastie" and picking up on familiar name drops from the game's storied 50-year history, I quickly found myself invested in the travails of our protagonists.

Having escaped from prison, bard Edgin (Star Trek's Chris Pine) and barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez, from the Fast and Furious franchise) head to Neverwinter to find Edgin's young daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman), who'd been left in the care of their old friend, the rogue Forge (Hugh Grant).

Much to their surprise, they find Forge is now lord of the city and has spent the last two years turning Kira against her father.

He has also allied himself with Safina (Wrong Turn's Daisy Head) the evil Red Wizard, who helped his rise to the top for her own devious ends.

Safina is a minion of Szass Tam (Ian Hanmore), the real big bad who has apocalypic plans for Neverwinter as a staging post for his subjugation of the continent of Faerûn.

Edgin has a scheme to break into Forge's magically secure vault and steal a supernatural tablet that has the power to resurrect his wife, Kira's mother, which has - in a roundabout way - been his motivation all along.

To pull this off though, he and Holga will need some help, and so they enlist Simon (Justice Smith), an insecure half-elf wizard, and the tiefling druid Doric (Sophia Lillis) to their cause.

Their quest sees them having to team-up, briefly, with the brilliant, noble paladin Xenc (Bridgerton's Regé-Jean Page) and a journey into the Underdark to retrieve a very important, magical helm.

Although it starts a bit slowly (and I must admit I was getting worried during the first few scenes), Goldstein, Daley, and Gilio's script soon kicks into gear and from then on is simply structurally perfect and a joy to behold.

It hits all the right beats at the right time, making the initially intimidating two-and-a-quarter hour runtime fly by. 

Even the climactic plot twist, while predictable, is well earned.

As might be expected in a film based on Dungeons & Dragons, there's plenty of fights to keep the audience entertained along the way, with Holga getting in a couple of classics and Xenc also having a chance to show off his skills.

With such an ensemble team at its core, the screenplay does a magnificent job of giving every character their fair share of the action, and everyone rises to the challenge admirably.

The most hilarious piece of casting in the whole thing is Hugh Grant as the crucial character of Forge the con artist. He is essentially playing Hugh Grant (which is generally what he gets the big bucks for) and clearly hasn't got a clue what's going on, yet is professional enough to go along for the ride.

Ultimately, the film is an amazing, high fantasy adventure romp that is readily accessible to non-gamers, although those steeped in the lore of Dungeons & Dragons will obviously pick up on the Easter Eggs. 

Should there be a sequel to Dungeons & Dragons - Honour Among Thieves (and I really hope there is), I don't care if it isn't about Edgin and his crew as long as we get to see more of this wonderful world of Dungeons and Dragons.

MUSICAL MONDAY: Opening and Closing Tunes For Season Two of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

The magnificent anime, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, has returned for its second season. New episodes drop on Crunchyroll on Fridays at 3pm (in the UK).

The first episode was grand, the perfect mélange of cosy and jeopardy that we've come to expect after the debut season. This bodes very well for season two, although I have heard a rumour (backed-up by the listings on IMDB) that this season may only have 10 episodes (after the 28 of season one). There could be tears!

Bizarro Am Not Getting Own Miniseries

Bizarro: Year None #1 main cover art by Nick Pitarra

Pop culture icon Kevin Smith - with the aid of Supergirl scribe Eric Carrasco - is bringing the an origin story of one of Superman's strangest and most persistent foes to life in the four-issue miniseries Bizarro: Year None.

Appropriately launching on April 1, the series...

"...follows Superman’s pal Jimmy Olsen and Clark Kent’s boss Perry White as they depart the Daily Planet for a strange adventure in outer space. 

"Their journey leads them to a dimension that mirrors Metropolis in uncanny ways and reveres its legendary newspaper as an article of faith.

"As they unravel the mystery of this bizarre world, they confront the being behind it all. Is he a misguided Superman fan, an agent of pure chaos, or is he no one at all?

"Smith and Carrasco bring a blend of humour, heart, and high-concept storytelling to a character whose contradictions have made him a fan-favourite for decades.

"Nick Pitarra’s bold, hyper-detailed artwork grounds the series’ surreal tone, giving readers a version of Bizarro’s world that feels both familiar and unsettling."

Variant cover art by Ibrahim Moustafa

Variant cover art by Frank Quitely

Is This The Secret Sauce Recipe?

Player-characters from Adam's Star Trek Adventures campaign

A shared love of the specific setting (I.P.) is the secret sauce that turns a roleplaying campaign into a potential "forever campaign".

I had this Road to Damascus moment reading two brilliant pieces, just over a year ago, by my dear friend Adam Dickstein - on his Barking Alien blog - about the success of his on-going, decade-long (at least) Star Trek Adventures campaign: Why Star Trek: Prosperity Works and Command Crew To The Bridge.

Both articles are a great, inspirational, read, and helped coalesce a variety of random thoughts I've had over recent years about why ideas I've had for games haven't worked out.

Sharing Adam's attraction to licenced RPGs (or, at least, RPGs that use established media properties as potential settings), it struck me that the 'secret sauce' to the success of his long-running Star Trek game was the fact that all his players were not just sci-fi fans but dyed-in-the-wool Star Trek fans.

They know, and understand, what is expected of their characters to satisfactorily emulate the goings-on of the Star Trek universe, without the game devolving into a bunch of phaser-armed murderhobos raiding Klingon outposts for whatever loot they could find.

The players' Get Out of Jail Free card

Imagine unleashing a gaming group who weren't into Doctor Who on the Whoniverse of the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game... with their own TARDIS.

The chances are anarchy would ensue as they realised they could, at the bare minimum, dodge pretty much any set-up the gamesmaster threw at them (if they wanted to) because of their access to a magic box capable of travelling anywhere in space and time!

Let alone coming to terms with the "talk first, fight last" attitude of the game system!

Or picture a superhero campaign setting with a group of players that doesn't read comics or even, particularly, like the Marvel or DC movies!

Again, it would just become simply a power fantasy as the players would have no understanding of - or, necessarily, respect for - the tropes of the works that the gamesmaster was seeking to draw upon.

There's a good chance the game would soon, unintentionally, replicate Prime Video's The Boys, but with the players' characters being their world's answer to the villainous Seven.

Such set-ups might work for a few sessions, even a mini-campaign, because such weighty matters may not be of such great importance initially (except where they impact the specific adventure). But for a game to have legs everyone definitely needs to be on the same page.

Black Adam rips Terra-Man in half in DC's 52;
not the actions of a good guy!

Sure, the gamesmaster could write a lengthy introductory booklet to the setting (I know, I've done it MANY times), but there's no guarantee anyone will actually read it and take on board what you are trying to get across.

You could also have a "session zero" where you try and spell it all out, face-to-face with your players, but again, the chances are this will come across as a dull TED talk and the majority will zone out.

Some - even you, the gamesmaster - may also see this as a waste of precious gaming time, especially when you only have limited "gaming slots" in your calendar (not all of us have the luxury of biweekly campaign sessions, dotted around assorted other gaming escapades).

Even with the most "straight-forward" RPG setting (or so you perceive it) there's still an element of risk, a possible "breakdown in communication" between the heavily invested gamesmaster and the "just want to play a game" players.

You always run the risk of the old adage that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" and the players will not grok the atmosphere that the GM is aiming to create, and will instead take his toys and run amok.

Game setting or established IP, the more it veers from normality, everyday life and learned experience, the more the GM will have to explain and the more risk he runs that the players will get the wrong end of the stick or simply not pay attention.

The best way to motivate a player is to place their character in a setting they are already familiar with and invested in. 

Which is why so many of us default to games and settings where killing monsters and stealing their treasure is de rigueur. Because we all get it. As I've said many times before that's why Dungeons & Dragons-style games (although not necessarily just D&D) tend to be the lingua franca of gamers.

Whether you like those games or not, everyone has heard of them, has an opinion on them and knows what is expected in them. Get enough like-minded souls together - and there are more D&D players than any other setting, style or genre - and you have a game.

But what if you want something else? The easiest, most obvious, route to go is a licensed game or setting, because it has an inbuilt fanbase. And you hope, in the Venn diagram of fandoms, that your players fall into the precious overlap where they want to play your game in someone else's established setting.

And that is the secret sauce, my friend. It's not a great revelation, but it's my revelation.

No matter how much you - as the gamesmaster - love a setting, if the players don't share your passion, the game isn't going to last.