"Indiana Jones. I Always Knew Some Day You'd Come Walking Back Through My Door"

These belong in a museum

It seems fitting that on Karen Allen's birthday, we celebrate the arrival of a brace of gorgeous hardback collections of Marvel's Further Adventures of Indiana Jones comic books from the 1980s.

Each sporting faux leather covers and a stitched in red silk bookmark, both these arcane tomes are going to look majestic on a book shelf with my other Indiana Jones books acquired through the years.

Volume one contains adaptations of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, plus issues one to 16 of the Further Adventures of Indiana Jones, while volume two includes issues 17 to 34 of the Further Adventures of Indiana Jones series and the four-issue miniseries adaptation of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The main series was first published between 1982 and 1985, with five of the story arcs also serving as the basis for adventures in the much-maligned Indiana Jones roleplaying game from TSR.

I can't recall just how many of the original run I read back in the day, although I'm sure quite a few were also reprinted in a British Indiana Jones magazine if my memory serves me right.

So, I'm looking forward to being able to follow the full 34 issues of Indy's adventures here, in time for his next Marvel tale to launch this December. Hopefully, Marvel will also eventually be able to reprint his various miniseries runs from Dark Horse Comics in a similar stylish form.

You can read more about this pair of 500-plus page Further Adventures of Indiana Jones collections in an earlier article here.

The Twilight Sword is Drawn and Monsters Arise!

 

With the core Twilight Sword books winging their way to backers as you read this, publisher Two Little Mice has announced a new crowdfunding campaign for its anime/video game-inspired tabletop roleplaying game.

Next month, on November 17, a campaign to fund the Monster Book will launch on Backerkit.

As well as a new playable Kin (species) and a new Way (character class), this new book will contain:

"...dreadful Monsters, friendly Beasts, and unique Loot!"

November 17 is, of course, an auspicious day for this blog: not only is it Life Day in the Star Wars Universe, but it is also the official anniversary of the current iteration of my blogging efforts "going live". 

I, therefore, take this as a sign that I need to back this campaign!

Hawk The Slayer (1980)

Four essential movies shaped my early Dungeons & Dragons games: namely Jason & The Argonauts from 1963; Sinbad And The Eye of The Tiger (which I saw at the cinema with my parents when it came out in 1977); Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated (and unfinished) Lord Of The Rings; and the legendary Hawk The Slayer (from 1980).

As with my commentary on The Messenger the other week, all these movies are review-proof in my eyes, and so this isn't going to be a critical hatchet job - instead, it will read more like a hagiography. 

Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger, being the first Dungeons & Dragons-y film I saw after discovering the game, was a major source of material.

One of my first characters was actually called 'Sinbad' and most of the ship's crew and other supporting characters from the film appeared as non-player characters at some time or other in my games.

It was also this film which inspired the epic trans-oceanic adventures that young Gublin and I mapped out on seemingly never-ending rolls of paper, making up the islands and continents as our characters' ship discovered them.

As I've already said several times on this blog, it was Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animation in Jason & The Argonauts (and later in Clash Of The Titans) that really decided the 'look' of Dungeons & Dragons monster fighting (in my mind) for me.

But it was Hawk The Slayer that had the closest overall feel of pure Dungeons & Dragons as we actually played it, even with its micro-budget and B-movie mentality.

As much as I love the movie, I find it difficult to compare to those other three formative cinematic influences - as, to me, they are all perfect.

However, it's easy to see why Hawk The Slayer, in particular, holds a certain cachet with old school gamers.

It has everything a classic game of Dungeons & Dragons requires! The party's charismatic leader Hawk (John Terry who also happens to play Jack's dad in Lost which just adds to the geek cred of the film) has a magic sword and a feud with his one-eyed Darth Vader-like brother Voltan (Jack Palance).

He takes a mission to raise the 2,000 gold pieces needed to ransom an abbess (Victor Meldrew's wife, Annette Crosbie) back from Voltan.

To aid him, Hawk teams up with adventuring friends old and new including a giant (who is basically just the tall bloke from the Carry On films, Bernard Bresslaw), the coolest elf in cinema history (Crow - Ray Charleson - could whoop Legolas any day of the week with his superspeed archery), a dwarf, a one-handed fighter with a machine-gun crossbow and a magic-user called, simply, "Woman" (whose spells strongly resemble smoke, snow and wind machines, luminous ping-pong balls, silly string and assorted 70s disco lighting effects).

Set this all in a land permanently enshrouded in fog, with a funky synth music score and spaghetti western whistly bits; enough name dropping to give the impression of a full-developed country; and more than enough chewy, cheesy dialogue to satiate the diet of both a giant and a dwarf and you've got a "realistic" depiction of 99 per cent of how I viewed every fantasy roleplaying game I played back in the day.

If it isn't already compulsory for those about to start an old school Dungeons & Dragons campaign to watch this film... it should be!

READING REPORT: Not Much To Report

Honestly, I don't know where this week has gone. Have I been so under a cloud and distracted that it has slipped by me?

I know we had games night, I binged the excellent Reacher spin-off Neagley on Prime Video, and Rachel and I have been to the gym a couple of times, but beyond that it's all a bit of a blur.

Somehow I don't think I read a thing this week: no books, no comics... that can't be right, can it?

However, one definite thing I have "achieved" this week is the acquisition - or should I say "reacquisition" - of the Ace edition of the first volume of the epic shared world series Thieves' World, edited by Robert Aspirin.

In recent years I have been able to corral the subsequent four volumes, but this edition (shown above) was a right bugger to track down, especially when operating on a tight budget.

I owned, and read, this edition when it first appeared over here in the UK, almost 50 years ago, and, as much as I enjoyed the roguish, old school Dungeons & Dragons-style adventures within, it was the cover I was besotted with.

It was no surprise that it was also used on the cover of the roleplaying box set based on the book series, and its central city of Sanctuary, that statted up most of the main characters for a multitude of rules systems.

To my simple tastes, this cover painting is - and always will be - the definitive "you begin in a tavern" illustration. If I could start a campaign, or even an adventure, that gave me the same chills as this book cover I'd be a very happy gamesmaster.

Anyway, I came across this well-read but still in magnificent condition, book on eBay the other day and was delighted to see it listed as a "buy it now". You can imagine how quickly I slammed that button when I realised that even with postage this was going to cost me less than a tenner.

It arrived a couple of days later, well packed and ready to be shelved next to my other Thieves' World books (see below).

I'd been holding off trying to read these latter books because I wanted to start at the beginning of the franchise.

Now I can.

A snapshot of one of my sword-and-sorcery shelves

TWILIGHT SWORD UPDATE: Not Long Now

A quick update from Italian game publishers Two Little Mice this week: its video game/anime-inspired fantasy roleplaying game Twilight Sword will be in backers' hands very, very soon.

The publisher stated that the game materials have now reached its distribution hubs around the world and shipping to customers will begin next week.

The update, shared with backers of its crowdfunding campaign to finance the highly-anticipated game, states:

"We still expect all packages to arrive in your hands within the first half of October!"

EPISODE NEIN: Jeek and Ye Shall Find

PREVIOUSLY ON OUTGUNNED ADVENTURES: Trapped on a dinosaur-infested desert island in the Hollow Earth (possibly), our heroes engage a squad of Nazi soldiers and scientists, fresh off their U-boat transport, in order to steal (or trash) their "weather control" device.

Dick (Kevin's ex-G-man-turned-private eye) and Freya (Clare's photojournalist) casually questioned the two captured scientists, Mikel and his assistant Hans. After initial resistance, Mikel decided he owed no loyalty to his now-deceased paymasters and sang like a canary.

Admitting he had no idea how the U-boat had ended up in "the hollow earth", he explained that they had been sailing into the Atlantic to test the weather control device, with the plan to eventually disrupt shipping lanes. However, before they even got to test it there was a violent disruption in the sea and they arrived here.

Mikel believed everyone had debarked from the U-boat, except possibly a few engineers, and he also said he had no idea where the map had come from or why it was written in English.

Studying the gorgeous, detailed map, we all realised that we had no idea where we were on it, so as pretty as it was, for the moment it was useless.

The map*

Pete got a giant-sized copy of the map printed for us to fawn over and study

Rather than sitting around waiting to become velociraptor chow, we headed off in the jungle, following the stone path/road that the blue-skinned natives had disappeared down in pursuit of stray Nazis.

Buck (my explorer) took point, followed by Dick, the two scientists (with bound wrists) and Freya bringing up the rear.

Freya pointed out that the road design resembled that of ancient structures seen in South America, rather than the more classical Roman designs of Europe.

We cautiously followed the road for an hour before suddenly ahead of us an enormous feline creature crossed the track ahead of us in the shadow of the overhanging branches. 

Approaching the site, we found it had left a large paw print, about lion-sized, in the mud.

Now even more alert, but getting a bit tired and hungry, we continued until the road curved to the left and Freya heard human voices, conversing in a language she couldn't fully understand. 

While Dick stayed back with the prisoners, Freya and I advanced around the corner to discover a village of Asian design, built around an old crossroads, populated by people who appeared to be from both South America and the First Nations.

The village

Cautious, but friendly, they approached us and Freya - our linguist - was able to explain who we were.

We learned that the village was concerned for a missing young girl, Jeek, and we agreed to help her brothers, Hom and Ket, track her down.

Dick was introduced to the tribe and Freya clarified that Mikel and Hans were members of a "hostile tribe" and our "prisoners of war". They were put in the care of two sturdy matrons and, after a hearty meal, the rest of us headed off towards the ruins that Hom and Ket believed Jeek had been heading towards.

Following a gentle slope, and passing through a sudden monsoon, the entrance to the ruins was easily found, but Hom and Ket refused to go further into the crumbling, overgrown structures because of something they referred to as "the guardian".

Foot prints that could only have belonged to Jeek were spotted, but then - as other prints crossed her path - it became clear that she had started to run and eventually we lost her trail.

Advancing towards what was left of the old buildings, mostly reclaimed by the jungle, we all realised that through the main arch there were strange lights, the sounds of machinery and the faint smell of engine oil.

Entrance to the ruins

Before we could even make it to the archway, we stumbled across a family of enormous land crabs. The The trio of baby crabs scuttled away but mummy and daddy crab weren't so easily intimidated and violently defended their offspring.

Working as a unit**, we managed to - eventually - kill both of these armoured behemoths, and then made our way into the roofless ruins. 

There we discovered the source of the lights was some kind of mystical energy field over one of the main buildings, which is where Freya spotted the ancient, dried-up trail of what might possibly have been a giant slug.

TO BE CONTINUED...

* The map, and illustrations, and adventure come from a new game called Terra Incognita (a Hollow Earth/pulp game using the 5e Dungeons & Dragons mechanics), which Pete has been investing in. 

** For anyone who's kept up with my game-related waffles of late, it should be clear that I'm not a massive fan of dice pool systems and have found OUTGUNNED Adventures, for a game that presents itself as pulpy and rules-lite, to actually be surprisingly crunchy.

However, this month, Pete introduced us to some new talents that allowed our characters to work better with each other. For instance, if Clare failed a roll, she could pass dice on to another player (in our case, Kevin) while I could receive a bonus to my rolls if I saw another member of the group succeed (again, in our case, Kevin) .

Thus, our combats (although these rules can be applied to all skill checks, not just combat) became much more regimented and disciplined as we were all helping each other towards our joint goals.

CAST:

• Buck Hannigan - Me
• Freya Larson - Clare
• Dick Tate - Kevin
• Onyx Jones - NPC

DIRECTOR:

• Pete

Buck & Dick (top) and Onyx & Freya (bottom)

If you want to keep abreast of the action in our current season of Pete's Weird Science campaign (currently using the OUTGUNNED ADVENTURES system from Two Little Mice)
then visit this page to find links to all our previous episodes.

READING REPORT: Back On Track... Hopefully!

Two bits of great news on the reading front this week: I've finally resumed Draugr after too long a break and my copy of the Deathstalker novelisation has arrived, shipped all the way from the U.S. of A.

I can't believed I put Draugr aside in the middle of such a tense sequence, and now I'm back in the deep, dark, scary forest I'm pleased to report the book is still incredibly atmospheric and creepy.

With Deathstalker turning up there's been yet more jiggery-pokery with my "to be read" list, meaning that this movie adaptation is now the next thing I intend to read, once I wrap up Draugr, 

While all this excitement was going on, I did get another of my fortnightly comic book shipments up from Paradox Comics in Poole, which means another nine comics to also slip in the "immediate" reading pile.

This week's comics

As long as I can be disciplined about it, I'm hopeful that I can somehow alternate between Draugr and the comics, rather than putting the novel aside again to make way for comic books.

I'm feeling surprisingly confident that I'll be able to do this. To paraphrase Madonna, I reckon I'm getting "into the groove" with this whole "reading" malarky again after years of dithering because of my poor concentration.

Of course, I also really need to start reading some roleplaying game rules books as well if I want to prove to the Tuesday Knights that I'm ready to run a campaign for them without bottling it after a couple of sessions.

Meanwhile, as we stand. the top titles in my reading list to follow Draugr are: Deathstalker; The Hammer Horror Omnibus, Volume One; and Ghosts, Trolls and The Hidden People: An Anthology of Icelandic Folk Legends.

Cult Sci-Fi Movies About Unique and Violent Sports

Another fantastic list from Luminism that speaks to the gamer in me.

For years, in my 20s, I was trying to mentally codify the rules of the game in Salute of The Jugger (a truly awesome movie) with the aim of translating it into some useable gaming format. I never realised - until I saw this video - that it had actually become a real sport!

That revelation has inspired me to revisit my old project  at some point (starting again from scratch and studying the rules used by the 'real players').

I also remember that, as a wee kid, I wrote up a lengthy, and bloody, car racing game inspired by a combination of Death Race 2000 (no idea how I'd seen it at that age) and attending stock car racing on a farm near the village where I grew up.

I seem to recall that when I tried playing this game - as written - it was near impossible to complete a single circuit without flipping your car, driving off the track, or just exploding!

Twilight Sword Available For All On Pre-Order

For those who missed out on The Twilight Sword crowdfunding campaign, the game is now available for pre-order from Free League.

Inspired by classic video games including The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, and Wonder Boy in Monster Land, as well as the animated films of Studio Ghibli, Twilight Sword sends players to the Lands of Radia as Champions chosen to fight an evil Scourge, push back Despair, and bring Hope back to the world.

In promoting the game and their partnership with its designers at Two Little Mice, Free League has produced a great little summary of what Twilight Sword is all about:

In Twilight Sword, players awaken in an unfamiliar world where the Spirits have chosen them to become Champions. To save Radia, they must explore the land, fight the forces of the Scourge, and restore Hope to a world consumed by Despair.

The game uses an original system called CAT (Created at Twilight), built around a simple roll-under d12 mechanic. When faced with a challenge, players choose an Ability and roll a single d12. Rolling equal to or below that Ability succeeds, with 1 always a critical success and 12 always a critical failure.

Champions choose from five Kin and six Ways, which shape their abilities and approach to adventure. Players can combine up to two Ways, mixing different fighting styles and abilities to customize their character.

And yes, one of the playable Kin is a penguin.

Up for pre-order on Free Leagues' site are the core rulebook, Lands of Radia (covering the default setting, with some additional Kin and Ways etc), the starter set (which includes everything needed to start playing, with basic rules, the introductory Twilight Island mini-campaign, dice, pre-made Champions, cards, and tokens), and the card chest (which contains more than 250 cards featuring monsters, bosses, maps, weapons, Kin, feats, and spells).

Twilight Sword starter set

OUTGUNNED? No! Out Diced!!!

My newly arrived dice pool for Pete's OUTGUNNED Adventures campaign

Any excuse to buy more dice, right?

A contributing factor to my analysis paralysis the other day, when faced with a wall of beautiful new dice, was that I knew I'd already ordered nine "red blood splatter" d6s from the Dice Shop and they were on the way.

These have a specific gaming purpose. 

As I've made clear several times on this blog, one of the major issues I have with "dice pool mechanics" in roleplaying games is that they slow everything down when you're counting or collating or whatever you have to do with them.

Therefore I'm generally a fan of a single or double dice roll where you just look at the resulting number and "wallop" you've got your result.

The Tuesday Knights' current campaign is OUTGUNNED Adventures from Italy's Two Little Mice, which runs purely on dice pools. 

In recent sessions I realised - just after everyone else - that I was having issues with the "pips" on my six-siders and wasn't exactly as quick as I would have liked at picking out dice with identical numbers of spots on their top face.

Thus, it struck me that I needed dice with actual numbers written on them rather than spots. I had odd six-siders with numbers in my collection, but I really wanted a unified set of nine dice (the maximum size for a pool in OUTGUNNED).

Hence, my Dice Shop order.

I felt the blood splatter was appropriate as there does seem to be a lot of violence in our campaign.

Rain Doesn't Stop Play At Annual Medieval Festival

You can't really judge the steepness of the hill from this picture

Having missed last year's event, Rachel, Alice and I returned to King's Grove: England's Medieval & Renaissance Festival this year... only to discover that it had grown considerably since we were last there.

Oh, and after a summer of heatwave after heatwave, the heavens opened yesterday and it rained almost constantly while we were at the festival (there was a break of around five minutes when the sun came out in the afternoon).

The clue to the event's expansion was in the addition of "& Renaissance" to the official title.

It now more closely resembles what I imagine an American "Ren Faire" experience is like, with the overall focus moving away from the purely historical (as it was back in its Herstmonceux Castle days) and now embracing cosplay, LARP, witchy bits, and even tabletop roleplaying games and board games.

Naturally, I wanted to check out the roleplaying (and board) game area first. As well as tables for people to play games on in the tented areas, there was an Aladdin's Cave of funky dice, of all sizes and denominations, all beautifully displayed.

Rachel said I could have a set of posh dice as a birthday present, but there were simply too many to choose from and my poor, little addled brain just shut down because of the input overload.

After a long time blankly staring at the displays, picking some dice up and putting them down, I just couldn't decide and so we moved on... before I had some kind of emotional breakdown.

THE COSPLAY TENT

THE GRAND PARADE

There were a lot of amazing artisans and craftsmen selling their wares at the show, and the constant rain didn't seem to be putting people off moving between the various tents and covered stalls.

Probably my favourite artists were Lucan Thorndyke from Wyrd Bones (who we had a lovely, long chat with and wasn't at all bothered when I said I liked the "roleplaying game prop potential" of his work), the Medieval illuminations of Eric Verkade, and the t-shirts of Hive Mind Games.

As with the dice, there were so many incredible creations to choose from that I was mentally paralysed by the possibilities and ended up not buying anything.

However, I reckon there's a good chance I will eventually (once I can get my finances in order) buy a piece from Wyrd Bones to use in a Tuesday Knights adventure.

To be honest, all the art we saw was top quality and once again I was also (sadly) reminded that we simply don't have any more wall space at home for additional framed pictures. 

Soggy puppy

Quick family portrait during the five-minute break in the rain

Although there were a lot of other floofs at the event, Alice still attracted her fair share of attention, due a combination of her cuteness, her little rain coat, and her rather bedraggled appearance thanks to the weather (Once we got home, Alice had a nice warm bath in the sink).

The only real problem I have with King's Grove is that it takes place on the side of a steep hill.

While the woods are very atmospheric, especially as the festival evolves into something more "magical", it quickly becomes a complication for those of us with mobility issues. Especially when combined with the mud and rain, making the use of mobility scooters totally impractical. 

I couldn't help but wonder if this might actually be the last time I'm physically able to visit this annual event. 

As we headed towards the exit on Saturday we caught a glimpse  of the demonstration (in the Pageant Arena) by animal sanctuary Watermill Wolves. This was, of course, wonderful 'cos wolves are so cool (and one of the wolves was called Alice).

Apart from some "Medieval" treats for Alice, our main purchase at the festival was a copy of The Box of Death: Tales of Castle Rory, Book One. This is a Medieval swords-and-sorcery adventure set in a low-magic fantasy version of 13th Century Norfolk.

Again, we had a good chat with the author, Rory Marsden, who sold me on the book (and signed it for me; you know I'm a sucker for a signed book).

This is the first of a 10-book saga, although I did warn Rory that I was a very slow reader these days so couldn't guarantee how long it would take me to get through this first volume, let alone the rest.