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.

NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES AHEAD

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Just a little head's up for the half-a-dozen or so punters that actually read my drivel here (rather than just clicking the thumbs up button on Facebook): there's probably going to be a noticeable change in posting, starting next month.

In October, Rachel is going into hospital for elective knee replacement surgery. This is all for the good. There's even a robot (called ROSA) involved.

However, her post-op recovery could take anywhere from six weeks to six months. 

This means I'm going to have to step up. Be the man of the house. Take charge of things. Do chores.

And, crucially, not spend so much time twiddling away on my jolly laptop, drafting rambling articles, posting film trailers etc

Obviously, I hope I'll still find some time to do the blog, but I sincerely doubt it will be comparable with the amount of time I currently spend on it.

This isn't a bad thing. It's just a fact of life. And priorities. 

For this indeterminate amount of time there will be a reduction - possibly a drastic reduction - in the number of posts you'll be seeing from me here. 

Stop cheering in the back there! I can hear you!

Holy Habitual Viewing, Batman, He'll Have Square Eyes!

With this morning's screening of Minerva, Mayhem and Millionaires, I have now watched every episode of the classic Batman serial from '60s in the order they were originally transmitted.

Thanks to the great Talking Pictures TV channel here in the UK, this has been my Saturday morning ritual for the last 28 months or so.

While the idea was to simply ensure I saw all the episodes of this magnificently camp crimefighting show, I can't help but pass comment on the third - and last - season, when the show's makers swapped out Aunt Harriet (Madge Blake) for Batgirl/Barbara Gordon (Yvonne Craig).

Clearly, they felt a '60s audience of (mainly) young boys couldn't cope with two lead female characters at once. It's a pity because as much as I welcome Craig's take on Batgirl, I did miss Aunt Harriet's obliviousness to the Bat-centric shenanigans going on under her nose in stately Wayne Manor.

It was also a bit sad - but emblematic of episodic TV at the time - that Dick Grayson/Robin's  (Burt Ward) aunt wasn't even mentioned this season.

Then again, perhaps she left Gotham at just the right time as the storytelling took a massive nosedive, thanks to attempts to mix things up.

The show largely abandoned its winning two-part story formula (thus eliminating the highly entertaining cliffhangers at the end of part one of every tale) as well as bringing in a host of bland new villains instead of relying on the iconic comic book antagonists (Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman etc).

The many, wildly popular, comic book continuations of the show have shown that with the right writers and characters, Batman '66 could have run and run.

Batman '66 #1 from 2013

This isn't to say, however, that the TV show was ever less than perfect Saturday morning entertainment.

No matter what silliness was unfolding onscreen, you could always guarantee that Adam West's Batman would take their circumstances seriously... and always have exactly the right Bat-doohickey in his utility belt to help him, Robin, Batgirl, and Alfred (Alan Napier) out of any sticky situation.

But Batman isn't the only vintage show I've watched from start-to-finish in the last couple of years.

I started with all the available episodes of Dad's Army, being shown on U&Gold.

This has always been a very special show to me (and warranted its own article here), because of its connections to my dad.

Then, thanks to Legend, showing four episodes each weekend, I saw every episode of the original Twilight Zone.

Most recently, thanks to the BBC, I watched the entirely of the sublime I, Claudius from the 1970s. I remember watching some of the episodes when I was a child and some, much later, when I was in hospital recovering from my aneurysm. But I'd never seen the entire show from start-to-finish before.

The thing is I have Blu-Rays of the complete runs of both Batman and the Twilight Zone, but it felt somehow more 'authentic' to watch them weekly as new episodes were released on standard definition channels.

I'm also a great believer in the concept of "appointment television". I've a ton of shows on Netflix (where all the episodes drop at once) that I've started, but then felt no incentive to push on with.

However, knowing I'll have to wait a week for a new episode keeps the flame of enthusiasm lit.

Of course, I do binge shows. I'm not a luddite. But weekly shows are still my preferred form of delivery. Because I'm that old.

It did strike me that there was possibly something a tad morbid about this particular project of mine: ensuring I'd seen every episode of select great shows before I pop my clogs.

But I can assure you my motives are a lot more positive. There's so much great television being made all the time that it's easy to overlook the classics of old in the rush to embrace the new.

This is especially true for shows that - over the years - I've dipped in and out of, rather than watching religiously.

With my increasingly unreliable memory, I want to make sure I'm not missing great television from earlier decades while consuming the current crop of high calibre entertainment.

I'm now contemplating what show I might tackle next.

The original run of Star Trek is definitely a contender, although that will be a binge rather than appointment viewing as it's on Paramount Plus these days.

It's actually being shown on Legend as well, but that channel is in the middle of the second season and I don't want to have to wait for them to get round to the start of season one again if I'm going to go "where no man has gone before" as soon as possible.

Will I be boldly going from start to finish on the Final Frontier next?

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.

LIFE UPDATE: Everything's Better With Rainbows

Thursday's glorious rainbow over Tonbridge

This short update covers health, weather, and life in general because it's been that kind of week.

Possibly the most important thing is that it appears as though the succession of heatwaves has finally moved on (at least for the moment). We got some rain mid-week, with a serious downpour on Thursday resulting in the wonderful double-ended rainbow pictured above.

From where Rachel and I stood in our garden there were clear indications of where each end landed, but we were both so delighted by the sight that we forgot to go chasing for the elusive pot of gold (or cheeky leprechaun).

On the health front, we're becoming regulars at the gym. And now I've realised that you can use resistance against the power-assisted machines my effort scores are going up day-upon-day.

I'm sure that it's doing me some good, but my gamy leg was playing at the end of the week. My dear old mother would have said it was "the weather", and given the dramatic shift this week she might have been right.

Also had a minor blood test at my GP surgery this week and am delighted to say that my INR has finally stabilised again and so I don't have to go back until October for my next check-up. 

HEALTH UPDATE: I Do Gym, That's Who I Am Now!

Again, this is nothing like what I'm doing at the gym!                  Photo by Ketut Subiyanto 

Following last week's enrolment Rachel and I have already been to the gym twice this week and are aiming to keep up with regular visits.

I have to confess that I rather like the power-assisted machines, the limited time on each, and the routine of doing the circuit in about half an hour.

With just two visits under my belt it's a bit early to say if it's having any effect, but as long as I follow the instructions I'm pretty sure I'm heading in the right direction.

As you 'only' get three minutes on each machine I did notice that my slowness - due to my gamy leg - in dismounting and disentangling myself from the foot straps etc  was creating a slight traffic jam for the people behind me (including Rachel). I'm going to have to work on that.

At the moment, because of the continual heatwaves, we're having to go to the gym first thing in the morning, meaning a very early start for us non-working types, but hopefully once this abnormal weather condition passes (to, no doubt, be replaced by a different abnormal weather condition) we'll start experimenting with different times of the day. As long as Rachel is working from home, the later time slots should be no problem. 

If there's something I didn't enjoy quite so much it's the fact that not only was the gym rather full, but the people there were chatting and bantering. And that's so not my thing. My brain gets so easily overwhelmed these days if I'm in a new situation.

Even though the machines are designed to help me with my exercises, I still need to concentrate to make sure I'm doing things right.

Eventually, I was hoping to be comfortable enough to exercise with my ear buds in and listen to podcasts but I won't be able to do that if people are wanting to "chat" to me.&

Thus, a good reason to find a quieter time of the day to do our circuits.

HEALTH UPDATE: Gym Life

We will be doing NONE of this at the gym               Image by Mohamed_hassan from Pixabay

With Biscuit Club on its summer break, Rachel and I used this time to join our local gym.

It's not your run-of-the-mill gym though, but an "active wellbeing studio".

This means we're going to be using a series of power-assisted machines each time we visit, on a half-hour circuit (roughly three minutes per machine).

It's not really about getting ripped, but rather - for me, anyway - safely loosening the stiffness in my back, and other joints. Various machines will also help me develop strength and stamina. 

I had a try on one of the machines and it felt so good on my spine. Like a glorious massage. Rachel said I looked very happy. I'm really looking forward to using these machines on a regular basis.

As part of the joining process we had a lengthy discussion about my medical issues (stroke, aneurysm, osteoarthritis etc), and then came back another day to do all the paperwork. So, we're all signed and paid up.

I also rather like it 'cos to my numpty brain it's very sci-fi, with apps and QR codes, and electronic wristbands to get us in to the building.

Rachel and I have just our induction session to go next week and then we can start popping in as and when we feel like it (providing we book a slot in advance).

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Following The Whispering Road Made Us All Both Storytellers and Gamers

Back at the tail end of 2018, the Tuesday Knights (our tabletop roleplaying gaming group) did something unusual: something that goes against my zealous protection of our precious, limited gaming slots. We played a one-shot. And I really enjoyed it. I mean I really, really enjoyed it. 

I'm still quite adamant that while we are bound to "one gaming session a month" (meaning a maximum of 12 a year, and we rarely achieve that for sundry health, family, and work reasons) I would rather play (or run) something with the potential to become an open-ended "forever campaign".

However, let's flashback to December 20, 2018, and see what I wrote in my gaming log:

This week's RPG session with the Tuesday Knights could, possibly, have proved to be a game-changer.

It was our first exposure to a so-called "storytelling game" - Brent Newhall's The Whispering Road - and I was anxious about getting my head around playing a game devoid of such traditional mechanical trappings as character statistics, hit points, armour class, experience points, equipment lists etc

Instead, our character's were made up of a number of traits (some were personality quirks, others minor abilities or powers) and a "need".

Further taking us out of our comfort zone, there was no definitive setting for the game and it didn't even require a gamesmaster!

Clare, whose game it was, took the role of "Architect", meaning she framed the story and set the scene, while Pete was nominated as "Driver", making it his job to ensure the story kept moving and we didn't get bogged down in rules discussions or non-gaming distractions (not, it turned out, that he needed to worry about that because we all quickly got on board with The Whispering Road).

Beforehand, via our super-secret Facebook group, Clare had nudged us to create a setting for the game: and we cooked up a snow-bound Medieval land (which in play veered between Celtic and Norse) where saints and demons walked the land, and everyone had a pet mouse as a companion.

Our characters were:

• Ceitlen (Pete) - first born daughter of the chieftain, guardian of the clan's symbolic magical shield, whose motivation was protecting the shield and what it stood for (ie. the community);
• Torg (me) - third born (second son) of the chieftain, a trickster and troublemaker, who wanted to prove that he could be as good a hero as Ceitlen;
• Glau (Kevin) - a miserable farmer, gifted with a magical spade and the ability to see the future, who just wanted the snow to stop;
• Master Mouse (Erica) - the custodian of the clan's mice, and a mentor to all, who wanted people to listen to her advice;
• Sister Prudence (Clare) - a nun and fanatical follower of Little St Therese (patron saint of mice), who sought to stem the rising tide of secularism in the village.

After everyone described their typical day in the village, the story began with Glau coming to the chieftain with dire warnings that the snows were getting worse.

The village was whipped up into a frenzy, and, led by an army of mice to clear a path, headed up into the mountains to find the cause of the supernaturally worsening weather.

After being ambushed by dire wolves (not common in these 'ere parts), the bulk of the village were sent home for their own protection, leaving our small group of heroes to carry on.

I stumbled upon an old ruin (Torg, as a "rascal", had more traits than anyone else and these included a couple of doses of "dumb luck" as well as being the group's "magic-user"), from where we headed to an ice cave that actually turned out to be a frost giantess called Midhilda.

Before we knew this, she had rolled a giant boulder at us, which had crushed Ceitlen's shield and shattered it in to three pieces.

While the others were determined to talk to the giantess, Torg transformed into a mouse and started to scuttle up her leg, with a typically Viking-esque bloody plan in mind to kill her (thinking he would be saving the village that way and proving himself).

However, Master Mouse called out to him to stop because they had discovered that she was simply looking for her giant boyfriend Jordmund.

Unfortunately, giants' sense of time isn't the same as ours and we discovered he'd passed through this area hundreds of years ago.

During the conversation, she also revealed that her oversized enchanted sword had been shattered, and Torg suggested that he could magically repair it using one of the fragments of Ceitlen's shield.

Ceitlen, already upset over the loss of the shield (despite Master Mouse explaining to her that it was only a symbol and she was still protecting the community), was initially not happy about this.

But then she came round to the idea and tried to claim it as her own, much to Torg's annoyance. He lost his rag, which - in turn - freaked out the giant (who couldn't handle extreme's of human emotion) and so Master Mouse and Sister Prudence had to calm down Midhilda and Torg.

Assisted by a small coterie of mice summoned by Prudence, Torg then wove the pieces of shield and sword together with some colourful sorcerous hand gestures, and went on to proudly explain that this was also forging a bond between the frost giants and our village.

And, boy, was he feeling smug about all this... right up until the point where Midhilda declared that her new magical sword would be named after Ceitlen.

Torg's jaw hit the floor (and everyone - including me - around the table roared with laughter).

In return, Midhilda handed Ceitlen with a large fragment from her old broken sword, which could be reforged into a new shield.

We all returned to the village, satisfied that our story arcs had been achieved, the magical snows had eased, and Midhilda had opened a new pass through the mountains for us.

Writing up the adventure primarily from Torg's POV and my recollections, I haven't really done the evening's game justice.

It was a surprisingly layered escapade, with everyone's actions dictated by whether they were satisfying their own character's needs or those of others in the group.

When you're not spending 20 minutes on a fight sequence, it frees up time for character development and The Whispering Road was all about co-operation and working together to achieve our goals (even when they were pulling us in opposite directions).

Although I'm not a fan of listening to "actual play" recordings, part of me wishes I'd recorded the evening on my phone to release as a podcast.

From the initial group world-building, through the speedy character creation, right up to the hilarious climax of the story and the satisfying denouement, this really was a game unlike any we've played before.

I've always been fascinated by the simple idea of characters who are related by blood somehow, and the dynamic of Pete's Ceitlen  and my Torg unfolded brilliantly as both of us tried to one-up each other: Ceitlen with her strength and charisma, Torg with his tricksiness.

Unintentionally, as Kevin pointed out, this developed into a perfect Thor/Loki dynamic.

The whole adventure was contained to a single, two-and-a-half hour session, but - because the game was structured into scenes (with prompts for The Architect) and acts - the story we freestyled together really felt as though it came together like a movie.

I backed The Whispering Road on Kickstarter, in early 2014, on behalf of Nick and Clare, thinking it might make an interesting introductory RPG for my godson Alec (it's inspired by Studio Ghibli films, which Clare is a great fan of, and doesn't revolve around killing things that look different to you and then stealing their stuff).

Little did I realise that it would actually serve as The Tuesday Knights' introduction to the weird and wonderful world of Story Games!

I was so impressed by The Whispering Road and the story-crafting techniques the game subtly deployed throughout, as well as Clare's first stint at running a roleplaying game for adults (as opposed to her children).

There were simple dice-rolling mechanics for resolving conflicts (for instance, in a fight the roll would say whether you won or lost, not dictate a blow-by-blow account of the battle), complementing the system's aim of creating a thematic narrative, driven by the characters' needs and desires.

We weren't restricted - or bound - by the rules, in fact they encouraged our creativity and communal storytelling skills.

What's happening to us? Are we becoming New Age gamers? Are we waving goodbye to the Old School Renaissance and becoming Story Game aficionados?

I think it's a bit early to be binning all our d20 rulebooks, but I can definitely see us returning to The Whispering Road.

The evening ended with talks of a 'sequel movie' to our adventure, but, as much as I really liked all the characters the Tuesday Knights had cooked up, my mind was racing towards other settings and environments I'd love to explore via the game's very open mechanics.

It was a shame Simon was unable to make our final gathering of 2018, as it was a grand send-off to another fine year of gaming.

Words To Live By?

Conan & Dragonero #3 (Titan Comics)

In this month's issue of the non-canonical crossover comic, Conan & Dragonero, our Cimmerian protagonist delivered a throwaway, mid-combat, line that rather caught me by surprise.

"I don't worry about anything until it happens".

I am, by no stretch, a Robert E Howard scholar or expert on his most famous creation, but I guess this has always been Conan's philosophy - even though I don't recall him specifically spelling it out like that.

Perhaps, in all my years of consuming the adventures of Conan The Barbarian in various media, I've never really given this much serious thought.

To be honest, I'm not one hundred percent sure that this statement is a sensible approach to life as, taken at face value, surely that means a total absence of forward planning... and yet Conan is a master of the cunning trick and unpredictable battle strategies.

However, though the lens of stoicism, he is right. Only worry about things within your control. 

There's no point worrying about the possibility of wild wyverns slashing the balloon of your airship and sending you plummeting to the ground... because that's out of your control. 

Fighting the monsters that are in front of you, though, is within your control.

I wish I could adopt this mindset.

I've always been quite an anxious person, but since the sudden aortic aneurysm that struck me down out of the blue a couple of decades ago (and the stroke I suffered during the emergency, life-saving surgery), my PTSD-fuelled anxiety and general nervousness has gone through the roof.

Things that used to bug me or worry me can now reduce me to a blubbering wreck.

But these are - nearly always - things that are out of my control.

I'd love to have a modicum of Conan's stoicism. I shall endeavour, next time an appropriate situation arises, to tell myself "not to worry about anything until it happens".

This reminds of another phrase I heard last year that I try to put into use when I can.

In the brutal Netflix Western serial, American Primeval, Taylor Kitsch's character tells a kid with a broken arm: "It's only pain."

A simple, little phrase, but one I now repeat to myself when I'm going to the doctor's or the hospital for a procedure that involves sticking needles into my tiny, elusive veins.

I still hate it, it doesn't stop me screaming out or crushing Rachel's hand, but - at the end of the day - it is "only pain". It's not going to kill me, and it will pass.

So, who still thinks that comic books and television aren't good for you?

HEALTH UPDATE: At Least My Liver Seems Okay

Photo by Nicolas J Leclercq on Unsplash

Good news this week. The results of my last blood test came through (primarily checking my liver function) and all were normal, with no sign of abnormalities, so that's something to celebrate for a change.

I actually didn't hear anything from my GP (which, in these situations, is a good thing), so checked via the wonderful NHS app on my phone that Rachel signed me up for. It's brilliant. Not only can my GP (and hospitals) contact me via the app, but I can check my notes and test results.

Hooray for the NHS!

After opting out of last week's class because of the continuing extreme weather, I went back to Biscuit Club this week only to discover that our next session is the last of this "term"!

I'd thought we'd be adding on a few more to make up for the ones cancelled at the height of the heatwave, but clearly not.

However, there's a new class starting later in the year, and we get priority dibs on those places, so I'll probably attend that. It should be cooler by then (climate change willing).

Over the summer, we were invited to pop along to the Angel Centre in Tonbridge to join in some of the weekly, pay-as-you-go, classes for the general public that our coach runs.

Even though there's no tea and biscuits with these, Rachel and I agreed that it might be worth me checking the classes out as it was only something like four quid a session.

HEALTH UPDATE: And So It Continues

Image by Conmongt from Pixabay

We're now in our second or third heatwave of the Summer. It's not fun. 

Not only can I not really focus on anything still, but I also feel lethargic and just want to vegetate.

For reasons, primarily the extreme heat, I've now only managed to attend two meetings of Biscuit Club in the last six or seven weeks.

A couple were cancelled and one was optional (and I didn't feel up to attending), but also there was the week where I had my steroid injections (which don't appear to have worked) and one where Rachel was overwhelmed with organising the annual awards day she puts on for the local media in the South-East of England.

I've tried to do some exercises, but the heat just tires me out.

Unfortunately, this has also meant I've had a couple of falls. While nothing was damaged beyond my dignity, it's a stark reminder of how I was a year ago and the fact that I had gone several months without any kind of collapse.

On a possibly positive note, I went back to the GP's this week for my latest blood test, to monitor my liver function, and my veins were much more visible than they usually are... which we atre attributing to the heat.

It was still incredibly painful, and I crushed Rachel's hand again as the nurse wiggled the needle around in my vein (well, that's what I think she was doing - I had my eyes screwed shut). But, apparently, she got two and a bit vials of my blood out.

Also, rather impressively, several days after my needle-encounter, I still haven't bruised around the penetration site, which is possibly a first.

Now, I just have to wait for the results and find out if I need to come back for more of this torture.

It's A Marathon Rather Than A Sprint: Why I Will Always Champion The "Forever Campaign"

Trawling back through his archives recently, I found myself agreeing with the sage wisdom of Grognardia's James Maliszewski, in his pontifications on a subject near and dear to my heart: the desirability of long-running campaigns.

I've mentioned a number of times on this blog my personal white whale: my dream of an open-ended "forever campaign", which I have long-considered the definitive expression of our hobby (certainly where Dungeons & Dragons-style games are concerned).

Inspired by the early practitioners of our art (from Gary Gygax's Greyhawk via David Hargrave's Arduin to Dave Arneson's Blackmoor), I'd always felt this was how the game was meant to be played.

Characters should live, grow old, and die (either in battle or in the comfort of their own keep) during the run of a campaign, but the world always carries on. Characters have long and storied careers, then retire, raise castles and families, become legends, but the world always carries on. 

The world shouldn't 'end' when a particular adventure ends (unless, of course, it's an apocalyptic adventure such as I concocted for the Tuesday Knights in The Chronicles of Cidri).

Modern campaigns, to me, feel like they have a story to tell and once it's told, it's time to pack things up and move on to another game.

For instance, while I loved playing my human fighter Syr Edvard in Simon's Dungeons & Dragons 5e Curse of Strahd campaign, we knew from the moment we stumbled through the Mists into Ravenloft we were destined to ultimately confront the vampire lord Strahd and try to free the land from his grasp. 

Us and the thousands of other gamers who have - and will have in the future - played through this campaign book, all following roughly the same story.

The details may vary, both in the plot and how the character's react, but, ultimately we all have a single primary objective.

The current crop of campaigns from Wizards are designed to take characters from 1st to 20th level, in a compressed period of time (10 to 18 months of weekly games, I believe), and then those characters go away, and new characters are "designed" (not generated)  for the next book-length campaign.

Ultimately, we are telling the story that Wizards wants us to tell. And that's okay, if that's how you want to play Dungeons & Dragons. And a lot of people do, I get that.

These are blockbuster movies, whereas my gaming interest lies more in the direction of the on-going soap opera, a marathon rather than a sprint.

I look at Robert Wardhaugh's famous four-decade spanning campaign, and the original campaigns I mentioned above, and that's what I want a piece of.

I like the idea of a sprawling, living, setting where the characters create their own story, rather than characters being created for a story.

I, again, cite my own Chronicles of Cidri as a small example of what I have in mind: when I began that campaign (taking over the reins from Pete a few sessions in), I had no end goal in mind, there was no set objective for the characters. A string of events - all driven by the player-characters (knowingly or unknowingly) - led to the final apocalyptic battle and the destruction of the world.

If Clare's character hadn't fallen under a certain curse and then hadn't chosen to trust the untrustworthy Witch of The Woods the campaign - and the world - would have turned out a lot different.

James pulled out a brilliant quote from 'noisms' of Monsters and Manuals:

"We need long campaigns. We need to sit down with the same group of people on a regular basis over the course of years, telling the kind of stories which require concentration and thought and, above all, loyalty; stories which gain their own momentum through peaks and troughs, ebbs and flows, ups and downs and ins and outs; stories in which the events which happen matter because they have a context and a background and an unknown future waiting to be discovered. We don't need the inconsequential frippery of the one-shot; we need time."

However, 'noisms' also wraps up his own commentary on the need for long campaigns, thus:

"Almost everything worth doing, knowing, reading, hearing, feeling or saying in life has the character of being unobtainable via shortcuts except in a form which diminishes both you and it. Why would you expect RPGs to be any different?"

While I have been known to enjoy an odd one-shot as a palate-cleanser, a way to explore new and different rules ideas, I want my players' characters to become enmeshed in their game-world, there to live and breathe, rather than drive one single plot forward at breakneck speed.

In his article, James said:

"A multi-year campaign is, I think, the ideal form of most roleplaying games ... and by "ideal," I don't mean some unattainably lofty goal but rather the most desirable and satisfying version of this type of entertainment."

I realise my time on this Earth is finite, I'm heading towards my sixtieth birthday later this year, and I'm plagued with a host of health issues that fate has foisted upon me.

If I'm lucky I have the time - and energy - left in me for one last, massive, sprawling campaign in the manner I aspire to. 

This is why I remain staunchly zealous (almost certainly to an annoying degree at times) about protecting the Tuesday Knights' precious, monthly gaming slots.

I'm still quite adamant that while we are bound to "one RPG session a month" (meaning a maximum of 12 a year, and we rarely achieve that for sundry health, family, and work reasons) I want to play (or, more crucially, run) something with the potential to become this kind of open-ended "forever campaign".

I'd love to see characters invested in something other than an "overarching plot", putting something back into the game world, be it building a castle or a dam, seizing a crown and struggling with the mantle of rulership, getting married, growing their dynasties etc

There would still be the grand expeditions, the megadungeons to loot, the Big Bads to slay, but between all this the characters would have lives, dreams, aspirations, passions, and growth that might not be measured in experience points, but would certainly make their personal stories more rounded and interesting.

Of course, I realise if I'd just stuck to my guns when we launched the Tuesday Knights, back in 2008, and kept my initial Castles & Crusades campaign going, there's every possibility that I would be running such a "forever campaign" as I dream about. 

But there's no point having regrets over my stupidity back in the day. At least, it was a learning experience. Albeit rather late in life.

I'll let James have the final word on the subject of extended campaigns, quoting one of the founding fathers of our glorious, and occasionally frustrating, hobby:

"Indeed, I'd argue this is the way D&D at least was intended to be played, as Gary Gygax states in the foreword to OD&D: "it is the campaign for which these rules are designed."

POSSE POWER!!!

Photo by Reda Bluo

Since this blog celebrated its first six months of active service back in May, another brave soul has joined our Posse of Followers: Tom D.

This pushes membership to a very lucky 13, but we could always do better! We're very welcoming around these 'ere parts.

Look to the right and you will see in the side column (below the current 'featured article') a widget entitled Join The Posse. Under avatars for my current followers is a button marked Follow.

Simply press that and - all being well - your avatar will join the ranks of this group of brave heroes.

I do think you'll need a Google account for this to work (Blogger, after all, is a Google thing).

Not only does this mean, my expertly crafted prose will appear in your Google "Reading List" but it demonstrates to me that you're interested in my waffle and support what I'm doing (without having to part with a single red cent, sign up to a Patreon, or back my Kickstarter).

For those of you new around here, my blog is kind of a broad church at present with a mix of film (and TV) reviews, trailers, books, comic books (particularly Titan's Conan and other Howardverse titles), and underpinning it all a life-long love of tabletop roleplaying games.

I also love swords-and-sorcery, monster horror, westerns, Star Wars, B-movies, select superheroes (primarily Superman and Fantastic Four these days), curry, pizzas, my long-suffering wife, Rachel, and our cute little doggo, Alice.

And probably other things that have slipped out of my Swiss Cheesed brain.

I also write, occasionally, about my health: the idea being that, as a stroke survivor, I can share both the highs and lows of my ongoing physical and mental battles. I try to limit this, at most, to once a week (although, where pertinent, it can slip into posts about other things).

Anyway, you're here now, reading this, so why wouldn't you want to join the Posse?

• Of course, honestly, the best way to follow the action on Cowboys, Capes, and Claws is to add this blog to your Feedly aggregator or similar RSS feed reader application (it almost sounds as though I know what I'm talking about!)