Episode 278: Full of Panthers
February 2nd, 2018 | Robin
In Among My Many Hats Robin talks about Beating the Story, which gears the story beat system you may know from Hamlet’s Hit Points to fiction writing in all of its forms. Pre-order the print book now and get it in electronic form immediately!
As the world continues to turn into one big Conspiracy Corner, we look at the escalating weirdness that is Pizzagate.
We shift to fictional, and therefore more plausible, conspiracies as Patreon backer Marco Marini seizes control of Ask Ken and Robin to take Fall of Delta Green beyond the Anglosphere.
Finally backer Jason Thompson asks us to deploy Ken’s Time Machine on a literary mission, to displace J.R.R. Tolkien as the font of modern fantasy.
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Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game Witches of the Revolution, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.
It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new Trail of Cthulhu sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.
In Highway Holocaust you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.
With your Handlers Guide already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!
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Not to assume a degree of influence rightly reserved to Patreon backers, but I am not sure that Time Inc.’s prefuctory refusal of the mission to displace Tolkein as ur-fantasist interpreted the initial request in the most generous spirit feasible. Clearly, in our timeline, the hippie and post-hippie reception of Tolkein set the stage for the emergence of roleplaying and the commercial viability of fantasy literature. However, just as clearly, Dunsany and Cabell (and Howard, Leiber and Vance, as noted by K&R) posed alternative ways to write fantasy – as did Williams and Leiber, whatever their own limitations.
What I think would be the interesting construal of this assignment, would be: how could Ken drink the emergence of fantasy roleplaying into following non-Tolkein DNA? A few scenarios present themselves: as noted elsewhere, the form could have emerged from the Fisher/Leiber correspondence. Perhaps more interesting, some other writer could have served as the catalyst for the hobby’s emergence; could there have been a deep counterculture meme focusing on Elric or a Charles Williams mythology? What would roleplaying have looked like if premised on Titus Groan ambiance or if dreamscapes, rather than tactical grids, had made up the primordial form of play? To what extent did Tolkein’s epic narrative contribute to the roleplaying activity, in positive or negative ways, or was that approach to framing largely ignored before Pendragon? Etc., etc., etc – which might have made more interesting questions for discussion than simply disputing the premise. 😉
Wait, what? I wrote a novel? The hell?
…
Oh, Brian LUMley.
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Never mind. 🙂