Comic Review – Crusade 1: Simoun Dja

Writer: Jean Dufaux
Art: Philippe Xavier
Published in English by Cinebook


‘The tale of a forgotten crusade, erased from history because it fell into the shadow of the devil.

Jerusalem is in the hands of Sultan Ab’dul Razim, and the Christians have raised an army to take it back, led by Grégoire of Arcos and the Duke of Taranto. Only Gauthier of Flanders and his sister-in-law Syria of Arcos are opposed to an attack they deem premature. But the stench of brimstone covers everything, and in a war fought in the name of God, it is the Qua’dj, a demon, who could decide the fate of the Holy Land…’

‘Crusade’ immediately grabs the attention with some stark cover art – a crusader knight standing over a corpse with evil in his eyes, and the land around him dark and desolate. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but this striking image is very enticing, and the actual graphic novel itself doesn’t disappoint.

This 56 page full-colour graphic novel is the first in a four-part series. There’s a handy opening that details the historical crusades that sets the scene and the atmosphere of the upcoming tale so reading up on the reality of the holy wars is not a necessity, although having knowledge of the crusades certainly helps. Reading the stories of both sides and how the war and the influence of the evil affects them certainly makes for an intriguing story. As this is the first part of the series nothing gets resolved, it just prepares you for the next step in the saga and sets the scene characters and situations that will follow. Nevertheless a lot happens in this volume, what with the politics and theology on both sides, so it’s a very satisfying read.

Jean Dufaux’s writing is very good and there’s a nice mix of narrative and dialogue; narrative where you need it to keep up and uninterrupted dialogue when you want it. The conversations have little in the way of exposition except where needed to be able to follow the story so it’s a good read, and has a movie script feel to it.

Philippe Xavier’s art is excellent and some of the vistas are impressive, especially the first view of The Holy City and the two-page charge into battle, but there is something slightly lacking in the expressions of the characters. Although they are well defined so that they are identifiable there seems to be no real expressions of emotion on the faces, at least expressions that aren’t highlighted by the story and dialogue; they all seem to be either surprised or moody. This suits the darkness of the story, that’s for sure, so it certainly doesn’t distract from the unfolding tale or the excellent artwork.

Crusade 1: Simoun Dja is an excellent first volume in what promises to be an excellent series. Cinebook has succeeded again in enticing me into sticking with another great title.

Interview - Nick Marsh, author of 'The Express Diaries'

Say hello to Nick Marsh, author of the excellent book 'The Express Diaries' and my interviewee today!

Hello, Nick - perhaps you'd like to tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Nick Marsh, and I'm a writer, blogger, gamer, and veterinary surgeon - which I'm aware is a strange combination. It can be hard work being a geek in rural Devon, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, I get by.

I've written a number of genre novels - The Ancients (fantasy), Soul Purpose and Past Tense(science fiction) and my latest, The Express Diaries (twenties-period horror)

Tell us about your creative history - what got you into the crazy world of strange fiction?

My parents were both teachers, and when I was a kid, they used to take me on three- or four-week-long holidays around Germany and Austria - a lifetime when you're knee high to a wienerschnitzel. They loved to plan the route themselves, spending months deciding where would be best to go - great fun for them, but as a consequence the holidays consisted in large part of sitting in laybys on the Autobahn, listening to my parents intermittently puzzling and swearing over large maps of the Black Forest, or driving slowly around Baden Baden searching for a magical 'Zimmer Frei' sign that would indicate we would have somewhere to sleep that night.

I got into the habit of taking lots of books from their school's library with me to kill the time (I brought them back, I promise!) during these extended foreign invasions, and two in particular must have hit me at a particularly impressionable time, because they informed what I'd be doing for the rest of my life.

The first (it would be called a 'young adult' novel now but back then was a kid's book) was a novel by Douglas Hill called 'Galactic Warlord', about the adventures of the last Legionary of the fabled planet Moros, selling his superior martial skills to noble causes while he pursued his quest for revenge upon the murderers of his homeworld. The second was 'Every Living Thing' by James Herriot, the tales of a young veterinary surgeon in pre- and post-World War II Yorkshire. I read these books, and suddenly I realised what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

Unfortunately, as I grew up, I discovered that it's actually incredibly difficult to become an indestructable alien mercenary, so I became a vet instead.

Okay, okay, that was flippant, but it's a neat way of summarising the biggest parts of my life; animals and geekdom. University squashed my writing urge for a while, but a few years after qualifying I started writing a novel - initially it was going to be a straight novel about veterinary surgeons, but me being me I soon found aliens and century-dead magicians creeping into the story. That became Soul Purpose, my first novel, which was picked up by Immanion Press. The writing career sort of grew from there.

As far as being a gamer (and although I do play a lot of video games - currently Spelunky, Dishonored and Saint's Row IV, if you're interested! - I mean a gamer in the traditional board- and role-playing games sense) - well, that was thanks to another book from my parent's school's library - The Forest of Doom, by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. That Iain McCaig cover drew me straight in, and I was sold from the first paragraph. From there I graduated to Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Traveller and all the various games that have brought me so much joy over the years.

What's your favourite genre to read? What's out there at the moment that floats your boat?

Possibly due to mid-life crisis, I'm currently trying to understand a little more about our real-world history - because where we're heading doesn't seem to be a good place. Consequently, the book I'm reading at the moment is Washington's China by James Peck, about the changing attitudes of successive US Governments to China. Its fascinating, but rather dry, so I'm interspersing that with short bursts of After Liff, a sequel to John Lloyd and the extremely sorely-missed Douglas Adams's Meaning of Liff - and bloody good it is too.

So I don't loose too many geek points I will point out that the book I finished last week wasUbik, by Philip K. Dick. I've read a few Dick before, some of which I loved (Time Out of Joint, The Man in the High Castle), some of which I honestly didn't (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) - but I loved Ubik. Just as you would imagine a Philip K. Dick novel to be - reality-bending and thought provoking. Highly recommended!

As a kid, following on from Lord of the Rings, I read an awful lot of fantasy - starting with the Dragonlance Saga (which I still have a very soft spot for) I read a huge amount of fantasy, but after the umpteenth multi-book saga in which very little happened (mutter mutter Belgariad mutter) I grew weary of it, and turned more to SF. In fact, In the last few years I've been trying to read as much classic SF as I can, and the standouts from recent years would be 1984, Flowers for Algernon and Solaris - all excellent, deep and emotional stories in the ways that Science Fiction is often accused of lacking.

I did recently dip my toe back into fantasy with A Game of Thrones, which I found revelatory - breathtakingly well-written. I devoured the rest of the books. Unfortunately, I then hit a Dance With Dragons - and I'm honestly not sure how such a gargantuan book has so little happen within it. I think I'll stick with the excellent HBO show instead in future - praying that George R R Martin knows where he's going with the bloody thing - and the next fantasy I'm likely to pick up will be The Lies of Locke Lamora, which I'm almost universally told is 'sodding brilliant'.

Out of all your projects, what are you most proud of?

Definitely the book I'm happiest with is The Express Diaries - about which more in a moment!


Tell us more about your recent book 'The Express Diaries', 'a tale of a journey into darkness and horror on the world's most famous train'; what was the attraction in writing the book?

Call of Cthulhu is probably my favourite role-playing game of all time. It got me into the dark and fascinating world of HP Lovecraft, and the malign influence of his alien Old Ones has influenced my writing ever since. So when Paul Maclean, the owner of the wonderful Lovecraftian website Yog-sothoth.com, asked me if I'd be interested in writing a novelization of his roleplaying groups play-throughs of the classic Chaosium campaign Horror on the Orient Express, I jumped at the chance.

Paul put me in touch with Eric Smith, the artist for the project, and between the three of us we crafted (I can say this because I just wrote the words) a thing of beauty. Eric's illustrations are fantastic, and Paul's devotion to the project helped us create a wonderful hardcover novel, which has pride of place on my shelf.

As far as the writing of the novel goes - I did have some apprehension about writing up a roleplaying game session. Novels along these lines have a long but not necessarily glorious history, and I was determined that The Express Diaries would be accessible to an audience that had never heard of Call of Cthulhu, let alone Horror on the Orient Express. The book has had fantastic reviews and a wonderful response on Goodreads - especially from people who weren't aware of its origins - so I think I managed to get something right!

What are you working on at the moment?

Well, at the urgings of friends and family, I'm taking a (brief!) break from genre fiction to work on a veterinary memoir. I started my blog, Maybe it -should- happen to a vet, several years ago, as a method of venting the stresses and strains of daily life as a veterinary surgeon. I wasn't really expecting a lot of readers - it was really writing as therapy - so I was surprised at the number of views it got. A number of my posts are due to be published in the Veterinary Times, and one of them - Dog #86324 - is up for a major non-fiction literary award, so I'm quite excited about that. My new work is a novelised (i.e. far less 'bloggy') version of my blog. Given that my writing speed makes George R R Martin look incredibly prolific, it might be a while before it comes out!

Thanks for the questions!

www.nick-marsh.co.uk
lordof1.blogspot.com
www.yog-sothoth.com

Nerd Stuff I Kinda Forgot I Had: Part 2

Ullaaaaahhhh!!

Once you start plying through boxes and cupboards you simply can't stop, and when you find something that makes you shout, 'No fricking way, man!' it just makes you want to keep going.

I listened to Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds' album long before I read the fabulous book, so the songs, themes and sounds echo in my head whenever I read it again or watch any of the movies (original movie good, Tom Cruise movie a great interpretation though has the saccharine Spielberg ending, TV show does not exist in this dojo).

I used to listen to my older brother's LP - it was the late 1970s - and in the LP sleeves was a softback book with the script, lyrics and some amazing art that pretty much defined War of the Worlds for me, and why I will always want my Victorian-era movie.

I don't have the LPs but I managed to get hold of one of the books - I don't remember where or how - and it's a bit dog-eared and crumpled but still in good condition, and the images are just as striking as they always were.

I've got the CDs of the musical, now, both the original and the newer version with new performers, but the original will always be the best. This book takes me back to the heady days of pre-teen wonder and the crazy thoughts and feelings that the artwork sent whirling through my head.

Comic Review - Good Cop Bad Cop: Tiny Acts Of Kindness Part 1

Good Cop Bad Cop – Tiny Acts Of Kindness Part 1

Writer: Jim Alexander
Artist: Luke Cooper

Good Cop Bad Cop is the new title from Planet Jimbot, the independent publisher that bought us the excellent ‘Amongst The Stars’. Where their previous title was some serious science fiction this new title takes us to the dark underbelly of modern day Scotland with Detective Inspector Fisher.

As this is the first issue there some scene setting being done. We get to see Fisher ‘in action’ – that is, he has a Jekyll/Hyde personality that he seemingly allows to happen, the darker, violent nature of his personality coming out when under pressure or threatened. There have been consequences to these outbursts and he’s obviously feeling the strain. His investigation goes from a robbery to a kidnapping which don't seem to be connected...

Meanwhile, a man is tortured in the middle of nowhere by a man and his dogs, and we don’t know why except that the man doing the torturing seems to find justification in his actions, almost as if he’s convincing himself that what he’s doing is for the best...

The story switches between the two incidents and, as this is a first issue, you don’t get the full gist of exactly what is going on. The writing is sharp and crisp – there’s a great ‘Salt and Vinegar do you?’ line that made me laugh – and the dialogue feels natural and certainly gets your attention. No long drawn-out conversations here, just quick and to the point. There’s a moment when you’d like to know exactly what is going on and why, but this is the first issue and there’s no doubt going to be clarification later on. This is simply setting the scene and the characters.

The artwork is very clean and functional, with some very stark black and white images with shades of grey. Its very good art with some computer highlighting, like forced blurring which gives a nice sense of depth. I do feel that this kind of story calls for something a little more detailed and dirty. The artwork here, while very good as you get a real sense of expression on the faces of the characters so it’s not just the words that convey the atmosphere and emotion, seems a little too sharp and clean for a story trying to show the grim darkness of the characters and the things they do. The shading is very good and gives it a wonderful noir-ish feel. I’d like to see Luke Cooper's great art illustrate a gumshoe 1940s story, a private dick in the big city.

I enjoyed this, and a re-read had me appreciating it even more. As a first issue Good Cop Bad Cop: Tiny Acts Of Kindness felt a little lacking at first as I never really got an idea of exactly what is going on, but the mystery of that in itself is enough to make me want to move on to the next issue. I want to see more of Fisher, who and why he is, and more of the strange man with the vicious dogs that he loves so much.

Recommended.

Interview - Simon Powell of DramaScape

Please welcome to Farsight Blogger Simon Powell of the rather excellent Dramascape, 'A wonderland of maps and adventures' for your tabletop games.

1 - Perhaps you'd like to tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m 49 and live in Newport South Wales UK, I’ve been a bit of a Jack of all trades through my life, from Army to Shop Manager and lastly Fork Lift Instructor. I had to retire 8 years ago due to ill health and had to look for something to occupy my days.

2 - Tell us about your gaming history - what got you into the wonderful world of tabletop?

In my early 20’s I discovered a little shop in Newport called Armchair Adventures, it had lots of wonderful games and figures, after a while of popping into the shop and attending the Dragondaze conventions they ran yearly, in a small hall, I got invited to join in with a group playing Warhammer Fantasy, and that spurred me onto running my own games, I discovered Earthdawn and used to run that weekly at the local gaming club and enjoyed participating in the RedBrick forums.

3 - What is it about the tabletop hobby that attracts you? What do you enjoy most when playing a game?

No matter how your week has been, you can emerge yourself into your character and forget all your troubles; you can enjoy the social interaction of like-minded people who tend to think above the level of “normal” folks. As a gamemaster you enjoy watching the players characters develop and solve the problems set before them, and of course the constant bribing the GM with cups of tea and snacks always helps.

4 - What's your favourite game? What games that are out there at the moment float your boat?

I must say that my favourite game is Earthdawn, it’s the diverse world that’s based on past earth and the way that the dice are open ended so that anything can happen, the dragon can be slain with the lucky shot and of course the totally unlucky can happen too.

5 - Do you still get time to play? What are you playing at the moment?

Unfortunately due to my illness my brain doesn’t work well in live situations and I’m not always well enough to attend regular events. So I’m not currently playing anything but I like to keep an eye on all the new developments in the RPG world.

6 - The tabletop hobby has been through a lot changes over the years and it seems that its death-knell is always sounded when newer hobbies come along such as computer games. It still seems to be able to hold it’s own, though – what do you see happening to the hobby in the future? What changes, if any, do you think will have to be made to ensure its survival?

I think that family interaction through board and RPG games is still as important as it always was; it’s up to us to teach the youngsters what we learnt at their age. There does seem to be a reemergence of board gaming, and especially war games, its seem the be the “eye candy” games that work well and those based on products that are already known to the public, like Star Wars and such.

Virtual technology is also helping restart the gaming scene, we have now copied the MMOG strategy that seems so popular these days, with Virtual Table Tops, players from all over the world can sit down and play games with each other over the internet, with software such as RPMaptools, Battlegrounds and Roll20. I think one of the reasons that DramaScape has been so successful is that we provide a Virtual copy of each map we produce so that it can be used online.

One of the things we have tried to do with our maps is to move away from the traditional hand drawn cartoony look, we have tried to make our maps look realistic and give them the computer game feel.

7 - Out of all your projects, what are you most proud of?

At the moment my favourite map is the Asylum, it’s a five level Victorian style mansion converted into an institution to hold indefinitely the mentally disturbed. The five levels include a basement, three main floors, and an attic each with multiple rooms, this was great fun to create and we worked alongside Aaron Huss from Savage Insider who was looking for a map for an adventure he was writing.

8 - Tell us more about Dramascape; what was the inspiration for creating these wonderful floorplans, what goes into creating them and what are your inspirations?

I have always tried to include maps when I was gamemastering, they say a picture speaks a thousand words and a well-drawn map enhances the gaming experience. I found Dundjinni many years ago and used it to produce my maps. One of the things that I started to use to occupy my time now I’m not working was digital art and after producing a few fan images for RedBrick I was asked to produce some covers, this was something that I really enjoyed, after a while I approached RedBrick and proposed the idea of running a map company within the RedBrick umbrella, and thus DramaScape was born. We went solo in May 2012 when Redbrick closed down.

I met Steven J Black and Vidar Edland who are also part of DramaScape while I was creating images for the RedBrick products and they joined in with me, Steven is the Assistant Manager and writer and Vidar is a writer and editor for us.

The maps are created through 3d modeling, we use high end software to create the scenes sometime making the models ourselves, the scenes are then rendered and put up on our development forum where Steven and Vidar look over them and decide what works and what doesn’t, when we finally have a completed image Steven then writes the descriptions and plot hooks for them, these are then edited by Vidar, I then sort out the layout and then publish them on Onebookshelf. Sometime if we are inspired this process can be very fast, we have gone from inspiration to published product in one day on a few products.

We also like to listen carefully to our Facebook community and if there is a map that they want us to produce we will do our best to create it, these always sell well.

We produce a free map each month and we have found this has done well in introducing people to our product range.

9 - What are you working on at the moment?

We are currently working on a Savage Worlds source book called Tribes of Yggdrasil, this is based on a series of books by Best Selling Canadian Author Hugh Long, it’s a sci-fi setting based on the idea that the Norse Gods are real and that they seeded life on Earth and several planets around the Galaxy.

We are also producing a series of cards for use with the Savage Worlds system, our first one was the Savage Worlds SciFi Weapons Cards and we have a Sci-Fi NPC set in the works too.

We are also working with a few writers to produce a series of generic adventures based on our current and future maps.

And of course we will be continuing to produce the maps that we are known for.

Nerd Stuff I Kinda Forgot I Had: Part 1

We never chose the carpet

Holy crap! I found some nerd stuff I kinda forgot I had! And I've just repeated the title of this blog post! Amazing!

So I'm going through my cupboards and a few boxes and I'm digging through some stuff that I'm thinking of parting with when this little beauty jumps out. It's the launch collector's boxset of the MMORPG 'Warhammer Online'.

It's all complete and in fantastic condition. It's got the game, a wonderful hardback 'Art Of' book with some stupendous illustrations, the introductory comic (also in hardback), a mouse mat and, most importantly, the limited edition Grumlock and Gazbag Games Workshop figures still in their blister pack and in as-new condition.

I used to really enjoy Warhammer Online. After playing World of Warcraft for a few months and becoming utterly frustrated by the grind I just wanted to play a game where I did some exploring and fought some wars, and this was perfect for it.

There were two instances in the game where, playing my favourite character Hellfeur the Bright Wizard, I both inspired my forces to turn the tide of losing fight and win a siege and also made a momentous cockup that lost us the battle and caused an attack on Altdorf that we ultimately lost.

My inspiring words for the victory were - 'Hold them at the gates! Make them pay for every yard!'

My cockup phrase was - 'I don't see any destro'.

It was a great game and I had a lot of love for it. What a great find, I'm going to sit down and read the books right now.

My Favourite RPG Games

The clue is in the title.

And now... counting down from 10 to 1 - MY FAVOURITE RPG GAMES! (cue title music) This article was originally published in my old ODDS e-magazine issue 8 and has been copy/pasted here just for you. And because I had sod all else to write about.

Number 10:
Buck Rogers XXVc
It kicks botty. I didn’t really like the AD&D system but it had been modified to suit this game, and in Buck Rogers I could blast about the cosmos on top of a nuclear missile and rain laser death on genetically engineered freaks. This game reflected my love for the 1930s Buster Crabbe serials, like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, whilst at the same time giving me a rich campaign setting to play in. It didn’t influence me or change my perception of RPGs. I just wanted to blow shit up with my rocket pistol, and after years of gaming in gritty settings and getting serious it was nice to just jump in a spaceship and fire off some missiles. It reminded me that games could be fun.

Number 9:
Pendragon
I never played it. I never even created a character for it. But Pendragon gave me such a wealth of information and a wonderful way of playing a game, of feeling that you were not just playing a game but creating a saga, that I mined it for ideas and information for years. Many of my fantasy games were influenced by Pendragon’s way of doing things and the idea that your actions influenced your character and your family's heritage was exciting and fun to use. I used that idea to document three successive generations of a single player character’s family in a WFRP game that lasted over three years of playing time – the father, the daughter and the granddaughter, all played by the same player. To be truthful, the player never knew the father was of the same bloodline, and we never fully finished the campaign to find the truth. I’m sure if he reads this he’ll have a few questions now.

Number 8:
Traveller
Like many others gamers this was my first science fiction roleplaying game. I also dabbled in Star Frontiers but Traveller was the first sci-fi game that told me that I didn’t have to create yet another first-level elf. As with Runequest I never really played Traveller. I was involved in several games of a long-running campaign but I never settled into a regular routine. I was playing D&D at the time and Traveller was just a curiosity. I had never considered RPGs as anything but a fantasy game so it was intruiging to play in a science fiction setting.
Although my only long running sci-fi campaign would be Star Wars, Traveller let me know that my love for science fiction wasn’t being ignored by the hobby I was beginning to enjoy.

Number 7:
Twilight: 2000
I remember buying this because it was so very different to all the RPGs I had purchased before. My other games were either fantasy or sci-fi, so to find a game set in the modern world with no magic, monsters or spaceships was peculiar. I was already on a military drive (I was playing a lot of MechWarrior at the time) and so I picked the game up. Although the system was so-so and the character creation and combat system were overly complicated, the feeling of reality the game invoked was startling. Nuclear wars, devastated nations, a world clinging to life. It was still fiction but it all felt possible, and that was the appeal. I only ever got two campaigns out of it but they were gritty and dark. Twilight: 2000 taught me that games didn’t just need to be about clashing swords, flaming spells and faster-than-light travel; they could also be much more than that.

Number 6:
Dungeons and Dragons (Basic)
This is what got me started, way back in 1984. It’s not a great game but it does exactly what it needs to do to get new blood into the hobby. Sometimes, when I see the huge number of pages in new RPGs or the fact that you have to purchase multiple books to enjoy a system, I wonder why it is that publishers don’t target new players with the simplicity of a cut-down version of their game. This is what Basic D&D was, a simple game that eased new players into the hobby and introduced them to the world of RPGs. I moved on pretty quickly from Basic D&D to Advanced, but soon after that I stopped playing D&D altogether. There was something about Advanced, in all its incarnations, which turned me off it. It just didn’t seem to have the magic or feel of Basic D&D and all that sense of wonder was lost in charts and tables, rules and regulations.

Number 5:
Star Wars (D6)
Star Wars was my second most-played game. It was also the largest group I played with - consisting of six players and a GM at its peak - and the games went from running around defying the Empire to designing an entire region of space for our characters to explore and adventure in, the Setnin Sector. It was, by far, the largest campaign setting I designed and it grew even larger with additions from the players and other GMs. So why does it not appear higher on my list? Well, it is a great game. I like the easy, fast system and the original rulebooks are wonderful to read. I bought the game as a massive Star Wars fan and it reinvigorated my love for roleplaying. It introduced me to large group games and inspired me to create some crazy stuff. Amongst all this, though, I can’t truly say it changed my attitude to RPGs at all. It definitely got me involved with and taught me how to run large group games, but ultimately it was just that I loved the Star Wars universe and here was a game that allowed me to play in it.

Number 4:
Runequest
Interestingly, I only ever played Runequest twice, both times as GM. I never played it as a player. The reason why I have it on my list is because it showed me that there were games out there other than D&D that could give me more options as to what I could do with a character, and the fact that I didn’t have to ‘level up’ to improve my abilities and that my skills could be influenced by gameplay. Runequest, and I’m talking about the mid-eighties Games Workshop release, was an excellent game and had plenty of long-term playing appeal. I’m upset that I never got to play in a full campaign.

Number 3:
Middle Earth Role Play (MERP)
One of the first fully fleshed out characters I ever created and played was done with this game. I had never really designed characters that I became attached to or regarded as anything other than a set of numbers on a page but MERP taught me that a lot of detail on a character sheet could be interpreted into an interesting, motivated character with goals and ideals. It’s not the best system out there, and I dislike its parent Rolemaster for all its complexities, but MERP opened my eyes to another level of roleplaying I had never experienced, that of playing a character who’s past and present influences decisions, and that I was actually required to play a role, as the name of the hobby suggests.

Number 2:
Call Of Cthulhu
I had never read H P Lovecraft until I played this game and it introduced me to a vivid and somewhat disturbing world. Not only does it invoke great atmosphere it’s a great example of how rules can suit a setting down to the ground. To me, playing Call Of Cthulhu is a bit like getting with friends and experimenting with an ouija board, or sneakily watching a late-night scary film when you should be asleep, and then being kept awake most of the night by the fearful images and ‘could-it-be-real’ thoughts that wander through your mind in the small hours. Personally, I’d forget all the Cthulhu Now, Delta Green and CthulhuTech stuff – stick with the early twentieth century period and experience proper horror.

Number 1:
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1st Edition)
The original rulebook was a mighty tome and had absolutely everything you needed to run a game in Warhammer’s Old World – character creation, careers, a full magic system, histories, location details, a bestiary, even charts and tables on insanity, phobias and random magical items. This one book alone was enough to keep a gaming candle burning for years, and indeed it did. I ran WFRP games for years and in all that time I could simply refer to the rulebook for everything I needed, even inspiration for new games and adventures. I bought some supplements, sure, but they were never used. In time the adventures, campaigns and extras I gathered were sold but I never parted with the main solid rulebook, which has been on my shelf for over twenty five years and still gets some use. To me, WFRP is what a RPG rulebook should be – it contains every detail you need to run a succesful campaign, and it’s atmospheric and a pretty good read to boot. I love the system and I even like the idea and implementation of careers. With more than 8 years of continuous campaigning with many, many player characters, and delving into the Old World’s history and possible futures, WFRP is, by far, my game of choice.

Book Review - Ice Forged by Gail Z Martin

I pretty much needed to have a break from fantasy novels a long time ago. I'd absorbed stories from the greats, the not-so-greats and the simply mediocre, and I'd followed heroes of varying races, sexes and abilities as they trudged through dangers and battled foes. There was always a neat map of the world I was experiencing and, if I was unlucky, a glossary and history to go with it.

Gail Z Martin's book 'Ice Forged' is the first new fantasy novel I've read in a long time. Luckily for me, it was an absorbing and entertaining read and I didn't have to stop reading every five minutes to refer to a map or seek out a translation in a glossary.

From the blurb:

'Condemned as a murderer for killing the man who dishonored his sister, Blaine “Mick” McFadden has spent the last six years in Velant, a penal colony in the frigid northern wastelands of Edgeland. Harsh military discipline and the oppressive magic of the governor’s mages keep a fragile peace as colonists struggle against a hostile environment. But the supply ships from Dondareth have stopped coming, boding ill for the kingdom that banished the colonists.

Now, McFadden and the people of Velant decide their fate. They can remain in their icy prison, removed from the devastation of the outside world, but facing a subsistence-level existence, or they can return to the ruins of the kingdom that they once called home. Either way, destruction lies ahead…'

Blaine is a pretty good antagonist and you get a feel for the character almost straight away - a no-nonsense, fists-first man who is very sure of himself and his abilities. At first I was concerned he was going to be a hero with shining white teeth who can't do wrong but as the story unfolds and you get to know him and the people he's teamed up with you begin to see him as a complex but decent man. His fellows are also interesting (if a little underdeveloped but that's not an issue, to be fair) and it makes for a good group you'd like to see go on a quest or two.

The first part of the book is a lot of world building but there seems to be a lot of portentous doom-laden prophecising going on about something bad coming, and then when something a bit bad does happen then there's a bit more talking about it. There's a moment where I found myself thinking 'just get on with it!' and I simply wanted the book to get to it's point. Nevertheless the world building is very good and the characters are given time to grow which gives you time to get to know them, but there is a point where I feel I know enough about the people to want to see the story put their talents and personalities to use. Luckily, the book shifted up a gear just when I started to get worried that the story wasn't going anywhere.

Once the disaster hits and the world starts to change (it has a post-apocalyptic feel to it, as the world is thrown into chaos) the heroes finally get their quest on which is a good thing, but just as the story starts to heat up and the action starts to flow, the book just kind of... stops. There's a good reason to want to continue with the second book, that's for sure, but I was expecting a better climax, or at least a shock revelation or twist that would leave you waiting with baited breath for the next installment. Sadly, you don't really get a satisfactory ending in that vein and you feel like that you've not been left on a cliffhanger, just that you've been left hanging.

Ice Forged is a very good book with some very well-defined characters and an intriguing plot that, if you give it time and don't expect it to leap out at you immediately, really delivers. The ending might feel a little flat after putting effort into getting to the end - and it is more than 500 pages long - but with the promise of another book to follow there's no reason to dismiss this volume at all.

Highly recommended.

A fresh coat of paint - the future of Farsight Blogger

Regular visitors to this blog will have noticed a change to the design and presentation of this site and the fact that posts have slowed somewhat over the last few weeks. This is because I've taken a break, stepped back from the hobby for a little while and tried to get a fresh perspective of what this blog is about and what it is I want to do with it.

I love tabletop gaming - roleplaying, boardgaming and, when I get the chance, wargaming - and I will no doubt continue to do it for a very long time, and whitter on about it on this blog. But there's plenty of other nerd stuff I really enjoy as well - movies, books, comics, toys etc - and I have plenty of things to say about these, too. I did briefly consider creating a new site which I designed and was going to call 'Farsight Nerdrage', designed specifically for these other loves of mine.

'Farsight Nerdrage' never materialised and I deleted the blog before posting a single comment, mainly because I honestly don't think I have the time to run two blogs about my hobbies. Instead, I've decided to amalgamate the two and write about everything I enjoy on this blog alone. There'll still be gaming articles and reviews but they'll be supported by other stuff that interests me, and hopefully you'll be interested, too. I've decided to be much more opinionated in my articles and express my views as I see fit. This isn't meant to provoke or upset people who have differing views from me but to invite discussion, heated or otherwise.

I'll also be inviting guest writers, too - if you have an article, review or just want to air some views then email me your stuff and, if it's suitable, I'll post it here.

To make sure you're kept up to date it might be worth subscribing so that you get emails letting you know about what's new, or 'Like' the Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter. There's plenty of ways.

So, let your friends know. Farsight Blogger will be back soon to take a new path in it's journey, and I hope you'll come with me.

Out of Office

Hi -

Farsight Blogger isn't here right now as we're having a break for the summer. We're also going through some changes and redesigning the focus of this blog, moving away from general gaming-centric articles and reviews and embracing nerd culture as a whole, so expect some changes over the next few weeks.

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