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Month: August 2009

An Interview with Midnight Syndicate mastermind Ed Douglas

An Interview with Midnight Syndicate mastermind Ed Douglas

The Dead Matter

Yes, my goth friends, there is a Santa! The highly creative people over at Midnight Syndicate are finally delivering on my personal wish list in the form a movie, The Dead Matter. Best known for creating amazing soundtracks to your worse nightmares, Ed Douglas and company are raising the stakes (or should I say “driving in the stakes”?) with this spine-tingler due out later this year. If their latest CD, The Dead Matter, Cemetery Gates is any indication, you won’t want to miss this cinematic horror extravaganza that mixes all the best elements of a classic, 1930’s monster movie, with your favorite bits from the 80’s. And if you’re listening to a Midnight Syndicate classic as you read this article, you’ve got something in common with Hugh Hefner! Read on to learn more as we clear the cob webs and sit down for a chat with the masterful music and movie creator, Ed Douglas.

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The Ham-Sized Fist Award

The Ham-Sized Fist Award

fist-bigA while back I talked about The David Gemmell Legend Award, given this year for the first time to a fan favorite novel of heroic fantasy. Like most fans of adventure-oriented secondary world fantasy, I was used to seeing writers and books I liked pretty much ignored when it came to awards — so the Gemmell Legend Award came as a pleasant and welcome surprise. Well, seems another award for our fair sub-genre is also getting its start this year, one that specifically looks at sword & sorcery and heroic fantasy short fiction — The Ham-Sized Fist Award.

Boasting a (currently) 800 dollar prize split between author and publisher, and a name no one is likely to forget, The Ham-Sized Fist Award was founded by editor Jeff Crook with the intention of recognizing excellence in the rather neglected field of short form  heroic fantasy. It’s open to any works published in 2009 in print or electronic venues that use an editorial process for selection. So far, works from Black Gate, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Flashing Swords, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Black Dragon, White Dragon, and Rage of the Behemoth, among others, have been nominated.

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Short Fiction Beat: Tale of Two Magazines

Short Fiction Beat: Tale of Two Magazines

Well, here we are in Web 2.0 (whatever that exactly means), print magazines are supposedly dying (even as they are being resuscitated, c.f., Realms of Fantasy) and people still aren’t quite sure how to make the on-line magazine model work.  One problem is that, if you’re like me, you don’t like reading stories on a screen.  You like to lay down on your favorite couch and turn pages.  Of course, if you’re like my daughter, it’s not an issue — when she asks me if I’ve read an article that was in The New York Times, I know without asking that she’s referring to an on-line article.

table_of_contents__jim_baen_s_universe__volume_4__So, here’s the bad news/goods news.  First the bad news. A little while ago, Jim Baen’s Universe announced that after four years it was closing down. The short explanation was, not a surprise given the “information is free” mentality of the Internet, subscriptions couldn’t sustain a magazine that sought to maintain professional print standards (i.e., actually paying authors competitive rates for their work).  Everyone, including The New York Times is trying to figure this one out, and one approach has been to not pay writers. Not surprisingly, frequently you get what you pay for.

As for the good news, Strange Horizons, which has had great success with a sort of public radio/tv fund drive donation model, has exceeded its 2009 Fund Drive goals way ahead of schedule (though you can still contribute, by the way).sh_head

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Thoughts Concerning Scurvy (De Scorbuto)

Thoughts Concerning Scurvy (De Scorbuto)

I come from a medical family. Of the five members of my immediate nuclear family, I’m the only one who lacks a background or job in medicine or health care. As a writer and historian growing up in a family that now consists of a pathologist, a nurse and lactation expert, a medical student on the cusp of graduation, and an occupational therapist, it was probably inevitable that I developed an interest in disease both in history and fiction. I would never get near the profession of medicine (the general public ought to thank me for this—I’d make a horrible doctor), but the dramatic role of disease in writing has always entranced me.

Among writers, bubonic plague is the leading favorite pestilence. It’s hard to resist the power of an illness that wiped out a third of Europe during the late Middle Ages and has a death toll exceeding two hundred million. The very title “The Black Death” instantly conjures up Hieronymous Bosch grotesques in most people’s minds. It’s a disease with an outstanding pedigree for fantasy and historical writers.

However, I’d like to shine an operating room light on another disease that I think is one of the most useful for a writer. At a cursory glance, it seems like it shouldn’t have any dramatic potential at all: not only is it easily preventable, it’s also easily cured. It isn’t even communicable. But a second glance reveals that this disease is a superb tool for fiction.

The disease is scurvy.

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Gen Con 2009 Report #5 – The Free Blog Edition

Gen Con 2009 Report #5 – The Free Blog Edition

I read a lot of geeky books. And I don’t just mean science fiction and fantasy, I mean books that make even many normal geeks raise an eyebrow at my choices, such as books on game theory, economics and business, philosophy, and so on … things that have nary a laser rifle or robot or sword or sorcerer in sight. Right now, I’m reading Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine. (An abridged audiobook version is available for free.)

It seems like when I read these books, the principles they espouse often show up all over the place, and that’s certainly happening at GenCon. In fact, the principles of “free” described by Anderson have always, in some form, been at the heart of every industry of sales. (Early on in the book, he explains how free cookbooks made the failing Jell-O company thrive.) And the gaming industry is no different.

For example, many roleplaying games have for years offered free little booklets that allow you to get started with a game, try it out in a limited way, and see if you enjoy it before you invest dollars and hours into playing it. But the problem is that these books were not actually free. There was a trade-off, because the publishers still had to actually print out the booklets and distribute them and so on. There was a cost to this, so it wasn’t just that they wanted to make money – if the gambit didn’t work, they were actually out money! Now, with the online world, PDF versions of books can be distributed (virtually) free of cost! That’s how Black Gate is able to offer reviews and commentary for free through these online blogs, for example.

Many of the gaming companies at GenCon have also embraced “free,” such as Hero Mages, an online board/strategy game that is completely free to play, but which allows players to pay a price to access certain premium characters and options (such as the ability to create and save your own map designs). (Anderson calls this business model a “freemium” model, where a portion of the users spend money for upgrades, which supports the site for everyone.)

shard

Another company that is brilliantly using “free” as a means of promotion is Shard Studios, who have created the Shard RPG. This game is based on the Hindu mythology of India and allows you to play a number of animal-based races. The setting doesn’t have any metal, but their weapons and equipment are built from gems of various types that can be used to power magical items, such as flying airships, or forged into weapons (such as the swords in the pictures above) with different properties. The books are beautiful and the setting is truly enthralling … it is one of a handful of games that I left GenCon knowing I would definitely want to try out by running a full game with.

How is Shard using “free”? Well, on their website, if you go to “The Game” link you can choose to download a “Welcome Booklet.” This booklet contains the entire game mechanics of the system, setting information, some introductory character templates, and so on. It is essentially the bulk of the main core rulebook … except for character creation, for which you need to buy the actual book. But, by checking out the Welcome Booklet, you can be sure that you really want the game before you shell out the money for the entire set of rules. And, if you just want to play the game and never create a character, I suppose you could even do that (although, as most gamers know, character creation is one of the most fun aspects of any game).

Gen Con 2009 Report #4

Gen Con 2009 Report #4

I don’t know how many attendees are making it to GenCon this year, but the place is certainly packed. For example, here’s one of the game rooms. Not a dealer’s room, but just a room where people are playing board games.

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The rooms that house the miniature war games – WarMachine, Hordes, HeroClix, Dark Ages, and the like – are typically even larger than this one. They’re spread throughout the building, in rooms both large and small. And, of course, some of the attendees choose more elaborate clothing.

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Now, back to the games. This time I’m just going to focus on one – Colonial Gothic from Rogue Games. This is a secret history setting that takes place during the early days of the American Revolution. Among all of the historical events of the American Revolution, there also exist monsters, demons, and witches prowling the colonies. Your character is aware of their presence and fights against these forces.
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One nice feature of the game is that it has three play styles: High Action Style, Occult & Mystery Style, and Supernatural Style. So, depending on how your GM and players prefer to play, you can run scenarios that fit the style of story that they’d all most like to be involved in. These styles are not firm – you can have an Occult & Mystery game that has High Action elements, of course. The overall design of Colonial Gothic is to provide the setting information and game mechanics, but to provide the player with a wide range of approaches for how to actually construct a storyline. The creator of the game is also extremely proud of the amount of research that went into the setting, so this might also be a good way to play with younger players who need to learn about this period in American history.
The Nines

The Nines

14district9_6001This certainly sounds interesting.  I wonder if the title “District 9” was in any way inspired by director Edward Wood’s “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” infamous for its bad acting, ridiculous script and amateurish special effects.  Apparently (I haven’t seen it yet), this new film is the opposite and perhaps a welcome relief from the standard cinematic science fiction films that rely more on special effects than effective storytelling.

I’m not sure what’s with the “9” thing of late.  Equally 200px-plan_nine_from_outer_space2intriguing is another science fiction film, produced by Tim Burton, to be released on 9-09-09 called, well, you’ve already figured that out.

Gen Con 2009 Report #3 – the Electronic Game Report

Gen Con 2009 Report #3 – the Electronic Game Report

Today, I’m going to focus on some of the electronic/video games that caught my eye at GenCon. I normally don’t spend a ton of time in the video game section, because my life doesn’t leave a lot of time anymore for video games, but once upon a time I was an avid online gamer, and it is always fun to dip my toes into that genre of games now and again.

One of the games I played back in the day was City of Heroes, the MMORPG superhero game created by Cryptic Studios and NCsoft. (In fact, one of my first paying writing gigs was a review of City of Heroes for City Slab magazine.) I haven’t played City of Heroes in over four years, but apparently the partnership between Cryptic and SOE has fallen apart, with NCsoft retaining ownership of the City of Heroes intellectual property. Cryptic Studios, in turn, teamed up with Atari and Hero Games to create Champions Online, taking everything they learned from the original creation of City of Heroes and improving upon it. The graphics are slick and the game play looks pretty smooth. Visually, of course, it looks like a comic book world, and the overall appearance is much like City of Heroes, but the stats system is built upon the Champions RPG structure and it uses the Champions setting. It’ll be interesting to see how this superhero MMORPG competes with the established City of Heroes.

While that was the only MMORPG that really caught my eye, there was another online game of interest – Hero Mages. This is a free (yes, you read that correctly!) online board/strategy game, which can be played by up to four players against each other. Each player controls a magic-user (chosen from fighter mage, wizard, sorcerer, and summoner) and two guardians (chosen from bard, rogue, barbarian, paladin, psionist, soul reaver, warrior, and samurai). The goal is to destroy the enemy teams before your own team is killed. It’s a fun game and free, so check it out.

Two other stand alone games warrant mention. If bloody console-based game mayhem is your thing, then check out Dante’s Inferno from Electronic Arts. The game follows Dante as he battles his way through Hell to rescue his fair love, Beatrice, who is being held captive by Lucifer. I’m not much on these slash-em-up games even in the best of times, but if there were ever a game that made me want to pick up a gaming console and rip through some demons, this was it. The graphics were phenomenal, and the players seemed to be hypnotized by the screen.

On the other end of the spectrum, and much more my speed, was the quirky stand alone PC game Odd Society. You play one of the ODDs, a race of creatures that have recently gained freedom from The Conglomerate, to whom they were enslaved. Now they are forced to find resources and build a society for themselves. The mechanics are mostly simple point-and-click, so it’s pretty easy to get into the game quickly. The graphics on this game aren’t nearly as slick as Dante’s Inferno, but that’s part of the point … unlike the Inferno hellbeasts, the ODDs are unusual little beings that are supposed to be endearing and sort of roughly rendered, like Dr. Seuss characters.

Public Opinion In the Age of Fractured Culture

Public Opinion In the Age of Fractured Culture

broken_glassThis is a direct follow up to James Enge’s post yesterday, Metabloggery. Being completely devoid of ideas as to what to write about here this week — the previously fertile blog fields of my mind having been trampled by a Diplodicus — I thought I’d just jump on in and add my own spin on what James is talking about (which, of course, you’ve already read). In some way, my lack of a ready topic only proves we writers shouldn’t be fooling around with blogs — after all, I spent most of my free time this week writing fiction, of all things.

But James is right about the potential for trouble that arises when writers pick up the e-pen and scribble without any sort of editorial check or, quite often, without even taking a deep breath and counting to ten. Thus far, I’ve been lucky to avoid getting the dog doo of web embarrassment all over my new trainers — but only because I’m pretty strictly averse to talking politics, religion, or current affairs online (especially on my blog). Call it cowardice, or call it forbearance, but honestly I think it’s mostly just laziness. I mean, if I’m going to get into a long, drawn-out argument and be forced to commit to one side or another, let it be about something important, like Early vs. Late Heinlein, or the virtue of Conan pastiches, or whether the Dune sequels are worth reading.

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GenCon 2009 Report #2 … and Free Epic Fantasy Fiction!

GenCon 2009 Report #2 … and Free Epic Fantasy Fiction!

The first day of GenCon is over and done with. I’ve made it along one and a half walls of the dealer’s room, a massive space in the center of the Indianapolis Convention Center. I seriously believe that the dealer’s room is about the equivalent of half a city block in size, all of it open and full of vendor booths. For those who have never been, GenCon is the major event of the gaming industry, with vendors representing game developers of all stripes – role-playing games, card games (classic, collectible, tradable, etc.), electronic/video games, board games, dice and gaming supply companies – as well as authors, artists, musicians, media personalities, and so on.

For our purposes, of course, the interest is on the adventure fantasy folks, and they are out in abundance this year. I’ve already spoken a bit about the Catalyst Games people and their Shadowrun and CthuluTech lines. Another of my favorite settings is Privateer Press’s Iron Kingdoms, which I’ve reviewed previously in the pages of Black Gate (see issues 10 & 12). With the switch to new fourth edition rules for Dungeons & Dragons, the Iron Kingdoms steam & sorcery line (which is based on the d20 system utilized in 3.5) has been mostly on hold, except for supplements provided regularly in the Privateer Press magazine, No Quarter. I was told that there are plans on the drawing board to continue this line, possibly with a proprietary mechanics system. It sounds like this is very much in the preliminary phases, though, so don’t hold your breath. For now, the only new Iron Kingdoms setting or RPG material that looks like it’s on the horizon will be through No Quarter.

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Speaking of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, it lives on in the form of Pathfinder from Paizo Publishing, this game represents an “evolution of the 3.5 rules set of the world’s oldest fantasy roleplaying game.” This monster rulebook is a brilliant marketing tactic, giving those who dislike D&D 4th edition something to spend their money on so that they can keep playing in the system they grew to love. I’ve personally not played with the 4th edition rules, but I really liked 3.5 and have heard negative things about 4th, so am pleased to see the 3.5 rules system is alive and well in some form, at least.

secrets_cover

On to Hollow Earth Expedition, a game from Exile Game Studio that was reviewed in Black Gate issue 12. Hollow Earth utilizes their own proprietary rule system, the Ubiquity Roleplaying SystemTM – which “emphasizes storytelling and cinematic action” (according to their website). The rules are easy to follow, as you play a pulp hero who is performing a Jules Verne-style exploration of the center of the Earth, which contains Nazis, dinosaurs, native peoples, and other strange monsters. In fact, the system is adaptable to a variety of pulp scenarios, with a recent sourcebook, Secrets of the Surface World, allowing for adventures that take place entirely on the surface as well, with mad scientists and secret societies right out of the pages of the pulp magazines. A forthcoming supplement will add to the possibilities by presenting Mars as a campaign setting, allowing for planetary romance genre adventures as well.

desolation

The Ubiquity Roleplaying SystemTM is also being utilized by Greymalkin Designs, LLC’s game Desolation, a post-apocalyptic setting … except that the world that’s been apocalypsed is a traditional high-fantasy world, complete with magical races, powerful sorcerers, and mystical artifacts. The apocalypse took the form of a “Night of Fire” which killed 90% of the population, followed by “The Long Winter” during which many others perished. You play one of survivors and hopes to continue surviving. (The first supplement, which adds new orcs, goblins, and kobolds as player races, along with other additions, is in fact called Desolation: Survivors.) Not only are magic users now scorned because of the belief they caused the cataclysm, mystical energies have become so disrupted that magic itself does not work right, and errors in casting spells result in physical damage manifesting back on the magic user. The series’ tagline “High Fantasy, Brought Low” certainly seems appropriate … and inviting.

farmersmercenaries

Finally, since this is a magazine of fantasy literature, I figure it would be nice to direct everyone to some free reading material, courtesy of new author Maxwell Alexander Drake. He’s been able to get a publisher to agree to start him out with an astounding 6 book epic fantasy series called the Genesis of Oblivion saga, and the first volume, Farmers and Mercenaries, is now available. Drake is so confident of his abilities that he’s offering the first four chapters of the book for free online (you don’t have to sign up for his mailing list to get the free sample). I’ve read the first few pages and, while I can’t say I’m hooked quite yet, I’m interested enough to keep reading the full sample and see if it hooks me. Book two, Siblings and Rivals, looks like it’s due to be out early next summer.