The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: P is for Paul is Dead

Ok. This one is VERY different from my other conspiracy theories posted here this month, but maybe one of the most important ones to me.  Why?  Because this is the conspiracy theory that introduced me to all the others.

Back in the 80s my dad (or maybe it was my mom, both were voracious readers) had a book about conspiracy theories and urban legends.  One grabbed my attention because my older brother Mike had gotten me into the Beatle recently and I was tuned in to anything Beatles.

The rumor was that Paul McCartney was dead and the clues had been scattered across all their albums if you knew what to look for.   And the list was a tantalizing one.

The rumor began in 1967 that Paul, singer, songwriter, and bass player for the Beatles was killed in a car crash.  The rumor was denied later, but it caught on and fans began to look for clues.  Here are some of the things they found.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

• On Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band, the album cover had a hand over Paul's head, which many people claimed (with no evidence) was an ancient sign of someone about to die.  
• Paul's uniform had a patch on the shoulder with the initials "O.P.D." on it which fans took as "Officially Pronounced Dead."  It was, according to McCartney from the "Ontario Police Department." This can be seen on the cover and the gatefold.
• The lyrics page of Sgt. Pepper's had all of the band, except for Paul, facing the camera.  
• The lyrics page also had George Harrison pointing to a lyric from "She's Leaving Home."  The line says "Wednesday at 5 o'clock."   This was not just when Paul died, but also to signify George Harrison's disappointment that Paul was replaced.
• The flowers on the cover represented a left-handed bass or a P, both for Paul. 

The Beatles, aka The White Album (1968)

• Ringo's song "Don't Pass Me By" features the lyrics, "You were in a car crash, And you lost your hair."  
• John Lennon's song "I'm So Tired" has some mumbling in the recording that when played backward says "Paul is a dead man. Miss him. Miss him. Miss him."
• If you play the end of "Revolution 9" backward (the "Number 9. Number 9" bit) you can hear John saying "Turn me on Deadman."   Producer Alan Parsons confirms that this is true, but only because John liked the sound of it. 
• The song "Glass Onion" has the line "the Walrus was Paul."   People decide that the walrus was the "Viking animal of death" or whatever that means.  

Abbey Road (1969)

One of the most famous covers of Beatles' albums is also full of clues.

• Each Beatle is crossing the road in step with the other, except for Paul.
• Paul is barefoot (as a corpse, so it is claimed) and smoking his "last cigarette."
• Each Beatle represents a different person in a funeral.  John is the priest in all white, Ringo the undertaker, Paul the corpse, and George in work clothes the srave digger.
• There is a Volkwagon (also known as a "Beetle") in the background with the license plate "28IF." Paul would have been 28 IF he had lived. Though in truth he was only 27 at the time.

And there are more, some going back to the Beatles catalog to find more clues.  Some even going back to "Revolver", released in 1966 BEFORE Paul "died."

The idea, which I clearly knew was false, fascinated me that people could be so caught up in it.  I would later see the same sort of behavior when the Satanic Panic happened.

Of course, this happened all by word of mouth and rumor and shoddy reporting and less than critical DJs on FM and college radios.  Certainly, something like this would never happen in the days of the Internet and fact-checking websites? 

WRONG.

Avril Está Morta / Avril is Dead

The newest version of this rumor is that Canadian singer Avril Lavigne died in 2003.  She was replaced by someone named Melissa Vandella (oh I have to use that name sometime) and was used to support their perception that Avril's style, both musically and personally, had changed from 2003 on.

What must they think of Lady Gaga then?

Both of these though bring up an interesting point in contrast.

Avril is Dead is a rumor or urban legend.  Paul is Dead is a conspiracy theory.

What is the difference?  Well, the key here is twofold.  Both seem to have grown from fans reactions to their artists and rumor getting out of hand.  While that seems to be the beginning and the end for Avril's supposed death, there is some evidence that Paul is Dead was embraced by at least John Lennon, and clues were seeded.  These are largely in the backward masking of songs from The White Album.  

Intentional involvement to hide the truth (or a lie) is the key element here.

For NIGHT SHIFT

This is the harder bit.  Despite my enjoyment of this particular bit of Beatles trivia, I have not found a good way to use it in a game except for the obvious.  Doppelgängers.  Someone famous has been replaced by a doppelgänger, or maybe a shape-shifted Reptoid, and the characters are the only ones who have noticed.  OR better yet.  Someone else has noticed and collected all this data but is then later killed.  It is up to the characters to discover the truth. Is the person a doppelgänger? Victim of a false rumor? Or did they cook the whole idea up to sell more whatever, albums, books, hits on YouTube.

Up to the characters to find out.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF). 

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.
Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. A more recent retroclone of choice to support has been Old School Essentials.
Published in Autumn 2020, Planar Compass Issue One begins a journey that takes Dungeons & Dragons and the Old School Renaissance out where it rarely goes—onto the Astral Realm and out between the planes. Of course, the option for travel in this liminal space has always been there in Dungeons & Dragons, most notably from Manual of the Planes all the way up to Spelljammer: Adventures in Space and the Planescape Campaign Setting. Whilst those supplements were for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, the Planar Compass series is written for use with Old School Essentials, and it not only introduces the Astral Realm, but adds new Classes and rules for one very contentious aspect of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons—psionics! Planar Compass Issue One can be divided into two halves. In the first half, it explores a place of refuge and calm amidst the Astra Sea and provides a number of adventures on and below that location, whilst in the second half, it details both the four new races and their  Classes, as well as the new rules for psionics for Old School Essentials. The second half has been collected into a booklet of its own. The Planar Compass Player’s Booklet and thus the four new Classes and the rules for psionics are reviewed here.
Planar Compass Issue One starts with a quick introduction, explaining how old Palio One Eye, once a fearsome and notorious pirate on the Astral Seas, accidentally discovered the location of what was to become Dreamhaven by wrecking his ship upon it. Then when another ship anchored off its coast, instead of capturing the ship and resuming his career of piracy, he instead started selling his cargo of Aldhelsi mead to the other ship’s crew and thus he had a bar. Soon others were coming to Dreamhaven—the Onauk, behorned barbarian pirates, the Aldhelsi, short fey psionicists, the short and furry Belsorriso known for their charming smile (very Rocket Raccoon-like!), the Skullga, goblinoids with deer-like heads who are excellent shipbuilders and tinkerers, Chanicoids, clockwork beings serving a higher master, and of course, Humans. (The Onauk and the Aldhelsi, along with the Psion and the Astral Sailor are detailed as Classes later in Planar Compass Issue One and also in the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet.) Dreamhaven is actually quite small, but has extensive docks, adheres to Central Ordo Time or the time of Ordo, the plane of Law as marked by a series of clocks around the island, and although there is no night and day, no sun which sets and rises on Dreamhaven, the island keep to a day and night cycle of Central Ordo Time.
‘Beach Psiombies’ is the first of two short adventures in which Palio, still short of supplies, takes the Player Characters out on his clockwork, glass-bottomed boat, to go fishing for dinner. Unfortunately, they reel in something much worse—Psiombies! This is primarily a combat encounter, but again there are some moments for levity. The second shorter adventure is ‘All That Glitters’. Leonid, extravagantly wealthy high-Level Wizard and patron of The Slipstream Bar, covets an item of jewelry, currently in possession of his rivel, the Half-Ogre, Otis. Leonid will pay handsomely, or provide a significant discount to his magical services—including the casting of Teleport if the Player Characters are eager to get off Dreamhaven, if they can retrieve the necklace from aboard Otis’ ship, the Rude Awakening. As written, this is an assault upon the docked ship amidst a Psychic Storm which makes it all very challenging, but it is only the Psychic Storm which makes this encounter interesting. In fact, ‘All That Glitters’ is decidedly underwhelming in comparison to the other three scenarios in the Planar Compass Issue One.
The fourth and longest scenario in Planar Compass Issue One is ‘Deepwarren’. Various inhabits of Dreamhaven have an interest in what might be found in the Deepwarren, so by the time the Player Characters decide to explore it (they have an opportunity to do so earlier, but advised not to), they may have several motivations or at least several employers willing to pay for what they discover. The Deepwarren is a short, but detailed dungeon, which hides several secrets, including Dreamhaven’s  true nature. Revealing that nature has disastrous consequences for Dreamhaven, which will bring the mini-campaign to an exciting conclusion. However, these secrets need not be revealed all at once and if the Game Master hands out the offers of employment in a more piecemeal fashion, the Player Characters can explore the Deepwarren more than once and have the consequences of their exploration play out at a less tumultuous pace. One location in the Deepwarren does consist of a maze and it really does not serve any purpose in the dungeon except to get the Player Characters lost. It is nicely done, but really the Player Characters could just wander around to no real effect. Otherwise, ‘Deepwarren’ is a nicely detailed and flavoursome dungeon whose contents will bring the campaign in Dreamhaven to an end.
Physically, Planar Compass Issue One is very nicely done. It is engagingly written, the artwork is excellent, and all together, it is a lovely little book.
Where Planar Compass Issue One does feel lacking is suggestions on how to get the Player Characters there given the far off and  very strange location of Dreamhaven. Where it disappoints—in a way—is in probably bringing a campaign on Dreamhaven to an end. There is no doubt that it does so in a satisfying and appropriate fashion, but Dreamhaven is such a fun little place to adventure that more scenarios on the island would be more than welcome! After all, pirate coves and haven are not exactly uncommon in roleplaying fantasy, but the combination of its location on the Astral Sea and psionics serve to make Dreamhaven genuinely unique. It would be lovely to have a further anthology of adventures which would get the Player Characters there and give them the opportunity to explore the island a little more before the campaign proper in Planar Compass Issue One begins.

Whether it is the rules for psionics, which are as simple and straightforward as they can be, or the description of Dreamhaven, its inhabitants, and its adventures, Planar Compass Issue One is an impressively fantastic and self-contained first issue of a very well-done fanzine. If Planar Compass Issue Two is going to be as good as Planar Compass Issue One, then fine. If it is better, then Planar Compass Issue Two is going to be very good indeed.

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: O is for Outer Space

This is a catch-all for various things I wanted to talk about but didn't have enough on their own.

They do all have at least one thing in common.  A serious distrust of NASA.

Moon Landings Faked

This is a big one really. There are some people out there who think the moon landings were faked.  We have a word for these people.

Idiots.

But it does give me a chance to use one of my favorite movie jokes.  

"NASA went to Stanely Kubrick to convince him to film their fake moon landing, but Kubrick was such a perfectionist he demanded the film it on location."

It is the same distrust of NASA that gives us the Flat Earthers. 

The Planet Nibriu 

Nibriu has tried to kill us not just once, but twice. There has been some version of this for decades.

Face on Mars / Pyramids on Mars

Back in 1979 the Viking I mission to Mars took orbital photos of what appeared to be a face on the planet Mars.  Later the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Global Surveyor in 1998 and 2001 took better pictures and showed that the "Face" was a trick of the light and pareidolia.  Humans are programmed to recognize faces.  Great when you are a newborn baby looking to get fed, bad when trying to separate signal from noise.  

Mars in general has fascinated us since we started looking up to the skies and noticed this one reddish-looking point of light was a bit different than the others.   I suppose it is hard to let go of some ideas after they have been ingrained for so long, even with the best data out there.

Of course, all the data in the solar system won't change the minds of those that feel that NASA is lying to them. 

Area 51

I talked a bit about this in "Night Companion: A Sourcebook for Night Shift: VSW" in my "Weirdly World News."  Area 51 is neat and all, but it is likely nothing there save for advanced aircraft. Advanced, sure, but not alien.   Besides, I have my own ideas for Area 51.

For NIGHT SHIFT

Nothing in particular that I have not mentioned already.  Save I want to do some more sci-fi style games with NIGHT SHIFT.  Come back in two week when May starts off Sci-Fi month here at the Other Side!

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.
Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. A more recent retroclone of choice to support has been Mörk Borg.
Published in November, 2020, Strange Inhabitants of the Forest is one of three similar fanzines released by Philip Reed Games as a result of the Strange Citizens of the City Kickstarter campaign, the others being Strange Citizens of the City and Strange Visitors to the City. It follows on from the publisher’s Delayed Blast Gamemaster fanzine, by presenting a set of tables upon which the Game Master can roll and bring in elements to her game. Whilst Delayed Blast Gamemaster detailed monsters, environments, and more, with a cover which reads, “Roll 2d6 and say hello to Evil”, Strange Inhabitants of the Forest all about the encounter and all about encounters with evil. 
The issue opens with the eponymous ‘Strange Inhabitants of the Forest’ which presents a table of villains or villain-like NPCs to be encountered in the forest. Each is given their own two-page spread, with a large illustration, a full page of text providing background, and of course, notes and stats. The notes typically suggest how money the Player Characters might make from their loot or handing in proof of their deaths, though not always. They include the Armoured Suit of Despair, Being of Animated Evil is a suit of armour forged in the deepest pits of hell with only one purpose—slaughtering the living! However, there is no means of destroying it and upon their first encounter with it, the Player Characters will find it doing something unspeakably evil. A handful of options are included. Jannick Pückler, Undead Huntsman, was a huntsman of the undead in life, and even in his unlife as a skeletal huntsman, he has continued his calling. Despite being dedicated to destroying evil, he has a hard time persuading others that he himself is not evil. Zakari Echautz is a Frustrated Angel, driven to act against evil in the face of infighting amongst his kind, who has become intolerant and unlikely unable to determine who or what is exactly evil and who or what is not. A huge pack of rats drive the Player Characters to find refuge at the isolated mansion of Lady Jeni Dargonmir, but she is not what she seems, but a ‘Connoisseur of Blood’. A night in her demesne should set up a night of horror. What all eleven entries have in common is that they appear to be evil, though this is not necessarily the case—as evidenced by Jannick Pückler. Most though, are tough opponents, some more than the players and their characters might imagine, and if there is another common theme, though not to all of the entries, it is that a few of them are actually bodies animated by items of clothing or armour, and in many cases, should a Player Character decide to don such an item or clothing or armour, then he is dead! Or at least an NPC turned to evil. Nevertheless, there is a good mix here and definitely are encountering one or two of these, the Player Characters are going hate being in the forest.
‘Strange Inhabitants of the Forest’ takes up over half of Strange Inhabitants of the Forest. It is followed by ‘Strange Encounters’. This provides twelve encounters, or locations, which the Player Characters can come across on their journeys through the forest. These are shorter, just a paragraph long. For example, ‘The Collapsed Bridge of Neumark’ is a ruined bridge across the Soulless River, leaving dangerously rabid waters to cross or the ‘The Woodcutter’s Hut’, home to the friendly and helpful Arno Schottenstein who does not tolerate rudeness. These are uninteresting, even banal, as encounters go, at best contrasts to others such as ‘The Mound of Skulls’, literally a pile of hundreds of human skulls and so evil that anyone of that persuasion has a bonus to their damage rolls when in that vicinity, or ‘The Wizard’s Walking Hut’, an animated walking hut, who has little time for intruders now that his master is dead! Can the Player Characters loot the hut before it galivants off? Overall, the weird encounters outweigh the mundane, and again, these are going to make the Player Characters hate the forest even more!
Lastly, ‘1d12 Travellers on the Road’ presents exactly that. This is the third table in the fanzine and like ‘Strange Encounters’, it consists of single paragraph entries. The travellers encountered might include Soli Kamolov, a cheesemaker on his way to market who might sell the Player Characters some of his hard cheese; Karolina Strle, a terrified deserter who fears her former employer, a powerful warlord might be after her and so would be happy to sell her sword and armour which identifies her as one of his soldiers; and Nusret Oblak, a bamboozled merchant who will be happy to see the Player Characters because the men he hired to guard his goods swindled him, leaving him penniless, but he wants revenge and will pay if he can get his good back! These are generally more mundane encounters than in the previous articles, and so act as contrasts.
Physically, Strange Inhabitants of the Forest is very nicely presented. Although it makes strong use of colour, it uses a softer palette than Mörk Borg, so is easier on the eye. The artwork throughout is excellent, but the one of Jannick Pückler really stands out.
To be honest, none of the encounters in Strange Inhabitants of the Forest actually have to take place in a forest and there are possibly too many encounters for one forest—unless it is a very big forest! Yet, Strange Inhabitants of the Forest is full of dark and deadly encounters, to varying degrees, that the Game Master can pick and choose from, all to make her Player Characters fear the forest.

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: N is for New World Order

The New World Order is a conspiracy theory that gets rolled out once every few years. We are about due for it to come back up.

The idea behind it is that some great disaster, usually a false flag one, will cause all the countries in the world to cede control to some World Government, usually the UN, so there is a one-world government.

The term seems to come from early 20th Century political figures Woodrow Wilson and Winston Churchill.  It was much later popularized again by the first President George Bush.   

There are SO MANY conspiracy theories about the New World Order. More than I could even pretend to cover here.  But here are a few.

The first big one centers around the "End Times" of the New Testament.  Some readings of Revelation led people to people that the time of the Anti-Christ would coincide with the rise of a One World government.  This one got a lot of press back in the time when the European Union was founded (1993).  I remember having a conversation with a woman I worked with at a head injury clinic.  Like me she was a Qualified Mental Health Professional so not a dumb person by any measure, in fact very bright and very good at her job. Yet she told me she was not making any plans for the future.  She took the formation of the EU as a sign of the Beast returning. She even pointed out to me that the number of countries was the same as the number of horns of the great beast.  I don't think she was right, but she was convinced.  She even told me she expected the world to be over by 1999.  I kinda wish I had kept in contact with her.

There is a New Age philosophy that takes the NWO into a positive light with the arrival of the Age of Aquarius.  This will be a new age of peace and love.  I have used these ideas before with my witches and Sisters of the Aquarian Order.

There are plenty more involving the Illuminati and the Masons (of course).

David Icke, in particular Icke fashion, claims this is the time when we will be invaded by aliens.

And there are more, but you get the idea.

There are so many problems with any sort of New World Order.  I am not saying that we won't get to a One World Government, but it won't be any time soon.

Capt. Burnham and Earth's President in the 32nd Century

Honestly, look at Brexit.  Not even Europe can hold itself together even when there are solid financial reasons to do so.  

Plus there is no single body of government that can even make the claim of being able to gather everyone together even through force.  

New World Order conspiracy theorists have a remarkable faith in humanity that I simply do not share. 

For NIGHT SHIFT

If anything the world of NIGHT SHIFT is even more chaotic than our real world.  Getting humans together is hard enough.  Add a bunch of supernatural creatures on one side and now a bunch of extraterrestrials on the other side, the notion of a New World Order is laughable.  Unless...

There is fear of a New Word Order, and the ones that are feared are normal humans.  This works well with my Ordinary World setting. Here the supernatural creatures are worried that humans will discover all about them and wipe them out.  As we know, scared groups tend to panic, and panicked groups tend to lash out violently.  

The situation would play out with various groups of supernatural creatures working together that normally hate each other joining forces to fight what they consider the bigger threat, united humanity. 

A bit like this.  

And like the Doctor Who episode, The Pandorica Opens, they gather together based on a faulty premise. The Doctor wasn't destroying the universe and the humans are not gathering together to destroy all the supernatural. Well...no more than usual. And certainly not a coordinated effort. 

So no New World Order here. 

--

Of course, this song was the first thing I thought about. 

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

It’s been extremely busy around here, including getting major news about Texas Frightmare Weekend this morning, but Saturday’s gallery open house is still on from noon to 5:00 pm, and the Sarracenia are obliging for making next weekend’s Manchester United … Continue reading →

Lots of new Kickstarters out there.  So many in fact. Let's have a look!

Mini-Adventure #1: Shadow of the Necromancer 1E/5E & Box Set

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marktaormino/mini-adventure-1-shadow-of-the-necromancer-1e-5e-and-box-set

Mark Taormino and Dark Wizard Games has another gonzo adventure for us, this time for both 1st Ed and 5th Ed D&D. As always it looks like great fun.

Swords & Chaos

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blackspirefantasy/swords-and-chaos

Swords & Chaos is powered by the SIEGE Engine, the same system in Castles & Crusades. Looks like it is cut from the same cloth as AS&SH or Barbarians of Lemuria.

Tome of Adventure Design

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adventuredesigntome/tome-of-adventure-design

A revised and updated Tome of Adventure design for 2022.  I have the original and it is really useful to whip up something in a pinch.

An Unexpected Wedding Invitation (5e)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/midnight-tower/an-unexpected-wedding-invitation

A bit of change here is a Jane Austin-ish-inspired wedding mystery for 5e. Looks like a lot of fun.

Shield Maidens: A New Viking/Cyberpunk Tabletop RPG

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1990654819/shield-maidens-a-new-viking-cyberpunk-tabletop-rpg

Ok, this one sounds interesting.  Mixing cyberpunk, pre-apocalypse, and Norse myth.  There is also a free preview to get your first shield maiden built.  It is its own system, but it still looks fun.

The Art of Ménage à 3

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixietrixcomix/the-art-of-menage-a-3

Now for something completely different.  Ménage à 3 was a fantastic webcomic about three roommates hopelessly in love with each other.  But that did not mean things worked out! It also launched the career of  Gisèle Lagacé.  This has art from the comic and new pieces.

Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/montecookgames/old-gods-of-appalachia-roleplaying-game

Dark weird folk horror from Monte Cook? YEAH! Sign me the hell up! It is the Cypher system and you know the production values will be high.

FAST Core Rulebook - Multi-Genre RPG System

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/563681582/fast-core-rulebook-multi-genre-rpg-system

A new multi-genre system that looks like it has a LOT of potential.  I like multi-genre systems since I tend to mix a lot of things together in one game. 

Swords of Cthulhu

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brwgames/swords-of-cthulhu

Another cool one from Joseph Bloch who has a stellar Kickstarter track record.  This one brings the Lovecraftian mythos back (or back again) to AD&D/OSRIC.

Lots of choices!

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: M is for Masons

This was almost the F post with "Freemasons" but "Flat Earth" won out. But I have a second chance now.

The Masons, or Freemasons, are not so much at the root of many conspiracy theories these days.  I can recall a time when they were still considered to be a super-secretive society with clandestine methods and nefarious plans.

These days not so much.

Mind you I don't think the Masons really changed all that much save for being more open with their membership and practices.  

Sure they are still basically a club. And they give their own members preferences where they can within the bounds (as far as I can tell) of the law and good taste.  Which is nothing more than I would expect.  You can pretty much look up everything about them on the Internet.

After seeing the Shriners in many parades it is hard to see them as a world-dominating threat. They went from a secret organization full of hidden motives to something akin to the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes in my lifetime.

But Masons of the old days are a different story (maybe).

Because so many of the leaders of the world, especially the English speaking world of the 18th to 20th Centuries. Several Presidents, Ambassadors, and even the Royals were Masons.  We do know that Washington D.C. (supposedly) was laid out in terms of Masonic designs and the All-Seeing Eye appearing on the back of the $1 bill.  

The Masons were often the whispered source of many conspiracy theories.  One of the persistent ones is that the Knights Templar would change into the Freemasons when they got to Scotland.  Or that there was some intermediate stage where the Templars became the Rosicrucians who became the Masons.  It's fun, but not a shred of evidence to support it really.  Others state they are connected to or in fact they are the Illuminati.   

There is also the claim that the Mason's "Great Architect of the Universe", which they claim is the same as God, is actually something else.  This could be Baphomet of the Templar fame or something else like Baal. 

For NIGHT SHIFT

In the world of NIGHT SHIFT, the Masons are NOT the center of any conspiracies.  But they DO know about all of them. There is usually a price for this knowledge if the characters are not Masons or some related order.  Usually, this price is to obtain some item the Masons want.  So to get the information you need to be prepared for some "National Treasure" style shenanigans. 

Which of course could be its own kind of fun. 

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: L is for Lost Cosmonauts

L was going to be for Lunar, but while I was researching this one came up and I just really could not say no.

The notion of lost cosmonauts has been around since the dawn of the manned space missions.  I recall people (ok, kids) talking about this in the 1980s when the distrust of the U.S.S.R. was at a high.

The idea is simple.  The Soviet Union sent men into space even before Yuri Gagarin's (the first man into Space) historic flight.  Cutting corners the Soviets sent men into space and presuablly could not get them back down.  Somewhere up there their life-less, well preserved bodies still float in orbit.

The first of these came up after 1959 when the US and the USSR were deep into the "Space Race."  Even such illuminaries as Robert A. Heinlein wrote about shenanigans with the Soviet space program in his article "Pravda means 'Truth'."  The is in fact so much about it that I am not entirely sure I can rule it out.  It's not inconceivable that the Soviets would lie about these sorts of things, and certainly not beyond the realm of belief that they would cut corners.  As the following meme demonstrates.

Cute. But no where near the truth.  Pencils are flammable. Pencils, modern ones anyway, are made of graphite. Which as you are writing turns to a fine dust, which while weightless can get into electrical circuits and cause damage.  None of these things you want in a small, oxygen rich, inclosed environment.   People buy into this meme because the accept a level of, well incompetence from the forme Soviet Union. 

Are there dead Cosmonauts still in orbit out there?  Who knows.  This is the first one I really can't outright dismiss.

Links

• The Haunting Mystery Of The USSR’s Lost Cosmonauts
• The Enduring Myth of Phantom Cosmonauts
• Ivan Ivanovich and the Persistent Lost Cosmonaut Conspiracy
• Robert A. Heinlein, http://www.firearmsrights.com/rah1961.htm
• Oberth Believes Astronauts Lost

For NIGHT SHIFT

The problem with dead Cosmonauts is not whether or not they are out there.  It's what happens when they come back to Earth.  I have lost track of how many "horror from space" movies I have seen. Lots. Too many really.  So here is situation.  A space craft in orbit from the 1960s has been spotted by some amateur astonomers (nod to me sitting out in the cold with my telescope trying to find Skylab) and it is slowly falling to Earth.  The Soviets want it to burn up in the atmosphere, but the Americans want to salvage it for it's secrets (let's say this is the 1980s).  Guess who has the right idea? Clue, it isn't Uncle Sam. 

The craft lands and yeah, the Zombie Apocylpse starts.  What do your characters do?

This is essentially the premise behind Völlig Losgelöst, a proposed 80s themed horror game I wanted to do.  I dropped it largely because Dark Places & Demogorgons did what I wanted VL to do and did it quite well.  That's fine, much like my Zombie Cosmonauts, Völlig Losgelöst is coming back from the dead with a new-ish direction.  

This is German, not russian, but still has a lost astronaut and full of 80's pathos.

Ich komme bald.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: K is for Knights Templar

Back when I was working with Eden Studios and working on games like Buffy, WitchCraft, and Conspiracy X we used to joke about how every conspiracy theory could be traced back to the Knights Templar.  Well...only half-joking.   

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, or the Knights Templar, were a Knightly Order dedicated to protecting pilgrims headed to the Holy Land.  They built fortifications for protection and housed money and soon became rich.  Very rich. Like stupid rich. So rich that the King Philip IV of France and  Pope Clement accused them of heresy, witchcraft, and idolatry (worshiping a Baphomet figure).  They were famously arrested on Friday the 13th, 1307.  They were tortured and burned at the stake. 

Though many believe that not all the Knights were captured and some fled to places like Scotland and the Americas; Novia Scotia ("New Scotland") in particular. From here they took their still considerable wealth and ... well there are lot of things they supposedly did.

There is a rumor that when they went to the Holy Land they found treasures there including the cup of Christ (the Holy Grail), the treasures of King Solomon, and even the lost Ark of the Covenant.  Their present-day followers have those items still.

They have been associated with the Freemasons, the Order of Malta (in some theories), and even the Miꞌkmaq, one of the indigenous tribes of Northeast Canada.  So many I feel if their influence was removed the History Channel would lose about ⅓ of all their total programming.

Again, as others I have talked about here they are featured rather prominently in Foucault's Pendulum and The Da Vinci Code.

What is it about the Templars that fascinate everyone?  You don't see the same level of conspiracy around the Knights Hospitaller really.  Or any of the other medieval knightly orders.  I think it was because they were hunted down and killed that makes their story fascinating.  

Though the real tale here is about a group gaining some power and influence only to be struck down by the status-quo power structures of the day, the Monarchy and the Church.

For NIGHT SHIFT

Fortunately for me my co-author on NIGHT SHIFT already did something for the game that would work.

Monster Hunters of the Church: New Orders for Your Night Shift: VSW Game

He uses the Order of the Dragon and the Divine Order of the Sisters of Orleans.  The same process can be used for the Knights Templar.  The modern-day Knights Templar would be more of the occult investigator types, but the ones that can pick up a sword as well as a pen.  In NIGHT SHIFT they would either be sages or veterans. 

For my use I'd still have them around, but NOT be involved with any of the things they are popularly believed to have been.  I'd even throw out a line like "and we have never even been to Oak Island!" 

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: J is for JFK

Can't talk about conspiracy theories and not talk about JFK.

Though I am not talking about the 35th President, but rather the 1991 Oliver Stone movie.  Anyone that has even a passing interest in conspiracy theories needs to check this movie out.  It is a master class on conspiracies, but not in the way Oliver Stone wanted it to be.

The premise of the movie (and the conspiracy theories) was that Kennedy was killed by multiple gunmen. 

Kevin Costner gives a fantastic performance as Jim Garrison the District Attorney obsessed with finding multiple killers.  The film and most of the conspiracy theories fail on two main points.   1. A great man like Kennedy could not have been killed by a nobody like Lee Harvey Oswald.  2. The importance of "back and to the left."  Kennedy was shot from behind but his head snapped "back and to the left" this was taken as "proof" of a shooter in front, say from the Grassy Knoll.  

The problems with these ideas are pretty simple to point out.  1. Great men are killed by nobodies all the time, flying in the face of the Great Man Theory.  2. Ballistics testing, even from people like Penn & Teller, shows that shots with this type of rifle (an Italian Carcano M91/38 bolt-action rifle) do exactly this. Even an untrained marksman like Teller (who does have experience with stage guns) can fire off as many shots as Oswald did.

Many conspiracy theories fall apart once some real testing is done.

For NIGHT SHIFT

I honestly would recommend watching JFK over such movies as "Angels & Demons" or "Da Vinci Code."  The reason is that there is the underlying assumption that everything portrayed could have happened that way AND you can see how it could have happened that way.   Obviously, the realization of the underlying fallacies pulls the rug from under the whole thing.

Otherwise, it is a great step-by-step process on how to create a conspiracy theory investigation.  Oliver Stone may be obsessed, but he knows how to tell a good tale. Plus Tommy Lee Jones is brilliant in this. If you set your game in the "Paranoid 90s" then this is a must-see.

There is an old joke about time travel and Kennedy's assassination that there were so many time travelers on the Grassy Knoll when Kennedy was killed that there was no room for another gunman.  This got me thinking about a potential time travel story with Kennedy.  The Umbrella Academy did it. Quantum Leap did it. I think there was even a Star Trek episode planned, but never filmed that wanted to do it.   Just not 100% sure I would want to do it.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: I is for Illuminati

This one is obvious.  So obvious in fact that I debated on whether or not to do it in favor of some other "I" entry.  But that would be doing a disservice really.

The term "Illuminati" brings up images of secret meetings of the ultra-rich and powerful in dark rooms plotting the power plays of the world.  

The "real" Illuminati was the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded in the 18th Century.  They were a secret society and they did have ideas on how to better the world.  Like many secret societies they started and fizzled out in a matter of time.  Their legacy has largely been in rumor and conspiracy and, let's be honest, outright fiction.

While the intentions of the original Illuminati might have been good, the fictionalized Illuminati really captured people's imaginations.  None more so than writers Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson in their "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" which if I remember right is made up of five books.  That sounds on point, to be honest.  I remember seeing ads for it in Dragon magazine from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club.   And I remember with much annoyance when people in various Usenet groups would discover "Fnord" and try to be all funny and cool.  

The rumors and fiction of the Illuminati grew over the years and were popularized by Shea & Wilson books and other popular books by Dan Brown (remember when everyone was reading him?) seem to be far more interesting than what is more likely the truth.  Not that there is a secret group of people that control the world, nor that there is no one controlling world, but rather there are sever groups out there that fancy themselves as the modern Illuminati and they are all working in their own self-interest and often cross-purposes to each other to really get anything done.

Or to quote the great Alan Moore:

“The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory, is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory.

The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control.

The world is rudderless.”

For NIGHT SHIFT

Following the steps of Shea & Wilson, but honestly more into the steps of Umberto Eco I have always wanted to have the character investigate a conspiracy theory to it's ultimate source.  The proverbial head of the beast, only to discover there is no head and the beast has been dead for a while.  I call these "anti-endings" and they are like what you read in "The Dream-Quest of the Unknown Kadath" or even in the TV series "The Prisoner."   It's just sometimes they are interesting (Kadath, "Foucault's Pendulum") others they are frustrating (Prisoner).

Finding the Illuminati in a game should be a never-ending quest. Find a group that seems to be in charge and very powerful only to learn they take their orders from someone else. 

Plus it is convenient and, like Moore says, comforting to think there is one monolithic organization in control. But it is also not great for a game.  Think back to the X-Files.  Had they uncovered the alien conspiracy in Season 3, what would they do next?

The Illuminati really doesn't exist.  But that might be exactly what they want you to think!

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: H is for Hollow Earth

Actually of all the conspiracy theories I have presented here, the Hollow Earth is one of my favorites.

It is just so crazy and so much fun.

In truth, many of these ideas come from my father-in-law who had a rather impressive collection of books and underground films about this stuff.  I like to pretend he didn't believe them all and like me, he just got a lot of enjoyment out of them.  Well, this is true, but ask me again when we get to Tesla.

So the Hollow Earth.

This one is a topic I have talked about a bit here in the past.  

From the fantastic Ubiquity powered game from Exile Game Studio,

• Hollow Earth Expedition
• Hollow Earth Expedition Supplements
• and even Revelations of Mars

To the Hollow World of Msytara,

• Mystara, The Known World of BECMI
• BECMI: Immortals Set Review
• GAZ13 The Shadow Elves

Tales of Journey to the Center of the Earth and Pellucidar filled my childhood.  So as far as conspiracy theories go, this one was a welcomed one, but one that never left the realms of fiction for me.

Great tales when you are a kid, bad science when you are older.  

It was not until my father-in-law introduced me to this strange book he got about the Hollow Earth by Raymond Bernard.

It ties then UFO literature and research to the Hollow Earth.  A lot of it is crazy pseudo-scientific nonsense, premises stretched thin and beyond credulity, and shoddy correlations that are not even remotely connected.   So it is easy to see why people who are not trained in science are taken in.

Yet, unlike the Flat Earthers (who are as you recall morons) the Hollow Earthers seem almost quaint in a naïve, harmless old uncle in his dotage.  "Of course, the Earth is Hollow, now let's get you back to bed." 

For NIGHT SHIFT

On Monday I mentioned two "alien" species that came from under the Earth.  Could their origin be the Hollow Earth?  It certainly sounds fun to think about, but I think I much prefer an "underdark" sort of Hollow Earth with large pockets of emptiness where these communities of Derro and Ophidians can live and where they do battle with the Reptilians in their underground bases. 

Maybe not full-on Agartha or Pellucidar, but more akin to Jules Verne.  There are Pulp roots to NIGHT SHIFT if one cares to look.  The Hollow Earth also had pulp roots.  It is therefore not inconceivable that a group of adventurers from NIGHT SHIFT could find themselves on their own Journey to the Center of the Earth.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The gallery open houses start up again this Saturday from noon until 5:00 pm, but that’s not the only reason to come out. The gallery renovation starts this month, we’re rapidly coming up on Venus flytrap and North American pitcher … Continue reading →

There is a lonely farm. Perhaps the last in the village, for everyone else has left, their farms abandoned. This last, lonely farm has been in the Polotnikov family for generations. Behind the farm is an old stone wall—broken in two places—which separates it from an ancient field of high grass, worn paths, and long abandoned buildings. It is said that the field behind the farm is cursed and that this curse is the cause of the other farms failing and being abandoned. It is taboo to enter the field, so no one does, not even the Polotnikovs. Mother Galina Polotnikov knows a little of the old ways, but is nowhere near the witch that her grandmother, the one-eyed Elena, was, nor as strange as her mother, who disappeared in her old age, so perhaps she knows about the curse? None of the Polotnikov family has been heard from in many days, and Piotr—Galina’s husband—has not been seen at the nearby market which he always attends. Thus, Andrei, Piotr’s brother is growing concerned. What secrets are the Polotnikov family hiding? Have they broken the taboo and entered the field behind their farm? And if so, what happened?

This is the set-up for Where the Wheat Grows Tall, a scenario which describes itself as an ‘Agrarian Adventure’. It is written to be used with the Old School Renaissance retroclone of your choice, but the stats and numbers are relatively easy to adapt to your preferred roleplaying game and its mechanics. In terms of setting, it is another matter. Where the Wheat Grows Tall  is set on a peasant farm and in its neighbouring field that together are caught between the competing desires of two sister spirits… One of whom has had her idol destroyed in the field, and unfettered, The Noon Lady has risen, and where her gaze drew the farm labourers’ sweat, soothed their rest with its warmth, and made the crops grow tall, now it falls cruelly upon the labourers’ backs with sunstroke and the crops grow wildly. Her sister, The Midnight Maiden, is secretive and playful, watching over men from the shadows and easing their sleep with dreams, but where her sister is unfettered, she is broken—perhaps by abundant growth encouraged by The Noon Lady. In the wake of this upset order, Barstukai, Children of the Crops, stalk the unwary, Night Goblins invite others dance and steal from their new dancing partners, roots snake and entangle, Turnip Jack searches the field for light to eat, and Likho, the One-Eyed Witch, watches, one eye at a time…

Where the Wheat Grows Tall is a deep, dark descent into Slavic myth and fairy tales played out across two halves. First, there is the ‘farm crawl’ where the Player Characters have an opportunity to get hints of what might have happened to the Polotnikov family and suggestions that they will need to break the taboo and go over the wall. Second is the ‘field crawl’, where the Player Characters will encounter all manner of the weird and the whimsy as they explore the area in search of the missing Polotnikovs. None of what they might encounter is necessarily dangerous, the dangers likely arising because the Player Characters are either careless or discourteous when comes to interacting with the inhabitants of this whimsical world. Some will want to dance or play, some to be left alone, and others happy to enjoy the company of visitors such as the Player Characters. The Game Master will find herself portraying a wide cast of characters and creatures—there are no real monsters in Where the Wheat Grows Tall —and imparting a fair bit of information as the scenario very much emphasises interaction and investigation.

The scenario is written in a very concise, bullet point fashion, style, and that has both benefits and issues. The benefit is that its information, whether background, location details, or NPC descriptions, are all easy to grasp, but the issue is that often, they do feel underwritten. Some of the NPCs could have done with a little more information as to what they will and what they will not tell the Player Characters. The advice for the Game Master, which most consists of hooks and rumours, along with suggestions on how to shorten the scenario as a one-shot or due to time, is also underwritten, making the scenario that much bit harder to prepare than should really be necessary.

Physically, Where the Wheat Grows Tall  is ably presented. The writing style is short and to the point, but still packing a lot of description into its terseness. The artwork, done by Evlyn Moreau, is excellent, primarily because it absolutely fits the wonder and the whimsey to be found in the field beyond the stone wall. The map is clear and easy to read, but two of the scenario’s locations, both underground, are not included on the map. Both of course could be anywhere in the underground of the field, but their depiction would have been useful. In places, the scenario could have been better organised, the map placed somewhere more readily accessible, and arguably the overview of the scenario at the beginning could have been stronger.

As delightful as Where the Wheat Grows Tall  is—and it really is—another issue hampering it, is its genre and mythology. Fitting it into an ongoing campaign is going to be challenging given its strong use of Slavic mythology, but there are settings and supplements that the scenario would work with and work well. Older supplements would include Mythic Russia and GURPS Russia, but more recent settings suitable for Where the Wheat Grows Tall would be that of Kislev of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and the Hill Cantons of Fever Dreaming Marlinko.

Where the Wheat Grows Tall is charming and challenging, weird and whimsical. It presents an utterly disarming excursion into lands beset by long summery days and barely soothed by nights of Moon-lit shadows, where there is a mystery to be solved, a family to be rescued—perhaps, and a restoration to be made…

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: G is for Global Warming

One of the biggest conspiracies out there today is the one that Global Warming is fake or somehow a grift to get more money out of us.

Honestly, I can't even start with these morons. Though they are not as bad as the Flat Earthers.

Human-caused climate change is a fact. We have too much data from too many different sources to argue this.

But yet the Climate Change deniers and conspiracy theorists are always shouting "follow the money!" or ... whatever the hell else they say. Likely blaming George Soros or the Clintons.

You want a conspiracy theory on climate change?  Ok I'll give you one.

Climate change is being caused by Demons.

For NIGHT SHIFT

Or maybe the Reptillians.  Let's look at both since both are active in the various worlds of NIGHT SHIFT.

Demons did it:  The thinking here is that as the world gets hotter resources begin to dry up, water is more scarce, food is more scarce, and horrible things like England exporting wine to France now become a reality, and it all points to evil intent.  

We know that the world's average temperatures have risen by about 1.8°F (1.0°C) since the 1800s.  At this rate, the world will be unsuitable for humans in a few more centuries.  But in a thousand years, it will be perfect for demons for a literal Hell on Earth!

Reptilians did it: Ok, Demons too far-fetched?  What about the Reptilians? They are after all reptiles and like the warmer weather.  Also if they are breeding human-reptile hybrids maybe it is because they can stay on Earth (or our dimension as some authors claim) and need to Terra-form the Earth to something more suited for their own liking.

Crazy?  Yeah, but no crazier than some of the things I have heard passed off as truth.

Now it is entirely possible that these ideas came to me from Doctor Who, in particular the 3rd Doctor era which was heavy on environmental themes.  The serial "The Daemons" even featured a large demonic-looking creature that could generate heat over vast stretches of land.  I am sure that somewhere along the way the Silurians or Sea-Devils even wanted to warm up the Earth a little for their return.

So next time someone comes at you with the idea that climate change is fake, turn back on them and say "oh it's not fake and the reptoids are all behind it!"  

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The Gutter Prayer is a fantastic novel of worldbuilding and tumultuous change. The debut from Gareth Hanrahan—an author best known for his many roleplaying credits, from The Persephone Extraction to The Pirates of Drinax—and much more besides, it opens with a prologue written in the second person that narrates a burglary upon the House of Law in the city of Guerdon. It gives a strange, almost impersonal point of view to the beginning of the novel, the identity of the narrator not quite clear, but oh so important as the events of the story reveal later. The burglary though is a failure, forcing its perpetrators, Carillon, an orphan newly returned to the city after years away as a refugee, Rat, a young Ghoul not wanting to his kind below, and Spar, a Stoneman, cursed with a disease which causes him to ossify into stone, and ultimately die if he does not receive injections of the serum, alkahest, to flee. In the wake of an explosion they know nothing about, the trio splits up, chased by the Tallowmen, waxworks which keep going as long as their wick remains alight, created by the Alchemists Guild to help enforce the laws and keep the peace. That explosion and the identity of the narrator in the prologue set off a chain of events which reverberate throughout the rest of novel.

Guerdon stands at the heart of the novel, a fantasy-industrial city-port which remains neutral in the ongoing Godswar afflicting other nearby nations. Religious strife underlies its history though, religious freedom allowed in the city because the Church of the Kept Gods threw down the dark rule of the Black Iron Gods and their vile servants. In recent times, the influence of the Kept Gods has diminished as the power and influence of the Alchemists grew and turned Guerdon into the soot-strewn industrial powerhouse that it is today. In the narrow streets and through the warrens of the smugglers’ tunnels lurks the Brotherhood, the city’s thieves’ guild—of which the novel’s central trio are members—whilst below are stranger factions still. Both are Lovecraftian in nature, the Ghouls feeding upon the city’s dead lowered into corpse chutes by the Church of the Kept Gods, whilst the Crawling Ones, amorphous collective masses of worms which can take on humanoid shapes, plot for greater power and influence in the city above at the expense of the Ghouls.

Once past the prologue, the story switches back and forth between character points of view, initially Carillon, Rat, and Spar, in turn providing different views of the city and building and building Guerdon. They counterpart each other, Carillon impulsive and impatient, Spar physically slowed into terminal patience, with the pragmatic Rat between them. Guerdon though, forms a character of its own as the author serves up one aspect of the city after another, often seeming to throw them away before moving onto the next, leaving the reader to wonder if he will ever return to explain or expand. The three central protagonists, plus Guerdon itself, are not the only characters given time in the spotlight. Carillon has a starchy cousin, Eladora, who provides a different perspective upon their extended family; the three are hunted by Jere, a thief taker with connections; and Aleena, foul-mouthed and weary, who as a Saint of the Kept Gods channels their power. Not all of the other characters in the novel are accorded such treatment and consequently, some are underwritten.

The Gutter Prayer is also a tale of responsibilities, each of the three central characters gaining them, often unwillingly, due to the events of the novel, in the case of Carillon coming to the prologue. In turn, they pull each of the three away from their central friendship which is so strong at the beginning of the novel, especially as the pace of the book picks up and up as their stories and the book comes to a climax.

Most obviously, in terms of genre, with its guilds and gods, thieves and cults, The Gutter Prayer is a dark fantasy, and whilst the industrialisation of alchemy in Guerdon does push it towards the steampunk genre, the novel is neither pseudo-Victorian nor obsessed with mechanical technology. It is rather Dickensian in both its character and its griminess, but The Gutter Prayer is ultimately more of a horror story, and whilst the author’s depiction of the Crawling Ones and their servants is suitably Lovecraftian, the truly creepy creations in the novel are the Tallowmen and the Gullmen. The latter appear only a few times in the novel, but that is enough, because seagulls given arms and legs is not something that you want to be thinking about. The former though, are a constant presence and threat—chasing, watching, guarding, herding… Each is the facsimile in stretched wax of their former self, vaguely self-aware, but always knowing that if their wick is extinguished, then so is their soul.

Throughout it is interesting to see the author going through the process of world-building through the narrative rather than the construction we are used to seeing done via roleplaying supplements. Although there are mentions of the wider world and then just the one fantastic excursionary scene, the action of The Gutter Prayer is confined to Guerdon itself. As much as the city is brought to life, there is still very much left for the reader to wonder at and hope that the author returns to in later books. Were The Gutter Prayer a roleplaying supplement, then perhaps it would be a different matter. In terms roleplaying, any number of rules sets could be used to portray Guerdon and its inhabitants, for example, Into the Odd would work.

The Gutter Prayer is a fast-paced—sometimes too fast-paced as the reader tries to keep up—and grim and grimy dark fantasy. It evokes a wonderfully sooty and tarnished sense of place in Guerdon and explores it through a cast of engaging characters who face difficult choices and undergo often traumatic transitions. The Gutter Prayer is a great introduction to Guerdon and the Black Iron Legacy series, and an exciting and engaging debut novel.

Testing a few things on my social media manager, but I figure this is also a good time to show off the latest art I had commissioned from OdinDoesArt.   I am quite pleased with it, to be honest.

Now to see how far and wide this one went!

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: F is for Flat Earth

Over the years I have seen and read about some really interesting conspiracies.  The movie JFK starring Kevin Costner really made you think that maybe Lee Harvey Oswald didn't act alone, or maybe that Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna could be alive somewhere, or maybe Roswell was about aliens.   

While thought provoking, all of these are dismissed once the evidence is carefully examined.  Oswald did act alone, DNS proved Anastasia's death, and the government did lie about Roswell, but not about aliens.

But the dumbest conspiracy theory ever has to come from the lead-paint chip-eating crowd behind the Flat Earth Theory.  I even hate to call it a theory since no part of it acts like a true theory.

Essential this brain trust believes the Earth is flat and NASA has been covering up to support the notion of "Globeists."   They are all invariably ultra-religious and start with the claim about God and the "four corners of the Earth" that they take literally.

Let's ignore the poet license people are allowed to take. Or the fact that the Bible was originally written by people that honestly had no idea where the sun went at night AND it was translated, rewritten, re-translated, and so on for centuries.  OR even that Greek mathematician Eratosthenes not only showed that only the earth was round, he also calculated its circumference with an astounding degree of accuracy prior to 200 BC.

They have all decided that not only is the Earth flat, but NASA has been lying to the entire world to...well I am not sure why they think NASA is lying.  Normally in a coverup there are reasons. Money. Power. But the Flat Earthers think NASA is hiding something. 

Let's be 100% honest here.  Flat Earthers are morons.

But what can to give me when it comes to running a NIGHT SHIFT game?

For NIGHT SHIFT

The biggest gripe that Flat Earthers seem to have is that NASA and all the world governments are conspiring together to keep information out of the hands of the ones that seek the truth. 

Let's ignore the fact that such a vast conspiracy would be impossible to pull or let alone maintain, what does NIGHT SHIFT have that the world's governments want to hide?  Easy.  Magic.

The governments of the world, or at least sections of it, know all about magic and their job is to keep that knowledge out of the hands of the unwashed masses.  To that end, they have magical practitioners that help clean up everything and erase memories.  Something akin to an Arcane Men in Black or even like the Cleaners from Charmed (who, interestingly enough wear all white and not all black like the MiB).  In some ways, they are also a bit like the  Technocracy from Mage: The Ascension, but are "pro" magic and "anti" people getting their hands on it.

This group's job is to protect magic, but more importantly, their job is to protect magic from all the "mundanes" and mortals out there.   I am thinking of calling them "The Guardians" or something like that.  They monitor all magic in the world and keep it out of the wrong hands and the wrong minds.

The Guardians either appear as angels, devils, fey creatures or tall humans as the need arises.  In truth they prefer not to be seen at all.

--

Now I should note that one of my favorite games, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea assumes a Flat Earth and it works fine there. In fact a lot of the "reality" of AS&SH is built on a lot of the ideas I have been talking about all this month.

Really there is only one Flat Earth worth talking about and that is the 1984 album by Thomas Dolby.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: E is for Extraterrestrials on Earth

Getting back to some of the aliens I want to talk about some of the aliens found on Earth and how they can be used in the game.

There are some generally accepted aliens in UFOlogy (yeah that is a word I typed). Let's go over them here and then see what we have.

Nordics

These aliens are called this because they, generally speaking, are tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, human-looking aliens.  Seriously I can't help but think about how many of these ideas are so steeped in racism and these are the Poster Boys.  Though, and to be fair, maybe they are more like the Asgardians of the Marvel Universe? Nah, that is giving them too much credit.  

The Nordics supposedly come from the Pleiades star cluster.  They seem to have a more benign nature that the other aliens. 

Reptilians 

OR Reptoids I have mentioned already this month and they have a much more sinister motive here.  They have infiltrated various levels of government (more on that later this month), but their true purposes are still unknown.  They can shape-shift and appear to be human and are believed to be somewhere from the Alpha Draconis system. 

Greys

These guys are jerks. They visit trailer parks in the middle of the night and abduct people.  Ok that is a bit glib.  These aliens are some of the most seen and are responsible for many of the close encounters. Indeed they were featured in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (one of my favorites), Roswell, Strieber's "Communion," and the various "Alien Autopsy" movies. 

Popularly they are considered to be from Zeta Reticuli.  This is based on a drawing from one of the most famous alien abductees ever, Betty Hill.  

While generally believed to be benign, there is the opinion that they see humans as little better than animals to be experimented on. 

LGMs

The Little Green Men are common in Sci-Fi but have not featured much in conspiracy theories or alien sightings for a while.  They were commonly believed to have been from Mars.  

As their name implies they are shorter than humans, even shorter than greys.  

Insectoids

These aliens are spotted far less frequently than the others.  The Selenites are often depicted as insectoids.  Because of this, I am tempted to give them a temporary base on the moon. It was just set up.

Alien Species Concepts by Deimos-Remus

For NIGHT SHIFT

These five alien species all are active on the Earth of NIGHT SHIFT, in particular Weirdly World News.  Their motivations are pretty simple.  Nordics are observing and helping where they think is best.  Greys and LGMs are abducting humans and trying to figure out what makes them tick.  Insectoids are new to Earth and are rivals with the Reptoids. Their true motivations are still unknown.

That leaves the Reptoids.  They are going to be detailed in more posts here, but basically, they are here to take control of the Earth and its people. There is a lot of speculation on what they want here from human slaves, or they are draining our psychic energy, to needing a new home after their world was destroyed.  

Like the Ophidians I mentioned on Monday, the Reptilians/Reptoids can't use magic. Nordics do use magic, or at least they do something that seems similar to magic.

There are a couple of good game resources that cover all these aliens.  First, there is the DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS - The Cryptid Manual (review) a great resource on all sorts of cryptids and aliens.  And secondly an old favorite of mine, The Unexplained (review) a Fudge-based RPG. 

Both are excellent resources.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).