Fantasy
roleplaying games allow an escape from reality. They allow us to play
out stories with magic, elves, and dragons that could never happen in
the real world. Yet they retain elements of the real world, often
taking aspects of real world history and cultures to inspire the
peoples and societies that populate them. These elements allow the
game to retain a certain sense of familiarity, and a certain sense of
reality amidst the fantasy.
But
sometimes, you just want to abandon reality altogether, get rid of
the familiar as much as possible, and create something truly
different. This can be through travel to other worlds or even other
planes. Planar travel has been a mainstay of roleplaying since its
earliest days. It’s often something only embarked upon by
high-level characters who have acquired the greater powers needed to
make the jump from one plane to another, but it doesn’t have to be.
The old 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting,
Planescape made PCs natives of other planes and incorporated
plane-hopping right from first level.
The
Pathfinder Campaign Setting first outlined its planar structure in
the old Pathfinder Chronicles: Campaign Setting book (later
updated as Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide).
The information in that book was later expanded upon in The Great Beyond. But even
that book could only provide the barest details. The planes are more
than just other worlds; they are entire other universes with enough
space in each one to hold millions of entire campaign settings.
Planes of Power is a more recent
book that takes a much closer look at just four of the many planes
that make up the Great Beyond—specifically
the Elemental Planes of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. Of course, this
book can still only scratch the surface of these planes, but it is
able to provide enough of a backdrop to whet GMs’ creative juices
and allow them to expand beyond what’s presented.
What
is the difference between science fiction and fantasy? The two are
often grouped together. Fans of one are usually fans of the other as
well, and indeed the two often overlap. Much that is labelled science
fiction contains things that are outright fantastical. The Star
Wars series is one of the most
extreme examples of this. Called science fiction, it follows the
formula of epic fantasy, complete with wizards (jedi), monsters, and
heroes fighting the forces of evil. It uses the trappings of science
fiction (spaceships, faster-than-light travel, lasers), but without
any actual science behind them. The reverse happens as well, with
many fantasies containing scientifically plausible ideas. So where is
the line between the two? Does that line even really exist?
All
the Birds in the Sky by Charlie
Jane Anders plays around with the separation
between science and fantasy. It jumps back
and forth from one side to
the other of that hard-to-define line, all
the while effortlessly deconstructing the idea that there’s even a
line in the first place, demonstrating that, in the end, both science
fiction and fantasy are just story-telling.
It
does this for more than just science fiction and fantasy, too. It
tears apart the lines between comedy and serious drama, being both
hilarious and deadly serious, fun and emotional. There are moments of
action that wouldn’t be out of place in a Transformers
movie, while also being a book about normal everyday life, from
children dealing with bullies at school to the sex lives of young
adults. Indeed, the book defies most attempts to slap a genre of any
kind on it, and it is all the more delightful because of it.
It
even defies expectations on a meta-textual level. The book is written
in third person limited (meaning it focuses on the point of view of
one character at a time), alternating chapter-by-chapter between its
two protagonists. Except every once in a while, when the two
characters are together, the perspective switches back and forth
between them from one paragraph to the next. On other occasions, the
perspective widens out to other characters. Even though this can be
unexpected (third person omniscient is rarely used these days), it’s
never jarring. Anders makes it seem completely normal and natural—she
makes you think you were expecting it.
Long-time
readers of this blog may recall my excitement four years ago when
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
premièred. Both an update and a sequel to Carl Sagan’s
ground-breaking 1980
series Cosmos, Cosmos:
A Spacetime Odyssey was hosted
by Neil deGrasse Tyson and covered a variety of topics concerning
humanity’s place in the universe, from the smallest atoms to the
largest galaxies, and everything in between. It was both beautiful to
watch and highly educational. It’s a series I strongly recommend
for gaining a better understanding of science and the world around
us.
It’s
been a while, but the great news is, Cosmos
is coming back for another season! Cosmos: Possible Worlds
will air next year. I’ve known about this for some time now, but
what I’ve only just learnt is that a
new trailer came out last
week. Have a watch!
Educational
programming is important, and in many ways, science programming is
especially so. Cosmos is
far from the only science show out there (and
there are many good ones, too),
but it is one of the most high-profile, and that helps bring it to a
larger number of people. We
live in a time when science is more and more frequently coming under
attack. In the United States, in particular, people in power try to
place
topics like climate change under the heading of “fake news” and
push creationism as being on the same scientific level as evolution.
It’s
not limited to the States, though. I live in Toronto, Ontario,
Canada. Here in Ontario, we have recently elected a new conservative
government that is already seeking to scrap environmental protections
put in place by the last government and is fighting against the
federal government’s attempts to keep those or similar
environmental protections in place. This same provincial government
is also scrapping a newly established sex education programme for
Ontario students and replacing it with an out-of-date programme from
1998. And they’re doing
this for reasons based entirely around misinformation (see here for a good overview of this situation).
As
a teacher, I welcome any attempts to bring science and education to
people young and old. One of
the best ways is to present science in a way that is entertaining and
stimulating. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
does this through the use of thrilling visuals. It is truly a feast
for the eyes, on par with the numerous fictional shows and games
vying to grab the attention of viewers. Along with these visuals,
Cosmos also presents
its subject matter in a straight-forward, easy-to-understand manner.
You don’t need a PhD in physics to understand the show. You don’t
really need any background in science at all. Yet even
for those with a background
in science, it still has much to offer, covering such a diverse array
of subjects as it does. One of the great things about Cosmos:
A Spacetime Odyssey is also how
accessible it is to people of many different ages. I’ve used Cosmos
in a classroom with 12-year-old
students and have seen it captivate adults as well.
From
the preview, Cosmos: Possible Worlds
looks to contain these same things—thrilling visuals accompanying
an accessible and entertaining discussion of scientific topics. As
Neil deGrasse Tyson says, “Things are about to get epic.” I can’t
wait!
Every
adventure path has a particular theme and style to it, which
identifies it and makes it distinguishable from other adventure
paths. Iron Gods has technology and
aliens, while Mummy’s Mask involves
exploring ancient tombs and battling undead. Giantslayer, not
surprisingly, is all about giants. Adventure paths also need a
certain amount of variety, though, as too much of the same thing can
start to feel stale. Stray too far from the core concept, however,
and the different segments of the adventure path might no longer feel
like a connected whole. It can be a fine line between how much “same”
and how much “different” an adventure path needs to work.
With
Giantslayer, I’m starting to feel that it’s leaning towards too
much of the same. The fourth instalment, Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen
by Jim Groves is structurally very similar to the two adventures
immediately preceding it, The Hill Giant’s Pledge and
Forge of the Giant God.
That’s not to say that Ice Tomb
is a bad adventure. It’s actually pretty good and there’s a lot I
like about it, but in it, the PCs must undertake a mission of
infiltration and sabotage just like they’ve done twice already. Of
course, as they’re higher level now, they have more options for how
to go about their
mission and they face more powerful opponents, but in the end it
still feels repetitive. It’s exacerbated by the fact that this is
not just the third time overall, but the third time in a
row.
That
aside, there’s a lot that’s very good in Ice Tomb of
the Giant Queen. It has a
dynamic and vibrant setting that provides a good sandbox location for
the adventure to take place in, and it has lots
of interesting encounters to
challenge a party of 10th-level characters and entertain their
players. It also has an
innovative system for determining how their giant opponents respond
to the PCs’ actions.
Since
“Twice Upon a Time” and the twelfth
Doctor’s regeneration into the thirteenth (played by Jodie
Whittaker), it has been very quiet on the Doctor Who
front—that is, until this week. A few days ago, we got the first teaser for the
forthcoming Series 11, and today comes the first full trailer (watch
it below) as well as the first peak at the new sonic screwdriver (see above). (Yes, I know a few pictures of the sonic screwdriver leaked
at little while back, but this is the first official look.)
The
trailer is pretty straight-forward as trailers go, with a succession
of short moments from the new series and a narration by the Doctor
over the top. There’s less to unpack from this than there was in
the teaser from a few days ago, but what this trailer definitely has
in spades is a sense of wonder and excitement. The shots and scenery
viewed are simply gorgeous. Intriguingly, there isn’t a single look
at any monsters or aliens. It focuses on the Doctor and her three new
friends, without even a single other character appearing. But that’s
okay, as far as I’m concerned. I like the greater secrecy being
kept over this series than in previous years. It helps increase the
excitement factor. I, for one, can’t wait till it starts!
Oh,
and to answer the Doctor’s
question, my answer is unequivocally yes!
(Edit: A few other characters do appear in the trailer beyond just the Doctor and her companions. They appear during blink-and-you'll-miss-them moments, but they're there.)
The
new series of Doctor Who
is still a few months away, but publicity is starting to gear up. The
newest issue of Entertainment Weekly
features Doctor Who as
its cover story and, today, the BBC released the first teaser for
Series 11.
This
is not a trailer showing scenes from the upcoming series. Instead,
it’s a specially filmed sequence to help whet the appetite for more
(and it’s probably not a coincidence that it uses food to do so).
On the surface, it says very little about what to expect from the new
series—and that fits the more secretive style of new showrunner
Chris Chibnall, compared to both Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies
before him.
But
looking beneath the surface, there’s a lot more to glean from
this trailer. The new Doctor appears to have something of a
mischievous streak to her: Through what appears to be some sort of
time manipulation, she steals some of Ryan’s food and replaces
Graham’s newspaper with a Beano
issue (intriguingly, the same one the 11th Doctor hides behind in
“The Rings of Akhaten”).
But she has a kinder side too. When Yasmin discovers there’s no
pizza left, the Doctor helpfully replaces it. Finally, the Doctor’s
smile at the end shows a great deal of warmth and fun. There’s also
the television announcer. While ostensibly talking about sport, the
words—“They’ve got the
makings of a really great team. They’ve
got great energy. They’ve got great flare...I’m really excited to
see what happens”—also apply quite easily to the new TARDIS team.
In
just a few seconds, this teaser conveys a fairly clear feel for the
new series. I’ve already
been quite excited about the new series, and this teaser has
definitely made me more excited!
Clerics
have always been one of my favourite classes. I like getting into the
mindset of people who devote their lives to serving greater powers.
As such, I also love books that focus on those powers—what their
religions are like and what drives their followers. One of the
most-used Pathfinder books in my games (apart from the central
rulebooks) is Inner Sea Gods,
which provides detailed information on the core 20 gods of the
Golarion setting (along with additional character options).
However,
Golarion has considerably more than just 20 gods. Inner Sea
Gods contains details on many of
the others, but no book has unlimited space, so these additional
details are understandably brief—half a page at most, and often no
more than a single paragraph. Some
of these additional gods have received more detailed write-ups in
other sources, such as volumes of Pathfinder Adventure
Path, but ever since Inner
Sea Gods came out, I’ve hoped
that there would eventually be another book that would collect
together these other gods into one place.
Inner Sea Faiths is just such a
book. It provides details on 15 of the lesser-known gods of Golarion,
such as Brigh, Hanspur, Kurgess, and Sivanah. All 15 are given
write-ups in the same style as the ones for the core 20 gods in Inner
Sea Gods. Inner Sea
Faiths is not as big a book as
Inner Sea Gods. The
write-ups are 6 pages long each instead of 8, and it doesn’t
contain any new prestige classes, magic items, spells, etc. It’s
also not a hardcover book. However, it is still a bigger book than
most in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting line—96 pages long instead
of the standard 64.
I
love roleplaying adventures that fully integrate into their settings
and make full use of those settings. Generic adventures that can take
place anywhere are not necessarily bad (and there are certainly many
very good ones), but there is something special about an adventure
that can’t easily take place anywhere other than where it’s set.
The setting helps add to the adventure’s flavour, and can make the
adventure more memorable than one with a generic setting.
The House on Hook Street by
Brandon Hodge is such an adventure. Set in the Bridgefront
neighbourhood of the city of Korvosa, it makes heavy use of concepts
and rules from Occult Adventures,
and brings to life one of the poorest, most poverty-stricken places
in the Golarion
setting. It
would be possible to use The House on Hook Street
with a different campaign setting,
but to do so, you would pretty much need to transplant the entirety
of Bridgefront (and with it, much of the rest of Korvosa) into the
other campaign world. You
could change the names of Bridgefront and the locations in it, but it
would still be essentially the same place. Without its setting, The
House on Hook Street would be a
very different adventure.
Of
course, the setting is only one part of a successful adventure. A
good adventure also requires an exciting plot with interesting
encounters and villains, and The House on Hook Street
certainly has these. It embroils the PCs in a tale of drugs and lucid
dreaming, and brings them into conflict with
creatures of nightmare. It can be difficult to do horror effectively
in a roleplaying adventure, but while The House on Hook
Street isn’t strictly horror,
it does contain some incredibly creepy moments that may strike fear
in even the hardiest of heroes.
It
is
a complex adventure, and GMs should be sure to have read and reviewed
it thoroughly before play, but it’s one of the best adventures I’ve
seen in a while.
It’s
been awhile since I’ve done one of these (see here for an explanation of my absence if you haven’t seen it
already), and there’s not a whole lot to cover in the past month.
But it does feel good to be getting back into the swing of things
again.
Much
of my recent stuff has involved getting caught up on things I should
have done ages ago, so that means finally getting a review up of the
Doctor Who Series 10 finale,
“The Doctor Falls”, as
well as last December’s Christmas special, “Twice Upon a Time”,
featuring David Bradley as the first Doctor and introducing Jodie
Whittaker as the thirteenth.
I
also began catching up on the large number of Pathfinder products I
intend to review, beginning with a return to the Giantslayer
Adventure Path with the third instalment, Forge of the Giant God, as well
as Adventurer’s Guide.
Pathfinder
and Doctor Who have
tended to make up the bulk of my posts (and there will continue to be
lots of those), but I want to expand into covering more of other
things as well. In particular, I’m intending to have a few more
reviews of novels, and I started this past month with a review of The Savior’s Champion by
Jenna Moreci.
Perhaps
most exciting for me, however, is my own novel, which I am currently
looking for beta-readers for!
The Child of the Volgs
is an epic fantasy novel that I have been working on for quite some
time, and beta-reading is an important stage in the development of
any book. It allows the author (in this case, me) to get feedback
from a variety of different people, which the author can then use to
help in further revisions. For the beta-readers themselves, it
presents an opportunity to see and be involved in the process of
creating a book. You can help make the book into the best book it can
be! I’ve got several beta-readers already, but I could definitely
use more. If you’re interested please check out my Beta-Read page for full details.
Looking
to the future, I’ve got a review of the Pathfinder Module The House on Hook Street
coming up in the next couple days. I’ll also be getting to more
Giantslayer this month and hopefully a few other things as well.
There will also be another novel review. With Doctor Who
not currently on the air, there won’t be any new reviews (unless I
finally mange to get back to finishing my Series 8 reviews), but I do
hope to do a couple of Doctor Who-related
posts, including a look back at the entirety of the Steven Moffat era
of the programme. That might not happen in July (it’ll depend on
how much time I have), but it is definitely a goal before Series 11
starts around October (no
confirmed start date
at this point). Of course, I’ll probably cover any major Doctor
Who news that comes out.
That
said, so far, there’s not
been a whole lot of news about what
to expect in the new series
(which I kind of like—it maintains the surprise), but a few things
in the year I was gone that I didn’t cover included the actual
announcement of Jodie Whittaker as the thirteenth Doctor and
then, later, the reveal of her costume (see picture at top of post), which took a brief time to
grow on me, but I now really like.There was also
the announcement of who would be playing her companions: Bradley
Walsh as Graham, Mandip Gill as Yasmin, and Tosin Cole as Ryan. It’s
been a long time since the Doctor has had three companions (the last
time was during the fifth Doctor’s time with Tegan, Nyssa, and
Adric), so I’m very intrigued to see how the series handles the
larger TARDIS crew.
It
was also announced some time back that Murray Gold, who has composed
the music for Doctor Who
since it returned in 2005, would not be returning for Series 11. Just
a couple days ago, it was announced that Segun Akinola would be the
new composer. I generally liked Murray Gold’s music for the show,
but he was there for a long time, and Doctor Who
has always thrived on change. With the début of a new Doctor
(particularly the first female Doctor), this is as good a time as any
to change up the music, and I look forward to hearing
what Akinola brings to the
series. As far as I’m concerned, there are exciting times ahead for
Doctor Who and I look
forward to October (or whenever the new series starts).
Anyway,
thanks to everyone who reads this blog! Have a great July!
