Posts Tagged ‘Ragnarok’

Issue 58 of Ragnarok (the journal of the SFSFW) landed through my post box today including my article for Wessex Games’ Strange Tydes The Bare Belly Coast. Immediately spotted an editing error I’d made where I’d truncated a sentence…

“The alliance with the Orcs eventually saw it added it to their empire as a protectorate in the la”

Should read…

“The alliance with the Orcs eventually saw it added it to their empire as a protectorate in the largest empire in the Land.”

The Ottle Empire heading should appear above the table with their Navy list.

For legibility here is a larger version of the map that accompanies the article (click to enlarge)…

Ragnarok Issue 58 is at the printers according to the SFSFW blog so my Bare Belly Coast article for Wessex Games’ Strange Tydes will soon be available in lovely print form. Time to finish off the Strange Grogge companion article.

Just sent off an article for Ragnarok a group of desert countries for Wessex Games’ Strange Tydes.  Along with details of each nations navy there are also new ship options including Lateen Rigging, naptha projectors and early cannons.

The last bit of work tonight was to draw a map to go with the article.  I modelled it as a terrain in Vue and rendered it from a high angle.  I took the render into Expression and used it as the basis for the map…

Why do I write what I call reviews?

The short answer: Because it helps me think about my own writing.

The long answer:

I used to write what I’ll call proper reviews, they’d appear in Valkyrie and Ragnarok.  My review of 7th Sea produced at short notice got me the writing gig with Valkyrie so even though reviewing wasn’t what I’d set out to do I thought it was important to carry on and do the best job at it I could.  I’d think long and hard about them.  I’d spend hours carefully reading a product (and if possible playing it).  I’d consider the presentation, the content, the quality of the writing, the cost, its originality, production issues and a hundred and one other factors.  I’d try and give a balanced and fair assessment.

Then I had a run of what I will call issue reviews.  A publisher wasn’t happy with a review because I wasn’t their target market so I couldn’t apparently understand their product.  A book I reviewed that was ok but not exceptional and had a flaw won an award after sending high value goodie bags to the voting panel.  Having been asked to review a product for a magazine I’d not written for before I was told the review wouldn’t be used as they’d just signed a big advertising deal with the publisher and they didn’t think it was favorable enough.  Which was funny because I’d really worked hard to find good things in a product that I know retailers couldn’t sell.  It stank and it sat on game shop shelves.

So I stopped writing serious reviews.

I’ve been asked to occasionally for magazines and websites.  It might be good self promotion and get me some writing opportunities but I’m just not interested in running into the political side of  it again.

Now what I label as reviews here are more after action reports.  I try not to spend too long on them (although some still take a couple of hours to write).  I try to keep them personal – they are after all just my personal opinion.  I use the review label as a convenient way of lumping them all together to make them easier to find.  Maybe someone will be saved from wasting a turkey or will enjoy my insight.  I hope so because they do get a reasonable number of visits and visitors seem to spend time reading them.

Still that doesn’t explain why I write them.  I don’t see them as a great self promotion tool.  I write them to help me think about my own writing and game design.  By thinking about a Doctor Who episode or a film sometimes I see how to improve my own work.  I wrote about Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire and I knew where the script I’d written had gone wrong (using silly names and anachronism).  I’ve still not worked out what to put in their place but I think the script is tighter and funnier now without them (although one character is still called Snot because it just fits).

Sometimes the best thing happens.  I’ll get a good idea.  Not a simple rip off of someone else’s concept but a genuine tangential idea.  That moment when you’re watching something and you think you know what’s going to happen and then something else happens.  Sometimes those original ideas can take on a life of their own.  For example recently I had watched a Doctor Who episode and was writing up my thoughts.  That’s when I had a Good Idea^TM.   I’ve had a bad guy (originally a Darklord for a Ravenloft domain) floating around for a long time that I could never find a way to spin a story around and while I’ve been writing that review I now know how to make them work.  The only problem I have is they’d be fun for a Ravenloft adventure but they also fit in with a Dirk Dangerous story I’d got floating around.  I don’t suppose I can get away with using the same idea twice

Ragnarok Issue 57 (The Magazine of the Society of Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargaming) landed through my letter box today.  My article for BTRC’s SLAG! appears along with a variety of fantasy and science fiction wargaming goodness.

I’ve been looking for an idea for a new article to send in for the SFSFW’s Ragnarok and I think I may just have found it a mashup of Steampunk and the short lived 80′s TV show Street Hawk…

This is the Honourable Jesse Macintosh, a former penny-farthing policeman, whose reputation was perilously injured whilst performing his lawful duties.  Now a Scotland Yard trouble shooter, he’s been recruited for an exceedingly secret government mission to ride Street Hawker – an all-cobbled surfaces attack bicycle designed to fight urbane criminality, capable of incredible speeds up to thirty miles an hour… immense firepower… and a really loud speaking horn. Only one man, Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress Victoria’s confidant, Lord Axminster (the prominant inventor, industrialist and engineer Norman Tuttle-Herringbone-Smyth), knows the Honourable Jesse Macintosh’s true identity. The Man… The Machine… Street Hawker.

Miniatures shouldn’t be a problem with Eureka’s Pax Limpopo range including a variety of eminently suitable figures.  I’ve not settled on a rule set yet suggestions in the comments would be greatly appreciated.

The latest issues of Ragnarok (The Magazine of the Society of Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargaming) arrived by post today. An interesting mix of articles including Daleks, Zombies, SF Armoured warfare, Fantasy Naval and Luna Exploration alongside the regular rules and miniature reviews.

My article, The Panzerfauste Song Book, takes up more pages than I thought it would. If I’d realised how long it is I’d have split it in two!

The SFSFW’s been busy on the WWW today launching the SFSFW blog and SFSFW twitter to go along with the existing SFSFW web site and SFSFW Facebook page.