Readers with long memories may recall the last time I brought up an RPG
podcast it was the North Texas based Save or Diepodcast, dedicated to
Basic Dungeons and Dragons, still my favourite version of Ye Auld Gayme - and still a great podcast,
although its frequency has lessened somewhat of late (ahem). In the
meantime I've had time to seek out another more recent podcast, this time from across the Atlantic pond: the
Bolton-based The Grognard Files. Unlike SoD the Files cover a variety of
early 80s RPGs; and D&D isn't even their favourite by a long chalk!
The net result is a boon to me.
Firstly, having binged somewhat on North Texan fare, I've become a little too
accustomed to the pecadillos of its regular hosts and their various likes and
dislikes. Former 'Armchair Adventurers' Dirk the Dice and his cohorts judge Blythie, @dailydwarf
(through whose Twitter feed I discover the Files), and the lesser-heard
collector Ed (he of the Bargain Shed) are fresh voices and opinions; and
because the Files are still young and their focus shifts every month or so, from Stormbringer to Traveller to Call of Cthulhu to AD&D ("TM") to their
particular favourite Runequest, there's a lot that's new to me. I never
played those particular games outside AD&D, and everything else I schooled up
on through whatever magazine or book I could, usually White Dwarf, which is rightly revered and fondly remembered by the Armchair Adventurers for not only introducing them to the various games and their communities, but adding to the same worlds and adventures in a way that resonates with me. The Files do an
admirable job of explaining and deconstructing each system, with Blythie - a self-confessed rules lawyer, using his own set of powers for good in his analysis. I've learned a
lot as a consequence - not just about those games, but about my own
favourites.
And The Grognard Files is a lot of fun. It's very much informal, witty, intimate,
self-effacing and utterly British in aspect. My RPG world has two
hemispheres, the American and the British. Both are equally valid and
fascinating, but I've made no secret that it's the British I gravitate
towards more. The added and rarely-heard regionality of a small group of Northern players not hailing from "that London" just adds to the interest factor. And who can resist a bit of Hawkwind as a closing theme?
A recent half-week in Hawkes Bay for work meant that I had a lot of
driving to do, so I took Dirk and Blythie on the road with me on a USB stick to play in the car on the way up, and the
four-hour trip sped by very nicely indeed.
Coming soon is a look back at Tunnels & Trolls, another heard-of-but-not-played for me. I can't wait.
Eleven fifty-five - almost midnight. Enough time for one more story. One more story before twelve- just to keep us warm.
In five minutes it will be the twelfth of June. Ten years ago on the twelfth of June, down in the South Island a polar blast brought the heaviest snowstorm in seventy years. In the high country of Canterbury some homesteads were without power for two weeks. Trees and power poles snapped from the weight of the snow, North Otago was cut off from the outside world, and Mrs Simian was stuck in Timaru with her parents. This isn't her story. This is instead the story of what I got up to whilst she was snowed in.
It was just me and the cat. We had the whole house to ourselves for two nights (so we thought), including the stereo and the DVD player. A quick fish and chip tea for one (two) gave me more hours for the evening, and I embarked upon a then-distressingly predictable activity: too much screen-time and an early morning retirement. No internet, though - for some reason I was hell-bent on modelling and movies.
The models were Games Workshop Easterlings. Nice sculpts, but colour-wise a bit one-note, really, and they're still unfinished. The movies were an ambitious triple-feature: early ScoJo and mid-career Thora Birch in an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' Ghost World; the then-recent adaptation of Dawn of the Dead by newcomer Zack Snyder - and the original Romero Dawn of the Dead for good measure.
Ghost World ended the viewing that evening - for the better. I can't recall which version of Dawn started, though I'd say the purist in me would have picked the Romero. It's deservedly a classic and even while familiar in its plot and story beats, I wasn't ready for its length. And in terms of building up a sense of fatalistic dread, Romero was a master. Two hours of gnawing death - on several levels. I should have known, having been properly disturbed by Romero's Night of the Living Dead and depressed by Day of the Dead.
By contrast Snyder's (and screenwriter James Gunn's) remake is sprightly, high-velocity and despite fears to the contrary packs a punch. The title sequence sets the scene - and it's pretty faithful in its nihilism from those first few scenes:
Back to the cold outside. It was freezing in Wellington, too. The wind was blowing in the wrong direction for the fire to put out any heat, and the cat bagsied what little did come out long before it made it to the couch. The wind also blew a side gate against the house during the movies - bang, bang, bang... I ventured outside to fix it shut and noticed a light on in the basement. Seriously freaked out I crept to the door, drew the bolt... and found I'd just left it on getting the model stuff in the afternoon.
By 1:30 when Ghost World had finished, I went to bed. And realised I'd not put the electric blanket on. I shivered for an hour before I decided to warm up in the shower, and even then I couldn't warm up. Plus, my over-active brain was embarking on a second session of the zombie double-feature instead of getting me to sleep. The cat had long gone for somewhere warmer. In defeat, I took the car out of the garage and drove around empty streets to try and settle down.
By day things cleared up. The sun came out, and a friend came around for a cuppa and a jam (hi, Tim!) And still somewhat sleep-deprived, I wandered around the house like a... well, you know.
In the mean-time I was still listening to a couple of recent purchases. The Shaun of the Dead soundtrack, and the first two Gorillaz albums. Shaun has a fun selection of movie soundbites and incidental music with the odd remix among them. As you might expect, there's a Romero movie mashup in there, with 'The Gonk', the theme to Dawn of the Dead's overlong slapstick sequence, mixed in with Keith Chegwin's voiceover for It's a Knock-Out. Gorillaz of course have form with the undead, Jamie Hewlett's animation company being Zombie Flesh Eaters of course, but there are also at least three Gorillaz songs ('Overture', 'Hip Albatross' and 'M1-A1') which contain samples from Romero movies (Dawn and Day of the Dead respectively) And 'Starshine' off the untitled debut always struck me as lonely and bleak.
I listened to those songs a lot over that weekend, either on the buzz or to exorcise the spooks, and I did sleep a little better the next night, being somewhat knackered. Mrs Simian eventually bused out of Timaru and arrived back in town a couple of days late, and not a moment too soon. I go to bed at more sensible hours, now.
Speaking of which, it's high time I went off myself, now. Pleasant dreams, everyone.
