![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Historical Fiction and RPG Review #17
Oct. 23rd, 2012 11:02 amOver the past week have enjoyed three excellent RPG sessions all based around historical fiction, being a preferred genre. First was a session of Pendragon which continues the mythic story of the Fisher King. The PCs failed, of course, and now have to take the long, but more adventurous, path. Appropriately I have just finished Malory's second book of Le Mort D'Arthur; Rex quondam, Rexque futurus. It remains, of course, not just a flurry of ideological resistance by the Romano-British to the Saxon invasions, or a canonical example of fifteenth century literary style, but an entire legend across multiple authors as mythology. Not only that I have also completed listening to the lectures on early medieval history kindly offered by Yale University; not much new content from my perspective, but it was certainly enjoyable to listen to. Likewise, I was provided by Bill A., and have completed, Bernard Cornwell's The Burning Land, which whilst an excellent and evocative read, did lack the magical realism despite several opportunities.
The second session was a continuation of the occasional story of a group of early Korean diplomats and their bodyguards (the PCs) seeking to establish a treaty with the Chinese emperor who has disappeared, and has ended up somewhere in Tibet. It's mostly based on the period of Emperor Shun, but with some historical flexibility for narrative purposes. Even with this interest, my knowledge of early Chinese history is still woefully inadequate in comparison with that I have with the European. The third, of course, has been our sessions of Horror on the Orient Express at the former asylum that is home. Whilst the story line has completed Milan (an operatic horror), I have finally managed to do a write-up the first chapter by a "young Hercule Poirot".
Finally, is the release of RPG Review 17, a GURPS special issue. Particularly happy with the interview with Sean Punch, the line editor, the GURPS Dinosaurs Designer's Notes by Stephen Dedman, and the review of Dark Knight Rises by Andrew Moshos. My own contributions on that content are an essay on the development of GURPS, and the initial steps towards narrativist creative agendas in said system. As a brief hint to the next issue (a Cthulhu special) there is Sandy Petersen writing on his favourite dinosaur, and Jonathan Korman writing on RPG Cultural Appropriation, especially some of the more questionable racial themes that are in H.P. Lovecraft.
The second session was a continuation of the occasional story of a group of early Korean diplomats and their bodyguards (the PCs) seeking to establish a treaty with the Chinese emperor who has disappeared, and has ended up somewhere in Tibet. It's mostly based on the period of Emperor Shun, but with some historical flexibility for narrative purposes. Even with this interest, my knowledge of early Chinese history is still woefully inadequate in comparison with that I have with the European. The third, of course, has been our sessions of Horror on the Orient Express at the former asylum that is home. Whilst the story line has completed Milan (an operatic horror), I have finally managed to do a write-up the first chapter by a "young Hercule Poirot".
Finally, is the release of RPG Review 17, a GURPS special issue. Particularly happy with the interview with Sean Punch, the line editor, the GURPS Dinosaurs Designer's Notes by Stephen Dedman, and the review of Dark Knight Rises by Andrew Moshos. My own contributions on that content are an essay on the development of GURPS, and the initial steps towards narrativist creative agendas in said system. As a brief hint to the next issue (a Cthulhu special) there is Sandy Petersen writing on his favourite dinosaur, and Jonathan Korman writing on RPG Cultural Appropriation, especially some of the more questionable racial themes that are in H.P. Lovecraft.
