Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 5

This week's menu includes the remainder of the 1979 anthology Thieve's World (one story, "Shadowspawn" by Andrew Offut, got covered separately a while back,  "Sentences of Death" and "The Face of Chaos" I posted on last week), and R.E.H.'s "Hour of the Dragon".  And I guess I'll start with Conan.

"Hour of the Dragon" is the only novel-length Conan Howard ever wrote (albeit a short one by today's blockbuster standards), but in the end its basically a fairly typical Conan tale set during his reign as king of Aquilonia; in fact, the plot is almost identical to the story "The Scarlet Citadel", which basically tells the same tale in 1/5 the space.  Nevertheless "Hour" is a good, hairy-chested read, but I ultimately found myself wanting to fast-forward through the clandestine meetings of the nefarious usurpers and the large military battles (albeit Howard does a good job describing them).  No, "Hour"s best moments are small ones, such as the resurrection of evil wizard Xatltotun and the latter's confrontation with a helpless (not for long!) Conan, and Conan's later encounter with the wolf-familiared witch Zelata, who I'd like to have seen more of.  "Hour" is a fun read but it doesn't rank with my favorite Conan stories.

As for  Thieves' World, well I first read it when it was fairly new and was quite impressed with it.  I'm still fairly impressed with it, though I sure as hell get it a lot more now than I did at 14/15, when things like love and sex and politics were more concepts than experiences.  Some surprising changes in my perception of the stories.  Poul Anderson's "Gate of the Flying Knives", one of the ones I'd most looked forward to, let me down a bit.  Jamie the Red and Cappen Varra seem like good characters who could have used a bit more mileage, and a confrontation with the serpent-like sikkintairs seemed mostly anticlimactic, and though its certainly well-written, I found something in Anderson's prose kept sort of kicking me out of the story.  Odd.  Joe Haldeman's "Blood Brothers" was tasty but slightly confusing - am I dumb or did I not get the point of innkeeper One-Thumb's secret?  I really enjoyed Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Secret of the Blue Star", with its (as usual for Bradley) issues of gender and sexuality, and the fact that it's the most "magical" i.e. fantastical of the stories.  I was also impressed with editor Robert L. Asprin's "The Price of Doing Business", a tale involving the sinister and corrupt Jubal.  Partly because I came prepared not to like it.  I've not read much of Asprin but those tiresome Myth books started to get on my nerves with their silly, smirking titles (to be fair, I've never read them).  Perhap I've been unfair to Asprin.  Finally, the story I found most compelling was "Myrtis" by newcomer Christine DeWees, described as a "kindly white-haired grandmother".  It seems her only other published appearance was a co-write with CJ Cherryh in an Elfquest anthology some years later.  A damn shame - DeWees' story outshines the big names, and makes what could have been a minor character into one of the best in the series.

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 4

"Ulan Dhor" by Jack Vance. The is the most science-fictional of the Dying Earth stories (although Guyal of Sfere remains to be re-read), with its flying cars, portable force field/tents, and a Cthulhu-ish gloop monster making its appearance at the close.  Its also one of the most sword-and-sorcery-ish for that very reason.  It's a bit of a footnote compared to the first few stories, but still retains its charm.

"Guyal of Sfere" by Jack Vance. I think this is my least favorite in the Dying Earth, but it is fun and decidedly weird.  And it leaves the book on a hopeful and adventuresome note.

"Introduction" by Robert Asprin. A capable little tale that imaginatively lays out the backstory of Sanctuary, the shared-world setting of the Thieve's World books and helps set the tone.

"Sentences of Death" by John Brunner.  The first formal story in the series.  It was probably my favorite story in the book Thieve's World when I first read it in 1983, and so far it looks like it may hold onto its position; nice gritty skullduggery involving a sheet of paper with cursed sentences, a tough young street girl (the still-excellently realized character Jarveena) hell-bent on vengeance, and Enas Yorl, the mysterious magician cursed to be an involuntary (and frequent) shape-changer.

"The Face of Chaos" Lynn Abbey. It seems this was one of Abbey's first published stories.  It's a somewhat minor tale of body-switching trickery, but the character of Illyra, one of the Romany-like fortune-telling peoples of Sanctuary, is one of my favorites from the series, and there is an interesting, unresolved supernatural element, involving the mysterious Blue Star wizards and the power of fate itself.  

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 3

"The Circle Curse" by Fritz Leiber. Kind of an odd, amusing vignette which introduces Fafhrd and the Mouser's patron wizards, Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face.  Not much happening here, plot-wise, but Ningauble and Sheelba are two of the strangest and most memorable characters to appear in Leiber's stories.

"The Jewels in the Forest" by Fritz Leiber. One of the earliest-written Fafherd/Mouser tales; this involving the hunt for a treasure in a strange and enchanted ruin.  There's enough of these scenarios in the Fahrd/Mouser canon that its a wonder the two didn't stop seeking such things.  Nonetheless, a fun and mystifying tale.

"The Howling Tower" by Fritz Leiber.  An eerie and effective tale involving a haunted tower and a battle with wolves on the astral plane.

"The Sunken Land" by Fritz Leiber.  Something of a fave, even though the meat of the story is only a moderately-interesting journey aboard a megalomaniacal captain's raiding ship - it's the denouement in the (usually) sunken city of Simorgya that makes this one memorable.

"The Seven Black Priests" by Fritz Leiber.  F/M play ten little indians with a gang of pissed-off priests after stealing the eye out of their idol.  Mainly fun for the banter as our heroes get the better of their pursuers one-by-one ("I think they're unreasonably angry" says Faf; "Priests always are." shrugs the Mouser).  Fun stuff.

"Tsais" by Jack Vance.  The third tale in Vance's The Dying Earth.  All of these stories could be called fairy tales, for all intents and purposes, albeit of a decidedly ungentle and hallucinogenic sort, set on an Earth so far flung into the future that it might as well be an alien planet.  "Tsais" tells of the title character, a homonculoid young woman (she was not born but grown by a wizard), who exists with a fatal flaw - she cannot perceive beauty. The things normal people find beautiful, she finds hideous. She is sent to Earth from her home world (another planet or dimension) in order to see if she can develop the capacity to appreciate beauty or love.  She becomes involved in a tricky cat-and-mouse game between the lonely wizard who rescues her from bandits, and the evil sorceress who long ago cursed him.  This is my favorite Dying Earth story so far.
   
"Liane the Wayfarer" by Jack Vance.  Another fractured fairy tale, this time of Liane, a rat bastard who gets the tables turned on him by a witch.  Plenty of ambiguity and tantalizing, unanswered questions here.

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 2

"The Stealer of Souls" by Michael Moorcock.  This was the last of the orignal Elric novellas.  This is much closer to Howard territory insofar as its largely straight adventure, with Elric and a band of surviving Melniboneans assaulting the fortress of a rich merchant; plenty of exciting swordplay and wild sorcery.  This is pulpier than the earlier Elrics but still a blast of a read.












Darkness Weaves by Karl Edward Wagner.  This was the final Kane novel but actually the first one I read, so a good place to start.  Kane hooks up with Efrel, the insanely evil sorceress who's putting together a rebellion against the island empire of Thovnosten, with some decidedly inhuman allies.  Darkness is said to have been influenced by E.H. Visiak's legendary Medusa, and, as one who's read Visiak's opus, I can safely say he takes those influences and surpasses them.  This is one wild ride of court intrigue, betrayal upon betrayal, dark sorcery, kinky and sadistic sex, extreme violence, brutal battles, and horrible sea monsters (the oraycha should be enough to give a shudder to even the hardiest sea monster fan); R.E. Howard meeting Clark Ashton Smith and William Hope Hodgson at the crossroads of Hyboria and Zothique.  Yowzah!

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 1

This week's book report....

"The Slithering Shadow" by Robert E. Howard.  Well, Fritz Leiber no less rated this the worst Conan tale Howard ever writ, and he may well be right. From the turn-off opening, with Conan grumpily ignoring his clinging and annoying dishrag of a companion, Natala, a slave girl he's rescued in his latest military disaster, this reads like Howard almost parodying himself (one more reference to "iron thews" and such and I'm gonna hurl).  A certain amount of suspense does arrive as Conan and his whiner explore the Marie Celeste-like setting of the shunned city of Xuthal, and there's a kinky bondage and whipping scene for those with an appreciation of such things (and Natala deserves it!).  The Beastie in the Cellar this time out is Thog, an improvement on the nondescript menace of "A Witch Shall Be Born", but only by a bit.  Definitely lesser stuff.  "Shadow" was adapted a couple times, once in the 70's (Savage Sword of Conan #20) with some very nice Alfredo Alcala art over John Buscema roughs, and less memorably a few years ago in Conan the Avenger.  Neither of them made it a better story, alas.  An inauspicious start.

"The Jewels of Gwahlur" by Robert E. Howard.  Another tale considered one of Howard's prize turkeys.  Actually its an improvement over "Slithering Shadow"; which it rather resembles (abandoned city, helpless slave-girl)  Howard's more on here, and leans less on Conan Cliches to describe his hero.  Conan uses his wits a fair bit, and his plan to turn the tables on the evil priesthood is Leiber-worthy.  But this is still a lesser adventure tale, albeit with some good action and characterization.  I'd classify it as a good enough read but not remotely an essential Conan tale. "Jewels" got the comics treatment in Savage Sword of Conan #25 and Dark Horse's Jewels of Gwahlur miniseries.  Neither of them terribly inspired (much as I like P. Craig Russell)

"The Scarlet Citadel" by Robert E. Howard. This is more like it.  King Conan captured by rival kings and a particularly nasty wizard, held prisoner in a castle full of creepies, then leading an epic counterattack against his would-be usurpers.  Only the big battle scene didn't engage me, and, as in the best Conan stories, its outside characters and forces - in this case, the imprisoned wizard Pelias - that make the tale.  PS Marvel took this one on in Savage Sword of Conan #30, poorly, but Dark Horse did an awesome version entitled King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel which I highly recommend.

"The Dreaming City" by Michael Moorcock.  Now this one was a pleasant surprise!   While I thoroughly enjoyed "Kings in Darkness", I found the writing a bit comic-bookish, and feared the Elric stories would not be as impressive this time around.  Not so! The prose of "The Dreaming City" is perfect, cool and modern with just a touch of flower in its tone, appropriate to the tale.  Not only that, its cinematic - the opening scene is not only vivid enough to conjure up a clear mind-movie, it also manages to give the reader a full understanding of what's going on in about four paragraphs of expository dialog that doesn't even sound expository.   Moving on, it manages to perfectly set up the whole Elric scenario and setting in the course of the tale - important, since this was the first published Elric story, and introduced the world to the albino sorceror-prince and his milieu.  After reading, its easy to see why Elric caught on; "The Dreaming City" definitely leaves one wanting more.  Its also groundbreaking - in 1961, the story inverted practically every sword-and-sorcery trope there is.  What's more, without giving too much away, the story ends not so much is triumph; perhaps more like one of the biggest "be careful what you wish for" endings ever presented.  We have winner, folks.  Might I add, Marvel adapted this into a very fine graphic novel in the 80's with fine artwork by P. Craig Russell.   

"While the Gods Laugh" by Michael Moorcock.  While this doesn't have the punch that "Dreaming City" had, being as much a metaphysical exercise as it is an adventure story, Moorcock's writing is still vivid and imagination is still impressive.  This time out, Elric isn't even an anti-hero; loser supreme might fit him just as well.  An impressively non-derivative fantasy tale.

"The Singing Citadel" by Michael Moorcock.  Very much like "While the Gods Laugh" in that its as much philosophical as it is adventure-ish; "Citadel" comes off as something of a transitional tale, meant to introduce certain ideas and characters and set up future events.  Nevertheless, Elric's rendevous with Yishana is another piece of fine, cinematic writing, and Moorcock's imagination is as vivid as ever.  There's a hint of the pulp tone creeping in, but not enough to overwhelm the otherwise strong storytelling.  

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: the Prologue

The summer of 1980.  It was a hot one, as I recall.  I spent a lot of weekends playing D&D and the weekdays mostly reading and listening to rock and roll a whole lot.  There wasn't much else going on.  And mostly I was reading fantasy.

Ah, Appendix N, Gary Gygax's list of influences buried in the back of the Dungeon Master's

Guide.  It gets a lot of attention these days, much of it centered around trying to figure out where EGG's head was at (don't get me started) and what it was he drew from the listed authors/titles.  What gets left out and forgotten in this day and age, when the shelves groan with thick-as-a-brick fantasy fiction, is that its a pretty comprehensive list of all there was in the way of fantasy back in them thar days.  

By no means its is a complete list of every fantasy of the swords or epic variety (the Earthsea, Narnia and Prydain books are notable omissions) - nor, after all, did it claim to be.  Rather it was EGGhead listing his major favorites and influences.  A highly personal list.  And yet for all its selectiveness, it really was pretty comprehensive.  There aren't a lot of holes, and I'd say it was a nigh-unbeatable starting point - most of what was worth reading was there, and, once immersed, the missing items would soon reveal themselves to the dedicated geek.

Having grown up in a house with fantasy/sci-fi loving parent and sibling, there wasn't much on the fabled list I hadn't heard of (hardly anything, really).  But at that point, I hadn't read much of it, yet.  That summer was when I dug in.  

It was an important summer.  I was 14.  In the fall I would begin high school.  I was looking forward to big adventures.  I was full of hormones, imagination, and curiosity.  I was home, alone, without much to do, all summer long.  So with the radio blasting its early 80's uneasy mix of old rock, "new wave" and dinosaurs, and in between bouts of intense study with my treasured Playboy collection, I was off in the lands of swords and monsters....

Forty years later, I'm a working stiff.  Home alone in the midst of our pandemic lockdown.  Every day at 11 I break from work or at least 90 minutes and have some lunch and a read.  My library is finally unpacked.  And the lands of swords and monsters beckon...

I actually started in May, with a week-long selection of long-unvisited texts.  My choices

being Michael Moorcock's "Kings in Darkness" (Elric and his sidekick Moonglum, a castle in a shunned forest kingdom, and the revenant of an ancestral king raised from the dead via blood sacrifice - c'mon how can you go wrong?);  Fritz Leiber's "Lean Times in Lankhmar" (religion and chicanery in the fabled city of the Black Toga) and "Thieve's House" an earlier Lankhmarian tale involving some sinister treasures and something potentially nasty in the basement of the Lankhmarian thieve's HQ; Robert E. Howard's "A Witch Shall Be Born", the infamous tale that includes Conan's crucifixion and vulture-chomping; Jack Vance's "Turjan of Miir" and "Mazirian the Magician", two odd little tales from the odd little Dying Earth; "Raven's Eyrie", one of Karl Edward Wagner's dark, knotty ditties of Kane, the immortal and amoral sorcerer/warrior/all-around S.O.B.; and lastly but not leastly pornographer and narcissist Andrew J. Offut's "Shadowspawn", his contribution to Thieve's World, the first of the Sanctuary books.  The attraction of these particular tales was that I had little memory of these stories other than certain details and that I had liked them.



So what did I (re)discover?  Well, I'll tell ya...

Mr. Moorcock.  I was a latecomer to Moorcock-mania; most of my fantasy friends pretty much started there.  But at around 16 I took the dive and it was easy for me to see why my buds were so taken with Moorcock's colorful, sorcerous S&S.  "Kings in Darkness" was one of the first Moorcock's I read - I remember getting a copy of The Dreaming City at the library near my beloved grandmother's apartment, and I went for "Kings" for the very logical reason that it was the shortest tale in the book!  "Kings" gives us Elric and his loyal sidekick Moonglum, fleeing trouble in the kingdom of Nadsokor, and finding themselves making their way through the dank forests of Org, a place with a relatively well-earned bad rep, since its the home of some decadent, dying aristocrats and their morlock-ish, lesser relatives who serve as slaves and foot soldiers.  Along with Elric's new squeeze Zarozinia, whom they meet along the way, they end up first guests, then prisoners, of some of those decadent aristos.   It all leads to a fiery climax in a dungeon full of ghouls, crazed, decadent aristos, human sacrifice, and towering undead king's skeletal remains slugging it out with Elric. While the details had slipped my mind, I retained a general impression in my memory of an isolated forest castle, dungeons, undead, the king's skeletal revenant. In truth I remembered the gist of it pretty well, since those are the outstanding features. 

The biggest surprise, honestly, was Moorcock's writing.  Not that its bad, per se, but its slightly comic book-ish; pulpy, purple, it reminded me of something Stan Lee might have penned in a classic Marvel comic issue.  Moorcock's writing, here at least, doesn't have the resonance of Leiber or even Howard, the ornate charm of Vance or C.A. Smith, or even the plainspoken contemporary solidity of Karl Wagner.  Again, it's not that it's bad, but of all these pieces, Moorcock required the most shifting of my headspace from sophisticated and well-read middle-ager to wide-eyed high schooler.    


Now Leiber - that's s a very different story altogether.  For one thing, the Fafhrd/Mouser

books were the major component of that summer `80 reading binge.  I loved them.  I got all the way through Swords of Lankhmar before taking a break before diving into Swords and Ice Magic.  Leiber also goes way back for me.  The first serious adult SF I ever read was Gather Darkness, back in 7th grade.  

"Lean Times in Lankhmar" was one of the most memorable of the Fafhrd/Mouser stories - most of which are pretty memorable.  In part because its a departure - it splits the two heroes apart for the first time.  The second reason is that I remembered it as one of the funniest - and most of the stories are pretty funny.  

In "Lean Times", the Mouser and Fahrd go their separate ways; the Mouser becomes a sneaky enforcer for a low-level protections racket, while Fafhrd becomes acolyte to a martyr-based religion centered around a very minor god called Issek of the Jug.  The story, a long-ish one, tells what happens and how our heroes are somewhat unintentionally brought together once more, and ends with a side-splitting climax involving an avatar of Issek (how that comes about I won't give away) and one of the Mouser's failed Big Plans.  This may come in just behind Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings as the funniest fantasy I've ever read.  "Theive's House", one of the earliest F/GM stories, involves a raid on a ring of thieves who have an unsettling secret even they don't quite understand in their basement.  Its an exciting, witty and at times outright spooky (Leiber was a fine horror author as well) tale.
 
Now Howard is no surprise.  I've been a staunch defender of Howard for many years.  Every time I revisit a favorite Howard story, I'm impressed by the sheer power of his writing.  His best writing practically burns with dark and sorcerous energy.  I couldn't remember a damn thing about "A Witch Shall Be Born" except Conan getting crucified and chomping the vulture that tries to peck his eyes out.  Unfortunately, even though Howard was a fine writer, not all of his stories were classics.  The reason I couldn't remember anything else about "Witch" is that the crucifixion is the only really memorable part of the story, though it does feature an impressive villainess (the witch of the title); by and large the story is a bit of a throwaway, with an anticlimactic ending and a tacked-on monster that's a real letdown given some of the memorable horrors of Howard's best stories.  

"Turjan of Miir" and "Mazirian the Magician" are the opening volleys of Vance's classic The Dying Earth.  These are odd little stories, clearly heavily influenced by Lord Dunsany with a strong touch of Clark Ashton Smith in the elegant prose style, which is Smith-like but distinctly Vance's own - less spicy and dripping with acidic decadence.  Quite lovely stories that deal more with love and yearning than typical S&S adventure.  These didn't quite hit me as hard as they did when I last read them, at 17, only because I've read many of Vance's influences and antecedents, but their peculiar charm is still there.

I was a jaded 20 y.o. when I read Wagner's "Kane" books - all of `em.  And loved them.  I haven't revisited Kane much for a long time either, but the couple times I did I was always re-impressed.  

After the light-hearted Leiber story, "Raven's" was a bit like a sudden cold wind on a warm day.  Kane and some pals have been terrorizing a mountain community, raiding, raping and pillaging, for years.  Now with a heavy price on their heads, they're fleeing a battle with some mercenary vigilantes.  Kane is mortally wounded but, being Kane (he is immortal after all) is struggling towards recovery.  The bandit band is moving through hostile territory with their leader barely conscious and tied to his horse, with a mercenary crew on their tails, and its the Moon of the Demonlord, an annual event in which the Lord of Hell is said to roam the woods, hunting for souls with his great black hound.  Kane tells them to stop at Raven's Eyrie, a roadhouse in the area.  But it turns out Kane has some history with its owner … and not good history.  

Things get darker still as the story unfolds, as Raven's Eyrie turns out to be a full-on gothic nest, complete with secret passages and dungeons; mercenaries stalk and torture bandits, while Kane stalks them, and The Demonlord stalks the woods, black hound in tow.  Kane even experiences a bizarre vision of hell as he goes to his confrontation with The Demonlord.

This was a great ride.  Wagner was a fine writer, with a plain and straightforward style that suits the story perfectly.  The tale drips with dark, supernatural atmosphere.  Kane is easily the most complex sword`n'sorcery "hero" - Wagner uses Stanley Kubrick's trick of making his hero a despicable human being, but one we root for simply because the characters around him are even more loathsome.

Saving the most recent title for last, though this 1979 tale could hardly be called "new" (hard to believe, when I first read it in 1982, it most assuredly was on the new side).  "Shadowspawn" is an entry in the Thieve's World series, what would now be called a shared-world fantasy series set in and around a Lankhmar-ian town currently under occupation by the Roman-like Rankan empire.  Shadowspawn is the nickname of a young fellow named Hanse, a young thief with a little skill and a lot of chutzpah, who finds himself way over his head when he's employed to pull off a particularly nervy theft - only to find he's part of a subversive plan to humiliate the Ranken regent Prince Kadakithis - and then finds himself even further over his head when double-crosses and court intrigue come into play.  Offut's writing is plain and solid, with a touch of wit.  I started out not so sure, but the cleverness of the plot and the way Hanse goes from hero to chump is almost Leiber-worthy.

My takeaway: Leiber is the clear leader here, the wittiest and best writer.  Howard remains pretty much definitive sword`n'sorcery, Wagner comes in behind him, having taken the lessons of all the above (and below); Vance is so unique in his odd way as to be difficult to pin down - more like a treat than a meal but a pretty nice treat; still I think there might be more to it when I dig deeper into the book; Offutt is probably worth reading more by, and my interest in Thieve's World is re-piqued; Moorcock comes in the last, writing-wise, but is still fun to read.

Anyway, my dipping my toe in the sword`n'sorcery water was enough to lead to a decision; which is to make this my second summer of sword`n'sorcery.  Remember summer reading lists?  I made myself one, and here it is:

Robert E. Howard - "The Slithering Shadow", "The Jewels of Gwahlur", "The Scarlet Citadel", "Black Colossus", "Drums of Tombalku", "Shadows in the Moonlight"
Michael Moorcock - "The Dreaming City", "While the Gods Laugh" The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
Karl Edward Wagner - Darkness Weaves, Dark Crusade 
Jack Vance - The Dying Earth
Fritz Leiber - Swords Against Death
Anthology - Thieve's World
Gardner Fox - Kothar - Barbarian Swordsman
Andre Norton - Web of the Witch World
Lin Carter - The Enchantress of World's End
Leigh Brackett - The Sword of Rhiannon

So, it's going to be a summer full of swords, lusty broads, monsters and magic.  And a lot of fun, I imagine.  It'll keep me from thinking about the pandemic or the election anyhoo.  I'll post more thoughts here as I read along.

Special mention to the guys who do the Appendix N Book Club podcast, who got me interested in the Carter and Kothar books I would otherwise have likely passed on.

I Love BRP

I want to say something.  Because it needs to be said.

I love BRP.

I flat-out LOVE it.

It is the simplest, most logical, most straightforward, most elegant RPG system I have ever come across.  Period. 

If BRP was a dancer, it would amaze me with its moves every time I saw it dance.  If BRP was a musician, it would make my jaw drop every time I heard it play.

I’m being a little bit facetious and hyperbolic there, but really that does describe how I feel about it.

I love the big gold book.  One cover.  300+ pages and its got 99% of everything I need to run any kind of campaign I could want.  Say it’s too long, or too overwhelming.  Sorry.  I don’t agree.

And, by the way – I love the Resistance Table, and Strike Ranks.  Yes – I mean it.

A year or two ago, I acquired a huge cache of D&D books – from original to 3.5.  Oh, and Pathfinder stuff, too.  I got kind of intrigued.  And I decided to not only check them out thoroughly, but, for fun, to convert my favorite old AD&D characters, long ago mothballed,  to 3.5/Pathfinder.  And also to BRP.  It was an enlightening experience.

Certainly, 3.5 improves on a lot of things from clunky old AD&D.  It’s a lot more streamlined, quite a bit more logical and flexible, and it flows much more nicely.  

But as I began to adapt these characters, I found myself getting irritable.  It’s a lot of work.  All the tables, the feats, the skill system, the levels.  Why don’t the experience levels and the spell levels of magic-using characters sync up?  Wouldn’t it make more sense if a being 10^th level meant you could cast 10^th level spells?  Why is the combat system so damn complicated?  It still looks like miniature warfare rules.  In fact, it looks more like miniature warfare rules than the AD&D combat system!  I would never want to play it.

And then I converted them to BRP.  And it took mere moments.  Because there’s so much I don’t have to think about.  Break down the characteristics, calculate derived stuff, assign the skills and – boom – you’re done.  Nothing is lost – it’s all there – just a hell of a lot simpler.

A few years back I got GURPS Cabal, an interesting occult RPG setting, and looked at with an eye to doing a BRP adaptation.  The biggest revelation was the magic system. 

See, the Cabal magic system is built on occult arcana, and there’s a host of modifiers that will affect the outcome of any spell.  It takes a whole (lengthy) chapter to detail it all. 

And yet, looking at it, I realized that the entire thing could be boiled down to a single, simple table of modifiers.  One table. One page. 

Why do people like to complicate things?

That’s another thing I love about BRP.  It’s ridiculously simple to add to or subtract from.

If you must.

Still, I keep seeing posts about adding things, like “feats”. 

I can’t see the purpose – when I converted those old characters to 3.5 and then BRP, there was nothing in “feats” that couldn’t be covered by skills and skill levels.

Oh, “advantages/disadvantages” – I see that one come up a lot.  I once gave someone great offense on yog-sothoth.com when I said I couldn’t see any real benefit to adding them to the game.  And I can’t.

Hey don’t get me wrong – if you really like “feats” or “advantages/disadvantages” – by all means – add them.  But you’ll never convince me they’re necessary, or make the game better somehow.

Okay, I admit, I’m feeling a little bit like, well, let’s put it this way…

Lately I’ve been reading my way through the run of The Dragon magazine.  It’s sometimes hilarious to see Gary Gygax’s infamous rants about players monkeying with his game, foaming at the mouth over things like critical hits, hit locations, point-based magic systems, weapon proficiencies, monsters as player-characters, etc etc etc.  And how the game was perfect and you would screw it up royally if you changed or added any little thing (of course, strictly speaking Gygax wasn’t totally wrong – AD&D didn’t have a lot of flexibility and any changes always seemed to feel bolted-on) (I should also note that many rules-variants that appeared in The Dragon were pretty awful). 

Well, I won’t say BRP is perfect.  I don’t believe in perfect.  But its perfect for me.  It’s the closest thing to perfection I’ve seen.  I won’t say you can’t or shouldn’t mess with it – actually, it’s a lot easier to mess with than many (most? all?) other systems.  But I will say I don’t feel the need.

So, yeah, I love BRP.  And I’m going to play BRP.  And nothing else, really.  Because as I said – it can handle any setting or genre I care to throw at it.

I hope that Chaosium will continue to support it.  But if they don’t – well – for years before the big gold book came out, there was a community out there – well not really a community, just a bunch of us out there in the wilderness -  who basically adapted our own versions of it, cobbled together from RQ and COC and Stormbringer, et al.  We played BRP even though it was barely on the market. 

And so, I’ve done it before.  I’ll do it again if I must.

I love BRP (said it again) and I have great, great affection for Chaosium. 

But I’ve got what I need if they decide to shut the taps off.

And by the way, Chaosium – with all due respect, CoC didn't need "fixing".