The Blighted World of Zaoth

One of the projects I'm working on presently is a weird science-fantasy homebrew setting I'm calling the Blighted World of Zaoth.  As such, I've decided to create a separate blog to devote to the development of the world, and use my blog here to focus on my thoughts on DM theory, DnD in general, and what have you.  If you're interested, feel free to hop on over and take a peek.  It's a bit bare at the moment, but content will begin showing up quickly.


The Blighted World of Zaoth - Blog

My Appendix N Pot of Gold

Everyone in the OSR knows about Gary Gygax's Appendix N, but for those who aren't in the old school crowd, Appendix N was an added section of the old DMG in which Gygax listed an essential bibliography of authors and works which inspired the game of D&D.  As much as it pains me to admit, I have not read as many of the works from Appendix N as I would have liked over the years (Amber series, for example.  I know, I'm horrible.)  As such, like many of my fellow OSR bloggers, I have taken it upon myself to start cracking into these masterworks of sword and sorcery.  Most of the books are short, I presume because many of them are merely story collections placed into book form in the 60's and 70's (Fritz Leiber's collections for example.)  

Getting most of the books in Appendix N is not a difficult endeavor really.  Many are available for sale at affordable prices on amazon.  I'm not the very patient sort, though, and besides I wasn't particularly fond of paying a bunch of different shipping fees either.  So, this past weekend it dawned on me to check out one of the used book stores in my town, and it was the equivalent of walking into a dungeon with a hoard of treasure just laying there for the taking.  I poured over the dusty paperbacks in their sci-fi/fantasy section, my jaw dropping in amazement at the fact that I got much more than I bargained for on the trip.  Sure, I was certain I'd find a few of the books, but nothing prepared me for the fact that I'd find as many as I did.  By the end of my trip I was having to put some down to save for another visit.  Among the great finds I picked up were:

The Fallible Fiend by L. Sprague DeCamp

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

The Jewel in the Skull by Michael Moorcock

Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber

There were more I could have snatched up, but I want to get through a few of these before picking up the rest.  I'm really looking forward to diving into these.  The fact that most of them are pretty short will be a nice change considering my time for reading fiction is extremely limited anymore, and many books I read tend to be of great length anymore.  So, have any of you had any great Appendix N finds?  I'm sure many of the OSR bloggers out there have probably had many of these books on their shelves already for years.

Call of Cthulhu Anniversary

So, it dawned on me today at work that it was the 1st of February, which means time to flip my thinkgeek.com demotivation calendar in my cube. When I flipped it, I happened to notice this little gem penned in the awesome calendar.

That's right; this day 83 years ago the world was first introduced to the cult classic "The Call of Cthulhu" by H.P. Lovecraft. The calendar got it a bit wrong there. The story was written in '26, but didn't see publication until February of 1928.

Happy 83rd birthday you bulbous, tentacled beast of unimaginable horror, you! Cthulhu fhtagn!

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Pulp Fiction Friday: The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft

In this week's focus on the great pulp fiction era, I switch gears away from sword and sorcery and into the realm of horror.  Certainly most are familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, primarily his stories of the Cthulhu mythos.  Lovecraft has become a legendary figure among the geek crowd and gaming circles over the past twenty years or so, and with good reason.  His style of writing is reminiscent of the days of classic literature.  His ability to construct a sentence in such a way that it springs the experience of terror right off the page and into the reader's mind makes him a notable contributor to American letters.

"The Colour out of Space" was written and published in Amazing Stories magazine in 1927.  Lovecraft would go on to regard it as one of his favorite stories.  While the story has no mention of Cthulhu, or any of the other entities associated with the mythos, it still possesses all the elements of cosmic terror and alien horror.

The story is told through the perspective of an unnamed surveyor.  He has come to the small New England hamlet just outside the town of Arkham to survey the area for a reservoir development.  While walking through the hills and forests of the area, he gets the sense that the area is haunted.  Eventually he stumbles upon a large spot of gray ashen earth adjacent to the remains of an old house and a well.  Curious about what happened to cause such a thing, he begins questioning the people of Arkham, who speak little about those "strange days."

Eventually our narrator finds a man named Ammi Pierce, the only remaining settler in the area.  Ammi recounts the tale of a fallen meteorite on the farmland that is now called the "blasted heath" and how it affected and slowly destroyed Nahum Gardner and his family.

The story, while a bit slow to develop, builds up to a fantastic and terrorizing conclusion.  What I liked most about this tale was the way Lovecraft handled the monster, if you can call it any such thing.  Rather than describe the alien as humanoid, he continuously asserts how indescribable and incomprehensible the thing actually is.  It is apparently devoid of any actual physical appearance that can be described to the human eye.  Rather, it takes form in the shape of a vast array of colors of which are not in our own earthly spectrum of understanding. 

Lovecraft is a true master of the genre of horror and this tale is easily my favorite of his that I've read.  The full text is available for free, along with a lot of his other works, at manybooks.net.  So, download and dig in for a classic story sure to send chills down your spine and get the wheels of your mind turning.

Pulp Fiction Friday: The Phoenix on the Sword by Robert E. Howard

"The Phoenix on the Sword" was the first Conan story to be published in Weird Tales which began a long run of tales featuring the Cimmerian conqueror.  The story ran in the December 1932 edition of the pulp magazine. 

In the story, a middle-aged Conan finds himself as the king of a foreign land after slaying the former ruler and taking the crown.  A man by the name of Ascalante attempts to take the throne for himself and engages with four other nobles in a coup.  Ascalante has in his service a fallen wizard from another land whom, now powerless, has no other choice but servitude.  During the night Conan meets with an ancient sage named Epemitreus in a vision.  The sage marks Conan's blade with the symbol of a phoenix.

As the plot unfolds, Ascalante sends a group of men to attack Conan while he sleeps, but Conan, now awakened, is prepared for the attack.  Meanwhile the fallen wizard, having now recovered a powerful ring which was once stolen from him, has regained his power.  He summons a creature to attack Ascalante.  The creature attacks and kills Ascalante during the attempt on Conan's life.  Conan then slays the creature with the marked sword. 

The story is reprinted in The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, a collection of Howard's Conan tales, but can also be read online for free along with many of his other works, as I pointed out in last week's entry. 

Pulp Fiction Friday: The Shadow Kingdom by Robert E. Howard

This is the first installment of a weekly feature here on Black Hole Diaries I call pulp fiction Fridays.  Every Friday I will highlight a story from the pulp age (1920's and 30's Weird Tales and the like) from authors such as Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and others of the time period.  In cases where possible, I will provide links to the stories themselves as many of them can be read online for free.  Let us begin.


Before Robert E. Howard brought down the wrath of the mighty Conan and the Hyborian Age onto the pages of Weird Tales, he was busy spinning similar tales centering around Kull the Conqueror.  "The Shadow Kingdom" was first published in the August 1929 issue of Weird Tales magazine.  Although it didn't seem important enough for even a cover blurb at the time, the tale would go on to have a significant impact on fantasy fiction. 

Many people credit "The Shadow Kingdom" with creating what would later become known as the sword and sorcery genre of heroic fantasy fiction.  In the story, Kull, a barbarian from Atlantis, has seized the throne of Valusia through the might of his sword.  One night he is visited by a man from a rival tribe who reveals to him a plot on his life.  As the story unfolds, Kull discovers there is a secret power behind the scenes that has been working in Valusia for years through evil and treachery.  I won't give away any more of the plot for those who may not have read it yet.

Howard's use of words in this story is brilliant as his setup for the action packed climax.  The story, while probably not revealing anything new in the way of storytelling for seasoned readers in the genre, still manages to keep the reader engaged and turning the page until the grand finale.  Of course, most seasoned readers of fantasy literature have likely read "The Shadow Kingdom," but I often find that younger readers of the genre have allowed these foundational stories to escape them somehow.  Classics like "The Shadow Kingdom" are becoming lost along the way in the wake of modern day ground breakers like George R.R. Martin and R.A. Salvatore.  And that is a true shame considering so many of these stories can be found for free online.  In fact, that is where I first read "The Shadow Kingdom" myself.  The full text of this story, as well as many others by Mr. Howard, can be found by visiting ManyBooks.

If you're a fan of fantasy fiction, especially heroic fantasy or sword and sorcery, "The Shadow Kingdom" is an absolute must read.  Head on over to ManyBooks and dig in.  You'll be glad you took the time to read this classic of the genre.