Rock and Roll and RPGs

I feel like I’ve neglected this blog a bit. A few things started to take up more of my time, energy and attention and I wound up letting months and months slip by without an update. But I guess that’s ok; the main thing from my point of view is that I didn’t stop trying to channel creative energy. The vast majority of my efforts have been in the realm of music, so that’s what this post is about, mostly. That and a really harebrained idea I have for a game.

I can’t recall exactly when this happened, but sometime early in 2024 I switched from playing guitar to playing bass. I played a borrowed four string bass for a few months and then picked up a five string for myself. I like having that extra low range. I have really been enjoying it – it’s very different from guitar in terms of the approach and I’ve learned a lot as a result, and it has helped me hear new things in music, even in very familiar pieces. It helps that our drummer also has extensive experience with bass and has coached me some on how to change stylistically. You can really feel a difference in the music when the bass and drums, the kick especially, are locked in together. I am pretty sure that this is what makes a band sound “tight.”

The bass has a much larger scale than a guitar does, and as a result, it is physically more demanding to play. My fingers hurt for a while as I got used to the thicker strings. Also, when I finally picked up the guitar again after a couple of months, it felt almost childishly small to me. All of a sudden I was able to make four or five fret stretches pretty easily. And I’ve noticed during our less active periods that I have to stay in practice or I loose my chops much, much faster than I did for guitar – more endurance in the musculature is required, and if I don’t play for a few weeks, I wind up feeling like my arm or fingers are almost, like, paralyzed with exhaustion after playing something with a lot of fast downpicking.

About three months ago, we decided to record a few songs, essentially an EP. Our drummer has done music professionally since he was in his early twenties, and he has a pretty nice home studio so we did the actual recording there to save money that we are now using for post-production. We wrapped up the recording part itself a couple of weeks ago and it’s been sent to someone who really knows what they are doing for mixing and mastering and general post-production.

One of the things that I feel like I really grasped during this particular recording experience is the role of preproduction and how incredibly important it actually is. Typically I have always thought of preproduction as just rehearsing the songs into the ground and making sure that everyone knows where they need to be at all times, knows the pieces backwards and forwards. And that has actually been sufficient in the past, when all we were looking to do was capture what we do live. But it’s also the time to ensure that everyone is on the same page, and in a band like the one we are in now where we are doing some somewhat more complex arrangements than we could easily reproduce live, this really matters. The thing about working in the studio is that if there are differences of creative vision, they come right to the fore and can no longer be ignored during the recording process. That can be a real test of a band’s communication and interpersonal skills, since you often have multiple creatives with strong personalities and opinions who are involved in the disagreement. We did have some differences in our creative visions for some of the material this time around. Mostly with us it involved the keyboardist / singer wanting to add a LOT of instruments that are not normally part of our performance. He has a much different sense of dynamics than the other three of us, and we were sort of constantly having to restrain and reel him in. We worked through it, but there were some moments when I could tell it was stressful for various members of the band. It’s never fun to be told “Hey that idea you had? Yeah, we don’t like it,” you know? And for myself personally, I don't enjoy delivering this kind of news either, and would expect most people do not. In the future, I am going to do my best to make sure that this kind of thing gets hashed out during preproduction. I’m also going to make sure that during the recording process, if there are differences of opinion anyway, that the band has a “lead” we have agreed can make the final decision on something if we cannot otherwise reach consensus. A “ref” if you will. The drummer has also acted as a producer for a lot of other bands during his career, and he filled the same role for us. If he’s going to do that again, I’m going to make sure he has buy in from the entire band so that he can make the final decision on a dispute and once he does, we cease discussion and move on.

I don’t want to make it sound too dramatic, it really was not bad compared to some of the disputes I’ve been in with fellow band members. I will say though, that it takes a special kind of person to be a singer; they almost have to have a little ego. I used to have kind of a hate-on for singers and spent about 10 years playing in bands that were instrumental only as a result. It stemmed from several experiences I had at live shows I played where the band minus the singer humped in all the gear – our drummer at the time had a massive heavy metal kit with two bass drums and like 6 rack toms and probably as many cymbals and just a ton of hardware to rig it all up. This was also in the days where you had to have a decently powerful amp to play a live show, so those also weighed like eighty pounds – most house sound systems were much more primitive than they are now. So the band gets all this gear in, and set up, and we’re waiting for the singer. And he’s not there….and he’s not there…and it’s fifteen minutes to go live and he’s not there….and it’s ten minutes to go live and he’s not there….and it’s five minutes to go live and he shows up doped to the gills carrying a microphone. This happened more than once. Thankfully the guy we are working with these days is not like that at all.

Anyway, I think the recording should be ready within the next couple of months. It’s just a little thing, hardly even an EP, two songs at about five minutes, two that are around a minute and a half, and one that is about twenty seconds. The singer wanted to do thirty songs, and given that we ran into some of this stuff, I am really, really glad we didn’t try to do that! We got mixes on the first few short pieces back earlier this week, and I am hugely impressed with the guy doing that work. He’s really managed to get the best out of the recordings. Of course, I am of the (admittedly biased) opinion that he had really solid material to begin with, but still – given that these were just little throwaway things, I am really pleased with how they sound and am eager to hear what he does with the longer, more complex, more serious stuff. There is probably not much call for it, but I will post links when the stuff is ready. One tune in particular might be of interest to people familiar with this blog; the lyrics were written by the singer after he read a short story of mine posted here, and then we co-wrote the music. My original inspiration for the story was a sort of amalgam of real world stuff that has kind of haunted me for years and ideas from the Starling and Shrike world that Dave (aka Her Christmas Knight, who runs the Grand Commodore blog) created. It’s been really interesting to watch how one idea can spin out and serve as inspiration for multiple projects, even cross-genre. The same kind of thing happened a long while ago working with this particular singer where I wrote a short story and he wound up writing lyrics based on the story. That tune musically quoted Lovely Rita Meter Maid and Sympathy for the Devil (at the same time, no less!) and then went into a dirgelike metal thing. The overall effect was a little Helter Skelter, like the acid trips of the Summer of Love gone very, very bad indeed and devolved into the Tate-LaBianca murders. I’m really quite fond of it.

Aside from the main band, I’ve started fooling around with some ideas for a two-piece side project with the guitarist. Heavy, super bleak industrial stuff reminiscent of Streetcleaner-era Godflesh. It gives me an excuse to tune the 5th string on the bass even lower and allow all the nasty feedback I generate when I use distortion to bleed through ungated. That side project is in its infancy right now and it may discontinue before much happens with it, but we will see. At the very least it’s forcing me to learn a lot more about drum machines and MIDI programming than I have ever bothered with in the past.

SO: There are some really interesting parallels between playing RPGs and being in a band. The most obvious one is that you’re all trying to imagine and create something together, and it’s very easy to think of a band as a bunch of PCs. There are also both roles and rules. The role parallel is pretty easy to envision I think – drummer: maybe the fighter, bass player: cleric, guitar player: rogue, singer: magic user. Of course these could be interpreted differently, and there is overlap, and multi-classing, and you might wind up with like an electronic digeridoo sub-class, but I think most people would agree that these parallels make sense. Like a party of PCs, a band must often cooperate if they are to achieve the best result; when that result is achieved, whether it is in an RPG or a band, there is a sense not just of getting to a flow state, but of arriving at a group flow state, which is just an amazing feeling, exponentially better for every additional person who gets there together. There’s also the potential for PvP, particularly if the singer shows up late and so fucked-up they can’t function. I’ll admit I’m holding on to a bit of resentment there.

There are also rules. Even in the most avant-garde bands, and those most dedicated to improvisation, there is usually some structure. One project I was a part of (which was actually a very very long running thing) there was one rule, which was: if you know how to play it, you’re not allowed to touch it. A lot of people would call what that project did noise rather than music, but I have a very loose definition of music – “sounds arranged for the purpose of listening to.” And by that definition what we were doing was certainly music, as well as just a lot of fun. There were some absolutely beautiful, happy accidents during improv sessions with that group where things came together even though no one knew how to play whatever instrument they were holding, if it even was an instrument – sessions with that band used to begin with someone emptying a box full of toys that made weird noises into a central area in the middle of the room. This pile consisted of everything from a kid’s laser gun that made zap sounds to an old 8 track machine to an out of tune harpsicord, to a child’s xylophone. Once we used the spring from a garage door to make absolutely heinous crashing sounds. Probably we are lucky it didn’t snap and take someone’s head off as it unwound.

But in what most folks think of as music, there are more and more rules - typically you need to play in the same key for example, and stay in time, and you usually don’t want the bass to be louder than the vocals. And there are quite obvious skill checks when it comes to playing the music, but not so obvious ones as well: I’ve watched more than one person fail a wisdom check by putting a beer on top of their amplifier which then vibrated until it tipped over and spilled the contents into their gear. To continue the D&D metaphor, one could think of different bands as different parties. And I guess the city or area in which a band plays is the campaign world, whether that’s the local suburban VFW, clubs in the city, or, at the superstardom level, the world.

Because of all these parallels between being in a band and playing RPG’s I have had this recurring idea to write an RPG where the characters are musicians and their enemy is possibly the crowd itself. I was initially thinking the enemy would be other bands, but I like the idea of the crowd being the foe. Somewhat related, buried in the root for the word “monster” is “monstrare” – which among other things, means “to show.” I kind of like that.

Each kind of musician (drummer, guitar player, etc) would have an RPG analog level and techniques they could learn as they leveled up, almost like spells or feats. The venue (the “dungeon” analog) can make a massive difference, like maybe one place is a total shithole that pays in pitchers. I played a venue (which shall remain nameless) like this once, and wound up ordering a pitcher of gin, which seemed like a very good idea at the time, but in hindsight (speaking of failed wisdom checks) was unwise. I did not have a great performance that particular night (though I managed not to fall off the stage either, which was actually kind of difficult given that it was split by a lane leading to the bathroom down the middle). But another venue might give you 10% of the door or something, which could be used like treasure.  And gear would be like, well, gear – swords and armor and stuff. I guess the lawyers might come after me if I use brand names like Fender and Gibson but maybe a Gibson 335 gives you a +2 skill check when playing rockabilly or using the chicken picking technique, where something like a BC Rich Warlock or Mockingbird gives you that kind of bonus if you’re playing death metal, or shredding – something along those lines, anyway! I’ll do my best to work out something that makes sense.

If this thing stops living entirely in my head and I start to actually put down anything solid, I’ll throw it up here. And if anyone knows of anything out there already that is like this, I’d love to hear about it – I’m aware of something out there called Deathbulge that looks kind of amusing and similar enough that I may abandon this entire idea completely, but I don’t know very much about it - if anyone has played it, I would love to hear what it was like!

In September of 2015, Motorhead kicked my ass.  I really wish I'd seen them earlier.

Lessons Learned – Ending One Campaign and Thinking about the Next

Fritz Schwimbeck

Could it be? A post that’s actually about gaming?

A couple months ago, we finished a campaign that I had been DMing since summer of 2019. It lasted about four and a half years. During most of that time we met either weekly or biweekly, though there were a few pauses here and there that took a month or two, mostly when I was scrambling to get the next adventure finished enough to actually play. I’ve had a few campaigns that lasted a decently long time – a couple that went over a year – but I think this was the longest. I’m gearing up to start another campaign with the same group after a half year pause, and I’m looking forward to it. It will be another 5e campaign, this time beginning in the Underdark.

To be honest, I don’t really like 5e. But it’s what this group wants to do, and I’m ok enough with it to run the game even though I’m not a huge fan of the ruleset. Last time around I managed to convert a few OSR adventures into 5e – Deep Carbon Observatory and Maze of the Blue Medusa specifically and I think I managed to make them work ok. My players loved those, anyway. I also ran a number of adventures I created from whole cloth, like Facility Designate 339-19.

The premise this time will be that the PCs have just escaped enslavement by the Illithids, and are lost in the Underdark with nothing but their loincloths. Perhaps one or two of them might have some sort of tool they were given for work – a pick, maybe a hammer or a rope. That’s it.

I wanted to take a little time to reflect on the last campaign and what I learned from it.


Commitment is Important

This might seem self-evident, but in order to have a campaign, you need people who are bought in and committed to showing up. It is *difficult* to get a group of adults together on anything remotely resembling a regular basis. This means that people actually have to make the game a priority. Not priority one, of course, but they have to be willing to forego other things in order to make the game. Everyone is going to have one-off instances where they can’t make it for some reason, and that’s totally fine, but in general, you need people who will show up. I have that with this group, as evidenced by the length of time it lasted and the very regular sessions, and I’m hugely grateful that I do; it’s the main reason I’m willing to compromise on the ruleset.


Plot and Player Agency

I did have a loose “plot” in my last campaign – a trap I think DMs like me who also love fiction fall into very easily - and ultimately, that plot wound up taking over and driving player choice in a way that felt unsatisfying to me. I think this was my single biggest mistake, though I have done similar things in the past without the same results and I really didn’t intend for the PCs to get locked into the “story” the way they did. A weird thing – it felt almost like my players *wanted* to be railroaded a little? Though if asked, I don’t think they would say that I railroaded them at all. Several times, I tried HARD to open things up and let them do whatever their characters wished, but they seemed to kind of stall out when I did so. It really felt as though they were relying on me to provide the impetus for their actions, and wouldn’t do much of anything until I offered the next “plot point” at which time they would glom on to that, even if there were other, very obvious, adventure hooks that had been presented beforehand. And I think this is part of why having a “story” in a campaign is so insidious in the way it begins to supplant both player and DM agency.

I never thought much about DMing before honestly - it was just something I did. Certainly I've heard much more from other DM's previous to this upcoming campaign than any other I have in the past, and I took what they had to say seriously, even though, it is, at the end of the day, just a silly game.  After pondering all of that, I think there are ways to structure play and campaign such that it encourages - almost forces -  the players to drive. I am not going to provide any overarching “plot” or “story” to drive action at all. There will be no apocalypse to avert and there will be no “big bad,” though the PCs might have rivals. For starters at least, the “story” will be one of simple survival - they have to figure out how to get food, water, and shelter, and initially even getting a piece of gear should feel like a big achievement, or at least that is the intention.

But they will be free to decide what to do - they can decide to stay in the Underdark or they can decide they want to try to leave (though if they opt for the latter, the campaign is liable to become the “story” of their journey to the surface world). The problem of survival doesn’t go away, but it may get easier. To begin, I will have a general map of the immediate Underdark area out to maybe 50 miles in every direction, and will create sites of interest on that map. I’ll create the first few encounter areas for the sites of interest but won’t fully flesh those out until they engage with one of them (otherwise the work will be endless). The world will be built out enough that they will immediately have several options among points of interest to engage with, and they get to decide how they want to engage with those points of interest – attack, speak with, sneak by, back off and go elsewhere, etc. Rinse and repeat this as they move through the bowels of the earth. The upshot should be that at each point along the way, it will be a player decision as to broadly what happens next, not a DM decision, while also keeping the amount of prep I have to do to something I can manage.


XP for Gold

In the past I’ve done a straight XP for overcoming encounters system, and that’s what I did last time as well. The “encounter” wasn’t always monsters and my players didn’t necessarily have to overcome the encounter through combat – they simply had to figure out a way to overcome whatever challenge was stopping them from achieving their goals. On a philosophical level, I like this. It has always struck me as kind of realistic – people grow from difficulties and challenges, after all.

I think this time around I’m going to either hybridize that with an XP-for-gold system, or use a pure XP for gold system. Noisms has a number of excellent posts that point out why this system is effective – here’s one that explores a number of other ideas as well and that I think is great reading for anyone considering running a D&D game.


Rolling Dice in the Open

I’m more and more a fan of this, and again noisms has written a couple of posts on why doing this is a good thing. I have gotten very used to and comfortable with the “DM screen” over the course of my “career” as a ref/ DM, and I still think some rolls should be secret – things where the player was not meant to know exactly what the outcome was, like hiding, for example ("Yep, you're pretty sure no one can see you!"), but I will roll anything where the results are immediately relevant in the open where players can see the result.


Combat

I had one guy who was brand new to RPGs and two relative newbies last time, but even so, I was really forgiving in terms of letting the group discuss strategy and ask questions during combat. This wound up having two effects – one of which was that combat felt bogged down (in a game where it’s already rather slow, especially at higher levels) and it also made the PCs more effective than they really should have been. To simulate the stress of combat more effectively I am considering implementing a couple of rules. First, the only person allowed to talk during a PC’s turn is that PC. Second, if you can’t tell me what your PC is doing in ten seconds, I am moving on and will come back to you after whoever is next in initiative order has had their turn. If you can’t tell me what your dude is doing in ten seconds, they aren’t doing anything, they are just goggling at the violence that has exploded around them.

I will not be tailoring encounters to the party’s “power level” – rather, the creatures they encounter will be much more a product of the environment / ecosystem, and if that means they stumble into something incredibly nasty, so be it.


Wandering Monsters

I was also really, really forgiving about wandering monsters last time. Again, I had some really new players, but at this point they know the game pretty well and all of them know going into this campaign that the gloves will be off. Wandering monster rolls are one of the rolls that will be made in the open. Also, similar to the point above about combat, if the characters are not in a secure location and they are conducting an hour long strategy session, I am rolling for wandering monsters. If they are discussing killing the monster in the next room and that monster has a means of hearing or detecting them and getting to them, they will probably be interrupted. I didn’t do this nearly enough.


Character Creation

I’m restricting certain classes, though some of them might be available if they are acquired diegetically (warlock, maybe). Wizards and clerics will be hampered initially by the lack of a holy symbol or spellbook, but everyone will be hampered by lack of gear to begin with. It will be up to them to find and or make the things they need. I’m considering races right now, and I’ll probably restrict those to human, dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling; I might also allow certain underdark races or variants like duergar or grimlock – I haven’t made a final decision. I’m also still vacillating on how I want characters to roll attributes. I am really attracted to the idea of 3d6 in order in a lot of ways. I feel like clever players instinctively use low attribute scores to help create a PC’s personality, and that ultimately this winds up being a more enjoyable experience for them even though many of them resist it. Last, I am seriously considering implementing a character “tree” or stable, ala Dark Sun, as this campaign is likely to be quite deadly.


Other Stuff

Aside from my own ailing mind, I will probably use 3rd edition’s Underdark and Patrick Stuart’s Veins of the Earth as my main sources for monsters, encounter areas, and general weirdness.

From where they start, they will be near a forgotten duergar tomb, a giant web hanging over a bottomless chasm, a beholder lair, a grimlock outpost/village (might use Skychasm or at least parts of it for that – if you are not familiar with it, go have a look, it is seriously good), and a boiling subterranean lake and series of hot springs heated by a magma chamber (kind of a tribute to White Plume Mountain). Some of these could make a decently defensible base of operations, if they want to do that.

I might well implement the alignment-changing resource shortage rules from Dark Sun as well.

Speaking of… I’ll leave on this note I guess: while thinking about all this and thinking about the Dark Sun campaign setting, I had this weird vertiginous moment where it felt like Dark Sun was a through-a-mirror-darkly kind of reflection of our own world. Anyway, it feels weirdly prescient and relevant now in a way that it didn't when it was first released and most D&D settings never do.  I may have to explore this further in future posts.

The Moon is a Sorcerer - Effects of Lunar Light or Lack Thereof

"At the end of the lunar cycle there are two or three nights of complete darkness, called the kamwonag’anga “the one seen by the practitioner.”  Only those with a ken extended through the knowledge and use of magical medicines can see the moon then; it is “there” but “invisible” to ordinary folk.  The moon is a “sorcerer” at this time, using its own remarkable powers to effect passage from the eastern horizon where its last sliver was observed to the western where the new moon will appear.  Fish and game may be seen in extraordinary numbers during these days of tenebrous nights, but as one man said, “the moon is a great sorcerer, he is bad, he closes the game and fish and prevents us people from catching them.”  What is more, lions and other dangerous beasts “wander about excessively” then.  Moonlight is auspicious and the personified moon “beneficent,” showing man his path through the woods.  For a few days, however, the moon is a “sorcerer” and denies man “his” light and the fish and game so tantalizingly, so tauntingly placed before him." - Perfect Lions, Perfect Leaders by Allen F. Roberts

 

The moon is a sorcerer ... when I first read the passage above, this phrase captured my imagination.  What does the moon do when he is a sorcerer?  What does he want?  Many cultures seem to have associations with moonlight and madness, but what about the lack of moonlight?  The time when the moon is invisible, when he is teleporting.  What is it like to be a practitioner of the art, one who is attuned to the moonlight and what it shows?  Roll a d8 or chose one of the effects below depending on the phase of the moon.

Full

1. The moon becomes a giant eye that stares incessantly at the party no matter where they go. Practitioners of sorcery are aware of this. Before announcing this effect, have all players who can use magic give you a taboo of some kind. Then reveal that the moon is watching them and they know they will be severely punished if they break these taboos or allow anyone they associate with to do so.  Follow through if needs be.
2. Invisible beings are sometimes caught in a moonbeam; they are easier for a mage to see.
3. One magic-using PC becomes maniacally obsessed with silver. They will go to great lengths to obtain silver that they see and take risks to acquire it – consider temporarily changing their alignment with regards to silver to Chaotic Evil (perhaps borrowing from Dark Sun’s water rules). They may steal from NPCs and even PCs if they think they can do it without being caught. If they have a silver weapon they will use this over all others; if they don’t have one, they will try to acquire one, etc.
4. The full moon descends to the planet and chases those who use magic.  If they are caught they are utterly destroyed.  The specifics of this (how big the moon is when it comes to the planet, how fast, if there is a way to defeat it and how, etc) are left to the ref.
5. The party becomes lost. Somehow they wind up in an area they cannot recall getting to – a place that is disconnected from the area they have explored. They recall walking along feeling slightly hypnotized, just putting one foot in front of another and following the person in front of them, not paying attention, lost in their own thoughts as they plod along, but suddenly all of them realize they are somewhere they have not been before, and they stop and look at each other – “I was following you.” “But I was following you!” In truth whoever was first in the marching order was following the moon.
6. The moon takes a piece of gear from all magic using characters in trade for its light. This piece of gear simply vanishes.
7. This moonlight, which is only visible to practitioners of sorcery, is attracted to particular people and “sticks” to them, so that they are illuminated with a soft glow for the duration of the night. They are easier to hit with missile weapons (+2 on rolls to hit) but shed light as the spell in a 30 foot radius. This is not dispel-able and is not affected by anti-magic etc. Roll some percentage for party members as well as those the party encounters to determine if the light is attracted to them in this way (or just determine it arbitrarily).
8. Sorcerers are able to see future events; one party member is selected and can ask the ref for the likely effects of a particular action once in the time from sunset to sunrise.

Gibbous

1. Under the strange light of the gibbous moon, the PCs look, sound, and act …. Different. Players swap charisma scores in some randomly determined way.
2. Sorcerers can see the strange marks which appear on a PCs skin when it is viewed under the moonlight. This could be a message of some kind, or it could be Aklo or written Theolal or a map or it could be nothing at all, just a strange patten caused by the PC resting their flesh against something. The marks may or may not be permanent.
3. The moonlight makes an object “come to life” – it becomes animate, conscious and able to speak, have opinions, etc. The animating force dissipates when the sun rises. This object is only animate to those with the power to see.
4. Sorcerers are more conscious of ambushes and the light makes them easier to see. The party is surprised half as much as is usual, and, if an enemy party has a magic user, the party surprises them half as much as usual.
5. A single time during the gaming session, a single PC sorcerer is able to detect ALL of the traps and tricks within sight range as they are revealed in the gibbous light (note the moonlight must shine upon these things in order to reveal them). If this ability is not used, it fades with the sunrise.
6. A ghost follows the party around for the night, visible to those with the power to use magic; it isn’t a “monster” as such, and can only impact the material world with much mental effort, and even then the effects are subtle. It might be able to whisper a word in a PC’s ear, or distract them at an inopportune moment. It has very limited poltergeist abilities – it cannot move anything heavier than a pound / half a kilogram. But it could potentially latch or unlatch a lock, or otherwise help or interfere with the PCs. The Ref can determine if this ghost is from someone the PCs encountered in the past – but it does not have to be.
7. Animals are inexplicably friendly towards the party, even those who might otherwise attack them or run from them.
8. If they concentrate, sorcerers are able to see through barriers such as walls if they are thin enough. “Thin enough” is whatever the ref says it is.

Half

1. The moon affects the value of coins. Roll a d4 – on a 1 or 2, they are worth only 50% as much as normal; on a 3 or 4, they are worth 150%. The value of the coins goes back to normal at sunrise, and the change is not obvious to the PCs; it only comes into play if they decide to buy something that evening.
2. At precisely midnight, time stops for everything and one except one random magic using PCs. This lasts for ten minutes, then time resumes its normal flow.
3. PCs feel hypnotized and possessed, as though an intrusive alien presence is influencing their actions. Players swap character sheets and play a different character until sunrise.
4. All written material becomes unintelligible to sorcerers under the light of the half moon.
5. Magic-using PCs become two dimensional for the night and are thus able to fit into the thinnest of cracks – they can thus slide under doors, into cave crevices, etc. However, they are incredibly ineffective combatants when two dimensional, since they have to adjust the angle of their attack in ways not at all familiar to them, and completely whiff three quarters of the time or more.
6. Spells fail a quarter of the time, and another quarter of the time they are twice as potent (in terms of effect, duration, etc).
7. There is an unusual and colorful indicator of the party’s route for the night. For example, butterflies that glow with moonlight follow the party wherever they go, or small black flowers sprout where they have stepped.
8. A mage can see the true nature of the world under the light of this moon. Such a reality is crippling, throwing the PC into an existential crisis. They are either paralyzed with the utter meaninglessness of it all (50%) or they suddenly see no sense in the survival instinct and will hurl themselves into danger no matter how foolhardy (50%).

Crescent

1. This light rubs against blades borne by obeah-men and practitioners and sharpens them until they will cut light.  Up to the ref if they implement this as a damage bonus or in a more narrative way.
2. Normally docile animals become aggressive towards mages, who are attacked by possums, or racoons, or deer, or domestic cats, etc.
3. The radiance of the moon makes one randomly chosen PC magic user recognized and adored by nearly all NPCs. They are famous and largely admired, though no one they speak with can tell them exactly why. A few NPCs might loathe the character and party, again for undiscernible reasons. In any event, they will be recognized, and an NPC might start conversing with them by saying, “oh my god, it’s YOU!” or “oh, it’s you.”
4. The light reveals vulnerabilities to the mage. The threat range of their critical hits is doubled.
5. The thin light of the crescent moon is surprisingly heavy – sorcerers are unable to stand, and may only crawl about on all fours until the sun rises.
6. Sorcerers are unable to heal while exposed to direct moonlight.
7. Invisible creatures are fully visible to mages. Visible creatures are invisible.
8. Any magic user who is under the effects of extreme stress (including combat) has a ten percent chance to begin randomly teleporting once per round (DM could use blink spell or something else as they prefer).

New

1. This moonlight is nonexistent and thus mages no longer need to use their muscles to hold up the light of the moon. They can use this muscle power for other purposes – refs could give a small bonus to overall STR for the night or allow a PC to complete some feat of str successfully once, even if it seems unlikely.
2. Sorcerers in the party are unable to see attackers. These are not invisible. It is just that the PCs cannot see them; they are hidden by the sorcerer moon.
3. A mage is able to see lies under the dark clouds of the new moon.  What these look like (and what they might be able to do) is up to the ref.
4. Dead sorcerers left under the empty night sky from dusk until dawn are resurrected at sunrise.
5. An important mage (PC or NPC) disappears and is nowhere to be found until a sliver of the moon is visible again.
6. The Gods are paying attention. Calls for divine intervention are twice as likely to be successful, and sometimes a god may be called even inadvertently by using their name.
7. From dusk until dawn, sorcerers are able to speak fluently with the dead.
8. Sorcerers can see secrets. Magic using PCs pick another player and state something general their character suspects of that player’s character. This turns out to be true in some way, though it may not be in an obvious or expected way. For example, Player A may say “Character A suspects that Character B is not who he seems to be.” It is then up to Player B to make that true through play; perhaps player B’s character is secretly in league with forces opposed to the party, or perhaps they are a permanently shapechanged animal in human form, or are, unwittingly, the prince or king of some obscure principality even though they are currently a pauper and vagabond.

How Do You Know it's a Drummer at your Door?

The knock speeds up and he comes in off-time!

Ba-dum tiss?  Ba-dum tiss.

 

I’ve always wanted to do a series on musicians that I think are just fucking amazing.  My criteria for choosing a musician is somewhat fluid, but mostly has to do with how distinctive I think they are stylistically.  It also has to do with guys I think might be slightly underappreciated for what they do. But the main thing is that all of these guys have a really distinctive style – as soon as you hear them you can tell who it is.

Drummers are up first.

 

Andrew Dymond / Andre Diamant (DURACELL)

This British-French kid uses a triggered kit hooked up to a synth and becomes a one man band playing hardcore punk chiptune stuff from video games that were popular when I was a kid.  Which is cool enough, but holy fucking SHIT the energy he brings is just amazing.  This is the first thing I ever saw with him in it, and the sound quality is a little rough, but I love it for so many reasons.  First of all, you can clearly see him playing (for a given value of clearly – he’s often moving so fast that shit’s just a blur).  You also see him adjust his setup from time to time, which I find endearing.

But last and not least, even if you deleted all the triggered stuff, this would be some of the fastest and most intense drumming I think I have ever been exposed to, and I spent large parts of the 90’s at death metal shows.

Seriously, if you can’t be bothered to watch anything else, 8:00 to 8:40.  He just EXPLODES, what he does here is drumming PERFECTION.  It’s better in context and I encourage you to watch the whole fucking thing, but if you don’t listen to anything else from this post, make it that, holy fuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QfwKqy3LyY

 

Billy Cobham (MILES DAVIS, MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA)

Billy has been on too much stuff to list it all here.  He was the drummer for most of Miles Davis’ later stuff and worked with Stanley Clarke (who we might talk about a little when I get to bass players).  Hell he even worked with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ, so he’s not exactly underappreciated, but he is absolutely worth knowing about.  Again, I’ve chosen something that is incredibly fast – but Billy has a really light touch and it sounds crisp instead of heavy (and I mean that in the best way possible).  There’s a bit at 4:19 where he starts hitting a china cymbal repeatedly and you wonder where the fuck he was keeping the extra arm.  If you like this and want to see him actually play, look up the live version of Awakening, same band – The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boOu0L45M44

Damon Che (DON CABALLERO)

Damon’s main band is Don Caballero – these are the first guys I ever heard the term “math rock” applied to.  He’s nicknamed the Octopus and it will be easy to see why.  The first time I saw these guys live I was watching him set up.  Almost all drummers have a rug they put their bass drum or drums on, usually with a rubber bottom, to keep them from scooting away (or at least all the drummers I ever played with had something like this).  One of the guys I played with a lot used to weight down the rug with cinderblocks.  He played really hard.  Che is the first drummer I ever saw who nailed his rug to the stage. There are so so many things I could pick from for this band that showcase how insanely talented this guy is.  It is really really hard for me to pick just one.  And I'll probably come back to them when I talk about guitar players - Ian Williams, who went on to play with Battles, is almost as distinctive as Damon is. The ability of these guys to not listen to each other while they listen to each other is amazing. As with all of Che's playing, this is a moving animal, never settled, always twisting and turning and looking about itself for something to sink its teeth into, and I love that about his work. And the intro count in this thing is one of my favorite little moments in rock:

Guitarist: One!

Drummer: One!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPmkQ_heOME

OK, ok one more from Che because he’s that good.  Also the song title is fuckin great and if you get through this you’ll understand the tiss and the ting a little better than you do now, I promise.  The ride cymbal that kicks in around 3:16ish - oof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcb8aov3zt0

 

Joe Warlord (USURPER, BONES)

Last one up for now will be Joe Schafer, also known as Joe Warlord.  I will have to admit a bias here – the guys in this band were a couple of years older than me and most of the folks I hung out with, but they are from the same general area and went to the first high school I got expelled from, and I have very fond memories of hanging out in their jam room and smoking pot at like 14 years old.  They always played an incredibly heavy brand of metal, and as a kid I was really really into aggressive music, metal and punk especially.  They went on to do a kind of semi-pro thing, a lot of touring with bands like Cradle of Filth, Christian Death, and Mercyful Fate, as well as another band that came out of the local scene, Macabre.  Anyway, Joe is a fucking beast.  You could pretty much pick anything they have done and it would be remarkable, but this thing is nuts, especially towards the end.  Even if you don’t care for metal, I encourage you to kind of bite down and listen from 6:30 on, and pay close attention to the change up around 7:20 when it goes double-time.  It is inhumanly fast.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0nTBUFIq0s

That's it for now - not sure whether it'll be bass players or guitarists next.  Probably bass players.

Last Dungeon

A while back, a couple of guys at work approached me one day and basically said “We heard you were a fun DM will you run a game for us?” They wanted to play D&D.  Two of them had played in the past, but were pretty new to it, two had never really played any RPGs.  I thought it would be fun and expected it to last a couple of months.  They wanted to us the newest rules, and I had no major objections.  I didn’t mind giving it a try, especially considering that I really didn’t expect it to last a long time.

That was over four years ago.  At this point the characters are level 15 (some other time I may do a really whiny post about high level play in 5e), and I have got them to what will be the final dungeon in this campaign.  The first adventure was a hire from a pig farmer who had been missing livestock and it turned out he had an orc problem.  Then there was a haunted manse (basically I took the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh and changed it quite a bit so that it was more to my taste and fit the 5e ruleset).  A couple of custom dungeons followed that, and then a trip to the Deep Carbon Observatory.  After DCO, I ran two more custom dungeons, a weird one that was a bunch of towers and another one that was an attempt to do horror in D&D and which worked fairly well!  I got my players to buy in, and it was a lot of work, but I split them up and ran one on one sessions for a few weeks until they met up again.  I did a write up on this blog of that one, called Facility Designate 339-19, and posted a link to a google drive folder with all the material in it.  After that I took them through another custom dungeon and then I dumped them into the Maze of the Blue Medusa, which was fun to run.  Then, the dungeon I ran for them just before this was mostly procedurally generated and combat heavy.  It was ok, and I think the players had fun with it, but it was not my finest moment, and I’d like to end things with something much more substantial and memorable.  So I am back to planning and am taking the time to write up the last dungeon.

I have some maps, and the monsters have been more or less determined, but I’d really like to put in some interesting / fun puzzles and traps and encounters that need some thought.  I’ve been scouring the internet in search of stuff like this, but if anyone out there has good resources, or just a favorite trap / encounter / puzzle from an RPG, please tell me about it, either in the comments or you can email me (dsulli42 at geemail dot com).  I’d love to hear about stuff you found particularly memorable.

One idea that I love, (not mine, but I can't recall where I saw it) but will probably not use in this particular dungeon (it’s hard to see how it would fit in) – is a dungeon where the players have the ability to change the seasons to change conditions or where the dungeon is on some sort of accelerated seasonal change (each season is six hours or something).  Changing to winter may freeze a previously uncrossable pool of water, spring may melt ice that was blocking a doorway, summer may allow the “sun’s” rays to be focused to light a fire in a place that cannot otherwise be accessed and which triggers something else to happen, or the autumn may reveal a necessary clue previously hidden by leaves or hanging ice.  I am going to use this SOMEWHERE – probably in one of the next campaigns I run, probably for lower-level characters (no higher than four or so) – but it simply doesn’t fit right now and the PCs have too many alternate ways to solve problems like these.

Anyway, I would like to give this party a memorable last dungeon and I would love love love to hear one or two of your favorite traps, tricks, puzzles, or encounters.

 

It Ain’t Alright

The band I played that gig with back in September has continued to play and it has been really rewarding and honestly a lot of fun.  We did a LOT of recording at one point, more than a hundred songs worth, and one of the guys in the band decided to remaster some of the old stuff.  It’s come out pretty nice! At some point all this stuff will be up on Spotify, but I wanted to share a track and decided on this tune, called It Ain’t Alright, which goes into a cover of Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive and has a nice period of that funky drug experience music I love so much before resolving in what, to me at least, is an incredibly satisfying way.  I had nothing to do with writing this thing – I think it was composed by the guitar player for Rights of the Accused for a band our keyboard player was in with him called Think Freud (I think – though I could be wrong, and I think the name of the original band was why we added the Interstellar Overdrive cover), and of course Interstellar Overdrive was written by Pink Floyd.  I used to LOVE playing this thing (sans the Floyd cover).  It’s really simple and even drunk it wasn’t that hard and I liked staggering all over the stage while we played this thing (a far cry from my most recent gig where I was still so out of practice all I could do was lock eyes on the fretboard to try to make sure I didn’t screw up – but if we play again, that will have changed, I'm finally starting to get back to where I was).

The beginning of this is almost like Anarchy in the UK, and I think that’s probably intentional.  A few other reasons I always liked this one - first, you can tell it was written by a guitar player.  Being that the guy who sings and plays keys wrote a lot of the material we play, it noticeably lacks things like a fucking E flat (typically I use standard tuning to E and whenever an E flat comes up I have to go up the neck when I want to go down and I often wind up restructuring what I am playing entirely to account for this). Second, you can be as aggressive or as laid back as you want with the picking.  It's hard to hear on the recording because we are using so much distortion, but once the intro walkdown is finished, Leanne (other guitarist at the time) and I are both playing a da-digadiga-da-digadiga-da da pattern that's pretty goddamn vigorous, but it sounds just fine with slower picking if you run outta gas.

Instant Kafka · It Ain't Alright - Interstellar Overdrive

https://soundcloud.com/dan-sullivan-977382186/it-aint-alright-interstellar-overdrive

I don't think I can overstate how good it has been for my overall mood and mental health to have this outlet.  We've been working up a bunch of new material, which has been really engaging and satisfying.  We're not at the point where it's worth laying anything down other than on a phone or something just to capture the ideas, but we're getting close with  few things. But if anything is gonna keep me out of the hole I usually find myself in at this time of year, it'll probably be playing stupidly loud rock n roll.

Astrology in RPGs

Has anyone heard of a system that uses astrology to determine character stats and characteristics? Wait.  Let me say first that I think astrology is basically a crock of horseshit.  But it's still kinda fun and interesting, and some systems get really really involved.  A few things converged on this topic recently - Patrick Stuart's announcement of Gackling Moon made me think about this a little, along with a discussion about Tekumel I eavesdropped on (I always think of the planets around Tekumel because the whole arrangement is so weird), and where one of the luminaries was named for Lovecraft / Clark Ashton Smith's Dreamlands reflection of Saturn, Cykranosh (and who runs the Satrap of Saturn blog). I really like the Book of Ebon Bindings, and one of my favorite things about it is the way it links demons with certain stars, and it would be interesting to incorporate that as well.  I started making a generator for heavenly bodies.  At the moment it is pretty basic, just craps out a few details about a star. I'd like to take it a step further maybe and put something together that could create a game world's solar system, major constellations and stars, and a zodiac of sorts, then combine everything into a generator that spit out a character at you, complete with ability scores and a few major personality traits (which the player could chose to lean into or ignore if they wished). Solomon VK did a nice post on star names here.

I think what I want is probably beyond the ability of the HTML template generators I'm capable of using to do - essentially generating a full Astrological system and doing a natal chart designed to give a player a character to work with as well as linking the stars to certain ultra-powerful beings, whether malevolent or benign.

But for what it is worth here's the generator as it stands so far, just a very simple thing that spits out a star, its color, and gives a little factoid about it.  More to come, I hope.

INQ 28

There's been a long lull for me in mini work while GW pulled all the Adeptus Titanicus stuff for reboxing into Legions Imperialis.  The good news there is that there is a lot more terrain to choose from all of a sudden, and some additional tiles for a gameboard that I may pick up at some point (goddamn they are pricey though, for bits of plastic).  Anyway, I haven't played 40k for several years, but I have a pretty decent collection of bits and unbuilt models from when I was playing, and I started messing with some of them one day out of boredom while sitting in yet another online meeting at work.  I've always been kind of fascinated with kitbashing and conversion of minis.  I've started with an inquisitor, built partially from Greyfax, a Skitarii Sicarian, and the Crusader model from one of the Blackstone Fortress expansions, along with some other sundry stuff.  It is an interesting process, and one that can easily get me out of myself, which is valuable in and of itself to me.

If you have not done so, the INQ 28 scene in general is worth checking out.  I have linked it before but in particular the fanzine 28 is really, really good.  If nothing else, the point-counterpoint articles in issue four on whether minis are art or not is kind of fascinating, and brings up the Chapman brothers' Hell (which apparently burned up in a warehouse fire and was replaced by a new diorama they called Fucking Hell) as an example.  It's a fascinating question.  I don't have a definitive opinion on the matter but I think I lean towards the idea, that yes, minis can be art.  For me the really good stuff happens when someone goes off-script a bit and invents their own pieces of lore (or uses the minis in a completely original way, perhaps not for gaming at all), but even seeing an incredibly well-done "textbook" army feels to me as though it might qualify.

Arms and Armor at the Art Institute of Chicago

A few days ago my wife and I decided to go to the Art Institute of Chicago. It is one of my favorite places in the city, perhaps in the world - there are so many beautiful and thought-provoking pieces there. If you are ever in the city, put it on the top of your list. It really is a world class collection, and I wanted to talk about one of the highlights from this trip - the new Arms and Armor gallery.  The last time we went, this, my favorite exhibit, was closed as they redid the gallery. I’ve loved that exhibit ever since I was a little kid. I was totally blown away the first time I saw it, and it continues to be a source of fascination for me.

I've always been enthralled by art depicting weapons and weapons that are pieces of art. As a kid, I enjoyed the Osprey books (of which I now have like two hundred pee dee effs) as well as black and white illustration - things like David Macaulay's Castle, or various pictorial archives and encyclopedias of weaponry such as A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times.  I loved the artwork not just of beings but also of weapons in the various tomes I had collected - the MM, PH, and DMG of course, but also Deities and Demigods (with the Cthulhu and Melnibonean mythos!  Sadly long gone now) and a handful of modules - White Plume Mountain, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, etc.  I used to sketch weapons when I was younger - swords mostly, but not always.

The elaborate fantasy scenarios I imagined as a kid, inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, were enriched by visits to the museum and being able to see real examples of the arms and armor.   This time around I took a lot of photos and wanted to share a few here. More professional photos of almost the entire collection are online as well at https://www.artic.edu/collection.  Most of what is on display is European from about 1500 - 1700, but the collection includes much more modern weaponry as well.  For example, though it isn't currently on display, there is a pretty extensive collection of firearms from 1850 to 1970 or so, everything from Colt Navy Revolvers to Lugers to a Walther Model PPKS Semi-Automatic Pistol, all rather tastefully gilded and decorated by Raymond Wielgus.

This stuff is invaluable as a reference for writers and artists who want to describe unique weapons and armor, and of course, they are all quite beautiful.  Blinging out one's tools of death seems to be a pretty universal thing, doesn't it? Writing this made me remember visiting Odawara Castle - the interior of that castle has been converted to a museum and one of the things they have on display are swords.  I was looking at one of these, a katana with all the hardware removed, no handle or guard, just the blade itself - and a little boy and his mom were nearby.  I heard the mom say something like "Kono o mite!" - "Hey look at this!" and the kid, maybe seven or eight years old, running up to the glass and exclaiming "Kireii!" - "Pretty!"  And he was right.  The blade was beautiful.  It seemed to be almost equal parts a deep carbon grey and white, gleaming in the museum lights.  And there was an absolutely gorgeous hamon that ran its length in the koshi no hiraita style, an undulating wave dividing light from dark - something like this blade:

As a species, we seem to have a fascination with beautiful, deadly things. They are such strong images, when used in art they sometimes leave an impression that outlasts the plot or even the characters. I think of Terminus Est, or the Judge's silver-chased rifle inscribed with "Et In Arcadia Ego." I forget the names of even fairly major characters in the New Sun series or in Blood Meridian, but I retain the images of those weapons.

Some of the engraving, carving, and etching on display at the museum and it is breathtaking. Some is intricate and witchy, some is simple and bold. Some of it is even funny! And since you are very likely tired of listening to me ramble, I'll get to the meat of this post without further ado.

Armor (and polearms) for the Papal Swiss Guards (1590, decoration in 1623-24)

The cuirass and pauldrons are ornamented with deep-blue and gold and were likely dispersed from the Vatican armory centuries ago.  The helmet features the portrait and coat of arms of Pope Julius III and dates earlier than the armor.

The Guard of the Electors of Saxony (~1580)

The electors of Saxony retained one of the more extravagant bodyguard units in Europe, with over 100 men on horseback and on foot. Each succeeding elector ordered a new series of weapons ornamented with his personal device or coat of arms - an ostentatious display

As the electors derived much of their wealth from the Saxon silver mines, they equipped their officers with swords and daggers adorned with silver plaques. The morion is painted black with gilt etching to match the guard’s black-and-gold livery. Guards mounted on horseback carried a pair of wheellock pistols, or puffers, while those on foot bore staff weapons such as this glaive and halberd. The powder flask features a carved figure of a Saxon guard from about 1600.

The Guard of the Electors of Saxony (~1580)

Helmet detail.

The Guard of the Electors of Saxony (~1580)

Matched pistols detail.

Armor for Man and Horse  (1520)

This is one of the first things you see when you walk in and it is IMPRESSIVE. Picturing this dude riding you down is kinda scary. This is not for a "noble knight" but a hired man-at-arms.

Heavy Cavalry (Cuirassier) Helm (1620-40)

Speaking of scary, look at this fucking thing, with the nasty little pointy teeth showing in the thin smile and the great empty eye sockets.  I kind of want to do a painting of someone wearing this.  There's actually a lot more of this, a composite suit of armor for heavy cavalry that includes a full upper torso and tassets.

Heavy Cavalry - unfortunately I don't have much more info on this one.

Armor for the Joust (~1560)

The feathers  and trappings are a recreation - apparently only about a dozen examples of original horse trappings survive from the time period.  Really gives you an idea what a tournament would have been like.  The lance is looooooong.

Infantry Armor and Targe (1590-1600)

This would have been a noble's armor.  The bands on this one depict various Labors of Hercules.  The design of this armor was to protect the upper body while leaving the legs unarmored for fast movement.  The spike and petals at the center of the shield were intended to catch and divert an opponent's bladed weapon.

Armor for Field and Tourney with Plackart (1550-60)

The plackart (an additional, reinforcing breastplate) which is displayed beside the armor provided an optional second layer to protect against firearms or heavy hits from a lance.

Composite Field Armor (1510-20)

This suit is drawn from different armors from the same period.  The composite represents a typical field harness intended for heavy cavalry armed with lance and sword.  The globular form of the breastplate, bellows-shaped visor, and fluted / rippled surfaces classify it as a "Maximillian" armor, so named after the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian I, who popularized this style.

Lots of swords (1200 -1500)

The plaque describes an emerging arms industry as certain regions became famous for the quality of their arms.  It mentions southern Germany, the Rhineland, and Milan in Italy as among the most notable.

More of the stuff in the same case as above.

Portions of a Field Armor for Man and Horse (~1525)

The two people who worked on this harness were considered a dream team - Kolman Helmschmid (the work is right there in his name!) was considered the most innovative armorer of his generation, while Daniel Hopfer is credited as the first artist to translate the armor-decorating technique of acid etching into a printmaking medium.

Nobles often ordered their armor from a distance.  This suit has adjustments to the rivets and cut edges that reveal it was modified to better fit its owner.

I love these huge two-handed swords!  This mounted collection, from left to right:

Two Handed Sword (1580-1600)

Halberd (1500-1550)

Infantry Armor and Bergonet (~1560 I think - hard to read)

Halberd (1500-1550)

Two Handed Sword (1580-1600)

Various Rapiers (1550 -1630)

Sadly, I didn't take a picture of the placard for this beautiful saber (?) and I cannot find it in the collection database at the Art Institute site.

Again, I cannot for the life of me find any information about this gemstone-studded sword on the Art Institute site and I forgot to get a picture of the accompanying plaque.  But it's really something and I'd like to know more about it!

Boar spears, what I suspect is a heavy crossbow in the middle with a few other crossbows nearby, various swords and guns - I think the centerpiece stag's head is from the same time period, but I am not certain.

Triple-Barreled Wheellock Pistol (1610-20) - Top

The half minute needed to wind and load a wheellock pistol led to the invention of various multilock and multibarrel systems. Here three independent pistols are stocked together with alternating triggers.

To fire the weapon, the shooter need only rotate the grip on the gun and pull the next trigger.

Wheellock / Matchlock Gun (1580-1600)

Another beautiful stock

Wheellock Rifle of Archduke Charles of Styria (1571)

The engraving on this is just amazing.  The cheek shows the Judgement of Paris.  Further up is Cleopatra committing suicide with an adder at her breast.

Wheellock Rifle of Emperor Leopold I (1664)

The carvings on this are wild – they show a hunter roasting on a spit with his faithful hound in a cauldron.  There is a German inscription along the rifle translates as:

To us hares came the chance that we could roast dog and huntsman who formerly skinned and ate us.  We avenge them with these measures.

Combined Axe-Flintlock Gun - Dagger (1660-80)

What an insane contraption. I love it!  and of course the inlay is gorgeous.

The axe part.

Detail of the Axe-Flintlock-Dagger

Another detail from the Axe-Flintlock-Dagger

A hound chasing a stag in this VERY close up on the last piece.

I have many more photos but that's all I'll subject you to for the moment.  And check out the site -I'm pretty certain that only 50% or less of the collection is on display, but there are photos over there of just about everything I think.  

The other major highlight from this trip was an exhibition devoted to the works of Remedios Varo which opened this last summer.  I was not very familiar with Varo's work before seeing this exhibit - I think the only reason I was aware at all is probably because of the Was It Likely blog (bless you Screwhead for your exquisite taste in art and for attributing all of it).  I really enjoyed it.  As I examined her work, it struck me that she and John Blanche have stylistic similarities.  I hope I get a chance to do a write up on that next time around!