Dungeons & Dragons (about an anniversary)

I try to mark the time every year, even though I don't know the exact date. But anyway: my brothers and I, as well as some friends who were playing with us at the time, started our Dungeons & Dragons campaign back in August 1992. The world we had invented wasn't as developed as it became, but he already had potential. Now decades later, my brothers and I don't play together anymore, however I have started a new campaign in the same world with Wolfie. So the world lives on and helps develop someone else's imagination.

Herbert West, Reanimator

What you see here is a portrait of Dr. Herbert West taken from the RPG game Call of Cthulhu. Horror fans will know him as the villainous protagonist from H.P. Lovecraft's aptly titled Herbert West-Reanimator. The not so good doctor is a disciple if Frankenstein and he reanimates dead bodies. Except he is far more ruthless and cynical about it. Frankly, he is utterly amoral and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The short story is not very well written, Lovecraft considered it an old shame, yet it's very entertaining and genuinely scary. I am blogging about it today because they are filming a new adaptation. I'm carefully optimistic. They made a Re-Animator back in 1985, which was followed by sequels, but the film was very loosely adapted from the source material and turned into a gory horror comedy. Still fun to watch, but I think, I hope, that the new adaptation will be suitably dark. Anyway, I am in my countdown to the countdown to Halloween, so always nice to keep myself in a spooky mood and look forward to new horror movies.

Jouer aux Bouquinistes

 Voici une petite nouvelle heureuse pour les lecteurs de ma région. J'ai trouvé cette photo il y a quelques jours sur la page Facebook des Bouquinistes. Il fallait que je la partage, parce que ma librairie préférée du Saglac et sans doute du Québec vient de prendre un degré de plus de coolitude. Parce que oui, imaginez-vous donc qu'on peut maintenant y jouer aux échecs, au backgammon et aux dames. Bon, je n'ai pas joué à ces jeux depuis des années. Et je vais à Chicoutimi très rarement. Mais quand même, les jeux de société, surtout ceux qui demandent de la concentration et du silence, ça se joue bien dans une librairie. En fait, une librairie est pas mal le lieu idéal pour y jouer.

Shadow Chaser

Oh the things I can find in the local bookshop sometimes. I was going there with Wolfie once, I was in the children section with him, and I saw Shadow Chaser. Because I had promised my wife to behave, I did not buy it. That said, I do want to. It's a gamebook and, from what I understand, a medieval fantasy book like the ones I used to read as a child. But a bit less gory than the ones I am used to. All the same, it looks like a great read and I might buy it for his birthday. It should also give us inspiration for our Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Funnily enough, there is a villain, Wolfie's nemesis in the game, with the nom de guerre Shadowman. He looks a bit like the shadowy figure on the front cover of this book. So yes, I think it has my name, errrmmm... I mean, Wolfie's name on it.

Pinecone Construction

I took this picture back in 2024, during our holidays in the Isle of Wight, at Robin Hill. There was a whole section of the theme park looking like a building site. I thought it looked kind of funny, something as mundane as a construction company, turned into an attraction for children. For little boys at least: my son Wolfie used to love, and loves still, any construction vehicles. Also, I love pine cones. Pine cones are cool. And it makes for a great name for a construction company. I wish it really existed.

Blackjack (Signature Weapon)

 This is my new post in the Signature Weapons series. Today's weapon is an oldie: the blackjack. I don't think I have seen one in real life, but they do pop up from time to time in old crime fiction stories, generally in pulp stories. Generally wielded, as far as I remember, by villains, when they knock the hero unconscious with one. Because yes, it's a bludgeoning weapon. It's quite a nasty one too, from what I read, as it is capable of causing permanent injuries, even death. So don't let its small size fool you. Because it can easily be concealed, I can easily see it making a come back. I still think the blackjack fits a villain more than a hero. That said, I must make a confession here: there is one think I love about blackjack, and that its name. It just sound elegant and cool. Like the eponymous card game (which I think I played once or twice), it just has a sort of posh aura, in complete contrast with its true nature. This is another why I think it would fit a crime story nicely and enhances its atmosphere somehow.

Spy Secret Messages

I love Usborne books for children, and so does Wolfie, so I end up buying lots of them. And they have a handful of books of espionage games and activities. There is one we particularly like, especially when we travel, it's called Spy Secret Messages. It's a small pocket book, smaller than a pocket book actually, and it's all about deciphering spy codes and finding the meaning of messages. It's really great fun. The only drawback is that soon we will have finished every activity in the book. I guess I will need to find more gamebooks in the genre, from Usborne and others.

Shiny Gems

A few weeks ago, Wolfie and I went to the local toy shop. Not to buy anything, just to see what there was available, see if we could find as a present idea for the next birthday, or just the next special celebration. Every time we stop, I get a few pictures, as a reminder for the future. And this is one of the things that caught Wolfie's attention: a bag of "shiny gems". I can see rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds. All in plastic. They'd make for great MacGuffins in some of our games, especially our Secret War Game. And for props at D&Dr. But the nicest thing about these shiny gems is that, unlike real ones, they're quite cheap.

An Evening of Murder (pulp style)

 I am blogging again about An Evening of Murder, the murder party series which I really enjoyed when I was younger. This is the back cover from Beyond the Grave, the second box we played, but the very first game of the series. I will share its front cover another time, this post is not about the specific plot, but about the art on the back cover. I always loved its aesthetic, but it is misleading. The games are all whodunits, yet this image calls back to pulp fiction and hardboiled stories, with private eyes, gangsters and femmes fatales. I love it to bits all the same, but it is misleading. Anyway, my two cents.

The Shark's Mouth

We went to Brighton for a week. SO I took a few pictures, which I will share in the upcoming days and weeks. My wife had wanted to visit Brighton for a while, because it's meant to be a kind of hippy place with lots of veggie and vegan restaurants. Which is kind of true. Anyway, it's near the sea, which means the city has its share of sea and marine imagery. I took this picture by a minigolf. We didn't stop there, but I big scary shark, even if it's not a real one. It looks like a real one anyway.

Jouer aux pirates

 Cette photo a été prise à Sandown dans l'Isle of Wigh. C'était lors de notre première soirée. Je regardais mes vieilles photos de voyage il y a quelques jours et celle-ci m'a fait penser à ma propre enfance. Mon père avait une chaloupe qu'il utilisait pour aller pêcher le saumon, elle était dans la remise chez ma grand-mère. Quand il allait pêcher, il laissait la chaloupe quelques jours dans l'entrée de la maison. Nous passions alors plusieurs jours à jouer dedans, mes frères et moi. Et nous jouions toujours aux pirates. Le bateau avait à peu près la même grandeur que ce bateau-là. On pouvait passer des heures sur notre "bateau pirate," des scenarios très élaborés. Quand la chaloupe etait remisée à nouveau chez grand-maman, on continuait en faisant de la gallerie d'en avant le bateau.

Tomahawk (Signature Weapon)

 Here is another post in my new Signature Weapons series, about weapons that ought to be seen in crime fiction, either used by the heroes or villains, as a signature weapon. So today I want to blog about the tomahawk. Not the missile, but the Native American axe. As a child, I grew kinda obsessed by it when I saw Disney's Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier. I thought it just looked so cool. So I made it one of my characters' signature weapon in some of our games. My parents had bought a few wooden toys, if I remember well. Now, the tomahawk still exists, although it is more often used as a tool than a weapon. Some look like plain hatchets, some look like they have been forged near Mount Doom. Be that as it may, I am ware that a tomahawo might not be the most practical weapon, even in close quarters. All the same, I would like to see it in a modern crime fiction setting as a signature weapon.

The Waiting Game (A Birthday Memory)

As it is often the case, my last birthday and recent celebration made me think of the birthdays of my past, from a long time ago. The birthdays of yesteryear, if you will. When I was a child, we I  often celebrated our birthdays the weekend before or after it, generally the weekend after. We had a small celebration on the date itself, but the big party was at the weekend. We invited family, especially our cousins. That was before the internet, before the overbearing presence of screens, before the multiple television channels. After breakfast and the morning cartoons, my brothers and I waited for the guests to come. But we were not bored. We played a sort of waiting game, hiding behind the living room sofa by the window, often with toy guns, as if we were secret agents, smugglers or mercenary soldiers in a secret hideout, waiting for our contacts or allies to show up. We used to peak out, checking through the window that was facing the street, checking every car driving by. The excitement and anticipation of this "Waiting Game" were just as entertaining as the party itself. In fact, it's a ritual I now remember more than many birthday parties we hosted.

D&Dr: Downtime

 This picture is (as far as I know) of Dave Dorman, taken from the Dungeon Master's Guide of the second edition of laying Dungeons & Dragons. I always loved it. Anyway, comes a time in a D&Dr campaign when you don't play much. You have been running it for a while, had a few big adventures, the characters have progressed, got stronger, more powerful, and you feel like you are out of ideas. It often happens round this time of year, from my experience anyway. It is therefore time for downtime, and brainstorm your player(s) for inspiration. Any story suggestions from my readers are of course welcome.

P'tit Train du Nord

 Il se vend bien des niaiseries chez Archambault, mais aussi des affaires cutes. Comme ceci. J'ai acheté ce napperon pour petit loup, et un peu pour moi aussi. C'est à la fois mignon et éducatif, devrais-je ajouter. Et c'est aussi un jeu cherche et trouve.

About An Evening of Murder

 

You may remember that last month I blogged about the murder party series An Evening of Murder, more specifically Forever Friends, their second entry. My father had sent me pictures of the box sets we kept. Forever Friends was the very first set we bought and the game was in its very early years then. See the back of the box: it looks very cheap, unlike its front cover it is not really immersive, the accent is put on party, not murder, and I think I spotted a typo in the text. It got better, but this is for another post. I also discovered that the games have a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Still called Twitter on their website, so things are not up to date. All the same, I will spend some time there just to get a healthy dose of nostalgia.

An Evening of Murder

A long, long time ago, I blogged about a murder party series we used to love, called An Evening of Murder. Back in the eighties and nineties, it was all the rage among adults, teenagers and, well, sometimes also "old" children. The first we ever played was Forever Friends, localised into (Qébec) French as Éternellement Vôtre, or Eternally Yours. A better title, IMO. I mention localisation, as the character names and the places were all adapted to québécois culture, but for simplicity I will refer to the original English. The setting was a hotel called "the Old Lodge", where a group of college friends reunited, to find one of them murdered. I got hooked. Everybody had something to hide, was guilty of something. A cassette gave you the sounds of the murder, pretty gruesome stuff, introduced by Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and a rather dark and sinister voice. You could also find in the box set invitation letters, characters sheets, also a booklet with suggestions of disguise, of décor, even a menu for the evening. Sure, the resolution owe nothing to anyone's deductive powers, but oh the atmosphere! And the role play! The fun we had. I will always treasure it.

Mexican Train Dominoes

I am always on the lookout for new games to play, especially new board games, even though we don't have much room here to store them. Or play them. All the same, I go to the local toys shop sometimes and I get curious. I found one a few months ago, Mexican Train Dominoes. Now, I only played dominoes a few times. I do like the aesthetic of it, but that's not what I like here. It has trains in it. Trains. So... yeah. I might put it on my birthday list.

Mille/1000 Bornes

Une petite nouvelle sans vraie importance: j'ai retrouvé le jeu de Mille Bornes que ma femme m'avait acheté pour ma fête en 2022. C'est bien, je vais pouvoir jouer avec petit loup. Je crois qu'il comprendra mieux les règles et aura plus de plaisir à jouer qu'il y a quatre ans. Mille Bornes a été l'un des jeux de société de mon enfance. Bien que je n'aie pas autant joué avec que d'autres, notamment parce que l'on n'avait pas notre propre Mille Bornes, j'ai quand même de bons souvenirs. Lire ce billet pour plus de détails. Il serait temps de le revisiter, notamment lors des vacances de Pâques de petit loup.

Classic Games Compendium

During on eof my last visits to the local toy shop, I saw this board games box. A Classic Games Compendium, with "over 100 classic family games." That is a lot of games for a single box, maybe too many. I mean, is the rulebook as big as a dictionary? And what if it is in many languages? I can see just on the cover checkers, chess, dominoes and backgammon. My grandmother had a special board like this, with many games included in it, but a handful, not a hundred. It might be practical, but I kind of prefer to have a good set of each.