Heaven's Library (Bookhounds of London)

This noble room, situated at the west end of the Cathedral, immediately above the Chapel of the Order of S. Michael and S. George, contains an interesting and important collection of books; comprising a number of early English Bibles, a few ritual books, a large and valuable series of Sermons preached at Paul’s Cross or in the Cathedral; a few plays acted by the “Children of Paul’s,” some royal and other important autographs, and over ten thousand printed books, besides as many separate pamphlets.

In the view is seen a model of part of the Western Front of the Cathedral, once in the possession of Richard Jennings, the Master-builder of S. Paul’s. In the case on which it stands is the superb large paper copy of Walton’s Polyglot Bible (large paper copies are of great rarity); an exceedingly fine copy of the Prayer Book of 1662, and of the Bible of 1640, both of which belonged to Bishop Compton, the founder of the Library, whose portrait hangs upon its eastern wall. Just to the right of this case, is a cast of an important Danish Monumental Stone, found in 1852, in S. Paul’s Churchyard: it bears a Runic inscription.

In the glass case in the middle of the room are exposed to view a considerable number of interesting objects: copies of episcopal seals, a facsimile of the tonsure plate once used at S. Paul’s, a chain with which a book was fastened to the Library shelves; some medals connected with the history of the Cathedral; and some curious books. The finely carved brackets which support the gallery, long ascribed to Grinling Gibbons, have been ascertained to be the work of Jonathan Maine, carver, in 1708.

VIEWS OF ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

It adds a whole new meaning to bedtime reading: St Paul’s Cathedral is opening its hidden library for a once-in-a-lifetime overnight stay in honour of World Book Day.

For one night only, two guests will be able to stay in the “secret” room of the historic London landmark on 15 March. It is the first time anyone has officially slept inside the cathedral since the second world war, when a voluntary organisation protected the venue from bombing raids.

During their stay, the guests will enter the cathedral through the dean’s door and climb the spiral staircase, designed by the English architect Sir Christopher Wren more than 300 years ago.

At the top of the staircase is the recently restored library, which dates to 1709 and hosts a rare collection of more than 22,000 written texts, ranging from medieval manuscripts, books from the earliest days of printing to upcoming releases ...

The Guardian

It is often said that, at certain times of year, an auction of old incunabula is held in the crypts. This rumour began life, as far as can be determined, in 1713, when one William Fitzhugh attempted to convince a visiting Dutch merchant that the item Fitzhugh was attempting to sell came from the collection of the Prince of Lies himself ...

The Long Con

Good luck to whoever-it-may-be who ends up sleeping at St. Paul's on the 15th of this month.

Naturally this caught my eye. I enjoyed writing the Long Con for YSDC and was pleased when Pelgrane decided to pick it up. I hope anyone who runs it for their own group has a good time.

For those who don't know it: in the Long Con the characters are tasked with arranging a con game to sucker visiting American millionaire Hubert Walton, who bears a significant resemblance to actor Vincent Price.

His Kind of Woman

Price is one of my favorite actors and this is my favorite Price film.

Bookhounds has a fetish for unusual libraries and St. Paul's is undoubtedly one of the most unusual libraries in London. Substantially rebuilt since the Great Fire it contains all manner of oddities. As you might expect its main topic is Christianity and it's packed full of sermons, epistles, and theological texts, but you might find almost anything in there. The restoration project is the first time anyone's seriously looked at the thing since the 1900s, when they installed electric lighting and, shortly after, heating. 

Imagine going for over a hundred years and the only change that's ever been made, other than sweep up the termite dust, is to install electric light. 

"Our conservators were especially concerned about the safety of the gallery structure and the water-tightness of the roof." Well fork me blind, Lassie, I would be too. Now go fetch the boy out of the well, there's a good dog.

Moving on.

Late Returns

A post-Long Con scenario snippet.

After the events of Long Con, however that came out, the characters are approached by Cathedral representatives.

This may happen up to a year after the events of Long Con.

The Cathedral's people want the characters' assistance. Ever since the events of Long Con visitors to the Library have complained of strange events. The lights don't work as they ought, and there's a nasty burning smell that comes and goes. They've had electricians in to diagnose the problem, but as far as they can tell the lights are working as intended and there's no wiring problem. There's been a lot of loose talk about devils since the characters attempted their con game and the Church authorities want it very clear that there's no such thing as maleficent spirits, certainly not within God's House and the most important Cathedral in Great Britian. The authorities hope that by parading the characters through in a show they'll be able to stop loose talk.

While on site the Hounds' mouths will be watering: here are some of the most valuable books they've seen in their entire career, just ... sitting there. On shelves. If only they weren't under such heavy manners they might be able to lift something ...

Option One: Dusty Regret. One of the Dust Things managed to survive the events of the Long Con and made its way up here, where it bonded to a collection of sermons. It appears as a careworn priest with vacant eyes. It's beginning to propagate among the texts in the Library; if left to its own devices it will spread, infecting scholars who will, in turn, take Dust Things to their own libraries. The smell is coming from the electrics; lead-sheathed wiring that hasn't been looked after causes havoc when it comes into contact with Dust Things.

Option Two: Wiring Faults The wiring isn't everything it should be, but there are some indications that it's been fiddled with. There's a particular section close to the display cases that shows extensive signs of damage. This is because the electrician is trying to set up an opportunity for theft; if he can manufacture a 'fire scare' he can grab the opportunity and steal the items he has his eyes on. Why? Gentleman Jack, that's why; the scoundrel has decided to have another crack at St. Pauls and the electrician is his go-between.

Option Three: Devilish Drama The whole scenario is being manufactured by one of the Cathedral staff, who works at the Library. This staff member is enthralled with the idea of Devil's Auctions and the events of the Long Con inspired them to take it a step further. They've been carrying out rituals up in the Library to summon Old Nick, the idea being to start up a Devil's Auction of their own. The trouble is, they have managed to contact someone. It just isn't Old Nick; Old Nyalathotep, more like.

That's it for this week. Enjoy!

Miskatonic Repository Teaser

First this week, a teaser. You may be aware that, over at DriveThruRPG, Chaosium have opened up what it calls the Miskatonic Repository, an official online collection of user-made content. Sounds like fun. I thought I'd dip my toe into those unholy waters, and see what develops. Hopefully not some kind of fungal infection, but you never know ...

At any rate, consider this your official notice. The scenario's written, formatted, and almost ready for prime time. There's a few last tweaks I need to complete before sending it off into the great unknown. This is an experiment, to see just how viable the platform is. If it looks as if it's a winner, I may put more resources into this. Being more of a GUMSHOE fella, I'd love it if Pelgrane did something similar, but I'm a CoC guy from way back too, so writing this material is no great hardship for me.

Those of you who've got copies of The Long Con and The Many Deaths of Edward Bigsby, both of which were originally written to help fund YSDC and which are now available via Pelgrane, may wonder if this is a London-based scenario. No, not this time: the action is set in Harlem, NYC. I shan't say more than that; a full promo will be published here when the scenario hits the digital shelves.

Price tag provisionally set at $4 a copy for a 24 page document, which is broadly the same rate charged for The Long Con and Edward Bigsby. This is, I freely admit, a practical decision; the way DriveThru calculates who gets what from each sale means it's much easier to keep track of everything if we're all dealing in round numbers. So where $3.95 would be a sod to calc, $4 is blissfully simple.

Anyway, once it comes out, I hope you enjoy it! If it works, I will publish more via Miskatonic.

Some Housecleaning and Other Strangeness (Monte Cook Games)

First, a bit of news. The scenario I wrote for YSDC, The Long Con, has been nominated for a UK Game Expo award. As I write this, votes have either been cast or are being cast for this award; not sure which. If you're reading this, and can vote, please do! Hope all's well over in Birmingham, Paul!

Second, if you listen to the Plot Points podcast, there's a show coming up that you'll be veeeerry interested in. I don't know how much I can say about it now, so I shall say nothing, except stay tuned!

Recently the Plot Points folks have been talking about Monte Cook's The Strange RPG, which I reviewed for the Escapist, but the review never saw print. Rather than waste material, here's the column that never was. Enjoy!

***

System: The Strange

Creators: Bruce R. Cordell, Monte Cook

Publisher: Monte Cook Games

When I saw that RPGgeek had nominated The Strange in both its Game of the Year and Best Presentation categories for 2014, my first thought was, ‘bwuh? I’ve never heard of this one. Monte Cook I know – difficult not to, if you’ve ever been interested in Dungeons and Dragons - but this Bruce Cordell guy is new to me.  Oh, another Dungeons and Dragons alumnus, eh? Perhaps this is worth seeking out …’

Yes. Yes, it is.

The Strange assumes that aliens once created a communications and transport network, which humans now call the Strange, many billions of years ago. For whatever reason, that network was abandoned, and over the years has become chaotic and difficult to navigate. Among the many creatures living out there in the Strange are planetovores, creatures capable of devouring Earth, and which can get to Earth via the Strange, if a connection is created between their reality and ours.

However there is a defense network, of sorts. Stable, imaginary little islands in the Strange, called Recursions, form a buffer zone between us and the planetovores; a Warsaw Pact of sorts, where creatures of magic, weird science and pretty much anything else in between stand between us and destruction, merely by existing. These Recursions are essentially fictional, mostly created by human imagination, but the Strange gives them a kind of life. As far as each Recursion is concerned, it’s the reality, and we’re the fiction, though some Recursions have a better idea of the nature of the Strange than others.

The game assumes that each character is a member of the Estate, a quasi-governmental organization with the self-appointed task of keeping the Recursions more or less stable, thus staving off attack from those all-devouring planetovores, or even the inhabitants of those Recursions less inclined towards civilized interaction with fellow sentient beings.  After all, Recursions cover the entire scope of humanity’s imaginary worlds, and that means everything, from zombie apocalypses to world-conquering Nazis, ravaging Mongol hordes, immortal Pharaonic priest-kings, and so much more. It should come as no surprise that some of them want to invade our version of Earth, for reasons of their own.

However the Estate isn’t the only organization which knows about the Strange. The Office of Strategic Recursion is a nice, friendly agency which really just wants to get along with everyone, and weaponize whatever Strange technology it can pick up. The September Project may or may not be using the Strange to develop the next generation of quantum computers. The Circle of Liberty wants to use the Strange to get rid of governments worldwide. That just scratches the surface, and it doesn’t include the many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of individuals who are also aware of it, and are busily exploring or harvesting its riches for their own benefit.

This, mind you, all in North America; what with all the dodgy physics and mystic forces floating around, if you wanted, say, a Torchwood-style group, or any other kind of Strange-exploiting organization elsewhere, no problem.

Character generation is a breeze, even for novices. Fill in the blanks: I am an adjective noun, who verbs. Or, I am a fast spinner, who solves mysteries. Fast means you have a tier tree linked to the attribute fast, spinner that you’re a character type who relies on bluff, manipulation and subterfuge, and solves mysteries gives you access to a tier tree that revolves around solving mysteries.  That, and a little bit of point spending on your three attributes of Might, Speed and Intellect, and you’re good to go. Shouldn’t take longer than half an hour, even if you’ve never played tabletop before in your life.

Mechanically, The Strange’s Cypher System is about as simple as you can get, and still involve random chance. Tasks range from Routine Difficulty, which doesn’t require a dice roll, to Impossible. That Difficulty setting determines the Target Number, which you have to roll equal to or greater than on a d20. The outcome is dependent on the character’s Might, Speed or Intellect – whichever is most appropriate to the task – with any special benefits, items or other modifiers factored in. Roll the dice and find out if you did it or not. As the character, you’re always going to be the one driving the action, and you’re going to be the one rolling dice. Conflicts between NPCs are decided by the Game Master, who decides which result would best fit the narrative and goes with that.

Simplicity is one of the things I really appreciate about The Strange. Sure, I loved First Edition Dungeons and Dragons when I was a teen, and had the time to master all of its arcane subsystems, tables, and charts. Those days are done. Now what I want out of a game is an intriguing core idea, and rules mechanics that are lucid enough for anyone to pick up without any difficulty.

That core idea is definitely intriguing. You can quite literally go anywhere, anywhen. The main book describes several different Recursions, including one based on a fantasy video game RPG, another on a dystopian world racked by nuclear war and inhabited by, among other things, hyperintelligent roaches, and yet another where Sherlock Holmes plays violin and waits for clients at 221B Baker Street, London. You can go to Shangri-La, Innsmouth Massachusetts, King Arthur’s Court, the Land of Oz, or anywhere else you fancy. It’s not difficult to see how the Game Master could design a whole raft of scenarios around this core concept. For those willing to dive right in and just go nuts, The Strange offers all kinds of pulp fun.

Its Dungeons and Dragons roots are pretty clear from the example scenario and scenario seeds in the main book. You are made aware of a potential problem by your employer and are sent out to investigate. You go into what amounts to a dungeon, whallop a few mooks, and perhaps negotiate your way past the tougher obstacles. There is a boss encounter of some kind, and after you deal with that, you go back and report to your employer. Job done, until next time, when your employer makes you aware of another potential problem, and the cycle begins anew. The game certainly doesn’t have to play that way – the rules are simple enough and the setting loose enough for any kind of play style - but those are the examples on offer: light on investigation, heavy on the action. I was particularly struck by one encounter, which could have come straight out of Grimtooth’s. You have to wonder where the bad guys get their contractors. There’s no Angie’s List for that sort of thing.

Do I recommend it? Sure, it’s a great little knockabout. The rules are simple enough that anyone can get to grips with them without too much effort, and the core concept’s strong enough to engage even the most jaded of players. Its malleability is one of its strengths. If your group is tired of horror, play fantasy. Tired of fantasy, play sci fi, and so on. The Recursion idea is pretty close to the old Ravenloft concept of the Mist, with little pockets of reality hidden away from each other behind a mysterious wall, which is great for changing up the setting when you feel the need.

Would I play it? Hum. As a break from a different system, yes. It’s perfect for that one or two session hiatus game, where you put your main campaign on hold for a while, so everyone can recharge their batteries, but The Strange’s malleability is a problem as well as a benefit. It can become so many things that it almost lacks an identity of its own. 

Oddly, it reminds me a little of Atlas’ horror title Unknown Armies, in that I feel the same way after reading The Strange as I did when I first read Atlas’ game. There are so many ideas here, a lot of them really great, but what do I do with them all? Monster of the week it, try to go for high concept, immerse in the fantasy aspect, something else? How do I pitch it to the players? Is this something for a particular kind of gamer, the way Wraith suits certain players and not others, or will anyone be able to get on board?

On the whole, these feel like minor worries rather than dealbreakers. It’s still a system I’d like to try. Wandering through the multiverse with an Estate gold badge, like some kind of modern day Wyatt Earp with all the potential layers of existence as my Tombstone, has a lot of appeal. I’d recommend The Strange to anyone who enjoys Dungeons and Dragons style monster bashing, with a touch of Torchwood, and just a little hint of X-Files. Enjoy!