Some Recent Things
Hello.
It’s been a bit, and I have every intention of finishing the game write-ups. But not right now. Right now, I’m just pointing you towards some recent things I’ve finished:
Arkham Elementary is a one-page roleplaying game where you play as substitute teachers at a horrible elementary school. It’s a tweak of John Harper’s Lasers & Feelings, except horrible. The children have eldritch powers at their command. You have a classroom.
Lock Mess Mobster: Lock Boss Anguilla is a semi-human hybrid adapted to aquatic life. He has ruthlessly built a loyal following among the scavenger “sludge-larks” who ply the fetid industrial waste canals known as the Mess. While his early history remains shrouded in mystery, Anguilla now captains an old canal dredger from which he influences the surrounding region.
Lock Mess Mobster is a pamphlet adventure for Into the Odd detailing a damp gangster.
Lastly… witchcraft!
In September, I plan on starting a new Yesterweird read along of my Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes. That’s going to be done via public posts on my patreon. If that sounds like something you might be interested in, then feel free to follow along. The posts are public, so there’s no billing.
And that’s the end.
One Book Four Covers
It’s time for another edition of one book, four covers. This time Lolly Willowes.
Once again I read the NYRB edition. That’s the one all the way over on the left. I think it’s a bit lousy–misleading and unappealing. It calls to mind folk artwork and certainly doesn’t tell you what the book’s likely to be about. The second one… umm.. yeah… First I guess it was published during the 60s/70s Gothic boom where a cover required an old house, a young woman, and some stuffy disapproving mysterious dudes. I’m surprised she’s not wearing a nightgown. Second, the ad-copy:
A charming woman–a midnight meeting–the scent of witchcraft “remarkable… pungent and satisfying”.
From now on I am going to say “remarkable… pungent and satisfying” whenever I smell anything.
The third cover is great. It screams THIS BOOK IS ABOUT WITCHES DEAL WITH IT! while also suggesting a playful irreverence. The fourth cover is a bit too much. Again it’s misleading and takes itself too seriously. It’s much too dark and brooding. As with the second cover it plays up the Old House aspect of the story, which is really a negligible part of the whole story.
Yesterweird 