A Ranting Bloodbeasthandler says what he wants
Jul 8, 2020 12:16:12 GMT
a moderator, kieran, and 3 more like this
Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jul 8, 2020 12:16:12 GMT
Purely personal and involving only my own wants.
Though I call it a rant, know that I’m not sat here foaming at the mouth in anger swearing and hammering the keyboard as I type.
I’ve just got a few ideas and comments to get off my chest.
See the humour and spirit in which it was written and feel free to disagree.
I am a grown man and perfectly able to handle being challenged.
We’re all on the same side on this forum, I think.
I’m going to tell you some of the things I want. And in no particular order....
I want Stephen Hand captured and made to read all his old books at least three times over, then he will be plonked in front of a screen to watch Dr. Who episodes from the 1970’s (John Pertwee and Tom Baker) and various Hammer Horror Films. For a month. In return for his freedom he will then write Blood of the Mandrakes.
I want Darvill-Evans writing more mysterious and macabre stories in his retirement. No horror too horrible, no pictures banned this time.
STEVE.JACKSON.WILL.FINISH.HIS.BOOK. And it will be released, as TOP priority. We know he was writing one. I want it. It is preciousss to me.
Chivvy Paul Mason out of whatever tower of academia he is ensconced in over in Japan. He can further expand Kallamehr, or the Isles of the Dawn, or a story involving the cunning and maddening Riddling Reaver. Think outside the box as much as you want Paul, whilst staying true to your original work. Recruit Steve Williams to your cause if you want, like the old days. Would be interesting to see what Paul Mason would write about having spent so long immersed in another culture.
Ex Games Workshoppers like Jamie Thomson, Jim Bambra, Pete Tamlyn, Graeme Davis , Marc Gascoigne, are to be tracked down and asked if they fancy doing one more book. I’d in particular like the last three to be pointed at any new books set in Blacksand.
Or what about Keith P Phillips?
But just as important as getting in touch with the tried and tested old hands, the franchise will start seeking new blood, unpublished authors, and those who have kept the candle burning through the lean and darker times. Aspirant writers will have their submissions read and commented upon (time and resources permitting), and new writers brought into the ‘stable’. Writers in this stable will be encouraged to communicate with one another. They could develop story arcs and themes amongst themselves.
The folks over at places like TinMan Games and Inkle, and all the other app thingies, plus people on the Advanced Fighting Fantasy project could be sounded out, and can advise, and can work on any online projects or actually be commissioned to write books.
Authors get their names on the front covers. Doesn’t matter if you are J K flippin’ Rowling or a never-been-heard-of-before Jane K Smith aged 18. No exceptions. And I don’t necessarily want ‘celebrity’ writers writing the books unless they can prove they 1) are genuine fans of the books or the genre or 2) are active roleplayers.
Let them submit 25 or 50 paragraphs of the start of their book and see if they know what they are on about.
There WILL be play-testing to destruction. Broken gameplay, stupid game-ruining mechanisms or bugs signify laziness and lack of professionalism. Such things are to be punished with being rendered down into a sort of gloop, the gloop that is then combined with noxious chemicals and poured into the bloodbeast’s pool. That’s right. If you cannot be bothered to check your own work, you get to be lubrication/toilet water for a bloodbeast.
The rules at the start of each book will be made crystal clear. And anyone found copying and pasting old and inappropriate instructions or adventure sheets to other books are to be sent on a year’s work-experience with the slime eaters under Khare where you will learn all about the importance of attention to detail as you scrape the sewer pipes spotlessly clean with a toothbrush.
No more reprints. Especially the Warlock of Firetop Mountain. I am so fed up of Warlock reprints. I cannot describe how bored I am with Warlock reprints. Stop it. OR if by some awful pact with a Demon Lord you must print the same titles... change them!... In WOFM change the keys around, mix it up a bit, put the Eye of the Cyclops elsewhere and not alongside a crucial key. Make me want to buy them.
Artwork is to be done by artists old or new. The only criteria is that they are good. When I say good, I mean close to the style of the best illustrations from back in the 80s and 90s books (and of course the ‘newer’ ones by Martin McKenna).
If you want books for little-‘uns then do a special line of books for them. Call it junior FF... Call it whatever you want. And go ahead with my blessing.
But aim the 'standard' FF at intelligent children and also adults wanting their fix of new stories in Allansia or Titan. Just as some films are for children, some films are for adults, and some can be enjoyed by both, let’s have the books more like the latter.
Or even take a leaf out of other writers of interactive fiction and aim some of them purely at grown-ups and put them in the sci-fi/fantasy section of the bookshops instead of the ages 9-12 section.
Jonathan Green is to be made “Loremaster-Tyrant” of the franchise and invested with enormous power. His word is to be Lore and Law. He is to be a funnel. A filter. A checker of errors. A mentor. A vetter of those suitable. He will also publish his own books in the series as he sees fit.
I believe I am right in saying that the last time a brand new book was written by someone not living in London was 1995 – Revenge of the Vampire by Carl Sargent, who I think lived up in Nottinghamshire? If so, that’s 25 years. Is that right?
So how about this then? A golden rule which is to be applied in all cases bar one or two:
No more books by people living within the M25 [with the SOLE exceptions of Jonathan Green... and Steve Jackson if he lives there].
The Port Blacksand of England may think itself the cultural centre of gravity of the whole multiverse, but it really isn’t. Look outwards. I don’t just mean into the provinces of England, .. or Scotland or Wales.... but i also mean further afield.
Example: Jonathan Green does a great job with the atmosphere of books like Spellbreaker and Knights of Doom. It feels like Middle Ages England because he has an interest and knowledge of the period, and enjoyed books set in it like the Brother Cadfael series etc... so likewise in the same way......Do not the forests and mountain ranges of the Old World, places like Mauristatia, Lupravia, Mortvania scream out for writers from Alpine Europe, Transylvania and Romania to write about them? People who can bring stories and characters and voices and attitudes from their own culture and literature into their writing?
I want to read that.
Do you?
Apply this to the vast majority of the continent of the Old World, which feels like a feuding Renaissance Europe.
Salamonis, ruled by Salamon the 57th to my mind could be like Paris when it was the greatest of all cities. The folks at Scriptarium, the French, why can they not be given this region to develop?
Go away now and read pages 59-60 of Titan about the Halfhand brothers. Done? Ok then, what about setting the lads from Hungary (from Chameleon Comix... look them up) onto this? – it sounds similar to the old legends of the Magyars and the foundation of their nation. Who better than them to put flesh on the bones of such a story? Look at the artists they could call upon to illustrate it - people like Krisztian Balla (see assassins of Hungary official FF site dated 1st May 2020).
This is not to mention the places set in regions beyond Europe like Hachiman (Japan), Kallamehr (Middle East, Levant) or the Isles of the Dawn (China).
We have the internet now. We no longer have to wait for a hand-written or typed manuscripts from people across the sea to be delivered by steamboats, or even by planes.
Am I saying we are to confine the non English-speaking writers into regions of Titan most similar to their own countries and not let them out?
No, I am not.
I’m merely saying let them play to their strengths, and telling you what *I* would most like to read about written by them.
If they want to write about elsewhere, let them do it.
Perhaps most of all I want what I perceive to be the trend towards infantilism halted and reversed.
I am not interested in stories aimed at very small children. Are you?
I want FF to thrive and prosper, and I wonder if the way to do it is to look abroad for salvation.
There. Done. I am now going to have a cup of tea.
Though I call it a rant, know that I’m not sat here foaming at the mouth in anger swearing and hammering the keyboard as I type.
I’ve just got a few ideas and comments to get off my chest.
See the humour and spirit in which it was written and feel free to disagree.
I am a grown man and perfectly able to handle being challenged.
We’re all on the same side on this forum, I think.
I’m going to tell you some of the things I want. And in no particular order....
I want Stephen Hand captured and made to read all his old books at least three times over, then he will be plonked in front of a screen to watch Dr. Who episodes from the 1970’s (John Pertwee and Tom Baker) and various Hammer Horror Films. For a month. In return for his freedom he will then write Blood of the Mandrakes.
I want Darvill-Evans writing more mysterious and macabre stories in his retirement. No horror too horrible, no pictures banned this time.
STEVE.JACKSON.WILL.FINISH.HIS.BOOK. And it will be released, as TOP priority. We know he was writing one. I want it. It is preciousss to me.
Chivvy Paul Mason out of whatever tower of academia he is ensconced in over in Japan. He can further expand Kallamehr, or the Isles of the Dawn, or a story involving the cunning and maddening Riddling Reaver. Think outside the box as much as you want Paul, whilst staying true to your original work. Recruit Steve Williams to your cause if you want, like the old days. Would be interesting to see what Paul Mason would write about having spent so long immersed in another culture.
Ex Games Workshoppers like Jamie Thomson, Jim Bambra, Pete Tamlyn, Graeme Davis , Marc Gascoigne, are to be tracked down and asked if they fancy doing one more book. I’d in particular like the last three to be pointed at any new books set in Blacksand.
Or what about Keith P Phillips?
But just as important as getting in touch with the tried and tested old hands, the franchise will start seeking new blood, unpublished authors, and those who have kept the candle burning through the lean and darker times. Aspirant writers will have their submissions read and commented upon (time and resources permitting), and new writers brought into the ‘stable’. Writers in this stable will be encouraged to communicate with one another. They could develop story arcs and themes amongst themselves.
The folks over at places like TinMan Games and Inkle, and all the other app thingies, plus people on the Advanced Fighting Fantasy project could be sounded out, and can advise, and can work on any online projects or actually be commissioned to write books.
Authors get their names on the front covers. Doesn’t matter if you are J K flippin’ Rowling or a never-been-heard-of-before Jane K Smith aged 18. No exceptions. And I don’t necessarily want ‘celebrity’ writers writing the books unless they can prove they 1) are genuine fans of the books or the genre or 2) are active roleplayers.
Let them submit 25 or 50 paragraphs of the start of their book and see if they know what they are on about.
There WILL be play-testing to destruction. Broken gameplay, stupid game-ruining mechanisms or bugs signify laziness and lack of professionalism. Such things are to be punished with being rendered down into a sort of gloop, the gloop that is then combined with noxious chemicals and poured into the bloodbeast’s pool. That’s right. If you cannot be bothered to check your own work, you get to be lubrication/toilet water for a bloodbeast.
The rules at the start of each book will be made crystal clear. And anyone found copying and pasting old and inappropriate instructions or adventure sheets to other books are to be sent on a year’s work-experience with the slime eaters under Khare where you will learn all about the importance of attention to detail as you scrape the sewer pipes spotlessly clean with a toothbrush.
No more reprints. Especially the Warlock of Firetop Mountain. I am so fed up of Warlock reprints. I cannot describe how bored I am with Warlock reprints. Stop it. OR if by some awful pact with a Demon Lord you must print the same titles... change them!... In WOFM change the keys around, mix it up a bit, put the Eye of the Cyclops elsewhere and not alongside a crucial key. Make me want to buy them.
Artwork is to be done by artists old or new. The only criteria is that they are good. When I say good, I mean close to the style of the best illustrations from back in the 80s and 90s books (and of course the ‘newer’ ones by Martin McKenna).
If you want books for little-‘uns then do a special line of books for them. Call it junior FF... Call it whatever you want. And go ahead with my blessing.
But aim the 'standard' FF at intelligent children and also adults wanting their fix of new stories in Allansia or Titan. Just as some films are for children, some films are for adults, and some can be enjoyed by both, let’s have the books more like the latter.
Or even take a leaf out of other writers of interactive fiction and aim some of them purely at grown-ups and put them in the sci-fi/fantasy section of the bookshops instead of the ages 9-12 section.
Jonathan Green is to be made “Loremaster-Tyrant” of the franchise and invested with enormous power. His word is to be Lore and Law. He is to be a funnel. A filter. A checker of errors. A mentor. A vetter of those suitable. He will also publish his own books in the series as he sees fit.
I believe I am right in saying that the last time a brand new book was written by someone not living in London was 1995 – Revenge of the Vampire by Carl Sargent, who I think lived up in Nottinghamshire? If so, that’s 25 years. Is that right?
So how about this then? A golden rule which is to be applied in all cases bar one or two:
No more books by people living within the M25 [with the SOLE exceptions of Jonathan Green... and Steve Jackson if he lives there].
The Port Blacksand of England may think itself the cultural centre of gravity of the whole multiverse, but it really isn’t. Look outwards. I don’t just mean into the provinces of England, .. or Scotland or Wales.... but i also mean further afield.
Example: Jonathan Green does a great job with the atmosphere of books like Spellbreaker and Knights of Doom. It feels like Middle Ages England because he has an interest and knowledge of the period, and enjoyed books set in it like the Brother Cadfael series etc... so likewise in the same way......Do not the forests and mountain ranges of the Old World, places like Mauristatia, Lupravia, Mortvania scream out for writers from Alpine Europe, Transylvania and Romania to write about them? People who can bring stories and characters and voices and attitudes from their own culture and literature into their writing?
I want to read that.
Do you?
Apply this to the vast majority of the continent of the Old World, which feels like a feuding Renaissance Europe.
Salamonis, ruled by Salamon the 57th to my mind could be like Paris when it was the greatest of all cities. The folks at Scriptarium, the French, why can they not be given this region to develop?
Go away now and read pages 59-60 of Titan about the Halfhand brothers. Done? Ok then, what about setting the lads from Hungary (from Chameleon Comix... look them up) onto this? – it sounds similar to the old legends of the Magyars and the foundation of their nation. Who better than them to put flesh on the bones of such a story? Look at the artists they could call upon to illustrate it - people like Krisztian Balla (see assassins of Hungary official FF site dated 1st May 2020).
This is not to mention the places set in regions beyond Europe like Hachiman (Japan), Kallamehr (Middle East, Levant) or the Isles of the Dawn (China).
We have the internet now. We no longer have to wait for a hand-written or typed manuscripts from people across the sea to be delivered by steamboats, or even by planes.
Am I saying we are to confine the non English-speaking writers into regions of Titan most similar to their own countries and not let them out?
No, I am not.
I’m merely saying let them play to their strengths, and telling you what *I* would most like to read about written by them.
If they want to write about elsewhere, let them do it.
Perhaps most of all I want what I perceive to be the trend towards infantilism halted and reversed.
I am not interested in stories aimed at very small children. Are you?
I want FF to thrive and prosper, and I wonder if the way to do it is to look abroad for salvation.
There. Done. I am now going to have a cup of tea.
))
??) who’ve tried to impose themselves on the hill tribes and failed. 
