21 February 2019

Yes, I am posting again

I doubt anyone has noticed, but I am posting here again. I’ve started trying to migrate the blog itself from Rapidweaver, with the hope of getting to something cross platform and usable anywhere. My initial move will be to try and get a working copy of RapidBlog so I can move the entire content across and use Blogger to host the text. I may eventually move the whole website across to Wordpress, but that will be some time away.

Even though I stopped posting I didn’t stop writing so I am slowly posting material into the archive; I guess this will go on for a few weeks. Anyone who uses the Tavern BBS Forum will recognise the Books in... posts as they are used in a thread there, in conjunction with my Goodreads account.

In transition

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Nothing to see here yet, not until I manage to export my existing blog from Rapidweaver.

https://www.deltapavonis.net/

05 February 2019

Books in January 2019

This was a surprisingly slow month for me, except I guess I’ve been writing stuff for Lyonesse, and at the same time the book that I’d started over Christmas - Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin - is one that I love and really wanted time savour. Hence not much progress there.


The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (Peter Frankopan, narrator Laurence Kennedy)A fascinatingly different take on world history; well worth the time. I listened to this over a month and a half as the audiobook runs to nearly 30 hours. I did find the narrator's use of accents when quoting sources somewhat irritating, but it didn't detract from the content.


What Ho, Frog Demons (Hydra Cooperative) 
This is the fourth in the Hydra Cooperative Slumbering Ursine Dunes sequence. This is the one that covers the broader Marlinko Canton, rather than specific adventure sites. That said, there are also two specific sites for players to explore. The setting is Slavic-weird, with War Bears and demon cults. I quite like it and this made a pleasing conclusion to the sequence. It does get a bit odd and icky in places but overall it feels very different and I'd love to get some adventurer's loose in the Canton.


Witchburner (Hydra Cooperative)
A near systemless book but does have very basic stats for D&D clones. The characters arrive in the town of Bridge, an isolated settlement between two cities that have often been at war, and there is evidence of witchcraft. They are drawn into the search for those that cause the trouble. Will they find out who it is, or will the mob lose trust in them and perhaps assume that they are responsible. The scenario effectively gives them a month to solve the crime. Each key NPC (30 odd) has a backstory, and details of their household and secrets, and rivalries. The characters will likely tip the balance between factions, and tensions will escalate thanks to a ticking clock of events that the GM has. I'd like to get this one out at a con, but I'm not sure if it would need a double session to play it out. Impressive stuff.