#michael curtis

[vintagerpg]

Stonehell is my pick for the best of the 21st century megadungeons (and is, I think, one of the first in the OSR mode). It’s in two parts, the initial Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls arriving as a self-published print on demand product in 2009, and the second part, Stonehell Dungeon: Into the Heart of Hell wrapping things up in 2015.

The dungeon began as a tyrant’s prison, where the prisoners were forced to excavate their own living space. The tyrant fell, but when the prison was liberated, not everyone left — lots of folks considered the horrible place their home. The top layers still retain their prison-like feel, and numerous former prison gangs have carved up the complex into small warring kingdoms. Deeper levels get stranger. At the very bottom is the lair of a creature of pure chaos that feeds on the negative emotional energy generated by the inhabitants. The more it eats, the more it destabilizes nearby reality. This goes a long way toward explaining why the place is so weird (there’s a casino down there somewhere, and at least one crashed space ship).

Dungeons are inherently irrational, and even though it is unlikely that a group will ever “solve” Stonehell, I feel that as a whole, it justifies its irrationality in a way few other dungeons of any size do, and this makes it feel unique and special. Its also extremely usable — despite being something like 1300 rooms, each level is made of quadrants that are detailed in a derivative of the One-Page Dungeon system, so everything is clear, brief and even modular — you can rearrange, drop or use any section on its own, should you wish. It’s really quite the accomplishment, especially considering it’s Michael Curtis’ first big outing into design. No wonder he became such a big wheel at Goodman Games!

[mariocki]

Don't Answer the Phone! (1980)

"Don't you give a shit about getting this strangler off the streets?"

"What would you prescribe for the man, a firing squad?"

"That's not a bad idea. Mainly I don't want him back on the streets in a few years - or sooner, if some misguided shrink discovers he can find his ass in the dark with both hands."

[fleetwoodmacarthistory]

Juliet by John William Waterhouse // "Blue Letter" by Fleetwood Mac

[90smovies]

Friends

[fleetwoodmacarthistory]

The Letter by Joan Llimona // "Blue Letter" by Fleetwood Mac

[fleetwoodmacarthistory]

Homage to the Square: Red Brass by Josef Albers // “Blue Letter” by Fleetwood Mac

[vintagerpg]

In his introduction to the reprint, Michael Curtis said he penned The Chained Coffin (2014, 2018) to refute the idea that the gonzo style of the core Dungeon Crawl Classics experience was inextricably “metal.” He wanted to show it was also capable of country and blues. I disagree with Curtis a bit — I do think the core DCC is inextricably metal of a specific, theatrical type. But there is all sorts of metal. I like folk metal! So while Chained Coffin is certainly more reserved and refined than the bombast you get out of regular DCC, I still think its pretty metal. And it does carve out room for that quiet  darkness at the heart of the best country and blues tunes.

Anyway, Chained Coffin is explicitly based on Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John stories — they’re adventure tales set in a post-war Appalachia saturated with supernatural legacies. There’s banjos and deals with the devil and GIANTS. Wellman’s stories are amazing and Gygax included him in Appendix N, but I never really saw how they informed the oh-so-medieval D&D. Chained Coffin really sells it (honestly, in a way that hits similar notes as Lowcountry Crawl). As soon as you stop thinking of it as Kentucky or West Virginia, because those are places you can drive to, the landscape of fantasy asserts itself.  There’s plenty of horror and pre-human civilizations and curses and corruption. Everything that works so well in vanilla DCC works just as well here, just at a lower volume. There is room here for dancing and good eating and friendly chats by the fire, too. 

The art conveys a lot of the mood. There’s still lots of fighting and horrible critters to be dealt with, but the art doesn’t feel so big and overwhelming. The roster of artists is less concerned with the old school greats, giving newer artists a chance to shine and establish a distinct vibe. Doug Kovacs, Bradley McDevitt and Stefan Poag outdo themselves here.

[vintagerpg]

I guess the rest of the week isn’t technically Dungeon Crawl Classics, but man, they are classics nevertheless. I speak of the series of alphabet toolkits. First comes The Dungeon Alphabet (originally 2009, this edition 2018), by Michael Curtis.

The idea here is to create a kind of collection of idea inspirations for dungeon designs. This is accomplished through an alphabetical series of prompts. Thus, A is for Altars, but also Adventurers; B is for books; E is for entrances and so on. Each entry begins with a musing on the subject. Sometimes this scrapes at unusual or unexpected truths, sometimes it connects it to other entries (Magic of course is often connected to Altars and Statues), sometimes it just waxes enthusiastic and sets the mood. The brief essay is then followed by the object of DCC’s obsession: random tables. A dozen Underwater dungeons! Twenty dungeon Level themes! A score of unexpected Level connectors! Fourteen random Quests to fulfill! Table after glorious table, jam packed with evocative ideas to get your brain storming.

And then there is the art. Jeff Easley, Jim Holloway, Doug Kovacs, William McAusland, Bradley McDevitt, Jesse Mohn, Peter Mullen, Russ Nicholson, Erol Otus, Stefan Poag, Jim Roslof, Chad Sergesketter, Chuck Whelon, Mike Wilson. Where the DCC rulebook is like this bellowing celebration of “Old School” art, here you get all these guys going nuts on specific concepts. They were tasked with cramming as much as they could into their illustrations, which often wrap around the text and tables. If the tables should fail you and the art doesn’t give you ideas for your next dungeon delves, I dunno, you might be dead.