Literary Distraction: Defoe 1666

Hi!

Just a quick post this morning as my holiday reaches its last day! We're going to be driving back to sunny Dundee tomorrow so today requires laziness to counterbalance it and I've been sat reading my way through Defoe 1666 volume 1 that I picked up in a charity shop in Shrewsbury yesterday.

Set following the Great Fire of London which sparked a zombie apocalypse, it follows the exploits of ex Leveller Titas Defoe who has been recruited as Charles II's Zombie Hunter General and embarks on a rather gruesome quest to deal with the menace.

As usual with Pat Mills and 2000AD, its peppered with lots of pop cultural references and pretty much every historical figure one can imagine from the latter 17th Century makes an appearance. Leigh Gallagher's artwork is suitably gritty and grim for the setting itself in which science has made a massive step forward in a world gone decidedly to the dogs.

If I didn't have a long term project, this would possibly be a great basis for a Mordheim style project where different gangs duke it out in a burnt out ruin of London.

Similarly it fits the Turnip 28 and Trench Crusade sort of vibe that is so popular these days but coupled with the grimness of Mordheim with guns and a mixture of Steampunk and Lacepunk technology which makes for a remarkably interesting sort of game.

Sadly I don't think there are too many miniatures out there that would properly fit the style so lots of conversion and possibly sculpting work would need to go into it but I do recommend folks pick up a copy of the graphic novel if they can as its a rather entertaining read with tons of bits and bobs that could easily be incorporated into any game with relative ease.

I do suspect some small elements may sneak into my fledgeling campaign but at present I'm not sure what!

In the meantime, All the best!

The Aeronaut's Windlass, or Inspiration From an Unexpected Source

 Hi!

Well I'm back from my hols in Wales and mostly relaxed, other than the car deciding to have a wobble with only 400 miles still to go to get us safely home but it made it!

We spent a really relaxing week visiting family and I managed to trundle around a few fascinating historical sites ranging from Iron Age settlements to ruined monasteries which was really great but we also visited a lot of charity shops and second hand bookshops and in one of them I found a copy of Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires book one, The Aeronaut's Windlass for the princely sum of £1.25.

Now I've read quite a few of Jim's other series, The Dresden Files and really enjoyed them but managed to miss the Cinder Spires entirely (something I am quite embarrassed about as I work in a bookshop!) and must say that I really enjoyed it. 

At heart its a good old fashioned adventure with plenty of interesting heroes, villains and sinister plots but the world building was brilliant as its steampunk but with a difference as it is set in another world where great city states live in great monolithic spires built thousands of years ago by The Founders. The land itself isn't really described other than being heavily forested and inhabited by all manner of monsters.

Its a setting that reminds me somewhat of a Steampowered 40k and it's really quite evocative, especially as trade and combat is largely carried out between airships of varying sorts and it got me to thinking of re-exploring my Land Ironclads project and working on some aerial assets for some city states to fight over.

Better yet, it will be a really cheap project to undertake as the whole thing would be made from scratch using whatever interesting gubbins I have lying around!

Goodness knows if I'll get much done on my remaining days off before returning to work but I highly recommend picking up a copy of the Aeronaut's Windlass as its a really good fun read and well worth a peruse.

In other news, I've almost finished a big bad for my ongoing Planet 28 project and I'm hoping to keep working through other interesting bits and bobs in time for the release of the new 2nd edition of the game later this year and will post pictures of stuff once its ready!

In the meantime, All the best!