Moe Lane's Blog, page 82
April 5, 2025
‘Night Moves.’
It’s kind of a sad song, but it’s also a song I associate with the world waking up from winter. So, basically, it’s a wash.
Night Moves, Bob Seger
#commissionearned
The PHINEAS & FERB new season trailer.
I’m not loving this. I don’t know why. It looks like Phineas & Ferb, and it’s being done by the same guys, and most of the voices are right, but… maybe I just don’t want a new season? I mean, why add on to perfection?
Also, my kids are getting old for this show anyway.
Well, maybe it’ll end up being fine anyway.
Book of the Week: Conquistador.
Ah, Conquistador. Picked it up to look up something about farming, reread the whole thing. Alternate history, in which an officer (and Virginian fighting-man) discovers in 1946 a stable dimensional portal to a North America undiscovered by Europeans. It’s a great book, visibly showing the influences of Silver Age science fiction (particularly H. Beam Piper), but it’s also telling that S.M. Stirling needed to quote Niven’s Law* in the foreword. I imagine some of the hate mail was epic.
#commissionearned
*Well, one of Niven’s Laws:
There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author.
The term is ‘idiot.’
04/05/2025 Snippet, In the Halls of the Lily King.
This may work better as this month’s story.
…
In the Halls of the Lily King
Holy Quebec, Republique Imperiale du Canada
(Quebec City, Canada)
2808 AD
The twilight fog tasted of sea and smoke. It didn’t reek of either, or even stink. In fact, it reminded Waylon Salvager of feasts, back home. He wished it didn’t; the cuisine in Holy Quebec had few charms for a proper Kentuckian fighting-man. It’d been years since he’d had a proper barbeque.
It’d been a bit longer since the last time he’d been summoned for a quiet meeting in an alley, only to find a corpse, instead.
He squatted, careful of the half-frozen pool of blood in front of him. The corpse sprawled at his feet wouldn’t be eating, ever again, though from the clothes he’d been the sort who turned up his nose at a smoked mutton shoulder anyway. The gaping throat said how he’d died, but not why…
The breeze shifted.
Waylon instantly turned and drew his shortsword in one smooth motion, keeping his boots out of the blood as his back found the alley wall. He blinked as his other hand complained at his reflexive grab for a belt knife, but he fought down the spike of pain otherwise. It wasn’t important at the moment, and seeing who else was here was.
Patreon!
April 4, 2025
The M3GAN 2.0 trailer.
My eldest is grumbling that M3GAN 2.0 got transformed from horror into a superhero film, but he’s probably gonna have to see it anyway. The cynicism he showed was profound. :sniff: They grow up so fast…
The recent tariff news should *not* affect the Fermi Resolution Worldbook.
I have been keeping track of this, and so has DriveThruRPG. They recently issued an open letter on this subject. Here is the relevant part, at least with regard to this project:
Print on Demand Books + Cards
We strive to work with Lightning Source, our print-on-demand book partner, to keep prices affordable. While we did recently implement a price increase, our print books remain competitively priced and because printing takes place in the US, UK, and Australia, cost increases due to tariffs can be avoided. The price increases to our print-on-demand books are not tied to these tariffs.
I did pick fulfilment via DriveThruRPG specifically because they could handle in-country fulfilment outside the United States, so there’s that. There’s a broad consensus that tariffs won’t be hitting digital products, so I’m not worrying about that until I’m told I have to. As for the physical novel add-ons: they’re limited to American backers anyway because of postage issues. Besides, I’ve already ordered the books.
Bottom line is: the tariffs are not currently a problem that will affect this project. I will let you know if that changes.
Moe Lane
PS: The preorder store is still open, so grab those novels now!
Possibility for the *next* Patreon campaign world.
The Cunning Land on Patreon still has a couple of parts left to do, but it’s never too early to think about it. Here’s what I’m contemplating next. Note that the notes are rough. Also note that it’s obviously Tolkien-inspired, which I should moderate a good bit. And, yeah, it needs a name.
Thoughts for next campaign
It’s fifty years after the death of the Dark Lord. You are from the Shire-equivalent or Bree-equivalent; your people are gingerly resettling the formerly-evil lands.
The Dark Lord was a font of Malice, which kept the land evil. Now that he’s no longer supplying it, it’s much easier to kill something steeped in Malice. Or sacrifice it, to get the Malice inside. There are predators going after things with Malice, getting stronger on it. Then again, killing those does more for the land.
Magic is elemental.
The local religion is monotheistic. The Dark Lord had a dualistic faith, where he was the one winning.
Races
Tallmen: humans. Baseline.
Smallmen: hobbits. Not as strong as Tallmen, but more nimble and hardy.
Elfmen: half-elves, descended from elven soldiers. Magical. Not as ambitious.
Dwarves: …dwarves. Pretty much those, yeah.
Trollkin: orcs/goblins who are no longer in the grip of Malice. Vulnerable to it.
Beastkin: gnolls and beast-men who are no longer in the grip of Malice. Grapples with their intelligence.
April 3, 2025
‘Caledonia.’
Caledonia, Dougie MacLean
#commissionearned
The SUPERMAN sneak peek.
Please, God, don’t let this suck.
The retro-futuristic aesthetic is promising, at least. And quite daring, these days. I mean. BRIGHT COLORS? In a Superman film?
…Please, God, don’t let this suck.
