John D. Rateliff's Blog, page 48

A Declaration of Consciousness

Well, this is interesting.

I've now finished reading Sy Montgomery's book THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS, the author's personal account of her interactions with octopuses (including some at the Seattle Aquarium). Worth reading, though I wd have preferred less Montgomery and more octopuses.

As part of a discussion of octopus intelligence, towards the end of her book she mentions The Cambridge Declaration of Consciousness, a 2012 proclamation by a gathering of neuroscientists that some animal species --birds, mammals, octopus-- have the "neurological substrates that generate consciousness"; among the signatories was Stephen Hawkins. It's encouraging to see physiology catching up with observational research.

Reading this makes me look forward to the day when, post-pandemic, we'll be able to visit area aquariums again (being lucky enough to have not one but two, in Seattle and also Tacoma).

--John R.

Old TSR Boardgames (The Lankhmar Game)

 So, I like to make lists. For example, years ago when I was at TSR/Lake Geneva, I attempted to create a complete product list. Every D&D/AD&D rulebook and boxed set and module. Every boxed set or module for all the other TSR rpgs, like GANGBUSTERS and TOP SECRET and BOOT HILL.  Every book to come out of TSR's book department --not just all the shared world novels but also the pick-a-path books in their various guises. In the end I didn't quite manage to get everything, but I came pretty close: call it a good faith effort.

And while poking about in the company's history, I became aware aware that TSR had published a number of board games in the early days of the company. By far the most important of these, and the best known, are DUNGEON, Dave Megarry's boardgame encapsulation of D&D, and Mike Carr's FIGHT IN THE SKY / DAWN PATROL. The rest had largely vanished out of the collective memory.* 

Once I was aware these games I started picking them up as opportunity offered. I have eight and know of a ninth;  I don't think there were ever more than ten or twelve in all. Anyway, thought I'd do a few postings for the sake of those curious about this long-ago sideline. 

THE LANKHMAR GAME

Being a big Leiber fan (nobody wrote sword and sorcery better) I was excited to learn that TSR had published a Lankhmar boardgame back in 1976. Leiber fans know that Fischer, Leiber, and a third person whose name I forget created a Fafhrd & Gray Mouser boardgame back in 1937, only about three years after Fischer & Leiber had created the characters. The game, rumored to be of great complexity, thus sounded likely to reveal new information about the characters and their world. 

Imagine my disappointment then to discover that this is not the game Fischer and Leiber created back in 1937, but a modern (1976) redaction from it whipped up by Gygax, Rob Kuntz, and Brad Stock (a name I've otherwise never come across). 

The full credits are of interest in themselves:

Inspiration: Fritz Leiber

Original Design: Harry O. Fischer

Consultant and Co-Designer: Fritz Leiber

Development of Redesign: E. Gary Gygax, Robert J. Kuntz, Brad Stock

Graphics: David Sutherland

Editing: Mike Carr

Special Effort: David Arneson, Brian Blume

Printing: Patch Press Inc., Beloit, Wisc

—this is thus one of the few TSR titles to include a credit for Arneson, albeit an ambiguous one.

The account of why we are getting this game and not the one we wd have expected comes near the end of the rulebook (emphasis mine):

THE HISTORY OF LANKHMAR:

   Most readers will be surprised to learn that the Game of Lankhmar was originally conceived in 1937 and has been played down to this time! It has withstood a rather severe test of time, particularly for a game based on a fantasy concept. Those who have read THE SECOND BOOK OF FRITZ LEIBER (DAW Books, Inc. New York, 1975) will know that Harry Fischer was a prime force in the development of the world of Nehwon, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, etal. Harry conceived the basis for the game also, and he and Fritz developed it into an exciting contest, quite chess-like in its movement and combat systems -- in fact, the original playing board was squared off rather than gridded with hexagons. The result was a spectacular game with a gigantic board, raised terrain features, and impressive pieces with weapons bristling forth; and various newspapers printed pictures of the game and wrote about it over the years. In corresponding with Fritz Leiber the subject of the game was brought up, and soon a three-way discussion of its possible appeal now was underway between Fritz and Harry and Gary Gygax. The end result is the game you have before you.

   Unfortunately there was no way LANKHMAR could be produced in the form that Harry did it in originally, not unless the game could be sold for fifty or a hundred dollars!  And if the form was changed much of its appeal would be sacrificed too. As changes in sone [sic] aspects were necessary anyway, a study was begun to see how the game would be affected by certain other changes as well. Would it be possible to change the board to a hexagonal system and incorporate the latest fantasy conflict game concepts into the original design? If this were possible it was envisioned that what was lost from the original eye-appeal and sweeping movement could be off-set by additions of greater mapboard graphic detail, more realistic combat simulation, and play which brought forth more of the flavor of the world of Newhon. After a long period of development work, Fritz and Harry gave their approval to this version of their game. The original Game of Lankhmar is still herein, but in a format which enables thousands to now enjoy playing the game which was formerly limited to just a few! We certainly hope that you will find it as interesting and informative and challenging as we do. 

three misc. points in closing:

The upper right corner of the box top bears the stock number F 105. If I understand TSR's rather confusing designators at the time,  probably means that this, a fantasy game, is the fifth of their boardgames. 

Since it never saw the light of day, I hope the original is preserved in a museum or special collection. At the very least it'd be nice to see one of those photographs mentioned.

Finally, I didn't know this when I bought the box, but the rulebook inside my copy is autographed by both Fischer and Leiber. Definitely a keeper.

--John R.

*I shd have asked Dave Sutherland but never thought to.

Giants in the Oerth

 So, my presentation (via Zoom) about fantasy fiction's influence on the creation of D&D went well.

If you missed the live event last Thursday, here's the link to a You Tube recording of the whole event. 

It starts with a welcome to the event, followed on an explanation of what D&D is for those who are new to the game. Then I do my bit, followed by a Q&A.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Kynx0NZQA

I enjoyed putting my piece together and hope those who like me are interested in both fantasy fiction and roleplaying games will find it worthwhile. If there's anything I didn't cover in the Q&A let me know via Comments and I'll do my best to answer it here.

--John R.

John Garth on Le Guin and Tolkien

So, thanks to Janice for sharing the link to an interesting piece by John Garth, who suggests that Le Guin paid a hidden tribute to JRRT by making "tolk" and "-ien" mean Earth (or stone) + Sea in her invented language created for her EARTHSEA trilogy. Right or wrong (and there seems to be no way to find out now) it's an intriguing idea.

Co-incidentally I'd just re-read THE TOMBS OF ATUAN the day before --the first book of fantasy I read after Tolkien himself, way back in the fall of 1973 (when it was quite a new book). This makes it the first of many books I read after being told it was 'like Tolkien'. And I've always rather unfairly judged by that standard. Re-reading it now for what I think is the fourth (or fifth) time I still find it claustrophobic and oppressive --which is the point, of course, but still doesn't make the experience of reading it any less drab and nightmarish. 

And since I've found out over time that books change depending on what books you've read before and after them,* I now find myself wishing that someone wd do a study comparing Le Guin's TOMBS OF ATUAN with another labyrinth book:: Mary Renault's THE KING MUST DIE, with which I can now see it shares a lot of what I assume are deliberate parallels. 

Source-study and influence are always tricky, though. It would seem clear to me now that Lewis's TILL WE HAVE FACES was very deliberately written in the style and mode of Mary Renault, whose work we know Lewis admired, except that the timing doesn't work out: Lewis's book would have already been written or at least drafted by the time Renault's was published. 

Here's the link:

https://johngarth.wordpress.com/2021/01/22/ursula-le-guin-the-language-of-earthsea-and-tolkien/?fbclid=IwAR2MCF9_elBRi70lQfr-QsbMAtC6e5xXEd2iA_MCu0nMPh5oTE7E8PrV87Q

--John R.

current reading: THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS by Sy Montgomery (2015)

*the old 'statues in the garden' analogy

A Forgotten TSR Project

 So, I've been skimming Flint Dille's memoir of his time in Hollywood. While it disappointing has much less about Gygax than I'd expected, it does have some glimpses of what went so disastrously wrong with TSR West Coast --that is, the first time. 

More interestingly, it makes mention of a project I'd never heard of before: THE SCEPTRE OF SEVEN SOULS. Dille describes this as "a genre-mormorphing story that connected all of TSR's franchises at the time". That is, the story began in a D&D world with a hero-vs.-evil-wizard plot. The wizard escapes at the end of the first episode/story arc, and hero and villain find themselves atop a train in a BOOT HILL setting (the wild west). From there the story(s) continue, taking in a TOP SECRET scenario, a Fu Manchu GANG BUSTERS story, a computer-gone-mad GAMMA WORLD piece, and wrapping up with, of all things, STAR FRONTIERS*

"The MacGuffin of the series was a sceptre forged by seven ancient sorcerers that divided into seven parts. Each part was a portal to a different world. I have no idea whether we thought we could fit all of this into one movie or we were selling them on seven movies or we had a 'back pocket' idea of a TV series". 

This of course sounds like it owes something to the Rod of Seven Parts, one of the powerful Artifacts listed in the AD&D DMG. 

 One hook Gygax & Dille hoped wd serve as a lure to Hollywood Powers That Be was a mooted casting of Orson Welles as the "Dungeon Master" (whether this is the same as the villain of the series is unclear). Plus Dille at least thought it cd be filmed cheaply using already-existing backlots. 

In the end nothing came of the project and Dille confesses that he's either lost or mislaid his copy. So it seems probable that no copy survives. Sad to say, judging from what little we know, I see no sign that had this actually made it to the screen there's nothing in this account that makes me think THE SCEPTRE OF SEVEN SOULS wd have been any less dreadful than the D&D Cartoon or the D&D Movie.   Pity.

--John R.

*That of course equals six. There's a suggestion that fitting in there somewhere as the seventh wd be XXVc (i.e. BUCK ROGERS)--except that came along much later (circa 1990), whereas the project described here is dated by Dille to 1984. This suggests Dille may be conflating events in his memory, as is easy to do.

My Talk on D&D This Thursday

So, just a reminder for folks who may be interested that my talk on D&D's sources in and influence on fantasy fiction is this week.* Specifically Thursday the 28th at 6 pm Greenwich Time (10 am my time). 

The event is jointly sponsored by The Centre for Fantasy & the Fantastic and by The Games and Gaming Lab 

Registration is free, but you have to get a ticket, mainlyas a matter of logistics, so they know how many people to expect.

Here's the link:

https://fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk

--And now back to practicing the delivery and looking up various odds and ends.**

--John R.

*It will surprise no one that Tolkien's name comes up a time or two.

**Yes my piece has footnotes, even though I won't be delivering them. Once a footnotist, always a footnotist.

Two Years Ago for Tarkus and Tyburn

So, Janice reminds me that it's two years ago today that Tarkus and Tyburn came home with us to stay. They were gangly half-cats back then with a lot of kitten still in them. Now they're full size young adults but still energetic, loving a good game, a good warm fire, and the occasional walk. I'm glad they joined us before the pandemic: having them with us has made the quarantine easier to handle.

Though they're not going to like it when we take them in to the vet to get their booster shots sometime soon.

--And now back to practicing my talk for Glasgow.

--John R.

--current reading: THE TOMBS OF ATUAN (just finished) and THE ELUSIVE SHIFT.  Just started THE SOUL OF AN OCTUPUS and PLAYING AT THE WORLD

   

The Return of The Cat Room

So, after having been closed for the holidays and Covid crisis, the cat room is now open again for adoptions. I missed last week because of health issues but made it in today (Friday the 22nd). 

Of the five cats they reopened the room with, three had already been adopted and one gone back up to Arlington for health issues. That just left Mr. Loki, who had the room all to himself and loved it. He was out the whole two hours I was there, the first hour walking out in the store and the second playing and getting petted in the cat room. 

Having spent that much time with him one-on-one, I think that instead of ‘Loki’ (god of mischief) his name shd be Mr. Low-Key because he’s so mellow. And while he may not like other cats, he loves people. Over and over during the walk he’d go up to a customer or employee, stopping a little way off. If they spoke to him or held a hand out he’d go over and ask to be petted; otherwise he’d go off in another direction. In short he’s quite the charmer and attracted a lot of attention. Towards the end of the walk, and again later back in the cat room, he went belly-up and asked for belly rubs. For a while I held him belly-up in my lap on the bench. Luckily he’s the kind of cat who tells you when he’s had enough. 
For the rest of the time he got groomed and petted and played with. I can also confirm that he loves catnip, to the extent that he just inhales the stuff. Also that the new arrangement of stuff in the store around the cat room a great improvement, like that row of cat-trees between the cat room and the aquariums. 
Here’s a picture of him just after he’s come out to start his walk and another of him belly-up in my lap. Parker used to do that and wd even fall asleep in that position when I was in the rocker but it's rare.
A great cat who I hope will soon find a home that appreciates him.
—JDR

 

Sadness

Sadness is getting back the Thinking of You card you sent a close friend, returned to you marked deceased.

--JDR 

Happiness . . .

 Happiness is having finished a complete draft eight days ahead of deadline.

Now to spend the next few days polishing, checking the references, writing up the notes, and practicing (and timing) the delivery.

But for now, being more or less done ahead of the deadline is such an unusual experience for me that I thought I shd savor it.

--John R.

--current reading: various stories by Gygax (bad), Gardner Fox (really bad), and Harry Fischer (the jury is out) that appeared in early issues of THE DRAGON.

--Jn Peterson's new book  THE ELUSIVE SHIFT

--various odds and ends relating to things I'm working on.