Ludonarrative Dissidents

I’ve just stumbled upon the Ludonarrative Dissidents podcast which I’m enjoying (I’ve only listened to two episodes so far.

Ludonarrative Dissidents is a podcast about rpgs, how they’re made and how they’re played. In each episode, Ross Payton, Greg Stolze and James Wallis take a critical look at a particular ttrpg.

I think there are about 40 episodes so far, and I’m not going to listen to them all (largely because they often talk about games I have no interest in), but I will dip into them as and when.

So far, I’ve listened to the very first episode (Apocalypse World), ALIEN: Chariot of the Gods, and I’ve just started the Fiasco episode.

(There are occasional episodes that cover things like using cards in rpgs, initiative systems, metacurrencies and so on. And even an actual play or two. I’ve not listened to those yet.)

The good

The discussions are interesting, with all three hosts having a good knowledge of the games industry. The discussions are friendly, although I sometimes get Greg Stolze and Ross Payton confused because their voices sound a little similar to me.

So far, they’ve been pretty much in agreement with the games. It will be interesting to hear an episode where they disagree.

And the show notes for Season 3 (written by James) are excellent, and cross-reference everything they talk about.

The pillars

According to the website, every episode of Ludonarrative Dissidents is built around four pillars:

• What does this game do?
• How does it do that?
• How do people play it?
• Why do they play it that way?
• (and how well does it succeed?)

Do they answer the questions? Maybe, but I’d be hard pressed to tell you their answers.

I wish the team were a little more strict in sticking to this approach. While I was expecting the first episode to be a bit scrappy and unfocused, I had imagined that 40 episodes later, things (ALIEN: Chariot of the Gods is one of the recent episodes) would be a little slicker, but no.

For example, I was expecting that after 40 episodes, each episode would have a slick intro, where they would introduce themselves and the game they are talking about and the four pillars (and then structure the podcast around those four pillars). But no. At least, not in the episodes I’ve heard so far.

Not everyone has played the game…

My biggest criticism, however, is that in the two podcasts I’ve listened to so far, only one of the three (Ross Payton) has actually played or run the game. (Not even Apocalypse World.) 

That seems to be a bit of a failing if you’re going to discuss the game in depth. You can’t even run a one-shot? You can’t even play a one-shot?

I know lots of other ttrpg reviewers don’t run the games either (I don’t always, although I try to), but I suspect that some of the commentary on ALIEN: Chariot of the Gods would be different had they all run the game. (For example, most reviews I’ve seen of Chariot of the Gods love the agendas that the pregens come with. Greg Stolze was dead against them – but he hasn’t played or run the game.)

They wouldn’t even have to run a game – I’m sure they could find someone to run a game for them.

Overall

Anyway, with that caveat aside, it’s definitely worth listening to – especially for games you are interested in. I’ve added it to my podcast feed.

A couple of days later: I've just listened to the Traveller episode, and they still don't introduce the podcast properly. They don't introduce who they are, and they don't say what their experience of the game is. That's not hard to do and makes it seem really amateurish. (Compare with Fear of a Black Dragon, which is excellent in this regard.)

The scope of their comments also ought to be explained. For example, in the Traveller episode, they are only looking at Mongoose's 2022 rulebook, not the rest of the Traveller line (or its history - although they mention it). That's the sort of thing that ought to be made clear in an introduction. 

They also don't clearly address their four pillars – instead it’s just a rambling discussion. That’s fine, but if so don’t pretend to have these four pillars.

Writing Freeform Larps now has a website

Writing Freeform Larps has a website! writingfreeformlarps.larps.org.uk

The owner of the larp.org.uk domain offered to host any larp-based website as a subdomain from it. He already does this with Gods and Monsters and Cyberpunk, which are both laser-tag sites built using Blogger.

As I use Blogger for this site, I thought it might be a good idea to create a mini-site just for Writing Freeform Larps.

Using Blogger to build a mini-site

I find Blogger much easier than Wordpress to build a website. It has far fewer features, no plugins and everything seems much more straightforward.

I'm sure Wordpress is more sophisticated, secure and flexible. But for a small mini-site dedicated to a particular project, it’s fine.

Why a mini-site?

I decided I wanted a separate site for Writing Freeform Larps because it’s not always clear what I am talking about when I say “freeform larp”. So this gives me a public-facing page to explain what a freeform is, along with links to a few examples and photographs.

I also explained the process I use for writing a freeform, hopefully providing just enough information to whet the appetite of an interested visitor.

I also moved a few posts from this blog over to the new site. I had several posts discussing suggestions and ideas for a second edition, so they are now there.

Going forward, I’m not sure yet how I will manage the split of information between here and Writing Freeform Larps. I expect I will write it in one place and link to it from the other.

Other mini-sites

And having done this once, I’m wondering about creating mini-sites for Other London and for The Harvesters, my series of first-contact larps. But if I don’t want …blogspot.com as my website address, I may have to look into learning how domains work. Ugh.

Writing Freeform Larps

Click here to visit Writing Freeform Larps.

The Department for Irregular Services – design notes

Three years ago, I had an idea for a Liminal crew assigned to Historic England, and responsible for dealing with Hidden World situations associated with scheduled ancient monuments and other historical buildings.

I wrote this up for the blog (here), and it sat in the back of my mind for a while.

Then, about a year ago, the temptation of mixing historical sites (which I love visiting) with modern horror/fantasy rpg grew too much, and inspired by Neil Gow’s Case Files Patreon, I decided to expand the article into an unofficial supplement for Liminal. 

Expanding the department

So I needed to develop the Department for Irregular Services (DfIS). Here’s the full team, NPCs and PCs:

• Bernard McTavish, who leads the DfIS. (NPC)
• Hester Babbage, the wheelchair-bound archivist. (NPC)
• Cecil Philip Mayhew, a dead academic archaeologist “living” in a ghost realm.
• Dr Cassandra Blackwood, occult history specialist (PC)
• Titus Stone, expert in paranormal engineering and protective wards. (PC)
• Grey Calderwell, the DfIS’s fae expert (PC)
• Erik Grimsson, cryptozoology specialist. (PC)
• DI Yasmin Burton, P-Division’s liaison officer (PC)

In my head, the youngest characters are in their fifties – the oldest are past retirement. (McTavish is 71.) Of course, players can play them at whatever age they want, but I like to think of the DfIS as a bunch of old folk.

Tools of the Trade

I decided that the DfIS probably has a store of occult artefacts – including a hand of glory, blessed weapons and other mysterious devices of limited use. My favourites are probably the Nails of Wem:

Nails of Wem: 17 bronze Roman nails were discovered with the famous Wem Hoard collection of coins and silver. To anyone with The Sight, the nails were clearly occult – and the DfIS took possession of them. When hammered into a doorway, a single nail will prevent the passing of any fae. The DfIS have only 11 nails left. 

One of the things I’ve tried to do is suggest that the world is wider and stranger than just the things that directly affect play. So I’ve dropped in hints and suggestions that can be expanded upon if a GM wishes. (For example, what happened to the other six nails?)

The investigations

I created three investigations – one of which was an update of an investigation I’d published previously.

The Hairy Hands involved the famous Dartmoor legend – they’re back! I wrote this after visiting Dartmoor and realising that we had been driving along the famous “hairy hands” road.

Hardknott Roman Fort Ghost Realm consists of a ghost realm new to the DfIS. This is the investigation I had already published, so it just needed updating to suit the department.

The Wherewell Cockatrice is a longer investigation that ends with the PCs face-to-face with a cockatrice, which I decided was a fae creature.

I ran my online group through these adventures, and we took about ten sessions to work our way through them all, which was about right. I’m not sure I’d use any as a convention one-shot, so that's maybe something I should work on.

The ghost realms

I figure the DfIS has records of dozens of ghost realms, and I thought it would be good to describe some. 

So I conclude with a description of four ghost realms: Machrie Moor stone circles, Rushton Triangular Lodge, South Stack Lighthouse, and Bilton Viaduct. (I’ve visited all of these, which probably gives you a sense of what I do on my holidays…)

One thing that I found I needed to pay attention to was making sure that the ghost realms aren’t too easy to get into. I like to assume that the world of Liminal is pretty much like our own, and since people aren’t being regularly swallowed by ghost realms (if it happened often it would be news and we would know about it), I made the ghost realms tricky to access (requiring specific times or activities to be performed).

AI input

Given the current furore surrounding AI art, I decided not to use AI for character portraits. Instead, I found suitable public domain and Creative Commons-licensed artwork.

However, I did use ChatGPT for brainstorming, so I acknowledged that.

Approval from Mr Liminal

Once I had everything formatted, I sent the pdf to Paul Mitchener to ask for permission to publish it, which he kindly granted me.

Purchasing The Department for Irregular Services

You can purchase The Department for Irregular Services from itch.io or DriveThruRPG.

The many, many trains of our Switzerland holiday

This summer we visited Switzerland, and I thought I'd take a photograph of all the trains we travelled on...

(The trains in Switzerland are very nice. Much nicer than ours.)

York to King's Cross. Our first train, an LNER Azuma, arriving at York.

Eurostar from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Lyon. This is once we arrived in Paris.

TGV from Paris Gare du Lyon to Geneva. This is at Paris, where the temperature was a blistering 38C.

I didn't take photos of all the metros we travelled on (we used the metro a lot), but this is the one we took when we visited CERN.

From Geneva to Lausanne, where we spent most of our time.

From Geneva to Neuchatel, at 5:35 am! We had to be in Adelboden by 10 am.

Neuchatel to Bern. (At Neuchatel.)

Bern to Frutigen, in Bern. (After this we caught a bus to Adelboden. I didn't take a photo of the bus.)

Frutigen to Bern. This is as the train arrives at Frutigen, and I have that slightly pained I'm-trying-to-work-the-camera-and-compose-the-photo-and-get-the-timing-right-and-smile expression. I should have let Megan take the photo...

Bern to Neuchatel, at Neuchatel. (I have no idea what model these trains are, by the way.)

Neuchatel to Lausanne, at Neuchatel.

Okay, so this isn't a train either, but it's the ferry we caught when travelling from Lausanne to château de Chillon.)

Veytaux-Chillon to Lausanne. (At Veytaux-Chillon.)

Lausanne to Palézieux, at Lausanne.

Palézieux to Gruyères (yes, the place with the cheese!), at Palézieux.

Cheese!

Gruyères to Palézieux, at Gruyères.

Palézieux to Lausanne, at Palézieux.

Lausanne to Nyon, at Lausanne.

Nyon to Lausanne, at Nyon

Lausanne to Grandvaux, at Lausanne.

Lutry to Lausanne, at Lausanne.

Starting our journey home. Lausanne to Geneva, from Lausanne.

TGV from Geneva to Paris Gare du Lyon. This was more exciting than it needed to be, as it was 1 hr 40 mins late into Paris, leaving us with a stressful dash across Paris to catch the Eurostar. Which we luckily did!

Eurostar from Paris Gare du Nord to London St Pancras. At St Pancras (because there really wasn't time for taking photos at Paris).

And finally, LNER Azuma from London King's Cross to York, at London.

Phew!

What happened to Traveller’s reaction table?

I’m preparing to run Traveller for my regular group – I’m running FASA’s old Sky Raiders trilogy, starting with Legend of the Sky Raiders.

I will run it using Mongoose’s latest rules, because I’m more familiar with them than the original little black books.

So I’m working my way through the scenario (which is harder going than I expected, but more on that in another post, I expect), and there’s a point where the PCs are slogging through a jungle and encountering the local natives. And on page 24, it says, “In all cases, the Reaction Table should be used as a guide for negotiations.”

And I thought, oh yes, I remember that.

(It’s not even Legend’s first mention of the reaction table – it’s also referred to on page 20.)

But could I find it in the current rules? I could not. I found a lot of other interesting tables, but not the reaction table.

Traveller’s reaction table

So the reaction table (from page 27 of Book 3: Worlds and Adventures) looks like this:

So basically, roll 2d6. Add modifiers if necessary. The higher the result, the better for the players. (I soon learned not to take the extreme results literally – a roll of 2 didn’t have to mean a physical attack.)

I think I embedded that philosophy into much of my gaming. Even now, if I need to make a decision as the GM, I roll 2d6 and then interpret the results with high being positive for the players, and low being negative.

I remember running one very loosey-goosey game (although that is not a term I would have used back then) in the 90s when that’s pretty much the only rule I used!

I know Traveller was my first roleplaying game, but I don’t think I appreciated quite how much it influenced my GMing style.

So while I will use the modern Traveller rules, I will also use the old rules where I find gaps.

Reaction table: gone but not forgotten

Somewhere between 1981 and 2022, the reaction table disappeared. (I didn’t keep up with Traveller’s numerous iterations between then and now, so I couldn’t tell you when.)

I wonder what happened that made a later designer think it wasn’t needed.

And do I think the reaction table should be reinstated? Right now, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll have a different view after I’ve run Legend of the Sky Raiders.

Meeting a Mossie

In 1942, an eighteen-year-old John Hatherley (my father) joined the RAF and spent the next three years racking up over 500 hours and flying anti-shipping sorties in World War 2.

He was a navigator rather than a pilot (and at the end of the war went on to become an instructor) and joined 143 squadron based out of Banff in Scotland. There, he flew in Bristol Beaufighters before, in October 1944, De Havilland Mosquitos replaced the Beaufighters. The Mossie was definitely his favourite.

He flew in the FB Mk. VI, the one with the rockets under the wing. (I remember building a 1/72 Airfix Mosquito Mk VI when I was a kid.)

(The video above is an RAF propaganda film explaining the kind of missions that Dad flew.)

So, of all the WW2 aircraft, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Mossie. Not only was it arguably the most successful aircraft of the War (depending on how you measure success, of course), but it just looks right – clean and elegant. The fact that Dad flew in it is a bonus.

Seeing the Mosquito in flight

Although we went to numerous air shows when I was growing up, I don’t remember ever seeing the Mossie in flight. There was one still flying back then, RR299, but I don’t remember seeing it at an airshow.

I was lucky enough to see RR299. In the mid-90s, I was working on a site building the Flintshire Bridge over the River Dee near Queensferry, and I remember hearing the roar of Merlin engines and seeing a familiar silhouette banking above me.

That was only a day or two before its tragic crash at Barton Aerodrome.

And that was the last example of an airworthy Mossie anywhere in the world, until New Zealand’s Glyn Powell restored KA114 in 2012. There are now three (I think) airworthy Mossies in the world. There are none in the UK, though. At least, not yet.

Mosquito experience

Which brings me, eventually, to last week and the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre’s Mosquito Experience day that my brother Phil and I attended. The museum is now the home to Tony Agar’s restored Mosquito NFII HJ711, a night-fighter variant, that he has been working on since 1971 (so over 50 years!). And now the museum offers experience days to get up close and personal with the machine. (And if you really wanted, you could sit in the navigator’s seat while the aircraft was taxying.)

(Yes, I’ve spelt taxy correctly. That surprised me as well.)

We arrived at 9:30, just in time to see their part-restored Lancaster, Just-Jane, being wheeled out of the big hangar. Phil and I checked in and enjoyed our complimentary pot of tea (and a magnificent breakfast bap, which wasn’t free) before heading to the Sergeant’s Mess for a Mosquito talk.

There were 50 of us in total, almost everyone my age or a little older. And mostly men, with a couple of supportive partners.

The talk was very entertaining, covering the Mossie’s history and key operations (which I suspect pretty much everyone in the audience knew inside-out). The discussion about Mosquito movies was interesting, but there are so few of them. I made a note to watch The Bombardment (aka The Shadow in My Eye, on Netflix) and The Shepherd (on Disney+).

Then an ex-RAF pilot dressed up in the kit that a typical Mossie crew would wear. (He was actually dressed as a navigator - so what Dad wore.) That was fascinating – it’s so bulky. I hadn’t realised that the pilots would have to attach their parachutes to their harnesses before leaving the aircraft!

After that, it was time for the first taxy session, when we watched the Mossie fire up its throaty Merlin engines and trundle up and down the airfield. (It wasn’t as loud as I was expecting, but then it didn’t get anywhere near full power.)

Then lunch, a very nice ploughman's which Phil and I dutifully ate, despite not being even remotely hungry. We sat next to another Mossie fan – he was here because it was "the best," which we didn’t argue with.

After lunch, we got up close and personal with HJ711 and poked our heads in the cramped cockpit. This was done in small groups, and while we waited for the other teams, we looked at the rest of the museum, ate a complimentary cream tea (cream first – we are Devon born and bred!), and leafed through Dad’s logbook, which Phil had brought.

Then, HJ711 was wheeled into the main hangar and its owner, Tony Agar, gave a talk explaining his journey in restoring his Mossie over the last 50 years. HJ711 isn’t just one Mossie – he thinks it’s made up of 50 different Mosquitos.

Finally, HJ711 was wheeled out for the second taxy session of the day. Phil and I watched it fire up and taxy away, and then we headed out and home.

Other links

Here’s another Mosquito restoration project, the People’s Mosquito.

And here’s news about a Mossie FB. VI  that may be taking to the skies in the UK in the next year or two.

And even more photos

Because the Mossie is just beautiful…

The Lords of Midnight

I have become slightly obsessed with The Lords of Midnight, an old computer game from 1984 that I remember playing on the ZX Spectrum. I found an excellent adaptation on the Google Play store, and I’ve been playing that on my tablet.

And it’s excellent. And hard.

By World of Spectrum, Fair use, Link

A little history

The Lords of Midnight was written by Mike Singleton and originally released in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum (and was soon converted for other computers). The game featured an innovative 3-D effect that made playing the game feel like you were exploring a world. Features would appear on the horizon and get larger as you approached. It was amazing. 

The game is clearly inspired by The Lord of the Rings. You start by controlling the Fellowship of the Ring, er, I mean four characters: Aragorn, Gandalf, Elrond and Frodo. Sorry, I mean Luxor the Moonprince, Rorthron the Wise, Corleth the Fey, and Morkin, Luxor's son.

Against them is Doomdark the Witchking (ie Sauron), who has locked the land of Midnight in perpetual winter.

There are several paths to victory. Morkin can seek Doomdark’s ice crown (rather than the one ring) and destroy it (there are several ways this can be done). Or you can try for a military victory by recruiting the titular lords and winning on the field of battle, which is much harder and takes much longer.

The map (from here)

As for Doomdark, he wins if both Luxor and Morkin are dead, or if Morkin is dead and he conquers a particular citadel.

The game in 1984

I loved The Lords of Midnight, and remember playing it long into the night, in the corner of our lounge where our ZX Spectrum was plugged into our television. I think this must have been during the summer before I went to university, so I had time to spare.

I don’t remember the game being particularly difficult – I remember winning twice: the easy way and the hard way. But my main memory of the game was exploring the land, watching mountains and forests and keeps and armies appear before me.

The game in 2025

Mike Singleton passed away in 2012, but The Lords of Midnight lives on as Chris Wild continues to support the game and bring it to Android, Windows, iOS and OSX. His site, thelordsofmidnight.com, is full of useful information about the game. (And hints and tips, which I found useful as I’m too impatient to want to have to learn everything from scratch.)

The game plays well in 2025 – assuming that the 8-bit graphics do not put you off. For me, as long as the game is good, I don’t really care about the graphics. And is the game good? I think so.

On Android, the game seems a bit slicker than back in 1984. Certainly, it’s faster. But it also seemed harder.

State-of-the-art 1984 graphics

It took me a couple of games to win – I made a couple of mistakes in the first few games, as I was learning how to play again, running around the map, recruiting lords and trying to remember where things were.

I think I won my third game (the easiest way), but then spent several games (and more hours than Mrs H knows about) trying to win militarily. This seems to be much harder than I remember – but maybe I didn’t win militarily last time? Or perhaps I just got lucky?

Anyway, the military game consists of running around the map, recruiting lords (and getting them to recruit more) and their military forces. There are more than 30 characters, and they’re scattered all across the map.

Along the way, Doomdark’s ice fear grows – characters grow demoralised and tired and can’t always continue. But as you win more and more victories against Doomdark’s forces, your troops’ morale improves.

Things I liked

Reliving the 80s: It’s such a good game, and challenging. It’s not easy to win the military victory. And it feels epic, despite its 8-bit origins.

Winning: And finally, I beat Doomdark on the battlefield. It took a long while – victory came on day 73. This time, I retreated to the fortress in the south and waited for Doomdark to attack, and then headed north. I may try something else next time and see if I can do it sooner.

The automap: This is a huge improvement from the old days. Back in 1984, we had to take copious notes. Now, the game creates a map as you go along, so you can see where everything is. It’s a huge help – I wouldn’t want to play The Lords of Midnight without it.

Finding all the lords: I used this page to create a rough map so I knew where to find them. Even then, it’s not easy. (Korinel the Fey is particularly hard to recruit, as they are under attack early in the game. I spent one game fruitlessly searching for them, not realising they had already been killed.)

Grouping: The game is much easier when you can group the lords and move them by controlling their leader. It’s only a shame I didn’t discover it earlier!

The Lord of Midwinter: After Mike Singleton died in 2012, Chris Wild added The Lord of Midwinter to the game as an Easter egg. I saw him a few times.

Things that could be better

User interface: While the user interface is undoubtedly better than we had back in 1984, it could do with a couple of improvements. For example, I would like to have the map button (which I used all the time) on more screens. Maybe all of them.

Battle reports: It would be nice to read a single battle report, instead of going through each character to see how they fared. (I quickly stopped.)

Lords without armies: I carelessly lost a few lords to wolves and skulkrin because I had forgotten they weren’t travelling with an army. (Or maybe they had lost their army in battle.) Lords with armies cannot be killed by the random monsters roaming the land, but lone lords can. And so I lost a few lords while clearing the map of critters, which was annoying. An indicator to show that they weren’t travelling with an army would have been very useful! (This was before I discovered the group feature.)

Gender: The character gender split is very 1980s—all male. (Although I think an update may change that at some point.)

But Chris Wild is a one-man band and supporting The Lord of Midnight for the love of it, these are very minor niggles and I thoroughly enjoyed my return to Midwinter.

What’s next?

And now I’ve done it? Do I try a couple of the harder options (such as switching off the ability for troops to cross mountains)? 

I don’t know, but first I’m going to tackle Doomdark’s Revenge, the sequel. I remember this being much harder…