A Timeline of Forteana - Part Two

Further to my previous edition of the timeline (1900-1925), here's 1926 to 1950:

1926 – child sees ‘upside-down saucer’ with lights off the north coast (Cornwall, UK).

1927 – boys saw disc-shaped domed object fly along valley and land nearby. Circle of scorched grass found at site the next day (nr. Fernvale, New South Wales, Australia); ‘round globules of fire’ seen at night during gale (Upstreet, Kent, UK).

1928 – trapper abducted by ‘Sasquatch’ (Conuma River, British Columbia, Canada); toad found entombed in rock (Eastland,Texas, USA).

1929 – haunting at Borley Rectory first reaches public notice via newspaper reports and investigation by Harry Price (Borley, Essex, UK); pillar found in limstone rock (Menominie, Wisconsin, USA).

1930 – 80-foot long sea monster with long neck seen (Scarborough, New South Wales, Australia); small, glistening, hairless, human-like creature entered house and terrified family (Madura, Western Australia); man saw and shot at ‘thick-set black figure’ which he thought was a ‘Mapinguary’ (Wild Man) (Urúbu River, Brazil); partly fused metal bar fell from sky during violent thunderstorm (Hunchstanton, Norfolk, UK); aerial object like a ‘massive sheet of shining metal’ seen. It was revolving and after 40 minutes it shot upward at speed (Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa); sighting of phantom elephant (Baraboo, Wisconsin, USA).

1931 – giant reptile seen by opal prospector (South Australia); large, low, slow-moving cloud emitted continuous rumbling sound, without lightning, rain, hail, etc. (Cache Lake, Ontario, Canada).

1932 – boy saw 12-inch disc object which hovered nearby and made humming noise, with white mist around it (nr. Nambour, Queensland, Australia); zoologist saw giant bat or pterodactyl-like creature (Assumbo Mountains, Cameroon).

1933 – ball lightning fell with purple streak and struck barn with loud noise and flash (Stouffville, Ontario, Canada); ball of fire seen bouncing along hedgetops at night (Vale, Guernsey, UK); body of Saint Catherine Labouré found undecayed, 56 years after her death (Paris, France); water monster seen in marshy area linked to sea (nr. Perugia, Italy); 11-foot reptile seen and killed, carcass later burnt (nr. Syracuse, Sicily); water monster seen at river mouth (River Ticino, Italy); 90-foot creature seen in water – later, a similar creature seen ashore (St. Lucia Lake, Natal, South Africa); man saw landed craft and opened door to see room full of instruments lit by violet light, but with no occupants (nr. Chrysville, Pennsylvania, USA).

1934 – sea monster with 3 humps covered with scales and barnacles seen by fishermen off of coast (Townsville, Queensland, Australia); long-necked creature with blue back and yellow stomach seen in water (River Doubs, Switzerland); shrieks, wails and other weird noises heard near small lake and wooded area. Sounds moved around whilst being investigated (Langhorne, Pennsylvania, USA); farmer saw dragon-like creature, tracks also found in mud (Campbell Lake, South Dakota, USA); huge sea creature with horse-like head seen in Black Sea by fishermen (Yevpatoria, Crimea); sea monster, 60-80 feet long with 6 humps seen by passengers on ocean liner (St.Thomas, Virgin Islands).

1935 – 8-foot long carcass of unidentified animal with horse-like head found (Boyd Town Beach, New South Wales, Australia); witness saw landed craft and small silver-suited entities. Square imprints and burnt area photographed on following day (Nipawin, Quebec, Canada); fishing boat crew saw ‘merman’-like creature, which had shiny eyes, broad smooth forehead, with dark hair on head and around chin (nr. Shasta, California, USA); 48-foot long sea monster shot and killed by lighthouse keeper (Mutton Island, County Galway, N. Ireland); 8-foot long green and yellow reptile seen (Monterose, Italy).

1936 – Bigfoot threw rocks at men travelling in canoe (Morris Creek, British Columbia, Canada); 200-foot sea monster with 60-foot long neck seen (Port-Au-Port, Newfoundland, Canada); showers of stones and unusual lights seen by prospector (Howells, Arizona, USA); woman saw flying man, clad in black, wearing helmet and ‘backpack’, accompanied by rumbling noise (Pavlodar Region, Kazakhstan).

1937 – reconnaissance unit shot dead 2 man-sized ape-like creatures that were covered with reddish hair (Mongolia/USSR border); mine workers saw lights underground and saw faceless ghost (Bankfield and Little Long Lac gold mines, Ontario, Canada).

1938 – ‘fireballs’ fell from overcast sky, killing one person and badly burning others, and some houses were destroyed or damaged (Parajaeva, Lappland, Sweden); 3 foot long greenish-grey object seen in sky and then suddenly vanished (Juminda, Estonia); huge black cloud caused daytime darkness lasting several hours, over a wide area (Gulf of Ob, Siberia).

1939 – sighting of giant lizard, several yards long (Ossum, France).

1940 – ‘fiery cartwheels’, accompanied by rumbling sound, seen rolling along hilltops (Bata, Hungary); lake monster seen, black with 4 short legs (Lackagh Lake, County Kerry, N. Ireland).

1941 – tall, hair-covered ‘wildman’ captured. It did not speak, eat or drink, and was later executed as a ‘spy’ by partisan firing squad (Caucasus Mountains).

1942 – ‘Phantom Barber’ removes hair from several female victims over the course of several nights (Pascagoula, Mississippi, USA).

1943 – domed object seen which flew 15 to 20 feet above ground and gave off bright white light (Qing Xian, Hubei Province, China); 6-foot long snake, yellow-brown in colour seen in water, and attacked witness (River Gudenaa, Jutland, Denmark).

1944 – RAAF bomber crew flying at 4500 feet saw ‘dark shadow’ flying alongside, which had flames coming from one end. Plane’s radio and direction-finding equipment did not function until the object accelerated away (Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia); hair-covered humanoid shot and killed (Tashkurgan); sighting of giant bird (Possum Kingdom Dam, Texas, USA).

1945 – various white objects (clothes, walls) burst into flame, with 400 separate incidents (Almeria, Spain)

1946 – ‘Ghost rockets’ seen in sky on many occasions over Sweden, some seen crashing into lakes (i.e. Lake Kölmjarv); fall of lignite (Racine, Wisconsin, USA).

1947 – survey worker saw craft 150-foot wide, from which emerged several 7-foot tall entities. He hid after they tried to take him on board, and watched as they leapt about and threw large stones (Barú, Brazil); 5 ‘birds’ with leathery bodies seen (Manuos, Brazil); fossil hunter saw landed craft and 2 small entities with green skin, large round eyes and slit mouths. He shouted to them and was knocked to the ground by smoke that issued from the belt of one entity (nr. Villa Santena, Italy); ‘pygmy’ covered in reddish hair seen (Adiopodumé, Ivory Coast); passengers of ship ‘Llandovery Castle’ saw huge metallic cylinder, c.1000 feet long, hovering over sea, onto which it shone searchlight (Straits of Madagascar); sea monster seen on several occasions, which had ‘eyes like red searchlights’ and made loud braying noise (Tiger Rocks, Natal, South Africa); airline pilots saw aerial object like metallic cylinder with ‘cockpit’, ‘windows’ and exhaust, which carried out several controlled manoeuvres (Montgomery, Alabama, USA); sea monster seen ‘looping through the water’. Another sighting of this creature described it as having a cow-like head and a fin on its’ back (Security Lake, Alaska, USA); 2 Bigfoot-like creatures seen crossing road by couple in car, and one creature looked through car window (nr. Shasta, California, USA); 3 witnesses saw object like inverted pie plate, with flames issuing from it’s sides and making a swishing sound as it flew through canyon (Snake River Canyon, Idaho, USA); Captain Mantell killed after his F-51 fighter plane crashed following pursuit of silvery object at high altitude (Goodman Air Force Base, Kentucky, USA); small ‘flying wing’ shaped object seen in sky (nr. Cave Creek, Arizona, USA); object looking like shiny aircraft propeller, with 10-12 cups protruding beneath each blade, seen by two witnesses as it crossed road in front of their vehicle (Indianapolis, Indiana, USA); ship ‘Santa Clara’ collided with sea monster and water was stained with blood (nr. Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA); pilot Kenneth Arnold saw group of shiny unidentified craft at some distance from his aircraft (Mount Ranier, Washington, USA); archaeological find - site dated to c.7000BCE (Plainview, Texas, USA).

1948 – fall of hundreds of fish, from cloudless sky (Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire, UK); 3 witnesses saw 40-foot long sea monster, with head and neck 8 feet above water. Body was greyish-green in colour, with pinkish neck, and green glassy spines on its’ back (Carmel River, California, USA); ghost of headless man seen at night near railway tracks (Maringouin, Louisiana, USA); flying man seen, who had long silvery wings fastened over his shoulders and controls on his chest. Sighting accompanied by sizzling or whistling noise (Chehalis, Washington, USA); 3 flying men seen, without wings but wearing helmets, accompanied by engine-like sound (Longview, Washington, USA); green fireballs seen in sky (Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA).

1949 – creature seen in water which had long shaggy ‘ears’, with which it propelled itself along (Laurisoir Reservoir, Keynton, Victoria, Australia); pilot saw 7 delta-shaped objects which flew in formation and made co-ordinated manoeuvres. The engine of his aircraft ran rough during sighting, and upon landing it was found that spark plugs had been burnt out (Mountain Home, Idaho, USA); object like silver dollar with fin seen by 5 witnesses (Rouge River, Oregon, USA).

1950 – man walking along coast saw oval object rise from sea and fly into the air (bt. San Sebastian and Rio Grande, Argentina); ‘ghost light’ seen in forest (nr. Woodbridge, Manitoba, Canada); two aerial objects seen to hit water and sink (Inchon, South Korea); object seen in air and on radar, travelling at 1800mph (Kodiak, Alabama, USA); 6 to 12 objects shaped like aircraft bombs seen in sky, making noise like wind blowing through trees (Marrowbore Lake, Tennessee, USA); DC-4 aircraft destroyed when flying on stormy night, preceded by sighting of ball of fire by witnesses on ground (Benton Harbor, Michigan, USA); policemen saw jelly-like mass fall from sky into field. It gave of purple glow and evaporated (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA).

A Timeline of Forteana - Part One

'What is Forteana?', you might be asking yourself. Well, it's a term used as a sort of catch-all phrase that deals with anomalous phenomena as discussed by Charles Fort. Fort was a collector of data about such phenomena which he gleaned from newpapers and scientific journals, eventually writing it all up  into several somewhat eccentric books. Being interested in such things myself from an early age, when I first bought the Call of Cthulhu RPG I was pleasantly surprised to see a Fortean Timeline included with the 'Sourcebook for the 1920s'. Over the years I've created dribs and drabs of my own timeline and am gradually stitching it all together.

What follows below is a timeline which covers 1900 to 1925, and 1926 to 1950 will be added in a future post. This may come in handy as adventure seeds for Call of Cthulhu (as scenarios don't always have to revolve around the Mythos), or may be of interest just as a general reference. Do I believe any of it? Hmm. Well, I can't say that I do. That said, what interests me a great deal is the sort of imagery that such reports conjour up, and I find the descriptions fascinating. Sources for the entries come from various books, such as 'Modern Mysteries of the World' by Janet and Colin Bord and 'A Geo-bibliography of Anomalies' by George Eberhart. I'll include a full bibliography in a future post.

1900 - Man was dazed when ball lightning exploded nearby (Telemark, Norway); Sherman Church was seen entering mill building, but was never seen again. There was an extensive search, but no clues were found to his whereabouts (Augusta Mills, Battle Creek, Michigan, USA).

1901 - Fall of substance smelling like glue (Sart, Belgium); showers of stones fell on village over several days (Harrisonville, Ohio, USA).

1902 - Sea monster seen by steamer crew: 30-35 feet long with four 5-foot high fins, head bigger than seal's (Ram Head, Australia); sea captain saw big black sea monster which dove and surfaced under his boat (City Island, New York, USA); ice-skaters were chased by an 8-foot tall hairy creature wielding a club (Chesterfield, Idaho, USA); 'ghost light' seen west of town (Hebron, Maryland, USA); crew of SS Fort Salisbury saw a strange submarine object 'between five and six hundred feet in length. It had two lights, one at each end. A mechanism of some kind, or fins maybe, was making a commotion in the water'. The craft 'appeared to be scaled', and it was sinking slowly (Gulf of Guinea, South Atlantic Sea); over a period of one week, five men inexplicably disappeared in separate incidences (Buffalo, USA); people in yacht saw humped sea monster, 60 feet long (Oslofjord, Norway).

1903 - Fishermen at bayside saw set of fins 20 feet and 50 feet apart, later saw head with huge green eyes (Conception Bay, Canada); small stones appeared and fell slowly in room (Sumatra); miners on night shift saw creature with 'horns and long hair, great big eyes and an inhuman look, although standing erect like a man' (Iola, Kansas, USA); fishermen saw snake-like sea monster, 120 feet long with head 20 feet above water. It had round eyes, was brown with white-brown throat, and covered with long hair that ‘looked like seaweed’ (Hermanus, Cape Province, South Africa).

1904 - Children saw ghost of a man believed killed in 17th century Battle of Sedgemoor (Honiton, Devon, UK); body of Curé of Ars found in state of undecay, 45 years after his death (Ars, France); child touched ball lightning with foot, resulting in explosion which killed nearby cattle but left child unhurt (Deux Sevres, France); steamship Mohican enshrouded in strange vapour, which glowed like phosporous and played havoc with ships compass. Decks were magnetised and ship glowed as if on fire. After half an hour, cloud lifted and moved out to sea (Philadelphia, USA); unnatural daytime darkness lasted for 15 minutes, causing widespread panic (Memphis, USA); large round lights seen, over 7 or 8 years (Lough Erne, N.Ireland).

1905 - Sea monster with large head seen, coil seen 30 feet away from head (Fernando de Noronha, Brazil); woman in white, without wings, seen flying over town by many witnesses. Some heard 'singing' (Voltana, Spain).

1906 - Lightning struck woman and left figures on her arm resembling pheasant, snake and Chinese characters (Unionport, New Jersey, USA); officer on merchant ship saw sea monster about 180 feet long, with large dorsal fins. It overtook ship at great speed (40 miles off coast of Pernambuco, Brazil); find of 'Norse axe' (Sawyer county, Wisconsin, USA).

1907 - Fishermen saw sea monster 200 feet long (Gulf of Porto, Corsica); fall of hailstones with portrait of Virgin Mary inside (Remiremont, France); burnt body of woman found, with no damage to her clothes or objects in room (Mannar, India); ball lightning entered house and moved around in circles, smashing holes in walls (Alpena, Michigan, USA); men saw torpedo-shaped object, 6 feet long, approx. 50 feet above buildings. Tongues of fire issued from it and it was surrounded by a halo (Burlington, Vermont, USA); live toad found in rock 200 feet down in silver mine was shaft was sunk. There was no fissure in rock (Butte, Montana, USA); explorer Colonel Fawcett shot 62-foot long snake, known locally as 'Sucuriju Gigante' (Rio Negro, Brazil).

1908 - Bright spherical object flew slowly at great height over city (Sofia, Bulgaria); people on board ship 'Livingston' saw sea monster at least 200 feet long, dark brown with 6-foot long head, and it made loud rattling sound as it moved away (Gulf of Mexico); prisoners claimed jail was haunted, with faces seen the dark. Jailers admitted strange noises had been heard (Ashville, N. Carolina, USA).

1909 - Body of Saint Bernadette Soubirous incorrupt 30 years after her death (Nevers, France); man saw grey, torpedo-shaped craft in sky with 3 occupants, one of whom shouted to him in an unkown tongue (Waipawa, New Zealand); poltergeist outbreak in railway telegraph tower (Dale, Florida, USA); winged, ram-headed monster 'Jersey Devil' seen (Trenton, New Jersey, USA); fishermen saw object fly over city and fall into sea (Dong Hoi, Vietnam); red-hot metal pellets fell from sky onto beach (Santa Cruz, California, USA); mystery objects seen in skies over state (Massachusetts, USA).

1910 - Ghost ship seen, in area where many giant squids have been sighted (Conception Bay, Newfoundland, Canada); large black bird-like object fell into sea and disappeared (off Normandy Coast, France); sea monster with 6-foot long neck and brown and hairy body seen (Kilkerrin bay, Eire); over 2 hours, stones shot upward from ground accompanied by loud detonation (Cantillana, Spain); white stone cylinder fell from sky (Westerville, Ohio, USA).

1911 - 3 witnesses saw black humped sea monster travelling at speed, which was joined by similar creature (Cotes-du-Nord, France); 2-foot long live alligator fell from sky (Evansville, Indiana, USA); unnatural daytime darkness lasted for half an hour and terrified city (Louisville, Kentucky, USA).

1912 - Sighting of 'Yowie' (a large hairy humanoid) drinking from creek (Bombala, New South Wales, Australia); ship's crew saw sea monster with long neck and humps (Matapan, Greece); loud detonation followed by fall of stones, with 14,000 being collected later (Louisville, Kentucky, USA); sighting of 'Palatine Light' during heavy gale, possible ghost ship (Block Island Sound, Rhode Island, USA); fall of frogs (Comanche, Texas, USA).

1913 - Children saw little green man, which dogs then killed (Farmersville, Tennessee, USA); fall of fish from tornado-like cloud (Quirundi, New South Wales, Australia); sighting of 4-legged sea monster on west coast shore by several witnesses (Tasmania); following electrical storm, boy's presence caused objects to fly around (Jordan, Canada); remains of Blessed Maria Assunta Palotta were found perfectly preserved 8 years after her death (Tong-Eul-Chou, China).

1914 - Colonel Fawcett and companions threatened by hairy 'savages' known locally as Maricoxis (Cordiheira Dos Perecis, Brazil); 8 witness saw strange craft on surface of sea and entities manipulating hose in water. They saw witnesses and all but one went inside, who stayed on as it took off (Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada); sighting of long-necked creature with black, looped body like gigantic snake, also seen crawling out of water (Lough Abisdealy, Eire); woman saw two men with silvery objects on their backs, who flew away. Also seen on following day by other witnesses (Leon, Spain); man saw cigar-shaped craft with lighted windows in a field near his house, which had several 'dwarves' nearby who went aboard when he approached (Hamburg, Germany).

1915 - During severe storm, 'balls of fire' issued from plugs on switchboard at telephone exchange (Freeland, Pennsylvania, USA).

1916 - Sea monster seen about 5 miles from island, at least 40 feet long with large head. It came close enough to be struck on head with oar (Melville Island, Northern Territories, Australia); man in boat saw ‘periscope’, 5-6 feet out of water, moving too fast for contemporary submarines (Thasos, Greece).

1917 - Large number of stones materialised in house, seen falling after sudden mid-air appearance (Helsinki, Finland); officers and men of 'HMS Hilary' saw sea monster with neck 15-30 feet long, with black glossy head and triangular dorsal fin (70 miles south-east of Iceland); 3 children saw angel, the Virgin Mary (13th May), on 13th October, many witnesses awaiting appearance of BVM saw disc moving across sky and sun 'dancing' (Fatima, Portugal); two days after leaving Falmouth, the ship 'Zebrina' was found deserted. Weather had been excellent, ship was in good condition, but crew had vanished (between Falmouth and St. Brieux).

1918 - Poltergeist outbreak, with physical attacks (Cherbourg, France); 3 children had total of 65 visions of the Virgin Mary (Muzillac, France); hunter saw mammoths in forests (Siberian Taiga); fall of grey powder (Farmersville, Texas, USA).

1919 - Boy carrying oil back to stranded car saw 20 small humanoids walking along road (nr. Barrow, Wisconsin, USA); poltergeist outbreak, with messages from the dead (Suri, India); 40-foot long snake seen by hikers (Broad Top Mountain, Pennsylvania, USA); large fireball struck building, showering balls of fire around which floated away (Salina, Kansas, USA); two dissimilar stones, fused together, fell from sky (Cumberland Falls, Kentucky, USA); long black object flew over Madison Square, with many witnesses (New York City, USA).

1920 - Two planes searching for missing schooner saw lights. One plane flew into large cloud and vanished. Schooner never found (Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia); fisherman saw shiny blue translucent egg-shaped object land nearby. After 15 minutes, it flew slowly away (nr. Mount Pleasant, Iowa, USA); china-like fragments fell from sky (Portland, Oregon, USA); ball lightning bounced among houses, demolishing one (South Australia); ball lightning seen, with comet-like tail and saw-tooth streaks of light. Rolled up incline, struck wall and exploded, leaving acrid smell (Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa).

1921 - Poltergeist outbreak centred around dying woman (Hopfgarten, Germany); thousands of small fish fell during thunderstorm (Gibraltar); giant lizard 'Tatzelwurm' seen (nr. Rauris, Austria); ‘Yeti’ footprints found at 20,000 feet by climber (Lhakpa-La, Tibet); Stratigraphic anomaly - two Cretacious limestone formations which transgress time diagonally (Austin, and also at Fort Stockton, Texas, USA).

1922 - 2nd officer of the 'Bali' saw sea monster with 15-foot long neck, grey-green in colour (Gulf of Mannar, Sri Lanka); during heavy snowstorm, exotic insects looking like spiders, caterpillars and huge ants fell and soon died (The Alps, Switzerland); gold prospector saw monster in lake which had long, large neck (Argentina); sighting of phantom wolf (LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA).

1923 - During violent thunderstorm, ball of fire descended and set haystack ablaze. Later several tons of glassy slag found in ashes (Quetta, Pakistan); 2 witness in boat saw large dark seahorse-like creature, with head 30 feet above water. It spouted water, made long whistling sound, and struck surface of water with it’s tail (Nouméa, New Caledonia).

1924 - Disembodied voice heard in cemetery - it seemed to move through the air and follow people. Moans, pleas for help and demoniacal laughter heard (Butler, New Jersey, USA); Albert Ostman claims to have been kidnapped by 'Bigfoot'-type creature (British Colombia, Canada); policeman and other witnesses saw creature that 'had a head like a deer, that ran like a rabbit, and had fiery eyes' (West Orange, New Jersey, USA); crew of British reconnaissance aircraft vanish in desert, their tracks stopping abruptly 40 yards from aircraft. No other tracks found despite search (Libya, North Africa).

1925 - Farmer killed unidentified animal which was killing his chickens: it had crouched posture, four webbed toes on hind feet, yellow eyes, unusual pronged molar teeth (Greenwich, New Jersey, USA); sea monster with 8-foot long neck and body with 5 loops, dirty yellow in colour, seen from steamer (Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia); 2 men saw object like a pair of saucers face-to-face standing on legs in paddock. It had oval windows and shimmered (nr. Moora, Victoria, Australia); captain of fishing trawler saw sea monster like gigantic eel, longer than his 136-foot boat (off Boston, Massachusetts, USA); 50-foot long corpse of unidentified sea creature washed ashore (Santa Cruz, California, USA); during storm, men sheltering in barn saw ball of fire enter. One man was knocked unconscious for 8 hours, the other thrown 15 feet (Gatineau Point, Ontario, Canada); limestone ball containing marine shells and fossils fell from sky (Bleckenstad, Sweden); following accident and 2 deaths aboard 'SS Watertown', pair of phantom faces seen following ship for several days. Photos taken (between US Pacific Coast and Panama Canal); Colonel Fawcett disappears during expedition (Amazon jungles, Brazil); poltergeist outbreak centered on Eleanor Zügun, with physical attacks that continued for 2 years (Romania), climber saw ‘Yeti’ and found footprints 6-7 inches long, at height of 15,000 feet (Zemu Glacier, Nepal); sighting of man-like creature, covered with brown fur and with ‘monkey-like’ face (nr. Alton, Missouri, USA).

In Praise of... Twilight: 2000

Twilight: 2000 is an RPG born out of the Cold War. I was born in 1969, and the Cold War started to come into focus for me in the late 70s and early 80s – and I didn’t like it at all. The one thing that really terrified me was the threat of nuclear war. I grew up near a major air base (RNAS Yeovilton) and a principal aviation factory (Westland Helicopters), so I knew that I would be vaporised should the Cold War turn hot. Because of this, life did sometimes feel like there was a lid on it – sure, I carried on with things (going to school, playing RPGs, listening to heavy metal, watching a lot of bad straight-to-video movies, etc), but there was always this nagging sense that somewhere in the background things could get nasty very quickly. Various themes from the time fed into that sense – the Falklands War, the Soviet Army fighting in Afghanistan, the Lebanese War and various other conflicts covered by the news on TV. TV also did much to add to my fears by showing programmes such as Threads...

To this day, watching it still makes me uncomfortable. The US attempt at such scariness, The Day After, was (to my mind, then and now) somehow watered down and almost more like sci-fi. British TV was once very good at creating gritty, stark programmes and I don’t think anyone really topped their output.

I remember reading an issue of White Dwarf at school in 1984 and seeing an advert for Twilight: 2000, deciding then and there to buy it whenever I got the chance. I liked the idea of a game where you had to try and survive after World War III. As with my recent Ebay trawling for Car Wars, I’ve just gotten my hands on a pretty decent copy of Twilight: 2000...

I've included the FFE compendium (top right) as I'm a completist. Note the original game dice.

If you’re not familiar with the game’s back story, there’s an overview here. What follows is an overview of the 1^st Edition rules that I’ve played the most – I’ll state here and now that this version does a better job than later reworks. Over the years I’ve read various articles slating it as both a game and a system. Some think that nowadays the game seems ‘unrealistic’ (and this is coming from people who probably don’t use the same critiques for D&D etc), because the world it creates no longer seems plausible. Others think that the system is clunky. I don’t share the view of either point. Firstly, I don’t think people are really judging the game for its ‘What if...?’ value. Like all RPGs, the game works from a certain premise. Sure, real world events overtook the premise of Twilight: 2000, but that doesn’t make it defunct. You could still play it for the story it’s trying to tell. Nowadays, it’s simply a fantasy that has links to certain realities.

As for the game system, one of its strengths is the way it tries to model some quite complex concepts (combat, illness, survival, radiation), and I don’t think that any other RPG has topped the way things were done in Twilight: 2000. Skills are easy enough – your character (some form of military personnel) starts with some, and you can buy others on a point for point basis. As these work around percentile values, there’s nothing difficult about it. These percentages affect the outcome of an action or event, and are modified on the basis of whether they are Easy, Average or Difficult to carry out. This covers anything from riding a horse, to making things, to firing weapons. At the same time, even high level skill values don’t make you some sort of god. Your rolls are always modified by the difficulty of the task at hand, so success isn’t necessarily a given. As the game is strongly based around its combat system, some may feel that it’s a bit complicated. On the surface, this is true – especially so of modelling the effects of rounds striking vehicles. However, some basic familiarity with it soon pays off. If anything, things can happen fast and can be resolved quickly, especially as the game seems more geared towards firefights. You just have to take various factors into account – range, whether you can fire before the other guy, etc. At the same time, combat very much has the potential to be lethal and players who understand this have to think and plan what they want to do, certain in the knowledge that resorting to combat has some stark consequences. Death is somewhat likely, and surviving with wounds isn’t a given. The environment is just as likely to finish you off as a bullet if you get things wrong.

To my mind, this forces players to be a bit more cerebral about combat. The same can’t be said for many RPGs. As I was the referee for our Twilight: 2000 sessions, it was always interesting to see my gang of players trying to figure out consequences before the fact. This was especially so because when playing other RPGs they tended to have a much more cavalier, gung-ho approach of the ‘shoot first...’ variety. On top of all of this, the world setting in the game pitched the players against odds which were never in their favour. They were, after all, trying to survive in a (probably) foreign country that had come off the worst for nuclear exchanges and many years of bloody fighting. As soldiers, no-one was telling them what they should do – the last radio message from their HQ was ‘Good luck. You’re on your own, now’. The game, sensibly, provides no moral compass for what they should do. Because of such factors, it was a challenge to play and referee as an RPG.

We played Twilight: 2000 a great deal. As it was a GDW game, it was strongly supported by reference material and scenarios and these did much to add flavour to the experience. My guys managed to survive quite well over the years. Most of them were from the US infantry (i.e. Rasche, a giant Yiddish-speaking Spec 4, and Markowitz the medic), although we had one or two Warsaw Pact deserters - all being led, in a way, by a British combat engineer. Nomadic for most of the time, they teamed up for a while with a NATO-friendly Polish commander who was trying to rebuild his area of control. They finally managed to rejoin a more organised NATO force, only to then be moved to the Middle East in an effort to secure Iranian oil fields...

I decided to get the FFE compendium of the 1^st Edition stuff because it seems to have some interesting extras (i.e. details of the games sales figures, various scenarios) and it’s handy for me to have everything bundled together. At the same time, it’s great to have the actual 1984 issue of the game back in my hands again. It’s actual approach to the subject (and I think this was lost in later editions) is sobre and measured. This is particularly true of the interior artwork, as there’s no attempt at going for clichéd approaches to the subject matter. One other factor of note is that it features women on the box cover who aren’t in silly poses and are depicted as sensibly as the male figures.

Could it still be played today as an RPG? Well, you may have to explain the Cold War to players born after 1990 – or research it yourself if the same time-frame applies to you. Even if you narrow your approach to the way things were in the 1980s, taking some time to research the period would pay off. To be honest, if you’re more familiar with the idea of ‘The War on Terror’, the idea of the Cold War isn’t all that different – it could be said that the latter is just not as nebulous and as open to interpretation as the former. It would also be possible to abandon the idea of playing in the post-apocalyptic world of the original game and instead use the rules to play in some other setting. There are conflicts, old and new, in which the game system would still work.

One thing to always bear in mind, however, is that is first and foremost a game about survival...

The reprint of 'White Box' D&D rules...

Lately my brain has been involved with things other than RPGs (namely, creating illustrations for a book on the Paquisha War) but the recent news from WotC put the ol' grey matter back into gear.

Now, whilst I think it's great that WotC have started re-releasing the classic D&D stuff, it seems that with the White Box they've been nabbed by a trap that they keep wandering into. That is, they seem unable to not mess with things that aren't broken. More specifically, their decision to redo the cover art for the booklets seems to be another example of their weird need to mess about with things that don't need it. What was going through their minds? Why try to recreate the way D&D once looked but then think that bits of it need tweaking?  

The new artwork is okay in a sort of predictable way, but asking for 150 bucks for something that seems closely akin to a bad cover version of one your favourite songs is a bit iffy, in my opinion. I've never been a fan of WotC's overall approach to D&D, and this sort of stuff doesn't do them any favours in my mind. 

There's nothing wrong with the original artwork. Older versions of D&D have some measure of allure precisely because the artwork has it's own style. The styles and clichés that are more commonly associated with D&D and other fantasy RPGs were not yet entrenched. Even a website like Something Awful, which has done it's fair share of pointing out that bad stuff, still manages to note in a recent article that the old artwork has a certain odd charm. WotC seem to insist on ignoring this - or, even worse, think that supplanting the old artwork is somehow necessary. 

Calling something 'Premium' does not make it better, nor does it make it seem less like a way of making a quick buck by despoiling an icon of RPG history. If you're going to do a reprint, do a faithful one.

Interstate '76...

Further to my previous post about Car Wars, one of my all-time favourite digital games is Interstate '76. It seems heavily influenced by Car Wars, albeit with a tongue-in-cheek nod at things such as 'The Dukes of Hazzard' and various straight-to-video films from the '70s and '80s. The intros and cut-scenes were always very amusing...

Failing that, it's always worth it for the great music...!

In Praise of... Car Wars

I've always been a big fan of Car Wars (CW). A schoolfriend had a copy and around 1982 or '83 a bunch of us played it on the big wooden table his parents had in their lounge. That said, we'd didn't play as much as I would've liked and I tended to end up having my vehicles trashed. If I remember correctly, my very first car - a Killer Kart - was pretty much vapourised by an anti-tank gun. My second, a trike, was chewed up by a Vulcan MG and my driver didn't survive the resulting high-speed Roll and Burn. Awhile back I started buying bits and bobs of CW stuff on Ebay...

One find was the book you can see in the top left, 'Fuel's Gold'. This is a Fighting Fantasy-style game book and I only recently became aware that such books existed for CW. This dates from 1986, has a Larry Elmore cover and some pretty nice interior artwork. I've played it through a few times and it's good fun, and certainly seems to make more sense than some of the Fighting Fantasy adventures I've put myself through in the past.

One thing I've always enjoyed about CW was the system itself. Initially it seems somewhat complex, with various different things to keep an eye on when playing, but once one gets the hang of it it's a lot of fun. The later versions feature aircraft and waterborne craft, which add some nice extra detail for other ways of autodueling. The huge amount of kit that you can install and use to customise your vehicle very much widens the scope of what can happen (and the various ways to to trash or get trashed) during combat. True, it is mostly a game about combat but the scenario packs (such as Truckstop) are good at adding some layers of depth to the 'why' of autoduelling. The GURPS Autoduelling supplement is another layer of interaction with the system and the setting. The overall vibe I've always had from the game is that it's not 100% serious - if anything, the way that world of CWs evolves from the potted history given in the rules is somewhat cynical in an amusing way. At least, that's my take on it.

CW and D&D are both games that had a big impact on me when I was first introduced to RPGs, especially so in the way that they inspired me to learn how to design my own game systems. Admittedly this was partly derived - at least as far as CW was concerned - from the fact that my poor grasp of maths and keeping numbers in my head made me wonder if I could make a simpler form of a CW-style game. This ran parallel to seeing rental videos of Mad Max I and II, Damnation Alley, Battletruck, etc. In fact, the first version of my vehicle combat game was called Mad Max...

I think this dates from sometime in 1983 - written in the back of a school exercise book.

And you can see that the CW influence was still quite distinct:

I enlisted my brother's help in fleshing out some of the rules, and the setting also changed as that happened because we wanted to have more RPG elements than was the case with CW. Our game was called 'Freeway', and a bunch of us playtested the system. At one point it was based in a post-apocalyptic future because the Earth had been attacked by aliens (the Slatzians), and so player-characters and vehicles were freedom fighters. That didn't last too long as a concept, because of 'Warlock' magazine. Issue #2 of Warlock featured a short story by Garth Nix called 'Sam, Cars and the Cuckoo' and at the time was published to set the scene for the upcoming 'Freeway Fighter' FF book.

"Hey, Sam, you've got a bird on your windscreen."
A bird? My God, I thought, what's that? A BIRD -- Blast Intensified Radioactive Device? A Bad Infra-Red Destroyer?
"I think it's a cuckoo."

Three things then happened. Firstly, we changed the name of our game from 'Freeway' to 'Motormania'. Secondly, our setting started to derive ideas from the Garth Nix story. Thirdly, the spot illustration above and the vehicle descriptions in the story suggested designs that were somewhat different from CW. They're more like modern armoured vehicles, albeit souped-up and stuffed to the gills with weapons, electronics, etc. But don't just take my word for it - read the original story.

From that point onwards I took the design under my wing and did a large amount of reworking. Various other RPGs (Star Frontiers, Twilight:2000) fed their influnces into it. Over the following years, the guys in my RPG group tested various different versions of 'Motormania' and in the end it amassed quite a bit of paperwork:

The 1994-era version. Each of the above pages has two sides. There are 26 pages and one character sheet. I think around 3 to 4 other pages are missing, presumed lost.

The story doesn't end there. I still want to go back and overhaul the system. Various bits of the it are missing and some abbreviations I used way back when have to be deciphered. Designing, redesigning and play-testing the game time after time taught me a great deal about what it takes to design a system and what you need to consider when designing a game. This stood me in very good stead when I later became involved with designing digital games.

But, strip away the layers and is still all based on a long-running interest in the quite mad fun that's inspired by autodueling and the possibilities that a great game like Car Wars suggests. There's a rumour that a new version with actual 3D counters may see life as a Kickstarter project from Steve Jackson Games...  

A Ransom System for AD&D...

Inspired by my previous post on the subject of ransoms, what follows hereafter is a basic system of ransom for use in 1e AD&D. I've decided to go for 1e AD&D from the outset, so that things keep fairly simple for now. This is also a first draft, so somewhere along the line it may get rewritten, adjusted, etc.

Ransoms

Players may find themselves in a situation where they have captured someone of value to another person, society, place etc, and that this can be used for financial gain in some way. This doesn't always mean that the players are involved in a form of absolute extortion - they may be well justified in seeking ransom for some past wrong-doing. The idea of ransoming a person for money (or some other equivalent form) may appear abhorrent to some players and character types. For example, would a Paladin really indulge in such measures? Well, possibly. A ransom could be seen as a way of paying pennance or a method by which a grievance is settled. Ransom could be a system through which another party is being forced to pay for the misdeeds of the captive. Of course, the players may end up in a situation where they themselves are the captives, and so this system could also be used to measure their apparent worth.

Step One: Market Forces, basic values

The basic price on the head of any given character class could vary from place to place, depending on the apparent worth of that person's class. For example, the players may be adventuring in a place where more value is given to those persons engaging in magical practices. A town that is a haven for thieves may place greater value on one of their own kind than, say, a magic-user. That said, we can perhaps start from some simple premise of a baseline value (in gold pieces) for each character class at 1st level:

Cleric 20
Druid 20
Fighter 30
Paladin 40
Ranger 30
Magic-User 30
Illusionist 20
Thief 10
Assassin 10
Monk 15
Henchman 10
Hireling 10

Of course, 1st level characters will probably not be of much worth to someone else. Other factors will affect their value. Henchmen and hirelings are included on this list because they also have some basic value to other players, NPCs etc and therefore the following steps may also apply to them.

Step Two - Level multiplier

A level multiplier is then applied to the base number above.

Example: a 5th level Paladin is worth 200gp (5x40gp).

Step Three - Status multiplier

Status denotes the apparent value an individual has in terms of social standing, if relevant. This will of course vary from place to place, depending on how the person is viewed by others. If we take the idea of some form of community role or nobility as an example, we could apply these multipliers:

Local mayor x2

Minor nobility x3

Direct descendant of local king x5

Local king x10

Example: a 5th level Paladin who is the son of a local king is worth 1000gp (5x200gp).

The Dungeon Master would have to exercise some reasoning here with regard to henchmen and hirelings - for example, an expert blacksmith in a city that has other blacksmiths may not have a much status as one who is the only blacksmith for miles around. Out in the wilds, a whole area may rely on his or her skills. Thus, the city expert is akin to a x2 ('local mayor'), whereas the rare and valuable blacksmith is x5 or possibly even x10.

Step Four - Fame multiplier

Fame is another form of social standing that may also supercede that individual's social status. What drives that in terms of overall value is how well the fame is known over a distance. A village hero of great worth to his local people could be unheard of in a town 50 miles away. The following multipliers could apply:

x2 (the person is known to the local population)

x3 (the person is known to the local area)

x5 (the person known to a kingdom)

x20 (the person known to whole land)

A local area, land, or kingdom may be relatively small - what matters is how many other people know the the person's fame and how important it is to them a whole. Even the ruler of one kingdom may be of little value to another, depending on their perceived worth. A leader of an army of thieves might be famous across a whole land within which lie several kingdoms.

Example: a 10th level Thief king who is known throughout a whole land is worth 20000gp - 10gp x 10th lvl =100gp, x10 (local king) = 1000gp, x20 (known to a whole land).

Non-Human Followers

It's possible that certain high level players have non-human followers, and that those followers may also have some level of status and/or fame. If so, take the non-human's hit dice, multiply it by the gp value below, and then apply Steps Three and Four if required:

Centaur 200
Hippogriff 200
Pegasus 300
Brownie 100
Pixie 100
Pseudo-dragon 350
Satyr 300
Sprite 200
Copper Dragon 500
Storm Giant 1000
Treant 300
Werebear 100
Weretiger 100

This reflects that apparent worth due to their various abilities, magic, and other powers - not to mention the fact that they may also potentially be harder to take as captives.

Like I said, this is a first stab at some form of system. It is somewhat more fluid than the Medieval system which inspired it, as the world of D&D is not so entrenched in terms of heirarchies, social mores and social values. This system should be fluid enough to deal with most circumstances, but please feel free to try it and provide some feedback and critiques!

Medieval warfare had a well-organised 'ransom market'

The capture of the French king John II at Poitiers in 1356 (Source: Wikipedia)

 

This interesting article appeared today on the BBC website. It seems that there was a system involved which governed what happened to prisoners of war in the Medieval period, and that it could be a lucrative source of income for those doing the capturing. Also of note is the fact that a captive could be taken back to their home in order for the ransom to be paid.

Treasure is always an good incentive for play in fantasy RPGs, and the idea behind this system shows that it could be possibly adapted as a set of rules. Aspiring adventurers could always develop it as an interesting sideline to their adventures and campaigns.

Demonagerie - the strange world of Medieval art

Fantasy RPGs can tend to draw on the Medieval period for influences, but at the same time miss out slightly on the sheer oddity of that period's worldview. Even Ars Magica seems to have skimmed past this, which is a shame. Instead, for the most part, we tend to get presented with the Conan-style fantasy angle which to my mind has never been a particularly good influence. Why? Well, I've never been completely sure that it's not been conflated with the horror that is the Renaissance Festival...

Is this because of a somewhat peculiar take on the Medieval period, combined with a vibe that owes more to Hollywood films than it does to an understanding of European history and culture? Hmm. Possibly.

However, should one want to tap into the actual period one would discover that it is full of odd imagery that wouldn't look too out of place in, say, a D&D setting. For example:

This picture comes from an excellent site called Demonagerie, over at Tumblr. There's lots of demons, dragons, monsters, knights and a variety of other images and symbolism that may help to inform or flesh out your fantasy campaign. Huzzah!

Something for your Paladin...

Over at the excellent Bibliofind blog you can see various interesting examples of heraldry from the Medieval period. These range from the quite simple (i.e. in the image above) to the more ornate. They could perhaps be a source of inspiration for your group's Paladin, or those of various other knightly persuasions. Bibliofind has also collected other examples - check the links at the end of the blog post.