Other things to read!

One of the cool things about my gaming career has been the great people it's introduced me to. Several of them have their own things going on elsewhere on the web, so I thought I'd take the time to shout some of them out today. 

The most important person I've ever met through gaming is obviously my wife, who has just started a project called Fabulous to 40, in which she takes a photo of her (cool, often charity-shop-derived) outfit every day between her 39th and 40th birthdays. She doesn't believe me when I tell her she's cool, but now other people can do it through the medium of modern technology!

Luke Slater and I met at university, and we discovered that we share some interests -- gaming, obviously, which he also blogs about, but also really terrible movies. We write about them at Bad Movie Marathon (well, mostly he does, but I do one every now and again, as does another cool person I met through gaming, skerryflower). We're currently working on a special project, the Summer of Lovecraft, in which we watch as many films based on H.P. Lovecraft stories as we can between now and Lovecraft's 125th birthday, August 20th. I've been working on that a lot lately, so go over and check it out!

More directly gaming-related is this cool new blog from Red, whose old video game blog I believe I've mentioned before. Geek Chicery covers RPGs, board games, electronic gaming and sort of general geekiness from a feminist perspective, plus lots of cool crafty stuff. I'm really impressed by the level of production she puts into her D&D handouts: 

Anyway, she is a cool, creative person and you should check it out.

Next time: I went to an exhibit of watercolours and I somehow made it relevant to running games. 

Crossbloggery: The Flying Serpent, or Strange News out of Essex

Occasionally, posts on my history blog cross over with gaming stuff. Today over on the blog I'm talking about The Flying Serpent, or Strange News out of Essex, a facsimile of a 19th-century pamphlet replica of a 17th-century pamphlet about a mysterious serpent in Henham, Essex, with references to the famous Saffron Walden cockatrice. I love incorporating some actual folklore into my Call of Cthulhu or similar games, so let's see what I can do with this thing. You can get it on DTRPG: it's only $1.95 (about £1.20).

My blog has probably more than the higher normal proportion of readers who run or have run supernatural games set in Essex, so I thought I'd mention it.

Then you get the women

Friend Tim of The Responsible One's Wargaming Blog recently retweeted some comments by Twitter user The Dice Bag Lady which I thought raised a familiar but interesting point:

I wonder if any miniatures company has had the "far out" idea yet to sculpt female models that aren't purely sex objects #controversial ;-)

Imagine if you just wanted a regular space marine, but they literally only come in assless chaps. (Ref previous tweet)

Now, this is true for the most part: representation of female characters, particularly in your more war-y type of wargame, is ... well, it isn't great. And specifically what you so seldom get is perfectly ordinary infantry rank-and-file troopers. Now, sometimes the banner of "realism" is flown in this respect. After all, historically militaries have been mainly (though far from exclusively) male.

But then that wouldn't explain things like the old GW female commissar, who has apparently decided to enter battle wearing ... er ... some kind of corset. In general, I think Dice Bag Lady's point is right: there are a lot of models of "fighting pinups," the kind of sexualised women in uniform drag that you get in airplane nose art, recruiting posters and so on. Otherwise, it's mostly all dudes -- there are few ordinary women just going about their business.

That's not to say that there are no such models in 40K -- there are a couple of female Imperial Guard figures, including, I think, one of the Last Chancers, one of the Ghosts and a couple of Catachans. In the case of the Ghosts, of course, that's a regiment described in the fiction as integrated, with female troops, female officers, and so on.

There were also some female warriors in the early Rogue Trader run, including what's pretty clearly a female Space Marine or two.

In many games, when you do tend to get female models, they're often in all-female factions. Consider Necromunda, where House Escher are all-female, but none of the other houses appear to have any female fighters at all, or Mordheim, where the Sisters of Sigmar are all-female, but there are hardly any female models in the other factions (there is quite a nice female Middenheim youngblood, but they're very rare).

A particularly weird example of this was in Warzone, where the character Valerie Duval was originally introduced as a member of the Etoiles Mortants, an elite military unit.

I could be misremembering, but I don't think that it was ever suggested originally that the unit was all-female. But by the time the models were being produced, that was certainly the case:

I wonder if the trend toward multi-part plastic models hasn't actually moved against the representation of female troopers in these types of games, at least of female soldiers in mixed units. After all, when all of your models are unique sculpts, it's easier to have quite a lot of variation. When their parts are supposed to be interchangeable, they need to be all much the same size and shape.

Some manufacturers have got around this problem -- consider Wargames Factory, who have a male and female zombie set and a male and female apocalypse survivor set, allowing interchangeability. But in general, I wonder if the trend toward standardisation hasn't been a problem for the portrayal of female characters (which, of course, assumes that they're somehow less desirable in the first place, which I don't agree with but which attitude I think is reflected by the availability of models out there).

I don't think you can place the blame on just technical problems, of course. The fact of the matter is that you're looking to represent a female character of any kind with a miniature, your odds are immeasurably better if she is a dominatrix, a nun, or some kind of prostitute.

Some people get mad, claiming that people who don't like these minis are trying to censor them or something like that. I don't think that's the case, though. It's just that the balance is really tilted in one direction. Just at a guess, it seems like minis lines are, in descending order of likelihood:

1. Worlds in which women aren't represented, or barely present. 
2. Worlds in which women primarily exist to be sexy sexy. 
3. Worlds in which women are portrayed diversely. 

That may be customer demand; I dunno. I don't think most companies have thought about it. It's like the way non-European cultures are portrayed in Warhammer. It's super-duper racist, but I don't think that was anyone's intention. It's just the result of an unconscious reflex that reveals a broader social problem.

I don't propose to explore this problem here. I will take it for granted that the portrayal of more types of female characters -- heck, of characters in general -- is a good thing.  If you like them, you can buy them and if you don't it's no skin off your ass.  If you want to collect pinup models you should knock yourself out, and if people draw a conclusion based on that, that's life. Representation of women in geek culture is a problem, but, ya know.  One thing at a time.

So what do you do if you do want to have regular old female models? Happily, there are some examples of companies that don't follow the general trend. I think Mark Copplestone is an interesting case in point. The old models he sculpted for Grenadier, and the obviously related line he sells through his own company, show an interesting mixture of cheesecake and regular old female soldiers. Consider that the modern Copplestone line includes not only "Bodyguards in Bikinis":

... but also "Babes with Guns," not all of whom are too ridiculous.

But these are not the only female models in the line. There's the Female Troopers pack, who are mainly just, y'know, female troopers.

And if you buy the Trooper Officers blister, you'll see that one of the officers is a woman.

As are some of the cops.

The same is true of the old Grenadier line, now available through em-4 miniatures and Forlorn Hope. A couple of the troopers are female; one isn't wearing her body armour, but then the same is true for some of the male troopers, and neither of them are particularly overtly sexualised.

One of the really positive results of this conversation has been that people have popped up recommending companies that sell the kind of figures Dice Bag Lady is looking for -- these female Vikings from Bronze Age miniatures are only one example.

In terms of fantasy characters,  Reaper have some good stuff and some not so good, but variety is what we care about,  right? However, they are individual characters, on the whole, which is good for me but less so for the original question.

If you have examples of good, not too boobed-up female models, from any period or setting, why not leave a comment? I and my players will thank you.

One final note: not to quibble, but there's no such thing as "assless chaps." Or rather,  all chaps only cover the front of the legs.  You are supposed to wear trousers under them.

Maps!

Reader Thea asks:

A G+ friend posted this link to an intriguing map, and that made me ponder other real or historical maps that could be stolen and repurposed for gaming: http://sploid.gizmodo.com/the-complete-map-to-earths-deepest-cave-7-208-feet-dee-1553470971

Very cool! I am a big believer in repurposing maps for gaming, although it's important to be clear about what they're for. Take that cave map in the link, for instance. It's super impressive, but from a gaming perspective the map isn't terribly interesting. It doesn't provide a lot of challenges for the players -- most of it consists of a series of single tunnels, so there are few choices to be made in terms of where to go. You go forward or you go back. There absolutely would be tactical challenges fighting anything in there, and there would be big exploration challenges in terms of climbing, but they aren't really represented on the map, if you see what I mean. It does, however, give a great impression of how far deep underground you are at any point, which is useful, so that's cool.

This then prompts the question: what are we looking for in a map? Obviously, the question depends on what it's going to be used for in a game session. There are several functions a map can serve:

• It can set the scene and give you an impression of what kind of place you're arriving in. This is what those big country maps in the endpapers of fantasy novels are for, I assume.
• It can create tactical possibilities and challenges for things like combat and chase scenes. ("I duck behind this dumpster here!" "Quick, take a right on Grand and we'll cut him off!")
• It can ground travel and investigation and make them feel more natural. ("Hey, the security camera factory is right across the road -- maybe they got a picture of the murderer?")

The particularly good thing about maps is that they produce these effects in ways that the players hadn't anticipated. And the great thing about stealing maps for other sources is that they produce these effects in ways the GM doesn't anticipate.

One of my favourite set of gaming maps are the foldout maps from the backs of the old "Arkham Country" books for Call of Cthulhu. Here's an example: this is the map from Escape from Innsmouth.

So it does two things: first, it tells you where everything is, which is important because one of the scenarios in the book ends with a big chase through the town. Second, it gives you a feel for what Innsmouth is like -- the style of the art, the curves of the streets, all suggest something bowing under great age, something rotting and turning in on itself. So it reinforces the Innsmouth atmosphere and also has this practical function. 

Historical maps are good like this as well: a friend once asked me for a map of a medieval town which was intended to be an Innsmouth-alike. In the end, I think we settled on Cork: 

When I wanted to add a port city to my game, I used Stettin: 

It's nicely complex, it's got features I wouldn't have added if I were drawing the map myself, and it shows the town in a nicely varied landscape context. Result. 

Note that neither of these towns are very big: most preindustrial cities weren't, but great big cities is a fantasy trope, so if you're looking to swipe a historical map you may be out of luck. 

The easiest way to find this kind of map is really just to pick a town somewhere or other in the world, put its name into Google image search, and see what you get. I searched for "Avignon medieval map" and this came up right away: 

Click here for a zoomable version. 

In a previous post I talked about castle maps, and even though the image didn't come out very well, I encourage you to click on the link to Estalia and check it out -- although the castles are not historical per se, they're very well researched and definitely worth taking a look at. 

You can find lots of historical house plans online, which is particularly good for more modern scenarios. Medieval house plans tend to be simpler than most fantasy games make them out to be, presumably because there are fewer secrets and fewer fun things to do in a house that's basically one big room and a few little ones. 

But the toughest map of all is the dungeon map properly so-called. The problem is that real-world structures other than homes don't often have the complexity that a real dungeon requires in order to be interesting. Still, there are some good ones. 

If you play in my Wednesday night D&D game, read no further.

So, for instance, check out this lovely Polish salt mine: 

You should be able to click on those, particularly the top one, to enlarge them. Well worth it for that top one, although sadly I can't find a bigger version of the second image. 

Or check out this map of the catacombs of Rabat. 

I tend to chop maps up, relabel them, use parts of them, add things and so on. I have a huge hangup where I want things to look neat and professional, so in fact I am extra crude in my manipulations as a way of overcoming that. 

Here are some good places to find maps: 

If you're looking for a location in the UK, you want to go here. However, it's search-by-location. Good if you want to know what Braintree looked like in the mid 19th century, not good if you just want to find somewhere cool-looking. Also some good resource from the British Library http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/webres/scanned/here.

The New York Public Library has tens of thousands of maps (and other things) online -- and not just maps of New York, either. 

Old Maps Online has a map-based search which is pretty cool. 

There's some quite good stuff in the Old Maps tag on flickr, even. 

Two-dollar monster challenge: the rules!

OK, so here's the part where you come in!

In the spirit of my previous post, I want to see the monsters you create from cheap toys and junk. I am therefore holding a contest: THE TWO-DOLLAR MONSTER CHALLENGE! There will be fabulous prizes for the winners! Well, prizes anyway. I think you'll like 'em.

Here's how to play:

• Get yourself a cheap toy monster. I'm not going to set a hard price limit, but we're looking for things that cost no more than a few dollars/pounds/whatever. 
• Modify it in any way you desire. Again, proper advanced modelling with loads of spare kit parts is probably outside the scope of this project, but on the other hand what the hell. 
• Take a photograph of the model. If you've messed with it, take a before/after photo. If you can put a regular 28mm scale figure next to it to show how big it is, that would be great. 
• Write a description of the monster. What is it? Where did it come from? What's it do? All that stuff. 
• Stat the monster for your favourite RPG. This could be anything -- D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Esoterrorists, World of Darkness, FATE, Synnibarr, your own homebrew system, whatever. Anything goes. 
• Email the description, photos and stats to me at gonzohistory AT gmail. If you can, include info on where you got the figure, how much it cost, etc., so that people who want to can get one of their own.
• Enter more than once if you want to, but you can only win once. 
• If you have a link to your blog or site that you want included in your entry, just say so!

Send your entries to me by Friday, March 21st! I and my panel of celebrity judges, who will be announced as soon as I actually have some, will pick our favourites. The three top entrants will each receive an official Gonzo History Gaming prize pack full of ... I dunno, stuff. Toys, models, smelly old fantasy paperbacks, dice ... whatever we have that we think you might enjoy. All entries will be posted on the blog; I'm hoping the final results will be up the following Friday, March 28th.

Sound like fun? Dig out those old toys and get cracking.

Here are a few more photos that I took for the previous post but didn't use, featuring charity shop or Poundland toys and Torchy the Torchbearer. Who is going back on the painting table, because his nose looks awful.

Cybermats: I got a pack of like 20 for £4 in the toy section at TK Maxx.

This dragon's expression seems familiar.

Another Poundland toy; I think it came together with the one above.

All of these creepy-crawlies came in a single pack from Poundland at Halloween (with lots more).
The maggots are all squishy and gross. 

This is part of the same toyline as the ape monster and likewise cost £1.
My assumption is it was designed by a 10-year-old who'd had a lot of cough syrup.

It's like a crystal blue dimetrodon with a buzzsaw for a fin?
I got it from the 10p toy basket at the Salvation Army shop.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing your entries!

The Castles of Estalia

It's a sad fact that historical buildings often aren't really interesting enough for use in roleplaying games. They're seldom really complicated enough until you start to get into the modern day. "Seldom," not "never," and we're definitely going to be seeing some of those exceptions on this blog.

But for right now I want to focus on something that's not actually historical, but has all the good features of history while still being simple to understand and quick to use enough for gaming. And that something is Estalia.

I do not know how to do Estalia justice. This fictional nation was the creation of the late Wyatt James, who seems to have loved castles -- he had a site about British castles which appears no longer to be up. But James had another hobby, which was painstakingly designing fictitious castles, manor houses and fortifications, complete with floorplans, elevations and histories, which he wrote up under the excellent pseudonym "Grobius Shortling." Here's just one example:

And what's better yet about them is that their histories have been incorporated -- like, you get medieval buildings that have subsequently had all sorts of modern features added, very much like what you get in real life. These things are amazing resources for games of all kinds -- and not just for D&D and its heirs, although I certainly downloaded one of them, erased all the room names and used it as my first location in my own campaign. But these could also function as remote country houses in a Call of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu game, an elder vampire's haven ... all that kind of thing.

Check 'em out, download a few, and keep them in your hip pocket for a game emergency.