Literature: The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane

I really like the Savage Worlds system a lot. It may seem odd starting a review of The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane with this statement but it's all connected. A few years ago, I did not know the Solomon Kane stories, even though I knew who Robert E. Howard was. Pulp fiction was not something I dwelt upon as I was rather focused on Call of Cthulhu and, especially, it's iteration Trail of Cthulhu. As I said before, I tend to gravitate towards books that I can use to actually feed my inspiration on what I'm currently playing. Then, quite by accident, I found an enthusiastic review on the net by one Kurt Wiegel about a "then unknown game to me" called The Savage World of Solomon Kane. I don't know if it was Kurt's genuine excitement about the game or the theme of the game itself, but something struck a chord.

I immediately snatched a copy and proceeded to devour it from cover to cover. It was an absolutely awesome game, using the Savage Worlds system and the Solomon Kane setting. As I prepared my first session, and persuaded my players to try the game, I started reading all of Robert E. Howard's stories about the 16th century puritan who stomps evil with a sword, a gun and his righteous fury. In one fell swoop the game introduced me to Savage Worlds and to the worlds of Robert E. Howard: Solomon Kane and, later, Conan, El Borak and his Mythos tales. And we go back to the beginning: I really like the Savage World system. But this isn't about the system, but rather about the literary source.

The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane collects all of the eponymous character's tales, included some unfinished fragments. And like Howard's more famous character Conan, these tales are excellent in their simplicity. Plots are not complex, but the stories are good in evoking mood and atmosphere. Solomon Kane is a puritan who wanders the world, fighting evil. Howard is a master of wedding vivid descriptions of places with the complexities of his character's behavior. It seems, at first, that Kane is a rather straightforward character, who just slashes his sword at anything who is even remotely evil, but he is driven by an inner force, something he can't quite explain, a restlessness that impels him to wander the world. And even though Kane is a rather religious fellow, who considers other races inferior (yes, the most dreaded racist overtones in Howard's stories are also present here), that doesn't stop him from accepting the aid of N'longa, an African shaman.

Some of the tales are set in the black forest in Germany and England, eliciting a Gothic atmosphere of horror. In a few short sentences, Howard evokes the darkness and mystery of medieval Germany. His best tales, however, are set in Africa. Here, we find significant similarities between elements in Conan's and Kane's stories. There are ancient civilizations of primeval evil, sorcerers and sorceresses of dark power, supernatural creatures and pulse-pounding action. There are hints that Conan and Kane share the same literary universe as Howard mentions Atlantis in one of Kane's stories. The tales set in Africa allow Howard to go wild without the constrictions of historical research. This isn't Africa from the real world but some fantastic realm of adventure and fantasy. It's a pulp dream come to life.

Of course, this being Robert E. Howard, there is racism but Kane is different. He is unconsciously drawn to Africa. He views himself as a kind white savior and his best ally his a black shaman who offers him a magic staff to aid him on his quests. This isn't an amoral character like Conan, but someone who will help anyone. It is very definitely a good character.

Like the Conan anthology, the Kane's stories are arranged in chronological order. The last one, a poem, depicts an elderly Kane returning to his home and a long lost love, and it goes a long way about hinting at what makes Kane tick and what he has lost in the process. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is not only a fan of Robert E. Howard, but to anyone who enjoys a good pulp adventure yarn.

Literature: Designers and Dragons

It's not a literary work but it's not a gaming product either. Sometime ago, a friend of mine lent me a copy of this Designers and Dragons, by Shannon Appelcline, spanning the entire story of our hobby with occasional incursions into wargamming and boardgames. There is no other way to put it: it's a monumental work. The book is a 400-page thick volume, covering the most influent companies that helped shape roleplaying games from the early days to today. It begins, quite naturally, with TSR: how D&D evolved from Chainmail; how Gygax and friends managed their business in the 70s; the company's evolution throughout the 80s and 90s. It is a very complete account, and this is only one of the many companies this book covers.

The book is divided in time periods, even if a company's history extends throughout several time periods. For instance, the first wave, which begins in 1970, includes those companies that first appeared on the scene and set the foundations for later companies, such as TSR, Judges Guild, GDW, Games Workshop or Flying Buffalo. The second wave includes those companies that were most influential to the hobby in the 80s but among them is Avalon Hill, founded in 1958. This organization is very clear and helps relate which company did what in what period, and how it contributed to roleplaying games.

A recurrent pattern I noticed in most these accounts is the meteoric rise of a company, then a period of financial difficulties and, later, the fall. Either the company is sold (like TSR) or just dissolved (like Judges Guild). Others, like Steve Jackson, turn to more profitable products. Others still, linger in a sort of limbo, trying to recover from bad decisions and other missteps, such as Palladium.

My interest on this book was partly derived by my interest in knowing the history of those companies that contributed to my gaming career, and whose games I played the most - Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu), ICE (MERP), West End Games (Star Wars, Torg), Pinnacle (Savage Worlds, Deadlands) and a few others - but also because of my recent interest in old school companies, as pertains to this blog.

There aren't enough words of praise for this work. Whether you read it wholesale or pick and read only those companies that interest you most, there's something here that everyone will find interesting. As I said, this is a monumental work, and I can only imagine how many hours of research and lengthy interviews were involved in creating this book. Kudos to Shannon. Highly recommended.

Literature: The Conan Chronicles – Volume 1

I only began reading swords & sorcery material a few years ago. Opinions diverge about what exactly constitutes this particular genre of literature but Fritz Lieber said it best:

"I feel more certain than ever that this field should be called the sword-and-sorcery story. This accurately describes the points of culture-level and supernatural element and also immediately distinguishes it from the cloak-and-sword (historical adventure) story—and (quite incidentally) from the cloak-and-dagger (international espionage) story too!" (Fritz Leiber, Amra, July 1961)

Until a few years back, my knowledge of Conan, the barbarian, created by Robert E. Howard, was limited to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie (1981) and the occasional pop culture allusion. Regardless of the opinion of some, I consider this movie one of the best adaptations of Howard's stories, though it does not adapt a specific tale. Strange as it may seem, I began readin the Conan tales when I came into contact with the Solomon Kane stories. To me, Howard's writing was primeval, energetic and full of spirit. It piqued my curiosity and encouraged me to find out about his most famous character. A friend of mine lent me the Conan Chronicles: Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle, a collection of stories, sorted by chronological order regarding Conan's timeline, not by publishing date. In the first story, Howard describes a 17-year old Conan thus:

"A touch on his tunic sleeve made him turn his head, scowling at the interruption. He saw a tall, strongly made youth standing beside him. This person was as much out of place in that den as a gray wolf among mangy rats of the gutters. His cheap tunic could not conceal the hard, rangy lines of his powerful frame, the broad heavy shoulders, the massive chest, lean waist and heavy arms. His skin was brown from outland suns, his eyes blue and smoldering; a shock of tousled black hair crowned his broad forehead. From his girdle hung a sword in a worn leather scabbard."

These are excellent stories, told in a style that is very Howardian. They tells us of a primitive world so long ago, but so familiar to us that we cannot but believe it exists. This is powerful stuff. Howard conjures images like no other author and draws us into these tales of violence and sex from the very first page. Who can forget Arnold tied to the tree of woe, inspired by this passage in A Witch Shall be Born:

"By the side of the caravan road a heavy cross had been planted, and on this grim tree a man hung, nailed there by iron spikes through his hands and feet. Naked but for a loin-cloth, the man was almost a giant in stature, and his muscles stood out in thick corded ridges on limbs and body, which the sun had long ago burned brown. The perspiration of agony beaded his face and his mighty breast, but from under the tangled black mane that fell over his low, broad forehead, his blue eyes blazed with an unquenched fire. Blood oozed sluggishly from the lacerations in his hands and feet."

Earlier stories show very strong Mythos elements, not surprisingly, considering Howard corresponded regularly with H.P. Lovecraft. Another common misconception, much to do with the Arnold movie, is the depiction of Conan as the silent and brute type. This couldn't be farther from the truth. In Howard's stories, Conan is articulate and a philosopher, even. He frequently dons a chainmail and a shield. His "barbarian" typecasting is imposed by the more civilized nations where Cimmeria is a far away land, little known to these people and, therefore, the stuff of many a rumor and legend. In Queen of the Black Coast, Conan philosophizes a bit about his life:

"He shrugged his shoulders. “I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom’s realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer’s Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.”

These tales represent Howard at his best and most known. They set all the elements we associate with swords & sorcery: beautiful, alluring women; evil wizards; sword-wielding warriors; and strange, lost ruins with horrors lurking in the shadows. As much as I enjoy reading Fritz Lieber or Michael Moorcock, Howard is still my favorite swords & sorcery author. Highly recommended.

Howard Philips Lovecraft (1890-1937)

On March 15, 1937, H.P. Lovecraft died. Today he is considered the father of modern horror literature, although at the time, his stories were not widely popular. I have a great deal of passion for Lovecraft and his writing of cosmic horror, nihilism and an uncaring universe. Unlike some, I love his prose and archaic style. I believe it lends itself to a more moody and deliberate atmosphere of horror.

I first came into contact with his stories right after buying Call of Cthulhu, the roleplaying game in 1992. I didn't know who he was, but his stories' titles listed in the rulebook piqued my curiosity. I quickly devoured his first stories. Up until then, I had played mainly fantasy games. After that, I began focusing on horror and telling stories, with the investigative elements and mood coming to the fore. Not that fantasy games are devoid of these things, but the way we played them, it just wasn't our priority. So, in a way, Lovecraft was responsible for my distancing from fantasy games.

As it pertains to this blog and AD&D, Lovecraft was recognized by Gygax as a major influence on the game. The Mythos pantheon was detailed in the Deities and Demigods sourcebook, leading to a serious contention between TSR and Chaosium. The mindflayers bear a striking resemblance to Cthulhu. Lovecraft's circle of friends, with whom he corresponded frequently, included Robert E. Howard, whose Conan's stories are sprinkled with Mythos elements, Fritz Leiber and Clask Ashton Smith, whose works also heavily influenced the game as I told in an earlier post.

For this, and for having brought horror and madness to the world of literature and my own world, and because my favourite roleplaying game, Call of Cthulhu, owes its existence to him, I will always have a fondness for Lovecraft and his stories of gothic and cosmic horror.