Sword and Planet Sandbox Setting

[DrewAstolfi67]

Originally Posted by amenditman

Throw out a few loosely scripted story hooks and then just react to whatever the players do.

Often the best way!

[zot]

Very cool stuff -- shared your doc with my friends. There's a lot of overlap with Moorcock's writing as well (both in the setting and in Blue Oyster Cult's music :) )

[DrewAstolfi67]

Originally Posted by zot

Very cool stuff -- shared your doc with my friends. There's a lot of overlap with Moorcock's writing as well (both in the setting and in Blue Oyster Cult's music :) )

My friends and I were Moorcock completionists back in the day! We were obsessed with him. I would love to hear what your friends think if they read it.

[phiwum]

When my son was in high school a few years ago, he tried a little Moorcock. He couldn't get through it. Couldn't stand the writing style.

I never read Moorcock, but my brother was a fan. I respect my son's opinion about books (and little else) so I wonder if it's a style that just aged poorly. (He reads Lovecraft, so he's not averse to older writing generally speaking.)

Whatever, Veteran of the Psychic Wars is solid. (In defense of the boy's taste, he's a big BOC fan and saw them a couple of years ago, alas, playing at a county fair.)

[DarkPumpkin]

Originally Posted by phiwum

When my son was in high school a few years ago, he tried a little Moorcock. He couldn't get through it. Couldn't stand the writing style.

I never read Moorcock, but my brother was a fan. I respect my son's opinion about books (and little else) so I wonder if it's a style that just aged poorly. (He reads Lovecraft, so he's not averse to older writing generally speaking.)

Whatever, Veteran of the Psychic Wars is solid. (In defense of the boy's taste, he's a big BOC fan and saw them a couple of years ago, alas, playing at a county fair.)

Your son has good taste...I think Moorcock has aged poorly. Elric rocked my imagination back in the 80s, but on going back there is something lacking in Moorcock. He's basically an acid head 60s type and doesn't really play well in the 21st century.

[Steve Plambeck]

I was going to say wait, I've read Moorcock's Prince Corum series three times, decades apart, and I didn't notice the prose aging. But then I realized, that third reading had to be in the mid-90's, so I best shut up. Pulled one off the shelf just now and it's practically crumbling in my hands. Now I feel old.

But wouldn't the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn make the dandiest of magical items? Yeah, there might be some game balance issues :)

[DrewAstolfi67]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

I was going to say wait, I've read Moorcock's Prince Corum series three times, decades apart, and I didn't notice the prose aging.

I agree about Elric not aging as well. I tried to reread it a few years ago and it had lost the impact it had back in '70s. Elric was my favorite back then - much better than Conan or ERB to me. Corum and the Dancers at the End of Time still seem fresh though. That acid-tinged prose was definitely on my mind when I re-wrote this thing.

[zot]

Originally Posted by phiwum

When my son was in high school a few years ago, he tried a little Moorcock. He couldn't get through it. Couldn't stand the writing style.

I never read Moorcock, but my brother was a fan. I respect my son's opinion about books (and little else) so I wonder if it's a style that just aged poorly. (He reads Lovecraft, so he's not averse to older writing generally speaking.)

Whatever, Veteran of the Psychic Wars is solid. (In defense of the boy's taste, he's a big BOC fan and saw them a couple of years ago, alas, playing at a county fair.)

I find Moorcock's work extremely variable in quality -- he's written so many Elric books at so many different points in his life. Hawkmoon has some very interesting magi-tech in it but the writing is a bit two-dimensional. I like all six Corum books a lot.

The multiverse aspect of the many, many Eternal Champions books is well worth reading the books for, even if you have to hold your nose sometimes...

[zot]

Another level of the Elric books that may not be obvious to a lot of people (or maybe it is?) is that Stormbringer is a metaphor for a nasty drug addiction, like heroine or meth. It literally enables Elric to get out of bed in the morning but it also makes him ruin the lives of his friends and loved ones (and sometimes kill them).

[DrewAstolfi67]

Originally Posted by zot

Another level of the Elric books that may not be obvious to a lot of people (or maybe it is?) is that Stormbringer is a metaphor for a nasty drug addiction, like heroine or meth. It literally enables Elric to get out of bed in the morning but it also makes him ruin the lives of his friends and loved ones (and sometimes kill them).

Ok. My mind is blown - I read these when I was in 6th grade and did NOT make the connection between Stormbringer and addiction. Now that I have lived a long time and seen people fall to those things it makes total sense. But I did not see it until you said it - MB b/c I never reread the Elric books!

However, back to Sword and Planet: Moorcock actually wrote The City of the Beast and a sequel I cannot remember. It was a homage to Burroughs. And better than Moorcock was Leigh Brackett; her Ginger Star series was a direct inspiration for my piece (and a reminder to new thread members it is here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/aa4bizlc0i...Draft.pdf?dl=0).

In a way, Cidri seemed like a Dyson Sphere, or MB a Dyson Swarm. Which is a little Sword and Planet...