My wife and I watched Annihilation on Netflix the other night. She was thought it was pretentious wank. I enjoyed it (I’m quite fond of pretentious wank), though I agreed it was flawed. I haven’t read the book, but I think I might hunt it out now to see how it differs from the film.

* * * SPOILERS * * *

It’s basically Tarkovsky’s Stalker meets H.P. Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space. In Stalker, a group of nameless protagonists (the Writer, the Professor, the Stalker) travel into an area of wilderness sealed off by the government called “the zone”. Reality is breaking down here, so they have to tread carefully. They are searching for a specific landmark in the wilderness called “the room”. Each has their own reason for seeking this place.

In Annihilation, a group of nameless protagonists (the Biologist, the Anthropologist, the Psychologist – at least, in the book they’re apparently nameless… they’re all given names in the film) travel into an area of wilderness sealed off by the government called “the shimmer”. Reality is breaking down here, so they have to tread carefully. They are searching for a specific landmark in the wilderness called “the lighthouse”. Each has their own reason for seeking this place.

Just as in Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space, a meteorite has fallen from space. It has released a colourful, radiation-like cosmic effect (“the shimmer”) that warps and mutates (ultimately fatally) the flora and fauna around the impact spot. The affected area is slowly growing, creeping toward civilisation. It’s unclear whether the phenomenon is sentient or not, or what it’s motivation might be (if it has such a thing). The core of the phenomenon is hidden underground (in Lovecraft, it’s at the bottom of a well; in Annihilation, it’s hidden beneath the lighthouse).

Annihilation takes these source materials (though the author of the book, Jeff VanderMeer, has denied Lovecraft was an influence in the original novel) and mixes them up into something new. It scrambles their DNA, adding a splash of 2001, maybe a dash of Arrival, a hint of Under the Skin.

Which is fitting, because that’s the central conceit of the movie; the shimmer is supposedly refracting everything within it, mixing it all together. Creating something new. [Read more…]

Ok, let’s do this thing.

I already have the high-level concept for my wilderness / megadungeon campaign. Basically: it’s a hexcrawl on a medieval plague island, meaning that cities and towns are treated like dungeons because roughly 30% of buildings are boarded-up under quarantine and the plague is transforming the infected people inside those buildings into strange and unwholesome things.

I got some great feedback on Google+ about my campaign concept from Beloch Shrike of the Papers & Pencils blog:

“If you wanted to be really weird with it, you could say the disease starts seeping its way into architecture and changing the internal layout of buildings as well. Give yourself an excuse to make all those crazy dungeon layouts that are so fun to play.”

I really love this suggestion. So, over time, I’m going to have the disease cause weird organic growths to sprout up everywhere, transforming the internal architecture of each town’s plague quarter into fleshy meat-dungeons (probably using some of the tables put together for Xor).

If the PCs don’t fight back the infestation, then the meat-dungeons will slowly spread and link up across the island. There will also be a cult worshipping the plague, encouraging the infection to grow across the hexmap. So, basically, add Abomination: The Nemesis Project to my list of influences.

Anyway, I have some strong themes I hope will tie everything in the hexcrawl together (i.e. plague, disease, and mutation). I’ve selected my wilderness (Isle of the Unknown) and my megadungeon (Castle Gargantua). I’ve also decided to populate the map with a bunch of published LotFP adventures (luckily, I have a healthy collection at hand). [Read more…]

I feel like running an old-school wilderness and megadungeon campaign for Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Inspiration will be drawn from Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith. I plan on using Isle of the Unknown for the wilderness and Castle Gargantua for the megadungeon.

The year is 1311 A.D and the Red Death has struck the Mediterranean isle of Averenha. The entire island is under blockade by the Genoese navy, with ships prevented from setting sail or docking. In the island’s towns and villages, plague-afflicted houses lie empty and under quarantine… just waiting for some entrepreneurial party of looters to crowbar open boarded-up doors and windows.

The nobility have fled to fortified rural estates, leaving urban manors unguarded and ripe for plunder. Catacombs, plague pits, and graveyards overflow with the dead, and many a fat merchant has been buried hastily alongside his worldly wealth.

Meanwhile, devils and demons roam the forests and mountains, and simple-minded folk turn to heresy and witchcraft to protect themselves in vain from the pestilence. [Read more…]

Hello world.

I’m (re-)launching an online venture; a place to discuss horror and gaming.

I’ll be focusing on retro role-playing games (particularly Lamentations of the Flame Princess, a game based on 1980s D&D and released as part of the Old School Renaissance).

I’ll also be talking about Call of Cthulhu and the new Delta Green, as well as horror movies, TV, fiction, comics and video games (especially old FPS games like Doom and Blood, and roguelikes such as Darkest Dungeon and Infra Arcana).

Obviously, I have a love of all things retro-horror (i.e. horror from – or in the style of – the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s). However, more contemporary horror will also get some attention.

I’ll try to post semi-regularly, but I do have a job / wife / kids.