Dungeon Crawler Carl is deeper (and darker) than its thumbnail suggests

 Earlier this year, I mentioned in passing that I had started to read the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman. However, I wanted to get properly into the series before I commented on it. 

And I’m glad I waited because I really feel like the big picture only started to take shape in the third book. I’ve read five of the books and now I feel like I can have some opinions.

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Aliens invade the Earth, wipe out almost everyone and create a sadistic reality show out of the survivors. Clarke’s third law kicks in hard as the interior of the Earth has been transformed into a vast dungeon where magic functionally works.

To avoid being freezing to death in a decimated winter-time Seattle, Carl goes into the world dungeon carrying his ex-girlfriend’s cat Doughnut. Who quickly gets uplifted to become a snarky but adorable magic-using kitty.

The world dungeon functions like a RPG with the ‘participants’ fully aware of their stats, able to get special abilities and access to a functionally infinite inventory in hammer space. A major element of the books is Carl constant search for exploits and loopholes in the system.

The game master is an insane AI with vast reality warping capacities (which would be needed to make the world dungeon even function) whose major goal (at least at the start) is to make the hellish dungeon crawl as entertaining as possible for the galactic empires who are watching.

Now, there is clearly a lot of potential for comedy in this setup. And there is a lot of funny stuff. Doughnut is a cat who can shoot lasers out of her eyes and is overloaded with pop culture references (They left the TV on to keep her company and she remembers it all) The insane AI’s item descriptions are desperately edge lord.

However, the premise is that the human race was all but wiped out and the survivors are being tortured for intergalactic civilization’s entertainment and Dinniman does not let you forget that. The trauma that the survivors go through is a part of that entertainment. The series is as much horror and it is comedy. Sometime, much more.

The Dungeon Crawler Carl series sometimes goes to some very dark places. We spend a lot of time with Carl and Doughnut. Their struggle for not just survival but also sanity is part of what makes us care. 

While the seeds of the bigger picture are there from book one but I felt like they didn’t become prominent until the third book. First of all, Carl shifts from just trying not to die to trying to keep the remnants of humanity alive. That’s part of his story from book one when he strives to keep the elderly survivors from a nursing home alive in the world dungeon but the scope of his efforts to keep everyone alive just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

The other element that increases the scope is, somehow despite being trapped in the world dungeon, Carl begins interacting with the alien governments and cultures. That’s justified because this is entrainment. Carl ends up being pulled out to be on talk shows and similar venues.

Because, beyond entertainment, the series is also a critique of capitalism. In particular, of a 1% who view the rest of the world as a commodity. Who are actively offended by the idea that the other 99% would want or deserve any kind of autonomy. 

To be fair, I think it’s a critique well worth making.

On top of that, the alien civilizations seem to be built on ancient technology that they don’t seem to entirely understand or have complete control of. Pretty sure that’s foreshadowing some things to come.

I’m not saying Dungeon Crawler Carl is secretly a deep, philosophical work. No, I’ll save that argument for Terry Pratchett’s work. But it does have something to say beyond being escapist fluff.  

The first five books are strong. I hope Dinniman keeps it up.

Games, puzzles and wallets

 A few months ago, I made a bunch of puzzles that were all one card each, making them perfect for my wallet. For years, I have gotten into the habit of having some sort of solitaire game in my wallet. Mostly so that I have something to keep my brain occupied while waiting in the car.

There are several requirements, pretty much restrictions, to such games. Size being the first one. Nine cards is really the max and, as I will get to, even that doesn't always work. In Hand is also important. Plus, being a game that I actually want to play.

Down from a 2016 design contest was the first game that became a wallet game for me. At the time, it was quite the novelty for me. However, the limited decisions in it ended up making a game whose sole value was playing it while waiting in the car.

Its successor is another story. Flipword is probably the game I've used as a gift more than any other. And having a copy in my pocket at all times made it easy to just say "You like it? Here. I'll print out another when I get the chance." Word games aren't one of my big interests but it's one that I keep coming back to. However, when I got a smaller wallet, it no longer fit.

The Starspeaker is one I sometimes still use, as it has small, skinny cards. It also has short rounds with different challenges so it offers a decent variety for nine cards.

However, One Card Mazes, as well as Flipuzzles, have been what the most rewarding since I had to give up Flipword. 

Each one is just one card, which means carrying around two or three is basically nothing. Yes, I have to periodically change them when I solve them. Fortunately, One Card Mazes has a large library at this point so it’s easy to do.

And I try to have one of cards that introduce the rules in case I want to give it away.

My standards for R&Ws have gotten higher. I think that’s a good thing

Roll or Robot is a game that would have made a lot more of an impression on me six or seven years ago. 

My feelings about Roll and Writes have come a long away over the last few years. I went from thinking they were different flavors of Yahtzee and that crafting a PnP one counted as ‘cheating’

 since the most construction I'd do would be laminating a page or two to making them a major part of my gaming life. I honestly feel that a well-designed R&W can give you a boxed game experience in an economic package. (And I've moved on to ones that have more construction than one page lol)

Roll and Robot was an entry in the 2024 Solitaire Design Contest (Not Roll and Write Design Contest) and I came across recommendations for it on one of my regular R&W searches. In it, you take the part of a Roomba-style automatic vacuum cleaner. You have to try and vacuum up different kinds of dirt while avoiding obstacles.

Okay. It's grid. You roll dice and pick shapes from a table to draw a continuous line on the grid. Try to hit spaces that give you points and avoid obstacles that give negative points and can end the game early. Twenty rounds. Most points wins.

So, it's basically Snake as a R&W and drawing shapes on a grid. Both of which I have seen plenty of times.

Points in its favor: You only draw one shape each round but you roll two dice and each pip has two shape options. So, as long as you don't roll doubles, you have four shapes to pick from, which is a very open decision tree. It has multiple variations (and two boards) and the basic one lets you cross your own path, which is usually a no-no in games like this. In other words, Roll and Robot is a generous game, which can be nice if you need to chill.

The house you are cleaning also has three cats that you have to avoid and I love me some cats.

I would call Roll and Robot a solid game but not a brilliant one. It does what it does well but it doesn't do anything new. The touches that make it nice aren't innovations, just quality of life elements. Last month, I learned Gem Getter Pro which has a much more interesting decision tree. Roll and Robot just doesn't measure up to that kind of standard. As I said in the beginning, a few years ago, I'd get more mileage out of Roll and Robot if I hadn't already played so many games like it.

I do try to make a point to learn new Roll and Writes on a regular basis. Roll and Robot checked that box for me. Truth to tell, between the chill factor and the cats, I'll probably get ten plays out of it. However, I have a list of games I'd recommend before it. 

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3314081/wip-roll-and-robot-2024-solitaire-pnp-contest-cont

And that’s why I didn’t know Candyman was based on a book

 I recently learned that the movie Candyman was based on a novella called the Forbidden by Clive Barker. I wasn’t that surprised since that seems happen a lot for Barker.

Sometimes, though, not only is the movie better than the book, you’re not missing anything not knowing there was a book in the first place.

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I cannot help but compare Candyman and The Forbidden to Hellraiser and the Hellbound Heart. Clive Barker works that became movies. Simply put, the Hellbound Heart is a little masterpiece while the Forbidden is just okay.

The core concept in both works is the idea of belief making urban legends become real. And those legends will take steps if anyone creates doubt.

The Forbidden is set in a fictional British estate that’s less than four years old. The Candyman is an undefined collection of urban legend traits and is actually unnamed until almost the end. And he looks like a jaundiced white guy in a clown outfit based on candy wrappers.

The decision to move the story to a real life setting, the Cabrini-Green projects in Chicago that had a long history, is probably the most significant change. It grounds the story, as well as adding a meaningful racial element. Filming some of the scenes on location helped that.

The movie’s version of the Candyman, in addition to having a much better wardrobe, is introduced as a concept much earlier and much more developed. The book version of the character walks in without any introduction.

And Tony Todd could fill a stadium just by reading the phone book.

Despite being a book lover, I have to admit that sometimes a movie improves on a book. In the case of Candyman, it’s like comparing the Greatest Gift of All by Philip Van Doran Stern with It’s a Wonderful Life.

And that’s how August Derleth did a mashup of Lovecraft and Blackwood

 Since I knew I was going to probably read Brian Lumley’s Spawn of the Winds sooner than later, I figured I’d reread August Derleth’s short stories ‘The Walker on the Wind’ and ‘The Snow Thing’ (also published as Ithaqua) from my handy copy of Chaosium’s The Ithaqua Cycle. Lumley’s book features the Great Old One Ithaqua so I decided to go back to the source, the stories where Derleth introduced Ithaqua.

These two stories were actually one of my earliest experiences with the Mythos. They were reprinted in an anthology of Wendigo fiction and documentation that I first read when I was quite young.

Now, I freely admit that nostalgia’s rose-colored glasses absolutely tint my opinion about Ithaqua but I think it is Derleth’s best ‘original’ addition to the mythos. I certainly think it’s more visually interesting than Cthugha, which is just a big ball of fire that was summoned in Derleth’s The Dweller in Darkness to chase off Nyarlathotep.

And I think there’s a very good reason and argument for why Ithaqua is such a good addition to the Great Old Ones. Derleth pretty much stole the whole concept from Algernon Blackwood’s novella The Wendigo. It’s a great story that Lovecraft approved of and pretty much introduced the Wendigo as a concept into fiction.

I sometimes think that the kindest interpretation of Derleth is that he wrote fan fiction before that was a thing. 

Both The Walker on the Winds and The Snow Thing follow the same formula, so basic that I don’t even feel like bothering with a spoilers warning. A Canadian Mounty investigates someone who has been abducted by Ithaqua, only to be taken and killed by the Great Old One themselves.

If you are going to read either of the stories to celebrate this Hallloween season, the earlier The Walker on the Winds is the stronger one. Not only does it take more time and care to develop both the mood and theme, it includes Ithaqua wiping out an entire town. 

It is too easy to bash August Derleth (and maybe he even deserves it) but neither story is as good as I remember it, particularly The Snow Thing. Still, The Walker on the Winds is a fun read.

Gem Getter is the start of something good

 I decided it was time I started learning the Gem Getter family, starting with Gem Getter. The series also includes Gem Getter Pro, Gem Getter Gets Better, Gem Getter Galactic and the inevitable Gem Getter Saves Christmas. (No, I'm not kidding) They all follow the same basic format (drawing shapes on grids and covering up symbols) but they all also have their own little twists.

And the original game is the simplest, to the point where I believe the designer recommends it for kids and that older gamers should skip to the other games in the series. Well, that sounds like the perfect place for me to jump in, particularly if I have had a stressful day and thinking hurts.

As I've already mentioned, Gem Getter is another game where you that you are drawing shapes in. This is a theme I see over and over again in Roll and Writes. I enjoy it but I literally wonder if I've played over a hundred games that do this. There are some that I really like, like Aquamarine from Postmark Games, but I'm at the point where a game has to bring something interesting for me to want to play it more than once.

In many ways, Gem Getter takes the idea and pares it down to the bone. Roll dice. Consult a table. Add shape to your board as long as it connects to a shape already there. Any symbol you cover up, check off on your score chart.  

So, does Gem Getter do anything interesting?

Well, first of all, there are eight different boards. Just in the first game alone. Each one of an irregular grid, as opposed to a square or rectangle. There are some spaces you cannot cover but you can score if you completely surround it on all eight sides. And you get bonus gems for completely filling rows and columns.

In addition to having different boards, there are two different shape tables. On top of that, each table is actually two tables, one for a light die and one for a dark die. (I just use black and white, which makes me boring) However, you only get to pick one shape per turn.

And the different types of gems have different scoring conditions. The most common gems have to be collected as sets before they are worth points. Other gems aren't worth any points until you collect enough. One type will score negative points until you get more than one. Oil doesn't score points but lets you earn bonus shapes to add to the board.

Game lasts nine rounds. After that, you figure out your score and most points wins.

Okay. There is absolutely nothing new or innovative in Gem Getter. If you had handed me the game without any of the rules, I'd have been able to play it without any problems. The core mechanics are pretty much the absolute basics for this kind of game. Which does make the game very intuitive and easy to learn or teach. It also comes with a decent amount of content. However, I can point to a plenty lot of games that I can say the exact same thing about them. 

However, the depth and complexity of the scoring (Well, as much depth as a nine-round fill in the grid game is going to have) is what made me keep playing Gem Getter. Figuring out what scoring options you can optimize creates a much better decision tree than I was afraid of when I first looked at the game. Playtime is short but engagement is high.

With that said, I had planned on waiting to try Gem Getter Pro but, when I found out I could play it online, didn't wait. With more intricate scoring and more complicated shapes, I do think Gem Getter Pro is much better. If you aren't a completist like me, starting with Gem Getter Pro is the way to go.

One thing I am, curious about is if you can mix and match the shape tables between the two versions. I do know you can have people play on different boards from the same game and still be competitive. That’s cool.

The Gem Getter series is very easy and accessible but also engaging with good choices. Gem Getter Pro is on its way to become part of my regular rotation.

What did Lovecraft do to Brian Lumley?

 I cannot figure out what Brian Lumley's deal with Lovecraft was. 

On the one hand, when Lumley was writing Mythos fiction in the 70s, he demonstrated an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the Mythos. Not only was this back before the Internet was something ordinary people used, it was before Chaosium published Call of Cthulhu (the RPG, not the story) which served as what had to have been the earliest encyclopedia of Mythos stuff. (I'll get back to that) And not just of of Lovecraft's writing but other authors including Derleth and Belknap Long and Lumley's contemporary, Campbell. To me, that really indicates Lumley was invested in the Mythos.

However, as his Mythos writing went on, it feels like he started actively attacking the core concepts of the Mythos. And not in an interesting or fun deconstruction either. His protagonists became super powerful and able to contemptuously beat the Great Old Ones. (The phrase Mary Sue does come to mind but I view that as too easy an accusation to make) It comes across as mean spirited.

Mind you, Lumley has come across as a bit of a spoilsport to me a number of times. I'd read for years that he'd argued that Titus Crow's time Clock was actually older than the TARDIS, which confused me because the first appearance was eight years after Doctor Who first aired. Then I finally read that his argument was that the clock was from the 1934 Lovecraft story "Through the Gates of the Silver Key". Okay... But Lumley added that it was bigger on the inside than the outside and could fly around time and space, which makes his argument more disingenuous. It also had a laser that could blast Great Old Ones and their minions, which I admit isn't from Doctor Who but wasn't from Lovecraft either. (Lumley was English, which doesn't mean his claims of never hearing of Doctor Who in the 1960s and 70s  not impossible but makes it less likely than if he was from a different country.)

He also apparently pitched a fit about the inclusion of his Mythos creations, like the Cthonions, in Call of Cthulhu, claiming that he never granted Sandy Petersen permission to use his work. Which might even be true. The early years of the RPG industry were copyright nightmares. However, I appreciate how much Sandy Petersen has done for the hobby and Mythos so, even if this is true, I'll personally overlook it.

When trying to research just what was going on with Lumley and Mythos, I read that August Derleth mentored him. I don't actually know if that's true. Derleth is, to put it mildly, a very divisive and frequently hated figure in Mythos culture. I think he had his good side (I actually enjoy his Solar Pons stories) but his interpretation of the Mythos really doesn't hold up to Lovecraft's. Much the way cotton candy doesn’t hold up to a power washer.

Three years ago, I read The Transition of Titus Crow. When I was done, my basic reaction was: What was that? and I was done with Lumley for a while. However, I decided to give the next book, the Clock of Time a try.

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The Transition of Titus Crow is the one where Lumley's psychic detective becomes a superpowered cyborg, befriends Cthulhu's good twin brother, gets an elf girlfriend and zaps Yog Sothoth with a super powered laser. There is a lot of room to deconstruct the Mythos but this really sounds like "My dad can beat up your dad" More than that, I can accept bad Mythos as long as it's not bad writing but the Transition of Titus Crow was a serious step down from the Burrowers from Below. Morbid curiosity made me pick up the Clock of Time.

And, look, the Clock of Time isn't great. But at least it isn't the Transition of Titus  Crow.

Part of why is it is better is because Lumley pretty much blew the wheels off the bus already in the earlier book. Titus Crow would have to grow to giant size and hogtie Cthulhu to get more extreme. Lumley jumped the shark. That ship had sailed.

The Clock of Time is also helped by being set in the Dreamlands which was Lovecraft wearing his Lord Dunsany hat. The Dreamlands are more fantastical than despair filled cosmic horror. Which I know from stories like The Taint that Lumley can write but he apparently wasn't in the mood when he wrote the Transition of Titus Crow or the Clock of Time. The Clock of Time is a swashbuckling pulpy tale of action from start to finish so the tone remains consistent. 

Henri Laurent de Marigny must fly the Time Clock to the Dreamlands to save Titus Crow and his magic girlfriend Tiania. Then they fight Cthulhu's incursion with the goal of corrupting the Dreamlands. The good guys win.

There were a couple of authorial choices I liked. Since Cthulhu is so linked with dreaming, having him try to invade the Dreamlands feels like a very natural choice. And when N'yarlathotep almost captures Titus Crow, it takes the direct intervention of the elder gods to save him, as opposed to Titus being tougher than a God. Yes, a blatant deus ex machina is improvement over the Transition of Titus Crow. 

At the end of the day, the book is still kind of a trainwreck, particularly as a deconstruction of the Mythos. I'm planning on rereading Roger Zelazny's Lonesome October which is definitely a cheeky deconstruction of the Mythos but has some story and substance. The Clock of Dreams feels like cotton fluff.

I do find myself going back to the idea that August Derleth mentored Lumley. Again, I don't know if that's true. However, Derleth definitely tried to reframe the Mythos as good versus evil as opposed to Lovecraft's never-ending existential scream.  Not that good always won but it was clearly there.  Lumley takes that philosophy to the next level.