The Weird Stories of Brigadier Ffellowes

 I first came across Sterling E. Lanier’s Brigadier Ffellowes in Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere. To the best of my knowledge, that was the only place I’ve ever heard of the character but rereading that book made me decide to look further.

The stories had been collected in two volumes: The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes and The Curious Quests of Brigadier Ffellowes. From what I can tell, the second book had a much smaller print run, but I was able to find the first one.

And, as I was reading it, one story seemed quite familiar. With a little bit of research, I realized I had read ‘His Coat So Gay’ in two different anthologies edited by Gardner Dozois, Horses and Sorcerers. It makes me wonder where else some of these stories might be hiding.

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The Brigadier Ffellowes stories are club stories with the British brigadier telling fantastic tales at his New York club. No matter the topic at hand, one of his experiences ties into it.

The club or pub story genre is an old one. I think you can make a convincing argument that Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales has at least one foot in the genre. Apparently Lanier cited Lord Dunsany’s Jorkens stories as an inspiration.

What struck me about Brigadier Ffellowes’ stories is that they are quite serious in tone. A lot of club stories are flat out comedies and I feel like all of them have some whimsy. While some of Dunsany’s Jorkens stories are serious, some of them are just plain silly. The Neopolitan Ice is about him drunkenly passing out in a dish of ice cream!

When looking at reviews, more than one reviewer described the stories as weird stories, as in the pulp magazine. I can definitely feel a pulp vibe and I’d also describe them as horror stories. I think weird, pulp and horror pretty much covers it.

I found the stories to be very much a mixed bag. Some of them, ‘His Coat So Gay’ about the brigadier getting drawn into the wild hunt or ‘Fraternity Brother’ where he stumbles upon a fairly peaceful modern enclave of Neanderthals are quite good. ‘The Kings of the Sea’ feels downright Lovecraftian.

(Pause… yup, Dozois reprinted that one in his Sea Serpents anthology. That’s why it was familiar! Dozois loved these stories!)

Others are pretty weak. The Leftovers is literally Ffellowes getting chased by Paleozoic man and nothing else. A  Feminine Jurisdiction is downright sexist. And there’s plenty of casual racism throughout the stories, although the brigadier is often the most clueless character.

Every review I looked at mentions the last story in the first collection, Soldier Key. It’s about an insane cult that worships a giant hermit crab. Part of me is impressed by the audacity of the concept but I have to admit, the way it’s handled is too ridiculous to be scary or creepy. It’s pretty original though.

Ultimately, I felt that the anthology was a mixed bag. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the strongest stories have been reprinted in other collections but that the book itself has gone out of print.

A Gentle Rain gives you permission to relax

 I have started writing about A Gentle Rain several times because things kept changing for me with the game. I made a PnP copy and enjoyed it. And I enjoyed it enough that I bought a copy, which almost never happens. And then it became a family favorite.

A Gentle Rain is a very simple tile laying game. It’s also pretty looking and actually pretty unforgiving. It takes luck and planning to score all of the flowers. 

What’s the kicker about it is that rules don’t make a big deal about winning. Instead, the focus is chilling out, relaxing and just plain decompressing. And that’s all the more noteworthy because the designer, Kevin Wilson, has made plenty of excellent games that are about totally in your face confrontation.

I first found out about A Gentle Rain because that’s what so many folks online highlighted about the game. I found that fascinating, that we need permission to play like that.

On the one hand, by the time I actually tried out A Gentle Rain, that was permission that I was willing to give myself. Yard Maker, an under appreciated R&W, is a game that I play as much to create a beautiful yard as to score high points. On the other hand, when I first started playing Ambagibus, I questioned if I could count it as a game since it lent itself to such chill play.

I do think the timing of A Gentle Rain also has hand in its popularity and very existence. The worst of the pandemic had ended by the time it came out but the world was still very raw. I know my gaming habits were (and still are) profoundly changed. A game about taking a breath had a welcome audience.

A Gentle Rain is a lovely little game, both in tone and appearance. It hits the table on a regular basis for us and I think that will continue.

It’s Rotten does a strong job of being ‘just okay’

I have very conflicted feelings about Alexander Shen’s It’s Rotten. On the one hand, it is the absolute epitome of adequate. It uses ideas and mechanics that feel like dead horses of Roll and Write. On the other hand, it does that adequate very well.

If I handed you a play sheet without the rules, you’d be up to speed and playing within a minute. It is Tetris as a Roll and Write. It is so Tetris as a Roll and Write that there’s a note at the bottom of the play sheet that says ‘Not Tetris’ and we all know that’s a lie. 

You’ve got an eight by eleven grid. You roll a six-sided die to determine what shape you’re adding to the grid. Shapes drop straight down and can be rotated but not flipped. Game ends when you reach the top.

Score is based on completed rows.

I honestly cannot remember how many times I’ve seen Tetris as a board game. Sometimes even officially. It feels like it has become one of the basic templates for Roll and Write. Heck, Shen’s earlier Blankout has some Tetris in its genes. (More Blokus but still some Tetris)

So why do I have anything good to say about It’s Rotten?

Well, first off, it holds up mechanically. In this particular case, that’s a fairly low bar. It’s based on what is arguably the most successful video game in history and Alexander Shen has a solid track record so I expect their games to work. Still, it’s something.

It’s also very low ink-friendly and has four boards per sheet. That makes the game very convenient to make and, if you play Roll and Writes on clip boards like I sometimes do, very convenient to play.

However, it’s the scoring that I enjoy. You see, each row isn’t worth the same amount of points. Some are even worth negative points so you have an incentive to not fill them. And each board lists what the maximum points are so you can easily figure out how well you’ve done. I like that better than just beating your score.

And the full set of It’s Rotten is 200 boards.

It’s Rotten is not a game for serious play. However, it gives me a lot of content for casual, sleepy time play while sitting on the couch. 

The Digital Circus explores character development through horror and Looney Tunes

I discovered The Amazing Digital Circus at a very good time. Because I found out it existed when almost all the episodes had already been released.

The story of six individual trapped in a digital world created and run by an insane A.I., the elevator pitch is ‘I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream’ with a lot less gore and a lot more character development.

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We enter the Amazing Digital Circus with the newest arrival, a woman who has been given the avatar of a harlequin clown and the name of Pomni who has been pulled into the circus. She remains the character with the best claim for protagonist but it is an ensemble heavy work with other characters getting a lot of development and focus.

At the beginning, the structure of the series and world is that the screwy ringleader/AI Caine sends the inhabitants on video game adventures. However, things start breaking down. It quickly stops looking like a serial adventure and becomes one arc.

Each episode took months to come out and, if I had gotten aboard the crazy train from the start, it would have been harder for me to stay on board. For me, the series didn’t really pull me in until the third episode. It was at that point that Pomni hits rock bottom and Kinger, who seemed to just be space cadet, pulls her out of it.

In fact, one of the games that the Digital Circus plays with us, the viewers, is that the characters are all presented as archetypes (something that is openly discussed in the show) but get deconstructed as the show goes on. As they grow in our understanding of their depth, the characters become more than their archetypes. A striking example, Jax, clearly a reference to Bugs Bunny, is shown to be highly emotionally abusive and deeply self loathing. 

As of writing this, there is only the finale left to be released. And there are many, many questions that left to be answered. For instance, are the characters actually human or are they AIs or copies of people? Is Kinger the father figure he seems to be or is he the actual big bad? (I will be very disappointed if he turns out to be evil but the story doesn’t seem to foreshadow that so I’m hopeful)

Pomni, whose growing empathy lets her become a leader to the group, acts as a strong focus to the overall story. Her growth drives other character’s growth, the catalyst to changing the cycle of the games. You want to get me hooked on a story? That’s a good way to hook me on a story.

I really hope the finale lives up to the rest of the series.

Donkey Kong is the language of destruction

 It’s been out for the better part of a year (which is two decades in video game years) but I think Donkey Kong Bananza is still pretty interesting and worth discussing. 

I think the argument about whether or not video games count as art or if they can be a legitimate story telling medium got settled literally decades ago. Yes, video games are an art form. And yes, they are perfectly lovely medium for telling  stories.

Donkey Kong Bananza does have a fun and amusing storyline with a couple of good twists (one of which they use almost right away by revealing the true nature of Oddrock) The music is solid enough that I’ve listened to it outside of the game.

However, what I think is really interesting is how destruction is your main interaction with the game. I am not a video game guy so I’m sure Donkey Kong isn’t the only example of this but it sure is a profound one.

I think it’s fair to describe the game as 3D, open world platformer. However, Donkey Kong can destroy just about everything in the game. He can smash pretty much all of the terrain.

In Super Mario Odyssey, which was made by the same developers, Mario is at the mercy of the terrain. You have to figure out how to puzzle out the world around you. Donkey Kong, on the other hand, just smashes his way through.

Donkey Kong is a hammer in a world that is made of nails. The ability to destroy just about away defines how you interact with the world. Maybe I just haven’t played enough games (Actually, I definitely haven’t played enough video games to have any kind of informed opinion) but this was a whole new world for me.   

It feels like wish fulfillment. Obstacles normally define the world in games. Video games, RPGs and board games. In Donkey Kong Bananza, obstacles belong to you. You get to destroy the countryside and have a great time doing it.

Oh, I’m terrible at it. But being able to smash the world? That is satisfying.

My (current) final thoughts on Paper Pinball

 One of my relatively early explorations of Print and Play Roll and Writes was Metal Snail Studio’s Paper Pinball series. Although, by the time I did find the series, I had already learned how Roll and Writes could be stretched far beyond Yahtzee and Yahtzee clones.

With that said, the core mechanic of the Paper Pinball series is actually simpler than Yahtzee. You use only two to three dice and I’d argue that the dice manipulation can be more limited than Yahtzee’s rerolls. (Honestly, that last one is a debatable point and some of the boards do give you the ability to make granular adjustments)

Earlier this year, I finished playing all of the boards in the second season, meaning I’d learned all the boards I was planning on trying. (There is a Paper Pinball Advent calendar but I’m not planning on trying that because there’s no individual theming And the theming is 1/3 of the fun) I’m not done playing the series, mind you.

I am not entirely sure where I even found the first three boards in the series. And Gibson has revised all those boards at least twice since then. My initial impression was not a great one. The earliest boards are brutally simple. Roll dice and fill in numbers.

However, between seeing more boards on PnP Arcade and becoming more interested in Gibson’s designs through the Legends of Dsyx series, I kept going back to Paper Pinball. And it grew on me.

A major part of it was that it was a quick simple game I could reliably fit in when I was tired and short on time. However, what really made it click is that it is a series. I found I could pull out two or three of the boards and finish them in the time it takes to have a coffee and enjoy myself.

A single game of Paper Pinball is okay. However, I find changing it up in one sitting makes them more interesting. A simple dice game becomes a greater pattern.

Paper Pinball also benefits from its theming. Each sheet is decorated like a pinball table, giving you the idea that there is some bigger story behind the name and art, using tropes to let you fill in details for yourself. It’s paper thin theming but so are a lot of actual pinball tables.

Make no mistake, Paper Pinball is a guilty pleasure for me. It’s only okay as far as the mechanics go, even with the second season tightening up the system. And if I were to find the series now, it probably wouldn’t click for me. However, I keep on having fun with it.

[And, as I always say, if you want a Roll and Wrire that actually feels like pinball, get Whizkids SuperSkill Pinball]

Isaac Asimov and the character of Sherlock Holmes

 Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space was published in 1985 and I’m pretty sure my brother found it around that time and introduced it to me. It is an anthology of Sherlock Holmes science fiction stories and it was edited by Isaac Asimov, as well as Martin Greenberg and Charles Waugh. Of course, Isaac Asimov’s name is the one that is the biggest on the cover.

From what I can tell, this is one of the earliest examples of a fantastical collection of Sherlock Holmes fiction. Lord knows, you won’t have a problem finding a whole bunch of them now.

I decided to go back and reread the book for the first time in my adult life. And it was not the experience I was expecting. Yes, I couldn’t remember reading some of the stories whatsoever. Yes, some of them weren’t as good as I remembered. But they were still pretty decent on a whole.

But here was the surprise. All of the stories in the book were reprints and, reading the book with more awareness, I realized how much the book tapped into other series. In fact, the book had introduced me to a number of different authors.

When I first read it, I fully realized that the book included a story from Paul Anderson and Gordon Dickson’s Hoka series and Assimov’s own Black Widowers. I’ve gone on to read both of those series. I honestly find the Hoka series pretty one note but the Black Widowers are a lot of fun.

However, I had forgotten there is a story from Fred Saberhagen’s Beserker series, which would have been the first time I would have read anything from that series. I learned that there was a story from the Brigadier Ffellowes series. (Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space is the only place I remember ever heard of that series so I have no idea if it’s any good)

What I found most fascinating is that the book contains two of Philip Jose Farmer’s Wold Newton stories. Which are, in many ways, Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen thirty years older. Including the first of Farmer’s two Ralph Von Wau Wau stories. (Spider Robinson would go onto use the character more often and, frankly, better to the point that I feel he’s now really a Robinson character.) 

Really, the Wold Newton family setting actually serves as a model for the anthology as a whole. Because so many of the stories aren’t Sherlock Holmes stories as much as they are meta commentary about Sherlock Holmes. Which makes the book honestly far more interesting than if it was just Sherlock Holmes in Outer Space.

Taken as pieces, Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space is an amusing series of yarns. Taken as a whole, it’s an interesting exploration of the character.

I remember when I just went for free PnP

I recently posted some suggestions for folks who were looking to get into Print and Play. Every few years. It’s something I feel like doing. This time, I noticed that all my recommendations were for published games. You know, the ones you have to pay for the files.

When I first started making suggestions, my earliest recommendations were for free files. Heck, when I first started looking at Print and Play in general, it was free files all the way.

I know that part of the change is me. At this point, PnP has been my gaming focus for years. I don’t spend as much time on the quirkier end of the PnP world, which can be a fascinating place.

And I do feel there are still solid free files out there. Micropul is over twenty years old at this point and I think it’s still solid. I hold that  30 Rails is a great R&W experience that you could sketch on a piece of paper if you didn’t have access to a printer. I am also sure there’s a lot of recent stuff I’ve missed.

However, the PnP market place has also changed. Most of the companies I follow didn’t exist when I first started looking at PnPs. It feels like design contests (a fine place to look for free files) have become more of a real stepping stone to publishing. (I mean, the dream was always there)

I am sure there are many factors that has led to this change. Better desktop publishing. Greater bandwidth. The Covid lockdown creating greater demand. And I’m sure there have been changes on both sides, designers and consumers. The audience for PnP has clearly grown.

I’m going to say we live in a great time for Print and Play.