Supernatural Labyrinth- and maze media

 A very specific genre of fiction that I absolutely adore is the supernatural maze or lanbyrinth. Technically, most of them are mazes – but I do like the word labyrinth more, especially in my German mother tongue, where it remains "Labyrinth" rather than "Irrgarten" (maze).

Giovanni Battista Piranesi - Le Carceri d'Invenzione - Second Edition - 1761 - 14 - The Gothic Arch

Over the years I have, of course, created several pieces of transcendental maze in media – both as static dungeons on paper, procedural generation things in computer games or even that story-book-experiment I once wrote/designed. And of course my board games, of which there have been several iterations. But what about regular media? Books? Films? Board games...? Here's some I have read/watched/played over the course of the year. And no, Maze Runner doesn't count. Go home, creeps who read YA like a religion. And if you're actually a young adult: How the fuck did you end up on my blog?

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewsky

Can't have this list without that book. The story itself is, of course, a maze. As are the layers upon layers of fiction. Are we in the baseline reality of that dude researching an obscure, possibly nonexistant found-footage-film? Are we in that film? Are we the editor? The crazy old man who had been writing about the film? If they ever make this a movie, they should just go full found-footage and ignore any of the framework. But they probably wouldn't, would they? Difficult read, but it has some glimpses of mad genius shining all throughout the entire crazy thing. Love it or hate it. I love.

Maze by J.M. Mcdermott

At first glance, this is a straightforward story of people getting sucked into a mystical/magical maze. They appear to be from different epochs or worlds and fight a very bleak fight to survive in that crumbling ecosystem full of monsters where humans can just barely make themselves a niche somewhere in the middle o f the food chain. Terrifying at points and then you realize that some of the events don't link up right on a time line. I strongly suspect that if one were to draw all the story's strands on a map, it would itself form a maze with time-loops and everything. I don't have the stomach to work this book like that. It's good.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

What a great book! As far as supernatural mazes go, this one definetly has the most stylish one, consisting of endless halls of marble statues and reliefs that are affected by tides of an ocean below. And there is an ecosystem of birds, seaweed and fish there, which allows the amnesiac main character to survive. Great world building, good main character, nice resolution. The story is straightforward and that's a good thing. Definetely a recommendation from me.

The actual art of Piranesi

Giovanni Battista Piranesi was an archaeologist and architect and combined these two skillsets into his artbook Carceri d' Invenzione in 1750. When I first saw these etchings in a gallery in downtown Hamburg when I was a teenager I was fascinated. Later I encountered them in a museum and that's when I heard the name Piranesi the first time. The places depicted are immense, small human figures are seen on some of the walkways and the architecture is recognizable as mediterranean but expanded to a size that is today echoed by high fantasy media. I love 'em and you should too.

Das verrückte Labyrinth

The favourite board game of my childhood. The fact that this design allows for a nearly limitless ways of maze generation and as it stays in constant flux throughout a game it doesn't matter if things link up or not. Each player will just make their path if need be and so new passages keep opening up while old ones get blocked. You can play this very nastily but usually it's worth to just keep your eyes on the prize and go to your next treasure. This was one of the things that inspired me to make my first maze-boardgames. I still like to play it with my kids – we have the original version from the 80s. There are even Harry Potter themed ones now and while I'm usually very much averse to that kind of cash-grab-rebranding in this case it's oddly fitting.

Dave Made A Maze

A film! And with a premise that seems tailor-made for me: Guy who can never finish his creative projects (!) likes to craft with cardboard (!) and makes a maze (!) that is walk-in (!) and much larger on the inside than on the outside (!). Exploration (!), death (!) and hilarity (!) ensue. The film is lovingly made but somehow less than the sum of its parts. This ain't no Shaun of the Dead. But it's still not a bad way to kill the 100ish minutes of its running time. Just don't expect to like most of the characters or the plot resolution too much. Dave, you're a twat.

Recommendations: June 2012

Better late than never, and skipping the month of May entirely, here's my usual set of recommendations. You may notice that I've talked about some of it before but that doesn't make it any less valid, I'd say!

Podcast of the month: Nerdbound
A venerable and long-running actual-play podcast that started out with a group of guys sitting around a table and has since spread itself to skype-games, an active forum-gaming community and all sorts of different role playing games being played. The guys care about neither strict game-form nor political correctness but if you can cope with their humor, they're one of the most reliably entertaining actual-play podcasts out there. I highly recommend especially their one-shots and anything Warhammer 40k-related.

Blog of the month: Microdungeons
Tony, maker of the excellent and aforementioned How to Host a Dungeon has this little art-blog. He's doing mainly mapping of what he considers microdungeons, meaning anything from a basement to a hollowed-out asteroid to the mind of a kraken-god, charted out on small sheets of paper he draws on. Mostly not directly playable but a joy to look at and get inspired by!


Free game of the month: Spelunky
The old PC-version is still free. As I've talked about this one before quite recently, I won't say much more than this: Play it! Just do it. You can! I believe in you! The rewards are endless!

Recommendations: April 2012

Recommendations April 2012

A bit delayed as I'm still coping with a death in my closest family, these are some recommendations for your enjoyment in the usual three categories. If any sound like something you'd enjoy, give them a try, you won't regret it!


Podcast of the month: The Rock Paper Shotcast
The makers of the PC-gaming site rockpapershotgun have recently started doing a somewhat irregular podcast (which they claim to be weekly). Topics include news about the video-games industry, general banter and interesting thoughts on concepts within games in a rather informal format that, although sometimes lacking in structure, is very entertaining to listen to.

Blog of the month: The Dungeon Dozen
One of the most entertaining RPG-related things out there, the Dungeon Dozen features (almost) daily random-roll-charts based on a twelve-sided die that give you anything from character-backgrounds to cultural quirks in the mole-people society to loot you find in the arch-wizards chest. As the maker describes it, this blog provides high-flavor and low detail inspirational ideas for role-players or anyone interested in fantasy looking for a chuckle. Be it creating entire worlds in your mind or just laughing with it at the clichés pertained in the hobbys lore, this is an absolute must-read.

Free game of the month: Prospector
As you may have noticed, I like me some good roguelikes with a huge open world to explore and some punishing dangers to kill me permadead. Prospector combines these with space exploration aboard a ship and on planetary surfaces with a nice degree of complexity while remaining rather accessible (for a roguelike). Go forth and explore a planetary sector, make money working for the (somewhat evil) corporations, do your own thing, become a pirate, do whatever you like. There is even a large-scale story to uncover but I have never survived for long enough to find out more than "there are killer robots on some planets. My weapons are useless against them."...

Recommendations: March 2012

Recommendations March 2012

In this category of posts I will highlight three links I find worthwhile and tell you, the readers, why that is so. In every post like this I will link to one podcast, one other blog, and one free game, be it video-, table-top, RP-, or other. I'll try to keep this as regular category at the end of the month/beginning of the next month, hence the “of the month” attached to each category. Take that however you will. All things presented here are things I listen to/read/play on a regular basis and that is my only certificate of quality I'm offering here.

Podcast of the month: Actual People, Actual Play
This is yet another podcast on the topic of role-playing games, albeit a bit more on the theoretical and intellectual side of things. The crew basically reviews game-sessions they have played on a variety of different gaming-systems, ranging from traditional RPGs to more experimental ones lacking Gamemasters and such things. They put a lot of thought into game-mechanics and how they affect gameplay and the overall experience and, as they put it in the beginning of each episode, "the fiction during play". Anyone who is a GM or likes to design their own games will find this well worth listening to so check it out!

Blog of the month: Greywulfs Lair
This man, original inspirateur for my own Sudongeon has a blog that is a mixture between art-blog (he does 3D-designs, mostly of fantasy-characters) and musings on classic and more recent Dungeons and Dragons. As the man has quite the background in the latter, his texts are always worth a read, even if you don't play actual D 'n D, for his ideas for campaign-settings and rule-deviations are inspiring for any kind of game, really.

Free game of the month: How to Host a Dungeon
How to Host a Dungeon is a procedural world-generation tool that you play not with your computer, but with pen and paper and some dice. Watch in awe as a dungeon is created from the formation of caves, the intrusion of dwarves and dark elves and their eventual demise through cultural enthropy or invading monsters. This creates a dungeon that has a history of centuries, allowing a GM to fleshen out descriptions nearly endlessly, or is just a fun exercise in itself. There is a free version as well as a paid version with additional illustrations and features.

Recommendations February 2012

In this category of posts I will highlight three links I find worthwhile and tell you, the readers, why that is so. In every post like this I will link to one podcast, one other blog, and one free game, be it video-, table-top, RP-, or other. I'll try to keep this as regular category at the end of the month/beginning of the next month, hence the “of the month” attached to each category. Take that however you will. All things presented here are things I listen to/read/play on a regular basis and that is my only certificate of quality I'm offering here.

Podcast of the month: Close the Airlock!
Another week, another actual-play RP-Podcast. These guys are pretty new but spewing out new episodes at a frightening rate. It's a podcast with a regular group of people playing a campaign of Traveller so a somewhat retro-sci-fi setting is the order of the day. With decent production values and a (so far) cleverly designed campaign this podcast highlighting one of the somewhat underplayed games of classical roleplaying I have very high hopes for this one and so should you! Check it out!

Blog of the month: Shut Up & Sit Down
A blog and webshow about boardgames in all their glory and different styles. The two guys running the show over there are video-game-journalists in their everyday-lives and do this as a side-project showing their passion for playing physical games around the table with real people. Be forewarned before going there as they tell it in their about-page and they mean it: You will spend money on games they review. If you're into boardgames at all. If not, you probably stopped reading three sentences ago so why bother?

Free game of the month: Transcendence
George Moromisato's epic space-shooter-roguelike has been out for a while now but it's definetly worth a try. The game is a top-down 2-D-Shooter in a series of randomized solar systems connected by stargates. You loot wrecks of enemy ships or buy equipment at space stations, take jobs for different factions and try to upgrade your ship to keep up with the constantly increasing difficulty of the next solar systems until you reach the last gate, guarded by the Iocrym, to breach the blockade keeping you in the space designated to be the human wilderness-preserve. A steep difficulty and the procedural generation of the universe require equal parts of luck, skill, and good choices to ever get through this but failing can be a lot of fun too.

Recommendations January 2012

In this category of posts I will highlight three links I find worthwhile and tell you, the readers, why that is so. In every post like this I will link to one podcast, one other blog, and one free game, be it video-, table-top, RP-, or other. I'll try to keep this as regular category at the end of the month/beginning of the next month, hence the “of the month” attached to each category. Take that however you will. All things presented here are things I listen to/read/play on a regular basis and that is my only certificate of quality I'm offering here.

Podcast of the month: The SundaySkypers

The Sunday Skypers is a role-playing actual play podcast by some people who play pen and paper RPGs via Skype (duh). There are quite a few actual-play-podcasts out there but this one has quickly become my favorite as the participants really get into it and make the stories they play in come to life with different accents and a general attitude that makes this 'cast something special. If you're into listening to other people playing RPGs at all (typing it out like this makes it feel a bit pathetic, I must admit), you should definitely give this one a try, I recommend starting out with the Zo-episodes.

Blog of the month: Towards Dawns

A long running project by a video-games-journalist who decided to start a Minecraft-blog on a very simple concept: Keep moving towards dawn in the ever expanding world of Minecraft until you die. As people who play Minecraft know you'll eventually fall into a pit filled with either enough nothing to make the impact deadly or lava so it will eventually end. Updates aren't frequent but it's very well written and quite a nice journey to follow. It's been quite a long trip so far and I strongly recommend following it all the way to the eventual demise of the protagonist, though that hasn't happened yet.

Free game of the month: RogueSurvivor

I love me a good roguelike and this one is one of the best. Combining an interface that is not too complicated with mechanics that are actually quite alright and graphics that tell you all you need to know, this game creates a randomized city, populates it with people and zombies and lets you run loose until you die. Will you starve? Will you not find a safe place to sleep? Will roving bikers maul you to death? Every game you play in Rogue Survivor will tell a different story, most of the time a short one, I admit, but sometimes you can hold out even longer. I recommend turning perma-death on to give the thing a truly horrifying atmosphere...