So, that big piece of election related news. Best summed up on the latest Have I Got News For You, “In this news this week, AAAAARRRRGGGGGRGHHHHH!”

This has… somewhat impacted on the plans for the post apocalypse event I’ve been working on. It’s kinda hard to write about one when an actual apocalypse seems creepily imminent. After all, when a climate change denying, pollution encouraging, tax cheating, serial sexual harasser has just been elected the most powerful man in the world, it’s not as easy to write about a post-apocalyptic future when the world seems genuinely at risk. It’s also meant I’m not offering Fair and Balanced to an upcoming Canberra con and will hopefully also stop people asking me for a sequel to that game. (I know it’s too much to ask but I can hope right?)

So, I’ve put it aside for a bit. Not completely, as I’ve put both too much work into it and the idea of Drop Bears in a LARP setting is just too damn funny to me. But every time I’ve tried to write more on it I find up wanting to put my head through the monitor, which combined with the illness that has kept me from sleeping well the last few weeks, has meant it’s been far from a productive environment. My Lovely and Talented Wife (She who makes things better) has suggested it’s the perfect time to keep working on it, as it’s about a frontier group setting out to make things better, to learn from the mistakes of the past and as usual, she’s right. So I’ve not abandoned it completely, just till when it feels a bit less like the actual future. Hopefully just a week or two, but given the news out of America, it might be a while longer.

So, I’m more working on my D&D campaign (More organisation on that is sorely needed) and a possible Feng Shui game for an upcoming event. Nothing much else to report, but I did find the USB with my most recent notes on it and while that’s not much of a victory, I’ll take any I can get at the moment.

Abruptly switching topics to the first piece of good news I’ve had of late (Outside of a pun run in the latest episode of  The Bugle), I got permission to use the Hyborian Tales rules set from its author. To say I was nervous about both sending and reading the message was an understatement, but I’m really happy about it. That’s a slightly more long term prospect, given it’ll require more work and, in all likelihood, attract a smaller player base. The latter’s not a deal breaker, given it was set for around 20 people max (6 players, the rest crewing). But it’ll allow me to indulge in my love of all things REH and put on an event (hopefully) different enough from the others in my neck of the woods. I can’t promise it’ll happen anytime soon, but it’s been something I’ve been itching to do for years and having it be this close makes me incredibly happy. If you’d like to be involved, whether playing or crewing, then please leave a comment.

“Know, O prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars – Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.“
The Nemedian Chronicles

Fun Fact: R Cobb is Ron Cobb, who did design work for such films as Aliens, The Last Starfighter and Conan the Barbarian. And according to his website he lives in Sydney, which means I have some stalking to do!