On this blog I talk a lot about older books, books that may appear on Gary Gygax's Appendix N, meaning they were published before 1980. I do this because the books listed in Appendix N are credited as having influenced the White Box edition of The World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game. It is fun to find things that appear in White Box in a story or novel written years before White Box was published. It is interesting to note how the authors of White Box adapted the borrowed idea for their game. I also find a great deal of inspiration for my own imagination useful in my own gaming.
I titled this blog White Box and Beyond, obviously because it all begins at the beginning which for me and for the hobby is White Box. But I wanted to go beyond just writing about White Box, to discuss where my hobby has taken me and where it may be leading. Yes, I read and enjoy and draw inspiration from fiction written after 1980. I recently finished The Forgetting Moon by first-time author Brian Lee Durfee. This is volume one of what I believe will be a three volume trilogy and at 777 pages there is a lot here even in just the first volume. Mr. Durfee writes in a quick-paced action packed style, which means things move along at a good pace, otherwise I honestly would probably not have finished the book, nor be writing this post. The setting for The Forgetting moon is a fantasy land called The Five Isles. Mr. Durfee describes a low fantasy, humanocentric setting where a shared religion with competing interpretations (similar to Christianity or Islam in some ways) holds considerable power. Humans rule four of the five islands, the fifth being a land of the Vale, a fey-like race with some mysteriousness about themselves. Blood drinking oghuls live among the human cities and may have wilderness areas in which they dominate, but the kingdomes are ruled by humans. Priests are powerful and competing religious doctrine has split the isles into warring factions. There is a prophesy to be fulfilled and the hint of magic now-and-again (but no real magic users) in the form of artifacts mostly. Assassins, gladiators, orders of knighthood, secret societies and court intrigue add to the excitement and together with some pretty good character development kept me reading. The ending is about what one would expect for a projected multi-volume tale...it leaves off with a lot of unanswered questions.
Is The Forgetting Moon inspiring? Yes, I find it so. Mr. Durfee has the ability to coin a phrase and chooses clever names for things. His Five Isles is a well thought-out world with lots of detail, easily enough here to inspire a game setting based on even this one volume. His use of religion to drive much of the plot is fresh, at least I don't read a lot of fantasy fiction that does this. I think it works partly because of the lack of traditional high fantasy magic. There is one emotional scene in the book where a priest is killed despite wearing his holy garment which should protect him from all harm. The resultant crisis of faith among his followers who witness his killing plays out nicely. A "healing spell" would have set a very different scene. Not only is magic often more magical when there is less of it, a more realistic setting where magic doesn't come into play often can heighten drama and make superstition more "real".
Religion in fantasy game settings can take many forms. Most published play aids tend toward the polytheistic, even multi-pantheon approach. While this provides for competing factions (usually a necessary ingredient for an interesting setting) it does so through competing gods. In The Forgotting Moon the deity is one, universally accepted, but interpreted differently in competing doctrine. So we have a conflict that somehow feels a bit more realistic because it is closer to what is occurring in current events or history.
If rumor is correct, the second volume in The Five Warrior Angels series may be out early in 2017. I hope it is as good as The Forgetting Moon.
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