A Retraction, A Clarification, and Some Inspiration

A flurry of discussion followed my last post, and a man whom I deeply respect (Daddy Warpig)offered up this bit of constructive criticism:

Pundit believes the OSR, and D&D as a whole, is too tied to Western Fantasy tropes. He thinks Appendix N keeps the OSR mired in the same-old, same-old, basically regurgitating D&D over and over, producing game after game (ACK! LFP! 30 other clones!) that are little more than slight variations on D&D, with no true innovations in setting or mechanics. He opposes this, hence his OSR game was Arrows of Indra, dungeoncrawling in ancient India.

His disdain for N is based on a genuine philosophical difference, a genuine desire to see the OSR innovate, not economic concerns. It's unfortunate that the "Pundit just cares about money" became the common belief in the Pulp Revolution crowd.

Daddy Warpig spent some time panning in the gravel bed of Pundit's ravings and came up with a golden nugget there.  Forget all of the RPG Pundit's bleatings and wargarbl, his proxy makes an excellent point.  His selective data bias makes him blind to the exact same calls for innovation that come from within the Pulp Revolution.  Hell, it had a full blown discussion about how the "SF/F Counter-Reformation" makes for a more inclusive and precise description, and only abandoned that title because it is too wordy and esoteric.  People who approach the Pulpsters in good faith will see that themselves, and all the hand-holding in the world won't help those so blind to the Pulp Revolution's aims and goals that they refuse to see.

Regardless, I was wrong to ascribe motive where it was not clear.  I officially retract my accusation that the RPGPundit hates the Appendix N because it competes with his won products for RPG inspiration and tabletime.  The previous blog post has been amended accordingly.

That said...even as I inhaled to point out where Daddy Warpig missed an important point, he continued:

Pundit may be right about the variety of D&D clones in the OSR, but he is DEAD WRONG about the value of Appendix N for readers, however. as I said on Twitter, for a lot of people, Appendix N isn't about gaming anymore. It's about rediscovering the classic roots of SF/F. And for a lot of those people, it's about reinvigorating SF/F tales with the energy and fun of those same classics.

I'm not saying he's RIGHT, I'm saying he's SINCERE. There's a big difference there. I think the lack of innovation in the OSR is that people aren't going back to the pulps ENOUGH. There's so much more wildness and weirdness and awesomeness there that could make for some very cool roleplaying games.

It's not rocket science: better source material leads to better new material.

There you go.  That's it in a nutshell. The Pulp Revolution isn't calling for the train to return to a particular station and halt there forever more.  The Pulp Revolution is calling for the train to return to a string of stations and then set out along a different set of tracks than the one that brought us the bleak and insipid SF/F culture that we have today.

We can do better, but we should learn from the masters, not from the guys who imitate the guys who imitate the masters.

Jeffro's Appendix N, A Brief Primer for New Recruits

Welcome to the Pulp Revolution. 

If you have your dog-eared copy of "A Princess of Mars" handy, you're in the right place.  How we got here is a bit of a long story, and you may have some questions.  What follows is a brief summary of how we got here - a very brief summary - which will likely lead to more questions.  Good.  Keep asking them.  Keep looking back into the original source documents...that's kind of what we do around here.  And we have enough faith in our arguments, our works, and our faith to have no fear of the light.

But be warned:  As you delve into the dank corners of the movement, you'll come to see that much of the gospel written below vastly understates the case for the Pulp Revolution.  Though our cause is just and our victory written in the starts, the situation really is worse than you can possibly imagine.

Jeffro read a series of books written pre-1980 that inspired D&D and noticed some rather striking things about them.  Instead of doing the sane, rational thing - thinking, "Huh, this guy makes some rather strange leaps, and I disagree with many of his conclusions, but as a self-confessed fan of sf/f literature, it's at least worth thinking about and talking about these things" - the internet went full "burn the heretic!" hate machine on him.  We're talking Kony 2012 levels of rage, which would have been horrible if it wasn't mincing skinny-fat fanfic writers and barely literate game nerds doing the raging.

He didn't realize that one blogger liking the style of sf/f from pre-1980 would put him in between attacks from the book scene (they realized people liking old books would mean buying less of their own books) and from the gaming scene (they realized people using old books for inspiration would mean buying less of their hack RPG supplements and settings).  [Edit:  The motives behind the attack were many, varied, and mysterious.  More details are available here.] 

Protests from the gaming community are best exemplified by these blog posts

• http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/2014/10/screw-appendix-n.html. 
• http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/2016/06/appendix-n-is-most-useless-dmg-appendix.html

As for the 'it' what set off the literary crowd?  That's a pretty big kettle of fish to unwrap*.  Long story short:  The nerds wanted respect so they abandoned the timeless virtues championed in the old tales in favor of Oprah-level drivel and self-absorbed literary tricks...but with dragons!  They went dark and gritty, because that's more 'grown up' than heroism and virtue.  In the process they dragged everything good about sf/f into the mud, and they did it while no one was looking for reasons that have more to do with real world politicking than anything else.  It was a pretty bleak time for anyone unwilling to engage in the latest Two Minute Hate or who cared that good quality took a back seat to good politics.  We had so little to read we turned our back on the darkness.

Well, along comes old Jeffro flicking on the lights, pulling up the rug, and showing the world all those scurrying creepy crawlies for what they truly are, and the Gollums and orcs who curse the day ball reacted with all the spittle and anger you'd expect. He started asking where the good stuff was now that the orcish gatekeepers had been superceded by self-publishing, and wouldn't you know it, a ragtag group of misfits and ne'er do wells rallied to the Howardian, Burroughsian, and Nortonian banner we waved and started doing just that.  The last year or so has seen the blossoming of a nascent movement to look back to the pulps and build a better literary culture that produces works for today that remain true to their spirit.  We fans of the old masters have gone from wandering lonely in the 'nothing to read' wilderness to an embarrassment of riches recently, and it's only getting better all the time.

If you are new to the revolution, you're in for an exciting time.

For more information, this is a good starting post for Jeffro's message that so enraged the world of supposed sf/f fans: https://jeffro.wordpress.com/2015/04/04/i-have-been-nominated-for-a-hugo/

And a bit of the old smash and bash: https://jeffro.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/withering-criticism-for-me-compliments-of-mark-from-file770/

How about a little bit more?  https://jeffro.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/file770-is-on-fire/

Those are some good starting points for the history.  If you want to see the future, take a look at Cirsova Magazine: https://cirsova.wordpress.com/

That magazine is the best exemplar of the old ways done modern that I've yet to come across.  Unlike loud mouthed bloggers who gamble nothing but a few hours of free time, a whole bunch of electrons, and a non-existent reputation, the genius behind Cirsova is betting cold, hard cash that people are longing for a return to the good stuff.

Well I'm not longing for more of the good stuff!  Not anymore.  I found it.  Right here, in...

The Pulp Revolution!

Viva John Carter!

*Yeah, I mixed that metaphor, sometimes you have to know when to break the rules, and as a self-professed member of the Pulp Revolution, I ain't afraid of breaking rules.  Gimme a reason, and I'll dangle a participle from the nearest tree, too.  That's just the sort of thing we revolutionaries do.

E-Book Covers - Let's See Some Action Out There!

A great blog post came over my transom today, and every e-book publisher needs to read. 

James Harris, of Auxiliary Memory writes:

I’ve always loved dust jacket art on science fiction hardbacks. I also love cover art on science fiction paperbacks, and cover art on science fiction magazines. But what the hell is happening with covers for ebooks? I can understand when self-published authors create their own covers and they look awful.

If you look at the cover art from 2016 – here’s a selection at the old SF Signal site, and look at a selection of cover art from the 1960s and 1970s at Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations, you’ll notice, at least in my mind, that cover art is less creative.

I hasten to point out that e-book covers face challenges that print editions don't.  Pixel space is limited and the need for scalable titles that show up against high contrast backgrounds at any resolution aren't as important for print editions.  Anyone hiding lazy cover design behind that excuse deserves the low sales volume they get - just because it's harder to do it, that doesn't make it any less important.  Particularly for those of us toiling in trenches of our own digging.

And it doesn't have to be expensive.  If you have no talent for art, an evocative cover is just five bucks and 24 hours away.  Here's a list of people willing to do it for you.  Everything I produce goes through a round of Fiverr.com proofreading, and the service is easier to use than eBay.  If you're paying to eliminate typos (and why wouldn't you?) then you can just as easily do the same with your cover art.

Even those of you with great cover art already can always use the reminder, people judge books by their cover.  If you publish your own works put at least as much time, effort, and thought into the cover as you do the first chapter.  It's everyone's first contact with your book - make it a good one.