Year of the Mask

Over the last few months I keep running into more and more cool ideas about masks.

What is with peoples fascination with masks?
They have been around for ever, used in religious, ceremonial and nowadays more practical functions. And at the same time they hide the one behind it. Gone are the familiar and human features. The eyes. All the nuances of facial expression. And yet they are very very cool at the same time.

Sculpture by Lionel Smit

Ive been slowly reading thru Dorohedoro, a manga about about cranky wizards doing bad things. Each wizard is granted a mask, they wear it publicly all the time, taking it off only while eating or in more intimate surroundings, surrounded by friends and family. Throw in that each spell caster has a very niche theme of magic they are capable, for example a lot of beginning plot is about finding a lizard transformation specialist. It all makes for a very evocative setting.

Then I stumbled into these two shortly after.

A blot that talks about an idea that magic is in the masks themselves - 1d20 magical masks. And i really like the picture with the blue masks, so I had to find the artist behind it. Bask in the glory of Lionel Smit.

And second one is a small home brew setting  by a someone named Unusual Existence called Tenebrae. Time when the Sun has died, the survivors are hiding beneath the earth and religiously delve into endless dungeons that honeycomb the earth. Players get to pick their classes from mythic archetypes the heroes of yore, whose masks they don. I love this thing for multiple reasons, first its evocative as fuck. Second because someone is making what I want to play before I can think of it my self. And as of now its slapped somewhere at the end of what I imagine at after the tales of Dying Earth. Here is more in depth and eloquent review by Kyana if you are interested.

And now it turned out that masks feature prominently in Ben L, amazing new zine - Through Ultan`s Door, which has finally arrived, or so Ive been told. Since its one of the firs things I plan on running for meatspace games. Masks now are featured on the to do list.

Some tough Ideas.

1. "In Ancient Rome, the word persona meant 'a mask'; it also referred to an individual who had full Roman citizenship. A citizen could demonstrate his or her lineage through imagines, death masks of the ancestors." Lazy quote from wiki, but this ties in wonderfully with what I know of Zyan. 
2. Masks grant single wizard power set to its wearer. Use ideas like Whitehack, Freebooters on the Frontier or Maze rats style generator.

P.S since Ive finally gotten physical copy of Through Ultan`s Door, that means I should do second part of Mirrors of England and whole map thing soon.

Through Ultan`s Door and Mirrors of England

Recently I got Ben`s L. wonderful Wishery zine fresh of the printing press. At least the digital and spiritual representation of the real thing. Ive been slowly poring over this dream inspired scenery.
I had some reservations about exactly how to start people here on the journey of OSR discovery. I have seen the portents, I have seen the signs. And now I know how I must proceed. A journey through a little blue door in the back of printmakers shop. What is better then a lost city beyond the doors of sleep to sell players on such a foray.

But why the Mirrors of England.

Lazy way of doing things would be reusing the old Sarnaathium map I posted earlier this month. And the world of Wishery would fit right in with the theme of dreams of Nightmares Underneath / City of Poison it was made for. And yet I have the urge to do something different with it ( I still might be a lazy bastard about it tho and reuse Sarnaathium).

Recently there was a discussion about certain map of Europe that got me thinking. I know I want to do the whole Dying Earth Campaign Setting. But that is a lofty goal and there are some things I need to figure out along the way. So how about doing something more simpler for a bit all the while adhering to a time honored tradition of good GMing and be lazy about it. I can make a simple setting with idea that Logan Knight had with his Corpathium setting - reusability.

Im a great fan of LOTFP setting premise of a more historical setting. And with steady surplus of wonderful England themed products like Dolmenwood and Midderlands out there lately. Add the fact that I have been fascinated of English history even more so then my own countries history. This feels like a natural place to put starting point of Wishery. And that is where the Mirrors of England come in.

Make the world usable for all those products, compatible with more grounded ideas when I need them and make it compatible with with Dying Earth setting in the future. And the best way is doing a mirage, a pale reflection of the real thing. Something that is inherently familiar and yet gives freedom to twist it in the shape I want it. All the optic puns are intended, because here is my plan.

• Grab a old timey map of England and mirror it. here are few likely candidates:

1852 Vuillemin Map of the British Isles
1772 Bonne Map of England and_Wales

• Photoshop magic some hexes on it.
• Plop mirrored Ruined Ghinor highlands features somewhere on the southern cost as a tribute to Wishery, and mirror those the other way.
• Feel smart about it.

Original culprit done by Vandel J. Arden

Part II will follow after some quick photoshop magic with more details of Mirror of England.

And after that I plan to make a post about how this ties into Dying Earth idea, something akin to fluid history, not sure how to call that idea just yet.