Amongst Our Weapons - Ben Aaronovitch

The last full novel in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch for now, and a return to form after the slightly disappointing predecessor. In this one, Peter Grant is investigating a series of bizarre and brutal murders with a common link being a short lived 1980’s evangelical cult. I particularly enjoyed the section of the book where the trail leads north to Manchester and the confused ghosts of World War II airmen who had lost their lives in the peaks above the city. The author has sensibly cut back on the puns and references in this one, although he can’t resist throwing in Monty Python quotes as the chapter headings which are a tangential clue to the mystery.

Owlbear and Wizard’s Staff 2024

This mini con in Leamington Spa organised by Matt Broome is an annual highlight for me, and well worth the trip from Sheffield. The train journey was reasonably pain free and after checking into the Regent Hotel (remarkably grand for a Travelodge) it was just a short walk to the Royal Pug where the grog squad was assembling. I bumped into my pal Susan en route for the first time in real life after playing Dragonbane together for a year and then enjoyed some nice beer at eye watering southern prices. It was nice to see a couple of younger faces who I think had heard about the con via the student community and came along to say hello and introduce themselves.

Another short walk on Saturday morning to the St Patrick’s Irish Club overlooking the River Leam which is a great place to play games, with bright, airy function rooms and very reasonably priced Guinness on tap. My morning game was a Doctor Who game called Paradise Lost run by Blythy . We were playing as fifth Doctor era characters (the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and me as insufferable maths nerd Adric) getting chased by dinosaurs and investigating a mysterious domed community. I really enjoyed the way the system emphasises talking and creative puzzle solving over combat, with companions getting extra story points to spend to tip the odds in tricky situations. Lloyd Gyan was a standout star as the Doctor, saving the day with impassioned speeches and judicious use of the sonic screwdriver. 

Lunch was the now traditional endless supply of samosas with a choice of chicken, lamb and vegetable fillings with plenty to go round and a welcome boost of energy for the afternoon session. I stuck with the sci fi theme, playing as a Klingon in Steve Ray’s Star Trek adventures game which featured timey wimey shenanigans for our crew seeking the blessing of the fabled Oracle of Bar’koth Reach. The system uses a balance of momentum and threat levels as we shot, sliced and diced our way though our enemies. We were given a choice of Klingon phrases to shout at appropriate moments for a bonus, which left me with a very croaky voice! Great fun and a system I certainly want to try again.

Back to the hotel for a quick nap before heading out again for more beer, food and chat at the White Horse. The pub did seem to get quite noisy after 8:00pm so I was struggling to hear anybody talking - one of the perils of getting old, so I called it a night. 

I wasn’t playing anything on Sunday morning, so I just went to St Patrick’s to say farewell to people before heading home, enjoying the glorious September sunshine. Cheers to Matt for running and see you next year!

LA Noire

I originally played this when it first came out on X-Box 360 and fancied revisiting it to see how it holds up, picking up a remastered version on PS5 which included all of the DLC goodies.

The setting is 1940s Los Angeles where you play as Cole Phelps, a returning GI war hero who takes on a job as a beat cop before rising through the ranks as a detective working traffic, homicide, vice and arson cases. Each case opens with a cut scene to establish the crime and usually a briefing at the station before you get in your car to head to the crime scene. You are mostly working with a partner who can chip in with advice or may have an agenda of their own, notably the massively sleazy Roy Earle who you are partnered with on the vice desk. Casing the crime scene involves searching for clues, with optional haptic buzzes to let you know when you are near something you can examine. Some items can be further manipulated and zoomed in on for a closer look

This being a hard boiled detective story, there are also a lot of dead bodies along the way. That you have to examine in detail. A large number of these are women who have been murdered in gruesome ways, making this a game that can be quite disturbing in places and definitely not suitable for children. 

When you have enough clues, you can interrogate the suspects, watching their reactions before deciding how to proceed - do you act as a good cop and believe them or go bad cop and press them to reveal more? If you spot a lie you can accuse them directly and present them with the appropriate bit of evidence. The final denouement is usually back at the station where you charge someone and close the case. Some cases have multiple suspects that you can grill and either one could be guilty - you decide! If you miss a clue or take the wrong choices when interviewing, you could send an innocent person to prison - the game will continue, and you have to live with the consequences.

There are also twists in the overarching plot, where cases turn out to be related in unexpected ways and may throw new light on previous decisions. It wouldn't be 1940s Los Angeles without a reference to the infamous Black Dahlia murder and other cases in the game have roots in real life occurrences too. The city is lovingly recreated, as this fascinating account of someone who played the game with their elderly father who had grown up in that era with a policeman father shows. The city can feel a little empty compared to other open world games, but there are various landmarks to visit and collectibles to collect if you are so inclined. You can also take a break from whatever case you're on to investigate various street crimes that you pick up on over the radio.

Given that this is a PS3 era game, some of the character models are a little stiff, but the famed facial animations still hold up today with the starring role of Phelps being played by Aaron Staton (of Mad Men fame) and easily recognisable. The music and sound effects are equally good, with a particular highlight being a performance in a jazz club from a chanteuse femme fatale who turns out to be a key person of interest.

The conclusion to the story is not surprisingly downbeat, bringing to mind films like Chinatown and LA Confidential, mixing murder, drugs, vice and corruption going all the way to the top. It's a definite must play if you enjoy this genre.

 

The Emerald Enchanter

You know that feeling when things seem to be going too well? That. After fighting off a horde of animated hands with consummate ease, we made the mistake of just checking that one door we hadn't opened yet and unleashed a seriously tough emerald ogre on the party. It killed one of the party and nearly did for Ramen the fighter before we managed to trigger the magic word (using a serious chunk of spellburn) to transmogrify it back into only a moderately tough normal ogre. Very nearly a TPK. 

Dragonbane

After a bit of much needed rest and levelling up, we set off for the Wild Woods, collecting side quests like there was no tomorrow (which given our recent timey wimey experiences there may not be. There was Little Wolverine, the halfling bandit, a fun looking fairy ring ("clap five times to visit fairy land"), a barman with a grudge against said fire fairies ("fuckers!"), a mystic white stag, and Longstride the wizard who needed us to collect amber gold fruit and luminous mushrooms to craft an elixir for his sick wife. Even the side quests have side quests. Krisanna was disappointed that no one would let her jump off the cliffs of fate to get a free wish. Spoilsports. 

CY_Borg

Another day, another visit to Doc Joy for a refit, picking up a assignment to rescue Big Dave the doorman who was missing somewhere in the Lilypond district as well as our old friend the gene spliced rainbow tiger. We traced them to a shady cosmetics/chem engineering company that we were also tasked with levelling to ground by any means necessary. 

We somehow managed to dox ourselves in the process of hacking our way in, necessitating a swift change to being a team of influencers with a hit stream called "Pimp My Tiger". A helpful receptionist gave us a guided tour while we looked for likely places to plant our explosives, we got attacked by virus mutants in the chem dome and then traced Dave/Tiger to suspicious looking containment pods. To be continued!

The Emerald Enchanter

We pushed on a bit further in the dungeon, finding creatures caged up behind bars - a pair of tigers with gems in their heads, a lethargic giant serpent and an alien pseudopod creature - before finally finding the kidnapped villagers. We then headed back to the secret room to complete the ritual of speaking to the dead using a handy scroll to talk to the corpse of Thesdipedes who turned out to be a master transmogrifier and gave us the magic word to undo the enchantment - handy! 

Heading deeper in we found a room with a giant skull which proved to be a tough fight and left us set up for the final battle next time.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin

Another classic SF novel for the Grognard book club. 

In this one, Genly Ai is sent as an envoy to the planet of Gethen to recruit them to the interstellar confederation of planets known as the Ekumen. Gethen is unusual in that the people are ambisexual with no fixed gender for most of the time, except for two days in the month where they express as either male or female, and form intense relationships. This has profound effects on their society that Genly struggles to understand as he navigates the political and social mine field of the rivalry between the countries of Karhide - a kingdom, and Orgoreyn - a repressive police state, trying to negotiate a treaty. His first point of contact is with the prime minister of Karhide who is called Estraven, and is seeming acting with motives of his own following an intricate code of conduct known as shifgrethor,

I found this book difficult to get into initially, as even more than with Dune as large number of strange names, places and concepts are thrown at the reader without the aid of a glossary or a map to follow. The chapters alternate between the view point of Genly, Estraven and short extracts of folk lore and history that illustrate the nature of Gethen society. Sticking with the story pays off though, even though it is still sometimes confusing when characters have different names (or even the same one as a historical character from one of the folk tales). It all makes sense in the end though.

The main conceit of the book is that people are free from sex drives for most of the time, which in Le Guin's carefully constructed thought experiment has resulted in war and rape being unknown, although societies are still capable of repressive behaviour. It is not uncommon for Gethens to experience both sides of parenthood in their lives, leading to the classic line "The King Was Pregnant". 

If this book was written now, I wonder if Le Guin would have chosen a different default pronoun - all characters are referred to as 'he', although arguably this shows the default assumption of the main protagonist in the way he deals with the Gethens. The political machinations are also well done, although motivations are complex. 

Definitely worthy of the status this book has, and I'm looking forward to discussing it

Shadow Over Gloomshire

After exploring the catacombs we headed back upstairs to confront the Morrigan and restore balance to temple of the Blue Rose. Krisanna the halfling did her usual trick of rushing ahead without thinking of the consequences and got a face full of crow bile for her troubles. It was a tough fight, with two near deaths, but some hefty damage rolls and judicious use of overpowered fireballs saved the day. No treasure to be found though (sad face).

Heading back to the village, we found that no one remembered the dark days of the zombie siege (or gave us a reward) but at least the circus was in town. Krisanna won a suspiciously rattly coconut at the shy, bought a stick of candyfloss as big as her head and then we all went to have our fortunes told. We all received the prophecy of a shadow dragon to be found in the cave of echoes to the north west, but that we would need a sunstone to defeat it, so it looks like we are heading to the temple of the Morning Sun next!