Eastford a Caravan of Travelling Priests Murdered
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any system • any setting High Cap St. Juno Convent Hidden Valley The Orglave Manor Eastford A caravan of travelling priests murdered. A dying man’s last wish to be reunited with his lost son and heir. The bones of a long-dead saint stolen, claimed by barbarian marauders. Bitter family divisions with their roots steeped in murder and betrayal. A monk desperate to see the ancient relics safely returned. The succession of a fiefdom at stake. What’s so significant about a box of old Who has the right to succeed, and who is the bones? right choice? Sampleonly on file www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/17835/Parallel-Publish- ing?term=parallel+pub Sample file Editorial Though in some parts of the world the Covid-19 pandemic is drawing closer to becoming Editor: Tom Grundy a memory, we all seem to still be under a great amount of stress. Physical altercations and incivility toward frontline employees are on the rise. While some of it is likely attributable to Art editor: Angus McNicholl normal summer heat, it is difficult to deny a feeling — one that has never really gone away — that the world is just getting worse all the time. Writers: Ben Potts, Benjamin DeHaan, Chris Cunliffe, Christopher Jarvis, We can’t ignore the challenges our world faces, but we can give ourselves a break by Christoffer Sevaldsen, Connor Eddles, immersing ourselves in some of the best stories ever told, in a media landscape that is Mason Yates, Stephen A. Turner, Tom constantly innovating. We can even entertain ourselves through a resurgence in tabletop Grundy gaming that, in a way, revives humankind’s ancient practice of communal storytelling. Designers: Angus McNicholl, Nick Speaking of tabletop gaming, we’re immersing you in our specialty this month, with a Cummins smattering of other media coverage to sate our diverse interests. We kick things off with an interview with Dennis E. Taylor, a sci-fi writer of the popular Bobiverse series. He shares his Proofreader: Mike Smith experience with sci-fi, his inspirations, and his vision for our future in the real world. To start out our TTRPG coverage, we bounce back to a past era: the enduring legacy of D&D’s 3rd edition, Social media: Yana Koleva which influenced every tabletop game that followed and gave birth to TTRPG giant Pathfinder. Cover art: Wachirawit Next, we turn from the old to the new with our partners at Black Void games, who introduce us to their enthralling cosmopolis Llyhn the Eternal. The city is harsh and mysterious, and a Thanks to: Dennis E. Taylor perfect setting for a spookier, more metaphysical tabletop story. Our partners at Chivalry and Sorcery do us the courtesy of educating us on Urtish, an original language for the Tolkien-esque For back issues of our magazine in linguistic nerd in all of us. We then review some new products: Star of Alladore, an official print and PDF, head to https://www. magazine for the up-and-coming game Rangers of Shadow Deep; Veilwraith, a solo RPG and drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/17835/ successor to Gloom of Kilforth that requires clever cardplay to survive; Professor Elemental’s Parallel-Publishing Garden of Escapades, a charming and mechanically streamlined licensed game based on the eponymous wacky professor; and for the voracious readers among us, Ten Low, a sci-fi novel With thanks to our patrons: Andrew Long, from Stark Holborn about the hard work of redemption with some excellent worldbuilding BenFloss, Hanna Widlake, Will Triumph, along the way. Morgan Lean, Daren McCormick, Andy O’Dowd, C H Ford, CatherineR, Our beloved lead editor and spreadsheet nerd Tom Grundy divulges his transcendent millstonebarn, Karin Nijkamp, Rafe experience with Total Warhammer, one of the premier fantasy and strategy games out there. Richards, Adam Cookson, Penny Hill, Give him a chance, and he’ll convert you to love of the game before Total Warhammer III comes Rob Sawyers, Bryan Van De Rostyne, out! Dr. Kaii, Jo Lindsay Walton, Andy Miles, Steven To share some original storytelling with you, we have two guest contributors this month. Benjamin DeHaan humorously combines the spirit of old westerns with the flavour of sci-fi Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon. war stories in ‘Raunchy Rex and the Battle for Nevada Lane’. Finally, Mason Yates seizes our com/ParallelWorlds_mag hearts with the emotionally twisting narrative of ‘Searching’. Though the world does seem a frightening and worsening place, keep in mind that we do get to inhabit our own worlds. It is our privilege to keep you safe and entertained here in Parallel Worlds. Share these and other stories with your friends, and do keep in mind that for all the Sampleanger out there, there exists love and friendship in abundance as well. file Ben WORLDS PARALLEL 3 Interview Dennis E. Taylor 6 Dennis E. Author of the Bobiverse books Taylor Tabletop Games Dungeons & Dragons: remembering 3rd 06 Edition 8 We look back on the game that defined all the other games Contents that followed Tabletop Games Llyhn the Eternal 14 We visit the great city of Llyhn with Black Void 08 Tabletop Games The Language of Urtish 18 A guide to the pronunciation of the ‘gold tongue’ in Chivalry and Sorcery’s Dragon Reaches Tabletop Games Review: Star of Alladore 26 A new magazine for Rangers of Shadow Deep TabletopSample Games file PARALLEL WORLDS PARALLEL Review: Veilwraith 28 18 26 The successor to the highly-acclaimed Gloom of Kilforth 4 Tabletop Games Review: Professor Elemental’s Garden of Escapades 30 An exploration of the crazed steampunk world of Professor Elemental and his love of tea! 28 Books Review: Ten Low 34 A look at Stark Holborn’s redeption story Video Games 34 30 Summon the Elector Counts 36 The magisterial experience of Total Warhammer Original Fiction Raunchy Rex and the Battle for Nevada Lane 42 A short story by Benjamin DeHaan 36 Original Fiction Searching 48 A short story by Mason Yates Sample file 48 WORLDS PARALLEL 5 Interview: Dennis E. Interview Taylor ennis E. Taylor is a science fiction Hey Dennis, thanks for stopping by. Firstly, how are you enjoying Dauthor and former computer being a full-time (?) writer? Do you miss your previous career at all? programmer. He is the author of the Oh hell no. I still program, so I haven’t lost that aspect of the Bobiverse series: We Are Legion (We Are job. Programming started out as a hobby for me, and it’s back to Bob), For We Are Many, All These Worlds being one. and Heaven’s River, as well as Outland, a I wouldn’t actually say I’m a full-time writer, if by ‘full-time’ stand-alone science fiction novel. you mean 40 hours a week. I’m just not that disciplined. I’d characterise myself as semi-retired. You’re a voracious sci-fi reader. Which novels do you think most inspired the Bobiverse books? A World Out of Time by Larry Niven and The Ship Who Sang by Thanks: Dennis E. Taylor Anne McCaffrey. There are a number of other novels and short stories that supplied aspects, but those two supplied the main Design: Angus McNicholl concept. Your work has been called ‘hard’ science fiction, but includes quite a few technologies that are firmly speculative, like faster-than-light Samplecommunication. What aspects of your work filedo you consider more on PARALLEL WORLDS PARALLEL the ‘fiction’ side of ‘science fiction’? 6 I am overall an optimist, notwithstanding The problem with this kind of question is A large percentage of my response to the previous question. If that if you can predict some technology, we can survive the climate crisis, it will then by definition we aren’t wrong. I the human population show that people with working intellect think the biggest unpredictable changes can in fact prevail over the idiots. It’s a will be social rather than technological. combines significant kind of Pascal’s wager, though — if I’m For instance, privacy laws will make a wrong, no one will be around to complain big difference to how we live, depending sociopathy with a form about it. on whether they’re strengthened or weakened. And governments face lots of of magical thinking How is your work changing, as you go from challenges from developing technology. that says you can alter book to book? Do you see yourself evolving Whether they react by trying to clamp as a writer when you look back at your down or not will dramatically affect how reality by just stamping work? society develops. your foot and asserting I don’t think the content of my work We Are Legion is a neat illustration of how is going to change that much. But my quickly (in astronomical terms) an intelligent differently. writing skill is definitely improving. Not civilisation could colonise a galaxy with surprising, as there’s lots of room for intelligent self-replicating spacecraft. How do improvement. you resolve the Fermi paradox, in your mind? The SURGE drive and SCUT Did you change the way you wrote once it Sadly, I think it’s a combination of rare communications are definitely fiction. was clear Audible would be an important intelligence and great filters. Pandemics, The way I look at it though is that if you platform for you, or do you write identically climate change, overpopulation are assume some sort of reactionless drive for audio and print? all near-inevitable results of a species and some sort of FTL communication, becoming intelligent and technological. the Bobiverse is plausible (the rest of the Absolutely.