Hooks & Rumours #3

Greetings from a disgustingly hot Bruxelles which, for about the 100th day this year, is well into the high thirties (that's over 100 degrees Fahrenheit for all our friends from the colonies). That might be tolerable except our flat is built like a greenhouse and the computer that I design the print edition of Wyrd Science on has spent much of this summer screaming like a sacrificial victim being lowered into a cauldron of molten lead whilst running at a snail's pace. I suspect an expensive purchase is in my near future.

Still, at least on Wednesday we did get to see our tyrant star briefly humbled by the moon as we witnessed a near total eclipse. It was an event that I have to say was pretty, pretty special, especially as during the last notable eclipse in the UK in 1999 I was stuck inside in a Waterstones bookstore working the till.

Anyway, to mark this remarkable celestial phenomenon, and maybe raise some cash for a new Mac, we're having a flash sale. Buy anything on our site, use the code WeKilledTheSun at the checkout and you'll get 50% off a second item. Buy another thing at full price and get 50% off something else, and so on and so forth until you've stripped our shelves bare. The code will be active until midday (CEST) on Monday, so fill your boots.

Apologies to our European readers, like everyone we're still having to suspend deliveries to the EU whilst we try and navigate the raft of new rules that have just come into force, so sadly you'll have to sit this one out. Once we get that sorted we'll try and organise something just for you...

Right, on that note let's get on with the newsletter and see what's on earth has kept us entertained this week.

John

Generals Gathered In Their Masses

Medieval trebuchets were terrifying beasts, machines of war that could launch boulders weighing over 100kg through castle walls with ease. Remarkably until now there's been no records of actual human fatalities but archaeologists working on Stirling Castle have now uncovered what they believe to be the remains of some poor sod who got absolutely flattened like some Looney Tunes character, possibly even by Edward IV's almost comically named War Wolf contraption. What a way to go...

And Wash Away The Rain?

More unnerving discoveries by smart folk, this time looking up rather than down. Generally speaking I think space for all its cold majesty is a frankly terrifying place and the knowledge that solar system sized black holes are out there radiating malevolent red light does nothing to convince me otherwise.

Gilt On Guilt

Talking of the cold, horrors of space a new Mothership supplement Wages of Sin appears to have just dropped, and by all accounts it's on the money. Not sure why but I must have sat out the Kickstarter for this but Valeria Loves' review has me itching to get my mitts on it and take it for a spin.

Out Of The Pit

Pit Trap, for those unaware, Is MÖRK BORG co-creator Johan Nohr's online store, and a great place to pick up some weird, and usually wonderful, print zines for games like MB, CY_BORG, Death In Space and other stuff in some way related to Stockholm Kartell. Anyway whilst Johan seems to be having the same shipping problems we are you can now download, for free, the third issue of his Pit Trap zine (with physical copies of issue 4 now going out with all orders).

Everybody Buhurts

I posted this on Bluesky a good few weeks ago but was reminded of it the other day, and is definitely worth reposting. Lauren Larson tools up and meets the Dallas Mythics, an all-woman Buhurt team (basically fully armoured medieval combat). 100% if you read one thing this weekend this should be it, even just to revel in Chad Wadsworth's incredible photos.

Blork & Gork

Apparently the colour of an orc's skin is the latest front some children have gussied up in our endless, painfully ridiculous culture wars. Can't wait to explain why this was important to future generations who are living underground to shelter from the firestorms that will cover 95% of the planet in a few years. Anyway at least PW has chiselled out a good blog post from this latest nonsense.

All The Small Things

It would have been the wonderful Tove Jansson's birthday last weekend which was as good a reason as any to dig out and immerse myself in my copy of Thames & Hudson's excellent book on her life & work. Honestly it's a great book, one well worth adding to any shelf. Anyway it's also a good moment to mention that this September Harper Collins are releasing, for the first time ever in English, the edition of The Hobbit that Tove so beautifully illustrated, If you've hung around us long enough you probably know we have a bit of a thing for these illustrations so we''re delighted to finally be able to enjoy them in hand (also this would be a great time to reveal something special about our next print issue, but sadly I'll have to keep quiet about that for at least another couple of weeks...)

Canny Valley

We mentioned last week that there's currently a OnePageRPG Jam happening over on Itch and still a couple of days left to run, so if you need any more inspiration to have a go then Wyrd Science favourite Alfred Valley has put together this video to help inspire you and show how easily it can be done.

It's Just A Jump To The Left

There was a load of chat doing the rounds the other day with various claims being made as to who was the first Actual Play group to bring our shameful secrets to the wider world's attention. Sadly once again the focus was exclusively on the US and the seminal Knightmare was nowhere to be seen in these discussions. Well we don't stand for Treguard erasure here at Wyrd Science, so for those of you who have never seen it please enjoy this culturally significant moment from the 1980s UK fantasy scene.

That's All Folks

Right, that's it for this week, it's genuinely too hot in here and so we're buggering off to the Ardennes to escape the city. Enjoy buying a load of magazines this weekend (remember, use code WeKilledTheSun at checkout) and we'll catch you under hopefully less oppressive circumstances next week.