Hooks & Rumours #5

Well, well, well. Looks who's managed to get another newsletter out. Not a massive amount of gaming stuff in this issue, I've had my head buried in Affinity for most of the week trying to get Wyrd Science 9 finished, but if you're reading this then there's no doubt you're a cultured sort with a wide range of tastes and interests, I'm sure there's something here you'll enjoy.

Talking of issue 9, it is so incredibly close to being done but I suspect it's going to be an early October rather than mid September release now. You may have seen various games publishers, miniature makers, artists, record labels and the like pulling their hair out over the past few weeks because of yet another new EU rule that has come into effect (here's a good piece on it from the music industry's perspective).

Touch wood, but I think I have a solution in place, it's going to cost us a bit and take a little bit of time to get sorted but I reckon I can have everything in place by the end of September, and be able to ship everything out sans probleme.

Saying that we have also been told this week that Royal Mail are jacking up some of their prices too, we've kept the price of our shipping and indeed the magazine the same since 2021 absorbing rising shipping and paper costs but I suspect we're going to have to look at both sooner rather than later.

Before that though let's have one last hurrah and so this weekend (until Sunday midnight) shipping on all products is free for orders in the UK. Sorry rest of world much as I'd love to extend that offer we'd end up losing money rather than just about breaking even. Still, I like to think our international prices are pretty fair. Anyway, wherever you are treat yourself.

Right I've waffled on thrice as long as I planned to here, so let's hit the main course where for your delectation we have for you a smorgasbord of UFOs, vampyres, mutants, folklore, goths, games and more. Till next week!

John

Against Reality

One of my, many, frustrations with Wyrd Science's, let's say, erratic publishing schedule and its vaguely commercial demands (lol) is that there is just so much interesting stuff to cover in tabletop games these days that it feels like we'll never get round to. 95% of the tabletop market maybe belong to two games but in their vast and gloomy shadow many things both strange and beautiful are pushing through the soil.

Right now, for example, I'm fairly obsessed by Amabel Holland's Swords Against, a replica edition of a 1979 game that Holland found, incomplete, in an estate sale. Or so the story goes. Anyway my obsession is in no small part driven by there being almost zero chance of getting a copy at the moment. Someone who has snagged one though, and subsequently written a wonderful essay on it, is Dr Emily Friedman.

It's a proper get a brew on and take your time with one and like the best essays leaves you with at least half a dozen other tabs open and several completely new things you now want to learn about.

Amateur Power

Obviously I'm unhealthily into print. But as much as I love a beautifully produced magazine, and daydream about being able to afford doing all kinds of special stuff with WS, like tip-ins, spot colours, fold out maps, foils, the list goes on and on, what really makes my heart sing is a zine, and a real zine at that, something that was ideally made by an obsessive crank with letraset, pen, a photocopier and a very basic grasp of graphic design principles.

Seriously, whether it's about trains, games, music or cryptids, there's something intoxicating about seeing people's need to create, to put something out into the world, no matter whether the world wants it or not. I've said it before but it was what Wyrd Science was originally meant to be, and to be honest I suspect we'd all be a lot happier if I'd stuck to my (staple) guns.

Anyway, whilst researching a feature the other day I stumbled across an incredible archive of zines covering UFOs, folklore, earth mysteries and more, dating right back to the 1950s. I cannot stress just how incredible this is. Over the last week I've only scratched the surface focusing, for now, on UK zines. Still, I've had people I sent this link to excitedly reply with examples they'd found of amazing looking zines from as far afield as South Africa and Brazil.

It's going to take months and months to dig through all these, but the good news is now you can too. A huge shout out to Sweden's AFU who collated and hosted this archive, which even if you're not into this nonsense as much as I am is also just an incredible source of graphic design inspiration (especially for OSR games).

Bite Size Terrors

It's been a good week for weirdness. As much as I hold a soft spot for the Gorbals Vampire, or rather for the several hundred pre-teen Glaswegians who tooled up and went looking to wreck its shit, when it comes the the UK's urban undead my heart will always belong to The Highgate Vampire and the cavalcade of weirdos dragged along in its wake. A story full of cranks, grifters, the genuinely weird and spooky it's a microcosm of so much I love about the stupid, sexy, very strange seventies and its long aftermath in one story. A story which you can now delve into here.

Customs and Hexcise

Sticking with all things vampyric. Like everyone labouring under the pretension of being a small business I have spent much of the summer trying to make sense of the new EU rules for selling goods into and within the bloc*. It is frankly a lot, still it does appear to have inspired this piece from RPG publisher Rowan, Rook & Decard looking into the modern day practicalities of importing one (1) vampyre into the UK.

*Good news everyone, I may have finally figured it out this week and am in talks to open a new fulfilment hub in Berlin and EU agent which will both resolve the packaging problems and get round the new three euro import fee. Bad news, this has caused a delay for issue 9 (boooo!).

Mappa Fundi

Another shout out to Outrages Press. Last week we tipped their very odd but fun Games Workshop Employees of the 1990s zine, which it appears quite a few of you rushed to buy. This week they've dropped an A4 3D map of Warhammer's Old World, one that comes complete with those red/blue lensed glasses. Is there any reason for this to exist, not really. Do we want it we every fibre of our being, of course!

Chewing the Qud

Did you read Jim's piece on Caves of Qud in issue 7? If not you should it's rather good. Someone else who has somehow spent even more time exploring its pixelated underworlds than us is Jonathan Sacha, creator of the beautiful Goblins & Gardens tarot deck (which you can read about in our 3rd issue) and, more recently, the Dungeon Wilds card game (which you can read about our next issue).

After a decade of repeated deaths Jonathan is hanging up his gunslinger's hat and calling time on Qud, or is he... Find out in this lovely elegy for a truly remarkable game.

Panel Beaters

Cole Wehrle is one of the more interesting game designers around at the moment, so much so when we started the magazine he was one of the first people we reached out to feature in our debut issue. Luckily he likes to keep good company and at this year's Gen Con gathered together several of his peers, such as Pablo Clark from Eerie Idol Games (who Dan interviewed in our last issue) to talk game design.

Their first panel looked at "the difference between design and development, how they incorporate narrative into games, and where they draw inspirations from" and luckily for those of us interested in this kind of thing but who couldn't or wouldn't make it to Indiana we can now enjoy it from the comfort of our homes.

Destroy All Monsters!

The other day I stumbled across the new collaboration between homeware brand Made and my favourite London brutalist landmark The Barbican, absolutely gorgeous stuff, please buy more magazines so I can somehow afford a load of this gear.

Anyway, whilst I was dreaming of mid century furnishings and reminiscing about youthful nights spent at the Barbican (Aphex Twin's silent disco in the conservatory still remains a highlight) I saw that starting this weekend they're hosting a season dedicated to everyone's favourite big rubber monsters, Kaiju! A great chance for Londoners to catch the likes of Mothra, King Ghidorah and, of course, Godzilla on the big screen.

Grail Quest

Another fine, if much shorter, piece from The Observer as author Dave Barnett goes in search of another relic of the wyrd seventies, the iconic Reader's Digest Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain.

It's a book that I am very happy to say I myself have a very well used copy of, and which I imagine a disproportionate number of Wyrd Science readers own too. Maybe we should form an owner's club, anyway post a pic in the comments and tell us how you got yours if you have one.

Back to the Future

Obviously slightly biased as I've both written a few things for them in the past and they've covered many of the bands I've worked with over the years, but The Quietus is the best music/culture website that the UK has these days and has been for some time.

Not that I needed it but this piece by Jamie Stephenson on Iron Maiden, their "supra- or trans-temporal constant in the Maidenverse" mascot Eddie and the art of Derek Riggs that went up this week is a great reminder of why I'm more than happy to pay for a subscription there (though you don't need a sub to read it).

And Finally...

... what an incredibly shit week it's been for losing good 80 year olds with both Dolly Parton and Tim Curry departing this plane of existence. Anyway, you've probably heard a million of Dolly's songs the last few days so to play us out this week here's my beloved Eldritch covering Jolene in his own inimitable way.

And if that gloomy yet somehow glorious racket doesn't put a smile on your face then let's really call it a day with 3 glorious minutes of Tim Curry cashing his check and going HAM, in every sense, in Red Alert 3, you'll want to stay to the end. IYKYK.

OK, that really is it for this week, enjoy your weekend, maybe buy a magazine, they're good for the soul!