Music, Martinis, Ten Foot Poles, and Me

Ulverland Companion I from thedalitrauma on 8tracks Radio.

The popularity of old school role playing games on the Internet was the part of the glittering lure that brought me back to the smell of graph paper and the clattering of dice. Discovering the indie efforts of so many people devoted to playing games was like discovering punk rock as an eleven year old. The glossy overpriced tripe at the chain bookstores held nothing in the way of allure for me like this virtual gamer speakeasy of freely traded .pdf files and blogs bursting with creativity and plot hooks.

Chief among them was Jack Shear's marvelous Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque and the "World Between" he created - a sort of darkwave campaign setting that melded my younger deathrock sensibilities with my love of storytelling and adventure.

My current campaign that I am running uses the B/X Labyrinth Lord set and it is set in the dreary fog-soaked country of Ulverland. Of all the locales in the World Between, Ulverland is the one that I find the most familiarity. Equal parts classic fantasy rpg setting and something far more lush and dangerous.

I started this blog with the intent of trying to capture the myth and muse of what I love about the classic role playing games, in particular the early days of Dungeons & Dragons, which I will probably talk about at some point, but I guess in the spirit of my favorite blogs, I will just share my own projects, my own ideas, and put them out there as a small contribution to the OSR cabal.

There will also be lots of run on sentences in the posts to come.

The lovely Ms. Shadowfell has created two wonderful mixes of music from the World Between. One for Harrowfaust and one for Midian. And I have shamelessly copied her with my own - Music from Ulverland. It's probably a little more on the black and doom metal side than Mr. Shear and Ms. Shadowfell would have used, but Ulverland is a big place and these are the sounds of the darkened woods, the vast fog enshrouded necropolis, and the long road to uncertainty in my players' dangerous and dark investigations.

Cheers!

An Ulverland Companion Part One

1. Fen - The Wind Whispers of Loss
2. Wolves in the Throne Room - A Looming Resonance
3. Blood of the Black Owl - Intent
4. Dead Can Dance - Gloridean
5. Alcest - Summer's Glory
6. Sylvus - IV
7. Byla - Closer to the Center
8. Darkthrone - The Winds They Called the Dungeon Shaker
9. Cicadan - Dusk
10. Lycia - Clouds in the Southern Sky
11. Isengard - Gjennom Skogen Til Blaafjellen
12. Faith & The Muse - Willow's Song
13. Celephais - Our Hideout Among the Stars
14. Dammerfarben - Vinterblkheten
15. Drudkh  - Tears of Gods
16. Ionnsaich - Despairing
17. Kallathon - As The Sky Fell I Left You Behind
18. Les Discrets - Song For Mountains
19. Manilla Road - The Frost Giants Daughter II: Behind the Veil
20. Chelsea Wolfe - Halfsleeper
21. The Ruins of Beverast - I Raised This Stone as a Ghastly Memorial
22. Negura Bunget - II
23. Kauan - Ikuinen Junan Kulku
24. Neurosis - The Road to Sovereignty
25. Joy Division - I Remember Nothing (live)
26. Wolvserpent - Gathering Strength
27. Nor - Sune
28. Petrychor - Dryad (I Make My Home)
29. Ulver - Kledt i Nattens Farger
30. Manilla Road - Tree Of Life
31. Siouxsie & the Banshees - An Execution