When poet and game designer, Janaka Stucky, read the story in Peter's book, he was similarly taken with it. "I was immediately gripped by the story, and literally couldn't get it out of my head for weeks afterwards," Janaka tells Boing Boing. "That's when I knew I had to do something with it, and contacted Peter."
Janaka decided to turn this dark, proto-feminist tale into a roleplaying game adventure setting. He gathered together a dream team of collaborators, including Bebergal, game designer Max Moon, and impressive ink and graphite illustrator, Saprophial.
We are all pretty pleased with the article (which you can read in full here), and it looks like it brought some new fans into the fold this evening.
If you're reading this, and you're here because of the Boing Boing piece, give a shout in the comments below!
Guest Post: Unearthing C.L. Moore's Influence
about 2 years ago
– Thu, Sep 01, 2022 at 09:45:26 PM
Throughout the campaign, we’ll be featuring guest posts from our creators talking about the project. Today’s guest post is from PeterBebergal, who editedAppendix N: The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons and Dragons. Peter is a scholar of religionand weird fiction, and isthe co-writer of the RPG materialsfor Black God's Kiss, along with Janaka Stucky.
* * *
Jirel of Joiry has become recognized as not only the first female sword & sorcery heroine, but an iconic figure in pulp history in her own right. One could even make the argument that the fiery warrior Red Sonja was inspired by the red-haired Jirel who would make a fateful deal with an elder god to save her kingdom. Her creator, C.L. Moore, had no such pretenses, however. When asked in a 1976 interview for the science fiction fanzine Chacal what made Jirel continue to have impact, Moore modesty said, “Well, it broke convention, I suppose, though it wasn’t intended to. I was really just amusing myself.
Moore was born Catherine Lucille Moore in 1911 and, and became an important voice in pulp science fiction and fantasy with two stories published in 1934 in Weird Tales; the story "Shambleau" about a rogue smuggler by the name of Northwest Smith, (a proto-Han Solo to be sure) and "Black God’s Kiss," the story that introduced readers to Jirel. It is true that Moore wrote under a pen name that used her first and middle initials, but there is little agreement on why. Some insist it was because, like many female pulp authors at the time, it allowed her to write under a gender neutral or male-sounding name and compete in what might have felt like a closed brotherhood of writers. Other critics note that she simply worried she would lose her day job if her boss caught her moonlighting as a writer.
In 1940 Moore married the science fiction writer Henry Kuttner. At the time, Kuttner was part of the Lovecraft Circle, a group of authors that all corresponded with H.P. Lovecraft and wrote stories in the world of the Cthulhu Mythos. After Moore and Kuttner married, they wrote all the stories together under a single pseudonym. After Kuttner died in 1958, Moore stopped writing but went on to teach. She died in 1987, and in 1998 was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
When talking about the grey area between historical accuracy and otherworldly encounters in the Jirel stories, Moore stated that despite appearing in a somewhat real time and place, “Her country would be on no map that we’d have access to.” Moore leaned into the weirdness of the pulp fiction of her time, showing her peers how it’s done. Jirel brings an existential certitude to the nihilism of the sword and sorcery genre, and Moore would show that our heroes can have heart as well as brawn.
New Add-On: GM screen
about 2 years ago
– Thu, Sep 01, 2022 at 08:54:34 PM
You asked, we listened!
First, thank you all again for such an enthusiastic reception! We're now only about $3K away from hitting our first major stretch goal, which would add two more books to allthe pledge tiers, and create and expansion for the standalone game!
In the first 12 hours many backers asked about the possibility of getting the GM screen from the Black God's Bundle as an add-on to other pledge tiers. So, we will now be making the GM screen available as an add-on after the campaign wraps during the pledge management phase in Backerkit.
We designed the Black God's Bundle to be the best deal for folks interested in everything we have to offer, but we didn't anticipate the level of interest there would be in the GM screen. That said, the Black God poster and t-shirt will remain exclusively available to the Black God's Bundle.
Unlocked Stretch Goal: Black God's Shadow!
about 2 years ago
– Thu, Sep 01, 2022 at 06:49:18 PM
First Stretch Goal Unlocked!
The Black God’s Shadow stretch goal means we will license the rights to an additional story from C.L. Moore’s estate. This story is just as strange as its predecessor, following Jirel back into the Black God’s Realm where she engages in psychic warfare with the Black God itself. This additional license mans that we will now be delivering:
The original Black God’s Kiss story by C.L. Moore for all tiers. For our digital backers that will be delivered as an additional PDF, and our physical rewards backers will get it as an additional book in their box sets.
A new Black God’s Kiss RPG module for all tiers. For our digital backers that will be delivered as an additional PDF, and our physical rewards backers will get it as an additional book in their box sets.
An expansion to the standalone microgame for all tiers, adding a new scenario with rules and rounds of gameplay to the microgame book.
Black God's Shadow books (RPG cover still in-progress)
I am so excited we can now include these materials! These were a part of our early vision for the box set, but we were't sure we'd raise enough funds to make it feasible.
🔥 FUNDED 🔥
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Aug 31, 2022 at 04:56:16 AM
🖤 WOW 🖤
I finished that pot of coffee a long time ago but I'm still buzzing from the energy on the project ... We are all a bit in shock.
For all of us on the team, this has been a tremendous first day! I speak for the entire Black God’s Kiss team when I say a thunderous, emphatic THANK YOU. We’ve received such overwhelming, amazing support from our friends, family, and fellow artists today! In under twelve hours, we hit our funding goal and earned the coveted "Project We Love" accolade from Kickstarter. Additionally we’ve received so many messages of encouragement that our heads have been spinning all day with the cosmic horror—er, I mean love...
Over 400 adventurous, incredible, generous people have already chosen to ensure this strange vision becomes reality! This has been an ambitious undertaking—the first of its kind for many of us—and we literally couldn't have done this without you. I am humbled and overwhelmed by your support. It is difficult to express how excited I am to bring this box set into your homes! I hope you'll find it enjoyable and exciting, and become just as haunted by the story as I was.
And we also know this is just the beginning...
With 29 days left in our Kickstarter campaign we’ve still got multiple stretch goals lined up! Please share your enthusiasm with your friends & GMs so we can make this box set as weird and devastating as possible! We still need help to make this campaign as big, weird, creepy, and awesome as possible. Here's how you can help us spread the word!
Email your friends, fellow gamers, eldritch lovers, and dark fantasy aficionados to tell them about what we're trying to do ⚔️
Your enthusiastic support in sharing is as important as your backing. Let’s make our Black God’s Kiss community as vast and terrifying as it can be!
We are so excited to have each of you a part of this project with us, and we'll be using these updates to keep you posted as we traverse these strange realms. In the coming weeks we’re going to share more of this strange vision that has been roaming the misty landscapes of our collective imagination for many months. Thanks for helping us unleash Black God’s Kiss upon the world!
