Trifletraxor Posted June 17, 2008 Posted June 17, 2008 The works of Clark Ashton Smith, and especiall the Zothique cycle has gotten me quite interested, as it sounds like good quality dark fantasy and that it's all in the public domain. It has not been used for other RPGs either, with the exception of the 16 pages long unofficial D20 conversion stuff. Now, does anyone know where can I get hold of it? It's public domain so is it found anywhere online? Is anyone selling a reprint of the novels? I only find very expensive "used" version on amazon. SGL. Quote Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub! 116/420. High Priest.
Jason D Posted June 17, 2008 Posted June 17, 2008 abebooks.com is the place to look. Lost Worlds: Zothique, Averoigne and others Volume 1: Clark Ashton Smith: 0586039643 ZOTHIQUE.: Clark Ashton Smith. Quote
vagabond Posted June 17, 2008 Posted June 17, 2008 Whatever is in the Public Domain can be found here: Clark Ashton Smith - The Eldritch Dark under Writings are links to his works - Zothique, Averoigne, etc. -V Quote
Trifletraxor Posted June 17, 2008 Author Posted June 17, 2008 Whatever is in the Public Domain can be found here: Clark Ashton Smith - The Eldritch Dark under Writings are links to his works - Zothique, Averoigne, etc. -V Ah! Very nice! Now I just have to find a printer! SGL. Quote Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub! 116/420. High Priest.
Shaira Posted June 18, 2008 Posted June 18, 2008 Hi Sverre, This is a good edition of Clarke Ashton Smith: http://http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emperor-Dreams-Fantasy-Tales-Masterworks/dp/057507373X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213776306&sr=8-1. I don't know whether it contains absolutely everything he wrote on Zothique, but it contains a very large number of short stories, Zothique, Averoigne, Poseidonis, etc. Cheers, Sarah Quote "The Worm Within" - the first novel for The Chronicles of Future Earth, coming 2013 from Chaosium, Inc. Website: http://sarahnewtonwriter.com | Twitter: @SarahJNewton | Facebook: TheChroniclesOfFutureEarth
mrk Posted June 20, 2008 Posted June 20, 2008 One nice thing about reading CAS's stories online is you have very quick access to a dictionary( especially if you use a mac)and you'll need it too! By far, Smith's vocabulary can be Shakespearean at best( he was offered no less then a Guggenheim fellowship at one point in his life) and if you don't know the meaning of the words he's using, you're missing out on half the dark, groovy, fun! One such story is "The Island of the Tortures". Many of the things Smith describes in the protagonist's ordeal is hair-raising just on it's own, but when you decipher the words he's using and understand the full context of them within the paragraph, It's absolutely and undeniably sick, twisted, insane, dementedly funny and totally F %@$*&G brilliant then you could ever imagine! If you think Meliboneans are an evil lot, wait untill you read "Tortures". They're just a bunch of lawful good clerics giving out milk and cookies to the poor compared with them folks! Quote
mrk Posted June 20, 2008 Posted June 20, 2008 If you want to buy the books get the complete anthologies. I've found the old Ballantine books going for as little as $5 bucks. Quote
badcat Posted June 20, 2008 Posted June 20, 2008 There is also some material written by other authors using the setting. A surprising amount of it in fact. mrk is absolutely correct in that there is enough material out there to support a rpg setting. Don't get attached to your character in Zothique, though. Not if a game set there is faithful to the material. Quote
mrk Posted June 20, 2008 Posted June 20, 2008 Very true, badcat, very true. I think the best way to game Zothique is kind of treating it like a dungeon; that the whole world is one very nasty and twisted place but your excited to be there. If done right it could be a lot of fun! Quote
Trifletraxor Posted June 20, 2008 Author Posted June 20, 2008 If you want to by the books get the complete anthologies. I've found the old Ballantine books going for as little as $5 bucks. That's the plan! SGL. Quote Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub! 116/420. High Priest.
Publius Posted June 28, 2008 Posted June 28, 2008 I have a map of Zothique which I made as a lark, unfortunately the attachment limit is too small, so I can only include this tiny little version. The bigger one you can actually read. Quote
frogspawner Posted June 28, 2008 Posted June 28, 2008 I have a map of Zothique... Which is very good - and looks better to me than the only other one I've seen. Perhaps it could be a bit darker? Quote Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.
mrk Posted June 29, 2008 Posted June 29, 2008 Good work Publius! It's nice to see you added jungles ,swamps and farmland ( it's not all desert). The kingdom of Yoros especially, as it's famous for their wines which just about every happy go' lucky Adventure seems to be swigging in the stories as they trot off to whatever fate awaits them. Quote
Publius Posted July 1, 2008 Posted July 1, 2008 Thanks mrk, frogspawner. I did it a while ago, would do it a mite different where I to do it again today. In case you want to see a bigger version here is the link... http://www.indalopublishing.com/Zothique2008A.gif The gif process makes the image a bit grainy (the original is done in Illustrator) but at least you can see this version... Quote
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