Record Store Day Appendix LP

The Sword, Simon and Garfunkel, Rory Gallagher, and Mythra

Travis Miller from the Grumpy Wizard blog posted an article called What’s your “Appendix LP?” I’m flattered that he embraced my Appendix LP concept and provided his personal list of bands that inspire his gaming. Travis has great music taste, and some of his choices overlapped with the ones I listed in the Critical Hit Parader zine, i.e., Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, and Rush. Be on the lookout for my upcoming Appendix LP podcast, which will include the personal Appendix LP lists from other game designers and writers.

Record Store Day

This past Saturday was the annual Record Store Day, and I posted a picture of my purchases in the new Substack Notes:

The Sword was one of Travis Miller’s Appendix LP choices, and for Record Store Day they released a special 15th anniversary vinyl edition of their classic second album Gods of the Earth. I’m a fan of this record, and I’m excited to hear this remixed and remastered version.

The Sword’s John D. Cronise is influenced by H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, so it’s no surprise the band provides loads of RPG inspiration. The album I bought has a song called “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter,” which I think pairs nicely with Gary Gygax’s The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl:

I like to challenge myself sometimes to find inspiration from less obvious sources, so let’s try to level up with the other two records…

The Simon and Garfunkel album includes “Scarborough Fair / Canticle,” which is based on a traditional English ballad. It would certainly be appropriate to play this as diegetic music when characters are in a village or tavern. Further, Culinary Lore suggests the herbs in the lyrics could refer to the ingredients needed for a love spell. The song’s lyrics are also associated with the Scottish ballad The Elfin Knight, which tells a supernatural tale involving an elf, a young woman, and impossible tasks or riddles. These could all work as adventure seeds.

The Rory Gallagher album is one of my favorites, and I was thrilled to find it on vinyl. It has fiery guitar throughout and rocks harder than most of his other records. One of the songs, “Philby,” is about the real life spy Kim Philby. In another musical connection, Philby was a friend of the father of Stewart Copeland of the Police! The lyrics describe the loneliness and mental toll of being a spy. Some of these lines would be a good fit to use in an espionage RPG like Top Secret or James Bond 007:

From Top Priority to Top Secret

If you would like to add a Philby-connected supernatural element to an espionage game, I strongly recommend you read the novel Declare by Tim Powers. Philby is a character in this alternative history, which reads like a combination of le Carré and Lovecraft. Anyone want to play some Carré of Cthulhu?

And a Phoenix Shall Arise!

I was recently turned onto the NWOBHM band Mythra via the Contrarians Patreon. My initial reaction was that their name is just a Letterman act of heroism away from Mythras, the Runequest-related RPG. I then enjoyed listening to their The Death and Destiny LP, which contains songs they recorded from ‘79-’81. Turns out they reformed more recently, and check out these phoenix album covers…

Now that I’m tuned into them, I’m seeing phoenix album covers everywhere!