OSR and Jack London's "All Gold Canyon"

Jack London’s story “All Gold Canyon” is bedrock for some wonderful themes in old school DnD – character, law and chaos, and gold.

The main character’s Bill, a gold prospector digging for Mr. Pocket, a huge nugget of gold. Just hearing Bill talk, you know him.

“‘My…but I’ve got an appetite. I could eat iron-filings an’ horseshoe nails an’ thank you kindly, ma’am, for a second helpin’.”

“Ah, ha! Mr Pocket! I’m a-comin’, an’ I’m shorely gwine to get yer...I’m gwine to get yer as shore as punkins ain’t cauliflowers!”

He’s high in constitution. He walks away from being shot in the back. His Dex is good. London compares him to a mountain goat! Of his eyes, London said, “They were laughing and merry…and yet…contained much of calm self-reliance and strength.

***

Lawful and bright as Bill is, that stranger, revolver in hand, has an “aura of things hostile.” That stranger is Chaos:

…a feeling as when a cloud passes over the sun…something dark and smothering and menacing; a gloom that swallowed up life and made for death…”

When Law meets Chaos in DnD, we roll the dice. In “All Gold Canyon,” merry-eyed Bill was ready. I won’t say what happened, but check it out!

***

Now, about the gold: Bill, a seasoned prospector, guessed that giant, gold nugget weighed 200 pounds. In DnD a GP (gold piece) is the standard for weight, and the internet says a GP weighs 0.02 pounds. By my reckoning you need 50 GPs to make a pound and 10,000 GPs to make 200 pounds. If Bill were a 4th level fighter, 10,000 GP would take him passed 5th level!

***

Robert E. Howard said, "As far as I'm concerned, [Jack London] stands head and shoulders above all other American writers." For sure, “All Gold Canyon” is solid gold – maybe some other time we could compare London’s Bill and Tolkien’s Tom Bombadil, but that’s another story.

Thanks for reading.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

OSR, a solo game, and Al Shief's adventure

Image
  Sometimes a solo game is a wonderful way to explore my campaign world and to meet new characters. Tonight I'll share a game, and maybe start a story. So, meet Al Shief, a thief out near TenKeep. *** After some rough fighting near Silo Verde, the footpad Al Shief felt an emptiness in his stomach before the throbbing from an oozy place on his head. As night fell, he rose with the moon and marched several miles east, to the high dessert town "La Gama." Hunger driven, Al spied open windows in sleepy adobe house. Seemed like an easy take for something to eat. He moved into shadows to an open window.      [Al's moved silently, 25%, but he rolled a 27]. Somebody's dog came-out jawing.       [Dog's reaction roll, 2d6, rolls a 5, "unfriendly, may attack"].       [Initiative, the dog gets the jump.] Barking for everyone to hear, the damn dog lunges.     [Attack roll d20, rolled an 18, hits, damage, d3, rolled a 6].  Al tore away and ran to a hollow. Fido tur
Read more

OSR and Fritz Leiber's "Lean Times in Lankhmar"

Image
There's something about the sincerity of Fritz Leiber. In 1979 I read his name in my Dungeon Master's Guide . It took me 44 years to read him - Leiber's an early dungeon master . This week I read "Lean Times in Lankhmar," a short story set in the "City of Thieves" and featuring the heroic duo, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, who've parted ways.  "Exactly what caused the tall brawling barbarian and the slim elusive Prince of Thieves to fall out, and the mighty adventuring partnership to be broken, is uncertainly known..." What's sure is they come-back together. Separated in Lankhmar, the Gray Mouser had gotten fat, drinking hard and enforcing a racketeer's exploits among priests. Fafhrd had gone completely inward, sleeping on cobblestones and inspiring the faith of an Issek priest and his followers.  The story's greatness is in the way Leiber's plot rejoins Fafhrd and the Mouser -  1950's pulp-adventure filled with wine, brut
Read more