Tuesday 13 March 2018

Annihilation and the Alzabo




I enjoyed the film version of Annihilation (now on Netflix). I thought Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy excellent, and Alex Garland's film is sufficiently different to its source to entertain readers of the books rather than simply have them nod along.

Anyone who's played or read Lamentations of the Flame Princess will enjoy the film's creatures. And anyone who's read Gene Wolfe's The Sword of the Lictor will detect at least a nod to the Alzabo - or possibly to D&D's leucrotta, or the cocrotta/leucrocotta of the bestiaries, which inspired both.

The film has plenty more to offer RPG enthusiasts - not least an indication of how a wilderness campaign could be organised around "nodes" (haunted glades, abandoned villages, ruined towers) in a hex map.


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