Self-Cross?

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

>(For anyone with access to back issues of Dragon, btw, take a look at the TOCs for #78 and #100. Spot any familiar names? )
*blinks*
*thinks about #100...*
*spit-take*
*wipes off monitor*
*runs to Evil Midnight Archive and retrieves #100*
*flips through, knowing what to expect*
*still falls off chair*
...
*evil grin*
Taking your later reply to an annoyed Brit into account:
Try this on for size...
Doug lands in modern London...but it's a dark twisted Dickensian London, and there are all those feral elf-kids and (IIRC) large talking rats running around.
And just when he's getting a handle on the Borribles world, along come a bunch of bewildered adventurers from Oerth looking for the Mace of St. Cuthbert...
(This could set up a next Step, as presumably he wouldn't have time to find a gate song and would settle for following the Slayers-wannabes back to Greyhawk one step ahead of the London constabulary...)
--Sam Ashley
"Eating kittens is just plain--plain WRONG! And no one should do it EVER!"

[Bob Schroeck]

I've been thinking about this ever since you posted it, and damn but I wish I'd thought of it. Doug in the Borribles' world would be so much fun. Kicking Rumble ass, spitting in Sussworth's face, taking on the whole damned SBG...
I gotta wedge this into the Walk somewhere.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[drakensis]

I do have some fond memories of the book(s). Man, it's been years...
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[Bob Schroeck]

www.theborribles.co.uk/
Ain't Google wunnerful?
(Time to order a copy of book three, which I never owned but which I read once, twenty years ago...)

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

Book three isn't available by itself any more, but for anyone who didn't notice this up in General Chatter, amazon.co.uk has all three novels in a single volume for about ten and a half pounds, with shipping to the US at about five more pounds.
I'll be buying this for myself after Christmas, for sure.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

I just ordered my copy -- and a copy for the friend who owned book 3 twenty years ago.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[vitruvian]

It occurs to me that Lyra's London from the _His Dark Materials_ series would also make quite an interesting step....

[Bob Schroeck]

That's one I don't know at all... off to Amazon to look for it, I guess...


-- Bob
---------
And all the girlies say I'm pretty dry for a wet guy...

[vitruvian]

The first in the series is _The Golden Compass_, if you decide to browse in an actual store first...
The magic tends to be somewhat lower key, but it might be a world where Doug's gifts function erratically.

[Ace Dreamer]

I was talking to someone today about "St. Trinians", a school setting I think Bob would have great fun dropping Doug into! This is before mid 20thC UK, still suffering from rationing, with spivs, distressed (poor) gentlepeople, dotty/deranged/larcenous school teachers, etc.
I also discussed really cruel cross-overs with this, like In Nomine, Call of Cthulhu, and most strangely Warhammer 40k.
Doug meets ruthless, determined, English public schoolgirls... Got to be good for _something_! [grin]
You can probably find the lyrics of the St. Trinians school song, "trample on the weakest, get your blow in first...", which may lead you to looking at hockey sticks with more respect in future...
Yes, I know the films were black and white, but they were still great fun, in parts!
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[Bob Schroeck]

Sounds vaguely familiar, Dreamer. I may have seen one or more of them at some point and just not made a firm memory of it.
As for other fun locales, well, a few days ago I had the idea of throwing Doug into "Man of La Mancha" -- where he pledges to the service of Don Quixote, knowing full well that he's inside a story and what's going to happen. Doug's reasoning is that Quixote may be nutty as a fruitcake, but he's a better person with a more positive effect on the world than he was as Alonzo Quixana (Quijana? I've never read the book), and he intends to keep his son-in-law from shaking him back to "reality". Of course, the real fun begins when the Inquisition gets involved, after what would have been the end of the original story...


-- Bob
---------
And all the girlies say I'm pretty dry for a wet guy...

[Ebony]

One of the Harold Shea stories actually figures along these lines, except that Harold and his friend Reed Chalmers end up in the world that Quixote sees. For those who aren't aware of The Complete Compleat Enchanter series, it is a collection of stories written by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt in the 50s and 60s (and later by de Camp and Christopher Stasheff in the 90s). Harold Shea is a psychologist in Ohio who figures that psychotics are actually perceiving other universes, but they're only perceiving them partially, hence the damage to their minds. He figures out how to put oneself fully into the perception of another universe, and ends up in the Nine Worlds of Norse myth shortly before Ragnarok for his troubles. Later stories include adventures in Spenser's Faerie Queene, and other literary and mythic sagas. In each one, Shea and his travelling companions have to figure out the rules of the world and survive with their wits and their knowledge of the basic rules of magic. In the trip to Quixote's universe, Chalmers (who is a very analytical person) sees what Cervantes wrote about, while Shea (something of a romantic) sees Quixote's world as Quixote sees it. Very amusing tale. I highly recommend the stories.
Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Bob Schroeck]

Huh. That's a Shea story I've never heard of. Is it one of the ones that they just dug up recently?


-- Bob
---------
And all the girlies say I'm pretty dry for a wet guy...

[Guest]

Actually, I think that's one of the ones Stasheff wrote, although I may be wrong. He did a handful of follow-on stories a few years back.

[Bob Schroeck]

I'll have to go look for it. I've never read any of the Stasheff Shea stuff. I've loved his "Warlock" books for twenty years or more now, but haven't looked at much of his other writing; are his Shea continuations any good?


-- Bob
---------
And all the girlies say I'm pretty dry for a wet guy...

[Ebony]

They're pretty good. The first couple are in cooperation with deCamp. Hang on ... ah, here we are. The Complete Compleat Enchanter features the first five stories. deCamp and Stasheff did The Enchanter Reborn, which also features Holly Lisle and John Maddox Roberts writing from outlines by the other two. That one contains the Quixote story. They also wrote The Exotic Enchanter, which includes several more stories, including a journey to Russian myth. Fun stuff all the way around.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Bob Schroeck]

I'll have to see if I can slip that volume onto a Christmas list somewhere... failing that, I'll buy it after New Year's. Thanks!


-- Bob
---------
And all the girlies say I'm pretty dry for a wet guy...

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

I think my favorite story in the latter two volumes has to be the one set on Barsoom. (In return for aid and assistance in recovering Belphebe from yet another kidnap attempt, Harold must teach Ras Thavas how to pick up girls he didn't build from scratch.)
--Sam Ashley
"It's a YULE TIDE!"

[Bob Schroeck]

-- Bob
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And all the girlies say I'm pretty dry for a wet guy...