What a difference a day makes! Last week, I was despairing for being deep in the Covid brain fog. I had a ticket to see Tribulation that night, but I was in a malaise and the show was aaaaall the way over there in Brooklyn. But my friends dragged me out and it was great. Exhausting, but great. The next morning, I woke up clear-headed. Been fine ever since. Weird!

Anyway, I feel like it's March still, so here's a book I got in the mail a while back but didn't have a chance to mention: Outside the Box, by Magnus Seter. It's a history of the Swedish RPG scene, which I am quite enamored of but don't know nearly enough about besides a general sense that is has a Chaosium/BRP root instead of a TSR/D&D one. 

I've been dying to get my hands on this for a long while, and it's great. I mean, there's a duck on the cover by Johan Egerkrans, how could it not be great? I've only just started -- I'm currently learning about how Fredrik Malmberg (now CEO of Cabinet Entertainment, which was previously Paradox) acted as the gateway for American RPGs to get to Sweden through his import company (founded when he was 16!). I've already gotten so much clarity on how things developed over there and I'm only in the first chapter! Draker och Demoner, MORK BORG, Mutant and Free League are all on tap.

It's in English, but doesn't have US distribution yet, which needs to change, pronto. I got my copy through the intervention of a Swedish friend who put me in touch directly with Fandrake, the publisher.