Character Creation: Retrocausality

Time travel is always fun.

The Game: Retrocausality
The Publisher: Weird Age Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, though a copy of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure or Back to the Future wouldn't go amiss

 
Retrocausality leans hard into time travel as wacky fun, unlike some other RPGs that use it as an element but generally put you in the role of fixing or enforcing the timeline. It saves a lot of page count by encouraging the players to come up with the nuts and bolts of how time travel works, and even says that you could bolt the time travel system onto another RPG if you wanted to do a time travel plot, which I think is a neat idea. The text is fun to read and the art is a little more anime than I enjoy, but it's cute, so whatevs. Let's make a character!

I am first asked to consider my character's "Deal" (as in "what's your deal?"). Hmm. I'm resisting the urge to take inspiration from Vonnegut. Instead, I shall take (very vague) inspiration from this song. Nothing specific, just the general vibe of setting rules and goals to try and fix something about oneself.

So, my character is a late 20-something named Conrad "Connie" Selman. Connie spent his late teens/early 20s very drunk and in the college party scene, skated through his classes because he's actually pretty smart, and wound up with a BA in something marginally useful but no emotional intelligence, no real ability to navigate relationships, and more than a few regrets. And then, boom. Time travel. A way to fix all that - but see, it's like untangling Christmas lights. Every knot untangled just means you can start working on the last one.

Now we do Talents. I get 3, they're numbered 1, 2, 3 (higher is better), and they can be broad enough to encompass a profession. I'll take Knows How to Party at 2 (it's not his primary focus anymore), Bureaucratic Cog at 3, and Self-Reflection at 1 (yes, that's a little wanky, but I'm fine with that).

Time Talent! This is a particular application of time travel that I'm good at, consisting of a skill and a suit. I think it's gotta be Twin (working with past and future selves) and hearts (good with social situations).

Goal! Specifically, goal for time travel. This is easy, Connie wants to retroactively become a better person.

And finally, Details. Anything else I feel like adding? I think Connie works for his Uncle Ned, which affords him some free time. If I were running this game, Ned would definitely turn out to be a stranded time-locked version of future-Connie, but that's just me. I'll say Connie is a handsome guy. Bit of a paunch these days, but his hair is perfect and he aims to keep it that way.

And I think that does it!

Shadow of the Demon Lord: A Goblin Dies Twice

And yesterday was the second session in our Shadow of the Demon Lord. Pigs were involved. Here's last session.

The party has been slowly traveling through the land, not really with a goal in mind. As we open today, they come across a village called Porm's Hollow. The odor makes it immediately clear that Porm's Hollow is a pig-farming community; they see carcasses curing, and smell rendering happening somewhere nearby. They talk amongst themselves, figuring that they should buy some meat while they're here, and a young boy walks up and asks them if they're here to buy. Once they get through his accent (which Buboe in particular is hard-pressed to understand), the boy leads them to his father, the patriarch of the village.

When they meet him, he's poring over a map of the village thoughtfully. He's happy to sell them meat, but, noting their weapons, asks if they're capable fighters. It seems that someone or something has been snatching pigs at night, and despite the villagers setting lookouts, no one has seen what's doing it. If the characters could figure it out and stop it, they'd be happy to hook them up with meat. The party is happy with this arrangement.

Turns out that last night, the pig-snatcher stole a sow who'd recently given birth. The young man assigned to lookout, Ketik, reported seeing nothing. The characters check the area where the pig was last seen, and Dagmar sees that the top slat of the fence is cracked as though something heavy leaned or climbed on it. They find footprints leading away from the enclosure - two sets of prints, heavy, as though laden. And then they find a third set running towards the first two sets, as though someone chased them. Tracking those prints back, they find a chair and a burned-out lantern - this looks like the lookout station.

Following the prints, they walk down a hill to a stream coming from a cave. All three sets of prints go into the cave, but only one comes out, and now it's bloody. The bloody prints lead to the stream and then up the hill, at which point the trail goes cold. In the cave, they find a human corpse, stripped of meat. Dagmar and Buboe figure this to be the work of a ghoul, and worse, when a ghoul eats someone, it takes their form for a short time. As such, if "Ketik" is still in the village, he might not be Ketik anymore. They decide to clear out the cave first, though.

Inside, Mayfly casts a light spell on a stick, and rides on Bashir's shoulders. They're walking into a larger cavern when Buboe feels a click under his feet, and a gout of flame engulfs him and Dagmar. Dagmar's magnificent beard is singed, and both of them are slightly burned, but the damage isn't too bad. Mayfly finds the mechanism; pressure plate activated rocks that squished pig bladders full of gas into the torches in the room, and the gas ignited. Clever.

Now watching a bit more carefully, they continue, and in the next room find something truly strange. It looks like a suit of armor, twice the size of a man, man of pig bones and tied together with sinew. Mayfly, figuring it might be a clockwork, flies up and looks inside. It's not exactly a clockwork, but there's a seat and levers, about big enough for a goblin. Buboe climbs inside and tries to make it work, but can't, and spots runes etched in the bones - maybe necromancy. Dagmar and Bashir smash the armor into fragments, figuring no good can come from it. No sooner have they done so than a high-pitched voice screams "NOOOOO!"

Entering the room is a goblin, and one they recognize. His name is Grime, and he faced off against them during their last battle, but fled when his magic wasn't working. This time his magic is working fine, and he calls up bones from the ground to grab the characters and hold them. Bashir and Buboe free themselves, and Buboe casts magic at Grime, but fails. He puts up a spell to shield himself, and just in time, as a pale creature with black, snaggly teeth - a ghoul! - bursts into the room and snaps at him.

Bashir swings at the goblin, and Dagmar hucks their spear at him, but misses. Mayfly zips over and lands on Bashir's should to sling stones at enemies, and Buboe faces off against the ghoul, which bites him savagely. Dagmar grabs a big honkin' bone and runs over to smash Grime, but Grime hurls magic and weakens the dwarf, and throws magic bolts at Bashir.

Buboe swings his staff at the ghoul, but the ghoul grabs him, lifts him up, and bites his head clean off. Bashir, seeing this, runs over and decapitates the ghoul as it takes Buboe's form, and Dagmar strikes at Grime. Grime throws a spectral hand at Dagmar, knocking them back, and laughing manically at his old foe...right before Bashir cleaves his head in twain.

The group mourns Buboe...OK, well, they acknowledge Buboe's death. (Dagmar: "I'm not really going to miss him.") They loot his body and leave it there for his roaches, and head back to the village.

They explain what happened to the patriarch, and reveal that Ketik might be a ghoul. They head for his home, but he's already gone, presumably fled into the hills. The villagers thank the characters and let them stay a bit, fashioning pig leather into soft armor and curing them some pork to take with them on their travels.

And in a month, we'll see who joins up with them.

Movie #527: Peter Pan 2: Return to Neverland

Peter Pan 2: Return to Neverland is, clearly, the sequel to Peter Pan, and stars Harriet Owen, Blayne Weaver, Corey Burton, Jeff Bennett and Kath Soucie.

Years after the events of the first movie, Wendy (Soucie) has married and had children, Jane (Owen) and Danny (Andrew McDonough). Then the second World War breaks out and her father (Roger Rees) has to go off, and as the Blitz increases, Jane and Danny are getting sent to the countryside. The night before that happens, Jane goes on a bit of a tear because Danny wants to hear Peter Pan stories, but then Captain Hook (Burton) and his crew show up and outright kidnap her, thinking that she's Wendy. They take her to Neverland, where she initially can't fly because she very reasonably doesn't believe that all this stuff is real, and has to learn an important lesson about...being a kid and believing in fairies, or something.

So, Disney has on occasion managed decent sequels, but this ain't one of them. It was meant for straight-to-video and wound up getting a theatrical release, but it really doesn't deserve it. It feels like a 90s retread - watered down, things changed or replaced for the sake of it, and not really digging into some of the more interesting ideas that it had at its disposal. Just for example, Jane is growing up in Blitzed London, so it's pretty damn normal that she should be focused more on adult things, like survival, than stories about a flying sociopath and his evil little pixie companion (once again, Tinkerbell can't help but try to murder any girl who looks twice at Peter). But Jane's practicality is at every pass treated as something she should give up. And sure, it's terrible that war robs children of their youth, but that is not the children's fault.

And then there's little things, like poor Tick-Tock the Croc being replaced by some wannabe octopus, and the voices of Peter and the Lost Boys being made higher pitched and more childlike. That does sell the Lost Boys being innocent kids rather than feral child-shaped monsters, yes, but it also makes them really maudlin at points.

The cosmology of this world also comes into question - clearly these beings can invade the "real" world and steal people, and Hook's ship smashes through buildings, but planes just kind of fly around it. If the planes are avoiding it out of a kind of "people just don't see it" effect, fine, but then why have it damage buildings? This is, I suspect, more thought than anyone gave it at the time. Anyway, it's a weak movie, it's trite, it's boring, and the songs are pure 90s awful.

My Grade: F
Rewatch Value: IINSIAIFWT

Next up: The Phantom Creeps

One-Shot: Riders

Lots of gaming this weekend, gotta do the write-ups! Saturday we played a one-shot of Riders. I'd been wanting to run this game for a while.

Our characters:

• Marybeth Prentiss, Rider of Conquest: Marybeth was a senator (I, ID), and had aspirations of running for president. She's very an idealist and very much invested in being in authority, but had to make compromises for her success and that nettles her. She was voted out in 2012 (probably lost to some fucking Tea Party guy), and was made a Rider shortly thereafter. 
• Marisol, Rider of Famine: Marisol is a food blogger, very focused on health through cleanses and elimination diets and the like. Also, she's really focused on growing her own brand (hence the mononym). Being chosen as a Rider made her rethink her approach to food. 
• Krista Thurston, Rider of War: Krista wanted to be a concert pianist, but wound up an ADA in Chicago. She was focused on doing her job and doing it well, but felt ground down by the constant stream of people being awful to one another. This anger and sense of injustice led to her being picked as a Rider. 
• Jonathan Steel, Rider of Death: Jonathan worked in finance and software development, and wanted nothing more than to retire and live an easy life. He struggled with suicidal ideation for much of his life, but when he finally retired, he sold everything, bought a motorcycle, and hit the road. The first diner he stopped at, he was recruited as a Rider of Death. At the second, he met a Shepherd, an angel who told him about the campaign to wind back the Doomsday Clock. He's barely been a Rider a week.

The Riders are having breakfast at a small roadside place in New Mexico; it sells breakfast burritos and the like, and generally does business with tourists on trips, bikers, and the like. The characters order and they note that every time they see the owner, his hair is a little white. Their water glasses are also always full to overflowing, and when Marybeth sips hers, it's hot and tastes faintly of sulfur.

Clearly the characters are seeing signs - Marybeth, the most experienced Rider, knows that this means there's a sign of the Apocalypse nearby and that they can prevent it and roll back the Doomsday Clock. Krista goes into the diner to talk to the owner, and sees a star on the wall that glows when she stares at it. The TV is also playing a scene from What Lies Beneath, which she asks to turn off. She chats with the owner a minute (his hair is whiter still now), and when she turns around, the movie is back on.

The characters confer, and figure that this all might have something to do with hot springs - there are a number of resorts nearby that have them. Something with stars, too, apparently? They look over the rack of brochures that the diner has, and find one for a resort called "Seven Stars." That seems like a good place to start.

As they leave, Jonathan notices a rabbit hop into the road, and then lie down in front of an approaching car. The car runs it over, and with this rather disquieting coda to breakfast, the Riders hop on their bikes and head to the resort.

En route, they are pulled over by a local deputy (really he pulls Marisol over, whose magical motorcycle looks like a Vespa but keeps up with the others). He checks her ID and asks her some questions, but then Marybeth walks over and uses one of her Gifts to be an authority figure. The deputy (his name is Dep. Pell) defers to her, and talks with them a bit about the resort, which he grudgingly says is a "nice place." Jonathan notes that he's going to die in a few weeks, apparently by deliberately driving off a cliff. The Riders also note that he hasn't slept in some time; he's looking peaked. They tell him to take care of himself, and head out to the resort.

As they drive in, they note that this place is pretty busy, but doesn't have many cars in the lot. Some of the cars that are there are pretty high-end. The Riders walk to the main building, and Jonathan notes that these guests are all going to die very soon. He looks deeper and realizes they're going to drown, as are some of the staff.

Marybeth goes to the front desk and demands four rooms; the desk worker, flustered, gets the owner, who is able to give Marybeth a suite and a room. Meanwhile, Krista and Marisol head to the bar and talk with the bartender, a fellow named Jose. He's just on duty in the morning, though, mostly he does cleaning. Marisol notes that he's a hungry sort of person, generally unfulfilled, but that a lot of the other folks around here have a lulled, kind of lotus-eater calm about them.

The Riders get together and talk about this situation. It looks like there's a cult kind of situation going on, because a lot of people are set to drown tomorrow. But there's not a body of water big enough to do that, so maybe they're going to head to the river? They need to investigate more. Jonathan and Marisol look around at the patrons and the grounds, while Marybeth and Krista decide to get swimsuits and go into one of the springs and find someone rich, hopefully someone who's met Marybeth.

Indeed, in a spring Marybeth meets an older lady who donated to her Senate campaign. She talks to her, and learns that her husband died the previous year. Marybeth pushes and tries to get her to talk about the impending mass suicide and the group that she's here with, but the woman deftly talks around it, stressing the need for peace and acceptance of hardship. She does learn, though, that the owner of the resort, Janice Rago, is also the leader of the group.

Krista starts an argument with a woman and her husband, but isn't able to gain much information from the conflict - other than there's an enemy here that isn't apparent. They get out of the spring to go and check back.

Jonathan and Marisol discover that the people who are all going to die are also the people with the weird, stoic calm about life. Some of the staff don't have that attitude, and indeed, they're not going to die tomorrow. This is looking more and more like a suicide cult, but the method still escapes the Riders. They reconvene and share info, and Marybeth decides she'll go talk to Janice in a business sort of way. Marisol looks around for people meditating or otherwise doing spiritual-type stuff. Jonathan goes to talk to Marybeth's donor, presenting himself as a mutual friend, and Krista heads back to the bar, because fuck it, it's booze o'clock.

At the bar, she meets the actual bartender, a young woman named Anna. She and Anna talk a bit, and Anna reveals that the last few days, the tips have been phenomenal - like, end of the world good. Rich people don't usually tip, but these folks have been dropping 20s like it's nothing. Krista takes the opportunity to invite Anna to join her for a drink or something later, to which Anna enthusiastically agrees.

Jonathan meets up with the woman in the pool, and they talk about Marybeth, their lives, losing loved ones, and so forth. They actually get along famously, and she invites Jonathan to get a private spring for a while. There, she tells Jonathan the truth - tomorrow, all of the people in the resort are going to get into the springs, sink into the water, and just...sleep. Jonathan says that sounds very serene, and that maybe he'll be there too.

Marisol finds a room of people sitting on mats, looking at a Seven Stars mural and occasionally talking, but not loudly enough that she can hear them. She talks to a passer-by and asks what this is all about, and he gives her a kind of abbreviated, suicide-free version of the truth. No, they don't have a website or anything, it's really all done through a private group on social media. Probably would be rude to interrupt, but there are other folks doing similar things. He also mentions that there's a pastor talking with the members if they want, and also a lawyer - wait, what? He covers that comment (badly), and Marisol takes her leave.

Marybeth takes a meeting with Janice in her office, and asks about leveraging all this business the resort is doing, doing some branding, maybe, but Janice tells her that it's not really about the money. The glory is spiritual, not financial. Marybeth accepts this, but when Janice takes a call, Marybeth notices an invoice for several barrels of a chemical agent. When she leaves the office, she searches the name, and finds that mixed with the right balance of minerals in water, the chemical acts as a paralytic.

The Riders get back together. They've figured it out - this whole thing is a Doomsday cult. Tomorrow the members are going to get the water, treated with the chemical, and drown. There's enough springs and pools here for everyone to drown, just barely. The Riders talk about their options - they could call Deputy Pell and get him here, but they'd need proof. They want to interrupt the act, not just prevent it, since interrupting it would probably result in the cultists not trying again. Krista reminds them that there's also someone they haven't seen they working against them. Jonathan glances over at Anna, the bartender, and realizes that her time of death has changed. She did have decades ahead of her. Now she's going to be murdered tonight.

Krista is very much not OK with that, for a number of reasons, and the characters start casting about. They finally realize that Jose is there, still, and Anna mentions that it seems like he's always here. Jonathan stares at him a little more closely and realizes that he's Unearthly, but he's very hard to pin down. Marybeth figures that might make him an Understudy, a fallen angel who took the identity of a dead person. They talk about killing him, but figure that if he's a demon he might be on their nominal side (that is, ready to end the world - Riders are supposed to facilitate the Signs, not prevent them). They lure him outside and reveal who they are, and Jose tells them that the real Jose was shot and left in the desert. He's looking to trade up when all these folks die, and grab one of the rich folks.

The Riders tell him that they actually need to prevent the suicide; the timing isn't right (this is the ineffable plan, after all). But, he's actually welcome to take a rich person if he wants - and wouldn't it be better not to be the sole survivor of a mass suicide? He concedes it would, and tells them that the chemicals are in the pool shed. Going back in, Jonathan notes that Anna's lifetime has returned to its original length.

They go to the shed and, using the chemicals there and a healthy does of Unearthly power, taint them so that they'll cause some tingling but not paralysis. The next day, they call the police just as the folks are getting in the pool, and the suicide is prevented. Jose takes the form of the woman that Jonathan talked with, and the characters do battle with the Doomsday Clock, rolling it back 25 precious seconds, and get on their bikes, heading out for their next adventure.

Blue Rose: The Death of Clickclack

Last night was Blue Rose. Today is Yellow Begonia.

Last time, the characters fought off and destroyed a bunch of walking death with mechanical fey sprites driving them. We pick up this time immediately after. The characters are still winded and wounded from the fight, so Arlen casts some healing and Kisha patches people up (Whirlpool tries, but he has terrible luck healing anyone but himself; we blame the variances in sea-folk physiology).

Once the characters get their breath, Arlen casts Animal Summoning to call up some horses, and gets back the one that bolted and the one that the bandit was riding, plus a couple of wild ones (which the characters release). The Finest look about and decide that they can't really leave all these corpses lying about. They don't have the tools to dig a mass grave and the terrain doesn't suit rock cairns, and a funeral pyre would have to burn for days to take care of this many, so Gyell decides that he will run ahead to the city of Latik and get help. By himself, he should be able to get there in about 8-10 hours, so he should be back in a day or so. The others will make camp and wait.

They start hitching up the horses to move the carriage to the top of the hill, and the wind picks up - and then starts absolutely raging. Dobbin forms a mind-link with Pansy, and Pansy can "see" (smell, really) distinct forms moving in the clouds. Kisha and Arlen look with magical eyes, and realize that air elementals are up there causing the problem. Kisha also detects a layer of magic overlaying them, suggesting they may have been summoned and control. Arlen pulls the box with the Mask out of the carriage and tosses it to Bresla, who holds it down.

Dobbin fires an arrow at them, but it doesn't reach. They swoop down and try to topple the carriage, but Whirlpool holds it up. Arlen casts Move Object to steady it, and Whirlpool taunts the elementals, hoping to smack them as they attack, but they pick him up and drop him. Kisha tries to detect where the magic is coming from, and feels something up on the hill. She, Whirlpool, and Pirry head up the hill, and see whirring wings in the trees. They charge in, and see that the fey tinkerer and several of his sprites are there. Kisha rushes in and whacks the tinkerer, but the sprites surround her and blast her with arcane energy. Whirlpool comes to her aid, destroying one of the sprites.

But meanwhile, down the hill, Arlen looks over and realizes that the box with the Mask is open and Bresla is gone. He checks - the Mask is missing. He scans the trees and sees someone running away, and calls to Dobbin for help. Dobbin sends Pansy on ahead to aid Arlen, and then runs to cut off the fleeing figure. It is indeed Bresla, but Dobbin plows into her and knocks her down, and Arlen yanks the Mask off with magic. Bresla comes to her senses and, ashamed and furious, rushes up the hill to the fight.

At said fight, Kisha lashes out with her staff, Whirlpool wreaks havoc with his trident, and Pirry sends arrows into the fray. Dobbin, Pansy, and Bresla join, while Arlen stays down the hill holding up the Mask, intent on putting it back in the box. But then the tinkerer starts dancing, and everyone dances with him. The sprites zip off down the hill and grab for the Mask.

Arlen, thinking quickly, casts Plant Growth and turns the area around him into a tangly bramble, and then pushes the Mask down into it. The sprites grab at it and pull, but they're not very strong. Back on the hill, Kisha shakes off the effects of the dances and rushes to help, and is perhaps a bit too daring, rushing right into the brambles and getting tangled. Whirlpool, likewise, recovers his senses and brains the tinkerer with his trident, ending the dance. Bresla stabs him, and the tinkerer tries to fly off. Dobbin shoots him in the back, and Whirlpool flings his dirk and brings the corrupt fey down.

Down at the bottom of the hill, Arlen pushes the fey into the plants, and they are trying to wriggle free when the tinkerer dies, and the magic on them with him. The threat is over, and Arlen puts the Mask back in the box.

With the tinkerer dead, the characters breath a little easier, but Bresla is pretty devastated. She says that they should hitch up the wagon and go, and she will stay here and wait for Gyell. Dobbin tries to talk her out of it - she messed up, sure, but all of them have, the Mask has that effect. Bresla thanks her, but feels she can do the most good away from the Mask. The party heads on, and Whirlpool comments that he'd like to have wings like the ones the tinkerer made.

You could, whispers a voice in his head.

Movie #526: Peter Pan

Peter Pan is, of course, the animated Disney version of the play by J.M. Barrie, and stars the voices of Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Bill Thompson, Paul Collins, Tommy Luske, and Candy Candido. Parts of it hold up OK, parts of it...not so much.

The story doesn't waste a bit of time; our heroes are the Darlings. The parents (Conried and Heather Angel) have just decided that their eldest, Wendy (Beaumont), should grow up and stop telling her younger brothers Michael (Luske) and John (Collins) adventure stories about Peter Pan. But then Peter Pan (Driscoll) shows up for-realsies, and takes the children on a magical adventure to Neverland, where they get to hang with the Lost Boys and fight pirates (led by the fabulous and obsessed Captain Hook, also voiced by Conried) until they decide that they want to go home and be with their parents, which is reasonable.

So, let's start with the good/interesting stuff. The movie begins with a narrator (Tom Conway) telling us that this has all happened before, and that plus the father's comment at the end that the flying ship looks familiar sets us up to believe that Peter has been visiting this family for a long time. There's a nicely "everyone agrees this is a game" vibe in Neverland, and you get the sense that it's Hook who's violating that by fixating on killing Peter and stepping outside his role (but I am absolutely overanalyzing this). The voice performances from Driscoll, Conried, and Beaumont are good, too, and there are some fun visual gags and humor sprinkled throughout. Also, for whatever reason the ticking crocodile just always tickles me.

And then there's the not-so-good stuff. There's the obvious overt racism with the "Indian village", the grotesque Chief (Candido), and the fact that the "braves" are drawn in an exaggerated and not quite human manner (with the exception of Tiger Lily, who doesn't talk). I remembered that, but what I had forgotten was the nigh-constant misogyny in the movie. Multiple people try to kill Wendy, including Tinkerbell, and Peter outright says that he wants to bring Wendy to the Lost Boys to be their mother. None of the female characters get treated especially well; Tinkerbell gets kidnapped and tricked, Tiger Lily gets kidnapped and held hostage, and Wendy is actually forced to say good-bye to her brothers as she walks the plank off Hook's ship.

Overall, it's very much a product of its time, and parts of it are funny, but I'd rather watch a newer Disney film given the choice.

My Grade: C+
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: Peter Pan: Return to Neverland

Character Creation: Before the Storm

The title of this game puts this song in my head.

The Game: Before the Storm
The Publisher: Pelgrane Press, in the collection Seven Wonders 
Degree of Familiarity: None, but I've played games like it
Books Required: Just the one, and a deck of cards

Before the Storm is a lot like Fall of Magic, in that there's a specific setting and situation to the game, and the players create characters that fill a particular role and then roleplay out the specifics. To wit, we're on the eve of the invasion by the Stormsworn, and only the Sword, a prophesied weapon, has a chance of saving the remaining kingom. The PCs are the heroes that recovered the Sword. For the most part, that's the givens, and everything else happens in play (though some of it chosen from menus).

I like this kind of game, and weirdly I think it's got some replay value. Ganakagok is another example - the game is focused enough on telling a particular kind of story that it's easy to slip into the groove once you've played it once.

Anyway, there is a chargen system, so I'm gonna do a character, though some of the juicier parts rely on other players so I'm either gonna make some shit up or skip those.

So first up, I deal myself 8 cards, for which I shall use the card dealer over at random.org. I get this:

Now I use those cards and "buy" answers to four traits: rank, what people know me as, what I'm passionate about, and what I value. Although actually, face cards can be used to make up something or as wild cards, so I can basically pick anything I want from the lists. Neat.

OK, I'm gonna say I rank among the common soldiers (discarding the king of hearts, though I could just as easily use my 8). Next is many know me as, for which I shall use my jack of hearts and make something up: "the only survivor of a lost regiment." I am passionate about...hmm. I think Faith. I think that a lot of other things - honor, patriotism, hope - got burned away when my guy was out in the hinterlands watching his comrades die, and all he could hold on to was his faith. I think that the god in question for him is probably a god of soldiers, not war - it'd be interesting if there were two gods, one for generals and one for the actual soldiers. (I'm using my queen of spades here, not that it matters much.)

Finally, I value Sacrifice (I'll use my last jack to add that one, since it's not on the list). He feels that he was spared in that battle to die in this one, and that this willingness to die in service to his country and faith is what gives him meaning. What's interesting is that in play, another player would know a secret that puts lie to that in some way.

So now I have five questions to answer (they're not actually all questions, but whatevs):

My name is Jovren.

My kingdom is... So, this is either Andor (the place that's already been wiped out by the Stormsworn), Iriya (where we are now), or somewhere else. I'll say that Jovren is from Andor.

My history is: I was a common infantry soldier of Andor on a scouting mission that ended in disaster and death. I fled into the night when my comrades were attacked and killed, and it became obvious we couldn't win.

I must strive for victory tomorrow because my god and my fallen comrades demand it.

I believe strongly that the god of soldiers will not abandon us in our hour of need.

Now, at this point I would normally disagree with another character's deeply held belief, and I would specify that I know a secret about another character's value, but again, this is all stuff that would require a group. So I think I shall leave those out, because I feel like Jovren is pretty well-defined.

Jovren is an old soldier, but that means he's still pretty young. His face is scarred and he's always sweating from wearing his armor too long, but he doesn't want to risk getting caught out without it. His hair might once have been red, but it's gone gray at the temples and there's a big bald patch down the middle where someone hit him with a sword once.

That'll do it! I like the sad games.

Blades: Eels Don't Have Thumbs

Well, that sounds like gibberish. Anyway, last night was Blades in the Dark, last session is here.

We join the scoundrels out doing scoundrel things. Copper is in her box at Master Vreen's dog track, when Vreen himself comes to talk with her. He tells her that he's kind of under water on some things, got overextended, and now he owes a lot of money (15 Coin) to a Foundation higher-up name of Grine Jeduin. He's concerned that if doesn't pay up soon, he's going to wake up without thumbs, and wonders if Widdershins could maybe help him out. He would be happy, then, to give them a stake in the track.

One-Eye, meanwhile, is in an upscale drug den/wine bar kind of place when Ulf Ironborn and some of his folks come in. Ulf comes to join her, and asks if she knows a fellow called Briggs. She knows him by reputation; he runs an information network in Charhollow. Ulf tells her that the Billhooks (with whom the crew had a run-in back here) murdered him, and Ulf feels this demands a response. He's planning on taking on the Billhooks, but if One-Eye would join him for Briggs' funeral, that would send a message. And hey, whoever takes revenge on the Billhooks would wind up with that aforementioned information network feeling very grateful.

Cage, on his weekly visit to Lord Penderyn, hears that the Belleweather Crematorium is sitting empty. Well, not empty, there are some squatters, but the point is that no one is officially using it. Several factions are trying to get the City Council to give it to them - the Bluecoats want it for an "Arcane Crimes" unit, the Gondoliers want it to cement their position as the go-tos for spirit problems, the Ministry of Preservation and the Church of Ecstasy also have their fingers in the pie. Penderyn feels that the Widdershins could influence things one way or the other, maybe take it over if they wanted. Cage is just concerned about where the bodies of the dead are going if not to the fire.

Siren is having lunch with Noggs, a former shipmate (we met Noggs here). Noggs mentions that the Ministry of Preservation has a warehouse in Barrowcleft that they're stockpiling with food, arcane implements, and who knows what else. It looks like they're prepping for some kind of emergency, but their claim on the warehouse is tenuous - unofficial at best. Noggs figures there's too much stuff to steal, but the Widdershins are a big enough deal that they could take it and hold it, and hey, maybe they'd need someone to manage it?

The crew comes together at the Ruby to talk over these opportunities. Copper is passionate about helping Vreen - the track is where she goes to unwind, and if he loses it or loses his thumbs, she'll be very put out. Cage is much more concerned about the Crematorium and what implications that has for Duskwall, but all of these options seem useful. And then, already spoiled for choice, the crew sees a group of tough-looking individuals come in. One of them is Karth Orris, a Hive enforcer the crew tussled with back here. They're not here for the crew, though. They approach another patron, sitting by himself smoking a water pipe, and speak quietly and threateningly to him, and then leave.

Figuring that letting other gangs intimidate people on their turf isn't a great idea, the crew approaches the fellow, and One-Eye recognizes him as Variuin, whom she met way back here before the crew took over the Ruby. He explains that he's fairly well-connected in the higher social spheres, and has been known to sell dubiously acquired objets d'arte for a commission ("Yeah, you're a smuggler." "Fence, actually."). But then he did a job for the Hive, and when the time came to take his cut, they stiffed him and told him he was going to continue working for them or suffer some non-specific but very particular harm. He would, of course, be happy to put his talents to use for the crew if they can get the Hive to back off.

The crew reconvenes and tries to prioritize. One-Eye feels like this Hive thing is important; sure, having a luxury fence would be helpful, but mostly it's about not letting things escalate. Copper still wants to help Master Vreen. She and Siren go looking for information about Grine Jeduin, while One-Eye and Cage go have dinner at a Hive establishment to try and figure out if there's a particular reason that they're hassling Variuin.

Copper and Siren have a chat with Steiner, an assassin friend of Siren's, who had a spot of trouble waaaay back here. The Foundation was the group holding the purse strings at that point, so Steiner has at least some experience with them. He doesn't know Grine Jeduin personally, but does figure that it wouldn't be hard to get in to see him - he's not a ghost or a gangster, just a functionary.

Cage and One-Eye go to the aforementioned restaurant, but a waiter warns One-Eye (in Skovic) that her food is poisoned. She sends it back, and continues being a pain in the ass until finally someone agrees to see them. They sit down with a representative of the Hive, and he tells them that the Hive is a little concerned when they see the Widdershins walk into one of their establishments. They snipe at each other for a while until finally they figure that they need to talk to a higher-up. The leader is Djera Maha, but they need a bargaining chip to start things off.

The crew decides to work both scores, and just split up - Siren and Copper will go see Grine Jeduin and try to talk him into backing off of Vreen, and One-Eye and Cage will find a way to meet with Maha and get the Hive to leave Variuin alone. A little digging reveals that Maha used to be involved with Roric, former leader of the Crows - and wouldn't you know it, the crew has Roric's ghost captive in a bottle (this happened here). They send word to the Hive revealing that they have information about Roric, and asking to meet them at the tavern that they took from the Hive, because a show of strength is never a bad way to start negotiations.

Djera Maha and Karth Orris (and some other Hive folks) sit down across from Cage and One-Eye (and some assorted Widdershins toughs). One-Eye talks for a bit, but Maha remains silent, though she visibly reacts to the ghost-bottle containing Roric being brought out. Karth tells One-Eye that she needs to make an offer, and One-Eye realizes that she isn't sure what negotiation protocol is in the Dagger Isles (which is where Maha is from). Finally she puts cards on the table: She'll give Maha the ghost-bottle if Maha agrees to leave Variuin alone and agree to neutrality with the Widdershins. Maha agrees, provided that means Widdershins leaves the Hive's businesses alone. Everyone agrees, and One-Eye hands over the bottle.

Siren and Copper, meanwhile, get lost in the Foundation building in Charterhall. As they wander, Kotar wakes up and tingles, making Siren notice a carving on the wall. She touches it and a door slides open, leading to a staircase down. Copper has reservations, but Siren is somewhat obsessed with Kotar-related things, so they descend. They note slots in the walls, leading to tiny rooms each containing a skeleton. Catacombs, maybe?

At the bottom of the staircase, they find racks of tools, each with a name carved in the wall. Hall of honor or infamy? Siren isn't sure, and this corridor is wet, dark, and spooky. They hear the door slide shut, and then heavy footsteps coming toward them. A hull emerges into the light Copper carries, and says "trespassers." Copper tries to talk her way out it, but the hull grabs for them. Siren draws a gun, and the hull starts emitting an alarm-like sound. Copper punches the bit making the noise, and the hull swipes at her. The second punch dislodges it, and then shatters it. The two of them ascend another staircase and emerge into a hallway, whereupon they hear "Can I help you?"

A minor Foundation functionary takes them to Grine Jeduin (after Siren bribes him), and Grine tells them that he invested his life savings in Vreen's schemes, and he wants his money back. Copper offers to pay him in three increments, and he agrees if she can make a small payment now, which she does. He writes up a contract and the scoundrels leave.

The new business (the dog track) and the other side business (the tavern) are making money for the crew, and they've come out of these scores without any real hardship or Heat. Next time, we'll do downtime and see what's next.

Character Creation: The Warren

Wanted something quick and simple today, and I'd been meaning to read this game anyway.

The Game: The Warren
The Publisher: Bully Pulpit Games 
Degree of Familiarity: Never played this game, but it's PbtA and I've read Watership Down
Books Required: Just the one.

 

In The Warren, you play a rabbit (so this isn't the first rabbit character I've made, actually). The game is designed to incorporate the fairly quick life cycle of a bunny, to wit, when you take a scar, you lose access to a move, and you can choose to retire your rabbit at any time ("retire" here can mean death or not).

Normally we would choose a setting for our warren, but it's just me, so I'll go with the default and assume an English countryside. First thing, I choose a move for my character. There's a list of character moves, and while The Warren doesn't have playbooks, it does a bit of niche protection by stating that only one character can have a given move at a time. I will choose Squirmy - if I'm smaller than something holding me, I can roll Swift instead of Strong to Struggle (that is, struggle to get free).

Now I assign stats to my bunny. I get +2, +1, 0 and -1. Well, I think it's pretty clear I should put +2 into Swift. I'll put my +1 into Shrewd and my 0 into Strong, which leaves Steady at -1, so I panic easily.

And indeed, my next step is to determine Panic level. My max Panic is 4 (it's 5 + one's Steady rating). I start with 0 current Panic, of course.

Next I select my rabbit's look. I'll say he's got a runt body, a sleek coat, short ears, and he's a buck. More specifically, he's a normal brownish sort of color, with a pink nose an abnormally short ears. He grooms his coat obsessively, and he's much smaller than all his littermates were.

Finally, I need a name. I'm encouraged to choose a name from nature. I'll say he's called Mushroom, so named because he's kinda got the coloration of a mushroom, and because he just sort of pops up out of nowhere a lot of the time.

And that's it! Boing-boing!

Movie #525: Pet Semetary

Pet Semetary is the first movie adaptation of the novel by Stephen King, and stars Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, Denise Crosby, Miko Hughes, Blaze Berdahl, and Brad Greenquist.

Louis Creed (Midkiff) is a doctor who's recently taken a job at a university in...actually I don't know if the city is ever mention, but it's probably Castle Rock, Maine, right? Anyway, he moves into a house on the side of a road near an oil refinery, and down which trucks zoom all day at a terrifying pace. Somehow his wife Rachel (Crosby) hasn't seen the house before they move it? Weird. It's probably covered in the book.

Anywhichway, they're there all of 10 minutes before their little babby Gage (Hughes) nearly blunders into the road and is saved by the kindly ol' gent from across the street, Jud Crandall (Gwynne, far and away the highlight of this movie). This does not have the sobering effect on the family that it should have, even after Jud takes them on a walk to the titular pet cemetery in the woods. He's trying to make some ham-fisted point about how death shouldn't be scary, it should just lead to good memories, but the Creed's daughter Ellie (Berdahl) is freaked out nonetheless.

And then a dude (Greenquist) gets run down by a truck on Louis' first day at his new job, and his ghost latches on to Louis and tries to warn him about something, and then Ellie's cat gets run down despite all of the clear and obvious signs that no pet is safe near this road, and Jud, like a fucking idiot, has Louis bury the cat in a M'ikmaq burial ground beyond the pet cemetery, and the thing comes back to life but is evil now.

So, what happens next is pretty clearly telegraphed - poor little Gage wanders into the road and is killed, and Louis buries him in the magical ground, not listening to Jud and Ghost Buddy's warnings that doing so is a really terrible idea. Gage comes back, kills Jud and his mother, shit basically goes sideways.

This movie disappoints the hell out of me, because the premise is really strong. I'm trying to figure out where it goes wrong for me, and I think it's a combination of three things.

First, the setup is hard to believe. Jud knows that terrible things happen when you bury a live thing in the magic ground, he did it to his own dog. That he would do that to Ellie is not remotely believable. That cascades into Louis' decision to bury Gage there, which is slightly easier to believe (a father out of his mind with grief, sure), but again, there is no question whatsoever that the cat came back evil and smelly, so why in the world would he think it'd be any different for his son?

Second, there is just far too much going on in this movie. The pet cemetery, the family's relocation, the tension between Louis and his in-laws, the housekeeper's suicide, Rachel's visions of her dead sister (and fuck me, everyone has visions in this movie), the Ghost Buddy...I'm not saying that it couldn't all have been handled well, but it wasn't. The movie feels overstuffed and like someone tried to be too faithful in adapting the book, which is hard with King because his stuff is intricate.

And finally, both of the above points could have been fine with a good cast, screenwriter, and director...but this movie has none of that. Dale Midkiff has the emotional range of a plank of wood when he's not playing a complete douchebag. Crosby, likewise, manages to look pissed off in virtually every scene she's in. The kids and Fred Gwynne are actually the strongest actors here, but that doesn't help the direction - right after Missy the housekeeper (Susan Blommaert) dies, there's a shot of the M'ikmaq burial ground, apropos of nothing, last about two seconds, and then we cut to the funeral. (Maybe that was the editor, who knows.)

The strongest part of the film is Gage's murder-game of hide and seek at the end, because the kid manages to actually be scary (when it's not an obvious mannequin), but overall, it's kind of a waste of potential. I know the recent version with Jason Clarke took more liberties with the story, but maybe that's a good thing.

My Grade: D+
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: Peter Pan

Character Creation: Kuro

Trying to get ahead of myself a little, since this week is unlikely to hold many opportunities for chargen, unless I do something really quick and easy.

The Game: Kuro
The Publisher: Le 7éme Cercle, I guess?
Degree of Familiarity: None.
Books Required: Just the one.

So, Cubicle 7 published this game at one point, but the relevant page on C7's site doesn't seem to work, but then, on the 7C's site (how confusing), there's no mention of Kuro, but the games are being sold through 7C on DriveThru, so I don't know what's going on. And honestly I don't much care.

Kuro is a sci-fi/horror game set in futuristic Japan, so right away it's not really my thing (so why do you own it, Matt? Who can say?).

Anyway, the basic setup is that in the future, technology is bananas. We've got androids and cyber and nanobots and so on, but the geopolitical situation is pretty awful. An earthquake and some mechanical fuckups wound up getting a nuke launched at Japan, but it never landed. It just disappeared, in what has become called "the Kuro Incident." Since then a China-led blockade has been enforced around Japan, and here we are.

Clearly there's some magical shit going on, here, but for my purposes, what I want to know is what the assumption is for characters. The example characters pretty much seem to be people who live in Japan and have cool-sounding jobs (PI, celebrity singer, and so on), which is great, but that probably means this is the sort of game that the GM would need to provide a framework before chargen so that we don't end up with a group with no sticky.

Hmm. I like the idea that there are androids around that aren't quite recognized as people, and I like the idea of playing someone surrounded by androids as the token human. I'm gonna make a night watchman. He works in the Chiyoda district of Shin-Edo (formerly Tokyo), guarding one of the government buildings at night. He's been doing this job since the 2020s, so he's seen a lot of shit in his time, and he's gone from his staff being all human to him being the only one on the night shift. All of "his guys" have been promoted, moved to day shift, retired, or died, and he's the only one left in a room full of robots.

(Of course, in play, that would give him freedom to go do player things, since the robots don't really need him.)

That's probably good for concept, though of course I'll do a little more as we go. Next up is Characteristic Points. There are 8 of them, and I get 16 points, so of course I can go 2 each. The minimum is 1 and the max is 3 (during chargen), so even if I want to spread things around I can't do much. I'm inclined to go 2s across the board, but let's see if there's anything in particular my guy would be better or worse with.

Kinda no, actually. I think his strengths are going to come out through skills, rather than raw ability. 2s everywhere!

Next up, secondary characteristics. They're all calculations based on characteristics. Hits is 30, Serious Wound Threshold is 10, Death Threshold is -10, Movement is 2 meters per move action, whatever the hell a "meter" is, Defense (misspelled as "Defence"...OK, I'll stop) is 12, Reaction Speed is 3, Actions is 2.

Age actually matters in this game, because it helps determine skill points, which I kinda like. I figure my character started working as a security guard at 21, and it's been 26 years, so he's 47. That gives me 30 Skill Area points and 25 Specialization points.

OK, this is pretty easy. Skill Area points just buy ratings in broad skills, and Specializations in, um, specializations. So let's do one first, then t'other.

Skill Area Points:
Hand-to-Hand 2
Firearms 4
Humanities 3
Social Sciences 4
Communication 5
Deception 3
Drive 3
Investigation 3
Popular Culture 3

That's Skill Areas, and now Specializations.

Grappling 2
Handguns 2
Foreign Languages 3
Bureaucracy 3
Law 1
Politics 1
Intimidation 2
Lockpicking 2
Sneaking 2
Cars 2
Awareness 2
Legal Expertise 1
Searching 1
Politics 1

Cool. And now, Kaiso (social standing). Hmm. Cop is 3, laborer is 2. Let's check the templates. No help. I guess 2; he's not really a cop, has no real authority, and he works at night and rarely sees people.

Equipment! The standard, I guess. I doubt he's armed, but maybe. If he is, a handgun (and not one of the newer hi-tech ones, either, they make his teeth itch). No biotech or nanotech.

Finishing touches! I need a name, first of all. Let's call him Naoki Nakamura. Naoki, as mentioned, has been night watchman-ing at a government facility for the last 26 years. Six months ago, of course, everything went all whack-a-ding-hoy when the missile was inbound...but Naoki actually slept through most of it. He woke up after the plane crashes (there were a couple of plane crashes associated with electromagnetic disturbances), and then for weeks afterwards his building was humming all night and all day - no time for naps! It's settled down a little now, but everything is still tense, and Naoki still notices people coming and going at odd hours in the halls of power. One night he might just saunter over and see who they are. Not like these robots can't handle things here...

And that'll do it!

Character Creation: Teenagers From Outer Space

I got a request some months back for this game, but I never got around to it, so here we are.

The Game: Teenagers From Outer Space
The Publisher: R. Talsorian 
Degree of Familiarity: None, just read through the PDF.
Books Required: Just the one.

 

I got TFOS in a bundle on DTRPG some years back, and never really looked at it, though just by the title it reminded me of the mid-80s Saturday morning cartoon Galaxy High School. The idea is that aliens think Earth is a pretty cool place to hang out and go to high school, and anime hijinks ensue.

The game is an anime comedy game, so it's drawing on source material I'm both unfamiliar and un-enamored with, but I can get the behind the idea of weird, wacky aliens in a high school setting easily enough. The opening comic has an alien princess landing and offering herself to whichever of the drooling boys can find the "lust stone," so that's, um, an odd choice to open the book with, but whatevs.

We start off determining Type, which is broadly alien or human. I want to be an alien, obviously. That sub-divides into Near Human, Not Very Near Human, and Real Weirdies, depending on how much I can pass for human (Vulcans are Near Human, E.T. is a Real Weirdie - oh, wait, no, E.T. is actually given as an example of the middle type, while fucking Godzilla is a Real Weirdie. OK, then).

I'll split the difference and be Not Very Near Human, how 'bout, though I do not wish to be ET (or Mac, for that matter).

Now, the next thing would be to describe what my alien looks like, but here's the thing: chargen is random, include what kind of alien powers I get, so it really makes more sense to determine everything else and then come back to description, so I'll do that.

Stats: OK, this is kind of stupid. There are 8 stats, each of which we determine with a roll of a d6. But wait, after you've rolled, though you can't reroll, you can shift points around so long as you observe the min 1, max 6 rule. So...why roll? Weird. Anyway, I get 3, 2, 3, 3, 3, 5, 3, 1. I could shift 2 points into my last stat and give myself 3s across the board, except that one little 2. Actually I think I will, because that last stat is Bonk, which doesn't mean that, it means how much damage you can take. That gives me 3 in Smarts, Driving, Cool, Bod, Luck, Looks, and Bonk, and two in Relationship with Parents. Off to a pretty consistent start, here.

Knacks: These basically just refined skills. I get a d6 of points to put into them, and I get a 5. That's better. I should think about what kind of character I'm making here, I guess. Well, this being a high school, I shall hearken back to my own high school days and make someone suicidally depressed a theater kid. So I'll take Acting! as a Knack with 2 points, Interpersonal Drama at 2 points, and Makeup at 1 point.

Powers: Here's the fun stuff. I choose three tables and roll a die on each of them. I get 2, 2, 2.

(Funny aside, not that anyone reads these anymore: We were playing Blue Rose with my kiddos the other day and Cael rolled three 2s, and said "Two, two, and two. Who intervenes?" That's an In Nomine joke. I was so proud.)

Anyway, that gives me Fly, Force Field, and Swap Shop. The hell is that? Oh, I can swap bodies with another person. Yow.

Traits: These are just that. It's actually weird to see an RPG using the word "traits" to literally mean "character traits." I'll say my guy is Gregarious, Fabulous, and Possessive.

And that's basically it, other than getting money and shopping, and you know I don't care much about that. So let's go back to the beginning and do the description thing.

Coblax is from Thespos 3, and comes from a long line of theatrical folks...except that he's not from the Actor caste. He's from the Set Crew caste, and his parents are hardworking folks, using their telekinetic powers to lug sets and lift lights and so forth. But Coblax dreams of his time in the spotlight, and his telekinesis is weak - sure, he can fly, all Thespians can fly, and he can make a force field, but then he's got this weird ability to swap bodies with other folks, which is something commonly associated with the Actor caste. Is there something mom isn't telling us?

Anyway, Coblax is about average human height, but his hands are weirdly oversized, his fingers are long, and his eyes are far too large for his face and glow a sparkly silver. He likes to wear jackets with big shoulder pads and spangly bits, and he usually wears a wig (his species is naturally hairless).

That'll do it!

MHR: Equality Act Two, Issue One

As the title suggests, last night we dove back into Marvel Heroic. Here's last session.

It's been a couple of months since the last issue. AEGIS, known to be compromised due to Carlsson's betrayal, has been subsumed by the UN. The heroes have been helping out around the world as they can. Arcanix has been working to establish magic-based global communication, since the internet is still down (my group had fun thinking of that nightmare; "Google is meaningless!"). Rift coordinates transportation, capable as she is of moving people and things from place to place instantly. Juno gets sent to places that require defense to block missiles and so on with her bracelet. Spore, dejected and confused by Carlsson's betrayal, has begun working for AEGIS again, since they're convinced they don't really understand people.

On this particular day, Rift and Arcanix are in the UN/AEGIS' hub in Paris, when a tech calls Rift over and shows her weird seismic activity off the coast of Puerto Rico. She asks if it's an earthquake; he says it's not, it seems to be happening in a pattern. Arcanix takes a look, too, and guesses that the strange aquatic villain he faced some time back might be responsible.

Suddenly the screen goes out and tells the tech he doesn't have clearance to be looking at this. Rift and Arcanix head upstairs to talk with Bianca Hines, one of the higher-ups in AEGIS. She tells them that the site showing the activity is the site of the Tidepool, a special black site prison for superpowered individuals. And indeed, that's where the Root of the Mountain (born Ennis Howard) is being held.

Rift rounds up Spore and Juno (not Inferno; his player was out) and gates them to the entrance to the prison. Bianca gets them in and the guards lead them into a prison yard, explaining that the whole place is rigged with dampeners that turn off super-powers. Trouble is that they're keyed to a given person's powers, meaning that they shouldn't interfere with the characters' powers, but it's hard to know. They enter the yard, and immediately hear someone yelling at them in a thick Scottish accent. Spore and Arcanix recognize the dude as one Baron Anguish, whose evil plans they (along with Pink, Harmony, Inferno and Psion) foiled back here. Anguish claims that he's been held without trial for more than two years, which infuriates Juno, of course, and she promises to run this down.

At the moment, though, the heroes have bigger matters. Bianca takes them down a big hallway to a small cell. The Root of the Mountain is there praying, facing east. They wait for him to finish, and then question him. He isn''t terribly forthcoming, but all but admits the seismic waves were coming from him. Arcanix asks about his aquatic comrade, and whether the waves from the activity might not damage Puerto Rico. The Root laughs, and says that there was no way Oleado (the aforementioned compatriot) is going to hurt the island. And then something nudges the facility, not hard enough to damage but enough to feel, and the Root flings his hands out and lets loose a rumble of energy that ruptures the walls. Water starts leaking in and he starts to freeze it.

Arcanix acts fast and conjures magic bonds, wrapping up the Root and immobilizing him. He roars in rage and the water freezes into snow, blowing at the characters with gale force, but Juno redirects it with her force field and Spore spore-blasts him, infecting him and taking him out. Rift opens mini-gates to drain some of the water, and all seems stable...but then the hallway spoke they're in cracks, and Arcanix and Spore are flung backwards into the prison yard. Rift and Juno see Kutya robots swimming alongside the hallway, along with a man in a diving outfit - Oleado.

Back in the yard, a man with a shaved head and a bunch of tats that the heroes recognize as Decibel (a comrade of Anguish) steps up and screams at them. The sonic attack rolls off of Spore, however, and Arcanix resists it, his robot body too tough for the attack. Anguish tries to talk to Spore, worming his way into his mind, but Spore resists and angrily throws a punch at the manipulative Scot. Arcanix flings magic energy around, taking out Decibel.

In the hallway, Juno creates a force-bubble to protect them. Oleado appears at the end of the hall, and tells them to release the Root. Juno refuses, and Oleado destroys the hall, and the bubble starts to sink. Rift opens a gate to allow air into the bubble and it starts to float to the surface.

Back in the yard, Waves (another comrade of Anguish) tries to use his telekinetic powers to turn the tide, but just winds up with a facefull of magic for his trouble and collapses. Spore punches Anguish in the face and damages him, but the evil genius is tougher than he looks. And then the Kutya robots blow a hole in the roof, swooping in. Arcanix destroys one, but the others are very much active.

Rift teleports the bubble into the yard, and the robots swoop in and start blasting at...Baron Anguish! Juno, not wishing to let anyone get murdered right in front of her, rolls her little hamster ball around and scoops up Anguish. She turns her bracelet on him and heals him, and he looks at her respectfully. But then a tidal wave (courtesy of Oleado) crashes down on the building, and in the ensuing confusion, Juno loses track of the Root of the Mountain.

Questions abound, not least of which is: Why do the Kutya want Baron Anguish dead?

Movie #524: Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th is one of the OG slasher movies, directed by Sean Cunningham and starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Robbi Morgan, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Peter Brouwer, Walt Gorney, and oh hey Kevin Bacon!

1958, an unseen killer murders two camp counselors who popped into a cabin for a literal roll in the hay (Willie Adams and Debra S. Hays). Fast forward to 1980, and Mr. Christie (Brouwer) is reopening the camp, despite the warnings of the locals who call it "Camp Blood." He brings in six counselors a couple of weeks early to fix the place up - well, seven, including Annie (Morgan) the cook, but she gets into a jeep with an unseen driver and winds up with her throat slit in the woods.

One of by one, the unseen killer picks off the counselors with various sharp implements until only Alice (King) is left, and then (spoiler alert) she learns that the killer is Mrs. Vorhees (Palmer), the mother of the oft-mentioned boy who drowned in the lake the year before the counselors were killed. Alice, our Final Girl, manages to kill Mrs. Vorhees, but Jason pops out of the lake (maybe? Could've been a dream!) for a final jump-scare.

So, Friday the 13th is one of those movies that people think they know better than they do. It pioneers (or is one of the movies that pioneers; Halloween and Black Christmas being a couple of the others) a lot of the tropes that we associate with slasher movies. To wit, the teens in an isolated location getting knocked off one by one, the notion of slasher-movie-as-morality-play in that the teens drink, smoke grass, and fuck and are punished for it, the idea of the Final Girl being the one to defeat the killer, and so on. But here's the thing: all of the teens get punished, as does the would-be camp owner, and basically anyone else that Mrs. Vorhees feels like Jason wants her to kill. Sure, she's vicariously taking revenge on the kids that let Jason drown, but it's not like she's real selective.

Likewise, the movie does a good job of making us think that anyone could be a victim. No one has plot immunity, and if you're unfamiliar with the genre, you'd be forgiven for thinking the Annie or Brenda (Bartram) are our POV character - they get more screen time and focus early on than Alice. Likewise, while Alice doesn't partake in vice as much as the other characters, she still drinks, smokes, and plays strip Monopoly (what a terrible idea), so it's not like she's "pure" as these movies go.

Another thing that struck me was that the kids weren't jerks. Latter-day slasher movies...I dunno, the characters tend to be kind of unpleasant a lot of the time. They're sarcastic, mean, and just generally bad to each other. In this movie, there's some ribbing and Ned (Nelson) is something of an ass, but there's no bullying or pressure for sex; indeed, the sex that happens is clearly fun for all participants.

The Friday the 13th franchise has been thoroughly run into the ground, but this movie stands apart as a fun, exciting, and sometimes tense (if not actually scary) proto-example of the genre.

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Pet Semetary

Chill: What's Eating The Livestock?

Yesterday was Chill. Woo!

Last time we concluded a case and finally killed the xaxog, the monster that had been fucking with them for quite a while. No downtime, though, as they were already aware of something that demanded their attention.

Way back here, the envoys destroyed Franklin Wray, a ravager, but also ran afoul of a normal fella named Casey Lynch. They left Lynch in the field (largely because he was armed and they didn't want to get shot), but they also told him about SAVE and the Unknown. And now he's gone missing, and the envoys have traced his movements to Seneca, OR, where, as it happens, another woman recently went missing. Also, they learned that pets and animals have been turning up mutilated and half-eaten - the locals are blaming coyotes. All in all, it's looking ugly.

The envoys - Mohammed, BB, Jeanie, and Jennifer - meet up at the ranch. Darnell is there cleaning, as are Blake and Willa (but kinda in the background, as they're not PCs today). Also with them is Samantha Layton, former FBI profiler turned private eye. She kept tripping over SAVE while on the job, and joined the organization. Dee tapped her for duty since it's becoming obvious that there's a lot of shit going on in his area. Ruth is off making funeral arrangements for Chet, since he got shot yesterday. Dee is still in hospital (but coming home tomorrow!), and Jordan, Emily, and Beth Anne are in the hospital. Dylan, meanwhile, is fine, but he's under some police scrutiny for a while (plus his player was absent). If you can keep all these names straight, fucking kudos.

Anyway, the envoys decide that they're going to head out to Seneca the next day, spend today helping to clean up the ranch and getting it ready for Dee to come back. Jeanie gets hiking gear together, and bright and early Wednesday March 7, they get in the cars and head out.

Seneca has about 200 people, so not exactly a booming metropolis. The envoys book cabins in the RV Inn on the north end of town, and the proprietor, Josie, is waiting for them when they get there (perhaps a little confused as to what these folks are doing here in March). Mohammed springs into action and tells her a superb mix of truth and lies (and Telepathic Empathy), claiming that they're here looking for their friend Casey who's gone missing. Josie knows Casey (everyone knows everyone), but says that she hasn't seen him around since November when he was here for the funeral of his friend Sgt. Baker. The envoys note this, and Josie tells them they should probably talk to Lonny Patton, who runs the store (like, singular, the store) since he interacts with basically everyone in town. She also mentions that the sheriff is in town; normally he works out of the county seat, John Day (that's a town, not a person), but because of Miranda Houston going missing he's been here the last few days.

Mohammed steers the conversation in the direction of just general weird shit, and Josie mentions that a local rancher, Felix Willis, lost four cattle last night - like, something killed them. They're all a little perplexed by that, since coyotes aren't going to take down a steer, much less four. Mohammed tells her that maybe they'll swing out to see Felix and ask to lend a hand?

The envoys get moved into the cabins and decided to split up. Samantha and Jennifer go to try and find the sheriff and see if they can learn more about Sgt. Baker as a means to finding Casey Lynch. Mohammed, BB, and Jeanie swing by the Bear Valley Store on the way out to Felix Willis' ranch.

At the store, they meet Lonny Patton, an older gent who's run the store for years. He's apparently capably crafty, too, as BB notes that the door chime to the store is hand-forged. They chat with him about Miranda's disappearance and when the last time he saw Casey was, and he fills in a few more gaps: Sgt. Baker (who has a first name, but no one used it) committed suicide back in November. Casey came up for the funeral, but Patton hasn't seen him since. As for Miranda, she went out hiking the other day and didn't come back. Normally her husband Bob would go with her, but he was badly hung over and didn't go, and is apparently pretty broken up about it all (which makes sense). Jeanie buys a map and the envoys head towards the ranch.

Meanwhile, Samantha and Jennifer go into the local diner, Grandma's Truck N Kitchen, to get some lunch and see if anyone knows where the sheriff is. As it happens, he's there at the counter. He's a little younger than they'd have expected, too. They get to the talking, and Sheriff Wall (Manny to his friends) mentions that he hasn't had the job that long, and he's been in town helping to coordinate the search for Mrs. Houston. The envoys ask about Lynch; Wall never met him, but has heard the name. Wall agrees to let them into Sgt. Baker's house, as maybe there's something there that will lead them back to Lynch.

The house is untidy, but not a total mess. Clearly someone has been here and piled all the files and papers and whatnot into banker boxes in preparation for whatever comes next. Jennifer finds something horrible, though: the back door is ajar, and there's a dead cat in the mud room. It looks like it's been partially eaten, and she doesn't see much more before nausea takes over. Sheriff Wall puts the body in a bag and tosses it into the back yard, saying he'll get it later.

They search the house and Samantha finds something odd in the bedroom. There's no bed anymore, just a rectangle in the dust that shows where it was, and a stain on the wall from blood spatter. But also, little cat footprints on the floor, leading out of and then back into the closet. Samantha crawls into the closet and finds a hole in the floor big enough for a cat to climb through. She puts her hand it in, and feels dirt - it leads under the house. She senses the Unknown and gets a feeling of residual power, but nothing power and nothing current.

The others get out to the ranch and meet Felix Jr. (who goes by Fred). Mohammed tells him who they are and that BB and Jeanie are experienced trackers. Fred tells the envoys that his dad would probably be happy to talk to anyone that could shed some light on what the hell happened. They go inside and Mohammed stays there and talks to a woman named Jasmine (Fred's sister-in-law), while Fred takes BB and Jeanie out into the pasture. Mohammed learns a little more about Miranda's life and family; they were friendly with another family, the Frenches (Jo and Victor).

They find Felix Sr. and his other son, Mark, standing near the corpses of four steers. They introduce themselves and, as expected, Felix is happy to have any thoughts they might have. Jeanie and BB look around, and come up with some very disturbing data.

First of all, these steers have chunks ripped out of them that look like bites, but the shape of the mouth is humanoid and three to four times the size of any person. Jeanie looks around for footprints and, yep, she finds (in addition to hoofprints) human-ish prints much too big for any person. Worse, the steers are all dead of broken necks, and the position of the heads makes it look like something grabbed them and just twisted.

Confused and a little disturbed, they all head inside. Felix sits down with the envoys in his den, and Jeanie delicately tells him about what they've found. He asks if it was some kind of monster, and Jeanie and Mohammed gently feel him about about the prospect of it being a monster, whereupon Felix stands up and gets a leather-bound sketchbook off the shelf. Burned onto the cover is the indalo, the symbol of SAVE.

Turns out Felix was a member of SAVE in the late 90s, when he lived in Richland, WA. But then his HQ was destroyed on a mission, and he didn't have a way to contact anyone else (this was in the dark days of SAVE post-infiltration), so he's been out ever since. He says that he's happy to help out the envoys, but he doesn't want his sons or Jasmine (Mark's wife) to know about it, which the envoys understand.

Armed with all of this information, the envoys head back to the Inn to regroup and share data. Jeanie decides she wants to see the dead cat, so she and BB and Samantha head back to the house. The back door is still unlocked and the cat is still in the bag in the backyard, so Jeanie looks at it (ew) and finds that it, too, has bites out of it, but these bites are much smaller and the teeth were sharper. Not the huge man-beast from the pasture, then - maybe there are two monsters? Wouldn't be the first time. Jeanie also crawls under the house and uses Schematic, and finds a few other holes in the floor, probably made by rats. She also realizes that yes indeed, a creature of the Unknown has been here, but isn't right now.

In the gap leading under the house, she finds the place where the cat was killed, and it looks like something lunged out and grabbed it. But what, exactly? It didn't leave prints like a coyote. A little baffled, they head inside again, and Samantha goes back to the bedroom to call upon her power of Postcognition.

In her vision, she sees a cat emerge from the closet...but this cat is not natural. It's white, its eyes glow blue, and it walks daintily over to where the bed used to be. It bares its teeth and snarls, and its teeth are coal black. And then then it turns and walks back into the closet.

The envoys regroup again, and Jennifer does a little digging into creatures that can shapeshift and creatures that can possess animals. She rules out a vampire or lycanthrope - both can shapeshift, sure, but there's nothing that looks like a vampire attack and no lunar cycle involvement, plus the creature seems capable of taking on more than one form. The problem is that when you just look for non-vampire or -lycanthropes that can change shape, the field widens considerably. They know this creature seems to need meat, but that doesn't rule out certain types of undead creature. Basically, they need more data before they have a good way to proceed.

Mohammed calls Bob Houston to ask if he can come over and ask some questions. Bob is polite, but he's not up for it tonight, and asks Mohammed to call him in the morning, to which he agrees. They figure they're about done for the day - no way are they going out into the hiking trails at night.

Darnell calls Jeanie, and tells her she still has the master key ring on her ("oh, shit"). She says she'll send Jennifer back to drop them off, nothing for it, and Darnell thanks her and says he'll send Blake out there (see, Jennifer's player is out next session and Blake's player was out this session).

Tomorrow, we'll see what comes next.

Character Creation: New Fire

Finally getting around to this one.

The Game: New Fire: Temikamatl Book of Dreams
The Publisher: Jason Caminsky 
Degree of Familiarity: None. Just read it.
Books Required: Just the one.

 

I backed this game on Kickstarter a long time ago, and it's been sitting on my shelves ever since, because although it sounded like an interesting idea (Aztec/Mayan/Incan inspired fantasy-ish RPG), it's not something that my groups would necessarily get into. But, I finally pulled it out and read it, and...well, I was pretty much correct.

Doing an RPG about a culture that's not your own is always a difficult proposition, and regardless of how you handle it, you're not going to make everyone happy. I think this book handles it about as well as you can - consultants are listed and were obviously, uh, consulted, but is that enough? I don't have to make that judgement, I'm just here for the chargen.

So, the history chapter of this book is nicely readable and I like the folklore. I do find it interesting that chargen is buried after (hang on) nearly 200 pages of setting info. But, let's check this out.

Character creation proceeds in five stages, relating to the "Five Suns" (the Empire has been ruled by five gods creating five different suns over time, which is interesting but I don't know that it relates specifically to chargen). The first stage is concepty sorts of things, which proceeds in a list of questions, which is fine. I'm not gonna answer all of them, I don't think. Normally I do lists of questions like this in an actual list, but because of the concept I have, I'm gonna just do it in text.

So, I want to make Nawal Sorcerer. Everybody has a Nawal, a kind of animal spirit that represents your instincts. Sorcerers, though, can physically turn into the animal of their Nawal, and can learn to steal or lure other people's Nawals and become those, too. I'm taking inspiration for my character from Adam Young, the Antichrist in Good Omens, for being a kid born to a destiny that he doesn't really know about or want.

My character is now 20, and he's nomadic, like a lot of Nawal Sorcerers. His family is from Popokatetlan, and were members of the ruling class (which meant, in that city, that they're master crafters). My character...needs a name, hang on. There is not a list of names in this book. C'mon.

OK, he was named Cualli ("good") at birth. He was the third child of seven in his family, and grew up with his siblings and cousins and so forth. Everyone was encouraged to find a way to make something - one of his brothers was skilled at working with feathers, one of his sisters expert at working with thin metal. Cualli liked working with skin, fangs, and the bodies of dead creatures. Frankly, his family found it a little creepy. And then somewhere along the line, Cualli became a Nawal Sorcerer, and it all seemed to make more sense.

They didn't cast him out, but there was definitely a sense of disappointment from his family and fear from other nobles. So Cualli left the city and struck out on his own, shedding his skin for the first time, taking the name "Ohtli" ("road"). Like his Nawal, he's generally content to be left alone, but can strike with venom if disturbed. (Just occurred to me that this is the second character I've made with a serpent affinity; third if you count this one.)

Ohtli is lean and sinewy. His hair is long because he doesn't have a good way to cut it on the road, but when he comes to a new Kalpuli (city-state kind of thing), he quickly adopts the mannerisms and culture of the area. He stays until the skin no longer fits, and then moves on.

I think that's conceptually a good start, let's move on to step two. Stats! There are ten, and then I get an eleventh because I'm a Nawal. They all start at 1, except Nawal which starts at 3. I get 20 "Day Energy" points (I have no idea why a special name is required) to spend on these, and it's not one-for-one. You have to pay the cost incrementally, so going from 1 to 3 costs 5. OK, how does this system work? OK, you roll d10s, total 3, and try to beat a TN, but it's not about success or failure so much as narrative control.

Well, I want some points in Deception and Divination, and it's definitely in-concept to take some in Craft. Taking those three to 3 would cost 15, leaving me 5. I feel like Agility should be a little higher, so I'll spend 2 to bump that, and two more to bump Lore. That leaves me 1. I could take a second Nawal at 1, I suppose. I'll take Deer; I like the idea of a non-predatory one, and I can see him hiding in deer-form to observe a place before joining it.

Step three is Themes, and they're a lot like Aspects from Fate. There are 10 categories that I don't have to follow, but hey, if you're gonna write 'em on the character sheet...

• Red Sun: This is passion, something that Ohtli cannot stay neutral about. I think we'll call this "Don't Touch Me." Ohtli doesn't necessarily dislike contact, but it's got to be on his terms.
• Green Sun: Stuff that I own. It can even be magical! Ooh, I want a Nawal Cloak. It started as a snake-fang necklace, and then when he gained the Deer Nawal, he skinned a deer and made its hide into a cloak and worked the fangs into the clasp. As he gets more Nawals, he'll include them, too.
• Blue Sun: A corporation from Firefly...no, hang on. Source of strength, what gives me the will to carry on. Ooh, I got it. I Can Shed This Skin. No matter how bad things get, Ohtli knows that he can just take it off and move on. 
• White Sun: Reputation and Demeanor, how others see me. The Handsome Reflection. Ohtli is personable and seemingly kind when need be, but what he really is is whatever he needs to be to fit in. 
• Gold Sun: Community. Aw. The effect my community has had on me, specifically from the one I grew up in (so Popokeltlan). Just to continue the tragedy, we'll say All Love is Conditional. 
• Birth: Ran out of suns, I guess. This is the horoscope, the destiny I was born under. There's not a list, sadly. I will say that his theme here is The Serpent, just to keep it nice and simple.
• Childhood: The effect of my family and my upbringing; seems a little redundant with some of the others, but whatevs. What Can You Create? - because everyone was expected to become a crafter.
• School: Exceptional Ability. Something that I'm uniquely good (or bad!) at. Oh, sure. Silent as a Whisper; Ohtli was really good at sneaking around.
• Day: Core Character Concept. Should we...have started with this? High Concept Aspect, basically. Sure. Nawal Serpent Outcast. 
• Night: Disadvantage, so Trouble Aspect. Guys. Just make a Fate game next time. Even the Serpent Needs Warmth. Ohtli figures he doesn't need anyone, but that's simply not true.

That's that, then. Next up: Destinies. I choose three, and I have to share one with other players, but I don't have any of those, so hey. OK, so these are just goals, and the group has to have one in common, which I really like. But since it's just me, Ohtli's destinies are: "Find someone I can trust with my real name," "Add a powerful Nawal to my cloak", and "Return to Popoketlan as a new man."

And that's it!

Movie #523: Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel is the...I dunno, 20th?...move in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and stars Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, Annette Bening, Ben Mendelsohn, Gemma Chan, Lashana Lynch, Akira Akbar, and Djimon Hounsou.

Vers (Larson) is a Kree warrior training to control her powers, which include throwing photon blasts from her hands and being generally badass. Her superior, Yon-Rogg (Law) keeps a tight rein on her and tells her to control her emotions and forget her occasional bursts of weird memories, as she's mostly an amnesiac. The Kree Supreme Intelligence (personified in Vers' head by Bening) concurs - they've got a war to win.

That war - the Kree vs. the shapeshifting Skrulls - takes Vers, Yon-Rogg, and their team of warriors on a mission to rescue a Kree spy that ends with Vers being captured and having the Skrulls, led by Talos (Mendelsohn) poke through her brain and reveal memories of a life as some kind of pilot on a different world. She escapes and crash-lands in a Blockbuster Video on Earth (I mean, I doubt there are Blockbusters on any other planet), where she makes exactly no attempt to hide who and what she is and meets SHIELD in the personage of Agent Nick Fury (Jackson) and his rookie partner, Coulson (Clark Gregg).

Various misadventures later, the truths come out - "Vers" is really Carol Danvers, a USAF pilot who was working with a scientist name Lawson (Bening), who was actually a Kree scientist named Mar-Vell. She was trying to end the war by giving the Skrulls, who had been displaced by the Kree trying to take over their world, because that's kinda what the Kree do, a home where the Kree couldn't find them. Danvers eventually winds up coming into her full power and kicking all of the ass, giving Fury a beeper to contact her in case of emergency (which he uses at the end of Infinity War), and zipping off into the cosmos to help the Skrulls.

So, my thoughts: the performances are pretty fantastic. Marvel continues its run of casting the roles perfectly. What I find most compelling about Larson's performance as Danvers is that Danvers clearly enjoys having her powers. So few other superheroes, even in the comparatively lighter MCU, do that - it's pretty much just Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Captain Marvel that have genuine moments of "holy shit this is awesome" when they're flying around or whatever. Jude Law, likewise, transitions gradually from hard-ass mentor to slimy, pathetic abuser (he's basically gaslighting Danvers the whole way through). Jackson is magically de-aged to play Fury before he lost his eye and got all serious, and that's fun.

And now my quibbles: I don't like some of the things this movie does to continuity. I mean, stuff like the Tesseract being in space, I can buy, because it was in SHIELD's hands after First Avenger (proto-SHIELD, anyway), and it's not impossible that Mar-Vell would have found it and recognized it. But in Winter Soldier, Fury mentions that the last time he trusted someone, he lost an eye...and that "someone" he trusted was a cat-alien? C'mon, now. Where Civil War retroactively improved some of the weaker movies that preceded it, this kind of cut some weight out of previous moments by making them silly. Sure, there's an attempt at contextualizing it at the end where Coulson asks Fury to confirm that the Kree burned out his eye, but I still think it's fucking with backstory in kind of a twee way.

My other quibble is that we don't learn much about Yon-Rogg's team (Chan, Hounsou, Algenis Perez Soto, Rune Temte). Like, their names are barely mentioned, they have cool looking weapons but their powers aren't well-defined, and they all dress the same so they feel very samey. We don't really know what their history is with Danvers - she seems happy to be getting a mission, as though it's a first, but she clearly has some history with these folks. There's a deleted scene that has them all talking together that I think should have been kept.

All in all, I think it's a good movie and I'm hoping that the sequel kinda punches things up a little more and respects the MCU a little better.

My Grade: B
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Friday the 13th