Movie #555: The Powerpuff Girls Movie

The Powerpuff Girls Movie is, of course, the feature film based on the TV show, starring Tara Strong, E.G. Daily, Catherine Cavadini, Roger Jackson, Tom Kenny, Tom Kane, Jennifer Hale, Jennifer Martin, and Frank Welker.

The movie is an origin story, starting with the creation of the girls by Professor Utonium (Kane). If you're a fan of the show, you know that the lab-chimp destined to become the evil Mojo Jojo (Jackson) pushed the professor and accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction (CHEMICAL X), and I was happy to see that little nod to canon because I'm a nerd, apparently.

Anyway, the movie takes things a step further and posits that Townsville was under siege by crime and hopelessness, and that the professor created Blossom (Cavadini), Bubbles (Strong), and Buttercup (Daily) in an attempt to improve the city by teaching his kids right from wrong. Of course, they come out superpowered, and promptly wreck the city playing tag.

Plot-wise, it's pretty standard super-hero origin fare. What makes the movie work, I think, is that the show was so popular and the IP so well-established that no one has to waste any time explaining anything. Everyone knows that Mojo Jojo is going to be the big bad, so there's no point pretending he's really a good guy. Everyone knows that the Mayor (Kenny) is an idiot, so just have him go for a pickle in the midst of a crisis right off the bat. The entertainment in the movie is seeing these characters in a longer format and finding their feet as superheroes, and it works.

The writing is typical for the show, a lot of the wordplay is clever, and Mojo's turns of phrase are smart if you pay attention to Jackson's rapid-fire delivery. The voice cast is on form (better be, given how long they'd been doing this). I appreciate, too, that apart from some cameos from Gang Green and Fuzzy Lumpkins, they didn't overload the movie with show characters and references. This is the origin of the Girls as superheroes and Mojo as the villain, and it doesn't need to be any bigger than that (not when Mojo becomes Kong-sized).

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: Practical Magic

Character Creation: Saga of the Icelanders

The isolation continues. The covids swarm at the doors. They hunger. We will not let them in.

The Game: Saga of the Icelanders
The Publisher: Red Moose Games 
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this, have played quite a lot of other PbtA games
Books Required: Just the one.

Saga of the Icelanders is a bit of an odd duck (or moose, maybe). It's meant to tell stories about settlers in Iceland in the 10th century or so, and it has some thematic similarity, the book tells us, to westerns, post-apocalyptic fiction, and fantasy. But (and this I appreciate) the book also tells us how Saga is not like those genres.

All in all, it's a historical fiction game for a very specific niche of history. It's an interesting game, but it doesn't have any of the genre elements that I really like in RPGs. But then again, I've played plenty of RPGs (usually of the Fiasco/Tragedy/etc style of game) that are pretty grounded in real-world physics. So maybe this would be interesting to play? I dunno. I can see it being satisfying, but I can also see it landing with a big ol' thud with a group that's accustomed to anything more remotely trad (like, even other PbtA games).

Well, anyway, I have a theme song for today's character, courtesy of my gf Jenn ("Refugee," Tom Petty):

What's interesting here is that playing a literal refugee is very much in keeping with the game's setting. Let's see which playbook appeals.

Well, I think that given the theme song, Wanderer, Thrall, or maybe Huscarl make the most sense. Of those, I think that Thrall has some interesting potential, plus I can be Scottish, so I'll do that.

So! Appearance first. For face, I'll choose scarred. For body, growing. For hair, red.

For stats, I choose between two arrays and then add 1 to one. I think I'll pick the one where I get -1 gendered (gender roles are different where I come from), and I'll add one to versed. That gives me versed +2, young +1, gendered -1, and wyrd +0.

Moves, then! I get all the common moves and the male moves (since my thrall is male), and then I get two from the Thrall list. I want Gaelic Heritage, so when I reveal my ancestry to someone through story or song, I get a bond. And then...hmm. I kind of like Odd customs, which lets me take another move from a different rolebook, but I'm having trouble deciding what my displaced Scottish thrall might have. I think I'll take Belligerent (from the Huscarl playbook); when I join a fight, invited or no, I take a bond with someone present if we both survive. Us Scots are a contentious people.

Relationships, of course, would normally include other PCs, but can also include NPCs. Either way, hard to do this without a group, so I'm gonna skip it.

My character is a young man, red hair and barely a beard. His master tried (barely) to pronounce his real name, but couldn't be bothered and now just calls him Thorir. Thorir was captured as a teen and forced into thralldom, but has gradually learned that he could, in theory, buy his way out and become a free man. He wonders if he could fight his way out, too.

That'll do it. Tomorrow I'll do something more complex. Maybe I'll finally do Slayers.

Movie #554: Pooh's Heffalump Movie

Pooh's Heffalump Movie is an animated movie based loosely on A.A. Milne's characters, and starring Jim Cummings, Kath Soucie, John Fielder, Nikita Hopkins, Ken Sansom, Peter Cullen, Brenda Blethyn, and Kyle Stanger.

I'll say this, Disney has never quite managed to get the feel of this property right once they ran out of Milne material to adapt directly. Here, we've got the Hundred-Acre-Wood gang, minus Christopher Robin, freaking out because they find huge footprints and hear a trumpet sort of sound. Roo (Hopkins) is really our central character; the "adult" characters go searching for what they're sure is a terrifying heffalump, but it's Roo that finds one, in the personage of Lumpy (Stanger). Lumpy's just a kid, like Roo, and they happily play together until Roo tries to take Lumpy to meet his friends and Lumpy gets scared because the things on that side of the fence are terrifying OH WAIT I GET IT NOW.

Snark aside, it's cute. There are a couple of funny moments. But it's treacly and Pooh (Cummings), who is always the best grounding influence when things get crazy, barely has anything to do. Reduce the other characters down to their one-note traits and Eyeore (Cullen) is morose, Piglet (Fielder) is scared, Rabbit (Sansom) is pedantic and Tigger (also Cummings) is enthusiastic, but without Pooh to provide perspective and his simple, Tao-like wisdom (yes, I'm a fan of The Tao of Pooh), the whole thing just kind of falls flat.

This setup would have worked fine as a half-hour cartoon, but they padded it out to 68 minutes using some truly god-awful songs by Carly Simon, and the end result is cotton candy. Don't think I ever watched it before (I own it because I have children who were, at one point, small), don't think I ever shall again.

My Grade: C-
Rewatch Value: IINSIAIFWT

Next up: The Powerpuff Girls Movie

Shadow of the Demon Lord: Now On the Intertubes!

It'll take more than a goddamn pandemic to stop this game.

Last session, there was some light regicide and the party started heading north along the Deepings Gorge, avoiding notice. Dagmar, as both a dwarf and a ranger, is able to keep the party away from the occasional patrols. One night, as the party camps on the Narrow Path to the Northern Reach, they hear singing from the cliffs above them.

The song is sweet and mesmerizing, and Dagmar immediately goes to the cliff wall and starts climbing, but the rock crumbles before they can make much progress. Bashir grabs Dagmar and holds them back, but then Mayfly tries to flit up. Bashir lets go of Dagmar and grabs Mayfly, and Mayfly enters divine ecstasy to project its mind. The fauns, meanwhile, just kind of sit and watch, neither of them affected.

Veni, though, figures he knows what's up there: Harpies. And, indeed, as the characters shake off the effects of the song, he hears the voices change from the song to a mocking rhyme about him, a little lovestruck faun, but the Harpy Queen would take him as a lover. Mayfly flings a spell up the cliff and illuminates it, and they see the harpy crouched on the wall. Veni teleports some iron chunks up the cliff to land on the harpy, and she screams in indignation.

The harpy swoops down the cliff and claws at Dagmar, and Dagmar suddenly feels the compulsion to climb the wall redoubled. Veni flings a spell at the harpy and injures it, and Genevieve hits it with a crossbow bolt and a dagger in quick succession, nearly killing it. Dagmar, though, is now unsupervised, and climbs up the wall to an aperture into the mountain. Mayfly follows, unwilling to leave the dwarf alone.

The harpy claws at Bashir, and two more of the loathsome creatures swoop down and tear into Genevieve. One of them clashes at Veni, and all of them feel the same compulsion to get into that opening. Veni teleports up, Bashir climbs, and the harpies drag Genevieve's body along. All of the characters wake up in the chamber of the Harpy Queen.

The Harpy Queen is immense. Her wings are far too small to let fly, but then, she's too big to leave this chamber. She waits for the characters to speak, and finally Mayfly asks what she wants. She says that she was initially going to eat them (at least, the three of them that are made of meat - yes, she knows what Genevieve is), but then she recognized them as the "Unholy Assassins," the ones that killed Queen Moira of the Holy Kingdom. They're famous, it seems, and the Kingdom is using the assassination as a reason to force conversions and consolidate their power. Meanwhile, the Empire is mustering its forces as Drudge sees the Kingdom as a threaten. The murder of Queen Moira might well lead to war.

Genevieve is thrilled, but the others are less so. The Queen asks why they travel with Genevieve if they aren't part of the conspiracy to kill the queen, and Dagmar responds that there is some possibility that the fauns might be needed to fix the oncoming end of the world. The Queen says that she isn't interested in the world ending (it's where she lives, after all), but she is interested in watching the Faerie Queen get pulled back here and inconvenienced, so she's willing to help out a little. She tells them to go check her treasure room; it's right through the Green Chamber. And then come back here.

The party, realizing that they aren't going to fight their way out of this (too many harpies, not even considering the queen), head to the Green Chamber. It's covered in green ooze, which Bashir identifies as dangerous. Dagmar points their magic dagger at it and learns that it will divide if struck, so they whack it with their staff and, indeed, it splits in half, creating a path through the room. Veni hits the ooze with fire and burns one of it, and the characters run across the room, but then the ooze lashes out with pseudopods and drags Veni and Dagmar towards it. Mayfly whack the ooze with its staff and it divides again, and Veni blows up the ooze holding him with a Division spell. Dagmar stabs the ooze holding them and manages to hit a vulnerable bit, because it melts into a pinkish gunk. Veni blows up the last ooze with a rune spell, and the party wipes off the gunk and enters the treasure room.

This room is full of armor, weapons, and geegaws from the various victims of the harpies, and there's a lot here. Dagmar finds a pistol and a magical bow, Mayfly finds some parts to modify itself further, Bashir finds a big ol' wooden club, and Veni finds a chest with a spell on it. It looks like dwarf-craft, but the spell looks pretty simple - it's meant to be opened by a dwarf. He gives it Dagmar, and it opens, revealing some papers. Veni takes them and reads them out:

Last Testimony of Nar, King of the Dwarves of the Five-Chambered Heart Mountain

We have fled in shame. Our ancestral home, my kingdom, lies empty, nothing remaining but bones and screams. The creature, the hateful Crusius, stalks the halls where once we dwarves made merry. The spells our wizards laid down their lives to cast might contain it to the fifth stronghold, the very first one constructed, where ancient secrets, whispers, and memories serve to strengthen the wards. But we have no way to know until and unless survivors join us, and so we press on, myself the King, and barely a score of my people. We have sent word to the dwarves of High Stone, and hopefully they will find us and help us. 

My aides recommend I sent word to the men in the Northern Reach, but I will not lower myself to beg for help from such lazy and pink-handed smooth-chins. We are dwarves, and I am king. We will thrive or die beneath rock, close to the golden heart and silver veins of the world. And even now I hear song, some lovely and welcoming tune beck

The name "Crusius" sparks some memory in Mayfly. Veni knows the name as a demonic, tenebrous creature. Dagmar knows that High Stone is a dwarf city to the west. All of the characters know that the Freehold of Nar is a city-state to the east, composed of five strongholds, though the fifth one is abandoned and, supposedly, cursed. Veni has never heard Crusius mentioned in connection with Nar, so these documents are pretty important (Veni gives them to Dagmar).

Mayfly enters divine ecstasy and asks: Is Crusius a dragon? (No.) Am I related to Crusius? (Maybe.) Can we kill Crusius? (Yes.) The party considers whether this all plays into their mandate to save the world, but Veni opines that this is just too much coincidence otherwise.

They go back to the Harpy Queen and tell her that they want to head near, but not quite up to, the nearest dwarf settlement. Dagmar plans to talk to the local rulers - alone - and get assistance to retake the fifth stronghold. The Queen grins, and teleports them to the foothills near a settlement. Dagmar tells the other to stay put, and goes to get help.

We'll pick up some weeks later in Nar. The characters have found their Master paths: Dagmar is an Engineer, Veni is a Traveler, Mayfly is an Abjurer, Bashir is a Woodwose, and Genevieve is an Executioner.

Character Creation: Shock: Social Science Fiction

Here we go! Let's see if I can get this done before dinner arrives.

The Game: Shock: Social Science Fiction
The Publisher: the glyphpress 
Degree of Familiarity: None, though I've played similar games
Books Required: Just the one

When I say "similar games", I mean stuff like Geasa, Fiasco, Posthuman Pathways, and A Tragedy in Five Acts in which much of the game play is in defining the world, the themes, and the characters at the table. I like this sort of game, and I appreciate that there's a running example of play, though I didn't find the presentation of said example especially helpful (maybe I need to read it again). I also note, with some amusement, that of the examples I listed only one is on my chargen list, because since character creation is so baked into setting creation, there's often not a good way to do chargen without doing a whole setting, and that's not what I'm into, here.

But I think for Shock:, I can make it work. While there's not an example of play that starts from stage one and goes all the way through a game, sadly, there is this example of a grid:

The Shock, in this case, is that Replicants exist. The issues in play are Slavery and Imperialism, which is fine, but although you can't see it in that graphic, the actual grid has space for a bunch more issues (and Shocks, for that matter). Normally I would have gotten to add in an issue and own one, but for purposes of keeping this character creation experience simple, I'll just say that I'm interested in exploring the issue of Slavery in my Protagonist's scenes. (For the record, if I were to add an issue here, it might be Degradation, the idea that everyone, Replicants including, are slowly losing cognition and everything is breaking down. Maybe "Entropy" is a better way to say that.)

Now I need to think about my character. Normally, the group would add Minutae, little bits of set dressing to define the world, but as it's just me, I won't bother. What I will do is make a couple of assumptions: That the process of creating Replicants is putting a strain on the environment (the idea being that this would lead to the degradation of cognition I mentioned earlier, much like the mass lead poisoning we saw before gasoline went unleaded), and that this Degradation can be slowed if not reversed in Replicants.

So, with that in mind, my character is a "neuromasseur," a specialized computer programmer who "massages" a Replicants digital neurons back into place when they start fritzing out. His name is Castle.

I start off with three Features for Castle; these are possessions, personality, traits, destiny, secondary traits. Kinda wish there was a list, because that covers a lot of ground. I'll say "neuromasseur", "afraid of losing my mind," and "my lab is out of date and shabby."

Now I get two Links, which are things that Castle wouldn't want threatened, but that I think would be fun to see get rattled. I'll say Santos, my father, and Belle, my supplier (of gear, software, and lab supplies).

I need a Story Goal, and this can be pretty wide-ranging. So I'll say Castle's Goal is to protect the human mind against degradation, or rather, learn to "massage" human neurons.

Groovy, now Praxis. Normally we'd decide on two opposing methods of getting shit done (Violence vs. Compassion, and so on) and then I'd assign some numbers. I think that with what's established so far about the world, there's a case for legal commerce vs. black market. Commerce vs. Crime? Sounds good.

And then Violence vs. Compassion actually kinda fits, given that helping to heal damaged minds is called "massaging." So now that I have my Praxis, I need to assign a number to each one. That number is the fulcrum, and basically if it's in the middle, I'm more likely to have shit happen randomly, I think. I'm gonna put a 7 in Violence vs. Compassion; better at Compassion, but it's not impossible that he'd succeed violently. For Commerce vs. Crime, I know I want him to be better at the latter, so I'll put my Fulcrum at 8.

Only thing left is my Antagonist. I'll say it's Venn, a Replicant that I massaged at one point, and accidentally triggered some kind of revenge or anger response. Another player would flesh out Venn, so that's about all I'll say about him.

I'll say Castle in his 40s. Black hair (greying at the temples), always needs a shave, a bit heavyset, walks with a limp (knee replacement that didn't quite take), but very steady hands. His lab is the size of a small trailer and it's all he can do to keep it clean and keep the power flowing, but he does his best.

And that'll do it!

Character Creation: Eberron

Well, d20 ain't my favorite system in the world, but what the heck. Not like I can go to the movies.

The Game: Eberron Campaign Setting
The Publisher: Wizards of the Coast 
Degree of Familiarity: Played a good deal of D&D 3rd, never played this setting
Books Required: Eberron and D&D Player's Handbook, I think they want you to have 3.5, but I have 3rd and an internet connection if anything goes weird

I really went round and round about whether to include campaign settings like Eberron on this project, but what I finally landed on was "if it has chargen rules and guidelines, it belongs." Really, I should have used this instead of just the PHB back in the day, because this actually has a setting.

And the setting is actually kind of interesting. It wants to be dark fantasy/pulp adventure, which is really cool. Shame it got snapped up during the d20 glut, but eh, can't have everything.

Anyway, the setting. We've got folks who are dragonmarked, which is pretty cool, and also robots called warforged, who are weapons developed during the Last War but who are now doing their own thing. I actually kinda feel like making a bruiser sort of character, so I think I'll go warforged.

Ah, but actually, I should roll my stats first. UGH FINE. 17, 9 12, 14, 12, 7 (fuck you). Well, sure. I also get a -2 to Wisdom and Charisma but a +2 to Constitution if I'm a warforged. OK, then.

Well, I think I'll put my 14 in Constitution so I get a 16. I'll put my 7 in...hell. Charisma, I guess. I hate using it as a dump stat, it's so cliche, but it makes the most sense. That gives me a 5 in CHA. I'll put one of the 12s in Wisdom (making it 10) and the other one in Dexterity. That leaves me the 17 and the 9. Well, 9 in Intelligence, 17 in Strength, then.

Already picked my race; I'm warforged. I get a bunch of special abilities, which I'll jot in illegibly on my sheet. My region of origin is Breland, which is an industrial center. I figure he (it) was constructed there, and when the war ended just kind of wandered back.

While I'm at it, we'll say he's 10 years old, 6'4", and nearly 400 pounds.

And now, class. I want to be a fighter. Punch things with big robo-fists, baby. (Or maybe an ax.) That makes my base attack bonus +1, my fortitude save +2. My alignment...I'm thinking neutral with an option to buy. Warforged were made a weapons, and they don't tend to think a lot about the moral ramifications of what they do, and frankly my character here isn't particularly well-suited to philosophy, so neutral sounds appropriate.

I get four whole skill ranks because my Int sucks, which is fine, because a lot of them don't make a lot of sense anyway. Let's see. Two into Jump and two into Climb, I suppose? Good, moving on.

I get Weapon & Armor Proficiency, sure, and then I get two bonus Feats. I want Adamantine Body, first off. That gives me a +8 armor bonus (but basically means I'm never using magic, which is fine). That gives me 19 AC, which is pretty good for 1st level.

One more Feat, and it has to be from a particular list. I'll take Powerful Charge; I do extra damage on a successful charge.

Cool! Feels like I should have a big ol' club-type weapon. How much damage does a punch do? Ugh, 1d3 subdual. That sucks rocks. Feels like it should be normal damage since I'm made of metal. Oh, wait, I get a slam attack that does 1d4 damage, whoopty-doodle-do. Warhammer, then. That'd look cool. Sounds good.

OK, so, my warforged is named Glisten. Anyway, that's what it answers to. It had a designation back during the War, but it doesn't answer to that anymore because there's no war on. With that said, Glisten is slowly learning that really, all it knows how to do is fight, so maybe it should get on with that. Adventuring seems a nice balance between fighting and interacting, which Glisten enjoys, even though Glisten's not terribly good. It only has about 200 words that it can use consistently, and it never quite remembers how things like verb tense and pronouns work.

Glisten is very large, and, true to its name, shines in the sun (or torchlight, or whatever - stealth is not what Glisten does). It carries a warhammer and that's about it. Unlike a lot of warforged, the wooden parts of its construction are largely covered by metal, and at first glance it appears seamless. When it does speak, it has a much more fluid and euphonious sound to its voice (superior construction of its vocal gears and apparatus; now if only it had words to go along with the voice).

And that's it!

Movie #553: Jojo Rabbit

Jojo Rabbit is a dark comedy directed by Taika Waititi and starring Waititi, Roman Griffin Davis, Scarlett Johansson, Thomasin McKenzie, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, and Archie Yates.

Johannes "Jojo" Betzer (Davis) is a young boy living in Germany during the waning days of WWII. He's pretty firmly bought into the propaganda painting his country as the powerful saviors of the world and the Jews as literal demons; his imaginary friend is a child-like but still fervent version of Adolph Hitler (Waititi). His mother Rose (Johansson), meanwhile, does her best to keep him happy in his father's absence, but is pretty clear in her feelings that the war is stupid and needs to end.

Jojo nearly blows himself up with a hand grenade at Hitler Youth Boot Camp, and winds up with a limp and some facial scars. In the aftermath, he learns that his mother is harboring a young Jewish girl named Else (McKenzie) in their house, and while he doesn't turn her in in fear for his mother's life, he sets about trying to learn about Jews in order to write an expose on the subject. In the process, of course, he comes to realize the obvious truth - Jews are just people, and that means he and Hitler and Germany have been wrong (or lying) about everything.

I really love this movie, for a number of reasons. First of all, I love dark comedy, but it's so hard to get it right and not fall into just making things awful for the sake of it or heaping shit on a protagonist with no break (Very Bad Things or Meet the Parents, respectively). Jojo Rabbit hits a nice mix of faux-Hitler being silly and the real actual consequences of the war happening around the main character, right up until, as the kids say, shit gets real with the death of Jojo's mother.

Likewise, the adults in the movie act like adults. They don't really listen to or believe Jojo, but they humor him. His mother does listen, but is afraid of his fanaticism and (rightly) fears to let him know about Else because she doesn't trust that he won't turn her in. The kids in the movie act like kids - the younger ones (Jojo included) just want to be included and are excited by the notion of blowing shit up and having knives. The older ones are excited when they get shipped off to war, but everyone has a varying degree of buy-in to the propaganda. Sam Rockwell's Col. Klenzendorf is maybe my favorite, as he knows full well how this is going to end - he's going to get shot for his part in the war, Germany is going to lose, and everything he's done will be for naught, but that's war, though?

One of the criticisms I saw about this movie was someone claiming that it tried to say that there were nice Nazis, but I think that's really missing the mark. The characters in the movie who are actually Nazis - Klenzendorf, Fraulein Rahm (Wilson), and so on - aren't portrayed as nice. Sure, Klenzendorf is kind to Jojo, but he still takes up arms in the end and fights. Jojo, for all his claims to be a Nazi, never really understands what that means, and why should he? He's ten. He has an imaginary friend. He's been told that his "race" is superior and will conquer the world, and that Jews literally aren't people but have actual magical powers. What it comes time to make a decision, he makes it with humanity and, sometimes, with the selfishness appropriate to his age (and, frankly, the trauma of losing every important adult in his life).

To me, the importance of this movie, and a lot of movies featuring WWII and the Nazis, isn't so much that Nazis should die but that people need to act with humanity and kindness. But what the hell do I know.

Anyway, Scarlett Johansson should've gotten an Oscar for this role, IMO.

My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Pooh's Heffalump Movie

Character Creation: The One Ring

Happy Plague! On we go!

The Game: The One Ring
The Publisher: Cubicle 7 
Degree of Familiarity: A little. I played it at Origins some years back
Books Required: Just the one (though many sourcebooks with different chargen options exist)

Michelle gave me a theme song for this character ("Pretty", The Cranberries):

Man, I had no idea what the lyrics to this song were (other than "you're so pretty the way you are," of course). Well, having read them now, I agree with my friend Travis (who actually suggested I do The One Ring today) in that the obvious choice is an elf. So I'm not gonna do that. :)

Let's back up a little. The One Ring is set five years after the Battle of Five Armies. The Free People of the North are doing OK, but fighting against a growing Shadow, which probably has something to do with Sauron but that's not gonna come up for a while. In any case, my first task is to choose a Heroic Culture. Elves are indeed one option (Elves of Mirkwood, specifically), but the one that caught my eye was the Beornings. I love Beorn (the dude who changes into a big ol' bear in The Hobbit) and it always bummed me out that he didn't make it into the animated version back in the day. (I'm sure he made it into the more recent cinematic hootnanny but I never bothered watching the second or third installments after the first one completely underwhelmed me.)

Anyway, the Beornings are folks who came to follow Beorn and live along the river Anduin near the Carrock. They're wild and woodsy and so forth, and such a character would make for an interesting challenge given my chosen theme song. Well, I'll get to that. In the meanwhile, my Standard of Living is Martial, and my Cultural Blessing is Furious (I ignore the effects of being Weary if I'm injured in battle; dunno exactly what that means but it sounds useful).

I copy over my skill scores, which is easier because I have a form-fillable sheet, yay. I'm good in Awe, Insight, and Hunting. Cool. I get to pick between two different weapon spreads. Hmm. Do I want Axes or Great Spear? I think I want Great Spear, I'll take the reach. And then I get to choose two Traits from a list. I'll take Story-telling and Anduin-Lore.

So, my basic concept here is someone who's strangely pretty and well-groomed for a Beorning (who are usually a little on the mountain-man side of things). He's a little haughty and...well, bratty. That's all I'll do for now because I'm still gonna be choosing from a bunch of options and I want to leave myself room to expand my concept. To wit: Background.

This is basically how I grew up. There are six options, let's see which one speaks to me.

Hmm. Errand-rider and Voice of the Past both sound interesting. The latter is perhaps a little more contemplative than I'd envisioned, but it does let me take Proud as a trait. I kinda like that, actually. I'll take that. Oh, curses, I can't take Fair. Well, y'know what, he doesn't have to be pretty compared to an elf, after all, so I'll take Tall as my other distinctive feature.

That also sets my traits as Body 7, Heart 4, and Wits 3. Names are on this page, too, so while I'm here, his name is Beran the Fair. He's 18.

OK, now the customization phase. First thing is a calling, which gives me a favored skill group but also a Shadow weakness. Hmm. I think that Wanderer or Warden make the most sense, and going along with my background, I'll take Wanderer. That means I get the Folk-lore Trait, and my favored skill groups are Survival and Custom, meaning I get two favored skills that I can take from either of those. I think I shall take Riddle and Explore as my favored Skills (along with Song and Athletics from previous choices).

Now for favored attributes. I get to add 3 to one of my attributes, 2 to another, and 1 to a third. I kinda feel like my Heart isn't as high as it should be, so I'll put 3 there, 2 into Body, and 1 into Wits.

Cool, now I get 10 points to buy skills, but I have to buy each dot separately, so buying a rating of 2 (from 0) costs 3 points. Well, I know I want 2 in my favored skills, so I need to spend 6 to raise Song and Explore up, and 2 more to buy up Riddle. That leaves 2. Well, I feel like Lore is appropriate, and I've never been sad to have a little Stealth, so one dot each into those.

Endurance and Hope are derived traits; 28 and 12, respectively.

Gear, ugh. I get a set of armor. I feel like Beran would want something that isn't going to make him look too clunky. Leather corslet, I think. Also a cap, but no shield, as Beran prefers a great spear. I get a weapon for each skill, so a great spear, an ax, and a dagger. My Parry is 3 (ugh).

Valor and Wisdom start at 1 or 2 (that is, one gets 1 and one gets 2). I feel like Beran is better at resisting fear than Shadow, so Valor gets the 2. I get a Reward for that; a Giant-Slaying spear (cool!).

And that's it, actually, because the rest would be building the Company and it's just me.

Beran the Fair is tall, long-limbed, and blond. When he was a boy his mother used to call him "little elf," and he got just a little too proud of that. He grew up and found himself desirous of meeting elves, seeing other parts of the world, and learning more about the history and lore of Middle Earth. I think that having him meet actual elves would be a really fun scene to play, since they are awe-inspiring in a way that he can't fathom.

Blue Rose: Run, Arlen, Run

Last night was Blue Rose, which is about the only game I can run during the stay-at-home order, because the players are all family.

Last time, the heroes managed to get away from pirates and sorcerers and escape to Mashae (fun fact: on the Blue Rose map it's spelled "Marshae"). Kisha and Arlen are having a spot of dinner when Qinis and his posse (crew, I guess, is more genre-appropriate) walk in and see them.

Qinis sits down and, real friendly-like, tells them that in the morning he's going to have them arrested for stealing his property. They've violated the "peace of the reefs," it seems, which prevents pirates from stealing from each other and otherwise doing violence while on the Isles. They're welcome to contest this, he says, but the council doesn't look kindly on the Finest, so he's interested to see their defense.

The two vata fall back to the inn where Whirlpool and Dobbin are waiting, and explain the situation. Arlen is not at all sanguine about their chances if they go to court, but they aren't sure what their options are. They have a rowboat, but where would they go? It's not going to make it to the mainland or the Teeth, and the Misery is still a day away at least. Kisha suggests maybe they could find somewhere to hide out, maybe bribe a captain to take them away. Dobbin asks Arlen if he could divine any future possibilities, and Arlen casts Visions.

He looks forward to the morning, and sees the group getting arrested as they leave the inn at first light. He rewinds back to the night before (this is more detail than Visions usually grants, but a. the player rolled really well and b. Run, Lola, Run is a really cool movie) and tries taking the rowboat out. He sees them get just off the coast when Qinis' boats surround them and demand the chest. That's not gonna work.

He rewinds again and has them check the docks for help. He sees some sea-folk on the beach, and has Whirlpool talk to them - and finds them sympathetic. The name "Rysa Seaspray" comes up, and Arlen figures this is the best chance they have.

They take the chest and head to the beach, and indeed, they see some sea-folk. Whirlpool talks to one and is initially less than honest about the contents of the chest, but Dobbin steps in and tells the real story, and the sea-folk says that she'll help. She calls for help, and some other sea-folk come ashore. The heroes all take breathing pearls (Dobbin mind-links with Pansy to get her to keep it in her mouth), and the sea-folk tow them along under water past Qinis' men.

Going to Laren's Town takes most of the night, as it's on the other end of the Isles. Along the way they find the Sweet Blossom, and, while taking a breather, Arlen notes that the masthead of the ship is a depiction of the wine-goddess Athne. In the sculpture, though, she's reaching out her hand as though demanding something, which Arlen recognizes as borderline blasphemous (Athne is never depicted as demanding, always as offering, usually a goblet). Kisha figures this means these pirates might worship some Exarchy version of Athne. The ship also smells sweet, and Arlen casts Second Sight. He doesn't recognize the specific arcanum, but it feels similar to Imbue Undead, and it's affecting the whole crew. Are the zombies? Vampires? The heroes don't know, and they're not going to investigate tonight.

The sea-folk tow them on and, as the sun rises, they reach Laren's Town. Rysa Seaspray, the elder sea-folk, comes to meet them, and tells them that the sea-folk have no loyalty to the Pirate Council and are totally not down with sorcery. Kisha mind-links with Shira and tells her the change of plans, and they spend the rest of the day resting.

The Misery arrives and the heroes embark. Shira opines that everything ought to go smoothly now.

Movie #552: Crawl

Crawl is a natural horror movie directed by Alexandre Aja and starring Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper, and a bunch of CGI alligators.

A Cat-5 hurricane is bearing down on Florida and Haley (Scodelario) has just finished a swim practice. Her sister (Morfydd Clark) calls her and asks her to check in on their father Dave (Pepper), who has dropped out of contact. Haley goes out to their old house and finds that her father is trapped in the rapidly-flooding basement with a couple of goddamn huge alligators, injured, and with no way to call for help.

The rest of the movie is Haley and Dave (and their heroic dog, Sugar, who does survive the movie) trying to get clear of the gators and get out of the area before the levees break. The gators eat a group of looters and a couple of cops, and they bite the shit out of our heroes (Dave loses an arm), but the protagonists survive and our closing shot is Haley triumphantly holding a flare up to signal an incoming helicopter.

I love natural horror movies, and I've been getting into them more the last couple of years. I don't know, there's something satisfying and scary about the natural world exerting itself in the face of humanity's relentless attempts to kill it, and one of the biggest themes of natural horror is that we can't control the world, and any attempts to do so inevitably have knock-on effects that wind up coming back to bite us (literally, in this case). A lot of natural horror, though, includes a human antagonist that makes the situation worse, generally by ignoring the facts to pursue money (the mayor in Jaws springs readily to mind). Crawl doesn't have that - the only antagonists are the gators and the weather, and the only goal is survival. Sure, Haley and her dad have some hard conversations about Dave's divorce, Haley's swim career, and their family home, but then the movie actually lets them survive, so those moments don't feel wasted.

The movie is simple, tense, and gory in places, but it's well done and I'm glad to see a solid creature feature.

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: High

Next up: Jojo Rabbit

Character Creation: The End of the World (Mother's Day)

Well, this feels kinda topical.

Actually, the apocalyptic scenarios presented in this game are more reminiscent of a couple of episodes of Futurama, hence the post title. 

The Game: The End of the World: Revolt of the Machines
The Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games 
Degree of Familiarity: None, but it's pretty simple
Books Required: Just the one

The End of the World is actually a series of four standalone apocalyptic games, but I only own the one. The setup is pretty standard for the genre: The basic idea is that the world as we know it is ending because machines are killing everyone, and then there are a few sample scenarios that specify what that means, ranging from human-looking cyborgs to the "grey goo", which is hands down the most terrifying.

What's interesting about the series, though, is that it asks the players to make themselves as characters. Now, this isn't a new or unique idea in an RPG (and certainly every longtime gamer has statted themselves up in their favorite system; I know I have), but what I find interesting about it is the combination of that gimmick with this genre. We're flat-out told that the characters in this game aren't going to stop the apocalypse, the best we can do is survive. But we're also asked to stat ourselves up, use our own traumas and shortcomings as flaws in the game, and set the game in our home town (just to watch it turn to rubble).

And like...I don't know. I see the appeal of putting one's familiar territory through the lens of an apocalypse; I've done that plenty of times running curse the darkness and other post-apoc games. But doing during the end, seeing things and places that you know and people that you know being destroyed and slaughtered, just seems a little not-fun to me. Playing horror (because that's what this is, don't be fooled by the robots) requires enough of a distance that we can appreciate the tension and the fear without becoming actually uncomfortable; it's why we have safety mechanics in these games, because not everyone draws the lines in the same place. But inviting that much personal identification, to me, would just be an invitation for discomfort (to say nothing of the fact that my experiences in games where people play themselves haven't endeared the idea to me).

All of this to say: I'm gonna make a character, but not me. In order to keep the general premise (the horror of seeing someplace familiar apocalypse'd) intact, however, I shall assume that my protagonist lives somewhere that I know. Let's say Atlanta. Likewise, let's take a profession that I actually did have (barista) and say that my character works at the Starbucks in the hotel in the park.

My character's name is Theodore Parry (he goes by Theo). He's 30 and recently completed his PhD in film studies at UGA, and is trying to find a "real job", but just at present he's stuck as a barista and wondering what the hell to do next. Of course, everything is about to become really moot.

So, making a character requires that I split 10 points amidst six stats (three paired traits), but normally the other group would vote on whether those stats were high or low and then we'd adjust them. Since it's just me, however, I think I'll just assign the points and call it a day.

Well, Theo is used to long nights and the pace of grad school, plus he goes to a lot of film festivals, so I'm thinking Vitality, Willpower, and Logic should be decent. Maybe Charisma, too. At the same time I don't want anything at 1 (I get 1 point automatically in each one), so I'll bump everything to 2, and then bump those four traits to 3. Nothing too high, but nothing in the basement, either.

Step Two is Features, which are basically just aspects representing training, quirks of fate, and so on that can either help or hinder. I get one positive and one negative in each category (Physical/Mental/Social), and if we were doing this by the book, I'd get an extra negative if the group voted to raise a trait, or an extra positive if they voted to lower. I just get the standard, however.

Well, for Physical, I'll take Caffeine Addict as a negative, and Needs Little Sleep as a positive. For Mental, I'll take Well-Educated as a positive, and No Head for Numbers as a negative. And then for Social, I'll take Easy to Talk To as a positive, and Fatalist as a negative.

Step Three is equipment. If I were making myself, it'd be what I literally have on me right now. For Theo, I think he's got a cell phone, a black Sharpie, his keys, a wallet with about $20, and a pack of caffeinated gum.

Groovy, now Step Four is Traumas. These are long-term injuries, phobias, or, well, traumas that might hinder the character. I can take up to one in each category, but there's no real reason to, so let's see.

OK, nothing says that these traumas can't be healed, so they're just things that are hurting the character right now, I guess (which means if I was making myself, I wouldn't take POTS as a trauma since it doesn't go away, I guess?). Let's say that Theo burned himself at work a few days ago and has a second-degree burn on his left arm. It's bandaged and healing, but he can't afford to take sick time. Let's also say that he's frustrated and fixated on his future, and it's making him distracted and irritable.

Theo, like I said, is 30. He's got soft blond hair that's maybe thinning a bit, and he keeps his face shaved but he's wondering if growing a beard will help hide the double chin he's growing. He keeps a notebook on him to jot down thoughts for papers or movies he wants to watch or rewatch (I'll add that to equipment). He wears hiking boots (sometimes he walks the trail after his shift at the hotel), jeans, and t-shirts, mostly from film festivals or UGA. He's got sad blue eyes, and he has a tattoo on his left shoulder that an ex drew there and he got inked in. It doesn't really look like anything specific; he jokes it's a treasure map. 

And that's it, actually. Theo will be at work when the robots rise. Hopefully the Professor can get the remote from Mom before we all die.

Movie #551: Bad Times At the El Royale

Bad Times at the El Royale is a neo-noir thriller directed by Drew Goddard and starring Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Bridges, Chris Hemsworth, Lewis Pullman, John Hamm, Dakota Johnson, and Cailee Spaney.

The El Royale is a gimmicky hotel that sits half in Nevada and half in California. It had a heyday in the 60s, but now it's empty except for the desk clerk/housekeeper/bartender/heroin addict Miles (Pullman). On this particular day, however, it gets four customers: an affable, confused priest named Flynn (Bridges); Darlene, a singer on her way to Reno (Erivo); a traveling vacuum salesman (Hamm); and a standoffish hippie named Emily (Johnson).

This being neo-noir, however, no one is really who they appear to be (except for Darlene). "Flynn" is actually Doc O'Kelly, a bank robber whose partner buried money in a room in the hotel years ago. Emily just rescued her sister, Rose (Spaney) from a cult in California and has her tied up in her trunk. And Laramie, the salesman, is an FBI agent here to obtain listening devices that the Bureau planted.

And poor little Miles, in addition to being an addict, occasionally gets told to film certain people through the two-way mirrors in every room and then send the film to "management." As the various people follow their agendas, everything goes gloriously off the rails: Emily shoots Laramie dead and wounds Miles, Rose calls her cult leader, Billy Lee (Hemsworth), who shows up with several armed flunkies and takes everyone hostage, and all of the truths come out before the place burns down.

I really like this movie, and not just because I love neo-noir. The pacing is snappy and the scenes typically change just when something interesting happens or we've learned some new fact about a character. The story is pretty much non-linear, and we see the same events from different characters' perspectives, but it's not quite a Rashomon so much as just presenting a rounded out view of the night.

The movie draws heavily on the Manson killings (Rose just slaughtered a couple of people before Emily got her out, and it's all over the news), and Hemsworth plays Billy Lee with sadism and pouty self-importance. Erivo is definitely a standout, not just for her singing, but for the weariness she brings to a black woman being tossed around trying to make a living. Bridges is lots of fun to watch as always, wavering between being the capable criminal he's been all his life and slowly succumbing to dementia.

Pullman is kind of the heart of the movie, though. All through the film all he wants is absolution, but it's not until the end that we find out why - he's a former Army sharpshooter, with over a hundred kills on his soul, which means that when everything goes sideways, he kills the cultists with surgical precision, though in so doing, he's putting more sins on his soul. He finally dies after "Flynn" resumes his priest persona and grants Miles absolution.

The movie is violent and has its share of sympathetic character death, but it's not bleak - it gives us people to root for and like even if they're flawed. The production design is really impressive and the El Royale has a great sense of place when all is said and done (which is also true of Goddard's other movie, The Cabin in the Woods).

My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Crawl

Character Creation: Undying

FIRST OF ALL:

That's our new puppy, Asteria, Dog of the Stars. Call her Terri.

Now then.

The Game: Undying
The Publisher: Magpie Games
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this game, but I'm pretty familiar with PbtA games and games about vampires
Books Required: Just the one.

Undying is a love letter to Vampire: The Masquerade, expressed in the Powered by the Apocalypse system (which, if we're being honest, is the home Vampire always wanted). The game focuses on moments of conflict followed by longer periods of intrigue, and sounds very much like it embraces the notion of being vampires - feeding on humans, coping with immortality, playing deadly games with other vampires because that's how eternity works.

I have the same questions about this game that I do any latter-day RPG that wants to have you play vampires, though: Didn't we do this already? I mean, sure, the PbtA system is probably a much better fit for this kind of play than the Storyteller system ever was (particularly in its original "you get worse as you get more dice" incarnation), but like, it's been 30 years. Vampires aren't really portrayed the same as they were in the 90s. How would this work at the table? Would people still get into it the way they did with Vampire?

Well, I don't know and I probably never will, because while I have players who might like to play vampires, they're more likely to be interested in playing Masquerade or Requiem. But never say never.

Anyway, let's make a character! First thing is to pick a playbook. Everyone is a vampire, of course, so the playbook determines how you express being that kind of monster. I think Puppet Master sounds fun.

So, having chosen a playbook, next step is to record Heritage and Look. Hmm. Normally there'd be lists for this kind of thing, but I'm apparently winging it here, which is fine. I'll say my character is West African and grew up in poverty. He was taken from his family in circumstances he still doesn't quite understand, and was turned into a vampire in his 20s. He's thin, has eyes that are a little too large for his face, short hair that's still a little patchy (bad nutrition most of his life), and yellowed nails.

I can choose to be a Plebian or Pariah in social standing. What's the difference? Seems to be that as a Pariah, I basically have no place in vampire society and no right to hunting grounds. You know, I think that's fine. I'll start at the bottom.

Now I choose my Humanity level. I can be Humane, Callous, or Monstrous. I see this guy as hardened by his life and pretty opportunistic, but not a total loss yet, so I'll be Callous.

Debt I can skip because it requires a group (and it might not apply to me as a Pariah anyway?).

Maker...normally, we'd have a relationship map with some existing NPCs and I'd choose one to be my maker, but it's just me, so I'll just name my maker. I'll say his name is Nicholas, and he picked my character because recognize a "lean and hungry" kind of thing going on. He even went so far as to rename him "Cassius" to round out the Shakespeare reference (and because Nicholas couldn't pronounce my character's real name).

And, well, I think that's it. I don't get a hunting ground (and it'd be a GM thing anyway) and I don't have to pick moves, I don't think...oh, hang on. I have an enterprise that gives me money and influence, and I get two assets and two liabilities. Let's say Cassius runs a phone/email scam enterprise (yes, there's a kind of "Nigerian prince" cliche here, but Cassius tries to keep it more sophisticated than that). The assets are secretive and responsive (his people know the value of staying low and they're generally ready to go), the liabilities are competition and litigation (other folks are running similar scams and poisoning the well, and of course you get sued a lot).

And I think that's it! I picture Cassius as somewhere between Barkhad Abdi in Captain Philips and Ed Harris in Glengarry Glen Ross; he's in over his head, but he's got something that could be workable if he can get enough of a break.

Blue Rose: RUN!

Last night, we played Blue Rose. Also had empanadas, which was nice.

Last time, which was way back in the heady days when people still went to school and a simple cough didn't cause meerkat-like "DANGER" reactions, the characters got into a big fight on the Dark Isle. Now, they survey the carnage and realize that they need to get gone before that sorcerer comes back with help.

Arlen casts a Cure spell on Whirlpool to stabilize and save him, and they start heading out. Kisha runs ahead to push the boat out and get it ready to go, but the others have difficulty. They can't seem to make any progress running while carrying the chest, and no one wants to leave the chest (or whoever's carrying it) behind. Eventually they see the sorcerer coming in the distance, along with Qinis and a bunch of pirates carrying torches. They're badly outnumbered, and they need to hoof it.

Arlen casts a Move Object spell and flings the chest to Kisha on the boat, who manages to catch it. Dobbin stops and fires a couple of arrows into the ongoing mob, and then keeps moving. They all pile into the boat and Whirlpool casts Water Shaping to push them out into the bay quickly. They don't have lights (most of them can see in the dark), and the pirates are left on the shore, looking for them.

After getting out of sight, they decide to head around the islands to Mashae and hook up with the Tempered Heart. That takes most of the night, but in the morning, feeling a little better, they arrive at the docks of Mashae, and realize that the Heart isn't there. They beach their stalwart craft, and Kisha casts Psychic Contact on the High Priest Mav. Fortunately, he knows that spell as well, and therefore is able to converse. He tells them that, unfortunately, the Heart was ordered back to Jarzon. Admiral Pov disagreed with the order, but it is an order, so there's nothing he can do about it. They can try and come back to get the characters, but it might be months before they can. Kisha says that she'll find other transport and thanks Mav for his help.

The characters discuss what to do. They don't fancy the chances of taking a rowboat back to the Teeth, not with the Sweet Blossom looking for them. Kisha mentally contacts Shira, the captain of the Misery (the ship that brought them here), and Shira agrees to come get them. It might be a couple of days, though, so she advises them to find lodging and lay low. Mashae has rules against pirates killing or stealing from each other, so as long as they don't start trouble they should be OK. Arlen also remembers that members of the Finest aren't really welcome here, so they need to find other apparel, too.

Whirlpool and Kisha go into town and find a cheap inn. Kisha pays for a room, and the party takes up residence. They go out (in shifts) to buy clothes in the cargo market (and note, with no small discomfort, that there's a slave market here, too), and then find some food at a better establishment. Kisha and Arlen are eating when a group of people walks in, led by none other than Qinis. He sees them and smiles.

Next time, we'll see where this goes.

Movie #550: Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame, of course, is the final installment in the Infinity Saga of the MCU, and stars everyone from the last movie post I did plus Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner, Evangeline Lily, Brie Larson, and Michael Douglas.

A few weeks after Thanos (Josh Brolin) snaps half the universe out of existence, the remaining Avengers meet up with Captain Marvel (Larson), who, in characteristically confident fashion, figures that with her around they can take Thanos out. And indeed they do, but he's already destroyed the Infinity Stones, so Thor (Chris Hemsworth) beheading him seems an afterthought.

Five years pass, and the world (indeed, the universe) is limping along and learning to cope with the mass trauma of the deaths. And then Scott Lang (Rudd) reappears from what, to him, was only a few hours in the quantum realm, convinced that there's a way to control the time-shifting properties, go back in time, and stop Thanos. Of course, that works, but there are costs and twists and turns along the way. I ain't gonna summarize the whole thing, there's too much.

So, we pretty much knew after Infinity War that time travel was going to be involved here, and we pretty much knew after Ant-Man & the Wasp that Scott was going to bring it all together. What I wasn't expecting was how well the Russos put it all together. I said before that they managed to make Age of Ultron and Iron Man 3 better in Civil War by contextualizing them a little, and here the same thing happens with Thor: The Dark World. We get to see the characters way back in Avengers and see how they've changed - Captain America (Chris Evans) goes from his forthright, energetic, intense freedom fighter to the somewhat more jaded and world-weary fellow we see here, f'rex.

As with Infinity War, the relationships make it, but we get to see characters move on. Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) marries Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) and they have a daughter, Morgan (Alexandra Rabe). Hawkeye (Renner), having lost his entire family in the snap, goes on a worldwide criminal-killing rampage. Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) takes over as coordinator and leader of the Avengers, trying to fix the world as best she can. Thor has become depressed, drunk, and fat, wallowing in his failure. And so on.

Like I said, it's a big movie and there's a lot happening, so there are three bits I want to touch on. First the Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). He goes from not being able to coax the Hulk out to fight to merging with the Hulk in this movie, and makes a fleeting reference to "18 months in a lab", but we never get to see any of that. Now, Professor Hulk needed to be here in order for him to wield the stones and snap everyone back, sure, but it still feels like we glossed right over Hulk's resolution of, well, his whole thing. I understand why it happened, it's just a niggle.

Second thing: Natasha's death. I've gone over this in my head a lot since the movie came out. It bothers me a little that the two characters sacrificed for the Soul Stone were the two main female characters in the MCU (before Wasp (Lily) and Captain Marvel showed up). And, yes, they were ideally suited because they had strong enough relationships with other characters that they could be the sacrifice, and, yes, Natasha made the most sense because she was set up for a redemption arc waaaay back in Avengers (Whedon did not with that arc in Age of Ultron, but y'know, Whedon). And yet...still bugs me. It's not fridging, because she wasn't killed to motivate a male character, but it still feels like the strangely obvious choice. Killing any character would be tricky, of course; it has to be someone that the universe can lose (and therefore who isn't still under contract), and it has to be someone important enough that there's some emotional weight, so of the characters who were alive to be that sacrifice, it's pretty much gonna be Natasha or Clint. I get all that, and it still bugs me a little.

Final thing: Cap and time travel. We're told that you can change the past to change your future. We're also told that if you do change the past, you create an alternate timeline (although watching the movie again, what we actually told is, according to the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), if you remove an Infinity Stone from the timeline you create a split, but anyway). So when Cap goes back in time and stops in 1942 or so to stay with Peggy Carter...holy shit, right? That changes so much. The Russos have since said that he lived in an alternate timeline and then somehow jumped back to the "prime" timeline to give his shield to Falcon (Anthony Mackie), but that's not remotely clear in the final cut. I'm hoping that the Loki TV show at least addresses that a little, because Cap's whole arc is that he can't ignore a situation going bad. There were, um, a lot of bad situations from 1940s to present.

But with all of that said, the movie is amazing and tighter than it has any right to be. The final battle scene is worth many rewatches, and seeing Cap wield Mjolnir is always an uplifting experience.

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: Bad Times at the El Royale

Character Creation: Conspiracy X 2nd Ed

Nothing like a sudden long-term vacation to help me get some characters done.

The Game: Conspiracy X 2nd Edition
The Publisher: Eden Studios
Degree of Familiarity: I played 1st Ed many, many years ago, but never this version
Books Required: Just the one

 

 

So! I made a character for a previous edition of this game way the hell back in 2009, which was also labeled "2nd Ed", but it's clearly not the same edition as this one because it's pre-Unisystem and this one is Unisystem, so who freaking knows.

In any case, the game's basics are the same. You're playing a member of Aegis (which is officially retired as a name for a protective agency, as far as I'm concerned. Masks can keep using it), an organization fighting against the various conspiracies and alien invaders. Very much inspired by X-Files and similar properties. One of the things I always liked about this game is that agents are recruited from a variety of other agencies and professions; my first character was a DEA agent (I remember that because I converted him for use in a Werewolf: The Forsaken game and he wound up as a Halaku).

Anyway, I actually have a concept for this. I want to play a character who's imprisoned. He killed his wife to cash in on a life insurance policy, got caught, and is doing life in prison. Thing is, though, he's got some specialized knowledge or skill that makes him useful to Aegis, so they pull him out when they need him and then put him right the hell back in slam when they're done. As far as the prison system is concerned, he's in solitary when missions are going on. If he dies on mission, they're going to set it up to look like suicide. He's already got his note written.

Of course, doing this means trading any possibility of parole, because no way is Aegis ever going to let him go. So he's basically swapping occasional furloughs for the possibility of ever being really free, but that hasn't quite sunk in yet, I think. His name is Roy Wheeler.

Cool, good start. First thing in actual chargen I do is choose Type, which is Pre-Heroic, Neo-Talented, Heroic, or Talented. Well, I need to keep an eye on what his special dealie is that makes him worth the hassle, so I think I'll take a little inspiration from Forest Whitaker's character in Species and make him Talented. That means I get 20 points for Attributes, 10 for Qualities (and up to 10 in Drawbacks), 25 in skills, and 15 for Powers.

I can take a Professional Package if I wish; let's see if there's one that applies. There is, in fact! Criminal - Violent. Perfect. That gives me Brawling 1, Dodge 1, Guns (Handgun) 1, Streetwise 1, Influence (Criminal) 1, Resources (Middle Class), Status 1, Adversary (Law Enforcement) 2, and Secret (Criminal) 1. I also get some Pulling Strings - favors and perks I can call on by dint of my profession. Chop Shops, Criminal Resources, Funding, and Safe House. Nice. That means I've spent 5 of my Quality points and 4 of my skills, so I guess I can just bounce right back to Attributes.

20 points and six Attributes to think about. I figure that prison life has made Roy tough, so I don't want his physicals to be too low. I'll put 4 into Strength, Constitution, and Perception (12 points), 3 into Willpower and Dexterity (18 points) and 2 into Intelligence.

Qualities, then! I've spent 5 points, so I've got 5 left. Likewise, I've got 3 points in Drawbacks, so I can take 7 more. May as well look at both, since they're in the same section.

Well, Covetous makes a hell of a lot of sense. I'll take that at 2. Fast Reaction time, likewise, is probably good. Never been sad about Hard to Kill, so I'll put 3 points there. Situational Awareness is also useful for a prisoner, so I'll take that (which puts me to 12 points in Qualities, so I'm even until I take more Drawbacks). Ooh, I'll take Supernatural Focus as a Drawback; that gives me 5 more points and means that supernatural shit tends to happen around me. That might be part of why Aegis likes me, I'm a good lightning rod.

Cool, now I get 15 points in Powers. Oh, wait, crud. I can't take Supernatural Focus and Psychic, so I don't know if that Drawback actually works. Hmm.

Oh, OK. So being a Focus allows me to use ritual magic, but the book doesn't seem to say if I can use Power points (of which I still have 15) to take the Rituals skill or the rituals themselves. Let's assume that, since the book does mention Focus under the Talented description, that I can, since there's really nothing else that I could spend the points on as a Focus. That does mean, though, I need a "Type" for Rituals. Let's say Goetic Magic, why not. Roy learned in prison, but he's always had an interest in the occult.

So if I spend 5 Power Points on Rituals 5, then I have 10 more to buy actual rituals, which are rated separately and can't be higher than 5. Let's take Summon Spirit, Bind Spirit, and Banish Spirit, at 5, 2, and 3, respectively. Sounds good.

So now I have 21 points in skills to spend. I want...

Brawling 2 (plus the one I already have)
Bureaucracy 2
Cheating 2
Crafts (Shiv) 1
Dodge 1
Escape 2
Gambling 2
Hand Weapon (Knife) 2
Intimidation 3
Lockpicking (Mechanical) 2
Notice 3
Occult Knowledge (Goetia) 4
Pick Pocket 2
Running (Dash) 2
Smooth Talking 2
Stealth 2
Streetwise 1

Uh, that's 35. Gotta trim that shit down a little (though I do actually have 5 more points from Drawbacks, so I only have to trim, what, 9 points). Let's see. I'll ditch Gambling and Cheating, I'll ditch Escape and Lockpicking, and I'll ditch Pick Pocket, which actually leaves me 1, and I'll hold onto that and see if any more Pulling Strings appeal. Oh, shit yeah, Accomplices. I can call in a specialist or just some muscle. Very nice.

OK, then derived traits. Life Points is Constitution + Strength (which is 8) times four (which is 32) plus 10 (which is 42), but then I get 9 more because of my Hard to Kill Quality (which is 51).

Endurance Points: Constitution + Strength + Willpower (11) times 3 (33) plus 5 (38).

Speed is CON + DEX (7) times 2 (14).

Essence is just the sum of all my Attributes, which is 20, because I didn't raise anything.

Roy is just shy of six feet tall, and built like a weightlifter (which he is). He's got a bunch of prison tats on his arms, but not his hands or neck (he likes being able to "pass" when he's on missions). He keeps his head and face shaved, and likes wearing suits and ties when he's on missions - it's not like he gets to clean up nice normally. He doesn't know it, but he's getting a reputation as being "spooky" amongst the other prisoners and guards, none of whom know why he gets sent to solitary so much.

That'll do it!

Movie #549: Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War is, of course, the first film in the two-part culmination of the first "saga" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and stars freaking everybody: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Holland, Scarlett Johanasson, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olsen, Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chadwick Boseman, do I need to freaking go on? Oh, and Josh Brolin, that one's important.

Picking up immediately after Thor: Ragnarok (we'll get to T), we find that Thanos (Brolin) has attacked Thor's (Hemsworth) ship and killed many of the Asgardians. Thanos is, of course, on a quest to find the six Infinity Stones, and takes the space stone from Loki (Tom Hiddleston) before killing him. Thanos sods off to find more stones, while his Black Order heads for Earth to grab the time stone from Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch).

What follows, of course, is a series of cross-cuts as the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers try and stop Thanos from obtaining the stones, but one by one, he picks them up. In so doing, he has to sacrifice the life of his adopted (kidnapped) daughter, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), and very nearly loses his gauntlet in a fight against the Guardians and Iron Man (Downey Jr.), Strange, and Spider-Man (Holland), but then Star-Lord (Pratt) fucks it up and everything goes truly sideways.

At the end of the day, Thanos manages to obtain the last stone, the mind gem, by killing Vision (Paul Bettany), and despite a grievous wound from Thor's new weapon, Stormbreaker, Thanos snaps his fingers, disintegrating half the life in the universe, including almost all of the Guardians and most of the Avengers.

I am always amazed at how well done this movie is. If you think about the number of characters it had to juggle, the number of plotlines it had to weave together (and it didn't touch even half of the ones that the MCU has let fray over the years), the mega-star power in the cast, and, of course, the fact that the movie had to set up its final installment, the final product is incredible. Seeing it in theaters, I'm still taken by how effective the final scenes are - like, we know that Spider-Man and Black Panther (Boseman) aren't going to stay dead, and yet seeing them disintegrate and watching the horrified reactions of the other characters tugs at the heartstrings. The Russos managed to make this defeat for the Avengers feel real, and they did that, IMO, by building up the relationships that the characters have, be it Tony/Pepper, Tony/Peter, Steve/Bucky, Wanda/Vision, Gamora/Thanos, Gamora/Quill, and so forth.

I don't really have complaints about this movie. The only niggles I have are extremely minor. I think Quill is played for laughs a bit too much, I think that some of the Stones' powers aren't very well-defined (reality in particular), and I wish that Hulk/Banner had gotten some onscreen resolution (but we'll talk more about that tomorrow). In general, though, the only reason this isn't my favorite MCU film is because it's so damned heavy. It kinda needs to be, though.

My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: Medium-low

Next up: Avengers: Endgame

Character Creation: Blood Games II

Last post of the day, although probably more chargen posts than usual in the next few weeks, since I'm off work.

The Game: Blood Games II
The Publisher: Better Mousetrap Games, through the Flying Mice imprint
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

So, right off the bat I feel like I owe this game an apology. I got it in a bundle a long time ago, and every time I saw it on my list I kind of rolled my eyes and kept going, because I figured it was either a D&D clone (and I've got so many of those in bundles) or a game that was dark and edgy and death metal and so on. But in reading it, I admit it's kinda got my attention. Like, the fiction isn't terrific (but when is gaming fiction terrific, after all?), but the idea of the game, in which humans used to be prey animals and then science came along and saved us from the monsters in the dark is a neat turnaround on the way that setup usually goes. That'd be in various White Wolf games where magic is dying because big nasty science made it so magic doesn't work because people don't believe in it (I'm way oversimplifying, obviously). It's nice to see the shoe on the other foot, as it were.

So who do we play here?

Sounds good. The "two types" mentioned are "path characters" who have mystical shit going on, and non-path characters who don't.

Moving along into chargen, I note that the assumption is that when characters aren't having adventures, they're just living a normal life, and then each adventure defines a year in the character's life, though they probably don't take a whole year. I kinda like that; downtime folded into the game play.

Ok, then, on we go. The first thing in the chargen section is a big chart that means nothing to me. Cool, moving on. Next page talks about the "Directed Method" of chargen, which is effectively point buy. I skipped ahead and the only other method I see is templates, so I'll stick with point-buy.

I split 44 points between Strength, Coordination, Agility, Endurance, and Charisma. OK, sure. Getting less friendly to this game now. There is no context for any of this and I don't know what I should focus on if I want to play path vs. non-path or whatever. Ugh. Well, guess I'll skip ahead a bit.

OK, wow, that didn't help. This game is kind of a heartbreaker. It seems to be built to play a kind of Supernatural, sorta-kinda setup, wherein a disparate group of people fight monsters, but there's so little attention paid to building the setting past the first 10 pages or so and the organization of the book is so poor that it's hard to know. With that said, it looks like the intent is for you to be able to slide back and forth in the lives and careers of these characters, and for character generation to be a fluid, ongoing thing. Want to run a flashback before the characters encountered Count Chocula (or whatever)? Cool, slide the characters back to 1970 when they were in high school or whatever.

Unfortunately, the lack of a coherent introduction chapter makes it really hard to figure out what's going on, and of course there's no example of chargen, blargh. OK, fuck it. I'll just try and work my way through sequentially and see where that lands me.

44 points in those traits, and...oh, hey. It looks like this makes the character at age 10, and then as chargen progresses we add on. That's pretty cool. Bummer they didn't say that up front or provide a running example.

Well, dividing those points up evenly would give me 8 with 4 left over. I'll do that, and put two in Charisma and two in Endurance, why not.

Then I get 180 points to divide between IQ, MAG (which I assume is magic), and Lifestyle, but I do this with that chart I mentioned. If I want to be a path character, which I do, I use the MAG 2 column. Fine. I'll put 80 into MAG, and 50 into each of the others. Gives me an IQ of 109, MAG 2, Middle Class Lifestyle.

Now we're into schooling. I select a middle school four times (that is, four years of middle school). Wow, this is granular in a way that I kind of like; seems to be approaching lifepaths? We'll see.

So, looking at middle school, I'll start easy and pick public middle school. Sure. I get a skill, and there's a list, and...oy. Convince and Goad are both skills. Really? Blargh. I'll take Gymnastics. Actually I'll just stay here for all four years, so I'll boost Strength, Coordination, and React. I'll double React and Coordination.

Cool, now I'm 14 and going to high school. Oh, this is funny. Going to a parochial high school requires that you're a "strong believer." Um, from experience, no it doesn't. Let's stick with public, for now. I'll take Biology, Overdo, Charisma, and Research, and I'll double Charisma and Research.

OK, now college. I'm only middle class, so I can't get into liberal arts college without a roll for a waiver. At some point I should think about this guy and who he is. Let's do that now.

Hamish Link Benter (his parents were big video games fans and "Hamish" is a family name; he goes by "Ben") had a pretty standard middle class upbringing. His parents both had jobs, neither of which they were especially enthused by, and Ben attended the public schools in his home town (I'm thinking California, but not one of the more interesting cities - someplace that was OK during the 90s but has a growing meth problem now). Ben wanted to go to college, but his father thoroughly freaked him out about taking loans and he sure as shit wasn't getting a scholarship, so he went to a trade school instead. Let's say...barkeep. (In California it's legal for people to serve alcohol in restaurants at 18.) That's two years, and I'll take Endear and Adapt as skills.

So then at 20, he can work as a barkeep. Every six years in that profession, I get a new skill, and every two years, I can check for a promotion (which also raises my Lifestyle). The only dice I see mentioned in this book are d20s, which sucks because I'm trying to roll under a 7, but whatevs.

So let's assume Ben works as a bartender for three years. That puts him at 23, and I can check for a promotion when he's 22. Just a moment. Made it! So if I'm reading this right, I'm middle class now.

For skills, I'll take Drinking, Business, and Convince, and double Convince. Now I've gotta decide what I want to do. Stay a barkeep? Try and go to college? I get the chance for a promotion next year. I'll stick it out for one more year and take Operate as a skill. Nope, no promotion. Ben is 24. Seems like he can manage two more years as a bartender. To dip back into the fiction, I'll say Ben went from working at restaurants to working at a wine bar. Tips are better, hours are better, and he's got time to read more, but he's not really interested in viticulture so he needs to do something else with his life eventually. Psychology and Business are my skills, and rolling for promotion...nope. OK, fuck this. Ben's gonna try and go to college. I can roll for a waiver. Yes, rolled a 1! (Don't say that often.) Got into college. Four years, four skills, and I graduate with a degree. I'll take Research, Drinking, INT, and Biology, and double Research and INT.

I figure Ben went to college and majored in Biology (something he'd always been interested in), and did OK his first year, but his sophomore year he fell in with some younger, dumber students and wound up partying too much (and they loved him because he was a bartender and could mix drinks for them). He buckled down his junior year and actually became a good student, and graduated on time, but it was close.

Last one, because I want to be done with this: Age 30. Let's do some supernatural shit. Ben graduates from college, a little late in life, and is considering grad school, going back to bar tending, or figuring out what else he might do, when he starts dating a girl named Abby. Abby is Wiccan (Wicca is a big thing in this game), and Ben isn't, but he's pretty familiar with it (I figure his mother might have been Wiccan for a while). Abby and Ben live together for a bit, and then Abby drops a bombshell - she's been sizing him up to become a Hunter. There are monsters in the world. You're a wizard, Harry, whatever.

Ben thinks it's nonsense at first, but then Abby shows him - there's magic out there, but also vampires and demons and so forth. Ben figures that he's got very little else on his plate, and agrees. He's still not taking it terribly serious, but that's gonna change hella quick.

So as a Hunter, I get +3 to all five of my base attributes, 4 Luck points, and access to the "Dash" skill, whatever that means. I think that'll do it, I just gotta transfer this shit to the real sheet.

Ben is white, tall, sallow, and has thinning sandy hair and deep set blue eyes. He favors knit shirts with big sleeves that he can roll up, and blue jeans (he hates wearing an apron). Since becoming a Hunter he's filled out and gotten more physically fit, and he's extremely likable (his CHA is maxed, y'see).

OK, I have to say, I gotta take back some of the shit I was talkin' about this game. I still have niggles (it's badly organized, the setting isn't explained well, the book needs an editor, skills are way too granular) but the worksheet actually does make it easier to slide characters back to whatever year. That's a cool feature.

That's me done, anyway!