Character Creation: Westward

Last character of July. Normally that would mean only a week or so before going back to work, but who fuckin' knows anymore.

The Game: Westward

The Publisher: Wicked North Games

Degree of Familiarity: None

Books Required: Just the one

 

I backed this game on Kickstarter waaaaay back in 2012 or so, and just never got 'round to flipping through it. It's billed as "steampunk western", but reading it, it's got a lot to do with survival in a hostile world (which plays in to western, I suppose) and big ol' steampowered mechs. Which, sure, sounds good. The writing didn't hook me, but life's like that. I'm sure it's perfectly playable, uses a d6 dice pool system. 

 

Anywhichway, let's see. Three methods of character creation. Hey, these look familiar. Basically, pre-made (although it's characters the GM makes, not pregens included in the book), templates, or build from scratch. Well, I'm going the third route, thanks.

Very weird couple of paragraphs about naming characters, including a note that some players play the same character (or use the same name) in every game, which makes me itch, and then a note that maybe you'll be famous someday and the character sheet with your name on will be worth something. Man what.

The first thing I'm apparently meant to choose is trade. There's a list of examples. Now, does having a particular trade mean anything, mechanically, or is it purely conceptual? Looks like the latter, since you can make them up. Well, I think I'll go with "blaster," someone with an interest in explosives. Mining is a big deal around here, so that could be a kind of career trajectory. I'll name him Olaf Blom, sounds like a name you'd associate with things going "boom."

"Race." All of them are human, so is "race" the word we want, here? I dunno. Well, kinda, because "misanthropes" have mutations that set them outside the human race. But the book also says they're killed on sight, so are they really a playable character type? Weird. Anyway, Olaf is a Settler. He lives outside the walls of society and out on the frontiers.

10 dice to throw around in Attributes, 7 dice in Skills. And the Skills are printed on the sheet, hallelujah. Where should my points go to be a blaster? Well, "Demolitions" is a Skill under Aptitude, so evidently I want some points there. I'll put four points there, boosting it to 5 (Attributes start at 1), two points into Intellect and Persona (I want Olaf to be crusty but genial), and one point each into Dexterity and Strength.

Now for Skills. Obviously I want Demolitions. Oh, wait, all of the Skills under a given Attribute already have ratings equal to that Attribute, so I've already got a 5 in Demolitions. Well, I'll put two more there. One each in Engineering, Survival, Willpower, Stamina, and Throw (GRENADE!).

And now I have seven Cinema Points, which I can save for use in play (nah) or use to buy Features (yah). Mostly I think I'm looking at Creation Only or General Features, just because the other types tend to be too costly.

Well, I think I'll spend 3 and take Gizmo, which gives me a +7 to Aptitude Skills. I'll spend 1 and take A Way with Words (+8 to Languages), just because it's something you wouldn't necessarily associate with a dude that blows things up. And I'll spend the last three on Calibrate; I can make an Engineering roll and then get a +12 to any roll with technology for 3 rounds.

Beyond that, just gear, but I'm not getting into that. I'd want Olaf to have explosive equipment and mining gear, maybe a map with some potential sites marked off.

So, background stuff. Olaf was raised in a mining town, and demonstrated an aptitude for engineering and chemistry, but also a good ear for dialect and language. When he was small, he picked up on a stranger's quirky turns of phrases and identified him as a Colonial spy, looking to help the bigger cities move in an absorb the town's mine and resources. Rather than expose the guy, though, he blackmailed him into helping him get some formal training in blowing shit up, and then exposed him anyway, and then legged it the hell out of town and left everyone to figure out the mess on their own. That's a situation that might very well come home to roost one day, but Olaf is over 40 now and he's never seen anyone from his own town or anyone come looking for him, so he figures it blew over.

Olaf travels, selling his services to towns that need mines opened up or obstructions removed. He's crusty-looking, has a big old beard and a full head of hair that won't cooperate, but anyone thinking him a crazy old prairie coot has another think coming. Olaf is shrewd and attentive, and he finds that people tend to assume that crazy old prairie coots don't lie, which he's happy to play to his advantage.

That'll do it!

Masks: Into the Light, Issue Four

Superheroes, light-eating monsters, and so on. Here's last time.

The heroes arrive at the unassuming house in the suburbs belonging to the supervillain Maestro - or what's left of it, anyway, after Pyre blew it up. Moonlight and Jade Eagle arrive as he's reconstituting, along with Conners and a contingent of AEGIS agents. Conners dresses Pyre down a bit, and tells him that if he can't stop himself turning into explosive rocks, he really needs to stay away from populated areas. Moonlight, meanwhile, surveys the house, and realizes that there's movement in the basement.

He descends into the basement, now open to the sky because the house is mostly gone, wondering why any Photovores aren't just gorging on the sunlight. Two AEGIS agents are looking around, and then suddenly one gets yanked into the dark. Moonlight sees the smaller Photovores force his mouth open and one crawls inside.

Jade Eagle and Pyre drop into the basement as well, and see the growing threat. Pyre, rather unwisely, throws a bunch of fire around, hoping to burn the Photovores to ask, but the creatures just feast on the light and get bigger. Jade Eagle grabs the other agent and tosses him out of the basement, but the creatures swarm her and try to possess her. Pyre changes into a big rock and blocks the light coming in to the basement, and Moonlight stretches out his arm and smashes all the Photovores against the wall. Pyre drops down in rock form and crushes them, leaving only the possessed agent. Jade Eagle quickly knocks him out, and Conners locks him up in a special "coffin" meant to block out light.

Jade Eagle finds a trap door in the basement, and figures that possessed-Maestro might have escaped that way. She opens it and calls the others, who head down into the dark. The tunnel opens up into some of the disused subway tunnels beneath Halcyon City (the city has a subway/monorail system, but these tunnels aren't in use), and in a big hub, they find hundreds of tiny Photovores all gathered around a fire, slowly suckling on the light.

Pyre turns into a rainstorm and extinguishes the fire, and a horrible voice in the dark says "why would you starve my children?" The characters panic and run, Pyre down the nearest tunnel, Moonlight and Jade Eagle back the way they came. Pyre keeps running, hearing noises behind him as the Photovores chase him, and runs out into a functioning subway station. He breaks up into the light, and flies back to his ship.

Moonlight and Jade Eagle, meanwhile, head back through the trap door. Jade Eagle looks for Conners, but is told she headed back to the facility (where Crate, Vortex, and presumably other villains are kept). She calls Conners to tell her about the infestation below the city, but something is wrong - Conners is distant and polite, as opposed to the caustic and prickly person she usually is. Jade Eagle guesses that Conners has been possessed, and informs the other agents, ordering them to help contain the problem. One of the agents says that he can initiate a lockdown of the facility, but Conners could override it. Jade Eagle says that at least would buy them some time, and flies off to the facility. En route, they contact Pyre, and he meets them in his now-repaired ship.

Pyre emerges in a battle-mech (his father's; his father, it turns out, is a general on his planet). Jade Eagle smashes through the blast doors, annoyed that no one listened to her warnings (and wanting to clear her Angry condition). Inside, the heroes are met by a bunch of possessed agents, including Conners...and next to her is Maestro.

"Take them alive," he says, and the agent-Photovores leap to the attack.

Movie #582: Rango

Rango is an animated western starring Johnny Depp, Ned Beatty, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina, Stephen Root, Harry Dean Stanton, and Timothy Olyphant. It's...mighty weird.

Our hero is a chameleon (Depp) living in a terrarium with a bunch of plastic toys as his only companions. He's got the soul of a thespian, but no audience and is pretty lonely, and then his tank goes flying out of the car and shatters, landing him smack in the middle of the desert. Through all of this, and indeed the whole movie, a Mariachi band/Greek chorus of burrowing owls (led by George DelHoyo) tells us that the lizard is the doomed hero of the story. I should mention, too, that while the lizard is getting flung across traffic, he briefly ends up on the hood of the car from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, driven by Depp's character Raoul Duke. Just in case you thought this movie was a kid's movie.

Anyway, the lizard winds up in the tiny, drought-ridden town of Dirt (hey, second movie in a row with a tiny town suffering from a drought), where through a series of wacky coincidences and his own propensity for acting, winds up killing a red-tailed hawk that was terrorizing the town and choosing the name "Rango" for himself. The townspeople take to him, the Mayor (Beatty) names him sheriff, and he goes on to bumblefuck his way through the town's water crisis and the Mayor's evil scheme to destroy the Old West by controlling access to water. Rango even meets the Man With No Name (Olyphant) as part of a vision quest, and comes away with the extremely meta wisdom that "no man can walk out on his own story."

And meta this movie is, holy shit. From the owls that slip in and out of the reality of the movie to Dirt being but a stone's throw from Las Vegas (another city in the desert made possible by water and risen to greatness by corruption and crime), to Rango's spiritual mentor Roadkill (Molina) telling him that crossing the highway to get to the "other side" is a metaphor, the movie is fully aware not only that it's a western, but that the tropes of a western exist within in, and most of those characters are pretty self-aware. Bill Nighy plays Rattlesnake Jake, a huge rattlesnake with a machine gun for a tail, who knows very well that he's the "black hat" of the story, but comes to respect Rango for taking on and fulfilling the role of the hero.

The movie is visually impressive. One thing I like is that the proportions of the animals are, if not fully accurate, at least considered. Rattlesnake Jake isn't just a snake, he's a huge snake, in comparison to the fairly small Rango. The movie anthropomorphizes the animals, obviously, but we still mostly get some sense of what they really are. It works better with some than others; Bad Bill (Ray Winstone) is obviously a Gila monster and moves like one would on its hind legs, but Beans (Fisher), Rango's love interest, is some kind of generic lizard, and her species doesn't come across as strongly.

Rango reminds me a lot of Dead Man, and that's not a bad thing. It's a very weird movie, and if you go into it thinking it's a kid's movie, you're going to be very confused. Go into it thinking it's a western that fell into a vat of meta and it's a lot more comfortable.

My Grade: A-

Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Rat Race

Legend of the Elements: Too Much Metal for One Hand

Last night we finally got "together" and played Legend of the Elements. Here's last time.

(As an aside, having now watched the first season-and-a-half of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I can now say that this game isn't so much wearing its influence on its sleeve as wearing a shirt made from the skin of its influence. And that's fine, it's just a little jarring to look at the Watershaper moves and realize, oh, shit, this is totally Kitara.)

The characters talk amongst themselves and decide that they need to get a better handle on what's happening at the Temple. They split up and go to chat with the various members of the Kestrel's Talons. Khatun finds Citla, the Talon watershaper, as she's doing a lesson for some of the initiates. Khatun asks to watch, and Citla graciously says she can, and then opens an orate metal box and shapes a volume of shiny, metallic liquid.

Khatun has seen this stuff before, but isn't familiar with it. Citla tells her it's "quicksilver," and reminds her students that while it looks like water, you can't shape it using watershaping - it's metal. Also, it's toxic, so don't touch it. She passes it around so her students can practice, and then returns it to the box.

Khatun asks her about the fascination with metal, and Citla tells her that quicksilver is perfected water. Khatun balks and demonstrates her powers of ice-shaping, but Citla scoffs and shatters the ice sculpture with well-placed shards of metal from her sleeves. Khatun lowers the temperate until the metal cracks, pointing out that subtlety and precision trump brute force, but Citla scoffs and implies that this temperature manipulation is brute force.

Gerde finds Lang, the Talons' earthshaper, sitting near the waterfall (inkfall). She asks him about the Talons' philosophy and why their focus on metal; after all, you can't eat it and it's not as useful as the other elements. Lang disagrees. To them, metal is the most useful element. It's an equalizer, because anyone can use metal to improve their lives and work the world around them. Metal, he claims, is the future. Gerde says that this makes for imbalance, putting one element above the others, but Lang claims that this is, balance, because metal is above the others. She asks how he would present the universe, if not a wheel with each spoke equal, and he shows her how the whole mountain hums in harmony when the metal in it vibrates. Gerde takes his point, but is still troubled.

Ember finds the Wounded Man and Asht, the fireshaper of the Talons, where the main Temple used to be. She asks about the spiritual changes, Sable splitting into two monkeys, but they take the position that this is an improvement, an evolution of the spirit. The Wounded Man points out that physical changes to a place alter the spiritual makeup; if, for instance, a village were to be burned down, the spirits there would certainly change (this rather pointed barb is not lost on Ember).

Feng, meanwhile, finds Barnu, who is washing the ink off his face at the living quarters. He apologizes for injuring Barnu, and posits that Barnu isn't a shaper, but rather a smith. Barnu confirms this, and Feng asks why he uses a staff rather than a sword or an ax. Barnu says that it's mostly to avoid making a mess.

The heroes reconvene that evening over dinner, and agree that the Talons' philosophy seem wrong and dangerous. They also worry about where the masters of this place have gone. If they left voluntarily, surely some students would know about it? Feng summons Spot, the dog-spirit companion of Master Diaf, and asks where the master is. Spot doesn't know, and he's been trying to sniff out his master, but something always gets in the way. Feng offers to help, and the characters go after the dog. They get as far as the living quarters, but a bunch of the initiates are playing instruments (chimes, gongs, and other metal things, of course). Spot flops over and whines, unable to handle the noise. Feng takes on the burden and immediately goes painfully deaf, but Spot is able to continue and leads them out the back, down a hill, and to a crevasse where the Temple dumps its trash and waste. Spot sits on the edge and howls - there, he says, is Master Diaf.

Gerde wades out into the filth and retrieves a corpse. The characters are horrified, not only by the apparent murder the the disposal in the trash. Khatun washes the corpse off and checks it for signs of cause of death. She finds no wounds, but Diaf's tongue is black. Apparently, he was poisoned. Feng guesses that the poison in question might be quicksilver.

The characters decide to wait until morning and confront the whole school together, along with the Talons. They realize that if they give the Talons time to spin this, they'll probably be able to get the students on their side. Feng further decides to summon Diaf's spirit so that he can directly accuse his murderer.

And come the morning, the characters hear a crowd gathered where the main Temple was. Now, instead, there's a huge metal...thing, shining in the morning sun and belching off metallic smoke. The Wounded Man offers the secrets of metalshaping for anyone who takes the oath, and an initiate steps forward and swears to uphold the "Sacred Forge."

Before anyone else can, though, Ember summons thunder to get their attention, and Feng calls up Diaf's spirit. He roars and accuses the Wounded Man. The Wounded Man tries to talk his way out, but the characters notice that Lang, Mumet, and Asht seem shocked by the revelation, while Citla, Barnu, and the Wounded Man close ranks. The Wounded Man touches the Sacred Forge and a horde of silver monkeys swarm over the students, while he and his two compatriots try and escape.

The characters aren't about to let that happen, however. Gerde blasts rock into the air and block's Barnu's exit, Khatun freezes Citla solid, and Ember calls down lightning at the Wounded Man. He throws something made of metal from this sleeve and grounds the lightning, but Ember follows up with her old standby, fire, and burns him. He leaps forward and strikes her, but she retaliates and knocks her right out. Feng, meanwhile, enters the fray and disarms Barnu. He uses his own metalshaping power and binds up Barnu with his own weapon.

The threat over, the three killers are bound in not-metal. The others talk with the characters, and Asht says that they're going to split up for a while and go and reconnect with their main elements. Gerde tells Lang that her village could use an earthshaper to help with planting, and he agrees to go there. Feng suggests that after they complete their meditations, maybe they could return and instruct here, but, y'know, without the maniacal focus on metal? Asht says that would be good, and mentions too that the Wounded Man replaced their previous spiritshaper, Citla's sister, Ahru (whom the characters have met).

The characters decide to head to Greycliff to find one of the masters from the Temple who did leave. Next time, then, we're city-bound.

Character Creation: Mythos World

And back we go into the spooky world of Lovecraftian Mythos.

The Game: Mythos World

The Publisher: Diceless Hero Games

Degree of Familiarity: None with this game, some with other Cthulhu-related games, quite a bit with PbtA games

Books Required: Just the one

 

I just finished a playthrough of Sinking City, which was fun, though I could have done without the combat sections. Anyway, got me in the mood to run Trail of Cthulhu, which probably isn't going to happen anytime soon, and I already did a character for both that and tremulus, so here we are at Mythos World.

Mythos World looks more like Dungeon World than tremulus, and as I was reading the basic moves, I thought, boy, these are kinda boring. But after reading the whole book, I dunno. I don't think I'd rather run or play this than Trail or, if we're in the mood of PbtA, tremulus, but it doesn't look bad, just a little bland.

Anyway, on we go.

As with most PbtA games, we start by choosing a playbook, here broken out by profession. I actually know what I want to do this time; I want to play the Author and say that my character is a prolific writer of pulps. His stuff isn't necessarily very good, but he writes like crazy and it's not bad, so he sells pretty well (I actually picture the character as being much like Patton Oswalt's conception of what the writer of Death Bed: The Bed That Eats was: "Reach down, God, gimme a high-five!").

Anyway, my author's name is J. Ulster Burr (folks just call him "Burr" most of the time). Choosing his look, I'll go with horn-rimmed glasses (which he's predisposed toward taking off dramatically), a top hat, and a petite mustache.

For my attributes, I've got -1, 0, 1, 1, 2 to distribute. I'll put the 2 in Empathy (this is not a reserved, quiet writer, this is a loud, boisterous writer), 1 in Intelligence, 1 in Might, 0 in Willpower, and -1 in Speed. That sets my Wealth at 2, which is fine.

For my passion, I pick "I want to write the most frightening novel ever written." Perhaps some sort of death-bed...?

For equipment, I pick...hmm. A library membership, and a jacket and bowtie (I also get a typewriter, a notebook, and writing instruments).

My starting moves are just like my hero (I can substitute my Empathy for Might or Speed if I'm emulating Ludlow Cross, the hero of many of my pulp novels) and keen observer (I can ask questions without using the associated "get info" move, which I don't actually like because it breaks the "when [trigger] then [move]" arrangement, but whatever).

Then I get one Professional Move. Decisions, decisions. I'll take salon (I get together with other writers and gab about shit, which can give me info). I also like weird tales, but I think it'd make more sense to have Burr get that move after he's been on some adventures and seen some weirdness.

Last thing would be connections, but y'know, just me. That'll actually do it, I think. I picture Burr as very enthusiastic, very energetic and gung-ho, utterly convinced that his stories are awesome and that he's a Serious Author. The trick would be playing him as keen, rather than overbearing, because I don't see him as a Tommy Wiseau so much as an Ed Wood, if that makes sense. In the movie he could be played by Jack Black, if we want to see him just starting out, by Harvey Guillen.

 

Character Creation: Jumpers

Is it a movie with Hayden Christensen? Is it a sweater? Is it a Third Eye Blind song? NO! It's an RPG.

The Game: Jumpers
The Publisher: Pawn & Hex 
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Just fell down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to remember where I got this PDF, since I didn't buy it on DTRPG and it's not like me to pirate games. Finally figured out that the author bought ad space in curse the darkness, a lifetime ago. (So dramatic.)

Anyway, finally getting around to reading this game, and it's about people who zip through the multiverse without any control over where they're going. The book itself has the conceit that the Jumpers RPG actually exists as an RPG within the same multiverse as the game is actually happening, so it has little notes from various jumpers along the way, who are commenting on how surreal it is to see the life they live depicted as entertainment. I actually really like that, both the "running commentary" thing (see also: Monsters) and the meta-stuff of having the game as a game and also as "reality."

What I don't like is the conceit that the players create themselves as characters and then have adventures, but that's just a personal preference. The reasons for doing it make sense in context (and mostly boil down to: it's far easier to answer the question "what do you do?" when the "you" in question is actually "you"), but it's still a form of play I don't enjoy much.

The character creation for this game is at the end of the book, which is an interesting design choice. I have to say, too, that as I'm reading, the game grows on me. Mostly it's the interstitial comments, not the meta-commentary so much (there are whole paragraphs with the word "BORING" written on them, which is a bold move from a marketing standpoint), but just the idea of the game. You're effectively multi-dimension hobos, no idea when or where you're going to go next. Reminds me a lot of The Time Traveler's Wife, actually.

So, character creation. I ain't making myself, but as with the last time I made a character in a game that asked me to do that, I'll make someone with whom I have some shit in common. So let's say my character is someone like me at 30. Married, recently unemployed, a kid on the way, not at all the kind of person who would relish the idea of suddenly vanishing into the ether...but shit ain't fair.

I'll say my character was employed, until recently, by a dot-com as a staff artist (meaning he became a jumper around the early 2000s when the bubble burst). This, of course, is a pretty wide deviation from my own skill set, since I can't art my way out of a wet paper bag, but what the hey. So how do I start the chargen process? Attributes, I'll bet.

Yep! But, appropriately, I can set the Attributes to where they would logically be (see, if you're going to tell people to make themselves as characters, you should definitely not make chargen random or point-buy, and buckle in for some arguments). Well, my hypothetical artist has worked at a desk for the last however many years, so since 2 or 3 is average, here, I'll make Strength, Stamina, and Will 2 and Agility, Intelligence, and Perception 3.

That sets Derived Attributes; Toughness is 4, Athleticism is 5, Comprehension is 5, Focus is 5, Intuition is 6, Speed is 5.

Now, the last set of Attributes are magical in nature, and since "magic" is hard to gauge in the real world where it doesn't exist, they recommend doing these randomly. So I shall. Going in order for Control, power, and Awareness, I get 5(!), 5 (holy shit), and 4. I'm a goddamn wizard. Basically this means I have a shitload of aptitude for magic but I wouldn't realize that until I started jumping. Cool.

Pools! More dice involved. I take the levels (totals) from the three categories of Attributes and roll them to see how many Health, Stability, and Magic points I get. That'd be 7, 8, and 14 dice, respectively. So, 28 Health, 32 Stability, 46 Magic (kinda shit roll there at the end).

Skills, then. Again, I just pick what's appropriate and at the levels (or LVLs, as this game says) that make sense. That's...daunting. I can't decide if this would harder to do for a real person or for a dude I'm just making up.

Well, right off the bat, my character has an art or art history degree, so Art History and Drawing make sense. He's got to be able to work on computers, so Computer Use and Computer: Art Software (I'm sure there's a better name for it but it's really not in my wheelhouse, so good enough). History of the European and American variety, as let's assume he minored in History. Literature, sure. Piloting: Car, Medicine: First Aid (took a class when he found out his wife was expecting), and Research.

Anything else? I think that's good, actually. So how do we do LVLs? They range 1-10, where 1 is a very basic understanding of the skill and 10 is being a world-class authority. I feel like the range breaks down a little at the 7/8/9 range, because you can be highly trained in something, do it for a living, and still be absolutely shit at it, but that's fine. For my guy, I'll say that Drawing is 8 (he's good at it and he does it for a living, plus he has years of practical experience and education in it), Art History and Art Software are 7 (likewise), Computer Use is 6 (not as much academic training, but lots of practice and he stays current), Histories are both 5 (fairly extensive schooling, but he's forgotten some), Literature, Research, and Car are 4 (Lit was never his primary interest, and he drives as well as a normal person in ~2000), First Aid is 3 (one class, never used in earnest).

Weight Capacity is 40 lbs, Jump Capacity is 900 lbs. What on earth does that mean? It means I can carry 40 lbs without strain, but I can jump with up to 900 lbs of shit. Not that I can remotely carry that much, but holy shit. I'll have no problem taking things with me, if I want to.

Now, the next few steps say to complete after the first jump, but eh. Let's name him Gene Kimbrough. He's 30, white, brown hair, blue eyes, just shy of 6 foot, getting a little chubby round the middle. He's got a tribal tattoo around his left bicep (it was the 90s, shut up).

At present, he's got: Blue slacks, button-down shirt, blue and gray tie, black shoes, black socks, wallet, car keys, cell phone, pen, wedding ring, black leather belt, tin of mints. That's it. Gene was at a job interview. He left the interview (felt it went pretty well, too), got his parking validated, walked out to the parking lot, and...faded out. Will Gene ever get home again and get to meet his impending kiddo? Probably not, based on what I'm reading. Kinda tragic, really.

And that'll do it. That was actually a lot easier than I was thinking, based on the sheet. Books, cover, etc.

Movie #581: The Rainmaker

The Rainmaker is a 1956 adaptation of the play of the same name, starring Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Lloyd Bridges, Cameron Prud'Homme, Earl Holliman, Wendell Corey, and Yvonne Lime.

Starbuck (Lancaster) is a con artist and grifter who makes his living selling useless weather-related trinkets - wooden bowls to repel tornadoes and the like. He pulls into a tiny rural town languishing under a drought, and sets his sights on the Curry family.

Lizzy Curry (Hepburn), meanwhile, keeps house for her brothers Noah (Bridges) and Jim (Holliman), and their father H.C. (Prud'Homme). They're trying to marry her off, as she's approaching "spinster" age, but she's smart and has no particular ability to flirt, so it's rough going. The local deputy, a divorcee named File (Corey), becomes the next target of the family's matchmaking, but he doesn't want to marry and sees right through their bullshit.

Ironically, then, more bullshit arrives in the form of Starbuck, who pulls in to the Curry ranch and charms Jimmy immediately (Jimmy isn't too bright), and promises rain for $100. H.C. pays it even though he's fully aware what Starbuck is, maybe out of desperation for rain, or maybe because he's just trying to make something happen for Lizzy or put the overbearing Noah in his place a little.

Starbuck eventually opens up to Lizzy and the two of them, um, spend some time alone together in the tack room in the barn (there's kissing, and certainly more intimacy implied, but never shown or explicitly referenced). File shows up to arrest Starbuck, but the Currys convince him to let him go, and both Starbuck and File make proposals to Lizzy, who wisely recognizes that Starbuck would only want her if he can change her into something flashy and dazzling, while File would love for who she is. And then it rains, obviously.

Rainmaker is based on a play, and it shows. The action is very much focused around the characters, their dialog, and their relationships. The performances here are characteristically impressive (Hepburn's a standout, but when isn't she), though I do kind of feel like there are some pretty sudden tonal shifts during scenes, characters going from pleasant conversation to snappish and standoffish without much transition. That might be an acting style of the time or an import from stage performance, though, I don't know. In any case, I think the movie holds up, it's very watchable, and Starbuck is fun in that he seems to take the very wrong lesson away from everything Lizzy says to him.

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium-low

Next up: Rango

Masks: Into the Light, Issue Three

Heroes, ahoy! Last time here.

It's Saturday! Neither Charlie nor Selena need to go to class today. Charlie, therefore, takes the laptop they took from Dr. Crate's lab and heads over to his sanctuary to try and retrieve the data. Selena needs to catch up on some homework, and Pyre is also at the sanctuary, working on his ship.

As he's working, Charlie notices the lair's proximity alarms going off. Two vanloads of dudes in tactical gear, but without any noticeable logos or ID, are surrounding the building (what is this, Portland? Too soon?). Pyre changes himself into air and flows out to have a look, and Charlie watches through the cameras. Figuring that they're probably here for the laptop, and not wanting to get on anyone's bad side if they're from the government, Charlie calls upon his darker powers to enable a moment of telepathy with Pyre and Selena. He tells them what's going on, and tells Pyre to flow back into the lair, take the laptop, and skedaddle.

Pyre does so, but turns into a cloud and takes the laptop with an updraft rather than just carrying it. Charlie, meanwhile, changes into Moonlight, goes outside and asks "can I help you?"

The "agent" in charge tells him that they're here for the laptop. Moonlight asks to see a warrant, and the guy rattles off a bunch of legalese explaining why they don't need one. At this point, the guy looks at a display on his wrist and notes that the laptop is leaving, waves to his men, and they mount up and head out.

Jade Eagle meets Pyre in the sky and he hands off the laptop, and they fly to a nearby park. Jade Eagle changes back into Selena and sits on a bench. Moonlight arrives shortly thereafter and also goes back to his civvies, and then accesses his dark powers once more to instantly copy the data on the laptop to a flash drive (doing so, however, brings his doom closer).

The dudes in the tac gear have followed them, however, and the leader demands the laptop. Charlie hands it over, and Selena returns as Jade Eagle. She realizes she knows this guy, but isn't sure where from. She tries to figure it out, but he just pulls up his mask and tries to bully her into leaving him alone.

Realizing, though, that these guys aren't here in any official capacity, Jade Eagle flies straight at him and grabs the laptop. He unleashes some kind of static blast that hurls Jade Eagle into the air, but she's got the computer. Pyre changes himself into lightning and strikes at the guy, but the lightning just moves around him and grounds next to him.

Jade Eagle, reflecting on the advice she got from her predecessors about minimizing property damage, flies off, hoping to lure the guy to a less populated area. Moonlight follows, assisting her in this endeavor. Pyre changes into a stormcloud and tags along, but the leader of the dudes taps some controls on his wrist. Rockets on his elbows and boots fire, and he flies, if rather unsteadily, in pursuit.

Jade Eagle leads him to an athletic field nearby, which fortunately isn't in use today. She swoops around behind the guy and tackles him, and he yelps in surprise as his rockets misfire. Jade Eagle recognizes the voice, at last: His name is Simon Spencer, aka Prodigy, the protege of Maestro, one of Jade Eagle's greatest foes. Selena got in trouble because she and Simon went on a date once.

They land (after Prodigy promises to call off his troops), and Jade Eagle asks what the heck he's doing. Prodigy tells them that he's trying to get the laptop because he needs access to Dr. Crate's research. When asked why, he informs them that Maestro called him over last night, and he suspects Maestro has become a Photovore somehow.

This is bad news - the heroes were unaware that this was even possible. Jade Eagle proposes a truce with Prodigy, at least for the moment, so they can all work on this. He agrees, and takes the laptop from Moonlight to take back to his base. He turns up his nose at the idea of working with Moonlight; he works better alone. Moonlight, since he has a copy of the data, heads back to the sanctuary (with Pyre, who needs to finish his ship repairs). Jade Eagle, meanwhile, heads to AEGIS to speak with Agent Conners.

Charlie tries to make sense of the data, but this is next-level, theoretical physics, and Charlie is a high school sophomore. He messages Prodigy and asks for help, and Prodigy tells him that he wants to know what's in Maestro's basement (Maestro tried to lure him down there last night, but Prodigy sensed something off and skipped out). Prodigy tells Moonlight to "send the guy who can turn into air" over there to do some recon, and Moonlight, figuring that makes sense, ask Pyre to run that errand.

Pyre obligingly flies over to Maestro's evil lair (actually a very nice house in the 'burbs). He flows in, and then down to the basement, and immediately notices something wrong. The light just...stops about halfway down the stairs. The basement is pitch black. Rather than introduce any light, for fear of activating any lurking Photovores, Pyre changes himself into air and fills the room, sensing what's there that way. He discovers, to his horror, that the room contains hundreds of little creatures with lamprey-like teeth, and skin that seems to be made of darkness. He also finds a person, alive but comatose, in the corner.

Thinking heroically, he lifts the person out of the basement and carries him upstairs. However, as soon as they reach the light, the man's eyes snap open and reveal pure blackness. He rasps "join us", and a little darkness-monster leaps out of his mouth at Pyre.

Pyre, panicking, changes himself into rock, opting for the dullest, least shiny material he can think of. Unfortunately, the rock he picks is not native to Earth, and reacts explosively with the atmosphere. The house blows up.

Meanwhile, Jade Eagle is, somewhat grudgingly, admitted to see Dr. Crate (she tells Conners about the possibly infection of Maestro, and that greases the wheels a bit). She talks with Crate, who says that he might be able to figure out what's going on if he had his data and notes. He mentions, though, that his infection was an anomaly, as far as he knew, a freak occurrence. He does tell her that Vortex, the villain the team apprehended a few days ago, opens gates to the Lightless Void, and might know something of use.

Jade Eagle asks Conners to talk to Vortex, and she points her down the hall. Vortex gloats at her, of course, and mentions that it's always the same: Heroes always come to seek advice and knowledge from villains. Jade Eagle tries to talk tough, but her voice cracks and it comes out whinier than she wants, and Vortex just laughs at her. Jade Eagle's insistence that if the Photovores come to Earth, they'll destroy the world doesn't seem to matter to him, and he asks what's in it for him if he helps her.

Jade Eagle asks Conners what she can offer, and Conners tells her she can offer whatever she wants. Jade Eagle isn't comfortable lying, however, and tells Vortex that while freedom isn't an option, she's sure they can figure something out. Vortex finally agrees, if Jade Eagle gets Casey Summers, her immediate predecessor, to get on TV and admit that Vortex beat him.

Just then, an alarm in the sanctuary sounds - an explosion somewhere in the city. Moonlight, with a sinking feeling, checks the map, and yep, it's where he sent Pyre. Conners gets a notification, too, and Jade Eagle and AEGIS head over as well. Next time, looks like some exciting stuff is going down.

Character Creation: Blue Planet

Not the BBC show, but the RPG where you can play a frickin' orca.

The Game: Blue Planet
The Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games and Biohazard Games, which would make this the 2nd ed, I think
Degree of Familiarity: None. Never played it
Books Required: I think I just need the Player's Guide to make a character, though I have the Moderator's Guide if I need it

Blue Planet details life on the planet Poseidon, which is mostly ocean (as the name would imply). Some years back, a colony ship from Earth went through a wormhole just past Pluto that led there, and then was promptly ignored by the rest of the planet because they were dealing with a global catastrophe of some kind. Fast forward until Earth gets its collective head out of its ass and checks up on Poseidon, and actually the colonists have done very well for themselves, establishing cities and so on. So obviously more Earth-folk move out there, as it turns out there's a rich source of unobtanium on Poseidon (in-setting, it's called xenosilicates and it makes you immortal or something).

So with all of that, who are the characters? There's not a defined purpose to the game, just a setting and a lot of potential hooks. And that's fine; if I were going to run this game, I'd probably present a few options to players for a group and have them make characters that way, rather than having them all make characters and trying to glue them together.

Anyway, let's do this! First thing I'm meant to do is figure a concept and discuss it with my hypothetical GM, but y'know, it's just me. I do need to figure out a power level: Everyday, Exceptional, or Elite. I think I'll shoot for the middle and be Exceptional.

As for concept, I feel like I've made a bunch of medical/cleric-y sort of characters of late. I do sort of feel like making someone who would take part in a search-and-rescue team, though. So instead of a medic, I'll say that he's a native Poseidoner, and while a lot of such folks weren't especially happy when Recontact happened (folks from Earth showing up), my guy was more or less indifferent. It's a big planet. (So he's a little naive, then.)

Anyway, he was a wanderer and explorer, and as the world started changing he got recruited to help a GEO team find an exploratory group that had gone missing. They found the people safe and sound (mostly), and my guy was offered a permanent job, but he turned it down. He's happy to freelance, and over time he's pretty much worked with the GEO team (which I think would the PC group), but he's not interested in being a total sellout. His father already won't let him hear the end of him working for GEO.

OK, that's a pretty solid start. Next thing is species. And here we have a bit of a flummox, because second+ generation Poseidon folks aren't exactly pure strain humans, but there's no option for just "native Poseidoner". One of the sample characters has "aquaform" as species, which is a subset of Genetic Redesign, so "aquaform" it is. That starts my Fitness at 1 and my Endurance at +1. Which is somewhat odd, because the listing for aquaform later in the book lists other bonuses. Guys, did you fuck this up?

Well, anyway, next step is to modify Attributes. I can do this point-buy or via random, and the random system looks weird to me, so I ain't gonna do it. I get three points to throw around, and I can get more by lowering Attributes. Zero is human average, and right now I'm zero in everything but Fitness. I figure this guy needs to be perceptive, personable, and steadfast to do what he does. I shall therefore spend my points in Agility, Awareness, and Presence to bump them all up to 1. Looks good.

Oh, OK, now I get it. I get to pick a genie mod package from later in the book. Feels like this still could have been figured in to the earlier table, but whatevs. Argh. OK, this says I get +1 to Fitness and Endurance, which is what I got in the chargen chapter, but then also adds to the Aquatics Skill and my swimming speed. Good grief. Let's look at the template again?

That's no help. Screw it, I ain't got all night. The chart says that 2-4 minor and/or 1-2 major biomods is about what I'd want. Does that mean on top of aquaform? WHO KNOWS. I'll say he has standard echolocation, too. Seems like something useful for someone searching for people underwater.

Next step: Abilities. There's...no place on the sheet to write these. Jesus, guys. Why is sheet design so hard? (He said to the 20 year old game.) Anyway, the only thing on the sheet from this section is the various senses, because I can have bonuses averaging out to my Awareness (which is 1). As such, I can put a +1 in, say, vision, and then if I wanted anything else to have a bonus, I'd have to have a -1 in something else. I'll just put the +1 in vision and call it a day.

Aptitudes are next. I get 2 superior and 4 strong. What does that mean? No clue. Let's see if it makes sense. Yeah, it kinda does. They're skill categories, so I guess I'd get a bonus to all the skills under a given Aptitude. Neat.

Well, for my superiors, I'll take Athletics and Survival. For strong, I'll take Medicine, Communication, Tech, and Command.

Skills. OK, this is somewhat elaborate. I get one origin package, two background, and...the book says either three or five professional, depending on power level, but that's not listed in the power level chart, and the rest of the section seems to assume five, so that's what we'll go with.

Packages are broken down into novice, specialist, and expert, which cost more of my package picks (so really that's just applicable to professional ones). Let's start with origin. Well, Native, obviously. So that gets me Aquaculture 1, Aquatics 2, Colonial Culture 2, Fishing 1, Native Culture 3, and Sailing 1. Good start.

Background: I'll take Native again (Aquaculture 1, Aquatics 1, Colonial Culture 1, Fishing 1, Native Culture 2, Navigation 1, Orienteering 1, Sailing 2) and...y'know, I'll take GEO. That gives me Bureaucracy 2, Computers 1, GEO Culture 3, History 1, Incorporate Culture 1, Language 1, Politics 1.

OK, then, professional packages. I think I want Survival at...hmm. I think I'll go specialist. That gets me this:

That eats two my slots, so I have three left. I don't think I want Medical, because that's a little more focused than I think this guy is. How about Athletics? I'll do that at Specialist as well:

Finally, I'll take Technical at Novice.

OK, now I've gotta collate all of this.

Aquaculture 2, Aquatics 8, Botany 2, Bureaucracy 2, Colonial Culture 3, Computers 3, First Aid 6, GEO Culture 3, History 1, Incorporate Culture 1, Fishing 5, Foraging 3, Hiding 4, Longarms 2, Meteorology 2, Mountaineering 3, Native Culture 5, Navigation 3, Orienteering 4, Language 1, Politics 1, Sailing 3, Sneaking 4, Tracking 3, Zoology 2, General Medicine 2, Pharmacology 2, Unarmed Combat 1, Throwing 4, Archery 4, Sports 4, Damage Control 2, Electronics 2, Lockpicking 2, Mechanics 2, Physics 1, Remote Operation 2

Woof. Now, my limit is 6, but my Aquatics is 8, does that mean anything? Doesn't say, so I'll assume I just lose them. I get 10 points to put wherever I'd like, too. Hmm. I'll put 4 into Psychology, I'll bump Unarmed Combat up to 5 (so that's 4, leaving me 2), and I'll put the other 2 into Remote Operations.

That's all the numbers out of the way. Next is "profile", which is personality-type stuff. First up is Goal. I see this character as not really aware of what he wants; he's got the potential to be a leader, and his family would love to see him step up, but he's in a life he enjoys. I think I'll go with Contentment, though I think that'd change in play.

Motivation. This is kinda why he does what he does, which is similar to Goal, but it's more about leading to action. (I get it, but it still seems a little redundant.) I think his motivation is Curiosity. He's always interested to see what kind of trouble people get into, and it's led to some fun adventures.

Attitude. Holistic is on the list, and I like it. He sees himself as part of Poseidon, and it's folly to think that one person can do anything but be part of that. This is, in part, why he isn't as pissed off about the Recontact as some folks (like his dad).

Player's Choice. This is...just something about him that I pick. Not really any restrictions here, so I'm gonna go with "Father's disapproval." It's an important part of his life, and one he'd like to fix.

Just the descriptive stuff. His name is Ryx Settler. Ryx is tall and slim (swimmer's build, obvs). His hair is naturally blue, his eyes are brown, and his skin holds a tan (not every aquaform does!). He gets some interesting pigment patches on his back if he gets too much sun; they don't hurt, and in fact they look pretty cool.

I think that'll do it! I could do equipment, but eh.

Character Creation: Amaranthine

This game always makes me think of this song by Enya, just because of the title.

The Game: Amaranthine
The Publisher: Machine Age Productions
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Amaranthine is a game in which you play folks who reincarnate a lot. The thrust of the game seems to be about the relationships that these characters have with each other and how they play out this time versus previous times, along with the usual RPG conceits of "interesting stuff happens". I have to admit that I didn't finish reading it, though I'd initially planned to. The first couple of chapters were interesting, and the opening fiction was actually pretty compelling, and then we hit the rules chapter and I just got really bored. I don't know if that's because it was later at night and I'd already taken my meds or if the system just isn't terribly well explained, but it's a shame, because up until then the game was poking my "run me" gland (ew) a little.

Ah, well, let's make a character and see what it looks like in the cold (actually very hot and humid) light of day (actually quite dim since it's storming like whoa).

We start off with Determine Your Legacy. This is expressed through a sentence; the sample of chargen (thank you) is "Kevin will always know war." The Legacy is meant to include some variation on "always" or "never," representing the character's journey through different lifetimes and how they play out. This also means I should think of a name. I think I'll call him "Jude."

Jude is always adrift. Kinda like that. It implies a rootless sort of existence, but not necessarily by choice. It might also mean that Jude has, in past lives, wound up shipwrecked more than once. Ooh, maybe in a previous life he was a lost Cosmonaut.

Anyway, next step is Determine Facts. This actually kinda requires a group, and then I'm meant to come up with four facts about each other character. Normally I'd skip this kind of thing in the chargen exercise, since I ain't got no one else, but I do kinda want to do it because it's a pretty important part of the process, it looks like. So I'll use Kevin, the sample character, since he's the protagonist of the opening and interstitial fiction and I think I know enough about it.

Well, Kevin's whole deal is that he always knows war, as mentioned. I'll say, therefore, I've always died before you. (There's a double meaning there; could be that I've always been dead before he has, or that I've died in front of him, either's good.) I once helped you escape. Sounds like a potentially good story there. I sometimes missed you. Simple, but I like it - implies that their paths don't always knowingly cross. Finally, I never understood you. Jude watches Kevin fall back into conflict again and again, and he just doesn't get it.

Traits! Our three Traits are Aggression, Perseverance, and Creativity. They each start at 1 and I have five more points to spend. I don't see Jude as especially Aggressive, so I'll leave that at one. Creativity can be 3, and Perseverance can be 4 - Jude's the kind of person who can survive being stuck on a life raft for months.

And now some Derived Traits. Each of these are the average of the two of the Traits. There are four on the sheet, but the book only describes three (it omits Eclipse). Weird. Oh, wait, it's detailed later in the book. Seems like it should at least be mentioned here, but since it's not, I shall ignore it for now. Anyway, Will is 3, Tenacity is 2, and Integrity is 2.

Competencies. These are...weird. Basically, they're useful traits, and I think that where the system kicks in you can risk them to some benefit, but that's about the point my eyes started glazing over so I don't remember the particulars. In any case, I get ten ranks of them, there's three different types, I have to have at least one rank of each, and each rank bumps one up through Basic, Intermediate, and Master. Hokay.

So, we've got Influences, Exceptions, and Aptitudes. Influences are pretty easy to understand, they're other people over whom the character has some influence. This does require I think about Jude's life in this incarnation a tad, though.

Well, let's say Jude is a drifter, but unlike previous lives, has no connection to the sea (or didn't, until recently, since if he knows Kevin he's in Venice Beach, I guess). Jude therefore can have Influence: Truckers, maybe? Or, ooh, how about Influence: US Marshals. I'll say he saved the life of a Marshal who was tracking down a fugitive through a hobo village. Nothing violent; the Marshal was about to walk off a cliff (this was out in the Southwest somewhere) and Jude grabbed him before he fell. They stay in contact.

Hmm. Now, according to the rules, a national group would be a Master-level Influence. Sure, why not. That's deeper than I was initially thinking, but if the level is dependent on the scope of the contact's ability, rather than the depth of the relationship, that's fine.

Exceptions, then. These I don't really get. They're meant to be "how the character is different from the average person," and the examples read like Aspects, but then there's a sidebar that talks about a character having her son as an Exception.

Well, I'm gonna say that Jude is Up for Anything (Basic) and that he Never Gets Lost (Intermediate). That means I've spent 6 points, so I'll put the other four in Aptitudes. Those are skill sets or occupations. "Serial Killer" is in the examples. Huh. Well, I don't think I want that for Jude, but how about "Drifter?" Or "Long-Haul Trucker?" Yeah, I like that better, that's a bit more focused.

One more. "Outdoorsman," I think, makes some sense. Intermediate in both, and that's that step done.

Approach. This is basically how the character views immortality, and it's divided into three pairs, which is somewhat confusing as you only get one. This also bumps up a Primary Trait by two, which means it raises the associated Derived Traits. Let's see. The three groups are Humanity, Memory, and Void. Jude definitely ain't the first. How about Memory? Nope, those don't thrill me. Void? The Solemn Approaches? Looking good.

Hmm, Eclipse Walkers don't shy away from magic even when it's dangerous, while Intemerate pretty much abstain as much as they can. I think the former is more in character for Jude, given that he's up for anything and doesn't swim against the stream so much as endure the rapids. That puts my Creativity up to 5, which bumps up Intensity and Will. It also gives me a couple of Maneuvers, but I don't see anyplace on the sheet to write them (boo). Oh, and, the other Approaches all include a physical shift (Intemerate, f'rex, tend to lose pigment someplace), but that's not listed for Eclipse Walkers. Alas.

Anamnesis and Dominion. These are traits that deal with how well Jude can wield memories of past lives, and how well he can wield the weird "spared by a quirk of fate" thing that the Amaranthine have going on. I feel like he could be more or less even, so I'll put four in Anamnesis and three in Dominion.

Magic! Back to ranks again. Four types of magic: Legerdemain (tricks), Sorcery (more impressive spells), Enchantment, and Thaumaturgy. I only get three ranks, and if I wanted to take Thaumaturgy I'd have to dump them all there, and that doesn't feel real appropriate for Jude. I do like Sorcery, though, so I'm gonna take Storms, Flight, and Identify, all at Basic. I can summon up fog, fly a little bit, and know facts about a target, which is always useful.

And that's it, actually. I'll say that Jude is in his early 30s. He wears jeans, thrift store t-shirts, and an old Navy pea coat he bought at an auction on fine Fall morning (just felt right; if I were playing this character there'd be a message from a past self sewn into the lining that he'll find when he needs it). He's got a bit of a tummy (too much driving and snacking), and his hair is thinning a bit. He wears a beard that needs trimming, and he drums his fingers when he's nervous, but his eyes are always calm.

That'll do it, I think.

Character Creation: Tenra Bansho Zero

Or, as I kept mistakenly calling it for a while, Tenro Banshee Zero.

The Game: Tenra Bansho Zero
The Publisher: Kotodama Heavy Industries 
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: The core book is actually two books, and they're both helpful, but I guess technically you only need the "Rules" book to make a character

TBZ is billed as "hyper-Asian kabuki fantasy" and yeah, that's about right. It does something that very few RPGs do for me: makes me want to play it (as opposed to my two most common responses, wanting to put it back on the shelf or to run it; it's pretty uncommon that I specifically want to play a game). The system looks really interesting and the world is fascinating, but I think it's a game that would benefit from a GM with a bit more grounding in the culture it's from, at least at first.

I thought at first that there wasn't a chargen system, because it encourages players to use a pre-gen at first, but no, there is indeed a way to create characters, so here we go.

Creating characters from scratch involves picking a few archetypes, and then doing a little customization. I know I want to play an annelidist. These are folks that host colonies of parasitic worms in their bodies, but typically act as healers and doctors. A lot of them travel, selling their services as they can, and that sounds like fun.

Since the "Annelidist" archetype is the one that's going to give me special powers, I'll take that first. That's a Karma cost of 65, it gives me 4 dots of the Wormcharm Skill (why do I gravitate to the "worm" parts of the settings of games, anyway?), makes my primary Attributes Body and Senses (meaning I should put 6 points into both of those, but that must be a later step), and gives me a package of starting Annelids, which I should look up. Oh, and I also get a Fate: Affection for Annelids. 

Ooh, that's dope as fuck. I have a giant centipede that lives in my guts that can leap out of my mouth and sting people, and I have bugs that can change my limbs into sharp weapons or fire quills from my flesh. And I have a colony of Rejuvenation Bugs, that can swim through my body and repair. All I gotta do is eat some rotten meat now and then. Oh, and blood. And animal meat.

Neat! OK, next Archetype. Well, Doctor/Healer sounds about right. That put my Notice up to 2 and my First Aid up to 3, costs 10 Karma, gives me a Medicine Box, and a Fate of Goal: Protect the Weak.

I would like one more Archetype, I think, and just to give it some flavor I'm gonna take Fallen Monk. My character was a member of the Phoenix Sect, but left the order over disagreements about Annelids and their utility. Healing, sure, and he's a big proponent of healing people's bodies, but he also believes that the worms can heal a person's mind and soul - if you let them. He pushed the issue hard enough to cause some disagreements with the higher-ups, and finally left the order over it.

Neat! So, a Fallen Monk Archetype puts my Karma cost up to 85 (which is where I'll stop, as the book recommends not going over 90 at chargen). I get 3 dots of Buddhist Magic, two in Information and two in Persuasion. I get clothes, magic components, and a staff, and a Fate of Goal: Revel in Danger.

And that's all my Archetypes, so what now? Attributes! I get 40 points to throw around, and Body, Senses, Spirit, and Empathy are all considered Primary, so they should all be 6. I also need a Station of 2. That's 28 so far, so I'm fine. I need to put points in Agility and Knowledge yet.

OK, so 6 is basically at the high end of average for PCs. Let's think about this. If I put 5 into Agility, I've spent 33. I feel like Knowledge shouldn't get shortchanged, so I'll put 6 there. Only one left. I'll put it into Senses.

My Vitality is Body + Spirit, my Soul is twice the total of Spirit + Knowledge, 12 and 24 respectively My Wound track is all base don Body.

I can only have two Fates to start, so I'm going to ditch the Doctor/Healer one and just keep Emotion: Affection for Annelids and Goal: Revel in Danger. One gets 3 dots, one gets 2, so I'll put the three into the Emotion.

And I think that's all the numbers stuff I have to deal with. So let's do some character stuff!

Monks get a name from their elder when they enter the order, and there's a handy table to roll on. Ooh, cool. So, when my character entered the Phoenix Sect, his elder stayed up all night meditating to find his name. It was the night of a new moon, and at midnight, the elder noticed the sky was so dark it looked blue - hence, Azure Midnight.

Azure Midnight followed the teachings of the order scrupulously, but then he met a traveling annelidist and doctor, and they got into a conversation about the worms and what they could do. Becoming an annelidist, though, required that Azure Midnight would have to eat meat in some form, and he wondered if this was an acceptable trade-off for the ability to heal. Encouraged by a friend of his from the Ebon Mountain sect (who are much more lax about this kind of thing), he accepted the worms, and was promptly dismissed.

Azure Midnight is a somewhat complicated guy. He believes that the path to enlightenment lies within the animal purity of the worms, and likewise believes that the symbiosis achieved by hosting them is in what's in everyone's future. He also firmly believes that they must be accepted willingly, and so while he'll evangelize, he'd never force someone into taking worms (ew).

Secretly, Midnight also realized that the violent, hungry abilities that becoming an annelidist opened up within him feel...pretty good. As a monk he had to eschew violence, but now, he's fully capable of killing if he needs to. He's currently wresting with where being hungry falls on the scale of "need," as far as people are concerned.

Azure Midnight is in his late 30s. He's bald (his hair stopped growing after he took on the worms), he dresses in traveling clothes and wears a wooden carving of a worm around his neck so that everyone knows exactly who the hell he is when they meet him.

And that'll do it, I think.

Movie #580: Quigley Down Under

Quigley Down Under is a western, kinda, but set in Australia, starring Tom Selleck, Laura San Giacomo, Alan Rickman, Cory Tjapaltjarri, and Chris Haywood.

In the mid 19th-century, Matthew Quigley (Selleck) arrives in Australia answering an ad from Marston (Rickman), a rich English landowner there looking for a sharpshooter. Quigley immediately gets jumped by Marston's men, who are trying to forcibly "recruit" a girl named Crazy Cora (San Giacomo), who fixates on Quigley as her husband Roy.

Eventually they all wind up at Marston's ranch, where Quigley demonstrates his skill with his magic rifle. During dinner, the penny drops - Marston wants Quigley to shoot the Aborigines, who have learned to stay out of rifle range. Quigley promptly throws Marston out of his house (twice!), but is incapacitated and dragged out into the Outback to die.

We all know how well this particular supervillain move works, though; Quigley and Cora manage to work their way back to a town to resupply. On the way, though, they come across Marston's men killing Aborigines (twice), and wind up rescuing a small child (Tjapaltjarri) when their mother dies.

In the end, of course, Quigley goes back to the ranch and shoots Marston, and then leaves Australia with Cora, who seems to have finally worked through her own demons and figured out what Quigley's name is.

I hadn't seen this movie before, but I kinda like it. I was worried when the Aborigines showed up to rescue Quigley and Cora in the desert, because we got a montage of them learning and talking with them, and a little voice saying "white savior" started speaking up. That's not really the case, though. Quigley comes to their aid when he can because it's clearly the right thing to do, but he doesn't join their society and become better at all their shit than they are (ala The Last Samurai). Likewise, they actually wind up saving him at the end when the redcoats show up to (quite understandably) arrest Quigley for multiple counts of murder.

The story isn't really about what white people did to the native folks, so much as adjacent to it. I might find that problematic, but the movie actually spends some time with those folks (through Quigley's eyes, yes), so it doesn't come off heavy-handed or exploitative, at least not to my viewing.

Also, Alan Rickman is characteristically amazing and slimy as the villain, so that'll improve just about any movie.

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: The Rainmaker

Chill: Bye Bye Johnny

Today we finished a Chill case. Here's last time.

The characters are all together in the living room, having reduced Johnny Wren to an incorporeal being (but for how long?). Jordan wards the room again, and Vicki asks what exactly that's going to do. The characters do some quick introductions and then get the teens to explain what happened.

Much of it, they know or surmised. The teens got here Wednesday, and Duncan found the record player in the master bedroom. They played "Knoxville Girl" at Vicki's request, and several of them heard the name "Johnny Wren" getting whispered. They didn't realize anything was amiss until the following morning, though, when they tried to go swimming and ran into the barrier.

From there, they assume they'd been poisoned or something, but nothing overtly weird happened until the envoys showed up. And then Johnny told them if they entered the house, he'd kill them (which, in retrospect, was probably more about keeping them away from the ward). They tell the envoys that when they were "invisible," they could see and hear normally, but it was like the envoys just ignored them.

Having sorted out the timeline, they consider their options. Playing a murder ballad that Johnny hadn't already heard seemed to help, but they don't have a way to do that - no internet, so no way to access any. They could just sing some (Vicki knows a bunch), so Samantha uses Premonition to see if that's going to make a difference. She sees Johnny standing outside the ward and looking annoyed, but not looking weakened or hurt.

But what if they write a new murder ballad? Vicki says she could make up a tune, and the twelve of them go to work writing lyrics. They make sure to mention Johnny Wren, the names of his victims, that he killed them with an ax, that his face got based in with a log, and that he spent the next 60 years rotting in jail. As the sun rises, they've completed the song, and as the ward falls, they start singing, standing in a circle.

It starts raining blood immediately, but Johnny appears in the middle of the circle, contorted with rage. His face breaks and becomes disfigured, like in the song, and he rises up off the ground and implodes. All of the characters feel a blast of cold agony and fall to the ground, and then see the hole into the Unknown left behind. They manage to keep their wits about them, and Johnny fades, gone.

BB heals Jordan (he took a little less injury from Johnny's departure, being a master of the Restorative Art), and they start working on helping the teens. Joy drives up and says that the cars just appeared suddenly, so she figured it might be safe to approach. Everyone gets loaded into vehicles and taken back to the ranch for medical attention - they all have very weird blue-white scars on their bodies, and that probably isn't something they're prepared to explain.

The envoys settle in for a well-deserved rest, safe in the knowledge that Johnny has been banished forever. They hope.

Masks: Into the Light, Issue Two

After a hiatus instigated by various things best summed up by "fuck 2020," we're back in Halcyon City! Here's last time.

We pick up as Charlie is arriving home, and his father is waiting up for him. His father demands an explanation, and Charlie claims that he sneaked out to meet some friends. His father believes him, but is disappointed that he lied and made his parents worry. Charlie takes his licks and goes to bed.

Jade Eagle is helping AEGIS clean up the mess at the hotel. Conners, the AEGIS agent in charge, calls her down and asks where Crate is. Jade Eagle tries to dance around the truth, but Conners is aware that Pyre decoyed them away, and asks if he's with the alien. Jade Eagle says that she thinks so, but is still avoiding the truth. Conners, frustrated, finally points out that someday Jade Eagle is going to want AEGIS' help, and this isn't the way to foster that relationship.

Pyre, meanwhile, is playing an alien holo-chess type game with Dr. Crate. They get to talking and Crate asks him if he's here on a diplomatic mission of peace or if he just got stuck, and Pyre laughs - "no, I just stole my dad's car." This obviously makes Crate rethink his view of Pyre, and tells him that if that's the case he probably should contact his parents and let them know he's all right. Pyre agrees, and activates the ship's locator so his people can find him if they look. He also mentions that his planet sits in a dimensional pocket, which is why the ship has dimension-shifting capabilities.

Just then, the alarms in the lair go off. Pyre checks the instruments and finds a massive temperature spike. He has Crate put on his blackout suit, and they go to investigate. They get to the area and find a young woman in a red and gold costume melting her way through a door. She asks for Moonlight, but then sees Crate and throws a fire blast at him.

Pyre changes into an icy vortex and absorbs the heat, and then resolidifies and tells the girl to go away. She tells him she's here to kill monsters, and if he's going to defend the monster, well, that's his choice. Pyre changes into a rock-creature to try and scare her, but fails to notice she's melting the floor beneath him. He plunges into a tunnel below, and she chases after Crate.

Pyre hauls himself out of the tunnel and catches up with the girl as she prepares to roast Crate to ash. He slams into her, still in rock form, and knocks her down as her fire blasts go wide. One hand sends a blast backwards at Pyre, and the rock-form explodes, showering the interior of the lair with debris. The other hand sends a blast up and burns a big hole in Pyre's ship!

Across town, Charlie gets out of the shower to see alerts on his phone - security breach at the HQ. He sneaks out again, and calls Selena to meet him, worrying that he's not going to get any sleep at all tonight. He activates the cameras on his phone and looks at the feed, and sees the girl right before the flying rocks wreck the cameras. That's Sol, his nemesis, classmate, and crush...and also a part of his impending doom.

Jade Eagle arrives at the lair and hovers down to confront Sol. Sol reiterates that she's here to destroy monsters, but Jade Eagle points out that Crate is working with them and if she kills him, they lose that advantage. Sol floats up into the steam and recognizes Jade Eagle, and, flustered, says "tell Moonlight I was here" and flies off.

Moonlight arrives shortly thereafter, and reveals his rather complicated relationship with Sol. They realize that they can't keep Crate here. Crate reiterates that he can help with the impending Photovore issue, but he needs the data from his lab. Jade Eagle decides to bring Crate to the home of Casey Summers, her predecessor, for safekeeping. Pyre stays at the lair and starts working on repairing his ship ("Earthlings don't have any unobtanium?"), while Charlie heads home.

Jade Eagle arrives at Casey's house in the suburbs, and he gives Crate a spare bed in the basement. He tells Selena that her recent performance has made the others rethink whether they made a mistake giving the Eagle to someone so young; there's been a conflagration tonight, the incident at the apartment building the night before, and then the destruction of the hotel, and at each battle - Jade Eagle. It used to be that "Jade Eagle" was a name people trusted, and Selena is damaging that. Selena pledges to do better, and flies off.

The next day, Charlie is home room and Tandy Chenoweth, aka Sol, kicks the back of his chair. "Where were you last night?"

"Cleaning up the mess you left," he responds. They snipe a bit back and forth, and Tandy points out that Charlie, a creature of darkness, is perhaps closer in aspect to these "Photovores" than he realizes.

After school, the heroes are to meet up at a park, but Jade Eagle flies over to Casey's to collect Crate. As she arrives, though, she sees that AEGIS is already here, and have taken him into custody. Agent Conners is out front talking with Auntie Tipton. Selena flies around back and finds Casey, who tells her that Auntie was the one who made this call. Selena asks Casey to help, get her access to Crate, something, but Casey points out that their only reason for thinking that more Photovores are coming is because Crate said so. She points out that Pyre backs it up, but Casey notes that Pyre is not someone AEGIS really trusts. He does say that if Selena brings him something concrete, he'll go to bat for her.

She flies off and meets the others, and explains their current situation. They decide to head to Crate's lab and see what they find there. As they arrive, Jade Eagle tells them that they need to be more careful about property damage - it's starting to become a problem. They promise to bear that in mind, and Moonlight shapeshifts into an AEGIS agent to gain access. As he approaches the agents watching the entrance, though, he feels the disguise starting to slip, and dips into his true power. Not only does the disguise solidify, but he stares down the agent in command and tells him that he's taking Jade Eagle upstairs (Pyre is there, too, but has turned into air and is therefore invisible). Moonlight feels the man's mind submit, and realizes that any human mind is just a dark little room, requiring only the slightest bit of light to be nudged.

Upstairs, the heroes search through the lab. They find a lot of formulae and research about light and so on (which they photograph), but can't make much sense of it all. Jade Eagle finds what looks like a terrarium in the corner, but made of tinted glass with what seems to be a light on top. The area around the case is colder than the rest of the room, making them think that this thing is a captured Photovore. They decide to leave it alone, but do take Crate's laptop.

Just then, the phone rings. The caller ID says "CLOTHOS," so Jade Eagle answers. Clothos, another superhero who took an interest in the group after their first team-up, tells her that "she's incoming," and they need to be careful how they handle her. Jade Eagle thanks her, and warns the others: Sol is coming.

They head up to the roof, and indeed, Sol zooms in. They intercept, though, and tell her that Crate is already in custody. "OK, then," she says, "that makes my night easier." She turns and flies off.

Jade Eagle points out that they can't let her get away - she's probably going to go find the holding facility where they have Crate and burn it. Moonlight, since he's right across the street from his place, zips over and drops off the laptop in his room. Pyre and Jade Eagle fly off and catch up to Sol, and Jade Eagle tries to talk her down. She points out that doing it this way will probably result in the deaths of multiple AEGIS agents, and besides, the Photovores feed on light, meaning Sol's already at a disadvantage. Moonlight joins them at this point, and agrees - they need a better strategy.

Sol asks the heroes whether, when push comes to shove, they'll be able to kill Crate if that's what needs to happen. Pyre honestly admits that he doesn't think he could, while Moonlight says he'll do what's necessary to protect the city. Sol flies off, claiming that she'll back away for now. The heroes, exhausted, split up again.

Charlie gets home and finds his sister, Alice, looking through the files on the laptop ("How did you get in?" "The password was 'password.'"). She's fascinated by the cool schematics and so on, but Charlie claims the laptop is from school (which Alice sees right through). He kicks her out, and she goes to tattle to their father. Charlie realizes that with just a little nudge, he could make her forget all about it...but no, he's not going to use his powers on his family. Not tonight.

Character Creation: Netherstorm

Sure, let's do a character. It's too hot to do anything else.

The Game: Netherstorm
The Publisher: Thunderhead Entertainment, which has a web site, but when I click on the link it asks for a password, which is weird.
Degree of Familiarity: None. Can't even remember where I bought it
Books Required: Just the one

Netherstorm makes me sad. Not because it's a bad game, or has any offensive content or whatever. What makes me sad about it is that it's yet another in a long series of games apparently created by very enthusiastic, well-meaning people who have only ever played D&D, and, worse, assume that that's all anyone else played, either.

I've beaten this drum before (but fuck it, ain't like anyone's listening - strange kind of freedom, that!), but wanting to self-publish your own game is awesome. But, like, get some variety in your head first? The basic premise of Netherstorm seems to be "we want to give the players total freedom to make whatever kind of character they want," but there needs to be a "within this very sparse fantasy world" tacked on the end there.

Seriously, the book is 122 pages, and of those, about a half-dozen are devoted to setting. The titular Netherstorm gets a page. There's just not much here, and the system is your basic, bog-standard, simulation kind of thing. And whereas a game like, say, Cairn, while the system isn't anything special, presents a setting that's well-realized and interesting enough that I want to run it (and, indeed, I am starting a campaign), this one kinda just...sits there. It's a game that looks like it came out 25 years ago, but it was published in 2014.

Anyway, that's enough of that. Let's do some chargen. I'm meant to start with a concept. Again, there's almost nothing about the setting in the book, and all I really know is that it's a fantasy world with occasional Netherstorms, which are weird, mystical calamities that leave people gibbering. With that in mind, I think I'd play someone who's seen a Netherstorm and is trying to figure out what they really are and how to stop them. My character had a fairly privileged upbringing - minor noble, maybe - and then his lands and people were devastated by the storm, and he was forced on the road with nothing (or maybe he's got extended family that can help him, but they don't really believe him when he talks about crazy killer storms).

That's enough of a concept to start, because the next thing is race, and that'll probably inform a lot of the particulars. Let's see. We've got fey (no thanks), humans (bet they're diverse and adaptable! Oh, yeah, and other races don't like them. Eh), big things with multiple arms, weird goat people, sentient animals...oh, hang on. I do like these Peuroma guys. They're reptilian folks who get their whole life stories tattooed on them. That's pretty cool.

OK, so these guys went to war against humanity because humans were warring against another race, and the Peuroma and the multi-armed guys got sick of it. They basically roasted the humans, and took over their villages, so that's gotta have some interesting tension (or, it would, if there was any real attempt at setting here). So that's fine, I'll say my character, Tlilit, is the eldest son of a family that captured a village during the war and built it up into a pretty impressive little city. So maybe less "noble" and more "governor" as far as the family function? Either way, Tlilit hadn't really gotten a chance to take over any important functions where the storm hit.

I get six automatic points in disadvantages...and there is no place to write those on the sheet. Groovy. Well, I'm an Open Book (because my whole life is tattooed on me), Strength costs more, and I get a penalty to Survival because my people are a citified people. I don't get any advantages automatically, but I have to take six points, because as far as I can tell I can only use disadvantage points for advantages. Problem is, they're all boring as shit. Well, I'll take a cost break to Reason and Focus, and to the Language Literacy and Stonecraft Skills.

Moving on to Backstories. Oh, wait, holy shit, there's a form-fillable sheet up for download that actually has the right stuff on it. Where the hell did I get this one, then? Weird. Anyway, Backstories are basically more ads/disads, and again, I can take bad ones to balance out with good ones. Sure. Well, I'll take Blunt, because Tlilit comes from privilege and isn't used to censoring himself. And I'll take Pointy End Up twice, so I take a penalty to polearms and two-handed weapons. That only gives me 3 points, but the advantages are all pretty boring, too, so I don't think I'll need much. I do want Mason, continuing in this "stone craft" thing that I've got going, and I'll also take Equestrian.

And now on to Attributes, where I have to roll percentile dice to see how many creation points I get. Sigh. Sure, I roll a 63, which gives me 120 points. I start with 10 in each Attribute, and buying points costs 2 points each (except Strength costs me 3, and Reason and Focus cost 1, at least until I get about 20). Boy, an example of character creation would not go amiss!

Anyway, I think I want higher Reason and Focus, obviously. I'll leave Strength at 10.

An aside: I just took about 15 minutes to look through the book to get a sense of how the system works. It's a percentile, roll low system, which is fine, but fucked if it ever says that. There's a sidebar in the introduction that tells you how to roll a d100 or multiples of d10, but never says what that roll means in context. Likewise, there's a great big skills list, but the only system information I can find is building spells (which looks kind of interesting, but I'll have to look closer) and combat. In no case can I find how to actually play the game and use the system. What the hell is going on.

(Core book is PWYW, so I'm gonna download it and see if anything's different. And...nope. Jeez. This is a new low.)

Anyway, back to poor ol' Tlilit. Strength at 10, sure. Supposedly 8-12 is average, but since we're working with a percentile system, I think that's a big load of horseshit, but I've only got so many points. Let's bump Agility to 15 (costing 10), Endurance to 20 (which costs 20; total of 30 spent). Focus and Reason we can jack to 30; that costs...jesus, hang on, that might be too much. 20 points gets them both to 20 (since they cost less), but getting to 30 would cost 30 points for each one, so all in all it'd be 40 points for each of them. Yeah, too much. Let's just leave them at 20; that means I've spent 50.

Suppose I just leave the rest at 10? Suppose I do. Bunch of derived traits, I'll fill 'em in, the formulae are on the sheet. Skill Bonuses, likewise, are based on Attributes, so I'll just do those, too. You know what, I'll go back and up Magnetism to 20, so I've spent 20 more points, putting me at 70, 50 more points to go.

OK, so now Skills. Natural Skills get the bonus automatically, Trained ones only get it if I buy a level. Each level is 1%, which is ass on a stick, but whatever. I get 5 levels in Stonecraft and Ride from my advantages.

Ugh, this is awful. Buying skill levels is one-for-one up to level 20, which makes the Skill bonuses all but useless because the cost can't go below 1 per level and I'm already running low. Fuck it, let's get this over with. I guess I should take some points in Stonecraft and Language Literacy, so let's waste 10 points in each of those. 20 points spent, to 90 points total, 30 more to go. Ain't taking any spells, I suspect.

You know, let's just dump 10 into Etiquette, 10 into Leadership, and 10 into One-Handed Weapon because you know this game is all about combat, and move the hell on with our lives. Out of points, what a shame, no need to figure out the magic system.

At this point I could pick a deity, and worshiping a god can give you skill levels, but I'm not feeling any of them, really. Actually, I can see Tlilit going in for D'Nudleen, the god of intelligence and deviancy, because supposedly he brokered peace between warring gods, and now there's this storm thingie. That gives me 5 levels in Stealth and Language Literacy.

Fuck me, am I done yet? All except Equipment. Which, y'know, I'm gonna skip it.

OK, so, Tlilit is a Peuroma on the young side of things. In human terms, he'd be in his early 20s, but I don't know if they age like humans and I don't much care. He's a coppery sort of color, lighter on the underbelly, and so his tats are blue-black (shows up better). He's got tattoos for his family's legacy, but on his back - that's his history. He's got tats representing his training and accomplishments (such as they are) as a stoneworker, and his most recent tattoo is of the Netherstorm destroying his home. He's left plenty of room, though. He's still got a future ahead of him...he hopes.

And that's me done, thank goodness.