Legend of the Elements: The Mean Streets of Greycliff

Tonight was Legend, on we go.

After clearing out the mess at the Temple of the Seven Rings, the characters head for the big city of Greycliff to find Master Sel. Sel is one of the instructors from the Temple, and a close friend of Master Diaf, the instructor who was murdered. They know the Master Sel is an aficionado of tea and puzzles, so they figure they can find them at a tea house. 

Arriving in Greycliff, though, the characters learn that there are lots of tea houses in the city. They stop into a bar to get a drink and maybe see if anyone has seen the Master, and they stumble out of said bar a few hours later, a little poorer and very drunk. 

Wandering down the street laughing at each other, they talk about needing to find a place to stay. Ember mentions that she drank all her money, so only Gerde and Khatun have any coin - they need to find someplace cheap. A man with a staff with a fire on the end of it walks up and says that his cousin runs an inn, and he'd be happy to show them. Khatun opines that he'd better not murder them; the man says of course he won't. If he did that, they couldn't stay at his cousin's inn (this makes sense to Khatun, which is perhaps indicative of the problem).

They follow him through the city and down a dark alley. Halfway down, he turns and says that while he's not going to murder them, he is going to rob them. He swings his staff and fire leaps out, illuminating the alley and the two toughs standing behind the characters. 

Gerde says that if he was trying to impress them with his fireshaping, it needs work. The man says he'll take that under advisement, but they'd better hand over their money. Khatun tries to extinguish his staff with water, but is too drunk to concentrate and the water just splashes harmlessly to the ground. One of the other toughs puts her in a headlock. Gerde, always ready for a donnybrook, lunges at the man with the staff. The man deftly knocks her to the ground and presses the staff against her neck. Ember calls up fire, but the man catches it and hurls it back, blinding her. Feng, noting that the third tough has a sword, tries to touch it and bend it, but the man is too fast - he smacks Feng's hand away and puts the blade to his neck, again demanding money. (Seriously, all four of them failed their rolls. It was awesome.)

Khatun agrees to give them money and tosses some coins to the ground, telling them that this is why people don't trust each other. The leader prods Gerde with his staff and demands her money, which she reluctantly gives up. They try to shake Ember and Feng down, but Feng says he has only wisdom to offer. They ask him what wisdom he has, and he says "monkey steals the peach!" and punches the guy in the nuts. He doubles over in pain, but the other one (the one that was grappling Khatun), socks him in the face and drops him. Feng gets up and the guy takes another swing, but Gerde gets up and takes the blow for him. Ember runs in blind, screaming and flailing, and the guy with the staff tells his boys to head out - they've got all they're getting.

Khatun, though, isn't letting this go. She focuses and ices the alley over. Two of the toughs manage to slide out, but the leader can't find his footing. Gerde calls rocks to her feet so she can skate, and zips over to grab her money back and knock the dude on his ass. He surrenders and melts the ice so he can stand up, and the characters (still drunk) ask him if he actually does know anywhere to stay. He tells them that there are a number of cheap flophouses on the next block - dangerous places, but clearly they can handle themselves. They part ways with perhaps some tense mutual respect.

The next morning, the characters wake up with bad hangovers and hazy memories of renting rooms. They head down the block to a tea house run by a woman named Wae, and over breakfast, ask her if she knows Master Sel. She says she does; he came in once for tea, but she hasn't seen him since. 

Gerde, noting that the characters are very low on coin, asks Wae if there's any way they could earn some money while they're here. Wae says that there's a gang of toughs that mugs people, usually travelers, and the characters point to Feng's black eye and say that they've met. Wae says that if the characters can stop the gang, by whatever means, she'll be happy to cover their room and meals while they're here. Of course, that isn't going to be easy. Folks have sworn out complaints against the gang before, and it never goes anywhere. 

The characters decide that they'll go and talk to a constable, maybe find out what they'd have to do to get staff-guy and his gang arrested. They walk around the city for a while, and eventually wander into a nicer area. They approach a man in a uniform standing on a corner and explain their situation, and he tells them they can come to the constable station and swear out a complaint once the "excitement" is over. They ask what he means, and he tells them that a man accused of some pretty heinous crimes is due to be charged in the city square. The characters look around, and indeed, a crowd is gathering. They decide to stay and watch.

The accused is brought through the streets on a cart, bound in chains. Khatun recognizes his tattoos and clothes. He's from the Steppe, not her tribe, but one she knows. She realizes, too, that whether or not he did what he's accused of, the crowd sure thinks he did - they're howling for blood. She hears someone say "Drown him like he drowned the horses!"

The charges are read: murder, destruction of property, improper use of the shaping arts, assault. He's asked if he refutes or accepts the charges, and he remains silent. Khatun figures he might not understand the language, or his tribe might not practice criminal justice this way. She offers her services as a translator, but the guard she speaks to is busy holding back the crowd and tells her to come to the jail later. 

The crowd intensifies, and Gerde sends out a vibration to hopefully get their attention. All it does is freak them out further, and cries of "he's an earthshaper, too!" go up. Gerde yells that she caused the tremor and that the guy is already imprisoned, and this kind of mob justice is not becoming. The crowd listens and demures, and the man is taken to jail to await trial. Ember asks around and learns that the man allegedly destroyed a stable by causing the river to flood, killing three stable hands and seven horses, and badly injuring one of the people who housed her horses there.

The characters split up. Feng and Ember go to the constable station to swear out a complaint, and Gerde and Khatun go to the jail. Khatun is admitted to see the prisoner, but Gerde is not. She sits and meditates on Master Sel, and realizes that if he's a spiritshaper, he's probably keeping a finger on the pulse of the city's spiritscape. Feng might be able to contact him that way.

Khatun is taken into the jail, made to relinquish her waterskin, and let into the man's cell. She speaks to him in the language of the Steppe tribes, and he greets her. He says that his name is Thunas, and he was part of a caravan that stopped in Greycliff. He decided to stay, and took work at the stables by the Big Dog River - as a horseman and a watershaper, he was very useful there.

One day, though, he saw a stable collapse into the river. He said it looked to him like the sand just flowed into the river, taking the building with it. He froze in fear, but then saw a woman floating in the water and bleeding, and he used his watershaping powers to bring her to shore. He was arrested the next day, accused of causing a flood, and supposedly someone saw him do it. He doesn't speak the language very well, and in his culture, the accused isn't meant to speak until the trial, where the elders listen. Khatun points out that's not how it works here. She says she's help him, and speaks to the guard, and tells him that Thunas is innocent. The guard, of course, says that everyone claims that, and that if she wants to come to his trial and present evidence on his behalf, she's welcome to do that.

Meanwhile, across the street, Feng and Ember talk to the constable they spoke to earlier. They swear out a complaint against Miko (the guy with the staff), but the constable says that while this has happened before, Miko is clever and slippery enough to avoid capture until the complainant leaves town. Ember asks if they can just bring him in themselves, and the constable says that if they do that, they can arrest Miko. Another constable grabs the complaint and says he'll make sure it gets filed correctly, but notes to Ember that Miko seems to have friends that help him avoid the law. 

The characters reconvene and head back to the tea house, and Gerde tells Feng her idea, which he accepts. They have dinner and ask Wae about Thunas and the woman who was injured. She tells them the woman's name is Onil, and that she's convalescing at her home, poor dear. Thunas apparently hit her with a club. Khatun, of course, says that Thunas is innocent, but Wae isn't interested in arguing. She's happy to hear the characters have sworn out a complaint - now they just need to find Miko and his gang. 

Feng asks permission to summon a spirit, and Wae lets him use the back room. He calls up a tea-spirit and asks it to find Master Sel and have them find the characters at their convenience. As the characters are having their after-dinner tea, Master Sel enters and sits with them.

They tell Master Sel about what happened at the Temple, and about the death of their friend, Master Diaf. Sel expresses regret for leaving the Temple, and states their intent to go back and help the place heal. They ask if Feng will be coming back, but Feng says he has some things to finish here, first. 

Master Sel leaves, and the characters decide that tomorrow morning, they'll go to the Big Dog River and survey the scene of the crime. Given that they've sworn out a complaint against Miko, they're probably on his radar, so hopefully he'll find them.

Masks: Walk the Line, Issue One

A new arc in the Masks game! On we go! 

The heroes meet up in the park at the end of the day, near sunset (Charlie brings cookies!). They talk about the strange goings-on in Halcyon City. To wit, Charlie has noticed that many of his classmates have looked harried and pale, like they're not sleeping, and his nemesis Sol has been absent from school all week. Selena tells them that apparently people all over the city have been dreaming about death - dead loved ones, their own deaths, and other spooky things - but the other folks in the Jade Eagle line told her this is more mystical thing, and some mask with a more mystical bent (like Moonlight) should probably handle it. 

As they're talking they hear chirping and birdsong from a nearby tree. They look up and see a flock of nightingales, which is weird (not normally a flocking bird). But then all the birds fly off and head straight for them! Pyre instinctively turns to air, and Selena and Charlie just kind of duck, but the birds head straight for Charlie...but vanish before reaching them. 

The heroes are very confused, but of course it's not lost on them that "Nightingale" is the hero name of Charlie's missing aunt. Charlie slips up into the tree and looks around, and sees something moving in the leaves above. It shows itself - a small, humanoid creature with blue-black skin and a small extra set of arms. It sniffs around the branches, and sniffs at Charlie, and then leaps over his head and lands on the ground.

Charlie yells for Selena to watch out for it, but the creature continues sniffing around and then drops to all fours (sixes?) and starts running toward a playground. Pyre springs into action and slams the creature between two metal fists, but it turns to smoke and flows out of the grip. Selena ducks behind a tree and becomes Jade Eagle, and then flies over and lands in front of the thing. She blasts the ground in front of it with her eye-beams, and then yells to the kids on the playground to go and find their parents. Most of them do, but a couple stand still, frozen in fear. 

The creature snarls at the heroes, and then rips off its own ear (ew) and flings it at Jade Eagle. It splatters on her shoulder and immediately becomes frigid to the touch. Pyre tries to hose it off by turning his arm to water, but it just dissipates like smoke and then reforms. As they're puzzling over this, one of the kids from the playground walks up. Her eyes are the same pale yellow that the creature's were, and she says in a voice clearly not her own: "Ghostheart is watching you." Her eyes return to normal and she asks for Jade Eagle's autograph. 

The heroes head back to Moonlight's base so they can dig into his aunt's archives and figure out who "Ghostheart" is and how to get rid of this gunk. Moonlight finds notes on Ghostheart; Nightingale was never sure if Ghostheart was a man or woman (or both, or neither), but did learn that they were primarily concerned with minding the barrier between "the living and the dead." They apparently have the power to summon monsters and ghosts up from nowhere, and to come and go at will. Moonlight theorizes that they can probably summon, or at least contact, Ghostheart through the goop on Jade Eagle's shoulder, since that's apparently letting them watch her. Jade Eagle kind of pokes the stuff and asks Ghostheart to show themself, and the goop begins to emit black smoke, which eventually resolves into Ghostheart. 

Moonlight, a little taken aback at Ghostheart's good looks, glances away and blushes, but keeps himself together. The heroes ask Ghostheart what's going on, and they say that something is trying the barrier between Living and Dead, and it's aiming at Moonlight. They're not sure why or what, and they don't much care. They have a solution to the problem - kill Moonlight and put him firmly into the Dead. The heroes, of course, aren't very cool with that, and ask Ghostheart for some time to figure it out. They also ask about Nightingale, and Ghostheart reveals that Nightingale came to them some time back, asking for a way to alter someone's destiny (probably Moonlight's). Ghostheart wasn't able to help her - not the kind of thing they do - but was able to send her to someone who probably could. Ghostheart then summons some smoke and changes it into a ball of black glass, and tells the heroes that if they want to talk to "her" (the one they sent Nightingale to), all they have to do is break this. 

Ghostheart vanishes, and the heroes talk about their next move. They decide that they need to figure out where Sol is, since her intertwined destiny with Moonlight might make this whole thing complicated. Plus, they don't know if she's involved, or if she's all right. Pyre and Jade Eagle decide to go to Sol's house (of course Moonlight knows where she lives, it's only fair) and Moonlight stays behind at the base to talk to whoever it is that Ghostheart referred Nightingale to. 

Moonlight smashes the orb, and a woman in blue appears from the shards. 

The woman (who doesn't introduce herself, and Moonlight doesn't ask) makes it clear that she'll be happy to return Nightingale, or send Moonlight to her, or whatever he'd like...but there'll be a price involved. Moonlight settles for just knowing where Nightingale is, and the woman takes a little piece of his soul (that is, marks the doom track). She then informs him that Nightingale is in the Place Between, and that she sent her there. Originally Nightingale had asked her to change Moonlight's destiny, but the price was apparently too high, so she simply sent Nightingale to someplace that she could help...in theory. Moonlight doesn't wish to bargain further, but the woman gives him a ring with a black stone in it, telling him that she'd be happy to help further.

Meanwhile, Pyre and Jade Eagle arrive at the apartment building where Sol lives. Jade Eagle changes back into Selena, and Pyre exerts a great deal of effort to change his body to look human. They knock on the door and tell Sol's mother that they there to give her homework, since she's been absent all week. Her mother lets them in and sends them down the hall to Sol's door (Tandy's door, really), but warns them to be careful. She's sick, after all. 

They knock on Tandy's door and mention that Charlie sent them, and Tandy opens up enough to peek out. Selena can see that her room is disheveled and messy, and that she looks awful - she clearly hasn't eaten or slept. They talk and Selena tries to get Tandy to explain what's going on, but she's not making a lot of sense, and she doesn't want to come with them. She closes the door, and the two heroes head back to base.

The trio reconvenes and discusses what they've learned. This is, unfortunately, a little out of their wheelhouse, so they start thinking about other heroes they know who are more on the magical side of things. They remember Clothos, and just as Jade Eagle mentions her, there's a knock at the door. Moonlight lets Clothos in ("Any cookies left?"), and she tells them that Nightingale is in the Place Between, a liminal space that exists as a barrier between all extremes - life and death, light and dark, good and evil. She's attempting to reach Moonlight, but to what end, Clothos isn't sure. The characters ask how they can get to her, and Clothos says that the Place Between is a place, that is, somewhere you can go, if you know how. Pyre notes that his ship is capable of inter-dimensional travel, and the heroes prepare to embark on a very strange journey...
 

Character Creation: Guild of Shadows

Time for sneaky skullduggery.

The Game: Guild of Shadows
The Publisher: SPQR Games
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game in particular, but I've played and run plenty of Savage Worlds
Books Required: Guild of Shadows and SWADE

Guild of Shadows is a fantasy game (seems to be low- or no-magic, but I haven't read all of it) in which all of the PCs are thieves, rogues, and general scalawags belonging to the Thieves' Guild. It was published around the same time as Blades in the Dark, which is perhaps unfortunate, because the games are similar in premise but Blades is far superior.

I mean, I shouldn't say that. I haven't actually played Guild, but I ran the heck out of Blades, and I know Savage Worlds pretty well. It just seems to me that the idea of playing characters that have similar niches requires some other method of niche protection, which Blades gives you through playbooks (and thus abilities that you and only you can easily access). Guild, though, is Savage Worlds, meaning theoretically any character can access any Edge, and the niches and the protection thereof are a matter for the players. Likewise, while the city of Duskwall was compelling and immersive, yet had enough blank space to leave some room for the players to be creative, whereas Guild's city of Kurstwahl feels like a D&D setting with a greater emphasis on politics and thief-stuff.

And again, I might be totally unfair, here, because I haven't played it. Actually, my group almost did, at one point (I think we wound up playing East Texas University instead). The concern that the players cited was that everyone playing thieves felt kinda one-note. I should note, too, that Kurstwahl is meant to be dropped into a campaign, so probably this should feel like a supplement to a SWADE fantasy game.

Anyway, for all of that, there's stuff about the game I like. I like the notion of a band of rogues doing their dastardly shit in a fantasy city, and I'm interested to see how Savage Worlds, which is kinda built on action and combat, would handle a game where combat isn't the go-to. 

Well, this character ain't gonna make itself, so on we go. 

First thing is to pick an archetype. This isn't strictly necessary; all an "archetype" is, basically, is a template for one of several kinds of scoundrel-type person (oh, and look at that, this concept pops up in the SWADE book. I should really read that more carefully at some point). I could just build a character normally. But actually, I kind of like the Pickpocket archetype. I really enjoy sleight of hand and feats of manual dexterity (as evidenced by my love of the totally-impractical knife-throwing warrior in movies), so I think I'll start with that archetype and see if I want to tweak anything.

So far, so good. Four more Skill points. Well, I think Persuasion is probably a good idea, at least a little, so I'll put a d4 there. Lockpicking, um, yeah, but again, not strictly speaking his forte, so d4. See, there's not actually a Sleight of Hand skill, so making a pickpocket is actually sort of tricky in-concept. What skill would you use to pick a pocket? STEALTH! OK, then. (Thanks, SWADE book!) I'll spend my two remaining points to bump Stealth up to a d10. 

Hindrances, then. I like that the archetype doesn't pick those for me. Let's see. Any in the Guild book that I love? 

Well, Branded is fun. I'll take it as a Minor and say he's got a brand on his left palm (typical for pickpockets). He can cover it with a glove or bandage, but if he gets caught, they'll know where to look. I also kinda like Poor Liar, just because I think it's amusing that he's fine with misdirection and stealing from people, but he stammers and sweats if he has to con them. Minor, though, I think. Maybe. Let's see what else I want. Ooh, actually, I'll take Illiterate and then bump Poor Liar up to Major.

OK, cool. Now I get a free Edge because I'm hooman. Any in Guild that I love? Well, Artful Dodger is actually pretty cool and leans into the concept I was thinking of, so sure, we'll do that (which also frees up four more Skill points, but I'll do that momentarily). 

Right, now I have four points that I can use to buy skills or another Edge or whatever (plus four more free points in skills). I see this character as having grown up on the streets - he's actually kind of like Oliver Twist if Dr. Brownlow had never found him (I mean, a thief, not dead). He learned from a non-Guild pickpocket, from whom he's since become estranged (because my guy joined the Guild). I think that my character still knows where they are, though, so I'll take the Connections Edge and say I can call on him and his buds for help if I really need to.

I'll spend two more points to bump my Agility to d10, which means I get a Skill point back (I guess? Actually I don't know for sure, and I just spent what must have been 10 minutes trying to figure it out, but it's not in the book that I can find and tooling around RPG forums is bad for my mental health, so fuck it, I get the point back). Five skill points, then. I'll bump Persuasion up to d6 (since I use it for my Connections Edge), and I'll bump Throwing up to d8. Two more points. How about we take Tracking at a d6? Cool. 

Derived traits, here at the end, where they belong. Pace is 6, Parry is 4, Toughness is 5. Do I care enough to spend money for gear? I think I do not. Let's say he has a couple of throwing knives, but small enough that he can conceal them. Street clothes, but pouches and folds sewn into the inside of his clothes so he can hide shit he steals quickly. 

So: Gregor the Hand grew up on the streets of Kurstwahl, and was taken in by Cato, a former Guild pickpocket and con artist. Cato doesn't talk about his time in the Guild (Gregor is one of the few among his gang that even knew he was a member at all), and hates them with a passion. Gregor tried to share that hatred, but didn't really have anything to connect it to. And then one day, Gregor got pinched cutting someone's purse. Initially he was going to have his left hand severed, but someone whispered to the magistrate and the sentence was downgraded to a brand. Gregor learned that the guy who spoke up was a Guild member who called in a favor to spare the young man having his fucking hand cut off, and Gregor decided, after some very difficult conversations with Cato, to join the Guild.

Gregor remains vigilant for...whatever the hell Cato was so angry about to show up, but so far, everyone's a thief. Gregor's been around thieves most of his life; there's camaraderie, but not trust. There's respect, but not love. That's how things are. 

Gregor is in his late teens. He's pretty short, very skinny, and never quite got the hang of lying. He blushes, stammers, and sweats when he tries, and he prefers to just run away if he gets noticed. 

That'll do it!

Character Creation: Noirlandia

Been looking forward to this game.

The Game: Noirlandia
The Publisher: Make Big Things Games
Degree of Familiarity: None yet!
Books Required: Just the one

Noirlandia is one of those dirty hippie indie games with no GM. Not only does it use index cards, but it wants a corkboard as well, because the whole point of the game is to solve a murder. It's calling itself noir when it's really closer to hard-boiled, but "Hardboiledlandia" doesn't exactly flow, and pedantry never solves anything anyway.

The first thing we'd do in a group is to create the city, but it's just me. Fortunately, there's a free download on that site with nine quickstarts, so picking one that looks cool, I wind up with Luck Harvest. The city of Santa Fria is where they bottle Luck at the LUCKY4U plant.

So, the city and its districts are already established, so all I have to do is make a character. Normally the way this works is that we'd draw N+1 cards from a deck (where N=the number of players) and roll N+1 dice, and use the tables to generate roles and drives, and then all claim one. The quickstart includes some sample characters, but I'm just gonna draw a card and roll a die and "claim" that character. I draw and 8 of spades and roll a 3, which gives me "cop/deputy of the Outskirts" and a drive of "Tell No Lie." Cool. Let's see what the Outskirts are like in this city.

So, kinda rural, suggesting my character might be a ranger, rather than a city cop. Ooh, the victim, Al Strickland, lived in the Sands himself. Well, that's nice. The suspicion is that he was dealing bootleg Luck. So, let's say that my character, Braxton Motts (please just call me "Motts") was on Strickland's payroll. Strickland slipped him a bit of cash to look the other way, but for all that, my cop doesn't know exactly what Strickland was up to. Motts insisted on that, actually, because he has a thing about lying. If you don't lie, no one can catch you in a lie, no matter how lucky they are. 

Motts is in his 40s, and he likes where he lives and hates going into Santa Fria proper. He can't not, of course, partly because sometimes you just need to go buy shit, and partially because LUCKY4U is buying up land out in the Sands. He's trying to save up and move out of town, but it's slow going (partially because he won't drink Luck). 

Last thing is to set my stats. One get set to...um, "black square," two are neutral, one get a white square (which is good). I'll set Rep to overlooked, Heart to Quiet (those are the neutrals), Body to vigorous (that's the white), and Mind to conflicted (that's the black). 

And that'll do it, actually. That was easy.

Movie #588: Real Genius

Real Genius is a sci-fi comedy starring Val Kilmer, Gabe Jarret, William Atherton, Jonathan Gries, Michelle Meyrink, and Robert Prescott. 

15-year-old genius Mitch (Jarret) is accepted into college on the recommendation of brilliant celebrity physicist Jerry Hathaway (Atheron), ostensibly because he's just that smart, but actually because Hathaway hopes that Mitch can solve the "power problem" he's having. See, the CIA wants a laser powerful enough to kill a person from space, and Jerry's job is supplying said laser, but his team (fronted by genius slacker Chris Knight (Kilmer)) has stalled out.

Mitch does his best, but the pressure starts to get to him and Knight, figuring he's just about done here, has more or less checked out and tries to get him to loosen up and party. The closest Mitch comes is nerding out with the strange, hyperkinetic girl from down the hall, Jordan (Meyrink), but Hathaway's evil, jealous toady Kent (Prescott) goes out of his way to humiliate and make trouble for Mitch. Knight and Mitch wind up helping each other - Mitch does indeed loosen up, but also motivates Knight to finish the project once Hathaway withdraws support. 

Anyway, the whole thing winds up a kind of last-minute caper when the lads figure out that the laser is meant as a weapon (doy), and they have to destroy it and...fill Jerry's house with popcorn. 

This all sounds very strange, but the movie is actually a lot more coherent than some other 80s sci-fi/comedies (looking at you, Weird Science). Kilmer is still young and pretty, Atherton is at his slimy best, and I enjoy Jonathan Gries as the mysterious Hollyfeld, the former big-genius-on-campus who cracked entirely when he learned he was making weapons. I kinda find Jarret boring as Mitch, honestly, although he gets more fun to watch after his character is allowed to, like, smile, but even then he's just kind of bland. 

Some problematic content, mostly revolving around Mitch's age and his relationship with Jordan (who is said to be 19). On screen, they read very much as peers, but still. Actually, all of the subplots involving women are a little strange: Jordan/Mitch is one, but then there's Sherry (Patty D'Arbanville), who has no other role in the movie but to seduce the smartest dudes in the country (so she's, what, a...genius groupie?). 

There are a lot of quoteable lines (mostly Kilmer's) and a few truly funny moments, but the movie never really "peaks," if that makes sense. It stays pretty one-level, even when the tension is supposed to rising at the end, and there are three freaking montages.

This is a movie that I think would be ripe for a remake, honestly, especially given that we are killing people with robot planes. Cast Donald Glover as Chris Knight for a start.

My Grade: B
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Reality Bites

Character Creation: Honour

Dogs are snoozing and I think I'm done playing Man of Medan for the day, so what the heck.

The Game: Honour
The Publisher: Nine Dragons RPG Ltd
Degree of Familiarity: None. I wrote a little bit for the 2nd edition of the game, but I kinda doubt the stuff I wrote will get used, given the state of things
Books Required: Just the one

Honour is an urban fantasy type game, I think with some wuxia/kung fu type aspects. It's set on the world of Pangu, a kind of sister-world to Earth (the game loves multiple realities and talks about them a lot), wherein we get continents like Afryka and countries like the United States of Amerrika. Oddly, Canada is still just Canada. 

I read the opening couple of chapters, which talks about Pangu and how it was created (there was a Giant, and some Demons), but honestly it kinda slid out of my brain. Part of that is because holy god, this book needs an editing pass and someone needs to explain the concept of "active voice" to them, but the backstory also just isn't all that interesting. Now, mind, it's perfectly possible that it's not interesting to me, and between one thing and another I've read a lot of urban fantasy RPGs over the years, so they do kind of run together unless the writing is grabby and the themes are interesting. But anyway, let's jump to chargen. 

OK, first thing is that the GM would set the "Meta-Reality Level," which determines how over-the-top and wahoo the game's going to be. I have no GM, of course, so I'll pick one. I definitely don't want Gritty Reality, because reality is plenty gritty enough right now, thanks anyway. The other two are Cinematic Escapism and Myths & Legends. I think I'll go with the former; I'm fine with a kind of minimal-but-still-there approach to superpowers and magic. 

I have no idea what any of that means, of course. Moving along!

OK, so we've got three sets of stats (Physical, Mental, Emotional), broken up into three aspects (Strength, Grace, Resilience). I kinda like just having "Physical Grace" and "Mental Grace" rather than "Dexterity" and "Wits." Seems easier to keep straight without a damn thesaurus. 

Ah, I see. A "dH" is a d12, but you read 11 as "Yin" and 12 as "Yang." "Select two results" means "keep two dice," and it looks like higher is better, so why wouldn't you just keep the higher dice? Ah, well, looks like I need some d12s. Do I even have three? Ha, I do. Ok, then. I need 9 3dH rolls: 

• 2, 9, 11
• 5, 6, 7
• 7, 9, 10
• 10, 9, 12 (!)
• 1, 3, 10
• 3, 5, 12
• 8, 9, 10
• 5, 5, 8
• 6, 8, 11

OK, so two Yins and two Yangs, and my totals are: 20, 13, 19, 19, 13, 8, 19, 13, 14, plus two Flaws and two Fortes. I can assign these anywhere I want, so I suppose I should think about concept a little bit. 

Well, like I said, I've been replaying Man of Medan of late. I kinda want to play someone like Fliss, a boat captain who's trying to pay off said boat without going under (figuratively speaking). I could also grab inspiration from Jason Statham's character in The Meg, which is a movie I love with no shame whatsoever. So: My dude is burned out, broke, probably drunk at least some of the time, operates as a guide and sometime smuggler on his small-but-functional boat in the waters around Heung Gong island. 

Oh, wait, this game has a lifepath kind of thing going on! Well, shit! How about I just start doing that and assign my stats once I have a better handle on what my dude has done with his life? (Same with Fortes and Flaws.)

OK, Pathways start at age 17, and progress in "terms," at the end of each of which there's a "what happened during this term" roll. Um...oh, thank the maker, there's an example. Hang on. 

All right, this is easier than it looks. Basically every term is 3 years, and you get an increasingly number of Skills for every term you advance in a given profession, which makes sense. There are legal and illegal career options, but I'm sorry to see that "Smuggler" is not among the criminal options, so I'll have to improvise. I don't want to start with an illegal one, though. I'll start by taking Business Owner. Rank One is "Tenant Shopkeeper." I'll put my skills...oh, wait, one of the professional skills here is "Drive Specialized Vehicle." Perfect! 

I'll say that my character started out running the guide/transport service and broke bad later. So, skills:

Drive Specialized Vehicle (boat) 1
Quick Buck 1
Knowledge (Local Lore) 1

Cool. That puts me up to age 20, and (although the example character skips this bit), I need to roll on the "end of term" table. A steady term, three decent years, add a skill level. Cool, I shall add it to Drive. Oh, and, I need Physical Resistance and Emotional Grace of 13 or better, but only one of my stats is lower than 13, so that's fine. 

Next term! I think we'll say that my boaty guy got drawn into a bad crowd at 20, and take Confidence Trickster (requiring Mental Strength 16, Mental Grace 14, and Emotional Grace 16, for the record - still no problem). And now there's the question. Since this is the first time I've taken this career pathway, does that mean I start at term 1 (three skills, three points) or does it advance to term two? Based on the character creation summary, it seems like I'd reset to term one, making terms career-specific. That is not very well explained (see, this is what I mean about needing an editor). 

Anyway, Confidence Trickster gives me three more skills and three more points, so I shall take Draw Others In and Knowledge (Crime) at 1, and bump Quick buck up to 2, since it appears on this list as well. As such, my skills are now:  

Drive Specialized Vehicle (boat) 2
Quick Buck 2
Knowledge (Local Lore) 1
Knowledge (Crime) 1
Draw Others In 1 

Another roll on the ol' "end of term" table gets me another skill point, which I shall put into Knowledge (Crime), methinks. For my next term, I'll continue on up the Confidence Trickster ladder, meaning I add three more skills and get to throw six points around, but only on the Confidence Trickster skills. As such, my skills are now: 

Drive Specialized Vehicle (boat) 2
Quick Buck 2
Knowledge (Local Lore) 1
Knowledge (Crime) 3
Draw Others In 2
Fast Talk 2
Persuade 0
Collect Gossip 1

My end of term roll nets me...ooh, two skill levels! One in Persuade, one in Collect Gossip, thanks. Next term, I'll keep on where I am (at the end of this term, I'm 29). That's the third term in Confidence Trickster, fourth overall, and it means I add three more skills and nine points (but, again, only for the Con Trickster skills). 

Drive Specialized Vehicle (boat) 2
Quick Buck 2
Knowledge (Local Lore) 1
Knowledge (Crime) 3
Draw Others In 4
Fast Talk 5
Persuade 1
Collect Gossip 3
Disguise 0
Knowledge (Local History) 2
Duck Questions 1

"Duck Questions" is a general skill, but at third term I can pick two professional skills and one general. Also, the general skills make no goddamn sense. "Brew Tea" and "Cook Chili" are general skills, but "Argue" isn't? Oh, are we being funny with our game design? Hoody-hoo. 

Anyway. Next term. I shall take a second term of...oh, hang on, forgot to roll. Two more skill levels! I'll add them two Persuade and Duck Questions (quack!). Next term, I think my guy went legit for a few years (police were breathing down his next after a pretty successful little score), so I'll go back to Business Owner and take that at term 2, and then I get six points. Skills, then: 

Drive Specialized Vehicle (boat) 5
Quick Buck 2
Knowledge (Local Lore) 2
Iron Will 1
Leverage Existing Resources 0
Vision 1
Knowledge (Crime) 3
Draw Others In 4
Fast Talk 5
Persuade 1
Collect Gossip 3
Disguise 0
Knowledge (Local History) 2
Duck Questions 1

This makes me 32. Rolling for end of term, I get...12! Nice! All my Aspects go up by two points! That's pretty baller! 

You know, I think I'll quit while I'm ahead. Not as crusty as I'd imagined him, but he's on a high note right now, and that's fun. Gotta add up these skills n' shit, though. Goddamnit, "Pilot Boat" is a general skill. You know what, these skills are so goddamn stupid (seriously, "Notice Local Change?" "Play Poker?" What do we gain from this level of granularity?), I'm gonna leave this as-is. 

I have to figure out modifiers for my aspects, yet, but everything else is just description and background, so I think I'm in the home stretch (these skills, my fucking lord. I thought Chill 2nd was bad). But first, I have to roll on another table, because there's "That One Thing." It's meant to be something that sets the character apart, and it's based upon whether you have Charmed or Demon blood (your choice!), but in practice unless you roll 11 or 12, it's just a stat boost. Let's see! 4, which gets me +1 Emotional Resilience, because I'm pretty sure this guy's got demon blood. 

Oh, right, gotta assign my aspects. Hang on. I think Mental needs to be good since most of my skills are there. I also get to add 2 to all of them, so I'll assign them thusly:

Physical Strength 10
Physical Grace 15
Physical Resilience 16
Mental Strength 21
Mental Grace 22
Mental Resilience 21
Emotional Strength 21
Emotional Grace 15
Emotional Resilience 16

Name, description, fortes and flaws. OK, here we go. 

Folks in the city and by the docks just called him Chuanzhang ("Skipper"); he doesn't use his real name if he can help it. He's only 32, but he looks older (lots of time on the water plus lots of missed meals and booze). He's skinny, no two ways about it, but he's an easy talker and sharp as a tack. Don't play go with him, or chess, or poker, or any other game of skill unless you don't mind losing, and for the love of god don't play him for money. 

Skipper always smells like fish and salt, and he doesn't bathe often. He stays out of polite society (he knows what he is), and although he's friendly and chatty, he's highly guarded. Folks know he inherited the boat from his father when he was still a teen, they know he's been running tours and cargo for years, and they know that a few years back, something happened that set him up pretty good. Money's running out, though, meaning Skipper is going to be looking for a job soon...

Fortes: Incisive, Charismatic. Flaws: Opportunistic, Devious.

That'll do it! Thank goodness I never had to run this, my players would have killed me.

Chill: Dog Days of Summer

Yesterday, in addition to being my solar revolution anniversary, was Chill. Yay! Here's last time.

It's only been about a week, but the Unknown never sleeps. On this particular Wednesday in July, Dylan Reeves gets an email from his comrade-in-SAVE Blake Wheeler. The email, forwarded from Blake's job at Animal Control, says that a park ranger named Dwayne Long was killed, apparently by a pack of dogs, at the Military Reserve Park last night. His body was discovered by hikers early this morning, just off the Three Bears Trail.

Dylan calls out to the Ranch and asks Jeanie to round up whoever's handy; this may bear investigating. Jeanie gets on the PA and asks for volunteers, and gets Emily Montgomery, Beth Anne Stallard, and Jennifer Joyce (still visiting/recuperating from the last case). In addition, two newer envoys are on hand. One is Manny Wall, formerly the sheriff in Seneca, OR, who was gently asked to resign after the situation where two of his deputies died messily (this happened here). Manny joined SAVE after this and has spent the last year or so learning the Art and working at the Ranch and training his dog, Peedee (the dog's name is actually PDF, because he's a Dobie). His Drive is to keep the town safe. 

The other new envoy is Vicki Parsons, a very recent member of SAVE - she was one of the young people trapped at the cabin by Johnny Wren during the last case. Vicki is going to be starting college at Boise State in fall, but for the moment she's learning the ropes and helping out. Her Drive is to save her friends. 

Dylan arrives at the Ranch and the group gets ready to go. Emily wears a gun on her hip (Idaho is open- or concealed-carry, obviously) and Beth Anne carries a shotgun in her pack, and the group of them head out to the park. They start by hiking up the Three Bears Trail to where the body was found. Much of it is cordoned off, of course, but they can still get around the perimeter. Vicki finds blood spatter and a trail she can follow; Manny also finds blood, but in the diametrically opposite direction. Vicki senses the Unknown, and gets a sharp, discordant feeling. The sky clouds up and thunder rumbles - apparently she got something's attention. The envoys decide to follow the blood trail she found.

The trail leads off the path and into the underbrush, which is rocky and steep. The ground doesn't hold tracks so they can't tell how many animals might have been involved, here, but they can definitely see the evidence that Long was running, panicked, and bleeding. The trail leads down a slope, which most of the envoys traverse without a problem (though Jennifer and Manny wind up slipping and banging themselves up a bit). At the bottom of the slope, they find themselves on another hiking trail. 

A park ranger, having witnessed the fall, comes up to find out if they're OK. He also kind of looks askance at Emily's drawn pistol (not illegal or anything here in MURICA, but um, why?). She holsters it and acknowledges his request to be safe, and Vicki kind of sidelines him to ask about what happened up by the trail. He doesn't tell her a lot she doesn't know, but she mentions the blood trail and then shows it to him, and he wonders why on Earth Dwayne ran up the hill if he was being chased by vicious dogs. Sure, they'd be faster than he is no matter which way he ran, but up the hill was just making it harder on him in every way. The ranger also mentions that there's no way these dogs were rabid - rabid dogs don't run in packs.

The envoys head back down to the trail they fell on. Jennifer looks around and finds what look like claw marks on the trail, but they're black and...waxy. Actually, it looks like dogs with claws made of crayon wax made them. The envoys, of course, find this very confusing. Wax dogs? 

They decide to head down the trail to the dog park on their way out; they need to do some research and get more data. They get to the dog park and Manny lets Peedee off leash to go play, and he notices that all of the dogs in the park - Peedee included - are avoiding a section over by the treeline. The envoys head over to investigate, and it starts to rain. As they get to the treeline, the rain intensifies. 

Emily draws her pistol and heads into the trees, and Vicki follows at a slight distance, maintaining visibility with both Emily and the rest of the envoys. Emily hears growling, but then a huge dog slams into her from the side and bites her thigh open. She shoots it and Vicki calls for help. Beth Anne runs over and aims her shotgun, but can't get a clear shot through the rain. She fires in the air to scare the dog, and it perks up and howls at the envoys. They feel terror claw at their minds, but keep their shit together. 

Manny release Peedee and sends him in against the dog, and Peedee throats it and slams it on the ground. Emily draws a bead, but can't get a clear shot around Peedee. Beth Anne helps Emily up, and Dylan prepares to raise a Sphere of Protection, staying close to Vicki. The envoys notice more canine eyes watching them from the trees, too.

Manny calls Peedee back to clear the way for gunshots, but the dog is faster and runs toward Emily and Beth Anne. It looks as though it's about to bite Beth Anne, but then at the last second, she sees it look confused and then veer off and bite Emily's ankle. Beth Anne screams "heel!"...and for some reason, the dog does, sitting at her feet.

Vicki focuses and uses Follow the Strings on the dog, and realizes that it doesn't want to be sitting at Beth Anne's feet, it wants them all to be running, bleeding, and then dead. Before anyone can pursue this line of questioning, though, Emily puts toward bullets in its head, killing it.

The envoys don't want to stay and mix it up with more of these dogs, and they don't know if anyone heard the gunshots, so they collect the dog's carcass and head back to the car. On their way out they get stopped by a ranger. Manny tells him that one of them got bitten by a dog and they shot it, but they need to take her to the hospital and the dog's body to the vet so it can be tested for rabies. The ranger agrees, but gives them his card so they can call and update (and almost certainly takes down their license plate). 

They head back to the Ranch, and Dylan and Beth Anne patch Emily up (she'll have a limp for a while, but doesn't require stitches). Vicki and Beth Anne then take the dog's body out to the barn and look it over. 

The dog weighs about 90 pounds, and breed-wise it looks kind of like a pit bull or a mastiff. Its fur is black and looks about like a Rottweiler's. Its teeth, though, are disproportionately large and scary-looking. Its claws feel normal, but when scratched against a surface they leave waxy streaks. They decide to cut the dog open to see what's in its stomach, and discover that it doesn't have a stomach - it has strange, bloody, biological meat-like stuff in it, but no organs, not even in its head. 

Dylan ponders all of this, and realizes that this dog is very much like what a small child would come up with if asked to picture a scary dog. It's big, fast, strong, big teeth, yellow eyes, but its organs aren't there because what would a little kid know about anatomy? Beth Anne quietly notes to herself that she's been feeling a sense of deja vu all day - and when she was young, she had (or thinks she had) adventures with the creature from under her bed. 

But in any case, the envoys conjecture that these dogs might be the product of a kid's imagination, somehow. Dylan hits the books and looks for instances of this happening, while Jennifer looks in SAVE's archives for animal-like monsters. Dylan learns that children's fears are often useful to the Unknown because they're pure and easy to elicit. Creatures like poltergeists latch onto kids, while other creatures feed on them directly or indirectly. Jennifer, meanwhile, notes that most cultures have legends about monstrous dogs - Black Shuck, Perro Negro, Old Red Eyes - and SAVE calls these things "Unknown canids." Many of them are corporeal and can be killed conventionally, but some require special methods of destruction. 

As the envoys are talking, the door blows open and the storm rages outside. In the doorway is a massive dog, snarling and barking at them. They all recoil in horror, and Emily takes a shot at it (but misses), but then lightning crashes and the dog is gone. They check the barn, and the dog's carcass is gone. Only a few waxy ash-like flakes are left, and even those crumble away.

The storm starts to recede, and the envoys wonder what kind of attention they've attracted this time.

Character Creation: Manic Pixie Dream Girl Commandos

 Got a bit of time before Chill today, so I think I shall make a character. 

The Game: Manic Pixie Dream Girl Commandos (part of #Feminism)
The Publisher: Pelgrane Press
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

The book in which this game appeared is a nano-games anthology composed of 34 different games, but the only one that has a character creation system that really fits into this project is Manic Pixie Dream Girl Commandos. Most of the other games feel a little more like theater improv exercises than roleplaying games, inasmuch as there's often not so much of a "game" aspect to them as is commonly understood. But that's how you innovate - challenge assumptions, change stuff around, do something different. There's definitely some great stuff in this book, even if a lot of the games wouldn't really fall in my comfort zone (which, again, is fine; one of the things I really like about this book is that some of the games flat-out say "if you aren't interested in X, this game isn't for you, don't play it").

Anyhow, MPDGC takes the titular trope and has the characters going out and changing the world in a way that only a Manic Pixie Dream Girl can. The game helpfully provides the definition that Nathan Rabin gave when he coined the term (though doesn't mention that he basically disowned the term a few years later and feels ashamed for creating it. I guess that's not relevant but I thought it was interesting). The definition is: "the free-spirited life-lover who cheers up a male sad-sack." It lists a few examples, including one (Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) that I really disagree with, but in any case, we've got enough to make characters. Rabin's actual definition from the essay on Elizabethtown where he coined the term was: 

Well, with all of that in mind, let's make a character! The setup here is that my MPDG wanted to work in STEM but wasn't able to afford grad school, joined up with the military and got assigned to this squad that goes out and saves the world by cheering up sad dudes and being vaguely magical. No sheet for this game, so:

1. Dream Job. I pick a STEM that my character really wants to do. I pick physics, something that's always been fascinating to me personally but that I just don't have the head for (it's the math).
2. Hair. Let's say colored in rainbow stripes and shaved on the back. 
3. Accessories. Tattoos! I love ink anyway. I'll say she has equations and other physics-themed tats; Newton's Laws and so forth. 
4. Physicality. Definitely feisty. Small but fierce.
5. Adorable Instrument. Harmonica. 
6. Catch Phrase. "Stay in motion." (Can't you just hear, like, Jordan Ladd with rainbow hair saying that to Taylor Lautner or someone? "Stay in motion, Steve.")
7. Civilian Name. Ivy Crenshaw
8. Commando Code Name. Superball. 

And that's it, actually! 

Masks: Into the Light, Issue Five

 After a bit of a hiatus, we're back! Here's last time.

The heroes are at the AEGIS facility and superpowered prison, confronted by a bunch of possessed agents, including Conners, and Maestro (also possessed). The agents leap at them, and the battle is joined!

Jade Eagle flies into the fray, tossing agents around and avoiding their attempts to pin her down. Pyre is riding in his weird, glass-bubble battle-bot thing, and fires off a bunch of nonlethal rounds (which don't seem to hurt the creatures). Moonlight, careful not to conjure up any psychic constructs (since the Photovores can eat them), observes the area and tries to get a sense of how to win this fight. He knows that doing so will require preventing the Photovores from feeding or fleeing, and that seems like tall order.

Jade Eagle, perhaps thinking the same thing, smashes the front wall and caves it in to prevent the creatures from running out into the sun. The Photovores take the opportunity to swarm at her, and Moonlight stretches out his arms and sweeps most of them away. A couple of them skitter up Moonlight's arms to attack, but he drains their lifeforce. Horribly, though, he sees this is affecting the people as well as a Photovores. He drops them withing truly harming them, even though doing so brings his Doom closer.

One of the creatures lands on Jade Eagle and wrestles with her. Pyre dives in and strikes it in the back with his machine's robot arms, and Jade Eagle hears the man's shoulders dislocate with sickening pops. Winning this battle by brute force might be possible, but it would probably cost innocent lives.

Moonlight sees Maestro run down the hall towards where the prisoners are kept. He stretches up to the balcony and pursues him, and sees him standing in from of an open cell. Walking out of said cell is a super-criminal called Arcknife, but now possessed by a Photovore. 

Arcknife hurls electricity at Moonlight, who instinctively throws up a shield to block it. Predictably, Arcknife zips over and absorbs it, and then grabs Moonlight by the head. Moonlight begins to drain him, and Arcknife flicks a bit of lightning at another cell. It opens, and a huge, blue dude comes charging out.

 

Said blue due, a bullish villain called Troll, ignores the fracas happening in front of him and charges down the hallway, presumably towards freedom. 

 

Pyre leaps up to the balcony and tosses Conners out of the way. Jade Eagle catches her and bends a metal bar around her, immobilizing her, and then flies around and breaks the lights in the room. Pyre, however, is now in front of Troll on the balcony. "Move it, wuss!" yells Troll, and Pyre just smiles. Troll pounds on the "glass" dome, but can't break the alien material, and Pyre uses the machine's robot arms to sock him right back into the hallway. 

 

Maestro glides up to Troll and offers him real power, power enough to stomp these people. Troll accepts, reaching for Maestro's hand, and Maestro grabs it, sending darkness into the big blue thug. The now-possessed Troll stands, but Moonlight reaches up with his stretchy fingers and breaks the lights in the hallway, hoping to keep the Photovores from getting stronger. And then he hears a voice he recognizes - Vortex.

"Hey, Moonlight," he says. "Let me out and get me my harness. I can suck these things up into the singularity." Moonlight has no desire to release Vortex, but he admits this is a solid plan.

Jade Eagle, meanwhile, flies into the hallway. Moonlight tells her Vortex' request, and Jade Eagle says that it's probably the best idea they have, though they need to figure out some way to save the people inside the Photovores. Moonlight runs off to find the harness, and Jade Eagle tries to take stock of what's happening, but Arcknife is too fast for her. He unleashes a barrage of electrically charged debris, striking her and blinding her for a moment. But then her green aura flares bright in the shape of an eagle, and green energy beams burst from her eyes, knocking his projectiles aside. 

Pyre swings his robot arms out into the hall indiscriminately, but Troll catches them and tears them off, laughing. Pyre opens the robot's dome and unleashes a gout of fire. Troll tries to punch him, but his fists go right through him (it's very difficult to punch a fire), and he collapses, his clothes burning. 

Moonlight gets to the vault where supervillian gear is kept, and flattens himself to get under the door. He finds the harness, but can't figure out how to open the door from the inside (everything is on lockdown). Desperate, he calls upon his powers and teleports back into the hallway, feeling his Doom inch ever closer. 

He releases Vortex and hands him the harness, and Vortex actives his power, opening the singularity in his chest. Troll starts to slide towards him, and Jade Eagle stops him. She tries to figure out how to save these people but get rid of the Photovores, and then she figures it - Moonlight can absorb them. He just needs to do it with a little more precision than usual. 

She explains this, and Moonlight stretches out his arms and wraps up Maestro. With great effort, he pulls out the Photovore and spits it at the black hole. It vanishes into the Lightless Void...but there are still so many more.

Pyre becomes a whirlwind and picks up the rest of them, and Moonlight focuses his power and yanks out each and every Photovore, throwing them into the Void. Pyre drops the now-unpossessed people (Troll crawls back into his cell, muttering "fuck this"), and Jade Eagle realizes that Dr. Crate is downstairs. 

She flies down and tells him what's happening, and he says that maybe it's a good idea if he keeps his Photovore. After all, if they can study it, they have a better chance of repelling them when and if they invade again. Jade Eagle tells him that he's done enough, he deserves his life back, and he agrees, accompanying her back upstairs.

But upstairs, Vortex shuts the black hole and tells Pyre and Moonlight that they're good kids, not like a lot of these other yo-yos. He says that the only difference between someone like them and someone locked up here is the willingness to get shit done, and asks them to come with him. 

Pyre rejects this outright - to him, sucking up trees and statues isn't "getting shit done." Moonlight, likewise, tells Vortex that he feels that the difference between them is less about willingness to act and more about selfish motivations, but Vortex can tell he doesn't really believe it. Vortex runs off, and the heroes don't try to stop him - they're spent. 

Jade Eagle arrives with Dr. Crate, but Vortex is gone, and there's nowhere to put the Photovore even if Moonlight did have enough oomph to remove it. Conners regains her composure and the AEGIS agents lock up Arcknife. 

Conners takes the heroes to a room for a debrief, and admits they did a good job. Sure, they put an agent in the hospital, but the damage could have been far worse. Jade Eagle asks for clemency for Dr. Crate - maybe he could join AEGIS rather than being a prisoner? Conners agrees, it's just a matter of letting him work safely. Conners also says that the smaller Photovores in the city crawled out into the sunlight and burst like ticks - apparently they weren't strong enough to handle that much light. For now, at least, this threat has been neutralized.

The heroes go back to their lives. Charlie goes to school the next day and feels a poke during homeroom. Sol - rather, Tandy, since they're both in their civvies - asks what happened, and he tells her that they sent the Photovores home. She tells him he's the sort of guy who would find a black widow spider and put it outside rather than squashing it, and reminds him that they aren't normal, and they never will be. Charlie wants to disagree, but he can't.

Jade Eagle meets with her legacy, and they congratulate her - she's gotten the attention of the Eagle. That means, though, that she can't back out even if she wants to. She has to ride her destiny to whatever conclusion it might have. Jade Eagle outwardly welcomes this, but inwardly is nervous - this seems like a big escalation.

Pyre is trying to reattach the robot arms to his conveyance when his interdimensional communicator comes to life. The connection is bad, but he makes out "interference...danger...caution...explosive...en route." He springs into action trying to improve his communicator, but no further information is coming. Not yet, anyway.

Character Creation: Magical Cleanup Service

I've got a moment between PD sessions (since I'm back to "work" now), so let's do something quick.

The Game: Magical Cleanup Service
The Publisher: W.H. Arthur Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, and calling it a "book" is generous

Magical Cleanup Service came in a bundle with a whole bunch of other games raising money for Black Lives Matter. It's a PbtA game, about, as the title suggests, a service that cleans up after magical mishaps, messes, and other shenanigans. It could be a fun diversion for the right group, I think. 

Anyway, first thing, I need to pick an archetype. I always like playing summoners, but today Broom Specialist is speaking to me, mainly because the archetype has a cool martial artsy sort of vibe to it. Indeed, my first task is to answer the Background questions, which are: 

You swore never to use broom-fu on another living person. What happened? I think my wizard was a magic cop of sorts; an Auror, if you will. He and his squad were deployed against a coven that they were told was involved in some diabolical shit, and they went in and cleaned up. It wasn't until later that he learned that the coven was actually politically opposed to some of the entrenched magical authorities, and they hadn't actually committed any crime. Disgusted, he swore of violence and became a cleaner of a different type. 

Who do you really want to hit with a broom, and why? This would normally refer to another PC, but since it's just me, I'll go broader. My guy really wants to smack Jurizal Jemmin, a local wizard personality, outspoken supporter of the entrenched magical government, and general fuckhead. (Think Tucker Carlson.)

Now I add 1 to one of my stats, which are 0 across the board except Wild, which is +2. I think I'll increase Void, since it's used to remove things, which sounds kinda broomy. 

I get two special moves: broom magic and broom-fu fighting. For the former, I get to pick two specialties. Hmm. Given my character's background, I think Broom Fighting makes sense. Hopefully my hypothetical GM would give me non-person things to fight as well as making me considering breaking my nonviolence vow. For the second one, I'll take Broom Acrobatics. Telekinesis would be cool, too, but the idea of flipping around old buildings with high ceilings is just too much to pass up. 

Only thing left is a name, I guess. I'll call him Tor Nobble (I'm kind of establishing that names in this game have the kind of Harry Potter style ridiculous/on-the-nose sort of quality, but that's fine, it's not like there's any guidance on that subject). Tor eschews robes for loose-fitting pants and a short cape, and sports a round cap with a mask that he can pull down over his face. His broom is dark-stained cherry wood, the same one he used as a magical cop, although the sharpened end has been sanded down. Tor is muscular and thick (making him surprisingly agile when he starts doing flips), with short blond hair and gray eyes. 

And that'll do it, I think!

 

Movie #587: Ready or Not

Ready or Not is a horror film directed by Radio Silence, and starring Samara Weaving, Andie MacDowell, Adam Brody, Mark O'Brien, Henry Czerny, Melanie Scrofano, Kristian Brunn, Elyse Levesque, and Nicky Guadagni. It's also pretty recent, so potential spoilers, I guess.

Grace (Weaving) is marrying her beau Alex (O'Brien), and in process marrying into the LeDomas family. The LeDomas are richer than Croesus, having made their fortune on board games and sporting goods, and they have a charming little tradition where when someone new joins the family, said new addition draws a card from a puzzle box given to the family's ancestor by the mysterious Mr. LeBail. Sometimes it's chess or old maid, or something equally innocuous, but Grace draws hide n' seek...whereupon all of the family arms themselves and hunts her down in order to maim her and sacrifice her to Satan.

I don't know if it's the dystopian hellscape in which we find ourselves living or some shift in Hollywood funding practices that isn't visible to us layfolk, but there are some really good things happening in horror right now. Ready Or Not is an example of such. The premise is simple enough, but it takes a number of familiar horror staples (the final girl, the Faustian bargain, the old mansion, etc.) and twists them just enough. The cast is pretty damned phenomenal, from Samara Weaving getting filthier and more desperate and angry as the movie goes on to Mark O'Brien showing his true colors when the chips are down to Melanie Scrofano (whom we know from Letterkenny) flying high on a variety of drugs. 

Likewise, up until the last couple of minutes, we don't know if any of the supernatural underpinnings in the movie are real. Some of the characters openly doubt that this "hail Satan" nonsense is anything but bullshit, and when the sun rises and Grace isn't dead, we get a nice moment of tension where everyone deals with a) not being dead, since that was the understanding and b) what to do about Grace...before they all start exploding. 

Speaking of that, most of the effects in the movie are practical, and it makes such a difference. Even the explosions at the end were achieved with blood bombs, and the result is that the whole movie and everything in it looks organic and real. 

Overall, it's a damn impressive movie. It's hard to balance comedy and horror; a lot of times a comedy-horror veers into one or the other, but Ready or Not manages to keep both balls in the air right up to the end. It's not the kind of movie that wants a sequel, but I'd love to see a short where Grace and Erin (from You're Next) get together for a drink.

My Grade: A

Rewatch Value:High

Next up: Real Genius

Character Creation: HeartQuest

Not in a particularly good headspace today, so obviously I should do a character and see if I can depress myself further.

The Game: HeartQuest

The Publisher: Seraphim Guard

Degree of Familiarity: None, which is about as much as I'd want

Books Required: Just the one

HeartQuest is an RPG aping the tropes of shojo manga, which is not something I have any particular interest in. The system is Fudge, the precursor to Fate, so at least I've got some familiarity there (but it's pre-Aspects, so bleah). I'm actually not even sure where I got this PDF, because apparently I haven't purchased it from DTRPG, which means I didn't get it in a bundle there. Maybe it was in a Humble Bundle or something? I dunno, it's been in my hard drive since 2012.

Anyway, the game identifies three possible...not genres, so much, as approaches. There's Teenage Romance, Magical Girls, and Fantastical Adventures. Of the three, it's the latter that appeals the most to me, but there aren't any sample settings for me to glom onto, and the one that's the easiest to understand without further context is Teenage Romance (it's also given the most attention in the book, so it kinda comes off as the "default" for the game, wrongly or rightly). So, sure, fuck it, let's make a character who's a high school student in a romance story, despite the fact that playing such a game sounds like about as much fun as licking a mousetrap.

We start with Attributes. They all start at Fair (except Appearance, which starts at Good), and I have three levels with which to boost them. I could, should I so choose, drop one to Poor to get an extra level. I suppose I should come up with some sort of concept.

Well, I'm listening to random songs on Youtube, and "When You Were Young" by the Killers came up. That puts me in mind of a character crushing on someone out of their league, for whatever reason. In particular, the line "he doesn't look a thing like Jesus" makes me think of a character who was raised religious, in an environment that wasn't terribly accepting of LGBTQetc stuff, and now he's experiencing something of an awakening, so to speak. Such relationships are mentioned in the book, though they're treated...well.  

Anyway, I'll say that my character is crushing on someone, and if this were a character I were playing, I'd try to make it a PC. But as for this character, we'll glom onto the "still finding himself" angle. I'll set up my Attributes thusly:

Physique: Good

Mind: Good

Willpower: Fair

Cool: Fair

Appearance: Great

Right, now I get 30 Skill levels. Most of them are 1-for-1, but some are more expensive. Which Skills would I like?

Acting/Drama Good

Calligraphy Good

Running Good

Sport (Soccer) Good

Forgery Good

Perception Great

Shadowing Good

Stealth Good

Fashion Sense Superb

Gossip Good

Carousing Good

Emote Good

Joke Good

Theology Fair

Right, now I get two Gifts. I'll take Charisma, since this guy is shaping up to be a social creature. And then I'd like something called Hard to Read; maybe he gets a bonus to hiding how he really feels and what he thinks.

I could take Faults to give myself more points, but I don't think I need 'em, honestly. No Supernormal Powers, so that puts me over to Finishing Touches.

I'll say his name is Masami. He plays soccer (striker, second string goalie) and he makes some pocket change writing love notes for his friends (good penmanship and pretty much untraceable, so if you've got a secret admirer Masami is a good person to have write the note). Masami was raised in a pretty strict household, but his parents seem to have lightened up now that he's a little older. He's about one screw-up away from discovering how strict they still are, however.

Masami has a crush on another boy, probably someone in the grade ahead of him, and he's very confused about that. He hasn't told anyone and he's got no intention of doing so. Masami keeps everything pretty close to the vest, at least for now.

Good enough!

Movie #586: Ravenous

Ravenous is a cannibal horror movie starring Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeffery Jones, Neal McDonough, David Arquette, Jeremy Davies, Stephen Spinella, Joseph Running Fox, Sheila Tousey, and John Spencer. 

John Boyd (Pearce) is a soldier in the Mexican-American War who freezes in battle, but then finds his courage and strength and captures the enemy outpost. His general (Spencer), however, sees right through him, recognizes him as a coward, and sends him off to a tiny waystation in the Sierra Nevadas, although with a group of other misfit toys.

While there, a mysterious, half-dead stranger named Colqhoun (Carlyle) arrives and tells the soldiers that his wagon train got lost in the mountains and they had to resort to cannibalism to survive. The soldiers set off to find the cave the travelers used and look for survivors, but Colqhoun kills them all (except Boyd) to refill his larder, as it were.

Boyd, a budding cannibal himself (he captured the Mexican command post after accidentally drinking his captain's blood, so apparently it don't take much), survives the winter in the mountains by eating the much stronger and nastier Private Reich (McDonough), and limps back to the fort to find that Colqhoun has taken on the identity of Colonel Ives and taken command. His plan is to stay on, convert Boyd and the thought-to-be-dead Colonel Hart (Jones), and maybe General Slauson to cannibalism and just feed on travelers.

I really enjoy this movie, for a number of reasons. I think the first is the soundtrack. Some of it is the pretty typical horror movie orchestral kind of thing, but most of it is this discordant, banjo-and-mouth-harp kind of thing. The scene in which Colqhoun chases poor, meek Private Toffler (Davies) into the woods to kill him, in particular, has this "let's all go on turkey hunt!" kind of vibe, and it's fucking jarring in a good way.

The performances are also pretty stellar. Pearce plays a character who knows he's lost from the beginning - once you become a cannibal in this world, you're pretty much screwed (it draws on the Wendigo myth, and as Martha (Tousey) explains, a Wendigo only takes - to "cure" it, you have to give yourself and die). Boyd doesn't know that explicitly at the beginning, but he looks like an addict in severe withdrawal. Likewise, Carlyle's Colqhoun is gleefully vicious and manipulative, identifying his own hunger for humanity as a kind of Manifest Destiny. The supporting cast, too, gives us a sense of who they are and why they've been exiled to Fort Spencer, without anything as obvious as a "so why are you here" scene.

And, finally, Fort Spencer feels like a real place. I say this a lot, but in a horror movie it's important to get to know the physical layout of the place, and the best horror movies are the ones where you feel like you know where everything is by the end. The production design, costumes, and, horribly, the food is all beautiful and detailed (well, the food isn't always beautiful, but it's always evocative).

My Grade: A-

Rewatch Value: Strangely high

Next up: Ready or Not

Character Creation: 13th Age

Time to make the donuts character.

The Game: 13th Age

The Publisher: Pelgrane Press

Degree of Familiarity: None

Books Required: Just the one

 

Strange beast, this. It's a fantasy d20-based RPG, clearly meant for people who like D&D, but recognize that the various systemic incarnations of D&D are kinda shit. So it talks about having some indie-game inspirations and mechanics, and the result is...actually really intriguing.

I found myself thinking, while reading this game, that I'm not sure anymore what a fantasy game has to do to hook me. Like, I've run a lot more fantasy in the last couple of years than I ever have previously - Blue Rose, Shadow of the Demon Lord, and now Cairn - and they all have interesting and rich settings and simple but robust mechanical frameworks. So I guess that's it? I like the dial set to "enough," apparently.

Well, anyhow, 13th Age. One of the big points of this game is the "icons," the powerful, nigh-godlike characters in the setting, any of whom could usher in the end of the world. All of the PCs have a relationship with at least one of them, although the relationship probably isn't close enough to merit them appearing onscreen. Characters also have a "one unique thing" that sets them apart from everyone else, and I have to say I love the amount of detail that "one unique thing" gets in the text.

It's not uncommon, especially in indie games that are created by one or two people, for key concepts to get underexplained because there aren't enough eyes on the text and no one ever has to suss out the game without the creator of said game there to explain it. 13th Age, though, is easy to figure out and the game doesn't even bother trying to separate the authors from the reader. They talk right to you, explain how things have worked in their own games and why, and unabashedly assume you know what they're talking about when they say "3E" and "games about vampires". After reading a bazillion "what is a roleplaying game? Well, it's kinda like Cops n' Robbers..." intros, it's sort of nice to have a game that starts out at the grad-school level, as it were.

OK, moving along. I actually have a bit of a concept, here. I want to play a ranger, but I don't want to make an Aragorn-like ranger (human but wannabe elf). I want to make a larger, thicker, kinda grumbly ranger, and that to me suggests half-orc. That means I get a +2 to Strength or Dexterity, and I get Lethal as a racial power (once per battle I can reroll a melee attack).

Class, I already know I want to be a ranger. I get three class talents, but I want an animal companion and that eats two slots, so I just get one more. I'll take double melee attack; I picture this guy with two axes chopping away, rather than firing arrows from the trees. His animal companion, likewise, is a goddamn boar. I get a bonus to either Strength, Dexterity, or Wisdom, but I can't take the same one as for race (which I haven't decided upon yet).

And now we generate ability scores. I could roll randomly, but eh, I think I'll do point-buy today. Actually, I don't even need to do that much work, because they put in a little grid with all the possible arrays. That's marvelous.

Well, do I want to spread points out a bit, or do I want to specialize like I usually do? One of the nice things about this game is that attacks and so on aren't made with just one stat. I think I'll go 16, 14, 14, 12, 10, 8.

I'll put the 16 in Strength, the 14s in Con and Dex, the 12 in Wisdom, the 8 in Intelligence, and the 10 in Charisma. And then I'll use my racial bonus to jack Strength to 18, and the class bonus to up Wisdom, I think.

That means Hit Points are 27, Armor Class is 17 (assuming light armor, which is what I get), Physical Defense is 13, Mental Defense is 10 (ugh). I get 10 Recoveries because my animal buddy gives me two extra.

And now here we are at one unique thing. Let's see, here. I want my half-orc to be from a plains or mildly forested area, and there's plenty of that on the map. There's a place called "Bitterwood" that doesn't have any detail in the book, but it's got proximity to First Triumph, which is a hellhole conquered by the Crusader. I like the idea of my boar being able to smell hellholes or root out corruption like a normal pig can truffles. Sounds good.

Now, icon relationships. I get three dice to put into these. I'll say I have a negative relationship with the Crusader (1 die), a conflicted relationship with the Orc Lord (1 die), and a positive relationship with the High Druid (1 die).

Backgrounds! I like these. Instead of picking skills, we pick backgrounds, which are then used to add to skill rolls. I get 8 points, max 5 in any one. Well, I'll take Hunter of Bitterwood at 4. I kinda want something related to the whole "sniffing out hell" thing, so I'll take "demon tracker" at 2, and then I'll take "nomad of the plains" at 2.

I get one feat at adventurer level. Let's see. I'll take Strong Recovery, so I can reroll one recovery die. Since I recover for two, that seems useful. And finally, gear. I have two hand axes, a short bow, a set of light armor, a cloak with a hood (standard for rangers), a sack of pig treats, and a brush made of rowan wood and wire that I use to brush Gornik, my boar.

My ranger's name is Cek (all the Hunters of Bitterwood have monosyllabic names). He found Gornik wallowing in the rancid muck of a battlefield, and while he was saturated with the blood of demons and other horrors, he wasn't mutated or possessed or anything like that. Cek took the boar in and raised him, and now he's pretty goddamned big, but still something of a softie (you know, unless you do something stupid like threaten Cek, then he gets scary real fast). Cek is tall, wide, and a lot more chatty than most rangers, but he's chatty in an abrasive, short, brusque kind of way. He's got brown eyes and patchy black hair, and wrinkles his nose when he's thinking or annoyed.

And that'll do it, I think.