Character Creation: Fear the Living

It's windy, dismal, threatening to rain, and just this side of chilly out. Probably my favorite type of weather, and definitely perfect for a zombie game.

The Game: Fear the Living
The Publisher: Just a Statue Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Interesting little game, this. I mean, zombie horror games are pretty thick on the ground, and much like superhero RPGs, it's interesting to see how different people approach them but I've pretty much got the ones I think work perfectly well (Marvel Heroic and Marvel Superheroes for supers, Zombie World and All Flesh Must Be Eaten for zombies). But with that said, the system here is interesting. During conflicts, you spend successes (4 or better on d6s) into "Advantages," which are basically just types of actions. It's a cool little harmony of a trad game's "roll to pick the lock" and a kind of PbtA-ish approach. Actually, I think it reminds me more of Blood & Honor, World of Dew, that whole "buy narrative control" with successes, though I think this would be easier on a group because there are defined categories into which you can put your successes.

It reminds me a little of the Removal Challenges in curse the darkness, as I think about (but not so much that I think the author read that game, because seriously, who has). 

Anyway, let's make a Survivor! 

So, were I playing a game of Fear the Living, the first thing I would do with the group is to create a setting. This would answer the burning questions about the "rules" for zombies - how smart they are, how strong, how fast, whether/how you can kill them, and so forth. There are a few examples in the book, and one of them begins thusly:

Now, ignoring the fact that in the play, Juliet doesn't die because she kisses Romeo's poisoned lips ("I'll kiss thy lips/haply some poison doth yet hang on them"), I really like this setup, 'cause I'm a theater nerd. The section goes on to suggest that this setting might become a mashup of Shakespearean characters - maybe Duke Prospero returns from his island just in time for the dead to rise? I'm a sucker for such mashups in the Anno Dracula/League of Extraordinary Gentlemen style, so I think I'll follow this line of logic.

Though I do note that the tone of the setting is meant to be Over the Top comedy, even though the basis for it is a tragedy. But then, there's been a lot of time since these plays were written, and we know the equation. 

Anyway, King Lear is my favorite Shakespearean tragedy (The Tempest is my favorite of his plays overall), so I will create as my character Edmund. Edmund dies at the end of Lear, of course, but if we're retconning anyway, we'll say that he survived his wounds and had an escape route set up in advance (he's a sneaky fucker like that). He escaped to Verona and is quite happy to leave his past behind, given that his father is dead, his brother may or may not be King of England, and he's directly responsible for a whole lot of people dying. 

In Verona, he calls himself Edgardo di Verona (taking his brother's name, because Edmund is still a bastard despite his last-minute "repentance"). Probably that's a good enough start to get into the chargen stuff. I start with Attributes. I have 11 points to divide up amongst them, and they are: Humanity, Ruthlessness, Authority, and Will to Live.

Well, clearly Will to Live and Ruthlessness should get the higher scores, here. I'll put one in Authority (Edmund has no particular social standing), 2 in Humanity (I mean, he did try to repent), and four each in the other two.

Four Talents. Well, I think "Ruthless Social Climber" is nicely Broad (Talents are Broad, Narrow, or Specialized). "Cunning As a Fox", also Broad. "Secret Would-Be Earl" seems pretty Narrow. "Friends in Low Places," also Narrow.

Five points in Relationships. These can be with people, places, things, concepts, whatever. Can't go over three points in any one. Well, I kinda feel like I should have a relationship with Dad, even though he's dead. I'll put two points in and say it's a mixture of guilt and hatred. Likewise, one point toward his relationship with Edgar. 

You know, Edmund is first and last self-interested. He talks about how it's not in his nature to betray his father, but like, needs must, because it isn't like he's going to inherit anything. I'll say that Edmund has a two-point Relationship with himself.

And now I get two MOs, which basically underline what role Edmund is playing in the story. Let's see. Uh, that's one easy choice:

And then there's an opportunist one, too, but eh, I don't want to double down. I think I'll take Zombie Infectee. It's a little weird for this apocalypse, but I think it works - Edmund has already been through his "tragic end." Maybe he didn't really escape his death back in England, after all.

And, finally, a Liability. This is how I want the character to suffer, meaning that it can't really be related to him being an opportunistic fucker, because I've got other traits representing that. Hmm. I'll say that Edmund is On the Run, and I'll put that at 5. If he's caught, he'll be shipped back to England and executed, not necessarily in that order.

That's it, then! Edmund - or "Edgardo" - is slowly growing angry and depressed, and either he finds a cure (ha) or he'll join the ranks of the undead. Now, gods, stand up for zombies.

Movie #591: The Relic

The Relic is a creature horror movie starring Tom Sizemore, Penelope Ann Miller, Linda Hunt, James Whitemore, Chi Muoi Lo, Clayton Rohner, and Thomas Ryan. 

An anthropologist (Lewis Van Bergen) working for the Natural History Museum in Chicago drinks some soup in Brazil and then freaks out when some crates he wanted to send to Chicago aren't on the cargo ship. This is all put into context later. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Margo Green (Miller), a kind of prickly evolutionary biologist, just wants to do her research and not be bothered by any of this "superstition" garbage, into which she throws any kind of religion, folklore, or omen. She's worried about getting a grant which her obsequious colleague Greg Lee (Lo) is also shooting for, but never mind that. The important thing is that a killer is stalking the museum! 

Vincent D'Agosta (Sizemore) is investigating the killing at the museum, and also the killings on the cargo ship (context!), all of which involve decapitation and removal of the hypothalamus. Eventually, it comes out that the creature (the Kothoga, when it's at home) is actually Dr. Whitney, mutated by a virus that the tribe he was eating soup with uses as a kind of biological weapon. The tribe's motives for turning him into the Kothoga are never really revealed (maybe a kind of "we know what happens when white people show up and they can all get fucked," but it'd have been nice if someone said it), and the monster eats a bunch of people and winds up getting blown to hell by Dr. Green.

So, I have a weird history with this movie. Way back in Toledo, it wound up being the only movie that was remotely interesting to anyone in my friend group playing at the local dollar theater, and so I wound up seeing it like four or five times because going to the movies and gaming was pretty much all we were doing. It's a pretty shit movie, if we're being honest. The creature effects aren't bad (yay Stan Winston), and Sizemore and Miller do their best, but it's a pretty bog-standard Aliens/The Thing kind of ripoff. The realization that the Kothoga started human and is, in fact, Dr. Whitney is played like it's a big twist, but it's pretty damn obvious. 

What I find interesting watching the movie now is how damned overwritten it is. The museum head of security (Ryan) has a rant, just before the Kothoga tears his head off and eats his brain, about how this craziness is all going to get resolved and how he'll get his job back. Sure, OK, but then we get the line "Whatever prankster created this miasma...". Like, are you sure that's the word you want? There are a couple of other points, too, that characters use words that make me think the screenwriter had a thesaurus handy and they felt like they had to vocabulary up this shit. 

Whatever, it's a monster movie. It's not especially good, and for some reason the DVD version is incredibly dark, so that you can barely see what's happening in a lot of it. I think it'd be a lot more interesting with the light balance corrected, or least a lot more watchable. 

My Grade: D
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: Renaissance Man

Chill: Envoys = Chew Toys

Yesterday was Chill, wherein the envoys discover that "let's have an enemy we can fight physically" is a kind of monkey's paw wish.

Last time, the envoys had retired back to the ranch after confronting and killing a single gigantic black dog-creature. Emily was injured, but still functional, and so the envoys decide to head back to the dog park the next day and stake it out. The only real lead they have (other than, y'know, the actual dog attack) is a social media post talking about a dad trying to force his daughter to interact with dogs to conquer her fear of them, and while that seems promising, it's not enough to go on. 

The next day, they gear up for a stakeout and head back to Military Reserve. On the way, though, they see a bit of a commotion at a nearby Senior Center. Pulling in, they see news teams and various first responders. Manny gets out and spots a cop he knows, and asks what happened. The cop tells him that a nurse named Leona McDaniel was mauled by a pack of dogs last night.

Leona survived - she was discovered some hours ago and taken to a nearby hospital, and is out of surgery and out of immediate danger. The cop shows Manny where it happened, and Manny counts six sets of dog tracks. All of them are Peedee's size or bigger, and it looks like they harried Leona away from the building, continually bit at her, and then attacked her when she fell. No major blood splash, though, that would have indicated that they went for killing bites. The cop tells Manny that conspiracy theories have already started, saying that these dogs are trained to kill. 

Beth Anne goes into the lobby and listens to the chatter amongst the employee, but only hears that Leona was attacked, she's out of surgery, and the staff is wondering what's going to be done about this. The envoys reconvene and head to the park, but text Jennifer (who had a deadline, so she had to stay at the ranch to write an article) to head to the hospital and see if she can talk to Leona when she's done.

Dylan, Manny, and Emily walk across the parking lots and follow the dog's tracks into the park. The tracks lead past the parking lot (where they join up with Vicki and Beth Anne) and up into the woods, and the envoys aren't quite ready to go hiking after the dogs just yet. Instead, they head back to the dog park to see if they can find the scared little girl. 

They don't find her, but they do find the woman who made the post about her (recognizable by her two black labs). Manny chats with her and learns that the dad was pushing the girl to pet the labs, and the lady tried to be accommodating, but the girl really wasn't into it and clung to her father. She also mentions that the girl was carrying a drawing of big, scary black dogs, but that she must have dropped it because the lady saw the drawing blowing across the park into the trees. Manny thanks her and gives her his card, in case she sees them again; maybe he and Peedee can help the little girl in a more controlled environment.

The envoys decide to check into the trees where the woman saw the picture blowing. Emily takes point, as usual, and walks into the treeline. She notes that this is the same area that she was attacked yesterday...

...and then the skies darken (which means the light in the forest gets even dimmer) and thunder rumbles. Emily checks back to make sure she can see her fellow envoys (she can), but then a dog slams into her and bites her shoulder. Another trips her up, knocking her down, and the rest of the park darts in, biting and tearing. 

Beth Anne screams at the dogs to heel (it worked last time) and a few of them back off. The others charge the other envoys; one leaps up and bites Vicki on the side, and other bites Beth Anne's ankle. 

Dylan runs in and raises a Sphere of Protection, and the dogs back off, but he looks down at Emily, a mess of blood and foam and torn clothing...but her face is untouched and strangely pristine. That contrast is too much for Dylan and he breaks a little, and the Sphere wavers. Manny and Peedee try to drag Emily back, and the dogs square off for another attack, but then two policemen (including Manny's buddy from early) show up, and the dogs scatter.

The envoys are taken to the nearby hospital. Emily is the worst off, but Vicki needs some stitches, too. The envoys quietly reflect that at least this time, they're in no danger of being arrested - the police saw the dogs, too. 

Jennifer, meanwhile, goes to the hospital and, using the Familiar Face discipline to avoid questions, talks to Leona McDaniel. She's pretty out of it, but she describes the attack - she went outside for smoke, a dog ran up and bit her, and then another blocked the door so she couldn't get back in. She ran away from the facility just out of panic, but the dogs kept biting at her, until she finally couldn't run anymore. Jennifer thanks her, but then hears toenails on the floor behind her, like a big dog walking. She turns, but doesn't see anything, and decides to leave.

Of course, her fellow envoys are already here! Dylan, Jennifer, and Manny get together in the waiting room. Beth Anne joins them shortly thereafter (just an ankle wrap and a lot of shots, no big deal). Emily is here for the night, at least, and Vicki is still in a room, a bit drugged. The envoys are also joined by Mohammed Al-Zaid, who hasn't been on a case since the incident with the draugr last year.

The envoys talk about their course of action, here. It's clear that these creatures are deadly, especially when together as a pack, and they'll need some kind of strategy to take them on. They still feel that the girl and her fear are key to understanding this, but they don't know how to find her. 

Vicki's father arrives at the hospital (remember, Vicki's only 18) and goes to see her. She explains what happened and he says he'll drive her home. She says goodbye to the envoys and introduces her father to them (he's a little thrown, considering the age difference), and they start home. He asks about the envoys, and Vicki explains they're folks from the ranch where she volunteers and they were out at the park on a kind of team building thing when the dogs attacked. The conversation doesn't have time to progress, however, before her father swerves off the road to avoid hitting something...he thinks it was a dog.

Vicki yells at him not to get out of the car, but he has to check the damage. He gets out, and Vicki hears snarling and screams. He tries to get back in, but something pulls him out, leaving bloody streaks on the seat. Vicki calls Manny, terrified, and he tells her to send her GPS to them so they can get there. The envoys head out - fortunately they're quite nearby. 

Vicki gets out to help her father, pulling a tire iron from the car. Three dogs have surrounded him and are biting at him - every time he tries to get up, they bite more, keeping him down. The envoys arrive and Mohammed grabs a mag lite, runs up, and cracks a dog on the head. Jennifer shoots at one, and Vicki grabs a flare out of the SUV and hurls it at the dogs (she misses, which means the whole scene is illuminated in red). Manny and Peedee grab Mr. Parsons and pull him back toward the SUV, and Dylan raises a Sphere of Protection. 

The dogs pile on Mohammed, knocking him down and ripping his flesh. Manny commands Peedee to attack and he slams into the dog on Mohammed's chest. Jennifer shoots again, striking a dog, and Beth Anne tries to command them again, but the dogs ignore her. She decides on a more direct approach, taking a crowbar from the SUV and burying the sharp end in a dog's back. 

Some of the dogs are injured, but they're still very much capable of fighting. One of them attacks Mohammed, who is helpless on the ground, and tears out his throat.

The envoys recoil in horror. Beth Anne, screaming in rage, raises up the crowbar and brings it down, and Jennifer sees some horrific, black silhouette envelop her. The crowbar strikes the ground and the dogs flee, leaving the envoys there on the side of the road with Mohammed's body and Vicki's injured father.

Character Creation: Bob, Lord of Evil

Migraines have laid low our original plan for the afternoon (Masks), so we're doin' this instead.

The Game: Bob, Lord of Evil
The Publisher: Peregrine Products
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Bob, Lord of Evil is a kind of standalone supplement to Murphy's World, which I don't own. Murphy's World itself is a playable game, but can also work as a setting to whatever game you happen to be playing. Basically, it's a world on which belief and expectation shapes reality, with the result that "Murphy's Law" tends to be what governs things. Bob details the Dark Lands, a particular area within Murphy's World, ruled over by the titular Bob. 

The game text is mostly fun to read, which is something in and of itself (humor in gaming is hard). The general tone is pretty much black humor, kind of fantasy Paranoia in a way - you can try to ingratiate yourself to Bob, but he might eat you anyway and there's really not a winning strategy. The book is almost all setting and it details the various factions and characters in the Dark Lands lovingly. I can't say they didn't put the work in, and the book is full of adventure ideas, random tables to get things moving, and quotes from Bob and other important characters.

I have to say, though, that the book feels really busy (hell, the cover alone is the busiest one I've seen outside of Strike!), and I don't feel real inclined to run the game. But maybe it's because it calls itself a "roleplay game" and the missing -ing kinda jars me. 

Moving along, let's make a character. 

Heh. Look at the chargen page (seriously, just a page), it's clear to me that they're really leaning in to this "system doesn't much matter, because it's all about the setting, use your favorite system" thing. But, this book was still made in the 90s, so we've got these niggly little things like you get one extra Skill point for every five years your character has lived, that kind of thing. 

Well, anyway, first thing I need to do is make some personal characteristic choices. I think I want to lean in to the fact that living in the Dark Lands is a risky proposition, and make a character who firmly believes that Bob is going to eat him someday. After all, Bob ate the rest of his family. And his pets. And his bike. And his shoes. He's become fatalistic and he has a chip on his shoulder (sometimes literally, because why not). He calls himself "Lunch." 

First thing: Race. I'll say Lunch is a Darkling, one of the unfortunate folks who develop mutations from living here too long. I can roll on tables for mutations, and I might as well. I get one Undesirable Physical Transformation, one Undesirable Behavioral Transformation, and one Desirable Transformation. Let's throw some dice. 

For my Undesirable Physical Transformation, I get Body Coloring. Rolling on that table, I get Sandy Tan. Not a terribly appetizing color, but who knows, maybe he'll turn a nice juicy red if you baste him. For my Behavioral etc, I get...excitement or fear prompts altering all objectives to destructive ends. I can roll with that. When Lunch gets scared, he starts flipping tables and saying "OK, then! Eat me!" like Tommy Lee Jones at the end of Men in Black. And then for my Desirable thingie, I get 100% magic resistance. Sorcery just rolls right off me like a nice Hollandaise sauce. 

All right, that's a start. We'll say that Lunch is short and plump, his skin is a sandy tan color, his hair is black but cropped short (so it'll be easier to pluck before cooking), and he only wears organic, natural fibers. 

Right, I need to pick some Traits, but they seem to be just descriptors. So we'll say Lunch is Pushy, Fatalistic, Brave, and Delicious.

I kinda covered personal history already, and I'm not going into too much detail for this game. Personal Goal: Well, now. To be eaten by Bob, obviously...and to make the bastard choke. (I'm reminded of Spoon's brave dying words in Dog Soldiers.)

Right, now Stats. I roll a d10 for each Stat, then subtract the total from 100, and then add a d6 for every negative Trait but subtract a d10 for each positive one. Well, that's...involved. Hang on. My d10 total is 56 (why bother assigning numbers to Stats if I'm just gonna wind up with a pool of points anyway)? I arguable have three positive Traits (immune to sorcery, Delicious, Brave) and four negative ones, so I add 4d6 but subtract 3d10. Subtract 8, add 10, net add of 2, meaning I have 58 points to split between 8 Stats.

Well, I figure Intelligence isn't necessarily Lunch's go-to, so I'll keep that low (2; 56 remaining). Willpower, though, that feels like it should be high, so I'll go to 10 on that (46). Charisma we'll put at 5 (41), Mystic at 1 (he's immune to magic, and I like the idea that it just kind of ignores him; 40), Strength can be 10, Dexterity can be 7 (23), Fitness can be 15, and the other 8 can go into Appearance. 

Health Points are the average of Fitness and Willpower, which for me 25/2, or 12, I guess. I get a bonus if I'm over 200lbs, because everyone knows the fatter you are, the more damage you can soak up, but I'll leave it because I don't feel like figuring out Lunch's actual weight.

10 Skills, and I can pretty much make them up and assign a Stat to them. OK, then. Oh, wait, it's actually 10 plus 1 for every 5 years of life. Lunch is 25, so I get 15 Skills. Wow. 

Well, some kind of combat is probably smart, so I'll take Scrapping. Oh, wait, they separate non-combat and combat skills. Fine, I'll take Scrappling as well. Making scrapple is important. I'll take Cooking, Baking, Brewing, Herbology, and Sommelier as Skills, too. Over under combat, I'll add Chopping and Flambé. Four more. 

Some kind of stealth is probably smart, so Sneaking, sure. Inchoate Shouting, too. Geography (Dark Lands), so Lunch knows his way around. Hmm. Leadership, why not ("TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL! AS THE MAIN COURSE!"). That'll do it!

And that's actually the lot. Lunch is ready to serve!

Character Creation: DC Adventures

Felt like doing a superhero game today. A bit of actual heroism would not go amiss, I think.

The Game: DC Adventures
The Publisher: Green Ronin Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Not much. I did a little writing for the Heroes & Villains Vol I book, but I haven't played the game. I've played a bit of Mutants & Masterminds and that's basically what this is
Books Required: Just the Hero's Handbook

Right, so. This is actually the third DC-related RPG I've done a character for (the first two being Batman and DC Universe). I have done so damn many supers RPGs in general, though, because I love 'em. I'm more a Marvel guy than DC, but for purposes of this game it doesn't much matter because, again, it's a lot like M&M. 

The book tells me that the default starting power level is 10, giving me 150 points, spent thusly:

Guess I should think of concept, huh. I'm actually approaching this kinda backwards, because I have an idea for a nemesis, but not the hero. Said nemesis is Death Rattle, a cloaked, hooded dude who can generate glass knives from his body and hurl them with deadly accuracy. So who's my hero, the guy opposing Death Rattle, gonna be? 

Well, looking over the many, many supers characters I've made, I've hit a few of the basic archetypes - energy controller, shapeshifter, powerhouse - but I haven't really done a paragon/Superman kind of character. I don't usually like ol' Supes anyway, but the jumping-off point for Superboy from Young Justice is better. He doesn't have the absolutely stupid array of powers, and he's actually got some grit to him. I can see a young hero kinda like that - powerful but still trying to figure himself out - going up against a more experienced, deadlier foe in Death Rattle. I'll name my hero Daniel D'Angelo (I'll save his hero name for later). I'll say Daniel lives in Bludhaven; I want someplace a little darker than Metropolis, but not Gotham. Don't know how Daniel got powered yet, but I'll figure it out.

Right, so I have 150 points. First thing I spend them on is Abilities, which cost 2 per rank. 0 is human average, 8 is low superhuman, and 20 is bananas. Superman has 19 Strength, while Batman has 4. I want Daniel to have a modicum of superhuman Strength and Stamina, so we'll arrange his Abilities thusly:

Strength 10
Agility 8
Fighting 6
Awareness 3
Stamina 8
Dexterity 4
Intellect 2
Presence 6

That totals 94 points. That's a lot, but I don't necessarily need a whole spate of powers, either. What's next? I could do defenses. They start equal to controlling Abilities, so:

Dodge 8
Parry 6
Fortitude 8
Toughness 8
Will 3

There are some caveats, here, too. I can't spend points to up Toughness (though I can take powers or advantages that raise it), and there are several pairs of defenses that can't total more than 20 (twice the power level). I feel like my guy needs a higher Will and a higher Parry, so let's bump them both up to 8 (for a total of 7 more points spent; I'm at 101). 

Skills! There's a very manageable list, thank god. One point buys me two ranks, and I get to add the controlling Ability, which is nice. Let's see. I don't think Acrobatics is necessary, but Athletics surely is. Close Combat, yes please, but I have to specify it. I want Unarmed and Grappling, which are two separate Skills. 

Deception I'll skip. Expertise, though...probably Daniel should have some knowhow to do something. I like the idea of him being a woodworker, for some reason, so I'll take Expertise: Carpenter. 

Insight, sure, but I won't take much. Intimidation, definitely. Investigation...yeah, maybe a rank or two. Perception, always. Persuasion, eh. Ranged Combat, I should take Thrown so I can huck cars or whatever. Sleight of Hand is oddly specific, given how broad the rest of these are. Don't think I need it. Stealth, nah, I don't think this guy is real subtle. Technology, sure, Treatment, nah, Vehicles, sure. So with points, it looks like this:

Athletics 5
Close Combat (Unarmed) 5
Close Combat (Grappling) 7
Expertise (Carpenter) 6
Insight 2
Intimidation 5
Investigation 2
Perception 3
Ranged Combat (Thrown) 4
Technology 3
Vehicles 4

That's 46 Skill ranks, which costs me 23 points. I've spent 124, meaning I have 26 left. I may have to lower some Abilities, depending on how expensive powers are.

Ah, but first, Advantages. Some that look good: All-Out Attack, Chokehold, Fast Grab, Improved Hold, Startle. That's only five, actually. Can I do powers with 21 points? Let's see! I'll bet I can.

OK, so I want Daniel to be able to fly, but he doesn't necessarily have to fly fast or well. I wouldn't mind having some kind of toughness-related power (if such a thing there be, apart from just raising my Stamina). But I want something to give him a little flavor...ooh, how about Nullify?

So, Daniel can release a burst of "metahuman static" that shorts out superpowers for a moment. It affects him, too, so once he does it, he's only got his Abilities and so on to rely on (which are considerable), and it has no effect on powers that stem from a non-metahuman source (like magic). Daniel has no idea why he has this power. 

Let's do that one first and then see what kind of points I'm left with. Nullify costs 1 point per rank. Area bumps it to 2 points per rank, and I need to take Broad so that it can affect "metahuman" as a descriptor (3 points per rank), and Simultaneous so it affects all effects of the same type (4 points per rank). 

And then, oy. I want the power to be used and then stay in effect for a short while, but there's no easy way to simulate that. I can take Increased Duration, and indeed I kinda need to, but that won't quite make it work. Well, putting 2 ranks into Increased Duration means the effect is Sustained (I have to use a free action every turn to maintain it), and that raises my cost to 6 points per rank. Holy cats.

OK, but, Flaws! I can take Activation (have to take a standard action to "power up" the Nullify), that makes sense. Distracting makes sense (I'm vulnerable until the start of my next turn), since the power affects me, too. Noticeable, sure, it buys me a point. And then I think the "lose all powers while this is in effect" thing makes sense as a Side Effect, and that lowers the cost by 2 per rank because it happens whether I succeed or fail at the Nullify. 

So at the end of the day, I'm paying 3 per rank for my Nullify. Cool beans. I have 21 points remaining and I still want to buy Flight, so I'll buy 5 ranks. 15 spent, ah, but then I subtract 3 for Activation and Noticeable, so that's 12. 9 remaining. 

Flight is 2 points per rank. I'll take the Concentration Flaw, so it's just 1 per rank (Daniel can fly, but not especially well). I'll buy 4 ranks, so he can fly at about 30mph. 

That leaves me 5 points. Hmm. Let's go back to Abilities. I'll bump Fighting up to 7 (3 points left), raise Awareness to 4 (1 point left), and buy the Diehard Advantage. That's all me points!

A quick total-up, and I'm actually 1 point under. I'll buy two more Skill ranks and bump Expertise up to 8. 

OK, now for the Complications! I have to have at least two, and one has to be a Motivation. I can take more, though. These would give me hero points in play. 

Well, I know that Daniel has an Enemy: Death Rattle. I like the idea that Death Rattle doesn't actually hate Daniel. Sure, the kid gets in his way and screws up hits and bank robberies, but like, you don't become a superpowered assassin without expecting some do-gooder to get in the way. Daniel, meanwhile, does feel pretty personally about Death Rattle. The guy is a cold-blooded, unrepentant killer, and he can generate knives from his hands. (And Daniel's Nullify power doesn't work on Death Rattle, because his powers are magical in nature, not that Daniel knows that.)

As for Motivation, I think Daniel is driven by an unknown force. He feels that he has to go and thwart crime, and he gets itchy if he doesn't. On the surface it's a basic "do good" kind of impulse, but if Daniel ever stops for whatever reason, he's gonna realize it's a deeper compulsion than that.

I want him to have a secret identity, so I'll take that as a Complication. 

And then into background! We've already established that his birth name is Daniel D'Angelo. Let's think about origin.

I think Daniel is a metahuman...or rather, he thinks he is. He manifested his powers the way a lot of metas do; he was under stress (bus accident caused by a battle between a couple of superhumans) and Daniel ripped open the back and helped people get to safety. When the combatants started punching each other even closer, Daniel instinctively released a weird red-yellow flash of light that disabled their powers and allowed authorities to apprehend them.

Daniel has taken to calling this power "ground zero". He hates using it - it makes him feel queasy and, of course, it removes his ability to fly, which he enjoys. But it's pretty darned useful.

As a superhero, Daniel wears a black gaiter covering his face below the eyes, brown boots and gloves, a red shirt and black pants. He's thought about taking a moniker that references his ability to power down other metahumans, but he hates the power too much to make it his identity. Instead, he goes by Rampart, focusing on his desire to protect and defend. 

And that about does it, I think!

Legend of the Elements: Blue Water Heals

Back in the city of Greycliff. Here's last time.

The characters head out to the banks of the Big Dog River to check the scene of the crime, and find a row of stables (the roads here are wide enough that carriages coming into the city can come up the riverbank and board their horses). The stable in question is mostly destroyed, and Gerde realizes that it wasn't washed out by a flood, or at least not a natural one. Khatun checks around, too, and notes that people are watching them, mostly her (probably because her garb is similar to the guy who was arrested for destroying the stable).

Ember approaches a hand from a nearby stable and asks what happened. He motions for her to follow him, and leads her to the street, away from the stable. He says he saw the accused, Thunas, standing on the edge of the river watershaping, but it looked like he was pulling the water towards him, rather than pushing it away. Ember thanks him and asks why he felt the need to talk in private; he says that her companion (Khatun) is dressed like the guy they arrested and he doesn't want trouble. He sods off, and a fellow across the street calls out for Ember, saying that he saw the incident!

She walks across the street and the guy bolts, revealing Miko, the mugger/fireshaper, and his two henchmen. Miko tells her that he heard they swore out a complaint against him, and warns her to drop it. Ember tells him that he should stop mugging people, and he is less than receptive to the request. She opines that he could do more for the community if he helped rather than hurt, and he doesn't much care. He repeats the warning: retract the complaint by dawn or next time he won't be so friendly.

Back at the bank, Gerde reaches out with vibration sense and feels the remains of the stable beneath her in the sand. She realizes that whoever destroyed the stable did it by pulling the ground out from under it, starting with the sand of the riverbed (she's heard of sandshaping, but can't do it herself). She does pull the stable wreckage up from the river, however.

Feng goes into the wreckage to look around, and an angry ghost, apparently one of the stable hands, accosts him. He calls for help and Khatun approaches, trying to talk the ghost (which no one but Feng can see) down. She apparently hits the right notes, though, because the ghost sees her and calms, and goes to her and puts its hand on her shoulder. But Feng feels more spiritual turmoil, and a bunch of horses and two more men, all ghosts, burst from the ground and start rampaging around.

One of the horses kicks Ember in the head and knocks her down. Feng calls upon his spiritshaping and makes the ghosts visible, and Gerde calms the horse and gives it an apple (it doesn't physically eat the apple, but goes through the motions and the apple gets withered and gross). Khatun calls up grass to appease the horses, and the characters manage to talk the human ghosts down. They ask what happened, and the men say that they felt the ground sliding out from under them. One of the horses then kicked Onil in the head, and she was washed out into the river, but then they saw Thunas bring her back with watershaping.

Ember makes a fire to warm the cold, wet ghosts, and they start to fade. Khatun asks if they know why Onil might have been targeted, and one ghost says something about a necklace before he vanishes. 

Clearly, the next step is to talk to Onil, so the characters find out where she lives - a big, clearly earthshaped house. Gerde talks to the guards at her door and gains entrance, and a kind of majordomo named Nase, upon hearing that Khatun has some healing experience, allows them to see Onil.

Onil is still unconscious, her head bandaged from the wound. She is indeed wearing a necklace, a kind of half-moon made of quartz on a leather strap. Khatun lifts it up to examine it, but the walls shake and they quickly put it down. Nase tells them that she's had it since childhood, a gift from her uncle, and it apparently cannot be taken off her unless she agrees or dies. 

Khatun summons her watershaping powers and heals Onil's head a bit, allowing her to regain consciousness. Onil tells them that someone pulled the ground out from under the stable, and then something hit her and everything went black. Gerde asks about a sandshaper, and her eyes get wide, but she passes out.

Nase doesn't know about sandshaping, but he does mention that Onil's cousin, Calri, is an earthshaper. They used to be very close as children, but they had a falling out some years back (before Nase came to work for her, so he doesn't know why). He does know, however, that someone tried to mug Onil for her necklace not too long ago - some street toughs.

The characters figure they might well know those "street toughs," and Ember relates the conversation she had with Miko earlier. The group heads back to the Honey Blossom, figuring they'll deal with Miko in the morning (since he's promised to find them). 

As they're eating, though, they hear a commotion outside. Wae calls a boy in from the street and asks what's going on, and he replies that an angry mob is heading for the jail! They're planning on breaking in to exact some private justice on Thunas.

Naturally, the characters can't let that stand.

Movie #590: Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 drama starring James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ana Doran, Edward Platt, a very young Dennis Hopper, Corey Allen, and Virginia Brissac.

We open at a California police station, where young Jim Stark (Dean) has been brought in for public drunkenness. Also there are Judy (Wood), who has been picked up as a runaway but it's implied that she's been soliciting, and John "Plato" Crawford (Mineo), who was brought in for shooting puppies. All three teens are, gently put, fucked up, and they all get sent home. Jim goes with his controlling mother (Doran) and utterly emasculated father (Backus). Judy, desperate for attention from her father (William Hopper) goes back home, and Plato goes with his housekeeper (Marietta Canty), as his mother is away. 

The three of them wind up together at a disastrous "chickie run" that claims the live of a young tough named Buzz (Allen), and become friends. Plato is plainly in love with Jim (he frames this as a kind of hero worship/wanting a father figure, but um, there's plenty of sexual tension, too), while Judy and Jim start to fall for each other. Jim goes home and tries to go to the police to do the right thing, and his parents try to talk him out of it, even as he desperately tries to get them to take some kind of moral stance. 

Finally, the three of them wind up at an abandoned house and running afoul of Buzz' angry friends. Plato winds up shot by the police, and Jim introduces Judy to his parents as his "friend."

There is so much going on in this movie, and you catch something new every time. The queer-coding is pretty noticeable (Plato has a picture of Alan Ladd pinned up in his locker, and that's just for openers), but he's not fucked up because he's gay, which is nice distinction for the time. As with a lot of movies of the time, the creators had to work around the Production Code and as such a lot of the moments are subtle. 

And then, of course, there's James Dean's amazing performance as Jim Stark. Mineo and Wood are similarly impressive (they were both nominated for Oscars), but Dean's journey is the one we see the most of. It would tempting to see Stark as a detached loner/too cool for school sort, but he's so insecure and desperately trying to find someone to look up to that that description just doesn't fit. 

Rebel is one of those movies that has seeped into the culture in a million subtle ways (the standard wardrobe of one Philip J. Fry is inspired by Stark, f'rex), and that becomes more obvious with every viewing. (Also, it's another movie that seems cursed, given that all three leads died young in really unpleasant ways.)

My Grade: A
Rewatch value: Medium

Next up: The Relic

Masks: Gimme the Car, Issue One

New arc! New danger to Halcyon City! Here's last time! Here we go!

It's a lovely crisp autumn day in downtown Halcyon City. Selena Ruiz is with a volunteer group cleaning up litter. Charlie Chesterfield is window shopping, and Pyre is flying around near the tops of skyscrapers marveling at the constructions of glass ("isn't glass brittle?" he muses). 

And then, Pyre sees a woman with white hair and big white wings fly into the city! She smiles big and says "GOOD MORNING, HALCYON CITY!" and is somehow broadcast loud enough that everyone can hear her, including the heroes on the ground. 

"My name is Cygnus, I want to sing a song for you!" she continues, and then music comes from nowhere and she begins to sing. The song, however, is so loud that windows begin to crack. Pyre flies over and tries to ask to her to stop, but of course his voice is drowned out. Selena dips behind a dumpster and emerges as Jade Eagle, and Charlie ducks into an alley and reappears as Moonlight. They both start heading up to intercept Cygnus.

Pyre, meanwhile, makes the words "PLEASE STOP, YOU'RE BREAKING THINGS" appear in smoke. Cygnus stops singing and says, "oh, everyone's a critic" before launching into another song. Jade Eagle tackles her, knocking the wind out of her, but she's so disoriented by the song (remember that Jade Eagle has super-senses) that both she and Cygnus go spiraling toward the ground.

Moonlight stretches his arms out and catches them (Pyre creates an updraft to slow them down). Cygnus lands happily in the "net", and thanks Moonlight for catching her, and then flies up and hits a note that shatters the windows in all the nearby buildings. Pyre changes himself to wind and tries to catch the glass, but only manages to spread it. Moonlight tries to catch it with his psychic constructs, but misses. Jade Eagle, shaking herself off, uses her eye-beams to try and burn off the glass, but only manages to create an amazing light show as the beams reflect. The glass settles onto the crowd below, and people start to bleed and scream.

Cygnus thanks Jade Eagle for the light show, and Jade Eagle, annoyed, slams into her and pins her up against a building. She breaks the wall behind her and falls into the building in fear. Meanwhile, Pyre sees people bleeding and tries to figure out how best to help. He figures he might be able to suck up the glass with a tornado, but that wouldn't do much for the people already injured. Instead, he turns himself into a flash flood of a solvent that will dissolve the glass but not hurt the people, and spreads himself over the area. It works, mostly. He clears up the shards, but also dissolves a lot of windows and eyeglasses. 

Meanwhile, Moonlight stretches up to see Cygnus and Jade Eagle facing off, and siphons some vitality away from Cygnus. Her wings shrivel and she drops to her feet, and she stammers and apologizes, saying that she just wanted a concert. Jade Eagle says that that would have been fine, but all the destruction isn't acceptable. Cygnus asks if Jade Eagle would help her, would come to her concert, and Jade Eagle agrees (unaware that this whole conversation is still being broadcast with Cygnus' powers). 

Moonlight heads down and spots AEGIS, and in particular their old pal Agent Conners. He hears Conners telling the others that Jade Eagle has apparently gotten too touchy feely with this "bird lady", and that Pyre is, as usual, destroying the city - the only one they can really count on is "that goth one." Moonlight reflects that while he doesn't like hearing his team badmouthed like this, it does kinda make him feel good to know he's seen as trustworthy. In any case, he lands and tells Conners that Jade Eagle is on her way down with Cygnus. Conners says "weapons hot," but Moonlight manages to talk her down - Cygnus is cooperating.

Jade Eagle, Pyre, and Cygnus land, and news coverage ask all kinds of questions ("Have you joined forces with Cygnus?" "Are you her new promoter?"). Conners ushers everyone into an armored van to take them away, and reads Pyre the riot act - he's managed to destroy property again. When's he going home?

Pyre angrily responds that he can't go home, because his ship is still stuck in the Place Between and he doesn't have a way back. Conners doesn't really get any of that, of course, and turns her attention back to Cygnus and Jade Eagle. Jade Eagle says that Cygnus could be trained and be an asset (figuring it's much better to have a hero with a troubled start than a villain in the long run). Conners says that they'll have to see about the legality of training "Miss Vallas," and Jade Eagle recognizes Cygnus - her name is Lina Vallas, and she was a one-hit wonder pop star some years back. Conners asks if Jade Eagle will take some responsibility for training Cygnus, and she agrees.

As they're leading Cygnus away, the lights flicker and the PA system in the building crackles on, and Pyre hears FLICKER's voice. She's trying to get home, but she can't calibrate. He tries to send her coordinates, but the connection dies. Conners, hearing that the ship can travel between dimensions normally, seems more interested in helping.

Pyre figures that the nature of the Place Between is making it hard to calibrate - every time the settings change, the "middle" resets. Normally the ship can project a "bubble" keeping its own dimensional laws stable to avoid this kind of thing, but that bubble isn't working, and he's not sure why. He asks Moonlight to contact Nightingale, since she spent a long time in the Place Between, and they meet up at the Nest.

Nightingale says that she only got to the Place Between with the help of Lady Faust, but Faust is now powerless. Jade Eagle mentions that she still has shards of the bloodstone in her hands, and Moonlight figures that while Jade Eagle is largely invulnerable, the magic contained in those shards could be dangerous if activated. He figures that with the help of Lady Faust and some method of making Jade Eagle physically vulnerable, they could remove the shards, but doing so might incur attention from Baal, the demon they left in the Dead.

They decide to table that for the moment and work on getting Pyre's ship back. They figure they need some method of contacting the ship and activating it remotely, getting the bubble working and then recalibrating. As they discuss this, though, Nightingale shoves Moonlight out of the way and a metal disc strikes her shoulder. She freezes in place and goes blurry, and a man steps out of the shadows. 

"Hello!" he says. "My name is Ilijah Intrepid. Which one of you is Pyre?" He looks at Pyre and nods at his communicator. "I'm going to need to borrow that device."

Pyre asks why; Intrepid says it's a long story. Pyre says he's welcome to tell it, but Intrepid says "I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. Give me that device." He tosses an orb that spews black smoke. 

Pyre and Moonlight are both dizzied by the smoke, but Jade Eagle grabs Intrepid and drops him on the smoke device. He disappears mid-air, and reappears behind Pyre and Moonlight, tosses those discs onto them. Pyre changes to smoke and Moonlight realigns his flesh, disrupting the discs, and all three heroes turn to face Ilijah Intrepid.

"Fine," he says, "we'll do this the hard way."

Character Creation: Kaiju Kindergarten

Why not? It'll be quick.

The Game: Kaiju Kindergarten
The Publisher: Games 4 Geeks
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I got this game in the recent BLM bundle. My stepson Will was actually working on something kinda-sorta similar at one point (that was more about fantasy monsters than kaiju, but tomato/tomato). 

The basic conceit here is that kaiju have learned to live in harmony (more or less) with humanity, and even enroll in a preparedness school taught by humans, largely to keep kaiju from breaking everything when they get big(ger). Each players is meant to control both a staff member and a pupil. I think, however, I'm just gonna do a pupil character, for two reasons. One is that I do indeed want to keep this quick, and the other is that I just don't find the teacher chargen all that interesting (both forms of chargen use a series of questions, but the teacher ones are mostly yes/no, which doesn't really lend itself to depth without elaboration, and I kinda can't be bothered today). 

So: Kaiju. Actually, I could make a kaijin (giant humanoid with weird powers) or a seijin (alien beings), but I think kaiju is really where I'd like to be. My baby kaiju is going to be based on the ghost leviathan from Subnautica, since I just finished playing through that game. 

Now, obviously my kaiju isn't nearly this fearsome, he's just a wee tot. So he'll be long and snake-like, but still in the early stages of life, meaning he's amphibious. He's got legs and is maybe more salamander than snake, and hasn't grown the big wide head-plates that he will as an adult. He's light blue, and parts of him glow with bioluminescence sometimes. He's squishy and slimy as well. 

Personality-wise, he's curious about things that glow, but prefers dark places (otherwise, like, how do you know if something glows?). He also retreats if bruised; he hasn't grown a hard shell yet.

Why can you be a handful to teach? I think because he has a habit of slipping into narrow, dark places. His malleable body lets him squeeze into places that are smaller than you'd think.

What sort of things do you like? Lights, especially multi-colored or blinking. Bodies of water. Warm, temperate climates. Hard candies the size of buses (he likes to curl around them and slowly dissolve them). 

I start with two abilities. One of the examples is "breathe/swim underwater," so that's easy. I also think that my kaiju's ability to squeeze into small spaces counts, so I'll call it "squeezable body".

And that's pretty much it, actually. My kaiju's name is Newt, just to keep things right on the nose (do newts have noses?).

Character Creation: Wrath of the Autarch

Lots of chargen posts, but soon enough we'll get back to watching movies and whatever the hell else I do (didn't I have a job at one point? Feels like I did...). 

The Game: Wrath of the Autarch
The Publisher: Ziapelta Games
Degree of Familiarity: None. It's nominally a Fate game, but it makes a lot of changes
Books Required: Just the one

I don't think I did this on purpose, but Wrath of the Autarch and Blood Red Sands are similar sorts of games in that there's a lot of high-level, meta-game stuff going on. WotA isn't GMless, at least not entirely, but one person controls the Autarch and her Empire, which is a very different thing than actually running the game. It's designed as troupe-style (you've got a pool of hero characters rather than each player controlling one), and sessions are meant to be episodic, so that if one player misses a session it's not the end of the world (this is, incidentally, what Spirit of the Century was meant to do, too, but 10 Aspects is too many).

Anyway, making a hero character would normally pretty much just consist of a core concept and a peak Skill, and then about everything else would get filled out in play, but for purposes of this project I'll just make one complete character and then go knock off and watch Captain America: The Winter Soldier. 

The setting we're working with here is definitely fantasy, and it's kinda like Blades in the Dark in that there's a good deal already decided, but with enough room to be creative, particularly with regards to the Stronghold (i.e., the kingdom trying to take down the Autarch). Starting a character would normally go hand-in-hand with Stronghold creation, and with some preliminary thoughts about what kinds of conflict my hypothetical group would like in a campaign. Since, if I were actually playing, I'd almost certainly lobby for lots of magic-type shit, let's make a character who does wizardry. I think it'd be interesting to make a character with a load of natural magical talent, but almost no training and no patience for training. My Core Concept, then, is going to be Natural-Born Wizard.

Next, we need a Trouble Aspect, and it's pretty clearly going to be that my wizard has no patience for schooling, tactics, ritual, or much of anything, really. No Patience At All is the Aspect.

And then my third and final Aspect is the Legacy Aspect, which ties into the Stronghold and my position within it. I think that my wizard managed to stumble into a bit of fame and notoriety by driving back some magical beastie or other, but he did it (like he does everything) utterly by the seat of his pants. Toast of the Town is the Aspect.

Cool. I was mistaken about that being my final Aspect, though, because I've got two Relationship Aspects. One helps, one hinders. They need to be with other characters, but not necessarily other heroes, so I'll just make 'em both with NPCs and call it a day. The helpful aspect is with Zara, the Captain of the Guard. Zara and I are close friends (maybe more? time will tell), and she's a young prodigy like me, just with tactics rather than magic. She thinks my powers are badass, and she thinks they're a lot more under control than they are. I have to pick a Skill to be part of this, so I'll pick Fighting, and name the Aspect Zara Understands Me. 

For the Hindering Aspect, it's gotta be Magister Orin, the head of the Mage's Guild. Orin thinks my character will be the death of him. We'll call the Aspect Orin Thinks I'm Dangerous, and link it to Lore.

And now, Skills. I get a standard pyramid (one Great, two Good, Three Fair, four Average). Because of the way magic works in this game, I can exactly be great at raw magic, at least not easily, but what I can do is take Channeling at Great and Lore at Good. That means I can't start with any actual spells (since that's a function of Lore, and I only get one stunt, and it keys off my highest Skill), but that's kinda in character, actually. For my other Good Skill I'll take Will, and for my Fairs I'll take Fighting, Wits, and Rapport. For my four Average Skills I'll take Society, Stealth, Physique, and Athletics. 

One stunt, off of Channeling. Oh, shit, Chaotic Reserves, please. I can spend Mana and add to attack actions, but I take stress in the process. That's perfect. 

I get one extra physical stress box for Physique, and two more for mental stress from Will. I start with Mana equal to my Channeling plus the region I'm bound to. Let's assume I'm bound to the Stronghold and it's got a mana of 0 for now, meaning my Mana starts at 4.

All I need is a name and a description, then! Enneleth is a young man, brash, ginger haired, and freckly and crackling with magic...but about all he can do with it is create a damaging nimbus around fists or a weapon. He did that and managed to drive back a horrific boar-like creature (while he doesn't know it, the creature was vulnerable to yew wood and the spear he threw was made of it; that plus the magic turned the monster), and now many in the Stronghold think he should be the next Magister. Orin, of course, knows better, and thinks that Enneleth is going to get people killed before he comes into his own. 

Character Creation: Cavaliers of Mars

 Hey, let's see if I can do this game without having panic attacks the rest of the day. That'll be a fun game.

The Game: Cavaliers of Mars
The Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Total accident that this follows Blood Red Sands, which has some of the same inspiration. Cavaliers is "a game of adventure on a dying world." It's arranged like a Savage Worlds book in a lot of ways; a bit of setting up front, character creation, and then the meat of the setting with an emphasis on plot points for use in play. Which is cool and all.

The system looks interesting and deliberately designed, which is always a plus. Reminds me a little of Marvel Heroic, actually. The opening chapter is written in character and it's readable and interesting, which is hard to pull off (it's also short, which is good). I don't know that it's memorable, sadly, because a day later I can't really recall much about it other than the basic conceit. The later setting chapter have some more depth and spice to them, though.

Well, let's make a character and see what happens. My amiga Amanda gave me this song for a character theme ("Trouble," The New Respects):

Actually, if Mars is a dying world, then this song works pretty well. It's a plea for trouble to leave the singer alone, but she also points out that she's tried to live right and it hasn't seemed to work, because shit keeps piling up and is it all really worth it? There's a kind of "normal person pushed to the edge" vibe that I kind of like, there.

Character creation fits entirely on one page - two with an example - although of course there's a lot of context missing. I need to pick an Origin from one of five possibilities: Court, Street, Bazaar, Caravans, or Dust Towns. I think I'll go Dust Towns; from the song I'm getting a kind of wasteland vibe. No place on the sheet for Origin, cool, cool. 

Anyway, I need to name my hometown, but it's not clear whether I'm literally making one up or picking one, and it's not like there's a list. Oh, wait, there's a bit on this in about 20 pages (a "see p. 41" would have been useful, here). OK, there is, in fact, not a list of Dust Towns, but we do get some info on them and I'm making one up. I also pick a question from a list of six to answer, but I think I'll roll for it, actually. "Bandits raided your town in the middle of the night, killing several elders. How did you help the town?" I think my character drove off the bandit's mounts, leaving them stranded as the sun rose. The townspeople caught them and hanged them, but of course that didn't bring the elders back. 

Given that, I'll say that our town is in the northwestern bit of the Cimmerian plains, because I like the description of it and the idea of a fungus that grows on the dead. The Dust Town I'm from is called Stench (the fungus seeps into the water and makes it smell and taste awful; it's not harmful, but it's no fun. You get used to it).

That's Origin, then. Now I pick a Career. Well, I think Laborer makes the most sense, right off the bat. No place to list Careers on the sheet, cool, cool. Oh, no, wait, Careers are Traits, so they can listed there. So is Origin, and it starts at a d6, but the line telling you to rate your Origin as d6 is easy to miss. Right, got it, this is quite a bit like a Cortex game. Oy. I start with a d6 there. I think specifically, he was raised as a farmer (fungus, obvs, growing variants of the corpse-eating shit that are edible). 

Next, I define a relationship with a friend, a lover, or a possession. Hmm. I'll say he's got a whistle he stole from the bandits. It's too high-pitched for people to hear, but many animals seem to respond. The whistle is a d6 at the moment. 

Second Career! Or I could bump Laborer to d8. Hmm. I think Scavenger, actually. That's a d6 for now.

Another Relationship. This one is meant to be to another player's character, but of course it's just me, so I'll say that there's another scavenger out there in the wastes named Siris. Siris and I are rivals, but we'd never do anything violent or truly mean to each other, and we trade goods sometimes. That relationship is a d6 as well.

Third Career, or I can step up one of first two. I'll step up Scavenger to d8, I like the way that's heading.

OK, now I step up any two previous traits (or one trait up twice). OK, I'll bump Laborer up to d8 and Origin up to d8. 

And then I name a Trouble. Is this also a Trait? No other slot for it. Doesn't seem to be, there's no die assigned to it. Ah, well, there's a notes section. I think my guy's Trouble is that he's Losing Faith in People. He grew up in a small town where folks had to rely on each other, but everyone was so gung-ho to see those bandits die. Maybe people are just all bloodthirsty assholes, at the end of the day?

Motivations and Methods! These are basically your main stats. Interesting to do them at the end of chargen, but kinda makes sense, really - background first, with mechanical weight, and then the "core" stuff (mechanically speaking). Anyway, the Motivations are For Love, For Honor, and For Self, while Methods are With Cunning, With Force, and With Grace. I get a d6, d8, and d10 to split between each set. 

Well, I think that For Honor is his d10, at least for now. For Love and For Self...I think I'll put them at d6 and d8, respectively. Love and friendship isn't his big motive, and it's getting weaker.

Methods: Well, Cunning is clearly the d10, and then I think I'll put Grace at d8 and Force at d6. 

Paths! These give me XP. No spot for them on the sheet (jeez, this is not especially well-designed). Well, anyway, I'll take Path of Lamentation (I get XP when I commemorate something lost) and the Path of Bloody Knives (I get XP when I kill shit). I think that's enough conflict between paths that it shows off his inner conflict of wanting to be useful but becoming more misanthropic (lord, this would be hard to play, I hate misanthropy). 

Talents! I get four, two of which have to be from my Careers. Well, I'll take Scrapper (I can bop somebody good with a hammer) and...hmm. I think I'll take Friends in Low Places. It wasn't my initial thought, but I think I like this guy kind of slowly falling in with criminals, and letting that accelerate his slide towards disliking people on principle (or not!). 

And then two more, which can come from any list. I'll take Taste of Poison (I'm from Stench, after all), which allows me to identify poisons. I'll take Blade Carrier, too (I always have a weapon or useful item on me).

Just a name and a description, then! His name Yain. Lean, black hair that falls in his eyes, perpetually bored or annoyed expression, but every now and then you can catch him smiling at people (parents and children, couples, other expressions of the good side of humanity). He has no love at all for bandits and pirates - stealing from the dead is fine, they don't need it, but stealing from the living is just a slower way to murder. Yain is 100% anti-murder...but that position is softening (note the Path he's on). 

And that'll do it. 

Character Creation: Blood Red Sands

Kinda got out of my rhythm, here. I blame Subnautica. 

The Game: Blood Red Sands
The Publisher: Galileo Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Man, this game breaks my heart. Not because of any criticism I have of it - far from it, I'd really love to play it. The problem, though, is that it's GMless and competitive, and the only way it would work is if all players read the book, learn the rules, and (here's the biggie) take initiative. I have some players who could do it, but I don't think I could get them all into the same group, much less the nine times it would take to play through a Saga. Alas. Maybe someday. 

Anyway, Blood Red Sands is very much a sword-and-sorcery, kinda Conan/John Carter inspired sort of thing. It's meant to be violent and brutal, and players are encouraged to play to win. That's so uncommon in an RPG; mostly we're told that the story or the fun is paramount, and the rules should be jettisoned if need be. Even in PbtA games, where the rules aren't treated as optional but there's fewer of 'em, the game is a "conversation" and collaboration is key (one of the principles of most PbtA games is "be a fan of the characters"). 

Here, however, there's a winner and a loser, and if you lose a Saga you're outright told that you kinda suck at this and you get a penalty if you play another Saga. With the right group, I can see this being a lot of fun.

Anyway, I'm gonna make a Hero character. We start by building the Hero Component (everything in this game is made of Components, each of which is made of dice, each die has an Aspect and a Trait). I need to use six dice to make this Component, and I get a set of dice: 4d10, 4d8, 4d6, 4d4. 

Well, I need to have at least a little bit of a concept before I start, but at the end of the day every Hero is a lone wanderer looking to take revenge on one of the Witch Kings.

OK, cool. I want to play a kind of "Dark Wanderer" character, someone who can't speak. He's simply called "the Silent Warrior". Long cloak, hood over his face, walks hunched over so he's taller than he looks at first. Good start, now I can think about Traits. I need one of them to be a d4 because I get one Legendary Trait to start, and it has to be a d4, and I want to put it here rather than in the next step. It has to relate to how the Silent Warrior became an aimless wanderer. I think I want him to be the last survivor of an assault by one of the Witch Kings on his home, and because it's just me, I'll say that Witch King was Aedina, Eater of Magic. Her forces drained the life from the village, and my character was left breathing in the choking fog. He survived, but his voice was gone. I'll call that Trait "Stolen Voice." Needs an Aspect, which should pretty clearly be Fortitude (rather than Force or Finesse).

Right, that's done. Now, five more Traits! I want the Silent Warrior to be a grim, unrelenting warrior, and I think it'd be cool if he didn't usually use weapons, at least up close. Have a bow would be cool, though. I also want him to have no fear of magic (not to say it can't hurt him, he's just not afraid of it and resistant to it). Let's set up his Traits this way:

Relentless in Battle 1d10 Force
Needs No Weapon 1d10 Force
Does Not Fear Magic 1d10 Blessed (this is a Sorcery Aspect, so I have to discard my last d10)
Marksman and Hunter 1d8 Finesse
Terrifying Countenance 1d8 Force

Cool! Lots of Force. So now I get a Feature. Features are external things; weapons, mounts, and so on. I want a companion, a terrified old man that the Silent Warrior pressed into service to be his voice. For some reason that we'd probably want to explore in play, he can "hear" the Warrior's intent and desires. He's terrified of the Warrior and wants to be free of him, but feels he can't, at least not yet. His name is Greymoch. 

I need to give Greymoch 2 to 4 Traits. I'll say he Hears the Warrior's Heart (1d6 Soul Fused, so I discard a d6). I'll say he's Observant (1d8 Finesse). And I think that'll do for right now; I could give him more Traits, but I'd want to be able to flesh him out in play.

All that remains, then, is an origin story:

The Silent Warrior was once a simple hunter and villager. He brought back meat for his family and the others in his town, but none of them knew their town sat on a wellspring of powerful magic. Aedina the Magic Eater arrived one moonless night, and her forces came as a choking fog, killing everyone and everything in the village...except him. The fog burned his throat and his soul, destroying his voice, but also robbing him of any fear of magic. He took up his bow and began wandering the lands, but he had no focus until he met an unassuming man named Greymoch. Greymoch could hear the Warrior's heart, if not his thoughts, and he knew that what the Warrior truly wanted, above all, was to see Aedina choked to death on her own stolen power. When Greymoch voiced this, the Warrior nodded, and beckoned to the old man, and the old man followed.

And that about does it, actually. Everything else on the sheet would get filled in during the Ordeals, assuming the Warrior lived through them.

Masks: Walk the Line, Issue Three

End of arc. Wooo! Here's last session. 

The heroes are in the Dead, facing off against Lady Faust. She gestures and multiple duplicates appear. Jade Eagle flies up and blasts them all with her eyebeams, destroying the illusions. Faust deflects the beam, and Pyre zooms over, turns his hands to rock, and punches her.

Or, rather, tries. He flies right through her and she taps him on the back of the neck. He falls forward, his soul being wrenched out his body. Moonlight wraps Faust in chains and she drops Pyre, and works her magic on the chains, turning them red and getting into Moonlight's head.

Jade Eagle uses her eyebeams to blast the bloodstone around Faust's neck. The stone doesn't crack, but the chain breaks and the stone falls to the ground. Faust glares at Jade Eagle and she feels madness clawing at her mind. Moonlight tries to drain vitality from Faust, but finds nothing - it's like trying to drink a shadow. The chains fall away and Moonlight staggers back. 

Pyre runs over, changes his hands to metal and tries to smash the bloodstone. The stone cracks, and Faust screams in rage, and then yells "Arise, Baal!" A monstrous demon with a club rises up out of the stone and smacks Pyre, knocking him back. He smashes into a crypt, but Jade Eagle takes the opportunity to zip in and grab the stone. 

Pyre shakes himself off and turns himself into a massive firestorm. He flies toward Baal, and Moonlight has time to realize that attack a demon with fire probably isn't going to work. The demon grabs the fire, crumbles it up, and inhales it, trapping Pyre within the demon's form. Jade Eagle, meanwhile, feels blood leaking from the stone, and feels her hand growing wet. 

Moonlight realizes that down here in the Dead, he's more powerful than usual - probably more powerful that anyone here, even Faust. He allows his true power to come to the fore, and grows to a giant size. He punches Baal and he exhales Pyre, and then conjures a platform made of moonlight and pulls everyone (except Baal) onto it. He gestures at Faust and she passes out, and raises everyone up.

They reappear on Earth, in Halcyon City Memorial Cemetery. Moonlight's power fades back to normal levels. Sol's powers, meanwhile, start to return, and she blazes with fire and hovers, glowering at Moonlight. Moonlight, for his part, tells her that while their death and merger might be inevitable, that doesn't mean they have to rush it. They're in high school, they should take the time to live first. Sol is unconvinced at first, but then Jade Eagle and Pyre stand with Moonlight, and Sol snaps "Fine, see you in school" and flies off.

Jade Eagle breaks the bloodstone, and the fragments shower her hands. Her hands still feel wet, and she wonders if breaking the stone with her bare hands was wise.

Still wondering what happened between Faust and Sol, Moonlight wakes up Faust and has Pyre hold her. He asks her what happened, and Faust demands to know what happened to the stone. Jade Eagle tells her the stone is broken, and Faust howls in anguish and weeps. Moonlight tries to ask her about Sol, but she just lashes out and says that nothing matters anymore, and Moonlight lets it go.

Jade Eagle calls AEGIS, and they come out to collect Faust. Conners asks Jade Eagle what happened, and she tells her to talk to Moonlight - it was really his show. Moonlight explains what happened, and Conners reveals that according to her instruments, Faust doesn't have any powers anymore (Pyre breathes a sigh of relief). AEGIS takes Faust away, leaving the heroes alone with Nightingale. 

They decide to head home and meet up tomorrow. Pyre tries to summon his ship, but then they all remember that it's still in the Place Between ("I knew we forgot something," says Moonlight). He says he needs a place to stay, and Moonlight tells him to ask Nightingale. She says that the "Nest" (the sanctuary) is Moonlight's now, so if he wants to let Pyre stay there, that's fine. Moonlight agrees, and everyone heads home.

The next day, they meet up for lunch and cake, and celebrate their victory. They tell Pyre some ways to fit in a little, and Jade Eagle introduces him to shaved ice, but notices that her hands still have bloodstone fragments on them...and still feel a little sticky. We fade out on Pyre telling the others about his experiences visiting other planets and seeing strange creatures and peoples. 

Movie #589: Reality Bites

Reality Bites is a so-90s-it-hurts comedy/romantic drama directed by Ben Stiller and starring Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Steve Zahn, Janeane Garofalo, Stiller, Joe Don Baker, and Swoosie Kurtz. 

Lelaina (Ryder), Troy (Hawke), Sammy (Zahn), and Vickie (Garofalo) graduate from college in Houston - Lelaina as valedictorian - and set about trying to...be adults, I guess? Kind of? Lelaina works as a production assistant for an impossibly cheesy morning news host (John Mahoney), and films her friends in her spare time, spinning the footage together into a documentary-ish sort of thing. Does she want to be a documentarian? Not really, she just kind of wants to be an artist. Likewise, Troy fronts a band. Does he want to be a musician? Not really, he just kind of wants to be in a band. Sammy's life status is unclear, other than "gay, but closeted because he doesn't want to come out to his parents," and Vickie works retail and goes in for casual sex, though she doesn't seem happy about it.

In case it's not clear, I realized I hated all of these people within about the first 10 minutes of the movie. It doesn't happen much that I hate the whole cast so much and so quickly. 

But then in comes Michael (Stiller)! Michael is a young TV producer who works for "MTV yet edgier" In Your Face (kinda TMZ-ish, actually). He starts up a relationship with Lelaina, and winds up showing one of her tapes to the network, they love it, want to air it, but they cut it to pieces, make it edgy (and dumb), and of course she's furious and betrayed. Also, she and Troy have been in love forever and never quite manage to do anything about, nominally because they're best friends but mostly, I suspect, because Troy is a legitimately terrible person and Lelaina has eyes. 

Of course, this being a rom-whatever, she eventually takes leave of her good sense, bangs Troy, leaves Michael, and then starts a relationship with Troy, which is where the movie ends, them living together in an apartment (how are they affording it? Have they resolved any of their very real issues? WHO KNOWS YOU SAY I ONLY HEAR WHAT I WANT TO).

I know that this movie is kinda regarded as a voice of my generation, and maybe that's why I hate it so much. I think it's possible that if I had seen this movie when it came out (1994, when I was 20), and I was angry all the time and utterly convinced of how smart I was in comparison to everyone else but also full of self-loathing so rich and creamy you could spread it on a bagel that I might have identified. But honestly, like, these people are awful. Vickie and Sammy are the best of them, but that's mostly because they don't have much to do. Sammy has one pivotal scene where he comes out to his mother (and we see the fallout), and Vickie has an arc where she's afraid she's contracted HIV, but it never really goes anywhere.

Meanwhile, our main characters, Lelaina and Troy...man. They both want to make art, but they don't want to put in the work. Lelaina even calls Troy out on it - if you want to be in a band, then fucking practice, all the time, bust your ass getting gigs, make it work, but she does the same thing. She makes her tapes, but then doesn't even check to see what's being done with the material before it debuts? She must have signed a contract, right? Hell, Wayne's World was more on point than this.

And then there's Troy's general attitude. Supposedly he's a genius, but he dropped out of college before getting a philosophy degree, and now he's been fired from a dozen odd jobs, so like, he's a 20-something slacker who can't hold a job, is convinced of his own intelligence, studied philosophy, and plays in a grunge band. I was actually annoyed that he made it through the movie without anyone punching him, because he's a sarcastic, arrogant, borderline-abusive dirtbag who we're meant to think is a tortured artist, I guess?

Anyway, it's taken us weeks to watch this, because every time we scheduled it evening would roll around and one of us would suggest doing something else that we really wanted to do. But rules are rules. Now it's done, thank goodness, on we go.

My Grade: F
Rewatch Value: IINSIAIFWT

Next up: Rebel Without a Cause

Cairn: Discordant Tree

Kind of a short session of Cairn today, between one thing and another. Here's last time.

The characters are in the forest. Snootabur and Rumdiggle are at the bottom of the mysterious tree, and while Snootabur just licked some fruit juice off her paws and felt a little funny, Rumdiggle actually ate one and is now at the base of the tree babbling ("I'm gonna be the biggest bear!"). Ratatosk, having taken all the samples, scampers down the tree. He begins taking notes about Rumdiggle's condition, and the characters realize that if this is happening to anyone who eats the fruit, that's not a great outcome.

Ratatosk scampers back up and uses his druid magic to talk to one of the (unAwakened) birds in the tree. The bird tells him that the tree has been here for "many nests," but that it never fruited until recently. He asks if the fruits are dangerous, and the bird cheerfully says "no," but Ratatosk muses that the birds might not eat the fruit, and don't have the wherewithal to consider that they might be dangerous to others. 

Rumdiggle slowly begins to come down, but the high is replaced by an ugly, displaced feeling ("I feel like I'm over there"). Russelet glances up into the tree and thinks he hears a lilting voice saying "take the fruit, take all you want". Rumdiggle suspects that if she eats another fruit, she'll feel better...and lo, another fruit drops to the ground next to her. The characters realize that if they toss a fruit away, another one falls.

Ratatosk sends Glimmer, his pet hoverwing (hummingbird) up into the tree to watch, and tosses a fruit away. Another fruit falls, but Glimmer swirls down and flies unsteadily. He clearly sampled some of the fruit, but he is able to tell Ratatosk that the fruit just appeared like magic.

The characters decide to head back to Cairn (Rumdiggle rides on Whistle's cart and sleeps, with Glimmer on his tummy). They arrive back in town and split up - Whistle, Rumdiggle, and Snootabur head to the Cider Mill Inn for a snack, while Russelet flits up to a rooftop and listens to gossip and Ratatosk races to talk to Asta Ringrunner, the alchemist. 

Russelet hears many animals asking each other whether Whistle has brought any fruit today. Some of them are distressed, but polite, but others (particularly down by the Root) are getting angry and grumbly about it. 

Ratatosk pounds on Asta's door and, when he answers, tells him a very squirrel-ish version of the story ("Magic fruit! Makes happy, then dis-associative!") and sets to analyzing it with his alchemist skills. He learns that the fruit does indeed have intoxicant properties, but moreover, it would cause Disharmony and addiction, especially over multiple uses. As a druid, he's able to identify the magic as something kind of similar to his own, but not quite - maybe talking to the dryad in the tree would help. 

Ratatosk scampers back to the Cider Mill frantically, and Russelet follows. They talk to Rumdiggle, and tell her what they've learned. They decide that they'll get some sleep first (they're all exhausted) and then Rumdiggle is going to hold a kind of impromptu berry fest, sing some songs extolling the virtues of fruits that don't cause addiction, and generally try to raise the town's spirits. Russelet is going to stay with her for security purposes. Meanwhile, Ratatosk and Snootabur will head back to the tree and see if they can talk with the dryad. 

First, however, naptime.

Masks: Walk the Line, Issue Two

Here's last time, on we go. 

The heroes have learned that Nightingale is stuck in the Place Between, but they aren't sure how to find that. Pyre checks the coordinates of the places that she's tried to contact Moonlight to establish a point of reference, while Jade Eagle calls Casey. She tells him what they're up to, and he warns her to be careful - last time they went dimension hopping, they brought back a Photovore invasion. She acknowledges this, and they board the ship and vanish.

They appear after a journey that, to Pyre's mind, only took about half as long as he'd have thought. But FLICKER, his ship's AI, confirms that they're in the Place Between and that atmospheric conditions are favorable to human life. They disembark the ship and look around - this place is weird. It's composed of hallways, archways, doorways, and such, and they always seem to be standing just on the horizon. It's temperate - not hot or cold - and dimly lit. Pyre flies up to try and get a bird's-eye view, but when he does, the whole world adjusts. They all feel the world lurch, and Jade Eagle comes to the conclusion that she really hates it here. She thinks, perhaps, that Casey was right - this is too far out of her wheelhouse. Pyre, meanwhile, feels like this isn't too dissimilar to some other world he's seen. Moonlight feels like this is one more weirdness in the weird parade that is his life. 

The heroes try to figure out how to find Nightingale. Jade Eagle listens carefully for birdsong, but there are no quiet sounds, or loud sounds, just sounds. Moonlight reconfigures his vocal apparatus to make the sounds himself, and then hears and answering call. They all follow the sound, and soon come upon Nightingale, sitting on a bench, waiting for them. 

She and Moonlight reunite ("Aunt Lily!"), and they tell her they've come to take her home. She refuses, though - she's here to try and avoid Charlie's doom. Moonlight and Sol are destined, supposedly, to destroy each other and then become something new, but Nightingale feels that they don't need to accept this. Moonlight tells her that this is fate, and it's not something they should mess with, but Nightingale says that he's 16 and what does he know about "the way things are?" Moonlight shuts her down - he knows what his fate is, and she doesn't get to decide it. 

Pyre tries to call up FLICKER, but she tells him that she isn't able to get a fix on him and her programming has been overriden. They head back to the ship, but find it's been overgrown with tendrils of black glass. Pyre changes his fist to rock to punch through it, but the glass shatters and then reforms. Pyre gets in the ship and talks to FLICKER, who tells him that something is preventing her from shifting the ship out of phase, and that there are two other sentient beings around. 

Meanwhile, outside, the others note that it's getting warmer, to the point that Nightingale is sweating. This shouldn't be happening, of course, it never gets "warm" here. And then they see a humanoid figure, burning so brightly they can't quite make it out, appear - Sol. 

Sol says that she's here to embrace her fate with Moonlight, and throws a whole bunch of fire at him. Moonlight puts up a shield, but the fire burns through it, and he yells for someone to help him. Pyre emerges from the ship and blasts water at Sol, but it just evaporates. 

Jade Eagle yells to Sol to think of her mother, and that confuses her for a minute. Moonlight tells her to calm down, and how did she get here, anyway? Sol tries to burn brighter, but Moonlight siphons off some of her energy and anger, and she lands, calling out to someone for help. She tries, but can't quite seem to catch fire again. 

She tells Moonlight that their destiny has been explained to her, that the two of them can die gloriously and something new can be born, something beautiful. Moonlight says that he's in no hurry for that to happen, and anyway, how did Sol learn about all this? Sol says that she made a deal, and Moonlight confirms that it was with the mysterious woman in blue. At this point, the characters look around and notice that Nightingale has gone missing. 

A moment later, Ghostheart steps from the shadows, and tells them all to stop testing the boundaries. This place, the Place Between, is the boundary between Life and Death (among other things), and by changing things they're damaging that barrier. He snaps his fingers and returns Nightingale (who says she was in some formless black void, but isn't sure how she got there), and tells them to get gone. Nightingale refuses - she still wants to save Charlie, and she's been here too long to leave now. She says she's made some progress, but it's been incremental - this place doesn't take kindly to sudden change.

The woman in blue is mentioned again, and Nightingale identifies her - Lady Faust. Pyre asks who Lady Faust is, and she responds "me" as she steps out of nothing. She reveals that she brought Sol here and changed the rules of the place so that she and Moonlight could realize their destiny. Ghostheart demands she leave, but she simply waves a hand and turns him to stone.

Moonlight talks with Sol, trying to suss out exactly what she agreed to, and Jade Eagle sidles over to Pyre and tells him to change Ghostheart back - she can sense his mind in the statue somewhere, so he just needs a little nudge. Pyre does, and Ghostheart reappears. "You want to ignore the rules, Faust? Fine," he says, and grows to a hundred feet tall. He swings his hand down and strikes them all. Jade Eagle swoops up her team, Sol, and Nightingale to protect them, but Pyre, trying to protect himself by turning to metal, panics. 

Moonlight comes to in a strange world. It's an immense cemetery, but every grave is open with a staircase leading down. He sees his team (plus Sol and Nightingale), all as metal statues, including himself. He looks at his hands and realizes he's just a spectre made of moonlight. If he could revive Pyre, Pyre could probably change them back, he thinks.

He sees Lady Faust, and she sees him. She walks through the cemetery like a kid in a candy store, and when he speaks to her, she says they're in the Dead. She tells him that she'd be happy to change the others back, but Moonlight is in no mood to make a deal with her. He floats back to the statues and coaxes Pyre's mind back, whereupon he stretches and becomes flesh again. He changes everyone back, but Sol looks kind of worse for the wear. Moonlight realizes that this is probably because she is an embodiment of light, life, and fire, and there is nothing like that here in the Dead.

Jade Eagle asks if they are dead, and Nightingale points out her own grave behind her, except that the "death" date is missing and there's no staircase. So they're all still alive, but stuck here. Pyre's ship isn't here and FLICKER isn't answering. Jade Eagle tells Sol and Moonlight to try and figure this out, and Moonlight figures that he's strong enough to just lift them out...but then they hear a scream.

They follow it, and see Lady Faust walking up out of a grave. Her lips are full and red, and the blood-colored stone around her neck is glowing. They realize that she probably just consumed someone's soul, and tell her she needs to stop, but she refuses, and asks what exactly they're going to do about it?

Next time, we'll see what they can do about it.