Character Creation: Oh, Damn!

OK, really it's Of Dreams & Magic, but it's abbreviated ODAM, so.

The Game: Of Dreams & Magic
The Publisher: ODAM Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I bought ODAM at...Origins, I think? Some years back. The production values are pretty impressive, and the cover is pretty dope. Having now read the book, said cover doesn't really convey what the game is about, but it definitely hooks you into "modern fantasy," so that's good. 

The game sounded pretty familiar to me as I read it. Dreams matter, there are nightmares that pursue people out of dreams sometimes, but really the enemy is the Doubt, a kind of Fantasia-esque Nothing that convinces people that there's no magic. The setting is very much a blend of Mage: The Ascension, Changeling: The Dreaming, and Shattered Dreams, which is fine, lots of fertile ground in dreams and nightmares for a modern fantasy RPG. 

The writing didn't really hook me. The comparisons to OWoD continue, as some of the prose is interesting and easy to read and some of it is just kinda sloggy and dull (and the font is too small for my taste, and the page layout really needs some more art or something to break it up because it's like reading a textbook). I was interested in the characters, though - basically you're a normal person who goes through something called a Crux, during which you defeat your own personal nightmare and become an Animus, which can be a superhero, a fantasy knight, whatever. And then in the Waking World, you can call on elements of dreams (but of course, normal folks don't see it, because Doubt). 

Which all sounds very cool, so let's see how this chargen thing goes. The first thing I'm invited to do is come up with a concept, no surprise there. Hmm. 

You know, I don't make characters with military experience very often (mostly because, never having served, it's a whole culture and world I'm not familiar with), but I've been thinking a lot as I read this game about how dreams...actually kinda suck sometimes. I have nightmares several times a week, and they leave me exhausted and edgy. I haven't had a dream I would describe as "good" in years. Fuck dreams. So anyway, I think I shall make a character who kinda sees the danger inherent in nightmares and the Doubt, but doesn't have any particular love for dreams. He served in Army, saw combat in the Middle East (I'm not being more specific because I don't feel like spending my morning doing this kind of research), came home, and hasn't been able to work because of PTSD, depression, and anxiety. He lives in his brother's basement, and locks and bars the door when his symptoms start to get really bad. It was at the end of a week-long bout of depression that he finally slept, and experienced the Crux. We'll say his name is Kent Conley.

Oof, well, that's fuckin' cheery. Maybe I'll do Dinosaur Princesses next. Anyway, what's the next step? Prioritization! There are four categories of traits: Inherent, Learned, Magical, and Material. I get to pick one to be Excellent, two to be Good, and one to be Average. 

Well, I think Kent needs to have the Excellent in Learned, since that represents things he's been trained in. Goods can go in Inherent and...hmm. Do I want to put the Average in Material or Magical? Either makes sense. I think I'll put the Average in Material and the other Good in Magical. 

OK, then, on to Inherent. As the chart says, I get 30 Attribute points and 3 Trait points. Which means what? Well, it means I could give myself a 5 in all 6 Attributes and be average across the board, but do I really want to do that? 

Actually, I think maybe I do. If I raise anything beyond average, it's at the expense of something else, and I don't really see Kent being deficient anywhere. Maybe a little under in Charm and/or Intellect. Yeah, sure, I'll bump Charm and Intellect down to 4 and jack Strength and Endurance up to 6. 

3 points in Traits, then. Some of these "cost" zero points and are more like flaws. I can't see a benefit to them, mechanically? There's one I want, called Plagued by Nightmares, though. And then I'll also take Freakish Strength and Spatial Awareness, those are cool. 

Man, this sheet just does not give you much room to write. Moving one! Learned things! I get 40 Skill points, 30 Advanced Skill Points, and 8 Technique points. 

I like the idea behind skills, here: skills are broad based, but to be really good at something, you've got to specialize. As such, you can take Firearms and have some broad proficiency will all guns, but if you want to be good with a shotgun that's an Advanced Skill. Don't know if this would work in play, but heck, let's try it. 

Oh, wait, goddammit. I just realized that you start with 1 in Attributes, not zero. Nowhere that I can find in the chargen instructions does it say that. Grr. OK, so that effectively means all my Attributes get bumped up one. That puts Strength and Endurance at 7, Agility and Perception at 6, and Charm and Intellect at 5. Yeah, that's fine. OK, back to Skills. 

Skills don't get a free point. I get 40 points to split up into the Basics. Is there a maximum? Skills go to 20, but it doesn't say I have to stop before that (that would, of course, eat half my points, so I won't).

Well, are there any I don't feel the need to put points into? The only ones I could potentially see Kent having no ability in are Social and Creative, but like, that sucks. There are 9 of these, meaning that they could all get 4 with 4 left over, but I don't think I need to do that. Instead, let's put Firearms, Manual, and Athletics to 10. That only leaves me 10; I'll put 2 each into Academics, Computers, Creative, and the other four into Fighting. That's not perfect, but it'll do. 

Advanced Skills! I get 30 points here, and my score in an Advanced Skill can't be higher than its controlling Basic Skill. I'll put one into Arabic under Academics (he speaks a little, though not fluently by any means). I'll put three points into Close Quarters Combat under Fighting. Firearms, here we go. 7 points in Assault Rifle, 5 points in Handgun, 3 in Machine Gun. That's 19 spent, 11 to go.

Ugh, too much disparate shit under "Manual." Well, I want 5 in Auto Mechanic, 3 in Search, 3 in Stealth, that's it. Now, 8 Technique points. Well, a bunch of these have pre-reqs, so I'll take Focused Reload and Quick Draw because I can. That eats 3 points. I'll take Quick Fixer and Sleight of Hand (3 more), which leaves me 2. Huh. Cool, there's literally nothing else I have the pre-reqs for. I don't feel like rejiggering my points, so oh well, I lose those last two. Wait, I can take Broad Jump. Sure.

That's all for Learned, now for Magical! I get 2 Control Points or 1 Control Point, 5 Tradition Points, and 1 Practice. What...does all that shit mean. Hang on. 

OK, so, Control Points refer to Dreamscapes. Basically with Control, I can use Remnants, which are specific, ranked powers referring to a particular Dreamscape. This is all a little narrower than I'd like. But on the other hand, Traditions are real-world magical belief systems, that work in ODAM because people believe in them hard enough. Practices...oh, those are part of Traditions. Hmm. I don't love any of this, honestly. 

Well, let's take option 2, one Control and 5 points in Traditions/1 Practice. For my one Control, I need to pick a Dreamscape. These are divided into three rough categories, and Exulmus, which are dreams taking place in a world like our own, seems the most likely. I'll further pick Shadow Chronicles (which is basically the World of Darkness, let's not fuck around). The first Remnant (jeez, this terminology is thick) is Shadow Minions, which lets Kent summon up little demon-imps to screw with people's minds. Seems a little off-brand for Kent, but I like that - his dreams have pretty much come down on the side of nightmares, after all. 

And then a Tradition. Hmm. I'm gonna take Witchcraft. Let's say that Kent's girlfriend is into wicca, and while Kent doesn't much buy into it, since the whole Crux thing he's taking it more seriously. There are two rank one Practices I can take, Magical Altar (which gives a bonus to other Practices, which is fuckin' useless at chargen) and Crystal Pain Manipulation (which allows you to remove pain with a crystal and redirect it to someone else, that's pretty dope).

OK, then. Material! I get 2 Possession or Artifact points. Possessions are mundane items, Artifacts are magic. I'll go with Possessions and take riot gear, a .45, and...oh, this is cute, the book lists an AK47 as costing $15,000. Quick google search tells me that's a hell of a markup. Anyway, I'm bored already, so let's assume that any reasonable GM (sorry, Dreamweaver) would let me use my Possession points to take guns, since this is MURICA. 

Cool, now I generate the derived traits (done), and move on to making my Animus. You can pick one of the listed archetypes, but to really do things right, you gotta strangle yourself a fresh one. So we know Kent is familiar with the Shadow Chronicles. Let's say his Crux took place there, but in a war-torn, monster-filled crumbling city. He had dreams of his team getting snatched into the shadows and eaten, and then one night he finally managed to save them. He did that not by being a badass combatant, but by watching the shadows, helping his men beat back their fear, and getting everyone home. His Animus is called Sarge.

So I need to pick a Passive Aspect for Sarge. I think Defender makes sense. I get +3 Endurance, +10 Health, and I can summon a shield. 

Now I pick five Animus Abilities. I would only actually be able to use the first one, but all five are set at chargen, for reasons that are badly explained. 

Well, let's see. I'm thinking Advanced Reflexes makes the most sense for Rank One. For Rank Two, Attack Coordination, that's easy. Rank Three, ooh, Empowered Asset (Sarge can grant his powers to another soldier temporarily). Rank Four...hmm. There's one that lets me switch places with an ally, and another that wards an area (or person, or thing). I think I'll go with the latter ("get some sleep, boys, I got first watch"). Finally, at Rank Five, I'll go with Concussive Blast, because I think it'd be cool to build up to it. ("GRENADE!")

And finally, the Nemesis. This is a personalized nightmare that can, eventually, come for the character. I don't want a violent one, at least not overtly. Kent's Nemesis is just called "Civvie." It looks like...well, a civilian, whatever is appropriate depending on the dream. It pops out of nowhere, runs into gunfire, and otherwise serves to get itself killed in horrific, gruesome fashion, screaming for help and crying in pain. 

And I do believe that's it! Phew, long process, this. As is often the case, I like this character, but I'm in no hurry to play this game. Too many moving parts, too much terminology, and as fucking weird as the system is, I think I like Shattered Dreams better. 

Character Creation: The Ministry Initiative

Seems like I just did a steampunk game recently...oh, well.

The Game: The Ministry Initiative
The Publisher: Galileo Games
Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular game or the source novels, plenty with Fate
Books Required: Just the one, I think? Maybe Fate Core? I'll check

I don't think that I knew when I bought this game that it was based on a set of novels. I usually avoid games based on properties I don't know, but whatever, we're here now. The Ministry Initiative has players taking the roles of characters working for the titular ministry (the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, specifically), during alt-Victorian times. The book actually does address the "punk" in steampunk, which is nice, although how punk can we really be if we're working as agents of the Crown? 

Well, anyway, it looks to me like a perfectly serviceable steampunk-in-Fate kind of arrangement, though I didn't find myself "grabbed" while reading the book. Maybe that's because, again, I haven't read the novels, I dunno. Let's make a character. In-setting, there's a Ministry office in Edinburgh that has a reputation for mad science and is almost as busy as London HQ, so I'll say my agent is based out of there. Doing a little bit of digging, I find the story of Greyfriars Bobby, a kind of Victorian-age Seymour, which is just heartwarming. Supposedly Bobby was the pet of a nightwatchmen named John Gray, so I'm going to play John Gray's son, John Jr. If we were actually playing this game, I'd want Gray Sr.'s death to be supernatural-related, and maybe Bobby's loyalty to be in some way spiritually motivated, so I'll keep that in mind when I start doing Aspects. 

SPEAKING OF WHICH. I need a High Concept. I think Johnny wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and wound up getting recruited by the Ministry after chasing down a lead on what happened to Dad. I'll say his High Concept is Nightwatchman in the Family Tradition. 

Trouble Aspect: I think An Axe to Grind sums it up; Johnny is angry about what happened to Dad and that anger can get the better of him.

And now I get three Phase Aspects: Recruitment, First Assignment, and Adventure. For Recruitment, I want something reflecting how at home Johnny is on the badly-lit streets of Edinburgh (and probably other cities, once he finds his feet). I Know These Streets sounds good. 

First Assignment: I feel like the Ministry might have sent Johnny out of Edinburgh for a while, just to get him out of his comfort zone. May also have been the case that they wanted his skills on another case, so let's say that he got assigned to the London office temporarily. Ooh, let's say that a certain ne'er-do-well from Scotland had gone to London to raise hell (possibly literally?) and Johnny knew his habits, having crossed paths with him before. We'll call him Dandy MacDuff (just "Dandy Mac" will do fine), and he's well-dressed, fully capable of changing his dialect to blend in where he needs to, but Johnny can always seem to track him down. I think we'll call this Aspect See You in Hell, Dandy Mac. It'd be fun to have the result of that assignment be that Johnny thinks Dandy Mac is dead...

Adventure: This Aspect should connect me with another agent, but y'know, just me, so I'll call it back to Bobby. It'd be fun to have Bobby Greyfriars, this little Skye Terrier guarding my Dad's grave, acting as a kind of Mimir's head to Johnny. (This also means that our hypothetical game would be set in the 1860s or 70s, since Bobby died in 1872. That's fine, we'll say Johnny was born in 1848, making him in his early 20s now.) For this last Aspect, we'll say Dad Speaks Through Bobby. 

Right, next bit in the book is character questions, but I've kinda provided a pretty good background already. The next bit after that is to nail down home office (Edinburgh) and department (Admin, Archives, Field Agent, R&D). Johnny is pretty clearly a Field Agent. And then I also choose to be a Junior or Senior Agent; again, easy choice, he's a Junior Agent. 

Skills! I get the standard one Great, two Good, three Fair, four Average dealie. I need to play Fight, Firearms, Deduction, and Stealth in my pyramid to represent Ministry training, but it doesn't matter where (I like that approach). Let's see. What's Johnny's forte? I think it's gonna be either Notice or Stealth, given his propensity for doggedly hunting monsters through the streets. I think I'll put Notice at Great, Stealth and Fight at Good, Deduction, Firearms, and Physique at Fair, and Will, Provoke, Rapport, and Contacts at Average.

Stunts! I get three. I want one for Contacts representing Johnny's ability to talk to the average folk and the nightwatchmen-type people, so I'll call it "Between You & Me" and say I get a +2 to Create an Advantage with Contacts when I talk to habitually nocturnal people.

I kinda want a stunt to represent Johnny's bloodhound-like tenacity. I'll base it off Deduction and say it's "No Stone Unturned", +2 to Overcome actions with Deduction if I or someone else has already failed such an action.

One more. Kinda feel like I should have a combat-related stunt. Fight? Oh, shit, I need a stunt called "Glasgow Kiss." (Yes, he's from Edinburgh, but still.) Let's see, how should this work system-wise. OK, let's say once per game, I can spend a Fate point when attacking to automatically inflict the minor consequence Broken Nose.

Awesome! Stress boxes: I get one extra Physical for being a Junior Agent, and one more for my Physique. And then one more Mental for my Will, and that's pretty much it! Oh, 3 Refresh.

Johnny is fit, lean, has his dad's blue eyes and black hair and his mother's cute somewhat pointy nose. He knows how to use a gun as part of his Ministry training, but he's not a fan (you can pretty much throw stealth out the window when the guns come out). He's working on learning to cover his accent and blend with other groups a little better, but he'll always be a nightwatchman at heart. 

That'll do it!

Atlantis: It's a Buzzing Thing, Innit?

A. BUZZING. THING. 

Last time, our heroes were in various places in the northeastern part of Gondawana. Eithne, the Jinn, disembarks the ship upon which she was traveling, and buys some provisions in the village of Mosi. She heads south into the mountains, and after a few days of travel, comes across an encampment of men in robes and scarves. They aim arrows at her, and one speaks to her in a language she doesn't understand. She understands enough to recognize the words "Joktan" and "threat", and so she speaks in Atlantean, very slowly, and tells them she means no harm.

One of them does speak Atlantean, and asks her business in Joktan and where she's headed. She tells them she's following a dream she had, and the men grow serious and awed. The interpreter asks what exactly she dreamed that she's following, and she tells them of the red owl she saw. They seem to understand this, and allow her to pass into the mountains.

She continues on and, a few days later, arrives in the deserts of Joktan. She spots a couple of men walking toward her, obviously weary, and offers them water. She notes that both men are branded as slaves, and they speak the language of Khem, which she understands well enough to communicate. They tell her of a great sorcerer called Thanos and his Ukula consort who freed them from bondage and killed their slave-drivers. Eithne offers to heal their brands and they are, and she tries but her magic just won't cooperate. The two men, Djehuti and Iah, do agree to come with her, but then they point out a dark cloud coming in from the southwest. Eithne realizes that cloud is moving far too quickly to be normal weather...it looks more like a flock or a swarm.

But meanwhile, in the seaside town of Kashta, Akala spots Imani in front of a bar called the Copper Bowl. They two catch up and introduce their companions (Thanos and Masamba, respectively), and the four of them head into the bar to get a drink and perhaps hire a boat. 

Once in the bar, however, Akala notes that the patrons seem a little perturbed by their presence, Imani in particular. Imani orders a round of drinks and notes this animosity as well, but also clocks people staring at Thanos with unpleasant visage. They wonder if they shouldn't finish their drinks and leave, but then the door opens and in walks a Netherman. 

The Netherman goes to the bar for a drink, and the bartender, addressing him as Otieno, asks him why he's still here - he was going to ship out earlier. Otieno says that he had a little windfall; a bunch of escaped slaves came into Kashta so he and his men rounded some up and put them in his hold, and now he can sell them back to Khem. The heroes grind their teeth a bit, and Thanos wonders if they couldn't find out where Otieno's ship is and ambush him there. And then some of his sailors come in, talking about how they had to "discipline" a slave with his own knife, and Imani has had enough. 

She stands up and challenges Otieno, and demands his slave and its cargo if she wins. Otieno agrees, but says that if he wins, he wants Thanos (also slave-branded). Imani turns to Thanos and asks if he trusts her; he says he does, and Imani agrees to the terms. They go outside, and Akala fires up the crowd with talk of freedom and the evils of slavery, while Thanos casts a spell on Imani and makes her stronger.

The battle is joined! Imani raises her spear, and shouts "when you meet your gods tonight, tell them you died because you were a slaver!" She nicks him with the spear, but Otieno is quick for a Netherman, and strikes with his flail. "I have no gods waiting for me!" he bellows.

Imani tries to sweep his legs and knock him down, but Otieno dodges neatly and brings his flail down on her wrist. She drops the spear, but any triumph Otieno might have felt is short-lived - Imani rushes him and gores him with her horns, tossing him to the side. Otieno struggles to his feet and rushes in to attack with his katar, but Imani strikes with her mong and knocks of his skullcap (and part of his scalp). 

Otieno, who didn't get where he is by being an idiot, yields. He orders one of his sailors to go and tell the others to clear out. Imani tells him to be better, and he assures her that the next time they meet, he will be (though perhaps not in the way she meant).

The heroes board the ship, called the Agony, and free the slaves in the hold. Akala instructs them on how to crew a ship, and they set to work getting it ready. As they're getting ready to cast off, Akala and Thanos hear a weird buzzing in the distance, but can't place it. Imani notes that it's coming from above, and spots what looks like a dark cloud on the horizon. Akala flies up to take a closer look, and realizes with horror that what they're seeing is multiple swarms of scarabs. Akala has heard of these creatures - supposedly the government of Khem created these things, called "cipher scarabs", in case of a slave rebellion, but they haven't been used in her lifetime and she isn't sure what they're supposed to do. She flies back down and tells the others, and Imani advises them to set sail - she isn't sure how to fight a swarm of bugs. 

The crew sets to, and gets the Agony out on the water. They start heading across the Red Sea toward Joktan, and realize that a swarm of scarabs is following them. On the opposite shore, in Joktan, Eithne sees a sail incoming, and a swarm of bugs closing in...

Movie #620: Commando

Commando is an 80s action movie, and is one of the most unintentionally gay movies ever made. It stars Arnold Schwarzeneggar, a very young Alyssa Milano, Rae Dawn Chong, Vernon Wells, Dan Hedaya, James Olson, David Patrick Kelly, and Bill Duke. 

John Matrix (Schwarzeneggar) is an Army badass of some kind who has retired and lives out in the woods with his daughter, Jenny (Milano). One day, his former CO (Olson) shows up saying some of his old unit have been killed, and he's going to have a couple of soldiers hanging out with him till they get it figured out. And seconds later, said soldiers are shot dead, Jenny is kidnapped, and Matrix get tranked and wakes up facing down his old comrade, Bennett (Wells) and a former South American dictator named Arius (Hedaya, which is weird casting, but whatever). Matrix is thus blackmailed into killing Arius' lawfully elected replacement so he can resume being evil dictator of Val Verde, but whatever, Matrix isn't going out like that. 

The rest of the movie is Matrix killing his way through Bennett's henchmen until he finds where they're keeping his daughter, and then killing everyone on that particular island. He abducts a flight attendant named Cindy (Chong) along the way, but like, she's on board after she sees a picture of Jenny. 

Actually, this was something I noted about the movie upon watching it again - everyone is totally cool with Matrix and his methods. Like, I don't know where the island was supposed to be, but Matrix lands, kills dozens of people including a former head of state, using a bunch of weapons he stole from an Army surplus store (including a rocket launcher, which, sure, they sell those at Surplus City) and his CO just wants to know if he'll come back to work someday. It stuck with me, I think, because we get a lot of superhero movies nowadays, but they don't have the kind of cheerful carte blanche that Matrix does in this movie (that is, responsibility for their collateral damage is at least mentioned on occasion). 

And then there's the gay thing. Look, if you want to read more, just google it, because it's already been written by smarter people than me, but let's just say that if your villain is a leather daddy wearing chainmail, you're probably going to get some attention from queer theory folks, and rightly so. 

Really, it's an 80s action movie and it hits all of the required cliches. No one in the movie has a lot of real backstory; there are lines here and there that give tiny hints (Matrix being born in East Germany, Kelly's Sully being in the military with Charles Meshack's character, Cindy's cancelled date), but we never hear a thing about Jenny's mother or why she and Matrix live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere (other than to keep them safe because of Matrix' former life, but that seems weak, considering how invincible he is). Arnie gets plenty of one-liners, some of which land ("I lied.") and some of which just clunk ("We'll take Cooke's car. He won't be needing it."). The action scenes are fun, loud, and hella macho, and we even get Cindy calling that out occasionally. 

Maybe it's just because I'm an 80s kid, but I find these movies, as not-good as they are, strangely comforting. Nostalgia, probably.

My Grade: C+
Rewatch Value: High

Next up: Escape Room

Cairn: The Prism Cracks

Today we finished our current adventure in Cairn. Here's last time.

The characters finally reach the Rock Circle, and a strange druid comes out to meet them. Redscale, the head druid, is armored, but the armor is built into his body. He's not a turtle, though, he's clearly a mammal. The characters explain what they're doing here - rather, Puddleleaf tries, and then Ratatosk jumps in because Redscale is clearly not receiving this well. All of them talk for a bit, but Redscale remains pretty stone-faced. Finally he agrees that he'll destroy the prism for them, but he isn't sure they should stay. He walks back into the circle to think about it.

Ratatosk scampers up to get a look at the Rock Circle, and a meerkat guard pops up. He questions Ratatosk about what they're doing here, and the meerkat (his name is Bluecap) tells Ratatosk that Redscale typically only lets Favored who follow the Primal Powers - druids, shifters, barbarians - into the Circle, and sometimes not even them. He does tell Ratatosk that Redscale is partial to spider's eggs, though.

Ratatosk thanks him and zips back to the others, who have set up camp. They all decide to go foraging (except Rumdiggle, who stays behind and sings herself a little song), with Russelet taking to the sky to find spiderwebs. They come back with various foraged things and make a stew, and before long, Redscale clumps back down to them. Russelet offers him stew and a seat by the fire, and he joins them and eats.

They talk about the characters' travels, and Snootabur shows him on the map where they've traveled and what they've faced. Finally, Redscale decides that they're worthy of the druids' favor, which of course just means they're allowed to camp here and they'll get food in the morning. Ratatosk and Rumdiggle, however, are invited into the Circle to worship.

Rumdiggle is shown to a stone with runes depiction the Flower Court. She hums to herself, and the rock crumbles away. A bear, badger, and weasel appear from the rubble, and they acknowledge her and see her as a friend. The badger and weasel vanish, but the bear picks her up, and shows her the prairie. She sees a hawk swoop down and snatch up an animal, and a snake wrapping another up in its coils. The bear tells her that this is no different than her eating grubs and worms, and that she can't count on bigger creatures to be her friend all the time. She is, after all, made of meat. She never considered this before, and returns to her place in front of the stone.

Meanwhile, Ratatosk meditates before the stone of Lord Oak. An acorn cracks, takes root, and shoots him up into the sky. He finds himself sitting next to a dryad, who asks what he sees. He points out the leaves, the bark, and the acorns, and the dryad pulls up some bark to show the ants and grubs and sap. Ratatosk notes the harmony and symbiosis of the tree, and that the sap is useful for alchemical purposes. The dryad asks if it's possible to revere the oak while using its parts for such concoctions, and Ratatosk opines that doing so is reverence. 

The two of them return to the group, and they all sleep a while. Redscale is going to come collect them at first light, to take the prism to the Dead Forest to destroy it. 

And indeed, in the morning, he wakes them up. The prism is taking its toll on the characters, especially Puddleleaf and Snootabur - their Harmony is dropping and they're all feeling testy and depressed. Redscale leads them north, which is away from the Dead Forest. Snootabur asks why they're going this way, and Redscale responds cryptically (Snootabur eventually decides it's probably best to just follow the old weirdo). They arrive at a tree and Redscale raises his staff, whereupon Ratatosk starts jittering with excitement - he knows what's coming. Redscale casts a spell and the tree uproots itself, growing legs, arms, and a face, and picks all of the characters up. It then breaks into a run. 

In less than an hour, they arrive at the entrance to the Dead Forest. The tree-thing puts them down and Redscale thanks it, and they head into the forest. The Dead Forest is, as the name implies, a place where all the trees are dead and ashen, and everyone is covered in webs. Ratatosk notes that this place is the domain of the Spider Queen and her minions, so they need to be careful. Russelet scouts around and finds them a route through the forest without web traps, and they break into a clearing. Redscale tells them that he'll destroy the prism, but it'll take him a little time, so they need to watch his back. 

Russelet and Snootabur set traps for spiders, and the characters position themselves. Redscale starts his spell, and moments later, the spiders attack, setting off the traps - but of course, spiders swarm. Rumdiggle launches into song to keep her comrades inspired, but the spiders waste no time attacking. Some of them skitter up the tree and bite at Ratatosk, one snaps at Snootabur, another leaps on Puddleleaf and bites into his neck. Russelet jumps out of his perch in a tree and fires a sleep arrow at the one chewing on Puddleleaf, knocking it out. Ratatosk, knowing that he isn't going to be able to fight all these things off, takes a different tack and lures them into chasing him. Snootabur fires an arrow and sets off a log trap; the log falls and crushes a bunch of the spiders, just as Redscale completes the ritual.

The prism explodes, and the spiders flee...but the characters all fall into Discord. Redscale leads them out of the woods - Ratatosk yells furiously at the retreating spiders, Rumdiggle is uncharacteristically quiet, Russelet flits around unable to focus, and Snootabur berates herself for missing spiders with her arrows. The characters arrive back at the tree-thing and it carries back to the Rock Circle, sets them down, and returns to its resting place - but it's only then that they realize they don't have Puddleleaf with them. They realize that he must have become Dire, and Snootabur immediately says they need to go back for him. The others agree, but Redscale tells them they need to rest first, and try to recenter. He plods off to the Circle, and the characters settle into the camp.

Rumdiggle fashions a crown from prairie flowers and hums to herself, letting the hum become a song. The others join in, maybe somewhat grudgingly, but allow the singing to help them. Russelet challenges Snootabur to a board game, while Ratatosk and Rumdiggle go back to the Circle and ask for permission to worship again. With everyone at least a little better off, Bluecap the meerkat escorts Ratatosk and Rumdiggle back to the others.

He tells them that Redscale was impressed by their willingness to rescue Puddleleaf, even with as battered and weary as they are. Redscale and the druids, he says, will find Puddleleaf and return him to Cairn, but they need to head home and rest. He shows them on their map the best way to get home safely, and the characters thank him (and, through him, Redscale).

The characters make the long and, fortunately, largely uneventful journey back to Cairn. Asta Ringrunner meets them and hears the unfortunate news about Puddleleaf, but is hopeful that the druids can find and help him. The characters go back to their lives and, in a couple of days, hold a festival at the Cider Mill Inn at which Rumdiggle and Sarafina Bushytail sing a ballad about their journey, a ballad that becomes a popular tune throughout Cairn. 

The days are starting to get shorter now, and the late harvests are complete. Soon it will be autumn, so we'll see what our fuzzy animal heroes get up to as the leaves fall.

Movie #619: Cat Ballou

Cat Ballou is a comedy western starring Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, Nat King Cole, Stubby Kaye, Tom Nardini, and Reginald Denny. 

The film opens with the titular heroine (Fonda) awaiting execution as a two-man Greek chorus of "shouters" (Cole and Kaye) sing us the "Ballad of Cat Ballou." Going back, we learn that she was trained as a schoolmarm and then headed back home to her small Wyoming town, only to learn that her father Frankie (John Marley) is getting bullied by the local business interest. In fact, they've hired notorious gunman Tim Strawn (Marvin) to enforce their will. Cat, meanwhile, has picked up a wanted criminal named Clay (Callan) and his uncle Jed (Hickman), and they agree to help out and watch out for Frankie.

Since violence is in the offing, however, that's not gonna be enough, so they hire washed up gunman Kid Shelleen (Marvin again) to protect Frankie. He fails miserably, Frankie is gunned down, and the local sheriff (Bruce Cabot) won't lift a finger. Cat takes her outlaws, Kid, and her father's Sioux hired hand Jackson (Nardini) and heads out to become an outlaw herself. They rob a train, Cat takes matters into her own hands and shoots Percival, the dude in charge (Denny), and we wind up back where we started with Cat on her way to the gallows. 

I'd never heard of this movie, but it's one of Michelle's favorites, and I really enjoyed it. It's an odd comedy, just on the verge of being a black comedy (the moment that got closest is Frankie getting shot, and it's such a tonal shift that I wasn't sure that he actually got hit after the shot rang out). Fonda has a nice arc, taking her from a fairly morally upright schoolmarm-to-be to a wanted thief and outlaw, but the story takes enough time to establish her and show her trying to get justice for her father the right way that her turn as a train robber doesn't seem totally out of left field. She's also been established to be a fan of stories of the Wild West, and there's some dissonance between what she's romanticized and what actually happens, but this all stays fairly light. 

Lee Marvin, meanwhile, won an Oscar for his dual role as brothers Tim Strawn and Kid Shelleen, and he exudes some real menace as Strawn (impressive for a guy with no nose) and takes Kid from a pathetic drunk to a legendary gunfighter and back. 

Callan and Hickman play their characters well enough, though I had trouble telling them apart sometimes. Callan's Clay has a romance plot with Cat, and that's nice, though I thought it was interesting that all of the men around Cat obviously feel for her one way or another. There's real attention to the dynamics and relationships between these people, but it's allowed to unfold as the story goes on, and that makes it organic and fun to watch. And, of course, it's a lot of fun to see Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye pop in every now and then to sing to us about the characters and let us zip through exposition. 

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Commando

Movie #618: Ruthless People

Ruthless People is a black comedy starring Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater, Bill Pullman, and Anita Morris. 

Sam Stone (DeVito) is a fashion mogul who married the boss' daughter Barbara (Midler) for her money, and has grown to hate her. He wants to be with his mistress Carol (Morris), so he plans to kill his wife. On the day he intends to do it, however, she's kidnapped by Sandy and Ken (Slater and Reinhold, respectively), whom Sam had previously fucked out of their life savings. Of course, all Sam knows is that his wife has been kidnapped and they've threatened to kill her if he goes to the press or the cops...which of course he immediately does.

Meanwhile, Carol and her thoroughly dumb boyfriend Earl (Pullman with frosted blond hair) are planning to blackmail Sam, but that gets screwed up because he hasn't actually killed Barbara. In the end, Ken and Sandy make friends with Barbara (bonding over her losing weight in their basement), and take Sam for everything he's worth, escaping using the body of a serial killer (J. E. Freeman) they inadvertently killed. 

As I've said before, I like black comedy when it doesn't overplay its hand. Ruthless People keeps things pretty light. Sure, Sam is an asshole and he's quite willing to become violent, but he never really does and he never does anything overtly evil (mostly, again, because he doesn't get the chance). Barbara is unpleasant when we first see her, but softens and makes friends with Ken and Sandy. Ken, too, is a generally decent fellow trying to be ruthless, while Carol and Earl are greedy and dumb. Everyone play nicely off each other, and Art Evans and Clarence Felder have some nice supporting roles as cops. 

Slight plot hole: The amount of time that the movie takes place over isn't nailed down, but doesn't seem to be more than a week or so, so how did Barbara lose 20 pounds? Maybe Billy Joel's "Modern Woman" is just that motivating to her, I don't know. In any case, though, it's a movie with some fun dialog and some good sight gags, and I always enjoyed that the dog Sam buys to kill his wife's poodle makes friends with said poodle ("et tu, Adolf? Et tu?"). 

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Sabrina

Board Game: Let's Take A Hike

Bears, skunks, raccoons, and blisters. Hiking! 

The Game: Let's Take a Hike
The Publisher: Stratamax Games (their site is down and their Facebook page doesn't look like it's being maintained)
Time: 20 minutes or so
Players: Me, Michelle, Sarah

 Game Play: The game consists of a deck of cards, which either have items that one would carry on a hike (tent, bedroll, granola bar, bear mace, etc.) or a hazard (bear, raccoon, skunk, blister). Item cards have a number of bootprints on them that represents their weight. Everyone gets dealt 7 cards, and then puts as many as they want/can into their pack.

The pack has to be arranged in a specific order: three cards across, one above and one below, and then one on either side of the three-card row representing your hands. Most cards have limits on where in the pack you can put them; you can't put a walking stick anywhere other than your hand, f'rex. 

Once that's happen, play proper starts. You can choose to take actions (draw cards, swap out cards in your pack, play a hazard) or go on a hike. If you go on a hike, other players can choose to join you or not. Every turn on a hike, you flip up a card from the deck, and then everyone who doesn't have that particular item in their pack has to discard that much weight from their pack. So, it's essentially a game of chicken: if you're the last hiker standing (you can drop out of the hike whenever you like), you get to score all of the cards that got flipped up during the hike. If you lose your whole pack during a hike, you're SOL. If you bail early, you get to score one card. 

My pack. Always have extra socks.

Opinions: I was kinda expecting this to be a cutesy kids game, but it's actually got some strategic elements that I enjoy. It's intuitive to play and the instructions are clear, which is always a plus. You play until the deck runs out, meaning you can see the end coming pretty easily, while can influence your decision to go on or join a hike. I also like the weight being represented by bootprints rather than numerals; it makes a "heavy" card recognizable at a glance. 

Keep? Sure

Slipstream: More Shopping! Woo!

Tonight was Slipstream, and for the second session in a row, there was shopping, roleplaying, and no combat. That's only notable because it's a Savage Worlds game, but everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, so what the hey. 

Our heroes land on Avia, the fragment peopled by Bird Men. They land on one of the immense sawed-off tree trunks made for this purpose, and are met by a customs official. Iris (who is the only one of the three who speaks Avian) explains that they're here to see to the funerary rites of Gregor, an Earthling they met on Mechanos. The customs official just kind of rolls with this until Oola mentions that Gregor died of abuse from Queen Anthraxa, and then he looks a little nervous. He tells them to hang out a bit, and an official will come and check the corpse to make sure there's no biohazard. 

And, indeed, a royal guard and a doctor arrive shortly. The doctor is very polite and helpful, while the guard is arrogant and looks down on Iris. He also tells the doctor that there's to be no rumors of Queen Anthraxa harming this dead person. The doctor, Iris, and Oola examine the body (Zeenia is in her tank), and he confirms that Gregor died mostly of malnutrition, but he's endured quite a bit of trauma. He tells Iris to contact a priest at one of the temples, and they'll take her through the funerary process. She'll be liable for the cost, though. 

Iris explains all of this to the other two, and tells them that she's going to find a priest and then contact a friend of hers. Oola wants to explore, and Zeenia waffles a bit and then decides to go and try to find someone to bring her food. Oola and Zeenia start heading down an immense staircase in the center of the tree's trunk, which is easier for Zeenia than the branches with the rail-guards (Zeenia is afraid of heights). As they reach a platform with branches leading off, they hear music. There's a busker playing a string instrument and singing, but he's a Septosian - a slug-like being from one of the twin worlds Andee and Hopp (no, I'm not making that up, it's in the Slipstream book). He recognizes Zeenia as a Zeeborite and greets her in her native tongue, and introduces himself as Plep. Zeenia chats with him, and he shows her an entrance to a series of tunnels leading through the branches, rather than over the, designed for folks with squishier bodies. 

Oola, meanwhile, walks to the food section of the market and spots a stall run by another Rurite. She talks to him and he makes her a salad with some mushrooms and some grated spice root on top (the veggies and shrooms are local, but the spice root is an import from Ruros). Oola is overjoyed to get some fresh food for a change, and waves to Zeenia when she emerges from the tunnel (or the "splort-hole," as they come to be known). 

Zeenia looks about for food that suits her palate. She finds a stall with a sign in Avian, but a bunch of bugs and worms nailed to it. She peruses what they have and (with the help of the shopkeeper's daughter, since the shopkeeper speaks no Streamer) buys some tree leeches and a great big tubergrub. Finding the worms tasty, she makes a deal with them to supply a tank of tree leeches for the ship, and then goes to the Rurite stall with Oola and makes a deal for some dried mushrooms, a flat of living plants, and some spice root. 

Meanwhile, Iris goes to the temple and talks to one of the priests. She explains their situation, and the priest tells her that he'll send someone to collect the body, prepare it (though since Gregor wasn't a bird man, they won't need to do the wing-preparation, in which the wings are broken and wrapped around the body), and transport it to a pyre away from the Nest Trees. There, a Tender will light the pyre, and the mourners can stay as long as they like. He also gives her a discount on the costs, partially because there isn't as much work, but mostly because he's touched at Iris going out of her way to take care of Gregor's funeral. 

Iris heads to the market and sells her vibro-knife and its battery to be able to afford the funeral, pays the priest, and then heads to the food market to meet up with Oola and Zeenia. She gets herself some lunch (a slice of meat wrapped in a flatbread), and then works with some of the vendors to get some non-perishable food for the cargo. She buys some of the tubergrubs; the shopkeeper tells her that as long as they're fed sugar water and kept in a cool, dry temperature, they won't pupate and turn into huge moths. 

Iris rings up Sennet Blackwing, the brother of her kidnapped lover Corvu, and touches base. He offers to accompany them to the funeral later on, noting that the spot they're going to is a ways out of town. Iris asks if there's a skimmer they could hire, and Sennet says he can probably scare one up.

From there, they decide to head to the artisan market, because Zeenia wants a "receiving tub," a wooden tub that she can lounge in on the ship and still talk to people. Oola and Iris walk along the branches, but Zeenia finds a splort-hole and zips along...but emerges in a bar. She talks to the bartender ("huh, I forgot that was there"), and asks how to get to the artisans, but is distressed to learn that there's no splort-hole leading there. She buys a couple of drinks instead, and, as before on Mechanos, gets drunk enough that she can handle walking on the branches. She stumbles (inasmuch as a giant jellyfish can stumble) into the artisan area, and meets up with her shipmates again. 

They find a crafter who can build the tub. He takes measurements and a large deposit, and they characters head back to the ship to await Sennet. He shows up in the skimmer, and they all get aboard, and zip along out to the pyre (with Zeenia wrapping her tentacles around all three of them for dear life). 

Next time: The funeral, and some unexpected company drops in!

Movie #617: Rush Hour

Rush Hour is an action martial-arts buddy-cop comedy starring Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Elizabeth Peña, Chris Penn, Tom Wilkinson, Ken Leung, Tzi Ma, and Julia Hsu. 

As Hong Kong reverts to Chinese rule, Consul Han (Ma) prepares to take a job in the USA with his young daughter Soo Yung (Hsu), while obvious villain Griffin (Wilkinson) smiles and cheers him on and his friend and comrade Inspector Lee (Chan) cleans up the smuggling and criminal empire of the mysterious "Juntao." 

Some months later, Soo Yung is kidnapped and held to ransom. The FBI works the investigation, but Han wants his friend Lee to join. The FBI, in the personage of Agents Russ and Whitney (Mark Rolston and Rex Linn, respectively) think that's a bad idea, so they get the LAPD to volunteer up a loud-mouth, unprofessional cop named Carter (Tucker) to babysit the Chinese cop. Obviously, Carter and Lee are the only ones who can Get The Job Done, so after some initial growing pains (involving chasing each other around the city and pointing guns at each other), they work together to take down Juntao and rescue Soo Yung. 

It's a buddy cop movie, and that means it follows a pretty rigid formula - they meet, they rub each other the wrong way, they learn grudging respect for one another, they're kicked off the case, they come roaring back against orders to triumph. Much of the humor comes from Tucker's loud, high-pitched, nonstop chatter played against Chan's more quiet charisma and sudden explosions into martial arts madness, but this wouldn't work at all if they didn't have the chemistry they have. Fortunately, Chan is able to play fish out of water without coming across like a total ninnyhammer, and his struggles with being taken seriously by American cops stem largely from the language barrier (which reads as pretty accurate, honestly). 

Tucker's character doesn't seem nearly as competent as a cop, but he knows the right people to find information, and so both of them wind up contributing about equally. Carter's sometime partner, Johnson (Peña), might have been just a recipient of Carter's sexual harassment (look, it's a Brett Ratner movie), but she actually shows some chops as a bomb tech as well, so that's fun. 

Rush Hour is one of a number of American Jackie Chan films, and despite the director, it's one of the better ones. 

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: High

Next up: Ruthless People

Character Creation: Wicked Ones

Rar, monsters. 

The Game: Wicked Ones
The Publisher: Bandit Camp (ETA: now defunct, but you can download the game free here)
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this game, but it's Forged in the Dark and I'm very familiar with Blades in the Dark
Books Required: Just the one

I just got this game as part of a Kickstarter fulfillment not that long ago, and I don't normally do games for the project that soon after getting them, but I've been looking forward to this game. The basic idea is that the PCs are a band of monsters who are maintaining a dungeon, of the type that adventurers tend to raid. It's meant to be a game in which you play the bad guys, and so there's a lot of attention toward making being evil playable (not least of which is addressing PVP, which is going to come up in game like this, and I like the way they've handled it - basically you can power struggle with other players and that can look like whatever you want in the fiction, but there's no mechanical consequences). 

I know from experience that RPGs in which the characters are specifically evil (or at least harmful) take some focus and a strong guiding hand, and I think Wicked Ones really nails it. I was hoping this would be a game that, after I read it, I'd still be interested in running, rather than being disappointed that it didn't live up to its premise. Happy to say that I am indeed still wanting to run this at some point.

But, for today, just making a character. The first thing I do is pick a monster race. There's actually not a whole lot of mechanical difference between them. There are optional rules for making race more of a big deal, but I have a concept already. I want to play a kobold. 

Next step is to pick a calling, which is my character's job and function in the group. I want to be a brute. I'm thinking that this guy is tiny, yet surprisingly strong and just jumps on bigger foes to bite, stab, and beat them until they die. Kinda like Jack Large from season one of Blackadder. As a brute, I get the rage ability, which lets me spend stress to do superhuman (well, super-monster) feats of strength. I also get to pick one more calling ability from the list. Hmm. I think I want living weapon. I get to pick two edges for unarmed combat, and I'll take grappling and terrifying. My kobold attacks relentless, climbs up enemies, and never lets go. 

Now actions. I get one at three dots, which is my bread and butter. That'll be Smash, obviously. I get two at two dots, so that'll be Threaten and Skulk, and then two more at 1 dot. Scan and Banter, I think.

Dark impulse! As a monster, this is what I like to do, and what I like to do ain't very nice. Let's see. I don't think that he's necessarily cruel. He doesn't take joy in inflicting pain, it's mostly that he can't control himself. That sounds like reckless to me.

Revelry is how we blow off steam. I think my kobold likes drinking. 

Gear! I get four pieces of gear, and one gives me a defense against something. Hmm. I think my little kobold has shiny snakeskin armor, gloves with spikes on them, a length of rope, and a little dagger for the coup de grace. I'll say the dagger also gives me defense against containment; I can slit bonds or pick locks to free myself. 

Finally, I pick a vile friend. This would be a monster who shows up during the initial dungeon setup, but I'll just make something up. I'll say my vile friend is Hornt the Ogre. Hornt is a very smart and introspective fellow (you know, for an ogre) and he takes in stride the fact that sometimes this kobold just jumps on him (he can't help it, he just hates bigger things). They also have fun philosophical discussions about bigness and killing-itude. 

And that's everything, actually! My kobold's name is Blar. Blar is little (about average for a kobold, though) in height, but he's jacked. He hates things that are bigger than he is, because they always seem so damn uppity. Being tall isn't so great if you're made of meat. There's just more of you to stab! BLAR!

Ahem. That'll do it!

Movie #616: Run Lola Run

Run Lola Run is a weird drama-type thing starring Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, and Herbert Knaup. It's in German, so subtitles ahoy!

Lola (Potente) gets a phone call from her small-time criminal boyfriend Manni (Bleibtreu), saying that he fucked up a job: He was supposed to take a bag full of money to his boss Ronnie (Heino Ferch), but instead he left it the train and a homeless guy (Joachim Król) grabbed it. Now Manni has only 20 minutes to come up with the money, or else Ronnie is probably going to kill him. He figures he'll rob a store, and Lola tells him to wait, and runs to the bank to beg her father (Knaup) for the money. This doesn't go well, she flees, helps Manni rob the bank, gets shot, and we jump back in time to her hanging up the phone and running for the bank...

We get to see three such "loops" play out, and in each one Lola changes a few things and seems to remember things from one to the next. Ultimately she gives up on the bank and goes to a casino, and uses the power of a magic, glass-breaking scream to win all the money she needs. 

You know what I'm gonna say: I love magical realism, and this is pretty damn close. The movie plays with themes of free will and determinism and butterfly effect and so on, but it does that while keeping a fairly close focus on Lola and the important people in her life. And as she goes, we see relationships unravel, break and come back together, and never happen depending on Lola's actions and how everything pans out. The final loop, the one that "really" happens, isn't ideal for everyone, but I think one of the points of the movie is that shit happens and it's impossible to get everything perfect (see also the short film "Spin", it's on Youtube). 

Potente holds the movie together as Lola, and Breibtreu nicely conveys the desperation and fear in Manni's situation. The other standout is Armin Rohde as the security guard at the bank, who seems to recognize that Lola is making multiple stabs at this, and may also be her biological father (it's never stated, but listening to the dialog between them it makes sense). 

Run Lola Run is actually one of the few movies I've seen that I think is a spot-on reference for Mage: The Ascension, because the magic involved is subtle, and the one time it's not (when Lola wins at the casino), there's a bunch of uncomfortable people and perhaps some Paradox happening. 

My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Rush Hour

Character Creation: Gears of Defiance

It's not lost on me that the first character of 2021 is for a game centered around rebellion, but it's coincidental; this was just the game I picked up and started reading. 

The Game: Gears of Defiance
The Publisher: Loremaster Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Gears of Defiance is a cool idea. It's by the same main author as Edara, and actually kind of addresses one of things I said in my review of that game (it's on RPGnet, as far as I know): for a game billed as "steampunk," there's really not a lot of "steam" or "punk" in it. Gears tries to go hard on the "punk," but it winds up feeling like a game about rebellion without a lot of heart. It quotes revolutionaries all throughout, points out fictional media in which rebellion against an Empire takes place, and cites Misspent Youth as an influence. And being highly familiar with Misspent Youth, I can see that influence but what I don't see is the passion. I've read the book, and it just feels kinda flavorless. 

What doesn't help, too, is that the editing really needed work. I'm pretty forgiving of typos in RPGs - lord knows I've seen enough of my own see print - but clarity of text suffers more than a little in a lot of places. I haven't played the game, so I can't comment on the system, but there's a review on DTRPG that basically paints it as a mess. I did note system ideas taken from Fate Accelerated, PbtA, and Forged in the Dark, but I don't ever remember it coming together as a cohesive whole (though, again, haven't played it, so not forming solid opinions). 

Oh, and, looking at the Kickstarter, the book was supposed to be 200+ pages - it's 88. 

Well, anyway, let's make a character. Why does the character sheet have a big "THE" in the margin? The world may never know. 

Part of game setup for Gears would be creating the Empire, but it's just me, so I suppose I shall use the example setting? Oh, wait, there's a bunch of them. Umm. I like "Keepers of the Dead" a whole lot, actually. Let's do that. It's a society in which a cadre of Immortals are the ruling class, and the Family (that is, the PCs) are the bottom-rung of society, dealing with the dead. That's neat. 

OK, so, with that Empire in mind, what's next? I need a name and a biography, what most games would call a concept. One of the things mentioned in the Empire write-up is that no one really knows if the Immortals can be wounded or killed, and I kind of want to make a character who studies rumors and legend of such. However, I don't want to make a bookish or nerdy character, so much as someone who "collects" causes of death in hopes that one can eventually be applied to the Immortals. I'll say his name is Adomo. 

Next, we do Approaches. These are like the Approaches one finds in Fate Accelerated, though not quite the same (there's more of them, for one thing, and some of them seem pretty redundant). I pick an array, here. Hmm. I don't know that I want to be a generalist, but what Approach would make sense to be strong for my dude? OK, let's go +2, +2, +1, +1. I'll put my 2s into Brash and Intellectual and my 1s into Forceful and Artful. That leaves everything else at 0, but some of these get boosted in later steps, IIRC.

Now we do a characterization, which really means pick a Profession and add a Trait. And...hmm. There's no slot for either of those on the sheet. There's a slot for "Virtue" and "Occupation." Oy. Well, anyway, Professcupation. Doctor or Inventor? I don't want Scholar, though Doctor is a little too healing-focused for what I have in mind. Ergh. I guess I'll go Doctor, and I'll take Morbid as my Trait, how about. I also get +2 Intellectual and +1 Willful, which is misspelled in the book. 

What's next? Creating the Family, but that's also a group activity. It includes Bonds, which would involve answering some questions based on my position in the family, but since it's just me I'm gonna skip it. There's also something about figuring out where I am on the Alignment Matrix, but I don't see any system for doing so. It just says "figure it out." But then again, it also talks about "Family Aspects" and "Family Fan" as though those were things included in the book, and they don't seem to be. So y'know what? Gonna call that good.

Adomo is young for a doctor, but then, he's not really a doctor so much as a forensic pathologist who kind of reverse-engineers how to put people together. He has some pretty deep philosophical notions about dying and how being able to die makes you human, while being unable to die and being unafraid of it makes you a monster. Physically, Adomo is burly and kind of brusque. I can see him played by Nick Offerman as a younger man. 

That's it! 

Movie #615: John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum is, as the name would suggest, the third movie in the John Wick series and stars Keanu Reeves as the titular assassin, along with Halle Berry, Ian McShane, Asia Kate Dillon, Laurence Fishburne, Mark Dacascos, Lance Reddick, and Anjelica Huston.

Following the events of John Wick: Chapter 2, Wick is injured and running for his life with an hour before he becomes "ex communicado", and fair game for any of the zillion assassins in New York City. He manages to retrieve a couple of important items from a dead drop in the library (nearly getting killed by a giant assassin, played by real-life giant Boban Marjanovic), gets sewn up by a doctor (Randall Duk Kim), and then flees to a ballet theater/Belarusian assassin training school run by his former mentor, the Director (Huston). His ultimate plan is to flee to Casablanca and make contact with a former partner Sofia (Berry), and then find a way to "the one who sits above the table," the Elder (Said Taghmauoui). 

Meanwhile, in New York, an Adjudicator (Dillon) arrives, activates Zero (Dacascos) and his ninja students as foot soldiers, and proceeds to visit bloody justice on everyone who's helped Wick recently: the Bowery King (Fishburne), the Director, and Winston (McShane), the manager of the New York Continental. 

All of this culminates in Wick returning to New York with orders to kill Winston, but choosing to disobey them and helping Winston and his concierge, Charon (Reddick) to take on a host of High Table goons before the Adjudicator decides to parley and offer Winston his job back. And then Winston shoots Wick right off the damn roof, setting us up for the four installment. 

So, I really like this series, and one thing I appreciates is how the world-building, always the series' strength, continues to build. We started pretty much localized to New York, we saw the different factions in Chapter Two, and now we're seeing the larger mythology and the spiritual as well as transactional side of the criminal world. We also edged further and further into magical realism until assassins are slicing throats in Grand Central Station and no one bats an eye, and as always I'm a fan of such (magical realism, not throat-slicing per se). 

Reeves is characteristically flat and dignified as Wick, Dillon is fantastic and intimidating as the Adjudicator, but I think the props go to Berry as Sofia, utterly badass as the manager of the Casablanca Continental, but also grieving the fact that her position prevents her from seeing her daughter. The amount of work that went into training her dogs, too, is amazing, and it's fully on display as Wick, Sofia, and the doggos take out hordes of adversaries. The action in the movie, the fight choreography, continually impresses, and there's obviously so much attention to framing that action within the weird reality of the story. And, I love that the movies don't explain shit. We don't need a POV character, the movies trust us to grasp how the world works and what the relationships are like based on what happens. 

My Grade: A-
Rewatch value: Medium

Next up: Run Lola Run

Predation: Hayzus' Lucky Day

It's dino time!

Last time, our heroes killed some giant spiders and discovered the corpses of a SATI team. Tallahassee and Omaha, both still kinda high, start investigating said corpses. Tallahassee goes looking for cybernetics, but gets distracted by her own eyelids. Omaha kinda nudges her out of the way and brings her knowledge of medicine and science to bear, and discovers a few interesting facts. 

First, these people haven't been eating Cretaceous-grown food. They've got some cybernetics, but they're minor (eye implants to improve night vision, joint enhancement to improve stamina and speed, that kind of thing). They've got two chips implanted. One is an RFID chip in the palm, which Omaha figures is used for access to a lock or a door or something. The other is a smaller chip at the base of the skull, and she isn't sure about that one. Biometrics, maybe? Tracking?

She also finds a small plastic card with a set of coordinates on it, and hands it to Buffalo, he being the orienteering expert. Buffalo works out the coordinates and realizes that they correspond to the Enta Lab in Kelaino - which is where he stole the mysterious genetically engineered dinosaur egg that's currently in his pack. He tries to tuck the card away surreptitiously, but Tallahassee notices and asks him what it is. Buffalo is not the most skilled social person at the best of times, and kind of hems and haws around the issue before admitting that coordinates lead to a lab. 

Omaha and Tallahassee, of course, both being of a scientific bent, are very keen to look into this more. Buffalo, not really wanting to but not wanting to abandon these folks either, plots a course. If they head west they'll leave the Gridelin Wilds, and then north will take them through the forest to the river, across which is Kelaino. 

They group heads off through the Wilds, and Buffalo notices anzu tracks. He figures it's a small flock of them, and they must have developed an immunity to the toxic dust here. Anzus are known to be territorial, so he warns the others to stay quiet and careful, and they'll try and avoid notice. But "avoiding notice" is difficult with an albertasaurus, and soon they begin to hear clicks and whistles as the anzus surround them. Buffalo therefore revises his advice to: "Run." 

The group strikes out through the forest, Sebie and Kevin easily outpacing the anzu. Klio isn't terribly fast, but he's steady, and the anzus don't bother him. They nip at Betty's heels a little, but generally they just want to run these folks off, which, conveniently, is what the characters want, too. They break out of the Wilds and into the cleaner and greener forests. 

Exhausted, the characters set up camp and rest for the night. Tallahassee takes the opportunity to look at one of the chips from the skulls of the SATI team, and realizes that it shouldn't exist. It looks like first-generation SATI tech, insofar as the materials and craftsmanship, but it's new. That all seems to support the theory that these guys actually were time travelers. She slots the chip in her own cybernetics, but doesn't get any real read on it - whatever it's meant to do, it's not doing it. 

In the morning, the crew wakes up and gets moving. As they head north toward the river, a nerezza (a black, winged microraptor bred to be a spy and assassin) swoops in and lands on Betty's nose. She shakes it off (and Sebie snaps at it), but it flies around and lands on a branch, watching the characters. Buffalo realizes that it's got to be someone's pet or companion, and Omaha suggests they follow it. It leads them to the river, and they hear someone yelling for help. A man is sitting on the beach in a small hollow, surrounding by a crackling sphere of electricity. Dakota yells down and asks what he needs help with, just as the back of a carnosuchus becomes visible in the water. "That!" he responds.

Dakota ties a rope to Klio and tosses the end down to him. She counts down from three, and the man switches off the artifact protecting him and grabs the rope. Dakota tries to have Klio back up, but Klio's tail gets caught on a tree and he stumbles, making the rope go slack. The carno lurches up out of the water and bites the guy's foot. 

The characters spring into action! Tallahassee, riding Kevin, fires her laser pistol at the carno...and misses. Omaha activates a cipher and fires it at the carno...and misses. It ploops into the water, and Omaha winces; that thing is going to rearrange the matter it comes into contact with. Dakota hurls a cipher of her own, a magnetic drill that burrows into the carno, and Kevin throws Tallahassee off and rushes the creature. Buffalo runs down the beach and takes a prybar to the carno's mouth, freeing the man, but the carno just turns and bites into Buffalo's leg. 

Omaha switches to a laser pistol and tries to shoot it, but misses again...and strikes a blob of matter that just surfaced behind the creature. The blob pops, spewing yellow particulates into the air, and Dakota and Tallahassee start choking. Buffalo pries open the thing's jaws again, and Sebie claws at it. Having had enough, the carno backs up into the water and swims away. 

The characters catch their breath and Omaha and Dakota break out medkits. Dakota patches up the stranger, who introduces himself as Hayzus (and his nerezza, Petey). He says that he was fishing and misjudged the location of a tidepool that the carnos avoid, and got trapped by the device that was protecting him. He thanks the characters and offers to walk with them to the bridge to Kelaino.

They chat as they walk - Hayzus tells them that he won Petey as a chick in a poker game with some swell from the Triangle of Faith, which makes Buffalo growl a bit. As they get near the bridge, Buffalo waits until Hayzus goes off for a piss and then tells the others the truth - he stole an egg from the Enta lab. He shows them - it's bigger than a lot of dino eggs, and harder shelled. Omaha immediately puts her ear to it to try and hear the baby inside, and Tallahassee asks what it is, but Buffalo doesn't know. All he knows is that it was genetically engineered and it shouldn't exist. 

The characters are so taken with the egg that they don't notice Hayzus walking back. He comments on the egg, and then says his goodbyes and thanks them again, and starts heading back down to the river to catch his boat across to the docks. The others watch him go, and Tallahassee wonders if he might try to turn Buffalo in, since he stole that egg. This, says Buffalo, is one reason he doesn't want to go into the city. 

As they're talking, they notice thunder rumbling and the temperature going up. Tallahassee knows what this means - there's a time terror incoming. She activates a cipher and measures it as a level 4; strong, but not too difficult to survive. Buffalo has them head towards the bridge, which will have some lightning rods that will hopefully catch the worst of the storm. As they get there, they see a man standing near a triceratops with "Kelaino: Arrive. Survive. Thrive." written in blue on its side. 

Tallahassee and Buffalo recognize this; the guy is a roadknight, paid to entice people to move to or visit Kelaino. They warn him there's a time terror coming, and he tells them that Kelaino offers excellent protection against such things, as well as supplies and lodging for them and their companions. As the storm rolls in, however, he crawls under the trike (whom he calls "Stubby") and takes cover. The characters do likewise.

Tallahassee, however, feels the chip she slotted activate, and a voice in her head says "Identify yourself." She does, and it asks how she got the chip. She briefly explains ("the guy is dead, there were spiders"), and the voice asks the year. She tells it, and then it asks for her current coordinates. 

Tallahassee asks who she's talking to and what year it is there, but it doesn't answer, instead just repeating the demand for coordinates. She asks why, and it says something about needing to recalibrate, but then the storm passes and the voice goes silent. A cipher hits her in the head, and the characters look around and find a few more. Tallahassee notes that if she could find another time terror, she might be able to reactivate the chip and talk to these mysterious people again. But maybe not right now.

The characters decide to split up. Tallahassee and Dakota (and their companions) will go into Kelaino and investigate the lab, and perhaps the Market District. Omaha and Buffalo, who aren't as interested in cities and have much larger dinosaurs, will do some looking around out here in the woods. 

Board Game: Illimat

First board game of the new year! Woo!

The Game: Illimat
The Publisher: Twogether Studios
Time: 30 minutes, I think?
Players: Me and Michelle

Game Play: Illimat has an interesting history; The Decemberists (a band) made up a game board prop as part of a photo shoot, and then later hired a game designer to actually make the game. And it's...actually pretty cool. 

Players try to be the first to 17 points. In any given round, cards get played into four fields, and on your turn, you can "harvest" cards (picking up cards using a card in your hand of equal value, but you can pick up combinations of cards, meaning you can use a 7 to pick up a 3 and a 4), "sow" a card (putting it into a field, useful to set up a harvest), or "stockpile" cards (stacking cards and combing their values for purposes of harvesting). Every turn, the Illimat (the actual bottom bit of the game box) might turn, changing which season is in effect on a field, which also limits options (f'rex, you can't harvest the winter field). 

The fields, barren.

You also have four "Luminaries," cards that resemble Major Arcana, in the corners. First time a field is emptied, the Luminary gets flipped and typically has some effect or other on game play, either just for the moment or going forward in the round. Points get awarded at round's end for who took the most cards, who took the most summer cards, and who got extras like Luminaries. 

This is what it looks like with all the components in place.

Opinions: I actually really enjoyed this game. The idea, according to the designer, was to make a game that felt like an old card game, and it kinda works (until you get into the Luminaries and the little weird brass "okus tokens"). The card play reminds me of Hearts or Spades, but the movement of the seasons and the ability to harvest cards based on combinations (but not to play cards in combinations; that is, you can play 7 to pick up 3 and 4, but not 3 and 4 to pick up 7) means there's a lot of room for thinking ahead. I'd be quite interested to play it with more people and see how that changes the dynamic. 

Keep? Yep.

Movie #614: Rumble in the Bronx

Rumble in the Bronx is an action-comedy starring Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Francoise Yip, Bill Tung, Marc Akerstream, Garvin Cross, Morgan Lam, and Kris Lord. 

Keung (Chan) is visiting his uncle Bill (Tung) in New York, a few days before Bill's wedding to a very enthusiastic American woman (Carrie Cain-Sparks). Bill sells his market to Elaine (Mui) and Keung kinda gets voluntold to stick around and help out, which leads to him running afoul of a group of local toughs led by Tony (Akerstream). Keung kicks the shit out of a bunch of them at the market, winds up getting beaten up pretty badly himself, starts dating Nancy (Yip), Tony's girlfriend, and befriends her young wheelchair-using brother, Danny (Lam).

But then, a crime lord named White Tiger (Lord) arranges the theft of a bunch of diamonds, a gang member (Cross) steals them, and the much better equipped and vicious Tiger henchman come to the Bronx looking for them. Violence and a hovercraft chase ensue!

This is the movie that kinda introduced Jackie Chan to the USA, and it's funny both because Chan is a skilled comic actor and because the dub that New Line commissioned is silly and overdramatic. The action is amazing and Chan dives through shopping carts, falls off of roofs, and fights with whatever's handy. He also gets the living shit kicked out of him, and the constant punishment actually manages to make him look like he's putting in real effort (which of course he is, since Chan does all of the stunts, and actually broke his foot during filming). 

The movie is violent but not gory (well, a dude gets fed through a tree-shredder, but you don't see it), but the violence feels visceral because the action scenes don't cut often. The acting is over the top and the dub doesn't help ground anything, but that's fine because any realism or gravity you lose is brought back by the fight scenes. This is actually one of my favorite Chan films, and although he's done American films since with more polish, this one definitely showcases his talents. 

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: High

Next up: Run Lola Run

Chill: Last of the Dog Days

Today we finished the Chill case with the evil snarly dogs. Last session here.

The envoys pull their vehicles around onto an access road that gets them close to the copse of trees where the dogs have been hanging out, gear up, and head into the woods. They know they're looking for the drawing that Isabel did, but they aren't sure where it might have ended up. They know, too, that they're likely to be attacked. As such, Dylan raises a Mental Shield over all of them.

Vicki spots a hole in the ground up ahead as they spread out in the woods, dug out like a big den. She points this out, and the dogs attack, all six of them. One dog attacks each envoy, except Dylan, who is the only one holding a dandelion. The sixth dog, therefore, goes for Peedee.

One dog bits Emily, another jumps up and starts chewing on Vicki's collarbone. One snaps at Jennifer, and one bites Beth Anne's leg. Manny deftly avoids one and throws his jacket on its head, getting it stuck, and Peedee snaps and growls at the sixth. Dylan creeps around the edge of the clearing to the den, apparently unnoticed. 

The battle continues - Emily shoots the one attacking her and draws on her knowledge of the Restorative Art to keep the worst injuries at bay. Beth Anne smacks a dog with a crowbar, but it knocks her down and starts chewing on her leg. Jennifer shoots a dog, and Manny tries to smack another in the head, but can't quite seem to land a telling blow. Dylan jumps into the den and starts rooting around. Two of the dogs break off their attacks and approach him, but he raises a Sphere of Protection and keeps looking. 

In the den, half covered in earth, he finds the picture that Isabel drew, a child's drawing of six scary black dogs. He tears it in half, and one of the dogs disintegrates, falling into crumbling wax. Dylan resurfaces and asks if that did anything, just as Vicki dumps a bottle of nail polish remover on a dog and sets it ablaze. It tackles her and bites at her, and Jennifer screams at Dylan to tear up the picture.

He does, and the rest of the dogs fall apart, crumbling into chunks of ground-up wax. The envoys take stock, and Emily and Dylan stabilize Beth Anne and Vicki, both of whom are badly hurt. They head back to the ranch, warning Darnell that they're incoming, and he gets all of his medical stuff set up.

The next morning, the envoys wake, groggily, sore, but victorious. Vicki notes that she has a bunch of missed calls and remembers that she forgot to pick her father up at the hospital. She calls him and apologizes, and says that she was with her friends and got bit again - he demands to know what she was doing back at the park. She can tell he's angry, mostly because he was worried, and she asks Manny to come over with Peedee and support her story a bit. Darnell gives her a cup of coffee, and asks "First time?" Vicki realizes that being in SAVE is going to make her life a little more difficult than she thought.

The characters work on healing, training, and stabilizing themselves. Beth Anne starts using weed a little too heavily, and Dylan, unable to shake the image of Mohammed's body, is a little sensitive around blood. Emily starts getting some therapy for her PTSD, in order to get rid of her tendency to freeze up, and also takes up running and parkour. Jennifer becomes attune to the Restorative school of the Art. 

All of the characters have a wake and memorial for Mohammed (they weren't invited to the service, as it happened very quickly after his death and his family didn't really know to invite the envoys). They start a memorial wall at the ranch, too, for fallen envoys.

Character Creation Index, Part 2

Buy more RPGs, make more characters...

 

Here we are, the second character creation index post. First 500 characters are archived here, second 500 is this post, current index is here. Not much else to say, I suppose.  

Done

2021

Gears of Defiance - Adomo
Wicked Ones - Blar
The Ministry Initiative - John Gray Jr.
Of Dreams & Magic - Kent Conley
Battle for Oz - Mias
Corporia - Julius Bowman/Melion
Broken Rooms - Stuart Rodgers
Tianxa: Blood Silk & Jade - No-Shadow Hai
Prism - Glynd
Bite Marks - Joseph Stubbe
Home by Dark - Mason
Tales of the Magical West - Clay Ryeman
Keltia - Rhun Bychan
Stuperpowers! - Blacklight/Gerry Girard
Red Markets - Duck Hunt
Wield - The Sea-Piercer
Liberté - Bubba
Dinosaur Princesses - Bonk

Demon Hunters RPG - Jasper Flood
Entromancy - Lynaway Denision
Hood - Piggy Pete
Dialect - Old Man
Deadlands Noir - Johannes Keller
Vow of Honor - Ahmav
The Dig - Terp Firetooth
Azamar - Oza'meri
Operators - Graham Dalby
Power Outage - Liam Adell/Hee-Liam
Thirsty Sword Lesbians - Volta
STaRS - Cesár Rios
Cold Shadows - Lyle "Mangrove" Manning
Kidworld - Rollo
Würm - Ki'e
Tetrarch - Silak

Afterlife: Wandering Souls - Carrion
Goblinville - Feesh
Reign - Afarri
Red Aegis - Hylas the Firm

The Green Knight - Accolon
Slayers - Loshe Canna
Fate of Cthulhu - Damon Lowe
Eldritch Skies - Dieter Klass

Sentinel Comic RPG - Gadfly/Bede Bradshaw
Quest - Halley
Drudge! - Zeke & Hightop
Legend of the 3 Cosmic Fists - Arthur Lê
Don't Look Back - Everett Burton
H. P. Lovecraft Preparatory Academy (PDQ) - Chester Buckley
OS+R - Craunagh

Hit the Streets: Defend the Block - Courtney Tice/Jack
Babes in the Wood - Smiley
Orun - Aeolian
Demon Hunters: A Comedy of Terrors - Chester Asimov Darwin
Opera House - Hugh Parry
For Coin & Blood - Karum
Bury Mary: The Great Lich's Bake-Off - Porthos Bruno
Starblazer Adventures - Ren Rubid
Immortal: The Invisible War - Alfred Cobb
Paranoia Ultraviolet Edition - Hype-R-BOL-1
Powder Mage - Ayvars
John Carter of Mars - Tiris Fell

2022

Fight Item Run - Vivid
The World of Indiana Jones - Chauncey "Chance" Horton
Coyote - Pietr Czolgosz
Thou Art But a Warrior - Onorio
Age of Arthur - Pwyll
Lone Wolf Adventure Game - Brave River
Harlem Unbound - Reynold "Ray" Baker
Scion: Origin - Ronald Mallory
Ki Khanga - Gatimu
Cyberpunk 2020 - Yuda
Bastion - Tumyaw Xoese Damte
H. P. Lovecraft Preparatory Academy (SW) - Macadam Beaufort
WILD - Stanley Clark
Smallville - Felix Hunt
Get Funky - Booker Brown
Lost Roads - Pasin
Mummy: The Curse - Panhsj
MASHED - Uriah "Yuri" Young
zauBeR - João Silva
Claim the Sky - Terry Houston/Aquamarine
Cuticorium - Zhoum
All for One: Régime Diabolique - Rémy Fournier
Mythender - Thjalfi
Peculiar Tales - Canard
Kids on Bikes - Sid Stevens
Heroic Dark - Waja
Simply Super - Gabriel Gunderson/Flourish
Journey Away - Hegel
The Happiest Apocalypse on Earth - William "Cody" Miner Jr.
Legion of Liberty - Jules "Chasseur" Cadieux
Flatline - Luther Bates
The Devil, John Moulton - Danny Barker
Sig: Manual of the Primes - Sable the Voyeur
Monarchies of Mau - Einar Lykoi von Siberian
Goons in Space - Gregorax
Fae's Anatomy - Dr. Dee
DOGS - Dranas
Seeker - Jewel Ballard
Shanty Hunters - Charles Charles
Mettle - Dodd
Outré Realms - Ynthim
Shiver - Absalom "Abby" Jury
Xas Irkalla - Angur
Altais: Age of Ruin - Khrihen
Webworld - Carl Brown
Dawning Star: Fate of Eos - Stefan Mars
Chimera RPG - Cangrejo
Good Strong Hands - Salem
Prowlers & Paragons - Ted Townes/The Malleable Man
AZ: After Zombies - Rudy Norris
Starfall - Linus Tinsley
Black Seven - Sundew
Vaesen - Hugo Skytte
Exquisite Crimes, Goth Detectives - Morrigan Ghoul
Wild Skies: Europa Tempest - Gyurka
Showdown - Willet
Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous - Orym Waesjyre
3Deep 2nd Ed - Otha Fellows
SPLINTER - Ramon Vidal/Buer
Mutant City Blues 2nd Ed - Otto Sherman
Ironclaw - Calixto
Troika! - Wild Bym
Interface Zero 1.0 - Ashvin Patel
Spell the RPG - Whitney "Woody" Woods
City of Mist - Chris Niven
Simple Superheroes - Reid Maples/Requiescat
Fantasy AGE - Marric Roadender
The Wildsea - Charid
Corvid Court - Ramshackle
Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade - Shin Miura
Gravemire - Winthorn "Pep" Pepper
Campfire Memories - Zipper
They Came From the Stars II - Jackie Ionello
Titan Effect - Cameron Cain
Solipstry - Fennel Black
Dead Scare - Marguerite
My Body is a Cage - Jackson Lord
Osiris - Bert
ARC: Doom - Khajeer
Liminal Horror - Calvin Caldwell

Running Out of Time - Jeffery Bryum
Adventures in the East Mark - Ylyndar Zalarus
Monster Care Squad - Farim
Madhouse: A Lockwood's Asylum Roleplaying Game - Philip Zimmerman
Twisted Rifters - Grost the Jailor
Brave New World - Dallas De Bruin/Good Guy (With a Gun)
Hoodoo Blues - Timothy Fabre
No Angels Live Here - Mark Merrill
Figment - Sherbert
The One Ring 2nd Ed - Hamson Whitfoot
Star Crossed - Ralph the Elf
The Troubleshooters - Andrei Ivanovich Yemelynov
Pirates of Pugmire - Crackle of the Four Calls
Visigoths vs. Mall Goths - Twister
Moonpunk - Sil

Good Society - Arthur Northfield
Broken Earth - Manis Hulder
Rockopolis - Christmas Jones
Yarr! - Horst
Witch Girl Adventures - Penny Pickett
Hero Kids - Bertram/Martreb

2023

Brinkwood: The Blood of Tyrants - Brook
a/state - Wain Brass
Spirit of '77 - Father Jack Carmody
Darkest Dice - Ebelle
Sorcerously Advanced - The Many Hands
Stealing Stories for the Devil - Falc
Lord of the Rings - Djili, son of Djor
Death in Space - Butler "Butter" Arnot
Gods & Monsters - Avasarah
Our Haunt - Carhart
Bones Deep - Chovy
Metroville - Winter "Dub" Worthy/Sleet
Briar & Bramble - The Vox Hopuli
SHARP - Norton Bowers

Savage Sisters - Coretmjall
Ouroboros OSR - Fridu
First Responders - Jared Wiese, Impulsive Responder who Controls Beasts
Gun&Slinger - Dee
Boldly Go! - Oom'nitu
Interface Zero 2.0 - Possum
Flashback - Igan Burnswood
Xenopolitan - Mo
Universal Storytelling System - Noel Bryant, PhD
Lightning War - Qud Delzender + Ines & Murrae
Liminal - James "Pac" Pascoe Jr
The Hour Between Dog & Wolf - Shaun Harris
Garden of the Giants - Mulberry
Triune - Idjmael Morizene
Between the Devil & The Deep - Toddy Red
Moth Children - John "Kos" Kostopoulos
Dreampunk - Atticus
First Contact Team - Aliyu Dembe
Punkapocalyptic - Carny Cabbage
Temples & Tombs - Humphrey "Ecks" Eckston
Beat the Boss - Alejandro "Al" Ortega
The Widening Gyre - Ladon
CHOMP! - Scout
Heckin' Good Doggos - Superhero
Squeaks in the Deep - Rickatik Wheelrunner
Invulnerable - Brody Bibb/Smash-Cut
Secrets of the Vibrant Isle - Canniver
Into the Odd - Rontill
Zafir - Rei Amedda
NOVA - Tobias Stratton
Tachyon Squadron - Stephen "Broadside" Kapoor
Kiss My Axe - Harald the Generous
GUTS+ - Carmine Buono
Sleepaway - Diggs
Hieronymus - Nikolas
Print the Legend - Sunday John
Back Again From the Broken Land - Stillan
Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition - Lanos
Operation: Perfect Blue - Pellita
Circle of Hands - Eduard Carter
Arcanum 30th Anniversary Edition - Hylee Mellezho
They Stirred - Corey "Van" Vanter

Stay Alive! - Kim Newton, Guarded vampire Speaker Who Would Rather Be Reading
Pilgrimage of the Sun Guard - Balan the Courteous
R'lyehwatch - Joel Duncan
Free Spacer - Camric "Bestie" Binnell
Age Past: The Incian Sphere - Mata Suunwork
9 Lives to Valhalla - Inky
Arthur Lives! - Frankie Minor
Low Life ReDredged - Silica Gel Do Not Eat
Primal Quest - Ketik
Tide Breaker - Dr. Philip Cairo
In the SSOS - Helod Snout
Yep, That's Me - Burbleburble "Burb" Burble
Galaxies in Peril - Randall Rhodes/Knickknack
Mystic Lilies - Prince Chrysos
Mecha vs. Monsters: Evolved - Shelton Lindgren/Dancer
Big Eyes, Small Mouth 2nd Ed - Bumble
Last Fleet - Colm Montana
Smoke & Glass - Det. Tavik Anderssen
The Well - Scrabble

Drama Llamas - Jackie
Dungeon Crawl Classics - Akitus
Runecairn: Wardensaga - Guðmundr
With Great Power (Master Edition) - Connor Cordette/The Smear
Beyond the Garden Wall & Other Adventures - Arish
Nowhereville - Austin Kellery
The Great American Witch - John Tyler Grant
Apocalypse Prevention, Inc 2nd Ed - Gerlach Mann
Toonpunk - Harry "The Bat" Davis
FantasyCraft - Clay Knollsson
Cthulhu Dark - Giles Carter
Necronautilus - Moth
Never Going Home - William Jones
Blackwood Errantry Codex - Halbert Dietersten
Bean - Kallig
Death Throes - Det. Sigmund Hoff
The Tribe: Humanity's Last Hope - Nolan "Grid" Leger
Cryptomancer - Raimond
Highcaster - Odion Beho
The Curse of the House of Rookwood - Horatio Nelson "Nel" Rookwood
Power of 10 - Bunnel
Raccoon Sky Pirates - Rabies Eddie
Fear of the Unknown - Burt "Kaz" Kaspercyk
Iron Kingdoms - Balhen
Rememorex - Harper Raymond Burchett
Dangerous Times - Leo Quirke
The Gaia Complex - Leroy "The Void" Lejune
Diesel - Flotsam Joe
Marks: A Game for Fools - Mr. Castor
Gods of Metal: Ragnarock - Scott/Lash
The Agency - Sid Arthur
Gods of the Fall - Simplicity Averint, Humble Savior who Speaks Curses, God of Silence
The Very Good Dogs of Chernobyl - Mitya
Vampire: The Dark Ages - Trin
ICONS: Assembled Edition - Gullatat Tawndy/The Encyclopod
Chuuob's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine - Jaime Stabler
Dust Bowl Galaxy - Glowy Bear
Godsend Agenda 1st Ed - Dalton Daley/Cyclone
Eclipse Phase 2nd Ed - Callix
Old Gods of Appalachia - Zebulun Smith, Uncanny Wanderer Who Speaks in Tongues
Things That Go Squeak in the Night - Cagney Flourtail
Mendicant Spell Vixens - Robichaud
Shield Maidens - Yrsa the Flame
Plant Girl Game - Ferox
Hack the Planet - Bowen Laurent/Neither
Werewolf: The Apocalypse 1st Edition - Mikhail Armstrong
Marvel Multiverse RPG - Limit/Landon Lay

2024

Xandoria Galaxies - Cube
Arcanes Majeures - Gibil
Silver Haired Sentinels - Wilbur Hopkins/Captain Cardamom
Realms of the Ancients - Foezar
HârnMaster 3rd Edition - Stellan
Expert Nova - Hubert Coolidge
Dire Roads - Strobror Armorclad
Ghost Club - Terry "Moon" Knight
Valor - Rex Perkins

Amazing Tales - Gristleguts Greencoat
Sprawlrunners - Corman Twill
Hypertellurians - Boetek
In Dark Alleys - Stewart Hudson
Uprising - Umar
Mighty Tiny - Dartan Clover

Warpland - Oort
Sigmata - Marc Cannon/b00g3ym@n
Apocalypse World 2nd Ed - Brian Meats
AC: After Collapse - Tee Albright
Comrades - Ward "Kitten" Kittenden
Carbyne Jungle - Skroob
eCollapse - Neil Murphy/Irish Dog
Battleaxes & Beasties - Wicklow
Blood & Bone - Vikus Thorn
Sufficiently Advanced 2nd Ed - Sing
Judgement Day - Acacius
Bulldogs! - Tor Torgat
Forthright Open Roleplay - Orlos
No Thank You, Evil! - Joe Ckul
Arcology World - Hamilton Banks
Devil's Run - Ted "Boss" Elling
Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion - Ryder Rome/Valor
Winter of the World - Kelv
Darkest Days - Gerrit
Neurocity - Ephraim Gilead
Battle Century G - Keeler Dunne
Strange Voyages - Coen
Esoterica - Sandy Coleman
Cthulhu Stardust - Lee Mendoza
Metagene - Nat Knell/RESCU
Band of Blades - Russet Creeping Wind
Broken Shield - Perry-5
Terra Incognita: The NAGS Society - Clyde Barton
Freedom Squadron - Oren Conaway/Treehugger
Galaxy Prime - S'chellam
Kaiser's Gate - Cecil Lepley
Harsh Generation - Jasiel
John Silence - Leon Moody
Morgalad - Calmactius
Champions Complete - Cole Carson/Blue Veil
Fateforge - Kassemë
Paragon - Dwayne Tucker
Modernity - Ernest "Griff" Griffith
Legacy: Life Among the Ruins 2nd Ed - Lawgivers of the Wasteland/Cooley
Sovereign Stone - De'Puk
Fates Worse Than Death - Wen Lo
Conquest of the Universe - Uml
Interface Zero 3.0 - Comet
The Deryni Adventure Game - Tomos
Asunder - Serrai
One HONK Before Midnight - Squooshy
Between Clouds - Rise
Perils & Princesses - Ellis of Little Thicket
Cthulhu Hack - Cassler Hammond
Synthicide: Sharpers in the Dark - Orsh "Soup" Riggan
World's in Trouble, Must be Tuesday - Augusto Sandoval
Beyonder: The Science of the Six - Squirrel
The Stars are Fire - Yutani Kruse, Mechanical Warrior Who Loves the Void
Ruma: Dawn of Empire - Titus Roscius Felix
The Terminator - Kismet "Kizzie" Denny
Brindlewood Bay - Birdie Sallinger
Bilge - Siberale Groff
Shadow of the Century - B. Mills Tartan
Cartoon Action Hour Season 3 - Lightstone
Dream Askew - Blues
Dream Apart - Khaim
Godsend Agenda 2nd Ed - Esteban Espinoza/The Gila-Man
Here We Used to Fly - Bennett "Ben" O'Connnor
Wanderhome - Arfur
The Devil's Dandy Dogs - Caradin
Swords of the Serpentine - Armano
ink - Dudley
Horror Show - Lance Petula
Scurvy Buggers - Boots Lochlyn
Wearing the Cape - Soren Simons/Rumble
Cocaine Owlbear - Rigley
Far West - Chick Mountainside
Last Night on Earth - Ahmad Johnson
The Last Caravan - Florian Roy
Rebels of the Outlaw Wastes - Socks
Flabbergasted! - Gustav
It's Only Magic - Adam Kasih, Nix Adept who Separates Mind from Body
Agon - Oak-Skinned Sithas, Scion of the Frozen Forest
Infected! - Jordan Terry
Ecopunk 2044 - Olufemi Durotoye
Fight to Survive - Vilen Ivanovich Dubinin
Stingers & Spores - Ilio Gryl
Era: Deadwest - Lonny Huxley
Knight - Laird Raibeart Kerk
Hell Night - Seir
Apparition - Viliam Adrian
Terra Oblivion - Burren Gbwan
The Wassailing of Claus Manor - Sjurd
Relics - Imriel
Locus - Enver Qodirov
Bard RPG - Hannae
Songbirds 3e - Hornet
Velvet Generation - Roland "Dutch" Achterberg
Nest - Nerve
Game of Thrones RPG - Wind
Gobblin' - Oongoos
Fairy Trails - Vale
Eat the Reich - The Parisian
Street Fighter - Vernon "Bud" McCarthy
Nahual - Timoteo "Teo" Román
Holler - Old Bray Noblit
When the Wolf Comes - Flatface

2025

Swords of Meropis - Chysmas
Stars Without Number - Alexander Kapoor
Out of the Ashes - Iakobos Aprena
Fearful Ends - Carey Rush
Part-Time Gods of Fate - Canio Rizetti
Here, There, Be Monsters! - Giv
Dust, Fog & Glowing Embers - Finu Sart
We Are All Mad Here - Blake Underwood, Kind Woodsman who Befriends the Black Dog
B.O.A. - Prettyboy
Necrobiotic - Renato Fiorentino
Extreme Meatpunks Forever - Meninge
Parselings - Anthony Brace
Metahumans Rising - The Good Neighbor/Earl Washington
Aces in Space - Alton Ro/Fretless
Cartomancy - Don Valerio
By This Axe, I Hack! - Brün, Lost Prince of the West
GROK?! - Preteabol "Boll" Almondine, Jr.
Alien - Parker Love
Zam! Pow! Spork! - Sploosh/Chase Chacelli
Bump in the Dark - Curtis Pope
Inevitable - Iceblood Derrit
Vigor: Into Dust - Ishayn Dormell
Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution - Delbert "Del" Farrell
Omen - Teddy Andrews
Cryptid Creeks - Jetsam "Jet" Stafford
Lordsworn - Th'rok the Deeprooted, Aeylon the Fool, and Alisdair the Blessed Thunder
The Hidden Isle - Viorel Baciu
Tidal Blades - Che'u Constello, Honorable Turtle Adept who Absorbs Energy
Slugblaster: Kickflip Over a Quantum Centipede - Armand "Waves" Lambden
The Electric State - Grant Pimer
Mycelium Soup - Skypierce
Renegade City - Gordon Wright
Path of the Aram Thyr - Siadh of the Téaéatha
Ultima Forsan - Enrico Abbandonato
Ganymede Outriders - Snacks
Swyvers - Heard
Upriver, Downriver - Sluice
Rapscallion - Dr. Stain
Once More Into the Void - Emmit Dorne
Black Star - Noj
Era: Balam - Vallo Compton
Hope - Coney
Jukebox - Ax
The W.A.T.C.H. - Aiden Harrell
Longshot City - Elio Enriquez/The Heart of Lightning
Forbidden Lands - Orovald
Defiant - Isheradon 
Catch the Devil - Murray McConnell
Deathmatch Island - Ira Bellamy
Inspirisles - Grey
Fixers from the Floorboards - Latch
Kobolds Ate My Baby! Orange Book - Brap
Unity - Hazam Blackstorm
Voidheart Symphony - Odell Strack
Shadows Over Sol - Jocco Pereira
Moonlight on Roseville Beach - Nai Kits
Be Like a Cat - Nip
Duster - Redeye

Heart: The City Beneath - Raffid 
Pro Patria Mori - Jameson Beard
There And Hack Again - Tourmaline
Luna - Horizon
Sentients - Sully
The Orpheus Protocol - Nelson "Nellie" Bly
Cortex Prime - Meleagros
Garbage & Glory - Jawbry Jones, Sticky-Furred
Wasteland Sagas - Rave
The Mountain Witch - Kinjo Daisuke
Arium - Parran Killjoy
Thrilling Adventures! - Floss
Wilderfeast - Kra Shozhi
Rust & Redemption - Lenny McGrath
Welcome to Slaughterville - Hayden Raleigh
The Means of Magick - Elijah Scanlon
Psychic Kids - Caleb Bachman
Transformers RPG - Tumbler
The Long Road Home - Pollus
The Bleakness - Sahmyis
Mazes - Sursera
Rhapsody of Blood - Richter/The Bright Line
Wine Dark Nights - Kyrylo Chumak
Era: Kaiju - Snuffles
Terrors & Tommyguns - Wilmer Cullin
Emerald Templars - Marwak
Survival of the Able - Cyrille
Passing - River-Dry
Mercenary Breed - Ciks
Cairn 2nd Ed - Yarrow
Corvid Court (Aviary Edition) - Toller
The Island of Dr. Moreau - Salvatore "Sally" Gilardi
Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed - Big Ted McGee
Girl by Moonlight - Talc
One HONK Two Furious - Honktreal
Scofflaws (ORC Edition) - Tommy Braun
Monster Wrangler - Obsidian 
Sentai & Sensibility - Sandford Wilcox
Barbarians of Lemuria - Diallo
Root the RPG - Rillinton
Adventure Maximus! - Archie the Sparklemancer