Character Creation: Vow of Honor

Gotta do something while the ratatouille simmers, and this one's pretty quick.

The Game: Vow of Honor
The Publisher: Sigil Stone Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Never played this, but system-wise it's very much like Belly of the Beast, which I have played
Books Required: Just the one

So in Vow of Honor, you play an Arbiter, a kind of wanderer monk/warrior/priest/teacher belonging to the Order of Fasann. The world of Sasara is peopled by refugees(?) from Earth, or rather their descendants, and like Belly of the Beast the world is described evocatively enough that I can picture it and want to run games there, but not in such exhaustive detail that this is a D&D book and therefore boring. 

Reading the game, there's a kind of Dogs in the Vineyard vibe to it, inasmuch as your characters are tightly bound by a moral code and recognized as authority, but the Arbiter's authority isn't taken as given in-setting. Most common folk look up to them and trust them, sure, but the ruling classes, such as they are, are as self-serving as ever, and although Compassion is a core virtue of the Order, sometimes you just gotta cut a motherfucker. 

With that in mind, let's make an Arbiter. I'm gonna take a little inspiration from Beowulf and a little from, uh, Creature from the Black Lagoon, I guess.

My character is Ahmav, the son of a fisherman who lived on the edge of Tasali Lake (Tasali being the settlement that's described in the book). Ahmav's father cast nets for fish, but also made traps for crabs, and as Ahmav grew older he got good at diving down to get the traps. His father would dive with him, of course, but less as he got older (lungs won't hold air like they used to). 

One year, fishermen around the lake started disappearing. The prevailing wisdom was choppy waters (the weather was harsh that year), but then Ahmav started hearing rumors about beautiful women luring divers to their doom. Ahmav's father brushed these rumors off, but then one day as Ahmav and his father were diving to empty their traps, they saw it - a voluptuous shape in the weeds, beckoning. Ahmav's father followed it. Ahmav was slightly further away and so had time to see the adabhuta (flesh-eating monsters from the wastelands) rip his father to pieces. 

Ahmav fled, and told his story to anyone who would listen, which was basically no one until he met an Arbiter. The Arbiter sent him to an Enclave for safety's sake, and Ahmav wound up completing the training and becoming an Arbiter himself. He has no idea if the monster in the lake was ever caught, and no idea what became of the Arbiter who listened to him and comforted him. 

There, good start. So now I do Skills. Skills are Exemplary, Good, Average, or Poor (affecting what the target number on the dice is). I feel like the Standard array is fine, which would give me one Exemplary, one Good, five Average, and one Poor. 

Well, I think I'll put my Poor into Logic. Book learnin' ain't really Ahmav's thing. I'll make Stealth Average; he can sneak around a little but he's not a great liar. Influence and Awareness, likewise, can be Average, as can Knowledge. That leaves Coordination, Might, and Resistance. I think I'll put my last Average in Coordination, and make Resistance Good and Might Exemplary.

Now I get a Talent, which is basically just some trait that provides a bonus to any Skill, if the situation warrants. I think I'll take Crafter. Ahmav helped his dad make nets and traps, and he's translated that skill to other avenues since becoming an Arbiter.

I need to pick two of the five Tenets of the Order to be Oathsworn, which just means I get extra Honor if I uphold them (and lose extra if I don't). I'll take Purity (Ahmav feels that an Arbiter could have resisted the monster's charms if he was sufficiently pure) and Understanding (not enough effort was made to understand what was happening at the lake, with tragic results). I get a Maneuver from each of those, then, which don't have titles, so I'll take that one and that one. 

And that's it, actually! Ahmav is young, tanned, and has coarse black hair. He has cautious eyes, and tends to fidget when things get tense. He wears a necklace under his tunic, made from shells he collected with his father as a boy. He doesn't normally carry a weapon, as he's pretty committed to the non-violent part of his Order, but he's fully capable of throwing down if he needs to and he's all lean muscle. 

That'll do it!

Movie 633: Death on the Nile

Death on the Nile is a movie adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel of the same name, starring Peter Ustinov, David Niven, Maggie Smith, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury, George Kennedy, Lois Chiles, Jane Birkin, Olivia Hussey, Jon Finch, and Simon MacCorkindale. There's a new version coming out in 2022, assuming the studio figures out whether they'll have to CGI Armie Hammer out. 

Hercule Poirot (Ustinov), the world's greatest detective, is traveling through Egypt and winds up on a steamship heading down the Nile, along with his friend Colonel Race (Niven). Also in attendance are newlyweds Simon Doyle (MacCorkindale) and Linnet (Chiles), and, unbeknownst to them, Simon's former fiancee and Linnet's former friend, Jackie (Farrow). True to Christie's style, we also have a host of colorful characters who, it turns out, all have various connections to Linnet, which pretty much means she's fucked. And indeed, Jackie drunkenly shoots Simon in the leg, is shot up with morphine and kept under watch all night, but Linnet winds up dead of a gunshot wound to the head.

The rest of the movie is Hercule Poirot (or "Hercules Porridge", as Angela Lansbury's delightfully drunk author Salome Otterbourne calls him) unraveling the mystery, determining the hidden connections between everyone, and eventually solving the murder(s). 

With the Kenneth Branagh version coming out soon (hopefully), it's worthwhile to compared his Poirot to Ustinov's. Both of them are proud Belgians and proud mustache owners, but Michelle and I started referring to Ustinov as "funny Poirot" and Branagh as "action Poirot." The tone of this version versus the upcoming, just based on the trailer, is very different - there are near-constant comedic elements in the 1978 version, while the 2022 trailer has Poirot claiming that this case has "altered the shape of [his] soul" (which, like, OK, but after Murder on the Orient Express you'd think that'd take some doing). 

But even for all the comedy, the movie doesn't shy away from violence - we actually see people dying of getting their throats cut or getting shot in the head, and it's kind of jarring in a good way. The murders seem shocking, and in a murder mystery that's somewhat hard to pull off. 

My biggest complaint about this movie is the portrayal of the manager of the Karnak (I. S. Johar). The actor is Indian, the character (I assume) is meant to be Egyptian, and he kind of scampers around saying "oh, goody gumdrops!" and otherwise being comic relief. He's present during the big reveal scene, and I was actually half expecting him to be implicated or suspected in some way, but he comes off as a caricature, more set dressing than person. 

Otherwise, though, it's a fun murder mystery and contains some great performances from very talented people. 

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: The Invisible Man (2020)

Young Centurions: A One-Shot in Two Sessions

So not a one-shot at all, really. (What happened was that it was meant to be a one-shot and then it got late and people got crashy 'cause we're fuckin' old and we decided to schedule another session to finish it. So here we go.)

Young Centurions is a Fate Accelerated game (I made a character here) that acts as a kind of precursor to Spirit of the Century. The characters are teenage "Spirits" of the new century (that is, the 20th), just coming into their roles as pulp heroes. Our game is set in 1915, and our titular Young Centurions have more in common than just a birthday. They also all survived the sinking of the Titanic! They are:

• Leigh Biddle, the Spirit of Exploration. Leigh is from Ireland and was a Lucky Stowaway on the Titanic ("lucky" inasmuch as they were sleeping in a lifeboat when shit went down, and so was able to snag a seat to escape). Leigh's biggest problem is that they often have their Head In the Clouds. 
• Michael "Mickey" Browne, the Unsinkable Spirit of Grit. Mickey is from London, and like Leigh, stowed away on the ship. When the ship started to sink and everyone panicked, he was well served by being a Bad Slow Thinker, Good Faster Thinker and getting people and himself into a lifeboat. 
• Clide Edwin "CB" Badley, the Spirit of Work. CB was employed on the Titanic, first as a coal trimmer, then in a crow's nest. No matter where he is, CB always has his Nose to the Millstone, but that didn't help him the night the ship went down - the fog was too thick to see the iceberg. What he did see was the panic and death that the sinking brought, because You Can See Further from the Top. 
• Penelope Rossen-Jones, the Freewheeling Spirit of Revolution. Penelope was traveling first class (her mother is Prussian, her father American, but both have money). Her unflappable attitude - What's the Worst That Could Happen? - was put the to the test when she tried and Was Prevented from Giving Up Her Seat in a Lifeboat. Since returning to the US, she has become a firm advocate for women's suffrage. 

The characters scattered to the winds after arriving in New York in 1912. Penelope went home to Chicago with her family. CB and Mickey took work on the railroads and headed west, although they went their separate ways when work took Mickey in a different direction. Leigh wandered west and wound up in Iowa. For the most part, these folks don't know each other: Mickey and CB worked together a bit, and Mickey had see Leigh around the ship and recognized a fellow stowaway, but otherwise they're strangers. 

And now, in 1915, approaching the three-year anniversary of the disaster, a mysterious German man named Werner Hoffmann approaches each of them and asks them to accompany him on a train to Chicago, for a "reunion" of sorts. The train pulls into Chicago and picks up Mickey and, finally, Penelope, and all five characters get to know each other.

Five? Yes, the fifth is a very pretty and charming girl named Dobra Meyer. Dobra and Penelope immediately start chatting in a very polite and upper class kind of way; Dobra is living in New York and was adopted by a daughter of the prominent de Acosta family (look up the family, it's well worth your time. Start with Aida). Hearing this actually compels Leigh to emerge from the luggage rack they'd been hanging out on and asking about Aida (Dobra's aunt), who was the first woman to pilot a motorized airship some years back. 

As the conversation dies down, Penelope asks where Herr Werner is, and Dobra says that he'll be in when he's ready. This isn't good enough for Penelope, so she goes looking for him, and finds him in another car writing on a chalkboard and muttering to himself in German. She knocks and startles him and he pulls down a cloth over the chalkboard, and tells her that he'll join them all in a few minutes. Penelope leaves, but lingers to watch him through the window, and sees what's on the chalkboard - some large concentric circles with numbers and connected lines, and the numbers 12 4 12 written in a corner. 

Penelope returns to the others and, true to his word, Werner joins them. He sits down and explains that they'll be pulling to a stop soon and then some reporters are going to ask them some questions, but that they don't have to answer anything they don't want to. If they want him to intervene, they just have to tap a foot and he'll "rescue" them. Dobra seems ecstatic about talking to the press, and Penelope is likewise excited (she has a cause to advance, after all), while Leigh is terrified and CB and Mickey are shy and indifferent. 

The train pulls up to a platform and the characters disembark, Dobra and Penelope waving and everyone else kind of shuffling. Werner speaks to the reporters and tells them that these remarkable young people survived one of the worst disasters this century has shown them (he ain't seen nothing yet, of course), and they'll answer questions, but please, be respectful. He then steps back and lets the reporters step up.

The reporters fire questions at the characters and they answer as best they can, for the most part. Leigh taps their foot almost immediately and Werner steps in and asks the reporters not to ask Leigh more questions - they don't do well with crowds. The press turns its attention to the others. Mickey admits to being a stowaway and thanks White Star Lines for not pressing the matter, and CB gets a good response from his experiences actually working on the ship and being a lookout. 

Dobra, however, just comes to life when the press starts talking to her, and she quickly steers the conversation to her life in New York. Penelope, who is beginning to suspect something is very off about Dobra's story, steals her thunder and guides the conversation to suffrage. Dobra tries to take back the spotlight, but Leigh, recognizing Dobra as an Adopted New York Socialite, wipes some cookie crumbs on her dress and when Dobra takes a second to clean them off, Penelope well and truly fires up the crowd. 

Werner hustles them all back onto the train and it starts moving again. Mickey asks when they're going to eat, and Werner says that they will disembark soon and go and get supper, at which point he has something important to discuss with them all. At this point, CB hears the train start to make a weird noise and realizes that the wheels aren't holding the tracks - the train is going to derail!

He warns the others and everyone braces as best they can. The train does indeed derail and their car rolls down an embankment and lands upside down. No one is hurt - CB's warning ensured that - except for Werner, who is unconscious. Dobra stays by his side and tries to revive him, and Penelope tries to see how badly she's hurt, but as she was Born With a Silver Spoon in Her Mouth she's unaccustomed to the sight of blood and turns away. 

Leigh, however, has been living on their own for years and is something of a Self-Taught Medic, and realizes that Werner has a pretty nasty bump on his head, but he's in no immediate danger. Leigh also notes that Werner's pocketwatch has fallen out of his pocket and helpfully puts it back, and realizes that the etching on the fob is a numerologist chart - Werner is a Meticulous German Numerologist. CB and Mickey work on getting out - Mickey finds weak points in the windows that CB can kick out, and the characters crawl out of the car, bringing Werner along with them. 

The scene outside is chaos, of course, and CB grabs Mickey and heads for the boiler - if the pressure isn't shut down it could explode. Penelope climbs back into the car to try and find Werner's papers and maybe get a sense of where they were going. She finds his satchel and brings it outside, and starts looking through it for a letter or a schedule or something. 

She doesn't find that, but what she does find is information on all five of them, including birth records (where they exist), testimonials from family and people who knew them growing up, and a list of survivors of the Titanic with dates next to the names. The date next to her name is 1/1/1900 - her birthday, and it's the same for CB, Leigh, Mickey, and Dobra. None of this is helpful in the immediate, though, so she closes up the satchel and tries to get help. 

Meanwhile, CB and Mickey head down to the boiler, and spot a man coming out of it. CB calls after him and asks about the boiler, and he gives a noncommittal noise. CB, Older Than He Should Be, senses something off about this guy (he's a Cheap Hood) and confronts him, but the guy brushes him off and absconds into the city. They check the boiler and the pressure is indeed turned down, so there's no danger. Mickey finds a pair of gloves (cheap leather, not work gloves) and a crumbled up piece of paper. The paper has a diagram of the valve one would need to turn to alter the pressure, with arrows drawn to indicate how to turn it down. Seems like someone wanted to make sure the boiler didn't explode.

The press arrives and they zero in on Dobra and Leigh. Leigh freezes up again, but Dobra plays them masterfully, answering questions and fawning over Werner. Penelope heads back and CB and Mickey arrive at about the same time that an ambulance pulls up. Penelope tries to get the attendants to listen about figuring out where they were going and getting whoever's waiting on them a message, but they're more interested in getting Werner the help he needs and just tell them all to get in. Dobra graciously stays behind to talk to the press and says she'll catch up later.

In the ambulance, the characters talk about what they've learned. Werner wakes up briefly, and tells them that the plan was to go to the stately home of a friend of his for supper, but it's too dangerous now. He tells them that he'd seen something bad coming - the train derailment - but that he hadn't known exactly what until it was too late. Now he needs the characters to find out how it happened before they go to his friend's house, lest they lead whoever was responsible there. He passes out again, but not before telling them that he has every confidence in them - they are, after all, the spirits of the new century. 

The characters disembark at the hospital and CB goes and buys them some sandwiches, so they can eat while they talk. Penelope brings up the information that she found and shows them ("huh, I was born in Cork," says Leigh), and they realize they all seem to have the same birthday. Does that mean anything? Not to them, but it would to a numerologist. None of that helps in the short term, though, because what they need is a way to learn about the train crash. 

Leigh employs their Century Stunt (Infallible Sense of Direction) and suggests they head back to the crash site. There, they look around at the length of track and Leigh discovers a section of Bent Track, which CB then examines and realizes that someone pounded it out of shape with hammers. So the derailment was intentional - but why? 

CB grabs a local and asks about train schedules, and learns that this particular section of track is used throughout the day. In fact, there was another train on it only a couple of hours before. That means that someone sabotaged the track today, specifically to hit this train, but that the train wouldn't have been going very fast when it hit, which minimized the damage. Was it to delay them getting to their destination? Penelope notes that a train derailment would certainly get a lot of attention...and who do they know that likes attention? 

CB talks to a local sausage vendor and learns that three men were indeed working on the railroad earlier to-the-live-long-day, but they weren't dressed like railroad workers usually were. Cheap suits and hats, they had on. Also, she recognized one of them as a local hood that everyone calls "Thick Stan". Stan, or Stanislaus, is a Slav and a bully, a thug, and not someone you want to cross. CB asks where to find him, and Mary (the sausage vendor) tells him about a dive bar a few blocks over, but only so he can avoid it. 

So obviously the characters start heading over there, Mickey giving them a little pep talk to rally them. To Mickey, after all, there's Only One Direction: Forward. 

Next time, we'll see where that forward motion takes them!

Movie #632: Annihilation

Annihilation is a sci-fi/horror movie directed by Alex Garland and starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, and Oscar Isaac. 

Lena (Portman) is a former soldier, current biologist and professor mourning the loss of her husband Kane (Isaac), who went on a mission for the Army a year ago and never returned. And then suddenly he walks into the house, but has no memory of what happened and is very ill. En route to the hospital, jackbooted government thugs take Lena and Kane to a secret facility called Area X, and a creepy-as-hell psychologist named Ventress (Leigh) tells her what's going on. There's a ever-growing barrier nicknamed "the Shimmer" encompassing part of the nearby wetlands, and no one who's gone in has come out...except Kane. Ventress puts together another squad to go in, consisting of herself, physicist Josie (Thompson), paramedic Anya (Rodriguez), and geomorphologist Cass Sheppard (Tuva Novotny). In the Shimmer, they die one by one, until Lena is left and she faces the nigh-Lovecraftian "truth" at the lighthouse at the center of the Shimmer. 

Now, that's really glossing over the strongest part of the movie, where the five women explore the Shimmer and realize that it's changing everything, including them. We also gradually learn that all five of them have damage and aren't just doing this out of scientific curiosity; Ventress is dying of cancer, Sheppard lost her daughter to leukemia, etc. The greater theme here is self-destruction and the human urge to burn down everything around them, whether it be through substance abuse, infidelity, or just reckless behavior. 

I remember this movie getting some early Oscar buzz when it first came out, and then it bombed at the box office, which is unfortunate because it really deserved better. The performances are spot-on, and subtle, because it really takes a watch or two before everything sinks in. The movie doesn't explain much - why does the Lena-double burn down the lighthouse? Why do Lena's eyes shimmer at the end when she embraces Kane (rather, the alien doppelganger of Kane)? Hell, even Kane's reason for committing suicide isn't explicit, but basically seems to cook down to "he couldn't handle what he found in the lighthouse and he broke."

I tend to put movies into RPG context because that's just how my brain works, and this one fits best, I think, with Trail of Cthulhu. The slow descent into truth and the struggle with maintaining "sanity" in the face of that unremitting, horrifying truth is there, it's palpable, and the cast does an amazing job bringing various responses to that struggle to life. Much like Ex Machina, Garland's previous film, Annihilation hits differently the second time I've seen it, which is a good thing. 

My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: Death on the Nile

Slipstream: Poisoned Lions

Finally managed to play Slipstream again; here's last time. 

The heroes arrive on Simba, the fragment-home of the Lion Men, and meet with Lord Raoor, father of Lady Raoora, whom the characters aided in battle way back here. Lord Raoor asks to here that story, and Zeenia explains what happened in a very honest and modest way, being sure to call out Lady Raoora's bravery. Lord Raoor thanks them, and gives them each a ring with his insignia. Lion Men, he says, will respect them if they wear this symbol. And now the feast!

The characters watch Lion Man entertainment (jumping through hoops, maybe?) and eat, drink, and make merry...but then a bunch of Anathraxan warships scream into the atmosphere, trailing purple dust. A horde of Primals pour out of one, and their captain screams that for refusal to pay tribute to Queen Anathraxa, their planet will be poisoned and their menfolk taken to the Queen!

Iris stands up on the table, grabs some cutlery (because of course the characters aren't wearing their weapons to dinner) and screams her battle cry. She launches herself towards the Primals, and several of the Lion Men attended Raoor do the same. Oola drops back and tries to summon more help, and Zeenia activates her natural coloration and turns invisible, hoping to sneak up on the captain.

The Primals do battle with the Lion Men, trying to shackle them to take them prisoner. One of the Lion Men, a young warrior named Parda takes down several Primals by himself, but the Primals are mighty and manage to capture a few. Zeenia spots a couple of them heading for Lord Raoor, and her heroic nature gets the better of her - she slips up behind them and pummels them with her tentacles (which doesn't hurt them as much as she'd like, but it does give Oola a chance to pull Raoor to safety). 

Iris, meanwhile, faces down the Primal captain, but he effortlessly wounds her with his sword and then, when she won't go down, shoots her with his ray gun. Oola rushes out to help her and manages to get her back on her feet, on the way tossing Zeenia her sword. Iris draws her gun off Oola and shoots the Primal captain, who is perhaps a little amazed at Iris' tenacity, but does not return fire or engage. In fact, he heads back to his ship. Iris vows to remember him. 

Zeenia kills the Primal she's facing off against and goes to help Raoor. She gets to him in time for him to ask her to cure the Death Dust and save his people. He tells to her try...some kind of pit, she has a hard time hearing him. 

The battle dies down and the characters reconvene. Zeenia relays what Raoor said, and they all think about it, and then chorus "Sandpit!" Sandpit is a fragment on the other side of the Slipstream, and a few years ago it was dosed with Death Dust. Oola happens to know a merchant there who's been trying to import seeds and goods, so the Tropicos (as the locals are called) are apparently trying to rebuild.

They return to their ship and Zeenia tries to contact her father, but transmissions are being blocked by the Anathraxan warships. The characters check around and realize that the Lion Men are sickened from the dust (but they aren't, meaning it must be targeted to the Lion race) and there are Primals occupying the Tribal Council. Iris points out that there's not much they can do here, but they decide to take a Lion Man with them so they can administer a cure as a test (once they have one). They find Parda, wounded and ill but still alive, in a makeshift field hospital and get him back to their ship. 

Oola disguises their ship so it'll pass as an Anathraxan and they manage to talk their way past the blockade ("Prisoner transfer." "There's not a transfer scheduled." "Um, special delivery"). They head towards Sandpit to try and figure this horrible mystery out...but it's a long trip. Anything could happen on the way!

Board Game: Horrified

I don't mean the game is horrified, but the game is Horrified. 

The Game: Horrified
The Publisher: Ravensburger Games
Time: Maybe an hour? Didn't feel like that long
Players: Me, Michelle, Sarah, Megan

"We're the Monster Squad."

Game Play: Horrified is a cooperative game in which you try to "defeat" (everyone gets "defeated" not "drained of blood" or "eaten by a goddamn werewolf") various Universal Monsters. You choose your enemies as part of the game, and you can pretty much pick any combination, though the game identifies a "challenging" game as four different monsters. We played with two, the suggested first-game combo of Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Kind of a surf n' turf sort of arrangement. 

Setup

The game has a lot of components, but much like other games where the object and antagonist varies from play to play (Arkham Horror, Betrayal at House on the Hill) you don't use everything in every game. Players pick characters, but the only differences between them seem to be how many actions a turn they get and their "special ability." I don't know if the special abilities all involve moving from location to location with your character, but all of the ones we had did. Mine, for instance, can get placed on any non-water space (which is basically anywhere on the board), which is pretty badass, but I had one fewer action than the others, presumably as a balancing measure. 

Players move around the board and pick up items (those colorful chip-like things in the photo), and when a monster attacks you, you can expend items to absorb the hits. If you can't, you're defeated, and wake up at the hospital on your next turn. No harm, no foul, you don't even lose any items your carrying, but the Terror Track increases and it's only got six spaces. If it hits the end, the monsters win. 

There are also villagers, that get added to the board as part of the monster's turn. They're all trying to get somewhere (aren't we all?) but if the monsters intercept them, they "defeat" them (om nom nom) and the Terror Track goes up. Players can guide them and if the monster hits a space with a player and a villager, it goes for the player, so if you think ahead you can get around them. 

Each monster has a defeat condition. For Drac, we had to smash his coffins and then smash him. For the Creature, we had to advance a boat along his track (with all the colored Xs in that picture) and then beat him on land. "Beating" said monsters involves expending items of a given color; that's pretty much what the players have to do in order to do anything. 

Climactic final confrontation with the Creature

Opinions: First of all, the instructions were perfect. Easy to read, easy to follow, and rules were where they logically should be. All of the questions we had during the game were things that were actually addressed. I'm totally buying more Ravensburger games.

As for the game itself, we really enjoyed it. It's bright, it's colorful, it's got strategy but not so many moving parts and sub-systems that players with focus issues get lost, and it moves fast enough that you don't get bored between turns. Playing with four players against these two monsters wasn't much of a challenge - like, I don't think we were ever in real danger of losing and the Terror Track never got higher than 3 or so - but it's easy to see how adding one more monster would steepen the difficulty curve considerably. 

The game is in the style of Arkham Horror or Pandemic, but it's more forgiving at the basic level and a hell of a lot less complicated, so that's nice. 

Keep? Yep

Cairn: Winter and Worm Squirts

You know, I really enjoy Cairn, but every now and again I'm reminded that the game came from a Kickstarter campaign that was, to use a technical term, something of a clusterfuck. There is some evidence that it just wasn't playtested especially well (like, there don't seem to be any rules for regaining Magic Points). But for all that, I really like the game and I especially enjoy the focus on maintaining the town. 

Anyway, today we played Cairn and dealt with our first winter. That means all of Cairn's stats go down by one, and then I had to roll on the Winter table. 

So, during the winter, an illness spread through the town (how very topical). The illness, which originated with the moles, and more specifically with diseased worms (maybe a fungus), causes intestinal distress, confusion, and dehydration. The inhabitants of Cairn call it the "worm squirts." 

Russelet and the other bats withdraw and go to high ground, and avoid it. Snootabur, a worm farmer herself, quarantines so as to avoid her stock getting sick. Rumdiggle and Ratatosk both catch the illness, but come through it OK. Ratatosk spends much of the winter making potions (there's a rumor that sassafras tea cures the worm squirts, but Ratatosk hasn't managed to prove that). Rummy works on new songs, Snootabur draws maps of their adventures, and Russelet carves game pieces and start working on a new game.

Spring eventually comes, the town thaws, and the inhabitants of town emerge. The characters get together and head out into the woods to go wake up Desayd the dryad, as they promised. Russelet suggests bringing some compost to spread on her roots, too.

The characters head into the woods and arrive at the tree. Rummy plays a song and Snootabur spreads the compost on the ground, and Desayd emerges from the tree and stretches. She chats with the characters and thanks them for waking her. Ratatosk asks if there are any good mushrooms around (he's trying to find mushrooms to bring to Ripark, as discussed during the last adventure), and Desayd tells him that a tree fell during the winter and probably has some interesting fungus. 

The characters head over to the tree, and Ratatosk scampers around picking mushrooms. Russelet flies up to a tree and lights his pipe, while Snootabur keeps watch and Rummy practices her new songs. 

Suddenly, they see a young squirrel running along the forest floor. She's running with a limp and clearly terrified, and the characters look up and see why - there's a daggerbeak (hawk) bearing down on her. Snootabur and Russelet quickly fire arrows (Snoot misses, Russ hits), but the hawk keeps coming. But then Rumdiggle springs into action.

She clutches her ripper and stripefang totems, and calls upon her magic as a shifter. She pulls the little squirrel behind her and grows bulkier, and a black stripe appears on her head. The hawk sees this and barrels away in terror, and the squirrel clings to Rummy and weeps. 

Ratatosk recognizes the squirrel - her name is Oyalla Quickbough and she and her family live in trees a little ways away from Cairn. Oyalla tells the characters that this hawk was been terrorizing her family - they haven't been able to get to one of their storehouse trees. She asks for help, and the characters agree. Oyalla invites them back to her family's tree to meet her mother. 

"Are there stairs?" asks Rummy.

Character Creation: Deadlands Noir

Got a little while before Cairn tonight, and Savage Worlds characters are hella quick, so:

The Game: Deadlands Noir
The Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Degree of Familiarity: Some. I played a game of it at a con some years back, I've run and played Deadlands pretty extensively, and of course Savage Worlds is pretty easy
Books Required: Deadlands Noir and some version of the Savage Worlds core rules

Deadlands Noir fast-forwards the Deadlands Reloaded setting to the 1930s and narrows the focus to New Orleans. It also puts a lot of emphasis on being a detective and solving mysteries, which really puts the genre closer to hard-boiled than noir, but whatever (and honestly, it's a distinction suitable mostly for pedantry). Having now read the book, I have a better grip on the progression from Deadlands than when I played it. One thing I didn't see addressed much, though, was the fact that in-setting, the Civil War didn't end with the Confederacy losing, and New Orleans is still very much part of the CSA. Now, slavery was abolished in-setting, though there's not much said about that in Noir and I don't feel like digging through other books to figure it out. I just think that to set a game in the Confederacy, which only came about because the South won their war to keep people enslaved (oh, I'm sorry, did you think it was about state's rights?) and then not examine all that a bit is something of a missed opportunity. But perhaps on brand for Savage Worlds, which is generally not where one goes for that kind of roleplaying. 

Well, anyway, I think I want to make a grifter, this game's answer to hucksters. Hucksters, in-setting, have been basically hunted down and exterminated (it'd be interesting to run a pick-up of my old Deadlands game and examine what became of Nikolai, but that's a musing for another time). Grifters, unlike hucksters, pay the otherworldly spirits that enable their magic by indulging in vice. I don't want to make a drunk, I hate smokers in general, and I don't want to make a grifter addicted to something like lying or gambling. Fortunately, laudanum was still very much available in the 1930s, and I'm sure that an enterprising fellow could get his hands on it, even if it wasn't the cure-all that it was purported to be previously. 

Woo, big paragraphs for a SW character. Let's get into it! 

Race is human, natch. Traits, I'm gonna put bump everything to d6 and be boring about it, but I want this guy to be a pretty good all-rounder (might raise Spirit, though). 

Skills, I need to put at least a d4 into Spellcasting. I'll put a d6 in there for now. I'll put a d4 into Driving, Investigation, and Persuasion, and a d6 into Fighting, Gambling, Shooting, Stealth, and Streetwise. 

Skipping over  derived traits, because they go at the end, FFS. Hindrances! There's one in the Noir book called Corrupt, and that calls to me. I'll take Obligation and say that his mother also lives in New Orleans and is unwell, so he takes care of her. I still need a Major, though. Hmm. Night Terrors or Yellow? I think Night Terrors.

Doing a little background, we'll say that Johannes Keller was born in 1910 in Dodge City, KS. His father died shortly before he was born, and his mother, Irma, took sick when he was a boy. He started sampling her laudanum when he was a teenager, and got involved in some unfortunate criminal enterprises thereafter. 

Johannes was involved in a heist that went spectacularly wrong. The vault that he and the others broke into contained money, sure, but it also contained a horrible undead creature, locked away to protect the populace (supposedly by Wyatt Earp, but who really knows). Johannes was the only one to survive, and he still has nightmares about it. He packed up his mother and moved to New Orleans, figuring that the money he'd stolen would last. It might have, but he spent a lot on laudanum, booze, and pleasant company, and now he's doing whatever he can to make ends meet. Oh, and he goes by "John Kelly" now.

As for where he learned the grift, he doesn't actually remember. He just kind of started doing it, and he figures he must have learned from someone, but maybe when he was really off his head? He tries not to think about that too much. 

OK, cool. So now I get a free Edge, and then the "points" from my Hindrances. I'll take Arcane Background (Grifter), a-doy. I'll spend 2 and bump Spellcasting to d8 (I don't want to raise my Smarts because I don't feel like Johannes is especially smart), and I'll spend the other 2 to buy Notice d4 and Lockpicking d4. Nifty!

Oh, I get three powers. Hmm. I'll take...blind, succor, and smite. I like that he has a "healing" spell that doesn't actually heal, just makes you feel better. 

Johannes is a kind of small fellow, thin and weedy. He wears his hat pulled low and he has exactly one suit, which he overpaid for when he got to New Orleans. He carries a revolver in his jacket pocket, and always has at least a bottle of laudanum on him. 

And that'll do it!

Character Creation: Dialect

Talking about language is called "metalinguisitics," and talking about metalinguistics is called...metametalinguistics, I suppose? Turtles all the way down, man.

The Game: Dialect
The Publisher: Thorny Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, and also the card deck, I think

Dialect is one of the games that I initially had on my "project excluded" list. The game looks really cool, but I wasn't sure that it had a chargen system that worked for this project (much like Fiasco and similar games). But then I took it with me to...the dentist, I think, while one of my kiddos was getting stuff done, and read through it, and lo and behold it does have a chargen system! On we go!

OK, so making a character requires that we have an Isolation (a setting, basically), and there are a bunch in the book. However, the one that's really fleshed out is the one used in the running example of play (insert whatever heart emoji is most appropriate here), so I'm gonna make a character for that one. It's a Mars mission that's been cut off from Earth, there's big ol' sandstorms, and long-haul trucking runs. It's a pretty cool setup, actually. 

So my Facilitator would normally deal out three cards, so I'll do that (and remove the ones that the examples players chose). I got Protector, Celebrity, and Magician. Hmm. I believe I shall go with Magician. 

So, I pick one of the Aspects to identify with. Said Aspects are: Martian Sandstorms, Space Freight Truckers, and We Are Running From Our Past. I think I want my character to be a kind of quasi-priest or shaman. He's been known to stand in the sandstorms without a helmet, just a rebreather, and listen to the winds. He claims to be able to suss out which way the storms are going to head and how long before the next one, which most people think is absolute bunk, but he's right often enough that sometimes folks come to ask his advice. Clearly, I'm identifying with the Martian Sandstorms Aspect. 

After that, I'd do an Introduction, which is basically explaining my character's name (including a name that only a few people use), his role in the Isolation, and how he feels about the Aspects. 

So I'm going to say that most of the Isolation calls him Old Man or the Weatherman. He doesn't use his real name and no one knows it (we're all running from our past, after all). Some folks, the folks who believe he really can predict the storms, call him Crow (short for Stormcrow, maybe? Maybe it's his name?). 

Old Man's role in the Isolation is pretty much what I've said. He takes stupid chances with the weather and somehow he's still alive (though I'm gonna say he's blind, so when he goes into the storm it's with his eyes open). He's a good campfire story for the long-haul truckers, too. I think one of the questions about him is: Does he really believe in his "powers?" If this is all some kind of con, then what's the endgame? 

Old Man is weathered, scarred, and stooped. He manages to stand up in storms (so they say), but otherwise he walks slowly and with a hunch in his back. His eyes have the worst of the scarring, and he wears a cloth over his eyes around town so as not to upset people. He's missing most of his teeth and his hair is matted; he doesn't like to let anyone cut it. 

I think that's it!

Movie #631: Scooby-Doo

Scooby-Doo is a comedy based on the cartoon, obviously, and starring Matthew Lillard, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Linda Cardellini, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Neil Fanning, Rowan Atkinson, Isla Fisher, and Scott Innes. James Gunn wrote the screenplay before Guardians of the Galaxy propelled him to his current heights. 

The movie starts off in a typical night for Mystery, Inc. - the sleuths are crashing around a toy factory after the mysterious "Luna Ghost" (who it turns out was just doing it to get close to the factory's owner, Pamela Anderson). Velma (Cardellini) gets frustrated with Fred (Prinze Jr) taking credit for her ideas, Daphne (Gellar) is sick of being the damsel in distress, and Fred is just something of a narcissist, so they all quit, leaving Shaggy (Lillard) and Scooby (Fanning) to their own devices. 

Some time later, the gang is called back together by the owner of Spooky Island, Emil Mondavarious (Atkinson), because college students are arriving at his theme-park island drunk and rowdy and returning mean, sober, and speaking in some kind of faux 90s slang. The team sets to work (initially separately, but they get back together pretty quickly, which is just as well) and it turns out that the real villain is Scrappy-Doo (Innes).

I really enjoy this movie, mostly because I grew up watching Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? on Saturday mornings. The movie manages to hit the same sorts of notes as the cartoon, but pokes gentle fun at the tropes and earns the runtime (rather than being a 20 minute cartoon stretched into a movie). The actors manage to embody their characters with some tension and emotion, while keeping the over-the-top silliness appropriate to cartoons come to life, so that's fun. The standout for me is Lillard, nailing it as Shaggy, although Cardellini is also perfect as Velma (but I'm kinda a fan of hers anyway). 

So what of the story? Michelle hates that they included Scrappy at all; I think it's fine because they made him the villain. I'm glad he's not in it more than he is, and the flashback where we're introduced to him is a little forced, but that actually has the effect of making it seem like just a gag rather than foreshadowing. 

There's apparently a cut of the movie that's actually R-rated, and the studio went family-friendly...and the movie has 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, so who knows. But it was also successful enough to merit a sequel and launch Gunn's career as a screenwriter (this was his first studio film), and I personally find it really fun, so who knows. 

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: High

Next up: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Character Creation: Hood

Tally-ho! Forsooth! For yon, Chevy Chase!

The Game: Hood: Swashbuckling Adventures in Sherwood
The Publisher: Fearlight Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, hey nonny nonny

Hood is from the same company as Baker Street, and has a similar setup. The characters are Merry Men, part of Robin's company, and the game explicitly takes its inspiration from the Erroll Flynn/Douglas Fairbanks portrayal of Robin Hood, rather than Costner or Crowe or, like, a fox. 

I don't think it's quite as natural a fit as Baker Street, where the players had a defined role and Sherlock himself wasn't around, but it'd be perfectly workable. The book spends a lot of time talking about the Robin Hood mythos and how the Victorians influenced it, and setting up expectations for what life would be like in the time of the game. There are rules for duels that are quite honestly the most interesting thing for me (both parties pick one of four actions, which might result in both of them standing there awkwardly or trading witty banter), and, as with Baker Street, the emphasis and the systems focus on the elements of the target genre. 

So anyway, on we go! First thing I'm asked to do is choose two Skills and a Profession. I want to take Swine Herder as my Profession (I dunno, sounds fun) and I'll take Animal Handling and Tracking as my Skills. Oh, wait, those are at d8, and then I get three more Skills at d6. Cool. I'll take Clubs d6 (I figure he carries a cudgel while herding them swine, so he can bop unruly wolves on the head), Notice d6 (always wise), and Survival d6.

And now, physical and personality traits. I get a shitload of these, two d8 and three d6 from each category. There's a list, but you're encouraged to make up your own. 

Well, for personality, I already picture this guy as being pretty jovial, so I'll take Jolly. I like Responsible and Popular, too. Better take a couple that aren't quite as flattering, though. Nosy, I think, and Oblivious (he's the kind of guy that can't take a hint to leave a party). I'll put Oblivious and Jolly at d8, the rest at d6.

Now, physical! I know I want Smelly as a d6 (swine herder, he smells like pig), and I don't necessarily want him to be fat, but Husky d6 is fine. I picture him as being pretty strong, and I don't think I need a synonym there, so Strong d6. Need my d8s, now. Hardy is good, and I'll take Steady as well.

Virtues and Vices! I get two of each, then one more from either, all at d8. Well, Vices are a little harder to narrow down for this guy, but I think Reckless isn't bad, and I'll take Worldly as well (as opposed to Pious). For Virtues, I want Honest, Forgiving, and Loyal.

Next would be Flair, which is meant to be done in a group, but you're just picking one so it's not like I can't include. I'll take Witty, just because it's not the first thing you'd think of for this guy.

According to the chargen section, that's it other than the details and the backstory, but I dunno, I see a lot of blanks on the sheet. Let's investigate! 

Well, Stunts happen in play, so that does stay blank. Equipment, meh. He's got a cudgel and some dirty clothes, and a herd of swine. But what about these circles in the top right of the sheet? Looking through the book and at the pregens, apparently they also start blank. OK, then.

My swine herder's name is Peter, but folks in Sherwood call him "Piggy Pete." He doesn't mind; he knows who he is. He herds his pigs and sells them for meat and so on, but he doesn't eat pork himself - he jokes that it would be like eating one's horse or dog for him. Pete is a big fella, but he has a weird grin and he speaks with a slight lisp, and it just kinda makes him come off as goofy. Everybody likes Piggy Pete, but you do have to get used to the aroma. 

That's it! Oink!

Atlantis: Alchemy, Indulgence, and Flim-Flams

Today began a new adventure in our Atlantis: The Second age game. Rather, this was kind of a preparatory/interstitial game before the meat of the adventure, but sometimes that's nice.

We begin with a flashback: Thanos in the jungles of Khemit, outside the city of Acheron. He's been investigating stories of a cult of Set in the city, and has heard they have some kind of weapon or secret hidden in the jungle. As he leans down to a river to fill his skin, he hears a rumbling voice from the brush behind him: "Who are you?"

He turns, but he doesn't see anything. He sniffs the air, and smells the creature. Its odor is an odd combination of snake, crocodile, and matted fur. He also smells rotting meat. "Who are you?" he asks.

"I don't have a name," it responds. 

"Shall I give you one? Or are you here to eat me? I think I'd be stringy, get caught in your teeth."

"With creatures such as you, with souls and minds, I find that the only part worth eating is the heart." 

Thanos pauses. "Then maybe I should call you the Devourer, like the legends of Apep."

No response. Thanos waits, and then says, "if you're not going to fight me, then leave me be. I'm busy."

"Are those the only options?" asks the Devourer, and bursts from the brush, mouth agape. Thanos hurls his spear at it, trying to throw it down the thing's gullet, but it snaps its mouth closed and breaks the spear. It smacks Thanos with its tail and knocks him into the river, and then slips in after him. Thanos kicks off and swims beneath it, and bites its neck, tearing loose some of its armored skin. It screams and dives deep, and Thanos hears it say, "I'm not going to eat your heart! I'm going to bite your legs off and leave you, ruined and helpless!"

Thanos awakens with a start in the villages of Deshdara. He and his companions are preparing for their expedition into the sunken city beneath the oasis, but that's going to require some way to survive it. Eithne turns herself into a Triton and dives deep to do a little recon. 

She emerges from the crack at the bottom of the oasis into the huge underground sea, and notes that the water here is saltier than the oasis - apparently the oasis isn't fed by this sea at all. She swims toward the city, taking note of schools of fish and a few predatory creatures hunting them, but sees nothing that looks dangerous or aggressive toward her. She notes the time it takes to reach the first buildings, and realizes that she and her companions are going to need some magical help - this place is huge.

She examines the building's exterior, covered in seaweed and centuries of dirt. She wipes some away and finds that the building is made of large stone blocks, but that there's gold inlay near the windows, and the windows have glass panes. It's not orichalcum, which is good, because contact with that would force her back into her true form. This appears to be purely decorative.

She swims in the window and looks around. This appears to be a residence, but very little is left. She finds the handle to a weapon and decides to bring it back to Akala to examine. 

Eithne swims out of the building and does a quick circle to try and get some sense of scale, and feels magic - a place of power, and one that's pretty strong. That frightens her, because as a Jinn, if she gets too close the magic might change her in unpredictable ways. She makes for the surface.

Imani has been retelling the characters' battle with the giant demon to the children of Deshdara, having them help her to act it out. Eithne emerges from the water and changes back to her true form, and the other characters gather. She explains what she found and gives the handle to Akala, who deduces that it's probably the broken handle to a weapon wielded by a Lemurian or an Ophidian - it's too big to belong to a human or Atlantean. However, the gold inlay Eithne describes is very much an Atlantean aesthetic, so this city might be a former colony. 

Eithne's description of the place of power she felt gets Thanos' attention, as he is fascinated with Vril technology. Imani asks if such a thing might be a portal of some kind, and the others remember what they've learned about the ill-fated Vril Gates that the Atlanteans built. They allowed instant passage between any two Gates, yes, but the space between was "the dreams of the Elder Gods," and it changed those who traveled through it. The Vril Gates were all dismantled before the Great Cataclysm, more than 500 years ago...or so they've been told.

The heroes figure that they need a way to breathe water and swim quickly, so Thanos asks Ashermata if anyone in this town has access to an alchemy lab. He's in luck - there's a fellow named Tahel who practices alchemy. Thanos and Akala go and visit him, and he agrees to let Thanos use his lab to brew some potions and so on. (This is after he taps Thanos' nose to make sure he's real, since the stuff he's currently working on tends to make one hallucinate.)

Thanos and Eithne (who is also somewhat proficient in alchemy) get to work the next day, and over the course of a week create some Vril-light (potions that create portable, long-lasting light) and Uthlanga Milk (a potion that allows anyone who drinks it to breathe water and swim quickly; Thanos even tweaks the formula so it lasts longer). 

Over the week, Eithne indulges, telling dark stories of her homeland in Skye. Akala tries to buy some sturdier armor, but gets scammed, losing money on a flimsy fake to a traveling merchant. Imani talks with Thanos and Eithne about Vril tech and what kinds of things they might find down there. 

At the end of the week, the potions are ready. The heroes are ready to explore the mysterious sunken city. Eithne mentions that she's concerned about this, and tells Thanos about relatives and friends of hers who got too close to places of power and shrank, lost body parts, and so forth. Thanos replies that he had a dream recently about an experience he had near Acheron, involving a river monster that has it out for him. He's apprehensive, too, but he's still eager to the see the city.

Next session, into the deeps!

Movie #630: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a horror movie based on the series of kids' books of the same name with the truly fucked up artwork. It stars Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Zajur, Natalie Ganzhom, Dean Norris, Lorraine Toussaint, and Austin Abrams. 

In 1968, three teenage buddies take revenge on the town bully Tommy (Abrams) and wind up getting chased to a drive-in and taking refuge in a random car, driven by Ramon (Garza). Once Tommy fucks off, Stella (Colletti), kinda crushing on Ramon a bit, convinces her buds to go to the local haunted house, an abandoned home supposedly once inhabited by child-killing recluse Sarah Bellows. The legend goes that Sarah would whisper scary stories to the local children, and indeed, Stella finds a handwritten book of spooky stories in Sarah's room/cell. 

That night, a story appears in the book in which Tommy gets killed by the scarecrow on his family's land...and it actually happens. The next night, Augie (Rush) is taken away by a zombie woman under his bed. Stella, Chuck (Zajur), and Ramon go into full Scooby-Doo Gang mode to track down what really happened to Sarah and try to break the curse.

This movie is better than it has any right to be. When the adaptation was announced, I was really worried that they'd do an anthology with a weak-ass campfire framing device, but then I heard the name "Guillermo del Toro" attached to the movie and lost any lingering concern I had. Del Toro didn't direct (it was André Øverdal, who also directed the excellent Trollhunter), but his influence is obvious and we could draw some parallels to Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth. The movie is grounded in a specific period in history (the Vietnam War and Nixon's 1968 election), and those events actually influence the movie. Also, actions have real consequences and there's no happy ending - yes, Stella and Ramon survived and put Sarah to rest, but Ramon still has to go to Nam, Chuck and Augie are still gone, and Ruthie (Ganzhom), Chuck's sister, is still traumatized by her story ("The Red Spot," which I was told as a true story when I was a kid). 

There are also some fun call-aheads that I didn't notice the first time I watched the movie. Chuck, who ultimately gets hugged and absorbed by the Pale Woman, struggles with an overzealous hug from his mother early in the film. Ruthie walks through a spider-web and freaks out about a spider being on her face, and so on. There are some genuinely creepy moments (Tommy beginning to cough up straw as he turns into a scarecrow comes to mind), and I thought the performances, particularly Colletti and Garza, were heartfelt and well-done. The special effects aren't bad - the scarecrow and the Jangly Man and probably the best, and although the scene with the Pale Woman is nightmarish, the Woman herself just looks kinda blobby. But then again, I'm glad they didn't include anything that looks the fucking horse from the "A New Horse" story, because I've already had enough nightmares about that thing. Maybe it'll be in the sequel. AAAAAAH.

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: Scooby-Doo

Character Creation: Entromancy

Here's a character. Today I'll have to find my own theme song, as I didn't ask for one.

The Game: Entromancy
The Publisher: Nightpath Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

This game bills itself as "cyberpunk fantasy" and it so, so badly wants to be Shadowrun. With that said, although I find certain things about it pretty derivative, it also tightens some things up in terms of system that I think other games could benefit from. It's based on the 5th edition of the "most popular roleplaying game", which was an immediate turn-off. Yes, D&D is the world's most popular roleplaying game. Batman & Robin was also the #1 movie in America, at least for a while. (That's a harsh comparison, but still.)

But again, reading the game, it looks like it keeps things focused and doesn't get bogged down the way D&D and other trad games tend to. The thing I find annoying is that the character creation is very template based, to the point that there's not a blank character sheet that I can find. I have to pick a race and class, OK, but the sheets for the classes are already filled out with regards to stats and skills, and like, I like to do that (and there are rules for "from scratch" chargen in the book, so wtf?). 

Anyway, we work with what we have. So what's the deal in this game?

The year is 2076, and a heretofore believed extinct element called ceridium, which enables magic and initiated this game's version of goblinization. There are three main factions: folks allied with NIGHT, the paramilitary group tasked with dealing with the "underraces," the freedom fighters from said underraces, and unaligned (so there's really only two factions). 

I love magic users, so I think I'm gonna go with NIGHT Agent as my class (the book actually has you pick race first, but I wanted to print my sheet). Race, then! We've got dwarf, gnome, low auric, high auric, and human. Fun note: The book says that the non-human races each live upwards of 120-140 years...but if it's 2076, how do we know that? 

Anyway, given that NIGHT agents tend to be responsible for keeping underraces in line, human makes the most sense. But that may be why I'm shying away from it. I think I'll go high auric (which I guess are kind of elf-like, but there's not much in the way of description that I can find). I like 'em, though. I think my character's motivation for being a NIGHT agent is simple math - there are so many more humans than underraces, and sure, the king of Aurichrome has carved out a niche for himself, but that's only gonna last so long if we can't come to some kind of understanding. Also, as a NIGHT Agent, my guy can make sure there's one good apple in the bunch.

(My guy, you'll notice, is ripe for plotlines in which he discovers that institutional and systemic violence is not something one fixes with gumption.)

We'll say his name is Lynaway Denison; his friends call him "Lyn." 

Right, so what actual decisions do I get to make? I get to pick one feat and two spells, and for the latter I need to pick a path (light mark or dark magic, literally). Well, for the feat, I want NIGHT Training. That gives me a bonus to find clues, sure, but it also gives me some political clout and that's in-concept.

Spells, then. Light or Dark? Oh, shadowmancy, please. I'll take Double Trouble (I make a Noob Saibot style double that enemies might hit instead of me) and Shadow Bolt (nothing like a basic ranged attack!). 

Now, the sheet also has blanks for Destiny and Faction Points. Whazzat? Oh, Destinies are like prestige classes, so that's not applicable. Faction Points are just rep within the given factions, and you'd think I'd start with some in NIGHT, but I can't find any mention of starting Faction Points, so I guess that's it!

Lynaway Denison is tall, slim, and wears his uniform well. He follows orders and the rules of his organization scrupulously, because he knows that lone gunmen or troublemakers are easy to dismiss. He's gunning for a leadership position someday, but he's gotta put in his time down here on the ground first. 

Lyn has a policy of never unsheathing his nightblade unless he's prepared for it to taste blood, so if he doesn't wind up fighting, he cuts his hand slightly. Other NIGHT agents think he's a drama queen, and maybe that's true, but they also know if Lyn draws, shit is probably serious. 

That'll do it!

Character Creation: Demon Hunters RPG

It's Monday! Let's do a character!

The Game: Demon Hunters RPG
The Publisher: Dead Gentlemen
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

So, there was a Kickstarter for a new version of this game, and for whatever reason I didn't back for the physical version like I usually do, but I must have picked up a hard copy of the original game at some point. The original version works on a system that is or is very much like Cortex, while the new one is Fate. Today's the original version; I'll do the Fate version in like a year or something, if you want to mark your calendars.

Demon Hunters' setting is pretty standard "shadowy organization hunts down monsters in modern day", but the tone is comedic or dark comedy. The book is fun to read, the game itself is treated as an in-universe artifact (Tabletop Combat Simulations), which is cute and all. You can play monsters who are working for the Brotherhood (oh, that's the Brotherhood of the Celestial Torch, the PC organization - it's definitely got some religious overtones, including that the reward for people who sign up is salvation, no questions asked, which has some interesting roleplaying possibilities). 

I asked my friends for a theme song, and Megan gave this: 

Which is actually goddamn perfect. 

OK, so first I need a game level - Recruit, Veteran, or Seasoned Veteran. I think I'll keep it simple and go Recruit. That gives me 42 Attribute Points, 62 Skill Points, and no Trait Points. 

A concept, they say, is next. Well, falling back on the song, and the fast aggressive nature of the music and lyrics, I think I want to play a character who's very into the leather subculture. I think he was in a punk band when he was young (he's maybe in his late 40s now), and he actually learned that supernatural shit was real back then, but he spent his 20s doing a lot of drugs and his 30s wondering what the hell happened during his 20s. It wasn't until he was involved in a big brouhaha involving a pack of werewolves, a motorcycle gang, a team of Brotherhood folks, and a flamethrower that he realized that all the shit he saw while he was playing drums in Fistula was real. 

His name is Jasper Flood (it's a stage name, but he had it legally changed - at least he thinks he did). He's in pretty good shape considering everything he put his body through. He's been working as a thrower at the local airport for years now, and, like, it sucks, but there are worse jobs. He's very into the local leather scene and is presented without a partner - he and Bryan split up just before the unpleasantness with the werewolves, and Jasper is secretly glad. 

OK, solid start. Attributes! I've got 42 points to throw around and six Attributes to worry about. I figure the physical ones are going to be Jasper's forte. I'll put Alertness at d4 (he's lost some hearing from his years in the music scene) and a d6 in Intelligence (he's not stupid, but he's not especially smart, either). 

32 points left. I'll put a d10 into Strength. Jasper lifts heavy things for a living and he weight trains, too. I'll stick a d8 in Vitality and Willpower, and that leaves me a d6 in Agility, which is fine. 

Traits! These are Asset & Complications, so I don't really see what the word "Traits" brings to the party, but whatever, I'm not a game designer. I don't get any Assets to start, so I want to take Complications. Let's see what's appropriate for ol' Jasper. I can take a max of 30 points in Complications, but that sounds like a lot. 

I kinda like Amorous, but I do worry that's a bit cliche. Eh, we'll chalk it up to Jasper being recently back on the market and just put it at d4. Oh, Dull Sense, I think that's good. I'll take hearing and call it d2. Rebellious, good for a former punk. Oh, So Damn Macho, yes please. I'll take that at d8. And I'll take Wise Ass, just for good measure. That gives me 22 points of Assets. Nice! 

Well, I want Allure, but just at d4. Jasper is attractive within the right scene. I'll take Athlete (it represents stamina and Jasper's got that) at d6. 12 points left. Ooh, I'll take Focused Hunter and focus it on lycanthropes. It's not so much that Jasper has studied them extensively, but that he saw shit when he was younger and sometimes it just comes back to him. A d6 should do it, so 6 points left. Friends in Strange Places is too good to pass up, but I don't know what level. Let's see if anything else jumps out. Oh, I do like Stubborn SOB, so I'll take that at d2 and Friends at d4, and that's that!

Skills! I get 62 Skill points, and they work like most other Cortex games (older ones, at least). I pay for the base general skill up to d6, and then I can pay for Specialties on top of that. So if I want Pistol d10, I buy Guns d6 and then spend four more points for a total of 10. Easy-peasy. 

So, obviously I want Athletics, Craft, Performance, and Influence, so those can all go to d6 (24 points spent, 38 remaining). I want to specialize Performance in Drums, so I'll pump 4 more points there and bump it to d10. I also want some rating in Discipline, Drive, Guns, Unarmed Combat, and Mechanic. Putting them all a d6 would cost 30 points, leaving me at only 4, and I don't think I want that. I'll put Discipline and Mechanic at d4 and the other three at d6, which leaves me 8 points. That's better. Wait, no, Drive can be d4, too. 10 points remaining. 

I want Leatherworking d8, so 2 more into Craft. 2 into Unarmed for a Brawling Specialty (6 left). 2 into Influence for an Intimidation Specialty and then 2 more for a Conversation Specialty (the best sex starts with conversation). Two points remaining. I'll put them into Athletics for Weight Lifting.

Derived Traits, and the equations are right there on the sheet, thanks very much. I'm not gonna bother buying gear because I hate shopping. The front of the sheet also lists "tattoo location," but if that's a specific Brotherhood tattoo, I sure can't find any mention of it in the book. So I'm just gonna say "numerous" and call it a day.

Jasper is just shy of six feet tall and he's meaty - he's a large dude, but it's mostly muscle. He almost always wears a leather jacket when out and about, but he doesn't plump for vests or pants unless it's the right occasion (that shit is expensive). He's got piercing blue eyes and close-cut black hair (greying a bit). I actually picture him as a somewhere more muscular, dirtier Paul Hollywood. 

That'll do it!

Movie #629: Say Anything

Back to the movie project!

Say Anything is a romance/drama (it's not really comedic enough to be a rom-com) starring John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, and Lili Taylor. 

Lloyd Dobler (Cusack) is just about to graduate high school, and is crushing on a girl named Diane Court (Skye). He barely knows her; they sat next to each other at the mall once, but he's fixated. Meanwhile, Diane, who lives with her father James (Mahoney), a wealthy nursing home administrator. She receives a prestigious fellowship to study in England, so she's only got a few months in Seattle before she's leaving. 

She starts dating Lloyd, who is from a pretty different social and intellectual strata, but is respectful and earnest, and she grows to like and then love him. Her father comes under investigation for tax fraud, and it's revealed he's been stealing from the residents at his nursing home for years. Diane breaks up with Lloyd, figuring that she can't be distracted by this relationship that's not going anywhere (since, y'know, England), but then comes back to him when she learns the truth about her father. At the end, James goes to jail, Lloyd and Diane go to England.

I didn't realize that this is a Cameron Crowe movie (his directorial debut, in fact), and having seen that now, I see the parallels with Jerry Maguire, in terms of tone, at least. It's kinda considered a classic, and certainly a formative role for Cusack. But I have to say, I'm not terribly fond of this movie. Some of it is that I have a hard time buying Cusack as a 19-year-old (he was 23 at the time), but a lot of it is I really agree with Mahoney's James Court. Not about robbing old people, but about Lloyd. He's got no prospects and no real passion besides Diane, and that's fine until you think about the fact that he didn't know her at all until the end of senior year, and then pursued her pretty aggressively, and then there's the iconic scene where he holds up the boom box playing "In Your Eyes." 

In context, though, that scene is a little stalkery. She's already broken up with him by that point, he's been calling her frequently, and that song was playing the first time they had sex. So is he holding it up to try and get her back? Or as a kind of passive-aggressive way to say "remember, we fucked?" I would say Lloyd is too kind a soul for the latter, but emotional intelligence isn't really his thing, so who can say? 

Good supporting performances from Lili Taylor as Lloyd's buddy Corey and an uncredited Joan Cusack as his sister (with whom he lives, because his parents are overseas in the military). Also a good late-80s soundtrack. I'm not crazy about Skye's performance as Diane. She kinda feels bland to me (though she does have some scenes where she comes alive a bit more). 

All in all, I think it's not a bad movie but it's not my thing. 

My Grade: C+
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Chill: Chop, Sting, Leap

Chill, baby. Here's last time.

The envoys, recall, had gone to get some rest and dinner before heading back to join the neighborhood watch. They get there - Blake, Samantha, Father Will, and Jennifer - but Jordan and Willa are nowhere to be seen. Figuring they might have hit traffic, Blake sends them a text. He's not worried, though - Jordan can handle herself. 

They park in front of Eric Hill's house, and introduce Blake. Eric hands Blake a radio, and the envoys head off into the neighborhood. They're heading around the corner to walk through the park and wind up by the school, when Samantha and Blake hear breaking glass and the crunch of cracking wood. They head down the block and find a house with the side door smashed in. Samantha shines her light in, and notes that someone seems to have kicked in the door, and then kicked the remains back out. She uses Postcognition and sees Mr. Buck - hornet's nest for a head and all - smash in the door. She hears some breakage, and then he comes back out and heads into the back yard.

Samantha relays this, and Blake tracks the footprints to the corner of the yard. The back yard is bordered by a hedge, and some of the branches have been cut. Blake notes that unless one were standing in the right place, it would be hard to see it. Apparently Mr. Buck knows the neighborhood well. They squeeze through the hedge (Samantha gets stung by a hornet, which is painful but lets them know they're on the right track).

The envoys follow the trail, and come to the back of another house. Samantha notices the sliding glass doors in the back of the house are open, and the screen is smashed in. They creep up and peek in, and there's a man on the couch...bleeding from the side. Father Will calls 911 and asks for an ambulance, while Blake radios in to Eric and lets him know what's happening. Jennifer and Father Will head in to try and help the man, but he is, sadly, already dead. Hornets are buzzing around the house, and Samantha checks the other doors to find Buck's point of egress. The other doors are fine, so she yells to the others that Buck might still be in the house. No noise, though, which suggests he might have run out the same way he came in. 

Blake looks down the block, and thinks he sees Buck duck by a house, but isn't quite sure. He sprints down to check it out, but the ambulance turns the corner and the lights blind him. He heads back down the block, and Will helps the paramedics find the right house. 

Detective Jackson is there, and pulls the characters aside and asks them what the hell is happening. Samantha tries to tell him the truth, and he's understandably a little resistant. He does admit, however, that they clearly know something about what's going on, and he wants to make sure no one else gets hurt. He tells the neighborhood watch folks to go the hell home before someone accidentally gets shot. 

The five of them head down the block to where Blake thinks he saw the man. They find a house where the front door is smashed in, but maybe shouldered rather than splintered. Samantha moves around the house and sees a chain link fence with a gate. The gate is open, and she sees hornets buzzing around. She heads down the driveway...and sees Buck. And the lights go out.

She yells for the others. Blake cracks a road flare, and the team sees Buck heading for the privacy fence at the back. Jackson draws his gun and yells at Buck to freeze (he does not). Samantha and Father Will both try to tackle him, but it's like tackling a tree. A million hornets swarm out of the nest, and sting Samantha multiple time. She stumbles back and Will tries to help her, while Jennifer gets between Buck and the fence. Jennifer shoots him, and he charges at her, smashing his ax into her shoulder. It knocks her into the side of the garage just as Blake's road flare goes out. The envoys hear Buck climb over the fence, and then nothing. 

Jackson yells for everyone to sound off, and everyone does except Jennifer. They find her by the garage, and Will sprints down the block for the paramedics. They come back and do what they can, but of course there's no light and no working phones (or cars). While they work, Jackson talks with Father Will and Blake. Jackson is, understandably, freaked out, but Will and Blake comfort him, in a sense - they're both relatively new, but they have seen horrible things. 

Since they have some time, Will and Blake try and figure out the boundaries of the blackout zone, and find that it covers about a half-mile diameter (most of the neighborhood). An ambulance eventually gets to them and takes them all to the hospital, where Jennifer is taken into surgery and Samantha is given a lot of drugs. Blake tries to contact Willa and Jordan again, but no response, so he and Father Will go to get Will's car at the restaurant and try and trace what should have been their route - no luck. They head back into the neighborhood, and find Jackson, who's coordinating as best he can. He's still freaked out, and asks how they can kill this thing, whatever it is. They admit they don't know, and he tells them to get some sleep - they can't go after this thing, not with two thirds of their crew gone and no idea what to do.

Father Will drops Blake off back at the ranch, and heads home. Blake looks into SAVEPoint to see if there's anything useful, and Father Will just does some online searching. They find stories about headless wanderers - headless horsemen, the Irish Dullahan, SAVE also uses the term "wildermasque" in some older case histories. These creatures are usually obsessed with their missing heads, but destroying them isn't always as simple as destroying the head. Blake also learns that these creatures always seem to appear on a schedule - it might be every night, every full moon, every year on the anniversary of their death, but they vanish except at the appointed time. Blake notes that this means the clock is ticking. Tomorrow night, they need to find Buck and put him to rest.

Just before he goes to sleep, Blake gets a text from Jordan: "Sorry. We're OK. Explain in the morning."

Next time, we'll see what happened to them.

Atlantis: Shattered!

Atlantis! Woo!

You know, I really like this game, and the addition of the Action Deck spices things up nicely. What I wish is that there was a little more guidance on certain of the systems, and that said systems were freaking consistent. 

I think my brain is in a GM-space influenced by things like PbtA and Cypher, which (in general) do very well explaining how systems look at the table. Atlantis hearkens back to how I ran games some years ago, makin' shit up on the fly, and I don't mind doing that, but it's not what I'm used to anymore. 

Anyway, with all that said the game is pretty damn dope and today the characters killed a giant demon, so let's get into it! 

Recall that last time, our heroes were tracking down what had killed (beheaded, really) a local man. They found and killed the demon responsible, but as it died it screamed "Saramesh!" Ashmerata, the local magistrate, identifies Saramesh as a local man, quite wealthy, who takes care of the orphans of the city. In fact, those kids call themselves the "Sons of Saramesh." ("That sounds kind of ominous," murmurs Thanos.)

Ashmerata shows the heroes where Saramesh lives - it's a big, cube-shaped building with shuttered windows and only one door. Akala notices some weird moving shadows near the base of the building, just in time to shout a warning as said shadows attack, with teeth of iron!

Akala takes to the sky, but the shadows leap on the others - including Ashmerata. Eithne casts a ward on her to protect her from further injury, but the creature has already bit her open pretty good. Thanos stabs one and kills it, and then swings at another, but it bats his gladius out of his hand. Imani swings her mong and destroys another of the creatures. Eithne summons up fire and burns one, and Imani stabs it, finishing it off. Eithne tosses Thanos his gladius, and the creature promptly disarms him again, but Akala hits it from above with a couple of chakram. 

The threat over, they turn their attention to Ashmerata, who lays dying. Akala stops the bleeding, but she's still in danger. Thanos calls to the assembled villagers and asks for a goat - he can give its life to Ashmerata and save her. Folks are hesitant, but an older man volunteers a goat (saying "we'll eat this animal anyway! Of course we'll give it up to save Ashmerata!).

Thanos sacrifices the goat and heals Ashmerata, and she sits bolt upright and gasps. The villagers cheer, and the heroes decide they should probably check Saramesh's house. Akala listens at the door and hears a horrible crunching sound...and then the demon bursts through the roof.

The demon is more than 20 feet tall, with a horrible sucking mouth and dripping corrosive slime. The heroes recoil and the villagers are terrified, and the demon reaches down, grabs the goatherd, and bites him in half!

Thanos, not normally given to sentiment, is outraged by this. He summons up his magic and, bolstered by Akala's righteous words, casts a spell and turns the demon to solid glass. Eithne calls up her own arcane power, the discordant chimes that accompany her magic growing louder and louder until they crack the glass. Imani hurls her spear and shatters the thing, a billion tiny shards cascading down. 

The heroes breathe, and the villagers, again, cheer their names. Ashmerata thanks them profusely, and over the next day or so they talk to some of the orphans. They learn that Saramesh had them painting runes on walls in town, and Thanos identifies those runes as part of a summoning ritual. What was Saramesh's plan for this colossal demon? We'll never know - the demon killed him upon being summoned. 

The heroes consider moving on and heading into Nubia, but the prospect of exploring the mysterious underwater city is just too great. They decide to send Masamba and their entourage on ahead, while they stay behind in Deshdara for a while.