Shaun of the Dead is a romantic comedy with zombies directed by Edgar Wright, and stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy, and Peter Serafinowicz.
The titular Shaun (Pegg) is stuck in a bit of a rut in many aspects of his life - he works in an electronics shop as a salesman, and his relationship with his girlfriend Liz (Ashfield) is on the rocks. His association with his boorish best friend Ed (Frost) doesn't help matters. One evening Liz finally dumps him and he gets very, very drunk, and resolves to sort his life out the next day. That next day, however, happens to be when the zombie rise happens, and Shaun and Ed wind up gathering up Liz, her flatmates David (Moran) and Dianne (Davis), and Shaun's mother Barbara (Wilton) and going to the one place Shaun always feels safe and at home: the Winchester pub.
This movie hits all the beats of a zombie movie - the growing horror at seeing people that you know become monsters, the grief at watching your loved ones die and then having to shoot them to save your own life, and the hopelessness as the walls close in and realizing you're better off shooting yourself than getting bitten. But, in addition to that, the movie is genuinely funny, and, as Edgar Wright movies tend to be, almost perfectly symmetrical (that is, the back half mirrors the front half, as we see extras we saw going about their daily lives now turned into the undead). Pegg anchors and carries the movie as Shaun, a good-hearted, if not especially bright, fellow trying to be a better man on the worst day of his life. His relationship with Liz feels real and important to him, but obviously the relationship that he really cares about is his friendship with Ed.
In addition to just being a strong movie on its own, we also get all kinds of references to classic zombie (mostly Romero) movies. My favorite is unquestionably Ed yelling "We're coming to get you, Barbara!" to Shaun's mom, but there are so many more, and so many other little details that you'll never catch the first time through. Wright's movies are amazing because nothing is accidental, and that level of attention to everything can sometimes make the movies feel forced in places. Shaun of the Dead makes up for that with scenes that are really raw and emotional (Pegg's performance after discovering his mother has been bitten really shows off his chops).
I think this is my favorite of the "Three Flavors Cornetto" trilogy (the other two being Hot Fuzz and World's End).
It's been a while, but we got back to the 'Stream today! Here's last time.
The heroes come up on the Anathraxian warship, and with some skillful piloting by Iris, they get into boarding position and activate their electro-burst weapon without being noticed. The ship's radiophone disabled, the heroes throw mag-cables and board the warship.
They are confronted by minions, fanatically loyal men brainwashed in service to the Queen. There are also some obviously non-combatty men in lab coats, one of which is carrying a heavy wrench. Oola notices a strange device - a bell jar-like container filled with water, in which is floating a disembodied brain.
Iris rushes to the attack, disabling one of the minions immediately. Zeenia lashes out with her tentacles and takes down two more. While Iris exchanges fisticuffs with the last (he proves surprisingly resilient), the scientist with the wrench moves back to the jar and strikes it, cracking (but not shattering) the glass. All of the characters feel a psionic cry for help: "DON'T LET HIM KILL ME!"
Zeena, wasting no time, zips over and smacks the guy down with her tentacles, and then sits on his head. Oola tries to repair the jar, but doesn't have the equipment she needs on hand. She picks it up and the characters head back to their own ship, and make space tracks outta there.
The brain in the jar introduces himself - his name is Klendar, and he was once a Borooshian. The Borooshians are small, furry people from the fragment of Boroosh (duh), but more importantly, they have an innate understanding of spatial geometry that makes them excellent navigators. Klendar says that Queen Anathraxa's scientists removed his brain and kept it alive in this chemical soup that enhances his natural abilities.
Before that, though, he wandered the Slipstream and has learned many interesting things. He heard of the characters and their mission, and he's met someone who might be able to help them. A Lupine (from the fragment of Lupos, duh) named Rezzal Yowlin has reportedly managed to cross the Barrier. Last Klendar heard, Yowlin was headed to the fragment of Arachnea looking for an artifact called the Web of Life.
Klendar asks that the characters drop him off at a high-tech fragment so he can perhaps get a body of some kind. They're not far from Mechanos, so they drop him there and pick up some supplies, and then decide to ride the Slipstream all the way around to Arachnea. En route, though, Iris spots an Angeli scout ship being attacked by a pirate raider! She tries to bring the ship around and out of the Slipstream, but it's too strong and they overshoot the area. By the time they get back, the pirate ship has gone, and the scout ship is damaged beyond repair. A dead Bird Man dangles from the ship on a tether. They check his body and find a tool belt - probably he's the ship's engineer.
They go aboard and find more carnage, but then a ray gun blast rings out! A Valkyrie staggers forward, and gasps "I...am...Ran Skadi, daughter of Elas Skadi, of the Mellameer Valkyrie!" Her next words were probably going to be "Fight me!" but Iris introduces herself, and Ran Skadi collapses.
They take her aboard their ship and tend her wounds, and decide to take the Bird Man back to Avia for funerary rites (they're nearby). En route, Ran wakes and tells them what happened - the pirates attack and Breet, her ship's engineer, tried to repair their weapons, but died in the process. The pirates stole her cargo, killed her crew, and left her alive as the final insult.
Iris tells her that if she weren't in the middle of something important, she would help Ran seek revenge. She explains their quest to find Rezzal Yowlin, and Ran says she knows him. She warns them to be careful - Yowlin is a trouble magnet. Oola points out that they don't seem to be able to stay out of trouble either.
The leave Ran on Avia at her request, and jump back into the Slipstream. Several hours later, they blast out and approach Arachnea, the home of the Spider-Men.
Sharks in Venice is...well, let's generously call it a horror movie, starring Stephen Baldwin, Vanessa Johansson (older sister of Scarlett!), Hilda van der Meulen, Giacomo Gonella, and a whoooole lotta stock footage of sharks.
We start off in Venice with some establishing shots, and then cut to someone's pool where three dudes wearing masks that clearly have rebreathers in their mouths but are still able to talk are diving for treasure. They find a clue in Latin, but then are attacked by a shaky camera superimposed with a shark's mouth from a nature documentary and some "blood" in the water, and they all dead.
Turns out one of the dudes was the father of noted...professor? Oceanographer? David Franks (Baldwin, the one and only name actor in this travesty). He gets the news that his father has vanished, goes to Venice, is shown the bodies of the other two dudes whichhave clearly been ripped up by a shark, and everyone in the room proceeds to do their best recreation-from-memory of the argument between Brody and the Mayor in Jaws.
Anyway, it turns out that (deep breath) there's some treasure down there in the canals that was brought by by the Medici family in the late 13th century during the 8th Crusade (which was commissioned by Louis XIV), and there's an evil mob boss (Gonella) who wants that treasure so bad, and he's the one who introduced the sharks into the canals of Venice for...reasons? I don't remember him ever really explaining that, but honestly it's not like the dialog makes a lot of sense.
Betrayals! Gunfights! Sharks! Police! The same shot of the police, reused three times! And then it ends, the mob boss gets eaten by his own sharks, the good guys laugh and wink at each other and the matter of there being sharks in the canals of Venice, which were just LEAPING UP AND EATING GONDOLIERS A FEW SCENES AGO is never resolved.
Um, this is a legitimately terrible, MST3K-grade movie. I got it as a gift a really long time ago from someone who knew the rules of the movie project (to wit: if I own it and it had a theatrical release, I have to watch it at least once when it comes up in the rotation), and the tragedy is that we've lost contact over the years so I can't tell her that I finally watched it. But whatever. I'm actually glad I saw it, because it's funny as hell.
Ai-yi-yi! Here is last session! Yip yip! (What am I on about?)
The envoys, along with five cops, delve into the Kuna Caves. Beth Anne remains behind so as to avoid bringing Jaworsky with them (read: her player couldn't make it today). Emily leads the way into the dark, which results in Emily being the one to fall down a hole.
She rolls when she lands and twists her ankle but avoids serious injury. There's nothing down here, just an opening small enough to miss in the dark. BB helps her climb out, but the envoys realize that the cops are no longer with them. From up ahead, they hear gunfire and screams.
They rush to the noise, and find one of the cops sitting against the wall with a talon wound in his shoulder and the other waving his gun around in a panicked kind of fashion. Emily calms the latter while BB uses the Heal discipline to fix the former, and both of them stare in amazement ("magic" says BB with a waggle of his fingers). They head further into the caves, and wind up in the big round room where the sasquatch kept its kills before. In the center of the shallow pit in the room is the corpse of a man, probably the father of the family that's gone missing.
The envoys cope with this to a greater or lesser degree. Vicki looks at the corpse and notes that his throat has been ripped out, but there are no other wounds. She finds his wallet - Frank Phillips. She finds a picture of his wife and kids, too. She uses her Clairvoyance discipline and finds the mother and the little girl, huddled together, crying, but alive at the end of a tunnel. She can't tell exactly where, though.
The police captain notes that there are three exits to this room, not counting the one they came from. He tells Murray (the cop that was wound but BB healed) to stay put and act as a lookout, and points the other officers down two of the tunnels, while he takes the third.
Emily recommends not splitting up; they should take each tunnel in turn. Melinda agrees with the cops, though - they need to find the survivors while they're still survivors. Vicki heads down the center tunnel, BB goes with the captain, while Melinda goes with the other cop.
Meanwhile, Dylan is outside, fretting over the other envoys. He (and the cops) hear gunfire, and he makes another entreaty to be let in. The cops allow him in, but don't follow. He follows the trail down to the round room and finds Murray, waiting.
And then suddenly everything goes pitch dark. Dylan raises a Sphere of Protection, although doing so takes his very last ounce of will. The Sphere allows the flashlights to work, and Dylan sees, at the edge of the barrier, the sasquatch. But as it's pushed back, it seems to flicker a bit, and Dylan sees the chalk-white, featureless form behind the sasquatch disguise. He struggles to maintain the Sphere, and yells for help.
Down the hall, a snarl and a clawed hand, and the police captain collapses to the ground! BB puts himself between Davis and the creature, but then everything goes black. No attack comes, and BB heals the captain.
Another tunnel: Emily and Vicki suddenly find themselves in a similar bubble of blackness. Emily gets in from of Vicki and they start picking their way down the hall, but then hear Dylan yell and head back.
Melinda and the last cop, in the other tunnel, find the woman and her daughter, but then something grabs Melinda's neck and yanks her back. The cop turns and fires his weapon, and Melinda ducks low. If he hits anything, though, it's not obvious.
Everyone regroups (the envoys get to the round room just in time to see Dylan collapse), and they leave the caves. Captain Davis talks with BB, and BB tells him that being fully honest about this just causes panic. He says that they can probably kill this thing, but they need a little time to figure out what they're dealing with. Davis, who is a rational man but watched BB heal his badly lacerated face, says he'll keep the area cordoned off as long as he can. The envoys head back to the ranch.
Once there, Vicki does some research and finds that a creature like this - one with a true form that is so featureless - is probably a natural shapeshifter. She also thinks back to something BB said: attacks like this spread panic. This "copycat" is mimicking attacks that have already happened in Boise, stoking old fears. Vicki notes further that it seems to be a corporeal creature, vulnerable to mundane weapons, but it can also apparently teleport. So how does one trap it?
While Dylan leads the group in a quick therapy session to talk over what they've been through today, Vicki uses her Clairvoyance discipline again, but this time focuses on the creature. She sees it near the cave entrance, watching the EMS and bystanders. She relays this, and the group decides that since the creature is still there, perhaps they can go back and kill it. Dylan can perhaps trap it in a Line of Defense circle, giving the envoys enough time to shoot the thing.
Darnell relays a message from Beth Anne - she didn't text because she doesn't trust text messages, and she'll catch up with them later. The envoys are a bit worried about that (and Jaworsky), but they have a plan. They're going to take a bit of xanax (to take the edge off and keep their wits), go back to the caves, and try to bait the copycat into a circle. Then Dylan will seal it and they'll kill the thing.
The Shape of Water is a...geez, what genre is it? Romantic fantasy, kinda? Anyway, directed by Guillermo del Toro, and starring Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Richard Jenkins, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, and Michael Stuhlbarg.
The year is 1962, and here we are in Baltimore. Eliza (Hawkins) is a mute woman working as a cleaner in a government facility, and spends her days listening to her coworker Zelda (Spencer) complain about her husband, and hanging with her gay best friend/neighbor Giles (Jenkins), a starving artist. And then one day, her facility gets an "asset" - an amphibious, bipedal creature (Jones) that looks a lot like Abe Sapien, if we're being honest.
The Amphibian Man, captured by sadistic Army colonel Strickland (Shannon), is routinely tortured as the folks in the facility try to understand it. One of the scientists, Hoffstetler (Stuhlbarg) is in fact a Russian spy, and while his loyalty is to his country, he's also genuinely trying to understand the creature.
And then Eliza, Giles, Zelda, and Hoffstetler steal the Amphibian Man to save his life (Strickland is planning to have him vivisected). They smuggle him back to Eliza's place, where she falls in love with him.
Wait, what?
So, what folks tend to remember about this movie is "oh, this is the one where the lady bangs the fish-guy," and, yeah, that does happen. I've seen the question raised as to how much the Amphibian Man understands of the situation and whether he is capable of consent. In some ways he seems pretty animalistic, but he's clearly capable of understanding language. People in his native region worshiped him as a god - is he? He's capable of healing himself and others with a touch, and, like, bioluminesence. (It has also been point out that if the genders in this movie were reversed - a man bringing a female fish-person home and having sex with her - it wouldn't read the same way. Maybe not.)
To me, the movie reads as a fantasy grounded in a real era. Like most del Toro films, it's poetic, it's beautiful, it's brutal. It also has the grounded sense of place that his films usually have - the apartments where Giles and Eliza live, the dark and unforgiving government facility, and even the pie shop where Giles has a crush on the counterman (Morgan Kelly) feel familiar by the end of the movie. He also trusts us with the story and doesn't over explain. We never learn the truth about the Amphibian Man, or what Eliza's real history is (she was found by the water and the scars on her neck turn into gills at the end, so maybe she's a mermaid of some kind?).
The Shape of Water, to me, is especially interesting because it's a violent romantic fantasy in which a mute woman bangs a fish-man and it won Best Picture. It's a strange movie, and I have to think that the strangeness contributes to what's so compelling about it.
The Game:Lone Wolf Adventure Game The Publisher:Cubicle 7 Degree of Familiarity: None Books Required: Well, see, it's a whole boxed set
So evidently, there was a choose-your-own-adventure style book series set in this world, which I missed entirely. The RPG is basically baby's first D&D, to the point that it has a cardboard coin to flip into the box lid to choose a random number, just in case the concept of "d10" is too much for your table. The world is fine; characters are "Kai Lords," folks who study at the Monastery of Kai and then become wandering do-gooders.
I kind of giggle reading the book, because it treads so carefully around basic RPG concepts, but honestly, no more so than, say, the basic set of TSR's old Marvel Superheroes game, which is where I cut my teeth. I'm out of touch with gaming trends, but I wonder if the Boxed Set might be a viable strategy again, since legacy board games and stuff like Gloomhaven have introduced saga gaming to folks who aren't steeped in the hobby.
Well, anyway, let's make a Kai Lord. I shall use the "master" rules because they're the most like chargen rules here.
First steps, I determine my Combat, Endurance, and Willpower. I do that by choosing a random number (very strange to see a book say "choose a random number" instead of "roll a die", but the effect is much the same) and add 10, 20, and 10 respectively. So basically I need three d10 rolls. 9, 3, 6. Combat is 19, Endurance is 23, Willpower is 16.
Next, we choose Kai Disciplines. I get 5. Let's check 'em out!
Well, I think I'll lean into my high Combat Skill and take Weaponskill. This gives me some proficiency with a particular weapon, but what I don't see is whether I could take it twice and learn to use more than one. Looks like no. Ah, well. You know, I'll roll for my weapon. Fate says...broadsword! Sure. So my guy is a kind of traditional warrior. I dig it. I think I shall take Healing, as well, because it's not obvious. I'll take Mindshield, Sixth Sense, and Animal Kinship. So basically all the nice-nice ones, but then Broadsword. Why? I think my guy was taught to use a sword before he went to the Kai Monastery, and he's good at it, but that's not where his heart is.
Anyway, next step. Equipment! I get a green tunic and cloak, as I'm a Kai initiate. I start with (roll) 16 Gold Crowns. I get a map, and a broadsword (duh), and then I get five choices off a list. Let's see now. Well, how about a chain mail waistcoat and a helmet, which adds a total of 6 to my Endurance. Oh, wait, no, they add to my "Defence". I'll take a Meal (this game tracks hunger, which I actually like - also if you have the Hunting discipline you don't have to use Meals). I'll take a Potion of Laumspur (healing potion, basically), and a lantern, and that'll do it.
Now I choose a name, and there are random tables! Neat! Let's see, four rolls gives me...Brave, River, Stern, and Moon. I don't love "stern," actually. so I'll skip that one. How about Brave River?
And if I were doing Initiate chargen, that'd be it, but since I'm a MASTER we've got a few more steps. Kai's Favor; basically points that I can spend to get a bonus on stuff. I get two points (one for free, one because my Endurance is low).
Traits! These are just little advantages for the character, Physical, Mental, Special. I get two. Let's see now...I'll take Insightful (gives me a bonus to solve riddles and investigate stuff), and I'll take Savant, which attaches to a skill or discipline. I'll attach it to Weaponskill, I think.
And now I get two skills, both rated +1. Well, Investigate, I think, makes sense. And then Vocation (Blacksmith), how about.
Next! Defense! It's just the totals from my armor, which is 3. Easy-peasy.
That's basically it, actually. Brave River is the son of a blacksmith, but this blacksmith was a merc in his younger days and taught his son to swordfight. He was delighted to discover that the boy seemed to have a natural talent for combat, but the boy was happier learning about plants and nature and so forth. So dad shipped him off to the Monastery (perhaps not fully understanding what the Kai Lords were about?). Brave River has learned a lot there, but he's a little dismayed that his combat skills are still so highly prized.
Brave River is tall, broad, and has full lips, brown hair, and brown eyes. His mouth is usually open just a bit, and he lopes more than walks.
After a bit of a hiatus, and after switching back to Zoom because of the weather, we have returned to Cairn! Here's last time.
The Knights hear the approaching hoofbeats of a daggertusk, and Rumdiggle notes that its squeals are anguished - the animal is in terrible pain. Russelet, thinking quickly, rallies Snootabur and Ratatosk, and the two marksmen fire rope arrows while the squirrel attaches them at anchor points. This forms a kind of net, which the daggertusk barrels into headlong.
The boar is big and heavy enough that it snaps the ropes, but it's at least slowed down enough that it's not going to be rampaging straight into the farm. Russelet fires another rope arrow between its forelegs, and Snootabur grabs a rope and vaults straight over the beast, hog-tying it (if you'll pardon the expression). Its legs buckle and it falls, but still struggles.
Rumdiggle calls on the aspect of the daggertusk and calms the beast, and Ratatosk sees a viscous discharge on its nose and mouth - it's been poisoned! Ratatosk casts a spell and speaks with it, and the daggertusk says that something bit it on the haunches and now everything hurts. Indeed, the poor thing's flank is dotted with puncture wounds, maybe arrows or darts. Ratatosk rushes off to make an antidote, while Rumdiggle sings to the creature and Snootabur and Russelet keep the inhabitants of the farm back. Some of them, after all, are advocating killing the boar before it recovers and attacks again, but the Knights don't feel this is necessary.
Ratatosk makes an antidote and scampers up to the boar's mouth. He administers it, but the boar's eyes dilate and it lurches to its feet, stumbling toward a couple of outbuildings. Hollan Dawnsong, the weasel in charge of the farm, notes to Snootabur that those are storehouses for food, and Snootabur calls to Russelet. The bat marksman fires a sleep arrow into the boar's flank, and it collapses.
The Knights take a bit of time to regroup; Russelet finds a trace of the poison on the boar's haunch and Ratatosk analyzes it. It's a toxin made from a plant that grows in the shallows off the coast nearby, mixed with various other ingredients - fungus, spider venom, and so on. This toxin would absolutely have killed the daggertusk, but it would have spent its last moments in a blind rage. It looks as though someone aimed the daggertusk at the farm with the intent to damage or destroy it - and that probably means goblins.
The Knights track the daggertusk backwards, and find the area near the cliffs where it was poisoned. They find some discarded darts as well as goblin tracks, and Russelet notes that the goblins even "herded" the daggertusk toward the farm. They go back to the farm and are confronted with a lot of very frightened Favored, and Hollan invites them up to his cottage to talk this out.
There, Ratatosk concentrates and confirms that the barrier is still active. They tell Hollan about their discoveries in the Graymantle, and Snootabur outright asks him if he's descended from the Ebonblood family. He admits that he is; he changed his name because his family was known for violence, and he doesn't wish to be part of that. The Knights tell him, though, that his family used violence when necessary to protect others, and show him the history that they found (and completed). He realizes that his cottage is built on the gravesite of his great-great-aunt Meeta Ebonblood.
He tells the Knights that some people in the farm have been advocating inviting the goblins in and brokering peace, but he feels that is unwise. The Knights advise a meeting with the goblins, but outside the farm. Hollan agrees, and pens an invitation (which he signs "Hollan Ebonblood"), and Russelet delivers it to the goblins on the beach (via arrow, of course).
The next day, the Knights get busy. Snootabur organizes the farmers and has them dig a trench, which she then fills with dry branches and kindling (to act as a barrier if need be). Russelet sets up traps and ropes to box in the goblins if they try anything. Ratatosk creates potions, and Rumdiggle tunes her lute. They are ready.
They head out and meet with the horde of goblins, some riding daggertusks, some on foot. The head goblin sarcastically makes some reference to peace, but Hollan responds: "You have ambushed, terrorized, and killed us. You don't get to talk about peace. You will leave our people alone."
A tense moment passes. Russelet hears the goblins murmuring among themselves - they fear an Ebonblood. The Knights stand firm, watching.
And finally, the goblin chieftain mounts his daggertusk. "The wilds are ours," he says. "Step off your roads and you will die." And with that they ride back towards the cliffs.
The Knights return with Hollan to the farm to celebrate. He tells them he intends to learn to fight - it's all very well to abhor violence, but one must still be ready for it. They agree, and rest up for their long journey back to Cairn on the morrow.
The Game:Age of Arthur The Publisher:Wordplay Games Degree of Familiarity: Never played it, it's kinda Fate Core? Books Required: Just the one
Yet another game I got in a bundle. It's not actually Fate Core, but it's a version of Fate. It probably would be been better off as Fate Core, because I don't see the ways in which it's different doing a lot to enhance the game play (to wit: if you want to invoke an Aspect you have to do it before the roll, which is such a weird and jarring twist on the system I don't even know why you'd do it). Also the book I have could really have used another editing pass, but like, editors cost money, I get that.
SO ANYWAY this game takes place in post-Roman Britannia, during the time before Arthur becomes High King. There's magic and shit (druid, runes, fae, Christian), swords, sorcery, and so on. Honestly it doesn't grab me, but then I'm always iffy about fantasy games set in "our" world. Let's make a character!
My amigo Travis supplies me with a theme song:
It's a nice song; basically "things are often difficult, but God (or whatever) is there". God probably exists in the setting of Age of Arthur, though I always wonder about settings where you can basically do God-magic with the same reliability as pagans doing their magic (this, by the way, is why there's no "true faith" rule in Chill 3rd).
Well, anyway, it does seem like some form of magic might be appropriate here, and I like making magic characters, so let's have a look at the relevant chapter and see if anything blossoms in my dark little brain.
Hmm. Divination looks interesting, especially if we consider one of the "nicer" forms, like pyromancy (reading smoke patterns) rather than, say, reading entrails. I think the notion of being blessed by Arawn, the God of the Dead, has some legs, too. I want the character to be pretty simple, as far as upbringing and learnin', and his Divination skills to be mostly instinctive. I think that's enough to get started.
So, we wind up with six Aspects in this game, four of which come from "tales" about the character's life, one of which is an Oath, and the last is just a freebie. Let's begin at the beginning?
Beginnings: Pwyll (for 'tis his name, because I don't mind being really obvious sometimes) is a Briton, and grew up with his parents and siblings in a village of no consequence. Shepherds, farmers, growers, and so forth. Pwyll learned from a young age that by watching the smoke that rose up from the fires, he could predict what was to come - the weather, the results of a harvest, and who would die. He could always see a death coming. Knowing someone's death never made him sad, because for him it was the turning of a season, but the fact that he felt he had to tell people if he foresaw a death didn't exactly make him popular. His parents kicked him out when he turned 14, after he predicted (accurately) the death of the village elder's youngest daughter from fever.
Aspect: Visions in the Smoke
What Did You Do At...? In this section, the GM would pick an event that all of the PCs were present at, and they all get to say what they did there. I like that, actually, but I have no GM, so let's pick an event. Actually, the event that they use in the example of chargen (yay!), the Battle of Verulamium, works pretty well. We'll say that Pwyll foresaw the outcome of the battle - the deaths of Ambrosius Aurelianus and his son, Uther - and tried to warn them. He could not find anyone to take his message to the king, however, and afterwards no one who'd heard his prediction was even left alive.
Aspect: The Truth Means Nothing to Those Who Do Not Listen
What Made You the Hero That You Are? After the battle, Pwyll went into hiding. He refused to look at smoke (and became sickly and skinny from living off plants and raw food only), and refused to use his gifts. One night, sick from fever and half mad, he lit a fire to see if he could see his own death. Instead, he saw the face of Arawn, who spoke to him gently, and whispered the truth of his death in his ear. Now understanding the circumstances of his own end, Pwyll could understand the context of his life. He came out of the woods to rejoin the world, and he began to use his divination gifts to advise others in living their lives well, rather than dreading their deaths.
Aspect: Death Is Nothing to Fear
Significant Event: This is the bit where I would weave another PC into Pwyll's story, but y'know, just me. There's an example character, though, so what about him? Oh, sure, why not? We'll say that Pwyll met Drustan as the latter was considering what to do with his life. Pwyll talked him into going to Londinium, a trip that ended in Drustan nearly getting killed and hooking up with a fellow named Brutus, who got him out alive. They came back and found Pwyll, and were none too pleased (Pwyll did suggest going, after all, and it was clear he was reading the smoke when he did so). Pwyll pointed out that they were alive, that they had learned much, and that they had found each other and friendship.
Aspect: Rejoice, For We Yet Live! (the temptation to make this Aspect "But Did You Die?" is great, but I'm solidly against using movie quotes as Aspects)
Oath: I have no idea what you do here if you don't want an oath, but whatevs. Pwyll traveled with his new friends, and found that his gifts grew stronger...but as they did, he realized that his compulsion toward honesty did as well. He may not remember actually making the oath, but it's binding all the same: Pwyll cannot lie or mislead about a prophecy, and he finds it difficult to lie in general.
Aspect: Prophecy Must Be True
Extra Aspect: And, finally, I think I want something reflecting Pwyll's connection to Arawn, so I'll take Blessed of Arawn. Easy-peasy.
Skills! I pick 15, and then arrange them in the standard pyramid. Let's see now. I want: Awareness, Investigation, Healing, Survival, Willpower, Agility, Brawling, Stealth, Strength, Charm, Contacts, Empathy, Streetwise, Riding, and oh, doy, Divination (Pyromancy).
I get one at 5, two at 4, three at 3, four at 2, and 5 at 1. I'll put Divination at 5, of course. I'll put Survival and Charm at 4 (he's lived on his own in the woods for years, after all). I'll put Awareness, Willpower, and Strength at 3. For my four 2s, I'll take Agility, Brawling, Healing, and Empathy, and that leaves the rest at 1.
Stunts! This is old-school Fate so I get 5, but there are lists. Well, Danger Sense, obviously, since I can sense the future. I'll take Cutting Retort (you can diss him, but like, he knows how you'll die), and Strong-Willed (not much scares him). Two more, one of which should really be supernatural. Oh, yeah, I have to take Diviner, and then I'll take As Foreseen. Perfect!
Stress! I get 5 Health and 6 Composure, counting my Skills and Strong-Willed Stunt.
Refresh! 5 Refresh, 5 starting Fate Points.
Stuff! I get the minimum that I need for my profession, but y'all know how I feel about shopping, so Pwyll has traveling clothes, a staff (for walking and self-defense), a knife (for utility purposes), and the stuff he needs to light a fire and that's about it!
Pwyll is probably in his early 20s now, sandy brown hair and light brown eyes. He tends to smell like wood smoke, and he gets distracted by smoke wafting up from anywhere. Large fires, like building-sized, overwhelm him - too much information in the smoke, too much noise and not enough signal. Pwyll is pleasant, optimistic, and never in a hurry. He knows everyone gets where they're going.
Just as soon as I let these loud-ass dogs out into the snow, thought. OK, here we go.
The Game:Thou Art But a Warrior The Publisher:Peach Pants Press Degree of Familiarity: None Books Required: Just the one
Thou Art But a Warrior is a...hack, guess? of Polaris, which I have not read or played. I got the PDF in a bundle a good long while ago (I think; I mean I know I've had it for a few years but I don't remember where I got it and it's not important anyway), and I've always thought it looked like my kind of game.
And it is, but I don't think it's going on the "run me" spreadsheet because it's kind of in the same category as Blood Red Sands - that is, I'd really enjoy playing it but it requires a shared understanding of the game rules and assumptions and I don't think I could find three other people to read the book and commit to four sessions. Alas.
The game is GMless (though weirdly it doesn't ever say that explicitly, at least not that I can find). It works best with 4 players, and in fact needs variant rules for anything else. Every player has a Protagonist, but also plays some narrative role in another character's story (be it antagonists or supporting cast or whatever).
All of that is fairly straightforward, at least as far as dirty hippie indie games go, but the conflict system relies on a series of key phrases. In practice it's not hard, but getting a group to learn the flow would be difficult, I think.
Anyway, the setting is 11th century Iberia, you're playing a Muslim knight, but the story is meant to be tragic and fraught is conflict between faith and belief and so on. Cool, let's make a character!
Step One is a name. I think I would like to make a muladi knight, that is someone who converted to Islam. Let's name him Onorio.
Step Two is values; Zeal is 4, Solitude and Unity are 1, and Weariness is 0.
Step Three: Aspects under Themes. Themes are Abilities, Office, Fate, and Blessings. I get Knight of the Order of [wherever] under Office; the group would decide where we are. I'll say "Toledo" both because that's the one the example group chooses and it's my hometown (not the one in Spain, claro). Under Blessings, I get Toledo-Forged Sword, and under Abilities, I get Man of Reason. Under Fate, I'd get an Aspect that the whole group develops. Hmm. It's meant to be a recurrent idea or something that becomes important over the course of the game, not necessarily an actual fate for the characters. How about Event: The Great Fire? I like, the image of a knight (or a group of them) watching a city burn is nicely evocative.
Step Four: I make up two more Aspects, under whichever Theme(s) I like. Let's see. We know that Onorio is a convert from Christianity. I'm gonna give him a Fate Aspect of Item: Hidden Catechism (something he was given as a child and has kept secret, not that he's secretly Christian or anything, but just out of sentimental value). And then I think I'd like an Ability, maybe? Sure, I'll take Skill: Rider. Onorio is an expert horseman.
Step Five is Cosmos. This is basically who's in a character's orbit. Star characters have a hierarchical or societal relationship, Moon characters have a close emotional relationship, Infidel (kinda breaking theme, there, shoulda called them "comet" or something) are antagonists. The book recommends not more than two or three entries per section so that it's not too cluttered, which I think is reasonable.
Well, the fact that Onorio held onto his catechism for sentimental reasons implies some favorable relationship with his family, maybe his old priest? I'll put his father, Alvaro, under Moon (that he's under Moon would imply that our relationship is mostly emotional rather than dad being a strict authority figure). And why not, I'll put his priest over under Star...or maybe Infidel? Ooh, kinda dig that. Padre Victor can be real put out that I converted.
Onorio is an expert horseman, so I want to reflect that. I'll put Ahmed over under Star, and say that he's the knight that trained Onorio how to ride and fight from horseback. Our relationship is pretty much all business, at least at the start of the story.
One more Infidel - Ghassan. He's a tax collector, and specifically is charged with collecting taxes from dhimmi (non-Muslim folks who haven't converted). He is not a fan of Onorio and makes it a point to collect from his father.
I feel like I've got a pretty strong sense of Onorio here, actually. Were I actually playing this game, I would probably throw some names without context into Moon and Star and let the other players flesh out who they are in play, but since this is just for the ol' chargen project, I think we're good!
Onorio is a young man, lightweight and wiry (being big and burly doesn't really mesh with him being so effective on horseback). His Arabic is broken and basic, but he's learning. He speaks slowly and deliberately, particularly where matters of faith are concerned, because he doesn't want to reflexively say some Christian shit and get himself (or his father) in trouble.
Shanghai Noon is one of several buddy movies from the late 90s/early naughties starring Jackie Chan. This one also stars Owen Wilson, Lucy Liu, Brandon Merrill, Xander Berkeley, Roger Yuan, and Walton Goggins.
Chon Wang (Chan) is an Imperial Guard in China, and has a distant crush on Princess Pei Pei (Liu). When she is kidnapped, he follows along with his uncle (Henry O), the royal translator, to try and get her back. His uncle is killed during a train robbery, and thus begins the hijinks!
The leader of the train robbers, Roy O'Bannon (Wilson) isn't really interested in killing or hurting anyone, but made the mistake picking up an unstable new member (Goggins, happily chewing scenery). In any case, it follows the usual buddy movie beats - Chon and Roy meet, fight, meet, fight, get forced into a situation where they have to work together, and finally learn the stakes. The kidnapping was orchestrated by Lo Fung (Yuan), a former Imperial Guard and traitor to China, now a rich man effectively using Chinese slave labor to build railroads. Roy also has his own bete noir, a US Marshall named Van Cleef (Berkeley), who winds up a hired gun for Lo Fung.
Anyway, this all comes to a head in a climactic battle in a church, because obviously.
Shanghai Noon is standard buddy-cop (kinda, they aren't cops) story formula, which lives or dies on the conflict and chemistry between the leads. Fortunately, both Chan and Wilson are very funny, and unlike Rush Hour, which kinda let Chris Tucker's energy overshadow Chan's, in this movie both of them have time to be funny. Also, the movie doesn't try to make Wilson equally good in a fight - he's a fuckup when it comes to physical stuff (well, he can ride well, I guess), meaning that Chan's impressive stunt work shines. (And, this despite the fact that while Chan's character is an Imperial Guard, he's not really meant to be one of the better ones, so the movie actually allows him to look lucky as well as good sometimes.)
The supporting cast is solid, though for the most part they don't get a lot to do. Brandon Merrill plays a Native woman that winds up married to Chon Wang, and then basically follows him around for the whole movie and saves his ass when necessary. Lucy Liu is, I'm sorry to say, kind of wasted as Pei Pei - she's a much more capable actress than the role she has. Both Yuan and Berkeley get to be cool and evil as the villains, and Goggins gets to be comic-relief villainy, which is a weird niche but he's made it work in a few movies since.
Lots of anachronisms, mostly in the dialog, and a few jokes that don't really land ("I don't know karate, but I know kah-razy" - c'mon, now), and too many Kid Rock songs on the soundtrack (that is, one), but overall it's a fun action comedy that doesn't ask us to root for cops, and that's nice.
Actually, coyotes don't really sound like that. I know because they meet at the old abandoned church near my house and then split up to go do coyote shit at night, and they yip and howl at each other, and I know it sounds like I'm talking about the plot of a Werewolf game, but it's true.
The Game:Coyote The Publisher:Post World Games Degree of Familiarity: None Books Required: Just the one, looks like
So, the Protocol Game Series is, well, a series of games that are designed to be GMless and zero-prep. I just have the one (it was in a bundle I bought), and it looks to share some DNA with Fiasco and other games that go scene-by-scene with each player taking on narrative duties, which is cool. The setting for this particular game is that we're immigrants being smuggled into a new nation by the titular coyote. The nations aren't specified, however, but the setting assumes that the immigrants are going to go work in manufacturing and basically be under someone's thumb, so um.
ANYWAY, let's make a character. First thing I do is pick a Role. These don't have mechanical effect, they're just kind of there for a starting point. I think I'll go with Criminal. I'm fleeing my old country and going to somewhere else to start over, because I would, justifiably or not, be imprisoned or shot in my homeland. I'll wait for specifics until I do more of chargen, since some of it is random.
Speaking of which, let's determine my motivation! King of diamonds translates to...responsibility, respect. Huh. Well, let's assume my character is part of an organized crime family or cartel or whatever. He got into some kind of squabble with another family member, and the patriarch settled it by telling him to fuck off ("you lost all your LA privileges").
Relationship would be next, but I think it requires another PC? Well, not necessarily, I guess. It just defines a relationship between my character and another one making the journey, so I can do it. Drawing a card gives me the 7 of clubs, which is burden, jealousy. Oof. Hey, what if the guy I was beefing with is also banished? We caused so much trouble that we both got kicked out. Doesn't really explain "jealous," though. Yeah, that's too much mental gymnastics.
Let's say this instead: I paid for passage here by agreeing to watch out for one of the other immigrants. I know that she's got a family and a life waiting for her in our new country, something much better than I do, but if anything happens to her I'm screwed.
The next bit would be world-building; there are a bunch of questions about the setting and we'd each answer a couple if this were a real boy game. In fact, there are 8, so I shall roll a d8 twice and answer two of them randomly.
My questions thus rolled are: How long will you have to live here before you can return home? Can you return home? and How much do you still owe your coyote? What happens if you don't pay? How soon do you have to pay?
Well, the first one's easy: I can't go home. I'm banished for life. The second one, I'm gonna say that my debt and my charge's debt have already been covered, but I need to protect her. Anything happens to her, the coyote is going to kill me.
That's chargen, then. Just need a name. Let's call him Pietr Czolgosz. Young (early 20s), black hair, brown eyes, noticeable mole on his neck. Scars on the face and hands, and one of his fingers is permanently just a little out of shape. Wears a pair of very nice hiking boots, a kind of sarcastic "gift" from someone in the Family.
Rear Window is a thriller/comedy directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter, and Wendall Corey. It's also the first movie that comes up if you type "rear" into the search bar in IMBD, thank goodness.
L. B. Jeffries (Stewart) is a globetrotting photographer who gets laid up with a broken leg after trying to take pictures of a car race in the middle of the track. Going a bit stir-crazy in his apartment, he passes the time in the incredibly hot summer months (with the mercury reaching almost 90! OMG!) watching his neighbors across the courtyard. He has little nicknames for all of them and is generally following their lives with some amusement, chatting about what he sees to Stella (Ritter), the nurse who comes to massage his muscles and look in on him every day. He's also coping with relationship problems with his girlfriend Lisa (Kelly), a socialite; he feels that her lifestyle and his won't actually mesh long-term.
And then one night while he's sleeping in his wheelchair, he hears a scream and breaking glass. He wakes and watches his neighbor Lars Thornwald (Burr) making several trips out in the rain with a suitcase, and slowly becomes convince that Thornwald has murdered and possibly dismembered his bedridden wife (Irene Winston). From there, it's a murder mystery as the sleuth - Jeffries - calls in favors from his police detective friend Doyle (Corey) to try and pin down what happened to Mrs. Thornwald.
I guess calling this movie a thriller/comedy might not be entirely accurate? I don't know, I think it fits. The scenes between Kelly and Stewart definitely play like a comedy, and the dialog remains snappy throughout. As always, there are some scenes that seem kind of quaint to modern eyes - it's a Big Screaming Deal that Lisa is going to spend the night at Jeffries' apartment, even though they make sure to point out that they're not actually going to sleep together (gasp!). I do enjoy that the movie takes a bit of time to point out that spying on one's neighbors and hoping for something sordid is kind of ghoulish, and I like that it provides enough evidence for Jeffries to reasonably continue to suspect Thornwald while at the same time not providing anything so obvious that Doyle is a complete idiot for not taking it seriously.
Michelle loves this movie and we were talking about how a remake/update might work. I think it's one of those movies that probably doesn't work if you have modern technology and setting, but maybe if social media, our modern-day equivalent of peeing in open windows, were more involved?
Well, boy-howdy, it's been a while since we played this. On we go!
The characters decide that Grimmy needs to be free of his magical prison. Locke falls asleep and projects her astral form, and sees the spell sitting on Grimmy's back - a horrible lump of putty-like, yellow gunk with tiny fibers puncturing him. She uses her magic to make it visible to the other cats, and then yowls at it. Heck screams at it to get its attention and it astrally attacks Locke, but Grimmy lashes out at Heck. Hobbes realizes that to use Naming magic, he needs a conduit, so he zips off to the debris around the shed to catch a mousie. Sledge, not entirely sure what's going on (it was explained, but Sledge is Big Brawl, Small Brain after all) uses his Absorb spell so that any punishment Grimmy takes will get bounced over to him.
Locke yowls at the spell, flaying some of its ick away, and Hobbes comes back with a mouse and bites it, inflicting the damage on the spell. It responds by trying to flow into Grimmy's body, controlling him completely, but Sledge comes over and sits on Grimmy, immobilizing him. Hobbes bites at the mouse again, killing it, and reducing the spell to nothing. Grimmy coughs up a disgusting lump of chewed salmon and fish bones, and his eyes open - finally free of it.
He tells the characters that he's been enslaved by Jenna for some time now - she is able to speak with animals and forced him to give up the secrets of cats, explaining how their magic works. Hobbes, as a Parliamentarian, considers that he might need to bring Grimmy in for discipline, but they have bigger issues at present. Grimmy explains that the Feast of Magic that Locke foresaw will happen at the judging ceremony of this cat show - Jenna intends to absorb and consume the magic of all the cats there!
Obviously this cannot stand. Heck suggests slicing up her face with her claws, but Sledge points out this might have consequences they don't want to deal with. Locke points out that buildings have boxes on their walls that cause the buildings to yowl, and sometimes even drench their inhabitants with water. Sledge knows where this switch is, and they decide that this is their attack - they will wait until the ceremony begins, and then make the building yowl. The chaos, they hope, will stop the ceremony and prevent Jenna from casting her spell.
The next day, the judging ceremony takes place in one of the conference rooms with Awesome Rafters. Sledge and Hobbes lurk up there, while Heck sits with her Burden in the audience. Locke, of course, is on the table with the other cats (and her Burden). Jenna gets up and talks with the other humans there about how she hopes this cat show can become a yearly thing, makes some bad jokes, but the cats notice that the humans in the room seem to be warming to her. Locke passes the word along to the other cats to scatter when she yowls...and then she yowls. Immediately the cats jump from the table, Ready for Trouble!
Heck jumps off her Burden's lap and uses her Shaping magic to give herself longer fingers, and jumps up and pulls the fire alarm. The Building Yowls, and all is chaos. Sledge bats at the spigots on the ceilings and triggers the Smelly Water, and everyone starts running around crazy-like trying to wrangle the cats.
Jenna, for her part, stands firm, makeup running down her face and hair soaked like a swamp witch, and whispers "God, I hate cats" to herself. And then she splays her fingers and every cat in the room feels their magic start to drain away.
The characters, however, aren't going down without a fight! Locke yowls at Jenna, distracting her while Heck sneaks under a table to launch a surprise attack. Hobbes nabs another mouse to begin his Naming attack, and Sledge calls up the shadows around him as armor. Heck leaps out of the waters (using the Caaaaaaat! stunt) and Jenna pitches over the table in fear. Hobbes chomps down on the mouse, and Jenna's arm snaps. She screams in pain and the magic stops.
All of the cats with owners are taken away. Locke's Burden, Cherry, grumbles about the scathing post she's going to make about this shitshow. Brian, Heck's Burden, takes her off to bathe her (which Heck grudgingly accepts given that she is part cerval). Hobbes, who is a Ladykiller, goes off to meet some of the lovely lady-cats from the show before they all get taken home. And Sledge shows Grimmy, who has decided to stay here at the resort, the best places to nap.
Psycho is, of course, a horror movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, and Simon Oakland.
Marion Crane (Leigh) and her boyfriend Sam Loomis (Gavin) want very much to get married and stop seeing each other in cheap motels, but Sam is in a great deal of debt and is paying alimony to his ex-wife. Marion returns to work after their little tryst, only to discover that her boss (Frank Albertson) is selling a property to a flashy rich dude (Vaughn Taylor), and said rich dude is paying in cash. Marion is instructed to take the cash to the bank, but she steals it and flees the city, planning to go to Sam in California.
Along the way, she gets caught in a storm and pulls off to the out-of-the-way Bates Motel. The proprietor, Norman (Perkins), seems nice enough, if a bit odd. But then we find that he peeps on her through a hole in the wall, and he seems to be dealing with his elderly but overbearing mother.
And then, of course, Marion takes a shower, and an unknown figure enters and stabs her to death. Norman finds her body, cleans up the scene, and sinks her car (and her possessions, including the money, which he never finds) in the swamp.
The rest of the movie follows Marion's sister Lila (Miles), Sam, and a private investigator name Arbogast (Balsam) as they search for Marion and try to piece together what happened to her. Of course, we all know the twist ending - Norman's mother is long dead, and her personality overwhelms his sometimes, at which point he dresses up like her and, when "she" feels it appropriate, kills people.
It's difficult to overstate how much influence Psycho has had on the horror genre, and on cinema in general. The score, with its terrifying violins, is iconic, as is Anthony Perkins' amazing performance as Norman Bates (and it got him hella typecast). Likewise, the twist of killing off the apparent protagonist midway through the movie was shocking to contemporary audiences - in fact, Psycho is partially responsible for movies having set showtimes rather than running on a loop.
The movie mostly holds up to modern scrutiny, although the whole "mentally ill people are deranged killers" thing is kind of problematic in its own right. Psycho is very much a movie that requires you to take the historical context into account in order to get the most of out of it. With that said, the performances are solid, and the direction is top notch, absolutely one of Hitchcock's best.
I always appreciate a group willing to walk into a possible (probable!) TPK. Here's last time.
Our heroes are in the passages in the mountain overlooking the city of Cyrene in the country of Dabba. They've destroyed a powerful demon, but now they have a lake of evil magical lotus flowers and a room full of the mindless but mighty servants called Gallu to deal with.
They walk into the room and the Gallu stare dumbly at them. Eithne conjures up a powerful spell and throws a blast of fire into their midst, killing many and wounding others. Imani charges into battle, but the Gallu almost immediately grapple her and start trying to pull her down. Akala takes to the skies and shouts at the Gallu, distracting them and pulling focus, while Thanos casts a spell of his own. He picks up a handful of sand and throws it at the Gallu, and it billows up into a sandstorm that flays flesh from bone.
Akala swoops down and grabs one by the harness and pulls him into the lake, and sees that the Gallu immediately stops thrashing and begins to sink, a blissful look on his face. She tries to do it to another, but she isn't quite strong enough and the Gallu strikes her with a club. Eithne casts a spell and knocks Gallu down like bowling pins, and Thanos casts a spell at Imani and makes her flesh exude slimy, slick mucus. She slips from the Gallu's grasp and smashes two of them together, and then lowers her head and charges, impaling two and knocking another into the lake.
Eithne tries to summon up more fire, but fails (she actually sneezes during the spell and interrupts it). The Gallu rush her, and one of them buries a khopesh in her side. She falls, bleeding, nearly dying. Akla tries to swoop around to help her, but a Gallu cracks her on the head with a club and she falls unconscious as well.
Thanos, realizing that he and Imani probably can't handle all of these Gallu by themselves and worried that they'll finish off his friends (or worse, throw them into the lake), calls upon his dark arts again. He rakes his claws down his arm, and then slams his bloodied hand against the ground. The blood flows into the earth, and then up and into Eithne and Akala's mouths. They rise, functional, but still weak, and Eithne calls upon her most powerful weapon - her name.
She speaks her Soul Name in the language of the Jinn, and summons up magic once again. The colors in the room - blood, skin, the lotus flowers, even the rocks and earth - growing vibrant and bright, while Eithne herself fades to an ashen grey. Magic light lances out in all directions and cuts the remaining Gallu to pieces, and they fall, dismembered, to the ground. Eithne, likewise, collapses, exhausted.
Akala rushes to her and tries to help, but the spell that Thanos cast wears off and both Akala and Eithne pass out. Imani and Thanos stabilize them, but then hear a horrible howling cacophony coming down the tunnel as the first rays of the rising sun become visible. A horde of demons explodes into the room, but do not recognize the heroes in the midst of all of the gore. They flow into the lake, and the waters rise, and then become still.
Imani and Thanos pick up their friends and carry them out and down the mountain. Imani finds a clearing with some cover from the elements, hidden from easy view, and they rest. They have won a major victory against the Lotus Cult, but their work has just begun.
The Game: The World of Indiana Jones The Publisher: West End Games Degree of Familiarity: None with the game, seen the movies Books Required:Masterbook and Indiana Jones
Honestly, it's not a terrible game. I mean, I probably wouldn't run it because I have games like Temples & Tombs and Troubleshooters and Spirit of the Century, but it holds together pretty well. The book has a pretty extensive timeline of Indiana Jones adventures, including the novels and the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (but not Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, since the game came out before that particular train wreck).
What's interesting, though, is that the game doesn't want us to play Indy and his friends. And that actually makes a lot of sense. For one thing, Indy is kind of the exemplar in the setting, and as the book rather clumsily points out, the fun part would be developing that kind of character. For another, while Indy has sidekicks and chums along the way, a lot of them die or betray him, and he very rarely has more than one or two; not exactly conducive to an RPG group. So the focus is on building a character that can have Indy-style adventures, and that's cool with me!
I want to make a treasure hunter, but I don't necessarily want to have Indy's motivation ("It belongs in a museum!"). Instead, I think my treasure hunter is more interested in finding the treasures and learning the legends, and recording those. If you take a treasure from its resting place, you risk cave-ins, curses, angry natives, and so on. If you just find it and snap a few pictures, well, you're actually still risking much of that, but you don't have to carry as much back.
So, treasure hunter/photographer? Or maybe artist, since cameras at this point in history are big and clunky? I know I want the guy to have some money, so maybe the disillusioned son of a wealthy family. We'll call him Chauncey Horton, but he goes by "Chance", because, like, obviously.
That's concept pretty well locked down, so next up, Attributes! I get 68 points to spend on the 8 of them, and I need to check Masterbook to see if it's one-for-one. Yes indeed! Average is about 8, max is 13. Let's see. I could put 8 in all of them and have 4 left over. Do I wish to do that? I think I do, I don't see Chance as being especially weak anywhere. Let's put two extra points each into Agility and Mind.
Skills! (Well, Dervied Attributes, but I'm always squirrelly about doing those until the end of chargen.) I get 20 Skill points, and I have to deal with "skill adds" and so on. Let's see.
OK, this isn't all that hard. It's one-for-one unless you're buying specializations, can't take more than three adds in a given skill, not more than a total of 5 with a specialization. No problem. Now, there are entirely too many Skills, but that's a different problem.
Well, in general, I want Chance to be good at climbing, wriggling through tight passages, solving puzzles, taking pictures, and getting people to tell him stories. Probably also he'll need some skill in linguistics, since I seem to remember this game not having a terribly forgiving languages mechanic. So given all that:
That's 20! Now I get Advantages and Compensations. I can take three Column I, two Column II, and one Column III Advantages, but I have to balance them out with Compensations. Let's see then!
Well, I know I want Wealth, at least Wealth II. Maybe III? Dunno yet. Yeah, let's just do Wealth II. There are some Special Abilities in the Indiana Jones book I like, so I'll take one of those for my III - let's make it Sense of Direction.
I want a photographer that travels with me, a kind of Marcus Brody to my Indy. I'll take Contacts I and say that Elle Fox is a former socialite whose family lost everything in the Crash (the Hortons kept their money, somehow...maybe I'll take a Compensation related to that). Elle is a skilled shutterbug, but she'd much rather be taking artistic photographs in New York than following Chance across a desert or whatever. Chance always pays well, though.
Let's see, I've two Is and a II left. I'll take Fame I (rich family, and I'm sure Chance winds up in the papers sometimes) and Additional Skill Adds I and put it into Perception. For my II, I'll take Equipment II. Money can buy most things, but Chance knows how to find illegal or exotic things as well.
Now, Compensations. Well, right off, I want Advantage Flaw I to represent that Elle is largely unsuited to the rigors of Chance's work (which leads to hilarious hijinks when they try to, say, climb a mountain). I'll take Price I and tie it to Wealth; if he wants to spend his money, he has to go and visit his family in Connecticut and explain why he needs the cash. And I'll take Prejudice I - in the States, he's a rich kid but he's a black sheep among the actual elite, and elsewhere he's a rich white guy.
Probably I should figure out my CIII Compensation, since that'll be the biggie. I'll take Achilles' Heel, and say that Chance freezes up if someone points a gun at him. He's willing to use a gun to shoot strategically (break a window, snap a rope), but never at another person, and he's afraid of being shot.
For my two CIIs, I'll take Debt and Sense of Duty. The Debt is how the Horton family kept their money; the family as a whole owes ongoing support and fealty to a prominent New York crime family, and sometimes they have Chance help them out with a little surveillance or B&E (no violence, though; they know Chance isn't good for it). The Sense of Duty is Chance's belief that looting the treasures of the past is wrong and dangerous - "Leave only footprints, take only stories" is his motto. (In practice it tends to be "leave only collapsed tunnels and take only stories and maybe whatever Elle managed to pocket," but y'know.)
OK, now let's do Derived Attributes. 9 Toughness, 5 Life Points, movement rates, done and done!
Chauncey "Chance" Horton is 21, tall, blond, blue eyes, and looks like a "Chauncey" as much as he hates the name. When he's at home with his family he dresses in suits and ties and nice sweaters and so forth, but when he's out in the field he favors shirts with pockets, an old Army coat (it was his father's), and an under-arm holster for his revolver. Chance has a dazzling smile and an affable, vaguely clueless air about him, but mostly that's to make people feel at ease talking in front of him.
Tonight we played a Pugmire one-shot! Arf arf! Our characters:
Petunia Pibble, Artisan/Pointer. Petunia is a country dog, from the village of Ellendonk. She is inquisitive to fault, and wants to learn about everything.
Peppa Pappilon, Shepherd/Companion. Peppa is an Acolyte of the Church of Man, and travels all around preaching the Code to those that listen. She is also incapable of staying clean; mud just seems to call to her.
Douglas Canaan, Ratter/Herder. Douglas runs a shop in Riverwall, and sells weapons and...other items. He's been known to fence stolen goods, and just can't seem to stop himself from pinching little items.
Dazolm "Dire" Newfoundland, Guardian/Fettle. Dire is very large dog, and joined a criminal gang fairly young to help put food on the table for his family. He left the gang and stole the boss' special obsidian dagger, and while he's not officially a criminal anymore, he's still very much rough and tumble.
Gromp, Ratter/Mutt. Gromp grew up in Riverwall and ran with a bunch of petty thieves and street kids. He's still a cutpurse when necessary, but he steals to help out his community and nothing is more important to him than his neighborhood.
On this particular morning, Peppa is ouside Granny Sue's (a tavern in the poor district of Riverwall), preaching and handing out leaflets. A police dog approaches her and asks her if she knows a cat named Kadjit Brykovi; she does. Kadjit is a convert to the Church of Man, and is a friend of hers. Kadjit actually made the symbol of the Church that Peppa wears.
Kadjit, it seems, is in jail, and has asked to talk to Peppa. The police dog leads her to the guardhouse, and Peppa is led into the cells to talk to her friend. Kadjit is in bad shape. He is disheveled and his robes are bloodied. Peppa learns that Kadjit was found in an alley with the bodies of two dead police dogs, and he is being charged with their murder. Kadjit insists that he is innocent of this crime, and Peppa believes him. He says that he was walking home and felt a prick in the back of his neck (he thought it was a flea) and then woke up later in that alley.
Peppa notes that Kadjit has not been given bedding or water, and demands to speak to the guard captain. The captain, Dante German, tells Peppa that Kadjit will be tried for these crimes, but Peppa insists that he is innocent. Dante tells her that she's welcome to testify as a character witness, and Peppa demands that Kadjit be given the same respect as any other prisoner that has not been declared guilty.
As she leaves, a small dog in a blue hood approaches her. Peppa recognizes Princess Yosha Pug, but the princess gestures for her to stay quiet. Yosha tells Peppa that she doesn't believe Kadjit is guilty, but that the whole situation - a cat accused of murdering two police dogs - has the potential to turn political very quickly. If it does, it won't matter what the truth actually is. Yosha can't investigate this herself, but perhaps Peppa could look into it?
Peppa agrees, and heads back to Granny Sue's to find some help. She is approached by Dire, who saw her getting led away by police and wants to check in. She explains the situation to Dire, and also Petunia, who overhears, and then notices that Granny Sue is wearing a black armband.
Peppa approaches the bar and asks Sue what happened, and Sue tells her that her grandniece, Vera Weimaraner, was one of the police dogs killed. Peppa very delicately tells Sue that she doesn't believe Kadjit is guilty, and Sue, while she doesn't necessarily trust a cat, does trust Peppa and agrees to reserve judgment. Douglas and Gromp are sitting at the bar talking business, and also offer to help - they both know Kadjit from around the way.
Gromp, not the most patient of dogs, leaves and heads to the alley where the bodies were found. He climbs to the roof and scouts the alley - it's a dead end, great for an ambush. He hops down and finds bloody bootprints, all from fairly small shoes, which unfortunately doesn't disprove the idea that cats were involved. He also finds a door leading into a storefront, but seems to recall that a gang was using this place as a base. Not wanting to break into a gang hideout, he heads back towards the bar and meets the others on the way there.
Gromp tells them what he found, and they all five of them go have a look. It's like Gromp said - small bootprints, locked door, blind alley. It occurs to Douglas that the Unseen could make a dog (or a cat) do something horrible like this, and so Petunia casts her Smell Magic spell, but doesn't detect anything. The dogs decide to split up. Douglas is going to go and visit a friend of his at the docks (Gromp goes along with), while the others go back to the jail to talk to Kadjit again. Petunia wants to smell him.
At the docks, Douglas talks to her contact, Billy Bulldog. Billy tells her that as far as he knows, the gang that was using that storefront was the Nippers, a gang of smaller dogs that are willing to (among other things) take on violence-for-hire. He was under the impression they'd abandoned that building, though. Gromp knows one of the Nippers, a fellow named Clyger Fox. He sends word to Clyger that folks are looking for the Nippers and that they should be careful.
At the jail, Peppa notes that Kadjit seems to be in pain. She casts a spell to heal him, and is livid when she realizes one (or more) of the guards might have worked him over. Petunia sniffs him and doesn't smell magic or Unseen. She also realizes that she has a relative here - her second cousin's husband's brother's nephew, Patrick Pibble! She asks to speak to Patrick, who pulls some strings and gets put on prisoner detail, and agrees to make sure that no one hurts Kadjit.
The characters reconvene, and Gromp puts out the question: Who would stand to benefit from a cat taking the fall for the murder of police dogs? He and Petunia both come to the same realization: The Friends of Man, a hardline group of dogs that often foments stress between species. They might well have hired the Nippers to kill the dogs and frame Kadjit. Kadjit, after all, is a cat who converted to the Church, which would absolutely piss off the Friends.
They decide to search the inside of the storefront and try and find some hard evidence. Dire smashes in the door, and the characters search the room. They find more bloody footprints, and then Dire picks up a chair and feels a jab in his paw. He raises up the paw to reveal a dart, and starts to feel woozy. Peppa tries to heal him with herbs and manages to get him on his feet, but he's still dizzy. Petunia, meanwhile, finds a trap door going down. Gromp opens it and zips down, running ahead (Gromp never has time to plan).
Gromp wishes, however, that he planned a bit, as he comes face to face with a giant hairless rat! The dire rat bites him on the shoulder and he turns tail and runs, calling for the others. Douglas drops down and and spots two of these huge rats closing in, and shoots one with an arrow. The others drop down; Petunia fires a spell at the rats but misses. Peppa blesses the dogs, and Dire draws his greatsword and attacks!
Unfortunately, he's still dizzy. He misjudges the height of the ceiling, hits it with his sword, and falls on his back. Gromp sneaks behind a rat and buries his hand ax in its back, and Douglas slides in and slits its throat, killing it. Petunia charges at the remaining rat, but trips over the dead one and lands on the corpse. Gromp stabs the other rat, Douglas flings his knife at it (but misses), and Dire finally pulls himself to his feet. He lands a blow with his greatsword and chops the rat in half!
The threat abated, the characters can collect their wits. Peppa heals Dire, Douglas and Gromp search the rats, and Petunia tracks them door the tunnel and finds a nest! Fortunately, the nest is empty of more rats, but she finds the remains of leather armor, clothes, boots, and a broken blowgun. Snagged on one of the rats' teeth, Gromp finds a scrap of red fabric. Douglas identifies it as probably from a cloak. The characters believe they've found the remains of one of the Nippers, and they've found how Kadjit was poisoned.
They go back up, and find Clyger Fox waiting for them. Clyger tells Gromp that if he'd known they were going down there, he'd have warned them about the rats. Gromp tells Clyger that they think that rats killed the police dogs (that's obviously not true, but it means Gromp has some deniability). Gromp and Clyger decide to head to Granny Sue's, while the others go to the jail to present the evidence to Captain German.
German, after examining what they've found and doing some analysis of his own (including having a healer look at a puncture on the back of Kadjit's neck) agrees - the Nippers seem to have been responsible for killing the police dogs and trying to frame Kadjit. He releases Kadjit, and they all head back to Granny Sue's for some food and drink, celebrating the fact that Kadjit is, in fact, innocent of this crime.
The Game: Fight Item Run The Publisher:Whimsy Machine Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular game, but it's PbtA Books Required: Just the one, beep boop
Fight Item Run is a PbtA game inspired by 90s platformer and video RPGs, which is weird. Like, using PbtA as a nostalgia vector, OK, but I never really thought of pixelated or 8-bit games as something that lend themselves especially well to an actual RPG (video games are not RPGs. Now that I'm not in the industry anymore I don't have to be coy about that. Fight me). I skimmed the game once and felt kind of "meh" about it, but then yesterday I sat down and actually read it carefully, and I have to say, I really like it.
First of all, it knows what it is and doesn't try to be anything else, and man I appreciate that. Second of all, it has a specific length that it shoots for. It wants about 30 hours, mas o menos, meaning about 5-6 sessions. That said, having read it, you can make it a one-shot (which I might well do this week).
And since it's PbtA, chargen is simple and quick like a bunny, so hippity-hop, motherfuckers.
So, the first thing we do here is come up with a name and a general sense of personality and aesthetic. Well, I think I shall go against my usual instincts and make someone vibrant, bright, colorful, and energetic! Their name is Vivid! They always use exclamation points! Their personal soundtrack is by AJR!
(No slot on the sheet for personality or appearance notes, or pronouns, which I only bring up because the chargen section makes a point of mentioning them.)
Stats! We've got four, and I get 0, 0, 1, 1. Let's see. I want Vivid to be a magic-y sort of person, so I'll put the 1s in SP and DMG. That leaves the 0s in ACC and DEF.
Now we pick a Class. Well, I think the best option here is Elementalist. That bumps my SP up by 1, and gives me the Magictwist move, and my ComboPlus is that I can use SP instead of DMG when using a combo. My Secret is that I know of a bizarre phenomenon that only happens inside the dungeon, but I'd suss that out mostly in play. I think that a "wellspring of energy" would figure in somehow, though.
Gear! Every character has six pieces of Gear, and you find better shit in the dungeon. When everyone gets a new set of Gear, you level up and move to the next, erm, level. Starting Gear is purely cosmetic, but it still helps to determine aesthetic and so on. So!
Head: Vivid has colorful paint on their face and hair.
Body: Bright red and yellow robes.
Legs: Blue silk boots.
Arms:Green gloves, fingertips exposed.
Handheld: Chroma-buckler (a small shield woven together from dew and rainbows)
Accessory: Short staff adorned with colored ribbons
Items! I get ACC+3 (or 3, in my case) items, rolled randomly. OK, I get Poison (hmm, little off brand for Vivid, maybe it's a hallucinogenic or something), Battle Horn (much better!), and a Smokescreen. Awesome!
The last step would be Schools of Magic, but that's not necessarily something you'd start with and honestly I'm not 100% sure I'd pick one up for Vivid anyway, so I'ma leave that one.
And that's basically it! Vivid is dressed like a rainbow and paints their face with any colors they can't fit elsewhere. "Stealth" is something that other people do, Vivid is large & in charge, delving deep into this dungeon to find a fabled wellspring of energy! Woo-ha!
I'd make a joke about goat-demons, but it'd be really niche (like, just for the folks who played in Michelle's Dresden Files game).
The Game:Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game The Publisher:Evil Hat Productions Time: About 10-20 minutes per game Players: Me, Michelle, Jenn, Chris, & Gus
Game Play: Dresden Files is sort of a deck-builder, but really its closest cousin is the Fate RPG. Everyone gets a deck representing a character from the novels (Harry Dresden is the only one that has to be represented; others include Michael Carpenter, Susan Rodriguez, and Billy and his werewolf pack). You play against a specific book, and each book deck includes enemies, mysteries, obstacles and advantages.
Players play cards to overcome obstacles, place "hits" on enemies, put clues on mysteries, and pick up advantages. The trick is that all of these cards have a cost in Fate points, and you get points back by discarding cards. Everyone also has a stunt that they can use once per game.
Punching out cardboard chits: The "unlimited breadsticks" of board games
The trick is that unlike most deck-builders, you don't refresh your hand. There are cards that let you draw more cards, but they're few and far between. For the most part, you're only ever going to play the four cards you draw at the outset, maybe one more. Once you're out of cards and you've used your stunt, you've got nothing to do on your turn but pass, and that costs a Fate point.
A lot of cards have static costs and effects, but a bunch also have a random element. A card might cost 2 Fate points, but then have you roll a Fate die and apply the result, meaning the card would cost 3, 2, or 1 points depending on what you roll.
Once folks are out of cards and can't pass, or once the table decides to do so, you move on to the Showdown. That sounds like a bigger deal than it is; mostly it gives you the opportunity to put more hits and clues on cards, and then if you've solved more cases than there are outstanding foes, the team wins!
Opinions: Figuring out how to play the game was easy enough, but we got our asses handed to us the first time out because we didn't strategize enough. What cards and stunts are available and in what order they get played is crucial, and you cannot play with a group if folks are going to go solo and expect to win.
But with that said, the game is challenging and replayable. We only played one book (lost once, won the second time), and between the nifty artwork and the fast and smooth but difficult game play, it's gonna be one to revisit.
The Birds is a horror/drama directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Tippi Hendren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, and Veronica Cartwright.
The bulk of the drama and action of the movie, and the bits that everyone knows, happen when thousands of birds attack a seaside California town. We know the shot of Tippi Hendren in a phone booth or Suzanne Pleshette surrounded by crows, and the shots of seagulls and so on flying around pell-mell.
The circumstances that bring the characters together in said town, however, have nothing to do with birds or horror. Socialite Melanie Daniels (Hendren) gets into a verbal sparring match with attorney Mitch Brenner (Taylor), and follows him out to the aforementioned town where his mother Lydia (Tandy) lives with her younger daughter Cathy (Carthwright). Daniels puts forth a lot of effort to give Brenner a pair of lovebirds (it makes sense in context) and basically tell him to sod off, but softens and winds up getting snuggly with him over the course of the movie. The birds, meanwhile, traumatize and attack the characters, until finally the four of them manage to get to a car and head out of town, still surrounded by birds.
We watched this movie very late last night and a little tipsy, and some of the other folks were really tickled by the melodrama and by how free everyone was with other people's information (Daniels, in particular, has no trouble asking complete strangers where Brenner lives and how to find him, and actually goes and introduces herself to Brenner's ex, Annie (Pleshette) just to learn his sister's name). And, sure, it's a 1963 movie and the filmmaking style, dialog, and just the norms of the time seem weird or quaint. But there's some genuine moments of tension and horror (Lydia finding the eyeless body of her neighbor, Melanie getting attacked in an attic) mixed in with what might otherwise be a rom-com.
It's a weird, fun, mix of genres, and even if the effects look dated, the movie holds up.
