Character Creation: Figment

Last character of the month!

The Game: Figment
The Publisher: Planarian
Degree of Familiarity: None, but there ain't much to it
Books Required: Just the one

This is a very cute little micro-game in which you make a character (whatever you want, basically) and then you go on an adventure, and throw chops (that is, rock-paper-scissors) as the randomizer. It's meant to be a game for children; I have reservations. Throwing chops isn't actually random; most people have tells. I think that a randomizer in a game for kids actually helps keep things even; there are lots of ways to use random number generation from dice to affect narrative without falling into the traditional RPG trap of combat, damage, and success/failure (I even wrote a game geared at kids to that effect, but I'm not gonna link it because going to the page is triggering for me and I don't feel spending another day in a deep depression this week). 

Anyway, making a Figment character is as simple as a name, a concept, and three "figments" (basically a lightweight form of Aspects). There's no sheet, so I ain't even gonna get off the couch.

So, my Figment character is...a newt (a lot of the examples for this game concern fairy tales, so anthropomorphic animals seem in line). His name is Sherbert. His scales are mostly grey, but he's got a bright pink tummy. He generally wears a waistcoat and a jaunty little hat. 

Three Figments, let's see. Sherbert is something of a worry-wart. He wrings his hands and fiddles with his hat a lot. He's also a really amazing swimmer - I mean, he's a newt, of course he is. And, finally, I'll say that Sherbert is quicker than a wink. 

That's it, that's the whole kit n' kaboodle.

Character Creation: No Angels Live Here

I'd like to get to 100 characters for 2022, which would require 14 more before year's end. I can probably make that happen.

The Game: No Angels Live Here
The Publisher: Thought Police
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

PDF of the game doesn't include the cover, which is annoying

This is a dirty hippie indie game, and I love those, but it's also GM-less, which I love less. Don't get me wrong, some of my favorite RPG experiences have been with GMless games (I've been chasing the high of the first time I played Fiasco for years, and I love The Skeletons and Our Last Best Hope, and A Tragedy in Five Acts, of course), but doing mystery games this way is always tricky. And yeah, you can do it (see also We Used to be Friends), but it's not a natural fit.

So with No Angels Live Here, you're playing a detective in a noir-ish urban supernatural setting, maybe a little more serious than Dresden but not as nutty as Don't Rest Your Head. I love noir, as I've mentioned, so the setting and the idea appeals. The game engine is set up around figuring out options and then rolling for them, though, and it didn't quite click for me. I'm trying to decide if the idea is interesting enough to me to dive back in once I've made a character, and I think the idea is "not tonight because I'm tired and sad", but maybe someday. 

Anyway! No character sheet for this 'n. Chargen proceeds thusly:

A good noir name for my detective, hmm. Let's say his name is Mark Merrill. I don't know that he needs a nickname, but I'll pick one if one occurs to me. 

A good name for the detective agency! This would be a group decision if I had a group, but since I don't, I'll say Merrill's agency is called No Stone Unturned. 

A dark memory...well, having just watch the first episode of Cabinet of Curiosities (which I recommend), my brain is kind of in a "discovery of hideous secrets" place. So we'll say Mark remembers opening his dad's Army footlocker when he was a boy. He doesn't remember what he saw, he just remembers that his dad grabbed him away, tanned his hide, and then took the footlocker out of the house and he never saw it again. But there was something in that box, and it wasn't silent...

Motivation for this line of work! Mark trusts everyone exactly equally. That isn't to say he doesn't trust anyone or that he trusts everyone - he assumes, or rather knows, that everything has a point at which they will stab another person in the leg to make sure they're the one that gets to run away. Everyone has that point. There's no sense in denying it and pretending otherwise. Mark has a good nose for figuring out where that point is for other people, and being a private dick makes good use of that talent.

Talents! I get one Expert, 3 Trained, and one Clumsy. Let's see. 

So, for Expert, I think Examining makes the most sense. For Trained, definitely Awareness, and probably Searching. I think Talking makes sense, too. For Clumsy, I'll make it Protecting. Mark's just not great at being a bodyguard. 

One major Dark Talent and one minor. Well, I think his "know a person's price" thing is a good minor talent, honestly. And then for major...hmm. This is on the level of telekinesis or driving out demons. I think maybe a limited-range teleport; only 20 feet at most and only line of sight, but useful for getting out of jams quickly. 

One Temptation, one Damnation, but these are ratings, not things I describe. 3 Determination, likewise. So that's actually it. 

Mark Merrill wears a grey hat and coat when weather permits (and since this is noir, it'll always be raining, so that's fine). He dresses the part, white shirt and black tie and all. He's balding, which is part of the reason for the hat. He doesn't bother with the "taciturn loner" thing, though - he's happy to talk. Best way to get to know someone and find out what they would and wouldn't do.

Name: Mark Merrill
Agency: No Stone Unturned
Motivation: Got a Knack for Knowing People's Prices
Talents: Examining (Expert), Awareness (Trained), Searching (Trained), Talking (Trained), Protecting (Clumsy)
Dark Talents: Teleport (Major), Know the Soul's Price (Minor)
Temptation: 1 Damnation: 1 Determination: 3 

That'll do it!

Character Creation: Hoodoo Blues

Son of a gun, we'll have big fun, on the bayou (I don't know if that's a quote from anything other than Fletch Lives, but here we are). 

The Game: Hoodoo Blues
The Publisher: Vajra Enterprises
Degree of Familiarity: I mean, I've been to New Orleans (none)
Books Required: Just the one

Vajra Enterprises includes a separate PDF with some of their older games that acts as a kind of disclaimer, not dissimilar to the little placard that precedes some of the older Disney movies nowadays. It basically says that some of their older stuff had some "cringey" elements (that is not a word, guys), and we should look at those games as what they are: flawed and not representative of the company now.

I mention this because Hoodoo Blues, a game about the Deep South and borrowing heavily from the traditions of Haitian and New Orleans Voodoo and Hoodoo, is written by two white dudes, one from Massachusetts (don't know about the other one). I mention that because there's this section early in the book:

And this section goes on to define terms like "African-American," "Black," "white," "honky," and, erm, "n*gger." And, I dunno, I feel like even in 2010 that was an iffy decision. But whatever, I'm not here to tell anybody they're doing it wrong. I'm just here to make a character. 

Actually, the other thing I find kind of uncomfortable about this game is that the PCs - the "ageless", as they're all undying for various reasons - all came by their longevity in some kind of unsavory ways (except maybe Medicine Workers, though they're not so much ageless as aging-very-slowly). 

But quite apart from all that, I see that the game has a compelling setting, but I don't see a hook for the game bit of it. Ageless are meant to be kind of supernatural problem-solvers, and so the game feels very much like a later-stage World of Darkness game, except with a much heavier emphasis on real-world history and practices and less of the intricate supernatural society stuff that tends to define WoD games. 

All of this to say that it's not a game I'd feel compelled to run, although there are occasional glimmers of interesting stuff here. Let's stop dicking around and make a character. 

Step One: Concept. One of the classes in the game (why are they called that that's a D&D term arglebargle) is loup garou, and that's what I want to make. I also happen to know that one of the big decisions to make is how many decades the character has been ageless; both of these things figure pretty heavily into concept, I'd say. 

Well, one of the things I found interesting about the movie Selma was that it took a little time to shine a light on several white folks who came to join the protests. The ones they noted were Viola Liuzzo and James Reeb, both of whom were murdered by white supremacist shitheads. I think I would like to play someone similar, someone who's on the right side of history and maybe thought that his being white would protect him from the worst of it. If I actually put him in the 60s that doesn't give me many decades, but that might be OK (and it won't take as long to finish the character, which is a plus). Though on the other hand, it might be kind of fun to make a character who was made ageless during the Reconstruction. So let's go that way; it'll be a little more time-consuming, but I like the idea better.

So: Timothy Fabre was born in 1852 to a poor family somewhere in Louisiana. I think that he avoided fighting the Civil War somehow - maybe was too sickly to fight, or maybe his town was isolated for whatever reason. Hardly matters, when Reconstruction happened and things started changing and people started having some representation, Timothy and his family were all for it. It wasn't that they were necessarily progressive with regards to race relations, but they were well aware that poor whites didn't exactly have the best time of Antebellum South. Rising tide, boats, etc.

And then 1876 rolled around and Hayes got "elected" and Reconstruction ended and things started getting really shitty again. Fabre wound up shooting his mouth off about how going backwards was a sure way to wind up stuck in the mud, and finally annoyed someone with some clout. And...then he became a werewolf. Not sure on that part yet, I'll come back to it. 

Step Two is musical tastes. Interesting that this isn't under Concept. I didn't see any major part of the game attached to it, but I'm meant to choose one primary and two secondary. 

Well, I think Timothy is fond of folk ballads first and last (would my love of murder ballads creep in if I were playing him? Probably). Old-Time Country is also appealing, and I'd like something a little more modern, but modern country can go fuck itself. I think I'll go for gospel, actually. Is Timothy a believer? I don't know yet, but something about Gospel music has always spoken to him.

Step Three: Attributes. I've got 80 points for 8 attributes, and 10 is average, so that's nice. Is Timothy an average fella? I think maybe he is. I don't see him being deficient anywhere, but he's nothing special either, except maybe when he's a wolf or whatever. I'll likewise divide the 12 Health Attributes points up evenly, for a score of 4 in each.

Step Four: Class. Here's the fun stuff. I know I want Timothy to be a Loup Garou. That means I get a bunch of mandatory disads (The Hunger, Salt Weakness, Pointed Stick (SHUT UP) Weakness, Iron/Silver Weakness), and Animal Form 3 for free. I have to pick my form; I'll go classic and be a wolf. 

Also, there's this:

Which I'm sure will relevant shortly.  

Indeed! Step Five: Skills. I get 100 points to buy Skills, and I can only buy a given Skill to level 5. But they're not one-for-one, the costs are listed above. Also, every level past the first gives me a +4 on relevant rolls. I feel like this could have been more intuitive. 

Anyway, let's see, what makes sense. Conjure Skills are magical stuff, and Diabolical is the cheapest, but I don't really want any of those. Hands are pretty cool but a lot of them are more violent than I see Timothy as being (when he's not eating people, natch). I do like Fugitive's Hand, though, which lets me cast a spell to be harder to catch. I'll somewhat reluctantly dump 20 points there for a rating of two. 

Ooh, I like Bloody Bones a whole lot, but it's a Resolve Skill so it's hella expensive. Erm. Let's buy one level, I guess? That puts me 32 down, meaning I've got 68 left. 

Oh, hey, I can buy "outdated" levels of Skills, meaning I once knew some shit but haven't stayed current. I like that. I'll buy Government (outdated), which just costs me 2. I'll buy two levels of Religion (I'm a damn werewolf, figure I've tried to break the curse); that's 8 points. One level of Light Sleep (how freaking stupid), 4 points. I've spend 46, 54 to go.

Uh, Tracking sounds good. I'll blow 8 points and take a rating of 2. Wilderness Survival, likewise...actually I'll take that as Outdated. Better take Running, that's 8 points for two levels. 64 spent. 

I'll take one level of Forgery (important for an immortal). That's 69 spent (nice). Prowling 2 costs 10, Wrestling 3 costs 15, which means I have 84 spent. Got 6 left. I don't have any Labor skills, and those are only 3, so I'll take two levels of Plumbing (don't laugh, it's a good living). That's 100 spent!

OK, now things get weird. Step Six: Decades and Motivations. I start with $800. I reached adulthood in the 1870s, so I've been alive 19 decades (so much for keeping this quick). 

Now I have to figure out what he was doing in each of those decades. Each type of activity has a Weariness modifier, which is applied to my Willpower at the end of this. I can't take more than 10 in Weariness penalties, therefore. Hrm. I may need to rejigger my points some. 

Well, anyway. Let's just go through these one at a time. 

• 1870s: Helpin' (spent most of the decade trying to reverse the damage the end of Reconstruction did). I get +1 Weariness and an Ally
• 1880s: Workin' (took work on a farm). +1 Weariness, 2 free levels of a Labor Skill (uh, Farming), and I quadruple my money to $3200
• 1890s: Workin' (took ownership of the farm). +1 Weariness, 2 free levels in Business, quadruple money to $12,800
• 1900s: Workin' (expanded the farm, got into flour production, grew the business). +1 Weariness, 2 free levels in Business, quadruple money to $51,200.
• 1910s: Learnin' (left the running of the farms to subordinates and whiled away the Great War and the Pandemic in solitary study). +1 Weariness, 5 free levels of Arts or Booklearning Skills. Neat! I'll take a third level of Religion, two in Research: Academic, and two in Philosophy. 
• 1920s: Sinnin' (traveled to New Orleans and immersed himself in the Bohemian movement, drank a lot and did whatever drugs he could find). +1 Weariness and 6 levels of Troublemaking Skills. How about Drug Resistance 3, two more levels of Prowling, and 1 level of Gambling. I have to halve my money or take an Enemy. I'll halve the money, thanks. $25,600.
  
• 1930s: Sufferin' (lost his businesses, sank into depression). +2 Weariness but +2 WIL, so it evens out? Dumb. 
• 1940s: Fightin' (fought in WWII, didn't feel he should sit it out this time). +2 Weariness, 3 levels of Martial Skills. Well, let's take three in Automatic Weapons. 
• 1950s: Out of commission. When he got back from the War, he turned into a wolf and ran off into the woods for a few years. He lost himself in the transformation and let himself settle again. He has no memory of what happened (no game changes)
  
• 1960s: Helpin' (the Civil Rights movement put him back in his home turf). +1 Weariness, 1 Ally
• 1970s: Sinnin' (he spent this decade hunting down and killing KKK fuckers). +1 Weariness and 6 more Troublemaking Skills. Disguise 2, Prowling 1 (boosting it to 5), Forgery 1 (boosting it to 2), and Wrestling 2 (taking me to 5). But, I gotta halve my money or take an Enemy, and Enemy makes more sense here.
  
• 1980s: Workin' (greed is good; 1 more level in Business for a total of 5, one level of Plumbing), and I quadruple my money to $102,400.
• 1990s: Sufferin' (prison; convicted of drug-related offenses and assault, but not eating someone, which we'll call a win). +2 Weariness, +2 WIL
• 2000s: Learnin' (went back to the South and started studying magic again). +1 Weariness and 2 Conjure Skill levels, which I'll put in Bloody Bones.

OK, totaling Weariness and I get...16. Oy. Well, I'll pretend I reduced my Charm, Strength, and Agility by 2 originally, making them all 8, but putting my Willpower to 18. I get a +4 for my two decades of Sufferin', too, so my WIL is 22 and I have a penalty of 16.

And now, Motivations! These are emotions and the focuses for them. Let's say Anger: White Supremacists, Curiosity: Philosophy, Joy: Music, Guilt: the people I ate in New York, and Joy: The Hunt. 

Step Seven: Money & Equipment. Lol no.

Step Eight: Ads & Disads. Woo! So, I start even and I can take up to 30 BP in disads, which I can then use to buy up other stuff. Let's start there. 

Well, I get an Enemy from my decade of killing KKK folks, so I'll say that's the Wylie family. They were higher-ups in the Klan, I killed a bunch of their younger, dumber scions, and they know who I am, if not exactly what. I don't get points for that, though.

Hmm. There's a few that I don't hate, but eh. I don't love any of them and a lot of what I'd want I've already considered. Only issue is that if I don't take disads, I can't take ads, but y'know? I think I'm good with that. Actually, no, wait, I'll take Hunted: Organized Crime. Someone from New York is still miffed about the dudes I ate (I put that identity to bed, but someone knows). That gives me 10 points, which I can pop over to Skill points. It's not one-for-one, though, it's one-for-three, so I have 30 if I put them all into Skills. Actually I'll spent 6 to raise my Attributes back to 10, put the other 4 into Skills (12 points), and boost Animal Form to 4. 2 Skill Points left, can I do anything with that? No, not really, so I'll take Colorblind for one more BP, which gives me a total of 5 Skill Points, and I'll buy one level of Drug Resistance. 

OK, now to fill everything in.  Not nearly enough room for Skills, but life's like that.

So, Timothy looks like he's in his 30s, but over the years he's learned how to dust his hair or apply a little makeup to go anywhere from 25 to 50. He's got black hair (sometimes greying a little), he's always got a little stubble, and he's got hungry-looking green eyes. He wears tailored clothes during the day, but if he's out at night he favors cheaper suits or clothes that he can tear away and lose easily. 

Timothy knows what he is - a maneater, a monster, a werewolf. He wavers between only killing "bad people" and just letting hunger guide him, but he feels really bad about the young men he killed in New York. He never should have gone north. 

That's it! I like the process, ain't crazy about the game.

Movie #700: Sin City

Sin City is a neo-noir/action movie based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller, directed by Robert Rodriguez, and starring Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Brittany Murphy, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro, Elijah Wood, and a bunch of others. 

The movie's an anthology of stories from the titular (Ba)sin City, all of which involve violence, sex work, violence against sex workers, violence by sex workers, and highly stylized comic-book style art. We start off with a very brief bit involving the Salesman (Josh Hartnett), who shoots a woman who apparently hired him to shoot her, and then on to four main storylines: 

In the first, Detective Hartigan (Willis) rescues little Nancy Callahan (Makenzie Vega) from serial murderer Roark Junior (Nick Stahl), but is betrayed by his partner (Michael Madsen in the worst performance of his career) and sent to prison for the murders Roark committed. 

In the second and probably best sequence, Marv (Rourke) spends a night with a beautiful woman named Goldie (Jaime King) and wakes up next to her body. He then tracks down, tortures, and dismembers the freakishly agile and silent cannibal who killed her (Elijah Wood in a role that will shock you!), and follows the trail all the way to Cardinal Roark (Rutger Hauer). And then he gets executed for his trouble.

Third, Dwight (Owen) takes on his girlfriend Sheila's (Murphy) crazy ex, Jackie Boy (del Toro), which leads to a war between the heavily armed prostitutes of Old Town and the mob. 

And then we get the rest of Hartigan's story, as he gets out of prison and winds up leading Roark Junior - now horribly disfigured and yellow - to a grown-up Nancy (Alba). 

So...I actually really like this movie, kind of in spite of it. I love the visuals and I love Rodriguez just committing to the aesthetic and the feel of the Sin City comics, down to the constant voice-over narration. And, of course, the movie is really magical realism. Kevin (Wood) leaps around like Spider-Man and slashes people open with finger-claws, Marv smashes into moving cars with no ill effects, and people get shot and shake it right off, to say nothing of experimental medical treatments that allow Roark Junior to regrow his lost reproductive organs but turn him yellow and make him smell like death. 

But, in saying all that, we kinda also have to acknowledge the sheer Frank Miller-ness of it all. All of the female characters (except one, Carla Gugino's Lucille) are sex workers of some stripe or another, and the only ones that are fully dressed are the two that the Salesman kills (Mary Shelton, and then Alexis Bledel - we don't see that last one but it's heavily implied). Everyone in the movie is quite happy to kill people, but while the women are usually overly emotional and not terribly effective (except Devon Aoki's Miho, who is also one of the least sexualized, weirdly), the men are hyper-competent and usually pretty cool in the face of violence. And, of course, consider the deaths: Marv gets electrocuted still spitting blood and tough as nails, Hartigan shoots himself in the snow to protect Nancy, but the women either get protected (Nancy, Sheila) or killed (Lucille, Dallas, Goldie, the nameless girls with their heads lovingly mounted on the wall). 

All in all, I love the movie because I love noir and magical realism, but I could really do with something in a similar aesthetic that isn't quite so steeped in misogyny. 

My Grade: B
Rewatch Value: Higher than I'd like to admit

Next up: Single White Female

Pugmire: The Black Knife

And, it's Pugmire time! 

It's been about a week since last we saw our heroic doggos. During that time, Petunia has been trying to study up on the Opaline and the etherkesh, Sausagedog has been perfecting acrobatics and the art of barkour, Boomer has been receiving counseling to try and work on his trust issues, and Peppa is away on a retreat at a monastery (her player was out today). Dire, for his part, is hammering dents out of his armor and sharpening his weapons. He suspects trouble is coming. 

And indeed, on this particular evening, Dire and Boomer are heading back to the storehouse from various errands around the Riverwall district. As they approach, they see that someone has carved something ominous into the door:

They notice a couple of things: First, there's a distinct smell of oil coming from the roof. Second, they hear muffled cries for help. And as they're contemplating this, a fireball streaks down and sets the building ablaze!

Dire smashes through the door and Boomer follows. They discover that the voice they heard is Bivi, their trustee, and they run through the burning building to save him. They find him tied up, and Boomer cuts his bonds, Dire picks him up, and they head for the door. Boomer has the presence of mind to grab the explosive eggs that they found before they escape, and the roof caves in shortly after they get outside. 

Petunia, walking into Riverwall from the Royal Library, sees the fires and runs to join them. Sausagedog arrives shortly thereafter, and bucket brigades are formed, but there's nothing more to be done. Dire opines that Luigi Husky, the head of organized crime in Riverwall, is probably behind this. Before they get too deep into that discussion, though, Bivi tells them that he was sweeping up when he was accosted by a gang of small dogs, all well armed and aggressive. They tied him up and demanded "the black knife." He claimed that he had no idea what that meant, but of course he was lying - Dire stole an obsidian dagger from Luigi some time ago. 

At this point Dante German, the head of the Riverwall guardhouse, appears and questions the characters. They tell him what Bivi told them, and Petunia and Dire realize this sounds like the work of the Nippers, a gang of small dogs that they've crossed paths with before. Dante snarls - those dogs killed a couple of guardsmen. 

The characters head to the docks to run down leads on the Nippers. They find a seedy bar, and inside, one Tony Mutt, the ferry driver. Petunia knows him, and he steps outside with her. He reluctantly tells her that the Nippers are in Mutt Town - they fled Pugmire after the incident with the guardsmen, but they were back in town recently. She thanks him and slips him some plastic, and the dogs decide to find a place to bed down for the night. Dire heads for his brother Alex' house, while the other three go to Granny Sue's Roadhouse.

Granny Sue tells them she heard about what happened and she's very sorry, but when the characters ask for rooms, she looks uncomfortable and tells them she doesn't have rooms for them. Sausagedog realizes she's afraid, and the characters quickly put two and two together. She gives them some pies (free!), and they head for the Pioneer's Guild to see if they can crash there.

Meanwhile, Dire goes to Alex' place, but finds it dark and empty. He picks the lock and lets himself in, and finds that no one has been here at least in a few days. There's no sign of a struggle, either. "You always were the smart one," mutters Dire, and heads back out, figuring maybe he can find a rooftop to sleep on. He runs across his companions, however, and decides that the Guild house sounds better.

The Pioneer's Guild has rooms to use for just such an occasion, and on the morrow they are given rations for their trip to Mutt Town. First, though, they talk with Bivi, who asks whether this obsession with the dagger is at all normal for Luigi. Dire admits that maybe it's not just about the dagger, but it bears further investigation anyway. Petunia smells magic and, worse, the Unseen on the knife. Sausagedog notes that it's an odd shape for a knife, maybe more like a chunk of obsidian that happens to be knife-shaped. They unwrap the leather from the hilt and discover ridges or bumps...Petunia notes that actually they look like the teeth of a key. 

What might such a key open? Nothing good. Bivi hits the books while the characters head to Mutt Town. Tony Mutt takes them across the river, and they stop first in the shop of one Jarvis Mutt, a toolsmith of Sausagedog's acquaintance. When Jarvis learns about the fire and the Nippers, he tells them that the Nippers actually arrived here some months ago, but that they left Mutt Town two days ago and then returned last night bragging about having burned something. They living in a house just up the way.

The dogs approach the house and find a small dog whittling on the porch. They tell him they wish to speak to Clyger Fox, the leader of the Nippers (whom Dire and Petunia have met before). The whittler walks into the house, and Sausagedog and Boomer circle around back to make sure no one runs. 

Clyger comes out and banters with Petunia a bit, but eventually does admit that they were hired to steal the dagger. He won't say Luigi's name, though, and is altogether unhelpful. They're ready to leave, but then Dire, unwilling to let this slight go, pulls his warhammer and cracks Clyger across the head. 

Clyger draws his sword and the whittler draws a dagger. Sausagedog pops into the back of the house and sees two more Nippers. He tells them to surrender, that the house is surrounded! They buy the bluff, and run. 

Someone in the upstairs of the house shoots Dire with an arrow, but he's already stuck in to his fight with Clyger. Petunia casts Chaos Spray and blinds the whittler, but Clyger gets his hand over his face in time. The sniper nails Dire again, and Boomer charges upstairs to confront him. Dire, meanwhile, continues beating on Clyger with his hammer. 

Petunia throws a magic web, ensnaring two of the Nippers. The one fighting Boomer proves troublesome, as he dips into Boomer's periphery and stabs him (more than once). Sausagedog faces off against one of the Nippers that ran, and Petunia hits a couple of them with magic missiles. Dire strikes Clyger once more and knocks him unconscious, and then beats him further with hammer and shield. The Nipper fighting Sausagedog panics at this brutality, and the Nipper fighting Boomer vanishes one more time, but this time doesn't reappear (he was holding his own, but apparently recognized the precarious position he was in).

They question the Nipper, who informs them that yes, Luigi Husky was the one that hired them. He promised that if they got him the dagger, he'd pull some strings and get them allowed back into Pugmire. They were paid to search the storehouse and tie up anyone there, and to douse the roof in oil, but not to burn the place (though he admits that there's really no other reason to douse the roof). He's not sure what Luigi really wants with the dagger. 

Petunia writes out a statement confirming what the Nippers said and then has them sign it (not Clyger, who is still out, or Topish, the one that was fighting Boomer). They head out of Mutt Town for Pugmire, pondering their next move.

Character Creation: Brave New World

Gobble-gobble, you're in trobble! 

The Game: Brave New World
The Publisher: Full Moon Enterprises, nowawdays
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Brave New World is a superhero RPG, kinda, in which the USA has become a fascist dystopia under president John F. Kennedy. You're playing Defiants, super-powered beings who have chosen not to register their powers (and thus become eligible for getting drafted into whatever shitshow the US government wants to put them in). Not exactly a Thanksgiving-themed game, but I need something to do between cooking things today and I can't watch soccer all day. 

Anyway, Brave New World is an interesting counterpoint to Thanksgiving, if you think about it. On the surface, the setting is very bright and colorful and America has superheroes protecting it and rah-rah, but underneath it's pretty bleak and people get disappeared. Thanksgiving is nominally about being thankful and family, but it's built on a lie glossing over a lot of violence and genocide, and even taking the more immediate context of what it looks like to a lot of Americans, it's stressful and punctuated by having to pretend to be nice and swallow some real hate in the name of getting along. Hell, even the title refers both to a quote from The Tempest in which Miranda, a naive young woman who has never seen the outside world, is waxing philosophical about finally interacting with strangers ("'tis new to thee," her father responds), but I'd say the dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley is probably more familiar to most folks. 

All of this to say, I think it's perfectly appropriate as a Thanksgiving game. On we go!

Unlike a lot of supers games, Brave New World doesn't have a cafeteria-style approach to powers. Instead, you pick a "package" (lol) that gives you powers and some associated other traits. That's a later step in chargen, but I think I'll actually look them over first and see if a concept jumps at my head like a flaming turkey. 

Hmm. I think I'll go with the Gunner package, making me a marksman/gunslinger type. The book mentions that most people go armed (you know, like a certain segment of shitheads do in our world), but I kind of want to make someone who's not entirely enamored of their powers. Like, yay, I'm a delta...but my power is guns? Like, anyone can be good at that, right? Also, fuck guns? But if that's the power I have, then I should find a way to be...a good guy with a gun. 

OK, that's a good enough conceptual start for me to go back to the actual beginning of chargen. Four stats: Smarts, Speed, Spirit, Strength, and 12 points to divide betwixt them. Seems like Speed is gonna be the important one here, so I'll put 5 into that. I'll put two into Strength, 3 into Spirit, two into Smarts. So far, so good. 

Skills! I get 3 points per point in a given trait to buy Skills under that umbrella (so I get 15 points to buy Speed Skills). I also get free shit:

I can add to all that if I want. Let's see:

Smarts
American culture 2
Bureaucratics 1
Security 2
Tactics 1

Speed
Acrobatics 1
Dodging 2
Driving (personal vehicle) 1
Quick Draw 3
Shooting 5
Speed-Load 3

Strength
Climbing 3
Barehanded fighting 3

Spirit
Bravery 3
Perception 3
Scrutinize 3
Search 2

Looks good. On to Quirks! Standard arrangement; they can be positive or negative, I can take 10 points of negative and use the points to buy up Skills or positive quirks. First, though, three neutral quirks: I'm either a delta or a reg (delta, obvs), public ID or secret (public), and registered or unregistered (registered). 

I'm seeing this guy as trying to do everything by the book, to follow the laws in place for deadly weapons (which includes deltas, if we're being real) and trying to see if an armed society really is more polite. He suspects not, but hey, the truth is there aren't really that many good guys with guns. 

So, moving on, what negative quirks do I want? Is "hopelessly optimistic" one? Well, I'll take Cautious, anyway. Definitely want Code of Honor. Hmm, there are actually a bunch that basically do the same thing in various measures. I think I'll actually ditch Cautious and take Hero instead, which is a higher-point behavioral one. And then I'll take Hard of Hearing at 2 (gunshots do a number on your ears, man). 

Positive quirks, then? I'll take 1 point of Gear so I can afford some gunz. Ambidextrous is an ever-present one that I usually ignore, but I think it's appropriate here (though it's 5 freaking points, is that really worth it? Eh, whatever). Sharp Eyes is only one point, that's good. That leaves me 3 points left, and I don't really see other quirks I want, so I'll go back and add them to Skills. Let's see. How about one each to Dodging, Quick Draw, and Acrobatics. 

Power package! Already know I want Gunner. I get the two powers:

And then I get three tricks, which I can take from a general list and/or my power package. There's one from the package I know I want (Mercy, which lets me "pull my punch" when shooting). And then I'll take Bull's Eye (lets me call my shot more better) and First Move (lets me sacrifice an action to take all my actions at once). 

Gear would be the last thing, but you know, I hate shopping. Let's just assume my guy has multiple handguns, some concealed, some not, on his person at all times. Otherwise, just the details and descriptions! 

Dallas De Bruin (his parents are Texans and named him to commemorate the attempted assassination of JFK) grew up around guns. He always had an aptitude for marksmanship, but never really liked it much - too loud, too smokey, too dangerous. He didn't hone his natural aptitude for exactly that reason, choosing instead to study gymnastics and play soccer (his parents were not thrilled with either). 

One afternoon, Dallas found himself between a group of concerned citizens and police officers, all of whom had cornered what they thought was a rogue delta. The cops tried to warn the citizens back and the citizens got panicky, and people started shooting. Dallas disarmed them all - cops included - with surgical precision, and then dropped his guns and surrendered. It turned out the "rogue delta" was not only a reg, not a delta, but was also the daughter of a very popular local celebrity. As such, the press, the police, and the government spun it that Dallas had used his God-given skills and Constitution-given rights to stop a potential shooting born of misunderstanding (AND MAYBE MIND CONTROL JUST SAYING SHEEPLE). 

Dallas played along, but he knew exactly what had happened. He doesn't wish to be locked up, however, and he doesn't wish to be drafted, so he tries to play up his visibility and stay local. Folks in his hometown know him as "the Good Guy (with a gun)", but he'd just as soon you call him Dallas. He's thinking about running for Sheriff. 

Dallas is a pretty convincing all-American farm boy. Tall, lean, blue eyes, brown hair, inoffensive smile. He wears hearing aids around his family because he can't get them to remember to speak facing him, but he usually doesn't keep them in when he's out and about. He doesn't have a flashy costume (where do people get those, anyway?), but sticks to jeans, a button-down with a bolo tie, and a cowboy hat. The hat tends to come off pretty quick when shit goes down. 

Board Game: Bodger Mania

bodger bodger bodger mushroom mushroom

The Game: Bodger Mania
The Publisher: Privateer Press
Time: 10 minutes or so
Players: Me, Michelle, Gus, Amanda

Game Play: Bodger Mania is a card game based on the goblin-esque creatures called bodgers that show up in the Warmachine games. I know nothing about these games, but Michelle likes bodgers, which is why we bought this game. 

So, it's basically a trick-taking game with a bunch of extra steps. The game is played in four rounds, corresponding to four different fight nights, but in practice the only thing that changes is what card is high - 8 in the first round, 6 the second, 1 the third, 8 the fourth (always of the trump color). During "training" you draft a card, then vote with one of your other cards on which color will be trump in which round. 

The four rounds with Prize cards in the middle

And then you're left with four cards, and you pick which one gets played in each fight, and then you all flip the cards in a given fight over and compare. Ties (which happen frequently) get broken by the player with Ref's Favor, but Ref's Favor passes to whoever wins a fight, meaning if you win the first one you have a decent chance of winning more because you can break ties in your own favor. You get Prize cards for winning fights, you play four rounds like this, and then you play one round (Fight Night) where everything is the same except you can use your Prize cards.

Prize cards either raise or lower card value or change the color of your card. Otherwise the Fight Night is the same dealie, but ties stand. Whoever has the most victories in Fight Night wins. 

Gus found learn to play this game somewhat frustrated

Opinions: I mean, the artwork is very cute, but I dunno, I didn't love it. It's a trick-taking game but because it's not using a standard deck and because the rules for taking tricks change so much, it's hard to get a rhythm going. Also not actually taking the tricks just feels wrong. If we're playing a trick-taking game, I'd rather play Wizard or Hearts or Euchre. If we're playing a game with cute goblins, I'd rather play something where the fact that there are goblins means something rather than just being background decoration. 

Keep? I dunno, if Michelle wants it, I guess.

Cairn: The Griffon's Claw

Here we are back once again in the land of Cairn! Here's last time.

Our fuzzy animals have traveled from the hamlet at Crystal Rock waaaaaay north, past the Jagged Mountains, around the Heartloss Crevasse, and to the base of the Highpeak Mountain, where they will stop at the town of Underwing. On the way, though, they have some fun adventures - they stop in the village of Rose Rock, in which a Favored proposes to their love during the show and the whole thing turns into a party. They also learn that Sumna Stormwind, the owner of the circus, has a whole playbook for this; it doesn't happen often but it happens enough. 

On the plains west of the Jagged Mountains they find a makeshift village. A group of Favored meets every year here, chews hallucinogenic mushrooms and burns a huge effigy of a Titan. Ratatosk Longberry, of course, is overjoyed. 

They perform for the village of Hillock, which is a nice enough place but they also make some amazing popcorn balls and will not share the recipe. The Knights eat many of them before they leave.

And, finally, they stop at the Heartloss Monastery near the Crevasse of the same name. The monks give them food and shelter, and the circus does an abbreviated, more sedate performance. 

But their goal, the largest town in this area, is Underwing. As they're approaching, they see what they think is a shooting star. But Russelet Leatherwind, out in front scouting, realizes that it's in front of the Highpeak Mountain, and that's not a shooting star. 

Indeed, it hits the ground up ahead and explodes. Ratatosk, riding in the front on top of Sumna's wagon, tells her to stop. Russelet flies back and collects Snootabur Shadowbough and Rumdiggle Sunsong, and along with some other volunteers from the circus they charge ahead to see if they can help. And help they can! There are fire bells going off and a bucket brigade starting, and flaming remains of some major building. But strangest of all, the Knights see the silhouette of an immense, winged creature flying back up toward the mountain. Ratatosk theorizes that it is a dragon, and Rumdiggle gasps - she didn't realize those were real! 

The Knights help the villagers put out the fire, and during the work Ratatosk tries to get whatever information he can out of the villagers. Turns out that the dragon and the village have a long-standing arrangement and apparently it's been violated, because the dragon swooped in and blew up the town hall. Once the danger has past, the Knights find the mayor. He's a mole name Thyme Rockbasin, and is wringing his paws in worry. He's standing with a hedgehog in robes (mystic and seer Kell Creekwhisper) and a hare in unscuffed armor (captain of the guard Ryx Dewpebble). 

They explain to the Knights the history of Underwing. Many years ago, a group of Favored fleeing the Heartloss arrived here and entered the caves. Inside, they found the lair of the dragon Sarliorreath. They were afraid, but a squirrel named Wyna Wisewood talked with him, and they made a bargain. The Favored would build a village at the base of the Highpeak, and would protect the caves and prevent thieves from gaining access to the dragon's lair. In the return, Sarliorreath would protect the village from dragon-sized threats. And so it had been for many years. 

But now, tonight, Sarliorreath had come down from his lair, dropped a torn tunic in the village, burned the town hall, and told the Favored that four items had been stolen from him: a staff, a dagger, a flagon, an eye. If they are not returned in two nights, he would burn the village to cinders.

The leadership of Underwing is clearly unprepared for this, and the Knights step up to the challenge. They take the tunic, and see that it's green fabric with an embroidered talon. Snootabur takes it to Sumna, figuring maybe someone in the circus may have seen it. And indeed, her brother Dirk Stormwind (who has had, shall we say, a colorful life) recognizes it as the insignia of the Griffon's Claw. They're a band of adventurers, travelers, and thieves. He seems to recall one of them is an otter, but he's never met them - he doesn't even remember where he was when he heard of them. 

The Knights go to the caves and Russelet finds tracks. He finds four sets - one's clearly a bat, one a squirrel, a third an otter, but the fourth is from an animal none of them recognize. They see that the tracks were walking coming, running coming out, which is consistent with what they know so far. They're set to keep following the tracks, but Ratatosk and Rumdiggle decide that maybe they should ask the dragon what he can tell them (and mostly, they just want to see a dragon!).

They enter his hoard, Rummy playing a calming song, and see a huge room filled with raw gold ("ugh, metal") and Titan relics. As they're marveling, what they think is part of the mountain opens an eye, and the dragon Sarliorreath regards them. 

Rummy immediately passes out, and the dragon sniffs at her. "I think your friend is dead," he booms. 

"No," says Snootbur. "She just does this sometimes. It's a defense mechanism." 

"She smells dead," muses the dragon. 

"She'll be fine," says Ratatosk and helps Rummy wake up. Having cleared this up, they ask about the relics that were stolen.

Sarliorreath tells them that he was out hunting, and when he came back he saw someone running out of his lair. He grabbed at the thief but just snagged part of his tunic. The relics that the thieves took were all Titan artifacts: the Venomous Dagger, the Wand of Fireballs, the Red Flagon, and the Glass Eye.

The Dagger, the dragon explains, is a deadly weapon, poisoning anyone stabbed with it. The Wand can spit fire like a dragon (Ratatosk's eyes get big). The Flagon can create any drink or potion the user wishes, and the Eye can show the user anything or anyone that they have seen before. 

Now with some idea of what they're up against, the Knight take their leave of the dragon and continue tracking. Russelet recruits anyone from the village that knows the area, divides it up into a grid, and leads a search. It takes some time, but they find a trail in the woods leading back to the southwest, towards the Heartloss Crevasse. The Knights head to the circus (the circus-folk are camping in the woods, trying to stay out of the way for the time being) and find Memm Nightriver, the beast tamer. They borrow Oof, his daggertusk, to act as a mount (Rumdiggle can talk with Oof, so Memm isn't worried about anything going wrong). They mount up and head out.

After riding for a while, they spot a groundhog monk doing some earth tending at the top of the Crevasse. They hail him and ask if he's seen a band of adventurers. He has, in fact - the Griffon's Claw are here! They showed up and asked for shelter, and of course the monks helped them. He leads them to the monastery and they spot a rather plump otter, shirtless, munching on a fish. Ratatosk notes, too, that he has a Treestaff, making him a druid. 

The Knights ask him about the stolen artifacts, and he's not terribly helpful until Snootabur kind of lays out the situation - if the relics aren't returned, the village gets burned. He tells the Knights to wait here and goes into the monastery. He's gone for a bit, and Ratatosk decides to check things out. He sneaks in and hears voices up ahead, and creeps up to the room...but does not notice who's creeping up behind him. He feels a hand close around him, and a creature he has never seen before picks him up and stares into his soul. 

The creature brings Ratatosk into the room, where the otter, a squirrel, and a bat are talking. The squirrel is carrying a hooked staff lined in metal, but talks with Ratatosk in the dizzying manner of their people. The squirrel, Pjella Fallpath, is initially unwilling to consider giving back the relics (if the village gets burned, the people can just go live somewhere else, why's that our problem?), but kind of reconsiders after Ratatosk lays it out. The bat, Azli Lastwinter, is really the leader, and he's not interested in giving up the relics.

But then the other Knights come in, and they talk about their experiences with Titan relics, specifically with the mysterious crypt in Greymantle. The story of the ghost bees seems to change Azli's perpsective a bit, and he agrees that maybe it's better to just give these things back. Don't want a dragon coming after them, after all. 

The Knights head back to Underwing, and on the way talk a little to the Griffon's Claw. The otter is Homer Mudwink, a druid, and the mysterious creature turns out to be a loris by the name of Karapet Opensky. Karapet talks to Russelet about doing good works and why one might choose to do that, but Karapet is clearly not entirely sold on the idea of altruism. 

As they approach Underwing, they see Ryx keeping watch. As he spots the Knights and the Claw, he yells "The Knights are back! They have the thieves! Build the gallows!"

Wait, what?

Snootabur runs up to him and quickly talks him out of hanging the Griffon's Claw. Ryx is pretty firmly in favor of meting out punishment, but leaves it to Thyme, and Thyme (not a bloodthirsty sort of mole) agrees that any punishment can be left to Sarliorreath. They all enter the village and it turns into a party. Pjella shows Ratatosk how to use the flagon to create Enervating Draught, and they spend the night running around crazily. Rumdiggle plays music, and come morning, Sarliorreath swoops down and takes back his stuff. 

He tells Thyme, too, that they'll talk about their bargain in spring, once he's had a winter to sleep. The Griffon's Claw leaves Underwing, and the circus folk and the Knights help the villagers rebuild their town hall. They spend a few more nights here performing, and then get back on the road, heading north on the way to Brandybuck Junction.

Character Creation: Twisted Rifters

May need to rethink my attitude regarding 'zine games. 

The Game: Twisted Rifters
The Publisher: Critique of Pure Dragons
Degree of Familiarity: None directly, though the system seems familiar
Books Required: Just the one

Yet another PDF I got in a bundle, and it's only 20 pages. I was kind of expecting it to have a nugget of a good idea but to be ultimately unplayable without a lot of design work on my part, but I was mistaken - the game is not only playable (I mean, at a read, we all know playability is determined at the table, ladida) but it's really evocative. The game is set in a weird, surreal world of Erstwhile, there's a big ol' Rift that [does something; that's collaborative], and your characters are Lodestones, magical folks whom the regular citizens fear and revere. And there's not actually a whole lot of setup for PCs given beyond that, but there's enough attention to the world that you could run a game off it. There are even three campaign jumping off points that present a situation, ask some questions, and say "go!" It's not the kind of game you play if your preference is, say, a game in a heavily-detailed setting with towns and gods and guilds and shit, but that's fine. With a game that digs collaboration and wordplay, it'd be awesome.

Wordplay...so, this game does something I can't believe I've never seen expressed quite this way. You can take a modifier for an action for an extra die, similar to how you can take a devil's bargain in Blades in the Dark. But here it's an adverb or adjective, so for instance you might pick a lock loudly (meaning you'll attract attention) or intimidate someone viciously, meaning you'll get a reputation for being a violent prick. Maybe this isn't so deliciously intuitive for someone who's not so much a word person, but I really love it. 

Anyway! Let's make a twisty ripper or whatever! 

So, first thing is that I either pick a pregenerated character or make my own. The pregens are really more like playbooks, and they're pretty cool, but reading through the various cities in the archipelago, I come across this: 

I like the idea of "prisons filled with rift beasts" (and it makes me think of the Ryan George video where he talks about putting a penguin in jail), so I think I'm gonna make a zookeeper/jailor type of character. Obviously since I have no concept question at the top of the page I have to skip that bit.

All of the pregens have two Traits, and while the chargen section doesn't say to pick them, I assume I should, so I'll take Domesticate and Hunt. I get two Rifts (which are special powers I get from, well, the Rift), so I'll take Enrapture (manipulate someone's senses) and Project (for an empathetic connection with a creature of the Rift). 

I get a Drive, which of course is the character's goal or motivation. I think I'll say his Drive is Protect - he's not interested in building a splendid menagerie of creatures or even learning about them, per se. If they're in enclosures, they're not out consuming the world. 

I can take either two weapons or one weapon and one armor. I will take a spiderweave breastplate as armor, and a blow-dart gun and bandolier. Seems a good rift-hunter weapon. I also get abstract "gear" that I get 5 uses out of, so we'll say it's "Rift-beast hunting gear."

And then I name the character. Let's say his name is Grost the Jailor. 

Grost is barrel-chested and thick, with a gray beard that he tries to keep short (don't want anything grabbing it or nesting in it, after all) but it gets unruly real quick. He carries a bulky pack when he's hunting, but even if he's not he has his blow-gun and bandolier of darts. The Rift-beasts don't wait for you to leave the city, not all the time. 

And everything after this point would require a group, so that's it! 

Chill: Training Day

Time for sppoooooooky fun! Here's last time, though this is a new case. 

The Boise chapter of SAVE has gotten some new recruits! Meet:

1. Dr. Zoe Canavar: Zoe is an author, podcaster, Youtuber, and professor of horror literature and folklore. Over the years, she started noticing that people were coming to her and asking her oddly specific questions, some of which seemed to synch up with strange current events. She wound up being the doctoral adviser to one Dylan Reeves, and joined up with SAVE through him. Her Drive is to know the truth. 
2. Jackson "Jax" Holloway: Jax has had something of a checkered past. In addition to occasionally bilking grieving folks by claiming to talk with their deceased relatives and appearing on a ghost-hunter reality show, Jax managed to get his back broken in a haunted house. He now has a bad back and a cocaine habit, and a Drive to redeem himself. 
3. Melanie Banks: Melanie got pregnant at 17 and her family disowned her. Her boyfriend's family took her in, and they raised her daughter Sophie together. Tragically, three years ago Sophie died in an "animal attack," the circumstances were suspicious. Melanie and her boyfriend broke up and she's spent the intervening time learning about crime scenes and mysterious occurrences, and wound up meeting Dee Addams at church. 

Today is June 7, 2020, and these three new envoys are at the ranch along with Vicki Parsons, Blake Wheeler, and Willa Lane. Willa and Blake are doing a little training session. They give everyone paintball guns and goggles, and tell them that they're going to have some target practice, and then go into the woods and try and hunt down Willa and shoot her. Also, Willa points out Dusty, BB's dog (BB is in Australia for the time being), and explains that if Dusty creeps up and licks you, you lose. This is just an exercise on paying attention to one's surroundings. 

Everyone takes some shots at the targets, Vicki winds up shooting Zoe in the butt by accident, and then the characters head into the woods. Willa takes a head start, zips off into the brush, and uses Light as a Feather to climb up a tree. The other envoys look around and realize they've already lost Blake. Vicki, a former girl scout, tries to track her, but manages to get lost and wind up way off the beaten path. They start heading back, and Vicki decides to use some of the other tools are her disposal and uses the Clairvoyance discipline to find her. She turns her back and tells the others where she is, and they walk toward the tree, and then shoot her! 

Willa congratulates them and climbs down, and asks where Blake is. They didn't realize they were supposed to keep track of him, and Willa says that that's part of the lesson - often on a case you don't know what's important. They play another round, Willa runs off, and this time Jax (who's a little frustrated with the whole thing) splits off to search for Blake by himself. 

Blake, for his part, has donned a ghille suit and hidden from the others. As Melanie, Vicki, and Zoe approach Willa, Jax spots Blake. Blake leaps up and runs toward Melanie screaming and waving an ax. She shoots at him and misses, as does Jax. Vicki manages to shoot Willa, though, and everyone heads inside for lunch. 

As they get closer to the ranch, Willa realizes that she has a voicemail. Checking it, she finds it's from Rina Hodges. Rina is a teenage girl that the envoys met last summer during the "bee-man" case; her father was a cop who died when she was a little girl, stung to death by a swarm of hornets. The envoys interview her briefly during their investigation. Her message, though, is pretty worrying. She's obviously upset, rambles a bit, and mentions that her friend Elle is missing (that would be Elle Duncan, whom the envoys also interviewed as part of the aforementioned case). 

Willa explains all this to the others, they eat a quick lunch, and drive over to Rina's. She lets them in and explains that her parents are out visiting family, and explains the situation. She and Elle went to "the Chop Chop House" a couple of nights ago. The next day, Elle's father called Rina looking for Elle. Rina also found a message on her phone from Elle, sent the night before, asking her to meet back at the house. She did go back, but then lost two hours and wound up standing in front of the house, unable to remember the lost time.

Zoe fills the characters in on the "Chop Chop House." In the late 80s, three men got into a fight there. One was shot, ran to a neighbor and pounded on the door, but the neighbor did nothing except call the cops. The cops didn't show up until the next day, by which time the man had been dragged back to the house, shot in the head, dismembered, and his body parts dumped in Brownlee Reservoir. The house has a reputation befitting the events and winds up on "Most Haunted" lists of the state.

Melanie delves a little deeper and finds some more details. Rina had a receipt from Jack-in-the-Box in her pocket; the time stamp indicated that she bought food there during her lost time. Her hands were also dirty, but not from earth, more from dust. The next day (Saturday) she'd plucked up her courage and gone back, but lost more time. Willa senses that she's hiding something and presses, and Rina breaks into tears. When she came to, she was covered in blood. She went home and threw her bloody clothes away. This morning, Elle's father called again and she couldn't take the guilt, and called Willa.

Vicki uses Calm on her and tells her it's not her fault - whatever happened when she lost that time, it's not on her. Rina tells them where to find the clothes, and Jax goes and gets them. He uses Postcognition to see what happened, and rather wishes he hadn't. He sees Rina in the hallway of a house, about to open (or just having closed?) an interior door. A man's voice says "Hey, who are you? What are you doing in my house?" Rina grabs a wine bottle off a table, approaches the man (who looks to be in his 70s), and proceeds to beat him to death. She then drags his body to the door, opens it, and drags the body down a flight of stairs into a basement.

Jax gets all the envoys outside and relays what he saw. Zoe points out that the envoys now have reason to believe a man might be dead or dying - do they call the police? Willa points out that they don't have enough information to do that yet; it's not a good idea to call in mundane authorities before they're sure there's no active Unknown threat. Best to head to the Chop Chop House and see how the land lays. On the way, they do some quick research - the house is now owned by a man named James Howell, who rents the house, though it's between tenants at the moment. Zoe also recalls that she had a student once named Edward Price, who actually lived in the house growing up. He wrote a paper on it, but she'd need to go to the university to read it.

They drive over (it's close) and look around. The back door, as Rina had indicated, is unlocked, and they see blood on the floor inside. Going in, Blake looks around and sees blood smear on the floor, blood spatter on the walls, and a trail leading to the basement door. The wine bottle has also rolled away under a table. Vicki pulls a tissue out of her pocket and opens the basement door, and a wave of stench hits the envoys. There's a dead body down there.

Willa lurches for the sink to retch. Zoe swallows hard, but Jax just quietly breaks. He wasn't planning on this today, and he's been sniffing coke on and off all morning. He backs up and stays quiet, and Vicki looks down the stairs. There's a body lying at the foot of the stairs, clearly the old man that Jax had mentioned. 

Blake turns on Eyes of the Dead and notices a face in the grain of the wooden door. He informs Willa, and she takes a breath to use Voice of the Dead to speak to the creature. But then she relaxes, turns to the others, and says "nope, lost it." Vicki senses the Unknown and realizes there is something here, and the envoys decide to bug out. They walk out of the house and start to talk about next moves, and then they hear a car start. Willa has gotten in an SUV and is driving away. No one noticed when she walked off as the left the house. Gotta pay attention.

Character Creation: Madhouse: A Lockwood's Asylum Roleplaying Game

What kind of crazy man blows up a crazy house?

The Game: Madhouse: A Lockwood's Asylum Roleplaying Game
The Publisher: Blackout Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Madhouse is a stretch goal to the crowdfunding campaign for a deck-building game called Lockwood's Asylum. I didn't back it, I just got Madhouse in a bundle, I think. (I did note, however, that the same company is producing Monster Wrangler, which I did back on Kickstarter. It's basically an off-brand Pokemon RPG, but the artwork is really cool and it looked fun.)

Madhouse is a survival horror game in which, by default, you play inmates of the titular asylum. There's a lot of scary and gross shit going on, running the gamut from body horror to cosmic horror to nurses that are torn apart and stitched back together. I don't hate it, but I don't think I'd run it. 

I wouldn't run it for a couple of reasons. The first is that I already have Chill, which is my go-to for investigative horror, and Fear Itself would work if Chill didn't. Hell, I think Unisystem would be fine, too, if we wanted to take a few pages from All Flesh Must Be Eaten's playbook. 

But the larger reason is that in Madhouse, all of the PCs have some kind of Disorder and that gives them superpowers. They're not overt, but maybe that makes it worse. Check it out.

That's...not remotely what psychosis means. They might be thinking of psychopathy, except that's not remotely what that means, either. The game seems to want to take pop culture misunderstandings of mental illnesses, refit them as character classes, and interpret them based on what role in a D&D-esque game they might fulfill. And that, folks, is what we call "problematic." 

What's kind of heartbreaking about it is that there are things about the game I like. The detail that goes into the town of Lakeshore and the history of the asylum is rich and easy to follow; it's not without its own problematic aspects, but nothing that couldn't be excised or massaged so that there's, say, fewer killer Native tribes. The system is a d10 roll-and-keep kind of thing (I didn't get too deep into it), there's a lot of attention paid to ritual magic and the various ways that gribblies can eat you in the asylum. It's a horror setting that's extremely tight in focus, and that's pretty cool. But again, I have a hard time imagining how I'd pitch the game to my friends, almost all of whom have interacted with mental illness in either a personal or professional capacity (or both). 

Anyway, let's make an unfortunate fellow who's been committed to the Lakeshore Asylum. Ugh, the PDF isn't bookmarked, grumblecakes.

Step One: Concept. The game is set modern day and I'm an inmate at Lakeshore. Let's see. I think in a game like this I'd prefer to have my "madness" stem from actual supernatural exposure rather than try to play a real mental illness; it would just feel a little less gross. So let's say that my guy was hired as part of a big crew in (whatever the nearest big city is to Lakeshore) to go into the city's decaying subway lines and help clean them out. This was a big urban renewal kind of job - lots of federal grant money and private donors and everyone was just real gung-ho about it, and then about two years in the mayor got embroiled in some big scandal and the project took a hit in the public eye, and it didn't stop, it just didn't get funded as much. So my guy, who had been part of a big team, now found his work force cut in half but his goals unchanged (or intensified). The stress was bad enough, but then one day he took a wrong turn, got lost, and was stuck in the underground for 72 hours. When his team finally found him, he was catatonic. It took five months before he spoke again, and he's by no means ready to live on his own, but like, Lakeshore isn't exactly a place of tranquil healing. 

OK, so I get 35 XP to build this guy. Step Two: Perks and Flaws is basically the same as any other game that uses this kind of setup, though I think it's interesting that it asks us to do that before the bare-bones stats. I think that actually makes sense, though - the ad/disad, edge/drawback, perk/flaw part of a character is often where the core of the character lies, in my experience. 

I can have a maximum of three each Perks and Flaws. Perks cost XP, Flws give you more, pretty standard. Let's see. I'll spend 3 XP and buy Handy, making me competent with power tools and such. Actually, I like Paranoid and Unassuming - basically I'm always on edge but the staff doesn't tend to notice me, both of which are appropriate. Those are 2XP each, so I've spent 7. 

Flaws! I'll take Ignorant; it just affects Science and Medicine rolls, and I think my guy is better with his hands. I'll take Nightmares, too, for probably obvious reasons. That's 4 points back. If I can find a 3-point Flaw I like I'll even out. Oh, well, Phobia makes sense. I'll take the two-point version, which actually means I have two phobias. I'll say he's afraid of the dark and of rats. Again, shouldn't be a big stretch to imagine why. That's only 2 points, though, so I've spent 1 point out of my 35. 

Step Three: Purchase Attributes. Six Attributes (Strength, Agility, Toughness, Perception, Intellect, Willpower). Everything starts at 2, and then buying them up costs 3 x (new rating), meaning it'd cost 9 points to go up to 3. I can also get myself an extra 4 points if I drop an Attribute down to 1. The game tells me that's a significant handicap, though, and that 2 is average, so I'm inclined to just leave my Attributes where they are and let Skills do the heavy lifting. 

Step Four: Skills. And here we are at Skills. Skills start at 0 and you pay (new rating) to raise them, meaning if I wanted a rating of 3 in a Skill it'll cost me 6 XP. Also, at 3 and 5, you get Techniques from Skills. Let's see here. 

Well, I never regret taking Athletics. I'll think I'll blow the 6 points to take a rating of 3, since that'll give me a Technique and I like Surefoot (I'm good on rough terrain; seems to fit). I'll spend 3 and take Brawl 2, and 1 to get Melee 1 (he's not good at fighting but he can hit you with a stick). 

Evasion seems like it makes sense, so I'll blow 6 more and take 3 points there, with the Dodge Technique. Three more gets me Stealth 2; I'm up to 20 spent (because I came into this with 1 already spent). 14 to go. 

Three points for Endurance 2, six for Tolerance 3 (drugs barely register anymore). Five more points. I'll spent 3 for Craft 2 (yeah, no Technique, but that's OK), and then 1 each for 1 point in Composure and Scrutiny. 

Step Five is (sigh) Disorder. As much time as he's spent silent, Depressive would seem like it fits, but I'm gonna go for Delusional. In this game, Delusional eventually lets you make reality fit with your delusions, but at starting level it makes you have instructive hallucinations, which can, among other things, give you a bump to Crafts. 

Step Six: Derived Traits, right here at the end, where they should go. Let's see. Defense is (Agility x 5) + 5 + (Evasion x 2), or 21 in my case. Conviction is (Willpower x 5) + 5 + (Composure x 2), or 17. Notice is the same thing with Perception and Investigate (so just 15, since I don't have Investigate). I get Health equal to twice my Toughness (4) plus one for every rank of Endurance (2), so I get 6 boxes. My Insanity starts at 0, which seems...low, considering? Ah, well. 

Step Seven is Finalize Backstory. There are questions. Cool!

• Why was the character committed? We covered that; he went catatonic for months after the incident in the tunnels. 
• Who does the character care about? He has a brother (Thomas) who was on his crew, but was laid off when the budget cuts came down. That means Thomas could very well have been there in the dark with him, if things had been a little different. 
• Who cares about the character? Thomas comes to visit him every week or two (gas is expensive). His parents have been to see him once or twice, but his dad is embarrassed by the whole thing.
• Who hates the character? No one that he knows of. Not yet, anyway.
• What frightens the character? Rats and the dark. He was stuck underground, in pitch darkness, listening to (and sometimes being nibbled by) the rats for three days. He can't sleep without a light on and the sight of a rat is often enough to send him into a panic attack. 
• What does the character look like? He used to be kind of a strapping dude, but he's lost a lot of muscle mass. He's about six feet tall, thin, pale, a mop of brown hair (he doesn't like to have it cut) and his fingers are always raw because he chews the ends. 

Should probably have a name, too. Let's call him Philip Zimmerman. Folks on the crew used to call him "Zim", but no one at the asylum does. 

I picture Phil as the kind of guy that resists the initial call to adventure, and then bursts into the room when the other people are getting their asses kicked and swats someone with a board. Kind of soft-spoken, but out of vulnerability rather than being really aloof. 

That'll do it! 

Atlantis: Why'd It Have to be Snakes

Back in the Second Age! Here's last time.

It's been three years since our heroes liberated Khem from the Pharaoh and set up a democracy. They parted ways, and have been pursuing their own interests. 

Akala, for instance, has been attempting to get the leadership of Curracurrang, the Flying City, to aim it towards Khem (it needs a resting place before it crashes). Said leadership, however, is concerned about the political upheaval there, and aren't quite certain about it.

Thanos was visited by some Lemurians interested in trading Vril tech. He told them about the underwater city of Elapi and its Vril pyramid, but expects them to share as well, which they're happy to do.

Eithne travels to Mongala, pursuing Sarangerel, the Blind Naga Queen of Tu-holo. She nearly kills her, but Sarangerel comes prepared with underlings and allows them to die as she escapes. 

Imani has been dreaming of the god Eloah, and in the dreams the god always asks her a riddle. She has been unable to answer it, however, and it's beginning to nettle her. But then, as the year 515 MK draws to a close, she receives a message sent to her in Haru-Seti. Her brother, Mosi, has been executed in Gorgos.

A bit of Imani-related backstory: Imani fought in a war between her home country of Nubia and the island nation of Gorgos. As part of that way, her family - father Imamu, mother Desta, and brother Mosi - were captured, along with her, and imprisoned by the Queen of the Gorgons. Imani escaped with the help of Amara, the princess, and later returned with a magical artifact that allowed her to buy freedom to travel to and from the island. Her family, however, remain political prisoners. Imani herself married Amara, making her technically part of the Gorgon royal family. However, part of this agreement was that no harm would come to her family, so Queen Uzoma has broken that promise.

Imani sends word to her friends and they all meet on the island of Bogador, the largest island in Gorgos, in the capital city of Ogara. Imani has a palatial estate there, and each of the heroes gets their own suite. No one is exactly happy, though. Gorgons openly worship Set, and men are sacrificed and enslaved here. The Queen commands a giant serpent called Apep. During the five nights of Wayeb (the last month of the year, known as the Month of Terror), Apep roams the city, feeding on anyone it chooses. It's considered a sign of a prosperous year if Apep choose to eat one of your slaves. Tonight is Nightensoul, two nights before the first night of Wayeb. 

The heroes discuss what's happened, and Imani makes her intentions clear - she means to kill Uzoma, topple the government, and install Amara as queen, with the understanding that she'll change things around here. She has an army ready to go in the personage of the Mercenary Queen (whom we met waaaay back here in the pilot). She's also intending to get help from Hesperia (which once controlled Gorgos and would like to again). Doing that, though, means not only besting Uzoma but disabling or destroying the Vril circles in each city. Powered by human sacrifice, they are capable of burning an enemy fleet to ash as it crosses the sea. 

The characters talk with Princess Amara, and despite being kind of disturbed by her forked and blackened tongue (that's just how they do here), she's informative. She tells them that Mosi wasn't executed, he was sacrificed, and she wasn't permitted to know why. She does know that it wasn't near any of the existing Vril circles, but near the beach. Imani theorizes that Uzoma is trying to access part of the tunnels beneath Ogara, a labyrinthine city built by the Ophidians centuries ago. Amara tells them roughly where she saw smoke rising up the night of the sacrifice, and the heroes dress in simple Gorgon clothing to go have a look.

They find a group of Gorgon soldiers standing on a rise guarding nothing obvious, and Imani approaches to find that they are standing on the lip of a crater. It's nearly 25 feet deep and the floor appears to be a disc of black glass. The Gorgon soldier inadvertently reveals that it's called "the Lock" and that the sacrifice was an attempt to open it. Imani tells her that there's trouble up the road and convinces the soliders to go have a look, and Eithne (in the form of a seagull) and Akala descend to have a peek.

Akala feels fugue tickling at her mind and Eithne realizes that there is powerful magic here. The ground is black glass, but etched with cracks and markings and arranged into huge concentric circles. It seems that the circles might move, lining up in a particular way, but it's too dark and too intricate to tell how. They also find a charred corpse, a Taurean, in the center of the disc. Its limbs are outstretched and it has a nose ring - not something that a Taurean would ever choose to wear. It also has ropes tied to its wrists and ankles. Worst of all, its horns have been broken off. This is Mosi's body.

Up top, Imani and Thanos find four stakes with ropes tied to them, but the ropes are burned off at the end. They're not spaced properly to lower anything down, so their function isn't apparent. In the pit, Akala and Eithne hear a voice whispering in Massawa, the language of Nubia. "Water," it cries, "I thirst." 

Akala mentions to Eithne that this is the language the Imani's family uses (she's met Imani's father, in fact), and the voice grows louder. "Imani," it whispers. "Sister." Wind picks up around them. They decide to leave, and Eithne, still a gull, heads for the sky. Akala tries, but the body sits up and lashes out with one of the ropes, tying up Akala's ankles. She kicks free as Eithne reaches the top. She assumes her Jinn form and tells Imani and Thanos what's happening, and they jump into the pit. 

The corpse stops moving, and a spectral Taurean appears and lowers itself into a charge. Imani begs with her brother to stop, to talk to her, and it pauses. Up on the lip of the crater, Eithne conjures up a bucket of water, but just then, the guards return and leap into the pit as well. 

Once of them reaches into her sleeves and throws a handful of black serpent scales into the air, summoning up snakes made of wind to hold the Mosi-spirit fast. What was her intention then? We'll never know, as Thanos strikes his gladius on the ground and throws fire at it. 

Mosi screams in pain and burns, crumbling away to nothing. Imani screams in agony and a single tear falls from her face and strikes the ground. One of the circles moves and locks into place, and a man's shape walks out of the darkness. "Thanos?" it whispers. 

Some Thanos-related backstory: Back in Nazca, years ago, Thanos was involved in the gladiatorial games. He eventually came in second, and the warrior that beat him was a Netherman named Inti. Inti spared his life, and the two of them were friends and companions until Inti died under the fangs of Zaramamma, a Naga. Thanos is fated to kill her, and she vowed to ruin him.

And now Inti walks out of the shadows. Thanos recognizes him, but is horrified - Inti died years ago. "I am free tonight," he says. "It is Nightensoul. I am let out tonight. You will see. You will learn, to see from the inside of the Dark Lord." He gasps and falls, shattering like glass.

Imani approaches the Gorgon soldier/priestess and informs her that she'll be taking Mosi's body out of here. The soldier offers no objection, and even offers to help. Over the next couple of hours, they rig up some ropes to help folks climb out, but when they emerge, none other than Queen Uzoma is waiting for them.

She greets Imani warmly; Imani makes no pretense about her hatred for her mother-in-law. She demands to know why Uzoma violated her promise and killed Mosi, and Uzoma says that her promises to beings on this Earth never supersede her vows to the Dark Lord, Set. Set demanded Mosi's horns as tribute. Uzoma invites Imani and her "servants" to dine with her, and then proclaims to everyone listening that Imani, her daughter-in-law, and Imani's servants are under royal protection. Anyone raises a hand, blade, or fang to them will see the inside of Apep. 

The Queen and her retinue slither off, and Imani and her friends take Mosi's body and burn it the rest of the way. She brings her parents as well, and when the funeral is done, they discuss what's to be done. Imani wants to get her family off of this island, kill Uzoma, and end this nightmare. Thanos, of course, notes that freeing the slaves and upending governments is kind of what they do. 

Exactly how, of course, is a different question.