Character Creation: Swords of the Serpentine

Sss, says the serpenty sword.

The Game: Swords of the Serpentine
The Publisher: Pelgrane Press
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game; I know Gumshoe pretty well but this is different in a lot of ways
Books Required: Just the one, but it's a doozy

Swords of the Serpentine is an interesting one. It's a Gumshoe game, meaning it uses a system designed for investigative stories, but it's very much meant to play sword-and-sorcery adventures, which wouldn't be especially compatible in my mind. But it's done really well, the setting is compelling, and it definitely deserves the hype I've heard about it.

The game is set in the city of Eversink (though I think there's enough attention paid to the surrounding areas that if you wanted to go into the wilds for a story you could), and there are some echoes of Blades in the Dark inasmuch as there are various factions competing for power. Likewise, sorcery is a thing and it's pretty badass, but when you use it you increase Corruption and you have either let it eat you or eat reality around you. It's a nice implementation of the "magic has a cost" idea. As I think about it, a lot of games that try to pick up on that theme don't make magic commensurately powerful to compensate for the "cost" (there are other examples, but the first thing that comes to mind is the first edition of Mage: The Awakening where Paradox was a complete paper tiger). 

Anywayhow, let's get into it. As with many games with intricate settings, it would help to have some idea of the campaign theme, but since it's just me we'll say that my character is seeking his fortune in the city of Eversink. I've made a few magicky characters lately ("lately" is always relative), so how about we avoid sorcery. 

The first thing I'm invited to do is pick a profession, out of four (thief, sorcerer, sentinel, and warrior). I think I'll go with warrior and say that my character is trying to become famous - he wants to be the flashy, dazzling, duelist that he grew up hearing stories about (this implies he's from Eversink...oh, or maybe from the outskirts, close enough that his family went into town on market days but not actually in the city). That could eventually put him into a situation like...what's that one episode of The Twilight Zone? "Mr. Denton on Doomsday!" But that's down the road a ways. 

(Ooh, it'd be fun to run this game and have the characters be older, experienced and utterly badass characters retelling stories of their youth. Put that in my pocket.)

So next we pick some adjectives (the best RPGs involve parts of speech). I think my guy is naive, fame-hungry (I almost said "ambitious" but that's not quite the vibe I'm looking for), young, naturally skilled, and quick-tempered. Kinda like Chris O'Donnell's character in The Three Musketeers, as I think about it.

Next, Drives. We get these by pretending we're in Conan The Barbarian and answering "what is best in life?" For my character, I think it's to be spoken of in song and story, to stand aside for no one, and for all to know your name and face. 

Neat! On to Investigate Abilities! As with many Gumshoe games, you get a pool of points to spend on these dependent on how many players in the group. Well, let's pretend I was playing this in the group currently playing Blades in the Dark (it could happen). That would mean four Heroes, so I'd get 11 points.

Investigative Abilities have a slightly different game function than in other Gumshoe games; they do the normal think of giving you whatever core clues are available that they would apply to, but spending them to affect other parts of the game is also a much bigger deal. As such, if I were to pump 5 points into a give ability, it wouldn't be completely dumb. I don't know that I'll do that, but I could. 

Let's see. Going on the assumption that my would-be famous duelist is from a family outside the city - let's say that fishes the river? - it would make sense to give him Servility. I think he needs Charm, too. Probably Taunt, I could see him engaging in game of the Dozens. Maybe a point of Trustworthy? Sure. 

And then there are Professional Abilities (still Investigative) under the four professions. I can take any of them, but if I only take points from one category I get an extra point to spend. I dunno, there are some Thief ones I kinda like...

Well, let's have a look. I know I want Wilderness Survival, which fortunately is under Warrior. Spot Frailty is good, but what's interesting is that if I just take one point that applies to Armor (physical damage) or Grit (social damage; you can damage Morale in this game just as easily as Health), but if I have more than 1 point it applies to both. I think Know Monstrosities might be a little outside his experience, although if he's an avid student of local legendry maybe one point. Tactics of Death might be something he'd get later, but again, maybe a point. Let's have a look at how this is shaping up.

Charm 2
Servility 2
Taunt 2
Trustworthy 1
Know Monstrosities 1
Spot Frailty 1
Tactics of Death 1
Wilderness Survival 2

That's 12, and that works because I've only bought Professional Abilities from Warrior. Neat! We'll say Spot Frailty applies to Grit, not Armor.

And then I also get three Build Points for Allegiances. I have two points in factions as Allies, and one as Enemies, so who am I cool with and who'd I piss off? I think Commoners might get a point of Allies, but at the same time, I kinda like his people not actually knowing who he is. Maybe instead I'll put my Allies points into Outlanders and City Watch (I picture his friend in the city watch having a very Roman Dey/Peter Quill relationship - the Watchman thinks I'm kind of a tool but knows I'm not 100% a dick). For Enemies, I'll put that point into Mercenaries - there was this misunderstanding where I offered to do a job for free that the Mercs had been negotiating. They wound up doing it, but I drove down the price. Sorry, guys.

And now, General Abilities! I have 30 points to spend, and then 18 to split between Health and Morale (I really like that system; it's not actually more points than other Gumshoe games, but you don't feel like you have to rob yourself to buy your hit points). My highest ability can't be more than twice my next-highest, meaning if I want something at 10 I have to take something else at 5. Having 1-3 makes me a dabbler, 4-7 makes me trained, 8 or more is expert. 

Obviously I want Warfare (which is the catch-all "kill shit" ability). I want Sway, too, which is used to do Morale damage. Maybe a point or two of Stealth (he's a fisherman, not a hunter, you don't sneak up on a fish), but I can see Athletics being a little higher. I feel like I should take some Preparedness, though I don't think it's his forte. 

Athletics 8
Preparedness 3
Stealth 5
Sway 7
Warefare 7

That's 30, nice! For the Health/Morale split, I'll go 9 and 9, why complicate things.

And finally (well, almost finally, still need a name) I get at least five pieces of iconic gear. This isn't magical items or badass equipment, this is just the stuff that makes me, me (and it doesn't have to be physical, it can be personality traits). 

So my guy has a special red scarf that he wears around his neck (his mother found a length of dyed red fabric that fell off a wagon and made him a scarf). That implies a special relationship with his mother, actually, so I'll say the memory of his mother is part of his iconic gear. He's got a fishhook in his boot (not, like, literally in his boot, but through the leather near the top), and a dazzling smile. One more (at least, though I can take more if I think of them). Heh, I got one. He's got a piece of cloth with charcoal drawings of his symbol. He wants to have an emblem that he wears or draws to indicate it's him, a kind of "Mark of Zorro" thing, but he hasn't decided on the design yet so he's got this piece of fabric with ideas. 

And I think that's it! I picture this guy as young (late teens, probably), lean and athletic, naturally good at running/jumping/climbing and pretty good at fighting, but in a fight scene it would seem like a lot of luck. His witty repartee is going to be somewhat unpolished at first; I think with some character advancement he'd learn to read and maybe pick up some Thief and Sentinel abilities. 

Anyway, sandy brown hair, blue eyes, the aforementioned dazzling smile, always dirty but never filthy. His name is Armano. 

Movie #807: Sunset Blvd

Sunset Blvd is a classic black comedy/noir directed by Billy Wilder and starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Jack Webb, and cameos from Cecil B. DeMille and Hedda Hopper. 

The movie opens with the corpse of one Joe Gillis (Holden) being fished out of a swimming pool in Beverly Hills, and then Joe narrates the last few months of his life: A struggling screenwriter, he takes shelter from some repo men in the decaying mansion of silent film star Norma Desmond (Swanson), and winds up getting sucked into her world as a script doctor for her awful Salome screenplay. Norma is convinced that Cecil B. DeMille is going to jump at the chance to dump huge amounts of money into this film, and Gillis is initially under no particular illusions as to how nuts she is and how unlikely her comeback will be. But the money gets to him, and he falls into the routine of being her kept man.

Joe tries to get out, he becomes involved with Betty (Olson), the fiancee of his buddy Artie (Webb), but drives her away when he feels guilty about breaking up their relationship (and, probably, on reflection on how ridiculous his own situation is). And then he makes the mistake of turning his back on a crazy person with a gun and winds up in the pool.

Sunset Blvd is one of those classic pieces of cinema that even if you haven't seen, will feel familiar in places. It was deservedly nominated for a bunch of acting Oscars; the performances are stellar, from William Holden's smooth and somewhat slimy Gillis to Swanson's unhinged and manipulative Desmond to Eric von Stroheim's proper and pathetic Max. One of my favorite scenes is Norma going back to the studio while DeMille is shooting Samson and Delilah (which, fun fact, actually got a couple of Oscar noms the same year as Sunset Blvd, which is nicely meta - DeMille playing himself directing a movie he had already directed in a reconstructed set of a finished movie). The older cast and crew all recognize Norma and welcome her warmly, but everyone (except maybe DeMille) misses that to her, this isn't a nice visit to the place she used to work, it's a triumphant homecoming. (Weird comparison, but it makes me think of Calculon 2.0.) 

It's not a mystery - we know from the jump that Joe doesn't survive the movie and we know from the minute he meets Norma that she's going to kill him (it was either her or Max), but that doesn't stop the tragedy of the situation from hitting home when he finally tries to leave. And all of this with Billy Wilder's characteristic witty dialog and humor. 

(And one of the most frequently misquoted lines in movie history, of course: It's actually "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.")

My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Super Size Me

Twisted Rifters: The False Pantheon

Yesterday we played a one-shot of Twisted Rifters. It was pretty cool, though I do kind of feel that the book is a little thin.

"A little thin." It's 23 pages, it funded on Kickstarter in February 2020 and made less than $1500 - what you'd call a "zine," which is why I didn't back it (I've warmed to the idea of zine games since, but at the time I wasn't backing them). The premise and vibe of the game is pretty cool - the world has cracked apart, there's this "rift" beneath the floating archipelago making up the last of the land where people live, there are monsters and magics and so forth. The system is very much like Blades in the Dark, but you can add "qualifiers" to anyone's roll (I mean, they have to accept them), meaning you might pick a lock "loudly" and attract attention or bake a cake "messily" and have it come out tasty but look ugly. 

That right there is a brilliant enough idea to justify the game, IMO. One of the problems I've had with Forged in the Dark games is that Devil's Bargains can be hard to come up with on the fly, and that's a superb framework for thinking about them. But the rest of the game could really use some fleshing out. There are a million really cool ideas in there, so much evocative stuff, but the book really leans on the "this sounds cool" to do a lot of heavy lifting and ignores the "here's how you play" aspect. And then there's little things like I think there's a maximum dice pool of 4 dice...but that's never explicitly stated. Also the font is not friendly, especially with white-text-on-black:

With all of that said, I ran it, it worked just fine. I think the game and the setting could accommodate a book the size of Blades, easy-peasy, if someone had wanted to put that work in. But here's the session!

The Rift has some sentience and wants to eject all of the lands chained to it into the unforgiving blackness above. It hates the characters because they're drawing power from it - they've become a "False Pantheon" that people worship, except the groundlings, who still revere the Rift itself.

This all started because of  J, the Architect Superior. J possesses the power to build things from the world around them, but also to infect minds with ideas and memes. While pursued by enemies, they began the belief that they were the God of Chains and Bindings, and that belief took root and spread. They also worked three others into this new Pantheon...

Fade, the Non-Existent Knight was an assassin and warrior in service to a Queen, but she died and then returned from death as a wraith-like figure. J turned her into the Goddess of Nightmares, and now she intends to earn her death and return to rest.

Gray, the Experiment was looking for true immortality and figured the way to get it was to become indestructible. He wears the skin of a golem and dabbles in alchemy, but wants to go back to the drawing board and perfect the processes this time. And then J helped him become the God of Eternity.

And finally, most terrifying of all, is Prudence, the Contagion. Prudence may or may not have been human at one point, but she's now a walking disease, contained within a special robe and striving to raise the dead not as mindless zombies (which she's already capable of doing) but as pure, living diseases like herself. It's not hard to see why J made her the Goddess of Death.

These four beings, then, are in the city of Mooring, on the continent of Camphor, chained to the mantle of the world above the Rift. J and Fade have arrived from one of the "higher" continents, sliding down a "chute" of Rift energy to escape from a mob of heretics. Now they are are in a temple dedicated to the Pantheon, and collectively decide that today's the day they're going to burn the groundlings off the face of the world.

J summons people from all over Mooring, and disassembles the walls of the temple to raise their throne (and Gray's throne) on high. The population of Mooring listens and the thronging masses await word from their gods...and it comes.

Gray booms out across the city to rise up and smite the groundlings, to march on the Unterwell where they live and kill them all! Prudence infects the faithful - not with a disease that will harm them, but simply with a carrier that she can use later. She doesn't much care if the faithful die, anyway - everything will die.

(Yeah, this game started dark and got steadily darker.)

The citizens of Mooring march en masse toward the Unterwell, but the groundlings are already emerging to meet them. These groundlings also have purple glows to their eyes and mouths, as though the Rift itself is working through them. The army of believers strikes them, pushing them back, and Fade is on the front lines getting her blade wet with the blood of heretics. But then the rift-bats arrive.

The bats rise out of the Rift, huge creatures with wingspans ranging 30-40 feet! They swoop down and devour believers and groundlings alike, but when they devour groundlings they also realize a scream of power that deafens the faithful and drives them back. Gray orders the Mooring-soldiers with muskets to fire and some of the bats crash to the ground, but there are more coming. Fade leaps into the air and lands on one, forcing it to act as a mount by showing it its own primal nightmares.

J fashions a grenade launcher (more like a big slingshot) and fires a gravity grenade, sucking the bats together. Gray charges in, probably with the intent of scattering the soldiers, but the gravity field that J has created is too much and he is rooted to the ground. Prudence focuses her grim powers and infects the bats with a rabies-like disease, and they crash to the ground and start gnawing on Gray - of course, their fangs cannot penetrate his armor. But they bite at anything they can reach, and the disease spreads...

...but it spreads throughout the Pantheon's own army. The groundlings don't seem affected at all.

Prudence, annoyed, alters the disease to make the infect hemorrhage, and they erupt in a rolling wave of gore (ew), which only spreads the disease further. Gray, now that the bats aren't chewing on him anymore, smashes an alchemical reagent and sheds his armor, free of the gravity field but now exposed.

Fade, meanwhile, flies above the chaos on her bat-mount, and sees that the groundlings are fewer in number but still marching and the Pantheon's army has mostly liquified itself. She leaps off the bat and lands as Prudence hurls an acid grenade, which explodes and liquefies more of the groundlings. Gray narrowly dodges the pool of acid thus created, chugs a potion and regrows his armor, bones cracking and skin hardening. The four of them stand together as the groundlings march on them.

J tries to fashion a hand from the earth to throw groundlings off the edge of the world, but the ground cracks and opens and a shaft of Rift-light emerges. Gray throws a couple into that hole, but their bodies disintegrate and become part of the Rift-miasma, and Fade wonders aloud whether that will only strengthen it. J feels their surviving believers start to doubt - much of the population of Mooring is dead and the groundlings still march. J reaches out and carefully starts to close the hole...but the Rift senses what they are doing and a few living tendrils of power slither through.

The tendrils grab whatever raw material they can - acid, dead bat parts, gore, the remnants of Gray's shed armor - and form constructs, which then attack the Pantheon. The one formed of acid lurches at Gray, but Gray is too quick for it. He merges two vials of alchemical solutions and throws it at the being, neutralizing the acid - the construct still "lives", but it's effectively made of water.

The construct formed of Gray's armor attacks Fade, and she tries to dodge and knock it into the slowly-closing hole into the Rift. She miscalculates, however, and it grabs her, and absorbs part of her nightmarish power, leaving her diminished. Meanwhile, the one formed of blood and gore flows toward Prudence.

The Goddess of Death tries to take control of it, since it's mostly diseased tissue, but she fails, and it flows into her, bursting her containment robe and leaving her formless. The last one, the one made of bat parts, grabs for J, but J neatly dodges and finishes closing the hole. 

The constructs fall, and the Rift seems to lose some power. The whole continent drops some, and the chains holding Camphor to the rest of the higher lands strain and groan. The chutes of magic connecting them fail, and the Pantheon realizes that the Rift is weakened. The groundlings are dead, but so is most of Mooring, and there is little else on this continent.

But the chains still hold, and the Pantheon regroups and begins considering how they might ascend. There are other islands, and they too have heretics. And the Rift must still be bound.

Movie #806: Candyman (2021)

Candyman is a direct sequel to the 1992 film of the same name (making it part of that fucking annoying tradition of same-name-sequels, see also Halloween and Scream), and stars Teyonah Parris, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Colman Domingo, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Vanessa Williams, and (briefly) Tony Todd. 

Anthony McCoy (Abdul-Mateen II) is an up-and-coming artist in the Chicago scene, who is dating and living with gallery director Brianna (Parris). Her brother Troy (Stewart-Jarrett) tells them the story of Helen Lyle (Virgina Madsen; we get to hear her voice), the white woman who, according to Troy's story, kidnapped a baby from the Cabrini Green projects and threw herself onto a bonfire when a group of people stopped her from burning the baby. She did it because she got obsessed with the legend of "Candyman."

Anthony becomes likewise obsessed (well, "inspired") and goes to the projects to learn more, eventually getting the story of Sherman Fields (Michael Hargrove), one part of the Candyman legend. As local color and witness to Sherman's death Burke (Domingo) says, however, "Candyman" isn't one person, "it's the whole damn hive." Candyman is a series of Black men, starting with Daniel Robataille (Todd), who were brutally murdered and over time turned into boogeyman who will appear and slaughter anyone who says the name five times in front of mirror. 

Anthony creates an art piece called "Say My Name", consisting of a mirror that invites the viewer to enact the summoning. Almost immediately, art dealer Clive (Brian King) and his girlfriend (Miriam Moss) are murdered, setting the art world into a tizzy and making both Anthony and Brianna hot commodities as others try to cash in. But Candyman is out and about, and Anthony learns that he is the baby that was stole from Cabrini Green when his mother (Williams reprising her role from the first movie and holy shit she did not age) tells him the real story - Helen saved his life from Candyman.

When I saw this movie the first time, I hadn't seen the original in years and so I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Now having seen them both a little closer together, I feel like this is a really strong evolution of the story. Or maybe "evolution" is the wrong word - one of the things that struck me about this movie was Troy's retelling of Helen Lyle's story from the first movie, but filtered through the perspective of time and the telephone game of being told as an urban legend. Everything that he says about Helen makes sense, but it paints her as the aggressor and villain - she's not, although it is true that by coming into Cabrini and trying to understand something she had no context for, she kind of set all of this in motion.

There's a lot of racial themes here - gentrification, police brutality, and what kinds of art come out of those things - that I am not qualified to talk about. I will say that the idea of making Candyman a collective identity is a really smart one, and allows a character who has always had sympathetic origins, if not methods, to become systemic and pure legend, which is perfectly in keeping with his depiction in the first movie. 

The performances are really sold, though I kind of wish Anthony's descent into madness wasn't quite so steep, and I wonder if the subplot about Bria's father was necessary (I get why it's there, but it doesn't really go anywhere). But all in all it's a solid movie, and the shadow-puppet sequences are amazing. Oh, also, the sound design is fucking top-notch, as we get glass cracking, candy crunching, and of course bees buzzing the background all the way through.

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: Sunset Boulevard

Blades in the Dark: A Quickie

Not like that. Although we did wind up at a brothel first thing. (Seems to be happening a lot in the RPGs I'm in lately.)

So, here we are back in Duskwall, with our lovable scamps, the Snakeskins! Having gotten a lead on a job, Two-Tooth and Kesket head to the district of Silkshore, to the Red Light (a classy establishment, thank you) to talk to Madame Tesslyn. 

Turns out that Tesslyn has an interesting job for them. Recently, another minor gang called the Wraiths came into the Red Light and started making trouble. And someone called "Pumpkin" stole a book of maps that several parties are interested in getting back - Leviathan Hunters, for one. Now, Tesslyn doesn't care about the book per se; the Snakeskins are free to sell it to whomever they wish. What she really wants is for the Wraiths to be taught a lesson.Two-Tooth and Kesket agree that this is a job they can do, and they decide since they're in Silkshore anyway they'll swing by the tower that the Wraiths have been hanging out in lately and do a little casing.

The tower is about eight stories. Kesket sends her magic snake Aksha in and notes some strange, arcane writings on the wall on the first floor before she gets bored and eats a rat. They head back to the HQ, where Hollow and Moon have been waiting (Moon has been building a snake-tree for Aksha to lounge on). Kesket sketches out the sigils for Moon, her being the crew's resident Whisper.

Moon says that the sigils appear to be a kind of low-grade demon-summoning spell. The crew kicks around ideas for what that might mean - a trap that summons a demon? Practice? Aftermath of a successful summoning? But Moon guesses that it's pretty benign, at least so far. Moon and Hollow decide to go have a look, while Two-Tooth drops in on his friend Nyryx (Pumpkin was apparently trying to find work at Red Light, so if she's plied the trade on the streets before, Nyryx might have met her).

In Silkshore, Moon tunes into the ghost field, and discovers a lot of spirits hanging around the building. There's a spirit well on the sixth floor, and her guess is that the Wraiths are trying to use it as a power source. She doesn't detect any demonic activity, so maybe they're just taking their first steps into demon summoning, but there's definitely some pissed-off ghosts around.

Meanwhile, Two-Tooth learns that Pumpkin isn't officially a Wraith, she's the paramour of one of the Wraiths, a man called Jack who wears a mask like a carved gourd (Me: "Does Halloween exist in this world?" The GM: "Any world I run in a game in would have Halloween."). She's been trying to hustle, trying to find her own angle, and stealing this book might well have been her ticket. Except the Snakeskins are gonna screw that up for her, but that's life.

The crew reconvenes and discusses their options. Two-Tooth suggests setting explosives beneath the spirit well and dropping it down a floor, perhaps damaging or destroying it, but definitely alerting anyone in the area (like, say, the Spirit Wardens) as to what's going on. Kesket further suggests destroying staircases and ladders leading to the upper floors, trapping the Wraiths in their own building - no maiming or murder necessary, but it'll definitely be a strong message. The Snakeskins gear up and get ready to go to work.

Character Creation: The Devil's Dandy Dogs

Arf arf etc.

The Game: The Devil's Dandy Dogs
The Publisher: Monte Cook Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, though it's more a box than a book

I have talked occasionally about games that are razor-focused on one particular thing and do that and nothing else, and how those games are a lot of fun as long as that one particular thing is what you want. The Devil's Dandy Dogs is such a game (as is Stealing Stories for the Devil, which came out of the same Kickstarter, I think). In Dandy Dogs, you're playing one of the Devil's titular puppers, and your job is to go out and fulfill a soul contract and then retrieve the soul in question. 

Now, that's already a pretty niche setup, but the other gimmick, if you will, is that this is all presented as a story you're telling the Devil, meaning that whether you succeeded at your quest is not in question. It's literally all about the story you're telling and the drama therein. 

I think this would be a fun one-shot, maybe even a short campaign, although I think if one were running it more than once it might be better served as the game the group picks up when they can't play their normal game for whatever reason (player is out, GM didn't have time to prep, whatever). I think playing it multiple sessions in a row would be...not too rich, exactly, but too much of one thing. But who knows. I suspect it's going to wind up at my table at some point, because "play a devilish shadow-doggo" is too good a hook for my players to ignore for long.

Making a character isn't gonna take long, either. First thing we do is pick a Role, which determines, well, precisely that, but also the style of storytelling our hellhound uses. The Beloved, for instance, tends to talk up other dogs, while the Faithful just reports everything with little embellishment and definitely no omission. 

Well, if I were actually playing Dandy Dogs, I would probably pick one that plays to my natural playstyle, so let's go with the Beloved (I like to try and bring other players into the conversation; residual effect of being a forever GM). 

Being the Beloved makes me Good in Devil, Very Good in Dog, and Best in Dandy. I get to pick a Goal and a Devil's Mark, and then a Name, and that's basically it, right? 

I have an idea for my Devil's Mark - my dog looks, at a glance, like a curly-haired, black, medium-sized dog (much like a Portuguese water dog), but his tongue is pink and has weird, swirly black patterns on it (kinda like my dog Sandy's, except my character's tongue-swirls move and form mind-bending sigils when he pants).  

His Goal...hmm. Goal is weird, because the dogs were all once living creatures, though not necessarily dogs. I'm gonna say that my dog doesn't remember exactly what he used to be, but he knows there was a dog involved. The other dog had brown and white fur, it was a little smaller than he is now, and it was afraid and running...and that's all he remembers. He wants to find that dog and make sure she's OK. 

And that's all except a name, because my Tricks and Drive are determined by my Role! My Devil Dog's name is Caradin. 

And that's it! Very quick chargen process.

D&D: The Bitter Taste of Defeat

Very nearly wound up with a TPK last night, very exciting. Here's last time.

Our heroes have just killed one of the four(?) doppelgangers running the Shiny Belles tavern, and consider taking a brief rest, but Aisling is worried about Sennin, the old man whose form the now-dead shapeshifter was copying. So they all head out, in the direction of the "ditch" that he was going to when they last saw him for realsies! (Clara points out that maybe there never was a "Sennin," but Aisling believes that if that had been a shapeshifter, he'd never have pointed out the inconsistencies in the others' behavior that he did.)

They find the ditch largely by the smell; it's used as a latrine. But there's another odor behind the first, one of old putrescence. They follow it up-ditch a bit, and find corpses - five of them, all human (probably; they're not gnome or something, at least), all still dressed, all old and decaying, all halfheartedly buried and then dug up by scavengers. Aisling notes with rising disgust that these are probably Connal, Blythe, Achain, Wren, and Stellan, the proprietors of this place. She tries to get closer, but the smell is too much and she turns back.

Clara finds Sennin's tracks and discovers that he did indeed come out to the ditch, stood there a moment, and then turned back, but was accosted and dragged away. They follow his tracks over the ditch and towards a hayfield, and in the distance they see a scarecrow tied to a crossbeam...but as they get closer, they realize the scarecrow is moving.

They come up to it and find Sennin, bleeding from a bonk on the head but alive. Aisling heals him with a spell, and he explains that the doppelgangers approached wearing the forms of the adventurers (minus Zook), bonked him on the head, and tied him up here. They're headed toward Haywain, the little village west of here! He tells them to go along without him and maybe they can intercept the creatures, but they refuse to leave him - leaving someone alone with doppelgangers about is unwise. That means, of course, that they can only move as fast as Sennin.

They arrive in Haywain after a couple of hours, and they discover themselves already there! "Aisling" is addressing the gathered villagers, going on about shapeshifters coming after their women! Aisling is, of course, outraged, calls out the creature, and the villagers panic as the "heroes" ready themselves. Zook just hurls a firebolt at "Aisling," yelling "YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE A ZOOK!" but misses.

The battle is joined! "Aisling" readies herself for battle and screams "Back to the hedgerows!" at the heroes! Clara runs up to "Clara" and attacks, while Dara throws a thorn-whip at "Dara", but the crowd and chaos make landing blows difficult. "Clara" strikes, mimicking Clara's fighting form, and knocks her out, but Aisling is quick with a healing word and rouses her again! Dara casts a shillelagh spell on her quaterstaff and chugs the potion of giant strength she was carrying, but misjudges her own newfound strength and snaps the staff on the ground when she strikes.

Meanwhile, Zook casts a witch-bolt at "Aisling," hoping to be able to reveal it even if it changes form. Aisling charges in and draws her sword, and the battle rages. "Dara" ducks into a building with a group of villagers and is lost in the chaos, while "Clara," badly wounded, drops its disguise, disengages and flees around a corner. "Aisling," likewise hurt, ducks into a building. The actual Aisling follows and finds a group of villagers...but she has a plan.

She casts a sleep spell, and the villagers all gently drop off, leaving one standing there holding a knife. It explodes into the white, lumpy doppelganger form, lunging at Aisling ("Do you think I'd give up?"), but Clara runs over, slides between Aisling's knees, and punches it! The creature staggers back, and then swings its massive arms ("DIE!"), knocking both heroes down and out.

Zook and Dara, meanwhile, spot one lone villager (the others ran when the doppelgangers stood exposed). Dara detects magic and spots the low-level magic around him, and points it out. The doppelganger obligingly drops the disguise, and Dara swings with her half-staff, but the creature bats it away and drops her with a single punch. 

Zook, now the last adventurer standing, backs up in panic and throws a firebolt at the one that just felled Aisling and Clara. He misses, however, setting the cottage ablaze. The one that dropped Dara yells "Fench! Let's go!" and both remaining doppelgangers flee, leaving Zook to rally the villagers and put out the fire.

The other three heroes come to later that night, laid out on beds of hay in the barn, heads being dabbed with cloth soaked in water and herbs. The villagers thank them for their gallantry and nurse them back to health, and one of them offers a lift in a wagon into the nearby town of Fiadh. The heroes, perhaps a little chastened, agree, and ride in the wagon south along the river.

Fiadh is one of the biggest towns in Abhaile, with a population of roughly 8000. The wagon pulls in and up to a tavern, and the driver lets them out. A group of old men are sitting around outside playing a game involving wooden tiles marked with numbers and pictures, and they gently point out that the heroes look like they might have had a rough time of it. They agree, and Aisling secures rooms at this place - they decide to stick around a bit.

Over the next couple of days, Dara communes with the trees, developing her magic in the Forest Circle. Clara discovers a commune of barbarians, monks, and rangers not far away, and practices the Way of the Open Hand. Aisling meets up with Cillian, a bard from the south, and joins the College of Lore, learning new stories and songs. 

Zook, meanwhile, continues practicing his magic of Divination, and one day is reading his spellbook in the tavern when an old man pokes him. "'Scuse me, is your name Timbers?"

Zook confirms that it is, and the man tells him that he knew his father. "Ranger, right? Not a woogly-woo like you?" He says that he helped Zeb construct a little stash, something he called a hidey-hole, not big enough to sleep in but big enough to hold supplies. He draws a simple map in the back cover of Zook's spellbook, and Zook thanks him profusely.

Next time, we'll see what, if anything is still there!

Chill: Britt Getting Married

Back to the scintillating metropolis of Seward, AK. Here's last time.

The envoys meet up for lunch and talk through what they've learned so far and think about some next steps. They're a little stuck - Jessica, the girl who was pushed into the water last night - isn't willing to talk to them, and Naomi, the girl that did the pushing, is but she's in jail so likely safe. They still don't know who the mysterious "Donald" really is and they don't have enough information to go on.

However, they realize, they do know that Donald claims to be shipping out on a crabber called the Thunderstruck. Nicholas does some quick research and discovers that the Thunderstruck was indeed a crabbing boat, but it sank in December 2018, losing three crew, including the owner. But before that, in October 2004, a 19-year-old man named Donald Young out on his first crabbing job was swept over the side during a squall and lost at sea. 

Nicholas is not much for research so Amelia takes over and starts digging into Donald. He died at 19, his parents are now deceased but his sister Kelly lives in the area. He was local to Seward, and an article from around the time of his death quotes his girlfriend Anya Kostov (20) as saying "I told him I'd wait for him." Looking into Anya, the envoys discover she was murdered about a month after Donald died. She was found strangled in her car in a parking lot in Anchorage.  

The envoys consider their options, and they decide that since they know Donald's MO (to approach women out by themselves or in small groups on the docks), they'll wait until evening and have Mercy and Britt act as bait. Since everyone was up late last night, Mercy and Britt go back to their respective homes to get some rest, but Nicholas and Amelia go out to City Cemetery to find Anya Kostov's grave. Maybe nothing, but maybe Donald has visited it?

When they get there, they find something odd. Anya is buried near a woman named Monica Frank (who died at 78). The earth in front of Frank's grave is freshly tilled; it looks like she was exhumed recently. But the tilled earth continues over into Anya's plot, as though part of that plot was dug up? Nicholas uses Postcognition, and sees men working a backhoe and digging up Frank's plot, but then one yells "Hold it! What the hell is that?" He jumps down into the hole and scraps at the earth, and reveals a boot...with a leg still in it, wrapped in a cloth. "Think you better call someone!" he yells up.

Amelia and Nicholas find the groundskeeper and ask about the weirdly tilled earth, and the groundskeeper is only too happy to tell the story - though he warns them it starts strange and gets stranger. See, Monica Frank was exhumed due to a messy legal battle involving her children from her first marriage and her widow from her second, but none of that is especially relevant. When they went to exhume her casket, they found another body, buried in Anya Kostov's burial plot. The body was that of a young man, maybe 20-25, but the groundskeeper remembers saying that based on soil analysis or whatever the guy had been buried 20 years or so. But the groundskeeper saw the body, and it didn't look like a body that had been decaying for that long - actually it looked pretty fresh, didn't even smell. 

Anyway, he says, they took the body to Anchorage (he's not sure why), but then it disappeared from the morgue that night, and a security guard got killed! Weird, right?

"Very weird," agrees Amelia, already typing this into the group chat. 

That evening, Mercy and Britt wake up, everyone gets dinner, and Mercy asks around a bit and finds that, yes, a security guard named John Wheaton (54) was killed a couple of nights ago. He showed signs of being strangled, but what actually killed him was a heart attack. His keys were missing, but were then found - they'd been used to open a storage bin in the morgue, the sort of thing where personal effects from corpses would be kept.

So did Donald walk across the ocean floor and get back to Seward? It seems like this is a corporeal being, rather than a ghost - maybe that's good? They decide to go ahead with the plan. Britt and Mercy stand on the docks chatting, while Amelia and Nicholas hang back to watch. Amelia also uses the Blessing discipline on Mercy, just to give her a leg up if there's a confrontation or Donald tries to use his powers to make her fall in love. (If you read the title of the post, you might guess where things went wrong.)

They stand there for a while, and then Britt feels a tap on her shoulder. She turns, and finds herself staring at the love of her life. He's tall, dark, and mysterious, wearing a pea coat and jeans and boots. He has black hair and very pale skin, and he smells sweet - like strawberries. Britt immediately melts, and the man introduces himself as "Donald." 

Mercy sees this and quickly understands what's happened. She signals to the others (Amelia: "SHIT, I Blessed the wrong one!"), but they aren't sure what to do. Britt and Donald are giggling together; the effect has been intense and immediate. Mercy, a woman of action, grabs her scarf and puts it around Donald's neck and yanks him back onto his butt.

Britt, outraged, tries to slug her, but misses terribly (Britt is not trained in combat). Mercy keeps pulling, and Donald grabs her wrists. She feels her heart flutter a little, but nothing really happens. She wraps the scarf around his eyes - maybe that'll break his spell? But it doesn't, and Britt keeps trying to swing on Mercy. Nicholas gets there and pulls Britt back, and Amelia touches her and uses Disrupt.

The effect fades and Britt comes to her senses, but it doesn't last more than a few seconds before she falls in love with Donald all over again. More people are getting involved now (this does look like a fight), people are recording, calling the police, and then Mercy looks down and realizes that Donald isn't there anymore. She didn't feel him slip out, he's just...gone.

The police arrive and separate everyone, take statements, but Amelia manages to mostly get things calmed down, and no one is pressing any charges. Britt is sobbing because Donald is gone, and they decide to have Nicholas take her out on a boat and keep her isolated for the time being. But just then, Mercy collapses. 

Fortunately, first responders are already there. They give her oxygen and stabilize her, but it's clearly very serious - it looks like she's had a heart attack. Amelia rides with her to the hospital and the EMTs ask whether she's been doing drugs tonight, she has a history of heart problems, because this is very weird for a 20-something. But no, it just came out of nowhere. Mercy is, clearly, going to be admitted.

Meanwhile, Nicholas tells Britt that Donald is on the boat (which he's borrowing from a friend), and she happily goes along. As they're heading out into the bay (Nicholas doing his best to keep himself steady, because being out on the water is pretty triggering for him), Britt goes into the cabin and who does she find waiting for her? Her love, Donald!

Britt suggests they run away to Vegas and get married and have lots of kids - Britt's family has money, they'd never need to work. Donald hesitates; he's supposed to ship out on the Thunderstruck tomorrow, he explains. Britt says he doesn't need to, she'll take care of him. He agrees, but says that he needs to tell his captain. Will she meet him tomorrow night on the docks where they met? Will she wait for him?

Britt enthusiastically agrees, but asks for something of his to hold onto. He gives her his class ring from high school, and then kisses her goodbye and leaves the cabin. Britt leans back on the seat and squeezes a pillow happily. Nicholas comes down into the cabin and notes the ring, and Britt explains everything. She doesn't seem to have any problem with the fact that Donald was just here on a boat and now...isn't. 

Nicholas texts Amelia ("HELLLLLPPPP"), and, since Mercy is safe, though very weak, Amelia arranges for Nicholas to come back. Britt thinks she has to go and pack, so Amelia and Nicholas join her to keep an eye on her. They also talk her into having some drinks to celebrate and give her a gummy, so she passes out and they put her in the bathtub (though Nicholas puts a bunch of blankets and pillows in it first) to make it easier to keep an eye on her. Amelia puts a Line of Defense across the door, but of course that'll only last until sunrise and it won't prevent Britt from leaving the room.

Amelia also does a little more digging into Anya Kostov and turns up a news story about her murder that quotes her friend, Gina Carruthers. Gina is now a chef at a local Seward restaurant, so Amelia decides she'll go see her tomorrow. Amelia also thinks about this whole mess, and she comes back to one important question - how did Donald wind up buried next to Anya in the first place? 

In the morning, Amelia heads to the restaurant for brunch and chats with Gina. Gina tells her that she and Anya were both students at AVTEC (a local vocational/technical school) in 2004, and that she remembers Anya being devastated when her boyfriend Donald died on a crabbing boat. But then a few weeks later, they both went to a Halloween party together and Anya was there with a guy she called "Jake"...except that she confessed to Gina that it was really Donald! Gina was a little drunk that night, but she remembers Anya saying something about how Donald was "legally dead" but they were going to "fix it" and she was going to "wait for him."

Amelia notes all of this, and mentions the strange occurrence at the grave. This jogs Gina's memory, and she tells Amelia that in November 2004, just after Anya was murdered, a group of people she'd never met came to her asking questions about Anya and Donald. She doesn't remember their names, but one of them gave her a card that had a weird symbol on it. She does a quick sketch, and Amelia recognizes it right away - the indalo, SAVE's symbol. 

Amelia gives Gina her card and asks her to call if she remembers anything else, and then puts all this into the group chat. Britt is insistent that she's going to the docks tonight to meet Donald and then they're going to the airport and eloping to Vegas, but Mercy keeps Britt busy running around doing errands for her. Nicholas and Amelia go to the community center to look through the archives, but unfortunately 2004 was after the blackout period started - they basically don't have records from 1997-2007, and the Anchorage HQ (which is probably the one that handled this case) had already been lost by 2004. 

But, looking through the information they do have, Amelia is able to draw a couple of conclusions. First, clearly the first SAVE team managed to incapacitate Donald and bury him next to Anya, and that kept him inert for 20 years until he was dug up. But Donald isn't actually fixated on Anya - he hasn't been back to her grave and he's not looking for girls that look like her exclusively. This tells Amelia that he's more in love with the idea of being in love than with a specific person.

What does that mean? How they can destroy him? Amelia wonders if they can lure him into a firepit and burn him, because he's clearly dangerous, and she has no idea what happens if Britt meets up with her "love" again tonight.

Character Creation: Wanderhome

Meant to do this yesterday, but then got busy doin' stuff, as Dib would say. 

The Game: Wanderhome
The Publisher: Possum Creek Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: None

I know "cozy game" is usually applied to video games, but it kinda fits here. Wanderhome is about a journey that anthropomorphic animals are taking to...doesn't much matter, actually. The game can be played with a GM (rather, "guide", and the job of said guide is pretty different than a GM in a trad game), but it feels like it wants to be played like a Belonging Without Belonging sort of arrangement. It's even diceless but works on token management. 

Much like Possum Creek's other game Sleepaway, I like it, but I think if I was gonna run it or play it I'd first want to look up an AP. There's an example of play, and that's nice, but it's almost like that example is meant to illustrate how the players should behave in terms of throwing out or rejecting ideas (also I find one of the example players utterly insufferable, which I acknowledge is 100% my issue). 

But with all of that said, there are brilliant bits in this game and I do find it really compelling. I think if I had it to do over again, I'd use this game to play through the journeys we had in Cairn and then flip back to the more traditional system during the actual adventuring bits in towns. 

Well, anyway, let's make a character, 'cause if I start blathering I'm gonna talk myself right into a depression spiral (my birthday was yesterday and I'm not coping well). So how do we start?

We start with a playbook, naturally! I think I will pick the Dancer, just because dance is something I really can't stand in real life (that sounds more hostile than I want, though - I just mean I'm terrible at dancing and trying makes me feel really self-conscious and humiliated) and it'd be interesting to be able to express that skill by description. 

First thing the game wants us to do is pick a name and pronouns. I think I may do that later.

Right, so the real first thing we're doing is picking an animal form. I want something graceful and kinda thin, I think. How about a greyhound? It's not on the list, but you could squeeze it into "Lively Animal" (and the list is just guidelines, anyway). 

Next we choose two personality traits that we are and two we wish we were better at being. Let's say my greyhound is Focused and Beautiful, but wishes he were Upbeat and Charismatic. (It occurs to me that I'm drawing on Elena from Spiritfarer as inspiration in some ways.)

Look! (That's the next step, it wasn't a command.) I can pick three or four off this list. I shall choose "outrageously long scarf," "loose-fitting pants," and "bandage-wrapped feet."

Now I pick three dances off a list that I will gladly dance, and one I will never dance again. 

Hmm. Well, I think my greyhound will gladly dance a dance you dance with the water and waves, to bring calm and tranquility. I want something with more practical use, I guess, so I'll take a dance you dance with an unfamiliar place, to listen and befriend. And finally I'll take a dance you dance with the broken and crumbling, to remind it what was and what could be.

But what is the dance I'll never do again? I think it's a dance you dance with your friends, to celebrate life and all that it gives us. That hits a little close to home, but fuck it. 

Moving along, I get to pick one musical thingie off a list that I'll teach to anyone who wants to learn, and one I only dance to along. And I need to tell the table about them. My table is empty presently (well, of people, it's got a lot of junk I need to clean off before Sunday), but that's fine. You can be my table, echoing void.

My greyhound will teach a rhythmic work song, a tradition from a life you have no desire to return to. We were workers in the hardscrabble lands near the mountain, and spent our days turning over rocks for roots and whatever else might be edible. The work song was not only to keep us on task, but to make sure no one got too far away (and fell off a cliff or whatever). I'll teach it to anyone, whatever, it's catchy and useful.

The thing I dance to alone is a lovely whistled tune, the last song your mother ever sang. That's mine. You can't have that.  

Next would be questions to the left and right, but there's no one to my left and my dog Sandy was on my right, and she just says "LICK", so that's no help. 

Some things I can always do:

No choices to make, there.

And other than the name, that's it! My greyhound's name is Arfur (I know that's a character in Baldur's Gate 3, I don't care). Arfur, as mentioned, is from a mountainous region and left after his mother died (he never knew his father). His feet are sensitive - too many years walking and dancing on hard stone - but he bandages them and dances anyway, because he can't not. He doesn't need music, and in fact sometimes prefers it quiet when he dances. There's always a song in his head or heart, after all.

Arfur is a grey dog with long limbs and a narrow torso, a long snoot and small ears. He wears a simple shirt, loose-fitting green pants (they were his mother's), and a dull brown scarf that he can wrap around himself like a mummy's bandages. 

And that'll do it!

Movie #805: The Suicide Squad

The Suicide Squad is kind of serendipitous superhero war movie starring Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, John Cena, Daniela Melchior, David Dastmalchian, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvestor Stallone, Steve Agee, Viola Davis, Peter Capaldi, and so, so many more. 

Amanda Waller (Davis) runs Task Force X, supervillain prisoners yanked out of Belle Reve, bombs stuck in their necks, sent to do whatever dirty work the US government needs with full deniability and the ability to just kill them if they go off-mission. In this particular case, she sends two teams to Corto Maltese, a South American nation that just had a military coup which removed the US-friendly dictators from power. The first team, led by Rick Flagg (Kinnaman) and including Harley Quinn (Robbie) among many others, is immediately slaughtered, and this being a James Gunn film, we get a song playing that's not only a banger but actually fucking appropriate to what's happening (that'd be "People Who Died" by the Jim Carroll Band). 

Meanwhile, the real team we're meant to be following lands elsewhere: Bloodsport (Elba), taking over the role of badass marksman with a daughter from Will Smith's Deadshot; Peacemaker (Cena); Ratcatcher 2 (Melchoir); Polka-Dot Man (Dastmalchian) - wait, what?; and King Shark (voiced by Stallone, motion capture by Agee). Quinn and Flagg hook up with them later, and they all go on to fight Starro the Conqueror and a legion of starfish-faced zombies! (Except Peacemaker, who kills Flagg and winds up shot in the throat for his trouble, but he gets a spinoff series out of it which has the best opening titles in history.)

Obviously there's a lot I'm glossing over, but that's the gist. I find this movie amusing on the face of it, because we got a Suicide Squad movie with a solid cast, and it was just awful, and then some asshole got James Gunn cancelled and DC scooped him up while Disney were wringing their hands going "oh, no, you mean the guy who started out in fucking Troma Team made naughty jokes 10 years ago?!" (imagine that said in Mickey's voice), and we got this movie out of it. And, actually, probably the laid the groundwork for Gunn taking over DC's movies, which is just a win all around.

But anyway: One of the things Gunn is really good at is taking a ridiculous situation or character and giving them real stakes, real life, and real pathos. King Shark is a giant, bipedal shark that picks people up and devours them, and we still buy that he's afraid and confused when he tries to eat Ratcatcher and nearly gets killed over it. The first thing we see is Savant (Michael Rooker) killing a poor, defenseless bird in the prison yard for no particular reason, but he's still terrified and even a little noble when his team gets slaughtered on the beach.

It goes the other way, too - these people are bad guys. Even Ratcatcher, who isn't nearly as violent as the others, sends rats down people's throats. Unlike the Ayers movie, where they say "we're bad guys" multiple times but then never do anything to earn that, here the characters wipe out a rebel camp with Bloodsport and Peacemaker playing a weird game of murder escalation, and the result is that when these characters choose to do the right thing later, it actually has some weight because it's a change. 

Oh, and, Harley actually reads as crazy, which, with all due respect to Robbie, no other movie with her in it managed (Birds of Prey came closer, but she still just read as goofy and quirky read than "shit this girl is nuts"). 

Gunn manages all this with dialog and direction, but of course the actors bring it across by committing to their various bits, because that's the secret of making goofy shit from comics work on screen. You don't change the yellow spandex to black leather and apologize for it, you don't shoot Jimmy Olsen in the face and never identify him (thanks, Snyder), you lean in to the gonzo, show us the bright colors, and allow the reality to come from performance and consequence rather than trying to have your cake ("we're bad guys!") and eat it, too ("but we never kill anyone and also 'this is Katana, she's got my back, etc.'"). 

My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: High

Next up: Sunset Boulevard

Character Creation: Here We Used to Fly

Spent the morning doing math to figure out how to have my 1000th character be my last character of 2025, and it's actually going to result in fewer characters for the next year or so. Yes, after making 1000 characters for this project I'll still have more than 100 to go, and that's without considering all of the games I'm gonna get between now and then. I've been doing this since 2008, and I thought at the time, rather laughably, that it would be a six-month project or so. 

And speaking of nostalgia...

The Game: Here We Used to Fly
The Publisher: A Smouldering Lighthouse
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

This is one of those dirty hippie indie games with no GM and no genre stuff. In the game, you visit an amusement park, playing through scenes as a child when you saw it for the first time, and then as an adult breaking in after it's been abandoned for years. 

You know, games like this (and Epitaph, and A Penny for My Thoughts, kinda), it's hard describing them as "fun." Like, if you've played RPGs for any length of time, you've probably had moments in a trad game where you defeated a Big Bad or smooched a tavern wench or ate a bunch of babies (thinking of Kobolds Ate My Baby, here, it wasn't out of nowhere), and those triumphant or amusing moments are unquestionably fun. But when I look back on the (many, many, many) different RPGs I've played over the years, the moments I have the easiest time pinpointing and remembering tend to be the ones where the story has become real and raw and emotional, and while I've certainly had moments like that in Chill and Promethean: The Created and even &D, games like this and My Life With Master and Fiasco and The Skeletons seem to find them more easily. Now, is that a function of the game or the people playing it? I think probably both.

I'm also rambling because this game doesn't really have a sheet and "chargen" is real quick. 

So anyway, in Here We Used to Fly we pick two playbooks, one to represent you when you were a kid and one as an adult. They're not exclusive, not to the player or to the age, so f'rex I might be Angry/Distant and you might be Distant/Kind, or we might both be Weird/Passionate but approach those traits differently. There are no moves or stats or anything (the game is diceless and largely systemless, if we're honest), but there are some character questions in each playbook so I think the chargen here counts for purposes of my project. This character is the 862nd one I've made, if you're interested.

For my first playbook, representing the character as a child, I'll pick Anxious.

I suffer from anxiety, and while it's gotten much, much worse in recent years (used to be depression was my main mental health thing, now it's about 50/50 because god forbid I spend the latter half of my life being fuckin' functional), I know I dealt with it as a kid, too. So let's say my character's name is Bennett "Ben" O'Connor. Ben is...well, sensitive. Bit jumpy. Possibly on the spectrum; actually it'd be interesting to say that he wasn't diagnosed when he was a kid, but has been by the time he's an adult. For now, let's answer the questions. 

• What stress you out the most? Let's draw on my own experience and say "sharp or raised voices." Ben has a teacher that always speaks in this sharp, slightly elevated tone of voice and when he's done with her class he's always exhausted because his heart is pounding the whole time.
• What calms you down when you're panicking? Ben sings the theme songs to cartoons (I'd pick one once we figured out timing, but assuming Ben is my age, maybe Gummi Bears, that's a great theme song) to calm down.
• What impacts you the most when anxiety hits? Oh, man. Let's go with "can't communicate effectively." Ben loses words when it gets really bad, sometimes flaps his hands, and a couple of times he's run out of a classroom and hid in the bathroom at school.
• Which park feature do you associate with a particular moment of worry? The carnival games. A lot of the barkers yell at people when they walk by, and Ben hates that. 

OK, that's childhood, let's pick a playbook for Ben as an adult! Hmm. "Weird" and "Frank" are obvious choices for someone like Ben, but I think I want to go a different way and use "Passionate."

Let's say over the years, Ben has taken his mental health seriously, done a lot of therapy, actually gotten a diagnosis (this would probably be something we'd explore in play - the journey, not specifically the diagnoses - but offhand I'm thinking autism and GAD), and learned to manage. But he wears his heart on his sleeve, his feelings are always close to the surface, and he does not feel the slightest shame about expressing them. He cries at movies a lot. 

• How do you feel about your passion? Proud, but also hard-won. Ben went through a lot of self-doubt and work to get to this point, and yeah, maybe he could stand to tone it down, but why should he?
• When's the last time you cried? When he got the invitation to go to this abandoned theme park (the specifics of which would be worked out in play, but what this indicates is that it wasn't his idea). 
• What response to emotions gets on your nerves? Hell, all of the ones listed, but I think the one that really, really pisses Ben off is when someone says "tell us how you really feel!" It's not funny. It's never been funny. It's just a way to shame someone for having emotions. Ben has been known to really lay into people who do that shit. (Does it seem like I'm channeling something here? Well, I am. That's how I really feel, fuckers.)
• Which park feature have you always been first in line for? Now, because this is an adult playbook, this really hearkens back to Ben as a kid, so I'm gonna say it was the Ferris wheel. Ben didn't necessarily love roller coasters, but he isn't afraid of heights and in fact likes the perspective and the relative quiet they bring, so getting on the Ferris wheel (especially alone!) and riding it to the top was weirdly soothing. 

And that's it, kids. I wonder what Ben does for a living. I don't think he's a therapist - he doesn't have the temperament for that - but he might be a teacher. If so he's definitely got the reputation for being somewhat strange, but the nerdy and weird kids really like him. It'd be interesting if one of the other PCs' kids was in his class now ("now" meaning when the game took place). 

Epyllion: Elder Dragon Council & Huge Pies

Last night we played some Epyllion, in the last game session before I have to go back to work tomorrow. Alas. 

So! Our heroes get up in the morning and Stars they decide to hit the books and try to learn more about Keetsah the chosen and how dre wound up made of stone and covered in swider silk outside of the Capital. They head to the Cavern Library and find that the number of signs telling everyone to stay out has only grown since Zeblek stole the fabric holding one of them in place; apparently Icepyre has gotten even grouchier. They decide to bring him some breakfast, and go out to get some pies. 

They find a pie shop, run by Eldrakk, the Pieberdasher (credit to my son Cael for that one). Eldrakk has them stand up against the wall to measure them to see how big of a pie they need (it's a pie chart, you see), and then gives them a bigger pie for Icepyre, but advises they eat theirs first and carry his to him; it'll take two of them. Zeblek and Toverin carry the massive pie back to the library, and OB yells into the cavern, asking Icepyre to come out - they have pie!

The only response is a blast of frigid air that blows the drakes back and freezes the pie. Zeblek, noting that while Icepyre has never exactly been warm and friendly, this is pretty rude, guesses the librarian might have fallen into his Shadowself. They decide to sneak in and see how the land lays (and maybe do some quick research). Stars is initially reluctant and doesn't agree with Zeblek's "rules are meant to be broken" thesis, but does relent at the idea of reading books and checking on Icepyre.

They creep in, sending Sprinkles ahead as a lookout, since Icepyre is unlikely to be able to see her. They pass by the little alcove with all the forbidden books, chained up - the books rattle at them and ask to be set free, but Toverin learned dris lesson there. They eventually make it down the hall into the cavern they were in when the earthquake happened, and find, to their horror, that the books have been taken off the shelves and many of them just left in heaps on the floor!

Stars immediately starts trying to clean up, but Icepyre hears and bursts into the room, snarling at them. Toverin stands up to them and demands to know what's going on; Icepyre says that dre is rearranging the books and culling the collection. Dre grudgingly allows the drakes to look through some books, but demands that Toverin stand guard afterwards. The drakes decide to "help" by putting books back in stacks, and so Stars gets to work in earnest (OB tries to use dragon trade to whip up a sorting system with fabric and gravity, but gets tangled up in the fabric and realizes that metal is probably going to need to be involved here). 

After a while, Stars has made enough of a dent in the mess to consult dris field of expertise (that is, dre finds another copy of Famous Dragons & What They Did that doesn't have so many sections blacked out), and learns that Keetsah the Chosen became a Mystic - turned to stone - but was then covered in swider silk to imprison dris soul and prevent any magic from leaking out. Keetsah never explicitly betrayed Dragonia, however - the biggest perpetrator there was Shoalwing, who was imprisoned in a cell of obsidian beneath the Capital, locked in with the Sword of Kebros. 

This revealed, the drakes figure that when Shoalwing was talking to them initially, dre was still locked up, but projecting dris essence or voice somehow. But without the sword, dre is free or getting free. Zeblek, a bit outraged at Keetsah's treatment, suggests they burn the shroud over dris stony form. But at this point, Icepyre returns and is angry that they've undone the heaps of books - they were just supposed to read, weren't they?

Stars reminds Icepyre of dris old debts; dre is supposed to keep this knowledge safe, not judge it. Icepyre isn't fully convinced, but does agree to seek the counsel of an elder dragon on the subject. OB takes a moment to study Icepyre, and agrees with Zeblek's conclusion that dre has fallen into dris Shadowself; dre also notes that Zeblek was only able to recover from this state with help from dris clutch. Maybe talking to an elder would be good? The drakes encourage Icepyre to go do so, and agree to guard the door while dre is out. Stars, Zeblek, and Toverin stay near the entrance to the Cavern Library, but OB wants to talk to an elder themself.

OB flits off to Vizali's forge and gets to work on sharpening the Sword of Kebros. While they are working, a massive, rumbling musical note echoes through the city. "What's that?" says OB. "Hmm, Elder Dragon Horn," Vizali answers. "Means an Elder is calling a meeting. Can you keep quiet?" OB nods eagerly. "Right, then." Vizali picks them up and puts them on dris back, and beats dris massive wings once, taking to the sky!

Dre flies out to the edge of the city, to a valley, where a half-dozen or so Elders are perched. Vizali lands and sets OB down gently, and a moment later, Earthfury lands in the middle of the council. 

"FELLOW ELDERS," dre booms, "I once again bring a matter before us that I consider of utmost importance!" OB notices other Elders rolling their eyes a bit. "I propose that we reduce the Mystic that was once Keetsah the Chosen to rubble and use the resulting materials for housing!"

OB is aghast, but from the reactions of the Elders this is a song Earthfury has sung before. "Why should we?" someone asks.

"I have on the authority of a very perceptive, very wise younger dragon that the swider-silk shroud maybe failing, that Keetsah is still a threat. And besides, maintaining the shroud is costly and takes up resources year after year!" Some of the dragons murmur in agreement. 

OB tugs on Vizali's...sleeve, I guess? "Can you ask if that dragon dre is talking about is Icepyre? I think dre is under the Shadows!" Vizali nods, convinced, and speaks up. Earthfury confirms that dris source is indeed Icepyre, the Librarian of the Cavern. Vizali puts forth the notion that Icepyre might not be an objective source right now.

The Elders are not convinced one way or another, so they decide to forestall the decision until tomorrow so that Icepyre can address them directly. They all take off, and Vizali carries OB back up into the skies. "Oh," dre says, "I think I see your friends. Go on, tell them what's going on!" Dre tosses OB off, and OB gracefully glides back to the library.

Meanwhile, Zeblek, Toverin, and Stars have been discussing the swider-silk shroud, specifically whether it's flammable. Stars looks up swiders in dris tomes, but while there's a lot of discussion about the magical-dampening properties of swider-silk, there's no word on what happens if you burn it. Zeblek is of the opinion that since Keetsah was unfairly imprisoned, it doesn't matter if it's "breaking the rules" to set them free. And besides, if Shoalwing is free, they're going to need to help to re-imprison or defeat them. Stars eventually agrees, and they decide they should go and burn the shroud. About then, OB lands.

OB relays the results of the Elder Council to the others, and they decide that it's worth whatever trouble they might get into - if the Elders decide to destroy Keetsah, who knows what effect that might have on the Capital or Dragonia as a whole? They fly out to the edge of town (well, Stars runs, and Zeblek joins them in solidarity), ready to burn the shroud, but find there are two Elders there.

Stars tries to get them talking, but one of them, Monsoon, has no desire to talk to drakes and winds up sweeping them away with dris tail. Toverin stands up to the Elder and the other one leans down and actually converses, and together the clutch explains the situation, eventually convincing them not to support the destruction of the Mystic tomorrow. The Elders fly off, and they decide that instead of burning the shroud, Zeblek will open the portal that dre sent the moths through and let them destroy the shroud. Deniability!

Zeblek handily open the portal, and tens of thousands of moths swarm through ("Were there that many yesterday?"). They cover the shroud and start nibbling, and the drakes have a horrible thought - these aren't animals, they're monsters, and they had the tinge of Darkness before. Toverin uses wild speech to talk to them, and they answer in ten thousand-voiced unison: "WE THANK YOU FOR FREEING US."

Feeling that something has gone terribly wrong, Stars calls on the liberty moon to light up Keetsah with purifying fire. The magic works, and all chains in the Capital are opened for a moment. The shroud burns away, the moths are singed and scattered, and for a second, the Mystic that was Keetsah glitters like a billion rubies in the sun.

And then darkness falls, and a terrifying, familiar voice whispers "FREE."

Movie #804: Suicide Kings

Suicide Kings is a crime thriller/comedy starring Christopher Walken, Denis Leary, Sean Patrick Flanery, Henry Thomas, Jeremy Sisto, Jay Mohr, Nina Siemaszko, Johnny Galecki, and Laura Harris.

Four friends: Avery (Thomas), Max (Flanery), Brett (Mohr), and T.K. (Sisto) kidnap former mob boss Charlie Barrett (Walken) and he wakes up duct-taped to a chair. They inform him that Avery's sister Elise (Harris), who also happens to be Max's fianceé, has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. Anything that happens to Elise, happens to Charlie, and as the kidnappers have already sent back Elise's severed finger, they've already cut off Charlie's.

After Charlie's initial (completely understandable) freakout, he calls his lawyer Marty (Cliff DeYoung) and his bodyguard and enforcer Lono (Leary) to investigate. Meanwhile, he slowly gets into the guys' heads, getting them to reveal more about themselves and their involvement in all this, while also revealing enough about himself to scare the shit out of them. 

Eventually, it comes out that Avery was talked into setting up the kidnapping to clear a debt, but Max and Elise actually upped the ransom to $2 million dollars and were complicit in the whole thing (it's never quite clear whose plan it was to kidnap Charlie; maybe Brett). It ends badly for them.

I like this movie; it's got some fun interplay between the buds, and the scenes in the house show some nice escalation. Lono's journey to find Charlie is likewise pretty cool; Denis Leary gets to be cool and in control and scary, and his scene with the abusive stepdad (Joseph Whipp) is on point ("Sorry about your toaster"). But with that said, it's got a couple of issues.

The biggest single issue is that it so, so badly wants to be Pulp Fiction. Like, the jumping around in perspectives, the conversations about boots between Lono and Mickey (Louis Lombardi), the arguments between the two "kidnappers" (Brad Garrett and Frank Medrano, literally credited as "Heckle and Jeckyll") over TV remotes, and, of course, the flashbacks that minor characters get to have, it all feels like someone watched early Tarantino and said "that's hot, let's do that!" And it almost works, but the thing is that everything in Tarantino's movies has a point, whereas a lot of the bits here just kinda don't. 

(Also, I never realized this, but the soundtrack in Tarantino's early movies make a huge difference. There is almost no music at all in Suicide Kings, and only a couple of actual songs, and it makes the movie feel weirdly thin and hollow at times.)

The leads do their best to give their characters some life and personality; Mohr and Sisto manage the best, and honestly I'd watch a whole movie about Sisto's T.K. and his struggles. But like, he's depicted as an addict...and it never goes anywhere. He shoots up but there's no consequence of that, so it's a missed Chekov's Needle opportunity. 

Anyway, like I said, I like the movie, but there are better examples of the genre.

My Grade: C+
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: The Suicide Squad

Pugmire: Cat-Tastrophe!

I promise that's the only time I'll use that joke. Here's last time.

Our heroes have been primped and clean and their armor polished, and they've been brought in to the Ruling Council of Mau to receive medals for their heroism! They enter the chamber and see that most of the attendees are soldiers and guards from the six Monarchies, as well as some witnesses in the gallery. And there, at the end of the room, is a dais holding the seven Dynast of the Monarchies of Mau: Priscilla von Angora, Tirian Rex von Rex, Threnody von Mau, Kyr von Korat, Naiara von Siberian, Bricu von Cymric, and Dowe Tabby (the Shadow Dynast). 

The dogs line up in front of them, and Threnody von Mau addresses them, thanking them for their service and valor in protecting the citizens of the Monarchies. An aide descends with a box of five medals, and stands in front of Dire Newfoundland (who kneels down). 

"For your bravery and heroism in protecting the people of Mau, we thank you." He places the medal around Dire's neck.

He moves on to Gelert Sausagedog. "For your courage and style in protecting the people of Mau, we thank you." Sausagedog accepts the medal and doffs his hat. 

On to Petunia Pibble. "For your magical skill and wisdom in protecting the people of Mau, we thank you." Petunia beams, and the aide moves on.

He leans down to place a medal on Peppa Papillon's neck. "For your compassion and devotion to the Faith of Man, we thank you." Peppa's tail wags. 

Finally, he stops in front of Boomer Pitbull. "For your ferocity and bravery in protecting-"

Peppa and Dire have time to notice that the medal he is placing on Boomer is slightly different than the others - the markings aren't the same - but by then it's too late. Boomer flies into a rage and leaps at the dais, burying his ax in the chest of Bricu von Cyrmic!

Pandemonium erupts! The guards rush forward! The other Dynasts quickly move toward the door, except for Priscilla von Angora, who unleashes a volley of Seeking Stingers at Boomer, pushing him back. Two of the guards try to pull Boomer back, but he is far too strong for them.

Sausagedog leaps on Boomer's shoulder's and cuts the ribbon on the medal. It clatters to the ground, and Boomer regains his senses. The guards are still surging forward, however, and then another dog stands up in the center of the dais. It appears out of nowhere, and it wears full plate armor and has red glowing eyes.

The attendees gasp and stare...but Peppa knows a demon when she sees one.

The demon snarls, and the assemble cats start attacking each other! The dogs aren't immune, either - they are filled with rage and just attack the nearest being. Petunia unleashes a Sonic Boom and knocks a bunch of people back, and Sausagedog stabs the guard in front of him. Another guard, also nearby, drives an ax into that guard and fells him, but worst of all, several of the guards who were protecting the civilians in the gallery now turn on them, hacking about their weapons indiscriminately.

Boomer, somehow, manages to retain control and charges the demon, as does Dire. They strike as hard as they can with their weapons, but the demon is semi-corporeal and they can't tell if what they're doing is helping. And worse yet, the demon renews its mental attack, meaning that the carnage continues. 

Peppa casts Protection from Evil and frees the guards near her, and Boomer and Dire, while they aren't always able to keep the fury at bay, stay near the demon and let the rage work itself on it instead of a bystander. Petunia finally regains control, and in a brief moment of lucidity throws all of the magic she has into Seeking Stingers, erupting like a firework and sending a deluge of magic arrows at the demon.

The magic tears it to pieces, and the fury ends, but now the room is full of dead, bleeding and horrified cats, and no one has any idea what just happened. One of the guards standing near Peppa leans in to her: "Run."

Peppa quickly gathers the others and pulls them out - if they stay they will surely be arrested, at best. They flee out into the city of Mau, and Sausagedog remembers that Milkshake von Mau, a cat who used to live in Riverwall and who was his friend, returned to the city to open a barbershop. They move quickly through the city to the shop, and Milkshake welcomes them in. He's already heard the rumors - that the Lost Pitbull Prince became a demon dog and tried to kill the Dynasts, or something?

The dogs take a breather and sort through what happened. Clearly the medal was cursed, but how did it get there? The Dynastic security must be compromised somehow. Sausagedog points out that they already know the Seekers of Ubaste are about (last session), and this incident will certainly strain or break relations between the Monarchies and Pugmire, which is exactly what the Seekers want. 

And what about this "Pitbull Prince" thing? They've heard talk about some "prophecy," but Petunia, easily the most learned of the group, actually thinks carefully and she'd never heard of any "Lost Pitbull Prince" before Pickles von Shadow started ranting about it waaaaaay back in Pugmire. Peppa, likewise, has been studying the lore of the cats, and there's no mention of it in their stories that she can remember. Is it all made up? Or is it just that obscure? Dire points out that Amelia Fold hates Boomer enough to orchestrate something elaborate, but doubts she has the reach to do something like this.

They realize they need to know more about the Seekers of Ubaste, but Milkshake says that cats are loathe to give up secrets, especially now that the dogs are fugitives. He suggests going to Janus House, a gambling establishment run by rats. They might be able to help. He also suggests that dogs might go to the Welcoming Orphanage.

They all know the Welcoming Orphanage; it was founded in the aftermath of the War of Cats and Dogs to take care of orphaned pups and kits. It's run by Father Eddie Pug, and the dogs figure - hope - that he'll give them sanctuary.

They rest a bit, and prepare to move out into the city at first light.

Character Creation: Godsend Agenda 2nd Ed

Been a couple months since I did a supers game, after all.

The Game: Godsend Agenda 2nd Ed
The Publisher: Khepera Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I did a character for the 1st edition of this game back in December (as part of the 12 Games of Xmas, now a yearly tradition!). I remember wondering if much changed, because it didn't really look like it. Now having read 2nd Ed...it looks pretty much the same. The timeline goes up 2010 and assumes that's the start of a campaign, but it does include some new info about what's coming up. The underlying backstory - supers happen because of "Ka" and the seeding of the human race with genetic predisposition to superpowers because of said Ka - remains the same, as does the ongoing war between Elohim and Chimerans and lots of other people with weird names. 

It's too bad, because I do like the idea of alien beings pursuing the "Godsend Agenda" by pretending to be gods, but it's a real busy setting and it's hard to know exactly what to do with it. Does it want to be a four-color setting? It feels maybe closer in to The Authority, as I think about it. (Actually, Atlantis kinda has the same problem, but it's much more cleanly presented.) Second Ed is more accessible and generally better written, though there are still a bunch of persistent mistakes ("latter" and "later" are two different words, guys). But anyway, let's make a character!

As before, I don't have any particular concept and I'm coming off a depressive episode so I'm a little leery of just letting my brain go where it wants, so let's pop on over to the music library and pick a theme song at random.

Sure, why not. That's "Crawling" by Linkin Park. Not a hard song to understand; dealing with fear, guilt, possibly mental illness, addiction (side note: I remember many years ago Justin Achilli talking on his blog about how Linkin Park were kind of posers - after all, what did they have to complain about? "The math test was hard?" And, being a fan of theirs at the time, I remember thinking, "hey, now. You don't know what people are going through." Some of that feeling was, of course, because I've had to listen to family members tell me "what do you have to be sad about?" when I was in suicidal depression, and now decades later, following Chester Bennington's suicide, I think that kind of shit wouldn't fly. But then, I'm sure Justin's evolved since, and I'm equally sure he'd as soon spit on me as look at me. Moving on).

Anyway, superheros! Woo, silly fun! Yeah, maybe if I'd picked a different song. Actually, I have this image of the character pulling off his skin as part of shapechanging (I just rewatched Van Helsing the other night, which is by no means a good movie but I thought that idea of werewolves literally pulling off their skin as they change was pretty dope). So let's do something with that.

Esteban Espinoza had just graduated high school and was at a party with a bunch of his friends (the location is unimportant, but let's say Arizona). He fell asleep out of sight of the other kids, and when he woke up everyone had left. He was in the desert, he was miles from anyone, his cell phone was dead, and it was already hot. And, of course, he was hung over and already dehydrated. As he walked back, he felt the sun beat down, he felt his skin start trying to peel off. In the distance, he saw a little shack off the road, and ran towards it, hoping for water or at least shelter, but what he found was a meth lab (so maybe California, actually). The dudes inside shot him...and Esteban ripped off his skin, revealing scales and spikes. Everything after that is a little blurry.

Cool, so we kind of have a Hulk situation. I want Esteban to be able to change into his "powered" form by tearing off his outer skin, which basically means he's nekkid when doing hero stuff (unless we rely on the comic and TV trope of Shorts Outta Nowhere). Let's get into the chargen bits of things!

So, first off we must choose a power level. Power Level 3 is the standard, and that gives us 120 points (max of 10 in Disadvantages, max of 15 ranks in a Power). I would normally start with Attributes, but I actually want to jump ahead and see how an Alternate Form sort of thing would work.

OK, Superheroic Form is a limitation, and it lowers the cost of powers by 2 or 3 per rank. I think 3 is appropriate here, because my guy has to literally tear off his skin - I think that counts as a "special ritual." So I'll stat Esteban in his normal human form, and then anything else he gets is a Power that benefits from that limitation. Sounds good.

ARGH. Reading this more carefully, I'm really annoyed. There's no example of chargen, and character creation isn't ever given a step-by-step. It says there are three methods of character creation - there aren't. There are two, I think, and it's basically either spending defined numbers of points in different categories or doing what I was talking about using a pool of creation points to buy everything. But the "defined limits" doesn't give you powers, you have to take Disadvantages to get points to buy Advantages and Powers. None of this is explained clearly, but I think I've got the gist (fuck me, I hope 3rd Ed is more cleanly written. The sad thing is that this is worse than 1st Ed). 

OK, so I think that Attributes cost 4 points per die. It never explicitly says that (what it says is "one attribute die equals four creation points," which sounds like they cost 4 creation points each but isn't quite that). Also, at no point are we told what human average is or what having "1D" in an Attribute represents. Looking at some of the generic NPCs, it looks like 2D is about what I'd expect to be average. 

Oh, FFS. Look at this.

Count the Attributes. I'll wait.

How...OK. But no, seriously, how...? 

Moving on. If we put 2D in all SIX of Esteban's attributes, that sets us back 24 points out of 120. And I think I'm OK with that.

Skills! Every Skill starts equal to its controlling Attribute (so 2, for now). Skills (and Attributes, actually) can be broken down from full dice into "pips," because this is a WEG offshoot, if I care to do that. Let's have a look at the Skills. Oh, is there a "Super-Skill" power so I can, like, have a high brawling rating when in monster form? No, not really. Hrm. OK. 

Well, let's do this, then:

Brawling 2
Climbing 1
Dodge (ugh) 1
Jumping 1
Sneak 2 (I figure if I need to use Sneak it'd be in human form, so I want an extra die here)
Lifting 1
Running 1
Stamina 2
Language: Spanish (Specialization, which is a stupid way to do languages but whatever) 1
Artist 2
Hide 1 (WHY IS THIS SEPARATE FROM SNEAK)
Survival 1
Charm 2
Intimidation 1
Willpower 2

That's 21 points into Skills, for a total of 43 spent. Oh, I forgot to take an Archetype! There are optional, but they give you a couple of bonuses so you're leaving money on the table if you don't take one. I figure Esteban is best represented as the Warrior - it's not perfect, but close enough. That gives me 2D in brawl or melee. I'll put them into Brawl, which would put that up to 4D. Is that too high? Eh. We'll say his fighting skill bleeds over into human form a little for the sake of expedience. I have shit to do today.

OK, now we do advantages and disadvantages. The math is easy, at least; they just have a straight-up cost in creation points (of which I have 77 remaining). Maybe I should do Powers first, actually, since that's what's likely to eat my points? Yeah, I think I will.

Well, obviously in monster form Esteban should be super-strong, fast, and tough, so I'd want Super-Attribute for Reflexes, Physique, and Coordination. Super-Attribute is 4 points per rank, I guess, though it doesn't say that:

Like, would it have killed you to put a number in there? Anyway, with the "Super-Heroic Form" limit, it's 1 point per rank. If I just put Physique up to 8, Coordination and Reflexes to 5, that'll cost me 12. What else?

Oh, wait, forgot. If I have 6D in a Super-Attribute, I get an enhancement, so I get one in Physique. Oh, let's take Enhanced Throwing Range.

Accelerated Healing, I think. That's 3 points per rank, but minimum is 1. Let's buy that at 4. Amphibious, sure (I only need one rank so it'll only set me back one point). I've spent 17 points. Doin' fine.

Endurance, which lets me exhibit superhuman stamina, seems a good idea. (Side note: There are so many redundant systems here, because apparently we never thought through how different things should be represented in the mechanics so some shit gets doubled up and some never gets addressed.) It's only 1 point per rank, so I'll dump 3 here. 20 spent.

Fast Reactions, 1 per rank, let's take 3. Infrared Vision, sure, 2 ranks, so two points. Natural Weaponry - now we're talkin'! One per rank (pretty much everything I take is gonna be 1/rank with the Super-Heroic Form limit), what's a "rank" in this context? Rank ups damage. Neat, let's splurge and call it 5 for his claws and fangs. I've spent 30 points.

Oh, Regeneration. I think I'd rather have that than Accelerated Healing, actually. So let's drop Accelerated Healing (which gives me 4 points back) and buy 10 ranks in Regeneration (I need 10 to regenerate limbs). Now, Regeneration is expensive - normally 7/rank, but with my Limit it's 4 per rank. That's 40 points. Oof. I've now spent 66 points. Got 11 left.

Armor, obviously. I'll take 5 ranks. Super-Jump, sure, need the Hulk-boing. Let's take 3 ranks. I've only got 3 points left.

But that's all the Powers I want! Normally I'd take Strange Appearance to limit stuff like Armor and Natural Weaponry, but the minimum cost is 1/rank and I'm there for those powers anyway. 

OK, cool, so 3 left and need to do Ads & Disads. Disadvantages first!

Well, not to be obvious, but Esteban's monster-form is reptilian so an Environmental Incompatibility to extreme cold seems a good choice. Of course, it'd only affect him in monster-form; how does that work? I think it can be full price, actually - sure, maybe he could drop into human form if it gets too cold and avoid the affect, but then he's a) without his powers and b) nekkid in the cold. That gives me 3 points back.

Esteban is only 18, so he gets the Age Disad (one more point back). He's in college, so I'll take Employed at 1 to represent that commitment. Secret ID, yes please, 2 points. Strange Appearance...oh, hey, it's a Disad, not a Limit? Whatever. I'll take it at 2, I think that's appropriate. That totals to...9 points in Disads, nice! I'm under my limit! That also means I have 12 points to spent on Advantages (or whatever).

Well, Extra Body Points sounds good. I'll dump 3 points there and wind up with 6D+20 Body over my usual total. Hard to Kill means I get up when I should be dead, so why not, I'll put 2 there (not like getting me to 0 Body Points would be easy in the first place). 

And...that's it, actually. Still got 7 points. Hmm. 

OK, well, let's add a few to Skills. I'll bump Lifting, Climbing, Running, and Stamina up a die. I'll bump Dodge up 2, and I'll buy a point in Know-How. There we go!

Move is 10 (probably more but I can't be bothered to hunt through the book to figure it out), Ka is 4 (twice my Presence), 1 Fate point, 5 Character Points, which are different from creation points. Body Points involves a roll. I roll my Physique and add 20...but I have two Physiques! OK, sure, so in human form I have 48 health, and then we'll add 6 more dice when I'm in monster-form...15 more. Yuck. Well, 48 Body in human and 63 in monster-form, but also armor and regeneration. I do 1D of Strength damage in human form, and 9D in monster form with my claws.

And I think that's everything! When Esteban changes, his skin starts molting, he pulls it off (along with clothes - he's learned the value of fanny packs and sweat-pants!), and underneath he's got red-and-black scales. His eyes get ridges around them, he gets long, needle-like teeth and nasty black claws, and he speaks in this sibilant, snarling kind of manner. He's not the kind of hero that interrupts a mugging (I mean, he would, but campus doesn't have a lot of that kind of crime), but he's been finding meth labs and smashing them up pretty good. It's just a matter of time before someone brings in a super-for-hire to deal with him, but the local scum and the campus press call him "the Gila-Man." 

Esteban, in his human form, is a pretty normal-looking guy of Mexican-American descent. Black hair, brown eyes, has kind of leaned into an athletic-ware aesthetic of late. 

That'll do it!