Chill: Look at the Pupils Dilated

Ended a case yesterday, so I can finally reveal that this whole case was inspired by this song. Here's last time.

So! We're in the ER with Mercy Williams as she talks to a young man named Jonah Waters who just crashed his car. The envoys have some theories that water might play into this case, so she asks what he took the pill with (he admitted to taking a klonopin right before the wave of panic hit and he drove off). He says just a sip of water, so maybe that theory will pan out. 

The other three envoys meet up at the Crab Pot to go over what they've found so far (Mercy joins via phone, since she's at work). Amelia Rostov brings salmon burgers since she doesn't have a lot of info to share. Ultimately they decide that since it's not terribly late, they'll road trip to Anchorage and try and find Charlotte's younger sister Tammy; maybe she'll be more helpful than her mother was. Amelia (grumbling, because she hates going to Anchorage), Britt Lepus, and Nicholas Failor hop in a car and head north.

As they get closer, Britt slides into Tammy's DMs (I mean, not like that) and tells her that she's from a community organization in Seward and they'd like to talk about Charlotte. Tammy responds; she's at a ball game for her high school (I don't know if that timing works and I don't care). The envoys show up and Tammy talks to them in public; a dude in a letter jacket lurks nearby, watching them. Tammy ain't dumb.

Amelia talks to her and learns that Tammy hadn't seen Charlotte since Christmas, and hadn't even talked to her in a month before she died. She says that Charlotte went out to a lot of parties and did a lot of drugs, but that she didn't have any close friends - other than Bernard. Who's Bernard? Bernard Ferrand, a guy she went to high school with, who also lives in Seward. Tammy refers to him as "Bern" and it clicks - Charlotte wasn't saying "burn", she was saying "Bern."

Amelia leaves Tammy her card and the envoys head back to Seward. Mercy does a little online digging and finds Bern's website - he's an aspiring comic artist and he has online portfolios, but not a lot of social media presence. Mercy sends him a message and finds his address, but the envoys decide against knocking this late. Nicholas offers to watch his place, but they decide that's a little more stalker-y than they're comfortable with right now.

In the morning, they get back together and head over to his apartment. Nicholas and Mercy wait in the car while Britt and Amelia go and knock. After some quick explanation at the door, Bern lets them into his studio apartment (he wins immediate points with Britt because he has a cat). 

Bern tells them that Charlotte texted him the night she died; he shows them the text. It just says "come get me." He tearfully tells them that the text didn't come through until 2AM and he was already asleep, and he quite clearly blames himself. The envoys tell him this isn't on him - Charlotte was on a self-destructive path regardless of what he did, and even if he'd gotten the text he might not have been able to save her. 

He shows them some of his art - he's been drawing a comic called Burn & Char since high school, about two demons who escape from Hell and go to Alaska. He says that he and Char dated for a brief period in high school, but that's not where their chemistry was. He also says that he tried for years to get her to get help and admit she was depressed, but she never did. She basically didn't know what to do with herself after high school, and just kind of spiraled, but she could always find a party and someone to get her high.

Britt asks if he's seen anything weird lately, and Bern pretty much figures out what she's asking - he says he's never seen a ghost, but he's open to the idea (he jokes that his agreement with his cat, Merthus, is that the cat will tell him if there are ghosts and in return he gets to be a lazy asshole all the time). They leave him a card and go and meet up.

Tonight is the party on the yacht, and they don't know what's going to happen, but between the party and the fact that DJ Killer Bigfoot is playing, they're pretty sure Charlotte will put in an appearance. Nicholas gets himself on the team that's loading stuff onto the boat, Mercy has finagled being on the medical staff, and Britt and Amelia just buy tickets. Nicholas notes that the captain and much of the crew is Russian (but doesn't notice anything shady; it's not a mafia boat or something), and the water company rep running the party is a woman referred to as "Freddie." 

The boat launches and heads out into Resurrection Bay! Amelia posts up at the stern of the boat (note: I know that there is lots of correct terminology about boats and ships and the difference thereof, but I am not hip to it). Mercy is in the cabin at the medical station, Nicholas is floating throughout carrying shit around, and Britt is closer to the cabin near the DJ booth. And then Britt spots Charlotte moving through the crowd.

She's not bumping into people or moving through them, just kind of walking around them and they instinctively sort of avoid her. They don't seem to be noticing her, and Britt can see the red haze coming off her as she walks. She also seems to be raising the temp, as people she passes sweat and fan themselves. Britt alerts the others and follows her, trying to get her attention. Charlotte briefly makes eye contact and Britt feels herself back in Vegas for just as second - she tastes sand in the air and remembers what happened. 

Amelia walks up to her as well and tries to touch her shoulder. Charlotte glances at her and Amelia looks out at the black infinity of the ocean and panics, but gets herself under control quickly. Then Charlotte vanishes. ("DAMMIT.") None of the envoys can see ghosts easily, but Nicholas is pretty good at sensing the Unknown generally, so he heads over and focuses. He feels her presence near the railing, and she's agitated - not panicked, but getting there. Nicholas realizes that this is the first post-mortem event she's been at where she can't just walk away (or maybe she thinks she can't; who knows how ghosts and the ocean work). 

The envoys go over to where Nicholas senses her and try to get her attention, telling her that Bern is on his way to get her. He doesn't get to finish, however, as the speakers kick on and DJ Killer Bigfoot starts the show! Loud music, strobes, and dancing ensue, and Charlotte doesn't respond, at least not directly. The envoys see the whole place, the whole deck of the boat, turn into the warehouse where she died. The railings melt away and become the walls, the stage and the lights change to reflect that night, there's even confetti in the air.

And everyone panics, obviously. Amelia touches Britt and uses Disrupt, and the boat comes back for a second, but Britt is able to use that to fight through the illusion. Mercy feels her way over to the railing and very nearly goes over it, but orients herself and gets people to move away. Amelia goes to the DJ booth and gets Bigfoot's attention, and he hits the panic button, the music stops, the lights kick on. 

Freddie, the organizer, comes up, and Mercy tries asking her about the ingredients to the water, where she got the ice, basically laying the groundwork for a "everyone was drugged" kind of explanation. Amelia tries to send out a dedication from Bern to Char, but if it does anything the envoys don't see it. Amelia, however, sees everyone in the crowd start to bleed from the mouth, nose, and eyes, and she recoils. She contacts Lila, the HQ's counselor, tells her Bern's address, and tells her to get him to come to the docks now. Nicholas does sense Charlotte moving through the crowd, and then Mercy spots a crewman running out of the cabin in a panic, yelling in Russian. She tries to tackle him but misses, and he jumps overboard. 

She sounds the alarm and the crew leaps into action. Meanwhile Britt and Amelia find Charlotte, once again visible, at the front of the boat. Britt goes up to talk to her and Amelia affixes a chapstick to the bottom of her cane to draw a Line of Defense, but that just has the effect of trapping Britt and Charlotte in the same place. Charlotte still isn't saying much, but Britt feels herself losing cognizance - Britt has indulged in chemical refreshment before and this feels very much like being on ketamine. 

Amelia steps over the line to try and talk with Charlotte, and nearly falls asleep; it feels like the drunken exhaustion at the end of the night. She holds on, though, and tells Charlotte that Bern is in the parking lot waiting to take her home. Britt tries to step over the Line but misses and disrupts it, but Charlotte stays at the front of the boat. 

The boat eventually arrives in port and the envoys see Lila waiting with Bern. They walk up to them and Bern leads them (and Charlotte) to his car, opens the door, and lets her in. The envoys jump in their car and follow him as he drives her to her house, and then he stops in front of it, gets out, and sinks to the ground crying.

He tells them that as soon as they pulled up, she vanished. There was some confetti on the seat and he picks it up and drops it, but it fades away as it falls. Britt senses the Unknown, but there's nothing. They seem to have put Charlotte to rest.

Bern asks what the hell is really going on, and Amelia says that she's willing to explain it, but once he knows, he knows. She advises him to think about whether that's something he wants in his life, and he says he'll give that some thought. 

Movie #862: It

It is, of course, based on the book of the same name by Stephen King, and stars Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis, Jack Dylan Glazer, Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff, Jeremy Ray Taylor, and Nicholas Hamilton 

It's 1988 in the jolly little city of Derry, Maine. Young Georgie Denbrough (Jackson Robert Scott) is sailing a paper boat in rainwater when he's dragged into the sewer and devoured by a horrific monster in the form of Pennywise the Clown (Skarsgård). So it's got kind of an intense opening scene.

Cut to a few months later. Georgie's older brother Bill (Lieberher) is coping with the grief and refuses to believe his brother is dead - after all, there are a lot of kids in Derry who go "missing." He talks his buddies Richie (Wolfhand), Ed (Glazer), and Stan (Oleff) to spend their days searching storm drains and sewers, and in the process pick up new kid in town Ben (Taylor) and outsider Mike (Jacobs) while they're being tortured by the local gang of bullies, led by Henry Bowers (Hamilton), who pretty violent even by movie bully standards. They also wind up pulling in Beverly Marsh (Lillis), a local girl with an undeserved reputation, and together the seven of them are the Loser's Club! They fight crime!

No, actually, they all have terrifying hallucinations as Pennywise brings their fears to life, "salting the meat" before eating them. He never gets around to that, however, because the Losers find strength in one another and eventually wind up going down into the sewers and beating the shit out of him, driving him back into the Unknown wherever he's from. They know from their research that the cycle seems to happen every 27 years, so they all agree to meet back in Derry when they're grown if Pennywise returns. (I haven't seen Chapter Two yet, but I assume it's a quick movie short that shows them all getting back together for drinks? Right?)

That's a very quick summary of a very long movie, but it's a very skillfully done movie because I didn't feel the length at all. I think what struck me most about it - apart from Skarsgård's amazing turn as Pennywise - is how well the movie takes its time. The Losers aren't all together at the stat of the story; we have to add in Ben, Beverly, and Mike, but (director) Andrew Muschetti doesn't rush that process. We get moments with all seven of the main characters and we learn about them, their histories and who's abusing them (I mean, pretty much all of them are enduring some kind of shit treatment from a parental figure; Bill's probably got it easiest and he's the one dealing with losing a little brother and his whole family grieving). The result is that the group feels organic and the characters don't feel interchangeable, but they're also not defined by a schtick (Richie comes the closest to that, and thinking about it we don't learn as much about his family or history). 

If I had a word to sum up the movie, I'd say "organic" is a pretty good start. The friendship between the characters is largely real; the actors spent a summer filming the movie and watching their interviews, they really do seem to be friends (I say "seem to" because I don't trust anything fully if it's made to promote). The effects are largely practical, the sets mostly real, and aside from a few anachronisms (the movie is set in 1988 but Batman is playing at the local theater and the kids listen to "Bust a Move" on a boom box, both of which are 1989 releases), the time period comes across, too. 

I haven't seen Chapter Two because I just missed it in theaters, and I didn't watch it on Netflix when I could have, and that's a bummer because now I'll have to pay to rent it, but I do want to see the continuation of the story. That said, Chapter One is interesting because it stands on its own as a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and I think that's another reason it works so well.

(I do, however, have to note Pennywise's portrayals here and here, which I quite enjoy.)

My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Paris, Je T'aime 

Character Creation: Longshot City

Can never have too many supers RPGs.

The Game: Longshot City
The Publisher: Melsonian Arts Council
Degree of Familiarity: None yet, but I'ma give it a whirl soon
Books Required: Just the one (it's based on Troika! but doesn't require it)

I've said before, many times, that supers RPGs really need some kind of gimmick or sub-genre to help them stand out, be it a unique system (With Great Power...) or a focus on a particular type of comic (Cold Steel Wardens) or some other parameter that gives players a stronghold handhold than "supers" (Masks). Longshot City's gimmick, if you want to call it that, is a recognition that supers stories are by definition genre-hopping madness and leans into it. 

As with other Troika! derivatives I've read, this one has a great big list of archetypes that one chooses by rolling a d66. The system looks a pretty simple 2d6 + whatever sort of affair, except that you want to roll low in some instances and high in others, which I don't love, but I think my players will be able to handle it for a one-shot. Let's make a hero! After lunch.

OK, it's after lunch now.

Step One, Roll Stats. 1d6+3 for Skill (8), 2d6+12 for Stamina (21), 1d6+6 for Luck (12, rolling great today). 

Step Two: Determine Archetype. Roll a d66 and check the table, but I can interpret the dice in either order. A 2 and a 1, so either 12 (Elastinmorph) or 21 (Elemental). Well, having already done a stretchy hero (The Malleable Man, for Prowlers & Paragons), I shall go with the latter. This gives me Non-Mundane as my Origin (which just indicates which table I roll on), and Advanced Skills Energy Blast, Elemental Form, Command Element, and Fly. When I use my Blast in Elemental Form, it only costs 1 Stamina instead of 3. Neat! I must now roll for my Elemental Form: 1, Weather. My Elemental Blast does electrical damage (a la Storm). Neat! 

Step Three: Origin! Same drill, roll d66, only this time I don't think I can reverse the dice (but I'll look).

Oh, OK, so the Archetype doesn't necessarily determine which table my Origin can come from; some of them say "Any." In my case, it just means it has to come from not the Mundane table, which isn't a problem unless I roll a 2. Rolling...6 and 1, no sweat. That's either Trained by Monks or Time Capsule. Well, Time Capsule doesn't really ring true for a weather controller, so I guess I was trained by monks! That gives me the Skill: +2 Secret Signs - Enlightenment, and Wealth 0 (which is actually the better of the two options). 

Step Four: Personalize! Well, the obvious choice is to do a Kamar Taj/Kun Lun kind of thing and have my guy trained in some exotic location, but eh, I don't like being obvious. Instead, let's say that my character was trained by a monastic order originating in Venezuela, near Lake Maracaibo (look it up, it's pretty dope). One student in a generation develops the "heart of lightning"; the order resisted the conversion to Christianity that the rest of the Barí people underwent in the 60s, but wound up getting largely ostracized for it. My character came to Longshot City because the winds took him there (also part of the "heart of lightning" thing; the practice is to let the storms lead you where you need to go).

His real name is Elio Enriquez*, but to evildoers everywhere, he is called - the Heart of Lightning! Elio is a 20 something Barí man, dark skinned, black hair, brown eyes. When he calls on his elemental form, I think it's less that he changes into lighting and more than he gathers the storm around him - rain, clouds, lightning, and electricity coruscates over him, making notions like "clothes" mostly irrelevant. 

*He really should have a name in Barí, but the language is endangered and I couldn't find a list of names, so we'll assume that he has a name in his native language but goes by a Spanish name in the rest of the world. 

Character Creation: The W.A.T.C.H.

There are actually two games called "The Watch" in some way, there's the one I'm doing today, and then there's The Watch, a PbtA game from Peach Pants Press. I'll get to that one eventually.

The Game: The W.A.T.C.H.
The Publisher: Wolvesbane Manor
Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular game, but um, it feels pretty familiar in places
Books Required: Just the one

It's a lot like Chill, is what I'm saying, but I don't mean that in an accusatory fashion, just that it treads a lot of the same ground. You're playing members of an organization with a kind of tortured acronym for a name (Worldwide Anomaly Tracks & Cryptid Hunters, which, I have to admit, is better than the mangled Latin used to create SAVE) that hunts down and investigates supernatural occurrences. That's where the similarities end, both on a systemic and thematic level. See, Chill is explicitly about protecting people from a hostile supernatural force, particularly in Third Edition; the Unknown is definitively evil. In The WATCH (I am not putting the periods in every time, though I do note that even when I did that when googling to find the publisher, the Peach Pants Press version was all that came up), what exactly the titular organization is, is never defined. You might be a reality TV film crew, a cryptid hunting club, or a secret government organization doing X-Files shit (side note: Was there ever an official X-Files RPG? If not, why not? And don't say Conspiracy X, I know there's a bunch that could do it, I just wondered if there was a licensed one. Google it, Matt, you say, and I look down and whisper "no").

Ahem. Anyway, The WATCH is playable both with and without a GM ("Controller"), using random tables to generate clues and so on if you're playing without one. It's one of many games that I might consider playing if I didn't have Chill (or, in this case, Conspiracy X, or Bump in the Dark, or Monster of the Week), but I don't know that it thrills me on its own. But I dunno, the GMless version might be a fun one-shot. 

So let's make a W.A.T.C.H.er!

Sup

The PDF isn't bookmarked, grargh. However! There is one easy-to-use table summarizing chargen, so all is forgiven.

Well, can't exactly develop a concept that complements the team (though I do note that this game has solo rules, so let's assume I was going to do that, I guess). I don't want a tragic backstory, just because I'll enjoy the challenge of not doing that. I don't have a concept beyond that, though, so since music on my mind because of the character I did yesterday, I shall have my old friend "music library" pick a random song for me.

The first one it gave me was "I've Loved These Days" by Billy Joel, which I'm going to veto because as much as I love the Piano Man, that song is sad and I'm not doing sad today. I'm doing weird and random today. And the next song is...hey, Garbage! Specifically "Not My Idea." 

Not complicated as song interpretations go; it's about being a young adult in the 90s and seeing the world starting to burn while older people tell you "these are the best years of your life lol!" (I...can relate.) So I think I'll make a character in that kind of demographic, and actually because I'm feeling the grunge vibe today, we'll say my guy was a drummer in a grunge band that actually did OK in the mid-90s, had a couple of hits that charted, and then their label screwed them, the band broke up, the lead singer went on to be a right-wing podcaster, the bassist has a good stand-up career, and my character is just...here. Does drum lessons, plays on studio albums once in a while...AND HUNTS CRYPTIDS.

I think what happened there is that he filled in for a drummer at gig at a music fest (let's say Bonnaroo, just because I've been to that one). He got done playing, was the first one off stage and into the green room, and saw something rooting around in the trash. It jumped out and ran out the door, and it was bipedal but only a foot high and it had four arms what the shit. My character, Aiden Harrell, never let it go and got a rep for being either nuts or drugged (he is neither), until he got hooked up with the WATCH. 

That'll do for step one, I think. Now I've got 35 training points. My Aspects (which threw me, because I'm used to Aspects in the Fate sense, and these are not, they're more like Attributes in the SWADE sense) start at d4, and I can spend 4 points to jack them up a die type.

Aspects determine how much stress one can take in the appropriate area (Emotional, Intellectual, Physical, Social, Spiritual). I don't see Aiden as being particularly weak in any of these. Buying all of them up to d6 would cost most of my points, though. Does having a d4 mean I'm especially deficient in that area? Rolls in this game are Aspect + Skill vs. a difficulty, and a "standard" difficulty is 9. Then yes, having a d4 would make it impossible to do something standard without a complementary skill. OK, fuck it, 24 points to jack all my Aspects to d6, and then 4 more to raise Emotional to d8 (I wavered between Social and Emotional, but I think Emotional, which refers to empathy and keeping calm when faced with adversity, makes more sense for Aiden). 

That leaves me 7 points for Skills. Which...how do these work? Oh, OK. You pay an initial purchase cost and then can spend more points to bump up the die type, but it's d6 by default, and it looks like most of the initial costs are low so I should be able to buy the Skills Aiden would have.

Well, I want Lore: Cryptids because I figure Aiden's always reading some book about them. That's 2 points, but I don't think more than a d6 is necessary. I want Intimidation and Interview; Aiden can be scary if he needs to, but he's much happier just talking to people. Buying both of those sets me back 3, which means I have 2 points left. I think I'll leave both of those at d6. I'll buy First Aid (Aiden's girlfriend back in the touring days once OD'd and nearly died, and that spooked him into both staying relatively clean and learning CPR), and finally...oh, obviously I need Performance, geez. Should have saved a few points so I could buy it up, but eh. Maybe Aiden's not in practice anymore.

Base equipment! Oh, cool, it's just "you get what you would logically have", rather than fucking shopping. Well, without wishing to get into the weeds on what Aiden might be carrying for a hypothetical mission, let's just say that he carries a smartphone, a lighter (he doesn't smoke anymore, but he's found having a Zippo is often useful), and a notebook (he knows his phone has a notes app, but he finds it much more expedient to just write stuff). He doesn't always carry drumsticks, but he's never far from a pair. 

Mannerisms/descriptions/background! I think we've established background. Aiden is about 55. He's a little pudgier than he used to be (aren't we all), but he's doing OK. His hair is brown and graying, and varies in length depending on whether he feels like trying to recapture his youth this season. He wears jeans or khakis and has a lifetime supply of t-shirts from his band's tour, and he refuses to stop wearing flannels (look, they're comfy).  

That's it! Can't deny that the process is pretty smooth and it's well-explained, which is a feat in itself. 

Character Creation: Jukebox

What is this, a song cue?

The Game: Jukebox
The Publisher: Jar of Eyes
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played the game, but I pretty conversant with both karaoke and musicals
Books Required: Just the one

Jukebox is a game that I'm keen to play, but if I had a time machine and I could cherry-pick a few players from across my life, holy shit, this would be amazing. (I say that not because I don't have players now who would be into it and be great at it, but because playing this game with my friend Jacob would be really incredible.)

So! What is Jukebox? Jukebox is a GMless game not dissimilar to games like A Tragedy in Five Acts, Dialect, or even Fiasco, in which you have a set structure of scenes in which narrative focus passes from player to player, but every scene ends with or includes one of the players singing a song, karaoke-style, within the fiction of the musical. Yes, it requires a way to sing karaoke, but generally you can search "[song title] karaoke" on Yubtub and get one (or, failing that, just sing along with the song, it's not like this is American Idol or some shit). 

You know, much is made in modern RPGs, in the indie sphere especially, of comfort and consent and just generally having a good experience, but I think there's something to be said for a game that requires a player to step out of their comfort zone a little and take some risk whether that be that a character might die or come to some tragic end or that the player act in a way they're not used to. Singing in front of people isn't something a lot of people do, outside of something like karaoke, and I think this framework would be interesting. I think that singing a song and acting at the same time is harder than most people think, and I think that spending 3+ minutes at the table singing while other people stare at you has the potential to get weird, but on the other hand, I love jukebox musicals and I love reinterpreting lyrics to fit situations other than the songwriter's intent, so 10/10 no notes, let's fucking play this game.

(Not today, however, today we are just making a character.)

This is one of those games that I wasn't sure should be on the project, since character creation is so very baked in to the process of play, but as with Dialect I think we can make it work. We do, however, need a playset. The way this would work in play is that (if we were using a playset playbill) we'd each come up with a setlist of six songs, which would then get shuffled and performed during play. But that does mean I need to figure out the playbill (since that'll decide the tone and musical genres we're shooting for). Handily, there are a whole bunch, so let's pick one! (If we were playing this, I'd probably want to make up a playbill, but I ain't doing all that by myself today.)

Oh, man, there are so many good ones, but I know I want to pick at least one Amigo the Devil song for my setlist, so I'm gonna go with:

Choosing a playbill is actually Step Three of the Tech Rehearsal stage of the game, but it's the first one I'm doing for chargen purposes. Steps Four and Five are likewise not applicable here, and that brings us to Step Six: Setlist! I pick six songs that I'd be pumped to sing in our Swamp Goblins musical. Ooh, I feel like a car in a candy store. Let's see.

Well, I said I want at least one Amigo the Devil song, so I'm gonna pick two that are pretty different in tone: "I Hope Your Husband Dies" and "Cocaine and Abel."

OK, what else. I don't want to do all murderfolk songs, but I do want a Devil Makes Three song in there. The question is which one, because there are a bunch that are fuckin' bangers and would be amazing in this musical. I think I want something a little more uptempo so I'm not gonna pick "Graveyard," but how about "Help Yourself?" Yeah, sounds good. 

The inspirational songs in this playbill go in kind of a different direction than I am; there's some quasi-country (if you count "Picture" by fucking Kid Rock), but there's also "Jackson" by Johnny Cash. I love the Man in Black; I don't want to use that song specifically, but I think "I Still Miss Someone" would be pretty awesome. 

Oh, man. "Curbside Prophet" by Jason Mraz? Maybe. I'll keep that in my back pocket, I've only got two more (I mean, I could pick more than six, but if we were playing I'd only wind up doing three, so picking more just dilutes the pool, as it were). "If the World Was Ending" by JP Saxe is also a possibility and has the benefit of being a duet, but is it really in tone with this playbill? I think it's not, actually, alas.

Ooh, no, I got one: "You Make Me Feel Like a Whore," Everclear. Yeah, my setlist leans into some issues with self-loathing, so call that method acting, I guess, but I love Everclear and I think the vibe actually works here. 

One more song! OH WAIT SHIT how could I possibly be in a musical about bog people and not include a Hozier song? I love Hozier so much, though I find him a little hard to sing, but I don't think I'd let that stop me. 

OK, I am not going to pick "Abstract" or actually anything else off Unreal Unearthed because pretty much that whole album hits me right in the feels, and besides I want something with a little more edge to it. Oh, how about "Too Sweet?" If I'm warmed up I can sing that pretty well. 

Right, that's six! What's next? That'd be the end of the Tech Rehearsal stage, meaning we'd go into Opening Number, which would involve picking...an opening number, singing it, and then using that as the basic to answer a bunch of questions about the setting. Since we're using a preset playbill, the questions are already there and it'd just be a matter of narrowing it down. The themes of the musical revolve around human encroachment and warring monster families, so if it were me playing in this game, I think I'd push for an opening number that's big, loud, and contentious...oh, wait, I know. "Glitter & Gold," Barns Courtney. I think that'd be goddamn perfect for the opening number for this show.

OK, that's it for the Opening Number for my purposes (the rest would be fleshing out the setting, which I'm not gonna do, because I don't think I need to in order to finish my character). Next bit would be Character Songs, which is really where chargen proper happens. First thing we do is Draw a Character Song, picking one of my setlist to be the basis for the character. Let's just roll a d6 and go down the order I picked them in, yeah? A roll of 1 gives me "I Hope Your Husband Dies." Well, that sets up a character arc, dunnit?

From the lyrics and vibe of that song, I'm meant to determine:

All of the characters here are swamp monsters, so I picture my guy as this kind of humanoid-newt sort of thing. His people are called "Hellbenders," and they live in the black, brackish shallows of the swamp. My guy's name is Ax (he/him), and his concept is...hmm. The lyrics to the song talk about traveling great distances, so I think Ax actually left the swamp to try and find the perfect ring with which to propose to his ladylove, but when he got back, she was already married because he never told her how he felt. His role in the group is kinda "prodigal, embittered, son." His notable personality trait is that he's lovesick, and his motive for accomplishing the group goal (which, for my purposes, isn't firmly established, but that's fine) is to prove himself to his intended. 

And that's actually it, kids. I picture Ax as mostly humanoid, skinny, with little floppy nubs on his head that kinda look like hair if he wears a hat and you squint and are also very drunk. His skin is mostly black but with mottled yellow spots in place. 

Ax

Concept: Prodigal/embittered swamp dweller, Hellbender, in love with [someone] and left to procure a gift but never told her how he felt
Trait: Lovesick
Motive: Prove himself to his intended 

D&D: Die, Dopps, Die

Last night we played some D&D! Here's last time.

Our heroes are standing outside the home of Barry, one of the Night Strikes in Cian, as another of said Strikes, Ronan, gravely informs his wife of his demise. The four of them talk amongst themselves, and decide that they need to get some sleep before they go hunting down trouble. Ronan returns and they offer condolences, and then head back to the north end of town for their rooms at the Clumsy Archer.

In the morning, they talk about their options. They know that the "manor" - the one that burned some weeks back - is potentially significant since Dara heard the doppelgangers mention it when they were plotting. They also know, however, that two of the Strikes, Imogen and Aodhan, have not been accounted for. Zook points out that Dara saw them being impersonated and the doppelgangers have historically not tried to impersonate people they can't account for, which probably means they're dead. In the end, they decide to leave the city and go check out the manor, but before that, they find one of the Strikes currently on shift (a woman named Mairead) and tell her of their plans. They also come up with a code word ("fiddlesticks," obviously Zook's choice) so that they can protect against impersonation, and tell Mairead that they're leaving town for a while so if they're seen over the next couple of hours, it's not them.

They start heading towards the southern gate, and a man in a green cap approaches. "Zook Timber?"

"Who's asking?"

"...me." 

Zook rolls his eyes. "And?"

The guy explains: he's a messenger, and has a message for Zook Timber. "Gnome, wizard, traveling with three other people who aren't gnomes, jaunty hat? That's you, right?" He hands over the message and stands there until Zook gives him a couple of silver, and then sods off. The note is from Darragh Bumpshadow, the now-proprietor of the magical trinket store that her late father ran. She says she has something that belonged to Zook's father. 

Zook is immediately suspicious - sounds like a trap - but it's on their way out of town. He consults the keek-stane and sees that stopping there has the potential for both weal and woe (at which point Aisling drops her head and groans "UGH PROPHECY"). They decide to stop by, however.

The shop is on the second level of the building. Clara goes up the stairs first, and hears clinking noises from inside, like someone is moving a whole bunch of metal objects. She shushes the others and peeks around, and sees two men robbing the place and a gnome woman, probably Darragh, behind the counter. She quickly relays this to the others, and then catches the woman's eye and mouths "DISTRACT THEM" to her. She nods slightly, and then says "you'll never get away with this!"

The two men turn and Clara bursts into the room! She rocks up one of them, but he whips around and draws a short sword...but it catches on the scabbard and Clara dodges. Aisling comes into the room and casts a sleep spell, and Darragh and the other robber both collapse. Dara enters the room and gestures at the robber's sword, casting a spell to heat the metal. He yelps and drops it, and then backs up and grabs Darragh off the floor, and puts a dagger to her throat. "You let me go, or she's dead."

Aisling tells him that if he hurts her, he won't leave here alive, and he says that's fine - he'll drop her and go out the back. The heroes don't love that, but they don't want the gnome to get hurt, so they agree. The man drops Darragh and heads into the back room and Clara covers the distance quickly like the nimble little monk she is, but when she gets to the doorway (next to the counter where Darragh was standing, "Darragh" explodes into the white, lumpy form of a doppelganger and pummels Clara! Worse, the "robber", still in the back room, does likewise!

Zook enters the room and flings magic missiles at the one he can see, and the doppelganger roars in rage and yells "KILL THAT GNOME, AYLT". Suddenly the second "robber", who has army-crawled over to Zook, shifts into doppel-form and bashes the gnome's head with its massive fists, knocking him down. Aisling closes and stabs it, and then thinks better and casts a cloud of daggers on its lumpy ass.

Meanwhile, Clara dodges past the one in the doorway into the back room, and jumps up on a desk. Dara casts an Entangle spell to trip up the one that follows her, but the plants don't impede him and he pounds Clara into unconsciousness. Dara attacks her opponent, Perd, with a flame blade and he roars and strikes back, injuring her, but she turns into a panther and fights with tooth and claw!

The one facing off against Aisling (Aylt) grabs her and pulls her into her own dagger-cloud, which rips her up a bit before she can drop the spell. Zook revives himself and fills Aylt full of magic missiles, and then positions himself so that he can better get a line on, Perd, the one fighting Dara. Dara, for her part, claws and bites, but as the doppelganger in the back room, Fench, emerges, it punches her and drops her back into her elf form.

Perd screams in rage and starts for Zook, but Zook throws scorching rays at him. Two of them miss but one goes straight into his mouth and he collapses, his head melting. Fench, seeing this, surrenders to Dara, which drives Aylt to curse him for a coward and charge Aisling...who drops him with a crossbow bolt. 

The heroes tie up the doppelganger and revive Clara ("guess we won?"), and call for the Strikes. Fench tells them that he'll happily inform on the remaining doppelgangers, but they need to let him go, and they'd better decide quick before the Strikes get here. He tells them that all he wants to do is play his lute and eat some good food; he's not ambitious. The heroes decide that ending the threat is worth the risk, and agree.

Fench tells them that the two they killed here, Aylt and Perd, were violent and bloodthirsty, always talking about wanting to kill people, especially Zook ("never shut up about it. 'Agh, gonna stab 'em! I wanna kill the lights!'"). But it's really the other two Nock and Zere, that are the dangerous ones. See, Fench, Perd, and Lilk (whom Fench says hates being in the city so has been acting as a lookout - he's probably the one that the characters saw coming into town) came this way after the Shiny Belles incident and met up with Nock, Aylt, and Zere at the manor. They'd killed everyone in the house, stacked the bodies in the basement, and run the place into the ground, but had bigger ambitions.

The plan was to take over the Night Strikes and then work their way into the armory, steal all the magic shit they could, and get out of Cian, but the heroes fucked that up for them. Now the other three are back at the manor, waiting on these three to bring everything from Darragh's store ("why?" "so we can sell it!") and get out of town. He warns them that Nock has some wizardry skills, and Zere is the planner. They'll need to catch them by surprise. 

The heroes warn Fench that if they ever see him again, he's a dead monster. They can sniff him out - rather, Maeve can. Fench turns into Zook to test that out (and Zook gets to watch the lumpy white flesh turn into his skin, which is a bit disquieting), and Maeve growls at the false Zook. Maybe the doppelgangers figured out the sleep spell trick, but can't nobody fool a doggo. Fench also tells them he doesn't know where the real Darragh is; she wasn't here when they arrived.

Fench leaves out the back just as the Strikes arrive, and Beren of the Sworn arrives shortly after. Zook explains what happens (and is honest about letting Fench go), and while Beren isn't thrilled, he trusts the adventurers' judgment. A cabinet opens and Darragh pops out - the cabinet was something her father made, and it renders anyone inside invisible. She gets the item she found that belonged to Zook's father ("oh, I thought that might have been a trap") and it turns out to be a set of goggles with the name "Zeb Timber" burned into the leather strap. When Zook wears them, he can see in the dark, even better than his gnome eyes usually allow.

The heroes take a quick rest and then accompany Beren and a contingent of guards out to the manor to finish this!

They get on horses (Zook's dog-saddle isn't ready yet) and head out of town, to the Illister Manor...or what's left of it. It's basically burned down and collapsed. As they approach, they spot a carriage. The coachman sees them, jumps off, and runs into the wreckage. 

They ride up and free the horses, and Beren instructs his guards to watch all sides of the house, but to work in pairs and not to let the other out of their sight. "You see anyone coming out of the house alone, scream." 

The five of them find a staircase and descend into the basement. It's dark, of course, but most of them can see pretty well (and Zook gets to try out his new goggles, which work a treat). Aisling activates her driftglobe, and Zook sends Edna, his spider familiar, to scout through the rubble. A moment later, she finds something and screams! (I mean, telepathically; she is a spider and thus has no voice.)

A doppelganger (Zere) bursts from the rubble and attacks Clara, and another follows (Lilk) suit and attacks Zook. A third (Nock) emerges near Aisling and strikes, and the battle is joined! The characters find that there are piles of ash around, and moving through them kicks up clouds that make them choke, but this works just as well on the doppelgangers as them. Nock battles Aisling, but after a couple of solid hits (including being burned by Dara's Moonbeam spell), retreats into a dark corner...but that, unfortunately, is no safe haven from Zook's magic missiles. 

Clara faces off against Zere while Lilk pounds on Beren, Dara, and whoever else is nearby, but the characters are moving in synch and kill him fairly quickly. Zere strikes Dara and knocks her down, and then tries to run for the exit, clearly intending to kill Dara with a boot to the face on the way out - but Beren clubs it in the head, and Zook stabs it in the kidney on the way past. The threat is finally over, and the doppelgangers are gone (assuming Fench was telling the truth). 

The characters climb up out of the basement and head back into town for some rest. And, as Clara notes, another bath is probably not a bad idea. 

(And now we have a bit of a hiatus because folks have vacation-y stuff to do in July, but don't worry! One-shots will happen!) 

Character Creation: Hope

Lord save me from passive voice.

The Game: Hope
The Publisher: I have no idea
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

By "I have no idea" I mean I know who the author is, but there doesn't seem to be a publisher's imprint or label on the book and the Kickstarter doesn't list a website or anything. Also can't find the game on DriveThru, and I don't care enough to go digging.

Anyway, Hope is a post-apocalyptic game in the most recognizable, basic sense. There was a nuclear war, now there's mutants and giant bugs and raiders and so forth, you're defending and building the titular town of Hope, go for it. And all that of that is fine, if a bit simplistic, but I don't mind simplicity in a game's premise if it gives the players some room to build.

But - and here's we're going to pour the horse paste out onto the floor and beat it some more - the book is really not well-written from a clarity or usability standpoint. We start off with some fiction that needed a pass for clarity and editing (it starts in past tense and then changes to present within a paragraph, and it doesn't feel deliberate), and those fiction pieces happen sporadically through the book. They're not good fiction, but I do appreciate that each of the pieces is contextualized as a part of a game session. What I don't enjoy is that the game session as depicted just doesn't look...fun. It looks like the PCs are getting their asses kicked and the GM is like "yeah I didn't balance this encounter well, oh well lol we'll try again next week". And I'm not disputing that shit like that happens, but why would you make it your example of play?

(As an aside: One of the pledge levels we used for A Tragedy in Five Acts was for the pledge-er to come and play a session with us which would then be used as the example of play, and not to pay myself on the back, but I really had to stretch my writer muscles making that session seem fun. That's no fault of the game, it was just a strange table.)

Anyway, there's that, there's the rampant passive voice, and then there's the fact that character creation is never summarized so I actually don't know how many skill points I'm meant to get. But the good news is that the game is quick - most of the book is gear and monsters and shit and then there's 20 pages of blank sheets at the back - so this shouldn't take long. 

First thing we do is pick a Role, and then a Vocation. There are six Roles, and then eight Vocations. "Role" is not defined in the context of the game, and "Vocation" is only defined as "a specialty to complement your Role." 

Just for fun, here's the entire list, in alphabetic order: Brawler, Combatant, Commandant, Diplomat, Gossip, Gunner, Mechanic, Medic, Scavenger, Scholar, Scout, Sentry, Swindler, Thug. Now, for fun, you tell me which ones are "Role" and which are "Vocations." 

Anyway, as may be becoming clear, I am not heavily invested in this process, so y'know what, I'm gonna roll a d6 and a d8 and see what I get. A 2 for Role gets me Gunner, and a 4 on Vocation gets me Sentry (because they're not in alphabetical order in the book; this book really does strike me as something that was written in a kind of "make it up as we go" sort of way and then never got a usability pass). Gunner/Sentry does seem to make some sense, though.

Annnnnd there is not a spot for Role or Vocation on the character sheet. Must not be that important. 

"Have been known to put bullets to good use." Kill me. OK, twee verbiage aside, I get to use the highest roll for Agility (this will make sense in a minute), and I can put my 3 free Skill points into  the Skills listed. Please note that how many Skill points I get is never listed anywhere, but contextually it looks like I get three chosen from those five Skills, and then a free point of Ranged Combat from my Vocation. But that's a later step. Maybe. I think.

Characteristics! There are 9 of them, because apparently the writer really wants groups of three. My favorite bit here is that there are stats called "Presence," "Eloquence" and "Grace," and "Grace" is defined as "a measure of your ability to maintain presence and eloquence in distress." Presumably that means "Grace" is a resistance stat or something, but at first blush it looks like you're using one stat to define another and it's very strange. 

Anyway, we generate these by rolling 2d4 for each of them and taking the lower, except in my case I take the higher for Agility. So! Whipping out the d4s, we get:

Strength 4 
Agility 3
Fortitude 4 (no foolin', rolled two 4s twice now)
Intelligence 2
Awareness 1
Will 2
Presence 1
Eloquence 2 
Grace 1

And now I get to add +1 to two of my stats. Well, since I'm a Gunner, I think I'll cheese and add one to Agility, and since I'm a Sentry I'll add one to Awareness.

Derived traits! ("Secondary Characteristics," but whatever.) Carrying Capacity is double Strength, so 8. Speed is equal to Agility, so 4. And...is not on the sheet. Perchance you mean Movement? I think so.

Hit Points = (Fortitude) x 4, so 16 for me. Initiative is equal to Awareness (2). Stress Points are just like Hit Points, except with Will (so 8). Likewise, Counter Points are the same but use Grace...dafuq is "Counter"? How much I can withstand verbal coercion? Hokay then.

Next section discusses Skills, but doesn't tell me how many I get to start, so again, let's assume four total (three split betwixt my Role Skills and 1 in Ranged Combat).

Well, my Sentry Abilities key off of Ranged Combat, Cope, and Coordination, so if I'm smart (which I am) I'll put points there. In the interest of having a little identity, I'll put one of my free points (they're hardly free, I can only choose five out of 22 options) into Search, one into Cope, one into Coordination. 

(By the way, the method by which you increase skills in play is...interesting. When you make a roll, you roll 2d10. One die has to come up equal to or less than the total of the Characteristic, Skill, and any other factors in order to succeed. The other die only matters if it matches the first, and if it does that makes the result critical, so crits only happen when the dice match. With me so far? Now, when you get a crit success, you make a hash mark, and every five hash marks (for a Role Skill) or seven marks (for not), you get a point.

Basically, your Skills ain't improving much.)

And at this point, the book goes into a chapter on Gear, but it doesn't tell me if I get any gear to start, and character creation just kinda peters out, so I guess I'm...done? Nice job, guys. Let's do the description stuff and knock off for more coffee.

Coney is smarter than he looks, but that ain't saying much. He's a big guy, thick of head and voice, and he'll pretty much do what you tell him to do. He's a decent shot and pretty observant, so mostly "what he's told to do" is "stand here with a rifle and if anything bigger than a bunny gets near the perimeter, put a bullet in it." OK. Coney's got that shit, no problem.

Coney is just a hair under seven feet tall, if he had any hair, which he doesn't, including eyebrows (radiation, it happens). He's got blue eyes and tends to have an open mouth posture. For all that, Coney's only scary when he's holding a gun. He doesn't look like he'd tear you apart. He looks like he could, but like he wouldn't. (And he probably wouldn't, unless someone said "hey, Coney, tear that guy apart," and then he'd do his best.)

That'll do it! Back on the shelf with you!

 

Pugmire: Round Two with the Night Ripper!

Yesterday we played some Pugmire! Here's last time.

The dogs are at Heinrich Doberman's iron mines. They've got a few hours before sunset, so they decide to split up and do a little snooping. Boomer Pitbull, Petunia Pibble, and Gelert Sausagedog go over to the barracks (three shacks on the western end of the quarry) to talk to guards, while Dire Newfoundland and Peppa Papillon go over to the cooking tent to see if they can help out.

As an aside: Peppa's player wasn't there last session and initially we decided she went off to do volunteering stuff in Ellendonk, but then the group left Ellendonk and headed out to track the Night Ripper and wound up at the mines. I thought about some ways to get Peppa there quickly, but then we just decided to say she was with them all the time and just not very talkative or useful. Normally I take a very Annie Wilkes view of continuity, but yesterday I decided to err on the side of smooth game play. 

HAVE YOU ALL GOT AMNESIA!?

Anyway. Sausagedog joins a game of cards, and chats with the guards about the situation here. Boomer finds a guard standing outside the barracks sharpening his sword and asks him similar questions, and Petunia is delighted to spot Patrick Pibble, her second cousin's husband's brother's nephew! (Patrick appeared in the very first session of this game, which was more than three years ago.) 

Between the three of them, they learn the lay of the land here at the mine. There are normally 32 guards and about 60 miners (Boomer notes that that's a guard for every two miners, and the guard he's talking to pauses, clearly having never done that math), but three of the guards have been killed by the Night Ripper. They were all attacked alone, on three separate nights - the Night Ripper has never attacked during the day and never come down into the quarry, though he did push a tree trunk from the top of the quarry onto a wagon of equipment, smashing it. 

Petunia learns, too, that the guards around here started off as troops from Pugmire, loyal to King Puckington, but over the last year or so they've been swapped out for guards in the employ of Heinrich Doberman. Some of those guards are from Pugmire, some are from Ellendonk, others are from other towns (Patrick thinks he met one from as far away as Houndton). He mentions that one of the guards killed was a Pibble from Ellendonk, which of course makes Petunia sad. 

Also, this is an iron mine, yes, but it's more than that. This place was the site of a major battle during the War of Cats and Dogs, but during the fighting there was an earthquake and both sides were buried. The miners are really more focused on unearthing relics and magical items from the ground. There are six "foredogs" that are here nominally to oversee mining operations, but really they're here to identify such items. Every so often, a wagon-load is sent back south (and presumably meets another courier who takes it all the way back to Pugmire). Petunia wonders if the mining supervisor, Hotch Wiener (whom no one seems to have a very high opinion of) would hire her to do some relic-sniffing. Patrick says that he doesn't part with plastic he doesn't absolutely have to, but maybe? 

Patrick also mentions something odd - he says that the previous supervisor, Finley, went crazy and ran off. That's only significant in that Hotch told the Pioneers that Finley died. 

Boomer sneaks into the barracks building and nicks a spare uniform, and starts heading for the mine entrance. Sausagedog, having blown through his plastic, spots Boomer and excuses himself, and Petunia catches up as well. They discuss going into the mine with Boomer as a "guard," but Petunia advises waiting - anyway, she wants to talk to Hotch...

Meanwhile, Dire and Peppa go to the food tent and see a very large, very jowly dog with red fur with a pile of game birds and a cleaver, preparing them for eating. He introduces himself as Maple Bourdeaux, the cook for the mining camp, and is very happy to have a couple of extra sets of paws. He sets Peppa to work stirring a huge stewpot, and teaches Dire how to butcher the birds ("head, feet, feathers, slit, innards in the bucket, into the pot!"). While they work, they talk a bit about the mine. Maple confirms that the mine's higher-ups seem more interested in relics than iron, but he's just here to cook. Peppa also mentions that some of the miners look a little...underfed, and Maple, somewhat uncomfortably, says that the guards get to eat first and sometimes they take heartier portions than they should, leaving smaller meals for the miners. Dire growls softly; he is not a fan of that shit.

Maple also puts names to the three guards who were killed: Kenner Shepherd, a former Royal Guard from Pugmire; Cotton Pibble, a young merc from Ellendonk; and Beebee Mutt. Maple isn't sure where Beebee was from ("Hell, maybe?"), but says that although he doesn't want to speak ill of the dead, Beebee was not a Good Dog.

Peppa and Dire meet up with the others as they're discussing what to do, and they decide not to go traipsing into the mines just now. Petunia goes off to ask Hotch Wiener about sniffing for relics, and finds him in his tent. His tent is full of pretty opulent, if not very tasteful, things - decorations, little knickknacks, and lots of reds and purples. 

Hotch readily confirms that the mine is pulling up whatever relics they can find and shipping them back to Pugmire; presumably they're being used to increase the Doberman family's station (which is kind of what Petunia was afraid of). He shows her an old map from the War of Cats and Dogs with the newer mine features marked on it, and Petunia offers to sniff out relics for him. He says that really, the Pioneers could be the greatest help by tracking down and killing the Night Ripper.

Meanwhile, the dinner bell rings and Peppa and Dire help out serving food. A guard tries to get a bigger portion, but Dire levels a Look at him ("You're. Holding. Up. The. Line.") and the dude moves on. The miners go and sit in their sleeping area to eat, and Boomer goes in the midst of them and starts trying to teach them about seizing the means of production ("Have any of you ever read the works of Karl Barx?"). 

Another dog comes through the line with an extra plate, and says that he's taking the other one to "Mr. Hotch." He introduces himself as Robet Bedlington, one of the foredogs, and he and Peppa start chatting about setting up a clinic for miners (there are some folks with basic medical training but there's not an acolyte who can do healing magic on site) until the folks in line get grumpy. 

Petunia is still in Hotch's tent when Robet shows up with his dinner. Robet drops off Hotch's food and leaves with Petunia; Robet is also an artisan, and he and Petunia sit in the miner's area and talk while they eat. Robet is from the north end of Pugmire; his family had money, but his father blew it on a scam, hence Robet needing to take work like this. He doesn't mind it, though - the other foredogs are interesting folks. 

There's Callum Staffordshire, probably a distant cousin to Petunia and Boomer. There's Nestor Brittany, also an artisan, and probably the closest thing the foredogs have to a leader. There's Grooly Dane, who's...very tall. Bertha Bernard isn't particularly smart, but she has a savant-like ability to identify relics. And finally, Ute Doberman, Viveka Doberman's cousin. Robet doesn't have much to say about here, other than she's fully a Doberman. 

He tells them that a shipment of relics left earlier today (Callum, Nestor, and Grooly went along). It contained some masterwork weapons, which is most of what they find, but also a magic ring ("Hard to know what those do - are you suddenly smarter?") and a strange circular piece of curved glass. When you look through it, something happens, but Bertha wasn't really able to convey the information. 

Dire goes to find Bertha; she's sitting nearby, staring forlornly at an empty plate. He talks with her and finds that she's perfectly able to converse, as long as you keep it simple. Both of them agree that a magic plate that produces chicken would be perhaps the greatest magical item ever. Dire is able to get her talking about the glass relic, and learns that looking through it shows people as they were as pups. Bertha isn't sure what use that would be in battle, unless you gave it to an opponent and made them look at you and see you as a baby and then they'd give up because who's going to fight a baby?

At about this point, Robet pitches forward in horror. He tells the Pioneers that he received a magical message from Nestor - their carriage has been attacked by the Night Ripper! ("Oh, the smell," Robet chokes.) The Pioneers quickly gear up and head out as fast as they can. 

It takes them two hours to catch up with the carriage, and by the time they do, it's too late. The carriage has been rolled down an embankment and is burning. All three of the foredogs are dead - Callum and Nestor are some distance from the carriage with their throats torn out, and a huge, burning corpse in the fire is therefore all that remains of Grooly. The Pioneers put out the fire and retrieve what's left of a chest, but everything in it is destroyed. They find a warped piece of glass and a charred ring, but the magic has gone. 

And then Peppa hears something move in the brush behind her. She whirls around and Blesses her comrades, and summons up her Spiritual Guardians! The spirit-yorkies romp around her and bite something in the brush, and Sausagedog sneaks into the trees and sees it - the Night Ripper! Petunia hurls a Web spell into the brush, but doesn't quite place it properly and it catches up Peppa as well as the Night Ripper.

The Night Ripper throws back its head and lets out a horrible baying sound, striking fear into the Pioneer's hearts! Worse, the bodies of Grooly, Nestor, and Callum rise and attack! One of them sinks its teeth into Boomer, another attacks Petunia, and the third lurches towards Dire. Boomer rages and chops Grooly's corpse into burger with his ax, while Petunia calls up Seeking Stingers and Dire pounds on the corpse attacking Petunia. The Night Ripper tries to back out of the spirit-yorkie-field, but gets caught up in the webs again. Peppa, seeing that the spirit guardians are tearing up the Night Ripper pretty badly and knowing that Graff Doberman might still be in there somewhere, drops the spell. 

Petunia rushes over to try and disrupt whatever is possessing Graff, but the zombie-Nestor bites her and she loses concentration on the Web. The Night Ripper, badly wounded, flees into the brush, moving faster than the Pioneers can keep up and leaving no tracks. The remaining zombie collapses, and the Pioneers decide to head back to the mine. They can send someone for the bodies in the morning.

They get back; Robet welcomes them back into the camp and is horrified to hear what happened to his compatriots. The Pioneers decide to sneak into the mine now, while it's still dark and no one is there. Boomer dons his stolen uniform, just in case, and the five of them creep in, getting far enough from the entrance that when Peppa casts a Light spell, only they notice. 

The tunnel splits three ways. The left spoke is the most recently used, but Peppa notices footprints going into the middle spoke, which means someone went down there on their own. That seems more interesting, so the Pioneers head that way. As they go, Boomer and Dire hear someone whispering in the dark, though they can't quite tell what it's saying. Sausagedog goes first, staying stealthy, and finds a little alcove on the wall. Following that, he hears the whispering get louder...but then misses a step and falls into a pit.

Sausagedog is uninjured, but sees another person in the pit with them. It smells horrible down here, and the stranger goes from whispering to speaking loudly. He's not making a lot of sense, though; he talks about food and water and dreams. Sausagedog gives him a drink from his waterskin and the dog gets a little more lucid. 

The others arrive and Peppa jumps down into the pit. She manages to talk the stranger down enough that he can say his name: Finley. He also elaborates a little more on the "dreams," and talks about a snake in the dreams, which of course the Pioneers immediately recognize as the Nagayaga. Dire gives him a hand up out of the pit, and they all start heading out, Finley continually babbling. They ask him about Graff, and he says that Graff has something in him, something from the dark woods, something that keeps-

They head towards the entrance to the mine, Finley's hands darting around as though trying to catch his own fragmented thoughts. 

"It keeps...it that keeps-"

They walk out of the entrance...and find that they are surrounded by guards. Robet looks on with a look of fear (or guilt), Ute Doberman glares at them, and Hotch stands a safe distance back. There's a gasp from some of the guards as they see Finley.

"It That Keeps The Wild." 

Character Creation: Era: Balam

To me, "Balam" will always mean "werejaguar." The Institute is so deep in mean that I can't say his name. Help me say his name, Tad. 

(Holy shit, that's obscure.) 

The Game: Era: Balam
The Publisher: Shades of Vengeance
Degree of Familiarity: None, and yet, it feels so familiar
Books Required: Just the one

There are a bunch of Era games, they're all little zine-like things, and they (apparently) all use a kind of serial-numbers-filed-off version of the early Storyteller system. To wit, gather a dice pool composed of Attribute + Skill, roll that many d10s, count results on a variable threshold with a variable number of successes, rolling more 1s than successes means a botch. Actually, my initial read was that rolling any 1s meant the roll was a failure, because of this:

See? Also, I said most of this before when I did a character for Era: Deadwest and I suspect I'll say it again when I get around to the other few Era games. I could just bang them all out in a row, I suppose, but eh.

Anyway, in Era: Balam, the basic conceit is that humanity sent out space probes, one of them landed on an inhabited world, malfunctioned, declared war, and that civilization is coming after humanity in a perfectly justified case of "these fucking aliens are dangerous, we should kill them off before they come back and finish the job!" Our PCs, however, are humans. Humans have spread throughout the galaxy, the main base that's near to these aliens is on the titular planet Balam, and the idea is that we must protect Balam lest the aliens take it and learn where Earth is.

And like...huh. On the one hand, the "aliens" are very much in the right, here. On that other hand, "humans are the real monster!" is a somewhat clichéd as far as this kind of sci-fi goes, and I think the only way to make this game interesting is to have the PCs be the humans. But is this little 50 page zine equipped for this kind of theme? I don't know, "theme" isn't even mentioned. Let's make a pilot!

Step One: Your Pilot. I'm meant to begin with a one-sentence backstory and a quirk (it's called a "quirk," but it's a flaw). Hmm. Is it possible to do a Tom-Cruise-in-Edge-of-Tomorrow kind of thing, where I've been exposed to the aliens in some way and come out changed? Rather, I know it is, but do the mechanics support that? Well, heck, let's assume they can, and use that as my backstory. Let's therefore tie my quirk into that. The systems behind quirks are really spotty (some of them are basically "I dunno, the GM gives you a bad thing sometimes"), so let's say my guy is Changing. Sometimes his bioelectrical systems go haywire. When he takes damage, he has a 50% change of giving off an electromagnetic pulse strong enough to stun whatever ship he's on. I think it'd be fun if he didn't know about that at the start of the game, just that he's been getting little brain zaps of late.

Step Two: Your Craft. My ship, y'see. First thing I do is pick a "main module," which has "1 slot" next to it, but the chargen section doesn't seem to tell me what "slots" are in this context. Nope, never defined in the book. Nice job, guys. (I mean, it's pretty clear that ships only have so many slots, but how many? Do they correspond to the spaces on the character sheet? WHO KNOWS.)

Anyway, the main module determined what kind of ship you're flying. Fighter Module is fine. I fill in the numbers it says, and a few other ones; it doesn't look like I have any other actual decisions to make here. 

Step Three: Attributes. This is where the White Wolf influence really shows. Three categories (Potence, Defence, and Reaction). Potence and Reaction have three traits in them, Defence has 2, I get 6/5/4 to split up into the categories. It looks like Reaction has the traits I'm most likely to need, so let's put my primary there, my secondary in Defense, and that leaves Potence with only 4 to split up.

I get a free point in each of these, so starting with Potence: I'll put one into each and then a second one into Intelligence. For Defence, I'll put two into Stamina and three into Willpower. And then over in Reaction, I'll put 3 into Dexterity, one into Wits (might regret that), and two into Luck.

Step Four: Skills. Same drill, 11/7/4 prioritized between three categories (Personal, Technical, Interaction; have I mentioned it bugs me when different categories or traits are different parts of speech?). I'm thinking Personal gets the 11, Interactiveon gets the 7 and Technical gets the 4. 

Personal: Well, I'd better be good at Gunnery, so I'll put 3 there. Then I'll put 2 into Investigation, Stealth, Survival, and Zero-G.

Technical: Two in Navigation, one in Computer, one in Science, done and done.

Interactive: How about two each in Persuasion, Seduction, and Esteem, and one in Intimidation.

Step Five: Derived Stats! I...fill 'em in. Mostly they're set values. Defence is the lower of Wits and Dexterity, Initiative is Wits + Willpower, knew I'd regret that low Wits rating.

Step Six: Stuff. I get a Spacesuit and Engineering Equipment standard. Do those take up Cargo slots? WHO KNOWS. There's no place else on the sheet to write equipment so let's assume they do. Anyway, then I get 3 basic items. 

Let's take Automated Scanners, Emergency Medical Unit (that's new; he's not been feeling himself of late), and a Computational Targeting Interface (which allows me to use Intelligence instead of Wits for targeting).

And that's it! We'll say my guy's name is Vallo Compton. Compton looked like a pretty normal human pilot - white, brown hair, brown eyes, just kinda standard and bro-y - and then he had the run-in with the alien after his Paladin crashed and now he's...changing. His eyes have gone blue and the shade is getting lighter. It's still within the bounds of human coloration for now...

That'll do it!

 

Movie #861: Real Steel

Real Steel, which I keep wanting to mistype as "Reel Steal", is a sci-fi family comedy sort of thing starring Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Kevin Durand, Anthony Mackie, Karl Yune, and Hope Davis.

In the distant future year of...2020, robot boxing has supplanted human boxing as the violent sport of choice, which only makes sense. As our lead character Charlie Kenton (Jackman) explains it, the public's appetite for carnage conflicted with frail squishy human bodies.

Charlie is a former boxer himself, and maybe coulda been a contender, but has fallen into a dark cycle of scraping together enough money to buy or build a bot and then losing it on stupid fights, winding up more in debt than he started. He loses the first fight we see him take to a bull in a kind of rodeo fight, and ends up owing a lot of money to Ricky (Durand, who goes on to put a bunch of muscle on for Abigail, the point that I didn't recognize him here), who promises to kick his ass for it. 

And then Charlie learns that his former girlfriend has died, meaning he needs to go and sign over custody of his son Max (Goyo) to Max's aunt Debra (Davis). In the process, however, he learns that Debra's husband (James Rebhorn) is rich, and shakes him down for a bunch of money in exchange for taking Max for the summer. 

Charlie's initial plan is to dump him with his friend/ex Bailey (Lilly), but Max proves too savvy for that, so Charlie takes him along. Charlie buys a bot with some promise and immediately loses it taking a stupid fight, and he and Charlie salvage a sparring bot named Atom, which Max fixes up into a robo-boxer. They take Atom on a series of fights culminating in a battle for the title against ZEUS! Which they lose by decision, but gain an appreciation for the power of love. 

Real Steel is one of those movies that I forget how charming it is until I rewatch it. It's not good, exactly, but it benefits from having a strong cast (Jackman, sure, but Lilly manages to take a role that could be Girlfriend and actually inject some character and life) and some good effects (a mix of practical, motion capture, and CGI that wind up looking really solid). The basic storyline is Rocky, sure, but that's a good story, and I give credit to Jackman for making Charlie's evolution feel gradual rather than suddenly becoming the good guy after Max's near-death in the junkyard. 

I also appreciate that Debra and her husband attend the title fight at the end and support Max and Charlie - their concern has always been Max, and once it becomes clear that Charlie really wants to be part of his life and that's a positive thing for Max, they're on board. I think the Ricky storyline could have done with a little more attention (as it is, Ricky beats the snot out of Charlie, robs him and Max, then places a large bet against Atom in the title fight, loses, and gets dragged out of the arena by Finn (Mackie) and his boys - gimme me one scene or one line where we find out that he's in the hospital or selling off his bulls to pay Finn back or something). But otherwise, it's a fairly tight little movie and nice popcorn fare. 

My Grade: B
Rewatch Value: High

Next up: Thor: Love & Thunder 

Wearing the Cape: Enter the Swamp Rat!

Here we are in the Big Easy once again. Last time, recall, the characters got kinda tore up by an alligator-man (well, Styx got the most tore up, Wing Diesel got clawed some, while Magnus and Levee were unhurt).

Styx is getting released from the hospital, still Recovering from Massive Blood Loss and with Multiple Stitches. Levee is picking her up and wheeling her out, while Magnus has been doing tricks for the kiddies. Toby is washing Wing Diesel in the parking lot, trying to buff out the scratches.

As he's doing so, a beat-up, muddy pick-up pulls up. A guy in overalls gets out - barefoot - and looks over at Wing Diesel but doesn't really react too much. He asks Toby if "the magician is in there" with a strong Cajun accent, and Toby says he is, and the man walks off towards the hospital entrance with purpose.

Magnus, Styx, and Levee are coming out the front door, and the man walks up, points at Magnus, and says something that Magnus doesn't quite catch (Cajuns exist in many of the universes he has visited, but he hasn't really spent time around them). But then the man grows a foot and his skin gets scaly, and Magnus assumes that he's the Gator-Man! Magnus pulls a ray-gun out of his hat and warns the man that he's in no mood, but the man lunges at him!

Magnus fires and the bolt scorches the man's overalls, but doesn't do any real damage. He grabs Magnus by the lapels and shakes him, demanding "WHERE MY SON?" Magnus doesn't know what he's talking about, and before he can answer, Levee calls up a wave and shoves both of them away from the entrance of the hospital to the grass berm where there are few people around. Wing Diesel flies in and lands between Magnus and the Cajun, but he ducks under the dragon and makes for Magnus again. Styx runs over and tries to talk the man down, making him Willing to Listen, and Magnus does something uncharacteristic of him and apologizes. 

Levee, at this point, recognizes this dude - his name is Aaron Blesoe, Jr. (most folks just call him Junior), and he's a breakthrough and sometime hero called Swamp Rat. She addresses him by name and he calms down, changing back into human form, and agrees to talk. He explains that last night, he was at home with his son, Emil, and the boy just vanished into a shadow. The only time he'd seen people do that kind of thing was at Mardi Gras when Magnus was doing it (he admits he may have gone a little nuts). 

The heroes ask him to show them where this happened, and they head out to the swamp (Levee drives her own car, thanks). They arrive in the trailer park where he lives and he says that last night, Emil was doing his homework, and then he got up, walked into the corner, and then just leaned and fell in. Junior had been trying to figure it out ever since, but could not track his son - not by scent, sound, or taste of the air (at which point he changes his tongue into a snake's and flickers it). 

Styx looks around for a ghost, and asks the woman if she saw anything. She says she didn't see anything, but heard everything get hollow and echoey, like a big empty garage, maybe. And then she heard a voice whispering, and she couldn't quite tell what it said, but it, um, quickened her. It was a very enticing voice, is the point. Styx returns to the living world and tells the others this, and Magnus opines that if something is stealing children through a dimensional gate, the children might not be on this Earth anymore (Junior asks for clarification and then immediately regrets it).

Levee goes down to the water's edge and dips her hand in it, and asks the brackish water of the swamp for help. The water responds, and she feels herself Pulled back towards the city. They get in her car, and Junior tells them to inform him if there's any development. 

On the way back, they get a call from Sergeant Guidry, who tells them that multiple children around the city have gone missing. The reports are the same - they just vanished into shadowy corners. He asks to speak to Styx, and quietly inquires as to whether these children are still alive. Styx resolves to find out, and lets herself sink into the world of the dead.

In said world, she talks to a spirit and asks if there's been a sudden arrival of a bunch of kids. The ghost says there hasn't, and that's a relief, but as Styx tries to leave, she feels skeletal hands pulling her and a chill spreading over her physical form. She's done this before, but never when she's quite so close to death. Seeing her body getting pale and cold, Levee pulls the car over and turns up the heat, and Wing Diesel lands. Toby pull Styx out of the car and puts her under Wing Diesel's wing, letting his warmth coax her back to life. Styx does indeed find her way back, and Magnus advises not doing that again.

They arrive back in the city, and Levee follows the pull to the shipping docks. Here, the water speaks, but it's drowned out by sounds of machinery, so she only knows that what the water was trying to show her was in this area. While she noodles this, Magnus pulls a golden apple (from here, or maybe here) from his hat and gives it to Styx. She eats it, and feels her wounds knit and her strength return - she's still injured, but not nearly so badly.

Meanwhile, Levee has an idea! She finds an empty bottle, puts a bit of water in it, and spins it, letting the water show her where to go! The water points her down the docks to a warehouse with a big FOR SALE sign on the front. "Abandoned warehouse," she says. "This might be it."

Next time, we'll see if it is, in fact, it!