One Thing at a Time

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The Movie Resolution - An Ongoing Project

As I mentioned in my last post, some time back (like, it was January 2011 when I started) I decided to watch every movie I own. At first I figured I could do it in a year, and then I thought, who am I kidding? I have a wall of DVDs. So I'm going to watch them, in alphabetical order (except for sequels/series that might fall out of that order), however long it takes. During this time, I'm going to curb movie-purchasing (but I know myself well enough to know I can't abstain entirely). I'm not going to curtail my movie-going habit, though, because I loves me my movies.

Anyway, below is my list. Be warned: It's ~~452~~ ~~505~~ ~~570~~ ~~618 625 651~~ ~~708~~ ~~747~~ 781 or so movies long as of now. Feel free to peruse and say, "Jesus, why do you own that?" In some cases, it's due to someone else's influence in my life. In others, I have no excuse and must hang my head in shame. But just remember that your favorite movie sucks, too. :)

ETA: I'm going to review all of these movies as I go, too. Not, like, in-depth, necessarily (because how much analysis does Ghost in the Machine really need?), but just a few thoughts.

Near Dark
Negotiator, The
Net, The
Neverending Story, The
Neverending Story 2
Next Karate Kid, The
Night at the Museum
Night of the Creeps
Night of the Living Dead
Night Watch
Nightmare Before Christmas, The
Nightmare on Elm Street, A
Nightmare on Elm Street 2, A
Nightmare on Elm Street 3, A
Nightmare on Elm Street 4, A
Nobody
Nobody 2
Nope
North by Northwest
Nosferatu (2024)
Now & Then
Now You See Me
Now You See Me 2
Nurse Betty
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Observe & Report
Ocean's Eleven
Oculus
Office Space
Oklahoma!
Oliver and Company
Omega Man, The
Omen, The
Once Bitten
Only Lovers Left Alive
Orphanage, The
Others, The
Ouija: Origin of Evil
Outbreak
Outfit, The
Over the Hedge
Pacific Rim
Pagemaster, The
Pale Rider
Pan's Labyrinth
ParaNorman
Parasite
Parent Trap, The
Paris, Je T'aime
Patch Adams
Paths of Glory
Patriot Games
Pearl
Pelican Brief, The
People Under the Stairs, The
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Persuasion
Pet Sematary
Peter Pan
Peter Pan: Return to Neverland
Phantom Creeps, The
Phantom from 10000 Leagues, The
Phantom from Space
Phantom of the Opera, The
Phantom Planet, The
Phenomenon
Philadelphia
Philadelphia Story, The
Pig
Pirates! Band of Misfits, The
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Pit & the Pendulum, The
Pitch Black
Pitch Perfect
Plan 9 from Outer Space
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Planet Terror
Pleasantville
Pocohantas
Point Break
Poltergeist
Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Powerpuff Girls Movie, The
Practical Magic
Predator
Predator 2
Predators
President's Analyst, The
Prestige, The
Pride & Prejudice
Priest
Princess and the Frog, The
Princess Bride, The
Princess Mononoke
Prophecy, The
Psycho
Public Enemy
Pulp Fiction
Pumpkinhead
Punisher, The
Puppet Masters, The
Quest for Camelot
Quick & the Dead, The
Quiet Man, The
Quiet Place, A
Quigley Down Under
Rainmaker, The
Rango
Rat Race
Ratatouille
Raven, The
Ravenous
Raya & The Last Dragon
Ready or Not
Real Genius
Real Steel
Reality Bites
Rear Window
Rebel Without a Cause
RED
Reign of Fire
Relic, The
Renaissance Man
Renfield
Replacements, The
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Reservoir Dogs
Resident Evil
Ring, The
Rise of the Guardians
Road House
Road to Bali
Road to Rio
Road Warrior, The
Robin Hood
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Robocop
Rock, The
Rocketeer, The
Rogue
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Romancing the Stone
Romeo + Juliet
Rope
Rosemary's Baby
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Roxanne
Rumble in the Bronx
Run Lola Run
Running Man, The
Rush Hour
Ruthless People
Sabrina (1954)
Sabrina (1995)
Saint, The
Salt
Santa Clause, The
Saw II
Say Anything
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Scooby-Doo
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Scream
Scream 2
Scream 3
Scrooged
Se7en
Secretary
Send Help
Sense and Sensibility
Serendipity
Serenity
Serpent & the Rainbow, The
Session 9
Seven Percent Solution, The
Seven Psychopaths
Seventh Sign, The
Shadow, The
Shallows, The
Shang-Chi & The Legend of the Ten Rings
Shanghai Noon
Shape of Water, The
Shark Night
Sharks in Venice
Shaun of the Dead
Shawshank Redemption, The
Shazam!
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride
She's the Man
Shining, The
Shocker
Shoot 'em Up
Short Circuit
Shrek
Shrek 2
Shrek the Third
Shrek Forever After
Shutter Island
Sicko
Sideways
Signs
Silence of the Lambs, The
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Silver Bullet
Sin City
Singin' in the Rain
Single White Female
Sinners
Siren
Sisu
Sixth Sense, The
Sky High
Skyfall
Slammin' Salmon, The
Sleepaway Camp
Sleeping Beauty
Sleepy Hollow
Sleuth
Slither
Slumber Party Massacre, The
Snake People
Snakes on a Plane
Sneakers
Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
Snowpiercer
So I Married an Ax Murderer
Soapdish
Solarbabies
Some Like It Hot
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Song of the Sea
Sound of Music, The
South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut
Spaceballs
Spartacus
Species
Spellbound
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Spider-Man Far From Home
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse
Spirited Away
Splash
Split
Spy
Spy Who Loved Me, The
Stand By Me
Star Trek
Star Wars: A New Hope
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Stardust
Stargate
Starship Troopers
Steel Magnolias
Sting, The
Stonehearst Asylum
Strange Days
Strangers on a Train
Street Fighter
Strictly Ballroom
Stuart Little
Stuart Little 2
Sucker Punch
Suicide Kings
Suicide Squad, The
Sunset Boulevard
Super Size Me
Super Troopers
Superman (2025)
Surf's Up
Suspiria
Swan Princess, The
Tag
Taken
Taking Lives
Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
Tales of Terror
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Tango & Cash
Tank Girl
Taxi Driver
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Terminator, The
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
There's Something About Mary
They
They Live
Thin Man, The
Thing, The (1982)
Thing, The (2011)
Third Man, The
Thir13en Ghosts
Thirst
Thomas Crown Affair, The
Thor
Thor: The Dark World
Thor Ragnarok
Thor: Love & Thunder
Three Amigos!
Three Thousand Years of Longing
Thunderball
Thunderbolts*
Tigger Movie, The
Time After Time
Time Bandits
Titan AE
Titanic
Titus
To Catch a Thief
To Die For
Tombstone
Torn Curtain
Total Recall
Touch of Evil
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Toy Story 3
Trading Places
Transformers: The Movie (1986)
Transporter, The
Trap
Tremors
Trick 'r Treat
Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story
Tropic Thunder
True Grit
True Lies
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
Twice Dead
Twilight
Twilight: New Moon
Twilight: Eclipse
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Twister
Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, The
Unbreakable
Under the Skin
Underwater
Unleashed
Until Death
Untouchables, The
Up
Urban Legend
Usual Suspects, The
V/H/S
Vacation
Vampire Academy
Vampires
Van Helsing
Vanity Fair
Venom
Vertigo
Videodrome
View to a Kill, A
Violent Night
Wag the Dog
Wait Until Dark
Walk the Line
Walking Tall
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit
Wall-E
War Games
Warlock
Warm Bodies
Warrior's Way, The
Watchmen
Wayne's World
Wayne's World 2
Weapons
Wedding Planner, The
Wedding Singer, The
Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory
Westworld
What We Do in the Shadows
What Women Want
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
When Harry Met Sally
Where the Wild Things Are
While You Were Sleeping
White Christmas
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Wicker Man, The
Wild Robot, The
Wild Things
Wild Wild West
Willow
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Winchester
Witch, The
Witchboard
Witchfinder General
Wizard of Oz, The
Wolf
Wolfman, The
Wolverine, The
Woman in Black, The
Woman of the Year
World is Not Enough, The
Wreck-It Ralph
Wrong Turn
X
X-Men
X-2
X-Men: First Class
X-Men: Days of Future Past
XXX
Xanadu
Yojimbo
Young Frankenstein
Young Guns
You're Next
Zodiac
Zombieland
Zookeeper
Zoolander
Zorro, the Gay Blade

Thursday, January 3, 2013

And here we are!

Consider this an introductory post. So, I used to blog over at Livejournal, and then LJ kinda got fucked up, and then I switched over to Dreamwidth because it had the same interface (which I liked) and I hoped that more people would make that jump. They didn't. A lot of the crowd that did LJ is now just doing Facebook, which is fine for what it is, but doesn't have the same feel as LJ. Sigh. Progress. Anyway, I'm tired of updating two journals that don't get any real traffic anymore, so I'm going to try and make more use of this blog (I can also get here from my office, meaning I can blog on my lunch break if I want to). So here's the deal - the four most common types of entries I make are:

Movie reviews: I'm currently in the middle of watching all of the movies I own. I own something like 570 movies, so "in the middle" isn't quite accurate (I think we're at 172 at the moment). The rules are as follows: We're watching the movies in alphabetical order, when we buy new movies we add them in to the rotation, meaning that if they would have already come up, they get bumped to the top of the queue, and only movies that had a theatrical release qualify. The massive list is here.
Character creation: Likewise, I'm making characters for every game I own. I'm not doing them in any particular order, and I'm a compulsive RPG purchaser (Kickstarter is my kryptonite, that and cheesecake), so I don't know that I'll ever finish, but I'm still cranking along. I'm trying for one character a week, which you wouldn't think would be hard, but here we are. That massive list is here.
Cooking! I love Chopped, and so my gamers and I do Chopped dinners every week. Sometimes I remember to post the results; I used to be a lot better about it. Maybe I can maintain this blog enough to post tasty dinners I make.
Game Write-Ups: I do actual play write-ups of the games I run.

In addition, I'll probably wind up posting about games I'm developing or writing, life in general. Again, I'll be sad to lose LJ, but what I liked about it was the community and that's largely gone. And this way I can link to FB and get comments that way, god help me. New character creation post coming soon, I think. Though maybe not today, because I'm getting on a plane for DC in a few hours to take an anniversary trip with my lovely wife.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Character Creation: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

Four months is a long time, but that's not quite a Smiths quote.

The Game: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
The Publisher Margaret Weis Productions
Degree of Familiarity: Getting better. I'm running it currently and it's a lot of fun.
Books Required: Just the one.

So, I have, of course a lot of supers games, and even one from Marvel. This one, though, is nice in that you assemble your dice pool by looking down the sheet. You're usually rolling against an opponent, but sometimes against the doom pool, which grows as shit gets real. This is one of those systems that doesn't work for loosey-goosey, fake-the-system GMs. Like NWoD, FATE and curse the darkness, it's a game that only works when you let it.

But here's the thing I don't dig: There's no chargen system. It's designed for playing existing Marvel characters, which is balls. Who wants to play other people's characters? (I know some people do, I've just never understood the fascination.)

So what I'm gonna do is recreate the first character I remember making when I picked up the old TSR Marvel game. I'm doing this from memory, and the memory is...geez, 27 years old at this point? (OMG. I have literally been running games long than some of my gamers have been alive.)

OK, so what do I remember? His name was Shapeshifter. He was a mutant. He had a kickass black outfit with red accents. He had multiple limbs (yeah, weird, I rolled him up randomly), he could turn invisible, and I'm sure he had other shape-shifty powers, too. I don't for the life of me remember his real name, so let's call him Miles Farley. Seems a moderately dorky name.

That's a really weird power set. Let's work it! I'll make up the details I don't remember.

Affiliation: In the game, you roll an Affiliation die based on whether you're solo, with a buddy, or on a team. I think Shapeshifter would work best with a buddy. He's not trusting enough to be a true team player, but his powers are good support. I'll take Solo d8, Buddy d10, Team d6.

Distinctions: I get three of these, and they need to be potentially a help or hindrance. OK, well. As I recall, Shapeshifter manifested his powers when he was young and awkward and tweeny (much like me when I rolled him up), but I played him as an adult. So I'll split the difference and say he's in high school now, and give him the Distinction: High School Nobody.

For my next one, I'll need to make something up, because I'm drawing a blank. We'll say Shapeshifter is really self-conscious about his powers (the extra limbs, especially) so I'll take Desperate to Fit In.

Finally, since I need something that ties into my super-identity a little more, I'll take Hero or Freak?

OK, now Power Sets! I think I need two, because there's not a Power Set for "extra limbs" specifically. I'll take "Extra Limbs" as one set and "Unstable Form" as my other one.

For "Extra Limbs," I want Enhanced Strength d8 and Climbing d6 (he can use his extra hands to grab hold and steady himself). For SFX, I'll take Afflict (for Grappling). I'll also take the Limit for being a mutant (basically I'm vulnerable to certain attacks because I'm a mutie).

So then my Unstable Form set. I take Invisibility d10 (I want to be good at that) and Stretching d8 (allowing him to reach down an elevator shaft). I debate taking Shapeshifting, but it really only lets me mimic people unless I take it at d12, which I don't think is appropriate. Hmm. OK, well, how about we take it at d8 so I can hide my arms, and then I'll play with SFX and Limit.

I want Shapeshifter to be able to knock people back with his arms, and I think the Extra Arms combined with Stretching means he can hit multiple people at once, so I'll take Area Attack. I like Counterattack, too.

But I want a Limit to reflect Shapeshifter's low self-confidence, so I'll make one up. I'll say he's Freakish. I'll just use the system for Uncontrollable; same idea. His powers can go a little bonkers sometimes, or people just make fun of the arms.

OK, now Specialities, which are like skills. You only use them if you're really badass at something. I would like to take Combat Expert, but I don't see him being that good at combat. I will take Covert at Expert (he's stealthy as hell) and, what the hell, Acrobatics at Expert.

And finally, Milestones. These are kind of plot progressions for my character. I know I want one to be "Who Am I, Really?" He's suffering from an identity crisis because he's ashamed of who and what he is. So we'll say

Gain 1XP when someone makes anti-mutant jokes or rhetoric around you.
Gain 3XP when you choose not to accept credit (or blame) for heroic actions (that is, I bugger off invisible).
Gain 10XP when you come out to your family as a mutant.

Good, that's one. Need one more. Hmm. I think it'd be fun to play with the notion that his powers haven't really solidified yet. How about "This Isn't My Final Form?"

Gain 1XP when you use the Freakish Limit in an action scene.
Gain 3XP when you use Shapeshifting to change your body in a new way.
Gain 10XP when you alter a Power or Limit.

And that's me done!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

GenCon 2012: GM's Report Card

I am recently returned from GenCon Indy, so again, I pop my memory card into the computer, upload some photos, and share my experiences to all and sundry!

So, this particular GenCon was kind of a special one anyway. It was the premier of curse the darkness, the first roleplaying game from our new company, Play Attention Games. We weren't sure that we'd have the books there, but they did get delivered, in enough time to sell a few and hand them out to our Kickstarter backers that made the show. So that was nice.

Let me back up. We left Cleveland on Wednesday, my birthday. I was recovering from a god-awful cold (really felt more like a flu, but it went away too quickly for that), and so I kind of felt like hell. Michelle was, as you may know, an Industry Insider Gust of Honor, which meant she did a bunch of panels for them and got a free badge (but they didn't even give the panelists water at their panels. Really, guys?). But that meant we were both really busy all con, and Wednesday was the only day that things were really chill. (It was also my birthday.)

So we got there, and we checked in to the JW Marriott, which I recommend. Nice place. Check the view:

Blue, da-ba-di-da-ba-die.

We got checked in, and then headed over to the convention center to get our badges. This is what GenCon looks like on Wednesday.

Kind of empty.

Except that we then discovered that the line to pick up badges that had been preordered wrapped around the goddamned block.

Yeah, should've had them shipped.

We got the badges. There were some slight issues; I think the girl that was looking for my badge was not familiar with the convention that "Mc" tends to come before "Ma" in alphabetized lists, because it took her a really long time to find me. And then they gave me hassles about giving us the boys' badges, because they didn't have IDs to show (duh, they're kids). But we finally got it sorted. So we left from there and went to get dinner. We decided on Mikado's, because noodles and broth sounded good to me.

Mikado is only open to vampires, apparently. GET IT?

So we ate, and then walked back through the convention center toward the hotel. We saw Cardhalla being constructed:

There's an "after" picture later, too.

And then back to the hotel for sleeeeeep.

Next morning, the boys rolled out of bed and immediately turned on the Xbox.

NO ONE UNDERSTANDS MEEEEE.

No, screw that! This is GenCon! Time to go to the dealer's room! So they got dressed:

Gamer funk protection?

...and headed over to the convention center again, carrying a box of t-shirts.

This is what GenCon looks like on not-Wednesday.

We got to the booth eventually. Michelle was chipper.

Chipper!

Still chipper! Those blue things are curse the darkness shirts.

At the booth, we had lots of people come up asking for punches in their Cheese Weasel punch cards, including a member of the Miskatonic Cheerleading Squad.

Go pods!

As I wandered out of the dealer's room to run my first game of curse the darkness, I saw a really tall Wookie.

ARRARHRHGHNN.

The first game turned out to be set in the convention center. The city was burning, and one of the community's people, someone skilled at firefighting, had vanished. The other characters found him baking on a rooftop and saved his life. I did not, however, snap any pictures.

So after that, we went to the Games on Demand rooms. Now, I'm totally volunteering to do this next year. It's a great system, folks get to play the games that they want, and it really showcases the strengths of low- or no-prep RPGs like Fiasco, Monsterhearts, Apocalypse World and curse the darkness. We played Apocalypse World, which was a lot of fun. I was a sex-club owner in a drowned city (Seattle; my club was in the space needle).

Somewhere in here, too, I got the emailed from Drive Thru RPG saying that my books had been shipped, and would arrive Friday! I was pretty damned elated. I may have squealed. Anyway.

Trevis, our maniacal GM.

The game was only two hours long, but we got a really good sense of it. Like TechNoir, which I had the pleasure of playing at Origins, this game starts you off with an archetype character, which you can then customize. It also makes a point of defining the relationships and connections between characters, and asks which character is making trouble for the guy running things. I was the guy running things (the club owner), and one of the other players was playing a psychic who wanted to either run my club or have a bigger piece of the pie. The game centered around getting the club up and running again, and ended with us taking someone hostage and fleeing back to the club. It probably would have been much bloodier if we'd had time to pursue it.

The GM, thrust into running this as all GoD GMs are, kept pace, threw complications at us and (and this I truly appreciate) asked us to supply details and backstory about NPCs. It was a lot of fun, and I was sad to learn that the game isn't available for purchase yet. My Grade: A.

And then I had a pickup game of curse the darkness. In this game, the characters were outside of Vegas and had to find out why their power went out. They biked to Hoover Dam and found some folks trying to blow it up, but they all went through a Removal Challenge together and all survived, and made the essential choice (seriously, everyone draws the same suit in a six-player Challenge? That's mathematically unlikely). Good time was had by all, however.

So then sleep. Next morning, I went down to play Four Colors Al Fresco.

This game uses d16s, which is weird.

Now, I'd played this game a bunch of years ago at Origins. The system is wonky, but fun, and the setting is awesome. It's a supers game set in an alternate Renaissance Italy. Our group was a bunch of Omegas who were socially unacceptable - my character was Ozymandius, King of Kings (Deceased), a Mum-Ra kind of character. The other characters included a boy who cares for a goose that can lay golden (among other types) eggs; a necromancer who can only animate the bodies of fish; Princess Zoe, Midas' daughter, made of living gold; Swanmay, a warrior woman with power over birds; and Lazarus of Bethany, the man raised up from the dead by Jesus. Together, we were just too weird for polite society, and so eked out a living in the mountains.

I like this starting point, and our characters were wacky but had enough chemistry to be fun to play. And then the game was about a bear-demon that was killing people. It was fun, it just felt a little...pedestrian. I had to leave early because I needed to go pick up the books, so it's possible I missed something important. With that in mind: My Grade: I

After that game, I got the books and then we were going to play Advanced Dimensional Green Ninja-Educational Preparatory Super-Elementary Fortress 555 (hell yeah, I c/p'd that ). But that's a very hyperkinetic, random game and Michelle and I weren't feeling up for it. We rested a while instead, and then wound up going to dinner with some friends. I wound up bailing early. I felt like absolute shit for some reason, and I didn't want to relapse into sickness. I did see a couple of interesting things, though.

A living statue.

An unliving barista.

Cardhalla, now complete.

Next day! Saturday! I had a 10AM game of curse the darkness to run, so I did that. That game was a lot of fun. The characters were coffee growers in Hawai'i, and were searching for their store of coffee that had vanished overnight. What was interesting, though, was that this group really latched on to the notion of breaking the rules, to the point that they would hand me Between Points when they referred to "our coffee" rather than "the coffee." More deaths this time around, very cool group of people.

So from there, I went to the booth and spent the afternoon there handing out copies of curse the darkness to backers. It was closing time before I got to leave, and Michelle and I got dinner at a food truck.

HELL YEAH SHRIMP PO BOY.

Food trucks are awesome!

Ya! Monsters!

And then back to the JW for our game of Fortune's Fool.

That's my camera case. How meta.

So, I signed up for this game because it uses Tarot. Your draws are successful or not based on the number and whether the suit (or Major Arcana) is a favorable one for your character. The game was based on Beauty and the Beast, Michelle played a character called Belle, I played Sir Gilbert, who wound up contracting the curse of the Beast and getting all hairy and people-eat-y at the end. The game was a lot of fun. If I have a criticism, it's that toward the beginning the GM had a tendency to interrupt, but he got over that (he's a big personality, like me, so I know how it is). :) My Grade: A.

And then we went to the hotel bar, had a drink, went to bed. Nothin' fancy.

Next day, on the way to Clay-o-Rama, I saw strange and beautiful things:

I'm a sucker for supers.

Robots!

More supers!

A dragon made of balloons!

And then I made it to the Family Fun Pavilion, where I found my table and folks got working on their Claydonians.

Preparing for war.

All set to the dulcet tones of Radio Disney!

Killlll meeeeeee.

The battle was joined, and it went the way it usually does. Bloody (clay-y?) melee...

And the adorable little girl that no one thinks will be a threat hung on with most of her hit points until the end, and then mopped up the survivors (hers is the purple thing up there).

So then it was finally time to wander the dealer's room, which, despite being in the room a good deal of the con, I hadn't been able to do. So I took some pictures.

Lolth!

Some...elf guy with a panther!

Michelle, Dave Brookshaw, and a box!

John Kennedy, and his girlfriend, Kat!

My GenCon 2012 haul.

So in general, good con. Next year: Definitely doing Games on Demand. Definitely not doing Guest of Honor. Ain't worth it. They don't treat you right. Actually, the con in general could stand to step up its customer service game a little. This "no refunds" bullshit is getting a little stale.

But I hate to end on a negative note, so I'll just say: I'll be there next year, hopefully with some spankin' new games to show off!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Character Creation: Cortex

I would like to make a character. I don't have much else to say...OR DID I?

The Game: Cortex
The Publisher: Margaret Weis Productions
Degree of Familiarity: Some. I've played Serenity and run Leverage, both of which work on this engine.
Books Required: Just the one.

So, the Cortex book is basically the game system, presented so you can use it as a generic system a la GURPS or d20. In the back, we've got several sample settings, which is good because it's hard to make a character with no setting, yeah? So which one?

Hrm. I'm not terribly fond of any of them, really. One is Star of the Guardians, which is more-than-vaugely Star Wars-ish, with hints of Dune. It's the one that interests me most, but there are no campaign seeds or suggestions, and there's so much backstory (told very quickly) that I can't help wondering if the setting would be interesting if I haven't read the novels (which I haven't).

Oh, what the hell. I haven't made a sci-fi character in a while. Let's do this.

The setting write-up talks about the ruling class, folks called the Blood Royals who were genetically engineered to be leaders and psionics. They have access to these kickass things called Bloodswords, weapons that work by stabbing you in the hand with needles and then becoming Lightsabers. I like that, and it's tempting to play a Blood Royal, but it's also tempting to play the Han Solo type who has no time for that kind of magic.

Ah, hell, I so rarely play the Chosen One. I'll make a younger character, then, someone who was looking forward to a life of leisure before the destruction of the old republic (like I said, you can see some Star Wars in here). That'll put me as a novice character, I think.

My Concept is "embittered princeling." He was only five when the monarchy was overthrown, and he's been in hiding in various places ever since (it's been 18 years since the overthrow of the monarchy; I think that's "current day." Honestly the summary makes my eyes glaze over).

Attributes. I get 42 points, and each die type costs its value (so a d10 costs 10). Hang on.

Agility d10
Strength d6
Vitality d8
Alertness d6
Intelligence d6
Willpower d6

Derived Attributes. Fuck you, these go at the end.

Traits. These are Assets and Complications. I start with no free Assets; I have to take Complications to get any. So hang on, let's look at the list.

I want Combat Paralysis (d4). Makes sense for a dude who's lived a mostly-sheltered life. Same reason, I'll take Low Pain Threshold (d6). Ooh, On the Run makes sense. I'll take d12; something about him threatens the status quo to an alarming degree (again, this would require digging into the setting a bit more). Finally, I take Rotten Luck (d8). Twice per session, the GM can make me reroll a successful roll. That sucks, but with a good GM it'd be fun.

Right, that's my 30 points (I can't take more than that). Now, Assets! I take Blood Royal (d8), which lets me use a Bloodsword and psionics and stuff. I should look up psionics, then.

OK, so the system is pretty loose. I'll take Telekinesis (d10), and say that he would have more psi, except he hasn't really had the training he needs.

Ah, hell, go big or go home. I'll take Destiny (d12), which eats the rest of my points. Once per session I can be saved from a roll that would kill me. My Destiny might be to bring back the nobles or some shit. Or, like, bring balance to the Force. Oh, wait, wrong IP.

Anyway, Skills. I get 62 points. This works like Serenity; I can take a General Skill up to d6, but if I want it better than I have to specialize. I'm hip.

First thing's first: Bloodsword. I buy Melee Weapons up to d6, and then Bloodsword to d10. Costs me 10 total.

Athletics d6, sure. Pilot d4. Ranged Weapons d4. Guns d4. Lot of broad, light combat training, but little experience. I have 34 left. I'll take Tech d6, Knowledge d6 (Blood Royal d8), Covert d6, Influence d6 (Intimidate d8). Six points left. I'll spend 2 into a Stealth specialty and put the other d4 into Discipline.

Technically Gear is next, but fuck that. I'm already bored. How about Derived Attributes?

I get 14 Life Points (Vitality + Willpower), 16 Initiative (Agility + Alertness), 14 Endurance (same as Life Points), and 16 Resistance (Vitality x2).

Nothing left but a name. Characters in this universe evidently have American-sounding names. Let's say this guy's name is Bryn Garlon, just because it sounds more Star Wars-y to me.