NBA Notes: New Op, Old Locale

Running Night's Black Agents later, and it's been a while both since I've run a game generally and since I've run this particular game. As such, probably it's a good idea if I take some notes. If you're a player (and let's face it, that's a pretty remote possibility) don't read further. If you're not, feel free to take this glimpse into my mind as I plan a game session (or, like, click the "gming" tag and take hundreds of such glimpses; I make these posts a lot).

Movie #431: The Monster Squad

The Monster Squad is one of a number of 80s-era "group of kids has adventures" movies (other examples include The Goonies, Explorers, and to some extent Stand By Me). It's directed by Fred Dekker, the genius who also gave us Night of the Creeps (we'll get to N eventually). It stars Andre Gower, Robby Kiger, Stephen Macht, Brent Chalem, Ryan Lambert, Ashley Bank, Duncan Reghr, Tom Noonan, Jonathan Gries, and Leonardo Cimino.

Sean (Gower) and Patrick (Kiger) are two buddies in white-as-fuck suburbia who have a "monster club," along with their buddy Horace (Chalem), whom they cheerfully call "Fatkid" because "Chunk" was already taken, I guess, a little kid named Eugene (Michael Faustino) whose there for reasons I can't fathom, and, reluctantly, Sean's little sister Phoebe (Bank). They recruit local tough guy Rudy (Lambert) after he protects Horace from some bullies, but this barely has a chance to solidify before the monsters arrive.

The "monsters", in this case, are the basic Universal variety: a Talbot-style werewolf (Gries), the Creature from the Black Lagoon (Tom Woodruff, Jr.), a mummy stolen from a local museum (Michael Mackay), Frankenstein's monster (Noonan), who was conveniently being transported over this particular spot in a plane, and Count Goddamn Dracula (Reghr) himself. These rather ineffectual monsters are trying to retrieve a magic amulet that, once every century, can be destroyed and shift the balance of the world towards evil or something.

So, this movie is pretty ridiculous on its face, and it's got some cringe to it. There's a lot of casual homophobia thrown around ("faggot" and "homo" get used as slurs pretty freely), there's a shitload of sexism getting thrown around (the good guys' plan hinges on having a virgin read a passage, and it never once occurs to them that it doesn't have to be a virgin girl - maybe it does, but that's never stated - and then that transitions nicely into some slut-shaming for Patrick's sister (Lisa Fuller) because she isn't a virgin LOL. So that's all kinda difficult.

There are some good points, too, though. Reghr's portrayal of Dracula is nicely intense and menacing. Noonan's portrayal of Frankenstein's monster is funny and sad. There are some nice homages to the original Universal films, if you know what to look for. My favorite bit in the movie, though, is when the kids seek out their reclusive German neighbor, "Scary German Guy" (Cimino), he helpfully translates the diary of Van Helsing (don't ask), and displays his own knowledge of monster lore. When Horace comments on him knowing a lot about monsters, he agrees, and the camera pauses on his wrist, showing a concentration camp tattoo. It's never mentioned or explained or given context, but it cements the character in a way that's really better than this movie deserves.

Anyway, the problematic stuff in this movie bugs me because it's otherwise fun and campy with some solid moments, so I dunno. 80s, man.

My Grade: B
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Monsters, Inc.

Character Creation: Yesterday's Tomorrow

Haven't made a character in...well, about a month. It's been a shitty month. Anyway. I've been going through my old links on the chargen project and updating them (some of them went to my old LJ, which I've deleted, so I'm changing them so they go to my Dreamwidth account, which has the same content but isn't LJ), and it got me wanting to make a character. So here we are. I picked something quick, though.

The Game: Yesterday's Tomorrow
The Publisher: John Wick Presents (this game appears in the Big Book of Little Games)
Degree of Familiarity: None, but the system is similar to some of his other ones, and the setting/theme is basically the same as Spirit of the Century or Adventure!
Books Required: Just the one.

 
So, this game started as a request for a steampunk game, but it's got no discernible elements of steampunk that I can see. Instead, it's pretty based in action/pulp, which of course is awesome.

We start off by choosing an archetype, marking me as a Hero of Action, Mystery, Romance, or Science! (Note: The book says "Man of Action," but "Hero" of everything else.)

I dunno. My Adventure! character was very much a Mystery kind of guy, while Spirit of the Century was Science. I could do Action, I guess. I don't have much of a concept kicking around yet, though. It'd be interesting to try Romance, though I'm not much in the mood for that. Fuck it, let's stick with Action. We'll name my hero Winston Conway! Sounds dashing.

So now I do styles, which, coincidentally, are the same as the archetypes (Romance, Action, Mystery, Science). Why not link these two steps? WHO KNOWS. Anyway, I get 5, 4, 3 2 to put in these, and I'll obviously put 5 in Action. I'll put 4 in Romance (like I said, dashing), 3 in Science, and 2 in Mystery (not a sleuth, this guy).

Next step is Advantages! I get five advantages, or five points to spend on advantages, but they don't seem to have different point costs, so really I just get five. They can be Companions, Talents, or Reputations (or I could make one up).

One thing I do like: On the character sheet, there's a section for a Sidekick, with all the relevant slots for numbers. You know, I think I will take a sidekick for Conway. I kinda want Conway to be a driver of some kind - motorcycle, maybe? (I feel like airplanes are too limiting.) So I'll take Vehicle as an advantage, and then I'll take a Sidekick who can maintain it and add gadgets.

So my sidekick is my goddaughter Amy Lewiston, daughter of my best friend Artemus, killed in Her Majesty's service (Conway's not British, but Lewiston was). Amy gets a style at 3, one at 2, and one at 1, so clearly that's Science, Mystery, Action, respectively.

Anyway, Amy developed my motorcycle (complete with detachable sidecar and front-mounted cannons) based on her father's designs.

Right, so that's two advantages down. I'll take Talent: Dashing Smile, Fighting Style: Pistol Whip (Conway can shoot, but he'd rather crack a dude with the butt of his gun), and Talent: Driver. That's all five of those, then.

Next step is Flair! This is three descriptive facets of my character - doesn't give me a bonus, just makes me stand out. So, Conway's are: Flashy smile, aviator jacket, and silver-plated pistol.

And finally, my Serial, which is an idea taken from Spirit of the Century (and the game text says as much). This is just a title and a summary, so the title of Conway's serial is: Onward to Victory! (Wartime propaganda, maybe?) The summary is: "Nothing can slow Winston Conway down...except maybe her!" (Her, who? Something for the GM to play with, I think.)

And that's done, in fact.

Promethean: Danger Lurks in Vans

Last night was the first session in our new Promethean story, wherein the throng heads north to Lexington on the trail of Lurch, Matt's accidental creator.

Along the way, interesting things happened (courtesy of the players):

• Skip: Stopped by the Gibson factory in Nashville to go on a factory tour; Skip is both a woodworker and a blues fan and was interested in how the guitars were made.
• Feather: At a gas station, the throng found box of kittens being given away. Avalon and Feather each adopted one (Feather's is Chester, Avalon's is Oscar). 
• Grimm: While stopped for dinner and gas, Grimm recognized a bail jumper, broke off from the group to take him down using newfound grappling prowess (he's now on Ferrum).
• Enoch: Found a place to get illegal booze; some is left over. There was a night of trying it, but of course Prometheans don't get drunk easily.
• Avalon: Breaks part of a rocket at the Space Museum in Huntsville, AL. It was probably an accident.
• Matt: Evening on a riverboat on the TN river, gambling and losing what little money they had. 

The throng rolls into Lexington and heads for Coldstream Park, which is where the footage of Lurch in the Firestorm was taken. They've noted, too, that the footage has been taken down since then - government interference seems to be the prevailing theory. They arrive at the park and start poking about, and quickly find the remnants of the storm. It's a big circle-ish shape in the grass, but the grass isn't burnt, it's just dead and brown. In the very center, Grimm notes, there's a small circle that does seem a bit blackened, so that's apparently the epicenter. 

Matt asks some of the folks hanging around what happened, and finds a guy who witnessed it. He says that the sky became dark and overcast almost instantly, and then fire came down in pillars, but slowly enough that people could get out of the way (no one was hurt that he knows of). He doesn't mention seeing Lurch, or indeed anyone, actually in the storm, but he says it was pretty bright so he might not have.

Pondering this, Matt looks around for Pilgrim marks and finds some - carved on trees and benches. They mean things like "death," "despair," "please help" - not uplifting messages. Some of them are carved high enough that a very tall person, such as Lurch, must have done them. 

Enoch, now following Plumbum, employs his Plumb the Fathoms Alembic to learn about the area, and discovers that the greatest danger to the throng is over in the parking lot in a van. He lets Grimm and Skip know about this, and Skip activates Ephemeral Flesh to look for spirits. He finds that the spirit of the van is awake, which is odd, and it's got some minor spirits riding around in it, which is odder. He relates this to the others (Feather and Avalon put their kittens back in the van with Virgil, figuring they might need to be ready for action), and Grimm tells him to go talk to the van-spirit. The Prometheans note a woman in the driver's seat messing with a cell phone, but no other people in evidence.

Skip approaches the van and talks to it, and it seems surprised that he can, but otherwise doesn't offer much helpful information. It does tell him to stand still a minute, and then Skip feels something scrutinizing him. At that point the woman turns around and looks into the back of the van, and then gets out and starts walking around it. 

Skip, sensing danger and playing to his new Role as Savage, uses the Wrath of the Gods Distillation and causes an earthquake. The woman tumbles to the ground, as do all of the Prometheans. Skip advances on the woman, but Avalon intervenes (not wanting Skip to assault someone in broad daylight, especially since people are already taking video of this). Skip demands to know what the woman is doing and what the van told her; the woman seems genuinely confused by the question and terrified by what just happened. Avalon takes a softer tactic and uses her Confession Distillation to force a truthful answer out of the woman - "Do you mean anyone here any harm?"

The woman answers "No, we're just here to protect people." Avalon nods and drags Skip away, and the woman gets in the van and flees. Virgil, a moment later, pulls the throng's van up and the characters pile in. They head off to a cheap motel and rent a couple of rooms. They still need to get a line on finding Lurch, but now there's a new factor in play, and they aren't sure what it is.

Movie #430: Monster House

Monster House is an animated film starring Steve Buscemi, Kathleen Turner, Jon Heder, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Lee, Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, and Spencer Locke.

The movie takes place right before Halloween in a generic American suburb. DJ (Musso) is a fairly normal kid, but he lives across the street from Mr. Nebbercracker (Buscemi), an old man who's crazily possessive of his house and lawn. Any toy or item that lands on the lawn is immediately forfeit, and Nebbercracker screams hatefully at any children that dare step on his grass.

DJ and his buddy Chowder (Lerner) wind up apparently giving poor old Nebbercracker a heart attack after Chowder's ball lands on the lawn, and immediately DJ starts getting phone calls from the supposedly empty house. The boys discover that the is alive and hostile, able to manipulate its physical structure (lawn included), and wind up recruiting a girl who comes around selling candy (Locke) when the house almost eats her.

After some investigation, including a visit with a local video game/nerd culture legend Skull (Heder), they learn that it's not Nebbercracker himself possessing the house, but his long-dead wife Constance (Turner). Nebbercracker found her working as a circus freak, married her and started to build a house with her, but she fell to her death and haunted the place for decades, attacking anyone that came near.

So, a few things about this movie that I really love. First of all, it's all done through motion capture, meaning that the actors really performed their roles rather than just voicing them (the behind the scenes videos on the DVD are pretty damn interesting). Second, there's the nice twist of Nebbercracker being such a hostile dick to protect the kids in the neighborhood; better they lose some toys and hate and fear him than wind up angering Constance. And finally, it's a perfect Chill movie (or WoD: Innocents, or Little Fears, or any of a number of games that have kids investigating spooky stuff), right down to the kids' methods of investigation and confrontation.

My Grade: A-
Rewatch value: Medium-high

Next up: Monster Squad, The

Game Prep: Promethean

Haven't run anything in a while (at home, anyway; I got to run a couple of Chill games at Con on the Cob, and that was fun). Tonight we're back into Promethean after a bit of a hiatus due to schedule et al, and beginning a new story.

Most of the time we take a break after a story in this chronicle and play something else as an intermezzo; this time the players decided that the story was light enough that they didn't need the break and we should just keep on Pilgrim'ing. I must be losing my touch.

Anyway, notes below, don't read 'em if you're a player, blabbity-bloo.

Movie #429: The Money Pit

The Money Pit is a mid-80s rom-com starring Tom Hanks, Shelley Long, Alexander Godundov, Joe Mantegna, Carmine Caridi, with a weird little cameo from Yakov Smirnov.

Walter (Hanks) is an entertainment lawyer whose father (Douglass Watson) stole all their money and split for Brazil. He's living with his classical musician girlfriend Anna (Long), but they're living in the apartment of her ex-husband Max (Godunov) while he's in Europe. He returns, preceded by his not-at-all wacky assistant (Smirnov), who tells the couple they need to vacate. Of course, this being New York, they're hosed - they don't have any money to speak of and they have no line on a place to live.

Walter's realtor (Josh Mostel) finds him a million dollar house on sale for a fifth that; the current owner needs to flee the country (turns out her husband was Hitler's pool boy). The couple go in on the house, which immediately starts to crumble comically around them, costing them another fortune (which they don't have) to get it fixed. Meanwhile, Max continues to try to woo Anna back, even to the point of lying and saying that they had sex after getting drunk together while Walter is out of town.

This being an 80s rom-com, at the end of the movie all is well. They've fixed the house, they get married, they get back together, fine and dandy. No mention of whether their money issues have been resolved (doubt it?), but that's fine.

The movie is cute and light, for the most part. Joe Mantegna (who's really only in the one scene) aggressively comes on to Anna (she literally says he attacked her), but Walter kind of dismisses that because he's the only carpenter who'll even consider the job. This would be a lot ickier if she didn't immediately go along with him on that because the dude's brother is a plumber ("So, you think I should sleep with him, then?"). Likewise, the whole subplot with Max letting Anna believe they had sex, which then leads to Walter and Anna splitting up, feels a little much - I almost would have liked it better if Anna had (knowingly and willingly) slept with Max, but that's examining things that are a little too touchy for an 80s rom-com.

In any case, it's fun watching Tom Hanks when he was still primarily doing comedy, and this movie is more watchable than The 'burbs.

My Grade: B
Rewatch value: Medium

Next up: Monster House