Character Creation: Out of the Blue

No point standing on ceremony.

The Game: Out of the Blue: The Buddy Cop RPG
The Publisher: Broken Razor Games
Degree of Familiarity: None; I read it this morning
Books Required: Just the one.

 

Out of the Blue seeks to take the buddy-cop genre and make it an RPG. The first issue to confront there, as I see it, is that those movies really only have two main characters, and the focus is on them. The RPG does that nicely by limiting it to the two cops and the Beat (not exactly a GM, since the game is more collaborative than that, but the Beat is the playing the opposition). The cops have 14 scenes (a week in game time) to solve the case and achieve their respective goals.

I rarely only have three people at my table, but with the right three people I can see this game being a lot of fun. Sadly, there is no character sheet, but there is a character creation system, so let's do it!

There are four types of cop: The Veteran, the Rookie, the Rogue, and the K-9. I don't feel like making a dog, I don't think. Hmm. Of the three other types, I think Veteran appeals the most - it'd be interesting to play someone like Alonzo Harris in Training Day, but maybe not quite so corrupt. Oh, more like Jack Vincennes in LA Confidential, then. Cool.

Now, the next stage would be to design the city, but that's really a group activity. I'd also answer questions - the questions are paired and in two columns, and I and the other cop's player would each answer one of a pair. So I'll just pick one from each column to answer.

What's your name and rank? Detective Sergeant Alford Sturm ("just say 'storm,' kid, it's easier"). He really doesn't like going by "Alford," but "Storm" sounds really hokey, so for god's sake, just call him "Al."

Where d'ya go to relax or reflect when the day is over? Diver's Bar (known almost exclusively as "the Dive"). It used to be a cop bar back when Al joined the force, and it's been steadily getting gentrified ever since. Fred Diver, the owner, married Al's sister Vera thirty years ago, and out of respect for her, he's kept the tiny corner booth that Al likes just the way it was, and kept his favorite whisky on the shelf.

What d'ya love or hate about the city you live and work in? Al hates that it changes. "Bad" neighborhoods had crime, sure, but they had personality. They had families. People knew each other, and there was respect. Criminals were often violent scumbags, yeah, but they were violent scumbags who took care of their families and brought cases of good beer to block parties. Shit gets gentrified, and now the criminals are gone, but we've got white-collar crime, and those guys are sociopaths.

And now, Skill ranks! I've got five Skills: Pursuit, Combat, Dialog, Bureaucracy, and Investigation. They're ranked 1 to 5, so I'll arrange them this way:

Bureaucracy 5
Dialog 4
Investigation 3
Combat 2
Pursuit 1

He's been on the force long enough to know where all the cracks in the system are and how to wiggle through them, and he's pretty good at talking people into giving up what they know. He's never been great at being a detective, but he's decent, especially with a more observant partner. He was once good in a hand-to-hand scrap, but arthritis, sciatica, and just plain old age have taken a toll (likewise for Pursuit).

As a Veteran, I get Ace in the Hole (which all cops have), Wisdom, and "I'm Too Old for this Shit!"

And that's actually it! I picture Al as being played by Brion James (who sadly cannot accept the role, as he passed away in 1999).

Him, but a little older.

Name: Detective Sergeant Alford "Al" Sturm
Role: Veteran
Skills: Bureaucracy 5, Combat 2, Dialog 4, Investigation 3, Pursuit 1
Abilities: Ace in the Hole, "I'm Too Old for this Shit!"
Wisdom: 10
Goal: Retirement

Character Creation: Evernight

Don't think I'm gonna hit my secondary goal of 100 characters this year, but I'm still something like seven weeks ahead of my primary goal of one a week, so y'know, take the wins where you can.

The Game: Evernight
The Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular game, but it's 1st Ed Savage Worlds and I'm pretty comfy with that
Books Required: Evernight and some version of Savage Worlds

Evernight presents a very readable, brain-friendly history, and you might know that I'm not usually one to read and enjoy fantasy-RPG history. The basics are that nowadays, things are pretty boilerplate fantasy, except that the over-reliance on "heroes" to solve problems is called out, which I like. The idea is that you'd play novice heroes and then the "night" part of "Evernight" kicks in, the spider-people come back, everything goes back, and basically it's all Mordor up in here. I can dig it.

Assuming that I'd be making a character for the beginning of the game (pre-Invasion), my first step is to pick a race. I have the standard fantasy array - elf, dwarf, human, half-elf, half-orc, hobbit half-folk. I don't really fancy any of them, but I do like the depiction of the Dragon Isles. It's a chain of volcanic islands, except that there are dragons in the damn mountains. They're voyagers and raiders, with dark brown skin and black hair, and they're also described as "tattooed," so that's cool. I'll be a human from the Dragon Isles.

My character is the younger brother of a well-known raider. His brother, Draich, came back from a voyage with an infection in his leg. He recovered, but he took ill with fever and missed his ship going out again. His younger brother, though (my character), Tlasi, who looks a lot like him, grabbed his cloak and stowed away on the boat. Through circumstance, he ended up in King's Port. He's thought about trying to get home, but he's heard so many tales of the Seven and other heroes that he figures maybe he'd like to try that.

Sounds good! I get the usual 5 points to buy dice in Attributes. I don't normally do this, but I'm just gonna spread them out evenly - d6 across the board.

For Skills, I get 15 points and going over a d6 in anything will cost double. I want:

Boating d6
Climbing d6
Fighting d6
Notice d6
Repair d4
Shooting d4
Streetwise d6
Swimming d4
Throwing d6

Pretty good spread for an ex-pirate. Next up are secondary stats, except not really. Ahem. Special Abilities are actually next, which means I get a free Edge and I can (and will) take Hindrances. Well, I'll take a Minor Wanted (ex-pirate) and I'll take Clueless (my character has been on a boat and the Isles, but isn't really savvy about city life). One more Minor; I'll take Big Mouth. I feel like I've taken that before, but it's in-concept.

Oh, wait, I can't take Wanted in this game. OK, how about Illiterate?

Right, Edges! I get one for free, and none of the ones in Evernight work, so let's look at the core. I'll take Fleet-Footed, it's pretty cool. And then I get 4 points, so I could buy another Edge. Let's see if anything jumps out. Oh, I think Steady Hands makes sense for him, since he's used to being on a boat. I need a d8 in Agility, though, so I'll use my other two points to get that.

Now we do derived traits. Pace is 8 because of my Edge, Parry is 6, Toughness is 6, Charisma is 0. I could spend money on gear, but eh. We'd assume Tlasi would have some light armor, a couple of throwing daggers, maybe a set of thieves' claws, since you figure they'd be useful for pirates.

Tlasi has grown a bit since setting sail from the Isles. He's filled out and is lean, but not breathtakingly muscular. He did well on a ship, but his crew turned him out when they found out he wasn't Draich (but didn't throw him overboard, out of respect to his brother). He figures he'll go home someday and see his family, but for now he's doing minor errands and heroics in King's Port. It's not like the world's gonna end before he can get home, right?

Movie #514: George of the Jungle

George of the Jungle is a family comedy starring Brendan Fraser, Leslie Mann, Thomas Hayden Church, Richard Roundtree, Gregg Cutwell, Abraham Benrudi, John Cleese, and Holland Taylor. It's a under-appreciated classic, in my humble opinion.

George (Fraser) is a beefy, cheerful, hunky white American kid accidentally lost in the jungle as a baby. Raised by Ape (voiced by Cleese), he grows into the "Jungle King," capable of communicating with animals, swinging around on vines and crashing into trees with no lasting ill effects. He meets Ursula (Mann), an heiress out on safari through the jungle with her clueless, conniving finace Lyle (Church), and through a series of bumbles George winds up back in San Fransisco and then back in the jungle where he and Ursula marry.

The story is pretty thin on the face of it, but the magic in this movie is the narrator (Keith Scott) breaking the fourth wall left and right, the childlike, cartoonish nature of all of the characters, and the early reassurance that no one dies or gets seriously hurt in this movie. The jokes manage to land, even the bathroom humor (which is not something I'm normally into), and while Ursula gets rescued more than a few times, it's really George that gets ogled. Likewise, George is polite and kind, and while he definitely has feelings for Ursula, he asks for advice on how to manage them (with comic results, because he asks a gorilla, but like, it's a comedy).

All in all, I'm a little surprised we didn't own this movie before, but I'm glad we picked it up. It's silly and fun, and frankly I could use a little of that.

My Grade: B+
Rewatch value: High

Next up: Patch Adams

MHR: Prologue

Last night we started playing Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. I've run a few Events in an interconnected world; the last one was more than two years ago (real time). As such, a little prologue to remind players of the system and who their characters and so on. To wit, the heroes:

• Arcanix, the robotic Sorcerer Supreme of this world.
• Spore, the nightmare fungus descended from the world-conquering Phylum race.
• Rift, the reality-hopping hero.
• Juno, the latest wielder of a magical bracelet.
• Inferno, St. Louis' fiery hometown hero, secretly billionaire Stephen Maxwell Lewis III.

We jumped straight into action - the Lewis Building is under attack! The assailants are a cadre of robots, all identical, black with green running lights. They aren't plated or clunky, but sleek and fluid, and they seem to be made of some kind of super-hard plastic rather than metal. As the scene opens, Arcanix and Inferno are outside the building, many stories up, fighting some of the robots in mid-air, while Juno, Rift, and Spore are inside on the floor the robots smashed into. 

Inferno blasts several of the robots and it seems to hurt them, but not enough. A bunch surround him and try to pummel him, but he calls a fiery shield up and deflects them. Arcanix, though, is not so lucky - his metallic body isn't as strong as theirs, and they dent and damage him. Inside, several of the robots rip into the walls to expose the server room, and Spore expands to try and block them. Their bodies heat up and burn right through his fungus, though. A couple of robots attack Rift and Juno, but they deflect the probably handily - Rift dodges and the robot smashes into a copier, and Juno blocks hers with her bracelet's force field, and then blasts it with force.

Rift pulls a freeze grenade out of a gate and hurls it at the robots, but they just shake off the rime and keep on. Spore tries to infect them to try and learn what they are, but they burn off the pollen again. Outside, Arcanix calls up magical bands to ensnare them, and Inferno blasts fire at them again. Rift notes multiple realities, and sees one into which Spore's fungus covers the world and chokes out life.

The robots stay on mission, though. The ones inside charge the servers and touch them, and the whole server bank shuts down. Rift, annoyed, conjures an even bigger freeze grenade, but as she's ready to throw it, one of the robots glances at her and the grenade explodes, freezing her arm and torso. Juno uses her bracelet to heal her, but the robots turn and fly off, leaving the heroes beaten and bewildered.

Inferno has his people check what was taken, and finds that it was a massive data breach, potentially very harmful. Worse, he starts getting contacts from his shareholders and partners, as someone is stealing their money and selling their stock. He contacts the SEC and has the transactions stopped, but a great deal of damage has already been done. Meanwhile, the heroes discuss the attack. Spore notes that he (they, really, as Spore is a collective) was pretty ineffective against these things, but Juno says that they all were. Spore questions whether someone might have been puppeteering these beings.

Carlsson, the agent from AEGIS (I started running this game before Masks was a thing, OK?) arrives just then, and asks the heroes what happened. He asks them to come along for a debrief, if they'd like, but none of them work for him anymore. Arcanix chooses not to - he flies off on his own, saying that he will investigate in his own way. 

We'll return in a month to see where this all goes!

Blue Rose: The Mysterious Rrusha

Been a while, but last night we played Blue Rose. On we go!

Whirlpool is in the kitchen, helping Magni out with cooking. Magni is something of a hummingbird in the kitchen, zipping from place to place; he's used to doing everything himself. He gets Whirlpool situated chopping veggies and so on, though. And then Whirlpool notices something outside a window - a strange snuffling sound, and a couple of pairs of eyes. He beckons Magni over, and they see that in addition to the strange eyes, there's a pair of feet - bare, but wearing greaves, and the skin tone is the pale green of a night person.

They go out to investigate (Magni grabbing a meat mallet), and they strange figures have gone, but there's enough disturbance in the dirt that Whirlpool can do some tracking. He figures that the creatures are quadrupeds, and from the size and shape of the prints, they're canine and pretty big. He follows the tracks (Magni gives him the mallet and heads back to the kitchen), and finds the creatures. They are indeed hound-like, but pale of skin and when they see him, one says "Whirlpool." This is more than a little disquieting.

The man holding the leash growls "where is Rrusha?" Whirlpool truthfully says he doesn't know who that is, and manages to defuse the situation enough that the man describes "Rrusha" a little - human, fair skin, green eyes, Kernish. Whirlpool still hasn't seen her, and the man says that he needs to deliver her a message, but doesn't remember why. He then leaves, and Whirlpool returns to the inn, feeling good that he managed to calm that down without it getting bad.

Meanwhile, Dobbin and Kisha go back to the Academy. Dobbin meets with Vistul, and asks about the history of the war and the supposed lich-tower that the characters have occasionally heard about. Vistul says that she's heard those stories - the tower is supposed to be southeast of the city, about a day's ride from the river at Bone's Bend, but she doesn't think there's anything there anymore. The lich was destroyed, the tower lost.

Dobbin also asks her about advocates, and if she knows anyone who might be able to help the group. Vistul says that Master Duallin has been known to advocate on occasion, so they might ask him.

Kisha heads to the library again and starts doing more historical research into the Ebban family. She learns that they started in Aldis, heading north, and settled in the Pavin Weald, and we know how that turned out. But she also finds a reference to a marriage in Verdaunen, some years after the line ends in the Weald - Vans Ebban married Lunal Rhys. They had no children and Vans died young, but the Rhys family still lives here, and they're scribes.

Arlen goes to a livery stable and asks for work, and is told to clean and brush the horses and then he'll get coin. It's not exactly the sort of work he enjoys - he grew up around horses and while he knows how to handle them, he's of a more artistic bent - but it's money.

The party meets back up at the inn in the morning; Arlen smells like horse, but otherwise everyone is intact. They share their news, and they decide that this morning, Arlen and Kisha will go to visit the Rhys family and see if they have anything to add (Kisha fully expects that this is a red herring, but it's not like the party has a lot else to do with their time), and Dobbin and Whirlpool will go to see Duallin and ask him for help as an advocate.

Duallin meets them in his fruit grove again, and listens to Dobbin's request and their story of what happened. He agrees to help; he'll go to the judiciary today, see what the case against the party actually consists of, and make sure there's no conflict of interest (the victim, Bescek, was the brother of Bresla, one of Duallin's former students). If there's not, he'll act as their advocate. He warns them, too, that the man who was investigating their case, Jocen, is known in the criminal underworld as "the friend" - he'll seem kind and understanding, but he's highly skilled at getting people to say just enough to convict themselves.

Kisha and Arlen go to the Rhys family home/shop, and meet with Ritick Rhys. He's interested to hear their request (it's about his family, after all) and looks up the marriage between Ebban and Rhys. It didn't last long - Vans Ebban died a year later - but what's interesting and a little macabre is that their wedding vows included a promise from Lunal to Vans to kill him if he ever got sick and "lost [him]self to the whirlpool of the mind." To Arlen and Kisha, this sounds a lot like corruption...so did Ebban become corrupt, or did he die of a wasting disease, as the book says?

Arlen, at this point, notices someone watching them in the window. She has a scarf wrapped around her face, but her eyes are green and her skin is fair, which catches Arlen's notice. She points this out to Kisha and Ritick, and Ritick waves her in (maybe thinking she's a customer), but she moves to leave. Arlen, concerned that this person might be the mysterious Rrusha (and therefore in some kind of trouble), follows.

Rrusha, however, is a skilled acrobat, and the chase leads them over rooftops and through alleys. Arlen keeps up using magic to pull Rrusha back, and eventually chases her through a window into a jeweler's shop. Rrusha runs for the door, but Arlen closes it with arcana and holds it fast, and Rrusha hits it and bounces off. Arlen pins her (again, magic - Move Object is a highly versatile spell!), and notes that she's carrying multiple daggers.

Rrusha gets up, and Arlen tells her that someone was looking for her to give her a message. She says that she knows, but she's "never going back to him - I don't need him." She draws daggers from her sleeves, and Arlen realizes she's carrying something else in a bag on her hip - something the size and shape of a mask.

Arlen blocks the door and grabs a jeweler's tool, hoping to cut the strings on the pouch and get the mask, but Rrusha throws a dagger at the shopkeeper. Arlen grabs it with Move Object, and pulls it back deftly, cutting the pouch-strings. He grabs the pouch and feels a familiar urge to open it and put on the mask - it's definitely the Ebban Mask. He casts Light Shaping and turns himself and the shopkeeper invisible, and Rrusha screams in rage. She re-affixes her scarf and says "You give me that mask back, Arlen, or I'll kill you all. You think an arrow on a boat is the worst I can do?" And with that, she leaves, vanishing into the crowd.

Arlen runs back to the Rhys home and collects Kisha, and then they meet back up with Dobbin and Whirlpool at the inn for lunch. Arlen shows them the mask and relates the story. Now they know the identity of the murderer, but there's still a lot they don't know. Who was the night person looking for Rrusha, and who was the message from? How does Lady Eleria figure into this? Who was the "one of three" that Bescek referred to in his dying breath?

In addition to all of this, the characters need to be careful. Rrusha is dangerous and she knows their names and where they are. She's also shown she's willing to harm others to get to them. What about Magni, for instance? The characters figure they should warn him, so they ask after him.

"Good luck," says another patron. "Haven't seen him since right after lunch was served."

Movie #513: The Parent Trap

The Parent Trap is a 1961 Disney comedy starring Hayley Mills, Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Una Merkel, Charles Ruggles, Leo G. Carroll, Joanna Barnes, and Cathleen Nesbitt.

Two identical twin sisters, Susan and Sharon (Mills in a dual role with a lot of split-screen) meet up at a summer camp and, after some initial friction brought on by the uncanny effect of meeting one's own doppelganger, realize that they are sisters and that their parents split up but never remarried. They exchange places in an attempt to get their wealthy rancher father, Mitch (Keith), who raised Susan, back with their Boston socialite mother, Maggie (O'Hara), who raised Sharon.

Complicating this is the fact that Mitch is about to marry Vicky (Barnes), and I ain't sayin' she's a gold-digger, but etc. The girls reveal themselves, get their parents together, and their parents (after a camping trip during which the girls torture Vicky into revealing her true, grasping nature) realize that they really do love each other and reconcile. Aww.

So, this movie was made in 1961, and it shows - there's a bit of "ain't it awful" about divorce in general, the movie starts with a highly weird animated titles bit with a sign saying "Bless Our Broken Home" (which, at the end, changes to "Happy Home"), and the friction between Mitch and Maggie gets a little too physical at times. But with that said, the movie is actually pretty funny. The physical comedy lands well, there are some clever bits of dialog, and Mills does a really impressive job making the girls distinct (although never quite managing to hide her native English accent). The effects, too, are impressive; there are moments where you can spot the split screen effects, but in general it's pretty seamless.

All in all, I wasn't expecting to like this movie as much as I did, but it's cute. One thing I really did like was that both parents are obviously emotional and affected when they realize they're spending time with their long-lost daughter, and they immediately agree that keeping them apart after they've met isn't feasible.

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: Patch Adams

Board Game: Fury of Dracula 3rd Ed

Took a little trip, played a little game.

The Game: Fury of Dracula 3rd Ed
The Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Time: It's a long one; it can take as much as three hours
Players: Me, Michelle, Kai

Game Play: The basic premise is the same as the previous edition; Dracula is romping around Europe making vampires and spreading his influence. This version of the game tracks what day it is, and what time of day, so, it starts Monday morning and all the hunters get a day action, and then goes to Monday night and they all get a night action, and then Dracula takes his action, and now it's Tuesday, and so on.

When a week ends, we add a despair token to the board. Three of those and Dracula racks up influence just for moving, which will end the game quickly though frankly if you've gotten to that many turns and no one's won yet, that's probably a good thing (it's a failsafe against games going on forever, which is something I've seen in the previous edition).

Setup

Hunters only get one action at a time now, too, meaning they can move or supply, but not both, in a turn. Supplying at night is dangerous because you might give Dracula and event card, but sometimes that's just how it works out. Likewise, when hunters arrive in a city that Dracula has been to, they learn that (the card in Dracula's "trail" gets turned up), but if there's an encounter there, they don't get to see it unless Dracula chooses to reveal it or they search for it. Searching is an action, and sometimes you don't want to roll those dice.

That's a figure of speech, though, because unlike the previous edition, there's no dice involved. This means combat is just a matter of showing cards and comparing the little symbols. 

A brutal melee

We learned that if a hunter goes up against Dracula without a good assortment of gear, said hunter is fucked. Dracula is also not nearly as hampered during the day as in the previous edition, but as Drac, you also draw your combat cards randomly, meaning you're both stronger and a little less predictable. 

In this particular game, I stayed ahead of the hunters for a while but Van Helsing caught up with me and managed to kill me with a stake or something. Alas.

Opinions: This is such a great improvement on the previous edition of the game. They added a few more moving parts, but took out the dice (thank you) and tweaked both the hunters and Dracula in little ways that reduce the frustration for both sides. Gone are the cards that allow the hunters to immediately target Dracula, and I don't know if they took out Evasion (the card that lets Dracula teleport anywhere on the board), but I didn't see it. Splitting hunter actions up also means that the hunters have to plan their approach more carefully, which seems like it might hamper them but actually it just changes the style of play a bit. 

Overall, it's a good game made better. 

Keep? Yep.