Character Creation: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition

Today is the 10th anniversary of my character creation project. It started waaaaaay back here with Mage: The Awakening 1st Edition.

June 29, 2008. Obama was president, my son was only a few weeks old, and my life was in utter turmoil and it was going to get more turbulent. I didn't know it, but in a few months, my father would die, and a few months after that, I would be deep in what was then the worst depression of my life. I had just finished my first year of being employed as an SLP, but I was still doing a bunch of freelance work for (what was then) White Wolf.

And now here we are 10 years later. My life is, again, in utter turmoil, and this last year has taken the prize as "worst depression of my life." My son just turned 10 (obviously), and has grown up into a brilliant young man, and for his 10th birthday, he asked me to run a game for him (which was this). I'm no longer freelancing for (what is now) Onyx Path, and that sucks, but I have my own publishing company and we're doing OK, and I've got some new freelance work that I'm excited about.

And there's this project. When I started it, I owned maybe...100 RPGs? At most? And then the bundles happened, and then I started actively collecting, and then there was Kickstarter, and here we are - more than 350 and climbing, and I'll probably never finish this.

I did think about packing it in. I mean, I have no idea whether or not these posts are useful to anyone, or even if anyone reads them. When I started them on LJ, I got multiple comments on each entry, but that's not how this platform works, and that's fine. So why am I still doing this? (And this, and this.)

I've always enjoyed the exercise of crossing everything off a list, and that's probably part of it. I also really like making characters. This is silly, but when I'm having trouble sleeping, I'll sometimes revisit the characters I've made for this project (the superheroes especially) and think about how they'd function in a story or play out scenes from "their" movies in my head, just to put myself in a different, more controllable headspace. The characters I've made in this project have shown up in games I've run, but I've only played one of them, as far as I remember.

Anyway, I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. If nothing else, this keeps me reading new RPGs, which, as a game designer, is useful. And if I'm going to remain a game designer, I should keep those muscles in shape.

So here we go. Ten more years, probably.

The Game: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
The Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: I was very familiar with 1st ed, I'm pretty familiar with 2nd ed in general, and I wrote a bit of this book. I haven't actually run this edition, though.
Books Required: Just the one.

 

With 2nd Ed, Mage finally got the developer it deserved - Dave Brookshaw is pretty damned impressive in his understanding of and love for the game. I was really happy to get to write even the little bit of this book that I did (I wrote the Attainments and the Mage Sight rules, if you're interested).

Step One: Character Concept. I...don't actually have one handy. Reading through the Paths, I find that Moros really speaks to me (I wrote the Moros chapter of Tome of the Watchtowers back in the day, and, ooh, fun fact, Mayfly, who's mentioned and pictured in this book, was a character I made up for that book). Most of the Moros I've seen have focused on Death, so it might be interesting to focus on Matter.

Except, I've made sciencey characters before, and Matter leans that way. How else could I spin this?

Ooh, the book refers to Matter as "the world's skeleton." I like that idea. I like the idea that Matter is the "stuff" that makes up the everything, inert but for other forces (and Forces) that power it, but still, without, there's nothing. That puts a rather more mystical spin on Matter than I was thinking.

Looking over the orders, the obvious choice is Mysterium, but I'm actually leaning toward Silver Ladder. I want to make a character who's very into Consilium politics and magical law and procedure, because he's excited about magic in general. Sustained energy is the hardest thing (something I've said personally just recently, in fact) - it's easy to get excited at the beginning. It's hard to keep the energy going.

I'll say my concept is "Consilium Volunteer." My character is someone who got involved in mage society matters very early on, and so is pretty hooked in to that society. I don't necessarily want him to be a favor-trader or a negotiator, though. He's more the guy that shows up to every meeting, makes suggestions, and is ready to help set up the bake sale (or whatever the magical equivalent would be).

As part of this step, I need Aspirations, but I should really think about the character a bit. Since I'm Moros, my Awakening involved death. OK.

Casey Yost had a job as a shipping manager for a company that dealt mostly in lab supplies - industrial chemicals and the like. The job required organization and executive function, and he was good at that, but gravity makes fools of us all. A bolt sheared, a drum cracked open, the fumes burned his lungs, and Casey died.

But there's "dying" and then there's dying, after all. Casey woke up after a trip to Stygia, and had paid his Leaden Coin. He got scooped up almost immediately by the local Consilium, and he recognized its problems. Sure, these people could pull miracles out of their asses, but they were still people, and they had the same fights. Casey wasn't there to fix that (he's not actually great with people except in very specific contexts), but he could sure make himself available to do some of the work.

So, Aspirations, then. I think our short-terms should be "take on an official position in the Consilium." The long term one is going to be "form and lead a cabal." I need one more short-term, so I'll say that it's "find a suitable replacement for my job." (Casey still works for the company; he's got orders backed up and he's still got three guys out on injury leave...he can't quit.)

Finally, I need a Virtue and Vice. I think Casey's Virtue is Dependable. His Vice is Impatient.

Step Two: Attributes. Standard CofD array, 5/4/3. I'll put Social last, Physical first, and Mental Second. I'll put two dots into Strength and Stamina and one into Dexterity; two into Intelligence (again, good at schedules and executive function, which I think is best represented in this system by Intelligence) and one each into Wits and Resolve; and one each into the Socials.

Step Three: Skills. I think Mental/Physical/Social makes the most sense. Two each in Academics, Crafts, Politics, and Science, and then one each in Computer, Medicine, and Occult.

Two each in Athletics and Drive...and actually, I can't think of a reason to put dots elsewhere. Let's switch and say Physical is tertiary.

Social, then, gets 7 dots, not 4. One in Animal Ken, two in Empathy, one in Persuasion, and three in Socialize.

Step Four: Skill Specialties. Well, I know I want a Politics Specialty in Consilium. I think I'd like a Drive Speciality in Industrial...wait, how about just "Trucks." That's better. Finally, Casey is pretty good at sussing out how a group needs shoring up, so I'll Specialize Socialize in Support.

Step Five: Mage Template. I get a dot of Occult, a dot of Silver Ladder Status, and High Speech for free.

My Nimbus manifests as a chemical scent, and hints of steam of smoke in the air. My Magical Tool is my ID from work (now warped and unrecognizable from the chemical spill).

For Arcana, I think I want to go 3/1/1/1. So that's 3 in Matter, 1 in Death, 1 in Life, 1 in Forces, and 1 in Mind.

I start with three Rotes. Gotta go look at those. OK, we'll take Influence Electricity, State Change, and One Mind, Two Thoughts.

I get one dot of Gnosis to start, and I could raise it with Merits, but I'm not for sure on that yet. I get one Obsession, and one Praxis per dot of Gnosis. Just a moment. Huh, some example Obsessions would've been nice. As it is they're just "like Aspirations, only magic-y" and that's not altogether helpful. Well, we'll say Casey's Obsession is "Learn the Lex Magica." Casey doesn't want to be a rules lawyer, he wants to make sure the bylaws are practical.

Praxis, then. Well, it's easy enough, it's just a spell I'm capable of casting that I've cast so much that it's second nature. I'm gonna make it Cleanse the Body. Makes sense for his history, I think.

I get a dot of a Resistance Attribute; I think it should Composure.

Step Six: Merits. I get 10 dots (because I'm supernatural!) and I might spend 5 to boost Mana, but I dunno. Let's look. Well, I definitely want Consilium Status; I'll take two dots. I'll take Lex Magica as a Merit (seems appropriate). I'll take one dot of Contacts (Corporate), and I'll take two dots of Resources. Three more. I'll take Potent Nimbus at one, and put the other two into Destiny (his Doom is "Die gasping").

Step Seven: Advantages. Usual stuff. Size is 5, Health is 8, Speed is 10, Defense is 3, Willpower is 5, Initiative is 5, Wisdom is 7.

You know, one of the things I miss about the 1st edition of these games is the "spark of life" step - there's no discussion in this book about tying everything together, and no example of chargen. I understand why; this book is overstuffed as it is, but I miss it.

Anyway, I feel like Casey maybe doesn't have a Shadow Name yet, and it's not mentioned anywhere in chargen, so it can't be that important. I keep thinking of Atlas (doing the work to hold up the world), except Atlas was being punished, and that's not the vibe I want, here.

Otherwise, that's me done, though.

Game Prep: Staggering Through Summer

Always surprises me how much my work day wipes me out. Like, I know I can't complain (my job is actually pretty cushy, all things considered), but home at the end of the day and I can't focus, which makes writing and gamestuff hard.

Anyway, with that in mind, I'm running Night's Black Agents and Alas for the Awful Sea this weekend, neither of which I have prepared for, so I figure I better do that.

Character Creation: Chronicles of Darkness

Don't feel like watching TV just now, need to kill a bit of time and drink my tea, and I feel like making a character. I do not, however, have time to read through a whole book, so we're stuck doing something I'm familiar with.

The Game: Chronicles of Darkness
The Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: I developed The God-Machine Chronicle, which introduced the rules changes that became Chronicles of Darkness, so "very yes."
Books Required: Well, that's a fraught question.

 
So, back in...what, 2012 or so, the World of Darkness and associated properties were owned by CCP and licensed by Onyx Path, and CCP didn't want to let OPP do official second editions of anything. As such, The God-Machine Chronicle and Blood and Smoke were, in all but name, World of Darkness and Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition, respectively.

But lo, CCP sold everything to Paradox, which did not care about the words "second edition" but did (correctly) feel that having two Worlds of Darkness led to brand confusion, so what had been called the "new World of Darkness" was rebranded "Chronicles of Darkness," and what had been the GMC was rebranded as the Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook, though it included a bunch more core rules. And then, in a move that still baffles me, all of the core rules were included with all of the core books, going forward, but since you can't cram all of the rules into a 20-40K word chapter, the rules versions in books like Werewolf, Mage, Promethean Second Editions and the newer games like Beast were kind of incomplete and patchwork. It would have been a much better idea to just say "you need the CofD core to use this," in my opinion, but my opinion isn't exactly sought-after, so here we are.

Anyway, Chronicles of Darkness is the only book that you need, and for purposes of this project I'm not considering that and GMC to be separate editions, because...they aren't. CofD just adds in all the core rules that we didn't put in the GMC. Confused yet?

On we go.

Step One: Character Concept. There is a part of me that wishes that, after high school or after college, I had just fucked off to Detroit or something and gotten whatever shitty job I could and live in a tiny apartment (I mean, I did that part, but it was in Toledo). Things cannot be other than they are, of course, but that notion of getting away from what I knew younger than I actually did is persistent. I never did it because I was afraid and staying near my family was comfortable. Anyway, this notion shows up in a couple of the other characters I've made (including this one, for Mage 20th), but I want to play with it a little more, especially in light of today's edition of "this is how our society crumbles."

So I want my basic character concept to be "angry activist." I'm thinking that he might not be American; maybe he's from Honduras or Mexico or Syria or someplace where "activist" is a little different than here (so far). I don't know, not sure yet. That's good enough for a concept, though, and I can flesh out from there.

This step also encourages me to think about Aspirations. I get three; two short-term, one long-term. For short-term, I want "organize a protest" and "punch a Nazi" (what the hell, it's topical). For long-term, I think I want something more personal, so we'll say that my character's father never made it over to the US, and he wants to find him.

Step Two: Anchors. For human characters, that's Virtue and Vice, and one of the things we did in GMC was change these so they're not Christian in flavor. Anyway, I think my activist is, at the end of the day, optimistic. He believes that people can get smarter and fix their own systems. Optimistic is a good Virtue. For Vice, we want something that represents that easy way out, the path the character takes to make himself feel better. "Angry" is too on the nose, and I'm not sure "Shouty" is what I want. "Abrasive" might be closer to the truth, or maybe just "Mean."

Step Three: Attributes. Standard NWoD CofD array, 5/4/3. Do I actually want this fellow to be an immigrant? (I mean, if I do it's going to affect trait choices and I should think about it.) I think I do. We'll say his father was active in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, but he fled with his then-teenage son in 2006. His father went back to Ukraine to visit (and try to help) family in 2012, and (my character) hasn't seen him since.

OK, but Attributes, though. Let's say Social first, Mental second, Physical third (and I'll give him the physical stuff he needs with Skills). Three into Presence, one into Manipulation, one into Composure makes five. For Mental, I'll put two into Resolve and one each into Intelligence and Wits. For Physical, I'll just put one across the board (I don't see this guy being especially weak in any physical area).

Step Four: Skills. 11/7/4. Here, I want to go Physical/Social/Mental, I think. For Physical, I'll put three into Athletics (good for running and throwing), two in to Brawl, Larceny, and Stealth, and one each into Firearms and Weaponry.

For Social, I'll put two each into Streetwise, Intimidation, and Expression and the last one into Empathy.

Finally, for Mental, one each in Computer, Academics, Medicine, and Politics.

Step Five: Skill Specialties. I want to specialize Politics in Activism. I kinda want to give him a Streetwise Specialty, but I'm not sure what. One of the suggestions in the book is "Rumors," but eh.

Let's go back to another technique and think of three (well, two) things about the character. We know he distrusts the government and we know he's loud. I think I'll specialize Intimidation in "Shouting," actually. I'll specialize Stealth in Crowds; he knows how to blend in when he needs to.

Step Six: Merits. Mortal characters still get seven dots in Merits in 2nd Ed, though for supernatural characters it's 10. Anyway, I'll take a dot of Multi-Lingual (Russian and Ukrainian). I'll take Inspiring for three points, and then the question is, do I dump the last three into Allies (fellow activists) or take other cool stuff? I think I'll take Indomitable, and then with my last dot I'll take one point in Anonymity.

Step Seven: Advantages. Well, this is easy, since I didn't take any Merits that change them. Willpower is 5, Health is 7, Integrity is 7, Size is 5, Speed is 9, Initiative is 4, Defense is 5.

And then I guess breaking points would go under here as well. They are not mentioned in the character creation section, which, bit of an oversight, but hey. (I wrote the Integrity system, including breaking points, for what it's worth.)

Well, first I want a name and stuff. His name is Ruslan Chumak, and he's now 24. He's thin and wiry, like a lot of my characters (indulge me a bit of wish-fulfillment), black hair, brown eyes, Roman nose, long fingers. His ears are pierced multiple times, but he's paranoid about getting tattoos (he's got one: his father's name, on his chest over his heart).

And now for the breaking point questions:

• What is the worst thing your character has ever done? Ruslan and a couple of buddies smashed in the windows of a bunch of cars and shops in a rich section of town one night; they were a little drunk but mostly just pissed off because Ruslan's friend Oleg had lost his job over a bullshit complaint. Someone came out of a house to yell at them and Ruslan hit the guy with a vodka bottle. It didn't break; Ruslan just heard the plink and then the guy fell down, and when he got back up he was gushing blood. I think what bothered Ruslan about this whole thing was that the guy was totally right to confront these kids that were smashing stuff up, so I'll take "violence against a bystander" as a breaking point. 
• What is the worst thing your character can imagine doing? Gotta go back to violence, here. Ruslan knows what the Russians and the Ukrainians did to each other; his dad told him. "Burning someone alive" is the worst thing Ruslan can imagine doing to a human being. 
• What is the worst thing your character can imagine someone else doing? "Sending someone to die for corruption/profit" is probably the nadir, as far as Ruslan is concerned, but that's mostly pretty theoretical. I think that profiting off war or revolution is probably in the same boat; if you're acting politically, you shouldn't be using that to get yourself off, as it were. 
• What has your character forgotten? Supernaturally, that is. Back in the Ukraine, when Ruslan was a boy, he saw a man get pulled into a crack in the sidewalk. Just...gone, into a two-inch crack. Not even a bit of blood left. Ruslan doesn't step on cracks now.
• What is the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to your character? His father's disappearance. The trip to the US was long, hard, and traumatic, but Ruslan could always lean on his father, and because he was a teen at the time, he was a little less shell-shocked than some of the younger people making that same trek. But then his father disappeared, and Ruslan was only 18, and everything fell apart. 

That leads us to now. Ruslan is working whatever jobs he can get, but always under the table and always manual labor. He's probably overstayed his visa, he's not sure, and he keeps mostly to other Ukrainian ex-pats and refugees. He knows that the US is headed for shit and blood, and he's not going to run this time. He promised his father he'd stand up to evil. 

I can see Ruslan being part of a chronicle tying in elements of Demon. I think it'd be interesting if his father signed a soul pact and "came back" as a demon, and by "interesting" I mean "pretty damn heart-breaking". 

Promethean: WOOP WOOP THAT'S THA SOUND OF THA POLICE

Ahem. Last night we played Promethean. We'd been out of it for a month, but it's like riding a bike.

Last time, the throng discovered that there, perhaps, more Pilgrim Marks downtown, and then they felt Azoth call to Azoth.

Skip feels the Azoth call, and then sees a Promethean pull himself over the edge of the parking garage. The Promethean is tall, lithe, muscular, and handsome, but when he stands still he looks like a store mannequin (so he's a Galateid, though Skip doesn't know that). He introduces himself as Donnie, and asks if Skip is Jesse - apparently Donnie's here looking for the same thing as the throng. He mentions that Jesse was going to help him with something. Skip calls up Enoch to let him know about this new guy, and Enoch says they're tracking down Pilgrim marks that Jesse may have left. Donnie and Skip go to join the throng, Donnie employ some pretty impressive parkour skills to do it.

They meet up, and Donnie meets everybody. He recognizes Grimm, and asks him to help him find someone; Grimm agrees, but not right now (they're hunting marks). Donnie is fine with that.

Grimm grabs a map of Columbus, thinks about his vision, maps out where they found the first mark, and then tries to extrapolate where the other three might be. They figure the next one is nearby, so they wander down the street a ways and find an intersection near Franklin University. Enoch uses Plumb the Fathoms and feels his way to a McDonalds, and Grimm finds the mark in the bathroom. It says "jail."

The first one said "afraid," but it had a slash through it. So, don't be afraid of jail? Of course, there were two more. The throng checks the map and finds probable points for the other two marks, one of which is...a city jail. Figuring that that one might be hard to get to, they head to the last one, which is in German Village.

This area is pretty dead, it being about 1:30AM. The throng finds a bookstore, a coffee roaster, and a bar, but everything's closed. They spread out and start looking (Donnie gets to a roof), but they don't find a mark outside, and then a cop car rolls up. Feather, thinking quickly, says they're looking for their cat (what the heck, it worked in another universe), and the cops tell them to leave private property alone and roll out.

Feather urges the throng to leave - they can come back during the day, after all. But then her Role catches up with her. She's an Explorer, and leaving this obvious clue behind feels wrong. She decides they should to go back and try again.

Avalon, when she's finally done flirting with Donnie, uses Soul in the Software to fly around into the bar, but then realizes this form is far too small to actually search the place. Enoch uses Plumb the Fathoms again and feels that the mark is above their heads, which means it's in the bookstore (as that has a second story). They break in (Matt picks the lock), and search the place, which takes a while due to, well, it's dark. But they find it - it's tucked behind a bookcase and it means "keep away."

Virgil, at this point, says, "uh, guys? We have a problem." And the police lights turn on.

The throng scatters. Donnie is away, over fences. Grimm activates Zephyrus and flees, while Feather and Matt slip away in the shadows. Skip runs, but Avalon gets tackled, feeling stirrings of Vitriol. The cops start to arrest her, but Skip rolls back and uses Eris to befuddle a cop and disarms another with a quick grab. Two more go to arrest Avalon, but she uses Eros to make one tackle another, and runs...but then feels herself stumble (Pilgrimage-wise). This still isn't Deviant. Does she need to get arrested?

She turns around and heads back, cuffs herself, and sits down on the curb. Skip flees, and the cops take Avalon in.

Which means that Avalon is now in police custody, her ID is going to get run, and there's at least one federal agency that's looking for her.

Movie #465: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is an animated movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki and starring (in the English dub) Alison Lohman, Shia LeBeouf, Patrick Stewart, Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill, Chris Sarandon, Edward James Olmos, and Tress Macneille.

1000 years in the future, the world has been destroyed by war and people live in several different kingdoms. Most of the world has been covered by a toxic jungle inhabited by huge mutant insects, the most dangerous of which are the Om (giant pillbug like creatures that stampede over cities en masse when provoked). Nausicaa (Lohman) is the princess of the Valley of the Wind, a kingdom by the sea, and while the ever-encroaching jungle is a problem, she and her family and her people are doing more or less OK.

And then a plane from the kingdom of Tolmekia crashes into their land, carrying poison spores from the jungle and a nascent super-weapon they stole from the kingdom of Pejite, and everything goes to shit. The warlike Tolmekians invade and kill her father the king (Mark Silverman), enslave the inhabitants of the valley, and take Nausciaa back to Tolmekia, but en route are shot down by a young soldier from Pejite (LeBoeuf), and wind up in the jungle, where Nausciaa learns that the trees are slowly cleansing the world and the bugs are there to prevent people from making it worse.

People, of course, proceed to do exactly that, with the Tolmekian warlord Kushana (Thurman) and the Pejites bringing a whole horse of Om to the Valley, the super-weapon getting briefly activated, and everyone learning a valuable lesson about assuming the messianic figure in the prophecy is a dude.

Like all Miyazaki films, this is beautiful shot and animated. The world-building, likewise, is pretty fantastic (it was based on a manga that Miyazaki created), and it doesn't spend much time telling us much about these different kingdoms, yet we get a good sense of who they are and what they're like just from what we do see.

Of interest is Nausicaa being an absolutely badass and laying out a bunch of Tolmekian soldiers before realizing, upon almost killing her friend and mentor Lord Yupa (Stewart) that killing is bad, and swears off violence for the rest of the movie...which is kinda what winds up saving them. In a related matter, I really enjoyed the fear and deference everyone shows to Yupa, and that it's teased early and then pays off when he takes on a bunch of enemy soldiers like an absolute boss (with all due respect to Nausicaa and her quite astute observation that killing just begets more killing, I still love the scene in movies where one lone badass takes down a whole bunch of dudes, sue me).

Like a lot of Miyazaki's stuff, there's still a lot that goes unanswered at the end of the movie, but it's not about resolution of everything, just about this particular story, which is cool. And, likewise, these characters are layered - Kushana is a warmonger and a killer, but she's doing her duty by her country and she's not utterly stupid about her actions. Everyone's got a pretty valid reason for doing what they're doing, and sometimes that leads to violence and stupidity because everybody thinks they're right. That tracks.

My Grade: A-
Rewatch value: Medium

Next up: The Net

Character Creation: We Used to be Friends (ashcan)

Sadly, working summer sessions means I've been tired in the evenings and have slipped from my lofty goal of a character every week, but I'm only a two weeks behind! I do one today and one more this week, I'm caught up, and then maybe I can get ahead!

The Game: We Used to be Friends (ashcan edition)
The Publisher: Growling Door Games, Inc., originally, now Firestorm Ink
Degree of Familiarity: Plenty. I didn't have anything to do on the creative end (that's Jonathan Lavallee), but we were publishing it and I've played it a few times now.
Books Required: Just the one.

We Used to be Friends is a teenage mystery/drama game, inspired, as you may have guessed, by Veronica Mars (it predates Riverdale, though I'm told it emulates that show well, too). You're playing high school students solving mysteries, but the focus is as much on the town and how those mysteries stem from whatever drama the town and its history create. As such, the first thing you'd do in a real group is design said town. Since I do not have a group, however, I'm just gonna wing it.

I will, therefore, be picking a yearbook profile first-off. I played the Sidekick and the Socialite at Origins this year, and the Tech Geek doesn't really speak to me, so that's between the Hard-Boiled and the Delinquent. I think I shall pick the Hard-Boiled this time.

Now, again, normally this would involve a full group and we'd decide who the rich and the poor people are in town, and what keeps them that way, and I'd decide who the town's detective is, but since it's just me we'll assume that my town is someplace in the Rust Belt, because that makes me happy. Skipping over the rest of the town-related stuff (which, again, all requires a group), I need to choose traits (this is the same as Apocalypse World; choose an array).

Well, what this cooks down to is: Do I want to be better at Eyes or Hard? I think it'd be interesting to make a sleuth who's more willing to do the punishing shit in order to get the case cracked, so I'll take the first array (Eyes +1, Rash -1, Hard +2, Soft 0, Body +1).

Now, there's no slot for this on the sheet (which I'm gonna fix before Gen Con, I hope), but I also need to assign these traits to the five basic moves.

Gumshoe gets Hard (I want my character to be willing to injure or humiliate himself to get the info).
Putting it All Together gets Eyes (mostly because I want to be at least sort of good at it).
Open Up gets Body (my character is an athlete, or was, and he equates being vulnerable with physicality).
And Action! gets Rash (this is a problem because And Action is the basic "act despite danger" move, and my guy's not terribly good at it because he tends to shoot from the hip).
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!, therefore, gets Soft by default (which is OK, because despite being an athlete my guy isn't much for actual fisticuffs, he'd rather trashtalk).

Cool, now I pick a Hard-Boiled Egg move. I want Get Mad, Get Even because it allows me to use Hard to use any basic move, though there are consequences.

That's basically all the mechanical stuff that I can really do without a group, said the stuck record, so I'll just do the character stuff and call it a morning.

Harold Hall was nicknamed "Hall the Wall" his freshman year; he played goalie for the high school soccer team. And then one of his teammates, during a very chaotic set piece in the fourth quarter, stepped on his ankle and it snapped, requiring surgery and pins. He can run a little now, but he can't push on it harder enough to play soccer anymore.

While he was in physical therapy, Harold met a PTA who was under threat of losing his job because equipment was going missing. Harold, not having anything better to do with his evenings, ran it down and cleared the guy, though he wound up having to climb through windows and get punched in the face in the process. Since then, it's kinda become his thing...

Harold might look like a jock - he's tall, blond, handsome, and ripped - but he's sharp and incisive and deliberate (he's a goalie, remember). When he acts impulsively things tend to go badly because he doesn't improvise well, or when he does, he errs on the side of taking the licks himself. Someday that's going to backfire.

(I could, at this point, choose a personal mystery, but honestly neither of the ones listed for Hard-Boiled really inspire me for this character, so I'm gonna skip it and assume that if I had a group I'd have something interesting to work with.)

And that's done!

Movie #464: The Natural

The Natural is a sportsball movie starring Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Wilford Brimley, Kim Basinger, Glenn Close, Darren McGavin, Michael Madsen, Barbara Hershey, and probably other people I'm forgetting.

Roy Hobbs (Redford) is a gifted baseball player who, upon getting to Chicago to try out for the cubs, get shot in the stomach by a crazy woman who kills sports stars (Hershey). Note that upon until this point in the movie, it's all very standard sportsball stuff; gifted athlete, leaving his girl Iris (Close) behind until he gets signed then he'll marry her, takes on an arrogant sportsball star (Joe Don Baker) and wins...and then bang. My comment to Michelle was "this is some Black Swan shit right here."

Fast forward 16 years, and Pop (Brimley) is the manager of the Cleveland Indians New York Knights, and gets Hobbs assigned to his team. He eventually decides to actually play Hobbs, discovers he's great, and then the movie becomes a more recognizable sportsball movie - Hobbs get popular, people are intrigued by his mysterious past, he falls in with the wrong woman (Basinger), who immediately cools his hot streak with...the power of being a bad influence, I guess? But then Iris comes back into his life and he starts winning again, he gets poisoned, plays in his final game and makes many score-points!

This is one of those movies, like Enter the Dragon, that even if you haven't seen it you've kinda seen it. In particular, BASEketball takes a bunch of moments from it, which was surreal. It won a bunch of Oscars when it came out, and sure, it's that kind of movie, but eh. I was nonplussed.

Part of the issue is that it's about baseball, objectively the most boring sport, and I can't believe they make movies about it as though it's exciting (said the guy who stayed up late watching DVR'd soccer matches). Part of it is that the whole way through the movie Hobbs refuses to say anything about himself, and there's a guy who met him and had what was probably a memorable moment with him (Duvall, playing a sports writer) who now has no idea who he is. And, Hobbs is completely terrified that his true past will get out, and like, dude, you got shot. (They do actually address this, though far too late in the film - Hershey's character threw herself out the window after shooting Hobbs, so it's a dead girl on the sidewalk and a guy shot on the floor, which doesn't look great for anyone.)

Anyway, it's a well-made movie, the performances are good, and the score is actually great, so it's definitely a classic. But like, baseball.

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind