Character Creation: Fear the Living

It's windy, dismal, threatening to rain, and just this side of chilly out. Probably my favorite type of weather, and definitely perfect for a zombie game.

The Game: Fear the Living
The Publisher: Just a Statue Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Interesting little game, this. I mean, zombie horror games are pretty thick on the ground, and much like superhero RPGs, it's interesting to see how different people approach them but I've pretty much got the ones I think work perfectly well (Marvel Heroic and Marvel Superheroes for supers, Zombie World and All Flesh Must Be Eaten for zombies). But with that said, the system here is interesting. During conflicts, you spend successes (4 or better on d6s) into "Advantages," which are basically just types of actions. It's a cool little harmony of a trad game's "roll to pick the lock" and a kind of PbtA-ish approach. Actually, I think it reminds me more of Blood & Honor, World of Dew, that whole "buy narrative control" with successes, though I think this would be easier on a group because there are defined categories into which you can put your successes.

It reminds me a little of the Removal Challenges in curse the darkness, as I think about (but not so much that I think the author read that game, because seriously, who has). 

Anyway, let's make a Survivor! 

So, were I playing a game of Fear the Living, the first thing I would do with the group is to create a setting. This would answer the burning questions about the "rules" for zombies - how smart they are, how strong, how fast, whether/how you can kill them, and so forth. There are a few examples in the book, and one of them begins thusly:

Now, ignoring the fact that in the play, Juliet doesn't die because she kisses Romeo's poisoned lips ("I'll kiss thy lips/haply some poison doth yet hang on them"), I really like this setup, 'cause I'm a theater nerd. The section goes on to suggest that this setting might become a mashup of Shakespearean characters - maybe Duke Prospero returns from his island just in time for the dead to rise? I'm a sucker for such mashups in the Anno Dracula/League of Extraordinary Gentlemen style, so I think I'll follow this line of logic.

Though I do note that the tone of the setting is meant to be Over the Top comedy, even though the basis for it is a tragedy. But then, there's been a lot of time since these plays were written, and we know the equation. 

Anyway, King Lear is my favorite Shakespearean tragedy (The Tempest is my favorite of his plays overall), so I will create as my character Edmund. Edmund dies at the end of Lear, of course, but if we're retconning anyway, we'll say that he survived his wounds and had an escape route set up in advance (he's a sneaky fucker like that). He escaped to Verona and is quite happy to leave his past behind, given that his father is dead, his brother may or may not be King of England, and he's directly responsible for a whole lot of people dying. 

In Verona, he calls himself Edgardo di Verona (taking his brother's name, because Edmund is still a bastard despite his last-minute "repentance"). Probably that's a good enough start to get into the chargen stuff. I start with Attributes. I have 11 points to divide up amongst them, and they are: Humanity, Ruthlessness, Authority, and Will to Live.

Well, clearly Will to Live and Ruthlessness should get the higher scores, here. I'll put one in Authority (Edmund has no particular social standing), 2 in Humanity (I mean, he did try to repent), and four each in the other two.

Four Talents. Well, I think "Ruthless Social Climber" is nicely Broad (Talents are Broad, Narrow, or Specialized). "Cunning As a Fox", also Broad. "Secret Would-Be Earl" seems pretty Narrow. "Friends in Low Places," also Narrow.

Five points in Relationships. These can be with people, places, things, concepts, whatever. Can't go over three points in any one. Well, I kinda feel like I should have a relationship with Dad, even though he's dead. I'll put two points in and say it's a mixture of guilt and hatred. Likewise, one point toward his relationship with Edgar. 

You know, Edmund is first and last self-interested. He talks about how it's not in his nature to betray his father, but like, needs must, because it isn't like he's going to inherit anything. I'll say that Edmund has a two-point Relationship with himself.

And now I get two MOs, which basically underline what role Edmund is playing in the story. Let's see. Uh, that's one easy choice:

And then there's an opportunist one, too, but eh, I don't want to double down. I think I'll take Zombie Infectee. It's a little weird for this apocalypse, but I think it works - Edmund has already been through his "tragic end." Maybe he didn't really escape his death back in England, after all.

And, finally, a Liability. This is how I want the character to suffer, meaning that it can't really be related to him being an opportunistic fucker, because I've got other traits representing that. Hmm. I'll say that Edmund is On the Run, and I'll put that at 5. If he's caught, he'll be shipped back to England and executed, not necessarily in that order.

That's it, then! Edmund - or "Edgardo" - is slowly growing angry and depressed, and either he finds a cure (ha) or he'll join the ranks of the undead. Now, gods, stand up for zombies.

Movie #591: The Relic

The Relic is a creature horror movie starring Tom Sizemore, Penelope Ann Miller, Linda Hunt, James Whitemore, Chi Muoi Lo, Clayton Rohner, and Thomas Ryan. 

An anthropologist (Lewis Van Bergen) working for the Natural History Museum in Chicago drinks some soup in Brazil and then freaks out when some crates he wanted to send to Chicago aren't on the cargo ship. This is all put into context later. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Margo Green (Miller), a kind of prickly evolutionary biologist, just wants to do her research and not be bothered by any of this "superstition" garbage, into which she throws any kind of religion, folklore, or omen. She's worried about getting a grant which her obsequious colleague Greg Lee (Lo) is also shooting for, but never mind that. The important thing is that a killer is stalking the museum! 

Vincent D'Agosta (Sizemore) is investigating the killing at the museum, and also the killings on the cargo ship (context!), all of which involve decapitation and removal of the hypothalamus. Eventually, it comes out that the creature (the Kothoga, when it's at home) is actually Dr. Whitney, mutated by a virus that the tribe he was eating soup with uses as a kind of biological weapon. The tribe's motives for turning him into the Kothoga are never really revealed (maybe a kind of "we know what happens when white people show up and they can all get fucked," but it'd have been nice if someone said it), and the monster eats a bunch of people and winds up getting blown to hell by Dr. Green.

So, I have a weird history with this movie. Way back in Toledo, it wound up being the only movie that was remotely interesting to anyone in my friend group playing at the local dollar theater, and so I wound up seeing it like four or five times because going to the movies and gaming was pretty much all we were doing. It's a pretty shit movie, if we're being honest. The creature effects aren't bad (yay Stan Winston), and Sizemore and Miller do their best, but it's a pretty bog-standard Aliens/The Thing kind of ripoff. The realization that the Kothoga started human and is, in fact, Dr. Whitney is played like it's a big twist, but it's pretty damn obvious. 

What I find interesting watching the movie now is how damned overwritten it is. The museum head of security (Ryan) has a rant, just before the Kothoga tears his head off and eats his brain, about how this craziness is all going to get resolved and how he'll get his job back. Sure, OK, but then we get the line "Whatever prankster created this miasma...". Like, are you sure that's the word you want? There are a couple of other points, too, that characters use words that make me think the screenwriter had a thesaurus handy and they felt like they had to vocabulary up this shit. 

Whatever, it's a monster movie. It's not especially good, and for some reason the DVD version is incredibly dark, so that you can barely see what's happening in a lot of it. I think it'd be a lot more interesting with the light balance corrected, or least a lot more watchable. 

My Grade: D
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: Renaissance Man

Chill: Envoys = Chew Toys

Yesterday was Chill, wherein the envoys discover that "let's have an enemy we can fight physically" is a kind of monkey's paw wish.

Last time, the envoys had retired back to the ranch after confronting and killing a single gigantic black dog-creature. Emily was injured, but still functional, and so the envoys decide to head back to the dog park the next day and stake it out. The only real lead they have (other than, y'know, the actual dog attack) is a social media post talking about a dad trying to force his daughter to interact with dogs to conquer her fear of them, and while that seems promising, it's not enough to go on. 

The next day, they gear up for a stakeout and head back to Military Reserve. On the way, though, they see a bit of a commotion at a nearby Senior Center. Pulling in, they see news teams and various first responders. Manny gets out and spots a cop he knows, and asks what happened. The cop tells him that a nurse named Leona McDaniel was mauled by a pack of dogs last night.

Leona survived - she was discovered some hours ago and taken to a nearby hospital, and is out of surgery and out of immediate danger. The cop shows Manny where it happened, and Manny counts six sets of dog tracks. All of them are Peedee's size or bigger, and it looks like they harried Leona away from the building, continually bit at her, and then attacked her when she fell. No major blood splash, though, that would have indicated that they went for killing bites. The cop tells Manny that conspiracy theories have already started, saying that these dogs are trained to kill. 

Beth Anne goes into the lobby and listens to the chatter amongst the employee, but only hears that Leona was attacked, she's out of surgery, and the staff is wondering what's going to be done about this. The envoys reconvene and head to the park, but text Jennifer (who had a deadline, so she had to stay at the ranch to write an article) to head to the hospital and see if she can talk to Leona when she's done.

Dylan, Manny, and Emily walk across the parking lots and follow the dog's tracks into the park. The tracks lead past the parking lot (where they join up with Vicki and Beth Anne) and up into the woods, and the envoys aren't quite ready to go hiking after the dogs just yet. Instead, they head back to the dog park to see if they can find the scared little girl. 

They don't find her, but they do find the woman who made the post about her (recognizable by her two black labs). Manny chats with her and learns that the dad was pushing the girl to pet the labs, and the lady tried to be accommodating, but the girl really wasn't into it and clung to her father. She also mentions that the girl was carrying a drawing of big, scary black dogs, but that she must have dropped it because the lady saw the drawing blowing across the park into the trees. Manny thanks her and gives her his card, in case she sees them again; maybe he and Peedee can help the little girl in a more controlled environment.

The envoys decide to check into the trees where the woman saw the picture blowing. Emily takes point, as usual, and walks into the treeline. She notes that this is the same area that she was attacked yesterday...

...and then the skies darken (which means the light in the forest gets even dimmer) and thunder rumbles. Emily checks back to make sure she can see her fellow envoys (she can), but then a dog slams into her and bites her shoulder. Another trips her up, knocking her down, and the rest of the park darts in, biting and tearing. 

Beth Anne screams at the dogs to heel (it worked last time) and a few of them back off. The others charge the other envoys; one leaps up and bites Vicki on the side, and other bites Beth Anne's ankle. 

Dylan runs in and raises a Sphere of Protection, and the dogs back off, but he looks down at Emily, a mess of blood and foam and torn clothing...but her face is untouched and strangely pristine. That contrast is too much for Dylan and he breaks a little, and the Sphere wavers. Manny and Peedee try to drag Emily back, and the dogs square off for another attack, but then two policemen (including Manny's buddy from early) show up, and the dogs scatter.

The envoys are taken to the nearby hospital. Emily is the worst off, but Vicki needs some stitches, too. The envoys quietly reflect that at least this time, they're in no danger of being arrested - the police saw the dogs, too. 

Jennifer, meanwhile, goes to the hospital and, using the Familiar Face discipline to avoid questions, talks to Leona McDaniel. She's pretty out of it, but she describes the attack - she went outside for smoke, a dog ran up and bit her, and then another blocked the door so she couldn't get back in. She ran away from the facility just out of panic, but the dogs kept biting at her, until she finally couldn't run anymore. Jennifer thanks her, but then hears toenails on the floor behind her, like a big dog walking. She turns, but doesn't see anything, and decides to leave.

Of course, her fellow envoys are already here! Dylan, Jennifer, and Manny get together in the waiting room. Beth Anne joins them shortly thereafter (just an ankle wrap and a lot of shots, no big deal). Emily is here for the night, at least, and Vicki is still in a room, a bit drugged. The envoys are also joined by Mohammed Al-Zaid, who hasn't been on a case since the incident with the draugr last year.

The envoys talk about their course of action, here. It's clear that these creatures are deadly, especially when together as a pack, and they'll need some kind of strategy to take them on. They still feel that the girl and her fear are key to understanding this, but they don't know how to find her. 

Vicki's father arrives at the hospital (remember, Vicki's only 18) and goes to see her. She explains what happened and he says he'll drive her home. She says goodbye to the envoys and introduces her father to them (he's a little thrown, considering the age difference), and they start home. He asks about the envoys, and Vicki explains they're folks from the ranch where she volunteers and they were out at the park on a kind of team building thing when the dogs attacked. The conversation doesn't have time to progress, however, before her father swerves off the road to avoid hitting something...he thinks it was a dog.

Vicki yells at him not to get out of the car, but he has to check the damage. He gets out, and Vicki hears snarling and screams. He tries to get back in, but something pulls him out, leaving bloody streaks on the seat. Vicki calls Manny, terrified, and he tells her to send her GPS to them so they can get there. The envoys head out - fortunately they're quite nearby. 

Vicki gets out to help her father, pulling a tire iron from the car. Three dogs have surrounded him and are biting at him - every time he tries to get up, they bite more, keeping him down. The envoys arrive and Mohammed grabs a mag lite, runs up, and cracks a dog on the head. Jennifer shoots at one, and Vicki grabs a flare out of the SUV and hurls it at the dogs (she misses, which means the whole scene is illuminated in red). Manny and Peedee grab Mr. Parsons and pull him back toward the SUV, and Dylan raises a Sphere of Protection. 

The dogs pile on Mohammed, knocking him down and ripping his flesh. Manny commands Peedee to attack and he slams into the dog on Mohammed's chest. Jennifer shoots again, striking a dog, and Beth Anne tries to command them again, but the dogs ignore her. She decides on a more direct approach, taking a crowbar from the SUV and burying the sharp end in a dog's back. 

Some of the dogs are injured, but they're still very much capable of fighting. One of them attacks Mohammed, who is helpless on the ground, and tears out his throat.

The envoys recoil in horror. Beth Anne, screaming in rage, raises up the crowbar and brings it down, and Jennifer sees some horrific, black silhouette envelop her. The crowbar strikes the ground and the dogs flee, leaving the envoys there on the side of the road with Mohammed's body and Vicki's injured father.

Character Creation: Bob, Lord of Evil

Migraines have laid low our original plan for the afternoon (Masks), so we're doin' this instead.

The Game: Bob, Lord of Evil
The Publisher: Peregrine Products
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Bob, Lord of Evil is a kind of standalone supplement to Murphy's World, which I don't own. Murphy's World itself is a playable game, but can also work as a setting to whatever game you happen to be playing. Basically, it's a world on which belief and expectation shapes reality, with the result that "Murphy's Law" tends to be what governs things. Bob details the Dark Lands, a particular area within Murphy's World, ruled over by the titular Bob. 

The game text is mostly fun to read, which is something in and of itself (humor in gaming is hard). The general tone is pretty much black humor, kind of fantasy Paranoia in a way - you can try to ingratiate yourself to Bob, but he might eat you anyway and there's really not a winning strategy. The book is almost all setting and it details the various factions and characters in the Dark Lands lovingly. I can't say they didn't put the work in, and the book is full of adventure ideas, random tables to get things moving, and quotes from Bob and other important characters.

I have to say, though, that the book feels really busy (hell, the cover alone is the busiest one I've seen outside of Strike!), and I don't feel real inclined to run the game. But maybe it's because it calls itself a "roleplay game" and the missing -ing kinda jars me. 

Moving along, let's make a character. 

Heh. Look at the chargen page (seriously, just a page), it's clear to me that they're really leaning in to this "system doesn't much matter, because it's all about the setting, use your favorite system" thing. But, this book was still made in the 90s, so we've got these niggly little things like you get one extra Skill point for every five years your character has lived, that kind of thing. 

Well, anyway, first thing I need to do is make some personal characteristic choices. I think I want to lean in to the fact that living in the Dark Lands is a risky proposition, and make a character who firmly believes that Bob is going to eat him someday. After all, Bob ate the rest of his family. And his pets. And his bike. And his shoes. He's become fatalistic and he has a chip on his shoulder (sometimes literally, because why not). He calls himself "Lunch." 

First thing: Race. I'll say Lunch is a Darkling, one of the unfortunate folks who develop mutations from living here too long. I can roll on tables for mutations, and I might as well. I get one Undesirable Physical Transformation, one Undesirable Behavioral Transformation, and one Desirable Transformation. Let's throw some dice. 

For my Undesirable Physical Transformation, I get Body Coloring. Rolling on that table, I get Sandy Tan. Not a terribly appetizing color, but who knows, maybe he'll turn a nice juicy red if you baste him. For my Behavioral etc, I get...excitement or fear prompts altering all objectives to destructive ends. I can roll with that. When Lunch gets scared, he starts flipping tables and saying "OK, then! Eat me!" like Tommy Lee Jones at the end of Men in Black. And then for my Desirable thingie, I get 100% magic resistance. Sorcery just rolls right off me like a nice Hollandaise sauce. 

All right, that's a start. We'll say that Lunch is short and plump, his skin is a sandy tan color, his hair is black but cropped short (so it'll be easier to pluck before cooking), and he only wears organic, natural fibers. 

Right, I need to pick some Traits, but they seem to be just descriptors. So we'll say Lunch is Pushy, Fatalistic, Brave, and Delicious.

I kinda covered personal history already, and I'm not going into too much detail for this game. Personal Goal: Well, now. To be eaten by Bob, obviously...and to make the bastard choke. (I'm reminded of Spoon's brave dying words in Dog Soldiers.)

Right, now Stats. I roll a d10 for each Stat, then subtract the total from 100, and then add a d6 for every negative Trait but subtract a d10 for each positive one. Well, that's...involved. Hang on. My d10 total is 56 (why bother assigning numbers to Stats if I'm just gonna wind up with a pool of points anyway)? I arguable have three positive Traits (immune to sorcery, Delicious, Brave) and four negative ones, so I add 4d6 but subtract 3d10. Subtract 8, add 10, net add of 2, meaning I have 58 points to split between 8 Stats.

Well, I figure Intelligence isn't necessarily Lunch's go-to, so I'll keep that low (2; 56 remaining). Willpower, though, that feels like it should be high, so I'll go to 10 on that (46). Charisma we'll put at 5 (41), Mystic at 1 (he's immune to magic, and I like the idea that it just kind of ignores him; 40), Strength can be 10, Dexterity can be 7 (23), Fitness can be 15, and the other 8 can go into Appearance. 

Health Points are the average of Fitness and Willpower, which for me 25/2, or 12, I guess. I get a bonus if I'm over 200lbs, because everyone knows the fatter you are, the more damage you can soak up, but I'll leave it because I don't feel like figuring out Lunch's actual weight.

10 Skills, and I can pretty much make them up and assign a Stat to them. OK, then. Oh, wait, it's actually 10 plus 1 for every 5 years of life. Lunch is 25, so I get 15 Skills. Wow. 

Well, some kind of combat is probably smart, so I'll take Scrapping. Oh, wait, they separate non-combat and combat skills. Fine, I'll take Scrappling as well. Making scrapple is important. I'll take Cooking, Baking, Brewing, Herbology, and Sommelier as Skills, too. Over under combat, I'll add Chopping and Flambé. Four more. 

Some kind of stealth is probably smart, so Sneaking, sure. Inchoate Shouting, too. Geography (Dark Lands), so Lunch knows his way around. Hmm. Leadership, why not ("TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL! AS THE MAIN COURSE!"). That'll do it!

And that's actually the lot. Lunch is ready to serve!

Character Creation: DC Adventures

Felt like doing a superhero game today. A bit of actual heroism would not go amiss, I think.

The Game: DC Adventures
The Publisher: Green Ronin Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Not much. I did a little writing for the Heroes & Villains Vol I book, but I haven't played the game. I've played a bit of Mutants & Masterminds and that's basically what this is
Books Required: Just the Hero's Handbook

Right, so. This is actually the third DC-related RPG I've done a character for (the first two being Batman and DC Universe). I have done so damn many supers RPGs in general, though, because I love 'em. I'm more a Marvel guy than DC, but for purposes of this game it doesn't much matter because, again, it's a lot like M&M. 

The book tells me that the default starting power level is 10, giving me 150 points, spent thusly:

Guess I should think of concept, huh. I'm actually approaching this kinda backwards, because I have an idea for a nemesis, but not the hero. Said nemesis is Death Rattle, a cloaked, hooded dude who can generate glass knives from his body and hurl them with deadly accuracy. So who's my hero, the guy opposing Death Rattle, gonna be? 

Well, looking over the many, many supers characters I've made, I've hit a few of the basic archetypes - energy controller, shapeshifter, powerhouse - but I haven't really done a paragon/Superman kind of character. I don't usually like ol' Supes anyway, but the jumping-off point for Superboy from Young Justice is better. He doesn't have the absolutely stupid array of powers, and he's actually got some grit to him. I can see a young hero kinda like that - powerful but still trying to figure himself out - going up against a more experienced, deadlier foe in Death Rattle. I'll name my hero Daniel D'Angelo (I'll save his hero name for later). I'll say Daniel lives in Bludhaven; I want someplace a little darker than Metropolis, but not Gotham. Don't know how Daniel got powered yet, but I'll figure it out.

Right, so I have 150 points. First thing I spend them on is Abilities, which cost 2 per rank. 0 is human average, 8 is low superhuman, and 20 is bananas. Superman has 19 Strength, while Batman has 4. I want Daniel to have a modicum of superhuman Strength and Stamina, so we'll arrange his Abilities thusly:

Strength 10
Agility 8
Fighting 6
Awareness 3
Stamina 8
Dexterity 4
Intellect 2
Presence 6

That totals 94 points. That's a lot, but I don't necessarily need a whole spate of powers, either. What's next? I could do defenses. They start equal to controlling Abilities, so:

Dodge 8
Parry 6
Fortitude 8
Toughness 8
Will 3

There are some caveats, here, too. I can't spend points to up Toughness (though I can take powers or advantages that raise it), and there are several pairs of defenses that can't total more than 20 (twice the power level). I feel like my guy needs a higher Will and a higher Parry, so let's bump them both up to 8 (for a total of 7 more points spent; I'm at 101). 

Skills! There's a very manageable list, thank god. One point buys me two ranks, and I get to add the controlling Ability, which is nice. Let's see. I don't think Acrobatics is necessary, but Athletics surely is. Close Combat, yes please, but I have to specify it. I want Unarmed and Grappling, which are two separate Skills. 

Deception I'll skip. Expertise, though...probably Daniel should have some knowhow to do something. I like the idea of him being a woodworker, for some reason, so I'll take Expertise: Carpenter. 

Insight, sure, but I won't take much. Intimidation, definitely. Investigation...yeah, maybe a rank or two. Perception, always. Persuasion, eh. Ranged Combat, I should take Thrown so I can huck cars or whatever. Sleight of Hand is oddly specific, given how broad the rest of these are. Don't think I need it. Stealth, nah, I don't think this guy is real subtle. Technology, sure, Treatment, nah, Vehicles, sure. So with points, it looks like this:

Athletics 5
Close Combat (Unarmed) 5
Close Combat (Grappling) 7
Expertise (Carpenter) 6
Insight 2
Intimidation 5
Investigation 2
Perception 3
Ranged Combat (Thrown) 4
Technology 3
Vehicles 4

That's 46 Skill ranks, which costs me 23 points. I've spent 124, meaning I have 26 left. I may have to lower some Abilities, depending on how expensive powers are.

Ah, but first, Advantages. Some that look good: All-Out Attack, Chokehold, Fast Grab, Improved Hold, Startle. That's only five, actually. Can I do powers with 21 points? Let's see! I'll bet I can.

OK, so I want Daniel to be able to fly, but he doesn't necessarily have to fly fast or well. I wouldn't mind having some kind of toughness-related power (if such a thing there be, apart from just raising my Stamina). But I want something to give him a little flavor...ooh, how about Nullify?

So, Daniel can release a burst of "metahuman static" that shorts out superpowers for a moment. It affects him, too, so once he does it, he's only got his Abilities and so on to rely on (which are considerable), and it has no effect on powers that stem from a non-metahuman source (like magic). Daniel has no idea why he has this power. 

Let's do that one first and then see what kind of points I'm left with. Nullify costs 1 point per rank. Area bumps it to 2 points per rank, and I need to take Broad so that it can affect "metahuman" as a descriptor (3 points per rank), and Simultaneous so it affects all effects of the same type (4 points per rank). 

And then, oy. I want the power to be used and then stay in effect for a short while, but there's no easy way to simulate that. I can take Increased Duration, and indeed I kinda need to, but that won't quite make it work. Well, putting 2 ranks into Increased Duration means the effect is Sustained (I have to use a free action every turn to maintain it), and that raises my cost to 6 points per rank. Holy cats.

OK, but, Flaws! I can take Activation (have to take a standard action to "power up" the Nullify), that makes sense. Distracting makes sense (I'm vulnerable until the start of my next turn), since the power affects me, too. Noticeable, sure, it buys me a point. And then I think the "lose all powers while this is in effect" thing makes sense as a Side Effect, and that lowers the cost by 2 per rank because it happens whether I succeed or fail at the Nullify. 

So at the end of the day, I'm paying 3 per rank for my Nullify. Cool beans. I have 21 points remaining and I still want to buy Flight, so I'll buy 5 ranks. 15 spent, ah, but then I subtract 3 for Activation and Noticeable, so that's 12. 9 remaining. 

Flight is 2 points per rank. I'll take the Concentration Flaw, so it's just 1 per rank (Daniel can fly, but not especially well). I'll buy 4 ranks, so he can fly at about 30mph. 

That leaves me 5 points. Hmm. Let's go back to Abilities. I'll bump Fighting up to 7 (3 points left), raise Awareness to 4 (1 point left), and buy the Diehard Advantage. That's all me points!

A quick total-up, and I'm actually 1 point under. I'll buy two more Skill ranks and bump Expertise up to 8. 

OK, now for the Complications! I have to have at least two, and one has to be a Motivation. I can take more, though. These would give me hero points in play. 

Well, I know that Daniel has an Enemy: Death Rattle. I like the idea that Death Rattle doesn't actually hate Daniel. Sure, the kid gets in his way and screws up hits and bank robberies, but like, you don't become a superpowered assassin without expecting some do-gooder to get in the way. Daniel, meanwhile, does feel pretty personally about Death Rattle. The guy is a cold-blooded, unrepentant killer, and he can generate knives from his hands. (And Daniel's Nullify power doesn't work on Death Rattle, because his powers are magical in nature, not that Daniel knows that.)

As for Motivation, I think Daniel is driven by an unknown force. He feels that he has to go and thwart crime, and he gets itchy if he doesn't. On the surface it's a basic "do good" kind of impulse, but if Daniel ever stops for whatever reason, he's gonna realize it's a deeper compulsion than that.

I want him to have a secret identity, so I'll take that as a Complication. 

And then into background! We've already established that his birth name is Daniel D'Angelo. Let's think about origin.

I think Daniel is a metahuman...or rather, he thinks he is. He manifested his powers the way a lot of metas do; he was under stress (bus accident caused by a battle between a couple of superhumans) and Daniel ripped open the back and helped people get to safety. When the combatants started punching each other even closer, Daniel instinctively released a weird red-yellow flash of light that disabled their powers and allowed authorities to apprehend them.

Daniel has taken to calling this power "ground zero". He hates using it - it makes him feel queasy and, of course, it removes his ability to fly, which he enjoys. But it's pretty darned useful.

As a superhero, Daniel wears a black gaiter covering his face below the eyes, brown boots and gloves, a red shirt and black pants. He's thought about taking a moniker that references his ability to power down other metahumans, but he hates the power too much to make it his identity. Instead, he goes by Rampart, focusing on his desire to protect and defend. 

And that about does it, I think!

Legend of the Elements: Blue Water Heals

Back in the city of Greycliff. Here's last time.

The characters head out to the banks of the Big Dog River to check the scene of the crime, and find a row of stables (the roads here are wide enough that carriages coming into the city can come up the riverbank and board their horses). The stable in question is mostly destroyed, and Gerde realizes that it wasn't washed out by a flood, or at least not a natural one. Khatun checks around, too, and notes that people are watching them, mostly her (probably because her garb is similar to the guy who was arrested for destroying the stable).

Ember approaches a hand from a nearby stable and asks what happened. He motions for her to follow him, and leads her to the street, away from the stable. He says he saw the accused, Thunas, standing on the edge of the river watershaping, but it looked like he was pulling the water towards him, rather than pushing it away. Ember thanks him and asks why he felt the need to talk in private; he says that her companion (Khatun) is dressed like the guy they arrested and he doesn't want trouble. He sods off, and a fellow across the street calls out for Ember, saying that he saw the incident!

She walks across the street and the guy bolts, revealing Miko, the mugger/fireshaper, and his two henchmen. Miko tells her that he heard they swore out a complaint against him, and warns her to drop it. Ember tells him that he should stop mugging people, and he is less than receptive to the request. She opines that he could do more for the community if he helped rather than hurt, and he doesn't much care. He repeats the warning: retract the complaint by dawn or next time he won't be so friendly.

Back at the bank, Gerde reaches out with vibration sense and feels the remains of the stable beneath her in the sand. She realizes that whoever destroyed the stable did it by pulling the ground out from under it, starting with the sand of the riverbed (she's heard of sandshaping, but can't do it herself). She does pull the stable wreckage up from the river, however.

Feng goes into the wreckage to look around, and an angry ghost, apparently one of the stable hands, accosts him. He calls for help and Khatun approaches, trying to talk the ghost (which no one but Feng can see) down. She apparently hits the right notes, though, because the ghost sees her and calms, and goes to her and puts its hand on her shoulder. But Feng feels more spiritual turmoil, and a bunch of horses and two more men, all ghosts, burst from the ground and start rampaging around.

One of the horses kicks Ember in the head and knocks her down. Feng calls upon his spiritshaping and makes the ghosts visible, and Gerde calms the horse and gives it an apple (it doesn't physically eat the apple, but goes through the motions and the apple gets withered and gross). Khatun calls up grass to appease the horses, and the characters manage to talk the human ghosts down. They ask what happened, and the men say that they felt the ground sliding out from under them. One of the horses then kicked Onil in the head, and she was washed out into the river, but then they saw Thunas bring her back with watershaping.

Ember makes a fire to warm the cold, wet ghosts, and they start to fade. Khatun asks if they know why Onil might have been targeted, and one ghost says something about a necklace before he vanishes. 

Clearly, the next step is to talk to Onil, so the characters find out where she lives - a big, clearly earthshaped house. Gerde talks to the guards at her door and gains entrance, and a kind of majordomo named Nase, upon hearing that Khatun has some healing experience, allows them to see Onil.

Onil is still unconscious, her head bandaged from the wound. She is indeed wearing a necklace, a kind of half-moon made of quartz on a leather strap. Khatun lifts it up to examine it, but the walls shake and they quickly put it down. Nase tells them that she's had it since childhood, a gift from her uncle, and it apparently cannot be taken off her unless she agrees or dies. 

Khatun summons her watershaping powers and heals Onil's head a bit, allowing her to regain consciousness. Onil tells them that someone pulled the ground out from under the stable, and then something hit her and everything went black. Gerde asks about a sandshaper, and her eyes get wide, but she passes out.

Nase doesn't know about sandshaping, but he does mention that Onil's cousin, Calri, is an earthshaper. They used to be very close as children, but they had a falling out some years back (before Nase came to work for her, so he doesn't know why). He does know, however, that someone tried to mug Onil for her necklace not too long ago - some street toughs.

The characters figure they might well know those "street toughs," and Ember relates the conversation she had with Miko earlier. The group heads back to the Honey Blossom, figuring they'll deal with Miko in the morning (since he's promised to find them). 

As they're eating, though, they hear a commotion outside. Wae calls a boy in from the street and asks what's going on, and he replies that an angry mob is heading for the jail! They're planning on breaking in to exact some private justice on Thunas.

Naturally, the characters can't let that stand.

Movie #590: Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 drama starring James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ana Doran, Edward Platt, a very young Dennis Hopper, Corey Allen, and Virginia Brissac.

We open at a California police station, where young Jim Stark (Dean) has been brought in for public drunkenness. Also there are Judy (Wood), who has been picked up as a runaway but it's implied that she's been soliciting, and John "Plato" Crawford (Mineo), who was brought in for shooting puppies. All three teens are, gently put, fucked up, and they all get sent home. Jim goes with his controlling mother (Doran) and utterly emasculated father (Backus). Judy, desperate for attention from her father (William Hopper) goes back home, and Plato goes with his housekeeper (Marietta Canty), as his mother is away. 

The three of them wind up together at a disastrous "chickie run" that claims the live of a young tough named Buzz (Allen), and become friends. Plato is plainly in love with Jim (he frames this as a kind of hero worship/wanting a father figure, but um, there's plenty of sexual tension, too), while Judy and Jim start to fall for each other. Jim goes home and tries to go to the police to do the right thing, and his parents try to talk him out of it, even as he desperately tries to get them to take some kind of moral stance. 

Finally, the three of them wind up at an abandoned house and running afoul of Buzz' angry friends. Plato winds up shot by the police, and Jim introduces Judy to his parents as his "friend."

There is so much going on in this movie, and you catch something new every time. The queer-coding is pretty noticeable (Plato has a picture of Alan Ladd pinned up in his locker, and that's just for openers), but he's not fucked up because he's gay, which is nice distinction for the time. As with a lot of movies of the time, the creators had to work around the Production Code and as such a lot of the moments are subtle. 

And then, of course, there's James Dean's amazing performance as Jim Stark. Mineo and Wood are similarly impressive (they were both nominated for Oscars), but Dean's journey is the one we see the most of. It would tempting to see Stark as a detached loner/too cool for school sort, but he's so insecure and desperately trying to find someone to look up to that that description just doesn't fit. 

Rebel is one of those movies that has seeped into the culture in a million subtle ways (the standard wardrobe of one Philip J. Fry is inspired by Stark, f'rex), and that becomes more obvious with every viewing. (Also, it's another movie that seems cursed, given that all three leads died young in really unpleasant ways.)

My Grade: A
Rewatch value: Medium

Next up: The Relic