Movie #595: Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs is a crime drama and the first movie from Quentin Tarantino, starring Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Eddie Bunker, Lawrence Tierney, Kirk Baltz, and Randy Brooks. 

A group of criminals, all dressed identically and given color-coded nicknames, rob a diamond warehouse (off screen) and make an absolute goat-fuck of it. The story picks up with career criminal Mr. White (Keitel) driving new thief Mr. Orange (Roth) to their rendezvous point - but Orange has been shot in the stomach and is bleeding to death. From there, everything continually unravels and we learn more of what happened at the heist - an alarm went off, Mr. Blonde (Madsen) started randomly shooting people, cops arrived, everyone ran. 

We learn in flashbacks that Mr. Blonde isn't normally in on jobs like this; he just got out of prison after doing four years because he wouldn't rat out Joe Cabot (Tierney), the mob boss putting this whole thing together. Cabot's son Nice Guy Eddy (Penn) puts him on this job because they're friends, so that didn't work out so great. But of course the truth is that the only fucking professional Mr. Pink (Buscemi) was right - it was a setup, there is a rat in the house (it's Mr. Orange, and he telegraphs it in the very first scene), and this was all doomed from the word go.

This movie is not for everyone, but that's mostly because it's a heist movie where you don't see the heist. Really it reminds me more of a Mamet play than anything else, except of course for the usual Tarantino violence. Mr. Blonde takes a cop (Baltz, who I don't think gets enough credit for this role) hostage and then tortures him and cuts off his ear, and the scene was disturbing enough that Wes Craven walked out of a screening. Graphic violence in movies doesn't usually bother me (when it does, it's usually more about the context than the violence itself), so setting that aside, the performances are what make this movie. 

Keitel, Roth, and Buscemi to me are the biggest standouts, but Madsen, Penn, and Baltz do amazing jobs, too. The situation is high-tension start to finish, to the point that the flashbacks do a nice job of letting off a little pressure. The last flashback we see is Mr. Orange, with him training as an undercover officer with his mentor Holdaway (Brooks), and by the time we flip back to the warehouse, now just covered in blood, there's a breath of, if not relief, then finality - it feels like it's all coming to an end. 

If I have a complaint, it's that we never learn anything about Mr. Pink, who seems like an interesting character. Likewise, Mr. Brown (Tarantino) is just there so that Quentin has his monologue about dicks, and Mr. Blue (Bunker) has about 4 lines and then dies offscreen, so I don't really see the point in including him. But this is pretty minor, all told.

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: Resident Evil

Masks: Gimme the Car, Issue Three

After a bit of a hiatus, we're back!

The heroes come together at Moonlight's lair and talk about their strategy. They aren't sure where the glove that Pyre made will take them. They know it'll take them to the matching glove, and probably to Ilijah Intrepid, but since they don't know where he is they don't quite know what to expect. Pyre is pissed and wants to go in fighting, but Jade Eagle and Moonlight favor a more discreet approach. The heroes review the security footage from their fight with Intrepid, and Jade Eagle notes that he has multiple gadgets and artifacts from various times and cultures, including a weird amulet and a dagger strapped to his back. An EMP might short some of his weapons, but not all.

They use the glove and all vanish, reappearing at the Four Corners Monument. Nothing untoward seems to be going on; they see tourists and school groups and the like. The civilians start pointing and taking pictures; Jade Eagle jumps into crowd control mode, while Pyre changes into air and surveys the area. Moonlight steps back and looks for anything out of the ordinary, but doesn't see anything - if Intrepid is here, he's hiding. Pyre looks for anyone who's not shocked by their appearance, and spots a man in sunglasses. He talks with the man briefly, but learns that the guy is blind (hence the dog next to him). 

Jade Eagle has people go about their business and looks around, and spots a man at a vending machine. In the reflection, she sees an amulet hanging off his belt - the one she saw in the video footage earlier. She points this out, and Pyre springs into action, changing into electricity and attacking.

Intrepid, however, is prepared. He flips out his amulet and absorbs Pyre. Jade Eagle fires her eyebeams at him to try and fry his devices, but Intrepid reflects the blast back at her and throws her into a crowd of people. Moonlight stretches out his hand and grabs the amulet away from him. Intrepid speaks a quick incantation and the amulet release Pyre, but Moonlight has time to point the thing up and avoid getting zapped. 

Intrepid walks forward and stands in the center of the monument, but Jade Eagle swoops in to block him. She tries to talk him down, but realizes that he has no remorse about any of this and asking for help just wouldn't have occurred to him. Pyre swoops over and stands next to her, but just then they hear helicopters. Two transports with AEGIS markings are heading in.

Intrepid sighs, reaches up with both hands, and spins a ring on each hand. He throws whirlwinds up, catching the copters and spinning them out of control. Jade Eagle flies off and catches one, pulling it down to land safely. Pyre changes back into wind and catches the other, but in landing, gets caught up in the rotors and cut to pieces (don't worry, he's fine, just has to reconfigure). Intrepid pulls the device he stole from Pyre out of his coat and starts fiddling with it. 

Moonlight, meanwhile, draws on his shadowy powers and telekinetically yanks the device in Intrepid's hands. Intrepid touches a button a wristband and grows strong enough to resist, but Jade Eagle, flying into battle with the AEGIS folks, eye-lasers his wristband. It explodes, but causes enough of a backblast to knock the agents and her down. The device flies out of Intrepid's hands over to Moonlight. Intrepid turns to Moonlight and says that it doesn't much matter - "Execute the order." FLICKER's voice comes from the device, confirming it. 

Pyre swoops back in, pissed, and fires his foam-gun, freezing Intrepid to the spot. But the device activates, and Intrepid and the device start to vanish. Moonlight taps into his power again and follows the device, and all four of them vanish and reappear...in the Place Between. 

The ship is still there, held up by rocky tendrils. Pyre sees Intrepid standing in front of it, a tear rolling down his face. "Finally," he whispers. Pyre, however, does not care about his emotions. He flies over and grabs Intrepid by the neck, intending to slam his head into the ship. 

Moonlight, not wanting Pyre to get out of control, siphons vitality from both Intrepid and Pyre. Intrepid falls unconscious, and a device on his belt covers him in an opalescent putty kind of substance. Pyre is conscious, but slightly weakened (Moonlight just wanted him to chill out). Jade Eagle appears as well, and Pyre tries to get the ship open. FLICKER tells him, however, that her programming has been compromised by Intrepid. 

Pyre tries to talk her through it, but she is still struggling. And then, all of this disruption of the Place Between gains some attention - Ghostheart appears.

He tells them to get out. They all agree that they'd love to, maybe he could send them out and they'll never come back? Ghostheart seems like he's considering it, but then Intrepid wakes up and says that he just wants to escape this dimension (by which he means the one the characters live in, it seems). Ghostheart refuses to help him, and Intrepid isn't interested in asking nicely. Ghostheart, finally fed up, throws down green-white fire, and all four of them vanish.

Pyre and Jade Eagle appear in space, amidst a bunch of asteroid. Pyre still has the device that allows him to talk to FLICKER, but she's still not able to respond correctly. 

Moonlight, meanwhile, has reappeared back in a cemetery in Halcyon City. Ilijah Intrepid is there, too, and makes his position clear - he's planning on getting back to the "Multitudes" and stealing and plundering his little heart out. He has no particular regard for other beings; if someone dies decades from now of a disease or today because Ilijah kills them and takes their stuff, what difference, in the scheme of things? 

Moonlight, of course, does not agree with this philosophy, but before he can really argue, Intrepid points out an incoming fireball. At the center of it is Sol, and she doesn't look friendly.

Character Creation: vs. Mirrorshades

Need a quick character since it's been a bit (but the last character I made was the 80th this year, so I could theoretically still hit 100 before New Year's, especially if all the schools close again) and I'm running Masks today. So I'm cuing up Newcleus and gettin' sci-fi.

The Game: vs. Mirrorshades
The Publisher: Denagh Design
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the pamphlet

vs. Mirrorshades, much like the other "vs." games, is a quick little card-based thing. It's cyberpunk, set "20 minutes in the future", and involves cyber augmentation and suchlike. 

First thing I need is a name and a concept. Well, going with the song currently playing ("Automan"), and drawing on the movie Her a little, I'll say that my guy is an average netizen who stumbled across a next-gen AI and fell in love with it. His name is Roman Vargas, but online he goes by ARROW'D. 

Health: I start with 10, so that's easy. 

Stats: Metal, Meat, Move, and Mind. I get 6, 5, 3, 3 to split up. I think I want the 6 in Mind. I'll put the 5 in Metal, and that leaves 3s in Meat and Move. 

Qualities: I get 1 or 2 Good Qualities, and I must take an equal number of Bad ones to balance out. I'll take Everybody (I blend into crowds), and Well-Connected (my love affair with the AI has opened a lot of doors). For the Bads, I'll take Weak (8 Health instead of 10), and Combat Paralysis. Roman's not a fighty guy. 

Augmentations: I get 2 of these puppies. Well, Neural Access System sounds about right. And then I'll take Cybereyes. He got those implanted so he could "see" his AI lover more easily. 

Gear: I get a Personal Access Device, which I figure in his case is maybe just something that wirelessly syncs with his eyes and Neurals. I get a weapon for close-up and one for far away. I'm figuring Roman has a taser and a pistol, but isn't very comfortable using either. He's also a device that helps him do crime, so I'll say he's got a software hack he calls "ground floor" - basically it makes low-level detection and security ignore him. Won't get him out of a checkpoint or through a locked door, but nagware and the like will overlook him. 

Create the Megacity: I get to name an organization that's doing oppressive shit. Well, obviously this should be the corp that developed the AI. 

Blakote, Inc. is a software developer specializing in heuristics and other fancy words. They developed an AI they refer to as "Miles," as in "miles above the competition, hur hur" but they're actually really scared of it. Miles is powerful enough to "mirror" themself out in the world, but only for a short time. Blakote, meanwhile, is actively stifling and sabotaging other corps' attempts to perfect AI until they get a handle on what Miles really is. 

Trouble is, Miles met and fell in love with Roman, and now Roman is trying to free Miles. Blakote, beware! 

Roman is in his late 30s. Dark brown hair, brown eyes, bit of a gut, not very coordinated and very much not in shape (tends to eat junk food and nutrient paste because he'd rather be on the net). His cyber-eyes can change color, but he usually doesn't bother because he likes the way his eyes looked before the implants (though he really likes being able to see net-stuff while walking around).

And that'll do it!

Movie #594: Repo! The Genetic Opera

Repo! The Genetic Opera is a fucking weird rock opera starring Alexa PenaVega, Paul Sorvino, Ogre, Paris Hilton, Anthony Head, Sarah Brightman, Bill Moseley, and Terrance Zdunich. 

In a dark, dystopian future with a color palette that's kinda midway between Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Sin City, people buy designer organs from GeneCo. GeneCo is our token all-powerful, evil corporation, under the control of Rotti Largo (Sorvino) and his three gleefully evil children, Luigi (Moseley), Amber (Hilton), and Pavi (Ogre). Life is cheap, the Largos murder with impunity, and the rich go to GeneCo to see the Genetic Opera, headlined by Blind Mag (Brightman). Out on the streets, if you fail to make your organ payments, expect a visit from the mysterious Repo Man, a masked killer who will literally repossess whatever you bought from GeneCo (presumably for reuse). 

A young woman named Shilo (PenaVega), suffering from a blood disease that prevents her from leaving the house, leaves the house and winds up nearly getting shot up by GeneCo's thugs for being in a cemetery after dark (oh, right, there's a drug called Zydrate that can be harvested from the bodies of the dead), but is saved by our erstwhile narrator the Grave Robber (Zdunich, who also co-wrote the screenplay). Turns out Shilo's father Nathan (Head) is a doctor working for GeneCo...as the Repo Man! There's a long, complicated history between Largo, Nathan, Blind Mag, and Shilo's mother Marni (Sarah Power) that all comes to a head at the Genetic Opera. 

The story is almost a tragedy, but not quite. Shilo ends the story free of both her father and Largo, and Amber seems to have stepped up as the head of GeneCo, with the slight implication that things may change. With all of that said, the meat of the story is classically tragic. The worldbuilding is intricate and just weird, but in a good way, and it seems pretty internally consistent. Plotlines continue cropping up until pretty late into the story and there are dramatic revelations all the way through; honestly it feels very much like a game of A Tragedy in Five Acts (Shilo is the Daughter, Nathan is the Parent, Mag is the Foil, Largo is the Authority, and...I guess you could call Marni the Lover?), what with the way that scene progression feels a little disjointed and, again, new information and characters crop up a lot. 

But, honestly, the movie is a trip. The actors chew scenery like it's slathered in maple syrup, because you can't not. They cast people who can sing, which helps immensely. Anthony Head has a nice Jekyll and Hyde thing going between Nathan and the Repo Man, and Alexa PenaVega does a nice job of not letting Shilo be nothing but a little girl lost (she's actually pretty manipulative at times, and has a full-on rebellion song complete with a cameo from Joan Jett). Everything is larger than life, but it's opera, so it should be. 

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium-high, maybe?

Next up: Reservoir Dogs

Cairn: Forest Friends and Food Fights

Today we played Cairn. Let's see what our wacky aminals get up to. Here's last time. 

The characters sleep a bit, and then the next morning Rumdiggle sets up a makeshift stage near the market and plays some songs about fruit for the citizens of Cairn. It doesn't go especially well; folks aren't used to impromptu concerts in the morning and her lyrics are kind of insipid. Russelet, watching from above, sends his rat buddies to start a kind of whisper campaign to get folks excited, but it really doesn't work and Cripke the weasel throws a rotten strawberry at Rummy's head. 

She doesn't mind so much (she eats garbage, after all, she's a possum), but the action starts a bit of a donnybrook. Rumdiggle faints dead away, and Russelet pulls her into the town hall to keep her safe. Ringtail, Russelet's rat buddy, notes that Cripke and a few rats and closing in on Whisper Shimmerborn, the hare who brought the addictive fruits to the village in the first place. They don't look friendly. 

Russelet springs into action! He flies out of the town hall's belfry and fires an arrow at the ground, driving off one of the rats. Rumdiggle activates her ripper totem and charges out with the aspect of the ripper (bear), and plants herself between Whisper and Cripke. Cripke snarls and tries to shove her out of the way, but she stands firm. Russelet lands next to him and tries to bop him with his staff, but misses, and Cripke scrambles up and over Rumdiggle...or at least he tries. He gets knocked back by her tail and lands in heap, surrounded by weapons. Cripke runs off, spitting and snarling.

Russelet takes off and starts tracking him. Rumdiggle, heading home, notices him flying off into the woods and decides that if they're headed to the tree where her friends are, she better follow. 

Meanwhile, Ratatosk and Snootabur arrive at the offending tree (what a strange sentence). Ratatosk employs his training as a druid and calls out the dryad that lives in the tree. She emerges and smiles down at the animals, calling up fruit from her fingertips for them. Ratatosk and Snootabur try to explain that her fruits are causing Disharmony, but the dryad doesn't take that news well. Sensing the problem, Snootabur tries to explain that they are but small animals, and the fruit is too powerful. The dryad seems to get that and creates a smaller fruit, and hands it over to them.

Ratatosk examines, and realizes that it doesn't much matter how big the fruit is; the dryad's tree isn't a fruiting tree, so anything like this she creates is going to be a problem. They try to explain that, but the dryad makes clear that she hated just producing stupid little seeds ("I eat seeds," mutters Ratatosk) and being ignored by the other creatures of the forest. Ratatosk explains that her bark is very useful for a variety of reasons, but she is unconvinced. 

And just then, Cripke bursts into the clearing and yells that these two are preventing people from eating the fruits, even though everyone in Cairn totally wants to. This angers the dryad, and she starts growing more fruit. Cripke charges forward at Snootabur, but Snootabur curls up into a ball and Cripke pokes his hands up pretty bad on her quills. Ratatosk jumps in and bops him in the nose with his staff, knocking him back and bloodied, and he curls up on the ground whimpering. 

The dryad reaches down for him and Snootabur tries to stop her with her staff, but doesn't manage it. Russelet, however, puts an arrow right in her palm, and she lurches back. Rumdiggle wraps her tail around Cripke and drags him away into the brush, and Ratatosk, realizing that violence isn't really going to solve this, scampers up the dryad's tree to the branches where the chipmunks and birds live.

He casts a spell to speak to them, and convinces them to go down the tree and tell the dryad how much they love her. The animals do, and the dryad pauses, as Russelet and Rumdiggle watch from the brush and Snootabur stands with her staff, guarding. Ratatosk notes that the animals are helping, but that their comments are pretty basic (I likened it to a bunch of kindergarteners trying to talk an adult off a ledge - they're very sweet, but probably not very savvy about what the adult is dealing with).

Ratatosk hops down onto the dryad's head and explains in detail the many ways that her tree fits into the cycle of the forest - creating shade, dropping seeds, housing animals, and so forth. The dryad listens, and finally gets it - it's not about the fruit. She leans down and apologizes to Snootabur and Cripke, and the animals promise to come and visit her and to wake her up in spring. She says she'd like that, and fades back into her tree.

The characters head home to Cairn. Snootabur talks to Whisper and tells him what happened and that he should say hi to the tree on his way through the forest. Rumdiggle drops Cripke off at home and tells him to get some sleep. Ratatosk visits Asta Ringrunner and updates him, and Russelet heads back to his belfry to make some arrows.

The next day, Rumdiggle talks with Sarafina Bushytail, and the two of them do a better impromptu concert to celebrate the musk melons ripening. Cairn enjoys some fruits that don't make them euphoric and addicted, and the village finds some new uses for fruit and ways to store it for winter (raising Morale and Food by 1). 

Next time, we'll see what new adventures these folks get into!

Character Creation: Young Centurions

Well, this game is going on the "run this" list.

The Game: Young Centurions
The Publisher: Evil Hat Productions
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this particular game, but I'm very familiar with FAE and with Spirit of the Century
Books Required: Just the one 

Young Centurions is basically the teen version of Spirit of the Century. You're playing Spirits, folks born at midnight at the beginning of a new century (the 20th, in this case). In SotC, though, you're playing them as adults, while here you're playing them as teens. That means that game takes place before 1920, so there's this whole World War thing happening, and yet the tone of the game still manages to be pretty light. Part of that is because of the author (Carrie Harris, with whom I went to college and did a lot of gaming back in the day); she's really amazing at keeping the tone consistent and accessible. 

Anyway! The game is meant to be playable by younger and less experienced players, and I can honestly say it's one of the better expressions of that idea that I've seen. So, let's make a Spirit!

This being Fate Accelerated, I need to start by deciding a high concept. I also need to figure out what I'm the Spirit of. I feel like I make a lot of characters who are resilient and enduring, and I know I lean on tragedy a lot (this may be because I'm sad most of the time, but y'know, life's like that). So let's say that my guy is the Spirit of Hope. The latter half of the 1910s are pretty dark, and enduring it is one thing, but hoping for something better and daring to dream is another. So my guy is going to be someone who has spent his young life in an orphanage (yes, I'm drawing on Annie, sue me). He doesn't know who his parents were, but he's bought into the story that a lot of orphans have - my real parents are important, and someday they'll find me. 

Anyway, I think Hopeful Orphan is a decent enough High Concept. So now I need a Trouble Aspect. I think that the flipside of hope is that he trusts too easily; he's basically really easily led. Far Too Trusting is a good Aspect.

Now I get three more Aspects, and not a lot of guidance. I definitely want to lean into the whole "orphaned under mysterious circumstances," but I also don't want to have an Aspect that represents something the character doesn't know, so I'll call it No One Will Tell Me What Happened To My Family. 

I suppose it'd be in-genre to take a dog as an Aspect, but I don't want to go full Annie. Actually, I want to swim again the grain here and say that the orphanage is an awesome place to live. The couple who runs it, the Swanns, are caring and honest people, and they just won't place a child with a family that they think won't care for them. Swann's Home for Wayward Children is the Aspect, and it'll represent that I can call on the Swanns for assistance and that the place is important to me, so it's potentially leverage.

One more Aspect, and I think I want something that's a little more intrinsic and beneficial. Nimble Like a Nervous Cat. He startles easily, but he also gets out of the way instinctively. Doesn't mean he's afraid of everything, he's just an easy mark on Halloween.

Strictly speaking I should choose a name and description now, but I'm not quite ready to do that. I'll do approaches first. I get one Good, two Fair, two Average, and one Mediocre. I know I want Clever to be my Mediocre (this guy gets by on guts, not smarts). Conversely, my Good is gonna be Flashy. Fairs can be Forceful and Quick, and that leaves Careful and Sneaky as Average.

Stunts, then! The book says to take at least one, but the usual rules apply (meaning I get three). One needs to be a "Century Stunt", which means the bonus is +3 or do a cool thing twice per session. It needs to be thematically related to my High Concept. I'll make a stunt called Light in the Darkness: Because I'm the Spirit of Hope, twice per session I can spend a Fate point to give a rousing speech that gives anyone who hears it a Fate point.

Cool. I can take two more stunts before I have to start spending refresh. I'll take one called "Want Ta Make Somethin' Of It?" Because I can talk tough, I get a +2 to Forcefully create an advantage by intimidating others.

And then I'll take "Ssh! You'll Wake Mrs. Swann!" Because I'm used to sneaking out of the orphanage with my pals, I get +2 to Sneakily overcome if I'm leading a group.

That means I've got 3 refresh, which is fine. The rest is description!

Obadiah "Obie" Tailor is 14 (meaning that this is set in 1914). He's short for his age, lanky, and has dirty blond hair that falls in his eyes if he's not wearing his newsboy cap (he's basically always wearing it). He's missing one of his front canine teeth and he blows air out of the hole when he's thinking. Obie is always down to sneak out of the house and go raid someone's garden or whatever, but if someone on the block asks for help, he always manages to convince his fellow orphans to pitch in. "How did Obie talk us into this?" is a common question, but it always seems to work out OK. 

And that'll do it!

Legend of the Elements: Conclusion

Well, wasn't exactly planning on ending this game tonight, but it came to a good stopping place. Here's last time.

The characters had fought off Calri and gotten him arrested, and protected Onil from his attempt to murder her. Now, they just need to get Thunas off on the charges against him. The next morning, his trial begins, and the characters bring Onil to the courthouse.

The bailiff lays out the case: Thunas is a foreigner and hasn't spoken in his defense. He's a watershaper, meaning he had the means to destroy the stables. There are witnesses against him (Calri, who of course is probably lying, and also some townsfolk who say they saw him watershaping), and Onil, who could have stopped the disaster with her earthshaping, was knocked unconscious. The court asks if anyone has anything to say in Thunas' defense.

Gerde stands up and says that it wasn't watershaping, but sandshaping that destroyed the stables. Khatun offers to translate for Thunas and he's finally able to give his side of the story. Ember explains what happened to Onil last night, and Feng elaborates on Calri and what happened to him. The characters' arguments are accepted, and Thunas is set free. 

The characters head back to the Honey Blossom to celebrate, and discuss their next moves. They decide that this is where they part ways - it's been a fun adventure, but Gerde and Ember want to head back to Senda. Gerde buys up a bunch of souvenirs to take home as gifts, and heads back to get chorin'. Ember, back in Senda, works on building up the village with her grandmother's help.

Feng heads back to the Temple of the Seven Rings to teach the students, and Khatun sets up a cultural exchange with her people (which basically amounts to bringing teenagers from her tribe to Greycliff and trying to make sure they learn about the city and don't just party all the time). 

So, this might all seem a little anticlimactic; like I said, I wasn't planning on ending the game here and so I didn't have a big thing planned. But I asked the players whether they'd like to keep playing Legend of the Elements or leave it, since we'd come to a good stopping place, and they pretty much all agreed that they weren't huge fans of the system. Legends is PbtA, which is fine in and of itself, but this particular expression of the game is a little shaky.

Two major issues that I identified: First, when you roll a miss, you get Chi, which is used as XP. So far, so good, a lot of PbtA games do that. But Chi is also used to modify rolls, meaning that when you miss, you're deciding between succeeding at what you're doing and advancing your character. Also, I've decided I'm not a fan of mechanics in PbtA that let you turn success to failure outright (a lot of the games have "help" mechanics, but that only boosts a roll, meaning if you roll low enough you're still SOL).

The other issue is the Tag system. Characters don't have health or wounds, they just get tags, which is fine, but they don't mean anything. They restrict actions in the fiction, but they don't have any mechanical impact and therefore it's easy to ignore them, and that means that the stakes aren't clear in a conflict because you can't really get hurt. 

Oh, and, the idea of having shaping be a way to approach basic moves is great, but if you're going to include shaping as a move as well, it needs not to overlap with the basic moves so much. There, I think that's the long and short of it. 

(And like, don't get me wrong, I think there's a lot to like about Legends, I just think the mechanics are a little sloppy.)

So, next time, a new game! We've already picked it, but I'll talk about that next session when we do chargen.