The Pumpkin Society

Omega

2012-02-02T05:00:00.000-05:00

I can feel the gravel crunch under my bare feet as I finally set foot upon the ground where my parents died.

The small sharp pain of the pointed rocks keeps me grounded as I slowly move toward the actual spot of their death. The sublime normality of the ruins doesn't match the echoes that I sense now. The pain of their final moment echoes off of the torn buildings and destroyed tech that liter the landscape. There are pieces of their final words to each other as I sift through these echoes and I can not stop the tears.

I can hear my mother's voice, "I hope he is safe?" I feel like someone has shoved a pulse knife into my stomach. I thought I was strong enough to come here and find out how it happened, but I may have been wrong.

I sense the probe a minute before it begins its attack preparations. I almost sigh in relief that I now have a target for all this pain, no matter how small. I let it assume an attack form and begin its assault. The plasma ejectors turn the ground around me to to lava, but I am unharmed. My personal shield barely shines under the assault, but the echoes are not so lucky. I can feel the tiny bits of that day fading under this new assault. It's like each memory is a tiny gossamer crystal that shines under the first rays of the sun then shatters from the intensity of its own brilliance.

I drop to one knee with the pain of this revelation. I scream inarticulately and thrust out with my right arm and my power flows. The probe ignites into an incandescent flare as all my anger and hatred are brought to bare against it angular form. I don't even let the slag hit the ground as I can ill afford to lose any more memories.

I turn my mind to seeking out the echoes once again. My parents were strong, and their deaths left a great impact here despite it being thirteen years past. It takes but a moment to reconstruct a visual of that fateful moment. It takes but a trickle of my energy to make it real before my eyes.

The large globe spins before my face until a scene can be perceived in the static. My mother is lying on the ground with a bloody wound on her left shoulder. My father stands over top of her deflecting all the myriads of attacks coming at them. The bullets, bolts, and energy fly at such a frantic pace that it is easy to see a few shots get through to actually wound my father as well. I hold my breath as the scene continues to unfold. I can now hear the forces pulling out. The purr of the gravcrafts pulling out is unmistakable. I want to scream at the image. I want to tell them to port out, to repair mother's injuries so she can port them out, anything to stop this scene from reaching its crescendo. Instead, silent tears pour down my face as I listen to the voice of my father. He's apologizing to my mother for not being able to fix her shoulder or stop the bleeding. I am on my knees now hugging myself tight to keep the sobs from coming.

My mother raises her bloodstained hand and lays her fingers on my father's lips and says, "Shhh...We knew how this was going to end. There was only one way for our son to escape. This is it." My father leans down and picks up my mother's weak form and cradles her in his arms. "I hope he is safe?" is the last thing I hear and then the image goes white.

My body is wracked by sobs as I finally know why my parents died. They died so that I could live.

It takes but a thought to pull the sentry droid I sense a few miles way to my location. Space folds and the surprised droid stands and shakes before.

"Broadcast this," I snarl and wait until the droid gives me a signal indicating that it was now broadcasting. "I am not a monster. I am not an abomination. They tell you this so that you will fear me instead of listen. I need you to listen because I am just like you. I was a child once, but my mother and father died so that I could survive. They died here so that I might liveand stop this from happening to others. The council made my parents into alphas, but they were still human. They tried to remove emotions from them to make them more easily controllable. It's not my parents fault that this failed and they fell in love. It's not their fault that they had to die for me to live. My parents were humans and they were alphas."

"I'm human, but I'm not an alpha."

"I'm an Omega."

Underworld: Awakening

2012-02-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

Here there be spoilers, you've been warned.

I love vampire and werewolf movies. I've seen every underworld movie that has been released, so it is no surprise that I went to see Underworld: Awakening on the weekend of its release. This entry into the underworld mythology begins sometime after Michael and Selene have destroyed the two elders that had threatened their lives. The opening scenes are a nice montage of the prior films presenting the back story in an entertaining fashion to get you up to speed with where this film begins.

The backdrop for this new iteration of underworld is that humans have discovered the vampires and the lycans. This discovery has lead to the creation of a pogrom focused on these new minorities. There is even a line in the movie that bears this line of reasoning out. I'm paraphrasing but it says the humans no longer war against each other, they war against our kind. The story begins with us watching as Selene rushes to join with Michael as they flee a city a few steps ahead of the human army advancing on their position. Just so you know, they don't escape. As Admiral Akbar would say, "It's a Trap!" Time passes, violence ensues and we rejoin the plot as Selene is being freed from an icy prison by subject 2. The rest of the movie is a simple mystery to discover what has happened in the intervening twelve years that Selene has been asleep, who is subject 2, and where is Michael?

As I mentioned before, I love vampire and werewolf movies. So, It is no stretch to say that I enjoyed Underworld: Awakening. I will admit that it has its flaws, especially for an fan of the genre. The one major flaw that just annoys me is stupid factor. Yes, I know it is a trope, especially for the underworld series but it still sticks in my craw. Once again we have two immortal races that are facing extinction because nobody bothered to plan for the possibility that humans may discover them at some point. The first two movies present races that strive to keep their conflict from being made public. One would think that the leadership of these two warring factions would have had some sort of protocol in place in the event that humans discovered them. Now, I'm betting that you are going to say that maybe they did have some protocol in place that was predicated on the survival of those two particular elders that were destroyed in the first two movies. I would point out that the first elder destroyed was the one that thought it was a good idea to enslave another immortal race that was as powerful as the vampires and make them the watchers over the vampires while they slept. Not the best move in my opinion, but it did make for an entertaining movie where the werewolves win. I always like that. Another way you can see this stupidity is the scene where Selene and subject 2 take refuge with a coven on the outskirts of the city. The coven comes under attack. The vampires that choose to defend the coven instead of hiding all grab weapons and head to the central chamber like they were cowboys heading to a gun fight. Why would you ever confront an unknown force head on? I know that it makes for a good scene, but a fight where the defenders actually use their advantages can be very compelling as well. I would just like a movie in this genre to be driven by something other than the stupidity of the bit players.

Kate Beckinsale turns in another OK performance. Her main job in this franchise is to run around and look hot in leather and she does that in this movie with aplomb. She does deliver one of my favorite lines of the film though. While at the coven, Selene is coming to terms with subject 2 being her and Micahel's child. When subject 2 touches her and says, "Your heart is cold." Selene replies, "My heart is not cold. It's broken." I found that line, in that scene, very powerful. The only other performances of note are Michael Ealy as Detective Sebastian and Theo James as David. Detective Sebastian serves the purpose of showing the horror of the pogrom as he recounts how he lost his wife after she had been bitten a few years after the initial assault. David serves as the voice of anger as the vampires hide and do nothing to help those that are surviving out in the world. Both actors do a good job in these roles.

Despite these flaws, I enjoyed the movie. If you liked one of the previous Underworld movies, you will like this one.

The Ladder: Flash Fiction

2012-01-27T14:54:00.002-05:00

A bit of flash fiction for Friday.

The Ladder

I consider myself lucky. I don’t do anything particularly difficult but I’m blessed to have a cubicle with a window where I work. I’m even on the top floor of the building that I’m in, even if that is just three stories. The view is nothing spectacular, just a street and a processing plant with many large tanks scattered along its jagged roof top. It provides a nice frame when the sky is cloudy on a nice summer day.

There are times when I look out at the all those tanks and imagine that those objects all have a life of their own. I know that they contain dangerous chemicals as we were trained what to do if there would ever be a leak. There are days when people troop up onto the roof top and meander through the metal forest like a band of engineer priests. They stop at each tank and see that it is given its proper homage and then proceed to the next in their strange perambulations about the roof that I watch from my desk.

It was after an extended visit by these people that I noticed that they had left behind a ladder beside the largest of the tanks. I had seen them leave it there. From this distance, it had seemed that they had turned to the ladder and given it instructions and then left it to its duties. I realized, after several months, the bands of priest mechanics had never returned. All that was left was the lonely, forlorn ladder standing vigil before the largest tank on the roof. It seemed that the necessity of servicing these aluminum gods was a thing of the past and that a single aluminum ladder would now take the place of the dedication of the human hand.

As time passed, It became a ritual to check out my window after the dawn had warmed the horizon to see if the ladder was still at its post. Each morning it was there, as sure as the cock crows in ancient times to meet the rising sun. The ladder provided a touch stone in my otherwise dull and drab life. It would stand its post until needed. There were mornings that I wondered whether it would still be there after the night of storms that it must have suffered, but I was never disappointed when would raise my blind. It would still be there in its place.

It was the day of the storm that things changed. It hit at noon that day. It was the biggest storm of the year, with lightning, thunder, and hail dashing against my window as I worked alone that dark day in June. The wind howled by my desk like a pack of mad wolves seeking the flesh of a lost traveler and the lightning blinded me as much as the darkness kept me ignorant of the danger that was coming. All the wind, hail, and lightning had caused a problem on the largest tank on the roof across from my window. Each lightning strike showed the developing problem in stark contrast to the murky darkness of the storm. I did what I was trained to do and called the emergency line for the factory. A sickeningly sweet voice assured me there was nothing to worry about as the tanks were empty, and that with this storm there was nothing they would do until it was over. I stood there watching the alternating darkness and light around the tank wondering why such an empty tank had such a growing set of pipes along its side. As the storm reached its crescendo and the lightning was striking in quick succession, I saw the ladder finally fall. It did not fall to either side, but straight back onto a small set of controls. The growing pipes quickly went back to normal while the darkness came back to obstruct my view of the poor ladder.

It took three days before a procession of mechanic priests once again walked the roof across from my window. Their path took no perambulations and they quickly came to the fallen ladder. From my desk I could make out looks of astonishment as the valves and meters that seemed to be unharmed in the ladders fall. I could see from the mighty gesticulations of the head these mendicant priests that there was something present in that colossal metal monster. Phones were taken up and calls were made so that more mechanic priests were summoned to the metal forest and all were given proper homage.

I was most happy to see that the ladder was placed back in its spot. It was even given a pat in congratulations of a job well done. That pat made me feel good for the ladder, that it had been rewarded for standing vigil and doing its job. A few weeks later, I was promoted and was going to a whole different office. As I packed up desk, I looked out the window and said a silent thank you to the ladder. It had helped me get through the slow times and saved me from a threat that no one knew was there.

Double Dead

2012-01-16T11:00:00.000-05:00

"A vampire in zombieland."

This is the tag line for the debut novel from Chuck Wendig.

I've been aware of Chuck Wendig for awhile. I first discovered his writing during my fanboy phase with White wolf. He was a freelancer/developer on several game books for White Wolf that I really enjoyed. It took me a little longer to discover Terrible Minds. This is Chuck wendig's blog where he discusses writing, media, cooking, and anything else that catches his fancy. Once I started reading his blog, I was hooked. I really enjoyed his bombastic, over-the-top style and his insightful views on the craft of writing. I know I'm no professional writer, but there is always something there for me as a dabbler in the craft. I picked up his collection of short fiction, Irregular Creatures, and thoroughly enjoyed every one of those stories. When I heard he had a novel coming out from Abaddon Books, Double Dead, I knew I had to pick it up. I do understand that I can be somewhat of a fanboy, and I'm OK with that. I also understand that the best way to tell an author you like there stuff is to buy it and the second best is to send them a tweet. I did both.

The premise of the novel is that a vampire wakes up after an extended period of sleep to discover that a zombie apocalypse has happened. In his weakened state, Coburn the vampire, is almost overwhelmed by a wave of zombies which starts the story off with a bang. What follows is a survival horror story told in the signature Wendig style. The story of Coburn slowly unfolds throughout the book and is an echo of what has happened to the world since the zombie apocalypse. I don't want to talk much more about the story itself as I could easily spoil it and I do not want to do that. I want you to go out and pick up this book and enjoy it like I did. So, I'm going to tell you why I enjoyed and I why I think you might enjoy it.

I've already mentioned that I am a fan of Chuck Wendig's style of writing, but I didn't mention that I am a big fan of vampire fiction as well. When I read the tag line, I was hooked. I wanted to see what could be done with a vampire as the protagonist of a survival horror story. I have to say that I was impressed with how Mr. Wendig handled the topic. I found the Coburn's internal dialogue insightful into the vampire's position in the pre-apocalypse world and how this makes his survival more difficult now despite all his advantages. I especially enjoyed those scenes where his arrogance made his survival suspect. These scenes work best for me because they take the standard zombie trope of stupidity costing a person their life and provides a better reason for the mistake. In particular, the whole Wal-Mart scenario is the best example of this. When you read it, you will know what I'm talking and you'll come back here and say, "You were right Rob." The other reason I enjoyed this book was the use of the power of memory as a thematic element. The standard theme of zombie media is one of consumption and this element is dealt with on several levels throughout the book. The addition of the vampire ensures that this element is dealt with in a more in-depth fashion which was refreshing. But, for me at least, it was flashbacks to both Coburn's far and recent past and the herd's reminiscences about the beginning of the apocalypse that added the greatest depth to this piece of genre fiction. It seemed to be saying that it is our memories of where we came from and who we are that keeps us from turning into monsters.

Now, I think those two things are reason enough for you to go out and pick up this book and enjoy it. In case you need more encouragement, I'm here for you. This books has plenty of action as well. I mentioned the Wal-mart scene earlier and it is one of the most over-the-top horror scenes I've ever read. It was rather disturbing but completely apropos for a zombie novel. The dialogue is also something to behold. I've mentioned that I'm a fan of Mr. Wendig's style and his dialogue does not disappoint in this story. The standard zombie tropes are here for fans of the genre with plenty of finesse to keep them fresh and entertaining. It is quite simply and excellent read and well worth your time. Go pick it up, What are you waiting for?

Comic book Conundrum

2012-01-12T11:00:00.000-05:00

After going on about Ideology of Madness, I thought I would dive into my two problems with comic books currently.

Let me preface this with I really enjoy the comics that I've been reading. I've dropped several books since hoping back on the bandwagon back in September, but the number I'm reading is still significant. This does not change the fact that I do not know what to do with the books after I've finished reading and I am having difficulties getting back into anything other than DC titles.

I understand that my problem with what to do with the books after I read them seems minor. The problem for me is that I do not want to collect comic books. In my first iteration as a comic reader, I was also a comic collector. I had my long boxes with my bagged and boarded issues. I just do not want to have to do that now. I know that I could just throw them in the garbage, but the thought of doing that makes me die a little bit inside. I know that digital copies are an option now, especially with the day and date release schedule that DC has adopted. The problem of that for me is that it cuts out my local comic book shop. I've known the people there for well over a decade and I would feel disloyal picking up my comics from anyone else. My local shop was also nice enough to buy back my first two months worth of issues back for a few bucks which I though was really nice. I've just not taken the latest issues back in to them as I know that it feels weird on my part. This leaves me with a growing pile of comics and several options that leave me feeling conflicted.

The other thing that is getting on my nerves is my inability to find a good jumping on point for Marvel and other titles. I know that supposedly the ".1" initiative with Marvel titles is specifically for this issue. I picked up and x title last week, I believe it was issue 19.1 and dealt with the a new age of Apocalypse. It was horrid. The story was not something that I easily picked up, the art was not enjoyable, and I really am not in the mood for hero on hero action. There was also an Ultimate X-men title that started at issue 1 recently and I gave that a try as well. The art was enjoyable but the story itself left me wit the feeling that I was missing large parts of background. Sadly, issue 2 only reinforced this feeling for me. This problem only becomes compounded when I look at titles beyond the big two.

What I really need are recommendations. How would you deal with the issue of comics when you are done reading them? How would you go about getting into more titles? All advice welcome.

Ideology of Madness

2012-01-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

"If we geek about it, we speak about it."

Ideology of Madness is a website which is home to my favorite podcast, Funnybooks with Aron and Paulie. It is also home to Knights of Reignsborough and Star Trek: Aegean actual play podcasts. It is one website that packs in a large amount of entertainment in one spot.

Why, you may ask, am I talking about a website? For one, I've not really done much with my penchant for podcasts in some time. Secondly, This one website hits on several things I enjoy all in one convenient location. Finally, the production values on this site and its podcasts are phenomenal and deserve discussion.

It is easiest to start with all the ground that this site covers. I've mentioned before that I am a big fan of podcasts. I listen to them at work while I am doing data entry and when I'm working out at the gym. I learned of Ideology of Madness when I started listening to Funnybooks with Aron and Paulie. It was this podcast that lead to my re-entry into comic books. When I began visiting the site itself, I discovered several reviews of different table-top RPGs as well a weekly serialization of a world of darkness game entitled Austin by Night. I was in heaven. I could now get my dose of comic book info and a glimpse of an ongoing game that was both entertaining and well written. It was not long before the site added actual play podcast into the mix with the Knights of Reignsborough. It was a treat to listen to the world-building of a good group of players as well as educational in how to apply the modern gaming sensibility to a more traditional supers game. I was happy when a Star Trek actual play was added to the roster and have been looking forward to the release of each new episode.

The breadth of content contained at the site is what started me visiting the site, but it is the quality that keeps me coming back. The sites release schedule is weekly and I believe it has not missed keeping this schedule the entire time I've been listening. Actually, there have been many weeks where there have been two to three releases a week which have filled my geeky heart with glee. Even during the holidays, when posting can be difficult, there has been something interesting. I especially enjoyed the Christmas music episode. The sound quality of the podcasts have been excellent as well. To my memory, there have only been a few where there was some minor audio issues that did not detract from my enjoyment of the episode. The hosts themselves are also highly entertaining. I look forward to hearing Aron, Paulie, Tim, and Wayne discuss comics, and the people that have been added for the actual play podcasts have brought refreshing points of view. They also run contests on occasion and I find this very refreshing.

I have to say that Ideology of Madness is a phenomenal website. The podcasts are first class, the reviews on the website are entertaining, and the people involved with the site are pretty darn cool. I highly recommend checking the site out and giving a listen to the podcasts.

The Hunger Games

2012-01-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

I received a Kindle Fire for Christmas. It is a nice little tablet with reader capabilities which I decided to try out. I picked up The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I know that it has been out since 2008 and has been a big hit. I just didn't know if this would be something I would like, so I steered clear of it. When I saw it available through Amazon for $4, I thought that was well worth the risk. If I didn't like it, I was only out $4. The surprise was that I enjoyed it.

possible spoilers ahead, so you have been warned.

What I enjoyed most about the book was its call backs to several stories of which I am particularly fond. The Reaping immediately conjured up images of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. As I read the reaping, I could easily see the similarities to The Lottery. The comparison makes sense for me as it highlights the struggle for personal independence versus powerlessness that is a major theme for the Hunger games. It was this connection which elevated The Hunger Games in my perceptions. Katniss is powerless to stop the reaping, yet has the personal capacity to keep Prim from being the tribute this year. The Lottery shows the finality of powerlessness while The Hunger Games shows that even while powerless we have choices. The other short story that sprung to mind as I read the Hunger Games was The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell. The Hunger Games themselves are evocative of General Zaroff hunting men for sport in his own private hunting ground. President Snow is only mentioned in passing throughout The Hunger Games, but it is apparent that he is the master of the arena in which the Tributes fight and die. The arena also reminded me of The running Man, especialy in that the contestants fight for survival was broadcast for the amusement of the masses. Seeing these echos of favorite works increased my enjoyment of this book immensely.

This was my first science fiction book in quite some time. My previous forays into science fiction have been more in line of Dune or Boat of a Million Years. So, something more terrestrial was a bit of a departure for me. The components that are introduced to show off the advanced technology of the setting are interesting. The mockingjay is an example of this technology and has it's own sub-story taking place. Early on, Katniss is associated with the mockingjay. We find out that the mockingjay was designed as a spy by the capital but was abandoned once the birds capabilities were discovered. I see the mockingjay as a foreshadowing of the change in Katniss. The bird was designed for a malign purpose but becomes something beautiful in an otherwise bleak setting. Katniss starts out as a hardened survivor but begins the process of healing and becoming something new. The mockingjay provides a thread which connects Katniss' father, Rue, and Peeta throughout the story. This thread deepened the impact of the flower scene for me.

I recommend giving this book a read. I enjoyed the mix of dystopian future, coming of age, and commentary on reality TV. I look forward to picking up Catching Fire.

2012: The Plan

2012-01-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

A new Year is upon us. With a new year, I will start new goals.

The one important goal that I am going to keep from last year is weight loss. I was able to drop fifty pounds but I know that I'm still a long way from what is my ideal weight. Too that end, I will once again set a goal of thirty pounds. It is lower than what I've lost to date, but I know that the farther along I get the harder it will be. I've learned over the last year what inhibits progress for me and I am going to avoid them as much as possible. Setting a goal too high will seem insurmountable and I will give up before I get started; whereas, I can set a difficult but achievable goal and strive for it. I'm going with the latter. I am going to alter the plan for achieving this a little though. I am going to try to get to the gym four times a week for forty-five minutes each. This should help make progress a bit more fluid. I would also like to take up a more physical hobby. Working out at the gym is fine, but something a bit more entertaining would be nice. I have had two suggestions for activities to date. Some friends have suggested that I take up 5K run/walks and another friend has suggested hiking. For me, hiking has a bit more appeal. I just do not know anything of local trails. I just do not think I could handle coming in last in a 5K or not being able to finish. It would be this fear that would keep me from both enjoying it and participating as much as I am hoping. Any suggestions in this vein would be appreciated.

My second goal is to improve my outlook on life. I've grown more cynical and pessimistic with age. Work, both past and present, only add to a deepening of these conditions. The problem with setting this goal is that it is rather vague. How do you become more optimistic and less cynical? I think a reduction in cursing may be a good start though. I'm a big fan of the f-bomb and all it's relatives. They come from a negative place for me and by lessening their usage I may be able to weaken this deep-seated cynicism I have developed. I will also work on letting go. I'm pretty good at holding a grudge but it requires energy to do this. If I can let go of these things, it will free up resources to allow me try and be more optimistic. I will be doing more research on this topic as the year progresses and trying to incorporate any useful strategies I come across. This will be a difficult task.

I am going to keep a goal for writing as well. Last year I set a goal of twenty-four blog posts by the end of the year, and I achieved it. The problem is that I accomplished it by putting in a large amount of work at the end of the year. I had wanted to get two blog posts done per month, but It didn't work out and it was my fault. So, I am going to set the same goal for 2012. I am going to get twenty-four blog posts done and achieve this by doing two a month.

I have several other minor goals that I want to achieve throughout the year, but I do not think they are big enough to deserve mention here. I want these to be my main focus as they will be the hardest for me to achieve. So, up with goals and down with resolutions!

2011 Goals Finale

2011-12-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

So, the end of 2011 is here. I started this year out a little differently than other years. Instead of making a resolution and failing within a few weeks, I set up goals with a plan to attain those goals by the end of the year.

I can say with pride that I achieved all the goals I set for myself in 2011.

The easiest achieved goal was increased gaming. I started by making plans to run several games at GenCon. I also joined the gaming group of my friends Gabe and Christy. Each of these, along with my regular Saturday group expanded my gaming admirably as well as allowing to meet some good people that I know call friends. I may even be trying to play some Warhammer now as well. I've been able to run games that I've only had limited ability to run here at home as well increased my social circle. The achievement of this goal was both simple and far reaching and I am glad that it was something I set out to accomplish.

I also decided that I needed to undertake some professional improvement. To this end, I began the process to earn my AAS from the International Association of Assessing Officials. I had already taken several courses that were needed for the designation, so I researched the other courses that I needed. I was lucky that my boss was behind getting further education. I took the courses and passed them. I am now at the point that I have to do a project and pass a four hour comprehensive exam to receive the designation. During this time, The state has began the final testing on a new program for all the PVA Offices. I and a coworker have been designated super-users for our region and will be participating in the final testing until the system goes live. Once the system goes live, we will be the ones to spearhead the training of the other PVA offices in our region. I was very proud to be picked for this and am looking forward to it. It does interfere with getting the IAAO designation, but I know that the delay is well worth it. So, another goal met with benefits rolling over into the new year.

This blog was another goal. I set a goal for twenty-four posts for the year, and I achieved it. It was difficult. At first, I was able to keep up with the plan of two posts a month for a few months. Then I slipped from the path, and several times I only posted once a month. Then the blog fell silent. I found it difficult to write and let other things take all my time. It was November when I finally made up my mind to not fail at this goal. I sat down and decided to write about the things I was enjoying. I tried to keep it short and hit on the things I liked or found difficult with whatever topic I was addressing. I was able to make much more progress with this new focus. This allowed me to meet my goal without having to utilize the one sentence post repeatedly.

Finally, I wanted to lose weight. I set a goal of losing thirty pounds. I will admit that I didn't put much effort into this goal initially. I did go to the gym occasionally, but I didn't put any effort into it. It wasn't until after GenCon, that I embraced this goal. I found an app that allowed me to keep track of my food, exercise, and caloric intake. I gave up regular soda and drank only water for a few weeks. I also made it to the gym at least three times a week for at least thirty minutes. The app that I found was a bit archaic and I finally found My Fitness Pal. It does everything I want and allows me to access all the data online as well. I've lost fifty-seven pounds now. It has been a very difficult path so far, and I know that the road is still long. I know that I can continue working on this goal as well, I just have to keep pushing.

So, despite setbacks and other personal difficulties, I consider 2011 a success.

Legion of Super-Heroes

2011-12-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

When I jumped back into comics, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the Legion of Super-Heroes was on the list of DC's new 52. I have always been a fan of the Legion, even when that was all that they were called. I did not buy many issues back in that period, and it was one of the reason that I stopped reading comics. I picked up issue one, written by Paul Levitz and Art by Francis Portella, and I was not disappointed.

It is not really a reboot like most of the other new 52. It begins with a new story arc from the latest continuity. For me, this is not really a problem as they easily point to the Flash Point story line as a wall that can no longer be breached via time travel. This allows stories to continue in this book with little difficulty. I like the story that we pick up with as it both showcases new members of the Legion as well as letting those of us returning to the title get our footing back with our favorite characters. The first issue does a great job of dropping you into the story without awareness of previous story arcs getting in the way. I have to say that I really enjoy the writing style of Levitz. It echoes the style of Legion stories that I remember and made getting back into the title even better for me. His ability to balance exposition and character beats is well done. The two new members that are introduced are well fleshed out and provide a good counterpoint to the more experienced members. I also have to say that I enjoy Portella's art style as well. It too, is reminiscent of the the Legion of my youth. Even with those echoes of the past, it still is clean and crisp, and works well with the subject matter. I especially enjoy the character bios that provide a little blurb of info on each legionnaire as they appear in an issue. The two are a good pairing for this title.

I will admit that this book is of great nostalgic value to me. I remember going to the corner store, that was two blocks away, and picking up my copy of Legion of Super-Heroes. I looked forward to going there once a month and picking up the next issue. It wasn't for awhile that I was able to get someone to take me to Comic Book World where I could discover this thing called back-issues and read even more stories of the Legion. So, it brings about a host of good memories for me. There was no way that I was not going to pick up this title, and I was not disappointed with it in the least. The title is now on issue four and I am still happy with it.

Now I want to go pick up some Legion of Super-Heroes trades.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

2011-12-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

I love spy movies. When I heard that there was going to be another Mission: Impossible movie, I was very excited. I know that others have not been enamored of the series, but I found them enjoyable. The newest edition to the series does not disappoint. I actually enjoyed it more than two and three.

Now, I'm not saying that this is a great movie. I'm saying that I enjoyed it and would watch it again if given a chance. I understand that I enjoy things that are not necessarily great.

There was one thing that I found distracting in Ghost Protocol, and that was the comedy. now, I'm not saying that there is no place for comedy in a spy movie, but I think it serves more of a lessening the tension before building it back up. I even enjoy comedic spy movies. Recently, Tom Cruise did Knight and Day which is just such a movie. The comedy in this movie actually accentuated the genre and made for a good movie-going experience. In Ghost Protocol, most of the comedy felt poorly time and flat. Even its delivery by Simon Pegg did nothing to change this for me. I also may have seen a scene as comedic that was not meant to be so, but this means that the framing was done poorly and the sense of tension was lost. Each time this occurred, it was jarring for me and took me out of the experience. The movie would have been better served with less levity.

Despite this, I still enjoyed the movie. It hits all the tropes that make me enjoy a spy movie. A team of agents traveling around the world to accomplish an absurd goal. Yes, I said absurd. I will refer you to the three other movies plots to verify that the missions are absurd. I also enjoyed the style in which the plot was revealed. It proceeds just like a magic trick, this works well with the franchise. I especially liked that the prestige was not something flashy, but more of a character beat. I found that a refreshing change of pace. The focus on the group dynamic was also good. The movie did a good job of showing how each member of the team is damaged in some manner, but that it is as a team that they are at their best. This simple change is why I liked Ghost Protocol better than the two previous entries into the series. It shows more character development as well as the power of the group. I know you are out there shaking your head at me and pointing to the picture of Tom Cruise in the corner. Yes, He is the star and has the lions share of the screen time, but more effort was put into showing you the necessity of the team this time. This, for me, made it better.

If you like spy movies, I say give this movie a try. It is not without its flaws, but overall delivers a good time. If you are not a fan of the genre, I would recommend waiting for the movie to hit Netflix.

Hard Magic: Grimnoir Chronicles Book I

2011-12-21T18:00:00.000-05:00

I haven’t done a book review in awhile so I thought I would do a short review of Hard Magic by Larry Correia.

I’ve recently become enamored of the steam punk genre, and when I picked up this book it had the feel of steam punk with an alternate history for America circa 1930. The initiating event for the departure from the standard timeline is the advent of people with magical abilities. These abilities range in power from the minor to the world-breaking. These individuals have a singular ability from the ability to control gravity, making themselves stronger and tougher, to being super-intelligent. This changes the course of history and leads to the rise of dirigibles being safe and effective forms of travel and other oddities. This is the world in which this story is set.

The protagonist of the story is Jake Sullivan. He is a Heavy, which is a person with the capability to control gravity. We meet Jake as he is working as a private investigator working for the FBI to earn his freedom from prison. He is working on the last case he needs to complete to earn his total freedom, but nothing is what it seems. He is asked to bring in a woman from his past that is accused of being a murderer. In his attempt to apprehend her, he is introduced to a whole new world that of which he was not aware. Jake's trip into this shadowy world of powered individuals provides us with a deeper look into both Jake and the world in which he lives.

I really enjoyed the book. It does a very good job of portraying superheroes in an entertaining fashion. The explanation that the story provides for the reason that these magical powers exists is interesting and how the world was transformed by this is unique. I also like the combination of a superhero story with a hardboiled detective/noir story. The dark and gritty feel provides a good counterpoint to the strong sense of right and justice espoused by the protagonist, Jake Sullivan. I really enjoyed the chapter headings which provided small glimpses of the changes brought about by the talented individuals throughout history.

If you are looking for a good entrance into the steam punk genre, I would highly recommend picking this book up. The characters are well done and engaging, and the story is fast moving and entertaining. I believe book 2 has been released recently entitled Spellbound.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

2011-12-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

I went and saw Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. So, I thought I would put up my thoughts about the movie.

No worries though, there are no spoilers here.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law play off of one another well. The first movie gives you a clear picture of their fun, but dysfunctional relationship. This movie deepens this relationship while spotlighting the strengths that each individual possesses. I think that the strength of the relationship between Holmes and Watson is the part that makes this movie work for me. It serves to provide an anchor for the free wheeling performance of Robert Downey Jr and allows Jude Law's more steady style to shine. It also provides an underlying thread to the plot. This makes the sometimes disparate elements cohesive.

My two favorite additions to the cast were Jared Harris and Stephen Fry. Stephen Fry plays the part of Mycroft, Sherlock's brother. His scenes in the movie are few, but each is funny and enlightening. His presence in the film further highlights the relationship between Homes and Watson. He illustrates what Sherlock could have become without his friend Watson. We are shown it would have been a good life, just as odd but not the same. I enjoy Jared Harris' performance for the same reason. He brings a more focused and malevolent feel to his scenes. He plays an excellent villain without truly overshadowing the hero. He too, plays the part of a lens for viewing Holmes. Here is someone with the same intelligence and steel as Holmes but lacking a moral compass. Moriarty and Moran's relationship is a dark mirror of the relationship of Holmes and Watson. The addition of these two actors, playing these two parts help make this movie as good as the first.

After watching the movie, It led me to think about table-top RPGs. Yes, I know, I'm weird. It illuminates the possibility of high-end play. I have an innate loathing for all things low-level. I don't want to work my way to the top in a game. Instead, I want to be one of the people at the top and dole out beatings liberally. From the chatter on the intertubes, I know that this is not the case for others. There are even arguments that most systems, 4E in particular, that can not deal with this type of play. I think this movie shows that this type of play is possible, even if the mechanics have trouble supporting it. Here we have opposing forces, at the top of their game. You see nations being used as pawns, while the true power is in the hands of a few individuals. The true tension arrives from the possibility of one of the parties making a mistake. You can do this in any system. I think that this style of play actually works best in the narrative style game more easily. There, when you run, you listen to your players and let them lead you through the story. More traditional games encourage a more controlling running style, which makes it much more difficult to do high powered games. I know that I plan to use some ideas that I have seen in this movie in my next Scion game.

Animal Man

2011-12-13T10:29:00.001-05:00

Animal Man was a title I was familiar with from his appearances in other comics back when I was a comic reader, but I never actually picked up his title when it was out. To be honest, I was not going to pick it up during the relaunch, but after listening to everyone on Funny books gush about it I had to pick it up. I'm glad I did.

First let me state that this is not your typical superhero comic. Yes, Animal man has pretty standard super powers. Yes, he puts on a costume to fight crime. This is just set dressing for a different type of story. It is a family horror story. The one thing that sets Animal Man apart from other heroes is that he has a family and works hard to keep that connection. Despite heading off into inter-dimensional adventures, he always comes back home to his wife and children. They are his touchstone and provide grounding that I've not seen in any of the books that I am reading. This begins the process of setting this book outside the norm of superhero comics. It uses this family setting to further distance itself from the genre by taking a horror tact. The book started off with a brief reintroduction to who Animal Man is both as a hero and a family man. We are given a sense of his home life being something that is normal despite being a hero. This is exemplified by his conversation with his daughter about why they can't have a pet. It's not that she won't take care of it, but that it will interfere with his powers. This innocuous line is a setup. It shows the domestic nature of Animal Man's life, but becomes a kidney punch when his daughter animates the skeletons of the dead pets in the neighborhood. It is this basis in normality which gives this story so much power. We can connect with the parent's fear for their child. It takes what could easily be an over-the-top scene and brings it down to a more personal level. It is a very visceral scene. It further plays with the superhero tropes by introducing the villains of the arc. We are introduced to three demons, masquerading as humans, who wish to corrupt Animal Man's daughter. This very standard villain is given a much bigger punch due to the direct threat to his family. This makes it very easy to amp up the horror as a superhero is normally the one in control of the situation, but fear is readily communicated to the reader that Animal Man desperately doesn't want to fail.

The story is currently on issue four. We get to watch the family get split up and face threats on each end. Animal Man has to take his daughter on a trip that only she knows where they are going, while his wife has to stay home and watch over the home and their son. Jeff Lemire's story is a wonderful horror story set in the superhero genre. I find it engaging and visceral and I look forward to each new issue. The art was a problem for me at first. It is not the clean crisp art that I have come to expect from the new DC relaunch. It has a dark gritty rough feel to it that was a bit off-putting at first. After going back and rereading the first issue, the art itself enhances the horror feeling of the story making it even better. It was a bold choice with a big pay-off.

I highly recommend picking this up and giving this gem a read.

Dead Iron: The age of Steam

2011-12-04T19:59:00.001-05:00

"America was built on blood, sweat, and gears."

This is the tag line for the new novel by Devon Monk. The setting is an alternate American West. In this world, the steam engine isn't the height of the steam age, just the herald. In this world werewolves and witches exist, but are not a public phenomenon. In this world, witches and werewolves know and fear The Strange.

I just recently finished this novel, and have to admit that I was drawn to it by the idea of a western, steam punk, werewolf, fantasy story. Yes, that is a whole pile of stuff there, but the idea was intriguing. Normally, I am not a fan of the western genre, but the idea of the main character being a werewolf made for a good bridge for me. I've dipped my foot into the steam punk pond through Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series. It turns out that this was a good idea to pick it up.

The primary protagonist of this little tableau is Cedar Hunt, a man with a past. He has came to Hallelujah, Oregon in the hopes of finding a place to settle without being a threat. He was cursed by a Pawnee god to change into the form of a wolf and hunt The Strange. He readily fills the role of the lone gunslinger trope for this western. We learn that he believes that he was the cause of his brother's death, and that he has traveled west to fulfill the need of the curse while limiting the amount of people he is around. He is the bounty hunter for the town, and takes care of problem predators for ranchers and farmers alike. The main plot begins with the news of a child gone missing from a locked room and the rumor that the boogeyman had taken him. This seemingly straightforward premise takes off and easily spreads out to give a greater picture of the world in which theses characters live. Mrs. Monk makes good use of third person narrative in this book. In using it, the reader is given a much better view into the working of the world in which the story is set. Each new character adds to the meat of the world and provides a more in-depth perspective and the happenings of Hallelujah. The cast expands to include the story of the main villain of the piece, Shard Lefel. He is an exiled prince from another dimension and has used his knowledge of devising and the magics of his world to use the railroad to make it possible for him to return home. The catch is that he only has three days left, and needs the deaths of three particular individuals to be able to perform this feat. He needs a Dreamer, someone cursed by a god, and a witch. He has kidnapped the son of the blacksmith, and has killed Jeb Lindson three times to free the witch, Mae to be a part of his Sacrifice. The cast of characters also includes the Madder brothers, Miners who are more than they appear, and Rose Small, a young lady with skills and dreams not fit for a woman.

I have to say I enjoyed the book. When I first started reading, the western patois was a bit jarring but it only took me a few pages to become comfortable with it. I also enjoyed the facility with which Mrs. Monk played with the stereotypes of the era. Each character has something that plays against type. Cedar Hunt is the best example. He is the Lone Gunslinger, but hails from the east and was university educated. This is something that isn't easily seen by the townsfolk, and is echoed in the other character's assessment of Hunt. I found this clever, engaging, and it created another layer to the narrative which was unexpected. The trappings of steam punk were both a hindrance and a boon. There were places in the story that I would be lost in the description of some 'Matic which detracted from the story, but there were spots when these same descriptions added greater depth to a character or a scene. I loved it when it worked and just wished that it had worked every time it was used. I've also already mentioned the good usage of third person, but I think it bears repeating that this made this an enjoyable read. It seems that first person is the accepted norm, but I would like to see more stories in this style.

If you are a fan of Steam Punk, westerns, or non-standard fantasy, I recommend picking up this book. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Change

2011-11-27T18:01:00.001-05:00

Change, It'll do you good. At least that's what the song says. Me? I say change is hard. I started this year out with the idea of making some personal changes. You always hear that you should try to make a difference in someone's life, but they don't tell you that maybe that life should be your own.

Like I said, I wanted to make some personal changes but have not had much luck with it before. This time I tried something different. Instead of making vague resolutions or promises, I set goals. One of those goals was to lose thirty pounds before the end of the year. Let me tell you, This was a difficult goal. I had very little luck with this throughout the year. It was at a doctor's visit in August that I finally entered the head space necessary to make some progress. Life settled down and I began to work on this goal, in earnest, in September. As I began the necessary dietary changes to start the weight-loss, I also did some introspection. I know that I am my own worst enemy when it came to this project, but I didn't really understand why.

It took a bit of poking and prodding, but the one major thing that surfaced in my self-analysis was that I didn't really value myself. It sounds pretty crappy, but it is the truth. I do not mind working myself hard to help out friends or family, but that same level of dedication I can not bring to a project that will only benefit myself. The other thing I realized is that eating is a defensive mechanism for me. If I'm angry, sad, or unhappy, a big meal will fill up the dark hole. These two problems are a killer team when working on weight-loss. When faced with problem situations, you no longer have your tried and true resolution. It puts you into a bind as to how to handle the situation. You may be wondering how I have managed to beat my goal in three months with two large roadblocks in place. My answer is that denial isn't just a river in Egypt. I've turned the first problem into a benefit. It is easy to deny yourself things if you put no value on your own being. The other answer has been evasion and churlishness. I avoid the emotional issues as much as possible, but tend to get angry more often and have a lower tolerance as well.

Let me just say that theses are not good answers to the problems. I am well aware of this. I'm actually trying to create a better coping mechanism than eating. It is not an easy task to replace something that seemed to serve me so well for forty years. I've made the first step by admitting it was a bad behavior, but finding a replacement is a Sisyphean task. I think one of the things that I have to learn is that there are things I can not do anything about, and this is OK. I do not have to have an answer foe everything, and I do not need to have some sort of contingency for everything. The other thing I'm trying to do is not punish myself so much either. Eating was an easy way of punishing myself without anyone ever really noticing. I would appear to be happy eating at the Chinese buffet, but I was completely aware that this was not good for me and working me towards an early grave. That sounds pretty harsh, but it is the truth. I am trying to make myself believe that this is a good thing to change, but this is more difficult. Right now, I doubt the veracity of that statement. I'm trying to see it as true, because the continued forward progress really hangs on getting that to be an internally true belief.

I hope I can make that change happen.

New Guardians

2011-11-20T17:11:00.001-05:00

I've mentioned before that I've started reading comics again. I've always been a big fan of of Green Lantern and the related books. In the New 52 from DC, I picked up all the Green Lantern Titles in hope of renewing my fondness for this suite of characters. When I saw that they were doing a New Guardians book, I squee'd a little. I can remember the first time that the idea of New Guardians cropped up in comics during my reading them. It was a Guardian and a Zammoran had decided to come to earth to create the next generation of immortals to shepherd the universe into a new age. In the end, the series was a disappointment. It broke ground by having a character that had aids, but it never lived up to the hype of creating a new set of guardians. The characters were relegated to a few appearances then discarded.

I am intrigued with the idea of trying to start up another set of guardians in this modern era. I've mentioned before that I'm tired of the Guardians as a plot device. Their over-weening arrogance coupled with their near omnipotence is tiresome. From the Blackest Night to the current Green Lantern story line, the guardians are more of a crutch than a useful set of characters. I wince when they are alone in a panel, knowing that some pedantic pronouncement will soon follow. So, I picked up this book with great expectations.

The book opens with the story of Kyle Rayner receiving his ring from Ganthet, the only interesting Guardian. I had stopped reading Green Lantern before Kyle had received his ring, so getting a glimpse of how he got his start in the corp was entertaining. I especially appreciated being shown that he was a natural with the ring. Tony Bedard spends some time showing us how active and involved Kyle is as a Lantern, and then cuts to scenes of other colored rings abandoning their wielders and heading out. What ensues is the arrival of all the lone rings at Kyle's location and a battle royal between he and the other Corp members hunting their errant rings. In an attempt to make some sense of what is going on, Kyle and the other Lanterns head to Oa to find some answers. Here, Kyle discovers Ganthet has been lobotomized by his fellow guardians and comes under attack by his own superiors. The individual rings place themselves on Kyle as the cliffhanger ending of issue three. I am enjoying the story line as the idea of one person wielding all the rings is something I would like to see. It just highlights my reasons for hating the guardians which is another plus in my book. The art is crisp, clean, and very well done. It is an all around good book.

So far, I'm on board. I have never read a Kyle Rayner story and he is a very interesting character. The mystery of the rings leaving their wielders and choosing Kyle is an interesting plot that I would like too see completed. I am waiting for some hint as to why the title is New Guardians, and hope that it involves the loss of several more guardians if not their total elimination.

I have my fingers crossed.

Fantasy Foibles

2011-11-12T17:17:00.001-05:00

I mentioned in a previous post that I am playing Pathfinder, but outside of one game I'm not to enamored with it. I was a little off-base to blame Pathfinder, as it is all traditional fantasy of which I have grown bored. Pathfinder, like other versions of D&D just highlights my problems with the genre. Now, one of my pet peeves has only to do with traditional fantasy RPGs while the others have to do with the genre as a whole.

My problem with Pathfinder and it's ilk stems from its level based design. I agree that it gives a good way of measuring progress, but in the end you are not a very competent character at the beginning. The trope is that you are leaps and bounds above the common man, but a wolf will still eat you for breakfast. This is my recreation. I want to be competent. If I wanted to struggle with mundane challenges, I would go to work and shuffle paper not play D&D. I've been playing for over twenty years and I have played enough low level characters to understand that I hate it. It is not my bag, baby. When I state that I don't enjoy this level of play I get the same tired aphorisms trotted out as well. "You can't get into your character unless you bring him from level 1." Really!?!? I can write a back story book just as good as the next geek, and talks of immersion in D&D are just like an addict chasing a high. In the end, I want to be Porthos, not some poor mook trying to make it through to the next encounter. Just telling me that I am one in a million does not change the fact that if I fall off my horse I could die.

This ties in neatly with why I'm bored with the genre as a whole. I'm tired of the tropes. They do nothing for me in their current forms. I think the worst is "the prophecy". Nothing causes me more angst than a story that starts out with a prophecy foretelling of a great warrior from simple means. It is tired and trite, and the only way I've seen it freshened up is when it is used in a modern setting. Next on my list is the trope of a world filled with magic and the hero has none. The village idiot becoming the savior is just mind-numbing for me. I have to say dwarves and elves are pretty tiresome as well. I will admit that I do not have fresh eyes, and have read a fair bit of bad fantasy fiction throughout my life. I've then had those same bad tropes repeated to me in the form of adventures where any deviation from the story line was tantamount to treason. So, fantasy tropes are leaving me cold unless they are given a modern twist.

I also do not like the disconnect that seems built in to the genre as well. The hero is an orphan/foundling/last of his city. I want to see the character that gets up and heads out because he has something to fight for and to come home too. I want to see a character agonize over choices because he has someone that they will affect back home. You can not even get that in D&D either. Most characters have no family. If you do create a family, it is never brought into play. I think I could give a story a chance if it was built from the principle and moved forward.

this is not to say that I am not enjoying the one Pathfinder game I am in. I am, but I just have no room for much more of that type of story. I want to be competent and connected. I don't want to spend my time wandering from encounter to encounter with a nothing but a dim prophecy as my guide. I would rather be Harry Dresden than a D&D wizard because at least I could stand toe to toe with the things that go bump in the night. I would be a scary individual myself.

I apologize for the rant, but I needed to get this off my chest.

Red Lantern

2011-11-10T17:54:00.001-05:00

I've started back reading comics again. I attribute this to two things. First, I listen to FunnyBooks with Aron and Paulie, which is a podcast about comics. It is about the best podcast I've found on comics to date. The hosts are entertaining and insightful, and their weekly release schedule is awesome. After listening to the show for several months I felt like I might want to give comics another try. Cue reason two! DC Reboots their universe with 52 titles starting in September. I've always been a DC fan and it dovetailed with my reinvigorated interest nicely. So, I started picking up comics again.

Now, you are most probably asking yourself what this has to do with Red Lantern. Well, It has everything to do with Red Lantern. It is one of the books I started picking up with DC's new relaunch and I am really enjoying it. The problem is, FunnyBooks isn't really talking about it. So, I am forced to actually discuss it here on my own little piece of the internet.

I have to say that I am enjoying this book immensely. The story by Peter Milligan is interesting and the art by Ed Benes is fantastic. This book is not really a reboot as it was never it's own title, so it continues with the story of the Red Lantern's from the pages of the prior Green Lantern books. The main character is Atrocitus, the creator of the Red Lantern. One of his goals has been accomplished with the apparent death of Krona. The story is about Atrocitus dealing with the existential crisis of having a seemingly impossible goal achieved by the hands of another. I am really digging the soul searching of a monster. The book shows you the both the value and the price of rage through the lens of a monster whom has lost his capacity for rage. I think that is core reason I love this book. It shows both sides of the coin with out telling you which is the one you should value. Another reason I love this book is the lack of guardians. I hate the guardians. They are a stale prop that should have been shuffled off screen many years ago. In this book, you see the character deal with the power of the ring he wields, and make decisions for a Corp without the overbearing arrogance that always pervades anything with a guardian in it. It is both about grandiose ideas, and the simple need to have someone with whom to share your problems.

The book is three issues in so far, and I am hooked. It does lead me to a rant about another book I'm reading and I think I'll write about that soon.

An update

2011-11-06T14:52:00.003-05:00

Howdy!

I've been away for a bit, but thought I would get back into the saddle and put a few more pixels on the internet for other's perusal.

I think I will start back with something simple, an update.

So, I started this year with some goals. So, that will be the best way to get back into this. I had three goals. I wanted to lose thirty pounds, do more gaming, write more on my blog, and engage is some personal improvement. I think I'll tackle the one that I've had the most success with so far. I bet you think I'm going to say gaming, but you're wrong. It's weight loss. I know, who would have think it. I started the year at a whopping 320 lbs. For most of the year, I fitfully rotated around the number by a few pounds. It was at the end of September when I started looking for an app to help me keep track of what I was eating. I found one that was free but not really all that impressive, but I used it any way. I also gave up regular sodas at that time as well. I went to the Doctor in Oct for a diabetic checkup and I weighed in at an astonishing 293 lbs. The Doctor was pretty much shocked at my progress. A few weeks before going to the doctor I had finally found an app that I was happy with called my fitness pal. So, told her everything that I was doing and the app that had made it a bit easier on me and she was very happy. It turned out that my A1C, a measure of diabetes, was at 5.8 with 5.7 being normal. She took me off of one of my diabetic medications and is hoping for more weight loss. I am hoping for it as well. I was at 288 at my last weigh-in at the gym which puts my total weight loss for the year at 32 lbs and over my goal. I still have a little while left in the year and hope to end a few more pounds down.

Gaming is where I have made more progress but not as spectacular as weight-loss. I have been doing much more gaming this year, and for this I am happy. I have already posted about the good time I had GenCon 2011. I've also joined a new group and have played some Vampire and Pathfinder. Even though it is going well, it has not been perfect. I've learned a few things about my own personal tastes as well as had a failed experiment or two. I tried and experiment using DC Adventures and integrating a cooperative gaming style into the mix. It turned into a nightmare. I stopped the game and stopped playing with that group for a few months. I've gone back to give it another go, but what I've learned about my personal tastes is proving difficult. I've came to the conclusion that I have only so much tolerance for standard fantasy, which includes Pathfinder and older editions of D&D. I really only have room for one game of it. Any more and my skin starts to crawl. The other thing I've came to find out is that I despise games that require me to be incompetent which easily encompasses Pathfinder and D&D of any edition. In the Pathfinder game I'm currently playing, I've allayed that feeling of loathing by playing a barbarian. The ability to do damage and stay in the fight has made the low levels a bit more palatable, but comes at the cost of me playing a one trick pony. It is an imperfect solution, but it is all I have currently. I have learned that I am a big fan of the new races that have been introduced in 4E, and realize that having something similar in Pathfinder would make me enjoy that system much more. Overall, I've met my goal for gaming.

Personal improvement is a rather nebulous statement, but I've made it measurable by focusing on work and education. I've taken two classes this year towards getting my IAAO AAS Certification. I've passed both classes and am very proud of this accomplishment. I will begin the process next year of getting the certification completed which will involve a class review and seeing if I need anymore classes, a case study of a jurisdiction, and a four hour comprehensive exam. It should be extremely difficult, but I am looking forward to it. I've also been trying to be less negative and more optimistic. I've done better with my negativity, but all optimism has done is left me disappointed. I don't know how those optimists out there do it. The consistent disappointment is soul-crushing. So, I will call that a goal met as well.

My one failure so far is this blog. I wanted to have twenty-four posts by the end of the year. At this point, I am a wee bit behind. I have about seven weeks in the year, but those weeks are filled with holiday fun and frivolity. So, I wil have to buckle down to get some more posts done by the end of the year as well as making sure the holidays do not undo all the progress made on my previous goals.

Keep your fingers crossed and watch this space.

GenCon 2011

2011-08-08T12:35:00.003-04:00

So, today is first day back from Gencon. It was good time over all, and I thought I would record my thoughts here.

I arrived on a Thursday this year which made everything seem a bit rushed at first. It was very different to not have the buffer of a day before everything gets going. I had to hit the ground running as I had a game to run at 7 p.m. and had things to accomplish beforehand. The people at GM HQ were very nice and explained what I needed to do. I then was able to hit the Burning Wheel booth and pick up BW gold. I was also able to pick up Part-time Gods while my friend chatted with people from Gutbusting games about helping them out during the show.

I was very nervous about my first game of of the Con. I ran Houses of the Blooded and was anxious for others to like the game as much as I do. I had a full table of really nice people. I had one gentleman that had a bit more experience at the table and he volunteered to help out the blind lady that played the Fox. The only disappointing thing about the game was that I could not find anyone in the exhibitor's Hall that was carrying the book, so half the group was unable to pick up the book right then. I did direct them to John Wick's website, but I felt bad that they could not pick it up the next day.

the rest of my games followed the same mold. Everyone had a good time, and were very interested in picking up the books. Luckily there were several vendors carrying the Dresden Files RPG, and the players had no trouble picking up the books.

There were two highlights for me this time around. The first was getting to play in Rob Justice's Ven Ghost Story. He ran a Houses of the blooded game at his room for a group of people and it was awesome. I have to admit that I am a shy guy, but Rob did a wonderful job of getting everybody moving and keeping us moving in a direction. I was given facts about my character that took me off guard, but I rolled with it and finally came out swinging with my dueling Bear. Excellent time and an excellent game! The second highlight was again the media meet and greet. I was able to hang out with Michael from Zero Fortitude again which was excellent. Rob Justice, of Bearswarm fame, also dropped by and say with us for bit which was awesome. Mike and Darryl, also of the Bearswarm, dropped by and sat and chatted with us as well. On top of this greatness, I also was able to meet Meg and Josh from the Brilliant Gameologist and was hopefully not that annoying fanboy. It is always so nice to meet someone you listen too on the Internet and they are cool in-person as well.

The only downside for the con for me was the constant schlepping from the Marriott to The Crown. On Sunday, my feat were blistered and my back was hurting. The plan is to try and be less of a fat-bastard by next GenCon.

Hounded: The Iron Druid Chronicles

2011-07-13T14:28:00.004-04:00

Hounded: The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne is an urban fantasy novel I picked up after reading John Scalzi's Big Idea on his blog Whatever. I have always been a big fan of druids. I remember reading about them in elementary school and being fascinated by them ever since. So, after finding this book on Mr. Scalzi's blog, I had to pick it up.

The hero of the story is Atticus O'Sullivan and he is the last of the druids. He has survived for the past 2100 years by running and hiding. This how he ended up in Arizona. It is in the middle of the desert with little of interest to the gods of his pantheon giving him time to settle down and get somewhat comfortable. The problem with comfort is that sometimes one gets lazy and this is the beginning of the trouble in Hounded. Atticus had previously taken great steps to conceal his nature, but in Arizona he put down roots and used a name very close to his own. This, combined with an Internet presence, leads his enemies straight to his door. I really enjoyed this as a way to begin the action and then to keep it rolling. Hearne's, good name for writing about a druid don't you think, writing is quick and light making it very easy to get sucked into the world he is weaving around Atticus.

The world is populated with other colorful and intersting character, even an Irish Wolfhound that Atticus shape shifts to hunt with on occasion. Each character is introduced well, and given depth so that you you are interested to learn more about them. I am hoping for a story dealing more with the local werewolves, but I am a big fan of werewolves and am a bit biased. The cast includes a coven of double-dealing Witches, a law firm staffed by vampires and werewolves, Celtic gods, and bartender with a secret.

I think my favorite part about the book is how Hearne sidesteps the whole marty-stew issue. Atticus has survived not by being the biggest bad-ass. He has survived by running, hiding and learning. The story progresses to show these traits throughout, but allows Atticus to bloom into the hero that I am accustomed to in urban fantasy. The world that Hearne is portraying is very intriguing and Atticus is a refreshing take on the Hero. If you are a fan of Urban Fantasy, I highly recommend picking up Hounded, you won't be disappointed.

Gaming Academia

2011-06-30T19:35:00.005-04:00

The podgecast's episode this week really struck a chord with me.

I would say that I've been a traditional gamer my entire life, and just discovered the ideas that are presented in the indie rpg community in the past three years. I will admit that I had heard of the ideas presented within the indie rpg community before this, but had viewed them more from a cromagnon perspective. Smart people scary, smash with club! The thing that caused me to look at these things with a more open mind is exactly the same thing that David mentions in this episode. I am paraphrasing here, but he says It may be just a hobby but I still want to get better at it. So, not only are they discussing something which I've been contemplating for some time now, but Luke and David and Kevin from The Walking Eye are people that I've come to respect their opinion on these topics.

Luke quickly hit on my issue with gaming academia, which is the sense of elitism that you run into in this community. I completely agree with Kevin in that the progress being made here is awesome, and we need these things in gaming. The barrier for me has been and still is the the overweening sense of superiority I've run into within the community. For me, this attitude causes me to engage an anger reaction which always interferes with me trying to pick up a new behavior. So, it makes it difficult for me to make progress, which in turn makes it harder for me to integrate into any game that I am running due to my understanding being imperfect and the players then not wanting to waste time. I have personally abandoned looking at the Forge and such for ideas and now instead use The Walking eye, The Podgecast, The Brilliant Gameologists, and Theory from the Closet as more of filter for these topics for me. They discuss the various games that utilize these new ideas and present them in an accessible and entertaining format. Hell, I've purchased Burning Empires due too how much fun the Podgecast made it sound and used The Walking Eyes Actual Play episodes of the Dresden Files to get prepared to run it for the first time.

In the end, Kevin and David were on the side of gaming academia being good and necessary with Luke still thinking that there is only so far that gaming can go. I have to agree with Kevin and David as I think that "thinking" about the hobby and pushing it to be better is a good thing. The thing that I think they missed was their position in gaming academia. Kevin mentioned it partially when he was talking about the people he would listen to in regards to new gaming ideas. I hope they realize that they actually fulfil that lens function for the community by talking about these ideas. They have made them more understandable and allowed me to begin utilizing them. Also, they are a reference I am able to provide to my players when they ask questions or want to better understand something that I am doing in-game.

Green Lantern

2011-06-21T13:40:00.008-04:00

I went and saw Green Lantern Last weekend. I am a big fan of the ringslinger myself. I really enjoyed Blackest Night and Brightest Day which I know many people did not. I tried to go into the movie with my expectations in check. I did have a few reservations though, and it ended up that they were well founded.

Oh, and just so you know, this is kind of spoilery.

The movie heads of in a bad direction when it has it's two main villains being Hector Hammond and Paralax. Hector Hammond is a lame villain in the comic books, and he gets no better treatment in the movie. Hector Hammond is little more than the stereotype of the abused nerd. The movie wastes some if its star power on Tim Robbins to play Hector's overbearing and uncaring father. Instead of making you feel bad for Hector, it makes you feel that they pretty much deserve each other. There are a few more scenes trying to engender some sense of pity for Hector, but never bridges the gap between caricature and character. Paralax is even worse. You are told that Paralax used to be a Guardian, one of the immortals who had created the Green Lantern Corp, that had succumbed to the siren song of the yellow energy of fear. In the end he could not be defeated, only imprisoned. The movie opens with him being freed and going on a rampage across the universe. Paralax is the main villain of the piece and he is just a head with an cloud like body the size of the moon. We have a minor villain that is nothing but a caricature and a main villain that is an anthropomorphic cloud. Neither of these provide a vehicle visceral connection with a character in the movie. One would have thought that people would have learned from the Fantastic Four that a cloud villain is a definite snooze-fest.

It continues to go off the rails by just being boring. There are a few bright spots scattered throughout the movie but they rare. There are plenty of scenes that should be filled with tension or excitement but fall flat. One such scene is when Hector is brought to the secret military compound to autopsy Abin Sur. I was expecting a feeling of awe, but felt no connection whatsoever. The most egregious example is the climactic battle between Hal and Hector. Here is where we should have some scenery chewing effects and an epic battle over the love interest. You can't really do this battle with the poop monster from outer space since it just kills whatever it touches. This scene is the complete opposite of epic. There are a few small things thrown about ending with both character knocked down. All in all, a big let down. I would have even appreciated slapstick prat falls at this point instead of the incredibly banal fight that we ended up receiving. Even the ringslinging 101 was boring. Sinestro and Kilowog consistently beat Hal down during training, all while making statements that the enemy will show no mercy. Not a single one of these lessons is used in the battle with Hector. In the final battle, Hal uses a statement from Kilowog to beat the invincible poop monster. Which makes me wonder why Paralax was ever a threat anyway.

In the end, I have to say that Green Lantern was a bad movie. I go to movies to be entertained, and I actually fell asleep for a small part of this movie. I should never fall asleep during a summer blockbuster. Hell, The explosions themselves should keep me awake but this didn't have that many of those either. What good are explosions against an intergalactic poop monster?

DC Adventures Game

2011-06-12T12:55:00.003-04:00

So, after having talked about "supers" games earlier, I went ahead and have started a new game with my Sunday group using DC Adventures.

I took a piece of my own advice and started the process by asking what things they would like to see in the game. This is where I learned my first lesson, not everyone is familiar with comics jargon. I confused most of the group with the question of four color versus gritty style. I had to pull out examples to make the make the choice a more understandable one. After some discussion we chose to go with a four color style with the possibility of the token grim hero Ala batman.

the funny thing is that the next question I phrased in specific comic character style and ran into the same problem. I asked what level of power they would prefer and phrased it specifically as Justice League versus Batman and the Outsiders. Once again, I received a few more looks of confusion and moved to a broader analogy of street crime versus galactic issues. The discussion on this topic led me to the conclusion that they wanted to be a powerful group facing a broad array of issues. So, we went with Power Level 12 and using the setting of the Legion of Super-Heroes. This allowed the group to make a broad spectrum of characters and freedom to design a planet or system from the ground up if they so choose.

I then moved on to themes and tropes from comics that they would like to see or would not like to see. We discussed things ranging from recurring villains to power loss. The one thing that came out of this conversation was that power loss sucked. Why play a super hero if you are always losing your powers. So, I pointed out that one of the complications in the game was power loss and that it was a choice that they could make at the character level. If they did not take a complication involving power loss, I would not throw in plot elements that took their characters powers away. In the end, only one character took power loss as a complication. He would lose his powers up returning to his home system.

We made characters and tweaked them. You can see them below. Let me know what you think.

Char - PL 12

Strength 12, Stamina 12, Agility 8, Dexterity 0, Fighting 12, Intellect 0, Awareness 0, Presence 3

Advantages
Accurate Attack, All-out Attack, Evasion 2, Fearless, Improved Critical 4: Unarmed, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Improved Initiative 4, Instant Up, Power Attack, Precise Attack (All) 4, Uncanny Dodge

Skills
Acrobatics 1 (+9), Athletics 1 (+13), Close Combat: ???? 10 (+22), Deception 1 (+4), Persuasion 1 (+4), Stealth 1 (+9)

Powers
Black Speech: Comprehend 4 (Languages - Read All, Languages - Speak All, Languages - Understand All, Languages - You're Understood)
Demon Senses: Senses 3 (Danger Sense: Mental, Darkvision; Innate)
Demon Size: Density Growth 2 (+2 STR, +2 STA, -1 active defenses; Density, Innate)
Prehensile Tail: Feature 2
Resilient
Defense Effect (Saving Throw: Toughness; Impervious [8 ranks only], Innate)
Immunity: Immunity 11 (Aging, Disease, Environmental Condition: Cold, Environmental Condition: Heat, Environmental Condition: Pressure, Environmental Condition: Radiation, Poison, Sleep, Starvation & Thirst, Suffocation (All); Innate)
Regeneration: Regeneration 2 (Every 5 rounds; Innate)
Speed: Speed 6 (Speed: 120 miles/hour, 1800 feet/round; Innate)

Offense
Initiative +24
Grab, +12 (DC Spec 22)
Throw, +0 (DC 27)
Unarmed, +12 (DC 27)

Complications
Demon: Can be bound and summoned via True name and can not enter Holy Ground

Enemy: Salmovar: Lord of the Razor Pits
Wants his best shock trooper back

Languages
Native Language

Defense
Dodge 7, Parry 12, Fortitude 15, Toughness 12, Will 9

Power Points
Abilities 86 + Powers 51 + Advantages 22 + Skills 8 (15 ranks) + Defenses 13 = 180

Knightstar - PL 12

Strength 4, Stamina 4, Agility 4, Dexterity 6, Fighting 4, Intellect 0, Awareness 4, Presence 6

Advantages
All-out Attack, Benefit, Security Clearance: Stratos V, Benefit, Status 3: Champion of Stratos V, Benefit, Wealth 3 (millionare), Equipment 8, Favored Environment: Air, Improved Aim, Improved Critical 2: Cosmic Energy: Energy Control 12, Improved Initiative

Skills
Acrobatics 2 (+6), Athletics 2 (+6), Close Combat: Sword of the Champion 13 (+17), Intimidation 5 (+11), Ranged Combat: Champion of Stratos V 6 (+12), Vehicles 2 (+8)

Powers
Champion of Stratos V
Cosmic Energy: Energy Control 12 (DC 27)
Stun blast: Affliction 10 (Alternate; 1st degree: Dazed, 2nd degree: Stunned, 3rd degree: Incapacitated, Resisted by: Will, DC 20; Increased Range 2 (perception): perception)
Flight: Flight 12 (Speed: 8000 miles/hour, 16 miles/round)
Movement: Movement 3 (Alternate; Space Travel 3: other galaxies)
Force Field: Protection 12 (+12 Toughness)
Immunity: Immunity 10 (Life Support)

Equipment
Starholm, Sword of the Champion (+4 Dmg 4, Indestructible 2, Sword)

Offense
Initiative +8
Cosmic Energy: Energy Control 12, +12 (DC 27)
Grab, +4 (DC Spec 14)
Stun blast: Affliction 10 (DC Will 20)
Sword of the Champion, +17 (DC 22)
Throw, +6 (DC 19)
Unarmed, +4 (DC 19)

Complications
Honor
Responsibility: Champion of Stratos V
Responsible for the protection of his planetary system as well as service in the Legion of Super-Heroes

Languages
Native Language

Defense
Dodge 7, Parry 7, Fortitude 4, Toughness 16, Will 6

Power Points
Abilities 64 + Powers 72 + Advantages 21 + Skills 15 (30 ranks) + Defenses 8 = 180

Starholm - PL 12

Toughness 20, Size Colossal

Features:
Combat Simulator, Communications, Computer, Defense System, Fire Prevention System, Gym, Hangar, Holding Cells, Infirmary, Isolated, Laboratory, Living Space, Personnel, Power System, Security System 3

Power Points
Abilities 5 + Powers 0 + Advantages 0 + Features 17 + Skills 0 (0 ranks) + Defenses 7 + Equipment 0 (0 ep) + Weapons & Armor 0 (0 ep) = 29

The Blue Mask - PL 12

Strength 2, Stamina 12, Agility 2, Dexterity 2, Fighting 2, Intellect 2, Awareness 2, Presence 2

Advantages
Benefit, Status: Semi-famous, Benefit, Wealth 3 (millionare), Equipment 2, Interpose, Jack-of-all-trades, Luck 2

Skills
Close Combat: Kung-Fu 4 (+6), Close Combat: Wrestling 4 (+6), Expertise: Earth History 1 (+3), Insight 2 (+4), Perception 2 (+4), Ranged Combat: Blaster Pistol 8 (+10), Sleight of Hand 2 (+4), Vehicles 1 (+3)

Powers
Comprehend: Comprehend 2 (Languages - Read All, Languages - Speak All)
Immortality: Immortality 5 (Return after 1 day)
Immunity: Immunity 150 (Fortitude Effects, Life Support, Toughness Effects, Will Effects; Limited - Half Effect)
Regeneration: Regeneration 5 (Every 2 rounds)
tough sonofabitch: Protection 5 (+5 Toughness)

Equipment
Blaster Pistol

Offense
Initiative +2
Blaster Pistol, +10 (DC 20)
Grab, +6 (DC Spec 12)
Throw, +2 (DC 17)
Unarmed, +6 (DC 17)

Complications
- Custom Complication -
- Custom Complication -

Languages
Native Language

Defense
Dodge 2, Parry 2, Fortitude 12, Toughness 17, Will 7

Power Points
Abilities 52 + Powers 99 + Advantages 10 + Skills 12 (24 ranks) + Defenses 5 = 178

Wraith - PL 12

Strength -2, Stamina 0, Agility 0, Dexterity 0, Fighting -2, Intellect 12, Awareness 12, Presence -2

Advantages
Benefit 4: Equipment, Eidetic Memory, Inventor, Languages 6, Luck, Skill Mastery: Technology

Skills
Expertise: Matter Manipulation 10 (+22), Insight 10 (+22), Investigation 6 (+18), Perception 10 (+22), Technology 10 (+22), Vehicles 6 (+6)

Powers
Alien Physiology: Immunity 5 (Environmental Condition: high pressure, Environmental Condition: Cold, Environmental Condition: Heat, Poison, Suffocation: Gas Giant)
Insubstantial: Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal; Precise, Reaction (reaction): reaction, Reversible, Subtle 2 (looks normal): looks normal)
Mind Control: Mind Control 12 (DC 22)
Communication: Mental Area Communication 5 (Alternate; Area, Rapid, Subtle (encrypted): encrypted)
Mind Blast: Blast 12 (Alternate; DC 27; Alternate Resistance (Will): Will, Increased Range (perception): perception)
Mind Reading: Mind Reading 12 (DC 22; Sensory Link, Subtle (subtle): subtle; Limited by Language, Limited to Emotions)

Offense
Initiative +0
Grab, -2 (DC Spec 8)
Mind Blast: Blast 12 (DC Will 27)
Mind Control: Mind Control 12 (DC Will 22)
Mind Reading: Mind Reading 12 (DC Will 22)
Throw, +0 (DC 13)
Unarmed, -2 (DC 13)

Complications
- Custom Complication -
Power Loss: When in home system

Languages
Choose any 32 languages, Native Language

Defense
Dodge 0, Parry -2, Fortitude 0, Toughness 0, Will 20

Power Points
Abilities 36 + Powers 96 + Advantages 14 + Skills 26 (52 ranks) + Defenses 8 = 180

Hero Lab® and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Mutants & Masterminds, Third Edition is ©2010-2011 Green Ronin Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.

Pirates

2011-05-30T17:54:00.004-04:00

I saw the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides when it came out. I was not expecting much as the prior two had been very bad and not very entertaining. I don't mind bad if it is entertaining, and this last installment in the Pirates franchise was very entertaining. It was also somewhat inspiring.

First, lets discuss the movie. Once again, this is a Star Vehicle for Johnny Depp and he turns in a passable performance as Captain Jack Sparrow. His performance, though far from phoning it in, was much more strained than in any of the other movies. The two bumbling pirates are replaced by Stephen Graham who plays Scrum. Graham is wasted here as his character is given no depth and he is given know time to stretch in the role. For me, the best parts of this movie are Ian McShane and Geoffrey Rush. I am a big fan of both actors and always enjoy watching them just chew up the scenery. I get that in spades in this film. The surprise for me was when McShane and Rush took passable dialogue and gave it gravitas. There are several points where Blackbeard's dialogue slips into almost doggerel verse. Instead of seeming trite or banal, It was for me, almost sublime. It was like they were giving McShane a chance to shine and he did. Rush is in a similar boat, pun intended. Most of the movie he is haring off on his own with nobody to actually trade banter. He shines when he is paired with Depp and even for the short time he is with McShane. His talk with Jack before they head into danger is almost poignant. On top of these bright points, the actions sequences were good, if somewhat tired.

You'll note that I am leaving out several other threads that ran through the movie. There was a love story, the Spanish, the English, and impostors. They provide a backdrop for the three big stars, but only the love story is given any traction throughout the movie. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it. this movie would have benefited from McShane, Rush, and Depp sharing much more screen time. Their interactions, on top of the action, would have been even more entertaining than what we were given.

On to inspiration!

I think you may have noted that I am a big fan of the table-top RPG. I am also a fan of pirates as well. I have, for the past decade, tried to run a pirate game in D&D. I have had varying degrees of success. It has came down to some groups being more amenable to the thought of cooperative crews than others. One of my standard tropes has been the magical ship. I know I've put several hours work into describing the abilities of the ship and it's helm stones. Some have found it pretty campy, and I can admit that it is a bit of a stretch. This movie has provide a new idea in terms of ship and magic. Blackbeard has wrapped his ship in spells so that it responds to his commands through use of his sword. We are given ample evidence of his magical prowess throughout the movie. I find the idea of tying the ship to the captain via magic intriguing. Yes, I know I must be stupid for not thinking of this earlier. I am, but that is a damn fertile idea. You create a whole style of ship's magic which would provide an interesting story arc. I know it is something I would like to explore. I should do some research and see if there was anything during the D20 bubble that did this.

Super Collaboration

2011-04-30T22:30:00.004-04:00

After writing about how I am really enjoying the collaborative storytelling style that is part and parcel of The Dresden Files RPG, I was taken back to one of my favorite genres of rpg, "Supers".

I hadn't really thought about a "Supers" game since I quit gaming in Louisville. What brought up the pleasant memory was Ideology of Madness. They have two podcasts of which I am an avid listener. The first is Funnybooks with Aaron and Paulie and the other is the Knights of Reignsborough actual play. These two podcasts vicariously keep me enmeshed in comics and the superhero genre. Of particular note though is the actual play podcast. They started it up as a sandbox format where each show they worked together to come up with the basis for the world they would be playing in down to how the characters would interact. I was hooked. This is what I wanted out of my next "Supers" game. The actual play podcast has been on hiatus for a bit now, but the effects are still lingering for me.

I am still awaiting the return of Knights of Reignsborough, but the inspiration and impetus provided by the show lives on. With some recollection, I have to say that I have been blessed with a collaborative style in "Supers" games before. My friend, Aaron Sullivan, has ran several sessions of Mutants & Masterminds wherein we had discussed at least what type of setting the group wanted and how we wanted to interact. It was nowhere near as in-depth as the actual play, but I don't think that group was ready for that type of play. I think this type of play would actually be a boon for a "Supers" game. When the characters have such a large amount of input into the world that they are going to play in, It makes it easier for them have a deeper connection to the story. I think that this deeper connection would go a long ways to defeating the main problem that I've had with "Supers" games, mainly them ending quickly. Generally, the games have been set up with players showing up with a character and hoping onto the rails and riding them until the end or you grow tired of psychopathic shooter hero #243. When everyone comes to the table and discusses the underpinnings of where you are playing and the types of stories you want to tell. This becomes less of an issue.

This kind of hearkens back to my last post. You can hack any crunchy game you like with the collaborative style of story games to create something that will work for your group. You can take The Dresden Files RPG creation system and apply it to Mutants & Masterminds thus giving you a better game.

Now, if they would just release some more Knights of Reignsborogh episodes...

Collaborative Storytelling

2011-04-25T19:59:00.004-04:00

Recently, I’ve been running an inordinate amount of the Dresden Files RPG. The more I run it, I come to understand that I really enjoy the collaborative aspect of this game and find that I would prefer this style of gaming regardless of what system we end up using. The reason for this post is that one of the trends that I’ve noticed on the Internet is that you should take a game that was designed to be collaborative and hack it to play a more traditional RPG. In particular, the discussion of hacking Leverage to play Shadowrun.

I will admit that I am drawing on personal experience in this case. I was playing in game ran by a friend in Louisville. We were going to switch to the Dresden Files RPG and had gone through City Creation when we had some people drop from the group due to various issues. So, we got together as a group and decided that we would like to play Shadowrun but more in the style of Leverage. We discussed what it took to create that style of play within the framework of Shadowrun. We totally lifted the city creation system from Dresden to customize Seattle to our liking. We then broke out the cast of leverage amongst ourselves and used those templates to spend points to get as close to archetype as possible. We could not have played a leverage style game unless we had sorted these things out in the beginning, and it showed when we added a new person to the group who had neither played Shadowrun nor seen an episode of Leverage. He ended up creating a psychopathic lawyer/street samurai that shot people who got in the way. He did not last long with our group.

I know that people will point out that playing the same game under the Dresden Files rules would have been simpler. It already has those steps explicitly spelled out, so there would have no reason to hash those out before starting the game. I disagree. Shadowrun has a particular feel to it. The idea of doing jobs against big targets is an explicit part of the game which lent itself well to playing a Leverage style game. I understand that most people think that the magic system in Shadowrun is broken, but for us it dovetailed well with our takes on the Leverage tropes. Our Grifter was a social adept, which allowed her to have the level of skill she felt she needed to fulfill her role as well as not being bogged down with cyberware. The magic system was used heavily to create the Thief and the Mastermind as well. We were able to make, to our minds, fairly good renditions of the cast of Leverage. The only thing that required a bit of finesse was the way failure doesn’t always end the job in Leverage. This required our GM to keep on his feet and make failures into interesting diversions instead of endings. Once again, stealing a page from the Dresden files RPG.

It was not long after Leverage came out that Rob Donoghue began discussing the ability to hack Leverage to play Shadowrun. It was his posts in this regard that actually started me thinking about taking the collaborative aspects of modern games and using them in games that I have always loved. It just didn’t coalesce for me until I was reading his posts in regards to tweaking D&D 4E with bits from different story games or his unique ideas. It had me think back to our session with Shadowrun Leverage and how it was easy to hack Shadowrun using the Dresden Files RPG. I think the key thing I learned from both Mr. Donoghue and that game, is that hacking can go both ways. It comes down to no system being perfect, and being willing to take what you like and porting in the bits you like from another game. I plan on using the Dresden Files RPG City/Character Creation when I run Scion. I am so looking forward to it.

On a side note, make sure to read Rob Donogue’s blog. He is an endless font of wisdom and innovation on the subject of gaming and gaming design.

DC Universe Online

2011-03-30T18:36:00.006-04:00

I've been playing DCU Online since release in January. After three months of playing, I think I can give a fair assessment of the game.

DC Universe Online is a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game. The game is built around the heroes and villians of DC Comics. During play, you work for and rescue the likes of Superman, Batman, Lex Luthor, and the Joker. I am a big fan of DC Comics in particular and Superheroes in general which made this an easy initial purchase for me. Being an MMO, It does have a subscription cost but they offered a legend level subscription which was $10 a month paid in three month increments. It was a good price and that is the subscription that I took.

Character creation is very interesting. You start out choosing a morality with the choice being between Hero or Villain. Another choice presented is that of Mentor. If you are a Hero, you can choose between Batman, Superman, or Wonder woman. This choice dictates starting area after the tutorial and the look of items that will be available through your mentor. Batman represents Technology thus lending a more low-key technological look to the items available. You then get to design your character. The power choices are broken down under the three sub types of healer, tank, and controller. The powers are; fire and ice for tanking, sorcery and nature for healing, and gadgets and mental for control. You are then given a choice of weapon. Each weapon has bonuses that will make it better for a certain role, but all are useful and enable any power type to bring the DPS. The rest of the choices are standard design such as; gender, body type, hair style, costume choices. The one feature I like was the ability to choose a costume themed similar to Heroes and Villains from the DC Universe. It was nice little add-on. Over all there is a wide variety of choices without becoming paralyzed by o many things to decide. I enjoyed character creation and only have two real issues. First, I wish there were more power choices. I would have loved to been able to create a lighting based or Green Lantern type character. I understand they may release these later, but I am not a big alternate character player and not having the choice initially annoys me. My second issue is with the weapon choices. If you are not a big forum reader, you will not know which weapon works best with which power choice. It would be beneficial to have that information be displayed when mousing over weapon choices.

The game play itself was the biggest shocker for me. I had been playing WoW for the past several years and had played Everquest before that which has led me to expect a certain type of UI when I play an MMO. This was not the case with DCU Online. The UI is set up with an action game in mind. You are not clicking on the environment constantly but instead using the keyboard to pick things up, and use the mouse for camera control and character movement. This new way of interacting with the game environment was a bit of a hurdle for me, taking me a few days to feel confident with it. The chat system was another thing which was very different as well. You aren't able to start typing. You have to bring up the social menu and use slash commands to send messages in chat. The voice chat though is somewhat robust. If you are in a group or a league, you are given access to a voice chat and talk with everyone in the group or the league. They have since added a proximity chat ability as well which allows you to chat with anyone nearby if you turn it on. I have to say I like the voice chat capability, but have not had many people utilize when I am in a group for a random alert. So, it doesn't really make up for the clunkyness of the text chat.

After I over came these issues, It was smooth sailing for me. You get missions form you Mentor and other Heroes. When you reach level milestones that will change things you are given quests to walk you through these changes. When you reach appropriate levels for certain pvp or alerts they are placed in your quest log. This gives you a lot to do while leveling up. The quests themselves are entertaining and each chain involves you assisting or rescuing a hero or villain which was pretty awesome to me. I really enjoyed the quest to gain membership into the JLA. I won't spoil it, but it was pretty damn cool on the Meta side. Leveling up never feels like a grind and doesn't really take much more of a an hour investment if that is all you have for the day. 30th level is the maximum level currently is where the grind starts to show up. There are factions in the game build around each mentor and you begin earning reputation with them by doing daily quests after reaching 30. Until February, there were only two per faction. In February they added a Catwoman daily to the Tech side giving them three. I have played through it and it is very entertaining, but after awhile it will get boring. I know this is true on the Meta side as I no longer do the quest to defeat Dr Psycho due to being annoyed by the hide and seek portion of the adventure. The unique thing about DCU Online is the Duo. It is like a raid for two people. It experience a more difficult level of earlier fights and allowing them the ability to collect the necessary items to get better gear normally available to full raiders. No, you will not get it as fast a raiding guild, but you can still get it which does provide a more interesting end game.

Overall I really enjoy this Game. I like being able to get something accomplished with a short amount of time. I also like being able to learn as I go without needing to reference several videos to explain why I am not winning. I also enjoy knowing the characters that I am interacting with and being able to pick up who will be involved in the boss fight before I am told what is happening. The game provides an engaging superhero experience without being overly tedious. I know they will be providing more content as time goes along, but I easily fall into that "George R R Martin is my bitch" trap. I will take Gaiman's advice and have patience and enjoy what I have for now. I should also point out that I've read on several other blogs and podcasts that the DCU Online forums are filled with complaints in regards to the game. I have not taken to even perusing the forums to avoid falling prey to the internet trolls that live to gripe. So, read the forums at your own risk.

Gen Con 2011

2011-03-13T13:07:00.010-04:00

So, I've mentioned that I am going to be going to Gen Con this year. I am both excited and anxious about it. I am excited because I am planning on running four slots at the convention. I am anxious because I am running 4 slots at the convention and this will be my second trip to Gen Con where I am not footing the complete bill. Allow me to further elucidate.

I have only went to Gen Con with someone else paying once before. This was back when the convention was still held in Milwaukee. A friend, Ken Whitman, was in charge of the convention that year. He made arrangements for the gaming group at Murray State University to attend and run several slots of games. We headed up as a group and stayed in the university dorms. It was an extremely hot summer and the dorms had no air conditioning and were a good 15 to 20 minutes from the con by bus. There were a lot of us in two rooms, and one of my friends got deathly ill while we were there. A cap to this adventure was that one of the groups that drove up left one of their passengers behind. So, despite the convention being good, I have nightmarish memories of that time. My anxiety over this trip to Gen Con is an irrational activation of those memories. Our reservations are at a good hotel directly connected to the convention space with an indoor pool and good restaurant. It is just hard to shake that old spectre.

I am also anxious about running four slots at the convention. Actually it isn't running four slots that makes me nervous, but four slots of my own design of two story games. I've ran at the convention before. I ran L5R for the Heroes of Rokugan and really had a blast. They provided modules and slots to run in and all I had to do was show up and have read the modules. It was easy. Now, all the responsibilities rest squarely on my shoulders. I have submitted my idea for two slots of The Dresden Files RPG and two slots of Houses of the blooded. I ended up having some issues with the edition of the system that I was using because I can be a bit pedantic at times. The system wanted to know what edition I was using and I put current which got rejected as it might confuse people looking for games. I was a bit shocked and then put in 1st edition Dresden Files RPG and it was fine. So, I have my fingers crossed that everything gets accepted.

Running these two story games makes me nervous as this will be my first time running a story game for people other than my friends. I want to make sure that people can come to the games and have a good time. I just worry that I won't do the games justice. Once the games get final approval, I am going to try and get some art done for the characters to make for a better experience for my players. This will help me relax about running these two games.

The funny thing is that I am actually excited to run these two games at Gen Con. I tried to get into a game of each last year on the time that I was not running L5R, but there were so few slots that I was unable to get into any on my free times. So, my idea was to run them myself to make it so that more people could experience these two great games. The other part of my plan is to contact Evil Hat and John wick once the games get approved. This way I can refer people to a both in the Vendor Hall to pick up the games if they like them.

Thankfully, anxiously excited is not a bad thing.

The Dresden Files RPG

2011-02-17T10:28:00.007-05:00

I picked up both books for this game when they came out last year, and read them both cover to cover. I wanted to do a review, but my experience with Spirit of the Century, Evil Hat’s first Fate system game, made me want to actually play the game before trying to put my feelings into words. I have recently ran several sessions of the game and think I have a much better handle on the game and feel more confident in expressing my opinion.

The best place to start is to explain the basis of The Dresden Files RPG. It is a role-playing game based on the Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher. The main character of the novels is Harry Dresden, Wizard. They are a blend of urban fantasy, hard-boiled detective, and action-adventure fiction which are highly addictive. There are currently twelve novels extant with the thirteenth scheduled to be released in July of this year. The setting for the novels is the modern world with a hidden world of magic, intrigue, and violence. Into this world, the player’s characters are born.

I mentioned earlier that I had played Spirit of the Century, and this was my introduction to the fate system on which The Dresden Files is based. It wasn’t the best experience for me. This actually helped me prepare for running the Dresden Files. I knew I didn’t want a repeat of my prior experience, so I developed a plan. I familiarized myself with the rules, read reviews, and poured through the designer notes on the Internet. I also listened to the actual play put out by The Walking Eye to get a better feel for how to handle both character and city creation. This gave me a better level of confidence with the game and helped shake off the unease that I had built with Fate from the earlier game.

My small group, four players to be exact, has been through four sessions so far. The consensus is that we are really enjoying the system and the game. The greatest strength that I see is the whole creation process. You set aside your first session to create the city and the characters that live there. This collaborative effort creates a sense of ownership for all involved and allows for a greater level of immersion in the game. This is further enhanced by the fate point system. This system, a sort of token economy, spreads the responsibility for the narrative to everyone at the table. The GM can give a player a fate point whenever something bad or unwanted happens to them, the player can refuse the point and give the GM a point to say no. The player also can spend the points to declare that something is true about a scene. An example is the player is running through a shopping center away from zombies. They spend a fate point and declare that they are in the sporting section that has shotguns and ammo.

The collaborative nature of the game even extends into the challenges that are presented. The GM can throw a difficult combat situation at the players, but this does not exclude the mental character from participating. On the contrary, the mental character can shine here as well. The scholar can make checks to put aspects on the scene. These are a word of phrase that a player can spend a fate point and gain a + 2 bonus to whatever action they are doing. In the hands of a creative player, this is a very powerful tool.

Oops, I put the cart before the horse there. I should explain Aspects. Aspects are another key mechanic of the fate system. They are a word or phrase that describes a character or a scene. A player character has five Aspects which are basically statments of what the person wants out of the game. The first Three Aspects are about the characters past and how he came to be involved in things going on. The last two are used to provide connections to two other player characters and thus ensure a more cohesive group. An aspect can be tagged to provide a +2 bonus to roll when appropriate. So, when the brainy character starts putting aspects on a scene, they are making it easier for the characters involved to succeed. I think the cools kids would call this a form of narrative control. I like it.

Yes, I am oversimplifying the nature of aspects, but this is the heart of mechanic.

My players really seem to be enjoying the game, and I know I am. The group consists of the Summer Knight, a representative of the Erl King, a Knight of the Cross, and an Elven sorcerer. I have made sure to reinforce that the players can actually take actions to add aspects to the scene as this does not come naturally to any of us in the group. I think we would be termed “trad gamers” by those same cool kids, but that is ok. We are really digging on the Dresden Files RPG

So, if you’re looking for a great game that allows you to play in an urban fantasy setting with great mechanics for collaborative play, pick up the Dresden Files RPG.

Oops, I also forgot to mention I'm going to run this at Gen Con this year. I was thinking two slots. Let me know what you think

The Plan: Month Two

2011-02-15T20:02:00.002-05:00

So, I am halfway through the month of February and thought I would give an update on the progress on the goals I have set up and why I have made progress or not.

Here we go.

My first goal is to write more. The plan to achieve this was to post twice a month this year on my blog. January saw two posts early on, and this is the first post for February. This puts me on track to achieve my goal for this month. I have several ideas for another post, but a complete lack of faith in myself is interfering here and with other goals. I need to deal with this to keep from stumbling, but have difficulty implementing positive cognition in regards to myself.

The second goal is to lose 30 Lbs. The plan to achieve this goal is to go to the gym three times a week. I am failing on this front. I started out strong, but as I've progressed, my old tapes have started playing again. I have trouble seeing the value of losing weight for myself. People say it is for health reasons and such, but you have to value yourself for that to be a motivator. I still don't have that at my core, I just don't see it as worthwhile. So, progress is poor.

The third goal is gaming. On this front, I have made some headway. I finished a campaign in Pathfinder. I've started a game of Vampire. The L5R game I was in at the end of the year has been revived and shows promise. I am going to Gen Con and I am going to run Houses of the Blooded and The Dresden Files RPG, and I am going to help a friend begin working on their campaign idea. I expect the Dresden Files game I was running to be revived here soon as well. I know schedules will become hectic again, but I am trying to change my expectations and be more flexible about such things.

My final goal of professional improvement is also proceeding apace. I have two professional courses scheduled for later in the year which will allow me to progress towards a terminal designation for my office. I have also tried to adopt a more positive attitude about work. I am making some good progress with this as well. I have slips, but they are fewer and farther apart.

I'm working to keep moving forward.

2011: The Plan

2011-01-07T18:41:00.005-05:00

So, I've set forth the goals that I would like to accomplish for this year. This is nice and all, but that and $4.50 will get you a Latte at Starbucks. Having defined goals is just the first step. You have to have a plan. I know it is a bit cliche, but plan your work and work your plan.

So, I am going to improve my chances of success by setting up and implementing a plan. I will then revisit the plan to evaluate both my progress, as well as if the plan is being effective. I know this seems a bit mechanistic, but I am a bit OCD which makes this a good fit for me.

The plan for the blog is pretty simple. Write two posts a month. I am not going to worry overly much about the topics, though I do have one guideline that I am going to impose. I am going to keep the posts upbeat, even if they are about me failing at my plan. This keeps me working with my writing as I can do negative exceedingly well, positive...not so much. I would like to get better at this thing called writing, and the only way to do that is to write more. I am also going to set up a database. I'm going to use it to keep track of progress on all the goals and try to get it produce graphics I can post here.

The second goal is going to be the hardest. Losing weight for me has always been difficult for me, and intimately linked with my own feelings of self-worth. The thing I've realized, but which will be hard to keep in the forefront, is that a skinnier me will be a good thing. So, the first part of the plan is to internalize the idea that weight loss is beneficial. I know that this is going to lead to some Stewart Smalley moments, but results are what matter here. I am also going to start going to the gym again. I'm going to maintain a baseline of three times a week for at least an hour. I am also going to check out the schedule for the Aquarobics class because I really enjoy being in the water. so anything that incorporates water and exercise is a good thing for me. finally, I am going to decrease my consumption of soda. I am a big fan of soda because it tastes so good, but it is detrimental to my goal of losing 30 lbs. So, It must be eliminated. I'll put the exercise info into the database, and it will give me a graphical representation of my progress.

The goal of more gaming is a bit more problematic. It requires other people to make this happen. I have a few groups currently extant, but in various stages. My first steps are going to be getting a firmer grasp on where these groups stand. I am the GM of only one, and I am fairly confident in it, but the others are ran by friends. My issue with my other groups is scheduling. I've mentioned that I am a bit OCD, so scheduling things is very important to me as is keeping in communication about what is going on. These are things which my other groups have a much greater variance on, and makes it more difficult for the entire group. Another step is going to be running demos. I have two stores nearby that do demos, so I am going to look into setting up demos of The Dresden files RPG, DC Universe: Hero's Handbook, Hellas, and maybe Ars Magica. If nothing pans out locally, there is another store about forty-five minutes away that I will then investigate. I also will try to be keep an active profile up on penandpapergames.com.

This leaves me with my final goal of professional improvement. I've already began implementing my plan on this front. January is the time to schedule education and professional enrichment courses. I've put in my request for a few classes to keep my learning skills from atrophying. Several of the courses fill the requirements for a professional designation which gives me another step farther along the path I am currently travelling. I am working on maintaining a more positive outlook at work. Failing that, I am ensuring that limit the negativity that I let out at the office. I need a way to put this into a more measurable form, but currently this is eluding me.

So, to use another cliche, once begun half done.

Goals for 2011

2011-01-01T14:15:00.003-05:00

It is the beginning of a new year. A time when people make resolutions in order to better themselves in the coming year. After a few months, they slowly begin to fall by the wayside to be remembered with regrets at the end of the year. I know, because I have done this myself.

So, I'm just going to set some goals for the new year. I am going try to make the goals attainable within a year, and something with which I can design a plan to accomplish them. It appeals to the OCD in me.

My first goal is to put up at least 24 posts this year on the blog. I've was looking back and I was saddened to see my largest number of posts was twelve in 2009. 2010 was a bad year for posting for me. I ran a political campaign and was advised that posting would reflect badly. It didn't matter in the end as I lost. I had promised myself that a loss would not be a crippling event for me, but had not truly been aware of the amount of yourself you have to inject into a campaign. It has taken over a half a year to dig myself out of that hole, and I will admit I've only been partially successful at that.

My second goal is to lose thirty pounds. Currently, I am one big fat bastard. I would say that sometimes I'm jolly, but the humor is very self-deprecating. I am confident that a little wait loss would help with lifting me further out of this hole I am in as I will feel somewhat better about myself if I can accomplish this goal.

Third, I want to game more. I love my hobby of role playing, but due to circumstances gaming had become a chore for me. I have made some progress in the recent past at getting a game going and joining another group, but I know I would enjoy a bit more.

finally, I want to improve my professional life. I know, this is a very nebulous goal which makes for a difficult plan implementation. I'm just not confident in another way of describing what I want. I have a good job, and am happy to be employed in this economy. The problem is that I have become stagnant. I had tried to push for change in the past, but now I'm just content to get my work done and coast through the rest of the time.

I had a few other goals in mind, but I believe these will be a challenge for me to accomplish. I want to set myself up for success, not failure. I can do the failure thing, but I need practice on success.

DC Adventures: Hero's Handbook

2010-08-23T19:19:00.009-04:00

While I was at Gen Con, I picked up a copy of DC Adventures: Hero's Hand Book. I am a big fan of supers games, and an even bigger fan of DC. So, It was a moral imperative that I pick this book up. I was lucky that the author was at the booth and I was able to get him to sign my copy. So, I thought I would do a review.

The Book

The book itself is a 279 page hardback published by Green Ronin, and written by Steve Kenson. The interior is full color with art by DC Comic luminaries and cover art by Alex Ross. The book retails for $39.95. The production values on the book are superb making this a beautiful book just to hold in your hand, more so if you are a DC fan. It also has a well done index which I find highly invaluable in any role playing game.

The Mechanics

The mechanics for DC Adventures is new system for Mutants & Masterminds. It is a variant D20 system requiring a single D20. The basics of the system is a check. This is where you roll a D20 + Ability versus Difficulty Class(DC). If you hit the DC you achieve one level of success, and every five points over the DC gives another level of success. An average DC is ten and then going up in increments of 5 with DC 40 being rated nigh-impossible. This basic mechanic is used for all check throughout the game. Opposed checks are not made against a standard DC, but instead against the results of the person being opposed. An attack check is a little different. It is a D20 + Attack Bonus + Modifiers versus Resistance Bonus with a 1 on the D20 being a miss and a 20 being a possible critical hit. This simple mechanic allows the game to run quickly and smoothly while still allowing for good emulation of comic book action.

Another important mechanic is the Hero point. You earn Hero Points through Complications, Acts of Heroism, and role playing. A Hero Point allows the player to do one of several things. One, it can allow the player to edit the scene. This allows the player provide themselves with some advantage without overwhelming the narrative flow of the scene. Two, a Hero point can be spent for a heroic feat. This allows the player to gain one rank of an Advantage that he doesn't currently posses, but could. Third, it allows the player to improve a roll. If the roll was not a success, a Hero Point allows a re-roll, and a result of ten or less is treated as a ten. Fourth, a Hero Point can be used for inspiration. This will allow the GM to provide a clue, such as a villain's weakness to help the game proceed. Fifth, It can be used for an instant counter. This allows the player to attempt to counter an effect used against them as a reaction instead of having to readied an action. Finally, It allows the player to recover. It allows you to immediately remove a dazed, fatigued, or stunned condition. This last one is very important. Instead of using hit points, damage is done via conditions. If you fail a resistance check by one level of success, you gain a -1 to the next resistance check. If you fail by two levels of success, you are dazed. If you fail by three levels, you are staggered. If you fail by four levels, you are incapacitated.

Character creation is handled by a point purchase system with the points available being determined by the power level of the game. The suggested power level to start with is 10 which provides 150 points. Outside of the point buy system, the main departure from a standard D20 game are the attributes. These attributes are Strength, Stamina, Agility, Dexterity, Fighting, Intellect, Awareness, and Presence. Instead of buying ranks in the attributes then deriving a bonus from the attribute, the rank is the bonus. This simplifies character creation. Instead of the standard saves, DC Adventures uses Defenses. The Defences are Dodge, Parry, Toughness, Fortitude, and Will. You can spend points on these, as well as Skills, Advantages, and Powers. Power Level also determines how the points can be allocated. Skill totals can not exceed the power level +10. Attack and Effect combined can not exceed twice the power level. Dodge and Toughness can not combined exceed twice the power level which also applies to the Parry and Toughness as well as Fortitude and Will. These restrictions along with the ability to trade off capability of the pairs maintains the balance of the game.

I could go on and on about the Powers and their customizability, but that is required of any good supers game. DC Adventures has this in spades, and I will refer you to the book for better examples than I can provided. The only trouble I had was making Triplicate Girl from the Legion, and only because I was being greedy with points. Yes, I know she is Duplicate Girl now.

The Setting

The setting is, of course, the DC universe. It provides a sprawling panoply within which you can play your game. You can set the game from the primordial era all the way to the far future. One of my favorite books in the DC Universe is the Legion of Super Heroes. I am looking forward to setting up a game in that time frame. This book gives a quick overview of the DC universe. Enough to get you started, but not enough to keep you from making stuff up as you go. If you want to play in Canon, there are plenty of Internet resources to provide you time lines and overviews of eras in the DC Universe to do whatever you want until further supplements are released.

Random Thoughts

I know I've said it before, but this is a beautiful book. It is full color and has DC artwork making it a wonderful addition to the collection of a DC fan. It also has an excellent price point at $39.95. It is the best price I've gotten on a full color book this year. Heck, It costs as much as my favorite book Houses of the Blooded which is a soft back, black and white book. So, kudos to Green Ronin for keeping the price point down. The character creation is streamlined and simple to understand. It did not take me very long to just leap in and start making characters. In play, everything runs quickly without getting bogged down by constant rules questions. I really like the chart for damage. It makes a simple mechanic even more understandable. My only problem with the book is that I want the other books now. I am a big fan of the dossier type books which provide stats for the heroes and villains. I know they are coming, but they just can not come soon enough. If you are a fan of DC you should pick up this book. If your a fan of supers, you should pick up this book. Heck, just go pick up this book. you'll love it.

Canonized

2010-08-17T11:03:00.015-04:00

One of the most important parts of any role playing game is the setting. It provides the framework in which all interactions take place. Most role playing games have a setting with some degree of complexity. I don't say all because story games have you building the setting as you go, and not leaving room for setting, much less canon. What I have been hearing is that canon is not good in that it detracts from the setting, and stifles creativity amongst many things. I tend to disagree and think that canon is good.

First, I think canon and setting are different things but not by very much. It think an example would help out a lot here. If you look at Shadowrun and the new World of Darkness. Shadowrun has an extensive timeline with many things occurring throughout any given year, many of which are supported by a novel, short story, or adventure. The new World of Darkness takes the world we live in and puts a much darker veneer on top. There is a timeline for the new World of Darkness, but it is implied. The storyteller and the group decide what that timeline is going to look like and how it will deviate from the real world. This illustrates the line between setting and canon. With canon, You have the fine details spelled out, whereas setting provides a framework.

This brings me to why I think canon is good for a game. I feel that it does some of the heavy lifting for the GM. I enjoy running Shadowrun and Legend of the Five rings. One of the reasons for this is that I do not have to come up with an elaborate history for the game I am running. In each game, I just pick where in the timeline to begin, and just go. This allows me to spend more prep on the story that I will be running as opposed to things of tangential importance. It also provides a great player aid, as I can either provide them with the address for the info on the web, or just cut and paste the info and email the pertinent historical information for them in character creation. I think the greatest use of canon comes in supers games. You can choose either the Marvel or DC universe, pick an era within that universe, and provide a robust brief for your players to use in character creation and background information. Anything that can take some of the heavy lifting off of the GM is a welcome addition to the toolbox.

The arguments against canon are many, but I will address a few of them and explain what I think and why. One of the main complaints is that canon actually stops creativity in a game. If you read through the book, and it says that Robespierre died saving the king of Lyon, you will not think about changing that incident to better fit your story. I understand this argument,as this does happen when you are a new GM. You are so worried about making a good story that you don't want to change a bit of canon. As you progress, you realize that changes in service to the story and every one's enjoyment are more important than canon. Canon is a tool to make your story better, but it isn't required if you don't need it. Another argument is that it allows for the munchkins to interrupt the flow of your game to point out errors in minutia. Once again, a valid point when doing convention games or other games with random groups of players. you are going to have to address it and move on so as not to ruin everyone's enjoyment. When running your regular group, you should already be aware of the friends that are fans of the canon. This provides yet another tool for the game. When the incident arises over canon, you can thank the player for the info and implement it. This keeps the flow of the gaming going while giving that player one of the things they are looking for in the game. Also, You can leverage the players knowledge for details you can not find. This makes your job easier while making the player feel more involved in the game.

There is one argument that actually has a bit more traction though. A large amount of canon will keep people from running a game. This, to an extent, is true. Shadowrun and Legends of the Five Rings both are games with a solid fan base. Their difficulties are in attracting new players to their game. Some of this can be attributed to the system or genre, but is in large part due their daunting amount of canon. When people go looking for a new game, they are wanting to pick up just one book and go. These games are saddled wit the feeling that you have to absorb all that back story before you can run the game. This is not true, but the feeling is very difficult to overcome. I could point to Star Wars as another game bloated by canon, but it is not a good comparison. In Star Wars, the players are wanting to go through the canon as characters so it is a much easier sell. When someone looks at Legend of the Five Rings, they are thinking I have to figure out where in this story my players might want to go, or I could just pick up D&D.

Canon is good because it is a tool. It provides a method for getting underlying story work finished. It also makes for an easier start to a game as you have a reference to provide to your players. The main issue is that it can provide a barrier to even picking up the game to begin with, as the amount of information to use is so daunting.

Chatter

2010-08-13T15:43:00.009-04:00

I am currently in two games. One has just really began, and the other is in the same boat as we have had long hiatuses between several sessions. I've been thinking about both games a great deal, and I've noticed that both games do share one thing in common. There is not very much chatter about the games themselves.

I thought that this would be a good topic, as I know I am missing the chatter. Chatter about the game is important. It gives you a barometer for how the game is being taken by the players and it points out lines of communication in the group.

You would think that chatter as a barometer of enjoyment would be obvious, and I say your right but it still bears mentioning. As a gamer, I know I can go on and on about a game I am enjoying, but I can do the same thing about a game I am not enjoying. I seem to remember some epic rants about how horrible a game was that I was involved in. I point this out because there is the possibility of no chatter. I think this is more telling than a host of conversations of how the game is sucking. If your talking about how the game is sucking, your still involved. You may not know what to do to stop the game from sucking, but you still want to play and share the experience with the group. When you get silence, you have a dearth of investment in the game and that's not good. If you are involved in a game, you want to be talking about it to some extent. Otherwise, you are just using gaming as an excuse to get together with friends and you shouldn't need an excuse for that.

My second point is that you can use the chatter to map out the lines of communication in your group. Now, I know not everyone really cares about this, but I have a background in psychology and sociology and I always find this type of information interesting. Even is you don't find it interesting, it is still useful. If your playing with a group of friends, you will most probably already know how communication plays out amongst the group, but being aware makes it easier to handle disruptions in the group. I say this is important even to a group of friends as dynamics change over time, and being aware of changing communications gives insight into changing lifestyles that may not have made it onto the radar as of yet. Where this can be the most useful is a new group forming. Once you get the group up and running, you can watch the chatter and see who is talking with whom. This will allow you to see whom you might need to help interact more with the group.

Now, I know that this sounds like a lot of work, and it is. I still recommend paying some attention to the chatter about your game. I recommend it for all involved as well. For the GM, It provides another tool for seeing how the game is going over. For the player, It provides a means of communicating that you like the game beyond just sating so. It also allows you, the player, to assist the GM if you notice someone getting left out of the communications in regards to the game.

Let me know what you think about chatter.

GenCon 2010

2010-08-10T18:20:00.007-04:00

I've been home from Gen Con 2010 for two days now. I had to head straight back into work, so it has taken me a bit to process how I felt about it this year.

I have to say that this was my best Gen Con so far. No, everything wasn't perfect. The little things that didn't really work out quite right just seemed to highlight the good things that went on for me at the convention.

The trip from Florence to Indianapolis was uneventful. I ended up staying at the Hyatt this year. It is a nice hotel which connects to the convention center which makes the con go much easier. I have to say the staff were warm and congenial which always make a place seem much nicer.

I had to do a little bit of running around to get my GM badge sorted out, but compared to the wait for will-call and event registration, it was minimal waiting. I was very lucky that first night, in that I got to meet Michael and Steven from Zero Fortitude. I have listened to their podcast for quite some time now, and it was a treat to get to talk to them. I think we spent a good hour in the lobby of the Hyatt just chatting. It was a blast for me, but I can be a bit of a fanboy sometimes.

Thursday began my time running modules for Heroes of Rokugan, the Legend of the Five Rings organized play campaign. Luckily it was a 9 a.m. slot, so I was able to get up a bit early and get a good breakfast. I've ran the adventures for my local groups, but this was my first time running at a major convention. So, I easily reverted to my wallflower mode. I have to say that the people organizing everything did a stupendous job. They made me feel welcome, whilst organizing a whole herd of noisy players. I was certainly overwhelmed by the whole experience at first. Once I got my first table and got started running, everything just seemed to smooth out. The Players were awesome. The admins took great care of us GMs. It made for a great experience. I ran L5R for almost the entire day. I took a break at 2 p.m. to head to the exhibit hall and get some lunch.

Friday was pretty much a repeat of Thursday. I ended up running L5r for the entire day, with a short break for lunch. Once again, the people of Heroes of Rokugan were fantastic. I was also lucky that I had some spare generic tickets. I was able to hand them off to Michael so that he could play Trailer Park wars with Steven. I thought that was pretty cool. I finished up running about 11 p.m. and ended up heading over to the Zero Fortitude guys room to play some Poo: The Card Game. It was hilarious and I really liked the game. It doesn't hurt that I won both games. Luck would have it that I was able to meet Mark Kinney from All Games Considered. He was a really nice guy, and AGC had won a Silver Ennie that evening. Thus ending another great day.

Saturday was a short day for me. I ran L5R until about noon. I was lucky to spend some time with a friend that was visiting Gen Con which was very nice. The high point of Saturday was the podcaster meet and greet. I met up with Michael and Steven from Zero Fortitude and got caught up on how their convention was going. I then was able to geek out. I met Rob, Paul, and Artemis from The Bear Swarm. They were great guys and certainly put me at ease. The cool thing was the Rob went and found Paul and Artemis so that I could meet them. I maintained my cool. I didn't squee at all. I also got to meet Carol and Mags from All Games considered as well. Mags gave me all kinds of information in regards to Conglomeration and other gaming things around Kentucky. I couldn't keep up. Chad from Fear the Boot even sat down and started chatting. Which was cool, because I was able to tell him in person that I really enjoyed his and Wayne's video podcasts. I was truly ecstatic from meeting all the cool people that I listen to and getting to hang out with Zero Fortitude.

So yeah, this was my best Gen Con so far. I am looking forward to next year.

Houses of the Blooded

2010-07-24T11:48:00.018-04:00

I've been searching for a fantasy game with a more political bent. I had despaired of ever really finding anything that would fill that niche for me. I was listening to The Bear Swarm and they started discussing a game called Houses of the Blooded by John Wick. I was intrigued and so picked up a copy. I know that the book has been out for awhile, but I thought I would still do a review of it anyway.

Mechanics

The central dice mechanic of Houses is a dice pool of D6's gathered from various sources and rolled against a difficulty of ten. On a simple roll, a result of ten or more allows the player to determine the outcome of the action. A player gathers their dice from several different sources. First, they determine which of the six virtues would apply to the task. The six virtues are: Strength, Cunning, Courage, Beauty, Wisdom, and Prowess. Once the virtue is chosen, that many dice are added to the pool. Second, the player determines if their public or private name's meaning would apply to the action. If they would, they can add more dice to their pool. Characters also have things called Aspects. An aspect is a descriptor which provides several mechanical benefits. The first one is invoking, which provides the player with dice on an action. The Aspect also provides a tag, which provides dice to another player using your Aspect against you. Aspects can also be compelled, meaning they can force behaviour in line with the Aspect.

This narrative control is refined by the use of wagers. Success allows you to determine the outcome of the action, which is simply one thing. Wagers allow the player to subtract dice from their pool, and if successful, use each die to add another piece of information to the story.

Houses also has a realm management system. You are playing barons,and this provides your character with land under their control. You name and define what types of lands you maintain. You control and improve your lands through Season Actions. This allows you to do things such as quell trouble, spy, build roads, and explore undefined regions. This becomes a motivator to improve your standing and power in the world.

Finally, the commodity which drives the game is Style Points. You receive Style for doing things both within the game and without. If you do things within the game which are cool, entertaining, or make your character's life more difficult, you receive Style. If you do things which help the Narrator make the game run smoothly, you get Style. You use Style to refresh your Aspects. An Aspect can only be invoked once for free. If you want to use it again, you must spend a style. If you are compelled and do not want to do it, you spend a Style. You always want Style.

These systems are simple and elegant. They allow for a broad variety of actions to be possible. Some of the predefined actions are based on and reinforce the themes of the game. So, you have mechanics for Romance, Duels, Insults, and Mass Murder.

This is not my first exposure to a game centered on narrative control, but it is one of my favorite. The limit of a simple success only allowing you to define one thing is very robust. It keeps the game focused, as well making the players think about how much control they want with each action, and making wagers appropriately. It makes a story game much more entertaining for me as success does not have to seem so overwhelming. If your just getting used to the idea, you make no wagers and define just he outcome. As you get more comfortable, you begin to make wagers.

Setting

The setting for Houses of the Blooded is Shanri and you play a Ven. Shanri, which in the Ven language means Enemy, exists prior to Atlantis. This world is what remained after the death of the Sorcerer-Kings. These Sorcerer-Kings had created the Ven as a slave race, and used them as sacrifices to power their great workings. After the fall of the Sorcerer-Kings, the Ven have risen to power over the land. They have created their own society, where Opera is the height of Art and Armies are illegal. Anything that is not Ven, is referred to as Ork, and must be dealt with.

How the Ven interact is also well delineated. Their are two classes of Ven. There are the Blooded whom are the ruling class, and the unblooded which are, in essence, slaves. The Nobles are arrayed in six Houses, each of which represents one of the six Virtues. The Ven are a hot blooded people and their society is one of stylized ritual which controls these violent tendencies to some extent.

All of this is done with a high level of abstraction. An example of this is that there is no map of Shanri provided. This level of abstraction is needed, as this is a story game. Everyone sitting at the table will define the world as play progresses. You are given the basics to start with, but the rules make you create the world as you proceed. So, instead of picking you spot on a map, the group will define how kingdoms are arranged when they make wagers in regards to questions about the world.

Book

The book itself is a soft back that weighs in at 438 pages. The interior illustrations are black and white and very evocative. The strongest part of the book for me was the writing. I find John Wick's writing style in this book to be entertaining and engaging. It made, what could have been boring exposition about mechanics, fun to read. It reminds me of the old world of darkness books. I would reread the books not just for the mechanics, but to enjoy the fiction again.

Random Thoughts

I really enjoyed reading this game and playing, but I have to major concerns. My first concern is campaign play. I know that the system is designed for campaign play. The age mechanic and season actions are there to reinforce campaign play. The problem I keep seeing and hearing is that at the end of one session things are damaged beyond recovery. I can not figure out a way to keep this from happening. I feel like I'm doing something wrong as a narrator, but there is very little for me to do to reign it in other than rewarding more restrained actions with Style. My other issue is price point. I think I've been spoiled by White Wolf. I can pay the same amount for a hard back from White Wolf. Now, I know that this is just me whining and not really understanding the economics of getting out an independent game.

Despite the above concerns, I still love this game. I have to say I would recommend picking up this book. It provides another take on the Fantasy RPG, and provides a simple way to get into the story game genre. The ability to alter the setting gives this game legs. If you wanted to play a game set in Victorian England, you could do this with Houses of the Blooded.

Killer Encounters

2010-07-21T21:06:00.010-04:00

I just recently discovered The Angry DM. He has a new blog out there and his most recent post was really intriguing. The post was entitled "Setting the PCs up to fail". In this post, which was part of the sandbox vs. safety rails blog carnival, he addresses the issue of letting the PCs wade into an encounter where victory is impossible in D&D. I am oversimplifying his post, but you can read it here. I started thinking about my own gm style and wondered where I fell on this debate.

As a gm, I've always labored under two heuristics. First, I want to make an entertaining game for both the players and myself. Second, there are always consequences for the actions of the PCs. For the groups that I have ran, the first rule has required linear plot lines. This completely qualifies as a safety rails game. The PCs are always on the train to where I want them to go, and I guarantee challenging yet winnable scenarios. I will admit that I do, occasionally, present them in the form of an no-win scenario. The players do occasionally go on tangents, but at these points I am very aware that an overpowering encounter just seems punitive for jumping off plot. This is where my second rule comes into play. While off track, I improvise encounters as consequences for the PCs actions. I do this in a rather organic fashion. An example would be when a group I was running decided to go looking for bandits while en route to a large city. Since they were taking main roads, and the country they were in was militaristic, the likelihood of the bandit being very powerful was low. So, the detour ended up allowing the PCs to flex their muscles and show up to the city with another story of heroism.

If I was given a group that was more self-motivated, would I allow them to run into an unwinnable situation? No. D&D, especially 4E, is designed around a balanced party with everyone striving to be at peak performance. I have never had a group in either 4E or previous editions that was ever at the top of their game. This has always led to my well balanced encounters almost turning into TPKs. I am guilty of this as a player in 4E, since most of my experience with this edition is as a GM. My builds are always quirky, designed more for my entertainment than maximizing potential.

I read most of the other posts in regards to this topic as well. I really enjoyed the one take on the overwhelming encounter as a skill challenge, not combat. I thought that was a really good take on a skill challenge and a great way to make a skill challenge highly entertaining. So, here area few of the other posts from the blog carnival:

Never Fear: Sandbox vs Safety Rails
Obsidian Crane's take on the subject
As the World Scales

Legend of Five Rings 4th Edition

2010-07-15T10:02:00.002-04:00

L5R 4th Edition has just recently released, and I thought I would do a review of the new book. I was thinking about how I would break it down, and decided to go with a four part review. I will talk about the mechanics, the setting, the book itself, and random thoughts.

So, let’s get started.

Mechanics

The basis for all actions in L5R is the Roll and Keep system. This is a dice pool mechanic where you gather up the D10s based on an attribute and a skill and you keep the resulting dice equal to your attribute. I really like this system, as it makes creating a variety of characters easier. You can have your character that has great raw talent as exhibited by high attributes, a highly skilled character, or anything in between.

To add a bit more drama to the game, there is the exploding dice mechanic. When rolling your dice, any die that comes up ten is rolled again and added to the first roll. I’m a big fan of this mechanic. It means that every roll, no matter the amount of dice you have, can be a success. So, as a player, I have to always be aware that the NPC I am facing could quickly defeat me. I think this make the statement “A Samurai lives six feet from death” very palpable in the game.

Players are given a bit more control over actions as well. This is done through the mechanic of raises. Every action has a Target Number (TN) that you are normally given by the GM. The player then, either due to having a large dice pool or dire straits, can call raises. A raise is an increase in the TN by five to accomplish something extra on the roll. You can call raises up to your Void rank unless you have a school ability that allows you to ignore this limit. A raise can be used for a range of things, with the most used being extra damage. If you succeed at the new TN, you get what you get the added benefit of the raise. If you fail, you fail.

For me, these three mechanics make this a great game. They are simple in their execution. They allow for a dynamic and exciting time at the table, and are elegant in their reinforcement of the setting.

Setting

L5R is set in Rokugan. Rokugan is a fantasy version of feudal Japan with bits of historical Chinese and Korean culture added into the mix. The important word in that sentence is fantasy. This is not a historical game. Yes, it uses samurai, bushido, and the other trappings of Japanese society. Instead of a slavish devotion to these tropes, they are used to tell entertaining and enjoyable stories of adventure and tragedy. The foundations of the setting are the seven Great Clans. These clans are loosely based around the tenets of Bushido and their purpose assigned by the emperor. Within each clan are several families, which you would expect to reflect a different aspect of the central theme of the clan. This is not always the case. The history of the setting has minor clans being absorbed by Great Clan, families defecting, or new families being created. This provides for a nice variety within each clan, and also allows for that player that likes to play against type to do so without actually having to do much work.

Each clan has four schools to help further define a character and connect them to the setting. The breakdown for schools is: a bushi school, a shugenja school, a courtier school, and a specialty school to reinforce the flavor of that clan. It helps to think of each school as an analog of a class from D&D. This is not a perfect comparison, but it will ease your comprehension of each school. So, think of fighter when you hear bushi, cleric or wizard when you hear shugenja, bard when you hear courtier, and it varies with the specialty school. These analogs break down due to the political nature of the setting. As a character, you are not only trying to improve your own lot, but the standing of your family and clan. This adds another layer of tension that is not present in your standard fantasy setting.

The idea of what a hero is also very different in this setting. In standard fantasy, you kill the monster, take the gold and spend it on ale and whores. In Rokugan, you are a hero by sacrificing your own needs to those of your family, clan, and emperor. This is a very different perspective for those of us weaned on D&D. You can play the stereotypical samurai that will throw away his life at a moment’s notice for his Lord, but the setting allows for a greater depth of character. You can play the samurai that realizes it will be difficult for his Lord to replace him, and he should try to match both the spirit as well as the letter of Bushido

The Book

The production values on this book are excellent. The choice of layout was inspired. It uses a blend of all the other editions to provide a gorgeous end product. The art is very thematic. It evokes the traditional Japanese artwork without sacrificing the realism necessary to picture your character fully. Now, some of the artwork is recycled, which makes baby Jesus cry. Luckily, it is art that I liked from another book. Editing was the major problem with the last iteration of L5R, and that problem was addressed in this new edition. Overall, this is an excellent book from a production stand point.

Random Thoughts

The price point on this book is a bit rough. I have seen that $60 is becoming the standard pricing for RPG books, but does it have to be? I understand that it is a full color hard back, but The Dresden Files RPG is almost double the size for the same price. I picked it up, but if this price change is going to be seen on the splat books I’ll most likely give them a pass.

I do like that this new edition is trying to make jumping into this setting a bit easier. The CCG has driven the storyline for the RPG in prior editions, but 4th is trying to make it easier to ignore the CCG story line if you like. I really like that effort.

So, despite the price point, I still recommend picking up this book.

The Last Airbender

2010-07-08T11:30:00.004-04:00

OK, where to begin. I saw this on Tuesday evening with friends, and was looking forward to it as I am a fan of the cartoon.

I was a trusting fool. It was horrible.

Let me give you a little synopsis of the plot. The movie is set in a world where the people are divided by an elemental affiliation; Earth, Air, Fire, and water. Within each element, there are people that are able to manipulate that element which is called bending. These elements are naturally opposed, so peace is maintained by the Avatar, the person who can bend all elements and communicate with the spirits. The Avatar has been missing for over a hundred years now. The movie begins with the discovery of Aang, an airbender child, encased in a globe of ice. It is revealed that Aang is the last of the airbenders and the Avatar. He has to free the other peoples of the world from the tyranny of the Fire Nation, come to grips with his grief over the loss of his people, and learn to control the other elements. Doesn’t that sound like a lot of stuff? Yes, yes it does.

So, from the description, one would think that this would be a movie filled with emotion and kung fu fighting. The exact opposite is true. We were told everyting for the most part. Instead of being shown the tyranny of the Fire Nation, we are just told about it. We are given brief glimpses of the casual cruelty of the firebenders, but the tyrants never really make an appearance. A good example of this is the internment camp for the earthbenders. Instead of a dank prison where they are torutred or forced into backbreaking labor, they kept in an earhten bowl for all intents and purposes. If I was and Earthbender, that is where I would want to be kept. Damn those horrible firebenders! Another opportunity for both drama and action is when we are also told that the airbenders were slaughtered by the Fire Nation. Instead of being shown what happened to the airbenders, we just get shots of skeletons. I think the only time that we are told something and it is reinforced with a visual is when we are told that Aang is angry that his people are dead. There is then a scene where he starts to create a cyclone, but it quickly cuts to a spirit journey confusing whether his anger is a good thing or not. Someone should have kept Basil Exposition out of the script.

I keep wondering it M Knight has ever heard of this thing called a montage. It certainly would have helped this movie immensely. During the voice over about the nature of the Fire Nation, we could have been treated to a montage of the other people being conquered by the Fire Nation instead of just being shown their steam ships. When Aang is told that his people have been slaughtered and is processing his feelings, we could have been shown a montage of his memories juxtaposed with their slaughter. Hell, there is a point where we are supposed to believe that Sokka is in love with the Princess of the Water Nation. Outside of being told, we get a scene where they smile at each other, and a heavy handed info dump about how the spirits of her land are why she is alive. Maybe a nice montage of them being romantic would have helped us believe that they were romantically involved.

I can hear you out there harrumphing, wasn't I able to tell all these things from the acting. Yeah…the acting. There was some of that going on, but I wouldn’t call it good. I think the best performance was given by Shaun Toub, who played Uncle Iroh. He injects actual emotion into his performance. You believe that he truly cares for his nephew, and actually cares what is going on around him. Everyone else just seemed to phone it in.

I had hoped that the production values on the visual effects and fight scenes would have been top notch with the amount of money spent on this film. Not so much. The CGI effects are OK. The way they portrayed bending was OK, but I've seen better effects in Push. Fight choreography and editing also left a lot to be desired. In a movie where you are trying to overthrow an invading army, one would expect alot of fighting. You are told that there is some fighting, but the fight scenes are sparce. Sadly, The fight scenes that did occur were either executed by beginner martial artists, or so badly filmed and edited that you could see every punch and kick not connect.

I have to say give this movie a pass. Go watch the cartoon, it is much better.

Knight and Day

2010-07-05T21:31:00.004-04:00

I have recently seen Knight and Day and thought I would do a review. I should preface the review with, I love spy movies. It is almost always enough to get me to go see a movie. The only reason I didn’t see Killers is that I hate Ashton Kutcher. So, that is one spy movie that I had to take a pass on.

So, I should get on with the review. Knight and Day stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. Now, I’ve not been a big fan of Tom Cruise since The Last Samurai which I see as his best movie. I did see all of the Mission: Impossible movies. You know, they are spy movies. Don’t Judge me. I have to say that Knight and Day is better than Mission: Impossible.

Now, Knight and Day doesn’t really break any new ground. It is, at its heart, a by-the-numbers spy movie. Tom Cruise plays Roy Miller, bad-ass spy on the run. Cameron Diaz is the plucky innocent by-stander that gets swept up in the action. The twist on the formula is that Roy appears to be a rogue agent. The thrust of the movie is the process of June, Cameron Diaz, dealing with two issues. She has to deal with being in the action and out of her league, as well as learning that her hero could be the actual villain of the piece.

I actually really enjoyed this movie. I think the first reason is Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise. These are both good actors in my estimation, and the combination works well in this film. They both have an easy chemistry on the screen, and their performances have a nice flow to them. They seem to be really enjoying themselves in this movie and that translate well on the screen. Tom Cruise playing a crazy rogue agent really works and is complemented well by Diaz’ strong but unprepared female lead. Another reason I enjoyed this film is due to the point of view that they chose to take. The story, for the most part, is told from June’s perspective. There are points where we are shown the agents working on the case, the bad guys, or Roy but these are to establish for the audience the possibility that Roy is rogue while June is still working that issue out. The thing that impressed me most about this film is that they didn’t really make Cameron Diaz to be some secret bad ass. When the shit gets real, Roy knocks her out in one fashion or another, and the screen fades to black. I actually liked that conceit. Yes, Roy still has to deal with her making things difficult, but when it would make a no-win situation or threaten her survival, out she goes. It made me giggle every time it happened.

One thing to note is that this is a summer popcorn movie. Do not expect verisimilitude or gravitas. The stunts are over the top, and the humor can be a bit corny. Another thing of note, there are other people in this movie, but they are there to provide backdrop for the interactions of Cruise and Diaz. Which, I have already said. are pretty damn good.

So, If you like spy movies, comedies, or summer popcorn movies, I highly recommend giving it a watch.

Podcasts Revisted

2010-07-03T14:45:00.011-04:00

Hey there! I've been away for a little while, but I'm glad to be back.

My limited free time has been going to movies and listening to podcasts. So, I thought I would revisit the topic of podcasts. Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, I'll quickly explain what is a podcast. A Podcast is an audio or video program that is delivered digitally. Podcasts cover a wide range of topics, with quality and style varying as well. There are many ways to receive these digital files such as iTunes or Feedburner.

So, now onto the fun part. What podcast do I listen to and why. Oh, and this list is in no particular order.

Zero Fortitude

Zero Fortitude is a podcast that has been putting out shows for a little over a year. They cover topics such as: table top RPGS, Boardgames, video games, Conventions, and even beer. So, the line up is always something new for me and the hosts are hilarious to listen too. I found this podcast when I was listening to Save Versus Frostbite and the host made an appearance on that show. I am certainly glad that they did, as I was growing tired of Frostbite and found an even better replacement. I really enjoy this podcast as it was really easy to just jump in and enjoy. I heartily recommend giving them a listen.

The Bearswarm

The Bearswarm is a podcast that has been putting out shows for over two years now. It is also a table top rpg podcast which also deals with other bits of geek culture. I found this podcast as a referral from iTunes when I subscribed to Fear the Boot. I remember starting with episode 68, which was going to be the last episode for Art, one of the hosts, for awhile. They discussed movies, GenCon, and gave a street shout out to owls. I was hooked. The content can range in one single episode from tranys to in-depth discussions about the maturation of a genre in fiction. They did do a series of episodes where they guested on various shows, which were either awesome or left me cringing. I highly recommend this podcast as well.

Fear the Boot

Fear the Boot is the Grandaddy of gaming podcasts. It has been around for over 5 years, has its own convention, and a huge library of episodes. When I began looking for a podcast to listen to, this is the first one I found. I really enjoy the focus on table top roleplaying without a focus on any one system. I also enjoy the forays by the hosts into other geek topics as well. It has provide me with good advice on all aspects of gaming which have helped me immensely. I will say that I have not went very much into their past shows, as it is a daunting task trying to figure out where I would like to start other than the beginning. If your just staring to listen to gaming podcasts, this is where to start.

Darker Days

Darker Days podcast that has been around for about a year. Its focus is on the World of Darkness by White Wolf. This focus is what brought me to the podcast as I am a big fan of the World of Darkness, both old and new, and it allows me to vicariously experience it since the few gamers I know will not play it. The two hosts are really engaging and truly enjoy the topic as well. They break the show down into segments. These segments deal with old World of Darkness, new World of Darkness, news, and something from real life that would be useful in a World of Darkness game. I just wish they put out more shows as I have a ravenous appetite for this stuff.

I listen to a few other podcasts, but these are the ones I truly love. Let me know what you like to listen too in the comments.

Fat Beards and Mary Sues

2010-01-10T13:36:00.011-05:00

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts recently. It has helped me at least get some semblance of a gaming fix. As I've listened, I've heard Fat Beard and Mary Sue bandied about in regards to gamers. So, I've taken some time to analyze my own playing style to see if I fit into either of these typologies.

I think its best to start with a definition for each term so that you can understand what I'm talking about. Mary Sue is a term referring to people who play characters that have no flaws. They are perfect in every way and tend to self-destruct when their character fails. There is a broader definition which you can read here. Fat Beard is a reference to a gamer that is very fixated on one type of game, usually older or out-dated, to the point of calling other games stupidsuck. It is also a reference to the typical look of gamers in the past which I hopefully don't have to explain. Also of note, you can always show some tendencies towards these two descriptors. Being aware that you are is the key, as they are both negative stereotypes.

So, where do I fall in regards to these two stereotypes? Sadly, I have to say I have been them both over time. My Fat Beard recently came out in regards to the indie story game genre. I was not very enamored with the descriptions that I had heard and pretty much said, "They suck, why would anyone play them?" It was a bit after that when I heard the term Fat Beard and felt pretty crappy because I had acted exactly like one. I am happy to say that it is not a regular occurrence upon further reflection. I've tried many different games in my time. As gaming has departed from my repertoire of activities I've become somewhat overzealous in what I will or will not play. So, It was a good thing that I learned of the Fat Beard, so that I can keep an eye out for it in myself. I did give a story game a try, and posted a review of it here on my blog. It led me to find Houses of the Blooded, which is a story game that I would like to play or run. I won't say I'm going to be good at it, as it is still a bit outside of my comfort zone. It looks like it will be good fun though.

What about Mary Sue, you say? Well, I am somewhat of a Mary Sue. Yes, I'm referring to myself with a girls name, and yes there is a Marty Stu, but It originates with Mary Sue and I don't need help muddying the waters. I am quite adept on my own thank you. But I digress. Yes, I certainly have Mary Sue tendencies. I've noticed them come out more strongly in superhero games. I think it comes out here for me more as they are almost always a point-based system. So, I want to be as powerful as possible within the points allotment. I will admit that I am better at building a concept as compared to min-maxing. It also shows in my penchant for the odd character as well. Now that I am aware of the term and gaming style, I can make a conscious effort to keep it in check and work towards more well-rounded characters.

I have to say that hearing these two terms has helped me a lot. Becoming more self-aware is always beneficial.

Going Postal

2009-12-29T10:03:00.010-05:00

I thought I would try something different this time, as well as going with a suggestion from one of my commentators. I just recently finished Terry Pratchett's Going Postal and thought I would try my hand at a review.

First, I should be clear that it has been a while since I have read anything by Pratchett. Before Unseen Academicals, the last title I had read was The Truth. I had enjoyed it, but found it extremely preachy. So, I gave a pass to the long line of books he had released until Unseen Academicals. It was good, and the message was not as heavy handed as I remembered from The Truth. I brought Unseen Academicals up with my friend Aaron, and he was shocked to learn that I had not read Going Postal or Making Money. I explained to him the aforementioned history, so he ended up giving me Going Postal and Making Money for Christmas.

I guess I should give some background on Pratchett's setting. His books are set on the Discworld. A fantasy setting where the planet is flat and floats through space on the backs of four elephants standing on the shell of the great space turtle A'tuin. Its a world filled with wizards, witches, golems, and vampires to name a few of it's denizens. So, its a pretty open setting for what Pratchett likes to do.

Going Postal opens with our hero, Moist Von Lipwig, awaiting execution for a long list of scams and frauds. I love the name. After being hanged, Moist awakens before the Patrician, ruler of Ankh Morpork. I especially like this opening scene for two reasons. One, I found it hilarious how Lord Vetinari, The Patrician, explains that the hangman is very good at what he does. Moist was only hanged to within an inch of his life, precisely one inch. Second, Vetinari explains the nature of angels. An angel allows you a second chance, but you only get one angel. There is a lot more going on in the opening, but I don't want to spoil it.

What is Moist's second chance? He gets to revive the Ankh Morpork Post Office. The post has not ran in quite some time, mostly due to the rise of the Clacks system. I could try to explain the clacks system, but it is quite complicated. Think of it as fantasy analog of the telegraph/email. Whom does Moist have to help him accomplish this miracle? He has Junior Postman Groat, who is 65 years old. No postmaster has lived long enough to ever promote him. He also has Stanley, who was raised by peas. Finally, he has Mr Pump, who is a golem that serves as both assistant and parole officer. Sounds like a winning team, right. The main problem facing moist is that the decrepit post office is filled with letters from over a half a century that have never been delivered. He discovers that words have power on the Discworld, and what all these letters want is to be delivered.

The points that Pratchett makes in this book are great but subtle. One of the threads running through the books is that of corporate greed. The Clacks system is collapsing as the people who have taken it over are squeezing it for profit without thinking of the consequences to the workers or the world. Another thread, which I have mentioned earlier, is words have power. Pratchett spells it out for you as the letters actually tell Moist that they want to be delivered, but he also shows you through the effect of a long neglected letter that is delivered leading to burgeoning love in later years. The point is well delivered without ever being preachy. Finally, he deals with the issue of morality. Moist is a con artist, but a particular con artist. He never resorts to violence, and his schemes are always based around the idea of others taking advantage of him. This is best illustrated for me by Moist's conversation with Mr Pump. He goes on about the unfairness of it all, and how he never killed anyone. Mr Pump interrupts and explains that he is responsible for a fractional death. Moist doesn't really understand, and Mr Pump explains that each scheme hurt someone, or multiple people and could easily be calculated into this fractional death. I thought it was, again, a good point well made.

Finally, I just love Pratchett's turn of a phrase. He always leaves me laughing. My favorite from this book comes when the Head of The Grand Trunk, the company that owns the clacks system, basically attacks the post office in the newspaper. Moist just fumes over the betrayal of words down to specific words. Specifically he says synergistically had probably been a whore from the start. I had to put the book down for a minute to stop laughing.

So, I know have not touched on all the cool stuff about this book, but I wanted to let you know my thoughts on this great book. If you've read it, let me know what you though about it in the comments. If you haven't read it, what are you waiting for? Go get it and tell me what you thought.

Avatar

2009-12-19T15:21:00.005-05:00

I saw Avatar and thought I would put up my thoughts about the movie.

This may be a bit spoilery, you've been warned.

I was going into this movie looking forward to it. I am always looking for good Science Fiction, and outside of Star Trek there has not been much good science fiction in movies recently. If you think there has been some good science fiction films that I've missed, let me know in the comments.

Visually, this movie is stunning. The world of Pandora is created in its entirety. The flora and fauna are lush and vibrant, and the Na'Vi are lovingly rendered. I really liked that the planet which Pandora orbited would be looming in most of the panoramic shots. It just added to the feeling of "otherness" to the setting. I was easily engrossed by the travel scenes throughout the movie. I just wanted to see what new bit of Pandora was revealed as the characters moved through the plot. I have heard some people complain about the quality of the CGI on this film and I have to say that they are incorrect. Cameron has made sure to have his Pandora brilliantly executed for us on the screen.

The pacing of the film was good. Cameron is an excellent director and has not lost his touch during his long hiatus. When the plot of the movies is not being forwarded, you are being given time to explore the environment of Pandora. For me, this is why this nearly three hour movie does not seem to drag. I am sure that when I see this movie again, I will notice something new about Pandora.

The story is the main sticking point for me on this movie. I've seen this story before, and you have too. Have you seen Ferngully, Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai? Then you have seen this story. The Na'Vi are the Noble Savages and the humans are the rapacious invaders driven by greed. Subtlety is not the stories strong suit. The corporation is easily recognizable as America, and unobtainium is a stand in for oil. The tropes are embraced, in mass, and then bashed against the side of your head. The actors do a good job with what they were given, but the story can not really let them shine. I'm not saying that I do not like the story, on the contrary, I do. This is why I have seen Ferngully, Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, and others. I'm just saying that these other movies have done it better and with a lighter touch. I do think that the Science Fiction aspect does lighten the blow. If your paying attention, we humans are capable of what the Na'Vi are, we just don't realize this.

Once again, this is a good movie. It does not seem to be the revolutionary picture the hype was talking about, but still a rousing good story. I would highly recommend this movie as worth a trip to the movies this holiday season.

Spirit of the Century

2009-12-13T17:31:00.008-05:00

I've finally played one of the vaunted Story games. I played Spirit of the Century at my last Sunday game down in Louisville. Instead of playing the standard pulp format, the group went with a '60's style action TV series theme. We took our first session to make characters. I will admit that I have trouble making anything that will fit into that genre, so I stuck with a rather normal human character that I like to play. A time-lost Samurai. The character concept worked out rather well as we had someone playing a variant of a time lord which allowed me access to the current time line.

The system of Spirit of the Century is rather simple. It uses a mechanic called fudge dice. you have four d6 that you roll for any important action. A one or a two is -1, a three or four is 0, and a five or six is +1. to add to your outcome you are able to invoke/tag aspects of the scene, npc, or yourself. An aspect is a descriptive word or phrase that describes something and can be invoked, tagged, or compelled. Invoke refers to using one of your own aspects for your benefit, it provides +2 to your roll. Tagging is using an aspect of an npc or the scene to your advantage. These aspects are made clear through the Narrator's description. So, he describes a dark hallway which you must pass through undetected. You could tag the dark aspect of the hallway to give yourself +1 to a stealth roll. Your own aspects could be tagged as well. My character had the aspect "My sword and I are one", which could have been tagged when I was in hand to hand combat. Compel is where the Narrator attempts to force an action on the character by using an aspect of a character to further the story. One of the players had an aspect called "This is not what it seems" which was compelled early and often.

Characters also had stunts which allowed for bending the rules in one way or another. I had one which I didn't really understand during the game called army of one. It allowed me to bank spin to be used at a later time. I now understand that spin is pretty much narrative control. It wasn't really clear at the time, so I really never made the best use of it. I now know that narrative control is the bee's knees and I want it like a fat kid wants smarties.

All of these things are powered by fate points. You get ten to start the game. Every time you invoke or tag an aspect after the first, it requires a fate point. You get a fate point whenever you are compelled by an aspect. You get a fate point whenever you do something cool or entertaining. You use a fate point to take some minor narrative control. So, the whole structure is built around giving and getting fate points.

So, over all I was whelmed. I was neither overwhelmed by the game nor underwhelmed by the game, hence whelmed. I will say that I like the narrative control aspect of the game. It just seemed that the only time that it was truly useful was when it didn't really matter. In the game, The group had ended up splitting up and I followed the thinker-type character to make sure he would be OK. It turned out that I was just watching him trade barbs with his nemesis, so I invoked my aspect "Just in time" and joined the other group which had ran into my enemies. I used all my fate points throughout the game, I was descriptive, I was entertaining, I even pointed out where my aspects could be used against me, but I never got an extra fate point. I felt like the fat kid that never gets picked for kickball. Which I was by the way, hence I was able to recognize the feeling.

I would have to say I come away with three things from this session. One, when you make a game that is dependent on a resource such as fate points, they should flow like water. When they don't, someone feels like they are being left out. Hell, you can use them like chaining in behavioral psychology. Player not interacting the way you want? Reward them with a fate point for something that even approximates what you want. Further rewards are only given for better approximations of the behaviour your looking for. To me, that is sort of the point of them in the first place. Two, ten aspects are way to much. If you worked to narrow it down to five that really popped, the game would be better off and you would get better aspects out of it. Third, Fudge dice suck. It is an overly pretentious way of determining success. You could more easily just add the numbers up and compare to a target number. Fudge Dice = ThaC0 = Bad design.

I want to play/run Houses of the Blooded now though. I can see the fun in giving up narrative control and getting players to create the world with you. Now I just have to make it happen.

Ninja Assassin

2009-11-29T15:18:00.006-05:00

Thought I would do a movie review.

I went and saw Ninja Assassin Friday evening. I went in with very low expectations, but it's about Ninjas so it had to be somewhat entertaining.

The plot is fairly straight forward. The main character, Raizo, is a rogue Ninja who is trying to get back at his clan for killing a female clan member that was special to him. You get this back story in the form of flashbacks. The secondary plot which drives the action of the movie is a europol agent has stumbled upon the secret of the Ninja and convinces her superior to allow to go forward with her investigation. Her activity brings her to the attention of the Ninja and that of Raizo. He successfully protects her from their first assault leading to much more violence ensuing.

One of the things I liked about this movie is the training montages. Yes, I know they are cliched, but that doesn't change the fact that I like them. In this movie you get two types of training montages. During the flashbacks, you get to see what training was like for Raizo back at the Ninja Clan dojo. You also get to see what he does to keep himself in peak condition while he is a rogue Ninja. All of these scenes are reminiscent of the ninja movies of the 80's. They are very similar to scenes I have seen before, but done with a greater sense of style and a cleaner cinematography.

The other thing I liked about the movie is how they emphasized the power of secrecy being the major strength of the Ninja. The scenes throughout the movie consistently highlight the Ninja being fast, accurate, and being able to meld with shadows. As the movie progresses you are shown the europol agents recognizing this as a problem and trying to neutralize it without really believing it. In the final scenes, no reservations are held back and the final assault is made utilizing everything necessary to make shadows hard to come by. Even without this advantage, the Ninja are still a terrible foe, but more on par with something any well trained unit could handle. Of course, all of this only adds to the drama of Raizo's final confrontation with the Ninja Clan master.

So, If you like stylized violence and Ninjas, I would highly recommend this movie. It doesn't push the envelope of the Ninja tropes, but puts in a solid performance for my modern sensibilities.

Character Progression

2009-11-22T20:11:00.007-05:00

I was listening to The Bear Swarm, and at one point they started discussing the need for character progression. It seems that John Wick had been discussing this at length as well, and was of a mind that it wasn't necessary for games. Now, I have not listened to Mr. Wick's podcast, but I can not help but agree with the Rob, from Bear Swarm, that character progression is an integral part of roleplaying.

From a simplistic perspective, most games are built on the idea of character progression. You either gain levels, or gain experience points to spend towards improving things on the character sheet. This has been integral part of roleplaying since the beginning, and can be seen in its most pervasive in the modern MMO. Players want to gain experience, go up a level, get new abilities and new items. I think that this gives a new player a good base from which to start. They may not have courage or the knowledge to create a driving background for their character. They can see what they will receive with the next level or purchase with experience soon. This helps get them familiar with whatever system you are using, and as you progress you can introduce them to more in-depth character progression.

This in-depth character progression is something which I truly enjoy, but do not often get. In the podcast, they discussed this in reference to just making the perfect character and then character progression isn't necessary. I agree with Rob again on this point as well. Even with a character where you have everything you want, you still need to have something to strive for. If not, you are not really gaming. You are just engaging in a writing exercise to design a perfect character. Vampire provides a good analogy for charcater progression despite having your perfect character. You can create a powerful vampire, but you have to provide the impetus for the character to want to continue from night to night. The political aspect of the Vampire provides for this type of story without really requiring experience expenditure to proceed.

I've tried to think of any game where character progression could be left out without the game suffering. The only one that I can come up with is Paranoia, but you never play more than a one-shot of Paranoia though. Character progression is a fundamental part of the roleplaying experience, removing it leaves you with a board game for all intents and purposes.

Request

2009-11-14T21:42:00.001-05:00

I know that I do not have many readers, but I would like to make a request. Please provide some feedback about writing style and topics. Suggestions for topics would be appreciated as well.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Why I game.

2009-11-13T21:21:00.005-05:00

I have been pondering a post all week. I was initially going to call it play styles, but the more I thought about it, the more I really just wanted to jot down why I like to play RPGs.

One of the reasons I enjoy Role playing is the social aspect. I like getting together with a group of people I enjoy being around and having a good time. We will catch up with what has been going on amongst the group, have some fun banter, then get involved in the story of the evening. It is a cooperative endeavor where everyone contributes to the enjoyment of everyone else. This one thing will bring me to the table when I'm not really interested in the game, but looking for that human connection. I have spoken about this with a friend, and his statement was that WoW was basically replacing the table-top RPG. He went on to elaborate that it provides a world where no one person is responsible for the story, the rules are enforced evenly, and everyone can interact from their home. I had played wow up until February of this year, and I have to say that it still doesn't really compare to table-top RPGs. I like someone guiding the story, and letting us have impact on the world. I like throwing popcorn at the street sam that has to duck-walk to carry all his weapons. I found that WoW and other games like it, are a poor substitute for Role playing.

I can boil most everything else I like about role playing down to wish fulfillment. I work five days a week, I have bills to pay, and people to keep happy. Sometimes things go well and sometimes they don't. So, I come to the game table to be something that I am not. I've discussed this with friends as well and been told that it would be better termed escapism, but I don't really think that is an apt description of why I am motivated to game. I get to play the hero, the monster, or whatever the case may be for the session. I can concede the point that it is escapist fun, in that it allows me to try to fulfill deep-rooted wishes.

kind of simple really.

Character Creation

2009-11-04T15:48:00.004-05:00

I went down to Louisville this weekend to play with the group down there. We were starting a game of Spirit of the Century. So, we spent our first session in character creation. This led to me think about the difference between playing with a pre-gen and taking the time to make your own character.

I understand the need for using pre-gen characters at convention games. This allows the GM to control what types of characters he will have playing in his story and make sure that the scenario will not be unbalanced. I remember designing a Vampire game for Lost in Kentucky Con. I basically built the scenario around the characters interactions with the plot being completely secondary. I let the player’s change the characters a little before we started and we were off and running. After the session was over, they asked me about how I designed the game and I told them I was trying to go easy and keep it rather simple with everything based around the player characters. After much discussion, they said they didn’t really want to see what I thought was hard session of Vampire. They stated that with the attention to detail I had put into the characters, the game was an emotional roller coaster. They loved it. So, I know that you can do pre-gens well. I have seen good and bad pre-gens at cons, but there is little recourse on this issue at a con.

I am not a fan of pre-gens at a home game. I do understand the occasional need for them, but it still rankles me. I am normally able to come up with a character concept, background, and completed character sheet within ten to fifteen minutes for most games with which I am familiar. When I’m playing a pre-gen, I just have trouble getting into character and fully enjoying the game. There is a disconnect for me in these situations which I should be able to overcome, but I just cannot. Only for Hero games do I not mind a pre-gen, but usually I am asked what kind of hero I would like and the GMs I have had are fairly adept at interpreting what I ask for into that system.

One of the things that I realize is that a Pre-gen does give the gm though, is control. If you are developing a story and you need a certain thing to be present in the characters at the table, you have it. I just think that you can do this with proper framing during the character creation process. If you inform the players of what kind of story you want to tell and what you think you may need, the players will make it. Some would say that this is just as restrictive as a pre-gen, but I disagree. If you agree with the story idea, then the framing gives you a greater degree of freedom than if I just gave you what I thought was best for you.

What do you think about pre-gens?

Podcasts

2009-10-30T22:18:00.017-04:00

I have found another way to feed my gaming habit, the podcast. Basically it is a radio show created by fans and published on the Internet for your enjoyment. I am quite enamored of them. So, I thought I would list the ones I listen to and why I like them or am on the fence about them.

Fear the Boot
This is currently my favorite podcast to listen too. The cast is made up of Daniel Repperger, Chad Wattler, Wayne Cole, Chris Hussey, and Pat Roper. They deal with issues regarding role playing in general and utilize anecdotes from their own personal experiences with games that they have played. They do not really do reviews of games, but of things that would impact any game you would play. They have a nice banter and discuss other geeky things such as movies and video games as well. The sound quality is great and it is updated on a regular basis. I highly recommend giving it a listen. Oh, and I almost forgot, it is not an explicit podcast so you can listen to it at work without headphones.

The Bearswarm!
This is my second favorite gaming podcast to listen too, though it was my first gaming podcast found. Its cast is made up of Rob, Mike, Matt, and Artemis. This is an explicit podcast, so headphones are recommended. It also deals with more general gaming issues, but also will discuss specific games which the hosts enjoy.
Houses of the blooded comes up particularly often. This show is broken down into somewhat more discreet parts. The hosts will open with some banter for a bit, move onto a topic for the show, and finish with mobile shoutouts. The banter is always entertaining and humorous. The topics are generally quite thought-provoking, but easily derailed into something equally entertaining but not as useful. They use the mobile shoutouts to let the audience know of something not necessarily game related that they find intriguing. I also highly recommend this show as well. My one concern is that after their 100th show they are going to take a hiatus of sorts where they will just be appearing on other podcast and putting them up on the Bearswarm site as well. I certainly hope its not a pod fade.

Darker Days Podcast
This is another favorite podcast of mine. It is non-explicit so you can listen without headphones at work if you like. It is hosted by Vincent Florio and Mark Hope. Unlike the other two podcast, this one is specific to the World of Darkness. It has a very regimented show style with definitive sections. One of my favorite parts is the Secret Frequency, in which they find something odd from real life and provide ways to utilize it in your WoD game. Always entertaining, even if creepy sometimes. The other thing which I like about this show is that it deals with both the Old WoD and the New WoD with specific segments dedicated to each. They also interview people whom have worked on various projects for White Wolf and these are always enlightening.I highly recommend this podcast as well, but if your not a fan of White Wolf then you will not enjoy the subject matter. They also have my favorite interview question ever, "If you were a kitchen appliance, what would you be?" Love it!

Radio Free Hommlet
This is another non-explicit podcast which I enjoy. It shares a similar focus to Darker Days in that it is focused on D&D 4E. It is hosted by DM David, DM Kate, and DM Tim. This show is also broken down into regimented sections. My favorite sections are the map room and build this. The map room is basically a review of a new D&D 4E product, pointing out what the hosts think are the salient parts. I normally agree with their perspective as well as seeing a new way of utilizing the product. Build this is where they will take a mini or just an idea and make a 4E character out of it. They explain all their choices as they go. once again, mighty cool. It is my main outlet currently for 4E goodness, which I so hope will change soon.

Atomic Array
This podcast is hit or miss for me. It is a non-explicit podcast hosted by Rone Barton and Ed Healy. It is mostly a review show with a few short segments in which they rant about something that angers them and something that they think you may like non-game wise. The gist of the show is the review of a new product, and their focus is not on big names alone. This what is problematic for me in regards to this podcast. I will listen, on the off chance that the item being reviewed will be intriguing, or the interview will be entertaining, but I am sometimes disappointed. I like both of the hosts, and continue to listen due to their congenial nature and nice rapport.

I am currently on the fence about Kicked in the Dicebags and Save Against Frostbite. They both are explicit podcasts which are sometimes about gaming, sometimes about some heavy topics, and sometimes about stupid sophomoric rants. so, I keep listening because there are those gems, but each time it gets longer between gems.

There are a few other shows which I am listening to but will review them later after getting better acquainted with them.

System Failure

2009-10-25T14:53:00.006-04:00

I was thinking about something I mentioned in my last post about Star Wars, and a discussion I had with my friend Ryan. I seem to have many rpg systems that I do not care for, but the system isn't always at fault. So, I thought I would review some of the systems I dislike and maybe pinpoint the cause.

I mentioned Star Wars already, and one of the reasons I am not a fan any more is that I do not believe that I can reach the same level of fun with it I had in the past. You would think that I would still keep looking for that high, but after a few abortive attempts I have given up. I played in several games where we had to hew to the canon of the movies. This meant nothing that would garner a PG-13 rating. It also meant we weren't the stars of the show. There would always be cut scenes to show us what the real heroes of the movies were doing. Another attempt left out playing towards cannon, but had the DM's Characters as the stars of the show. I undertook a final try with many misgivings. We played an older module. It somehow forgot that Star Wars is space opera. I was bored out of my skull. I should mention here that this is the original D6 version of Star Wars. I could not even bring myself to give the D20 version a try, and the Saga version was shot down by my distaste for that system from Dragonlance.

Boot Hill is another game I always give a pass on. I've tried playing it three times. The first time, I was killed ten minutes into the game. Mind you, It took about twenty minutes to make my character, and it was my first time playing. I tried again, and was lucky enough to survive the first ten minutes of the game. It just wasn't made clear to me that we were playing outlaws. It is not that I do not like playing the villain, I just like to plan for it. My final attempt was nothing but a slash and burn with no substance. So, needless to say, I'm glad its a defunct game, and give the evil eye to anyone that mentions playing it.

Savage Worlds is another game of which I am not fond. I am likely to give it another chance as it has only disappointed me twice thus far. This system vexes me in two ways. One is that it is a very simplistic system, and I prefer a little more crunch in my games. The second reason is the pulpiness of the setting. I have never been a fan of the pulp genre. I will generally make a character and stay in the background. It isn't very entertaining for me, but better than a blank.

D&D 3.75 is another system which causes me no end of consternation. I like both Pathfinder and trailblazer, but they come on the heals of 4th edition. I have not had much experience with 4th edition, and am very intrigued with the character options available. All the DM's I know are reverting back to a 3.75 version despite my lack of experience with 4th edition. So, if I want to play D&D, I have to be frustrated because I can not play the version I want.

There are several other systems that I feel similarly about, but I'm not going to keep on ranting about what I don't like. Most of my issues with these and other systems stem not mostly from the system. The DM or the players just ruined the game for me and I blame the system and never want to try it again. I wish I could say that I will only play with good players and DMs, but my good player's and DM's schedules make for some difficult gaming time. So, risks are going to be taken and more systems may fall. I just need to find a third group.

Sci-Fi

2009-10-21T21:01:00.005-04:00

I started a post earlier this week where I was going to talk about my likes and dislikes in gaming. It bored me to death, so I decided I would talk about my current obsession which is to run a sci-fi game.

You would think that this would be an easy thing to do as there are a few systems out there that are sci-fi. It is not really turning out so easy for me. I discarded Traveler almost immediately. I remember taking a long time to create a character, only to die in character creation. I was so pissed. Yes, I remember I was still able to play the character be cause we just went back to the previous roll and stopped there. But Really, you can die in character creation and then start over. Who thinks that's fun? Not me. Now, upon further reflection, I do like the Aslan race from the book. I plan on purloining them for one of my alien races because I really like the idea.

I also discarded the Star Wars as a setting as well. I have to admit I have fond memories for Star Wars from the Murray State University Gaming Association (MSUGA). I believe the climax for me was the confrontation between the fallen Jedi and I. I was playing a full Jedi. It was exhilarating. I would say a peak gaming experience for me. Every time I have tried to play again it has been with people that don't want to mess with the cannon. You have to stay within the story line as presented in the movies, no cussing, no carousing, no Jedi. It sucked. So, its not really the setting that that has turned me off to this game, but that I know that I can not reach that level again. So, why torture myself.

Star Trek I considered for a bit. I like the concept, but I didn't want the whole bridge of pretty people pontificating. DS9 is closer to the feel that I want, except I don't want to be station-bound. It doesn't help that I do not have the rules, and really not up for trying to find them as I know they are no longer in print.

I used some gift certificates to Comic Book World to pick up Rogue Trader from FFG over the weekend to see if it might tickle my fancy. It is a beautiful book, as was Dark Heresy. It's just such a bleak and crushing milieu, that I just can not think of any adventures that I would enjoy running in that setting. It has Psykers, which is always a plus in my book as I love psionics of almost any sort. The psionics in this setting really leave me cold as the risks associated with even a minor power are possibly crippling. I want to run a game about space heroes, not stories about the slow degeneration of a mercenary company.

A new game just recently was released called Eclipse Phase. I was going to pick up until I read a blurb describing the horror component based on Lovecraftian entities. I despise me some Lovecraft. It involves another slow descent into madness for you to progress and that is not what I want to run. sure, I could just discard that portion of the setting, but that its there at all offends me.

I was loaned a copy of Fading Suns by my friend Mark, and it seems OK. It is a very Herbertesque setting. I like Dune, especially the dependence on humans over machine. It just doesn't really excite me either though. It seems like a watered down version of Dune. So, I think I'll pass.

So, for the moment, I have settled on Trinity. It has a system I am familiar with and like. It is based around psionics which I love. It has a setting and theme which I enjoy, and I'm ready to get into tweaking the setting to make it more what I want. I've discussed my ideas with several people and will make sure to expand the discussion to more people coming up.

Howdy

2009-10-14T21:37:00.000-04:00

Hello, My name's Rob and I'm a geek.

I love Roleplaying games, Science Fiction, Fantasy, video games, and the like. I've enjoyed them for quite some time, well over twenty years at a guess.

I've been thinking alot about my hobbies of late and working hard to maintain them now that I am in my late Thirties. Life changes have made it difficult to maintain prior relationships built around the hobby, and building new connections are harder as I grow older. So, I thought I would start this to kind of keep myself in the thick of things at least mentally, even if things do fall apart in the real world.

I currently have two gaming groups. One is local that I try to get together with at least twice a month, and the other is about an hour and a half a way. I tried to get to that one twice a month as well, but physical illness has kept me away fro a few months now. I would like to play more often locally, but finding a group is rather difficult in this area.

The Local game I am running Legend of the Five Rings, which is one of my favorite games. The Louisville game just wrapped up a Mutants and Masterminds game are preparing to play a pathfinder organized play scenario. I don't mind published scenarios, I'm just not sure if I'm sold on D&D 3.75 as I am actually enjoying D&D 4E. Just not easy to find a group to play that either.

So, I plan to discuss games that I am wanting to Run, Games I'm wanting to play, Movies I think are entertaining, and anything else that catches my fancy. I will put up a list soon of the Pod casts that I listen to which I think you may fine entertaining or edifying.