The Hopeless Gamer

Moving Means Making Hard House-Cleaning Choices.

2012-01-29T15:49:00.002-06:00

My Future.

I've been very fortunate to have the opportunity to move to a better position in my professional life (sadly still not anything professional within our shared collective hobbies, but still a productive move), and that means moving to a new town. I've struggled with the decision because the new job means good things for my wife, and kits, and I, but while the cats seem to be oblivious to the world around them (because they're so self-centered, you see), the Gamer Wife and I have been working our ways through processing what moving two hours away means for us. Moving away from friends, family, and our professional lives, not to mention out of our hometown where we've lived all our lives except when we went off to school, is just tough. Not surprisingly so, but still, it's tough.

This is, however, a gaming blog, and while I feel more comfortable nowadays writing a little bit more naturally and personally, I still don't want to lose sight of why The Hopeless Gamer exists, and that's tabletop games (and the occasional video game, of course). So, bringing it back to the actual topic of the HG, I'm finding myself doing some cleaning out of the old game collection. Generally speaking, I pick up a lot of stuff over the passage of time. I'll pick up a game book here or there with occasional big purchase times around Gencon every year, and it all adds up.

I need to make something clear right now - the Gamer Wife isn't asking me to get rid of anything. She's always been cool with my games collection and often participates in the enjoyment of said collection. But moving is always a hard thing, and I desperately don't want to move anything out of this apartment to another state to be unpacked in a new apartment just to sit on a shelf. I don't have anyone to impress with my game collection, and outside of a few mementos and cool books to keep, I only want to hang on to things I'll read or really intend to read at some point.

This means I've got to take a fine-toothed comb to my collection and peel away as much as possible for 1/2 priced books and the Gencon auction. What I find myself doing is keeping books with higher production values for the most part. I'm keeping most of my World of Darkness books, which is probably the single biggest collection from one game line that I have. They also have the benefit of being just full to the brim with fun little things to read. I'm also keeping Mouse Guard, as another example of great production value that won me over altogether as a product.

Although I haven't written as much about the game lately, my personal prize of my collection is my Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition Collection. I don't know how AEG does it, but L5R 4th Edition is pretty much the best game line I've ever seen put together. I've never played a game (but would truly love to give it a shot since I love the Roll and Keep engine so much in theory), but I love samurai as a general genre, and the full-color hard-bound books of L5R are just amazing. I can't wait to pick up the Imperial Histories!

Obviously there's other stuff I'm hanging on to (things like The One Ring and Empire of Dust box sets are both prized possessions), but really this just leaves me with what I'm getting rid of. A big part was beginning the pruning of my World of Darkness collection. There were some books that I've read, enjoyed, but am ready to let go. The other selection is pretty much all of my D&D 4th Edition stuff. Not to go all hipster on you, dear reader, but I've actually had my 4th edition stuff in the "to go" box for over a year now - well before the announcement of 5th edition. I don't own a whole lot of 4th edition, but what I do own, well it has a high production value, just doesn't really stimulate me either mechanically or story-wise, and so it has to go. I'm still going back and forth on my Essentials Heroes of the Fallen Lands simply because if I decide I want to play in a local game (which I don't know if I'll be able to find one honestly), I'll at least be able to play a basic version of a character. Still, D&D pretty much has to go!

Since this stuff is kind of dominating my life and thoughts right now, I'll likely be posting more about it, but I'm very interested in talking about duet games with the Gamer Wife, finding two-player games, making time to get back to my group to play games occasionally, and solo games. I've already been doing a lot of research of alternatives, so that's just a little preview of what may be coming up in the next couple of weeks (and probably months) while I learn about where I am as a gamer in a new state.

Like a Cat Drawn to a Heating Pad

2012-01-25T18:36:00.001-06:00

The other day, the wife bought a heating pad for her back. We have two cats, and it took us until today to realize that the heating pad is probably the single greatest pleasure a neutered cat can derive from this world. Now, our cats love them some blankets and couch cushions. They'll lay, dead to the world, for hours at a time on the back of the couch, preferably atop a pile of freshly-folded blankets. I'm confident that blankets + cats = infinite heat generating machine. I'm pretty sure the cats are confident about this as well. But then something strange (and to my cat, wonderful) happened this afternoon. Our young'un 20 pound cat was laying on the heating pad (after all - it's practically a blanket on its own), and we decided to turn that bad boy on. Cue instant pur generating machine as Barney squeezed his eyes tightly in pure kitty bliss.

This got me thinking about myself and you, my fellow gamer. You see, I believe that we all have our blankets and our heating pads when it comes to games. Blankets are the every - day kind of good that we all crave. In other terms, blankets are the entry level drug. It's that first good high that's familiar, reliable, and largely self-sufficient once you plop yourself down on and/or in it. You enjoy your blanket. You get a lot out of it, and it's satisfying in ways few other things can even get close to. Then one day you come across this new exciting thing. It hits all the buttons the blanket hits, but it's so much more pure and concentrated, and it just seems to work better than any blanket you've found at pleasing your gaming needs. This is your heat pad. It's the thing that maybe needs a little outside juice, or maybe it's something that you can only really get to when you're around friends or a helping hand.

Ok, so this is actually a gaming blog, not a blog about how great cats are and how to make your cat great. So where am I going with this? I think there's a blanket and a heating pad out there for everyone when it comes to role-playing games. I think for the vast majority of tabletop gamers, their blanket is likely to be Dungeons & Dragons. It's the game that seems just right and exciting, and can run itself pretty much on autopilot once it gets going. Well I enjoy the random game of D&D, it's not exactly my blanket. I'm instead going to go with Savage Worlds. It's a simple generic system that is easy for me to figure out how to run lots of different games, and it inspires me to come up with new settings. It's my entry drug, but it's not quite spot-on enough for me to be my heating pad.

And here lies the problem - I've found easily a half dozen games that could potentially be my heating pad. My latest two obsessions are the Fate system and the PDQ system. They both seem to work so well, and given that I really do prefer rules-liter games over crunchier systems. The problem for me is that I haven't gotten an opportunity to really try anything to make sure it's my heating pad. I'm really leaning heavily toward PDQ at this point as I recently picked up Jaws of the Six Serpents and began reading it quite quickly. I love this book, and it's very much in line with how I feel a good story can be told with both experienced role-players and people sitting down at the table for the first time.

But here's the rub - I really need to temper my excitement for yet another new game with another cool setting and another really exciting set of rules. I know that one of my greatest weaknesses is my excitement for the new thing, even if it isn't actually very new to the rest of the world. I can't help it. I want to make the thing work for me because it inspires me with new ideas. But then eventually I move on to the next new thing when my attention wanes, and I don't learn anything for it. Well, maybe I learn a little bit more about what I actually like about a game book, but beyond that, I lose the possibility for any great insight. Every new game that grabs my attention like this is another person flipping the switch on a potential heating pad, but each heating pad, just like the last, just doesn't quite feel right to make me go from zero to 60 purring power. I'm just going to close my eyes and keep moving forward, hoping that this heating pad is the right one for me.

Why Skyrim Makes Me Want to be a Better GM.

2012-01-19T17:39:00.002-06:00

Skyrim isn't technically me first Elder Scrolls game. I tried playing Oblivion on both the PC and the PS3, and could not get into the story at all. I didn't care straight away from the opening, and the controls seemed counter-intuitive for me (the same could be said for my experiences trying Fallout 3 sadly). I was however taken in immediately from the opening cart ride through avoiding the dragon to choosing (obviously) to work with the Storm Cloaks instead of escaping with the Imperial Legion. The game just felt right immediately. If a game grabs me like that, it usually has me for the whole ride as I delve deeper into the story. Skyrim took that and ran with it, and Bethesda has done something truly amazing with the game.

I've got two big reasons why Skyrim just works for me. Because I love making lists, I made a list!

1. Your character gets better at doing the things you like your character to do. I've never played a game where it's so obvious that you can make the character your own. Skyrim famously is a class-less system (which we, as tabletop gamers, will find to be quite the familiar term). You can mix and match all the skills to create a character that works best for you. Want a ranger? Stick with archery, alchemy, sneaking, and light armor, and you can't go wrong. Want to be a paladin? Focus on heavy armor, one-handed weapons, shields, and restoration spells. Want to be something we don't have an obvious name for - a war mage perhaps? Go Destruction spells, Heavy Armor, and Alteration spells.

Characters get better by practicing the skills you like to play as. You only level up through the increase of your skills, so the only way to get more powerful is by actually doing things. Practice makes perfect, and as an extension of this, you're almost constantly being told that one skill or another has improved unlocking perks (we'd call them Feats, Advantages, Edges, etc.) for each specific skill as you level. There are easily hundreds of different types of characters you can build in Skyrim, and I'm guessing that they're pretty much all top notch to play. For me, my character, a Redguard named Feanor, is a ranger through-and-through with lots of sneakiness, dual-wielding weapons, archery, and, because he's inspired by his namesake, extra good at enchanting and blacksmithing. I can't wait to try the other dozen or so character concepts I'd like to see eventually down the road...

I have no idea how we can emulate this in a tabletop game. Incremental skill increases are pretty popular, most noticeably in Call of Cthulhu's Basic Role Playing engine, but it's still pretty slow. You need a huge range of skill levels to show such a gradual, continual feeling of reward for your character solving problems using skills you favor. Mouse Guard even better emulates this in that you also move up your skill when you fail a check. As far as creating your own character, these games and countless other class-less systems do this well as a focus, so at least we have that.

2. Oh man, I have to walk half the continent to get to that quest... Oh! What's that?! I'm constantly discovering new things in Skyrim. Bethesda has created a country jam-packed full of caves, dungeons, bandit-filled forts, and mountain-top dragon lairs. Each little (or long) encounter has a story whether told in random journals strewn about or told through more visual means such as the items found around an abandoned camp fire.

It's actually very hard to stop playing Skyrim sometimes. You can be on your way to a quest location and come across this epic tomb of an ancient dreadlord, and you just have to explore it. Every dark place is full of an adventure and great rewards that never get old. There's just so much to do in Skyrim that finding - and beating - it all feels like a hugely daunting task but one that I could believe is worthwhile in the long run.

So how do we use this in our own games? I want to give my players the sense that there's just so much to do that where ever they end up going (especially when they go against what I might think they will - as players always do), I must have planned and predicted exactly where they would go. That being said, I really don't want to plan out everything in that much detail. I've never taken advantage of random tables in the middle of GM'ing a session, but I think choosing a couple of key tables and having them at hand in the heat of moment may make this happen.

Depending on the genre, you can have a couple of toolkits on hand. Let's use a generic fantasy setting for example. To start with, organize your tables into a couple of different groups: forest, mountain, plains, coastal, etc. Each of these groups contains several tables that are appropriate for that kind of region. You'll want a table for just a couple of things to make your on-the-fly dungeon work out. First, you need a boss table. You should start with some generic things such as ancient lich, giant dragon, bandit warlord, etc. You'll want to assign a name to each of the big bads, and like all of these tables, you'll cross out an option once it's used. You'll also need a minions table for each region. From there, you should roll a d3 to determine if your dungeon is small (1), medium (2), or large (3) to give your players some variety and make it hard to expect what's to come. From there, you also need a quirk. Each dungeon should have its own thing that makes it unique and stand out from the rest. Maybe one dungeon is sunken and slowly flooding while another is haunted by the ghosts of past heroes who tried to clear it. Finally, don't forget loot! You'll want to determine again with a d3 roll how much cash is in the dungeon and put at least one magic item or cool unique item that really stands out as the cool thing of the dungeon.

So, easy peasy, right? Of course it's easier said than done, but really the big work is in getting your table groupings together with each table filled in. Once you get that far, you should have an easy 80 or 100 dungeons to throw at your players, each one feeling unique and (hopefully) like it belongs right where the players found it. Good luck!

Take it or Leave it.

2012-01-17T21:24:00.000-06:00

It turns out that taking a break from the week-in, week-out grind of over-whelming bloggery responsibilities is good for the soul and rejuvenating for the mind. Who knew? Plenty of people, but that's really not the point. I've been trying to decide for a while now if I was done with the whole blogging thing. I've had a great time over the couple of years of The Hopeless Gamer. Although my audience (you, if you're reading these words right now) is quite meager, I've been given some really cool opportunities since I've become a blogger simply because I kept a semi-active blog. A part from the nice press passes to shows like Gencon and c2e2, I got to play Battles of Westeros way before it was released and was taught the game by the designer himself. Not too shabby all in all.

The blog has been a couple of different things to me in my short time writing for it. It's been an outlet for me to get my creative juices flowing. It's been a way for me to get int writing flash fiction and explore some really dark (and fun) places for my horror ideas. It's given me an opportunity to talk about role-playing games I wouldn't have otherwise had the opportunity to really discuss if I didn't have the blog.

It's also given me a lot of stress as I drive myself crazy over comparing myself to others out there. My peers, and people I strive to emulate out of respect for their own content. I've had lots of failures and lots of great examples of trying too hard to make this blog like someone else's just because it seems like the thing you do when you blog. I think that was ultimately what made me take such a long break from The HG. I started focusing on what I thought the blog should be rather than what I wanted it to be. These things turned out to be incongruous, and I think my posts have suffered as a result.

So, after all the yammering, if anyone out there is reading to this far, I've decided to get back into the blogging thing. It was touch-and-go for a while there, but I think my batteries are recharged a bit, and I'm excited to see what excites me to write about this year. Now, let's get back to it.

Just in time for Christmas.

2011-12-20T16:13:00.000-06:00

So, quick post today, and it seems random (mostly because it is an unplanned), but I did want to say for those of you who might actually have given it a second thought - I'm still alive. I'm just taking a break from the regular posting as I've had to take a mental break from the whole exercise. Anyway, THG is not dead, I'm not dead, and gaming is, I might add, most definitely not dead. In fact, I've been continuing to work on my own pet project. It's a project that, I'm not afraid to admit, has just exploded and grown much quicker than I would have expected since I started the blogging break. Apart from my own creations, I've been playing some Dragon Age tabletop (and DA 2 for the ps3) and tons of Lord of the Rings LCG still. I've also been continuing to buy weekly digital comics since September. Outside of that, I don't have a whole lot more to talk about (another legitimate reason I've been holding off from much blogging).

And lastly, because I always love to post pictures of cool stuff, you should go over and get the details on FFG's new announcement on Star Wars themed card sleeves.

These are just awesome, and I wish I had an excuse to start using them before the Star Wars LCG comes out, but I guess I'll just have to wait for the Spring.

Cosmic Patrol Hardcover is looking very good!

2011-11-12T09:48:00.001-06:00

I posted following Gencon that one of my biggest surprises - as in something I had never even heard of going into the convention - was picking up a small softcover pre-release version of a new indie-styled (i.e. simply not traditional or very crunchy) pulp sci-fi game Cosmic Patrol from Catalyst Games (Battletech, Shadowrun). I love my little softcover version, but those hardcovers to the right there look very nice.

Cosmic Patrol is a game that captured my imagination right away. The rules are simple, the setting expansive and open to interpretation, and the art is just awesome. I'm very excited to see that Cosmic is finally getting it's wide release, and highly recommend you pick up a copy. I'm almost debating myself to pick up an additional copy just to have both soft and hardcover versions. It's an incredibly fun-looking little game, and I can't wait to see what Catalyst has planned next for it as hinted at on the recent blog post announcing the release of the hardcover.

DC Comics Review - Batman & Robin #3

2011-11-09T22:08:00.000-06:00

Between Batman and Robin, Batwoman, and simply Batman, it’s a good time to be a fan of amazing art and story-telling in Gotham City. I wasn’t originally sold on B&R, but thanks to Patrick Gleason’s incredibly clean, crisp art and John Kalisz’s sharp (and surprisingly bright) coloring, I decided I had to come back for number two. By the end of this issue, I’m so very happy I did.

Tomasi has taken the peripherals of the world of Batman and really shined a light on them. In particular, I feel like this is the Batman book that really gets Alfred. B&R is generational in nature given that it focuses as much on the “grandfather” generation of Alfred as it does the “father” of Bruce and the “son” of Damian. By this issue, the father and son relationship between the two titular characters is really shining.

Behind it all though, is Alfred’s subtle, quiet guiding hand as Bruce has to learn all over again how to be a father. Bruce never had it so hard before with kids he could hand-pick to be Robin. B&R exemplifies the old saying that you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family. He’s stuck with Damian, and honestly, the ten year-old has the potential to be the greatest challenge Batman will ever face.

But, back to issue #3. The biggest achievement of this issue is that Tomasi pulls off the impossible and makes you really feel like both Bruce and Damian may be in legitimate danger. He also shines a light on the fact that Damian, arguably the deadliest Robin yet, can still be just as big a liability as Bruce’s adopted sons – if not more so.

While I love Batman by Snyder, B&R offers a simpler, more personal tale focusing on Batman’s two closest relationships, and it’s a nice change of pace from the epic, city-spanning adventure found in Batman.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-30T20:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween from The Hopeless Gamer!

Shocktober Day 15 - Horrors to Play - Sauna

2011-10-27T16:39:00.001-05:00

So I've thrown out my themes for this last week of Shocktober in favor of throwing up a bunch of Horrors to Play movie reviews since everyone knows the best part of Halloween is a good scary movie. Where yesterday's movie, Pontypool, seems like a movie ready-made to play right out of the box, today's movie will take more work and just the right group to really be effective. I didn't want to let this difficulty level keep me from reviewing one of my recent favorite horror movies though, so here we are with 2008's Finnish historical horror movie, Sauna.

Sauna is a dark, quiet ghost story set in a no-man's land between Finland and Russia after a long, bitter war in the year 1595. It's a desolate, swampy, wet, muddy, and grey world, and our main characters are tasked with the responsibility of working with each other to develop a new border between the two countries. Even in the quiet, mundane moments (of which there are virtually none), the tension is thick between these two camps as they travel through a vast, unknowable swamp better left behind by both countries.

When I began watching this movie, it sucked me in immediately. The acting is immense, and since there isn't a whole lot of dialogue, the subtitles weren't even the slightest bit distracting. A little bit in, my wife looked up after I made the comment that it looked like it was a WWI film and not something set at the end of the 16th century. She replied that she thought it was a WWI movie. In other words, if you're familiar with the staggering depression and oppression of movies set in the late 1910's, and that's your thing, Sauna too will likely be your thing.

Really though, Sauna shines when it comes to the menace it presents in the unknowable. The movie is scary enough in the first portion of the film as we follow the exploits of the surveyor teams and see how they would operate normally if freaky shit wasn't happening. It's in this first leg of the journey though that we see how haunted the characters really are. In the second portion of the film, when we're presented with the eponymous sauna house in a bizarre village in the exact center of this epic swampland (think the Dead Marshes from Lord of the Rings, but with more trees and less smiles and giggles). Never before has a dark doorway ever given me such a feeling of dread.

After seeing Sauna, you will know why this is so scary.

I don't want to get into the details of the plot because I highly recommend seeing the movie for yourself, but let's just say that the horror of the movie comes from the characters having to face their own regrets and mistakes in a tangible way. It's cosmic horror in the late sixteenth century done without any real overtly supernatural aspects. It's a story Lovecraft could have written if he were in Finland in this time period.

As far as playing the game goes, there are plenty of aspects of the story that just seem off and will easily put your characters on edge. They're little things like peasants that look too clean to be living in the middle of the swamp or that there are no children around that will throw your players into a fit with the mystery of it all. Games where players have to intentionally create a history and well-rounded (i.e. more than just combat stats) character are perfect for Sauna as you're going to need fodder to throw at your players. Dread (my perennial favorite) often presents stories where the plot forces characters to look long and hard at their character's fears and past mistakes.

Sauna is a great example of doing fantasy horror. The characters have swords, knives, and extremely primitive firearms. They still wear a bit of armor, and use torches everywhere for light. When I got this from Blockbuster, It was described as "transcendental" horror. A lofty claim, for sure, but one I believe Sauna lives up to.

Shocktober Day 14 - Horrors to Play - Pontypool

2011-10-26T17:39:00.003-05:00

Pontypool is a movie that encompasses everything great about the different themes I've been exploring this month. It takes place in a single location - an old radio studio in a tiny town in Canada - and is pretty much perfection when it comes to the one-shot kind of story I love to play this time of year using Dread or Call of Cthulhu.

Stephen McHattie plays the diminished shock jock-turned small town morning radio host Grizzly Mazzy on his first day of work in his new job. Everything is going just as boring as Grizzly must have feared as he pushed the boundaries of what the small town can handle and shows off (aided immensely by the amazing voie of McHattie) just why he may have lost his big syndicated gig in the first place. Everything's going fine, that is, until they start getting calls of people acting more like animals than humans as violence seems to be randomly breaking out all over the area.

That's all I'm going to say about the plot, because I don't want to spoil the really weird - and original - nature of the plot and the way it makes a lot of new, interesting rules for the genre of horror movie it would most easily fit into. The hook of Pontypool is the fact that the town itself is small and isolated, but then our characters (the cast is tiny with three main characters and a fourth interested late in the movie) are even more isolated in the large radio station building. They're helpless as they try to take in what they hear and get information back out to the people of Pontypool and make the horrific situation a little less terrible.

I want to play Pontypool in a game so badly. As I mentioned above, it does some things I could only see a one-shot story try to pull off. A lot of what makes the plot work would be very difficult to sustain in a long campaign or series of sequels. Obviously isolation is built right into the story as it's extremely dangerous to leave the radio station, which the players would find out really quickly if they attempted such a foolish act. More so, I think it would be a heckuva lot of fun to make some voice recordings before the game to be played as people call in and report what they see and experience. The definited roles of the characters - morning show host, producer, and technician - are also really well set up right away as player characters.

I recommend Pontypool to anyone who isn't squemish and is looking for something a little different. Everything about the movie shows a higher production value and level of talent involved than it probably has the right to. It's quick moving, and even though everything happens in the one building, it never feels stale because the director and cinematographer are constantly giving us new ways to look at things and different angles to throw us off guard. There are so many game-able ideas throughout its runtime, and it's frankly an inspiration to a GM who feels burnt out on running their seventh or fifteenth Halloween one-shot horror game.

Shocktober Day 13 - Horror Gaming Fodder - The One Shot

2011-10-24T18:02:00.001-05:00

Perhaps there is no better genre of gaming than horror to choose for a one-shot game for a Friday night. The genre lives and dies (excuse the pun) with disposable characters that get torn to shreds physically or metaphysically beyond repair. While many of the greatest horror movies are actually franchises full of monsters and a lone protagonist who simply refuses to die, there are countless others where one movie is all you need. In these one-shot stories, they can often be more satisfying than a long, drawn-out struggle of a seemingly immortal serial killer and his perennial almost-victim. There's real resolution, an ending, and completion to one-shot movies, and the same applies to one-shot tabletop games.

There are exceptions, but some of the best horror games published are keyed in specifically to present a perfect system to run a one-shot game. The exceptions are notable - the World of Darkness games, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Unknown Armies - but for the most part, games like Dread and Call of Cthulhu don't care so much about otherwise important role playing mechanics like the silly idea of advancing a character and leveling up. No, these games focus on entropy and the eventual/inevitable loss of life, limb, and/or one's mind. What does hitting level 2 matter when Cthulhu is CL Infinity?

The one-shot game is a standard for horror gaming, and for good reason. For starters, it's just plain easier to plan a single night's worth of story complete with introduction, rising action, climax, and falling action. For another, it's pretty darn satisfying to play a one-shot because, unlike I would guess most campaigns, one-shot games actually finish. One-shots for horror specifically also mean you can raise the stakes to an appropriate level to really raise the tension and show your players that anyone can die (a necessary evil/joy to get across when GM'ing horror).

The big thing about horror one-shots is that they allow you to try really weird stuff in your games. You can be as far out as you want to be when planning a one-shot because the worst you've done is waste one game night and the best you can do is truly surprise, confuse, and disorient your players with new, weird mechanics or horror concepts they've never seen before. I chose In the Mouth of Madness for the image for today's post, because I think it represents this ideal perfectly. If you've never seen it, go watch it on Instant Watch right away. John Carpenter is one of my all-time favorite directors, and I believe Mouth of Madness is a cinematic version of Carpenter trying some weird shit just to see if it would work. In my opinion, it does, but it goes way out there before the credits roll. Carpenter took a chance with futzing with the narrative to tell an interesting Lovecraftian story, and the result is a disorienting series of creepy coincidents that turn out to weave a much larger tale.

This time of year always comes with people asking for recommendations for one-shot scenarios to play for some good old-fashioned Halloween gaming. Last Friday we played a Halloween themed Call of Cthulhu game in modern day which was a ton of fun. Beyond that, I would really recommend using Dread to run your game and introduce some new players to the hobby. There is no simpler game to bring new people in, and you can explain the game in a manner of a minute or two. You can download the quick version of the rules here on The Impossible Dream's website, but I would encourage you to try to find a copy of the book or download the pdfs of their two scenario books which work just fine with the downloadable free version of the rules - Dread: Tales of Terror - Wastelands and Dread: Tales of Terror - Precious Illusions. Otherwise, go read my review of the game to see if it's for you.

Shocktober Day 12 - A Flash of Horror - Masks

2011-10-20T17:50:00.000-05:00

She was told Thursday night was always Mask Night, but that didn't make it any easier to accept the true creep factor of the tradition. It was a club she'd never been to in a part of town that made her uncomfortable with friends she had only meet a few weeks ago. What could possibly go wrong? Of course, she couldn't be too choosy since she had transferred to her new school months ago and just now, in a dumb stroke of luck, she had found a few people who fully embraced her quirky nature - or at least seemed to.

So after months of being homesick for her old university and not having any excuse to do anything fun, she was beyond excited for an opporunity to break out one of her dresses from an as-yet-unopened packing box and doll herself up for her first true night on the town with friends since the school year started.

Renee and Jenny were both nice to her from the day they met in one of the countless coffee shops littered around campus. Susan was worried as she sat alone in a booth that she looked completely helpless and lonely. When the two girls sat down opposite her at the table, they introduced themselves and broke into small talk like it was some kind of super power beyond Susan's understanding. Now, weeks later, she appreciated their friendship but still dwelled on the paranoia that she was still just as pathetic as she was then. Afterall, while the two of them seemed to make friends wherever they went, Susan was not so lucky and would still be lonely in her tiny efficiency apartment with nothing to do and nowhere to go on a Thursday night.

And here she was, outside a huge warehouse that appeared to vibrate through the sheer volume of the repetitive, ear-aching bass inside. As they waited, Renee and Jenny chatted it up with the boys in line in front of them. Susan was distracted by all the sights of the people around them. Many were just normal club-goers - those she might find back at her old school - but most were different in one specific way - they brought their own masks. The majority of these veterans were already wearing their masks, which filled her with a kind of dread she didn't understand. She looked back toward the front of the line and was startled. Renee and Jenny - along with the group of boys they were flirting with - had disappeared. Instead of friendly, smiling faces, she was surrounded by a huge variety of paralyzed, masked facades. Some were smiling while others were frozen in their rage, and still others seemed to mock and make her feel like she needed to run as far away as she could from the warehouse and the non-stop beating of the bass. There were no human faces left around her, and Susan began breathing quickly and feeling light-headed.

Finally Renee, standing right next to her, lifted her mask off her face and giggled at Susan in her panic. She had to sit down on the curb to catch her breath, and soon she was flanked on either side by Renee and Jenny - both holding their false faces in their hands. The line passed them by, and an hour later the three of them were alone on the street and in fact alone outside the warehouse all together with the exception of a large door man with an extremely-bored expression on his mask. She glanced over her shoulder at the door man, and realized with a drop in her stomach that it was too dark to see where his eyes were focusing. For all she knew the man had been staring at them for the last hour with nothing better to do. She kept this to herself since by this point, Renee and Jenny have already shifted back into party girl mode.

Since the line had evaporated while she was recovering, the two girls helped Susan to her feet and put their masks back on. It still frightened her a little, but she saw sitting next to the door a large box of simple masks. The door man handed her a plain, black domino mask from the box. A minute later they were inside and Susan was hit with flashbacks of good memories and nights spent out at the clubs with old friends at her old school. It made her happy and she had an urge to get a drink and get into the full spirit of the evening.

With the flashing lights and familiar smells and sounds, she felt brave enough to separate from her girls to walk up to the bar and get some cute guy to buy her a drink. She noticed several other domino-masked party goers and felt a little more comfortable approaching them since their masks, just like hers, could barely hide one's true expression. Susan made small talk and felt for the first time since moving that she was one of those people who could just strike up a conversation and make quick, disposable friends like it was nothing. She kept trying to find a domino'ed person who had been to the club previously to get a feel for the scene, but every person in the same mask as hers were also having the first night out in this bizzare - and increasingly discomforting - club. No one who could show their facial expression could tell her about the club and all seemed to be just as ignorant and fresh to the party as her.

She had a sudden urge to find Renee and Jenny, but had forgotten what their masks looked like, making it impossible to find them. She tore off her domino mask, hoping that her friends would find her and see her anxiety written all over her face. A few moments later, a woman in a particularly revealing dress and a mask which completely covered her face put a hand on her shoulder and whispered in her ear that she shouldn't go around too long revealed or it would send out the wrong message. Confused, she thought to pull her small black mask back over her eyes, but another woman, similar in appearance to the one who had warned her, grabbed it out of her hand and slipped back into the masses. Why couldn't her friends find and rescue her?

She could feel anxiety rise from her toes to the top of her head, and it felt like every hair on her body stook up like she was a startled cat. She pushed through the thick crowd and sensed eyes hidden behind masks leer and judge her exposed face. Finally she got to the huge warehouse doors that would lead her out and away from all the false faces. Two girls flanked her and grabbed at her arms. She elbowed the one on her right instinctively before a familiar voice on her left urged her to stop. Jenny was pleading for her to slow down and take a breath while simultaneously berating her for not having her mask on. Renee was rubbing a tender spot on her stomach. They both tugged at her arms as she pulled away, trying to escape the warehouse. Susan thought she saw a look of pure terror in the eyes of both the other girls, although she didn't understand why.

She slid the door open just a foot or two and sneaked her slight frame out of the warehouse. She sucked in her breath in a quick gasp at what she found. The street was barren except for an unnatural semi-circle of masked individuals facing the warehouse door and in turn facing Susan. She was so distracted by the 20 extremely well-dressed and unreadable strangers facing her that she failed to notice the loud clank of the door closing behind her. It was an even mix of men dressed in tuxedos and women dressed in elaborate evening gowns. She heard a voice speak, a man's, but she couldn't tell which one of them it was. The words were almost a whisper but could somehow be heard over the club's obnoxious bass. It was as if someone were standing right next to her whispering in her ear.

"We weren't quite ready to commence this evening's activities. If you will kindly keep your whore's mouth shut while we finish our preparations, we promise not to disappoint." Susan couldn't find words to say, but the others, the gentlemen and ladies surrounding her, could read all her thoughts and feelings just by looking upon her face. The whispered voice spoke some words she couldn't understand which were echoed by 19 other whispering voices all sounding just as close to Susan's ear. They were so close she felt their breath blowing ever so gently on her neck. They all moved a few feet closer to her, closing the semi circle tighter. She heard more words she couldn't understand, and they moved a few feet closer to her. The ritual was conducted a third time. Susan was paralyzed with her back against the warehouse door, but she knew at least that they would soon be close enough for her to see their eyes behind the masks. She hoped to see in them that this was all a practical joke - all something cooked up somehow by Renee and Jenny to celebrate their first real night out together.

One last set of unknown words graced her ears, and they closed in on her. They smelled of perfume and cologne she had never experienced before. They got close, and she could see now that each mask in its own alien form, was twisted up in macabre and mocking smiles. She looked quickly from face to face trying hopelessly to connect with just one of them. Too late, she realized as each of the 20 masked individuals each pulled a small, well-forged dagger from hidden places. Where there should have been eyes, she saw behind each mask black, empty sockets. It was the last thing she would ever see.

Shocktober Day 11 - Retro Horror - Dreadful Buffy

2011-10-19T15:50:00.001-05:00

(Today's Retro Horror post is a little different. I wanted to expound on the week's theme of suspicion, but didn't want to be quite as on-the-nose as I was yesterday in discussing the topic. Instead, I present to you one of my favorite examples of an unusual character. This is from a Dread scenario I co-GM'ed with my little sister, and, well, honestly... read through it and tell me - would you trust a character that was so deliberately useless and clearly a drag on the group? What is he planning?! Serious paranoia fodder going on here.)

So we played a game of Dread tonight, an original scenario written by Lil' Sis with my assistance. She's played several Dread games, but is not a fan of really spooky stuff so we based it in our hometown but in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer universe, so lots of comedy. It was a very interesting game with both ups and downs, but I came away with a lot of good lessons co-GM'ing with the squirt in her very first GM experience. I played a lot of NPC's for my part co-GM. I got to play an idiot local teenager, an idiot local vampire, and some good-natured local priests, it was awesome. The best thing? This character sheet from the sister's boyfriend. This is how characters are made in Dread, by the way, you just fill out a character questionaire. I give you, the Nerd:

1. What talent do you have that people don't know about?

I can move in slowwwww motion.

2. You've done some independent research online about the supernatural, what's the weirdest thing you've found out that's actually true?

Slow people live longer.

3. Do you feel like you were meant for something more, why?

No. I was meant to be a pain the butt and slow everything down.

4. When you were a kid, you ran into the biggest, meanest wild dog you've ever seen. What happened and how did it affect you?

I overanalyzed the situation, debating about what I should do, accidentally moving in slow motion, and getting my arm chewed off in the process. (I asked him which arm and how much was left - he answered his entire left arm and he lost 3 ribs!)

5. What do you dream of some day being able to do to the bullies that tortured you in high school?

Sit down and have a coffee with them, listen to their life story, have the dog chew their arm off.

6. Would you ever use supernatural powers to aid you in your hunt, and if so, how?

No, my extreme slowness does nothing but make everything twice as difficult.

7. How did you find the hunter group to join up with them?

Someone texted me.

8. When intimidated, how do you carry yourself?

Curl up in the fetal position.

9. What keeps you fighting the good fight as opposed to just moving away and starting anew?

I was told by a higher power to fight the good fight?

10. What's your name?

Xerxes

Basically he just created the most nerfed Dread character ever, since your answers indicate your basic ability levels. He's slow, annoying, spiteful, and prone to falling into a fetal position in stressful times. He stayed true to character the entire game. Just awesome.

Shocktober Day 10 - Horror Gaming Fodder - Suspicion

2011-10-18T15:07:00.002-05:00

So life intruded a little bit into my plans for my Shocktober posting, so to get caught up, instead of posting a Seed of Horror today, I'm posting an article about this week's theme - suspicion. I still want to get a Horror to Play post up before the end of the month about the movie I picked out for last week's theme of isolation, so I'll probably put an extra post up one of these weekends. Anyway, here we go!

Have you ever played a game of Diplomacy? It's one of the oldest board games that still gets played regularly at tables across the country, and it's pretty much a devastating set of rules that encourages lying and betrayal in its best players. You can't trust anyone in a game of Diplomacy, and it's always the go-to example of a game you should never play with a significant other. Sure there are other games where alliances are made and the only way a player can win is to break them, but nothing truly requires you to be a sneaky bastard like Diplomacy.

If you've played it before, you know that Diplomacy can be a helluva a lot of fun, full of excitement, and make you feel incredibly anxious. I might say that Diplomacy can actually be almost... scary to play. It can bring out a side of a person that they wished they didn't have. Without much effort, it can make you question yourself in what you'd actually do in a life-and-death situation. Unlike other games where betrayal is built into the rules - games like Battlestar Galactica, Shadows Over Camelot, or, obviously, Betrayal at House on the Hill - there is no mechanic that forces a player to betray other players. In Galactica, if you end up a secret Cylon player, you have to betray your fellow players in order to meet your objective and win the game. Diplomacy is different - you have to assume from the beginning that every player is out to lie to you to gain support and eventually win. You're on edge right from the get-go and it changes the feel at the table.

So why am I talking about a political intrigue/war board game for Shocktober? Nothing else compares to the kind of paranoia I've experienced in the few games of Diplomacy I've played. Not a horror movie, video game, and sadly not even a horror RPG have been able to make me feel just so uncomfortable and suspicious of those around me. I've been enamored with this incredibly basic game since first giving it a shot in high school. You see, if you're not familiar with Diplomacy and why it's so terrifying, it's just one simple rule which makes it click. In between rounds of play, each player has a chance to talk to each other player in secret and make deals, commitments, promises of support, etc. Then, after the secret negotiations happen, the players get back together, note on a scrap of paper what their actual move is going to be, and then all reveal at once. Through this simple model of play, you find out pretty quickly how eager your friends and loved ones are to lie straight to your face, and even better, how quickly you'll stoop to doing the same just to take over a little bit of extra territory.

All this finally brings me to my conclusion: uneven distribution of true information makes for a very fun and scary role-playing experience. Some of the best horror games I've ever played were no different than other RPG's except for adding in little slips of paper passed to between players or passed from player to GM. I prefer the passing of notes to taking time for players to go off to different corners of a house and secretly plot because it does two things: 1. it keeps things moving quickly and 2. there's no avoiding it - a secret is being passed right in front of your face - and unless your character also witnessed the information being passed, it adds extra tension to the game as players have to struggle with player-knowledge versus character-knowledge.

The best part about passing notes is that all things are equal. Don't like that your character's hated rival whispered something in the ear of the character your character most admires? Start your own secrets with a fourth character and raise even more suspicions. Ultimately I'm talking about player vs. player (PVP) kind of play which sits at the heart of a lot of great horror games. From the GM's point of view, it takes a lot of the work and atmosphere-building efforts out of the hands and responsibility of the Game Master freeing him or her up to plan even nastier turns.

It's all about an unequal distribution of knowledge, and that is what will get to players. It's bad enough when a player can't trust a non-player character to be a reliable witness or source of information, but when you're playing a one-shot, there's no reason the player sitting next to you at the table isn't just as dangerous and just as much out to get you. After all, with serial killers, the same rules applies as being chased by the bear. You don't have to be faster than the killer, just faster than the guy next to you.

The next time you're thinking about running a horror one-shot, I would really encourage you to try building in some player-versus-player fun just to add to the paranoia and anxiety of the horror. Make it clear that not everyone is making it out alive, and even better, that those who do survive will probably have to do some things they'll regret later to do so. It's an easy trick that amps up the atmosphere with minimal effort on the part of the GM, and anything that does that needs to be in a horror GM's toolbox.

Shocktober Day 9 - A Flash of Horror - Intrusion

2011-10-13T14:30:00.000-05:00

(I cheated a bit on today's Flash - it's more of a start to a longer story that I'll never likely tell, but I think it'd be a great foundation for a one-shot game)

Intrusion

The house has been abandoned when he broke in to put a roof over his head for just one night before moving out of town. He was evicted with practically no notice, and his apartment had been emptied before he got back from class. He never thought he'd have to break into some place just to get out of the cold, wet snow and survive a night on his own. Then again, he never imagined being kicked out for being just a couple of days late on paying his rent. He resisted the temptation to curse out his old landlord - even if he deserved it - as he pulled up some rough patches of carpet he cut up from the largest of the three bedrooms upstairs. He still remembered that day he broke his first rule of civilization to take what didn't belong to him. It was months ago, and for some reason, when broke the taboo, something in him just felt right. It was freeing and wonderful and terrifying all at once. The house was his through nothing other than having the will power to break open a window and the sense of calm necessary to allow himself to sleep in the stolen home.

What followed was a series of the intruder realizing that he had other needs that would have to be fulfilled in order for him to preserve his presences in his house. He watched silently from empty windows and went hungry for days as he learned the routines of the neighbors of his house. It was slow, arduous, and trying work, but in those early days he was not ready to take what he needed by force. He relied on cunning and sneaking to get what he needed. And there were many things that he needed.

Finally, four days into his forced hunger he made his move after noting very carefully the daily routines of the young couple who occupied the house across the street and four doors down from his house. He dared not shop at one of his directly-linked neighbors, at least not for something so common as food. He sleeked behind houses before taking several hours to deliberately make his mad dash across the street when he could be relatively sure no one would catch him. He can barely remember the rest of that first trip other than not taking much. In more recent days he wouldn't be so timid, but on that first he grabbed an old plastic grocery bag from the house and looked for opened boxes of highly-processed individually-wrapped food where he could take one or two items from the box and leave the rest so as not to raise too high of a suspicion level. He came away with a couple of tiny bags of chips, a Lunchable, two packages of Pop Tarts, and four string cheeses. It was a meager meal which the intruder would nonetheless embrace as his first real feast.

He had food and plenty of water with the snow, but soon realized that, with these creature comforts, he needed more. He just had two changes of clothes which he'd gone through and sullied at least twice each. He needed to get out and get clean, but these things take time. He had been raiding other houses for food for weeks before upgrading his pursuits, and he was surprised when one day, in the middle of December, two houses just one or two down from him in either direction had erected For Sale signs over night. Considering how long his own house had been standing vacant with a similar sign out front, he wondered what kind of idiots would try to sell their houses in this kind of market. Of course he didn't have to wonder for very long - he knew both the Hendersons and Birkowskis well from the type of food he enjoyed from their houses and the types of magazines they had delivered to their homes in the mail. He was both excited to expand his network of homes and nervous thinking about how he'd have to range further and further out to get supplies that would meet his needs.

Still, this day was devoted to cleaning himself up, so he hopped next door quick for a shower. It was thrilling gave him a real sense of ownership over his neighbor's home that he never quite had in his own house since he had arrived after the water had already been turned off. He did other things in the house while his clothes finished drying in the dryer. Before too long though, his neighbor and her little girl would be home from school, so he pulled on his warm, fresh clothes and sneaked out the backdoor to pop back to his home.

Months passed, and the intruder perfected his routine. The owners of the houses around him more and more raised For Sale signs expanding his territory and forcing him to learn the routines of new, strange houses outside of his comfort zone. He watched other people constantly but hadn't spoken to anyone since pleading to get his useless shit back out of his apartment to the locked door of his landlord. He had expanded his property to cover eight houses in an almost circular pattern around his original seat in his small vacant kingdom.

It was early April, and he had spent the night in Johnson's empty home. He was returning to his original home when he noticed a window in the back of the house was broken. It wasn't the same window he had broken in to, and it was so careful a break so as not to be noticeable from too far away. He rushed into his home and searched it, full of terror. All of his collection remained there untouched. No one had disturbed or taken anything. He crawled into his makeshift bed that night believing it must have been some neighborhood kids getting rowdy. He pulled up his ragged patch of carpet and almost feel asleep, but the the streetlight flickered back on, and something on the white rough netting of the carpet caught his eye. He pulled the carpet around to use the orange glow from the street and found himself reading the first explicit attempt at communication to him in over five months.

I know where you live.

I want you to leave.

I am not alone.

We are watching.

Shocktober Day 8 - Retro Horror -

2011-10-12T13:20:00.001-05:00

(Today's post is the second in the series of retro Shocktober and general horror posts. Today features a review of my favorite horror RPG of all time - Dread. I'm a Dread evangelist, so the more I can talk about the game, the better. I chose this review for this week's theme of Isolation because Dread contains the best single essay on isolating your players for any kind of help I've ever read. It's a great little book that will open your eyes to a world of horror gaming.)

No matter what you've heard about Dread I guarantee you this: as a game, it will deliver a good time. Above all else, Dread creates an environment and conflict resolution system that keeps you on the edge of your seat. No single test is frivolous or out on its own with little impact on the greater story. Every action you take affects the plot and those around you.

Intrigued yet? Wondering why it looks like I have a deathgrip on the book itself to the right here? Keep Reading to find out more about this unusually excellent horror game and what I'm hiding underneath my hand!

Dread is a very simple game. There's no dice, no numbers, and no stat blocks at all. However it's not what Dread lacks that makes it so awesome. If you haven't heard of Dread before, here's the bloody hook that brings players back time and again to this fun little indie game: instead of rolling dice to see if you succeed at some difficult challenge, you pull a block for a Jenga tower that is the shared lifeline of all the players. If the tower ever falls down, the player who last touched the tower has wrought a terrible fate for their character (usually death, but sometimes worse). The GM never touches the tower.

As a mechanic, utilizing the Jenga tower to resolve something a character couldn't normally do is just brilliant. The entire intent behind Dread is to replicate the tension developed in a really good (or cheesy) horror movie. We've played a ton of different games of Dread over the years with several different GM's. Each time the GM brings their own spin on the horror genre to the game depending on the kind of horror games they like.

We've played 80's slasherfest, psychadelic Hastur-inspired Lovecraft horror, a Buffy-style high school horror game, and a late 90's self-aware game. Each of these games have been equally compelling in their own way even though the types of suspense and horror generated vary quite a bit. The tower is versatile in its story-telling capabilities.

What kind of tension is pulled out of the tower? Let's take a step back. First, players must follow the rules of Jenga proper when making a "pull" from the tower. The GM can ask a player to make a pull at any time to succeed at something they're trying to acheive. Players may also elect to make extra pulls in order to better prepare for something or even pull something out of their purse they didn't even know was there at a crucial moment. ("You think you have a silver cross in your back pocket when the vampire rushes you? Make a pull and see if you're lucky.") Alternatively, in a time where the tower has gotten too tall and too unstable and you just don't think you can pull, you can always heroic sacrifice to knock the tower down and acheive something truly epic.

But how do we decide if your character could free himself from the grip of the giant werewolf breathing down his neck? Instead of traditional character sheets, the GM prepares questionnaires for each player to match the scenario. Each questionnaire consists of 10 to 15 questions (with the ultimate question always being "what's your name?") that are designed to give the player some tools to scuplt their character. Archetypes are usually assigned each questionnaire so players know what they're getting into. Titles like "The Jock" and "The Preacher" give you a quick stereotype to get yourself in the right frame of mind and then twist the trope in your own way.

This may sound like a daunting task for the GM, and sometimes it can be, but the best way to look at the questionnaire is to use it as a tool to create all those hooks and connections to the story and within the group you always wanted to. Go ahead, make two of the players married or another two twins - it's completely up to you. The players have to answer the question in a way that doesn't directly contradict the premise. It's also not too bad as the bottom of each page in Dread is a running list of questions GM's can include (see above and to the right there). It's a great way to randomly add a couple of questions to an almost-complete character concept and is a very nice little touch the author threw in.

The book itself is very nice and worth every dollar of the $24.00 cover price. The creators did a great job of using the stoic nature of the horror genre to create a very bleak product. I've even used the book itself as a prop in a rather meta (and not 100% successful) complex experiment of a scenario. Take a look to the left for the backcover. The tiny splash of red on both the front and back add so much character to this little horror book.

The pages are a non-glossy stock, and the rest of the book is in black and white, but you're really not buying Dread for how it looks. This thing is thick with great horror role-playing tips and tricks. Considering how light the actual rules are, and that the book weighs in at 167 pages, it's safe to assume that it's one of the best GM guides to running a horror game out there. Yes, a lot of the advice specifically supports how to build tension using the tower, but if you want to run a horror game, tension-building should be a main concern.

Take a look at the table of contents here to the right. You can see that the first 86 pages focus on planning, playing, and running a Dread game. This first half of the book is full of innovative ideas on how to create suspense, conflict, and cooperation between your players. The most brutal set of rules in the book is for PVP conflict. It's pretty straight-forward: the two conflicting players pull from the tower until one quits the contest or knocks the tower over. PVP starts to get real personal real quick when the tower is creaky and unstable.

The second half of the book includes vignettes on running several different kinds of horror games that focus on the overall feel of a game rather than a given genre like serial killer or monster. I've turned to these chapters on several occasions when planning a game just for the helpful advice listed within. The end of the book includes three Stories (Dread's name for adventures). The three stories provide a beginner, intermediate, and advance look at stories in three different genres (monster, aliens/sci-fi, and 80's slasher fun). All three scenarios are great in their own way, and we've had fun with each of them. They do a great job of preparing you to host your own Dread games and give a good feel for how often players should be making pulls.

Rather than looking at what Dread does wrong, let's look simply at what Dread doesn't do. I'm taking this approach as the game tends to deliver exactly what it's designed for. First, don't buy Dread if you're looking for a gorgeous book containing lots of inspirational art. Yes, Dread does have some neat atmospheric art (take a look to the left for an example), but it's all black and white, and the art is not a focus at all.

Another aspect of gaming that does not shine in Dread is sustained campaign play. Dread is the quintessential horror one-shot game, even moreso than Call of Cthulhu. The game is deadly, Total Party Kills are not uncommon, and suspension would need to rise and fall quite tensely every session. You'd need to be able to make sure you got a full story (or chapter I guess, in this case) in each play since saving the tower for the next play is pretty much out of the question.

The big caution here is that Dread takes a play or two to really wrap your mind around it. It's a very different game from traditional RPG's. Pacing is more important in Dread than any other game, and the GM will need some breathing room to get the amount of pulls required just right. It might not work every time - some times it'll be incredibly deadly while others it'll be a walk through the park - but when it clicks it's golden.

Shocktober Day 7 - Seeds of Horror - Ring

2011-10-11T17:35:00.001-05:00

(Today's Seed of Horror is my own little variation on a classic one-liner story that fits the week's theme of "Isolation" quite well. It's impossible to write a better story, but I wanted to do my best to give it my own spin.)

The Brewers were up by two - up by two - and the entire bar had grown silent. The station had to take a break for local news, which was clearly outrageous, especially to Jimmy. The feed switched to two empty chairs in Channel 11's studio, not that Jimmy noticed since his phone had started ringing. He stepped outside onto a dark, empty street. "Unknown Caller" had fantastic timing. Jimmy pressed the green phone button and was immediately hung up on. He ran back into the bar praying he hadn't missed a single pitch. Bursting through the door, the packed bar had somehow completely evacuated in about 15 seconds and he stood alone in the center of the room surrounded by huge flatscreen TV's displaying the two empty news anchor chairs of Channel 11. His phone rang. "Unknown Caller" was persistent.

Shocktober Day 6 - Horror Gaming Fodder - Isolation

2011-10-10T16:45:00.001-05:00

Safe from the flood, but what about the serial killer hidden in the house?

For today's Horror Gaming Fodder post I wanted to look at another key principle of what can make a horror game a true success. Last week I looked at the use of props in horror games which set the tone for the rest of the week's posts. Horror games are full of tropes we all know and love. These common characteristics are so common because they tend to work, but nothing is more integral to making a horror game work more than isolation. Whether it's physical isolation that forces the characters into a location where they can't actually access help or it's psychological isolation that gives the characters that hopeless feeling that no one out there could help you or, worse, would help you if they could even understand the problem they faced in the first place, isolation is necessary to put characters and players in the mindset that no one is going to come to their rescue.

When I think about my favorite horror movies, isolation is always at the core of them. Take Evil Dead II for example. EDII is one of my all-time favorites, and it's the quintessential log cabin horror flick. The characters are isolated physically by the forest itself and eventually are completely cut off from civilization by whatever it is that was summoned to the cabin. Ash (Bruce Campbell) can't rely on anyone else to save him because they is no one else. So instead of being kind of lame and helpless, he takes the initiative on his own to solve his own problems. I still find The Ring to be a chilling movie to this day, and the creepiness of the film owes a great deal to the fact that the characters are attacked and stalked in their homes, during chores, and just generally out in public by this oppressive spirit. In The Ring, the characters are surrounded by people they know and strangers, but it doesn't matter. Nothing anyone can do is going to provide a solution to their haunting. Whereas with Ash, where a shotgun and a chainsaw solves problems and a small group of special ops soldiers could tear through the monsters in the woods in a matter of minutes, the isolation in The Ring doesn't care how many guns and bullet proof vests you've got, and in fact you're only dooming more people to the haunting the more you bring in to fix things.

Isolation on its most basic level is a combination of two things. First, the characters are alone and separated from from help and the things they like. This is unpleasant and definitely not the situation that the players want their characters to be in, but it's not inherently threatening. Isolation only matters when the characters realize that they aren't in fact alone - they're not separated from all things. In fact, isolation only kicks in once the players realize that they're not alone because something that presents a danger is "in there" with them. I put "in there" in quotation marks because the "there" is incredibly subjective. It could be the forest such as in Evil Dead II. On the other hand, it could also be something as personal as your own mind. The Exorcist is a great example of psychological isolation with a threat lingering in one's own head. Better though, is the movie Repulsion which is a character piece that explores what it would be like to be trapped in your consciousness with a threat that only you can perceive. It can create an impression of being trapped which leads to a persistent desperation in the characters and, to an extent, the players. These are valuable things to a GM of the horror game.

There are several easy ways you can throw your characters into a situation that forces them to save themselves and solve their own problems. First is the easiest, most obvious way - remove them from civilization by physically putting them in a place where help is too far away to get to them before something bad happens. Lovecraft does this quite often in his stories, and if you want to see this truly in action, go watch John Carpenter's The Thing (if you haven't seen this, you have to before you're allowed to watch any other horror movie). Characters at the bottom of the world in an extremely remote scientific outpost in Antarctica exemplify the value of putting characters out of the reach of those who could help them. This is best for isolating characters in a situation where physical threats can actually be overcome with a shotgun or a flame thrower.

Another strategy for isolation is to encourage distrust in the general public. Paranoia is a great tool for isolation. Although this isn't horror, take a look at the newer version of Battlestar Galactica. Anyone could be a Cylon killer robot just waiting to be triggered to take your life. They look just like us, and there's virtually no way to test to verify who you are (okay, so this really applies to The Thing as well, but I wanted a new example!). When you can't trust the person sitting next to you on the bus or the clerk at the counter of the Seven-Eleven, to who do you turn to find help? The real fun side effect of this strategy is that it's really easy to twist and make the players suspect their fellow players of wrong-doings as well (but we'll get more on paranoia next week - trust me!).

Alternatively you can flip this distrust back on the players. Maybe they're in the middle of New York City or some other major metro area, and they're stuck dealing with some secret threat. Instead of having the players suspect the general public, you can make the general public hunt and chase down the player characters. Maybe the players have been branded as dangerous terrorists who must be stopped at all costs through a botched werewolf hunting operation that caused the destruction of a city bus-full of people. The Warriors, another non-horror movie that showcases isolation for the protagonists, throws a New York gang deep into enemy territory across town without weapons and without any clear-cut way home, surrounded by possible enemies. There's real horror in this concept, and there's no reason it couldn't be played out that way.

I've never played a horror game that worked and wasn't based off isolation. The main book for Dread, which I'll be taking a look back on later this week, has an extensive write up on planning isolation for your own scenarios. Additionally, all three of the generated adventures in the book also focus on isolation. It's not the only tool in the tool box to make successful horror, but it's a fundamental aspect that you can't neglect or very quickly your players will find a way to end the game long before the night is over, so you better have a way to shoot down the easy-outs!

Shocktober Day 5 -Horrors to Play- Session 9

2011-10-07T14:37:00.000-05:00

It's day 5 of Shocktober 2011 which means I've made it through a full week of daily posts! Today is Friday which means a Movies to... AHEM... Horrors to Play post. In these posts it's a sort of hybrid between a movie review and inspiration for playing a one-shot game. Basically I pick out a movie I think would be fun to play as a one-and-done game. All this month on Fridays I'll be posting a horror movie that fits that description and matches the week's theme. This week I'll be reviewing the classic cult horror film Session 9 from 2001 since it's a great example of how props could be used in in our own games.

Session 9 is a nice small indie horror flick that has a small cast and is pretty much located in one location through out - an old abandoned mental hospital badly in need of renovation. That's where our characters come into play - they're the unfortunate crew of contractors hired to clean the place up in a week and make it basically livable.

There's a couple problems right from the get-go. One is that the five guys on the crew, while all are competent workers and seem to work together well on the surface have deep cracks that run between them. Another problem is that the crew boss is hiding some deeply unhinged feelings that are just waiting to burst through to the surface. And let's not forget the real problem - rumors of teenagers making trouble in the abandoned mental institute and that patients who were long ago de-institutionalized during the 80's have been found squatting somewhere deep in the halls of the asylum. These are all just rumors though, right? Maybe...

Session 9 is a tight film full of close moments in a very unsettling place. The asylum is broken down, hollow, and full of hundreds of little nooks and crannies where something - really anything - could be hiding. The threat is unnervingly elusive but also always-present. It's a movie with immense atmosphere that presents a workshop for all aspiring horror GM's out there. It's unrelenting and disorienting throughout. Just like with the main characters, the spirit of the place gets under your skin, and although there are times when certain characters do certain things that seem crazy, you can kind of understand where they're coming from. I know I couldn't handle being holed up in that empty(ish) asylum for a full week of 12 hour workdays.

But of course let's get down to the title of the movie. One of the characters discovers an old set of tape recordings from a string of treatment sessions recorded in the hay-day of the asylum. The subject is seemingly a young woman with multiple personality disorder, and the different voices that come up are chilling to hear when imagining they come from the same person through out. Here's where the true "to play" part of this post comes out, especially in regard to props. On Monday I wrote about several different forms of props to use in games, but one of the most interesting to me to experiment with is sound props.

There's pretty much nothing better that I could imagine to use for sound props than these session tapes. To think about them in more gamey terms, each tape/session recording could be its own fetch quest for the players. The tapes could reveal another tidbit of horribleness that is behind the game in the first place. It's a great conflict for the players to face. On one hand, it's an RPG, and everyone knows you have to complete quests to "win" a tabletop RPG. On the other hand, more and more terrible crap gets brought up, and the players are going to be confronted with the decision of having to keep digging or just finally get to the point where they throw their hands in the air and go "Alright, I've seen enough, let's get out of here!" Of course, if you're playing Session 9 using Dread (which I suggest doing so for all horror one-shots, but that's just me), the questionnaires should give each character a reason to keep pursuing the tapes and getting down to the bottom of the mystery.

It's that kind of compulsion that players will push up against that makes Session 9 such a playable movie. At any point the characters really should throw their hands in the air and leave, but there's a mystery to solve and character growth to attain! That, my friends, is a good sign for a powerful (and worthwhile) prop!

You can watch Session 9 right now on Netflix Instant Watch!

Shocktober Day 4 - A Flash of Horror - "Click"

2011-10-06T18:18:00.000-05:00

(It's Thursday! That means you get a little bit of original flash fiction following the prompt of the week's theme, in this case "Props" - so here we go!)

Click

For some reason beyond Ken's understanding, the pen meant everything in the world to his brother. It was a simple thing, brown with little silver highlights where the different pieces joined and screwed into one another. Ken clicked it several times, turning it over and rotating it before extending the tip and retracting it. Ever since he picked it up at a tiny farmer's market just outside Munich - a place he'd visited almost every weekend to pick up his week's supply of vegetables and fresh meat - he regretted the purchase. He couldn't understand it, but at every step of the way he felt this compulsion to tell Michael about it.

Passing the old farmer's stall, he just had a feeling that it would be a great gift for his brother. As he was paying for it, he inherently knew that Michael would appreciate how good a deal he got it for. When he got home to try it out and write the letter to his brother that he intended to send with the little gift to his brother, Ken knew Michael would love the smooth, easy push of the tip of the pen on a nice piece of high-quality stationary. Michael was peculair that way. He loved old things and old ways. He refused to send Ken his letters via email that would be both cheap and much, much quicker than international shipping from the states to Germany. To Michael, the old way was better because it was harder, less convenient. It added value to the endeavor and potentially made the thing worth doing in the first place.

He clicked the pen as he sat cramped in his seat and looked out the window. His brother's luddistic preference slowly invaded Ken's habits. It started with with the letters afterall. His original intent was to make fun of Michael by finding the fanciest, most expensive stationary paper for his first letter to his brother. Instead of making his brother feel like an ass (as he hoped would happen), Michael wrote back on a very similar quality of paper and upped the ante. He used this old ink that looked like it must have been some kind of sludge before it dried into a hard raised surface. The writing was barely readable with the terrible ink and Michael's try at some archaic form of cursive he hadn't used since third grade. It made Ken even more excited about their rejection of modern technology and convenience than he ever thought he would be.

Ken wanted to send Michael a photo of his home and little garden he worked tirelessly to cultivate in his backyard. He tried using the camera on his phone, but accidentally dropped it, cracking the tiny digital lens on it. Seeing this as a sign, he went out to a local pawn shop and tried finding the oldest functioning camera he could find. He knew he'd end up using the expensive parchment again with the accompanying letter to the pictures, so he figured he'd go all out and get a camera that only took black and white or even brown, sepia-toned photographs. He found one in the pawn shop, but of course, given its antique status, it was the most expensive camera there. He knew he would have balked at the price and the idea of buying the camera just to send some photographs in the mail to his idiot brother back in Indiana. He knew he would have done so in the past, but now it felt worth it. It felt like the best, safest thing to do.

Soon he bought an old-fashioned bycicle to replace his old rusty Volkswagon. The VW had broke down more times than he could count in recent months and became more of a nuisance than a convenience. He bought a silver antique pocket watch to replace his digital watch. He didn't care that he had to wind the thing every morning, something just felt more... dependable about it since his old digital wristwatch kept eating through expensive tiny batteries on almost a weekly basis. He sold his TV and CD player in order to save up money for a massive, old-timey radio installation he eyed every time he rode past the pawn shop on his bike. Pawning the modern entertainment devices still didn't cover the cost of the radio cabinet, but it helped. The TV has been on the fritz and the CD player would only play CD's right out of the package - the slightest scractch or speck of dust would cause the thing to heat up and turn itself off. Everything he had bought in the last decade seemed to be breaking, dying, or just go bad.

Then he found the brown pen. He recognized the years of service this pen must have contained within it. For centuries, the best way to communicate one's thoughts and new ideas was to write them down in ink and spread them to friends, families, and admirers. The pen became a symbol for him of his brother's love and the only way for him to reciprocate it and learn what his niece and nephew were up to in their history or science classes. He snagged it for a great deal at the Farmer's Market, and immediately ran home, neglecting the rest of the items on his shopping list, to write his brother about the pen. He finished the letter, but it wasn't enough. It was time he made his way back to the states. Back to Indiana to see his brother's family and visit his mother in the home.

He sat in his seat on the airplane clicking his pen. He looked out the window and prepared himself for 13 hours in the pressurized campaign. The passenger next to him had turned on her air conditioning and the small vent was aimed right on her face as she put her ipod's earplugs in. Across the aisle, the large man in the window seat repeatedly pressed the small red help button which lit up. He was impatient for the stewardess to help him with something and Ken reflected that the man should settle down and learn some patience. The plane's speakers cracked on and the Captain's voice came smoothly directly to each passenger who could adjust the volume of the loudspeaker for their localized area.

"So much technology," thought Ken, "and still all these people need so many creature comforts. We're flying a quarter of the way across the globe in less than a day, and no one is amazed." He pulled his silver pocketwatch out to check the time. Finally the plane took off and left the ground. "Amazing," Ken thought to himself, "Just 80 years ago and no one would have dreamed this would be possible." His face turned red. He should have gone by sea. Man was not meant to fly. It was so modern. It was too modern. The wing outside his window let out a deafening BANG, and erupted in firey smoke. He could see a dark liquid fly out of the engine. He clicked the old brown pen again. "I should have gone by sea," he said aloud to no one as the cabin filled with helpless screams from passengers and staff alike.

Shocktober Day 3 - Retro Horror - Setting the Mood

2011-10-05T15:50:00.000-05:00

Day 3 of Shocktober 2011 brings us to Wednesday, and Wednesday this year means Retro Horrors! Think of this as a "greatest hits" style of posts that give our newer readers a peak back into some of my favorite horror content we've ever put out on the blog. Following this week's theme of "Props" today's post mirrors Monday's gaming fodder post in discussing some more ways to utilize props in game. Today's retro post focuses on setting a feeling for a game. Hope you enjoy!

Setting the Mood - Doing Horror Right

No, not THAT mood. Playing horror games is all about the atmosphere to me. The right GM and roleplaying can create atmosphere even in the busy environment of a Con. Here are some tips, tricks and items you can use to help with your next horror game. Some of these I even use in horror board games like Arkham Horror, Last Night on Earth and Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Music

At Halloween I was always afraid of the houses that played creepy music, so my first focus on creating atmosphere was to find some appropriate music. The right music can really help set the tone of a game. Sometimes I want games where the focus is more serious and music can really help with this goal. Midnight Syndicate is my go to music choice. I bought my first Midnight CD on ebay pretty cheap, but have made it a priority to buy CDs from them in person at GenCon. These purchases are worth paying a little more since it helps fund new CDs. I have three of their fine discs so far and will continue to buy more. Of course, now I am the one playing this creepy music when the kids come trick or treating at my house.

Lighting

Sometimes dim lighting is the best for horror games. Sometimes I use complete dark except for small, battery operated tea lights so that players can only see their sheets and maybe each other. (Flashlights can also work for this effect). If I am playing Cthulhu in the 1920s, I have a few lanterns that can be very useful. I don't use candles since most gaming materials are flammable, but I could see putting some on shelves or countertops near the table.

Pictures

Tons of pictures are available on the internet that can be easily introduced into games. If you have a type of monster, simply search for it and grab the best picture. I also make sure to only show the monster to those people with characters that actually see it. Often the unknown combined with player reactions can add to the mood better than actually seeing the monster/beast.

Descriptions

The environment can work against the characters confidence. Is it cold, raining, humid, oppressively dark? Bring the environment up often. The rain keeps pelting at the characters' faces, soaking their clothes and perhaps slowing them down. Sight is reduced to only a few yards when suddenly the intensity increases and pieces of hail start pelting the characters. A dark, unidentified shape looms in the distance. Maybe it is a red herring janitor or maybe it is the big bad. Try not to use red herrings too often, but a fake scare can be very useful. Next time or next game the characters may assume a fake when the real monster presents itself.

Check out your favorite horror movies or stories for some good descriptive tools. Personally, I like Silent Hill (movie or video game) for atmospheric horror. The cell phone (movie) or radio (game) that increases static when something bad is about to happen really amps up the horror factor. You can get a small radio and find a static station before hand to add noise at certain times when horror will show up.

Other props

Is there a chest that the characters will be forced to confront containing some secret book, snakes or skull? This time of year is great for finding inexpensive horror props. Use a small chest and really up the description before it is opened. Add some fake spider webs or blood and warn about the chest. Maybe even have something pop out at the players like the old peanut brittle in a can gag. Items like these props can add a different kind of anticipatory fear to a game.

Shocktober Day 2 - Seeds of Horror - Just a Sip of Red

2011-10-04T18:23:00.003-05:00

(Just a little header here - Tuesdays are Seeds of Horror days for this Shocktober! Essentially, I write just a real small bit - a sentence or four - that can get you going on a horror story of your own. Enjoy! For more of this, check out all of Shocktober 2009 since it was just 31 days of this)

I was new in town, and so when some neighbors invited me over for a wine tasting party, I couldn't see any harm in making some new friends. When I took the first sip, I knew something was off. I hadn't tasted it before, but I knew it was blood. The worst part was that none of the other party guests looked alarmed...

Shocktober Day 1 - Horror Gaming Fodder - Props

2011-10-03T17:01:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the first day of Shocktober 2011! This is my favorite month of the year and my favorite gimmick of my blog. If you want to see what I did for previous Shocktobers, got check out Shocktober 2009 or Shocktober 2010. This year every day of the week has a column devoted to it. Check this post for more details.

It being Monday in Shocktober 2011, it's a day to look at the core of what Shocktober is all about - horror gaming fodder. I define my gaming fodder posts as posts that are useful to general role-playing whether it's D&D or Fiasco. Monday's this year are all about gaming fodder to enhance your horror games. In a loose sense, I'm going to take the opportunity each Monday in my horror gaming fodder to introduce the theme of the week. This won't be anything like last year's theme weeks, but I hope to have at the end of each week five posts of very different styles that all address the same general idea.

This week's horror gaming fodder is about the use of props in our games. I love props. I've used them several times, and they almost always have added something special to the game. Props in general are a great tool to enhance immersion and pack a real "wow" factor when done right.

At the same time, I feel props are even more powerful in a horror game. This might have something to do with the fact that I feel like almost everything is more powerful in a horror game, but I digress. A good horror prop can be many things. It can be disgusting, it can be simple, it can be hand-made or bought in a store. It can be iconic and well-known or something completely unique to the story of the night. Props can make a game more theatrical and dramatic. That picture up to the right there? That's what theater groups use to make sure each actor has the right item for the right scene at the right moment in the performance. While I do think props need to be used only once in a while to keep the effect, it's good to remember that props draw the audience in naturally with very little extra effort on the parts of the players/GM/actors. It pulls everyone's attention on a singular item and gives them all a moment to reflect on the story (and hopefully the stakes).

As I mentioned above, I've had some great experiences with props. One of my favorite props I made was a set of bloody letters I hand-wrote and partially destroyed to be used in my Lurching North homebrew Dread scenario. The players were investigating an extremely remote CDC center on a tiny island off the mainland of Alaska. The small fisher town was seemingly deserted when they arrived in a snow storm. Eventually they found the lab and other... things, but the best part was in how they slowly found the letters the main scientist had written to his wife and had never left the island due to the outbreak that caused the story in the first place. It was a lot of fun in the game itself but was even more fun in making the prop for the game. I used small yellow notebook paper and wrote in cursive (which I never otherwise do). I then used a lighter to burn some of the edges and a small hole in some of the corners (don't play with fire kids!). And here's the great part - I discovered what a single drop of red food coloring can do to yellow paper. It makes it awesome, that's what it does. The best part was experimenting just to see what I could pull off. This prop served two purposes. First, it was kind of creepy to be handed a page of a burnt, bloody note from someone you can only assumed was violently, horribly killed by Lovecraftian monsters. Secondly though, it gave some context to the events of the island while still keeping the players isolated - a key trait of a lot of great horror games. A side benefit was that it hopefully added some pathos to the lead scientist's character.

So that's physical props, but there's something I've wanted to try, even experimented a little bit with, but haven't really executed in an actual game. Sound props. I got myself a sweet little voice recorder to record interviews at Gencon and elsewhere, and I'm itching to use this in an actual game. It's a great tool to capture voice acting recordings, and keep in mind that researchers, doctors, coroners, and many other official keepers of records first record their findings via a voice recorder or Dictaphone.

Now I have used voice recordings in a game before, one specifically - my first Dragon Age game as a part of my multimedia experiment running the whole thing off my Droid X. I had the Gamer Wife record one of the canned boxes of dialogue from the adventure to play for my players. It was a good experience, but it was not something I would classify as a prop.

For a sound prop, it's more along the lines of a specific, repetitive sound, bit of music, or bit of dialogue that doesn't come directly from the mouth of an NPC. There's a distinction between a sound prop and bit of NPC dialogue in that a prop needs to be an item and, in my opinion, should be something just a little bit beyond the GM reading off some prepared bit of speech. Ambient noise is a great idea of a sound prop as well. A jungle soundtrack can really set the mood and put people on edge as even the quiet moments where no one is speaking are heightened with atmosphere with the things that could be lurking just beyond the light of a torch.

My personal goal someday is to run another homebrew Dread scenario that uses many bits of sound props. The Iron Mountain Report is a game I came up with after exploring the endlessly-addictive SPC Foundation wiki. If you have some hours to kill, go check it out. Take a look at this little critter for example. For my sound props, I would have a recording of the "Special Containment Procedures" with an (in game) button just outside the cell for the players to press to learn what is inside. This would of course be during a blackout in the vast Warehouse 13 - meets Guantanamo Bay secret facility, so the players would have to follow the rules of each creature and object they find very closely. The rules would only be explained through the sound prop. Through this, my goal is to creep out the players and maybe give them a chuckle every once in a while.

Obviously there are tons of ways to utilize props in games. Sometimes they can just look cool and don't have to serve a distinct purpose outside of making the game experience better overall. On the flipside, they can serve very specific purposes. For your next horror game, try making it a period piece where it's colonial America and candles are the only form of artificial light. Then run the game using actual candles as the only light source for players to read their character sheets by and try to interact with each.

Props create an atmosphere that help build a collaborative story through a shared vision of imaginary world through the use of a physical representation of an object or sound in the real world. In other words, they can bring people together and cast away all doubts over just how dangerous the knife in the middle of a dinner table in the crazy recluse's mansion really is. I whole-heartedly endorse the use of the random plastic knife to get this point across. It makes concepts concrete and helps key in everyone's attention in a way that a bit of descriptive text from the GM might not be able to pull off.

Use props! Experiment with ideas! Creep your players out! You've only got 28 days to plan how you're going to creep your players out on Halloween, so get crackin'!

The New 52 in Review... What Comes Next?

2011-10-01T08:50:00.000-05:00

Over the past month I've been picking up a ton of the New 52 #1 issues from DC. You can find all my review posts here: Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, and Week Five. It's the first time I've fallen into a routine of buying new comics every Wednesday, and I'm happy to say at this point that it's a very fun habit. I've also bought every single book this month digitally through Comixology. Overall I picked up 22 of the 52 #1's which is a huge amount of comics for me to buy in a single month. I'm more used to picking up a couple of trade collections every couple of months, so it was really cool having so many comics to read every week.

So with today I'm going to be giving some feedback on my experience. I want to use this opportunity almost as much for myself to reflect on the past month and how I want to proceed with comic buying as much as I just want to share my opinion with the ether. I'm going to try to rank the top 10 books I bought, identify which books I'm excited for buying #2 next month, and finally which books aren't going to see a second issue in my Comixology collection. Let's get on with it!

First off, let's take a look at the list of the 22 books I bought (at full price digitally instead of waiting a month to get a buck off) in September:

Justice League
Batgirl
Justice League International
Action Comics
Animal Man
Stormwatch
Swamp Thing
Batwoman
Batman and Robin
Demon Knights
Grifter
Superboy
Birds of Prey
Nightwing
Supergirl
Wonder Woman
Batman
Teen Titans
Aquaman
Green Lantern: New Guardians
The Flash
Justice League Dark

Top 10

So, first I want to break down a top 10 list. There were some comics that really stood out. Whether it was because of the art team, the writing, the new take on an old favorite character, there's a lot to love in some of the new issues. This is a tough list to make up since I wanted to order them, and this'll definitely be a preview of the issues that I'll keep buying below.

1. Batman - nothing else felt like as much of an iconic reboot of a character than this book. Scott Snyder's writing was incredibly well-constructed and Greg Capullo's art captured everything I like about Batman. I can't wait to get #2.
2. Animal Man - this was an early favorite, and still throughout the month, it was the yardstick to which all other New 52 #1's would be compared. It was a chilling beginning to what will hopefully be a truly scary horror story.
3. Batwoman - Elegy, the story that really set the stage for this new on-going series, is one of my favorite bat-family stories of all time. I was nervous that artist J.H. Williams III wouldn't be able to handle writing duties as well. I was happily proven wrong!
4. Wonder Woman - another incredible story staring a kick ass female superhero! I wasn't going to go for Wonder Woman right away, but the preview art from artists Cliff Chiang was awesome, and the heavy focus on Greek myth sold me the rest of the way.
5. Superboy - this was a huge surprise, and I loved every page of it. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the exception for Scott Lobdell this month, but this is the best work of his I've read since Age of Apocalypse. Artists R.B. Silva made this book a sleeper favorite of mine of the 52.
6. Justice League International - talk about a surprise success for me! I love team books, and JLI had just a perfect mix of familiar characters and new characters to make it a great #1 issue. This book is goofy and fun, and will be bought by me every time if it keeps it up.
7. Aquaman - DC has done some amazing things with this relaunch. I've vaguely thought Aquaman was cool back in his JLA Grant Morrison days, but have never followed his solo story. I loved Johns' humanizing portrayal of Arthur Curry and can't wait to see where this little character piece takes us.
8. Justice League Dark - so I ended up liking both of the Justice League spin-offs much more than the main book. Both this and JLI were much more interesting and fresh than Justice Leauge #1. I can't wait to see where this team goes (both the creative team and the actually superheros team).
9. Supergirl - no idea where this book came from. I had at least read a couple of issues of Superboy back in the 90's, but with Supergirl, I was sold on giving her a try based 100% on the art from Mahmud Asrar, and I seem to be in the minority in loving her new costume - lack of knee pads and all. Can't wait to see where Supergirl goes in exploring her new homeworld.
10. Birds of Prey - picking number 10 for this list was really hard. There were a lot of books that almost could have made it, but ultimately I wanted to pick the 10 books that just made me excited to read comics in little short bursts like I've been doing with these single issues. BoP had crisp art and a really great one-shot story. I like the direction and the two main characters so far. You can't ask for more than that.

Can't Wait for #2!

Next up, I wanted to take a look at the list of books I bought this month that will also be bought in October rather than waiting a month to try out at a buck off. Obviously, I'll be buying #2 of each of my top 10 books from above, so I don't need to explain those comics, but I will add a bit of commentary for the extra books on this list. Bold titles are from the Top 10 list above.

Justice League International
Animal Man
Batwoman
Superboy
Birds of Prey
Supergirl
Wonder Woman
Batman
Aquaman
Justice League Dark
Stormwatch - I love the concept behind Stormwatch and Wildstorm's twist on the Justice League concept in The Authority. I liked the first issue, but it didn't quite click exactly right. I'm really excited to see where the story is going though, so I'm giving this team book a shot.
Swamp Thing - Swampy was one that I passed on originally but went back and bought after reading some reviews. I regret nothing. The story was awesome, and Scott Snyder brought the same talent he presented in Batman to this book. It's weird, creepy, and best of all, will tie into my number 2 book of the month - Animal Man eventually.
Batman and Robin - This one's on the edge for me. I'm not sure I need two Batman books, and it definitely doesn't stack up to Batman #1, but I loved the art, the action, and am really interested in the Batman Inc. aspect of the story and even more so in the deadly villain Tomasi introduced. I'll give it a shot with #2 to see if it starts to go somewhere.
Green Lantern: New Guardians - I want to buy at least one of the Green Lantern books monthly, and Kyle's my guy. I like the straight forward story and the last two-pages splash page was exciting and just plan fun. I'm not burnt out on the rainbow league of Lanterns since I still haven't read a lot of the more recent Green Lantern books, so this one's a solid pick for #2.
The Flash - This one almost made my Top 10 list based on the art alone. I think Manapul is doing a great job transitioning to taking over the writing responsibilities, although truthfully, I'd like to see a veteran writer write with Manapul's art talents. Still, the book is gorgeous with fantastic coloring. I'll give this one a couple more issues to see if it works as a full story.

Once Was Enough

This last category are for the books that I gave a shot but just didn't care enough to look forward to #2. I only bought 22 of the 52 new #1's from DC, so by that standard, I was already very narrow on what I was willing to spend money on. Some of these books were a fun read, but either just not for me or something I'd be willing to wait and see and let others give some feedback on to see if I should go back and buy more issues digitally at the dollar-off price. Some of these I thought just weren't good at all, but since I only got 22 books, I already self-selected out of most of the books I wouldn't really care about.

Justice League - Johns missed the mark for me big time on this. This book in its current form is not for me. It's sad, since the League is my favorite superhero team by either Marvel or DC, but I'll have to wait until maybe the second arc when it fast forwards to the modern version of the team.
Batgirl - Ugh, this was one huge miss. I liked bits of it with Babs' PTSD over her spinal chord injury, but everything was very average and dare I say boring. I can't see this being one I come back to later.
Action Comics - All-Star Superman changed my expectations for comics, and Grant Morrison is directly responsible for this. I liked Action #1, but I didn't think it was worth $3.99 due to some not-so-good art in places. I like the story, and I could definitely see coming at it at a month delay saving me that extra buck and making the book priced more reasonably.
Demon Knights - I don't get the hype behind this book. Maybe it's because I wasn't impressed with the "throw a dragon at it" line since snarky fantasy is almost a cliche at this point. The characters were fine, the art was pretty good, but it didn't hook me, and I'm waiting to see what the whole first arc looks like before picking up #2.
Grifter - I loved Grifter #1. It was a really fun scatterbrained kind of story, and the main character is pretty cool. The art was pretty good too. So why am I not buying #2? It doesn't feel like it has a lot of weight to it. This is probably the best book I can give as an example that I would be happy to pay two bucks a month late for.
Nightwing - Another character I really like is Dick Grayson, and he's entirely the reason I bought Nightwing #1. I just didn't care when all was said and done. Maybe a better way to say it is that I don't need this many Batman Family books every month, and Nightwing is the one I bought that least impressed me. I probably won't be back for #2 even at $2.00.
Teen Titans - Blech! This is the one book I bought that I really regretted buying. Superboy was a huge hit for me this month, so I wanted to give Superboy writer Scott Lobdell another chance at my attention (and cash) with the Superboy tie-in of Teen Titans. The art was terrible, and the story was bland, boring, and riddled with cliches. Not good, and a book I'm giving up on until the creative team is completely swapped out.

Month Late and a Dollar Cheaper

Not wanting to end on a down note, I have one more bonus list from the month! There are some books I had a passing interest in but wasn't willing to splurge and pick up on the chance I might like it. Ever since I heard DC would bump their prices down a buck for each digital title every month when the next issue is released, I knew there would be some books I would just be happy living a month behind. Who knows, maybe eventually I'll be satisfied with all my books a month behind, but we all know that part of the fun of regularly buying comics is to be able to participate in the discussion and reaction to new issues every Wednesday. Anyway, here's a quick list of #1's I plan on buying next month when their #2 comes out and pushes the #1 down a dollar in price!

All-Star Western
Frankenstein Agent of SHADE
Green Lantern
Green Lantern Corps.
I, Vampire
Resurrection Man
Voodoo

Not a bad list! So, what were your experiences and/or thoughts about the New 52 now that the month is over? Overall, I have a very strong positive reaction to the relaunch. There are a ton of books that clicked really well for me. I'm both excited to see those books' #2's as well as to see what additional #1's and new series DC will be launching in the next couple of months. Even more interesting to see will be when we get the first wave of cancellations from the New 52 and which books will be cut. I'm hoping some of the smaller books in my pull list (Superboy, Supergirl, Birds of Prey, and Green Lantern New Guardians) will see long runs, but who knows? As a first time buyer of weekly single issues every Wednesday, DC has sold me on the fun and excitement of the experience, so overall I would say that they're definitely a winner in the equation.

DC Relaunch - Final Week! - Teen Titans, Aquaman, Green Lantern New Guardians, Flash, and Justice League Dark

2011-09-28T20:11:00.001-05:00

It's the final week of the bold experiment undertaken by DC Comics to relaunch an entire comics universe, and I've got another five #1's to round out the month with. It's been a great ride this month, and I hope to have one more post by the end of this week to discuss all the new #1's I picked up and what I plan on sticking with to see through #2. Reviews can be found over at iFanboy as always.

Teen Titans #1

I wasn't originally going to pick this up. Then came Superboy, and I knew that even though the art really turned me off, I'd have to see where Teen Titans (TT) would lead me. I've wanted to like TT for a long time. I love the concept, and can't really get enough teen books in my life. I passed on Red Hood and the Outlaws last week (also written by Scott Lobdell) since I don't care about any of those characters, but the combination of Superboy's quality combined with really liking Tim Drake - Red Robin as a character meant I was willing to give this a chance.

So that's the long sordid history of my relationship with the book building up to its release. This being the first book I read this week, I'm starting to realize that #1 fatigue is finally setting in for me. I love team books, I love covert/conspiracy books, and I really like teen superheroes, and all of that still didn't save me from starting to realize that I'm actually starting to get sick of reading the very beginning of a story. I don't think I would have noticed this as much if TT wasn't just incredibly mediocre and quick to read, but it just wasn't that great.

I still haven't warmed up to Brett Booth's decidedly 90's Image-influenced style. Everyone's bulging with muscles and the style, rather than doing something interesting with Jim Lee's redesign of the costumes, seems to enhance all the bad parts of the redesigns. I will say this about the art though. There are moments where Booth really nails a character's facial expression that were refreshing. I also enjoyed his rendition of Superboy's costume almost as much as R.B. Silva's from Superboy #1. The black and red capeless design is really badass and menacing. I have no idea why the cover shows pretty much the worst Superboy design ever, because I don't think it's going to show up anywhere in the new version of the DC Universe.

The story felt slight in a way that wasn't still satisfying. What I mean is that with Supergirl #1 last week, it was an incredibly quick read, but it felt like a very tantalizing tease. I wanted to know more about the main character and how she would interact with the world. In TT #1, we get a faceless clandestine group messing with teen heroes named "N.O.W.H.E.R.E." that, in a post-Nextwave world feels like a parody of itself. I don't care about N.O.W.H.E.R.E. even A.L.I.T.T.L.E. The group is so generic, and I feel like Lobdell missed the boat on throwing us a bone or any hook at all that would make me care about this story line. Alas, we got nothing, and that's kind of how I feel about the book overall - just a whole lotta nothing.

Story - 2 out of 5 stars
Art - 2 out of 5 stars

Aquaman #1

Another book I wasn't going to buy but needed to get once I saw the preview for! Damn previews! I'm pretty neutral on Geoff Johns. I've liked a lot of his stuff, but it can get a bit over-done and really lose track of the characters. It's tough to balance character pieces with epic cosmic wars and all that good stuff, so I wasn't really sure at all what I'd be walking into with Aquaman #1. I have no history with the character outside of the Justice League (so exactly like what I had with Wonder Woman actually). I picked it up on a lark, and man am I happy I did.

Johns nailed Aquaman's character and in only a few pages made me care about the guy. I love the look of the new suit and Arthur's facial expressions throughout. Ivan Reis just killed on this book better than anything I've seen him do in Green Lantern. Arthur ranges from bemused to confused to irritated, and each time it combines with Johns' tight script and story to really bring out the pathos of Aquaman. That's right, I said Aquaman's got pathos, and how! I never knew Aquaman's real origin, but what we get here in #1 intrigues me, and I can't wait to see more of Arthur interacting with both the Atlanteans and surface world and never truly fitting in either.

I'm really excited to see where the story line goes. It's extremely simple and straight forward, but the story doesn't matter as much as seeing what Johns does with the character. One thing I've learned this month is how wildly different I can react to different works by the same writer. Justice League bored me and felt stiff and hokey. On the other hand, Aquaman feels like an extremely modern while also timeless version of the character. Sure we get references to blogging and youtube (there must be some kind of directive from DC editorial to mention at least one of these things - or Twitter - in each #1), but it's unobtrusive and at worst just a tiny bit distracting. Aquaman's a fantastic character piece that has me really excited to read Flash #1!

Story - 5 out of 5 stars
Art - 4 out of 5 stars

Green Lantern New Guardians #1

Kyle Rayner of Earth, you have been chosen.

Yay! I love me some Kyle Rayner. He's my Green Lantern through and through. Being a kid of the 90's, I loved the crab-faced Lantern, and honestly he's what made GL my favorite superhero family of the DC universe. When I saw he was essentially getting his own book, I was really excited, and although I plan on buying Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. on a delayed basis to get the dollar-off digital deal, I wanted to try some GL right away, so New Guardians was a no brainer.

New Guardians #1 is definitely a team building book. I love the concept right from the get-go that there's going to be a Captain Planet-ish team in the DC universe made up of all the different colored lanterns. This is the first thing I've read from writer Tony Bedard, so I had no idea what to expect. I will say that the story isn't completely ground-breaking, but I do love the twist Bedard puts on the traditional team building issue. The final two pages, a double-page gorgeously-colored (by colorist Nei Ruffino) made me smile from ear to ear and really excited to see what will come with #2.

Granted, I don't know what New Guardians will actually be about. There is a central conflict to the book (revealed by that final two-page spread I mentioned), but beyond that, and the why beyond that are totally left out. I'm actually ok with this though. I'm eager to learn more about the six other lanterns-of-various-colors that make up the rest of the team to compliment Kyle. I'm just overall eager for this book because he's such a different Lantern from the other three Earthmen Lanterns (hey, how come there aren't any female earth-born Green Lanterns?), and it's about time he got the spotlight in his own book once again. (here's hoping all the covers are on white backgrounds - such a good look for this rainbowy team)

Story: 4 out of 4 stars
Art: 4 out of 4 stars

The Flash #1

The Flash #1 is full of really cool art. I knew this coming into it, but much like Batwoman #1, I wasn't sure we were going to get a good story to go with it. I liked the short-lived Flash relaunch with Johns and Manapul quite a bit, but got nervous when I saw that Manapul would be taking over writing responsibilities for the new series. My fears are mostly put to rest as we get a very fast-paced look at the new status quo for Barry Allen. Much like his new costume, it's both familiar with some new details that make him pop off the page.

The Flash is a great science fiction character. His powers and theme come right out of the time when sci-fi was all the rage in comics. There's so much room to play around with the mechanics of his powers and how it affects reality around him. It doesn't have to always make sense, but it does have to always be fun and something new. With this first issue, Manapul shows that he has what it takes to keep our hero firmly tied to his science fiction roots.

Much like with many of the books, I've really started to sit up and take notice of colorists for the relaunch. Sometimes they tell a crucial little part of the story like in Batwoman and sometimes they give a unique flavor to the story and art that just black and white or an average colorist would otherwise not have delivered, such as in Wonder Woman. With The Flash, colorist Brian Buccellato delivers with some incredibly rich crimsons and lightning yellows for the superhero action and offers a much more muted, quiet color pallet for the rest of Barry's civilian life. It's the contrast that makes Flash seem like he's almost too fast for the page as he runs between panels. The whole book feels like it's full of motion and action, and it all sings under Manapul's impressive writing debut.

Story: 4 out of 5 stars
Art: 5 out of 5 stars

Justice League Dark #1

Mikel Janin needs to draw all of the books with magic in them. I just want a big old Lord of the Rings and every Lovecraft story ever told adaptation with Janin's art (colored by Ulises Arreola). So much is done so right in this book, I don't know where to start. First is the team. Every single member of the team seems to bring something unique and cool to the mystic version of the Justice League. Zatanna specifically impressed me with how she handles her scene, and I love the basic redesign of her look. John Constantine, while just making a very little appearance in the book makes me want to go just read pages and pages of Hellblazer. Shade The Changing Man I know nothing about and yet want to get inside his extremely messed up head.

JLD does a lot of things right, but the best part is how writer Peter Milligan sets the stakes right away and shows just how terrifying a Justice League - level mystic threat should be. This is the stuff of nightmares, and Superman's bright red and blue can't really do anything to stand up to it. It almost feels like a combination of Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman. How much more do I have to sell you on the book? This is a short review, but that's because I don't want to give anything away. I love horror, I love urban fantasy, and the combination just works so well together. Can't wait to get to the status quo of what this team is going to look like from month to month.

Story: 5 out of 5 stars
Art: 5 out of 5 stars

It was a dark and rainy day in late September...

2011-09-26T15:22:00.000-05:00

September has historically been a bit of a down month for The Hopeless Gamer. In June you get Free RPG Day and July and August are all about Gencon, so the time I get to September, I'm a little burned out on writing about all the many, many cool things that summer brings for tabletop gaming. This means that September brings less posts and the themes of the month are all over the place. This September's been unique in that I've been following along and reviewing a lot of DC Comics' New 52 #1 issues this month and posting a big article every Wednesday. Still, gaming posts have been few and far between, but it's a period for me to recharge my batteries. Why do I need to recharge my batteries?

Shocktober 2011 is almost upon us! I feel like the one thing, more than any other, that I do right on THG is to celebrate horror and horror gaming for the whole month of October leading up to the big H at the end of the month. Horror gaming will always be my number 1 favorite theme. So to celebrate that, I try to do something special and put out more than normal material to honor the genre. My first Shocktober I challenged myself to post a one- or two-sentence horror story/horror game hook. It was a TON of fun and still one of the most satisfying experiences I've had with the blog. Last year's Shocktober fest saw a much bigger variety of posts, but they were still centered around themes for each week such as a Cthulhu week, gaming week, etc. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work, but again, I felt like it was the best thing I did all year.

With Shocktober 2011, I again want to try something new. Every day of the week (excluding weekends) in October will be assigned a certain type of post. In other words, I'm taking a column style of approach to this Shocktober. It'll mean a greater variety each week while more predictability from week to week.

Mondays are going to be Horror Gaming Fodder days where I post material focused solely on tabletop gaming similar to the general Gaming Fodder tag found here on THG, but with a decidedly-horror bent to it. Tuesdays are for Horror Story Seeds where I go back to the concept of the original Shocktober with just little bite-sized bits of horror to get your game going or just to enjoy on a cold October afternoon. I want to take advantage of the large archive of horror-related material on the blog, so Wednesdays are going to be dedicated to horror Greatest Hits. I've been wanting to dip my toe back into writing some flash fiction stories, so Thursdays are for A Flash of Horror where I'll be trying to hunt down some interesting prompts for the month to write on. Finally, the best part of Halloween and the whole month of October is horror movies. Each Friday I'll post a review of a horror movie that I think would make an especially good Horrors to Play.

So that's the plan! I hope everyone else is looking forward to October and a month-long celebration of the creepy as I am!

DC Relaunch Week 4 - Birds of Prey, Nightwing, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and Batman

2011-09-21T20:28:00.000-05:00

It's Wednesday! More reviews of DC #1's! This week has probably the most middling excitement for. Last week had Batwoman and the week before had Action Comics and Animal Man, but this week, while I'm exciting for the titles I bought, none really stand out as a truly "event" of a release. Still, let's see how the five titles I picked up ended performing. As always, these reviews are also posted over at iFanboy.

Birds of Prey #1

I wasn't sure what to expect for Birds of Prey (BoP). It hasn't ever been a title I've been interested in and wasn't going to be on my list to buy for the relaunch. Still, the preview pages I saw online really grabbed me, and there's something about the costume redesign of Black Canary that really spoke to me. The new costumes have been very hit or miss, but one of the things that I really liked about BoP were both Black Canary's and Starling's costumes.

Like I said, I don't know a whole lot about the original BoP. I know that Barbara Gordon as Oracle was always the Professor X of the team and that it was made up of female superheroes, but beyond that, I never really knew the mission of the team or even the tone of their stories. The new BoP presents a budding team of female bad asses who work street-level conspiracies and crime. In this first issue, we're only introduced to Black Canary (the blonde on the cover) and Starling (the corset-wearing superheroine in the center). I really adore the little bits of relationship we get between these two characters.

The art (by Jesus Saiz) is clean and the action looks amazing. Both of the female stars look like they could easily kick Batman's ass while laughing about it the whole time. They both look very distinct, and Saiz makes their personalities shine through his art. It's a very exciting book to look at, and even the quieter scenes have a quick pace that makes it feel like an action movie. Unfortunately, it does end up feeling like a quick read, and I could see an argument that you don't really get your money's worth. However, the story is tight and complete (especially for being a #1) while opening up a whole world of story possibilities. On a side note, we do get two pages where Barbara Gordon makes an appearance, and I'm more intrigued and interested by this depiction of the character than I was with the entire issue of Batgirl #1. I'm excited to see how she will continue to interact with the team she originally founded and would be more than happy if this was her only corner of the DC universe and she didn't have to carry her own book from month-to-month.

Story: 4 out of 5 stars
Art: 4 out of 5 stars

Nightwing #1

I've always liked Dick Grayson as a comic book character. Nightwing is another character where the costume design draws me in. He's like Batman, but capeless and wearing a domino mask instead of a cowl. He's probably one of the best-developed characters since his first career as Robin way back when. I rather enjoyed his recent turn as Batman. In this new series, we see Dick returning to his Nightwing persona, and this time he is firmly tied to the city of Gotham. Really, in the relaunch, Gotham is as much a character in the book as Dick, and it's not a really nice place to be.

I like the new direction for the character. Dick has decided to take on the worst mundane villains and crime of Gotham by living amongst it. It's a nice contrast to his character. Dick is the anti-Bruce Wayne in that he's cheerful and chooses to see the nice things in life when he can. Whereas Bruce lives in a swanky nice estate apart from the worst aspects of the city, Dick lives in the thick of it. It's a very smart move and direction for the character.

While the concept for the new direction is great, the story itself feels lacking. It doesn't appear to have a real strong conflict, and the main villain is bland and boring. I wish he had something unique or interesting about his design or character, but the basic premise of his character isn't all that intriguing and just doesn't hook me. I think I'll be passing on this one from here on out, which is unfortunate, because I really wanted to like it.

Story: 2 out of 5 stars
Art: 3 out of 5 stars

Supergirl #1

After reading Superboy last week, I got really excited to read some more teenaged-Kryptonian stories, luckily, DC lined up an action-packed issue of Supergirl to feed my hunger. Ironically, although I loved this issue, it's pretty much as far removed as possible from last week's Superboy. The issue is essentially one gigantic fight sequence with a very enticing final page that makes me very excited for issue #2. It's an incredibly quick read and relies more on future superstar artist Mahmud Asrar to convey the awakening of Supergirl's powers and conscience on Earth. There are some huge panels in here with colors that pop, and I'm completely sold on Supergirl's new costume (of course, I've been really enjoying all these popped-collared designs since first seeing them).

Although the actual text is incredibly sparse, I really like the little glimpses we get into Supergirl's train of thought and how she is trying to make sense out of a reality that is completely alien to her. Supergirl uses the time-honored teenager hero tradition of trying to sort out the main character's thoughts while learning how not to be pummeled by giant robots.

I liked the little hints at her Kryptonian life we get throughout the issue. I'm intrigued to find out what she means when, at one point, she admits to herself that she shouldn't be wearing her "uniform" until she graduates, but doesn't mention what she's supposed to graduate from. This, combined with the fact that Superman's new costume is supposed to be some kind of traditional Kryptonian armor, has me really excited to find out more about the Superman family books and has me really excited for Superman #1 next week. I can't wait to see what her supporting cast of characters will eventually develop into, and more so, I really want to see how she would interact with Superboy and Superman. One would figure character this closely related would have a lot to say to one another, and I hope this book is a sign that the Superman family of characters may develop some lasting relationships that matter just as much as the Bat family has. Here's hoping for more of the same next month.

Story: 3 out of 5 stars
Art: 4 out of 5 stars

Wonder Woman #1

I've read a lot of WW while never having actually read a single issue of her solo series. She is perennially a second-tier character in a world where she is considered first tier. I'm familiar with her from time versions of the Justice League from Morrison's run on JLA to her key role in Kingdom Come to her characterization in the Justice League cartoon. I've always liked her because she's literally a bad ass Amazon, but to be honest, I've never really felt like there was much depth to her beyond being tough.

While reading this first issue of her new series, I found myself just dreading when I would be done with the issue and would have to wait a month for #2. Where I've been really excited to see the next issue of many of the books I've read from DC this month, WW is the only one to really give me that feeling. The story is thick with Greek myth which is a weak spot for me. I love ancient myth, and pretty much wherever it shows up is something I'm going to want to read. Writer Brain Azzarello uses the mythic aspects of the story to create an engaging narrative in which WW is able to be a true action hero. Much like in Birds of Prey, the female protagonist carries a great presence that shows off just how great a stable of female heroes DC has to offer. It really makes me think of what Marvel could possibly offer up in comparison, but I digress.

Cliff Chiang was the original draw for me. Whoever matched that man up to do the art for Wonder Woman deserves a medal. It's one of those fits of artist to character that just feels so satisfying to see. Chiang does not disappoint. In every frame she appears, Diana looks equal parts fierce and gorgeous. The monsters look nice and terrifying, and the gods, or half-gods (whatever) look very alien in a classic myth-y kind of way. One thing I don't talk about much is the coloring. Colorist Matthew Wilson did an amazing job to make the book look truly unique. The lush greens, reds, oranges, blues, and purples make Chiang's art pop off the page and creates a very Mediterranean flavor (whatever that means exactly) for the book of a pallet that's just off of the basic primary colors. It's vibrant and soothing at the same time.

While the story isn't full of mysteries and hooks like some of my other favorites from the New 52, the combination of story, art, and characterization of WW makes me want to just keep reading this book for ever. Everything clicked here, and I just loved it.

Story: 5 out of 5 stars
Art: 5 out of 5 stars

Batman #1

I think John Romita Jr. just got out-John Romita Jr.'ed. Artist Greg Capullo just nailed this book. That's the first thing I wanted to say. Next is that this book feels like it's on a scale with my all-time favorite comic - All-Star Superman. Writer Scott Snyder seems to seamlessly work with Capullo's classic art style to create a very iconic superhero tale. But let's go back to the art for a second. I've never read anything of Capullo's before, but much like R.B. Silva from last week's Superboy, I now want to get my hands on everything he's ever done. I don't think I've ever seen a depiction of Batman I've liked more than what weget in Batman #1. He's somehow both blocky and cartoony. It's like if John Romita Jr. and Chris Bachalo birthed a new form of artistic story telling. Batman looks like the type of character who would terrify his enemies and yet have a general appeal to children. I fell in love with his depiction of Batman (along with some great renditions of his rogues), but was really dazzled by his normal human faces. They're incredibly expressive, and both Bruce and Commissioner Gordon are great to look at.

Of course all the art in the world couldn't save a book if the story is no good. Luckily Snyder begins this new Batman series with several awe-inspiring set pieces that play off the contrast between Bruce Wayne's and Batman's lives really well. However, instead of completely separating the two, they're deeply intertwined while existing in very different worlds. Snyder does a great job of pulling those disparate threads together throughout the whole thing. A really easy way to pull me into a story is to introduce some great characters, and with #1, Snyder throws several very engaging personalities as us. He's great at dialog and, when combined with Capullo's facial expressions, the story jumps off the page.

Finally, there's one very specific moment almost exactly halfway through the book that had me full of smiles. I like solo heroes, but there's something about a family that faces all these trials together that will always get me. Father and son relationships have an even more powerful effect on me. I almost didn't expect to see a page like we do in here in any comic ever, so it was a very heart-warming moment that had me so excited to see where this book will continue to take this group of characters.

While I enjoyed Batman and Robin #1 last week, Batman #1 just feels so much more epic and iconic as a Batman story. It hits all the right notes and will likely be all the Batman I need from month to month. It's a fantastic starting or re-entry point into the world of Batman. It also just so happens to be my favorite book out of the entire relaunch so far.

Story: 5 out of 5 stars
Art: 5 out of 5 stars

Riffing on the Military Campaign.

2011-09-16T11:36:00.000-05:00

For some reason, no one volunteered to play the Scuba Steve Trooper.

One of the things I've wanted to do since getting into tabletop role playing has been a military campaign. The first adventure I planned for my group was a Star Wars Saga Edition game that was a follow-up to several sessions running the free campaign Wizards was producing at the time. It was a huge learning experience, those early days of our group's trying out what turned out to be one of the best versions of the d20 system. We had a lot of fun, but I was itching to run my own game.

So after a couple of months of playing the published campaign, I began planning my own mini campaign. This was my first attempt to focus on putting the players into a military structure, and sadly it didn't go beyond two or three sessions of play. The campaign, for those curious, was set during the rise of the empire/dark times and started with the players preparing to become an autonomous military unit for the Empire that would eventually have the option of defecting to the rebel forces. It was overly ambitious for my first campaign, but just thinking back to those times and ideas I had still makes me want to somehow pull the game off. If I were to run it again, I'd probably switch it to Savage Worlds since it's so much easier to run combats with SW than SW:SE. But, I digress.

Thinking about the kinds of stories I love always brings me back to the epic scale and naturally informs what kinds of games I want to run. One of my focuses for anything game I want to run is to make the player characters the stars of the show. They don't have to be the most powerful (and often aren't), but they do have to be the most important. This means different things for different types of stories. In my slowly but persistently developing Dragon Age campaign, this means the players start small but will eventually grow in power and be a key faction in stopping the invasion of the Fifth Blight and freeing Fereldun from the grip of the Dark Spawn. In my Star Wars campaign, the players were to be key players in the development of Rebellion military doctrine and sector-wide tactics and strategy since they were some of the finest trained officers the Empire ever produced.

There's a conflict here between my ideal game (players are the stars) and my ideal story (massive military conflicts huge armies of countless soldiers playing a role). One of the solutions is to put each player character into a position where they command thousands of soldiers. The engineer becomes general of the sapper brigade, the cavalier leads thousands of mounted knight cavalry, the ranger leads the scouting and intelligence arm of the army, etc. Just typing that out sounds like a pretty badass game to play, but it's hard then to justify the five generals going off on a side adventure. It'd be like the entire bridge crew of the Enterprise going on an away mission (on second thought). You could fudge it, but I'm not sure how it would work with player immersion in the logic of the story.

Alternatively, and not necessarily mutually-exclusive to the generals idea, you can have the players be a scalpel in the toolbox of the real generals in the army. This type of thing can easily be on the way toward pushing the characters toward a command of their own after they've had some success on their own. You can play the adventure both at the micro scale, focusing on the mission of the heroes, as well as shedding some light on the battle as a whole. What's cool about this kind of adventure is that when the heroes fail skill tests, they might still succeed in their mission, but not do as well and cost their fellow soldiers somewhere else on the battlefield their lives. Their actions are far-reaching full of consequences that matter while their characters may come away relatively unscathed. Maybe their mission is to take out the bridge in the picture above to the left before the orcs can cross it to ram the gates of the citadel. Failure may mean that they are overrun and killed or, it could mean that the orcs invade the castle before the king has enough time to evacuate the women and children through the underground tunnels. There are a lot of options for military campaigns, and I'd love to see a long-term game play out just to have the experence.

DC Relaunch Week 3 Reviews - Batwoman, Batman and Robin, Demon Knights, Grifter, and Superboy

2011-09-15T17:40:00.001-05:00

It's Wednesday which means it's time for a fresh batch of comics for DC's New 52 #1's! Don't know what I'm talking about? You can find Week 1 here and Week 2 here to get my takes on those week's releases that grabbed my fancy. As always, I'll be posting these reviews over at iFanboy as well since they have a really nice database of user reviews.

Batwoman #1

For some reason, Batwoman has constantly been running under my radar in all these months leading up to the big relaunch. It's pretty inexplicable for a variety of reasons. The first is that you cannot ignore the sheer brilliance of artist J.H. Williams III. His work in comics never disappoints and never fails to wow me. Secondly, Kate Kane (secret identity of Batwoman) is my favorite bat-family character as well as my favorite female character in any comic. I fell in love with her in reading the collection of the story Batwoman: Elegy by writer Greg Rucka with Williams on the art. The story was inventive, deeply emotional and personal, and also down-right creepy at points.

Maybe I was ignoring Batwoman because I didn't want to get my hopes and expectations up for the book. DC is giving several artists a chance at writing their own books with the relaunch, and with every one of them I've been really hesitant and nervous about the results. With Batwoman, I can happily say that Williams carries on not only the look of the Elegy story but the quality in character interaction and quick, snappy dialogue that made Elegy work so well.

I'm not exactly sure why I like Kate Kane so much. Maybe it's the fact that she's a female version of Bruce Wayne that breathes a fresh kind of life into the character. It could be her strict military background, her Westpoint training (which makes her sound a lot like old man Batman from The Dark Knight Returns), and her relationship with her father (a retired colonel). Whatever it is, the way Rucka - and now Williams combines this realistic interpretation of a modern high tech superhero with super natural and truly horrific villains. The story presented here follows a very creepy track of kidnapped and murdered children all from the same block by a villain who you might recognize if you're a fan of urban legends and modern ghost stories. The villain is the perfect opponent for Batwoman and match for the style of the book due its relatively dreamy, drippy disposition.

Williams and co-artist W. Haden Blackman dazzle with some jaw-dropping double-page spreads that are both bewildering and yet easy to follow the intended flow of dialogue and story. I've had a generally positive reaction to the New 52 #1's that I've purchased, but nothing has impressed me or made me more excited for next month than Batwoman #1. It's even more exciting than Animal Man, so go figure.

Story: 5 out of 5 stars
Art: 6 out of 5 stars (I realize this is impossible, but Williams is the best out there, bar none)

Batman and Robin #1

It took me a while and two reads to decide on how I feel about B&R. I liked the series immensely when Morrison first launched it (big surprise there), but don't have any real experience with Peter J. Tomasi, the current write for the series and the relaunch. I was actually going to pass on it at first, waiting for it to drop down a buck, but then I saw the preview pages for the book online. As always, art almost always is the true deciding factor for buying a comic for me, and I really liked what I saw from artist Patrick Gleason throughout the whole book.

The story is a neat one and follows up the pre-relaunch story of Batman Inc. The idea is that Bruce Wayne, back from the dead, has spread his Batty influence around the world. He's got counterparts now in Africa (as depicted in the New 52 Batwing series), Japan, and as we see in B&R, Russia. Each Batman has their own nationality's flavor to warp the character into something more interesting. The villain of the series is made to be quite unbeatable and has an agenda against all of Batman Inc. I liked the depiction of the villain ("Nobody" is his name as best we can tell) as a true threat who is just brutal and appears to know much, much more than is on the surface. It actually reminded me a bit like the villain in Batgirl #1 in this way.

For me, the art was really the star of the show. Gleason's lines are precise and clean. Bruce Wayne, Batman, and Gotham as a city are portrayed in deep, impenetrable shadows. Robin is drawn particularly nice throughout, and I will always love the difference in size between the huge Batman and tiny Robin as most obviously portrayed in the Dark Knight Returns, but on display here through the 10 year-old Damian Wayne Robin.

The art convinced me to pick the book up, but I most anticipated seeing how Tomasi would portray the father-and-son relationship between Bruce and Damian. I'm quickly coming to realize that these #1 books are often not designed for me at all. I felt Tomasi kept repeating himself portraying the conflict between father and son, but then again, this is a conflict I anticipated and was informed of as a result of my general interest in comics. I'm sure readers picking this book up for the first time probably appreciate the introduction to their rocky relationship. The thing I believe Tomasi nailed was how mirthless Wayne Manor is with Damian as the Robin. Robin's always been the light-hearted foil to Batman's grimness, but Damian's a trained assassin from birth - arguably more hardcore and definitely less forgiving than Bruce. I'm not quite sure how Alfred can stomach all of it, but I'm excited to read #2 to find out.

Story: 3 out of 5 stars
Art: 4 out of 5 stars

Demon Knights #1

Unfortunately, I don't have a whole lot to say about DK #1. I went in for it since I like Paul Cornell's writing and it appeared to have maybe some semblance of a tie to Stormwatch (which I really liked last week), and I obviously like fantasy heroes, stories, and literature. Still, it failed to overall grab my interest and attention. Everything was put together well, and some of the characters were actually quite appealing, but overall it just didn't click.

I feel lame not having much at all to say about the book, but it's difficult to write an opinion about something you feel is just completely average. The one thing I really liked is the love triangle between Etrigan The Demon, his human host Jason Blood, and the witch Madam Xanadu. Etrigan and Jason share a presence like the Hulk and Bruce Banner only that Etrigan is sane and intelligent... and a demon. Both Etrigan and Jason are independent in their memories, intelligence, and experiences, and they are mutually exclusive, so the two have never really met and don't know what happens while they're away and phased out of our reality. The result is kind of a Quantum Leap sort of effect if Sam kept leaping into and out of the same person. Cornell has set up a competitive love triangle between Etrigan and Jason for Madam Xanadu which will probably play out in some pretty fun ways.

What I'd like to see with this series is that the first arc is an origin story (which this first issue supports) and then the rest of the story takes place in modern day. All the "Demon Knights" are immortal (the team includes Vandal Savage who's easily my favorite of the team), so a modern take on the team with more history than any other super hero team ever would be great. It's probably not going to happen, but it'd be lovely to at least see these characters interact in the modern DC universe. I'll be passing on the book for now, but will keep up generally with how the story goes.

Story - 3 out of 5 stars
Art - 3 out of 5 stars

Grifter #1

My adoration for the Grifter character comes from the fact that I'm a kid of early 90's. I grew up on a steady diet of X-men comics and always longed to read some Image comics but never really had the opportunity (I don't know why) to get some. Grifter was originally a member of the Wildcats team from Image, and what I know of him I know from the cartoon and a guest appearance in the amazing Sleeper series from Wildstorm. He's one of the refugee characters from the Wildstorm universe that made his way into the main DC Universe. For some reason, all these Wildstorm characters have really grabbed my interest, so I knew Grifter would be a for-sure pick up.

So how did #1 turn out? With an intriguing mystery that works to further explore the paranoia pervasive throughout the new DC Universe, I liked Grifter a lot. It pulled me in right away, and I couldn't help but like this new version of Cole Cash. He's disoriented, confused, and anxious, and the story is told in a fashion that really reminded me of Memento. This first issue is called "17 Minutes" and those 17 minutes are quit tantalizing as a mystery that will be unraveled throughout this first arc. Neither we nor Cole know what happened to him in that short time period, and he seems to be even more out of the loop than he guessed at first blush. I'm very much looking forward to seeing this story unravel.

I don't really know where the story is going, but I do know that it hooked me enough that I want to see what happens in #2. The cast is nice and small, and the alien menace is creepy and completely surrounds our protagonist. I love how crazy Cole looks throughout this first issue and, I'm sure, the many issues to come. I feel like with Grifter we're getting a man-on-the-street view of why the new DC Universe is so suspicious of aliens as a whole, and it's probably going to be invaluable in the months to come as more and more books start talking about the alien threat looming over Earth.

Story - 4 out of 5 stars
Art - 4 out of 5 stars

Superboy #1

How did Superboy make me want to buy Teen Titans #1? Don't get me wrong, I want to be excited for Teen Titans, I love the idea of the teen superhero team, but the art just throws me off completely. With Superboy #1, Scott Lobdell does the impossible and makes me want to see how Teen Titans #1 is going to turn out.

Superboy was another book that I just wasn't sure about until I saw the online preview of the first couple of pages. The cover really does a poor job of showing off just how vibrant and clean the art is on the inside. Superboy's new costume, revealed on the final page, is awesome. It's just too bad there are so many images online that make Superboy look just terrible in the new DC Universe.

There's more to this book than the last page though. The whole thing is a fascinating character study of Superboy in the first few months of his life. Grown in a lab from a combination of Superman's DNA and a mysterious human donor's genetics, the new Superboy focuses his powers (and perception) on his psychic powers. I love how Superman is often depicted as being able to sense so much more than the average human of all that goes around him due to his super hearing and vision. Superboy has a similar level of perception but it appears to be due to his entire body being one big sensory organ on a scale we haven't seen before. This results in Superboy being a very interesting character. He feels a lot like a Man from Mars through out this first issue, and it's a really fresh take on the character.

Let's go back to the art to finish out this review. I'm an unabashed Invincible fanboy. He competes with Hellboy constantly for being one of the best developed characters outside of Marvel or DC. Superboy gives a very familiar, exciting feeling both due to him being a young hero and due to the art. Like I said before, it's a bright book with sharp, clean outlines of characters. This is the first thing I've read from R.B. Silva, and all I can say is that he blew me away. I now want to read everything the guy has ever drawn after reading Superboy #1. The two main female characters - which I'm assuming will be pulling Superboy between the two different ends of his personality spectrum - are drawn quite differently and are never simply eye candy for the reader to enjoy. Silva draws them to appear competent and ass-kicking in their respective specialties, and ultimately Superboy shows off way more skin than either of the girls ever do.

I put off reading Superboy this week for me last comic because I honestly wasn't very excited about it. Boy am I pleasantly surprised. I'm shocked to say that I enjoyed reading this even more than Batwoman. Out of all the books I've picked up for the New 52, Superboy has me most excited to read on a month-to-month basis. I'm putting a lot of stock into the book and now know what it feels like to be nervous about the survival of my favorite little book. As an X-men fan from the 90's, I've read a ton of Scott Lobdell, and I can very easily say this is the best thing I've ever read from him. This even beats out my previous all-time favorite Lobdell story in the Age of Apocalypse Generation Next storyline.

Whereas Batwoman #1 is the book I'd recommend to experience readers as the first New 52 issue to pull them into the relaunch, Superboy #1 is the book I'd recommend to the new reader or reader who wants to get back into comics after years of being away. It's good, it's tight, and best of all, it introduces the reader to a great character without being repetitive or talking down to the reader. This is going to be a hard book to beat for the rest of the month, and is a great sign that the New 52 is going to continue to reveal some great hidden gems.

Story: 5 out of 5 Stars
Art: 5 out of 5 Stars

Fly You Fools!

2011-09-12T18:39:00.000-05:00

It's a great time to be a Lord of the Rings gamer. We're well into the first expansion round of releases for the epic Lord of the Rings LCG from Fantasy Flight Games, and The One Ring RPG from Cubicle 7 has proven to be better than I had hoped. There's an insane amount of original art being produced for Tolkien's work and none of it fails to inspire excitement and an urge to run my own Middle Earth game.

This post is short, and not really without a big point other than the fact that I'm very excited to see that FFG has announced Khazad-Dum, the first deluxe expansion for the card game. I was actually really hoping that this is the style of deluxe expansions that we would be getting for the game. Much like the Adventure Packs which feature a string of quests all leading to an overall goal (this first one being to track down Gollum), K-D looks like it's going to offer up three very thematic Dwarven heavy missions to explore the Mines of Moria. I can't wait to get my hands on this and see what the two new dwarven heroes have to offer. My mind wanders when I try to think of other legenary locations FFG could place an entire deluxe expansion into for future releases. I expect we'll see an explicitly-Hobbit themed expansion or two with the movies coming out over the next couple of years. Here's hoping!

DC Relaunch - Reviews of more #1's! - Batgirl, Justice League International, Action Comics, Animal Man and Stormwatch

2011-09-07T20:54:00.001-05:00

It's Wednesday so that means it's time again for some fresh new DC Comics reviews. Last week I reviewed Justice League #1 which, although was fun and light-hearted, did disappoint me a bit. This week I picked up four more #1's from DC's massive relaunch going on all month which resets the entire universe at the first issue with a whole new continuity. These reviews for this week (and likely for the rest of the month) will be shorter than my Justice League review just 'cause there's more to do, and I do my best to avoid being long-winded (and often fail). Just like last week, these reviews are also posted over at iFanboy.com - the best site out there for comics news, reviews, and discussion that I can find.

Batgirl #1

Confession time: this is the first issue of Batgirl I've read from start to finish and is the first time I've ever actually read Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. I remember being frustrated when first hearing that DC was taking Barbara out of her wheelchair and giving her back the mantle of Batgirl. Part of this is because I'm a very big advocate for individuals with disabilities in my real (a.k.a. not internet) life. I've always loved that Babs was a much bigger badass after her spinal chord injury than she ever could have been before it. I was also disappointed because Stephanie Brown, the latest - and blonde - Batgirl leading right up to the relaunch would be seemingly written out of continuity. My little sister has started to get into comics lately, and Stephanie was her favorite character. She was pissed, and I was sad that she was already losing a favorite after just getting into comics.

Now, how did Gail Simone do with the new-old Batgirl? Pretty well, actually. I actually preferred this to Justice League last week, although to be fair, I came in with zero expectations, and the story is a lot easier to handle than the big flagship title of the company. At it's core, Batgirl grabbed me with a new villain who carries a grudge and knows too much about those around him. The mystery sucked me in immediately, and has me excited to read next month's issue. I want to see where the story is going, and really, is there any better indicator of quality?

I also loved the final scene of the book in which Batgirl experiences an all-too human reaction that makes me genuinely feel for her. What's even better, it put me in her corner while putting her on the wrong side of the law. As if she weren't an underdog enough, Simone puts her in a bad spot in more than one way, and the best part is that evokes some very familiar - and welcomed - feelings I get when I think about the best Spider-Man stories. Not bad at all.

Story: 4 out of 5 stars
Art: 3 out of 5 stars

Justice League International #1

I've loved team books ever since getting into comics with the early nineties X-Men. There's something predictably fun and comforting about a good team that a solo title can't give you. JLI #1 was fantastic; I'm not going to bury the lead on this one.

While the issue started off slowly with lots of talking, the team comes together very quickly. As a long-time Marvel fan, I don't know a lot of these characters in either their personality traits or their actual powers. One thing that stood out to me was that Booster Gold (who I love as a result of the 52 maxiseries from a few years ago) assumes the mantle of leader of the JLI and knows about just as much about his teammates as I do. Of course he knows about Batman and Guy Gardner (the Green Lantern on the cover there to the right), but everyone else makes about as much sense to him as they do to me (a.k.a. a new reader to most of them). For instance, Rocket Red, the Russian member of this U.N. based version of the Justice League, looks like an Iron Man knock-off. He's a guy in a metal, robotic suit. Booster asks him to scan an area, which he does, but doesn't realize the limits of Red's sensors. Hilarity ensues, and I thought it was an incredibly real moment.

In a single issue, Jurgens builds the foundations of several interesting group dynamics. The aforementioned Russian hero Rocket Red and the badass Chinese hero August General in Iron but heads in an entertaining, if not stereotypical way. The character I know the least about, Godiva (who may or may not be actually completely new with the relaunch) plays against superhero typecasting and looks to possibly have just an inkling of a romantic will-they or won't-they relationship with Booster Gold. And then there's Batman's relationship with the team. I love that he's in this group as it really feels like the professional playing on an amateur team. I thought the little interaction between Bats and Booster while flying away to their first mission was much better written with better comedic timing than the Green Lantern - Batman interaction from Justice League #1. Great stuff, and definitely feels like a breath of fresh air with fresh takes on old characters.

Story: 5 out of 5 stars
Art: 4 out of 4 stars

Action Comics #1

Grant Morrison writing more Superman! Superman's a hero of the people who does almost more good in his day job as a muck-raking reporter than in his cape saving individuals! Lex Luthor is working with Lois Lane's dad!

It is my humble opinion that this should have been the first book published and released by DC for their new 52. I loved this characterization of Superman and Clark Kent and feel like comics is better off as a result of it. This is out there, in the modern age, and there's no way we won't be seeing more of these "early adventures" type stories for Super in the future. For everyone who complains about Superman being boring because he's invulnerable and the strongest thing there is, you need to read this issue.

I know I've already compared one hero to Spider-Man in this set of reviews, but I'm going to do it again. Never before have I seen Superman get so easily bruised up and beaten down. Never before have I read Superman expressing pain and discomfort so quickly and easily. These are minor things though, compared to the story itself. It's an origin story of Superman we've never read. It feels, in an intangible kind of way, a lot like Superman's version of Batman Year One. It's not at all in the same style, and where I love the art of B:YO, I was left less than thrilled by the uneven drawings of artist Rags Morales. In some panels he shines in both depictions of Lois and Superman, but others just feel clumsy and don't carry the same iconic qualities.

I'm really excited to see where the story goes, and the last page (a full-paged spread of a very unlikely image of Superman), actually made me raise my eyebrows a bit at how surprised I was by it. I'll take more Peter Parker Superman please.

Story: 5 out of 5 stars
Art: 3 out of 5 stars

Animal Man #1

Animal Man is one of those superheroes that became legendary as a result of Grant Morrison working his magic and taking the character in a completely new direction. Morrison's run is one of those collections I've always wanted to read but just haven't had the chance. I didn't want to miss out on this new story of Animal Man, and so here we are with another #1 with another revamped hero.

A-Man is a simple concept. Buddy Baker has the ability to take on aspects of pretty much every animal out there. That's it, that's what he does. On a deeper level, he also has a connection with animals all around him that puts Aquaman's ability to talk to fish to shame. He feels great empathy for animals and risks forging real bonds if staying too close to a single animal for too long.

More importantly, Buddy Baker is a family man. Unlike a lot of what we'll be seeing with DC's superheroes in the next few weeks, Buddy is in a late stage in his career as Animal Man. He's had his fun, he's started a youth pro-animal movement, and now he gets by as a result of his fame while still hopping into the (fantastically redesigned) Animal Man suit.

The art team on this book is the best of all the titles I've seen in the new DC 52. Yes, that includes Jim Lee's work on Justice League. There's something incredibly clean about their work that makes it pop off the page and not feel like a DC Comics book at all. The story pushes this up a notch from a pretty indie looking book to a real horror story. I didn't expect it, but this book gave me chills. Not a whole lot actually happened in the story, but every page felt deliberately planned and plotted so that the story as a whole gets across everything Lemire could have hoped to communicate. The result is a book that anyone could pick up and feel like they didn't waste their money or their time.

Story: 5 out of 5 stars
Art: 5 out of 5 stars

Stormwatch #1

To be my number one pick of the week's releases, all you had to do was tell me that Stormwatch would have Jenny Quantum as a team member. The Authority is one of my all-time favorite teams and books, and Stormwatch simply takes them and throws them in the DC Universe. If The Authority is not your thing (and in this instance, The Authority refers to ridiculously huge threats and the super-powered beings capable of stopping them), Stormwatch might still be right for you.

Where The Authority was outed and figures of the media as much as heroes for the world, Stormwatch returns to its Wildstorm roots making the group secret and deadly. This is basically how I wish Secret Avengers would have been handled from the beginning, and it works very well.

I like the team for its mix of DC characters (this is the coolest depiction of Martian Manhunter since Morrison's JLA) with Wildstorm characters and new characters. I've read that Cornell wanted to firmly plant Stormwatch into this new history of the DC Universe, and it really does feel that way. The mind wanders when thinking about all the events still in DC continuity where Stormwatch might have had a hand in seeing how things played out. For example, I can't wait to read about how they dealt with Green Lantern coming to Earth. That's their role - instead of focusing on just really big threats, they've narrowed in on defending the world from alien invasions. It's a great concept with pretty much infinite potential. The team feels big, but not too big. Cornell's built quite the huge world for himself, and I couldn't be more thrilled that he's gotten the responsibility to take over the team that Warren Ellis made me love.

Story: 5 out of 5 stars
Art: 3 out of 5 stars

Cthulhu - Wasted Lands Screenshots!

2011-09-06T18:36:00.000-05:00

Red Wasp Design has been doing a very good of keeping everyone updated on their upcoming mobile Call of Cthulhu game, Wasted Lands. The game is set during the Great War, and the pictures you'll find below are summed up in their press release:

"They show characters from the game under attack by the undead, and the Dark Young. As the characters fight these legions of horror they will have their sanity eroded away as the game's designer Tomas Rawlings noted, “Lovecraft and his peers created really iconic monsters that tap into our deepest fears. As huge fans of his stories, we've worked really hard to transfer the essence of these alien horrors into a game form. We're blending the core ideas of the classic role-playing game along with our experience of gameplay design all wrapped in our new 3D engine to craft what we hope is a gaming experience of malignant evil!"

Check below for the pictures below! HD versions of the screenshots are probably coming in soon down the line. It looks like it's going to be a really fun game that will be putting the tech specs of mobile devices to the test to show off some truly horrible character designs (of course they're well-done, but Lovecraft didn't tend to describe creatures that didn't look terrible, unutterable even). You get the idea, stuff looks cool.

DC Relaunch - Review of Justice League #1

2011-08-31T18:53:00.001-05:00

I've been a long-time fan of iFanboy for all my comic booking needs. I regularly listen to their podcast and always try to stop by their booth and say hi when I'm at a convention where they also happen to be attending. Anyway, I wrote a review of the new Justice League #1 released just today from DC Comics. This is the first book in their controversial and exciting (at least to me) relaunch of their entire line. I plan on buying more and will likely be posting reviews of the various #1's both here and over there over the course of the next few weeks. Note: I bought this digitally this afternoon, which was awesome, and now my comic collection goes everywhere I go, which is all kinds of awesome.

I don’t normally buy single issues, in fact I haven’t since Iwas in high school, but with the relaunch of the entire DC Universe, Igot excited for one very specific reason: digital day and date release.I don’t want to have to board and bag my comics, and the thought ofkeeping long boxes just hurts my back as I think about moving out of myapartment. So, anyway, what I’m trying to say is that DC won me over bycombining possibly the best jumping-on point in comics history with thenew same-day digital release model.

So I paid $4.00 for a digital file I read in about 20 minutes, howdoes this make me feel? With Justice League in particular, it makes mefeel… fine. Not great, not really disappointed, just, fine. I grew upon Morrison’s JLA (which has me incredibly excited to read ActionComics this month), and probably expected too much out of the book.

The problem is, this feels simply like a team-up book between GreenLantern and Batman. I know these are the two characters who are the bigmoney-makers for DC, but I bought Justice League thinking this would bea team book staring more than two characters. Where were Flash,Aquaman, and Wonder Woman? I understand that this is a first meeting,but the character I care least about on the cover – Cyborg, got severalpages, and these other founding members of the League got none. In thefirst issue. I take it back, I am a little disappointed.

That being said, since really I’m reviewing the relaunch as a wholebased on one issue, I’ve got mixed feelings. Justice League was mysecond-most anticipated book (after the afore-mentioned Action Comics)for the relaunch. It didn’t grab me even a little bit, which is jarringand really unfortunate since I’m completely sold on the relaunch of theuniverse as a whole.

As a person brand new to buying comics on a weekly basis rather thantrade waiting for every single thing I want to read (a.k.a. I canfinally start reading DC again since I don’t have to wait three yearsfor a collection!), I’m not calling it quits quite yet. I will probablyend up buying 15 to 20 more titles over the course of September just todip my toe into a lot of things and try to keep my excitement up.

The real question here, however, is will I be buying Justice League#2 the day of its release? Sadly no, it didn’t win me over. I may waita month for it to drop a buck or wait to see until after the first arcif we get a discount on the digital collection.

In case you’re curious, here are the other titles I’m looking topick up this month before reading any reviews (just to see if yourtastes match mine at all):

Justice League International (hoping we get a good team vibe out of this and some hook of an initial story)
Green Lantern
Green Lantern: The New Guardians
Batman
Nightwing
Batgirl
Batwoman
Justice League Dark
Legion Lost
Stormwatch
Grifter
Action Comics
Supergirl

Story: 3 - Good
Art: 3 - Good

(Scores are both out of 5 possible stars)

Homemade Rocket Ship Designs for Cosmic Patrol!

2011-08-30T17:23:00.000-05:00

I was bored at work, need I say more? Ok, I will. I've been working on a bit of short fiction for the new pulp space game, Cosmic Patrol from Catalyst Games. In my little epic space battle, a tiny force of four Patrol rocket ships have to fight a hopeless battle against an impossibly-huge invading armada. So, back to me being bored at work. I am no artist, not even by any ridiculous stretching of an imagination would I ever claim to be someone who can depict a concept in visual form. Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I decided to draw up what I view my collection of misfit ships to look like in my mind. I didn't really succeed, but since I haven't seen a single picture or drawing of a rocket ship for the game, I thought it might be worth a shot to throw something together. Check 'em out, and be kind! On a side note, these are all a heads-down schematic looking at them just on the top, in case you can't tell.

This clunker is The Heart of the Galaxy. The crew of The Heart most closely-resembles the family relationships found in Firefly and Serenity. The crew has been together for a long time, and their ship's only got half its original parts due to years of service.

This funny little ship is The Fifth Gun. The Gun is the newest ship off the production lines and the first - and only of its kind. Command wanted to see if a pure warship was feasible, so they packed as much speed, armor, and firepower into the thing they that they could and still keep it small with only a three man crew.

The Red Son is the only non-tramp (tramps are universal ships designed to do it all) and is designed specifically to carry a teams of Martian Amazons and Commandos. The front is designed to ram ships, and the triangular points are motorized to tear into enemy ships and allow the Amazons and Commandos quick entry to board. The two side pods are the alternative forms of exiting the ship which quickly launches teams of Martians within atmosphere. It's hull has been built up with additional armor plating allowing The Son to enter extremely hot battlefields and deliver their payload of the deadliest troopers the Patrol has to offer.

Dream's End (which, for some reason insists on showing up upside down - not that it matters for this particular ship) is one of the most unusual designs in the Patrol. The four nacelle-looking things forming a square around the ship have rockets at both ends allowing The End to have a surprising amount of maneuverability for being essentially a big flying saucer. The design is one of the infamous Venusian scientist Doctor Burline's better working prototypes. Serving primarily as a mobile lab for the good Doctor, it carries the unproven Zeno Device which may just offer the small task force an opportunity to save the day.

How I Discovered Cosmic Patrol

2011-08-25T17:38:00.000-05:00

Fresh off of Gencon still, I always feel so invigorated to write for two or three months about all the new crazy cool stuff I picked up or saw. Today I wanted to touch on one of my top two picks from the show - Cosmic Patrol (CP). I hadn't heard of CP before randomly walking by Catalyst Game Labs' booth. You see, while I like sci-fi and the settings of Shadowrun, the days of buying big hard cover books are - mostly - beyond me at this point. The game needs to be either something I've really been anticipating, uses a setting I just can't avoid, or some combination of the two. The One Ring from Cubicly 7 would be a great example of what makes a great exception to that rule.

So, back to Catalyst. I had no real reason to walk by their booth outside of checking out Leviathans just to see how cool the airships looked in person. Rest assured, they looked very cool, but I was surprised to see a small red paperback book sitting in stacks and stacks next to the Leviathan display pieces. The Leviathan minis looked cool, and I don't mean to detract from them, but that little red book with the big honkin' rocket on the cover and those most dangerous of words "Gen Con 2011 Special Edition" completely distracted me from my original target.

I over heard the gentleman at the booth talking to a customer about how it's their new lite RPG which took a more indie angle on classic pulp science fiction gaming. Also, there was no GM but rather a shared narration. I don't know if the customer walked away happy to disappointed, but the guy on the other side of the table, who it turns out is the game's designer, Matt Heerdt, had me completely hooked on the thing. I picked a copy up for myself (and now, believe it or not, I wish I had picked up an extra copy just to collect as I'm already on my second read-through of the thing and see no end in sight) after talking to him for a few more moments.

Matt explained that CP is going to be a short, planned line of three or four small hardcover books giving players everything they could need to play in the universe of Cosmic Patrol. This has me very excited as the universe is relatable, yet complex. Reading the 24 pages to establish the setting set my mind reeling with tons of ideas for stories and campaigns. I like the option of sharing narration with the Lead Narrator (LN) role passing around to a new player each scene, although don't be scared off at all as it would very easily fit the mold of a classic gm-centered game as well (in fact, even with my love of Fiasco and other GM-less games, I may still run this as a GM).

I promise to have more about Cosmic Patrol in the future, including more discussion on the setting itself since it hits so many great pulp notes and scratches all those itches we're all going to be having next year to play a John Carter of Mars RPG. On a side note, Catalyst has done something which I view to be revolutionary. While I (gladly) paid $20.00 for my softcover version of the rules, Catalyst has thrown up the pdf for a mere five bucks. As blind purchases go, I can't recommend enough to pick up the pdf for this book. Alternatively, go order the book for the normal release date (at $25.00) and get the pdf for free while you wait. If you want to just find out more about the game, visit the official website to get a better idea. I've got a real good feeling about this game and think it's going to make a really big splash once people actually get a chance to hear about the thing. It may not be Fiasco-big, but I can't help but feel like that as well as Cosmic Patrol, with their small size, nice and low page count, and "complete" feel in one book are really the future of this hobby.

The Cosmos has a million ways to kill you...

Join the Patrol!

Lovecraft is like a million years old! Celebrate with PDF Action!

2011-08-23T19:41:00.000-05:00

I started to love horror movies when I hit high school. I became a quick convert when first discovering Evil Dead 2. Little did I know that the Necronomicon, a book I swear I had heard of before seeing the movie but just didn't know where, tied my favorite horror comedy of all time into the vast Mythos of Lovecraft. Eventually I got into role-playing games because of horror games and eventually have had some of my greatest gaming experiences ever as a result of horror as a genre.

I'm addicted to the stuff. Much like many other fans of genre fiction, horror just pulls us in, and there's really no better cosmic horror out there than Lovecraft. Some people think it's played out. They say gug, ghouls, and deep ones are too predictable, too obvious, and too exposed to the world to ever actually be scary. To me, they're missing the point of Lovecraft. While horror is the hardest genre to pull off at the gaming table, but when it works, it's not because of a scary description of some big, slavering, hairy monster from the GM. Horror games work because you can't trust those around you to protect and work with you. Horror works because every character has truly unique goals and equally unique means about completing them.

So to that end, I find a lot to love, still, in Lovecraft. I've recently stumbled upon Trail of Cthulhu not so much as a rule system I want to use to run games but rather as a huge source for inspiration for gaming scenarios. I also just like the stuff just for an entertaining, horrific read. To that end, I was thrilled to find rpgnow/drivethrurpg hosting a special sale on their Lovecraft pdf selection. Essentially you've got 15% off the whole list for two and a half more days (as of this posting). I picked up the following pdf's cause they were cheap and looked to be really neat - Cthulhu Apocalypse: The Dead White World, Trail of Cthulhu: Not So Quiet, Trail of Cthulhu: The Dying of St. Margaret's, and Cthulhu 101.

Go ahead and purchase some cheap-o Lovecraft pdf's. I've already read through Cthulhu 101 and am now full of even more stuff I want to read and watch (and listen to - epic lists of Lovecraft-influenced music will drive you crazy) because of it. Now I am off to follow the Trail of Cthulhu, and I'd recommend you follow me down the rabbit hole.

The One Ring - The Canon of My Home Game.

2011-08-19T18:23:00.000-05:00

I've been speeding my way through The One Ring since picking it up at Gencon, and it has me more excited to GM than I've been in quite a long time. I got to play a full session demo of it (four hours) at the convention, and I think it was an invaluable experience in helping me grasp the rules on a first read-through. TOR is a system built from the ground up to address the unique traits of Tolkien's story that have been surprisingly difficult for medieval fantasy games such as D&D to handle. While it does some things similar to other systems and isn't entirely alien, it does a lot of brand new things that seem intuitive and obvious after you see them in action.

I'll be writing more about TOR in the future since it's a game I badly want to run, but today's post was inspired by something I read in the Lore Master's (GM's) book of the TOR base set. In the book, it's addressed that The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit can be incredibly intimidating settings in which to run a game. One thing I discovered recently in playing the Lord of the Rings LCG from FFG with my group is that I probably am the biggest Tolkien nerd out of all of us. The Lore Master's book actually endorses the idea that the one who's the biggest nerd should probably run the game. More than that, I love their take on the official canon that gives some room for the LM to play around in Middle-Earth without forcing his players to play characters named Aragorn, Frodo, Legolas, or Thorin.

One of the things you'll find when reading about what makes Tolkien fans click into the material so well is that he wrote his stories from the perspective of characters new to the world outside their front door. Mainly, this means that we get to find out what happens with all the exciting characters from some seriously objective view points. To quote the Lore Master's Guide:

"When facing the dilemma of altering facts perceived as being part of canon, a Loremaster could consider the information that Tolkien related in his stories not as ascribed to an infallible, all-knowing narrator, but to witnesses of the times, individuals who are subject to errors and personal bias (for example, The Hobbit relates the content of Bilbo Baggins’ memoirs)." (Page 9)

I like this idea because it does two things to make the concept of running TOR that much cooler. The first is that it obviously frees me up, as the LM, to play with the timeline as well as tweak some of the minor details about the stories we all know and love to actually be a little different from what we've read. After all, who knows what really happened in Mirkwood with the dwarves webbed up but Bilbo? The second thing it does is to elevate the story to a time where things weren't necessarily written down right away after they happened but rather were collected after several generations of being told with embellishments and omissions by the various bards and great poets of the time. In other words, it turns Middle-Earth into a land of oral tradition. There's something that seems just epic about that when I think of some of my favorite stories that followed this same development model - particularly the works of Homer.

So, even though I'm provided with a really neat time line in the Lore Master's Guide depicting what happens each year starting after the Hobbit and leading up to The Fellowship of the Ring, I'm also encouraged to take those details and make them my own. As a die-hard Tolkien nerd, there's really no better way I could imagine to game in Middle-Earth.

Gencon Photo Fun Finito!

2011-08-17T16:35:00.001-05:00

I mentioned on Monday that I had just a few more pictures left to post from Gencon. Today's the wrap-up of all the great new stuff I got to check out while at the convention, but I warn you, it is quite the random collection.

I was most excited to pick up a copy of The One Ring from Cubicly 7, and I bee-lined for their booth as soon as I entered the exhibitor's hall. The above picture just filled me with so much joy, plus I got an amazing map of Rhovannion (the setting for this first box set) for super cheap when I purchased the box set. Fantastic, and you can bet on seeing more about TOR in the future here.

Well I didn't get a chance to demo the game (which is really unfortunate due to the fact that they were basically giving away some of their awesome ships when you demo'd), I did take the chance to snap some shots of Catalyst Games' new, massive miniatures game, Leviathans. The first shot shows off just how cool this game is going to look, but at the current price, it's going to be a little tough for my to justify picking it up first-hand.

I had never heard of Cosmic Patrol before entering the hall on Thursday, and chances are pretty good that you haven't heard of it either. That being said, this unknown pulp sci-fi serial adventures RPG from Catalyst Game Labs is the surprise hit from the show for myself. I began reading the small paperback edition exclusive to the show (the hardback book comes out this Fall) and could not put the thing down. The setting is fantastic and feels unique well solidly placed in the familiar, and the rules perfectly match my light preference of mechanics that get out of the way. You will be seeing more of this game here and, hopefully, elsewhere as well.

Super Dungeon Explorer looks fantastic. Again, this is one with way too high an initial investment cost to get picked up, but the mini's do look truly spectacular. Soda Pop Miniatures has stumbled on to something really big here, and I think it's absolutely going to be a hit and help the company blow up (in a good, super-deformed kind of way).

Although Wizkids is just now starting to bring back a much more impressive presence to the convention, they still have a ways to go until they get back to their former stature with huge lines full of loyal fans trying to get a crack at the hot new stuff. Fortunately for them, they have a couple of very interesting games coming up that are only sure to help. The top picture is from their Lord of the Rings mini's line, the next picture is of their Pathfinder pre-painted plastics line (which promises to bring a lot of new fans to Wizkids' products), and the final picture is their Street Fighter line which, I'll quickly admit, I have no idea how you'd turn into a fun miniatures game.

What would Gencon be without a giant over-sized statue from Privateer Press? While not to scale, this Ironclad was still quite impressive and made for a very fun attraction to their booth. Great job as always by the PP gang as their booth continues to be the busiest and most popular place to be every year if you're looking to buy new shineys.

More Gencon Pictures! General Fantasy Flight Games

2011-08-15T16:45:00.000-05:00

Gencon may have been two weekends ago now, but there's just too much to share to move on quite yet. Today's post includes the left-over Star Wars LCG pictures I didn't get into my first grouping as well as a lot of the new stuff on display at their booth. One of the neat things I will mention that, I'm not sure has been really discussed at the other places I've gotten to read about the Star Wars LCG is that timers. In the Lord of the Rings LCG, each player has essentially a timer or reverse life-counter that automatically ticks up a little each turn and possibly a lot depending on negative game effects. In Star Wars, players share this timer as well as their progress track. I enjoy how strongly this reinforces the cooperative aspect of the game by really forcing an all-or-nothing win condition.

Other pictures include some amazing looking Dust Tactics giant miniatures, a picture of the Blood Bowl Team Manager card game, all six Adventure Packs lined up for the first cycle of expansions for the Lord of the Rings LCG, and contents of the next Adventurers game (the original which, by the way, is a Hopeless favorite). I hope you enjoy!

The Sedition Wars at Gencon

2011-08-10T19:04:00.000-05:00

I got a chance to talk to Mike McVey of Studio McVey this year at the Cool Mini or Not booth at Gencon. It was a special occasion because this year marked the tenth anniversary of Mr. McVey teaching me how to play Warmachine back when Gencon was still in Milwaukee, and I was but a wee child still in high school. Mike's one of my favorite industry guys and has a resume with sculpting, painting, and other design work as long as his arm. He and his wife Ali broke out on their own from Privateer Press (of which they were founding members) a couple of years ago to start Studio McVey. I was first won over when seeing the first mini in their sci-fi line and hoped desperately for a mini's game to go with it. My hopes have come to fruition, and I got a peak at the board/mini hybrid game, Sedition Wars last week.

We'll definitely be providing more coverage to the game as the rules are going to be put up online this week for free to try, and I was able to pick up a copy of the poster game board they had at the convention. For now however, take a look at the painted mini's they had on display for the main forces in their starting set to be released next year. The last two pictures, while not from the Sedition Wars line, are just of some awesome minis from Studio McVey. Enjoy!

Gencon Swag Explosion!

2011-08-08T15:53:00.001-05:00

Here's a picture of (almost) all of our Gencon loot from this past weekend. Picked up a ton of great stuff to elaborate on later. Thanks to the Gencon auction, I actually came home with a couple of extra bucks than I came with. More to come on practically everything here, specially on that mystery gray Wizards of the Coast bag...

Fantasy Flight Games is bringing new Wiz-War and Twilight Imperium Rex for Christmas!

2011-08-06T08:45:00.001-05:00

It came as a bit of a surprise yesterday when there was one new, stealthy addition to the Fantasy Flight Games display case at Gencon. Wiz-War, a classic of fantasy board games, is finally getting its long-promised updated version and release. Imperious Rex, a game which appears to be a spin-off of Twilight Imperium that focuses more on ship-to-ship combat. Both games have a price tag of $59.99 and estimated release date of Christmas 2011.

New From Gencon - Star Wars the Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games Picture Megapost!

2011-08-06T08:02:00.000-05:00

As a quick follow-up to my X-Wing post from Thursday, today I wanted to take the time to post some pictures of the card game for Star Wars that I have been told we can expect "early next year" from Fantasy Flight games. I did get a chance to talk over what all these neat cards do, and just as with X-Wing, I'll be taking more time with this later to explain things better. For now, just enjoy the pictures!

Just in from Gencon - X-Wing and Star Wars the Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games

2011-08-04T13:29:00.001-05:00

Obviously we're all crazy busy here, but I want to drop some photos for everyone to check out the great-looking components FFG brought in today for both X-Wing and the new Star Wars the Card Game LCG. The Card Game will be detailed in a post in (hopefully) a little bit, but here are my X-Wing pictures. I did some interviews and will have a ton more specifics about the games themselves, but for now, enjoy the pictures! Also, check back frequently as I plan to continue to mega-dump some photos throughout the next three and a half days of Gencon.

Gencon 2011 Day Minus 1

2011-08-03T21:01:00.000-05:00

Dinner looked like this, only busier and nerdier.

So we survived our five and a half hour journey this morning (bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 7:00 AM) from Wisconsin and made our way to Indy. The big news of today (which we knew about a little bit) was that the convention hall has finally been completed and there's just a huge amount of space opened up now for the con. We began our Gencon experience by registering all our Auction items (over 100 from the group of us). The Auction has always been our favorite part of the convention since it winds its way through the whole weekend. This year we were blown away by the huge room for their new location. We're so used to the Auction being in one part of the hall, but now it has a much better location if not a little less centrally-placed. It's going to be pleasure hanging out in the Auction room and randomly bidding on cool little games throughout the next four days. Additionally, it appeared to us that the Auction was having a ton more people contribute items, so the new room with extra space is very welcomed.

Talking amongst my very tiny party of Indy adventurers, it really feels like this is a lot of people's first Gencon (which, sadly, really applies more to the volunteers or maybe the organizers more than anyone else). Things were not running smoothly today, and the Will Call line, the place where people who ordered in tickets in advance, was atrociously long. Will Call has always been the place to get in and out quickly with your tickets in the most efficient way possible.

On the plus side, although we waited a good chunk of time for Auction item registration, I've already managed to get a ton of games in without much effort. We started by playing the free Magic: The Gathering decks that came as a part of the swag bags along with the tickets. I lost both games. We then played some Liar's Dice (since I have about 30 d6's with me), and I had better luck with those games because, for some reason, I'm pretty good at Liar's Dice. My little sister and I ended the Auction wait with some good old-fashioned dot game action. I bet my little sister, badly. For that, I feel great. Back at the hotel, after a full day of exhaustion and a full belly of amazing food from The Ram, we played some Lord of the Rings card game. We lost, both times, different quests. I have mixed feelings so far based purely on my overall win/loss record...

2011-08-03T16:23:00.003-05:00

Gencon blogger app test! Apologies if it's sideways!

Fantasy Flight Games Steals Gencon Hype Once Again - Announcing New Star Wars Games

2011-08-02T12:49:00.001-05:00

So last year we got a bomb dropped on us just a day before the start of the biggest gaming convention of the year. I was beyond excited when I saw that FFG had gained the rights to make a Lord of the Rings card game. It would be in the vein of their Living Card Game model of non-random distribution, and even more amazingly, it would cooperative and solo in its nature.

If last year's announcement was a bomb, this year we just got nuked. There's been a ton of speculation as to who would get the rights to make Star Wars games since Wizards of the Coast dropped the license last Spring. Today, just to distract everyone from what they were working on and preparing for with Gencon, FFG announces not just one but two new Star Wars games - X-Wing: a new tactical minis game for Star Wars and the Star Wars Card Game - a cooperative/solo LCG.

A new mini's game is good news and since Starship Battles from Wizards, there hasn't been really any use of this obvious goldmine of a product with a miniature game full of Star Wars spaceships. What has me really excited, though, is the LCG. I've not been shy about my excitement over the Lord of the Rings LCG, and even with a terribly slow release schedule, the game is still one of my favorites that I turn to quite often. Set in the original trilogy era, players play as a team of rebel commanders using different types of tactics (just like Lord of the Rings spheres it looks like) to build decks and take on missions to hurt the empire.

THIS IS AWESOME. I KNOW IT'S UNPROFESSIONAL TO TYPE A BLOG POST IN CAP LOCKS, BUT THIS IS ONLY A COUPLE OF SENTENCES, AND A SOLO GAME STEEPED IN THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY OF STAR WARS MOVIES IS A LONELY NERD'S WETDREAM. Excitement!

Gencon Hype - The One Ring

2011-08-01T15:49:00.000-05:00

Being my most anticipated game left for the whole year as well as being my number one goal item to pick up at Gencon, I'm gobbling up The One Ring information as quickly as possible. This is why I was so excited to see a video interview with the game's designer, Francesco Nepitello, talking about the very beginnings of what would become the newest Lord of the Rings RPG. You can follow the link above to take you directly to Cubicle 7's page, otherwise feel free to watch below.

We don't get a whole lot of information about the game itself, but it's a very nice little window into the RPG business and trying to tackle the most beloved fantasy property of all time. The really exciting part is a different preview that Cubicle 7 kind of stealth posted. One of the points of contention about the release coming up so quickly was that we didn't have much information at all about the mechanics (and what we did have didn't come from Cubicle 7).

Still, the details are very broad, but it's nice to see some actual game terms being thrown around as well as how the basic dice mechanics work. I highly encourage you to check out that link above to see the full details for yourself. My reaction to this latest preview as well as the view point Francesco points out that influenced the design and direction of the game, is that it feels very heavily influenced by Mouse Guard. I love Mouse Guard, so I'm very excited by this prospect. Every day I get more and more excited to be able to demo this in a sample adventure at Gencon.

On the Cusp of a Third Year.

2011-07-29T16:04:00.000-05:00

I'll be coming up on my two year anniversary of the blog this Monday, August 1st. It was hastily put together as a way for me to spread my love for Gencon and also provide me with an outlet where I can get some of my thoughts shared to the audient void of the internet. As I did last year, I'm taking this anniversary, in the midst of the mix of anxiety and thrill of the impending Gencon festivities, to look once again at my very first post of the blog. It really helps to read through it once a year to get back to the spirit behind the blog. There have been times this year where I've become frustrated and wanted to quit working on THG. There are also times where I force myself to write something that ends up being a very fulfilling and thrilling experience. Anyway, it always helps to look back at my roots, so here it is.

Welcome! I've reached the point, that I believe all gamers inevitably reach, in my short gaming life where I have realized the utter horror of too many games, too little time. A part of me would like to put the blame out there on others, but what good would that do?

It turns out that the answer is "a lot." I've decided that there are several parties to blame in what I will kindly refer to as my "gaming addiction." You see, I need the stuff; I need to think about killing dragons or orcs, about following the trail of the mysterious old codger down the street, I need to build a story around adorable, but vicious and honorable, small mice just trying to protect their homeland.

The main culprit of my ailment, I would say, is that of www.rpg.net. No doubt I was seeking an output for my own ideas and an avenue to explore new ideas before I was even on the internet, but it wasn't until recently when I began exploring the forums and reviews of rpg.net that I was struck with the vastness of the rpg world. I grew up playing miniatures games and was used to war and stats and lots of small, pre-painted warriors fighting for their lives on a tiny 3' x 3' field of green felt. There were mighty battles to be had, and I hope to someday relive the glory days of strategic mini warfare, but that is not what these entries are going to be about.

No, my friends and I have greatly expanded our horizons and now look to bigger and (less expensive) better things. RPG.net was key in helping me find out more about what's out there. I've learned about games that, unlike their miniature brethren, are abstract and give more freedom for the players to influence the world they build together.

From time to time I will post reviews for games that I'm interested in (although may never play). I hope this will give me an outlet for those games I'd love to play, read about, even plan campaigns for, but will never see the light of day in my gaming group. These may be full-fledged, comprehensive reviews, but sometimes I may choose to break a book down by chapter or content areas and further explore some of the ideas and my reactions.

Other entries may just be filled with random tidbits of gaming fun or odd little thoughts that creep up on me from time to time. I may listent to podcasts and try to inform you about them, visit websites, or discuss different projects I've been thinking of working on, gaming or otherwise. My interests vary greatly, and I have a hard time thinking of a genre I don't find interesting.

For now, I want to thank anyone that comes a long and may be interested, I'm glad to check out other blogs and am always looking for some good discussion!

Gencon 2011 Want!

2011-07-27T16:31:00.000-05:00

Gencon is generally considered to be the big release party for countless new gaming items. If you want to make a splash with your new rpg, board game, dice, or other random game bits that land somewhere between, Gencon's the last big deadline of the summer to make it happen. From Fantasy Flight Games to Privateer Press to Cubicle 7, everyone wants to get the "new hotness" to make headlines on blogs and long lines starting at 10:01 next Thursday morning.

At the same time, with the Gencon auction and plenty of used game retailers in the vendor hall, Gencon is a fantastic place to find that one item you've been searching for for years or to pick up something on the cheap that you've been meaning to give a try. While the flashier new stuff is always excited and grabs my attention big time each year, often it's the smaller, older, cheaper stuff I pick up in the auction that really makes me feel like I found a treasure. Of course the flip side of that is that sometimes you just want to see something new because you want to give it a shot before purchasing. There's no better place to try a demo of a game or to check out something you've been eyeing than Gencon.

Without further ado, I present you my Want! list for Gencon 2011. To be honest, I don't have a ton that I need to purchase right at the show (saying this now, I know I'll change my mind once I get there), but I'm very excited to see some things in action. Let the coveting begin!

Elder Sign (FFG)

The Elder Sign is just the latest cool looking game in a trend that has been making me ridiculously happy amongst FFG's new releases. While the cooperative play looks great, it's also designed from the get-go to be a solitaire game! Unlike Gears of War, which I would love but am not spending $70.00 on, The Elder Sign has the much, much more reasonable LCG starter price of $35.00.

I don't really have any experience at all with dice-based games, which is kind of ridiculous to say considering how many dice I own. Still, I'm only passingly familiar with some of the most common mechanics in games that focus on special dice. Elder Sign, which looks a heckuva lot like a lite, portable, and cheaper substitute for Arkham Horror, combines one of my all-time favorite settings with solo play. As soon as I heard about that, I knew I wouldn't be scared off by a style of game I'm not really experienced with whatsoever.

Legend of the Five Rings - The Great Clans (AEG)

This is actually a newer item on my list, but it's just the same as Elder Sign - as soon as I heard about it, I knew I'd be seeking it out. I've come extremely late the L5R party with just last year being my first foray into the world of Rokugan. I picked up the core rule book for the 4th Edition and since then I'm addicted to the books. Though I haven't had a chance to actually play a bold Lion or sneaky Scorpion in any game, these books are works of art and worth it all on their own.

I've picked up every book so far released, which isn't actually saying a whole lot since there are only three books out since the game's 4th edition premiered last year. This, I might add, it awesome. The line is extremely easy to collect, and the few number of books makes each one stand out as a big deal. I don't know a whole lot of what's going to be in this book, but the clans are definitely the most interesting part of the setting, and I can't wait to see the explorations of the clan and the character options. Not for nothing, but this also seems like a great book to help expand my little pet project to converting the clans to the great houses of Game of Thrones...

Leviathans (Catalyst Games)

Leviathans is one of those games I've been watching and anticipating the release of for quite some time. I remember hearing about how it might be out last year, and at that point all we got were some early prototype demos. Now, however, it looks like we're going to get some true demos and the game itself might even be out at Gencon.

Although I shy away from miniature games nowadays (collective or note - they just tend to take too much space, time, and cash to keep up with), I'll always be interested in the state of the subgenre of gaming, and for some reason the combination of steampunk, alternate history, spaceship-ish battles, and big honkin' ships has really captured my imagination. While the $80.00 price tag for the starter makes me real, real shy to get too invested in the rules, I am very excited just to demo the thing to see how it plays.

The One Ring (Cubicle 7)

Since the release of the Lord of the Rings Card Game LCG from Fantasy Flight earlier this year, there's only one other game which has me hyped up as much, and surprise, surprise, it's a Lord of the Rings themed game. Much like Rokugan and L5R (see above), Middle Earth is a setting that you can sink your teeth into for hours without coming up for air.

Both the card game and The One Ring have a very attractive feature in common - they're both based on the books themselves rather than the movies. I'm a die-hard LotR trilogy movie fan, but I also LOVE seeing how other people interpret Tolkien's material. See that guy to the right there? He's one of the playable races in this first set (Adventures Over the Edge of the Wild), and he's something we haven't gotten to see anything of yet in the movies - a Barding. He's one of the humans native to the Northeastern part of the Middle Earth we know, and I love how Nordic the guy looks with his furs and giant shield.

I was lucky enough to get into one of the few games open at Gencon, so even if I don't get the opportunity to pick up one of the few copies of the box set they have available at the show, I'll still get a real taste for the game and be able to come back to Wisconsin ready to play our own game that much quicker.

That's it! That's it? Of course that's not it! However, there are countless things I'm looking forward to, and it's too many to list here. Gencon is a tradition I've enjoyed with friends and family for tens years now. I can tell what time of year it is based on how excited I've gotten for the next Gencon. As I've said before, Gencon is the real reason this blog exists, and it's just one more week away. There's so much to do!

Local Programming Update - Gencon 2011

2011-07-25T20:45:00.000-05:00

So Gencon starts in a week and a half. Did you know that? Keeping that in mind, these next couple of weeks may be a little erratic, but I promise to keep the tradition of posting tons of pictures live from the show floor throughout the best damn four days of gaming in the world. That being said, I'll be posting a little differently, and my regular monday and wednesday columns might be a little different to give way for A.) time needed on my end to prep for the big show and B.) time needed to express my extreme excitement for the big show.

In the mean time, if you're wondering what THG coverage of Gencon looks like, take a look at the entries for both 2009 and 2010.

Harry Potter Setting Riff - The Silent Castle.

2011-07-22T16:11:00.000-05:00

As a belated homage to the end of the Harry Potter series (and as a tribute to my favorite of the eight movies), HP 7 - part 2 had my mind running wild with What-If's and Elseworlds stories that, if tweaked just a tiny bit, could turn into one helluva fun setting for a one-shot game. Today I want to focus on one thought I had for a far-future adventure set in the HP world. I'm going to warn you that my HP appreciating nerdiness is going to shine through brightly here, but forgive me a bit of indulgence. My favorite sequence both in the movies and the books is going to be discussed with a bit of detail below right alongside some other spoilers from the whole series, so if you've been waiting to read the books or haven't seen the movie and don't want anything spoiled for you, don't read more! If this doesn't apply, come join me for a dark vision of the future of Hogwarts...

It all began when the Dark Lord won.

History is sketchy beyond this point, but rumors run strong and the present state of things speaks for itself. What we know is that there was a battle at the greatest school in all of history. It was like no other school and its students were like no other children. While the mundane training institutions in these old days had yet to adopt the teaching of survival and strength of arms, this special school, placed deep in the country with the facade of an ancient castle, taught the young manipulators of magic to be living weapons. Armed with little more than a bit of wood, these sorcerers were trained to create enormous barriers, turn living beings into harmless inanimate objects, and indeed to kill with a single word and a flick of the wrist.

It would not be enough to save them.

There was a boy wizard, a messiah, who had survived assault from the Dark Lord just as a babe in a basket. Impossibly, the students in the castle put all their hopes and optimism into the boy. He was gifted, no doubt, and showed a tremendous aptitude in all manners of magical studies. He raised an army in those walls of young child soldiers and taught them all the tricks he learned in his arcane, secret ways. He had friends, mentors, and family - all adopted and drawn to him purely based on the goodness they saw within him. They loved him and sought his counsel.

He would not be enough to save them.

After years of hunting and taunting the boy messiah, the Dark Lord besieged the castle with hundreds of his followers, both human and of less... savory variety of species. The few teachers who remained in the castle loyal to the boy routed the Dark Lord's followers from the school grounds and hastily set what defenses they could muster while the invading army waited patiently for the Dark Lord's order to attack. Finally the assault commenced and the walls of the castle shook as the Dark Lord himself released the first volley of his sorcerous blight. The students, emboldened by the call of action long-awaited fought more valiantly than the Dark Lord predicted. Regardless, the army soon tore the defending school children to shreds. In one last desperate bid to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, the young savior challenged the Dark Lord to a dual of magics to once and for all decide their conflict.

The children and the boy's few surviving allies regrouped and rallied in this respite. Hope flickered to life in their eyes as they dared to believe that some miracle would save them and validate their faith in the boy. Those few who wrote after that day of what they witnessed vary in their reports, but most believe the statements that the boy was not defeated outright but rather utilized what defenses he could summon to delay the Dark Lord long enough to make it interesting and to ignite the hopes of his followers. Alas, he could do little more than defend himself before his inevitable fall. And fall he did. The ensuing battle cost the Dark Lord more that day than any other in his entire reign for the fallen messiah's followers gave into rage and desperation and lashed out with uncontrolled and unfocused magic that would bring about the ruin of all but the most powerful and dangerous of his dark forces.

Hundreds of young wizards died that day, and the Dark Lord relished in each loss of defiant life. He sealed the school off from the outside world, trapping the many souls of the students forever within its walls. With the only force large enough to oppose him destroyed, the Dark Lord set sites on the larger world. It would not be enough to reign over his fellow wizards and witches. His influence spread quickly and efficiently through the mundane world. The nations of man were conquered before they even realized what dangers they faced.

With the Dark Lord in complete control of the world, he began making changes. First, he outlawed the use of the killing word to all but himself. He put up wards that would redirect the spell back toward its caster making the casting of it equal to suicide. Fearing that the mundane technologies established without the use of magic could some day rival his own power, he systematically dismantles the great research centers of the world and instead encouraged a following and belief in slightly altered versions of the world's religions. Many technologies became shunned and feared by those who could not practice real magic.

Eventually the Dark Lord passed after two or three centuries of his reign. There are no details recorded regarding the nature of his death although every historian appears to have their own theory. Near the end of his reign, when his reach grew weak and short-sighted, the ancient castle gained word of mouth as a place of safety and worship in the new world religion. At first the pilgrimage was small, but soon after large groups of believers came to gather and build shanty towns around the silent castle. Eventually a city grew out of these meager settlements and the town of Hogwarts was born. Though misguided by the false scriptures of the Dark Lord, the city carried a noble presence and was a safe haven from the otherwise savage and unpredictable wild lands beyond its borders left behind in the wake of the Dark Lord's passing.

Then the seal was broken and the castle awoke.

The entire town of Hogwarts was wiped out as the blast from the Dark Lord's ancient spell finally shattered and killed everything in its path. The horrors unleashed upon the citizenry of the great city may never truly be relayed, but those who wish to investigate the ruins best be prepared to encounter the lingering remains of the devastating shock wave. The city stands decrepit and in ruin, with many secrets remaining hidden behind locked doors and deep within hidden trunks. In the years following the decimation of the city, rumor has spread of bold and powerful wizards - both ancient and young - braving the dangerous ruins to plunder the uncountable treasures of arcane knowledge trapped within the castle walls all these years. Many have entered the school, few, if any, are reported to have escaped its grip.
_____________________________________________________________________________

So that's it! The whole premise! If you've made it this far, good for you! This all stems from the idea of turning Hogwarts into a giant dungeon full of wizards who have snagged a bit of unknown power from items and knowledge that has had centuries to sit and gain power while the school was sealed from intruders by Voldemort after the Battle of Hogwarts. As you may have guessed, the ultimate treasure is indeed hidden away within one specific book - the diary of Snape. Every wizard seeks the secret "word of death" a.k.a. Avada Kedavra which Voldemort made extinct in his paranoia during his reign. Another thread would be finding the secret to Voldemort's death. Perhaps, late in life, he sought to find one last Horcrux hidden away within the walls of Hogwarts, and somehow perished in his pursuit?

My vision for this would be in some kind of traditional dungeon-crawling game. It's in the far future, but it's definitely a low-to-no-tech fantasy setting since Voldemort pretty much stopped science and technology all together as another aspect of his paranoid fears of losing power. If I were to design it as a dungeon, I have a vision of a series of boss fights with familiar rooms and places as the different rooms for the fights. Each boss fight is either a future wizard who found a bit of arcane knowledge or an ancient artifact and uses it now to great effect, or the boss could be a ghost from the Battle of Hogwarts of one of the more famous characters if you want to get nostalgic. Or maybe it'd be something else. Think about Remus Lupin for example (one of my favorite characters from the books). Maybe he didn't die but rather was simply extremely hurt, and by the the next full moon, raised up and has some how survived to this day, stuck in his werewolf form and growing more powerful all the time?

Although this looks like a lot of work, it was a ton of fun to do. Harry Potter always felt like one of the greatest settings that was just slightly squandered by Rowling for a children's book series. Don't get me wrong, I like the books, but I've always wanted a mature story for the world. If you're interested in playing a more traditional vision of Harry Potter, I would also recommend my Remember Tomorrow hack - Remember Your Wand for a quick, lite GM-less game set in the Harry Potter universe. In case it needs to be said, this is all fan work, and obviously Rowling and anyone else who holds the rights to these properties retain it all - I don't own nuthin' here!

Free Hump Day - The Bits & Mortar Program

2011-07-20T16:01:00.000-05:00

Today's Free Hump Day post is a bit of a cheat, but I've noticed some discussion about today's topic in regards toward the impending (and ludicrously exciting) release of Cubicle 7's take on the Lord of the Rings with The One Ring RPG. The Bits & Mortar (B&M) program is inherently not free, but it does give you access to free stuff. B&M is designed to do two things that I consider to be very good for the industry. The first is in supporting the pdf format for new releases (Bits) and the second is to support real-life (i.e. not Amazon or underseller mass-retail websites) book stores (Mortar).

Sounds like a great deal, right? Well how do they do it? For every B&M product you buy in a real store you are automatically signed up to receive a free copy of the pdf version of the game for no additional cost. I could take a lot of space here trying to reword what exactly their mission goal is, but instead I'll just post from the What is This? section of their website:

"Bits and Mortar is a pro-retailer, pro-brick-and-mortar, pro-PDF, pro-eBook initiative backed by several game publishers (find out who). We love real, physical brick and mortar game stores, and we want to see them survive — and thrive — even as the digital content options for gaming become more prevalent.

Plenty of customers out there want the best of both worlds. They want the easy portability of an e-book, and the lasting durability of one made out of paper, glue, and ink. They want to be able to support their favorite local game stores, and they want to be able to support their favorite publishers. The Bits and Mortar initiative is all about making sure they don’t have to choose one or the other. We want them to choose both, every time."

There is pretty much nothing to disagree with here, and it all sounds just right. It's sad that something that makes so much common sense feels so novel and fresh. How did this not exist before? That last line "We want them to choose both, every time." is just epic and exciting in a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too kind of way. Just look at this list of companies that support the initiative and have thrown their weight behind this extremely pro-customer stance. You've got established heavy hitters like Cubicle 7 and Mongoose Publishing that have tons and tons and TONS of product out there, and now I just want more of it with the B&M program. At the same time, you've got big indie games like Evil Hat Productions, Rogue Games, and Bully Pulpit Games that have a lot of exciting new products like Dresden Files and Fiasco.

I don't have a specific free product to hock today to you. Instead I just wanted to make sure as many people as possible know about the possibilities out there for potential free stuff. Pdfs are a great way to get games at a discount, but they still cost a chunk of change, and they're not entirely at the level of "give it a shot" I'd like to see and feature in Free Hump Day, but the B&M program needs as much on-going publicity and word-of-mouth to keep going. Go support your local store, get a free pdf, and go tell a friend.

A Question of Character - Environment

2011-07-18T16:29:00.000-05:00

In this abominably sweltering weather, it only seems appropriate this week to focus my a Question of Character tweets and sample questions on how your character interacts and reacts to their environment. I'm having a great time thinking up five distinctly different questions each week fitting my themes, and I hope to one day be able to compile them into a big list as a character building resource for others to use (probably once I feel like I've exhausted the schtick - so hopefully not for a while!).

As always, I wanted to pick a theme that appears fairly innocuous but has the potential to describe a lot of how a character might react in many situations by focusing on specific situations. Generalization is the name of the game here. What better way to find out how a character reacts to stress than hitting them with 100+ degree heat? Think about this for a second - what's your favorite season? Why is it so? Do you go with Summer since it's baseball season, or Fall because it's college football time? What we do when we do it, has a ton to do with our personal physical comfort, and a lot of that is a direct result of weather, or potentially climate as a whole.

As a reminder, last week's theme, Decisions, produced the following questions:

1. Do you regularly consult with family members before making big decisions?
2. You must choose to cut the green or the blue wire to disarm a ticking bomb. How do you decide which wire to cut?
3. How do you feel about making a decision via committee?
4. Do you sweat the small stuff like what to eat for lunch or what music to listen to on the way to work?
5. How do you decide what to do on the weekend?

As you can see, I went with equal parts Big Damn Hero and Big Damn Mundane Hero with the questions. In coming up with the items for last week, I really wanted to explore both the big decisions and the little decisions since both scales really have a lot to offer when it comes to defining a character.

Role-Playing in the Future: The Holo Deck

2011-07-15T15:05:00.000-05:00

Netflix makes me want to smile so hard sometimes. I'm a die hard fan of the 'Flix, as the cool kids call it (no they don't), but I often fell like they out do themselves. The biggest thing that I'm addicted to right now is Star Trek: The Next Generation as all seven seasons are on instant watch and available at the press of my PS3 controller.

I grew up watching TNG and later Deep Space Nine, and haven't had a real chance to check it out again since I was a kid. I've never watched it from beginning to end and know that I've missed a ton of episodes in their original run. I know the first two seasons are supposed to be the rocky ones (and make no mistake, these uniforms are terrible!),
but so far I've been very amused throughout and only skipped
over one or two of the first 30 episodes.

Since being at least twice as old now as I was when I last watched an episode, a lot of things pop out at me as being much better than I remember. First of all, Data is awesome, and Data trying to learn about comedy is even awesomer. Riker is cooler, somehow, than I remember him being. Red Shirts, at least in TNG, are not nearly as cannon foddery as I seem to recall them being (of course I'm only a little more than two seasons in, and who knows what will come about).

The coolest trend I've picked up on out of all of them is that everyone role plays in the future. In fact, the main form of entertainment is not watching TV (there aren't any aboard the Enterprise) or surfing the inter-galactic-net (which I just made up) on their spiffy voice-activated laptops, and no one bothers to pull out a smart phone at all. Oh God, this is starting to sound boring... No! The crew and passengers of the Enterprise do one thing for fun - LARP! Well, they also play 3d chess or something and drink a lot. And some of them play musical instruments, but you get the picture!

They can LARP in any fictional setting or any historical time period. Picard, in an early episode, LARPs an event from his own personal history even! I loved the episode in season 2 where Data is Sherlock and Geordi is Dr. Watson. Geordi very explicitly states that the Holodeck is a game with rules and challenges, and if you (or an android who's downloaded the entire Sherlock library to his hard drive) know how the story/game ends, where's the challenge?

I can't think of a better future really than one where we get to play out our adventures in real time with fantastic costumes, amazing special effects, and hard-light objects with extremely powerful non-lethal protocols running 24/7. I don't have any interest to LARP as it stands in America, unless you count nerfin' around as a LARP, but just imagine a world where you have access to True Dungeon whenever you can schedule a session for the room. With the concepts of the Singularity as a backdrop, maybe it'll be quite the opposite of what TNG suggests. Instead of us going into the big room physically, our brains will be able to host the big room directly, and we'll be able to play out our Friday night games directly via thought and dreams. We live in exciting times, and it's really only going to get cooler!

As long as Riker's wearing a beard of course.

Free Hump Day - Fiasco Playset - Gangster London

2011-07-13T16:58:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've talked about Fiasco, and it being my game of the year last year, I consider this to be a great travesty! So, to remedy my horrendous oversight, I'm going to take this Free Hump Day opportunity to highlight a free product that directly resulted in one of the most amazingly fun and funny nights of gaming I've ever had.

But first, a quick review of Fiasco basics!

Fiasco is gm-less role playing game from Bully Pulpit Games. Outside of Dread (with the Jenga tower!) it's probably the best high-concept, non-traditional RPG out there. Instead of building characters, players start by building their relationships and connections to the other players. A web of needs, places, things, and life relations are built at the beginning of each game, and the characters then organically evolve out of this process. Games are guided by a playset that gives a very specific setting full of shadowy characters, dangerous weapons, and dark desires. Playsets are as close as you get to an actual adventure for Fiasco, and you have to have one to play the game.

The core book comes with four playsets. This would appear quite limiting, but Bully Pulpit has not stopped since Fiasco's initial release to put out a new playset each month. We've got playsets to cover everything we could ever hope for, and if Bully Pulpit didn't directly release it, it's probably not much more than a Google search to find someone who made a fan playset for it.

Gangster London, one of the earliest free monthly playsets, provides an opportunity for us Yanks to have a good laugh at the bumbling criminal movies of England such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch (and also other movies not directed by Guy Ritchie). For my money, I pretty much can't understand anything that's said in any of these movies, but I love them all the same. English gangsters film just have a completely different feel to them. One of the huge advantages to a gangster film set in London is the close proximity England has to the rest of Europe. In our game, we used Eastern European mobsters to great effect to add a flair of truly foreign danger to our incredibly hapless heroes.

If you're looking at the huge list of free playsets for Fiasco and wondering where to start, I can happily recommend Gangster London as a great launching point. When we played our four-player game, only half of us, myself and the lady Hopeless, had played the game before. The other two, regulars of our Friday night games got into it very quickly, and I know it was one of the best games we'd all ever played. There's nothing better than Fiasco for when you need a good laugh and a game of light role-playing!

A Question of Character - Decisions.

2011-07-11T10:58:00.000-05:00

So you may have noticed a significantly lack of postage last week. I decided kind of late in the game that I wanted to take a week off from blogging just to see how it felt. It felt good, man. That being said, I'm also excited to get right back into things. So consider today's entry to just be a delay from last week.

Two weeks ago I made a new kind of Player Monday post where I talked about the finer details of a character through looking at small little questions that can add a lot of bang for your buck. In this week's a Test of Character I'm going to be looking at a new set of questions. Whereas last time I looked at how a character takes care of their physical appearance, this week we take a look at how characters make decisions that affect themselves and sometimes, everyone around them.

As a reminder the various entries can be found on Twitter through following my account. Last time's questions included:

Does your character keep his or hair long or short? Why?
Does your character go out of his or her way to give off a specific scent or fragrance?
Does your character dress for weather or throw caution to the wind?
Does your character ever wear t-shirts with funny graphics?
Does your character was their own clothes?

So look forward to this week looking at how characters make their decisions. Some people make quick decisions while others take minutes or hours to decide on the simplest manner. Context of the choices of course matters, but more so, where are the decisions being made? In line at Starbucks, in the middle of an operating room, or in the midst of a huge firefight during WWII? We interpret these traits to be quite defining of a character's ability to function under all different types of pressure whether social, martial, or otherwise. How does your character make decisions?

Free to Play: Why Can't Tabletop Do It Too?

2011-07-01T08:08:00.001-05:00

You may have seen the word "free" pop up here more frequently than in the past. It's no coincidence; since Free RPG Day just a few weeks ago, free has been on my mind an awful lot. I intend to continue my Free Hump Day posts, but today's discussion of free is going in a different direction.

I've become quite smitten with the PC gaming trend of Free to Play, or F2P release of games where companies offer a completely free entry point into their game and support the game's existence through extensive advertising and/or "microtransactions" where players are able to purchase superficial upgrades, access to new, exclusive areas in which to play, or character/play options which are just funky and weird for the sake of being funky or weird. Really, any aspect of a game from additional character slots in MMO's like Champions Online to weapon options and better ammo in F2P first-person shooters like Alliance of Valiant Arms could be made into a way for the company to make a profit on the game.

Now I mention those last two games specifically because, almost completely synchronized, when we got Free RPG Day, Steam was busy launching their big F2P wave of releases. I know F2P faces some legitimacy problems among the gaming crowds, but I feel like, with the push from Steam, they're really gaining ground. Of course, if you know anything about video games in the era of facebook, you'll have heard that Farmville is currently the number one game when it comes to active players, and it's kind of the big daddy of all F2P games (which, sadly, also leads to some of the questions of legitimacy).

So what does this mean for tabletop gaming? Does it mean anything? This is what I've been thinking about lately. I believe the F2P model offers a lot of promise in the world of tabletop gaming. My vision for a F2P tabletop RPG is a comapny, we'll use White Wolf as an example since they're almost set up like this anyway, that has a core rule set that's rock solid and offers TONS of additional, optional content. I use White Wolf instead of, say, Wizards of the Coast, because White Wolf has done a better job than anyone else when it comes to giving players options in a meaningful way. They also have embraced digital release above and beyond any other company out there.

So imagine a new New World of Darkness in which the new core blue book is available right on their front page as a F2P download. Every person in the world is one click away from being able to start reading and playing this nuNWOD. The current blue book is already a cheap enough entry point, but remove all "pay walls" from the basic rules, and anyone who's even a little curious can download the game and give it a shot. Think of it as A Nightmare at Hill Manor writ large and complete. From there, White Wolf can charge for additional supplemental material on a smaller basis or with large "value packs" which would equate to a whole book's worth of material.

Want to see how this would work? Well you're in luck, White Wolf already does this with their Hunter: The Vigil pdf products! Their Compacts and Conspiracies model is exactly how I'd love to see pretty much every company go about releasing digital products in the future. Essentially, each Compact and Conspiracy is going to be something that a player will really only need to pick one of to be able to fully expand their character. You can kind of think of them as class-specific expansions if you're more familiar with D&D. However, you can but the whole lot of them at a very discounted price so, as the Story Teller or GM, you can buy them all and have access to the whole thing.

This model only really works well in digital products. Companies can't afford to flood game store shelves with a hundred little mirco products counting at 10 or 15 pages each - it's completely unfeasible and vendors are going to have a ton of left over product that lingers on their shelves for years. However, it's hard to deny that digital/paperless isn't the future of the hobby. I desperately want to get a cheap tablet to start getting into the habit of running games completely digitally. It has a ton of bonuses with quicker release schedules (we've had the pdf for Dragon Age box set 2 for months - when are we getting the physical thing?), cheaper pricing, and infinitely easier storage.

I know some games are already free to play entirely, especially Eclipse Phase which is completely free to download wherever you can find a torrent site to do so. If you love the thing, you can support future releases by buying the juicy hardcover they have to offer. Of course there is a problem with going this route. Icons, a fantastic, lite supers tabletop game, had all their supplements at a very cheap price in the so-called "app-pricing" model. Long story short, Adamant found out that they weren't actually making any more money at the cheap price even with selling lots more copies. Additionally, tons and tons of micro expansions and options may very quickly separate players within the same group with differing income levels. This last bit can be taken care of by having a solid core that offers players more than enough options, making the playing field equal, without going into the weird/more crazy options in the free product.

So what do you think?

Free Hump Day - A Nightmare at Hill Manor

2011-06-29T15:28:00.000-05:00

Today marks the second entry into my ongoing Free Hump Day column wherein I shine a light on something I think worth clicking to download for the low low price of the amount of time it takes to click to download. Last week's entry examined the innovative and complete package of a game with Lady Blackbird - a Star Wars/Firefly/Steampunk mash up setting with a lite-but-packed-with-dice-rolling-and-fun-economy-play game engine. This week I'll be looking at another full package of a product.

Whereas Lady Blackbird is built from the ground up and feels like an indie game, this week's entry, the newest quick start, A Nightmare at Hill Manor, from White Wolf's World of Darkness line, comes from one of the biggest heavy hitters of the industry, and it's quite the interesting product indeed.

If you had a chance to stop by Free RPG Day this year or checked out my coverage of it, you may have been quite surprised as I was to find that White Wolf's offering was a huge meaty product that could easily be sold as a ten dollar starter book and adventure. I'm a huge fan of White Wolf's quick starts as they've made (I believe) one for each of their New World of Darkness lines as well as Exalted and Scion. They give all the basic rules needed to play and then throw in a cool scenario for good measure.

With this new quick start, which I didn't actually think would be anything new exactly since White Wolf has gone away from making printed products and is moving almost completely toward a digital/Print on Demand format, we get the biggest entry into the quickstart collection yet. Other than some optional rules add-ons, you get pretty much the entire blue book (the general World of Darkness starter book as you can see below with the Amazon link) in about 25 pages. That seems like a lot of space to devot to the rules in a quick start, but don't worry, the thing weighs in at a hefty 64 pages.

The art and pre-made characters look to be a lot of fun, but even greater is the adventure itself - A Nightmare at Hill Manor. If you're wondering, the game is at the mortals level a.k.a. humans without any supernatural template such as vampires or changelings added on top. This makes the product a perfect starting point for any group new to the mechanics and tone of the New World of Darkness before adding on all the complexities of one of the so-called "fatsplats" like Werewolf: The Foresaken or Mage: The Awakening.

I love the various New World of Darkness lines, but I'm ashamed to admit that I don't really have any play experience with them. I spend a lot of time reading the various books and adventures because they've got some of craziest horror and weird fantasy hooks out there. A Nightmare at Hill Manor seems tailor made for my group to learn the ropes before diving into one of the more complex lines (of which I already own many to choose from - I'm addicted!). One of the really neat things about the mortals of the World of Darkness is that before you can make a group of Prometheans, Hunters, or Sin-Eaters, you have to have mortals first. I see no reason why, if the players love their pregenerated hero, they couldn't just transform them into one of the supernaturals. I'd love to take two or three groups, run them through this adventure, and then have each one take the pregenerated characters and turn them into a different type of supernatural just to see what they do with all the different possibilities.

I own two copies of the base blue book for the New World of Darkness. I can't help it, it's a disease. Regardless, I still intend to keep my hard copy of A Nightmare at Hill Manor nearby if we ever play a game as another copy of the base rules for the table as a reference. I'll also note that if you haven't seen the SAS adventure format the White Wolf uses for their current games, it's really a neat thing that is worth checking out. It presents information in a clear, quick format that makes things much easier on the Story Teller.

White Wolf has been epic in their shift to digital publication. Check out rpgnow.com or drivethrurpg.com to see their huge listing of products available electronically, both for Old and New Worlds of Darkness. If you like what you see here with A Nightmare at Hill Manor, the next step, if you want to play with supernatural player characters, is to decide on one of the following demos or quick starts: Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Foresaken, Mage: The Awakening, Changeling: The Lost, Promethean: The Created, Hunter: The Vigil, or Geist: The Sin-Eaters. Take a look at the rules and adventure, and how the pregenerated characters work. Then go from there! Finally, I should point out that the art, other than the cover of the quick start, is from other New World of Darkness books, not the quick start itself. I just wanted to show that it's a terrible and cool place to adventure.

A Question of Character - Personal Grooming

2011-06-27T16:07:00.000-05:00

You can tell a lot from the cut of a man's suit.

I like gaming resources that give me little bits to think about throughout my week and don't take a huge amount of time to read or consume. Of course, I also blog, and by blogging, I mean I produce a product that provides a service at direct odds with that first concept. What is a blogger to do?

Oh, I know, I'll combine my powers with the tool made for the job - Twitter! Now, I'm already on Twitter (@HopelessTweeter thankyouverymuch), but to be honest, I use the thing mostly to read the musings of other bloggers and game designers from whom I enjoy many little snippets throughout my workday. In an effort to return to the Twitter fold, I'm launching a new project for myself.

I'll be tweeting a question with the hash tag #aQoC which, when spelled out stands for "a Question of Character" once a day, every weekday (Monday through Friday). At the beginning of the week I'll be posting a theme for the week's five questions. As you can see, this week's theme is personal grooming. The concept behind aQoC is that no fictional character is truly defined by just one particular characteristic. Original inspiration can be drawn back toward Dread. The player characters of Dread are created entirely through the use of a 10 or 15 question worksheet for the player to fill out. The questions, prepared by the GM, are leading and establish a broad archetype that the player then makes their own.

I don't see why we can't draw some similar questions for characters in other games whether it's World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Dragon Age, or D&D 4th Edition, there's always room to flesh a character out just a little more. The problem you bump into is that often a GM is presented with pages and pages of backstory - completely unusable.

So these questions, some leading, some very general and open, are designed to help both myself and the other chronic players out there to think about the things that truly define our characters. Along with each Monday's new aQoC theme, I'll be doing a write up of the previous week's questions and why I chose them. Obviously I don't have any to reflect on for this week. However, I will say that, much like Mr. Wayne at the top of this post, the way a character presents himself says a lot about the character. Grooming, personal hygiene, sense of style - they all help build a better picture of the character both literally as well as helping to flesh out what they choose to prioritize in their life. Does the character prefer to be primped and well-kept, or does he wear whatever street clothes will allow him the most mobility and freedom of motion, regardless of how they make him look?

I don't expect people to respond since really these questions are designed to be little nuggets of inspiration, but if you've got a thought on the theme or a specific question, please feel free to respond to me on Twitter or in a comment here. Again, you can follow along with the questions by following my twitter account - http://twitter.com/#!/HopelessTweeter - or you can follow along simply by checking out my Twitter feed at the top of the left hand column.

Elves - A Great and Terrible Thing

2011-06-24T15:45:00.000-05:00

You'd think that countless years and countless lifetimes would lead the elves toward a greater understanding of forgiveness and allow them to develop the ultimate live-and-let-live mentality, at least you'd hope. Sadly, those who have had the ill luck of crossing paths with one of the lords of the forest know better. The elvenfolk are vindictive, vain, petty, and above all, powerful.

Some say their immortality has fostered a kind of madness known only to those who need not fear death. They believe the long, drawn-out, almost ritualistic ways in which they plot revenge and carry out personal vindication against those who have wronged them. Those few who have survived an elf's retribution and payment on what they whimsically refer to as a "life debt" often have no idea what they even did to wrong the fae creatures in the first place. They claim to have in fact offered the greatest hospitality and courteousness toward the fae lord or lady they encountered. Only a madness, those who have been repaid by an elf claim, such as that possessed by dragons and other creatures from before time could so cloud the eyes of those with such power.

Alas, if only this were the truth. While those born before time itself began are indeed possessed with eternal madness, the elves represent the extreme polar opposite end of the spectrum. They are incredibly rational - rational to a fault. The problem is that they share their own unique rationale that often is mismatched with that of the natural world. Because they have all the time in the world to even the scales, they take note of every small gesture, small twitch of the face, and any variation of tone of voice. They are obsessed with the concept of equilibrium and believe that they are the instruments of natural revenge and setting things right.

They plan for years, decades even, and often spring their traps only near the end of an individual's mortal life. The thirst and drive for evening the odds comes from a rationalization that, although they may not have been slighted severely by the offending party, the offending party must be guilty of much, much more than even the elf could ever imagine. With each life debt repaid on the his or her victim, the fae grows more paranoid and more justified in the quest of fixing what went wrong in the world. They see themselves as the true inheritors of this world, and they intend to make it a just one.

Happy Friday! (Art borrowed from this fantastic resource of Magic:TG art all about elves. Need an image for your elf character in your next campaign? You can't do better).

Free Hump Day - Lady Blackbird

2011-06-22T16:18:00.000-05:00

My Player Monday posts have gotten some great responses and feedback, so I've decided to expand out the idea of doing regular columns on a weekly basis. For Wednesdays I'm going to start posting about the many, many, MANY amazing completely free products that are available online through both major publishers and produced independently. The big inspiration obviously comes from this past Saturday's (awesome) Free RPG Day. There's a lot of stuff that goes unnoticed out there, so I thought a spotlight on these adventures, game systems, and inspirational art pieces would be great both for you as the consumer and you as the game designer. That being said, these aren't going to be reviews so much as a brief description combined with why I chose it for the week's Free Hump Day post. If you've got a product you'd like to see featured here, just shoot me a quick email.

To inaugurate Free Hump Day I want to talk about a game and proto-setting that has me really excited. I know it's not exactly new, but still, I want to see more people playing and talking about it. Lady Blackbird is a 16 page pdf that contains a brand new setting, pre-generated characters, an original rule system, and an outline for a mega-adventure. If that doesn't grab your attention, the setting is a clever, original mish-mash of steampunk, Firefly, and Star Wars. Take a look at the Owl up there to the right. That's your Millennium Falcon, and the pre-generated characters do a great job of replicating some great pulpy space opera tropes while also addressing the needs of a basic skyship fantasy setting. There's magic and goblins, but there's also an evil empire with huge capital ships and guns 'n' stuff.

Why Should I Care? That's the big question with every free item out there. Lady Blackbird offers, in the very least, a solid adventure in a setting with enough specifics to dig your teeth into but enough freedom to really make your own. The real appeal here, however, lies in the game engine. I'm quite taken with its simple and elegant design that evokes the players to really play to and engage with the pre-generated characters. There's a very concrete reward system for interacting with the other player characters. What's really exciting is how simple and intuitive the system is.

Each character has their own unique set of attributes and special skills that are far more descriptive than your standard constitution/intellect/dexterity etc. For example, Natasha Syri, the eponymous Lady Blackbird herself has traits of Imperial Noble and Master Sorcerer to compliment her Athletic, Charm, and Cunning traits. Within each trait are further tags giving more personality to the traits such as Etiquette and Dance for the Imperial trait or Deception and Codes for Cunning. The real trick here is that each tag - every one belonging to a major a trait - may be used in a trait test.

Beyond that, the rules are literally half a page long and fit on every pre-generated character sheet. From the GM's perspective, not only does this make it very easy to be the rules arbitrator, but the NPCs and general challenges are very simple and defined almost entirely by the single target number needed to overcome them and how a character can do so. The only complain I have about the whole package is that I want more, and like every good free product out there, it's whetted my appetite to the point where I would gladly pay money to get it.

Character Monday: A Retro Test of Character

2011-06-20T16:38:00.000-05:00

Today I'm going deep into the Hopeless basement for one of my very first Test of Characater posts that I'm reasonably sure 99 percent of you haven't seen before (unless of course you've been digging around in the Hopeless basement - in which case, could you price my rummage for me?). This dude could serve you well in any military campaign, but he was originally designed as a 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars marine. I hope you enjoy!

It was always cloudy in the slums of Yetterdam. The poorest inhabitants of one of the weakest and least profitable planets of the Confederate, who was going to pony up to finish the terraforming and scrub the skies clean once and for all? No one, Sargeant Clot grew up resenting this fact everyday of his life.

Of course, if you were rich, you not only had the best in artificial sun lighters, but you also got out of a tour in the ConMarine Corps., or ConCorps for short. For so many young, eager, and naive Yetterites, the ConCorps was the only hope for getting off the planet and to peep some sights of the big warm sky hidden by soupy gray plumes of murky vapor. Forget the fact that it was required of all Confederate citizens.

Little did he know that once he reached through the clouds in the packed tinite can the Corps. has the audacity to call a "ship," the windows would be sealed shut and all aboard get the deep sleep. Turns out no one in the slums knew enough about interstellar travel. Clot would keep his eyes closed longer than he ever could of thunk it and traveled more lifetimes than his slumyanks could ever hope to see in order to get to the ConCorps. training plant of Humch.

It was at Humch that he learned he was a natural leader. Granted, his grey skin burnt badly on the hot, arid training planet, but he humped all over and grew to be one of the best of his training squad and at hacking it independently. Being slumborn, he could only ever hope to raise to the rank of Sarg, but he did that in record time.

He did manage to make enemies along the way. Some were jealous of his successes and most were desperate for some attention for the upper slogs monitoring their training and every move.

Racism never became some archaic way of thinking when man reached the stars en masse. No, it grew rampantly and can be seen on any planet or newsflash seen on the webs. The natural enemy of the successful is the weak and untalented. It didn't take long for anti-Yetterism to rear its ugly head, and Clot was busted down to Corporal. He was sent off under the command of a Sargeant untrained and untested to quell a fresh new uprising on Siytlaman. It was a long dreg across defunct star systems and an even longer sleep than what he experienced to get to Humch.

Forever known as "Sarg" to his squadmates, it'll take time for Corporal Clot to earn his way back up, if he ever will, but he knows he has a fist of fellow Cons just waiting to be yeilded against those rukkers who disparage him based on his humble beginnings.