If I Were Super.

I've played this game with a lot of people over the years. Feel free to respond.

If you could have a super-power, what would it be?

Flight. The more I live, biking through the city, catching the bus or rides with friends, the more I walk alongside everyone else living in what can be a horribly banal world, my answer becomes more and more firm--I want to fly. Sometimes when the weather is nice (it happens if you're not paying attention, I swear) I look up into the fair-weather sky--you know the kind, with nothing but wisps of clouds--and I realize just how BIG the sky is. I think about shooting through all that bigness, wind trying to catch me, trying to say, "Hey! Wait! You're not supposed to..." and then I'm gone. I imagine looking down at everything that's familiar and mundane, but from up there it would look magical, somehow--and for the people looking back up at me, it'd be the same. Only one thing changed, one man hanging there in the middle of the sky, but it makes all the difference.

It used to be teleportation. I'm enough of a comic book fan to even take a limit to it, that I could only teleport to places I can think of, visualize in my mind. I'd never have to get up early to get anywhere. I could see anything I wanted, I could make money moving things around, or steal what I needed or wanted. I would be unstoppable.

But, for the sheer wonder of it, flight wins. There's a reason a popular movie used the motto, "You'll Believe a Man Can Fly!"

~j

Dungeons.

I like D&D 3.5. I have some friends currently running games in completely different styles, and that's fine. D&D can be an excellent system to RP in-character in, and it's pretty good for busting in and killing things, too.

Now you get to hear about my characters, lucky you.

In one corner, weighing in at...a lot, is Arcanist Nils Gaup, a 4th level wizard. In a fine tradition of picking celebrities or actors to use as a description of my characters, Nils is portrayed by David Ogden Stiers. Not your adventurer type, he's career wizard--an astrologer with a wife, and two girls that he hopes will follow in his footsteps. His most distinctive feature may be his familiar, Lars--an albino rat that's been with him for the last 25 years, drinks from a thimble Nils carries around, gathers things in little spoons, and spends a great deal of time hiding in Nils' voluminous clothing. Nils is a conjurer, and likes to solve various problems with Summon Monster spells. He's from conquered racial stock, but has bought into the dominant race's society and values. He's True Neutral.

In the other corner, wearing slightly darker trunks, is Tala, daughter of the chieftan of the Rovers of the Barrens, a 3rd level druid. She escaped from slavery after her tribe was raided by followers of Iuz--she was forced to watch as her father, the best shot in the tribe, had his hands slowly broken to teach him and his people a lesson about how serious his captors were. Though relatively wise, she's reckless, hates anything that seems like slavery or imprisonment, and she doesn't even really get along with animals that well. She fights like a barbarian...and one day, her understanding of the cruelty of nature will gift her with the ability to take the forms of deadly predators--if she lives that long. She runs fast, defends herself with bravery and ferocity, and will probably die while the rest of her party blinks after her.

Tala is in the hack-n-slash game, Nils in the RP game--not that we don't pause for a bit of IC banter in the hack-n-slash game, or get into interesting fights in the RP one. If I could change things, I'd have a nice talk with a few players in the hack-n-slasher, asking them to please, for the love of Wee Jas, respect that other players may have their own interests, and that the game isn't about them, with the rest of us as supporting cast. I'd ask that people bother with some of the RPing, because it could be cool. I'd ask that we move things along otherwise, that being more ready to start closer to start time is probably simply polite to the others, that constant OOC tangents during play are funny and interesting, but not why we got together during that particular block of time.

I'm probably guilty of most of the above to a slight degree, and I would never ask it if I weren't willing to pay more attention to my own actions.

What I think really helps is having non-gaming time set aside before gaming time, in order to feed and fraternize, so that we get some of it out of the way and we can concentrate on killing things that are different than us, and taking said things' stuff. It's worked in a number of games I'm played and GM'd. I should mention this idea first, and then criticize other players if it doesn't help enough. Yeah.

~j

Digital Memories.

When I was a lot younger, I wanted a camera. My dad had a series of the things, big, clunky black cameras with straps, and he took pictures (and home videos) all the time. I got a little 35mm camera of my own one Christmas.

I think I used 3 rolls of film, total.

Now, I was sorting through some randoms photos and images on my computer, and I noticed the startling changes in my niece from since she was 3--she's 6, now. And I thought, "I want to have a picture of her for every year, just to remember what she was like when she didn't like me and she was X years old." And I was looking at pictures of my girlfriend when we started dating. And I thought, "I want to have a picture of her--and of us--every so often, to show how well we age." And...lots of things.

Until now, I just wasn't excited about pictures. But looking back, I realize how many friends I've seen move away, how many relatives I almost never see, and how many people I don't like have grown twisted and horrid looking. I'm getting older...ish...and now I see how great pictures are. I wish I had kept taking pictures when I was a kid, no matter how much a pain in the ass actual film is. So, I'm going to find a cheap little digital camera, and I'm going to start before I lose anything else that should rightfully be immortalized on my hard drive.

Say cheese!

~j

Topic.

Because I missed last night, and Friday night, and I need to keep my momentum up.

Sometimes, I paint myself into a corner with stories. Tonight, I managed to have a rather significant number of powerful NPCs show up in game. I tried to set things up so that they weren't dominating the dialogue, but by their very nature they draw attention. The PCs kept deferring, in some cases the players didn't think they could really do anything significant in scenes with so many major players. I ended up narrating. And talking to myself. Argh.

This from someone who is trying to be very careful about these sorts of game sessions. I complain about them all the time, and then they sneak up on me and I can't seem to do much about it. I suppose it should make me more forgiving of other GMs, but it just makes me more determined to stop it from happening.

The issue with Nobilis and this particular problem is Imperators. The gods of the game, they give the PCs their power and usually send them out to do things. But they have their own relationships. They're big, they're powerful, they're forces of nature. And they make the PCs feel small. Even though they should do something in the world, they should often do those things off-screen, away from the PCs.

For my Nobilis game, I want to have big, cataclysmic stuff happen to the PCs and their home and their boss, so we can take a step back to look at the game. I want this so that we can decide what we want next. Are the stories we've played the sorts we want to continue playing? If not, how do we want things to change? Imperators showing up and being impressive is one way to do this--but definitely not the best. I'll remember this for the next time I want to shake things up.

Play and learn.

~j

I Wish May Wasn't So Needy.

Seriously.

Parts of the state are experiencing rather heavy flooding already. We had a wet winter, and a wet fall before that. I'm rather tired of the rain. April should come up with a better way to bring May flowers.

I want to try not to post about meteorological phenomena more that once a week, but it's really getting to me. I mentioned how positively sunshine affects my moods. Rain just pisses me off. I don't think I believe in a nice, refreshing rain. Showers are refreshing--I control the temperature. Rain is a discomfort. I don't choose to get wet, it just happens to me.

And, most likely, the sun isn't shining if it's raining. Especially if it's been raining for two days.

The farmers can't claim we need the moisture. I'm sure that some crops are starting to get into trouble with flooding.

And, as previously mentioned, my method of transportation is riding my bike. So I have to cross streets with grumpy motorists. I think we have a way of forgetting that other drivers are real people--this goes double for pedestrians and cyclists that may slow things down on the road. So, I get wet and grumpy, and I get to deal with grumpy motorists--who aren't even wet, and will get to their destinations way before I get to mine.

I think rain is designed to set up murders.

~j

The Sunshine State.

So, my parents are moving to Florida.

I was born in Florida. We moved from there to Hawaii, then to Florida again (Pop was in the Navy), and then up to Illinois. Illinois is where my dad's family lives. It's where he grew up, where they grew up, and now, where I grew up--we moved here when I was 5ish.

The kids have moved out, they're both retired, and it's time to find a place that isn't so freaking huge and a waste of energy. It's time to find a place where you don't have to drive 45 minutes just to go grocery shopping, wasting gas and time. It's time to move very far from their families, children, and lives, and start over with other retired folk.

I think some of the family isn't crazy about the idea. I guess I'm not extremely exited about it--I barely get home to visit them now, without a car. Plane tickets? Ugh. But, as my dad put it, "...if we move there, people will want to visit," or something similar. It's true. I mean, if I have less chances to visit my folks, at least I get to go someplace nice, like Florida. I like where I grew up, but not only does this help my parents out, but it gives us an excuse to do new things, to explore a little bit. It's not Illinois, but...it's not Illinois.

It could be fun--for everyone involved.

~j

Black, Black Emptiness.

Yes, I like Byronic heroes.

The trappings of darkness and danger are cooler to me. Knights in shining armor are fine, but I like menace, I like creepy and spooky. There's something to be said for Batman picking his theme to scare the crap out of his enemies, the cowardly and superstitious criminal element.

I don't think I scare easily--perhaps a lot of people think that, but I'll stick by it. I'm not talking about being startled, I mean deep, bad Fear. It's an interesting topic for me. I remember one of my first comics as a kid--it was Robin versus the Scarecrow, and Robin seemed screwed--until he used the Scarecrow's (not-irrational) fear of Batman to good use.

Later, I started reading the Dragonlance novels by Weis and Hickman. The creepy, frail mage Raistlin was instantly my favorite character, and hasn't been dethroned since, even with all of the stories written for that setting. His style and the choice of evil--as I see it, in order to save the world. Fantasy stories are different. Our heroes kill people all the time in them, so the major shift with the character of Raistlin was mostly the trappings of evil--the black robes, the nastier sorts of spells. In later books, we see he's even more willing to hurt people close to himself...but we can still see noble, if prideful goals.

Nowadays, my favorite characters to play in RPGs are usually at least a little like Batman, a little like Raistlin. Most games don't give me the flexibility to play truly evil-focused characters, but I'm not sure I'd want to. I like the bad guys that fight the worse bad guys, or the dark characters that just want to dabble in nastiness and would rather the world not end--it's just inconvenient. I want to play the characters that use the trappings of evil to fight evil. I've had a sort of signature character that has evolved through the years--the necromancer who would rather keep the real threats from ending/taking over the world. He was human at first, and now I usually see him as an elf--elves are nice for the creep factor, I like to accentuate how they aren't human, and don't think like humans. In Nobilis, I want to explore how a power that adheres to the Code of the Dark or the Fallen Angels can help work to make Creation a better place.

I'm not sure what kind of person it makes me. It's just more fun this way.

~j

I'll Get You Next Time.

Good versus Evil is a theme at the heart of a huge amount of stories. Our heroes have been explored—they’ve been around since pre-history, in our myths and legends. Hercules, Jason, Beowulf are important examples of a type of character that we still use in stories today. Heroes have been with us forever. Villains were rarer, until relatively recently. Antagonists were usually quickly and soundly defeated.

At the end of the 19th century, something about the stories we tell changed. Our villains became more clever, more inventive, and more relevant outside of the context of the hero that bested them. French pulp crime fiction birthed Fantomas, a master anarchist who wore a mask—when he wasn’t in an ingenious disguise. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created Professor Moriarty, the mastermind of a large network of criminal activity who only personally appeared in one story about the detective Sherlock Holmes, but whose presence was felt or revealed in a handful of others.

Why do we create these supervillains? We write and read stories about their clever and not-so-clever exploits, and how they inevitably fail by the hands of our heroes and superheroes. The bad guys are constantly trying to change the world disastrously—sometimes for more noble goals, but often for selfish reasons—but, in the end, the status quo is defended. I think that we create these characters and these stories as a safer reflection of our world, that the issues we see in our world can be dealt with in bold colors.

The superhero genre of stories also deals with other issues of our world—from homosexual superheroes and the difficulties and prejudices they face, to national identity and immigration, from the equality of the sexes, to issues of personal identity. Superman and Wonder Woman are constantly reminded that they aren't natives to our society. Yet they've in many ways adopted our ways of thinking, our values (which, fortunately, aren't too far from their own). Wonder Woman has had further challenges adjusting from being an Amazon princess to serving justice in a world where men tend to rule, and where in some places women are essentially property, a mere asset. Batman isn't always sure that Bruce Wayne is the real him anymore--the persona of the Batman seems more real, more relevant, and Wayne is just a facade.

The truly evil characters get caught, their plans thwarted. The sociopaths are brought to justice for their crimes. The terrorists and the diabolical world leaders don’t realize their goals. But those villains are still there, waiting for another story—because those issues and those threats are still there in our world. Luckily, our heroes are often merciful.

~j

Seek.

That's when everything went bad.

There's a tremendous roaring overhead, and all of a sudden, all the print in the room spells it out. S-E-E-K. There's a tremor, and a book falls from a shelf, the pages begin to flip from one cover rapidly to the other, and all the words are "SEEK." Only, all of a sudden, they aren't just that. Now, as the pages continue to flip, you can barely read, "SEEK the FACE of the LORD." And you get a glimpse outside, through a window, and see what's making the crashing, roaring sound above.

The Atlantic Ocean is caving in on Atlantis.

The Angel Suriel climbs as you watch, one fist cocked back for a blow to beat back the ocean, but all over Atlantis, chaos reigns. The Fountain that leads to the Angel Anada's Cityback bursts open with a dazzling display of glorious light of all colors, and is then cut off. You feel the Suriel's Realm, Atlantis, steel itself as a wave ripples out from his ruined temple to the edges where the waters arc upwards, back to the ocean--the Realm has been closed. The ocean is no longer collapsing--but all along the walls of water, shockwaves ripple up and down with the impact of someone trying to break their way in.

"Roger Comstock, Marquis of Discovery, this is the Angel Gabriel," a dark, rich voice, obviously used to talking to mortals enters your mind. "You should leave your Chancel, if you can. Meet me in...Iowa...City."

Roger bows in reverence automatically as he replies, "If I can, I will meet you there, Lord Gabriel." In another, slightly more familiar tone of reverence, he prays, "My Lord Suriel, Gabriel has asked that I meet him outside the Realm, if I can."

The Angel above Atlantis yells, "WHAT!?" and dives to Roger's mansion, into Roger's mansion, making another Angel-sized hole. "What about Gabriel?"

As the Noble and his Imperator discuss the causes of the curent catastrophe, the folk of Atlantis hurry about, preparing for assault. They scurry, but in a somewhat resigned fashion--as if to say "I knew this would happen again." Palace Guards are fanning out into the city, seeing to the safety of the populace. One guard notices an older gentleman attempting to herd crabs into an open area--the guard shouts, stopping a wall of water from smashing and scattering the flock and it's master.

In front of Comus, Lord of Misrule and power of Masks, the scones fall to the tremors, scattering. They seem to spell out "SEEK the FACE of the LORD."

The Angel Suriel turns in exasperation from Roger, and focuses, spreading his hands out over Atlantis--and suddenly, everything is different. The island/continent/city now circles an expanse of dark, violet water--a path into the human subconcious--which itself surrounds the old ruined temple that serves as the Angel's home.

"Oh, crap," the Angel Suriel sighs.

The ruins promtply explode, to reveal radiant, silvery light streaming from the face of another Angel. His presence brings to mind a Heavenly choir of voices in sixteen-part harmony. His wings are shelter in the middle of the turmoil, the sword in his hand is sleek and sturdy, obviously meticulously made from the best alloys known to Heaven, science turned deadly.

"Phanuel."

((Excerpt, with corrections and liberties, from tonight's Nobilis session. Enjoy. ~j))

Everyone Plays, Everyone Wins.

It's a saying that I think we forget sometimes when we game, and it bears remembering--and not just that last half.

When we play a typical table top RPG, there are the Players and the Gamemaster--or whatever it's called. Starting a game requires character concepts from the players, but also a game concept from the GM. It's important that all of that exists, and that it works together. Players expecting a hack & slash style dungeon raiding game generally won't enjoy a high drama political intrigue. A GM should always make sure the players know what the idea for the game is, and help them build concepts and characters to fit into that idea. Getting everyone on the same page isn't the first step, but it can be the most important. Also, GMs should be willing to bend things to what the players really want in a game. If it doesn't completely ruin the concept (and the fun) for the GM, the game might improve if they're willing to take some cues from the players and include ideas and situations that the players seem to want, based on the characters they come up with.

That's all prep work. In order to gt to "Everyone Wins," everyone has to, well, win. I'm not suggesting a Monty Haul game, but for the right group at the right time, those work too. I'm reminding people what the job of the GM really is--to help bring things together, to fill in the story, not to be the enemy of the characters, or to thwart they're wishes. It's trivially easy to beat the players' characters--the GM can simply make crap up that they cannot handle, or keep throwing bad times at them until all the characters simply quit in-character or the players quit out-of-character.

Help them win. Challenge them, and if they for whatever reason betray the agreements you made before the game began, feel free to have them lose if they don't respond to out-of-character conversations. Feel free to set them up to lose for the sake of story, but make sure the players know what's going on--make sure they know that the current loss is to help set them up for better stories after.

Sometimes, players' expectations for a game differ, or playstyles differ, or characters clash. That's when you need to shine. If the game concept is still going strong, and the characters aren't clashing with that, and everyone's living up to their end of the deal, it's your job (and your accomplishment) to help everyone to feel like they've won. That's how you win--when everyone leaves the game smiling, thinking how cool they were, how cool everyone else was, and how cool the story is so far.

A heads up, though. Sometimes, winning means that the character loses--players will let you this when they feel that they want to fall or fail in order to continue they're character's story. If it all fits, everyone still wins.

Portray the antagonists, don't be them.

~j

Night and Wordy.

Probably not too wordy.

I've got Pandora set with a few channels, and on one of them, Weird Al's White and Nerdy has played a lot. It got me to thinking--yes, Weird Al caused quasi-serious thought--about nerd culture and how so many people like the same sorts of things.

Chances are, if you could think of yourself as a nerd, you're at least comfortable with computers. You probably have some specialized knowledge, like programming. You probably have some sort of web-page dedicated to yourself or your projects. You may have at least tried D&D or another table-top RPG before, not to mention MMORPGs over the internet. You know who Weird Al is. You probably have a favorite comic book, even if you call it a graphic novel. Heck, you probably have a favorite comic book and a favorite graphic novel. You've seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and probably more Monty Python. You've at some point thought about and compared Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, and Battlestar Galactica.

Interesting trends. I suppose other sorts of people have their lists of interests, it just doesn't seem as wide and as specific as the interests of nerds. It may make us easy to identify, yes, but that's a plus, too--we can easily sense the presence of one of our own.

Nerd-dar. Yeah.

~j

Notebooks of Doom.

I've started watching the anime series Death Note. It is fun.

Things are totally turned around in this series. The protagonist is essentially a supervillain, out to rid the world of evil by having bad guys killed via supernatural means. He's an anti-hero supervillain protagonist. Ah.

Then we have the main antagonist. A hero detective with a secret identity--he's known only as "L"--who must put a stop to the new murder spree.

They both claim to be Justice. Very dramatically.

They show also features a demon who caused this whole mess but won't take sides and loves apples from the human world, some very dramatically drawn shots of a guy writing in a notebook, and some fun imagery during the opening credits. It's dark, I love anti-heroes, and the protagonist is as cold as they come, so far. I'm just wondering how they stretch this out into 37 episodes. Only four episodes in, the plot seems to be advancing fairly quickly.

More pros for the show include:

No giant mecha.
No magical girls.
No teams of people in similar but differently colored uniforms.

Also, no real violence so far. The last episode we watched had some gunfire, but it didn't hit anyone. People keep getting hit in less-than-random traffic accidents, though.

Anyway, I'll have to keep watching this one. It's a nice breathe of fresh air in the anime I've seen so far.

~j

Home for a Visit.

I know, intellectually at least, that the place I grew up ranges from rather pretty to striking. I don't get home to visit my parents very often--no motor vehicle to call my own--so nowadays, it sometimes takes my girlfriend to point out the beauty of the place.

I guess I take it for granted. The limestone bluffs that face the main road almost all the way south through the county, the little weathered sheds and shacks all along the road. It ranges from picturesque to a great place to shoot a horror movie, but I don't really realize it much. All the way home, I'm just thinking about all the catching up there is to do--sisters, brother, parents, cousins, niece, grandmothers--it's almost always to much to do in the limited time we usually have on our visits. I think about what I'll talk to my dad about--computers, music, the Blues (a cousin of mine has taken to calling them The Note exclusively). I bring my new computer along, and I know I'll talk to my brother-in-law about World of Warcraft and my latest and greatest achievements. I even notice and think about how much flooding has happened recently, and how high the river is. I just don't seem to see all the cool stuff around.

Spring-flowering trees, pink-white against everything else in a bright-green and brown. My girlfriend points this out, and starts talking about what they must be. I have no clue, but concede that they are pretty. She asks if all that water along the road is actually part of a river--I assure her that it is really supposed to be, that the flooding isn't completely insane yet. Last time down, she really counted the locations she thought would be good shots for horror movies--the sort that remind you why H. P. Lovecraft thought the countryside had it's own special dread. She's right, I could imagine all sorts of devilish things happening in and around these greyed, leaning sheds. I point out matter-of-factly that there are deer near the road at just the same time as she gasps and brakes. She sees the random waterfowl that I can't place.

Why can't I have the same sense of wonder here? She grew up in a rural place, too--my "homeland" has more in the way of terrain, but it's still boonies. People of nearby Missouri are always driving (annoyingly slowly) through, seeing the sights.

I'm going to try to play a game with my self one the way home, up through the county. I'm going to try to see all the neat, beautiful, and striking stuff. I'm going to try to propose new horror movie locations, point out the interesting flora and fauna.

I'm going to forget that I know it all, and try to discover as much as possible. And I'm going to win at "My Cows."

~j

Superbad.

I'm writing a research paper about supervillains.

The superhero genre is a huge favorite of mine. I didn't even collect comics as a kid. Sure, my dad sometimes got me one, or let me pick one out, but it wasn't a regular thing until early high-school when I subscribed to Amazing Spider-Man. And even that wore off after awhile. Since then, though, I've really come back to the whole comic book fan-boy life. I've seriously followed JSA, JLA, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, even Young Justice, for crying out loud. I've read Watchmen, Powers, Rising Stars, Preacher, Lucifer, Sandman...the list really goes on. I seem to prefer DC and Vertigo to Marvel brand justice.

The first meeting for this class had us writing a list of ten things that fascinate us. Comics made the list. Then we got a bit more specific. What's interesting about them?

Bad guys.

My paper asks the question "Why do we like these characters?" We obviously do--some of the most despicable just keep coming back for plot after plot. They're stopped, but they're not done--they're jailed, shelved until they can come back out for more mayhem.

The supervillains are usually the ones acting on the world. They threaten the vigilantly guarded status quo. They're bold that way. Some even want to change the world for the better--it's just that the changes risk too much. Some want to rule--to be in charge, to be dominant. Some are just freaking smart. These are all traits that readers young and old can think are desirable.

The other side is that supervillains are the evil we know, and also the evil we know will be beaten. They're terrorists, evil dictators, serial killers and drug pushers--and we know--we're sure, that by the time the story wraps up, justice will prevail. No matter how many issues the story runs, the bad guys will lose. That's at least a little reassuring consciously. Think about how much better it is if you're not thinking directly at it?

Our stories change. Supervillains haven't been around all that long, as far as human history goes. Moriarty and Fantomas are the best examples of the beginning of their new world order. They've never really been limited to the fan-boy limbo of comic book culture, as opposed to their do-gooder counterparts (until recently). So, long live bold, colorful evil. Long live monolouges, cackling, maniacal laughter and doomsday devices.

Long live the supervillain.

~j

Angels in the Outfield.

I'm going to talk about Nobilis some more.

It's a game where you play (usually) a human who's been put in charge of a concept of reality. You have a godlike boss of some sort that gave you this power and responsibility. There are alot of beliefs and agendas around. The big questions are left unanswered by the basic setting--God (Cneph, as he's called) is missing, noone's really sure if any of the assorted prophets and messiahs were the real thing. There are things from outside reality that want to break it all down, starting with the weakest links, which might be you.

There are factions, of course. Heaven is a big deal in Nobilis--the Angels champion the causes of beauty and justice and the idea that they are right. The base setting is pretty neutral about this, but in my experience, GMs tend to give them a bad rap. Most Angels you might meet are snobbish at best and fascist egomaniacs at worst. The concept of justice that they supposedly champion becomes completely self-serving. They draw their flaming swords at the drop of a hat.

I'd blame this on a general glorification of the less-organized eastern religions and general contempt of western religions. Angels are more associated with Christianity, and in my experience, gamers are less impressed with Christianity and its trappings. Biases happen. We all bring things to our games constantly that we're not even necessarily aware of.

I've tried to take another tact in my Nobilis game. Probably because of my experiences in other games, my game is quite a bit more angelo-centric that most. Even the Dark (who mostly seek ways to get humanity to destroy themselves) have some legitimacy built into my version of Creation. That leaves me with less grand factions of Evil, yes, but I'm going to try to use more individual villains than Leagues of Bastages.

Maybe more on this in the future. I doubt I'm done writing about one of my all-time favorite games, anyway.

~j

Daleks vs. Rikti.

So, as a gamemaster, I can't come up with all the cool stuff in the world for my games. I need inspiration. As a nerd, I know of a ton of cool things that I can include--and since my players are mostly nerds, too, they can appreciate them.

It's the fine art of writing homage, and it works for gaming, too. And I'm convinced that the people who wrote Aliens vs. Predator know what I'm talking about.

Actually, that's a great example, since that completely original idea came out in comics first. Comic books stories are shameless, and honestly, I like some of the stuff they come up with. Vampires, magicians, space aliens and mutants all fight evil together in the pages of comics.

Appropriately enough, a few years ago I ran a super-hero game I called Heroism 101. The setting was a slightly comic-book version of the University of Illinois campus at Champaign/Urbana. The tone was a sort of Spiderman/Buffy, and included characters like the hitman from Gross Point Blank and "Secret Asian Man" who was actually called the Master Thesbian, but the joke stuck. Yes, his super power was acting. As I was playing City of Heroes at the time, the metaplot involved the impending invasion of the alien Rikti race, built to model what they could do in the MMORPG.

All this was fun as hell.

And why not? RPGs are only a few steps from playing with action figures, where Luke and Han join Snake-Eyes to fight the evil alliance of Destro and Vader. We (sometimes) try to create realistic people for our characters, with wants, and hopes--but they have to live -somewhere-, know some people, and do something. In fictional stories we tell together for the fun of it, what's the difference if their surroundings seem familiar because we've really been to that place, or because we've read about that particular Wardrobe a few times?

What's important is to keep the tone consistant in the game--things can get campy quick. Which okay for a campy game, but less so for a game of high drama. You don't want to bring in things that will actually lessen a player's (or another player's) fun. As players, be forgiving as long as the tone isn't violated.

Just don't involve Captain Kirk. It never helps.

~j

Wanted: Bad Guys

As a gamer, I've discovered something recently. Roleplaying games need bad guys.

I should have come to this conclusion awhile ago--I probably did and forgot. It's frustrating when everything is in shades of grey. You want your character to be able to dole out some justice, whether in a fight, or in an argument, or whatever. It's nice to be right--even if your character isn't good.

I got to hear about a former character of mine recently, and how a new gamemaster was playing him. It was severely disappointing. Fortunately and unfortunately, I was forced to take a step back from that character, and the distance has helped me not get into a large argument with the gamemaster in question. This isn't even in the game I'm playing, not really--same continuity, but different actual game. It's not really in my face. But he's being played quite differently. Instead of an agreeable guy who wants to work with others to make things work, he's a mustache-twirler--nearly a caricature villain. And, if I heard correctly tonight, he's dead now.

But sometimes that's very much what a game needs. He wasn't a nice guy, believe me. He was about power--specifically, how much he could gain. His methods weren't too bad, comparatively...until his "revision." There -are- other villains in the game, but they're played/portrayed as nigh-untouchable. My old character's defeat brings a confidence boost, and sense of a job well done, and a sense of being good guys.

It's a problem in the game I run, I think. I've tried to make most of my characters in the game more-or-less believable human beings (when they are, in fact, human). That doesn't really give my players anyone to strive against righteously, and may cause them to be unhappy with the game for having no option but to strive against (mostly) good guys. It's not fun to constantly sacrifice and concede to non-player characters, to compromise over and over. Sometimes you just want to win, and you want to be right--and the player characters usually want to be -in- the right, too.

I'm not suggesting everything should be easy, or everything should be black-and-white. Certain things should be easy. Maybe, though, it's better story for the players' characters to lose. Maybe they should question whether they should be striving against some situations and/or some characters. But without the clear win here and there, and the clear villain once in a while, games can feel alot like you're playing Real Life--only you're forced to roll dice to see when you need to pay rent.

Yeah, Ick.

Also, I know I threw around alot of gaming lingo in this post. Sorry. I tried to keep it all in plain speech for the unwashed masses, but sometimes terms are confusing. I'm a gamer. If you read this, you're probably know that, and may have had some chance to familiarize yourself with the aforementioned lingo. I'm probably not going to stop after this post, so look it up!

~j

Pets

I like animals. I could be a pet person. When I was growing up, a pet was something that my dad didn't allow. Every time we'd bring it up, he's start shaking his head, firmly, and there was no use trying to argue.

I was (and probably still am, I don't know if this trait can change) a cat person. My highschool girlfriend's aunt had a cat with a new litter, and I was about to graduate. We had the perfect plan. My dad wouldn't allow us to look around and choose a pet, but maybe, just maybe, if I was given one as a gift, well...we should be gracious, shouldn't we?

The plan wasn't very subtle, I'm afraid. Dad knew right away when the "present" was given that it was, in fact, a plan. He was mad--I tried to trick him--but.... I'm fairly certain my dad is a pet person, too. We kept it for a couple of days, because not accepting was bad. I named him Norman--a little white kitten with black patches. And dad warmed to the kitten, and the situation. It seems the biggest hindrance to having a pet was getting it in the house.

Norman is long gone, but since he was introduced, my parents and siblings have had two other cats and a dog. By the way, if you're reading this, sibs--you're welcome. Dad obviously liked having the animals around, no matter how much care they needed. It's nearly impossible dislike a kitten or puppy, and when they've grown into cats and dogs, they've grown -with you-, so they're still okay.

My girlfriend has a cat. It's signature trait seems to be "fearful." She doesn't interact with the roomates' cats very well. And we're thinking of getting a place together. And I'm thinking that a great excuse to get a pet would be to help my girlfriend's cat. A kitten would help her interact with other cats. It's really a favor we'd be doing--a gift for the cat, not a pet specifically for me. Honest.

And there are other possibilities. I've been thinking for years that it might be nice to have a rat for a pet. I've heard a surprisingly large amount of good things about rats as pets--that they're smart, they bond well with owners, they make better conversation pieces. I'm not sure how they'd deal with a cat, though. I'd hate to come home to find the rat flattened by a giant hammer, and the cat had been tricked through a cheese-grater.

I like the potential fierce-ness of kittens and cats. The extra-sharp playfulness that they have for most of their lives. It was fun trying to come in under Norman's defenses, but I learned to wear protective gloves. Can a rat be that fun? More reading might be needed. Also, I like cheese alot. I don't know if I can handle the competition.

~j

Fairy Godmothers.

I'm fairly certain modern dramas can't have happy endings.

Or happy middles, and definitely not happy beginnings--though the beginnings are probably the closest. Where are the smiles? Where's the feel-good? Why is it that when I watch a TV drama, I get to see a slow, steady slide into a sewer of bad relationships, addiction, insanity and death? Are there no freaking heroes?

Okay, setting today's minor rant off is Rescue Me, with Denis Leary. I like Hulu.com--it's great. I don't have normal TV service or cable, so it's nice to be able to actually watch TV with the good ole' 'net. I know know I probably shouldn't expect shiny happiness from Leary--that's not his style, it never really was, and that's fine--he's good at what he does, which is pretty much make regular guys feel good about their lives. That has to be the draw for the show. I like the show--at least, I keep clicking on the next episode. Maybe I don't like the show, and I keep hoping for something good to happen to one of (God forbid) more of the main characters. Or supporting cast. Or bit characters. Or extras. Or animals. Please, anything but a Nine-Inch -Nails perfect downward spiral.

Maybe I need happy endings. I know I tend to empathize too much with main characters of shows. I'm that guy who can barely stay in the room if he knows the lead is about to do somethings embarrassingly stupid, even in comedies, where that's the gag. I don't know, maybe I should start watching older shows--buddy cop shows, something with little to no continuity and where all the problems get wrapped up in around 22 minutes. It just seems that -those- shows are too simple, don't portray anything like real people...

I know real people can have happy moments. Maybe someone should inform some writers.

~j

Tick Tock

This is random, and I'd apologize, but you could just click out.

I was thinking about translations today.

A huge part of the world measures distance with a decimal system. The English system still strives on, mostly due to tradition. We use it, we're used to it, it works for us. We're proud, so we don't give it. I'm fairly certain that the only way the English system of measurement will die is if all nations that use it were to be conquered by other people who use the metric system. Conquer seems to have lost popularity in the modern world, so...long live the English system.

Languages seem to have been the least successful in this manner. I suppose language evolves a bit faster than, say, distance, but there are still a crazy amount of languages out there. While we have standard systems of measurement that everyone (besides us whackos) are expected to use, we insist on translating our thoughts and words into all of these systems of communication. We have different languages, different alphabets, and different systems of writing altogether.

But when it comes to time, everyone seems to use the standard. We may argue about which day want to celebrate the near year, but the world seems to use one calendar. Sun dials from Babylon made their way to modern atomic clocks keeping their perfect time...twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. There have been corrections and modifications (not to mention language changes), but the overall idea and way of doing it is still around.

So...when we want to tell the people we work with our plans, we don't have to translate our calendar. We might need to put the rest into Spanish, though. Interesting, the lines we draw.

Four seasons--it's an obvious cycle, and not a simple construct of man. Barring remainders, we have about 12 full moons during that cycle. Twelve is unfortunate, it's really hard to turn that into decimal, but fine--it's still not a man-made phenomenon. Decimalizing the day would be easier. We could have 10 hour days with 100 centihours each to replace minutes, and further subdivide to milihours and so on. This is all man-made, simply a continuance of the babylonian belief that 12 was a special number--something strengthened by the 12 full moons a year, sure.

As a Nobilis player and GM, I have to admit that Time has got to be one of the strongest concepts we have as humans. We all think of time in the same terms. With the exception of people we consider mentally inferior, we mostly experience time in the same way. Sometimes it goes faster to our perceptions, and sometimes it drags on, but it mostly goes at the same rate, and always goes forward.

Except in dreams.

Except in Deja vu.

Except in...

~j

Sunshine, Lollipops.

Overall, and without any relation to any other season, I prefer the summer, but holy crap springtime is a breath of fresh air--and one that doesn't give you pnumonia from taking in repeatedly.

Let me relate this to a tabletop role-playing game I play. Exalted, published by White Wolf, is mostly about a bunch of heroic characters empowered by the Sun-god to make the world a better place. My girlfriend and I have had semi-serious conversations as to what sort of Exalted characters we might be. There seems to be no argument that I'd be one of those Solar Exalted, and specifically called to the Zenith aspect of the Sun. Bright sunshine, straight down on all of us.

My mind is salivating at the thought. I'm looking out the window at the sunshine, and it is glorious. And not simple because it's bright and pretty. Now it's actually warm enough to enjoy it's warm, healing touch.

Yes, I have strong feelings about sunlight.

It makes people feel better. I'm not aware of specific studies, but I'm positive that there are some, and that they confirm this. People are in better moods. This could be because others are wearing less clothing in general as the weather gets warmer, but it happens when it's cold, too. And even the nastiest, stickiest summer day in the swamps of Illinois are made better when the overcast sky breaks, and sunbeams dapple the landscape.

I can ride my bike comfortably. I don't mind walking around. Even without the glorious, blessed sun--even at night, the sheer relief of not constantly being cold makes me smile.

It will be rainy, soon--it always does that this season, and while that does suck, at least I'm not shivering, too. I'm going to try to remember that this spring. I generally object to getting water poured on me without my planning or at least consent, but perhaps I should cut the rain a bit of slack.

Watch, though--in a month, I'll yet again be ready to take away the job of being in charge of the weather from God, and give it to Ra.

~j

Peter Petrelli vs. God

I watched this week's episode of Heroes. It's a thing I do. I like comics, I like the whole super-genre, and the show has been a nice thing to come back to every...whenever they air one.

But I digress. This week, Pete challenged God, in a Catholic church, with prayer candles and in front of a Sacred Heart statue. I was like--woah. Did this show just throw crap in the eyes of "papists" everywhere? I know Catholics--I sort of am one, sometimes (a secret identity of my own)--and I know there are some (read: many) out there that will take offense to this scene. Even if it -was- Peter Petrelli!

Not to spoil things, but...I think the scene is very skillfully included and not at all offensive. The episode ends with things coming together a little for the characters involved--better times are just around the corner, and the footprints in the sand were identified as not Pete's. Probably because he can fly currently.

People question God in hard times. It happens--even the most faithful of the...faithful...do this. The show isn't making a judgement on God, or on the Catholic faith. It's portraying a more realistic character, and even suggesting (with the upturn at the end) that his challenge was wrong--but not Evil, or even Uncommon.

Also, I wanted to put "Sunday! Sunday! SUNDAY!" in the title of this post, but let's face it--Peter is a Monday night kinda guy. God -owns- Sundays.

~Jason