rebelcoyote has pictures of a kitten on a tank. I dunno, there’s probably some big political significance to this, but all I can say is “awwwwww.”
Author: Bryant
Let’s get ready to Mashup! (And remember, there’s an new game meme announcement list — get your gaming memes piping hot.)
Today we’re going to take another SF classic and subject it to our evil whims. Your target du jour is Star Trek, and we’re not talking any of that revisionist stuff. No Enterprise, no Next Generation, no Deep Space Nine. We’re doing Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and the five year journey. Or the movies, cause hey, everyone loves Ricardo.
The core characters of Star Trek were officers in charge of an exploration mission. They were often caught between duty and humanity; I wouldn’t give Star Trek the same props I give Horatio Hornblower, but Roddenberry knew what drove his conflicts. I think there are some interesting possibilities for mashing.
Some polling tidbits from Iraq, via Juan Cole — 94% of Baghdad residents think Baghdad is more dangerous now than it was before the invasion. 29% of Baghdad residents have a favorable view of the US; 55% have a favorable view of France.
On the other hand, countrywide, 33% of those polled think they’re better off now than they were before the invasion, but 67% think they’ll be better off in five years. Which actually strikes me as fairly accurate. Mind you, they could be thinking “as soon as the Americans leave,” which bodes poorly for our long-term ability to work with Middle Eastern countries.
Aqila al-Hashimi died. Old news, but as long as I’m on the subject of Iraq…
Also, we’re calling up more troops. We’re not getting any help from India and while we still want Turkey to send troops, Iraqi leaders are not thrilled about the idea.
Syria’s willing to help, though.
Despite it being an LiveJournal thing, I find myself saying why not? Thusly:
Your meme, should you choose to accept it, is to rank the following bands in order, from COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT to COULDN’T CARE LESS. To add value to this process, you must also add one band to the list, and remove one band from the list, before passing the meme on (including these instructions).
David Bowie
Bob Mould
REM
Suzanne Vega
The Beatles
The Pixies
Nirvana
Queen
Duran Duran
Jethro Tull
Oasis
Fleetwood Mac
It’s Chris’s fault, really. After a pulse-pounding conclusion to his Morrisonian supers campaign, I have a yen to run Champions. Maybe it’ll pass. I’m probably safe, since I don’t think anyone in my current gaming group is a Hero fan. (“The chargen! It burns my eyes!”)
(The UNTIL Superpowers Database makes it easy! Really!)
Champions Universe? Maybe. Millenium City is a nice piece of work, and there’s a ton of background available. Or I could do my own universe and just reuse all the interesting super writeups from the CU; with novice Hero players, it wouldn’t matter.
I do have a little stock of campaign ideas, to wit:
Infectious
In 1957, the first superhuman came into his powers. He, unlike those who would follow him, had only one ability: by drinking the blood of a human and giving that human his own blood in return, he could grant that human unpredictable powers of his or her own. The only common thread? All superhumans can grant powers to others, just like the long-dead originator of the line. Superhuman powers are infectious.
Bloodlines
The seven Great Familes of metahumans have never been inclined to let the normals know that superpowers are hereditary, and the big lie has held up for centuries. Behind the scenes, the non-powered members of the families plot for position and arrange marriages between just the right superhero teams. Dynastic royalty, hidden from the world.
Man, that’d take a ton of setting work. But it’d be fun.
College Days
By the twenty-first century, college athletics are passe. There’s only one college activity that matters: the superhuman studies program. Where else would young superheros learn their trade? There’s not a superhero team on earth that would accept a non-graduate, so best to take your studies seriously. But hey — when the recruiter gave your family all BMWs as an under the table signing bonus, how serious are you going to be about exams?
And then I have the one where the PCs play non-supers, who’re the minders for the only four superheros in the world. But that one’s just dark and I kinda wanna do four-color.
Half of me wonders if Mark Millar’s latest column isn’t a prank. But — Orson Wells as Batman? In 1946?
Millar mentions a Lionel Hutton as the source of the news, and there’s no trace of any Lionel Hutton on the Web. I’m thinking the column is a prank. But, hey; it’s a glorious concept, and I’ll dream of Dietrich as Catwoman tonight. (And Cagney as the Riddler. Yum.)
George Alec Effinger fans will want to be making their way to “Golden Gryphon Press”: and picking up a copy of Budayeen Nights. Nine pieces of fiction, all set in the world of Marid’s Budayeen. Four of them are Marid stories, including one which is just the first two chapters of the never-finished fourth Budayeen book. One of them is the first few pages of what would have been the last Budayeen book. One of them is a Honey Pilar story, and it rocks.
Barbara Hambly wrote the foreword, and introductions to each story. Her anger and her love for George are both evident; the love in stronger measure.
Phil Brucato turned up at Gen Con this year with a game called Deleria, which was pretty clearly his vision of what Changeling should have been. And I’m a mark for shiny things, so you can tell where this is going. I pre-ordered.
The book came in the other day. It’s a big hardcover with really shoddy binding. The inside is glossy and full cover and more or less a design mishmash that actually works fairly well. It’s got a hodge-podge feel to it that makes sense given the subject matter, and the art (lots of Photoshop manipulations) is OK.
There’s a ton of setting fluff. The tone of the writing — well, it didn’t work for me, but it wasn’t awful. It’s written from the point of view of an elder in a youth culture, if you see what I mean. Gentle yet hip, and pointedly so in both ways. I didn’t dislike it, I just didn’t like it.
The fluff does get the setting across, and the setting has the right feel. It’s an attempt at Faerie done De Lint style, with the changes that have come with the modern world reflecting into myth. It’s not as smooth as De Lint, though. For example, Brucato has the Internet manifesting in Faerie as a kind of kudzu, and faeries can’t deal with technology. Except when they can. Brucato’s trying to move beyond the nostalgia factor, but he can’t quite bring himself to make that final break.
I’d talk more about the rules, but the book is sufficiently baroque that I’m having trouble extracting actual game mechanics. You have stats, and you have a difficulty number, and you draw a card and add or subtract it from your stat depending on the suit. There’s also a big magic system thingie which looks to be mostly freeform.
Summary: forgettable.
The Kill Bill watch continues with this review from John Tynes. He says it rocks, with incredible fight scenes, but it’s crippled by the decision to split it into two parts. He also says, quote:
Speaking of executed, the film features more severings of hands, feet, arms, legs, and heads than I have perhaps ever seen in a film before. Kill Bill is all about the delirious geysers of blood.
Bold statement from a man who, I believe, has seen Takeshi Miike movies.
How to send literally dozens of fans into a tizzy in one easy step:
"Sword & Sorcery Studios Announces d20 Versions of Adventure!, Aberrant and Trinity."
I think D20 will probably work out just fine — it certainly isn’t any more of a handicap than the Storyteller system. I think Aberrant will have trouble getting past Mutants and Masterminds, but that’s White Wolf’s problem to worry about. It’ll be good to see Trinity back in print.
I hope we’ll see some sourcebooks.