Gaming

Here’s the cliche: This week’s Wednesday Weird isn’t about just any old hedge Wizard, but the classic wize old wizard that is a staple of the fantasy genre. Although Merlin is a heck of a lot older than Gandalf, I’m not sure if he started wearing the pointy hat before Tolkein’s wizard. However, since D&D and most fantasy fiction has (for better or worse) been heavily derived from Tolkein’s work ever since, we’ve seen a lot of wizards in the Gandalf/Merlin mold. They’ve been dispensing sage advice and assisting heroes for ages. Sometimes they have the hat. Sometimes they don’t. ...

Jack Dandy, Gentleman About Town! Sadly, I don’t know very much about him. Yes, it’s true: he’s just a set of powers and a vague appearance looking for a background. Perhaps I should go all Ripper and make him the Prince of Wales in a disguise. No? Well… Right; he’s the Honorable Austin Alexander, second son of the Right Honorable Lord Islington. He does wear a mask, because his elder brother — who he adores — thinks that he’ll bring shame on the family name, blah blah blah. His father is senile and could care less. He mostly cares about having superpowered larks, and feels the mask adds to his air of mystery. His armor is a glowing force field in a thrilling shade of hunter green. His quantum bolts are, um, quantum bolts. I was very entranced by the thought of flying whilst wearing a tailcoat, but the more I examine it the less thrilled I feel. I am having deep trouble working up backgrounds lately. My wuxia Charnel Gods character, who doesn’t even have a name yet, is in even worse shape.

In the DoSS universe, Mercury owns a clock just like this (original). So does Doctor David Brent.

Aw yeah. You know what’s good? Nocturnals is good. You know what’s really cool? The Nocturnals RPG supplement preview (PDF).

Wednesday Weird #3 (original) asks us to weirdify the classic bar scenario. It’s 6 AM and I’ve been up since like 4 AM, so I think I’m good to go on this one. OK, so there’s a bar. I guess it’s a fantasy world, but it doesn’t really matter that much. Maybe it’s Shadowrun. It’s better if there’s not a lot of magical healing, though. The point is, there’s this bar, and you can’t die as long as you’re inside it. You also can’t get any better. It’s like you’re stuck at whatever age you were or with whatever wounds you had when you walked in. ...

I take no responsibility for the following list of eight names, other than that they’re in a notebook I own. His fault. Jack Dandy Man of Steam The Gurkha Ironclad The Boffin Bright Young Lad, his robotic sidekick/assistant Bulldog Jill Diamond Jubilee

The second Wednesday Weird (original) invokes the Charm Other spell: This spell shows up in several roleplaying games by many different names. Leaving the target charmed by the spellcaster, it can turn an enemy into a friend. Generally, the target will be susceptible to suggestion by the caster and will completely believe anything the caster says. This effect is not restrained to the fantasy genre. A telepath might gain the same effect through mental powers and one of the most famous examples of this “spell” was in a certain film by George Lucas. “These are not the droids you are looking for.” ...

There’s a smidgen of movement in the White Wolf vs. Sony case. On 12/26/03, someone filed a proposed revised expedited discovery consent order. On 1/6/04, White Wolf moved for leave to file an amended and supplemented complaint. There are two major changes requested: Addition of claims for infringement of Under A Blood Red Moon and Time of Thin Blood. Clarification that the claims relate not only to the movie but to the entire Underworld IP. ...

OK, now I know what that protective order was. Here’s the PDF (original). It’s just the procedure the parties need to use if they want to protect portions of their evidence from public view. Sony, for example, may not wish their script for Underworld 2 to be available just yet. Now they can introduce it into evidence without pesky people like me getting their hands on it.

If I wind up buying the World of Darkness end-times books (and who am I kidding, of course I will), the WoD metaplot summaries will be of huge enormous use.