(sob)
Friday, 9 May 2014
Bruce Timm's Star Wars sample art
To end Star Wars week, a look at what might have been - Star Wars comics from DC Animated cornerstone Bruce Timm.
Tuesday, 6 May 2014
Star Wars Episode VII: The Ancient Fear
Possibly, apparently, according to AICN. Works for me... suggests it might link in to the original sketchy plans for a third trilogy... and might even explain why the Sith want revenge! (This still bothers me, okay?)
Sunday, 4 May 2014
May the Fourth be with you
About time I discussed the return of Star Wars, I suppose, after the first cast and crew photo from Episode VII....
Of course I’m excited, and also nervous, seeing one of my formative myths passed on to my generation, and going with a blank slate rather than a story we knew in broad strokes already. (And to see Attack The Block hero John Boyega front and centre, along with Coen star Oscar Isaac and near-unknown fellow 48 Hour Film star Daisy Ridley. And Andy Serkis, the one addition to the cast I successfully predicted, being uncanny like that.)
The Expanded Universe is now essentially apocrypha, to be used for ideas like the Marvel movies use the comics. There will be new movie-verse novels and comics and such, as well as the Rebels TV series. (It starts with a Rebels prequel novel by John Jackson Miller, writer of the Knights Of The Old Republic comics starring Zayne Carrick which is the most consistently fun Star Wars series in a long time. Seriously, check out the first three years.)
I was there from just about the start (the West End Games RPG and the Dark Empire comics... and indeed the earlier Marvel comics, Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye and the Han Solo novels, which were retroactively brought in, giant green rabbit and all) but I’m happy to give the new films a fresh start. Movies need them, really.
This is also why the last time I ran a Star Wars game I set it centuries in the future, to have the freedom to put the PCs in starring roles and make up what we felt like, even with big EU fans at the table. As well as using concept spaceships and monsters from various designers, naturally.
So on the whole I’m looking forward to it. Cautiously.
Of course I’m excited, and also nervous, seeing one of my formative myths passed on to my generation, and going with a blank slate rather than a story we knew in broad strokes already. (And to see Attack The Block hero John Boyega front and centre, along with Coen star Oscar Isaac and near-unknown fellow 48 Hour Film star Daisy Ridley. And Andy Serkis, the one addition to the cast I successfully predicted, being uncanny like that.)
The Expanded Universe is now essentially apocrypha, to be used for ideas like the Marvel movies use the comics. There will be new movie-verse novels and comics and such, as well as the Rebels TV series. (It starts with a Rebels prequel novel by John Jackson Miller, writer of the Knights Of The Old Republic comics starring Zayne Carrick which is the most consistently fun Star Wars series in a long time. Seriously, check out the first three years.)
I was there from just about the start (the West End Games RPG and the Dark Empire comics... and indeed the earlier Marvel comics, Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye and the Han Solo novels, which were retroactively brought in, giant green rabbit and all) but I’m happy to give the new films a fresh start. Movies need them, really.
This is also why the last time I ran a Star Wars game I set it centuries in the future, to have the freedom to put the PCs in starring roles and make up what we felt like, even with big EU fans at the table. As well as using concept spaceships and monsters from various designers, naturally.
So on the whole I’m looking forward to it. Cautiously.
Friday, 2 May 2014
The World Of Darkness MMO details leak
Looks like we have screenshots and a playtest manual (covered by NDA) for The World Of Darkness MMO as it stood in March, just a month before its cancellation. This is entirely personal opinion based on looking at the article, which discusses the manual, as well as the images.
Visually, it looks great, as might be expected. The grime, the graffiti, and the not-too-intrusive controls.
Just a few example characters as this is a playtest, but a full game would have had at least as much avatar versatility as EVE does these days. (I would love to see a Nosferatu subset for avatar creation.)
That shot of a hunting vampire perched on top of a streetlight is particularly cool.
In terms of gameplay, this is clearly a partial playtest as it concentrates on a small subgame. It’s all about what vampires can do (the only thing mortals get to do is become vampires) and focuses on using human/ghoul NPC proxies to control territory and attack other vampires’ holdings.
Humanity is more about how well you preserve the Masquerade than how humane you are, although of course violent attacks drop it. The threat of permadeath which concerned me is restricted to vampires with Humanity 0, and it sounds fairly easy to keep it higher than that - social players hanging out in Elysium should be able to keep it high enough that other PCs attacking them is actively discouraged. So I could see different playstyles existing side by side and rarely interacting, which could have worked to let the social chat side and the PVP fighters not get in each other’s ways.
No clan weaknesses yet, but the hunting systems includes going after specific people for specific kinds of blood so I could see Ventrue easily being tagged with a restriction there, and broods (in place of guilds) involve Blood Bonds and betrayal, which might have had a specific effect on Tremere.
Like the MET LARP, the card game VTES or the boardgame Prince Of The City, it looks like it simulates one particular playstyle, in the case of this test night-to-night territorial conflicts. To get the full Vampire feel, it would have needed a wider variety of things to do, NPC conflicts and adventures as well.
Looks fun, though.
Visually, it looks great, as might be expected. The grime, the graffiti, and the not-too-intrusive controls.
Just a few example characters as this is a playtest, but a full game would have had at least as much avatar versatility as EVE does these days. (I would love to see a Nosferatu subset for avatar creation.)
That shot of a hunting vampire perched on top of a streetlight is particularly cool.
In terms of gameplay, this is clearly a partial playtest as it concentrates on a small subgame. It’s all about what vampires can do (the only thing mortals get to do is become vampires) and focuses on using human/ghoul NPC proxies to control territory and attack other vampires’ holdings.
Humanity is more about how well you preserve the Masquerade than how humane you are, although of course violent attacks drop it. The threat of permadeath which concerned me is restricted to vampires with Humanity 0, and it sounds fairly easy to keep it higher than that - social players hanging out in Elysium should be able to keep it high enough that other PCs attacking them is actively discouraged. So I could see different playstyles existing side by side and rarely interacting, which could have worked to let the social chat side and the PVP fighters not get in each other’s ways.
No clan weaknesses yet, but the hunting systems includes going after specific people for specific kinds of blood so I could see Ventrue easily being tagged with a restriction there, and broods (in place of guilds) involve Blood Bonds and betrayal, which might have had a specific effect on Tremere.
Like the MET LARP, the card game VTES or the boardgame Prince Of The City, it looks like it simulates one particular playstyle, in the case of this test night-to-night territorial conflicts. To get the full Vampire feel, it would have needed a wider variety of things to do, NPC conflicts and adventures as well.
Looks fun, though.
Tuesday, 29 April 2014
The Conpulsion Quiz
Okay, who wants to see the Quiz? After all, now the hurly-burly’s done, the battle’s lost and won, the tie-breaker went horribly wrong... Answers to follow when I feel like it...
Monday, 28 April 2014
Deadlands on TV soon?
Along with Warren Ellis’s latest novel Gun Machine. Or at least near TV, as they seem to be coming via XBox.
This along with a new series by Chuck Dixon and a Steven Spielberg exec-produced C4-co-produced remake of Swedish SF series Humans.
And maybe a Halo series as well.
(And I would quibble with Deadlands being called an old-school RPG. Presumably they mean not with computers. Grr.)
It sounds like a small, effects-friendly and mad enough platform to let Deadlands feel like Deadlands, and a Western with added zombies and occasional robots can work on a not-too-deadly budget as well. (And maybe prodding at the game version of the Confederacy while they’re at it.)
This along with a new series by Chuck Dixon and a Steven Spielberg exec-produced C4-co-produced remake of Swedish SF series Humans.
And maybe a Halo series as well.
(And I would quibble with Deadlands being called an old-school RPG. Presumably they mean not with computers. Grr.)
It sounds like a small, effects-friendly and mad enough platform to let Deadlands feel like Deadlands, and a Western with added zombies and occasional robots can work on a not-too-deadly budget as well. (And maybe prodding at the game version of the Confederacy while they’re at it.)
The Conpulsion Banquo Award 2014
The new Banquo Award winner for Spirit of Scottish Gaming is Sophia George, the V&A’s first ever Games Designer in Residence, BAFTA winner and Chair of Swallowtail Games.
Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Shakespeare at 450
Today is World Book Night and William Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. We’ve done Shakespeare here before but as the current Banquo Award holder I should add that there are more things in Heaven and Earth than just that column...
As well as prophecies, witches and ghosts in the tragedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream helped cement the modern image of faeries (and love potions) and The Tempest had a hand in setting the style of wizards as well - Harry Potter needs his wand like Prospero needs his staff.
Both concern characters trapped in a strange place and affected by powerful beings, a solid basis for many an adventure - although the players will probably want to defeat the “monsters” messing with their lives rather than letting them run their course. Find a way to outwit the fae nobles and undo the love curse and donkey head, or persuade Prospero to give up his revenge for Miranda’s sake?
And then of course there’s Shakespeare himself. Elizabethan England and the sort-of-united Jacobean Britain was a wild and dangerous time to live through, especially as a celebrity whose ideas were heard by hundreds every night. He was alive and working around the time of the Spanish Armada and the Gunpowder Plot.
A troupe of actors could make an interesting adventuring party, with access to all levels of society, especially when you mix in some of the fantastical elements of the plays - Kim Newman’s Drachenfels features the Warhammer equivalent of the Bard getting into all sorts of trouble when the villain of his new history play turns out to be slightly less dead than he should be...
As well as prophecies, witches and ghosts in the tragedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream helped cement the modern image of faeries (and love potions) and The Tempest had a hand in setting the style of wizards as well - Harry Potter needs his wand like Prospero needs his staff.
Both concern characters trapped in a strange place and affected by powerful beings, a solid basis for many an adventure - although the players will probably want to defeat the “monsters” messing with their lives rather than letting them run their course. Find a way to outwit the fae nobles and undo the love curse and donkey head, or persuade Prospero to give up his revenge for Miranda’s sake?
And then of course there’s Shakespeare himself. Elizabethan England and the sort-of-united Jacobean Britain was a wild and dangerous time to live through, especially as a celebrity whose ideas were heard by hundreds every night. He was alive and working around the time of the Spanish Armada and the Gunpowder Plot.
A troupe of actors could make an interesting adventuring party, with access to all levels of society, especially when you mix in some of the fantastical elements of the plays - Kim Newman’s Drachenfels features the Warhammer equivalent of the Bard getting into all sorts of trouble when the villain of his new history play turns out to be slightly less dead than he should be...
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
The Nationals 2014
Short version:
Leicester.
Urban Fantasy.
Buffy.
The PCs (almost) all being in a band, recycling the characters from 2011 and 2013 which in turn recycled the PCs-as-band idea run as a PBP and expanded on in A Buffy Season. Partially recycling the 2011 adventure as well, which in turn was also the finale of TWH season four. I am nothing if not economical with my ideas. I’ll try to write it up as a demo adventure and short Actual Play reports just to stop myself using it a sixth time...
Generally went well. Players did character-y stuff, made jokes, slayer showed off, witch was inventive, lead singer was concerned about the gig...
Pictures of groups when photographer Facebook-ifies them.
50/60 in quiz. Did not recognise the flags of Caprica or Krypton. Winning team got 58. Nerds. ;)
More when more awake.
Next year: De Montfort. Which is also in Leicester.
Leicester.
Urban Fantasy.
Buffy.
The PCs (almost) all being in a band, recycling the characters from 2011 and 2013 which in turn recycled the PCs-as-band idea run as a PBP and expanded on in A Buffy Season. Partially recycling the 2011 adventure as well, which in turn was also the finale of TWH season four. I am nothing if not economical with my ideas. I’ll try to write it up as a demo adventure and short Actual Play reports just to stop myself using it a sixth time...
Generally went well. Players did character-y stuff, made jokes, slayer showed off, witch was inventive, lead singer was concerned about the gig...
Pictures of groups when photographer Facebook-ifies them.
50/60 in quiz. Did not recognise the flags of Caprica or Krypton. Winning team got 58. Nerds. ;)
More when more awake.
Next year: De Montfort. Which is also in Leicester.
Monday, 14 April 2014
The WOD MMO closure
I got back from two internet-less days at the Nationals to find that the World Of Darkness MMO project has been cancelled, with its staff made redundant. I learned it from Eddy Webb’s Facebook, as he was among them. I hope none of them have a rough time ahead.
The Worlds Of Darkness will go on. Rich T on the announcement, and Onyx Path’s continuing plans.
The Worlds Of Darkness will go on. Rich T on the announcement, and Onyx Path’s continuing plans.
Tuesday, 8 April 2014
The British Revolution
A time travel related plot hook, posted here rather than the Who blog as it might fit Timewatch better. The result of a BBC Four documentary, The Regency. I hadn’t actually known quite how close we came to a revolution during this period, between the Peterloo Massacre and the Cato Street Conspiracy. With no viable replacement for the Prince Regent, could we have had another British republic? And if so, what would that do to history? The Industrial Revolution and age of empire would look very different...
Friday, 4 April 2014
How to keep a lid on a potential world-changer
Do you want to temporarily feature something that would change the setting drastically if it became an ongoing feature? The Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode T.A.H.I.T.I. addresses this issue in a couple of useful ways.
Cut for spoilers:
Cut for spoilers:
They were enemies - now they fight together!
The old classic of two enemies being interrupted by someone they can agree is worse. Not just approaching “the enemy of my enemy” but it happening right there and then. Love this one. Particularly when the new alliance is uneasy. They may become friendly rivals later, of course.
Borrowing a partial quote from issue 7 of Marvel’s GI Joe, one of the first examples I ever saw of this trope, where our heroes team up with the Oktober Guard against Cobra. The Guard are an immediately likable bunch, which helps sell it. (I think the Imperial commandos teaming up with Luke and Leia against a weird alien threat in a Star Wars comic came first. This seemed more of a stretch, as Imperials are way worse than Russians.)
A hunter pursues a decent-Humanity vampire into an office building, with a small night staff there. Then the Sabbat/Strix/VII show up. Can the vampire persuade the hunter to protect the people inside, avoid breaching the Masquerade, fight the worse-things-than-her and not get a shotgun blast to the back of the neck at an inopportune moment?
Borrowing a partial quote from issue 7 of Marvel’s GI Joe, one of the first examples I ever saw of this trope, where our heroes team up with the Oktober Guard against Cobra. The Guard are an immediately likable bunch, which helps sell it. (I think the Imperial commandos teaming up with Luke and Leia against a weird alien threat in a Star Wars comic came first. This seemed more of a stretch, as Imperials are way worse than Russians.)
A hunter pursues a decent-Humanity vampire into an office building, with a small night staff there. Then the Sabbat/Strix/VII show up. Can the vampire persuade the hunter to protect the people inside, avoid breaching the Masquerade, fight the worse-things-than-her and not get a shotgun blast to the back of the neck at an inopportune moment?
Good & Evil, Inc.
Rose Bailey’s Fantasy Heartbreaker is active again, looking at this urban fantasy action setting and hacking a rules system for it.
Thursday, 3 April 2014
The Houses Of Middle-Earth
I must admit I’m rather surprised nobody has done this Game Of Thrones style name/flag/motto combo before - except for House Baggins when the joke really began. Given that I did it for the clans of Vampire: The Requiem before the show even started...
Of course, it then made me wonder what the Houses would be in Middle-Earth. And it occurred to me that some of their leaders would be “great kings of men...”
That would be a bit awkward in the event of a Fellowship of heroes from the various Houses, having to fight their ancestors.
Look at how much trouble House Skywalker had there...
And a further thought - each of these great kings becomes like their heraldic beast. The great dragon, the golden lion... the mockingbird. Maybe not the squid, much as they deserve it...
And what if you had the chance to save someone from ending up like that? That seemed to be the way one of the five kings was going...
(FFG’s Midnight setting is essentially “what if Sauron won?” with the what-if being his successful corruption of some key heroes of the good. Having that be a risk in the here and now... hmm... possibly something to include in a theoretical fantasy setting...)
Of course, it then made me wonder what the Houses would be in Middle-Earth. And it occurred to me that some of their leaders would be “great kings of men...”
That would be a bit awkward in the event of a Fellowship of heroes from the various Houses, having to fight their ancestors.
Look at how much trouble House Skywalker had there...
And a further thought - each of these great kings becomes like their heraldic beast. The great dragon, the golden lion... the mockingbird. Maybe not the squid, much as they deserve it...
And what if you had the chance to save someone from ending up like that? That seemed to be the way one of the five kings was going...
(FFG’s Midnight setting is essentially “what if Sauron won?” with the what-if being his successful corruption of some key heroes of the good. Having that be a risk in the here and now... hmm... possibly something to include in a theoretical fantasy setting...)
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
Sir Alec Guinness was born 100 years ago
A centenary to mark, for the man who defined gravitas for a generation.
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
Some of the historical roots of Westeros
From Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth, and focusing on gender roles and marriage alliances in particular. Naturally contains spoilers up to the end of season 3.
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