Urban Fantasy, Caught In The MIddle

Answering this RPG.net thread about urban fantasy RPG premises:

I’ve always wanted to do something about mediators between different supernatural sects. People who have to go in and broker peace between werewolf street gangs, serve as the jury for vampire trials, and oversee efforts to preserve the secret.

Perhaps normal humans who due to a rare genetic quirk are immune to direct magical effects, so their neutrality is accepted and even protected because of its usefulness. (Like the cop in the Arkham Nights PBP who was immune to the Yellow Sign because he’s colour blind.)

Not that this will stop various kinds of supernatural thing trying to mess with them, whether to gain advantage in a current situation or to strike against the overall authority or in the case of something like ghosts because they just don’t understand the trouble they’re causing for the other monsters around.

So the mediators might have to work with some supernatural beings on a given problem, which would then result in arguments about jurisdiction and influence, so for example they might be assigned a vampire who isn’t happy about it to offset working with their friendly werewolf on a vampire-werewolf conflict.

And like detectives (as Harry Dresden as the genre example) it means they can get called in anywhere, on any level of the supernatural sphere.

Black Dog Blues

Martin Ericsson has moved on from White Wolf, to consulting and freelancing, launching a personal site for news and ideas, as well as starting a Vampire: The Masquerade 5 Actual Play podcast about characters starting with the Second Inquisition. The first episode starts out with an interview about where V5 came from, going into the session zero after about eighteen minutes.

The Crow

Today is the 25th anniversary of the US release of The Crow. It still works, I think, and it still hurts seeing Brandon Lee as Eric.

(Content note: it uses sexual violence as a plot point for revenge, but it never depicts it except some glimpses from the victim’s perspective.)

Of course it’s also a foundational style piece for The World Of Darkness, and a soundtrack too. Even before the film, the original comic series had that sometimes painterly, sometimes grainy black and white look, and the tendency to break things up with a Joy Division lyric.

(The timing means I was actually out playing Enlightenment In Blood on the 23rd anniversary, playing an undead monster coincidentally wearing a Hangman’s Joke T-shirt.)

Since then there have been comic and film sequels, usually about different revenants, as well as a TV series where Mark Dacascos took over the role of Eric.

And of these... well, City Of Angels is a wonky remake of a sequel but I liked the music (Graeme Revell came back for the score and Courtney Love chose the bands) and Vincent Perez and Mia Kirshner as the lead couple and Iggy Pop as the main henchman, and I wonder what the longer never-released director’s cut would be like.

And Salvation took an interesting twist from the tie-in novel The Lazarus Heart by Poppy Z. Brite (while replacing the gay hero with a straight one) with an innocent man returning after being sent to the electric chair to find those who framed him.

It’s a shame none of the films gave us a female lead - one of the comic sequels did, and there have been a few here and there as well as a second female revenant in the TV series. Other than Eric all the leads were white too. I think the most interesting comics spinoff is Curare, in which the revenant is a little girl haunting the detective who tried to solve her murder. (Deeply grim in places.)

For gamers there are various totally not Eric miniatures out there, two official board games with standees rather than minis, and there was a City Of Angels video game (a hand-to-hand fighting game with easy character death, which really doesn’t seem like the best fit) and plans for a separate game that never came to pass.

And a new film version has been planned for years now, with an insane list of stars attached as well as a few directors. It’s a story that can certainly be retold... the usual problem with the follow-ups is that that’s most of what they do.

From The Dust 29

This week’s session of Vampire: The Masquerade was...

... nice.

Two Years After Laughter

Happy second anniversary to After Laughter from Paramore, inspiration for this Buffy plot hook post.

Can't stop the signal

Via Whedonesque, the music for the unreleased Firefly Online by David Joseph Wesley.

It feels like coming home.

Warhammer 40,000 Action Figures

Plans have been revealed for Warhammer 40,000 action figures, starting with a Primaris Marine standing 7” tall - so 6” scale if they keep to scale with unenhanced humans. A sensible start as the Space Marine is the icon of the setting and it’s going to be easy to release variants.

Also chibi 40K figurines.

Relics is funded

Relics is fully funded, and hit several stretch goals, ending a thousand dollars short of mine after a nice last-day bounce.

Relics reminder

Reminder: under 24 hours on the Relics rulebook Kickstarter. We’re nearing the stretch goal before me writing an adventure for it!

A John Wick video game

(John Wick the series, not John Wick the RPG creator)

John Wick Hex, the title seemingly referring to grid-based strategic combat and not to John having to fight a witch. With this series, one can never be too sure.

A source for costume ideas. And possibly monsters.

The Met Gala this year wasn’t as good for NPC portraits as the Catholic imagery and armour last year, but Ezra Miller was amusingly close to something that happened in From The Dust on Sunday...

This is not Endgame canon

Sometime during Endgame...

Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer

The Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer starts with Tom Holland saying not to watch if you haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame yet.

From The Dust 28

A big party in Elysium. Which means a lot of NPCs...

May the Fourth

Quite a few Star Wars book announcements today for some reason....

And FFG announced a new board game recently, with more news on the First, Outer Rim.

Peter Mayhew

Peter Mayhew, best known for playing Chewbacca, has died. I met him once, I believe at Gen Con UK in the mid 90s, and he was friendly, happy to chat with all who came to say hello, a gentleman.

Avengers: Endgame spoilers

Apparently the Russo Brothers think next Monday (the Monday after the second weekend) is when this is okay, which is a fair cutoff. But I just saw that after putting this up, so, eh. Also, this is my gaming blog, it’s kind of a geeky space.

Iron Man

Iron Man came out eleven years ago today. It was a fun little power armour action movie that didn’t really hint at what was to come, until the end where Tony put down the index cards and said “I am Iron Man.” It was a real surprise, knocking out one of the usual conflicts in the superhero genre.

And then the post-credits, which as I recall we knew about but it was still a bit of a thrill to actually see it.

We already knew that Marvel had the rights to some of their own characters, that The Incredible Hulk was on the way and they had plans for Thor and Captain America... and that, yes, that was a good starting line-up for The Avengers... but it all came from this fun little power armour action movie.

Starting with Iron Man was a good call too, with a Weird Level just a little above a straight action movie. The Hulk is weirder, but people know the Hulk. Thor and Cap were more of a test. And by then, we were in for the ride. And what a ride it’s been.

Shadowrun Sixth World

Shadowrun Sixth World, aka Sixth Edition, was revealed today, with a beginner box due in June and the rulebook to launch at GenCon in August. About as close as you can get to a secret release when you need to let game stores and distributors know.

It’s supposed to be simpler than Fifth, but sounds like not to the level of Anarchy.

I like that the beginner box literally states that it includes “handfuls of dice!”

May

Summoned by fire and drums, Beltane turns to May Day. Hopefully the weather will improve.