Christmas Hiatus

Hey all,

First off, sorry to have missed Friday Funnies last Friday, got swamped that day with Christmas doings; and that leads into the rest of this. With no submissions yet to last week's contest, I think it's a good time to wait for some entries and take some time off until after the new year. I'm hoping to come back January 4th with contest results and new content. Thanks for sticking with me through these first few months, and I'll see you after the ball drops.

Merry Christmas, all; and Happy New Year.

Vault of the Mad Chocolatier: A belated second entry

Alright, everybody. I won't say I've been doing this for a while, but I think it's at least been long enough to try for a reader response contest, and, since I haven't done a Vault of the Mad Chocolatier in a while, let's go with that.

For those who don't know, the Vault of the Mad Chocolatier is where I list out a few interesting and devious items, weapons, and miscellany for filling out RPG treasure rooms. Now, for the contest.

Include in the comments below a name and description for a magical, or mechanically interesting, or ancient technological, or whatever other cool modifier you can think of, item that would be a fun inclusion in an RPG. A week from today, I'll do another post including every entry I liked and naming a winner among them. (your congratulatory bragging rights should ship in 5-10 business years).

So, let's hear 'em. What are the best items to reward, trick, or trap unwary players?

Happy gaming, all: and good luck to you.

Giving the Gift of You

Hey all,

With Christmas rolling in, many of us are going to be spending some time with friends and family; and sometimes, it can be hard to share things that matter to you into the lives of the people you care about. Some hobbies just don't register with your loved ones, and you may have, like me, decided to just try and make peace with that.

However, after going to a store called St. Nick's here in Denver, I realized that there may be more overlap between Christmas tradition and nerd culture than I'd thought. So, here's some small ideas for sharing the hobbies you like with the people you love.

Miniatures
If you're anywhere in the painting, customizing, or even building of miniatures, you're part of a rich tradition that's well appreciated at Christmas time. Snowy villages and nativity scenes can brighten the holidays, and something homemade with the professional polish I know this hobby has mustered before can be a meaningful and treasured gift. This website has a tutorial for houses as well as one for trees if you'd like to go the "Christmas Village" route.

Board Games
If you've dived deep enough into the board game community, you've probably got quite a collection behind you. Share that hobby with your loved ones. Some families bring out battered copies of Monopoly or Yahtzee, but there's no reason your Nascar uncle might not give Formula D a try, or your superhero-obsessed nephews might enjoy a carefully selected game of Legendary. I've personally introduced my parents to Tsuro, Qwirkle, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Love Letter, and probably several more I can't remember off the top of my head. Gaming's come a long way from the rainy day distractions when we were kids, and older relatives might be open to learning a new game or two over the holidays.

Storytelling
It's no coincidence that some tabletop games call their game masters "storytellers". The skills you develop here can make you a gem for Christmas plays, dramatic readings, and other storytelling events of the holiday season. Psyche yourself up to take the stage and remember that those long nights over a grid map have been training you for public speaking: both in confidence and skill.

That's what I've got on the subject. If you know other aspects of the stereotypical nerd community that could enrich the holiday season for everyone involved, feel free to chime in in the comment section below.

Merry Christmas, all.

GURPS supplements I'd like to see in 4th edition

Hey all,

Following the successful funding of Dungeon Fantasy powered by GURPS on kickstarter, Steve Jackson games has announced Mars Attacks powered by GURPS. This gives me some hope of seeing a fourth edition explosion of content like what GURPS had in its third edition heyday. With that in mind, here are the supplements I'd love to see remade with a fresh coat of fourth edition paint.

#5. GURPS Humanx
Let's start with one of the most obscure game supplements I've ever stumbled across. I should preface this with the fact that I haven't personally gotten my hands on most of the ones on this list, I'm just kind of jazzed that stuff like this is out there to try and get my hands on one day. This one I did see in a store, and I still vaguely regret not picking it up. It's just so left field to make a rules supplement for such a little known property as the works of Alan Dean Foster, and the setting is rich and vibrant enough to pique my interest in coming to something like this for a future game.

#4 GURPS Scarlet Pimpernell
Subtitled "Swashbuckling Adventure in Revolutionary France" this seems to be exactly what the title suggests: a supplement book for playing through the world of Baroness Orczy's prototype of the modern superhero story. If that doesn't sell on the idea of roleplaying outside of the classic D&D mold, then I don't know what will.

#3 GURPS Atomic Horror
I've actually got the old edition of this one coming in the mail, but it'd be great to see a retread of this material in the fourth edition rules. Atomic Horror is all about 50's B-movie science fiction, and with my groups, that'd turn into a night of mystery science theater-ing any GM's best laid plans in glorious fashion. Not only should this come back for the sake of B movie action, but for the tips and tricks for incorporating this sort of thing into your spy dramas and monster of the week government agency stories.

#2 GURPS Conan
There's something charming about old school sword and sorcery. RPGs that take more cues from serialized pulp adventures than from Tolkien inspired epics have a different flavor that evokes something somewhat Arthurian. For players looking to branch out into what GURPS is capable of, but need a few sessions with training wheels, a low magic fantasy like this would be perfect.

#1 GURPS Ice Age
Y'know, maybe this one doesn't deserve the number one spot on a purely objective measure, but this isn't a purely objective measure. This is what Joe likes, and what Joe likes is settings where wolves are a scary threat and the environmental hazards are as likely to kill you as the combat encounters. Prehistoric worlds are a vast and, largely untapped, genre in both adventure fiction and RPGs, and anything that helps these stories of both harshly grim and enduringly hopeful themes to happen is all right in my book.


So, there's my list. What GURPS supplements would you like to see brought back? What supplements have they never made that you'd love to see them take a crack at? Share in the comments below. Happy gaming, all.

Game Review/Game Bump/First Impressions? : Tales from the Borderlands

So, I'm not really sure what to call what I'm about to do here. It'll be a little less formal than a review, a little more critical than a product bump, and a little too late to be a viable first impressions write-up. Nevertheless, we're talking about Tales from the Borderlands today.

Tales from the Borderlands is principally thought of as a Telltale Games title, although other studios collaborated on the project. This mostly has to do with the fact that it just feels like a Telltale game. A few key choices matter, and the choices that don't matter look and feel exactly like the ones that do, which makes every choice feel like it has the potential to change events. Characters are well developed, and, like-able or not, they are at least interesting. Combat is primarily quick-time events or shooting galleries and is as likely to feel dis-empowering as to feel empowering. If you've played a game like the Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us before, you know the feeling I'm describing here.

The Good
The humor in this game is spot on. Intermingled as it is with the action; it makes this game feel like playing a Guy Ritchie movie. Additionally, the voice acting is superb. Celebrity appearances from Chris Hardwick and Patrick Warburton sell a big draw quickly, and lesser known talent earns that "talent" title in spades on this project.

The Bad
The language may be a bit much for some people, and, while not gratuitous, the M rating is warranted on this title. This game also has a problem shared by many Telltale titles (looking at you, Wolf Among Us) of giving a fairly satisfying ending about thirty seconds before doing something that tries to be mind-blowing, and ends up being more confusing than anything. At the risk of spoilers, I won't go further into that, but just know that you should look for your enjoyment throughout the game rather than hanging the whole notion of game enjoyment on finding that perfect ending.

The Excellent
This game's premise is one I wouldn't have thought possible: specifically, it is a choose your own adventure story with an unreliable narrator. The main story is told in flashbacks by a pair of characters who continually bicker about what really happened, and the framing device deals with the mysterious figure who has captured these two, and about what he might want with them. The fact that they pulled this off, and did it with such panache, speaks volumes of the ground Telltale is and has been breaking in the gaming industry.

. . .and that's it. That's what I've got coming out of this experience. If I fanboyed a little over Telltale, I'm not even sorry, they make some of my favorite stuff. If you're interested in trying the game for yourself it is available here.

Happy gaming, all.

Fallout Denver Session Notes 1: Wherein our heroes do something heroic for the first time in their lives.

War, war never changes. In the fires that consumed the old world, the American authorities sought refuge in Vaultec's master control vault in Cheyenne Mt. Their flight from what is now the Capitol Wasteland led a trail of destruction from the east coast straight into the heart of Colorado. Their escape was pinned down in Denver, and the full fury of the atomic war machine unleashed its devastating power. Control-group vaults in the area were prompted to play a pre-recorded message, urging inhabitants to wait for representatives of Vaultec to let them know that the fallout had passed. Yours was one such vault. Sealed against time, and damaged by an atomic force beyond all projections, your forebears waited. Thirty years ago, a group at the door was welcomed with eager expectation, and a vicious gang known as the Angels was admitted to Vault 4. The vault has become a crime empire, built on the backs of slaves: built on your backs. The vault dwellers toil on, making  the gang's drugs and weapons, and continue their long dream of daylight. 

This marked the beginning of our painfully non-canon game in the ruins of old Denver. I'm running this game in the GURPS system, and the first session spent a lot of time in character creation, as they tend to do. Character creation gave us three characters for adventures in the wastes:

Chance: A vault dweller entrusted as an Angels enforcer. He is a strong melee fighter with a careless attitude.

Gadget: A vault dweller assigned to work the weapons repair and reloading benches. She has a natural aptitude for machines and technology that surpasses many of her peers. 

Remington: A vault dweller with little known about him. He tends to keep his head down and seems able to slip away unseen as he likes. 

These three had only just acclimatized to the world when the rebellion broke out. Remington used a stealth-boy like mutation to fade against the walls and see what was happening. Gadget immediately took a gun from near the repair station and palmed it until she could get a feel for the situation. Chance, on the other hand, was front and center when the drug lab exploded in a cloud of flaming gas. Drug mixers in masks stormed out of the lab with makeshift shields crafted from surgical trays and began raining chemically enhanced molotov cocktails down from the railing onto the common areas below. 

Above, on the approach to the overseer's office, the Angel's members had beat a hasty retreat and barricaded themselves into the area. Chance fought his way to the top of the staircase with the drug mixers in tow and began to engulf the room in flames, while fighting through those same flames. All the while he was shouting, "We have to do this, for glory!"

The fighting pushed back down the stairs, now slick with flaming oil, and, in the scuffle, Gadget and Remington made it up to join in the fighting. The local representative of the Angels barricaded himself in the overseer's office, and, after goading him out to the railing to try to calm the vault dwellers, the party watched as the vault dwellers grabbed him and flung him from the railing. In the aftermath of all of this, Chance made it to the overseer's office and tore open a locker. "What's that?" someone asked. 

"This," he replied, lighting up the shish-kebab (flaming sword) in his hand, "is Glory."

As the vault settled back down, and recriminations died in the exultation of freedom, troubling facts were brought to light. The lower levels of the vault had been becoming increasingly more irradiated over the years, due to damage sustained in the blast. The vault dwellers would need new homes, and soon. It was decided that these three should take the Angels' radiation suits that had been left in the vault and set out in search of a new home for the people of Vault 4. They assembled in the front room and watched as the vault door opened, to allow them to step outside for the first time. 

. . .and that is where the first session ended. I've tried to remember events accurately, but if any of my players are reading this, I won't claim any better than "did my best". We'll pick up at session two next time I decide to write one of these. Happy gaming, all. 

Divided Loyalties: How to be good at being lawful good.

Hey all,

This is something I've been wanting to talk about here for a while. The alternate title for this article would be: "How not to be lawful stupid".

For anyone unfamiliar, lawful good is one segment of the classic dungeons and dragons alignment chart. The chart uses two spectrums to help define characters' motivations and goals. The two axes are Good-Neutral-Evil, and Lawful-Neutral-Chaotic. These two spectrums create nine individual alignments. I'll do a brief run-down of them, and them go into the main thrust of this article:

Chaotic Evil: a self-seeking force of chaos, like the Joker.

Neutral Evil: self-seeking above all else. Willing to use or break laws as suits them.

Lawful Evil: a loyal devotee of evil establishments.

Chaotic Neutral: anti-establishment for the sake of being anti-establishment. "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité"

True Neutral: This might be the most difficult alignment to get a handle on. Some players use it to remain aloof and uninvolved in the world, as the Brotherhood of Steel would. Some build characters who view good and evil as human constructs, best kept in strict balance in the world, in a form of pseudo-eastern mysticism. Still others, use this to refer to simple, honest folk, unlikely to join the militia, and even more unlikely to be the threat that makes a militia necessary. Rest assured, I plan to come back and talk about True Neutral characters once I finally get a handle on them myself.

Lawful Neutral: law above all else. "My hands are tied.", "The Prime Directive is not a suggestion." etc.

Chaotic Good: freedom fighters and vigilantes. The law is either too corrupt or too incompetent for good men to follow blindly.

Neutral Good: do the right thing. Act with compassion, and strive for harmony.

Lawful Good: and now, we come to the crux of this article. Most players see lawful good characters as absolute paragons who never need to stop and think in order to do the right thing. I'd like, however, to propose a different read on these characters.

Lesser of Two Evils is Still Evil
This boils down to drawing a line between what is lawful and what is right. Perhaps a character believes that it is never right to take a life, but that in some circumstances, it is the lesser of two evils. This phrase in particular can do a lot to define the lawful good character. "The Lesser of Two Evils."

C.S. Lewis once said: "Do not let us mistake necessary evils for good." For the lawful good character, every necessary evil weighs heavily on the soul. When the character must choose between saving one and saving two, they will save two, and live on, haunted by the one they abandoned to lethal fate.

Bad Government is Better than No Government
For the lawful good character, the law is right. More men, women, and children are made safe by the rule of law than by any actions of a single heroic individual. The character must weigh the rule of law against their own desire to do right when the law is wrong.

Every act of vigilantism weakens the edifice of government, yet not every government rules as it ought. If the king's guard takes bribes with the king's knowledge and consent, yet the presence of the guard saves lives from the tribal marauders; how much can one really do about the bribery?

Loyalty is Ethical, even Loyalty to the Unethical
For the lawful good character, loyalty is a high calling. To be loyal is to be moral. Yet, the authorities demanding loyalty may require acts of loyalty that are wrong for the common people.This leads into the last point.

Obey the Liege Lord and Serve the People
The royals rule by divine right. It is fitting that they should rule, and yet, their rule is often unsuited to the good of the common people. For the lawful character, the will of the authorities is supreme; but for the good character the good of the common people commands the highest loyalty. It is here that we have the central conflict of the lawful good character. For this character, his loyalties are divided. You cannot please everyone, and for the lawful good character, this impossibility can become a consuming guilt.



For more on complex, lawful good characters, I highly recommend the Sano Ichiro novels by Laura Joh Rowland. The first in the series is called Shinju. These are the best books I've ever read at dealing with the internal character drama of the lawful good character, and I'd go so far as to call it a must-read for anyone who plays tabletop games and thinks lawful good characters are "bad" or "boring".

Happy gaming, all.

A Boycott that Works

Hey all,

I'll be going on a more serious note today. Some of you may already be aware that some stores will be opening on Thanksgiving this year. This kind of thing is unpopular among many who think store employees should get the day with their families, as well as Black Friday shoppers who feel pressured to cut their own Thanksgivings short in order to get the best deals.

This general disillusionment with American consumer culture slipping back into the Thanksgiving festivities leads some to suggest mass boycotts of businesses doing this until they change their policies.

Let's be real, this is very lofty for many of us. A boycott on this scale, and lasting indefinitely can become so daunting that participants drop out after a very short time.

I have another suggestion.

The difficulty in this boycott is a lack of a specific goal. Black Friday is predicated on sales for Christmas shoppers. You may see where I'm going with this. If you want to do something to work for change, the boycott doesn't need to last until promises of change are made, it only needs to last thirty-two days. From November 24 until December 26, stick to the boycott if you care about this particular issue. This is a short-term goal with a dramatic effect on as business's bottom line. Losing Christmas sales can cripple a franchise, and a message sent this directly may have a chance to change ideas and policies.

Join me this year, just do your best. It doesn't have to be perfect to be effective.

We can change things.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Easy Thanksgiving Treats

Hey all,

I thought I'd move away from my normal style and share a handful of my favorite really easy Thanksgiving treats with you. Some of us have big dinners coming up, and may not always know what to bring for things like this. So, try one of these to make things quick and easy, and hopefully let you make a good showing at the family table.

First off, let's make Haystacks. These have got to be one of the easiest treats ever.

• A bag of dried, crispy Chow Mein noodles
• A bag of butterscotch chips (like chocolate chips, just the butterscotch kind)

Melt the butterscotch chips in the microwave, mix in the chow mein noodles, spoon into little piles and let them harden. When I say "little" piles, take that seriously. I made these way too big the first time I tried this. Also, you might feel like you need to add something like shortening or butter, but that just separates and leaves the haystacks in little puddles.

The next best one I know goes over really well is Muddy Buddies. This is a copyrighted recipe, as far as I know, so I'll just link to Chex's official website here. The big thing is to decide what you want to call them. Some people say Muddy Buddies, some say Puppy Chow, and some just call it Crack.

Another couple that anyone can make, but that, for legal reasons, I should probably just link to are, Dream Pie, and Rice Krispie Treats.

With Dream Pies in particular a few small details can really make you look like you really know what you're doing. When filling the crust, you can fill it halfway before putting in a layer of extra ingredient: like banana slices or oreos, before finishing filling the crust.

If you decide to go for a cookies'n cream, it's my experience that cheesecake flavored pudding with crushed oreo makes that flavor come through best.

You can also layer different puddings, like making one package's worth of chocolate pudding, and another of banana and layering them into the crust with that layer of banana in between.

So, hopefully something in here gives you an idea that might shake off the hectic "What do I bring" moments of wanting to contribute to a family get together.

Happy dining, all.

GM's corner: "Alright, how do you want to do this?"

Hey all,

I thought today I'd share a quick and easy gamemastering tip I've picked up in the last year. I can't remember which of my GM's first used this, or where they said they got it from, but it's a great way to encourage involvement and engagement at the table. I know it as "Alright, how do you want to do this?", and to explain it, I'll need to go a little bit into something called stunting.

Again, as far as stunting goes, I'm not sure where the term in this context originated, and I'm not sure when the concept became an aspect of roleplaying games. Basically, stunting is including cinematic details in combat descriptions. "I roll to hit" is not stunting, "I lift the sword, two-handed over my crippled foe, and grin as I drive it into him." is stunting.

Like I said, I'm not sure who first used the term stunting to refer to this aspect of play, and I'm not even really sure when this went from the expectation at the table to being nothing but an alternative to tactics-based "roll"-play. That-is, a night of "I move five squares to here, and activate this feat, then I'll roll to hit". Basically, when the dice results outweigh the storytelling, that's what you'd call "roll"-play.

There are many gamemaster techniques for encouraging stunting. Some are easily exploitable in ways that can bog down play, such as giving bonuses to rolls on checks you've stunted. That is, if every time a player does anything, they get a mechanical bonus for stopping to describe in flowery detail whatever they're doing. Some are hard to keep honest with, such as giving bonus xp at the end of the session for good stunting, and overall, there's few good ways to make stunting anything more than an option for players feeling the creative writing/theater itch.

That said, this technique, which I've been privileged to see in action, can do wonders for a game. What it is, is an expectation in the players that the GM will not say "you killed it" or "it died". Instead, after you've dealt lethal damage to a creature, the GM will pause, look at you, and say, "Alright, how do you want to do this?" What this means is, "How would you like to stunt the death of this enemy."

What this does, in a mechanical sense, is nothing. The creature that would die, still dies, and there's an understanding at the table that this type of stunting cannot draw other enemies into the attack, or gain any kind of mechanical advantage. What's more, the players get to add a bit of flavor to their characters and to the world being built. How this type of creature dies, and what can kill it, are, in most cases, not important worldbuilding elements to the GM's story.

Simply put, this is a technique to get your players more invested in the narrative elements of play, as well as spicing up the fights with more cinematic deaths. If nothing else, give it a go, see if this works for you. Feel free to share your experiences with stunting in general, this technique in particular, or your own GM tips in the comments below.

Happy gaming, all.

Monday 11-14

Sick, blogging later. I keep saying I'll make these ahead of time one day. We'll see. Later, y'all.

Cool Music

Hey all,

Thought I'd take today to share some cool music with ya. For a theme, I guess it's covers and mash-ups. I'll credit the covering artist here, and the original artists are covered in the links.

Major Songs in Minor by SteveTerreberry

Lady Judas by Wax Audio

Can't Help Falling in Love by Evan Edinger

Crocodile Chop by Neil Cicierega

Pirates of the Caribbean meets Rock Guitar Cover by Jeff Heiskell

Happy listening, all.

Game Bump: Cascade Failure

Hey all,

I'm honestly a little embarrassed that it's taken me this long to bump Cascade Failure. This is easily one of the most elegantly designed R.P.G.s I've ever played, and has facilitated some fantastic events at the gaming table. This comes from three basic things that streamline the design and make the entire game run more smoothly than many games with similar tone.

#1: Roll Under:
Cascade Failure uses a roll under system for attribute and skill checks. What this means is that, while you roll the classic O.G.L. array (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA), you then play with the goal of rolling a d20 and getting a result less than the score to succeed. So, if your score is a 16, you want a 16 or less. For a score of 8, you'll want an 8 or less. This means that bigger scores mean better abilities (which prevents the confusion of things like THAC0), and that rolling becomes substantially simplified for the players.

#2: Temporary and Permanent Damage:
Temporary damage is handled, as players might expect, through hit points. Permanent damage and death, however, are dealt in the form of attribute damage. This lets players feel a little bit tougher, while making potentially deadly fights more consequential. Once hp drops to 0, damage starts to reduce attributes. A dead party member is less narratively interesting (IMHO) than a maimed party member.

#3: Simplified Skills and Saves:
Skills and Saving Throws at level one are determined by your choice of race, class, and your ability scores. This makes an interesting challenge for power gamers while keeping character creation streamlined for plot players.

Combine all of this with a compelling setting, an intuitively overhauled alignment system, and a host of interesting races and classes to choose from at character creation, and you find a glorious system with a bit more crunch and direction than a rules-light, but drastically less granularity than many modern d20 systems.

The best part of all of this is that it's free on drive thru rpg. Honestly, I have no idea why this is free. I will say that the system has a few small areas where improvement is possible, but the core is strong enough to build on and what's already there is simple enough to facilitate easy house ruling without the same risk of game-breaking mistakes as you'll encounter in more complicated systems. Eventually, I'll plan to share a few of my own house-rules to the system (once I can dig them out of my R.P.G. shelf, it's been a while). Until then, you can find Cascade Failure here. Check it out. Happy gaming, all.

Shortened Week

What with Halloween and the associated festivities, I'm calling a short week this week: be back Friday with the Friday Funnies.

Later, all.

Book Review: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Publishing Date: 1886
Setting: Victorian London
Narrative Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction, Horror
Themes: Duality in Human Nature, Original Sin, Addiction

Subjective Length: A day or so

Overall 7/10. This is a classic work of literature which sets out to explore dual nature in humanity. At the heart of it, it deals with the distinction between what man aspires to be and what he, nevertheless, often is. This work establishes classic tropes of this theme, and its influence can be felt in the countless parodies, as well as in such popular works as Dragonball and The Incredible Hulk: as man seeks to either excise his own darker side or to "control the raging spirit that dwells within".

Controversial Themes
This is a work that hinges on good and evil. Definite terms are given here, and a black and white morality permeates the piece. It is somewhat disconcerting to see callous disregard as the first sign Hyde's evil, in an incident which might not be remarkable to a modern audience.

**SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD**


The story opens with a conversation between Mr. Utterson and Mr. Enfield in which Enfield relates the circumstance of seeing a man called Mr. Hyde trample a young girl. This Mr. Hyde then delivers a check in the name of a prominent and respected member of the community. Mr. Utterson reveals that he knows the unnamed benefactor to be Dr. Jekyll, and the reader learns that Dr. Jekyll has, for no discernible reason, written his will to strongly favor Mr. Hyde.

What follows is a mystery novel. Mr. Utterson learns more and more incomprehensible details of the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde, and becomes more concerned for his friend as time goes on. Finally, Utterson and one of Jekyll's servants break into his laboratory, seeking to find out the doctor's fate. They find the body of Mr. Hyde, and through letters, assemble the improbable conclusion that Jekyll and Hyde were the same man. Jekyll, corrupted by his own experiments to remove his baser desires, had created an alter ego of himself: a being of pure evil. Eventually, becoming Hyde became an addiction, and it became easier to put on Hyde, and harder to return to Jekyll.

The story deals with uptight morals of Victorian England, and makes its hero of Utterson, a more moderate and human person than Jekyll. Jekyll is a pure paragon, constrained to the point that enjoyment itself is beyond his public face. Jekyll begins to lead a dual life, and both the deception inherent in this, as well as the addiction of the chemical nature of the change both suggest to the reader a sense of corruption in his behavior.

What will, perhaps, strike a modern reader most is that this story is, at heart, a gothic mystery. Most modern retellings depict the story from the perspective of Dr. Jekyll. In fact, living in modern society is to have the twist of Jekyll and Hyde spoiled. It is so well known, that the mystery origins of the story can easily be forgotten.  

Monday Follow-up: Theming your Contribution to Magic Cube Pot Luck

Hey again,

So, on Monday, I talked a bit about how to make an event out of having everybody bring Magic cards to combine into what's called a "cube". That article is here in case you missed it.

With all of that level of event hosting-type logistics out of the way, it's time to think about your own contribution to the cube. You'll have a single color to use, for our example, let's go with Green; but that leaves a lot of leeway in terms of what actually shows up to the table. Today, I'll go into a few different ways to approach this, counting down from five.

#5: All-Stars
This is what you'll typically see in a standard cube. Just go through your color and choose some of the best individual cards available. There might be some issues with cohesion of strategy for the player(s) who choose your color, but the quality of individual cards could offset that, especially when considering that players will be taking them home to add to their own decks. In green, you might have cards like Concordant Crossroads or Exploration.

#4: Borrow the Set
When I say "borrow the set", what I mean is to pull all of the cards from the same block, or even the same expansion. This will give a narratively strong set with a cohesive tone, and many of the cards will work well together. That said, you are, in the end, just borrowing on the set design Wizards of the Coast has already done. For highly popular and thematic sets, like the Kamigawa block, the unique feel and relative obscurity of some of these cards might be worth it; but this may not be the way to go for everyone. If you do this, try to find a set that feels "right". The Innistrad feel could come through strong in white, black, or maybe green, but that gothic tone might not translate as well if you're bringing red or blue to the table.

#3: Creature Tribes
This is a slightly modified version of borrowing the set, as Wizards of the Coast has explored single creature sets in the past. However, with MTG's long backlog of cards, some creatures could form an entire set despite never having come together like that before. One thing you'll want to be sure of, if you want to make this really mechanically viable, is to include cards that have benefits to using that creature type. Green could work well with Elementals, Spiders, Wolves, Elves, or find one that looks good to you. 

#2: Single Keyword
This is where you'll probably start getting players well on board with your choices for the color. If you build your color strong for a single keyword you'll start to see a clear strategy that players can immediately grasp and get behind. Certain keywords are better than others. "Defender" probably won't be much good, and "Reach" is a risky proposition, as you're counting on someone else having thrown enough "Flying" into the block to make it worthwhile. For our example of Green, the obvious go-to would be "Trample", but you could also shoot for "Hexproof", "Delirium", "Landfall", or anything else there seems to be enough of to make it work well.

#1: Modified Deck
. . . and now we come to the point where this could be too specific, or just specific enough, to make or break your color in the cube. For this one, you're essentially building a single strategy deck and modifying the numbers to make ti work well in a draft format. In Green, this might be a mana-ramping deck, a pit-fighter deck, or even a modified version of a deck you already own (best to pick up all the cube cards as a separate purchase though, since you won't necessarily be getting the same cards back). By this point, you're just taking a deck strategy and making it the definition of that color in that cube.

So, there we go, a few different ways to think through building a contribution to a pot luck cube for your next MTG draft. Hopefully, between Monday and today, you've got the info you need to make this great format a reality for your group.

Happy gaming, all.

How to Pot Luck a Magic the Gathering Cube

Hey all,

I've done this once with friends, and we keep talking about trying to plan another. This is a pot luck MTG cube. To start, let's go into a bit of terminology:

Magic: the Gathering: (a.k.a. "MTG") a trading card game designed by Wizards of the Coast. A good article of the basics of the game can be found here. It may be easiest to learn the game from experienced players if you have the opportunity.

Booster Draft: a trading card game draft is a way of opening booster packs while building a deck. Here is an article that goes into how a draft works, though it does assume some prior knowledge of how MTG works.

Cube: A cube is a set of cards that is used in lieu of booster packs for drafts. The cards in the cube are divided into fifteen card "packs" and used like booster packs; however, the contents of the cube are completely player defined.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alright, that out of the way, let's talk about your pot luck cube.

Most cubes are made by a single player and are used to turn classic drafting into something more like a deck building game. The cards are in a box, they come out for the game, and they all go back in at the end of the game. If you're looking to make something a little like Magic, but with a board game tone and feel, consider building a cube this way.

Additionally, since most cubes are carefully constructed sets built by a single player; they involve one person working to develop a balanced game, design their cube, and bring others over to play. This is not the style of play we're talking about today.

For a pot luck cube, the game's a little less predictable. Not only are you left wondering what your opponent's are building, but it gradually comes out in subsequent packs what the cube even looks like. You'll know your own contribution, but that leaves a lot of cube that you'll only know when you see it.

The setup for this kind of event involves first bringing together the group to play. You'll ideally want five or six people to play this type of draft. As people RSVP for the event, have them choose a color not yet taken by a prior RSVP. You'll want to get these commitments in early. About a month before the draft, send out a message to let people know who has what color. Stick with single color assignments. For five players, players choose between Red, Blue, Green, White, or Black. For six players, include the option to contribute Colorless to the cube.

For a normal three pack draft, tell each player to bring three rares, nine uncommons, three lands, and thirty commons in their assigned color.

At the event, shuffle together all rares into one pile, all uncommons into another pile, all commons into a third pile, and all lands into the last pile. Once these stacks are shuffled, make each pack with ten commons, three uncommons, one rare, and one land per pack. Some people prefer not to include lands in the drafts, but for this, I like to include them. This gives contributors the option to add non-basic lands to the set.

Then, draft the packs as normal. It's a good idea as well to offer prizes for the contributor elected to have made the best color in the set. This incentivizes people to do well at every stage of the draft, including in building their own contribution to the cube.

. . .and that's it. A pot luck cube can be a bit chaotic, but it's real fun in a casual enough group. What I like best is that, unlike the standard cube, this is a real draft, in that, you bring forty-five cards, and you leave with a different forty-five cards. You get to keep what you draft, unlike standard cubes where the cards get boxed back up for next time.

Happy gaming, all.

Alter Ego Archive: Oak Thirdson under the Wane Moon

A genuine enjoyment of the barbarian class, and a stubborn affinity for human characters combined a few years back into one of the most enjoyable characters I've ever played in a tabletop game. His name was Oak, full name: Oak Thirdson under the Wane Moon.

His father was reputed of legend as one favored of the spirit of the oak. His mother was foreign, of another northern tribe. Her people were guided by the spirit of the Amaranth. In blighted times, when the great oak tree at the heart of tribal lands was dying, Oak's father went forth, and sought healing magic. He fell in love with Oak's mother, and as she brought to the tribe the magic of the Amaranth, the great oak was saved.

The man's third son, he named Oak. It fell to Oak to voyage to the lands of the milkdrinkers as an ambassador and seek to develop ties with the men of stone walls. He chronicled his journeys thoroughly, and looked forward to the day he could return, his mission completed, and take his place in the tribe. He had been promised the right, upon his return, to ask the hand of the woman he loved. It was this that sustained him in dark times.

Oak fought bravely, though he mistrusted the strange and bookish magics of the lands he'd come to. He was eventually led by a dream to unite with others and seek out the lost city of Kadath. There they would all find Morpheus, and learn the meaning of their strange dreams.

They aided a prince among cats in rescuing his people from a tyrannical community. They clawed their way through spider infested caverns and ape infested forests of towering paralytic mushrooms, and finally reached the coast to seek their goal across the sea. Once aboard ship, they discovered a dark secret hidden by the captain, an eldritch horror beneath the planking which had been tortured to work the oars as the ship's motive power. A fight ensued and the party sailed what remained of the ship into harbor, loaded down with valuable cargo in the form of massive jewels.

Despite the party's best efforts the ship was seized by avaricious dock inspectors who pinned the horror related deaths on the party. The group slunk out of town in secret, and Oak vowed violent revenge on the town.

The group traveled for days from the town, until finally reaching an unnatural and forsaken plateau. Inside, they slew a great flying beast while it slept and crept through long corridors depicting ancient and unknown gods and devils. Finally, they reached a deep chamber, after descending an enormous staircase. After a fight with a lone and raving cultist, a veil withdrew, and Nyarlthotep sat sneering in the place of Morpheus. He spoke in riddles, and after a long fall in darkness Oak woke up. It was Boston in the 1920s, the hypnotist had left sometime after putting his guests in trance, and Catherine Fortier was beset with the memories of this "Oak", left wondering what was real.

This was where our 4E D&D campaign ended and switched over into the World of Darkness system. I'm sure at some point, this Alter Ego Archive will come back around to Catherine Fortier, but until then; happy gaming, all.

Thursday

It's midnight, so it's technically already tomorrow. Since the next post will be a day late anyway, I'll take the extra time to get something better going. Back in another half a day. It'll be good (hopefully). 

Happy Thursday, all. 

Book Review: At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

At the Mountains of Madness
Author: H.P. Lovecraft
Publishing Date: 1936 (published with errors and abridgments, not corrected until 1985 reprint)
Setting Genre: Research Expedition
Narrative Genre: Horror, Ancient Aliens, Science Fiction
Themes: Hubris, Smallness of mankind

Subjective Length: A day or so

Overall 6/10 This is an excellent work, well worth reading for fans of the ancient aliens subset of horrific science fiction. Outside of that fairly narrow demographic, however, it likely has a very limited appeal. That being said, this story, and Lovecraft's body of work in general, began trends that continue into modern horror and even have their influences as far flung as Adventure Time and The Simpsons. If this, admittedly narrow, genre piques your curiosity at all, give this or, really, anything at all by Lovecraft, a look.

Controversial Themes:
Body Horror: At the Mountains of Madness deals with the horror of gore and the existential horror of its equivalent in beings not possessing bodies in the traditional sense. The imagery is disturbing throughout, to great effect, but possibly beyond what some readers can handle.
Origin of Man: Lovecraft in this work explores a fictional cosmology that, to my knowledge, is not the accepted origin of man in any scientific or religious beliefs actually held today.
The Place of Humanity: Lovecraft's mythos, explored deeply in this work in particular, emphasizes humanity's smallness as an aspect of the horror. Humanity is not seen as cosmically special or important in any way whatsoever. This is not so much controversial, as simply potentially very uncomfortable for some readers.

**SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD**

The story follows the exploration of an antarctic expedition looking to perform geological surveys. In this it references the fictional Miskatonic University, located in the fictional town of Arkham. This references other stories and places this work in the same continuity as Lovecraft's mythos; which includes: Cthulhu, The Great Old Ones, shoggoths, and other elements which have become mainstays of modern cosmic horror.

During their expeditions, they discover a mountain range beyond the reach of previous expeditions, and reaching higher than the Himalayas. Near this, a cavern is discovered with the remains of several strange and ancient creatures of a level of biological advancement not thought to have existed at the time the strata indicates they would have. Most of this is relayed to the main characters of the story by radio from a forward camp of the expedition. When the main camp loses contact with this group, they go to investigate. They find evidence of a struggle and inexplicable violence.

Two men fly over the high mountains, seeking answers, and find the remnants of an impossibly old civilization. It is discovered that some of the recovered specimens were still alive after thawing, and, in violence, escaped the camp, seeking to return to the civilization they'd known in ancient times.

Deep beneatwithin the city, the men discover these and other secrets written in a hieroglyphic language which they are able to interpret pictorally. It is here that they encounter the eldritch creatures which have taken residence in the crypts of these old ones: the shoggoths. A shoggoth, described as a vaguely made creature, intended as a slave which could shapeshift to complete various tasks, is seen briefly in the cavernous remains of the city. It chases the two men from the ruins.

The entire story is written in the past tense, by a man fearing to be called mad for his claims, but who came forward because of the urgency with which he feels he must prevent a future expedition from attempting to delve those same depths into the realm of things man was not meant to know.

This story explains the history of earth and space in Lovecraft's mythology more than many others which he wrote. Nevertheless, Lovecraft possesses a talent for keeping the monster scary after the reveal that is rare in the genre. As Orson Scott Card said, (paraphrasing) dread comes from an unseen menace, terror from a threat, and genuine horror is in the gory aftermath.

Most offerings of the horror genre are disturbing in the horror, startling in the terror, and only truly frightening in the dread: that is, in the time before the monster comes to light. The unknown frightens. Lovecraft, as seen in this work in particular, has a skill for explaining everything the human mind can grasp of his monsters, and placing the thing in vivid color in the reader's path, and still, through some rare talent, making it so other that it cannot help but have an aspect of the unknown.

The added horror of the piece, and of much of Lovecraft's writing, is that these things of other dimensions are not beyond veils of death or through gateways to fantastic realms. They are not on other worlds or other planes of existence. They are beneath the thin scraping of the earth's crust. These things that shouldn't be, whose mere presences are the precursors of madness, lie beneath a few feet of rock, or just around the next corner. Earth, to Lovecraft's mythos, is not the sole dominion of man, and the senses and knowledge of man is not sufficient to know our place in this world we thought we ruled. This is the true terror of what lies beneath the Antarctic ice.

Happy reading, all.

Top Five: Favorite Halloween Comedies

Not every movie that fits the Halloween season is a horror suited to keeping the viewer up at night, staring into the shadows for signs of creeping things. Sometimes, a movie comes out with the monsters, hauntings, and isolation of the best in horror, but with a tone of irreverence or jocularity that turns fear to laughter. If the darker offerings of the season are too much for you, or you're just looking for a brief reprieve in your Halloween viewing schedule, take a look at some of these. I will say, this list is subjective, and there are probably deserving movies that didn't do it for me, or that I haven't even seen. That said, let's get into the list. Entries will be hyperlinked to their imdb pages.

5. Ghostbusters (1984) [PG]

Ghostbusters is a classic 80s comedy. Usually, this is seen as another Bill Murray/Dan Akroyd vehicle in a long line of the same; but combined with the star power of Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver, this is a great line-up that would be known in film schools even if it had been terrible. Lucky for us, the film was not only an interesting conflation of established and up-and-coming stars of the decade; on top of it all, it was a good movie. It hit the sweet spot of a world that takes itself seriously, and characters that maintain an irreverent attitude that, nevertheless, never pulls back the curtain on what is, after all, a fairly absurd premise in worldbuilding. The central conceit of the film is a company that proves the existence of ghosts, and proceeds to market their services as one would market pest exterminators. Not only is it funny on the surface, but the symbolism in the film has led various comedy critiques to describe the movie as everything from a libertarian dream to a science-powered revolt against religion. Whatever your read on the film, the jokes hit soundly, and the premise maintains vast and ridiculous elements without risking losing the audience.

4. Little Shop of Horrors (1986) [PG-13]

Little Shop of Horrors is another film with Rick Moranis, and, while it's overshadowed in his filmography by such titles as Spaceballs and the Honey I Shrunk the Kids series, I consider it among his best performances. If this was before your time, imagine Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, but lampooning horror instead of super heroes. The songs have been parodied multiple times in Seth MacFarlane's work, and, again, this is a movie that picks a premise and sticks to it. This is a film of earnest and invested characters in a situation the audience can laugh at. There's a certain appeal to a film that trusts the audience to get the joke without constant fourth wall winks. The opposite has its place, but in a slew of movies that are either grim as gravel or lampshading so hard that the lighting crew goes on strike, its refreshing to reach into the past for a different way of getting the laughs.

3. Shaun of the Dead (2004) [R]

Shaun of the Dead is a fantastic comedy that mocks zombie movies and is generally regarded as the first in the Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy. These are Simon Pegg/Nick Frost vehicles and are Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End. Personally, I think Shaun of the Dead is the trilogy's high point, which is no slight on the others. The story is tight and full of fun easter eggs that the filmmakers are content to leave as easter eggs. Some movies go out of their way to show off their cleverness, but movies that let the neat touches stay subdued can add a lot of interest. This is especially true in the internet age, when there's no need for every viewer to get the joke. If one viewer picks up on it, the world will know soon enough. A warning, this is one of the harder "R"s I've seen. Deadpool and The Punisher come to mind as rougher, but the harsh language in this is pretty much constant. Go in forewarned, but if that's no worry to you, have fun.

2. Young Frankenstein (1974) [PG]

Young Frankenstein is a movie from the excellent and peerless Mel Brooks, and starring the irreplaceable Gene Wilder and Frankie Boyle. I'll admit, too, that I haven't seen Marty Feldman in much otherwise, but his performance as Igor helped make the movie what it is, and, before I go off in heaping praise on literally everyone involved, I'll just say that this film is not only wonderfully acted, but so well cast as to heap commendation on the casting director. The plot follows the grandson of Victor Frankenstein returning to his grandfather's research and brings the hijinks, humor, and heart that any fan of Mel Brooks would expect from his work. It holds a coherent plot a little more strongly than Blazing Saddles, and stands as one of the best in the filmography of most involved.

1. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010) [R]

. . . and, topping the list, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is a masterpiece of believable trope subversion. The plot turns every expectation of the horror genre on its head without ever actually feeling like a parody. It reminds the viewer of Joss Whedon's famous quote: "Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke." The characters face trauma, gore, and horror, and everyone on all sides acts in terrified self defense, and the entire thing becomes a comedy of errors with deadly stakes. The core concept is innocent friends who happen to look like the classic "inbred, hillbilly maniac" horror villain are the victims of misunderstanding upon misunderstanding. If you can handle some blood, and enjoy dark humor, this is, in my opinion, probably one of the ten best movies ever made. Treat yourself.

Happy viewing, all.

Book Review: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein
Author: Mary Shelley
Publishing Date: 1818 (current revision published 1831)
Setting Genre: Realism, Set in Europe, Science Fiction
Narrative Genre: Horror, Slasher,
Themes: Mad Science, Man's Hubris

Subjective Length: 3-5 days

Overall 8/10. Not only a classic, but a fairly easy read as classics go. This work is seminal to the roots of science fiction and established tropes that would define the genre for over a century. The horror of mankind's own doing would inform science fiction in general and be a mainstay of robotic science fiction in particular until Asimov's famous three laws. In Shelley's work, we have a man arrogant enough to tread on forbidden ground in the name of curiosity and discovery; a theme to come to its fruition in the works of H.P. Lovecraft a century later. The notion of this type of self-important scientist would spread beyond its genre of birth, finding fertile ground as far afield as the character of Henry Higgins in Shaw's Pygmalion (later adapted as My Fair Lady). All this to say, Frankenstein is a work of pressing importance to the histories of both horror and science fiction.

Controversial Themes:
Incest: While, in the 1831 revision, Victor and Elizabeth were only adoptive siblings; they were cousins in the first publication, and continue to call each other "cousin" in the revised version. They were raised as siblings, and yet maintain a romantic relationship encouraged by the adults in their lives.
Enlightenment Philosophy: The creature espouses the enlightenment philosophy of Rousseau, claiming that he was made morally good, but was corrupted by interaction with humanity.
Body Horror: The creature, in each appearance, is described in vivid and disturbing terms. These are not typically highly descriptive terms, but rather, highly evocative ones.

**SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD**

The story begins with a framing device, in which we see a captain seeking to find hidden knowledge in the arctic. He finds a man nearly dead on the ice, and induces him to share his story. The man, Victor Frankenstein, complies, hoping to urge his new-found friend away from arrogance at seeking after things too grandiose for man. 

He relates the details of his early life, introducing the characters of his adoptive sister, Elizabeth, and their childhood friend, Henry Clerval; and moves on to describe his archaic early education in medicine. 

He then relates his going to university, and the negative reactions he finds in those who learn of his attachment to ancient writers of alchemical works. In the combination of his early and his formal schooling, he determines to pursue modern science with its practicalities without abandoning the heart of ancient alchemy, with all its lofty goals. 

He finds, in two years study, the secret to restoring life to dead tissue. He here interrupts his own narrative to interact with the framing device and insist that he will not share this secret with the ship's captain. He assembles the grisly parts needed and brings his creation to life when, horrified by the squirming mass he sees, he flees his laboratory. When he must return to it later, he is relieved to find the creature gone.

Time passes, and while preparing to return home from the university, he learns that his youngest brother has been murdered. He returns and sees the form of the thing he made in the shadows, and knows that the thing he made was the killer. Nevertheless, he has no plausible evidence to offer to protect the family's maid, and she is tried and executed for the boy's death. 

The creature then approaches its maker, and relates its life. It speaks of misty and not understood sensations until it came to rest in the woods. It then made its way to a small homestead where it watched the family that lived there. It was there that the creature learned of humanity, and learned language. After learning to read, it looked over the notes in the pocket of its stolen coat, and learned the details of its origin, and who made it. It spent its nights helping quietly with the family's chores, and then, finally, decided to introduce itself to the blind patriarch of the family while the others were out. It seems to succeed somewhat in inducing the old man to sympathy, but the return of the rest of the family, and their violent reactions to the creature's appearance force it back into the woods and into hiding. 

Then, it turned on mankind. It came to Frankenstein's home village, and upon learning the boy was related to Frankenstein, the creature killed the boy, and as a spite on mankind in general, it framed the housekeeper for the death. 

It then, in speaking to Victor, demanded a mate. It played on the doctor's sympathies and guilted its creator into not leaving it alone in the world. Victor, after much inner turmoil, went north to consult new research in biology and to re-establish the work he hated and had regretted since he first made the creature. 

On seeing the creature in the window of his new lobarotary, Victor is struck with the potential for harm in his latest work, and destroys the female creature he'd been making. The creature, seeing this, goes off in a rage, killing Henry Clavel, who'd come along to see England. 

Victor returns home, determined to kill the creature if he sees it again. He marries Elizabeth, and, on going out to try to face the creature, hears her scream. He returns to see her murdered on the bed. Emotionally broken, he set out on the creature's trail, tracking it to the arctic where he met with the ship that rescued him. 

After relating this, Victor dies of exposure. The captain then finds the creature he'd only heard of in the story in the cabin with the body. It seeks one more time to justify its behavior before declaring that there is no purpose left to prolonged existence, and that, its enemy dead, it would go north to lie on a funeral pyre to die. 

The story deals strongly with themes of parenthood. Victor is, on some level, motivated in his research by the death of his mother; and the creature ascribes its own depraved behavior to abandonment by Victor. The horror Victor feels at creating a female companion to the creature reaches its apex at realizing that if the two could procreate, his actions could condemn the human race to annihilation. 

In another theme, the creature associates itself with the portrayal of Satan depicted in Milton's Paradise Lost: a foul being cast aside by its creator. The book opens with the quote: "Did I request Thee, Maker, from my clay // To mould me man, Did I solicit Thee // From darkness to promote me?" from the tenth section of Paradise Lost. The creature even asserts at one point: "Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred." 

This book goes into not only dark areas of narrative, but into shadowy areas of morality. It leaves the reader wondering what mankind, as creators of this monster, owed to it. Can we say that its actions were unjustified, or even condemn them as disproportionate? Was this creature a form of man, sinful and claiming innocence; or was it some new species, unfallen until we acted the tempter towards it? Whatever the answers, this is a book that asks questions that can shape subtle shades of philosophy; and leave a reader changed for the experience. Happy reading, all.

Book Review: Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dracula
-Author: Bram Stoker
-Publishing Date: 1897
-Setting Genre: Historical Fiction: Europe
-Narrative Genre: Horror, Epistlary
-Themes: Scientist of Mythology, Religious Faith, Seduction, the Other

Subjective Length: A week or so

Overall 7/10. This is a definitive classic of horror writing and establishes conventions still seen today. The expert in disregarded lore seen in the character of Van Helsing recurs in characters like Daniel Jackson of Stargate, the archaeologist who ascribes to the ancient aliens notion; or the heroes of Roger Zelazny's Amber novels, who interchange magic and science with impunity, utilizing whichever happens to work best with the physics of their current reality; and is subverted in works like "Ghostbusters" where the main characters face ancient beings without prolonged library trips to study ancient ritual, opting instead for the, less common, scientific firepower approach. The Vampire myth may predate this work, but it is Bram Stoker's most memorable work that kept this ancient piece of folklore alive into the modern horror genre.

Controversial Themes: 
Sex: There is a strong metaphorical association between sex and the vampire's bite. This was explored more thoroughly in later works on the theme, however, the implication is there.This includes an attempted seduction wherein a vampiric trio of women seek to seduce one of the main characters in a scene existing somewhere on the edge of waking and dreaming. 
Religion: The handling of religion in the piece could be problematic for several types of readers. Firstly, there is a strong Christian overtone, and the assertion that vampires are, as defined by scripture, a form of demon, banishable only by the trappings of faith in Jesus Christ. Secondly, the assertion of them as, in some vague capacity, demonic powers makes for the Christian reader the difficulty of seeing Christians made victims of demonic possession, if even in fiction. 
Body Horror: Not so much controversial, as simply outside of some readers' comfort zones. The drinking of blood and the visceral effects of Vampiric infection are a milder version than what modern horror fans may be used to; however the elements of body horror remain; old fashioned as some of them may now seem. 

**SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD**

The story takes place in the journal entries, and occasional letters of the human protagonists. The narrative opens with Jonathan Harker's journals of his attempts to act as real estate agent for the foreigner Count Dracula, of Transylvania. Harker has come out to Dracula's homeland to help him work through the purchase of land in England. Harker gradually becomes aware that his host is not human, and the dread of the unknown creeps into the narrative through multiple encounters of increasing horror. 

We are then introduced to Mina Murray, Jonathan's fiance, as well as Lucy Westenra, who is proposed to three times in a single day. Their correspondence serves to establish several contributing characters to the story. John Seward, a psychiatrist, Quincy Morris, an American from Texas, and Arthur Holmwood, the man Lucy truly loves in return. 

It is after this that the reader is presented with an account from a newspaper detailing accounts of a captain gone mad, which, nevertheless, smacks of the journals of Harker, and makes clear that Dracula has come to England. 

Lucy is then lured out, and found sleepwalking on the cliffs with small punctures on her throat. She falls into an illness, and John Seward sends for aid from a fellow doctor named Abraham Van Helsing. He analyzes the causes of the illness, and begins to seek to remedy her illness; which consists in the need of constant blood transfusions to maintain life. He also adorns her room in flowering garlic.  

Despite their efforts, Lucy dies, and stories begin to circulate of a woman abducting children in the parks of  Hampstead. Van Helsing returns from his research and proves through an encounter with the dead woman that it is Lucy Westenra, returned from the dead as a demonic corpse, and leads her former suitors in a carefully timed assault to destroy the corpse's capacity for reanimation. 

It is after this, that Mina and Jonathan join in the fight and begin a careful compilation of all notes relevant to the creature that has come for them. The group begins to track down and destroy the coffins of fouled soil brought over by the Count as sanctuaries. Then, Mina is attacked and infected with the same vampiric influence that killed Lucy.  

In the final act, the Count is hunted down as he seeks to return to his castle in Transylvania. He is found within his final remaining coffin, being transported by day by his hired men. The protagonists assemble and destroy the corpse, finally ending the Count's ability to hold sway the minds of men. 

The book has a bittersweet ending, and does a better job than some other works of ending with the victory of the heroes, yet acknowledging what was lost and who is mourned in the wake of horrific events. The characters survive, but are not unchanged by their trauma. It is, in the end, a triumph of the human species, and the most human reaction to all that has transpired, is to mourn and remember the lost along the way. It is at the end, then, that we see what was being fought for. That humanity would shake off the tyranny of the callous, and stand as fragile beings, unafraid of our vulnerability, and knowing that our capacity to mourn the dead will be what strengthens our resolve against more traditionally potent archetypes of strength and power. It is this hope, shining in the darkness, that has kept this work of dark and violent horror relevant to generations of fans. 

Happy reading, all. 

Cool Link

So, I've been looking at some other blogs lately, and decided I'd really like to link to this. It's a great post, and I couldn't work out anything to pair it with for a post, so it's a light post from me today.

Review the World: Freedom Planet

Freedom Planet
Developed by: GalaxyTrail Games
Gameplay Genre: Speed Platformer/Action Platformer
Narrative Genre: Alien Invasion, Anthro
Released for: PC, Wii U, PS4, Linux systems

Subjective Length: About ten hours per playthrough

Overall: 8/10 If you've already got one of the consoles this will play on, then it's worth getting this game. If you're a big enough fan of old school platformers with modern polish, then that might bump up to a 9, which is: "this game is worth buying a console for". This is a game in the tradition of the early Sonic the Hedgehog titles. There are multiple characters to play as. As Lilac, the game becomes a speed game with a very Sonic feel. As Carol: the game slows slightly to a more Knuckles experience. Meanwhile, Milla is a glass cannon only available after a few levels of play, and whose playstyle will form a true test of timing, planning, and precision. The controls overall feel like a fluid blend of Sonic and Megaman titles.

There has been some criticism of the story. I'll say this: the story is probably not award-worthy, but it's perfectly good for the game, and probably still better than it needed to be to make this game shine. It's somewhat simple, and there's occasional tonal dissonance, but overall, I was pleasantly surprised by a story more coherent and well told than a lot of what passes for triple A these days.

It's going for $14.99 right now on Steam, and there's a free demo up as well for anyone eager to give the game a try before you buy. The store page is here. I say, give it a go. Happy gaming, all.

On the Proper Deployment of Ghouls

Hey all,

Still sick, doctor's appointment Wednesday. Whatever happens with that will probably effect posting this week, but until then: I said the 26th, so we'll see what my brain's making at the moment.

OSRIC stands for Old School Reference and Index Compilation. It's partly an AD&D retroclone, and partly a slicing down of the original rules to an open license core of the system. It's a resource for players seeking to use the OGL, or "open game license", which makes certain aspects of the original mechanics legally usable by third parties. This license allowed for the creation of many derivative works, including, most famously, Pathfinder.

When I last ran an OSRIC game, some good came of it. That was, unfortunately, also the campaign that turned into a rolling dumpster fire of relationship drama before the end. Still, the system itself is pretty fun, and includes a much more robust bestiary than a player would expect from a pure OGL resource.

One of my favorite enemies I got to use were Ghouls. I only got to throw them at the party twice, but they had an impact. The first thing that I think gave them that impact was using them sparingly. This was a campaign that ran slightly over a year, I think, and usually once to twice a month. They faced a trio of them early on, and then, months later, straight "noped" their way out of an infested mortuary. Two steps in, torches reveal Ghouls, two steps back and locked the door behind them.

One great thing with Ghouls in the OSRIC book is their paralysis attack. With no warning to a party of newer players, that paralysis is a frightening thing. Imagine their reaction to hearing "two damage, and roll against paralysis". This stat had never been called for before when they first encountered these enemies, and it gave a thrill of the unknown.

Another thing that made the Ghouls a seriously scary enemy was that I was getting into a school of thought on GMing at the time that involved replacing "cannon fodder" NPCs with NPCs with motives. That is, mercenaries will probably flee before fighting to the last man. For Ghouls, that meant feeding. As soon as the first character went down with paralysis, the Ghoul she was fighting took her character by the shoulders and began crabwalking backwards towards and up the pillars they'd descended from. Paralysis is bad enough, but undead monstrosities attempting to cart away players' paralyzed bodies adds a time component to the fight as well as a new thrill of fear of the unknown.

So, that's my experience with Ghouls. I say, give 'em a go, these old school foes can present quite the frightening encounter for a low level party of adventurers. Happy gaming, all.

Brief Hiatus

Between a touch of sickness, and a mounting to-do list, I've gotten in over my head in life in general. I'll be putting the blog on hiatus this week to try to catch up, and the blog should be back to normal starting again on September 26th. Until next time!

Five RPG genres with unique challenges

Often, when a group sits down to play an RPG, there's only a handful of story genres that get real consideration. Fantasy naturally comes up often, and rightly so. The D&D origins of the hobby hold a special place for many gamers. After fantasy, science fiction seems to be popular, and tends toward the future fantasy side of the genre rather than hard science fiction.

All that said, there are some fun story types that tend to be less likely choices in these games, and while we'll be looking at some of the challenges that accompany these genres, please don't take it as a discouragement to consider some of these underplayed genres when you start looking into trying something new on game night.

       #5 Westerns

                                                                                                           "HerdQuit" by Charles Marion Russell                      
The western genre has a rich pedigree in American culture. Many modern stories like the Jack Reacher series still borrow the trope of the mysterious stranger and the lone gunman. Shows like Firefly seek to reinvent classic tropes in new settings. Meanwhile, video games like Red Dead Redemption and movies like The Revenant are forming a revival of the genre for a modern audience.

The challenges attendant on a Western game are twofold. One, westerns aren't as popular as they once were. Put in the simplest possible terms, westerns were on their way out of the cultural consciousness as role playing games were on their way in, and it could be a hard sell to the typical gamer to get invested in a story like this. Two, the power fantasy is present, but lessened. Cowboys, ranchmen, and all the attendant players in events are larger than life, and the core audience served is one seeking a power fantasy; and yet, the fantasy is not as overblown and potent as in fantasy and science fiction. Players will be saving homesteads and towns, not kingdoms, planes, and planets.

The western genre is worth considering for creating a power fantasy that deals with old American ideals. Freedom is more important to the fantasy than rule or dominion. Individualism comes from isolation and the apathy or unavailability of greater armies rather than from the players simply dealing with problems out of the league of anyone else.

For the logical cap of the power fantasy, stories of the famed Texas Rangers may be good source material.

       #4 Stone Age

                                                                  "Imaginative depiction of the Stone Age" by Viktor Vasnetsov
". . . solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short", the stone age is a genre seldom explored in fiction. Nevertheless, the nature of it incorporates elements of travelogue, survival, and man vs. nature in whatever form it enters the public imagination. Films and books like Clan of the Cave Bear explore a world familiar, yet frightening in it's harsh intensity.

As in the example of westerns above, the difficulties here deal with getting players interested in trying a game idea that might seem "weird", as well as in taking players who are used to wielding the elemental forces of nature and selling them on a game where they are left huddled against the deprivations of cold and hunger.

If wolves have become blase to your D&D power gamers, a trip to the primeval tundra may be just the thing to put the fear of man's ancestral foes back into the group. This can also be a great exercise for you as a game master in dynamic and challenging terrain design, environmental hazards, and many more of this type of mechanic that can be so easily left underutilized in the more common tabletop modes of play.

As stated above, Clan of the Cave Bear in either the book or movie form is required reading when embarking into this narrative genre.

       #3 Superheroes

                                                                                                  "Public Domain Superheroes" by Chaostar

This one is iffy, but I'll include it here as a nod to my own experiences in tabletop gaming. Superheroes are certainly popular since Marvel's experiment in building their shared universe for The Avengers. Though, their popularity has been steadily gaining since their creation. Christopher Reeve's performance in Superman and even Adam West's fun and campy take on the genre in Batman got things rolling toward the earliest X-men and Spiderman movies, and Christopher Nolan's work in Batman Begins and onward have all together built a vibrant and robust genre of source material.

Unlike the prior examples, superhero stories can be an easy sell for players. The difficulties are coming, however. Most glaringly is the difficulty of ensuring a "Good always wins" tone to match genre expectations, without killing suspense in gameplay. The other difficulty is in managing power levels. The ability to level a city block in your heroes makes it hard to construct a plausible threat. Add to this that superheroes tend to value law and order as a means of narratively reigning in their awesome powers, and that tabletop players tend to justify their actions by their results, and you've got an out-of-control team of death that answers the question "What if the Punisher had Superman's powers?" The answer, of course, being, "The stories just turn into an unkillable deity smiting foes at will until bored."

That said, the popularity of the superhero genre means that, sooner or later, you'll have players at your table eager to roll up do-gooders or, more likely, morally ambiguous vigilantes, in order to take to the streets and clean up the scum. Best advice: cap the power levels. Street level heroes like Luke Cage or Spiderman are much more manageable for the game master.

For source material on superheroes, I mean, seriously? Just go outside. Leave your house in 2016 and you will know what superheroes are.

       #2 Pirates 

                                                                                                 "Title Unknown" by Jean Leon Jerome Ferris

To be fair, there are a handful of solid pirate game expansions out there, but, in my experience they tend to be D&D on the coastline with rum in place of mead. What I'm talking about with pirate stories are stories of ocean-bound outlaws, facing the hazards of the sea and the crown. The first Pirates of the Carribean movie does a great job of this, and the sequels definitely have their moments of capturing the feel of buried treasure, unknown lands, oppressive authority, and a culture of rumors and legends cobbled together from homeland fairy tales, stories brought back by marauding conquistadors, and the strange and frightening beliefs of little understood native peoples.

The challenges here are similar to what one would find in attempting to run a hard science fiction game: that is, there is a high barrier of entry to get all the fiddly little details accurate to modern knowledge. Ship-board life, ship classifications, celestial navigation, and naval engagements are esoteric information not generally known to the average gamer or game master. Meanwhile, the social mores and beliefs of the time could prove uncomfortable for modern players. Lastly, the chain of command aboardship can put some players in direct authority over others, which can be a point of contention and resentment in some groups.

Despite all this, a mature, intelligent group, who are willing to do a little academic legwork for their fun, could find a lot here to love. Piratical stories of the unknown and potentially mystical can hit a sweet spot between power fantasy and disempowering horror (think Captain Jack's marching into the mouth of the kraken in the second Pirates movie).

Obviously, Pirates of the Carribean is a great source here, and also consider classics like Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island. 

       #1 Post-Apocalyptic

                                        Part of "Life After Apocalypse" by Vladimir Manyuhin

While there are some great post-apocalyptic games out there, they tend not to be the go-to genre for many game groups. With influences as diverse as Fallout, Mad Max, The Road, later entries in the Terminator franchise, Time Enough at Last, and I Am Legend; this is a difficult genre to give a more specific definition than "The world's different now, and we're still not quite used to it."

The challenges in post-apocalyptic gaming deal with the sheer breadth of material available to both the game master and the players. For the game master, the apocalyptic scenario needs nailing down, and the structure of the emerging culture needs enough definition to give structure to play. Neither of these would be too difficult if they weren't completely open-ended questions. For the player's options, the game master needs to constantly make rulings on what works, what doesn't, what knowledge humanity has, what knowledge the player character's have, and on and on. Can a man who can use a gun repair a gun? What apparatus and special knowledge is required to disassemble a grenade both safely and usefully? How far does science need to rebuild before players can power, but not reinvent, old world data systems? The list goes on.

Nevertheless, this can make for some fun gaming that takes our own world and empowers players to take what they like in clear conscience. Of all the genres in this article, post-apocalyptic most fits the playstyle and attitudes of most players in these types of games. In the post-apocalyptic world, the race goes not to the swift, but to the psychopath willing to break his opponent's legs. Nine times out of ten, your players are those psychopaths.

This is a hard one to give good influences for, since the genre is so large and loosely defined. Best I can suggest is to find material directly related to the type of scenario you'd like to explore.

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Happy gaming, all.