In Which The Warlock Picks Nits...

Having a "real job" does have its perks.  While I'm still up to my eyeballs, between grading, planning, writing papers for online classes, and the struggles to finish out Cold Steel Wardens, the best perk of having a real job is undoubtedly the cash...which, in gaming terms, means gaming swag!

Since graduating and entering the workforce, there's hardly a doubt that my gaming library has increased.  It's overflowing our game room shelves, to the point where we swiftly need to rearrange our collection!  That said, I do try to be judicious in my spending--after all, there's only so much that one can spend on gaming!  I check out reviews on RPG.net, and try to read sample chapters or previews before I actually make a purchase.

But, even among the best of gamebooks out there, there are certain nitpicks that just drive me up a wall:

No Index!

Oh, man!  This one's an unforgivable sin.  You see, a game manual--particularly a core-rulebook--is, in essence, a reference book.  While full of flavor text, fiction, and setting material, a well-written game manual should make it easy to find information quickly and easily.  Indexes make character creation easier, rules referencing swifter, and overall organization more...well, organized!  With this age of print-on-demand and numerous print utilities, it's easier than ever to include an index any work.

Heroes Unlimited, the old warhorse that brought me into the gaming in the first place, is the biggest offender on my shelf in this regard.  While the Palladium rules set overall is messy enough, the lack of an index makes the rules almost impossible to navigate swiftly during a game session.  Situational rules become hard to find, which slows down the pace of a game.  A simple index could easily solve the problem, but such isn't the case.

Bad Font Choices!

Cursive!  Curse you!

As I'm learning, fonts are an incredibly powerful thing.  In choosing fonts for Cold Steel Wardens, I've been trying to find ones that exude a gritty, urban feel but are still legible and easy to read.  Fonts have a tendency to inspire irrational rage in certain people--just see the crusade against Comic Sans!

In this case, All For One: Regime Diabolique was the biggest offender for me.  While fancy cursive calligraphy perfectly fits the Musketeer-milieu, the cursive font chosen for chapter sub-headings came out gritty and grainy, making those sub-headings difficult to read, and impossible to discern at a glance.  I can't imagine how these headings look in PDF format--it certainly can't be legible!



Uber-NPCs!

NPCs are important.  We all know this.  I have a massive chapter in CSW devoted solely to populating the world and giving unique hooks and elements to base campaign sessions around.  That said, NPCs are there to provide opportunities for PC interaction.  They may be major players, yes, but they should never be the most major.

As much as I love it, Deadlands is a big offender here.  While significantly toned down in the Reloaded version, the Classic Deadlands rules made major NPCs into invincible killing machines with literally every power and skill in the book.  Worst of all was the time-jumping Jackie Wells, whom The Journeyman GM railed against in his sessions of the "Heart of Darkness" trilogy.  On the plus side, though, the current rules at let you destroy those NPCs in the Plot Point campaigns!

Kitchen Sink Gaming!

Great system.  Great setting.
Can't say that I cared for them together...

I'm a big believer in mechanics supporting a specific method of play.  While generic systems are neat and viable for some things, I find that they tend to leave the flavor of the game in the hands of the GM, rather than bringing it to the table through mechanics.  For example, Savage Worlds makes for great pulp games and, with its gambling and poker elements, fits the Weird West of Deadlands.  But, after reading through both Realms of Cthulhu and the Horror Companion, I'm more and more convinced that I never want to run a true horror game with Savage Worlds--the game simply isn't built around that concept, especially when games like Dread or Call of Cthulhu are available.  You can surely hammer a nail with a wrench, but wouldn't a hammer be easier?

The d20 glut was a huge offender here, but it's Mutants and Masterminds that gets my goat the most.  While I respect the game greatly--and, for Justice League or Avengers-style adventures, it can work very well--every time I've played M&M, I find that the rules just add nothing to the experience.  That, in my eyes, is a problem, but it's one I intend to fix...


Okay, so this post was a touch negative.  Next time out, let's take a look at some of my favorite schemes in game design!

In Which The Warlock is Overwhelmed...

I've got a bit of a confession to make, my friends and neighbors.  You see, I haven't been giving this blog all the attention that it deserves.  After almost a year and a half of faithful twice-weekly entries, time and energy have just run out on my end.

I like to think that you're sympathetic in this regard.  You see, in addition to my normal, "real" job of teaching, I've also been taking two college courses for my professional development plan, as well as reformatting all of my courses for iPad usage, as part of the Northmont iPad Pilot program.  On top of all that, I've been working on establishing copyrights and incorporation for my forthcoming company and working on items for our weekly games.

Quite simply, I'm overwhelmed.  There's just too much to do.

That's why, at least until December, I'm going to take my blogging frequency back down to once per week.  Until I manage to get my life back in line, I need to be able to focus on schoolwork, professional development, and actually putting out a potential product.

That said, I'll still do my best to put forward new thoughts on game design, previews for Cold Steel Wardens and The Pendulum Method, reviews of all things geeky in the Miami Valley, and more.  In fact, you can check out a brand new upload--the Huntsmen, a series of PCs for ICONS: Superpowered Roleplaying.

Enjoy, and keep forging on, brothers and sisters!  We can do it!

In Which The Warlock Rolls Again, now with Advantage...

This past Friday, the current Wittenberg Guildies hosted a "Beginner's Luck" one-shot, focusing on introducing new gamers to both the hobby and roleplaying as an idea.  While we originally had an array of three one-shots prepped--a D&D Next playtest, a Savage Worlds conversion of Firefly, and a Marvel-themed ICONS game--demand and an unlucky power outage reduced us down to two sessions of the playtest.

Now, you might recall that I wasn't exactly kind in my previous playtests of this rule-set.  Both as a player and a GM, massive flaws became quickly apparent, which really led to difficulties with the game as a whole.

Since then, those rules have undergone a fair amount of revision:  two sub-classes were added (the Warlock and the Sorcerer), character generation rules were included, and the Fighter's basic mechanics were altered to include an "expertise die" that refreshed each round.

Mind you, I wasn't planning on running D&D that evening, much less the new playtest rules, which I had only skimmed over.  While the new playtest packet contained an adventure--"Reclaiming Blingdenstone"--I was barely able to glance at said adventure before game had started.  Plus, we didn't exactly have a balanced party for a dungeon crawl.  My four players ended up rolling a Warlock, a Wizard, a Sorcerer and a Fighter; nary a Rogue nor Cleric to be seen!

And you thought they were bad,
before they were wizards!

As such, I had to improvise.  Figuring that our three arcanists probably knew each other, I decided to run a riff on the immortal Harry Potter series, placing our erstwhile adventurers in the library of Ikksplatt University of the Arcane Arts, something of a combination of Hogwart's Academy and Faber College, from the immortal frat-boy hit, Animal House.

And, oh my...we had a blast.

After a swarm of stirges ambushed some thirsty co-eds outside the library--which were fought off by our intrepid investigators, naturally--Headmaster Gornash offered the group a  "book stipend" if they could infiltrate the Theta Gamma Delta fraternity house and find out what was causing the stirge infestation on campus.

This led to a crazy showdown at a "wizard's mark" party at the fraternity house, some rather...unorthodox...uses of the Charm Person spell, and a series of encounters with a drunken half-ogre invoker.  In the end, the players managed to make it down into the cold dorm, where the fraternity president and his stoner elf frat brother were keeping a hungry Gelatinous Cube as a pet!

While everyone at the table had fun, I think that the fun came as a result of the absurdity of the scenario, rather than the rules themselves.  The Fighter, despite numerous mechanical changes, still felt significantly underpowered compared to the arcanists.  While he could dish out and avoid damage, that was pretty much all the class could do.  The arcanists seemed fairly well on par with one another, though few spells were cast.  I'm a touch worried that the Wizard could easily outstrip its compatriots at higher levels, much as it did in 3e/3.5e.

Further, the class write-ups for the Warlock and Sorcerer show their newer, less-refined nature.  The character generation rules for both of those classes were particularly vague, and both players at my table--one of which was the PlatinumChick, an experienced gamer if there ever was one--had issues understanding how much access to spells they actually had.  The Warlock character, in fact, played the first half of the game believing that he only had access to one spell:  Comprehend Languages!  That lack of clarity there is absolutely unacceptable in a finished product, but as playtest material goes, I suppose it's to be expected.

I'm still very much on the fence about D&D Next, as you might imagine.  While I'll likely pick up the most basic set, I can't imagine picking up much more of the line than that.  Simply put, it's got a long way to go before I start really being interested in D&D again.

In Which The Warlock Lauds the Journeyman!

I'm pleased to report some fantastic news:  our good friend and fellow Wittenberg alum Will Herrmann--head of Journeyman Games--has officially funded his Savage Worlds Wild Card Creator!

Will's success thusfar is truly one to remember.  His program shattered every funding and stretch goal that Will could throw at it, raising a grand total of over $10,500 in his first time out of the box.  His program will now include full Android and iPad support, support for Savage Showdown factions (the Savage Worlds miniatures game), art from both Storn Cook and Cheyenne Wright, and more.

I've got to say, the thing that excites me most has to be the addition of Cheyenne Wright's artwork.  You see, Wright made Will a spectacular offer--everyone at the Heroic and Legendary tiers (myself included) gets their character drawn specifically for the Wild Card Creator.  For me, that means that my Deadlands huckster/fencer--Ramon Perez Francisco Villa-Nueva--will not just be realized, but also featured!  I can't wait to see him in action!

While it's too late to support the KickStarter, you can still donate/pre-order the Wild Card Creator at Will's site, which is now on my sidebar.  If you haven't done it already, get on board!

In Which The Warlock Avenges the End of the World...

With our sessions of "The Flood" now at the end, our Friday night group has had one major question for a while:  What comes next?!

Well, the answer is a very positive one for me.  The PlatinumChick has opted to take the GMing reins for a while and will be running Hell on Earth Reloaded!

I thought long and hard on my character concept for this one, but with so many options, I found it truly hard to decide!  I toyed with the idea of a Heretic Doomsayer for a while, and even thought of running a kung-fu Librarian for a time.  But, eventually, I came up with this--my newest creation:


Jason Arrington was a corporal in the US Marine Corps before the Big Bang. While he hadn't seen much combat duty, his time spent as an artillery repairman on bases throughout Ohio and Michigan made him more than technologically apt. It also provided Jason a good deal of free time, during which he indulged in his favorite hobby: reading comic books. 

Jason's favorite character was Hawkeye, the brash archer from Marvel's Avengers. When asked why, Jason was quick to reply, "Because he's always got a trick up his sleeve..." 

When the Union began implementing Operation Damocles Soldier, Jason was one of the recruits selected, due to his technical expertise. However, when Jason was placed in cryogenic stasis, something went slightly amiss. Maybe the oxygen flow to Jason's brain wasnt quite right. Maybe some interfering gremlin introduced some technological mischief. 

Welcome to the Wasted West, Mr. Barton! 

Regardless, when Jason awoke after the Big Bang, the entire cryo-shelter was blown to smithereens. Jason himself was barely clothed, could not remember much to save his life, and could hardly walk due to muscle atrophy. Crawling back into the ruins of the cryo-shelter, Jason began scavenging all he could and began putting together the pieces of his awakening...just not in the right order. 

You see, Jason now believes wholeheartedly that he is Clint Barton, the peerless archer of Marvel fame. Finding a compound bow--a hunting bow left in a locker by a careless sergeant--Jason convinced himself that he had survived an attack on a top secret SHIELD facility, and that he is the only surviving Avenger. 

Jason/Clint thinks he has things pieced together, though his perception is warped and stilted. He believes that Apocalypse (the Marvel mutant menace) caused the devastation in the world and that his Four Horsemen are actually corrupted versions of former heroes, who can be redeemed. (Obviously, we know this not to be the case.). Jason regularly calls ghost rock "vibranium" and uses a means at his disposal to try to contact non-existent heroes like Tony Stark, Thor, or the X-Men. 

The tech spirits in the Hunting Grounds have done nothing but foster this grand delusion, granting Jason the abilities of a Junker, which manifest as Jason/Clint salvaging parts to "build new arrowheads" and piece together the gadgets Jason remembers from countless comics. Grapnel arrows, stun arrows, explosive-tipped arrows...if they're in the comics, they're in Jason's subconscious, and they're in his quiver. 

Jason/Clint wants desperately to build a new SHIELD and, with it, a new Avengers team, in the hopes to avenge his losses and take down (the totally fictitious) Apocalypse. So far, Jason's only clue has been a set of dog-tags, found upon his awakening. 

The tags belong to a 1st Lieutenant Gordon Eriksen. Eriksen was the commander of the Damocles facility where Jason was frozen, and may be the one man who knows Jason's true identity. Unfortunately, Eriksen has been turned into a Combine cyborg... 


Honestly, I can't wait to play this character.  Nothing like bringing a bit of cross-genre action to the Wasted West!

Oh, and one last thing!  If you're a Savage Worlds fan and you haven't supported Journeyman Games' Wild Card Creator Kickstarter yet, your last chance is going to be this week!  Three days left, and we're only about $150 short of the final stretch goal--full iPad and Android support.  Check the link on the right sidebar to donate!

In Which The Warlock Goes Swimming...

End of the line for Reverend Grimme!
It's time for a flood!

(For those of you Deadlands fans out there, this post contains MASSIVE spoilers for the end of The Flood plot-point campaign.  If you're not prepared to know how the Right Reverend Grimme gets what's coming to him, don't read any further!)

Finally, after nearly a year and a half of near-weekly session, my Friday night posse managed to finish their epic campaign to take down the Cult of Lost Angels and its master, the Reverend Ezekiah Grimme.








For those of you playing along at home, who might have forgotten our cast, let me give you a brief refresher:

• Jayne Cobb--a gunslinger from Maine who had fled to the Great Maze after some unfortunate deaths.  In addition to being the posse's de-facto wheelman, Jayne found himself possessed by the spirit of a long-dead pastor devoured by Grimme's ghouls.  This spirit caused Jayne to pursue the ancestral daisho of Warlord Kwan:  a relic set of swords enchanted by the spirits of Kwan's ancestors.
• Paqua--a Hopi shamaness who joined the group upon their arrival in Shan Fan. Paqua served as the party's "native liason" as well as a healer.  After escorting the undead-raising Amulet of Rahashimir to Virginia City (the first time...it eventually ended up back in Shan Fan, in the hands of Emperor Norton!) Paqua garnered the attention of a certain Servitor of Death...
• Dr. Albert Noble--a Confederate veteran mad scientist, Noble's devices served the group well as he maintained their steam wagon and provided well-timed explosions when necessary.  Noble's liasons with the Confederates at Shannonsburg netted him a swanky position at the secret Confederate labs at Roswell, New Mexico!
• Angus Cole--the hideously disfigured gunslinger (and hexcaster!) supposedly hailed from the Confederacy, but rather a Union agent in disguise!  Angus's continued attempts to contact his higher-ups in the Agency were good-intentioned, though his telegraphs had a distinct tendency to be intercepted by everyone from the Confederates to Warlord Kwan to Grimme himself!
• Tara Jenkins--a rodeo gal from North Texas, the most notable thing about Tara was her death!  Squished into the ground by a Mojave rattler, Tara rose up as a Harrowed.  But, little did she know that her demon-rider had complete control over her, and was just biding its time to betray the party.  With the party entrusting the Amulet of Rashashimir to her on their way to Fort 51 (the second time!), they were in for a rude awakening!
• Eddie Van Horn--a bare-knuckles boxer from Boston, the posse found Eddie in Rock Island Prison, trapped with Samuel Q. Hellman.  However, none knew much about Eddie's true nature--he was a werewolf!  The posse managed to cure Eddie, with the help of Mr. Eddington and Mr. Andrew Lane at Fort 51, but he still provided a ready right cross whenever they needed him.
• Mary Ellen Hardigan--nominally the star of our show, Mary Ellen grew up in Lost Angels.  In their early adventures, the posse saved Mary Ellen from one of Grimme's corpse carts and she was given a steam-powered arm by none other than Dr. Darius Hellstromme himself!  Mary Ellen's opium-fueled vendetta against Grimme led her to ally with Big Ears Tam, the Confederates at Shannonsburg, and numerous others...

Now, our version of The Flood has taken several left turns of the base plot point campaign.  First off, we did very little with Santa Ana's invasion of California, saving it for a "montage" style series of attacks provoking the one-legged Mexican to send his army against Grimme.

However, much of our action centered around a theme of possession and control--with three of the posse members (Eddie, Tara, and Jayne) all having some "rider" in their brain, we focused on what the repercussions of their state of mind would be.  Eddie was quick to take up any possible cure, believing his lycanthropy to be a curse.  Jayne, though, worked towards an equilibrium with the spirit inhabiting his brain, working together towards a greater good.

This theme worked well in tandem with the other major theme of the campaign--addiction.  Mary Ellen's major hindrance was her addiction to morphine and opium, which she later managed to spread to Dr. Noble and very nearly to Paqua, who resisted her addiction vociferously.  While the others had a "literal" rider in their brain, Noble and Hardigan had a more figurative "monkey on their back", which brought huge amounts of trouble, particularly in a region beset by Famine and Pestilence.

It's in our last few sessions that things really started hitting the fan, so to speak.  After recovering the Amulet of Rahashimir for a second time, the posse decided to personally escort the relic to Fort 51 and turn it over to the Agency, via their liaisons Angus Cole and Marcus Black.  However, while there, Tara's manitou took over, stealing the Amulet and ghosting through the floors in an attempt to escape!  Unfortunately for her, Jayne lost control of his own spiritual rider, who responded to Tara's betrayal with a katana to the skull.

After a side trip to New Jerusalem and a few months aggravating Santa Ana in Mexicali, the stage was set for our heroes to return to Lost Angels.  Sneaking into Perdition, Paqua was shocked to see a familiar face--that of the cybernetically augmented Charley Bill Buckner, the Wasatch Rail Foreman at Ore Collection Station #37.  Buckner curtly told the group that their old friend--Ronnie Clum, the photographer for the Tombstone Epitaph--was captured by Guardian Angels in Ghost Town, the flaming remains of the LA suburbs.

Inspiration, perhaps?

Quickly, the posse managed to contact their allies in the area--a small group of Texas Rangers conscripted by Admiral Birminghamton, after the posse handed over Fort Jackson (or, Fort Formerly-Known-as-Norton), and a handful of ninjas, courtesy of Big Ears Tam.  Formulating a plan, they prepared to sneak into the city, but not before activating the final Apache petroglyph and saving Ronnie Clum, who had a surprise for them.  You see, following up on some leads from Tombstone, Clum managed to find something of real worth:  Ezekiah Grimme's walking stick, long thought lost within the Great Maze!

With walking stick, katana, and tomahawk in hand, our posse snuck into the Grand Cathedral of Lost Angels at dawn on August 23rd, 1880.  With a storm swirling overhead, the group dripped their blood onto the stones of the cathedral as a peal of thunder let loose.  Grimme, his Angel of Death Garrett Black, and his Immortal Thirteen clawed their way out from the depths of the cathedral's crypt and sacristy, spattered with the blood of their unholy feast.

And, with that, the battle was joined.  After an epic struggle, the Thirteen lay dead on the floor of the cathedral while Jayne Cobb stood over the crumpled, broken form of Grimme.  Lightning crashed through the massive stained glass window of the cathedral, shattering Grimme's unholy altar, as a massive wave of water rose up before the wickedness and debauched city below.

So, as you might imagine from the title, Lost Angels vanished beneath a massive tsunami, summoned by the ancient magics of the Apache.  While our heroes somehow--miraculously, perhaps?--managed to survive, the Servitor of Famine and his followers have been eradicated, and the Weird West is a safer place.

But what's next?  That, friends and neighbors, comes next entry...

In Which The Warlock Contemplates a Class Change...

One of the neatest things about my real-life day-job is the amount of carryover between being a good GM and being a good teacher.  Believe it or not, the best practices that one carries behind the GM screen often are the same best practices advocated within a classroom setting.  Engagement, active description, differentiation, and varied methodology are all buzzwords that frequently flit about the classroom, but they similarly have a great degree of importance at the game table as well.

As such, game design and game management theory have become a fairly regular part of my curriculum, in terms of addressing macro-educational concepts.

Case in point:  my early days of teaching, at a local charter school.  Paired with an experienced social studies teacher, we often crossed over Risk and Monopoly games to demonstrate the relationship between economics and military strategy.  Students arrange into teams, which must co-ordinate their efforts between both boards, in the hopes to take over a certain set of territories.

You want a GMing challenge?
Try running this for a classroom of ADHD students!

It's at that same school that I experienced the ultimate challenging in GameMastery.  You see, that charter school focused specifically in educating students with ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome, with the majority of the population having multiple diagnoses.  However, as an experiential introduction to a science-fiction unit, I decided to run a simplified session of Paranoia for those students.  And, let me tell you:  there is NO greater challenge in GMing than running game for 16 ADHD teenagers.

However, the challenge of keeping all 16 students engaged and interested, coupled with the greater conceptual goal of addressing paranoia and fear of the "other" as a literary concept, made for a great lesson plan, which students were able to expand upon through essays and a larger assessment project.  I did something similar with a homemade game I called "Grail Quest"--no relation to the actual game-book series--in which students emulated roving bands of knights hoping to find various Arthurian relics, including the eponymous Holy Grail.

An ancient gameboard...
...but one perfect for The Crusades!

This all lead to today, wherein I got to use a game that I've been aching to pull out in a classroom setting:  Risk: Godstorm.  Using the board from Godstorm, groups of my seniors attempted to retake the Holy Land, following the Crusader rhetoric of Pope Urban II.  The activity ran fast and furious, with alliances taking shape over both ideological and political lines--precisely what I was hoping for!  The game ran smoothly, even though time limited us to a 30 minute rushed version of the rules.

As I've been working on expanding The Pendulum Method--y'know, when I'm not teaching, gaming, writing on Cold Steel Wardens, or doing any number of other multitasking--I've been looking seriously at including an essay on this very topic:  the use of educational theory in gamemastery.  Should be fun, children! I'm hoping for it to be out this year or next!

Oh, and this weekend?  We wrap up "The Flood"!  Water's gonna rise, children!

In Which The Warlock States the Importance of an NPC...

As any gamer can tell you, NPCs tend to be fairly important to any game.  But, in the best of games, those NPCs take on lives of their own.  I've had quite a few great NPCs in my game--the GodDamned Jim Bob comes immediately to mind, as do Thulmir Quent and Elladan RedHand, though a non-human NPC seems to be taking charge of the situation in my most recent games.

Allow me to explain:  with the WittGuild starting back up and with games kicking into gear, it was only fitting to be able to throw down a game for the incoming frosh and the returning students. Hoping to get a full playtest in, I brought out "Killer Clowns 2:  Return to the Dempsey Islands", with three players entering the park, in search of those elusive canister reactors.

Felix the Bobcat, survivor of the Big Bang.
Cross this cat at your peril!

Here's where things get messy, though.  You see, if you've perused my "Reno Six-Pack", you might have noticed that the Librarian character, Garrett Walker, has a friend:  Felix, his bobcat animal companion.

When I first ran "Ravenous in Reno", Chaotic Frederick played Garrett.  And, while his actual waster couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, Felix seemed to be nothing short of a Cuisinart with the attitude of an angry velociraptor.  The bobcat never seemed to miss, always dealt appreciable damage, and never managed to take a wound!  While the first run of "Ravenous in Reno" was meant to be a deliberate TPK session, Felix managed to escape from the final battle before being eaten!

So, let's flash forward to this past week.  With my three players ready to go, I wasn't surprised to see one of them pick up Garrett and his feline buddy.  But, as the game proceeded, it swiftly became obvious:  Felix was the true leader of that posse!  That cat totaled nearly twice the kills of any other member of the posse, including the scenario's final boss, whom he ripped apart with the help of the infamous "Make No Mistake" Adventure Card.

I was astounded!  Felix the bobcat's legend lives on!

I'll be interested to see if this trend continues, should I run this scenario on next year's convention circuit.  I deliberately made each of the Reno Six-Pack to have strengths--Edward Castellan is a beast in melee, Doc Neutron is the most dangerous at range, The Main Man Marlow is the vehicles expert and a good secondary tank--but Walker's greatest strength has always been his Knowledge skills, coupled with Felix.  I don't believe that, statistically, Felix is too strong.  It just seems that this cat's luck never really runs out!

In Which The Warlock Ends His Convention Run...

This time of year is a really exhausting one for me, friends and neighbors.  With the academic year swinging into gear and the convention season wrapping up, I've been up to my eyeballs with places to go, things to do, and people to see!

The Warlock's swag shot from GenCon 2012!
Two products from The Laundry
Some Savage Worlds and Deadlands
Richelieu's Compendium for All for One: Regime Diabolique
and a new GameWick Games t-shirt!

This marks the third year I've made it out to GenCon, but only the second that I've been running games:  in this case, a Laundry adventure set in equatorial Africa entitled "The Scramble for Buranda".  Investigators trekked through Ghana in search of the fabled Blade of Kings, while avoiding Grand Leader Charles Umtali's  guards and chatting up Black Chamber zombie drones.

This year's adventure was significantly better-written than last year's adventure, which seemed to switch titles off-and-on through the various drafts we were sent!  The pre-generated characters, as well, were significantly more interesting, with tons more role-playing hooks than their predecessors.  All three of my games went off without a hitch, with my players having a blast sneaking through downtown Buranda City and   trolling through the jungles.  Plus, Cubicle 7's games this year were situated in the posh J.W. Marriott, which was a massive improvement over last year's overly-crowded Omni.

Great DC Cosplayers
at GenCon 2012!

I've got to say:  my GenCon experience overall was a massive improvement from last year's.  The construction that plagued the downtown Indianapolis area has finally been completed, with skywalks linking all the major hotels.  My schedule actually allowed me to enjoy the convention itself, with plenty of time to talk to the folks at Pinnacle Entertainment (and even go to their seminar!), schmooze with the gang at GameWick Games, and even check out EEE's booth:  the Mythic Eras of War Games (spell it out...MEoW!).

Cosplay, too, seems to be really taking off at GenCon.  In previous years, costumes have been somewhat of an afterthought in Indy.  This year, though, costumes were plentiful, varied, and of a genuinely high quality.  It's nice to see this part of the con really take off!

But, as the school year gets started, it's time to focus on the things to come.  The Witt Guild's first meeting is this Friday--come, if you can make it to Shouvlin 203 this Friday evening!--and there's a ton of editing left to be done on Cold Steel Wardens!   Time marches on, friends and neighbors.

In Which The Warlock Preps and Ponders...

Just a short entry this time, friends and neighbors, as I'm getting prepped for my final convention of the year:  GenCon Indy.

Like last year, I'll be running The Laundry for Cubicle 7 Entertainment.  This time around, our intrepid Laundry agents are set to trek off to exotic Buranda in search of a mysterious blade associated with a nefarious cult.  Will they survive, or is CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN right around the corner?  Come play this weekend and find out!

I also just wrapped up on a new project, which I had mentioned a few posts ago.  You see, with a much-abbreviated convention season this year, I felt somewhat left out of my usual ritual of scenario writing.  But, with the rules for Hell on Earth coming out so recently, I felt that it was time to make a tribute to my favorite  of the Hell on Earth Classic scenarios:

Killer Clowns!
a classic Hell on Earth adventure by John Goff

Yes, that's right, children!  It's time for another visit to Dempsey Islands!  Except, this time, you'll be visiting the West Coast islands.  Try your luck at Nevada Smith's Shootin' Gallery, ride the Iron Dragon and race your way through Junkyard Station, and enjoy a leisurely soak in The Maelstrom wave pool...just don't hope to leave the park alive!

I'm still playtesting this module with my Friday group, so I'm going to hang onto it for a little bit for the sake of revisions and the like.  But, expect to see "Killer Clowns 2:  Return to Dempsey Islands" in my "Bag of Holding" very soon.  And I've already decided that I'll be running this one next year at Origins' "Savage Saturday Night".

Oh, and one last thing!  If you haven't yet donated to Will's "Wild Card Creator" Kickstarter, you're missing out!  He's already up to his base funding goal and is already gunning hard on his first stretch goal:  a 150 piece art pack by noted Savage artist Storn Cook.  Give him your support, fellow gamers!  It's a fantastic, revolutionary product that's going to be well worth the sticker price.

No weekend entry this time, kids!  I'll see you in Indy!

In Which The Warlock Slings Some Lingo...

As a former English major--and a current English/Language Arts teacher--I find it kind of amazing how different sub-groups in a society build their own vocabulary.  Case in point:  gamers.  Ask any gamer worth his dice what a "crit" is, and you'll get the same answer--a fantastic die roll (usually a Natural 20) that reduces his foe to a greasy smear.  Ask that same gamer what a "toon" is, and they'll most likely be able to tell you that it refers to a character, particularly in an MMORPG.

But, some gamer terms aren't necessarily universal terms.  In fact, our group has a penchant for making up our own table-talk or filching terms for occurrences around our table.  Take a look at just some of our own home-made vocabulary!

RIP, Trololo Guy.  You're definitely missed
around our game table!

Trololo:  As I mentioned earlier, we have an ongoing tradition of going out to eat before game night.  Unfortunately, this sometimes has...repercussions.  Going "trololo" came out of ChaoticFrederick's tendency to play The Trololo Song outside the door of anyone whose bodily functions are holding up the game...

Numberwang:  Stolen shamelessly from "That Mitchell and Webb Look", numberwang refers to a bizarre game show sketch where guests guess random numbers eventually hoping to be told "That's Numberwang!"  In our games, numberwang refers to an excellently well-timed roll, or any roll that is satisfactorily high.

"Look, a dagron!":  Another of ChaoticFrederick's inventions, this came out of his failed attempt to distract a barbarian leader during our "Tear of Ioun" game.  Since then, it's come to represent any flimsy attempt at a distraction.

Going to Denny's:  Simply put, as this South Park episode shows, Denny's is not a nice place to be... (NSFW, by the by)

Ghetto-Crit:  Not quite a full-bore crit, ghetto-crits are another word for "max damage". 

Richard:  Named after a former player's character, Richard was infamous for using area of effect powers with his party members in the line of fire.  I used to joke that Richard was my greatest ally as a GM.  In one instance, he critted on two party members, hit a third, and left my monsters unscathed!  Being Richard instantly became synonymous with screwing over the party for convenience's sake.  Don't be Richard, children!

"...and I smoke as I do so...":  Another one coming out of our "Tear of Ioun" sessions, this became syonymous with not just succeeding, but looking cool as one succeeds.  Who knew that the Church of Bane encouraged smoking?

Beware of waffles-related injury!

Waffles:  Stemming out of our trek through "The Flood," in which the players attempted to give the Confederate admiral at Shannonsburg a waffle iron, waffles refer to any unwanted or undesired gift...particularly if that gift has the opposite of the intended effect.  Note that the admiral's former fiancee was killed in a tragic waffle iron accident.

"That'll do, Jimmy...":  A generally satisfactory result.

"There's no reason you can't play the character you want to play...":  A riff off of a particularly frustrating passage in the 4e Dark Sun Campaign Setting manual, this usually precedes the introduction of some element that utterly does not fit the setting, such as a Ghostbuster joining in a fantasy game or a Jedi joining a group of Call of Cthulhu investigators.

This is just a small sampling of the various terms that get thrown around our table.  Stay tuned for more!

Oh!  And some updates for you!

Journeyman Games' "Wild Card Creator" is now 3/4 of the way to its funding goal!  If you haven't supported them yet, you still have almost 4 weeks left to do so!

And, I've tossed another treat into the Bag of Holding--this time, it's our Call of Cthulhu adventure, "Chrysalis".  Mind you, this one is a bit rough, so be aware of what you're getting your party into!

Enjoy!

In Which The Warlock Lauds a Journeyman Achievement!

It's a great time to be a Wittenberg gamer, friends.  You see, I'm not the only one who's been busy...

My good friend (and the man who got me hooked on Savage Worlds in the first place!) Will Herrmann--better known here as the Journeyman GM--has been working on a secret project in his spare time.  Titled the "Wild Card Creator", this computer utility allows users to generate characters for Savage Worlds and its various settings in record time.

Will has just begun a Kickstarter campaign to fund the completion of his program. 
If this is something that interests you, jump on board now!  His press release follows:

Introducing Wild Card Creator. Any PDF, Any Setting, No Extra Cost!

Journeyman Games has just announced a Kickstarter for their Wild Card Creator, a computer program that helps gamers quickly and easily design characters for the Savage Worlds tabletop roleplaying game. The program enables you to generate, save, and print characters in both stat block and character sheet formats, enabling you to access them whenever you need, in a fraction of the time it takes to do it by hand!

Because Wild Card Creator comes pre-loaded with the full text of Savage Worlds Deluxe, you can start making characters right away. But what if you want to make characters for a supplementary setting like Deadlands, Agents of Oblivion, Hellfrost, or any of several dozen other settings? Other character creators would make you type it all in yourself or force you to pony up $5-$10 for the same content you already own. Not Wild Card Creator.

If you own any published Savage Worlds PDFs, Wild Card Creator will be able to import any new Races, Edges, Hindrances, Gear, and other character options without you paying anything more! If you've got the PDF, you've got the content. Pinnacle Entertainment Group and 14 other companies have already given permission to allow Wild Card Creator to work seamlessly with their full range of PDFs, so your favorite settings are sure to be supported.

Wild Card Creator will be available for Mac, Windows, and Linux and has an estimated release date of November 2012.

Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/657350477/wild-card-creator

Website: http://www.JourneymanGames.net

Twitter: @JourneymanRPGs

Oh, and I haven't been quiet this week, either...while I'm taking just a short break from work on Cold Steel Wardens before finishing revision, I'm still pumping out nearly 4,500 words a day on....well, you'll see.  :D

In Which The Warlock Celebrates...With Presents Even!

If I haven't mentioned it before, I love having summers off.  Summer is when I get the vast majority of my gaming work done, as I don't have grading, lesson plans, or any number of other responsibilites to work on. 

And, it's no surprise that I tend to get things done during the summer.  Things like...Cold Steel Wardens. 

Yes, cats and kittens, the first draft has finally been finished!  After about 13 months of writing and playtesting, I have a completed draft! 

Obviously, now comes the hard part.  I have two editors already hard at work on the draft, my cover-artist is refining her gorgeous cover design, and I'm now in contact with a new interior artist.  And that's just the little bits of news!

In celebration of this milestone, I decided to give you guys something to celebrate with--I'm officially opening my own adventure locker to you guys.  All of the one-shots and materials that I've retired, I'm putting up for anyone to use, via Google Docs.

Today, that starts with my Deadlands (Reloaded) adventure, "Westbound on the San Juan Express".  It comes complete with an adventure outline, character backgrounds, and NPCs in .doc format, with a pre-generated posse of six characters in .pdf format. 

Deadlands:  "Westbound on the San Juan Express"

From here on out, on the right side of this page, you can find my new "Bag of Holding" which will link to these materials.  Feel free to use them, print them, modify them, and enjoy them!   If you do, be sure to follow my blog here, and drop a comment on how your sessions went!

Enjoy!  There are even greater things in store!

In Which The Warlock Chows Down...

Since our Friday night game group settled together a few years back, it's become custom for us to grab a meal together before slinging the dice.  The question, however, has always been, "What do we want to eat this week?"  Time isn't usually a factor for us, but taste is!  While we're not a picky bunch, we're always looking for great new places across the Miami Valley.

With that in mind, here's just a short run-down of our favorite places!

American and Barbeque

Oinkadoodlemoo, in Englewood:
Get the "Brisket Tips" with Smoky Sweet Sauce!

One of the nice things about the Englewood area is the ongoing war between the two local barbeque joints:  Oinkadoodlemoo on Union Ave. and Company 7 BBQ on Main.  While both are good, I tend to prefer Oinkadoodlemoo, as they serve Kansas City-style "burnt ends", with their deliciously spicy "baby bakers" roasted potatoes.  If you do go to Company 7, make sure to get the smoked sausage, which have a rich flavor and the authentic snap of natural casings.

For breakfast, few things beat the local Waffle House at midnight, after a long-running session.  However, we also have a running relationship with the fellows at Perkins, after our numerous times there.  Perkins is usually fairly quiet, but their omelettes are tasty and they serve latkes--a rare find at a typical breakfast joint.  When we're down near Springfield or Yellow Springs, we often stop at Young's Jersey Dairy, though not for the ice cream!  Rather, the Golden Jersey Inn serves up a fantastic menu of homestyle favorites..  Their pot roast is stick-to-your-ribs spectacular, and the cheese curds are not to be missed.

Indian and Middle-Eastern

Jeet India, in Fairborn
Get the Lamb Korma (spice-level 4)
and an order of Aloo Naan!

I love Indian food.  After getting hooked on various forms of curry while abroad in Liverpool, I will literally get the "curry shakes" if I go more than three weeks or so without a tasty tikka masala or a fruity lamb korma.  The Dayton area has a ton of great Indian restaurants, but my absolute favorite spot is Jeet India in Fairborn.  The PlatinumChick and I used to live a scant 5 minutes away from Jeet, and she would lure me awake on the weekends with promises of a trip to their lunch buffet.  Jeet is the sister restaurant of Amar India, located down by the Dayton Mall.  If you want to try some of the best curry in the States, get to Jeet or Amar post-haste.

I've only recently, though, been finding my way into Middle-Eastern food.  After my first foray into Lebanese food while on our honeymoon, I've been doing my best to hunt down some pita-centric delicacies.  Pasha Grill, over at The Greene in Beavercreek, is a spectacular choice when the PlatinumChick and I want a night out, but it's a little pricey.  However, their lamb is mind-blowingly tender and fragrant, making it well worth the trip.  For something a little cheaper, try CedarLand on Linden Ave.  We made our first trip there this evening, and were served more than the two of us could possibly eat for $20 total.  The fried kibbeh--spiced ground beef in a fried meat shell--were particularly tasty.

Chinese and Italian

For the longest time, we went without a good Chinese take-out place in the area.  Fairborn has a shortage on Chinese, though we found solace in the proximity of Jeet India and the PlatinumChick's favorite Korean place, Myong's Cafe.  However, upon moving to Englewood, we were lucky enough to have one of Dayton's storied China Cottage branches right nearby in Trotwood!  If you haven't been to China Cottage yet, go soon.  I recommend the walnut chicken--it comes covered in a savory plum sauce with tiny slivers of garlic, alongside carmelized walnuts.  Absolutely delicious.

Galo's Italian Grill, in Richmond IN
Get whatever you like, but make sure you add
an order of Wedding Soup and some bruschetta!

For Italian, there are a ton of options around, though we prefer small, family owned businesses over chains.  Tony's Italian Kitchen, right on OH-48 in Englewood, is a personal favorite.  Their cannelloni are spectacular, and the baked meatballs will fill you up like none other.  The PlatinumChick, who usually gets heartburn from red-sauce, even loves Tony's.  Though, if we're looking for a more sit-down friendly experience, we typically skip across the border to Richmond and have dinner at Galo's Italian Grill.  Get the veal parmasan and you'll be full for a week.  That said, don't miss out on the house wedding soup or the bruschetta specials.  They're to die for!

Fast Food

Okay--confession time.  I hate typical fast food.  I haven't been to a McDonalds in nearly a decade, and avoid places of their ilk as much as possible.  But, when we're in a pinch and have to grab a bite, we try to find places with more natural ingredients and better taste.  Luckily, that seems to be the general trend in the area:  there are several Five Guys Burgers and Fries in the area and a Smashburger on nearby Miller Lane.  Of the two, I tend to prefer Smashburger, as they have more options.  Plus, the SmashFries are absolutely delicious.

That's just a quick run-down of the places we tend to frequent on our various forays before game night.  But, we're always on the lookout for new places!  With a major new shopping development coming up in Huber Heights, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that some new restaurants pop up with it! 

In Which The Warlock Walks The Golden Mean...

The Oracle at Delphi

The so-called “Golden Mean”—as a philosophical concept, mind you—dates back literally thousands of years to the days of Aristotle and Plato.  Supposedly, as one entered the revered Oracle of Delphi, two sayings were inscribed on the doorway:  on the way in, “Know thyself”; on the way out, “All Things in Moderation”.  And, sure as anything, gaming tends to take a page from greater themes in life and in philosophy in general.

On its most basic level, balance must be achieved in terms of theme—even in the most dire of horror games like Call of Cthulhu or Kult, moments of success, lightness, and even humor must break up the oppressive atmosphere.  Even in a light-hearted or humorous game like Paranoia or ICONS has to come with degree of threat, else the players have no reason to actually play.  Role-players role-play to have fun, but also to tell a unique, collaborative story.  If there’s no story, the game loses focus and falls apart.  If there’s no fun, well…what’s the point?

I’m going to avoid going on another “Wizards of the Coast has it wrong” rant, but I will cite another of Rodney Thompson's editorials, this time as a grand step in maintaining balance in design.  Here, Thompson expounds upon the ratio that the 5e/D&D Next team intends to hold up in their coming rules-set.  Essentially, they’re shooting for a 1:1:1 split between exploration, role-playing, and combat.  While I think that that ratio can work well for D&D, it’s obviously not a sure-fire ratio for every game—just try having that much combat in a Call of Cthulhu campaign and see how long your investigators survive!

General Treister:
The inspiration for our Admiral Birmingham

Our weekly Deadlands game, in many ways, has walked both venues of this treacherous balance for the duration of the game.  Interestingly enough, I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve become such a fan of the setting:  while nominally a horror setting, it’s one where the players can achieve real victory against the forces of darkness; while full of ‘wacky’ mad scientists and hexslinging hucksters, Western genre tropes are played straight to the hilt.  In our sessions, we regularly drift directly from the high action of steam-wagon chase scenes and gunfights, to creeping investigative horror, to outright comedy—just ask ChaoticFrederick and Chris II about Confederate Admiral Birmingham’s waffle iron! 

Without that variety, without those alternated scenes, our game just wouldn’t be the same.  And, fittingly enough, Deadlands (and the Savage Worlds rules behind it) provides ample opportunity for flexibility in this regard.  Players are able to pick the skills, the edges, and the powers that provide them the most “awesome” for their XP.  And, that’s really the way it should be.

As I’ve mentioned in some of my prior design previews for Cold Steel Wardens, I’ve spent a good deal of my original design work establishing a degree of parallelism in my first draft.  Physical and Mental Strain run on parallel tracks—literally on opposite edges of the character sheet—and contribute equally to a burgeoning Hero’s well-being.  Skills are broken up into five categories of five Skills each, making them easy to manipulate and remember.  Those Skills have a nearly even distribution of linked Vitals, ensuring that no “dump stat” arises and that every choice—every XP spent and every choice made—matters.

But what about theme?  Surely, Cold Steel Wardens would suffer in this regard, as the game itself revolves around the rain-spattered dystopia of Iron Age comics?  Well, yes and no.  While maintaining mood is going to be of great import for any would-be Warden, the comfort and enjoyment of the table must always remain paramount. 

As for maintaining that Golden Mean?  Well, it seems I’ve already come across an answer for that…

Pendulum Theory!

While Pendulum Theory isn’t going to be part and parcel with Cold Steel Wardens, it’s a near and dear thing to carry over the innovations of The Pendulum Method into running a solid session of Cold Steel Wardens.

Stay tuned, friends and neighbors!  Grand things are in store!

The Warlock's Review: The Dark Knight Rises

When our weekly game group went to see Avengers in May, I could hardly believe my eyes.  Walking from the theater, all I could think of was the magnitude of what I had just seen.  As a film experience, Avengers was simply mind-blowing:  a four-panel blowout translated seamlessly onto the screen.

The question looming, however, was "How could The Dark Knight Rises possibly measure up?"  With huge shoes to fill in terms of its predecessor, TDKR now would suffer comparison to its massively successful Marvel competitor as well.  So, how did it do?

It pains me to say this.  The Dark Knight Rises just isn't as good as The Dark Knight.  It's not even as good as Batman Begins.  While it's far from being a bad movie--it's still head and shoulders over dreck like Daredevil or Green Lantern--it's just not a good movie either.  This was supposed to be Christopher Nolan's "piece de resistance," but The Dark Knight Rises collapses under its own bulk, entangled in a bloated, unwieldy plot.

The Dark Knight Rises
An unsatisfying ending to
Christopher Nolan's genre-defining run.

TDKR begins eight years following the events of The Dark Knight.  After the death of Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has vanished from the public eye and has retired the Batman mantle.  When rumors of a mercenary named Bane (Tom Hardy) begin emerging, coupled with links to the League of Shadows, Wayne takes up his cape and cowl once more to investigate the motives behind Bane's activities.  However, as he does so, Wayne's company teeters on the edge of default as a new technologies firm run by Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) appears on the verge of takeover.  Cotillard's performance may be the weakest out of the cast, as she vacillates between being a canny entrepreneur and a piece of arm candy for Bruce Wayne, only truly showing her true colors (in an incredibly unsatisfying manner) in the last ten minutes of the film

Bane's appearance is concurrent with that of Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), an intensely skilled burglar--never once called Catwoman--who steals Bruce Wayne's fingerprints in exchange for a chance at wiping her criminal record clean.  Hathaway's Kyle is truly the brightest spot in this movie, using her femininity for manipulation and lethality while simultaneously providing a vulnerable, sympathetic viewpoint.  It'd be a revelatory performance...if Scarlett Johansson didn't already play these same cards as Black Widow in The Avengers. 

Also joining the story is John Blake (Joseph Gordon Levitt), a beat cop-turned-detective who has somehow deduced Batman's identity--it's never stated or shown how--and who pushes Wayne into action.  While Blake's character is meant to be an uncompromising idealist and a point of entry for the viewer, he seems to just stumble across major clues haphazardly which, when exposed, advance the plot. 

If The Dark Knight was based in part on Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's The Long Halloween, TDKR pulls primarily from the Knightfall and No Man's Land arcs.  Without spoiling too much, if you've read Knightfall and know the basic premise of Bane's character, you can anticipate exactly what happens to our cowled hero.  But, the scene in question occurs less than halfway through the film, just after Wayne "learns how to be Batman again"....resulting in an entire second hour of Batman doing the same thing he just did, just in a different setting! 

With Batman out of the way after said incident, Bane and his allies are free to establish martial law in Gotham City, stealing the fuel core from a Wayne Enterprises nuclear fusion reactor and using it as extortion fuel against the surrounding government.  "What about the police?", you might ask.  Well, Bane has them trapped in a warren of tunnels beneath the city, yet for some reason keeps them alive with regular shipments of food and water.  The city descends into chaos absent their protectors, holding kangaroo courts to exterminate the city's entitled elite.

Unfortunately, this is where the plot bogs down.  Why does Bane keep the police alive?  So that we can have a climactic police-vs.-anarchist beatdown scene in the third act, of course!  Bane and his lackeys know that their fuel core-turned-bomb can be shut down by reattaching it to the reactor, but the reactor has a flood control to prevent meltdowns.  Why not just trigger the flood control and prevent the possibility in the first place?  For that matter, why extort the populace in the first place?  The plot simply breaks down upon cursory examination, with both villains and heroes taking actions directly contradictory to their own motives and even logic itself! 

The Dark Knight Rises further suffers from a core storytelling flaw of "telling" rather than "showing".  Rather than acting through or physically demonstrating his frustration with Bruce Wayne, Alfred (Michael Caine) goes on a literal three minute diatribe directly into the camera, telling Bruce why his retreat from the world was so wrong.  Rather than show romantic interest in Bruce Wayne, we merely hear from other characters that Miranda Tate is interested in Bruce Wayne romantically, which makes a love scene between the two halfway through the film seem totally unrealistic.  Rather than demonstrating the decadence and corruption of Gotham's elite, we merely hear speeches from Bane, culminating in a stolen speech from Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) that went undelivered in the first act.  Bane's attack on a Wall Street-esque investment area made good progress in this regard, but the focus shifts almost immediately from Bane's mysterious motives to the police's erroneous pursuit of Batman.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, the element that separated The Dark Knight from the majority of genre-movies out there was its willingness to address greater ethical and philosophical questions.  We didn't simply deal with Batman and The Joker--we examined the fundamental flaws with moral absolutism and addressed the depths to which men and women would sink in order to preserve their status quo.  These sociological and philosophical questions arise in The Dark Knight Rises, but as quick as the questions arise, they are simultaneously backhanded back down. 

Bane...you won! 
You got exactlywhat you wanted!
What more are you trying to accomplish?

Case in point, Bane's fundamental plan for Gotham.  Bane encourages the populace to rise up against their upper-class oppressors, distributing arms to any willing takers.  CEOs and socialites are put on trial and exterminated while Bane himself simply stands by and lets the people do their thing.  However, even as thousands flock to Bane's cause, he still plans to detonate the fuel core, destroying Gotham City entirely!  Why?  Well, it's never really explained.  His goal worked.  He was successful!  Why destroy the fruits of your labors?  It simply doesn't make sense. 

I almost want to give The Dark Knight Rises a pass, simply because of the massive steps it had to follow in. The basic flaws in storytelling, editing, and scene structure found here really are uncharacteristic of Nolan's work and of the series in general.  But, at the end of the day, I'm left with one defining decision that sums it all up for me:

When I left the theater after The Avengers, I immediately thought to myself, "This is awesome!  I need to see this again!  I need to get this on Blu-Ray/DVD!"  I'm even contemplating shelling out for the massive 10 disc ultimate edition.

When I left the theater after The Dark Knight Rises, I felt let down.  I might ask for it as a Christmas present on DVD, but I don't want to shell out to buy this myself.  And, certainly, I don't care to see it again in a theater.  It's a servicable, if unsatisfying ending, but it's not the magnum opus we were all hoping for. 

In Which The Warlock Examines Some Ethical Dilemmas...

A bit of honesty here to begin this entry:  I've been a little bit skeptical of the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises.  While it's been extremely well-reviewed thusfar, 2008's The Dark Knight and Inception only made me more appreciative of Christopher Nolan as an introspective, nuanced filmmaker.

While I'll still be seeing it on Friday with the PlatinumChick before game night, The Dark Knight Rises has massive shoes to fill in the wake of both its predecessor and The Avengers, both of which stand as the crowning achievements in genre-filmmaking in this decade, maybe of all time.

The inspiration for 2008's
The Dark Knight.

The reason I'm so skeptical of TDKR comes from the moral and ethical weight of its predecessor, stemming directly from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's timeless Batman storyline "The Long Halloween".  The majority of the plot from The Dark Knight comes from that comic series, as Batman, Commissioner Gordon, and Harvey Dent work towards taking down the mob-influences that infest the city.  However, their uncompromising war on crime comes crashing down through the death of Rachel Dawes or, in the comics, the search for the killer known as Holiday.

The Joker sums this up concisely towards the end of the film.  Dangling upside-down from a half-finished building, he tells Batman: "This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You truly are incorruptible, aren't you? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won't kill you because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever."

The Joker:  madman, or simply
demonstrating the flaws in
moral objectivism?

Batman's attempts to do things "the right way" and without loss of life often serves to bring about great tragedy and  heartbreak, simply because he attempts to do what is "just" and "right".  The story could have ended much, much earlier had Bruce Wayne simply stepped forward though, truth be told, negotiating with The Joker isn't exactly something reasonable in and of itself!  That's what makes The Dark Knight such a great film, as well as what puts The Dark Knight Rises in such a difficult position.

Why do I bring this up?  Well, you see, Cold Steel Wardens is deliberately built to allow players to emulate and even play through this continued moral quagmire.  Every Hero in Cold Steel Wardens begins play with a series of Stances, in addition to their more standard background elements (Motivations, Flaws, and Origins).  These Stances represent important portions of a Hero's mindset and comprise their own moral and ethical "high ground" as they fight crime.  Perhaps a given Hero refuses to fight against police, or won't attack what he views as "children".  Maybe a Hero is driven towards vengeance against those who have committed sex crimes or crimes against police.  Maybe the Hero is outright bloodthirsty and doesn't care who gets hurt as they wage their war on crime.  There's room for all these at the table, as they're consistently meant to be challenged.

In addition to providing impetus for great role-playing opportunities, Stances provide a method for Heroes to add dice to the communal Hero Pool.  When the GM of a Cold Steel Wardens session challenges a Hero's Stance, the GM must add a die to the Pool.  However, if the player themself places their Stance into question--let the mafia thug get away, or pick up the gun on the floor and keep him from reporting back to his superiors?--he gets to add two dice  to the Hero Pool!  It pays to role-play!

Stances are simply one way to add dice to the Hero Pool, though they may certainly be the most dramatic.  When Heroes are forced into uncomfortable situations which question their morals, players themselves become engaged with the plot and its characters.  Here's for hoping that we see it  out soon!  With the first draft of Cold Steel Wardens nearly wrapped up--and in the hands of my two editors already--here's for hoping that we hit print in time for next August!

Next time, friends and neighbors--the results of my name-poll and my review of The Dark Knight Rises!

In Which The Warlock Polishes off the Six-Pack...

Whew!  Fitting title for this one today, cats and kittens.  The PlatinumChick and I love entertaining, and we just held our mid-summer barbeque last night.  Friends of ours streamed in from all over Ohio to raise a glass, enjoy some burgers and brats, and enjoy a glorious fire in our firepit.  Luckily enough for us, we haven't been under a burn ban!

But, all that hasn't stopped me from finishing out a six-pack of a different sort!  Just a few moments ago, I've finished off my present to you, faithful readers:  the final touches on the "Reno Six-Pack"--a ready to play set of six pre-generated characters for Hell on Earth Reloaded setting by Pinnacle Entertainment.

You can access the full Reno Six-Pack through this link:  Reno Six-Pack!

Inside, you'll find our six adventurers:

• Doc Neutron--a Heretic Doomsayer
• "The Main Man" Marlow--a chainsaw-wielding road warrior
• Edward Castellan--a mighty Templar
• Carrie Ann Waltrip--a Harrowed gunslinger
• Leslie Marvin--a plucky Junker
• Garrett Walker--an intrepid Librarian, with his faithful companion Felix, the Bobcat

All six characters are built at Veteran tier (40 XP) and are equipped and ready to play.  Naturally, you'll need the Hell on Earth Reloaded book and Savage Worlds Deluxe to make the most of these.

Enjoy, gang!

In Which The Warlock Needs a Name...

As I've been rushing towards finishing Cold Steel Wardens, I've also been doing quite a bit of research on incorporation.  Before I start any Kickstarters or establish any copyrights, I'm going to need to exist as a corporate entity--boy isn't that scary to think of!

And, while I have several ideas, I've decided to take the actualy decision out of my hands...and put it into yours, friends and neighbors!  Below are the five names that I've been contemplating.  I'll leave up a poll on the right sidebar for you to vote on your favorite--the most popular name becomes the name that I'll submit for registration for my company, and will be used on everything I ever publish!

1. Stormcrown Press:  This was my first idea.  It very much "feels" like a gaming company name, evoking references to royalty and thunder.  The 'storm' idea came from my full-time gig, as my school's mascot is the thunderbolt.  Depending on how things hash out, I may be working with their DECA program for some marketing opportunities, but nothing's confirmed yet.
2. Pendulum Press:  Obviously, the name for this one comes from my upcoming Pendulum essay compilation, which will hopefully be one of my first products.  I like the alliterative nature of it though I'm unsure about having something so closely tied to a single one of my products.
3. Steel Witt Productions:  Get the pun?  Yeah...this may be my least favorite of the choices.  But, it shows both my relationship to the Steel City and my connection to Wittenberg, while making a pseudo-funny joke.  It's memorable, but do I really want my company to be memorable as a joke?
4. Blackfall Press:  Ah, the obscure one!  Blackfall refers to a city in which I ran series of one-shots while back at Wittenberg, legendary for their lethality and their player-vs-player conniving.  Really, if I can point to a part of my time at Witt that really led me towards game design as something I'm good at, it would be these.  It's tied to my history, but not overtly.
5. Iron Pendulum Productions:  A combination of #2 and #3, with a little less emphasis on Pendulum and a little more towards Pittsburgh and the Iron Age of Comics.  That said, the name is a little on the long side, which would make it harder to remember. 

Okay, those are my options, amices!  Name my company!!!