Against the Darkmaster: First Impressions

 

When I first saw this game I immediately wanted to back it. Can you blame me?? Look at that name. Do not tell me that is not an awesome name. I simply will not believe you. Or, if I am forced to believe you your taste in everything will be doubted. But, then again, I think 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is an awesome movie, in the same vein that I think the name of Against the Darkmaster is awesome. Heck, throughout the day I find myself saying the name, just because it's fun. I throw as much camp and silliness into as I can. My children have occasionally looked up at me in curiosity as I've done so, and then I realize that I'm actually talking out loud, not in my head like I thought.

OK, that's not really why I backed it. But I'd be lying if I didn't say it wasn't a plus.

I normally don't really go for combat in RPGs. Even when it's good I rarely engage in it, mostly 'cause I like to yak uncontrollably and expound and talk and if you didn't get the picture yet I'm not entirely sure how else to explain it to you???? I like talkety talk talk talky in games.

 I also happen to have a really snobby taste. I am that guy who thinks that if it isn't depressing it probably isn't very good. More than willing to cop to that.

And, honestly? Most action movies just aren't that good. Violence is always from a breakdown of communication, patience, and love. Always. It is not something to be glorified, or to be looked at as "Wow, that's AWESOME!" or anything like that. Yes, I am one of those weirdos who do not think that fantasy is a source escaping from the principles of the world, just the specific instance that's pissing you off at that moment. And, to be blunt, far too many games are way too cavalier about this. Getting hit should not be something that can be magically erased. Not only is it not realistic, but it isn't interesting. If there are no consequences then why do it? So therefore I just refuse to play anything that has the whole "Violence has no consequences" bullshit baked into it. Call me cynical or a stick in the mud but violence is not some random action, it means something, and I don't want to switch that off.  If not for the existence of John Wick I would have written off action movies as a genre.  Against the Darkmaster most definitely has consequences. Assuming you can get access to the healing, it only minorly speeds it up, and seems to operate a lot more like the modern tech we have now, where wounds can be dealt with better, but not completely solved within a few minutes. It's going to take a few days to get even a minor wound to stitch back up.

The rest of the game looks kinda like DnD, to the point to where one of my players asked me why we didn't just bother playing 5e. And on the surface level, sure? Maybe? But the vocations/classes are much more open, with the emphasis being on vocations being a starting place, not a definitive container. Combat is not really initiative based, but is phase based, which I had experimented with in 4e and found superior in just about every way imaginable. But the proof in the pudding is in its influence from Burning Wheel. Now, normally when designers tell me "Burning Wheel was an influence" I find myself rolling my eyes a bit. It's not that I don't believe them, it's whether or not they got Burning Wheel in the first place.

SNOB ALERT!!!

Let's get blunter than normal. Burning Wheel is a janky, complicated, intimidating mess of a game. Saying "Burning Wheel influenced my game" could simply mean that you read the rulebook once, liked Fate points, and decided to include them in your game. And, I mean, you wouldn't be wrong? I guess? I mean, I think that misses the entirety of the feel that Burning Wheel is going for. Burning Wheel is a game about struggle, setbacks, and triumph and how they affect a person as they slowly become a hero. They have these moments of sheer brilliance and awesomeness, but then have to go back to the grindstone, to the mundane, to the painful. The mechanics have a distinct feeling to them, so much so that I could probably identify a BWHQ game if you scrubbed the serial numbers off and renamed everything and dropped me in cold. You struggle. You persist. You may eventually triumph. And without your artha you probably won't. The game's math is set up in a very particular way, to where if you don't have a lot of artha you're going to have a very hard time. One of the reason why BWHQ games are so fun is because of their reliance upon your actions to make their terrible engine work. If you do not roleplay you will not do well. You will fail. Hard. That is not a bug, but a feature. Invest or die.

Against the Darkmaster appears to have learned that lesson from Burning Wheel. Keep in mind I've no real exposure to MERP, VsD's primary influence, but if I had to guess where this particular arc of struggle to triumph came from, mechanically, I would go with Burning Wheel. Because, from the little I've looked through the book as my players set up character, I would say this'll have a very similar feel to it. The math is intentionally stacked against the players, but playing the Passions (this game's version of Burning Wheel Beliefs) gets you Drive Points, which will allow you to come out on top in some of these situations... most of which you had to put yourself into because of the Passions you'd chosen in the first place. I mean, I could be wrong, but this appears to be an actual spiritual successor to Burning Wheel. I mean, that means someone actually learned from Burning Wheel, which would be a really cool thing to experience.

We'll see where it goes. The Session Zero will be up sooner than later!

Zeo: First Impressions

Buncha loons

Yeah yeah yeah, I know, I'm a bit late. The box got to me Monday, and I just tried it out Friday night?? Y'all have other blog posts that came out, right? I not only GM multiple games a week but I put up play reports about them. Yeah, that took some work! Shove off!

Well, don't. Please. I have things to say and all that. Y'know, stuff.

At any rate, I finally went and played the Zeo team. Sat down, did full assault boss rush mode. Yeah, that means that all the special location stuff was on and the enemies I played against were boss monsters: Lord Drakkon, Master Vile, and Cyclopsis.

I TOLD YOU I WOULD FIGHT YOU. AND YES, YOU ARE SCARY

So, besides almost dying horrifically, what did I think? Honestly, they felt like a more advance version of the core rangers. Which, don't get me wrong, is exactly how they should be! The momentum gain for these folks is just ridiculous. You could probably play a good five or six cards before the enemy ever has a chance to act, if you do it right. I mean, jeez, this team just flows.

Tanya is turning out to actually be my favorite ranger of the bunch. Yeah, that surprised me too! But hear me out. Her ability is about maximizing damage, and the rest of her deck is about hedging her bets. I have horrible dice luck in this game. Well, I have horrible dice luck in general. So Tanya just destroys that problem, because even I can roll a two hit die if you give me enough of them, and I already know the rest are going to be O's anyway, so it's not like I really lost out!

Please, for the love of God, don't tell me that her nunchucks are actually called Double Clubs in the official lore.

Please don't.

NO.

They're nunchucks. Damnit, that's what they are.

But my favorite card, so far, in the whole expansion? Intercepting Strike. It's the ultimate snappy rejoinder to all those moments when a really awfully powerful enemy card goes off, because you can take that three shield flip and just trash a card. And, if you're playing with Zeo Green, you can then take that Bull Zord and tell that card that you meant it, you demand that it frickin' die.

Yes, I did that to the Master Vile card that adds 2 damage to all his cards. That felt so good.

Rocky is fine? He's alright? If he doesn't get Let's Party, so that way you can spread the energy around post-haste, I found that he didn't perform all that well. He's good, he's just not quite my style, I suppose. Reckless Assault was a really good finisher and I found that I was using it a lot to get Let's Party out, so that way I could start another chain. If you can use Rocky correctly he'd be a serious sweeper, but he takes some work to get there. I'm not terribly impressed so far, but give it some time. I need to get used to his gimmick. He's the deepest character in this box and has the potential to completely change team compositions. But you have to use him right. I know I wasn't.

Adam may the weirdest soft character I've ever seen. He doesn't look soft, but he's the guy you want taking hits and gets stronger because of it. And c'mon, Not Done Yet! capitalizes off of this flow of taking damage to do cool stuff in a really delayed fashion. Because the payoff isn't immediate. It's whenever you can use those hit tokens to just destroy someone. And did I mention that I love the Bull Zord? It may be my favorite zord in the set. "I said DIE" may or may not have been said a lot last night, once that zord came out.

Kat's character ability is wonderful. Yes, I just kept the top card of her deck flipped up. I mean, why not? With Dancer's Grace she can swap out cards as she needs to. Extremely solid character, just all around. I don't really have much more to say about her yet. I'll get there.

Tommy is what makes this team go just absolutely nuts. Lead by Example is going to completely change the way the game works, mark my words. Yeah, it costs an energy, but so friggin' what?? You can literally be the middle point of a chain of combo cards. You pair this dude up with Jen, from the Shattered Grid expansion? You're going to have multiple people playing cards at the same time, some of which will definitely generate energy. Like, that card alone is going to change everything. The rest of Tommy's deck is pretty cool, but Lead by Example is the most important leading card to come out since Covering Fire and Team Tactics, and may actually outstrip them both. A whole new horizon just opened up in the meta. Just you wait. We're going to see some crazy stuff coming out because of this one card.

I'm not going to lie, Jason Gold (who is not actually in this box, he's Kickstarter exclusive, with a retail launch in May) about broke my brain, just clean in half. You have a true embarrassment of riches to choose from, with the following caveats: the special ability you want to play cannot be on the card being played and you lose the card you revealed, as it gets shuffled back into the deck. So you're always having to play at right angles to the situation, always having to figure out how to deliver that special ability by another route, not the one you would have normally picked. This is probably the deepest character we have to date. He's extremely powerful and effective, but you really need to put your thinking cap on to get the most out of him.

I did not finish playing against Cyclopsis, as it was late and my firstborn had a really bad dream. That'll be another post for another time. He's tough. He's scary. He's a lot of fun. But that's another post.

Why am I making this post? Why bother? Most of what I was saying was "This looks great on first viewing, but I'll definitely be writing more so wait for that!". So, yes, that's true, but  I do have a bit of a reason why I'm talking about it now. Certain games are meant to be one and dones. Burning Wheel is two books. It is probably meant to be two books. You will probably never ever see another book, and it is designed to where you don't really want more. I love Burning Wheel so much that I GM multiple games of it at a time, but I don't really want another book (there's some caveats to that, but that's for another time!) I own a lot of those types of games, where you really don't need or want an expansion or whatever. I don't want another Bleak Spirit book. I just don't. Nor do I want more Mouse Guard. Or Against The Darkmaster (yeah, I know, we'll get to that). When Oath comes out I will be shocked if they make an expansion.

But there are other games that are designed to get you on the expansion treadmill, which this game really does. Either the concept is just too large or they want a regular stream of income or whatever. Usually these treadmill games are very modular, with questionable design and whatnot. They want you to take another hit.

That's just simply not the case with Heroes of the Grid.

Every. Last. Expansion. Has been extremely good, if not amazing. This is top quality design, every time, from a game designer who is doing exactly what he loves, for an IP that he clearly thinks the world of,  from a company known for their curation of the community and their love for innovation and joy in the game design world. There's so much love and joy packed into each and every single one of these boxes that I'd feel like a cynical idiot to not point it out. I mean, sure, it's a business, they need to make money, but that's not their overriding motivation. I've gotten to playtest some stuff for this game and I'm so grateful to do it because I get to see how much love goes into this. The folks at Renegade love this game. Jonathan Ying loves this game. I mean, yes, they want your money, but I would bet they want the money so they can keep working on the game, not the other way around.

So, if you're on the fence about Zeo, asking if it's worth the money, I genuinely think it is. I don't say that because I'm a Power Rangers fan, or because of my (very limited) involvement, or whatever. I think anything made with this much love and talent deserves support. The Zeo team genuinely brings something new and exciting to the table, and I can't wait to write more about these characters and this game and in this ridiculous time we're going through stuff like this should be spread.

Far and frickin' wide.

So that's why.

I think this is worth it. It may take me some more time to tell you fully why I think so, but I genuinely do.

Hallucinations: Session Four

Last time... Zilya and Karel ran into Zilya's mentor, Timok, and Karel's friend, Arron, who were accompanied by two strange humans. They had to flee, and Zilya lost her torches in the process. They came up out of the tunnel into a building in Novstrech, the town they'd come from to get into the Cube in the first place. During their escape from the guards they bumped into they lost their backpacks, and were left with only their gold, Karel's axe, some of Zilya's knives and stilettos, and pretty much no dignity. Oh, they did make it out with a map showing more locations like the Cube they just got out of. There's that.

As they faded into the crowded street Karel and Zilya began to feel better. Karel's hunger and thirst seemed to just disappear. All of a sudden he heard a quiet whisper: it was his long-dead grandmother. She assured Karel the spirits were with him. And Karel drew strength from that. Zilya's nausea faded, and a spring returned to her step. Karel, however, still had a really bad cut on his arm, and despite the assurance that the spirits were with him he remained angry about having left his friend Arron with what seemed like his captors. So Zilya brought Karel to see her friend, Katia, who was more than happy to put them up for a week or so, while the guards looked around for them. Karel hoped the convalescence would help his arm to heal.

It didn't.

So, after the week was up, Karel thought he would try to sleep on an actual bed, by himself, for a little while. He checked into The Swift Kitchen, one of the seedier inns in Novstrech, and hunkered down there for a bit, hoping that some alone time and additional medical care would help his arm to heal up faster. But it didn't. His arm stayed a festering wound.

During this time, holed up and out of the way, Zilya and Karel processed the events of the Cube. Zilya realized what was missing in her technique for sneak attacks, and came up with a few solutions to ensure she wouldn't get caught like she had. Karel figured out how they'd evaded the townsfolk they'd fled from and thought up a few tricks of his own, to ensure that nobody could do that to them. The time at The Swift Kitchen didn't help heal his arm, but Karel did feel more rested than he had in a while, so that was something at least.

Zilya, for her part, was now in a much better mood after having hung out with her friend for a few days. Since Katia no longer really had the resources to really put her up, it was time to get out of town. She joined back up with Karel and they went to the market to replenish some of their gear. They left Karel's axe at Katia's, as weapons larger than a dagger were illegal in Novstrech.

Karel got some torches for some of the gold shavings that he had. Zilya was not so lucky, as one of the other vendors at the market flat out refused to sell her the backpack she was trying to get. Karel came over and tried to get the man to see sense, but he was turned away as well. Fortunately another vendor, of a more open persuasion, accepted the shaved gold for some satchels. They picked up some rations as well.

And that was as far as their gold could take them in the markets of Novstrech.

They managed to get Karel's axe out of Novstrech by sheer dumb luck, walking it right out the front gates and hoping nobody would notice. Somehow, nobody did. Outside the town Karel and Zilya bumped into a party of about a dozen adventurers. Some of them looked really seedy, but the captain looked alright to them. He told them of the rumors he had heard of great riches to be found in the mountains far to the north. Would they mind joining up with his motley gang? More people would be helpful in surviving the bitter colds of the north! And well, someone could probably take a look at Karel's arm in their little band. Maybe help him get it back to normal.

That was a done deal. They headed north, next to the Yewkhol River, towards the small town of Yerwo, three days distant from Novstrech.

The Undertow: Session Thirteen

Mikansia: the main character, a female elven sword singer played by Lena. Mikansia had traveled with Nomi and Akseli back to Kotae Mah, the capital city of the elven nations, to see Santeri, Jabez's father. She told him the truth of of how his son had died, that he had been intentionally sent to Elfharrow when he was exiled. Santeri tried to get Mikansia to come with her to help root out the source of the inner corruption in Kotae Mah, but Mikansia refused.

Jabez: A male sword singer, who had helped Mikansia go to the surface to track down her evil father, the vile Krakeru. After helping her Jabez had been exiled for his efforts and shot to Elfharrow, a center of dark elf activity on the surface. He was then systematically tortured and raped over several months. He died defending Mikansia from her father. She then avenged his death. Mikansia's entire drive is to find out who had sent Jabez to Elfharrow.

Kotae Mah: The capital of the elven nations, ruled by an elven high king. Exiles are never sent near Elfharrow, Golau, or any other stronghold of evil. They are always sent to some remote place on the surface, where they can't join with dark elves easily or harm anyone else. The author stresses, once again, that this is a sign of systemic failure.

Nomi: A former dark elf, redeemed because of the love she had for her sister Anneli. She now wields a dreaded Dagger of Betrayal, which allows her to control a terrifying dragon she has lovingly nicknamed Fish.

Yngvar: Mikansia's former firstsword and Akseli's best friend. After the sacking of Elfharrow he returned to Kotae Mah as a war hero. He has been doing his best to spy on the higher-ups of Kotae Mah, to find out who could have sent Jabez to Elfharrow.

Akseli: Mikansia's former commander. He had stayed with Mikansia, not only because of the bond that he had with Mikansia's mother Makirta, but because of the fatherly bond of affection he had gained for her. He'd come up to Kotae Mah to see Yngvar, who had told the world that Akseli had died during the sack of Elfharrow.

About fifteen minutes after seeing Santeri, Mikansia and Nomi saw one of Mikansia's former sword singer companions, Zaina. Mikansia and Zaina had never been close, but they'd certainly had no issue with each other previously. But the look Zaina was shooting Mikansia now was beyond murderous. Taking Nomi by the hand, Mikansia began to weave through the crowds, putting enough space between them and Zaina to lose her. Nomi was annoyed; she didn't need to be dragged around like a child! And furthermore, wasn't all this unnecessary? Santeri, who Nomi could never seduce, despite her best efforts, had offered a way out. It would have made all this sneaking around non-existent.

Mikansia told Nomi that she couldn't just go back. The system had completely failed Jabez and Mikansia just couldn't associate herself with it. Nomi said that was nonsense! Without access to the system Mikansia wouldn't be able to to anything nearly as effective as if she had taken that deal. Mikansia said the scrutiny upon her would be intense if she did come back, and that the life of an enlisted soldier would give  her no time at all to investigate. Nomi laughed at that; being in the city, more or less unrestricted and unhunted was much better than having to smuggle herself in and being hunted while doing whatever work she had to do. Mikansia said it just wasn't that simple and frankly Mikansia didn't want to be here. Scoffing, Nomi called her an idealist and shy about getting her hands dirty again. Mikansia’s eyes flashed sharply and her hands clenched to restrain the heat. She told Nomi that she had to hold to some ideals, otherwise what was the difference between them and their enemies? And if Nomi took issue with those ideals? Well, she was certainly welcome to take herself and her cursed dagger off elsewhere. Mikansia then stalked off to go see Akseli and Yngvar.

Akseli had told them where they would be meeting up and she wanted to see Yngvar. They were at an out-of-the-way town square. As they made their way there it became obvious that Mikansia and Nomi were being watched. Mikansia in particular could feel the eyes of upon her. She and Nomi managed to fade away into the crowd, away from the prying eyes. Nomi remarked that they didn't have this issue earlier, what had changed? The lack of an answer disturbed them both.

Zaina was already with Akseli and Yngvar, sitting at a table with them in the bustling town square. Mikansia and Nomi held back, listening in. Zain was enraged: not only was Akseli alive, but Yngvar had lied about it, used it to become capain of Akseli's former unit, and were allied with the Mikansia, who was undoubtedly responsible not just for Jabez's exile but death as well! Yngvar said that Mikansia was not responsible for Jabez's death. And besides, Yngvar was amused that Zaina thought she had had enough of a connection with Jabez in life to be mad about his death! Her infatuation with him had always been more than a touch crazy. Zaina broke down into tears. Yngvar was unmoved; Akseli was embarrassed. Zaina told Yngvar he was cruel;Yngvar snapped back that Zaina, despite being a brilliant swordsman, was crazy as hell, and Yngvar had no issue with telling her that. Her reputation for personal craziness was such that Yngvar had no issue telling her the truth, because who was going to believe her over Yngvar, celebrated swordsman, officer, and over-all badass? And what was she doing out at this hour anyway? She was supposed to be at the barracks, on clean-up duty.

Mikansia had seen enough. She walked up to the table. Zaina immediately lunged at her with a shortsword. With Nomi's help Mikansia dodged to the side. Yngvar was up, accusing Zaina of attacking him! Akseli, Mikansia, and Nomi slipped into the gathering crowd. Nomi quipped she was with an interesting group, but her full thoughts on that were going to have to wait until next time they all talked. Mikansia asked if there would indeed be a next time they talked. Nomi smiled and said that was her hope. She then told Mikansia and Akseli that it was probably a good idea that they get out immediately. They all agreed.

The trio ran out of Kotae Mah, into the howling winds and pitch-black sky. When they got to the edge  Nomi drew out her Dagger of Betrayal and presented it to Mikansia, hilt first. Blanching, Mikansia took it.

The hilt had been hollowed out! The blade was unbalanced, completely unusable for... well... anything really. Nomi laughed; Marian had hollowed out the hilt, so that it could be used to summon Fish. Nomi took the top off the hilt to reveal a mouthpiece. She put the mouthpiece to her lips.

Out came a piercing trumpet sound, noble to the last note.

They sat at the edge of the floating island, waiting for Fish. Akseli caught them up on what Yngvar had found in his investigations: nothing. Zilch. Everything was squeaky clean. Whatever was going on, whoever had made the decision to send Jabez to Elfharrow, they were up beyond Yngvar's power and reach. Well, at least for the moment.

The hurricane announced Fish. Nomi jumped on, laughing, and invited Mikansia and Akseli onto the smoothest ride she'd ever had, with a wickedly euphemistic grin.

They dropped to the surface, leaving a squall and confused guards in their wake.

It was time to go home.

May the Power Protect You: The Reality of Post-Core

We need to take a minute, OK?

Please, sit down!

Grab some mulled wine. Make some if it's "out of season" (if there's such a thing!).

Yeah yeah yeah, he's eating in the GIF. The facial expression though? SO TRUE TO LIFE

So, we're about to go out into different waters on this column. We've finally left the core decks. "But Nathan," some of you will say "But you've been covering the Kickstarter exclusives for about two months now. You haven't covered core in a long time". That's not strictly true. Ranger Slayer is a simple evolution on MMPR Pink, and the other Gen 2 rangers use the same decks as their Gen 1 counterparts. While they do play very differently from their Gen 1 counterparts they share the space of being core characters in design philosophy. The core characters are meant to be easier to play. That's not a criticism, but considering how difficult the actual game can be to play it makes sense to package the simplest and most effective characters you can into that core.

But from here on out? Strap into something kids! Cause this is about to get interesting. Characters from here on out are going to be a lot more niche. The core characters don't have a lot of weaknesses and they build up momentum pretty easily. You don't have to work to get everything up and working. And that's fine!  But more complicated characters take a bit of work to get everything up and running, but for much higher returns. For all the community talks about being fans of the show, the simple fact of the matter is that this is a game, first and foremost. And so knowing a bit of game theory in the nuts and bolts of HotG will be a pretty good idea.

Like I'd said before, HotG takes a lot of concepts from 4e DnD. The one concept from that game that we really need to unpack for this game is that of characters fitting into roles. Like I've said before, gaming is a guided conversation, with the rules providing a framework. Character roles allow people to take particular approaches in that conversation. They also make it easier for everyone at the table to figure out how to talk with you. These roles are not straightjackets. Mr. Ying may make more roles in the future, but for the moment these roles are what we have.

There are six basic roles in HotG (wacky names of my own making): Front Man (Leader), Back Line (Support), Single Target Tac Nuke (DPS) , Grenade (Sweeper), Diehard (Tank), and What??? (Miscellaneous)

Front Man: This is the dude who is always talking, always telling people what to do, trying to maintain group cohesion. Characters these guys usually play are any variety of non-dragonshield MMPR Red, MMPR White, HF Red, SS Red, and TF Pink. 

Back Line: These people don't talk all that much, by and large, and are usually working on some engine in the back, trying to help everyone out, but not in a very loud way. MMPR Blue and Green (Gift of the Dragon), MMPR Yellow (Trinit Kwan), Alpha-5 and HF Blue.

Single Target Tac Nuke: The single target destroyers of the game. You need a target to just die?? These are your folks. MMPR Pink, Ranger Slayer, MMPR Yellow (Aisha Campbel) and HF Pink.

Grenade: These guys hit multiple folks at a time, sometimes to spectacular results, like a real-life grenade (which are more like a force of nature than anything else). They need a little support to get really spectacular, but these are the flashiest characters in the game. MMPR Black (Zack Taylor), SS Red, and MMPR Yellow (Trini Kwan)


Diehard: These are the folks who are meant to take beatings. The deck is just tuned to taking damage. HF Yellow, DS MMPR Red, MMPR Blue.

What??: These are the folks who are intentionally designed to have a shtick that is so unique that it really doesn't fit into the previous categories. They do something that's so different that to play them requires a lot of talking with others to make sure the team is built to handle their different style of play. MMPR Green (Loner), MMPR Black (Adam Park) and HF Black

Now, you probably took a look at the above and said "Hey, wait a minute! That's not quite right!" and probably generated your own list. That is the point. My system is not broken, it is functioning as intended. I just gave you examples of how those roles break down on my table. You could easily take DS Red and put him into Front Man, depending on how he's played. Heck, MMPR Blue could easily be a Diehard, but that's not how he seems to be used during my games. I also probably missed a few rangers, and by the time this post actually publishes we'll be on the cusp of getting the Zeo Rangers. I did not include them, because I do not write about characters I have not played. As of the writing of this post I've also not played with Bulk and Skull, and have no idea where they fit, and pride myself on telling you that I've no idea. Like I said before, the roles are a tool for your table. They are not meant to be definitive canon. If you start using MMPR Green (Loner) as a Grenade (which it's possible to!) you're not doing it wrong, you've just found a way to use him that I haven't, by and large.

So if the list is not definitive why use the system? Because it gives you a good short-hand to talk to people. People need shorthand. Whole concepts can be wrapped up in a few words and people can move on, quickly. These roles are used to figure out team composition in a more time-efficient manner. If someone wants to play HF Red you know you've got a Front Man, which means the rest of the team might consider other roles. Again, this is not a hard and fast rule. You can cover gaps with creative uses of other characters from the same role. But it is simplest to cover each of the five basic roles on purpose.

The other question you will have to cover, post-core, is how you're going to handle momentum. Momentum is how the flow of abilities progress on the table. Either you're taking control of that flow, denying the actions of the enemy (hard approach), or you're taking control of their momentum to create openings (soft approach). The terms hard and soft are taken from martial arts, which show how offensive or defensive an art generally is.

Muay Thai is one of the hardest martial arts in existence. Straight up offense, all the time.

Most of us understand the concept of the hard arts instinctively. Someone's going to punch you? Hit them first, harder than what they had planned. You create openings by battering at defenses until someone makes a mistake, and then you pummel the crap out of them. We know this as canceling out cards before they go off. It's the default view from the core set. I mean, Billy is definitely a soft style character, but the other characters are very clearly hard style. Hard style is very satisfying and intuitive. There's theory to it, but it's generally a variation on "HIT THEM HARDER. MAOR HITS".

Aikido is THE soft martial art. All damage is dealt by turning the aggressor on himself.

Ah, now we come to the one that most people will have a hard time getting their heads wrapped around. Soft martial arts are generally more technical and cerebral. The small bits of aikido training I've done centered around lengthy discussions of why I was stepping in the place I was, so that way the opponent would just collapse under their momentum and weight. MMPR and HF Blue are the soft characters par excellence, as is most of the Hyperforce team. But that requires turning off the offensive portion of your brain and learning to see gaps in offense as opportunities for powerful defense. And yes, that means having to build around those gaps.

A good example of this is HY Blue's Python Grab. It reduces damage from the card it attaches to by 2, for the cost of one energy. HF Blue in general is looked down upon for having glaring gaps in offensive momentum, but what if you used this as an opportunity for soft momentum? By way of example, you've got one energy in the pool, so you burn that to throw Python Grab onto a high damage enemy card. With Rallying Light (MMPR White) you then get an energy back, and then the enemy card activates. If someone is playing MMPR Black they then further reduce the damage by 2 and we get another energy from it. With the damage reduced to 2 you then pass it along to HF Yellow, who can not only tank the shot but then get a bonus die for his next attack.  It's much more technical, but man is it fun. You are messing with the mechanics to produce a result where you outlast the cards and take them down, one plink at a time, all the while taking the opponent's turn to build you up for your own attack. You turn the momentum of the game on its head.

Everything after this point is going to be different. Characters are going to be less flexible, but their individual bits are going to be more powerful. In order to properly take advantage of these changes players will need to be more cognizant of the roles their characters can play, as well as how they want to muck with momentum as a group. Going beyond core requires a bit more thought, but the results can be incredibly satisfying. All posts after this assume that you have read this one. Welcome to the game post-core. It's a wild ride.

A kind thanks to Joshua Trope and Tom Chorn, who provided their feedback on this article. I know I forgot some of what they said, but their looking over the post and helping me sort a few things out is incredibly appreciated.

The Brothers Bloom

Light spoilers for the Brothers Bloom to follow.

Most of the time you are not aware of when you have an important moment in your life. Usually you just sorta walk into it, the thing happens, and then it's years later and you realized that small moment had defined practically every moment of your existence since then. It's like realizing that you've been hearing an echo of a song this entire time, and when you finally realize what had happened you can never unhear that song, in everything. Lyrics start lining up, you start hearing the tune in your head at points where you really need it to... and then all of a sudden that thing is just you. You absorbed it. You are more than you. And so is it. That moment is given a form of sentience and awareness that it would not have without you. And you are a more full and complete person because of that moment. It's a pretty awesome thing.

Yeah, the Brothers Bloom was never like that.

I knew, right from the opening frames, that it would never leave me.

It's ten years later.

It still hasn't.

The main character, Bloom, is someone I just get. It would take a few years before I met another character who I would identify with more than him, Tomoya Okazaki from Clannad, but Tomoya is more like looking in the mirror and seeing your shadow staring back, beaten, bloody, and screaming at you for ignoring him for so long, than that incredibly close friend that you just hadn't seen in awhile.

Bloom was a warm-up to that very uncomfortable, ongoing, conversation.

Morally speaking, Bloom is the antagonist of the film. He wants to destroy his own life, literally. He hates himself, just out and out, showing all the classic signs of a rape victim. And yet he wants more? Maybe? Possibly? But how does one get out of that rut? How can you start to like yourself enough to crawl out? Most of my life I was taught that some form of self-acceptance was necessary in order to evolve. If you don't like yourself how can you let yourself heal?

That, for the record, is the biggest line of bullshit I've ever been force fed, and the sooner people stop trying to preach "self-acceptance" and "See me as I see you" and all that nonsense, the better. Because as the movie shows, that just simply doesn't work. I mean, sure, you start to do that very thing I just called nonsense, but that's certainly not what starts that starts the ball rolling. That would be love, in point of fact, that allows you to move outside yourself.

Enter Stephen, the actual protagonist of the story. He's the one concerned about his little brother, Bloom, not Bloom. Stephen seems more or less OK with being an amoral con artist, but the little boy he's spent his entire life trying to protect is wilting right in front of him, and that means the acceptance that he's been looking for his whole life dies too. Telling Bloom the truth seems to be utterly unhelpful, so Stephen does the only thing he's good at: he devises a con.

And then there's Penelope, whose smile is like the sun, which all men need, not just the ones who are living in the shadows. It is almost impossible to imagine another actress in the role, Rachel Weisz handles it so well. Even now I can't pretend to know how the character exists.  There's so many open contradictions in Penelope: kind and sweet, yet a thief, enlightened and yet incredibly physical, she's someone that Bloom cannot figure out. Which is why Stephen picked her.

The previous blog entries in this series had stated that Rian Johnson has a pretty simple structure: set up a brunette and two white dudes and play them off each other. The Brothers Bloom is the only one where the main character is out and out in the wrong. He is out to destroy his own life, and everyone else is out to stop him. Stephen and Penelope grab Bloom, an arm apiece, and drag him out of his little hell, kicking and screaming, one bloody and battered inch at a time. The two of them just relentlessly love Bloom, and he finds that he loves them back.  And so you watch as his defenses crack against the impossible barrage that his brilliant brother has set against him, forcing him to see light between the cracks in his armor, opening him up little bit by little bit...

I do not care what anyone says. There is no way to know if Stephen died in the end. He's too smart to leave such an obvious plot hole, and given that just about every thing that happens in this movie could have orchestrated by him... it's hard to say the ending wasn't either. There's just too much intentional air-tight imagery going on.

To this day I don't know what happened to Stephen.

Yes, I still think about him.

And wonder what he did.

Isn't what art's supposed to do? Stay with you, always?

Well, Stephen is the one who wound up staying with me. Weird, manipulative, bullish, brilliant Stephen.

Not Bloom.

Funny how that works.

Exceed Fighting System

Andy has been telling me about this game for years. Like, with glowingly high praise. Andy also thinks Dr. Who is a legitimate show.

OK, that last part isn't very fair. I couldn't keep watching after Rose left, she was my favorite part of the show.  

The point is, I ignored Andy. It wasn't that I wasn't interested, I just had my own rabbit trails I was following and didn't want to take the time to jump onto another. I'm like that a lot.

But when Lv99, the folks who make Exceed, decided to mail out completely free decks of Ryu and Ken from Streetfighter, I decided to take the bait. I didn't even have to pay for shipping! Even that minor excuse was unfounded! And besides, if I didn't like the game, I could donate it to a Goodwill or something. What was there to lose? Legitimately nothing.

About a week later everything came in. I was impressed with the rulebook. It reads pretty well and I was able to ascertain the following from it, with few questions.

There are nine "range" cards, which set up the physical space your characters are fighting in. Players place their character cards on this make-shift range of cards. There are mats that you can buy. I think I may get one, because goodness gracious the cards are annoying. The physical space demand surprises me every time, and not for the better. Besides, the cards are always moving, which also annoys me.

Characters in this game are compromised of a thirty-card deck. Cards have two different abilities on them: a strike and a boost. If you play the card as a strike and hit with it, it goes into your Gauge. If you play it as a boost you discard it. Your Gauge may be used to either power the Critical abilities on some cards, or to get you into your Exceed form, which amplifies your character, sometimes exponentially.

There are a wide variety of actions you can take, but you can only do one action a turn, so turns usually go pretty rapidly. If you do any action other than one that involves a strike you get to draw a card at the end of your turn, which means that striking all the time is generally a pretty bad idea. You have the option to Wild Swing, which is where you just pull a card off the top of your deck and pray to God it works, but that's a pretty crappy option. You can do it if you need to, but why would you want to when you can swap out cards from your hand to draw more, or just draw more cards in general, or move, or activate your character ability, etc? There is a surprising amount that you  can do, but the options never really felt overwhelming.

This game encourages card counting. And it would fall apart if it didn't. When you play your strikes against each other you play them face-down, which means that you have to have a reasonable way to figure out what you opponent is up to. Half the cards in your deck are completely universal, and the other half are summed up on a handy little card that you can reference at any time!  You also have the right to check each other's Gauge and discard piles, meaning that you can create a reasonable picture of what your opponent is capable of as time goes on. Of course they can reshuffle their deck once a battle and throw you off, but more on that option in a minute. The point is that you can actually develop a pretty legit strategy, even while praying that they didn't play that one card PLEASE NO NOT THAT ONE OH GOD NO.

I stand by the decision to use this picture. It is appropriate.

I drafted my brother, who is definitely not a gamer, to try it with me. He very politely sat down with as I raved about how interesting I found the rulebook and that I wanted to see if he would pick it up as quickly as I did. I asked him which character he wanted, he picked the defensive Ryu, leaving me with the offensive Ken.

He beat me two times out of three.

And I won the third by the skin of my teeth.

Yeah, I think he picked it up.

The interesting thing about the game is how you have to be willing to completely embrace what the character is about. Ken's special moves were mostly up-close and personal and granted a lot of closing ability. The game where I won I had to willingly trade enough blows to get my Gauge up, so that way I could get to my Exceed ability, which turned Ken into a tank of death and destruction. My brother only needed a few questions after being taught a few of the rules to settle right into playing Ryu. Yeah, he wasn't exactly playing very deeply into the mechanics (neither was I), but he certainly got the basics! And that's not nothing. We had a great time and I found myself wanting to try out other characters to see how they played.

Exceed is a bit crunchy, but the system is designed well enough to where I could get someone who thinks himself not a gamer to play and thrive. The physical set up is something I dislike, but that's a pretty small nitpick for a game that produces an experience like this. It's fast-paced, technical, and deeply rewarding. I'll definitely be getting into this more. A lot more.

A Thought Experiment on 4.5e: Introduction

I make no big secret about the fact that 4e was the first RPG I truly loved. It has a lot of warts, but the core gameplay of managing the resources of Surges, Encounter and Daily Powers, and Item abilities  can create some truly incredible moments in gaming. But eventually I left, because I wanted a more character-centric game. I found Burning Wheel, and got a whole lot more than I ever could have imagined. Burning Wheel is much more than a character-centric game, it is holistic: everything feeds into everything else. Little changes make ripples, and big changes can completely change the game for a player. Had they focused on making their system holistically focused upon this core of resource management I don't think I would have left the game. But it wasn't, and I did.

Now, this isn't a series of blog posts where I provide you with tested content. This just me sitting down, looking at my first love, and commenting on what could have probably gotten me to stay, had I known. Is this a bit of a wish fulfillment fantasy? Absolutely. Whose benefit am I doing it for? Mine, but hopefully you'll find it interesting as well? Far as I'm concerned, if you're along for the ride, cool! If not, well, oh well.

So what do I mean by holistic?  In this case I mean a mechanical system that is so interconnected that if something happens in the mechanics the other subsystems react and change the mechanical (and thus fictional) landscape. You reincorporate already existing elements of the design as answers to the questions that other elements have. You are aiming for a larger vision, something is more than the sum of its parts. 4e manages this by seeming accident. They do add up, but they don't seem to add up on their own, without a discerning GM. That doesn't really count. I should be able to hand the system to even a half-awake GM and have sparks fly, even if it's being bungled. And 4e has that potential.

4e is a game about resource management: Surges (which dictate health), At-Will/Encounter/Daily powers (class special abilities), and Item  abilities (unclassed special abilities).

Yes, I would cut out feats.

No, that's not a stupid idea. Feats are dumb and undermine the other three systems. But that's its own blog post.

Anyway.

While the class and unclass special abilities are minorly linked to health management in some of the abilities, none of these systems are really all that linked. I want to link these three systems so that way players would have something a bit more substantial than what's in 4e vanilla. Part of doing that is making sure the d20 mechanic fits the three systems a bit better, pulling them to the forefront.

Part of this thought experiment is going to reference the d20 game par excellence, Miseries and Misfortunes, because there are subsystems in that game that can be ported over to this thought experiment to allow for a greater variety in gameplay, as well as modifying a few systems to behave better.

So yeah, no real actual impact or stakes. I'm wanting to just sorta work out in my head what would have gotten me to stay with the game and what I think would have been good for an actual iteration on 4th edition DnD, as opposed to the retcon we got with 5th. I've got a number of general ideas of where to go with this series, and hopefully that'll be enough to have everyone stick around see where we wind up!

I Hate Everyone and Everything

So I was planning on just making a few addenda for my Star Wars Epic Review. Star Wars is a very, deeply, personal thing to me as it exists, Rise of Skywalker included. So it gets hard to watch as people just utterly... wreck the point. Rather than approaching it from the Campbellian framework that it exists in they prefer to see it as they would rather prefer to.

To be blunt, I find that silly. And immature. If you approach life on your terms you will never be happy, so I'm not sure why Star Wars is an exception to one of the hard and fast rules of living.

So, the thing is that, with the advent of the digital release of The Rise of Skywalker, I had the opportunity to just tack on my observations of The Rise of Skywalker, as if it was an appendix to The Last Jedi. And, given that The Last Jedi is one of my favorite movies, ever, it would be very easy to do that. But that wouldn't be approaching the series on its own terms, now would it?

So, I will start over, ALL over, from The Phantom Menace and up.

I do not relish putting my thoughts out there and seeing it have no impact on the Star Wars community, or few other people.

But my brain won't shut up.

And so therefore whoever wants to read this is going to have to put up with my temper tantrum of 25+ posts.

Brick

Yes, there are spoilers for Brick. This is analysis. If you haven't seen the movie yet demand to keep reading that's on you.

Brick was not the first Rian Johnson movie that I watched (that honor goes to The Brothers' Bloom, courtesy of my father). It is, however, my favorite, as it is the hardest hitting of Johnson's movies. While the rest of his movies refuse to back down on showing people in all their messed up glory. This is where the triangle (brunette and two white dudes) mentioned in Knives Out begins, in its most brutal manifestation. This is not a movie for those who have a weak moral stomach, or who want to find someone to blame. Because, in the end, everyone is to blame, which means that no one is.

For those of you who don't know, Brick follows the story of Brendan, who is trying to find  out what happened to his ex-girlfriend, Emily, who called him on a payphone, babbling nonsense. The only thing that Brendan can really make out are the words "Tug" and "Brick" (along with a few others, but the movie covers those). The rest of the movie is a descent into the underworld of his highschool to find her and try to redeem her, to the best of his ability.

Brendan is the most tragic of Johnson's protagonists. There are more conflicting drives in this guy than a trio of other protagonists. He wants to keep people from hurting those he loves, but also wants to get revenge. He thinks he cares about Emily, but his constant need to control her drives her away and starts this whole series of events. Brendan is partly to blame for Emily's plight. I mean, sure, he didn't make her get in trouble, but if people think they're not responsible for the environment they create for others to make choices in I've got swampland in Florida for you!

C'mon, it's a good deal! People make their decisions in a vacuum, this is a good deal!

No, Brendan's hands are not clean. I think he knows it, too. The line between loving Emily and controlling her are pretty thing, and maybe he has left is to check up on her to make sure she's OK? It's hard to tell. But Brendan's anger gets in the way of everything he does, especially the end, when he is finally confronted with what he actually and truly is. The definition of tragedy, far as I'm concerned, is to struggle with one's fate. And Brendan cannot accept what he was told. And that is tragic.

Laura is the only antagonistic brunette that Johnson has ever devised. And even then, she's shown in as fair of a light as someone can show an evil manipulative puppet master. She's played with such vulnerability, such brutal honesty, that I just can't help feel sorry for her own position. Yes, she's consumed by her own greed and lust for power, but she is consumed by her flaws, the same as Pin, Tug, Brendan, and everyone else is. She has fallen prey to who she is. She gave up. They all did.

Tug is the most powerless character in the whole movie. Yes, I rated him above Emily. At least Emily gets to move on, at least she tried to have some agency. You cannot say the same of Tug. He is never not subject to his anger, never ever in control, never able to make a single decision for himself. Even when he's trying to rise above his anger, it is his anger that consumes and drives him to make that decision. He is utterly incapable of change, which Brendan uses against him. No matter what Tug does, he loses.

Brick is a tale about how we will never win. If we are only out for revenge, if we only act on anger and disappointment then we will be forever stuck. Brendan would not change, he would not evolve, he would not let go. And he paid the price for it: all he knows and loves is gone. And I doubt he moved on from it. 

Risk Legacy: A Review

Let's get a few things out of the way, before I start roasting this game. Cause yes, I am about to hit it where it lives, as hard as I can.

I did enjoy myself.

I AM A TERRIBLE RISK PLAYER. NORMAL RISK AND I DO NOT GET ALONG.

This was my first Legacy game, ever. So I've no idea what this experience will do to my understanding of future Legacy games. I may look back on this more kindly in the future. We'll see.

It's important to know these things, because I am about to drop about a ton of bricks on this game. Yeah, I get the novelty of "adding things to the board" started here and we're all still living in the environment that the designer built (hopefully that ends with Oath) , but Risk Legacy is not a good narrative game.

 "Ok, wise-ass", someone who likes this game will say, "Define narrative!"

OK, sure.

A narrative is a sequence of events that each end with the statement "But" and/or "Therefore". Patrick Wilhem's amazing video boils it down and he's a quality dude to begin with, so if you wanna watch that and then get back to this rant/review I'd be more than happy to recommend it.

Yes, right now if you wish.

Back?

Cool.

So, by way of example, we'll take the Spider-Man origin story: Peter Parker is a cruelly abused nerd BUT he gets spider-powers THEREFORE he uses them for his own personal gain BUT his uncle is killed THEREFORE he chases down the sonabitch BUT discovers it's a dude he'd let get away with a crime THEREFORE Peter Parker realizes that he can never look away, never again THEREFORE Peter resolves to put himself in situations where he can't look away. That origin story is so good, on a structural level, that Spider-Man remains Marvel's best character, hands down.

Of course I'm objective about that. DUH.

The really heartbreaking part about Risk Legacy is that it actually manages to nail a narrative at the beginning. Stickers are flying, card bits are going into the trash, and there's so many But and Therefore statements happening because of the Legacy elements. Cities! Ooh! I can begin to muck with those! Wait, Ammo Shortage makes it harder to defend? CRAP! What now? What some think of as an addiction to just opening boxes is, I think, a reaction to powerful statements that fundamentally change everyone's relationship to the board state.

And for the first... ten or so sessions?

Maybe eleven?   

I was totally there, is the point.

So was my group. We would walk away from each game going "I have no freaking idea how we're going to deal with this now". We had been thrown back into the unknown, with a system that we had enough of an idea about to manipulate, but with elements that we could have some illusion of control over. And we would just blow up our group chat, every week, trying to figure out what we were going to do next.

Now, to be fair, a lot of real-world things happened in these last few sessions. But that's just not true anymore. The Legacy statements had mostly dried up, and I was left with a very, very unfortunate truth: Risk is still a bad game, nostalgia be damned. The same problems that I've always had with the game, namely how it seems to defy any and all attempts at actual strategy beyond slowly turtling along and for God's sake grab Australia had not vanished, but instead had become magnified. Risk's mechanics do not, natively, provide for But and Therefore statements, not in a way that respects player agency. The mechanics of battling would work out just fine if that was just one part of a holistic picture, where the wild and random nature of the dice fit into a larger mechanical picture. The Legacy mechanics provide for a fun and engaging distraction from Risk's battle mechanics, but there is nothing in the game that further engages with the wild nature of Risk's battling mechanics. Nothing. These additional mechanics are never developed further.

No, the stupid Event deck does not count. That thing was made for everyone's pain. Even when I benefited from it I found it dumb.

I can totally see enjoying this game for eight to ten sessions. There's a lot that gets unlocked, which keeps changing the board and the pace of the game, deepening it out and allowing you to take slightly different tacks. But the lack of depth on the Legacy mechanics, as well as the slowing of the drip of gaining new stuff, makes the end-game a ridiculous slog. If you don't mind Risk to begin with I can't recommend the game highly enough, because this game just takes that engine and tacks a few things on. But for folks like myself, who routinely considers burning his own dice?

Play eight to ten sessions and get out. You may not even last that long.

Hallucinations: Session Three

Previously... Karel and Zilya had broken into a golden cube, which had popped outside the divided town of Novstrech. They've been scraping gold off the walls, broke a few robots (who initiated a lockdown, whatever that means??), and are pretty happy with getting rich, and they found a secret passageway... and apparently there's someone walking down it.

As the footsteps got louder Zilya rushed to find a place to hide. But in her desire to get into a spot for a sneak attack she just wound up standing right next to the opening to the hallway, in plain view. Karel didn't even bother; he stood in plain view, lighting his lantern, as Zilya's torch had gone out. Out walked two unknown human males (one whom was holding a torch), along with Karel's friend Arron and Zilya's mentor, Timok, who didn't acknowledge her. Karel jovially told Arron that he had some money for his inn! The two humans were aghast: the walls were scraped of as much of the gold that Karel and Zilya could have gotten into their bags. They'd defiled an Ensivalen meditation cube! The information in this cube could completely stop the religious civil war in its tracks. And Karel and Zilya had just been bumbling about in it??

Karel laughed; they'd done everyone a favor by taking out the two statues upstairs and deactivating some of the security! The four could explore to their heart's content now. Shaking their heads, the humans formed up, drawing their weapons. They would bring in these two hooligans! Timok formed up with the two humans, but he hung back. Karel made a break for Zilya, but one of the humans knocked his lantern onto the ground, where it went out. Zilya shoved both humans out of the way and they made a break for it, but they grabbed her torches as she ran, spilling them onto the ground.  Karel managed to scoop up his lantern as they ran down the worked stone hall, which turned neither right or left. Zilya and Karel swapped the lantern and a bag of gold as they ran, and Zilya relit the lantern as they fled. They came to a stair, vaulted it, and burst through the door at the top of the stair.

The three guards in the room beyond were utterly shocked. The windows opened out to the street. Their backpacks did not fit through the windows, so they threw them off as they jumped out.

Broken, bruised, exhausted, and yet laden down with bags of shaved gold, Zilya and Karel vanished into the crowds of Novstretch.

The Undertow: Session Twelve

Mikansia: the female elven main character, played by Lena. Mikansia helped bring down Elfharrow and, because she was an exile of the elven nation of Kotae Mah, had joined an elven smuggling ring called The Sword Runners. It's been a year since we last saw her, and she is now headed to Kotae Mah with Akseli and Nomi for a personal mission.

Yngvar: Mikansia's former Firstsword, who had traveled down with Akseli to bring her back to Kotae Mah after Jabez had helped her desert. After the fall of Elfharrow Yngvar returned to Kotae Mah, so that way Mikansia could have someone on the inside of the system.

Jabez: Mikansia's deceased Sword Singer friend. He had been exiled to Elfharrow, which is something that should not have happened. Elfharrow is not a place where any elf is sent, for any reason. And Mikansia wants to find out how that happened.

It was dawn. Dale, with Mikansia, Akseli, and Nom in tow, flew the rickety airship under Kotae Mah, easily slipping past the military patrols. That disturbed Mikansia and Akseli, who had been on these very patrols previously! Nomi, however, found their disturbance hilarious, which made them even more uncomfortable. Dale gave some money to Mikansia as a ladder came down. Mikansia, Akseli, and Nomi climbed up the ladder. There was a male elf at the top of the ladder. Mikansia paid him and they were let up. Dale told them to be back by dawn the next day, or else it would be awhile before they could leave Kotae Mah. They acknowledged and Dale was off.

It was strange, seeing the white and towers of Kotae Mah rising against the infinite black of the Void. There was a nostalgia to seeing these places, as an exile; home, and yet not home. Akseli said he was going to go see Yngvar. Mikansia told him to tell Yngvar she said hello. Akseli laughed and said that wouldn't be necessary; they'd be talking about her most of the afternoon. Mikansia smiled and told Akseli not to wait up for her. He laughed an said if Mikansia got herself in trouble again he was going to come for her, period. Besides, Yngvar would kill Akseli if she was abandoned again. Mikansia laughed and they'd see each other dawn.

Mikansia and Nomi walked on. It had been a year, and over all that time Nomi had refused to tell anyone anything about herself, only that a "Marian" had sent her, and that the now-dead Tyce had contacted this Marian. Mikansia asked who Marian was, again, remarking she really must be someone special, to be able to turn someone from the Lone Keep to defect. Nomi agreed, and then tried to drop the subject. But Mikansia persisted. For a whole year Nomi had told them nothing. Nomi told Mikansia it wasn't her business: she was there to help and destroy the Lone Keep, and that would have to be enough. Mikansia laughed: Nomi wore a Dagger of Betrayal, rode a dragon that was controlled by said Dagger ("His name is Fish!" protested Nomi), she claimed to be sent by some random human woman, and she expected that to fly??? No, this needed to change.

Nomi stared at Mikansia and then began laughing. Genuinely, actually, laughing! Yeah, that sounded pretty ridiculous! She explained she had been one of the Lone Keep's best agents: there was not one elven general that Nomi probably hadn't slept with, not one major human politician who hadn't been threatened by her. So when Nomi's sister, Anneli, had stumbled upon a way to bring the Ring of Tears back to the planet, they sent Nomi to plant a Dagger of Betrayal in Anneli's back. Nomi thought she could do it. She was wrong. The inner confusion almost killed her, leaving her a broken mess.  Anneli, permanently disillusioned with her sister, had left Nomi with Marian for rehabilitation. Marian was a human sorceress and a far better person than anyone had any right to be. She had helped Nomi and Fish regain a sense of self, outside of their own pasts. Marian had sent Nomi to Mikansia because Nomi needed to start living for more than healing or revenge.

Mikansia told Nomi she was familiar with hitting that moral wall, that realization of how far she could go. Nomi asked wryly if that had anything to do with meeting Mikansia when she wasn't wearing any pants. Mikansia blushed, but told Nomi she'd arrived at the just the nick of time, and that Mikansia would be forever grateful for that. Nomi smiled. She said they needed to move on, although if it was one of her ex-marks it would be an awkward reunion.

After asking some questions about General Santeri and his wife Aallotar, Jabez's parents. They found out that Aallotar had sailed a few months ago, into the Void. General Santeri had stayed on, in disgrace over the treason of his son Jabez. He alwasy came out when market convened and stayed there awhile, people watching. So off they went, trying to blend in with the crowd.

They found General Santeri sitting to the side of the market, watching the crowds as some watch ducks in a pond. Mikansia sat down next to him and held out Jabez's sheathed sword for him to see. General  Santeri grew pale and he looked at Mikansia; he asked where she had gotten that sword. Mikansia told General Santeri that she had received it from Jabez himself. General Santeri asked why Jabez didn't have the sword, or why he wasn't with her. Mikansia took a deep breath. She had caught the sword as Jabez had been killed, and then used that sword to gut the monster who had murdered him. But Jabez had died standing tall, proud, defending the values that all Sword Singers were so proud of. He died as a hero and not a day went by that Mikansia wasn't proud to have known him.

General Santeri gently pushed the sword back to Mikansia, telling her she should keep it. He could tell there was more to that story than she let on, and that Mikansia (whom he called by name) had something to do with Jabez going out as well as he did. General Santeri could see why Jabez had thrown it all away for her Mikansia, because he could see it too. Mikansia told him that Jabez had helped lead to the downfall of Elfharrow. Mikansia then confirmed that Jabez had been exiled near Elfharrow. General Santeri asked her to come with him and tell that to the elite of Kotae Mah. That shouldn't have happened to anyone, let alone his son! The elves were always so careful as to where they initially put their exiles, so the system needed to be alerted! Together, the two of them could make a difference! He would pull strings; Mikansia would be reinstated as a Sword Singer. General Santeri would see to that personally.

Mikansia was torn.All this running and sneaking around and being a criminal could end! She could return to the way things had been.. without Jabez. So she couldn't go back, not all the way. But the interior rot in the elven nation was there! And what of Akseli and Nomi? Akseli had given up everything to follow her, and Nomi would never be Maybe, just maybe...

General Santeri gently stroked Mikansia's hand and told her the offer would still stand. He understood.

As Mikansia and Nomi, who had been standing nearby, got ready to leave, General Santeri promised they'd meet again. He was about to sail, he missed his wife so much!

But not yet.

The people who sent his boy to Elfharrow needed to be found.

Mikansia nodded.

She left him there, vanishing from sight, into the crowd.

May the Power Protect You: Kimberly Ann Hart (Ranger Slayer)

There are only two characters I've played that I utterly underestimated upon first sight: Jason Dragonshield, and Ranger Slayer. I'm not saying I've not been wrong about other characters; I've been wrong in evaluating game mechanics before, but man, I felt stupid after playing Ranger Slayer. I've already eaten my crow with Jason Dragonshield earlier, so now it's time to eat crow for Ranger Slayer! There was almost no cards in Ranger Slayer's deck that I liked upon first glance, to the point to where I honestly thought about hiding the character so that way others wouldn't ruin our first few playthroughs with someone so sub-par. And, especially after playing Green Ranger and getting the stuffing kicked out of him I wondered if I had actually misspent my money.

I am such an idiot.

YUMMY

Ranger Slayer is what happens when someone looks at Kimberly and says "I want this but bitter and vengeful." Which, for the record, is me. I am that guy. I am convinced that the dice in HotG are evil and possessed, capable of making all strategies turned to ash in an instant. It's not as bad as Risk, because there are characters who grant rerolls and who do flat damage, but we all know that sinking feeling in the pit of our guts when that reroll does nothing, not at frickin' all, and all good and hopeful in the world dies. And it feels like Ranger Slayer is made to counteract some of those effects. And we should all be happy about that.

Last Shot is perfect. Just, perfect. MMPR Kimberly's ability always feels a little risky to me, because you don't know how the fight is going to shake out. You have to pick and guess and hope. Last Shot, however, takes effect when the battle is over. And there's almost always that one card.

You know the one I'm talking about.

That one.

The one you really needed to take out, but couldn't, cause those damn dice missed by one because of course they would and I usually find myself glaring at my dice and wishing there was a fire I could throw them into and then I find myself making a note to clean out my chimney for just this frickin' situation and then resolving to not tell my wife I'm burning plastic in the house and then realizing that would probably get her mad and then I'd get a restraining order and divorce papers slapped on my dumb ass for putting my children at risk and no one would feel bad for me because I'm just a frickin' adult child sitting around playing all these damn games all the time and who does that and WHY WOULD I SET FIRE TO DICE IN A CHIMNEY ANYWAY IT'S SO UNNECESSARY JUST GO OUTSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Erhem.

Well, with Last Shot no need! Just throw that extra damage on and laugh and get high fives, and move on! The monster goes down, my wife isn't going to divorce me for burning toxic substances in the house, and I get the satisfaction of picking an awesome character! Everyone wins with Last Shot, particularly me, because I'm still married!

I promise this is all OK and normal.

Bow of Darkness is the only card in the game (so far) that gives you a high amount of flat damage. Can Ranger Slayer outdo MMPR Pink's potential? No. But the simple fact of the matter is that five flat damage is much more reliable than six dice, and I would would take that any day, particularly since most Boss cards are sitting at 7 Health at max. You can boost this card with other abilities and whatnot, and know what it is you'll be getting pretty reasonably. Never underestimate a sure thing. It may very well save your bacon later. Dice are more exciting, but flat damage helps with the above screaming panic attack and make it manageable. The Bow of Darkness is a pressure release valve for what is otherwise a very intense game.

Ptera Kick is one of those cards that's incredibly underrated. Being able to recall any card, regardless of any circumstance, is one of the most useful abilities in the game, definitely in the top three things you can do! Hand size is one of the most crucial resources you have to manage, and the ability to keep a card after using it is so, so, so good. Throw Ptera Kick at high Health targets that no one has a single card to take down with, and keep bouncing it back to your hand to whittle it down before someone else pulls out another attack. But make sure everyone else can withstand the onslaught required to do something like this. Not everyone wants an all-out brawl. But when you have to just trade blows with monster? Ptera Kick is the card to do it.

Do I really have to explain the Gravezord? Do I really have to? I mean, isn't it obvious? You get to use another zord again! That's amazing! Your burst power just skyrocketed. But what should it be used for? Which zords do you focus on? I mean, this is a pretty open zord. And I won't pretend to know what you're facing right that moment, when you're looking at it and feeling a bit overwhelmed. But I think I can provide some guidelines I've found useful, namely Always focus on getting energy and cards first. I mean, sure if you have the Tyrannosaurus zord that just looks too awesome for words but, unless you have a clutch play that needs to be made right now, focus on getting your basics first.

Ranger Slayer doesn't see nearly enough time at my table. She's an insurance policy, and people don't like to think of things going wrong. But that is where Ranger Slayer shines: when things go wrong. She's super reliable, does tons of damage, and her zord can either smooth things out in your basic operations or provide some of the most sickeningly large combos in the game. Every time she hits my table I'm glad she did. Ranger Slayer is easily one of my favorite characters in the game. Even with the taste of raw crow in my mouth.