Trophy Gold: First Impressions

I honestly don't  really know why I backed this Kickstarter, which is based off of the Codex Gold magazine, which was in turn based off of Trophy, which was in their Codex Dark 2 issue. I didn't really take a look through. I've got a bit of an issue with just randomly backing crap, and this was definitely one of those times. I'd look at the rules and wonder how they played. I didn't feel too terribly impressed, but at the same time I knew better than to judge.

And then I played a session of Blades in the Dark. We all know how that went.

It was time to take a closer look.

Oh, to be clear: this is the version from Codex Gold. I don't have a copy of the book. Not yet.

What we have is a system that looks kinda like Blades. The basic dice pool mechanic (roll a pool of 2 or maybe 3 dice if you're lucky, reference highest), along with the Devil's Bargain, was there... and that was it. I mean, even the Devil's Bargain seems like it has been expanded to include the entire group getting a say on the contents of said bargain. Hacked into the system are Ruin (starts 1, spells and harm up this stat, DON'T GET TO 6) , Burdens (starts at 0, gets higher with property and combat weapons, don't come back with less Gold than your Burden or die), and Gold (stash up 100 gold and you get to retire!). There are three types of checks in the game: the Hunt, Combat, and Risk rolls. The Hunt roll is your basic seeking information check, except that success grants you a token, which you can then use to cash in for either nice treasures you find along the way or to actually get information. Combat Rolls are... just evil. Looking at them makes me wince; they really don't want you fighting in this game. Risk Rolls are the catch-all for anything related to information and combat.

In an interesting twist, everyone in this game can take on spells. It increases your Ruin, which makes them a bad idea, but the spells are literally just a sentence for description, and thus are very open to manipulation. Granted, it doesn't take very much to get Ruin by the look of it. Let's see how long people live in this game, shall we?

We'll see how this goes....

Jen Scotts Appendix/Correction

To say that I have no patience for armchair opinions is a bit of an understatement. If someone tells me they have an opinion about something they have not tried themselves they usually  have to duck, and quickly. I'm OK with you saying "this is what I've heard" or whatever, but if you want an actual opinion that I'm going to give a crap about? Go do whatever it is. And, if someone has more experience than you do at that particular thing? Give way! Take your lumps and learn.

If only we lived up to our ideals, what a world that would be!

I had gone to one of the most experienced Jen Scotts players, a fellow named Tom, to get his perspective on Jen Scotts. He disagreed with my thoughts on Overclock, and said:

"I’m actually not too reluctant to discard a Warp Vector or an early game V-5 to an Overclock. Not always. But especially early on, you won’t need them back out right away (and Warp Vector is better in hand when you have something good to get back)"

And he really wanted me to talk about Chrono Saber, stating:

I would not underestimate Chrono Saber either. Can usually get a 3 die attack to finish something and therefore be energy positive.

And, y'know what? He's completely right! I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on all the characters in this game. I put up the label Musings on these blog posts because most of it is not actually advice. Having played the character a bit, as much as I can, these are my thoughts on them. And, while I've been told that I'm pretty insightful about the characters I write about, that's not really my goal. I'm just sitting over here, yammering crazily to myself, and hoping someone gets something out of it. Apparently there is some value, because why else would people keep reading?

And I was going to incorporate Tom's advice. Really. But, um, I kinda forgot. And yeah. That's kinda embarrassing. It's clearly more nuanced advice than my earlier draft, and I'd meant to incorporate it.  So I hope this helps clarify a bit more about Jen empowers everyone to play her better.

A sincere thanks to Tom Chorn for the advice and for being a good sport about forgetting to update the blog post.

Book of the Long Sun

 

I hoped this book would be different from Book and Urth of the New Sun. The last thing I wanted was for Wolfe to try to bottle lightning again. I mean, it had been well over a decade since the last two books had been released, so I kinda figured that Wolfe wasn't out for a cash grab. 

Boy, I did not know what I was getting myself into.

The set-up of the book is simple. Patera Silk, a priest of a small parish onboard the "whorl" (a roving space station filled with people who have forgotten they're in a space station) is called by the Outsider, a minor and obscure god, to save his parish from imminent destruction. Of course at this point he wasn't really aware that it was in danger in the first place...

And thus begins the rollercoaster.

Now, I'd heard people complain about how slow this book was, so I was prepared for it. I don't think they quite sold it hard enough; parts of this book are an absolute slog to get through. Wolfe's prose requires sometimes a pass or five to get a basic understanding of the text, and there's some points in time where I shrugged and went on, filling in what happened from the context of the next few hundred pages. This sucker is 1300 pages long. It is packed with plot, characterization, so much freaking worldbuilding, philosophy, and theology, that to call this anything less than a science fantasy attempt at a Russian novel would be idiotic.  The plot in particular seems rather byzantine in structure, looping around on itself multiple times, intentionally producing impasses that let you learn more about the characters and their whorl, and to take a breather.

Y'know, several hundred page breathers.

No big deal.

Up until the last fifteen pages (no, I am not exaggerating!!! The last fif-frickin-teen!) I'd no idea what the hell I was reading. None. The plot continued to balloon and balloon and I felt like I was watching some ancient sea monster come out of the ocean to devour me alive. And then the last fifteen pages happened. No, do not skip to the end. Even if it does make sense to you, the surprise is well worth the wait. Yes, I do mean it. Those 1200+ pages were ample build-up to the surprise at the end, at least in my estimation. I cannot tell you why that is. You either trust me and can weather the cloud of unknowing for 1200 pages or you can't. But when it snapped into place, when Wolfe finally revealed what he was doing for 1300 pages, I found myself nodding in appreciation and enjoyment.

Book of the Long Sun does not work as Book and Urth of the New Sun did, but that is what is makes it special. As I sit here, with the dying embers of the story living inside of me, as I look back at one of the longest journeys with a book I've ever taken, I feel years and years older. That was one hell of a journey. I learned a lot of things, most of which were barely registered, nevermind understood.

Whereas Book and Urth of the New Sun were waking dreams, which I loved so much that I almost sobbed when I stopped reading them, Book of the Long Sun feels like a conversation with a grandparent. They have a lot to tell you. Sometimes you don't know why they tell you what they chose to. But years later, their words still glow in my memory and I find myself taking strength from what they said. 

I remember how they looked when they said their words.

I find myself back in the car, or the room, or that afternoon walk. I can smell the air. Hear the birds. The crickets. The sky is the exact same size as it is now. The world made absolutely no sense. But I didn't need it to.

Because they loved me, then. And they do, still.

I promise that I will see you again. I find myself whispering that to them, now, as I think about the Long Sun. Or is it when I think about the long walks? Or the car rides? Or when we were just sitting in their living room, talking about nothing in particular?

Does it really matter?

Blades in the Dark Review

So Blades in the Dark has exploded in the indie scene. It's spawned a number of games, including now-kickstarted offshoot Trophy, which is itself getting offshoots of its own. Nothing else has had that level of response from the community since Apocalypse World. In fact, Blades is a direct offshoot of the World imprint! So there's a lot of iteration there. Lotta fan love. Just tons!

And I've done just everything in my power to ignore it.

I'll be more than happy to admit this was due to my own snobbish concerns. By nature I do not like jumping on bandwagons. If a whole bunch of people start going in the same direction, really fast? I  go the hell the other way. I don't like getting caught up in mass currents. Call it paranoia, but people in mass groups are idiots, by and large. I'd like to say that I look at the thing everyone is obsessing about and see if I like it for my own reasons, but I won't pretend I'm half that rational. Most of my friends would laugh if I claimed that anyway, so why start now??

At any rate, I would have stayed like this for another three or four years, at the earliest, had Andy not intervened. Bloody bastard, always introducing me to new things and whatnot. We'd gotten done with Sabina's Castle and Andy threw out this idea of doing a Blades in the Dark campaign. I kinda figured that if Andy was trying to broach it why not?  Could be fun and all.

My reaction the instant I did a roll in Blades

Dear God I was such an idiot. 'Cause this game is amazing.

One of the things I'd always disliked about most RPGs is the lack of any real urgency. There is no mechanical hook to make you be economical about what you're doing; there's no mechanical goal cooked into gameplay. There should always be some pushback from the system itself, shaping your choices in the story and the mechanics. After a player is done with a roll there shouldn't be a question of what to do next, because the system should be supplying some ideas. It's part of the reason why I'm usually very particular about sticking with BWHQ games: there's always a large amount of pushback that guides the GM and players, especially in the form of Beliefs and Instincts, if a roll succeeds, but in the form of twists, injuries, and compromises if you failed. There's a sense of a framework that you're standing on, that's helping guide you towards a personal evolution of the character. It is uncompromisingly specific about this experience. I thought I'd never see something  focused about action and adventure stuff.

This RPG proves that thought to be a damnable lie and I'd better recant it.


So the way you do a base roll in this game, after deciding what "action" (read: skill) you're rolling, the GM tells you what your position is: desperate, risky (default) and controlled. This tells you how dire the consequences could be, should you fail. The GM then hashes out what the Effect of your action is: limited, standard, or great. If you want, you can ask for a Devil's Bargain, which gets you another dice in exchange for some awful side-effect that gets tacked onto the roll, regardless of success or failure. You can also attempt to get Help, or push the roll by throwing some Stress onto the character. Or upping the Effect with Stress as well!  

Are you noticing that Stress is starting to come up a lot? Oh just you wait. 

You gather a couple of dice representing the action you want to do, generally between 1-4 dice (read: USUALLY NO MORE THAN TWO. MAYBE THREE) and look at the highest result. No counting, no sitting around and having to decipher what the heck is going on, none of that nonsense! If the highest result is a 1-3 it's horrific failure, which is dependent upon your starting Position. One of the many things a GM can do is he can either start a Clock or fill a portion of it in. Clocks are timers that fill up based upon specific conditions. They're not always bad, but there's nothing more ominous than the GM taking an ominous yet absurdly vague named Clock and checking off yet another section of it if you screw up.  If you rolled 4-5 you succeed, but there's some complication, again dependent on your starting Position. Did you roll a 6? You got what you want, no strings attached! Did you get double sixes, which I've not seen yet? You get a crit! Which steps up your Effect!

That's one roll.

It's scary.

It's amazing.

If that was the only thing this game had going for it? I'd still be pretty dang impressed. The rolling system is control. You modulate exactly how much of a chance you're willing to take, before rolling. The failure mechanics also encourage the GM be as evil as he likes, if not moreso, because players have the ability to mitigate consequences. Just declare how you're going to mitigate the consequences. The GM then assigns you 6 stress, which you can then mitigate. Careful, cause you only have so much Stress! You can't mess around here! Max out on Stress and you're removed from the score, which are missions.

Oh, right, Missions.

You didn't think you could dick around, did you?

There are different phases in the game, one of which is The Score, which is you setting out on a criminal job. You don't plan. You just pick a type of Score (Ritual, Killing, etc), fill in the missing detail (which is the thing you need to even attempt the Score) and then just freaking roll to see how well you planned. That determines just how badly off things are. You can then make Flashback rolls to say "No, I planned, Mr. Evil GM! Back off!" Scores are high-octane extended events that make you realize that your pulse can get that high, safely. Don't Stress out. In real life or the game. Just in case I had to make that distinction.

You then go into Downtime, wherein you try and get your dude back up to full strength... except that Downtime usually generates its own complications, which funnel you into a Score to try and get rid of that crap, too, and before you know it the game has substantially changed and you're fighting for your life and asking yourself how the hell you got here when quite frankly it's all your fault because you're the one who decided to do stupid stuff to regain Stress in the first place!

What I'm trying to say is that this game is delicious.  I can't wait to play more. The rule book is so clearly laid out, the art is gorgeous, the rules give me an entire world's worth of nonsense to navigate with the slightest of pushes, and it's all wrapped up in darkness and death and frickin' demon blood, which powers your city, by the way.

I mean, what's not to love? Demon blood included?

The Undertow: Session Seventeen

Mikansia: the main character, a female elven swordsinger played by Lena. She had traveled with Ensio and Dale to destroy an eldtrich egg, an instrument used by the Nameless to corrupt a planet. She and her companions had already bested the challenges the egg (including a succubus, who seemed to know Ensio quite well) had thrown at them, including a fully-resurrected Krakeru.

Krakeru: Mikansia's incredibly evil and vile father. A product of the evil cult The Lone Keep, Krakeru had raped Mikansia in an effort to corrupt her to serving The Nameless. Later on he had killed Jabez. Mikansia had killed him with Jabez's sword. Last session the eldritch egg had brought Krakeru back from the dead, only to die in a fight with Mikansia and Ensio.

Jabez: Mikansia's friend from the Sword Singers. He had helped Mikansia get to the surface to fight Krakeru in the first place, trading his sword to get her safe passage. He was then exiled from Kotae Mah, and was sent deliberately to Elfharrow, a dark elf bastion, where he was enslaved, raped repeatedly, and finally mentally broken by Krakeru. Confronted with Mikansia again, Jabez had declared he regretted ever helping because of how much pain it had caused him. She managed to help him find his true self again, giving him the strength to fight against Krakeru, on his own two feet, on his terms, even if it meant death. Krakeru killed him in on sword swing.

General Santeri: Jabez's father. Mikansia had snuck back to Kotae Mah to give Jabez's sword. Santeri told Mikansia to keep the blade, as only someone truly worthy would have gotten that sword in the first place. General Santeri then vowed to find out why his son had been exiled to Elfharrow, something that he had been ignorant of until Mikansia had brought it to his attention.

Tyce: After being raped by Krakeru, Mikansia had a bout of anxiety and paranoia, not to mention heavy drinking. She bumped into Tyce, a human guard, and had a one-night stand with him. Later, when The Music, a product of the Nameless that wiped out a human's personality before killing them, had affected Tyce, Mikansia helped him regain himself. He managed to get reinforcements in the form of a dragon and crazy elf before collapsing and dying from The Music. He had reappeared when Mikansia, Ensio, and Dale had come to the cave, but had vanished from sight soon after.

Zaina: A crazed female elven swordsinger that had been in love with Jabez. Upon meeting Mikansia Zaina had attempted to kill her. She was adamant in her belief that Jabez would have loved her, had he gotten to know her.

Ensio: the blacksmith of the Sword Runners, a family gang dedicated to selling elven quality weapons to humans on the surface who needed them. Ensio had apparently had an encounter with a succubus sometime in his past, only to kill her. The egg had brought her back. The Creature from Dream had dispatched her with Jabez's sword.

Dale: Ensio's half-elven son. The Creature from Dream had pressured Dale into stealing Jabez's sword from Mikansia by making him dream of his wife Ember getting raped, night after night, for months. Finally breaking down, Dale stole the sword and got it to the creature.

The Creature from Dream: When Mikansia first began to think of trying to get to the surface to face Krakeru the Creature from Dream appeared to her while she slept. It had shimmering green scales, rainbow feathers from the back of its head, and a metal facemask which hid its true features. It had requested that Mikansia steal Jabez's sword then. She had refused it. It got it from Dale. It showed up last session, killing the succubus Ensio was so afraid of in one clean stroke with a rainbow blade that had Jabez's hilt. Somehow the creature had changed Jabez's sword.

The creature stepped through the remains of the succubus and lowered its rainbow blade. There were whispers surrounding it; they were indistinct, but they grew louder as it walked up to Mikansia.  She asked it why Jabez's sword in particular, why go to so much trouble to get it? The creature cocked its head at her. One of the whispers became more distinct, a male elven voice: "I should have waited a little bit longer before coming for you". Another voice, this time an elven female: "So much history. So much sorrow. So much pain".

"I'll let them kill you over my dead body" A scream was heard, and then a clattering.

"How could you do this to me??" said another female voice.

And then Jabez: "Fuck you and your worthiness, almighty general! I'll make myself worthy! You'll see! I'll make you see!" A few whispers later Mikansia heard Jabez again: "I will be worthy of you. I will do it!"

The creature turned away and walked over to the cavern wall nearby. It swung the sword through the wall. All of a sudden Ensio was charging it, yelling that it couldn't finish what it was doing! Dale was right behind him.  The creature wasn't incredibly skilled with the blade, but given the deadly nature of said blade it didn't need to be. But Mikansia was incredibly skilled. With a single movement the sword flew out of the creature's clawed hand and lodged itself into the opposite wall, buried a few inches into the rock.

The creature's scales shifted from shimmering green to a glowing orange. It punched the wall next to it and vanished. Krakeru appeared before Mikansia. This was not the real Krakeru, but the one of Mikansia's nightmares. He towered over Mikansia; she froze. Krakeru smiled and said one word: "More". He knocked her over. Mikansia couldn't get over her fright until her pants were well off and her "father" was ready to start. She wrestled him off and tried to make a break for the sword in the wall. "Krakeru" leapt after her, laughing.

Tyce appeared out nowhere and grabbed "Krakeru" from behind, punching him.

Mikansia yanked Jabez's sword out of the wall. She began the Song of the Sword, angry and low, in her alto. Tyce joined in with his high tenor. The blade, already a bright rainbow, began to glow a hot white. Mikansia saw that the succubus was atop a checked out Ensio, riding away. Ember was being raped to death in a corner by some stranger; Dale sat nearby, blood coming out of his ears, transfixed. "Krakeru" lunged. Tyce pulled him back. Jabez's sword penetrated. Mikansia heard Jabez's words "If I'm going to die it's going to be on my own two feet, ON MY TERMS". Tears streamed down her face as "Krakeru" vanished into her blade.

Mikansia and Tyce, still singing in perfect harmony over a song of rage in grief, strode over to Ensio. They yanked the "succubus" off the blacksmith. Tycle pulled Ensio further away while Mikansia cut the "succubus" open. ."She" vanished into the white-hot blade. Dale hadn't moved; Ember had stopped screeching, but the vile act continued. Mikansia, Tyce, and Ensio shook Dale. Mikansia told Dale Ember needed him, here and now, this wasn't the time to give up! Not now! Not ever!

The apparition faded.

Dale fell over, blood coming out of his eyes. Ensio yelled to destroy the eldritch egg, quickly! One swipe of the glowing white sword and it collapsed, sighing in relief.  Tyce vanished. Mikansia muttered a heartfelt thank you to him, as she and Ensio quickly moved Dale to their flying ship, where they quickly donned their trousers. Ensio apologized for not explaining earlier, but the creature was going to open a portal to Dream using the sword and put the eldritch egg into Dream itself, which would have warped the dreams of everyone on the planet, making them materialize in the physical world. Luckily for the world, Mikansia was an amazing swordsman.

Mikansia had to hold onto the ship, Ensio was flying so fast. In her lap lay Dale, who was having trouble concentrating and staying awake. Holding him with her other hand, Mikansia sang a lament to Dale, keeping him awake and focused and entranced by just the sheer beauty of the elven song as the ship streaked acrost the sky.

There was an elven ship in the smithy, back at home. General Santeri was crawling out of the crashed ship, a gaping hole in his body. Ensio didn't even notice; he was carrying Dale off to find what medical care he could. Mikansia ran to Santeri, pushing through the gathering crowd, who was weakly calling for her. There were tears in his empty and despairing eyes. He hacked up blood onto Mikansia, who was so covered in gore already that she didn't flinch. She drew him into her arms. He sobbed: the king was a dark elf! Their king! He was the one who had given the order to send Jabez, Santeri's precious little boy, to Elfharrow. Jabez, who Santeri had always tried to challenge but had frustrated instead! Jabez, who had served with the sword of his grandfather, a sword he had prized above everything else! Hacking up more blood, Santeri whispered that was how he knew that Mikansia was so good: Jabez would have given that sword up for nothing less. Mikansia, weeping, promised that the sword would always be used to uphold the principles she and Jabez believed in. Placing Santeri's hand upon the hilt of Jabez's sword, Mikansia promised the sword would be used to avenge Jabez.

Her promise fell on dead ears. The grip on the hilt was almost absolute.

There were shouts of dismay. From the sky descended a half dozen elven sky-ships. Zaina was in the foremost one, in general's garb. And she had a s mile on her face that filled Mikansia with a cold fury.

May the Power Protect You: Jen Scotts (Timeforce Pink)

Jen Scotts is my favorite pink ranger. Hands down. MMPR pinks do more damage and HF pink is its own can of worms, but I like my frontman characters, and Jen just knocks it out of the park in that role. She speeds up energy generation and is a must-use in any soft-centric ranger team. Is she a better soft frontman than Marv? Honestly? I don't know. Nor do I particularly care. Marv has a different style and I think tier lists for characters in this game are an absolute trap. He doesn't do what Jen does and that is exactly how it should be.

Jen's ability is the definition of flash. You get to swap villain cards and decide what to comes out first. The benefits to this ability are obvious! No, her ability does not cancel out FAST and do not make the mistake my group made in the first few playthroughs of Jen! But not being able to cancel out FAST does not negate Jen's ability, at all. I usually found myself grabbing cards with GUARD and slapping them down at the front, so that way we could take them out faster, or to even cancel out another GUARD card. And while a hard approach to this ability means that you're picking what you're going to nuke first, a soft approach means you're picking the card you're going to start building your engine upon. Jen works pretty well for both approaches.

Overclock is one of the few cards I saw that made me jump up and down with excitement that I actually understood upon first looking at it. Grab a three shield card and discard that sucker and revel in the amount of energy you just gained! Right? Right?

Um, back that up a second.

No. This can be a trap. Whatever you discard eventually will need to go back into your deck, probably using the Recovery action. If you're going to do a full reset cost is obviously no object, but if you can't afford to get a full rest? You might hose yourself. Gaining one energy is already a lot, so I usually find myself playing conservatively with Overclock. Obviously, anyone can do whatever they like, but unless you have a really good reason to dump a three shield card? I really don't see a point.

Well, unless you have Warp Vector. Warp Vector's ability to grab a card, any card, from your discard pile and put it back on top of your deck makes it the ideal compliment to Overclock. It allows Jen to not dust as many card as she does with Overclock, and is a good hard and soft move, overall. The only issue with using Warp Vector with Overclock is how intensive it is on the momentum of your game.  You might kill an enemy card for your trouble? Maybe? The actual combo needs to be spaced out, as a clean-up for when all the heavy lifting has been done and you still have a few dead spaces left.

Covering Fire is the leading soft move for a Front Man. You essentially turn someone else's maneuver into a GUARD-proof attack, for an energy. Hopefully you've been overclocking, so you should have plenty of energy to deal with that, right? Yeah, that's an issue. So make sure you're watching those energy banks. Maybe the maneuver your buddy is playing is an energy gainer, and you come out with no additional energy, but maybe that maneuver costs energy as well. This could turn into a major play, depending upon the cost of said maneuver.

V5 Blaster is one of those cards that I just go gaga over... until I have to actually use it. A three energy attack and they're adding more dice based off of what the heck you've left in the energy pool? Man, you have to set this move up right. Fortunately, it doesn't take very much to make this attack be on par with the Power Bow, power-wise. Just be careful using Overlock and other high energy-generating cards. Make sure that building up to this one super-move actually does more than if you had been doing smaller, but still moderately powerful, moves. That's going to take some intense build-up to be worth it. But, on the other hand, if you manage to get a good three or four extra dice for this one move, you've helped yourself for the next few moves, now haven't you?

Jen's zord is one of the flashiest things in this whole game. Port someone over, for one attack! That's so freaking good! There's only one thing I really want to caution when using the zord, however: do not hose another combat to help yours. If someone has moved over and is helping another battle they may need the very card that you're trying to pull for your own battle. Me being the person I am, I would get really excited that I could use the zord, without stopping to make sure that I should have in the first place. The zord's ability is really powerful, but can set off a ripple effect acrost the board, creating unintended consequences.

Jen's kit is really powerful and deep. She can generate more energy than anyone we have to date. Jen more than holds her own, but put her with a team and her abilities open up the field for everyone else. She's kinda like dropping a a stone into a still pond: the ripples will go on, and on, and on. Her frontmanning abilities are a bit more subtle than folks like Jason, Tommy, and Marvin, but she opens up worlds of play that they can't.

Hallucinations: Session Seven

Karel: the human barbarian, played by David. He's got a map of the great northern mountain reaches, where more Ensivalen posts are mapped. His left arm has a nasty cut that's slowly starting to infect, and he has sustained multiple ghoul bites.

Zilya: the human assassin, played by Bryna. She's been taking care of a little girl they had been paid by the town of Yerwo to find. She started hearing a voice last session, but refused to take its advice. The voice promised she would hear from it again.

Natskin: a minotaur pit fighter, played by Will. He went down the well with Karel and Zilya because good money was involved, and now that they're staring at a bunch of supposedly mythical vinteralfen he can't help but wonder what he just got himself into. Natskin's ribs are broken and he's sustained a few ghoul bites.

Vinteralven: tall and thin humanoids, with blue skin and pointed ears. They're regarded as a myth.

The vinteralven stared at the four beaten and battered adventurers in bewilderment,  the teal light of the lichen lamps throwing them all into extreme shadow.  One vinteralf came forward and asked them how they got through that arch. Taking his last swig of mead, Natskin told them they were trying to rescue this little girl (shivering, she said "I feel down a well") and they were attacked by ghouls, and then a dragon came after them, and they got the dragon and the ghouls to attack each other. Karel drew a picture of the arch they went through and tried to describe the helter-skelter nature of turning it on. Zilya asked for help; the girl was freezing and had a broken arm, not to mention the rest of them were in bad shape. The girl winced from shivering in the icy room, as she had accidentally jarred her arm. The vinteralven showed a brief moment of pity, and then asked if the group had anything to offer the Winter King of Solonphang, their city. Looking at each other a moment, they nodded.

They were led out the small room into a vast cavern. Icy stalactites and stalagmites abounded. The soft teal glow of the lichen showed a variety of stone structures, made primarily from a died blue stone. Vinteralven stopped and stared at them, particularly Natskin. He winked at one of the viteralven women and told her his ex-wife was an elf. She screamed and ran. The vinteralfen who led them chuckled, but told Natskin not to do that again.

They got to the back of the cavern, to the largest structure in the place. Going up the steps, the doors were opened onto a huge room, filled with ice sculptures and a whispering court. On an enormous ice throne sat a vinteralf at least seven feet tall. He stood up to his full height and came walking down to Karel, Zilya, Natskin, and the little girl, who bowed. The Winter King asked them for their offering. Karel produced the last bit of shaved gold they ahd from the Ensivalen Meditation Cube. They knew it wasn't enough, but it was all they had. But the Winter King was staring intently at the gold: he knew it came from Novstrech! He mentioned the city by name!  They had been to the meditation cube beneath Novstrech, he declared. The Winter King immediately asked about The Map. It was in an armoire... a cabinet, that was the word! Yes! That was it! Did they have The Map? Karel nodded and the Winter King eagerly asked for it. The map had immense personal value to the king. Karel asked if he could make a copy first. The Winter King refused; "warmbloods" such as them had no need for that map.

Natskin puked on the floor, still sick from the ghoul bites.

Besides, the Winter King continued, he was willing to trade the map for whatever they needed, carte blanche! That included medical care for their young ward, not to mention a proper set of clothes for her. Ignoring Natskin's glare, Karel produced the map. The Winter King noticed Natskin's dislike for handing over the map.

The little girl was rushed away, to be given warm clothes and medical care for her arm. Zilya, Natskin, and Karel were shown to a stone longhouse. News of the "rapist minotaur" had spread, and no one went near them. That suited them just fine.

They sat for a little while. Karel munched the mushrooms he'd found in the well; his arm finally started feeling better. As he munched he realized just how much stronger his pain could make him, how much more aware of his surroundings. He would use that from then on.

The trio finally felt... normal? Natskin's ribs were taped (and he finally didn't feel nauseous anymore!!), and they all felt more relaxed than they had in awhile.  Well, not Zilya, she was still on edge. They were not amongst friends; the vinteralven could kill them at any moment, and the sooner they got away the better. Natskin scoffed. If the vinteralven had actually wanted to kill them they could have done so at any time, whatsoever. But Natskin was fine with that. He'd made peace with dying awhile back. His people cremated their dead and spread the ashes in the fields, where they returned to feed others. The minotaur people taught that there was a pasture somewhere, far away, where all souls went to live in peace. But Natskin wasn't sure if that was a real place. He'd seen so much, so many horrors, he wasn't sure about much anymore, only that he wasn't afraid to die.

Karel said he didn't really feel any sense of gloom, or that he had thought about death at all. They were in the mountains, that much was obvious, and that was home to Karel. Karel hadn't felt this relaxed in a long time. He couldn't quite get his peoples' story about mountains out of his head. The mountains were formed because the god of ice and the god of snow couldn't agree on anything. So they had a war. So fiercely did they fight that the mountains were born in the ensuing wind blasts and struggle. And that was where his people lived: in the footprints of the gods.

That's all they were doing end. Living in the footprints of those that had shaped the world.

Karel, Natskin, and Zilya sat awhile, silent. The world outside continued.

With Six Wings: Session Two

Hikaru Genji: a human champion of the high race of men, played by Brian. He's out to kill the evil and wretched Warlord Bai on behalf of his lord, Warlord Monkhbat. He keep around paper and quill to give out autographs. He runs through these pretty regularly.

Thakraw: a human shapechanging animist, played by Ethan. THAKRAW CAN CHANGE INTO A POSTOSUCHUS DINOSAUR AND THAT'S AWESOME AND WHY DIDN'T I- Oh right, I'm writing a blog post. Sorry. Thakraw's tribe had been killed by Warlord Bai's serpa soldiers. But Thakraw knows it wasn't Warlord Bai who gave the order. He wants to know who did.

Genji and Thakraw decided to take the Kooramch Pass to get to the Mogoin Forest. Itw as a stretch of flat land directly between the Baytarlag Hills, known for their ghosts and barrow-wights, and the Yadargay Swamp, which held undead horrors in its seemingly infinite pools of swamp water. It also avoided the road, which was patrolled by soldiers. They had a chance of running into denizens of both the hills and the swamp, but it was certainly less of a chance than running into soldiers on the road.

A melanorosaurus

As they made their way with their cart and hired servant, Tomoya, they happened upon a baby melanorosaurus; it had a deep bite in its side. Thakraw jumped out of the cart and ran over to the injured infant dinosaur. Within a few minutes he had transferred healing energy into its bloodied side. It wasn't healed all the way back, but at least the poor thing was no longer on The Deaths' door. Mamma melanorosaurs rounded the corner and lowed at Thakraw, who backed up, next to Genji, who asked if this was one of "his people". Chuckling darkly, Thakraw "reminded" Genji that all of his people were dead, no thanks to Bai and whomever had given the order to slaughter them. Patting Thakraw on the shoulder, Genji told him that he trusted he had this well in tow, regardless. Rolling his eyes at Genji, Thakraw gently approached the mama dino and stroked her. She resisted at first, but relaxed into his touch. Stepping back, Thakraw, Genji, and Tomoya left the mother and child together.

A few nights later Genji found himself on a mountain so tall that he could see the clouds far below him. The sky above Genji was a navy blue; the winds below him howled, but Genji had never known a more peaceful place than where he was, right then. Way up above him, in the darkness, shone a blue flame. Slowly but surely it descended. The flame did not flicker, sputter, was in no danger of going out. As it got closer Genji saw a six-winged serpent at the center of the corona of blue. It declared to Genji that Bai could not die. The seraphim had claimed the serpa as their own, and it all began with Bai. To kill him would be the beginning of the end for the whole planet.

Genji was very quiet the next day, after he woke up. Thakraw was grateful for the break from conversation. A few days later they crossed the Kheigdhal River, approaching the Mogoin Forest from the south. It kept them off the road, but they would have to thread their way between the outpost forts that guarded the southern edge of the forest. Thakraw went ahead of the cart, scouting for the group. He saw a lot of roving companies of drakhon going between the outpost forts. The soldiers were unruly, undisciplined, and only interested in just the bare minimum of security measures. Thakraw could hear the drakhon soldiers complain about how badly treated they had been ever since Warlord Bai had moved in with his serpa soldiers, and they were really only in it for the food, room, and money. So avoiding them was quite easy. And Thakraw made sure they did.

After a few days of avoiding patrols they entered the Mogoin Forest, known for its myriad snakes. They got close enough to investigate Bai's Fortress, which was still under construction. It was a wooden keep with a wall, with a bailey and moat still under construction; the amount of human slaves working the site was overwhelming to the both of them. The serpa soldiers were well-fed, well-disciplined, and well-motivated to serve their warlord.

As Genji and Thakraw watched the proceedings one human slave stuck out to them. He always seemed to have a sense of humor about being worked to death (almost). So when the guards weren't focused on him Genji and Thakraw snuck over to talk to him. They asked him what his name was: Snort, on account of the sound he made to most serpa demands. He'd forgotten his own name shortly after his wife was beaten to death in front of him; his children had been sold to another serpa shortly thereafter. But life was great! Can't complain, right?? Genji asked if Snort could could get him and Thakraw into the keep. Snort asked why one earth Genji and Thakraw wanted to go into such a hellish place. Genji told Snort he was a hero of the people, it was his job! To right wrongs! To defend the weak! Snort laughed and asked if Thakraw was a hero of the people too. Thakraw replied that he would eat Snort if he talked to him again. Snort laughed again and said he had a way to get them right under the serpa's slit noses.

At dusk they made their move. Snort let them into the slave compound, but Genji's metallic breast plate was seen in the dusky light. Snort let the guards capture him so Genji and Thakraw could go on, waving a jaunty salute as they closed in. Another human male came out of the darkness and said Snort had selected him as the backup. They were hurried away.

Snort was never seen again.

They man brought them to a tunnel that the slaves had dug to hide extra food. They defended the secret with their lives. If Genji and Thakraw could kill Bai then they might actually get some change around here. The tunnels went under the courtyard, which was currently empty; the serpa soldiers had been mostly sent out on patrol. There was still a few feet of earth above them. Genji asked Thakraw if he could change into postosuchus and dig. Thakraw said he didn't have that much control over his dino form. All he knew was that when he came back to being human was usually pretty full. So they dug together.

The keep was quiet, but there was a light in the uppermost tower, so that's where they went. At the top of the stair were three guards. Genji took out his autograph paper and quill and wrote something down. He rolled it up and handed it to Thakraw, who nodded in understanding. Walking up to the guards Genji proclaimed that Thakraw was a representative of the great Tomoya and that they needed to speak with Lord Bai, immediately.

The guards saw right through that nonsense.  Two of them thrust their tridents at Genji, but coudln't get through his shield. Genji was barking out orders to Thakraw, helping him avoid a few stabs here and there. The last guard  stabbed Thakraw deeply in the thigh. The postosuchus appeared, roaring in pain. The three guards declared they'd never get to Lord Bai, not after everything he had gone through!  They began stabbing at Thakraw, while Genji swung his sword at one of the guards, getting a light cut in through his armor. Thakraw swung his tail at the middle guard and he fell in a heap; the guard furthest from the door bolted. Genji's next swing bounced off the remaining guard's armor. The guard lunged at Genji, drawing blood.

The postosuchus tore the guard's guts out in one swing.

He collapsed against the door, breathing heavily, trident still out, glaring at his enemies with all the fervor of the righteous.

Genji cut him the rest of the way open with one flick of his sword.

 The postosuchus began to dine.

Genji knocked the door to the tower in on itself. In the child-sized bed Genji saw a child-sized lump. Under the covers was a child serpa.  Looking up, the postosuchus saw the child and lumbered up to him.

Thakraw reappeared a moment later.

Genji asked the child if anyone else was in the room. The child shook his head. The only window led to a thirty foot drop. On the child-sized desk was a stack of papers and a signet ring. The child said his name was Bai. That had been his father's name too. He'd died two years before. Bai's uncle, Chen, took care of him now. Well, when he wasn't shouting at him to get his work done. Signing documents all day was lonely.

Considering their options, Genji asked Thakraw if he wanted the child Bai dead. Thakraw said he only wanted to know who'd told adult Bai to kill his people; he didn't even want the adult Bai dead. Genji said that all he needed to do was report to Monkhbat that a Bai was dead. There was no need to kill the child. Genji said he had no idea why Chen was using Bai like this, but using the child as a proxy was unacceptable. Thakraw asked if Bai would come with them, to someplace better. Certainly less lonely.

Bai nodded.

Genji took out paper and quill, and gave Bai an autograph. Y'know, to remember this day by.

They took the seal and papers on their way out. Tomoya was waiting outside the fortress, ready to go.

God Died

The Crucifixion, by myself. March 2020

Acrylic and gold leaf on a handcross

God died. Every time I think about that fact something catches in my throat. And I find myself sitting, wondering about that.

I should think about it more often.

One of the things that has always stuck out at me about the world is how brutal and uncaring a place it is. I'm typing this on a computer manufactured in China, a place known for its oppression and evil. This computer runs because someone who is a slave for all intents and purposes helped put it together. Running the servers required to be able to type my post hurts the environment that I live in. I live in the USA, which is essentially policing the world because we've created such an awful network of global economic ties that we can't afford not to, not without risking our own economy. Our country routinely butchers its young because we can't control ourselves and the best most of us seem to have as an excuse is to deny the personhood of said little individuals, using the flimsiest of cowardly arguments to try and not face such a horrific thing.

And yes, if you are pro-choice and reading this blog, I am talking about you.

Yes, you.

Suck it up. I know you're a coward. At best. At worst you're advocating genocide, actively. I find that monstrous. And disgusting. Yeah, go cry. Or be angry. You're alive and capable of doing it, which I can't say for the hundreds of thousands of children you're OK with butchering by dismemberment and burns. At least give them a frickin' burial, as opposed to throwing them into trashcans.  At least blacks got to claim to be 3/5s of a person legally! Even if that is a moral evil that is so horrifying I can barely comprehend it!

Yes, you are morally worse than the 3/5's rule. By a very long shot.

In case it is still not clear, yes you, a thousand times you.

OK, that's out of the way.

Let's see if anyone else is still reading this Great and Holy Friday post.

For the rest of you who are either disgusted but reading on anyway or nodding your head in assent or whatever, it doesn't get much better in the U.S. The simple fact of the matter is that the Republican party ain't Christian, not by a long shot. The Old Testament may have its faults in the modern liberal's eyes, but they shouldn't take issue with the laws about taking care of the poor and the alien, the folks who don't fit in whatever system a society has. Care for the poor is not a private affair, period. So claiming that supporting the Republican or the libertarian party is supporting life or is Christian is a laughingstock, because it is our civic and political duty to support those not as well off as us, regardless of how deserving you think they are. In fact, to care for the undeserving is at the height of Christian charity! So all those deaths, spiritual and physical? Yeah, that's on the Republicans and those who vote for them. It's longer, slower, and not quite as graphic as the liberal genocide (what era of liberalism, classical or modern, hasn't had large scale genocide?? Really?), but it is just as deadly.

Yes, I am talking to you. That person who voted for Trump simply because he stated he was pro-life.

Yes, you.

My indignation is not as strong, but it should be. That's on me. But you backing those charlatans? Yeah, look in the mirror to see who's responsible for that.

And don't get me started on the military, which focuses on ruining souls so that they may become killing machines. I've never been part of a system that so wrecks a human soul so quickly, so efficiently. It is possible to train people to kill without wrecking their soul. But we ain't doing it.

Our system is built upon oppression and death, worldwide. As a race we are a miserable, unfeeling, unloving pile of filth.  To deny it is to engage in sheer fantasy, of the variety that is unhealthy to indulge in, and yet far too easy. We look the other way so that we can get ours. I look the other way so I can get mine.

And what was the Christian God's response to this dog eat dog world that we willingly set up? He let it crush Him. After three years of doing nothing but good, so much that the Gospel of John says that all the books in the world could not contain His acts of goodness, He let the inevitable happen to Him. Let it. He let us kill Him.

He walked into a deathtrap and suffocated to death in a manner I would not wish upon my worst enemy.

So the next time you start talking about systemic change for the benefit of mankind remember what God's solution to this mess was: to be crushed by the existing system. And to keep on loving, at all times. To keep seeing the good in the oppressor, to refuse to let that define your view of them, to acknowledge that goodness and love transcend this broken and awful world, to refuse to be corrupted by your pain, because Love will win. It is as inevitable as the creation of the Grand Canyon. But the water in the Grand Canyon did not care to become a rock, to dig forcibly against said rock it encountered. Rocks chip away. They fall apart. The water knew better. It stayed water. And won.

The side of Christ gushed water. And blood. My soul is very much so a rocky, hard, unfeeling, ugly, unloving thing. I wish I could say that I will be won over to Him in a day, a week, a month, two months, decades, but the Grand Canyon took thousands, millions possibly, of years to form! And it wasn't actively resisting the process, unlike myself.  And make no mistake, I do. By the second. Hatred feels strong. Isolation feels so empowering, even if it leaves me a miserable wreck of a specimen. So who knows if I will be able to soften my heart at all? Certainly not I, but I hope so, as best I can. The best I can do is to keep letting the Blood and the Water wash over me. To weep from the agony of having to let go of the pain and the horrors perpetrated by and to me and the world, to see the face of the One Who is with me all the way down this elevator to Hell. To scream at the One Who is very patiently and lovingly holding me as the poison is drawn out of my body and soul.

And then to gasp in relief as I see the beaming face of my wife. And my children. And my friends. And my family. And to realize that I am not alone in this fight for my soul, for our soul. I may be a miserable wreck of a human being, but Christ has given me people to sit beside me as I am held, kicking and screaming and cursing at the One Who is drawing out the poison, because of the immensity of the pain. They are there to help me realize that the One Who does this is not a torturer, but a healer. And that sometimes the difference between the two is merely intent, if nothing else. I cannot focus on the Face of the One Who sacrificed Himself for me because of the sheer pain and rage, and so therefore I have been my given my family and friends to try and help me focus.

Because this only ends one way.

Only one.

There's only one way out of this mess. 

And I need to focus so that way I can greet it with open arms.

It may be a week. A month. Two decades. Two seconds. But it is coming. There are some days I look at that with a joy that I cannot begin to express. To see the flaming wreckage collapse! To see it rot and fall away! Oh what a day! To see my part in this hellish facade melt away, what a blessing that will be. Death is not the problem, not anymore, but the solution. I only hope that, when that day comes and I finally get to go Home, to finally be in a place where this cycle of misery is no longer a thing, that I truly rejoice that I have left the insanity behind. That I will wipe my neighbor's eyes, not continue to hit them because I'm scared about what will happen when we stop. That I will comfort and heal without fear of reprisal. Because I'm a coward for even thinking that as a possibility. I hope to transcend that fear.

I hope we all do.

Christ did not stop the clock. The definition of compassion is to suffer evil in the other. Christ did this. Willingly.

I hope I have half His courage.

Y'know, before it's too late.

Because some day it will be.

The Undertow: Session Sixteen

Mikansia: the main character, a female elf played by Lena. Mikansia had gone to investigate an eldritch egg, which was in a secluded cave in the Etranger Mountains, only to find that the egg had been calling to and corrupting desperate men already. She's also missing the sword her friend, Jabez, had given her awhile ago, before he had died.

Krakeru: Mikansia's evil father. She had killed him to avenge the death of her friend, Jabez. Krakeru is evil incarnate.

The eldtritch egg opened, sucking in the poor human stuck in it back in. Out stepped Krakeru. He saw Mikansia and smile "Mikki!" Mikansia froze; Krakeru charged, sword out. It somehow managed to glance off her leather armor. Krakeru immediately shifted into a more guarded stance, but Mikansia knew she couldn't beat him at swordplay. The glance off of her armor was a one in a million occurrence and Mikansia knew it would never happen again.

So she tackled Krakeru, completely taking him by surprise. Krakeru tried to throw Mikansia off of him, to get the advantage, but Mikansia put him a choke hold, applying so much pressure that Krakeru was immediately immobilized. Ensio and Dale came around the corner. Growling through gritted teeth, Mikansia asked for some help. Ensio asked if this was supposed to be someone who should have been dead. Mikansia yelled that she'd killed Krakeru previously and he desperately needed to stay dead, thank you very much! With a flick of Ensio's sword Krakeru's throat gushed gore. He continued to struggle, locking eyes with Mikansia. Those eyes were full of hatred, of rage, of a thousand promises unspoken. Mikansia knew Krakeru was dying, but wouldn't let go. Seeing that Mikansia wasn't relaxing, Ensio cut open Krakeru's stomach. One explosion of guts later and Krakeru was still.

Getting up and cleaning herself off, Mikansia asked what the hell that was all about?? Ensio explained that eldritch eggs could warp reality around them, recreating someone's worst fear. Ensio hadn't told Mikansia and Dale because the level of fear they brought to an eldricth egg determined how strong the thing they feared was when it came back. Looking down at Krakeru's corpse, Mikansia asked if that was actually Krakeru; Ensio confirmed that it was, actually and really, Krakeru. The eldritch egg had actually brought him back to life. In a few minutes the egg would focus on another person and replicate their fear. Mikansia and Dale asked why the couldn't just destroy the egg before then, and Ensio replied that doing so would take a lot of time, and so they would be interrupted too many times. Better to just wait the fear out.

The egg opened and released a large dragon with six legs, black and chitinous. Dale blanched. Mikansia began the low and threatening hum of the Song of the Sword; her sword began to glow with the sorrow of the elven people. The dragon lashed out, but only managed a gash on Mikansia, Ensio, and Dale as they leapt away. Mikansia and Ensio rushed foward and stabbed deep into the underbelly of the dragon, immobilizing it. Pushing forward, they cut the dragon open, amidst a shower of blood and guts. They jumped out of the way as the monstrosity collapsed in a sea of blood, further covering them. Dale walked up to to the dragon and plunged his sword deeply into its eye. It moved no more.

A minute later and the eldritch egg opened again. Out into the pool of blood walked a succubus. Ensio took a deep breath. "Hello again, Ensio! Found another eldritch egg?"

There was a slash; a rainbow appeared through the succubus. She split open. Appearing behind her was the scaly feathered creature from Dream, holding a rainbow-infused blade.

It was Jabez's sword. Mikansia recognized the hilt.

Hallucinations: Session Six

Last time... Zilya, Natskin, and Karel went down a well after a missing girl. They found her, but ran afoul of the security statues of the dungeon they had inadvertently found. Natskin's ribs and lantern were broken, Karel's napsack, with all his extra torches, were destroyed, the facility was put on lockdown, and they're now staring at five hungry ghouls, scared little girl in tow. What a time to be alive!

Yes, there were five ghouls staring at them. Karel did want to live. But he was very curious about the room. It was very similar to one of the rooms in the cube: a golden room, with glass tubes lining the walls. There could very well be a secret door on this floor, and Karel wanted to find out if there was one  before they were all eaten. He handed his torch to Natskin and made a break for it, hoping to get to the other side of the room to try and find something, anything! One of the ghouls lunged out and bit Karel as he ran; he almost threw up from the immediate nausea. Karel threw the ghoul off and got away. He was going to live, damnit! At the other end of the room he found the door he was looking for; it opened with a whoosh.

Natskin strode forward and dropped into a boxing stance. He was a beefy minotaur; it didn't take much to distract the ghouls from everything else. He lunged out and punched at them, daring them to take him on. They took him at his word.

Zilya grabbed the little girl, who could barely move from the terror, and dragged her away, hiding behind one of the glass tubes, trying to work out a plan of engagement. A small whisper, stately but sad, sighed over her shoulder: "You can use the tubes against them". The girl didn't react to the whisper. Karel yelled that he'd found another door.  They all made a break for it, torch guttering wildly. The stately but sad whisper voice told Zilya they'd meet again. No one else heard it but her. There was only one button in the elevator.

The doors closed on the charging ghouls just in time. But only just. They opened again on a rotting room: furniture barely held together against time, dampness, and a cracked ceiling, which let in just enough light.

Oh, and a sleeping black dragon. He's important too!

Everyone froze. Except Natskin. He wanted to fight the dragon, maybe even tame it and make it a pet! He tried to stride forward, but was restrained forcibly.

The dragon stirred.

It sat up.

They could see a door behind the dragon.  They were jamming the button to the elevator like mad. The doors whooshed shut, just in time.

They opened upon the snarling ghouls. Putting herself between the girl and the undead monsters, Zilya yelled at Natskin to get the ghouls in the elevator. Natskin yelled at the ghouls. They remembered him from before, so it didn't take too much work to get them into the elevator to feast on his enormous frame. But Natskin couldn't get out. Karel got himself next to the elevator door. Zilya tried to duck under a ghoul's reach, so she and the little girl could get out.

The doors closed before she could.

The torch went out. The girl screamed over the snarling of the ghouls.

Somehow nobody got bit before doors opened again. The four friends heard it: a deep breath, from something large. They hit the deck. A pillar of acid flew over them. The ghouls screamed in agony. And then they charged the dragon, falling apart as they did. They engaged the beast, biting and and clawing at it, as they disintegrated.

The crack in the ceiling looked too small for Natskin, so the group tried the door at the far end of the rotting room. It was locked. Pressing any next next to it resulted in a voice saying "Lockdown initiated. Access denied". They all charged the steel door, even the little girl, with Natskin in the lead.

KRUNCH

There was a hallway, ending in a room. In the room was a stone archway. They could hear the sounds of the fighting dying down, as the ghouls fell apart. Zilya tried running through the archway. Nothing happened. There was a control panel on an adjacent wall. They all pounded on the buttons. A voice, mechanical and cold, spoke: "Lockdown measures in effect. Only emergency destinations are authorized."

The archway sprang to life, a light crackling between the posts. They dove through. Natskin was the last to go through. He so desperately wanted a pet dragon...

It turned and saw him. And it took a deep breath.

The room Natskin entered was bitterly cold, even for him. Standing before the group were three blue humanoids, with pointy ears: the vinteralfen.

"How did you get an Ensivalen Arch to work...?" one of them asked after a second.

They looked startled. Not to mention confused.

It's Still on My Shelf: Tenra Bansho Zero

I backed this at about the same time as Torchbearer, about seven years  ago.

Seven years???

No.

I refuse to-

Just no.

I just backed this. A year ago. I promise. Yeah, that's it.

Point is, I still haven't played it. I've always wanted to; the whole game is just so freaking cool, with varying levels of accessibility that scream "I WAS MEANT TO BE PLAYED NOT LOOKED AT". I wish I could say that I have, but I really haven't. Yes, I'm going to blame the Army for this one again, but the truth is that I've been a bit intimidated by the game.

Why is that, you ask?

Well, let's break this down. Tenra Bansho Zero (TBZ) is a Japanese RPG, the first to be translated into English. It's designed to be a four to six hour single session campaign. All the character development that one could possibly have in a campaign gets pushed into that single session. It's hyper intense, hyper focused, just freaking hyper. Everyone has what are called Fates, which are hooks that the players can use to perform so the other players award them Aiki. Aiki is a resource you either use to get a few extra dice for your actions, or you can use it to generate Kiai. Kiai is extremely powerful, but spending it accrues Karma (yes, you have to track it yourself). Get 108 Karma? your character becomes an Asura, a demon enslaved to his desires, and taken over by the GM. You can get rid of Karma by getting rid of or lowering your Fates. You get rid of or lower your desires, you let go, so that way you do not become corrupted.

And then after that incredibly intense session you do a completely different story, in its own session. With different characters.

And you do it again.

And again.

And again.

Each of these stories are supposed to be completely self-contained, jumping from point to point in the really well-detailed setting that the game provides.

In fact, I would argue that the setting is the gold standard for how to make an RPG setting: make a place that needs saving, for whom there is no way out other than the players. Make the players essential. You want people to be heroes? Make everyone else not. Want the players to be a light? Make a variety of darkness they cannot help but feel on their skin. The TBZ setting is so well done that that its quality alone has made me keep the game, just to reference from time to time, to make sure that I'm designing my own settings correctly.

Yes, that was a paragraph-long aside.  The point is that you have to jump around a lot. And, given my own background for preferring long-running campaigns, I found that intimidating. How on earth could I come up with that many campaign ideas, that quickly? That's a lot of campaign work. But ultimately what's won me over on trying this out as a series of one shots is that there are plenty of pregenned characters, all of which are more defined by their Fates (which are player and GM generated) than by their skills, which means that player work is relatively low. And there's nothing stopping you from following the translator's advice and just keep spinning one-shots from the previous session's ending. I mean, all problems were formerly a solution, so that part makes sense.

There's a lot going for TBZ. I really can't wait to finally give it a shot as well. Well, y'know, one day. We'll get there.

Jel-10: World Burning

So this Burning Empires game is happening with my board gaming group. I pitched this game to my group as one of the most unique and intense experiences they could ever have in gaming, for better and for worse. I did not attempt to talk down the amount of overhead and the demands this game would make. During the first session I gave a general overview of the concept of the game and we began to burn up the world. Ben and Matt had never played an RPG before, whereas Nathan (who was invited specifically to play in this game! Yes, another Nathan!) and Logan had played DnD before.

We named the planet Jel-10. Because Nathan would not stop talking about jello. This whole pitch involved jello. I kid you not. Every last point we talked about involved jello.

I'm still twitching.

For those of you who don't know, Burning Empires is based off of a comic series called Iron Empires. The Vaylen, a parasitic race of flatworms that can control the minds of those they infect. But of all the races they have possessed humans are the most intoxicating to them. They've made their own races, including the Kerrn, but humans are everything that the Vaylen could ever want.

Oh, and the Kerrn? They're gigantic frog men the Vaylen made so they could have powerful bodies to inhabit. But, as it turns out, the Kerrn are able to throw off Vaylen possession. So they've broken free and live anywhere they can find a home, doing whatever they can to survive.

So Jel-10 is located in the middle of the Iron Empires and is an intergalactic pit stop of sorts. It's got a variable level of atmosphere, with poisonous bogs and areas without atmosphere, but its location is so central that people have gone there simply to profit off of its location. A loose confederation of merchant guilds have built a government called The League so they can profit off of the planet. The problem is that the government is not terribly centralized, despite their best efforts. One of the Vaylen figures of note, Sernie, is trying to unify the planet so that more profits can be made off their visitors. But due to the infighting of the planetary factions this has been impossible, aided in part by Rahn Sol. He's played by Nathan, who opposes planetary unification. Everyone is so divided there isn't even a standard planetary quarantine! Each faction has their own standards of admitting foreign goods and services, which of course has helped the Vaylen infiltrate. The other Vaylen figure of note is Lithlura Baskins, an actual Vaylen who is part of the entourage of the League. She has helped set up a Vaylen inroad on Jel-10 and is now trying to get as many important people hulled as quickly as possible.

The local people are paranoid of the Vaylen, in part because of a kerrn colony that lives on the planet. The kerrn are led by Mahximuz, a kerrn who had successfully thrown off his Vaylen host. But Mahxmiuz, who will played by Logan, has a secret: he somehow has retained the experiences of the Vaylen who had possessed him. This grants him some unusual knowledge about the Vaylen, but his mental stability can leave much to be desired at times. There's also a a Psychologist Foundation (think an intergalactic organization of psychics) that has set up shop on Jel-10, as part of the security services that the planet provides to its visitors. The organized crime element of the world has its own military junta, making it hard for The League  to bring order and peace to the bickering planet.

The initial situation is that Sernie is once again trying to call all the factions together to discuss planetary unification around The League. Rahn Sol wants to make sure that never happens. Let everyone tend to their own business and all that. We are starting in the Usurpation phase, with the Vaylen already on the planet, but trying to take over. We may or may not go to the Invasion phase, heck we may not even get a second gaming session. The disposition scores (our overall HP) are the Vaylen at 23 and the Humans at 24.