This is a show that I love dearly and have been with since I accidentally saw the first episode in a bar, lo those many moons past (fuck me- ten years ago!) and so was thrizzled when my dvr* unwittingly snatched it out of the aether this past weekend.
I've been fine with the changes they put the show through in season 4, even the death of Number 24 didn't really hit me (maybe the idea of an "evil" analogue to Rusty and Sons (Monarch, 21 & 24) seemed redundant) like it did a lot of people, but the premier of season 5 really unloaded a ton of new stuff in our laps. Some of it seemed simply irritating, and really, the first 30 minutes were less than spectacular viewing, but once all the groundwork was laid, the rest of the show was mostly entertaining.
Even without the new changes, everything seemed a little off. Some of the voices seemed, I don't know, strained and the designs, the artwork, was definitely on the crude side compared to the early days of the show. I suspect that the new production company, Titmouse, Inc. (tee hee,) was the culprit there. The animation was pretty tight, for the most part, but too many characters were kinda... crusty. Dr. Girlfriend, in particular, seemed to suffer from the new production and just looked sloppily drawn. Hopefully things'll straighten out as the season progresses. I really don't like those CG cars, though.
In the end, it wasn't a heartbreaker. I can live with the changes as long as good stories come out of them, as they did last season. The little, grey, atrophied optimist inside me has his fingers crossed.
[One last thing- I've noticed some SDCC hipster douchebagness creeping into the show in recent years, which can be a real funkiller. McCulloch & Hammer have, in the past, jokingly embraced this with the humor they're known for, but lately... I dunno. It seems like they wear sunglasses all the time now and, if it's all a joke, it's one that is getting old. I guess you can only fuck so many Molotov Cocktease cosplayers before it goes to your head. I sure hope I'm wrong.]
*I had set the thing to record new episodes sometime last winter, not knowing when or if there would be new episodes any time in the future.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
The Fall of the House of Orbus
Well, not quite but close. My venerable old Macintosh desktop may have finally given up the ghost and until I can get it into the shop to have it looked at it may as well be dead. So, I just wanted to let that one guy that sometimes reads this web log that I'll be posting even more sporadically than usual.
In the meantime I have a few ideas that I was about to pounce on, but kinda can't right now as a lot of the initial ideas are trapped in that infernal machine. The last thing I was working on was a Traveller interpretation of Howard Chaykin's early sci-fi effort "Ironwolf", originally published by DC Comics in Weird Worlds, then about 25 years later as a new hardcover graphic novel (with art by Mignola and Russell). It's essentially a cynical 70's take on the Planetary Romance genre complete with swordplay and feudalism and .45 Automatics and some odd ideas about space travel. I'll probably include Chaykin's lively three-issue "Twilight" comic as well, since it relates to the later Ironwolf one-shot.
The other thing I wanna work on is maybe overhauling XXVc's rocketship combat rules. I never used them, but I understand they are lacking. Hopefully it won't involve more than a few new rules inserted at strategic points, rather than having to start from scratch.
Ettin of Hexen (see my web log roll) has vanished and so his Care Bears rpg is on hold, I guess. A shame, too, cuz I happen to think that was a really cool idea, despite having no real interest in Care Bears or anything closely resembling them.
Hopefully, he didn't get eaten by hogs. Cuz hogs will totally eat you, given the opportunity.
Always a pleasure,
OO
In the meantime I have a few ideas that I was about to pounce on, but kinda can't right now as a lot of the initial ideas are trapped in that infernal machine. The last thing I was working on was a Traveller interpretation of Howard Chaykin's early sci-fi effort "Ironwolf", originally published by DC Comics in Weird Worlds, then about 25 years later as a new hardcover graphic novel (with art by Mignola and Russell). It's essentially a cynical 70's take on the Planetary Romance genre complete with swordplay and feudalism and .45 Automatics and some odd ideas about space travel. I'll probably include Chaykin's lively three-issue "Twilight" comic as well, since it relates to the later Ironwolf one-shot.
The other thing I wanna work on is maybe overhauling XXVc's rocketship combat rules. I never used them, but I understand they are lacking. Hopefully it won't involve more than a few new rules inserted at strategic points, rather than having to start from scratch.
Ettin of Hexen (see my web log roll) has vanished and so his Care Bears rpg is on hold, I guess. A shame, too, cuz I happen to think that was a really cool idea, despite having no real interest in Care Bears or anything closely resembling them.
Hopefully, he didn't get eaten by hogs. Cuz hogs will totally eat you, given the opportunity.
Always a pleasure,
OO
Sunday, May 5, 2013
...And to Every Overlord, a Mutant.
A couple of years ago I was working on a Gamma World 1e game that involved a marauding army of mutants. The mutants were the Friends of Entropy, lead by Jim Ward's own munchkin Mary Sue, Blern the Stranger. Anyone who has played GW should know what the F.O.E. is. The very obscure Blern, on the other hand, comes from a story written by Ward and of whom I'll write more about in a later post.
Long story short, I needed some generic mutants to fill out large groups of opponents as you would find in the army of Blackwolf, the villain of Ralph Bakshi's post-nuke epic Wizards. Orcs, basically. Cannon fodder.
These humanoids make up troops for evil mutant overlords. They are all essentially the same save for their respective mutant powers. They should all supplied with the same weapons, usually Tech Level II or III, for ease of implementation. Since these guys are fodder they shouldn't have high hit dice, except for the Toughs. I would recommend adjusting the number appearing rather than AC, HD, etc for more powerful parties. The mutations need not be applied to every single mutant of that type. Maybe just give them to the squad leaders or whatever.
After that, just add visual touches (horns, weird skin colors, etc) and you should be good to go.
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| From left to right: Strong mutant, Agile mutant, Tough mutant. The guy behind them is obviously a demon, so he doesn't count. |
These humanoids make up troops for evil mutant overlords. They are all essentially the same save for their respective mutant powers. They should all supplied with the same weapons, usually Tech Level II or III, for ease of implementation. Since these guys are fodder they shouldn't have high hit dice, except for the Toughs. I would recommend adjusting the number appearing rather than AC, HD, etc for more powerful parties. The mutations need not be applied to every single mutant of that type. Maybe just give them to the squad leaders or whatever.
TOUGH MUTANT
No. Appearing: 1-10
Armor Class: 5
Movement: 8
Hit Dice: 18
Mutations: Heightened Constitution
STRONG MUTANT
No. Appearing: 1-10
Armor Class: 6
Movement: 10
Hit Dice: 12
Mutations: Heightened Strength
Strong mutants add three dice to melee weapon damage
AGILE MUTANT
No. Appearing: 1-10
Armor Class: 7
Movement: 12
Hit Dice: 8
Mutations: Heightened Dexterity
Exaltation of the Gargoyle King
I just got done playing the first enjoyable night with my DC Universe Online supervillain, the nefarious Gargoyle King, in a very long time. I'd been focussing on my two main characters, modern-day Pulp avenger Downright and jingoistic Bush-era superpatriot scumbag Rockets Redglare, but have gotten pretty burned out on them of late. It happens.
Luckily, I have 14 other characters on my account to help alleviate my ennui (that's such a douchebaggy word. makes me laff) and so, enter The Gargoyle King. In DCUO fortune favors the bold- sometimes you have to fight through grueling, shitty adventures (which usually involves Batman to a large degree) in order to get the Big Bucks. Problem is, you usually get burdened with at least a couple of crappy players, who will defenestrate at the first sign of real heat, leaving everyone else with their dicks in the dirt, unable to move forward.
This happens entirely too often in the game and can turn a 45 minute raid into two hour-plus marathon of repetitive, agonizingly dull gameplay.
Anyway, that all ended tonight, when Fortune finally started to show some interest in the old boy and things finally started going my way. Nothing too spectacular, but I'll take what I can get. So, I decide on one last mission before logging off and end up in yet another of what seem like an endless series of battles against Brainiac. Thankfully, I drop into an "instance" already in progress (the final boss fight as it turns out,) and wail on that motherfucker like nobody's business, putting the kibosh on him in record time (for me, anyway.)
Long story short, one of the other players tossed a nice bit of praise my way which actually made me happy for a few minutes. Sadly (ha ha), the late hour and fog of war prevent me from quoting said praise accurately. Suffice it to say I got a big thumb's up. This puts me very close to completing a short-term goal I set up (two goddamn weeks!) which should come to a close tomorrow.
I hope so, anyway. I hate this fuckin' game.
Monday, April 29, 2013
FUTURE LIFE
I found this interesting article at io9.com about emerging scientific fields and wondered how they might be utilized in sf rpgs. I'm going to relate them, of course, to those rpgs I'm most familiar with, which in this case happen to be classic Traveller and (if you've been paying attention) Buck Rogers XXVc.
Already I'm thinking that a number of these will be relegated to "background science" since they're not the kinds of things that necessarily make for good adventure stories. On the other hand, never say never. Any of these could potentially make for a good adventure seed, I suppose, but that's the point of this article, innit? Gonna have a look at each one and see if we can find a gem or to inside.
Neuroparasitology- Reminds me of an episode, maybe the pilot, of an old UPN series called The Burning Zone about a team of scientists combatting unusual (i.e. made up) viruses. The story I recall had to do with some kind of parasitical virus that "possessed" people to further some sort of world-domination plot. There's definitely an rpg plot or two to squeeze out of neuroparastiology for just about any sci fi game, I would think. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any Traveller adventures that involved behavior modifying parasites, but I do know that XXVc did cover manufactured viruses in one supplement (Earth in the 25th Century,) so manufactured parasites are a no-brainer.
Quantum Biology- I got nuthin'. Quantum shmantum, might as well be magic.
Exo-Meteorology- This is the kind of science that science fiction sort of renders moot. At least the kind that involves colonized worlds. It's strongly implied that this work was already done many years prior, as it facilitated or helped facilitate colonization on other planetary bodies, including asteroids.
Nutrigenomics- Strictly background science, but interesting stuff, nonetheless.
Cliodynamics- Described in the io9 article as "Asimov's psychohistory come to life," this science has already been exploited in a number of arenas, including comics, tv, and rpgs where it is a tool of Traveller's race of master manipulators, the Hivers. In XXVc, psychohistory (I feel I can dispose with the unnecessary "cliodynamics" in favor of Asimov's already established term) could be utilized by the Venusians, but it seems a little involved for RAM's brute force approach to problem solving.
Synthetic Biology- Probably common in modern sci fi games, this doesn't seem like a good fit with any version of Traveller (except maybe for some Ancients-style monkey business.) This is already integral to the genetic engineering-heavy background of XXVc.
Recombinant Memetics- When I was boy, we called it "propaganda" and we liked it! Maybe my Old Fart-ness is showing, but this just seems like a fancy word for Psy-Ops. In any case, using the word "meme" in any serious context is cause for alarm.
Computational Social Science- Described as "the rigorous investigation of social phenomenon and trends over time." *yawn* See Cliodynamics, above.
Cognitive Economics- NEXT!
Organic Electronics- Okay, if I understand this correctly, it's a more refined form of biomechanics. I suppose in science fiction terms it would be a background science that allows for whatever level of bionics you want, right up to pseudo-biological cybernetics. This makes for nice technobabble and not much else, but it's nice to have some new technobabble to throw around, right?
Quantitative Biology- Another nice bit of t-babble that don't mean sweet fuck all in actual game terms.
(Tune in next time when I analyze how io9 isn't as quite cool as they want us to think they are)
Already I'm thinking that a number of these will be relegated to "background science" since they're not the kinds of things that necessarily make for good adventure stories. On the other hand, never say never. Any of these could potentially make for a good adventure seed, I suppose, but that's the point of this article, innit? Gonna have a look at each one and see if we can find a gem or to inside.
Neuroparasitology- Reminds me of an episode, maybe the pilot, of an old UPN series called The Burning Zone about a team of scientists combatting unusual (i.e. made up) viruses. The story I recall had to do with some kind of parasitical virus that "possessed" people to further some sort of world-domination plot. There's definitely an rpg plot or two to squeeze out of neuroparastiology for just about any sci fi game, I would think. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any Traveller adventures that involved behavior modifying parasites, but I do know that XXVc did cover manufactured viruses in one supplement (Earth in the 25th Century,) so manufactured parasites are a no-brainer.
Quantum Biology- I got nuthin'. Quantum shmantum, might as well be magic.
Exo-Meteorology- This is the kind of science that science fiction sort of renders moot. At least the kind that involves colonized worlds. It's strongly implied that this work was already done many years prior, as it facilitated or helped facilitate colonization on other planetary bodies, including asteroids.
Nutrigenomics- Strictly background science, but interesting stuff, nonetheless.
Cliodynamics- Described in the io9 article as "Asimov's psychohistory come to life," this science has already been exploited in a number of arenas, including comics, tv, and rpgs where it is a tool of Traveller's race of master manipulators, the Hivers. In XXVc, psychohistory (I feel I can dispose with the unnecessary "cliodynamics" in favor of Asimov's already established term) could be utilized by the Venusians, but it seems a little involved for RAM's brute force approach to problem solving.
Synthetic Biology- Probably common in modern sci fi games, this doesn't seem like a good fit with any version of Traveller (except maybe for some Ancients-style monkey business.) This is already integral to the genetic engineering-heavy background of XXVc.
Recombinant Memetics- When I was boy, we called it "propaganda" and we liked it! Maybe my Old Fart-ness is showing, but this just seems like a fancy word for Psy-Ops. In any case, using the word "meme" in any serious context is cause for alarm.
Computational Social Science- Described as "the rigorous investigation of social phenomenon and trends over time." *yawn* See Cliodynamics, above.
Cognitive Economics- NEXT!
Organic Electronics- Okay, if I understand this correctly, it's a more refined form of biomechanics. I suppose in science fiction terms it would be a background science that allows for whatever level of bionics you want, right up to pseudo-biological cybernetics. This makes for nice technobabble and not much else, but it's nice to have some new technobabble to throw around, right?
Quantitative Biology- Another nice bit of t-babble that don't mean sweet fuck all in actual game terms.
(Tune in next time when I analyze how io9 isn't as quite cool as they want us to think they are)
The Dustbowl of My Mind
I haven't done much gaming in the past... oh, maybe 20 years or so. I've tried to either run a game or play in one without much luck in either. In particular, my meager, rusty GMing skills have been put to the test with less than stellar results. Case in point, my most recent venture into the world of Buck Rogers.
Long story short, one of my two players was of the type that likes to question the actions of his GM, going so far as to make a rather rude implication that I was out to fuck them over because I chose to keep my die rolls hidden. This happened to be an online game, but whether or not the game is in person, I choose to hide the die rolls. Standard operating procedure in my book.
Anyway, it just took the wind out of my sails and I just didn't want to GM after that. And this just after two sessions. And so, the river went dry, the crops withered away and the homesteaders left for... who knows what? My creative side just basically shut down after that and I haven't even wanted to run a game since then, much less continue writing adventures. Thanks, Kalvin, you asshole.
The other of my two players, the jocular Ettin of Hexen (aka Brandocles, he of Duster Bones fame) has begun an AD&D game starring me (and only me) which has helped get me back into the swing. That and the new Syfy series Defiance (it's a floor wax and a desert topping!) have started a trickle of creative sludge moving. In the case of Defiance, it has given me a much better visual conception of the Earth of XXVc, in addition to giving me some idea of how the different gennie types might co-exist.
So, if I can get through the minor physical issues I've been having of late and actually take a look at my game notes again, I might be able to get back to assailing the 4 or 5 suckers that wind up on my web log with more Buckness. If nothing else, I've been able to actually write something again (the above,) even though it doesn't amount to a hill o' shit.
I'm off, perchance to dream of bio-men and terrines and rocket everythings.
KAREEEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMM!
Long story short, one of my two players was of the type that likes to question the actions of his GM, going so far as to make a rather rude implication that I was out to fuck them over because I chose to keep my die rolls hidden. This happened to be an online game, but whether or not the game is in person, I choose to hide the die rolls. Standard operating procedure in my book.
Anyway, it just took the wind out of my sails and I just didn't want to GM after that. And this just after two sessions. And so, the river went dry, the crops withered away and the homesteaders left for... who knows what? My creative side just basically shut down after that and I haven't even wanted to run a game since then, much less continue writing adventures. Thanks, Kalvin, you asshole.
The other of my two players, the jocular Ettin of Hexen (aka Brandocles, he of Duster Bones fame) has begun an AD&D game starring me (and only me) which has helped get me back into the swing. That and the new Syfy series Defiance (it's a floor wax and a desert topping!) have started a trickle of creative sludge moving. In the case of Defiance, it has given me a much better visual conception of the Earth of XXVc, in addition to giving me some idea of how the different gennie types might co-exist.
So, if I can get through the minor physical issues I've been having of late and actually take a look at my game notes again, I might be able to get back to assailing the 4 or 5 suckers that wind up on my web log with more Buckness. If nothing else, I've been able to actually write something again (the above,) even though it doesn't amount to a hill o' shit.
I'm off, perchance to dream of bio-men and terrines and rocket everythings.
KAREEEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMM!
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Show & Tell
Anyone out there in the OSR Grogosphere™ probably has at least some passing familiarity with the entity known as Thorkhammer, otherwise known as Robert "R.C." Pinnell. Who and what he is and what I think of him are demonstrated in the mock advertisement (based on a real ad for the drug thorazine) presented here.
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Here's to you, Thork. I hope you get everything you deserve.
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