Magic Monday: Valiant's Punk Mambo

Magic Monday is going to be a blog feature that probably won't be as frequent as I want it to be, but it is what it is. In this feature I'll talk about new and old comics that deal with magical themes, whether horror, monsters, paranormal romance, spell casters or any other sort of magical features.

Punk Mambo is a one shot special from Valiant Comics that features a "punk" voodoo hougan, that apparently spun out of Valiant's Shadowman comic. I haven't kept up with Shadowman, so this issue is really all that I know about the character.

Written by Peter Milligan (Shade The Changing Man, Justice League Dark, Stormwatch, Hellblazer, Enigma and many, many other comics), with art by Robert Gill (Eternal Warrior, Armor Hunters: Harbinger and Grimm Fairy Tales: Alice In Wonderland), my first impression of the book was that it was the 90s again and I was reading one of the books from that early, wonderful burst of creativity that us Vertigo Comics. Punk Mambo could have easily been a Vertigo comic along side Shade or Animal Man or Swamp Thing. Peter Milligan writes an engaging story that doesn't need the character's previous appearances to explain it.

The art by Gill is evocative and draws you into the story, creating the character's world and breathing life into it. As good as the writing is, I don't think that this story would be as interesting without Gill's art. He makes you feel as if you are in a swamp and if you are in London, making each a vivid place and as unique as they should be.

While we don't really get an explanation of how a British punk ends up in the swamps of Louisiana, we do get a look at the character's voyage from Victoria, a rich kid in a private affluent to a gutterpunk on the streets of 70s London to her becoming the Voodooista Punk Mambo. I may not be the only one who saw a swipe at John Constantine in "Joe Mayhem," the punk voodoo guy who sets Victoria along her voodoo path.

Fans of magic and the supernatural in comics should enjoy this comic. The biggest "flaw" for me was the fact that by the time I reached the end of the 22 pages I was sad that this was not the first issue of an ongoing series. Spoiler alert: It should be!

I am glad to see that Valiant isn't just living in the past and spinning out past glories into new franchises. Creating new characters like this and expanding the corners of a vibrant and exciting comic universe means that the setting will not stagnant and we will see many more new stories and characters to come.

Mini Reviews of Two Fate Accelerated Mini Products

I like Fate Accelerated. It is a quick, easy and streamlined game that has a deceptive depth of play options in proportion to the lightness of the rules. While I do like Fate Core, I think that Accelerated and its adaptability fits my interests and style of play much more closely. I picked up a couple of PDF mini supplements for the game over at RPGNow. They both definitely have some meat to them and have utility in your own Fate Accelerated games.

First up is the Accelerated Book of Approaches from Dice Monkey Productions. This 19 page PDF contains a cover (seen at left) and three pages of OGL. There is some good stuff to this PDF, but I really see it more as a starting point than anything else.

The best part of this book is the in-depth explanation of the Fate Accelerated approaches. One place where people new to Accelerated trip up is thinking that approaches work like stats in other games, or even like skills in Fate Core or other games. How these things work is right there on the tin: approaches. Keeping in mind that approaches are how a character approaches a game situation can make them much less frustrating, and unlock the key to their simplicity and flexibility. It is the approaches where Fate Accelerated really sings, and where a lot of the game's streamlining is happening. A lot is packed into a little space with approaches.

For those who might be new to Fate Accelerated, the Accelerated Book of Approaches also offers some new approaches inspired by the attributes from various open gaming licence systems like D6, D20 and Mongoose's Traveller rules. This highlights the flexibility and hackability of Fate Accelerated by introducing new approaches that can help familiarize a new game by introducing elements that players may already understand from other games. For me, this is a strength of the Open Gaming License, and I would like to see more publishers bring bits and pieces back and forth from various licensed systems to make new things.

However, to be honest, the adaptations in this book are not as interesting as they could be. I think that sample characters could have better demonstrated these adapted approaches. That isn't to say that these approaches wouldn't work, just that they aren't as flavorful and as interesting as they could be.

Before you give up on the Accelerated Book of Approaches we haven't actually gotten to the best part: the sets of brand new approaches. There are three sets of original approaches for "Action"-oriented games, games set in "wizarding schools" and also for "space knight" campaigns. The Action approaches are interesting, and could work well for a pulp-based Fate Accelerated game, or one inspired by the television show Leverage. The Wizarding School approaches are obviously inspired by the Harry Potter books/movies, however these approaches could be used for any sort of wizard-oriented campaign where everyone is a spell-caster of some sort. A creative GM could build an Ars Magica Acclerated hack off of these approaches. The Space Knights approaches look like they are inspired by the "force powers" from the original West End Games Star Wars RPG, which is an interesting...approach.

Like I said, this book is a starting point for people using Fate Accelerated in their games. There is still going to have to be some lifting on the part of the GM to explain these approaches in a game, and to figure out the situational applications of some of them. People interested in a D&D Accelerated game should also look at the Freeport Companion that Evil Hat and Green Ronin put out. While that is a supplement for Fate Core, it could easily be hacked for use with Fate Accelerated. It also has some interesting stuff for anyone looking to do D&Dish gaming using any version of the Fate rules.

Next is a smaller PDF than the previous. Interstellar Patrol is an 8 page supplement for Fate Accelerated that gives you the basics to start a Star Trek inspired game. No new approaches, although it would be interesting to mix this with the Mongoose Traveller approaches from the Accelerated Book of Approaches to come up with a Traveller-inspired game.

This PDF is all starting point. The GM of an Interstellar Patrol game is going to have to understand the genre of Star Trek and how it is different from other types of science fiction. However, as a Pay What You Want PDF you can pick it up for free. I do think it is worth a dollar (at the least) for giving GMs a starting point. The cover is pretty cool as well.

With this PDF and the Fate Accelerated rules you can pick up and play a fast game on one of those nights when not everyone is able to show up for game night but you still want to play a game. That quickness and simplicity of Fate Accelerated is another one of the many strengths of the system.

I recommend both, or either of these two supplements for Fate Accelerated. Hopefully they will be successful enough to encourage more simple and low cost plug-ins for the game.

Looking At Little Wizards - An All Ages Fantasy RPG

After a brief pause, +David Rollins gives up some opinions on Little Wizards, an all ages fantasty RPG from Crafty Games. There is also a free preview available of the game on RPGNow.

By David Rollins

Another Gen Con has come and gone and as the dust settles down on this year's ENnie Awards you may be sifting through the winners looking for gold, but if you are a parent looking for a good RPG to play with your kids you should be looking at one of this year's nominees.

Little Wizards from Crafty Games was nominated for the Best Family Game ENnie and while it did not win, it is worth considering if you are looking for a quality RPG to share with your kids.

The layout works well on multiple formats. I read the the pdf copy I received for review on my laptop, my desktop and even my phone. The two columns on square pages worked well on a wide screen and the columns fit easily on my phone screen so I could read a half-page at a time with no trouble. I also printed it out so I could get a feel for how the art worked in the book form.

Arnü West's illustrations are brilliant, with plenty of action in every scene depicted. It's clear at a mere glance that this game is all about young wizards doing cool stuff. West's style mixes the familiar with the fantastic to open up a world that is both magical and comfortable for a brand new player. Some of the choices West makes, such as the viewpoint and the form of the buildings, reminds me of illustrations from old copies of Peter Pan which gives everything a classic feel.

The mechanics of the game are based on a roll of two, six-sided dice. The player rolls and adds a trait to meet a target number based on difficulty of a chosen action. That much is familiar to most gaming parents but there are some innovations that encourage a certain type of play. Traits are rated as Good (+0), Better (+1) or Best (+2). No character can be the best at everything so the players will need to work in teams where everyone has an important role to play. There are also rules for cooperation that allow other characters to help, so players only need to come up with a reasonable way their characters can contribute to start stacking up +1s on their friends' action rolls.

Character creation is easy, with a handful of choices and random tables that players can roll on, choose from, or simply use as inspiration. My daughter had a great time rolling up her Little Wizard's personality with the tables.

The Magic system is open-ended with plenty of room for players to get creative to use their magic to solve problems and plenty of suggestions and examples to help them along as well. There are different types of magic so again, teamwork is emphasized in the design.

There are no hit points or health in this game. If a character gets hurt it becomes a problem that needs to be dealt with. The violence in the game is on par with what you would find in a cartoon program like Scooby Do or My Little Pony so it's not likely that the players will find themselves dealing with character injuries often.

My favourite part of this game is the setting! It's wonderful how the original french author, Antoine Bauza, and the english language developer, Amanda Valentine, managed to blend so much of my favourite fantasy fiction for young readers into Coinworld. I see echoes of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea in the Archipelagoes and the role wizards occupy as problem solvers. Terry Pratchett's Discworld shines in the shape of Coinworld and in the types of magic. A game about young wizards can't escape comparison to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and it certainly shows in much of the visual aesthetic and technology level of the Little Wizards setting.

Coinworld is a disc with two sides, a light side with mischievous creatures like fairies and a darker side with monsters like goblins and vampires. The two sides are a mirror of each other, with each cluster of islands forming an archipelago that has a counterpart on the other side of the world. These archipelagoes have their own personality and features. What I like is that they are described in broad strokes with a few paragraphs of basic description and what kind of adventure would likely happen there. The more detailed descriptions of the archipelagoes come at the end of the book in the three sample adventures. Each adventure gives a little more detail about its location in the introduction. This choice implies that the world is not really defined until the characters actually visit there. This sand-box approach is a great way to get your kids used to the old-school style of play. The sample adventures give players and new “Narrators” a great place to start and plenty of hooks for adventures to have after each of the ones provided.

The only drawback of this game is there is no visual component. Most of the game is theatre-of-the-
mind style play without maps or miniatures. My youngest daughter is a visual learner so the games with paper miniatures tend to hold her attention better than this style of game. My oldest, on the other hand, is an auditory learner so this game turned out to be a great fit for her. I found it to be more of a feature than a drawback because I prefer the theatre-of-the-mind style of play to maps, grids and miniatures but it is something to consider.

Little Wizards is a wonderful table-top role-playing game to play with kids. It's a great introduction to the game and has a decent experience system so it can work well for long term play too. I like that the material that it draws on for inspiration doesn't force the same old fantasy tropes and assumptions on new players. They are offered a new world to explore and make their own. If that sounds good to you, head over to the Crafty Games' website to find out how you can get your copy!

A panelist on the Geeky Voices Carry podcast, +David Rollins talks about gaming, fantasy fiction and other interests of his across social media like Google+. David also plays games. A lot of games.

The Castles & Crusades Black Box

I love getting mail. Really, who doesn't? I particularly love getting mail when it contains some cool gaming stuff like this little boxed set from the fine people at Troll Lord Games. I saw this box while I was at Gen Con, but I was more focused on other releases from the company (as well as talking about their then-upcoming Amazing Adventures Kickstarter with them) to give this a look.

I wish that I had given it more of a look. The Castles & Crusades Black Box is a limited edition supplement for Castles & Crusades to commemorate the game's 10th Anniversary. The black box is only being released in a run of 1,000 copies, with the first 300 being numbered (inside of the lid of the box) and containing a signed plate.

What's in the box? Well, that is where it gets interesting. For me the most interesting of the three booklets in the box would be the Adventurer's Backpack. Why? Because it contains four new classes for your Castles & Crusades game, based on the familiar fantasy gaming archetypes but taking them into new directions.

These new classes are Archer, Avatar, Thief and Magic-User. Yes, a couple of the names are familiar, but these classes take things into different directions with them.

The Archer is like a fighter, but obviously based around the bow. I have to admit that the first thing that I thought about when I read through this class was Horsewoman from the DC Comic Demon Knights. Anyone who thinks that archers are going to be wimps have obviously never read that comic (and if you haven't I am sorely disappointed in you).

The Avatar is the cleric analog in the rules. Rather than giving a worshiper access to spell and abilities, like with the standard Cleric, an Avatar is a physical manifestation of a deity. This means that the Avatar is there for a specific purpose, to fulfill some goal or action of the deity manifesting in them. Obviously something big and bad is happening if an Avatar is getting involved in the story.

Knowledge can be just as much of a special ability as being able to climb walls and sneak attack. This Thief represents that, from the noble with a larcenous heart to the pilfering servant. Anyone can pick a pocket, but not everyone can plan and pull off a heist...and know how to get rid of the ill-gotten goods.

Finally is this new spin on the Magic-User. While they can cast spells like their brethren, this class is focused on detecting and identifying magic, as well as using and empowering magic items. A true "magic user." One thing that I have never liked about Magic-Users in the D&D-esque games (and one of the first things that I houserule in a campaign) is to turn "Read Magic" and "Detect Magic" into class abilities for the Magic-User. I've felt that these should be things that Magic-Users do from their nature and training. It is good to see that someone else feels that way too.

The Adventurer's Backpack seems to hint at something new for Castles & Crusades in the future. Could it be time that the game is getting its own version of Unearthed Arcana? If these new classes are any indication of that I hope so. While I like the iconic in games, I also like being able to embrace the weird, and any supplement that will allow for that gets my approval.

The Of Gods & Monsters Of Aihrde booklet is pretty much what you get on the tin. This talks about unique versions of some iconic monsters for the Aihrde setting of Castles & Crusades. There aren't actual game stats for anything in this booklet, just interesting discussions of gods and monsters, and a few tables. We get plenty of game stats for monsters, so it is good to see some character being investing in them as well.

Rounding out the box is The Golden Familiar, an adventure for your C&C games.

All of this for just $29.99. This seems to be available only through the Troll Lord Games webstore, so if you are interested in picking up one of the Castles & Crusades Black Boxes you will have to go to the link at the beginning of this post.

Plus, there's dice. What gamer doesn't like dice? Get your copy before they are gone.

New Crawljammer Issue And Tim Callahan's Demon Drums

I'm not sure why the camera on my phone decided to read the bright orangeness of the cover to Crawljammer #4 as being a fleshy pink,but that seems to have happened. Perhaps my camera is trying to tell me that the new issue is pink and fleshy. I don't have an answer for that.

I've talked before about Crawljammer over at Bleeding Cool. If you don't know what Crawljammer is...shame on you. Written with the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG in mind, Crawljammer is a zine that has been developing and supporting a science fantasy setting for that game. Why the people at Goodman Games haven't snapped up Tim Callahan and put him to work on an official Crawljammer (or similar setting) for DCC is beyond me.

In this issue you get all of the things that you expect out of Crawljammer: new classes, continual expansion of the setting and a mini-adventure. All of which is supported with top quality art. I don't play the DCC RPG myself, but that doesn't get in the way of this zine. The nature of most older edition emulators makes it easy enough to fit material from Crawljammer into your Swords & Wizardry or Castles & Crusades games. Space Pirates From Beyond The Grave, the mini-adventure in this issue, could easily be reskinned for your favorite fantasy game, if you don't play DCC or would prefer a more straight forward fantasy presentation.

Crawljammer is a spotlight shining out of the RPG zine scene, and if you haven't tracked it down yet you really should.

That puts us on to part two of this post. The second item from Tim Callahan that my camera decided to mute the colors. The actually yellow cardstock cover doubles as a map for for the Demon Drums adventure.

Originally created by Tim to give out to people at Gen Con 2014, this adventure found its way into my mail box yesterday because Tim and I managed to not see each other while we were both at Gen Con. If you saw how big the convention was, you will understand.

Thankfully, however, Tim had at least one copy of Demon Drums left and sent it too me (without my asking, which makes it doubly cool on his part).

While not a huge adventure, Demon Drums is still exciting. A dungeon, the remains of vanished, ancient civilization, which is buried beneath a haunted tree in a dark and gloomy swamp? How is this not cool. What I like about Tim's adventure writing is that he takes ideas that could easily become stereotyped and elevates them into something that is more than the sum of its stereotypes.

How again is it that this guy isn't writing official stuff for the DCC RPG?

The great thing about this adventure (other than it being a great adventure) is the fact that it can easily be slipped into a rulebook and be used as the basis for a few hours of gaming fun with your friends. And, like with Crawljammer, you can easily use Demon Drums as an adventure in the game of your choice.

If you haven't checked out Tim Callahan's work, you really need to do so now. There is a link at the top of this post to the Crawljammer blog, which is a glimpse into the mind of Tim, where you can order up the Crawljammer zine today.

New From Image - Warren Ellis And Tula Lotay Reimagine The Straightforward

Supreme was one of the mainstays of Image Comics during its early days. Spinning out of the imagination and world building of Rob Liefeld, Supreme was part of the super-powered arms race going on at the company at the time as creators tried to one up each other with the most powerful characters that they could create. Supreme was Liefeld's homage to Superman, filtered through the unique comic sensibilities of the 90s.

I will be honest, while I knew about the Supreme comic, it didn't really hit my radar until Alan Moore's run on the book. While I enjoyed that run, it was fueled more for nostalgia for comics from another age than the quality for which Moore was known.

Likewise, Ellis' work has been lackluster of late. Where his stories were once some of the most wildly creative in comics, they have of late been infected with an action movie idiom that has made them less appealing. Violence has been substituted for plot in too man of his stories for my taste.

Bring this together and I had planned on skipping this new Supreme Blue Rose series by Warren Ellis and Tula Lotay. However, the recent relaunches and reimaginings of Liefeld's Prophet and Glory were interesting comics that pushed the envelope on super-hero comics. Both were books that I would not have expected to come from Liefeld's studio.

Now, with Supreme Blue Rose I have been surprised for a third time.

The new Supreme Blue Rose by Warren Ellis and Tula Lotay is turning into something like the comic version of a Pynchon novel. Ellis is at his most creative in probably a decade and Lotay's art has a dreaminess to it that gives the story an ethereal quality, and when combined show just exactly how comic books can be an art form.

Fairly pretentious, I know.

I'm not really one to fawn over a comic book without some sort of a justification. As a media, comics have just become too fleeting and ephemeral. You read a new comic once or twice, and then put it away in a box. Maybe later you pull it out of that box and try to experience that initial buzz again. A lot of the time that just doesn't happen.

One of the stengths of Lotay's art in these issues is that she puts that ephemeral quality onto the page, making it a part of the story. Her art, and Ellis' script, has you questioning the reality of what you are experiencing within the comic. This is something that I think is a quality of good art, and something definitely lacking from a lot of mainstream comics these days.

For the longest time I was a huge Ellis fan boy, I even have a copy of Crooked Little Vein, his first novel. Ellis was an explosion onto the comic scene, wildly creative and bringing influences into his stories that we hadn't seen in comics for a long time. Ellis loves his science. Even if his science is itself sketchy, he is able to make it sound convincing with a lot of buzzwords that make you feel like he knows what he's talking about, even when you and he both know that he's just making it all up as he goes. That is one of the qualities that drew me into Ellis' work over the years.

Unfortunately, it felt like much of his initial joy faded away, to be replaced by a more cynical approach fueled by the idioms of blockbuster action movies. Violence became a replacement for plot and a catalog of damages instead filled in for characterization. Everything became an imitation of what he had done with Stormwatch and The Authority, I personally lost interest. I would still pick up books here and there, but a lot of them would be disappointments to me. I am still sad that newuniversal was never completed. Despite the art in that book having one photo reference too many, the writing was the Ellis that we all knew and loved.

However, Supreme Blue Rose isn't a return of vintage Ellis, and that is a good thing. The writing in these issues is subdued, very much in tandem with Lotay's art. Ellis seems to be more interested in creating a tone than in building a world. The setting is obviously our own contemporary world. Little touches of dialogue like "Best Instagram ever." ground his story in the real world.

This isn't some super-hero story filled with bulging biceps and over enhanced breasts. This isn't some hackneyed "deconstruction" of the super-hero genre that comes off as a fifth generation copy of Watchmen or The Dark Knight. The characters in the story aren't new. Much like with Moore's run, they are recreations of the characters that have already appeared in Supreme comics. Unlike Moore, Ellis is not trying to retool them into another comic idiom. Instead, much like in a story by British author J.G. Ballard, Ellis deftly blends the "real" and the "fantastic" into a story that would not be out of place among Borges' works.

I think that I have done enough name dropping for one review.

Let's just say that I think the first two issues of Supreme Blue Rose were engaging comics that drew me into the world that Ellis and Lotay are creating. This is not your father's Supreme. If you want something out of the mainstream, a comic that tells an intriguing story, you should check out Supreme Blue Rose today.

EXTERMINATE! The New Doctor Who Comics From Titan Comics

I meant to talk about these a couple of weeks ago, but with all the Gen Con prep, they sort of fell through the cracks here at the blog. If it isn't apparent yet, I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who, started watching the classic series as a kid on PBS, and then carried over to the new stuff. It isn't a popular position amongst older Who fans, but Matt Smith grew into the role and became one of my favorite Doctors (never surpassing Jon Pertwee, however).

As you may or may not know, the comic license for Doctor Who recently changed hands, now being possessed by the British publisher Titan Comics. I've reviewed a few Titan books here and there on the blog, and if you look around you can find some of my reiviews. They do good books.

I had good expectations that they would do some good Doctor Who books as well. I was right.

Both of these first issues felt like they could have been episodes of their respective Doctors' television runs.

The 10th Doctor issue was mostly set up of the situation, and introduction of Gabriella, a first generation Mexican-American, the next Companion. I'm sure that it was intentional, attempting to create an echo of previous Companions, but the Doctor's first words to Gabriella in the story are almost exactly the same as when the 9th Doctor first met Rose. I thought that was a nice touch.

The setup is that there are some supernatural shenanigans going on around The Day of the Dead in present Day Brooklyn. Being that it is Doctor Who, I am assuming that the supernatural veneer will be debunked for something more alien, but it is still a good story. I am guessing that this is the 10th Doctor after the events of the Anniversary Special, but I could be wrong. Those few quiet moments we get with the Doctor in the issue seem to hint to that to me.

However, the high point of this issue has to be the art of Elena Casagrande. She brings a indie comic, personality-based approach that brings the characters to life and reminds me a lot of the work of Ming Doyle. This is an artist to watch in the years to come.

With the first issue of the 11th Doctor's comic we get a similar approach as in the 10th Doctor's. We get an introduction to the world of the person who will be the Companion, in this case Alice Obiefune, a Londoner. When the alieness breaks into her world, we see the differences immediately between the 10th and 11th Doctors. The comic captures the manic quality of the 11th very well. All in all, I think that both of these first episodes manage to capture the qualities of their Doctors well.

The 11th Doctor is kind, sympathetic and as empathetic as his alien nature allows him to be. For him, how Alice is feeling is just as important as the alien stuff that is happening in the city, if not more important. He takes time to talk with her about her mother, rather than chase down the alien. All because he thought that she was sad.

One of the reasons that I liked Matt Smith's portrayal of the Doctor was that his character was this juxtaposition of weird alien not quite getting it with a strong empathy for those around him. Where other Doctors were drawn into situations to win, he honestly wants to try to help. Unfortunately the Doctor getting involved in a situation isn't always helps. This dichotomy drives not only this incarnation of the Doctor, but also many of the stories that he is a part of as well.

How does the "man" who needs to help deal with his very existence often making things worse?

I enjoyed these comics. To be honest, I don't have a lot of a background with previous Doctor Who comics. I read a few of the IDW Publishing era issue, and I've seen a few of the classic stories from the Marvel Comics era, but this is my first time getting in on the ground floor of things. I very much enjoyed these comics. Both issues encapsulated what I liked about the respective Doctors and did a good job of feeling like episodes of the show.

 

The art is the 11th Doctor comic moved effortlessly between realistic and "cartoony" (for lack of a better word), as the story needed it. This flexibility of the art is also what gives the story much of its impact. Artist Simon Fraser should get props for the power of his art bringing so much to this story.

Should you buy these comics? I would say that picking up these comics are a necessity for any Doctor Who loving comic fan. If, like me, you've never regularly picked up a Doctor Who comic, now is your chance.

As a fan of roleplaying, it is a shame that we can't see synergy between the various licensors, I would love to see writeups for the Doctor Who game from Cubicle 7 of the various characters appearing in the comics.

The New Castles & Crusades Printing Arrived Today

Convention season also means review season. Between here at the blog and my writing for Bleeding Cool, that can mean a lot of stuff filtering through the Dorkland! offices this time of year. I already have a considerable slush pile of games to review and so much more good stuff keeps coming out from publishers.

With the craziness of Comic Con International going on over at Bleeding Cool, that leaves me with a little gap in gaming coverage to talk about over here. Plus I can write out incomplete thoughts and ideas about games over here that I can't address over there.

Today a review copy of the new 6th printing of Castles & Crusades came in the mail. I've always enjoyed Castles & Crusades and the work of Troll Lord Games. Well, except for Star Siege. That was a bit of a disappointment. If you think that C&C is just another old school retroclone, you really need to think again. This is a dynamic and streamlined fantasy gaming system powered by what they call The Siege Engine, which is basically a refinement of the core D20 mechanic from the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons. While it is close in spirit to older editions, it is really its own beast as well. If you're looking for a robust fantasy role-playing game that is streamlined in execution of its rules, you should check out Castles & Crusades. With new art and full color printing funded by a recent Kickstarter, this printing is the best version of the game to date.

Once I read and digest, my plan is to run an after hours game while at Gen Con and talk about it online here and there.

Munchkin? It's My Bag, Baby...

The nice folks at Steve Jackson Games sent one of their brand new Munchkin Messenger Bags to me this week. Interestingly, it is available through Amazon rather than the Steve Jackson Games people directly.

It isn't cheap, but Amazon Prime users will get the free shipping on it. In addition to a study and functional bag that can carry two Munchkin boxes you also get four exclusive Munchkin cards (which in fine Munchkin form must be used in the game in conjunction with the messenger bag) and a special, over-sized six-sided die. The bag will also carry pens, paper, and other sundry supplies.

Constantine And Flash Pilots Leaked To The Internet

So, this week the pilot episodes for the upcoming The Flash and Constantine series were leaked to the internet. They are easy enough to find, if you are so inclined. This post is going to talk about these pilots, so if you don't want to know anything until they air...click away now.

Eighth Doctor Adventures - Unnatural History

The Eighth Doctor is unique among the Doctors because he (initially at least) only had one appearance on screen, the American-produced Doctor Who movie from the late 90s. He had plenty of other appearances, between novels and audio dramas, but because of their nature, most of these adventures were not considered to be canon. A couple of them have even been absorbed into the story of subsequent regenerations during the relaunched television series.

First at Virgin Books, and then through BBC Books directly, some of the Eighth Doctor's adventures were documented. Sadly, this line of books are hard to find these days, and not very cheap when you do.

About half way through the series of books was a novel called Unnatural History. Written by Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman, this novel is an almost direct sequel to the Doctor Who movie that introduced us to the Eighth Doctor. Set in San Francisco two years after the movie, the book shows some of the dangers that can happen when a Time Lord regenerates.

Much of the focus of this story is on Sam Jones, one of the Doctor's companion at this point in the adventures.

One of the concepts from the Eighth Doctor stories, used a lot in this novel, is the idea of biodata. Biodata is an interesting concept, a sort of temporal DNA from which a person's past can be read, their future extrapolated and, sometimes, in the wrong hands, their present can be altered. Over the course of Unnatural History, all of these things happen to Sam. Biodata manages to be both physical and metaphysical at the same time. It is formed by the decisions that a person makes, and informed by movement through time as well. Each decision, each choice, can impact the biodata and make a person's future into something different.

The Doctor and his companions, Sam and Fitz, have returned to San Francisco. On New Year's Eve 2000, the Doctor regenerated into his current incarnation. All of this was documented in the TV movie, which, if you haven't seen it, you really should. The Doctor wants to tie up loose ends from that, and deal with a physical scar on space/time that occurred from everything that happened in that adventure. Weird creatures from other times and dimensions are being drawn to San Francisco in 2002, and to the scar.

Things go wrong, and Sam falls into the scar. The Doctor is forced to push his TARDIS into the scar, to keep it from getting worse.

Sam reappears in London, where she is originally from, but her past and her present have changed. She has never met the Doctor and she even has a different hair color. She is living the life that she would have lead, had she never encountered the Doctor in London, all those years ago.

A lot of weird stuff happens. Faction Paradox, a rogue group of Time Lords who are preparing for a coming War, get involved due to the paradoxes created by all of the changes to Sam and the Doctor's biodata over the course of the story. The Doctor also faces a higher dimensional being, a "scientist and researcher" who is taking advantage of the scar to "study" the strange and unnatural creatures being drawn from across time and space to the scar. Called the Unnaturalist, he makes for a compelling adversary for the Doctor.

Of course, one of the creatures draw to the scar is an immense higher dimensional creature capable of destroying all of the city, if not stopped.

The Doctor and companions have to deal with all of the weird creatures, the Unnaturalist (who, of course, wants to study them as well), the ongoing revisions to Sam's biodata. It is a thrilling story, with lots of twists and turns, and the destruction and death that one can expect when a Doctor Who story is cranked up.

I would really like to see this line be reprinted by the BBC. Commission new covers featuring Paul McGann and get them out in front of people again. I am not normally a fan of tie-in fiction, but the books featured some great science fiction stories that greatly expand and play with the concepts of the Doctor Who series. The novels were experimental and risk taking in a way that a television show never could be, which ended up giving the Eighth Doctor a mythic quality that other Doctors didn't have. You can easily see  the coming War that many of the characters are worried about, or working for or against, across many of the Eighth Doctor adventures, fitting in with what has been revealed in the TV program about the Time War that the Doctor reluctantly fought in. These are some great stories that deserve to again see the light of day.

Initial Mindjammer RPG Thoughts

This isn't a full review, but one of those is coming, most likely through Bleeding Cool. This is a big book, so it is going to take a bit of time to digest things enough for a review.

I am on record saying (again and again) that I don't like big gaming books. This is a BIG gaming book and yet I still want to run the game.

The things that make the game big make sense. For people who are struggling with the choice paralysis of the Fate Core rules relief can be found in all of these rules and examples. Sarah Newton has done the heavy lifting and created a worked example of how you use the Fate Core rules to do a science fiction game. For people who creating material from scratch is their strong suit, then Fate Core should be their starting point. If you are struggling with the hows and whys of the Fate Core rules, then Mindjammer may be the better choice.

All of the little things that you would need for running a science fiction campaign are in the book. Space craft. Aliens. Weird worlds. Alien cultures. Using Mindjammer as your starting point can really help to introduce the Fate rules to an audience other than people who are already fans of Fate. This is something that I don't think that other third party publishers have taken into consideration when crafting their games. Writing a game using the Fate rules for people who already understand those rules is easy, writing them for an audience not used to the concepts and ideas means reaching out to a wider audience, who can then be directed back to the core materials and other publishers. In Mindjammer, Newton manages to do this in a way that will neither alienate the existing Fate audience or confuse those new to the game.

The book is complex in places, but a lot of that comes from the science and setting that has to be introduced and explained to the gamers. Much of this complexity can be considered to be training wheels that can be kicked away as the group becomes more experienced and confident in their master of the rules. This is demonstrative of a canny design sensibility on the part of Newton.

Mindjammer pushes the bar up high for third party Fate publishers. Even before finishing reading the book, it is becoming my favorite implementation of the Fate Core rules.

If you're curious, the Mindjammer PDF is available here.

Ordinary By Rob Williams And D'Israeli From Titan Comics

For me, picking up a comic with art by D'Israeli is a no brainer. I've been a fan of his art since Lazarus Churchyard and  Scarlet Traces. If you have no idea what those comics are, you should do yourself a favor and pick them up.

There are two things to think about with Ordinary: 1) this isn't an ordinary super-hero book and 2) this comic isn't anything ordinary.

Michael is a somewhat ordinary guy in Queens. He's a plumber. He's divorced from his wife, who has custody of their kid. He owes a Samoan criminal some money (that part might not be as ordinary). And then something happens...everyone else in the world suddenly gets weird powers or is transformed in some way into something different. It may have been triggered by terrorists, or an airplane accident.

Ordinary is an ongoing from Titan Comics from artist D'Israeli and writer Rob Williams.

Is this the apocalypse? It is hard to tell, but there is a lot happening in this issue. Michael is our eyes and ears into this story, and I like that approach. The fact that we don't know what is going on, why all of this weirdness is happening, gives the story more power. Too often comic stories over explain themselves and take away the mystery and wonder inherent in a lot of genres that are used in them. Writing a review of a new comic is difficult, because you don't want to spoil the story when you want other people to read it, and you want to spread your enthusiasm.

In a few ways, this issue reminded me of the Wildcards series edited by George R.R. Martin. You have the weirdness of super-heroes grounded in a real world, along with a trigger accident that causes the "birth" of super-powered individuals. Fans of that series will probably find this comic to be interesting as well.

Not since Grant Morrison and Richard Case on Doom Patrol have I seen a comic that embraces the strangeness of the super-hero genre and at the same time presents that strangeness in such a matter of fact manner. This book was a page turner, and while I didn't get the explanations that I hoped would come with each new page that didn't disappoint me. What did disappoint me was when I realized that I finished the book and would have to wait a month for the next issue to come.

If you're looking for sophisticated comic story telling devoid of most of the cliches that you will find in those other super-hero books you really need to check out Ordinary. You won't be disappointed. This comic reminds me of the 90s and Vertigo Comics, when you had comic creators who still wanted to use the old super-heroes but tell stories that would appeal to grown-up sensibilities.

You should run out to your comic store (or Comixology, the digital version is available there) and pick this up. You should put it on your pull list and keep getting it, month after month.

Talking About Dust Devils by Matt Snyder

I got a copy of the recent Indie Bundle from the Bundle of Holding. As I've waded through them, a couple of games have popped out at me. One of them was Dust Devils from Matt Snyder. As someone who grew up in the 70s and 80s, I do love Western movies. Between my father having been a fan of them from when he was a kid (back in the movie serial days), and the surge of Spaghetti Westerns during my formative years, escaping an interest in them would have been hard. This is why Dust Devils caught my eye.

A Jon Hodgson cover didn't hurt with catching my eye. With all of the complaining about D&D covers right now in gaming circles, I would like to think that this evocative cover is something that we can all agree upon.

For me, Dust Devils comes across as a reworking of the "Devil And The Bluesman" trope, redone for the Western genre. And, really, it fits well. But there's not a huge amount of difference between the early cowboy music and the Blues, they approached a lot of the same topics coming at them from different angles of entry. The difference is that the  Devil chasing down your Dust Devils character is metaphorical. Or is it? One of the nice things about gaming is that things can be as literal, or as metaphorical as you want. With the game as written, the Devil represents those things about your character's personality or psyche that drives them to do the bad things that they do. This is at the heart of good story telling, having a difficulty that your character has to overcome. Too many games want to make it easy on characters, but I think that the mark of a hero is someone who knows their shortcomings, realizes that they may be too much for them, but still struggles against them. They might not always win, but that doesn't make them less heroic for the trying. This is a valuable life lesson that years of Marvel Comics has taught.

I do think that there is a danger in overwriting the past exploits of the character, between the Devil and the Past of the character. My idea of a character is that is should be allowed to breathe in the current, during play, and that there can be a tendency to throttle that with too much back story from some players. Having a lot of big things in the past can undermine the play of the present, so for me this would be something to watch out for during character creation.

Now, this game isn't going to be for everyone. I'm really not interested in the whole "is it an RPG" territory. It is a storygame and it is one of those games where everyone shares control of the growth and direction of the story. Some people don't like that. A lot of the stuff in the section on conflicts is fairly standard RPG stuff, however, and most gamers (regardless of the types of games that they play) should be able to understand the underlying logic of how things work. The character creation and resolution systems do remind me a bit of the old Hubris Games' Story Engine (now published by Precis Intermedia). The explanation of Devils and how they are used in play remind me a bit about that game, but I could be wrong and it could be an old-fashioned case of parallel development. The main difference is that Dust Devils uses playing cards for it's determination.

Having an explanation of the different poker hands is "handy," because I know a lot of gamers who have never played poker...and having a table to point them towards would be much easier than having to explain it to them. It would even make a handy cheat sheet at the table.

I also like the fact that in Dust Devils stories have an end to them. As I get older, I become lest interested in games that last for years and years, or have no ending in sight. I am becoming more interested in stories with a beginning, middle and (hopefully) an end. Or at least some semblance of these things.

The game also has a lot of good advice for players and narrators. You get a good idea of what you are supposed to be doing with this game. That is something that I like. You also get some interesting worked examples of how to play this game in non-Western situations. Of course one of those examples is about samurai. That's another good thing.

Overall reading Dust Devils did what I think that a good game should do. It made me want to play it. I'm not sure when or how I will get a chance, but this is definitely on my gaming to-do list now.

March Book One By John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell

While at MegaCon last weekend I inadvertently stumbled upon the Top Shelf Productions booth and found what is one of the most powerful comic book stores that I have encountered in a long time.

March Book One is a biographical comic, based on the life of U.S. Representative John Lewis, and written by his aide Andrew Aydin with art by Nate Powell.

One of the great things about picking up a book for the first time at a comic convention is that you often get to meet the creators. Aydin's enthusiasm for his writing on the book and Lewis' life was infectious and got me to pick up the book. I don't think that a comic creator's direct enthusiasm has influenced me as much since I met David Mack back in the 90s, and he sold me on his Kabuki comic. Of course, these two have little in common outside of an emotional impact.

This first book in a trilogy talks about Lewis' early life as the child of Alabama sharecroppers, up through his college years and early involvement in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Early on, Lewis' empathy is shown, in his treatment of the farm's chickens when he was a child. This sets the stage for what would become his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.

Don't think that is is a dry recital of facts and dates, like some high school history course. Through Aydin's talent as a writer, Lewis and the people in his life are vivid and engaging as you follow them through their fight for equality. Powell's art beautifully compliments the writing and helps to bring the writing to life.

It is amazing how much you think that you know about a subject, until someone who was actually there shows how little that you really know. This book is like that. Not in a "trying to teach a lesson" kind of way, but with the methods that can only come from natural storytellers like Lewis and Aydin. It is obvious from the writing that Aydin has a great deal of respect for Lewis and his accomplishments, and after reading this first book it is a respect that we all have as well.

I don't think that I can speak highly enough of this book. This comic is something that I am going to stick into the faces of friends for years to come, telling them that they need to read this book. In fact the point of this review is that you need to read this book. One of the things that I talked about with Aydin, while he signed my copy of the book, was that comic, and really all forms of geek media from games to movies, need to expand beyond the power fantasies that you often find and explore new territories with emotional maturity. This comic shows how you can do that.

If it isn't obvious yet, you need to pick up this book (and the next two parts when they come out).

Monsters And Magic Capsule Review

Monsters & Magic is a new(ish) RPG from Sarah Newton's Mindjammer Press. I've been a fan of Sarah's work since Legends of Anglerre came out from Cubicle 7. These days she has her own imprint that is putting out her games and fiction, with distribution through Chronicle City. I say newish because the game debuted last year at Gen Con, even though I only just got my physical copy. I would have had this game for a while now, if I had been able to get to Gen Con last year, but alas.

The system in Monsters & Magic is like the bastard offspring of OD&D, Dungeon World, Fate and HeroQuest (the Glorantha-inspired RPG, not the boardgame). While I find that interesting, I don't think that everyone will.

Character generation in the game is definitely more fiddly than standard OD&D. A starting character receives a lot of options for their character, giving you a character from the gate that is typically more powerful than your bog standard old school character. In terms of complexity of character, you can get a character that is close to a D&D 3x character. It doesn't take as much work to make a Monsters & Magic character, most of the complexity is baked into the characters and doesn't require the player having to make a lot of choices (like with the feat selection in D&D 3x). You can make a competent character right out of the gate with this game. That is something that I like about it.

One of the "new school" elements in Monsters & Magic are what the game calls traits. Traits are broken down into various types, from character to race to class, and they can provide bonuses to rolls or special abilities for a character. The standard class and racial abilities that a D&D player would be used to are rolled into traits (as are 3x feats, to a degree), in a simplified manner. They work like a mashup of D&D abilities and Fate aspects and HeroQuest traits. These traits are where the HeroQuest influence is most pronounced. While most traits are predetermined, there are places where they can also be player-defined. This means that you can have more than one character in a group inspired by the same archetypes, but at the same time you can still customize characters so they can look and feel different. It is nice to have mechanical support for this sort of thing. I think that character advancement is a hybrid of Dungeon World and standard D&D.

The DIY aspect of old school gaming is well represented in these rules. Throughout the rules, Newton encourages players and GMs to manipulate and add their own touches to the game, and throughout she gives guidelines on converting material from "classic fantasy" games into Monsters & Magic. This is pretty much where the "old school" influences end for this game. Someone expecting OD&D with some extra bells and whistles is going to be disappointed in this game. This is not the first game that I have seen marketed as an old school game that misses that mark.

Don't get me wrong. I am not holding the attempt to be "old school" against the game. It is better to try to make the game that is right for you, and have it fall short to others, than to not try to make that game at all. Each game, whether we like them or not, is a step in the direction of a diverse hobby, a place without cookie cutter games. Sometimes, when trying to do many things, you are unable to put as much effort into all of those things. Despite these flaw, the underlying system is a solid one and makes interesting characters with a strong sense of story behind them, stories that manage to not overwhelm what you want to do in the here and now.

The Monsters & Magic system and GMing advice do a good job of explaining to the reader how the game should be played. There is talk about high level campaigns and how to run them. There are rules for making constructs of all shapes and sizes (similar to the rules that appeared in Legend of Angelerre, this must be something that Sarah likes in her games). The GMing section is probably better than that in many old school retroclones anyway, many of which prefer a "learn it yourself" attitude.

One problem that I had with the game actually comes out of all of the talk throughout the rules about high level play, and the various "scales" of play in the game. Despite the fact that the rules support and talk about high level play, there are only a handful of spells available for the various magic-using classes and those spells only cover up to fourth level characters. My other problem was that there really aren't a lot of monsters in the game, all told. Perhaps games like Swords & Wizardry with its extensive lists of monsters and magic have spoiled me, but it seems like a game with monsters and magic in its name should have more of both in it. Monsters can be fixed by making your own, or converting them from other sources. However, old school fans will find that adapting or creating monsters will be a bit more difficult than they are used to because the monsters are probably closer for many to 3x in terms of complexity than OD&D.

Neither of these hurdles are insurmountable, given work on the part of the GM and players, but when in a market where there is already a lot of fantasy RPGs, these are factors that could cause someone to put down Monsters & Magic and pick up another fantasy game in its place.

Ultimately, you have to decide for yourself if this is the game for you. There are a number of strong points (varied and interesting character creation, narrative game elements in the rules) to the game, but they are balanced by some weak points as well (lack of magic and monsters). There is a good game in here, it just takes a bit of coaxing to bring it out. Hopefully, a couple of years down the line, backed up by a few years of actual play and design experience, Monsters & Magic will get a revision that will address some of these issues. At less than 150 pages, there is space for these things to be added without making the game a monster of its own.

DeadWorld Monday: Mississipi Queen

The third issue of DeadWorld is called Mississippi Queen, after the song from Mountain. I'm going to assume that you haven't haven't heard it before.

In the beginning of the issue the characters are listening to the song on the bus (I'm assuming on a tape player, since there aren't radio stations anymore and now CDs will never be invented).

This issue picks up almost immediately after the last, with the characters on the run after getting out of Slaughter, and filling up the bus with gas again.

I think that we get more hints that there is more to what is going on in DeadWorld than just zombies. Like the scene from last issue (with the character who I said would be important), the cover hints at magical creatures who aren't zombies. These impish creatures are definitely something weird and different.

The reason that this issue is entitled Mississippi Queen has to do with the characters finding a riverboat. It makes sense to hide out on a boat, right? Zombies can't swim after all. Right? Obviously nothing will go wrong with this plan.

One of the things that happens, once the characters get onto the boat, is that we get reminded that despite everything that is happening, these are just kids. We get one of the rare glimpses into seeing them be kids, rather than zombie killers.

The respite is a short one because King Zombie has found them again. I need to look a bit more closely at the first two issue now, because I'm not sure if he has been called anything other than "the motorcycle riding geek" by the characters. We know his name, as readers, but that might have just been because he was answering the letter column. Silly, I know, but still fun.

Zombies don't have to be able to swim.

When Dan encounters King Zombie, this might be where the characters first discover that he can talk, as well. These talking zombies are also able to exert control over the less intelligent zombies as well, calling the zombies to them and forcing them to act. The shore is swarming with zombies as King Zombie forces the boat back to the shore, surprising the characters with an attack of zombies that they have to fight off.

We get another interlude in this issue as well, and this time the "crazy" character who might have been hallucinating those fantastic creatures is given a name. We're still not sure if what he sees are hallucinations or reality, but the continuation of the combined with this issues cover hints that these may not be hallucinations.

Once again I am amazed at what Vince Locke is able to convey with his art. Yes, it is very cartoony in places (particularly this part where he is trying to cast doubt on the reality of the scene), but his art is just as instrumental in creating the new reality of the DeadWorld as is the writing.

Something is growing with these interludes. Were the zombies somehow intentional? It appears that this Deake (and people he knew) is somehow behind the zombie influx...but this seems to be saying that he might have been manipulated by outside forces into doing whatever happened that brought the dead back.

We still have a lot to find out.

The issue ends with zombies swarming onto the riverboat, the characters trapped. Dan is unconscious, perhaps incapacitated, and the characters face overwhelming odds while down their best fighter. What is going to happen next?

Let's see what happens next Monday.

Deadworld Monday: It's A Slaughter

In issue two of DeadWorld we get a lot of violence and combat. It really isn't that much different from the violence and combat in the first issue, but much of this issue hits us with the fact that this is a story about survival. Not just this issue, but the DeadWorld comic in general.

The schoolbus runs out of gas after the "gang" flees the onslaught of zombies from the last issue. They have a plan, sort of, to get somewhere out West where there are fewer people and hopefully fewer zombies. Mike, the erstwhile leader of the group, goes into the closest town for gasoline and maybe a spare vehicle.

The characters not only need a plan, they need to be able to get along better with each other. This isn't because of worry over someone's feelings...this is a matter of survival. Keep in mind that, as far as the characters know, the group of them are the only survivors of this zombie invasion. They haven't seen any other living people yet. This is why Mike takes Dan with him into town. He knows that, as the leader, he has to find a way to get everyone cooperating and working together. If they can't trust each other, they are not going to survive.

The closest town? Slaughter, Louisiana, and (of course there are zombies).

There is also an interlude, a very psychedelic interlude where we are introduced to a character who is running through the woods and seeing things that may (or may not) be there. This is going to be an important character to the story, but I'm not going to give that away here. Not just yet. There is also a page that shows why Vince Locke is a great artist, even at this early stage in his career. If you really need a reason to pick up this issue of DeadWorld, this page will probably be that reason. This page also hints that there is something more to all of this than zombies. We will get to that as well.

The man from the interlude may (or may not) be being chased by these creatures. You aren't going to find monsters this weird in even the weirdest of the weird fantasy RPGs. This page is a bestiary all on its own.

However, this interlude is going to be very important to the overall story of DeadWorld. Just not yet.

After the interlude we go back to Mike and Dan in the town. Like any plan, theirs starts off working well...and then zombies. There are a lot of zombies in this town, more probably than could be accounted for by the dead rising. It is almost starting to look as if a lot of people have been transformed into zombies as well. Is this a plague of some sort?

The violence is cartoony at times in these early issues, but that's intentional. It seems to me that it is trying to make the situation of zombies being all over more "real" by notching up the violence to suit the surreality of the situation. I could also be talking out of my ass.

The boys make it out, and head back to the bus with a new truck and a bunch of gasoline. That mission is accomplished without any harm to Mike and Dan. Back at the bus we have the relationships developing more as the kid tells Chris that John (who has been unconscious since the last zombie attack) loves her.

Once again we get the blend of zombies, violence and relationships that will be a hallmark of the DeadWorld comics. There is going to be interesting development to our characters as they explore their new world and the people (living and non-living in it. Honestly, I think that is one of my favorite things about this comic, is that there is a story that is unfolding. It isn't an accidental either, as we'll see in these posts there is a plan to this book. We also haven't seen the last of the intelligent zombies either. They are very important to this story.

Next week we will see what happens next, in issue three.

If you like this post, click on the link at the beginning of it and buy the issue in electronic form from from DriveThruComics. It is an affiliate link, so it will help out the blog and you're making a purchase from the creators...so that helps them out as well. It's only .99 cents, and for that you get the incredible Vince Locke page earlier in this post. That alone is worth almost a dollar.