Cults & Muscle Cars: Drive Angry

Drive Angry didn’t perform well at the box office, which is a shame. It’s an over-the-top homage to grindhouse (probably the most grindhouse film (not titled "Grindhouse") since The Devil’s Rejects. What Drive Angry’s got that none of the those other recent films have (well, except maybe Planet Terror) is eminent gameableness.

Drive Angry starts in media res with Milton (Nicholas Cage)-- escapee from Hell with a muscle car--getting the best of some thugs and getting information from them before doing them in. Milton is a man with a mission: A Satanic cult leader has kidnapped his granddaughter (after killing his daughter) and plans to sacrifice her on the night of the full moon. Milton's got three nights to track them down to save his grandchild and exact his revenge.

Complicating matters is that Milton himself is being pursued. The smartly dressed and unflappable Accountant (William Fichtner) is after him, sent by Lucifer to bring him back to Hell. The Accountant is unkillable (mostly) and able to convince others (mainly the law) by supernatural means to help him in hunting Milton down.

Milton’s companion through all this mayhem is a former waitress (Amber Heard) whose car he borrows. The two must fight the Accountant, cultists, and law enforcement to reach Milton’s goal. Milton’s also unkillable (he’s already dead) but his best weapon is likewise fugitive from hell: the God Killer--a mystic firearm with three Latin engraved bullets--that could kill the Accoutant if it hit him.

Drive Angry plays like a synthesis of several seventies b-movie types: the car chase film (Vanishing Point, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry), the revenge film (Rolling Thunder), and the "fight with a Satanic cult" film (Race with the Devil)--plus a comic book supernatural element. Is there a generic grindhouse rpg? No matter; I could see this sort of thing in a modern occult game (like Unknown Armies), but you could probably do it in a post-apocalyptic game easily enough, or even borrow elements (the Accountant, the God Killer) for non-modern settings.

The Fat and Lonely Frog

That fat frog isn’t a statue! It’s no idol of a god but the god itself--or at least the part of it that can fit into four dimensions. It’s a god, and it’s terribly lonely and lovelorn.

That flower and basket are gifts to woo the object of its desire. It appears in a person’s dreams and offers those gifts naively, sweetly. Once it’s made contact with a person, however, its gifts become more personally meaningful--and seductive.

The frog must be resisted at all costs. Notice it’s obscenely over-full belly. The objects of the frogs devotion wind up there, slowly being dissolved and subsumed into the frog’s alien substance over eternity.

LONELY FROG GOD
When encountered has a 60% chance of developing an interesting in the person present with the highest Charisma (in event of tie, the first one it saw gets preference). The frog enters the unshielded mind of the object of its ardor in dreams. The victim will imagine the frog has promised them of great value--riches, station, his or her hearts desire.  The Frog will charm person (as a 12th level caster) to make the victim succumb and return to where its statue is so he may swallow them up. Saving throw gets a +1 for every 10 miles distance the victim is from the statue at the time of the frog’s overture. A victim swallowed by the frog is alive for a period of time, but held inside the frog’s extradimensional substance and unable to escape with the use of magic (teleportation or the like) even if they wanted to do so. 
Inspired by Tim's worries about his and the Whisk's batrachian garden statue, and JB's challenge to write something related to it. 

X-Men: First Class

I saw X-Men: First Class this weekend, and I think it may be the best of the x-films (it’s been awhile since I’ve seen the first and second though, so I can’t say for certain). It’s certainly the best since the second. Still, my primary reaction to the film is to wish it had done a bit more

(Which I suppose was similar to reaction to Thor, admittedly, though for different reasons. Neither rank as my favorite film of this spring--which was Hanna, for the record).

So for those unaware, First Class is a prequel to the earlier X-Men movies, mainly telling of the story of the rise and fall of the friendship betwixt Charles “Professor X” Xavier and Erik “Magneto” Lensherr. Much of the film is character set-up: Xavier living it up in college and being super-enthused about mutation, and Lensherr playing super-powered badass Nazi hunter as he goes after the sadistic doctor who first noticed his mutant power.

The main action of the film takes place in the sixties--specifically around the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Xavier and Lensherr must train a team of young mutants to take on Sebastian Shaw and his gang who’ve got a wonderfully mad science plan to touch off a nuclear war, spreading radiation to create more mutants, so then Shaw can rule in a post-apocalyptic mutant world.

Strangely for a film with a group of young mutants, it doesn’t attempt to tap any of the Twilight teen energy--which would have seemed a good way to go in a marketing sense (if not any other!). Instead it focuses on Xavier and Lensherr, yet all the doings don’t give us as much on the philosophical/personality differences (other than a facile "don't kill!" from Xavier) as I would have liked. Also, it largely kind of short-hands the development of their friendship. One can only do so much in one film with a lot of characters to introduce and a lot of set-up to do, but it would have been nice if the script had focused more on some drama stuff rather than exotic locales that don’t really feel particularly exotic.

And maybe its because I’ve recently been burning through 4 seasons of Madmen, but the sixties of the film doesn’t evoke the era much beyond the hippie Halloween costume sort of way. The Hellfire Club is cast as a swank Playboy Club-type night-spot, but what music do they have playing? “Palisades Park.” Now, why not something more apropos to the setting and the age of the people in attendance--and cooler--like maybe “Mister Kiss Kiss Bang Bang?”

Those complaints aside, the film did make me think about how the superhero genre could be combined with other genres in the rpg context. World War II is an easy one, but this film suggests how supers could be done with a splash of swinging spy-fi--or swinging spy-fi with a supers chaser like Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD. A grittier supers game could probably be done around super-powered Nazi hunters. Kim Newman’s alternate history short-story “Ubermensch!” might be instructive here , as well.

More Weird Adventures Art

With the last of the Weird Adventures art rolling in over the next few weeks (hopefully), I thought I'd tease with a few more great illustrations:

This is a day (uh--night) in the life of a Barrow-Man--just doing his job defending the serenity of the City's dead buried on its island Potter's field.  This piece was masterfully rendered (with a sort of EC Comics flourish I really dig) by Stefan Poag (Limpey to the fans of his blog).

Here's a portrait of a cabal of insidious Reds--those diminutive, subterranean would-be world conquers.  This one was done by Alex Garcia in what strikes me as sort of a Marvel Bronze Age style.  Cool, huh?

Last but not least, Felt delves into alternate universe archeology and comes up with this fragment of Ancient pottery, probably brought out of tomb-mound by some adventurer.

Still looking forward to more to come from these guys and other artists from the blogosphere like Johnathan Bingham.

Death & Taxes

After surviving the deadly hazards of the underground, loot laden adventurers in the City must face another foe as cunning as he is rapacious: The taxman.

Long ago, the town father’s of the City decided that treasure uncovered in the areas of its hegemony rightfully belonged to the people. This particularly applied to ancient artifacts like coins or objects of art. The brave (or foolhardy) souls who hauled it to the surface deserved something for their efforts--which they reckoned at best at 70%. This is, of course, reduced by various other fees resulting from destruction of public property, hazardous carcass removal, etc. Adventurers are allowed to deduct equipment and provisioning costs, but only if the appropriate forms are submitted in the appropriate manner.

Adventurer’s might consider melting down precious metal artifacts to render them unrecognizable--but the ownership of gold by private individuals (except in jewelry or coins of numismatical interest) is illegal--not that adventurers are opposed to illegal means, but why keep the evidence around? An adventurer’s only option is fencing of his loot and laundering the proceeds. Of course, this too puts an adventurer in danger as it may draw him into the web of the Hell Syndicate.

Discretion is always important. The bland, gray-suited men of the Municipal Department of Taxation and Finance are not without their own resources. Higher level agents carry wooden coins which writhe in their pockets in the vicinity of gold. Some are able to detect lies as well.

The Municipal Building, where their offices are housed, is a veritable temple to the eikone Management. The place is so aligned with Law that all nonlawful beings suffer confusion and demoralization (-2 to all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma checks) inside its walls, if seeking to act against its bureaucracy.

Those who damage (or attempt to damage) the Municipal Building or harm its agents, while flaunting its rules run the risk of calling down an inevitable upon them. These powerful constructs punish transgressions against bureaucracy and law. They're believed to be summoned by a teletype machine in a sub-basement office beneath the building. Some rumors suggest the summoning of an inevitable requires a civil servant to burn his employment record in a waste bin, surrendering his identity--and his pension.

Warlord Wednesday: Double Entendre

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Double Entendre"

Warlord (vol. 1) #57 (May 1982)

Written by Mike Grell (Sharon Grell); Penciled by Mark Texiera; Inked by Pablo Marcos

Synopsis: Travis Morgan struggles back to consciousness and find himself chained in a dungeon--and locked in a metal mask. Slowly, his memories of recent events--his double, the ambush--form in his mind.  He yells with rage as he realizes his wife is “in the hands--and arms--of a man she believes to be him.”

Darvin (he of the impressive moustache) is not fazed by the outburst. He shuts the door to Morgan’s cell and tells Griff, his lackey, to summon the troops. Soon he’s meeting with his gang of urchins. He tells them the dungeon is off limits, and if they should have to go near it, they should be quiet; he doesn’t wish their guest to know where he is. One of the kids asks who their guest is. Darvin thinks a moment, and replies that it’s a...

After the other kids leave, Darvin asks where Tinder is. When Griff replies that he’s probably out practicing his craft on his own, Darvin gets angry. He’s afraid Tinder will get caught and give them all away to the authorities. He orders Griff to go out and find him.

Meanwhile in the palace, Graemore (he also of the impressive moustache) and Tara are getting reacquainted--and Graemore is falling in love once more. Tara is distracted from Graemore’s mooning over her by Morgan walking by. Morgan ignores her--because he isn't Morgan, of course.

The Morgan impostor, but isn’t, strides into the office of Praedor, his co-conspirator. The impostor even fools him at first. Their plan is to have the impostor (in the guise of her husband) steer Tara the way they want. Then Shamballah can return to being the sort of dictatorship they want it to be. Praedor reminds the impostor to wear the sword and gunbelt as Morgan always does. The man says he’ll remember and takes his leave.

Elsewhere, Griff is “looking for Tinder” by leaning against a wall and eating an apple. By chance, he does catch sight of the boy botching a bit of cutpursery. Griff helps Tinder get the best of the irate, sword-wielding mark, and the two boys escape.

The two goof around for a bit. They climb the palace walls to peak over onto its grounds. Then Griff says he’s got to get back to guard a prisoner. That sounds fun to Tinder.

Back at the palace, the impostor is getting to know Morgan’s gun:

He finally winds up shooting it off (though not in his own face). Tara runs to see what’s going on. She finds the impostor examining the hole he made in the wall, somewhat shaken. He tells her he was fooling around and it went off.

Tara doesn’t believe him, but she changes the subject. She tells him that Graemore is between jobs, and she offered to let him stay for a while. She expects Morgan to get angry, but he’s not bothered at all. Surprised at his reaction, she throws her arms around him and they kiss.

Meanwhile, the real Travis Morgan remains locked away in Darvin’s dungeon.

Things to Notice:

• There's a double, but no real double entendre this issue.
• The impostor doesn't seem to have really studied Morgan very much to pull this impresonation off.

Where It Comes From:
Morgan gets an iron mask this issue, making the inspiration from Dumas even more explicit.

A "double entendre" is, of course, is a phrase intended to have a two meanings--one of which is usually sexual or risque.

The Sounds of Gaming

I’ve seen other bloggers mention music at their gaming sessions. Sometimes it just seemed to be something that was playing in the background, other times people choose it as a sort of game soundtrack. I don’t know how widespread either of these practices are; Neither have been common in groups I’ve played in, but I don’t know that I have a big sample.

It would seem to me that music might break immersion in the game at times--at least popular music--as it might have very different associations for a person or take them out of the game at hand. Then again, immersion isn’t terribly important to all people or all games at all times--and it’s not like plenty of other distractions don’t present themselves that have no possiblity of game enhancement.

I can think of one game I ran where we did use music and sound effects where it very much enhanced everyone’s enjoyment. In a FASA Star Trek game back in the nineties (when dinosaurs ruled the Earth) we approached the sessions as if they were episodes of a Trek TV series. We would begin with a teaser or cold open to sort of get the adventure started, then my friend whose house we played at would cue up the theme song on his computer. Periodically, we’d also interject appropriate turbolift, transporter, or computer sounds--not always, but enough to remind us of the sensory environment of the world we were trying to emulate.

Those touches and a group of players who were all knowledgeable Star Trek fans made that the best media property based game I’ve played. I’ve dabbled in a fair number of licensed rpgs over the years, but none of the have ever come close.

So what about you guys: experiences good, bad, or otherwise with music and sound effects in games?