Holiday Haul

My holidays have not been exactly rpg-heavy, what with a new baby at home, but I did get a few rpg-related items around the holidays. I don't know how much table-mileage I'll get out of them, but each is cool in its own way.

My wife picked up Shogun & Daimyo by Tadashi Ehara way back at Gary Con and saved it until Christmas to drop it on me. This gamer's guide to the power structure of feudal Japan. If I ever get around to running a feudal Japan game again (and for more than a couple of sessions!) this will come in handy.

My wife also got me the only print item in the Exalted 2nd Edition line I didn't have: Return of the Scarlet Empress. While I've never played Exalted (and certainly I don't think I ever would with the Exalted system), I've gotten inspiration from the fluff. This book has a bad rep, but mainly because of what it did to the "canon," which is not really a problem for me.

Kickstarter Santa delivered the long awaited English version of the Trudvang Chronicles to me. At first blush, it seems very much worth the wait. It's a slipcase with 6 gorgeous books inside. I've gushed about the art before. I haven't read enough to say anything about the system yet, though.

Wednesday Comics: Back to Storm

Things have been busy around here of late, but I plan to get back to Storm: The Slayer of Eriban next week. Here's the first installment (of 4 so far) just in case you need a refresher on the story.

Have We Got a Deal for You!

Mortzengersturm is the Deal of the Day on Drivethrurpg/Rpgnow! Get the pdf for the low holiday price of 2.65 USD! Today only! 

World Guides

I do love a good guide to a fictional world, especially if it is richly illustrated. I even enjoy world guides to worlds in other media that I am not particularly into. I like these in and of themselves, but I also like them as inspirational material for rpgs. I tend to like world-related fluff in non-game books more than game books, not necessarily because it is better written (though, of course, it is at times) but because gaming fluff tends to always think in terms of the game. I would rather my inspirational material not be so bound to rules and conventions.

I enjoy the DK books for various fictional world, but the Star Wars books always showcase Lucasfilm's attention to design. This new Star Wars the Last Jedi Visual Dictionary is no exception. Even if you didn't like the movie, there is probably stuff in here that would interest you.

An older book, but new to me is The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia. I have never been a big video game fan, but I do like concept art and world-building and this has both, detailing both real world and fictional history of Hyrule.

Wednesday Comics: Holiday Special

DC Comics has a 2017 Holiday special out. Like most anthologies, it's a mixed bag: there's a pointless Batman and a ghost story, but also Sergeant Rock story in the classic style that shows nothing is ever easy in Easy, even during Hanukkah.

Anyway, if you really want to get into the season, check out these posts examining the DC Super-Star Holiday Special from 1980.

Weird Revisited: Noom the Ubiquitous

This petty god first appeared in a post back in December of 2010.

Symbol: A small statue, boundary marker, or herma with an head of an (often bearded) old man wth a bemused expression.
Alignment: Lawful

Noom the Ubiquitous, or Noom the Unlooked For, is the patron of the lost (both people and things), wanders, and things overlooked. For as long as there have been roads, streets, and trails, people have been placing crudely fashioned statuettes of this smiling godling along them. He oversees journeys that are not as planned. He brings the lost traveler to a place more interesting than where she intended to go, and insures that lost items wind up in the hands of those who might need them at a crucial moment.

In manifestation, Noom looks like a portly, aged, dwarf in bright clothing. The pockets on his clothes always look full, and he typically carries a peddler’s sack, fit to burst,on his back. He seldom appears though, preferring to act through his idols.

Noom has few if any worshippers. So ancient and forgotten is his cult, few even realize the small, roadside statues represent a god. Noom aides travelers not in exchange for their veneration, but out of whim. Anyone lost in the presence of a Noom statue has a 40% chance of attracting the godling’s attention. This increases to 60% if they sleep in close proximity to a statue.

Noom will not help a lost traveler find their destination, but will either subtly guide something interest their way, or guide the person to something of interest. “Interest” in this case, may be the threshold of adventure, but it will generally not be something immediately dangerous (like a wandering monster). Noom’s intercession will never be obvious. Events will always seem natural, if perhaps a little strange.

Other times, Noom’s influence will be felt in the finding of an innocuous, but ultimately useful item. These will seldom be magical, and will never appear to be particularly value at first (though they may actually be). These will be found in the dust or weeds around Noom idols. It will be strange in many cases that the item could have been lost where it is found.

Destroying a statue of Noom will bring the godling’s displeasure. Doing so may result (50%) in getting lost, at least for a time, in an unpleasant and possibly dangerous way.

The Last Jedi May be a New Beginning

To be fair, I guess it started with Rogue One, but that was a side story set in the past. (It had more of an EU feel than The Last Jedi.) Still, together they are a trend that will hopefully continue: the evolution of the Star Wars Universe.

Be warned, there will be minor spoilers here, though my definition of "minor" may not coincide with yours.

The Last Jedi is set both sequentially and script-wise to be the Empire Strikes Back of the new trilogy. Not even considering the homages and fan service that link the two, they have a lot in common. Despite their victory in the previous film, the rebellion (or Resistance here) is on the run. Our protagonists are split up, and perusing different goals. New wrinkles are introduced that change the stakes or our protagonists understanding of the stakes.  And, things happen that seem counter to what the first film set up.

Here is where TLJ gets controversial because some of the apparent mysteries dangled by The Force Awakens, come to naught here, rendered irrelevant. Who is Snoke? We may never know, and in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't appear to matter. He is another in what may be a long line of hubristic dark lords. Who are Rey's parents? The answer may surprise you, but only because you expect films of this sort to play out a certain way.

That gets to what is best about TLJ: it subverts tropes of Star Wars-type narratives while staying firmly rooted in that universe. Here the hero doesn't always know better than their older, more staid superiors, the odds of a harebrain scheme are important sometimes, the war may not be so black and white, and colorful rogues don't always harbor a heart of gold. These plot points aren't merely subversion for subversion's sake, they mostly lead to character development: heroes get galvanized to greater action; heroes become leaders instead of loners.

Along the way, the usual Star Wars stuff occurs. Lightsabers blaze. Ships blow up. Daring escapes are made, as are tearjerking heroic sacrifices. TLJ never stops being a Star Wars movie, it just broadens a bit what it means to be one.

It's not perfect, of course. The trope subversion means some actions of the protagonists are sort of wheelspinning, and you may not find them engaging enough on their own to warrant their inclusion. Luke's arc from RotJ to here maybe not sit well with everyone. It's believable, but perhaps less than ideal. Inter-Ressistance conflict may violate your view of Star Wars.

It's also saddled with the less than ideal choices made in the first film. How exactly the First Order came to such power is never clarified; in fact, this film doubles down on their puzzling rise. Captain Phasma got punked in TFA, and she does here, too. The relationship of Snoke, Kylo Ren, and Rey, just means that scenes that resemble ESB and RotJ occur, upping the fan service feel. The humor is at a higher level than in the original trilogy, but not (yet) to Marvel Cinematic Universe level.

I'm not sure about this, but my suspicion is that if TFA was everything you wanted in a Star Wars sequel, this film may frustrate you. If you haven't liked any film since RotJ (and you're iffy on that one) then you probably won't like this one either, and really what the hell are you doing wasting your time with modern sequels? Down that road is only heartbreak. If neither of those apply to you, I say check it out.