Slayer's Gauntlet

I took a break from #RPGaDay2015 to type out my latest campaign idea. This idea was inspired by the first 50 seconds of the following advertisement for Gauntlet:  Slayer Edition.

Don't worry, Dave. I re-scripted my video. I will re-shoot it this weekend. 

Slayer’s Gauntlet

High Concept:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Gauntlet/Diablo

The Pitch:  The characters discover a deceased friend accidentally opened a portal to a demon realm. Now, they must suit up and fight their way through dungeons and armies to stop a demon prince before he brings Hell to 21st century Earth.

Overview:  The characters are all college students or have good reason to all have lives that revolve around the same college or university. They are friends, through classes, majors, sports, clubs, or high school friends. All of them are well aware of the supernatural world and have a clue how to handle themselves, even if it means knowing when to run away. One night, they stumble onto a dead friend and it leads them to Hell and back. Can they stop a demon prince’s plans to invade Earth or will they fall victim and rise as one of the dead to serve in the demon prince’s army?

First Arc:  The characters stumble into the situation and must decide what to do and how to do it. During their investigation into the situation, they could discover the deceased student’s Instagram feed showing what the student was doing. They then move on to investigate the Book of the Dead and what the missing page is for. As the characters move through the motions, more demons enter the Earth plane. If the characters falter in their decision to fight the demons, students come to them for aid and assistance.

Second Arc:  Their research leaves no doubt as to what will happen if the portal is not closed. They must go after the page from the Book of the Dead. They can do some research into this demon prince. The research reveals potential realms within his demense. However, there is no indication as to which one the demon prince calls home. The research also reveals a wife, Astarte, and her minions are among the dead. The characters go through a montage wherein they gather arms and armor, spell books and written incantations. Will it be enough?

Arriving at the portal, the characters discover a demon spellcaster with an honor guard. He has cast a spell to make humans not notice the demons and their activities. The characters can discern this through speaking with other humans, perhaps the tough campus security guard or even one of the characters could be affected. They could also overhear the demon speaking to the honor guard about how it needs to cast a larger version of the spell tomorrow. They will need as many virgins as they can gather for a sacrifice. The power from the virgins will allow the demon to cast his net over the entire city. As soon as they can cast the spell tomorrow at midnight the following evening, the armies can start marching upon Earth, enslaving humanity. The characters’ only choice is to wade in and slay these demons while the portal into Hell shimmers in the background.

Entering the portal, the characters find themselves as a stasis point. Hallways, doors, and stairs lead away from what appears to be the inside of a castle. Studying the room reveals it is the central traveling chamber in this Hell. The characters have three main path choices from which to choose. They will need to fight and clear each level of this dungeon-like Hell.

If this is a long-term campaign, the characters are in for an old school dungeon crawl. They will need to fight through each major path in order to find the demon prince (Diablo, Gauntlet, The Temple of Elemental Evil). Each path will feature different elements. The final one features undead. There should be no doubt to the players that each level is harder, but also that there are simply too many pathways to go down. They stick to the major pathways in an effort to more quickly find the demon prince. After all, why would a demon prince scurry along in darkened, hollowed places instead of striding through the halls of his own realm. Along the way, they may discover allies who also wish to end the demon prince’s rule (e.g., humans stolen from Earth and enslaved, races from other realms who are also here to end the demon prince’s rule).

If this is a short-term campaign, the characters will need to fight creatively, pitting demons against each other, and using the element of surprise. After all, what demon underling would expect a band of human warriors to bring the fight to Hell.

If this is an one-shot, the characters find themselves in the castle of the demon prince. They will need to move quickly and decisively if they want to win the night and stop the hordes from invading Earth.

Having won through to where they think they will find the demon prince, they instead face off with his wife, Astarte, ruler of the dead. This fight will take the characters to the brink of death. One or more could die in this fight.

In defeating Astarte they discover the lair of the demon prince and rush to it. If the characters decide to face off against the demon prince, the fight is ugly. He does not hold back and nor should they. Weird magics and unholy items come to play. Did the characters bring any holy relics of their own? How will those items affect the demon prince, his powers, and those Lieutenants not already defeated.

If the characters decide to instead steal the page from the Book of the Dead, they do not get away without notice. Something will notice. If the characters pull it off without a hitch, they gain a huge lead in escaping the demon prince’s lair. In fact, with a few more successful stealth and fighting checks, they make it all the way to the portal where they discover the demon prince or his highest lieutenants await the characters.

Third Arc:  The characters face their final moral dilemma. Do they cast the spell to close the portal while they are still in Hell or do they fight their way through the portal and cast it from the other side? If they cast the spell while in Hell, they are trapped until they re-cast the spell to open it. This means casting the spell, fighting their way out of the portal room, and going “underground.” Ideally, the game ends here, but the campaign could continue into a second season exploring those options.

If the characters fight through the portal to Earth before casting the spell to close the portal, the demon prince follows them through the portal. Reality warps around the portal due to the high level of magical creatures and magic in and around the portal. The characters will need to either hold off the demon prince while another character casts the spell, closing the portal or they will need to defeat the demon prince and then cast the spell, while holding off his minions. Once they close the portal, the demons and the demon prince on Earth lose access to any sort of regenerating powers. They have no way to tap into the Earth’s natural powers as the characters’ abilities allow.

Original Outline:

1.       Setup

a.       Beginning:  College student gains a page from the Book of the Dead or some other equally horrible book. Doesn’t realize what they are doing and opens a portal to another world. Something comes through, kills the college student, leaves the body, takes the page of the book, and runs off to tell is master.

b.      Inciting Incident:  Increase of demon activity on campus. College student found dead by character/s. A small, scouting band of demons steps through the portal and attacks the character/s.

c.       Second Thoughts:  Are we the right people to do this? Other “friendly” students harmed and/or come to the characters for aid.

2.       Confrontation

a.       Ascending Action

                                                               i.      Obstacle #1:  Knowledge of what is going on. Where does the portal go? How do they close it? (research reveals they need the page from the book)

                                                             ii.      Obstacle #2:  A demon comes through and begins spellcasting to make the locals ignore the portal. People formerly looking for help now don’t know what the characters are talking about.

                                                            iii.      Midpoint with a big twist:  A demon prince plans to send his many minions to Earth, unless the characters go in, gain the page from the book, cast the spell, and potentially kill the demon prince.

b.      Obstacle #3:  Fighting through dungeon levels, trying to determine the location of the demon prince’s lair.

c.       Disaster:  The characters must defeat Astarte, wife of the demon prince

d.      Crisis:  They defeat Astarte, but lose something in the process (e.g., hit points, magical weapon, an ally). They hear demons discussing the fact that the armies are gathered and ready to pass through the portal. They are simply awaiting their prince to lead them through.

e.      Climax:  Do they fight the demon prince or steal the page and run?

3.       Resolution

a.       Descending action

                                                               i.      Climax Continues:  If fight the demon prince, they won and now have the page and must escape the demon realm before casting the spell or be trapped in the demon realm. If they stole the page and are on the run, they must escape to Earth and cast the spell before the demon prince’s army comes through the portal.

                                                             ii.      Wrap up:  Fight off straggler demons on Earth or if caught on the demon realm side of the portal, find a place to hide, awaiting the right time to re-open the portal to escape back to Earth.

                                    iii.    End

2 more quick game ideas

I use to be an adventurer like you, until I took an arrow in the knee (or, CSI:  Pavis)

Premise:  The cast plays the part of city guardsmen in a major fantasy city (Pavis, Waterdeep, Minas Tirith, etc.). In this setting, there are no patrol men, investigators, or crime scene technicians. There are only guardsmen, sergeants, and captains.

This game can go many different directions. Players can take on the part of those guardsmen lucky enough to clean up after adventurers. They have to talk to innocent bystanders, find ways to placate the citizens from outright revolting against these supposed do-gooders who take on bounties hunting down monsters, and figure out how to rebuild whatever was destroyed by the adventurers. Perhaps, the cast were all seen as either bumbling idiots or did something to irritate their supervisor. Now, their job is to go out and stop adventurers from breaking laws. (I’m sorry, Mr. NPC Necromancer, casting "raise dead" is against the law. I don’t care if he’s the only person who knows the whereabouts of a missing “magical” sword.) The game can also be run as a straight up crime drama with the cast going after Big Bads and little evils. Classic monster tropes like vampires, werewolves, and a guild of thieves play into this send up. All in all, the cast is on the side of the law. Whether that law is more The Shield, Magnum Force, or  Dragnet is up to the GM and players.

Starting Point:  The cast are assigned to a guardhouse ("precinct") and work a shift together. Let's face it, we all know the excitement is going to occur during the evening and late night hours. That should likely be the shift they work. Then, again, this setting isn't likely to have unions stating when employees can and cannot work. Instead of late night/early morning phone calls, there will be other “lesser” guardsmen banging on doors to wake up the cast. That leads to irritated neighbors and more opportunities for role playing.

Basic Assumptions:

1.  This is not a sandbox setting. The stories are all based in the city of choice. There may be occasional forays outside the city, but these should be minor occurrences and not major plot points. That is the work of the army or adventurers.

2.  Magic is somewhat common. While a setting that uses magic to replace modern technology would likely break the setting, Vancian magic is quite okay. A setting with magic being less common could be interesting from the standpoint of giving the cast an edge if they have a magic user or two. However, it also means villains that can cast magic have a higher threat rating.

3.  Technology stopped with plate armor and crossbows, in other words, standard D&D.

4.  No psionics

5.  While magic does exist, a list of what is legal to cast and illegal to cast will need to be developed and delivered to the players before the game begins. Knowing that information, what happens if one of the cast is a magic user and eventually needs to use that illegal spell they secretly learned in order to solve the case?

System:  Any system will do. Pick your favorite fantasy setting and go!

For an alternate take on crime drama and investigation, check out Robin D. Law’s Mutant City Blues. Yes, it is designed for something more modern day and involving superheroes. However, his treatment of how to run a crime scene investigative game is good. I like more die rolling than this game does, but I’ve stolen plenty of ideas from it.

Links of Interest for I use to be an adventurer:

CSI:  D&D

Creating a forensics Based Adventure

CSI:  Waterdeep

Thanes of Whiterun (or, What's the matter, someone stole your sweatroll?)

Premise:  I'm blatantly stealing this idea from Lowell. On his blog, Age of Ravens, you can read his wife's write-up of a session he ran of this idea using Hollowpoint. I played in that session. It was all types of awesome. The setting is Bathesda Softworks, LLC's Skyrim. The cast are all thanes for the Jarl of Whiterun (or low fantasy setting of your choice). Thanes in this setting, are more or less, troubleshooter, ala any '80s action TV shows and movies, and work for the local jarl. The game is set before the events of the video game, but will move through a similar storyline, including the choice of joining Ulfric's rebellion or not. This game will give the players the opportunity to enjoy the realm of Skyrim, while making the setting their own.

Jarl Balgruuf the Greater charges the cast with maintaining the peace in his lands (Whiterun Hold). His hold benefits by being in the center of the realm, having a major river flow through it, and sitting upon a major trade route. He understands the desires of freedom expressed by Ulfric Stormcloak and the benefits of working with the Empire ala Jarl Elisif the Fair. This means that the players will be asked to cross territory lines to deal with situations outside of Whiterun.

The end of the first season should have a major moral twist to it that forces the group to choose between the Empire and Ulfric. Leading up to that decision, the cast will be approached by both agents of the Empire and Stormcloaks, asking for their support. When the cast makes their decision, they are effectively also making the decision for Jarl Balgruuf. They are, after all, his thanes and when he hears what they were put through, he will follow their lead and cast his lot in with their choice.

Season two would pickup with the cast being brought into the fold of whomever’s cause they decided to support. By the end of the second season, the cast will have begun helping take over holds (and maybe they were successful in a few attempts?) and the kingdom of Skyrim is on the brink of an outright war amongst the Jarls.

Oh yeah, and somewhere in there, the cast will need to get involved in helping decide who will be the next high king.

Starting Point:  Why hold back? Start the game in Dragon’s Reach with the jarl handing the cast a situation to handle.

Basic Assumptions: 

1.  This setting can be more sandbox than CSI:  Pavis. Yet, it is definitely set up to be a quest-driven game, at least in the beginning.

2.  Players may not be Dovahkiin and the GM is free to drop them from the game, being naught but legend.

3.  The GM is allowed to alter what happens and how the NPCs behave in the game, versus the video game. When the players are in doubt of motivation, they can ask if the GM has changed the NPC’s motivation from the video game. While the GM should answer either “yes” or “no,” they are not obligated to state how or why it was changed.

4.  The video game storyline involving Alduin and the end of the world is not part of this game.

5.  Horses, can, in fact, enter cities.

System:  This is another game where any system will work.

For an alternate take using a system that plays with trust issues, take a look at Cold City. In using Cold City as inspiration, I would suggest making each of the cast have a different hold as their point of origin. All of them have been sent to Whiterun Hold as agents for their individual jarls, who have their own agendas and their own thoughts on choosing the Empire or Ulfric. When the ball goes up, whose side will the cast be on?

Links of interest for Thanes of Whiterun:

Postmortem Studios blog

Telluric Contents blog

Discussion on RPGnet

Homebrew via the Forge

What Skyrim Does Right in the Eyes of Tabletop

A discussion on playing a one shot at a con

Elder Scrolls Wikia for Skyrim

Where are you from?

I know some folk who fought their way to and through Mercy Hospital. They went on to Riverside and it was a bust. They crossed the Whitney County Bridge to get to Fairfield. They found nothing worth staying for in Fairfield and continued on to Newburg. I hear they tried to reach the Metro International Airport, only to find out their flights had been cancelled. The Allegheny National Forest wasn’t safe for campers and not because of the bears. The Millhaven base was near there and near Outpost Echo, the northeast safe zone. I guess they didn’t stay there long, either.

Savannah wasn’t any better, really. We went through fancy hotels, gun shops, and even a mall. After Savannah, we went to Rayford. There wasn’t much there, either. We met those other survivors there, helped them cross a bridge in a fancy car. They were looking for a boat down in the docks, hoping they could make it to the Florida Keys. I hope they had some luck.

We cut a swath through Griffin County, heading for the Whispering Oaks Amusement Park. Turns out, the folk we were hoping to meet up with there, had been overrun. Funny thing, posters for the Midnight Riders concert were still up, even though they never got a chance to play the venue.

The Village En Marais faired better than most did against the infected. Better than Shreveport or Bossier City. After that, we moved through Mississippi. I think the town’s name was Ducatel. There was a sugar mill there, but all I really remember of that place was all the rain. It kept coming and coming.

We hitched a ride with a former shrimper and snuck into NOLA via the waterways. It was just more of the same Bienville Park, the bus station, the market along the waterfront, Sant Roches Cemetary – all empty, all dead. We made it to Veterans Memorial Bridge, to where they were taking survivors to cruise ships. Can you imagine? Cruise ships sailing the seas with no infected on them. Such a beautiful idea.

If only.

I’ve met other survivors. They come from all sorts of places. Fort Harris County in Texas. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. British Columbia, even. So, where are you from?

Free Book, Skyrim, BRP, and Pendragon link dump

Today's a short day, so I thought I would toss out some links.

I discussed James Hutching's The New Death and Others here. Well, it's free on Amazon for a week or two. If you are remotely interested in it, I would say now is the time to pick it up.

When I'm home, I've been spending time playing Skyrim. I have been thinking of running a fantasy rpg sometime after I'm done running AFMBE. That, of course, leads to looking at stealing ideas from Skyrim. After all, the technological level is about where I want it for an rpg. James Desborough discussed using BRP or a variant of it, such as Legend or Runequest on the Postmortem Studios page.

BRP links: BRP, BRP quickstart, Runequest, Legend, Discussions,

Although, you could do Skyrim with DnD or a variant, quite honestly.

I've picked up Pendragon and The Great Pendragon Campaign after Lowell pointed me in the direction of actual play articles that are fun to read. You'll find the actual plays in the blog section of that Great Pendragon Campaign link. I'm reading through the corebook, now, and hope to gather my thoughts on it for you once I've finished it.

Fan Film Friday - Left 4 Dead

Welcome to Fan Films Friday...late night edition!

PJ and I really enjoy the Left 4 Dead video game series. I recently caught these two fan films on YouTube and thought I would share them.

I think the films do a good job emulating the series. The use the zombie tactics, sound, and music from the video games. What they don't do is make it easy for a non-L4D fan to watch them and instantly know what's going on.

What I'm not reading

Not too much, actually. I started The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps, but it's painful. I mentioned it here. I'm done with trying to read it. I don't know how far I made it into the book, but it's just too dreadful to continue reading. Less than 100 pages, I know that much.

No rpg books lately. My rpg world is in a standstill. This idea looks odd, could be good could be bad, but I'd have to read it first.

I'm in the mood for some horror. I hear The Thing "prequel" is pants. That's too bad, the trailers looked nice. I will have to catch it on Redbox. Zombies sound tasty. Maybe I'll Redbox The Walking Dead this weekend. 6 episodes should be easy to fit in on a weekend afternoon. Or, I could introduce PJ to Millenium. The weather today reminded me of season one.

A zombie rpg sounds like fun, too. Maybe I should look into running a miniseries? I have plenty of rpg systems to choose from: AFMBE, Storyteller, Pathfinder, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Dark Heresy, Obsidian, or even Human Occupied Landfill. I've contemplated running something set in the world of Left 4 Dead. Word on the interwebs is they are working on a 3rd game. I heard Dead Island was crap. (Guess I'll pick up Batman once we bore of Gears of War 3). Maybe I'll just outline it and post it here.

That and all the other zombie stuff I've written, but not published.

In past years, I've spent time reading Lovecraft around this time of year. Before him, it was Bradbury. I find myself not all that interested in reading them this year. I don't know why. The taste is there at the back of my tongue, waiting.

What I am reading is two things. The first is Lowell Francis' Robot Zero. Everyone who knows me knows that I am not a huge fan of classic, 4 color, super hero stuff. I like darker comics, more sarcastic comics, or just not super hero comics. Lowell fills two of those voids for me with this series.

The thing I'm reading is Glen Cook's Chronicles of the Black Company. I have less than 200 pages left in the third book, The White Rose. I'm not sure if I will continue on after this one. I need some pick up and go with this story. It is slowing down too much for me. The first book was slow, but gave me a solid feeling about the setting and the characters. I don't need that now, I need action. I'm getting setting history. I've heard the rpg for this series was good. I may pick it up one of these years if I see it in the 2nd hand pile for sale.

The Black Company series is not horror, but it has some horrible characters in it. It is a gritty look at a fantasy campaign at the trench level. Where I loved George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones for being a great top-down approach to storytelling great characters, this series is more of a bottom-up approach.

Hey look, I finally posted something in October.

GoW Depressing?

I thought this article from April was an accurate take on Gears of War. I'm not saying the author is correct, but that they make some sense. If you look at the setting from this standpoint, it's very depressing.

In thinking on the article, I was reminded of many of the games I tried to run in the late 1990s-early 2000s. They were very much like what the author describes. Given the group I was running for, I can see why the games failed. I don't think I knew how to phrase what I was trying to run and most of the audience would not have been receptive to this style of role playing game. You must sell it correctly, sell it to the right people, and make sure everyone (including yourself) understand the tone of the setting going in.

That said, I'm still more than willing to run a bleak setting like this in an rpg. It doesn't bother me one bit. I'm also looking forward to GoW3, reading more of the books, picking up the board game from Fantasy Flight Games, GoW4/Exile for the Kinect, and maybe even checking out the comic book series if it shows up in graphic novel format. I do love me some Gears.

Review: Force Unleashed & The Dark Knight

Force Unleashed (somewhere else) the book

During the annual video game get together, Saturday after Thanksgiving, I watched some of this video game being played. The graphics are awesome and it looked like you could do a decent amount of stuff as the character. While at the library a few weeks ago, I picked up this book, plus Revenge of the Sith, to read. Force Unleashed takes place between RofT and A New Hope.

I read through Revenge first. Vey had suggested giving it a look, so when I saw it on the shelf, I picked it up. I honestly didn't expect it to be much. The "new" trilogy comes across as very stiff and plot point driven. I didn't feel compelled to like any of the characters, even though I enjoy watching several of the actors. What I discovered about Revenge is that if I tune out the stiff acting and horrible dialogue from the movie, it's a really good story. The author wove in more than the movie did and I actually began to pity Anakin. I felt sorry for Padme, being pregnant and married to a guy who can't seem to really grow up. By the end of the movie, I finally understood what the story should have been, a classic tragedy with Anakin at the heart of it.

With that, I picked up Force Unleashed and dove in head first. Sadly, this book is nowhere near as good as Revenge. Granted, it's based on a video game. I was willing to look beyond that and try to enjoy it, nonetheless. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish this one fast enough. The action sequences from the video game read horribly. The character development is as shallow and stinted as it would be in a video game. There's no real big payoff feeling like there would be from beating a video game. And the video game's story and how it plays into the Star Wars metaplot? meh. Interesting idea, but meh. If you want to experience Force Unleashed, play the video game and skip this book.

Anyone wanting the plot elements that fit into the mythos, let me know and I'll post spoilers.



The Dark Knight
potential for spoilers ahead

I got this one as a Christmas gift. I've only watched it once, so I'm sure I've missed things. It's a very good follow up to Batman Begins. The development of Gordan and Batman's relationship is good. The inclusion of Dent was nice. I would have liked a full movie of him as Dent before the creation of Two Face. Ledger was good as the Joker.

I was surprised at the direction they went with the Joker's personality. He came across as the quiet guy, who finally snaps, instead of the cRAzY mAn I often expect him to be. You know, closer to the '60s tv show version. The portrayal as a quiet, more subdued personality, perhaps more unsecure?, was a great turn and for some reason, a little easier to relate to. This is not to say there was no over the top insanity from Joker, there was. However, there was not a lot of cackling "ha-ha-ha-ha"s. I could have used a few more. Joker definetly upped the ante on what he was willing to do for his cause. That was nice. It wasn't just some random kill people here, blow that building up there. The character was well thought out. There was still some comic book pastiche, but that's to be expected.

I didn't care for the ending with Batman and Gordan's interactions and Batman taking the heat. It felt very forced and just didn't jive with the rest of the movie. I felt it could have been left out. I understand the need to have him outside the law and on the run. After all, we can't have people rooting for a vigilante, now can we?

I wouldn't be surprised in the next movie if they include Gordan's wife moving back to Chicago as part of the plot. They set it up this time, with Two Face's actions.

If you liked Batman Begins, you'll like most of this movie.

A Real Update

It's a long one folks. Grab a brew (alcoholic or not), kick back, and read on. The quick table of contents would be something like:

Fall Guy
Movies
Weddings
King's Island
4th of July
RPGs
GH: Aerosmith
House


So, where to start, neh? How about Saturday?

I spent a great day on-set of Harvey Putter as a Fall Guy. Tim invited me out to play the part of a Death Editor. I hear that the equivelent in the Harry Potter films is a Death Eater. No clue. Anyways, I'm now in plenty of pain. No, there was no full contact, mano-a-mano fight work for me to do. Oh, no, my gentle reader-folk. We were slinging spells across the warehouse of doom, fighting it out via special effects yet to be witnessed by mortal eyes.

Somewhere during the start I got the crazy idea that I needed to do some wacked out, crazy thing, to upstage all other folk on-set with my crazy skills. Yep, 3 crazies, 1 sentence, it's crA-Azy. And this idea of mine was to introduce a tumble roll through my fellow bad-guys avoiding spell-blasts and hiding behind gaylords.

Now, for those of you not into film-making, let me explain something to you. When you shoot an action sequence, you shoot every single second of it from 4+ angles - warm up-walk throughs, show it to the director of the photography live shot, shot it to the movie director live shot, show it to the producer live shot, several master shots (2+), shots from each point of the fight's angles (7+), several wide angle shots of portions of the fight (4+), action shots (2+ this weekend), and we didn't even get to the, "Hey, this would look bad ass, let's figure out how to shoot it," shots.

Yeah, I did that tumble through the magic wand fight bunches of times.

...in a suit and tie...

...under a trench coat...

...with a latex mask on...

...and make-up...

...on a concrete floor.

And I loved it. Unfortunately, I managed to irritate my old work injury. You know, the one where I was t-boned at 50mph. Don't remember that story? I can find it for you and link it - or you can go back a few years and ready it. It's probably titled Too Stupid to Die, or something like that. I've also got a pinched nerve in my left upper arm, right forearm, back, and a few other places.

The fight scenes went well. The crew was plentiful and helpful and willing to work with us! Tim and Jed were more organized than I expected them to be, neither one moreso than the other. We just weren't as organized as we wanted to be on Dork of the Rings.


Edige's Mutant & Masterminds game is over. We had a great time. We may get back together in the fall for more, but no guarantees. He's sent over a set of rules he wants several of us to read through and potentially test for the True20 rules set.

Kaiju's True20 pirate game continues on. We've had some more combat and gathered more guns and items of mystery. It's a great game and gives me a chance to chat with Kaiju's wife. Always great to see these two.


The day before July 4th, I picked up Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. This same very day was a game of Kaiju's pirate game. So, I had to leave it, unplayed, at home, while I was at Kaiju's. But after that I came home and beat it on medium level in about 4 hours. =D Since then, I've also beat it on easy.

I enjoyed the fact that the game got progressively harder as it went along. The other GHs felt as if they didn't get harder or they would jump in difficulty for no apparent reason. This one was much better scaled. The notes to be played also made more sense than any other version. The down for me was that I don't like Aerosmith that much. They're okay, but not all that. And video game Steven Tyler is much, much more frightening than real life Tyler. Really, he is.

However, Mott the Hoople's All the Young Dudes made up for everything else I didn't like on the album.


The house is falling apart. I have a gutter falling away from the top of my house (above the second floor), a window that has completely cracked through, and a screen door that has ripped off the hinges. *sigh*


All in all, things are good and I'm looking forward to some things in life.

Heroes - not the tv show

(ed. note: I've added at least two new links to other blogs today. Check 'em out!)

First, picked up Guitar Hero 3 after playing Rock Band at edige's over Thanksgiving brak. RB is a way awesome game. It was much fun to play with Kaiju, Mrs. Kaiju, edige, and everyone else! However, as I don't own a PS3 or 360, I went with GH3. I've nver played any of the GH games, but I'm slowly making this one my bitch!


Second, I finished up my draft background for my character in edige's M&M game. Domino will be in that game, as well. If anyone knows where to find or has the old Korean M&M paperdoll program, give me a holler, we'd love to use it, but don't have it. I thought I'd actually share somethign with you folks that I wrote, that isn't "my life drama." So, if you are interested, here's the character background. (And if that's not your schtick, stop reading, now. There's nothing else to this post!)

Real Name: Carson Trudeau
Aliases: nicknamed Kit; no known superhero name
Identities: no known secondary IDs
Occupation: owner, Trudeau Development and Reconstruction, NOLA
Citizenship: USA
Place of Birth: Baton rouge, LA
Relatives: Dennis Trudeau (father), Ruth Trudeau (d) (mother), Charles Trudeau (d) (uncle), Corinne Trudeau (aunt), Terrence, William, Jude, and Delta (Dunbar) Trudeau (all cousins), Walter Trudeau (grandfather), Patricia Trudeau (d) (grandmother)
Group Affiliation: none currently
Education: LSU
First Appearance: Baton Rouge’s defense during the Second Sunder War

Hair: Black
Eyes: Dark Brown
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 195 lbs.

Costume Colors: Dark Green and Dark Blue

History
Kit’s father and uncle owned a successful construction company in Baton Rouge. Kit and his cousins eventually inherited the company after the uncle died (oddly) and Kit’s father decided he didn’t want to keep on after his brother’s death. Kit’s father moved to an old family properly in New Orleans that was not being used.

Kit’s mother died when he was young. Kit was told she died in a car accident. Kit is an only child.

Kit was not overly close to his cousins. They went to different schools and only saw each other during holidays.

While Kit was growing up, his father was aloof. Running the company and being a very competitive man kept him away from Kit. Kit alternately blamed his mother’s death and himself for his father’s absence.

Kit played defensive back (football) in high school and gained a college scholarship with it. Kit studied urban planning and architecture during college in order to carry on the family business.

After the end of the Second Sunder War, Kit decided it was time to expand the family business. He sold his “shares” of the family business to his cousins. He took that money and used it to help start the New Orleans branch of the company. Kit’s cousins contributed the monies that Kit couldn’t front to start the New Orleans branch. He is paying them off through a plan that will result in him being a full partner with the cousins, while owning the New Orleans business.

Kit’s departure from the Baton Rouge office left behind a somewhat bitter rift among some of the employees. Several of the well-liked and efficient employees left with Kit. Some left out of loyalty and friendship, others for the growth opportunity. Rumours ran amock as to why Kit and various employees left to start the New Orleans branch. None of the rumours made it to the media.

Kit immediately began using his family name to land contracts. When the family name didn’t work, he used his contacts back in Baton Rouge. When those didn’t work, he did everything he could to under-cut his competition. Kit’s ambition was fueled by his personal ambition to establish the company in New Orleans and his drive to help the people of New Orleans reclaim their lives. To achieve these ends, he has worked with several different civic organizations to donate work and has purposely taken losses on jobs to guarantee his company gained contracts. On the opposite end of this work, his company has built high-end condos, rebuilding family mansions, and developed retail areas to bring in big sales.

Kit has worked his way into city hall, giving him direct access to the movers and shakers in the city. His day-to-day company operations are more about wheeling and dealing than doing design work. He often continues this into the evening attending galas and parties.

Paranormal
Kit’s experience with the paranormal first began during the Second Sunder War. Kit and several of his employees (complete with their families) gathered in one of the company’s more secure buildings in the Baton Rouge area. As one of Sunder’s patrol units moved through the area searching for “capes,” Kit’s hideout was discovered. The lone Sunder minion that had entered the building was immediately set upon. What Kit and his fellows in hiding did not realize, was that this minion was not alone.

Hearing the cries of their comrade, the rest of the patrol made a grand entrance. The patrol hit Kit’s group hard. Bones snapped and blood splattered. After the first round of casualties, Kit’s group aggressively fought back. Handguns and long guns were brought out, quickly evening the level of lethality being dealt.

After breaking his souvenir baseball bat across the neck of the patrol’s leader, Kit resigned himself to death. Already, the leader had taken two rounds of buckshot to the chest with no visible complaints and the broken bat had no effect upon him. However, when the Sunder lieutenant grabbed Kit by the neck, a dark green aura suddenly enveloped Kit’s body. The leader immediately let out a scream of pain and let go of Kit.

Not exactly realizing what was occurring, Kit pressed the attack. This brought about another power. Between Kit’s new-found powers and the firearms, Kit’s crew won the fight. They quickly gathered their dead and injured, stealing away to another safe house to wait out the war.

Kit had no idea how his powers developed. He asked those with him not to divulge this secret to the public. Kit wanted a chance to research these abilities and test for new ones, before letting the cat out of the bag.

With the end of the Second Sunder War, Kit moved on to New Orleans to start a new branch of the company. To those employees who witnessed his powers during the war, he offered lucrative jobs in his new office. He wasn’t fond of the idea of leaving behind people who knew his secret. All of them accepted his offer “they could not afford to refuse.”

In New Orleans, Kit moved into the family home. His father was not there when he arrived and Kit would not see him again anytime soon. Kit made the home his own, including hiring a housemaid to clean and do laundry once a week. He spent time going through his father’s belongings, searching for clues as to his father’s whereabouts. Kit found nothing, moving the boxed up property into the attic.

Two months later, while watching an HBO special on the Second Sunder War, Kit found his father – kind of. The third night of the miniseries included a section on super villains. While his father was not named (real name or nom de guerre), Kit recognized him. (Not sure how – signet ring, domino mask not covering enough to hide the fact of who he was to a family member, ???)

Kit’s father had teamed up with five other super villains to fight Sunder’s army, under the leadership of The Water Bug. The Water Bug was the only super villain in the group named on the HBO special. He and two of the other six group members died before the end of the war. The television special showed them in action in the New Orleans area during the war. Mention was made of the team members’ deaths, but no mention was made of the current activities of the surviving members – or whether any of them were still working together.

It was a fleeting moment, but a moment none-the-less.

Power
Kit’s paranormal abilities that manifested during the fight with the Sunder patrol were most likely Energy Aura or Force Field and Earth Blast or Magma Blast. Since then, he has developed at least one more power and has constantly pushed his limits to discover more.

Potential paranormal abilities include:
Earth Control Ultimate Power page 152
o Dazzle
o Earth Blast
o Density effect
UP 152
o Snare
o Move Object (automatic power for Earth Control per the text)
Energy Aura UP 154
Force Field UP 158
Absorption UP 124
Shield UP 189
Ward UP 200
Spatial Control UP 191

Energy Aura appears to be vines and thorns wrapping around Kit’s body.



Appropriate areas of knowledge:
Acrobatics
Diplomacy
Drive
Escape Artist (low level at most)
Gather Information
Intimidate
Investigate
Knowledge
Civics
Business
Notice
Profession
Engineering
Architecture
Search
Sense Motive
Stealth
Swim