Brent P. Newhall's Blog: 21st Century Renaissance Man: Page 6

Rubber (movie review)

By Brent on 22 April 2013

Rubber movie poster

Rubber evokes the mood of a Coen Brothers film: a killer, out for revenge, drifts into a small town. Who will survive? Can anybody stop him?

The film perfectly captures the tone of this genre. There’s just one twist. No, there are two: one is the film’s aggressively postmodern approach. The second is the killer’s specific form. It’s a rubber car tire.

Literally, a tire rolls into town on its own power, wanders around, and kills people with a Scanners-style telepathic blast.

This is just strange enough to pique the viewer’s interest. How will the tire react when a kid realizes that the tire is the killer? Can it be killed?

And then there’s the film’s postmodernism. However postmodern you can imagine a film being, this film is more postmodern than that. The plot piles multiple layers of commentary about film on top of each other (there’s an audience in the film), plus there’s the raw meta-commentary of using a rubber tire as your film’s main character.

One’s appreciation of the film will depend on one’s suspension of disbelief (about the tire) and one’s appreciation of meta-commentary. If the postmodernism of Community leaves you breathless with laughter, you’ll get Rubber.

If nothing else, it’s a taut little film that has a lot going on.

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50 Games in 50 Weeks: Dungeon Raiders

By Brent on 15 April 2013

One of the most fun experiences in my life is running a game I designed.

The game’s never perfect. Players almost always suggest changes. And they almost always have fun.

I’m going to describe what it was like to run Dungeon Raiders, which is my simplification of original D&D, during last year’s DC Game Day.

I ran “Temple of the Ghoul,” a free old-school adventure I’ve run several times. I love it. It’s a mostly linear environment: one entrance, a few upper-level temple rooms, and a small complex of rooms underground. The heroes have choices, but not many.

The system ran beautifully. Most of my players played early editions of D&D, so they became comfortable very quickly. Each class uses its own die for attacks, and you’re always trying to meet or beat 4. Nobody asked any rules questions after the first 15 minutes.

Like most retroclones, Dungeon Raiders makes combat so simple that players tend to exercise their creativity. When every round of combat looks the same–one die roll and one hit–players chafe and start to move their characters around the room, asking about the environment and tactics.

Unfortunately, I made one mistake: near the end of the game, while surrounded by zombies, the cleric gleefully cast Turn Undead. There’s no such automatic spell in Dungeon Raiders, and I told him with regret that his cleric couldn’t do that. He humbly accepted this and we moved on, but I realized that I had no reason to deny him. It wasn’t about to break the system, and this was a one-shot tournament game anyway.

Nevertheless, we built to a climactic slowdown with the titular Ghoul, and the players destroyed him surprisingly quickly and claimed a room full of gold.

Dungeon Raiders is completely free and available in PDF, mobi, and epub.

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The Eternity RPG – A Review

By Brent on 8 April 2013

‘7 Lucky Gods of japan’ by japan-life on Flickr

A couple weeks ago, I played a game of the upcoming role-playing game Eternity with its designer, Mark Diaz Truman. Even though game is still in beta, the rules work well, and we had a great time.

It’s a game of gods and their chosen people. Each player starts by defining a god’s name and sphere of influence. Then players starts defining specific aspects of the god, and here’s where things start to get really interesting.

One player defines one element of his or her god, such as a priest, a child of the god, or the god’s home realm. Then, each other player offers additional facts or complications to that element (“The priest was initially an initiate of another god’s order,” “The child is beginning to chafe under your direction,” “Your realm is under attack”). One can always decline these, but players bid special points that are in short supply, so there’s strong incentive to accept a deep complication.

There are several rounds of this, and once everyone’s done, everyone should understand each god’s influence, realm, and archons. Indeed, usually each god looks over several chosen individuals by this point.

Then you start role-playing.

The players do not role-play the gods; they role-play the gods’ archons and devotees. All of those characters defined in the earlier phase become fodder for conflict, so you play out confrontations between those characters, as they seek solutions to their problems. And if nothing else, one god can always send an archon on a quest into another god’s realm.

The rules help players build powerful yet flawed characters. That’s the beauty of the system: conflict and tragedy flow naturally from the players’ choices.

Because this occurs between characters who already wield supernatural power, the settings and stakes can be wild. We had one scene set in a miles-high M.C. Escher castle, where a godling faced the ghost of Cortez on a chessboard, surrounded by attacking playing cards from Alice in Wonderland.

Every session must come to an end. And that’s where things get even more interesting: according to the rules, every session begins 50 years after the previous one. All your archons and chosen ones age and die as the game progresses.

I’m deeply impressed with Eternity. I hope you get a chance to play.

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My dream house

By Brent on 1 April 2013

‘Victorian House’ by roarofthefour on Flickr

Last night, I dreamt of my house.

When I dream, I frequently find myself living in this particular house. It’s a two-story Victorian with pale yellow siding.

I live on the first floor, with its living room and kitchen and bedrooms in the back, and I barely ever think of the second floor. In the dream, I need something or want something on the second floor, or I have to escape from something horrible downstairs, so I go up.

The upstairs is lovely: large rooms, nicely furnished with couches and chairs. It’s messy, but that’s okay. I search through a sitting room, a side bedroom I’ve converted into storage, and I think a few other rooms.

I never find what I’m looking for.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 5 Responses

50 Games in 50 Weeks: The Dresden Files RPG

By Brent on 18 March 2013

The Dresden Files RPG is the game built around the Dresden Files urban fantasy world, using the FATE system.

I had an unusual experience running Dresden Files. During PAX East 2012, some friends wanted to try the system. I borrowed a copy of the rules from a booth selling Evil Hat merchandise (thanks, guys!), and we grabbed a table in the cafeteria section of the conference center. As the players built their characters, we started brainstorming about the city we’d play in. The choice was obvious: Boston, the city in which we sat. We came up with lots of great ideas about Boston as a center of magical stories, and then….

I improvised.

I’ve dreamed up plots “on the fly” before, but I’d always built at least a few antagonists and ideas beforehand. This time, I had to invent a plot hook and involve the characters from the first minute.

And it was magical. Pun intended.

I created an incident in the basement of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, something really nasty involving a lot of blood. The characters were pulled in and quickly began investigating.

The system should support stories that fit its world, and Dresden does so wonderfully. Your character’s Aspects define that character’s personality and powers, while skills define standard real-world abilities. You roll against those to determine how well you do something, and can invoke an Aspect for a boost.

There’s a lot more to the system, but that summary illustrates one nice element of Dresden Files: if you know nothing else about the system, you can just roll against your skills. That’s how we familiarized ourselves with the system.

I’m glad I grabbed the physical book. The book’s large amount of material makes it difficult to jump around, at least in PDF form. It’s easier to bookmark and flip through the physical book to look up a spell’s effects, sample NPC stats, etc.

Posted in 50 Games in 50 Weeks, Reviews, Role-playing | 1 Response

Homemade Cough Syrup

By Brent on 27 February 2013

Homemade Cough Syrup

This is the cough syrup of good intentions.

I like making homemade things. Since I’ve been fighting some kind of super-illness for the past few weeks, I researched a few recipes for homemade cough syrup.

There are two main varieties: one based on apple cider vinegar, and another based on honey. It should be no surprise that I tried the latter option.

This cough syrup is simple: 1/4 cup honey and 1/4 cup olive oil, plus about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. The first two certain soothe the throat, while the ubiquity of citrus in cold remedies gives it a vote in my book.

I combined the honey and olive oil in a small pot on the stove over medium-low heat (about 25%), and cooked until it started to simmer. I then stirred in the lemon juice, waited for it to cool, and poured it into a mason jar.

The result? It’s moderately effective. When I take about a tablespoon, I can feel it coat my throat, and my symptoms ease. However, I still cough a bit, and it doesn’t last long.

I’m a bit disappointed, though perhaps I’m expecting too much. I want to try a vinegar-based syrup next, but for now, I have cough syrup with no weird chemicals or side effects. Success!

Posted in Cooking | 2 Responses

50 Games in 50 Weeks: The Miskatonic School for Girls

By Brent on 18 February 2013

This is a game about schoolgirls driven slowly crazy by horrible monsters, yet it’s quirky and fun. If you can’t imagine how that might be, this is the wrong game for you.

Miskatonic School for Girls artwork

Miskatonic School for Girls is a card game in which you build a deck of schoolgirls and school paraphernalia, face monstrous teachers, and try to drive other players’ girls crazy while protecting your own from paddling and daily exposure to Teachers From Beyond.

It uses deck-building, similar to Dominion. However, you can also draw monstrous teachers and use them to attack other players’ girls. Other players are attacking your girls, too, and you use your girls to fend off the monsters, with school paraphernalia (diaries, candy, etc.) to improve the girls’ scores.

If a girl succumbs to a monster, she gets paddled, which decreases her sanity. Once all your girls lose sanity, you’re out of the game, so the last player with even marginally sane schoolgirls wins.

The lush, full-color artwork keeps the game light in tone. This premise could induce shudders in many gamers, and thankfully both the artwork and concept avoid any sexual or depressing themes. For example, the image used when a girl loses all her sanity is simply a girl with crossed eyes and a goofy grin. The art maintains a comic strip tone, where the monsters are those under Calvin’s bed instead of the ones in a Japanese hentai movie.

Games run quickly, 45–60 minutes once you’re used to the mechanics. The decks contain just enough variety in cards that you must constantly adjust your strategy throughout the game. While I’ve only played it twice, Miskatonic doesn’t feel like it has very deep strategic possibilities. This is a game to pull out every few months and enjoy for a round or two.

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Now I Know the Meaning of Slitches

By Brent on 11 February 2013

My co-worker Tim and I stepped into the American restaurant on the corner. The bleary-eyed maitre’d pointed us towards a table near the front, part of a trio enclosed by glass on three sides.

One of the other tables was empty. The third hosted four women, all in their late 20’s, who wore name brands and talked louder than absolutely necessary. Tim and I sat, our server took our drink order, and the woman at the far end said, “Hey!”

‘some of the girls’ by arrogant on Flickr

We turned.

“Don’t order the steak,” she said. Her friends tittered.

I looked at our new friend closely. She was having trouble keeping both eyes open and focused. Tim gave the best possible answer.

“Oh?”

She put up two fingers about a quarter-inch apart. “It was like this.” The others murmured their agreement.

We duly thanked them for their advice, then returned to our conversation. The four women started to talk about when they were next going to meet. This took fifteen minutes.

Then I heard a hiss. Tim and I turned. Our new friend had poised a paper airplane in one hand and eyed us mischievously, like she was about to perform a grand prank. She pulled back her hand and let fly, and the poor papercraft didn’t get more than two feet before crashing to the table. It was then passed to the nearest woman to our table–whose shoulder practically touched mine–who attempted again. It was just as successful.

I picked it up, thanked them, and glanced down at the airplane. Half a line of writing peeked out from behind the folds. I unfolded the paper to find this:

DON’T EAT THE STEAK

SLITCHES 4 EVER

I arched an eyebrow. Tim had the daring–and English self-effacement–to ask the women what on Earth a “slitch” is. For the record, I had no idea, either. They tittered, hemmed, and hawed. Finally, they relented: It means “slut bitch.”

What do you say to that?

I turned back around, making a show of laughing as if this was all a merry batch of teasing among sophisticated adults. Tim and I returned to our dinner (neither of them steaks), at which point my ears turned into spies and eavesdropped. The women were now talking about all the cheating wives and girlfriends they knew, and how they found out about their husbands having affairs. Then our new friend–the one with poor eyelid control–whined, “I have to go back home and get my girls in bed,” stood up…and walked over to us.

The resulting conversation was, to my surprise, completely civil: what brought us to this town? What have we had a chance to see? Had we been to Atkins Park? There was no apparent secret agenda or coded invitations, and I later checked on her suggestions: solid, nice places to go. And then, she was gone.

At least now I know the meaning of “slitches.”

Posted in Miscellaneous | 6 Responses

50 Games in 50 Weeks: Gamma World 4E

By Brent on 4 February 2013

Gamma World 4E

4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons‘s modularity makes it suitable for many genres: the modern era, Spelljammer, and even the gonzo mutant future of Gamma World.

For those unfamiliar: Gamma World was a D&D post-apocalyptic setting that included grenade-throwing rabbit-men, sentient plants, and crumbling radioactive cities. It’s a wonderful, ridiculous potpourri of post-apocalyptic elements. Gamma World 4E updates this with D&D 4E’s mechanical approach.

A lot of people dislike 4E’s mechanics for being “too much like a board game.” Fortunately, Gamma World is ideal for such mechanics, since it involves skirmishes between groups with a wide variety of weird weapons. 4E models this world cleanly and beautifully.

I ran Gamma World using one of the scenarios provided in the book, The Steading of the Iron King, which involved infiltrating a closely-held compound of Usagi Yojimbo knock-offs. I ran it as a Google+ Hangout using the Tabletop Forge add-on, which handled all our maps perfectly.

We had a great time, blazing away at bad guys and dealing with cramped passages. It’s light entertainment, with plenty of options and a gonzo tone.

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50 Games in 50 Weeks: Dungeon Run

By Brent on 28 January 2013

Dungeon Run

How do you make a dungeon crawl into a board game?

I can’t think of a better way than Dungeon Run.

The players start by choosing a hero, and placing it on the single dungeon entrance tile. The heroes then move to new rooms and fight monsters. Eventually, someone will find the Summoning Stone, turning the game into a race to capture the Stone and return to the dungeon entrance.

The monsters are deadly when faced solo, encouraging cooperation among heroes to fight them off. However, at the end of the game, only one player will win, turning the game’s finale into a competitive scrum.

The build-up to that tilt is my favorite aspect of Dungeon Run. You know it’s coming and must plan for it. It colors your choices even while the game pushes you towards cooperation.

Drake’s Flames’ review complains about the game’s mechanics and dependence on luck, which I had no problem with during my one play. I wonder if the reviewer wanted a different game. Luck affects your experience, but skill remains important. Dungeon Run never struck me as a tactical game, so I didn’t miss its absence.

It’s a fast, loose board game that you can finish in an hour, complete with high-quality art and plenty of variety. I had a blast.

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