Brent P. Newhall's Blog

Just stumbled across a very odd video called Ela: Legend of Light. It’s a combination live-action/CGI short film, made in Argentina, that very much evokes 1980’s American cartoons. One of its directors describes it as “a weird mix between She-Ra, Tron, and Flash Gordon,” a fairly accurate description.

Besides the He-Man/She-Ra feel, I noticed what I think are references to Rescuers Down Under and The Neverending Story. Odd and inventive. Neat to see weird, fun creations like this.

I enjoy making homemade soda. It’s usually delicious, and I have no problems.

Except with ginger ale. For some reason, ginger ale gets incredibly carbonated. Explosively carbonated.

So, when I found an old bottle of it in the back of the fridge, I figured I’d do a Diet-Coke-and-Mentos sort of video. I took it outside and filmed myself opening it.

Didn’t quite work out as planned.

Soda Fountain – Ginger Ale Version from Brent Newhall on Vimeo.

If that weren’t enough, I found a bottle of strawberry soda, and decided to open that. Which worked out even less like I’d planned.

Soda Fountain – Strawberry Soda Version from Brent Newhall on Vimeo.

Ah well.

I’m developing Gunwave, a tabletop RPG for playing war with giant robots. You get to play the pilot of a giant robot in the midst of a big war.

If you’re not familiar with tabletop RPGs: Imagine a game of “Let’s pretend,” but with defined rules. The hero you play has this much strength and charisma, and that much intelligence.

You play in the traditional tabletop format: a bunch of players, and a Game Master (GM) who describes a scenario, and adjudicates the players’ responses.

Okay, now that that’s clear: Gunwave is designed for casual gamers. Folks who haven’t played tabletop RPGs before, but want to immerse themselves in a difficult era and smash up some giant robots.

As such, Gunwave uses relatively few stats to track characters and mecha (the giant robots). Characters have:

• A few basic stats, like health and charisma
• A race (the universe is full of mutants, psychics, and aliens, if you wish)
• A specialty (spy, munitions, hand-to-hand combat, leader, etc.)
• Skills (perception, diplomacy, martial arts, hacking, etc.)
• Powers (psychic blasts, flash of insight, desperate block, etc.)

Mecha consist of a few attributes, like armor and speed, and their own powers. Plus, of course, weapons; there are 18 of them, plus various kinds of ammo.

I borrowed powers from the D&D fourth edition rules (which was a strong inspiration for Gunwave). Powers replicate the surprising spin, the leap forward to rescue a friend, the psychic blast, and the unexpected resilience of a cool mecha pilot. Some powers can be used as often as desired (they often change the rules of an attack to give you an advantage over certain foes), some can only be used once per fight, and others once per day (these usually do massive damage or provide life-saving assistance).

What’s really interesting about all this, though, is the kind of story this supports. I love Gundam because of its stance on war, and showing how powerful and destructive and tragic it is. This lets me tell those sorts of stories, but in an exciting, entertaining way.

I hope.

I’ve been playtesting the game with a bunch of friends, and thanks to all of you who’ve helped me so far. It’s not ready for a wider release yet, since I’m changing it so much. It’s a fascinating little project.