Story idea 2 - Feb 18

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, even the weather, so here is another story idea; but first, a shout-out to the ‘Knight’: HBO’s Westeros underdog is coming into its’ own at last.

Why? Because it is finally moving past the bloody tourney and into the greater Westeros: in the penultimate S1 episode, we have to see a bit of a Blackfire rebellion, and, um, we have an active Targaryen killing Targaryen action once more. This time it is Baelor who is dead and Daeron (the Waffle) who did the deed – unintentionally, unlike how it went down in HoD…

What does it mean for Westeros? Strife and war, of course, because those are the only things Mr. Martin makes there; there’s also scheming, of course, but as a rule it leads only to violence and little more. At the beginning of D&E S1, the Targaryens are at peace with each other, Westeros is peaceful, inasmuch as it can be, but now peace is ending again – the heir to the throne is dead, and his siblings, children, and so on will soon be jousting for the Iron Throne because, hey, it’s Westeros. I am no so desperate to research in depth just how many Targaryens there are in Westeros at this point In Westeros’ history, but since we know that the throne will go to Egg in the end game of ‘Knight’, it doesn’t matter anyhow.

…I do not know if Mr. Martin intended it or not, but a lot of Westeros action ends up being rather pointless, as the throne is kept by the Targaryens no matter what. In the novels, in particular, it is becoming clear that Jon and Dany will eventually occupy the Iron Throne, (i.e., the Targaryens will recover their rightful kingdom and domain), and in the TV series… well, HoD has Targaryens fighting each other while everyone else plays a supporting role, and ‘Knight’ until now it was almost a Medieval RPG, with Dunk trying to find his place in the Westeros society now that his father figure, mentor, and master, is dead and he is anchorless… So now, the choice is the familiar, by now, Targaryen vs. Targaryen violence, or more of the lukewarm and rather shallow Medieval RPG that we had before. Maybe HBO will throw in another CGI-looking robin in for a good measure…. Where were we?

My latest story idea, seeing how real life sucks, thanks to the Donald and his late friend Jeff – but also thanks to the Donald’s opposition, and how they’re handling the situation; spoilers – they don’t. Let us get back to fiction, shall we?

…A world populated primarily by the ‘goblinoid’ races (trolls, orcs and ogres are not a part of them, they are separate). To wit, they are, as follows.

The bugbears. They are the physically biggest of the goblinoids, but also the least numerous. In a big part because they are also anti-social loners – they hate most other sentient beings, including their cousins, as well as each other. A bugbear is quite happy dominating hobgoblins and goblins and never meeting another bugbear in their lifetime – hence the low population numbers. Only now, with more powerful beings, such as evil dragons and the mind flayers being also around, this lifestyle is no longer working, and bugbears need to re-think it, or else they just might go extinct.

The hobgoblins. If the goblins are smaller than the humans are, and the bugbears are bigger, (and stronger, and more formidable and imposing), then the hobgoblins are human-sized and are rather humane in their lifestyles, etc.

Enter the dragons. They are blue dragons, meaning that they exhale lightning (electricity) rather than fire, and are immune to electricity, not fire; they’re also lawful, as in tyrants, and have enslaved the hobgoblins, (not that they resisted much, because hobgoblins themselves are lawful evil). As a result, the hobgoblins became racially diverse, (among other effects).

There are now four races of hobgoblins. There are the ‘ordinary’ hobgoblins, (the ancestral race), the half-dragon hobgoblins (obvious), the draconic hobgoblins, and the ‘sunscorch’ ones. The draconic hobgoblins look like scalier, more feral versions of ordinary hobgoblins, while the sunscorch are really just ordinary hobgoblins, but smarter, and with blue eyes or blue-tinged hair. The hobgoblin society is acutely hierarchical, of course, and plenty of them are trying to rebel – well, trying to figure out how to rebel, not just because they are afraid of dragons, but also because they are not good at rebelling in the first place. (Scope aside, the hobgoblins aren’t that better than the blue dragons are).

The goblins. They are the smallest and the most numerous of the original goblinoids… and are dominated by the mind flayers. (Some of whom are liches, or alhoons, in the mind flayers’ tongue). Therefore, some of the goblins become Dekanter goblins – a mix of goblin and anthropomorphic rhino – and they are more formidable, given their relatively small size…

The Dekanter goblins serve the mind flayers loyally, (moreso than the ancestral goblins), but the mind flayers meddling had unexpected side effects. First, some of the goblins are born with blue skin color, eyes…, and psionic powers of their own; they are smarter than the ancestral goblins are, and are slowly forming their own councils, trying to counteract the mind flayers.

Second, some of the goblins are born as worghests instead – those are the goblin analogues of tieflings, but rather than from demons or devils, they are descended from barghests instead. (The barghests themselves may still be around, but they are not making themselves known in the immediate moment). Those worghests are anarchists instead, spreading chaos, (not that that goblins themselves are bad at it but their worghest kin are even better).

…The blue dragons and the mind flayers are aware of each other, of course, but neither side is ready to be actively hostile – not yet. In addition, their goblinoid pawns are slowly discovering their own free will and initiative as well.

This already heterogeneous mix of related races and conflicted interests develops on the background of a greater conflict – the orcs are going to war against humans, elves, and dwarves. How will the goblinoids (and their puppeteer masters) affect the conflict is an open question…

Therefore, this is my new story idea. I hope that you will like it, too. See you all soon!

Pathfinder 2nd edition - Aug 25

…Now about that Pathfinder bit that I have promised to talk about earlier this summer, about its’ transfer from the 1^st edition to the 2^nd. What can be said about it?

Firstly, the obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Sometimes your neighbor from across the street starts to play the blues and you want to kill them before you kill yourself, just because you’re in that sort of a mood and you don’t know as to how to get out of it. What next?

The Pathfinder transfer in and of itself was clumsily done; it took place with the ‘Pathfinder Campaign Setting’ companion piece on the land of Druma, and unlike the previous installments – about Osirion, Cheliax, Belkzen, Andoran, Nidal, etc. – this piece felt less helpful to gamers who wanted to play in Druma, and more like an extra from the ‘Inner Sea Races’ core book. The latter is one of the less successful 1^st edition Pathfinder core books, BTW. It is four-fifths filler and the rest is nothing that could not be found in the Advanced Race Guide core book, for example. The piece on Druma reads the same – the enthusiasm that you could find in other PCS pieces just is not there; it’s still written well enough, but nothing more.

…And the same can be said about the new releases – the new adventure module, the new installment in the Age of Ashes campaign. They are written well enough, and there is a lot of exposition in them, but-

But while there is no denial that Pathfinder was always big on exposition, especially when compared to the 5^th edition D&D, for example, somehow they always made it work, (in the 1^st edition, that is), and it looked good. Here and now – the 2^nd edition Pathfinder – not so much. There is an excess of information, crammed together with none of the care, consideration, pacing, etc. that marked Pathfinder the initial version, but just various RPG notes that may be considered helpful when planning a new Pathfinder campaign (or whatever), or it may not.

…Yes, this balance – rules vs. fun – is always important when designing an RPG rulebook, regarding an RPG world or otherwise. We are currently playing a Space 1889 campaign, whose rules are quite different from both Pathfinder and 5^th edition D&D, and have a more ‘5^th edition d20 modern’ feel, we think. …Not that there is too much similarity between d20 modern and Space 1889, but still. What next?

Nothing. Right now, we are playing a campaign that is set in Space 1889 setting, on Venus. (In Space 1889, it’s a tropical world, if anyone cares). Currently, we are trying to figure out how to deal with a cranky old T-Rex that decided that it likes to eat people. Our PCs are civilians – settlers and the like – do not have sufficiently powerful firepower to defeat it in a straight down face-off, so we are trying to figure how to deal with it otherwise. Oh and there’s a bunch of Venusian Lizard-People running around, doing their own things… fun. Sometimes to have it you just need a change in perspective, or something similar, no?

Anything else? D23 (let us call it that) has also presented a trailer for the upcoming CGI reboot of ‘the Lady and the Tramp’. No, it is not about Lady Liberty’s interactions with her Donald the POTUS; it is a love story of two dogs. Yes, not unlike the LK franchise we are talking about animals here, but because they are animals living in a human world, (the human characters did not look CGI in the trailer, so I am assuming they are not), it works, because it is a story about two dogs that are living in a human world. The end. So far, the viewers’ attitude towards this is friendly, unlike the remake of ‘Mulan’ (coming in 2020), as the actress of the titular heroine made some politically obtuse statements, pretty much worthy of the abovementioned Donald himself, and now the potential audience is pissed; there’s a talk of boycotting and what-not. Of course, given that this is still only late August 2019, there’s still plenty of time for tide to turn regarding ‘Mulan 2020’, but given that real life sucks, let’s not be overly optimistic.

Well, this is it for now; see you all soon!

MCU, Pathfinder, & d20 - Sep 6

…With all the Marvel-related excitement surrounding the return of the ‘Iron Fist’ Netflix series, we decides to watch ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ movie as well, and-

And nothing, or rather – something. The movie certainly calls out Hydra as being the Nazis’ scientific branch or a part of it, but something like that. This means that the fraction of the Marvel fans who claimed that Hydra was Nazi was more in the right than the one who claimed that it wasn’t, it was just evil (and maybe fascist as well), but-

But frankly, the entire CA: TFA film has a notable undercurrent of pulp fiction in it, where the brave heroes would go forth and smite the evil Nazis with some good old-fashioned fisticuffs and similar things. Please excuse me, but how does that fit with historical accuracy? Once I read a love novel online where Menelaus, (from the Iliad, husband of Helen) fell in love with Miriam, the sister of Moses, and things derived from historical (literary, but still) accuracy very quickly. MCU and the rest of the Marvel franchise amount to the same thing. They didn’t exactly care about historical accuracy, they went for the Nazis because they were convenient (and because the original Captain America comic was something of a pro-USA propaganda piece), and then-

And then, or rather – now, the social situation changed, both abroad and in the US, and the old values do not quite match with the new ones anymore. Plenty of people thought that while Hydra was evil, it was not Nazi, and if MCU itself said that it was, then who cared? Not enough people, that is who, and they were right. If you are going for fiction, then do not be surprised if fan fiction – the fiction of your fans – goes in a different direction, especially if the canon became established well-enough for a sufficient number of people not to care anymore. Canon can be reinforced, but not on fan fiction level, as the ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ play showed: Hermione became an Afro-Brit, plenty of people were angry at that, Rowling defended this transformation firmly enough…and that’s it. HPCC was not a flop as the rebooted ‘Ghostbusters’ were, for comparison, but only because the actors’ acting was that good; these days, HP transformed into Fantastic Beasts/FB, and in the first movie? Almost all of the main characters were Anglo-American, or at least – of a European, rather than of Asian or African descent; only the president of the MACUSA was Afro-American…can we say ‘token character’ here? And yet no one made a stink about it, and so far, most of the main characters in the upcoming second FB film also appear to be Anglo-American too. J. Ro can be politically correct, but if it does not bring enough dividends, she does not have to be, it seems. (Kind of like Rick Riordan and his novels, remember?)

Where were we? Right, MCU and Hydra and pulp fiction. Also – Disney. With SW, Disney began to alienate the old fan base, purposefully or otherwise, by rebooting the SW universe entirely, and retiring everything else into the ‘Star Wars: Legends’ reservation. As a result…well, we have talked about the current result of that approach; in the Marvel merger, Disney seemed to have done something different. In the CA: CW movie, which we discussed in the past, MCU declared that Hydra was gone, (and made Zemo not part of it, but rather an independent agent), but then there was AoS…

Let us check the facts: in CA: CW film, Hydra is supposed to be gone; in AoS S3 Hydra was supposed to be defeated at last via the cooperation of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the US forces, represented by Glenn Talbot; and in AoS S5 Hydra was shown to be doing just fine and going strong and while S.H.I.E.L.D. did set it back, it mostly had to deal with various aliens and Talbot, who became the local Graviton instead, (a super-villain). So is Hydra gone or not? Apparently not, it seems.

Where does it leave MCU? Looking stupid, as apparently Captain America and co. don’t know what they are talking about; actually, in A: IW film, Red Skull is back, so Hydra may be returning to the Marvel movies again for real, and-

And this is more like J Ro, who plays fast and loose with canon; it isn’t alienation, as Disney did with the SW fan base, (and for no good reason), it’s more like… fracturing and factionism. The Marvel fan base is arguing – whether Hydra is Nazi or just evil; whether Grant Ward was evil or not; whether Cap or Tony – and Disney/Marvel is not reining them in; in fact, it seemed to encourage the Cap vs. Tony debate as CA: CW movie was coming out, and now…

Yes, MCU does not really have any tools for reining fans it and probably it did not want to; yes, this is still better than the straightforward alienation of Disney/SW, but still, considering the online debates, arguments and fights regarding the MCU topics, they still earn a cringe. The fracturing did not do any favors for AoS, (or AC), as its’ numbers have sunk. Odds are, the upcoming 2019 AoS S6 will be something of a reboot with an updated cast…and a new plotline; plus, with only 13 episodes as opposed to 22, AoS will have to change, as the old strategies won’t work so well anymore. Even back in S4, some of the AoS resolutions felt rushed, and that was actually a good season…

Anything else? Well, on the subject of Nazis and pulp fiction…we are probably getting back into the d20 Modern campaigns. Yes, Pathfinder doesn’t seem to be abandoning its’ old layout straightaway as the new ‘Runelords’ campaign path seems to indicate, but we aren’t so excited about it either; the first Pathfinder adventure path that we did play was the ‘Shattered Star’ one, and it was also heavily connected to the Runelords; did we enjoy it? Sort of, but not enough, to go back to the beginning. Therefore, rather, we are probably going to go down the d20 Modern path, because while D&D 3.5 is similar to Pathfinder in the layout, d20 Modern is similar in approach.

Let us elaborate. From the ‘Complete Warrior’ onwards, D&D 3.5 invested very heavily into various prestige classes – the ronin, the beast lord, the blightlord, the ashworm dragoon and so on. By contrast, Pathfinder was much more restrained with its’ prestige classes, which gave new, different options to the base classes (aka the barbarian, the rogue, the fighter, etc.), which otherwise were quite straightforward, (though yes, different feats, spells, domain powers and so on did give them differences). Later on, in ‘Unearthed Arcana’, D&D 3.5 tried to give variant abilities to the base classes instead – and in Pathfinder, we have the archetypes, that gave different abilities to the base classes, while d20 modern we have the so-called talent trees that give the base heroes various talents, allowing the players to create very different PCs following the same guidelines. In place of prestige classes, d20 Modern had advanced classes, which were more tailored to various base classes than D&D 3.5 prestige classes did. And while, yes, they were also different from what Pathfinder did, d20 Modern featured such prestige classes as the musketeer, the mesmerist, the spiritualist and so on – classes that we also encounter in the Pathfinder.

That is not to say that Pathfinder is truly similar to d20 Modern – it has plenty of differences too, but still, the family relationship is visible. So yeah, for now we may be making our own adventures in the d20 Modern world, but who knows…

This is it for now; see you all soon!