Monday, December 30, 2013

NPC Overload: Why I Hate Council Meetings

Hello, readers!

This will likely be the last post for this year, and hopefully the new year will be much more active with my musings! Thank you all for reading, commenting over on Google+, and all such things.

Today I'd like to talk about an issue that I have come across once or twice in my earlier career as a Game-Master and have been trying my best to avoid ever-since. Sometimes it's an isolated incident that can be plowed through and hopefully forgotten. Other times, it's a situation that lingers and seems to get worse and worse as time goes on. I'll try to explain the issue below and see if I can brainstorm some ideas to avoid or lessen this problem.

I speak, of course, of NPC overload.



The first four years of gaming that I experienced through High School was dominated by Star Wars games. Our group started with the Revised Core Rulebook, and eventually migrated to Saga after realizing how much better it handled the universe. Edition isn't important, however, especially in regards to this topic. I bring up Star Wars because there was one major element that groups that contained one Jedi or more had to encounter at some point.

Jedi Council meetings.

I mean, you can't just have some semi-important Jedi running around without having to report to a Council eventually, and how many times can you say that most of the delegates are gone? Therefore, the players have to approach the Council and discuss their mission or ask for something, and you as the GM have to play all of them. Needless to say, it can be daunting, even if you have a cheat sheet with the names of various council members and maybe one or two adjectives to describe their personality.

No matter how good your Yoda voice is, you start to sound like you have really severe schizophrenia, and it can be boggling for both you and your players. Let's not even get into what happens when parts of the council start to disagree and you wind up having an argument with yourself while your players stare at you funny.

Unfortunately, this isn't limited to just meetings of a body of delegates. This can happen any time there is more than one important NPC in a scene that requires interaction. Try running the Masters of Evil and suddenly you have to speak for a bunch of villains at once. Or maybe there's an NPC in the party, and they have an important connection to a villain, and you find yourself talking to yourself again while the players sit back and watch.

I call this NPC overload, which can either mean one of two things.

1: You have the party interacting with a large group of different NPCs, or NPCs are interacting with each other for an extended period of time.

2: The actions of NPCs in interactions are so detailed and complicated that it leaves the players out of important events.

Obviously, a good GM should avoid #2 at all costs and try to involved the player's as much as possible, even when two NPCs are spatting or having an argument. Players should always be the focus of events, and if the other characters are getting in the way of that, things need to be rearranged. If you're just going to have a bunch of your characters doing important things, why not write a book instead of running a game?

However, #1 can be an issue for even seasoned GM's at one point or another. What can we do to mitigate this problem, or make it more accessible/enjoyable for all involved?

Here are some suggestions:

1: In a meeting/summit/council type situation where all of the members are pretty much in agreement, simply divide up answers between council members/voices. Maybe the first one on the list answers the first question, or two and three make a point together in response to something a player said. It takes getting used to at first, but this generally helps these difficult events flow, at the very least.

2: If two NPCs are arguing, involve the players between every back and forth. Give them a chance to interject what they think, end the argument, or support one side or another. If you feel like you've been talking to yourself for too long, you probably have been.

3: Limit your active NPCs per scene. Any more than two can get complicated, and three's a crowd. Make sure your players are the center of every scene, even when dealing with very important characters like the main villain or the ruler of the land.

3.5: Don't send a group when one can do the job. (For non-combat, anyway.)

For myself, this issue has mostly been resolved, either by avoidance or using some of the strategies above to make it tolerable. However, since I haven't talked at length with too many game-masters about this side of the hobby, I'm not sure if this is just me, or a further epidemic! Let me know if this comes up in your games, and how you handle it!

Hope you enjoyed this little article on NPC overload. If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes


Saturday, December 21, 2013

Metaplot: Flavorful Setting Dressing or Harbinger of Doom?

Hello, readers!

As you may or may not know, over the last couple of years White Wolf has been working on making 20th anniversary editions of some of their classic lines. Referred to as the old World of Darkness (or Classic), these lines gathered enough of a following in the 90's to sit themselves as probably the second most popular line of roleplaying games after Dungeons and Dragons. Vampire the Masquerade started the charge, and the setting expanded to include werewolves, mages, ghosts, mummies, demons, the Fae...

Yeah, it was a veritable monster mash drenched in grunge, leather, tattoos, and conspiracy.

I was quite a fan of Masquerade, even though I got into the hobby when these books were out of print and the new World of Darkness was just starting. The video game, VtM: Bloodlines, is what really drew me in and I dug up some old books to quench my growing curiosity about this interpretation of the creatures of the night. Thankfully, this pulled me into the Vampire fandom before Twilight came and bred disgust and anger. While I didn't run or play a lot of it, Masquerade always held a special place in my heart, even after Requiem came out.



Why were they changing everything, I wondered? What was wrong with the Camarilla, Anarchs, and Sabbat? Was the Cain legend too definitive for the modern day where we can't be really sure of anything anymore? It seems I was blissfully unaware of one major thing that the World of Darkness lines had that eventually spelled their doom.

Metaplot.

For those of you who don't know, this basically means that, in the established setting, things changed between books as things moved in the fiction. Major NPCs did things, powers came in and out of fashion, Clans joined and left organizations, and every edition or book seemed to scramble things a little and all lead to some sort of end-of-the-world scenario for each line. Of course, this end-of-the-world needed to be spelled out at some point, and in 2004, the meta-plot ended with three novels and books that presented the Storyteller with some ideas on how to map out Gehenna, or the Apocalypse, or whatever flavor of Armageddon your horror monster was facing.

According to those older than I was, this metaplot became incredibly confusing, and if you didn't buy almost every book that came out from White Wolf for your line of choice, it was easy to get lost. Things became more and more ridiculous, and things fell apart until most people were convinced that the metaplot needed to either be ignored or thrown out.

While what happened to White Wolf was likely a result of poor planning and too many chefs in the kitchen, that left me in an interesting place, because the idea of a metaplot was intriguing to me. You mean, a setting can change organically from the powers that be? It was a new and exciting idea to me, that settings can evolve. A familiar sandbox could grow, or have new toys, or at least different toys, maybe even based on input from the community?

That leads me to this question: is metaplot in a setting a bad thing? I don't think that is necessarily so. It is tricky, and has a lot of negative points, but maybe a well-handled meta-plot could even enhance a game line, or give it direction that it was lacking.

Let's bring this to Vampire, since it is the setting I'm most familiar with in the White Wolf scheme of things. Requiem brought with it a setting that erased the definitive nature of the metaplot. No more scheming Elders, no more Cain, no more over-arching Camarilla, no more Gehenna. No one knows how Vampires came to be, but all these organizations have different ideas and methods on how to run things, and they all coexist and battle out for supremacy, city by city. This made the game completely customizable, which is great.



But, something was missing. Comparing the two side-by-side, I feel like I have more of an idea about what sort of game I could run in Masquerade rather than Requiem. Sometimes, there is a thing as too much freedom, and I got that feeling while reading a lot of the other new World of Darkness lines. Take out the Wyrm, and what do Werewolves do? I guess they're just... Spirit police? Don't even get me started on Changeling. I was more Lost than they were when trying to puzzle out what kind of stories you can tell from the base book alone. It was an overwhelming feeling of, "That's great...Then what?"

The White Wolf examples aside, there are a lot of problems inherit with metaplot. While it can add great flavor, it also potentially detracts from changes to the setting that happens organically in game. Oh, your players killed the Prince, who in this new book, leads some sort of revolution? Whoops. Your players took down the Camarilla in Paris? Guess this new thing doesn't make sense now. The setting can never truly take account of your characters because the publishers likely don't know about them, so whether they are major power players or not, things will happen without them to a pre-determined end. That takes a lot of wind out of the players sails, even if the Storyteller edits the new developments to fit your version of the setting. It almost feels like it doesn't matter what you do since the setting moves on and ends without you, potentially.

That argument could be countered by the 'Use what you want' rule that most of these books implied, but the feeling could still remain.

Metaplot is also hard to keep track of. Settings are often broad, and if handled in the White Wolf fashion which slapped something new into almost every book (and there were a lot of them), it is incredibly easy to lose people under the weight of new developments. It does have the benefit of creatively using justifications in the setting to explain new rules in an edition update, but that could be outweighed by the amount of stuff you miss if you just buy a couple supplements and not all of them. Roleplaying books are expensive, even in the advent of Drive-Thru RPG and the like. Does a company really want to force a player to buy everything to see how things progress?

Heh, kinda sounds like comic book series. Not that those settings ever evolve...

Anyway.

Detractors aside, I think a setting could really benefit from some smart ideas regarding this concept. Maybe books that advance the metaplot could be written in a way that emphasizes the players rather than established NPCs? Maybe the creators could regularly poll its community to see what developments they want to see? Maybe some of these books could come with clearly defined options for what happens next, almost like how White Wolf handled the 'End-of-the-world' books?

I don't know, but I think there's untapped potential in an experiment that may have horribly backfired and ruined a line in the past. This is the age of the internet! Companies interact with their communities now more than ever, especially when it comes to role-playing with the advent of small press. Push the boundaries of setting, developers! Don't just define, refine, change!

Okay, that's enough ranting. I hope you enjoyed this article. If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Gaming Update - December 2013

Hey there, readers!

It has been quite some time since I last posted on here, but I'm not dead yet! My blogging senses are tingling, and I'd like to get back into this after my hiatus. So, I thought that before digging into the meat of the things that are spinning around my head concerning the RP hobby, I should let you all know where I stand in the life of a gamer.

Because dividing things up is fun, I'll be breaking this up into little sections! I don't want this post to go on and on, so I'll  be brief.

Games That Have Ended/Have Been Postponed:

Marvel Civil War - Due to a few players having to bow out for various reasons or having spotty schedules, this game has been postponed. We were going to move on to Annihilation instead, but that was soon nixed due to several factors. So, with mixed feelings, this game has ended, and may be picked back up sometime around next Summer, by my estimation, if at all.

Marvel Origins: Avengers - I ended my game after a few sessions for a couple of reasons. The most prominent reason was that my Wednesday nights kept getting busy, so it was hard to maintain a steady rhythm. Secondly, while I think the game was going just fine, I started to get a little burnt out with some of the elements that just weren't working in my mind. One of those big ones was the Hulk, who's player never showed up, but remained a potential 'Instant Win' button that could be pressed, and the players treated him more like a weapon than a character. Another was the abilities of the characters, which was my own fault, really. I felt that the power level was just a touch high from what I had originally envisioned, which made presenting challenging encounters difficult. So, I may pick this up again someday. We'll see.

Games That I Left:

Dresden Files: Detroit - The group that I was playing X-Men with moved onto a game of Dresden Files, based on the FATE system. Things were going rather alright, and I had a character I rather liked. Unfortunately, my Mondays started to get difficult to schedule around, and my enthusiasm for the game faded as a result. Couple that with the fact that I wasn't really feeling the setting, and I decided to leave.

Games That Continue Intermittently:

Teen Titans - Our group managed to finish the first Act after about a year of inconstant schedules and trying to get everyone corralled. All of the players really want the game to continue, and I do too to an extent, but it is a combination of being in the right mood and getting this new act set-up, which I haven't done completely yet. However, I am far from canning this game due to the potential, so it continues on, when I get to it and the players are free!

New Games I'm Playing:

Marvel Tales 1964 - On the newly reformed Margaret Weis forums, a call went out to do a similar mission statement that I had originally discussed on here in the past. Creating a new Marvel universe from starting at the beginning of these character's stories and seeing where they go. However, our GM took a more classic approach, re-adapting existing comics and running them as sessions with the three main groups: Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, running a different group every week. I'm playing Wasp, Mr. Fantastic, and Jean Grey, respectively. While I may get into more detail later, let's just say that this is probably the most fun I've had in an online RP since my first run of Breakout last year.

X-Force - There is a group on Facebook called 'The Doom Pool', which is for fans of MHRP. The person who runs it was getting rather tired of the lack of games seeking players and decided to start a bit of Breakout with characters from X-Force. Hoping to help him out, I joined as Wolfsbane. The game has been interesting so far, and I find myself reunited with a player from my Marvel Origins game, which is a treat.

Unknown Title of a Pathfinder Game - One of my friends, who plays in a few of my games, is running his own game back at the college I used to attend, and I am able to join them through the magic of the internet and the times I come to visit. This Pathfinder game takes place in a world between worlds, so to speak, where all magic channels through in every universe, and most of it takes place in the sky. I play a feline rogue who is married to her vices, and the other characters are great to interact with. The plot is just getting going, but I am excited to see how things unravel.

New Games I'm Running:

The Barrier Gem Prophecy: Arms Race - Lovingly called 'The Sequel' by my players, this is a sequel to a campaign I ran for a group of fresh-faced college Freshman who had either never played a table-top RPG before or had done so only once or twice. With some wonderful changes like switching from D&D 4 to Pathfinder, we begin the next chapter in the tale of my custom made fantasy world as it deals with the aftermath of the first campaign. We've only done the first session thus-far, but it went incredibly well, and it was great to see old characters brought back and new characters thrown into the mix.

The Near and Present Future:

My GM itch is getting to me, and my mind has been running with ideas. I feel like I'm almost ready to try my hand at running something online again, hopefully with more success than I had previously. What will it be? Who knows! Part of me has really gotten back into Vampire the Masquerade, so that's an option, and I'm always up for Marvel Heroic. *Shrugs!*

So, that's my gaming update! Hope you enjoyed it. If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes


Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Kitty Pryde's Diary - Civil War - Entry #1



(Hey, all! Since Kitty is taking a pretty active role in the recent events in the Civil War game I'm currently in, I've decided to switch over to her point of view for the time being. If next session plays out as planned, Wolverine will have plenty to cuss about in the weeks to come, but for now, let's take a peek into the life of one of my favorite mutants during this time. -Wes)

Dear Diary,

Weirdest thing! I was cleaning out my closet (which is a total wreck!) and I found you snuggled between a manual for the Danger Room and that one goofy picture of Piotr and I making macho poses by the pool. Come to find out there's a whole bunch of old pictures of us, and him, tucked into that little secret pocket in the front cover. Between those covers were the adventures of a girl that was in way, way over her head, but somehow lived to tell the tale.

Okay, when things phase through you, survival isn't a huge issue, but still!

I was about to throw you back in the box and go show Piotr (who came back from the dead!) the goofy picture when it came to me! Is there any reason I couldn't keep the log going? I mean, sure, I could just type it up nowadays in seconds, but that isn't personal or visceral. When you have a pen in your hand, you gotta think about the words as you create them, and commit yourself to them! If I was just typing this down in an ultra secret location so deeply encrypted onto my laptop that Tony would have to spend a week just to crack the first sentence, I could delete a word without even thinking about it, and it would be gone! Forever! Bam! See?

So, hope you're ready for a mouthful, because things have been really, really crazy around here.

I guess I'll start with the biggest thing. I'm part of an endangered species now. Wanda kind of lost it, altered reality to create a universe where Magneto ruled the world, and then turned everything back to normal, except for the fact that now almost every mutant lost their powers. I still have mine, but some really important guys like the Professor lost theirs! Am I lucky? I guess so. I mean, the ability to phase through stuff is as much a part of me as being Jewish or being a brunette (and staying that way!).

Since we're endangered, the government thought it'd be an awesome idea to make everyone that's left stay at the mansion guarded by Sentinels. Smart, right? I mean, yeah, the Sentinels have pilots in them now, but it's really a genius idea. Wouldn't create a powder keg situation at all! We wouldn't be pulling our hair out 'cause we can't see the latest M. Night Schamlan (or however you spell his last name...) flop at the theater, or slum around the mall with emo haircuts, blasting our punk music. Scott and his witch of a girlfriend are doing their best to keep things under control, but that didn't last long. I'll get to that.

Anyway, I had a genius idea! Well, being a genius, these things happen, but it's not like I'm bragging or anything. Charles isn't really around to guide us, but you know what I think? Isolating ourselves from humanity is the worst thing we could do to promote the unification of our races. We need to be out there, in public, doing good things like a normal person would! Instead of just saying the world when Magneto decides to turn tyrant, we could be helping everyday, spearheading medical research, or fixing broken bridges, or discovering alternative fuel sources. Our great abilities give us more than a weapon to fight evil with, but it's also a tool that can be used to build goodwill. We should be more like tools!

Okay, that came out really, really bad. No wonder everyone thinks we're terrorists, jeez. (Did I mention that the Avengers think that our slogan should be "We're Not Terrorists!"?)

That leads me to my awesome idea which is to bring this philosophy to light in a time where it's really needed! Sometimes, it's hard to look past our own issues and see what's going on outside the walls of our mansion, but things are really heating up out there. The town of Stamford got blown up because a bunch of superheroes were being careless, and the public is out for reform and control. Granted, this is how they've felt with mutants this whole time, but now their expanding their minds a little bit! In the wrong direction, but... Yeah! If there's one guy with the resources and brains to turn this whole thing one way or the other, it's Tony Stark. So, being proactive and bold, I held out the olive branch of mutant peace and decided that some collaboration was in order!

Tony and I talked a long time, and we found that our goals aren't all too dissimilar! That, and we're both really smart, so it's cool to find someone else that understands computers like you do! He agreed to hire me on as a personal assistant (which is so cool!) and together we're creating a non-profit organization to saddle onto the Superhuman Registration Act in order to make the things that suck about it suck a little less and support heroes through the transition. Our plans in the future are to eventually use this as a base-ground for helping mutants reintegrate into society, but for now, these are still pretty good goals!

Oh, and I might be running a school to help young super-humans in the very near future. Talk about pressure! What do you think sounds better? Professor Kitty, or Professor Pryde? I mean, the second one has the whole alliteration factor, but the first is casual, and I can totally see a little chibbi cat dressed in a graduate cap, glasses, and one of those pointing sticks that they used to use!

Piotr is going to draw me that one of these days, right after the awkwardness goes away.

So, let's talk about the Superhuman Registration Act for a minute. (Believe me, I can talk about this thing for ages. Tony and I created a series of instructional videos for beings from different planets, realities, and such, to get them acquainted with the law in ways they would understand, and I got to play narrator.) Basically, super-humans have to be trained and registered with the government, which is okay? They do get paid, and benefits, and I think that's awesome. The really bad thing is that all the mutants are automatically registered, which is something we've been fighting against for years. Now, any bigot senator can get our names and go harass our families! Whatever. All heroes are also supposed to help in times of emergency, but I guess they'd want to do that anyway, right? It's a real mixed bag, and there are parts of it I can get all excited about, then other parts make me want to pout and program for hours on end.

Maria Hill is a jerk!

Just wanted to get that out of the way. It's an inside joke around the mansion, you know. Speaking of her, the first thing she wanted us to do is convince all of these vigilantes and heroes that we duped into arriving at a warehouse to register. I'm not really an Avenger, or an agent of SHIELD, so sometimes I feel kind of awkward around everyone else, but Tony always makes me feel better. Well, when he's not stressed, and he's stressed a lot. Needless to say, we managed to get that off without a hitch, and even got started advertising the law assistance aspect of our organization with these neat little cards Tony invented. (I had to narrate for those too...)

This next part really tears me up, but I have to write about it, because it's really important. We got a communication that said the Xavier Mansion was having a riot, and that the Sentinels were freaking out and being a little over-zealous. My first instinct upon arrival was to make sure the kids were alright! Phasing them out of harm's way was, admittedly, not the best thing to do, but it was a tense moment! Everyone else went after the Sentinels, but they should have mixed their focus!

Because we were so sloppy, disorganized, and against such high-tech opposition, twelve kids died. Twelve of my classmates, students, whatever! Hell, I'm a consular at the Institute when I'm not working on a PhD or hanging around with Tony. I knew a lot of them, even knew some very personal stuff, and now... Now they're gone. Deleted from existence, just like that. I can't... I can't even begin to say how deeply this grieves me, especially since I could have done more to prevent it!

Scott asked me to speak at the funeral, but I couldn't. He knew I couldn't. Scott sucks. It's all Emma's fault that Scott sucks, 'cause she sucks, and she transmits all her suck into him with her mind powers or something. Shit... There I go making jokes again, to cover up how much this hurts. That's what I do, you know. I stay witty, and quippy, especially when I've got something under the surface that just stings so deeply. I can't look vulnerable in front of all these Avengers. Especially not now. We have to be strong.

This... This is why I'm starting to really believe in this project Tony and I are coming up with. See, maybe if we were trained together as a unit, briefed about the situation, and tackled this efficiently while working together, maybe those twelve guys wouldn't have died. Maybe Little Boy Blue would have finally realized that yes, girls love the color blue. Maybe Channel Surfer would finally get to test out the video game I was programming for him in my spare time where his power was the controller, since he was so frustrated with having to change the channel back to the Xbox every time he gamed. That's a lot of maybe's, but I believe in every one of them. For the future.

Something else happened that night. Spider-Man almost killed someone. It was an accident, sure, but Maria (Who is still a jerk!) presented him with an ultimatum. He could either submit to the SHIELD tribunal, who would tear him apart, or go for a public trial, which would have his real named revealed! We were all there for him, that night before he had Tony set up one of the biggest press conferences ever assembled. I even told him about my crush, but you already know all about that. Should have known he was married...   

Anyway, General Lazer (the moron who decided that we should be cooped up at the X Mansion) showed up at the press conference where Spider-Man revealed to everyone that he was the devilishly handsome Peter Parker. He bombarded the poor guy with questions about the accident, but Tony was right there to defend him, not to mention a little crowd support from yours truly. Then, well, Deadpool showed up and drove Lazer nuts, so it was a mixed bag.

To be honest, I'm... Not really sure where things are going. Wonder-Man has decided to advocate our cause, and with his help and the turn-over of Lazer, maybe Tony and I can move our ideas for mutant integration up sooner than we anticipated. This registration act could be the gateway for a whole new world where mutants are seen as super-heroes instead of genetic aberrations with their own agendas in mind. However it goes, I'm going to be there at the forefront, because I still believe in Xavier's dream.

Gotta go! Just looked at the time, and I need to squeeze some lab time in before the sun comes up. Working on a few new stuff in Tony's labs, should be pretty cool!

Love always,

Kitty


Monday, September 2, 2013

Why I Play Female Characters

Hey, readers!

While I have a huge backlog of session reports that I need to update on here, I thought it would be nice to take a little aside from that and do something more of an article/editorial kind of thing. Hope you enjoy it!

This is a topic that usually isn't brought up all that much. The reason for that is, I think, a level of awkwardness inherit in the subject matter. Most of the time, the assumption when making characters for a role-playing game is that one will follow their own gender, yet there often are those who bend and do the opposite. It's hardly ever brought up afterward when this happens, and things usually proceed, twinged just a little bit in awkwardness. The other players would never ask, of course, but the question remains: why?



I'm going to do my best to explain using my own personal experience.

I am one of those male role-players who often opts to make a female character. I've been doing it that way ever since I started this hobby many years ago, and to this day I continue the tradition. This is not to say I don't play male characters too, but I do it less frequently and, in my view, with less success. Those who have gamed with me before are used to it by this point, but every time I join a new group and character creation is brought to the table, I find myself back to that question: why?

For myself, I've broken it down into a few key points.

The Sausage-Fest Preventative:



Let's face it: tabletop role-playing is a hobby that is more often played by men than women. I'm no expert on the numbers, but I would give it a 70-30 split percentage-wise. Now, if you expand the definition of role-playing to non-tabletop, those numbers would change based on the vast community of teenage girls on the internet role-playing as their favorite anime characters in forums, but I digress.

In a group of all-male players where everyone follows the standard character creation paradigm of 'play someone you'd want to be/is awesome', things quickly develop into a sausage fest. It's no wonder Lord of the Rings is used as the bottom-line basis for almost all tabletop role-playing! A bunch of guys run around going on adventures.

Tolkien's work not-withstanding, most groups of protagonists in fiction have female representation. You can argue in feminism all you want about their roles and exposure, but the fact is, they are there, and it adds another dimension to the group dynamic. Now, granted, you could have a group of three men be just as interesting and dynamic as a group of two men and a woman, or two women and a man, but each set-up brings something new to the table. At least in my mind, it makes things more interesting.

So, one reason I play female characters is to break up the sausage fest, as it were. Variety is the spice of life, and even in a cast filled with a dizzying number of people of various classes and professions, more diversity is never an issue in my book.

However, this reason alone doesn't hold up if there is a female character already in the mix, so let's continue.

Female Characters are More Dynamic and Engaging:

This is a matter of personal opinion, but it is one I share with another friend of mine who thinks similarly as I do, and I will be paraphrasing him through some of this explanation.

A lot of this goes back to cultural expectations and current social conventions, but let me explain what I mean by the fact that female characters are more dynamic and engaging. In our current culture, which has dissolved down into our fiction, women have a wider range of socially acceptable means of expression. A woman can be violent and tough, or demure and sweet. She can be sensitive, emotional, cold, angry, sweet, or evil, and the character will still be acceptable in our current views because all of these emotions and states fit into the view of what it means to be a woman. They are tough enough to endure the pain of childbirth, but also sensitive enough to deal with people on an emotional level.

Now, as a contrast, let's look at what our current cultural definition of being a man is like. Men are expected to be physically fit and intelligent, to deal with situations with few emotions, and to be ever-capable. Weakness and failure in any area is looked down upon severely. A male character that is frail, dim-witted, sensitive, or emotional is usually played for comedy in our society because they are viewed as failures of the paradigm, and thusly, funny. It is the same with male characters in role-playing games. Think of your last campaign and try to find me a male character with some of these 'flaws' that was taken completely seriously. It's harder than you think.

Basically put, female characters have more acceptable and expected range, and I personally find that much more fun to explore than trying to fit the mold of the ideal male hero like everyone else.

The Other Side of the Fence:



Role-playing is all about fantasy and imagination. Through this genre of game, you can explore new worlds, have strange encounters, and experience the life of any character you can think up. There is a lot of freedom in that, and through this journey, one could learn a lot about both themselves and others. Countless questions with theological, moral, and philosophical implications can be raised in this collaborative exercise of the mind, and part of the mostly unnoticed joy is to explore them in a safe and friendly environment.

This implies that you can experience something akin to what it's like to be an Elf in Middle Earth, or what kind of stress Iron Man goes through. You can also explore the question of 'what is it like to be the other gender?' By changing your perspective in such a personal way, you are forced to subconsciously answer a multitude of questions during various situations that defines a lot about yourself and your perception of the other gender. This widens your mind, and adds a layer of complexity and depth to your personal role-playing experience.

Sex and gender are two incredibly interesting topics to me, and to many people out there. Exploring themes like gender, sexuality, gender roles and the like can be just as interesting as exploring themes like corruption, the cost of power, and the like. I like to play women because I can explore some of these themes for myself and others, and I get to examine situations from a perspective I'll never experience in the real world.

Conclusion:

Those are my big three reasons for gender-bending in my role-playing games. I could probably come up with more, but they would likely fall into the latter-two categories to some degree and I would be rambling on and on. My hope is that this explanation could open your eyes some to how I feel and how perhaps other people you know who do this feel.

Now, granted, you could probably ask the follow-up question: why does your character's gender matter so much to you? Bottom line is, well, it doesn't. My philosophy is that a character shouldn't be defined by their gender to the point where that becomes the focal point. This is where I feel many authors and feminists fall apart to some degree. They care so much about creating or displaying the 'realistic, believable, likable' female character that they lose sight of everything else that makes the character feel realistic, believable and likable.

Why explain all of this then? Mostly, my goal is to dispel some of the awkwardness. My secondary goal would be to have in a written format things I've always believed since I started this hobby but never really thought about or put to paper.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed this little walk into my psyche! If you didn't, here's a funny picture.

-Wes  
   

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Marvel Origins - Avengers - Session 2 Report

Hey, readers!

It's been quite a while since I've thrown up my session reports, and I have quite a backlog of interesting content to inform you of! I'll be going in order of appearance here, so we will start with the second session of my experimental, universe building project, Marvel Origins: Avengers edition!

Just in case you've forgotten, our cast consists of the following:

The Sentry: A Japanese immigrant who was taken into a camp by the Americans, Bob had latent super powers, and in return for his family's protection, the government turned him into a super soldier of unspeakable power to fight on the front lines.

Doctor Strange: While serving the military during World War I, combat medic Stephen Strange discovered some occult paraphernalia in a German bunker. This began his journey to accrue as much mystical knowledge as possible, joining with two other mystics to form the Triad.

The Sub-Mariner: Prince Namor, upon hearing of the advent of the Axis powers and the danger they posed to his kingdom, decided to aid the surface dwellers in repelling the threat. This fell upon deaf ears with his fellow Atlanteans, and he now ventures alone to protect his planet and secure his supremacy. Imperius Rex!

The Vision: Formerly known as 'The Human Torch', a robot with the power to shoot flames was captured and experimented upon by one Baron Zemo who was attempting to use him as a gateway to another dimension. Upon recovery, the robot's new powers of intangibility and hyper density were readily apparent. Fearing Nazi reprogramming, he was wiped and given the personality of one Bucky Barnes and renamed Vision.

When we last left our heroes, they were preparing for D-Day! Let's jump on in.

Session Report:

Things begin with a briefing with everyone's favorite three-star general, Ross, as he gets the team up to speed on the latest intel and their specific assignment during the invasion. They have been assigned to Utah beach, where they are assigned to take out the modified mounted machine guns along with an advance unit about an hour before the rest of the invasion hits. They are also to release the Hulk on the unsuspecting Nazi troops as well to sow chaos among their ranks and thin them out so that the invasion forces have a better chance to meet up with the rest of the army.



Of course, the team is uneasy about herding around the Hulk, but Ross assures them that this is the best strategy for breaking up their ranks. In order to get the Hulk, however, the team has to go prepare Steve Rodgers, who is in the lower levels of the base in a protected, sealed off area. Everyone except Namor elects to go below and inform him of the impending mission.

When they get down there, they are greeted by the scientist in charge of monitoring Rodgers and his buxom, blonde assistant.



Sensing no danger in the air, they calmly discussed things over with Rodgers. The Sentry appealed to their similar conditions, of having a darkness inside and being used by the government for war. With his assurance that things will be alright, Steve leaves his protected room, only to be shot with a dart laced with adrenal-enhancing poison by the buxom assistant!

Steve transforms into the Hulk, surprising everyone in the room! Using his super-speed, the Sentry takes charge of the situation and immediately grapples the beast with his super strength and takes him as far away from the base as he could manage. Isolated, Bob is able to talk Steve down, and he transforms back without incident.

Meanwhile, back at the base, both Vision and Dr. Strange try their best to capture the escaping spy! Dr. Strange tries his best to strangle her with chains, but she quickly wiggles out of them, blasting them apart with some sort of untold power! Vision tries his best to grapple with her, preventing her from escaping, but she is too tough for the robot. Hearing the commotion, Namor decides to help out the incompetent surface dwellers, only to find the beautiful woman trying to leave. In an act unmatched, Namor delicately grabbed her hand and pulled her into a kiss. She melted into his arms and was no longer a threat.



Feminists would likely say a lot of stuff about how this is terrible, and how the fact that our team has no women is also terrible, but that's how the dice rolls. Can't argue with the dice.

Anyhow, the general demands an interrogation, and Namor happily volunteers to ask the questions. However, to keep the horny Atlantean in-line, Vision is also requested to be present in the room. She is hesitant at first, simply declaring that the invasion will fail by the power of the Skrull. Namor asks for five minutes alone to change her mind about revealing information, and Vision complies. When Vision returns, the Skrull spy, revealed to be named Lyja, is much more willing to talk! She explains that a Skrull ship bearing prisoners from a galactic war crashed on Earth after some mechanical failure. Their leader, a Skrull who is known to human beings as Schmidt, was taken to the leader of the area, Hitler. Seeing an opportunity for greater glory, he and his forces allied themselves with the Nazis and have been supplying them technology.

(Not bad for a Skrull)

While this news is distressing, the invasion has to proceed as planned. Lyja is kept captive at the base while the rest of the crew prepares to move out. When the assault begins the next morning, it seems that things are stacked against the Allied forces. The machine guns are devastating, and there is a ready and able regiment standing between them and victory. However, our team of Invaders make quick work of both the machine guns and the Nazi soldiers. Namor launches himself from the sea and smashes things! Vision takes out a Nazi officer, only to transform into him and order the troops to retreat. Dr. Strange rides in on a dragon he summoned and proceeds to tear apart the landscape. The Sentry works with the Hulk to tear Nazi soldiers limb from limb with his laser-katana...

However, ill-tidings come to bear as the fight winds down. Out from the sky, a giant robot of obviously alien origin lands in the midst of the battle and prepares its weapons! At the same time, Bob loses control and shifts into the Void!



Cliffhanger!

My Reactions:

Not too much I have to say on the GM side of things this session. Giving myself props, I think this particular session was very well paced. In fact, the action was about the length of a typical comic book, with a cliff hanger to boot. On that end, I was very pleased. I am also pleasantly surprised by my players almost at every junction. I wasn't expecting Lyja to be captured with a kiss of all things, but that's one of the awesome things about this system. In a system like D&D, in order to end a fight with charm, you'd have to roll incredibly high. Here, you just need a good dice pool and a suitable complication and you're gold!

The only thing I wish could have gone better was the Hulk incident. One of the most fearsome characters in MHR was taken out in one roll by Sentry, and that seems a little... Meh. I mean, yes, I could have spent Doom Dice to increase his reaction, but the Hulk isn't very good at resisting being talked down. I suppose it did work in a narrative sense, but the image of Rodgers smashing the base up was a little too good to resist.

Coming from a long view perspective on things so far, the Hulk is a bit of a quandry. He's a super-powerful being, and an important plot point that was worked into the whole backstory of things, but since his player left the project, he's just sitting there more as a tool rather than a fundamental part of the story. Of course, this is partially my fault, but what else can you do with Hulk other than send him to smash or try to get him to stop smashing? I may try to find a way to write him out temporarily, if the players don't mind. We'll see!

Otherwise, things have been going swimmingly! Next session report, you'll get to hear about the fabled 'Fight of the Sentry!' Hope you enjoyed this post. If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes



Monday, August 26, 2013

Wolverine's Post M-Day Journal - Entry #4



Entry 4:

Shit finally hit the fan, and we got covered in it.

I knew this was gonna happen. All of these targeted attacks, heading for well-populated areas, we weren't gonna catch each and every last one of 'em. No one has that kind of power, not even a God. We're just one team. A big fuckin' team, but we can't be everywhere. Sooner or later we were gonna miss one.

Just our luck, it was Stamford.

Six hundred people dead. Almost a hundred of 'em were kids. That ain't counting the injured, or the property damage. I saw the mess with my own eyes. I smelled the ashes, the death that hung in the air. We tried to do our part to fix things up, to somehow apologize for this fuckin' mess. They don't need an apology. That's not gonna tuck 'em into bed at night when they think about their kid incinerating or being buried in the remains of the family home that has stood longer than they have.

I told Stark that he shoulda seen this comin'. He did, but he didn't take the steps to prevent it. Typical. That's the attitude of the day, ain't it? We know that a society run on celebrity mishaps, diet soda, and mindless entertainment ain't gonna last. What do we do when we see the city burning around us?

We grab a fiddle and head for the hills, unable to cope any other way.

But that ain't me.

I cope by sinkin' my claws into the mother-fuckers responsible. Lucky for me, the asshole that blew up Stamford is common knowledge. Nitro. I told Stark while he was drinkin' his troubles away that I was going to kill the son-of-a-bitch, and I wasn't kiddin'. He knows I don't joke around, and didn't try to stop me. Deep down, he wants Nitro dead too. I could smell it, past the alcohol. He just doesn't want to dirty those rich little hands.

So, now I'm on the road, trackin' down clues. Couldn't follow the bastard's scent. Too many other ones, stronger. I heard from a somewhat reputable source of mine that Nitro hauled ass into the back of a truck and tried to make himself scarce. I ain't a detective, but I know plenty of 'em. My nights have been spent in seedy bars and alley-ways, but that ain't nothin' different.

Funny thing happened one afternoon. Was drinking a beer, tryin' to beat out my healin' factor, watchin' the boob tube over a sweaty guy's head down the bar-line. A lady who lost her kid in the incident was drummin' up a rally so prestigious that they even got Cap himself to speak. 'Cept that wasn't who I was watchin'.

I was watchin' my clone, and somehow, she was lookin' right back at me with the stare I know too well.

For once in a long while since the mess began, I cracked a grin. Looks like hatin' Scott Summers and bein' locked up in the Xavier Mansion was hard-written into my DNA. What was she doin' there, exactly? Lookin' for me?

She of all people should know by now, I don't do public appearances.

One of my contacts finally turned up the truck company that carted my target away from the scene of the crime. I broke into their New York headquarters and started doin' some pokin' of my own. Threatened a few guys to death, barked and waved the claws, but eventually got enough to start tracking 'im across the country.

Before I left, I made sure Summers knew where I was goin', and what I was plannin' to do. Half-Pint met me at the door, goin' on about this great plan she had to partner up with Stark. Personally, I think the girl had another partnership in mind. Either way, the meetin' didn't go well. Slim made his case about not wantin' to get involved with this bill and stayin' on the fence, and I ignored him. Emma threatened to wipe my mind, but even she ain't brave enough to start workin' through my head.

On my motorcycle, I had the weirdest feelin' in my gut. Things are movin' in ways that they shouldn't, and somethin' messy is just peakin' over the horizon. 'Cept I'm gonna be the one to find out who's behind all of this, and sink my claws in. Deep.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Marvel Mondays - Civil War - Session 5 Report

Hey, readers!

Before we dig into the meat of this article/report/review/thing, I would like to say that Marvel Mondays is now relegated to every-other Monday once again. For those of you who were following the X-Men series of reports, our GM has decided to switch directions to something... Not Marvel. It looks like we are going in a Star Wars direction, so be on the look out for those reports in the coming months.

That being said, I will miss playing Rogue terribly. And I just got myself an awesome Rogue shirt on discount from WeLoveFine, too...

Anyway!

As always with Civil War, you can watch the session yourself here!


Everyone was in attendance this time, which is a first, I do believe. By now, you should be familiar with the characters, which is awesome, but now we have some new ones! Joining our cast are Speed, Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), Wiccan, and Wonder-Man! More will likely be adding on as the rest of our troupe, myself included, picks a third character.

So, pull on the spandex and let's jump on in.

Session Summary:

Things begin in the aftermath of the Stamford explosion. The small town is in ruins, with buildings collapsing, people trapped under rubble, and fires spreading across the area. Each of our heroes arrive in their own spectacular fashion and have to deal with the emotional distress of seeing all of the destruction. Oddly enough, the two characters with trauma (Iron Man and Wolverine) aren't as affected as the rest of the crew, which includes a group of Young Avengers, Dr. Strange, Wonder-Man, and the two above mentioned heroes. Everyone does their part, which includes handing out Stark-Emergency Response Kits (SERK!), using spells to highlight trapped individuals, tearing through houses to find people, and using super-speed to rescue others at a rate none can match.

Though the emotional toll is high, the heroes manage to bring things under control. Iron Man returns to the bottle, and Wolverine informs him that a conspiracy is likely in the works and that maybe the team wasn't well enough prepared for something slipping past their radar. He takes off, saying that he's going to kill Nitro and hunt him down. Meanwhile, Speed is shouting back at some anti-mutant protesters that have gathered outside the gate, not making things any better for the already strained community.



Meanwhile, back in New York City, Ms. Marvel leads a team to re-capture Moon Knight. Being the brilliant strategist that she is, she figured a full moon would be the ideal time to apprehend a criminal whose powers are strongest at the full moon. The team consists of Hulk, Thor, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman and Spider-Man, with Ms. Marvel leading, of course. Sounds like they should have no problem, right?

Using their covert contacts, the team manages to locate him at a penthouse, and springs the attack. Unfortunately, Moon Knight was prepared for every eventuality and rigged the place with traps to target each team member. Ms. Marvel starts the assault, trying to slam him, but gets hit by a large object in the attempt. The two of them trade blows when the unheralded arrival of a squad of Atlanteans makes things... Confusing! Even Moon Knight was expecting them to come to his aid.



The Hulk slams down, weakening the floor, but taking out a good number of the under-water goons. Spider-Man attempts to web up Moon Knight, but gets trapped in his own web! Spider-Woman tries to use her covert training to take out the traps that line the room, only to get tripped up herself... With a cord? Anyway. Luke Cage comes down and does some Sweet Christmas damage to the leader of the Atlanteans, Janus, and Thor nearly ends the conflict by slamming his hammer down, taking out the floor beneath them all! By some trick of chance, the Moon Copter arrives, and Moon Knight escapes, again, with Janus in tow while the Hulk takes out the floor, burying the team in rubble.

Our final encounter of the evening had to do with Master Pandemonium. Dr. Strange was contacted by the powers that be in order to investigate how he was able to escape their multi-dimensional magic prison. He takes an unlikely team, consisting of Iron Man, Wiccan, Wonder-Man, Tigra, Hawkeye, and... Wolverine. Yeah... I'll get to that.



Anyway, Wiccan is able to ascertain the involvement of something mystical when Loki, in a nearby cell, opens his big mouth and tries to make a deal with the team. Everyone banters back and forth a bit, Wonder-Man tries to encourage Loki with some less than savory torture-type stuff, which Iron Man disproves of, and things come to a close when Dr. Strange erects a force-field that prevents any sort of communication between the parties and Loki. No one speaks with Loki, apparently.

Tigra sniffs out some Asgardian influence on the cell, and the session wraps up there.

My Reactions:

Initially, my reactions to this session were very positive, but as the week wore on, my feelings sort of coagulated and became mixed. Hind-sight is 20-20, they say. That being said, I'm going to go over the positives first, and then discuss the things that sort of mixed and soured in my mind.

The Stamford Incident played out very well, I think. It gave everyone a chance to see the gravity of what happens when heroes fail or aren't there to prevent disaster, and it was cool to see the emotional toll along with the various creative ways to coordinate the rescue effort. I even managed to squeeze out some genuine character interaction between Wolverine and Iron Man which went off rather well, in my own humble opinion. Seeing that this group is not really accustomed to that sort of thing... I felt that if I wanted it in the game, I needed to take some initiative, so I did.

(Running out of Moon Knight pictures! >.<)

I also thought the Moon Knight fight scene played out really well. Mechanically, it was interesting to see how formidable a 'villain' can be when played by a player, especially with an optional, forum-rule that, during PVP, a player being acted against gets first dibs to opportunities. While I don't agree with that ruling, it certainly made things interesting and worked in this particular instance. The Moon Knight sub-plot is rather entertaining, all things considered, and I'm glad it showed up.

Finally, on the positive side of things, everyone continues to be great players. Good ideas, funny moments, the whole she-bang. We have a pretty awesome group.

This session wasn't perfect, however, and some things are really being brought into light in my mind that should be elaborated on.

First of all, I would like to talk about troupe-play. It was an optional way to run the game, as outlined in the beginning of the Civil War book, and for those of you not in the know, basically says that you can have multiple characters, swap 'em out, and share XP/PP between them as you go along. My guess is that the designers supposed that, with an event like Civil War, people are going to want to play it from various angles, particularly Pro-Reg/Anti-Reg with different heroes. This sounds pretty good on paper.

In execution, at least from what I'm seeing, it makes things a cluttered jumble, especially with a group size that we have and the set-up that's going on. We have so many heroes in this event right now, and the how's and why's of their presence and involvement are becoming lost to me. Initially, the justification was that this was the entirety of the Avengers, which, at about fourteen heroes is still a bit of a stretch, but it worked. Now that the GM has opened up a third slot with a wider range of options, things are breaking down in my head at the overall narrative. For example, a group of our players have taken Young Avengers characters, which is helpful that they have a reason for sticking together. Some of them showed up to help at Stamford. They apparently arrived separately, which doesn't make sense to me considering they are a team, and what about the rest of the Young Avengers...? More puzzling still, in the prison for mystical stuff, Wiccan is brought along without the rest of his group, even when Kate Bishop would probably want to see Hawkeye. Since the transition between scenes is pretty much dealt in the way of, "So-and-so contacts so-and-so about such-and-such, who's coming?", the logic and justifications start to break down in my head.

Now, granted, this is comic books. People show up in random places for no reason all the time, both of my characters included. How many series is Wolverine in now? And every single event with multiple heroes has Spider-Woman show up in the initial 'Everyone's here!' panel, and she proceeds to do nothing after that. I get that. My question becomes this: does every scene need every player involved in it? I bring this up specifically because of my situation. I haven't selected a third character yet. With Spider-Woman under a building, Wolverine was my only option for the final scene, but narrative would state that he is hunting down Nitro, on his own, right now. Why would he give a shit about how Master Pandemonium escaped? It was a question of, 'Do I want to be the one left out, or do I want to stick with what my character would narratively do?' I went with the first, and regret it, since he didn't do anything in that scene.

(See?! There she is! Pointing!)

The final issue with troupe play, especially with this many involved, is character development. With potentially twenty-one heroes in the works here, there is almost no room for it to happen to every character, and it makes it more difficult for individual characters as well. How can I complete the arc I had in mind for Spider-Woman, where she makes a good friend before the whole Civil War thing erupts and has to make a very hard decision about where she stands (as detailed in my milestones), when there is almost no inter-character interaction beyond the business at hand, and people are shifting around so much that relationships can't grow? And, when I tried to inject some of this sort of emotional stuff between Iron Man and Wolverine, it felt awkward to ask for, and was sort of ignored in the entire scheme of things.

I'm not asking for the spotlight, if that is what you're thinking. By no means should Wolverine or Spider-Woman be the stars of Civil War. All I'd like to do is create some character arcs that enrich the game, so that when the big action stuff blows up, it has weight beyond, "X amount of people died/stuff got blown up." I dunno. Maybe I'm asking for too much. Maybe I should just flow with the majority and forget about adding some depth in the way that I am. Curse my writing and acting sensibilities.

The second point has to do with some narrative order of operations and focus. In my humble opinion, Stamford should have been the last scene in the evening's line-up, and the other two scenes should have been dealt with first. I understand that the GM has some sub-plots he is trying to saddle onto Civil War, and this is perfectly reasonable, and even encouraged. However, when you are dealing with the 'inciting incident' of your entire plot, you need to focus on it, make it punch, make it matter. Steps to do this were taken, true, but having scenes afterwards/during that were in no-way related to your inciting incident weakens it. I already mentioned how Wolverine didn't give a shit about how Master Pandemonium escaped. In light of a huge tragedy that took a major emotional toll on the characters involved (according to the stress inflicted) and will start a media avalanche that leads to registration, I don't really see why the other characters would give a shit about that either.



As I said in a previous session report that got into deep discussions like this one did, I want to just put in the disclaimer here at the end that I am still enjoying myself in this game, I think the GM is doing a wonderful job juggling seven players and trying to tell a cohesive story, and I think all of my fellow players are great. Like anyone, however, little things bother me, and I wanted to bring them to light, as much for myself as others.

I hope you enjoyed this post. If not, here's a funny picture. (I actually remembered it this time!)

-Wes


Saturday, August 3, 2013

Marvel Origins - Avengers - Session 1 Report

Hey, readers!

So, we have a brand new campaign to report upon here at 'Perceive Things', run by yours truly. Once again, it's another supers game with Marvel Heroic, so those of you looking for a little change of pace may be disappointed, but I'm sure that more games will open up down the pipeline in different systems/settings.

This particular game is a concept of mine put into action. It's an experiment that I'm running to create a version of the Marvel universe molded by a community and grown through gameplay. Thankfully, I have a handful of people ready to go on this merry journey with me to define the origins of the Avengers.

Now, I'm going to note here that I had no input on the campaign at the start. I gave my players three basic options: Avengers, X-Men, or Fantastic Four. Avengers won out in the majority, and the players choices and wants molded it to be set during World War II. From there, I thought it would be a cool idea to have the Kree/Skrull War bring the Avengers together, and thus our campaign was born!

Our characters are as follows:

The Sentry: A Japanese immigrant who was taken into a camp by the Americans, Bob had latent super powers, and in return for his family's protection, the government turned him into a super soldier of unspeakable power to fight on the front lines.

Doctor Strange: While serving the military during World War I, combat medic Stephen Strange discovered some occult paraphernalia in a German bunker. This began his journey to accrue as much mystical knowledge as possible, joining with two other mystics to form the Triad.

The Sub-Mariner: Prince Namor, upon hearing of the advent of the Axis powers and the danger they posed to his kingdom, decided to aid the surface dwellers in repelling the threat. This fell upon deaf ears with his fellow Atlanteans, and he now ventures alone to protect his planet and secure his supremacy. Imperius Rex!

The Vision: Formerly known as 'The Human Torch', a robot with the power to shoot flames was captured and experimented upon by one Baron Zemo who was attempting to use him as a gateway to another dimension. Upon recovery, the robot's new powers of intangibility and hyper density were readily apparent. Fearing Nazi reprogramming, he was wiped and given the personality of one Bucky Barnes and renamed Vision.

We were also supposed to have a fifth player whose concept was to have the super soldier serum go horribly wrong with Steve Rodgers and create the Hulk, but he had to bow out due to other commitments. However, his concept of the Hulk is still canon.

Without further ado, session one!



Session Summary:

Things begin with a gathering of the Allied Secret Special Forces, a branch of the special forces relegated to beings or powers beyond that of mortal man to take care of highly sensitive or important missions. After a quick briefing with the unit's commander, one General Ross, the team is cobbled together and informed that they must go behind enemy lines near the coast of France to collect recon on the beaches of Omaha and Utah in preparation. They are to meet up with a resistance cell in a small town and collect any missing information.

After a little spatting between Namor and the Sentry, they parachute down into the French countryside. Able to dodge the German patrols going up and down the streets, they manage to slip into the town and see their contact, a man named Pierre who is wearing a red beret and has a terrible French accent. He leads them into the basement of a tavern with the rest of the resistance cell, where they receive a packet full of recon and pictures, however some of it is incomplete. Namor and Dr. Strange head up to their rooms in the tavern, and the good doctor consults with the spirits in the area, sensing a disturbance. The Sentry and Vision hang around the bar for a bit, chatting some while trying not to arouse suspicion from the German soldiers before heading to bed themselves.

In the dead of night, the senses of the Sentry pick up the sound of his door creeping upon, only to find Pierre with a gun! The Sentry lasers the gun out of his hand, and the noise rouses Dr. Strange, and summons a spell of chains to bind the fiend before he can get away. The entire crew is roused, and a quick mental inspection by Stephen Strange reveals that Pierre and a majority of the resistance cell are actually made up of German spies who are assigned to assassinate the Allied Special Forces sent to pick up the recon. He manages to rewrite his memories, telling Pierre to return to the group, telling them that the mission was completed.

(Pierre, the best spy ever)

Hoping to make-up the intel that they were supposed to receive, the team splits up. Dr. Strange digs a shallow grave and dumps his body there while his astral form travels across the beaches to get an eye on the defenses set-up. Namor takes to the seas, searching the beach for armaments and mines below. The Vision shapeshifts into a German officer, steals a jeep, and keeps Bob as a prisoner while the two of them scout along the beaches and try to gather their own intel. What becomes overwhelmingly apparent is that the Germans are ready for an assault. The machine guns mounted are outfitted with an unusual brand of technology that no one recognizes. Additionally, the Vision catches sight of a most unusual craft resting beside a command post.



With pictures taken and intel gathered, the team makes sure to cover their tracks by informing a German officer that the Allied agents were killed, showing them an illusion that Strange created of the shallow graves. With their tracks covered, the team flies off across the English channel back to base, only to find a squad of bombers going to make their run across London. The Sentry manages to laser one in such a way to send it spinning into another. Namor propels himself from the water and manages to eviscerate another. The Vision, with Dr. Strange riding in his grasp, tries his best to get above one, go hyper-dense, and smash it, but while he is successful, this sends the pair plummeting to the depths below. Dr. Strange is much to distracted by his impending doom to do anything to slow them down, even failing to lasso onto one of the planes above with an incantation. Finally, Namor saves the day by swooping down and carrying the pair to shore.

Namor makes a series of snide comments towards the Sentry regarding his uselessness. Compounding with all of the insults he had received earlier from this Prince Under-the-Sea, the Sentry decides to come to blows! The pair take to the air for a battle royale, the Sentry opening with an incredible laser beam directed towards the Submariner. Much to Bob's distress, Namor stands still, arms folded and shrugs off the blast, which demoralizes the Sentry to the point of passing out. Swooping down to save him as well, the team makes it back to base to be de-briefed.



Ross is not happy that the resistance cell was composed of German spies, nor is he happy about the strange technology the crew recovers. After answering questions and being overall stern, Ross informs the team that they are to remain on base until Operation Overlord, where their task will be disarming those weapons and making sure that their secret weapon, the Hulk, doesn't get out of hand. The session ends with the team preparing for the event at hand.

My Reactions:

Overall, I believe our first session went very well. I know two of the players from college, and two of the players were new to me, but they are good guys and welcome additions to our team. I think everyone had a solid time, I know I did. What is especially encouraging is that our campaign thus-far, even without trying, is following many of the same beats as the Avengers film, with inter-team conflicts and a looming threat bigger than all of them kind of forming at all the right moments. While I'm not seeking to emulate the summer blockbuster, it doesn't hurt to borrow a beat or two.

I did wish, however, that the recon mission was a little more... Exciting? Stealth is not an aspect many RPGs convey well, Marvel Heroic included, and while I think it is a cool thing to bring into a mission or session, it always ends up feeling hollow to me somehow. Not that there was much stealth going on in the mechanics, persay, but regardless. It also wasn't terribly action-packed, which is just fine with me, but I am well aware that players have different likes and expectations than I do, hence the inclusion of the mid-air bomber fight which was a completely off-the-cuff, setting dressing turned conflict, encounter.



What I really like about these players is their ability to think outside the box and do things that I wouldn't expect. Vision using his shapeshifting to do cool things is one example, while Dr. Strange and his 'weird hobbies' lending credence to his spells is another. Namor's player hits all of the right notes with everyone's favorite Atlantean, and the very presence of the arrogant Prince is enough to put the right amount of spin to the inter-party conflicts, especially where the Sentry is involved. The highlight was, undoubtedly, the Namor/Sentry fight which was over in one blow.

We have already had our second session, which I will report on soon, but I have high hopes for the future of this game, and I just hope that my GM'ing chops are up to it. I hope you enjoyed this session report! If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes   


Monday, July 29, 2013

Wolverine's Post M-Day Journal - Entry 3

((Hey there! This entry summarizes the events of the third and fourth session's of the game. It was not written between since the events ran together and our favorite feral mutant wouldn't have had the time to sit down and write introspectively! Enjoy!



Entry 3:

It's three in the mornin' and the only thing I can do to try and find some solace is write in this fuckin' journal.

I don't dream anymore. When the eyelids shut and sleep paralysis sets into my adamantium laced bones, a dark figure sits me next to an ancient film projector in a shadowy room. Try as I might, I can't get up, can't shut my eyes. The figure steps into the light on the screen. Sometimes it's Victor. Sometimes it's Mystique... Maybe it's always Mystique? Doesn't matter.

"Which film shall we watch tonight, Logan?" they say in the most irritating tone possible, "The one where you murder Itsu? A classic. If you're in the mood for romance, we could watch some Mariko. Maybe more Jeanie? Ah, but we watch those a little too often, don't you think? We could always play the bloody murder reel..."

Somethin' inside me is trying to stir up the guilt from a life of murder, and despite every attempt I make to keep a gruff exterior, it's startin' to work. I've ruined families, ended lives for no better reason than someone told me to do it, or I was lost in a rage. Every time I decide to make things better, to strive to fix some of the damage I've done, somethin' drags me right back down to my old ways.

That's why I can't be an Avenger.

We had a meetin', somethin' about a revision of the Mutant Registration Act that is gonna effect all of the other freaks of nature and vigilantes that put on tights and try to save the world. Stark wanted to present a unified front, under his own idealism, about the superhuman community tryin' to police itself. Some of the guys there even had the nerve to offer up the X-Mansion as a school for new recruits. Shows how ignorant they are about the livin' Hell we're goin' through over there.

There will be no more mutants. Every mutant that's left, whether they like it or not, has to be cooped up on school grounds, livin' out in tents like a fuckin' reservation. Charles is gone. Scott doesn't know what the fuck he's doing. Sentinels march around the grounds. The last thing we need are some two-bit amateurs walking in with big smiles ready to learn from a dying race.

Stark proposed an internal affairs branch of our... organization, and put up Carol to be in charge of that. Turns out we needed it faster than we ever would have thought. The Crusader shows up at the Avengers mansion with a Shi'ar bomb, guarded on all sides by Purifiers. My blood was boilin' to see those sons of bitches crawl out from the wood work, but I wasn't the only one.

Things go about as expected, with Stark and Banner disarming the bomb and the rest of us fending off the crazed religious fanatics. 'Cept Moon Knight was after some blood, and crippled Crusader. Slashed him right in the spine. If the poor sod lives, he'll be spendin' the rest of his life in a wheelchair, or worse. They clap him in irons and send him off to prison.

I can't be an Avenger, because before you know it, I'll be right in the next cell. I've killed, as an Avenger. Ended the life of Griffin in our first breakout fiasco, and no one cared then. Even though that was a wake-up call, what's to say my berserker rage won't lead me to that place again? My anger is welling up, and I'm liable to burst.

Hopped on my motorcycle afterward to help Stark present his case in front of Congress. Someone had to represent the mutants, but unfortunately, the conversation never turned in that direction. Instead, Dr. Doom is showin' footage of the lot of us tearin' through Doombots and Latverians on behalf of Colonel Nick Fury. Just like my dreams, there I am again, killin', and I can't help but watch.

Things didn't turn out so bad. Congress seemed impressed with Murdock's knowledge of law and the way we handled the Spector debacle earlier. Earned us a man on our side. 'Cept, what's one voice among the majority? Usually, jack-shit.

Next, I was sent to testify for the character of Luke Cage, who was accused of murdering some of the Purifiers, according to a pretty obviously doctored bit of footage. For some Goddamn reason, someone thought it was a good idea to bring in Marc Spector to testify. The bastard got away, after makin' a pretty solid point that the Avengers are a bunch of incompetent assholes. Apparently, someone hasn't let Konshu know that I'm the best there is at what I do, and what I do isn't very nice.

Then the press showed up, and by this point, I was pissed. Really pissed. These assholes are never too far behind when controversial shit goes down. They don't learn. Apparently, a well placed 'go fuck yourself' doesn't send the message. I trashed some equipment, grabbed my bike, and went to a dirty pub somewhere to try the nightly game of tryin' to out-drink my healing factor.

I lost.

My gut is tellin' me that there's something goin' on beyond just a bunch of random events. If anyone knows about conspiracies, it's me. I've been the instrument of more of 'em than I can count on my claws. Someone's trying to strike while the iron is hot, taking down the community through the system. Worst part? One of the smartest men in the world is missin' it, too absorbed by tryin' to run his little band of kids playin' cops and robbers.

I'll let him know. I'll tell him when I resign.

For now, gonna sit on the couch with a beer and watch the news until I fall asleep from boredom. Not like anything news worthy happens in this country anymore.

-Logan

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Marvel Mondays - Civil War - Session 4 Report

Hey, readers!

Terribly sorry for the lack of activity here on 'Perceive Things.' We all get busy at times, and I have been involved in other things, like, lots of role-playing. So, I have a huge backlog of summaries to do, including a Civil War session that happened almost two weeks ago!

As always with this campaign, if you'd rather experience the magic yourself, the Youtube link has been provided.


We were missing quite a few people this session, but those involved were the following: Daredevil and Hulk, Iron Man and Thor, Ms. Marvel and Tigra, Hawkeye and Moon Knight, and myself as Wolverine and Spider-Woman.

Here we go!

Session Summary:

Where we left off last session, the team had just defeated a sinister villain in Washington DC and were just in time to be there for the Congressional hearing regarding the Superhuman Registration Act that was starting to tumble its way through the Senate. Being the world's premier super-team, Tony thought it was a good idea to present a unified opinion with the team and present their case for an internal affairs reworking rather than outright registration.

Of course, this sort of thing is always made more interesting by a surprise witness. Enter Doctor Doom, who wants to discredit our heroes with a neat little powerpoint/video depicting the lot of us slaying Latverian forces by the score during the Secret War. Why the government thought it was a good idea to let a known international terrorist who had just come back from Hell and was only recently trying to get a sword of the Apocalypse is beyond me, but I wouldn't put it past 'em.

So, our team begins to retort, showing some impressive shows of logic and reason that seem to baffle Doom and the congressional board. Tony Stark's hacking of Doom's presentation and a printer to pass out some crucial evidence along with a masterful explanation of law by one Daredevil (who has no association to Matt Murdock) had both us players and the characters in the game baffled beyond belief. If you watch nothing else of that video, go to 25:48 and watch the magic happen.



With all of that good and done with, we manage to score a friend in Congress that can help us out in the future, and we managed to out filibuster all kinds of government officials in the name of democracy! I would call that a pretty solid win for the side of justice. And stuff. Not really, but...

Anyway!

Apparently, after the whole Moon Knight fiasco last session, Luke Cage got slapped with assisting or murdering a guy somewhere. I mean, one could say racial profiling, especially when you had someone like Wolverine on the scene who was slicing and dicing like usual, but... We're going to go with the fact that Cage has a criminal record. So, like good friends/Avengers, we're called to testify for his character and give our account of the scene at the hearing before he gets slapped with anything official.

Now testify!...



Another surprise witness joins the scene as Moon Knight is brought in to give his account on the events. His player rolled a die to decide which personality was dominant in Mark Spector's head, and Konshu was the result. Awkward. Wolverine was stopped for quite a while at the metal detector. Funny since that was brought up in the movie that just came out, but... Yeah. More awkward!

Ready for the most awkward?

After getting a torrent of bad mouthing from the prosecution, Moon Knight is elected to speak first, since he's the surprise witness and all. He gets out of his chains, without anyone reacting or anything, and begins a piece on how Luke Cage could not have murdered anyone because he and the rest of the Avengers are a completely incompetent bunch who cannot serve the larger goals of justice. Once his piece was done, the Moon Copter shot a line through the window and he escaped from imprisonment.



Genius.

Before we had a chance to pick up our jaws from the floor, the press stormed in to tear us a new one. Hulk took some emotional stress and managed to Hulk out, showing an incredibly docile and photogenic Hulk who wanted to talk to the press. Everyone else tried their best to get away. Tony bought out a bunch of news companies and went around firing people. Ms. Marvel made a handy excuse and hit the road. Wolverine got pissy, destroyed some equipment, and went to sulk with a lovely d6 of emotional trauma.

Hulk walked home alone.



Before things were wrapped up, we got a nice little bit of narration as the classic "Stamford Incident" occurred. For those of you not in the know, basically a bunch of pretty amateur superheroes, the latest iteration of the 'New Warriors' were filming an episode for a reality show, pissed off some villains, and a particularly explosive crook named Nitro blew up and killed a whole bunch of people, including a group of children.

This is where things take a distinct turn for the worse, for the those of you playing at home.

My Reaction:

This was, by far, the best session yet. Everything worked out really well, we each had a nice moment to shine, and things progressed at a logical pace. There were some really good jokes, shows of character, and all that sort of stuff. It really made us eager to jump into the next session, which is coming up rather soon.

Unfortunately, this sort of showcases a point that I have brought up time and time again that smaller groups work better with this game. While each and every member of our group is awesome, less does turn out to be more in terms of flow and proper spotlighting. That being said, I am really looking forward to the other two members of our group returning this coming session to bring their own unique flavor and ingenuity to our game.

I don't have too much more to say besides that point, and there really wasn't anything negative on my end whatsoever. Next game, our character troupe's are opening up to another slot, so we'll start seeing some new characters thrown into the mix as we clean up after Stamford and try to track down Moon Knight.

That's my summary and reaction! Hope you enjoyed it. If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

(Wolverine journal coming up super-soon!)