Punisher Issue #2

So, today, Issue #2 of The Punisher, written by Greg Rucka, came out (http://www.dailyblam.com/news/2011/08/18/exclusive-preview-marvel-comics-punisher-2).  We are still early in a serious plot arc, but the character work, as well as the art, is outstanding.  I have yet to see any critical reviews, but my short review is, if you liked and were intrigued by Issue #1 (and you should have been and if you don't have it go and GET IT!) then this will keep you going.  However, there is no quick payoff, this is a slow-burn story.  We are in the middle of things and this issue ends in a cliff-hanger.  The action is furious but the meaning is only coming to us slowly.  Fortunately, Issue #3 is out on September 7.  The bad news after that is that Issue #4 is not scheduled until October 5.  Still, The Punisher is expertly working his way through the small fry bad guys on his way to the big fish, and it is an amazing character driven and artistically magnificent ride.

Check it out!

I can't go, but you can!

If you live in the DC metro area, consider dropping by Labyrinth Games down in DC (near Eastern Market Metro stop) for the August 13 Gamerati Tour (Tour Stops: Saturday, August 13th).  Gamerati is an organization developed by Ed Healy to try to build and link communities of game players.  This month he is driving across the United States and stopping to showcase local game stores, their patrons, owners, and cultures.  Ed explains his thoughts behind his tour at the tour site linked above.  My own spin is that I think that he sees the building of strong community and social network ties helps expand interest and acceptance of different kinds of games and gamers, and this in terns offers commercial opportunities to stores and game producers.  And everyone wins.

Well, I wish him much luck.  I will be heading out of town that weekend, but anyone remotely interested in games, from Scrabble to Dungeons & Dragons, should head to Labyrinth Games to see what it is all about.  The store is fantastic and the owner and employees are incredibly nice and knowledgeable.  I should note that this is a store that is totally mom and kid friendly.  Even if you haven't played a game for a long time, you will find yourself right at home (and probably playing a game before long) at this store.

I think Ed may be capturing some video to showcase the store and may also be doing some recording for podcasting, etc.  I think the event will be interesting, and, if nothing else, you can pick up a fun new game and maybe meet some cool new folks you never met before.  Wish I could be there.  Give it a shot!

Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple opens the way to fun for the whole family

Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple  is a game by designer Daniel Solis and published by Evil Hat Productions.  The game comes as a beautiful and well-written little harback book that allows a group of players to tell fun and funny stories about young people trying to do the right thing and help people while getting themselves in and out of trouble.

As it turns out, I wrote one teeny tiny part of the book (most of page 37), but until Sunday I had never actually played the game.  Finally, after having the game for a few weeks, I was able to round up the family and we all set to telling a fun story.  Others have already explained how the game goes better than I can, but essentially, everyone playes by creating a character (a Pilgrim) to be part of the story.  The story is about solving a problem that someone has written a letter about (my contribution was one such letter).  Each person takes a turn being the storyteller, while everyone else gets to decide how people get into trouble (the troublemakers).  Play passes until the problem at the heart of of the game is solved with a happy ending or an unhappy ending.  We managed to achieve a happy ending in our first play.

The Pilgrims were Clumsy Kitten (Fiona), Foolish Tiger (Ian), Zany Panda (Evan) and Friendly Gecko (Laura).  We were asked to solve the letter entitled "Is it Safe to Allow Cabbages on Roller Coasters?"(page 31 in the main book). 

Here is the story we told:

Pilgrim Friendly Gecko climbed up the side of the rollercoasterat the amusement park to check its maintenance.  But, Pilgrim Friendly Geck talks to the Talking Sky Cabbages and makes them uncomfortable by being too friendly and smiley because they are pessimistic cabbages.  Pilgrim Clumsy Kitten helps by making sure that the thousand thugs of the Coleslaw Front don't come into the amusement park and warms everyone if they try to come in by purring loundly.  Unfortunately, Pilgrim Clumsy Kitten knocks a modified cart into a Talkin Sky Cabbage, starting a riot.  Pilgrim Zany Panda helps to calm down the Talking Sky Cabbages by giving each one a big panda hug, rescuing Pilgrim Clumsy Kitten.

One of the Coleslaw Front is disguised as a giant cabbage and is so freaked out because Zany Panda gave him a panda hug that he attacks Zany Panda.  Suddenly Pligrim Foolish Tiger leaps on the Coleslaw Front member and saves Zany Panda.  In his eagerness to save Zany Panda, Goolish Tiger trips into the controls of a nearby ride and sends the tallest, fastest rollercoaster into heartpounding action!  Bystandards start screaming and Pilgrim Friendly Gecko quickly climbs back down the rollercoaster.  Pilgrim Friendly Gecko decides to find George and she talks him into letting her see him in the Executive Bathroom.  However George sees how friendly she is and decides to lock her in with him.

Pilgrim Clumsy Kitten helps Hazel Harrington by stalling the Cabbages and purring for traffic control on the bumper cars, because Cabbages don't like bumping.  It is going well until the Coleslaw Front gets on the ride with the Cabbages and Clumsy Kitten knocks the controls up to "Greased Lightning" speed.  Zany Panda thinks that it is so hilarious that he picks up Hazel Harrington and flies them behind the controls of one of the bumper cars.  Pilgrim Foolish Tiger leaps off the ride and into line at the bumper cars.  A six-foot wide Cabbage rolls on top of Foolish Tiger because he cut in line. 

Pilgrim Friendly Gecko opens the windo of the executive bathroom and flies away from George.

Clumsy Kitten purrs loudly and flies to the control panel and turns the bumper car ride off.  Pilgrim Zay Panda reassures Ms. Harrington with a hug and politely helps her off the ride in front of the Cabbages and the Coleslaw Terrorists.  Zany Panda smiles happily while Hazel Harrington takes offense to his hugs and slaps him!

Foolish Tiger lauches the Cabbage off of him and into the air!  Unfortunately, the now flying Cabbage goes through the open window of the executive bathroom and the cabbage lands on the despondent George.

Pilgrim Friendly Gecko takes Hazel Harrington for a ride on the merry-go-round to cheer her up, so she's not mad at Zany Panda anymore.  The Cabbages, who were unfomfortable with Friendly Gecko before, now see her laughing and smiling with Hazel and think Friendly Gecko is making fun of them so them demand to speak to Goerge.

Pilgrim Clumsy Kitten flies to help George so he will not be mad at Foolish Tiger, but when she purrs at the six-foot tall Cabbage, it gets scared and falls out the window!  Zany Panda rushes over to correct Clumsy Kitten's accident so there is not another riot at Popsicore Park and uses his cushy cuddly body to break the Cabbage President's fall.  This pushes him into the new underground ride which was made especially for the Sky Cabbages.  Foolish tiger scares away the Coleslaw Front terrorists out from the park.

After the hardcore Coleslaw Front leaders leave, the Pilgrims help the rest who rode the bumper cards and had fun with the Cabbages become friends and pay to become yearly members of the park.  Hazel becomes the general manager of the park and Geroge comes out of the executive bathroom and everyone becomes Facebook Friends.

The End.

And more from my freind

I hope to post an actual play from my family's first run of Do, Pilgrims of the Flying Temple, but until then, I wanted to point out that on Wednesday, my friend Greg Rucka has a new (and well-reviewed) gig starting as the author behind the relaunch of the Marvel Universe character The Punisher (see http://www.ifanboy.com/content/articles/ADVANCE_REVIEW__The_Punisher__1).

I'll be picking it up on Wednesday.  Hope you do too.

Something cool

I have not been much into web-comics.  My consumption of media is sporadic and ecclectic due to being busy and possibly a bit unfocussed.  However, this: Lady Sabre & The Pirates of the Ineffable Aether is going to rock.

Not much art has leaked out, but the beautiful drawing of a sabre promises much, and I have seen samples of other work by this artist, Rick Burchett, and it is wonderful.  The writer is none other than Greg Rucka, known for writing mainstream comic characters like Batman, Batwoman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Daredevil and Punisher, as well as his independent comic work, Whiteout, Queen & Country and Stumptown.  Also, he has a long resume of excellent suspense novels. 

Disclaimer, I have known Greg since we were both in high school, so I am totally biased, but I promise, if you read his work, you will not be disappointed.  He knows how to build a character, set a scene and he writes action like nobody's business.  He has been nominated and won multiple comic book and writer's awards, so he is a good bet.

Lady Sabre is going to be a new venture with elements of fantasy, science fiction, swashbuckling action and that ineffable aesthetic, Steampunk. 

I think it will be all good, because, even though there has not been much of a medium for Greg to write in this mode before, he knows it, loves it and will do right by it.

I can't wait for release day, July 11.  It is going to rock!

Variety of news

It has been busy and I have been remiss in getting updates into this blog.  Unfortunately, it appears to be a modus operandi with me a blogging.  Still, I am paving the road to Hell and all . . .

So, I have a couple of Zeppelin Armada reports to give, which may or may not happen.  We did play twice with the second round playtest rules and some of the changes were awesome and some made us wish for the old rules.  All in all, though, we were impressed with how responsive the designers were to the questions raised by the first round of testing.  The game is going to be really good, and I just hope it has good success once it is released.  The good thing about the company releasing it, Evil Hat, is that they don't push out products just to get them out.  They test and review very carefully, and I think we might be in a third round of testing.

In other news, a game I have been supporting is coming out, with the PDF already released. 

The game is Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple - A Storytelling Game.

The game might be considered unusual until you realize that you have done this more informally around the campfire since you were a kid.  Essentially, you tell a story by taking turns in adding elements.  However, it is more structured, in that you use the mechanics of the game to help guide the development of the story (e.g. you may have a result that tells you the story requires some serious trouble to crop up, or alternatively you might have a result that tells you that it is time to narrate some great success or triumph).  It also has an interesting setting for the stories and gives a certain structure, because you are solving a problem or set of problems presented in a letter (the conceit is that people out in the world write a letter to the Flying Temple when they have a problem they cannot handle; some problems are serious, some humorous, some just off the wall, but they all provide a fun structure to the story you tell). 

So, I was interested in the game, and I contributed a letter that was to go in the first expansion to the game, a special Book of Letters.  However, much to my surprise, my letter did not get chosen for the Book of Letters.  Instead it appears in the main book! 

That's pretty awesome.  So, yes, I am biased, although I had no idea that something that I wrote would be published in the main game when I first signed up to preorder the book.  Modern publishing is pretty amazing.

So, check that out or ask me about it.  I am going to print out the rules this week and try to find some time to play.

On other fronts, my daughter finished elementary school last week, and I now no longer have any elementary school kids in my house.  It is a pretty strange feeling.  Some sense of pride, some sense of loss, happiness and bitersweetness all bound up together.

Of course, since the swim season quickly ensued, I have had little time to contemplate things as our Whetstone Whales swim team has a crackerjack season to get through over the next six weeks.

So, I may not blog again for a while.  In the meantime, join me is saying:

GO WHALES!

Savage Worlds and Da Bomb

On Saturday, my son and I went to the wonderful Labyrinth Games to participate in their "Taste of Savage Worlds" event.  Labyrinth Games is a terrific game store on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.  The owner, Kathleen, has let the store host a series of "Taste of" events that showcase different games with a free session of play.  So, several weeks ago I signed Ian and I up to go and play Savage Worlds.

Savage Worlds is a table top role playing game (RPG) published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group  and the basic rulebook costs about $10, which is hard to beat. I had never played Savage Worlds before, though I had heard of the game.  I did no research before we went to play.  My son, on the other hand, found a lot of information online and created one or more characters ahead of time.

We had a really good time (which I will go into in detail below), but first, one gripe.  Transit on a nice day in May in Washington, DC SUCKS.  We got to park for free at the end of the Red Metro Line, which was all well and good, and we gave ourselves an hour and a half to arrive from our end of the Red Line to Eastern Market on the Orange/Blue line, and we arrived in good time (we had maybe 15 minutes to look around the shop, talk to people and then get down to play).  Getting home was pretty much a royal pain.  We did dinner in town, and then had to wait a long time for a ludicrously full train to stop and not have room to pick us up, and then wait a longer time to get a train to go to transfer at Metro Center.  There, we waited about half an hour with a LOT of people for a train to finally come.  On a Saturday night.  And then, when we finally got to get on a train and stand for  most of the trip, they were doing track work, which meant we had another 15 minute stop in limbo while we waited our turn to pass through the single track area.  Now, I am a big supporter of public transit, and I think, in general, Metro does all right.  However,  when going to a four hour event takes almost four hours of transit, that makes deciding to take transit over driving or some other alternative (like not going and spending money in DC) more attractive. 

Still, even with transit woes, we had a good time.  I do wish that the market made sense to have a branch of Labyrinth Games in the little mall across the street from my neighborhood, but that's never going to happen, so I just have to be very happy that such a great store is reasonably close to me at all.

So, as far as playing Savage Worlds, there are two things that will make or break the event.  First, of course, is whether or not the game and its rules, in and of themselves make sense and are fun.  I can report that Savage Worlds appears to be a very solid and fun game.  It is advertised as "multi genre" (rather than generic), which means that it is flexible enough to be used in lots of different settings with an emphasis on fast and action packed play (so it could handle anything, to use some cinematic References, from the Silverado, to Raiders of the Lost Ark, to Lord of the Rings, to Terminator, or Mad Max).  The second ingredient is the people.  We did well in this regard too.  At our table, besides Ian and I, were Paul, our Game Master, Bob (who apparently helped organize the event, and he did a great job (and brought cookies)), and Chris.  Everyone was very nice, very relaxed, and there to have fun.

There were two other tables with different games.  If I have a regret, it is that we were not able to play all the games being run, because they all sounded and looked pretty fun.  Of the games we did not play, I don't know which one was better, because both looked pretty awesome.  One was apparently something like Sam Spade meets Inception meets Call of Cthulhu.  The other was something like the Wild West with Witchcraft (maybe Cowboys and Wizards instead of the forthcoming "Cowboys and Aliens" [which is something else Savage Worlds could probably handle)).  Both those talbes were packed and people had lots of loud fun dealing with the stories told.

Ours was great as well, and thus I save the best (because we were playing it) for last.  Our setting was "Darwin's World" a post apocalyptic survival game with mutants and radiation.  Our GM Paul had pre-made characters ready, and we got to customize them with our mutations, as we were all mutants.  Ian ended up with a vigilant guard who had toxic skin and a lethal sting.  Bob was the other warrior and was some kind of huge, winged reptilian.  Chris was, I think, slightly glowing and immune to radiation.  I had the healer of the group, and I was both mute and I stank and I had underdeveloped lung capacity so I was not good at certain survival things, like running.  Not all mutations exactly gave you superpowers.  Anyway, I named my mutant Red Cross (which Paul wrote down as Redd Xross) and indicated that he had a big red cross painted on his shirt so he could point to it to indicate his name (being mute and all).

It was a fun mix.

We were told to report for a little job.  The feel was like a frontier town, so a bit of a Western, with mutants and radiation thrown in.  Of course, just getting the job was hard as some kind of "bad guy" group was already trying to steal the packaged we were supposed to deliver.  We had a big fight and got to learn how combat works in Savage Worlds (pretty well).  It turned out that Chris and Ian's fortes were marksmanship with rifles.  Bob was one terrifying killer with a katana.  I got lucky with my pistol once and thought I was a gunfighter (turned out later, I was wrong and just got lucky once).  We rescued our erstwhile boss and he gave us the package to deliver.

We did have a vehicle, so it started to turn a bit more like Mad Max, but we did not actually have any vehicle combat.

Instead, we found the village we were going to almost empty, except for a few kids left on guard.  They volunteered to go with us to look for their families, as some big bad group (again, think the marauders from Mad Max) was out after everyone trying to get some prize piece of technology.  Turned out there was an old weapons lab nearby.  We went and checked it out.  We were not finding the adults from the village, though we spotted the bad guys flying mutants chasing something far away on the ground.

Our next big fight was in the parking lot of the lab.  It was a long complicated fight.  The best result was that we managed to keep the over enthusiastic kids from getting hurt.  However, we had to fight a huge flying poisonous snake/worm thing that could turn invisible.  In the end, it wrapped around Ian's character and tried to fly off with him.  Chris shot it out of the air and Bob caught Ian (remember, Bob could fly) and managed to make sure they both did not die in the fall.  I was mostly useless, and in the middle of the fight, a bunch of radioactive zombies showed up and had me surrounded.  We were running out of time for the game, so after managing to kill the big flying creature, Paul narrated the ending. 

The villagers showed up and polished off the zombies.  They were gratified that the kids were still alive and explained that the big marauder guys had killed the original recipient of our package (she sacrificed herself by drawing them off, riding a motorcycle).  So, we presented the package to her sister who said it was a key to get an atomic bomb. 

We broke into the research lab, got into the vault and repaired the equipment to load the bomb onto a flat bed truck.  Of course then the marauder guys showed up, and they seemed to think the bomb belonged to them.

A narrated running fire fight ensued, but with our brave mutant characters' help, the villages would get the bomb back to the frontier outpost where they traded it for protection and incorporation and we got made special citizens.

All in all, it was quite fun.  I though Paul did especially well in taking us through how the game worked without belaboring anything.  The game was all in all, fast paced and fun.

If I had any disappointment, it was that the second combat got bogged down, and that we had to have a narrated rather than played through ending.  However, Paul drove a very long way to come run the game, and on the whole, he did a great job, so I can't fault the pacing too much, as he was dealing with three out of four players that had never done the game before.

It was really a good fun for an afternoon.  It also made a long day because of the transit issues, so we can't do too many of these.  Still, we will watch to see what more Labyrinth has to offer because the store runs a great event.

Now I have to think about what in future I might run with Savage Worlds.