“Strange Tales From Chicago,” Session 2 — Bernie’s Diner

Fellow role-players, here are my notes for the second session of Geoff’s miniseries:

>>Player Characters for “Strange Tales From Chicago,” Geoff C.’s street-level superhero game, using FATE Accelerated Edition, Skype, and an online dice roller, Sunday, 27 October 2013:

“Fightin’ Fritz” [Gene D.]-male human, flashy Tank, wants to pound knuckleheads, knows all the brawlers about town
“Capt. Grommet” [Beruk A.]-machine whisperer, wants to get back at the man; knows lots of techies
“The Crocodile” [Byron V.O.]-old tough guy, wants to clean up the city and get paid
“Dr. Occult” [Josh C.]-master of occult, seeking enlightenment; knows stage magicians
“Angel of the Night” [Sara F.]-gargoyle-themed guardian of the city, lives above a library

>>Chicago, “1 to 2 October 1982:” Capt. Grommet goes to the police labs, where he finds three forensic scientists eating pie. They confirm that the Tylenol taken from a pharmacy is poisoned with arsenic, but the honey toffee Grommet got from the store proprietors is safe.

Meanwhile, Fightin’ Fritz, the Angel of the Night, the Crocodile, and Dr. Occult stake out a container ship to which they had followed four goons from the “Salty Dog” bar. They boldly board the vessel, and some longshoremen say that Atilla, Bonaventura, Genghis, and Leo are lazy and standoffish co-workers.

Capt. Grommet persuades Officer Fine and three police officers named Austin, Bruno, and Steve to come with him to the docks. Stealthy Angel leads the way into the hold, followed by mighty Fritz, garrulous Grommet, turbaned Dr. Occult, and crotchety Croc.

At the crew quarters, Angel hears voices and maneuvers to the far side of a cabin door. Fritz opens the door, and one of the four goons swings a chair at him. Dr. Occult throws playing cards in an effort to distract their foes, and Angel knocks away the chair.

The four men, who are suspected of disturbing the pharmacy that sold the tainted Tylenol, try to slam the door in Fritz’s face. Capt. Grommet throws a serving tray but misses, as Fritz slams the door into one mook.

Dr. Occult smacks another in the junk, and Croc moves in. After a few more punches, the four pharmacy perps are subdued. Dr. Occult then hypnotizes Atilla, who reveals that a man named Earl in a fancy suit paid him to stir up trouble at the pharmacy. Atilla says that Earl can be found at Bernie’s Diner most nights.

The private investigators of the “Drop Squad” drop off the four men with the police and head to the diner. Bernie vouches for Earl, saying that he has supported numerous charitable causes. Capt. Grommet and Dr. Occult realize that each person they talk to gives a different description of Earl.

After some cajoling, Bernie says that Earl frequents the “Old Watch House,” a high-end brothel. Croc recognizes the place and takes the group there. Fritz and Dr. Occult stay in the car, while Angel watches from a nearby roof.

Dr. Grommet and Croc warn the skeptical madam that a mass murder might threaten her girls and business. She reluctantly gives them permission to review security footage. They identify another incarnation of Earl.

Meanwhile, Dr. Occult consults his fellow wizards to search for Earl. The stage magician and Fritz must also fend off a potential hubcap thief. Sometime later, Croc and Fritz go to the police station to review mug shots in search of the elusive Earl.

Capt. Grommet finds a permit for one of the charity performances that has a return address in the warehouse district. He also tracks down the tailor who made Earl’s suit. A public records search for “Earl” with no last name turns up 30 instances, astonishing Dr. Occult with bureaucratic incompetence.

Meanwhile, Angel’s rooftop surveillance is interrupted by heavily armed mercenaries from Craft International. She retreats and reports to the rest of the “Drop Squad,” who suspect that she found unrelated criminal activity.

The next morning, Fritz and Dr. Occult visit the custom tailor, who gives them a hard time about their eccentric attire. He eventually admits to serving a slight Asian gentleman, not a tall blond man.

Croc goes back to the Old Watch House, where he talks with Lucille. She says that Earl, or at least someone by that name, is a regular patron. Dr. Occult talks with accountant Irwin and learns that he has a twin by the same name.

Capt. Grommet reviews local news footage of various charity events to see if any of the suited Earls makes an appearance. The private detectives keep the police informed of their progress in the homicide case.

They return to Bernie’s Diner, but the blond Earl (one of seven, who presumably hired the four thugs) spots the group….

Man of Steel review

On Friday, 15 June 2013, I met Ken G., Michele L.D. & Paul D., Beruk A., and Josh C. at the Landmark Embassy Cinema in Waltham, Mass., for Man of Steel. The latest Superman movie featured solid acting and spectacular fight scenes, if shaky direction and plot.

Superman movie poster — Superman soars again

Plot: I’ll try to avoid “spoilers” here, but note that several of the reviews I’m linking to will have some. Man of Steel is a reboot/retelling of Superman’s origins. Most of the traditional elements are present from the 75-year legacy of DC Comics — to quote All-Star Superman: “Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple.”

Man of Steel shows the political and scientific stagnation of Krypton. Megalomaniacal General Zod and hopeful researchers Jor-El and Lara-El realize that the end is near for their world and come to different conclusions. Jor-El and Lara send their infant son Kal-El to Earth, where he is raised by Midwestern farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent.

After wandering the world, trying to use his amazing powers to help people, and keeping his identity secret, Clark Kent must face his destiny when Zod and his ruthless followers escape their exile and arrive on Earth. Plucky reporter Lois Lane and the U.S. military have many questions for him, as does a fearful public….

Script: As a longtime comic book fan, I didn’t need to see Superman’s backstory again, but I appreciated that scenes of Clark’s childhood in Smallville, Kansas, and his adult search for direction were handled through flashbacks rather than told in linear fashion. This is not surprising, given writers David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan’s past works.

I also liked Man of Steel‘s allusions to past Superman comics, films, and TV shows. The dialogue was a bit stiff, with little of the humor of other superhero movies (I’ll compare Man of Steel with some of these below). The cast made the best of it, however.

Acting: Englishman Henry Cavill did a good job of conveying Clark’s everyman charm and Superman’s physicality. His expressions of grief and hope showed how Kal-El was torn between Jor-El and Jonathan Kent before combining their best qualities. Cavill is a worthy successor to the actors who have worn the red cape and blue tights.

Russell Crowe and Ayelet Zurer get a surpising amount of action as strong-willed Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van, and Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are good choices to represent Middle American decency as the Kents.

As determined and curious journalist Lois, I thought that Amy Adams was more credible than too-young Kate Bosworth was in Superman Returns. Laurence Fishbourne doesn’t get to do much besides argue with Lois and duck collateral damage, but he was appropriately paternal as Daily Planet editor Perry White.

Michael Shannon had a fanatical glint in his eye as General Zod, who was less regal than Terence Stamp in Superman II. Antje Traue is just as chilling as Zod’s follower Faora as Sarah Douglas was as Ursa in Superman II.

Even the minor supporting roles were filled by decent actors, such as Richard Schiff as Dr. Emil Hamilton and Christopher Meloni as Col. Nathan Hardy, who represent Americans initially distrustful of Kal-El but who learn to respect his patriotism. It was also nice to see ordinary soldiers, so often portrayed as antagonists or incompetent in superhero flicks, as professional and capable of making independent decisions.

Direction: I’ve enjoyed Zach Snyder’s action-packed movies, including the over-the-top 300 and Sucker Punch, fantasy Legend of the Guardians: the Owls of Ga’Hoole, and the surprisingly faithful adaptation of the Watchmen graphic novel, which deconstructed superhero tropes.

He was a good choice to reinvigorate the franchise after Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, which was overly reverential to the Christopher Reeve/Richard Donner films. Unfortunately, some scene transitions in Man of Steel are very abrupt, and the Krypton’s apocalypse, Clark’s idyllic but troubled adolescence, and huge battles in Metropolis and elsewhere don’t hang together very well.

As with the long-running TV series Smallville, I understand the desire to get away from the campy adventures of past decades, but Superman should be bright and heroic, unlike many of the costumed vigilantes he inspired.

Man of Steel is still clearly in the shadows of 9/11 and Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale’s Batman trilogy. I think Warner Bros/DC has swung too far in the direction of grim and gritty, even as Disney/Marvel’s Avengers embraced four-color action and fun character moments.

Like Star Trek: Into Darkness, the producers have gone back to a popular sequel villain rather than take a truly fresh approach to recapturing a franchise’s essence while winning new audiences.

Cinematography: Not surprisingly for a Snyder film, the visual effects were top-notch in Man of Steel. We saw more of Krypton than in previous adaptations. It’s no longer a sterile ice planet as in 1978’s Superman but more of a baroque world as in more recent science fiction. I liked the alien technology, armor, and creatures, even if I still miss Superman’s red shorts and less overdesigned costumes.

The fight scenes were very impressive, as Kryptonians pit their super strength, speed, and heat vision against the U.S. military and one another. I was pleased to see full-body, tracking shots in daylight, and I had no difficulty tracking who was fighting whom, unlike many other superhero flicks.

With so much violence and destruction in the real world, it was upsetting to see Smallville and Metropolis get so thoroughly trashed in Man of Steel. Even though we didn’t see civilian casualties, tens of thousands would die as skyscrapers collapse. I would have liked to see Superman make more of an effort to protect innocents, but his feelings of guilt late in the movie were believable.

Score: Hans Zimmer is no John Williams, but his moody and classical soundtrack is a good fit for the Nolan-influenced Man of Steel. There were no memorable musical themes, as in Superman or most of the TV series.

Ratings: Warner Bros. and DC have a long way to go to catch up to Disney/Marvel’s popular movies. Man of Steel is less self-contained than the Nolan/Bale Batman trilogy, but the issue of tone will still need to be fixed if Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern are to be reintroduced as peers of Superman in an eventual Justice League movie.

I like Man of Steel as much as Iron Man 3 and more than Superman Returns, but not as much as the first two Christopher Reeve films or The Avengers. I’d give Man of Steel about a 7.5 out of 10, three out of five stars, or a solid “B.” The consensus of my group was closer to a 7.

I would recommend Man of Steel, which was rated PG-13 for unnecessary language and lots of violence, to fellow superhero fans and to those who hope that DC’s iconic characters will eventually receive their due in modern movies. A new generation has yet to learn what makes Superman the first and finest. Warner Bros. has green-lit a sequel, so let’s hope the next one is better.

Here’s how I’d rate the Superman films, from best to worst:

Superman II (1980) ****
Superman: the Movie (1978) ****
Serials with Kirk Alyn (1948) ***
Man of Steel (2013) ***
Superman Returns (2006) ***
Superman III (1983) **
Superman IV: the Quest for Peace (1987) *

After the movie, we went to Lizzy’s on Waltham’s Moody Street for dessert and discussion. After meeting Josh and Rich C.G. for Free RPG Day at the Compleat Strategist in Boston this morning, Janice and I returned to downtown Waltham for the Waltham Riverfest.

The next movies I’m looking forward to are Pacific Rim, Elysium, and Thor 2. In the meantime, may Superman continue to inspire hope and courage….

Reunion in Brooklyn

On Friday, 9 November 2012, Janice and I took Amtrak from the Route 128 station near Boston to New York’s Penn Station to visit ailing Steve A.L. in Brooklyn. While I wish that our trip was under better circumstances, we still had a good time catching up with friends from college, as well as some from high school and grad school. On the train, I enjoyed the manga adaptation of Gail Carriger’s supernatural steampunk Soulless.

We checked into the Hotel Indigo, where our room was small but the staff was responsive. Janice and I then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and back to Steve’s place, where we met him, his wife Michele, and their athletic son Nate. We ordered dinner from Gandhi Palace and picked up dessert at Lassen & Hennings.

On Saturday, Janice and I grabbed bagels for breakfast before meeting Steve at the Brooklyn Museum. Damon F.P. and Carlo R. came down from Westchester to join us, and Dexter V.H. stopped by from Queens on the way to visit his father. Janice had never been to that museum before, and Steve took us through its impressive collections of ancient Egyptian and early American art.

In addition to grabbing a late lunch at the museum’s renovated cafeteria, we chatted about history, current genre television, relationships, and religion. It’s always nice to be able to have such wide-ranging conversations.

Janice and I later rejoined Steve at his place, where we met Corbin A.Y., Dave F.R-B., and John Z.G. & Kim A.G. and their teenage son Mark. Steve & Michele were gracious hosts, supplying us with lots of munchies and beverages and ordering proper New York pizzas from Monty Q’s.

John then ran an AD&D2 “Gwynedd in Greyhawk” game. We slipped back into character easily, even though that high fantasy campaign originally ran from 1984 to 1995, and we hadn’t role-played that particular group of characters in more than 20 years.

At SUNY-Binghamton, spring 1987 — The college gang, back in spring of 1987

Janice, Michele, and Nate didn’t participate, but Andy M., another SUNY-Binghamton alumnus now living in Chicago, joined us via Skype (which I use for my regular Sunday night scenarios). Corbin had tracked him down online, and it was great to reconnect after many years. It was also nice to play alongside Mark, who has inherited his parents’ love of games.

Hughes Hall reunion game — “Bellevue-Camelot” reunion, 1986 to 2012

I may eventually write up my notes of what happened within the session, but our jokes and camaraderie were more important than any old rules set or storylines. That said, our adventuring party reunited to raid the tower of a necromancer who had cursed the son of Steve’s Halfling Thief “Branador.”

Of all the Dungeon Masters I’ve been lucky enough to know, my former roommate John is the best at depicting memorable Non-Player Characters, gory battles, and an environment for creative teamwork.

Despite rolling lots of critical fumbles — 1 on 1d20, made worse because I had brought extra dice — we managed to fight our way through various Undead. My Grey Elf Ranger “Aldarion” had some good scouting scenes and was among those to get clobbered in combat. Our group (now about Level 15) had to bargain with extraplanar entities to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Good times!

On Sunday, Janice and I met the gang again. While waiting, I got to see Nate’s blazing pitching ability. While he needs to hone his skills, his strength is undeniable. We went to the Park Plaza Diner for brunch. Although Dave left his wife and son back in Buffalo, N.Y., Corb brought his wife Andria and cheerful daughter Maia.

Steve then took us to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, where we saw a small bit of the damage left by Hurricane Sandy. The others left, and Steve, Janice, and I stopped by St. Mark’s Comics and later met Carlo, Brian D.H., and Erik B.L. and his precocious daughter Emma at the Park Plaza Diner for dinner. (All of the children of our friends resemble their parents in the best ways.) As always, our discussions were illuminating, if too brief.

Reunion in New York City — Friends and family in Brooklyn, November 2012

We returned to Steve & Michele’s place to watch Disney/Marvel’s The Avengers, which Janice and others hadn’t yet seen. The next morning, Janice and I again grabbed breakfast at Montague Street Bagels before heading to Penn Station and back to Massachusetts.

It was great to catch up with old friends, and I hope that we won’t have to wait another 20 years for another fun reunion!

Top 10 things to do when there’s no game

My role-playing groups have had to deal with several schedule disruptions lately, with the latest coming from Hurricane Sandy.

Specialized random weather generators — Rolling the dice

Still, all is not lost — here are some things to do (in no particular order) when there’s no game:

Enjoy the extra time with family members. Or, hide from them.
Review your Player Character records so they’re up to date.
Follow the news media’s breathless coverage.
Make plans with fellow role-players for what your adventuring parties will do next.
Hope that the government/boss will also give you tomorrow off.
Let the Game Masters know what you’d like your characters to do/see/meet next.
Light some candles, invite the neighbors over, and host a seance or board game night.
Review the rules and recent session updates. Just kidding — that’s for G.M.s — recharge your creative batteries by reading or watching something fun.
Sacrifice canned goods to the storm gods.
Prepare extra evil plans for the next time you run something.

Stay safe!

Game changes, late summer 2012 edition

While I’ve been too busy with work lately to do more than post updates regarding my various role-playing games, I realize that it can be confusing to casual readers of this blog who aren’t in my current groups. Here’s some context.

Buckaroo Banzai — A motley but fun group of adventurers

Changing venue

Over the past eight years, my face-to-face groups got used to meeting at my apartments in Needham, Mass., because of their spacious basements. It was convenient to have an area dedicated to our games, with large tables, shelves of reference materials, and miniatures and dice all in one place.

Fortunately, Brian W. and Rich C.G. have graciously taken over hosting duties since my move to Waltham, Mass., this past spring. They both live between my office and home and are still relatively central for the rest of the gang. We may not have as much at hand, but the collection of people is more important than rulebooks or battle maps.

Strange new worlds

The eight or so people who meet on Monday nights have also dealt with the usual seasonal shifts in games. After running alternating crews in my “Vortex” homebrew space opera (using FATE 3e Starblazer Adventures/Mindjammer and Bulldogs) for the past two years, we’ve been trying one-shots and miniseries through the summer.

I’ve enjoyed playing with different genres and rules sets, including Jason E.R.’s “Glassworks” (superheroes using Cortex: Marvel Heroic Role-Playing), Rich’s School Daze one-shot, and Brian’s Dungeon Crawl Classics fantasy retro-clone demonstration. I also got to run a playtest of Dungeons & Dragons Next (Fifth Edition) and play in Rich’s Way of the Wicked scenario for Pathfinder.

We had more ideas than time in which to explore them all! I held off on returning to my “Gaslight Grimoire” steampunk setting, and we didn’t get to Bruce K.’s conversion of the OGL Conan to Pathfinder or Rich or James B.’s Call of Cthulhu or Arkham Horror game.

Telecom turnover

My Sunday night teleconferencing group has also endured changes in membership. Just as I had been running “Vortex” for the Boston-area people, the virtual teams had been playing in my “Vanished Lands” heroic fantasy campaign setting.

For the past few months, Josh C. ran his “Spelljammer: the Show Must Go On” swashbuckling fantasy, using FATE 3e Legends of Anglerre. Even though D&D(4e) and Pathfinder are the most popular systems right now, my groups haven’t used them much lately.

Because of busy lives and “gamer attention deficit disorder,” I’ve found rules-light systems such as FATE to be easier to deal with for character creation and running via Skype or Google+. On the other hand, after another break, most of us are eager to get back to longer-term stories where we can develop characters and settings.

The new normal?

We’re dealing with end-of-summer schedule snafus, but we know what we’ll be playing this coming autumn. The latest Sunday night telecom team has picked “Vortex,” with a few Player Characters continuing from the previous face-to-face crews.

On Mondays, I’ll be running the “Vanished Lands” at Brian’s place. This time around, the group chose D20 retro-clone Basic Fantasy Role-Playing and a carnival-themed adventuring party — about the 39th in that world!

Josh’s “A New Beginning: Mystic Adventures in the Big D” (modern supernatural/urban fantasy set in Dallas using FATE 3e Dresden Files) will meet on alternating weeks with my game. Jason plans to eventually run his “Barsoomian Adventures” planetary romance, probably using Savage Worlds.

I’m sure we’ll also try other tabletop RPGs when we have out-of-town guests or when we can’t get quorum for one of the regular games. Nobody can say that we don’t have a rich fantasy life!