ReMemorex: a Review

It's Tuesday night, a dozen people are in a Jersey City living room. There is dice on the table. A lot of dice on the table, there's also the possibility of a few old kenner Star Wars toys, or a Gen One transformer or two. These mostly aren't retro reissues, mind you, these are the real deals. The GM stands from behind his custom GM screen, with photos of every cool thing from the '80's on it. He doesn't make a speech, not until the video plays.

He turns on his TV, and a clip plays. It's the late 80's opening of HBO feature presentations. If you were a kid around then, you'd know the one. It's the one that opens up over a miniature set of a city and then turns in to a space-opera anthem that makes you want to kick some ass. Then it changes over to a title crawl that the GM and some of the other players editted from scratch to give the impression that the players are cast members of some Early Era HBO drama. Golden Earring's 'Twilight Zone' plays in the background, reminding you that it's 2am and the fear is gone.

This is the opening ritual (and a really good crash summation) for 'ReMemorex', a tabletop game developed by Sean Jaffe of Nerdy City productions. It is an RPG about 'suburban 80's terror' as they would put it. They site the creation of the game on the hit show, Stranger Things, and it shows in that you can play adults, teenagers, or middle schoolers. But it also takes its cues from ET, the Last Starfighter and many others cinematic gems of the 1980's. You are a normal person in a seemingly normal town. And then weird shit happens and now some or all of you have to deal. 

As of the writing of this post (June 1st), Nerdy City has launched the Kickstarter for ReMemorex.

I've been part of the playtest for ReMemorex since February of this year. It helps that most of your house also plays and the developer is a fifteen minute walk from you. So reader beware, I admit to bias. I also think that the game is good without the need to blow smoke at my friends.

As said before, you play a middle schoolar, high school, and/or (our playtest allowed one in each range bracket) adult. Each one of these characters follows the highest form of personality archetypes of the 1980's: John Hughes Breakfast Club. You play a Brain, a Jock, a Princess, A Basket Case or a Burnout

The game's system is in a stripped down style focusing primarily on Roleplay and Narrative over statting it out. Your stats denote who you are, what you do, and a line or phrase attached to them. For example, my character Tommy Johnson is a fourteen year old High School Freshman and one of the earliest computer hackers. His three stats are:

Computer Science Brain

Fledgling Hacker

'I'm In'

Each trait has an active and a passive rating behind it. So the difference between reprogramming an arcade machine (Tommy is a major gamer and actually helps run The Centauri Arcade fun complex, more on that in a second) and knowing that the machine has been tampered with will be different. While this may seem limited, the fun is to justify how to use your skills. For example, Tommy's "I'm In" is a line many hackers have used (or been portrayed using) while cracking a system. I can also use that trait when Tommy needs to sneak in to a place. If you can justify it, chances are good it will fly.

The major mechanic that sets the tone of the entire game are the Tracking Errors. Tracking errors are things you can do when your PC isn't in the scene. These skills are highly Meta in terms of use. The tracking errors I've encountered (though subject to change in the book) are as follows:

- Helping Hand: Adding an element to the scene to directly help the characters present. An example used in a game was a character was being chased by a nasty video tape demon thing (Yeah, it's kinda like that). I, who was not in the scene, rolled a tracking error to add a shovel to the scene to give her a leg up. 

- Monkey Wrench: Adding an element that hinders the characters present. This one is to make a game challenging, but I don't recommend spamming this one. RPGs are about collaborative storytelling, and I will keep repeating that throughout my career until the overall morale improves. Rolling for Monkey Wrenches enough times-especially since you're not in the scene-is a good way to take an RPG to Monopoly levels of anger and frustration.

- Guest Star: I may be making up the title on that one, mea culpa Sean. But the gist is the same. You roll a tracking error that inserts yourself in to the scene. Not your character, but you. You take on the role of an NPC in the room. If a scene is happening in the local dive bar, you can roll a tracking error to play the bartender, so long as the GM doesn't need to use it. 

- Jump Cut: This adds a single detail in to the scene. It doesn't necessarily add anything to the scene, but it's something that adds to the flavor. John Woo throws tracking errors all the time to get those damn doves to appear in his movie. No one mentions them, they are just there for effect...or some times they aren't. When you're being harangued by a paranoid agent of a vague, yet menacing government agency in the video arcade (Such is my character's life) and someone rolls to have the arcade cabinets flicker, it doesn't go well. 

I say "roll for a tracking error", this is a euphemism. It does not mean that there is a stat being rolled or anything. But there is a ritual to the tracking error, of staking your claim by rolling the dice on the table. It signifies the intent, because damn near every gamer will pause at the sound of dice rolls. It's nearly pavlovian. 

I want to point out these tracking errors for a simple reason. While everyone is going to be focused on the Stranger Things bent of the game, the tracking errors give you an understand of how to view this game, at least in my opinion. ReMemorex gives you permission to be Meta about the things that go on in this game. You can do things in reference to movies, shows, books and other pieces of trivia. Hell, you may end up interacting with them. Which, thinking about it, makes it almost a Creepypasta game when you consider it. Think Candle Cove....then maybe stop before too long.

All of this can be best spelled out in the setting designed by Sean Jaffe. Clearfield, Delaware (and it's equally fictional surrounding towns) is a fully fleshed out area with locations ripped straight from the 80's. My character all but lives out of the Centauri arcade complex, where one of his rivals got picked up in a eldritch horror version of The Last Starfighter. He can then go outside to the Wing Cong Chinese Restaurant for a plate of crap spare ribs (the egg rolls are okay, though). There are a million other references laid out.

And my god, has Jaffe laid them out. During one scene, someone asked the distance between two characters houses. He knew them by the cross streets. While I have not read the book yet, I know that most of Clearfield will be laid out for any and all who wish to play in it. Also, several other locations will be supplied by other writers (as yet unannounced) focusing on different areas such as New Mexico, Florida, and more. I'd be interested in doing a Pennsylvania themed game, as I have family in the small towns in the hills that could easily have been Centralia if they weren't careful. 

Having played the game, I find it a refreshing take on storytelling. While it isn't a GMless game, there is a higher degree of collaboration involved. And while it does some times split up the party (a usually no-no in most RPGs) it doesn't remove player agency. If anything, and to paraphrase the developers, you almost have more agency when you aren't in the scene.

Some people may shy away from the game because it swivels so strongly to 80's nostalgia. I was one of them. I was born in '86, and only barely remember the tail end of the decade. It's a little daunting when the year of the setting is several months after you were born! But honestly a little research and a cursory binge of some classic movies and TV shows will clear you up. Seriously, for my gamer/hacker I watched WarGames, Last Starfighter, Tron and even that Nintendo shill movie, The Wizard. 

Also, you're not as married to the era. I know of at least one Memorex game being run in the mid 90's, a full decade later.  I'll be interested to see campaigns of potential "Modern Era" games being played. Although I somehow imagine them to run like an episode of the new Twin Peaks. You recognize a lot of the faces, but things have changes and have gotten even weirder. 

To close, ReMemorex is a game for those who want to feel nostalgic while also dealing with the Eldritch Forces beyond your ken, of taking the mundanity of suburbia and give it a good old shake up in a way that would make Lovecraft and Cronenberg proud. It's high on roleplay and storytelling, without the mess or fuss of heavy stats. 

You may check out their Kickstarter project HERE

Star Wars: The Seven Masters (Episode 0)

This is cross posted with my Star Wars Blog, The Snark Side of the Force.


Some of you may know me as a guy who is really in to Star Wars, I've written about it and put on enough shows and classes about the subject. Some of you also know me as someone who loves games. I've played, run, and developed several RPGs and LARP settings. So, when given the opportunity to do both at the same time, I decided to take it.


I created a tabletop campaign using Fantasy Flight Games book, Force and Destiny. Force and Destiny is one of three corebooks that FFG put out, one focusing on a specific part of the Star Wars setting. Edge of the Empire focuses on the fringer groups like bounty hunters, explorers, smugglers, and scoundrels; Age of Rebellion focuses on playing members of the Rebel Alliance, so you can feel what it's like to be an X-Wing pilot or be a member of Rogue One. Force and Destiny is, as it suggests, centered on portraying Jedi or other Force Sensitives in the age of the Empire.


FFG's system relies on the use of dice with symbols instead of numbers. Certain symbols determine the success and advantage of an action while others determine the failure and threats to that action. The symbols cancel each other out and the remaining is the result. You can have successes with disadvantages, or failures with the potential advantages. Much of the effect is determined through interpretation and narration. This is fascinating, but it's also not initially intuitive for people used to more qualitative systems like d20. A friend had described the system as akin to 'reading chicken entrails'.


Here is a brief video rundown of the system from a fan: Mechanics Video


Going through the core-book of Force and Destiny, I'm going to be honest and say that I'm not a particular fan of the writing. The language behind it is passive, and usually requires several read throughs to understand exactly what is being said. Even then, I had to go through several youtube tutorials and runthroughs of the book series. Part of this, I feel, comes from the sense that it is trying very hard to come across brand new role players buying in for the Star Wars brand. This came out the most in terms of the Careers and Specializations, with me having to fill in certain gaps, especially in the way that the different Lightsaber Specialists differed in style of character from one another other than 'you use the lightsaber differently'. It gives you an idea of what they do, but there was something to be said about taking time to talk about what these specialists are like.


I will say that the Force and Destiny book does something that I truly appreciate. There are six careers in the book, classes that depict the styles of being a Jedi. In each is one of the first six of the Seven Forms of Lightsaber Combat (they omit Juyo, assuming that most of the players are light siders). The writing of the Forms are short, but they give fairly good descriptions of the Forms themselves (again,the characters are another story).


I've played Fantasy Flight's other Star Wars property, X-wing Minis. In their war game where you control ships from the Star Wars Saga, the company has a beautiful knack for tying the theme of the ship and pilots to their mechanics. This similar consideration for the mechanical themes of the Forms is what stuck in my mind for a while before I decided to sit down and make a game. I knew that, if I were to make a RPG, I wanted to do a story about Jedi, and the Force, and Lightsabers (because duh). So I gathered my roommates together, all of whom are gamers and game designers of some stripe or another. I wanted to sit down with them and get a better feel for the system and the writing. We are all nerds, and we wanted to see where we could go with this.


So this was how the story of the Seven Masters began.


The story of the Seven Masters takes place centuries after the events of the movies. The corebooks in the series takes place during the events of the original trilogy. I didn't want to do this, because 1) I don't necessarily want to retread old ground and 2) I'm living with people who know Star Wars as well as I do, the ability to get Meta about the whole thing would not put me in the mood. So, I did what most of the Star Wars fan groups do when they want to tell an original story: Put it so far in to the future that everything that we've seen before is considered legendary or a myth. This keeps everything away from stepping on the toes of being canon. It saves time, and aggravation of fans (or other writers) pulling out flowcharts and wookiepedia articles screaming


So the name 'Skywalker' is a footnote, and Organa is barely listed as a founder of New Alderaan. The Hutts still hold sway, but more and more gangs and pirates have control. Coruscant is once again the capital of the Republic (since Hosnian didn't really do that great of a job in the Force Awakens). Out there, the Sith Remnant still exist, but if they are doing anything, they are being silent about it. Having played the Old Republic games, you learn that culture and technology runs at a snails pace in this galaxy, with advancements stalling to varying degrees for tens of thousands of years. Considering the used feeling of technology in Episodes IV, V, VI and VII, this may indicate periods like the Dark Ages at varying points. I degress.


The Jedi are much more lenient than before. They still maintain the tradition of finding and training infants, but they also raise older students to control their late blooming (or under the radar) powers. The Jedi Code, once seen as The Law of the Jedi (and still is for many conservative members), has returned to being a mantra to calm its users.


The game focuses on six characters, four of them are Jedi, two are non-Jedi and may or may not be Force Sensitive.


The Jedi:

- Kothalas 'Ko' Vita (played by Nico): a Twi'lek former slave, being trained as a lightsaber duelist.


- Zara Dawnwheel (played by Abigail): a Human with exceptional Mind Reading abilities, but little control.


- Sanoia (played by Shoshana): A Zabrak with anger/discipline issues.


- Shalya Fortuna (played by Josh): a Twi'lek, and a stalwart exemplar of what a Jedi should be (or at least what they assume it to be).


The Spacer and the Hunter:

- Amiwara (played by Gia): a female Wookie Smuggler, uses a device to translate shyriiwook...badly.


- Alto Spinex (played by Sean): a Trandoshan Hunter who is protecting Amiwara...despite the Trandoshans and Wookies hating each other for millenia.


After we had set up the characters and their sheets, we decided to go in to some light Roleplay to give everyone the opportunity to get a feel for their characters. There wasn't going to be any dice thrown, just interactions with each other. We did this primarily because by the time we had made our characters and got a crash course on the rules, it was already 10 (we started at 7) and starting the campaign in proper wouldn't have made sense. What follows was improvised for the most part.


So, to open. Star Wars: The Seven Masters. Episode Zero.


The scene begins on Coruscant, a the Jedi Temple. Sanoia, Zara, Shalya and Ko are all in a meditation chamber with Master Revas, a Mon Calamari. The meditation is working with varying degrees of success, Zara is having trouble tuning the thoughts of others out, and Sanoia is having trouble committing to the meditation. Kothalas and Shalya discuss their different viewpoints of being a Twi'lek, and express interest in being stationed on Ryloth.


Meanwhile, on Takodana, Amiwara is approached by Maz Kanata to deliver a special package to the Jeid. It is a hexagonal cube of black material with silver trim on all of the intersections. As Amiwara is preparing to leave, they are dragged down by Alto and told that they need to run. They flee to a freighter, and are soon attacked by armed assailants. They flee the planet and set to go to Corscant, despite Alto's protestations.


Credit to this scene goes to Gia and Sean. They had suggested the relationship between Amiwara and Alto at the very beginning of character creation. By the time we got to the scene we realized that it was going to be the beginning of the relationship, and not backstory. So Takodana and Maz are now officially canon. As will probably be said in the future This Can't Possibly Come Back To Bite Us Later.


They are greeted at the Jedi Temple, and lead to the same meditation chambers to await one of the High Council members. The droid makes an error, and leads them to the same chamber as the four students and Revas. All of the Jedi immediately recognize that the device Amiwara is carrying is a Holocron, although the make and design of it are not of the usual configuration.


There is some confusion between the six, which leads to the holocron being jostled. Sanoia reaches out with the Force to stabilize the device, which in turn activates. A hologram appears, showing a white, vaguely humanoid mask. It introduces itself as a teaching tool, and then asks its location. Upon learning it is in the Jedi Temple, it asks if the Jedi High Council is in attendance. Zara confirms that they Council is present, and currently in a heated debate, although she cannot discern the subject of argument.


Then, things begin to go weird. The lights in the meditation hall begin to flicker, and confusion is ripe in the air throughout the area. Attempts to stop the holocron is halted by the power inside of it. As Shalya runs to the door to warn the Knights and Masters, the holocron says: "Begin the Invasion".


The game ends as the characters are all knocked unconscious by the power of the holocron.


This was a fun run, which aside from the holocron was more or less improvised on the spot. I had originally intended the game that will be happening next time to happen tonight, but it was good to set some landmarks on our characters and the setting before we start throwing chops. It also gets the players thinking more about their characters and their connections, to one another and the world. I love character ties, because it gives the game a tighter sense of self.


One of the greater challenges is to make this game feel like a Star Wars game. To keep the themes and tone of the series intact and inherent to the game. More challenging (because of course I couldn't just focus on the damn smugglers book and went straight to the more complex force users) is to make a story about Jedi interesting. I've mentioned before, and will definitely mention again, that many people view the Jedi as boring and that storytelling with Jedi can be a challenge.


The inherent challenge in an RPG campaign is that it's playing in a sandbox instead of on the rails that a movie script provides. How does a Jedi react to certain things when they don't have an inherent prompt to follow and it is up to them to make the judgment call? What is the 'line' between Light and Dark? If the Force has a will (as Chirrut Imwe claims), then how much control and agency does one have?


This will be an ongoing campaign, and I look forward to doing these recaps, as I think that it will entertain and possibly help people looking to portray Jedi (and yes Sith) characters and tell their stories in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.





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Two Paths: A State of the Kensei Address

 Last month I attended Metatopia, Double Exposure's convention that allows developers to field their prototype games and for players to be part of the ground floor of up and coming products. While it is hands down the most laid back convention in my yearly cycle, this Metatopia was a busy one. I was a part of two panel discussions: one for the psychological reasonings for role playing, and to discuss ways to combat the notion of Trickle Down Plot (which I'll do an article on, now that I have time). I also tested several upcoming games, and got to meet and reacquaint myself with friends and people I have  come to know at these conventions.

It was also the second year that I brought in my game Kensei to be looked at in a focus group. This past year saw some progress on the game, based largely by the assistance found from the people I had spoken to at last year. There have been some playtests, especially of the combat systems, as since that is the key component to these games I wanted it to be clear.

One of the things I kept hearing was "I love the setting, but as the system stands I wouldn't play it." The system was based on previous boffer experiences plus a few other concepts (the stamina gauge from Dark Souls). I wasn't married to any of these concepts, because quite honestly I'm not that keen on mechanics as a whole. The entirety of this blog probably stands on that point more than anything else.

I do, however, understand that a game like this demands mechanics. It needs them just for the purposes of balancing skills and keeping people from walking around being broken in terms of their sheet. I hate sheet breaking in the games I've played and I will do all that I can mitigate it in my own systems.

Another problem I came across was an avoidance of 'The math game". A lot of boffer larps require you to keep numbers in your head in terms of your health and ability points. One of my first thoughts when I started doing boffer was "This could be subtly abused". It depends on the honor system, so much of what we do does, and honor is something on a short supply from what I've experienced.

That was your cynicism moment of the day. Thank you.

The problem with the math game is that the more numbers you have to crunch in your head, the less in the moment you're in. I want people to enjoy the ride, not have to count the road markers.

So where do we go from here? There are two roads, from where I'm standing. I can turn and say 'This is focused on actual combat ability'. The combat in the game is dependant largely on your combat ability as a player. I know there is a market for that and it would probably be received with open arms. I, however, am not part of that market.

Working with the gaming community, I see so many diverse people. Both culturally and physically. Several developers I work with have body mechanics that are not typical, often requiring wheelchairs or other tools. I myself am visually impaired As much as this is a setting surrounding combat, I don't want the game to be just about the combat. That's not the point, and I know that I'm going to run in to people who think this is going to be a game for hitters and get horribly confused about all of the plot going on.

Also, I'm noticing a trend in upcoming games that are attempting to break away from the normal conventions of boffer larps. The focus is more community driven, person driven. The combat isn't the premiere feature.

So far I'm leaning towards the other side of the road. One of the things about Kensei is that the meta language we use for games, like 'Level' 'Experience' 'Skills' are all language used in game. Skills, in particular, are designed to be purchaseable, craftable, and swappable. You can own dozens of skills, only have room to use maybe a handful of them at the time, and go to ops to get them swapped out. Making skills a physical item, Kensei starts leaning closer to a card-based RPG.

In my head, Kensei was always a larp. With this new development it A) opens up to a Tabletop component, which I'm not going to deny means this goes out to more people and B) opens the potential for accessibility.

And that's the catch, the potential. There is a broad road ahead down that path, with no definitive end in sight. As far as I know, no one has tried to do this, and of course I had to be the poor son of a bitch to decide to do this. I blame my upbringing of melodrama and sword fights.

One such example given to me focused on the use of teams. Fighters and their dedicated corner crew, like a boxing match. The fighter is out there doing the heavy lifting, the crew makes sure that they are able to do just that. The crew handles the mechanics while the fighter acts out the results. I like the idea, but it also makes great grounds for clique attitudes out of game. It's easy for a team of players to roll in and be a great team while some new player needs to struggle to find someone. I want to keep the use of teams as an advantage, not as mandatory. Still a good idea.

In the coming year, I'm going to switch tracks. I think that if this is a game that focuses on the community surrounding combat, I think so too should the skills. How do people deal with the world on a base level? How does investigations work? Crafting? Maybe by defining how the world interaction works, I can zero in on how I want the personal interaction.

And that's it for me. This game is one of those labors of love that will, inevitably, be born. Next year will see a bunch of new games from me, and some new experiences as I work to building more of my resume in the field.

Happy New Year All

C

One Shot Attitudes

This post took a while for me to write. Mostly because of life, work, and I'm working on a blog about lightsabers so I can stop crossing the streams too much. 

Most of my time at GenCon was spent running around the floor of the convention doing errands and purchasing a metric crap ton of books to research and pick through and play. I only got to take part in two or three games that entire weekend. Some things happened during two of them that I need to share.

In one game, a new player made the choice to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the game. Actually, let me rephrase that. Using the powers of his faith in Heavy Metal, a modern day battlebard marched to oncoming doom, flanked on all sides by soldiers of Valhalla (and I don't mean the town in Upstate New York) while playing Immigrant Song by Led Zepplin. The player, completely cool with this, figured that as long as this was a one shot, what did they have to lose?

In another game, a player makes the decision to have his character be that guy, the one who is the firebrand, the instigator. John Adams with a bottle of mescaline in one hand a fireball in the next. He gets himself and two players in to the hands of a horrible entity. He figured that, as long as this was a one shot, what did they have to lose?

The problem with this was that these games were not One Shots. They were not meant to standalone by themselves and were in fact a part of a larger narrative that had been taking place for years both at GenCon and at other locations. In the first scenario, the outcome ended with a player making a decision that ended up effectively ending the threat to the players. However, in the second, the firebrand player realized that one of the characters he had dragged with had been in play for the better part of five years. Quite a few of the players at both games had been playing these particular characters for years.

The firebrand player immediately toned down his attitude, now realizing that there were consequences to his actions that would last beyond the day. And I think that says a lot about how people view One Shot games as opposed to Campaigns games. That level of fearlessness that comes with knowing that you may never see these players again, nor have to deal with the in game consequences that would come if the setting didn't end at the call of game, left to waver in the great 'what if' as all cliffhangers do.

That fearlessness is refreshing, but it is not without its problems. Both of these people took their characters to self destruction. Because what is a life free of consequences if you can't take it to its ultimate conclusion? You don't get to see that much in Campaigns/Chronicles because for some of us, creating and playing a character is an investment in time and resources. You need to bang together a character's background, even a skeleton, make sure you can costume as them, and maybe make some ties to other characters. Depending on the game you're playing and the person you are, you have to make that decision as to whether or not you want to play a character who has that level of fear.

Also, by playing a Chronicle game, you're essentially buying in to the larger plot. Are you prepared to throw your PC or other players' characters away on something daring? That last one is the situation that caught our firebrand friend, but I've seen it used to great affect in other situations. I helped build a character for a (now) friend who wanted to build a character who used magic that would be seen as pushing the border of grey magic. I explained that some players/NPCs might see that as a killing offense. He went for it, and it was a blast to see him play off of others. He wasn't playing it to the level of "well, if this is the only game we're all playing, what do we have to lose?" I think the difference is there.

I think there is something to say against playing campaign games at conventions like GenCon, especially if your base of operations is nowhere near the Indianapolis area as most of the game runners weren't and most people expect one offs anyway. In one game, several of us spent a good chunk of time explaining the setting to the new players, which is fine in of itself but when there isn't time to do that then people can get lost in a hurry. Campaign games will, with very few exceptions, always favor those who have played in it before with the new players needing to get over the learning curve provided by the setting and mechanics. When you're only playing a game that lasts maybe four or five hours and you never know if you'll ever play again, that can be supremely overwhelming.

I think when doing conventions or games outside of your sphere of influence, you need to bang the point home that the game you're working on is part of an overarching chronicle, and that the players decisions stand to influence what happens next. Last year at GenCon, the players in the Dresden Game unleashed what I can only refer to as a Ghost Storm that nearly consumed the continental United States. That storm was not resolved until later that February, which the STs had declared potentially chronicle ending. That's an amazing example to give to players and should be used as an example.

Another thing to consider: Find ways to plug your players in to the overarching plot. Not just the plot of the game, but the world game you're building. If the plot you're using is only going to really affect the the people you're used to playing, or requires someone from your usual pool to help, then you may want to consider tweaking things around. I've spent a lot of game sessions being sequestered to the kiddie's table while the more clued in characters/players got to do shit. We as storytellers need to make these first time/few time players feel like they spent their money wisely and not just as people holding up the set while others are around. I'm not saying to guide them by the hand, but to give them something and see what happens from it.

Ashes of the Empire: Ilos Marr

This is a short and dirty story I wrote for the Star Wars larp I'm going to be playing in a few weeks. All information is OOC information...unless you were there.

There were 26 bones in the average humanoid's hands. The young Imperial Lieutenant who had challenged Ilos Marr--or as the officer put it, "The blind mongrel"--just learned that the hard way as every bone in his hand cracked in one deft motion. The Red Academy of Yinchorr were familiar with the screams of those who challenged their Master of Teras Kasi. Ilos felt he was providing a service to the cadets and troopers, dissuading them of the notion that somehow non-humans were inferior. 

This lieutenant continued screaming, his words slowly returning to coherency. "Inhuman dog," he screamed. "Blind mutt."Ilos felt the world stir around him. There were those who shared the young man's sentiment, who had not yet been tested or who had resented being taught by a Miralukan. Men like these, Ilos found, would die in the Squall during their graduation. The Red Guard did not brook weakness. Not of body, not of heart. Ilos hated them all, but he had his pride to contend with. 

There were also those he felt who would stand with him. He was given some leeway in his methods, which many of the offices resented due to the little rebellions they had to deal with on his part. They respected their instructor, some he suspected even liked him. He assumed they must forget the sash over the empty sockets where eyes would be and just think him some mad eccentric with strange powers.

They were wrong on all counts. The mad eccentric was the Emperor they served. He and his vicious guard dog, Vader. That was a fight many would love to see, including Ilos himself. He doubted he could kill either Sith--and he knew they were Sith, despite the coverup of that information--but he would make it worth their while. At least he would get an honest death out of it all. Something with honor. 

But no, he had arrogant Coruscanti lieutenants to contend with. That was not a noble death. The young man continued. "Blind dog. So arrogant. When the Emperor learns you lay your hands on me, he'll have you spaced." Ilos felt the tension rise, sparks of orange and red rising in his 'vision'. The color rose, and violence rose in his heart and his gorge, and then--the world went dark around him. It was as if the Force without stopped speaking to the Force within. It was a moment's notice, and he dared not move or show he was any lesser than a Master of Teras Kasi. 

The world returned, and so did the violence. Something felt different. The world around him felt cleaner. 

"Attention all personnel" A voice from the intercom spoke. Ilos did not know the person, apparently they were knew. Many of the staff of the Academy saw this as a stepping stone to the Star Destroyers, perhaps even the Executor itself. There was urgency in the woman's tone, fear, and shock. What had happened?

"Attention all personnel," she said again. "We have just received word from Endor. The Death Star has been destroyed. I repeat, destroyed. As has the Executor. We believe--" There was a moment of silence, loud enough for the gasps to already begin in the room. "We believe that Emperor Palpatine and Lord Vader are dead."

The world went still, all emotions vanished. All but fear. Fear of a world where their Emperor and the Great Darth Vader were dead. Fear of a world where the Republic and the Jedi Wizards they were told to hunt would be rampant. Fear of Ilos. Even those who would have rallied for him realized that many of the things that kept their instructor in check were no longer there. The world around him held its breath. 

Ilos stood straight. "I will be in my quarters." It was as much a dismissal as it was a challenge to anyone who dared to try anything. He suspected that the administrators would have everyone moving to try and maintain order. The last thing they needed was him moving around freely. 

He made his way through the panic halls of the academy, finding his way to the austere quarters. He sealed the door and found his bed. He took off his veil, cloth his mother made for them. He realized in that moment that the Skywalker boy must have done it. Ashla protects fools and Jedi. He thought of Siledy, and how she was after she escaped the Empire. He thought of Xan, and prayed to Ashla to protect that girl now that her world had just changed. 

He thought of his parents, of a woman who could have been his wife. He thought of how The Force ripped through him when they died at the Emepror's command. He thought of the generation of his people killed for fear of Jedi or turned to become Inquisitors. He had been robbed of his chance to kill Sheev Palpatine and Darth Vader, robbed of his chance to die proud of something for the first time since he'd been blackmailed in to serving those Sith bastards. He had been robbed, and given something he hadn't felt in a while: Hope.

And in the crumbling ashes of the empire, Ilos Marr cried tears of joy.

A Dream of Kensei

Work and life have been pretty hard the past few weeks. My days have been spent doing the 9-5 grind, and my nights have been spent doing writing for various writing projects. Add the occasional con or event, and I'm more or less putting down three jobs with only one of them paying right now.

Meanwhile, I've been dreaming of Kensei, the world martial arts tournament larp I've been working on for almost three years now. It's been hard going. I knew that making a boffer larp that was explicitly Character vs Character was going to be difficult. Most boffers are made with the characters taken on the Environment taking on the fore, with most of the CvC having to conform to those rules, oft times with major imbalances in mechanics. I didn't realize what kind of animal I was trying to tackle.

I researched a lot of material, from martial arts movies up and down the gambit (the Jean Claude Van Dam library has a lot of these) , to movies about sports tournaments, to video games and comic book arcs. I've even gotten back in to watching WWE again (As I'm writing this, I'm watching one of the best women's wrestling match ever on Wrestlemania). I wanted to understand how one could tell a story through violence, what brings people in to these situations, what are the stakes entering and what happens after the fight?

I'm still working on the details. The devil is in the mechanics. The problem is to make the game 1) fun 2) balanced and 3) as inclusive as possible. I am not a mechanics man, but the scaffolding is slowly being built. Metatopia 2015 was a big boon for me, helping me narrow down my view on the game in terms of "this is what people do and are here for."

But what's been sitting in my mind recently is how I would love to have this game played. How I want it to look when this is all said and done. I see games happening four to six times a year, no more or less. It takes place on a campground somewhere, a place that allows for sprawling views (and relatively soft ground). It also allows for events that can go on for a few days as tournaments and matches can happen during the night. An ingame radio (or hell, a podcast, technology exists here) is playing music and keeping the grounds (and people not at game) aware of the goings on.

The fights go on, the merchants sell off their wares at a part of the camp while the med techs have taken over another section to work on medical issues that happen. The reporters have dug in somewhere in to some bullpen that's a cross between William Gibson and Hunter S Thompson. The Schools have meetings in cabins at night, run promos during the day. The local underworld elements make deals and sell on the side while hiding from the authorities or worse, the press.

And all the while, the powers that be play their games. Agents and Sponsors move about, watching for ways to lobby

I don't want this to be a game just about beating each other with sticks. That's stupid. I want this to be a story about competition told through violence. What brings people to fight and compete against one another? What are the stakes? I want the roleplay to fuel the matches, and the matches to create more roleplay.

And, at the end of the 'season' of events is the big event. The blowout, where storylines can change and the stakes really matter. Right now, I have the makings of a three-five year arc. It's in my head, and I'd love to get as many people involved.

But  that's when we get this off the ground. First there needs to be smaller events, to tweak the mechanics, to build interest. It's going to need players invested. It's going to need people wanting to help make the game. This game is going to require a lot of marshalls on deck, both to officiate the matches and to make sure that the rules are being fulfilled in the spirit in which they are intended.

First we need to make it real, then we get to live the dream.

Later.

Dreamation 2016

So I feel like I just had a rough make out session with an angry steam roller. You know what that means, I just helped run Dresden Lives at Dreamation 2016. The con drop is pretty severe this time around. I described it to people that my drawer of spoons--the metaphor for my social-emotional energy reserves--was not only empty before I got to the convention, it was on fire. Work has not been entirely gentle on me (hence the lack of blogging) and I have been catching up on five different kinds of writing and sleep. Is it possible to get con drop before walking in to the con? I'm pretty sure I got close to that answer.

It was a full docket at Dreamation. Working with Phoenix Outlaw Productions, I helped to run three games. The first of them was the Time Traveler's After Hours. Set in Death (of the Endless)'s bar, famous time travelers from fiction met, snarked, and generally fucked up time in six different directions. The first thing I heard walking in was hearing someone yell "Okay! Who made Biff Tannen the president of the United States." Things went downhill fast after that. Time broke up in to multiple fractured lines. The US was removed from existence in one, roving bands of Mongol Death Metal Hordes thrashed across the steppes in another. Taco Bell became the dominant mega power in another (thanks Deadpool), massive Brains took over the universe, discovered the internet, and effectively became the four-chan version of the Borg. The Kender and Deadpool engaged in a revolution using mind controlled dinosaurs, only to fall to civil war. Then came the Dead-Kender Accords, and all was well in that world.

Some other timelines...weren't as lucky. Neutrino Bombs claimed one timeline, The Warcraft Wars spilled blood everywhere wave after wave of ceaseless expansions. But all that was constant was that England was spared in a great time bubble protected by its four greatest guardians: John, Paul, George, and Ringo. The storytelling was pretty light here, and was mostly at the whim of the players. It was honestly the funniest experience I've ever had, and there were many times where I had to stop drawing the timeline in order to compose myself.

Afterwards was a haze of hanging out and catching up with friends I had not seen in a while, including the Outlaws. I'd forgotten how much I'd missed interactions with people, and very much loved talking and even just listening to conversations. Just that level of interaction kept me going until the wee hours. I wasn't on the hook for anything until Friday afternoon, I could afford for once to be a night person again.

Friday afternoon was the first of our Dresden games. While connected to our modern game, this was set in the 1930's. It's always amazing to see a lot of players from our normal game come in to try something a little new. Some came in as new characters, others came in as ancestors of their or other players modern characters. It was interesting to watch people who had worked with each other for years as one set of characters find a different tack. A lot of the first hour or so was just getting everyone settled in, and then we'd make the plot go.

It was a fun take, that ended in sacrifice and destruction. All in all, it set the bar for what people should have expected for the modern game on saturday night. We'll get to that in a moment.

After that was my friend Ericka's game of Agents of SHIELD, set in the era of Agent Carter. As much as I wanted to play the game, I knew my limit. I had fun, but I was burned and knew that I was on the hook for two more games back-to-back saturday. I opted out, and heard rave reviews from those I spoke to.

The rest of my night was spent in the lobby, again listening and talking to others. I actually did try to work on Kensei and some lightsaber stuff, but those books ended up never leaving my pocket. I got in to a lot of heated debates about Star Wars, and did get to go on a twenty minute diatribe about Kensei and all the things I'd like to do and things that need to be done for it. So far, people seem interested. Now, I think, it's time to build a team and make that sucker happen.

Saturday morning was the Dystopia Rising mod. All of my friends and roomates are, or were, staff at one or more of the numerous DR games that have swept the nation. To say I was the vocal minority in the "fuck, please, no, I need sleep" category is to make an understatement. I did however go down for a bit to say hello and wish people good luck. Then Michael Pucci, co-founder of Dystopia and its parent Eschaton Media, looked at me and said "You wanna take a peek?"

So I got a tour of the game space. Michael wanted to simulate a hurricane in post-apocalyptia. Now, I want to remind you all that we were in a hotel in Morristown New Jersey. But it's amazing what you can do with several industrial fans, some spray bottles, a sound and lighting system I'd kill for for New York Jedi, and a mad-genius mentality. Folks, they put a goddamned hurricane in to a hotel ballroom.

I left the game area with the very strong impression that Michael is the evil mirror universe version of Willy Wonka...and that room was the psychedelic gondola.

I took the rest of the morning to pick up a few things. Of them was the World Wide Wrestling RPG. It was my first time with a system Powered By the Apocalypse, and I think I'm going to do a review of it in the coming weeks. I'm not the only Outlaw who has it, and I'm pretty sure that one day soon we'll be having the Phoenix Cup tournament. (Pretty Please?)

The afternoon saw ExArcana. This was my first game working as a marshall for them. The rules for ExA and Chronos are both very straightforward and very different and really do rely on a lot more improvisation than what I'm used to. I also got to play my PC, Lin, who while he didn't do much got to make several decisions that may come to bite him in the ass in the near future. The main plot of the game revolved around a love story, which is something you don't inherently see a lot of in american theater larps. More on that as the plot develops.

And then, the Main Event: Dresden Files. It was the first time we had run a Dresden game for our local players since July. Since then, a lot had happen both in plot and for the game itself. So, of course, we opened up by laying it all on the line that the world could, conceivably, end. There was a moment in the storytellers meeting a week or so previously where we realized that with all of the factors running around that they world could get so borked that we would be forced to reset the game.

The game started off with a death. My NPC, Joseph Parrish, was a Warden of the White Council. He protected mortal magic users from supernatural threats and from themselves. He put one renegade wizard under his probationary gaze. However, due to a full blown war, Parrish lost sight of the Wizard who took part in a ritual that caused the deaths of hundreds of mortal combatants. The White Council doesn't like people who murder with magic. It's their first law. And, as the Wizard's keeper, Parrish was as culpable for those deaths as the Wizard was. So the game was kicked off by Warden Parrish getting executed by his colleagues.

It was rough for me, because I liked that character. There were conversations previous to the scene where Shoshana had to sit me down while trying to write a badass ending for him and went "Craig, he's gotta take a knee." And he did take a knee, and then he laid down. I found out later that several people cried when he died. I consider this a victory as a storyteller.

The game ended with the world relatively saved. But people had sacrificed a lot. People made personal sacrifices to get to the warzone, losing core truths along the way, only to find that the battle had ended (that wasn't planned). Watching the horror and dread reveal themselves on the characters (and players) faces was amazing. People left the game feeling 'mindfucked' about what had happened, but in the best possible of ways. Dresden can do that to people.

In the end, Dreamation was fun. Tiring, but fun. I'm sad I missed some fun stuff, but I'm also glad I got the free time I did. Energy is at a premium, especially coming straight from work to the convention and then right back to work less than twelve hours after it ended. The next convention, Dexcon, is going to be even more challenging as I am tentatively on the hook to be a part of four to six games. I don't intend to sleep much July 4th weekend. As always, the convention gave me a lot of new ideas to putt around here. Expect some new posts as they come. I know I haven't been on much, but I'm always thinking of new things for ya.

Later,

C