Latest Articles and Activities of Game Designer Jim Davenport
In support of the Savaged Serenity characters I’ll be posting soon, I created some new Edges and Hindrances compatible with Savage Worlds. Check them out here: New Edges and Hindrances.
About a month ago I ran a six hour Serenity adventure for some friends of mine at an annual gathering we call “The Ohio Game”. I play almost exclusively Savage Worlds these days so that’s what I ran the adventure under. I’m intending to run that adventure again at Origins in 2012 so look for “Price of Success” in the game grids if you want to grab a seat at my table.
Anywho, I figured it was time to get some more goodies up on Dragonlaird Gaming so I’m posting the Serenity crew in the Savage Worlds rules system. These are free of charge (M*tant En*my please don’t sue) and using the Fan version of the Savage Worlds license. You will need the Savage Worlds rule book to use the characters (and hey, they have an awesome new deluxe edition out new this summer!)
So here’s the first installment: Captain Malcolm Reynolds.
Okay, I saw it first on a newspaper headline outside a store (which shows that I’m still way behind on being a highly connected uber geek technologically) but then I found it online as well.
DC Comics is rebooting 52 of their major characters.
DC Publishers Reboot Announcement
This isn’t just another issue renumbering ploy to pump up sales. They are saying, “We screwed up. We’re sorry. We’re going to pretend we were just in the shower the whole time and it was a dream.” For me, I really just follow Batman as a DC title so what does that mean?
Dick Grayson as Batman? Gone.
Batman International? Gone.
They rolled the dice when the “killed”* Bruce Wayne and brought him back but let someone else be Batman, buying into the version of Batman that has a bunch of other superheroes in the city as a network of heroes almost like a Gotham City Justice League or something. I’d LOVE to see their actual sales totals since that experiment started. I think it’s been several months in the new mode and the sales must have tanked for them to pull this. They’ll be abandoning characters and storylines set up in the new model completely, as far as I can tell.
And I’m glad they did. They were starting to lose me. Some titles still had Bruce as Batman and were kind of hinting that the stories were set in the past or something. I’d dropped the titles in the new model (which says something because for a long time if it had Batman in it, I bought it).
I know it must be hard for them to keep creating stories about a character who can never change, who can’t evolve and develop… who won’t ever “get over” his parent’s murder and the near-psychopathic alternate identity he’s constructed to deal with it. I get that, but you can’t change who he is. Bruce the loner, highly resistant to making bonds with others, just doesn’t play right to me as being a leader of a bunch of other vigilante heros. Robin and Alfred are the areas for them to play with that part of Bruce’s personality.
I see it like someone writing a new story about King Arthur. You want to bring something new to it, but if you change who Arthur was in his core concept, then you aren’t really writing about the same guy. I don’t have a problem with people writing 100,000 Batman stories where he never seriously evolves. If you picked up a new Robin Hood story, you’d expect to find the Sheriff of Nottingham as his nemesis, the Merry Men hanging around somewhere, and Maid Marian as his true love.
Story-telling doesn’t have to maintain continuity with every other story ever told. I don’t know if it was the movies that did it or what, but keeping “canon” is a fairly recent invention in the life of story-telling. I think that DC and Marvel bought into having a ~consistent “universe” where all their characters exist and can cross-over and interact, and got trapped by the fan base and technology in maintaining the sense of not contradicting something published before. You go a couple decades like that and you have written yourself into a box.
So I hope DC is buying itself some room and creative freedom with this whole reboot thing. I like that they are teasing us with Batman titles where Bruce is the only wearer of the costume again. It certainly helped Marvel when they rebooted after having Spider-Man reveal his identity as part of the Civil War event. Rebooting let them clean up all the dozens of people who knew his secret identity, having learned it in this story or that over the years. The world “forgot” that they knew he was Spider-Man. I even read commentaries by some of the lead creators talking about getting back to his core character concepts.
Speaking of Spider-Man, I also like the Spider-Man Ultimate series which is a separate continuity and is much more free to give Spider-Man big changes in his story, almost like they are expecting it to be a limited run so they aren’t worried about supporting decades of future continuity.
* Oh, yeah, and the “let’s kill
Okay, so I just wrote about ending campaigns. Yes a big climax would be a notable piece of a campaign, but if you’ve really done it well, your players won’t want to leave their characters or even just the world they’ve become invested in. No fear! There are ways around the finality of a campaign.
1. The literary character rule: Many characters were created in a canon of stories created out of any particular chronology (Conan, Sherlock Holmes, the Shadow). They were akin to truly episodic television where the core cast of characters and premise did not change from story to story. Conan walked alone in the ancient lands seeking glory and his own kingdom. Using these concepts, why not weave an adventure into the history of the player characters? Take them back to when they were mid-way through their adventuring careers (dig out the old character sheets) and construct a “Never Told Tale of the Untouchable Trio+1!” as Knights of the Dinner Table would put it. It could be a side adventure with no relevance to their overall story, or it might even weave in foreshadowing of the campaign climax that they would enjoy with their knowledge of the future.
2. Now that you’re King rule: If there is enough support for it, you could start a new era of the campaign with the character’s beginning at the height they achieved with the first climax. (Don’t talk about this with them unless they lobby to keep the campaign going… you don’t want to diminish the satisfaction and accomplishment if they just want to let the campaign stand as is.) Rethink the campaign from the point of view of their new positions in the world. Is one now king with all the attendant responsibilities, perks, and dangers? Are there evils in the world far more menacing that old Lord Bone and his skeleton-men? It would be a rare occasion that the king, the high priest of the church, and the Lord Mistress of Rangers need to step together to journey and adventure. (Well, in any other genre it would be ridiculous, but in fantasy, you can pull that sort of thing off.)
3. And that’s their story rule: The campaign ended and the original PCs were made legend. They are now the background for a new campaign set in those lands. Perhaps a lowly soldier on the line against Lord Bone witnessed the victory of the king and was inspired to follow his footsteps. The original PCs could have children, some of whom might take up their parent’s path to glory with sword, spell, or voice. Whether the characters are tied to the first PCs or wholly original, take advantage of the player knowledge of this campaign world and build on it. And when the bard in the tavern begins to sing the tale of King Roger and Lord Bone, they know all the words.
“Where do you see yourself in five years?”
It’s a classic job interview question and there’s a reason for it. How ambitious are you? How high does your vision go? How long are you going to be satisfied sticking around here? Is this even something you like to do?
The same principle can be applied to RPG characters. In my campaigns at least, they begin well with no real defined goal state, characters satisfied with having some fun and getting some coin for the ale and wenches. It is hardly surprising that we rarely get to a grand climax of plot, action, heroism, and tragedy. My games are like TV series which may be enjoyable and run a long time, but always get their plug pulled before any wrap-up episode because I or my players or both are ready for something different.
My suggestion is to plan the ending of the campaign. You can start with it being fairly loose in details, but decide if a final massive confrontation with Lord Bone and his army of undead will be the campaign climax and take a shot at what the PCs will look like then. Will the simple farmer driven to adventure by rampaging orc raiders have become the noble knight? Will the scholarly priest now command holy warriors or be responsible for a city of souls? Will the long-lost heir have become king or is that the reward for defeating Lord Bone?
Once you have a concept of the end, other things fall into place. Undead will be a theme of the campaign and Lord Bone should be built slowly yet consistently as their great nemesis. Adventure after adventure should challenge the PCs in ever more dangerous and evil situations as they and Lord Bone grow in power. Lord Bone might strike at them by killing family members, anything to ratchet up the hatred between them and make the climax all that more powerful.
Lay the groundwork and then make the end the best it can be. If you’re skilled at it, craft some terrain for the final fight to make the board memorable (or take advantage of your locale convention to get some at a good deal). Paint the final battle in epic scope with hordes of undead rushing a smaller line of soldiers depending on the PCs to defeat Lord Bone and send the undead back to ash and dust. Pick the time of day (dead of night, climax at dawn).
And let that battle end the campaign. Don’t overstay your welcome and leave them wanting more.
I’ll admit I cut my teeth in the British Naval novel world with the Patrick O’Brian series starring Captain Jack Aubrey and Irish/Catalan Surgeon/Natural Philosopher Stephen Maturin, all 22 novels (audio-tapes rock for that 30min commute). The era of the Napoleonic Wars seemed ideal for the sort of swashbuckling adventure, terrors of the seas, and British society drama.
Along comes J. D. Davies with Gentleman Captain and breaks the notion that you need Napoleon to have a rousing British Naval novel. Roll back time to the year 1662. Oliver Cromwell has been defeated and Charles II is king once again. Years of civil war have left a nation of divided loyalties and murky intentions. The Navy, filled with Cromwell’s officers, must be overhauled and Charles II fills the officer corps with “gentleman captains” who have almost a disdain for the working knowledge of the sea, leaving that to the ‘tarpaulins’ or lower-class officers and crew.
Enter Matthew Quinton who infamously allowed his drunken ship’s master to wreck his first command during a storm because he did not know how to save the ship. A Royalist who spent time in Brussels during the exile, he is now the younger brother of the restored Earl of Ravensden, brother-in-law to a powerful Dutch ship’s captain, and husband to the beautiful and strong Cornelia. All Matthew wishes is for a commission in the Horse Guards (Royal Cavalry) but with most of the fleet away, he is the most experienced and loyal gentleman to put in command of a Royal ship on a special mission.
There are rumors of a Scottish rebellion fueled by arms purchased on the continent. Quinton is to command the Jupiter and sail north under the lead of Captain Godsgift Judge, a Cromwell-era hold-over, to root out the truth and thwart any threat to the crown. Quinton’s ship was to be captained by Harker, whom the crew loved and who was murdered leaving the vacancy. Quinton has many challenges to face including his own demons to see if can become a successful Gentleman Captain.
I give the book 4.5 out of 5 stars if you’re a fan of British Naval novels and here’s hoping that the author continues the characters in a series as the book appears to set up.
(Found time for a more extended review…)
Review
For anyone who reads my Gaming the Movies column in Knights of the Dinner Table magazine, you know that I can watch a movie or a TV show and get pretty psyched about how I’d GM that property as a table-top RPG. That same sort of excitement occurs with the best books as well. The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers knocked it out of the park for me so I had to get some of the ideas down here. Paul Westermeyer is the book reviewer for KODT so I’ll have to suggest this one for him.
First off, the book itself. This is a steampunk masterpiece in my opinion, and I’m not someone who has ever delved that much into the steampunk realm. I still love cyberpunk from the Gibson/Blade Runner era and perhaps there were enough similarities here to make it all the more interesting. We are presented with a city once ruled by three gods. These gods were brothers, mortal born who by the impact of their lives and deeds attracted power and divinity to themselves. Humanity became dominant in the land, ruling over other races like the enigmatic Feyr, the scaly Rethari, and others. But the Brothers Immortal turned out to be not named perfectly. Decades before the book begins, one of the brothers,Amon, killed another brother, Morgan. For his crime he was burned and drowned in the lake over which the City of Ash is built.
Our hero is Eva Forge, the last Paladin of Morgan, still following the ways of the ebbing Cult of Morgan, using invokations of Morgan’s deeds to give her magical powers: speed, endurance, armor, strength, and much more. (The author even uses the term “buffing” at one point, revealing his own experience as a gamer of some type… and yes, this would make an awesome video game). Her Cult is fading away in a city of wonders created by the enslaved followers of Amon, now called the Betrayer. One god remains, Alexander, who rules the city as a god king.
But this is steampunk so Eva carries sword and a bullygun (revolver), the city supports an elevated train system, skyscrapers of steel and glass, wireless communications, and much more, all with a steampunk feel… the El is powered by massive Impellers that drive it forward along the track and the wireless communications are performed through gear that sits on a person’s head.
Each Cult has its own powers: Morgan’s give combat abilities mostly; Amon’s allows for magical Making and Unmaking of things (tearing down a brick building and building another structure with the bricks just with their thoughts); Alexander’s appears to be Healing and Mind powers.
On their way back from a library staffed by Amon’s cult, the head of Eva’s Cult is captured. Strange “cold men” appear to do the deed. Others attack her Cult as she tried to understand what is happening and like any good paladin, generally bulls her way through things.
I’ll not give away the mysteries, but the writing is very evocative. I could picture everything clearly, the CGI of my mind working at peak performance. Eva ends up moving through many areas of their society, giving you a good look at the world. His use of language is of particular note, changing enough terms to keep what could be read as modern, dry technology feeling more fantastic.
I’d give the book 5 stars out of 5 and a Must Read for any steampunk fan. If you like playing with Weird Science in Savage Worlds, it would also be excellent inspiration.
Gaming the Book
Now, on to some specifics I’d focus on if I wanted to run the City of Ash as an RPG. This is a quick list to elaborate on later
Undead: The “Coldmen” are sewn up corpses whose innards have been replaced by leather and glass pistons (clockwork). They wear whole body suits with goggles sewn in that contain the icy cold air around their bodies.
Icons: The members of the three cults all wear icons. Here is something about Eve’s icons: “We all wear icons, the scions of the three Cults of the Brothers Immortal. My armor is an icon, as are my sword and revolver. Very practical icons. But I wear others, noetic symbols of the power of Morgan. An iron fist pendant at my neck, the bound copper wire around my wrist, tattoos on my chest and legs. There is a holy symmetry to my symbols, brought to arcane life by the power of Morgan.”
The powers the scions have is based on tapping the power of their patron god through symbols of that god’s life and legendary deeds. They may call out “Rite of the Stag Hunt” to give themselves added speed, referring to a feat in the past by Morgan. These powers can be invoked and layered as fast as the scion can speak their names, loud or soft. Silence a scion and they cannot engage their powers. The harder the chant, the more powerful the invokation will be.
“Icons of the faith are powerful tools for channeling the invokations of Morgan. My sword was an obsessively precise mimic of Morgan’s own blade, the Grimwield.” At higher levels of power, icons are more obscure, referencing lesser known parts of the god’s life. Powerful scions also wear a lot of fakes, to misdirect which ones are real. “It was only the knowledge of these things that powered them, and that knowledge was carefully guarded by the ranks of the initiated.”
Healers: Scions of Alexander, put on rings and bracelets of silver as icons when they need to heal. Touch the victim’s temples, wrists, and ankles.
“Names are part of the Song and should not be given away.” – a hint to names having power over people in the right hands.
Cool Quotes
“It was well past noon when I gave up being patient and kind, and decided to go ahead and be a Paladin of Morgan. It was my nature.”
“If they come for you… swim.”
“Swim,” Owen said, “and pray to Alexander for deliverance.”
“As you like,” I said. “But mostly I would swim.”
Sometimes from tragedy something amazing is born. Imagine a boy, shocked by the violent death of a parent. As he grows toward manhood, he hones his body and mind to prepare himself for pursuit of his mother’s killer. Cloaked, he acts only at night, slowly catching the attention of the police as he faces down vicious criminals. Now give that movie a title, “Boy Wonder”, and you expect a good if slightly derivative superhero origin story.
That’s not what we have here. In fact, the title is a bit of misdirection like much of this tightly-scripted, dark, vigilante thriller. Although the movie might have intention to portray the tragic boy, Sean Donovan, as a gritty comic book hero, the character lacks Batman’s moral code that keeps him from becoming just like the criminals he targets. The tagline on the poster, “Beware the Hero”, is appropriate and contributes to the superhero/thriller misdirection. Again, if you put any superhero notions aside and watch the film for what it is giving you, you’ll be rewarded.
The movie is dark and violent. The acting is all top notch with a special nod to Daniel Stewart Sherman in a role which could have come across as something much less three-dimensional. The plot is creative and engaging. You keep trying to get a step ahead of it. I don’t want to step in any spoilers but the beautiful Zulay Henao gives a rich performance as the cop in the cop/vigilante dance with the film’s lead, Caleb Steinmeyer.
As to the look of the film, most of the scenes are gritty and realistic with typical cinematic touches to the flashback scenes. The locations feel true to the story and the movie was filmed in Brooklyn and New York City by natives, not farmed out to faux New Yorks of Toronto or elsewhere. That really helps the feel of it all especially when the events of the story could easily be re-interpreted in the unrealistic lens of superhero comics. The setting keeps the plot firmly grounded in reality.
So I would recommend the movie with 4.5 stars for adult audiences only. Just don’t expect to see do-gooders in tights capturing colorful villains. More information at the film’s website.
Well I don’t have time for a full-blown book review, but I gotta shout about “Horns of Ruin” by Tim Akers. It’s fantasy with technology that isn’t classic steampunk but isn’t modern either. The expressions of using magic are visceral as we follow along with a Paladin named Eva Forge. She’s trained with combat magics, a big sword and her “bullygun” (i.e. a revolver). Akers just uses words in a fresh, evocative way that really pulls you in. There is a godking, the last of three Immortal Brothers, undead walking around with steampunk hearts, a cult of assassins worshipping one of the dead Immortal Brothers called the Betrayer. Just good good good stuff. I’d love to play in a game set in this world, but everyone would have to read the book first to get the feel and understand how the ‘world’ works. Back in our high school days, that might have worked out, but alas, not today. Still, it’s one of the few books I’ve read lately that just teems with gaming ideas.
Well, gang, I finally have a product of my sole authorship in the marketplace. (Another personal RPG industry milestone reached!)
I wrote Adventure Havens: Temples in the spring of 2010 for Bards and Sages publishers. It underwent the typical editing and extensive play-testing in the latter part of 2010 and has just been published on DriveThruRPG.
For the low, low price of just $4.99, you can get a 53-page collection of twelve fantasy campaign ‘adventure seeds’ complete with descriptions, story hooks, fully d20-statted NPCs. The temples are divided into Wilderness and City temples and attempt to stretch the typical notions of temples in fantasy campaigns. Your heroes might find the Contemplative Temple of Silence a refuge, at least at first. The Traveling Temple of Twisted Fate could wander into the village they are resupplying in, offering a few days of entertainment and distraction. Darker encounters are there as well. Encounters are defined for each temple offering a range of CR values to give any adventuring party a challenge.