My Perfect Justice League

It is a well-known fact (and when I say "well known," I mean well known to the entire world, clearly) that I am a Marvel and not a DC. But there's no reason not to give DC a little love. This one will be a bit harder with my relatively-limited knowledge of DC of compared to Marvel.  The Justice League of America is the premiere DC team and should reflect that status. The Marvel equivalent is, of course, the Avengers but they are more of a global team that deals with extraterrestrial threats, while the JLA is more of galactic-level force that deals with global and universal issues. A lot of these ideas demonstrate how DC and Marvel are different. 

DC characters, for the longest time, lacked the level of humanity and vulnerability that Marvel characters had. This is definitely what appealed to me more about Marvel. But DC characters have their charms too. 

The Team

Batman (Dick Grayson): The Leader
Why Dick? Dick takes all of the best parts of Batman (his detective skills, fighting and genius) and adds a layer of comradeship and humanity that Bruce never has. Dick may not be feared how Bruce is, but he would have the members of the team wanting to help him and listen because they are friends. Dick is the leader of my JLA because he has lead multiple teams, lived his life as a hero and grown into the mantel. The fact that he is not Bruce would also add a level of drama, as he would have to live up the man who came before him. 

Green Lantern (John Steward): The Projector
Part of the Green Lantern Corps . . . 'Nuff said.

Powergirl (Kara Zor-L): Powerhouse
Powergirl is Superman's equal, owns a massive corporation bringing in billions, is dating Mr. Terrific for some great subplots, and does not have a boy scout complex that frequently rubs teammates the wrong way. Not only is she the team powerhouse, but she could also be the face of the team based on her corporate experience. 

Mr. Terrific (Michael Holt): The Brains
Third smartest person on Earth and billionaire, with super science, medical training, and a master of Kung Fu. He is also dating Powergirl, which would add a nice romance subplot for the book. Michael's genius will be key for the a number of "issues" that would occur in the comic. 

Zatanna (Zatanna Zatara): Mystic
Zatanna is a mystic powerhouse. She is the premiere go-to mystic for any issue. 

Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz): Backbone
Simply put, J'onn is the backbone of the JLA. He has been on most incarnations of the team, with near-Superman-level-strength, a master shapeshifter with an array of psychic powers. O . . . did I forget to  mention he can also phase? Pretty much a one-martian team. 

BONUS MEMBER:
Starman (Jack Knight): Fan Favorite
I love Jack and read the Starman comics when they came out, and would love to write the character. It would be interesting to write an older Jack Knight that has a kid back on Earth that is concerned that he is falling into his father's footsteps by disappearing for an extended period of time and no one knowing why. His story would be heartbreaking as he constantly tries to do anything to get home.

The Story (Short Version)

My vision for the recently-formed JLA? They are Zeta-beamed (teleported) without consent to Rann by Adam Strange. He believes that his world is about to have another Rann-Thanagar Holy War but there may still be time to stop it. He put out a call but no one responded and he needs to act quickly. The end of the first issue would involve the Zeta beam being destroyed and the heroes coming to the conclusion that they are stranded.

Over the course of the first story arc (roughly seven issues), they become embroiled in a political battle for leadership of a now-unstable Rann and piece the clues together that it is not the Thanagar, but an ancient evil race of aliens masquerading as them to cause the Rann people to start a war and fight on two fronts. The end of the first arc would detail that section of space being sealed off somehow by the ancient evil aliens.

The comic would run for three years in "real" time, meaning none of those characters could have crossovers or be on Earth until the end of the comic. This would give other DC comics a chance to take advantage of the absence of those heroes; the All-Star JLA would have to deal with the aftermath if and when they return to Earth. 

And then the question for the follow up series becomes: 
What happens to your life, loved ones and identity after you've vanished for three years? 

RPG Fridays: Time Is Not on My Side

For gamers, the love of gaming is in our blood, our hearts and resides in the fibers of atoms that make up who we are. You can’t have a happy gamer in your life without the game, occasionally much to non-gamer-significant-others' chagrin. Gaming is so much a part of my being that when my wife and I were discussing our future, she said, "our child will be raised Jewish" and I said, "our child will be raised to be a gamer." It's a family deal. I have even convinced my wife's parents (they may say "tricked" but tomato, tomahto...) to play in a one-shot.

So what do you do when real life puts the crunch on you with too many commitments--your kid's karate class, new job with crazy hours, traveling, writing (or thinking about writing), etc.? This is where I am right now and it SUCKS.  What is a gamer to do?

Take a break. It is the only option; all of that stress, those responsibilities, circling around in your brain weigh on you and affect you, and also affect the vibe you bring to the table and to your fellow gamer. How and when do you do it? That becomes the next issue spiral. You don’t want to upset the GM, the players or leave the game in a lurch.

How To Bow Out (Temporarily)

1.      In the immortal words of Winnie the Pooh, "Think, think, think." 

First, I thought long and hard about the things pulling me in different directions. Was there anything I could move around or triple down on? In previous years, my gaming went on hiatus following the birth of my daughter but slowly increased to a frequency close to its old standards. At the time, I had to sacrifice my bi-weekly Star Wars game that ran from 12pm – 6pm on Saturdays, and my fortnightly Rise of the Runelords game on Mondays). That still left me playing in a bi-weekly Pathfinder game, running a bi-weekly Horror on the Orient Express game, and becoming the One-Shot King for random games and playtests. But my schedule changed again recently and dramatically, so I have to pause all of my actual gaming for a while. It was a hard decision and one that I think about every day.

2.      Figure out how long you need and add a month.

This is a hard one but vital for reintegration and GM planning. If your kid starts taking a swimming class that conflicts with your gaming and it is set to run for three months, let your GM know that you need to step away for four months. Why the extra month? That is to allow you time to reintegrate yourself without disturbing the group. Say you got in the habit of taking the family out to dinner after the swim meet? That is something you can't just stop with a young kid but is something you can transition out of over a couple of weeks. 

3.       If you are a player, tell the GM first.

Give the GM as much time as you can. If you know the GM needs a couple of days to process the info, give it to them and let them know in detail when you hope to return. Be prepared that the GM may find another player for your slot, or the campaign may be at a point where you can't jump in right away. But by giving a solid idea of your return, it allows the GM to plan accordingly and likely keep your seat warm. My move is to have my character do a couple of key things he is known for. In our game, I am playing Porthos basically (or for my Pathfinder peeps, Inspired Blade with a little Mysterious Stranger).  He has a rapier or pistol in one hand and a flask of whiskey in the other and sings a song while exploring. (Due to to watching a lot of Sesame Street lately, the song I have been singing is a little diddy by Sirs Bert & Ernie . . . he he he). In our game, my sister went missing during a raid on the city and my character has left the group to go find her. It is a great in-game reason for Jabari, my character, to step away from the party but still be in the area. 

4.       Spread the word.

Let your fellow players know after you have given the GM a little time to process your temporary departure. It is your responsibly to let the other players know that you need to step away and to relay your intention to return. Also, if  your character has any gear the team needs, you'll want to allow them to access it. 

5.       "Throw me the rope."

Ask to be kept on email chains and communications. By keeping in the loop, you will have a smaller time frame needed for reentry. Plus, if there are any major decisions to be made by the group, you still have a voice and may have an insight the other players have overlooked. After all, you're still a team. 

6.        ^ If this is the type of reception you get, move on. (Quickly.)

If the GM or players, can’t handle it or give you (non-good-natured) grief, you are better off without them. There are plenty of awesome gamers in the world; you can find a new group that is understanding of your time constraints. Luckily, my fellow players and my GMs tend to be some of these awesome gamers.

7.        Lead, guide, and get out of the way.

If you're the GM, let your players know that you have some things to take care of but plan to restart the game on X date. Have a solid date in mind and stick to it. Give them the opportunity to step away either temporarily or permanently. Hopefully you will be able to resume with everyone on board.

Gaming is our life blood but reality doesn't wait for gaming. 

RPG Fridays: A PoC's Love of Lovecraft

I usually get some weird looks from people when I tell them that my favorite game is Call of Cthulhu (7th edition coming soon to physical copies). 

Akin to most people, my first real roleplaying experience was with D&D (the old school Red Box set, to be exact). I was maybe all of seven and my best friend Jay and I bought the game from a local store. I had saved money for months to scrape enough together to buy it. The level of enthusiasm and exhilaration was palpable. 

All of that faded some as we looked at the pictures and flipped through the book; it struck me that there was no one that looked like me, as a PoC, in that mystical land filled with elves, dragons and wizards.  The same happened for me with the Sword of Shannara, which I finished reading in two days. It is those experiences that contributed to my neutral relationship with fantasy and that opened my eyes to the allure of sci-fi and hard-boiled detective stories, which at least had a larger presence of diverse characters.

Hold on, man. We don't go anywhere with "scary," "spooky," "haunted," or "forbidden" in the title. 
- Scooby-Doo

About a seven years later, I was part of a group that had to stay in a house for an estate sell. The owner had passed away and had these massive piles of books, and I stumbled onto H.P. Lovecraft. We were given free reign of the house but chose to all stay in one area together. Come on, empty house + young kids + reading horror fiction = ghosts! 

Reading that Lovecraft collection in the home of a recently dead person, tucked in my sleeping bag, and listening to the sounds of my sleeping friends made it magical. The shadows lurked around the room and every creak caused me to stop reading and stare into the darkness. Chilling!

The ideas that were presented resonated with me as an African American male growing up in the deep South. I understand the concepts of cruelty and the uncaring nature of the universe. Yes! I get it! The best man can do is struggle against the insurmountable evil and win for a day or two, and at the very best, delay the maddening doom and protect humanity.  

Don't get me wrong, it was tough reading. Lovecraft is a racist, shit writer, and a billion other things. But taken for the time when it was written, the ideas behind it are what resonate with me. Let me be clear, I don't forgive, forget or try to deny Lovecraft's racism (as many of his hardcore fans do). But the nuggets of awesomeness (trademark!) in the work help shaped how the modern world views horror, science fiction and detective fiction. You can learn so much about how these genres have been impacted by listening to any one of dozens of great podcasts, like the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast and the Miskatonic University Podcast. 

Lovecraft: It's Not Just for Cthulhu Anymore

My games are usually gritty, have a feeling of the real world and consequences. All of these elements line up perfectly with cosmic horror, the futile struggle, and that-which-cannot-die.  The setting doesn't matter; it is the fire that drives the characters and the human condition. Superheroes, Jedi, Wizards and even Replicants are individuals with power(s), but that power doesn't remove the drama of the struggle.

I devoured the 2nd Edition Call of Cthulhu book ages ago and it was the first game I ever ran. It was rocky but fun. Since then, Cthulhu has been my game. It is the game I use to introduce new gamers or to challenge veterans. Guns and fighting are not what wins the day; Cthulhu is a thinking person's game and that is what I love. As a geek, more than anything else, an ability to think your way though a problem appeals to me. It is also why I have loved Doctor Who; his enemies were usually immune to weapons and needed to be outsmarted. 

The system itself, is simple and elegant.  I love it so much, I run it at cons, at home, in a boat, with a goat . . . heck, anywhere. It is my go-to system . . . But, I will confess, I do have a new love brewing . . . Trail of Cthulhu (future post).

All right. I am off to listen to Dark Adventure Radio Theater's Shadow Over Innsmouth and to finish editing my next Cthulhu scenario. I am always looking for playtesters, if you can handle the horror and sanity-breaking game. Let me know.

When Bad Movies Go Bad

I recently had the misfortune of renting and wasting my money watching Kingsmen: Secret Service. Did I give too much away already?

I was watching this movie with my wife and she grunted in what I can only presume was disdain? disgust? disbelief? within the first 15 minutes. It felt like I was watching a Tea Party propaganda movie. The poor, downtrodden white male protagonist teams up with the rich white men and fights against the evils of the black man, who, even while rich, can't leave the street and eats McDonald's. 

It was at this point in the movie when I sincerely hoped they would all drown and the movie would be over. 

Wait . . . wait . . . Let me add some good points before this turns into a downward spiral of hate. I though that Colin Firth was incredible in this movie, It was nice to see him in something more of an action piece and as an action hero. I would watch The King's Speech again in a heartbeat. That is about all I can say positive about this movie.

The movie had everything that I hate, and all of it within a dated model of a movie. The hero is a hetero white male and the only potential heroes are all white. There is one potential hero who is female, and she seems to be plagued by weaknesses that only the white male protagonist can help her overcome with his clever lower class street sense. 

Did I mention that it includes Obama as a willing lackey of the villain, and we watch our President's head literally explode on screen? You know what . . . I am so disgusted by the movie, I can't go on.

Fuck you, Mark Millar. 

RPG Fridays: Frell Metagaming!

The biggest no-no at my table? Metagaming. By the gods, I hate metagaming, and metagamers never fair well in my games. What is metagaming, you may ask? For the few non-gamers that may be reading this, it is a sin!

Metagaming, my non-gamer readers, is when a player uses out-of-character information to alter what their character does in game. It is using that information to try to "win" the scene of scenario and goes against the spirit of the game. It can also be found when a player attempts to guess what the scenario wants them to do, instead of having their character engage with the scenario.  Simply put, metagaming is cheating.

Metagaming is like when you're watching the movie Psycho and you're screaming at the screen, "He's got a knife! He's in the bathroom with you!" Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh) has no idea that the bad guy is behind the shower curtain, but as the viewer, you do.  The character can't suddenly decide to grab her razor and steady herself for the attack unless contextual clues or actions within the scene tell her to do so. The character did not pay 12 bucks to see the movie from a comfy seat in the theater; you did. 

Metagaming Example #1: Don't Try This at Home

Let's say we are playing Pathfinder with a party of four, first-level adventurers who barely know how to use their weapons. 

The Team:
Jane - The Dwarven Paladin - Experienced Player
Bob - The Elven Wizard - New Player
Jace - The Human Cleric - Meta-Gamer
Alice -  The Halfling Rogue - Newish Player

The Scenario:
The group's first encounter against the Black Talon League (BTL) goes in their favor and they have bested the bandits. The last-remaining bandit pleads for his life saying he will tell them whatever they want, as long as they let him live. Bob, whose character failed his knowledge (Gangs) check and therefore has no idea about the BTL, read in the main book prior to the session that a BTL will never surrender and each has a geas (basically a curse) on them that will force whoever questions them to do a mission for the guild and kill on behalf of the BTL. The rest of the gamers do not know this, and being a good party, decide to spare the man to find out what the BTL has been doing.  Bob, instead, kills the man with a magic missile. Then when questioned after the scene, tells the other players while out-of-character why he did it. As we all know, he did it because he metagamed in a big way. His character had no information, and now the other characters just witnessed their wizard kill a prisoner in cold blood with no way to explain it. 

Metagaming Example #2: When It's Okay

Look, some people will say that you have to do it and it is impossible not to do it. While that's true on some level, it is something that should be minimized. When is it acceptable to metagame? To aid in moving the plot along.

I was running a scenario I wrote for the Beta Delta Green (I love you DG!!! If you have not played it, buy the new copy when it comes out. Hell, track down the old one, but that's just to complete your collection.  Give Shane or Dennis a shout out afterwards about how awesome it is.)  

The Team:
Delta Green Agent - CDC Forensic Scientist - PTSD
Delta Green Agent - FBI Agent - Adapted to Violence
Delta Green Friendly - Blue Collar Worker (Mechanic) - Depression
Delta Green Friendly - Wilderness Guide - Indefinite insanity due to The Unnatural
Delta Green Friendly - Computer Engineer - Adapted to Helplessness
Delta Green Agent - Pilot (Drone) - Indefinite insanity due to Violence
Delta Green Friendly - Firefighter - Indefinite insanity due to Violence

The Scenario:
There is a call for the team to go to Laredo, Texas to deal with a white supremacy group with cult ties that is attempting to correct the America problem. The agents are deployed under the premise that an ISIS operative was seeking to acquire nuclear material and smuggle it over the border. 

The game has been going on for a couple of hours, the group has less than a day to solve the problem and the entire group has different ideas about what to do but know they need to stick together (a little metagaming) because they had a scuffle with a couple of gun totting "rednecks" and barely survived the firefight. The CDC scientist wants to study this unknown material they had discovered, the FBI agent wants to keep knocking on doors to talk to people, the drone pilot wants to go to a nearby base and try to get a drone for surveillance, etc. The metagaming to move the game along occurred when the players decided that the research was the most important and would likely benefit them the most. It is also reasonable that the characters would agree that the unknown material could be a weapon the cult was using. 

An Unnecessary Evil . . . Most of the Time

Why does metagaming bother me so much? I am a storyteller and role player  first. Attempting to create, maintain and be immersed in story is nearly impossible when one of your gamers breaks character every chance they get to try to one-up a situation. This action then drags the other players into a downward spiral of not gaming and eventual frustration when things go sideways. 

Each of the above are examples of metagaming, but only one aids the story. What if the GM for Pathfinder knew the party would spare the life of the on BLT member and had planned a series of adventures about the party working to have the geas removed from them? That plot has been destroyed or at the very least significantly altered. Yes, the BLT could have a clue to share, but that does not have the same storytelling power of a cursed party, working to have the curse lifted before they have to complete some evil task or die. All of that gets kiboshed because one player "cheated" and it cost everyone an epic story.

How can a GM prevent metagaming? A couple of quick suggestions: 

1. Let your players know that metagaming is a no-go from the outset.

2. Change the information in advance or on the fly (a lot more work but usually worthwhile) to minimize the ability of gamers to metagame.

3, Encourage players to know all they can about their characters. Knowledge is power.  

4. Provide insights by describing in detail what the characters can see. Don't make them guess.

5. Focus on creating an immersive atmosphere. For example, only refer to players by character names, and insist they do the same. 

What did I miss? Other tips for creating minimizing metagaming?