System's We Play: Pathfinder

Pathfinder



Granted, this has only been out for a few years, and I only started actively playing less than a year ago, but I really enjoy Pathfinder. I liked D&D 3.5, so it makes sense that I would like it. I'm not entirely certain what took me so long to actually get into it. Perhaps I was feeling a little gun-shy after Wizards of the Coast took me on a long and drawn-out ride into virtual poverty with Dungeons & Dragons.

As of this writing, I've only purchased the core book. I have also purchased (free and paid) several apps that compensate for the lack of actual books, plus I have everything I could need digitally.



After the first few sessions, I finally got back into the swing of things in a fantasy setting. The past several years had been primarily devoted to White Wolf's classic World of Darkness line, and I found I was out of practice. Time to get back to my roots... sort of.



The last several D&D games I have played, I took the role of the Cleric. Back then, I was primarily cast as the healer and not generally someone any of the party members actually spoke to for advice. This time has been different.



The pantheon is a homebrew, so I get to work from the seat of my pants when I really get into character. I don't actively seek-out to convert my fellow party members, but I do try to lay down a bit of "the gospel" every now and then for effect. It helps that I have a background in studying various religions. I take a little from every religion, when the time seems right. I could imagine that what the other players and I may see as funny may seem like taking a stereotype and running with it to someone unfamiliar with the group.



If you're familiar and comfortable with the 3.5 edition of D&D, you should have little problem playing Pathfinder. I'm enjoying the game that I am currently a part of, and I look forward to joining others in future campaigns.

X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Prelude

Title: X-Men: Age of Apocalypse
Prelude

ISBN: 9780785155089

Price: $29.99

Publisher/Year: Marvel, 2011

Artist: Andy Kubert, Jan Duursema, Steve Epting, Terry Dodson, Roger
Cruz, Ron Garney, Ian Churchill

Writer: Fabian Nicieza, John Francis Moore, Todd Dezago, Scott Lobdell,
Mark Waid, Jeph Loeb

Collects: X-Factor #108-109,
Uncanny X-Men #319-321, X-Men #38-41, Cable #20, X-Men: Age of
Apocalypse Ashcan Edition

Rating: 3.5/5

Out of all the comic books I've ever read (not as many as some but still a
fair old few) why is it the 'Age of Apocalypse' series is the one that has
always managed to occupy pride of place in my head? I mean, there are
definitely better series out there



'I don't know' is still the honest answer. It's probably a cross between my
picking the books up at a time when college life suddenly got a lot better (it
had been pretty bad at one point) and the series being a whole world away from
the X Men cartoon I'd made a habit of watching. All of a sudden anything could
happen and I wanted some of that action!



I didn't stick with the X Men books for that long, just long enough to see what
happened with the Onslaught storyline, but I've always had a little soft spot
for the 'turn everything on its head' madness of the 'Age of Apocalypse' books.
The collected editions are very much on my 'to buy list', once I can pick up
copies without crippling my wallet... I can wait :o) I had never really given
much thought to what led up to the main event, too busy being blown away by the
good stuff, but something had to kick it all off... I finally got my chance to
find out when I came across a copy of 'Prelude' in a local library. There was
no way that I wouldn't be reading it!



The premise is simple. Professor Xavier's mad son, Legion, has woken from a
coma and promptly jumped back twenty years into the past. His plan is to make
the world a happier place by killing its greatest villain before he turns to a
path of darkness. Can the X Men of the present save the Magneto of the past? A
lot more than one man's life rides on the outcome... And what if the wrong man
were to die? That death could turn the present into a far different world
entirely...



In many respects 'Prelude' is the book that I have been waiting years to read.
I already knew what the Age of Apocalypse was all about but I never really knew
what caused this event to take place (well, not in any great detail). Now I do
and it's a story that may be a little too straightforward for some (like me)
but also a story that resonates with a lot of power and emotion. This can lend
a 'soap opera' air to proceedings (part of the reason why I stopped reading
these books) but not as much as I thought there would be.



I did wonder how much of what happened was necessary to the plot though
(Iceman's issues and Gambit's run in with Sabertooth for example) and this was
where things got a little too much for me. 'Prelude' is as self-contained as it
can be but there's no escaping the fact that it's part of a much larger
narrative with lots of smaller sub-plots that clearly need to be rounded off
before a new scenario can begin. This is ok for those readers who are familiar
with the story already but if you're not (like me) then things can feel a
little disjointed with what feels like several plots all working against each
other. There are also loads of little references to events happening in other
comics entirely (a 'Rogue' mini-series and 'Wolverine' for starters). This is a
pet hate of mine anyway, it just feels like a money making gimmick, but it also
has the unfortunate effect of making you feel like there's even more story that
you're missing.



Once you get past this though, 'Prelude' still has a lot to offer and I'm glad
I got to give it a go. I'm always up for a bit of super powered confrontation
and there is plenty of that on offer here, particularly in the end stages where
the X Men take on Legion in a suitably pyrokinetic fashion. The artwork is of a
good standard anyway but was glorious in these sequences.



I also got a lot out of the focus on the relationship between Xavier and Erik;
not only in how it gave the plot added impetus (and added an air of tragedy to
the climax) but also in that I'd never seen this relationship before. It made
for a real nice change to see things actually play out rather than be referred
to yet another back issue.



'Prelude' suffers from problems that I think are endemic in Marvel comics as a
whole but there is still a lot there to recommend the read. Definitely worth
sticking with and it's got me all fired up to finally track down the big 'Age
of Apocalypse' collections. I'm glad I read it.

System's We Play: Palladium

Palladium:



This was the first system I remember playing that had more than a single genre attached to it. For those that don't know what I mean, Palladium includes Robotech, Rifts, TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Heroes Unlimited, Palladium Fantasy and so much more. I believe Palladium may have coined the term "Megaverse", meaning that all the games in the system are interconnected. With Rifts, this allowed GM's and players alike to start playing in cross-venue games. People could play their mutants from TMNT into the world of Robotech or Rifts. This opened-up a large realm of possibilities that my fellow players and I took full advantage of.



My first encounters with the Palladium system was through TMNT. I remember making so many different mutants, from tigers to frogs and even a porcupine. There was even a memorial day weekend where to friends and I stayed in a mobile home outside of one of their houses to play a session of TMNT for the entire weekend. Those were the days.



Skills in the Palladium Megaverse were based off of a percentage system rather than ranks or dots. This made it very easy to understand where your characters strengths were. The method of advancement may be a bit flawed in some peoples opinions, but I think it works well.



Most of the games I've played in the Megaverse are:

Beyond the Supernatural: A modern horror RPG along the lines of Call of Cthulhu. Even though my group of friends didn't care for this game, I was able to create several of my favorite characters using is.

Heroes Unlimited: A superhero RPG. This also included Villains Unlimited and Aliens Unlimited. This was the source for all the superpowers you'd want to use in the Palladium system.

Macross II: based on the anime of the same name. The next line of the Robotech RPG several years after it had all but died-out.

Nightbane (formerly called Nightspawn): A horror RPG set in the year 2004 (a near-future setting when the game was released). It differs from Beyond the Supernatural in that the supernatural elements are not as hidden and more open. The series is placed after "Dark Day", an event where the earth was plunged into an unnatural, starless night for 24 hours, and supernatural entities infiltrated or subverted various governments and organizations across the globe.

Ninjas & Superspies: Based on both martial-arts and espionage movies with some science fiction elements mixed in. As Heroes Unlimited is the source for the superpowers, this is the source for the martial arts for Palladium.

Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game: A fantasy RPG set in a unique world, which was the home of Kevin Siembieda's fantasy games. The obvious pull for people who enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Rifts: Set primarily on Earth, four hundred years after a war-triggered magical apocalypse, opening dimensional gateways and heralding the return of magic, Atlantis, and numerous invasions by alien forces. Rifts is Palladium's flagship line.

Robotech: Based on the anime series of the same name. I grew-up on this cartoon and loved this game to death.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness: Based on the original comic books.

Something I recently found out was that Palladium is aggressive in preventing wide distribution of fan-made conversions of their games to other systems (such as the D20 System),
and also strongly discourages converting the intellectual property of
others into their system; while they cannot prevent it, doing so is not
allowed in venues owned by Palladium Books. Palladium also routinely
threatens legal action against fans who distribute conversions in other
venues by issuance of cease and desist
orders. When asked why Palladium was so much stricter in regard to
conversions than other game companies, Siembieda stated that the policy
had been adopted due to advice from Palladium's lawyers, to shield
Palladium from liability for conversions of other parties' intellectual
property.



In the past when I've had to sell pieces of my collection to offset unemployment, I found that the books from Palladium never really held any type of second market value. I wonder if this is primarily due to an overabundance of books being printed by Palladium, or the seeming lack of interest the player community has in the system.

For around 3 years,  2 friends and I played in the Megaverse with multiple characters. Much of this was set in the Heroes Unlimited world. The above picture is what we came up with for a human version of the Invid's Royal Command Battloid from Robotech. If I remember correctly, this was modified to also run on modern or a nuclear fuel rather than what the Invid used.

Dark Wolverine Volume 1: The Prince

Title: Dark Wolverine Volume 1:
The Prince

ISBN: 9780785139003

Price: $24.99

Publisher/Year: Marvel, 2009

Artist: Guiseppe Camuncoli, Tommy Lee Edwards

Writer: Daniel Way

Collects: Wolverine #73-74, Dark Wolverine #75-77

Rating: 3.5/5

The story of Daken Akihiro, better known as Dark Wolverine, is an intriguing
one, filled with half-truths, misconceptions and allusions that leaves us with
only more questions. Is Daken really as evil as his father, Logan, believes? Is
he a bad guy? What are his motives? While these questions aren’t exactly
answered in “Dark Wolverine: The Prince,” which is a collection of issues 75-77
in the series and issues 73 and 74 in “Wolverine,” the series is an absolute
blast to read through and prove that Akihiro, just like his father, is the type
of character worth digging your claws into.



Co-written by Marvel vet-Daniel Way and novelist Marjorie Liu, the trade has
a sneaky feel to it, as you never quite know what to expect. With sprinkles of
Machiavellian quotations in between the dialogue, which mainly consists of the
inner thoughts of Daken, as he hatches his master plan, this trade has the feel
of a novella, rather than a comic book.



That’s anything but a problem though, as this character is as deep as a
tortured soul in a work by Poe and as brash as a Hemingway hero. Simply put, after
reading these issues that comprise this trade, you’ll be running to find the
next one. As cool as James Bond and as tough as his father, Daken is a walking
oxymoron- a philosopher and student of life that refuses to use his
intelligence when in combat, a manipulator with a heart and a lover without a
soul.



If anyone ever wondered if “House of M” was worth it in long run, the birth
of this character has to be a huge selling point.



With a fresh spin and tons of potential, “Dark Wolverine” is a series worth
keeping your eyes on and “The Prince” is living proof of that.



Away from the writing however, the art, done marvelously by Guiseppe
Camuncoli and Tommy Lee Edwards is both a tribute to the old Wolverine comics
of yesteryear [one panel in particular shows Daken, in his father's costume
with an olive from a martini in his mouth- the resemblance here to papa claws
is uncanny] while being chic and savvy enough [using tons of color and huge
panels for action scenes] to attract new readers. This, coupled with covers by
Adam Kubert and you have a great looking book that compliments the solid
writing beautifully.



Because of the level of the writing and polish in the visuals, regardless of
one’s affinity for Marvel’s most popular character or not, any fan of the medium
owes it to themselves to check out this trade. Full of original thought,
sexiness and pizazz, it’s a rare treat for anyone sick of the same old
characters in the industry today.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Title: G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Rating: PG-13

Production Company/Year: Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Skydance Productions,

Hasbro, Di Bonaventura Pictures,
2013

Director: Jon M. Chu

Writer: Rhett Reese,
Paul Wernick

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1583421/?ref_=hm_inth_t1

Rating: 3.5/5



After the disappointment that was G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, I wasn't quite sure if I actually wanted to see this movie. Before Rise of Cobra, I was psyched due to my childhood love of G.I. Joe and I didn't want to get betrayed again.



After they pulled this movie from it's original June 2012 release date to make it 3D, I really had my doubts. I felt that if it couldn't stand alone with its story and FX without the addition of 3D, it would be another letdown. After the awesomeness that was the Avengers movie, I understand why the execs for this movie decided to push it to a 2013 release.



After all my initial misgivings about this movie, I decided to go and watch it anyways.



Though much of the original cast didn't return for this sequel, and Channing Tatum as Duke didn't last very long, I think that may have been for the better. There was not much mention to what actually happened to people like Scarlett, Ripcord, General Hawk, Heavy Duty, Baroness and Mainframe.



I appreciated that it looked like the writers actually had read some of the original comic books. Fans of the original Marvel series should appreciate the Arashikage Mind-Set being used and a great homage to the "Silent Issue". There is a great deal of ninja action packed into this movie, but thankfully it doesn't go overboard and introduce the Ninja Force. (Read the later issues of the original run of Marvel's G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero series to understand that reference.)



I was hesitant about seeing Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in this movie since his movies have been fairly hit-or-miss, IMHO. I think Johnson's performance was good and held the film together. I know that he has recently returned to wrestling in an effort to better promote his movies.



Ray Stevenson's portrayal of the Cobra saboteur Firefly was excellent, although I think that the motorcycle that split into separate rocket pieces was a little out there. Since I just finished reading the stories in the TPB's involving Firefly as a ninja, I was glad to see that the writers didn't take it that far for the character.



Whoever designed the costume for Snake Eyes in the original (Rise) movie should be very ashamed of themselves. Whoever designed the costume for the current incarnation of Snake Eyes should be commended. This was true to the Snake Eyes I remember as a child and what I've seen in the TPB's. This costume made my inner child very giddy.



Another aspect of the original comics was to promote the toys. I'm glad that this movie didn't have to sink so low as there is only a single reference to a named vehicle: the HISS tank. The new HISS tanks are a better concept that the original ones from the comics or the cartoons. I didn't feel that I had to suspend my understanding of reality to belief what I was seeing.



Of course, the ending was very open for a sequel, so I expect a final installment of the G.I. Joe series will come to us in 3-5 years.



One other side note... There were promo posters in the lobby of the Regal theater I went to. Here's what they look like on the front:

On the back of this poster, they are already promoting the release of the Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital combo that can be preordered at Walmart. I just had to laugh when I saw that.

System's We Play: D&D

Dungeons & Dragons-



If there were a book about the history of role playing games (which there may be and I have not yet read it), it would undoubtedly reference Dungeons & Dragons as the first published RPG system. This is where I first cut my teeth in role playing. My first characters were based on the rules from the original "Red Box".



The rules evolved through many incarnations: Expert, Master, Immortals, Advanced, 2nd Edition, 3/3.5 Edition and 4th edition. From this spawned Pathfinder... but that will be for another posting. Where D&D originated from TSR, it is now owned by Wizards of the Coast, which is owned by Hasbro.



In the beginning, the armor class system worked much differently than what we use in today's incarnations of Dungeons & Dragons. There was a score called Thac0, which stands for "To Hit Armor Class 0". There was even an easy to use dial to help you understand Thac0:

To some people, Thac0 was a confusing trait. When you know your Thac0, you can calculate what you need to hit any armor class by adding or subtracting from that number. In those days, armor class started at 10 and worked it's way down rather than the higher your armor class the better. If you Thac0 is 17, then you would need a 13 to hit a creature with an armor class of 4 and you would need a 20 to hit armor class -3.



There also wasn't all the classes, feats and skills that 3rd edition introduced. Did this make earlier incarnations of D&D harder to play? Not to me. I feel that the addition of feats and skills do help to improve the game, but I have also seen where feats also hinder players when they are unfamiliar with how exactly the feats they choose work.



I don't remember D&D going overboard on the number of books they published until around 2nd edition. This is also when I decided I wasn't going to play as much and didn't buy the books. I believe it was at this time when a budding Wizards of the Coast began to influence the game. After Wizards purchased TSR, the books just seemed to keep rolling-out. This became all too evident when the officially released 3rd edition. The number of books that were published were just exorbitant. When my interest was drawn into 3/3.5 D&D, I too was sucked-in and purchased the books as they became available. Thank goodness I was working at a bookstore and received a discount.



Even though I didn't play all that often, I continued to purchase the new books until I left my position at the bookstore. The good thing about having all these books was that many of them kept their value, and a few even increased in value. When I sold my collection of 3/3.5 Dungeons & Dragons book, I started with the books I could live without. I kept the core books plus the primary settings materials and sold the rest. That got me through several months of being unemployed. A few years later, in another bought of unemployment, I would sell the rest of these books.



While I was working at the bookstore, I collected a set of the AD&D hardback books: Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Monster Manual 1 & 2, Fiend Folio, Legend & Lore, Greyhawk Adventures, Dragon Lance Adventures, Manual of the Planes, Unearthed Arcana, Oriental Adventures, Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, Wilderness Survival Guide & even the Forgotten Realms Adventures boxed set. I also have a large collection of maps from various adventures, magazines, boxed sets and other places to use for just about any type of adventure. I don't pull these items out, but they make a great addition to my collection and it reminds me of my RPG roots. If I ever find a group of players who will run or play Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, I'll be ready.



When TSR first released their tome of God's, it was names Deities & Demigods. I remember checking this book out from my local library on several occasions. I think this book was what originally inspired me to research religions.

The first printing of Deities & Demigods included the mythoi of Cthulhu and Melnibone.  The ideas behind the Cthulhu mythos were in the public domain at that time, but copyright on the Cthulhu books in print was owned by Arkham House, who had licensed Chaosium to create a Cthulhu RPG based on those books.  TSR thought the public domain status allowed them to create game representations of whatever Cthulhu creatures they desired, and so that mythos was added to Deities & Demigods.  TSR then contacted Michael Moorcock, who gave permission for TSR to include the Melnibonean mythos in Deities & Demigods. However, again, Chaosium had already arranged for a license to create an Elric RPG.



Chaosium became upset that TSR was apparently violating Chaosium's licenses, and the print run of Deities & Demigods was halted while the two companies sat down to talk.  Eventually, they agreed that TSR could continue printing the books with the two mythoi as is, on the condition that a note be added to the preface: 'Special thanks are also given to Chaosium, Inc. for permission to use the material found in the Cthulhu Mythos and the Melnibonean Mythos.'  The printing plates were changed, and the first printing continued.



When the time for a second printing came, the Blume brothers decided that a TSR book should not contain such a prominent reference to one of their competitors. They decided to remove the two mythoi, and thus the need for the note.



Legends & Lore has identical contents to Deities & Demigods; the cover artwork was updated in-line with the other 1983 AD&D manuals, and the title was changed to avoid potential conflicts with fundamentalist Christian groups.

When I first started working at the bookstore, I found that there were several people listing the "Cthulhu" 1st edition of Deities & Demigods under the 3rd edition ISBN on Half.com. Most of the prices for these books on Half were not even close to what the actual book was selling for on eBay and to collectors. Like the Capitalist I am, I bought as many of these as I could and flipped them for a nice profit. I saved 1 copy for as long as I could. When unemployment hit, my last copy with "Cthulhu" was sold.



I was fortunate that my parent's were supportive of my growing imagination. I'm not sure when it was, but I do remember that my first D&D book was Fiend Folio given to me on Christmas.

The good thing was that it was a book that none of my other friends ever had. The bad thing was that I remember not really caring for any of the monsters it contained. I hardly used it until I was in high school and I began to appreciate a few of the creatures contained within its pages.

The Walking Dead Volume 16: A Larger World

Title: The Walking Dead Volume
16: A Larger World

ISBN: 978160706553

Price: $14.99

Publisher/Year: Image, 2012

Artist: Charlie Adlard

Writer: Robert Kirkman

Collects: The Walking Dead #91-96

Rating: 4/5

The 'Walking Dead' series has had far more ups than downs so all I had
to do was hope that volume 16 took things back on an upward path rather than
the other direction. It's a slow path upwards but 'A Larger World' does start
to move things in the right direction again.



Supplies are growing dangerously low in the settlement and the surrounding area
has been picked clean of anything useful. Trips further afield are in order and
one such trip reveals that Rick's community isn't the only one trying to
survive. New encounters invariably mean new problems to solve though and Rick
and his friends must face up to some tough decisions if their community is
going to make it through the winter...



'A Larger World' has similar problems to the previous volume in terms of just
how safe the characters all are. There's a big walled settlement for shelter
and even the weakest character has killed enough zombies for that not to be an
issue either. A little bit of the tension is missing then but Kirkman sidesteps
this rather neatly by throwing the wider setting into sharper focus. There's a
whole new world out there and Kirkman shows us the potential here for new tales
yet to come.



If there's a problem here it's very much that all these tales are 'yet to
come'. 'A Larger World' is all about setting things up for future volumes so be
prepared for not a lot to happen at times. Balancing this out though is the air
of menace that Kirkman builds up over the course of the book; 'A Larger World'
isn't just filler, things are being laid in place that promise something
explosive in the very near future. This is what I'm after and I don't mind
waiting a little bit longer if I know it's coming.



There are also more developments, on the personal front, for our band of
survivors and it's all credit to Kirkman that he keeps things becoming too much
like a soap opera. These are people learning to feel again, after some
traumatic events, and I think Kirkman captures that perfectly.



Like I said then, it's a slow road but 'A Larger World' sets the plot back on
an upward trajectory. I’m all excited again about seeing where the series takes
us next.