Like many gamers, I usually dislike when people start talking about all of their characters. I'm also guilty of doing it myself. It happens all the time at cons. Our minds are wired on gaming and someone mentions something that makes us think of a beloved character and we need to share it. Usually, the other person isn't that interested but we're so excited to tell the other person about the Amazing Mr. Jones and his Magic Bling-bling that we don't notice as the person starts looking around for any way to escape the conversation.
However, my last post has me wondering.
What's the most bizarre concept you've ever played? Do you have a bizarre concept you want to play, but have never had the chance? Is there a really cool/bizarre concept you've seen someone else play that you'd like to share?
Tell me about your bizarre characters. If you're an Amber player, I'd like to hear about your most bizarre Amber character as well.
Yes, it's an open invitation to tell me about your character.
Arref pointed out this thread form the GOO Message Boards where the original poster puts forth that there are only four themes that Amber games fall in to:
1. "massive threat to the universe" 2. "war for the throne of amber" 3. "war with Amber and chaos...again" 4. "its Amber.. but if "x" had happened/set in a different universe/etc"
The author claims that 95% of games are one of these. I'd argue that he is wrong about the percentage, but he is right that a good majority of games usually fit in these. Even more detailed, I'd say there is a hefty percentage where the "something wrong with the universe" is "something wrong with the pattern."
I think this all goes back to the Amber IDIC. In my mind, the coolest thing about Amber is the wealth of options available. A GM could tell a hard-boiled detective story, an action-packed space-opera story or a bizarre surrealist cyberpunk story. A GM could tell all three in one game. There are no limits in Amber. (Which is why the game works so well diceless, if you ask me.)
Yet, so many games are "Amber stories." They keep playing on the themes that Zelazny started: Family, Betrayal and the End of the World. They keep telling stories set in the same handful of shadows.
Players do it a lot too. Usually, when I see submitted Player Characters they fit right in to the status-quo. Besides one shape-shifting man raised as a female on a cyberpunk version of Mars (played by a certain Jill P.), I don't remember any truly unusual character concepts. Most characters are just....more Amberites.
Amber players and GMs need to start thinking more "out of the box" I think.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Movie, 2004)- Possibly the coolest movie I saw this year, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes bigger-than-life popcorn-munching pulp adventure movies like Indiana Jones or Star Wars. There's not a whole lot of substance, but there is a whole lot of style. Gwyneth Paltrow's character, Polly Perkins is very annoying at times and, like many people, I wish there had been more of Angelina Jolie in the movie. Jude Law did a great job as the hero. I'll probably try and see this movie in the theatre again. Rating: A.
Year of the Hangman by Gary Blackwood (Book, 2004)- Year of the Hangman is an alternate history novel that was written for young adults and at times it really shows with some simplistic writing and dialogue. However, the book has a really imaginative take on a United States where the british won the American War for Independence. The main character, a british youth sent to the Americas to live with his uncle, a british commander,ends up captured by American Rebels. He eventually ends up staying with Benjamin Franklin, who lives exiled in New Orleans and meeting several historical figures, including America's Greatest Hero, Benedict Arnold. The plot in this book is decent, but I really liked in this book was the author's takes on the historical figures. He really brought them to life and I think was pretty accurate to their personalities, especially Arnold. Rating: C+
Blue Beetle #1-#5 (DC Comics, 1986)- Comics available here. I picked these up years ago in quarter boxes (boxes of comics that are sold for $.25 each) but never got around to reading them. Well, I finally read them last week and I was very impressed. Most of what I know about the Blue Beetle came from his appearances in Justice League International and a few entries in Who's Who in the DC Universe. It seems I missed out on this well-written, but short-lived series. This is the type of comic you just don't see any more with lots of story, a well-rounded cast of supporting characters and a likable main character. rating: B
Green Lantern/Green Arrow Volume 2 (Graphic Novel, 2004)- The second volume of this reprint collection of comics from the seventies was disappointing. It wasn't the stories. They were still top-notch. It was the art reproduction. It didn't seem to reproduce the original art as well as in the first volume. Rating: B-
The Star Wars miniature game is out. I saw some of the minis at lunch and they look far better than any of collectible mini games have so far. The detail and paint-jobs on the minis are amazing and unlike the D&D minis, it appears they are working very hard to make sure all minis are in scale with eachother. The rules are supposed to be very similiar to the D&D Minis game.
The bad news is:
The game costs more than D&D Minis. Not by a lot, but they raised the price of boosters by a couple of dollars and reduced the number of minis per pack to seven. The game is still a lot less expensive than Heroclix or Mage Knight, but after getting such a great deal for the D&D minis, it's disappointing. I assume this is a partly because of the licensing costs and partly because of the increased quality of the minis.
I'll probably buy a starter soon and trade my extra D&D minis with a co-worker I know will be collecting the Star Wars minis for his extras. (He has wanted to get more D&D minis, but is more interested in the Star Wars, so it's a good deal for both of us.)
IGN has this review of the script for the Watchmen movie. Sounds good. I'm not sure if they can make Nite Owl's costume look cool, but it will be great to see this story finally be made into a movie. I hope they don't screw it up.
IN WHICH Sir Pooh de Bear, Tigger, Owl and the rest of Christopher Robin's friends in the Hundred Acre Woods realize that Christopher Robin is not going to return. The Hundred Acre Woods gets smaller. Rabbit organizes a search party and piglet meets a Heffalump. Growing up can be a scary thing, especially when your best friend grows up and leaves you behind. Will the Hundred Acres Wood survive without the very special boy who brought it to life?
Players will choose from pregenerated characters at the con.
A scenario for Ambercon Northwest
Brave New Krypton
It has been almost 20 years since the aliens arrived. A few hundred survivors of a doomed planet many light-years away, they escaped the destruction of their planet in giant space arks. At first these aliens, who looked so much like ourselves, seemed to be a blessing as they shared advanced scientific knowledge with humanity, but it soon became a nightmare. The Earth's environment made the newcomers exceptionally powerful. Under the leadership of General Zod, they set themselves up as Earth's new masters and began changing the planet into a replica of the world they had left, a planet named Krypton. Recently, the resistance has learned that the Kryptonians have a weakness: radioactive crystals from their homeworld. Can the resistance use this information to finally end the alien occupation?
Characters will be created by the GM using the diceless Marvel Universe RPG. Players may play almost any character from DC or Marvel comic books in this "Elseworlds" story. Please e-mail your character choice to the GM before the con or be prepared to choose a pregenerated character.
Steamboy is the newest project from Akira's Katsuhiro Otomo. There are some pictures here and it looks cool as heck. It appears to be set in a steampunk Edwardian London.
For those of you who have not seen it, here is the Pikmin 2 commercial. Very amusing stuff.