Prodigal Son: Roots

                                                                  Part Twenty Three

    Cue long, exaggerated sigh, followed by a nostalgic musing while I stare off into the distance.  Yes.  It is done.  Or, to use a phrase I think should never be used in another film in the history of ever, “It has begun.”  After all the talk, all the wishful thinking, all the day dreaming, and yes, all the many false starts, the first night of actual roleplaying has been accomplished.  The first full session I’ve run in more than six years (other than that one on one thing with Brad a couple years ago when I was first trying to get serious about this).  I think that’s the longest continuous gap in gaming I’ve had since I started with the hobby as a young lad (pretty sure Reagan was still in office).  It feels good to slay that dragon.  Starting a game is always difficult.  Starting a game with people new to the hobby is a challenge (a very worthy one).  But starting a game after six years was very, very hard to do.  I’m using mental muscles that have atrophied, digging into parts of my brain that haven’t seen the light of day for far too long.  But, it all worked out pretty well.  All the stress and apprehension melted away fairly quickly, and I began to feel the old rhythms.

    Call of Cthulhu always has always felt a bit like coming home.  It uses the Basic Roleplaying system, the game mechanic I got started on.  And it didn’t take me long to fall for it’s 1920s/1930s setting.  After all, Indiana Jones was my hero.  Over the years, it’s meant a lot of different things to me.  I’ve played in several very different games, and I’ve run a bunch myself.  It’s always challenging, but usually rewarding.  This time around, I’m trying something a little more ambitious than normal.  In the past, I’ve almost always done one of three things.  Early on, my games were always set in very cinematic versions of exotic countries.  Then I graduated to The Thing style of relatable, but hopelessly remote locations, with characters from different walks of life thrust together through circumstance (survivors of a plane crash, for example).  Later, in an attempt to get things more grounded and relatable, my games were set in and around Bangor, Maine, my home town and a place I had a good deal of practical knowledge of.  Not this time.  This time the game is set in Arkham, the city is wide open, and I’m juggling more than one story.  In the past, I’ve tended to take just one idea, one creature, one item, and build a story around it.  When that story was over, perhaps I’d do a follow-up, likely connected to the first in some way.  This time, I wanted to do something new.  So, I’ve got a whole bunch of storylines, some fully developed, some only briefly sketched out, all waiting to be uncovered by the group.  And I’m going to let them explore those stories in whatever way they see fit.  Sure, I’ll be dropping hints and hooks, but already they’ve gone off in unexpected directions, and it’s great.  Of course, not ever story will pan out.  Not every clue will lead to something important.  And these story threads aren’t all linked.  They’re not all about the same thing, and they’re not all building to something, like I’d normally do.  Though they may be laced together by the characters (that’s already started to happen), I’m letting the chips fall where they may.

    Going way back, I always knew that Call of Cthulhu shouldn’t be Dungeons & Dragons.  I don’t just mean the system and all its nonsense.  I mean, it shouldn’t be about walking around fighting monsters all the time.  It shouldn’t be opening doors and finding random creatures and artifacts.  It shouldn’t be a video game.  I think that might be part of why I always focused stories on only one core idea or creature.  If the story was about Ghouls, then dang it, Ghouls would be what you got.  Maybe, just maybe, they’d have something extra special and nasty working with them, but 99% of what the game would be about Ghouls and Ghouls only.  This time around I wanted to do things differently, so I conceived two major and unrelated stories, and multiple lesser stories.  I still don’t want this to degrade into some 20s themed dungeon crawl, with rooms full of Deep Ones or legions of Nightgaunts flapping around.  But it’s going to be more monster/thing heavy than I’d normally do.  In fact, in the very first session, a monster was spotted (briefly), an artifact was found, and a bunch of other crazy stuff happened.  Normally, I’d take a lot longer to reveal that much.  And of course, like in all Call of Cthulhu games I run, I need to make sure that the possibility of the complete ending of the world is always an option.  I feel like any given session of the game should be able to result in an apocalypse of some form, be it a plague, open war with the Deep Ones, causing Yog-Sothoth to open the Gates, a visit from Ghroth, whatever.

    So, now that I’ve got my head around the game, now that the first session has happened, I feel more focused, and more like I know what I’m doing again.  Now, I need to target each player and his/her character with some particular excitement and horror, as well as provide opportunities for each to be a valued member of a team.

    I don’t imagine this game will go on for more than 3 or 4 sessions, especially as I’m trying to keep things moving quickly, and will probably be throwing a lot more, and more deadly things at the characters than normal.  So, I’m still thinking about what other games might be good for the group.  I would certainly like to do something more long form, something open ended, where character development can get more play, where stories can take their time to build, and where actions have far reaching consequences.  One especially nice thing about games like Call of Cthulhu is that, assuming characters reach a good ending point still sane and alive, there’s always the option of picking things up again later, even if there are new players in the group.  If folks enjoy this roleplaying thing and want to do more, we’ll talk about options again then.  I hope I can keep this ball rolling.  It’s tough, with everyone having kids and jobs and social lives.  But I think we can do it.

I still love Cyberpunk 2020.

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (1/26/14-2/1/14)

    Heck of a week for this here Dork.  Sunday started with something of a bang, when I finally assembled a handful of friends for a tabletop roleplaying game.  It’s been so danged long since last I gamed, and the first gathering was mostly logistics, explanations, and finally making characters.  But it was good, none the less.

    Sunday evening, Lisa, Brad, and I headed out to the Alamo to see City Lights, my first experience with Charlie Chaplin.  I know.  How could I have lived this long, loved classics, and enjoyed so many silent films and not seen Charlie Chaplin?  I don’t know.  But there it is.  City lights isn’t the movie I picked to be my cinematic resolution (that was The Gold Rush).  But I had it on good authority that it was very good.

City Lights:  My first experience with Charlie Chaplin, this silent comedy is extremely charming.  After a lifetime of seeing imitators, it’s really something to see the original, and he’s so much better.  The film is very funny, with plenty of physical comedy, but also a lot of situational laughs.  The entire boxing sequence, from the first moments in the locker through the fight and its aftermath had me laughing.  But I think my favorite moment in the film is the nude statue in the window bit.  So danged funny.  I’m looking forward to watching more Chaplin in the near future.

I, Frankenstein:  I re-dub thee: I, Exposition.  When reading books on writing screenplays, I think the creators of this film got things mixed up.  Instead of ‘show, don’t tell’ they must have read ‘tell, don’t show.’  In a generic European city, where it’s always dark and there appears to be maybe ten or twelve normal humans, mostly riding in a single subway car, there’s a secret war that’s been going on for hundreds of years, between demons and gargoyles.  Didn’t catch that?  Don’t worry.  Every character will explain it in excruciating detail to every other character a half dozen times.  They’ll also repeatedly explain how demons ‘descend’ and gargoyles ‘ascend.’  And they’ll go over Adam (aka Frankenstein’s Monster), his origin, his nature, and his power…again and again and again (he’s strong, he’s got no soul, he wasn’t created by God…seriously, they’ll tell you about it every five minutes).  The script for the film is absolutely awful.  Half way through I couldn’t shake off how much it felt like something Chris Claremont would have written around the time he was doing X-Men.  Stilted dialog, ham-fisted exposition, and ‘probably sounds cool to a twelve year old’ tough-guy dialog.  If you watch it with friends, and give it the ol’ Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment, it’s lots of fun.  Otherwise, I have a strong feeling it’s just super dull.

Killer Snakes:  Willard with snakes.  That’s pretty much it.  A dirty little perv can’t catch a break, because he’s a spaz and a creeper.  So he kills people with snakes.  And then with lizards for some reason.  The lizards seemed out of character.  It would be like Leatherface using a gun.  It’s not that he can’t.  I’m not trying to limit his options.  It just seems…I don’t know, like he’s not sincere about the whole thing.  Stick with the snakes, man.  It’s your thing.  Anyway, the movie sucks.

The Ghost:  “Anything yes…Not that.”  The creepy, bulgy, fish eyes of Barbara Steele lurk in the shadows as her invalid husband clings to life.  There’s the usual philandering and naughty doings.  And it’s all dubbed very poorly.  Typical ghost-revenge movie stuff.

Dead Eyes of London:  Those evil blind people are up to no good…gropingly, clumsily up to no good.  Pretty standard horror stuff, with a big blind murderer and some hints at old family badness.  A few twists and turns and the story plays out in much the way you expect.  Still, it’s very well shot and drips with atmosphere (almost literally, as the fog machines seemed to be cranked to 11).  Worth a watch if it’s on, if not an extra effort.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2:  In recent years, there have been a few genuinely surprising kids movies, films far better than what one expects.  Pixar’s secret of not trying to pass off crap because kids don’t care has started to catch on.  The first Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was one such surprise, and even more unexpected was how good the follow-up is.  It’s laugh out loud funny, a good story, and visually impressive.  The voice work is good and the script is excellent.  And they managed to create a good sequel without just rehashing the first one.

    I don’t know if I’ve written much about this on the blog before, but I wrote a script for a short film, an idea I’ve been kicking around for many years (since before I left Maine).  Through luck and timing, I found someone looking for a new project, and willing to read my script.  A few re-writes later, and we’re ready to move on it.  On Saturday, Satnam (the director) and Torsten (the actor) stopped by the apartment for a read-through of the script.  It was really something.  I’m still riding a high from hearing words I wrote spoken by someone who knows how to act.  I had a similar thing the first time I saw a comic script realized by an artist.  Very cool.  I’m very excited for the actual filming and for seeing it all completed.

The Singing Ringing Tree:  “Now you don’t look quite so ugly.”  A German production of one of the less well known (seemingly) Grimm Brothers story, this is thankfully narrated by a BBC fellow, as it isn’t re-dubbed or subtitled.  It’s very fanciful and very staged, but charming in its way.  It feels like a mix of Beauty and the Beast, Hans My Hedgehog, and little bits and pieces of some other stories.  But a lot of these fairy tales seem to mix and match moments, themes, and characters.  More so when they’re made into films.  I really like this one, in spite of its obvious technical limitations.

    So, a good week.  Scheduling the next game meeting was challenging, but we seem to have gotten it figured out.  Between that, getting the movie together, and a bunch of social plans, I’m gonna be a busy bee for a time.

-Matt

Prodigal Son: Choices

    It has finally happened.  I got several people together for a roleplaying game.  Dang, it’s been a long, long time.  I wasn’t sure exactly how things were going to go down, but I guess it went OK.  With only one experienced gamer, I figured a brief introduction to the hobby would help (I hope it didn’t just confuse), and then some general questions of interest.  But after talking to Lisa a few weeks back, I realized she was right, and limiting the options was a good idea (I think she said, “Matt, just make a frickin’ decision.” Though I could be remembering it wrong).  So, I kind of boiled it down to Space 1889 or Call of Cthulhu (while leaving the possibility of something else if people had super strong feelings about something).

    After lots and lots of stammering, occasional blank stares, and a few frantic, scared-rabbit glances, I managed to spit out a stream of consciousness rant about what roleplaying games are (probably missing all the essential elements) and how they’re played.  Then, after a bit of intellectual waffling, I think I may have steered the group toward picking Call of Cthulhu, which works for me.  It’s not rule heavy or number crunchy like D&D or some others, but it’s not as loosey goosey as Over the Edge or Everway.  Having some structure seems like a good idea for folks who have never tried the hobby before.  It’s a scaffolding for the imagination to build its cathedrals (how’s that for some poetry).  With CofC chosen, we set about making the characters.  There’s a handy guide, which was …handy, because it had been quite a while since the last time I went through the process.  We have a big game hunter, a retired naval officer, a reporter, and a mobster.  And the group decided that Lovecraft’s fictional city of Arkham would be our starting point.  With some assignments for reading (you know I love homework!) and a few suggestions for things to look into, I wrapped the day up and started to let it all sink in.

    Now, I’ve got some work to do, but I’ve got a direction to go in.  We’re going to try to meet on a semi-regular biweekly basis.  So, I’ve got about two weeks to do a bunch of reading on Arkham, prep up some non-player character, and create a bunch of story hooks.  I came up with three this morning, and I kind of like ‘em.  So, I’ll probably develop those and maybe a couple others.  There’s always the possibility of multiple story threads being investigated at the same time.  As I’m doing that, I want to prep a list of movies, music, and the like for folks to check out if they’re so inclined.  Things to set the mood or capture the spirit of the age.

    The 20s were pretty wild.  You had the end of the old world and the birth of the new, women entering the workplace at unprecedented numbers, courting going out of fashion to be replaced with dating, money flowing fast and free right next to shocking poverty, great advancements in science along side cultural rejections of progress.  This is the time of flappers and Jazz.  But it’s also the dying days of the Wild West and the prime of Segregation.  Racism is rampant, religious hatreds are inflamed, the scars of one war are barely healed and the shadows of another are just starting to coalesce.  The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl are a few years away, and for the lucky few, things couldn’t be better.  Of course, the brighter the light, the darker the shadow.  And that’s where Call of Cthulhu comes in.  So, with the first night, and a bunch of choices behind us, I’m ready to get this show on the road.  It’s been a long time coming, and I’m glad it’s finally happening.  Now, I just have to not screw it up.

    So, I’m popping on the Cab Calloway, dusting off the Louise Brooks DVDs, and pulling my leather bound Lovecraft off the shelf.  I’ve got my pen and notebook ready, and I’m feeling the creative juices flowing.  If we make it through one complete story, coming to a reasonable end or stopping place, I will be happy.  If folks enjoy that and want to keep going, I will be ecstatic.

-Matt