Reverb Gamers 2012

Atlas Games is starting a new RPG blogger group called Reverb Gamers 2012. You can follow the results at their website and also on Twitter @ReverbGamers. For each day in January they are posting a prompt for RPG, MMORPG, and LARP players to discuss. I will endeavor to write a response, however brief, to each one.

Prompt for the 1st:

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #1: What was your first roleplaying experience?
Who introduced you to it?
How did that introduction shape the gamer you've become?

How should I answer this one? Do they mean formal roleplaying experience like with rules and stuff? Everyone's first roleplaying experience is when we are little kids and we imagine that we're the 'police' chasing down our 'robber' friends or some similar game. Do I count the Milton Bradley published Hero Quest, which is really a boardgame now that I look back on the experience? You know what? that's it.

Hero Quest 1989



It was designed by Stephen Baker, according to boardgamegeek.com. HeroQuest was developed by GamesWorkshop, you know The Hobby Games guys. It was released in 1990 in North America by MB so I must have first played this game when I was 8 or 9 years old. It was the go to boardgame for me, my brother, and our best friend Chris. We would all imagine we were our characters and take them on each quest in sequence in the game. We'd take turns playing as the evil Zargon. Eventually we upgraded the game and got the two expansions as they game out. Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord. And when we finished those we started 'hacking' the game. We made up new heroes using the stats for the other characters mixed up. I think one of the characters we made was really weak in dice rolling but had access to Zargon's spell cards. We also made a ranger. And we upgraded some of the characters so we could play the game with fewer heroes and really roleplay one character at a time(in the three player games we usually played two heroes per player for balance reasons).

It is the earliest in my life that I considered game design as a career path. I think I was 10 or 11 at the time. I always dabbled with the idea in middle school and high school. Turn the clock forward 20 years and I'm finally starting a career in game design. Just last week I was looking through some old notebooks and found card designs for MtG from the mid-nineties that I wrote while I was in high school. So I guess the lesson is pay attention to the career dreams of your 10 year old self.

My copy of the game is pretty beaten up. It is not at all like the video I posted above. My heroes and a few goblins are painted but are chipping badly. The box is not holding together and some of the cardboard furniture is missing. This game was a gift from my parents so thanks Mom and Dad for making sure I was a lifelong hobby game enthusiast. It is something of a treasure that I will never think about parting with though.

Happy 4th Day of Christmas -- A Belated Merry Christmas

I meant to put this cartoon up on Christmas Eve, but alas I was too busy getting the house ready for Santa Claus.

Second Battleship Preview Leaves Me Wishing They Made "Battleship Galaxies" Into Film

Yesterday I tweeted that I might be the only person in America who is excited to see the upcoming "Battleship" film directed by Peter Berg. I think that Berg has a talent for both the artistic and for the popcorn, and think that his "Battleship" film looks like pure popcorn. Ridiculous popcorn.

Like, doesn't make any sense popcorn.

Not only that, but popcorn that follows the typical invasion story formula.

1. Earth encounters alien force
2. Earth gets owned by alien force -- the "Footfall" moment
3. Earth keeps fighting against hopeless odds
4. Some change/shift occurs
5. Earth wins/Aliens quit

In Footfall the aliens stop when they realize that humans are crazy and won't ever give up.  In "Independence Day,"  we create a "virus" to even the odds.  In War of the Worlds, the aliens catch a cold.  It's a common formula, tried and true.  A little staid perhaps, but I don't mind if the film is pure popcorn.  Heck, even "Skyline" followed this formula even though it ended just as the shift toward "human" victory begins.




Regardless, after seeing the alien designs in this film, and having played the "Battleship: Galaxies" board game, I personally wonder why they didn't just base the film on that game.  It would still have the transmedia marketing tie in, and it would make sense to include the aliens.

In Defense of Candy Land

In a recent episode of the Dice Tower podcast, Eric Summerer gave some surprising praise for the classic Milton Bradley board game "Candy Land." To those who are casual gamers, rather than obsessive hobby gamers, it might seem odd to call praise of "Candy Land" surprising, but it is.  While the "child's first game" is a staple in most households, it isn't a well thought of game in the hobby gaming community.  For example, the hobby gamer's go to website for opinion research is the excellent Board Game Geek website, and its members have given the game a lowly 3.2/10 rating (with an N of 1568).  This rating falls somewhere between "bad" and "not so good."

My opinion of the game has changed over the past year, and now falls pretty squarely in line with Eric Summerer's praise, and also with Rob Donohue's.  He praised the game as a great introductory game that he was playing with his son.  If memory serves, Mr. Summerer stated that "Candy Land" was the first game where his son actually started playing by the rules.  I had a similar experience with my 3 and a half year-old twin daughter's Mystery and History.  They adore this game, and have learned some valuable game playing lessons from the game.  Like Mr. Summerer's son, they play the game by the rules...well with one small exception.  Rather than the goal of the game being to "go home" as is written in the rules, Mystery and History are on a journey to have tea at Hello Kitty's house.  To add to the immersion, they have placed Lego Duplo "cat legos" on the board at both the home and peanut brittle house squares.  The home square represents Hello Kitty's house and the peanut brittle house is the domicile of Hello Kitty's apocryphal twin sister "Boxie." 

I am pretty sure that my own heightened opinion of the game is stronger than that of Mr. Summerer's.  Where I once found the game "simple" and not really worth playing, I now believe the game to be a vital addition to any gamer's collection.  But one must own the game for the right reasons.

"Candy Land" was created in 1948 by Eleanor Abbott.  Eleanor was a retired San Diego school teacher who suffered from Polio, and she created the game as a fantasy world into which children suffering from the disease could escape.  The game was first played by children in a polio ward in a San Diego hospital and was published in 1949 to great success.

The game is quite simple.  Players draw cards which have and illustration of either a colored square (or two) or a board location. The player then places their game piece on the next square of the color drawn, or the location in the illustration.  The first player to follow the track all the way to the "home" square wins.  The cards are only shuffled once, unless the entire deck has been gone through and then you shuffle again.  There is no strategy to playing the game efficiently, and the players make no tactical decisions.

It is a game of pure chance.

I believe that this one of the primary causes for the low rating the game receives on Board Game Geek.  To elaborate, I believe the following to be the reasons the game is so disdained:

1. The game is purely random with player decisions having no influence on play.
2. Due to the single shuffle, the game's outcome is effectively decided before the first piece is moved.

There seems to be a preference on Board Game Geek on games where players have control and where the role of luck is minimized, but this is a view that I personally don't share.  I love games of skill, but most games of skill are also solvable games akin to Nim.  An eventual "best strategy" can become known and that means that the game is only fun/challenging insofar as the people playing the game have incomplete knowledge.  Tic Tac Toe is only fun when both of the players lack mastery.  This is never true of a game that incorporates chance.  Chance allows for variation in play, and allows weaker players to beat stronger players.  Reiner Knizia, in his book Dice Games Properly Explained, describes games of luck in the following way, "Even though you have no tactical influence, these games provide great entertainment.  It is like watching a good movie.  You cannot change the course of the action, but you join in the excitement."

I agree.

A good game of "Candy Land" is very much like watching a good movie, especially if you are playing with people of the recommended age group of 3 to 6 years old.  Watching Mystery and History act out their journey is a great part of the fun of the game play.

But the benefits of "Candy Land" are more than just the entertainment of play, which does in all honesty have limits.  The highest benefits of playing the game are as follows:

1. Teaches turn taking
2. Teaches following the rules
3. The lack of tactical contribution minimizes "bad losing/gloating by winners"
4. Teaches color matching
5. Engages the imagination in storytelling
6. Introduces all the basics of future board game play in a conflict free environment

That's a  lot of benefits.  One could add "can be used as the basis for a discussion of Markov chains and even a full discussion of statistics" if one were so inclined, but I don't think my 3 and a half year-old daughters would be up for such a discussion.

I think that the benefits of "Candy Land" far outweigh the first criticism of the game, that of "pure" randomness.  Opposition to chance in games is more a personal taste issue than any transcendent rule of game design.  That said, I do think that the second criticism -- that the game is decided before play actually begins -- has a good deal of merit.  Therefore, I'd like to offer the two following variant rules for "Candy Land."

Bag Draw
In this version of "Candy Land," all of the cards are placed into a bag, or hat, and the players draw a random card from the bag on their turn. This makes the game more purely random, and eliminates the pre-determination factor of the game.
If players wanted to eliminate completely the influence of prior draws from future play, cards can be immediately put back into the bag after it has been used for movement determination.

1 to 4 and Left or Right

In this variant, players shuffle the cards as normal at the beginning of the game thus setting the order of cards for the remainder of the game.  The first player draws as normal and is considered Player 1 for the remainder of the game.  The other players in counter-clockwise rotation are players 2 through 4. 

 After the first player's draw, all future draws are decided through the roll of a six-sided die.  On a result of 1 to 4, the player of that number draws the next card.  On a result of 5, the player to the left of the current player draws a card.  On a result of 6, the player to the right of the current player draws a card. 

Neither of these optional rules eliminates the role of chance in play, but both add a level of mystery and change the Markov dynamics. of play.

I have found that this game is perfect for its intended audience, and believe it a vital part of any gamer's collection.  It can also be used as a point of departure for design and the creation of house rules.

The "Boxie" character should not be confused with Hello Kitty's real twin sister Mimi, and is a creation of my daughter Mystery.

Walsh, Tim (2004). Timeless Toys.

A Victory Point Games Christmas

Victory Point Games is an independent small press gaming company located in Southern California that is both a game company and a classroom.  Not only do they want to produce fun to play games, but it is their mission to turn game players into game designers.  They are a friendly and talented crew.

For the past few years, VPG has released playable game after playable game.  What the games have sometimes lacked in quality of components, they have more than made up for in quality of play.  Recently, VPG has made two corporate decisions that will bring the physical/visual quality of their products in line with the play quality.  First, they have ordered a die-press in order to produce high quality die-press counters for their games.  They have been hand pressing and cutting the individual games in the past.  Second, VPG has slated a series of digital adaptations of their games.

VPG has just released their first digital game, an adaptation of Chris Taylor's "Loot and Scoot" fantasy game.  The digital version of the game does a good job of capturing the simple charm of the printed version of the game.  It also features significant graphic improvement over the tabletop game.  You can compare the digital version's graphic presentation to that of the original by looking at the images below.  The first two images come from the new digital edition, while the second two images come from the physical version of the game. 

 

I am quite fond of the physical game, and there is no replacing a good face to face board game experience, but the digital game is both cheaper and slicker than its physical counterpart.  The new digital game -- available for both iPhone and Android devices -- comes in at an inexpensive $2.99 where the physical copy has a $17.95 price point if purchased direct.  The digital game is competitively priced, where the physical game reflects the costs associated with limited print runs, both are worth the price.  Get yourself a copy of the digital game, and purchase a copy of the physical game for a friend.

In addition to "Loot and Scoot," VPG has a large catalog of fun games that make perfect Christmas presents.  My top ten list (in no particular order) are the following:

1. Hero of Weehawken: The Aaron Burr Conspiracy
2. Gettysburg: The Wheatfield
3. Forlorn Hope
4. Nemo's War
5. Empires in America
6. Zulu's on the Ramparts
7. Waterloo 20
8. Final Frontier
9. Ancient Battles Deluxe
10. The Barbarossa Campaign

I've Got to Get Jody to Do Another Fantasy Toon Soon

Cinerati Netflix Recommendation: "The Last Detective"

Picture, if you will, the typical American police procedural.  If you have the same picture in your mind that I do, then you are picturing a team of detectives rushing to solve a crime.  They are rushing to fight against the "First 48" hours after which the solution of a murder/crime becomes more difficult.  They receive their forensic data at lightning speed, have a coroner on call, and the episodes often contain exciting chases and flashy gunfights. 

Sometimes, just sometimes, we get to see the actual procedures of the investigator -- if we happen to be watching a classic episode of "Law & Order."  Even then, the show is episodic and mystery driven.  Certainly, in the best procedural dramas like "Justified," the main detective evolves as the season progresses and his life is an on going sub-plot that ties episodes together.  But it is rare that the detective's story move beyond sub-plot to become the driving force in the show, and it is the mysteries themselves that dominate.  The best procedural dramas have strong sub-plots that become long standing arcs where the characters evolve over time and become real to the viewers.  In the worst procedural dramas, some of which are among my guilty pleasures, the detectives never become more than ciphers who rampage through mystery after mystery.  Yes...rampage through mystery after mystery, their gunfire solving crimes as often as the justice system.

The ITV drama "The Last Detective" is the best sort of police procedural.  It's mysteries take their time in resolving themselves, and the detective exploring them is a delight to watch.  He is calm, understated, and intelligent.  Detective Constable "Dangerous" Davies, played by Peter Davison, is anything but dangerous and is initially disliked by his fellow detectives for his low key personality.  In the first episode, he increases their dislike of him when he relentlessly pursues a mystery investigation to its unfortunate end.   "Dangerous" is given the title "the last detective" because of this investigation.  It is his supervisor's way of telling him that when a crime comes to the department, Dangerous will be the last detective called to investigate it.  That is unless the crime is so lame/irritating that no one else will do it.

The manner in which the pilot episode allows the investigation to reveal the life and personality of the murder victim is a marvel to watch.   As the investigation unfolds the viewer comes to care for the victim, a rare phenomenon in procedural dramas.  The third episode has that rarest of rarest occurrences, an unsolved crime, but that unsolved crime leads to an interesting narrative of obsession and the risks that detectives constantly take.

I have always had a soft spot for Peter Davison as an actor.  He was the first "Doctor" I watched on television and the "Fifth Doctor" is still my favorite.  Davison brings all of his charm and charisma to this show.  If you've got the time, give it a try.

Is a "True" Dungeon Master a "Fire in Which Players are Consumed?"

Wednesday's Penny Arcade comic completed their "Conflux" storyline in which Tycho convinces Gabe to run a Pathfinder game for a group of 4th Edition D&D players. A theme of the storyline has presented a "Pathfinder is hardcore like older editions of D&D" narrative, one that ends with Gabe now knowing the horrors of edition wars and why they happen. We as players have preferences. We like what we are used to, and changes are sometimes hard to adapt to.

I have always found it interesting that most players I know are willing -- if not even tremendously eager -- to try new game systems, but will react in horror when their favorite role playing game is released in a new edition. With the exception of Call of Cthulhu, it seems that if a game has a new edition it has a schism within its player base. It has happened several times for D&D. It happened with Traveller, Hero System, Vampire/World of Darkness...and on and on.

In the case of D&D, some of those who disparage the newest edition of the game often wax nostalgic for an era in which the players and the DM were almost akin to foes. For these players, the past was an era where players died cruelly at the whims of a harsh Dungeon Master. It was the challenge of succeeding in spite of such DMs, or failing spectacularly because of them, that was what made the Old School Games so great. You can find such nostalgic tales throughout the OSR sphere. You can also find tales of how great it was when the game assumed that the players would backstab each other and betray each other at any given moment. It is this point of view that is expressed by Tycho in the Conflux storyline. To quote Tycho in the storyline's finale, "A True Dungeon Master is a Fire in Which Players are Consumed!"

This was certainly the attitude the first person who I ever had as a DM had. He didn't hesitate to transform my Wizard into an Axe-beak -- a bizarre combination of Ostrich and mythic beast. I felt humiliated. The character wasn't my own, my friend Sean had rolled the character up. He had named the character Gandalf, I had high hopes for the young mage. In all honesty, after this first gaming experience -- which I have blogged about before -- it is really a miracle that I play these games to this day.

But that adversarial DM was just playing the game the way it was intended to be played, right? Old School D&D is cutthroat and the DM is your enemy, right?

What do the old rule books actually say is the role of the DM?
One almost finds a quote supporting this position on page 9 of the first edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. On that page, when discussing how to use "wandering monsters," Gary Gygax uses the phrase "if a party deserves to have these beasties inflicted upon them..." which seems to imply a cruel whimsy underlying the job of DM. But taking that phrase out of context leaves out his advocacy of making the game fun. To quote, "if your work as a DM has been sufficient, the players will have all they can handle upon arrival, so let them get there, give them a chance. The game is the thing, and certain rules can be distorted or disregarded altogether in favor of play."
It seems here that Gary Gygax is arguing that the DM's job is to make the game fun for the players...including by bending the rules in their favor. To quote page 110:

Now and then a player will die through no fault of his own. He or she will have done everything correctly, taken every reasonable precaution, but still the freakish roll of the dice will kill the character. In the long run you should let such things pass as the players will kill more than one opponent with their own freakish rolls at some later time. Yet you do have the right to arbitrate the situation. You can rule that the player, instead of dying, is knocked unconscious, loses a limb, is blinded in one eye or invoke an reasonably severe penalty that still takes into account what the monster has done. It is very demoralizing to the players to lose a cared-for-player character when they have played well.

Here Gygax argues to not let dice get in the way of a player's enjoyment. Though I find the use of player and character to be clumsy in the above paragraph. It is no wonder some people thought that D&D was about "real" magic, when you write that "a player will die through no fault of his own." Player?! Holy!
Okay, so the AD&D DMG has some comments on making sure the focus is on fun and not competition between the DM and players, but what about the other old school books?

The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures (Original D&D)

(p.6) The fear of "death," its risk each time is one of the most stimulating parts of the game.  It therefore behooves the campaign referee to include as many mystifying and dangerous areas as is consistant (sic) with a reasonable chance for survival ...For example, there is no question that a player's character could easily be killed by falling into a pit thirty feet deep or into a shallow pit filled with poisoned spikes, and this is quite undersirable in most instances.

Even in the advice scarce Original D&D rulebook, Gygax goes out of his way to point out how traps with guaranteed lethality are "undesirable" in most instances.

Holmes Basic

(p.22) In setting up his dungeon, the Dungeon Master should be guided by...so that the adventurers have a reasonable chance of survival. (p.40) Traps should not be of the "Zap! You're dead!" variety...

It appears as if Dr. Holmes agrees with Gary that the adventures should be challenging, but not adversarial through his use of language.

Moldvay Basic

(p.B60) It is important that the DM be fair, judging everything without favoring one side or another.  The DM is there to see that the adventure is interesting and that everyone enjoys the game.  D&D is not a contest between the DM and the players! The DM should do his or her best to act impartially when taking the part of monsters or handling disputes between characters.

 Unlike earlier quotes, the bold and italicized emphasis in the Moldvay quote are straight from the book.  It's as if he is reacting to what he saw as a trend in the DM-ing styles he was seeing in the day. 

I don't believe that the rules of D&D ever advocated an adversarial relationship between DM and players.  I think they always viewed the DM as the arbiter of the rules and the facilitator of fun.  In my opinion, it was individual egos, and the natural desire to win sometimes, that created the killer DMs who believe as Tycho shouts.

My own credo is that a great DM has to be a great loser.  Yes, there are times when the monsters will win, but the DM is required to make it exciting for the players when the monsters are losing as well as when the monsters are winning.

ePawn: One Step Closer to an Affordable Digital Game Board

Even before I first saw the video of Carnegie Mellon students using the Microsoft Surface to play roleplaying games, I have been genuinely excited about the potential to have a fully interactive digital game board to use in my role playing an board gaming experiences.  The amount of storage space taken up with "dungeon tiles" and terrain on my gaming shelves is more than I'd like.  It includes cardboard tiles, printed cardstock tiles, and actual terrain pieces.  It would be nice to have a playing surface that projected the images, and only have to have 3-D terrain pieces on my shelf.

The main problem so far seems to be affordability, but based on this article at Tech Crunch affordability seems to be approaching.  The new ePawn pad plans to provide a decent playing area (26") for $400.   It also looks like it would be a great surface to play some of those app transitioned board games like "Small World."

What are your thoughts? Are you looking forward to integrated digital/physical gaming?

Mythbusters Fires a Broadside at Dublin, CA

Thank goodness that no one was hurt in this accident, because we can now make Monte Python/Mythbusters references.

Which RISK Would You Buy?

This holiday season features two intriguing new additions to the library of RISK games. The first is the release, by Hasbro, of RISK: Legacy.  In this edition of the classic game, the rules of play evolve over the course of play and game balance and rules will differ on play 7 from what they were when you opened the box.  This new version of the game has sparked some conversations through the gaming community, and I have to admit that the concept of choices made during one play of a game affecting later "fresh" plays of the game is an intriguing feature.  Fortress AT has a good discussion of the game and its features.  Tom Vasel gives a nice overview in the embedded video below.

The other intriguing RISK entry for this season is a SOLID SNAKE themed version of the game by USAopoly.

I am looking forward to both versions of the game, but which would top your Holiday shopping wishlist.

John Carter of Mars: Andrew Stanton Channels My Imagination

It is rare that film translations of fiction visually translate anything resembling the reader's imagination, but that is exactly what Andrew Stanton appears to have done with his adaptation of John Carter. 

More John Carter Videos

Disney...first they do a bang up job on an animated Tarzan, which was a fun if not ideal adaptation. Now this. Holy!

What if Kurt Russell had Landed the Han Solo Part?

Thanks to Geoff Boucher of the invaluable LA Times Hero Complex, I found this intriguing audition where Kurt Russell reads for the part of Han Solo opposite William Katt of Greatest American Hero fame.  Believe it or not, it is a real possibility that Kurt could have landed the Han role.  Thankfully he didn't.  He's a little too Dexter Riley in this reading, and too little Snake Plissken.  I would argue that Russell had so much of the residual fairy dust from his Disney live action films, that he may have made a great Luke.  He has the charm, he just lacks the ruggedness.

I'm a big fan of Russell's, but if I had seen this footage before watching Escape from New York or Tombstone even I would have had a hard time believing that Russell could emote "grimness."

I have also realized another thing after watching these, and other, auditions for Star Wars. I realized that had I been directing the films, the actors may have become frustrated with hearing a single piece of direction uttered by me. That phrase would have been, "FASTER...MORE INTENSE!" It's true of the Harrison Ford audition as much as it is of these. The actors just seem so calm when they are delivering these lines.

Ben Thompson Reminds Us How Badass History and Mythology Are

I love to read about history and mythology.  Heck, I love to read just about anything.  This is true despite the efforts of several teachers who assigned meaningless "coming of age" stories like A Separate Peace and history texts that were as dull as spoons.  To be fair, the history texts were likely the fault of administrators but I also had teachers who did little to make the words in those dull history texts come alive.

There were wonderful exceptions to be sure.  I had a Nevada History teacher who would lavishly illustrate the chalkboard with a glimpse into the past -- in colored chalk no less.  I can only imagine the hours of effort it took for her to create images that were overlooked by most of the students in the class.  She was a hard grader, but an engaging teacher.  She made John Fremont and the Donner Party vividly real for me.

Excepting this teacher -- and a couple of others -- I was lucky to come out of my early education with a love of reading.  Seriously...have you read A Separate Peace?


Lucky...except for one thing.  Role playing games existed and they fueled my reading passion.  Thanks to the many creators of the role playing games of my youth, my interest in the exciting playground that is world history was kindled.  I can thank people like Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Graeme Morris, and Greg Stafford for reminding me that the stories are what make history so exciting.

Today's young readers don't have something I didn't have.  They have the internet and Ben Thompson's excellent Badass of the Week website.

At the site -- and in his two books -- Thompson does the world a huge favor.  He makes history more than fun.  He makes it hard core.  His books and website are the DragonForce of history/mythology books.  They are "metal."  In short, he rocks.

Over the past few years Thompson has become my favorite historian.  Will his work be lauded ages from now as the quintessential history texts?  Will they become the text books of University Core Curriculum programs?  No.

They will inspire readers -- at that most cynical and needed age...the teen years -- to become interested in history.

Thompson recently gave a Google Talk where he did a reading from each of his two books.  He's unnecessarily nervous and self-deprecating.

Do yourself a couple of favors.  Buy his books on Amazon and visit his website weekly.
 

His biographical sketches -- like this one about Wolf the Quarrelsome whom Ben mentions in the Talk --  are engaging.  They also make for wonderful inspirational fare for D&D campaigns.

Here's hoping that Ben is able to get a TV deal out of this.

[Cinerati Cartoons] -- Nicnup: Exciting Employment Opportunity

Jody uploaded this strip today. Though she did it years ago, it still seems topical.

[Cinerati Cartoons] -- Nicnup: Gesundheit

My wife Jody has a wonderful and visual sense of humor. In this Nicnup strip, she manages to capture how I have felt almost every time I've had a loud sneeze. They do sometimes feel earth shattering.

Romance: Cinerati Style

My wife and I have a very comfortable romance.  We love date nights as much as any other couple, but we also enjoy a cozy night enjoying our favorite past times.  A couple of years ago, before the twins were born, my wife drew this image of what one of our typical evenings might look like.  The picture was a nice snapshot of our home at the time.  Jody is there, I'm there, tons of books are there, our two cats (Goose and Pumpkin) are there, and so is our dog Oreo. 

The image is of our home a few years ago, so if she were to draw it today Oreo and Pumpkin would be absent from the picture.  Both were quite old when she drew the image and neither are still with us today.  There would also be two tremendously energetic twin daughters in the image, and Jody and I would look a little more exhausted.  We would still look just as comfortable.  We have a comfortable romance.  There is no one I would rather spend every day of my life with.

Since my wife is a cartoonist, I'll put it in cartoon terms.  Linus has his blanket, and I have Jody.  I feel just as lost without her as Linus did without his blanket.  There is an emptiness in the small moments I am away from her, and her smile is all that can fill it.

Phoenix Wright, from Nintendo DS to the Big Screen

Those of you who have been reading this sight for a couple of years, know that I am a huge Phoenix Wright fan.  The game series is a splendid addition to the procedural/detective game genre.  A genre that includes many great video games, as well as some of the best table top games ever created. 

At first glance, the game might seem a little strange.  It is entirely narrative, requires keen observation and logic skills, but almost no coordination.  It requires a skill set that is typically used in board/card game play and when used in those it tends to be in an "abstract" fashion.  Most video games that use this skill set -- exclusively -- also tend to be abstract.  Think Chess, Solitaire, and Minesweeper for examples of the kinds of games that have historically been observational/logical in game play.  Very rarely are these games narratively exciting.

Somehow, the Phoenix Wright game manages to be exactly that -- exciting.  Sure, the random "OBJECTION!" from time to time wakes up the mind in a brute way, but it is the engaging stories and humor that really make these games worth playing -- and replaying.  It should be noted that game designer extraordinaire did work on a "Harvey Birdman" game for the Wii that is more humorous, but similarly entertaining. 

Engaging stories and humor...hmmm...that sounds like a good combination for a film, and low and behold there is a Phoenix Wright film in the works.  The official trailer should be released November 5th and the film will be released in Japan on February 11th.  The film will be directed by Takashi Miike of 13 Assassins, Ichi the Killer, and Audition fame.

One might think that Miike is an odd choice for a humorous attorney film based upon a video game, but players of the game are familiar with how gruesome some of the murders in the game actually are.  One can only hope that Miike is able to balance the gore, humor, and engaging narrative in the same manner as the games.

A Blacksmith's Macaroni and Cheese? Pure Cheese!

I don't know if I have ever posted a commercial video on this website before, but the new Velveeta ad campaign is incredible. I don't know who came up with the "Liquid Gooooold!" slogan, and the idea of using a blacksmith to sell Mac&Chee, but this is hilarious.
Here is the first ad I saw.

But it is the next ad that really brings the cheese!

 

Should I laugh at the absurdity of comparing cooking to blacksmithery?

Should I be offended at the sociological implications of the ad?

Should I wonder if the person who came up with the campaign plays D&D? Wait, they probably do. "Smite them with the liquid gold until there can be no more smiting!" Only a D&D player could write that.

What's next? Will the blacksmith fight hordes of fast food goblins?

Make Tonight a Vincent Price Night

On this day of Creepiness,
When rampant ghoulies run,
and kids go masked about,
Enjoying pagan fun...

Witches feast on human flesh,
While we recall a host,
(A haunt himself in living)
Recently turned ghost...

Scary movies [were] his thing,
(Theater gave '[i]m a try)
Whales of August I liked best.
My favorite was The Fly.

We do request a brief repose,
(A moment should suffice)
of silence just to say,
"So long" to Mr. Vincent Price.

Fine, Silence, and then we get the candy?!

SH!

Yow!

5-27-1911 to 10-25-1993

October 25th, 1993, Vincent Price, a horror film legend, left this mortal coil. The horror films that Vincent Price starred in were not the violent shockfests people so often imagine when they thing of the words "horror film." His films were not about gore, or quick cathartic release of tension, rather they were about fear. H.P. Lovecraft, a pioneer in American "Wierd Fiction", wrote in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature :

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is the fear of the unknown...their admitted truth must establish for all time the geniuneness and dignity of the wierdly horrible tale as a literary form. Against it are discharged all the shafts of a materialistic sophistication which clings to frequently felt emotions and external events, and of a naively insipid idealism which deprecates the aesthetic motive and calls for a didactic literature to "uplift" the reader toward a suitable degree of smirking optimism...men with minds sensitive to hereditary impulse will always tremble at the thought of the hidden and fathomless worlds of strange life which may pulsate in the gulfs beyond the stars...

This horror of the unknown is the kind of horror that permeated the films of Vincent Price. To be sure some like the Tingler had moments of visual shock, but most of the horror in Price's films was internal to the viewed characters. The audience felt the horror not as an immediate thing which passes when the musical sting chimes, but as a lingering afterthought which remained with the viewer long after the film had been viewed.

An image from The Tingler more akin to modern horror.

Vincent Price and Roger Corman's screen adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe tales are some of the best examples of this lingering kind of fear. With modern special effects making the imagery in The Pit and the Pendulum tame, possibly completely enervated of shock value, in comparison to the slaughter a Jason Voorhees is capable of committing. It is not the violence in Pit which horrifies, it is the thought of what man is capable of doing. This is the best kind of fear, the fear that reminds us as we look into the abyss that the abyss is looking back into us. True fear is horror at the possible meaninglessness of existence and the potential cruelty of man. How horrible is the realization in Fall of the House of Usher that Roderick Usher had accidently put his living sister prematurely into the tomb? The audience who watches this film can imagine both having to dig oneself free of an early grave and the terror of realization Roderick comes to when he realizes what he has done. There but for the grace of G-d go I.

When Price first died, I worried that the "lingering fear" horror tale was dead. I "feared" that all I would be able to watch were gorefests made purely for shock value, but I should have known better. There were already hints that filmmakers knew what kind of fear was most valuable. In John Carpenter's version of the Fog, the horror wasn't that the dead had come back for revenge. It was why they came back, and that it didn't matter who they killed to get the requisite number of victims in compensation. Even a child would have sated their lust for vengeance. There were other films as well, but I would like to focus on what has come since Price died.

The Others, starring Nicole Kidman, is a wonderful example of personal realization bringing horror. Sure there are moments of suspense, but what keeps you talking about the film is the moment of realization. The same goes for Sixth Sense, but I think that the Village with its demonstration of what people will do to create a "just" society is more horrifying. Even if you guess the "twist" in the Village the lengths the Elders go through to maintain the serenity of the village is frightening. Eric Kripke's story about the Boogeyman isn't about gore, it is about how we give power to our fears. The same can be said for the numerous Japanese horror films which have come our way over the past few years. They often contain shocking images, but it is the lingering thoughts of the spitefulness of the dead which have value in the long term. The most Lovecraftian of recent horror tales was The Forgotten in which humankind were naught but play pieces for aliens in a G-dless materialistic universe. Julianne Moore, and all the other characters, were truly helpless against the antagonists and the resolution that she was "okay" isn't cathartic because the threat remains for everyone else.

Sporatic Geek Update -- Battleship, D&D, and Donkey Kong

In the process of maintaining a blog about popular culture and Geek activities, I often find articles that would make for good blog posts.  I tend to leave these articles as open tabs on my web browser, intending to at some point come back to them and give them the full length discussion that they deserve.  Eventually, months pass and these topics go untouched.  Guilt ensures that the tabs stay open, but a busy life ensures that the full posts don't get written.  That's why I created the "Sporatic Geek Update" a couple of years ago.

The update isn't meant to be regular, hence the "sporatic" part of the name, but it is filled with things that I think are wonderful and worth checking out.  Here are some of the things that have happened over the past 3-5 months -- that's right months -- that I wanted to talk about, but haven't.

1. Jonathan Liu over at Geek Dad wrote a great article about the latest Battleship related boardgame Battleship: Galaxies.  The game is an exciting, if not well known, war game of the kind that I hope Hasbro continues to manufacture.  As the good folks at Heroscapers point out, the game was designed by Craig Van Ness who also designed the fantastic Heroscape board game.  The game is available at Amazon -- and at your friendly local game store -- and is a perfect holiday gift.
2. David Ewalt of Forbes Magazine has an interview with Shelly Mazzanoble about her latest book Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Dungeons and Dragons.  Shelly is an Associate Brand Manager at Wizards of the Coast who's first real encounters with D&D came as a Hasbro employee.  She is a wonderful writer and a great advocate for the hobby.
3. Robert Schwalb has written an excellent post about how "checking your ego at the door" can help you become a better game designer.  I would argue that this article is also a must read for managers and "authors" in any creative field.
4. Gamasutra covers the "Secret History of Donkey Kong."  Donkey Kong was one of the games that sparked the arcade revolution, and its legacy still echoes through the video game industry. 
5. Matthew D. Wilson, the Chief Creative Officer of Privateer Press, made a steampunk version of "Little Red Riding Hood" entitled Wolfsbane.

That's it for this "Sporadic Geek Update."  There's quite a bit of exciting stuff in it.  Let me know your thoughts.

Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula? Yes Please!

Bill Cunningham -- the mad pulp bastard -- and his crew over at Pulp 2.0 are releasing a string of exciting products over the next few months. This week, they announced the release (digitally and physically) of THE MIRACLE SQUAD, a comic series that was originally published by Fantagraphics in 1987.

This is the first time that THE MIRACLE SQUAD has been sold in a collected edition, and the book provides a nice glimpse into the halcyon age of independent comic books. During the 1980s, direct comic book stores were on the rise and so were quality independent titles. It was an exciting time to be a fan of comics, a time when the medium itself was in transition as it adapted to new business models (the "death" of newstand and the birth of "direct sales" which allowed greater access to customers and greater interaction with customers) and new technologies (more sophisticated printing techniques, better paper).

In many ways, it was a period like today. The market is once again becoming more consumer driven as creators become less dependent on retail stores to give them direct access to consumers, just as the direct market allowed companies to target a market more accurately than convenience stores, supermarkets, and newstands. Bill, and the folks at Pulp 2.0, understand this market change isn't "coming," it's here. There upcoming line of books seeks to demonstrate that not only is the new market capable of allowing companies to profit with new offerings, but that it allows a unique opportunity to make sure that no product ever goes out of print again. Let me say that one more time.  

The new publishing market provides a unique opportunity to make sure that no product ever goes out of print again!

This means that publishers big and small, and creators have opportunities to generate revenue that were before unimaginable. Enough about the market, how exciting it is, and how smart Bill is about this topic. Let's get to the real issue being discussed here, Dracula and Sherlock Holmes.

This December, Pulp 2.0 will be releasing a 25th anniversary collected edition of SCARLET IN GASLIGHT by Martin Powell and Seppo Makinen. The series collected in the 25th anniversary edition has been praised in the Washington Post -- of all places -- and is a highly entertaining read. Rumor has it that Bill has licensed additional books in the series as well. SCARLET IN GASLIGHT was published by the now defunct Eclipse Comics (publishers of MIRACLEMAN, THE ROCKETEER, and SCOUT) presents a confrontation between two of the most iconic figures in literature, Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula. In 2011, this is a pretty common mashup idea, but Powell and Makinen execute the idea very successfully. I cannot wait to see how the Pulp 2.0 crew have packaged this edition. I'm sure to buy it in print and digitally!

[Film Trailer] Justice League: Doom -- Looks Interesting

DC's theatrical releases have been hit or miss -- I'll be posting my Green Lantern film review soon -- but their animated projects have tended to be excellent.  Everything from Batman: The Brave and the Bold to All-Star Superman has been entertaining.  By the looks of this official preview, that trend is continuing.

[Film Trailer] VIRAL FACTOR -- Forget CONTAGION, Give Me Gunfights and Amnesia

Thanks to BeyondHollywood.com for pointing me to Daniel Lam's latest science-fiction suspense actioner. It looks like a combination of Hard Boiled, The Bourne Idenity, and Outbreak. The folks at Beyond Hollywood recommend that you familiarize yourself with the plot before you watch the video:

A mission to escort a witness from Jordan to the Netherlands leaves International Security Affairs agent Jon severely scarred: a bullet is lodged in his brain, his fiancée and fellow agent Rita is dead and their traitorous colleague Sean has nabbed their witness. While contemplating leaving the force, he finds out that his father and brother, Wan Yang, are still alive. In his search for them, he discovers that his brother is working as a mercenary for Sean, who has evil plans to force scientist Rachel to cultivate a mutating virus to unleash on the world. The brothers unite to stop Sean but finds out that he has an even bigger plan for international blackmail. The battle heads to a showdown in Hong Kong where Sean has decided to release the strain of deadly virus.

I am currently wondering how I could translate this film into a Night's Black Agents campaign.

[Film Trailer] MURAL: Strange and Inspiring Fantasy

As much genre influence as Hong Kong films have had on American cinema, there is one genre where Hong Kong's influence has yet to have significant impact on American film making. Every modern American action film has some touch of the gunfu and kung fu films of Hong Kong's heyday, but one rarely sees touches from amazing fantasy spectacles like The Bride with White Hair, Dragon Inn, or Warrior of Zu Magic Mountain in American productions.

When we do get film influenced by HK fantasy films -- with the exception of John Carpenter's magical Big Trouble in Little China -- the American adaptations/translations are mere shadows of what could be cinematically.  It's as if Western film makers are afraid to truly push the envelope regarding what a fantasy story can be.  The Forbidden Kingdom is a perfect example.  The film stars two of Hong Kong's greatest actors, yet the film makers decided to add an American protagonist and to mute the fantastic elements of Sun Wu Kung's tale.  The movie is an inelegant patchwork of a number of wonderful tales.  Even when talented Hong Kong directors make films with elements of HK fantasy, like Warriors of Virtue, the fantasy is targeted at young children and the warriors become kangaroo versions of Ninja Turtles.  In these fantasy translations, the "anything can happen" narrative and the "nothing is too extreme" attitude of HK fantasy is lost, only to be replaced with tamer shadows that hint at what could have been.  There are moments of The Forbidden Kingdom and Warriors of Virtue  that shine through, but they are only enough to make the film's moderately entertaining when they could have been spectacular.

Thankfully for fans of Hong Kong fantasy, and you should really be one, the HK film industry is still making fantasy spectaculars.  This September saw the release of Gordon Chan's latest film Mural.  The movie is an adaptation from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio a classic collection of Chinese fantasy stories of Vampires, Ghosts, and Magic.  Gordon Chan's Fist of Legend is one of the best martial arts films ever created, and if this trailer is any hint we might be in for something special with Mural.  Let's hope it gets released stateside soon.

 

[Film Review] THE TRIP: Commentary and Cuisine

In 2010, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon starred in an award winning BBC sit-com entitled The Trip. The show lasted for six critically acclaimed episodes. The show was nominated for a BAFTA for best situation comedy and Steve Coogan won a BAFTA for best male performance in a comedy role. In 2011, the television series was edited into a feature film distributed in the United States by IFC films.

The movie, like the television series, is a mockumentary about two comedic actors named Steve and Rob whose careers and lives bear a striking resemblance to those of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.

The film opens with Steve calling Rob to ask if Rob would be available for a trip critiquing a number of high end restaurants in the north of England.  Steven has accepted a commission from The Observer newspaper to do a travelogue and review column of the locations along the trip.  When he had initially taken the commission Steven had planned to have his gourmand girlfriend Mischa accompany him, but their relationship has been put "on hold" as she has traveled to the United States in the hopes of getting some journalistic commissions of her own.  Steven has run out of options for companions, and so he asks his co-worker of 11 years Rob to join him on the trip.

The movie is a delightfully buddy comedy which takes advantage of the Steven's and Rob's comfortable friendship to create a touching and believable narrative.  While one can enjoy the film just for the buddy comedy that it is, it is also a film that works on two other distinct levels.

First, as a visual representation of the north of England it is beautiful.  The cinematographer captured the moors, mountains, and pastures magnificently and the picturesque representations of bucolic England are one of the best advertisements for a vacation to the country that one could imagine.  Add to the visual beauty food that ranges from the exquisite to the weird, and a nice touch of history, and you have a film that works as a proxy for the travelogue that the Steven character is supposed to be writing.  In making a film depicting a writer journeying to acquire material, the film has managed to visually tell the tale as the character might well be writing.

The second, and more profound, level of the film is the nature of the lives of Steven and Rob and the social commentary contained therein.  Steven represents the urban sophisticate and Rob the bourgeois. 

Steven is the more "internationally famous" actor who has starred in American films and who is seeking more work in America, and who tells his British agent that he doesn't want to do any more British television.  He wants to star in important independent films, and doesn't have time to star as the "baddie" in an upcoming episode of Doctor Who.  Steven is not content with his professional life, and seeks to do something "important." 

Rob's work has mostly been in British television where he is known for his uncanny impressions and for a particular vocal gimmick called "small man trapped in a box."  Before I continue describing Rob's life, you really must experience the small man bit.  It is remarkable, and I couldn't believe it wasn't done with post-production tricks -- but it is something very real.

Rob is portrayed as a working class actor who is quite content with his career and who deeply appreciates the respect and admiration he receives from his fans.  Where Steven is dour, Rob is cheerful -- infectiously so.

It isn't merely creatively that Steven is frustrated.  His personal life is also the shambles.  His girlfriend has just left him, though he is trying to keep a connection to her, and his divorce has had a predictable affect on his relationship with his son -- a son who is rebelling a bit and who is in need of a positive role model.  Steven can't maintain a long term relationship, and he cannot quite keep track of the one night stands he has had.  He is so caught up in the life of the "artiste" and trying to be a kind of tragic artist in personality, that it is hard for him to truly connect with another person.  There is a wonderful moment in the film where he is getting high in a room once used by Coleridge.  Steven is trying his best to affect a kind of moody poetic persona, that it creates a powerful yet muted comedic moment. 

The opposite is true of Rob's life.  He and his wife have only recently had a baby.  They have a strong and delightful relationship filled with laughs.  Where Steven's phone calls end in sighs and "I have to go nows," Rob's conversations don't end on screen.  One can imagine that the playful dialogue between Rob and his wife continues until either they both fall asleep or until the baby awakens in need of some care.  The moments where Rob converses and flirts with his wife on the phone are some of the most personal and magical in the film.

It should be noted that all of Steven's phone calls take place via cell phone, and that his quest for cell phone signals is a humorous sub-plot on its own, while all of Rob's phone calls are on land line.  The cell phone is presented as cold and distant and never really allows the people on either end of the phone to "connect," whereas the land line is portrayed intimately and conversations via land line are akin to cuddling.

Once more the "urban sophisticate" is contrasted to the simpler "bourgeois," a major theme of the film that is portrayed in a number of ways -- always with the "sophistication"/elitism being shown as failing or inappropriate.  Steven rents a Land Rover because "the north has hills," he has accepted a commission to write about food without any real knowledge of food, and so on.

Two of my favorite moments (displayed below) are the very much talked about "Dueling Michael Caines" scene and the "We Rise at Dawn" scene. The "We Rise" scene is maybe one of my favorite comic bits ever. It ranks with "Who's on First" in my mind.

Witty, subtle, beautiful, and rewatchable.  The Trip is one of those rare films that makes a short trip seem like an epic journey, all while never being anything other than a small trip.  It praises family over fame and friendship over facade.

What is "The Asphyx"?

For the past few days, I have been excitedly tweeting about a horror film I adored as a child.  I first saw the film on either Bob Wilkin's classic Creature Feature program on KTVU or on the Chiller Diller Matinee program.  I cannot remember which, but I vividly remember sitting in my grandfather's den watching the story of one man's pursuit for immortality and the high costs of his obsession.

It has been many years since I have seen the film.  In all honesty, I haven't seen it since I was a child.  But I have recently acquired a copy of the movie and plan to watch it as a part of my Halloween themed October viewing.

I hope it lives up to my memories and expectations. I might just have to try to adapt the tale to a CHILL or Call of Cthulhu adventure while I'm at it.

Adventures of Tintin -- Can Digitally Animated Fight Scenes and Stunts Satisfy?

The more I look at the advertising for the upcoming Adventures of Tintin animated film, the more it looks like the film will provide for a few hours of pleasant entertainment.  There is still one major question lurking in the back of my mind...How much more exciting would all of this be if it were a live action film?

The stunts look unbelievably exciting, check out the motorcycle stunt toward the end of the trailer, but I keep asking myself "what if Jackie Chan did the stunt coordination for a live action film?"  I understand that there are limits to what the human body can do, and there are very good safety reasons to use digital effects to supplement stunts, but this film seems so action packed and exciting that I want to see it as "real" and not animated.  It seems that the film makers would be pushing more of the medium's boundaries if they attempted to recreate some of these fight scenes and stunts with real people.

I hate video game to movie comparisons as much as the next guy, but isn't one of the major reasons people attend a Tomb Raider film, or desire to watch an Uncharted movie, specifically because they want to see exciting digital experiences translated into live action.

Isn't the fight scene between Donnie Yen and Collin Chou in Flashpoint  so amazing because it has real people and you can imagine the real physical effort required to create the action sequence?

But the new Tintin film uses "motion capture" so the actors are physically engaged you say?  Some stunts can only be created digitally?  I don't buy it, and can easily imagine Jackie Chan, Harold Lloyd, or Buster Keaton doing that final motorcycle stunt.

None of this takes away from the fact that the Tintin movie looks engaging and entertaining, I'm looking forward to it.  I'm just saying that it looks like it would be "AMAZING" if it were live action.

1911: Revolution (2011) -- Jackie Chan's 100th Film in Theaters October 7th

Jackie Chan's 100th film releases in American theaters this Friday.  It also marks the 100th anniversary of the Wuchang Uprising, the topic of Jackie Chan's latest film 1911: Revolution.

Unlike a majority of Chan's work, this film is not a martial arts or action comedy but like much of Chan's work the film is a patriotic one.  For example in Drunken Master II, the viewer gets a sense of Chan's deep patriotism as Wong Fei-hung battles a ring of antiquities smugglers.  In that film, Fei-hung battles for the preservation of China's history.

In 1911: Revolution, Jackie Chan stars as Huang Xing  who is fighting for the soul of China.  Huang Xing was one of the founders of the Kuomintang and one of the revolutionary leaders who fought against the Qing Dynasty in a series of uprisings.  These uprisings finally culminated with the defeat of the Dynasty in the Wuchang Uprising and establishment of the Republic of China.

From the trailer, one can see that director Zhang Li has lost none of the aesthetic talent that made Red Cliff such a beautiful visual experience.  His camera work captures broad strokes in a way that doesn't overwhelm the view, and he is a master of highlighting an emotive figure in a chaotic environment. 

Filmgoers in the Los Angeles area will be able to see the film at the following locations:

Alhambra -- Edwards Alhambra Rennaissance 14 

Monrovia -- Krikorian 12

Los Angeles -- Rave 18

Los Angeles -- Mann Chinese 6

City Under Siege (2010) -- Hong Kong Does Superheroes

When one asks the average film goer what kinds of films they think of when they hear the words "Hong Kong Cinema," the words "exciting superhero action" aren't the first words that one would expect to hear.  None the less, those words are an accurate statement about the HK film industry.  In addition to marvelously exciting police dramas, and the worlds best martial arts films, some very entertaining superhero movies have come to America from Hong Kong's creatively fertile film industry.

These superhero films -- like BLACK MASK, HEROIC TRIO, and LEGEND OF THE FIST -- also happen to contain some fantastic kung fu action, but their plot lines more closely follow a traditional American comic book plot than a Louis Cha novel or Kung Fu historical tale.  That isn't to say that the shadow of jiang hu doesn't loom over these films, it does.  These are still martial arts films that can contain traditional wuxia elements, but they are also superhero films.

This year's San Francisco Film Society's Hong Kong Cinema celebration (September 23 - 25) features a recent entry into the HK superhero film genre, and we can see the influence of shows like HEROES in the overarching narrative.  In CITY UNDER SIEGE, a group of circus performers find a cache of WWII gold that they expect will change their lives financially.  When they go to claim their prize there lives are changed in another way as they are exposed to a strange toxic chemical that transforms them into superhumanly powerful beings.  After the exposure these performers decide to use their new found powers to commit crime after crime...all except one of the group.

Collin Chou -- who starred in MATRIX REVOLUTIONS and who is Donnie Yen's foe in FLASH POINT where they exhibit one of the most exciting martial arts sequences ever film -- plays the main villain of the feature which bodes well for the action sequences.  The film is directed by Benny Chan who directed NEW POLICE STORY and SHAOLIN recently released on DVD.

By the looks of the preview CITY UNDER SIEGE the film combines superheroes, comedy, and martial arts excitement.  I wouldn't expect the serious drama of IP MAN or HERO from this film, but it does look like it might be a lot of fun.  Let's hope an American distributor picks this one up.

Jet Li is the Sorcerer in "The Sorcerer and the White Snake"

My old gaming group used to watch Jet Li's classic film Swordsman II at least once a month.  The film's combination of martial arts, magic, and just pure gonzo supernatural action (Sword Energy!) was the perfect inspiration for all of our D&D gaming experiences.  In the days before Peter Jackson tackled the challenge of making a genuinely entertaining and emotionally powerful fantasy film experience, Hong Kong films were the go to place for Fantasy that was light years beyond Krull when it came to engaging characters.

To this day, the Fantasy stories presented in Hong Kong and Chinese cinema define the lens through which I view the worlds of D&D campaigns.  Bride with White Hair would make a wonderful gaming campaign, and is an exquisitely beautiful film.  My love for these films prompted me to read first Barry Hughart's excellent  tales of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, and eventually led me to read translations of Louis Cha novels.  Trust me, if you are looking for an alternative to run of the mill American/British fantasy, you can do a lot worse than reading some Louis Cha.

To go back where this all began though...I think it can easily be said that Jet Li is my favorite of Hong Kong's many talented stars.   Any time he appears in a new film, it is guaranteed that I will hunt it down for viewing.  Insert Jet Li into a Fantasy epic and my eagerness knows no bounds.  It should be noted that I never fear whether the film will be good or not.  It's a Jet Li film, and his performance in Kung Fu Cult Master turned what could have been a campy and agonizing film into pure viewing pleasure.

After watching the preview for his upcoming film The Sorcerer and the White Snake, I don't have even the slightest tinge of worry regarding the quality of the film  It looks beautiful.  The story is based on a traditional Chinese tale called the "Legend of the White Snake" and by the looks of it, this film will take a tragic yet sentimental view of the legend.  Wonderful and tragic stuff.

What Every 40k Geek Needs: Warhammer 40k Lore in About a Minute

The Warhammer Universe is a rich environment that has provided millions of gamers with countless hours of entertainment.  The setting has been used as the background for role playing games, miniatures war games, board games, card games, video games, and a quite entertaining animated film written by Dan Abnett.  But a rich environment can be intimidating to neophytes.

For those of you wanting to know what this whole 40k thing is about, some wonderful chaps have created Warhammer 40k Lore in About a Minute.  Remember...in the Grim Dark Future of the 41st Millennium there is Only War.

Sony Pictures THE RAID -- Holy Moly!

I'm not deeply familiar, or even moderately familiar, with the action film scene in Indonesia.  But if this is any indication of what they have been creating, I'm going to have to change that soon.

THE RAID was a selection at this year's Toronto International Film Festival (apparently still the go to festival for all things awesome) and the preview looks remarkable.



The film is the tale of a SWAT raid on a tenement controlled by a Drug Kingpin that has almost every possible thing go wrong.  I can't wait to see this action with real sound effects, and a real score.

Donnie Yen's WU XIA to be Released in the US

Master martial arts stylist Donnie Yen will be featured in a remake of the classic martial arts film One Armed Swordsman later this year in a film entitled WU XIA (its American release title will be DRAGON).  Yen's work is consistently wonderful, and the story of One Armed Swordsman is quite compelling.  Our friend David Chute did commentary for a Dragon Dynasty release of the film a couple of years ago.  I recommend you go out and buy a copy.

The choice of Wu Xia as the title of the film can be translated a number of ways -- including "armed swordsman" -- but most of the translations infer a kind of moral code on the part of the hero.  Western readers have tales of chivalry and tragic sagas.  Chinese readers and viewers have wuxia tales of larger than life heroes who often seek to leave the "world of martial arts" behind them, only to be drawn back into a life of violence.  The films and stories are often deeply melodramatic and filled with wonderful commentary on the role of honor, romance, and justice.  It is no wonder that so many of these films get made, and remade.



The decision to call WU XIA by the title DRAGON in the US seems an odd one, and one that is hopelessly trapped in associating martial arts films with Bruce Lee and his legacy.  To be fair, Bruce Lee is one of the greatest martial arts stars the world has ever known.  But are American audiences so limited in their appreciation of the genre that they need a title like DRAGON to bring them in?

I think not.  The preview speaks for itself and demonstrates a combination of martial arts realism with a touch of wuxia wire work.  This looks to be an engaging and exciting film.