Of Black Widow and "Boy's Toys" #WheresNatasha

It has recently been reported by Jenna Busch at Legion of Leia that Hasbro opted to solicit a toy based on one of the more exciting scenes in the recent Avengers: Age of Ultron movie. In this particular scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and Avengers member Black Widow springs into action by dropping out of the Avenger's Quinjet on a suped up motorcycle.

It's a pretty amazing sequence and a scene I look forward to watching repeatedly in the future. It's one of those ideal moments when film manages to capture the magic of the comic book page and translate it into real life. Throughout a progression of Marvel inspired films, Scarlett Johansson has managed to bring the Black Widow character alive on the screen with a nice balance between snark and charm. This moment was created to give her character a well-deserved action spotlight. This makes the scene an ideal choice for a toy play set based on the film.

There's only one problem.

 

Hasbro's play set based on the scene doesn't include Black Widow. It doesn't include her in the box as an action figure, and it doesn't feature her as a member of the Avengers on the cover of the box. This is a huge problem that has been discussed at length on a number of Feminist and Geek sites. If you are interested in their discussion, and you should be, I'd direct you to start with the Legion of Leia  and The Mary Sue and move on from there. Even though I'm the father of seven year old twin daughters who adore Black Widow as on of the - too few - female super heroes featured on a regular basis, I don't have anything to say from that perspective that hasn't already been said better.

Instead, I thought I'd take a moment to address what I believe is an underlying assumption that informed Hasbro's decision to exclude Black Widow from their offerings. Surprisingly, this isn't the assumption that these toys are "for boys." That may be one of the assumptions over at Hasbro HQ, but I think this falls into the "boys wouldn't want to play with girls as toys" sub-category of that assumption. I think that Hasbro not only assumes that these toys are for boys, but that boys would have no interest in pretending to be Black Widow battling the minions of Hydra and Ultron.

They are wrong on so many levels. Way back in the before times, in the not now, when the consensus view of the 21st century was Zardoz... Okay, that time never existed, but let's stick to the before times, in the not now. A time we will call "The Eighties." During this dark and mysterious age, action figures were a relatively new phenomenon. Sure, full sized GI Joe's had been around for a while, but the smaller action figures that would come to dominate the action figure market were relatively new. I don't know if Star Wars action figures were the first of this new line of toy, but they were an early one and they inspired toy makers to create new action figures for kids to play with. 

Those toys included a new and exciting line of GI Joe action figures that tied in with an animated TV show of the same name. The first "series" of Joe figures included three characters who were then, and are now, my favorite characters in that line. I played with those toys for hours on end. I pretended to be these characters as they battled COBRA and its nefarious plots. To me, these three characters are my "core Joes." They define who I most liked imagining myself to be. They were Snake Eyes, Stalker, and...in a turn that makes Hasbro's decision to cut a character played by Scarlett Johansson all the more ironic.

Scarlett.

 

What was the name of the company that made this mysterious female toy that both boys and girls (ages 5 and up) could play with? 

Hasbro.

As I mentioned earlier, Scarlett was one of the characters I most liked to role play when I was fighting against Cobra. She had an awesome skill set, just look up and check it out, and she had a hand crossbow. A freakin' hand crossbow! 

So I'd just like to add to the chorus of voices that are pointing out that young girls just as valuable as consumers, fans, and players. That it is also true that there are probably young boys out there who would be eager to pretend to be Black Widow as she defends the world against the forces of Hydra. Heck, I even know a father of seven year old twin girls who would jump at that opportunity.

 

A _SnarfQuest_ Adventure Game is on the Horizon

I've been a fan of SnarfQuest for quite some time. Larry Elmore's comic tale of a young warrior's quest for fame and fortune as he aspires to become king of his tribe is one of the classic comic strips of Dragon Magazine's heyday. The character first appeared in issue #75 of Dragon. That issue also included a breakdown of some of the Nine Hells and a brief Orcish to Common dictionary for use in your D&D game.

Looking back at that issue today, I'm struck by how good this era of Dragon was. Like the first 100 issues of White Dwarf, this era of Dragon magazine was in a period of "pre-professional" creativity. That doesn't mean the magazines weren't professional in presentation, they were, rather than they included content from fans as well as professionals...fans who would become reliable designers in the future. Magazines during this period were melting pots of creativity, and remind me of the Old School Renaissance and Savage Worlds communities. It was also a time when you might find gaming articles written by Fantasy and Science Fiction authors like John M Ford or Katharine Kerr. Many of today's authors discuss how D&D shaped their literary development and allow their creations to be used as game settings, but early gaming was also shaped by authors in a very direct way.

SnarfQuest isn't a perfect comic. It's snarky and plays around with Fantasy tropes and featured a less than noble hero. Sometimes the humor works, sometimes it doesn't, but it was clearly a labor of love and I enjoyed it's high concept story filled with Dragons, Orcs, and Androids.

This week, I noticed an advertisement on Steam promoting an adventure game based on the classic comic. The initial graphics capture the feel of the strip pretty well, as can be seen by the image below, and the adventure game format is one I enjoy.

 

I am mildly concerned about some elements of the game, from a "will it be fun?" perspective. While the character modeling captures the whimsy of the comic, the animations of movement and dialogue seem a little off in the game play trailer for the game. Speaking of dialogue, the voice acting for the characters in the trailer is not at all close to what my mind's ear created. The dialogue is delivered in an almost emotionless fashion. If this game is going to capture my imagination and get repeated play, that will need to be fixed. The game will get my money regardless, as I want to see a good Snarf game, but it may not get my fervent recommendation if it doesn't change the voice acting. I'd rather just read the dialogue than here the current actors.

[Classics Revisited: The Best Old D&D Modules for 5th Edition] A Preliminary Discussion

This is the first in a series of posts. The majority of the subsequent posts will focus on recommended modules, but this one focuses on whether old modules are worth using and how to use them. If you are an experienced DM, you can feel free to skip this entry in the series and wait for the others.

During the build up to the release of 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, Mike Mearls and the rest of the D&D team often claimed that one of the guiding principles for the 5th edition team was to make the game backward compatible. Put another way, players who loved prior editions of D&D should be able to still "play that way" with the new edition.

Now that I've been playing 5th edition for about a year, I can say with some confidence that I think this is true with regards to the 1st through 3rd editions of the game. Old school (Moldvay/Cook, BECMI, and 2nd Edition) modules are extremely easy to run under the new system with minimal prep on the part of the Dungeon Master. Modules from 3rd edition are similarly easy to convert as well, though the play will "feel" different. This is because high level 3rd edition characters, of the 3.x and Pathfinder variety, are EPIC in their capabilities where 5th edition characters are more modest. It might seem strange to say that high level 5th edition characters are "modestly" powerful, but in comparison to 3.x it's true. I haven't attempted to convert any 4th edition modules, but I think that should be easy as well especially if one uses the "post-Essentials" adventures.

As similar in style to older editions as 5th edition is, it has a nice mathematical core that echoes 4th edition but is toned down and has greater variation. In fact, it manages to add the variation of 1st and 2nd edition while maintaining some of the rigid predictability of 3rd and 4th edition. That's quite a feat. I'll focus a future post on some of the elegance of the mechanics of 5th edition for a later post, but it should be stated that the new edition makes "stat inflation" and "magic item proliferation" less important than any edition since 2nd. The amazing thing is that it does so while lacking the Dungeon Crawl Classics-esque funnel effect at low levels.

There are a few keys to adapting older edition adventures to the new system.

1) Stick to the more narrative modules.
2) Have your Monster Manual handy.
3) NPC are more work than Monsters, but often make the best opponents.

There are reasons for each of these recommendations.

Narrative modules scale better with 5th edition's experience system. If your players are willing to remain at low levels for extended dungeon crawls, and there is nothing wrong with that, you can run the earlier modules. You will just have to guesstimate when to give advancements. A module like The Keep on the Borderlands scales fine with regard to the encounter difficulty, but players advance in level much faster than old editions and the players might end up with a cake walk if you use the current xp guidelines.

Most old adventures, and the Paizo adventures in Dungeon, use very simple stat blocks for monsters. In fact, the stat block is often [Skeletons HP: 8, 6, 9, 3; see MM pg. XX]. You can either make copies of the information before hand, which is what I typically do instead of opening the book, or you can have the book handy. Either works just as easily and requires no conversion. When there is no 1:1 monster, just substitute one you like or use stats for one you like while keeping the monster description from the module.

NPCs make the best villains. In 1st and 2nd edition, making NPCs was pretty quick. You decided on a level, rolled HP, picked spells and magic items, and DONE! This process got more complicated with 3rd edition because of all the feats, prestige classes, and item proliferation required to keep the NPCs competitive with the PCs. Not to mention spending all those skill points. Pathfinder, while being merciful on the skill point side, has a lot of options for DMs to resolve. Options are fun for players who get to use their characters for months/years, but for a one to three shot NPC the work isn't often worth the reward for DMs.  Making Wizards, Demons, or Dragons for high level PCs could be hours of prep in 3rd edition. There are fewer decisions in 5th, but there are still some meaningful ones, but it's a more enjoyable DM experience for the working Dungeon Master. I put it that way because making characters can be a wonderful time, but when you are time constrained due to work, school, and family a faster process is preferred and 5th edition is faster than 3.x.

Having talked about the relative ease with which the modules can be adapted, and providing 3 guidelines with regard to adaptation, it's time to talk about why you should consider using older modules.

1) There are several available on DriveThruRPG.
2) They are inexpensive and average $5.
3) There are some genuine classics.

The rest of this series will be a series of recommendations of modules to use and include discussions of how these modules play in action. The modern player is often different in style to earlier gamers and no module plays "as written." I'll discuss some curveballs that I've seen during my sessions and how they made for even more enjoyable experiences.

My Hugo Ballot Pre-Ranking -- A Very Preliminary Review of the Ballot with a Touch of Self-Promotion

This may surprise many of my readers, or at least one of the two people who read my infrequent posts, but I have never been to a WorldCon nor voted for the Hugos before. This is slightly embarrassing for me, since my mentor and dear friend Susan Palwick was one of the organizers for Reno in 2011. At a minimum, that should have been my first WorldCon. But my wife and I were busy in 2011 with 3 year old twin daughters and unable to make the trip up to Reno.

That WorldCon marks an interesting demarcation in the history of the convention. It was the last convention before the creation of the Sad Puppies coalition that is now in its third year. I'm not going to comment about Sad Puppies in this post, but I will say that if they did one thing positive it was informing me that I could be a part of the process without attending the event. I had assume, and we all know what happens when we assume, that one had to attend to vote. I thought it was like the Origin Awards where a committee selects the nominees and then the attendees vote. I was wrong, and so this will be my first time voting for the awards. 

I wish that I could attend this year, as I am a big fan of this year's presenters and my mentor will likely be in attendance as well. It has been too long since I have spoken with Susan in person, and the fan boy in me giggles with glee at the chance of chatting with David Gerrold (whom I interviewed on Geekerati) and Tananarive Due. I had the great honor of interviewing Tananarive and her husband Steven Barnes at a library event in Glendora.

I haven't received my packet from Sasquan yet, but I am eager about participating and I wanted to share my Pre-Rankings. There will be a lot of "No Award" votes pretty high on the lists. This is solely because I haven't read the material and not a statement.

Best Novel

• Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
• The Dark Between the Stars, Kevin J. Anderson (Tor Books)
• The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (Tor Books)
• Skin Game, Jim Butcher (Orbit UK/Roc Books)
• The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu, Ken Liu translator (Tor Books)

I've only read Skin Game and Ancillary Sword so far, so I don't know what my final vote will be. The lack of Frostborn by Lou Anders is highly disappointing, as is the lack of Steelheart. So far, my ranking would be:

1) Skin Game
2) Ancillary Sword
3) No Award -- because I haven't read the rest.

Best Novella

• Big Boys Don’t Cry, Tom Kratman (Castalia House)
• “Flow”, Arlan Andrews, Sr. (Analog, 11-2014)
• One Bright Star to Guide Them, John C. Wright (Castalia House)
• “Pale Realms of Shade”, John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)
• “The Plural of Helen of Troy”, John C. Wright (City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis, Castalia House)

I haven't read any of these yet, but will when they come out in the packet.

1) No Award -- because I haven't read any.

Best Novelette

• “Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium”, Gray Rinehart (Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, 05-2014)
• “Championship B’tok”, Edward M. Lerner (Analog, 09-2014)
• “The Day the World Turned Upside Down”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Lia Belt translator (Lightspeed, 04-2014)
• “The Journeyman: In the Stone House”, Michael F. Flynn (Analog, 06-2014)
• “The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale”, Rajnar Vajra (Analog, 07/08-2014)

I'm not a IGMS or Analog subscriber, so I've only read one of these stories.

1) "The Day the World Turned Upside Down"
2) No Award

 Best Short Story

• “On A Spiritual Plain”, Lou Antonelli (Sci Phi Journal #2, 11-2014)
• “The Parliament of Beasts and Birds”, John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)
• “A Single Samurai”, Steven Diamond (The Baen Big Book of Monsters, Baen Books)
• “Totaled”, Kary English (Galaxy’s Edge Magazine, 07-2014)
• “Turncoat”, Steve Rzasa (Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House)

I've read the Big Book of Monsters, because monsters, and most of Riding the Red Horse (because Pournelle). I haven't read "Turncoat" yet, it's a couple of stories down. Outside of the Burnside article and the Pournelle writings that anthology has been mixed.

1) "A Single Samurai"
2) No Award -- still have to read the other material.

Best Related Work (1150 nominating ballots, 346 entries, range 206-273)

• “The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF”, Ken Burnside (Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House)
• Letters from Gardner, Lou Antonelli (The Merry Blacksmith Press)
• Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth, John C. Wright (Castalia House)
• “Why Science is Never Settled”, Tedd Roberts (Baen.com)
• Wisdom from My Internet, Michael Z. Williamson (Patriarchy Press)

"The Hot Equations," while in a mixed bag anthology is a pretty radical piece of writing. Not radical in the sense that it is political, but radical in the way that it changes the way you read something. By focusing on Thermodynamics in space ship combat, Burnside revolutionized the way I think about the genre. I'm going to be much more critical of star ship combats in the future, and writers will have to find ways to get me to suspend my disbelief when writing about "stealth" in space. Haven't read the others.

1) "The Hot Equations" -- Which you really should read. It would be a shame for Ken Burnside to be overlooked because of politics. He's been an active member of the table top gaming community for years, and his Attack Vector game is remarkable.
2) No Award

Best Graphic Story

• Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Adrian Alphona and Jake Wyatt, (Marvel Comics)
• Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery, written by Kurtis J. Weibe, art by Roc Upchurch (Image Comics)
• Saga Volume 3, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics))
• Sex Criminals Volume 1: One Weird Trick, written by Matt Fraction, art by Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)
• The Zombie Nation Book #2: Reduce Reuse Reanimate, Carter Reid (The Zombie Nation)

1) Rat Queens -- Because it's great.
2) Ms. Marvel -- Because it's very good.
3) Saga --  Because it's also really good.
4) No Award.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier, screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, concept and story by Ed Brubaker, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Entertainment, Perception, Sony Pictures Imageworks)
• Edge of Tomorrow, screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth, directed by Doug Liman (Village Roadshow, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, 3 Arts Entertainment; Viz Productions)
• Guardians of the Galaxy, written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman, directed by James Gunn (Marvel Studios, Moving Picture Company)
• Interstellar, screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, directed by Christopher Nolan (Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Lynda Obst Productions, Syncopy)
• The Lego Movie, written by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, story by Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, LEGO System A/S, Vertigo Entertainment, Lin Pictures, Warner Bros. Animation (as Warner Animation Group))

This is a remarkably strong category. I might add a film or two, but I wouldn't take any away. It's much better than last year's list which left off About Time a slight that demonstrated that the community doesn't watch enough movies. Probably because they are doing so much reading.

1) Edge of Tomorrow -- This was not only a very good movie, but it was directed by one of this generation's great directors. Doug Liman inserts a touch of magic into everything he works on.
2) Guardians of the Galaxy -- One of my daughter's favorite movies, and a testimony to how Space Opera still matters.
3) The Lego Movie -- This film is amazing.
4) Captain America: Winter Soldier -- Another fantastic film.
5) Interstellar -- A film I really liked, but have you seen the competition?

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• Doctor Who: “Listen”, written by Steven Moffat, directed by Douglas Mackinnon (BBC Television)
• The Flash: “Pilot”, teleplay by Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns, story by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns, directed by David Nutter (The CW) (Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television)
• Game of Thrones: “The Mountain and the Viper”, written by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, directed by Alex Graves ((HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)
• Grimm: “Once We Were Gods”, written by Alan DiFiore, directed by Steven DePaul (NBC) (GK Productions, Hazy Mills Productions, Universal TV)
• Orphan Black: “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried”, ” written by Graham Manson, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions, Space/BBC America)

A good list, to be sure, but my own biases are going to show here.

1) The Flash -- I cannot praise this show enough. It's hard to capture the tone of this character, especially in an era of GrimDark. Leave it to Geoff Johns, one of the best writers in the comic book run of the character, and Greg Berlanti to get it right. This just demonstrates how TV writers have more control than movie writers. 
2) Game of Thrones -- Great episode.
3) Grimm -- A wonderful episode from a show that alternates between brilliant and "what the?!" episodes.
4) Orphan Black -- Very good show.
5) Doctor Who -- It's won enough don't you think? Still a good episode.

Best Editor, Short Form

• Jennifer Brozek
• Vox Day
• Mike Resnick
• Edmund R. Schubert (Withdrew after ballot finalized)
• Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Jennifer Brozek both gave me the honor of participating in a Geekerati interview discussing their Shattered Shields anthology for Baen. The lack of Johnathan Strahan in this category disappoints me.

1) Jennifer Brozek -- Not only has she long been an editor of fiction, but she's a great editor in the rpg industry too. Her gaming connection puts her over the top for me.
2) Bryan Thomas Schmidt -- His and Jennifer's selections in SS were strong and he has a long history in the genre. Besides, I did mention I got to interview him right?
3) Mike Resnick -- Hasn't he won everything?
4) Edmund R. Schubert -- What are you doing withdrawing?
5) Vox Day 

Best Editor, Long Form

• Vox Day
• Sheila Gilbert
• Jim Minz
• Anne Sowards
• Toni Weisskopf

1) Sheila Gilbert -- She's never made the ballot before? What?!
2) Toni Weisskopf -- David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, Eric Flint, and a list of other reasons.
3) Anne Sowards
4) Jim Minz
5) No Award -- I haven't read any long form fiction edited by Vox Day.

Best Professional Artist

• Julie Dillon
• Kirk DouPonce
• Nick Greenwood
• Alan Pollack
• Carter Reid

There was a time when two people would alternate this award, so it's nice to see some new artists.

1) Julie Dillon
2) Nick Greenwood
3) Kirk DouPonce
4) Alan Pollack
5) Carter Reid 

Best Semiprozine

• Abyss & Apex, Wendy Delmater editor and publisher
• Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine, Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Association Incorporated, 2014 editors David Kernot and Sue Bursztynski
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies, edited by Scott H. Andrews
• Lightspeed Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams, Stefan Rudnicki, Rich Horton, Wendy N. Wagner, and Christie Yant
• Strange Horizons, Niall Harrison, editor-in-chief

I subscribe to Lightspeed and none of the others.

1) Lightspeed
2) No Award

Best Fanzine

• Black Gate, edited by John O’Neill (Withdrew after ballot finalized)
• Elitist Book Reviews, edited by Steven Diamond
• Journey Planet, edited by James Bacon, Christopher J Garcia, Colin Harris, Alissa McKersie, and Helen J. Montgomery
• The Revenge of Hump Day, edited by Tim Bolgeo
• Tangent SF Online, edited by Dave Truesdale

I'm a big fan of Black Gate and have even been given the honor of writing a post there in 2013. I'd like to write more, but PhD studies and work conflict. The others I don't know about. I do know John withdrew, but I don't recognize his withdrawal as I disagree with his reasoning.

1) Black Gate
2) No Award -- but I'll check the others out.

Best Fancast (668 nominating ballots, 162 entries, range 69-179)

• Adventures in SciFi Publishing, Brent Bower (Executive Producer), Kristi Charish, Timothy C. Ward & Moses Siregar III (Co-Hosts, Interviewers and Producers)
• Dungeon Crawlers Radio, Daniel Swenson (Producer/Host), Travis Alexander & Scott Tomlin (Hosts), Dale Newton (Host/Tech), Damien Swenson (Audio/Video Tech)
• Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch (Producer)
• The Sci Phi Show, Jason Rennie
• Tea and Jeopardy, Emma Newman and Peter Newman

Since Geekerati was never nominated in this category, I'm going to be totally sour grapes and Nuclear No Award this category. I couldn't event get 100 fans? Jeez.

Just kidding. I just haven't listened to any of them yet. I may end up as a huge fan of one of them.

1) No Award

Best Fan Writer

• Dave Freer
• Amanda S. Green
• Jeffro Johnson
• Laura J. Mixon
• Cedar Sanderson

Don't read any of their writings, but will before I vote.

1) No Award

Best Fan Artist

• Ninni Aalto
• Brad W. Foster
• Elizabeth Leggett
• Spring Schoenhuth
• Steve Stiles

Will have to check them out.

1) No Award.

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (851 nominating ballots, 220 entries, range 106-229)
Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2013 or 2014, sponsored by Dell Magazines. (Not a Hugo Award, but administered along with the Hugo Awards.)

• Wesley Chu*
• Jason Cordova
• Kary English*
• Rolf Nelson
• Eric S. Raymond

Wesley Chu stopped by my Geekerati podcast, and I enjoyed his debut novel. The others I will have to read.

1) Wesley Chu
2) No Award

Any and all "No Awards" are preliminary. I want to vote for those I think best represent the SF/F field that are on the ballot. Looking at past ballots, like last year's film category for example, none are a "perfect" ballot of things I would have nominated. But I've used the nominee process to inform my future reading in the past and will continue to do so. Those things I am familiar with on this ballot, with some small exceptions, are things I respect and enjoy.

A Personal Statement Why I'm Happy that BOOM! Studios is Publishing Tribute to Charles M. Schulz

Charles M. Schulz's PEANUTS comic strip has long been a cornerstone of American Pop Culture. The glimpses into the lives of Charlie Brown and friends have resonated with audiences for decades and now BOOM! Studios is publishing a celebration of the comic strip for the 65th anniversary of its publication. The contributing artists are being leaked out to the press slowly but surely.

I have two deep connections with PEANUTS. The first is an undying love of Snoopy, especially in his WWI Ace persona. Snoopy's battles against the Red Baron entertained me throughout my childhood. As odd as it might sound, I think I became interested in War Games featuring battles between Sopwith Camels and Fokker Dr. 1 aircraft because of the battles I imagined. If someone published a Snoopy vs. the Red Baron set for Wings of War, I'd rush out to buy it.

My second connection, is my wife Jody Lindke. Jody has a passion for illustration and cartooning. She has been a cartoonist for longer than I've known her, and she was my favorite cartoonist in the school paper long before we met. I loved her NICNUP cartoon strip in our college paper, a strip that merged BLOOM COUNTY with PEANUTS to wonderful effect. Like PEANUTS, there was an underlying sadness to many of Jody's jokes. Her Bambi strip hits the same ironic sweet spot for me as Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.

My wife is a generally cheerful person, though her humor can run sorrowful, but there are three occasions when I've seen Jody's joy light up an entire room. The most recent was when we were able to bring our twin daughters home from the hospital. She glowed the entire trip home. Then there's our wedding day, when we received just enough rain for it to be lucky, saw small birds being born, and witnessed a double rainbow. I'm not kidding. We saw a double rainbow. This is not a reference to the meme.

I'm happy to have been partly responsible for these moments where I got to see her filled with love and joy. But the most vivid combination of happiness and pride I've ever seen from Jody was when she was receiving the Charles M. Schulz college cartooning award. Jody was the first woman to receive the award. It was an accomplishment that was solely her own. As is often the case, I felt lucky to be in the same room with Jody. After years of hard work and meeting deadlines. After years of using the meager payments from the school paper and local papers to pay her rent and food bills, her work was being acknowledged by people she admired. Snoopy sparked my imagination when I read his adventures in print, but Snoopy handed Jody her award and that was something truly magical to behold.

Because of these two deep emotional connections, I'll be rushing out to buy the book this September.

Image Copyright Jody Lindke

Addendum: Jody is not a part of the Tribute, but we are very excited for everyone who is. There are some great artists participating who have been announced so far.

Using Disney Infinity to Teach Kids to Code

When I was young, my family didn't own any computers. We had an Atari 2600 and a Nintendo NES, but we didn't own any personal computers. Thankfully, I had friends who did. I spent hours playing classic games like Bard's Tale with my friend Sean, and hours playing Maniac Mansion and Zak McCracken with my friend Ron.

Who am I kidding? I spent days playing these games, especially Bard's Tale. I still remember the answers to many of the BT riddles and have fond memories of the frustration of encountering our first "spinner."

Many of the schools I attended, and I attended 12 schools K-12, had computer labs. I spent a fair amount of time in computer labs fiddling around with Oregon Trail and Summer Games. All of this gaming led me to an interest in programming. My Junior and Senior year of High School I had a Zero Period class in computer programming where we learned Basic and used our knowledge to create our own programs. The first year was spent working on projects that the instructor designed, but during the second year students were supposed to design their own projects. My first computer program was a character creator for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but working with my friend Travis we designed character creation programs for Twilight 2000 and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles role playing games. These programming sessions often lasted into the wee hours of the morning.

My senior project was a piece of computer animation that featured a character walking up to a dragon and having the dragon breathe icy breath at the character as it ran away. It was a relatively simple animation in its results, but it took me weeks of one-hour class sessions to program. The dragon graphic was a bit map rendering of the white dragon from the Monster Manual and it took nigh on forever to enter the coordinates in the data file.

My program won second place at a computer programming competition at the University of Nevada. I think my dad still has the plaque I won, but the money I won was spent quickly.

As much as I liked computer programming as a "hobby," I stopped studying it formally after High School. I decided I wanted to be an attorney and began studying Political Science. This happened after my famous 4-year Semester off from Undergraduate education, something I don't recommend to anyone. I still love Political Science, and am working on a Ph.D. in it, but I have zero interest in becoming an attorney. Had I known as a wee lad that my interests would be when I was older, I'd have continued in Political Science and minored in Computer Science. This is especially irksome now that I'm in the Ph.D. program and am having to take time to refresh on my Calculus using MIT's excellent Single Variable Calculus class and the Khan Academy's World of Math refresher. I'm also taking time to learn the R programming language to make myself more marketable.

It's my frustration at never continuing to expand my programming instruction, even on a personal "hobbyist" level other than learning some HTML, that makes me so excited about the fact that Disney is partnering with Code.org to use Disney Infinity characters to teach young people how to write computer programs. While I believe that most of the "killer apps" of the future will be designed by creative people who have a broad "Liberal" education, I also believe that the ability to write code will be the future equivalent of being able to type. It's just something you have to be able to do in order to operate in the business environment.

I look forward to working through the code challenges with History and Mystery in the coming months. Maybe we'll even replicate some of those late night programming and playing sessions I loved so much in my youth.

Another Lankhmar Update: Don't Forget Savage Worlds LANKHMAR!

Earlier this week, I shared my excitement that Goodman Games had acquired a license to release adventures that take place in Fritz Leiber's classic Lankhmar/Nehwon setting. Toward the end of the post, I mentioned that Pinnacle Entertainment Group's Savage Worlds role playing game was the only other game that I thought had the potential to capture the Sword & Sorcery feel of the setting. When I wrote that, I knew that Pinnacle was planning to release their own Lankhmar related products, but I did not know when that release would occur.

Now I do. The Savage Worlds setting book for Lankhmar: City of Thieves will go on sale April 14th. At that time, purchasers will be able to pick up copies of the PDF and pre-order the print copy of the book.

Pinnacle has also given us a glimpse of what the rules will look like with the "No Honor Among Thieves" rule.

No Honor Among Thieves

Betrayal is a part of life in the City of Thieves. Sometimes a companion double-crosses his mates over a few gold pieces. Other times he might cheat on a friend over the love of a woman. Most of these betrayals are met with a wry smile and a vow to reciprocate at some future date. There is no honor among thieves, after all.

Sometimes the betrayal is more personal. In Lankhmar, whenever a character is betrayed by a close friend or associate (a trusted ally or even another player character—Game Master’s call), he cannot spend a Benny to reroll any opposed defensive action.

If the betrayal is an actual attack (almost assuredly with The Drop) and the victim doesn’t Soak all the wounds and / or remove the Shaken, he must make a Vigor roll versus the damage or go unconsciousness per the Knock Out Blow rules on page 25). He may not spend Bennies on this roll.

This rule is an example of how easily the Savage Worlds rules set, and in particular it's ability to incorporate "Setting Rules," make it a good fit for the Lankhmar setting.

I do have one minor complaint though. The image of Fafhrd in the banner ad above doesn't capture the humor he is often expressed as having in the stories. Fafhrd laughs in the face of danger and is often boisterous in the face of adversity. To be fair, the image looks to take place after a particularly dire moment in the series (no spoiler, but rage would be an appropriate expression), but it is too rare that Fafhrd is show smiling. Thankfully, the Pinnacle website has what must be one of the first illustrations of a happy Fafhrd, made all the more enjoyable because he is too rarely illustrated this way.

Lankhmar the Dungeon Crawl Classics Way

Goodman Games announced at Gary Con that they have been granted a license to produce Lankhmar themed Dungeon Crawl Classics products. The Dungeon Crawl Classics role playing game is the first role playing game since the original D&D rules that has been expressly designed to capture the tone and feel of the fiction Gary Gygax highlighted in his famous Appendix N.

Most early post-D&D role playing games fell into three camps. They were either designed to be easier to play versions of D&D that shared some of the inspirations (Tunnels & Trolls falls into this category), designed to emulate more realistic combat and character creation with a consistent world mythology that varied from D&D (Runequest and The Fantasy Trip fall into this category), or D&D micro-improvement clones (Arduin and Warlock) fall into this category. None of these games quite fit into the category of "Fantasy Heartbreaker" coined by Ron Edwards, for reasons that become clear when one reads the full Edwards piece.

Many of these games, The Fantasy Trip I'm looking at you, were designed to present consistent mechanics that emulated some kind of physics. In moving this direction, these games actually moved away from Appendix N influence and became something else. D&D was a hodgepodge of influences, all narrative. Runequest too had a hodgepodge of influences, but one of them was SCA combat experience. Basing combat on real world experience is a solid design goal, but it isn't a design goal driven by an attempt to emulate the fantasy in Appendix N. It's hard to imagine someone attempting Fafhrd's escape from the Ice Witches by strapping fireworks to his skis using the Runequest or The Fantasy Trip rules. They weren't free form enough.

To be fair, it's hard to imagine that happening in AD&D either. I can see it happening in Moldvay/Cook Basic, but interestingly enough that game actually falls into that first category of post-D&D design. All of this brings us back to Dungeon Crawl Classics. It is very easy to imagine this game inspiring such a scene, and Doug Kovac's strong focus on what Jeff Vandermeer calls "The Weird" only adds to the seeming natural connection between DCC and Lankhmar. There is only one other game that I think can capture the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser well, and that's Savage Worlds. A game that I believe also has a license to make Lankhmar based products. The Savage Worlds game will likely, in my completely uninformed opinion, focus more on the street level heroics of Nehwon and so there will be little cannibalism between the two games. In fact, I think there might be some great synergy between publishers.

Goodman Games is running a contest which will allow people to playtest their upcoming adventure at Gen Con.

As an aside, I think that the DCC cover is a nice homage to the old Fantastic cover that featured Ningauble, Fafhrd's weird and enigmatic patron.

Skylanders vs. Disney Infinity SAVAGE WORLDS Style: A Father After my Own Heart

When I first started this blog it was called Cinerati due to my love of film. I started the blog because a friend had shared an article from the conservative website National Review Online that was criticizing an entry in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill saga. I found the article to be reactionary and not very well versed in the genre the author was criticizing. The article seemed to me to be a typical "Culture War" and "High Art" claptrap that raises my ire. I was especially irked by the phrase, "

these films are but vulgar distortions of Japanese film culture."

Someone on the internet was wrong, and I needed to fire my own salvo off into the battlefield. Never mind that the author of the piece was also arguing something that I agree with, that Akira Kurosawa's films are brilliant. The professor had insulted one of my favorite directors and I was going to the mattresses! Even in those days, I was careful to be polite in my criticisms, but I was enjoined in battle.

 

Interestingly, I didn't end up writing as many film related posts as I wanted and ended up writing far more posts about other geek related things. There was a short period where there were other authors on the site, but that eventually faded and I was left as the sole author on the site. I wrote about whatever I wanted, and in 2008 what I wanted to write about took a pretty significant shift when my twin daughters were born.

Oh, I still wanted to write about everything I had been writing about, but now I couldn't wait to write about my gaming experiences with my daughters. Given my busy schedule between work and school, I haven't written about gaming with History and Mystery as much as I'd like. Heck, I haven't even gamed with them as much as I'd like. I have played a lot of games with them though and hope to share more of those experiences as time presents itself. I am particularly excited to share our first Heroquest experience and discuss how badly my daughter History wants to play the Indiana Jones Role Playing Game. She wants to play it more than almost any other game I own.

All of this is my way of saying, expect to see more writing about gaming with kids in the coming months/years. I'll be mixing it up with content about gaming in general, including some 5th edition and Savage Worlds modifications.

Why the sudden inspiration you ask? Well...I saw a father running a Savage Worlds skirmish between Skylander and Disney Infinity characters with his kids and that is pretty awesome.

Asymmetry and Class Design in RPGs

Source: Stuart Robertson

In the early days of role playing games, there was a lot of push back against class based games like Dungeons & Dragons. Critics didn't like the inflexibility of classes and believed that they were overly restrictive to player options. This criticism still exists today in the debate between skill based versus class based games, but as strong as these debates seem today they are muted versions of games past.

I believe there are a couple of reasons why the debate has become less heated over time. The first reason is that class based games have expanded the options available to various classes. Most class based games allow Wizards to use swords and armor, though they might have to forgo certain other advantages to do so. The second reason is that the underlying logic behind having class based games, as articulated by J. Eric Holmes in his classic Fantasy Role Playing Games, is that classes were created to foster teamwork and that they are very good at creating fun shared experience play. One of the advantages of table top role playing games is their ability to foster friendship, and one of the best ways they do this is through the synergies created by soft-asymmetrical classes. A final reason I believe that the debate has become muted is that modern class based games are often even more asymmetrical in play than earlier ones, even as the mechanics seemed to become more symmetrical.

Where different classes played slightly differently, often using wildly different mechanics, in early class based games, in modern class based games players can choose to play entirely different game experiences. How so? In Dungeons & Dragons 3.x, players can choose to play a tactical miniatures game, a skill-intensive dungeon crawl, or a narrative storytelling role playing game. These are all potentially completely different experiences. You could do this with earlier editions of the game? Yes, you could. What makes 3.x different is that you can play these three ways, plus you can play a pub running simulation where you never interact with other players, a magic item design factory game, an art dealership game, or a mercantile simulation. Interestingly, with the exception of the magic design factory game, you can do all of these as solo game play experiences. The 3.x game system has mechanics that allow for simulated economy games. All you need is to take your character with a high Craft(Beer) and have that character make decisions about what kind of beer her or she wants to make, buy the supplies, make the rolls and you know how many cp, sp, or gp the character earns each week. You can do this until the character dies of old age.

If an economic Sim is what you want to play 3.x can accommodate you. Come to think of it, when I look at most of the complaints against 4e they actually come down to a complaint about the reduction of asymmetrical play more than anything else. You can narratively role play the crap out of 4e. You can free-form play it without miniatures. You can story tell with it. There are tons of game design options as you add more sourcebooks. What you cannot do, is run an inn using the basic mechanics of the game.

This trend of asymmetrical play in D&D, and in RPGs, started early. You can look at the War Machine and Dominion rules in the old BECMI Dungeon & Dragons game, GURPS, Champions 4th Edition, or Runequest. These games all have mechanics that allow for simultaneous asymmetrical play experiences. Not just the soft-asymmetry of classes having defined roles, but actual different play.

If you want more discussion of asymmetry in game play, here is a video by Extra Credit discussing asymmetry in computer games. It inspired this post and has me thinking about whether I've personally experienced periods of simultaneous and asymmetrical play in any past campaigns and wondering if you have any stories of your own experiences of asymmetrical play to share.

Intrigued by 20th Century Fox's FANTASTIC FOUR

I've fluctuated in and out of being a fan of Marvel's iconic family superhero team The Fantastic Four. I love reading some of the original stories due to their raw Kirby-ism. Similarly, I enjoy much of the John Byrne era for the way it incorporated X-men style soap opera drama to the book. And the Waid/Wieringo era is wildly entertaining. As a whole though, the Richards family has always seemed a little out of place in the Marvel Universe. Sure Reed stopped Galactus, but that victory merely highlights the separation. The Richards family are first and foremost explorers who encounter cosmic entities of vast power and keep them destroying mankind through a combination of scientific know-how and a never-say-die spirit.

The key point here is that the Richards (and Grimm) are explorers. They are Marvel's version of the Challengers of the Unknown, another Kirby creation, with the addition of superpowers and foes the like that only Superman would encounter in DC. As great as the powers of the Fantastic Four are, they pale before Galactus, Annihilus, Ronan, and Kang. When the FF books are at their best, they focus on the super-science, exploration, and family elements. When they are at their worst, the writers portray the team as a superteam more like the Avengers than the explorers they are.

Neither the Roger Corman, nor the more recent Chris Evans vehicle, captured the team in all of its glory. The Corman movie gets some things right, but it also gets so much wrong. Similarly, Chris Evans and Ioan Gruffud are perfect casting for their characters, but the interaction with Doom was off and don't get me started on the Silver Surfer film. I really wanted to like that movie, and I own it, but it just falls flat. With these failures, I wasn't surprised the 20th Century Fox would attempt something completely new with an "update" to the franchise. Like most fans, I was baffled by the choices they were making. The actors cast in the film have talent as performers, but they somehow didn't match what my concept of this team should be.

Then I saw today's teaser trailer. Now I'm intrigued. It looks like the movie will be focusing on a Challengers of the Unknown style narrative, and that is where the FF really shine. I know it's just a teaser, and that teaser's always look good, but I'm willing to give the film a chance. It may not be THE Fantastic Four, but it might just be A Partially-Exciting Four. Besides, the final shot of the trailer is just so STAR TREK V that if the film is terrible, it may just be terrible in the best ways.

Now to decide what game system to use when I convert the film into a campaign.

A Savage Worlds Christmas Adventure for Necessary Evil

I originally posted this adventure on my Savage Worlds Character a Day blog...a blog with a far too ambitious name.

THE NIGHT THAT HOPE DIED -- A Christmas Themed Necessary Evil Savage Tale

Background:

The V'sori have successfully conquered the Earth. Very few are powerful enough to oppose their occupying forces to free humanity. Many of the world's villains have been gathered by Dr. Destruction to resist the occupation and inspire others to join the fight against the alien overlords.

Up until last year, most people had completely lost hope and have become "good citizens" of the V'sori empire. Few noticed that their neighbors were disappearing, while the numbers of drones grew. Few realized that the Earth wasn't merely being conquered, its residents were being "altered." No one was fighting back. It's hard to be inspired by news of Dr. Destruction's recent terrorist assault against the local television network.

That all changed last year on Christmas morning. Children across the world received Christmas presents for the first time since the V'sori invasion. The V'sori had come to expect a few underground Christmas celebrants, but they were not prepared when all the world's children received gifts...gifts that included cards reading "Merry Christmas to All! S. Claus."

As news spread of the magical gift giving -- gift giving that had evaded V'sori surveillance, many of the people of the world began to experience a new emotion. They began to Hope. Here was someone, or potentially someone, who could evade/outsmart the V'sori who hadn't historically been bent on global domination.

The V'sori had to stop this S. Claus at all costs. And so began Operation Toybreaker. If the V'sori could capture this Claus, and transform him into a Super Drone, they could ensure that the toys delivered from here on out contained appropriate "citizen conditioning messages." They could take this figure of hope and transform him into a figure of domination.

Two weeks ago, while battling Omegans at a site where the frozen bodies of WWII heroes had been located, V'sori radar picked up an odd signature -- it appeared to be a flying reindeer. They followed the signature to its final destination and the location of Santa's Village had become revealed. It took the V'sori seven days to overcome Santa's defenses and capture this bastion of hope. It took another five days to convert all of his remaining elves into drones and to reprogram Santa's Toy Soldier Defense Androids. It will take two days for the V'sori to convert Santa into a complicit drone.

The Adventure:

Dr. Destruction has intercepted a broadcast outlining the V'sori's capture of S. Claus and their plans to convert him into a Drone. Dr. Destruction desperately wants to use Omegans to rescue the figure of hope as Santa would make an amazing gun runner for the Omegan underground, but he knows that Omegans are unlikely to rescue this saccharine sweet icon without some deception.

His plan is simple. Convey to an Omegan cell that the V'sori have captured the worlds "Last Figure of Hope" a person capable of supplying the criminal underground with a steady supply of weapons. The person has technology that can evade V'sori communications satellites and can make large simultaneous deliveries.

(At this point, most players will get what's going on, but their villain PCs should remain clueless).

The villains are sent to rescue this individual who is being held in a specially built temporary prison facility on Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. Once at the location the PCs will face 2 encounters.

The first encounter is an outdoor battle against the converted remnants of Claus's cohorts. The PCs should face 1 Toy Soldier and 2 Elves per PC.

After the PCs finish this battle, they will wander through what remains of Santa's Village. Don't hold back on the description. There should be dead elves everywhere, as well as dead snowmen, and the carcasses of Santa's Reindeer. Play up the V'sori cruelty. Feel free to have another small skirmish here, or roleplay moments where the PCs find Santa's list only to find out that they were indeed supposed to receive that Atari 2600 for their 10th birthday...or some other humorous moment.

Upon completing the visit to Santa's village the PCs will approach a specially designed prison containing 1 K'tharen Warrior per 2 PCs and 2 Drones per PC, as well as the unconscious body of Claus. Claus's body is encased in a DuraSilicon Container (Toughness 15) where robotic devices are slowly converting him into a Super Drone.

Once the PCs arrive at the prison, they will have 15 rounds to defeat everyone and free Claus before he is converted. Use the Toughness statistics in the initial Jail Break for the Claus prison, but modify the map to contain only one cell.

If the PCs rescue Claus, they save Christmas and have recruited the world's most efficient weapons smuggler to the resistance.

Mind-Controlled Elf

Race: Elf

Agility: d8 Smarts: d6 Spirit: d6

Strength: d6 Vigor: d6 (d12+2 on drugs)

Pace: 8 (d10 to run) Parry: 5

Toughness: 6 (11 on drugs) (2)

Charisma: 0


Skills

Fighting d6 Repair d10 Notice d8 Stealth d8 Shooting d8

Throwing d6


Marksman

+2 to ranged attack if Elf does not move.


Pain-Killers

If the elves have eaten their cookies or egg-nog, they fight fearlessly (+2 vs. fear checks) and feel no pain (+2 to recover from shaken, and can take two wounds instead of one before going down). Because of the unsafe levels of drugs in the cookies, the elves must make vigor checks at -6 when the drugs wear off 1d4 minutes after consuming. They take 6 levels of fatigue (death) on a failed roll.


Gear

Gay Apparel Kevlar Vest (+4 armor vs. bullets, negates 4 AP, covers torso)
Candy Cane-shaped Vibro-Knife Damage: Str+d6 Heavy Weapon, AP 2

Pop-Gun (Disguised .50 Cal Rifle) Range: 30/60/120 Damage: 2d10
RoF: 1, Ammo: 7 (Hero-killer Rounds), AP 2

3 Presents (Disguised Grenades) Range: 5/10/20
Damage: 3d6 Medium Burst Template


Notes: The V’sori have given the elves Christmas Cookies and Egg-Nog laced with vigor-enhancing combat drugs, un-safe levels of pain killers and other mind-altering substances. Since they V’sori don’t care if the elves die, they have put near-lethal dosages into the cookies, and instructed the elves to eat the cookies if they are attacked.

Life-Sized Toy Soldier

Race: Robot

Agility: d4 Smarts: d4 Spirit: d4

Strength: d10 Vigor: d10

Pace: 4 Parry: 5 Toughness: 13 (6, Heavy Armor)

Charisma: 0


Skills

Fighting d6 Notice d4 Shooting d6

Size +2

Toy soldiers are very large, about 7 feet tall.


Construct

These toy soldiers are robots and therefore get +2 to recover from shaken, immune to disease and poison. Arrows, bullets and other piercing attacks do half damage, and they do not suffer from called shots. Constructs do not heal wounds normally, and cannot recover wounds from the Healing skill or power. Repair is used instead. Each Repair roll requires tools and spare parts (-2 modifier without tools, another -2 without spare parts) and 1d6 hours work.


Fearless

As robots, these soldiers are immune to fear effects.


Darkvision

These toy soldiers have infrared sensors that can see in the dark.


Gear

Plasma Rifle (A Toy Soldier’s Fusion Reactor regenerates 1 shot every 2 turns)

Range: 12/24/48 Damage: 3d10 RoF: 1, Ammo: 12, Heavy Weapon, AP 2

Vibro-Bayonet Damage: Str+d10 Heavy Weapon, AP 2


Notes: Made of heavy iron plating, these robot soldiers are super-tough, but very slow-moving. They are powered by large internal fusion reactors, which also power their plasma rifles.

B.A.T. Undercover -- A Gumshoe Setting

B.A.T. Undercover -- Gotham's Secret Weapon

Imagine if you will a world where a young Bruce Wayne, after seeing his parents murdered by a low level mob enforcer is saved from a similar fate by the Green Lantern (aka Alan Scott). The sympathetic Scott, and his friend Ted Grant, help Bruce to overcome his grief. While under the mentorship of Ted Grant, Bruce remembers a small detail that he shares with a sympathetic Detective James Gordon. Due to advancements in forensic investigative techniques, this clue allows Gotham P.D. to catch the man who murdered the Waynes. Young Bruce gets a glimpse of how effective police work can save his city and he embarks on a new career, but he also learns how even those with great power - like Green Lantern - cannot be everywhere at once. Superheroes need the aid of everyday citizens, like Ted Grant and James Gordon, who are willing to stand against injustice. 

Bruce Wayne uses his vast fortune to support anti-corruption political candidates (with a keen eye for discerning the deceptive), set up homeless shelters, supports education in hard hit communities, and scholarships for highly skilled people to enter law enforcement.

Early attempts to assassinate Young Bruce are thwarted by his Butler Alfred, a man of a particular set of skills, who trains the young man in Tradecraft. Bruce is trained in several martial arts by Ted Grant. As a teenager, Bruce uses his skills to aid police in investigations and to help Gordon root out corrupt police. By the time Bruce Wayne graduates from Gotham State University with several Masters degrees in Criminology, Chemistry, and Forensics, the Gotham PD is largely a clean law enforcement agency. There are still corrupt cops, politicians, and businessmen operating in the shadows, but many of the foes an older Bruce Wayne would battle against are his allies in this world. He'll need these allies because threats like the organized crime, Solomon Grundy, Killer Croc, the KGBeast, the Brotherhood of Evil, and the vampire lord Ra's Al Ghul's League of Assassins threaten Gotham and the world. It is in this setting that the Bureau of Advanced Tactics (B.A.T) fights the enemies of mankind.   

This setting is perfect for the GUMSHOE game system designed by Robin D Laws and expanded upon by Kenneth Hite and others. In addition to the OGL documents, a pile of DC Comics, and a stack of Man from U.N.C.L.E./NCIS/24 dvds, it is recommended that you purchase the Night's Black Agents and Mutant City Blues role playing games.

Key GUMSHOE rules for use in B.A.T. Undercover:

The MOS rule from Night's Black Agents. This rule is similar to the Area of Knowledge rule in the classic James Bond 007 role playing game published by Victory Games and allows for each of the Player Characters to have a moment where they really shine in each adventure.

Players choose one or more Backgrounds, and given the secretive nature of B.A.T. they all have Cover 10 and Network 5 at the beginning of character creation.

Players receive Health of 4 for free. Given the action orientation of the base "Shadows"  setting, Stability is not used. Though if you wish to play an "Arkham" mode, characters start with Stability 4 for free.

Depending on the number of players each player gets a number of build points to spend on investigative abilities (the numbers below are for a "Shadows" setting game and would be slightly lower in an "Arkham" game).

Players receive 70 points to spend on General Background abilities and should have at least one skill rated at an 8 signifying an area of specialty where the character is one of the best in the world.

The THRILLER Combat rules from Night's Black Agents are highly recommended as are the MASTERY rules from Double Tap.

Super Powers from Mutant City Blues should only be allowed for FOES of the Player Characters and reflect the types of foes the characters might face. These are threats that are too powerful for normal Gotham PD officers, but might also be beneath the notice of Cosmic Heroes like Green Lantern.

The B.A.T. Undercover Team:

Bruce Wayne (aka The B.A.T. Man) -- Bruce Wayne (35) is the founder of the B.A.T. team and has dedicated his life to following the legacy of his idols Alan Scott and Ted Grant. He will do whatever it takes to fight corruption in Gotham and provide hope to its residents. He understands that one of the keys to this endeavor is citizens being able to trust that their police department is there to protect them. That is why he partnered with Commissioner James Gordon to create a secret squad within the Gotham PD that fights the foes normal police officers cannot, and who work in the shadows allowing regular cops to take the credit for taking down corruption. He is highly skilled in Forensic investigative techniques, Tradecraft, and the Martial Arts.

Edward Nigma (aka The Cryptographer) -- Edward Nigma (35) almost became one of Gotham's greatest enemies. Having discovered that cheating could help him get ahead as a young man, he used his talent for mathematics and riddles to hack into the computers of the wealthy elite and those he believed thought too highly of themselves. His hacks would make the computers and finances of such individuals unavailable unless they could solve a puzzle and unlock their information. Edward's college roommate Bruce Wayne discovered what Nigma was doing and convinced him that Nigma could find more challenging puzzles fighting against criminal entities who used arcane ciphers to hide their communications. To Nigma's delight, he discovered a world of truly challenging puzzles and talented foes and agreed to turn himself into the authorities based on a plea negotiated by Wayne Enterprises attorneys which required him to aid Gotham P.D. as an alternative to prison time. It took a while to convince Nigma to make the deal, but then he encountered a H.I.V.E. cipher and his obsession with puzzles took over. Nigma is now the programming and computer expert for B.A.T.

Selena Kyle (aka The Cat) -- Selena Kyle (35) was a young girl living on the streets when she witnessed Bruce Wayne's parents being murdered by a mafia enforcer. She expected the situation to end like all other such situations; no witnesses, no real investigation of related crimes, and no justice. She was surprised when Detective James Gordon took on the case. She wasn't surprised that Gotham PD would investigate the murder of wealthy citizens. She expected that the PD would want to look good, but she never expected that the investigation would expand into the criminal underworld's engagement in human trafficking in the poorer neighborhoods. Gordon took the investigation where it led him and brought justice not only to Joe Chill - the Waynes' murderer and Falcone enforcer - but also brought light to the connection between the Falcone family and their human trafficking violations. Gordon became a father figure to the young Kyle and she has used her talents for Stealth and Observation to aid the team in fighting the threats that Gotham faces.

Jack Laffer (aka The Joker) -- Laffer (40) is the team's resident "class clown." A former chemical engineer who was in desperate straits when he discovered his wife was pregnant days after losing his job at ACE chemicals. Knowing how desperate he was, the Falcone family met with Laffer in an attempt to convince him to aid them in a raid on ACE chemicals. College Student Bruce Wayne had been observing Falcone activities and recognized the difficulty of Laffer's position. He had his friend Ted Grant - who was working with Gotham PD as an undercover muscle for the Falcones - visit Laffer and convince him to work with Organized Crime Task Force Commander James Gordon to stop the crime and bring some of the Falcone family to justice. Laffer agreed, but corrupt cops within Gotham PD informed the Falcones who sent hitmen to kill Laffer's family. Ted Grant overheard the assignment and was able to intervene saving Laffer's family. While the ACE chemicals raid was a bust, Laffer found that there those in the city who could be trusted. Thanks to a generous research grant from the Wayne Foundation, Gotham PD had a new secret position for a Forensic Chemist under the direct supervision of James Gordon open up and Laffer was offered the job. Ted Grant arranged for Laffer and his family to be "killed" and enter the witness protection program. Laffer ads his unique sense of humor to the team and expertise in Chemistry of all kinds.

Dick Grayson (aka The AcroBAT)

Helena Bertinelli (aka Huntress)

Stephanie Brown (aka The Robin)

Just an idea, but it's working its way into a campaign setting for my group.

GRIMM -- Genre Show with Geeks on Staff

I've been a big fan of GRIMM since it first aired a couple of years ago. Sure, it started as a monster of the week show, but it quickly progressed into a monster hunting cop procedural that featured a grand conspiracy and a shadow war between monsters, royal families, and the mysterious Grimm. When the show first came out, there were some among my friends who called it a Buffy rip off. To a certain extent it is. The show's creator was a first season screenwriter on Buffy, but like a lot of shows made by Whedon alum this show is out-Whedoning Whedon. Tim Minear's (Firefly, Angel) show American Horror Story is a wonderful creepy ride, Once (Andrew Chambliss, Jane Espenson, others) has a great following, Arrow (Drew Z. Greenberg) is one of the best super hero shows ever to grace the airwaves -- all of them are outperforming the Whedon produced Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in either ratings or storytelling. It's a testimony to Whedon's ability to forge creative talent, but it's also a testament to how much those older Whedon shows owed to talents other than Joss.

Now that I've stirred the pot, and guaranteed that I'll receive at least 3 death threats, on to the main point of the post...one of the reasons that GRIMM - and possibly the other shows - are out-Whedoning. I think it's because the shows are written by geeks. Now's when you come in and say...but Whedon is a geek. No he isn't, at least not in the way he once was. Whedon is now a big name with big expectations, expectations he delivers on the big screen, and that leaves him less time to be a geek than he'd probably like. He's producing several projects. Do you have any idea how time consuming that is? A friend of mine was an assistant to a screenwriter who writes comic book movies...and is a huge comic fan. You know how you are 6 months behind on your reading? This writer was years behind because the writer was writing. It's hard to be a geek/fan when you are busy creating content on a massive scale. That's what Whedon is doing, he's juggling several projects. He was a geek, but now he's too busy...in my opinion.

That brings us to the staff of GRIMM. They might be busy, and writing is difficult and time consuming, but they aren't "running a media empire" busy. That leaves them more time to maintain their geek hobbies. It's kind of like how attorneys need to do continuing education, only way more fun. If you don't spend time feeding the geek, it atrophies. So...how do I know that the staff of GRIMM is comprised of at least one geek who's relatively up to date on continuing education credits?

It's because of a Twittersation I had with the "@GrimmWriters" today. My wife and I just watched the first two episodes of this season and we were struck by how D&D inspired the first monster of the season looked.

Image Source NBC.com

I mean...that's a pretty D&D monster. So D&D that it's not in the SRD. This led me to post a tweet which received a quick response from the writer's room.

.@ChristianLindke and we stuck @clairecoffee in a dungeon. Her Perception roll wasn't great, but hopefully she took the Trap Sense feat.
— The Grimm Writers (@GrimmWriters) November 7, 2014

In addition to earning my permanent allegiance to the show, this tweet confirmed my suspicion in the best way. It was a great moment of fan interaction. It also makes me want to stat up the Gedachtnis Esser for Savage Worlds or d20 Modern. It also demonstrated just how geeky the writer's room (or at least the assistant responsible for the tweet) is.

Image Source NBC.com

Oh...and it might just be hinting that the @GrimmWriters need to do some continuing education and buy the 5th edition rules.