"Forlorn Hope" is a Must Have Addition to the SF Boardgamer's Shelves

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of visiting the Victory Point Games office. While I was there, I playtested their upcoming title Assault on Galactus Prime with the game's designer and had a wonderful time. As the release date for that game approaches, I'll post a review of that gem. I was also able to meet one of my favorite game designers -- in both computer and print games -- Chris Taylor. When it comes to game mechanics and concepts, it just seems that Chris Taylor has a direct link into my subconscious. Either that or we have been having secret psychic discussions about games, books, movies, etc. for decades.

A perfect example of how his designs seem custom made for me is Forlorn: Hope.

Forlorn: Hope has a familiar and well loved theme...Marines vs. Aliens. Ever since I first read Heinlein's Starship Troopers, I have been a fan of the genre. I own a number of games that follow the theme: Bughunters, Starship Troopers, Space Hulk, Death Angel, Aliens, Doom of the Eldar, to name a few. Basically, if it has a small squad of outnumbered and desperate combatants facing off against a rapidly populating army of insectlike foes, I'm game.

When Forlorn: Hope was released last year, I was jonesing for a new addition to the genre. In actuality, I was jonesing for a game of Space Hulk 1st edition, but was having trouble finding one at an affordable price on eBay. I owned the 2nd edition, but I wanted to play with the original "d6" based rules. During this time, I happened to be reading one of Victory Point Games bi-weekly reports and noticed that they were featuring a new game by Chris Taylor called Forlorn: Hope. As I was already a fan of his, and of VPG, I immediately ordered a copy. Not long after this, Games Workshop released a limited edition of Space Hulk 3rd edition which used the mechanics of the 1st edition, so that itch was scratched. I carried my copy of Forlorn: Hope around for months, including to last year's Gen Con, but the stars never aligned to put together a play session.

That changed this last weekend, when most of my regular gaming group was unable to attend our regularly scheduled gaming schedule due to the game day falling upon a holiday weekend. It turned out that only one of my regular gaming group, Eric Lytle, was able to stop by. Thankfully, Eric is one of the few members of my regular group who loves board games as much as I do...and he's a fan of the Marines vs. Aliens genre to boot. I pulled out my copy of Forlorn: Hope, went over the rules with Eric, and played two quick scenarios. All of which took slightly more than two hours. The rules were clear, the play was quick, and the game exciting.

The rules to Forlorn: Hope are simple enough for the beginning gamer, but dynamic enough to satisfy the veteran.

One player takes the role of the space Marines who venture aboard a savaged space station named Hope. These Marines have been given a mission objective that must be fulfilled. The other player controls the Xeno "Mind" and seeks to devour all of the delicious Marines foolish enough to venture onto the Hope. The missions define the make up of the Marine squad and the forces available to the Xeno "Mind." The players set up according to the basic rules, and the Xeno player will draw a number of "mutation" cards which can affect game play as the mission unfolds. At the beginning of each turn the Marine player rolls to determine how many Action Points he or she has to spend on actions, every movement or shot that the player wants a Marine to do requires the expenditure of points. The Xeno player gets to activate every living Xeno during his or her turn. Play goes quickly and the combat resolution system is quick and deadly. The temptation is to play cautiously as the Marine player, but each scenario has a limited number of turns for the player to fulfill the objective and play must be fairly aggressive to succeed.

Our two sessions were bloodbaths, but the Marines did manage to recover the "Master Control General Function Neuralnet" from the Hope in both instances. Forlorn: Hope manages to capture the hopelessness, desperation, and horror of the best sessions of Space Hulk while keeping game play simple enough that the action never bogs down into rules discussions.

Like most VPG games the game is fairly expensive, but the games are crafted by hand by a company that is dedicated to making every gamer into a game designer. VPG is the only game company that I can think of that considers themselves both a company and a classroom. Given how quickly a session of Forlorn: Hope goes by, and considering the replay value due to different scenarios and mutation card effects, there is a lot of bang for your gaming buck in this product.

Evil Hat to Publish 'Race to Adventure' Board Game

Our friend's over at Evil Hat have an annoncement about a new board game designed by a member of this blog, Eric Lytle. The game is called Race to Adventure! Check it out over at Deadly Fredly. I designed this game with my design partners Chris Ruggiero and Evan Denbaum.

The game is a pulp themed adventure game about a global race. It's highly thematic and I'm really excited to be working with Evil Hat on this new venture. They are the publisher of one of my favorite new role-playing games, The Dresden Files Role Playing Game. Congratulations to them on their two shiny-new Origins Awards for Best RPG and Best RPG Supplement.

Evil Hat is also announcing the much anticipated Zeppelin Armada game designed by Jeff Tidball , half of gameplaywright. Zeppelin Armada is a card game set in the world of Spirit of the Century about Zeppelin aerial combat.

More information to follow.

Gaming*Mirth -- No Fantasy This Week, Just an Awesome Jody Lindke Illustration

Since I am planning a major trip to Sacramento next week with 150 high school students, and since I have shared my "busy-ness" with Jody, she was unable to provide the next in her "Dragon Pranks" or other fantasy themed single-panel comics.

So...I thought I would share one of my favorite Jody Lindke political cartoons. A few years ago, I did a "Bridging the Partisan Divide" series of conferences for work and this inspired Jody to draw the following.

Falling Skies -- Alien Occupation TV Done Right?

The vast majority of "Alien Invasion" SFnal storylines follow a very familiar pattern. The aliens arrive, sometimes pretending to be friendly. The aliens attack. The aliens defeat us. We keep fighting. For some reason, either because of some gimmick or because of human tenacity, the aliens are defeated/leave. We all rejoice.

This pattern is used in H.G. Well's "War of the Worlds," Edgar Rice Burroughs' "The Moon Maid," Larry Niven's "Known Space," Jerry Pournelle/Larry Niven's "Footfall," Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers," L. Ron Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth," etc., and too many movies and television shows to list. The fact that it is formula doesn't mean that it isn't good. It is a tried and true formula that allows for narrative excitement while also allowing for a cathartic happy ending. When done extremely well, it also allows for sfnal commentary on modern human affairs.

The new TNT series "Falling Skies" is the latest television addition to this storied tradition. In "Falling Skies," the aliens have already invaded, destroyed most of the world's large cities, and crushed the military might of Earth. All that remain are ever increasingly small bands of humanity. Groups that get smaller as the aliens begin scanning for smaller and smaller communities. In the first episode, we are informed that the aliens are now tracking and attacking communities of 500 citizens and may soon move on to communities of 300 people. When the aliens encounter communities, they kill all the adults and capture the teenage children in order to put the teens in "mind control harnesses." The overall purpose of the harnesses is unknown, but hinted at. The aliens have established permanent bases, in the form of large structures, and their flagships have left our world to unknown locations. The initial shock and awe of the alien assault is over, "Falling Skies" is a tale of occupation and resistance.

"Falling Skies" follows the struggle of one band of the human resistance. That community includes a number of key players.

Porter -- the former military officer who believed that his fighting days were over and must now command a group that has all too few fighting men and women.

Captain Weaver(Will Patton) -- the military man who wants to take the fight to the aliens, and who resents the "civilian baggage" he is responsible for -- forgetting why it is that soldiers fight in the first place.

Tom Mason (Noah Wylie) -- a former professor of American History who has a deep knowledge of military history, but lacks practical experience in the art of war. He has read his Caesar, but had not used a firearm before the invasion.

Anne Glass (Blood Moongood) -- a pediatrician turned omni-doctor, who must minister to all the medical needs of the community.

There are a number of other important players, but Mason, Glass, and Weaver form provide a nice conflict triangle for the first two episodes. Weaver is solely concerned with preparing for combat, Glass is concerned with the health of the community, and Mason tries to balance the needs of society with the necessities of war.

Professor Mason provides the lens through which the narrative of the show progresses. He believes that the struggle of the survivors against the aliens is analogous to the American Revolution and believes that if we fight hard enough that it becomes a more expensive/difficult for the aliens to remain than the benefits they gain from occupation, then they will leave. It is Mason who describes the strategy needed in a way that exactly mirrors the traditional sfnal alien invasion tale. It also happens to mirror George Washington's strategy against the British.

The first episode is an engaging introduction to the stakes of the series. The survivors need food, and they need to find out why the aliens are capturing human children. Mason, and a small squad of the resistance, backtrack into the area the community is fleeing to find food and to see if they can locate any harnessed children. It is hoped that they can rescue the children, and find out what the harnesses are for. So far, all attempts to remove the harnesses from children have resulted in the death of the child and no increase the understanding of their purpose. The episode is engaging, and hints that "Falling Skies" can be an occupation/invasion story of the best kind.

It is in the second episode where the edges begin to fray, and the show risks becoming a retread of previously explored narratives -- and uninteresting narratives at that. In the second episode, "The Armory," the resistance is exploring an Armory in pursuit of additional weapons. They soon discover that there are more dangers than the alien "Skitters" that wander the post-invasion landscape. There are also wandering marauders who are on holiday from 80s post-apocalyptic narratives. The marauders of "The Armory" are led by the morally ambiguous ex-con John Pope (Colin Cunningham) who has found that the lawlessness of the post-invasion world suits his brutal nature.

[rant]Why is it that we always have to have the "morally ambiguous leader of wasteland marauders" in these stories? Can't we just do without them? Maybe have the morally ambiguous threat, or even sinister threat, lie hidden in the civilian population rather than as a leader of a roving band of maniacs.[/rant]

As disappointing as the John Pope narrative is, all hope for a good series is not lost as the upcoming third episode adds some interesting narrative conflicts. "The Armory" also includes some good character growth in the Weaver, Mason, and Glass characters.

I have pretty high hopes for the show. I also have a prediction regarding why the kids are being harnessed. I think that the children are being harnessed so that they can become the "pilots" of the alien's dreaded Mechs.

"Falling Skies" combines many elements of past human/alien conflict stories, including some similarities to the "Tripods" trilogy/quadrology of books by John Christopher. In fact, it is the fact that "Falling Skies" has tropes from so many of my favorite alien occupation stories, rather than just one series, is one of the key reasons I have hope for the series. It seems as if the writers of the show are steeped in the tropes of the genre and are comfortable using them, rather than thinking they are reinventing the invasion genre.

I eagerly await the next episode, "Prisoner of War."

Gaming*Mirth: Dragon Pranks -- Puppets and Princes

Since eating Rinaldo the Troubadour, Asterandyx had acquired a taste for the theatric.

Image © Jody Lindke 2011

[Blogging Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz] Sorcerous Puppets and Dark Gods -- A Look at "Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again"

A couple of months ago, I stumbled across a wonderful publication entitled Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery. The book was edited by Lou Anders, who is one of my three favorite SF/F editors and is Editorial Director for Pyr Books. Anders was aided in his editorial duties by Jonathan Strahan, the Reviews Editor for Locus Magazine. The Table of Contents of the book included a veritable who's who of my favorite Fantasy authors: Michael Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, Glen Cook, and Joe Abercrombie to name a few. Needless to say, with the combination of a talented editor, an industry influencing reviewing editor, and a murderer's row of writers, I imagined that this book was destined to become a favored book -- one that was featured both in my Kindle and on my bookshelf.

I was right in this assumption, but I also encountered a pair of wonderfully unexpected characters. These wandering adventurers, Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz, were featured in the story "A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet" by Garth Nix. Mister Fitz is the titular Puppet, and he is one of the most interesting characters I have encountered in all my years of reading.

I have mentioned before that my formative years with reading Fantasy literature were saturated with the writings of Michael Moorcock. In fact to me Modern Fantasy begins with Moorcock more so than Tolkien. This being the case, I could only imagine how genre changing Moorcock's anti-hero Elric was. On a rational level, I can see and understand how different Elric is from earlier Sword & Sorcery characters -- and Fantasy characters in general -- but I could not truly imagine how perception changing the character was for those who encountered the character when he was first published. Now I think I can.

Mister Fitz changed the genre for me. You see Mister Fitz is a Sorcerous Puppet -- a puppet animated by ancient sorcery. He's kind of like Pinocchio. As Nix points out in the narrative, the vast majority of Sorcerous Puppets were created to be entertainers -- just like Pinocchio. There are a couple of small difference though. Mister Fitz has a large Pumpkin shaped papier-mâché head, and he's possibly the most powerful Sorcerer the world has ever known.

That's right...a Puppet is the Sorcerer Supreme who uses his sewing related sorcery to battle dark and ancient gods.

The concept was mind blowing.

I immediately began hunting down all of the Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz stories, and discovered that there are three stories. Two are published in print anthologies, and the first was published in Jim Baen's online magazine Universe. That first story is Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again.

Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz are worthy inheritors to the grand Sword & Sorcery tradition of adventuring companions. They fit right in with Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and Elric and Moonglum. They are wonderfully complementary characters who are a kind of twisted mirror image of one another.

Sir Hereward is the vain and noble Knight and Artillerist. Hereward, likely named after the proto-Robin Hood Hereward the Wake, is a skilled physical combatant who possesses the ennui common among the questing heroes of Sword & Sorcery. He is a noble, but reluctant hero. In his first conversation with Mister Fitz, Hereward wonders at his place in the world and why the world is conspiring to push him and his companion from one dangerous adventure to another. Even when they merely seek a resting place, it seems that events conspire to have them participate in some epic battle. Hereward's humor and kindness, as well as his reluctantly heroic nature, perfectly reflect what I always viewed as the Paladin archetype. He nobly accepts his fate, but wishes he could live and love like other men.

Mister Fitz is...well...he's a Puppet with a papier-mâché head who happens to be a centuries old sorcerer created to battle with gods and demons for the fate of the world.

Hereward and Fitz's first adventure, "Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again" sets the pattern for all of the tales printed to date. Hereward ponders some question -- what their purpose in life is, whether that pirate ship will actually shoot at them, or what exactly makes a good birthday present for a thousand year old puppet -- that hints at the theme of the adventure. At some point, Hereward meets an attractive woman -- who would be more attractive is she bore the ritualistic facial scars of the women around whom he was raised -- that Hereward might be able to have a satisfying relationship with. Some obstacle to happiness in that relationship arises, and potentially some tragedy. Finally, Hereward and Mister Fitz battle some powerful demi-god who was named by an ancient charter as a threat to the world. There is usually a comic, and tragic, twist at the end of the story where we get to see how the continual quest of protecting mankind is a thankless and terrible fate.

In the first tale, Hereward and Fitz are looking for gainful employment in the city of Shûme. Shûme is a vibrant city-state surrounded by poorer nations, nations that appear to be readying for war in a jealous attempt to reduce Shûme's hegemony over the region. But we soon discover all is not as it seems in Shûme, and that Hereward and Mister Fitz's duty to battle eldritch evil overshadows their ability to earn a little money. There are some secrets to Hereward and Fitz's origins that are better left revealed by the tale, but let me say that they are for all intents and purposes under a geas to defend the world. Their charter requires them to combat demons and demi-gods listed in an ancient tome created a number of largely forgotten civilizations. The civilizations may be forgotten, but the evil they opposed is still very real and Hereward and Fitz wander the world stumbling onto that evil and battling it.

The representations of Hereward's swordplay are almost superhuman. He is a truly skilled combatant, but he is still just a man and his skills are primarily limited to battling other mortals. It is Mister Fitz who faces the ancient evils, and who metes justice on those who worship them.

Fitz is a comical and terrifying figure. It is that combination that has endeared him to me. I can only hope that there are more stories on the way.

Well Shoot! -- We didn't win Angry Robot Books' "Steampunk" Kindle

Last month, Angry Robot Books ran an online competition where they solicited "Steampunk" themed artistic creations and offered a Steampunk skinned Kindle as a prize. I am a big fan of Angry Robot Books -- if you aren't reading their books you are really missing out on a wonderfully diverse list of SF/F offerings -- and thought that the Steampunk skinned Kindle looked amazing.

So...even though both Jody and I already own Kindles, and I already own most of the books Angry Robot was preloading into the prize offering, I asked Jody to draw up a submission to the contest. She drew up an inspired image of our cartoon doppelgangers dressed up in thematic garb. I loved the piece and immediately entered it. I think it is magnificent.

Sadly, our entry didn't win. I would scream "Sour Grapes!" except for the fact that the winning entry is pretty cool. I still like Jody's offering more -- they could have at least given her an Honorable Mention for goodness' sake -- but the winning entry is a combination of cute and original.

Congratulations to all the winners. And thanks again to Jody. It's hard to compete with Steampunk Guitars, Dirigibles, Weapons, and Pop-Up cards.