Super Conception

Once upon a time, in the vast, fertile fields of my imagination (at least, that's how I imagine it), there were two Role Playing Games. One was an old, worn out, somewhat dated game, who, despite his age and mechanical problems, still held a lot of charm and character for me. His name was Marvel Super Heroes. The other was a bit younger, but still no spring chicken. Yet she held a slick beauty that made her very "flexible" and able to handle many situations. Her name was Storyteller.

One day, these two systems met, and it was a match made in...well, in my imagination. And the rest, as they don't say (but should) is the future.

What does all that mean? It means I am going to re-invent the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG from TSR, by merging some concepts from White Wolf's Storyteller System. Basically, instead of rolling percentage dice on a chart, you will be rolling handfuls of d10's and looking for successes (ie.: 7 or better).

I think I will call it "Marvelous Stories."

Why bother? Because I like the concept of FASERIP. I like the idea of stats being denoted, not just with a bland number, but with a description word that has some zing to it. I like the look and feel of the old MSH game, and would like to see it updated with something that is easier to grasp. Plus, I'm bored.

I also don't have the money or the gaming group to go out and buy the next big Supers RPG. And besides, I have always liked screwing around with what other people invent, as far as RPG's go. And this effort costs me nothing but spare time, and I can ditch it whenever I want. Because that's what I do.

In other news...

Vacation this week! Woohoo! Road trip with the wife.

Friday!

Just thought I would wrap the week up with a general post of good feelings.

Yesterday was quite surprisingly cool.  And not just the temperature outside.  After getting phlebotomized, I found I had about an hour to kill before picking up my son.  Not enough to go back to the office for any appreciable reason.  So, I did what comes naturally, and hit up Half Price Books.  After about a half-hour of wandering and debating on some purchases (do I really need a 2nd Ed. copy of Changeling: The Dreaming?  Even if it's only $8?), I had decided I probably wasn't going to buy anything.  So, as is my wont, I made my way to the door via the Men's Adventure section, just to see what they had.  I was a little surprised to see that all of the older issues of The Executioner were gone from the shelf.  Then I looked up.

On top of the shelf were three large book bundles of Executioners.  Now, in the past, this store would wrap 8-10 books in plastic and sell the bundle for $3.  I never bought one, but always thought about it.  (I later found out that these bundles, if they don't sell after a while, are simply thrown in the trash.  I almost cried.)  Anyways, the three bundles I was looking at included The Executioner #'s 1-29, 30-55, and 56-87 respectively.  And each was priced at $5.  I immediately texted my wife and made sure $15 was ok for me blow, and she said "Go for it!"  So, for just under $16, I walked out with the first 87 Executioners.  SCORE!

When I got home, I started thinking about these books, and remembered that I had recently got a copy of the very first Executioner I had ever read, #59, Crude Kill.  And I had an idea.  I checked macbolan.com, and found the author of Crude Kill was Chet Cunningham.  A quick Google search found his website, and through that I emailed him and asked what it would take to get an autograph on my copy of the book.  He responded this morning, saying all I had to do was mail the book to him (in San Diego), and he would gladly autograph it and send it back.  How cool is that?

So, yeah, I'm pretty happy Mack Bolan geek today.

Tonight is the continuation of our D&D game, and I am really looking forward to that.  Next week, the wife and I hit the road for our first Mommy & Daddy vacation.  We're driving down to Alabama to hang out with Scott Oden and his wife Shannon.  I'm really looking forward to meeting them, and seeing the area.  And I'm really looking forward to getting away on a long road trip with my wife.  Just me and her in a car.  No whiny children, no dealing with the stresses of having a family.

I love being a dad, and I know I will miss my kids.  But, sometimes, parents need a break too.

Anyways, have a good weekend, folks!

Another "The End"

Finished the Orc story today.  It's in my wife, Michele's hands for a read-thru.  She's good at pointing out the obvious stuff that, as the author, I am too close to the story to see is missing.  Depending on when she gets done, I hope to send it off for Scott Oden to tear apart within the week.

So, do all writers write "The End" at the end of every manuscript?  Is this just a standard way of showing that your narrative is over, and that what the reader is reading is the "final" product?

So, what to work on next?  I have the S&P story, which really doesn't have a final destination in mind.  Nor is the complete plot worked out.  Then there's the thinly veiled pseudo-pastiche (as in the names have been changed to protect myself from legal action) about Prince Conn, King Conan's son, as created by L. Sprague DeCamp.  I also have the straight up S&S novella with my own "barbarian warrior" to fit into a story that might have seen print in the 70's, alongside the likes of Gardner F. Fox and Lin Carter.

Of course, I still have to do a paper by next week on the Battle of Mantinea.  Yeah, I should probably focus on that.  It's not a big one, and it has no official word-count requirements.  But, it will take some effort, and I should really dig into it.

Yeah, that's what I will do.  Homework.  Time enough for more fiction later.

Boxing Stories

I have long been somewhat of a boxing fan. I’m nowhere near an aficionado, nor can I quote stats and records. But, I know the big names, some of the more renown rivalries, and have watched a lot of good (as well as a lot of not-so-good) bouts on TV and PPV. Basically, I’m a fan. Not a fanatic, just a fan.

I’m also a huge fan of boxing movies. The ‘Sweet Science’ has always been a great backdrop for human drama. I mean, who doesn’t find themselves shouting “ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY!” when they watch those films? And even films based on true events can be very dramatic and enjoyable. Cinderella Man, for instance, has more heart and guts than a lot of other dramas.

So, it would stand to reason that since I like boxing, and boxing films, than I would like boxing fiction, right? Well, up until about six or seven years ago, I had never read any. And up until just recently, the only boxing fiction I had read was the tales of Sailor Steve Costigan, by Robert E. Howard. And you know what? Nothing wrong with that. The Costigan stories are quite spectacular, and Steve is probably my second-favorite REH character, next to Conan himself.

About a month ago, I got on a kick. I wanted to find some other fight fiction from the Pulp days. So, I did some searches, but really couldn’t find anything in the public domain (finances being what they are). Then, on Amazon, I stumbled across the Fight Card books. At the time, the first two were free, so I grabbed them. And I absolutely DO NOT regret that.

The Fight Card stories are written under the pseudonym of Jack Tunny, but are the brainchild and product of Mel Odom, who wrote The Cut Man, and Paul Bishop, who wrote Felony Fists. These two are related in that they each tell the stories of two brothers who grew up as orphans, but whose lives diverged. A third book, Split Decision by Eric Beetner, has also been published, but I’m not sure of the relation, if any, to the other two yet.  As of this writing, they are all three available as free Kindles.

The Fight Card books are independent stories, and can be read in any order. I started with The Cut Man, mainly because it evoked a lot of the feel and imagery of the Costigan stories. The main character, Mick Flynn, is a crewman on Merchant marine ship in the mid-1950’s. The story takes place in Havana, Cuba, and involves not only boxing, but gangsters, grifting, and a little romance. Told in first person, it’s laced with some easy language, a bit of technical jargon, and is set at an easy, breezy pace. Though I got it for free, I would have gladly paid the $2.99 tag.

After I finished The Cut Man, I dug right into Felony Fists. This one is a detective noir story, set in LA during the same period. It centers around Patrick, Mick’s younger brother, who is a cop with a penchant for taking no guff from criminals. It gets him a promotion, as well as the unwanted attention of the gangster who took over Bugsy Siegel’s operations when he died. So far, it’s really good, and I’m only a few chapters in.

All in all, I highly recommend these to anyone who is into old-fashioned pulpy goodness.

Revisiting an old game in my mind

Today I posted a link to Margaret Weis Productions’ new Marvel Superheroes RPG on Facebook. I stated that it sounded interesting, and even though I know none of my current gamer friends would play it with me, I still might get it, because…what the hell? It’s looks way cool!

This sparked a brief discussion about previous Marvel RPG’s, including my beloved Marvel Superheroes (TSR, 1984), wherein one friend proceeded, within the span of a single paragraph, to destroy it with hate and, frankly unfounded, assessments. His opinion is fine, though on one point (that it was unsupported) was flatly wrong. I’m fairly certain that D&D is the only TSR game that got more support than MSH.

That being said, it got me thinking. Was it really a good game? Is my love for it tainted by the ever-present spirit of nostalgia that often seems to run my life (as far as my tastes go)? Would it stand up today? And is there room for an “OSR” for MSH? Hmm…

Was it really a good game?

I had this boxed set.



Well, that depends on your definition of “good” I suppose. For me, that means “Is it fun?” It is, after all a game. And games are implicitly meant to be fun. So, if a game is fun, then it is, by definition, good. MSH did a good job of evoking the larger-than-life feel and grandiose characters of four-color comics. It had a standard set of stats for the characters, and each was given a rank described by a Stan Lee-ism, rather than just a number. Your Strength could be Unearthly, your Fighting Amazing, your Psyche Remarkable, etc. And each of these related to a column that you rolled a percentage die against to test for success. True, it had an inherent fault, mathematically. There was an argument that, according to the rules, “Aunt May could kill Galactus with a spoon, if the player rolled well enough.” Well, that would just be shitty story-telling, wouldn’t it? Any referee who allowed that roll on principle should be taken out back and shot.


 One assessment my friend made was that it was inflexible (which I would highly debate), and only allowed you to play characters similar to those who already existed. Ok. Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that he is correct. My character can only be a Captain America or Spiderman or Thor rip-off. How is this different than any other RPG? It could be argued that every D&D fighter is a rip off of Boromir, only slightly tweaked and given a new name and look. Personally, I think that’s the biggest strength of RPGs. The fact that I could say “I love Spiderman, I wish I could play someone like him” and then proceed to make Feline, who shared many similarities with Spiderman, but had my own unique spins on him.

Would it stand up today?

Probably my favorite
supplement.



Depends on who is playing, I suppose. It would probably stand up for me, personally. Those with differing views on what makes an RPG “good” would most likely have differing results. But, I think if the players came in expecting to play MSH, and not something else, it would stand up fine. And like any other RPG, the result would depend highly on the quality of the players, and less on the quality of the game.

And is there room for an “OSR” for MSH?
For legal reasons, probably not. However, if someone were so inclined, and if WotC were willing to let it go, I bet a generic Supers game, or one based on some other company’s property, could be made from the framework of MSH. The fact that the system is often referred to as FASERIP (named after the seven attributes; Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, Psyche), indicates that someone has given the idea some thought. I may have to do to some digging online just to see how far it went.

All I can say is that I LOVED this game back in the day. And I probably created about a hundred characters of all sorts with it. So, even if it was limited in flexibility, what it CAN do is very cool.

As an end note, while posting this and searching for links and pics, it became readily apparent that there is a large following for this game on the net.  Some sites may be out of date, but it's still out there.  And with Weis' version coming out, the older versions will no doubt be getting some new attention.

Been a bit...

I want this for my desk.

Just realized it's been a bit since I updated all of my loyal minions on my shenanigans.

Not really much to talk about.  Which, of course, begs the question "Why am I doing this?"  I don't know.  Maybe I just like the illusion of minor fame that being a regular blogger gives me.

I have had a plethora of doctors' visits lately.  My shoulder is sore from getting shots of cortisone yesterday.  And I get to get shots in the other shoulder in 2 weeks.  I have an unrelated procedure next week.  And I even had a mole removed.  I'm kind of a mess, but I'm feeling better.

Anyways, enough of that. 

Writing
I've been chipping away at my orc story for Scott Oden's anthology.  It's coming along nicely.  I really only have one more major scene, and some connecting details.  Then there will be some re-reads and edits before I show it to The Man.  Also been thinking about and working on a Sword & Planet story with a twist.  With John Carter in my near future, that genre has been on my mind.  And finally, with the help of my wife, I managed to polish up a good story and will begin shopping it around.

Some of you may recall that a while back I had an idea with a couple of friends to do an e-anthology of S&S stories set in a shared world of my creation.  Well, it's still in process, though probably still a ways off.  I have one story complete, and probably publishing-ready.  The other two friends have been busy with lots of other things.  But one is planning a surge in the project soon, setting himself a due date.  The other had started his stories, then fell out of love with the concept and characters, and decided to scrap it in favor of something else for the anthology.  Haven't heard from him in a long while on that.  We'll see how it all turns out.

Gaming
Finally getting back to our regular D&D game tomorrow night.  It's been a few weeks, and I really miss my Half-Orc Barbarian/Favored Soul/Fighter.  Tomorrow starts another short arc, and I am eager to see where we go from here.  Also, still looking forward to the AD&D game in April for my friend's birthday.

Been playing a lot of Star Wars online.  Really enjoying my Sith Marauder (dual lightsabers).  Started a new Trooper last night, just so I could play with my wife and her Smuggler.  We're only 4th, but it's still fun to game with her.  Last night I also realized that DCU Online is now free-to-play, so I updated it and logged in for a quick mission.  Still a very pretty game, and fun to play.

Reading
Recently finished Outworlder by Lin Carter.  Not a "bad" book, it just seemed too brief.  Like it was a rough draft that had potential for so much more story.  But, it was a product of the short fantasy books that were popular in the 70's, so I guess it works.

Got a Kindle Fire recently, and now that I have a really nice cover for it, I'm using it more.  Currently reading Hunters of the Red Moon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Paul Edwin Zimmer.  Really cool book.  It's apparently the first in a series (trilogy?), so I may have to track down the others if they are available as Kindles.

Also on my Kindle, I recently read Scott Oden's short story Amarante (also available at Smashwords and DriveThruFiction).  Holy cow, what a great story.  My only complaint after reading it was that it was over.  I am eagerly looking forward to his Orc novel.

Other stuff
Speaking of Kindle, despite my love of their services, Amazon is irritating me.  Rather I am irritated on behalf of authors like Scott Oden.  I'm sure a quick Google search will enlighten you to their latest BS better than I can.  Suffice it to say, they are screwing authors and publishers.  They really need to back off.  Or other e-tailers need to step up and take a bigger chunk of the market.

On a brighter note, I started my next class: "The Wars of Ancient Greece and Macedonia."  It's pretty interesting, and much more relaxed, as far as the format of the class.  It's straight up learning about and discussing history, rather than the mechanics of studying and reporting on it.

And finally, I have been oddly obsessed with Marvel's Hercules lately (hence the picture at the beginning of this post).  No explanation given here.  Just thought I would throw that out there.

Huh.  Well, I guess I had more to talk about than I initially thought.

Btw - If it seems like I talk about Scott a lot, it's because he's such a great guy, and really great writer who deserves much more attention than he is getting.

Your mom is derivative!

This whole thing started when we watched Real Steel last weekend.  This was a movie that I had wanted to catch in the theaters, but was unable to.  So, we watched it on Blu-Ray, and I was not disappointed.  Suffice it to say, this movie is AWESOME!  I am a sucker for boxing movies, and this one delivers.  Starring one of my man-crushes, Hugh Jackman, it has a familiar, yet timeless story, excellent performances, and FREAKING BOXING ROBOTS!!  If you don't think that concept alone is cool, what are you doing in my country, you pinko commie slime!?!

All that being said, after watching the movie, my wife and I were talking about the similarities to Rocky, and I wondered aloud what Stallone thought of it.  If I were Sly, I'd be flattered.  After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  However, in the world of film critics (both professional and armchair), they prefer the word "derivative"; it's not meant as a compliment.

I see this word thrown around a lot when it comes to works of fiction.  And usually it's written with an uppity sneer, as if taking elements form someone else's story, and making them your own is some kind of cheap shot that somehow lessens the original work.

Excrement.

I have a reproduction of this
poster hanging in my house

Personally, I prefer the term "homage" when talking about these kinds of things.  Rocky will always be a classic.  Nothing could ever take away the brilliance of that film.  Not even a shot-for-shot remake (which, thankfully, Stallone would never let happen).  So, the fact that Real Steel borrows many elements from it (and from Sly's critical stinker, Over the Top), speaks more on how much of an iconic film Rocky is, and how Real Steel was made, at least in part, for fans of Rocky.

But the oddest thing I noticed about ALL of these reviews who use the word "derivative" with all of its negative connotations, is that they still give the film a thumbs up/four stars/etc.  They readily admit that it's a very fun, entertaining, and heart-warming film.  They all applaud the great performances, the superior special effects, and the "humanity" in the robots.  For all intents and purposes, it's (almost) universally seen as a great film.  Except, it's derivative.

You people need to get over yourselves.  A good film is a good film.  Watch it and enjoy it for what it is.  And keep your high-brow criticisms to yourselves.