Combined Weekly Geekly Rundown and Week 3 of Independent Gaming Month

Going 100 feet below ground didn't leave me as much time to go down geeky rabbit holes as I'd have liked

An Idaho Staycation

Though Los Angeles still remains my favorite city, I love living in the Mountain West state of Idaho. There are so many different environments (and seasons) to explore here and the Treasure Valley where Boise is located reminds me of a better version of Reno, Nevada. Reno was a wonderful place to grow up, and it had natural wonders galore that were only a stone’s throw away, but there were always the casinos lurking in the background forming the foundation of much of the economy.

When I talk about the casinos lessening my love of Reno, it isn’t because of some moral stance against gambling or because I have the “Hollywood” perception of casinos as places of organized crime. No, it’s not that at all. It is because casinos increase the sadness level of a community. Yes, the vast majority of tourists who come have a great time and bring a kind of happiness with them. That’s even true of those who lose.

What’s also true is that if you go to a casino in the middle of the week in September, you’ll find lonely people who are there for one thing. It’s not to win. It’s not addiction, at least not addiction to gambling. That’s a real and terrible thing, but it’s not common and it’s not what I mean either. I mean the regulars who come on the 3rd of the month or on one of the later Wednesdays of the month. Lonely retired people who’s children are working or in another town. They come in looking for someone to chat with, someone who is nice and who cares, and they find them in the company of 21/Craps dealers, Cocktail Waitresses, and Cashiers. All it costs, is all they can afford.

I was one of those nice and caring 21/Craps dealers, so I know that the politeness and caring are real. The emotional connections aren’t fake, it’s just the activity that facilitates them that is corrupting. I found that it tainted the acquaintanceship I had with customers, because as much as I liked them they were customers first when I was at work. That feeling remained in off hours too. You don’t want to become too close in off hours or the emotional toll when they lose will be a part of your work experience, much better to keep an emotional distance than to connect. Focus on the tourist’s happiness and forget the loneliness. I am a firm believer that games and gaming are wonderful ways to bring people together, even when they cost as much as a modern boardgame, but casino games do the opposite and the distance they create extends beyond the game table. That’s what I mean by the casinos are always lurking in the background.

Okay, that was very sad and I don’t want to be maudlin. I’m on staycation after all and having a great time in a place filled with natural wonders and the kindness of neighbors and that’s a good thing that can be found anywhere. It was there in Reno and it was very much there in Los Angeles, that beautiful geode of a city, and it’s here to in Idaho.

This week my family and I have done a number of local activities. My wife and I visited the Koenig Distillery. The distillery is located in one of two wine producing areas of Western Idaho just outside the city of Caldwell and the surrounding land is gorgeous. Koenig Distillery produces the 7 Devils Whiskey line and I’ve become very fond of their Ryes and Bourbons, so Jody and I made sure to take our first opportunity to visit. It’s not quite a tour of the Macallan estate in Scotland, but it was a really wonderful experience and we got to see the stills and storage of this local treasure. We did a tasting and joined the Whiskey club which entitles us to quarterly special issue whiskeys.

I think the Barrel House has almost enough storage for my needs.

We also visited Shoshone Ice Caves and Idaho’s Mammoth Cave. These two cave experiences were very different. Shoshone Ice Caves provided a tour guide who discussed the properties that keep the cave’s temperature below freezing allowing ice to form, and mentioned earthquakes often enough that it added an element of anxiety to the experience of being 100 feet below ground in a lava tube.

The rocks on the right are from part of the ceiling falling after an earthquake. The “water” is ice with a shallow layer of water on top.

Speaking of being 100 feet below ground in a lava tube, the Mammoth Cave was a really remarkable experience and a bit of Idaho history. The Mammoth Cave is about 1/3 of a mile long and at the end you are 100 feet below ground with a ceiling 50 feet above you and 50 feet of rock on top of that. After hearing stories about how an earthquake in the 90s caused part of the ceiling to collapse in the Ice Caves, venturing guideless into the Mammoth Cave carrying an LED lantern gave me a new appreciation for what D&D characters are really experiencing.

Luke Y Thompson and Courtney Howard Review Cavalcade

Luke is at San Diego Comic Con this week and is covering all the latest action figure releases. You can see them in his article list at SuperHeroHype (link only useful within a couple of months after the con).

His review of Tales of Babylon, a London based Pulp Fiction inspired film, is here.

I also recommend checking out his article discussing 19 TV shows that failed to make a good transition to film when adapted to the big screen over at AV Club.

Courtney Howard interviews Production Designer Sarah Greenwood and Set Decorator Katie Spencer for FreshFiction.TV about the new Barbie film.

I’ve long anticipated her review of the Barbie film itself, she’s been expressive in her hopes that the film would deliver and so her review is from someone who went in with high expectations. You can read it over on AV Club to decide if you want to see the film or not. She unequivocally loved the film, but provides you with enough of the “why” she loved it that you can see whether it will appeal to you or not.

Geekerati Tabletop Game Recommendations

Since it’s still Independent Tabletop Game Month, thanks to Professor Dungeon Master’s creation of the event, I want to make sure to include my week 3 recommendations. Since my staycation has taken up a lot of my brain space in wonderful ways, and because my preface was too long and too sad, I won’t include long descriptions of the history of the games I’m recommending.

My official criteria for what constitutes an Independent RPG are:

1. That the game is not produced by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro

2. That the game is not a D&D clone or directly D&D adjacent.

3. The game must be currently available for purchase in either print or pdf form from a legal seller.

Here is the list of games so far this month:

July 1 — Tunnels and Trolls
July 2 — Good Guys Finish Last
July 3 — Champions
July 4 — Dragon Warriors (would have been Colonial Gothic, but I’m waiting on the new edition first)
July 5 — Troika
July 6 — Savage Worlds
July 7 — Castle Falkenstein
July 8 — Fantasy AGE by Green Ronin Publishing
July 9 — Inspectres from Momento Mori Tactics
July 10 — Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition
July 11 — Traveller by Game Designer’s Workshop
July 12 — Hero Kids
July 13 — Beach Patrol by Gallant Knight Games
July 14 — Runequest from Chaosium Games

And now for this week’s seven:

July 15 — Dragonbane

This game from Fria Ligan is the latest edition of Sweden’s equivalent to Dungeons & Dragons, in popularity, Drakar och Demoner. Drakar och Demoner is a fantasy role playing game heavily based on Chaosium’s Basic Roleplay Engine that underpins Runequest and Call of Cthulhu. The latest edition, Dragonbane, shifts away from a percentile system into one that uses 20-sided dice. It works smoothly. The art is beautiful and I’ll have a more in depth review when my boxed set arrives (I’ve been using the pdf, but prefer physical).

July 16 — Villains & Vigilantes edition 2.1 by Monkey House Games.

There are three primary ways of emulating superheroes in roleplaying games. Point based systems that seek to ensure that all characters are mechanically balanced. This is the approach that Superhero ‘44 (the first superhero RPG) and Champions used. Create a game that allows for all players to have some impact while accepting the fact that hero power levels vary wildly like Marvel Super Heroes (FASERIP) does. Use a strongly narrative system that minimizes differences in combat ability and focuses on storytelling like Smallville and Marvel Heroic did using a modified version of the Cortex+ system. Villains & Vigilantes takes that second approach in its second edition and it does a very good job. Edition 2.1 is my favorite edition of the game and it is the one that is published by the creators. Find a copy. Buy it and play.

July 17 — Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound by Cubicle 7.

As I argued last week, Warhammer games still count as independent because they are the work of an independent outfit and not the megalith that is Games Workshop. In this case, I chose their controversial Age of Sigmar setting. Many long time fans of Warhammer Fantasy, in both its Battles and Role Play versions, are very critical of the Age of Sigmar setting and dismissively call the Stormcast Eternals “Sigmarines,” referencing their similarity to Space Marines in 40k. While I see that connection, especially in one of the sculpts for the Eternals, I find the connection to the Radiants of Brandon Sanderson’s epic Stormlight Archive series to be much stronger, and much more appealing. This is a relatively unique setting that uses interesting mechanics (I’ll give a full review later in the year) to create a fun experience.

July 18 — Masks: A New Generation

Sheesh. I love superhero role playing games. I’m not a big fan of Powered by the Apocalypse games in general. The math of the mechanics isn’t well thought out, they are too “jargony” in a hobby that has enough hard to understand jargon, and they don’t tend to acknowledge the fact that the mechanics are a modified version of Inspectres and FATE. All that aside, the pure love of the genre that comes across in the writing as well as the well thought out character archetypes make Masks a fun game to play. If you want to see the game in action, I recommend the Saving Throw Show’s series of realplay videos. I hadn’t noticed until just now that I was the first comment in the chat on the first video, but this series convinced me that the game can be a ton of fun. Still a little too jargony in mechanics, the use of the term “Moves” instead of abilities/actions still bothers me, but it’s a great game to watch and to play.

July 19 — Mazes by 9th Level Games

Give me a game where the mechanics and setting blend together to create a unique experience and I’m all in. Mazes has an interesting polyhedral based system that connects which die (d4, d6, etc.) that a player’s character uses to resolve actions with a specific kind of play. All die rolling is done by players, like the next game, which makes the game easy to run and focuses play on the player characters and their actions rather than on NPC/Monster actions. The link is for the pdf, but track down a physical copy.

July 20 — Symbaroum by Fria Ligan

Did you ever want to play a game where the Dark Forest seemed really dark? That had a robust setting where the magic system and mechanics reflect a very particular world? That has mechanics that are player focused, players roll all the dice, and which has some of the most beautiful art in any RPG? Then Symbaroum is for you. It’s a fantasy tale that captures the dark mystery of older fantasy and merges it with a touch of Sword & Sorcery. Rich and thematic.

July 21 — Leagues of Adventure from Triple Ace Games.

Paul “Wiggy” Wade-Williams is almost single-handedly the reason I came to love Savage Worlds as a game system. He was a prolific creator in the early days of that system and his ability to mash together ideas to create high concept adventures amazed me. I bought everything with his name on it and was never let down. After a while, he launched his own game company called Triple Ace Games and used the Ubiquity engine as the mechanics for a number of settings.

Among my favorites is Leagues of Adventure, a Steampunk game that perfectly captures the fun and excitement of the Secret Adventures of Jules Verne series or your Steampunk book/show of choice. It’s right up my alley and the Ubiquity system is easy to learn and requires only the dice you already have to play. You can use any sized die to resolve actions because all that matters is even and odd.

Geekerati Blog/Newsletter Recommendation

Today’s read is a step away from gaming, movies, and/or television. I’d like to recommend

John B. Holbein

‘s

Holbein's Social Science Roundup

for your reading pleasure. It’s a place where you can read up on some of what’s going on in academic political science. Step away from the pundits and opinion columns and read linked and discussed articles that were years, rather than hours, in the making.

Geekerati Music Recommendation

I’m in a shoegaze mood today. Okay, I’m in a shoegaze mood every day so I’m going to recommend three pieces of music. Shoegaze music, especially that of bands like Lush and Catherine Wheel, is a layered combination of post-punk alternative and prog-rock that benefits from deep and repeated listening.

Vapour Trail by Ride

Lit Up by Lush

Heal by Catherine Wheel

Classic Film Recommendation

Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent (1940) is Alfred Hitchcock’s second Hollywood picture, but it retains much of what makes me prefer many of his British films to his American productions. It is character driven and includes some very interesting social subtext. Sadly, like Fritz Lang’s 1941 film Man Hunt the end becomes pure propaganda. It’s propaganda I agree with strongly, but it is so overt that it detracts from the overall experience of the film. The ending isn’t quite as abrupt as Man Hunt, but it’s still jarring.

A key moment in Foreign Correspondent, and one that you should absolutely borrow from if you are directing a suspense/conspiracy film, takes place inside a windmill in the Netherlands. The scene is very well shot, has fantastic sound design, and builds tension beautifully. Hitchcock’s obfuscation of the dialogue of the conspirators, under the sounds of a working windmill, do much to deep you wondering what exactly they have planned.

I highly recommend the film.