Game Thesis: Swordsman

So, thanks to Snowmaggedon, I'm trapped at my In-Laws house, meaning that one of the few things of mine I have access to is my gaming books. So,if you're getting sick of these Game Thesis posts, well...to quote Delita Hyrial, "Blame yourself or blame God."

So, I'm an unabashed D&D player, and I'm totally one of those "4th Edition got more things right than it got wrong" players. And really most of my gaming problems I've had at the table the last few months have been incompatible play-styles and me trying to fit in with a group mid-adventure. Which sucks. Anyways, back to the topic, I like 4th Edition. But, one of the problems I'm having with 4th Edition is the lack of the lightly armored, agile swordsman.

I know what you're thinking even before you type in the comments section, "but Doctor, there's Ranger and Rogue and Swordmage, and..."

And you're absolutely right. But what if I want to play a lightly armored agile defender with a single sword between him and defeat? Someone who stands for his allies as a protector? And ISN'T arcanely powered? Someone who's as good as he is from talent and training and and not because he talks to spirits or can alter the fabric of reality. What class do I play then? Hmm? Anyone?

That's what I thought. And the fact is, this is a fantasy archtype that I can't believe isn't yet represented in 4th edition. I mean, look at the Lord of the Rings movies, which for this generation of gamers is some of the most inspiring images of fantasy.

What class is Aragorn? He doesn't rely heavily on his bow, nor does he have a pet or fight with two weapons. I guess Ranger is out. His armor (or lack thereof) limits he choices of what class he could be. And as for how he fights, he's probably a defender or leader. So, as far as I can tell from the movies and what classes are available...Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Ranger of the North and High King of the Reunited Kingdom of Men...is a Bard.

Oy. Or how about Richard Cipher from Legend of the Seeker? (*Author Note: I haven't read the Sword of Truth books, nor have I seen the second season of the show. I am basing my observations on the first season of the TV show. I'm aware that this might not paint the most accurate picture of Richard. And for that I apologize.)

So, in the show, despite Richard's magic sword, he's a skilled warrior and wears no armor (maybe Leather if the DM let's him call it that), using his sword for his defense. He also protects the other people he battles with and is clearly a defender.

So, what is this all building to, you ask? Well, I'm going to ask you, the loyal readers of this blog to help me on this one.

Should I begin to build a dedicated class to represent these mobile defenders, or perhaps build this as an alternate class feature for the supremely awesome Fighter class?

Let me know and we'll do this.

Books You Should be Reading

I guess being late is my theme at this point, huh?

Let me just say that I hate snow. Being in the Greater Pittsburgh area Ive been seriously snowed in these past few days and I spent most of yesterday digging out and getting sured up in case another round of snow made its way in.

Anyway, on to the actual article. In my very first (god awful) post I made a list of my favorite Trade Paperbacks, and in that spirit of thinking you care what my opinions are I give you the first of a series of recommendations: Books You Should be Reading.

Today's offering: Incredible Hercules.As if you couldn't tell by the name this title spun out of Incredible Hulk in the aftermath (Aftersmash? Really Marvel?) of the crossover World War Hulk. In fact Herc even took over the numbering of the Green Goliaths series after Hulks failed invasion.

What happened with the Hulk? The less said of that the better (until next week *winkwinknudgenudge*).

The news series follows Hercules and new Character Amadeus Cho: The 7th Smartest Person in the World, a fact he is none too humble about.

The stories are classic superhero fare, and that's a good thing. So many comics, comic creators and indeed fans are desperate to separate themselves from superheroes as too juvenile or simplistic, but author Greg Pak embraces that simplicity and uses it to tell an amazing set of stories.

Drawing heavily on mythology, the Marvel version of it at least, our duo dynamic face a plethora mythic foes from Ares (HOT DAMN I'M EVIL!) to the Dark Elves or Norse myth. They even take a nice little swipe at the legendarily bad Amazons Attack with a much better Amazon war of there own.

The greatest achievement of this book, though, is when its looked at as a greater whole. The seemingly scattered story lines are all working together into an amazing tale about the growth of our two radically different heroes and the nature of heroism in a new age of myths. Comic heroes as myths of the modern age is nothing new, and Herc doesn't break any real new ground with it, but it uses this theory as a way to tie all its tales together give its readers an amazing read.

On top of that, its funny. Perhaps it has something to do with embracing classic Superheroing as much as it does, but Incredible Hercules never takes itself too seriously. The lead pair contrast each other, brains v brawn, in such amusing ways throughout the book that the only things funnier than their interactions are the fights scenes.

Incredible Hercules has been collected in four Trades so far: Against the World, Sacred Invasion (Featuring its 2nd and 3rd story lines), Dark Reign and Incredible Thorcules (:P).

With the current Assault on New Olympus storyline bringing everything to a head this is as good a time as any to pick up the book be it in the form of trades or back issues. Whether its because of its wonderful characters, great action or sense of humor, Incredible Hercules is one of the best books for anyone who loves comics or wants to love comics.(Of course even in Hercs big story Wolverine MUST be up front)

Game Thesis Interlude: Kamen Rider

Welcome to the 20 Sided Tardis, where our opinions are bigger on the inside. Dr.Cid here and while its time for another Game Thesis segment, I'm going to take a break in order to post my thoughts and design ideas for a Kamen Rider RPG. Sorry,but this is going to be a long post. Hopefully the smattering of images and videos will help.



First, a little background on Kamen Rider. What follows is BLANTANTLY jacked from TvTropes.org 's entry on Kamen Rider:

A franchise of tokusatsu series created by Shotaro Ishinomori (who also created Cyborg 009) and produced by the Toei Company. A sister show to Super Sentai. Typically has a smaller main cast than Sentai (the title of each series refers to a single main Rider instead of Super Sentai's Five Man Band), but not always. Some series feature huge numbers of Riders, with the most extreme example being Kamen Rider Ryuki and its 15 Riders (although Kamen Rider Hibiki has a lot more if you count all the Riders seen briefly, or even just briefly mentioned).

Often involves insect-themed armour (concept largely ditched for the Heisei Riders, in which only a minority is insect-themed). And motorcycles. Tragically short on Combining Mecha. (although Kamen Rider Faiz did feature some nice, if non-humongous, mecha, and Kamen Rider Den-O had train cars...)

More recently, the first 10 or so riders have been revived in a manga series: Kamen Rider SPIRITS. As Bad Ass as they originally were, they become even more so.

The Kamen Rider franchise is generally divided into two distinct "eras" by fans, using the Japanese names for the time period in which they were made. The Showa Era consists of:




* Kamen Rider (1971-1973)
* Kamen Rider V3 (1973-1974)
* Kamen Rider X (1974)
* Kamen Rider Amazon (1974-75)
* Kamen Rider Stronger (1975)
* Kamen Rider Skyrider (1979-80; AKA New Kamen Rider; originally called simply Kamen Rider, it was intended as a Continuity Reboot, but the idea was abandoned)
* Kamen Rider Super-1 (1980-1981)
* Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!! (1984 TV special; Starring Kamen Rider ZX)
* Kamen Rider Black (1987-1988)
* Kamen Rider Black RX (1988-1989)

In the 1990s, a trio of movies was made; though produced after the end of the Showa period (1989), American fans typically place them with the Showa series because of Ishinomori's involvement:

* Shin: Kamen Rider Prologue (1992 direct-to-video movie)
* Kamen Rider ZO (1993)
* Kamen Rider J (1994)

Every series created after the death of creator Shotaro Ishinomori is referred to as the Heisei Era:



* Kamen Rider Kuuga (2000-2001)
* Kamen Rider Agito (2001-2002)
* Kamen Rider Ryuki (2002-2003)
* Kamen Rider Faiz (555) (2003-2004)
* Kamen Rider Blade (2004-2005)
* Kamen Rider Hibiki (2005-2006)
* Kamen Rider Kabuto (2006-2007)
* Kamen Rider Den-O (2007-2008)
* Kamen Rider Kiva (2008-2009)
* Kamen Rider Decade (DCD) (2009)
* Kamen Rider Double (W) (2009-)

The first two series were retooled for a Darker And Edgier movie reboot franchise, currently consisting of two films: Kamen Rider The First (2005) and Kamen Rider The Next (2007). The first movie was an action-romance and was received relatively well. The second movie, which traded the romance for horror, was not so well received.

2009 also had Kamen Rider G, a TV special that was an Affectionate Parody of all things Kamen Rider, starring veterans from the show and members of the idol group SMAP. G also served as a teaser for Decade, with Tsukasa and the other nine Heisei Riders showing up to give G a pep talk during the final battle.

One series (Black RX) was brought over to the US, Power Rangers-style, as Masked Rider (1995-1996).





It tanked. Another series (Ryuki) has been similarly adapted as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight (2009). While the new adaptation was much closer to the spirit of the original, it didn't fare much better in the ratings.

There's a PS2 game called Kamen Rider Climax Heroes, which is basically a fighting game featuring all of the Heisei-era Protagonists, and Kamen Rider Climax Heroes W, which is pretty much the same as the original Climax Heroes, except it features Double and it's on the Wii instead of the PS2. In the West, the Climax Heroes W engine was Remade For The Export as a Dragon Knight game.

There also exist an arcade game, Kamen Rider Ganbaride, that work by collecting cards and scanning them into the machine.


So, being the giant Tokusatsu fans and RPG nerds that we are, some friends are working on a Kamen Rider RPG, and now I'm adding my thoughts (since I know at least one of them follows this blog).

Do, first off, the game NEEDS to be point-buy. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoy the seemingly endless amounts of customization that Point-Buy systems provide (despite my favorite gaming system [Star Wars Saga Edition] not using it).

Secondly, since both the Rider and the Rider System (hereafter referred to as the character and the Henshin Driver) are two seperate entities that can easily be parted and the Henshin Driver can be used by anyone in some cases (see Kamen Rider Kiva video below), then they need to have seperate point pools and need to almost be built as two seperate characters.



Now, since examples are the easiest way to put forth some of this information, I'll do a theoretical build of Kamen Rider Gale (wind based powers). So, lets say that I've statted up Tobyashi Hiro already, so I only need to focus on Gale.

First thing I want to purchase is 3 alternate forms, knowing that I'll pick up the 4 form later in the campaign. Ideally these alternate forms can then be tweaked as needed.

Gale's alternate forms are F2, F3, and F4 (classification of Tornados on the Fujita Scale), and F2 is faster than his F1 form, but lacks some of the punch, F2 is more defense heavy, and finally F4 is the full on slow but powerful form. Ideally when I get the points later on to pick up F5, he'll be powerful at everything (as Kamen Riders typically get a Final Form that's better all around).

So, each form has to draw from it's own pool to tweak things here and there. So, we need the Henshin Driver to be able to have enough points at the Start to be able to purchase an alternate form (since even the weapon forms can come later than the start of the show).





Also needed is the iconic ability of all Kamen Riders, the Rider Kick (yes,there's a handful of Riders who don't have a Rider Kick, but they're the minority). Now, we need a mechanic so that you can't just spam the Rider Kick every round until your opponent blows up.



Thankfully, D&D has something that we can borrow for just such an occasion.

For those of you who don't know, in D&D 4th Edition,there's a mechanic called "bloodied" which really just means "this d00d is at half their HP!" Now, having a restriction on performing the Rider Kick on a bloodied opponent is a good way to keep the cinematic "Kick,BOOM!" element of the show.

Of course, given that there're exceptions,I don't know if that's necessarily the best option...hmm. I'll come back to that.

Stats should be easy to do. Let's try to limit it to 6 stats, because its a nice round number and been the industry standard for about 30 years. Clearly it's a concept that's working.

So, we should have: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception and Willpower. Yeah, I know that these aren't ground breaking Stats, so let's just move on.

So, given that in universe you can only remained transformed for a certain period of time, and that a strong enough hit can knock you out of your transformed state, here's how to settle that.

You have an affinity rating with your Henshin Driver. As you increase your abilities, your affinity with the Driver will increase. Each round, you roll percentile dice. If you roll more than your Affinity rating, you slide down a step on the Henshin Timer. The Affinity can never get higher than 90%, and you probably should have an affinity for each alternate form you have. That way you can get knocked out of F4,but only revert to your base form for example.

In addition, there should be a Damage Threshold. Let's say it's your Str+Con Scores times 2. (i.e. Str 4+Con 6 x2= 20) and if a single attack deals more damage than that it slides you down the Henshin Timer. And should a single attack deal more damage than TWICE your Threshold,it knocks you out of your transformed state entirely.

Actually, going back to the Rider Kick, you can use the Henshin Timer as a limiting Mechanic. Each time you use said Kick, you slide down the Henshin Timer. I may be on to something here.

Combat needs to be fast, and the game needs to focus on story and character development, because while yeah, there's guys in bug armor kicking guys in rubber suits until they explode, the story is what really keeps bringing people back to Kamen Rider.

Wow, sorry this was so long. See you next Monday, Dear Companions. In the meantime...HENSHIN!

Confronting the refrigerator pt. 2

(Warning: There may be some spoilers in this post. If you care, don't say I didn't warn you)

Well my first attempt at keeping a schedule here was a huge failure. I meant to have this up yesterday but work conspired against me once again. Oh well, best to move on.

Last week we dealt with the double standard of the Women in Refrigerators Syndrome. Today we take a look at the second, and in my not so humble opinion, the major problem with WiR as an argument; the literary aspect.

First lets take a look at a sample of Simones list, the As just to keep it simple:
All of Savage Dragon's girlfriends (dead)
Alysande Stuart (dead)
Amethyst (blinded, merged with Gemworld, destroyed in LSH; became a power-hungry witch in Book of Fate)
Apparition (one of her three bodies dead, soul bound to boyfriend)
Aquagirl (dead)
Arisia (dead)
Aurora (Multiple Personality Disorder, depowered)

These characters have one major thing in common, other than gender. They are all supporting characters.

(It may get a little gray when it comes to Amethyst, being on the Legion of Super Heroes and thus theoretically an equal member of the team, but anyone who reads a team book, especially one with a roster the size of LSH knows that eventually main characters float to the top depending on the writer; in the case of the Legion its their founding three and Brainiac Five in most cases though multiple reboots kinda muddy that water.)

A supporting character has one major role in literature; to enhance and expand the main characters story, to support them. They do grow, they have their own lives and their own plots, but in the end they exist to facilitate the main characters story.

Sometimes that means a character has to die.

Whether its Borimir getting filled with holes trying to save the Hobbits while showing that the story was getting into its darker phase, or Kamina making his Big Damn Heroes Sacrifice to eventually push Simon into acting like a MAN OF DESTINY!!! or Aeris getting sworded to move FFVIIs plot into high gear; characters die to serve the story.

Hell, X-Statix killed off pretty much its entire team in the first issue to set its tone (and throw the reader for a loop).

Simone herself knows this. In Wonder Woman she had supporting character Etta Candy tortured into a coma while in Secret Six she had Artemis of the Amazons beaten tortured threatened with rape and nearly killed (to the point that Wonder Woman showed up and thought she was dead).

This can get muddied in comics more so then in many other forms of literature though. As mentioned above we have the problem of the team book, but we also have the issue of characters that continue to be written for years if not decades, often under different hands. A supporting character that lasts long enough may grow popular enough for their own book. Problems arise then when they are in their original, home, series. In a batman book, Tim Drake is still a supporting character, but in Red Robin hes the hero (and he makes a damn fine cheese burger!).

In the end though, a supporting character (popular or not) must serve the main characters story, be it through their actions in life or their death.

That's not to say I don't see a problem here, because there is one. The problem isn't who gets killed, its who pulls the trigger. Not the villains, the writers.

Character death is cheap in comics. Part of it is the revolving door on the after life (its been barely 2 years since Steve Rogers died and hes back in the stars and stripes, Bruce Wayne barely went a year in the dirt before DC announced his come back). But a lot of it is the residual effect from the 90´s dark age of comics.

Characters died before, always have always will. But one of the good things about the ¨lighter and happier¨ times of of the Silver Age was that if a character died they usually went out like a hero.

Look at the original Supergirl. She single handedly beat down the biggest, baddest mutha fucka in existence, the Anti Monitor. She would have taken him down but for a lucky shot from Monty, but she still saved the day, she went out like a hero.

Yes, not everyone can go out fighting the living embodiment of destruction because that would cheapen heroic sacrifices. But comics have come to treat death and horror in pretty much all shapes something cheap to be thrown in to a story.

Need to start an event book, kill a Teen Titan or two. Need to make a character deep, kill their loved ones. Yes it adds drama and depth when done well, but when its plastered over every book it becomes tawdry and pointless, existing only for shock value.

Supergirls death was epic and awe inspiring. Captain America and Superman's deaths were heart breaking and tragic. Marvin and Wendy got eaten by a demonic Wonder Dog. I expect that shit from a teenager writing a fan fic, not professional authors.

What I'm trying to say is that the problem isn't that terrible things happen to female characters. The problem is that terrible (and terribly written) things happen to characters too often and for too little purpose.

For fucks sake writers, find a better way to use your characters, or at least a better way to finish using them.