Despite my best efforts

I know I’m a few weeks behind everyone else, but I finally got to see The Avengers.  Now, if you’ve read any of my other posts you may know that I constantly struggle with my dark, hipster side; I like discovering things before they’re cool, and if large amounts of people go on about how so-and-so is fabulous, I tend to be skeptical.  Yes, I know this is a flaw.  Yes, I know that’s kind of incongruous from a self-proclaimed geek – but maybe it won’t surprise you to learn that I’ve had trouble claiming that term in the past, as it’s become more popular.  Don’t worry, I’ve got all the passion required – but to paraphrase The Birdcage, when I love something I do an eclectic celebration of the dance! Fosse, Twyla, Michael Kidd, Madonna… but I keep it all inside. 

All this to say: even though I’ve considered myself a fan of the majority of his work, well, I’ve been known to roll my eyes at excessive displays of idolatry for Joss Whedon.  When people said The Avengers would absolutely be good because Whedon was at the helm, I thought of the plot holes in Serenity, or that one episode of Glee, and smirked.  Yes, the snark is strong with this one, and as I entered the theater I was prepared to come across something I disliked.

I was so, so wrong.  Damn it, Whedon’s writing was top-notch.  Was it the best writing in the world, ever?  Okay, probably not, especially when it comes to a few niggling plot points. Still, when it comes to writing dialogue that sounds natural and genuine – the one thing that really stands out to me when it’s wrong –  few do it better.  And he’s writing in several voices – each of which are very distinct, each of which have their own brand of humor, almost none of which sound “Whedonesque.”  In fact, I can only think of one line in the entire movie that pulled me out of the story enough to say “Whedon,” but it still fit the character.  Most who are even familiar with Whedon’s other work probably wouldn’t notice.

So, am I a reborn Whedon fangirl?  Well… maybe.  You probably won’t see me shouting it from the rooftops – I keep it all inside, after all – but let’s just say I’m now fantasizing about an anniversary-quality Doctor Who collaboration between Russell T Davies, Moffat and Whedon, incorporating the best aspects of all three.  A girl can dream.

Ray of light

The last ten years have seen quite a few comic adaptations, but The Avengers stands out to me, and here’s why: Think back to that first X-Men movie.  A well-loved property, to be sure, but it was felt that it needed to match the aesthetic of today.  Gone were the yellow and blue uniforms, and in was a lot of spandex and latex and rubber, all in black matte.  The look of the film attempted to match the somewhat darker themes that have always been present in the comic.

Then came the rebirth of the Batman franchise.  Again, campier elements were ditched and for the first time we really had a Batman for adults.  Instead of glossing over or implying darker subject matter, the Batman films really sunk their teeth into discussions of morality and fear and vengeance.  The result was that the movies were hugely popular and critically acclaimed.

Following suit, X-Men: First Class is a more adult take on the film franchise.  Now, other movies that tried to take a darker turn didn’t handle it as well; the third installments of both the X-Men and Spiderman franchises failed to live up to expectations.  The difference with First Class is that the writing isn’t just more adult, it’s better.  Funny how quality writing tends to reinvigorate the enthusiasm of fans, thus leading to better box office results.

Now, The Avengers: it’s quality writing, no doubt about that.  It’s mature writing.  But is it intended solely for an adult audience?  No, I’d say not.  This film is about as family-friendly as a superhero movie can get, I’d think.  And it has all the hallmarks of a big blockbuster: giant monsters, funny one-liners, crazy action scenes, big names.  It’s like Transformers, only, you know… good.  And the box office receipts reflect the difference quality makes when combined with all the usual blockbuster suspects.

Sending a message

So as I’m getting inundated with ads for Battleship – a movie that might well be good, but right now seems like just another summer offering churned out to oversaturate and then be forgotten – I’m hoping that this summer’s box office numbers will send a message.  That it’s more worth the while of movie-makers to spend time on something quality.   That “family-friendly” doesn’t have to mean “pandering,” and, indeed, doesn’t even have to be made with children in mind.  That we will pay, gladly, to see something of quality.  And then we’ll tell our friends.

Old lessons, yes, but apparently ones that need to be retaught every few years.  But I suppose I’m not one to talk – after all, I keep battling that dark hipster inside me every few months.

What about you?  How did you like The Avengers?  Are you on pins and needles for The Dark Knight Rises?  What are you most looking forward to seeing? 

So why is it still number one? Why is the internet obsessed with it?

Mainly because it’s awesome.

So. In all seriousness, The Avengers was awesome.

Some might say that my taste in movies may be questionable (considering that I prefer both Grease 2 and Timecop 2 to the originals, and my favourite movie of all time is The Quest), but I think I am in the majority on this one.

Joss Whedon, as writer and director, assembled his own dream team for this production. The cast was pitch-perfect, and proved themselves in interviews and promos to be as faithful and dedicated to the spirit of the Avengers as any red-blooded nerd. Whether you like comic books or not, it’s a rousing action flick, bromance, and family drama.

So I don’t just continue to say “awesome” over and over again in different ways, I will present one thing I liked about the movie, and one thing I didn’t like.

One Thing I Liked About ‘Avengers’

This was the most realistic superhero movie I’ve ever seen – well, except maybe for Hancock, but for a similar reason. The characters were fully-realised, complete people, who were more than heroes and villains. Bruce was suicidal yet noble, and ticklish. Cap was adorably earnest, and a little narrow-minded. Tony, of course, is the perfect conflict of outwards asshole and inwards hero. Joss Whedon is king of the throwaway line, and in The Avengers, he used them to create some of the most compelling human characters I’ve seen on the screen in a long time.

There comes a point in every superhero/giant fighting robot/monster movie where it’s the clash of the titans, and it’s mega-beast on mega-beast. And it’s a little boring. Yes, even I, lover of all that is campy and kitsch in action movies, will suffer a yawn or two through the penultimate battle. Somehow, Joss managed to avoid this completely – because his heroes were entirely human. They were tired. They got hit and went down. They were sweaty and out of breath and limping. The post-credit shwarma scene sealed it for me – that is exactly what superheroes would do after a battle. Fall asleep over a good meal. Not parade through an ancient temple looking all shiny while they receive their medals. It’s shwarma.

One Thing I Didn’t Like About ‘Avengers’

Why Black Widow? Seriously, Black Widow? She’s a double agent, a villain, and a bitch! Was nobody else reading the comics? Especially Ultimates! While I enjoy the visual pleasure of Scarlett Johanson, and I realise that for demographic purposes there had to be a female member of the team, there are so many other female Avengers to choose from. They even skipped over the Wasp, who is one of the official founding members of the Avengers, according to Earth-616 Marvel canon. She-Hulk, Stature, Mockingbird, Spider-Woman, and Ms Marvel all leap immediately to mind before a character which has spent more time Heiling Hydra than Assembling Avengers.

Am I petty? Yes. Yes I am.

What was your reaction to the movie? Love it? Hate it? Walk out craving shwarma? Let me know in the comments!

Remember that time we killed a God for my birthday?

Whether you’re fighting your way through a dungeon, running from zombies or ending Odin, there are narrative tricks—and player limits—to keep in mind when combat springs up. This is by no means an exhaustive tool-kit, but the best kits are built by continually trying new techniques to craft a more compelling story.

Yours might have fire breathing dragons.

Tell Us A Story

Narrating combat helps with pacing, engages players, and increases their buy-in. In this case, that buy-in being referred to is their attention and creativity. When a fight is a challenge, stakes are high, and the fight is fulfilling for players, the narrative is working. If you want to cadge a narrative trick, you go to someone who’s been perfecting theirs—like Jack-of-all-Trades GM Cliff Hebner.

Hebner’s spent years waging the good fight against one of the forms of combat with the worst reputation of all time: LARP combat.

In live-action role-playing there’s often a popular set of assumptions about combat:

• it’s boring
• it’s all about numbers
• you’ll be there all night.

LARP or table-top, Hebner’s advice comes from years of straddling the divide between narration and numbers while volunteering for the Camarilla, primarily as a Storyteller. [1]

“If your play group is all Team Number Smash or all Team No Math, then great—it’s not hard to make combat fun for them, since they all want the same thing. The Number Smashers will all want to roll it out down to the last hit point, and the Math Haters will let you take a quick poll of who’s doing what, then narrate the results. So what do you do with a mixed group? You start by talking to the players. Ask them questions.

“Does anyone want to have their PC die in this scene?”

“What’s your goal/intended outcome/victory condition?”

“At what point will you turn tail and run?”

“Is there anyone NOT being attacked/affected that wants to bow out now?” This helps give you a picture of what people want from the scene.

 

Narrative helps you balance player needs, and it’s one of the backbones of good GMing.

Keeping Combat on Track

Combat has a reputation for being a disorganized mess from which there is no escape. Monica Speca keeps the combat fast-paced and on track by drawing on her past as an athlete.

“I have players write down their initiatives on a note card and keep them in a stack in order. From my years as a track athlete, I then call them like I’d call an event. “Player 1 up, Player 2 on deck, Enemies on standby. Player 3, you’re after them. Go.” This works like a charm. While Player 1 is going, Players 2 and 3 are already thinking about what they’re going to do, and possibly building a stunt in their minds. “

No one technique for keeping combat order is one-size fits all. Experiment with what your table responds to. If there are chronic issues you notice—yours as a GM or theirs as players—find ways to address them. If one of your players has a hard time keeping track in combat, talk to them away from game. Are they still learning the system? Struggling with keeping everything organized? You may be able to brain storm ways to experiment with finding a fix that suits them. If you as a GM have specific issues with keeping combat organized, ask around. Your table, and fellow GMs, may be able to suggest things.

Tapping Out and Fade to Black

If somebody gets into a violent scene and cannot continue, it is always okay to tap out. You can still keep things fun—and include combat—without providing an unintentionally harmful environment. GMs can use content warnings, players can choose to stay out a scene, you can ‘fade to black’ and summarize as a GM or group what happened. If someone crosses a line during combat—or a personal line for people at the table gets crossed—addressing that is usually best done in private. Having that heart to heart in private makes people less defensive. When someone is less defensive, they can do a better job of listening with empathy and responding rationally. Most people will point to sexualized violence and violence against children as unacceptable in their games, but many don’t talk to their players about other forms of violence and trauma.

If you have a player who has seen combat overseas, experienced a traumatic car wreck, or was walking to work the morning a skyscraper fell—those experiences may reemerge for them when strikingly similar events happen in game. You’re not expected to know every traumatic event in the lives of each player, but use your knowledge of the events you do know of wisely. No matter the circumstance, if violence or combat hits an unseen nerve, a five minute break—or calling it an early night—are viable ways to address the tripping of personal triggers.

When the Smoke Clears

A good combat encounter helps heighten the experience of gaming. –Rasmus Rassmussen

Combat in a game has similarities to a good sex scene in a book. It has a narrative point, it enhances the experience of the story, and it feels real. Bad combats, and bad sex scenes, often feel like throwaway scenes that don’t move a narrative forward or explore a vital piece of the story. The heist gone wrong or the gun fight with the undead Sheriff are each pieces of the narrative. Well-done combats have purpose, and like the rest of the game, are parts of a story you don’t want your players to forget.

Have some tips and tricks that help you keep combat organized, exciting or engaging? Feel free to share in the comments.

[1] For those versed in Camarilla abbreviations, Hebner is a former DC, iVST, DST, and AAMST.

We Hardly Knew Ye

Terra Nova – This was the first big cancellation.  Supposedly it’s being shopped to other networks.

Alcatraz – I had high hopes for this one, but it apparently failed to connect with viewers (or Fox is being stingy and quick to cancel, as it has a reputation of doing).  There’s already another JJ Abrams drama lined up for next year, though, on another network.

The Secret Circle – The loss of my guilty pleasure particularly stings, because originally it was reported it had been renewed.  In some cases, I literally clicked on a headline that said one thing and got content that said another.

The River – I’ll not lie, I didn’t watch this one because it looked like it’d be too scary for me.  Perhaps everyone else felt the same.

MTV, You’re My Only Hope

So fans of guilty pleasure The Secret Circle have been springing into action to attempt to save it, or perhaps have another channel pick it up (like MTV, ABC Family, or Ion).  It might be a long shot, but it’s happened before: Roswell was saved not once, but twice, by an outpouring of fan support.  The second time, it was booted from the WB, but picked up by UPN.

Other shows have famously been saved by fans:

Star Trek – This is the one that started it all.  If it weren’t for proto-geeks writing in, one of the biggest sci-fi franchises in TV history – one that has surely influenced the look and function of current technology – wouldn’t exist today.

Chuck – In a novel approach, fans targeted a sponsor, not a network, to get financial support to continue the show – and it worked!  For a few more years, at least.

Arrested Development and Family Guy – Sometimes shows do come back, not due to a tidal wave of support, but a growing swell.  Family Guy was off Fox for years before its popularity on Adult Swim prompted some rethinking; Arrested Development supposedly has a movie in active development… six years later.

A Sigh of Relief

Not all shows of particular interest to geeks were cancelled.  Here are just a few that continue to live on:

Grimm – I said it should get renewed, and luckily it has.  Good thing, too, because this show just keeps getting better.  The season finale is this Friday, and I can’t wait.

Once Upon a Time – An unlikely premise, and it borders on the silly with all of the Disney-specific allusions (the perks of being an ABC show).  Still, it’s brought back to earth with genuinely clever writing and good acting by, well, pretty much everyone.

Game of Thrones and Doctor Who – It’s not really a surprise, but it’s comforting to know they’re out there, continuing to be awesome.

What about you?  What cancellation are you most disappointed about?  Are you going to participate in fan efforts to rescue any shows?  And what are you looking forward to? 

I was involved with a gaming event recently. I don’t want to cause a scene, point fingers, or have people guessing. Suffice to say it was a big game with a lot of players that I was involved with. All of a sudden, we realized that two other people who were involved were gone. We assumed they’d had other obligations, their absence didn’t stop the game from going, and so we played on, oblivious. It wasn’t until later that someone said that they’d left because they were uncomfortable with all of the open gay couples that were also involved.

When I heard that, I felt like I’d been gut-punched. Had I seen some PDAs from the gay couples? Sure, I had. But no more than I’d been seeing from the straight couples. Could this be true? We did some digging, and innocently asked the person who’d invited them if he knew why they’d left? Had they been having a good time? He said he hadn’t spoken to them, but, without us asking if they’d been uncomfortable, their friend mentioned that he thought that one of the people who’d left was homophobic, and he suspected that’s why’d they’d gone.

Hearing such a thing just makes my stomach ache. It gets me mad, sad, and confused at the same time. So since the fallout is fresh in my mind, I thought I’d ruminate over the subject, as painful as it is to me and many others.

First off, the word homophobia is pretty silly. Taken literally from the Greek, it means “fear of the same”. What it has come to mean, of course, is a wide-ranging category of negative attitudes towards homosexuals, lesbians, and so on. A lot of homophobic behavior I’ve seen has been anything but fearful.

A homophobe walking into one of my gaming groups, the LARP I help run, or just about any other local gaming anything in the Boston area is likely in for a shock. My normal gaming groups include homosexuals, bisexuals, lesbians, crossdressers, transgender individuals, and so on. Gaming, in our area, at least, seems to draw a tremendously diverse crowd. Which is probably why this incident came as such a surprise. My brain wonders how anyone with any experience in the local gaming community can have missed this fact so completely.

The worst I can remember encountering to date has been a sort of “I’d rather not talk about your social life” vibe, which I’ve never had an issue with. When I sit down to play a game, I’m there to play the game. I’m not interested in discussing my sexuality or my players’ sexual orientations. I’m more interested in discussing whether or not Kidalis Havengard’s cousin has indeed turned to the cult of the Elder Elemental Eye, whether Tilly Thistleshanks is ready to take on the massive fey crocodile that ate his father, or if Al’lan Malkier can have Olaf Feyskorn hold his sword, then swing Olaf around by his ankles in order to have reach. (That last one’s still a no, by the way, Jacob.)

I know some of the people I game with, both LARPing and tabletopping, are more conservative than I am. Heck, one of my best friends at The Isles has had a “NObama” sticker on his car since before the 2008 election and considers himself a Fundamentalist Christian. I don’t care about that. I care that he’s personally a really nice guy, and that he’s a good roleplayer with a lot of great plot ideas. He knows I’m gay and married, he knows my husband, and we all get along just fine. That’s the kind of benign “You live your life, and I’ll live mine” sort of attitude I’ve become used to from the gaming community.

Speaking only for myself, romance, no matter what flavor, makes me smile. If I see a couple kissing, whether they’re two men, two women, or a man and a woman, I smile and look away, politely. I’ve seen all of those permutations take it too far, of course, and I’ve either left, or, if it seemed appropriate, asked them politely to perhaps continue once they have a room.

I want to give the people who left the benefit of the doubt. Maybe one of the gay couples was taking things too far, and they didn’t feel comfortable. Maybe rather than cause a scene, they took themselves out of the picture. But part of me worries that they simply left because they didn’t want to be around “those kinds of people.” And that makes me wonder if there are others at our games who are feigning a benevolence they don’t feel. If they are, they’re doing a damned good job of it. Most of the people I roleplay with – LARP, tabletop, online, etc – are like family to me. A whacked-out, dysfunctional family at times, but family none the less.

If there’s a hidden discontent, I’m not sure what I’d hope for. Would I hope they’d just quietly remove themselves like the folks did that I’ve mentioned? Not at all. I’d want them to tell me, to open a dialogue, to see if there’s some substance to what concerns them and not just some cultural or religious reflex kicking in. After all, good old HPL said that the most powerful kind of fear is the fear of the unknown. He may have been talking about cosmic, tentacled horrors rather than sexual orientation, but the fact is that we tend to be afraid of what we don’t understand. Maybe if there were more open, friendly conversations with a real intention to bridge understanding between people, we could put the ghost of homophobia to rest for good.

Maybe.

How did you get into RPG editing? 

I got into editing games on somewhat of a lark. I’ve playtested games before and didn’t realize that my attention to the details of the text (not the mechanics but the words around the mechanics) qualified as editing. I just thought that was what a playtester did and thought nothing more about it. I then continued to keep my game playing separate from my job (which at this particular point was teaching writing workshops and taking on private clients who wanted to write books), but that all changed last November at Double Exposure’s Metatopia Convention in Morristown (only a few minutes and a few traffic lights from my house). I figured it was at least a chance to meet the people whose games I played and enjoyed, as well as give a midnight writing workshop for those interested. Once I arrived and started attending panels, I started giving my opinion and sharing my ideas (which is not an uncommon occurrence once you know me), and that led to several game designers asking me if I was available to work with them on upcoming projects, as well as an interview on the Jennisodes podcast. From that interview, everything has just sort of ballooned, bloomed and blossomed into how things are today – my business has grown into more game-related work than novels (though I’m finding a hybrid with editing fiction lines for games), and I’m enjoying it loads more.

Most RPGs have a geographically diverse staff. How do you build a rapport with your authors and fellow team members who are located elsewhere?

That rapport is critical and for me starts as soon as possible, usually by contacting the authors or whoever is my liaison/bridge to the project and getting into a conversational tone with them. With a more ‘we’re-all-in-this-together-we-all-want-to-do-a-great-job‘ vibe established, it doesn’t matter if the whole staff is half a world away because whenever we come together (through chats or emails or even notes left in Dropboxes), that vibe is strong and clear.  The other advantage to this attitude is moving the ego-jockeying to one side and bringing people together not because they’re just famous names but because they’re good at what they do and we all want the work to succeed.

You’ve worked on a variety of RPGs, some of which have been licensed properties. What unique editing needs have you encountered with licensed games?

While I cannot speak for the other editors I’ve been so fortunate to work with, I can say that for me, the biggest concern is respecting the canon of the source material through the license, rather than taking advantage of it. It is such a privilege to have access to someone’s hard work for the purposes of playing a game with it that I think so many people overlook that fact because they just want to handle their own ‘do-over’ to patch disagreements they had when they first encountered that source material (they thought Character X should have / didn’t need to die, they wanted Characters A and B to get together, they thought a certain plot arc was utter rubbish and want to ‘fix’ it, etc).

But it’s not their job to “fix” it, it’s their job to enjoy it. A licensed game especially has to translate from whatever medium it originated in to whatever marriage of mechanics and development the game incorporates while not radically altering the original material (you cannot suddenly have a flying character not fly because the mechanics don’t permit flight) – because you run the risk of doing a disservice to the license (which makes both the game and the original material look bad) but also alienating your audience (they come to the product with certain expectations and if you’re not meeting them as a product, you WILL hear about it).

Editorially, (again this is my perspective) if I can find the tone and emotion behind the ideas in the source material, I can make sure they’re present in the game material. If a certain property is known to be gritty but have a wise-cracking charm, that has to be present in the text, and that means I often have to read or re-read that text to work out the word choices and the sentence construction along with the chronology and setting (because a licensed property can’t contradict the source). This stems from the idea that the licensed game is an extension of the material, exposing a new audience to the material through a vehicle they understand (rolling dice, character sheets, etc) rather than a “take” or spin on existing material.

What’s working with the rest of the Damage Control team for the Marvel RPG been like?

Far and away the Damage Control team is a wonderful group of incredibly hard-working editors and developers who amaze me with the tremendous amounts of work they do (so much more than many people realize), and who deserve all the credit and praise they’re getting, plus an extra heap more. I have worked with a lot of other people on a lot of projects, and repeatedly I find myself mirroring Damage Control’s organization in other projects – it’s been a profoundly transformative experience. It’s an invaluable asset to me to know that if I have a problem, I can very quickly go to another person, state the issue and we work together to find a solution. It can be so discouraging to ask questions to unresponsive people, and that is not the case with Damage Control.

It’s also the most supportive group of people I’ve ever met, even outside the Marvel RPG work. If I say I’m also doing this or that project, or that I’ve written something for the blog, other people care and do their best to read or comment or share it with others – it leads to a feeling of not being overlooked, undervalued or ignored, which unfortunately can happen when, as an editor, you take on projects and discover that the author may not like you changing their words or that a certain project has quite a few problems bubble up to the surface as you get deeper into it and deadlines loom.

If I may take a moment, I want to single out two people, Amanda Valentine and Cam Banks, without whom I would not be so lucky as to be a part of such a great project and be able to contribute whatever I can to material I believe so strongly in. I owe so much of my recent successes and happiness to their assistance and friendship and am so thankful for their belief in me to do the work I do.

But then the TV show hits the air and there are storylines where the main guy – who’s on an NBA team, mind you – is learning how to shoot a three-pointer.  And half the season is spent focusing on the guy’s girlfriend, who works in a health clinic and deals with inner-city kids – not kids who want to play basketball or anything, just standard After-School Special fare.  Hardly any of it has to do with the aspects of the sport you love.  But you keep watching, just to see the athletes you adore, and for those rare glimpses of the world that made you tune in in the first place.

Yep, that’s pretty much what’s happening with musical theatre geeks and Smash, a show that manages to be amazing and terrible all at the same time.  In Smash, we witness a musical being developed, from the general concept, to writing the songs and script, to taking it through workshops and previews, hopefully to someday land on Broadway.  Two women, relative unknowns but both talented, struggle to take the lead role.

A Gem of a Concept

In theory, the show has everything going for it – fun songs, life behind-the-scenes, the excitement and drama inherent in, well, the world of drama.  And the talent!  The cast contains actual Broadway professionals who do not fall into the cliche of over-acting for TV, and who essentially light the screen on fire with their singing and dancing.  Some known pros either haven’t been featured yet or aren’t in singing roles, but the fact that literally just about anyone on the show could break into song and have the chops to carry it off is pretty fun.  They even brought in Bernadette Peters, musical theatre legend, for a small role.

And if you’re not straight from Broadway, chances are you’re still pretty amazing.  Anjelica Huston, seemingly beloved no matter what geek flavor, as the musical’s producer!  Uma Thurman in the role of the Big Star Film Actress Who Isn’t Really Suited For Theater!   Heck, even Steven Spielberg was listed as an Executive Producer of the TV show. With such talent, how could this show go wrong?

The Rough in the Diamond

Evidently, in the writing.  The show is so completely uneven it’s laughable.  The problems begin with one of the main concepts: the two women vying for the leading role (playing Marilyn Monroe, no pressure there) aren’t really equally talented.  Katharine McPhee, an American Idol favorite, is well-suited for pop music, but she simply doesn’t have the range or depth of Megan Hilty, who starred in Wicked and 9 to 5.  The writers seemingly attempt to compensate by adding scenes where McPhee’s character, Karen, performs for random crowds and is fawned over by everyone under the sun – but all they accomplish is creating an increasingly unlikeable Mary Sue.

Not that McPhee’s the only one dealing with poor writing – pretty much every character on the show is now unlikeable.  The humanity that the actors bring in their performances is constantly undermined by mustache-twirling acts of evil and stupidity.

But what really gets under the skin of musical theatre geeks – or just regular geeks like me with knowledge of the performance world – is the dumbing-down.  No, just the dumb.  It’s perfectly understandable if a TV show wants to clue in the audience to some theater term like “upstage.”  However, when the main character who moved across the country to make it on Broadway doesn’t know a Drama 101 term?  That’s just bad writing.  There’s a non-pro character who could easily serve as an audience proxy… if he wasn’t busy twirling his cape and scheming his way up the ladder because That’s Showbiz!  Ooh!

Polishing Required

As much as I scream at my screen every time I watch Smash, the potential is just so there I can’t give up on it.  I’ve heard there’s a little reorganizing and overhauling going on behind the scenes, as well there should be.  I’m hoping the creative team sits down and analyzes what works and what doesn’t, and adjusts accordingly.  Luckily, geeks aren’t known for keeping quiet about their passions, and it shouldn’t be difficult to figure out what audiences love and hate.

If only one thing is changed, I hope it’s that there’s more focus on theater and less on ridiculous soap opera elements.  Because, though mainstream audiences are certainly drawn in by Kat McPhee and the star-studded cast, the people who really make up the passionate fanbase will be the geeks.  Why water it down?

Luckily, they’ve got the most difficult aspect of a show about musical theatre covered: the talent.  The music, the choreography, and the performances are almost always stellar.  Here’s hoping they take a clue from their own script, and know that with a show in progress, it’s always possible to rework it into something better.

What about you?  Have you watched Smash?  Love it or hate it?  And what other geekery would you like to see explored on the small (or large) screen? 

I haven’t seen The Avengers yet. I know. I have failed all of you, and I will attempt to atone for it by saying two Iron Mans and a Hail Thor.

In the meantime, before ANYONE SPOILS ME FOR AVENGERS (and I swear the first person to squeak ‘Snape kills Dumbledore!’ gets Mjolnir upside the head), let’s talk about superhero team-ups and crossovers. The Avengers, since their inception, has always been a melange of existing heroes and the occasional new recruit – it’s the way most superhero teams work, with the exception of the Fantastic Four and about half the X-Men. It’s gleefully mashing your action figures together and seeing what happens. Sometimes magic happens. Sometimes “Archie Meets Punisher” happens.

Let’s watch.

Deadpool Team-Up

Deadpool is the Somebody That I Used To Know of Marvel Comics lately – he’s everywhere, and everyone is remixing him. Among his host of titles is Deadpool Team-Up, which was a recently-ended eighteen-issue series of one-shot stories where Deadpool, shockingly, teams up with different heroes and villains of the Marvel universe, from little-known baddies like the Zapata brothers, to heavyweights like Thor. Like most Deadpool stories, Team-Up is pure ridiculous crack.

Star Trek vs. Marvel

This title is a little vague, because there is not one (Star Trek/X-Men, 1996), not two (Second Contact, 1997), but three (Planet X, 1998) world-melding forays into the fanfiction-rich territory of a brave new world where Spock punches out Wolverine and doesn’t die, and Picard is totally tapping Storm.

I would write more about this, but I have to go pay some people way too much money to get my hands on these.

Avengers vs. X-Men

These kind of battles happen all the time, as the writers at Marvel throw all their action figures up in the air and figure out who lands where. In fact, I’m pretty sure the Avengers have faced off against the X-Men before, both teams having a roster that changes faster than Cher at a retirement tour concert. But this series just started a couple months ago! And, in true mind-bending Marvel plotting fashion, it ties in the dangling plots from House of M, Seige, Secret Invasion, and probably a few other recent plot arcs I’ve forgotten. The Avengers proper having been disbanded, the titular Avengers are the Luke Cage-led New Avengers and the Hawkeye-helmed Secret Avengers.

Like Civil War, this is a surprisingly well-balanced conflict. Both sides have fairly equally valid points for their wildly differing ideologies. I’m looking forward to seeing how it highlights the military vs. intellectual conflict in the groups’ mission statements.

Ultimate Meets Amazing

Okay. This one hasn’t happened yet. But I am so excited for it. The Spider-Man storyline that is supposed to be starting in June will mark the very first crossover between the Ultimate universe and the “regular” Marvel universe, known as Earth-616 to the extremely nerdy. The “Ultimate” nomenclature isn’t just yet another synonym for Amazing and Astounding, it indicates stories that take place in an alternate version of Earth where Nick Fury is black and played by Samuel L. Jackson. But the new Avengers movies all take place in something similar to Earth-616, not the Ultimate universe (in which Bruce Banner is played by Steve Buscemi).

ULTIMATE SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH

Anyway. Ultimate Peter Parker joined Ultimate Uncle Ben in Ultimate Heaven, and the mask was donned by the half-black, half-Hispanic, Donald-Glover-inspired Miles Morales. New Black Spider-Man (I sense a seventies blacksploitation film about to happen . . .) somehow will fold over into Earth-616 and go webslinging with the no longer dearly-departed Peter Parker – thus forcing him to deal with his own guilt over Peter’s death, and having the hots for his girlfriend/widow.

Ungh. The drama. It feeds me.

What magical pairings have you discovered? Which still lurk in your secret fanfiction-writing hearts?

But when the iPad came out, I eyed it with more interest. I liked its larger size. Sure, I couldn’t put it in my pocket, but I could type on it with relative ease, and a Bluetooth keyboard would make it even easier. What finally decided me was the idea that I could leave my Mini-Laptop, Kindle, and iPod at home and just take a single unit with me when I traveled. I become an early adopter.

Not surprisingly, being the RPG obsessed loony I am, before long, I started looking at ways to use my iPad to run games of D&D. As time has gone on, this process has evolved. As I was pondering this week’s article (and making notes about it on my iPad), I thought I might share some of the techniques I’ve come to use that make this sleek lil unit a DM’s best friend.

Caveat

To begin with, I don’t mean this to be an advertisement for the iPad, or to start some sort of weird Apple vs. PC vs. Android war, or anything. I’m sure many of the things I mention in this article are available across multiple platforms. I mean this article to be more about getting you to think of how a mobile device can be used to enhance your DMing skills; I’m not looking for any kooky flame wars.

Made for Gaming

Sadly, Wizards of the Coast isn’t currently offering their books for sale in a PDF format, but many RPG companies are. And even if I don’t have a DM’s guide on my iPad, I can still download a module in PDF format from Dungeon Magazine and have it handy.

While there are many programs available for viewing PDFs, I’ve come to like one called Dicebook. In addition to storing books, it has a built in dice-roller that you can customize. While I generally prefer rolling dice, sometimes I want to roll one without the PCs knowing, and a silent die-roll is very helpful. This flexibility makes it ideal for my purposes.

I initially thought I’d use the iPad to access features of DDI, but this proved to be somewhat difficult at times. Of far more use at this point is a program called Compendium. This useful little app doesn’t function without a DDI subscription, but it turns that DDI subscription into a mobile app for looking up anything that WotC has put into the DDI Compendium. I can look up monster stats, trap details, skills, powers, feats, and more.

With a minimal fee, you can get the version of the app without ads. This version also has a more powerful search engine, allowing you to search for items by rarity, monsters by level, and so on, just like the actual DDI Compendium tool.

The Remote Control for my iTunes

Okay, so two programs specifically made for RPGs isn’t exactly a stunning revelation. But there are other programs that can enhance your gaming experience that have nothing to do with gaming per se.

One of my favorite little apps is a program called Remote. This program lets me hook into my iTunes wirelessly, controlling volume, starting and ending songs, and so forth.

As I’ve mentioned in earlier articles, I have organized tons of music in my iTunes into different musical themes, and I use these to evoke specific moods. I have my Battle playlist, my Creeping Through the Dungeon playlist, my Sorrow playlist, my Wonder playlist, etc. Before my iPad, I had to roll my office chair over to the computer and change the music when I wanted to alter the game’s mood. This wasn’t a problem, but my players would kind of chuckle when I did it. “Uh-oh…I think the mood’s about to change.”

Now, however, I can make these changes from behind the comfort of my DM’s screen. I can slowly fade out the Adventure music I lay when the heroes are riding across the countryside, then cut in with building, ominous music from my Impending Doom soundtrack, and the players will realize that things are going wrong. I can also cut across the music with a specific sound effect to startle them. And they never see it coming. Hehehe.

Organized Notes

I’ve seen a lot of great feedback for DMs about how to organize notes and keep track of details. I’ve seen amazing flowchart programs, and I’ve envied the DMs who can think in three dimensions like that. For me, a well-organized notebook has always been the most useful tool, and I wanted a program that would operate like that for me. I came across Notebooks as I was looking through various word processing apps, and I’ve never looked back. This simple program lets you create different books and store various documents in each book.

I’ve been making “one-sheets” for my campaigns for years, but I used to print them out each game, which was very wasteful. Now I keep them electronically. I store older ones in a notebook called “Past Game Sessions”, organized by date, which lets me go back and check details. When I’m making a new one, I can cut and paste material I didn’t use in the past game for use in the next game.

I also keep a notebook called Brainstorming, where I store all the little jotted notes about thoughts for future games. When I’m preparing games, I go back and look through these for past ideas I’ve had, cutting and pasting material I intend to use in the upcoming game session. This program, more than any other, stays on during game nights.

I sometimes use a sound recording program between sessions to “jot down” thoughts for games. If I’m busy and don’t want to do a bunch of typing, this is a real godsend, as it lets me make a recording of what’s on my mind. I’ve gotten some odd looks on the subway as I make notes like, “Dungeon concept: The Well at the Bottom of the World.”

Showing Off the Visuals

If I know there are pictures I want to show my players, I will sometimes copy them onto my iPod. At the appropriate time, I will pull up the picture, lift up my iPad, and show the players.

Since my housemate and I both have iPads, it opens up some possibilities. There are apps like Dropbox which allow you to share pictures between different iPads. We’re pondering on a system where I can move pictures into the Dropbox so that he’ll have them on his iPad, and he can then pass his iPad around.

I’ve also pondered on a game if everyone had a mobile device. Imagine having everyone on some kind of chatting program (Skype maybe) where you could notice that the Rogue’s Perception was high enough to notice a trap, cut and paste a pre-prepared message about it into his private chat box, and send it. Then the Rogue’s player, seeing the message, says “Hold on, guys…I’m feeling there’s a trip here.” It would add just a tiny hint of coolness to the game. But my group isn’t geeking out quite this hard yet. Give it time.

Your Turn

Do you love or hate electronic devices at the gaming table? Are there any specific ways you’ve come to use an iPad or similar in order to run or play a game? This is a very DM-skewed article, but I know one of my players swears by a program called i4E to use instead of a printed character sheet. Do you use something different? Let us all know.

Fiasco

2009. Bully Pulpit Games. Author: Jason Morningstar. Editor: Steve Segedy.

Truer words were never spoken.  Fiasco is not a campaign game—though I suppose if you’re crazy and/or inventive enough for sequel games, more power to you—it’s a bloody adrenaline soaked cinematic roller-coaster you play in a single session.  I find the rules are always simple to explain if using the play map, and anyone who grew up watching movies can follow the narrative beat, including the full-throttle oh-shit moment of the Tilt, and the fast downhill trip to the Aftermath. There’s a bevy of playsets at the Bully Pulpit site for whiling away a night with your friends, dreaming big, losing hard, and leaving a bloody smear on the cutting room floor.

The Fiasco Companion

2011. Bully Pulpit Games. Authors: Jason Morningstar and Steve Segedy. Editors: Steve Segedy and Amanda Valentine.

The Fiasco Companion is geared towards making your Fiasco games better—advice on writing Playsets, hacking rules, playing with new Tilt and Aftermath tables, and four new Playsets to tool around with. With a foreword from Wil Wheaton and the encapsulated advice of some of the best storytellers you’ll run across, the Fiasco companion sits right next to Fiasco on my shelf. I bought it to add to my Fiasco experience, I kept it because it confirmed what I’d felt the first time I played Fiasco—it’s a game, sure, but it’s also one of the best lessons on pacing and improv most of us will ever get outside of a conservatory.

Technoir

2011. Cellar Games. Author: Jeremy Keller. Editor: Will Hindmarch.

Being a character in Technoir strikes me a lot like being poor, overworked, and stuck in a job you probably hate. It feels light on noir aesthetic but a good turnout for the moral crapstorm present in the genre of people doing very bad things for revenge, personal profit, or the girl. If you simultaneously sex up our world with more neon and slick flash, while bringing your A Game of corruption and technology, the world we know now could be a little taste of Technoir’s world to come. The big draw for me is Technoir’s rules, and the GM approach. The push dice, descriptive nature of stats, and a focus on giving characters an honest-to-Betsy story, not just a tech-draped dungeon crawl, appeals to me greatly. Technoir’s been a hard read for me in terms of grasping all the rules, but the promise shown by the rules is keeping me going.

Shelter in Place

2011. Galileo Games. Authors: J.R. Blackwell, David A Hill Jr., Filamena Young. Editor: Brennan Taylor.

If you’re unfamiliar with one of the most classic terms in disaster response, to shelter in place is the directive for individuals in an affected area (pandemic, disaster, zombie outbreak) to confine themselves to an area, seal off the HVAC, and try to wait whatever problem is on the other side of the door.

Shelter in Place is a cinematic game that expands on the concept in a deeply disturbing and visceral way. The Director (GM) helps coordinate the game, which at its basest of points is a story of survival. Just like any good horror movie, the humans only hope for survival is managing the resources they have, and depending on each other in a world where everything has gone to Hell. The rules are clear for me even on a first read, which makes Shelter in Place an unusual gem for me. As someone who has taken disaster response exercise design (read: drills and game writing) Shelter in Place should be on the list for disaster-response teams to play.

As for a more usual consumer of games? You might want to go to the park this weekend and play Frisbee.

Or you could bring a few extra friends, and see who would survive the zombie outbreak instead.

Have any RPG books you want to recommend as summer reading? Have a new—or old—game you’re reading or reading over again?  I’d love to hear about them! Leave me a comment or find me on Twitter.