The Best Of … 2016

2019 hasn’t been all bad, but it has not been a particularly good year.  2016, on the other hand, wasn’t all good but was one of my favorite years with my brother’s wedding and seeing an old friend for the first time in a long time.

Blogwise, 2016 was clearly better.  L5R 4e was much more relevant back then, and I was still producing analysis of it that might have been useful to people.  I played far more V:TES back then.  Historically, two of my largest audiences have been people looking for L5R RPG and V:TES content.

January

My first post of 2016 was a V:TES tournament report.  But, it’s the other post of January … also V:TES … that was probably more interesting just from a history of V:TES standpoint.

InQuest-ionable

LSJ and I didn’t converse a lot.  An actual conversation wouldn’t have likely been as coherent as this.  Ah, InQuest – not the best thing ever, but it suited my tastes quite a bit.

February

Draw, Lose, Win

I have a propensity towards redundancy in thought, it’s part of the issue with not having more things to respond to and staying within the familiar grounds of what I play or think about playing.

What stands out about this post is that I dig a bit deeper into why different CCGs appeal to me more than others in a way that may have some relevance to others.

Cardflopping Like It’s 1999 isn’t terribly interesting, but it reminds me that I need to pull out the Wheel of Time Aes Sedai playtest slips of paper I hope I still have and write about WoT like it’s the 20th Century.

March

Fisticuffs – Abysmal Li

Why play CCGs?  Because:  Mess with the red and you end up shed.

The Ceaseless Struggle

It’s just the nature of the times to talk about how to change V:TES.  Note the amazingly awesomest variant format proposals I make.

The Story of O … -tomo Junhime and Usagi Kidai

Who says romance is dead?  Oh, wait, this campaign ended a long time ago.  On the other hand, I still think about these characters.

Why play RPGs?  Because:  Junhime gets some assistance from Kidai on murdering geese, she bags two.

Your Better Third

The previous is worthy because it provides an example of something.  Here is a bit more in depth on the theory.

May

Well Suit-ed

Why play mahjong?  Because:  You like games somewhere between bridge and Eurogames.

Shanghai Salon

Travel and play games.  With pictures!

Favorite VTES Sets

I say something nice!

Despised VTES Sets

I rant!

Hot Hawk

How many people explain how to build/advance L5R 4e characters with numbers?  This guy.

Deck Stats 2, The Stattier

This is a perfect example of the benefits of having a blog.  I can self indulgentize while being more entertaining than one can possibly imagine.

KublaCon 2016

Why was I so postriffic in May of 2016?  Because of lack in April, I’m sure.

Back when I did stuff at local cons.  Finally, champion of the fifth largest economy in the world in Modern play.

June

Introducing L5R

So, you want to run L5R 4e for people unfamiliar with L5R?  Well, this will give a little idea what it’s like.

July

Shadowfist Draft Decks

What is Shadowfist drafting like?  Maybe something like this.  So much data.

Name “That” Game

Who doesn’t love Nezumi?  Who doesn’t love Naga?  Who doesn’t love the Fearsome Biter Tribe?

VCG Salute

Alternatively, can people stop complaining about the VCG model?  If you don’t like random packs, go to eBay or buy off of other players.  It’s really not that hard.

August

Gen Con 2016

What happens when there isn’t any HoR to play at Gen Con?  Here’s an example of what I do.

September

Dungeon Lies

Something I get frustrated by is how forumites will speak for players that they don’t seem to understand.  The casual player has no idea what’s going on with the economy to make any sort of decisions about ultrarares, transmuting, etc.

October

The Draw

Very similar in philosophy to Draw, Lose, Win.  Why bother calling this out?  Because I’m being positive – that’s so rare.

True Dungeon – Ultrarares 2016

Images!  Gaming analysis by someone only learning what’s what!

December

Sing Or Singe

This time of year tends to produce more personal posts.  Also posts that are nostalgic or look forward.  Weird seasonal feature.  This post is long, therefore it has to be good.

As an update, Harry is building new schools in Somaliland.  If you want to help, let me know.

There was a lot going on in 2016, for me.  Gaming and nongaming.  It wasn’t just writing about games people are interested in.  It was a good year for writing, even if a lot of things weren’t as original as when I originally said them.  I definitely miss certain things from 2016.

Let’s hope 2020 is better than 2019.  Wouldn’t be bad to play more L5R 4e and VTES, either.

 

Kickboxing Day

I’m not sure it would fall under my perfect Christmas.  My perfect Christmas might involve a navy of nymphai.  But, what I usually think of as a desirable, yet plausible, Christmas is to have nothing I need to do where I get up and go shoot some hoops at the park, wash up, put comfy clothes on, and amuse myself with fiction or game things while decent NBA is on in the background, with someone else handling food generation.

I had stuff to do in the morning.  Too tired to clean up Tuesday, hid some stuff upstairs and vacuumed a bit.  Dealt with some recycling.  Then, didn’t have a whole lot to do though one of my friends was interested in trying to get together after his family did tree stuff.

Having floor space for a change, I did one of my preferred things to do for a while – I sat on a vast ocean of carpet.  Now, simply sitting upon carpet doesn’t really achieve a whole lot.  So, the much more preferred element of being surrounded by cards was achieved in the vast and unfathomable reaches of the carpet.

Shadowfist cards.

See, I may enjoy playing V:TES as much as, possibly even more than, Shadowfist.  And, I may have some Traveller work I need to do.  And, I may find fondling Ultimate Combat! cards or Magic cards a worthy enterprise, and I may someday decide to break out B5 or WoT cards and fondle them.

But, my preference for deckbuilding these days and in many recent days is Shadowfist.  I wanted a pleasant activity that I didn’t have to take too seriously.

Now, much of my fondling involved deck destruction rather than deck construction, but I got my assembling on, as well.  At first, it was fairly easy to be inspired and to start yanking and sleeving.

Over time, prior to and after my making a far inferior beef stew to the last Christmas stew I made, I felt a bit of a chore to force together components into geniusness.  In particular, my massive pile of Modern Lotus cards was a discouragement to bringing peace, joy, and undead recursion to the world.

And, so, we get to Kickboxing Day, when no play is planned and there’s still a nigh infinite amount of open carpet terrain in which to sit surrounded by cards.

I got to thinking about what inspires and uninspires with Shadowfist deckmaking.

I actually build a fair number of Modern decks, as it provides limitations.  Unfortunately, the Lotus limitations lack edibility.  There are so many individual cards I prefer in Lotus, yet there’s a sameness I feel to what I do that requires more Hopping Vampires to get away from.

Other factions have the “great cards, terrible faction” problem pour moi.  Dragon, Monarchs, Purists.

Jammers have so few cards to work with, so it’s a struggle to jamm.  Ascended have so much crap, with such griefy mechanics or … or … something about their characters just tends to rub me the antiway.

My play group considers me a Hand player.  I thought that was kind of odd, seeing as I’m more attracted to Architects cards and Lotus cards.  But, I think Hand has the oppositeyness of having less desirable individual cards but being factionally pleasant.  I may not do monks/ronin/peasants in L5R, but I can monk or peasant in ‘fist.  Ronin are still disgusting.  It is hard to get away from superleap, though, given how prevalent it is.

7 Masters is interesting in that I no longer really have any interest besides casual Kunlun Clan Assault play.  My favorite 7 Masters card fooled me hard.  It took me forever to realize it has to go on my personal banned list for invoking the hated creatures that are so prevalent among the Jammers.

Syndicate once interested me, but playing them felt so miserable.  Well, Zero-G Sumo was okay.  But, I thought I had a cool take, and it only ever worked in draft.  So much uncool about Platinum Upgraded Little Dragon Catching Bullets.

I just keep finding Architects cards I want to use.  Perfect example of how RPG and CCG interests do not necessarily have anything to do with each other, as I can’t find anything remotely interesting about Architects in the RPG besides hanging with Neighbor Omega.

More than factions, I often gravitate towards non-faction resources as the basis for decks.  I love me some Bonebow Army, a combination of the art, the cost, still being something of a Melnibone fan.  Some of my Dragon decks are really just in need of sleaze like Netherworld Trickster to power Manufactured Island openings or to Dirigible.  Even chi gets some action, sometimes supported by Ascended rather than better factions.

My current kick is multifaction.  When I play, I consider things I see and think about how to steal ideas and multifaction them.  Dockyard, sweet Dockyard to make them viable.

So, relaxation, something dearthy these days for dis dude.  Just going through cards, conceiving brillianceosity at every xat.

I really need to run more removal and/or evasion.  That’s starting to feel V:TES level choreishness.  But, there are plenty of cards I don’t run that often or at all that fit into either of those because the beauty of ‘fisting is that I don’t give a crap about meeting a minimum threshold of viability or about prepping for the North American Championship/Worlds.

I can figure out how to build the coolest [sic] Ice Tiger deck.  So chill.

Well, I should get back to the carpet.  Bring the Classic boxes down for more sorting and shaping.

Raze Of Skywalker

Not clever enough?

So, I may be colored by how much people I hang with pan the first two movies in the trilogy, but, wow, that was a bad trilogy.  Like some of the weak extended universe stuff, only less coherent.

I’ll spoil things to some degree below.

Bad acting.

Bad dialogue.

Bad plot.

Bad editing.

Bad sound.

Superfluous characters.

Even the scenery didn’t pop that much as so many things looked similar.

Let’s get into gaming before continuing to review this quite mediocre movie.

What I came away with that I can shoehorn into a gaming post is that there were no stakes in these movies.  Either what they did didn’t matter or it mattered to them but not to me because bad stuff happened to characters I didn’t care about or didn’t care that the bad stuff happened to.

That Ford wanted Han deadified made any stakes for his impalement meaningless.  And, yet, Force Awakens felt like it had the most importance because it hadn’t yet driven the story into some incoherent mess, even if it did start out as something of an incoherent mess with no idea why the First Order or the Resistance existed.

Stakes.

One of the things I find frustrating about GMing is that I try to set up scenes with dramatic stakes, but the players don’t feel it.  I’ve done better letting the players themselves get into situations where they feel the stakes from their own actions.  It’s almost like trying to script anything is a bad idea.  Well, a bad idea when my players don’t feel the script.  Lot of convention games will have a script and the players buy into it.

Actually, I was just having this conversation.  Convention games tend to run better because the players have often already bought into the type of game that’s being run.  If I’m playing Buffy, I expect there’s a big bad at the end who may need some ritual spell to be taken out.  Campaign play has a tendency to just meander.

Personal survival can be high stakes, but only if you actually care about your character and about what threatens its survival.  I’ve played campaigns where I couldn’t care less what happened to my characters as they were just a set of numbers.

Mental struggles don’t strike me as something that common to happen with PCs.  Sure, Ty had mental struggles after he got trollicized, but that was in a seven year campaign, plus there were other reasons to get inside the character’s head, plus Conan is darker and closer to sanity jarring events.

Fame and fortune don’t strike me as stakes that matter a lot.  Fortune because you either retire once you have it or it never mattered to begin with.  Fame because it’s too relative.  There aren’t rivals to benchmark against in hardly any of my play.

Causes – nope.  If you are part of a cause, how can the cause die without the campaign ending?

Power.  Far more than money as a motivator in RPGs, power is something where stakes exist constantly.  Magic items.  External stat bumps.  Gauss rifle replacing AC/20.  Followers.  Going to a better generation.

Now, internal power increases – gaining XP, spending XP – are not as much at stake.  Sure, some GMs will vary XP more, which is often exceedingly annoying, but it’s usually not an issue.  Except for dying causing loss of XP.

Family and friends/”friends”.  These are the stakes I’m most interested in.  Locations are really about the abstraction of friends.  Or, power for those locations where you get to bathe away your disads, or whatever.

It’s not like stakes have to be set right away.  With Conan, the norm was survival first, then make friends to aid their survival.  I imagine a space game could first focus on welfare of the ship before moving on to welfare of various planets/moons.

So, time to be more spoilery.

There were many characters that didn’t need to be in RoS.  Finn served no purpose, for instance.  I was fine with Finn in FA.  He and Rey played well together when the others weren’t around.  Then, the movies split them up or saddled them with chaperones.

BB8, R2, alien Force woman, all of the First Order commanders, Lando, Chewy.  If anything, Lando had more of a purpose being around than Chewy did.  What did Chewy do in the original movies?  Loyal muscle.  Muscle to rally around in a fight.  What did he do in these movies?  I don’t much recall.  What did he do in this movie?  Provide a zero stakes motivator?

While the elements were sort of there to hit dramatic notes, they fizzled.  Time after time, I was like “That should have been a bigger deal.”  Leia’s ending made no sense.  I’m sure Carrie not being around limited what they felt they could do, but there was no setup to have any sort of payoff.  Still makes no sense.  Rey, at least, gave an argument for why Ben should change.  Sounds like Finn was never going to win, but, wow was that a painfully unsatisfying ending.

So much predictability.  I think that’s the thing about the originals – we didn’t know what to expect.  Return of the Jedi just keeps looking better and better in comparison to these other efforts, as it did what it needed to do and had some good stuff as well as the cheesy stuff.

As I’ve said, kind of recently, I think Star Wars is more about marketing nostalgia than being something someone wants to be a part of anymore.  I, now, can see just not caring about any other efforts.  It has so much baggage, now.  The EU did far more coherent stuff with Palpatine to where Palpatine was reasonable (if tired) as a presence.  The EU didn’t immediately make a villain out of the last Skywalker to where you didn’t really care what big nose was doing.

Everything was so rushed in dramatic places and so pointlessly labored in trivial places.  The fights were boring because you knew the results or, in the case of blasters, pew pew ad nauseam.

Deus ex machina a little?  I mean, I don’t necessarily mind some godly interference, but it just felt pedestrian here.

The ending.  Just wow.  Dancing with Ewoks so much better.

Consider how much better the “not that tower” moment would have been done in other SW movies.  Stuff just happened without … again … setup and payoff.

The whole trilogy was that way.  The First Order was never set up.  The Resistance was never set up.  Leia being in charge of the Resistance not, Han off on his own not, Luke hermiting not, Snoke not, Ben not.  Finn got an origin story.  Rey had an origin, if not much of a story.  They carried FA.  Then, stuff happened for reasons that made no sense and in which you didn’t really care about.  How do you payoff when you don’t even realize there’s a payoff happening until you stop to think about it or you could see it coming from a parsec away?

Yes, we understand why this trilogy was a mess – lack of coherent vision to begin with.  What’s sad is that someone couldn’t perceive how little reward one gets from what happens in the end.  Well, that, and why we need supposedly scary First Order commanders to act like children.

Too many close-ups.  This seems to be a thing that movies can’t get away from.  I don’t need to have someone’s face right in front of me.  Well, maybe Gal Gadot’s face.  But, I don’t need to see people’s pores.  I don’t need to see the dirt or the scars.  It’s a symptom of over focus on character examination.  Focus on adventure.  Sure, there are tons of gratuitous action scenes, but how adventurous are they?  It just feels like going through the motions so much of the time on these quests.

Kylo was pitiful, in part because Kylo barely existed.  So much Rey’s bad boy and not someone who existed on his own.  Finn had a lot of that, too, being princeless charming rather than someone who had his own identity.  Poe was always rather annoying.

I’ll just have to fanfic Finn finally saying to Rey “Honey, your calves aren’t all that where you need to show them off all of the time.”

Just amazing how good the originals were that everything since (moviewise, anyway) has been pale in comparison.

The actors’ efforts did come across as earnest.  Just not hugely believable.  The quipping lacked gravitas.  So many relationships felt forced.  Why did anyone care about Leia that much?  Why did Rey care about Chewy that much?  Who cares about BB8?

I can imagine that a novelization of this trilogy could be so much better.  First, give some back story.  Second, give Snoke something to do, like train Kylo.  Third, clarify all of the dramatic moments so that they feel remotely dramatic.

Or, you know, rethink what is trying to be accomplished assuming money isn’t as important as cool.  Ha, ha ha.  Another billion with people who actually think RoS didn’t suck.  Thing is, prequels sucked where I didn’t like any of the characters.  I actually am fine with Rey and Finn and still sucked.

Well, I have more gifts to give out in this joyous time of year besides my gift of ranting about a movie you will have seen, anyway, and can make up your own mind about.

Shed Some Darkness

In some places, it’s the least lighted day of the year.

So, let’s talk Shadow … fist.

Or, possibly religion.

Or, books and movies.

So, have played Shadowfist a couple of times in recent weeks.  That wouldn’t seem all that odd, but I’ve been traveling more than I’ve been Travellering lately.

Shangshang time, we played our usual single game where I played a modified version of Kind Of Orange.  Adding Dockyards and reducing the number of Arcanomoths made that deck run much smoother.  Still, no Orange Master meant no hitteryness.  I still want to peacock more better by adding the obvious five Auramancers.

Shang time, we played two games.  Uh oh.  The derry-o.  Yup, kind of sad first game where other players got out lots of FSSs with not a lot of stoppage to grind the game into pink sludge.  I was running magic Architects, so my three-cost unique got up to like 15 fighting.  The second game, I played Fu Tu Yu and I vaguely made the last bid for victory.  Time had already run out – the store closes at 10PM.

I made such awesome attacks as Urban Monk by himself for the win.  That was, I believe, my second attack of the game after my first being Blue Flower Society attacking Black Helicopter Squad and no one following up when only cops were left to defend stuff.  Bountiful Master went in for a win.  Yup, Bountiful Master.  While Thermobaric Explosion couldn’t do anything to him as we were celebrating a Lantern Festival, dorks and Death-O-Rama could.

So, my details about these games are hardly the stuff of 901 page books with better than four star reviews pritnear everywhere.  So, let me bring up a discussion prior to playing.

My contention in the discussion is that Shadowfist does not have good mechanics.  I don’t remember Blood Wars all that well, but mayhap Blood Wars has better mechanics.  Vampire clearly does, and it’s easier to understand how to play, too!!

But, what about Babylon 5?

I’d contend that Babylon 5’s mechanics are superior.  Timing is far less of a mess than Shadowfist.  But, that has little to do with it.

Where Shadowfist suffers is in two places I’m pretty sure I’ve already mentioned.  The beginning is bad, the ending is bad.  The beginning is bad somewhat because of the swingy nature of burning for power or seizing.  But, what is so problematic is the reliance on two resources to be able to play the game.

Magic’s land problem, which is really more of a draw one card a turn problem since Ultimate Combat! has land and it’s not at all similar, is a single resource requirement.  You can have sites or alt power generation and still be incapable of playing meaningful cards in Shadowfist.  Or, you could have the resource characters you need to play more impactful cards and lack power generation to ever get to the point of being able to burn for power to have enough power to matter.

Babylon 5, even in the olden days of tediously building to 10 on like round five, had few ways that you couldn’t play cards up until the Drakh, ISA, or techno-mages shut you down somehow.

Then, there’s no movement toward victory in Shadowfist.  Burning for victory may give you better tiebreakers, but it doesn’t guarantee any better chance at winning.  It’s possible to be stymied in perpetuity until you don’t want to play out people decking themselves.  This is something of an unusual feature as my recollections are that most CCGs have some sort of push towards ending a game.  Babylon 5 could have situations where you pushed someone backwards, but that was hardly the norm.  Games that couldn’t be won because of the Shadow War might have been less that improbable, but they felt like a game moved forward until it Vorloned into nothing.  ISA could stymie up until it fell apart.  Drakh could ensure most power without a win.  But, those bring up an important difference between Shadowfist and Babylon 5.

Babylon 5 has an awful card pool.  The rules of the game may be superior, but I wouldn’t put the game itself as a superior product.

And, that’s kind of the point.  On average, I’m pretty sure I’ve enjoyed Shadowfist more than B5.  Because Shadowfist does have positive features.  Shadowfist’s wildly swinginess is completely in keeping with the theme.  There are all sorts of thematic wins, including how often you can Disintegrator monkeys.  Or call down Wrath upon Gardens.

B5’s midgame was its best part, too.  The beginning was tedious or dumb with Conscription.  The ending was often sudden or had feelings of inevitability.  Shadowfist has crazy going on constantly.  V:TES routinely amuses me because the unexpected happens.  Shadowfist has my purposely targeting another player with Extortion so that I can get two Ogres out of my hand.

Now, our house rules make the game very different.  That and play styles.  When you know one player can’t win on 20 power because his decks would rather have states than characters, you get to do more in games.  But, the ease with which a player can come back in our games or can preserve power radically changes the nature of the game.

Anyway, why does any of this matter?  Who cares about analyzing a virtually dead CCG?

The point has something to do with how Magic has great mechanics (it does, with one major exception) and generally a pretty fine card pool but isn’t fun for me to play most of the time, where Shadowfist has pretty bad mechanics and a questionable card pool and is usually fun for me to play and …

And, how this matters when I’m a lead developer for a CCG.

What can make Traveller more fun?  Less fun?

I was looking at card ideas recently and noting that one of them could never see print.  It would make piracy a meaningless mechanic in the game, and that’s not good.  I asked one of our playtesters where piracy stood in terms of too strong/weak.  We both feel it’s about right at the moment.

Crew control may be too strong, but we are trying to do something about that, and it’s not entirely clear whether it makes for bad games or not.  Sure, I had an opponent scoop after round one due to crew control, but it’s just not possible to make a game with as many components as a CCG where every game is going to be a good game.

If two-thirds of games are good games, then I’ll wear a hat at the autograph sessions.

Because it’s unlikely I can generate enough inspiration to do a separate post on these other topics, let’s talk Dart.

No, not Fallon Sherrock.  Dart as in Kushiel’s Dart.

So, I’m curious as to what people consider erotic fantasy.

Anyway, the more I read the book, the less interested I became.  In that same pre-Shadowfist conversation, I noted that it was fine that Force Awakens has no plot in the beginning because that’s modern “story”telling – don’t bother with plot, just focus on every single thought of a character ad nauseam.

The Skaldi section was tiresome.  The ending dragged on.  Oh, I don’t mind the ending ideas, just the execution being weirdly wrapuppy and tonally dissonanced.  The last ten pages even took a while.

I’d put the book at three stars.  It had appealing elements, though the sex hardly serviced the fantasy.  Pretty neutral on the main character, but, at least, I didn’t dislike the major character as I disliked pritnear all of the The Blade Itself mains.  Maybe, over time, I’ll think less of the book, as I’m inclined to do with entertainment in general as I focus on the negative features.  The Last Jedi wasn’t hateable until after I had watched it and thought more about all of its numerous problems.

Ironically, perhaps, I don’t think Kushiel’s Dart pushed any of my buttons, so to speak.  It just was okay characters in typical situations.  But, then, politics/intrigue isn’t my bag, even if I enjoy Deryni novels (more so for characters being cool and the mythology).

Some reviewers thought the take on religion was interesting.  It got me thinking about how coherent religion is nowhere near as important as fun religion, bringing this post full circle back to how fun and good aren’t the same things.  I started thinking about how I’d do religion in fantasy stories/gaming, but I didn’t get very far.

So, Rise of Skywalker.  Religion, fun or lack thereof, whatever else that may relate to this post.  No, I haven’t seen it, don’t be ridiculous.  I finally got a flight on which I could watch Endgame in recent weeks.

It’s just that so much of what has happened with Star Wars has made Star Wars not really matter a whole lot to me, anymore.  I watch a movie and think about how it’s marketing nostalgia to me rather than being something cool I want to be a part of.

Even though it has monkeys, Shadowfist can envelop my interests with such deck ideas as Stand Together Suckers or Stand Together Snake.

Dreamy Kickstarterish

Before I let it slide, I feel like I should plug a (similar to) Kickstarter.

ODAM KS

Only 979 words to go …

Of Dreams And Magic is pretty similar to a bunch of other RPGs I like, like Immortal.  It’s almost like I like the idea of being someone special who realizes one day that there’s supernatural stuff going on and it’s time to live in a World of Dimness.

Only 930 …

Brave … Old? World

Been a while.

I was flipping through channels on this ancient device known as a TV using this ancient content model known as cable TV.  I came across Brave Archer 2.

For those who don’t know, Brave Archer 2 is a martial arts flick from the late ’70s.  It is part of a trilogy of movies with Brave Archer in their names, while the actual story doesn’t end with Brave Archer 3.

No, I didn’t watch it in Cantonese with Chinese subtitles.  This was part of a martial arts flicks marathon on an English language station.  Yup, dubbed.

After my mind was blown, I checked some reviews.  Somehow, people didn’t think the back two-thirds of BA2 and BA3 were utter insanity.  Something about being based on a famous book and having historical relevance.

I had to record BA2.

I point to Darkest Knight 2 as an example of appealing to my sense of humor.  DK2 was nowhere near as ludicrous as BA2.

Sure, I missed the beginning where I’m sure it was totally explained why like 20 characters all just show up in this sparse ruins of a town to talk and fight while two main characters hid, palming each other.  And, sure, I have yet to see Brave Archer, where those two characters apparently did more than listen in on conversations or watch fights by an endless stream of who the f* are these people?

I think that makes it better.  Let’s randomly chase someone around this desolate town(?).  Then, guy being chased just says “stop chasing me” and … cut to other characters.

I watched BA3 to see if there was any resolution to BA2.  Also, to see if we ever get an actual archer character to appear, ever.  Spoiler …

I got to thinking about how to model a martial arts RPG.

Actually, Feng Shui (assume I’m talking about 1e unless otherwise specified) models the idea that there are vast differences in ability between characters until there aren’t quite well.

AV may be a pretty terrible game mechanic, in that it is rather the end all and be all of FS while also making various characters far too impotent.  But, that’s what your typical old school MA flick is like.  Protagonist gets owned until training montage into owning antagonist.

Now, FS already exists, but let’s say you wanted to do my own mechanics.

You have your kung fu score where, let’s say, master level runs from 10 to 12.  Then, grandmaster is 13 to 14?  Supreme master is 15?  This score means most things.  Want to cure someone of poison, kung fu the poison/venom.  Want to read minds and teleport, kung fu that.  No, I’m not ignoring Dragonball Z.  That’s entirely how Goku worked.  Train under 100 times Earth’s gravity and you can read minds.  Train on some obscure planet and learn how to interdimensionally teleport.

Sure, I still figure you get Strength, Speed, and Endurance.  They don’t do much on their own, perhaps, but they act as prerequisites for various styles.  Because styles is where it’s at.

Mountain Style?  Endurance certain level, maybe Strength too.

Like FS, you get schtick paths so that you unlock Yin-Yang Finger Pressure Style or whatever.

How to deal with being utterly destroyed by certain enemies until you undergo additional training?  Well, this is where games and fiction run into a bit of an issue.  Even if the players buy into this genre convention once, how tired does it become after that first time.

This is one reason I may want to do something besides FS.  FS combat is pretty not so interesting.  Comes across as exceedingly repetitive with PCs doing the same things over and over.  I actually like the time war with its factions in FS – I like the themes more than the mechanics.

But, couldn’t you say that most games involve doing the same things repetitively?  How many times is it “free action draw wak, five raises extra attack, …, Luck”?

The training isn’t about the mechanics of gaining a situational +2 KFS against Hopping Devil Tiger.  It’s about your sifu having you swim to an undersea world to gain the Pearls of Harmony to de-idiot your grandsifu who was mindcrushed by the Mesmerist Mantis, where you must tornado punch sharks while free diving.

See, enthusiasm may not be my thing, but jumping from genre to genre totally is.

I should watch more MA flicks.  Again, my list of movies I’d actually want to someday see is predominantly a bunch of high end MA flicks.

So, I have been looking at the Elric series, the one that has six books starting with Elric of Melnibone and ending with Stormbringer.  I kind of forgot how long it takes for the Elric stories to get … grooved.  Book one is origin story and my least favorite.  I forgot how much two is side quests.  I forgot how long it takes before Elric blows up *his* world.  Book four is where you get into what seems the established Elric adventures, which lasts all of what?  Until the end of book five?

I’ll get to the point, eventually.

So, Arrowverse.  I’m just not that into Arrow’s last season.  Aged William is good.  The rest just seems so repetitive.  The series has always had problems with following through on cool.  What is that cool about what’s happened so far?  Flash is very Flashlike, too.

There are certain fundamental questions to … let’s stick with … gaming.  One of which is “What makes a game cool?”

Elric’s origin story is important, but it isn’t cool.  Cool is summoning gods when the plot requires it.

Arrow has its moments.  I don’t care much about Moira showing up again, unlike so many others.  But, it so often misses its mark [ha, ha ha].  Old Elric stories just push forward with new and weird.  Arrow dwells.  What Arrow probably needs is more Brave.  Get it.  *sigh*

More training sessions.  Yes, I realize father/daughter training happened.  But, that was repetitive training.  Train like you are learning Flowing Beetle 10,000 Kicks Style.  Maybe spend some time making gadget arrows rather than using them.

There’s some RPG application in here, somewhere.  I’m sure it’s totally obscure and impenetrable.

And, so we end yet another clearly coherently conceived composition.  What do you mean I haven’t gotten to a relevant point?

Change.  I guess that’s the theme I thought of after writing the first thousand words.  When playing a game is just doing the same things over and over, then it’s too much Arrow and not enough silver-covered Elric.  Even if insane levels of change, like Brave Archer totally ignoring any sort of resolution to its possible plots, change things up.  Sure, this is like saying variety is good.

Okay, it’s almost entirely like saying variety is good.

Well, it was kind of a similar Thanksgiving in some ways and a totally different one in others.  Variety is good, I guess.

Thanks for … things and stuff.