Thoughts on a future campaign - part two

My bare bones description of the possible science fiction campaign has generated an impressive amount of e-mail traffic. This makes me a happy Game Master, which in turn makes for happy players. However as I am not yet prepared to commit to a single plan for a future campaign this little experiment in campaign brainstorming continues.

When it comes to running a role playing game I'm a big believer in theft. I steal ideas, adventures, characters, plot, names, and settings with abandon. My current campaign is a perfect example of this behavior. With that in mind I present a number of possible campaigns all which have been heavily inspired by (or if you prefer stolen from) the anime I've been watching, and the manga I've been reading (okay truthfully there are going to be a few examples that have nothing to do with anime or manga).

First up a campaign inspired heavily by Hunter × Hunter, so inspired in fact I might just go ahead and set it in the Hunter × Hunter world. One of the features of Hunter × Hunter that I find so interesting is the different reasons the characters have for wanting to become hunters (for example Gon wants to become a hunter to track down his father who is also a hunter, while Kurapika wants to become a hunter to bring those responsible for the destruction of his tribe to justice). I would strongly encourage the players to come up with interesting reasons for their characters to wish to become a hunter. If we did a short version the campaign it would feature the player characters going through the Hunter examinations. The longer version would continue on with stories focusing on and tying into the reasons the player characters became hunters. The hunter organization and the status and benefits it confers in the Hunter × Hunter world are pretty unique, and creating my own version without just copying wholesale from the anime would be a little tricky. Which is why I'd consider just setting the campaign in the Hunter × Hunter world to begin with; the downside to that is I haven't read any of the manga, and thus far have only watched 17 episodes of the anime so I'm not really all that familiar with the world of Hunter × Hunter.

For something in a similar vein I could go with a campaign drawing inspiration from Naruto. Here the campaign would focus around a team of young ninja and their more experienced sensei (in other words just like the early Naruto). The largely endless possibilities for adventure with this set up should be pretty obvious. I'd be much more apt to go ahead and create my own world for this (even though I do find the setting in Naruto to be pretty interesting); in fact I can all but guarantee that I would create my own world and ninja organizations for this campaign.

Stripping more and more of Naruto away from the last example leaves me with a core idea of a squad of operatives. Thinking about that quickly brings Ghost in the Shell in all its incarnations to mind. Which does make me think that while I've run Shadowrun on a number of occasions, I've never run a straight up cyberpunk campaign. The obvious choice here is to run a campaign featuring criminals committing crimes for money (that is the standard set up for a Shadowrun campaign and describes the action that takes place in William Gibson's seminal cyberpunk novel Neuromancer). A fine choice to be sure, but keeping Ghost in the Shell in mind I don't want to rule out creating a governmental organization like Ghost in the Shell's Section 9. All of this means I might be looking to do a covert-ops campaign as much as I'm looking to do a cyberpunk campaign.

With Shadowrun still in my thoughts I turn my attention to the other half of Shadowrun's cross-genre makeup - namely fantasy, and specifically urban fantasy. The urban fantasy most currently occupying my thoughts is The Dresden Files on the Sci-Fi channel (I've also read the first two books in the series and I'd happily recommend them), although Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the works of Laurell K. Hamilton isn't far behind. Whatever the source of inspiration the first question that would need to be answered is does the world-at-large know magic and the supernatural exists. Either choice presents a fine number of options, and a number additional questions to answer (such as why hasn't the world noticed magic, or how would world history be different if magic was real and known).

Pondering magic in the modern world brings me back to anime - namely The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya which is actually a little odd, because of all the bizarre people Haruhi collects around her a magic-user isn't one of them (maybe she does in the novels, but since I don't read Japanese I've only got the anime to go by). So what would I steal from this anime to create a campaign? Well to start with the Japanese High School setting, because that would be really fun. Also this hypothetical campaign would feature a club very much in the vein of Haruhi's SOS Brigade complete with searches for aliens and time-travelers, investigations of the paranormal, the creation of bad student films, competing in the local baseball tournament, and anything else the club founder thinks is a good idea at the time.More importantly this campaign would feature an NPC in the mold of Suzumiya Haruhi, perhaps not in personality, but certainly in ability. If you are familiar with the anime (or the novels I assume) should understand where I'm going with this, however for those not familiar with the anime I'm sure some explanation is required. To put this in terms my current players would understand Suzumiya Haruhi has the GURPS disadvantage Weirdness Magnet except increase its potency about threefold. Even that doesn't really begin to cover it, because Haruhi has the power to alter reality to suit her whims. However she doesn't have a clue that she possesses such a power, and thus uses it only subconsciously and only when she's bored. Enter the SOS Brigade composed almost entirely of the people Haruhi is searching for (namely aliens, espers, and time-travelers), and possibly owning their very existence to her reality warping powers, they strive to keep an eye on her, and above all keep her from becoming bored.

I think that is a good plenty for part two of this exercise. I certainly have more, but you'll have to come back for that in a later post. I leave you with this: I find it comforting to know that no matter what campaign I end up running the only thing able to compete with its awesomeness is the following picture.

Thoughts on a future campaign - part one

Lately I've been spending some time thinking about what sort of campaign I'd like to run once my current BESM campaign wraps us. My initial thoughts were I'd like to do a non-anime campaign. I was thinking a science fiction campaign in general would be fun, and I was particularly excited about the idea of a Star Trek campaign. I've been wanting to do one of those for quite awhile. To be fair it's not as though I'd completely ruled out doing another anime campaign (I love both BESM and anime), I just thought my players may want a change. The arrival of BESM 3rd edition, and a few comments from my players has made me rethink this a bit.

I have sent out two different e-mail questionnaires to my players trying to gage their thoughts and desires on a future campaign. My initial missive to my players presented them with no fewer then 17 options (several of which had 3 or 4 sub-options). Confronted with such an overabundance of choices it isn't surprising my players where slow in responding. My second attempt focused entirely on sci-fi cutting down the number of options to a manageable level, and produced better, but still not entirely satisfactory results. Although one of my players did interpret his own answers thusly, "In otherwords if you could somehow cook up a way to get a group of independent/merc mecha pilots (with mecha) cruising around in a barely holding together dropship plying the space lanes in a Firefly-esque setting I'd be a happy camper for a sci-fi setting."

Well that did get the creative juices flowing. I started focusing first on the Firefly-esque part. Joss Whedon drew a lot of inspiration for Firefly from the book The Killer Angels (a side note here - it is an extremely good book - read it) which is about the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. The Civil War brought the north versus the south to my mind which started me thinking this potential campaign could feature two separate solar systems that had recently fought a war. The first solar system, the side that won the war, would be analogous to the north (and to the central planets in Firefly) more industrialized and populated than the second solar system (the losing side in the war and naturally analogous to the south). For these two solar systems to be able to fight a war this campaign is going to need FTL travel (this is also especially true if this war is going to have been a civil war/war of independence - depending on your point-of-view).

While pondering the need for FTL I went off on a little tangent. I recalled Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Fremantle a British observer of Lee's army during the Battle of Gettysburg (or at least I recalled Michael Shaara's depiction of him in The Killer Angels). This made my mind wander to thoughts of the British Empire, which called to mind Napoleon, which got me thinking about the Horatio Hornblower books by C. S. Forester, all of which reminded me of the Honor Harrington books by David Weber. Weber's books occasionally mention a wormhole connecting his Manticore Star Kingdom to various other interstellar nations. It dawns on me that something like this is precisely what I need to tie these two solar systems together and give a plausible reason they could both be run by one government (not to mention why one solar system would be willing and able to fight a war to prevent the other solar system from declaring its independence).

A brief side note: if you are interested in reading some free science fiction, and fantasy novels head over to Baen Books and check out their free library featuring a fair number of the books they publish; including the first two novels in David Weber's Honor Harrington series.

The independent mercenary mecha pilots part shouldn't be to hard to work in; especially if I throw in one or more frontier solar systems not connected to the two main solar systems by any wormhole (and thus only accessible by FTL ships - which are presumably much slower than the basically instantaneous travel through a wormhole). The obvious choice is the PCs will be former soldiers from the losing solar system. Obviously there are still plenty of decisions to make, and questions to be answered, but for some initial brainstorming I'm pretty happy with these results.

As described this campaign could be run with any number of systems, and shoot for any number of different tones and themes. As an example for a more gritty and realistic approach I'd consider using GURPS; while for a much more cinematic feel I'd strongly consider using West End Games' D6 System (D6 Space being the obvious choice). Since my players seem to be looking for some more anime action, and because we'd all like to give it a try BESM 3rd edition seems to be a strong possibility for this potential campaign. For inspirational viewing for an anime version of this campaign I'd suggest Crest of the Stars, followed by Banner of the Stars (I, II, and III), maybe Outlaw Star for a lighter take on things, and Martian Successor Nadesico also seems like some excellent source material.

While this isn't the only idea for an anime campaign I've been kicking around, it is the only one you are getting in this post. However if you come back in a day or two I'm sure I'll have a few more up for perusal. But for now I leave you with another picture that amuses me. The picture comes from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, the commentary comes from some creative person with too much time on his hands.

New month, new post

I don’t imagine it will surprise anyone to learn that I found BloodRayne to be a truly awful movie. It was painfully bad. While I cannot say I’ll never watch another Uwe Boll film, it is going to be a very long time before I do, and even then I’ll have to be in a really odd mood before I’d willingly submit to that particular activity.

The last two weeks have been pretty good. No one event really defines just what was so good about them, but all in all I’ve had a good two weeks. I’ve slowed down a little in my anime watching. I did watch another seven episodes of Hunter × Hunter. The series continues to be really entertaining, but with so much of it left I still don’t have too much more to say about it. I also watched another four episodes of The Twelve Kingdoms. The current story arc was rapped up resulting in Yōko taking her thrown as the Queen of Kei, and Sugimoto being returned home to Japan. I’ve also been keeping current more or less with Bleach (through episode 113) and Busou Renkin (through episode 17).

I’ve done a fair amount of role-playing during the last two weeks. I’ve joined a D&D Eberron campaign being played entirely over the Internet. For those who care about such things I’m playing a changeling named Kell (he’s currently a 2nd level character Rogue 1/Fighter 1). It has been really nice being a player again (I only rarely get to be one). Playing over the Internet is interesting. For our first session we used Skype to provide a voice chat client. It worked alright, but we had periodic problems with voice quality, and we needed to restart our conference call several times over the course of the evening. For our second session we tried out Ventrilo. Ventrilo wasn’t as user friendly to set up as Skype, but we had far fewer problems with voice quality. We’ve also tried two different mapping programs. For our first session we used Gametable; a very solid program that I have no problem recommending to people for use in remote gaming. For our second session we tried out MapTool. Using MapTool isn’t anywhere as intuitive as Gametable, but it has a lot more features. I don’t really have any problem recommending MapTool for use in remote gaming either (just read the manual).

Also I got to run my BESM campaign this weekend. As an added treat Dan joined us in person for this session instead of remotely (usually via iChat) as he usually does. Once again we started the evening off with some Wii action (Excite Truck, and Rayman Raving Rabbids mainly). I continue to find this BESM campaign to be highly satisfactory. What started out as a short little 2 maybe 3 month campaign where the players were supposed to track down four pieces of a magic item, and then use that to defeat the bad guy has taken on a life of its own. The characters have developed in interesting ways, and a number of very entertaining side stories have developed. The next session should be on 2/24.



In related BESM news I got both my PDF, and dead-tree version of BESM 3rd Edition during the last two weeks. It looks really good. I haven’t had a chance to really tear into it yet, but from what I have looked at I’m pretty happy. It is definitely changed from the 2nd edition. The basic resolution mechanic has changed from rolling a stat score or less on 2d6, to rolling a target number or higher on 2d6 (in both cases often modified by skills). The cost of everything has been rebalanced, and characters are now built on a lot more character points. For example under BESM 2nd Edition 25-45 points was a pretty common range for starting characters (and those characters would be pretty powerful), under 3rd Edition basic normal humans are built on 100 character points (I imagine I’ll likely be starting characters in the 250 – 350 point range).

As a little side note one of my players in the BESM campaign (and also a fellow gamer in the Eberron campaign) has started a blog.

I leave you with another picture that amuses me. This particular screen capture comes from The Twelve Kingdoms. I laughed really hard when I watched this scene, and I laughed even harder when I made this screen capture. Yes Rakushun is naked in this picture, but nothing sexual is going on. I swear to you, The Twelve Kingdoms isn't hentai.

Words fail me here

I like to think I’m a pretty smart guy, but I can do some remarkably stupid things. I should clarify, in this particular instance I’m not talking about life threateningly stupid, but never-the-less I should really know better. For my most recent act of stupidity I stayed up all night, and am now paying for it while I sit here at work thinking, “well this sucks.” It wouldn't be so bad if I were still 18 (it still would have been stupid, but at least as a teenager you're expected to occasionally do those sorts of stupid things), however I'm 31 so apparently I'm just a big idiot.

I know I have no one but myself to blame for this, but in my defense my work schedule is a contributing factor. Of course my own behavior regarding that work schedule is an even bigger contributing factor. Roughly speaking my work rotation is 4 evening shifts (2:30pm – 11:00pm), followed by 1 day off, followed by 4 morning shifts (6:30am – 3:00pm), followed by 2 days off, and repeat (it is actually a little more complicated then that, but this covers the basics). My trouble always comes with that 1 day off in-between my evening and morning shifts. I basically get up for work, so on days when I have to be at work at 2:30pm I rarely get up before 11am (and often not until 12pm or even sometimes 1pm). Not surprisingly I don’t go straight to bed when I get home from work; I usually stay up until about 3am (or sometimes 4am, or more rarely 5 – 6am). Now if I only worked evening shifts this behavior would be fine, but I don’t work just evening shifts. I unfortunately seem incapable of using the 1 day off to turn my sleep schedule around. No I, if anything, tend to stay up even later the night before my day off, which means I don’t tend to wake up until even later then usual. Consequently I’m never tired at 9 or 10pm when I should be going to sleep (since I need to be waking up at 5:30am the next day).

Usually I’m doing pretty well if I get 4 hours of sleep the night before my first morning shift, last night however I got none. Was I engaged in some important endeavor that would explain my all-nighter? Of course not. I was watching TV. I started off with Stargate SG-1 on Sci-Fi and watched episodes of that from 10pm until 2am. Why oh why didn’t I go to bed at that point? Apparently because it was critically important for me to watch the movie Angel Eyes on TBS from 2am until 4am. I guess I’m not getting enough J.Lo in my media consumption. Please oh please let it instead be because I’m not watching enough James Caviezel movies. The real kicker is I've seen that movie before (my opinion of it is basically neutral) so there was no reason to stay up and watch it again. At this point you’d think I’d still try and take a nap at least before work. However, no, I’d rather stay up and watch BeastMaster (the TV show and not the movie) on Sci-fi. Well now its 5am, and I usually get up at 5:30am, so what do I do? I find a horribly bad movie on Starz Kids & Family to start watching. Oh yes, I start watching Spymate; a movie about a chimpanzee spy. Let me say that again, a chimpanzee spy. . .

Here is a little tip. If the movie you are watching features a nonhuman primate as one of the leads, it probably isn't a very good movie.

I do have plans to continue the horrible movie madness this evening. I'm thinking I'm going have to take in BloodRayne tonight on Sci-Fi. I don't see how I can miss this opportunity to watch my first Uwe Boll film. I'm looking forward to what I hope will be a truly awful film.

Well with that I think it's time to bring this odd little post to an end. I have no doubt the next time I blog about something it will be the usual anime related topic (or perhaps RPG). On the plus side this entry officially makes January my most prolific month. I guess I can take solace in that.

As an ending treat, and to cleanse the palate a little. I leave you with this picture, entirely unrelated to anything else in this post, of Suzumiya Haruhi (on the right - from The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi) and Fujiota Haruhi (on the left - from Ouran High School Host Club) dressed in each other's school uniforms; I do this mostly because this picture really amuses me.

Yes he can go four days in a row

After a rather long hiatus I watched episodes 6-10 of The Twelve Kingdoms (I watched episodes 1-5 back in August). Wow what an improvement. I see a couple of reasons I enjoyed these episodes so much more then the first five (which I didn’t dislike by any means). First I’m getting used to the new vocabulary the show forces you to learn. Second the main character, Nakajima Yōko, starts maturing and growing into a very interesting and likable character. Also Yōko finally meets some people who aren’t out to exploit her. Finally the story, which was already good, just keeps getting more interesting.

A number of interesting characters are either introduced or explained. Of those Rakushun may be my favorite. He’s a hanjyuu (a half-beast/half-human with both a human and animal form) with the form of a rat, and is also the first decent person Yōko meets in the Kingdom of Kou. He first cares for her wounds after her fight with Sugimoto, and then decides to take her to the Kingdom of En where she won’t be persecuted for being a kaikyaku. Shoryu, the King of En, also has some potential to be an interesting character. Like Yōko, Shoryu is a taika (he should have been born in the land of the Twelve Kingdoms, but ended up being born on Earth), while on earth he was a clan leader in feudal Japan (about 500 years in Yōko’s past). Rokuta, also known as Enki, who has been popping up since the beginning of the show finally gets an explanation. He’s the Kingdom of En’s kirin, which basically means he’s the king’s second in command. We also find out about the Shusei; they are basically gypsies – traveling nomads who don’t belong to any of the 12 kingdoms (they are also usually entertainers).

Well after four posts in a row I find I still have a few ideas for topics to blog about tomorrow (or this weekend, or baring that next). Yesterday is really the closest I’ve come to talking about comic books (which is a shame), unfortunately yesterday I was talking about role-playing and the mention of The Path was incidental to that goal. So I’m overdue to finally say something about comic books, and I’ve got that Marvel 1602 trade paperback that’s just sitting on a table next to my bed. That’s a post just waiting to happen. I’ve also been kicking around some ideas about what I could say about web comics for the last two weeks or so. Plus there is always anime to fall back on I’ve got disk three of The Twelve Kingdoms waiting at home for me to watch, I’ve got plenty more Hunter × Hunter to get through, and the fansub for Bleach episode 111 just came out. Then there are all the series I’ve been planning on starting but just haven’t yet including Mai-Hime, MAJOR, Mahoraba, and Ayakashi.

I guess the BESM campaign gets its turn

Consider this a fair warning. A role-player and GM is about to talk about his campaign.

I stole the setting for my BESM campaign (a year old this month) from the comic book The Path (written by Ron Marz, penciled by Bart Sears) published by defunct CrossGen Comics. The comic takes place in the world of Han-Jinn in the feudal Japanese-esque island nation of Nayado. The comic revolves around a monk named Obo-san and his companions a female samurai named Aiko, and Wulf a foreign sailor (basically a Viking) swept onto Nayado’s shores by a storm. Obo-san has a lot on his plate: his Emperor starts the comic insane and quickly becomes a demon animated corpse, his country keeps getting invaded by Shinacea (think ancient China), his brother was killed by the gods, both his Emperor and the Emperor of Shinacea want the “weapon of heaven” left behind by the god that killed his brother, and Obo-san has come to the conclusion that the only way to save Nayado is to overthrow its Emperor. If you can find the two trade paperbacks containing this story I highly recommend picking them up.

I made a number of changes to the setting. I didn’t much care for the name Todosi (Obo-san’s dead brother) so I renamed him Todosai (much better sounding IMHO). I also didn’t really care for Shinacea, so I renamed that country Li Lung. Not wanting to have to come up with a detailed account of what happened after last events depicted in the comic (Obo-san using the weapon of heaven to defeat Shinacea’s second invasion of Nayado, and then deciding to overthrow his Emperor) I decided to set my campaign about 120 years after the events of the comic. The gist of the post-comic events were Obo-san succeeds at overthrowing the Emperor, which results in further civil war as the various clans try to become the next Emperor. Obo-san decides to end the civil war by placing the late Emperor’s only surviving son on the thrown (I’m pretty sure there is a passing reference in the comics indicating the Emperor has no heirs, but it isn’t like I hadn’t already changed some details). He succeeds at doing this, but the political power of the restored Emperor is sharply curtailed, with the real power resting in the hands of Obo-san as Nayado’s first Shogun. To deal with the weapon of heaven, Obo-san breaks it up into pieces and hides them throughout Nayado. Next I married off all the main characters and chronicled 120 years worth of descendants to give me an idea of the current political climate in Nayado. Finally I decided to turn Obo-san into a Buddha like figure. I did end up downplaying and nearly completely eliminating Obo-san’s quest to show that the gods of Nayado were fakes.

With all this decided I created a time line detailing the major events of Nayado stretching from the founding of the first imperial dynasty, through the events of the comic, and beyond until the start of the campaign. I also started thinking about how to filter this setting to make it an anime style campaign, and not a fantasy campaign using an oriental setting. The fact I was planning on using BESM for my game system meant a lot of this work was already done for me. But in order to get my players in the right frame-of-mind I started thinking about what anime had inspired me to want to run this campaign, and what type of characters were found in them. InuYasha and Fushigi Yūgi proved to be the two main influences so I informed my players that demons, half-demons, and dimension traveling high school children were all viable character types. My players didn’t disappoint. Paul decided to go with a wolf hengeyōkai who was attached to one of the major samurai families (actually the family descended from Wulf). Matt chose to go with the dimension traveling student route, and I decided to make him a descendant of Obo-san. Dan (who joined the campaign a bit latter on) opted to play a samurai from one of the clans that Paul’s and Matt’s characters had recently helped (given his character’s skills with stealth it would seem he’s got a bit of ninja in him as well). Rounding out the party are two NPCs. One is a cursed exorcist named Daigyo who pretty much owes his existence to the character of Miroku from InuYasha. The other NPC is a kitsune named Tomomeko who is pretty much a copy of a NPC kitsune in a BESM campaign Matt and I played in run by our friend Tim (who was last mentioned in this blog for all the anime he showed me).

At its heart this campaign is about the characters traveling around Nayado reassembling the weapon of heaven, but a fair number of side quests have popped up. Originally this campaign should have lasted seven sessions: five sessions to get each of the five pieces of the weapon of heaven, one send-the-party-back-to-the-real-world session to break up the collecting the pieces sessions, and a final confrontation with the villain session. When Dan joined the campaign the party had already obtained 3 pieces of the weapon of heaven, and had the back-in-the-real-world session. Because I didn’t want him to go through the trouble of making a new character for just three sessions, and because I was having way more fun running the campaign then I’d had GMing in awhile, I slowed down the pace and started introducing the side quests.

A few other updates. . .

You may be wondering just what is up with all these updates? It’s actually due to a unique situation at work. I’ve been working evening shifts since Monday, and since Monday we’ve been having a hardware problem, that while it doesn’t really impact our customers, it does leave me with long periods of time during my shift were I really cannot do anything other then watch the operators work. So I’ve been filling that time with writing posts for this blog. They are getting the hardware issues sorted out, so expect this blog to return to its regular irregular status soon (if not tomorrow then Friday).

I’ve watched another five episodes of Hunter × Hunter. That just means another 52 to go plus three OVA series with another 30 episodes between them. I'm just saying it may be awhile before I have too much to say about this one yet. I’ve been introduced to the four main protagonists Gon, Leorio, Kurapika, and Killua. I’ve also been introduced to a rather interesting character named Hisoka who seems like he’ll be a recurring antagonist.

Finally I leave you with this random picture that just amuses me to no end. . .

I have nothing witty to say here

I feel like talking a bit about anime:

I finished watching Makai Senki Disgaea today before I left for work. It is a fun little anime based on the PS2 game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (I believe in Japan the video game is also called Makai Senki Disgaea). The anime is pretty amusing. It is also only 12 episodes long, which is just about the perfect length for this title (I wouldn’t have had a problem with one or two more episodes, but I think 26 episodes of Disgaea would have gotten old).

The anime opens with the apprentice angel Flonne in the Netherworld trying to track down Demon King Krichevskoy. She finds a coffin with his crest emblazoned on it, and tries to carry out her mission to assassinate the Demon King. She succeeds in only waking the coffin’s occupant who is the Demon Prince Laharl. They both quickly learn that King Krichevskoy is already dead. Former vassal of King Krichevskoy, the demon Etna, who apparently was searching for Laharl, arrives on the scene and for differing reasons the three of them set off together across the Netherworld. Laharl’s ambition is to claim the title of Demon King. Flonne follows him as a servant because she wishes to show him there is love and kindness in his heart. Etna’s reasons for following Laharl are kept secret (at least from Laharl and Flonne) for the first half of the anime, but appear to be because of her respect and loyalty to Laharl’s late father King Krichevskoy.

On the advice of my friend Dan (who hasn’t steered me wrong yet with an anime recommendation) I’ve started watching Hunter × Hunter. I have only watched the first five episodes, so I cannot say too much about this anime yet, but I have enjoyed what I’ve watched so far. The first two or so episodes were a little slow (although still interesting), but the action has been picking up. Thus far the anime seems to be about a young boy named Gon and his search for his father. In order to facilitate his search Gon has decided to become a hunter like his father before him (in the anime’s setting being a hunter seems to be quite a big deal, and confers a high level of respect and privilege).

In the last few days I’ve also managed to get current with both Busou Renkin (14 episodes fansubbed and watched), and Bleach (110 episodes fansubbed and watched). I’ve talked a bit about Busou Renkin, but haven’t really ever said anything about Bleach. Bleach, based on a manga by the same name, is about the adventures of Kurosaki Ichigo. Ichigo, a high school student, always had the ability to see spirits, but his life is significantly altered after he meets Kuchiki Rukia. Rukia is a shinigami, or death god (in the official English dub she is called a soul reaper). Rukia, and others like her, is responsible for shepherding wayward souls (ghosts and other spirits) into the afterlife (in Bleach called the Soul Society), and protecting both souls and humans alike from spirit creatures called hollows. Rukia meets Ichigo because she is tracking a hollow that is stalking Ichigo because his unusually strong spirit powers make him especially appetizing to hollows. During the hollow’s attack Rukia is wounded protecting Ichigo. In order to allow Ichigo a chance to defend himself and his family, Rukia grants Ichigo some of her power as a shinigami. She intends to only temporarily give him half her spirit power, but inexplicable Ichigo receives nearly all of it.

The early episodes of Bleach deal with Ichigo acting as a substitute shinigami with Rukia providing advice and support. The early episodes also introduce a number of Ichigo’s classmates several of whom either already have spirit powers, or have spirit powers awakened in them by exposure to Ichigo’s remarkably high spirit energy. This takes up the first 14 episodes of Bleach. Episode 15 serves as a bridge episode dealing with the consequences of the previous story arc, and setting up the next major arc. Episodes 16 and 17 deal with Rukia’s arrest by fellow shinigami (including her elder brother) for the crime of giving a human shinigami powers. Ichigo is unable to save her, and is very nearly killed by Rukia’s brother Byakuya. Episodes 18 – 20 deal with Ichigo’s recovery and the subsequent training he and his friends undertake in order to travel to the Soul Society to rescue Rukia who is scheduled to be executed for her actions in the mortal world.

The Soul Society arc then stretches from episode 21 until episode 63. Back in November when I started watching the Bleach fansubs over the course of one weekend I plowed through the Soul Society arc (plus the set up episodes) in basically two sittings. I recall I started on a Saturday night with episode 14, paused to watch Adult Swim (Trinity Blood, amusingly enough Bleach, and Eureka 7), and then started up again continuing until I think about 5am. I then slept until about 11am. I believe I even dreamed about Bleach. After waking up I fixed myself some food, and then returned to Bleach soldiering on until the end of the arc some time that evening (I likely paused again to make myself some more food at some point in there).

Episodes 64 – 109 were a filler arc unique to the anime. They deal with Ichigo and the Soul Society’s struggles against a race of immortal humans called the Bount. Bounts are the result of ancient experiments into eternal life conducted by the shinigami. They survive by consuming human souls, for most of their history they only ate the souls of the dead, however as the needs of plot would have it the Bounts have started targeting the souls of living humans. As filler arcs go this wasn’t horrible. There were a few times towards the end of the arc where I’d think to myself if this was the Bounts’ plan from the beginning then what of the point of their actions at the beginning of the arc. Ultimately the leader of the Bounts, Kariya Jin, proved to be a pretty interesting villain with some complex motivations it just took until the last few episodes in the arc for that to become apparent (which was far to long to wait for him to become interesting). Thankfully episode 110 is the start of a new arc that is once again based off the manga. Of course this means that after all those episodes the main characters are back to exactly the same state they were in at the end of episode 63. This is my main problem with filler arcs in general, if the animators plan on returning to the manga in the future, they cannot really make any changes to the characters.

Finally this last week I finished off a moderately amusing little ecchi comedy called Oku-sama wa Joshi Kousei (made up of 26 12-minute episodes) which translates into My Wife is a High School Girl. I actually have a small problem with this title the majority of this story is told from the point-of-view of Onohara Asami, the high school girl in question, so I think a more accurate title would have been something to the effect of My Husband is a High School Physics Teacher. However I concede that wouldn’t have been nearly as naughty sounding a name.

Asami a 17 year-old high school student (in her second-to-last year of high school) is secretly married to Ichimaru Kyousuke her 25 year-old physics teacher. The only way Asami’s father would allow the wedding was to make Ichimaru-sensei swear an oath to have no sexual contact with Asami until after she has graduated. I doubt anyone would be surprised to learn most of the comedy comes from their struggles to hide their relationship, and from the inevitable obstacles that pop up anytime it looks like that relationship might become intimate. The series starts out with Kyousuke and Asami already married, and for awhile I hoped their backgrounds might get a cursory exploration, but I eventually came to the conclusion that any depiction of their courtship would likely be very creepy. Ultimately this show made me groan a few times, chuckle a fair amount, and really laugh two or three times; considering that I started this show with basically no expectation of it being anything but pretty bad I’d say it turned out rather well.

Wii and BESM

I got my first taste of the Wii this weekend, and I found it pretty fun. I played around a bit on Wii Sports with a few friends before we got down to the business of role playing. I enjoyed all of the games, but I think golf and bowling were my favorites (with baseball coming in closely behind those two). The games are quite fun to play by yourself, and even more fun to play with friends. None of the Wii Sports games are super detailed, and are all pretty clearly designed to primarily be fun little demonstrations of the Wii’s innovative motion sensing control system, but they really don’t need to be anything more then that. The controls are pretty easy to pick up. For example the instructions for bowling on Wii Sports are as follows: the player starts with the Wiimote held in a vertical fashion in front of the player’s body with the d-pad facing the player. The player should pull the trigger (or b-button) to start his Mii’s approach, at the same time the player should make an arm movement roughly equivalent to what you’d make while actually bowling. In other words pull your arm down and back, and then swing it forward as you release the ball (or in the case of Wii Sports release the b-button). I’m willing to stipulate that may sound complicated, but in actual practice it doesn’t take much to get the hang of it.

I also got to see my first flying Wiimote this weekend. This was not a result of a broken wrist strap, but rather a lack of the wrist strap being used at all. My friend Matt was the responsible party in this little incident (those who know him are likely not surprised). I would never characterize Matt as clumsy, but I would say that at times he moves with such an abundance of over exuberance that his resulting velocity exceeds his sense of balance. The incident in question happened during a game of bowling. In the midst of our second game Paul and I were treated to the sight of Matt’s feet going out from under him while he was in the middle of his delivery. As he was sliding towards his entertainment center the Wiimote left his hand and flew straight and true towards the aforementioned entertainment center. At about the same time Matt was coming to a stop at the foot of his TV stand, the Wiimote struck the front molding running across the top of his entertainment center with enough force to cause the numerous Nintendo video games (from various different systems) setting on top of his TV stand to jump quite noticeably. The Wiimote then arced back over Matt, tumbling through the air in a surprisingly graceful manner, and landed at the foot of his apartment’s front door. After a bit of shocked silence, followed by much hearty laughter we were all relieved to find the Wiimote still functional. We also lamented the fact we weren’t recording ourselves (not that the thought crossed our minds previous to this incident) as this would have been perfect for uploading onto YouTube.

After giving the Wii a nice try out, we settled in for some gaming. The last time we were able to get together for gaming was in November (we did get together in December, but ultimately just played video games), and the last time I was able to run my BESM campaign was in October. The session was pretty typical for us. We started off slowly moving the plot forward at a leisurely pace. Enjoying each other’s company and telling amusing tangential anecdotes was as important as advancing the plot. The need to recap the events of a session that happened 2 ½ months ago certainly contributed to our slow start. However as the evening continued our pace picked up, and if we started slowly we finished quite strong. I was certainly entertained by the evening, and I believe my players were as well.

I’ve mentioned BESM in passing a number of times, but I’ve never really talked about it directly. BESM is of course short for Big Eyes, Small Mouth and is a role playing game designed to recreate the feel of anime and manga (the phrase big eyes, small mouth is a generalization of the overall look of anime and manga characters). The game was created and produced by the now defunct company Guardians of Order. At its base it is a very simple game. Character creation is point based. A character has three main stats: body, mind, and soul. Body covers all things physical, mind covers all things mental, and soul covers all spiritual/supernatural aspects of a character. From these stats a number of secondary stats are derived such as combat value, and health points. The character is further defined by purchasing attributes (or abilities). There are several different attributes governing combat, others that increase movement rate, give the ability to fly, the list goes on and is flexible enough that practically any type of character can be created (from an angst-filled mecha pilot, to a shy schoolgirl, to a powerful elven wizard). To round out the character (and get more character points to purchase attributes or increase stats) a number of defects can be selected.

Non combat actions are resolved by the GM determining which of the three stats the proposed action relates to and having the player try to role that number or lower on two six sided dice (for example trying to avoid throwing a Wiimote across the room would call for a Body stat check). Combat resolution works basically the same way, except a character’s combat value is used in place of the main stats. There is an option skill system that layers on top of this basic resolution system. The skill system basically grants bonuses to the skill role making it easier to succeed at an action.

A few random updates

Nothing really earth-shattering going on in my little corner of the world. So just a few things in brief:

From the better-late-than-never category on Tuesday I went and watched the new James Bond movie. I really liked it, that actually isn't all that surprising, I've always gotten a kick out of Bond movies. Now I liked the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies, but I have to say I thought Casino Royale was easily the best Bond movie since the 1960s. I’m considering actually picking it up on DVD when it comes out, which would be a first for me with a Bond movie. I found the free running chase scene at the beginning of the movie featuring Bond chasing the bomber Mollaka through a construction site and into a foreign embassy to be quite stunning. All in all I think the movie stayed pretty faithful to the original book, and I have no problems with the area’s that were expanded, or changed. The one element I thought was going to bother me was the substitution of poker (no-limit Texas hold’em) for baccarat (Baccarat Chemin de Fer if you really want to get technical), but honestly I didn’t have a problem with it when watching it on the screen.

I haven’t yet put my new chairs together, but I did assemble my new end table. I’m sure my mother will be quite happy when I tell her both my telephone and my answering machine are now situated on a table, instead of the floor.

I did spend some time over the last few days listening to some of the podcasts from Evil Avatar Radio. Evil Avatar is primarily a video game site, but they do have a sizable minority of comic book geeks there as well. I mainly listened to the various interviews with different comic writers and illustrators. I found them to be pretty interesting, and I learned about a few different titles I’m going to keep an eye out for.

I finished up the first season of Tsubasa Chronicle. I found it to be quite excellent. The season ended with a very interesting revelation about Syaoran. I haven’t watched any more of Samurai 7 yet. I haven’t decided if I’m going to finish that up first, or if I’ll start in on the second season of Tsubasa Chronicle. There are a handful of other series I’ve been eyeing lately, but I haven’t really decided what to watch next.

I’ve also been working on organizing the ridiculously large amount of pictures and images I’ve downloaded since I got my computer. So far I’ve been working on my anime screen shots, fan art, and wallpapers. I really need to start looking for some software to aid in this task. I’ve played around a little bit with Google's Picasa, but I haven’t really made any effort to explore its features.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year and welcome to 2007.

I didn’t really do anything special on New Year’s Eve. I was invited to a party in the Twin Cities, but seeing as how I had to be at work at 6:30am this morning, I opted not to make the trek down to the cities. I did spend some time looking at an amusing website yesterday (not that this is in anyway related to New Year’s Eve): Engrish.com. I especially recommend the buildings, clothing, and signs/posters categories, but I found amusing pictures in all of the categories.

I mentioned briefly in my last post that Christmas was good. I did receive a couple of nice presents I’m itching to tear into. One was Dashiell Hammett: Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man. As the title suggests this book contains all five Dashiell Hammett crime novels in one volume. I’ve started in on the The Thin Man which was adapted into a really good movie of the same name. The movie spawned a number of sequels the first two are also quite good, the others aren’t as good, but are still okay. I’m also excited about the trade paperback for Marvel 1602 Neil Gaiman’s very interesting re-envisioning of the Marvel universe in the late Elizabethan era. I’m also probably going to spend the next few days putting together the furniture that I got for Christmas (two new chairs that I thought I needed, and one end table that my mother thought I needed).

New Year’s Day seems like as good a time as any to do the traditional taking stock of the last year, and thinking about the future. For my purposes I’m limiting this exercise to the state of this blog. Well my blog has been in existence for five months, I’m pretty sure this beats the hell out of any previous attempt at keeping a journal I’ve ever made. I’ve averaged 3.8 posts per month over the past five months, that’s just a bit lower then what I’d like it to be (I’m thinking four posts a month is a pretty good target or roughly one post a week). Of course if I drop the first two posts which were really just me throwing something up to get this off the ground, then my average drops to 3.4 posts per month which is still better then I’ve ever done in the past. October and November were a bit disappointing as I let myself get too distracted by first City of Heroes, and then by anime, but I’m pretty happy with December’s output as I’m not really watching any less anime yet I still made time to write some posts.

I’m still searching around for what I want this blog to focus on. I’m doing an okay job of talking about the anime I’m watching, although I feel like sometimes I’m really just mentioning it in passing and I should delve into the topic a bit more deeply more like a review. On the other hand, I’m not really sure I want to review anime; still I think I’ll resolve (an appropriate thing to do this time of year) to make sure I’m doing more then throwing out lists of what anime I’m currently watching. I still haven’t talked about either web comics or comic books at all. I have put some thought into doing a web comic post I’ve been thinking something along the lines of linking to individual strips that I found particularly good/moving/funny. Part of the problem with doing a web comic post is I feel like most of the web comics I’m reading are pretty well known (as far as web comics go) so anything I’d have to say about them would be pretty redundant. I haven’t had anything to say about HeroClix either, but that is mostly because August is the last time I did anything with my HeroClix (played a game, purchased more, etc.).

There some things I’ve tried that I’m not so sure about. My short flirtation with listing the number of songs currently in my iTunes library comes to mind as a prime example of what I’m talking about. I’m not sure what I was thinking there, mostly it was just done in an effort to find something to post about. To a lesser extent I also think about the times I mentioned the passing of somebody famous. I go back and forth on this one; I feel I did have some things to say regarding the deaths of Maynard Ferguson and Steve Irwin – mostly about the things I was thinking about when I heard of their deaths as opposed to things directly related to them. I’m not as sure about the post where I mentioned the deaths of Cory Lidle and Buck O’Neil. I certainly had less to say about Cory Lidle’s plane crash then I did about either of the first two celebrities, but then again his unfortunate death didn’t have as big an effect on me as the passing of the previously mentioned people. I’m rather disappointed that I could only muster two sentences about the passing of Buck O’Neil, he was a very interesting guy and I should have been able to say more about him then well he died, and here is a sentence referencing an event that showed his character. I think this is a major reason why I didn’t post anything about James Brown’s recent passing. I know that he was a major musical figure, who had a massive impact on numerous future musicians, but I personally have hardly listened to any of his music. So I wouldn’t have had much to say beyond what I basically just said.

My point here is I’m not a journalist, I’m not writing this blog to deliver news to the masses, so if I’m going to mention a news item I feel like I better have something personal to say about it, or else why am I bothering to post about it. This becomes all the more evident when you look at events with a bit more gravity then the death of a musician. I certainly could have said something about any number of recent events that most people would consider major news. There was the election in November, the execution of Saddam Hussein, and death of President Gerald Ford to give three examples of things I considered, but ultimately decided against posting about. To be fair these three examples all have roots in politics and I view politics as a subject well beyond the intended scope of this blog. I’m quite sure I could have found plenty to say about all three of those topics, but none of it would have had anything to do with my geeky hobbies. Not to say I’ll never talk about a political topic here, it would just likely be something that has a great deal of personal significance to me, otherwise if I feel a pressing need to start talking politics I’ll probably just start a second blog to do so on (a scenario that while not impossible is unlikely).

This brings up the question of just who am I writing this blog for. My first reaction to that is I’m writing this blog for myself, and for my own amusement. That however begs the question: if I’m writing this only for me do I care if anybody else reads this? The answer to that question is mixed. On the surface if I’m writing this blog only for my own amusement, then of I shouldn’t care if anybody else is reading it. However I have told people about this blog, I’ve even asked people their opinions about specific entries proof that I do want people to read this. Ultimately I think that this blog is too personal to hold much interest for anybody that doesn’t already know me, but I’m fine with that. So a more complete answer to the original question would be I’m writing this blog both to amuse myself, and to provide friends and family with a little insight into what I’m up to. If other people read this well that’s great, but I’m not writing this to attract an audience. I’ll keep writing this as long as it amuses me to do so, and as long as I’m writing it I’ll work on making sure it informs the people I know of what I’m up to (which usually isn’t that much).

Okay that’s enough about the status of this blog. I do think I’ll continue this introspective kick I’m on, but let’s shift focus to my bread and butter: anime. I’ve noticed that I am often slightly hesitant to finish anime series, and sometimes I’m reluctant to catch up to the most recent episode of an ongoing series. I think my reasons for doing so, while related, are a bit different in each case. In regards to watching the most recent episode of an ongoing series I think my reluctance is due mainly to impatience. I don’t like stopping in the middle of a story arc, and waiting for the next release. It is the same reason I have a tendency to watch multiple episodes of a series at a time even when I intend to only watch one or two. My reasons for occasionally delaying watching the ending of a series has more to do with me not wanting the story to end. I tend to feel a bit bittersweet about the ending of any anime that I enjoyed. I’m always happy to see a well crafted story through to the end, but I do feel a little melancholy that there is nothing more for me to enjoy. To a lesser extent fear of not liking the ending can also play a factor. Anime seems to have a tendency to leave a question or two unanswered while some of this has to be expected, if you are watching a finite series (usually 13 or 26 episodes) based on an ongoing manga unless the anime breaks with the manga and tells a story not found in the source material it isn’t going to be able to answer questions or resolve plot points that haven’t been answered or resolved in the manga. While I can understand why that happens, it doesn’t mean I don’t on occasion find it annoying.

When you stop and think about it my solution to these “problems” is pretty illogical. In order to avoid having the anime end, or avoid having to wait for the next release I just stop watching it. Never-the-less I actually do this - it is going on three weeks since I watched episode nine of Busō Renkin, I was certainly enjoying the series, but I didn’t want to wait for the fansub of episode 11 so I haven’t watched episode 10. I’m doing the same thing with Avatar: The Last Airbender (not actually an anime, but the principle is the same) it has been at least a month since I watched episode 36, I’ve got episodes 37-40, but I don’t want to finish the second season and have to wait for the third season to air later this year. The only explanation I can think of is I’d rather stop watching an anime by choice then be forced to stop by reality. I’m not sure what that says about me, other than I’m apparently a very silly man.

Leaving behind any pretense of introspection, but sticking with anime I recently finished one series and started watching two more. The series I finished is ×××HOLiC, based on the manga of the same name by CLAMP. First let me say thank you wikipedia for finally telling me how to pronounce that ridiculous name (it’s just holic the ××× is ment to be a variable). I’ve been reading the manga since it first became available domestically through Del Rey, and I quite enjoy it. The anime (24 episodes) is pretty faithful, but slightly less dark in tone (also see below regarding Tsubasa Chronicle). It centers on Watanuki Kimihiro a high school student cursed by the ability to see spirits (and is constantly bothered by them). Fate however has Kimihiro cross paths with a witch named Ichihara Yūko, and for a price Yūko will grant people’s wishes. Kimihiro’s wish is to no longer be able to spirits; the price of this wish is becoming Yūko’s servant until such a time as he’s worked long enough to pay for his wish. I should point that contrary to how my brief description of the setup might read this isn’t a shōjo story nor is it a romantic comedy.

One of the series that I started watching is Samurai 7 which is based on the movie Seven Samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa (also edited and co-written by him). I’ve watched the first 14 episodes and I’m enjoying it. The setting has an interesting steampunk feel to it, and the juxtaposition of the highly mechanical bandits versus the mostly feudal Japan-esque samurai (the character of Kikuchiyo being one obvious exception) is quite interesting. Equally interesting are the contrasts between the obviously feudal political system, and the mostly sci-fi setting as well as the difference between the lifestyles of the peasants verses both the bandits and the residents of the cities. Thus far the anime has been pretty faithful to the movie. Not surprisingly some elements have expanded and others added, but that was basically a necessity the movie is just over 200 minutes long which would only give enough material for about 8 or 9 episodes (a far cry from the 26 episodes in the series). The anime has already got me thinking about watching the movie again, and if I do that (an easy thing to do since I do own Seven Samurai) I’ll probably get the urge to watch The Magnificent Seven again as well (that I don’t own so it will be a little harder to do).

The other anime I started is Tsubasa Chronicle which is based on the manga Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE by CLAMP (they seem to like odd capitalization). I’ve also been reading the Tsubasa manga since Del Rey started publishing the English language version. Thus far there are 52 episodes of Tsubasa Chronicle (two 26 episode seasons with a third on its way probably this spring). I’ve watched the first 12 episodes and I’ve enjoyed them so far. The story revolves mainly around Sakura and Syaoran, characters originally from Card Captor Sakura (although this Sakura and Syaoran are from a different world and thus not the same as the CCS characters). To greatly simplify the set up Sakura is the princess of the country of Clow. Her brother Tōya is the king, and Yukito is the high priest. Syaoran is her childhood friend, whom she is in love with. Through the machinations of an evil wizard looking to obtain the strange power Sakura possess, she loses her soul and her memories. In order to save her life and recover her soul and memories Yukito sends Sakura and Syaoran to a certain wish granting witch named Yūko. Yūko’s price from helping Syaoran restore Sakura’s memories is his relationship with Sakura. Syaoran may be able to restore her memories and soul, but Sakura will never recover her memories of Syaoran. Syaoran agrees to pay that price and Yūko grants him the ability to travel to other dimensions where he will be able to find Sakura’s memories manifested in the form of a feather. I’m skipping over two other characters who each have their own reasons for traveling the dimensions, and make there own sacrifices to Yūko and travel with Sakura and Syaoran, but that is the crux of the story. In both the manga and anime other characters from earlier CLAMP works continually show up (in slightly different versions of their original appearance), and Yūko continues to play a role (the connection to Tsubasa is almost completely removed in the ×××HOLiC anime, but does come up in the manga).

Finally a woot for this being post number 20.