The Return of the Jedi and/or the Rise of the Galaxy

I'd think that in a leg of western history that looks heavily shaped by and for the internationalist, disaffected and atheist 'nerd' with a moderately idealistic view of nature - I'm generalising and conflating a bit - the Ewoks would be more popular.

After all, they're an ungainly, galactic everyman, underdogs who come good, mastering a tyrannical aggressor with their own tech, even taking the first steps in a new paradigm.

And if not absolutely popular, at least relatively, compared with, say, the Jedi, presented as physiologically favoured, aristocratic alpha warriors not so much seeking progress by intelligence as led by an abstraction to restore a presumably established religious order.

Why this dissonance? Is it just the Jedi having more readily identifiable individuals, or traditional hero figures? Or is it the personally empowering mysticism of the Force, or the Jedi access to not just spiritual but worldly power? Or is it something more subtle..?

When worlds collide! or share a barycentre for a while

I've not done a funky link set for a bit so here are some recent crossover posts, or more intricate combinations of theme, you might not have seen.

• JD at The Disoriented Ranger pondered design and play in light of the OSR
• Zhu Bajiee statted up some Tékumel miniatures for third edition Warhammer
• Stelios linked Oldhammer to the OSR and will do a third edition readthrough
• The Beat Ronin reflected on growing up and changes in approach over time
• Von showed the making of a Black Legion warband with Realm of Chaos
• Jonas at Deathworld Adventures played GW's Inquisitor with action figures
• Trey at From the Sorcerer's Skull sketched a superheroic science fantasy
• Wayne R. at SIU listed classic modules, with work by Raggi and McKinney
• Early D&D player Cyclopeatron converted a Menoth Avatar for Warmachine
• The Alternative Wargamer scratchbuilt a YG-4210 for FFG's popular X-Wing
• Nathan at Corehammer compared past GW artist Ian Miller to HP Lovecraft
• The Secret Sun looked at the evidence for Lovecraft having a secret source
• Tim at The Other Side wrote up Mary Poppins, as both witch and time lord
  

There's a lot more weirdness going on, especially in the upper three blogrolls on the left.
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Firepower of that magnitude: FFG, GW and licensing

Fantasy Flight's X-Wing has been causing a great disturbance in the FLGS, being unusually accessible with its well-known setting, light rules and prepainted miniatures. And soon there'll be Star Wars: Armada, for battles with capital ships.

Appendix OSR (2)

I've been reading The Secret History of Star Wars on a now mysterious Marcia Lucas and thinking.

Thinking it's another good text for that reading list.

Thinking we may think we create, and do, but not so much as we might like to think we do. We can hold worlds in our heads (with art or miniatures to help maybe, and numbers etc.), but mostly these are variations on this world even when they're not.

And how well do we actually know this one..? Or each other's version? Do we even know our own?

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Light in the dark

Another video, with a connection of sorts to the last. This time the Star Wars prequels, which I also have little to say about in general. Another of those complex subjects.

Recently though I had a chance to watch certain scenes again, and rediscovered an effective sequence, part of the 'duel' between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul.

It starts at 1:48 and runs through to 4:08. In my view what goes on in that 140 seconds falls down only for the not-quite-perfect acting - luckily just one word is used - as well as a lack of identification with the characters, and maybe one or two odd movements.

On the upside, we get some good characterisation, well chosen shots, spaces that play a role, and references to the wider narrative I'm willing to believe were thought through.

At any rate, however well or badly the individual elements work in the context of the film, prequel trilogy and entire series, I do think the sequence as a whole deserves praise. To my mind too its overall minimalism is a good route in to a critique of the larger project.

It's 12 years today. It was a moment in many of our lives. What do you think?

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Next year's words

     For last year's words belong to last year's language

     And next year's words await another voice. 

Little Gidding, T. S. Eliot       

Thanks to Cygnus at Servitor Ludi I spent a bit of time today reading one very engaging blog in particular.

The blog is Secret Sun and the first of its many gems I'd like to commend to the readers of the Expanse is the series of posts in The Star Wars Symbol Cycle.

Most reading this will know - or see - George Lucas borrowed or absorbed a few ideas, but not everyone will know all of the speculated sources. I didn't, and probably still don't. But the sources named open up gateways to whole other worlds of speculation. Click around the blog and check some out. How inspiring, and limiting, is that?

My question to all you bright people is this. Can one of us wake up tomorrow and create a truly new work - whether game, story or image - one which draws on no existing works, and is based on, say, first principles?

Triffles (9) - A broken fall

If you opened that trapdoor, it would be well to be careful, or hope for a broken fall.

                                           a limb trapped / strap caught /

                                          branch / ledge / outcrop / pile

              /

a broken fall

/             \

 a good vantage point /           a cry of pain / clatter of
 fortunate line of sight             equipment / breakages

Rules simulating this kind of thing could well be found in skirmish games, and they suit roleplaying too. If a model is close to an edge and struck, on a certain roll they might fall, on another roll get stuck and become a sitting duck. In exchange the model could get a clear shot. Think Han Solo above the sarlacc, here from 8:22.

In general lots of questions. What exactly has the individual fallen on and how will they get down, or even back up? What can they see? What have they lost? Most importantly perhaps, what will be attracted by the noise they've made, and will they fall further? 

It's good for comedy too.

Fundamental laws of a fictional universe (1)

Here's something I've been tinkering with, but which I realise now will never be properly finished, except perhaps with your help. The stakes are high - the nature of reality.

Not such a long time ago at a blog not so far away, the The Angry Lurker put up this image of Luke's proton torpedoes entering the Death Star. As I mentioned later at the D6 post here, my comment was this: "It's a fundamental law of a fictional universe. You can't get round that kind of thing." At the D6 post I explained the thinking by saying "that is what we're talking about here - fictional worlds. A DM/GM and players may not be operating at high magnifications, and may not need to. I'd argue the range of options we expect in any given situation - and are happy to be given - are fewer than we'd think."

Since then I've come across the idea in all kinds of places, notably in the prototype mashup machine at The Lost Continent and in some thoughts on fantasy tropes at The Ostensible Cat. Cyclopeatron has just covered major influences, and the list is worth exploring. I was recently introduced to Seventh Sanctum and that site does this kind of thing very well - you might need your imagine much less for knowing about it.

Anyone playing a game has an interest in fiction, inspired by cinema and literature or not. Even in a real world setting, gaming is telling a story. Many systems allow for dramatic moments of the X-wing / Death Star kind, but others don't make it easy, or allow it only rarely, perhaps even accidentally. To make it more possible that some of our universal expectations occur, I've put together a simple card-based supplementary system. This something that exists in many games of course, but in going about it, I had in mind the strategy card system from the second edition of Warhammer 40,000. The idea is that each player is dealt one or more cards at the beginning of the game, which are then kept secret and played at an opportune moment, as directed by the card.

Viva la revolución!

Happy new Gregorian calendar year! Here's to another orbit of the sun, more or less!

If you want gaming inspiration for 2011, you might start with the personal summaries of games played - or not - at Creepy Corridor, Fire Broadside!, ArmChairGeneral, Plastic Legions, Super Galactic Dreadnought and Mik's Minis, all of which cover various options.

Need your lists of bests? Lazy Thoughts From a Boomer has best bits in blogs, books and movies. Asking the Wrong Questions has opinions I trust on best and worst books, while shadowplay does movies that appeared only in alternate universes...

Papa JJ at diceRolla has something similar, a list unpublished posts. This seems to me dangerously like the approach Zanazaz took at Have dice, will travel... re iron spikes...

Resolutions abound, but the reading list at Huge Ruined Pile is a huge ambitious pile. If that helps put you in your place in time, see Slight Foxing for your place in existence.

Finally, there may or may not be an actual arrow of time, but there is an Arrow of Time at Tower of the Archmage. Impeccable timing.

With Earth history moving on, I thought you might also appreciate a few speculative timelines, elements of histories and/or info on calendars. Here they are then, by scope.

All mines?

Here's a brief list of fictional mines and other mining-related resources, hopefully useful to someone at some point for settings, scenarios or terrain, in whatever kind of game or fiction. I'll update as I find or remember more, with your suggestions too if you have any.

Have a look at the original post for a few thoughts on how these or similar places might fit into games. With the length of the list as it is, they do seem relatively underused.

Foxing Day

We've all had some time with our gifts now, and probably been thinking about presents for ourselves and others plenty over the past few weeks. Johnathan at Ostensible Cat prefers not to list and I largely agree, while Desert Scribe at Super Galactic Dreadnought has thoughts on golden oldies (for Star Wars fans years could fall away at Back in '81). But how much have you thought about gifts in general?

I've mentioned The Log from the Sea of Cortez here once before. This is one of those books that keeps on giving. In the appendix Steinbeck suggests a defining quality of his close friend and mentor Ed Ricketts may have been the ability to receive. Steinbeck describes giving as a “a selfish pleasure”, but says receiving done well needs “a fine balance of self-knowledge and kindness”, “humility and tact and great understanding of relationships”, wisdom and even “a self-esteem”.

Ricketts is described as accepting a thing, but not taking it and keeping it as property, and association with him is said to have been “deep participation”. From reading the book as a whole, the authors – Ricketts included – seem to have an almost mythical view of synthesis and the non-teleological, the thing as it is.

As Steinbeck also says, giving can be “downright destructive”. We know this. In games plenty can be done with the fact. Where would Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 be without the corrupting gifts of Chaos? How about Tolkien's Rings of Power? They must have seemed like the perfect present at the time, for the lord who has everything. A DM/GM can use his or her players worst instincts against them, luring them into danger on the basis of greed or lust, or just giving them an item they can't not use...

A tall ship and a star (1)

In The Log from the Sea of Cortez, we are told of a visit to Macy's in New York during which a strange observation was made. In the boat department over the course of an hour every man and boy and many women knocked thrice on each hull. Was this an unconscious testing, an act in assuring survival as ingrained as the pattern in the wood?

Ships then. Hard to leave them behind. Even when imagining the far future. On a world 70.9% covered with liquid, sailing will naturally inform our view of travel across vast open spaces. Not least when the dominant cultures here on Earth are still English-, Spanish- and French-speaking ones, cultures built also from interactions crossing oceans.