What the hell is Grendel?

As a lifelong D&D guy, I never explored Beowulf to much a degree. Sure, I may have read some translation of the poem at some point as a kid, but I don't recall it. Probably because there is a certain amount of ambiguity and "minimal description" in some of the verbal imagery. Kind of like reading Dracula or Frankenstein.  What informs your mental picture of these creatures is more often than not things that come way after the debut of the literary works. Bela Legosi is our best-known image of Drac. Karloff is our Frankie. But what is our Grendel? 

Today while doing the usual early Sunday puttering around cleaning and cooking with the tellies on in all the rooms and trying to make up my razoodock about what to do with my Sunday afternoon, I saw that the 2007 computer animated film Beowulf was on. I remember seeing it a bit over 10 years ago (on TV I am sure), and how I was struck by the great motion capture and voice work of the monster Grendel. So, I took another look. Sure, there are other monsters in it (dragons are kind of ho hum these days), but Grendel is kind of the sweet spot. Crispin Glover gives a lot of personality to the creature. As Grendel busts into the great mead hall multiple times, he whimpers and moans as if each movement is agony. Indeed, he very much resembles Glover, but with fatal burn wounds all over his body and possible spinal stenosis.

He cries, he howls, he stomps the shit out of men with his size 32 feet. He picks up warriors and bites their heads off like chocolate bunnies. I have not seen a ton of the other film interpretations of Grendel, but I cannot imagine some growling, clawed animal like version of Grendel could be as scary as Glovers. He is both frightening and terrifying in that Frankenstein way. Even when taking a wound, he is angry and weeping at the same time. Disturbing. 

I have to guess that 90% of the people who own 
and display this got it as a gift or won it in a contest.

But what is this thing? I am no expert by a long shot. I've done maybe 20 minutes of research right now, and a lot is open to interpretation. Really, translations vary, and different translators have had their own take based on what they know of the ancient language. Some even seem to suggest Grendel is not necessarily humanoid. Or that he may actually be a bipedal dragon, seeing as dragons are a theme in the tales. But all seem to point at Grendel being a descendant of the biblical Cain.

 Grendel represents "a monstrous outsider enraged by the joy of brotherhood and society from which he is forever banished. His enmity towards Heorot is grounded solely in this moral perversion, which is another example of the hatred of the good simply because it is good."  Grendel exhibits his envy towards the warriors as Cain did to his brother, Abel, so long ago.

 

Some interpretations just suggest Grendel was simply a badass local warlord who attacked the mead hall with his followers on occasion. 

Maybe really go deep in the weeds and
imagine him as an evil wrestling clown.

OK, so whatever it is this monster is preying on the local community as food source, for pure hatred, or a combo of both (the 2007 film suggests he is just sensitive to sound and the noise of the mead hall keeps him up at night). And this is one of the elements that would make this part of the tale the perfect D&D scenario. Hell, a DIY DM who isn't all that aware of Beowulf is likely to come up with the scenario independently. Monster preying on the populace; heroes intervene to tackle the problem. 

What classic game monsters would make the best Grendel in the scenario? Well, the Crispin Glover Grendel seems very Troll to me. There are similarities between this version and the classic D&D troll. 

Really, if characters of around 3rd level stumbled into the situation a monster of around the power level of a troll would be probably perfect. It's a slobber knocker of a fight, but they likely prevail (especially if they go to fire use). If it's one single 8th or 10th level fighter (like Beowulf) the fighter will win, but he'll know he was in a fight.

A good old hill giant would make for a good, loud, stompy indoors fight.

 And I suppose a basic ogre would do if it's a group of 1st or 2nd level characters. Or you could go outside the box and have an outcast Beholder be the troublemaker. Maybe a minor demon of some kind? Vrock? Maybe one of those toadish ones? 

Or go full DIY and create something of your own. A creature that is both horrifying and unique. Maybe and alien. Xenomorph! The Predator! Clearly your Grendel can be whatever you want him to be. I have a lot of old monstrous minis that don't resemble any common D&D staple critters.

Hell yeah

But don't forget that dungeon component. Beowulf had to go to the caves and deal with Grendel's mom. So, after wasting the dude, characters can go nip down to the dungeon from whence he came to deal with the other creatures that lurk there. His mom, benefactor of some kind, or maybe his pets which happen to be a bunch of basic lesser monsters. 

There's a local con later in the year looking for DM's (I was tapped to do a rare con appearance last year but it got cancelled), and suddenly I'm inclined to use a scenario based on this. Perfect for a 3-4 hour one shot. Characters stop at an inn, the monster attacks and is slain/escapes, and it's off to the dungeon (for a hearty reward of course) to take care of the creature and/or his allies. Easy peasy, right?

 With things based on ancient literature, it's all good meat and potatoes for D&D adventures. 

Zombies as Weather

 

It's a subject that has been discussed to death the last decade or so, much in the way ninjas were in the 80's. 

Resident Evil games, Walking Dead, Shaun of The Dead, Zak Snyders Dawn of The Dead, several other zombie films with various takes on the genre, etc of the last 20 years or so have made spooky, hungry ghouls pop culture phenomenon. 

It's probably one of my favorite games, Dead of Winter, that has me in a zombie state of mind these days. Probably Walking Dead as well. A lot of the TV I stream is Pluto TV, and they have a Walking Dead channel constantly showing seasons 1-4. 

When I started playing D&D as a kid, I was super into the magical, Mythic dungeon concept. It was kind of bizarre, kind of scary, creepy; a mystery, usually a horrifying one, is around every corner (unless you buy into that Gygaxian/Grognardian "every third room should be empty" palaver). But after years of them, they are still fun but lose a lot of that mysterious wonder. When you watch Romero's Night of The Living Dead as a kid, those lumbering, weak ass dead people terrifying. I mean, they are dead! 

But then you get older, still thinking zombies are gross and creepy, but you start to get into the weeds a bit more on the subject. You're first major question is "how did this happen." Is it germ warfare gone wrong? Or is there a supernatural explanation? Each movie offers up possible clues to what might have happened. Astronauts bringing back radiation is mentioned on the telly in Night of the Living Dead. I think it was the original Dawn of the Dead poster that read "when there is no more room in hell.." 

On Walking Dead, after season two zombies became third class co-stars: a backseat to evil humans. The Guv'na, The Wolves, The Whisperer's, that boss from hell Negan. Zombies Are now just the backdrop, more or less treated the same as a form of bad weather. You plan for it. You have procedures (grab the umbrella, put on a coat, gas up the chainsaw). But the show has long since become about interactions of the characters and the human threat. And for any of us who love Mad Max movies we know what the threat is. If The Road Warrior had zombies, Lord Humongous and Wes would still remain the scariest things in the Outback.  Anyway, when in season two our heroes ended up on Hershel's farm, it was an area light on zombies (spoiler: they were getting roped and locked up in a barn). 

Fucking Hershel. Fucking Rick. Fucking farm. 

Speaking of that season, I disliked it quite a bit at first. Watching it I already knew why they were going to be exclusively at a single location the whole time, besides the odd trip to the bar for a drink or the pharmacy for pregnancy tests to see if Lori was rocking a Shane-baby, or birth control so Maggie could get her Glen on. But it was known that AMC was shifting the majority of the money for other, more critically acclaimed shows like Mad Men and Breaking bad, series that flounder a couple of seasons then blew up into huge ratings grabbers. And honey gets the money. But when I watch it now, I appreciate what happened in the same way I appreciate Spielberg not getting the shark to work. The toned-down season where characters talked their asses off in the kitchen about morals and dishwashing duties ended up putting the show in the direction of the new world still being about people, and zombies just a new normal in the background. Kind of like weather. And as was always kind of promised the human foes turned out to be often scarier than The Walkers. And the characters by recent seasons are just desensitized to the undead. 

Yeah, the farm kind of got what it deserved

It's a natural progression. Night of the Living Dead is about a single night. You might be stuck in a small farmhouse with a near catatonic lady and a family headed by a loud-mouther boor, but it's all about the zombie problem. Front and center. In the original Dawn of the Dead, it's a messed up, horrifying situation. But once you get into the mall, clear it out and lock it up, a few months later your thoughts turn to food and shopping and all that. You might have to deal with the ghouls now and again, but it's just another part of the world now. Another danger. But one you better take seriously. The bikers who show up at the end of the movie are having fun, but they pay the price for not taking "zombie weather" seriously. 

The Dead of Winter boardgame pretty much treats the zombies like weather conditions. When you leave the colony and go out in the field, or any time you want to kill a zombie, you roll a 12-sided die and the result is abstract. A wound (of which you can have three before dying), a frostbite condition (a wound that keeps on giving), or most rarely a zombie bite which can not only kill you but give you the hard choice of saving the victim or risking others getting infected and dying. 

As the actual weather effect of frostbite, regular generic wound, and zombie bite are on one dice, it's all baked together. It's all "exposure." From the cold, from the everyday hazards of a wild world, and from a good old zombie bite. Sure, there are zombie counters that can overrun an area eventually and cause characters to die in the location if you don't set up enough barricades or kill some zombies off, but once again it's like mother nature. A flood. Rather than pile up sandbags you try to thin them out. Zombies becoming once again an everyday thing. At least abstractly. "Make sure and take your galoshes and shotgun, dear!"

And just like Walking Dead or any modern zombie things, it's all about the characters. Dead of Winter has great characters galore, all with a special ability. It's what they do and what they get away with (or don't) where the fun lies. How they deal with the natural hazards, which includes the undead, is just dealing with nature.  

Whatever they are or how they came to be, zombies on a series such as Walking Dead are kind of in the background. It took a while, but the characters are kind of desensitized from being around them, easily killing them, living with the problem for years. Much like how we think of the weather. If its mild no problem. If there is a storm and threat of flood or heavy snow, we up our game and put it at least temporarily to the forefront of our thoughts. When it calms down, its back to not thinking of it. Same with getting used to the zombie problem. Big herd of them comes through its battle stations. Just a couple of them show up, meh, get out your gun or knife much like getting a raincoat or snow shovel out when you need it. 

You deal with it, but afterwards you don't wonder how this could be a science or supernatural thing. Why they can exist for years without blood or working organs. Why they eat and eat and never seem to have poopy pants. Why the hell their shoes don't fall off after a few days. You just deal with it like any other natural problem, then wonder what board game to bust out tonight.

 I recommend it be Dead of Winter.

Your chance to ask that cute girl you just met if she'd 
like to join you

 

NYE Boardgaming - The Long Night and King of Tokyo Halloween

 On NYE I got to spend the night with my local besties B and L, and some of their local friends who they have gotten into some of the boardgames we love. 

It was on a big rural property in the sticks. Foothills of the Sierra Mountain range about a half hour away. The area is still laden with snow from the big storms earlier in the week, and it's just beautiful. I got my own flat to sleep in for the night (with horses living just under it), so I was totally up for it and raring to go for drinking, smoking, and playing some games. B and L are also hitting the road soon (they spend about half the year out on the open road) so it was about my last real change to game with them for at least a couple months.

So after a bit of the usual holiday cheer we got down to it. B and L recently got the Dead of Winter expansion The Long Night. It ties in nicely with the original game, making it and even bigger play area. A bandit hideout is included, and also the location of "Raxxon," this games Umbrella corporation. I'm sure this is a ripe-off or Marvel comics old Roxxon evil corporation. Raxxon is making super zombies, and is also likely the cause of the zombie crisis. 

You also get a lot of new characters, including a monkey. 

It plays out just like regular Dead of Winter. This was the first time doing it with 5 players, so there was a lot going on. By halfway through the game pretty much everybody at some point was accused of being the traitor. But towards the end it was clearly Bill, who was promptly exiled. 

The paranoia is the best thing about the game, since everybody gets a motivation card with objectives, and if the player tries to meet them (such as the game being won with two weapons in your possession or whatever) and the actions don't appear to serve the common good, you will get eyebrows raised at you, traitor or not.

The players won the game, though I was lacking one of my objectives, so I didn't get to share in the bragging rights. 

We also then played a few rounds of King of Tokyo, one of my quick game faves. But our kind hosts for the night owned the Halloween edition so we played that. One of the change ups from the regular edition is every character gets a costume card. So your Kaiju might be dressed as a cheerleader, or a princess or witch. This gives you a special ability. 

Since you don't always get a lot of power up cards in the original edition, I welcome something to make your monster different. But the costume thing kind of destroys any verisimilitude. OK, that is kind of ridiculous statement seeing as this is a whimsical game to begin with. But it's all good. It was just s different way to play it. And I did enjoy the chaos of a 5 person game. 

And its all about being with friends on the last night of the year, and that is what counts the most. B and L have been really good to me the last couple of years, and spending time with them, even often as a third (or even 5th) wheel, is very important to me. So, the year for me was ended just right. 

Happy new year!