Thinkin' 'bout Dragonballs

 

The death of Dragonball and DragonballZ creator Akira Toriyama had me thinking about Dragonball. though I don't know that I am really touched by the passing. I have only seen a tiny bit of the actual manga. But I love the series, and I don't really know how involved he was with it. But it would not exist without the guy, so I gotta give props. 

I discovered the show some time in the early or mid 90's. There was no Adult Swim at the time (I think). But it was being shown daily on one of the Los Angeles off channels cartoon blocks. I think I caught the last 30 second of an episode. The characters I would come to love bloviating about some threat or another. I was vaguely aware of its existance before that, but I decided to try and catch a couple of episodes. Like a lot of anime you suddenly discover you have no idea what the fuck is going on. 

I soon saw that they had tapes of these US dubs at my fave video store, so I was able to dive into the first episodes of DragonballZ Goku and his young son visiting what seemed to be old friends on a tiny tropical island. A threat from outer space by guys with similar looks to Goku's. The appearance of Piccolo, who seemed to be an old enemy, though when they showed flashbacks to some previous version of the series where the character looked much older. 

Then I noticed a very small collection of episodes of the original Dragonball, with a young Goku. So I got it; there was a series with Goku as a kid, and Z was a continuation. I was fascinated. then I discovere US dubs that included killing. In the TV dubs I saw when somebody got destroyed, somebody would say something like"wow, you really sent HIM to another dimension!" 

I loved the world as persented in it. In Dragonball the world seemed to be like the Judges Guild Wilderlands; vast wilderness punctuated by points of light villages, with cities to follow in the later show. 

Young Bulma. Later in life she would go on to have sex with 
and bear children for an alien who destroyed entire civilizations
and sometimes even ate them. Bulma was kind of a ho' 

Piccolo was my favorite early on. The antihero of the series. But I liked them all really, and had a fond spot for Krillin, Yamcha, and others. And I loved Goku. Such an innocent but powerful good guy. It was so cool that most of his friends started as enemies who became friends, won over by his good nature as much as his power. Gok and others were killed time and again (I think Krillin held the trophy on how many times). They would travel through hell and go visit King Kai who would make them stronger. 

As new arcs and enemies came in, I became more obsessed. I was never emotionally attached to things my friens loved, like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. But my heart was in this series. The Planet Namek saga. The androids. The Cell Games. It just went on and on. 

Fuck around and find out

Then after years passed I saw Dragonball GT (I think it was called) which did not have any input from Akira  and seemed to be a different show, with Goku a kid again and running around with his grandchildren. 

But into the 2000's it got back on track, but by then I was sort of tired of the constant power growth. And those early sagas were so dear to me, they seemed to be enough, like the earlier seasons of Mad Men or The Sopranos. So besides a peek now and again over the years to see what god level dudes they were fighting, I kind of let it go. But this weekend I seriously wanted to get the Crunchyroll free 7 day trial to watch some early eps, but I had a lot to do so might just do it next week. 

the unsung hero of the series

And also, I never saw as many of the original young Goku eps of Dragonball as I would have liked. I'd like to check out the backgrounds of some of those more mysterious characters, like Yajirobi the fat samurai who will eat anything (including demons and dinosaurs), or Lunch/Launch, a peaceful young girl next door who would turn with a sneeze into a blond femme fatale with a machine gun. I may have to seek those out.

But here's to Akira for creating some of my favorite characters of any genre, and an amazing world for them to punch the shit out of each other in. 

Cheers

Call of Cthulhu Wild West - finally living the Dream

 

I've run three major Call of Cthulhu campaigns Since I was a teen. Two set in 1930's Los Angeles, and two in 1930's New York. Ah, memories. that last one was about 10 years ago for my long running Santa Monica group. I ran a lot of 1st ed over those years, but also managed to get in campaigns (of various lengths) of a bunch of genres. White Box DnD, Metamorphosis Alpha, Runequest, Traveller. But that Cthulhu one, though only maybe a dozen sessions in length, was fun. I called it Fangs of New York, and the first session was set in a Times Square upper story banquet hall at a new years eve party. 

I recall though having fun with that little campaign, but even at that time I was sort of pining to run the system in other time periods. Ancient Rome, Ancient Sumer, maybe even the Old West.  I felt like I had my fill of the 20's-30's. 

Up until the recent holiday season I had a decent 5th ed DnD group going. A fun bunch. Everybody was from off the Roll20 forums, and by this time I had learned to vet prospective players. Heavily. There is a lot of chaff to shift through to find the goods. And everybody was very cool. The most fun for me was a young couple, maybe in their early 20's, who were very enthusiastic noobs and I had a lot of laughs with them. But of course if you have a couple in your group, you aren't just getting somebody who might leave the group for whatever reason. You are typically losing TWO. That is the nature of a couple. They usually want to play together. But whatever is going on with them, we have not heard from that besides one chime in last month saying the wanted to play one night, but it has been silent since. The way I figure it, the thing young couples do best is break up. So my assumption is there. 

As it was the holidays, I called a few weeks break mid-December. I had not taken vacation time from my job for months, and wanted to use some of it. 

By the time New Years Eve came around, I had gotten the notion to try and get a Western themed Cthulhu thing going. It just popped into my head. Hey, if the DnD campaign is done, I want to jump right into something else. 

 I tested the waters with a post in the Roll20 forums, and just like my expectations told me I did not get much reply. I tried a few spots in other places, and eventually was lucky enough to stumble upon a Call of Cthulhu Facebook page with a huge membership. My post there got a huge response. 

I did not vet that hard. This was a niche genre, but plenty of people were interested. I actually had to choose several from a dozen or so inquiries. I had a couple of shortish Discord chats. The only one who did not continue by the night of the first game was a guy who wanted to run a Paleontologist. He had been running Cthulhu for years, but not in the format I wanted to do it. He wanted to play with Zoom, with video, and with theater of the mind. Well, in face to face or online I use battle maps, mini's/tokens, and Discord for voice. And everybody else I chose were into it. 

Ultimately, I ended up with mostly folk from the FB page who had played CoC, and also some of the remnants from the D&D group. 

So three easy going sessions so far. I mean, this is not DnD, and it has been years since I ran CoC. So I had to get more into a narrative style. Not relying on constant combats. Though I had to look for balance. Unlike my usual old campaigns of CoC, this was a more violent environment, and almost every character had guns. I set this campaign in 1886 Washoe County, that includes Reno, Carson City, and Virginia City. Towards the end of the gold rush in the west, and towards the end of what could be called The Old West in general. I mostly picked the time because most western weapons and tropes were around, and also because it was the year the University of Nevada opened in Reno. 

So far the characters are A female Doctor, a teenage female Chinese carnival trick shooter (both from San Franciso just hours away by train; and of course I'll want some adveturing there eventually), a two-fisted banker (from Virgina City who has survived dozens of robbery attempts), A writer based on Beauchamp from the movie Unforgiven (Duck of Death sez I), and former nun turned entertainer/dancer. 

Jordan, from the DnD campaign, has been on a long Canada trip so has yet to make it. Not even sure what he would run. For both of the guys from the DnD, they were kind of noobish to DnD, so for sure had zero CoC experience. They were not very interested until they heard I would be doing old western theme, and also they saw it was an easy peezy system, so they were in. 

So yeah, so far so good. So far just sort of settling into their lives in Reno, and encounters with cultishness related to Yig (losta snakes!), and Yidhra. 

I was at some game shop many years ago reading through one of the books and saw her entry and was fascinated ever since. She was for sure not a Lovecraft invention.

"...where Yidhra walks, the hills do not forget"

So yeah, as a believer in positive visualization I finally get to not just use this Outer God, but in a Western Cthulhu game. Boxes checked! I hope this campaign goes awhile!

Cheers

Describing PC Levels or Weapon with Pluses in-game

 In-game trying to find a way to describe to somebody a weapon or other item with bonuses, or a character level, was always weird. There were not many ways around it. You just meta-described out of game and that was that. At least it's what I did. 

As far as character levels it seemed easier to describe a magic-users. And I don't mean using the dumb names for levels like prestidigitator and charlatan or whatever. I would just have the mages guild use designations for members such as "Ah yes, Peldifferous is a "mage of the 7th circle" or something like that. Spell ability is a good in-world judging gimmick for MU's. For example the Mages Guild in my main city of Tanmoor restricts even the lowest tiers of membership to 4th level or higher (there can be some exceptions for third level, such as a glowing recommendation from a high-level member). Easy enough to test them by having them show proof of appropriate spell ability. I remember having to do this in a Skyrim quest and it was pretty cool.

Of course, some old school classes, such as druids and monks, had some non-spell ability level requirements there probably had to be martial tests for at later levels. 

For most other classes; fighters, thief/rogue or whatever, you had to abstract it a bit. How they perform their craft out in the field or what not. Reputation. 

Mr. Satan is an example of how 
imperfect the system can be.

But for weapons and items that give pluses I no longer sweat it. I've recently started just letting characters understand what the numbers mean. An amulet of Extra AC that is +1 is almost useless. But a +5 one is certainly something you want to count on in a big battle. A shield with such even more. A plus 1 sword is about the same as an exceptionally crafted one, but a +3 is decent magic. It makes a difference.

A character only needs experiment a little to understand its magical quality. "Hey, I think this dagger is +2." 

Any other abilites the item may have is another matter. However its done, identify spell or what not, I don't really like to spend a lot of time on more minor items. If they have some kind of meaning beyond a little help in battle, I spend more time on it. But "hey, it seems like it is maybe a +3 axe" and getting on with the game is usually good enough for my players. And a little metagaming sneaking in never hurt anybody. YMMV.

Cheers

Gaming Inspiration out in the wild 2

 

Gaming inspiration is where you find it. Last year after a lovely, almost spiritual weekend in the deep Mendocino woodlands I posted about the moments where my mind went to games that take place in natural places. 

Now to do it again. After a long year at work in my healthcare related job (mostly hybrid so work from home, hold the applause) and not taking much time off from it, early this month I drove the several hours to Mendocino. Not to the woods, but not far from it. Some of my oldest friends and some of their Bay Area music friends, couple dozen in all, rented an old 1800's farmhouse (in great condition) right near the stunning sea cliffs and coves of Casper, California; pretty much Mendocino.

I made it an extra-long weekend. Leaving on a Thursday even though we had the house until Monday morn. I spent Thursday night in a small hippy town called Willits ("Gateway to the Redwoods"), in a quiet hotel where both that afternoon and the next morning had the sauna all to myself.

With the area being cold and misty, the town itself surrounded by woods, it was a great way to relax and prepare for an extended party in a house chock full of musicians.

I'm so grateful to still be a part of a scene where once a year or so I get invited to these terrific and exclusive weekends. At least once a year. And for this one I got to the property first and got to check out the house.

nice Night of the Living Dead vibe

There is something very cool about being their first and watching folk roll in and greeting them, beers and other drinks getting handed around (we had to wait a while for the cleaning ladies to get the place ready for us). 

But before long the party was in full swing. Rooms assigned (I got my own little love room), friends hugged, and more drinks. Great conversations and catch ups, big laughs, and eventually full-on music sessions. 

To many little weekend misadventures to be included here, but on Sunday early afternoon I did a little solo walk to the seacliffs. And of course with some alone time and such great views, some gaming ideas came to mind.

What a great location for characters to explore sea caves. I'm even thinking of having the characters in my upcoming western themed Call of Cthulhu campaign, located in the Pacific Northwest, visit this area. Deep Ones no doubt need to be included!

But yeah, another great vacation weekend out in nature and filled with friends and music. Something like this seems to becoming a yearly think. I don't want to make time fly by, but cannot wait to find out where we will do it next!

Cheers!