D&D and the Rise (and fall?) of the Beautiful People

OK, it may be more truthful to call them "Peacocks." 

But whatever it is, behind my back, a bunch of D&D players have become D&D celebrities. High profile, entourage-towing, "hey look at me" types. Back in my early gaming life the most beautiful D&D player I knew was my high school sweetheart. Me and my friends were lucky enough that our gals were into pop culture things, and D&D was not off the table. All the other groups we knew in those days were sausage fests. Tables full of long hairs in heavy metal band T shirt bands, or young George Costanza's. That's not to say we had it better than anybody else (or maybe we did). But it's always nice to have fun in a mixed group. You know, like a beer commercial. And whether I had a GF involved or not, into the 2000's I was always able to get a decently mixed gender gaming group. 

I guess it was D&D with Porn Stars where a bunch of women gaming came to the fore. Not that I was aware of everything going on in the OSR. I read a few blogs, did my own little blog, made some friends, got in some beefs, then got into other things. When it came to D&D I decided to just focus on running. I've been mostly out of the loop for years now. But I decided to write a little bit in current times when somebody told me a blog is a great place to write for yourself. And that is what I am doing. But my gaming life has gone through changes, and I feel like there are some personal tales to tell. And let's face it, pop culture nerds like to talk pop culture. Even if hardly anybody is listening. But jeez, looking deeper into the game culture scene makes me wish I hadn't sometimes. But trainwrecks are hard to look away from. 

That wasn't so for Zak Smith and his blog some years ago. It was gaming with a whiff of dirty sex; porn girls playing D&D How was that NOT a win? It was popular as hell. Maybe in part from Zaks writing, maybe in part from the presence of the gals. 

Zak and company during much, much, much,
much, much, much more happier times.

 I can't speak on the talent of Smith. To me a lot of what the "edgelords" were doing did not seem much more clever than what those heavy metal dudes in high school were doing. Poop and cocks and unbeatable scenarios. But whatever. When I stopped blogging I paid little attention. When I turned my back on the whole OSR scene I guess the biggest controversy was James at Grognardia walking away from his "legendary dungeon" (that had only been invented a couple of years before) Kickstarter. And with nary a word. He did that going out for smokes and never coming back thing He did recently come back, but I could not say to what reception. He still has (reduced) comments in his comment section, and seems to have been invited to a couple of podcasts (that I never heard of). But I've been out of the loop, and still am. 

Though the Zak Smith/Mandy Morbid controversy was a hell of a thing that happened. A broken relationship and some serious allegations, followed by a big time cancellation of the dude. I never knew how popular the guy had been in the gaming scene, although I can say with a fact that anybody I met and gamed with in the last three years in my new town had ever heard of Zak, and most not of the OSR There is money to be made there, but its still a small pond. And most Kickstarters in the scene seem to go to hell. 

But Satine Phoenix? Some knew about her, mostly I guess from the recent rise in streaming popularity. And spending hours watching that shit. Watching other people have fun. 

I knew of her mostly because she was a major personality at a famous comic book shop in my home town. There was a Meetup. For 10 bucks you could come play D&D with a porn "star" and have pancakes. Well, they did not lean into the porn thing, but Satine was also one of Zak Smith's players, and a part of his video projects (not porn, but D&D with porn stars. And oh, I guess there was some porn too). 

More recently Satine is parted from Zak. Right after the allegations she spoke up in support of his accuser, and went on to her own things. She started living a life in rubber elf ears. Going to conventions and trying to gain a high profile. She was a D&D community leader (that seems to give more bragging rights than anything else). She appeared in a Rick and Morty comic. She clearly was on a path of more fame in the usual small pond of D&D. Special guest stuff. 

But that pond got bigger once 5th edition settled in and got more popular, and started skewing younger. And this was the age of streaming. And even I became a fan of some streamers. Such as the Vtube Egirls using motion capture tech to appear as living anime girls on Twitch and Youtube. 

That's what I'm talkin' bout..

Not so much tabletop. Watching others play D&D is about as much fun for me as watching two flies fucking. No matter how much they dress it up. Not the community theater of Critical Role. None of it.

I like watching streamers play video games...especially when they look like this...

Valkyrae. I have fun watching her have fun.

Pokimane. She's from Monaco! Also appeared 
briefly in the movie Free Guy.

 I think I did watch a lot of Foreververse when I moved into my new town and didn't have a full TV channel lineup for a few weeks. Jason Miller and Amy Vorpahl were on that. 

Who are they? I dunno. Outside of that show I didn't know where they were from or what they did. Though in the pic Jason is wearing a shirt from a famous music store in my home town. But they did seem like very cool and casual people on that show. I sort of liked it for that. Everybody seemed like regular folk. Zero vamping. And Jason ran some Basic D&D with In Search of The Unknown and his style was very endearing.  Miller and Vorpahl seemed to have become part of the Satine entourage lately, minor gaming celebs making up a wall of protection around Satine and her colorful husband, Stone Jamison. Maybe they weren't so nice when with these "beautiful people?"

C'mon, he looks like a nice guy. Who would totally
not tell you to get a haircut and lose some weight..

This guy is somebody I only learned about in regard to the Satine controversy. Yep, of course. Another big controversy in a small pond. I guess Satine hooked up with this guy, a tattooed gym rat with heavily gelled rainbow brite hair who seemed to be making a bicep muscle pose in every other photo I see. I mean, I go to the gym and have decent guns, but I'm not always posing them. Or even wearing short sleeve shirts. 

Oh yeah, there's the flex

And apparently every character is..him. Not too douchy a move.

Satine tends to be rendered in lots of art, and she is featured on the Kickstarted art...big time..

So I don't know about their businesses. I was aware of Satine's Destination Fantastique kickstarter that seemed to be a money making dodge as best I can tell. Hey, when you are getting popular you need to milk your simps, right? But was that a sign of less than genuine intent for Satine? Because just in my reading the last couple days, she appears as a person, when the cameras are off, puts a lot of effort into seeming nice and gaining a following to monetize. Her and the Light Brite hubby running D&D in castles and on cruise ships. Nothing wrong with that. But the main point seems to be they were not really nice people, especially if they owed you money. Becoming hostile and belittling when asked for updates on pay, and a shit ton of gaslighting.  In the latest updates Satine seems to be making a play at throwing the husband under the bus to save that brand. She talks of supporting his abusive behavior, though apparently she was not as nice as her smiles or rubber ears would lead you to think. He can go sulk in the bondage room while Satine goes on to the conventions in the ears and tries to get some good will back. And she does have those industry friends. Who will go and who will stay? Jason Miller and Amy Vorpahl were guests at the velvet rope wedding they had a Gencon (though sources say they had already gotten married...but you need that attention, right? Repeat it at a con where you are already treated as a star). 

I dunno. For me it's much ado about nothing. For my life I mean. Its an interesting story, sure. Its why I'm talking about it. Like any of the controversies. But it is a tale about lives being destroyed, for better or worse. I can't say if Zak Smith got what was coming to him. There seems to be a case of an embittered ex. But I don't know these people. Satine and company as well, but multiple complaints seem to be adding up. And this is just a few days old. There is likely to be more to come. I smell cancellations, but maybe Satine and her ears can at least get her out of it. 

(I want to add that Battle of the Bards, though kind of overly flashy, seems kind of cool to me).

I'll just be gaming. Tonight is game night! I don't know how beautiful my players are. I don't use video on Roll20. Well, "T" is a former actress. I know what she looks like. But the others are fairly young. And that skews much better for me than when I did 1st ed in later years.

YMMV. Cheers. 

Negative Continuity in Gaming

 "As you may recall, our last episode had nothing to do with the previous episode. Or this one either."

—The Pigs in Space announcer, The Muppet Show

Last year I wrote a post about rebooting certain adventure locals in my games. 

I discussed my decades of trying to remain true to a certain continuity in my world. Such as when the Isle of Dread was explored for the first time, that locale would no longer by as in the book. The island was now a know commodity, and ships would sail to it from time to time looking to trade with the local tribes that had been placated by the original visitors. When it gets visited now there is a mainlander company outpost among the native huts to serve visitors after the long and dangerous journey. 

But in the most recent decades I stopped worrying about it so much. I mean, since around 2010 I've used the Lichway twice, making for a total of at least 3 times I've used it. And when later characters got there, no, there were no legions of undead roaming its halls. I simply reset the location. I've done the same with my long used adaptation of Runequest's Apple Lane. I've used it close to a half dozen times as is. And why not? My player roster changes fully every few years (with the notable exception of my oft-mentioned long time player "T"), so who was I fooling? Just reuse the shit, nobody cares. Most importantly me. 

So I was using the term "reboot" or "reset" for this concept, but I recently learned a new term that sounds much better to me, and most people won't even know what it means in the way the automatically do when you say "reboot."

That term/concept is "Negative Continuity."

We've seen it for years in things we enjoy in the media. We saw it in the Simpsons for decades. And my earliest experience with it was probably the evil dead movies. The second one was big time a full on reboot, but if you squinted your brain a little you could find ways to tie in the first. And the ending of 2 lead into Army of Darkness, although that was tweaked big time (Ash became a hero to the English knights he encountered at the end of 2, and at the start of 3 he's actually beaten and enslaved by them).

But my first exposure to the term was in my Lupin the Third fandom. In a previous post I talked about having discovered Lupin, and my full-bore love of the series. There have been 6 series of the show, the first in the early 70's and the most recent from last year. And though most elements stay the same (Lupins gang members Jigen and Goemon, and the betrayals and obsessions related to femme fatale Fujiko Mine), the series are very different, and often offer different origins of the characters and how they came to meet. While you cannot directly tie in each series, based primarily on the time periods set, newer episodes have given some fan service to episodes decades prior (such as Goemon and Lupin being enemies at first and scenes of their old fights). But they are different animals altogether. Each series kind of living in its own little dimension. 

And of course as a comics fan you grew up very aware of the concept, but that was kind of baked into both Marvel and DC. Fans called it "Retcon." That lead directly the popularity of the "Multiverse" both Marvel and DC movies are tapping into. Its no new idea to us old comic book wonks. 

So the Lichway, Apple Lane, its all negative continuity. Reset. Reboot. Whatever. Though with Apple Lane, I'm keeping a certain amount of continuity from past games. Years ago, in my last use of Apple Lane's Rainbow Mounds portion of the adventure, I had an enchantress become involved with the characters, and she herself entered The Mounds, to eventually be killed by the players, along with White Eye and the other inhabitants. So of course White Eye and company will be there, and the enchantress will be resurrected as well. But as she was a newer addition to the setting, I'm going to have her be vaguely aware of her situation and previous experiences, but her sort of cursed to not be able to leave the place unless she survives and White Eye and his forces are all killed. If the characters want to converse with her, I'm going to have her perhaps talk to them about her situation, and the timeless nature of Apple Lane and The Rainbow Mounds. The repeating nature of it all. It seems like it might be fun to kind of parody what I've been doing with the location over the decades. And if a character should die in there, well, he can be a part of my next use of the location (although the next game might be the penultimate and final use of the location, unless I ever run Runequest again). 

But "negative continuity." It has a nice ring to it. 

Cheers. 

G4's Return, sexism rants, and D&D's Invitation to Party

 

Over a decade ago I discovered G4 TV. It was on one cable channel or another, and as a format dedicated to video games and other pop culture I was on board. It didn't hurt that I was an almost immediate fan of the top two male personalities of the channel. Kevin Pereira, a former producer at the channel, and Adam Sessler, a video game genre journalist. 

Pereira was installed as host of flagship program Attack of The Show!, focusing on all things geek culture, and Sessler hosted XPLAY, a video game review show. Morgan Webb co-hosted with Sessler, while the soon to be famous Olivia Munn (known best for her role in one of the worst X-Men films, and as a hootchie who Robert Downey Jr. taps in Iron Man 3 - a part that was ultimately actually cut from the film). 

Kevin and Olivia

Adam and Morgan

For a 24 hour channel, these shows for sure did not fill up the schedule. So various syndicated series were shown at night, such as Cops and Cheaters (as depressing a duo as you can find). 

I found the male hosts funny, and their co-hosts were capable, so I was a daily viewer until a year or two later when the channel became tied to Esquire Magazine, and the personalities were let go. Ah well, you get over it. 

But then Pluto TV, a collection of specific genre streaming channels, suddenly had a G4 channel! I was gob smacked. I mean, it seemed improbable. It turns out that G4 was relaunched in late 2021, and Sessler and Periera were once again hosts of their respective classic shows. 

There was no more Webb and Munn, and I assume they decided to pass for various reasons. In their place was a host of unknowns (to me) who seemed to be youtube and Twitch streamers of dubious popularity. Such as The Completionist, who apparently had a Youtube channel where he... Completed video games. Others included Kassim G, a streamer and stand up, D&D streamer Gina Darling, The Black Hokage (Hokage is apparently a Naruto character), Austin Creed, an upbeat wrestler for WWE (who I assume is involved in video games somehow), Will Neff, and others. A veritable "Who's That" of video game culture. Equally divided by male and female genders, and heavy on the non-Caucasian casting that was largely absent from the original G4, the wokeism seems extremely forced. But whatever. These younger folk were probably brought on for that streamer appeal. The original G4 was undone in part do to the type of content they were involved in starting to pop up on Youtube more and more. So hey, get some fresh faces and some streamers on camera. 

In doing some online research on behind the scenes, there are some controversies with the new G4. Having been installed in an expensive studio campus in Burbank, a lot of faith was put into the new channel, especially since the return of Attack and XPLAY was largely in demand by old fans. But in doing that research, it seems it was not doing as well as planned. Though it has this TV element (not sure what cable systems its available on besides Pluto, which essentially shows a lot of the same repeats of shows), all content is also released on Youtube, where apparently it doesn't get outstanding viewership compared to other popular streamers. 

It might not help that, to me anyway, the hosts outside of Pereira and Sessler (why don't seem to have missed a stride in a decade) aren't especially compelling or funny. The writing seems solid, but the delivery is usually forced in a way that screams "Hey! We're funny! Love us! Subscribe!" 

Will Neff, athletic and almost an anti-geek, has a Groundling background so he comes off amusing in most cases, often shaking his head at the attempts at antics by the rest of the cast. Black Hokage seems to try and come off too "gangsta" for a guy who streams video game plays. But the worst of them, to me, is Indiana "Frosk" Black, known for Esports commentary prior to joining this crew. . When she and Hokage are trying to be funny in a mini-segment, its like a clinic in forced personality. They could use a little Groundlings spiffing up. Everything seems awkward, though maybe that's how the young folk roll these days. 

And then there is the biggest controversy of the modern G4. Now in a famous clip you can easily find online, Frosk hijacks a review segment with several of her mates and Sessler (who lives in San Francisco and appears on a screen. Apparently part of his deal is to not have to travel to LA) to take the chat feed to task for treating her as "unbangable" compared to former hosts Munn and Webb. Her fellow hosts who are present seem to catch on and try to come off supportive with clapping and head nodding, as she declares "Me, Munn, and Webb aren't here to be attractive for you yada yada." Typical toxic femininity vs. perceived toxic masculinity that we are all getting used to, and sure, you go girl. Personally, I wasn't really drooling for the hosts of the old channel. Morgan Webb is pretty, but I was a bit of a fan back in the day because she was a legit childhood gamer whose parents forbid her to watch TV, so she grew up playing games enough to lead to a career in them. And yeah, Munn was eye candy, and she happily played it up in segments such as when she put on a french maid outfit and dove into a tub of pudding. But honestly, my true crush was Kristin Holt, the underutilized host of lesser shows who had a knock out smile that does not seem to be possible outside of heaven. 

NOT there to be considered
"bangable" by me or anyone else

Frosk's fellow hosts were supportive in that moment. Sessler, a well-documented super liberal , could be seen on his TV screen doing an odd, hyper applause towards the camera that comes off almost like an exaggerated golf clap. Its a weird moment. Black Hokage's support seems especially odd and insincere when you go look at some of his old streams before joining G4, where many of his comments about women are sexist and tasteless to a large degree. And I mean to a "women say they don't swallow but I always make them swallow" degree. A wanna be "pimp daddy" who, you know, is actually a video game geek. Has Frosk seen some of his former posts? Is it all good because he is a person of color? 

Anyway, Frosk lays the smack down and takes we male fans to task. Interestingly enough, some of my research has shown some people looking back at the chat threads Frosk claims there is all this sexism in, and can't seem to find what she is talking about.  I'm sure some is there, but do you really want to alienate your viewers who have buying power over what may well mostly be 14 year old boys? The collateral damage of those like me who are just "um, I just wanna see Adam review Dark Souls, OK?" seems a bit extreme, considering how angry she seems. 

Another point of contentions is aimed at what seems to be a level of cluelessness by Frosk in some group segments about game news and culture. She has made a certain amount of downright wrong comments such as the PlayStation being unpopular currently (its actually very huge right now), while her more knowledgeable cohosts seem to be visibly holding themselves back from correcting her (anybody with a TV career fears being cancelled these days). 

And as far as Munn goes, well, she has had plenty of post G4 appearances she seems to find it important to be nice on the eyes for the weird dudes Frosk is calling out. 

Then there is the time Munn did this on camera..

Yeah, bangable is a word that suddenly pops up,
among other things. 

And you can find plenty of content on youtube where Frosk is taken to task as more or less an attention hound and using sexism to propel herself. Although that is not what happened. From what I gather, the views of G4 content plummeted after this rant. I can't tell for sure if Frosk has been cancelled as many youtube posts suggest, but its interesting to note that in following weeks the channel upped the ante on hot chicks. In Austinshow's amusing Name Your Price gameshow segment, where the streamer gathers fellow popular streamers to compete in a 70's themed game show, twitch streamer Amouranth, known for purposefully under dressing and chubbing up her viewership, appears in a high profile segment doing very sexy stuff. Almost as if to give the finger to the accusatory Frosk. 

OK, big whoop. We live in a time where we gotta let the sisters speak out on how horrible we men are. Even though, um, Johnny Depp just won his trial and Amber goes down in history as a literal bed shitter. But what does this have to do with D&D.

Well, a majorly promoted show on G4 is D&D's invitation to party. And Frosk features heavily in it. 

In the show, its mostly G4 "B squad" hosts (ie NOT Kevin or Adam) playing D&D. I mean, I guess you can call it that. At times they are all at work stations rolling dice and such, but most often than not they come out to the "acting" area to do some community theater level "role play" with DM B. Dave Walters.

Walters actually does a good job portraying various characters, and is the one person on the show who seems to have an acting background. It seems a given he has probably portrayed Othello in a thousand Shakespeare in the park productions. 

Everybody gets into it and tries their best. The only time I ever saw a lack of verisimilitude was when Kassim G, who seems the least likely to have every played the game in real life, is seen walking around in the background in character pretending to talk on his cellphone.

Interestingly, once B grade but now C grade actor Freddie Prinze shows up as a pirate prince, physically and thematically channeling Negan from The Walking Dead. As he smokes a stogie and hams it up with Walters, the cast looks on in forced wonder at the proceedings. This was one of the times I found the show actually cringeworthy. 

I have always found watching D&D be played to be quite boring, but as this is a fairly well produced acting exercised it is entertaining enough. I'm not sure if it will ever be Critical Role in popularity level, its fine enough. Buuuuut...

This show went on during the height of the Frosk controversy. As I'm sure G4 isn't all that happy with the loss of viewers she cost them, they may have downplayed this show, where she seems to be a major star, on their channels. I dunno. The Pluto TV channel shows the hell out of it, but they show content that is not exactly up to date. But that they seem to be upping the sexiness with the inclusion of ladies like Amouranth making jokes about how they got rich from the "blue balls of fans," they for sure aren't exactly being there for Frosk and her peccadillos. There is so much info out there that I can't be sure if her participation has been decreased in things. But she keeps doubling down on her comments in her streams, and that can't be making the powers that be happy if they are indeed losing viewership due to her. 

Hey, these days I'm fairly live and let live. I'm not offended by Frosk calling us male viewers wank-happy sexists. I may or may not be. And hell, again, despite her attempts to downplay her looks I find her fairly attractive even with the piercings and terrible hair. But really, I'm a G4 fan because I am a pop culture nut and I love game reviews, not for the girlies. 

Though damn, Amouranth can really put a spring in a mans stride.

Bangable or not bangable. 
YOU make the call..

NOW PLAY

Roll20 - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

 

OK, maybe there is no real ugly, at least not as ugly as Eli Wallach. Though until the last few weeks my experience was hit and miss. The other year I did have my first campaign, around 12 sessions, with my friend and longtime player "T," and a couple of local guys (one I eventually met because he was a department manager at the hospital I worked at - luckily not MY department). It went well, and the guys did not have deep experience with the Roll20 experience, so my technical failings were no very pronounced. Hey, as long as we could talk and move tokens around without the system crashing I was happy. 

But that ended due to family and school schedules, and my attempts to get something going directly off the Roll20 forums was mixed at best. One try had a couple of knuckleheads who seemed like great guys at first. Then an hour in a dude who seemed to know what he was doing didn't even have a character sheet done up (I was yet to require digital versions of them) when we needed it. I should also mention that this fairly normal sounding guy insisted on being called "Morpheus," which is a thing that is awkward for me. Fucking Morpheus. Sheesh. 

Anyway, the other guy, when combat started, was hung up on the movement measuring. It was so odd. He was having measuring tool issues, and for some reason was refusing to just use the squares already present on the map. I didn't get the problem. I started wondering if these guys just made a hobby out of going into games and being idiots. 

My real-life name is "Orcsmasher." 
My characters name is Joe. 

My next attempt had a couple of ladies (one was trans, the other CIS, which is fine though I had all kinds of terms and such I had to learn so as not to use the wrong pronoun. God). Anyway, after a couple of games that seemed to go well it was announced to me that they just wanted to learn how to do a game for each other, and that was that. 

Another try had a lady want to team up with me to start a group on Roll20, but she was hella into D&D Beyond, which I have limited experience with (none at all). She wanted me to invest in it and tie it into my campaign pages and such. I was still learning the basics, so that did not appeal to me. So no go. 

Disappointing, and yeah, I guess kind of ugly for me. Not long after I was tapped locally by a group to run some face to face. That was going well, but then the host told everybody he had to move his sick mother in with them and we would suspend things indefinitely. That was several months ago, so I guess that is over. 

But I didn't mind so much. As I get older I get fed up schlepping every week to somebodies house across town with all my shit, and getting set up, and trying to get a narrative going in a home where visitors seemed to come and go constantly, for me disrupting the game. It kind of beat me hosting though. I really no longer value having people in my home that are not close friends of mine. 

Yeah, I just feel done with a regular face to face for D&D. But with my Roll20 horizons suddenly expanding I can see a life without running in front of a group. You see, we are now past game three, and it is going super well. Everybody has way more experience with Roll20 and D&D 5th ed. That was intimidating at first, but most seem willing to help as I am up front about my technical lackings. They like my game clearly, and they want it to continue. And my goal was to get noticeably more adept with the format each session, and that is happening. Whether its formatting images better, or learning to use the built-in turn counter, I learn something new every damn time. Its kind of exhilarating. 

So lets see. The good. Well, not having a table full of people staring at me for three hours is nice. And on a personal note being able to drink what I want and smoke what I want right at my game table is pretty awesome. And having a colorful map to move tokens around on is great. Searching google for maps and monster and character images is fun in itself. Making those into tokens and such.  And everybody gets to be home. Nothing like the comforts of your own crib. And if anybody needs to deal with family, or I can hear dishes clattering around (one of the most annoying sounds in the world to me), I can just ask them to mute until things calm down. 

And the resources are amazing. Besides some "DIY" you can buy various module packs, most with pre-made maps and tokens, and the majority of such things are fairly cheap. 

And man, no more miniatures. There was a time when I loved them. But I long since stopped painting, and I for sure don't want to buy more. Sooooo..goodbye mini's! I'm thinking of selling them all on Ebay. 

And looking in books and shuffling papers around? Not in my command center. Last session I attempted to be paper free. My notes and tokens and even the basic books are all available in my campaign. And when a character uses a skill or spell of their E-Sheet, it can post to the chat section so I can look at it. No more looking up spells in a book! I think by next game I will be totally paperless outside of some emergency notes like you often have in case players go off the rails. 

And wow, The Charactermancer. It's like magic. Using it helps keep you from forgetting anything for your character when creating it. It will remember for you. It won't let you forget a certain proficiency you might miss on your own. In a lot of ways its the greatest part of the format. 

OK, well, The Bad. It really comes down to learning to do things differently. The main thing I would say is not being able to see each other, you can miss things. Personally I am a fairly animated DM who gestures a lot and such. Thats gone, though there are ways to convey the same things with voice and how you describe a situation.

But I have learned that I rely on seeing the player a lot in face to face as far as when I ask a question of a player. In person you can often get an answer just by their expression and body language. But with just voice you need to be more clear and so do they. More needs to be verbalized. 

And of course there are technical issues, but I am surprised by how few of them there are. If you drop off the program its easy to jump back in. Its not like waiting for your XBOX to reboot. Anytime I have an issue I'm back in like 30 seconds. 

A month ago I would have said the selection of quality people from the forums is sketchy at best. But I put together this great current group almost entirely from the forums. It turned me around on it. Yeah, you have to hand pick from it, but it paid off now and it could again. But man, these folk are great. Into role-play, and engaged with the material, they have been a pleasure so far. I knew it was a good sign when I wanted to level them to 2nd after the first session, and the pretty much unanimously stated they would not mind be 1st for another game. Refreshing. 

And I suppose with the possibility of one wacky pandemic after another in the future, this is a good way to go in that regard. 

I know that another popular online format out there is Fantasy Grounds. I have no experience at all with it. I assume people have their preference. But I certainly would not like to put time into learning another thing. For the foreseeable future, and perhaps the rest of my future, Roll20 will be how I roll. 

Multiverses of Madness and the Comics

 

Growing up a comics kid, with a focus on Marvel, I of course loved even the C level heroes. And Dr. Strange was certainly that. But he had a certain popularity with college students, due in large part to the great Steve Ditko's psychedelic take on Salvador Dali. Doctor Strange travelled realms of crazy abstract backgrounds. 

And Strange regular cameoing in other titles got his exposure. Just like in the most recent Spider Man movie, Spidey and other heroes would sometimes seek out the wizard for advice with supernatural situations. Doc also led his own minor league hero team, The Defenders, that went on to have a long history, often without Strange appearing. But now, in the MCU, Doc Strange takes front and center. He actually seems to be the heir apparent to Tony Snark (even cracking wise at an accelerated rate). 

So as a kid the offbeat elements stood out. The crazy interdimensional backgrounds, Ditko's signature finger-bending hand gestures and body postures (made famous in early Spider Man). And Stan Lee gave Ditko credit for the character, a rare moment of generosity about character creation. 

So, the weirdo backgrounds and even the classic hand gestures made their way into the Marvel films, and the dimensional architecture as well, In spades. 

In the hands of Sam Raimi (among my top 5 favorite directors), the world of Strange just seems right. His style fits right in with the classic Ditko style. The backgrounds, the demons, the crash edits and Dutch angles. Sam brings all his best tropes into the MCU. Evil Dead and Drag Me to Hell all seem like influences here. 

Scarlet Witch is the big bad, a plotline left over from her Disney series. All she wants is her kids, but since she can't have hers, she will settle for taking over the body of a counterpart of hers from another dimension. Or something. 

I remember her pretend kids from comics in the 80's. Some of that had Al Milgrom as artist, who I absolutely hate, so I didn't read much. I don't know if Wanda using actual magic was a thing back then, or a modern invention. In my day she was a mutant who could alter probability in a random fashion that she could not fully control. She might turn a hail of bullets into butterflies with a hex, or create a shield of ice from fire hydrant water to block them. She never really knew. 

Now she is a powerful wizard in her own right, and more powerful (because of the Darkhold?) than even Doc Strange. Anyway, I don't really need to get into plot specifics. It didn't matter much to me. It was the insider elements that tickled me. 

The Darkhold stuff took me back. That book, Marvels Necronomicon, was in many titles I read as a kid. I remember it factoring into the early Werewolf by Night issues. And apparently the book was responsible for the existence of vampires. So nice to see it getting love these days. 

But its the multiverse that tickles me. As a kid it was Marvel, and to a lesser degree DC comics ("not a dream! Not an imaginary tale!"), whose mid century "Imaginary tales" eventually evolved into alternate dimensiona explanations. Earth 616 and 219 and 411 or whatnot. 

By the 70's both Marvel and DC dug deep into alternate universe stuff. I mean, I guess What If...? was the penultimate love for the concept. And its great to see it happening in the movies. in the case of DC films, it's an evolution of the company trying to salvage the poor reception of early film fare such as Batman vs. Superman and such. I mean, its giving us a chance soon to see the Michael Keaton Batman alongside the more recent Batfleck, and that tickles me to no end. 20 Years ago me being told by a visitor from the future that this would happen would have made my head explode. Even the last Spider Man film did it. Molina Doc Ock and Defoe Green Goblin? Yes please. Though I have to admit, that movie did not hold me for long. I have yet to watch enough of it to see all the Spider Man film actors together. But that has more to do with not really being a fan of the recent Spidey films. But shit, I'm glad its all happening. 

I love alternate universe stuff, and I look forward to seeing what they do with it. But especially in the case of DC. I'm unashamedly a fan of the films, even the derided ones. Batman V Supers and Suicide Squad 1 weren't quite the films I would have hoped (worst Lex Luthor ever), but I still find plenty to like in them. And I absolutley adore the Snyder Cut Justice League. I like the dark Snyder touches over the Marvel films heavy reliance on Tony Stark Snark, and essentially every character being a comedy gagster (that really should have been Spider Man and Deadpools schtick only).

So I should add you get to an alternate version of Reed Richards. I'm chomping at the bit to see what they do with an FF movie. And this is a little glimpse (I half expected Ben Grimm to come smashing in). And Fox's Doctor X played by Patrick Stewart was fanboy giggle worthy. The Illuminati. Wow. They even stuck in Black Bolt from the poorly received Inhumans show (I have yet to see it), and he was awesome. The only thing missing was Prince Namor. That would have been sweet. 

Anyway, Multiverse Madness. Can't wait to see more madness. Uh, in the Multiverse.

Oh, one final spoiler. Doc Stranges gal pal from the 70's, Clea, shows up in a credits sequence. That was a deep cut, and I almost spit out beer. And they don't explain anything, so nobody except way out in the weeds old school fanboys like me even get the significance. Awesome. 

The Tragedy of The Drunken Troll

 Alright, game 2 of the new Roll20 campaign "Trade and Turpitude," taking place in the last caravan season of the year in the Southern Shires of the kingdom. 

Everybody showed up. Good sign. Though I won't usually consider it a campaign until after game three. Law of averages dictate somebody will drop out by then, but everybody seems to be having a good time and are interacting with the material in the ways I like them too. I think I come up with some interesting ideas here and there, along with lots of trope stuff. Something like 40 years of GMing will give you that. And my old experiences with "out in the weeds" stuff in the deep past; Arduin and Judges Guild and such, lets me interject some more wacky elements, but mostly keeping it D&D. I look to more modern sources for ideas, random tables and such, but usually if I think the hell out of something various angles and hooks emerge that I think will be interesting to an encounter. Hey, there is plenty to brag about when you pluck most of the ideas you integrate into play out of your own head. 

Haha, really, a DM's ideas should come from all over the place. Anyway, I was sort of having trouble coming up with some things. The first few games of this campaign will be travelling around with a small caravan of high-end merchants from the big city up north. Besides some village and town encounters already in my head, I need to come up with some incidental encounters that can occur along the way. Things to fit in here and there along the way when I need some filler. 

I look at various random tables online, road and country encounters. Most of them aren't very filling. Things like "you meet an old man who is not what he seems," or "You see a coffin up against a tree with the lid closed. Do you investigate?" OK, these are meant to be filled in, but are hardly things you can't think up with nice creamy filling on your own. I wish these examples were a little deeper. 

But if I mull on it a bit (couple refreshing adult beverages never hurt) I usually hit on something. For this game it was "..hmmm, what if the caravan comes across a troll laying across the road, passed out from drinking barrels of powerful whiskey." 

We were still in the tavern with the party meeting the caravan master, having finished the previous games encounters there. But off to the caravan grounds to meet the merchants. 

A wine merchant, a weapon seller/trainer, a music teacher and instrument seller, a bookseller, and a clothier. It was night, but the wineseller still had a few local lords tasting some wine. The party immediately noticed a heavy set, traveler shoplifting a couple bottles of expensive cabernet. "Fat Mike the Traveler," a professional thief and con man. 

Size increased to show texture.

It was an amusing little encounter, and the long and short of it was the PC's got a few gold richer by getting the wine back and extorting Fat Mike for some coin. A typical "give you my wallet? No, give me YOUR wallet" situation. 

Next day when the caravan got on the road for a couple hours, it was second encounter time. This time it was the caravan coming around the corner on a country road and almost running into a bit old troll passed out drunk and blocking the way. 

Size NOT increased to show texture. Nobody
wants to get too close a look at this. 

Clearly it as a troll who stole a cart of big whiskey barrels and he was passed out snoring in the road. Even had a nice big puddle of whiskey puke next to him. Ew. 

Turning the caravan around in the smallish area to do it would have been time consuming and noisy. Plus at least one character didn't want it on his conscious to have a hungover troll around for others to bump into. But what to do? 

Slit his throat and roll him out of the way? No way, man. He's a troll. You can cut a trolls head off and it will still be active, the head still alive and controlling the body. Trolls are very coup de gras resistant. Get some fires going? Well, everything was wet from light rain. 

Everybody, character and players, knew that they were no match for the thing if it got up and started laying into them. As they moved around trying to figure it all out, the troll seemed to almost wake up a time or two. The shadow elf ranger was a monster hunter, and he just wanted to start chopping into it. But the cooler heads gathered, torches and lanterns fetched from the wagons, and lantern oil was spread over the blacked out beast.  

With the wetness, and me not going old school napalm with the oil (I have always said; oil is for keeping lanterns lit, not for going all Apocalypse Now like so many neckbeards from times bygone like it too). But with the troll waking up, they had to go on the attack with what they had. 

In 5th edition any fire damage will keep the regeneration from working for that round. That combined with the characters getting some licks in before it could even stand up (with some advantage) helped. I mean, they were scared. My number one new player "M" sounded a little annoyed that I was hitting them with such a strong creature. But I certainly gave it disadvantage that first round. It all helps out. Because one solid blow could kill a 1st level PC. I did explain that I am old school and that characters need to be over their head now and again. At any rate, after the fact she apologized for doubting me when the encounter was won (though it's not really over even though they think it is). 

But they did alright. I mean, this was kind of a puzzle encounter, where the trick was to attack while you had as much advantages as possible. They did alright with that, and its hit points were plummeting down. "Zip" the commoner fighter made the spectacular move. There was still a full barrel on the cart. He opened it, set it aflame (I had it be strong dwarvish stuff), and the cart became an instant fireball. He turned it around and ran it right into the suffering troll. Woosh! That roll went up like an old dry Xmas tree. It was pretty cool. That took it right down, and as we were going late we had to end right there. 

This "trade roads" portion of the campaign seems to be going well, and the theme feels like it will remain even after they are off the road. But what was going to be a couple of game portion of the campaign is probably going to be more like a 5 or 6 game portion before I get them to my version of Apple Lane and Gringles Pawnshop. It's going so well and there is great character development here. 

I don't plan to post about every session. Who needs that, right? And there are other aspects to the Roll20 experience I want to write about. I'm loving it, and in all honestly it may be my format for good. Player M said she is done with the face to face group experience, and I kind of feel the same way. I don't really like having people who are not close friends in my place, and I don't always like to schlep to another persons house, especially as you cannot really control the gaming environment in that. But online I have all the control. Its awesome. 

But however I do it, it feels great having a full group. My besties B and L, my boardgame buddies I talk about all the time here, are wanting in on some Roll20 as well, so my player pool is for sure deepening. I'm so glad I took another chance on getting a group going from that sketchy Roll20 forum area. I finally lucked out! 

Cheers

Roll20 & the Player Experience

 

With a new campaign that is promising, and a successful 12 or so campaign during the height of the pandemic the other year, I got the chance to sit down as a player in a Roll20 game.

A player in my game, who has been super helpful in guiding me into getting up to snuff with various Roll20 functions (charactermancer, initiative, etc), had scheduled a one-shot that some of her regular players could not make it to. I was invited. 

The kicker was it was a Sunday morning. We would play from 11-3. NOT my favorite time frame to game in. But I live right across from a park at a protected biophere of the River where, when the weather gets nice, all sorts of events happen, most commonly "fun runs." This one was for Mothers Day, and they shut down various streets nearby, and traffic goes from almost nothing to apocalypse for a few short hours. A good excuse to make a big breakfast and a pot of fresh ground coffee instead of the usual handful of drinkies, and chill out and learn some things. Well, actually, by around 130 I went for a couple of ciders. What the hell. 

The major score for me here was I had yet to experience Roll20 play AS a player. So when I run a session I'm not always sure how the players see things. But also in the course of play, I have to get to know the character sheet usage better and it was a great lesson in that regard. Some things I just muddle through in my own game are easier now. Sweet. 

It was a decent group to play with, mixed male and female an nobody annoying in any way. I ran a meat and potatoes basic fighter mercenary, and the others were the modern "look how cool my character is" more advanced types. But I didn't mind.  No big woop. 

The encounters themselves were classic dungeon stuff that surprised me. Though I think my new friend M is old enough to have played some older edition, I did not peg her as dungeon minded. But there we were. We dealt with a ghostly child and her playroom, a mirror with our evil selves on the other side, and in the end an owlbear attack for the characters who did not join us to fight those dopplegangers. Me and a halfling on the other side of the evil mirror, and the rest of the party quickly dispatched by the owlbear. It was a TPK. Split party 101.

Now, I don't often do one shots. But when I do I just try to have like three interconnected encounters. Just stringing things together. But I think M was working on a larger dungeon, and we just dealt with sections she wanted to tweak. 

Thats all good. It was a great learning experience, and I got a few laughs with my cool dry wit, so maybe I'll get invited to more?