Marvel Marches On In March

Lazy post today since I am exhausted and it's only Tuesday. With the later half of the week looking busier then the first half I gotta wonder how I am going to survive til the weekend. Add to this the fact that the Marvel Heroic Core Book, while available as a PDF, IS NOT AVAILABLE IN PRINT FORM! Sorry to yell but Margaret Weis Productions, Whassupwitdat!




Nonetheless I have managed to drum up enough energy to post these links, drawing your attention to some cool Marvel Heroic related sites.

The first is Exploring Infinity. The owner of this blog, bless his obessive spirit, has complied pretty much every link, article, forum post and whatnot there is on the new Marvel game onto one handy-dandy page.

Well, not every blog post of course but he tries. Now in case you missed these...
Here's some additional thoughts from Lord Blacksteel

While it's mentioned on Exploring Infinity complilation page, I would like to point out Plot Points, Dice Monkey's new blog specifically centered on, in and around Marvel Heroic. Nice job by the way!

Anyway, that's all for me for now. I have other ideas and things swirling around in my head but nothing in my stomach so it's dinner time.

Later Days,

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Barking Alien

Constant Con, FLAILSNAILS, and Tasting Pennies

I have no idea why but over the last twenty four hours, I can't stop thinking about joining in on a Constant Con game.

It makes no logical sense. I am currently nigh-obsessed with Supers gaming, I dislike D&D in all its forms quite a bit, and I find gaming over the Internet very hit and miss. So why the interest? Surely running Supers beats playing with Flailsnails in my book. Why bother?

Though I have spent most of my young and adult life being rather cautious and preferring to play it safe, my gaming tastes have always leaned toward trying out any new experience I came across, no matter how foreboding or dangerous they may seem.

The real me looks both ways before crossing, always double checks the lock on my front door, and practically never gambles (rarely even playing the lottery). The gaming me is the kid putting his tongue on an ice cold lamppost, riding my bike without a helmet, and putting pennies in my mouth just to find out if they really taste as bad as everyone says.

I have recently been following Jeff Rients posts on his Wessex game and I just read this post by Lord Gwydion wherein he describes his first Constant Con experience. The next thing I know I'm thinking, "Hey, how can I get in on this action?". I am considering the idea that I'll get to see what all the hubbub is about, maybe get a better insight into why people enjoy D&D (and its brethren) so much, and get to meet some new people while I'm at it.

That said, I still don't 100% know if I want to do this. It's time I could be spending working on one of own campaigns. Every time I sit down to play D&D I am promised (by myself or others) that this time D&D won't suck for me and inevitably, the game sucks. Maybe it's a phase I am going through. A fever perhaps or an undigested bit of beef. For now, I shall continue considering...

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Barking Alien

My apologies to both John Byrne and the original Flail Snail artist whose name I can't recall or find.

The Passing of Moebius

Jean Giraud, better known to many as Moebius, has passed away, leaving the world with one less brilliant artist, visionary and true innovator in the field of science fiction and fantasy design.





While I have no desire to compare and/or contrast the two men and their art, the news of Moebius' passing seems to come all too soon after we lost Ralph McQuarrie. I feel sad, not only for the loss of two of my favorite artists but also for the loss of their impact on the medium to future generations of film goers, art fans and concept artists and designers. Will my nephew know their works? I hope so. If given the chance I will try to make sure he gets to see some of his uncle's cool art books and know the history of those who contributed to them.

Anyway, I am here to pass on a message, pay homage and spread the good word that though he has passed, Giraud's legacy does live on in the films he worked on and those who remember him and appreciate his work. I leave you not with sorrow but with the merest taste of grandeur...









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Barking Alien


  

Losing and Gaining

This is my 470th post. I can't believe I am approaching 500 posts and at the same time, I can't believe it's taken me about 3 years or so to reach 500. I guess that means I don't post enough but sadly there is not much I can do about it. I post as often as I can.

I noticed I have 130 followers. That's two shy of my high, which was at one point, a week or two ago, 132. So I am losing my audience somehow. Possibly it's the lack of posts, possibly the subject matter I am covering (though I often get a good response with my Supers stuff) and maybe, just maybe, it's the fact that recent posts haven't had enough art. Pictures definitely help.

Be that as it may, I am gaining in real life and even in real life gaming. That is, my work schedule has really picked up and my gaming group is now consistently at 4 people showing up for a good 6-8 hours once a week with a 5th person joining on occasion.

Combine the aforementioned positives with my growing love for the new Marvel Heroic game, the next DC Adventures book from Green Ronin finally on the horizon and possibly an expanding of my Sunday activity/job working with the kids at the learning center and I'd say I have a lot of cool things to discuss, lost followers be damned!*

Anyway, I think the Marvel core book is due to drop on Tuesday. Expect a lot of ideas to flow once that happens.

Ever more,

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Barking Alien

*I don't actually mean 'damn my lost followers'. I get it. There could be any number of reasons they left. No hard feelings. You're all welcome back anytime. I'll leave a light on for you.

Make Mine...Marvel? Opinions ASSEMBLE!

I apologize for taking so long in continuing my analysis (such as it is) of the Marvel Heroic Role Playing Game but Real Life TM reared its ugly head and I was busy dealing with it. And it was ugly to. MODOK ugly.




Now while you were waiting (and I do appreciate you doing so so patiently), I hope you asked Jarvis to fetch you some coffee and took a look at what others are saying about the game.

I think it would be especially helpful to check out those blogs or posts as many of them contain notes on the rule mechanics, which are something I am not going to directly address here...yet. You see, there are a lot of rules in Marvel Heroic, for what is essentially a very freeform game, and honestly I don't fully know or understand them all yet.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I really only played the game once and that was in a combo co-GM/Player-Assistant capacity. Reading the rules was very confusing as the book's one major weakness is that it was edited by 6 different people, none of which appear to have spoken to each other during the process. There is also a great deal of game-specific jargon and multiple names for the same or remarkably similar things.

That is definitely the down side of what is otherwise a very brilliant piece of work. I am really looking forward to reading the rules all the way through and playing it a few time before (surprise, surprise) hacking some its idea into M&M 3E or maybe simplifying Marvel Heroic here and adding detail to it there.

Now on the positive side, I've played a lot of Superhero RPGs (A LOT!) and if ever there was one that felt more like you were characters in a comic book, I certainly can't recall it. This is one part game and one part story pitch session to the editors at Marvel. I liked the feeling that you were engaging in something that felt noticably different from a traditional RPG just as you were doing something like hitting a guy with a steel girder. The sense of the new and the familiar mixing was awesome.

I will likely be talking about this game a lot more in the weeks to come. I want to try and test drive it fully once I read through the rulebook again to lockdown all the elements I am iffy on. After that, who knows? I do have some ideas for a Marvel game and I want to get a better feel for created original characters as well.

Sorry if this 'review' is nothing of the sort but sometimes, especially when things are busy in my offline life, I have trouble focusing my thoughts on a subject that I am really jazzed about. I have so many ideas and opinions on this game that trying to latch on to one and describe it in depth is like trying to catch motes of dust in a tornado. Ooh. Nice imagery.

Until the Defenders explain they're defending the world heavyweight championship title in boxing...Make Mine Marvel!

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Barking Alien