Avengers Age of Ultron Thoughts

For the first time in I can't remember how long I went out and saw a movie in theaters more than once. Avengers Age of Ultron is something that will become a classic. I loved pretty much every second of this movie. The acting, action, effects, and pretty much everything else were spot on.

As always Joss and crew pay attention to the minor details that make each of the characters human and full of life. Everyone has believable motivations and killer one liners. It is pure bliss as a fan of the comics who is willing to accept the translation required to move these stories with literal decades of history into the very different medium of film.

I will likely talk freely here and not be worried about spoilers so if you don't want spoilers don't read further... jerk.

One of my favorite parts of the movie is when the Hulkbuster armor comes out. It's dropped from orbit and is named Veronica (because this is the Hulk's girlfriend, since Bruce's is named Betty. Yes, they put an Archie joke in a Marvel movie). The Hulkbuster armor was everything we needed it to be, and it was such a wonderful action scene that kept the intensity up while developing the conflicts even more.

Spader was awesome as Ultron. He is the perfect Anti-Stark. His delivery of each and every line in the movie was perfect. I have zero complaints. Seriously. Perfect portrayal for this setting.

The tidbits setting up the upcoming storylines were wonderful. Each step towards the Infinity War and the Civil War made me a bit giddier with anticipation. Marvel has a good thing here and I don't think I ever expected to be excited by random characters I never cared about before having their own movies (my god, I am actually looking forward to an Ant-man movie. What. The. Hell?)

My only gripes with Age of Ultron are relatively minor, but they are things that bothered me. (Major spoilers coming, seriously.)

First off, the appearance of the Vision I wasn't really expecting. I guess I missed the trailers that had him added in and the appearance of the toys. That isn't the disappointing part. I was excited to see him show up. It was awesome. My only issue is that his appearance and existence just felt a little tacked on and flat. Paul Bettany did a great job and I am extremely happy with the portrayal in the setting, but he didn't feel well developed or explained. There was just something lacking from his appearance in the movie. It could be because of how crowded the movie had become at that point though.

I really like the portrayal of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. I love that they have been added to the series and were being done by two excellent actors who clearly had a ton of respect for the characters. I just found the death of Quicksilver at the end to be cheapened by him only having 7 lines in the movie. I wanted to be saddened by him getting Jossed, but I couldn't. There just wasn't enough time to get invested in his chracter. Someone needed to die in the movie, I get it. It totally needed to happen, but I just wasn't moved by it the way I probably should have been.

Captain America and Iron Man start arguing about their opposing views for the Civil War build-up in this. It's wonderful to see. I love it. I know that the Civil War movie is going to be great and I will be seeing that movie as soon as I can while being a mega fanboy during the build-up (I've already chosen a side, everyone who knows me should know that already). My only problem with this though comes from my personal politics starting to bleed into the entertainment I'm watching.

I really felt like the lines, acting, and directing going into the lines that Cap was supposed to be saying were a little too idealistic without much belief/oomph behind them. Captain America over and over again shows himself to be heavily libertarian leaning with his beliefs (we can argue about this later, just go with it). He is a believer in the founding principles of America and he believes in them wholeheartedly and without hesitation. In this movie though, the lines being written and read sound like what a politically Left-leaning Hollywood Progressive would think a libertarian or believer in the founding principles would say rather than what someone who truly believes in those principles would say and how they would say it.

I'm not saying it's awful drivel, it just feels off from what I would personally expect from those lines and characters.

My last gripe though is the big one. I'm pretty sure that in the last battle scene I saw Hawkeye smacking Ultron Sentries with his bow Legolas style. Who thought that was a good idea!?!

Other than those few things, it was seriously an awesome movie. I loved it and I can't wait to own it on every special edition blue-ray/dvd combo pack that they put out for it.

Back into the swing of things

So it has been quite a while since I've updated this blog on the regular. Real life seemed to take over everything for the past year or so making it very difficult to even play games, let alone find time to write on this random little exercise that I had started.

In the past year my life has changed significantly. I am now divorced and dating very seriously a wonderful woman who has integrated her life with my own following the split my ex-wife and I had. She's and her son have joined with myself and my two kiddos. It has been a grand adventure for us all.

My children are either uninterested or too young at the moment to enjoy gaming, but her son is very interested. So whenever my two kids are off at their mother's the remaining three of us sit around and do some geeky activities. Mostly it has been enjoying video games or a geeky movie, but last week I introduced her and her son to Dungeons and Dragons.

This has helped to make me feel inspired as life begins to settle back into place after a year of hell. I have things to write about again, some things to finish, and some things to start). It's time to continue back on the path I set upon when I started this blog. Soon this blog will again be filled with my insane rantings and ravings and minor gripes about systems and such while also relaying the stories and adventures of my family and friends as we go into this rabbit hole.

Wow... it's been a while...

I can't  remember the last time I actually made an attempt to write on this blog. (Shut up, I know I can see when my last blog post was...). 2014 was not a kind year to me and it made it very difficult for me to keep an interest in my favorite hobbies. I think I'm  going to change that though. Last year was rough but there were some very good things mixed in with the awful.

I want to get back into writing (again) and doing things with my favorite past-times. I miss these things and will have to come up with a plan on how I'm going to keep up with it again. I have ideas and things to talk about and world's to expand upon and novels I should write.

I just don't know how to motivate myself to keep up with it just yet. Anyone got some ideas?

Crafting Karrak in Fate: Magic Systems

As part of an exercise in boredom I’m converting Karrak Seaborne, my character from the Orcanraytrel campaign, into a Fate PC. This requires me to know some things about the setting in the context of how they affect game mechanics and character creation before I attempt this. Part of this is knowing how Nel Gifts work in a narrative sense so that a system can be built around them that will represent them for what they truly are rather than the bastardization that a D20 system forces them into. Along the way to developing the Gifts I realized that it makes sense to also just go ahead and do Sorcery and Psionics as well since they share some major similarities from a mechanical standpoint. So here’s my collection of thoughts on the subject.

Psionics:

Psionics are a more measured and practiced form of magic in Hekinoe. The power of psionics comes from within the body of the manifester and is built up through training and discipline. It is also an extremely stable and reliable form of magic. Psionics is a skill that people train themselves in, it takes effort, but is really in the end and exercise of the will. The stronger the will, the stronger the effect.

I’ve already come up with a system for dealing with psionics before on my blog so I’ll basically just transcribe that and give it a bit of Hekinoe flavor.

So first off, Psionics in Hekinoe are currently based off of Pathfinder’s rules. So you have a ton of things that are very codified and laid out into classes and spell lists and all that. I hate that crap. It’s too rigid and it doesn’t feel right for Clint’s setting. I can break the basics of Psionics down into two effects.

One type of effect is the physical manifestations of psionics. Physical effects are things like throwing bolts of energy, telekinesis, creating force shields, creating giant crystal swords, teleportation, and so on and so forth. This is kept general to allow the player to have complete creative control over his character’s manifestations. It allows him to get creative with what he needs and not just rely on a spell list. This will be governed by a skill I’ll call Psionics: Physical for now.

The other type of psionics that you’ll see in Pathfinder are the mental based effects. These are your mind reading, mind control, telepathy, future reading, scrying, and such. Again, I’m just going to keep it general and lump them all together just for simplicity’s sake. The skill governing it will be called Psionics: Mental.

Both of these are based off their governing skills. These skills and powers can be enhanced with the use of stunts and possibly the Dresden Files RPG style “spells” where you basically just have a numbered amount of pre-written effects ready to go that gain a free boost. (I think it is governed by your skill rating in Dresden and I’d probably do the same here.

So mechanically speaking here’s how all of this works. You can use one of the Psionic skills to perform one of the four actions that you can use a skill for in Fate; Attack, Defend, Overcome, and Create an Advantage. Psionics is a tool like any other skill, and being magic it is a tool with a lot more uses. Basically you can use it in place of another skill by describing what you’re doing with it. Need to move a boulder but your Athletics skill sucks? Use Psionics: Physical instead with an Overcome action to telekinetically move the boulder out of the way. Fighting enemies at range and you don’t have a crossbow? Use it as an Attack to fling objects at people, or slam them into objects, or just hit them directly with something Pathfinder would describe as a Force Effect. Need to get past a guard? Psionics: Mental can allow you to have a bonus to convince them you’re not a bad dude, or you could just overpower their brain and take control of them for a bit. Fighting a big group of enemies? Why not force them to feel fear and panic at the sight of you? Or you could totally make them think you’re a dragon in disguise! The possibilities are endless.

I’m also a big fan of casters having the inherent ability to supercharge their spell casting by sacrificing something. Typically this is done via exertion or sacrifice of some type. For Hekinoe Psionics in Fate; what makes sense for me is inflicting Mental Stress in order to gain a boosted number of shifts. So similar to what I designed for Makass, a Psionic Manifester can take 1-shift of Mental Stress to gain a number of Shifts to their next spell up to their casting skill score. So say the character has a Psionics: Mental skill of 6; if the character takes 1 shift of Mental Stress he gains up to +6 Shifts to his next Psionics roll, which would really be a 12-shift baseline for the roll. (That sounds impressive, but we don’t know what the spell specifically is or what his opponent may have to counter such an action so it isn’t as broken as you might think initially)

Psionics is meant to be stable so there isn’t really a failure associated with it and I’m going to keep it that way as best as possible. It will also be limited to those races that have some type of psionic affinity… however I figure the races out…

Sorcery:

Oh Sorcery, you are a harsh mistress. I’m a fan of there being consequences for magic being used. It’s one of the best aspects of Hekinoe. I love reading about the spell backfires from some of the other campaigns that changed the course of the campaign world. Unfortunately D20 systems don’t like unreliable magic, it makes it necessary to have tables and a bunch of extra dice get rolled as you’re trying to cast and it has the potential to slow down gameplay along the way. Don’t get me wrong, I love the extra tables and dice. I’ve got an addiction like that. But it can appear intimidating to people unfamiliar with that type of thing.

Fortunately Fate is far more forgiving to an unreliable system.

So my vision for Hekinoe’s unreliable Sorcery starts off simply enough. Sorcery is more of an instinctual and “natural” form of magic. It can be used instinctively by certain races because it flows in their blood. In Pathfinder you have Spontaneous Spellcasters like Sorcerers and Bards who can cast their spells without any real training. Therefore there isn’t really a need for a split casting stat. So a single Skill of Sorcery to control the power and scope of spells seems appropriate to me.

Sorcery is a physically corrupting and unstable source of power. It is available to those who wish to learn about it and those whom are born with it. Being from a more instinctual and natural source and being physically corrupting tells me that in order to enhance the spells a person wielding sorcery would take Physical Stress in the same way a Psionic Character would take Mental Stress. These physical issues would manifest themselves in the typical ways, usually bodily corruption of some type.

“But what about the failure system?” you ask. Well, in order to cast a spell without some type of backlash affecting your character you probably need to roll some type of skill check to prevent the magic from getting out of control. A Control Skill would be the most obvious route to start with. This Skill would be useless for everything but allowing you to cast spells without destroying all of the oxygen in the room. The way I envision it working is that whenever you use the Sorcery Skill to cast a spell you have to roll a second time using your Control Skill. You need to get an equal number of Shifts with your Control Skill as you did on your Sorcery Skill otherwise “something bad” happens depending upon how badly you failed.

Basically you think of it as something like a reverse of the way that Fate’s successes work. If you get a higher Control roll than your Sorcery roll, nothing bad happens. If you Tie the roll I’m going to go with nothing bad happens but the spell may be lessened in effectiveness (for now). If you miss by only one or two shifts something bad happens, but it isn’t big, maybe the spell goes off but fails in a spectacular, but undamaging way. If you miss it by 3 or more shifts, then your spell fails and/or backfires in some way that’s nasty to everyone around you and is a perversion of what you were trying to accomplish.

How would these backlashes be determined? I don’t know, I’m going with GM caveat and whim right now. Maybe the tables could still be used, but that seems like a cop-out to me. My White Wolf background says that each backlash should be unique and cater to the nature of the spell and the person casting it similar to the way that Mage the Ascension dealt with Paradox.

I think I’d allow for Control Skill Checks to be enhanced in the same way that Sorcery Skill Checks are with similar effects.

I may want to enhance the core of Sorcery more using the Dresden Files RPG as a baseline to give it an advantage over the other two forms of magic to make up for it having a failure rate. Maybe I can add focus items and magic item slots to it. I’m also thinking of giving some type of extra boost, maybe when you boost it by sacrificing a stress level you gain an automatic +2 shifts and then add in your score, so that it is always just a little bit overpowered, but is also always a bit unstable as you pump more power into it.

Gifts:

Gifts are the ones I’m most concerned about since Karrak is kind of infused with these now.  From the descriptions I’ve received about them, Gifts are essentially potential. They are will and desire given form and pour directly from the life energies of the Nel. The form they take is directly related to the Nel that is using the Gifts. Each has its own flavor and it will always take shape in a way that the Nel is connected to. (E.G. Andorian is all about Cold and Lightning and Storms and such therefore his Gifts manifest like that because it satisfies him at a level we can’t fathom.) There’s a lot more to it than that but I’m not comfortable going into the details without permission.

Gifts are a part of the being of those with them. They are truly instinctual and don’t fail the way Sorcery does. Gifts will have to use a single Skill in order to represent their use and there is no counter stat because they don’t fail like the other types of magic. There are catches though.

Gifts are tied directly to the Nel, first you must have sponsorship of one or be one yourself. It must be an essential part of your nature, so it seems like your High Concept would have to reflect this. Secondly, they are tied to the very essence of the one using the Gifts. They must take the form of things directly related to who the caster is. For example, Andorian is an Utenel Lastborn. His mind, according to descriptions his mind is a storm. It is a wild, swirling vortex of lightning, cold, wind, and such. Therefore his Gifts take the forms of lightning, cold, wind, and other such things. Potentially he has the ability to use any elements or styles of magic that he wishes, but that takes real effort and goes against his nature (which would probably be represented by forcing the use of a Fate Point to even make the attempt).

Gifts manifest themselves to those that can sense them as a general “feeling” of some type. Whenever they are used near another Nel, or those infused with the Gifts of one and they can sense each other. Each one has a unique description that shows the true essence of whom they are. The gifts within Karrak began themed around Andorian’s flavor of gifts. The cold and windy mountain peaks of Andorian were there, but something different was brought by Karrak. The mountains turned to gold and there were hints of other things coming as Karrak gained more power. Keroen remade his Gifts with a blank set that changed the flavor of his Gifts to Karrak’s own nature.

(This is just the description of what his Gifts currently feel like. They evolve as he gains more strength and absorbs more power:

There is a ship upon the sea. The smell of the open ocean, a hint of powder recently spent, and a light, brine filled mist. The ship is filled with life. A crew of indeterminate races, all of them looking brutal, animalistic, and savage; drunkenly sing and sway as they cheer their recent victory. Monkeys chatter and screech from the rigging, providing much entertainment to the crew. The ship plows through detritus floating on the surface. The remains of the enemies the ship has crushed, all the valuables stripped from them and now filling the hold. A lone figure wearing a Captain’s tricorn hat stands at the bow staring ahead, determined. Before the ship lay the Waterfall at the Edge of the World. There is no fear, only passion and determination as the winds suddenly pick up and carry the ship forward to its destiny.)

Looking at Karrak’s nature determines that his Gifts will be Pirate-like and based around what would be a sailor’s desires or essential being would be. Each of those lines in the description is based off of an essential piece of who he is. Each piece can be tapped to give him something to use against his foes.

Anyways, back to the mechanics. Gifts will end up working exactly like the other two categories. They just have more restrictions on how the effects take place. They must follow your character’s themes. If the GM determines that the effect you desire isn’t consistent with your character’s nature it will require a Fate point to attempt it.  The caster can shape any thematically appropriate effect though by using said gifts. Stunts may enhance the specifics of the casting as well.

Because of the nature of Nel and their ties to their Gifts I think allowing them to use both Physical and Mental Stress tracks for boosting their casting ability seems appropriate to me.

Casting Restrictions and Stunts:

Now this could just be the game balance guy in me talking, but each of these sets of rules really seems to be very open to interpretation and potential abuse, especially Sorcery and Gifts. Maybe they need some type of restriction built into them, or maybe they don’t. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. For the time being I think I’m just going to keep it simple and freeform. Restrictions of some type could come later as required.

As for ways to enhance the casting of each of these types of magic I look towards Stunts to be the best way to do it. Generally speaking, a Stunt is used to enhance something that already exists, let you use a skill in a different way, or a whole variety of crazy things. I’m thinking we start with simple things, like Fire Magic Specialty: +2 to Sorcery Checks when casting fire based magic.  Stabilized Sorcery: +2 to Control checks. Mind Control Expert: +2 to Psionic: Mental checks. Simple things like that are easy as hell. It’s when these turn into Stunt Trees that we’re going to have to put in the effort.

Maybe a character like Karl, the gunslinging mage who can cast spells through his gun, could have something like “Spellslinger: May use Sorcery instead of shoot skill for an Attack action when using his specially crafted revolvers. Normal Control rolls still apply, but with a +2 bonus.” Maybe one called “The guns give me a focus: +2 to control checks for spells/attacks cast through his gun”. A good one to start with as the basis for the Stunt tree might be “Gunslinginging Sorcerer: Karl may spend a Fate point once per scene to allow him to cast spells through a gun, giving him +2 to all sorcery checks with spells cast through said weapon for the remainder of the scene.”

So Karl’s Stunt tree would look like this: 1. Gunslinging Sorcerer => 2. Spellslinger => 3. The guns give me focus.

The first one on the tree, Gunslinging Sorcerer, basically an invoking of his High Concept combined with his magic and weapon. Mechanically it’s just a scene length bonus to his spellcasting abilities, but flavored to be through any gun. In my mind I am picturing that he’s investing whatever gun he has with some Sorcery, granting him temporary extra power due to the gun becoming an easier channel for him. Plus this can only work if he’s got a gun of some type in his hand.

The second one, Spellslinger, acknowledges that Karl is a craftsman and likes to cast spells through his gun. This lets him use any gun that he or someone like him has crafted specifically for casting spells through as a spell focus. This gives him the ability to work his attack magic through his gun, making it more stable in the process. Mechanically this is just giving him a specific item that boost his control skill for Attack actions using Sorcery, but thematically it adds flavor.

The third one is a thematically appropriate stacking effect on top of the previous two abilities. It implies that he is able to focus and maintain his magic because of the guns though.

Let’s say that he goes into combat and does what he’s supposed to do, which is shoot things with magic pistols. He spends a Fate point on his first turn to charge his father’s revolver with Sorcery and then shoots someone with it. He gets to take the shot using his Sorcery skill (let’s just call it a baseline of +5 for now, as opposed to his Shoot skill which is only a +2 or a +3), which is boosted by +2 now because of the first Stunt. He rolls his Fudge Dice and gets a +1, for a total of an 8 shift attack. Because he used his Sorcery skill he has to roll a Control check (we’ll say his control is a +4 baseline), so he starts off with his +4, adds in +2 for Spellslinger, and then an additional +2 for The guns give me focus for a baseline total of +8 prior to rolling the dice for the Control check. He has to not roll a -1 or below which gives him a 62% probability of success. Not bad at all.

And this isn’t even scratching the surface of the possibilities.

Epithail Hawk in "Random Encounter"

“Welcome to your end young pup,” the voice behind him said.

Epithail turned just in time to see the hulking beast of a man swing a rather solid looking pipe at his skull. His years of dealing with the untold number of horrors the forces of the Wyrm had thrown at his Sept had prepared him for exactly this type of moment though.  Ducking out of the way, he reached into an inner pocket of his brown trench coat and pulled out a small glass jar. The giant of a man was a little off balance from his previous attack missing when he swung again. He dug deep into his anger and tapped into that reserve of power making this one an easy dodge that  left his opponent wide open, so Epithail responded the only way he could; by smashing the jar of caustic liquids into his face.

His opponent screamed in rage as the solution inside made his skin boil. Epithail drew his Glock and put 4 rounds into the man’s chest sending him to the ground. That’s when he finally heard the other sound coming from his collapsed opponent. A very familiar sound, the cracking and reshaping of bones as a werewolf shifted.

“Shit!” he yelled as he bolted away from the now rising Crinos form werewolf.

Running away he was able to find a good spot to hide in the storage lot for the chemical plant. Looking out from his hiding spot he was able to see his opponent rise. The beast was over 10 feet tall, built of muscle, teeth, and claws, and coated in black, greasy, matted fur. Tribal glyphs glowing a sickly Balefire green dotted his hide. Obviously scar fetishes of his tribe, the Black Spiral Dancers, enhancing his already formidable strength. The Beast’s Rage was barely contained as his body tried its best to repair the damage done to his face with the caustic substance. Fortunately it looked like the substance did a number on the Beast’s eyes and nose giving Epithail a slight time advantage.

The combat training his packmate taught him kicked into high gear and he took stock of his situation as quickly as he could. He had his Glock, his Colt Python, his sawed-off lever action shotgun, and his Kabar-esque Klaive. His Glock was in his hand but would be useless against a werewolf in their warform. He had a quick loading clip with silver rounds for the Colt revolver but he’d have to risk reloading it with a pissed off werewolf within earshot. He had a silver slug at the end of the lever action’s tube, but he wasn’t sure he could get through the other 4 rounds quick enough. His Kabar-style Klaive was a combat knife made of silver infused with a spirit of war and was a very capable weapon in its own right, but he’d have to close in against a werewolf who he’d only gotten lucky against in his earlier melee.

His only chance would be to escape to his car, but it was parked two blocks down and on the wrong side of an anger-fueled furball. To do that he was going to have to make a move of some type, and do it quickly before his opponent regenerated his sense of smell. He holstered the Glock and pulled out the revolver and his silver filled reloader. He opened the cylinder and attempted to eject the rounds into his hand as quietly as possible.

A couple of very brief metallic clinks made the Dancer’s ear’s twitch in his direction. It had heard him. Epithail quickly snapped the chamber the chamber shut, drew his Klaive and began to stand up while he touched the primal Rage inside of himself.

He felt the change take place, he only needed a bit of Gaia’s gifts at the moment. His bones hardened and lengthened, he felt the heat as his muscles grew, he felt that damn itch when the hair pushed its way out of his skin. His head clouded with more anger as he let the Wolf take over a piece of himself. He rose from behind the concrete barrier he was hiding behind in his Glabro, the Near-Man form looking and feeling like the primitively strong and excessively hairy man he now felt like with his weapons drawn in a basic CQC pose.

The Beast’s eyes locked on him and he swore he saw the fucker smile before the mountain of muscle and claws charged him. Epithail squeezed the trigger twice before trying to dive out of the way. Two measured pulls of a professional. The first shot his target was expecting and he adjusted just out of the way, but he wasn’t expecting the second.

The pure silver .44 Magnum round slammed into the beast’s shoulder, shattering the bone and releasing the horrid stench of burning flesh as the round fragmented and buried itself into the werewolf’s body. The Black Spiral Dancer fell to the ground screaming in pain within arms’ length of Epithail.

“That’ll teach you to fuck with me, asshole,” Epithail yelled as he leveled the revolver to finish the job.

That’s when the second one tackled him and tried to rip his face off.

There was no time left for thinking, Epithail let the Rage take control. Gaia had gifted all of her warriors with Rage for a reason, and this was it. The Wolf and the Rage would see him through this and the world disappeared into shades of grey and red as his body made the shift to his War Form, the mighty Crinos.

Epithail’s brown fur covered form wasn’t nearly as muscular as the other two werewolves and he was sometimes a funny sight since he liked to get his combat gear Dedicated to him so it wouldn’t rip when he shifted, but that had never been a problem for him before, especially when he already had his blade in hand. As the second Dancer clamped down onto Epithail’s shoulder, he slammed the Klaive into the betrayer’s neck and pushed it forward hard, severing the spine with the silvered blade. Epithail could practically see the spirit of War inside of the blade glowing with pride as it was able to fulfil its purpose.

He kicked the corpse off of himself and stood up. The first Dancer, the Beast, was nowhere to be seen. The Wolf called to him to hunt it down and finish the kill, but his human instincts barely kept that urge in check. Instead he ran for his car. He holstered his revolver since it was useless to him in this form.

His senses were on high alert. The Wolf in him wasn’t as strong as other Garou, but he was still better off than any human would be in the same situation. If there were two, there are very likely more. In a perverse way he knew he should feel honored that they were using a whole pack to try and take him down. He was just some lowly little Glass Walker computer nerd that somehow warranted a full pack of Black Spiral Dancer’s to be taken down. That would have to count for something to the Sept, right? If only his sixteen year old self could see him now.

The wind shifted and he caught scent of something rancid, a hideous and wrong smell. The smell of a Dancer.  He kept moving and dodged the attack aimed at him from behind a parked truck. He clumsily slashed the third member of the Dancer pack across the side as the Beast revealed himself from the shadows with one more Black Spiral Dancer in tow. He was surrounded.

The Wolf demanded that he go out in a blaze of glory, it snarled for him, challenging his opponents to close and finish him. Epithail almost agreed with it. He didn’t like where this was going. Dancers never killed you if they could help it. It was far better to drive you mad and recruit you. A Glory filled death would be preferred to betraying all you know and care about. Fortunately though his rational mind was able to reign the Wolf back in before he caused more trouble. Epithail forced the Wolf back down and forced himself to resume the Near-Man as he sheathed the Klaive.

“Hey guys, come on. We don’t have to do this,” Epithail said in the gravelly almost growl of the Near-Man, “Go pick up your fallen and I’ll let you leave to nurse your wounds.”

The Beast let out a laugh and cringed a bit as his bullet wound reminded him of its existence. He then lowered his head into a snarl and continued to circle. Epithail began looking for his options. He had put his weapons away. His Klaive was going to be useless here, he wasn’t that good of a knife fighter and there were three of them in Crinos. Granted one was decently slashed up and another had a wrecked shoulder, but he was still out numbered.

“Do you really think you can take, me? I mean, really? I’m Epithail, Silentsurge, the mutha-fuckin man, Hawk.”

The third one was still healthy, that was the priority target. He still had four rounds left in the Colt.

“I’m a legend here. Do you know what and who I’ve done?”

Still circling, looking for that moment of weakness so they can keep me from being crippled. Still have the silver slug in the shotgun, but the other 4 shells are worthless.

“I’ve killed leeches stronger than you. You really think you have a chance against me?”

“Enough talk!” the uninjured Dancer yelled in the barely understandable growls of Crinos as it lunged at Epithail.

Barely getting out of the way of the claw Epithail reached deeply into his inner Rage. He channeled the primal energy his race’s mother-god granted them into his movements. Time seemed to slow as he sped up. His practiced quick draw motions produced the Colt revolver in a fraction of a second. He leveled the gun with supernatural speed and put two rounds into its skull.

He saw the Beast and its companion coming in and dodged two swipes from the Beast before taking a painful slash down his leg from the claw of the companion. Epithail tried to keep standing on it but it refused to support his weight as he came crashing down, screaming in pain. The Wolf tried to take control. He felt his Rage build and his vision started to turn red, but he quickly got it under control before he shifted. A quick once over showed him that his calf was completely torn. That was going to be a painful one to heal.

Tapping into his last reserves of Rage, Epithail rolled out of the way of another of the companion’s attacks at supernatural speed, racking a shell into the shotgun’s chamber. He fired the twelve gauge buckshot into the kneecap of the companion temporarily stopping it in its tracks. He already saw the wound starting to mend as he fired his last two silver .44’s into its chest. It collapsed to the ground struggling for breath as its lungs filled themselves. It was then he was hit by a kick that sent him sprawling.

He looked up in time to see the Beast very slowly, very deliberately walking towards him. Epithail, with as much strength as he could muster, racked another round and fired at his opponent who easily side stepped the shot.

He racked another round, fighting the Wolf and the pain. His body wouldn’t let him get up, but he could still work the action. The shotgun roared and the shot caught the Beast in the chest forcing him to stumble back. The Beast turned back to face him with an approximation of a grin.

“You fool, do you really think that pitiful human weaponry is going to save you?” the Beast asked.

Another series of metallic clicks, the hollow plastic sound of an empty shell hitting the hard ground, and another roar of the gun with the sickening wet sound of lead ripping flesh to pieces. It was followed by more laughing as the wounds closed themselves. The Beast stepped over Epithail and grinned.

“Any last words, you smart ass?” the Beast asked.

“Maybe someday I’ll have some, but it won’t be today,” Epithail said as he racked the last round into the chamber and pulled the trigger.

The shotgun roared and the slug flew out, blowing a fist sized hole through the Beast’s torso. He screamed as best he could as he fell backward. Epithail sat up slowly, propping himself up with the empty shotgun as he looked around for more threats as his body’s supernatural metabolism repaired his injuries.

Space Opera: Alien Profiles Part 2

Continuing my posts about alien races for the Space Opera setting:

 

Name: Krayanans

Home-World: Lorkub

Description: A race of small but aggressive bi-pedal reptiles. They are highly intelligent and resourceful. They live on hot planets, preferring a temperature of approximately 80 degrees Celsius. Their average height is 1 meter, and their average lifespan is only 60 years.

 

I don’t like the 80 degrees Celsius thing for this race because I got a different idea while reading this entry. Space Kobolds!!!

 

Seriously, these are space Kobolds. They can still go ahead and prefer a warmer climate due to being cold blooded, but for seriously, these are space kobolds. What would their world be like?

 

I’m running with this idea, and screw all you who don’t like it! Anyone know where I can find a picture of a Kobold in a space suit?

 

Primary: Bizarre

 

Name: Nalaavites

Home-World: Soleer Prime

Description: A race of venomous amphibians who are governed by a committee of prominent businessmen.

 

Well I guess sentient humanoid poison dart frogs are the race that runs the biggest and most prosperous planet in the Star Cluster. They likely wear some type of body suit that helps them stay out of the water longer. It is a pretty vital piece of equipment for a space faring race since starships are going to be kept climate controlled for lower atmospheric water levels.

 

The suits also protect those not of their species from the poisons their bodies secrete. When stressed or in danger their bodies reflexively produce a powerful contact cardio/neurotoxin. They are able to train themselves to suppress this reflex, but it’s not always effective. A few sentient species in the universe who evolved from animals that eat similar species of animals may have an immunity to this toxin.

 

The entire race is of extremely varied and bright colors. They take the brightness, colors, and patterns of their skins very seriously. It is very much tied to desirability for mating.

 

Primary: Bizarre

 

Name: Pavongans

Home-World: Hetoo 4

Description: A race of inventive mollusks. They have no concept of written language. They are divided into two competing nation-states, each of which controls territory on their home-world, as well as several off-world colonies.

 

Mollusks, eh? Okay, so that gives me a lot of things to choose from. Let’s go classic and assume some type of Cephalopod-like critter. Maybe a kind of mostly humanoid shape, but with 4 tentacles acting as legs and 4 tentacles as arms. They have a head with a large brain, octopus looking eyes, and a beaked mouth. They can also change their skin colors at will. Their ancestors could do it to match the environment, but this mostly just coincides with emotional states and aesthetics now. Their bodies are made of soft tissues and cartilage and decay rapidly after death with the body taking only a couple of weeks to be near completely decayed. Each arm tentacle has a very delicate looking end that is used for fine manipulation of things while the leg tentacles are much larger and stronger.

 

If they have zero concept of a written language, how would they be able to share ideas over the course of their evolution into a space faring society? They either have to live a long time, have insanely awesome memories and brain power, or they transfer information in a different way. I like the last one. Maybe they exchange ideas concepts and memories by exchanging chemical signals of some type. A form of memory swapping telepathy, and possibly a form of ancestral memory built into each and every member of the race.

 

This would mean their society is very much based upon honoring their ancestors. These long memories would easily be passed on to their young. Each and every one of them would have memories leading back countless generations. Maybe these more distant memories can only be accessed through deep meditation or something similar. And clearly not everything is going to be passed on. If a parent lives a long life after having children those later memories aren’t going to be passed on unless they share them via whatever their biological sharing mechanism is. (Chemical cocktails seem about right for this, and these aren’t just a different form a writing, these are actual recreations of the things that make the memories exist)

 

This would very likely lead them to be a contemplative and deep thinking race with a respect for tradition. They would never be rash or quick to jump to a decision. The loss of someone before their memories can be passed on is a very grave thing to happen to this race.

 

Now, why the hell are there two competing nation-states? Easy, ancient rivalries that just cannot seem to die. These have been the dominant nations for thousands upon thousands of years in one way shape or form. Ancient conflicts and the horrors inflicted upon each other are still able to be vividly recalled. Ever experience someone else’s PTSD cause before? They can! So they don’t get along well. Memories from the long dead cloud the judgments of the living.

 

Primary: Bizarre

Secondary: Mysticism

Space Opera: Alien Profiles Part 1

Time for 3 more alien species. As before I’ll include the Randomly Generated Description from scifiideas.com first and then follow it up with my expansion of the species. I may or may not change the names of the species and home-worlds at some later date. I am planning on fleshing out each species some more, these are just general ideas of who/what they are.

Species #2
Name: Dolanans
Home-World: Gorder VI
Description: A race of thrifty therapods who wear chainmail and wear blue body paint.

Therapods are your quintessential bipedal dinosaur. When you think Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus, or anything like them you are thinking of Therapods. So this mean they are warm-blooded, possibly covered or partially covered with “primitive” feathers and likely from predator or omnivore anscestors.

Thrifty implies that they are a frugal and mercantilism inclined race, so they will likely have a strong inclination for free-trade and shrewd negotiating.

The chainmail and body paint may represent a warrior history. The chainmail could be ancestral or handmade and part of their maturation rituals. The body paint will definitely be a religious symbol.

All in all, this sounds like a race that encourages their people to become mercenaries. A tribal or clan family/social structure with an emphasis on strength of arms would be the most common culture on the planet. Their chainmail is more than likely purely ceremonial at this point, especially when dealing with high tech weapons. It may still really be chainmail, but it’s more of a symbol of their status rather than actual protective material.

Primary Type: Warrior
Secondary Type: Religious

Species #3
Name: Sheromi
Home-World: Luminar 3
Description: A race of three-fingered mammals who are able to survive up to eight weeks without food or water and are easily insulted and quick to judge.

Mammalian species with three fingers. Okay, so appearance wise just go with generic Star Trek humanoid alien with different facial structure plus Ninja Turtle hands. Got it.

Survival with no food or water for eight weeks at a time implies they come from a harsh world with scarce safe resources. Their society could potentially live in a Hunter-Gatherer mode for a very long time before they decide to transition to agriculture. The transition to agriculture would likely be due to a weakened ecosystems or a sudden population boom. They could have even had an issue in their biosphere that made hunting and gathering a less than sustainable or effective tactic. The species would still have a great respect for the hunting and gathering lifestyle though and may choose to keep it up whenever they can, supplementing with farmed foods only when necessary.

Survival being their top priority they would concentrate on technological advancements. Let’s also assume that their ability to go weeks at a time without food and water also translates too little need to sleep and a longer life expectancy. Say a 300-500 year range. They tend to take things a little bit slower than everyone else but can also concentrate on tasks a lot easier. They like to plan ahead.

Their society may like to encourage a minimalist approach to sustenance intake, maybe consuming a meal once a month at most. Each meal is a feast though. It’s almost a religious event where they thank each animal for its sacrifice and are thankful for the bounty they are able to reap. When they can, they prefer to only consume food that they or their companions have hunted or gathered. It isn’t a requirement, as modern life has made this difficult to maintain, but when given the opportunity the species tends to take it.

When it comes to protective, environmental, and survival gear the Sheromi make some of, if not the, best. They are also all at least competent in hunting and wilderness survival as it’s required skills for them to learn while growing up.

They believe very strongly in the tradition of guest’s rights and helping travelers even if they are bitter and sworn enemies.

Primary: Tech
Secondary: a dash of Mysticism and Warrior

Species #4
Name: Basa (Bah-Sah)
Home-World: Jittania VI
Description: A race of fury (sic) marsupials. They evolved on the same world as a race of semi-intelligent mammals which they use as slaves. They share their homeworld with beings of pure energy, whom they worship as gods.

I don’t know if that’s supposed to be “Fury” or “Furry”. I’m just going to assume it’s okay to use a simile of “fury”. Passion or Rabidity sound good for beings that can physically see and interact with their “Gods”.

Passionate Marsupials. Hmmmm… all that’s popping into my head are disgusting images of humans in religious garb with kangaroo pouches. Something like a Mobi Wrap, but made of skin. *shudder* Okay, maybe I’ll just leave the appearance alone for the moment before I make myself sicker…

This entry is a little bit more complex. I need to include two more races.

Clearly the energy beings are controlling everything in this society. The enslaved, semi-intelligent mammals may not know they’re enslaved and they may be common enough that everyone has one, buys one, or is given one. It could very well be an important piece of their culture too. How well you treat your slave reflects upon your character, and so on and so forth.

Why do the energy beings allow the enslavement? Were the Semis intelligent beforehand? How long has this been the standard?

Okay, clearly they need to be fleshed out more. I’ll post them after this entry as minor/related species.

The Basa worship the energy beings as gods. Their gods clearly exist. Their religious devotion is going to be nearly unshakable. Maybe there are dissenters here and there, but I’m sure it’s heresy to speak of such things.

Everything the species does will be in service to these Energy Beings whom they will defend with only a passion that religious zealots only can.

Primary: Religious
Secondary: None

Name: Basa Sa-ani (Bah-Sah Say-on-ee) which translates to literally mean The Gods of Basa
Home-World: Unknown
Description: Vaguely humanoid shapes of pure energy of varying colors.

The Basa religious texts speak of these benevolent beings descending from the heavens and delivering a great golden age to the Basa. No one knows where they came from or why they’re doing what they’re doing, but they protect and help advance the Basa. There are rumored thousands of these beings on the Basa homeworld. Very few, if any, outsiders have ever seen one let alone spoken to them.

Name: Vallo
Home-World: Same
Description: Mamallian, semi-intelligent. They have four eyes, a muscular humanoid build, and are placental mammals.

The Vallo’s origin has always been that of one growing up in the shadow of the Basa. Two sentient species with incompatible DNA typically do not show up together on a world due to the competition between primitive societies. It appears that the two species vied for control somewhere in the distant past and the Vallo lost. The became a domesticated, semi-intelligent species while the Basa went on to obtain a more “typical” intelligence level the universe is used to seeing. Vallo are used for labor and menial tasks. They’re bred for it, they are treated well, and seem pretty happy with their lot in life.

A Vallo is given to a Basa as part of their coming of age ceremony before the Basa is sent off on a pilgrimage. The care and respect a Basa shows his Vallo is a direct reflection of whom that Basa is. A goodly Basa is seen as one who treats their Vallo well, despite the fact that the Vallo are seen as little more than animals.

Edit: Post was unfinished when originally published, fixed that issue.