Don Antonio sat in the corner of Vito's, his favorite Italian bistro, flanked by his constant bodyguard, two muscled brutes that looked more like gorillas than men, gorillas that had been strategically inserted into expensive suits, and stared at the man who sat opposite him at the table. Vito, a long time associate of the old man, had closed his doors early to accommodate the meeting. It was the way of things. Vito had asked Don Vito to protect his interests nearly twenty years before this night and Don Antonio was only too happy to oblige. Everyone, the don had explained to Vito those years ago, needed friends in this world. Vito had become one of the don's friends and from that day forth Don Antonio was the silent partner in Vito's bistro. Silent, as in, Don Antonio received his cut of the profits regularly and was treated as royalty at the bistro. What the don asked was done, no questions asked.
Tonight Don Antonio had asked for the entire establishment for a meeting and Vito complied. Vito always complied, to do otherwise would have been disrespectful.
Don Antonio sipped bourbon and looked at the man who sat before him. He was not impressed. If O'Connell, that fucking upstart mick, thought that his representative was of the caliber to meet with a man of Don Antonio's stature he was either as stupid as he looked or being intentionally disrespectful. Don Antonio did not like men who failed to show the proper respect and he despised those who intentionally disrespected the rules of the business.
"What can you expect from a mick," he said to himself.
"Mister Antonio," the man said, "Mr. O'Connell says to tell you he respects your position and your influence, but that he will not give up the western territories he has acquired. He hopes you can understand."
Don Antonio betrayed no emotion. Indeed his face was a mask of unconcerned disinterest.
"Aldo," Don Antonio said to the muscle on his left, "what do you make of this mick, eh?"
"Seems lippy ta me, boss," the gorilla said.
"Charming," the man said. "I'm not Irish, by the way."
Don Antonio leaned forward nearly dipping his tie into his plate of tortellini.
"Doesn't matter if you are the king of Portugal; not to me. You are here representing that mick thug O'Connell. You speak for the mick, you are the mick. Capisce? You come into my town, my territory, and you don't show the proper respect."
"I beg to differ, Mr. Antonio."
"You call this respect? You come in and tell me that your boss is not willing to follow the rules? No tribute? I can smell the disdain on you from here."
"To be frank, Mr. Antonio, what Mr. O'Connell said, specifically, was to tell you that he didn't give a rat's ass what you wanted. His exact words were, 'You tell that shriveled dog's dick of dago that he can take his territorial bullshit and stick it up his fat wop ass.'"
Don Antonio lost all composure. "Aldo, taking this fucking mick stooge into the back and teach him some manners!"
Aldo and his fellow simian were on their feet in a moment. They grabbed O'Connell's man roughly around the throat and dragged him to the floor. A flurry of kicks followed and the sound of cracking bone could be heard. Vito stayed in the kitchen pretended not to hear.
"The back, you morons!"
"At once, Don Antonio," Aldo said winded and a little embarrassed.
The goons dragged their victim by his collar feeling no resistance. He was limp and moved like a sack of flour.
O'Connell's man opened his eyes to see a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. He was tied to a wooden chair and expertly it seemed. There was no room to wiggle his arms, much less work his hands free. The room was full of shelves and supplies. Clearly it was a stock room for the restaurant. The two goons who had beat him stood on either side of him just in his field of vision. The door he faced opened and Don Antonio stepped in, his massive bulk filling the entire door frame.
Bound but not gagged, he laughed.
"What's so funny?" Don Antonio asked.
"I was wondering when was the last time you saw your dick, you fat..."
He did not get to finish his sentence as Aldo's fist cut it short knocking several teeth from his jaw. He spit the teeth out to the floor with a gout of dark unhealthy looking blood.
"I was never much of a poet," the don said. "I found that words were most effective when they were spoken plainly. You could say I don't have the art, but I do love art. I love the poetry of communication. What I'm going to do is send a message to O'Connell using you as my medium."
Don Antonio worked on his captive for a half hour at least with the aid of his goons. When he was done the man was hardly recognizable as a man at all.
"Whatdya think, boys?" Don Antonio huffed, wheezing as the exertion took its toll on him. The sweat had stained the pits of his shirt and soaked his collar.
"Like a regular Picasso, boss," Aldo said smiling.
"You boys finish the job. I gotta have a drink."
Don Antonio turned and left the storeroom clomping loudly as his overtaxed bulk traveled to the dining room. Aldo and his companion were looking at the door as the don left with no concern for the ruin of the man that slumped behind them.
The man's flesh was all but destroyed, which was fine. He'd only borrowed it anyway.
"Time to get to work," he said to himself.
With a shudder the life left the body, or rather the spirit shook the mortal coil, shimmering out of the body. Aldo became aware of a sudden drop in temperature.
"Carlo, it get fuckin' cold in here or am I dreamin'?" he asked his companion.
The second goon made no reply at all. He could not reply.
Aldo turned to his partner.
"You hear me?" he asked but when he turned to see Carlo all he could do was stare with his mouth open wide. The thing standing behind Carlo was translucent, a grayish-bluish color and in its eyes Aldo saw Hell.
"Holy Mary mother of God," Aldo cried.
That's good, Aldo, he heard a voice say, or rather felt, as in his head, pray. It might help your chances. Not here, of course, but after.
Aldo never had time to scream before his life was cut short by the thing before him.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Just hit it with a stick, mate
Wizards are all about magic, right?
I mean, that's why they are called Wizards and not Warriors. Thus the Wizard should be just lobbing magic around all day, putting a hurting on anything and everything that gets in its way...right?
Even Doctor Strange, whose powers are nebulous in their rules, doesn't do that. So why should your little MMO/RPG Wizard do that?
It's not even effective, really. Prior to 0 edition DnD's Greyhawk Supplement a 1st level Magic-User really had no offensive spell powers. No direct damage, if you will. He was supposed to be, get ready for it, AN APPRENTICE just fresh out of his years of learning magical formula and secrets, hungry for adventure and the oh so necessary GOLD to continue his explorations into the magical realms. He wanted scrolls, wands, tomes of power and items of arcane miscellany that could only be found in the hordes of dragons, temples of evil demon gods and the boudoirs of liches. Like the 1st level Fighting Man he was only marginally better than a normal person but he had the potential for greatness. Since the normal person wasn't going to be READing MAGIC or putting anything to SLEEP these small magic spells were great boons. So what if he couldn't make things explode.
Then along came MAGIC MISSILE, the bane of 1st level Mages everywhere. Bane, you say? Why is that?
Okay, you got one spell. One. One spell per 24 hours. You are trapped in a dungeon, no light whatsoever, no torches, no lamps, screwed as a party. What is a more useful spell to have: MAGIC MISSILE or LIGHT?
"Hey, Androphiles the Great, cast LIGHT."
"Sorry, man, I brought MAGIC MISSILE today."
"We hate you. We all hate you. We've been meaning to tell you that."
When it first appeared MAGIC MISSILE did the same damage as an arrow (2-7 points) which was decent. You could kill something with it. By AD&D 1st edition that had been reduced to 1d4+1 (2-5), which is pretty crap. You want to waste your one spell today for a magic light dagger?
At the same time the Magic User could carry a staff which did 1d6 points of damage. What's wrong with hitting something with a staff? It is better damage than an AD&D 1st edition MAGIC MISSILE and you can use it indefinitely. Now I should point out that arrows, in the real world, are much more effective than in RPGs, but that does not excuse MAGIC MISSILE from sucking so much.
Of course the modern gamer won't have it. Nope. They want a magic ranged direct damage attack of approximately equal or greater value than a sword. Because that is "fair".
MAGIC IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FAIR! It is MAGIC! What is fair about being able to disintegrate a person at high levels?
Nothing. That's the point of magic. This reliance on magic as the sole ability of wizards is the problem. Stop that.
I mean, that's why they are called Wizards and not Warriors. Thus the Wizard should be just lobbing magic around all day, putting a hurting on anything and everything that gets in its way...right?
Even Doctor Strange, whose powers are nebulous in their rules, doesn't do that. So why should your little MMO/RPG Wizard do that?
It's not even effective, really. Prior to 0 edition DnD's Greyhawk Supplement a 1st level Magic-User really had no offensive spell powers. No direct damage, if you will. He was supposed to be, get ready for it, AN APPRENTICE just fresh out of his years of learning magical formula and secrets, hungry for adventure and the oh so necessary GOLD to continue his explorations into the magical realms. He wanted scrolls, wands, tomes of power and items of arcane miscellany that could only be found in the hordes of dragons, temples of evil demon gods and the boudoirs of liches. Like the 1st level Fighting Man he was only marginally better than a normal person but he had the potential for greatness. Since the normal person wasn't going to be READing MAGIC or putting anything to SLEEP these small magic spells were great boons. So what if he couldn't make things explode.
Then along came MAGIC MISSILE, the bane of 1st level Mages everywhere. Bane, you say? Why is that?
Okay, you got one spell. One. One spell per 24 hours. You are trapped in a dungeon, no light whatsoever, no torches, no lamps, screwed as a party. What is a more useful spell to have: MAGIC MISSILE or LIGHT?
"Hey, Androphiles the Great, cast LIGHT."
"Sorry, man, I brought MAGIC MISSILE today."
"We hate you. We all hate you. We've been meaning to tell you that."
When it first appeared MAGIC MISSILE did the same damage as an arrow (2-7 points) which was decent. You could kill something with it. By AD&D 1st edition that had been reduced to 1d4+1 (2-5), which is pretty crap. You want to waste your one spell today for a magic light dagger?
At the same time the Magic User could carry a staff which did 1d6 points of damage. What's wrong with hitting something with a staff? It is better damage than an AD&D 1st edition MAGIC MISSILE and you can use it indefinitely. Now I should point out that arrows, in the real world, are much more effective than in RPGs, but that does not excuse MAGIC MISSILE from sucking so much.
Of course the modern gamer won't have it. Nope. They want a magic ranged direct damage attack of approximately equal or greater value than a sword. Because that is "fair".
MAGIC IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FAIR! It is MAGIC! What is fair about being able to disintegrate a person at high levels?
Nothing. That's the point of magic. This reliance on magic as the sole ability of wizards is the problem. Stop that.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Wizards that manage Awesome: Xavier Pendragon
One of the early wizards I actually enjoyed was from a fighting game of all things. Eternal Champions was a fighting game released in 1993 on the Sega system. It was never in arcades being designed for the Sega home system and I enjoyed it greatly despite the fact that it was too hard by half. Along with Zombies Ate My Neighbors it remains one of the few Sega titles I would still play today. At the time of its release fighting games were en vogue so any new title was guaranteed to at least get a rental if not a sale. Eternal Champions did well enough, it would seem, to warrant an expanded edition on Sega CD format with extra characters. I never played it, but I assume it was just as hard. This was the dawn of the gore era of fighting games thanks to the runaway success of Midway's Mortal Kombat and its much loved/reviled fatalities. Eternal Champions attempted to go MK one better with Overkills and being a fully rendered game, as opposed to MK's digitized actors the gore could be over-the-top such as being eaten by a dinosaur.
Fighting games often have storylines, some complex, some not. Eternal Champions had a fairly involved storyline wherein the competitors were all killed prior to the tournament at a crux in their lives when they would have changed history but for their deaths. Pulled out of the time stream just before death they were given the opportunity to fight to win the ultimate prize: being sent back to the moment of their death, seconds before the key event, with foreknowledge and a chance to change their futures. Pretty deep, yeah? Each character came from a different time and place and their fighting stages were based on those eras and settings. It was pretty good game from that point if nothing else. Among the characters (which included a cat burglar from 1920s Chicago, a futuristic bounty hunter from 2030 and a caveman from 50,000 B.C.) was an alchemist/warlock from 17th century Salem, Mass by the name of Xavier. Since wizards are not often featured in fighting games as playable characters this instantly caught my attention and Xavier became my favorite character to play. The vast historical inaccuracies (such as the martial arts styles employed by the fighters that more often than not had not been invented when they were alive) are easily forgivable to me. That's saying a lot, you know.
A wizard in a martial arts fighting game?
Why not?
Most fighting games employ a set of special moves for the characters, often involving seemingly magical abilities. You can say that the martial artists use Chi or some similar psionic ability, but no amount of Chi is going to produce a ball of fire so why not a straight up wizard...even a wizard who gets his powers from Clarke's Third Law.
Full Name: Xavier Pendragon (good start)
Occupation: Warlock/Alchemist (actually his bio says he had failed at many jobs before taking up the study of alchemy, including being a blacksmith/farrier)
Time Zone: 1692 A.D. (you will no doubt instantly recognize that as the year that the Salem Witch Trials began)
Stage Location: Salem (stage location being where he was from and where his fighting stage is; note Time Zone above)
Fighting Style: Hapkido Cane Fighting (One of these things is not like the others...not only is Hapkido a Korean martial art and so unlikely to be known by an Anglo living in Puritan Salem, it was not yet developed, as we know it, when Xavier was alive)
Bio in Brief: After failing at being a blacksmith, drastically, Xavier turned to his original love: science. He began experimenting with alchemy and rather than finding a way to turn lead into gold he discovered a way to create a source of cheap, clean-burning energy. This discovery also fundamentally changed him giving him some powers which seemed like magic, but were completely scientific (the instruction manual claimed). Unfortunately the people of Salem didn't like hippies back then any more than they liked witches and he was seized and burned at the stake for being a warlock before he could reveal his OPEC wrecking secrets to the world.
In game he fights with kicks and cane strikes making use of his "dragon staff" (because a wizard has to have a staff doesn't he?). His special moves include a teleportation ability that allows him to switch places with his opponent; the ability to convert his dragon staff into a glowing green energy snake and have it coil around the foe, doing damage and holding them in place; and the ability to turn his enemy into gold for a brief time, allowing complete and total freedom to beat them silly. Like all the Eternal Champions he has a taunt to lower his enemy's fighting abilities, his being "Simpleton" in a somewhat haughty and creepy voice.
I like his look. It is iconic wizard, which might be how he got found out by the good people of Salem. If you are running around in 17th century Puritan Salem where the people wear shirts, short pants, hose, low-cut shoes, neck cloths and disdain jewelry looking like a wizard with your big foldy boots, cloak and amulet, not to mention your Satanic dragon-headed cane, you are just asking to be burnt, mate.
I also like that he is in a fighting game, beating arse with a stick. As I've noted before, many, many, many times the lack of physical martial abilities in wizards is a major annoyance of mine. Old Xavier may disdain the hands-on approach but he has no problem with the foot to the balls and stick upside the head route.
Unfortunately his appearances outside of the game proper, in comic form no less, made him into some sort of jerk-off who looks down on everyone and has an irrational fear of horses. I get it. Trying to keep it canon. Stupid.
As far as look goes, I have noticed a more than passing resemblance to the Marvel Comics character Modred the Mystic who first saw the four-color inked light of day in 1975 in Marvel Chillers #1. Modred, who really deserves his own article, is a wizardly anti-hero/villain possessed by the Elder God Chthon who was so damned while trying to use a book of ultimate evil for the purposes of good. You know, that old tale.
Xavier Pendragon, one of the Wizards I Do Not Hate.
Fighting games often have storylines, some complex, some not. Eternal Champions had a fairly involved storyline wherein the competitors were all killed prior to the tournament at a crux in their lives when they would have changed history but for their deaths. Pulled out of the time stream just before death they were given the opportunity to fight to win the ultimate prize: being sent back to the moment of their death, seconds before the key event, with foreknowledge and a chance to change their futures. Pretty deep, yeah? Each character came from a different time and place and their fighting stages were based on those eras and settings. It was pretty good game from that point if nothing else. Among the characters (which included a cat burglar from 1920s Chicago, a futuristic bounty hunter from 2030 and a caveman from 50,000 B.C.) was an alchemist/warlock from 17th century Salem, Mass by the name of Xavier. Since wizards are not often featured in fighting games as playable characters this instantly caught my attention and Xavier became my favorite character to play. The vast historical inaccuracies (such as the martial arts styles employed by the fighters that more often than not had not been invented when they were alive) are easily forgivable to me. That's saying a lot, you know.
A wizard in a martial arts fighting game?
Why not?
Most fighting games employ a set of special moves for the characters, often involving seemingly magical abilities. You can say that the martial artists use Chi or some similar psionic ability, but no amount of Chi is going to produce a ball of fire so why not a straight up wizard...even a wizard who gets his powers from Clarke's Third Law.
Full Name: Xavier Pendragon (good start)
Occupation: Warlock/Alchemist (actually his bio says he had failed at many jobs before taking up the study of alchemy, including being a blacksmith/farrier)
Time Zone: 1692 A.D. (you will no doubt instantly recognize that as the year that the Salem Witch Trials began)
Stage Location: Salem (stage location being where he was from and where his fighting stage is; note Time Zone above)
Fighting Style: Hapkido Cane Fighting (One of these things is not like the others...not only is Hapkido a Korean martial art and so unlikely to be known by an Anglo living in Puritan Salem, it was not yet developed, as we know it, when Xavier was alive)
Bio in Brief: After failing at being a blacksmith, drastically, Xavier turned to his original love: science. He began experimenting with alchemy and rather than finding a way to turn lead into gold he discovered a way to create a source of cheap, clean-burning energy. This discovery also fundamentally changed him giving him some powers which seemed like magic, but were completely scientific (the instruction manual claimed). Unfortunately the people of Salem didn't like hippies back then any more than they liked witches and he was seized and burned at the stake for being a warlock before he could reveal his OPEC wrecking secrets to the world.
In game he fights with kicks and cane strikes making use of his "dragon staff" (because a wizard has to have a staff doesn't he?). His special moves include a teleportation ability that allows him to switch places with his opponent; the ability to convert his dragon staff into a glowing green energy snake and have it coil around the foe, doing damage and holding them in place; and the ability to turn his enemy into gold for a brief time, allowing complete and total freedom to beat them silly. Like all the Eternal Champions he has a taunt to lower his enemy's fighting abilities, his being "Simpleton" in a somewhat haughty and creepy voice.
 |
| Xavier became suddenly aware of his poor choice in attire during the early days of the Witch Trials in Salem. |
I also like that he is in a fighting game, beating arse with a stick. As I've noted before, many, many, many times the lack of physical martial abilities in wizards is a major annoyance of mine. Old Xavier may disdain the hands-on approach but he has no problem with the foot to the balls and stick upside the head route.
Unfortunately his appearances outside of the game proper, in comic form no less, made him into some sort of jerk-off who looks down on everyone and has an irrational fear of horses. I get it. Trying to keep it canon. Stupid.
 |
| Coincidental fashion template or victim of an outright rip-off; you decide. |
Xavier Pendragon, one of the Wizards I Do Not Hate.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Wizards that manage Awesome: An Introduction
Wizards...I seem to post about them quite a bit. You'd think I liked them or something. As a gamer from way back I can say that yes I do like the wizard, but it is twisted history indeed. You see, I refused to play wizards in games growing up be they tabletop RPG or arcade games or MMOs (that came later) or computer-based RPGs. I post about games quite a bit too, come to think of it.
In a previous post entitled I am a Wizard... and I sword, already a classic of pop culture literary criticism, I spoke of my disdain for the treatment of wizards in gaming culture when they have such a rich literary basis and history. It is precisely because of that maltreatment I mentioned in the linked article above that I avoided playing wizards for so long in gaming. Like many young men I liked things that were (are, let's be honest) awesome such as skulls, heavy metal, guns, swords, barbarian movies and sharks. Wizards were, as I saw them then, sorely lacking in much of what made for awesome. When I entered gaming in earnest I found the wizard to be woefully inadequate as a class (this would be the first days of AD&D 2nd edition, which had its own flaws...but I'm not here to give you a history lesson on AD&D...yet). I suspect my first foray into playing a wizard of any kind in a game was due to my beloved gamebooks, specifically Grey Star the Wizard, written by Ian Page as part of the World of Lone Wolf series that was set in Joe Dever's world of Magnamund.
I enjoyed the books immensely, but as gamebooks are written from a solo player perspective with the reader as the hero any inherent comparative weaknesses of the wizard to the other classic character archetypes are not readily seen.
I can also add J.H. Brennan's excellent Grailquest series of gamebooks to my earliest forays into wizardry. I have mentioned them before in my award-winning essay on Merlin where I explained that Brennan's Merlin employs a young person named Pip to do his dirty work (Pip being the reader of the gamebooks) and as such Pip is a wizard's apprentice and has access to some of the master's magic.
Outside of that I did not muck about much with wizards save for the odd comic book wizard here and there or a video game or two.
It was not until I played Neverwinter Nights 2 with my lovely wife and was forced to take control of a wizard in the party after my character (I don't recall what it was) was killed in combat that I started to take an interest in the wizards again. I will not lie, it was because of a spell called Issac's Greater Missile Storm. I was thoroughly impressed with the damage.
Sometime before that incident I read the Harry Potter books. So the interest was always there, but the application was lacking.
I do find that gaming wizards disappoint me often. I am interested in the trappings, the bits, the bobs, the esoteric knowledge and all that but in gaming it just keeps coming down to nuke, nuke, nuke, and when in doubt, nuke again. To offset this WMD potential the wizard gets saddled with a set of restrictions that make the character most undesirable.
And of course I am getting older. I once balked at the "dress wearing" habits of the wizard, but now I think I like the robes. I like armor too, so let's not get confused here, but the robes are part of the attire, like a uniform. Most games these days ignore the full potential of the wizard as the Swiss Army Knife of the group (Wait, I have a spell for that somewhere) focusing on the damage potential, which I think is a shame.
My point here is that I enjoy the wizard in its many roles as character class, fictional protagonist (and antagonist), and cultural icon (also as found on murals painted on the side of vans, which is bitchin'). I like the mystery, the imaginative forces, the look (both dangerous and not-so-dangerous), and the various ways authors and creators describe the spells and work of the mage. It find it more interesting than simple sword swinging, but I do like that too (quite a bit, actually).
I suppose I could have called this article (series) Wizards I Have Played in Games and Stuff but that seemed to lack poetry.
In a previous post entitled I am a Wizard... and I sword, already a classic of pop culture literary criticism, I spoke of my disdain for the treatment of wizards in gaming culture when they have such a rich literary basis and history. It is precisely because of that maltreatment I mentioned in the linked article above that I avoided playing wizards for so long in gaming. Like many young men I liked things that were (are, let's be honest) awesome such as skulls, heavy metal, guns, swords, barbarian movies and sharks. Wizards were, as I saw them then, sorely lacking in much of what made for awesome. When I entered gaming in earnest I found the wizard to be woefully inadequate as a class (this would be the first days of AD&D 2nd edition, which had its own flaws...but I'm not here to give you a history lesson on AD&D...yet). I suspect my first foray into playing a wizard of any kind in a game was due to my beloved gamebooks, specifically Grey Star the Wizard, written by Ian Page as part of the World of Lone Wolf series that was set in Joe Dever's world of Magnamund.
 |
| The U.S. edition of Grey Star. Not a cover to make you rush to the counter with your money in hand, I'm afraid. |
 |
| The U.K. edition of Grey Star. This is, in my opinion, a stronger cover presentation. |
I can also add J.H. Brennan's excellent Grailquest series of gamebooks to my earliest forays into wizardry. I have mentioned them before in my award-winning essay on Merlin where I explained that Brennan's Merlin employs a young person named Pip to do his dirty work (Pip being the reader of the gamebooks) and as such Pip is a wizard's apprentice and has access to some of the master's magic.
Outside of that I did not muck about much with wizards save for the odd comic book wizard here and there or a video game or two.
It was not until I played Neverwinter Nights 2 with my lovely wife and was forced to take control of a wizard in the party after my character (I don't recall what it was) was killed in combat that I started to take an interest in the wizards again. I will not lie, it was because of a spell called Issac's Greater Missile Storm. I was thoroughly impressed with the damage.
Sometime before that incident I read the Harry Potter books. So the interest was always there, but the application was lacking.
I do find that gaming wizards disappoint me often. I am interested in the trappings, the bits, the bobs, the esoteric knowledge and all that but in gaming it just keeps coming down to nuke, nuke, nuke, and when in doubt, nuke again. To offset this WMD potential the wizard gets saddled with a set of restrictions that make the character most undesirable.
And of course I am getting older. I once balked at the "dress wearing" habits of the wizard, but now I think I like the robes. I like armor too, so let's not get confused here, but the robes are part of the attire, like a uniform. Most games these days ignore the full potential of the wizard as the Swiss Army Knife of the group (Wait, I have a spell for that somewhere) focusing on the damage potential, which I think is a shame.
My point here is that I enjoy the wizard in its many roles as character class, fictional protagonist (and antagonist), and cultural icon (also as found on murals painted on the side of vans, which is bitchin'). I like the mystery, the imaginative forces, the look (both dangerous and not-so-dangerous), and the various ways authors and creators describe the spells and work of the mage. It find it more interesting than simple sword swinging, but I do like that too (quite a bit, actually).
I suppose I could have called this article (series) Wizards I Have Played in Games and Stuff but that seemed to lack poetry.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Spell Profiles: The Coffee from Hell
As any fan of my work will no doubt have memorized every detail of these posts I don't need to remind you gentle readers about my fascinating article on those wizards of the Weird West: Hucksters. However if you do need a refresher you can always go HERE. You will recall that I expressed my enjoyment and admiration for the system and approved of the Wilder Magic Designation Type III that it used. The thrill of knowing that any attempt to cast even the simplest of spells could result in the loss of life, limb, or the eternal soul was matched only by the thrill of being lynched when successful due to the irrational fears of the good folks of the town you just saved from some demonic coyote-rabbit.
The game designers realized that there was a niche that could be filled and where there is a niche there is a dollar to be made. To the end of filling that niche (and the coffers) they published Hucksters and Hexes, a book full to bursting with new information for the Huckster players. Among the improvements were a set of minor hexes called "tricks".
TRICKS
Tricks are very minor hexes (spells) that do not require much power to cast and provide correspondingly minor results. The virtue of the trick is that sometimes a Huckster doesn't need to set the whole town ablaze, he just needs to light a fuse; in the absence of matches he shouldn't have to blow his fool head off to do it. In game terms the Huckster slips his conscious mind off to the Hunting Grounds, grabs a scrawny little Mantiou and just whips its ass for a smidgen of power. Even if he fails he just gets a little winded. Not so bad, really.
Well in all fairness there was a small chance he might still get backlash, but only if he drew the black joker (1 in 54 chance or 1.852%); that's much better than the usual by far.
Tricks were what fantasy gaming calls "cantrips" and there were plenty of them. Most of the effects were useful, if limited, but players being the clever and crafty lot they are would always find a way to use them in expanded ways.
The trick that always stuck in my head as the prime example is my focus today.
COFFIN VARNISH
As described in Hucksters and Hexes, coffin varnish is a slang term for bad coffee and that is what the hex makes-sort of.
Cast on a cup or glass of some beverage (anything, as long as it is potable) Coffin Varnish changes the liquid from its former state into something resembling a hot, coffee-like beverage that would curl a dead man's toes. A thoroughly unpleasant taste experience, the brew had practical uses.
1. It will keep a cowpoke awake. The in-game benefit was a large bonus to vigor rolls to stay awake. This is useful if you need to be up for a stake-out or have guard duty or are trying to pull one of those all night poker games.
2. It instantly and irrevocably sobers up drunk people. The experience leaves the poor soul with a hangover for 1-6 hours, but he is sober.
The coffin varnish must be drunk within 10 minutes of casting to work lest it lose its power and it automatically fails if cast on a magical or alchemical concoction.
That's not a bad little spell. Coffee is one of those particularly Western genre things like bacon, beans, rot-gut whisky and stampedes. Thus a spell for making a piping hot cup of nasty coffee is all part of the flavor of the game (puns are free here at the Pumpkin). You might be thinking, "Hey, that's pretty basic, but I bet it can be of more use than what you've listed." I'm proud of you. You have the makings of a true gamer (as opposed to that breed of modern gamer raised in a video dependent world who can't think outside of the script of the game rules).
What could you do with a cup or glass of piping hot, coffee-like hellbrew?
You could throw it in the face of some cuss who is getting on your nerves or holding a gun on you. That's a likely scenario in both fiction and gaming.
"Okay, you've got me dead to rights, Clem. I could see when you came in holding that piece that we weren't going to part on friendly terms. At least let me be neighborly and offer you a cup o' mud." Splash! +4 to your next attack roll and you have initiative.
That same scenario could go more subtly if you liked. Just because the rules don't mention any penalties for drinking the blamed stuff is no reason for the enterprising Huckster player to not argue with his GM for an ad hoc roll or penalty.
"Yeah, Tom, I'm going to pick up this cup of regular coffee, cast Coffin Varnish on it and offer it to Clem."
"Sure, Dave, he takes it and takes a drink."
"He should totally be gagging right now; that stuff tastes like the Devil's diarrhea. Do I get a free attack?"
"I don't know..."
"Come on, man, it tastes like hell. He's expecting normal coffee, that's got to be worth a negative at least."
You might be one of those players who enjoys the social aspects of gaming more than the dice rolling. Perhaps you are a wizard with a mean sense of humor and enjoy playing obnoxious pranks (no, that never happens in gaming). How great a prank is the old cup o' Coffin Varnish played on those closest to you? Or just pulled at the local chop house on people you don't even know. One of the odd things about the trick is that it has a range of 1 yard. 3 FEET. You can literally do this to a person at the other table without their knowledge. The potential, while not limitless, is staggering in the right hands.
Of course you could pull that black joker and blow your damned head off trying it, but suffering for one's art is all part of the game, right?
"Evenin', Sheriff"
"Evenin', Clem. Looks a damned bloody mess in here. Body without a head; just about takes the cookie. We know what happened?"
"Luke seen it all, Sheriff. He said this here fella from outta town was sittin' here mumbling something about his coffee then his damn fool head just blowed up and sprayed all over the walls."
"Damn shame, Clem. Must have been some strong coffee. Let's go get some beans."
That's a hell of a way to go, blowing your head off for a joke, but man your group will tell that story for a long, long time.
The game designers realized that there was a niche that could be filled and where there is a niche there is a dollar to be made. To the end of filling that niche (and the coffers) they published Hucksters and Hexes, a book full to bursting with new information for the Huckster players. Among the improvements were a set of minor hexes called "tricks".
TRICKS
Tricks are very minor hexes (spells) that do not require much power to cast and provide correspondingly minor results. The virtue of the trick is that sometimes a Huckster doesn't need to set the whole town ablaze, he just needs to light a fuse; in the absence of matches he shouldn't have to blow his fool head off to do it. In game terms the Huckster slips his conscious mind off to the Hunting Grounds, grabs a scrawny little Mantiou and just whips its ass for a smidgen of power. Even if he fails he just gets a little winded. Not so bad, really.
Well in all fairness there was a small chance he might still get backlash, but only if he drew the black joker (1 in 54 chance or 1.852%); that's much better than the usual by far.
Tricks were what fantasy gaming calls "cantrips" and there were plenty of them. Most of the effects were useful, if limited, but players being the clever and crafty lot they are would always find a way to use them in expanded ways.
The trick that always stuck in my head as the prime example is my focus today.
COFFIN VARNISH
As described in Hucksters and Hexes, coffin varnish is a slang term for bad coffee and that is what the hex makes-sort of.
Cast on a cup or glass of some beverage (anything, as long as it is potable) Coffin Varnish changes the liquid from its former state into something resembling a hot, coffee-like beverage that would curl a dead man's toes. A thoroughly unpleasant taste experience, the brew had practical uses.
1. It will keep a cowpoke awake. The in-game benefit was a large bonus to vigor rolls to stay awake. This is useful if you need to be up for a stake-out or have guard duty or are trying to pull one of those all night poker games.
2. It instantly and irrevocably sobers up drunk people. The experience leaves the poor soul with a hangover for 1-6 hours, but he is sober.
The coffin varnish must be drunk within 10 minutes of casting to work lest it lose its power and it automatically fails if cast on a magical or alchemical concoction.
That's not a bad little spell. Coffee is one of those particularly Western genre things like bacon, beans, rot-gut whisky and stampedes. Thus a spell for making a piping hot cup of nasty coffee is all part of the flavor of the game (puns are free here at the Pumpkin). You might be thinking, "Hey, that's pretty basic, but I bet it can be of more use than what you've listed." I'm proud of you. You have the makings of a true gamer (as opposed to that breed of modern gamer raised in a video dependent world who can't think outside of the script of the game rules).
What could you do with a cup or glass of piping hot, coffee-like hellbrew?
You could throw it in the face of some cuss who is getting on your nerves or holding a gun on you. That's a likely scenario in both fiction and gaming.
"Okay, you've got me dead to rights, Clem. I could see when you came in holding that piece that we weren't going to part on friendly terms. At least let me be neighborly and offer you a cup o' mud." Splash! +4 to your next attack roll and you have initiative.
That same scenario could go more subtly if you liked. Just because the rules don't mention any penalties for drinking the blamed stuff is no reason for the enterprising Huckster player to not argue with his GM for an ad hoc roll or penalty.
"Yeah, Tom, I'm going to pick up this cup of regular coffee, cast Coffin Varnish on it and offer it to Clem."
"Sure, Dave, he takes it and takes a drink."
"He should totally be gagging right now; that stuff tastes like the Devil's diarrhea. Do I get a free attack?"
"I don't know..."
"Come on, man, it tastes like hell. He's expecting normal coffee, that's got to be worth a negative at least."
You might be one of those players who enjoys the social aspects of gaming more than the dice rolling. Perhaps you are a wizard with a mean sense of humor and enjoy playing obnoxious pranks (no, that never happens in gaming). How great a prank is the old cup o' Coffin Varnish played on those closest to you? Or just pulled at the local chop house on people you don't even know. One of the odd things about the trick is that it has a range of 1 yard. 3 FEET. You can literally do this to a person at the other table without their knowledge. The potential, while not limitless, is staggering in the right hands.
Of course you could pull that black joker and blow your damned head off trying it, but suffering for one's art is all part of the game, right?
"Evenin', Sheriff"
"Evenin', Clem. Looks a damned bloody mess in here. Body without a head; just about takes the cookie. We know what happened?"
"Luke seen it all, Sheriff. He said this here fella from outta town was sittin' here mumbling something about his coffee then his damn fool head just blowed up and sprayed all over the walls."
"Damn shame, Clem. Must have been some strong coffee. Let's go get some beans."
That's a hell of a way to go, blowing your head off for a joke, but man your group will tell that story for a long, long time.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
The inherent problem with Socialism
Brethren and Sistren, I am taking a break from my usual in-depth evaluations of gaming and fiction and wizards and such to talk about a very real problem that I am seeing all too often.
I am a frequent patron of the Chesapeake Public Library system. My most frequent activity at my library is the checking out of recorded books. As a person that commutes to work I have between an hour and two hours a day to listen to books on CD, depending upon traffic conditions. I have managed to read many books thanks to this service. Like so many busy working adults I just don't have to use the restroom enough to get much reading done and this is a fantastic way to do it. With a book playing through the speaker system of my car I can relax more in traffic knowing that any delay is simply giving me more time to "read".
Thus I say that it hurts me greatly, in an emotional sense, to find that so many of the CDs I check out are scratched, often to the point that whole sections of the texts are unable to be heard, much less enjoyed.
I say now to everyone who uses their local library:
THOSE BOOKS, CDS, DVDS, PERIODICALS, MP3S AND COMPUTERS ARE NOT YOURS; STOP FUCKING THEM UP.
Now a public library is a library that is supported by the public and for use by the public and is intended to serve the public trust. Your taxes, my taxes, the taxes of the people go to build, staff, supply and maintain that institution. It is, in essence, everybody's library. Since no one person owns it you can say, quite correctly, that we all own in a public trust. The library does not restrict membership to only those citizens who pay taxes, however. Indeed the library restricts membership based upon local citizenry. That is to say that in order to obtain a library card you must show proof that you belong to the community the library serves. The Chesapeake Public Library system has 7 branch locations throughout the city of Chesapeake. Chesapeake is an independent city in Virginia of 351 square miles that boarders the state of North Carolina and has a population of over 222,000 persons. All of them are served by but 7 libraries.
Public libraries, like public schools and public parks, are examples of the essential failure of Socialism. You see Socialism stands opposed to private ownership. What everyone owns, no one owns. As anyone who has rented a car or hotel room knows, if you don't own something you are not apt to take very good care of it. What is worse is that a public institution carries the further problem of being the "government's" responsibility to maintain in trust for the people. If your city park gets trashed, covered in litter and has its playground equipment and benches defaced who is responsible for the clean up?
Why the government of course, they own it!
But they don't own it. You own it. You pay for it with your taxes. Yet, you do not own it alone. You share ownership with every other citizen of your community tax payer or not. What we do not own you do not protect. The attitude, evident from the abuse and destruction I see every day in public parks and the library, is that "someone else" will take up the slack. "Someone else" will pay the cost.
Ownership brings with it responsibility. If you own something it is yours and you cannot look to another to replace it or supplement it. Should you damage or destroy what you own you have to pay the cost to replace that thing or live without it. Not everyone treats their property with the same care and concern, but too many of us treat the property of others, including shared public property, far worse than we would our own.
Where we hold no stake we hold no concern.
Take a thief. A thief steals the property of others and then must fence that property. Whether it is through pawn, private transaction or another thief who specializes in the disposition of stolen goods the thief accepts far less than the value of the item from the fence. This is of little concern to the thief for he attaches no real value to the item stolen.
Lack of ownership breeds apathy at best and disdain at worst.
That's what Socialism is, a system in which those who have nothing, produce nothing and desire to produce nothing share in equal ownership with others who do produce and desire. That corrupt system will not work unless someone in the group does produce, but always that production will be undercut and debased by those that do not.
If you want to see it in action, at its worst, go check out a recorded book from your local library.
Every skip, every scratch, ever second of the text lost to you is but a symbol of what will be lost to you in greater terms should you become a part of that corrupt system. That book, even if it is a work of fiction represents knowledge and the destruction of the medium robs you of that knowledge. If another person will so callously destroy that medium, because that person sees it as "somebody else" responsibility, that person will take from you simple joy and knowledge. Would you put all of your existence into those hands?
I am a frequent patron of the Chesapeake Public Library system. My most frequent activity at my library is the checking out of recorded books. As a person that commutes to work I have between an hour and two hours a day to listen to books on CD, depending upon traffic conditions. I have managed to read many books thanks to this service. Like so many busy working adults I just don't have to use the restroom enough to get much reading done and this is a fantastic way to do it. With a book playing through the speaker system of my car I can relax more in traffic knowing that any delay is simply giving me more time to "read".
Thus I say that it hurts me greatly, in an emotional sense, to find that so many of the CDs I check out are scratched, often to the point that whole sections of the texts are unable to be heard, much less enjoyed.
I say now to everyone who uses their local library:
THOSE BOOKS, CDS, DVDS, PERIODICALS, MP3S AND COMPUTERS ARE NOT YOURS; STOP FUCKING THEM UP.
Now a public library is a library that is supported by the public and for use by the public and is intended to serve the public trust. Your taxes, my taxes, the taxes of the people go to build, staff, supply and maintain that institution. It is, in essence, everybody's library. Since no one person owns it you can say, quite correctly, that we all own in a public trust. The library does not restrict membership to only those citizens who pay taxes, however. Indeed the library restricts membership based upon local citizenry. That is to say that in order to obtain a library card you must show proof that you belong to the community the library serves. The Chesapeake Public Library system has 7 branch locations throughout the city of Chesapeake. Chesapeake is an independent city in Virginia of 351 square miles that boarders the state of North Carolina and has a population of over 222,000 persons. All of them are served by but 7 libraries.
Public libraries, like public schools and public parks, are examples of the essential failure of Socialism. You see Socialism stands opposed to private ownership. What everyone owns, no one owns. As anyone who has rented a car or hotel room knows, if you don't own something you are not apt to take very good care of it. What is worse is that a public institution carries the further problem of being the "government's" responsibility to maintain in trust for the people. If your city park gets trashed, covered in litter and has its playground equipment and benches defaced who is responsible for the clean up?
Why the government of course, they own it!
But they don't own it. You own it. You pay for it with your taxes. Yet, you do not own it alone. You share ownership with every other citizen of your community tax payer or not. What we do not own you do not protect. The attitude, evident from the abuse and destruction I see every day in public parks and the library, is that "someone else" will take up the slack. "Someone else" will pay the cost.
Ownership brings with it responsibility. If you own something it is yours and you cannot look to another to replace it or supplement it. Should you damage or destroy what you own you have to pay the cost to replace that thing or live without it. Not everyone treats their property with the same care and concern, but too many of us treat the property of others, including shared public property, far worse than we would our own.
Where we hold no stake we hold no concern.
Take a thief. A thief steals the property of others and then must fence that property. Whether it is through pawn, private transaction or another thief who specializes in the disposition of stolen goods the thief accepts far less than the value of the item from the fence. This is of little concern to the thief for he attaches no real value to the item stolen.
Lack of ownership breeds apathy at best and disdain at worst.
That's what Socialism is, a system in which those who have nothing, produce nothing and desire to produce nothing share in equal ownership with others who do produce and desire. That corrupt system will not work unless someone in the group does produce, but always that production will be undercut and debased by those that do not.
If you want to see it in action, at its worst, go check out a recorded book from your local library.
Every skip, every scratch, ever second of the text lost to you is but a symbol of what will be lost to you in greater terms should you become a part of that corrupt system. That book, even if it is a work of fiction represents knowledge and the destruction of the medium robs you of that knowledge. If another person will so callously destroy that medium, because that person sees it as "somebody else" responsibility, that person will take from you simple joy and knowledge. Would you put all of your existence into those hands?
Monday, January 14, 2013
Wizard with a (magic) Gun
Recall my discussion of Hucksters and you will remember I briefly mentioned something called a Hexslinger.
I want to revisit that character because I really liked it back in the original Deadlands days.
In gaming you really have 3 choices: Class-based, Classless, some unholy hybrid of Class-based and Classless. Most Class-based gaming is of the type I like to call "Classed Scaling Leveling" (CSL) gaming. In such gaming the player chooses from a set of classes, which are really packages of skills, traits, abilities, etc. and then as they play the characters "level up" through gameplay getting better at a set rate of improvement. The Original game (OD&D) and the bulk of every game since then, including nearly all MMOs, are CSL games. Classes provide the player with a set framework for advancement and improvement and provide a predictable measure of "success" within the game framework.
Classless games are generally what I call Skill-based Freeform (SbF) games and offer advancement through player choices and increasing difficulty skill improvement. Such games may have something akin to class requirements for magic or technology, but it is not required. Unholy hybrids of CSL and SbF are just that: unholy and hybrids. Essentially Unholy Hybrids allow players to create whatever they want but have structured frameworks for specific concepts.
As humans given unrestricted options are often overwhelmed, it is not uncommon for Classless games to offer some sort of template or archetype upon which the player can base their character. Templates and archetypes are also great for "quick play" options to get a new player right into the game with minimal fuss. Since most templates and archetypes are based on popular tropes they just come naturally to people.
Back in the 90s PEGinc published a book for Deadlands called Law Dogs which had all sorts of information on playing officers of the law, bounty hunters, banditos, and something new called a Hexslinger. Now one of the popular issues in RPG and MMO gaming is something called "balance" which is a strange chimera that I am not going to go into at this juncture (but might one day if the mood takes me) except to say that the general notion of balance is that if one guy (class) has lots of strength and armor and weapons then he isn't allowed to cast spells and if another guy (class) can blow things up with a fireball he isn't allowed to wear armor or swing swords. Deadlands was/is a classless SbF, basically, so the balance is generally maintained by the fact that you can't afford to be good at everything. True min/maxers will never sacrifice points that could go into their main abilities; good role players often will.
Deadlands, like many classless games, used archetypes to aid the players in designing characters. Deadlands also used a pseudo-class system with regard to what it called "Arcane Backgrounds" which was where all these Hucksters and Blessed and Weird Scientists came from. The Hexslinger was a new type of Arcane Background introduced in Law Dogs that worked, essentially, as Hucksters but focused their magic on gunfighting. Hexslingers could use all the normal Huckster hexes and even had a few new ones (which Hucksters could learn too, I should add) that were associated with gunfighting. Hexslinger hexes including hexes for reloading your gun, making magic bullets, not getting hit as much, quick-drawing and the like. The practical upshot of all this was that in a game where you were not likely to find magical guns you could play a gunslinger that could make his own magical bullets. That's pretty neat.
Given the nature of the game characters like Hexslingers often had to put their abilities into several areas, meaning that they would not be as quick on the draw as a plain old gunslinger or as smart as a plain old Huckster and so on. Despite that, the flavor of the archetype was just too cool to not play. The main difference between the Hexslinger and the Huckster, however, was how they learned their craft. The Huckster decoded the secrets of the Book of Hoyle, but the Hexslinger had a tutor of some kind and usually (but not always) learned with the aid of a "focus" which he had to have or else he could not cast hexes. The focus was sort of a psychic crutch, you see. Self-made men versus apprentices; not too much unlike the fantasy well from which this all springs. Hexslingers still had to risk their souls and minds to wrangle Manitous though and they had all the same problems with backlash. Balance maintained: see?
In a game where the walking dead or ghosts or mythical monsters might show up to run roughshod over some backwater town a magical gunfighter standing tall at high Midnight seems a nice thing to have. Of course these are highly specialized characters to play. They are pretty much good at one thing only, and that can be a bit limiting to a player. We see this in all sorts of games. Sure, it seems great to be a badarse vampire slayer, but unless there are lots of vampires to slay your skillset is just too restricted for the game and more often than not you end up looking for your special type of monster to get your "bonuses" and suffering under your lack of versatility only to meet with frustration when Joe the Generic, Fighter par Mediocrity does the deed for you with his magical Sword of Lopping Off Random Body Parts +5. I did mention magically reloading the guns, right? There was also a great spell where you could magically transform ammo should you find that you don't have the right type for the gun you are holding. How often does that happen? Well I don't know, but it's a neat trick all the same. Hey, .22 ammo is pretty cheap. How great would it be to buy a brick of .22 and just magically turn it into something expensive? I think you know the answer to that. In the picture of the Hexslinger above his profile lists Soul Blast as one of his spells. Soul Blast is a basic Huckster spell and more or less the Deadlands equivalent of the mighty FIREBALL. Only nastier. So it's not all guns and ammo, I suppose.
Sadly the Hexslinger did not make it out of the original Deadlands. By the time the revised edition (not 2nd edition) arrived the term Hexslinger was a general term for Hucksters and in the d20 stuff and later he just sort of faded off into the sunset. Deadlands Reloaded uses a different enough mechanic that the Hexslinger as a specific subset of Huckster is no more, but the player has the freedom to go ahead and make one if they like.
And why shouldn't they? Guns are cool. Magic is cool. Guns that shoot magical bullets wielded by wizards is not just twice as cool, it is cool squared! (cool X cool = freakin' awesome) I'm thinking about it really hard right now and I am still not able to think of anything cooler th...wait...yes, I've got it...Hexslinger riding a T-Rex! Just shooting and eating everything they see.
I have to say, I sort of miss that guy. The standard Huckster gets shown throwing cards a lot, which is fine if you are a Cajun mutant thief that hangs out with the spandex crowd, but gets a bit blase after a while. Now a wizard with a six-gun, that's worth the price of admission.
 |
| Hexslinger at work, just a hexin' and a shootin' the ever-livin' shit outta things. |
In gaming you really have 3 choices: Class-based, Classless, some unholy hybrid of Class-based and Classless. Most Class-based gaming is of the type I like to call "Classed Scaling Leveling" (CSL) gaming. In such gaming the player chooses from a set of classes, which are really packages of skills, traits, abilities, etc. and then as they play the characters "level up" through gameplay getting better at a set rate of improvement. The Original game (OD&D) and the bulk of every game since then, including nearly all MMOs, are CSL games. Classes provide the player with a set framework for advancement and improvement and provide a predictable measure of "success" within the game framework.
Classless games are generally what I call Skill-based Freeform (SbF) games and offer advancement through player choices and increasing difficulty skill improvement. Such games may have something akin to class requirements for magic or technology, but it is not required. Unholy hybrids of CSL and SbF are just that: unholy and hybrids. Essentially Unholy Hybrids allow players to create whatever they want but have structured frameworks for specific concepts.
As humans given unrestricted options are often overwhelmed, it is not uncommon for Classless games to offer some sort of template or archetype upon which the player can base their character. Templates and archetypes are also great for "quick play" options to get a new player right into the game with minimal fuss. Since most templates and archetypes are based on popular tropes they just come naturally to people.
Back in the 90s PEGinc published a book for Deadlands called Law Dogs which had all sorts of information on playing officers of the law, bounty hunters, banditos, and something new called a Hexslinger. Now one of the popular issues in RPG and MMO gaming is something called "balance" which is a strange chimera that I am not going to go into at this juncture (but might one day if the mood takes me) except to say that the general notion of balance is that if one guy (class) has lots of strength and armor and weapons then he isn't allowed to cast spells and if another guy (class) can blow things up with a fireball he isn't allowed to wear armor or swing swords. Deadlands was/is a classless SbF, basically, so the balance is generally maintained by the fact that you can't afford to be good at everything. True min/maxers will never sacrifice points that could go into their main abilities; good role players often will.
Deadlands, like many classless games, used archetypes to aid the players in designing characters. Deadlands also used a pseudo-class system with regard to what it called "Arcane Backgrounds" which was where all these Hucksters and Blessed and Weird Scientists came from. The Hexslinger was a new type of Arcane Background introduced in Law Dogs that worked, essentially, as Hucksters but focused their magic on gunfighting. Hexslingers could use all the normal Huckster hexes and even had a few new ones (which Hucksters could learn too, I should add) that were associated with gunfighting. Hexslinger hexes including hexes for reloading your gun, making magic bullets, not getting hit as much, quick-drawing and the like. The practical upshot of all this was that in a game where you were not likely to find magical guns you could play a gunslinger that could make his own magical bullets. That's pretty neat.
 |
| If you are not a gamer this picture will not make much sense to you. |
 |
| And that's what backlash will do for you. |
 |
| Just a "regular old" Huckster, I'm afraid. |
And why shouldn't they? Guns are cool. Magic is cool. Guns that shoot magical bullets wielded by wizards is not just twice as cool, it is cool squared! (cool X cool = freakin' awesome) I'm thinking about it really hard right now and I am still not able to think of anything cooler th...wait...yes, I've got it...Hexslinger riding a T-Rex! Just shooting and eating everything they see.
I have to say, I sort of miss that guy. The standard Huckster gets shown throwing cards a lot, which is fine if you are a Cajun mutant thief that hangs out with the spandex crowd, but gets a bit blase after a while. Now a wizard with a six-gun, that's worth the price of admission.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)