The players seemed to enjoy the big explode-irific finale to the Changeling game - there were duels, reverses, gunshots, wild rides clinging to the bonnet of souped-up SUVs along Jervois Quay, and a mecha-Queens Event Center rampaging along the waterfront. (The character made a little bit of a mess of Wellington.) Plus, we set up the next season - though I'm not sure whether it will eventuate.
I was talking to Sok about running a game for her - I think I'd want to run something with a lot fewer players, maybe three or four. Sok, this is just me thinking out loud, but what sounds more like the kind of game you might enjoy:
(a) A thirties pulp game - the players are freelance investigative reporters who travel to exotic locations, outwit the local authorities, and scoop rivals (including each other). If there are four players, then you've got two teams of two (reporter and sidekick - photographer, driver, cub reporter learning from a big gun, whatever) who keep on bumping into each other on big stories all over the globe. The feel I'm thinking of is movies like the Indiana Jones series, His Girl Friday, Young Sherlock Holmes, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and the Mummy movies. For those that care, I'd probably use the system called The Shadows of Yesterday - it's nice and fast, and deals well with PC vs PC conflict.
(b) A Nobilis game - players are people who've become the personification of an aspect of reality, like Cold, or Betrayal, or Feathers. You have to deal with your Familia, who are other Nobles who belong to the same Imperator (the thing that imbued you with your powers); and defend yourself from other Nobles, opposing factions, and creatures from outside the universe who are trying to escape by destroying it - one aspect at a time. This is a very cool setting, and the kinds of things that the PCs can get up to can be pretty mind-bending, and you end up doing things like working out the difference between Greed and Avarice. (According to Medraut, Noble of Avarice and of the familia of Ramiah the Fallen Angel - "Avarice gloats." Turns out he looks just like the actor who plays Mr Morden on B5, by the way. :)
(c) A straightforward swashbuckling fantasy game. Players would be the crew of a merchant ship, sailing between ports and living by their wits and the skin of their teeth. I'd be looking towards Treasure Planet, Firefly, the various Sinbad movies and the like. I'd probably get people to look after multiple people in the crew, rather than having a ship that only needs a crew of three.
Anyway, if any of these set-ups sound like your cup of tea, Sok, drop me a line. I'm happy to meet and chat with you about it, possibly with the others who'd be playing.
***
Speaking of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, I watched it with C. last night. Now, I don't mind that it didn't make much sense - the plot felt like it was following the pulp feel, and the threatened disaster was not dafter than half a dozen others I've seen. What was annoying was that it kept on stopping and starting, and the flow of the story felt really clunky. It's yet another movie that is frustrating because it looks like it could have been awesome, but... isn't. It is pretty, however - costumes, hair and sets are quite cool. I certainly intend to watch all the special features at some point, but I suspect I'll be looking to see if I can work out what went wrong.
I suppose that this raises a legitimate worry - what if Kong is another Sky Captain, Van Helsing or League of Extraordinary Gentleman? It must be so disheartening to pour a year of your life into a project, only to have people go "meh". We've been pretty lucky so far - I mean, I, Robot wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible. And from what I've seen, I've been drawn in by the performances a lot more - both of the actors and the creatures. And it seems like the kind of story that's likely to play to PJ's strengths. Admittedly, it'd be very hard to tell whether or not it'll actually be good until we see an actual cut - but as far as I can tell, it looks like it shouldn't suck. For which I am profoundly grateful. :)
***
And that's about it. Panic in the halls as a filer went down, causing Dailies to grind to a halt; we're thanking our lucky stars that it didn't happen last week, and I'm thanking any guardian powers watching over me at this time that the effects on things I'm responsible for were minimal. I've got an interesting task to sink my teeth into, which I really need to make space in my schedule to do; and I've done a bunch of small jobs that people tell me have helped them enormously. :)
Looking forward to seeing the Kong trailer - and I have Agents collecting me a ticket for Batman Begins tomorrow. Hoorah! :)
Posted by svend at June 16, 2005 4:24 PMI've poured over a year of my life into teaching people things they don't remember the next day let alone the next year. Even if Kong is bad, I will have no sympathy.
Posted by: giffy at June 16, 2005 9:20 PMHow good can Kong actually be anyway. It's a Hollywood special effects blockbuster about a giant ape. Sure the stuff I've seen looks cool (i.e. the set and shots) but it's still Kong. Peter Jackson loves the movie in the same way I love Star Wars. I think that is what kong will be like, Sith with a better script (not much better mind you). I'm happy to be plesantly surprised but it's pretty hard to get any real enthusiasm for a movie about a giant ape that has been remade a million times.
As one of the lighting guys pointed out when I was working on the set - "They've already made this movie."
And as morgue pointed out about Sith - "It's fanfic." So is Kong.
Still I wouldn't worry about wasting a year of your life, the point is that you are working in a cool creative environment that creates special effects. Even if the film stinks the special effects will be cool.
Oh and if the film does stink, wear the LOTRs t-shirt around instead of the Kong one :)
Posted by: jarratt at June 17, 2005 11:08 AMooh all of those sound cool!! just don't expect much from me til I get some idea what I'm doing it. Still if others can roleplay I'm sure I can...
I'm sure Kong will look awesome, and I am looking forward to seeing it.
Did you like Batman? Didja didja!?
Jarratt, have you seen the original King Kong? It was a Hollywood special effects blockbuster about a giant ape and it's one of the greatest movies ever made. It's right up there with Citizen Kane (which actually used stock footage from it, explaining the mysterious appearance of a pterodactyl in Kane's jungle scene).
I'm not exaggerating in the slightest, and I was a grown-up when I saw it for the first time so it's not childhood nostalgia. Everything in the movie works brilliantly - the story, the dialogue, the acting, the action, and the marvel that is Kong himself, still the greatest stop-motion creation of all time.
None of this necessarilly means that the remake will be all that, it's true. Even if it's the most faithful remake the world is ever seen, the original was like magic in a bottle and that's got to be hard to re-capture.
Anyway, fanfic is a continuation of an existing story. This is a retelling of an existing story. The difference is crucial.
And truth be told, it's never been properly remade before. The De Laurentis remake was a disaster for many reasons, not least because they neglected the script & characters (which the original did not do) in favour of special effects that did not work properly at any rate and needed to be replaced by Rick Baker in a gorilla suit. Said gorilla suit could never replace the brilliant facial expressions & body language of the original. There have been sequels official (Son of Kong) and not (King Kong Escapes and King Kong vs Godzilla) as well as countless imitations (The Mighty Gorga is absolutely and unquestionably the worst). There was also the sequel to the remake, the "kill me now it's so bad" King Kong Lives.
The only issue I have with the remake is that the original holds up beautifully, and kids still love it no matter what Jackson says about kids not liking black & white.
Posted by: Joey at June 19, 2005 1:19 AM