The (Stuff)-Tech/Macross/Related Stuff Collection Megapost Part 1!

This one is gonna be a bloody DOOZY.  It will also be a bit of a history lesson and not just my own reminiscing about all the stupid stuff I have bought and hoarded.

Let's begin at.. the beginning!

This ad.  For Revell's Robotech Defenders model kits.  See Revell took kits from Macross, Dougram, and Orguss and made a line of model kits with more realistic military paint jobs as gorgeous photographed box art.  This was 84 when Transformers and Go-Bots were also getting going, making it a glorious 2-4 years of a US robot craze.

After that ad, and seeing a catalog sheet of all the awesome kits (which I thought all transformed because 9 year old me thought every robot did thanks to Transformers & Gobots) I saw this comic and POUNCED.  Robotech Defenders only uses the mecha from the Dougram series, giving them alien and human pilots with the mecha themselves being sentient.  They have to defend their solar system from the psychic Grelons and their life force draining masters.  The art is really nice but the coloring is rough.  It was late 84-early 85 printing technology.  It went from being a 3 parter to a 2 parter.  People on the net insist it is because the comic sucked.  I... don't see it.  I just reread it upon finding it for this collection post series and its pretty decent.  It is very compressed storytelling to modern eyes but its a complete story in under 70 pages.  If Bendis wrote it the same content would have taken 12 issues.  Not that I would complain as it has some good ideas.  Maybe one day I will do a full review of it...

Now in the TV Guide equivalent that came with the newspaper some of the channels our awful cable company wasn't giving us (for perspective: we didn't get Cartoon Network till like 2007.  When another company bought them out.) had a Robotech cartoon show listed in the mornings.  I thought it was connected to the comic.

 No.  In fact only a handful of the model kits Revell had gotten the rights to release in the US were in this show.  A company called Harmony Gold wanted to just import Super Dimensional Fortress Macross over to the US but with syndication needing 65 episodes they looked at other shows that Tatsunoko had the rights to (sort of... we will get back to that later on) and added in Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada.  They didn't use Super Dimension Century Orguss which was the third in the Super Dimensional "series" of unconnected shows even though it had some of the same staff as Macross behind it.  When they wanted to sell toys and merchandise for the designs they discovered Revell already had a number of rights already.  (And Hasbro had the deluxe toy rights for Macross' signature craft, the mighty VF-1 Valkyrie.  The 80s were.. funny.)  So they worked with Revell and the show was then to be called Robotech, becoming a generations spanning saga about Earth's wars against alien races.  Given how damned similar the 3 shows they combined were with many of the same basic concepts and themes few of us kids even thought they were different shows even if the look of each was a bit different.

(Shown is my ADV boxed set Robotech collection disks, the complete uncut Japanese versions of Southern Cross and Mospeada, the first 6 episodes of the Japanese Macross, the complete Macross segment of Robotech remastered which I got at Wal Mart for 10 bucks, and an Orguss collection I got off Ebay that is probably a Hong Kong bootleg.)

The Robotech boxed sets also contain Harmony Gold's aborted Sentinels project which was to be a self financed ORIGINAL series that would be both a prequel, sequel, and sidestory to the 3 Japanese shows. They also made a short run and generally considered to be a disaster theatrical movie using footage from a show called Megazone 23.  I have nothing of that series so it won't be part of this massive project.  (Unless someone wants to give me the DVDs and a Garland toy cheap.)    Yet Japan itself would continue with Macross separate from what Harmony Gold did.  Macross is a BAD dub job of one of the most gorgeous animated movies out of Japan, "Macross: Do You Remember Love?" a movie retelling of the Macross TV series that has been retroactively considered to be a movie in the Macross universe telling how the original events went.  (It does not however explain how many things now look like they do in this movie and NOT how they looked on the show...)  I first saw an edited version of this dub when it was called "Clash of the Bionoids".  Japan would continue on with some staff making the now not in continuity Macross 2 miniseries.  Later on more of the original creators would make the amazing Macross Plus as part of canon, along with the dumb Macross 7 and the pretty solid Macross Frontier.  Harmony Gold would try yet AGAIN to continue the Robotech franchise (mainly thanks to the anime boom and the ridiculous deal they had made with Tatsunoko..) and finally get out the Shadow Chronicles, which would tweak, modify, and itself decanonize the novels and comics from Robotech that would fill the nearly 2 decades of no celluloid Robotech...

Before that though we have yet ANOTHER thing connecting all of this doofy stuff together.  Much like Macross 2, there was an Orguss 2.  A sequel that is really standalone to the original work but is still a sequel, albeit one taking place generations later.  If I was the Anime World Order podcast I would go look up if the 2 sequel projects shared any staffers or financiers or anything.  But I am not.  And I don't really care that much.  However this was a pretty cool miniseries.  Or at least I remember it being as such.

The best were the novels by Jack McKinney (who was really two authors writing under a pseudonym).  They would both take the cartoons and fix the continuity and translation errors the shows had due to the insane schedule the show had, and make the whole thing more realistic, intelligent, and mature.  (Though the show was largely a revelation for how mature it already was compared to the silly dross on TV at the time.)  They would also take the notes for the aborted Sentinels sequel project, the failed movie which was only tested, and their own ideas and make an entire series of novels.  Sadly thanks to taking it with me in the Navy I do not have the final novel "End of the Circle" which cleared up and finished the series.  Yet comics were ALSO covering Robotech, and in many cases trying to do the same thing and even working from the same notes and outlines.

There were the Comico comics which were basically retellings of the cartoon show.  I never bought any of them as the art was usually iffy, it was "Direct Market" only comic shops in the days when I had no shops available or parents willing to take me to one, and the fact being in a lower middle class family even as an only child I would only have so much money to spend.

The Waltrip Brothers' ok but not great art would be used to try to cover the entire Sentinels series in a project I am not sure was ever finished but was ongoing from Eternity (later on purchased by Marvel who themselves would get bought by Disney because modern Capitalism IS ASS.. for years and years.

 Like the Del Rey novels they would also try to make stories and miniseries covering things not shown in the show to expand the universe and fill in various plot holes.

 They would even cover the beginnings of the entire Robotech storyline that was otherwise just a couple of lines in the show and books.  (Like the above I have to finish getting the whole series.)

This series was Eternity's best even if the later art not done by Fred Perry (who later on went to some fame doing the "Gold Digger" series) when the 91 Gulf War called him to service is kind of ehh.  Its a pretty decent story and its main protagonist would actually be referenced in other works.  (Plus he would later on be one of the many people to have "relations" with my favorite character in Robotech, Dana Sterling.  The lady got herself a lot of action.   I guess Robotech writers really like crazy semi violent half alien women.  I credit/blame her for letting me know I liked women as a lad hitting puberty.  And the sort of women I go for.)

Yet they would lose the license partially due to Marvel buying them out for properties their parent company Malibu was putting out and a tiny company called Academy would get the rights.

Academy had in most of their series some of the worst artwork.  Eternity's output was getting more and more professional before their contract expired.  But Academy wouldn't hold it for long.  You know that Fred Perry fellow?  Well the company that would publish his Gold Digger series and also the publisher of "Ninja High School" by Ben Dunn which itself had been published by Eternity for many years would get the rights to Robotech.

 Their signature book was an ongoing anthology with stories by Ben Dunn and Fred Perry amongst others.

While in general the art was nice and unlike most of the earlier Robotech comics in full color, the stories were either bad, uninspired, pointless rehashes of concepts the novels and Eternity line already did, or had massive amounts of continuity errors.  The Robotech hardcore weren't very happy about this, especially as Academy had their license terminated in the middle of multiple miniseries one of which was actually quite liked by fans. (And I never got.  And really no point unless I find em in a dollar bin someplace since it was never concluded.)

Eternity had one of the worst drawn and laughably terrible swimsuit comics ever and I include it with the Antarctic Press Robotech miniseries I never got more than the first issue of as a tribute to Epic Robotech Failure.  I don't recall if its because they lost the rights to make Robotech comics that I quit these series, the fact the series themselves were even more amateurish and sad than most of the Academy stuff, or the general canon problems like the Covert Ops series in the lower right hand corner using DYRL designs when that movie and its designs weren't canon in Robotech and were not part of Harmony Gold's deal with Tatsunoko.

(Seriously that Swimsuit Spectacular is only spectacular in how awful and silly it is.  And given that most 90s comic book swimsuit specials are pretty silly, dire, and embarrassing this is saying quite a bit!)

I don't recall if this is the only miniseries they finished, or its the only one I liked enough to complete.  I will probably go back and reread a lot of this stuff and if I do so I may come back and add in more commentary.    Another great part of this collection project is finding old stuff I thought lost or forgot I even owned and getting to experience it again.

When the little indie comic shop that was up by my house got bought out by what was then the expanding Sarge's Comics I got the Robotech Art 1 book.  A mystical thing, an amazing thing, an awesome thing.  Seriously, in 1989-90 this was like gold in those pre internet days when information on stuff was hard to come by.  In Japan things like Macross Perfect Memory and the This is Animation Southern Cross were out there to help fans out but not in the US.  (Macross Design Works is a book full of cool art and designs by Shoji Kawamori who is the main driving force behind Macross these days.  Macross is by Studio Nue.  Tatsunoko just lent it out without any real approval from Nue.  This will be brought up later..) 

(Robotech Art 1 also had a chapter in the back about Anime.  This would lead me to other places as well.  But that is a topic for another time I think..)

However those books were sometimes found by a few people in the west.  And they would use the information to convert an RPG system that itself was a massively house ruled AD&D.

Palladium Books would take their RPG system and make the Robotech RPG!  Full of all sorts of lovely art by Kevin Long as well as some probable tracing or copying of Harmony Gold or those 2 books above's art assets it covered the mecha and world of Robotech with lots of nerdy detail and info as best they could for the era.  I saw these books advertised in comics of the late 80s and wanted them BADLY.  Thankfully for me I would not get them till the early 90s after I had already sort of figured out how to play RPGs thanks to D6 System Star Wars and Frank Mentzer's edition of the D&D Red Box.  The Palladium system isn't very good and it really doesn't do a good job at emulating Robotech at all.  It is where Rift's infamous MEGA DAMAGE would first appear.

Palladium would cover the Sentinels as well.  This would be where I first saw the Sentinels designs I only read about in the McKinney novels.  Even with Long's great artwork much of it.. was underwhelming.  Palladium would later on go to do a Macross 2 RPG with lots of great art from Wayne Breaux that apparently did not please Harmony Gold very much.  It might have also been part of the reason they started paying attention to Robotech again.  And trying to halt the import of ANY Macross product into the US unless they got a cut of it, even though it had nothing to do with the original deal they made.  If it was even LEGAL for them to do so.  (Its certainly not ethical.  Why should a company get money for products made by the original creators and the people they have approved?  Harmony Gold didn't put any financing into Macross 7 or Frontier or anything like that.  Why do they get a piece of the pie?  No.  All they do is help prevent anyone from easily getting these later products, most folks resorting to piracy to experience them in the English language.)

Palladium would later on get back in bed with Harmony Gold and redo the game with more info and art and join in on the Shadow Chronicles train.  They were originally doing them in a smaller manga sized book format to go on the shelves in a bookstore's manga section.  Not that anyone I knew ever SAW them there mind you.  They are now continuing the line in their normal size.  The Deluxe Edition of the game I got as part of Palladium's Grab Bag promotions where you put in a wish list and some money and usually get 2-3 times the value in stuff mailed to you, with signatures and the like if you want.  I kind of guilt tripped them into giving it to me.  It does have some info not in the manga sized one.

Jim Lee's Wildstorm comics would get the rights to Shadow Chronicles for comics and made this 5 part miniseries that sort of messes up the Sentinels' stuff already produced.  It is kind of a twisted retelling/redo of the ending of that series and sets up the Shadow Chronicles movie.  (Also Wildstorm would be bought by DC Comics which is owned by AOL/Time Warner.  Because everything needs to merge because megacorporations are KEWL.  If you are an idiot anyhow.)

 A sampling of my unbuilt Robotech kits.  The Orguss itself now called NEBO, a Japanese rerelease of the Dougram (and also the first thing I ever bought from Hobby Link Japan), and some of the 2 pack mini models that Revell would release later on in the Robotech model line when they tried to connect more with the cartoon show.  (Obviously again these are Japanese rereleases.  Getting Robotech kits in Robotech boxes is VERY expensive and difficult.)

My only Southern Cross model, an ATAC Bowie Emerson (Grant in Robotech) suit, and the only plastic kit of any of the amazing Macross 2 mecha.  Luckily the VF2 SAP Special is one of my favorite mecha period but this kit needs a lot of love and care to look it's best as befits an early 90s model kit.

 And some more Macross kits from both Arii and Bandai.  I believe the VF1-D did get a Robotech release in the states, or at least a kit in that line did.  You will notice they sure do look familliar if you are a Battletech fan...

Well you see.. funny story that.  There was this import company called 21st Century Imports.  They were bringing over model kits and games from various Japanese anime.  Like these 2 Dougram hex wargames with the most adorable little metal miniature robots.  They even had 3D trees to put on the maps, and some awesome periscopes with little cockpit stickers you could use to get a pilot's eye view of the battlefield and check line of sight.  (The 3rd set is an extra I got that's mostly parts from both games.)  They did a very simple translation of the manuals and got a very limited release of them.

Yet.. a little company born out of making Traveller supplements had an idea for a hard sci fi robot combat game...

We will cover that next time.

Paranormal Activity 1 and 2: Changeling Movies?

Last year I reviewed Paranormal Activity which is a really great horror movie using the "Found Video Footage" thing other movies I really liked (Cloverfield, Blair Witch Project) have done.

Well this year its back, as a form of prequel/sequel.

And thinking about it (while naming the entity "Nigel" as if he was a car from Top Gear) I came up with this SPOILERIFFIC TO BOTH MOVIES WARNING DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON explanation of how its really a Changeling backstory/scenario.

So in the interests of any Changeling fans or folks who like tales of the Faerie I present to you this incredibly DORKY analysis of the events of the (rather quite good) Paranormal Activity movies, mostly focusing on part 2.

There is also gonna be some "South Park" level foul language here and there.  I try to avoid it on this blog, but one can't discuss the Adventures of Nigel without it.

Hopefully the below will give some of you ideas for your own Changeling games!

-------------------------------------------------------

While trying to get to sleep this morning I had a thought.


Maybe its not a demon but a Fae. 

With a couple tweaks these two movies could pretty much be a Changeling: The Lost game/prequel.

We have Nigel (as I am calling him) who made a deal in exchange for a family's firstborn son. That's such a trope of the mythological Fae it isn't even funny.

Well there have been no firstborn sons for Nigel to take through the Hedge (The land between Arcadia and the Real World) back to Arcadia. Perhaps higher up Fae or someone had made a deal with him for the son and are equally pissed at him.

Thus no physical body for Nigel. Maybe its hidden somewhere or something similar. So he needs power to manifest at all in our mundane world. He needs his Glamour if he is gonna get the deal sealed. Or at least a little payback on them uppity humans...

Big Hooter Sisters' mom was one of Nigel's earlier targets since it was her mom or grandmom who hadn't fulfilled her end of the bargain and Nigel's bosses are kind of pissed. Fae just LOOOVE swiping human babies, and this is one they wouldn't even need to have a Fetch to replace.

(Fetches being the simulacrums the Fae leave in place of the actual humans they abduct.)

His messing with her caused the twins before they had their own twins hur hurr to mess with occult stuff thus giving him more Glamour (spiritual magic Fae type energy) so he could cause more havoc.

Which causes the STUFF THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT. (Coming to you Halloween 2011 or 2012 depending on whichever idea Paramount's beancounters have to milk this action for all its worth. We all know PA3 is coming next year. And its either gonna be a prequel or the Hunt for.. Hunter while Katie F. still looks about the same age.)

Then for whatever reason it stops. Nigel probably used up too much of his Glamour and now he can't do much. Its gonna take a little time and a lot of bad vibes before he can do any manifestations again.

So he is saving up, waiting and watching. Then here comes Hunter. WHAM!! Nigel uses up a big hunk of Glamour and goes apespit on the house. Its time to pay up. Except as we have seen, Nigel is a DICK. He used up too much, which is why shit slows down for a few weeks. He can't do as much, but can cause just enough trouble to get more power than he is using.

Even if that stupid housekeeper and dog keep harshing his mellow. They are gonna get theirs. Oh YES.

He finally gets rid of the housekeeper and has enough power to mess with the dog, taking it out. All those bad vibes and the fear he is causing (plus handy use of Ouija board to give him a stronger grip on the living world) have BK Franchise dad and Allie leave, giving him free reign on Mom and Hunter.

ITS TIME TO BRING THE BEATSTICK. 

He tries to grab mom and her fear, while Glamour creating, isn't quite enough for him to grab her first time. (Plus Nigel is only slightly brighter than his victims and doesn't always do the smartest things. If they did, mom and Hunter would have gone with the other two. And Nigel would already have Hunter. Unless he wants to be a complete dickhead. And Nigel is quite the dickhead.)

But he has enough Glamour now to pop his spirit back in the Hedge and get to Hunter's room before Mom gets back in, and this time she is going in the basement.

Now is when Changeling or "traditional" Fae folklore gets sort of dicey. Does Nigel possess mom which is something Fae don't really DO, or does he pull her ass into the Hedge sending her to a near eternity of madness in Arcadia and replacing her with a Fetch?

Maybe with his currently low status in the Fae he can't produce a Fetch, and just drags her into the Hedge which probably causes her to go completely crazy. (He has been priming the women of this family for that. And they DO have a history of it in the bloodline..) She is weak enough for him to spiritually possess, but not completely. 

Its not a Fae thing to do normally, and he has been using up that Glamour like its Magic Happy Hour at the Fae Bar of Terror and Payback. So he only sort of has a grip on her. Which leads to her being sick and weak, not totally under his control. 

Otherwise he would have already collected Hunter, and been on his way, and with a nice extra Human as an example of why YOU DO NOT HOSE THE FAE OVER IN A DEAL. 

Marcelus does not look like a bitch. And Nigel REALLY doesn't look like a bitch. (Ok, he doesn't look like ANYTHING right now. Which is kind of his point.)

Dad is stupid AGAIN and leaves Allie home while Nigel is completing his grip on Mommy. And he can really only threaten at this point while he gets things settled in there.

(But man is her screaming ever satisfying. She KNOWS what he is doing and she can't stop it. She is trying to fight, but between her grip on reality and sanity being greased with WD-40 and his power she is DOOMED. Enjoy the show bitch. Nigel is gonna take this monkeyshow on the road Frankenstein!)

Sadly for Nigel his attempt to take out Dad fails and that stupid housekeeper gets involved. Maybe the basement is worth another shot? 

ARGH DEFEATED BY A BALDING ASSHOLE WITH A NIGHT VISION CAMERA. 

Oh wait...

Dumb spits didn't stop him.. they just knocked him out of Mom but towards her nearest relative.

One with a bigger set of sweater puppies. And a FAR douchier mate. And no smarty pants dogs or maids or teenaged girls to get in his way.

Micah's Alpha Male routine helps Nigel QUICKLY get his Glamour Groove back and he is getting a handle on this possession thing. Not as effective as a Fetch, but beggars cannot be choosers.

Nigel has a baby to collect.

He takes over Katie a bit slower and safer, and that dumbass helps him lock the deal by throwing away that Crucifix in a fire.

A little more time to make sure Katie is HIS and its time to thank Micah. And show whoever looks at that camera how they do things in Downtown Arcadia. 

(Stupid mortals just don't listen to their own tales. Learn the rules or pay the price.)

That damned psychic almost caused trouble but people with such open minds are easily taught who the boss is.

Now Nigel still isn't completely locked into Katie and he sort of feels bad for his little ego stunt with the camera (Nigel IS an egotistical dick after all!) so he forgets to change clothes and just takes his new form of transportation into the Hedge.

Time is funny in the Hedge so he pops out in his recently forced out of terror grounds and takes out Dad quick like. Katie could never do this, but Nigel has Glamour enhanced Fae power on his side. (And its just HILARIOUS feeling Katie screaming at the murders she is committing. Even if it is causing a mild migraine.)

Nigel wants this action done QUICK in case things go pear shaped. No playing around. Up those stairs and off to collect Hunter do not pass Go, do not collect 200 dollars. 

One quick slam of his fist takes the confused Mom out and its time to bring Hunter back to Arcadia.

The debt has been collected.

-----------------------------------------

Yes the above IS incredibly dorky, but it really does fit the movies well.

(Not counting the alternate endings which basically poop all over any connection to Fae and Changelings.)

I sort of thought of the above as Nigel doesn't just possess the women but pulls them into another room. I wondered why he would bother unless it was to switch the women for a Fetch under his control. Which kind of works outside of the exorcism transferral towards the end of 2. (I don't think Fetches work like that. Its POSSIBLE both Katie and Mom were Fetches. Which means they are pretty much stuck in Arcadia for an eternity. But its doubtful. Why kill the Mom Fetch even if she has been purged of Nigel's direct control? Maybe in his state he HAS to possess.)

Thus we have the above highly dorky missive of me No Prizing 2 movies that have made tens of millions of dollars.

Movie Review/Game Ideas: Paranormal Activity

WARNING WARNING! Spoilers ahead. It is recommended you either watch the movie first, or don't care about having the whole thing spoiled. Last chance to back out jerky!

IM SERIOUS. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT STOP READING IT NOW DOOFUS!

(Edited at 11PM November 3rd with some direct gaming ideas.)

I saw the movie earlier today, without knowing anything other than that it was a horror film, its name, and it was made on the cheap. I hadn't seen any reviews or previews or anything. (I got rid of everything but Basic Cable a few months back which I don't actually watch anyhow.)

Its a movie that builds dread and you have to at least have a suspension of disbelief about it all.

The basic plot and synopsis
Our story involves a young twentysomething couple, Katie and Micah. Katie is a graduate student working on becoming a teacher while Micah is a day trader apparently doing really well as they have a very nice house in San Diego California. Katie has been having weird occurrences happen to her and Micah buys a very expensive camera and audio setup to try to get it all on tape. Come to find out Katie has been harassed by a mostly unseen entity since she was a child, and believes it to have caused her childhood home to have been destroyed.

The film is done from the viewpoint of this camera, ala "Blair Witch Project" and "Cloverfield" two movies I really like.

Micah's filming causes additional friction to the couple, and an early discussion with a psychic reveals it is most likely a demon not a ghost, and that it is actively following Katie. He recommends consulting a Demonologist, and Micah's early skepticism and failure to heed the psychic's warnings that it feeds off negative energy merely antagonizes the entity whose actions amp up more and more through their 3 week ordeal.

Later on as they are low on sleep and their nerves continue to fray more and more they make even more mistakes even as the evidence mounts. Now unable to get a hold of the Demonlogist they were recommended the demon apparently possesses Katie, kills Micah, then looks at and attacks the camera facefirst.

Now on to my thoughts about the movie and some thoughts about some folks' comments on the movie.
Yeah one of our two leads did some dumb things. Early on because he like most of us would be a skeptic. Later on he wanted to handle it MAN STYLE. By the time he realized the threat it was too late and he was so sleep and emotionally drained he did idiotic things.

You have to empathize with the characters and actually care about them. If you go all "its just a movie blah!" of course you won't like it. If you need special effects and to see everything you won't like it either. I liked Blair Witch and Cloverfield and I like this sort of movie. (I am a huge fan of the original Dracula novel too, so I sort of like this "from the character's point of view" thing.)

Plus the style is raw and leaves you drained and empty. Even with this apparently derided ending you are left MESSED UP by the experience. And I actually like the demon coming up and attacking the camera. Its the demon's way of saying "Hello mortals. You cannot stop me. I will invade you in your homes. I cannot be contained, controlled, or reasoned with. I have all the power. And I have a body. I am coming. For you."

And that's chilling. Hell, I even yelled out "Word that rhymes with TRUCK!" even though I knew what was coming up next. It was a mostly sparse audience, but 655 PM on a Connecticut November Monday isn't going to be a packed house, especially with the amount of showings it was getting. (And the theater staff commenting most of their business this day was for the movie.)

If I was a character in the film I certainly would have done things differently, but even as a skeptic on the supernatural, I am not a disbeliever either. I know enough to know I don't know enough. Plus I would be (outside of being doomed to die via possessed lady) lucky to have a lot of cash for a nice house and an attractive lady. How some of people can not find her attractive (and even call her fat!) is beyond me. She could be any woman you meet in the real world.

So I really liked it but can understand some people would not like it. Folks who need constant action or who nitpick EVERY stupid thing characters do in movies or folks who only want REALISTIC films. (I knew a pit boss at the casino I worked at who was proud to have never seen Star Wars as he wanted "reality" in his entertainment. I wonder if he realized he worked in an industry based around a complete LACK of reality..)

But to each their own. Nobody is gonna like everything. Hell, each of us should realize everything we adore and hold dear is utterly despised by someone else out there.

Why some folks seem to have spent the last 2 weeks posting about how much they hate the movie leaves me baffled though.

Most of the audience I was with liked it, though a few didn't. A couple folks were either coughing, laughing, or shrieking around the 3/4ths mark of the film but I just ignored it.

The two characters are well acted and you generally feel bad for their plight and wish you could help them and warn them of some of their more foolish actions. (A Quija board? Yeah. Dumb move there. I am not sure I believe in the supernatural, but I know well enough that YOU. DO. NOT. USE. A. QUIJA. BOARD. EVER.) The practical special effects were all well done and if there were any CGI effects I really could not tell, though some of them had to be given the 15,000 dollar budget I have heard the film cost.

But have you ever got that feeling in your eyes when the supernatural is discussed or you read a tale about the spectral unknown? Where you begin to tear up a little around the edges, and you want to leave all the lights on, you know.. "Just in case"?

This movie did that for me. if you like films with a sense of dread and not big showy special effects productions, I highly recommend this movie.

I do kinda want to run a Call of Cthulhu game as a sequel to this though. It leaves with a nice hook. (Or New World of Darkness Mortals. The trail could lead to a.. special place. A Silent Hill perhaps? :pyramidhead:

(Yeah that's a cheesy idea but it could work if done right. And the right player group.)

What really did happen to Katie? Is she still possessed? Where has she gone? Has the demon altered her, slowly warping her flesh into a proper host for a demon? Is her soul still within her body? Did she have to watch her boyfriend being murdered by her, powerless to do anything? Did she not know, but was then shown its handiwork afterwards? What is the demon doing NOW? Is it going to possess others? Is it bridging a gateway to bring other demons across? Could Katie just be a latent psychic whose powers she has no control over? What if for brief instances she can retake control of her body?

An entire adventure or campaign could be created answering those questions above. And the film itself is a great example of setting a proper mood for a horror game. It starts off basically normal, with even some jokes. Then the night comes. Things get worse and worse each night. Sanity frays causing foolish actions to be taken. The feeling of helplessness and dread descends upon you. Then, a brief instance of terror with most left to your imagination. And it ends. You have no answers, no denouement. In fact, you have more questions than answers.

And you know, it does not care about locked doors. It will visit you. In your sleep. Just because. And it feeds off your suffering and pain. And you cannot stop it. If it wants you, it will have you. And it can wait.

Pleasant dreams.

(Some game ideas below.. if you can sleep after seeing it. I must say I had.. difficulties in sleeping. I wasn't scared but the movie wouldn't leave my mind, nor that final bit..)

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay/40K Roleplay.

The basic concept would work great in either line. A young couple connected to a semi important merchant or noble has gone missing with a basic log or servoskull readout telling the basics of what happened. If playing a game as the aftermath to the events it will be time to hunt down and purge the demon with cleansing fire and blade. (Some chain powered if its 40K.) In the Warhammer universe the demon is clearly either Tzeentch or Slaanesshi in origin. It either possessed Katie to further its plans, or just because it enjoys feeding on pain and negative emotions, something Slaaneshi demons love.

(As an aside, how come every Warhammer Slaanesh fan merely fixates on the sexual side of things? Slaanesh is about emotion and passion and senses. Not just URF URF SPLUT...)

Now that it has a body, what will it do with it? Perhaps the Tzeentch demon will use her money and minor influence to put plans into motion, perhaps fleeing the planet/region and going where it can cause great harm and nobody will really find out that Katie is missing and wanted for murder. If Slaaneshi, she will probably form dark cults in either universe, seducing other young nobles and bringing them into her dark ways.

The hunt could involve investigations, explorations of tombs or now daemon infested starships, it could have big battles in the deep underhives.

And if you want to use the events in the movie itself directly and change things? Howabout a noble asking the PCs to protect Katie and find out what is haunting her. Perhaps she is a latent psyker? Witch Hunters and Inquisitors will need to be blunted from her as their main answer will be to kill her and let the Emperor/Sigmar sort it all out. Can the PCs save Katie and her macho yet problem escalating fiancee? Or will they just make things worse? Why is she being harassed? Is there a cult behind it? Does Katie's family hide a dark secret?

Similar ideas could be used in many Palladium games, World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Legend of the Five Rings, D&D, and even lighter games like Kobolds Ate My Baby! or Ghostbusters.

(Though it would be lighter and funnier in those cases. Perhaps Katie is possessed by Vor who is angry at Micah for being such a doofus and he then decides she could make a fun way of smiting annoying Kobolds. He can send his avatar to do it for them and eat the furry little blighters without having to constantly look at what stupid things they are doing, and have the fun of watching a human devour them live. In Ghostbusters maybe the demon is a bored spirit who was a teacher and just doesn't think Micah is a good fit. Perhaps its less scary and more amusing in its actions. Maybe instead of killing him, the demon just gives him nightly wedgies and messes up his stock trades. (I know if I were a demon haunting a young woman I wouldn't want her with such a yuppie bro type either. Especially when he does stupid things to annoy me directly!))

See? One short movie leads to a ton of inspiration for adventures if not entire campaigns.

The fact its a darn spooky movie just makes it all the better!

A quick update and some thoughts on Cloverfield

I now have to update my continuing chronicles in Moo2, the game of Wizardry: Crusaders of the Dark Savant I started up, the Twilight Imperium game we finished Tuesday, AND the epic Warhammer 40,000 game we played Wednesday at Sarge's. (Preview: ORKS ARE GREAT FUN)

But I need to talk about a totally awesome Daikaiju (Giant Monster) movie I saw today, Cloverfield. In short form, its Blair Witch Project style of viewpoint mixed with what might happen should a giant monster attack New York City. (One of the 2 biggest targets in movies for anything horrible, the other being Tokyo.)

It was BRILLIANT. Somehow they made me care about a bunch of rich 20 something yuppies trying to get out of old NYC. They stick together and put it all on the line to save one another. The monster is creepy and impressive enough, seeming to be a lot like the Gryphon design for the mid 90s American Godzilla film that was never made. Its raw. It doesn't hold your hand or explain anything. Its brutal. I saw it in a nearly deserted theater near the Crystal Mall in Waterford as opposed to my superior local theater with the stadium seating. (Many people at Sarge's consider it worth the extra driving distance to go to the theater I am mentioning.) But I was closer if I wanted to catch it in time. (Had to pick up Advance Wars Days of Ruin and grabbed the new Warhammer 40K portable game at the same time. I got the PSP version for graphics fidelity.) Maybe 6 other people were in the theater, all behind me. (I tend to sit in the middle of the theater for THE perfect spot.) It made it all the more raw and intense, and the drive home in the post 11PM cold was a tad disturbing.

Even better is my iPod was on shuffle and the song that popped up when I started my car?
New York Minute. (The Eagles version on their Hell Freezes Over album.)

TOO PERFECT.

In the annals of Daikaiju films Cloverfield is either a little above or a little below the king of the genre, Godzilla. (The 1954 original. Japanese or Raymond Burr version.)

I'm not sure I will be able to watch the genre in the same way any more though. It has changed and transformed the genre.

Highly recommended.