/var/log/orava

Coraline

Went to see Coraline yesterday. It’s been a while since I’ve been to the movies, and forever since I’ve been to a “3D” film. My memories of the things weren’t too positive, since my other eye doesn’t see all that well and the older tech didn’t produce much of an effect for me.

Well, tech has improved. Even with my limited stereo eyesight the 3d effects worked fine, and the movie was also pretty good by itself. I must confess I hadn’t read the book previously (somehow missed reading it when it came out), so I didn’t know what to except other than “Gaiman” and “puppets”… and can’t compare to the book, obviously. Janka told me after the movie that the book is quite different in tone and a bit better, but she also liked the movie.

The tale is… typical Gaiman, I guess. It’s a children’s tale about a young girl who moves into a ramshackle house and discovers secrets within, not all of which are what they initially seem. Don’t want to spoil much here, since it’s possible there’s someone else out there who hasn’t read the book and has yet to see the movie. If you like Gaiman and/or like stuff like Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, you’ll like this.

The 3d effects weren’t overdone and were used to enhance the story, not just slapped all over the place for “look, we can do THIS!” effects. Points for that.

Minireview: Pathfinder #21, The Jackal's Price

The Jackal’s Price (by Darrin Drader) forms the midpoint of the Legacy of Fire adventure path. Like the previous parts, it’s good and fairly lighthearted Arabian Nights -flavored fun. In this installment, the PCs have (presumably) retrieved something from the House of the Beast and need to figure out what it is. Unfortunately the closest option for that is the largish trade city of Katapesh, where free commerce is king (shades of Exalted’s “Nexus” here). So off the PCs go. The travel there isn’t totally trivial and provides some options for encounters…. it might be good if these were used to foreshadow some of the parties involved here, otherwise some of the antagonists and events might seem to come out of nowhere to the players.

Once in Katapesh, it’s presumed that they meet up with a specific scholar, and ideally become allies & house guests. Surprise surprise, many parties are interested in what the PCs have – but it’s assumed that the PCs are willing to sell it, for a high price (this seems like a reasonable guess, knowing most players). Various events happen which I don’t want to spoil here, and in the end the whole thing takes a quite unexpected turn (which leads directly to the next adventure in the series).

A nice, mostly city-based adventure, with lots of options for social scheming and intrigue. Some of the events need heavy foreshadowing by the GM, ideally from the very start of the adventure path, otherwise they’ll risk seeming quite arbitrary to the players. Also, the end is somewhat railroady; it’s assumed that a certain specific trigger event occurs. To the the module’s credit it does talk briefly about “plan B” scenarios if the PCs resolutely make that event impossible – mainly, that involves jumping directly to a later part of the adventure path, with some in-between adventures inserted. Doable but not ideal, since the thing that the trigger event leads up to is really quite cool, so both the GM and players probably want it to happen (the PCs, not that much).

Minireview: The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch

Good, non-derivative fantasy books aren’t all that common, but in The Lies of Locke Lamora Scott Lynch manages to pull off a fairly impressive debut. I bought the book because it had been receiving a lot of praise on various sites on the ‘net, and now having read the thing I have to concur. It’s not flawless, but it is a good, rollicking tale of thievery, murder and suchlike mayhem.

Set in the city of Camorr, it’s the tale of Locke Lamora and his “Gentlemen Bastards”, a group of thieves in a city of thieves. Camorr is explicitly built on top of “alien” ruins and is a crazy mixture of fantasy Venice and China Miéville’s New Crobuzon (at least in “feel”). Is Camorr set on an alien world, and is this set in humanity’s future? Or is it “just” fantasy, with explicit alien elements? Who knows… that distinction does not matter to the story. The city is interesting and baroque, and while there is magic (or something called “magic”, at least), it’s firmly in the hands of a sinister group of people called “Bondmages”.

All that aside, this is Locke’s story. Starting out as an orphan thief who “steals too much”, he narrowly avoids execution by landing in the tender care of a local priest… who turns out to be anything but. Locke’s singular abilities as a thief eventually make him the leader of a merry band of thieves, and over the years they manage to accumulate quite a fortune. Locke cultivates a myth of himself as the “Thorn of Camorr”, a supernaturally good swordsman and master thief who can walk through walls, and who does the Robin Hood thing. In reality, Locke is a barely competent swordsman and his main gift is his brilliant mind and his ability with disguises. Also in reality, the poor don’t see a penny of what he steals.

The story is told as partial flashbacks to Locke’s childhood and training, and partly as “what is happening now”. When we get to the “now” part, Locke and his gang are planning the biggest heist of their career. Things proceed mostly on track… until a third party intrudes forcefully. Also at the same time, the mysterious “Grey King” is terrorizing the mafia-like thieves guilds of the the city, killing of “capos” one by one. Since Locke has sworn fealty to one of those capos, events conspire to entangle him in the same web of murder and conspiracy. What starts out as a pure cash-based heist takes a decidedly deadly turn, and suddenly Locke and his friends are fighting for their lives against an enemy nobody has even seen in person.

It’s a good tale, and quite a page-turner once it gets going. It’s a bit slow around the beginning and doesn’t quite flow smoothly at all times, but those are fairly small complaints. The city of Camorr is exotic and interesting, as are the inhabitants. While it starts out as a sort of “Ocean’s Eleven in fantasy Venice”, it slowly becomes more bloody and serious as events progress. Well worth reading, especially if you’re bored with “stock” fantasy.

Minireview: Infernals (Exalted)

This is an interesting book. So far, most of 2nd edition Exalted has concerned itself with providing 2nd edition updates of stuff that existed in 1st edition. Sure, there has been a lot of (good) extra material thrown in and lots of nice improvements, but still…

Infernals is the first major addition to the line that has no counterpart in 1st edition (other than by brief mention and hints). As can be guessed, the book describes the “Infernal Exalted”, the Exalt shards given to the Yozis in exchange for some… favors back in the world history (I’m trying to avoid too many spoilers here). There aren’t very many of them, but they are potent and quite delicious opponent material. As with all the Exalted major hardcovers, this book makes the Infernals playable as PCs. However, it’s likely that the major use for this book will be as an antagonist NPC creation toolkit.

Contrasting this book with Abyssals is a fun exercise. While at first glance the Infernals and the Abyssals may seem similiar, they are actually worlds apart in style and motivation. Abyssals serve their masters in trying to destroy the world, to push it over the brink into Oblivion. The Infernals, on the other hand, do not want to destroy the world. They want to ruin it, to make it as much like Hell (Malfeas) as they can. Why? That would be a spoiler. Where Abyssals may relish in pain and torture “just because” and because it reminds them of the comforts of the grave, the Infernals use atrocities as a deliberate tool. Oh, and because they find it “fun”, in many cases – most Infernals aren’t exactly 100% sane, and most are just plain evil at this point. The Infernals go through a nasty process in order to be “born”, and one that is designed to strip away any vestiges of morality they might have had.. The Yozis give “their” Infernals much more leeway than the typical Deathlord gives his/her Deathknights… but the leash does exist, and getting a tug on it is not pleasant.

On the power scale, the Infernals seem more or less on the same level as Solars. In other words, damn strong. They are also not as crippled in Creation as Abyssals are, not to mention the Fair Folk. This makes them extremely dangerous. However, the fact that they typically want to operate “under the radar” (because of Heavenly retribution, among other factors) and the fact that they are simply very few in number make them quite balanced. At least in theory.

An interesting facet of the whole thing is that each “splat” of Infernals serves a specific different Yozi. This gives them a concrete reason for being very different and for having extremely varied operational modes, and it also opens up an avenue for expanding the lineup if the GM wants to. Very nice. Kudos must also be given to the mechanical side of things… since the Infernals are meant to act in typically “villanous” ways, they have been given various mechanical bonuses to encourage such. For example, an Infernal may get a bonus if he/she actually acts like a typical James Bond villian (prepares elaborate deathtraps, gives long speeches describing her Ultimate Evil Masterplan, etc). To be sure, this is not the first time Exalted does this; the idea that game mechanics should try to encourage a certain “style” is an old one and has existed from the get go in the game line (“stunts”, “limit”, etc). Still, I found the mechanics here to be especially fun and suitable for creating a certain type of Evil Bastard for your PCs to face.

I’d say this is a very good addition to the Exalted lineup, and having yet another canonical group of bad guys to throw at your players is never a bad thing. Especially since this group is wonderfully colorful and bizarrely motivated.

And then there is that certain upcoming wedding, which has everyone just shivering with anticip..p…pation…