Anomalies

The 200th comic by Subnormality! Take your time.

"We are looking for anomalies." This has become a staple of RPG-parlance, it basically means that the characters have a thorough look at their surroundings, trying to note everything that is peculiar, noteworthy or simply wrong, from secret compartments, a diary's pages stuffed under the carpet to a large blood spill on the ceiling. It is a way to cut to the chase if you are just tossing some guard shack, but it is a shortcut, and harms the feeling of immersion. This especially true if you are going for some period or genre feel, which in my opinion is based in large parts on the depiction of specific details: Size and make of furniture, age and disrepair of a room, traces of a personality and their role in the world etc. Of course, details take time, but the time taken to depict a search (even of some area that is not that important or special) helps to create a clearer image of a game world that exists apart from the group and the plot.

A letter from White Tower

A road leads to Atlanta! This much I always knew, but now everybody knows that a road leads back. To think of it: The Dry Place, lost for four generations, now open to us. Two unis, corporate headquarters, one of the largest airports on the continent, two army bases. Untouched. Enough loot to build a nation, if one wanted to. I didn’t think much of their chances, when the big men of White Tower started talking about an expedition into North Carolina two months ago. At the time, I heard more or less open speculation that it was the town’s way of bidding one of their longest living servants good bye with honor and dignity, together with getting rid of assorted riff raff which any town at a crossroads will collect – destitute orphans, stranded mercenaries, the lot. They were bundled into a truck left over from some kind of gambling scam and sent towards the South.

At least that’s what the town’s ancient gun seller told me over a few drinks. Few thought they’d ever see them again.

But lo and behold – a mere month after they were sent off, the brave explorers returned, and not a day later, White Tower buzzes with stories of heroic derring do, Deathdealers on the prowl, pale critters in the metro tunnels, flying monsters, feral guardians of the necropolis walking through walls, sentient black dust and other nonsense. But the truck’s chassis ran awfully close to the ground when it made its way past Lola’s Bar, the springs creaking piteously and every piece of movable equipment packed at the outside of its freight compartment. Something was taken from the dead city, something heavy, and it has made some people in White Tower quite happy. Everyone tries to keep up appearances of business as usual, but some people stopped talking to me, because I’m the nosy guy, or try to feed me bullshit. It’s a food processor. Or two tons of DVDs. Or a box filled with that sentient black dust.  It’s a change in the weather, some tell me, and I tend to agree.

No matter.

My next missive will contain as much about the route to the Dry Place as I can find out, as well as my honest attempts to separate the truth from the legends so eagerly spun around the campfires. I would advise you to get all your ducks in a row and collect a party to get there asap – second place is better than nothing, and there will still be lots of truck loads left if you hurry. You can be sure that many others now see the Dry Place in a new light, and right now they are gathering the right people for a little exploration. Be sure to gather them first.

 I remain,

L.

Cliffhanger

So the group is on a two-masted cog, the good ship Empire of the Sunset, in the middle of a really furious storm. Sheets of rain and murderous squalls. Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening. About a quarter of the crew has already been swept overboard, which might be just as well, because the PCs are not well liked, after all that spitting into the communal stew (very public, too) and mouthing off to the first mate. In fact, there would probably be a mutiny under way by now, if the sailors weren't a bit preoccupied at the moment (or dead), because the captain keelhauled a full quarter of them, plus the first mate, on false charges. One mast has just been struck by lighting, and crashed on the deck, where it smashed open the cage of the mountain lion the Empire has been transporting. The mountain lion that has been poked with sharp sticks for entertainment purposes and was able to grievously wound a PC and a sailor while in the cage. Someone should have put up a warning sign.

This is also the moment where a fat tentacle appears at the ship's rail, belonging to God-knows-what kind of hellbeast. Maybe that's the reason the ghost ship that hounded us for the last quarter of an hour is suddenly gone.

It is also the moment where the game master says "Let's wrap up for tonight."

Well played, sir, well played.

Cry havoc and and let slip the Toyotas of war

Technicals from the Lybian revolution. Via the eXiled. The cars seem to deal rather well with all the added weight - but they seem to carry no armor at all (with the exception of the odd blast shield). They are also more colorful and cheery than the dour Mexican narcotanks.

Point Transit

Point Transit is the gateway to the Far West, or to the Desert Heart - depending on your perspective. A city of such importance has lots of secrets, which will not be spoiled in this short introduction, instead there will be a separate document taking a look at some of the dirt the people of this fine community have accumulated over the years. This will be stuff only the game master should know, or characters who spent an inordinate time digging in the backstreets, cracking safes and computers, or listening to pillow talk. An addition to the Scorched Earth materials post, with a map.

Polite society

A tool for the enforcement of nearly lost societal norms, via this isn't happiness. It's practical use is nearly zero (unless you want to get into a fight with an expectorator, and you are superfast with a marker and scissors), but it is a nice handy list concerning acceptable behavior in our urban centers. Alien infiltrators, take note!

Joss Whedon: The Avengers

Four superheroes for the price of one (plus the charge for 3D glasses, can we please stop this nonsense?), so what could go wrong? Indeed, this is a very amusing movie, even if you aren't a raving comic fan. It has a lot of Joss Whedon dialogue, so if you are a fan of Buffy and Firefly, you should have a good time on that count alone, although I found the characters unbelievably precious at some points. But it is genuinely funny, and they stopped the thing that made Ironman 2 nearly unbearable, where two characters are chattering away at the same time, so you needed to be a schizophrenic to get both parts of the dialogue.

The backstories and involvement of the heroes (Aryan Viking, Snide Toasterman, Green Butt-Naked Giant and Clean-Cut Protestant Guy, supported by the lesser heroes Sultry Temptress and Lotso Arrows, if you have been living under a stone) are deftly handled, meaning that I wasn't waiting for the big action pay-off, but really enjoying the slow bits of the movie. At 140 minutes this is a rather longish movie, but it does not feel that way.

And the action pay-off is grand, absolutely fantastic, I really think I won't see anything like it for the rest of the year. This includes the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises. No shaky cam here, but a clear sense of who is doing what where and why. I don't know if you should stay through the credits, because I didn't. If there is a "surprise", it will be on YouTube anyway.

4 of 5 chair fights