I don’t see the city anymore...

"I don’t see the city anymore. All I see are its dark corners."

Karen Page, Daredevil S1E2

 

Arcade Club (Leeds)

Atari Star Wars

I took the last Friday of the school holiday off, and took the youngster out for a trip to Arcade Club in Leeds. It’s a bit of a run for us (the opposite side of the city) but it turned out to be a fun afternoon. Arcade Club has three floors packed with a huge number of arcade consoles from the 1970s onwards. The ground floor has machines from the 1990s onwards, including rhythm games, pin ball and the classics like Daytona and Sega Rally. The mezzanine floor is filled with all the classic coin-ops I remember from the 1980s, and the top floor has fighting games, VR, consoles, and more Japanese style sit at consoles.

You play a flat entrance fee, and all the games are on free vend. We were hit with a wave of sound as we came in; the ground floor is a storm of noise. The staff were friendly, and we also had a break at the cafe, which wasn’t overpriced at all. There is a reasonable bar selection, probably aimed at catering for the crowd after the post 6pm ‘no kids’ cut off.

We tried a couple of games on the ground floor; Ridge Racer, Sega Rally and a flying game called Afterburner, but quickly went upstairs. The youngster wanted to try some of the classics. Immediately after we got upstairs he was in the Atari Star Wars pod. This was the classic wire-frame Death Star attack (which he’d played as a kid on my old iPad). He loved it.

We then went around and played loads of machines. 

• Space Invaders (where I got asked why they were getting faster!)
• Galaxian (we played this one a fair bit)
• Galaga
• Frogger (he thrashed me at this)
• Pac Man (I thrashed him at this)
• Moon Patrol (he loved this)
• Centipede (he loved this)
• Millipede
• Battlezone (I found the excitement I had over this has been eclipsed by World of Tanks)
• Missile Command (he got good at this quickly but we all died)
• Paperboy (he loved this)
• Asteroids (this was one he struggled with)
• Robotron
• Defender (he wouldn’t touch this - said it looked too complex)
• Star Gate (same as Defender, which it’s an evolution of)
• Tempest (my favourite but he wouldn’t play it as he didn’t like the look of the controller)
• Scramble (looked very much like the BBC Model B version in a cabinet)
• Return of the Jedi (looked very much like a game I vaguely remember on the ZX Spectrum with Speeder Bikes)
• Hot Rod (an up-to four person game where he thrashed me)

I’m sure that I missed some out. The youngster made a joke that I loved the Atari corner, but I also seemed to like games with odd controllers (track balls, rotary or spinning action). Tempest was the highlight of my visit; I’ve never played it for real in an arcade, but absolutely loved Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar.

We spent nearly four hours there, so it was a good afternoon out. It’s work noting the car parking is only 90 minutes, but you can park for free for an unlimited time at the Morrisons/Retail Park opposite. 

Definitely recommended. There are other sites (eg Bury) that friends have also said good things about.

13 April 2024

Eternal Lies - like a rising tide

Screen shot of Eternal Lies on iPad

I'm over three years into Eternal Lies, the epic Trail of Cthulhu campaign from Pelgrane Press. There's three of us involved, all of us forever GMs. It all came about because we were talking about how much we'd enjoyed reading the campaign and how it would be challenging to get a group together to commit to such a long form adventure. Until Rich pointed out that we'd all done this before (we've played through pretty much every Esoterrorists campaign together) and we all wanted to do it. Naturally, as our resident Gumshoe GM, he also offered to run the game. We immediately said 'yes'.

We couldn't find another player, but we didn't let that daunt us. Gumshoe lets you design a group of investigators to cover all the bases based on the number of players. So Ben and Lotte were created. Ben being Dr Mitch's character, an American Antiquities Dealer, and Lotte, a German refugee journalist who had married the editor of one of the New York Dailies. Both very different, but with very complementary character builds. Between them they had a solid balance of skills, both general and investigative. We talked this through during character creation and where there was overlap we agreed who would lead on this. Effectively we were agreeing who would get the spotlight for that kind of moment in the game. We also picked drives that very much enable Rich to push our characters along the path of the scenario should he want to (Lotte has 'Duty' as a drive and Ben has 'Curiosity'). Trail of Cthuhu has a mechanic that rewards you for following a drive or damages your stability if you act against your nature.

Playing with a duo of investigators is pretty intense. Typically, half the time you have the spotlight and need to be on form. The other half, you need to be thinking how you can compliment the other character. You don't really have time to be a passenger, so coming into the game if you've been behind on sleep or after a long day at work can be pretty daunting. However, it pays off in spades. That's not to say that we don't get distracted and break off into asides and reminiscences, of course we do. But generally, the immersion levels are high. We did have a third investigator for a while, but ill-health on the player's part meant that they dropped out. I also suspect that it may have been challenging joining the game part way through when there was such an established dynamic, despite being a regular player in some of our previous games. While he was with us, I did feel that the pressure I'd felt being in a duo fell off, and that I missed it.

Having read the campaign before, I knew what we were in for. However, by the time we started I could only remember what was going on in broad brush strokes and neither of us playing have let it influence what we've been doing. What has surprised me is how the tone of the campaign has shifted at each location that we've visited, starting from the creeping corruption Southern-Gothic horror of Savannah, then moving to the grubby noir of Los Angeles before a brief respite back in Boston and New York. Mexico City had a flavour of its own, and the expedition to the Yucatan was humid, wet and hot. Malta left us feeling the weight of the threat we faced, but helped us to realise that we couldn't back down. We've  just arrived in Africa under Italian occupation, and are facing into the need to go deep into the desert and check something that we really don't want to explore.

Each chapter has had its own beats. They all start slowly, and the horror begins to emerge. Sometimes the game has slipped into what has felt like a pulp mode*, as we've desperately acted to try and stop the threat. With the intensity the game is played at, it really feels like you are putting life, limb and sanity at risk. Success, even partial, is a relief. It does feel like we are standing on a beach as the tide rises, and waves break closer and closer to us. Like kids playing, we get tempted to go deeper into the waves, while all around us the sea is rising up the beach. There are moments of respite when the waves fall back for a moment of calm, but you realise that the sand you're standing on is still water-covered when before it was dry.

[*Trail of Cthulhu has different modes; pulp games are more survivable and purist games more deadly. Eternal Lies defaults to the purist end of the spectrum.]

Our characters are definitely changing. They're becoming closer to each other, an unavoidable side effect of the threats and knowledge they've been exposed to. Lotte is probably facing the slow failure of her marriage as her husband Jack does not understand what is going on and why she wants to travel the world 'after this story' with another man. She's drawn closer to Ben, but so far they've remained completely professional. I'm not sure if that can last, with the pressures they face and the lack of anyone else who understands. However, for now,  Lotte's duty drive holds a line in her mind.

I do see a future when I (or Dr Mitch, depending upon circumstances) brings in Jack to investigate what has happened to his wife and/or the person she was exploring with, after news of their deaths reaches the United States. 

We've also noticed that the characters are becoming harder and more brutal. It started in LA, when Lotte was threatened at gunpoint by a thug in her hotel room. They've both become more and more hardened; both have been injured, and both have killed in the pursuit of this quest. Neither have a real understanding of what is going on; they know the organisation (cult) that they face is spreading corruption with the drug they distribute, but they aren't completely certain what the deeper objective of the cult is. Lotte has touched infinity when they communed with an entity outside time and space; she has a spell in her mind that touches on the hyper-geometry** of existence. It does still feel like we are stumbling through a web of corruption and lies, trying to get a clear vision of what is going on and what we need to stop.

[** Yes, I know 'hyper-geometry' is a Delta-Green term, but it perfectly fits Lotte's scientific background and what we experienced in-game.]

Inherently, Gumshoe's point spend mechanic also ratchets up the tension; as you spend pool points, your resources are falling and you constantly need to make decisions whether you want guarantee success on a roll, or risk failure.

The campaign and game is an incredible experience; I think that playing in the smaller group has made this more so. However, if you want a different look at this, check out the Alexandrian's thoughts on the campaign. I think that this may be the finest traditional Cthulhu campaign that's been written, and has an arguable case to be seen as one of the best campaigns around. 

We shall continue into the investigation and play to find out if we drown or get swept out to sea in the rising tide, or perhaps eventually return home with memories that are hard to forget.

12 April 2024

Games in March 2024

The doughnut update for March 24

March 2024 was a slow month, as I had to cancel a session for Achtung! Cthulhu at short notice as I couldn't get away early from a work event in Bury St Edmunds. I had to be realistic and accept that I wasn't going to be back in Yorkshire for an 8pm kick off if I didn't get away until 5.30pm. Even if I had, I suspect tiredness would have marred the game. We only got a single session in this month. However, I've had two lovely sessions of Eternal Lies (Trail of Cthulhu), so these two games are tied for session count this year.

I'm seriously toying with the idea of offering a one-shot of Old Gods of Appalachia as I've just read one of the recent scenarios from Monte Cook Games that looks like a good introduction, and was prepared for convention use so it has all the characters available.

I'm also starting down a Dune RPG rabbit hole, which is probably good as the books have been building up in my to-read pile. That's thanks to the Fall of the Imperium sourcebook.

I should be doing preparation for North Star in May. Dr Mitch and I are doing a sequel to Echoes from last year with Star Trek Adventures and I need to re-read Across a Thousand Dead Worlds to get my head around what scenario I will run.

Longer term, I need to start to work my way through The Stealer of Souls and The Black Sword in preparation for hacking them to Tripod for Longcon later in the year. This will also involve a re-read of the Elric books for the first time in years. I'm not certain if I will re-read the books in the lovely compilations I've picked up in hardcover or perhaps using the Kindle versions to increase my book count for the year. I have both, so it will be interesting to see where that ends up.

3 April 2024

First Impressions - Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook (Dune RPG)

The Fall of the Imperium

The Fall of the Imperium sourcebook for the Dune Adventures in the Imperium RPG is the book that I've been waiting for in the line. I was disappointed that the focus on the main canon storyline in the initial QuickStart was replaced with an alternative timeline where House Nagara took over the Governorship of Arrakis rather than House Atreides. The material was excellent, but I hadn't bought the game to play in an alternative timeline. That said, the weight of canon is heavy and it is challenging to set adventures where the characters' actions feel meaningful. Fall of the Imperium rises to that challenge, and doesn't shy away from the brutality of the rise of the Atreides as the Fremen Jihad sweeps out across the ten-thousand worlds of the Imperium.

TL;DR: Fall of the Imperium is an epic campaign that will see the characters rubbing shoulders with the key movers and shakers in the Imperium. It doesn't shy away from the hard choices and horror that the Atreides victory brings with it. Choices have consequences, and the fate of billions will be in their hands. The scenarios are sufficiently open to allow them to be adjusted based on the decisions of the players. The writing is strong, and the book is beautifully illustrated. It is let down by poor proofreading, with too many errors that should have been trapped before production marring what would otherwise be a stellar product.

The book is a 144-page full colour hardback with excellent, evocative artwork. The layout follows the same lines as other books in the product line, so is clear and easy on the eye. However, the book feels rushed and there are multiple typos (from the hard-to-spot 'Brain Herbert' through to easily-spotted gibberish words) and layout faults where text from previous headings or stat-blocks has been duplicated. This leaves a sour note, detracting from what is otherwise a strongly-written and quality product. I wonder if Modiphius rushed this out to make sure that it hit the stores while the film was showing? If they did, it's a shame as it wouldn't have taken much time to have sorted this out.

The campaign consists of twelve scenarios across four acts. The first act addresses the arrival and fall of House Atreides on Arrakis. The second act deals with the rumours and rise of Muad'Dib, as spice production starts to collapse. The third act sees the Emperor and Landsraad act, and all eyes turn to Dune. The final act deals with the aftermath, as Emperor Paul Muad'Dib Atreides secures his throne and the Fremen Jihad sweeps across the Imperium. It is entirely possible that the characters and their House could end up wiped out or forced to go renegade and flee. There is brief guidance on how to use the campaign if you've been playing with House Nagara from Agents of Dune and Masters of Dune.

The tone is set immediately with some boxed text about 'Goodies and Baddies'. It points out that while the Atreides are far better than the Harkonnen in how they treat their subjects, they still live in a life of luxury, exploiting their followers in the feudal system of the Imperium. The characters represent a House that has similar advantages and will have to make decisions about who they ally with and how they behave. There is no correct way through the campaign, and decisions matter. The players will make choices which will hopefully mean that their House can thread the eye of the needle and avoid falling from favour with the Emperor or having their homeworld absolutely destroyed with atomics and the arrival of the Fremen Jihad. Their people will suffer from the mistakes that they may make.

The first two Acts can easily be fleshed out with some of the additional scenarios that have been published; I think that I would be tempted to use a few to get the players more invested, but the actions in the final two acts accelerate as the nexus point is reached and House Corrino and House Harkonnen fall. 

The initial act, 'The Gathering Storm', is focused around espionage around Arrakis as the character's House is asked to support House Ecaz in covert action against. The players will be forced to make decisions; it may be easier to side with the Corrino/Harkonnen plot against the Atreides than walk a path of opposition or neutrality. The end of the Act sees the assault on Arrakis, and the characters will have to work hard to survive and make choices who they support. These choices are the way that the players will start to feel that their actions mean something. Will they help Gurney Hallack escape? Will they assist Rabban the Beast as he takes his revenge? Will they try and protect their retainers and allies on planet? This sets the scene the rest of the campaign; they will meet the both the Emperors of House Corrino and House Atreides, and they will have to make decisions on how they respond that will have consequences. How will they deal with the dangerous secret that they learn from their operations?

The second act, 'Muad'Dib', has the characters trying to secure spice for their House. Most of the Act takes place away from Arrakis. Whispers of a new Fremen leader are heard, and it becomes apparent that something is wrong on Arrakis. The characters are drawn into covertly trying to find out what has happened on behalf of CHOAM, the truth of which will again put them at risk. Once they find the secrets, they become the focus of the Emperor through Count Fenring and his Bene Gesserit wife, Lady Margot and will have to decide what to do with the knowledge. A mistake could put them out of favour at the Imperial court.

The third act, 'Fall of the Imperium', sees the drop in spice production causing discord in the Imperium. The Bene Gesserit approach the character's house to try and find out more about who this 'Muad'Dib' is, while at the same time House Ecaz try to get the Harkonnen governorship of Arrakis removed in the Landsraad. This escalates, and the characters are despatched to assassinate Rabban, arriving to find Arrakeen and Carthag in chaos. The act concludes with the landing of the Emperor at Arrakeen, where the uprisings are brutally put down by the Sardaukar. However, this is the moment that Paul Atreides strikes and the characters will have to choose who they ally with.

The final act, 'War Across a Million Worlds', is brutal and challenging. The opening scenario sees them told to give an allied house notice of their upcoming eradication by the forces of Muad'Dib. Will they just deliver the notice (being seen as lapdogs of the new Emperor) or will they try and save the noble family or even their people? You rarely see this level of moral challenge being thrown at players; the Fremen legion's leader just wants to execute the will of Muad'Dib, a matter of faith. The second scenario was the one in the book where I felt I'd need to find a better hook than that presented; the characters arrive at Kaitain, the former capital, as the Fremen arrive to suppress the unbelievers. What will they do? Will they rescue people, recover priceless artefacts that will likely be destroyed, or just try and escape? I can see what the objective is (putting the characters in the middle of a planet being sacked and having to make decisions) but I think this once needed a little bit of focusing. 

The final scenario sees false evidence planted against the character's House, for which they are condemned. Will they be able to prove that there's a conspiracy against their house, or will they try to escape as a renegade house? Will they leave their subjects behind to face the wrath of Muad'Dib. Their choices in the previous scenarios will influence who will help them and the likelihood of convincing Paul Muad'Dib that they are loyal to his regime.

Overall, it's a fantastic campaign arc which cleverly allows players to make the choices who they ally with  and then live through the consequences. They may want to play the meta-game and stay loyal to the Atreides, but this will cause problems and also be seen as odd to the other factions in the Imperium as loyalty to an eradicated House makes no sense. They may ally with the Harkonnen, but the Emperor doesn't trust them, and the pendulum will swing back against the Baron and his House. The challenge is to try and find a way through this so their House survives, finding their own Golden Path without the benefit of prescience. 

The book concludes with a chapter that describes the changes to the Imperium once Paul ascends, which will help the GM to identify hooks and plot ideas.

In conclusion, this is an epic campaign that will see the characters rubbing shoulders with the key movers and shakers in the Imperium. It doesn't shy away from the hard choices and horror that the Atreides victory brings with it. Choices have consequences, and the fate of billions will be in their hands. The scenarios are sufficiently open to allow them to be adjusted based on the decisions of the players. The writing is strong, and the book is beautifully illustrated. It is only let down by the poor proofing. There are too many errors which should have been trapped before production; none of them affect the usability (except in one stat block) but they mar what would otherwise be a stellar product.

Recommended

2 April 2024

Books in March 2024

 

Pages read in March 2024

March 2024 was a good month for reading, with 11 books and 2715 pages read. Year-to-date, that puts me at 27 books and 7632 pages, or as the target tracker says, "Brilliant, you are ahead by 14 books". I set myself a target of a book a week (something I've done for a long time), but do expect to beat that based on past years.

I read 3 roleplaying games, 1 graphic-novel, and completed 1 non-fiction autobiography. The balance were  a range of novels.

The roleplaying games were Old Gods of Appalachia (link to review), Comrades, and Heart. I think I will be running the first two of those at some point. Comrades is a Powered-by-the-Apocalypse engined game of revolution, in which the players take the role of the revolutionaries against an oppressive state. Heart is a fun game, built off the same setting as the Spire roleplaying game, but I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't going to get to the table as there were multiple other fantasty games that I wanted to play before it.

The graphic novel was the second volume of the 2039 Blade Runner spin off, which is providing much of the back-story fill in that the roleplaying game really doesn't. That's not to say that the game isn't great, just that it's a little lighter in content than I expected.

The autobiography was Rory Stewart's Politics on the Edge, which talks about his time as an MP. In some ways, its pretty depressing as it really explains how the UK parliamentary system works and how bad the fast rotation of ministers through departmental roles gives a huge challenge to any of the departments that they are to maintain consistency and focus. I already understood Stewart's opinion of Boris Johnson, but this also expands out on how he came to the view that he regularly expresses on The Rest is Politics. Speaking of which, I had to speed up the narration (I was listening to this on Audible during work trips) as Stewart reads his book at a much slower pace than he talks in the podcast, and it was frustrating. I usually listen to podcasts and audiobooks at 1.1x speed, but had to go higher. Definitely worth a read, but his colleague Alastair Campbell's last book (But What Can I Do?) is a more hopeful companion.

The novels included the third book in the Prefect Dreyfus sequence by Alastair Reynolds, Machine Vendetta. This does draw upon elements of the first two books, but I didn't feel a need to re-read them despite it being quite a while since I read either. I enjoyed the story, especially as it shows more of the Glitter Band (a democratic anarchic collective of space stations and asteroids) first mentioned in Revelation Space. The book comes to a satisfying end and reminded me why Reynolds has remained one of my favourite authors.

I finally got to Aliette de Bodard's excellent A Fire Born of Exile, a story set in the Xuya universe. It's a love story, a revenge story, and a story of unrest and repression. I enjoyed it a lot; there's a beauty to the author's writing which draws me through.

Speaking of that, I feel very much the same about the two Emily St. John Mandel books I read, The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility. The former is more traditional, following the life curves of two half-siblings, Paul and Vincent, against the backdrop of a Ponzi scheme. I loved the writing style the story drew me through. Sea of Tranquility is literary SF; it takes a science-fiction concept and uses it softly, exploring time travel. Initially, the connections between the stories aren't obvious, but as the story builds they become apparent. There's also a link back to The Glass Hotel, and for a moment I wondered if Vincent would escape her fate, but it was a delightful easter-egg. I suspect it made me enjoy the book more than I would if I hadn't read the first book immediately before.

I also completed Len Deighton's London Match (the first of the three trilogies about Bernard Samson). I really enjoyed how it played out, but decided to change gear for a bit before I read the next three books. Finally, I read the latest Kevin Wignall, The First Death of Winter, which was a slight change of gear from his normal novels. If anything, if felt more like an Agatha Christie story. Matt, the night supervisor of a Swiss Tourist hotel in the mountains, faces the arrival of a group of teenagers and teachers out of season, when the mountain is closed for bad weather and the hotel is also not open. Soon after they arrive, one of the kids is murdered, and Matt is forced to do the initial investigation for the police as they cannot access the hotel as the cable car cannot run safely in the storm. However, he also has a secret from his past that he doesn't want to come out. It was a fun yarn and avoided being predictable. 

Overall, a good month of reading.

1 April 2024