Drokk the Law!! - Part XXII

Just a quick update as I finished the first of my Brutal Cities terrain. 

Mongoose Hondo Judge for scale. These barriers aren't much, but every little bit of progress helps. I have mentioned that I wanted some "soft" cover for the table and these will do nicely. Painting was a quick spray with a graffiti can of yellow and a run over with a Sharpie, fast and patchy but in a way that makes them look worn and used, ideal for Mega City One. 

Superhero Media: Ghost In The Shell (2017)

I was going to spend much of this article discussing the various controversies surrounding this version of Ghost In The Shell, but after watching it, I've decided to discuss the merits and flaws of the film here only. The rest of the controversy and how it relates to the broader franchise will be discussed in a "Thinking Out Loud" that I'll try and post close to this so that it makes sense. Based more so on the 1995 Anime than the original Manga, Ghost In The Shell follows the story of The Major and Public Security Section 9 as they chase cyber-terrorists through the canyons and slums of near-future Tokyo. As far as being a Ghost In The Shell story, the film is not great, making several jarring changes for seemingly no reason, then not following them up or doing anything interesting narratively with them. As a general cyberpunk film, however, Ghost In The Shell is pretty damn good, with well-visualised 'net sequences, cool looking cyberwear and lots of funky design elements.

In fact, I've been somewhat struggling with finding inspiration to build and paint stuff for Reality's Edge, a cyberpunk miniatures game that is a lot of fun, but will also take up a lot of time and energy if I let it. Watching Ghost In The Shell, the version of Tokyo presented is well-grounded, with glittering spires of the wealthy abutting slums and squalor, the gleam of Mokoto's synthetic skin contrasted with the dirty cyberwear of the Yakusa thugs. As much as I don't want to be one of "those guys", but if the specific Ghost In The Shell elements were taken out and the film was just about a Cyber Police Squad chasing a terrorist, Ghost In The Shell would be pretty damn enjoyable. The scenes directly taken from the 1995 film are not well done, like the reveal of the garbage man's daughter not existing coming too early and the famous diving scene only being used for exposition.

Probably my favourite scene involves "The Chief" fending off a hit-squad with nothing but an antique revolver and a briefcase; it's a kind of "Yoda with a lightsabre" moment, in that in all my viewing of Ghost In The Shell media, I've assumed The Chief was pretty gangbuster, but it was nice to have it confirmed. I was surprised how much I enjoyed watching Ghost In The Shell, but I doubt that I'll be revisiting it anytime soon, as what charms there are to be found are somewhat shallow. As we shall see, I find much of the controversy surrounding the film to be tiresome, and often seems to take on a tone of political gamesmenship more so than a genuine appreciation for the franchise. With luck, anyone who watched this version will find their way to the 1995 film and the better versions of the Anime that followed on from there.

Drokk the Law!! - Part XXI

Game day came around again, and it was time to try out my new terrain, a new gang and my counters. 

So my Brutal Cities buildings need a lot more work, and I'm still iffy on the mat, but the table is looking a hell of a lot more like a city right now. With some more scatter, posters and street art, we should have something very cool to play our games on. After playing the game, I also think I need more Light cover, as currently, there's little reason for gangs to break out of Heavy cover for games, but I already have some stuff for that in the pipeline as well. 

Game one saw my newly finished Vatican Judges against Andy's classic Brian Ansell Blockers in a Demolition mission. The Blockers have to get to a central objective and perform a series of Special Actions next to it to prepare the explosives and win the game. 

Both Andy and I deployed in and around the new buildings, hoping to get to play them through a little and get a feel for them. The Blockers had a range and numbers advantage, so they would hope to keep the Judges pinned down while some Punks made a run for the central objective. I needed to use my superior armour and good short-range fire to whittle away the Punks and have them make Will to Fight Checks. 

The first clash comes as the leader of the Brian Ansell Blockers spots a Judge moving through a building. Some wild Spit Gun shots fail to do much against the holy armour, so the fighting gets up-close and personal pretty quickly. The fearsome chainsaw proves no match for the trusty daystick though, and the Blocker leader is laid low and sent to the cubes. 

The Judge's victory is short-lived, however, as he mounts the stairs to get a view of the street, he is shot down by a barrage of Spit Gun fire from the opposite building. In truth, it was quite a few shots, as I kept rolling good saves, but my luck ran out before I could activate him again and get into cover. 

Further down the street, the punks are making a break for the objective, but the law is not far behind. Before he can bring his Lawrod to bear, the Judge fails to arrest the Punks, who fire back, but the hard cover proves too tough for them to crack. 

Leaving the lone Judge to the tender mercies of the Heavy Spit Gun covering the street, the Punks make a break for the objective, only to encounter the Psi Judge waiting for them, who quickly mops up the criminals with an explosive round. As numbers on both sides dwindle, the Judges have taken the centre of the table, but the constant barrage of fire is a serious threat. 

The Psi Judge climbs to the top of a nearby building, where he uses his powers and Lawgiver to slowly pick off the remaining Punks in the area. The last Street Judge picks his way through a building to take care of a feeling Juve, and with that, the game goes to the Vatican Judges. We probably dragged this one out a little too long; we forgot the turn limit, but I had it won basically from the first turn. One of the reasons I really want to get a campaign going is that on a mission like this, the Street Gang would probably withdraw after it became obvious they wouldn't get the objective. I also learnt that the Lawrod is underwhelming, so I'm working on some Vatican reinforcements before I get them on the table again. 

Game two was a straight-up Street Brawl between my Renegade Robots and Andy's City-Def. I started out a little on the backfoot, as one of my two Junkers broke down before the game started, making things about even, numbers-wise. 

The game started out much the same, with Andy's gang hunkering down in cover and mine picking their way through cover. 

Call-Me-Kermit was the MVP of the match, taking out three of the four City-Def team with lucky shots, but the best moment of the game was when Vendi, my Junker, decided to attempt to jump between buildings to save the time of climbing down and back up again. I had about a 50/50 chance, but failed and the fall was enough to take Vendi right out of the game. However, Junkers have a Saving Throw whenever they lose their last hit that can put them back in the game. I got lucky on the save and Vendi stood right up again to get back into the fight. 

The game ended as they tend to, with Haro-2-Goodbye ripping some poor human apart. These weren't the best games I've played with Andy; he was overly conservative and some sections dragged as he tended to go for the option of shooting twice rather than taking a shot and a reposition. I think in future we'll need to push more objective-focused scenarios and probably get some "soft" cover to fill out the streets and make it a little less risky to cross them. I think I'll also be boarding over some windows in my buildings so that they're less effective as bunkers. 

Superhero Media: SCOOB!

So I guess I should address all the "controversy" around SCOOB! before I talk about the good stuff right? I mean, people seemed to really hate this film, with a passion that I didn't understand at the time and still kind of don't. One, yes, SCOOB! has the "Scooby Gang" going up against a genuinely supernatural foe, which flies in the face of much of the series before it, where there was always a rational explanation and the real enemy was capitalism. Fun fact, Carl Sagan loved Scooby Doo because of how rational it was. But, it's not like that's never happened in a Scooby Doo outing before, especially with all the crossovers that the gang has enjoyed since the 1960s. Second, it's ok that the gang are Millennials now, really, they can't be groovy first-wave boomers forever, that schtick was old when they were trying it in the '90s. Hell, Velma dressed as the Notorious RBG for Halloween and Shaggy thinking it was a Harry Potter thing was one of my favourite jokes. And the voice cast changing is to be expected really, though it was good to see Frank Welker getting around some of the supporting cast. 

That SCOOB! is clearly a blatant attempt to launch a "cinematic universe" is a little annoying, but I stopped complaining the instant Dick Dastardly sent an army of robots to capture Scooby because he needed to open a portal to the Hellenic Underworld. That's just the kind of Gonzo to keep me happy, and as that's wearing off, Tracy Jordan turns up as Captain Caveman and I'm set for the second half. This is a film for kids, so I didn't go in expecting anything more than what I got and I have to say I had a good time, even with not really being familiar with Dynamutt going in. All the classic Scooby Doo jokes I remembered are there, along with enough updates to modernise, but not too many jokes about phones, thank Dog. The Simon Cowel guest spot is odd, and seems really out of place in 2020, but gets paid off in the finale, so I kind of just let that one slide. Hell, this is a big-screen film with Muttley in it, what more can you ask for? 

How about mid-credit stings with Johnny Quest and Jabberjaw? 'Cause we've got that too! Sure, SCOOB! is dumb, more than a little bit of a cash-in and leans on tired "destiny" tropes, but for what it is, it's pretty great. The superhero stuff may be the B-story, but it's mostly unique and it's been forever since I've seen a good "evil mastermind" villain. If this is the start of something like Future Quest and I end up with a team-up film featuring Space Ghost, The Galaxy Trio, Thundaar, Birdman, Blue Falcon and Captain Caveman, sign me the hell up! At least until we get the, seemingly inevitable, "grim and gritty" reboot in which Space Ghost's family was killed. Oh wait, they did that one already. Probably not the best superhero offering overall, but SCOOB! is a fun way to spend some time painting and you'll get a few laughs out of it. Shame the rest of the planned series was canned, this could have been a lot of fun to expand on. 

Thinking Out Loud: The Slizer Project - Part I

In the distant future, the most valued resource is access to the time continuum, the key to time travel. Controlled by a consortium of powerful races, the technology is protected by an elite force of warriors chosen from across time and space, who pilot the most advanced weapons systems in the universe, the Slizers!

This entry is going to be a little different to my typical fare. Much like my previous "Danton" series, in that I've dug out something from my teens (and this time childhood) and am seeing if there's anything there worth keeping. The Slizer story goes back about as far as I can remember, as it is what the overarching narrative of the games I played with my Lego became. Yes, I was one of those kids who had a story to go with certain toys they owned. Because this narrative spanned years of collecting and little games played by myself, it's pretty muddled, but thankfully, I tried to get it all sorted out at some stage in high school and somehow still have that ancient Word document kicking around my hard drive.

It all begins with a group of academics at a university, one of whom, a Postdoctoral Theoretical Physicist, manages to crack the holy grail of Science Fiction, Time Travel. Taking his friends along with him on the maiden flight (an archeologist, a classicist, a geologist and a physiologist), the team go on adventures throughout history and the near future, meeting famous people, getting into trouble and just having a whole Doctor Who meets Sliders vibe. Throughout their journey, something is stalking the team, something alien. Over time, the stress of the situation wears on the friends, with many wanting to go home, events coming to a head when they're attacked by their pursuer and the Physicist reveals he knows more than he's been letting on and attempts to dump all of his friends in the wastes of history.

We follow the archeologist, our protagonist, by the by, as he is stuck for a while in the Old West, think tail end of the American Civil War. For a few years, he hangs out on the edge of society, trying to preserve history and fix his time travel device with the available technology, ala Back to the Future - Part III, and occasionally dealing with something strange. When the local town becomes the target of an alien with powerful weaponry, our protagonist uses his 21st Century knowledge to rally the town and bring the creature down, though reveals his secrets as he does and decides to leave before his goodwill evaporates in the harsh light of day. Thankfully, the alien craft is able to access the timestream, so we're off again.

Any freedom our protagonist enjoys is short-lived, as he is arrested by the Slizer Force, essentially a militarised "Time Police", as a rogue time traveler, revealing that the defeated alien was there to arrest him and that they've been hunting him and his friends since they first started their journey. Offered the choice to be erased or join, our hero signs up, only to find that his surviving friends, excluding the physicist of course, are alive and working for Slizer Force. Within the broader policing structure of future humans and aliens, there is a team of time travel veterans who act with a little more autonomy and attempt to curb rouge elements without lethal force. As well as the Geologist and Archeologist, the team features characters we have encountered before, and a few new ones. But more on that next time, as this is a pretty good breaking point.

Superhero Media: Daredevil - Born Again

Frank Miller is, to not mince words, a pretty appalling human being. His views on women, queer persons and Islam are backwards and highly offensive, and it would be a good thing for the world at large were he to drift out of the spotlight. However, much of Miller's work as an author remains excellent, and I highly recommend his tenure on Daredevil, if you are of a kind to be able to separate your distaste for Miller's views from the comics themselves. Born Again is about the pinnacle of Miller's work with Daredevil, slightly edged out by The Man Without Fear in my personal estimation, but still a bonafide classic for the character. Some elements of the story do still stray into Miller's particular "views" such as Karen Page's work as a adult film actor and the entire character of Nuke, but both serve the story well and have excellent resolutions to make up for it. Having nothing left to her name, Karen Page, addicted to heroin and stranded in Central America, sells the one thing she has kept back for one last fix, the true identity of the Man Without Fear; Matt Murdock. 

Once this information finds its way to The Kingpin of Crime, Matt soon finds his life being stripped away by inches; his accounts are frozen, he is framed for embezzlement and his friends abandon him, but it's only the beginning. Like a cat with an injured mouse, Kingpin toys with Matt as his life collapses, his sanity flees and the final confrontation looms. Even out of his mind, Daredevil gives Kingpin the fight of his life, but it is all to naught and Matt finds himself in a cab at the bottom of a river. Bleeding, broken, but alive, Matt awakens at the church where he grew up, where he must put himself back together, with the aid of Sister Maggie, his long-lost mother. Yes, I decided to give Born Again another read after finishing the third season of Netflix Daredevil, which lifted some elements from this famous story, though I felt pretty poorly. The narrative culminates with Matt and Karen building a new life and exposing Kingpin enough to force him back into the shadows for a time, though not before we meet Nuke, a new character created by Miller especially for this story. 

That Nuke is intended as a critique on American military colonialism is obvious, but what point, exactly, Miller may be try to make is somewhat unclear. Nuke is obsessed with the (now debunked) Vietnam "Lost POWs" conspiracy like a refugee from Rambo II and is easily taken in by Kingpin's false patriotism, and must be "put right" by Captain America, who roots out the corruption within the military. It's another play on the idea of Cap being a symbol that is corrupted for political gain, but it almost seems out of place in a Daredevil story in which another antagonist probably would have made more sense. Minor quibbles aside, Born Again is a classic Daredevil story and belongs in any decent collection of such, even if Miller's work may not be to your particular taste. For those more familiar with the Netflix series, Born Again is an excellent place to begin reading the comics, as it features characters and stories you would already be familiar with, albeit in a slightly different form. 

Drokk the Law!! - Part XX

A small amount of progress on my Judge Dredd Miniatures Game stuff, a new gang and some play aids. 

My Vatican City Judges are ready to dispense some holy justice! The centre model is a Mongoose Vatican City Judge that I came into by sheer luck, who serves as my Psi-Judge, the others are modified Games Workshop minis. I had these painted a while back, but was aiming for a BritCit team before I realised they worked fine as proxies for regular Mega City One Judges. This is a full starter team at 485 Credits, so I'll be giving them a go next day I game with Andy. I already have a couple more in the build queue, so expect this team to expand a little. 

I've never been a huge fan of paper tokens or beads or whatever on the table when gaming. For me, it distracts from the look of the table and spoils pictures that people tend to take of an otherwise great looking game. I found these 3D Printed garbage bags and painted them up to act as Activation Markers when playing JDMG as they're distinct but also look like they fit on the table. Hopefully they help lift the look of the next set of games, and maybe I can find some more that are a little different, for variety.