The Fandom Stranger: What Are You a Fan For?

NEWER, BETTER CONTROLS

Assassin’s Creed betrayed my friend Kenny. When the series first came out, he loved it. He went for maximum completion, read through the lore, and picked up novels and secondary materials. He held onto the excitement of that fandom all the way up through Assassin’s Creed III. He threw that game across the room- hating the horrific changes made to core gameplay and controls. The series was dead to him. He skipped completely on IV, not wanting to waste more money.

This weekend when I asked him if he’d played Assassin’s Creed II: Liberation. That game had originally come out on the PS Vita and just been released on the bigger consoles. Kenny had- quickly buying playing through and finishing it. He enjoyed it and that was a mixed blessing. It reminded him what he liked about the series and at the same time what had been lost. It’s too bad. For a long time Kenny was the Assassin’s Creed guy in our group; like Steve’s our Star Trek & Godzilla guy; Dave’s our Fallout expert; Alan knows Lord of the Rings, and Scott’s does anime and Everquest. We some other shared fandoms—I’d consider Ward and Kenny our two Star Wars and Halo guys. I count my wife Sherri as one of the Morrowind obsessives.

In fact I can rely on every several sessions someone picking up Morrowind again and talking about what they’ve been doing…despite years since it came out. Then the table moves to several minutes discussing new quests or characters they’ve seen, glitches which caught them, or how a chunk of the world seems lifted from Glorantha. It doesn’t mean all that much to me- I didn’t care for any of the games in the series. I tried them, but didn’t enjoy them. I’m the Fandom Stranger there. On the other hand, I’m also at the margins when it comes to some other popular stuff. I like Star Trek and Star Wars, but I don’t love them. I don’t dig into them. But I admire the fascination others have for these settings- and I love the lore they bring to the table when discussing them.

So I’ve been trying to figure out what I’d actually call myself “fannish” for. My tastes have changed over the years- I've dropped some things I used to adore. For example, I once seriously followed DC Comics and knew the lore, but not so much anymore. Below is a short list of things I go fanboy for. The definition's loose. These are things I try to watch, read and/or own everything I can related to them. I’ve scoured online pages for additional info. I've hunted down secondary books and resources. I’m completionist about them and still invested. I forgive these things for their faults, make excuses when they’re weak, and stupidly feel slighted when others don’t like them.

TV SHOWS

Inspector Lewis: I love British Police procedurals, or actually any foreign police procedural. But this series hits on all the notes I enjoy- great character dynamics, good plots, the value of the hard-working copper over the inspired savant. Some of the seasons are weaker than others, but I love them and I’ve rewatched many.

Justice League/Justice League Unlimited: This is my favorite of the Bruce Timm helmed DC Animations. I love the characters, especially their take on Hawkwoman. I’ve always enjoyed superhero team books and JLU just confirms that. The tone’s great- a solid mix of serious and cartoony. The season arcs feel satisfying. You also feel the impact of the late, great Dwayne McDuffie’s work on the show. I’ve watched this series through several times. I also held on to the comic book adaptations- several of which were quite good. I will note that I didn’t buy the toys…

Adventure Time: Not having TV, I have to fall back to watching these on DVD as they come out. I’ve also bought the comic book collections, the Fiona and Cake book, the Scream Queens volume, and AT Encyclopedia. And I follow the sub-Reddit. I don’t quite know why I like it so much. Some people I respect for their opinions think it is stupid…but man it makes me happy every time I watch and rewatch it.

COMIC BOOKS

As I said, I used to be a bigger fan. I like a lot of Grant Morrison and bought many of his oddball series (like The Invisibles, Doom Patrol, Seven Soldiers, and Seaguy). But I never felt like I needed to buy everything he wrote. The same with Alan Moore- though when he was on Swamp Thing I religiously hunted down every issue. I went through phases with The Defenders, The Question, and a few others, but nothing that stuck.

Gotham Central: This is the exception. I bought the floppy back issues, the collected editions, and then the reprinted collected complete editions on nicer paper. I love the stories and the way they consider humanity in a world of super-beings. If I ever run a police game, it will be like this.

AUTHORS

I have some authors I follow pretty heavily- PD James, Steven Brust, Tanith Lee, and Dave Duncan. I like reading their stuff and when I want to buy a new book, I turn to them first. But then I have a set of authors I try to have everything by. Three of them have passed, so it isn’t as hard: Jo Clayton, Philip K. Dick, and Clark Ashton Smith. I’ve read biographies, done research, and bought special eidtions where I find them.

For living authors, I only have two. Howard Waldrop’s alt-history and spec-fic remains awesome. I love it even when it goes off in places outside my wheelhouse. Lindsey Davis’ mysteries and stories set in Ancient Rome engage me- and they’ve gotten better over time.

RPG LINES

I love many games, but like so many gamers only a fraction of what I buy actually gets played. And that’s before the relentless steamroller of the Bundle of Holding. I have two lines I own everything for but have never even done up characters: Castle Falkenstein and Mage: The Sorcerers’ Crusade. I might be able to get the first one to the table, but the second seems doubtful. I have three game lines that I’ve tried to buy everything for and have actually played: Mutants & Masterminds 2e; Legend of the Five Rings (across all editions); and Changeling the Lost. The latter two I’ve never done with the actual system- only with homebrews.

There used to be others- Rolemaster, Champions, and GURPS, but each fell out of favor with me over time and I stopped collecting. Many I didn’t replace when I lost copies

.

MOVIES/DIRECTORS

I don’t think I have any series I’m absolutely consistent with following. I have some I’ve bought or watch a bunch from, but few I can claim any fan-expertise for. Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki would be the closest. I’ve read some books about their work and have bought special editions of their films. The next closest might be Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I’m still not sure what I think of his work, but I feel compelled to watch everything by time.

VIDEO GAMES

On my wife’s list for would Elder Scrolls (mentioned above); Harvest Moon; the Atelier/Mana Khemia series, and Animal Crossing. Those we have to buy when they come out. 

I have three series of games I buy religiously so long as they’re not RTS, Shooter, or App-based. Even then, I’ll take a long hard look at them. I’ve read the background on these series and followed the fiction. Final Fantasy’s an obvious choice- though I came to it by way of Final Fantasy Tactics. I’ve played all the later games and enjoyed them…making me something of an apologist for many of them. I have fun playing even when I know they’re junk. I also buy anything for Shin Megami Tensei, sometimes when I know I won’t be any good at it. For example, I knew Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army would require twitch reflexes, but I still picked it up. I bought a PSP just to play some of the SMT games. Last but not least is the SSX snow-boarding and racing series. I’ve bought all of them, even the crappy Wii one with the worst controls ever. I played the new one and had some fun out of it. Yet even as I ran down the slope I knew it would bomb and we’d probably never see another game for this franchise again. The suffering of the fanboy...perhaps an online petition?

So what’s your fandom? What are you obsessional about? What are you obsessional about that others in your group aren't?

Guest Post: Two Influences on my Gaming Life

A couple of friends in my gaming circle generously offered guest posts for this month, to help me round out the year with some different voices and ideas. Today's post comes from Steve Sigety, who blogs at Kaijuville. Steve and I have played together since- I think- the mid '90's. He's run Call of Cthulhu & AFMBE for me, and I've run CoC, GURPS, M&M, d20 and our homebrew for him.

Two Influences on my Gaming Life

Like most people I'm a product of my influences, and that is particularly true of my gaming hobby, whether it means video games, board gaming or tabletop role-playing games. The experiences I've had with elements of popular culture have affected how I play and run RPGs. These various cultural properties have taught me many lessons, and represent many different attributes. In this post, I'll discuss what a novel and a television series taught me about gaming.

If you delve deeply into Robert E. Howard fandom, eventually you will encounter the arguments about L. Sprague de Camp and his role as editor in charge of Conan and other Howard characters and stories. While I understand the fervor -- and when looking at his role in changing and adapting stories in order to gain ownership, I agree with the reasons -- it has to be acknowledged that de Camp played a vital role in popularizing Howard's work in the mainstream of popular culture. One reason that I will give de Camp a pass on this score that he is partially responsible for one of my favorite books, Conan the Conqueror.

Howard didn't necessarily plan to write a Conan novel. Initially, he has submitted some short stories to a British book publisher. Denis Archer returned the stories because the British market wasn't at that time conducive to a collection of short stories, but if he had a novel... After reading that letter, Howard went to work on a manuscript. Archer went out of business before Howard could send it, and it was later printed serially in the pages of Weird Tales from December of 1935 to April 1936 as "The Hour of the Dragon". Published as a novel by Gnome Press in 1950 under the title Conan the Conqueror, it later became part of the Conan series of paperbacks edited by de Camp, starting with Lancer in 1967 through to Ace in the 1980s.

It wasn't until the Berkley Putnam edition of The Hour of the Dragon, shepherded by fantasy author Karl Edward Wagner in 1976, that Howard's version from Weird Tales saw print as a novel. This or the recent Wandering Star/Del Rey edition are the preferred texts, but I can't help but have a special spot in my heart for the Ace paperback. It became one of my favorite books growing up -- I'm fairly certain that I picked it up from among the shelves of books with similar Frazetta covers at the Waldenbooks on the second floor of the local (now demolished) mall. The paperback is comfortable and fun to read -- each page is jammed from header to footer with text but it never seems crowded. The font appears to be plain Times Roman, although a little more rounded and easy on the eyes. I've put books back on the shelf because of an uncomfortable text font. This paperback just seems like the perfect way to read pulp fiction.

A frequent criticism of Conqueror is that it's too derivative. It used the basic plot and some scenes from "The Scarlet Citadel" and ideas from "The Phoenix on the Sword", two early Conan tales. Certainly if an idea is successful once, Howard might use it again in his work. It also seems fair to think that Conan would have faced multiple challenges to his throne. Another criticism is that it's too episodic. While that may be a valid observation, I think it's one of the novel's strengths. This isn't a book full of meaningless dialogue and scenes where nothing of consequence occurs. Leave that for the multi-volume fantasy epics. This book moves. Things happen, and they're directly related to the plot. Al Harron recently discussed some of the plot elements of The Hour of the Dragon on his blog, specifically the motivations of the characters involved in the betrayal. Those were some points that I didn't really think about before.

Conan the Conqueror taught me several lessons about gaming, one of the first being about the episodic nature of events in a campaign game. I frequently try to plan and pace my games with a TV or movie feel, and thinking of each session as a TV episode can help. The scenes in Conqueror feel like different sessions of an RPG. Each separate scene could be fleshed out as a short story, but here they all tie together into the events of the novel. Another point is that the scenes are distinctive and the atmosphere is visceral. The Ace paperback was without illustrations, but they were unnecessary. From Howard's descriptions I can clearly visualize the back-alleys of Tarantia, the hills of Poitain, and the haunted catacombs of the vampire Akivasha under the pyramids of Stygia. The descriptions vividly brought these places to life for me. Finally, this was one of the first books outside of Dungeons & Dragons where I discovered vocabulary words like hauberk, cuirass, poignard, and burgonet. The only other work of popular culture that did more for my vocabulary was the Fantastic Four.

"Risk is our business! That's what the starship is all about!" -- Captain James T. Kirk

As someone who grew up in the late 70s and early 80s, I'm part of the Star Wars generation. I like Star Wars but I've always considered myself more of a Star Trek fan. As early as I can remember, my family and I would watch the syndicated reruns of the original series on TV.

Maybe it's because of my love of history, and Star Trek portrayed "future history". The crew of the Enterprise were real people, (mostly) from Earth, just like us. There was a chance that humanity would make it out of the 20th century and into a future of space travel, exploration, and contact with new life and new civilizations. Despite the dangers being faced, Star Trek shows us an optimistic vision of our possible future.

What Star Trek taught me, with respect to RPGs, was optimism in the face of danger and the value of cooperation. Those could be life lessons as well. It portrayed a future where competent professionals went about their business, doing what they do best, together as a team where each member had value as a person and skills that were valued. They were judged on their expertise and not who they were or what they looked like. The Medusan ambassador Kollos in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" is from an alien species that is so mind-bendingly different in appearance that humans cannot look at them directly without going insane (a very Lovecraftian idea).

One of the best and most obvious instances of this philosophy occurred in the 3rd season episode "The Savage Curtain". After the alien "Abraham Lincoln" is beamed aboard the Enterprise there is this exchange between Lincoln and Lt. Uhura:

"What a charming Negress. Oh, forgive me, my dear. I know that in my time some used that term as a description of property."

"But why should I object to that term, sir? You see, in our century we've learned not to fear words."

Even though there are moments where it flared up again, at least in most of the Original Series prejudice is a thing of the past.

It is also worth mentioning that Star Trek was among the first dramatic TV series to have B-plots that directly impact the A-plot. S. John Ross referred to this in the Star Trek Original Series RPG Narrator's Guide and Ken Hite has mentioned it when discussing Star Trek in interviews. Will the crew discover the vaccine for the aging virus in time to re-start the engines before they spiral down into the planet's atmosphere? That's a great multiple-plot race-against-time trope of the sort you might see in an RPG scenario.

These are two pop culture influences on my gaming life that immediately came to mind. Others would include H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos, giant monster movies, Star Wars and many more. What are your influences and how do they manifest themselves in your gaming today?

The Lies of Reading People

So a brief digression to consider the impact of perception and perceptual concerns at the gaming table. I might be running a little far afield before I come back to my point. I've been watching Lie to Me on Netflix recently. I like crime procedurals generally-- unfortunately my particular viewing habits mean that I tend to burn out on shows pretty fast-- I mean I'll watch them all, but I won't like them as much as it goes along. I tend to watch things in a bundle-- as I've done with CSI, Numbers, Law and Order(s), and Bones. Good and interesting characters will keep me hooked for a time, but eventually that will wear off. More and more as I watch I'll be conscious of the magic and super-powers inherent in the TV presentation of these things, most of which revolves around either Mentat-level deductive powers and knowledge or technology decades beyond what's presently possible. In the case of Lie to Me, we have a little less of that tech voodoo, but we do have super-powers-- however they don't feel quite as out of left field as the others. Tim Roth does a pretty good job of selling the premise, one which I was initially skeptical of. Essentially he can read people's reactions, scary well.

Which is interesting in rpg terms in that one of the skills/abilities I normally limit is lie detection-- even fallible lie detection as a skill. That's one of those things that has a pretty high chance of eliminating a whole class of stories and tensions. I'd put danger sense, fast regeneration and the ability to track people perfectly as some others that players have to convince me pretty seriously about if I'm going to allow them in the game. Obviously solid and clear lie detection can harm a game. But Lie Detection based on a roll creates an additional set of problems. There are a couple of ways to handle it-- the first being that the player rolls, in which case they know the results. Or there's a resistance roll for the NPC which can be an irritating proposition for the player. Nothing like rolling a success and then having it negated. Especially in a social situation where the player generally makes fewer rolls and hence any negation reduces a larger percentage of their action/play time.

Or you have the classic “GM rolls hidden” version. That's perhaps a little more palatable, but ultimately unsatisfying to the player. It is a blind game for them. Players can't actually act on their ability with any certainty. Mind you, they could play based on whatever the GM tells them, but at that point it becomes more of a narrative device. I don't like either of these choices-- and my approach is instead slightly differently. Generally I like to give players access to social skills which allow me to add information or inflection to their interactions. Usually I've borrowed the skill “Human Perception” from the Cyberpunk rpg. I like the idea of being able to make small reads that can give a player a clue about the situation. I think social interactions can be hard to pull off. I try to give players mechanical fall-backs: the ability to ask for further information, to gain a reinterpretation of the materials, to gain a sense of agendas or even get to replay a scene, depending on their skills. Some players make use of these options, but others avoid them. They seem to react to taking up those options as giving in or admitting defeat. I've found that a little odd in the past, but stubbornness of various kinds can be an especially damning problem at the table-- depending on the flavor of it. Some I can play with and off of while others produce a stalemate or shut-down.

But I'm kind of coming back to the point I started with. Lie to Me, especially if you watch a number of episodes in a row, reveals a basic formula for about half of the episodes. The problem arises, the investigators interview the subject(s) and ask them a question. The subject lie/tells the truth-- and the investigators are assumed to have perfect ability in this (mostly). The determined truth/untruth reveals that the interviewee is to blame/not to blame. Then other evidence arises which contradicts this. Then they suddenly realize that the question they've asked is ambiguous or has other answers. And the cycle begins anew. You find yourself simply sighing when they ask one of these open ended questions-- knowing that's going to be the loophole they will drag the plot through.

Why wouldn't this work in an rpg? Because players tend to ask very closed questions-- or else immediately realize that their question and answer has actually given them nothing. I ascribe some of that to gamers fondness for logical puzzles and years of trying to work out what would be the most ironclad wording for a wish without repercussions.

But there are some things to be gathered from the series-- little details which can be thrown into a game to enhance verisimilitude. And that's honestly what the show is selling-- a kind of story about how behaviors and speech can be read on the human body. They sell it like it is really true-- but in a couple of cases I've seen them use research (like a point about 'gaydar') as if it were solid, certain and with concrete applications which is less than honest. But at the table were selling a version of the truth as well. I make stuff up all the time about history, science and physical phenomena and run the game as if it is true. I'm glad most of my players don't have iPhones and immediate access to Wikipedia.

I want to continue on this track a little further-- tangential, but still connecting, about the question of at what level players and GMs do their hand-waving about elements. We'll be back to that.

10/16/09

Thousand Word Status Update

This morning I dropped Sherri off at work and came back home. I pulled up to the bridge intersection to the aftermath of a major car crash. One car had been thrown up onto the lawn of a house, a pick-up bent across the southbound lanes and another still sat there in the intersection. Glass, debris, pieces of car everywhere. It had to have happened minutes before I pulled up and maybe minutes after Sherri and I had been in that same intersection- it doesn't take me long to drop her off and get back to the house. Really kind of freaky.

I flashed back to the other car crash (besides my own) stuck in my mind. Years ago I was in Chicago with Art and Matt having just seen a movie (Ran or Last Temptation of Christ, I don't remember which). We came down a hill and saw a car in an intersection completely flipped over. It was still slowly spinning. I think that's what I remember...I mean how much of that have I embellished in my memory now? Some things I have crystal clarity about-- mostly stupid things I did and said years ago that come back to me suddenly and make me groan. I know that those have veracity, an exactness of detail I can't avoid. But things like these seen-at-a-distance stories. I mean I tell a lot of stories and run a lot of games, so how much do I reweave those in my own head.

To quote from an email I sent my players- I've been down with some unexplained pain since last Thursday-- forcing me to two games last weekend, miss Kenny's session, skip a special board game event, and pass on my niece's birthday party. Not that I'm bitter. Anyway, I saw the doctor this week and the first round of tests didn't show anything. He's got me on Prilosec and we'll see if things calm down, if not, there's a bonus round next week of more invasive procedures (yit-yeh...?). So yes-- old guy walking.

Things I've watched or read recently that struck me: I still like Castle on ABC but it becomes clearer each episode that I only watch it for Nathan Fillion. I gave up on Dollhouse after seeing the unaired episode on DVD- an episode which pretty much presented closure to the entire arc. I don't need to see any more. Will tells me Season Two has started out pretty weak. Been following Community on NBC and while I like it, I don't think the show yet knows what it wants to be. Anime-wise I finally watched all of Ergo Proxy. Anime falls into one of two categories for me: OK or WTF? This fell lightly into the latter group. That must be what it is like for my players when I spin an overly complicated story and they just go along for the ride. Read the third volume of Absolute Sandman (before handing it off to my niece for her birthday). There's some amusing undercutting of his own ethos that Gaiman pulls off there--making fun of the poseur nature of things. It is done lightly, not like the kick in the teeth FU of Neon Genesis Evangelion where the writer seems to be taking revenge on the viewers. Read and saw some other things, but nothing that sticks with me right this second.

Trying to hunt down a copy of Castle Falkenstein the rpg. We had a couple of copies before the fire. That's another one of those games I had on my list to run years ago and never go around to doing so. It is interesting that it came at the start of what would eventually be a real fascination with Steampunk. But I don't want to go one too far as I'm writing someone up to accompany that article I did on Cyberpunk rpgs and literary genres.

I love police procedural mysteries, but more and more I can't stand watching them. Netflix has a bunch of them available for on demand viewing (Numbers, Wire in the Blood, CSI, and so on) but there's something off-putting to me about most of them. The British ones appear to have more sophistication and depth, but I think that's kind of an illusion. Mind you I may be a little jaded since I just got done finally catching up on The Wire.

Four campaigns going on-- I had to bump two of them last week. Planning on running the other two this weekend. Libri Vidicos continues on well. I tried a narrative trick with memory loss and flashbacks that has worked pretty well and broke up the usual structure of the game. We had a nice puzzle session last time. I always happy when players are stumped for a little bit and then work out a solution, especially one which taxes their resources. The last Wushu game went pretty well. I still have to do some tweaks on the combat system, possibly turn sequencing, and definitely need to give the warrior archetype some additional options. I also have to write up the last several session reports for the game. Changeling continues to go pretty well, although that was one that got bumped. The Third Continent game works in great part based on really good play and character banter as much as anything, and I'm enjoying that. L5R continues to pull at me and I think I want to sit down to figure out how one would adapt that to HeroQuest 2e- if nothing else I really want to try that system out.

Played a few new boardgames, but nothing that really grabbed me. I'm got a couple of larger “monster” games that I really want to get a chance to play but they'll take some hours on everyone's part. There's a new local BG group so I'm hoping to go to their next meeting. That's in Goshen, so it means a half-hour drive.

End.

The Joy of Wuxia TV Series

How do we define fantasy-- films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Hero and House of Flying Daggers all have fantastic elements but are they fantasy? Certainly movies such as The Bride with White Hair, Storm Riders and Chinese Ghost Story add more of what we'd call classic fantasy to the mix. These films come out of a rich mythological tradition, but also out of a Chinese fantasy literature-- the specific genre of Wuxia novels. In the 1960's and 1970's China had a resurgence of interest in those novels and several notable authors made their mark.
As I was hunting through for more films of what we can call “Chinese Swords and Sorcery” I found many of those novels have been made into long-running wuxia television series. You can find a number in the States through online stores or via Netflix. I started watching them and became an immediate fan, despite some of the cheesiness. If you like fantasy and martial arts you should try out at least one of these shows. They're fun and a great insight into how traditional fantasy gets read in a non-Western culture.
THINGS TO BE PREPARED FOR
*The video quality will likely be the first thing you notice when you start watching one of these series. All of them seemed to be done with rather basic digital video-- think the reenactment episodes on various history programs. I'm no expert on DV but there seem to be two levels of focus to what you see-- either straight digital video which has an odd crispness or what I'll call processed DV usually for scenes which have effects or elements added. It can be disconcerting at first, especially for those used to prime time TV image standards. However you can grow used to it over time. I've gotten to the point where I don't notice except when the shot switches back and forth between the two qualities and jars me out of my reverie.
*Confusion, then irritation, then more confusion and finally a state of blissful lack of self-consciousness. The subtitled translations range from adequate to arcane. They're not exactly a Babelfish straight transfer but come close. Given the amount of translating necessary for series of this size, you can imagine mistakes will slip through. However some problems show up consistently-- notably tenses and the use of particular terms. What family members call one another changes from moment to moment-- like a wife calling her husband her brother. You'll also find that the term for “Kung-fu” as a society will change from series to series. Still, the subtitles do get the job done. It doesn't sink to the level of some films I've seen. I remember watching the published version of Dragon Chronicles: Semi-Gods and Semi-Devils and being absolutely unable to follow the plot or characters at all.
*Misunderstandings and non-communication serve as the main engines for many of the plots. You'll finding yourself screaming, “Why don't you say something?!” more than one. Honorable silence in the face of accusations will keep digging the characters into deeper holes.
*The quality of the effects varies between decent and really bad in nearly all of these series. You have to suspend disbelief about the wire-work in many places, but eventually it grows on you. There's a brilliant scene in Condor Hero with two characters fighting across falling umbrellas. While the effects used there feel more than a little static and weak, it comes off amazingly cool and imaginative. Most series use CGI liberally-- in most cases to show attack effects and magical forces flying. Those generally work, but some also present CG monsters and characters that make Hercules and Xena look like a Spielberg film.
*These series range in length from 30-40 episodes, with each episode coming in at 40+ minutes. That means following through becomes a considerable investment of time.
THINGS TO BE EXCITED FOR
*These series range in length from 30-40 episodes. If you hate seeing your favorite series wrap up in 20-some episodes, or even less nowadays, you can really sink you're teeth into these. It's worth checking out the first DVDs from a couple of series to see which one actually clicks.
*These series provide a great introduction to a surprisingly extensive foreign literature of the fantastic. Most are based on Wuxia novels written in the 20th Century-- the 1960's and on. The authors Louis Cha, Gu Long and Liang Yusheng helped the redevelop that genre during this period. They brought more modern ideas about the novel together with what might be best described as a pulp mentality. They are literary touchstones for action, adventures and fantasy like Lord of the Rings, Dune or even James Bond. Many of the novels have been remade several times (ala Dune). Imagine if popular epic fantasy novels like Wheel of Time or A Game of Thrones got this kind of treatment-- forty episodes to tell the story. I'd been aware of the more classic Chinese novels of fantasy and action-- Journey to the West, The Water Magic and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I hadn't known about these more modern ones until I watched these series. A number have been published in the States and fan-translations of some unpublished works can be found online.
*If you like visual spectacle, then you'll likely enjoy these shows. Each one has amazing costumes-- colorful silks, striking peasant warrior sashes, and period armor. Many series have at least one if not more major military clash with hundreds decked out. The Court scenes are especially impressive to watch. The sets are usually magnificent, and you'll soon be watching for the classic layout of buildings and how the fights will go down in them. These series equally well showcase the amazing landscapes and natural beauty of the region. Its easy to become a little jaded-- “oh look, another amazing waterfall for them to train by...”.
*The fights bring people in, of course, and the series don't disappoint. You'll have a decent showpiece just about every other episode and they are often skillfully executed and a pleasure to watch. The over-the-top battles often combine magical powers and maneuvers with classic swordplay.
LAUGHING IN THE WIND
Probably my favorite of the series I've watched. Based on Louis Cha's 1967 novel The Smiling Proud Wanderer it has apparently been adapted several times into various TV series, movies, comics and even a stage production. Jet Li starred as the main character in the Swordsman I & II. You can also find the Master Swordsman as a domestic DVD-- a fairly bad attempt to cut down another TV series into movie length.
The main character Linghu Chong finds his sect caught up in a complicated battle between the various sects of the wushu world. He finds himself questioning the old practices and alliances-- especially the divisions of the Evil and Good sects, having seen opposite behaviors on both sides. Where many characters in these series have problems arising from pride or naiveté, Linghu's notable for his devotion to drink, often shown as a serious and disabling condition. The story's filled with excellent swordplay, fantastic martial arts forms, and strange magic practices. The complicated and epic story wins for the great characters presented-- complicated romantic circles, drives for revenge and great betrayals.
It does have a couple of drawbacks, however. Some of the episodes seem to have been heavily edited to get them in under the allotted running time. That creates confusion in the early plot of the first dozen episodes. Action jumps from place to place without little explanation for the passage of time. A characters introduced may not be given a decent explanation for an episode or two. Despite these flaws the series is worth putting the time into.
CONDOR HERO
Another one based on a Louis Cha novel, this series has amazing production values. The novel it draws from, The Return of the Condor Heroes, is actually the second in a trilogy. Protagonist Yang Guo turns out to be the son of the bad guy from the first novel, raised for a time by the hero of that novel. Yang Guo eventually studies with a Taoist sect, but escapes from the cruel punishments of his masters. He's taken in by a female supernatural martial artist who eventually trains them in her arts. She raises him until he becomes a young man-- at which point circumstances, confusions, mistaken identities and an intolerant world act to separate them. The story follows their quest to be reunited.
If you want amazing spectacle and over the top wire-fu combats, then this is the series for you. It looks like a much higher budget production than any of the others I've watched. The Taoist formation sword-fighting, the ribbon and sleeve-based styles, and the acrobatic combats make it one of the best shows I've seen. Its worth watching just to see the way the show handles color choices in different places.
However, and this is a big however, the main character Yang Guo doesn't really appear as an adult until something like the fourth or fifth episode. When we first meet him, he's about ten years ago. And obnoxious. I mean, really, really obnoxious-- in that way where your sympathy lies much more strongly with the Taoist masters who want to beat some sense into him. Then there's the other problem-- he's raised by Xiaolongnü a mysterious female martial artist. When he does grow up and they fall in love, there's a kind a creepy vibe to it that everyone seems to ignore. Instead they focus on their violation of the Master-Student relationship. If you can get past that, and make it through the episodes with young Yang Guo, then you get to see a visually stunning show.
THE HANDSOME SIBLINGS
Another great adaptation, this time of a novel by Gu Long. Twin brothers end up separated at birth-- one--Xiao Yu’er-- raised by the Ten Villains and the other--Hua Wuque-- raised as an killer for the mistresses of Yi Hua Palace who had caused their parents death. Both manage to grow up heroic despite this and when they finally meet they join forces. The plot of the series concerns their efforts to break free of their past, save their various loves, and uncover the secret of their birth.
This series has a good deal more slapstick than most of the others. From the first couple of scenes with Xiao Yu'er you might get the impression that the show will end up being more Kung Fu Hustle than Crouching Tiger. However, Dicky Cheung who plays Xiao absolutely sells it. He's a pleasure to watch on screen. He became famous for his portrayal of Monkey in a TV adaptation of Journey to the West and having seen him here, I imagine it must have been great. Hong Kong star Nicholas Tse plays Hua Wuque as the perfect straight man-- his handsome honor against the plots and plans of Xiao. The series hits its stride every time the two of them share a scene.
The series has less of the overtly fantastic elements-- except for some supernatural medicine and medical items, wire-fu fighting styles, and the bizarre set up of the Ten Villains Village (actually intended to trap and keep the villains in). While it does descend into heavy physical comedy at times, it has a healthy dose of tragedy to match that. If you're looking for a lighter place to start that does eventually bring the drama, this might be the show to begin with.
SEVEN SWORDSMEN
Seven Swordsmen adapts another classical martial arts novel, The Seven Swords of Mount Heaven by Liang Yusheng. Tsui Hark produced the series-- but he also directed a separate film based on the same material called Seven Swords. Of course the TV series is about 40 episodes at about 40+ minutes each long while the movie's a little over two hours long. The two have striking differences and similarities in the production and design making it worth it to watch both. Both share the same story of an executioner from the previous dynasty who tries to redeem himself by fighting against the excesses of the current emperor who has made study of the martial arts punishable by death. He gathers seven skilled swordsmen each bearing a magic weapon to aid the people of one village. As you can imagine, the story owes more than a little debt to The Seven Samurai.
While interesting and filled with some memorable bits, the TV series comes off as a slightly low-budget operation than some of the other series here. Shots end up being extensively reused within the span of a couple of minutes, characters change facial hair between shots, and the camerawork can vary wildly in quality from moment to moment. Then there's the issue of the music-- I've become used to hearing the series borrow from other places, including Hans Zimmer's score to Batman Begins. However when the main character first appears on screen we get the Waaa-waa-waa musical cue for the Man with No Name from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. This repeats several times, pretty much leaving me with the giggles.
Overall it lacks of the eloquence of the other series, but still manages a few great details. Each of the seven warriors possesses an interesting and unique magic sword with different properties and effects. Their path to learning and harnessing those powers sets up some great moments. However a number of the swords have distinct CGI effects (a warping when blows land, a trail of water) that can get in the way of seeing the action on screen. That's a general problem for the series where interesting visual ideas and CGI effects work to make it harder to follow the action. The series also has a non-chronological approach in the first few episodes which can make things hard to follow at the start-- but does make a nice change of pace. Set in a later historical period than most of the other series, it is also worth watching to see the use of rifles and the shift in costuming for imperial clothing and armor (which quite frankly looks really impractical while at the same time saying: Yup, We're in Black, We're Evil).
Quick Takes:
THE LEGEND AND THE HERO
Based on a classic Chinese novel, Fengshen Yanyi or The Creation of the Gods this has the most high fantasy of the series I've seen. Demon servants, angry gods, magic weapons, sorcerers who cause floods and so on. Has a great mythic quality to it while providing interesting and sympathetic characters. Has lots of CGI creatures and monsters-- dire wolves, serpents, giant panthers, dragons and nine-tailed foxes. Think Clash of the Titans in ancient China
THE PATRIOTIC KNIGHTS
Swordsmen with mystic powers, a legendary book detailing the ways of a poisonous martial arts, and a secret cult run by a white-haired witch. Interesting in that so much of the action focuses away from who we assume ought to be the hero. However the other characters have better stories so it works.
FOX VOLANT OF SNOWY MOUNTAIN
Well done with some exciting sword battles between masters at the beginning. Young man searches for the man who killed his father, only to fall in love with his enemy's daughter. Has a grand conspiracy plot. Most of the fantastic elements reserved to the fighting styles. Does has some green-screen moments that have all the quality of a Sid and Marty Kroft production.
THE SPIRIT AND THE SWORD
A Chinese swordsman raised in Japan returns to his homeland to find a set legendary swords and fight every weapon master in China. Seriously. He wants to fight them all. Good character actors and some great showpiece fights. The secondary plots deal with a wushu conspiracy and an evil grandmother. More elegant cinematography than many other series.
ROMANCE OF RED DUST
Based on a classic Chinese fable rather than a novel, this series has a female protagonist in the central role. Trained as an assassin, Hong Fu turns away from the evil of her masters and must battle her way to freedom. Some dynamite fight sequences with ribbons, cloth and musical instruments.

3/24/09

Just a quick post today as I'm trying to work through a backlog of game emails...

I like the idea of podcasts more than the actual listening to of podcasts. I know Gene and Art both follow a number of them. I have a hard time because I can't listen to them and do anything else-- even clean. There's something about voices talking without the pictures that makes me have to pay more attention. Sometimes I even turn off NPR when I'm driving if the conversation gets too dense. OOH I can play a TV show or movie and work at the same time. So I only a have a couple of podcasts that I've followed with any regularity (probably good for my productivity).

One of those I've mentioned to a couple of people before, the Penny Arcade podcast. They do it infrequently and usually mention it later on the news pages of a particular comic. I think they also have them listed somewhere in their forums. They provide an amazing behind-the-scene look at the creative process-- especially the trickiness of a collaborative approach. They also spin off and BS about various things. Really worth listening to.

There are a couple of interesting online sites for geekdom worthing checking out if you want to loose a few hours (or more). Fantasy Magazine has a significant and interesting online presence. They cover fiction and non-fiction. The other, which I bet most of you know, is The Escapist Magazine which in addition to having articles, has some really funny video segments-- my favorites of those:

Zero Punctuation: you've probably seen him mentioned around the “Interwebs” since he has a significant following. Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw takes his acerbic Australian wit and applies it to various video games. He's bitter and makes me laugh. Off-color humor combined with a stark and consistent design.

Unskippable: Two guys take the sometimes interminable cut-scenes from various video games and give them the MST3K treatment. It's a brilliant concept and they handle it pretty well-- one of the two has a weaker voice, but generally I laugh at them. Especially good if you've actually played the game in question.

Unforgotten Realms: Worth watching from the beginning. The narrative of a DnD-like game being played by two people in which both play characters and one actually runs the game. It has some great meta-commentary on shared narratives when both players end up narrating the events. Really funny at times. The level of humor can best be summed up by the fact that one of the character's is named Sir Schmoopy of Awesometon (he's a dual nunchuck wielding sorceror).

There Will Be Brawl: Probably only for Nintendo-lovers-- a strangely dark and twisted noir take on Super Smash Brothers. Live action done with minimal sets and some really creative design. Very, very dark however-- Kirby's a Hannibal Lecter character in it.

You can find all these on their video page.

Television
Finally sat down and watched most of Dollhouse. Episode Six, as promised does finally move the narrative forward and present real implications about what is going on. I'm still on the fence about this, but if the next couple of episodes can follow through on what they set up here I'd be interested.

Watched the first episode of Castle (ABC) online. Pretty much the only reason I'd watch this would be the presence of Nathan Fillion. It grates on me- they've got him too smarmy early on. I'll be interested to see if they dial that down a notch in the second episode or on. I'll certainly seen them do that before-- fairly radical shifts between the pilot and the rest of the series. It's a conventional crime series, but needs to bring more funny.

ABC also has Better Off Ted which is a comedy about a person working in a giant research company with all the ethics of Umbrella Corporation. They had me in the opening when the lead character's asked to weaponize a pumpkin. I like the characters and the actors-- we'll see if it actually survives.

Finally I've been catching up a little with The Venture Brothers Season Three online. I've seen probably half the episodes and I'm a little disappointed-- they decided to push the drama button and seem to have gotten too absorbed in their own backstory. I always thought they handled that better when it was tangential to the funny stuff. I'll be curious to see how it holds up when seen in sequence.

1/20/09

I mentioned Patrick McGoohan's death last week. I have a fondness for him as an actor out of proportion with the actual number of things I've seen him in (for example I've never watched Ice Station Zebra for more than a few minutes). But as I said before, The Prisoner left a pretty deep impact on my psyche. I recognized many of themes later when I encountered them in Moorcock, PK Dick, Burroughs, and even Eco. When my sister was first married I ran a Call of Cthulhu one-shot for her as a kind of anti-Wedding Shower. The upshot was that at the end of the session it was revealed that one of the players was in fact the new Number 2 and that the players were in the Village. Their captors had been trying to assess how much they actually knew about the Mythos. It was a good session with a couple of surrealist touches that one or two of the players picked up on and a brilliant reveal by No. 2 at the end.

My oddest Prisoner connection is that I once had a really nice poster of McGoohan in the Village. Strangely enough it was one of the few things an ex-girlfriend lifted from me when we broke up. I don't know if she liked the poster or just knew it meant something to me. Very strange. I also managed to lose my copy of Gurps Prisoner in my house fire-- one of the few Gurps books I really regret being destroyed. Not that it was a useful resources but it really represented a strange open period in game design (again another story I need to do about the various oddball proerties put out by rpg companies in the '80's and '90's).

Anyway, AMC's been streaming all the old episodes online. They're preparing for their own remake mini-series. I'm dubious about that, even with Ian McKellen and
Jim Caviezel. The rest of the cast is too pretty (the original show avoided any real sexiness). Caviezel, despite my liking him as an actor, doesn't seem to have the right gravitas. I'm also worried it will be a too literal re-envisioning of the series. I always liked the surrealism of the original. But my main point about the show on AMC is that rewatching those made me realize that some of the episodes just aren't very good. They either dramatically shift tone, break some of the rules in a goofy way, or just feel like filler. Part of that was the original production schedule and part was ITV trying to get enough episodes to market for an American audience. So, I think if one wanted to watch and get a good feel for the tone, one could/should do it in twelve episodes. Here's the twelve I would pick:

1. Arrival
2. The Chimes of Big Ben
3. Free for All
4. Checkmate
5. Dance of the Dead
6. A, B, & C
7. The Schizoid Man
8. Hammer into Anvil
9. Many Happy Returns
10. The General
11. Once Upon a Time
12. Fall Out

Of those Dance of the Dead is probably my favorite for setting the tone of control against The Prisoner's own cleverness. Episodes 6, 7 and 10 are less successful episodes in mind opinion, but they're still good. I've cut out It's Your Funeral, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, Living in Harmony, The Girl Who Was Death, and A Change of Mind.

1/14/09

Well, Patrick McGoohan passed away. He was one of my favorite actors-- I remember watching him on Colombo, The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh and, of course, The Prisoner. That last was one of those shows that really stuck with me when I was young. I was thinking about that today-- those things I saw on television that deeply affected my thinking in terms of theme and imagery. A short list then--

1. The Prisoner
2. Stairway to Heaven (since I only ever saw it on TV-- apparently the rights to this are tied up somewhere so it'll be a long time before it gets re-released).
3. James Burke's Connections
4. I, Claudius
5. The old, old Spider-Man cartoons. These were notable for having a very different design aesthetic from episode to episode, probably the first time I noticed those kinds of things.
6. The Tom Baker Dr. Who years
7. The Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes serials.
8. Saturday afternoon monster/horror flix on Son of Svengoolie
9. The St. Trinian's movies. I won't go into why.
10. The Rockford Files. Which I liked, but liked more because I knew my dad liked them. Best, for my money, of those crime dramas from that era (like Quincey or Ironsides).
11. Classic Star Trek
12. The Alastair Sims version of A Christmas Story. Again one of those things I only saw on TV, and loved in part because my dad liked it so much.

Probably more, but when I think about it, those are the ones that come to mind.