So, today I'm going to be tackling the Men in Black, the New World Order and the bastardly scientists trying to rule the world, in Mage: The Ascension. I feel really close to the Technocracy, as they are my personal faction in the Ascension War, and one of the deepest, in-depth baddies I've ever seen. One of the coolest things about them is that they actually do make a few really good points, that when looked at objectively, are totally true. This doesn't make them completely sympathetic of course, but it adds a depth to the game that you would have a hard time finding in the 'let's kick ass for Gaia' mentality of Werewolf or the 'EVERYONE'S a bastard' morality of Vampire. This advice also applies to any antagonist really, that has a good degree of power, and a vested interest in hiding their activity, such as a particularly powerful Heretic sect or the Inquisition in Dark Heresy, The Seers of the Throne in Mage: The Awakening, or ANY vampire used as a baddy in any World of Darkness game. So, without further ado, let's dig into everyone's favorite mad scientists, The Technocracy.
First off, to really get the Technocracy, you need to understand where they're coming from. Not long ago, in the Dark Ages, the Order of Hermes occupied very much the same position that the Technocracy does now, which, ironically, was exactly the reason they were formed. The Technocrats basically are formed around the idea that normal humans deserve the right to make their own destiny, without supernatural influence. Furthermore, there is no supernatural influence, because everything is perfectly explainable if you study it hard enough. Despite these noble aspirations, the Technocracy sort of dropped the ball when they managed to take over, and transformed into a nasty, all pervasive method of control over the sleepers, rather than one of liberation. This is where the problem starts. While the Technocracy do make good points, you'd be fooling yourself to think of them as being any better than the Traditions, who basically have all banded together because they're losing. Every mage bar the Nephandi are striving towards Ascension, being it personal or universal, but it's always with the implicit subtext that 'once I ascend, the entire world will ascend into my paradigm because I'm RIGHT goddammit!' The Technocracy is simply taking this to its logical extreme.
Now, the second key to the Technocracy is an all pervasive feeling of paranoia, which really, works for any conspiracy based villain. The Technocracy should have eyes everywhere. They've spent years blending into sleeper society and programming the muggles to ignore them. The Technocracy are paranoid about 'reality deviants' in exactly the same way that mages are paranoid about the Technocracy. Surveillance cameras, security guards, even paradox works to the Technocracy's advantage, because at the moment, they're the winning team of the Ascension war. What's scary about them, is that while their aims are in theory, good, they're willing to torture and kill you specifically because you don't fit into their paradigm. The Technocracy represent the cold, scary face of fundamentalism, which won't give you a dramatic monologue about the good of the human race and the God Emperor before blasting you with a flamethrower. There's nothing passionate about the Technocracy. You'll be killed by a sniper from a building a mile away while a bureaucrat puts your file away, with all the boredom of a clerical worker filling out a status report. There needs to be a real 'Illuminati' feeling about the Technocracy. You're never sure who's a member, and who could be betraying you. You never know whether something is just random circumstance or a Technocracy plot. Unlike the squabbling Traditions, the entire Technocratic Union works together with precision, like a well-oiled machine, coldly calculating how best to kill its enemies. The more you think you know about, or can anticipate the Technocracy, the more you're simply playing into their hands.
The Technocrats also have one weapon that the Traditions don't. Coincidental magic is inherently easier for them to apply, because their style of magic (read: science) is a lot more accepted by the general public then the Traditions are. That isn't to say that a Technocratic member of the NWO is going to be any less effected firing a laser pistol then a Hermetic would be throwing a massive fireball, but there's a lot more to disguise it. Sleepers are a lot more willing to buy wildly applied para-science than flat out magic, and that gives the Technocracy an edge, that really should add to the paranoia. Technocratic tools are way easier to disguise than Traditional ones are, which allows them a lot of subtle mind control over the sleeping population. Mind Sphere spells, to both the Technocrats and the sleepers, are just subliminal messages. Entropic Spheres are really very calculated chaos mathematics and training. While this gives the Technocrats an edge, it's also a pretty big weakness. The Technocracy, deep down, find the Traditions unpredictable. To them, very practical Traditionalist rituals are complete wastes of time, and totally alien. A Technocrat, for example, would have no problem following his Chorister target into a church, and will be completely surprised when the Chorister incinerates him with the wrath of God. To the Technocrat, there is no danger because they are intrinsically incapable of accepting the idea of a consensual reality. Even their superiors will make up some technobabble about spontaneous human combustion, because even they can't accept it. Technocrats may be powerful, and better at disguising their magic, but on the flipside, they can't fight the Traditions on it's own terms. All they can do is use their power to stomp them out wherever they appear, and using that, the Traditions can and do outfox them.
The last question one needs to ask, and one of the reasons the Technocrats have such a fanbase is....are they right? The Technocratic view of the world really doesn't seem like a bad one, as they want to unite the world under the power of science and rationality. Screw all that hippy shit, The Technocracy will usher in a new era of world peace, freedom from disease, and nifty Deus Ex style cybernetics, and the best part? No more pesky vampires, mages and werewolves abusing and eating people left, right and center.
Now, while they do have a couple of good points (No one can really argue that world peace, freedom from disease, and grinding every vampire and werewolf into flaky white powder that cures cancer would really be that bad), the problem is the methods the Technocracy uses to accomplish its goals. The Technocracy may have been a good idea once, but centuries of strife and mercilessly trying to maintain its hold on the human psyche has turned it into a brutal dictatorship, no better than the Order of Hermes. The Traditions were bastards and sorcerous overlords in the past, yes, but they've acknowledged that and accepted it. They try to make the world as much of a better place as they can for everyone, and are open minded enough to accept other points of view, even letting two formerly Technocratic Conventions (Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts) join them. The Technocracy is so obsessed with holding onto its worldview that it not only rejects other points of view, but enforces them by killing anyone who disagrees. The Technocracy are too obsessed with control to have done any growing as a faction, and because of this, their superiors are still operating under the dark age mentality of claiming territory and holding it (in this case, the human mind). If the Technocracy weren't willing to just kill everyone who disagrees with them, and shock of shocks, try to accept the powers of Magi into their paradigm (call it psychic powers or something), humanity would certainly benefit. The true irony is that, by withholding magic from the sleepers, the Technocracy are actually going against their stated goal of empowering humanity. Because the majority of sleepers are so indoctrinated into the Technocratic paradigm, Technocratic magic (sorry, applied science) has less of an effect on people, and stops them awakening, effectively denying humanity the tools to make them better. The Technocrats are certainly not the worst faction in the World of Darkness, but far too many people paint them as unsung heroes. In truth, they're as morally grey as the Traditions themselves. The vast majority of the Technocracy are not foaming psychopaths, but people who genuinely believe that the earth is better off without magic. The only problem is in their application. Ironically, the Technocracy really just needs to grow up.
Good examples in media for a sweet Technocracy inspired game, as enemies or player characters.
The SCP Foundation: A really, really, really good web series, about a secret government organization that finds and contains nasty supernatural things. Each page is basically a report on what weird anomalous object they've found, what they're doing to hold it, and what it could potentially do if released. The Foundation itself isn't squeaky clean though. They're willing to do some pretty messed up things to keep the human race safe, but it's all part of the job. These guys are basically already a branch of the Technocracy, and can make for some really cool inspiration for Technocratic PC campaigns.
Men in Black: These guys are really cool examples, once more of Technocratic PCs. The MIB is really obviously a branch of the New World Order, dealing with visiting creatures from the Umbra. The comics are even better, dealing with things wayyyyyyy more fucked up then the movies did, and showed that the MIB aren't all goody-two shoes either.
The Invisibles: The Technocracy are supposed to be baddies, right? So let's look at a series that treats them like baddies. The Outer Church is basically every negative aspect of the Technocracy ramped up to eleven. They're everywhere, a big, nasty government conspiracy that has no problem with brainwashing, involuntary experimentation and communing with powers from the Outer Void. Also a great idea if you want to deal with Technocratic Nephandi. This entire comic is basically exactly how the Traditions see the Union.
1984: Kind of an obvious, overused one already, but if you want to see a world where the Technocracy wins the ascension war, look no further than this. While they may have had good intentions once, The Ministry of Love is exactly what the Technocracy is going to become when their paranoia about the reality deviants overcomes their desire to help people.
Saturday, 17 August 2013
Friday, 16 August 2013
World War Z: Book and movie review (warning, LONG!)
"Zombies don't represent anything in my mind except a global change
of some kind. And the stories are about how people respond or fail to
respond to this. That's really all they've represented to me."
— George Romero
This is the sentiment firmly embraced by Max Brooks when he wrote the fantastic novel, World War Z, and the one that flew right over the heads of the creators of Brad Pitt's newest cinematic abortion of the same name. Now, I've just finished reading the book, and only now do I feel the need to waste some virtual ink ranting about it. To make this review complete, I'm going to talk about both the book and the movie, and tell you exactly what I liked about both and what I didn't like about both.
Zombies
So, first of all, we need to talk about the zombie story, because really, there is only one zombie story. The dead rise en masse, society is overwhelmed and the film or book follows a small and shrinking cast of survivors as they're slowly repurposed into zombie chow. The zombie story is something that has become so ingrained in our culture that it can basically be classified as it's own genre. Night of the Living Dead may have been an excellent film in its own time, but by this point, it's been ripped off so often that almost the entirety of the zombie genre can basically be summed up as 'Like Night of the Living Dead.....except for...' Because of this, my favorite zombie movies are those that try to subvert the zombie genre, and most importantly, those works of fiction that focus on the reaction of the human survivors, because that's what's important here. The zombies, ironically, are almost superfluous to the zombie genre, and could be replaced by any unthinking, antagonistic force, like space aliens, or a natural disaster, or inexplicably carnivorous lawnmowers. They're just a generic bad guy, a whole race of plot devices, really, that serve to get the story moving. There's a reason nobody ever shot a movie that was nothing more than two hours of zombies tearing people apart, moaning, shuffling listlessly and getting shot. The reason for that (other than that it would never make it past the ratings) is that, except for the few wargame-addicted psychopaths in the back row, wanking, it would be BORING for most people.
Book
Right, now for my rant on why World War Z works as a book. Max very cleverly sets things in the post-war universe, and styles himself as a reporter, doing interviews of people who survived the zombie war. This works, because each story is a very personalized account of how normal people handled the stress of a zombie apocalypse. The real tension in the book isn't from the onrushing tide of the undead, which really, is nothing more than some vague, impending doom that hangs over people's heads, but the people's reactions to it. From armchair military types who mess up battle strategies in the stupidest ways possible, smug dickheads who try to profit from the catastrophe by selling placebos to a desperate populace, or just ordinary people fleeing the disasters, and end up as unwitting invitees to a donner-party re-enactment event, the real horror is the fact that this is all rather plausible. You could see people, in the fits of hysterics abandoning their houses to trek up the frozen mountains of Canada, insulated only by civilian clothing and laptops. You could absolutely see America launching a war of propaganda, and cocking it up. One of the things I lived about this book was that the entire world is kind of equally fucked during the war. Don't expect this book to come up with the stereotypical 'MURRICA SAVES THE DAY' plot, because the American military is just as totally incompetent as the military of every other country. World War Z takes place in much the same way as a real catastrophe would take place, over the course of several years, and instead of just handwaving the end of civilization like most zombie fiction does, it shows exactly how the breakdown takes place. Genre savvy readers can point out all the mistakes pretty easily, but they aren't facing a life-or-death situation, like the characters are. People in the books make pretty stupid decisions, shockingly, just like REAL PEOPLE in panicky situations.
One thing I have to say is really cool, focusing on the zombies for a second, is the fact that Brooks actually managed to make slow-moving zombies scary. Now, I'm not one of those zombie purists, who think that 28 Days Later is an insult to the genre because their made up zombies can run when Romero's couldn't. You know what's a lot scarier than something that can kill you if it catches up to you? Something that kills you if it catches you and moves really, really fast. Brooks' zombies don't do that, and amazingly, still manage to maintain the tension. Sure you can outrun one of the WWZ undead by walking at a brisk pace, but one thing everyone seems to forget is that there are a LOT of them. The zombies in this book come in the thousands, forming a literal, living, hungry tidal wave, all of them crawling over each other in massive chain swarms. It's easy to think that you'll get away, but everyone else is trying to do the same thing. The zombies are relentless, and pretty hard to kill, and eventually, you're going to be that unlucky guy caught at the back of the traffic jam.
Overall, the book isn't perfect. There are some slight things that made me think 'hang on, that wouldn't work.' For example, the US military's Shock and Awe weapons used in the Battle of Yonkers not phasing the zombies at all. Now, whether or not the zombies are vulnerable to headshots, I'm pretty sure being vaporized by artillery and concentrated tank fire would reduce the undead to squishy Solanum shakes. There was also another part where the eeeeeeevil Ukranian military decides that the best way to separate the infected refugees crossing a bridge from non-infected is to give them a delicious mustard-gas bombing to the face, never mind that fire-bombing the bridge would have had the same effect, and wouldn't have left dozens of zombies to be fought. Still, none of these things really ruined my enjoyment of the book, and the few mistakes can be put down to unreliable narrators and simple human error in desperate situations. Brooks' zombies can be a little unrealistically resilient, and magically immune to deep sea pressure, but most of this can be put down to the particular flavor of bullshitium at work here (Solanum) which is at least consistent. I definitely recommend this book if you're a fan of the zombie apocalypse genre.
Film
Ok, now, take everything I just said about the book, and just chuck it out a window. This film was almost aggressively bad, somewhere between the cinematic equivalent of getting punched repeatedly in the face and trying to eat deep-fried condoms. I had to read the book to appreciate just how fucking terrible this movie was, because, when I first saw it, my brain was still off, and I thought it could have been an alright zombie movie with a really shitty ending (and I'll get to that later). In hindsight, however, after my brain has adjusted, and Brad Pitt's charismatic beard have worn off, this film becomes such a poorly managed excuse that it really made me wonder if it was developed in a government lab as some kind of memetic weapon against DVD piracy. There's so much wrong here that I barely know where to start. I think I'll get the one bit of praise that I can give this movie out of the way so it won't interrupt the river of hate I'm about to gush. The zombies in the film were actually very well done, and were really frighteningly inhuman. When they moved and attacked, they really captured the image of the living tidal wave of bodies, so kudos to whoever did that effect. You were the only one involved in this production who had a brain. Right, now to move on to the hate.
The movie abandons all that contravertial sociopolitical commentary shit that the book was going for, and decides to go with another 'Like Night of the Living Dead....but....' plot, in this case, following that sentence with 'but with some globehopping'. The movie follows Brad Pitt (and I guess his family, but they become irrelevant pretty soon) as he tries to find the secret behind the zombie apocalypse and the cure for it and blah blah blah. The movie very quickly degenerates into that one zombie movie we've seen a billion times before, except that they travel to different countries. That's literally it. There are no words for how much wasted potential this is when compared to the book. Brooks got the idea that the zombies aren't really important, but the film cleverly decides to ignore that piece of wisdom in favor of MOAR ZOMBIIIIIES! We barely get to know one bunch of boring, unlikeable characters before they're killed off and we get to the next set-piece that the zombies are going to destroy. The entire point of the book is how the world, and I mean the WHOLE WORLD reacts to the zombie apocalypse. Predictably, that stance proved far too controversial for the filmmakers, who decided that....SURPRISE! AMERICA IS HERE TO SAVE YOU ALL!!
Now, spoiler warning, I'm about to talk about the ending, because it is one of the cheapest, stupidest cop-outs I have ever seen in any medium. So, Brad Pitt gets to a medical lab, and because he read the script, realizes suddenly that the zombies only attack healthy people. The undead horde actually ignore some GI with a leg injury, an old man, and a kid with cancer. So, armed with this knowledge, Brad injects himself something from a biohazard cell in the lab, which could have been literally anything from Ebola to Anthrax (we don't see a label), and walks past the zombies who ignore him completely. He's safely inoculated when he reaches his scientist buddies. Now, a few problems. First of all, why would the zombies, who are specifically identified as being undead, as in walking corpses, give half a shit if the humans were 'healthy?' Does cancer or old age really slow an animated dead body down that much? What difference would it make anyway? If anything, it would make them easier to convert. It's explicitly mentioned that these zombies require brain-destruction to put down, so why on earth would they care about a little typhoid in their bloodstreams if it can't actually kill them? Secondly, I'm not a microbiologist, but I can't think of a disease with an incubation period of about one second, that can make you fatally ill, with no side effects, and can be easily cured with a simple vaccine. Naturally, nothing of the sort happens in the books, presumably because Max Brooks doesn't need help eating solid food.
The movie really just misses the point in so many ways, you'd think they'd need a committee to manage all the ways they could possibly insult the audience. I can see why Brad Pitt and the director got pissy with each other, as Pitt, being an intelligent individual apparently wanted to make a much truer adaptation. Unfortunately, despite this, WWZ actually managed to come out ahead in the box office, and has a sequel in the works. If that isn't a statement about the apocalyptic state of the world, I don't know what is.
/rant
- Kephn
This is the sentiment firmly embraced by Max Brooks when he wrote the fantastic novel, World War Z, and the one that flew right over the heads of the creators of Brad Pitt's newest cinematic abortion of the same name. Now, I've just finished reading the book, and only now do I feel the need to waste some virtual ink ranting about it. To make this review complete, I'm going to talk about both the book and the movie, and tell you exactly what I liked about both and what I didn't like about both.
Zombies
So, first of all, we need to talk about the zombie story, because really, there is only one zombie story. The dead rise en masse, society is overwhelmed and the film or book follows a small and shrinking cast of survivors as they're slowly repurposed into zombie chow. The zombie story is something that has become so ingrained in our culture that it can basically be classified as it's own genre. Night of the Living Dead may have been an excellent film in its own time, but by this point, it's been ripped off so often that almost the entirety of the zombie genre can basically be summed up as 'Like Night of the Living Dead.....except for...' Because of this, my favorite zombie movies are those that try to subvert the zombie genre, and most importantly, those works of fiction that focus on the reaction of the human survivors, because that's what's important here. The zombies, ironically, are almost superfluous to the zombie genre, and could be replaced by any unthinking, antagonistic force, like space aliens, or a natural disaster, or inexplicably carnivorous lawnmowers. They're just a generic bad guy, a whole race of plot devices, really, that serve to get the story moving. There's a reason nobody ever shot a movie that was nothing more than two hours of zombies tearing people apart, moaning, shuffling listlessly and getting shot. The reason for that (other than that it would never make it past the ratings) is that, except for the few wargame-addicted psychopaths in the back row, wanking, it would be BORING for most people.
Book
Right, now for my rant on why World War Z works as a book. Max very cleverly sets things in the post-war universe, and styles himself as a reporter, doing interviews of people who survived the zombie war. This works, because each story is a very personalized account of how normal people handled the stress of a zombie apocalypse. The real tension in the book isn't from the onrushing tide of the undead, which really, is nothing more than some vague, impending doom that hangs over people's heads, but the people's reactions to it. From armchair military types who mess up battle strategies in the stupidest ways possible, smug dickheads who try to profit from the catastrophe by selling placebos to a desperate populace, or just ordinary people fleeing the disasters, and end up as unwitting invitees to a donner-party re-enactment event, the real horror is the fact that this is all rather plausible. You could see people, in the fits of hysterics abandoning their houses to trek up the frozen mountains of Canada, insulated only by civilian clothing and laptops. You could absolutely see America launching a war of propaganda, and cocking it up. One of the things I lived about this book was that the entire world is kind of equally fucked during the war. Don't expect this book to come up with the stereotypical 'MURRICA SAVES THE DAY' plot, because the American military is just as totally incompetent as the military of every other country. World War Z takes place in much the same way as a real catastrophe would take place, over the course of several years, and instead of just handwaving the end of civilization like most zombie fiction does, it shows exactly how the breakdown takes place. Genre savvy readers can point out all the mistakes pretty easily, but they aren't facing a life-or-death situation, like the characters are. People in the books make pretty stupid decisions, shockingly, just like REAL PEOPLE in panicky situations.
One thing I have to say is really cool, focusing on the zombies for a second, is the fact that Brooks actually managed to make slow-moving zombies scary. Now, I'm not one of those zombie purists, who think that 28 Days Later is an insult to the genre because their made up zombies can run when Romero's couldn't. You know what's a lot scarier than something that can kill you if it catches up to you? Something that kills you if it catches you and moves really, really fast. Brooks' zombies don't do that, and amazingly, still manage to maintain the tension. Sure you can outrun one of the WWZ undead by walking at a brisk pace, but one thing everyone seems to forget is that there are a LOT of them. The zombies in this book come in the thousands, forming a literal, living, hungry tidal wave, all of them crawling over each other in massive chain swarms. It's easy to think that you'll get away, but everyone else is trying to do the same thing. The zombies are relentless, and pretty hard to kill, and eventually, you're going to be that unlucky guy caught at the back of the traffic jam.
Overall, the book isn't perfect. There are some slight things that made me think 'hang on, that wouldn't work.' For example, the US military's Shock and Awe weapons used in the Battle of Yonkers not phasing the zombies at all. Now, whether or not the zombies are vulnerable to headshots, I'm pretty sure being vaporized by artillery and concentrated tank fire would reduce the undead to squishy Solanum shakes. There was also another part where the eeeeeeevil Ukranian military decides that the best way to separate the infected refugees crossing a bridge from non-infected is to give them a delicious mustard-gas bombing to the face, never mind that fire-bombing the bridge would have had the same effect, and wouldn't have left dozens of zombies to be fought. Still, none of these things really ruined my enjoyment of the book, and the few mistakes can be put down to unreliable narrators and simple human error in desperate situations. Brooks' zombies can be a little unrealistically resilient, and magically immune to deep sea pressure, but most of this can be put down to the particular flavor of bullshitium at work here (Solanum) which is at least consistent. I definitely recommend this book if you're a fan of the zombie apocalypse genre.
Film
Ok, now, take everything I just said about the book, and just chuck it out a window. This film was almost aggressively bad, somewhere between the cinematic equivalent of getting punched repeatedly in the face and trying to eat deep-fried condoms. I had to read the book to appreciate just how fucking terrible this movie was, because, when I first saw it, my brain was still off, and I thought it could have been an alright zombie movie with a really shitty ending (and I'll get to that later). In hindsight, however, after my brain has adjusted, and Brad Pitt's charismatic beard have worn off, this film becomes such a poorly managed excuse that it really made me wonder if it was developed in a government lab as some kind of memetic weapon against DVD piracy. There's so much wrong here that I barely know where to start. I think I'll get the one bit of praise that I can give this movie out of the way so it won't interrupt the river of hate I'm about to gush. The zombies in the film were actually very well done, and were really frighteningly inhuman. When they moved and attacked, they really captured the image of the living tidal wave of bodies, so kudos to whoever did that effect. You were the only one involved in this production who had a brain. Right, now to move on to the hate.
The movie abandons all that contravertial sociopolitical commentary shit that the book was going for, and decides to go with another 'Like Night of the Living Dead....but....' plot, in this case, following that sentence with 'but with some globehopping'. The movie follows Brad Pitt (and I guess his family, but they become irrelevant pretty soon) as he tries to find the secret behind the zombie apocalypse and the cure for it and blah blah blah. The movie very quickly degenerates into that one zombie movie we've seen a billion times before, except that they travel to different countries. That's literally it. There are no words for how much wasted potential this is when compared to the book. Brooks got the idea that the zombies aren't really important, but the film cleverly decides to ignore that piece of wisdom in favor of MOAR ZOMBIIIIIES! We barely get to know one bunch of boring, unlikeable characters before they're killed off and we get to the next set-piece that the zombies are going to destroy. The entire point of the book is how the world, and I mean the WHOLE WORLD reacts to the zombie apocalypse. Predictably, that stance proved far too controversial for the filmmakers, who decided that....SURPRISE! AMERICA IS HERE TO SAVE YOU ALL!!
Now, spoiler warning, I'm about to talk about the ending, because it is one of the cheapest, stupidest cop-outs I have ever seen in any medium. So, Brad Pitt gets to a medical lab, and because he read the script, realizes suddenly that the zombies only attack healthy people. The undead horde actually ignore some GI with a leg injury, an old man, and a kid with cancer. So, armed with this knowledge, Brad injects himself something from a biohazard cell in the lab, which could have been literally anything from Ebola to Anthrax (we don't see a label), and walks past the zombies who ignore him completely. He's safely inoculated when he reaches his scientist buddies. Now, a few problems. First of all, why would the zombies, who are specifically identified as being undead, as in walking corpses, give half a shit if the humans were 'healthy?' Does cancer or old age really slow an animated dead body down that much? What difference would it make anyway? If anything, it would make them easier to convert. It's explicitly mentioned that these zombies require brain-destruction to put down, so why on earth would they care about a little typhoid in their bloodstreams if it can't actually kill them? Secondly, I'm not a microbiologist, but I can't think of a disease with an incubation period of about one second, that can make you fatally ill, with no side effects, and can be easily cured with a simple vaccine. Naturally, nothing of the sort happens in the books, presumably because Max Brooks doesn't need help eating solid food.
The movie really just misses the point in so many ways, you'd think they'd need a committee to manage all the ways they could possibly insult the audience. I can see why Brad Pitt and the director got pissy with each other, as Pitt, being an intelligent individual apparently wanted to make a much truer adaptation. Unfortunately, despite this, WWZ actually managed to come out ahead in the box office, and has a sequel in the works. If that isn't a statement about the apocalyptic state of the world, I don't know what is.
/rant
- Kephn
Monday, 12 August 2013
RPG Antagonists: Chaos (Warhammer 40k)
The Warhammer 40k verse as a whole is a bit of an interesting setting for me. As a setting, it's a science fiction-action sorta universe with quite a few smackings of fantasy and a large, healthy dollop of black comedy. What intrigues me, however, and the reason that I love the RPG Dark Heresy far more than the actual miniatures game (other than the fact it doesn't cost me a full year's allowance to buy a squad), is that the setting immediately changes when you bring it down to a personal level.
Dark Heresy is effective for very much the same reason that Call of Cthulhu is effective. Looking at it from a meta point of view, it isn't really that scary. But when you're an inquisitorial acolyte facing down the triple-dicked horrors of Slaanesh, or the whacky football hooligan-meets-serial killer aesthetic of an Ork, suddenly it becomes quite a terrifying setting, and one of the coolest villains in 40k, or RPG's in general, are the forces of Chaos.
Chaos is a really good antagonist because it comes in so many flavors. Like the Wyrm in Werewolf, or the Abyss in Mage: The Awakening, Chaos can be subtle and subversive, slowly corrupting and insinuating itself into society, or it can be flat out, tentacled, acid spewing, in your face nastiness. One of the best ways to show its power and pervasiveness is to lure the PC's in with one flavor, and then switch it to another. It shows the diversity of an enemy that realistically should be, well, chaotic.
The one thing to remember about Chaos is that it basically cannot be beaten, without a complete overhaul of the setting. Every emotion, positive or negative feeds one of the Chaos gods, which in turn, spews out endless waves of daemons into the world. Chaos can be driven back, it can be repelled and rendered dormant for millenia, but there isn't any way to truly defeat it. Chaos may have once been a benevolent force, in very much the same way Silent Hill may once have been one, but ultimately, eons of slaughter and trillions of gallons of blood have stained it irreversibly, and rendered it totally corrupted. Any victory the PC's achieve against Chaos should ultimately be fleeting, and leave them corrupted and questioning whether it was worth it.
I've heard Chaos be referred to as 'Lovecraftian', something that I find to be a bit of a misnomer. Lovecraftian horror stems from the idea that the universe is a scary place, and will destroy you because you are beneath its notice. Chaos, in a way, is much worse. It stems from the idea that the universe is a scary place that hates you personally. Chaos is a lot more intimate than typical Lovecraftian horrors, largely because it stems from the emotions of sentient beings. Cthulhu may eat you, or step on you, or drive you insane because he doesn't notice you on his way out of bed and to the office, but Chaos will go out of its way to torture each person, individually, for all eternity. Chaos should feel dirty, in a certain way, because it should feel familiar. It's a lot more comforting to think of Chaos as some vast alien force, because the instant you start understanding it is the instant it taints you. The horror of Chaos is that interacting with it in any way, even to utterly purge it, should leave you feeling unclean, infected. Chaos finds a way in, because, as dangerous as it is for you to understand it, on a very instinctual level, it understands you, and knows exactly how to get past your defences.
From an RPG context, I actually find the idea of Chaos working a lot better if it's somewhat excised from the setting's idea of it as a whole. The canon description of the Chaos gods, really, in my opinion, don't go far enough. Khorne shouldn't just be the god of martial might and war, but a god of merciless, ugly, slaughter. Khorne is the dark side of rage and aggression, and crimes of hate and rage and passion come under his preview. When I portray Khorne, he isn't the lord of some kind of cyberpunk valhalla, but the butcher lord of viscera-stained extradimensional halls. His warriors are frothing 28 Days Later style infected in power armor. Khorne doesn't appreciate happiness, he only wants bloodlust. Slaanesh, likewise, isn't as simple as a god of sex, or decadence, but of excess, dripping, hungry, amorous urging to debase and defile, not for anything constructive like reproduction, but just for the disgusting need to make something unclean. My point is, that the Chaos gods are far too comprehensible, to be truly good RPG antagonists. What many people miss is that they aren't true gods, but something that exists, in a minor form in every person, corrupted and hideously co-mingled with the sex drives, despair, battle lusts and hopes of every being in the entire universe, personified. The plans of the Chaos gods and their themes should be bizarre and contradictory, but always, on a very personal level, disturbing. The players should recognize something of themselves in their enemies, and hate themselves for it. Chaos is an opportunity to have a very psychological antagonist, that is simultaneously omnipresent and a force of the universe.
To close off this article, (and something I'll update my previous RPG Antagonists posts with), I'll give you a few of my favorite examples in fiction that I think are good inspirations for campaigns that use Chaos as an antagonist.
Event Horizon: Basically already a Warhammer 40k movie in its own right, this movie shows exactly why space ships need a Gellar field, and show exactly what it's like to face an unknowable enemy that intimately understands you.
The Thing: This movie doesn't explicitly identify as a 'demonic' horror movie, but it definitely shows the kind of atmosphere that Chaos can create, especially with the fear of tainting oneself and one's colleagues, and the power of paranoia.
House of Leaves: Quite an obscure little book, and one of my personal favorites. The book itself is a pretty good Chaos artifact aligned to Tzeentch, and shows exactly the kind of weirdness that can occur when the line between fiction and fact is blurred.
- Kephn
Dark Heresy is effective for very much the same reason that Call of Cthulhu is effective. Looking at it from a meta point of view, it isn't really that scary. But when you're an inquisitorial acolyte facing down the triple-dicked horrors of Slaanesh, or the whacky football hooligan-meets-serial killer aesthetic of an Ork, suddenly it becomes quite a terrifying setting, and one of the coolest villains in 40k, or RPG's in general, are the forces of Chaos.
Chaos is a really good antagonist because it comes in so many flavors. Like the Wyrm in Werewolf, or the Abyss in Mage: The Awakening, Chaos can be subtle and subversive, slowly corrupting and insinuating itself into society, or it can be flat out, tentacled, acid spewing, in your face nastiness. One of the best ways to show its power and pervasiveness is to lure the PC's in with one flavor, and then switch it to another. It shows the diversity of an enemy that realistically should be, well, chaotic.
The one thing to remember about Chaos is that it basically cannot be beaten, without a complete overhaul of the setting. Every emotion, positive or negative feeds one of the Chaos gods, which in turn, spews out endless waves of daemons into the world. Chaos can be driven back, it can be repelled and rendered dormant for millenia, but there isn't any way to truly defeat it. Chaos may have once been a benevolent force, in very much the same way Silent Hill may once have been one, but ultimately, eons of slaughter and trillions of gallons of blood have stained it irreversibly, and rendered it totally corrupted. Any victory the PC's achieve against Chaos should ultimately be fleeting, and leave them corrupted and questioning whether it was worth it.
I've heard Chaos be referred to as 'Lovecraftian', something that I find to be a bit of a misnomer. Lovecraftian horror stems from the idea that the universe is a scary place, and will destroy you because you are beneath its notice. Chaos, in a way, is much worse. It stems from the idea that the universe is a scary place that hates you personally. Chaos is a lot more intimate than typical Lovecraftian horrors, largely because it stems from the emotions of sentient beings. Cthulhu may eat you, or step on you, or drive you insane because he doesn't notice you on his way out of bed and to the office, but Chaos will go out of its way to torture each person, individually, for all eternity. Chaos should feel dirty, in a certain way, because it should feel familiar. It's a lot more comforting to think of Chaos as some vast alien force, because the instant you start understanding it is the instant it taints you. The horror of Chaos is that interacting with it in any way, even to utterly purge it, should leave you feeling unclean, infected. Chaos finds a way in, because, as dangerous as it is for you to understand it, on a very instinctual level, it understands you, and knows exactly how to get past your defences.
From an RPG context, I actually find the idea of Chaos working a lot better if it's somewhat excised from the setting's idea of it as a whole. The canon description of the Chaos gods, really, in my opinion, don't go far enough. Khorne shouldn't just be the god of martial might and war, but a god of merciless, ugly, slaughter. Khorne is the dark side of rage and aggression, and crimes of hate and rage and passion come under his preview. When I portray Khorne, he isn't the lord of some kind of cyberpunk valhalla, but the butcher lord of viscera-stained extradimensional halls. His warriors are frothing 28 Days Later style infected in power armor. Khorne doesn't appreciate happiness, he only wants bloodlust. Slaanesh, likewise, isn't as simple as a god of sex, or decadence, but of excess, dripping, hungry, amorous urging to debase and defile, not for anything constructive like reproduction, but just for the disgusting need to make something unclean. My point is, that the Chaos gods are far too comprehensible, to be truly good RPG antagonists. What many people miss is that they aren't true gods, but something that exists, in a minor form in every person, corrupted and hideously co-mingled with the sex drives, despair, battle lusts and hopes of every being in the entire universe, personified. The plans of the Chaos gods and their themes should be bizarre and contradictory, but always, on a very personal level, disturbing. The players should recognize something of themselves in their enemies, and hate themselves for it. Chaos is an opportunity to have a very psychological antagonist, that is simultaneously omnipresent and a force of the universe.
To close off this article, (and something I'll update my previous RPG Antagonists posts with), I'll give you a few of my favorite examples in fiction that I think are good inspirations for campaigns that use Chaos as an antagonist.
Event Horizon: Basically already a Warhammer 40k movie in its own right, this movie shows exactly why space ships need a Gellar field, and show exactly what it's like to face an unknowable enemy that intimately understands you.
The Thing: This movie doesn't explicitly identify as a 'demonic' horror movie, but it definitely shows the kind of atmosphere that Chaos can create, especially with the fear of tainting oneself and one's colleagues, and the power of paranoia.
House of Leaves: Quite an obscure little book, and one of my personal favorites. The book itself is a pretty good Chaos artifact aligned to Tzeentch, and shows exactly the kind of weirdness that can occur when the line between fiction and fact is blurred.
- Kephn
Sunday, 11 August 2013
Resident Evil 5 review
So, a few days ago, I'd just finished Resident Evil 5. I've heard this game receive a lot of criticism, and having enjoyed it quite a bit, I wanted to post up a short review of what I thought of the game.
Gameplay
Overall, I didn't think the game play was particularly bad. Having enjoyed being mean to parasitically infested spaniards in Resident Evil 4, I'm going to commit survival horror blasphemy and say that I quite enjoyed the over-the-shoulder shooter action. While I know that Resident Evil is supposed to be a survival horror game, it gets a bit ridiculous, I think, to think that a highly trained agent like Chris Redfield, who has been rectifying the precarious position of the undead in the food chain since the very first game, has any right to be surprised by zombies any more. Chris is huge, has clearly been training under the BSAA, and ultimately, should not be as awkward and clumsy as he is in the first game. To be honest, I'd be a bit worried about the BSAA's training standards if he was. The combat system for the game is quite intuitive and organic, and manages to be fun without sacrificing the horror elements, which I appreciated.
The partner aspect of the game really didn't bother me too much. It was nice, for a change to have a cool, badass partner who occasionally manages to ventilate a zombie's brain with a well-placed pistol shot. During RE 4, Ashley was the closest thing we got to a partner, and honestly, she annoyed the shit out of me. She was easily one of the most blatantly unhelpful side characters ever, and provided no end to annoyance whenever I had to try and save her ass every time some centipede-infested cultist tried to drag her toward the nearest open door. Admittedly, she did provide me with one of the coolest and scariest parts of the game, where she's alone, fighting cultists alone, but overall, she really pissed me off. Sheva, on the other hand, manages, without too many AI flaws, to be a fun, nice supporting character, who, really, I kind of appreciated because she provided a fresh, outsider's perspective on the Chris vs Wesker ordeal, having no idea of the history behind them, and giving someone for RE noobies to relate to, even if she did occasionally waste whole healing sprays on the most minimal of wounds.
One thing I have to criticize, however, is the inventory, which really could not have sucked more ass if it tried. Units of bullets (usually around 30) took up exactly the same amount of space as a bloody herb, which meant I needed to dedicate most of my inventory to my healing items, or give them to my partner, and risk her overreacting and wasting a Green/Red on me the minute a zombie looked at me somewhat offensively. Armor also takes up a slot, making sure that if you want to be fully armored up, you need to sacrifice two very limited slots of space. You also can't just drop items, use a consumable, and pick them up later. The discard function simply destroys items, a move that had me recycling grenades and bits of ammo I could have used later because I desperately needed to heal. RE 4, I think, had the best inventory system, given that it could be upgraded and didn't depend on having to beg/trade my partner items in order to use them.
Story
As a bit of a newcomer to the RE series, I found the story of RE 5 quite good. I liked the return of longtime villain Wesker as the main baddy, which made it accessible to old fans, while at the same time, being able to draw in newer fans like myself to the Tricell plot in Africa. I think the game was quite a good marriage of old storyline continuation combined with enough accessibility to draw in a new audience. Bizarrely, I related to the character of Sheva quite a bit, as like me, she didn't really know the whole history, and had to piece it together from what Chris told her.
The story basically continues the whacky adventures of Mr. Wesker, a man with no end to gullible investors, who, by this game, pretty nakedly stops bullshitting and just flat out states his plans to unleash a highly unstable, uncontrollable bioweapon across the earth, that will give 1% of them superpowers, and turn the rest into gigantic, biomass absorbing worm-monsters. So.....not the most incredible story, but it seems to embrace its campy, B-movie stylings, and at times, seems aware of just how ridiculous the premise is. Overall, it works in a really Robert Rodriguez-esque way, combining pulpy, action movie badassery, with tense survival horror.
Excella and Tricell, I thought, were a really cool enemy, cool enough, in fact, to have my computer backdrop as the Tricell logo for the next few weeks. I loved that Tricell seemed to have examples of old RE enemies (like Lickers), newer RE enemies (like the Plaga) and hideous bioweapons all of its own (such as Uroboros). It really felt like a cool melding between the more science-fiction feel of Umbrella, combined with the more whacked out mutant feel of the Los Illuminados, and really blended the two nicely. Also, unlike Umbrella, Tricell takes basic precautions with its Biohazards, like having railings in its factories and large flamethrowers and kill-satellites to reduce any escaping B.O.W.'s into foul smelling ash. I respect that, and really, if Umbrella took Tricell's example, it might have averted that whole bit of unpleasantness in the Arklay Mansion.
I have to say, I really do like that Umbrella has taken a backseat as the villain in the RE-universe, unlike in its abysmal movie adaptation. In the movies, Umbrella somehow manages to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, apparently with enough funds to have private facilities, and even then, they still waste their money making zombies. Umbrella in the games, is shit-canned as a corporation after the events of RE 2, because realistically, no amount of money is keeping your company together after you made the American government drop a nuke on their home soil. I love that Umbrella is defunct, but its legacy (the Progenitor flowers, the base in Africa, Wesker) is still very much active and effecting the series.
Racism
Now to tackle that ugly, ugly topic of racism. I'm aware that the controversy around this game is kind of a dead horse, but now that it's all died down, I feel I can defend this game. So yes, you are shooting Plaga-infected Africans, who, yes, are an ethnic minority. Still, the game takes place in AFRICA. I would find it pretty weird if the vast maority of people living there were white, and even so, in the first couple of stages, there were a couple white people in the Plaga-infected hordes.
I've heard a lot of criticism about the part where we visit the African villages and fight a lot of people in grass skirts and war paint, armed with spears. Now, here's the thing. In RE 4, the Ganados fought with primitive farming equipment even in the depths of the Los Illuminados base. Sure, quite a few used guns, but even the cultists were attacking with flails and crossbows. I'd be willing to accept the explanation that Plaga infestation causes you to revert to more feral behavior, and besides, I sincerely doubt that an African village in the middle of nowhere would have easy access to automatic weapons. There's even a diary entry from a little kid in the village that states how weird it is that his tribesmen were wearing war paint and grass skirts, especially when it's not even a festival day, implying that this isn't their usual behavior. Again, I can see where all the accusations are coming from, but I honestly don't think that this is any more racist than the portrayal of the Spanish in RE 4. If anything, African natives are portrayed a lot more as the victims of Bioterrorist activity and come across far more sympathetically then most of the white characters.
Conclusion
Overall, I'd say that Resident Evil 5 is a worthy addition to the Resident Evil franchise. It tackles all the necessary bases and manages to still be scary and thrilling while presenting a good jumping-off point for noobies to the franchise. As the second Resident Evil game I've completed (the first being RE 4), I was quite happy with it, finding it a really nice blend of badass combat and horror, with some of the most freakish monsters I've seen in video games, period. Soon, I'm going to be playing Zero, and then all the way through as much of the Resident Evil franchise as I can. Overall, I'd give RE 5 3 stars out of 5. The partner AI is a bit glitchy, and the inventory system bugged the hell out of me, and the story wasn't the most amazing ever, but overall, I'd call it an entertaining and really creepy ride.
- Kephn
Gameplay
Overall, I didn't think the game play was particularly bad. Having enjoyed being mean to parasitically infested spaniards in Resident Evil 4, I'm going to commit survival horror blasphemy and say that I quite enjoyed the over-the-shoulder shooter action. While I know that Resident Evil is supposed to be a survival horror game, it gets a bit ridiculous, I think, to think that a highly trained agent like Chris Redfield, who has been rectifying the precarious position of the undead in the food chain since the very first game, has any right to be surprised by zombies any more. Chris is huge, has clearly been training under the BSAA, and ultimately, should not be as awkward and clumsy as he is in the first game. To be honest, I'd be a bit worried about the BSAA's training standards if he was. The combat system for the game is quite intuitive and organic, and manages to be fun without sacrificing the horror elements, which I appreciated.
The partner aspect of the game really didn't bother me too much. It was nice, for a change to have a cool, badass partner who occasionally manages to ventilate a zombie's brain with a well-placed pistol shot. During RE 4, Ashley was the closest thing we got to a partner, and honestly, she annoyed the shit out of me. She was easily one of the most blatantly unhelpful side characters ever, and provided no end to annoyance whenever I had to try and save her ass every time some centipede-infested cultist tried to drag her toward the nearest open door. Admittedly, she did provide me with one of the coolest and scariest parts of the game, where she's alone, fighting cultists alone, but overall, she really pissed me off. Sheva, on the other hand, manages, without too many AI flaws, to be a fun, nice supporting character, who, really, I kind of appreciated because she provided a fresh, outsider's perspective on the Chris vs Wesker ordeal, having no idea of the history behind them, and giving someone for RE noobies to relate to, even if she did occasionally waste whole healing sprays on the most minimal of wounds.
One thing I have to criticize, however, is the inventory, which really could not have sucked more ass if it tried. Units of bullets (usually around 30) took up exactly the same amount of space as a bloody herb, which meant I needed to dedicate most of my inventory to my healing items, or give them to my partner, and risk her overreacting and wasting a Green/Red on me the minute a zombie looked at me somewhat offensively. Armor also takes up a slot, making sure that if you want to be fully armored up, you need to sacrifice two very limited slots of space. You also can't just drop items, use a consumable, and pick them up later. The discard function simply destroys items, a move that had me recycling grenades and bits of ammo I could have used later because I desperately needed to heal. RE 4, I think, had the best inventory system, given that it could be upgraded and didn't depend on having to beg/trade my partner items in order to use them.
Story
As a bit of a newcomer to the RE series, I found the story of RE 5 quite good. I liked the return of longtime villain Wesker as the main baddy, which made it accessible to old fans, while at the same time, being able to draw in newer fans like myself to the Tricell plot in Africa. I think the game was quite a good marriage of old storyline continuation combined with enough accessibility to draw in a new audience. Bizarrely, I related to the character of Sheva quite a bit, as like me, she didn't really know the whole history, and had to piece it together from what Chris told her.
The story basically continues the whacky adventures of Mr. Wesker, a man with no end to gullible investors, who, by this game, pretty nakedly stops bullshitting and just flat out states his plans to unleash a highly unstable, uncontrollable bioweapon across the earth, that will give 1% of them superpowers, and turn the rest into gigantic, biomass absorbing worm-monsters. So.....not the most incredible story, but it seems to embrace its campy, B-movie stylings, and at times, seems aware of just how ridiculous the premise is. Overall, it works in a really Robert Rodriguez-esque way, combining pulpy, action movie badassery, with tense survival horror.
Excella and Tricell, I thought, were a really cool enemy, cool enough, in fact, to have my computer backdrop as the Tricell logo for the next few weeks. I loved that Tricell seemed to have examples of old RE enemies (like Lickers), newer RE enemies (like the Plaga) and hideous bioweapons all of its own (such as Uroboros). It really felt like a cool melding between the more science-fiction feel of Umbrella, combined with the more whacked out mutant feel of the Los Illuminados, and really blended the two nicely. Also, unlike Umbrella, Tricell takes basic precautions with its Biohazards, like having railings in its factories and large flamethrowers and kill-satellites to reduce any escaping B.O.W.'s into foul smelling ash. I respect that, and really, if Umbrella took Tricell's example, it might have averted that whole bit of unpleasantness in the Arklay Mansion.
I have to say, I really do like that Umbrella has taken a backseat as the villain in the RE-universe, unlike in its abysmal movie adaptation. In the movies, Umbrella somehow manages to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, apparently with enough funds to have private facilities, and even then, they still waste their money making zombies. Umbrella in the games, is shit-canned as a corporation after the events of RE 2, because realistically, no amount of money is keeping your company together after you made the American government drop a nuke on their home soil. I love that Umbrella is defunct, but its legacy (the Progenitor flowers, the base in Africa, Wesker) is still very much active and effecting the series.
Racism
Now to tackle that ugly, ugly topic of racism. I'm aware that the controversy around this game is kind of a dead horse, but now that it's all died down, I feel I can defend this game. So yes, you are shooting Plaga-infected Africans, who, yes, are an ethnic minority. Still, the game takes place in AFRICA. I would find it pretty weird if the vast maority of people living there were white, and even so, in the first couple of stages, there were a couple white people in the Plaga-infected hordes.
I've heard a lot of criticism about the part where we visit the African villages and fight a lot of people in grass skirts and war paint, armed with spears. Now, here's the thing. In RE 4, the Ganados fought with primitive farming equipment even in the depths of the Los Illuminados base. Sure, quite a few used guns, but even the cultists were attacking with flails and crossbows. I'd be willing to accept the explanation that Plaga infestation causes you to revert to more feral behavior, and besides, I sincerely doubt that an African village in the middle of nowhere would have easy access to automatic weapons. There's even a diary entry from a little kid in the village that states how weird it is that his tribesmen were wearing war paint and grass skirts, especially when it's not even a festival day, implying that this isn't their usual behavior. Again, I can see where all the accusations are coming from, but I honestly don't think that this is any more racist than the portrayal of the Spanish in RE 4. If anything, African natives are portrayed a lot more as the victims of Bioterrorist activity and come across far more sympathetically then most of the white characters.
Conclusion
Overall, I'd say that Resident Evil 5 is a worthy addition to the Resident Evil franchise. It tackles all the necessary bases and manages to still be scary and thrilling while presenting a good jumping-off point for noobies to the franchise. As the second Resident Evil game I've completed (the first being RE 4), I was quite happy with it, finding it a really nice blend of badass combat and horror, with some of the most freakish monsters I've seen in video games, period. Soon, I'm going to be playing Zero, and then all the way through as much of the Resident Evil franchise as I can. Overall, I'd give RE 5 3 stars out of 5. The partner AI is a bit glitchy, and the inventory system bugged the hell out of me, and the story wasn't the most amazing ever, but overall, I'd call it an entertaining and really creepy ride.
- Kephn
RPG Antagonists: Pentex (Werewolf: The Apocalypse)
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for cartoonishly evil supervillains. There's just something kind of funny and camp about a bad guy that does evil just for the sake of doing evil. So today, we're gonna talk about the biggest bastard out of all the dastardly megacorps in the world, Pentex, the ultimate tendril of the Wyrm's power on earth.
Pentex can be portrayed in several ways. First in foremost, the thing to remember about them is that most people haven't heard of them. No one should know about Pentex. They're the secret power behind every Macdonalds and Burger King and Harvey Norman and every other major brand in the world. Portraying them seriously, I would actually recommend against using the thousands of subsidiaries they canonically have, because no one in a Werewolf game, or any other for that matter, are going to buy stuff from 'Magadon Inc.' or 'Black Dog' or bloody 'Endron' of all things without being suspicious. When portrayed seriously, and as an antagonist to the group, Pentex should be subtle. They don't advertise their new addition of Black Spiral Blend coffee on billboards with the tagline 'Corruptilicious'. Pentex products are spiritually unhealthy, and they should be insidious. Every product you buy could carry the taint of the Wyrm, and ultimately contribute to your final transformation as a formor.
Now, another thing to remember about Pentex is that they do not operate like a regular company. Real companies, and even fictional evil ones like Tricell, or Umbrella, or Weyland Yutani, are at least motivated by profits, and while they are total idiots in the application, they don't intentionally try to provoke hideous zombie/alien massacres, because they gain nothing out of it. Pentex is more like a Captain Planet supervillain. They'll purposely initiate oil spills and nuclear leaks and other unpleasant environmental disasters, essentially to teach those uppity natives a lesson in humility. The difference to remember, between Pentex and those Captain Planet supervillains is that Pentex actually benefits whenever the environment suffers. Burned rainforests, nuclear spills and biohazards attract banes, which further support the company, and spreads the power of the Wyrm through the earth. Pentex directly benefits from destroying the planet, and therefore, makes decisions that other companies might think of as irrational. Unlike Umbrella, Pentex would trigger the city-wide zombie apocalypse because it can then feast on all the souls lost to the plague, before curing it with one of their subsidiaries. And remember, because they're such a super secret multinational cabal, no one knows they exist, and therefore, cannot be blamed for it.
Pentex represents an element of subtlety, something that is woefully lacking in Werewolf: The Apocalypse. They show that the Wyrm isn't just something that bursts forth from the face of Black Spiral Dancers in the form of barbed, flesh dissolving tendrils. The Wyrm is something that can insinuate itself slowly into human society, and become something irreplaceable. Removing Pentex from the World of Darkness would be the equivalent of suddenly bankrupting Microsoft, Macdonalds, Apple, Starbucks, and dozens of other multinationals overnight. Thousands would lose their jobs and society would be ruined. That's the true power of Pentex. Garou can slaughter through a thousand of their offices at once, but, like a tumor growing on someone's brain, it can't be excised without the entire system coming crashing down.
Here are some neat examples of fiction to inspire Pentex based games.
Resident Evil (games): Avoid the movies, as they are shit. However, the Umbrella corporation, and later Tricell, are exactly the sort of company that Pentex is, hiding behind a friendly public image in order to work its nefarious schemes. Plus a lot of zombies and mutations provide awesome examples of Formori. Basically replace the T-Virus/G-Virus/T-Veronica/Plaga/Uroboros etc. with Banes.
Dilbert: While it is a comedy, imagine that Dilbert works in a division of Pentex. Imagine what it's like living in the Dilbert universe, and consistently having one's soul and free will crushed. When you think about it, Dilbert is the universe in which Pentex has already won.
Alien Series: Aliens, while set in the future, is a really good example of what Pentex would one day like to be. Weyland-Yutani is pervasive, and produces everything from space-ships to bioweapons. They're a subtle but omnipresent force within the movies and comics, and always the shadowy mastermind moving the pawns. It's also a good example of Pentex employees, and shows that not all of them are cackling supervillains. Some of them are just average Joes in a terrible situation.
- Kephn
Pentex can be portrayed in several ways. First in foremost, the thing to remember about them is that most people haven't heard of them. No one should know about Pentex. They're the secret power behind every Macdonalds and Burger King and Harvey Norman and every other major brand in the world. Portraying them seriously, I would actually recommend against using the thousands of subsidiaries they canonically have, because no one in a Werewolf game, or any other for that matter, are going to buy stuff from 'Magadon Inc.' or 'Black Dog' or bloody 'Endron' of all things without being suspicious. When portrayed seriously, and as an antagonist to the group, Pentex should be subtle. They don't advertise their new addition of Black Spiral Blend coffee on billboards with the tagline 'Corruptilicious'. Pentex products are spiritually unhealthy, and they should be insidious. Every product you buy could carry the taint of the Wyrm, and ultimately contribute to your final transformation as a formor.
Now, another thing to remember about Pentex is that they do not operate like a regular company. Real companies, and even fictional evil ones like Tricell, or Umbrella, or Weyland Yutani, are at least motivated by profits, and while they are total idiots in the application, they don't intentionally try to provoke hideous zombie/alien massacres, because they gain nothing out of it. Pentex is more like a Captain Planet supervillain. They'll purposely initiate oil spills and nuclear leaks and other unpleasant environmental disasters, essentially to teach those uppity natives a lesson in humility. The difference to remember, between Pentex and those Captain Planet supervillains is that Pentex actually benefits whenever the environment suffers. Burned rainforests, nuclear spills and biohazards attract banes, which further support the company, and spreads the power of the Wyrm through the earth. Pentex directly benefits from destroying the planet, and therefore, makes decisions that other companies might think of as irrational. Unlike Umbrella, Pentex would trigger the city-wide zombie apocalypse because it can then feast on all the souls lost to the plague, before curing it with one of their subsidiaries. And remember, because they're such a super secret multinational cabal, no one knows they exist, and therefore, cannot be blamed for it.
Pentex represents an element of subtlety, something that is woefully lacking in Werewolf: The Apocalypse. They show that the Wyrm isn't just something that bursts forth from the face of Black Spiral Dancers in the form of barbed, flesh dissolving tendrils. The Wyrm is something that can insinuate itself slowly into human society, and become something irreplaceable. Removing Pentex from the World of Darkness would be the equivalent of suddenly bankrupting Microsoft, Macdonalds, Apple, Starbucks, and dozens of other multinationals overnight. Thousands would lose their jobs and society would be ruined. That's the true power of Pentex. Garou can slaughter through a thousand of their offices at once, but, like a tumor growing on someone's brain, it can't be excised without the entire system coming crashing down.
Here are some neat examples of fiction to inspire Pentex based games.
Resident Evil (games): Avoid the movies, as they are shit. However, the Umbrella corporation, and later Tricell, are exactly the sort of company that Pentex is, hiding behind a friendly public image in order to work its nefarious schemes. Plus a lot of zombies and mutations provide awesome examples of Formori. Basically replace the T-Virus/G-Virus/T-Veronica/Plaga/Uroboros etc. with Banes.
Dilbert: While it is a comedy, imagine that Dilbert works in a division of Pentex. Imagine what it's like living in the Dilbert universe, and consistently having one's soul and free will crushed. When you think about it, Dilbert is the universe in which Pentex has already won.
Alien Series: Aliens, while set in the future, is a really good example of what Pentex would one day like to be. Weyland-Yutani is pervasive, and produces everything from space-ships to bioweapons. They're a subtle but omnipresent force within the movies and comics, and always the shadowy mastermind moving the pawns. It's also a good example of Pentex employees, and shows that not all of them are cackling supervillains. Some of them are just average Joes in a terrible situation.
- Kephn
Monday, 5 August 2013
RPG Antagonists: Nephandi (Mage: The Ascension)
Alright, so today, I've had a bit of a brainwave. I wanted to put up little drabbles on my favorite RPG antagonists, as well as ways I think are interesting to run them, and explanations on why I think they're good antagonists.
So, we'll start with the very creepiest, the very asshole of the magical world of Mage: The Ascension, The Nephandi.
The Nephandi aren't like regular antagonists. Any mage can call upon the dark power of the Abaddon the Many Mouthed and sell sections of their souls like donuts to get minor infernal gifts. Any mage can rip people apart and use their blood and organs to siphon quintessence. It takes a special kind of person to do all that, for the specific purpose of making the world worse.
The Nephandi are mages, Traditional or Technocratic, that have, at least on some level, made the conscious decision to pass through a Caul, in this life or a past life. The Caul, a horrific, womblike structure that functions as a kind of spiritual black hole, shreds the mage's avatar into confetti, and puts it back together inverted and corrupted. From that point on, the Nephandi has become something that almost literally isn't human. Whereas other humans have a heart, a soul, or at least a belief that drives them forward and keep them sane, Nephandi have nothing more than an empty, gnawing blackness that drives them, makes them eager to feed all reality into that void.
Nephandi form some of the most terrifyingly freakish antagonists in any RPG, or hell, even any work of fiction. There's something truly scary about a character that has no morals, no qualms about doing absolutely anything to accomplish their goals, and has absolutely no remorse. Nephandi don't really get any kind mechanical benefit to joining, but of all the magical factions, they definitely have the least restrictive rituals. Nephandi have absolutely no problem with murdering dozens of people and ripping the quintessence straight out of their patterns. The worst, most awful perversion imaginable is a Teusday for a Nephandus. Magic is a reflection of the avatar and soul, and regardless of how the Nephandus practices, be it with mystical or technological foci and paradigms, Nephandic magic or enlightened science should feel wrong. Nephandi are fundamentally broken, and their magic is the sort of thing that would give H.R. Giger or Clive Barker nightmares. Nephandic magic literally has no purpose but to destroy reality, and every act they undertake, at least on some level, corrodes away just a little bit more of the universe.
One of the most worrying things about the Nephandi are their variation. There is no 'standard' Nephandus, and regardless of whether they worship devils, the Wyrm or just Yog-Sothoth himself, Nephandi have no 'paths' or 'conventions' of their own. Rather than limiting them, however, this means that Technocratic Nephandi mad scientists can work alongside Hermetic Nephandi high practitioners, writing computer viruses using infernal sigils and demonic names within the code. Cult of Ecstacy Nephandi can have their dark orgies with Chorister Nephandi, calling upon the names of fallen angels and dark gods. The Nephandi don't give a crap about paradigm or how an individual Nephandus practices, only that they're all working toward the same goal: oblivion.
The Nephandi, overall, represent the urge of humanity to self destruct, in exactly the same way that mages represent the human urge to create and change the universe. They're insidious and creepy because anyone can become one. That nice man down the road who volunteers for the homeless shelter, could, in his spare time be a Nephandus Progenitor, with a lab full of demonic anthrax in his attic. That nice lady gardener at your school could be a corrupted Verbena, growing mutated, formor plants in the garden. The Nephandi are insidious, sometimes from the start, and they're impossible to truly kill, because their avatars reincarnate the same as any other mage, corrupting children from birth. They represent the true face of evil, one that can be hidden behind a mask of kindness or benevolence, but ultimately covering up the true ugliness within.
Here are a couple of neat fictional examples to inspire Nephandi based games.
The Stand: A really, really awesome novel, that manages to make a black-versus-white moral struggle actually be interesting. Randall Flagg is one of the most fantastic examples of a Nephandus ever put to fiction, being both charismatic and cool, and simultaneously unbelievably evil.
Silent Hill (games): Silent Hill games are fantastic inspirations for any kind of dark magic plot, but the cult of Silent Hill, are fantastic examples of what a Nephandic organization would look like. The Nightmarish imagery and hellish environments are exactly the kind of 'paradise' a Nephandus would be seeking.
Carnivale: A superb TV show, that really should be required viewing for any player of Mage: The Ascension anyway, the baddy, Father Justin, is an excellent example of an awakening Widderslainte, and one of the few works of fiction that actually tries to make their villain sympathetic and interesting, while still making them irredeemable.
- Kephn
So, we'll start with the very creepiest, the very asshole of the magical world of Mage: The Ascension, The Nephandi.
The Nephandi aren't like regular antagonists. Any mage can call upon the dark power of the Abaddon the Many Mouthed and sell sections of their souls like donuts to get minor infernal gifts. Any mage can rip people apart and use their blood and organs to siphon quintessence. It takes a special kind of person to do all that, for the specific purpose of making the world worse.
The Nephandi are mages, Traditional or Technocratic, that have, at least on some level, made the conscious decision to pass through a Caul, in this life or a past life. The Caul, a horrific, womblike structure that functions as a kind of spiritual black hole, shreds the mage's avatar into confetti, and puts it back together inverted and corrupted. From that point on, the Nephandi has become something that almost literally isn't human. Whereas other humans have a heart, a soul, or at least a belief that drives them forward and keep them sane, Nephandi have nothing more than an empty, gnawing blackness that drives them, makes them eager to feed all reality into that void.
Nephandi form some of the most terrifyingly freakish antagonists in any RPG, or hell, even any work of fiction. There's something truly scary about a character that has no morals, no qualms about doing absolutely anything to accomplish their goals, and has absolutely no remorse. Nephandi don't really get any kind mechanical benefit to joining, but of all the magical factions, they definitely have the least restrictive rituals. Nephandi have absolutely no problem with murdering dozens of people and ripping the quintessence straight out of their patterns. The worst, most awful perversion imaginable is a Teusday for a Nephandus. Magic is a reflection of the avatar and soul, and regardless of how the Nephandus practices, be it with mystical or technological foci and paradigms, Nephandic magic or enlightened science should feel wrong. Nephandi are fundamentally broken, and their magic is the sort of thing that would give H.R. Giger or Clive Barker nightmares. Nephandic magic literally has no purpose but to destroy reality, and every act they undertake, at least on some level, corrodes away just a little bit more of the universe.
One of the most worrying things about the Nephandi are their variation. There is no 'standard' Nephandus, and regardless of whether they worship devils, the Wyrm or just Yog-Sothoth himself, Nephandi have no 'paths' or 'conventions' of their own. Rather than limiting them, however, this means that Technocratic Nephandi mad scientists can work alongside Hermetic Nephandi high practitioners, writing computer viruses using infernal sigils and demonic names within the code. Cult of Ecstacy Nephandi can have their dark orgies with Chorister Nephandi, calling upon the names of fallen angels and dark gods. The Nephandi don't give a crap about paradigm or how an individual Nephandus practices, only that they're all working toward the same goal: oblivion.
The Nephandi, overall, represent the urge of humanity to self destruct, in exactly the same way that mages represent the human urge to create and change the universe. They're insidious and creepy because anyone can become one. That nice man down the road who volunteers for the homeless shelter, could, in his spare time be a Nephandus Progenitor, with a lab full of demonic anthrax in his attic. That nice lady gardener at your school could be a corrupted Verbena, growing mutated, formor plants in the garden. The Nephandi are insidious, sometimes from the start, and they're impossible to truly kill, because their avatars reincarnate the same as any other mage, corrupting children from birth. They represent the true face of evil, one that can be hidden behind a mask of kindness or benevolence, but ultimately covering up the true ugliness within.
Here are a couple of neat fictional examples to inspire Nephandi based games.
The Stand: A really, really awesome novel, that manages to make a black-versus-white moral struggle actually be interesting. Randall Flagg is one of the most fantastic examples of a Nephandus ever put to fiction, being both charismatic and cool, and simultaneously unbelievably evil.
Silent Hill (games): Silent Hill games are fantastic inspirations for any kind of dark magic plot, but the cult of Silent Hill, are fantastic examples of what a Nephandic organization would look like. The Nightmarish imagery and hellish environments are exactly the kind of 'paradise' a Nephandus would be seeking.
Carnivale: A superb TV show, that really should be required viewing for any player of Mage: The Ascension anyway, the baddy, Father Justin, is an excellent example of an awakening Widderslainte, and one of the few works of fiction that actually tries to make their villain sympathetic and interesting, while still making them irredeemable.
- Kephn
Friday, 2 August 2013
It rubs the lotion on its skin....
So......today I have stared into the abyss.
Now, to preface this, this has nothing to do with gaming, nerdy stuff or any of what will become my usual output. This is just a raw, visceral reaction to a piece of internet art.
Quick warning, it is really, really inadvisable to watch this if you're under the age of 18, are highly offended by many references to blowjobs and sodomy, or just want to preserve your sanity. So, without further ado, I present Tonetta, in all his terrifying glory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-3pi0qLntQ
Did you watch that? All the way to the end? Now, hands up, and be honest, who thought that was going to end up as a snuff film?
So yeah, that's Tonetta. He's apparently some kind of lo-fi music artist that gets his kicks out of wearing the clothes of a crossdressing serial killer and singing wildly inappropriate songs. I watched that video, literally hypnotized, and I'm no stranger to the internet. I'm not squeamish at all. But the sheer, utterly dreamlike, surreal, and mind-wrenching absurdity of that video dumbfounded me. If this has been done intentionally, then my hat goes off to this man, for making what I can only describe as a work of art that will haunt my nightmares and provide my psychologists a steady paycheck for years to come.
So yeah, support this man, for he is the raw, visceral heart of outsider artistry. Just don't watch him before you go to sleep.
(I would also kill to hear him perform a cover of 'Goodbye Horses'. One day.)
Now, to preface this, this has nothing to do with gaming, nerdy stuff or any of what will become my usual output. This is just a raw, visceral reaction to a piece of internet art.
Quick warning, it is really, really inadvisable to watch this if you're under the age of 18, are highly offended by many references to blowjobs and sodomy, or just want to preserve your sanity. So, without further ado, I present Tonetta, in all his terrifying glory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-3pi0qLntQ
Did you watch that? All the way to the end? Now, hands up, and be honest, who thought that was going to end up as a snuff film?
So yeah, that's Tonetta. He's apparently some kind of lo-fi music artist that gets his kicks out of wearing the clothes of a crossdressing serial killer and singing wildly inappropriate songs. I watched that video, literally hypnotized, and I'm no stranger to the internet. I'm not squeamish at all. But the sheer, utterly dreamlike, surreal, and mind-wrenching absurdity of that video dumbfounded me. If this has been done intentionally, then my hat goes off to this man, for making what I can only describe as a work of art that will haunt my nightmares and provide my psychologists a steady paycheck for years to come.
So yeah, support this man, for he is the raw, visceral heart of outsider artistry. Just don't watch him before you go to sleep.
(I would also kill to hear him perform a cover of 'Goodbye Horses'. One day.)
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