Class Act NPCs

In celebration of Dan’s 100th post on his blog (congratulations, Dan), I went back to read some of his older posts. I came around one that was talking about different characters he enjoyed playing in roleplaying games over time and I thought, well, that would be a fun write-up. So I started thinking about all the fun characters I’ve played and realized that there really aren’t that many. I had Keirstin from Brian’s old 7th Sea game, the Slayer from Ryan’s Buffy game, and my dwarven cleric from Ryan’s short-lived Dungeons and Dragons game. Beyond those, I couldn’t come up with any that really jumped out at me as a boatload of fun. Maybe my Gun Mage from our rotating Iron Kingdoms game.

But I tend to spend a lot more time as a GM than I do as a player. As such, I decided instead of talking about some of my favorite PCs in campaigns, I’d talk about some of my favorite NPCs. Not a complete list, of course, but some of the ones that stand out.

Eschlyn – Eschlyn has made it in to several different games and tends to be a favorite of the players. He has an arrogant, self-assured attitude as though he knows with certainty that he could escape from any trap that might be set for him. In his first encounter with a group of players, he met them at an outdoor coffee shop and offered them a sum of money for something that they had. The players, of course, refused. Eschlyn assured them that he would emerge victorious and insisted that the players remain seated for another hour, giving Eschlyn time to leave and, they later found out ransack their rooms searching for the object. The impetus for remaining where they were? He had hired several sharp shooters who were on nearby rooftops, ready to shoot any of the players if they left before the appointed time. One of the players tried to call his bluff only to earn a poisoned bolt in his chest. The others let him go… for the time being. Always a gentleman, Eschlyn quickly became a thorn in their side. But Eschlyn was not the boss, evidently. He reported to someone he referred to as “the Man,” the identity of whom has remained unsolved to this day.

Achiel – A character who was designed to be the epitome of the smart, but ultimately powerless, character. Before the campaign started, he had been the leader of a secret society. But he was overthrown and, along with his right-hand-man, imprisoned. The game started with the players trying to figure out what to do with him. They did not have the clout in the secret society to kill him outright, but they could hold on to their power for a short time without dealing with him. The players decided to try to convince others of Achiel’s misdeeds and essentially set him on trial. Before that trial could happen, however, Achiel was set free by another of the players, drastically changing his storyline. He ended up staying out of the power struggles in the secret society, having learned that he may have been too heavy-handed. In the end, he ended up being a friend to the players sometimes, but an adversary at others. It all depended on how things fell into his overarching plan. He had no love for the secret society and was using it as a stepping stone to achieve his own goal: re-make the bargain with demons that provided magic to the world, this time with him as the central figure. He tried to recruit the players to his cause, offering them power from the demons too, but the disagreements between the players on how to proceed stalled his plans.

Chase – Achiel’s right-hand man, Chase was a lot of fun to play because he was the fair, just and loyal man forced by his own code of honor to serve a fairly evil and despicable man. There was no love between Chase and Achiel, but Achiel knew how to twist Chase and force his servitude. Even without the bond of friendship between them, though, Chase was unyielding in his service. He was loyal to anything Achiel asked of him, even as far as murder. In Chase’s ideal world, Achiel would be overthrown and destroyed utterly, but he could not institute that change himself, and as long as Achiel requested it, he would fight to ensure Achiel’s place of power was never threatened. Chase could easily have been a hero had situations been slightly different. He was the threat that Achiel often leaned on. Just having him around kept others a little more cautious.

Kuni Amari – He was one of the villains in a long-run Legend of the Five Rings play by email. Corrupted by the Shadowlands, much of the original story played out at his hands. He used the Egg of Pan Ku to create a copy of a prominent Scorpion magistrate, he stole the Bloodsword Ambition, and was able to outsmart the Oracles and prophecy itself to get the names of the seven Thunders. His ultimate plans lay deep in the Shinoman Forest where he was attempting to bring back the necromancer Iuchiban. His plans were foiled, however, but a group of heroes who sought to keep Rokugan safe from a third Iuchiban war. Kuni Amari was badly wounded in the battle but was able to escape. Given time, he might have returned to try once more.

Khadoran Sniper – I never really had a name for him, and honestly, he didn’t really do much, but he always holds a place in my heart for being the NPC who shot and killed two characters in the same session… both played by the same player! (Sorry, Jay, but man, it was funny!)

Raphael – Another one-shot type NPC, he, the Khadoran Sniper, and Cardinal Verdugo (see below) all land on my list for the one or two great things they did. In Raphael’s case, he was a villain provided to me by one of my players to be his foil. Early in the campaign, he set up a plot to discredit and instigate the player’s fall by having him arrested for rape and murder. The player was subsequently cleared of the charges by the diligent work of several of the players, but the player knew from then on there was a villain out there who wanted nothing more than to bring his life crashing down. Raphael ended up taking a back seat as the story progressed, unfortunately, but his shot at the player was one of the more fun twists I’ve been able to pull at a session’s end.

Cardinal Verdugo – Back in college, I started running a 7th Sea game that got me started on my city-based games kick. The Cardinal did not do much during the games. He sent the players on a mission to find a wickedly-powerful witch and when the players found out who the witch was (after one of the players had fallen in love with her), the players started to stall the Cardinal. The Cardinal would have nothing of it and was able to learn their suspicions through another person. He met with the players in his office and began questioning them about the mission on which they had been sent. The players stalled and back-pedaled until the Cardinal was fed up. He reached into a desk drawer, pulled out a gun, and shot one of the players, then turned to the witch offering her a choice. Let her love die, or reveal herself as a witch and try to save his life. And if she was not the witch after all? The Cardinal did not seem to care.

Alexia – And then there was Alexia, a girl gifted with magic beyond her understanding and capability to harness properly. She was the one Cardinal Verdugo was trying to capture with his ploy, and as soon as her love was shot, she called upon the magics that she had at her disposal and was able to re-weave the fate of the man and restore him before he fell dead, essentially bringing him back to life. Her final act in his resurrection was to cut the strand of love between the player and her so that he would never again risk his own life to save hers. The Cardinal knew he had found the witch he sought, and after her escape, went on as a thorn in the players’ sides for quite some time.


You may notice that none of my Rembaldi characters (okay, except Eschlyn who made an appearance over there too) were in my list. I’d need to have a post for them alone if I wanted to talk about all the Rembaldi ones I liked.

Genius of the Res-tor-ation!

I got home from work last night and decided to kick back with some How I Met Your Mother and paint up another model. Here's Marcus. I enjoyed painting him much more than Myranda yesterday. The pose was a lot easier to understand what was going on.



I'm not quite sure who the girl is on the base with him, but it's a cool little model and I wanted to put something there with him. Now I'm moving on to the two animals - the three-headed tiger and the razor snake. Dan says that non-humans tend to be a bit easier than humans. Hopefully that's the case. They don't look particularly difficult to do, which is good for my skill level.

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Warning: There are some spoilers to Battlestar Galactica and particularly to The Plan in this post. If you just want to read my recommendation, skip to the last paragraph.

A couple nights ago, I finally put in Battlestar Galactica: The Plan to watch. I've had it for about four months but never got around to watching it. I haven't heard very many flattering things said about this one, so I had been avoiding it, but since I'm still waiting for the next season of West Wing to arrive and was looking for something to watch, I figured now was as good a time as any.

The movie is supposed to show more about this "Plan" that the Cylons evidently had from the beginning of the show. It opens with the two Cavils from the end of season two, showing them standing over the bodies of the Final Five as they lay in wait to have the consciousness of their counterparts downloaded into them when they die.

Flash to the two of them on Galactica being marched to the airlock to be spaced after it's been revealed that they were Cylons and the Cylons were tired of chasing them around.

The show basically follows the time between those two points, primarily focusing on those two Cavils. One of them finds himself with Anders and his resistance cell on Caprica while the other one finds himself on Galactica among all the surviving people. Pretty quickly, the "Plan" is revealed: the Cylons want to kill all the humans.

Wait. What was that? That's it? They just wanted to kill all the humans?

Yup. And Galactica Cavil is pissed because they failed in their mission. He did not anticipate anyone surviving their initial onslaught (and, in fairness, if it weren't for Adama's mistrust of technology, they probably would have succeeded) and now he's stuck in the human fleet with about six Cylons to support his attempts to destroy the fleet. We've seen a lot of what happens - Doral's suicide bomb, Six's attempts to oust Baltar, etc. Every one of the Cylons in the fleet fails at their objectives and Cavil is rapidly running out of people to help him. He's amazed to see the Final Five actually, from his point of view, not learning anything he wanted them to learn. They still value human lives and embrace their human experiences. He hates everything about them.

Meanwhile, Caprica Cavil joins with Anders' group and tries to hear what Anders feels and believes, wondering if Anders has had any change of heart. But Anders refuses to acknowledge that the Cylons may have been forced to take this action and says he'll never forgive them. Even the humans who have died, Cavil realizes, are more important to him than the Cylons that lived.

Basically, both Cavils are learning that it may not be the Final Five who need to learn about things, but rather the Cylons who need to learn about love. Caprica Cavil embraces this and even throws his weight behind the movement hinted at in the main show, while the Galactica Cavil, completely cut off from the Cylons back home, rejects it.

When the two are reunited and sent to their deaths, they have a short debate with each other about what they've learned and what they think about each other's opinions. Galactica Cavil still refuses to change and promises Caprica Cavil that he's going to box him as soon as they are resurrected, and that he's going to put the Cylons back on the right path.

In all, the show did give us a few answers to mysteries, but the fact that the Cylons' plan was, essentially, no further than "kill the humans" was disappointing. What about the Farm that Starbuck was captured by in Season Two? That was referenced in The Plan, but no explanation for it was given beyond that it was a pet project of the Fours. It was disappointing that there was no overall reason for the Cylons doing what they were doing beyond the attack. No mention of the Olympic Carrier and what the Cylons had done with it. The Pegasus was completely ignored. What the Cylons went through after Boomer and Caprica Six reunited with them was never touched on. The only reason I can find for the Final Five being so secret was that Cavil didn't want anyone else to know about them.

As another "episode", though, I thought it was just fine. I enjoyed seeing some new material for the characters, and it was fun to see Anders and his group trying to build an effective resistance cell. Unfortunately it really de-fanged the Cylons from the beginning of the show. I felt like the idea of the movie was to make the Cylons more sympathetic.


My recommendation: watch it if you like BSG, but don't expect it to be anything more than a lengthy episode. It's not going to shed much new light on the story and not really going to fill in any new plots.

Painting the New Box

Last night I was able to get one of my new models painted up and the last two models based and sprayed. Not much more to say about it. Take a look at Myranda. I may come back and touch her up a little more tonight if I get a chance. I don't like the black boots as much, and I'd like to fix up a few mistakes I've made. But I may just move on to the next one instead. Who knows?

Lilith vs. Victoria(s), 30 Stones

Last night I went by the Parlor to play a game or two of Malifaux. I intended to get a game in against Chris, but timing was not in our favor. I was able to play one of his friends, Tim, though. He plays the Victorias (continuing my trend of only facing one of the three Outcast masters). In our area, she seems a very popular choice. Out of about 10 players last night, three of them were playing Victoria.

We grabbed some really nice city terrain from another guy I met there, John (real nice guy - can't wait to get a game in against him) and played in a city-scape. I flipped Treasure Hunt and he flipped Claim Jump. So we stuck a building in the middle of the map for him to claim and my treasure was sitting right in the middle of the building. Awesome.

I took Lilith, a Mature Nephilim, two Younger Nephilim and two Tots. That left me with a 6 stone cache. Tim took the Vikis, two Ronin, a Convict Gunslinger and Taelor, the massive-hammer girl. That left him with seven stones. Plenty to bring back Viki a time or two. To go with Treasure Hunt, I took Bodyguard and Kidnap while he took Bodyguard and Hold Out. Does anyone ever take anything else (other than the faction-specific ones)? They need new Schemes and Strategies.

I had to deploy first, which was fine with me. I looked over the terrain and decided I had to take the fight to him as fast as possible. If I let him get in the building, my Mature Nephilim (who can't fit through the doorway) would be stuck outside. Plus, I couldn't easily spare a model to run back with the treasure and spend the rest of the game sitting on the sidelines. So my goal was to grab the treasure and kill everything of his in four turns so Lilith could run back with it for the next two turns. Piece of cake, right?

His first action was to activate both Vikis. One moved up and dragged the other one forward. The other one went to ground, then ducked into the building, a couple inches away from the treasure. Holy crap, that sucks!

I went with my Younger Nephilim, flying them up to the building with my first two activations. His models all moved up to right in front of a wall about 4" away from the building. My two Tots moved to the back corners of the building and my Mature Nephilim carried Lilith forward 6". With my last activation, Lilith moved up 6" to the side of the building where another door was, and charged in at Viki. First time I've seen a melee fight start on the first turn. Lilith swung and was able to hit. A moderate damage flip (4) was dropped by a soulstone prevention flip to 2 damage. Not bad for a first blood.

Next turn, he won initiative. Viki was in the doorway so no one else could move in to help him out. He went with Viki first. With three attacks, she ended up burning two more soulstones and I burned one, but Lilith escaped entirely unharmed. Lilith went and, knowing there was an entire force behind Viki, went to ground with her first action, grabbed the treasure with the second, then cut down Viki in the next one, also forcing him to lose another stone. Rather than gaining the blood token, she companioned one of the Younger Nephilim who dove over the house and engaged the Convict Gunslinger, cutting off the attack I knew was about to come from the guy. The Younger failed to hit twice, though and the Gunslinger made him pay for it by shooting him in the face a whole lot, killing him. Better him than Lilith, though. My other Younger flew over and did a couple points of damage to the Convict, which, combined with the black blood from the first one set him back to half. My two Tots sprinted in to combat and engaged one of his Ronin and Convict again. Finally, my Mature flew in and nearly killed his other Ronin. Not bad.

Next turn was a lot more killing. My Mature went first and knocked Taelor down to one life (stupid Hard to Kill and me flipping a Black Joker on the second damage flip left her alive). She responded by flipped a Red Joker for damage on my Mature Nephilim, then another severe making a solid 12 damage. Dead Mature. His Convict Gunslinger was knocked down to one life through Young Nephilim attacks and black blood. My Younger Nephilim had two life left. My Terror Tot killed one Ronin while Lilith finished off the second one. No more returning Vikis this game... The other Viki moved up and polished off one of my Tots, leaving me with a Tot, Younger and Lilith against Viki, the Gunslinger and Taelor.

The beginning of the fourth turn started with the Gunslinger shooting the Younger Nephilim after trying and failing to move out of the 1" range of black blood. Both models died. Lilith, now with a clear path, charged Viki and hit. Dropping the Red Joker for cheated damage, then flipping another moderate, he needed to stop 4 points of damage coming his way. Luck was not on his side and Viki bit it. He called the game there since he had a model with one life left and I still had a Tot to go.

Branching Out in Malifaux

I have everything available for Neverborn at the moment and I've been looking at the other masters in the game. There are two currently that interest me outside the Neverborn batch: Marcus, the beastmaster from the Arcanists, and Leveticus, the steampunk necromancer from the Outcasts. Yesterday, I stopped by the Game Parlor to play a game or two and ended up picking up Marcus' box. I haven't seen him played before, and most people say he's the weakest of the Arcanist masters. I personally like the control and flexibility the model offers, and I'm looking forward to giving him a try. Also, between the Salads and the Waldgeists for Neverborn, I already have a few beasts I can use to buff up his army.

Last night I put together Marcus and Myranda. Here's what I did with them.



For Marcus, I found a bit from an old Iron Kingdoms model, basically a woman who sits around on the base. Marcus is a relatively small model himself, so I wanted something else with him. There was a somewhat ethereal quality to the woman, like another druid, so I felt that would work just fine with him.



Myranda did not look very imposing in her pose, but I wanted there to be a threat to her non-imposing-ness (is that even a word?). I wanted it to look like she was not very threatening until you looked around at where she was: standing on a pile of skulls and bones.

I'm looking forward to trying these guys out. I don't have a lot to use with them yet, especially since Myranda can morph into any animal she wants, but they should be fun to play. Got two more Arcanists to fix up now, the Sabretooth Cerberus and the Razorspine Rattler. Eventually I'll need another Cerberus, I think, and a couple of Hoarcat Prides.

Looking Ahead on TV

Those that know me know how much I loved watching Lost. Even at its low points in seasons two and part of three, before things started picking up again, I still faithfully watched the show. Now, it's all over.

So is 24, for that matter. While it lost a lot of its magic several years ago, I still liked to tune in and follow the plot from time to time, just to see what was happening with the characters I liked. While 24 is slated to get a major motion picture, we won't have another season following Jack Bauer around as he saves the free world as we know it from the evil machinations of terrorists and evil governments (sometimes our own).

Heroes was another show like that for me. I enjoyed the first season, struggled through the next two, and finally gave up a few episodes into the fourth. I still read the recaps though, and liked to keep an eye on the characters, ready to return if the story looked any better at any point.

But this season saw the ending/cancellation of several shows I liked. Lost, 24, Heroes, Better Off Ted, and Dollhouse. None of these things came as a huge surprise to me (except maybe Better Off Ted, though that show never seemed like it had a huge audience).



I had already set up my replacement show for Lost earlier this season too - FlashForward - but they canceled that one too! I'm watching through the West Wing currently having never seen it when it was first on the air, and enjoying it immensely, but I just capped off season 5 there and only have two more to watch. So what's next on my slate?

Well, I'll need something to replace Lost and something for West Wing. My first thought was another older show, the Wire. I've never seen any of them, and to be completely honest, I have no idea what the show's about. But a number of people have recommended the show to me and the reviews for the show were pretty stellar. So I ordered that and figured I'd give it a try. It will be my new West Wing - ready to watch whenever I have a free hour or so I want to enjoy.


Replacing Lost will be a bit harder. Like I said, my first thought was FlashForward, but that's not possible anymore. Other shows that are currently on the air that I'm considering are V or Fringe. I tried to get into V early on and couldn't, only being able to watch the first three episodes of the four-part miniseries. From what I read, it never really got its feet until the season finale. From what I understand, that one episode had more to it than the entire rest of the season. Not a stellar endorsement for the show, but if season two is able to keep up, I could be persuaded to give it a try again.

Fringe, on the other hand, I've already seen the first season to and loved it. The characters were interesting, and the plots were really good. I heard some complaints that the first season had a very "monster of the week" feel to it, but I have to say, watching it myself, I didn't get that impression. People are liking the metaplot that Season Two brings, and that encourages me. The problem here is that I would have to get and watch all of Season Two before Season Three hits the air, and generally they don't release the DVDs with a lot of lead time.

There are a few shows coming up on the major networks that look interesting too. Not many, mind you, but only one needs to be good.


Undercovers
(Spy Action/Drama, Wednesdays 8pm)
Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe) and Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) are a married Los Angeles couple who own a small catering company helped along by Samantha's easily frazzled younger sister Lizzy (Jessica Parker Kennedy).

Secretly, the duo were two of the CIA's best spies until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When fellow spy and friend Nash (Carter MacIntyre) goes missing, the Blooms are reinstated by boss Carlton Shaw (Gerald McRaney) to locate and rescue him.

Thrust back into the world of espionage as they follow leads that span the globe, the pair realise this supercharged undercover lifestyle provides the excitement and romance that their marriage has been missing.

Ben Schwartz also stars. J.J. Abrams, Josh Reims and Bryan Burk will produce.

This one I particularly like because it is written by JJ Abrams. Other than that, I have no reason for wanting to see this show. I'm not a big fan of spy shows in the first place, but who knows. It could be good.


Terra Nova
(Sci-Fi Drama, Mid-Season)
An epic family adventure 85 million years in the making. The action-adventure series follows an ordinary family from the future on an extraordinary journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a part of a massive expedition to save the human race..

Steven Spielberg (“Jurassic Park,” “The Pacific”), Peter Chernin, Brannon Braga (24, “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and David Fury (24, “Lost”) will produce.

This is the only sci-fi show to really hit this season, I think. I don't have high hopes for it - usually these kinds of shows come out all cheesy - but I'm willing to give it a try.


The Event
(Drama/Thriller, Mondays 9pm)
A high-octane conspiracy thriller about Sean Walker (Jason Ritter), an everyman who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his fiancee, Leila (Sarah Roemer), and unwittingly begins to expose a global conspiracy that could ultimately change the fate of mankind.



An eclectic band of strangers soon find their lives affected by his investigations - his shadowy father-in-law (Scott Patterson), the leader of a mysterious group of detainees (Laura Innes), and the newly elected U.S. President Martinez (Blair Underwood).

Ian Anthony Dale and Zeljko Ivanek also star.

Now this is the one I really hope will prove to be good. It sounds like one of those massive conspiracy-type shows that I like. Just don't screw it up or get yourselves canceled before being able to show anything!


No Ordinary Family
(Superhero Dramedy, Tuesdays 8pm)
After 16 years of marriage, Jim and Stephanie's relationship lacks the spark it once had, and their family life now consists of balancing work and their two children. During a family vacation set up by Jim in an attempt to reconnect, their plane crashes into the Amazon River.

Surviving the incident, each of them discover they now possess unique and distinct superpowers. But saving and savoring their family life will be equally important, as they try to find purpose for their new powers and embark on a journey to find out what defines and unifies them.

Michael Chiklis, Julie Benz, Romany Malco, Tate Donovan, Autumn Reeser, Christina Chang, Kay Panabaker, and Jimmy Bennett star..

Finally, there's a new superhero show. I'm nervous that it's billed as a "dramedy", and as far as a premise goes, it sounds like it's not going to be all that good, but I'm a sucker for superhero shows.


Other shows I'm interested in but that aren't going to be coming up on any of the major networks are Song of Fire & Ice (which I don't know when is coming out) and Walking Dead (which I've been told is being produced, but not sure when it comes on).



In the end, I think the best bet of the bunch will be Fringe. It's got a proven track record already and has cleared the difficult part of not being canceled or dropped in the first season. Just need to figure out how I can catch up on the second season before the third one launches.