Movie #191: The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep is a 1946 detective movie starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and a whole bunch of other people who aren't quite as well known anymore.

Bogart plays Philip Marlowe, hired by a rich old dude named Sternwood (Charles Waldron) to find out who's blackmailing his youngest daughter, Carmen (Martha Vickers). Carmen, as it happens, is flighty and has trouble with gambling, drugs and liquor. Her older sister, Vivian (Bacall), has her own issues with gambling, and maybe the blackmailer knows her, too?

The movie, from there, spirals into an absolutely labyrinthine mess of subplots, characters, murder, crime and general noir-ishness. The knots don't get untangled so much as more tightly wound around Marlowe. If you want to know the plots, go read the wiki or read the novel, because no way am I qualified to explain it after one viewing.

What you need to know is that it's really well scripted and acted, and although it's busy as hell, it doesn't feel confusing (even though it is). It reminded me in some ways of L.A. Confidential (I suspect the screenwriters of that movie were, kind of successfully, looking to emulate Chandler). And Bogey and Bacall have some fun dialog and chemistry like whoa, so it's very much worth your time.

My grade: A
Rewatch value: Medium

Next up: Ghost

How an Angel Dies, Part 3: Into the Past!

So! Last time, the characters met Comrade West, learned that they had an angel en route that they could theoretically jack, and learned that they could travel back in time.

Yeah, that last one was kind of weird for everyone.

Well, the next evening (I'm a big fan of treating games like TV series, so fading out and then fading back in when it would be most interesting, rather than tracking every minute of the characters' lives), they all got together at the bar again. Jamie called up Comrade West and asked him about the portal to the 60s. He came to the bar, rather than talk about it on the phone.

West strolled in, wearing a new Cover (he later mentioned that he goes through Covers like some people go through condoms), and talked with the characters about the portal. He told them that Seattle has a few of these "fractures," places that allowed for travel into the past - but it wasn't really time travel. These places seemed to go in cycles, and folks in these pasts can't change things in the present, because the fractures reset themselves (for example, in 1962 it's always the World's Fair). West did say, though, that some manipulation of the past is possible - a clever demon can established a generational aspect to a Cover, making the Cover harder to blow. The demons discussed the implications of all this, but it sounds very God-Machine-y to them.

But if this "Simon" character is going into the past and shoring up an apocalyptic cult (the Fellowship of the Final Awakening), that probably bears investigation, because nothing good ever comes of doomsday cults. The characters therefore spend some time hunting down vintage clothing, and then head down to the Troll.

There, they find a couple of tourists climbing on the Troll and taking pictures. Jamie and Saskia grab cameras and start taking pictures. Jamie winds up taking a dramatic failure on a roll for a Beat, and when Saskia takes her picture on her smartphone, a man in a black suit walks around the corner, wearing shades. He doesn't speak, and the characters realize that he's probably an angel (remember that Jamie has the Flagged Condition from the little incident on the bridge, last session).

Everyone else Spoofs, appearing human to the angel, but Jamie doesn't risk it (she also has to convince it that she's human without Spoofing to resolve the Condition). She takes its picture, and sees, instead of skin, a blue circuitry pattern - definitely an angel. Will, noting this, puts a hand on his gun, but Jamie is chatty and vivacious and eventually the angel leaves, apparently believing that they're all human.

During all this, Edgar notices a ticket stub on the ground. Picking it up, he sees it's from the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, dated September 2, 1962. It's got some grime on it, looks like it's been here a while (but not 50 years). This might give the characters a starting place.

The couple leaves, and they crawl through the window of the Beetle into yesterday. Now they're in Fremont, which in 1962 is pretty unpleasant. They walk up the hill into a more civilized area and find a newspaper - it's Saturday, September 1st, 1962. The ballet is tomorrow night. Edgar uses In My Pocket to pull out some money from the era, and they hop a cab to the World's Far. Jamie uses Lucky Break as they enter a hotel lobby - someone just cancelled their reservation, allowing Edgar to book a room. With accommodations handled, they head to a bar and start drinking.

Saskia finds a rich-looking business man and chats him up. As they talk, she uses Addictive Presence on him, fascinating him (but not completely addicting him yet, because it's an extended roll). The businessman, named Roland Wright, is here from Chicago scouting new technology for his company. This, to the characters, seems like a good person to follow, since they're worried that members of the Fellowship in the 60s might wind up being influential people in the modern day.

Will talks with the bartender, and learns that a guy was in here earlier looking for a bodyguard (Will asked the bartender if he knew of anyone looking for such). The bartender produces the guy's card. It just says a name and a number.

Saskia goes upstairs with Roland, the others share their suit. The next day, they decide, they'll head to the Fair and scout around. They do that, and Saskia finds Roland talking with some other businessmen. She goes over to talk with him, and Roland is pretty mortified and doesn't speak with her (giving Saskia an unfortunate lesson in the social mores and gender roles of the day).

The demons go up to the observation deck of the Space Needle, and several of them sense something weird. Not Aether, just...odd. Trying to pinpoint it, they realize it's coming from a window on the lower deck. Amy feigns a fainting spell, and Luke (a doctor, remember) and the others draw the crowd around her. Edgar, meanwhile, opens the lock, opens the window, and sticks his head out.

He's looking out over modern-day Seattle...but only with his head through the window. The window is another portal, but not an easy on to access, apparently. Edgar can't fly, and doesn't wish to crawl out and climb down, so he closes the window, Amy "recovers," and life goes on.

Saskia had asked Roland to get them all tickets to the ballet, but when she goes back to the room (he gave her a key in the morning), he's moved his stuff out. Feeling perhaps a little salty, she rejoins the others, and they go to procure their own tickets. That's easy enough, though they wind up split, three on one side of the auditorium and three on the other, but now they need evening wear.

They head to the Bon Marche, get fitted for tuxes and gowns, and Jamie goes up to pay, and uses Lucky Break. She's only charged for her dress, which is good, as the characters don't have enough old-timey money for everything, but they also don't have a huge ethical problem with this, so they take their clothes and go.

That night, at the show, Amy, Jamie and Will sit on house left, while Edgar, Luke and Saskia sit house right. They watch the show, and Luke spends a point of Aether and sends out a "ping," looking for other demons (this is risky, because if there are angels around they might notice, but they figure it's a calculated risk). A man in the center of the house, near the front, perks up and starts looking around. Edgar activates Sense the Angelic, but doesn't sense anything, so they figure the man is either stigmatic or some other kind of sensitive. Jamie uses Across a Crowded Room to whisper to Luke "Everything OK?" Luke signs back (since demons all know sign language, as we realized yesterday) that the man in question seemed to notice the Aetheric "ping."

Intermission comes. The man gets up, and the characters notice that he's apparently talking with a half-dozen other folks sitting with him. He walks out, followed by a younger, tougher-looking guy - Will figures this is the guy that was looking for a bodyguard yesterday. They follow him out, and into the men's room, but the bodyguard is just standing watch.

Jamie talks with a couple of the other guys at the bar, and winds up Spoofing instinctively (meaning one of them has a way to check her for being non-human). They don't say anything useful, though, and then head back to their seats. Amy uses Eavesdrop on the group, and realizes that one of them is concerned that this ballet will take too long. But no, the older one reassures him, they'll have plenty of time to get to the site in time for the ritual.

Oh. This, then, would be the Fellowship of the Final Awakening. But what "ritual" are they performing? And does it have anything to do with the Lesser Key of Solomon? Will theorizes that the 35th demon, Marchosias, is the one to watch because JFK (currently in office) is the 35th president.

We shall see.

Promethean: Wanderings

Been meaning to do this all week, keep forgetting. Let's go!

Last time, the characters confronted an angry ghost, helped her move on, and then bedded down in the desert. They all dreamed. Everyone but Matt dreamed of pedestals. The first two held the angels they'd already seen (Angel Costas and the Living Creature), but the others were empty. The seventh one, though, the pedestal was black and cold, drawing light and heat into it. Matt, meanwhile, dreamed of fire, and only escaping the fire by joining it and burning. In the morning, they got their sunrise-Pyros hit, and then headed back to where they'd left the van.

The van, however, was gone. They were miles from town, and another 30 miles on top of that from their trailer. They quickly figured that the van had been loaded onto a flatbed, and they started walking back into town. They came to a truck stop with a diner, and sat down to have some breakfast (remember that Avalon had sold a bunch of her drawings, so they had some cash). The characters talked a bit about what was going on, and Skip made faces at a little boy in a booth (getting a milestone for Playing with Children, but scaring the kid somewhat).

Skip, Enoch and Grimm decided to hoof it out to the junkyard lot where their van had likely been towed, and see what it would take to get it back. Matt decided to hole up somewhere and draw/write in a journal he purchased. Avalon and Feather took showers (actually, I think they all did) and then Avalon got to work on drawing. She also wrote out the word on Feather's forehead.

At the lot (Red's Junk and Towing), the characters discovered that the van was boxed in. Red intimidated Enoch (putting the Bamboozled Condition on him), and charged several hundred more than the characters had. Dejected, they started walking back. Grimm intimidated Skip into admitting that it had been Nergal who crashed the car, but he took a very defiant, unapologetic tone about the incident.

The characters headed to the library. Feather looked up the word on her head, and discovered it was "sister." She remembered being created as a guardian for a young child, so this didn't make any immediate sense. Matt, noticing a librarian staring at him, asked for help finding a book. The librarian noted that Matt looked like a guy who used to be on a TV show called Alabaster Gates, but was unable to remember the actor's name. Matt, now having someplace to start, spent some time searching through the IMDB listing for the show and found...himself.

He had been created from the body of an actor named James Canaday. James had a history of depression, and had jumped off a building in a small town in Pennsylvania while on a location shoot. His body, strangely, had vanished from the morgue there (but we know why that is; he was turned into a Promethean by Lurch). He gained a milestone (Learn His Body's Name).

Skip and Avalon went back to the lot and Avalon challenged the junkyard owner about the bill. He relented, and Avalon used Suggestion and got an exceptional success, so she just got the van back for nothing. On the way back, Nergal talked with Skip, and told him that they should have brought "the guy with the guns." Why? There was something here, something that Nergal felt was important but that he couldn't identify ("it's really more your thing.").

Skip informed the others of this when they all regrouped, and due to his uncommon honesty in explaining where he got the information, the characters decided to go back to the junkyard that night. Maybe pick up some butcher bones on the way to appease the dogs.

Now, the question is, have I ever used the Junkyard from World of Darkness: Mysterious Places in one of my "official" games, or just in cons? I need to check through my records....

Game Design: Savage Worlds/curse the darkness mashup

So, as you may or may not know, we're doing a companion book for curse the darkness. As part of that, I'm doing a Savage World version of the game. And that, of course, requires I examine the rules a bit.

Scenario Creation

I think we keep scenario creation the same, with the five questions and everything. I kinda want to make the "what just happened?" question into a "what is the crisis", because it'll encourage a more in medias res feel to things, which is appropriate for Savage Worlds.

Character creation: 

1. Attributes (no change, everything at d4 and then 5 points to play with)
2. Skills (no change, I'll just make sure they're all listed on the sheet so there's no book-flipping)
3. Hindrances. Now, here's a change. Players familiar with the rules can use the standard Savage Worlds hindrances, if they want. But Hindrances generally fall into three categories: Psychological (compulsions, obsessions, prohibitions on behavior); Physical (-2 on a given kind of physical action or under a given circumstance); Aptitude (-2 to all uses of a given Skill, and you have to have at least a d4 in the Skill). 
4. Edges. Again, if you know them, use the ones in the book. People get two Edges. Hindrances don't give you anything else (speeding up chargen, here). Opener is an Edge. I'm thinking of breaking Edges down along the same lines as Hindrances - Aptitude and Physical is easy enough, but Psychological doesn't easily map. I think dropping the Novice/Seasoned/Veteran thing is probably wise, since characters aren't going to live that long. 
5. No Arcane Backgrounds other than Opener. 
6. Derived traits. As usual, but here at the end, where they belong.

Rules Changes

• Bennies allow you to reroll a roll, as usual. They also allow you to escalate a removal challenge or roll to try and remove a Between Card. 
• No soak. 
• Every time someone Opens or violates the rules (basically anything that would make you give the GM a Between Point in the original system), put a card in the Between Track. When that track hits 5 cards, He notices and a Removal Challenge begins. A given combat can also become a Removal Challenge if the number of cards his the target number during the combat. 
• Players can spend a bennie to roll Spirit, difficulty +1 for each card past 1. 
• Dead is dead, make a new character. 

Removal Challenge vs. Combat

So, combat is combat. You're fighting people or animals, use normal rules. A Removal Challenge is when you're fighting Them. Any combat in the Between is a Removal Challenge. Any combat can become a Removal Challenge if the Between Track hits 5 cards. 

In a Removal Challenge, you take your actions as usual, and determine whether that action lights a candle or curses the darkness. But after every action, you roll d6 + Wild die vs. a d6 + Wild die from the GM. GM wins, you're dead. You win, you live, and you gain a section of Wick (if your action lit a candle). You gain Wick as usual. If you hit the requisite Wick for the story, you can make the essential choice to light a candle. You cannot spend a benny to reroll a live or die roll, but you can spend a benny to escalate, take a new action, and try again. If you succeed after escalation, you get an additional point of Wick (cumulative), but the GM gains a die type for every time you try it.

You can choose to die in place of another character as long as you're not already dead. 

Memory

Memory conversations start at a d4 + Wild and go up one die type for every pertinent fact (that would generate a Memory Point). When the conversation ends, everyone rolls that die. You get either 1 Wick + 1 benny/raise or 1 benny + 1 benny/raise. 

Movie #190: Explorers

Explorers is a 80s movie in the vein of Goonies, Adventures in Babysitting and suchlike - kids going off on adventures to fantastic places. This one stars Ethan Hawke, the late River Phoenix, and Jason Presson as the titular explorers, Dick Miller as the cop who almost catches (because it's a Joe Dante movie and Miller has to show up somewhere), and Robert Picardo as the waaaaaaAAAaaaacky alien.

We start off with Ben (Hawke) dreaming of a vast, 80s-era CGI circuitboard. He draws it, and takes it to his genius, nerdy friend Wolfgang (Phoenix) to build, and along the way picks up tough kid Darren (Presson) when Darren saves Ben from a bully. They discover the circuitboard allows their computer to create a completely indestructible, immune-to-inertia sphere. They quickly the get the idea to build a ship, put it in the sphere, and go flying around. That works OK (one destroyed concession stand later), but then they start getting signals from...somewhere else...and pull the plug. Ben is the only one advocating for continued exploration, while Wolfgang and Darren more reasonably say, "screw that, we want to live."

But then the next night they all share the circuitboard dream, and catch the exploration bug. They go up again (using the newly-dreamed board to make a device that creates air, which was a problem on the first trip), and the aliens hijack control, and take them to their immense ship. And then they (eventually) meet the aliens, who turn out to be kids like them, who just want to know why it is that all these TV shows they keep picking up involve humans meeting outer-space travelers and shooting them.

It's a good movie, and my dad really loved it. It's 80s as hell, though. It struck me that the treatment of bullying in these movies tends to be "eh, boys will be boys." I mean, Ben gets punched in the face. Repeatedly. On school ground. Wolfgang (in a deleted scene) gets confronted by half-a-dozen dues that threaten him. It really goes to show that thinking of the time that not only do the boys not think to do anything about it, but it never gets resolved. The bullying scenes are only there to give Darren a reason to join the group.

Also, Ben's crush, Lori (Amanda Peterson), is treated in a kind of creepy way. I mean, yes, she's lovely and blond and all, and he worships her from afar...but then he uses the sphere to peep in her window. Darren says "she's not going to start undressing this early," and Ben, while he doesn't immediately latch onto that idea, doesn't refute it, either. Yes, these are 12-year-old boys, and having once been a 12-year-old boy, I can't say that it's entirely unrealistic, but "realism" is not my main concern in movies like this. Lori does show the sliiiiightest glimmer of agency at the end, because she witnesses the explorers crash into the river...but she just watches. She doesn't help them, or confront them, or ask to be part of their trip. And indeed, every male in the movie, even the alien, responds to Lori as nothing but a sex object ("I'd like to get my cups on here!").

The only other women in the movie are moms (Ben's and Wolfgang's, and Wolfgang's family, including Dana Ivey and a very young James Cromwell, are probably the best-realized thing in any of the boy's lives), a know-it-all girl named Tricia who sits behind Ben in class, and Neek, the female alien who crushes on Wolfgang (and has very few lines that don't relate to crushing on him). Gremlins is coming up, and it'll be interesting to see if women are presented any better (I rather doubt it). I think if Explorers were made today, one of the explorers would be - definitely should be - a girl.

Anyway, so, it's a good movie, it's nicely non-offensive in terms of violence and language, which means my kids can watch it, but it's also pretty non-inclusive in terms of POC and women, which is kind of a shame, but pretty typical of the era.

My Grade: B
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: The Big Sleep

Promethean: Fightin' Ghosts

Monday was Promethean, so here we are.

The characters were walking into the desert, guided by Grimm's Sense Pyros. They split up into pairs and spread out a bit.

Avalon and Enoch talked about Pandorans and where they came from. Avalon asked where the person's body had gone, and Enoch told her that it had become the sludge of the Pandorans. This took some processing for the Unfleshed to understand.

Skip and Feather talked about Skip and his relationship with Nergal. Feather opined that maybe Nergal wasn't as "under control" as Skip assumed, and Skip said that he knew Nergal was under control...because Nergal had told him so. He then rethought this position.

Matt and Grimm talked about Matt's little shooting lesson from the day before, and Matt said he was over it, but that he hadn't appreciated being made to shoot at his friend. Grimm said he understood. Matt saw a star growing brighter and brighter, and started to avert his eyes, but then heard Lurch (his unintentional creator) say "Be not afraid." He kept looking until the light faded.

At this point, Skip sent Nergal on ahead a half-mile, told him to scout, then come right back and do nothing else. Nergal did so, and then Skip heard him screaming, and started running. Feather took off after him, and the others (while they can't hear the spirit), heard the other two running and followed.

Matt and Skip were the fastest, and as they approached, Skip saw a spectral woman holding Nergal in the air, siphoning energy from him via her fingertips. Skip rushed toward her, and Matt held back. This made a milestone for Skip (Finish First in a Running/Climbing Contest), and fulfilled his Virtue of Fearless. The woman gestured at him and he felt his vision fade, but nothing happened. He punched her, and she dropped Nergal.

The others arrived, but none of them could see the target. Avalon used Aura Sight and saw swirls of color - rage, hate, betrayal and hunger (this fulfilled her milestone of Identify a Non-Human Via Aura Sight). Feather tried to do likewise, but failed and chose to dramatically fail, so she saw Skip's aura catch fire and turned away, momentarily blind. Her head started throbbing - especially a bit on her scalp.

The ghost reached down and called up the sand, and hit Skip with it. It flayed the shirt from this body, as well as a lot of the flesh, and knocked him back. Matt stepped in to try and help, but nonviolently, and tried to talk the unseen force down. It seemed to work (an Avalon confirmed the emotion changing, the rage subsiding). Nergal ran over and crawled into Skip's chest. Other Prometheans (Enoch, Grimm) stepped forward to try and talk to the presence, but she didn't respond. Finally she shimmered and became visible, and Skip noted that she was staring intently at people's mouths when they were speaking.

Matt got the brilliant idea to write in the sand, and she responded verbally. She told Matt that he looked familiar, that he looked like a guy who'd been on a TV show she used to watch - set in Pennsylvania and his character's name was Michael? But she didn't remember the actor (Matt has the Famous Face Merit, y'see). She said her name was Abigail Torres (at which point Enoch gained a milestone: Learn the Name of the Woman Whose Body was Used to Make Pandorans). She said that she had been out here camping, and someone - a very dark-skinned woman with an accent, maybe African - he murdered her. She said she remembered being cut to pieces, and she blew back some sand and showed the Prometheans a box. Inside it was her severed left ear.

On the box lid, though, was a Pilgrim Mark - meaning "guilt." Enoch asked her if she wanted to know the truth (Grimm was in favor of just telling her), and she said she was. Enoch told her approximately what had happened, and then the characters figured that she had probably already been dead when the mysterious demiurge (or Promethean, hard to know) had cut her up. Knowing this, Abigail told them that, if they ever found the woman, to tell her that she wished it had worked. Asked why, she shrugged and said, "it would have at least meant something." And then she collapsed into sand.

The characters looked around a bit, and Feather found a hot spring, buried in the sand. She used her camp shovel to dig it up, and then washed her face off and found something, aching, under her hair - like a scar. She pulled back her hair and had Avalon look at it - there was a Hebrew word carved into her forehead. It wasn't the usual "EMET" for golems, though; none of the characters recognized it. She did gain a milestone, though (Discover the Word in Her Hair).

Realizing that this was a good spot to camp and regain Pyros, the Prometheans bedded down for the night. Feather buried herself in sand, Skip camped near where Abigail had been haunting, Grimm near the campfire and Enoch in the spring (Avalon and Matt are kinda out of luck on this subject).

And we'll pick up tomorrow morning with them going to back to the trailer park.

Movie #189: Get Shorty

Get Shorty is a crime/comedy movie based on the novel by Elmore Leonard, and starring John Travolta, Rene Russo, Gene Hackman, Dennis Farina, and Danny DeVito. Oh, shit, and Delroy Lindo and James Gandolfini and John Gries. And Bette Midler. Shit, man.

So, Get Shorty begins with Chili Palmer (Travolta) not really enjoying his life as a loan shark. His higher-up in the organization, Ray Bones (Farina) hates him and rides his ass, and then he learns that a dude he lent money to and was supposed to have died in a plane crash (David Paymer) is alive and well and living in Vegas. In tracking him down, Palmer agrees to lean on a movie producer named Harry Zimm (Hackman), and gets caught up in Zimm's world of buying scripts he doesn't really own and trying build a name for himself.

The movie's plot is really damned tight, especially for as many characters as there are. The dudes who loaned Harry money are after him to collect, and Palmer tries to help out, but Harry is a complete fuck-up. And into the mix there's this script for a movie that major star Martin Weir (DeVito) is interested in. Maybe. When he's paying attention and not completely smitten with his ex, B-movie star Karen Flores (Russo) or himself.

There's some violence, but it's never over the top. Tarantino was the first choice to direct this movie, and it's disquieting to think how much less funny and how much more violent it would have been had that happened. Instead, even with murder, mayhem, drugs and gunplay, it feels pretty light. Travolta effortlessly plays Palmer as a guy who's good at a job he doesn't really like and really loves movies (which is one of the reasons the sequel, Be Cool, doesn't really work for me - he seems to have lost that love. And Russo). There's very much a theme of "real people have cred, Hollywood people are pretentious twats" and only Palmer really manages to navigate both because he finds the places of intersection. Zimm and Weir are too phony, and the criminals (Farina and Lindo) are too desperate and self-assured to realize that their numbers are up. Humility and self-realization are what save folks like Palmer, Flories, Bear (Gandolfini) and even Zimm.

My grade: A
Rewatch value: High

Next up: Ghost