Inside the Mind of a DM: Part I

Just last night I got to put my DMing cap back on and start my players on a fresh new campaign. I probably have the most experience "Dungeon Mastering" in my group, and I have a lot of pride in creating good memorable campaigns. I was originally planning on writing a short bit of fiction about the party as I have done previously, but I left my notes with the characters names on it at home. So instead I thought I would right down my thoughts about what goes on in the mind of a DM, at least this DM.
What motivates me to take the role requires the most prep work, actually study the rules like one would a high school text book before a quiz, and just over all requires more work? By my nature I am a pretty lazy person, which the frequency that I remember to update my blog will attest to. DMing is one of the things that snaps me out of that really bad habit. I genuinely love crafting a story that I can see people enjoy. It is the joys of writing mixed with instant gratification. At least more instant in compared to trying to write a book. Seeing them enjoying what I make is really uplifting.
I started planning this campaign a few months ago. I had a few goals in mind for this run.
1: Something different.
- With this group I have primarily run the same campaign for five years. It was very political for a DnD game. There was combat less then half of the sessions. Until much later in it gods and religion in general did not have any influence in the world, much less my story. There was relatively little magic. I wanted something different and fresh this time around. I had a wonderful cast of NPCs that were interesting, entertaining, and great; but the PCs have been interacting with the same set of them for 4 plus years.
I felt that it was time for a change. My current game is, as I have planned it, going to have completely different focuses. Less political maneuvering and rubbing elbows with royalty, more mystery and horror.
2: Have a strong mix between railroad plots and open sandbox.

- Time for a little side trip into DMing 101. This seems to be one of the hardest things to balance in role playing games. Games that have a specific plot where the DM refuses to let anyone change is referred to as a "railroad." They get on one track and do not allow changes in direction. This is effectively the DM telling a story with the characters have no meaningful input. On the opposite end of the spectrum there is the open environment, a "sandbox" to play in.. Where the characters do what ever they want in a world that is only superficially guided by a DM, no direction, no real purpose. Personally I feel that straying to far in either direction is a mistake. Both are removing the best part of role playing games, the interaction.
The DM is more than a story teller (each and every player in fact, is a story teller), he is a director. He should control each and every part of the story, and instead guide the story in a way to make sure everyone is having fun. Things getting boring? Time for a some action! Player feeling left out? Put in something that their character would be particularly good at solving. Things getting too predictable? Add some twist or new plot element. Players stuck with indecision? Either drop them a hint or force them to make a quick decision with some new danger. Everyone having a good time working out whats in front of them? Sit back and do not interfer!
I know what I want in general to happen in my game, and will take steps to guide the players there naturally.
ehem.... back on track now...
3: Take advantage of having a co-DM
-This will be the first time I will have a co DM, she does have her own character, who is built more like a glorified NPC than an actual character. She knows what is going on with the plot and any time a player has to go into the other room to talk about things that the rest of the party shouldn't know, one of us can do that, while the other continues the current action.
4: Controlling the tone
-This has to do with what I touched upon into my brief trip into DMing 101: The DM is the director. I want a certain tone for this game. Dark without being grim: more along the lines of "creepy." The characters should often feel unsettled about whats going on around them. Not a constant state of fear, nor avoiding any humor. The "template" I wanted to follow was Full Metal Alchemist. The tone was dark over all, but allowed for moments of humor and hope. It was a very good mix in my opinion that kept the show interesting and dramatic.
5: A set, contained story.
-After playing one game on and off for several years, this time I want to tell one specific story that will have a beginning, middle and end.
6: Don't plan the end, but plan the part right before.
-I would say I have very little of the plot preplanned. Just a chunk near the end. It is my goal to get the players there. It is very open ended and won't take too much work to, and doesn't plan for their actual reaction to what I have planned (if I did, then they don't really get a choice in what happens and thus: rail road.) Having this near end game in mind right at the beginning, I can lay down the ground work early.
7: Start them right in the story.
- Screw starting them in a tavern, they started off being introduced to the last member of the party to join the team, and being told what their mission was? How did they meet up and start adventuring together (especially since one of them is playing a potato farmer?) Maybe there will be a flashback to cover that.

That is enough rambling for now, later on I'll go into specifics during the game itself.

Is it worth it: Fright Night?

In a small in isolated town out side of Las Vegas, former nerd Charley Brewster is starting to...

"Vampire"

...er there have been several unexplained...

"It's a vampire, traditional rules of stakes, sunlight, garlic and crosses apply. Let's hurry up."

Ummm well there is a detailed mystery of who this dark stranger...

"New neighbor, 'Jerry.' Stop stalling."

Fine... "Fright Night" is a fast paced, no apologies vampire movie. It doesn't waste any time setting up the plot or introducing the characters. It quickly establishes that the usual vampire rules are in effect. It doesn't attempt to justify or explain them. BAM you are in a vampire movie, adapt to that or die painfully.

Their method of doing this was actually quite simple, they picked up the movie a quarter of the way in. Before the movie started, local geek and the movies first Cassandra, Ed has already suspected, track and started hunting vampire Jerry. As he is played by Mclovin' Christopher Mintz-Plasse, he very well could have been the main character of the movie, if he wasn't made to be part of a Jerry's well balanced diet within the first 10 minutes of the movie.

No, the protagonist of the movie (although I'd argue against calling him the star) is actually Charley Brewster, played by Anton Yelchin. If their name isn't familiar to you then it was the guy who played the new Chekov in the Star Trek reboot and Kyle Reese in Terminator: Salvation, so fantasy/scifi should feel pretty comfortable to him. The premise of the character is that he is a former geek who is ashamed of his nerdy ways because now he is hanging out with the cool kids and has a super hot girlfriend. Anton does a great job in this roll, playing a character who is flawed but likable. He proves himself to be just the right amount of "resourceful survivor" and "kid way out of his league", that makes for an interesting hero in a horror flick.

Toni Collerre and Imogen Poots are the hero's mother and girlfriend respectively. I don't want to give away too much about what happens to them later on in the movie but early on it follows as you'd expect. The characters are not very fleshed out, but they are not completely two dimensional either. They have enough character to leave make the audience care about their well being, but don't take so much screen time that it bogs down the story. Enough of them however... time for the starts of the show.

David the Tenth Doctor Tennant. Not playing some brilliant time lord here. No, here he is playing a fowl mouthed famous stage magician with professed knowledge of the occult. He is the go to guy for vampire lore, a person who seems every bit as dangerous as the vampire the hero is facing, a collector of holy artifacts and weapons, and he wears leather pants. Tight... tight leather pants. Despite his... distracting wardrobe, he manages to play an interesting and mysterious character, arguably the one with the most dimension.

Colin Farrell plays a fantastic vampire. As McLovin' says, he is not some doey eyed love struck heart throb, he is a killing machine. He is Jaws. He kills people brutally, drinks their blood, then goes and watches some TV. He is old, powerful, and smart. He is everything a vampire villain should be.

So... the acting is great, how about the rest of it? As I mentioned the stories pacing was very fast paced, but it never felt rushed. It hits the ground running, and gives us just enough pauses so we can catch our breath before we start running for our lives again. I saw the movie in stunning wonderful 2D, because well, I'm not a huge fan of 3D and tend to avoid it when I can. There are some VERY obvious scenes that are meant to exploit the 3D. It actually looked good but I could see it being distracting for some. Also noticeable are the product placements. Man Century 21 must have spent some serious coin on this movie. Now that said, they actually did a great job making the placements not only make sense, but actually become important to the plot in a few cases.

The story is what makes or breaks a movie for me, like most people I would think...or at least hope. Fright Night delivers this well. It manages to be both traditional and fresh when it comes to a monster movie. The movie seems predictable for the most part, but it does manage to keep you on your toes or even surprise you. There is no "big twist," so the surprises are natural and flow well with the rest of the story. Again I don't want to spoil the ending, but let me assure you, it doesn't disappoint.

So is Fright Night worth it? As someone who has never seen the original, yes. I knew of the original movie but never have actually seen it. This movie now makes me want to. It is well done on multiple levels, has a great mix of horror and really funny moments. Fright Night, it starts off strong, and stays that way.

Is it worth it: Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan?

Stealth... misdirection... cunning... cats...

These are the tools at the disposal of the ninja. AEG's new strategy game of hidden movement. Created by Fréderic Moyersoen, this game is for one to four players. The action takes place in a Lion stronghold, one player playing the diligent and numerous guards of the Lion clan, the other a pair of ninja trying to carry out their secret objectives.

I must start this off with the precursor, I am a fan of Legend of the Five rings and, when I played the CCG, I played the Scorpion clan primarily, and the Lion clan as my "back up." Needless to say, when I first learned about this game, I was pretty excited. While I have removed myself from the CCG lifestyle (which will probably be a focus of an upcoming "Is it worth it") I am still a large supporter of AEGs creation.

For those of you who do not know, the Legend of the Five Rings is a collection of games that share a rich, detailed story in the world of Rokugan. Originally a collectible card game, it has also spawned a now defunct miniatures war game, as well as a role playing game which is currently on its forth edition. As the newest addition to the L5R family, Ninja has a lot to live up to.

Having the chance to play a few games on both sides, I'll try to answer the question that any potential buyer must ask himself, "is it worth it?" I am going to try to be as objective about this as I can be, but remember, my name "facedown ninja" came from somewhere...

The game play revolves around each player having a paper copy of the game board. The Scorpion player uses this paper to track down where he actually is on the board, and where he places things like secret passages and ropes to scale walls. The Lion player uses the board to mark down where all the different possible mission objectives are, two out of the six the Scorpion player actually will actually care about, as well as hidden guards and "traps."

As the Scorpion player does actions that raise suspicions; the alert level increases and the Lion player gets to draw more cards and thus take more actions. The guards have a fairly short term memory however, and as long as the Scorpion player lays low for a while, the alert will decrease. Time is on the Lion's side: the Scorpion has only twenty turns to complete both objectives and escape. Not only that but the Scorpion is limited to the cards he starts with, and can not draw any more.

As a quick run down

Lion Advantages:

-Card Draw

-Number of units

-Unlimited Resources

-Knowledge of where the objectives are

-Time Limit

Scorpion Advantages

-Invisible movement

-Faster Units (3 spaces vs 4)

-Stronger Abilities

-Knowledge of secret passage

-Tougher (3 hits to kill vs 1)

The board looks great. The pieces are all great. I especially love that the traitor's cat is actually on the pawn. They give you plenty of maps to use, plus you can go online here to download the pdf to print out more copies. There is easily the potential for making new maps to try a different layout, although the given one seems like it has enough room and diversity to not get old any time soon.

For all that is good about the game, there are some note worthy penalties. Some of the spaces are not quite clearly defined on the map, the walls are not highlighted and are a similar color as the stone pathways, leading to some confusion. This is not too big of an issue however as the paper maps have everything clearly labeled. Still a better border around the walls would have helped. There also seems to be a misprint in one of the sample pictures in the rule book. The Lion player can put some sleeping guards in specifically marked spaces that he can wake up later. In a sample picture it shows the donation of a sleeping guard (an S) on a space without the mark. Maybe I misread it or maybe an earlier version of the game had a mark there.

Then there is an issue with listening. The mechanic itself works great. The further a ninja moves, the more spaces away he can be heard. So if he moves two squares then any guard two spaces away from where he ended up can hear him. The guard can then move two spaces if he did hear him. Walls and moats do not affect hearing, only actual number of spaces away. All of this is clearly explained on the card. What is NOT explained is that after the guard hears him to raise the alert by one. Granted the card does say to check the complete rules for listening and even lists the page number... but... why?

This was the only other part of the listening rule... and it is very important, but it is not mentioned on the card. This is the main way Lion is able to make sure they have card draw. There seemed to be room on the card to put that in, especially if you take out the message that says effectively "to read the part of the card that we didn't want to put on here, go to page 8." I am harping on this because I made this mistake the first game I played, and I had a really bad time that game. I was playing Lion and it only lead to frustration. I figured that the guards had no real chance against the ninja, that the game isn't balanced at all, and the game itself failed to be fun (for the lion anyways, my opponent had a smile on her face as she completed her missions without a guard so much as noticing that Akodo Sven hasn't come back from the bathroom yet .)

As it turns out, the game is well balanced. After that mistake was corrected every game I had sense then was reasonably close, with both players either drawing, or could have drawn if I didn't get greedy.

The box says it takes 45 minutes to play, after my first game I was ready to call AEG a filthy filthy liar, but after several goes... yeah I can very well picture it taking that long. A better guess would be an hour from what I've seen, but I suppose once you really get used to it, you'll be able to go much faster.

The game is really designed for two players, and it shows. Adding more players just splits up the existing pieces and actions between more players. I have not had the chance to try it with four people yet, but I think it'll work... although it is obviously ideal for two. There are some optional rules in the back to add some replayability. It is quick to set up as well as quick to clean up. The box holds everything quite nicely.

At about $50 I would say that yes, this game is worth it. It isn't a "must have" by any stretch of the definition, but it offers a lot for the price. You do not need to be a previous L5R player to enjoy the feel of sneaking around an enemy castle and opening up a can a Tenchu on some poor "honored house guest." The art work is stunning, the game play is solid, and the theme is very immersive. Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan, coming to a shadow near you.

Click here to read Sara's take on the game (with actual pictures!)

Character Profile: Xander

Xander
Race: Drow
Class: Warlock (Dark Pact)/ Multiclassed into Paladin
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Xander heard whispers early on in his life. Promises of power from unknown forces. Growing up in the brutal world of the Underdark, he needed any help he could get. Thus he began tapping into the arcane powers of the creatures of shadow. The female priestesses of Lolth thought VERY poorly of him. It was not his place to have power that wasn't granted by their goddess, and thus he was a threat that had to be eliminated. They chained him and tortured him, hoping to break him before his death. Imagine his surprise when, a young female paladin slaughter his jailers. For reasons he still does not understand, she freed him and the two escaped together.

Joining up with other adventures, Xander proved himself to be useful, if double edged, companion. Willing to drain the life energies of his allies, his magic carves devastating effects into his enemies. Often the paladin took the brunt of this damage, with a smile. Xander proved to be sadistic, twisted and most surprising of all... loyal. When ever the paladin was in danger he put himself in harms way to protect her, and unleashed the full fury of his might to protect her. While the rest of the party always felt uneasy by he presence, something Xander himself delighted in, the paladin always said she felt safer when he was around. He might never admit it, but he cared for her deeply. Already he had taken some of her teachings to heart... although it remains to be seen if it will be enough to turn him from the dark path he walks upon.



Author's Note
Xander was a short lived character of mine. Made in conjunction with Mary's paladin character, I was able to make an "evil aligned" character that was more then just the Black mage/Richard/ Belkar. He had a strong reason for being in the party and the chance for real character growth. Sadly the campaign he was in only lasted about 3-4 sessions, but I was able to do subtle but powerful bits of growth with him. The time that Mary's paladin was knocked down (which happened a lot to that character if I remember correctly...) He really did flip out and protected her relentlessly.

The other thing I enjoyed was I don't usually play the damage dealer... and Xander was a hell of a damage dealer. His build allowed for incredible amounts of damage for a low level character. It was fun to see an enemy and just say "no, you should not live" and make that come true in one standard action.

Also, naming him after a Buffy character was fun. If I remember correctly, some of the other party members did the same.

Character Profile: Gadeebee Seebo Grizzley DePaul of the Turan Clan III

Maestor Gadeebee Seebo Grizzly DePaul of the Turan Clan III
Race: Gnome
Class: Artificer (originally a bard without perform)


Gadeebee was always innovative and creative, believing that curiosities should almost always be explored. He found at a young age that he was able to grasp concepts and idea that stumped even the wisest of elders in the Turan clan. A humble little village of gnomes, they had lead relevantly peaceful lives, until the trolls showed up. The trolls laid siege to them, only to be driven off by a group of adventurers. Gadeebee instantly fell in love with the idea of becoming an adventurer, and immediately proved his worth by crafting useful items for the adventurers. Arranging a series of traps around his home filled with acid and alchemist fire, the trolls were beaten back. His home safe, he decided that he should explore more of the world and became an adventurer himself.

Gadeebee is an exceptionally daring adventurer, surviving thanks more to luck and quick thinking rather then any combat ability. He has a bad habit of finding traps... and purposefully activating them to see how they work. His plans often bordered on the insane (making a giant buzzsaw bicycle to deal with zombie lumberjacks) but often led to amazing results (defeating an army using only level 0 spells) sometimes to epicly absurd levels (punching a positive energy hole the size of a kingdom in Ravenloft.)

Gadeebee ended up marrying his love, rubbed elbows with the great gob Jobob, and founded his own school. He proved that knowledge and creativity was a force as great as any army, as any spell, as any god.


Author's notes
I will never have a character as memorable or successful as Gadeebee was. Through some VERY generous DM interpreting the rules, and a blunt focus in what he did, he was able to create ANY magical item, without cost, in 8 hours. This ability was actually not abused as much as it could have been, with Gadeebee preferring silly, creative solutions rather then blunt force. Of course when an explosion was required... he made a point to make the biggest one he could, just ask Ravenloft :D

The idea of a purely support caster was something I've done before. In a short lived game that was run by either Tim or John, I played a bitter, cranky Dwarf Wizard that had only buff spells. That character was based off of Dr. Smith, complete with creative insults to the party fighter who did all of the dwarfs heavy work for him. Despite it only running maybe 5 sessions I had a ball playing him and vowed a way to bring him back.

A couple of years later I started college, met Brian, and got back into DnD. I showed up on day one with a character with no combat ability other then tricking a goblin that he should drink a bottle of alchemist fire... no really.

Gadeebee's name, well the "Gadeebee" part, was actually from the sound that I imagined what a dying goblin sounds like. The rest of it was from what I read that in 3.5 DnD, Goblins were given a different name by each of their family members and each important figure in their life. I fell in love with the idea and decided I wanted to make him have the longest name that I could remember.

I did have his back ground story about the Turan clan being at odds with the troll planned as an explanation for him always keeping Alchemist fire and acid on hand... nothing came of it though.

Character Profile: Prince Sirius

Sirius Nathan Beryl

17 Years old at start of story.

5'10

Long, straight, White hair

Fair Complexion

Skinny

Dark Blue Eyes

Armor: Black with a silver trim

Weapon: Wields a light fencing sword as opposed to the heavier swords his brothers use.

The youngest of the five Beryl brothers, Sirius was born after the King had disappeared. Due to the timing and his appearance being strikingly different than his father or brothers, it was a popular rumor that he was from an affair. Being named after a prominent general certainly compounded those rumors.





He was the only one of his brothers who enjoyed any sort of affection from his mother. She took interest in his upbringing outside of the harsh lessons she gave all her children. Drakin was old enough of the time to watch over him as well, playing more of a fatherly figure to him then one of a brother. Because of this attention and genuine care showed to him, he grew up believing what his family was doing was for the best, even as they carved the world asunder with war.





Despite being foretold to be the "Destroyer of Hope" he himself is actually the most optimistic of the brothers, besides perhaps Jerik. He earns his title by being the messenger send to other kingdoms and announcing Negus's ultimatum: surrender and be integrated into Negus's society and enjoy full privileges and rights as citizens, or be completely razed to the ground.


Despite being a less accomplished swordsman then most Negus soldiers, he actually remains a huge threat on the battle field. He has the supernatural ability to heal others, with but a touch life threatening injuries fade to mere scars. There are limits to how much he can heal in a given time and it seems he is much more capable in healing Shaokin then he is normal humans. Much of his training involves learning as much about medicines, antidotes and alternative treatments. For any injury or poison that he comes across, he often can find multiple ways to save the patient, relying on his power only when there isn't time for a longer treatment.





Author Notes:
Sirius was created to fill in a gap. The number five felt natural to me at the time (I blame Captain Planet) so I wanted to make sure there were five brothers. The rest of the brothers created, I realized that, if they were an adventuring party. They would need a healer. Boom! Sirius was born. I based how he looked based off an old Magic the gathering card: Justice (which also went on to inspire the template of the armor all the brothers wear.)

He was the first of the Brothers to meet the current adventuring party. I wanted to emphases that these people, who are the big bad and are doing all these horrible things, are still people and have some good in them. As such I was heavy handed in Sirius explaining how good and right his brother Drakin was. DJ actually just called him a "fan boy" of his brother and I realized that was exactly how I was playing him. This cemented Sirius's personality for me, as well as reminded me to not fanboy my own creations again (at least not as blatantly)

Is it worth it: Captain America: The First Avenger?

Captain America: The First Avenger

There was certainly a lot of hype about this movie, more then the last 4 Marvel movies combined as far as I noticed (seconded only by the upcoming Avengers movie.) Every time we went out to see one of them the reaction I kept hearing, "Oh yeah it was great/good/okay/ sucked leprous nutts, but what I'm really waiting to see is what they do with Cap!" Well last Friday I got to see what they did with Cap, and seeing if all this hype has been worth it. I will try to avoid some of the big spoilers but be warned, there may be some.

The movie follows a pretty clear three act structure. The first act introduces Steve Rogers and his struggle to help out his country. It gives a few defining examples of how he was actually worth giving this incredible opportunity to, and not simply "lets see if we can give the twig muscles." While he is patriotic and brave, he isn't foolhardy nor is he played up as being naive. He has ideals and he seems to know that upholding those ideals is an uphill battle. He really wants to prove himself, not out of a sense of pride, but out of duty. This movie handles the "sike-hitler" scene much much better then the old Captain America movie (didn't know about that one, that link will provide everything you need to know.)

The second act is actually a really clever way to get all the cheesy obligatory things about Captain America out of the way... like... his name... or his costume... without going into too much detail he goes on a PR campaign per the orders of a Senator.This... makes sense. It is campy and silly, but it makes reality hit even harder once it is over, when he stops entertaining civilians and convincing them to buy war bonds and enlist, and goes over seas and meets soldiers, soldiers that don't give a shit about some blue spandex wearing mascot. After getting very much booed offstage he learns that there is a situation where some soldiers are trapped. He mounts a one man rescue mission and meets The Red Skull for the first time. He rescues the prisoners and for the first time, earns the full respect of soldiers. This act was all about proving himself to not just be a symbol, but by being a real hero.

The last act is the climax (obviously.) After getting Hydra (the Red Skull's organization) on the run. Hydra mounts a huge offence against... well... everyone.Cap suits up goes in for one long mission that I am only going to say it proves what a complete bad ass he really is, and why he is Marvel's iconic hero, in their world filled with super heroes.

Looking at the movie as a whole, the acting ranged from decent to great. Christopher Evans proved himself to be able to play a hero... something I didn't think he did in any other movie I've seen him in *cough...cough.* Tommy Lee Jones had a larger part then I thought he would and was of course awesome. Captain's love interest was interesting. They stayed far away from making her cliche. She was actually a bad ass, not overly done like Black Widow was in Iron Man 2, but just a strong determined character who just happened to be in love with the lead role. Most notably was the fact that she was not rescued by Cap. She was never captured, she never had a gun pointed at her head, or her arm grabbed that inexplicably rendered her helpless. The one time she was pushed out of the way of incoming car is because she was trying to get a clear shot at the driver.

Buckey was an interesting twist, played as the guy who used to protect Steve to the guy that follows his orders. You can tell there is a little jealousy there, but despite that, there is still a lot more respect on not only how far his friend has come but for the man who he had always been.

Hugo Weaving... do I have to say anything about this? Is there a doubt in anyone's head that this man can play a bad ass villain. Granted this villain is pretty one dimensional when all is said and done, but he makes it WORK. He turns that single sided nature of Red Skull and does it justice, not by trying to add more dimension where there shouldn't be, but by playing someone who you can believe is THAT focused, THAT obsessed and THAT dangerous. He isn't Magneto, there is never a point where he hints at being sympathetic, or a troubled past. You can't even say he is being crazy and evil for the sake of being crazy and evil like the Joker. He isn't dedicated to the cause of being evil, he is dedicated to his naked ambition. He will do anything, anything to achieve that, and there isn't a doubt raised that there was ever a line he hesitated crossing.

The special effects were great, as well as the fight scenes. If you are going to see the movie JUST for the action, you won't be disappointed. Between the 2nd and third act there is a "montage of action scenes" that just shows that he was bad ass in the war. It is pretty cool but the whole things amounts to "we need awesome scenes to put into the trailer." Still they looked nice.

In summery, to answer the question I proposed earlier, I must say resoundingly yes. It isn't quite a war movie, and it isn't quite a super hero movie. It is a movie about a man who became not only the hero that heros enspire to be, but just the good person that people enspire to be.

First Class

X-men: First Class. I went in to see this movie with high hopes that I acknowledged would probably be shattered. The last two X-men movies were... well absolute shit. I mean that, Wolvereen Orgins remains one of the worst movies I've ever seen of all times. I think Mega Piranha was a better movie... Fucking Mega Piranha. The idea of a prequel that focused on Charles and Erik, coupled by a promising looking preview, actually got my hopes up. What happened at the theature, I was not expecting... This may be one of the greatest movies I have ever scene.

There were certainly some problems, mostly due to there being characters that were just not needed in the long run (Banshee, Angel, (not Warren), Riptide, Darwin, I'm looking at you) As long as you just accept that these guys are here just as a nod to fans and are ment to be just bit characters, it is easy to overlook. Also I didn't care for the actress that played Emma Frost, she seemed way to Stepford Wife-ish in both apperence and attitude.

Those issues become extreamly minor when paired against what this movie does right. I thought it was well paced, they fit in a lot of action and plot in just about every scene. Not so much that it feels rushed but enough that I can't think of any scene that seemed to drag on. The villian was certainly over the top at times, but he had a real prescence of being a huge threat but still having swave nature. He would have felt right at home as a James Bond villian.

Ah but I havn't meantioned why this movie was good, all of these things are in line with the other X-men movie, so what made this movie so much better? Easiy, the amazing reputation between Xavier and Erik. They got it right. They got it right in a huge way. This is not the two chracters as we have seen them on film thus far. It focuses on showcasing each of there strengths and weakness. It shows Xavier being at times cold, distant, and arrogent, while Erik being heroic, nurturing , and kind. It makes you want to keep rooting for him (Erik) and hoping that he will make the correct choices, despite knowing how it's going to end. Seeing the relationship between those two grow makes for an extreamly good show.

The cinematography was good, they took a few chances with how they shot things but scoring high marks with the results. It seemed very grounded in terms of realisticly fitting into the setting (the 1960s if you were unaware.) While there is humor to be found in it, the movie takes itself seriously and allows for the audience to do so too.

I don't think I can go much more into this without a spoiler tag so...

for the tldr; summary: freakin' awesome. I'll rank it right up with Iron Man and Dark Knight.

Rob's Top Twelve List of Best Designed Games

Been a while since I posted anything and while I wasn't in the mood to write any fiction: I did want to get into the habit of writing so I thought I'd pull a play from Doug Walker's play book (http://thatguywiththeglasses.com) and pull out a a favorite list of game I thought were really well designed. Why top twelve? Because I felt like one-upping Doug.

Note: These are the games that I've played that I felt are the best designed, not specifically my favorites.

Without any further ado: My Top Twelve List of Best Designed Games

12: Gobblet
Originally I had this spot with Connect Four, but as I was writing that I remembered a superior descendant of Tic-Tac-Toe

Tic-Tac-Toe is one of the most basic games anyone has ever come up with. It is simple elegant and requires a little strategy. The big issue is that it can be "solved." If the first player knows what she is doing then she can never lose. An AI said it best with "the only way to win is not to play." This keeps it from being anywhere near my list... its awesome "sequel" however does not have this issue, and thus turns into a game that: nearly anyone can pick up, is fun, and isn't "solvable."

11/10 Thunderstone /Dominion (No perticular order)
I feel pretty comfortable letting these two share a spot. Deck building games have become quite popular, with Dominion leading the charge. In terms of straight forward mechanics, I think Dominion is better designed. It has simpler mechanics and all the mechanics blend seemlessly with one and other. Thunderstone is more complex and alows for more interesting strategies, but some of the mechanics are awkward and feel very much tacked on (especially, since if you remove the dungeon... you are in fact playing dominion.) This game would be much higher on the list if there wasn't some issues with the balance level of the cards. I have yet to play a game that included village and it wasn't the first pile gone, and the cards with discard abilities in thunderstone are overly potent. There is also a pretty low "blue shell factor" which is annoying in a multipalyer game (I will go into what that means in a future post if you don't know)

9: Star Craft The Board Game
I was a pretty huge fan Twilight Imperium and this game takes the parts about it that I liked the most and stream lines it. While the set up time of the game is a bit off putting it is worth it. Combat is very well handled and leaves a chance for multiple different strategies and builds. The different races and factions are very well balanced with one and other. While there are many different options none (so far in my playing) has come across as "must do to win." What else can I say besides... "GG"

8: Battle Star Galactica
This game which is Shadows over Camalot INNNNN SPACCCEEEEEE, has an awesome mechanic which a traitor (cylon) can secretly undermine the players. Also each character has great and fairly well balanced abilities. The game is certainly balanced on the side of the Cylons but that isn't specificly a bad thing. There is a great challenge to the game and while the humans may not win often, it feels great when they do. This would rank higher then Shadows if it wasn't for the fact that the awesome subterfuge mechanic that I love so much MIGHT be unused as it has been pointed out that one most damaging thing a Cylon can do is reveil themselves asap. If I can disprove this theory, which I really want to, I will gladly edit this list.

7: Shadows over Camelot
What I concider to be the essentual co-op game for people who love co-op games. The knights are well balanced with each other, and none are really required (although King Authur may be fittingly close.) Each quest has related but slightly different mechanics that are both easy to explain to anyone with a little knowledge of poker and requires a little planning. The fact that the traitor is optional is very interesting, and the traitor has good reason to try to go undiscovered until the end.

6: Texas Hold'em
My personal favorite flavor of poker. I love how much strategy goes into poker when the vast majority of the cards are public knowledge. While luck is of course still a factor, it makes the game focus more about your: knowledge of your odds, ability to bluff and read your opponents, and risk vs reward assesment. That is a HIGH amount of pay out for keeping the same basic idea of poker and adding a twist (kinda of like what Gobblet did to Tic-Tac-Toe.)

5: Spy Alley
Probably the most underated game I have on the list, with everything else being popular to either hardcore gamers, mass market, or just the general population; Spy Alley is an simple game with simple mechanics, but those mechanics are so well thought out and designed that it creates a game that is both a lot of fun and really interesting. Since I am sure few people reading this have played it let me go a bit more into the game itself:
Every player is secretly dealt a nationality. To win they have to get all the required gear for their nationality. Everyone's gear however is public knowledge, and anyone can skip their turn and risk being eleminated from the game to eleminate you by trying to guess your nationaliy. This core mechanic is something I really enjoy and certainly was something I thought about when I was designing Obsession for Murder. That influence along cinched it a spot on this list.

4: Carcassone
How could I not put this on here? The play style is unlike just about everything else. It's expansions seemlessly add to the game and complament the existing rules. There is plenty of strategy, fun, and replayability. Just about everything is perfect. This game needs zero justification for being on this list, and instead concider everything that I write to be me justifying the why I put any game above it.

3: Settlers of Catan
Right up there with Carcassone in turms of Eurogame classic. The reason it is higher then Carcassone goes against how I ussually rate games, it is the more complex of the two games but it WORKS. The multiple different strategys for this game work really well, from trying to fight to get longest road, trying to get a solid "cock ring" around a perticular sweet spot, focusing on building cities or getting cards. Wheeling and dealing for trades, everything in the game works well with one and other.

2: Go
One of, if not the oldest games still played today; there is good reason it has lasted so long. The mechanics of it are very very simple. You want to control the most spaces by surrounding it. The only way to do this is to place your piece on the board. That is is, there are no cards, no dice, no "this piece can move here or attack this way or move twice on it's first turn" It is simple challenging and for a long time was number one this list. The reason it isn't is also one of the reasons I actually like it so much: the end game. The game ends when both players agree that it has ended. Players must agree who owns what, if there is a disagreement, then play continues. This is a rather elegant and polite way of ending a game, in theory, but the ideal that it could actually continue indefinitly if someone was stuborn or just an ass is rather frusterating from a mechanical level. Again: I honestly like that aspect of the game but I think it hurts it when looking purly at the mechanics.

1: Quarto!

We have come full circle, as I have begun and ended this list with what can be concidered an evolved form of Tic Tac Toe. I recently played this again after a long time of it collecting dust on a shelf, and was blown away by despite how straight forward the rules are, how much strategy goes into the game. Like Spy Alley, I can not assume people have played this one so let me explain. Quarto! is for two players, who take turns playing pieces on a 4x4 board. There are 16 unique pieces, each having a different comination of four attributes. A piece can be: tall or short, dark or light, Flat topped or indented, or circular or squared. The idea is that you want to be the one to play a piece that connects four shapes all shairing one trait. The challenge is that you are giving your piece by your opponent making for a very short, easy strategic game. It isn't my favorite game on this list, but the simplisity of the rules while allowing for such a rich game that doesn't get old as you play it again and again, the reoccuring, well used theme of the number 4 in the mechanics, and the speed which the game can be picked up and played leaves me feeling this game design was an overwhelming success