Spes Magna Games

I’ve watched four movies recently, and I recommend all of them without reservation.

Wife Katrina, daughter Adrienne, and I watched Chasing 3000 Saturday evening. Here’s the trailer. This film stars Trevor Morgan and Rory Culkin as Mickey and Roger, two brothers from Pittsburgh who move to California when their mother (Lauren Holly) acts on doctor’s advice that the climate in the Golden State would help Roger’s muscular dystrophy related cardio-pulmonary problems. Mickey hates the move, mostly because he believes that he is asked to sacrifice too much for his younger brother, but also because the move takes him away from his grandfather (Seymour Cassel) and their beloved Pittsburgh Pirates and Roberto Clemente.

Like all the best baseball movies, Chasing 3000 is not really about baseball. It’s about family, sacrifice, growing up, and, most movingly, about the very real impact that a public figure worthy of admiration can have on the lives of his or her fans. Roberto Clemente was a class act in so many ways. For example, in August 1972, he was 30 hits away from 3,000 career hits. As the final week of the 1972 season approached, Clemente was well on his way to achieving this milestone. It was Thursday, 28 September 1972, playing against the Phillies, when Clemente got hit 2,999 off Steve Carlton. The next game was in Philadelphia, and the game after that was in Pittsburgh. Clemente had himself removed from the line-up so that he could get the magic 3,000th hit in front of his hometown fans. Clemente almost didn’t get it. He earned his 3,000th hit on his very last at-bat ever.

I also watched Imprint. Here’s its trailer. Starring Tonantzin Carmelo as a Lakota prosecuting attorney, Imprint seems a rare thing among movies focused on Native Americans in that the principal cast and the writer are Native Americans. This movie is a low-key supernatural thriller about a woman ashamed of her heritage coming to grips with her history, both as a Lakota as well as a member of a troubled family. The special effects aren’t great. None of the acting really shines. That said, Imprint is an effective, well-written ghost-themed mystery wrapped around family melodrama.

Radius, starring Diego Klattenhoff, Charlotte Sullivan, and Brett Donahue, is next. Of course, there’s a trailer. The film focuses on the growing, tense relationship between Liam (Klattenhoff) and Jane (Sullivan), two strangers who somehow ended up together in the cab of a truck before the truck leaves the road and rolls over in a field. Both emerge from the accident with no memories. Liam discovers that any living creature that comes within about 50 feet of him immediately dies. He and Jane together discover that not only is Jane immune to this effect, but that her presence near Liam prevents Liam’s deadly effects. Radius is a taut thriller that slowly reveals Liam and Jane’s connection through flashbacks leading to a final, chilling revelation.

And, lastly, son Christopher, daughter Adrienne, and I hit the theater to catch a matinee of A Quiet Place.

I won’t go too much into the plot of this film beyond this link for the trailer. There’s more than enough information out there on the Internet about A Quiet Place. Even Bishop Robert Barron, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, praises the virtues of this film in a thoughtful review that includes some pretty major spoilers. Director and star John Krasinski has helped make a masterful film that, to paraphrase one review, links A-List performances with a B-Movie plot to craft a genuinely scary story. A Quiet Place ought to establish Krasinski as one of the new Hollywood heavyweights in both acting and directing, and, as good as he is, Emily Blunt and Millicent Simmonds are even better.

And that’s it for this post. Nothing game-related for today, but instead some recommendations for four good to astonishing motion pictures.

Tags: Not Gaming Related

Yesterday, I watched Monster From a Prehistoric Planet via Amazon Prime. This one is boilerplate giant monster movie, complete with two distraught parent monsters on a destructive quest to retrieve their stolen offspring. The dubbing is pretty bad. The movie is preachy, maudlin, and sexist. Of course, the various toys and firecrackers deployed against the gappa fail to do anything other than make noise, smoke, and start fires. In other words, the movie is silly fun that took me back to the days of UHF and Saturday creature feature movies.

When writing up the gappa for Mutant Future, the scale of the monster presents some challenges. Most weapons are useless against the gappa. These beasts are more like natural disasters. To help me with the stats, I pulled my AD&D Oriental Adventures off the shelf to re-read the Gargantua monster entries.

Gappa
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120′ (40′), Fly: 480′ (160′), Swim: 180′ (60′)
Armor Class: 2
Hit Dice: 25
Attacks: 2 (stomp/stomp) or 3 (claw/claw/bite)
Damage: 5d10/5d10 or 3d10/3d10/6d10
Save: L25
Morale: 11
Hoard Class: None
XP: 10,000

Mutations: None.

The gappa appears as an enormous bipedal creature combining the features of reptiles and birds with a distinctive humanoid body shape. It can hold its breath for hours. An adult gappa stands nearly 100 feet tall and weighs in excess of 125 tons. Its thick hide is nearly impervious to harm. Primitive firearms, primitive melee weapons, and advanced melee weapons cannot damage the gappa. Other advanced personal weapons (pistols, rifles, and grenades) inflict one-half minimum damage (drop fractions). For example, a plasma rifle inflicts but 4 points of damage to a gappa with a successful attack. Nothing as weak as a stun baton or stun pistol could ever stun a gappa. A plasma grenade inflicts 6d6 points of damage to a gappa, and bombs and missiles inflict one-half normal damage. If wounded, a gappa regenerates 10 hit points per round.

Against targets on the ground, the gappa attacks by stomping its enormous feet. Each stomp affects a 15-foot radius, but the two radii cannot be more than 50 feet apart. Make a melee attack against each creature in the area. Success inflicts 5d10 points of damage; a failed attack inflicts half damage. Instead of stomping, the gappa may sweep its tail, affecting a 90-foot wide, 90-foot long cone. Each creature in the path of the tail must make a death save or suffer 8d10 points of damage. Against airborne or suitably large creatures, the gappa attacks with its claws and beak-like maw.

Each round of combat, there is a 1 in 6 chance that the gappa forgoes all melee attacks in favor of its fiery breath weapon that affects a 10-foot wide path along a 200-foot length. Against targets on the ground, this path need not be a straight line, but may sweep an area, making one 45-degree change of direction every 40 feet. The gappa’s breath inflicts 100 points of damage to everything caught in its path. Living creatures must also make a save versus radiation or suffer the effects of class 10 radiation. The gappa is immune to fire and radiation.

Tags: monsters, Mutant Future

Well, it’s been a week and a half since I resigned from my teaching position. In that time, I’ve not had a single migraine, which is a great improvement from the almost daily pain. My blood pressure has also improved, and the tinnitus in my right ear is all but gone. My tutoring services have born fruit. I tutor an hour every day Monday through Friday, I’ve had another contact, and I have a meeting Friday with director of a home-schooling co-op about offering my expertise to families during the summer.

Best of all, I’m able to do stuff at home other than get home late and then fall asleep by 2000. For example, all by 0930, I dropped my son Christopher off at university, went to the grocery store, and played my wife Katrina in Words With Friends. Later today? I’m going to get some writing done.

Earlier this week, I watched Killer Mermaid via Amazon Prime. It’s kind of fun, mashing together a serial killer, a monster, and some beautiful locations. Of course, this also means I have to stat up the killer mermaid, once again using Mutant Future.

Killer Mermaid
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 30′ (10′); Swim: 120′ (40′)
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 4
Attacks: 3 (claw/claw/bite) or 1 (tail)
Damage: 1d4/1d4/1d6 or 4d4
Save: L4
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: VI
XP: 300

Mutations: Echolocation, Increased Smell, Metamorph, Siren Song

Killer mermaids are Mutant Human females adapted to life underwater, but capable of breathing air as well. Killer mermaids have two forms: a monstrous one (shown in the picture above), and a secondary form in which they appear as beautiful women with the tails of fish. In this latter form, killer mermaids can only attack with their tails, which inflict 1d6 points of damage due to the lack of barbs and spikes. It takes a killer mermaid two full rounds of inactivity to change form. In either form, killer mermaids gather information about their surroundings via natural sonar to a range of 90 feet. Due to their sonar, killer mermaids receive a +2 to hit in combat. Killer mermaids also have an exceptional sense of smell, able to pick out and identify scents out to 180 feet. Creatures downwind or downstream can never surprise a killer mermaids.

In their beautiful woman form, killer mermaids may emit a hypnotic, ethereal song that affects a designated Mutant Human and Pure Human male within 180 feet. Roll 2d6+7 to determine a killer mermaid’s WIL. The killer mermaid makes a mental test against its target. Success renders the target incapable of violent action and with an irresistible desire to to embrace the killer mermaid. The effects last only until the start of the killer mermaid’s next turn, but the killer mermaid may re-target the victim each round it remains within range.

Killer mermaids speak their own language.

Tags: monsters, Mutant Future

A week ago, I resigned from my teaching position. Starting tomorrow, I go from unemployed to semi-employed. I’ve started offering my services as a private tutor. You can read about me here.

Also, during my abundant spare time last week, I released Narvon’s Sinister Stair and The Bishop’s Secret, two short adventures for Swords & Wizardry and Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox, respectively.

I also watched The Creeping Terror, one of the worst movies ever made, which explains what follows for use with Mutant Future.

Nearly 20 feet long, covered in both fur and some sort of chitin, multiple eyestalks bobbing about as it shuffled forward, emitting the most terrible noises, the creeping terror advanced through the hail of bullets and arrows, seemingly unconcerned about the damage it suffered.

Creeping Terror
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 60′ (20′)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 10
Attacks: 1 (bite)
Damage: 3d8
Save: L5
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: None
XP: 2,400

Mutations: Alien Physiogomy, Digestive Analysis, Sonic Paralysis

Some alien civilization engineered creeping terrors as a means of testing the native fauna of distant worlds, perhaps to see if those worlds would be suitable for colonization. Due to their extraterrestrial origin and Alien Physiogomy, creeping terrors can withstand incredible punishment. They take half damage from physical attacks, and they are immune to poison and radiation. Creeping terrors move slowly, dragging themselves forward with two blunt feet and undulating their lengthy torsos in a series of motile contractions.

When they sense prey, creeping terrors emit a cacophony of shrieks and howls. Living creatures within 30 yards of the creeping terror must attempt a Stun Attacks saving throw. Failure induces sonic paralysis for 2d4 turns. Affected creatures stand motionless, perhaps screaming and gaping in fear, but otherwise unable to act. Creeping terrors attack with a powerful bite. On an attack roll of 19 or 20, the target is swallowed whole, and takes 3d8 points of damage per turn from the creeping terrors powerful digestive enzymes (see page 58, Mutant Future, for more details about paralysis and swallow attacks).

Within the digestive tract, creeping terrors have a variety of alien technological artifacts that analyze creatures swallowed whole. Powerful transmitters send collected data into space, presumably to be collated and studied by whatever alien creatures create creeping terrors.

Tags: monsters, Mutant Future, Spes Magna Products

Four days later, Jones’s murder was still news. The police still issued little more than boilerplate statements. The housekeeper had found the body. The police had found Sharon’s hair and the news article about her disappearance. Scrutiny fell on Sharon’s surviving family members, but nothing came of it. No evidence connected them to the murder; they all had alibis. Even if thoroughly interrogated, none of them could tell the police anything. Jared had had no contact with any of the family. Miriam, Sharon’s sister, would have received the necklace by mail already. The envelope had no return address. The postmark was hours away from Jared’s home.

Jared switched from the radio to CD and walked to the kitchen to pour another cup of coffee. Placido Domingo as Leandro defended Morala. Leaning against the counter, cup in one hand, phone in the other. A thumb pushed buttons.

After three rings, a woman’s voice answered. “Prescott Investigation.”

“It’s me,” said Jared. “Anything?”

“I managed to isolate a reflection. It’s partial, but pretty clear. Voice analysis concludes the camera operator was male, definitely foreign, probably Albanian. He was tall, maybe close to your height. All in all, I doubt there’s enough for identification.”

“Call Ira. Your office.” Jared glanced at the clock. “One o’clock.”

The line disconnected. Jared walked back to the living room, sat on the sofa, placed the cup of coffee next to the bottle of Excedrin. Also on the table was Jones’s the toothbrush in a Ziploc baggie. Two pills later, Jared pulled the toothbrush from the baggie. He held it between forefinger and thumb. The familiar scent of flowers announced Jones’s appearance.

“What the hell!”

Jones stood in the middle of the room, nude, bearing the signs of his last minutes alive. He staggered away from Jared. Jones’s bare feet made no sound.

“You! You son of a bitch! What did you do to me?”

Jared leaned forward, looked Jones in the eye. “I killed you. You’re dead. Calm down.”

A calmness spread over Jones, through him. He looked at the hole in his hand, and the discolored wrist. He touched the gash in his chin, looked down at the bullet holes in his chest.

“How is this possible?”

Jared pointed to the chair across the room from the sofa. “Sit down.” Jones sat down. The cushion didn’t move as Jones was now weightless. “I enlisted in the Army when I was eighteen. Infantry. Ranger training. Half way through my second tour, I applied for Delta Force and was accepted. Made it through. My life really changed after that. I hunted high-priority targets, first in Iraq, then later in Yemen.”

“You were an assassin.”

“No,” Jared said. “Then, I was a soldier, and I was a good soldier. I became an assassin later. After several years with Delta, I was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency. Real black ops. More training. I was the killer man’s son and then some. In the tangle of lies and spies, I lost my way. I stopped being a soldier.”

Jared took a deep breath, sipped his coffee. Jones studied his killer. The last time Jones had seen him, Jared had been nearly naked, armed, wired for violence, quick to inflict pain. He was different now, sitting on his sofa in his living room, dressed in sweats and T-shirt, sipping coffee, talking about his past and lost ways.

“What the hell does that have to do with me? Being here? I dead, but I’m here. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be at all.”

Jared chuckled, but only briefly. “Your file said you were an atheist. You were raised Southern Baptist. Your father was a deacon.”

“My father was a violent drunk,” Jones said. “There’s no God. All that church stuff is a load of crap.”

“Right,” Jared said. “When you die, you’re nothing. Just worm food.”

Jones looked away from Jared’s stare, from his knowing grin. “You’re telling me it’s true? Heaven and Hell, Jesus Christ and the devil?”

Jared shook his head. “I don’t know about that. I just know I can call spirits, ghosts, whatever you want to call yourself, from wherever you were before I called you. I know. I know. You don’t remember anything after you died. Every one of you tells me that, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I was working black ops. I’d stopped being a soldier. I’d become an assassin, a murderer. Then, one day years after I’d started that part of my life, I took a bullet.”

Jared pushed his hair back, exposing the scalp at the hair line just to front of his left temple. The flesh was scarred, a rough circular pattern.

“I was dead for nearly five minutes. There’s still a small fragment of skull lodged in my brain. When I came back, I was medevaced to Zinjibar. In the hospital, I could see the recently dead, walking around, confused, sad. Happy some of the time. They never lingered for long. When I was well enough, I was shipped back stateside. I had a souvenir. A kris I’d taken from a terrorist I’d killed. When I touched it, he appeared. Scared me. I dropped the weapon, yelled at him. He vanished. That’s how I found out.”

Another sip of coffee. Jared rubbed the back of his neck, massaging down the rising pain.

“I did some research. Necromancer. Psychopomp. Medium. I don’t know what I am, or how I can do what I can do, but I know what I can do. You’re mine until I choose to let you go.”

Jones’s jaw trembled. “Then what?”

Jared shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you go to Hell. Maybe you just cease to be. Until then, you’re going to help me.”

“How?”

“Sharon, the girl you killed, the girl you raped while she was dying. You didn’t find her on your own. She was brought to you. Right?”

“Yeah,” Jones said, and then looked confused. “Why did I answer you?”

“I told you that you’re mine,” Jared said, “and the dead speak only the truth. You can’t lie to me or to yourself. Not anymore. That’s why you’re going to help me. I’m going to find those responsible for Sharon’s death.”

“And then what?”

“And then I’m going to kill them all.”

Tags: fiction, Lilacs