Frell You, Witcher 3!

I have been sick the past couple of days after a great trip to the beach with my extended family. My sick downtime has given me a chance to take a deep dive into The Witcher 3 game that has gotten a lot of glowing reviews, as well as a few reviews that discuss the diversity issues of the game.

The game is excellent. Let’s start with the truth of the matter. It is well written; it is nice how so many of the side-quests dovetail with the main quest, and the voice acting is top notch. It will not change the face of RPG gaming but I think it will make people take a serious look at how they play. For instance Dragon Age: Inquisition, which was a blast to play and fun to micromanage my equipment, but now having played The Witcher 3, my interest in replaying DA:O is minimal. Can we all just have to take a moment to mourn my DA:O personalized hero? (For those keeping track, he was a black elven rogue specializing in daggers with a paladin-like approach. He will be missed.)

At the same time, once I am done with The Witcher 3; I will not play it again. Every great second of playing the game is countered by the fact there are zero PoC in the game. In addition, the antagonists everyone hate in the game are called the Black Ones. (I can't make this stuff up.) This situation is a constant struggle for me. On one hand, I don’t want to reinforce these type of status-quo standards and the only way to change it is with dollars (either investing in, or divesting from games). We need to channel our voices about the change we want to see, and encourage more PoC to create material of the same or better quality. On the other hand, I am a geek, and don’t want to miss the experience. (Plus I have played the other two. I have fond memories of playing the first Witcher on my laptop in the sandbox, and how it helped me waste . . . umm, I mean spend . . . countless hours.)

How do we change the standard of the white hetero male protagonist? I'm reminded of a Kickstarter from a few months back (that I will not name) that was creating this sweet-looking medieval game with magic, dragons and a dark grittiness. One of their goals involved creating a character in the game that looked like you. I sent them a private message asking about PoC, since all of their pictures were of white people. The message I got back was: No, there were no black people back then!

Of course, I did not back that Kickstarter and think it failed in the end (Huzzah!). But lack of diversity in games and movies is all over the place. Have you seen the very, very white cast of the new Superman vs. Batman picture? (It won't receive my hard-earned money.)  And The Witcher 3, while it doesn’t identify PoC as the main bad guys (Tolkien, I'm looking at you.),  it does label them as "black." So, alas, this is also the last Witcher game I will ever buy.

The fight for diversity is ongoing, and one day I hope that the gaming industry will be different, creating so many video games with a characters that look like me that I don't have enough time to play them all. Every game should have creation options that allow you to tailor your character how you fit; and having PoCs and female characters do not lessen the narrative, they make it stronger and more compelling. 

Maybe it is time to restart Skyrim (or watch some on youtube) or break out Pillars of Eternity to tide me over until Fallout 4, all of which will allow me to play my character. 

RPG Fridays: Top 5 GenCon Basics

So you're heading to your first GenCon and wondering what's in store for you. Here are a few tips to give you a leg up:

1. Sleep: Get all the sleep you can before GenCon. Each day is approximately 25 hours, and the best games are those random pickups at 1 am or hanging at the bar discussing game theory. Sleep is entirely overrated at a Con. You'll sleep when you're dead. 

2. The Crud: Just submit to it. It's gonna happen. If you are the fighting type, stock up on your immune system booster of choice (I'm a Zicam believer).

3. Stay at the Con: This may be too late for this year, and I know it's more expensive to stay in the hotels around the Con, but it's worth it on every level. You don't miss any of the action, and have a quick drop spot for all that sweet swag you pick up. It also lets you power nap (not to be confused with actual sleep -- see #1 above!) in safety. Nothing scarier than waking up to a Borg over you looking through your swag bag! Assimilate this!

4. Shower: It sounds crazy but sometimes the game frenzy overtakes you and you totally forget about this basic rite of hygiene. (I hang my head in shame, remembering college gaming sessions that lasted 16 hours...) It makes you feel better and, well, people are more likely to hang around you. 

5. Don't Give Up: Most of my first GenCon was hellish and lonely as a GM of color and a newbie to the Con (future post pending). Toward the end of my initial trip, and while I was deciding that GenCon was not for me, I met my now-counterpart Bob. That one interaction made all the difference, and changed my entire experience at GenCon for years to come. 

Stop by and see us on the 2nd floor of the Omni. The folks of You Too Can Cthulhu and Darker Hue Studios will always be glad to talk a little gaming or grab a drink between games.

Pro Tip: Join GenCon's Very Important Gamers (VIG) if you can. It costs a bit but has a lot of perks that will make you feel (or look to your friends) like a superstar! I have not been lucky enough yet but hold onto hope that next year will be my year. Oh yes, it will be mine!

Justified: I Couldn't Quit You!

I love Justified and had no idea who Elmore Leonard was before the show aired years ago. But by the end of the first episode of the first season, I was hooked. Come on . . . How can you resist when Winona says to Raylan, "Well, you do a good job of hiding it, and I suppose most folks don't see it, but honestly, you're the angriest man I have ever known," to the protagonist you just spend the past hour with watching being a smooth bad ass? Also, given the fact I loved Deadwood (I am still waiting on the movies or Season 4!)  and have followed Timothy Olyphant's career, the show started on a pretty solid foundation. 

This series moved me to pick up a couple of Leonard's books, where I read about just how many shows were inspired by his works. His books are good, but the show speaks to me on a different level that had me coming back to watch Raylan, Ava, and Boyd for six seasons. It's just great, addictive television.  The dialogue between characters was better than any of the (many) blazing shoot outs. 

Unfortunately it did not service the rest of its cast or the concept of diversity very well. Diversity seemed to begin and end with Rachel (played by Erica Tazel), a female African-American marshal, whose character was less developed than anyone else on the show.  The one episode that springs to mind for her dealt with her dead-beat-jailbird brother in-law, and that played out like a show from the late 70s. 

Or what about Limehouse, the black kingpin that lived in Noble's Holler and networked for cash? While he had a larger role in Season 3, he was used more as the looming threat of that region. 

But Justified had an ability to bring new characters onto the show; each felt like they had a history and some level of gravitas about them. That element truly impressed me; that's a skill that any GM would want for their game. It's something I try to bring to my table every game, bringing life to each NPC the players meet, while never taking away from their show. 

I would suggest everyone give the show a go.  The first season was trying to find its footing and took a while. The second season is great and has some of the best television writing I have seen. If by halfway through the second season you are not hooked, the show is not for you. 

These are the essential first season episodes you should watch (in my opinion):

Season 1: Episode 1, This episode sets the ground work for the entire show.

Season 1: Episode 9, “Hatless” , This episode is vital and focus on Raylan’s demons.

Season 1: Episode 10, “Hammer” , Boyd has had a huge transformation, and his path becomes clear.

Season 1: Episode 12, “Fathers and Sons”,  Raylan has daddy issues that are nothing compared to Boyd's daddy nightmares, and they race toward a terrible conclusion.

Season 1: Episode 13, "Bulletville",  Season 1 Finale and establishes where Season 2 will start. 

There's a lot to praise about this show,  but also a fair share of issues due to a scattered focus on the secondary cast. The only way I can sum up my feelings for the show is by quoting Raylan:

"We dug coal together."

Why Doctor Who Isn't For My Daughter

I've recently been thinking about what geek TV I should introduce my daughter to when she gets older. Yep, I am a planner. I mean, I'm already thinking about our 19-month-old when she's age 4, which should be the perfect age to start gaming (but that is a future post).

An array of shows went through my mind that were kinda staples for my geekdom:
Doctor Who: Old School (which I grew up with) and New School
Deep Space Nine
Red Dwarf
The Greatest American Hero
X-Files
Buffy
Supernatural
Battlestar Galactica
Kindred: The Embraced
Twin Peaks
Land of the Lost
Stargate SG-1 
Angel
Farscape
The Walking Dead (Muhhh haaaaa.....haaaa......)
Marvel's Agents of Shield (ha ha ha ha ha...)

...and on and on... 
 

Doctor Love

My first thoughts go to Doctor Who, my favorite show for ages and ages; I even worked Doctor Who into my wedding vows to give you an idea of how much I have loved that show. To give you more evidence,  when I had the opportunity to ask  one question of author Neil Gaiman (at one of times I got to see him in person), I asked him who his Doctor was. His answer? The 2nd, Patrick Troughton. And I swear he told me this before this article came out. (In case you're wondering, my Doctor is the 7th.)
 

Why Not

But even given all my history with the show, I hesitate showing this series to my daughter. This thing that I love(d) so much! It struck me as the list was coming together, that most of my list does not have any really strong representation of PoC, and I'm revisited by the lingering memory of how much I wanted to see that when I was watching each of these shows. Growing up, I kept waiting for the Doctor to have a black companion or to regenerate into a PoC or a woman (and initially before a massive ton of FAN BACKLASH, Mr. Moffat had made it clear that the Doctor will not be changing that much and will remain a white male. Though now he seems to be teasing that that could change. My gut tells me that is just a ploy to appease fans for a few more seasons.).

Of course the new Doctor Who has had Martha and Mickey. But both of these characters were unwanted by the Doctor and had to prove themselves time and time again before being accepted. We could also look at their characters . . . Martha (who, in my opinion, is one of the best companions) was brilliant and creative, but also lovesick for the Doctor and lived in the shadow of Rose during her tenure as companion.

Martha Jones played by Freema Agyeman.

Mickey Smith played by Noel Clarke.

And Mickey . . . poor, poor Mickey . . . I so wanted to like him but they made him a bad boyfriend, and little more than an idiot at the start of the new episodes, destined to lose his girlfriend to the Doctor. Even though they tried to make him into a hero in later episodes, it was too late. To add insult to injury, the show's creators had the two get married! Because only a PoC can marry a PoC? WTF! WTF! Why . . .

Based on all of this, I just can’t do it to her.

But . . . 

At the same time, I remember sitting in the dark watching PBS and waiting for that familiar theme song to come on and the sound of the TARDIS filling my small living room. Everything else faded away and it became the Doctor and me. Or, I remember reading the Virgin New Adventures novels and reading about my favorite Doctor--Time’s Champion--play chess with the evils of the universe. The show influenced so many aspects of my life, my gaming, my approach to things and, helped developed a deep understanding of intelligence. All of these things  would be great for my daughter but . . . 

The Other Contenders

I hear you saying "Ok. So if not Doctor Who, what about Buffy or Angel, dude?!" And you know, Joss is great, and for a while those shows were on my list. But I've thought about his work and it is not very diverse-friendly. I am glad that he has stepped down/been let go for Avengers 3 (yet another blog post).  

Much to my surprise Veronica Mars is pretty high on my list to show her. Veronica is a brilliant, strong and versatile character, teamed with a diverse cast that surrounds her. It's on my list, but it's a show I can't show her for quite a while.  My favorite Star Trek, DS9,  is also on the list. But none of these are great for right now, or the next couple of years. Red Dwarf . . . just thinking about the show has me smiling and thinking back to some of the great episodes. 

For now, she is loving Fraggle Rock, Daniel Tiger and Sesame Street. I have recently heard about Tinga Tinga Tales and Rastamouse, which will need some looking into before showing them to her. The list will come together and whatever I find, you can rest assured it will be shared to help other parents. 

The search continues . . . as does my hope for a Black Doctor. Psst, Mr. Moffat! I've been told I have a great voice for television.

My Perfect Team: The X-Men Equation!

I recently discovered the Rachel and Miles X-plain the X-men podcast and have been burning through episodes while revising my Godlike campaign proposal. The podcast has my brain churning though the gillions of hours I spent reading X-Men comics.

All of that makes me want to create my dream team of X-men. Much like my Avengers Teams, I am going Old School and will use the Blue and Gold Team models; I will not, however, limit my team choices just to the 90s. There is just something so perfect about two teams. 

Gold Team: All-Purpose All Stars

Storm (Team Leader): 'Nuff said.

Shadowcat (Techie): Shadowcat is a genius, a ninja who can phase through walls. She is perfect on either team.

Nightcrawler (Transport): Kurt is a modern-day Errol Flynn: expert swordsman and acrobat who vanishes in the shadows, can teleport, and is a trained medic. While at first glace it would seem he would be on the Blue team, his ability to teleport will give the Gold Team a huge tactical advantage.

Sunspot (Energy Projector): Robert can bankroll both teams and has countless connections, and that is before we go into his powers and personal charm. 

Colossus (Powerhouse): Piotr is an incredible powerhouse once he transforms to his organic metal form which makes him easily as strong as Thor. He is an incredible combatant from his years of training, and all of that destructive force is counterbalanced by his wanting of peace. 

Rogue (Stunner): Rogue has the ability to stop most fights with a single touch, as she can absorb an enemies abilities and use the arsenal of powers she has permanently absorbed that make her a backup power house.

The White Queen (Psychic): Every X-Men team needs a psychic to use Cerebro to find new mutants, defend the team against mental attacks and instantly secure information. Oh, and Emma is incredibly wealthy, with amazing connections (some very questionable),  and cares about teaching the next generation of mutants. She also has an invulnerable diamond form for combat.

Blue Team: Espionage and Recon

Cyclops (Team Leader):  Slim is an incredible tactical leader, coupled with being an original X-Men. He is willing to do whatever it takes for his people. He is also an Alpha-level mutant that has battled an entire team of X-Men alone and won. Scott Summers is not a man to be underestimated. 

Sage (Psychic): Sage is the perfect member as her mutant power of a Cyberpathy allows for data retrieval; she is also a trained spy, expert combatant, and has the power to unlock latent mutant abilities in others. That power would be used as a last resort but could change the course of any losing battle.  

Prodigy (Techie): David is brilliant and has been depowered. Now he has full access to all the knowledges he copied for years. (The short list?Wolverine: combat skill, Shadowcat: computer prowess, Beast: knowledge of science and biology, Doctor Strange: magical knowledge, and Cyclops: strategic knowledge.)

Gambit (Stealth): Remy is a master thief, con man, skilled combatant and that is before his mutant powers are factored in.

M (All Around): Monet is...well...perfect...or so the comics say. Her physical powers nearly equal those of the She-hulk and toss in an array of mental powers. She is close to a one-woman team.

Warpath (Powerhouse): James's physical powers would let him stand toe to toe with Thor. He is an exceptionally trained tracker, has supersense, a touch of mysticism, and a pair of Vibranium daggers!

Triage (Bonus Member): Triage's ability to heal and possibly bring people back from the dead makes him essential to both teams. He would be key at HQ!

I hear you say: Why no Wolverine? He is the best at what he does. 

I am not a huge fan of the "new" Wolverine. The real Wolverine was the guy constantly in struggle with his inner beast that put him at odds with the team. He killed people with little remorse and is best as a loner. There were amazing issues like when he single-handedly went through the Hellfire Club or resisted the Brood infestation to free the X-Men and Carol Danvers (pre-Binary). (No offense intended, Hugh. You are amazing and I can't wait to see your next project that is not Wolverine.)

Now if you pressed me and asked which of these teams I would choose in the ultimate X-Men showdown, I would say Blue. The X-Men on the Blue Team have the most versatility to overcome any obstacle. Go Blue! (I think this is a football chant? I'd have to ask my wife.)