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Hancock & Hellboy 2

I do not understand the confusion surrounding Hancock. I did not see/sense/feel a change in tone at any point during the film. I did not feel the film “get darker” as it progressed. In fact, both

[info]mnight

 and I predicted a much darker ending. We didn’t get it, but we were both happy with the results. I didn’t feel the reveal was over-the-top or ill-fitting. It made perfect sense to me. I guess I’m a mutant. It’s a great and tragic love story worthy of the pages of a Marvel comic.  I was highly pleased and even choked up at the end. 

I liked Hellboy and predicted I would also like Hellboy 2. The film begins with a brilliant bed-time story about the end of the world. It charmed me right off the top. I can honestly say that those seven or so minutes bought off any sins the rest of the movie may have had. Fortunately, it had none. Demonstrating a key understanding of what makes faerie tales work, Del Toro and Mignola created a post-modern story that fits right in with a great tradition of faerie tales. I was giddy all the way through. 

Both Hancock and Hellboy 2 are worth your consideration.

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Houses of the Blooded: Different Views

[info]mnight

 starts her HotB game this Friday. She and I were talking about some of the reasons I chose the ven as a subject matter for the game. One of those reasons was their distinct non-European appearance. No blondes. Darker skin.

When I ran the game, the ambiguity of the ven sponsored all kinds of interpretations. One group had a distinctly Arabian feel. Another was more Chinese. I was delighted to see people take the vagaries I employed in the book and draw their own conclusions.

For her game on Friday,

[info]mnight

 has been doing research on Hawaiian and Samoan cultures to give her own interpretation of the ven a distinctly different taste. A hint of pineapple. Long, hot summers. Scorching rains. Bare feet on cool stone. Colors, colors, colors. Exotic flowers everywhere.

At first, my head hiccuped. I had never pictured the ven that way before and it took me a little while to get my mind around it. Then, as I thought about it, I started asking questions.

“What kind of swords would they wear?” They wouldn’t have the traditional rapiers or scimitars or broadswords. Their weapons would be shorter and easier to carry. Nothing in ven literature says the swords are made of metal: an assumption I carried from my own culture’s biases. Discussing this with

[info]mnight

, she suggests her version of the ven carry wooden swords for the matters of insult and put those away when a more serious matter comes to light.

Clothing would be different. Flowers and feathers. The suggestion of more revealing clothing makes sense in this light. No furs or velvet. Cotton, cotton, cotton. But think of the headdresses!

Of course, the Houses themselves take on different kinds of meanings in this context. Bear and Elk and Fox and Falcon. Serpent and Wolf. Different setting, different meanings, different symbols.

An idea that first caught me off guard, a suggestion that I quietly rejected in my head–and then slowly began to ask questions about. And now, I have a new vision of the ven completely different than the one I had before.

My mind said “No” until I forced it to consider “Yes.”

I should have taken my own advice.

__

PS: Now I’m thinking about Aztec and Mayan ven, too. Blood sacrifice, indeed.

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HotB: Character Creation

In his ongoing “character creation” series,

[info]innocent_man

  (WW freelancer extra-ordinaree) has gone and made a Houses of the Blooded character that completely rocks my socks.

If you have any questions about character creation–or want to see a full on bitchin’ HotB character–check it out here.

___

EDIT: My apologies. Over the last couple of days, I’ve been reminded why I turned my LJ Friends Only. The comments posted here were off-topic, inflammatory and inappropriate. I’ve deleted them.

Please continue with your reading.

Thank you.

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Homosexuality: The “Unnatural” Claim

I can’t believe this is still around, but I keep hearing the “homosexuality is against nature” argument. You know what I mean.

Well, here’s an article (from Scientific American) demonstrating that bisexual behavior not only occurs in nature, but it is actually an evolutionary survival trait. (That means species who have bisexual tendencies tend to survive more often than those who don’t.)

Now, if you like, you can continue to make the “sin argument” or the “it makes me sick” argument or even the “God hates fags” argument.* Go ahead and do that. (I can take those to the back of the woodshed, too.) But please, stop saying that homosexual sex doesn’t occur in nature. You just demonstrate a willing ignorance of facts.

(Not truth, but facts. If you want truth, the Philosophy department is right down the hall.)

___

* Funny thing. If bisexuality is a survival trait, you could almost argue that God favors bisexual species over non-bisexual species. With that evidence in play, how do we justify the homophobic passages of the Bible? Almost as if someone other than God wrote it. Hm…

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Not a good way to begin, lads…

I’m certain I can’t be the first to see this or point it out, but it did make me choke on my afternoon soup…

Player’s Handbook, pg 7: “Throughout the 1980s, the game experienced remarkable growth. Novels, a cartoon series, computer games, and the first campaign settings (Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance) were released…” 

I guess Gary Gygax’s GREYHAWK and Dave Arneson’s BLACKMOORE didn’t count.

… continues reading, tainted already, and I’m only on page 7.

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Houses of the Blooded: Printing Update

The printers have the book.

Five days for a proof.
Five days to print.

I’ll keep you updated.

Also, thanks to dilligent readers, I think we caught all the printer gnomes (typos and other errors that sneak into the final draft). The final .pdf will ship with the books. 

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Surprise, surprise, surprise!

I got a big box in the mail yesterday. It was waiting at my door when I got home from work. Says “Amazon.com”.

Funny… I didn’t order anything recently.

Peel away the tape, open it carefully… and I find a 4E D&D Core Rulebook Collection inside.

I did not order this. I check the receipt. It isn’t billed to my credit card, but there’s a note on the receipt.

“I can’t wait to read what you think…”

*stunned silence*

Someone sent me a D&D 4E boxed set just to see what I’d say about it.

Now, I feel morally obligated to make some kind of comment. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to say or what I’m going to do, but rest assured, it will most certainly be me.

Stay tuned.

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Houses of the Blooded: The Shanri Research Institute: A New Kind of OGL

The Wicked Dead Brewing Company is proud to announce a new kind of Open Game License for its newest release, Houses of the Blooded.

The Shanri Research Institute (SRI) provides players of the game the opportunity to upload their own independent research on the world of Shanri and its most notorious denizens, the ven. Independent research will be evaluated by the SRI’s members and made a part of “official canon” upon successful review.

With the HotB Graphics Pack (provided to purchasers of the Limited Edition and soon to be on sale for general purchase), members can create their own character sheets, reference sheets and research papers (supplements) for approval by the SRI review team. If approved, any such research papers may be made available for purchase as official supplements to the game.

This is an exciting time for ven research. Join the SRI and help us compile the greatest database of ven knowledge on the internet! 

* * *

Here’s the deal.

I’m releasing Houses of the Blooded under an OGL. 

(Clarification: Not the OGL.)

You submit a supplement to the SRI. We review it. If we like what we see, we’ll approve it and you can use the Graphics Pack to create your own Houses of the Blooded supplement. You can give your supplement away, you can sell it, whatever you want to do with it. It’s out of my hands.

Both the ven and the game will be open to the public with a forum to discuss their findings and experiments. Also, all the inDesign files and graphics used in the game will be made available to players to fiddle with as they see fit—including using those same files and graphics for building their own supplements.

This is still under construction, but I should be making an official announcement about the SRI at GenCon. 

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The Most Insensitive Thing I’ve Ever Said

(Among other reasons) I’m not voting for John McCain because his wife looks fucking scary.

(101 other reasons I’m not voting for John McCain.)

PS: The Obama List is coming. Why the fuck did he have to try to win the Christian Right? Didn’t he know they’d never vote for him no matter what he offered?