Unforgiven

Unforgiven is a classic Western movie. While the plot is fairly razor thin, it is one often used for adventures to begin with. “There is a bounty on this individual. Go collect it.”


The thing that makes Unforgiven however, is the atmosphere and the characters.

The atmosphere drifts in through names like the town, Big Whiskey and through little statements made here and there, like when someone mentions the billiards table was broken down for fire wood years ago. Or how technology isn’t there to solve every problem such as vision difficulties or simply having the hogs suffer flu.

But it is the background of the characters that helps the whole movie to gel. For example, the viewers are often introduced to characters not only through those characters actions, but by how the other individuals in the movie react to them.

When English Bob and his biographer are travelling along on the train and being taunted by one of the cowboys, another cowboy warns him that this fellow might indeed be English Bob and is not one to be trifled with. The audience is further granted a view of skills involved here with a pheasant shooting contest from the back of the moving train with Bob hitting eight and the cowboy hitting one.

But as in many setups, this is just a tease. You see, it’s a tease for the build up of Little Bill who is spoken of in near holy tones by his fellow law men. Was he scared? No. He’s a bad carpenter, but he ain’t scared. Indeed, Little Bill is so unafraid of English Bob that he gets the drop on him with a full posse and beats the crap out of him. This sets Little Bill up as a truly big bad.

One of the 4e DMGs has some advice on trying to showcase the strength of the big bad including allowing the players to take the role of the person going up against the big bad. This allows the players to first hand experience the gaming effect without the GM only having to rely on narration to showcase the strengths of the villain.

It is also the characters that move the story along. There is no dungeon to explore here. While there is a beautiful scenery all about, the vast empty plains are not there for exploration but to travel through. Rather, it’s the characters that move the story forward.

One man makes a bad decision. A lawman makes another decision. The mother figure of the person wronged is not pleased with the lawman’s decision and puts a bounty out on the men who have wronged her people. The lawman now has to deal with bounty hunters, assassins, and other vagrants moving about his peaceful town.

In helping to make the characters stand out, think of the five senses. Hearing is a good one because when the players hear the names of the characters, if the names are descriptive and appropriate, the characters will probably get it more. The Black Company and The First Law use a lot of names that make sense only in their context, like the doctor being called Croaker or the hunter with the good smell the Dogman. Here, it’s names like Skinny or Fatty that come across on even the normal people of the setting.

In terms of player character types though, the three killers, tend to fall into three separate camps.

The Kid: He comes across as tough. He has access to high quality gear. He claims a lot of deeds under his belt. But… he doesn’t seem to know things that he should. The things he does know, he learned from an older relative, a member of the old posse. He doesn’t seem as capable as he should. Those who’ve been in the field for a long time may even notice that the kid suffers from some sort of physical defect that may not be easy to notice at first. Say… being short sighted? Not a good thing for a gun fighter.

The Eternal Companion: When first introduced to Ned, he’s a friend of the Seasoned Killer. He’s okay with his past. He’s not only made peace with it, he’s moved on. He doesn’t talk about it with a lot of regret but merely as something that happened. But more importantly, he’s a keystone for the Seasoned Killer. He’s a true comrade who would face death rather than betray his friends. He may have his own specialties but he often acts as a bit of comedy relief and a mirror for the Seasoned Killer.

For example, when questioned by the Kid about facing down two marshals and coming out with only a scratch, after the Kid goes away, the Companion tells the Killer that, “I recall it was three marshals.” He’s not necessarily there to act as the conscious of the seasoned killer. Indeed, he may spur the killer on if he thinks that will get the group where they’re going, but he has limits and will not cross them, leaving his friends if in good hands, to wash the blood off his own.

The Seasoned Killer: In the movie, Munney as played by Clint Eastwood is at first a man seemingly at peace with himself. He acknowledges his foul ways. He knows that he’s done wrong. He’s pushed by circumstance to go into “one last job” but isn’t going to fall into his old ways again.

But that’s nonsense. It takes a lot for the Seasoned Killer to simmer to the top. Here, Munney endures being made a fool of by his horse. He takes it in stride for his “wickedness to animals when I was weak.” He suffers the harsh life of an outdoor travelling man in the fall season suffering rain and snow and wind. He suffers disease, his mind ravaged by fever dreams, dreaming of those he’s killed, those he knows are dead, and even his loved ones. He even suffers at the hands of Little Bill. But the encounter is too early and so, the Killer, weakened by the fever, is unable to fight at his peak and suffers a beating, worsening his condition.

And when the killer wakes up? When he throws off the beating and the fever days latter? At first he may even seem like the repentant killer. He looks about the landscape and marvels in being alive and in the beauty of a scared woman. But when it comes to the killing? No uncertainties now. Indeed, he turns out to be a better shot than his Eternal Comrade whose specialty was with that weapon. His blood turns to ice and its only on getting the job done.

Consequences? Those are for lesser men. The Seasoned Killer may be a ruthless killing machine with a cool hand, but he’s not mindless. He values his friends. When people turn on those friends, woe be unto them.

For example, here, when Munney sees his friend Ned in a coffin outside Skinny’s Bar, it’s all over for skinny. When Little Bill protest that he just shot an unarmed man, Munney replies, “He should’ve armed himself” and goes on for a second about anyone going to decorate their bar with his friend is a dead man.

This is in the midst of a room full of lawmen. This is in the middle of town. This is walking into the cave of the bear with the bear awake and pissed.

And he walks out of it with a threat to burn the town down if they don’t take care of his friend.

There are variants of the Seasoned Killer, such as Samurai X, where the character is so earnest in trying not to kill anymore, that they essentially strip themselves of the ability. But the struggle of self perception, of telling people, “I’m not like that anymore” against what the character falls back unto?

For a different example, in The First Law, the Bloody Nine noted that its difficult to change if you stay in the same place with the same people doing the same things. The old habits return and good intentions are useless.

The Seasoned Killer also has another problem that the Eternal Companion and the Kid may not. While the Companion is competent and the Kid a young blood who hasn’t made a name for himself yet, The Seasoned Killer, when identified, is a known quantity. He’s a wanted man. Those on the side of justice want him dead or behind bars and those looking for a dangerous man are willing to pay.

If you’re looking for a movie with a ton of character that has a slow built up with a great cast, Unforgiven is a solid Western.

Sukiyaki Western Django Part 2!

One of the things I wanted to talk about in Sukiyaki Western Django was the last fight. It's a huge fight involving multiple factions and even people you wouldn't think would become involved do so with a huge cost to the town and all of the people that the viewer has been introduced to.

But it's also a long fight.

With the gunslingers, there are several moments when they are forced to seek shelter and reload and gather new weapons.

How would that work in a game like 4e?

In 4e, this could be done as a series of combat encounters and skill checks. The combat encounters should be fairly simple. The GM would allow several groups of enemies access to the players untill they are overcome or the players retreat. The GM can allow the players the ability to retreat earlier by introducing a skill check.

In this last big fight, the leader of the red gang is running around with a chain machine gun and a heavy suit of armor that protects him from non-specifically aimed shots. If the players want to move out, they can make a skill check to avoid the chain gun and allow the chain gun fool to shoot into the other enemies.

Now that may seem like a cop out, but it's actually something used with some frequency. For example, in the Dungeon Siege 2 game, when fighting the big bad, there is actually no way to damage him outside of activating an ancient technology that does damage to him. Would that be attacking the big bad or a skill check? Probably skill check.

The other problem becomes the mapping. The GM should have several generic maps set up of the battlefield ahead of time and be ready to run those maps over and over and provide variety by changing the positions of the maps by reversing them or holding them upside down. The only exceptions to this should be specific monuments or other unique locations in the town.

A long running battle can be exhausting to run and can take a lot of time but with 4e, the characters innate ability to recover their abilities, outside of their dailies, makes it more worth looking into than in previous editions where most characters with special abilities like spells, are not going to benefit from a fifteen minute rest.

Sukiyaki Western Django

Sukiyaki Western Django is another example of taking an existing story or plot and reinventing it for a new audience. In this case, the film has homages to Shakespeare's old War of the Roses, the western Django, and most obviously in its man with no name theme, Yojimbo, which itself has a more direct homage in Last Man Standing.

For those who've never seen Yojimbo or Last Man Standing, the premesis is that a stranger comes to town with a skill set in high demand. The stranger tries to play off both sides until things blow up in his face and the big battle occurs.

Sometimes that happens very quickly, such as in this movie. Others, like in the original Yojimbo take time to expose the double delaing that the stranger is doing.

In a role playing game, if one powerful character could tip the balance of power between different factions, imagine how a gorup of them could do so? In some instances, the players might become their own faction, forcing the other two to gang up against the players.  In other instances, the players may try to steer clear of all offers of alliance by either side only to wind up being attacked by each side in turn as they cannot have such a powerful force in the town.

A set up of this nature tends to work best in smaller locals. Its hard to picture a city like Waterdeep being under two gangs thumbs as opposed to a small town in the dales or in the far north.

Outside of its retelling of a classic stories roots though, the movie has several other things going for it.

Style. While this can be something difficult for players to appreciate through a verbal medium as the Dungeon Master must explain everything as, it can help to set the stage. Many if not all of the character here, have very distinct and visual apperances despite the 'gang colors' that each faction wears.

Individuality: Many of the characters, in addition to their unique apperance, also have many quirks. The leader of the 'white' gang is like a titan among mortals weeping that he has no worlds left to overcome. His skill is so great, that in the end, the duel between the man with no name and the leader of the white garbed clan isn't gun against gun, but rather, gun against sword in a battle similiar to the ending of Cowboy Bebop. The leader of the red gang on the other hand, comes across as slightly crazy and opportunistic using dirty tricks left and right to try and win the war.

Hidden Characters: In some ways, the fact that one of the characters here is an old gun fighter isn't that big of a surprise. The specific character is referenced and there is some flash back. In a small group, this adding of legends and then introducing the player as someone already there under a different life, should work well. In some cases, the other players may be there to pick up the player and take them out of retirement for one big adventure.

If you're looking for a highly stylistic movie that pays homage to several genres with a great visual mash up between Western and Samurai sensibilities, Sukiyaki Western Django is the way to go.