Jormungand (Anime)

Continuing my viewing of anime new to me via +Hulu, next up on the list was Jormungand, the wiki can be found here.

I'm a little torn on this one.

I like the character designs.

Many of the individual stories are well done and provide a nice sense of action and information.

The characters almost each get at least one episode to shine through as we learn more about them.

I like the animation style and art.

I like the soundtrack.

Hated the payoff. The whole payoff of the series is, for me at least, essentially counted by the main character's brother who spells out what's going to happen regardless of what Koko does.

If you want to see an anime about weapon's dealers that looks like it's part Nicholas Cage Lord of War and part post modern, Jormungand is for you. There are some observations about the modern world that are getting more and more referenced. For example, in a recent James Bond movie, the whoel sleight of hand of the incident being oil when it was really water? Referenced here in that water is going to be the biggest resource people will be fighting for. Overall I enjoyed it because the character interaction and friendships that develop are nicely done.

If you want to look at a series and think, again, you might enjoy it.

But if you want to see some of the grand scheme come to actual payoff? Nope. Nowhere near as bad as Berserk when it first came out mind you as the manga for that wasn't even locally available but still kinda of a "Well now the story's actually starting" bit for me.

Spoilers below!

The series is broken up into individual missions with an overarching mission for Koko, the leader of the mercenaries who act as her bodyguards. The viewpoint character here, is Jonah, a child soldier whose parents were killed by weapons sold by a weapons dealer but he's a good soldier so while he hates what he does, he accepts it.

Koko and her various guards and allies, include a wide variety of characters which makes a nice change of pace from everyone being super skilled at everything. For example, the 'driver' is a former mafia member while some of her other 'standard' guards are former members of various specialty units.

In many ways, this would be the perfect adventuring group and scenario. They have a powerful patron who values them. They are paid well. They have access to some of the most modern and devastating weaponry on the market.

They also have a constant source of enemies. Their patron needs them precisely because she is worth a lot of money and because a lot of people would rather she be dead. This gives the character many unique enemies to battle that are as bright and colorful as they themselves are.

The patron even has her own goals and has the wealth and allies to at least try it.

In this case, which to me is a perfect super hero challenge, she is crafting Jormungang as a quantum level computer and intends to use it to ground mankind from the sky. She feels that without the ability to travel via the air that it'll make things more difficult in a 'flat world' and hey, only some odd 700,000 people will be in the air or crushed by planes falling out of the sky at the time to achieve it.

Imagine the characters have to knock out satellites orbiting the earth in order to stop the deaths of almost a million people. And of course in a super hero or even super spy campaign, those satellites might have armed defense systems ranging from lasers and missiles to even more gonzo stuff the higher technology the setting has available to it.

Her brother, Kasper, doesn't mind. He goes on a little bit about how he's a weapons dealer and he'll use boats as his ancestors used to. He'll sell them guns until there are no more guns, and then knives and then clubs because he's a weapons dealer. And to me, it's a strong argument that all those people are going to die for nothing.

The viewers get a hint of how terrible the world is becoming in the last episode when Jormungand is activated, but then the series stops. We don't get to see how things actually play out. Some people love that. It sets up the whole thing  either for the reader to make up what happened in their own head, or leaves room for a sequel down the road. Me? I wanted to see the payoff of gathering all those scientists and going through all those betrayals.

Jormungand is two seasons and I'm unsure of how closely it follows the manga as I haven't read that yet. Only problem? I think it's a little expensive. Season one and season two are a little over $40 bones each. Ouch. While the commercials are indeed annoying, I'll stick with Hulu on that.

Conan: Black Colossus Volume 8

Recently I was at Half Price Books when they were having one of their sales. In this instance, it was 50% off on a Sunday so I picked up this volume of Conan for like a fiver. From what I know, there are already several volumes past this one but I'll have to wait for the store to have it in stock and for another sale. Thankfully one of those criteria will be met tomorrow and I'll have to see if the other is when I go there.

And sorry if I'm pitching out so many of those mini-notes on the Conan books but while I've got some time off, I figured I'd better take advantage of it.

In the collected Conan comics that make up volume 8, Timothy Truman is joined by Tomas Giorello and Jose Villarrubia. This collection features a new telling of Black Colossus which has had a few interpretations over the years.

One of the biggest problems this volume faces is found in the early version with art by John Buscema. His line work is fantastic. It's not that the artists here are bad mind you. The artist who does the chapter breaks, Joseph Michael Linser, is top notch and I'd love to see him fully illustrate some Conan.

John's artwork though, is gigantic in scope. From the first page of the original, where Shevatas a thief stands on an outcropping of rock locking over the ruins of Kutchemes, the tone is set. In the new version... it's almost a little too carton like in scope in terms of the line work. It's too bright, too vivid. John's artwork relies on the almost impossible to appreciate details he puts into it. His pages are often packed with illustrations while the new volume uses pages like they were going out of style.

Now mind you, that may be part of the whole publishing bit. When stories like this are told for today's audience, the intent is usually to collect them which requires a certain number of pages and issues to do so. John didn't necessarily have to worry about that and may have had to ram the page with art.

The good news though, is the new version is actually more... useful for mining for role playing ideas. It has a few things that I've mentioned are useful to gaming before. For example, Conan has work as a mercenary. His patron keeps him around because he's the best swordsman he has. Sounds like something players would fall into with their unusual skill sets.

In addition, dreams are a part of the scenario here. The princess who hires the mercenaries Conan is allied with is haunted by visions of a sorcerer who desires her for his queen. She on the other hand seeks out wisdom in the temple of Mirtra and is provided instruction. Dreams and the messages of the gods working their ways on the campaign may seem a bit high fantasy for a Conan tale but they're in both versions. Visions and omens from the gods and supernatural elements shouldn't be overlooked as ways to hint at things.

Conan also discovers that working for mercenaries means that there are those who might not like a potential threat to the status quo. In this case, he makes an enemy of a fellow officer who causes a bit of trouble for him. Having rivals that the party members can't simply kill right away due to time or circumstance can add a level of pressure to the players as they have more things to take into account when they make their plans.

Speaking of that circumstance, having something ready and on hand to throw into the campaign to keep it moving is always a good idea. When the mercenaries here are at rest, Conan's patron finds out that they're not getting paid and so that leads to the mercenaries sacking the town and then moving on. Be prepared to move the adventure forward and push the players so that they're not always just sitting around waiting for the next mission.

In terms of my biggest fault with the new version here, is something that probably wouldn't hurt to throw in the campaign every now and again just to add that dreaded 'realism' to the setting. In this collection, the sorcerer who survived three thousand years and the sacking of his own city, loses his powers because he was so focused on getting his queen that he failed to abide by the terms of his pact with his demon god Set. Love makes people do crazy things. Throwing some weakness like this into your master villain can make them more interesting and rounded.

The Tribune by Patrick Larkin

Another book from the Half Price Books dollar rack. Either I've read it before or something very similar to it. Told in first person, it takes a bit of a long journey through 'Ancient Rome' and brings our hero Lucius into contact with all sorts of corruption and other issues that go against his own believes and standards.

I enjoyed reading (rereading?) it because it moves quickly. I've read some complaints that the characters takes are too modern and that the writing is wooden but it was accessible and moved quick enough for me so I didn't find either of those a big issue.

I'll be discussing some of the potential role playing bits from the novel below so if you want to avoid any specific spoilers, read no further.

1. Competing Interest: Lucius finds himself at odds with many powerful individuals but one of the things that keeps things moving and happening is that many of those powerful individuals are at odds with one another causing all manner of conflict that Lucius is able to navigate to a bit more safety than he might otherwise have.

2. Look In The Unexpected: During the second half of the book, a Senator and his guards are murdered. The Tribune must find their killers which means finding their armor, silks, vast sums of wealth, and other tell tale bits. While they are reluctant to look in the tombs, it does come up as a point of unexpected treasure hiding. Another place that might, but wasn't mentioned here, is latrines. Back in the day, digging out your latrines would at the very least, provide you a hole in the ground if nothing else.

3. Friends in High Places:  During their seeking out of clues, Lucius and his friends meet a noble woman whose elderly husband has died, leaving her a widow. Lucius and her strike out quite well which works in Lucius advantage later when he is in need of assistance. Letting the party gather allies and friends, in some games, like Hero, by spending resources is well and good, but good role playing should result in both new enemies and new allies. If the players are paladins and stand for truth and honor, then those who despite those things will become their adversaries easily enough, but those who also stand for those things should be providing information and alliance to the players on the grounds that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Or something along those lines.

4. Outlaw Wizards: One of the interesting things is that an astrologer here provides a bit of trouble. At this time, Rome has outlawed wizards and others of their magic ilk. This astrologer though operates under a special license so to speak from the Emperor himself. But when looking at how and why magic isn't everywhere and anywhere, the outlawing of magic is a quick way to turn players into refuges.

Temple Hill by Drew Karpyshyn

Another standalone book in the Forgotten Realms series, The Cities. I managed to pick up this book from the Half Price book store for the princely sum of $1! Cheaper then most e-books I'll tell you. Speaking of e-books, a quick search of Amazon shows that nope, no ebook version over there. Anyway, Temple Hill does a lot of things that I felt the other book I read in the series failed to do.

First off, most of the action actually takes place in, below, and around the city. This involves throwing several organizations in there including organized religion, some of the famous factions of the setting like the Harpers, the Cult of the Dragon, and an guild of protectors that falls and rises again within these pages.

Next off, a lot of the material makes more sense in the context of the story here. While there are some moments where I wonder how things are justified in terms of how the action rolls off, those are the 'gamer dice' rolling in my head and don't interfere with my enjoyment of the story. The characters here are competent and knowledgeable, they 'fit' into their setting. More impressive is that Drew takes a female and male pair and doesn't have them fall in love at the end of the novel! Applause to you Drew Karpyshyn!


In terms of gaming, the male hero of the tales, Corin, has a patron in the form of the gnome that raised his half elf employer, Lhasha Moonsilver. This allows him access to goods that he might not normally be able to have access to. This also works out well in a city based campaign because many of the enemies a player may have to face in a city based campaign are human or humanoid and those huge cash reserves that players may be used to stumbling over in a dungeon probably won't be found here.

This isn't to say that precious gems, jewelry, objects of art, and other valuable bits like magic items, can't be found but if the party has a patron who can supply them with 'loot drops' at appropriate times, it can help to curb some of the more outrageous bits that may pop up and more importantly, it allows the party members some access to a 'small' magic shop that the GM controls with a pretty sturdy hand if he so chooses.

Drew makes sure to throw in a lot of elements that make Dungeons and Dragons what it is. This includes evil life draining swords, a strange fierce enemy for Corin to battle, several groups that have their own unique leaders, one with a powerful mage, another with a Beholder, and the use of another magical creature, in this case, a Medusa, almost as a weapon of mass destruction. The utility of these setting bits, not setting bits to the Forgotten Realms, but to Dungeons and Dragons, gives the book a homely feel. If you can bring the elements that mean Dungeons and Dragons to your group, and those will vary from group to group, then you're doing your job right.