Stands A Shadow: The Heart of the World Book Two by Col Buchanan

After finishing the first book in the series, The Heart of the World, Farlander, I looked at Amazon and saw that in hardcover, the second book was ten dollars. Bam! Ordered and now read. The bad thing? This one came out in 2011, or at least is copy right 2011 and Col Buchanan's website, which is both cool and infuriating, has no information on the next one.

Stands a Shadow continues several threads from the previous book and introduces new ones. It stands in stark contrast to a lot of the 'rules' of writing when talking about introducing a gun in scene one to use it in scene ten because it moves the cast around a lot. In that venue, it actually reminds me of A Game of Thrones in that you may think, "Ah, here's the main character." and then, nope, sorry, that was not the protagonist you were looking for.

I don't know if that's everyone's thing but it makes a nice change of style. It breaks the rules. I think writers like George and Col Buchanan can get away with it though, because first and foremost, they are good writers.

In Stands A Shadow, we have the assassin Ash seeking revenge for the death of his pupil, Nico in the first volume. His order though, is forbidden from doing this as it makes the chances of the guild, the Roshun, being hired again lessened as it tarnishes the image of their professionalism. At this point, as he's an older man, I think the book quotes sixty, Ash is okay with this making him a piraha among his own people.

The author uses a few techniques to bring out more of Ash's backstory including dreams, delirum, and Ash speaking with a monk about the troubles he finds himself in. These work well to bring out different aspects of the character as each method reveals something in a way that the others don't. The dreams are more akin to memories, while the delirum brings forth unwanted and guilt laden memories.

But despite the heavy focus on characters in the novel, there is more going on. The empire of Mann, where the only virtue is strength, is seeking to end the resistance of the so called Free Ports. This invasion brings armies into clashes and brings a lot of action and new characters to the scenario like Bull, a man released from jail, an extremely dangerous man who killed a hero of the war and is now offered a pardon and the opportunity to engage his anger at the enemy of his people. He takes it with both hands.

Other characters from the previous book, like Che, also are featured here and find their loyalties tested in many ways that they might never have expected.

Stands A Shadow is fairly self contained. While the end does offer the potential for another book, it is more the potential of hope itself that it offers, of the journey not being over, thing things can get better. Still, when Col Buchanan does get that next book out, I'll be down for the next copy.

Stands A Shadow is available in hardcover from at least one vendor using Amazon Prime for under $8.00 here on in kindle format for $6.83 here. If you have not read the first book in the series, Farlander, I would highly recommend getting it in hardcover because Amazon has it for $2.92, under three dollars, in hardcover, and shipped from Amazon Prime, here.

Having said all of that, how might this be useful for role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons or Rolemaster? Below I'll be discussing several specific bits from the book so there will be spoilers aplenty. Read no further if you wish to avoid them.

When I was reading this book, I kept thinking of Wizards of the Coast, Heroes of Battle. I kept thinking how that book would be a good resource to delve into after reading Stands A Shadow because of the war which has a large focus on the unexpected actions of characters and the armies that follow them, as opposed to just long grinds.

1.The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men: The army of Mann uses ships to transport its soldiers. In even the best of circumstances, crossing the world over a hostile terrain even in the largest ships, is a dangerous and challenging prospect. If you've seen Frank Miller's 300, there is a scene where the invading army loses ships to a storm. Something similar happens here. Despite the greater strength of numbers that the army of Mann brings with them, they still cannot control the weather or the elements. Remember random events in the campaign and how they may impact the overall campaign itself.

When looking at these elements, you should determine how big an impact they will have. Will they effect the whole army? For example, this book would have been pretty short had the entire army of Mann washed up on the shores dead and broken. Instead they lost a lot of their high powered weapons and their mounts and several people suffered injury including the Holy Matriarch suffering a broken arm.

2. Camp Followers: Where they are soldiers, there are those who will serve them. The book has Ash befriend a group of prostitutes after the ship's crash as he is seeking the warmth of their fire and scares off a group of soldiers who had intended not to pay. These camp followers are not the only ones though. There are also food sellers, carpenters, leather workers, and a whole host of other professionals whose survival comes from following the army. In some games like Games Workshop's Warhammer, at least in some editions, the players may even start off as a camp follower! Not ever character need be a camp follower though. For example, the young woman Curl is a battle doctor. Well, not quite, more like a nurse who stitches up the wounded and provides them with water and drugs to get them either back into the fight or out of it.

The camp followers can have many roles in the game. When the camp is not actively engaged in war, the soldiers need to do something. They will seek out different forms of entertainment and food and alcohol. This makes the camp itself like a moving city with all of the challenges of such a city.

For example, what if one of the food vendors is using the dead to supply his special brand of meat? This is a fairly common theme for a game like Warhammer for example.

What if the entertainers keep certain types of characters behind when the rest of the troop leave and devour them?

What if one of the prostitutes is a serial killer and picks out targets that won't be missed for weeks if ever as they were prime targets for desertion in the first place?

What if the players infiltrate the enemy camp and use the resources there to hinder the opposing force, or use it as cover to try and assassinate the enemy leadership or destroy key resources?

3. Characters change the game. Che is a 'diplomat' which is another code word for assassin. His doctrine into the religion of Mann is one that required him to undergo a change of personality to be trained as the Roshun assassin and then betray them. But it also requires him to be kept wide read and learn of the world. These elements make him a poor honest worshipper of the ways of Mann and while he does part of his duty, he also abandons the empire of Mann and saves the life of Ash while doing so. His actions bring further conflict to the empire of Mann, as well as resulting in more 'diplomats' being sent after him for his ways.

The world can be as big and vast as you want it, but the events around the players should be influenced and influence the characters in them. If the players take the fight to the enemy in the dead of night in a strategic movie to deprive the enemy of their leadership, can it work? If the enemy then decides to do the exact same thing against the players, will they be prepared?

4. Strong character opposition. While the army of Mann itself is powerful, I again find the head enemy, the Holy Matriarch of Mann, a physically weak character who while having a few moments more than she did in the previous book, still getting taken out almost as an after thought. This in turn leads to a huge event, civil war in the empire of Mann as multiple factions vie for the supreme rulership of the empire. The empire? Still a big bad overarching theme of do as thou will but the actual agents of this empire? So far both the Matriarch and her son have not proven to be that impressive. Mind you this goes in contradiction to how I feel about the heroes where I'm not necessarily expecting each one to be so skilled in dealing death as long as they have some character to bring to the story, but if the heroes are motivated to overcome these villains, if they have no problem doing so once they meet in the flesh, it feels a little demotivating.

5. Survival: On the other hand, if the game master doesn't provide some logical reason why the enemy isn't overwhelming the character, when appropriate, it can make the game seem off key. If the players are faced with overwhelming force, there needs to be a solid reason why the players haven't been overwhelmed. In the case of the book, part of this boils down to how the empire of Mann operates. The heroes of the Free Ports get a break when civil war breaks out in the empire, and this is something that's happened at least one time before as one of the generals notes it happened fifteen years ago. If you put up unbeatable opposition against the players, make sure they have an out.

6. New Characters: War brings out need. In this case, the need for bodies to press into the grinder of war. In so doing, new characters are introduced from dubious sources such as the mad house, the prisons, and the hospitals. If they can walk, they can fight. If in the course of the game the players lose a character or two, having a reliable way to introduce new characters is useful. This can range from a character from the opposition seeing the light, to someone seeking justice against the same foes the players are currently fighting against.

Stands A Shadow is a strong sequel to Farlander and well worth a read.

Kindle Daily Deals: Any takers for the big sale?

I try to keep tabs on the Kindle Daily deals for stuff that I might be interested in terms of role playing games and that feeble effort I take at actually doing some work at my job or keeping my personal interest up to date, or vaguely up to date.

Imagine my surprise today when I saw that there were a ton of things on the daily deal that I bought even though some of the prices did not say daily deal to me. I think there's something like 500+ books, not counting the regular four sections of the daily deal, one of which I also bought.

The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity (Oxford Handbooks) while the e-book version is still like $25 bones or something along those lines, it covers a pretty generous scope of history and it is now mine.

Data Science for Business: What you need to know about data mining and data-analytic thinking over at work I work with a lot of charts, a lot of Excel, a lot of Access, some SQL and reams of data. I'm better at asking questions of processes and how decisions are made, in my opinion mind you, so everytime I see something about what goes into making hard data decisions I buy it. This one is just under $7.50 so it's still a good deal higher than I like to see for a 'daily deal' but...

Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills something like $3.50 and I'm always interested in these types of books just for the 'creative' side of things. 

Windows PowerShell Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Scripting Microsoft's Command Shell again, while I'm not a programmer by any means, I'm not afraid to mess with the internals of a PC and well, I've learned a few skills here and there that have been helpful in say, boot time.

There were a couple of other programming books I bought, but those were more for reference. I find that if you have an actual programming problem that the internet is full of some very smart people willing to help you work through the problems and that the computer books themselves are more like, "here's a sandbox of what can be done but we're going to tell you how to do it in ways people actually working would never do." But that's just my personal experience with those types of books.

In terms of my game? Shot down today. I live in Chicago. My mom's doctor for her foot is way out in like the edges of Skokie near Mount Prospect. It's raining like hell. Her appointment was over an hour, which was very good in terms of time taken. Usually it's two to three. Barely gave me any time to work on COl Buchanan's second book ,Stands A Shadow.

But on the way back and since, it's been raining nonstop. Several almost accidents along the way so now that I'm home, the chances of me leaving the house again? Especially when I haven't eaten dinner? Especially when the GM called ahead to let us know that another player was bailing already? Yeah, not the first out and the GM already has a backup plan.

For me, I think I'm going to cook one of those over saturated with sodium Jewel pizza's and read some more of Stands A Shadow and wait for that Oxford book to download.

Hope everyone else has some happy gaming!

Let me know if you found anything worth while on the deal. I was surprised by how many things I wanted purely for reference and had to reign myself in before I spent a whole check on stuff I'm only going to use vaguely.

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

When I first heard of Geralt, a Witcher, a professional who hunts down supernatural horrors, it was not in a positive context. Over on Michael Moorcock's website, some of the fanbase essentially noted that the Witcher was a direct rip off of Elric, an aspect of the Eternal Champion created by Michael Moorcock. And what's more, the character or at least the world and setting, is apparently part of a best selling series of computer games.

That didn't necessarily strike me as a bad thing mind you. Conan, despite the dozens if not hundreds of stories written about him, has relatively few by the actual original author, Robert E. Howard. Most of these stories have been written decades after his death. 

So when the opportunity came to pick up The Last Wish by  Andrzej Sapkowski, at a decent price on the old Kindle format, I snatched it up. It appears to be a series of short stories broken up by an over arching rest point where Geralt is preparing himself for future travels after taking an injury in a case.

In terms of 'being a rip off' Elric, at least in this book, I can see where the comparison comes from, but Geralt is no Elric.

But let's start with the similarities. They are both albino characters. They are both spellcasters and master swordsmen. They both use drugs and elixirs. Note that in Geralt's case, the dependency, at least in this novel, seems like a new thing as opposed to Elric's ongoing need for them due to his chronic weakness. The other thing that would be annoying if I was Michael Moorcock would be having had a character like Elric whose bylines include The White Wolf, which at least one person calls Geralt here.

However, Geralt doesn't have a rune blade that drinks souls or has sword his own soul or alliance to the forces of Chaos and their worlds are vastly different. This bit is important because even in the first Elric book, the albino of that series is going to other worlds and planes and eventually times and manifestations of himself.

In terms of weapons, Geralt uses two different types of swords, one made of cold iron and the other of silver. Each suited for fighting a specific type of creature. Their outlooks, again, at least as far as this book is concerned, are also different although there are some similarities in terms of themes of fate and destiny.

In terms of the novel itself, it was worth a thought in terms of how certain types of characters fit into the wider world. In Geralt's case, he is a Witcher.  Being a Witcher means hunting down supernatural entities. But it notes that even during Geralt's time, that the need for his services has become less and less and that 'honest Witcher' work is harder and harder to find.

The whole idea of the Witcher would fit in well with specific roles in a fantasy game. Such roles have long been a part of Dungeons and Dragons, being put into more game related mechanics in the various Complete books with kits that provided game benefits and often role playing penalties or guidelines. It was made more concrete in 3rd edition with prestige classes that characters couldn't start as, but could advance into, and then part of the overall core mechanics in the Player's Handbook in 4th edition with paragon classes.

It showcases how such designs could go in a variety of methods. The abilities that Geralt has, are particularly suited for many dangerous things, not just fighting against monsters. In one short story, he has to note that he is not an assassin and those who seek to use him as such meet poor results. Geralt though, is not a player character. In a situation where characters are down on their luck, will they use their special and specific abilities to go outside those boundaries?

Another interesting bit that Andrzej uses is that of folk tales. He plugs several events from a variety of sources into the setting of Geralt with no problem or even attempts to make it subtle. This has been done for other settings like the Forgotten Realms with some success by plugging in deities from other campaign settings or eras. When something works, it works.

A third thing apparent, is the changing of an age. In one of the short stories, a fey creature is 'stealing' secrets of farming from humans and providing them to the elves. Geralt notes that the elves only chance of survival is to trade and work directly with the humans or they'll die out of starvation and only have a last ride out against humanity and then fade into legend. Given that the title of the next book I have by the author is The Blood of Elves, perhaps that vision comes true already.

In the Forgotten Realms, in some time lines at least, the elves, much like they are in Middle Earth, are a fading power. As are the dwarves. This is a common theme when humanity and technology and civilization are on the rise. The only thing that doesn't become too clear in The Last Wish, is how this interacts with the ideas of magic. Geralt has the ability to cast spells, as do many others he encounters and few of the human spellcasters seem to have any issue with civilization as opposed to the things in the wild that might be considered mythical which are being hunted to extinction.

The Last Wish isn't the strongest book I've read in the genre and my purchase of future volumes of the Witcher will be heavily influenced by how much I enjoy Blood of Elves, and of course, any future sales I may find that feature the books at the prices I like.

For those who've played the Witcher game, is it worth picking up for a person who doesn't play a lot of games on the computer?

For those who've read all the novels, is there one in particular that stands out from the crowd?

The passing of a Kung Fu Icon Run Run Shaw

Blogger apparently ate my post so this is a report.  Or a prepost? Anyway...
As reported by New York times, NPR, and other sources, the 106 year old media master, Run Run Shaw, has passed.

I'm not a film scholar. I grew up one of those dumb kids who was 'reached' by the 'Kung Fu' that Run Run Shaw brought over many times in many movies.

Some of my favorites are below. Things to remember though. One, is these were often done on a low budget. Two, they have a different perspective than most Westernized films. At least most of them. Three, they're from a different time and period.

Fists of Fury: I could just go, "Bruce Lee" and that would make it one of my favorite movies. But that's nonsense. As old as I am, I was born in 1971 so I was maybe 1 year old when this first came out. There are a ton of m'eh versions of this movie out in terms of transfer but I hear this one isn't too bad but if you're looking for a definitive version, I hear searching Amazon.UK is your better bet.

Fists of Fury is one of those simple movies where Bruce's character is told, "Honor your promise and don't fight" but hey, he discovers that his working environment is not what is seems and so must break his promise! This movie is over forty years old and it still brings the Wushu.


Five Fingers of Death: Also known as King Boxer. Another one from 1972. One of the 'fun' things about this movie is it's one of the first ones I remember with a 'secret' technique aka the Iron Fist or Iron Palm, depending on your translation. It's got a LOT of fighting and well, if Kung Fu is your thing...


Looking up his movies, I think I may be running into some directed by the sons but were ones that I enjoyed so I'm springing them up here.


The 36th Chamber of Shaolin: Thinking that the Shaolin Monks and the mystic elements associated with them? This is one of the movies that would make a good starting point to see where all of that came from 1978! Here we have some kindly wise old masters and the outsider who wishes to learn their secrets to take the fight back against corruption! Heck, this one is even on blu ray.


There are a lot more but again, no scholar, just someone who enjoyed a lot of these films, but saw them when he was a younger man and honestly can't remember most of them. They turn into a blur of kung fu with angry students, wise old masters, and the deadly arts of hand to hand combat!


But there is one that he is an unaccredited producer of...

Blade Runner: Yup, this one has all sorts of editions including a four disk edition and a blu ray.  I myself had one of those ultimate edition things that was sadly destroyed in a move. Verily that sucketh!

With my buddies getting ready to run more Legends of the Five Rings, or L5R, I think that instead of the next Samurai I was going to do, a crab who actually tried to be sociable, it's time to review the Dragon and see if I can monkey up a monk for Friday.


What about the rest of wushu fans out there? Any particular favorites jump to the forefront? Any particular stories about Shaw that you think people should know about? Share the

Kung Fu Panda 2

Sometimes there's a little touch of serendipity. For example, right around Christmas, Amazon had Kung Fu Panda 1 and Kung Fu Panda 2 on sale in the digital format. I snagged both of them for like $5.99 each as opposed to the almost $10 they are now.


I saw serendipity because I had no clue that I'd be playing in a Legends of the Five Rings game, which was brought about by seeing the movie 47 Ronin. Sometimes things just hit in cycles. Mind you, while I love Wuxia style games, Legends of the Five Rings is generally more of a samurai game. I'm not saying it's impossible to make a monk style character.


If I'm recalling correctly, the Dragon have their own clan for it, and there are some skills and advantages that allow you to at least be competent in it. I believe the Dragon monks even breath fire if they survive long enough. But it's been a long time since I was a master of the game system and 4th edition is still calling me to read it more and more.


Anyway, I enjoyed the original Kung Fu Panda. I dug the sound track, the visuals, and the story. The folks at DreamWorks tend to make a good movie in my opinion.


I was not disappointed in Kung Fu Panda 2. It helps that it's an animated film. By doing so, the company is able to overcome issues that plague many historical based productions like HBO's Rome. Anyone remember that it was supposed to be the sheer cost of the sets, the huge cast and the awesome costumes that doomed it to being only two season? Going the animated route allowed the creators of Kung Fu Panda to also play around with the imaging.


For example, we discover more about the Dragon Warrior's background. To all viewers, it's obvious that Po is adopted since you know, his father is not a giant panda but to Po it comes as a surprise. By using what I'll call 'traditional' or carton style imagery it clearly cuts the scenes that are memory and those that happen in the here and now. It works well.


The story hits several of the 'standard' bits. We have a little bonding between the members of the original Five and Po. We have some great 'kung fu' moments. We have moments where the opposition seems entirely too powerful and that it will take a miracle to overcome. Oh yeah, and chase scenes. We get several of these and some of them very entertaining visually like where Po and the Five are disguised as a dancing dragon for a festival and 'eat' their enemies and well, they don't come out the front end.


There is also a bit too much of the 'drama' key for me. Mind you, it's not an overwhelming thing. There are some tragic elements added to Po's background, which for the purpose of the movie, work fine, but the added little 'extra' at the end, that hit the drama key for me. Worse then that though, is the supposed sequel isn't supposed to be out until Christmas 2015. Thankfully there is an actual carton series that doesn't do a bad job of capturing some of the fun although the animation in that has nothing on the movies.


I'll be discussing some specifics of the movie below and things that inspired me from the movie so if you don't want any specific spoilers, read no further.


1. The nemesis effect: I'm not quite sure that is the actual specific name but in short, when you hear a destiny you don't like and go about changing it only to have the exact thing you didn't want to happen, happen. In this case, the foe, Shen, a peacock, is a chemist of sorts who sees a new future for the powders used to make fire works but a seer foresees that a panda will stop him. Shen's solution? Kill all the panda. Doesn't work though as Po winds up being sent off to a far away place and due to his location, becomes the dragon warrior, the only one capable of stopping Shen.


Mind you, that's the 'easy' way. It's similar to the original Batman movie with Jack playing the Joker. Joker in that movie at least, kills Bat's parents, Bat's and thug fight, thug gets turned into Joker and final showdown happens!


One of my favorites though is a little more subtle. It's a Viking tale. Powerful warrior goes to see how he'll die. He's told it's his horse. He's like, "My hose?" Kills the horse. Goes out and does all sorts of Viking things. Years later finds the skull of his horse and is like, "Whose killing who!" and kicks the skull aside, disturbing the poisonous snake beneath it who bites and kills the Viking.


2. Its a Wonderful World after all. I can't speak for Jack's acting chops. I'm entertained by his music mind you, but he really hasn't wowed me in any movies. Here though, maybe because it's animated or maybe because it's a character Jack would never have the ability to play in an actual movie, he does a great job. Now when I say great, what I appreciate is that Po is first and foremost, a fan of kung fu. He is a destined warrior and is an important part of the 'hero' food chain but he loves where he's at. He loves and can't believe his luck to work with the Five. When he meets other legendary characters, he's awed and thrilled to be working with them at the same time. It's a refreshing change of pace of heroism from some of the more cynical and standard batons of grim soldier that are so common these days. Po is fun.


3. Big Things: Po and the Five and the other masters are not your standard people. While we're not talking about Dragon Ball Z levels of power or anything, they are capable of dodging multiple arrows while fighting multiple opponents while leaping about and engaging in combat sequences that are visually appealing. This includes say, gang piling ships at the entrance of a river to prevent Shen and his canons from leaving the city and conquering China. This bigger than life effort only works short term mind you, but it does work and it's an impressive bit.


When you have characters that are capable of doing great things, like in L5R perhaps some of the more magical classes, let them shine. Let those points spent in advantages and specializations come to the forefront.


4. Character moments: One of the things that's easy to overlook in the movie, is that Po continues to bond with the others in the setting. This doesn't only include the Five, but also his master and his father. These moments of character allow the character to be more than just a set of awesome abilities.


When I was regularly running, I tried to make the characters lives interesting with numerous NPCs, interactions with lots of people, and enough things going on in the character's lives, that going to a dungeon and fighting might not be the most important thing, but countered that by having things in the dungeon that they'd need. Mind you my 'dungeons' used to be much smaller than the common monstrosities out now and might have even resembled some of those in 4e where things might be 'grouped' into mini-dungeons for specific things for the characters to do or get.


5. Visual Style: This one can be hard to pull off. I mentioned that my friends started the L5R game because they were inspired by 47 Ronin. Part of that was just how cool it looked. Kung Fu Panda has a lot of moments of visual 'stunts' and great action sequences. These things make it appealing. Doing so while just describing it can be a touch more difficult, so don't be afraid to steal visuals and even sounds when you can. There are some songs, like the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack where if I play the Anvil of Crom, from the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack, of which there is apparently a three disk version now, most of the players know that the big fight is getting ready to come down, or if I play The Siege of Camylarde, which is actually a different song in its original classic name, from the soundtrack of Excalibur, which is no longer available apparently but the blu ray is like $10 bones. Go figure.


Anyway, it doesn't necessarily have to be a 'visual' style, but if your words can enforce the themes and conflicts without any need for print outs or sounds, all the better, but don't be afraid to use those other resources when they're out there.


Kung Fu Panda 2 is a fun movie and while it gives some maturation to the main character, at the end of the film he's still jumping into the air in awe that he gets to fight alongside the legends of kung fu.

First Game of 2014: L5R

I may have mentioned that I don't play RPG's as much as I would like to and that one of my goals in 2014 was to play more.

I spoke with my buddies a few weeks ago and they were talking Iron Kingdoms. I was like well, I know the setting from the old d20 books and the table top game, but don't have any of the new stuff. No problem, come on by early and we'll hash something out.

Talked to them before coming over and bam! It'd be changed to Legend of the Five Rings by AEG .

This is what I'm talking about when I mention the inspiration part of movies, books, and comics. The fact that a group of these guys went to see the movie and were so entranced by it, by the sound track, the visuals, the scenery, the background, and themes, that they said, "You know, that game of Iron Kingdoms we were going to play? That we discussed? That the GM has been prepping for months? Yeah, screw that game. It's time to get my Samurai on!"

For me it was good because I've also been getting a samurai fix form Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog where he's been posting about playing games of Ronin, a skirmish level miniature game by Osprey.

And man, I have the PDF. It's a huge thing being over 400 pages. And it's a gorgeous book. I really need to break down one day and buy the hardcover because while my Toshiba Thrive is still working, either I'm getting old and that 10.1 screen isn't doing it anymore, or more likely, like 99.9% of PDF's, it's the book with no regard given to being read in any other format than the print version.

Because it's so graphic heavy and so tight in text, it's not necessarily a pleasant experience reading it in standard format so you can increase the size of the text and make it easier on the eyes, but then it's not a page per 'sheet' or screen view if you will. That could just be me being crazy and suffering some OCD or something though.

Anyway, one of my friends did a Crane, another one a Dragon, another a Crab, and I picked Scorpion. We all picked Samurai, no courtiers or monks or ninjas or other weirdness.

Character creation wasn't bad. The whole five rings with four of them broken into two traits per ring and then the skills and schools and advantages and potential disadvantages took me less than an hour.

Speaking of disadvantages, in Legend of the Five Rings, how many people max those out? I didn't know if we were going to be playing again or what type of campaign it was going to be so didn't even bother with them and buffed up a few skills and picked a few advantages.

The GM ran something where we ran into the children of the emperor in a tavern full of semi-shady characters. There were some great interactions there with some notable NPC's and some people falling into the disadvantages like lechery or devoted to the spirits right away.

We followed along with the Emperor's children on a pilgrimage and well, long story short, two of the three were apparently killed, as were two of the players, in this case myself and +Sergio Rivera at the hands of +Tom Wright. I say apparently because the other players didn't stick around to see what happened, and while we were definitely outclassed, Legend of the Five Rings, at least story wise, has a long history of "No, that didn't actually happen see.", much like the old dime movies back in the day.

I've got a little less than a week to make my next character and I'm thinking of either another Scorpion or perhaps a ronin. The thing about ronin though, us unlike other game systems, unless it's changed dramatically, which it may, L5R is all about the clans so if you go ronin, you're really screwed at a character level.

Anyone have any Legend of the Five Rings advice out there? Any good sites I should be noting down and looking at? Help a poor man out here!

47 Ronin (Movie 2014 version)

So 2014 has started off pretty good for me. I finished a good book, knocked out a couple of miniatures, and even took my mom to see 47 Ronin with Keanu Reeves among others.

It was not what I thought it was. This may be because the advertising did the movie wrong. For example, if you look at the poster I've got up here, we've got some freaky looking dude with awesome tattoos. Yeah, he's in the movie for like five minutes at most. The ads that I saw for the movie, were heavy on the supernatural action. There is that, but it is well spaced, almost secondary to the whole gist of the movie, which is the based on the tale of the 47 Ronin. Which by the way is an amazon kindle book for like $2.99 in a few varieties.

For me, the movie has more than enough to make it enjoyable. The costumes are fantastic, the landscape is lush and inspiring, the soundtrack is great, the visuals are stunning. The fight scenes are well done with numerous pieces of action that could fit into several genres. The story or at least the themes and elements that make the story so well loved, are close enough to the original that Keanu's role for me at least, wasn't a major distraction.

I'll be discussing specific spoilers below so if you'd rather have none, read no further.

1. The Outcast. Keanu Reeves is the outcast character Kai, a 'half' breed who was left to die and taken in by Tengu and escaped them and served the Lord Asano.  Now that in and of itself may make some people groan that 'Kai' has too much spotlight but interestingly enough, the key things that COULD have made Keanu too overbearing, at least for me, are absent. For example, he is a loner, but that's because he is a social piranha. He has a specialized set of skills and knowledge, but for much of the film, those things are useless. He's a great fighter, but he gets stomped on by the champion of the enemy, who appears to be a giant suit of animated armor as we never see the actual person under it.

But outcasts are fun. Games are filled with them. It's been a while since I've played Legend of the Five Rings, but that was one of the few games I remember, at the time at least, that being a Ronin sucked. There wer mechanics built into the game that made it hard to keep up with the clan samurai if you weren't one of them.

And Kai is outcast in that way too. He is not samurai. HIs social status is low and while a retainer for the lord, and having the love of the lord's daughter, and even some friendship among the samurai, he is treated poorly by most of them and yet knows his social standing and what role his future will take if he stays there.

2. Good planning is rewarded. One of the things that surprised me a bit was that the plan of the Samurai, for the most part, goes fantastic until it comes time for the very end game itself at which point something goes wrong, but it goes right for so long I was like, "Man, are they going to just pull the whole thing off without a hitch?" The planning works well and if your players have great plans and ideas, those should be rewarded.

3. Mini-Quests: When the 47 Ronin lose their master, they disband save for Kai who for some reason, instead of being killed, is just sold into slavery. One of the first things the Ronin do when getting back together, is seek Kai for his help in dealing with the witch of the enemy. Kai is a slave on a dutch island filled with all sorts of crazy characters and is fighting for his life in a gladiator arena when first spotted against what might as well be an ogre. The escape from slavery is short but well acted with lots of swordplay and a dash of fire to give the pursuers something else to think about. But men with no masters have no right to say, bear arms, especially katanas, the soul of a samurai.

Kai however, raised by Tengu, has the solution in something he calls, if I'm not remembering wrong, the Forest of Swords where the Tengu will give the samurai a gift of katanas if they can pass a test. It's a quick jaunt and showcases some very interesting visuals on the Tengu here who do not appear to be the traditional versions I've seen, and it has something for both the 'mundanes' and for Keanu himself to do.

Heck, part of the problem some may have had is there is too much in the time frame and that there needed to be more bits and elements given here. If this had done well, perhaps we'd have seen a movie showcasing what Kai was doing in the dutch island as a slave, perhaps we'd get to see some more of the giant warrior or the pirate with all the tattoos. A lot of potential in all those great sets and costumes.

4. Rivals: Spider Man, Bat Man, and other super heroes, have their very own rogue's gallery. Many super heroes do. Many characters in Manga, like Goku do. They have that one enemy that keeps coming back and who keeps increasing their own power in order to either beat the other character or simply to be the best at what they do. I thought for sure that after Kai was curb stompped by the big armored samurai that there would be a rematch but nope, that sucker gets blown up by explosives. It's a great scene and reminds me at least, that not everything has to come to one on one combat.

47 Ronin may not fit everyone's bill. It veers a bit from the historical version. It's heavily advertised with fantasy elements but doesn't have a LOT of them in there but at the end, I enjoyed it.