I had started work on designing an RPG over at the ForgedRPG forums. Things got stalled, but the discussion about the Accidental Survivors RPG got me thinking again. One of the benefits of that discussion was trying to focus on a genre for what I wanted to represent. What I proposed there is something I can work on here. It also gives a better title than Baroque RPG: Sword Noir.

Sword Noir–that would be sword & sorcery meets film noir. So what is sword noir as a genre? Characters morals are shifting at best and absent at worst. The atmosphere is dark and hope is frail or completely absent. Violence is deadly and fast. The characters are good at what they do, but they are specialists. Trust is the most valued of commodities–life is the cheapest. Grim leaders weave labyrinthine plots which entangle innocents. Magic exists and can be powerful, but it takes extreme dedication to learn, extorts a horrible price, and is slow to conjure.

Of those, there are aspects that require rules, others would be reflected in the flavour text. That violence is deadly and fast informs the rules for combat. Capable specialists indicate some form of a skill system that does not allow easy generalization. Even things like shifting morals would indicate that this game does not use alignment rules. If trust is so valuable, it should be measured, indicating some kind of mechanic to do so. The magic system is obviously not the in-combat, fire and forget format found in many fantasy RPGs.

That’s the basics for now. Head on over to the Baroque OGL forum if you are interested in reading more.

This is really an expansion on the ideas percolating out of thinking about film noir sensibilities in my stories. How about this as a new fiction genre, sword noir?

I posted a “Lessons Learned” post over at my blog regarding last night’s “the Beast of Namgakksan” game I ran at Go-Play Ottawa.

This test drive is just going to make it stronger for GenCon.

Plot Summary from IMDB:

“Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker. ”

Let me get my major gripe out of the way.

I still hate the Batman voice. It sounds like he’s trying to do a bad Clint Eastwood impression “So you gotta be asking yourself PUNK! Did I fire 5 battarangs or 6?”

Now with the rest of it. This movie exceeded my expectations. It was dark, raw and very intense. Everyone is talking about Heath’s performance as the Joker and it is truly amazing. They way he presented the Joker is outstanding. It brought a level of insanity to the role that has never been done before. His performance set the level for the entire movie and will be hard to beat for anyone taking over the role again. It’s a remarkable transformation.

Fortunately almost everyone else was up to the task and delivered equally fitting performances as well. Harvey Dent’s transformation from ‘White Knight’ to Two-Face is well done and well cast I might add. All the other supporting characters kept up their roles started out in the previous movie as well and were consistent.

Some people griped about the length and while I can see some argument that it dragged a bit. I personally didn’t have a problem with it. The story was well developed. They characters got a great amount of screen time and there was seldom a lull.

The action scenes were all well done and unlike the previous films the fight scenes were well shot and more importantly visible. The explosions, gun battles and car chases were also well presented and as intense and chaotic as the rest of the movie. It all just worked.

I may have more gripes to add after a 2nd viewing. But the initial impression is fantastic. It’s an amazing sequel that I think outshines the previous movie in almost every aspect. The Dark Knight is truly a fitting title and this movie is worth all the praise it’s getting. It’s easily the best movie I’ve seen so far this year.

5 out of 5.

Do you want to discuss Chris’ review of this movie? You can find the discussion here.

Yet more interesting news after a perusal of Twitch–the alien vs. viking movie Outlander.

Yes, I said alien vs. viking.  Sounds crazy, but after viewing the trailer, it looks pretty cool. Then again, I never get to go out for movies these days, so we may just have to rely on Chris to get us a review when this hits the theatres. Considering how high in affection Chris and I both hold the 13th Warrior, Outlander might turn out to be something we also enjoy.

Chris pointed out at ForgedRPG.com that Twitch has posted about a possible remake of the Five Deadly Venoms. Read the Twitch article here.

As Chris says: ” My eyes! My eyes!” I have a feeling that the goggles? They will do nothing.

Green Ronin are releasing a Song of Ice & Fire RPG. When I first heard about it, I made the assumption that it was a D20 game, given the previous Game of Thrones RPG. However they are using their own system. The system is a generally rules lite game but still has enough meat to it to play around with. They also have an intrigue system for playing out those social situation of which the books are so fond of.

You can get the quick play rules here.

So it’s been announced on the Go-Play Ottawa website that the mini-con is on for July 26th from noon to 9 PM. If you are in the Ottawa area, go check out the info and plan to attend. You’ve seen all the cool Beast of Namgakksan stuff, right?