Oscar Bait 4/10
Definitely not a tear jerker like some people think. It seems a bit lame to say this but the film doesn't give you much to get your teeth into and the scenes where they prepare bodies for departure are a bit of a one act play repeated over and over again.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
The Fountain
Pretentious Rubbish 0/10
I didn't think it was possible to project diarrhoea directly onto screen. Miraculously Aronofsky seems to have found out how.
I didn't think it was possible to project diarrhoea directly onto screen. Miraculously Aronofsky seems to have found out how.
Three Colours Red- The Ginger Snaps Trilogy
Ginger Snaps 8 1/2 out of 10
Ginger Snaps Unleashed 7 1/2 out of 10
Ginger Snaps Back 9 out of 10
Ginger Snaps Unleashed 7 1/2 out of 10
Ginger Snaps Back 9 out of 10
Monday, 27 February 2012
Child's Play 2
Black Comedy/Horror 6/10
"I Hate Kids." Chucky
In this film he has more reason to than ever. Although you may think it's mystifying if you haven't seem the first film yet, they actually do quite a good job of explaining what's happened so you can pick up on all the important information. Andy speaks at normal human speed in this film and has a charismatic, female, blond-but-not-stupid (in a refreshing change to horror movie cliches) sidekick and Chucky possesses an evil charisma. More entertaining than the first film it has one of my favourite horror movie endings. You don't have to be a fan of conventional black comedy, laughing at bad things happening to people for no reason, to like this.
"I Hate Kids." Chucky
In this film he has more reason to than ever. Although you may think it's mystifying if you haven't seem the first film yet, they actually do quite a good job of explaining what's happened so you can pick up on all the important information. Andy speaks at normal human speed in this film and has a charismatic, female, blond-but-not-stupid (in a refreshing change to horror movie cliches) sidekick and Chucky possesses an evil charisma. More entertaining than the first film it has one of my favourite horror movie endings. You don't have to be a fan of conventional black comedy, laughing at bad things happening to people for no reason, to like this.
Child's Play
Firstly I have no idea what Stephen Watson (another reviewer) is talking about. His review sounds like an extremely skewed version of the film's story he heard from someone else. Conversely I don't know why so many people gave it five stars.
The first scene is rather cliched and might make you think you're watching a low-budget movie late at night on ITV 4 (which may in fact be the case.) The special effects aren't the best I've seen (it was made in the eightees after all) and Andy (the child) talks so slowly it sounds like he has a speech impediment. I still watch this film but I think the best thing about this movie is the sequel it spawned. All the stuff that showed up in Child's Play 2 is here but it's been improved in the mean time.
The first scene is rather cliched and might make you think you're watching a low-budget movie late at night on ITV 4 (which may in fact be the case.) The special effects aren't the best I've seen (it was made in the eightees after all) and Andy (the child) talks so slowly it sounds like he has a speech impediment. I still watch this film but I think the best thing about this movie is the sequel it spawned. All the stuff that showed up in Child's Play 2 is here but it's been improved in the mean time.
Film Review Index
Cruel Intentions II
Horror
Child's Play
Three Colours Red: The Ginger Snaps Trilogy
Japanese Films
Kamikaze Girls
Horror
Child's Play
Three Colours Red: The Ginger Snaps Trilogy
Japanese Films
Kamikaze Girls
Saturday, 25 February 2012
Upon the Importance of Magical Materials
Not only the highest end of the scale but also the lowest needs to be revised in terms of artefacts. In case I didn't say it earlier, in order to correct the contradictions in the artefact scale and the N/A category of artefacts I created a new Background called Wonders. Sources openly admit the disparity between artefacts as mighty as a Warstrider sharing the same artefact rating as a Grand Daiklave for example. The Wonder Background was made to counteract this. Essentially Wonders are a continuation of the scale of lesser artefacts. Simply put they represent the artefact level that would be expressed as 6-10. Since I haven't used this rule myself it's up to Storytellers to decide whether the artefact 4-5 cost for bonus points, or experience if it's used for Backgrounds, is enough or whether they require something more. The importance of Wonders is they go all the way to the top of the Artefact scale including things such as the Eye of Autochthon, the Five Metal Shrike, and other such legendary creations.
Back to the subject, at the lower end the importance of artefacts needs to be recognised. Even the lowest, level 1, artefact is an object of such power that it deserves a Background in it's own right. Even though it is the least of objects made from magical materials it exceeds the power of any similar item that could be made through conventional craft. This should go further in that the power of such objects is not measured in the same way as conventional items but intrinsically possess unusual powers that are their defining feature. A Short Daiklave or Artefact 1 martial arts weapon would easily outstrip anything made by mundane craft. Thaumaturgy is a slightly contentious issue since it involves magic without necessarily creating artefacts. The powerful items it creates (far more powerful than anything listed in the rules so far which do not give justice to the vast amounts of money and effort needed to make them) are covered by the Resources used in the construction. So people with Resources 4 and 5 could purchase master level thaumaturgical services. However in terms of power they do overlap with artefacts since thaumaturgy can be a powerful supernatural force as well.
One issue that bears consideration is whether artefacts possess powers relevant to the Background level as an intrinsic characteristic or whether such powers would increase their Background score. Personally, having a grander idea of the scope of the game, I favour the former. As such the characteristics of weapons listed in the back of the rulebook are an indication of the supernatural powers they would possess. If the latter idea was used, in combination with the idea that all artefacts possess such powers, it would cause a universal increase in their Background ratings, categorisation of artefact 4 and 5 items as Wonders, and quicker approach to the sky limit for artefacts. This would mean people would have to chose between an immediately physical powerful artefact such as a Warstrider that gave the character much greater strength, and an artefact with more mystical powers. Storytellers who favour the former approach could use it to emphasise how rare and how powerful artefacts really are. Wonders would be truly astronomical as befits their status and difficulty to create.
Back to the subject, at the lower end the importance of artefacts needs to be recognised. Even the lowest, level 1, artefact is an object of such power that it deserves a Background in it's own right. Even though it is the least of objects made from magical materials it exceeds the power of any similar item that could be made through conventional craft. This should go further in that the power of such objects is not measured in the same way as conventional items but intrinsically possess unusual powers that are their defining feature. A Short Daiklave or Artefact 1 martial arts weapon would easily outstrip anything made by mundane craft. Thaumaturgy is a slightly contentious issue since it involves magic without necessarily creating artefacts. The powerful items it creates (far more powerful than anything listed in the rules so far which do not give justice to the vast amounts of money and effort needed to make them) are covered by the Resources used in the construction. So people with Resources 4 and 5 could purchase master level thaumaturgical services. However in terms of power they do overlap with artefacts since thaumaturgy can be a powerful supernatural force as well.
One issue that bears consideration is whether artefacts possess powers relevant to the Background level as an intrinsic characteristic or whether such powers would increase their Background score. Personally, having a grander idea of the scope of the game, I favour the former. As such the characteristics of weapons listed in the back of the rulebook are an indication of the supernatural powers they would possess. If the latter idea was used, in combination with the idea that all artefacts possess such powers, it would cause a universal increase in their Background ratings, categorisation of artefact 4 and 5 items as Wonders, and quicker approach to the sky limit for artefacts. This would mean people would have to chose between an immediately physical powerful artefact such as a Warstrider that gave the character much greater strength, and an artefact with more mystical powers. Storytellers who favour the former approach could use it to emphasise how rare and how powerful artefacts really are. Wonders would be truly astronomical as befits their status and difficulty to create.
Friday, 17 February 2012
Friday, 10 February 2012
Playing the Field
Celestial Power and Martial Arts
For a while I've been wondering what are appropriate prerequisites for learning Sorcery. As I've said before the minimum Traits needed are unusually low making it possible for players who haven't been at the game long to access Solar Circle Sorcery. The need for players to be able to access sorcery with starting characters is important, so Terrestrial circle sorcery must havve low prerequisites. 3 for Essence is certainly appropriate, 3 for Occult may seem a bit low but it fits if other circles of sorcery have high Essence levels.
On that note, I've decided to increase the minimum levels of Essence and occult to 6 for Celestial circle sorcery and 9 for Solar circle. This also raises the question of where the Terrestrial Exalted fit in. And the threshold for increasing Essence above the metaphysical boundary where it becomes a major challenge which currently stands between three and four as well as the limit of Essence for Terrestrial Exalted.
In their current state, the Terrestrial Exalted and their associated martial arts, are both underpowered and very boring. Repeating my previous post, the key to the Celestials' power does not need to reside in the fact that their powers are vis-a-vis to the Terrestrials greater, but that they have access to higher Essence Charms and for a very long period if they live out their whole natural life span.
One important point to address is the apparently arbitrary cut off point of the Terrestrials' natural age, about 350 years, limiting them to a maximum Essence of 8, and then only for a short time. Normally mortals do not live beyond 99 years and so, even if they can wield Essence, are unable to increase it or their other traits above 5. This may prove to be an appropriate lifespan for the Terrestrials too, as it would mean that their powers are not weaker or any less interesting than the Celestials, but mean they cannot rise to the same heights, which is what marks the Celestial Exalted out.
Taking martial arts as a case in point, since it involves all Exalted in a comparative structure, current Celestial martial arts, many of which are animal styles suited to the new theme of Terrestrials, would prove to be good Terrestrial martial arts. The Form Charms universally have an Essence rating of 2, which would be within the grasp of a starting level Terrestrial character, and the high level Charms never exceed Essence 5, making the whole style available to Terrestrials. This may make players of Celestials baulk but remember that at such levels they are only beginning to develop their powers.
Sidereal martial arts mark the opposite end of the spectrum and have one major limitation. Despite supposedly being the epitome of martial arts and the Sidereals' area of greatest prowess, only one of them reaches Essence 8 in the post Form Charms and does not go beyond that. Since Celestial Exalted Essence can go all the way to 10, this should be the limit of the Sidereal martial arts styles, not 7 as is typical for many of them. In their current form many of the Sidereal styles look like templates for Celestial styles, giving access to transcendent powers that their unnaturally high Essence allows them. Sidereal martial arts however should go all the way to the top, the highly unusual nature of Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic Style, which often exceeds even the constraints of being a fighting style, is a good indicator of what Sidereal martial arts should be.
For a while I've been wondering what are appropriate prerequisites for learning Sorcery. As I've said before the minimum Traits needed are unusually low making it possible for players who haven't been at the game long to access Solar Circle Sorcery. The need for players to be able to access sorcery with starting characters is important, so Terrestrial circle sorcery must havve low prerequisites. 3 for Essence is certainly appropriate, 3 for Occult may seem a bit low but it fits if other circles of sorcery have high Essence levels.
On that note, I've decided to increase the minimum levels of Essence and occult to 6 for Celestial circle sorcery and 9 for Solar circle. This also raises the question of where the Terrestrial Exalted fit in. And the threshold for increasing Essence above the metaphysical boundary where it becomes a major challenge which currently stands between three and four as well as the limit of Essence for Terrestrial Exalted.
In their current state, the Terrestrial Exalted and their associated martial arts, are both underpowered and very boring. Repeating my previous post, the key to the Celestials' power does not need to reside in the fact that their powers are vis-a-vis to the Terrestrials greater, but that they have access to higher Essence Charms and for a very long period if they live out their whole natural life span.
One important point to address is the apparently arbitrary cut off point of the Terrestrials' natural age, about 350 years, limiting them to a maximum Essence of 8, and then only for a short time. Normally mortals do not live beyond 99 years and so, even if they can wield Essence, are unable to increase it or their other traits above 5. This may prove to be an appropriate lifespan for the Terrestrials too, as it would mean that their powers are not weaker or any less interesting than the Celestials, but mean they cannot rise to the same heights, which is what marks the Celestial Exalted out.
Taking martial arts as a case in point, since it involves all Exalted in a comparative structure, current Celestial martial arts, many of which are animal styles suited to the new theme of Terrestrials, would prove to be good Terrestrial martial arts. The Form Charms universally have an Essence rating of 2, which would be within the grasp of a starting level Terrestrial character, and the high level Charms never exceed Essence 5, making the whole style available to Terrestrials. This may make players of Celestials baulk but remember that at such levels they are only beginning to develop their powers.
Sidereal martial arts mark the opposite end of the spectrum and have one major limitation. Despite supposedly being the epitome of martial arts and the Sidereals' area of greatest prowess, only one of them reaches Essence 8 in the post Form Charms and does not go beyond that. Since Celestial Exalted Essence can go all the way to 10, this should be the limit of the Sidereal martial arts styles, not 7 as is typical for many of them. In their current form many of the Sidereal styles look like templates for Celestial styles, giving access to transcendent powers that their unnaturally high Essence allows them. Sidereal martial arts however should go all the way to the top, the highly unusual nature of Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic Style, which often exceeds even the constraints of being a fighting style, is a good indicator of what Sidereal martial arts should be.
Celestial Powers
The Celestial Powers are ways to change the world, sicne that is what the Exalted were made to do.
The Solars have their indomitable will and change Creation through sheer force.
The Sidereals have insight gained through martial arts, a discipline focussed on understanding the world, which the Sidereals excel at.
The Solars have their indomitable will and change Creation through sheer force.
The Sidereals have insight gained through martial arts, a discipline focussed on understanding the world, which the Sidereals excel at.
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Lunar Caste Abilities
Changing the paradigm of Terrestrials to the Lunars' animal emphasis and realigning the Lunars' own background to one closer to the Fair Folk, Attribute-based Charms may suit the Terrestrials more and I decided to allocate Abilities to the Lunars. The following do not have specific Castes such as Full Moon etc. yet. The pattern of the Lunars' Castes may change in time.
Warrior: Archery, Martial Arts, Melee, Thrown, Dodge
Traveller: Athletics, Ride, Sail, Survival, Stealth
Communicator: Performance, Presence, Socialise, Linguistics, Integrity
Mastermind: Lore, Occult, Bureaucracy, War, Investigation
Survivor: Awareness, Resistance, Dodge, Larceny, Medicine (admittedly this is just stuff that didn't fit into the other categories but I think survivor is a good designation.)
Obviously these aren't Caste names but archetypes.
An important point here is that I've decided to break the usual Lunar affiliation with animals (an offshoot of their werewolf background that I've decided to abolish,) now the province of the Terrestrials in a much needed attempt to make them more interesting, and the Lunars' powers are not aimed at flexibility. Instead they deal with one specific role with a sledgehammer blow. Solars may possess multiple Abilities for one task, (the Zenith Caste have Performance, Presence and Integrity) but these Abilities are always spread over multiple Castes. A character with access to all Abilities involved in social combat would be a monster. Especially when given a different meaning to Socialise and Performance. The Warrior has the same Abilities as the Dawn Caste except for Dodge instead of War, which is a better skill set for personal combat.
Warrior: Archery, Martial Arts, Melee, Thrown, Dodge
Traveller: Athletics, Ride, Sail, Survival, Stealth
Communicator: Performance, Presence, Socialise, Linguistics, Integrity
Mastermind: Lore, Occult, Bureaucracy, War, Investigation
Survivor: Awareness, Resistance, Dodge, Larceny, Medicine (admittedly this is just stuff that didn't fit into the other categories but I think survivor is a good designation.)
Obviously these aren't Caste names but archetypes.
An important point here is that I've decided to break the usual Lunar affiliation with animals (an offshoot of their werewolf background that I've decided to abolish,) now the province of the Terrestrials in a much needed attempt to make them more interesting, and the Lunars' powers are not aimed at flexibility. Instead they deal with one specific role with a sledgehammer blow. Solars may possess multiple Abilities for one task, (the Zenith Caste have Performance, Presence and Integrity) but these Abilities are always spread over multiple Castes. A character with access to all Abilities involved in social combat would be a monster. Especially when given a different meaning to Socialise and Performance. The Warrior has the same Abilities as the Dawn Caste except for Dodge instead of War, which is a better skill set for personal combat.
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Wrong About Japan, Peter Carey
Although this book has a promising start, after the first chapter it just reinforced my opinion that everything made by the West about Japan, with the exception of military history, is utter rubbish. Every time I read something about Japan people seem to be utterly gobsmacked by how foreign it is. What were you expecting? An example is how they are not allowed to see a sword on visiting a swordmaster's house because 'to see them in any profound way would take at least three years of constant study, not a one-hour visit on a Monday morning.' They seem to buy into the ridiculous stereotypes Japanese people apparently have about Westerners (given their source these are themselves somewhat dubious), such as 'We were gaijin, capable only of hurting the sword or ourselves.' In the first instance it would take Japanese people more than a one-hour visit to truly understand the sword, and in the second, anyone who possesses an ounce of delicacy and self-preservation would be able to draw a sword from it's scabbard and return it there without damaging the blade or themselves. Any discourse on the content of the three year's study to truly appreciate the sword on the part of the swordmaster or the author are absent.
This book is somewhat better informed than other works about Japan (namely film) but information hasn't translated into any improvement of understanding. They still possess the same damn tourist mentality everyone else exhibits when making any sort of work about Japan, with the exception of a handful of academics. After the first chapter I had no inclination to read any further, threw it in my bookcase and returned to language studies.
This book is somewhat better informed than other works about Japan (namely film) but information hasn't translated into any improvement of understanding. They still possess the same damn tourist mentality everyone else exhibits when making any sort of work about Japan, with the exception of a handful of academics. After the first chapter I had no inclination to read any further, threw it in my bookcase and returned to language studies.
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