What's Geekin' Me Now: Deadwood

With the holiday season coming on, I recently took advantage of Amazon allowing monthly Prime Membership pricing to sign up and get free shipping for my Xmas shopping.  As such, of course, I found I significantly expanded my streaming options for as long as I continued on.  My first act, naturally, was to binge three seasons of HBO's fabled Deadwood in the first week.

Deadwood is a series which ran from 2004-2006 originally, and which I've had recommended to me several times over the years. It's a fairly loose chronicle of the titular settlement from 1876 on, which gives the full HBO treatment to the motley assortment of gamblers & gunmen, prospectors & Pinkertons, and whores & entrepeneurs who come to settle in the camp, looking for escape or opportunity. Deadwood is an illegal boomtown over the border in Sioux treaty lands, and at a deeper level, the show is also a study in how civilization slowly, inevitably evolves from the anarchy of the wilderness. And above all, I've found it to be quite a good yarn.

The nominal star of the proceedings is Ian McShane in an astounding star turn as Al Swearengen, owner of the Gem Saloon and driving force behind much of the camp's schemes and politics. Swearengen is many things - a swindler, a pimp, a showman, and a murderer. Above all, he is a steely-eyed. silver tongued force of nature, who can chill with a single look and kill with a word. As he says when staring down Western legend Wild Bill Hickock in one episode, "I got a healthy operation here, and I didn't build it brooding on the right or wrong of things..." In this role of a lifetime (probably), McShane changes hats effortlessly throughout each episode, being at turns charming, sympathetic, practical or menacing. The viewer is never quite sure whether to hate or root for the man, and in the end, often one ends up doing both at the same time, feeling vaguely queasy about it the whole time.

Swearengen's two main foils (through the first couple of seasons anyway) are part-time lawman Seth Bullock (played by Timothy Olyphant) and rival saloon owner Cy Tolliver (Powers Boothe).

Bullock is hard-nosed former lawman trying to start a simpler life in a lawless land. But as things happen, his temper and his overzealousness to do the right thing land him into a series of conflicts throughout the series. He's introduced in the first scene on his last day as a Montana sheriff, lynching his own prisoner to stay one step ahead of an angry mob, thus ensuring "due process" is served (or some ass backwards variant thereof). From there, things just seem to get trickier. Olyphant brings a simmering intensity to the role that endears him to the audience as the main protagonist, and this feels like the best work I've ever seen of his. Tolliver is, by contrast, a cool-headed schemer and pragmatist, and Boothe is perfect in the role as the owner of the Bella Union - the Gem's more upscale rival. It's eminently helpful of course that Boothe also has a grin reminiscent of a viper waiting to strike.

The real revelation watching the series, to me though, was the singular performance of geek movie mainstay Brad Dourif, as the camp's harried Doc Cochran. It seems like it would be all too simple to let this role devolve into caricature or perhaps a cliched pastiche of drunkenness, like Doc Boone in the blueprint Western Stagecoach. Instead, Cochran is at once competent, intelligent, empathetic and politically savvy - something one simply never sees in a portrayal of a period sawbones, as far as I can remember. Dourif gives Cochrane a restrained passion and grit that simply make the show better every single time he is on the screen. I actually looked up whether Dourif had been nominated for anything for his performance, and indeed found a Best Supporting Actor Emmy nod from 2003. Seems he lost to Michael Imperioli strangling his girlfriend in The Sopranos though. What can you do?

Far too many other fascinating characters abound in the series - like Wild Bill Hickock, Reverend Smith, or Wu the "Celestial" - to list and appreciate every one. But of course, no attempted review of Deadwood would be complete without mention of Robin Weigert's portrayal of Calamity Jane. She rides into camp with Wild Bill in the first episode, a whirlwind of whiskey and vulgar trashtalk. With all the other women on the show seemingly divided between the stiff "ladies" of the encampment and the hardscrabble prostitutes of the saloons, Jane's foulmouthed savant straddles the lines between these and the men of Deadwood to act as a sort of psychotic chorus moving from scene to scene. I was actually initially quite annoyed by the continuously muttered or shouted onslaught of her "inner" monologue, until it suddenly occurred to me that it's probably much how I sound to the UGG-wearing passersby whenever I try to shop at Target. Afterwards, I found her far more sympathetic and entertaining to watch.

(For what it's worth, I'm sure I'd be poorly suited to life in Deadwood, personally.  Not because of the obvious lack of plumbing or electrical amenities, but rather simply because I couldn't drink that much whiskey in a day and not want to die.)

Wild Bill draws

Most reviewers of Deadwood will point to the language of the series as one of its signature strengths - often invoking words like "Shakespearean". And it's true that most of the characters seem to slip easily back and forth between an almost poetic cadence and a street-level kind of crudity. That said, I tend to think, personally, ascribing too much gravity to the language is an oversimplification of what makes it so good. With the exception of the various vulgarities which were updated to remain contemporary (as curses like "tarnation" no longer hold the same verbal impact they once may have), the language otherwise feels very true to the place and period depicted to me. The blend of thoughtful, flowery speech is no more arcane than dialogue one might hear in HBO's John Adams for example, and being mixed liberally with the sort of plain talk one might also expect in the Black Hills in 1876 brings it very appropriately much more down to earth. If anything, I think it's not a matter of syntax, so much as the fact that it's just damn good writing and dialogue - poetic not in the style of Shakespeare, but rather in the style of The West Wing or other Sorkinian dramas.

If there are any major criticisms of Deadwood, I believe some definite pacing issues arise in the third season, along with some (regrettable) character arcs - or lack thereof.  Boothe's Tolliver is largely sidelined to an afterthought as the main conflict unites the camp (to a vague degree) against miner robber baron George Hearst.  Finally, the series ends not with a bang but a whimper, though the finale wasn't as bad as, say, the Seinfeld finale.  It's perhaps much closer to the 1991 finale of Twin Peaks - eliciting more of a "Wait, what?  Huh..." response when the last credits finally roll.  The possibility of at least one and possibly two feature films to tie up loose threads has been floated numerous times by the series' creators, so we can only hope. 

WARNING TO GMS:  Under no circumstance is it recommended that you attempt to reskin Deadwood for your own RPG group.  Even if your game is set on a frontier, or perhaps even a "Wilderland" do not attempt to use plots from the series as story hooks to engage your players, or invest any time or energy working to  adapt the settlement or its characters into a lively community of NPCs.  Your players will choose to ignore every hook you give them and will decide just to go rafting instead.  

Because they are a bunch of hooplehead c*cks*ck*rs.  

And they'd fit right in in Deadwood.

What's Geekin' Me Now: Penny Dreadful

When I first got wind of Showtime's new series Penny Dreadful, I was vaguely intrigued, but mostly skeptical.  I suspect it was still some sort of lingering hangover from the incredibly painful League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie, which should have been amazing, if it hadn't been determined to be so goddamned awful instead.  On seeing these new promos, I had a dual sense of both having seen this all drivel before, and also dreading how the "showbiz" would screw up the seemingly golden notion of a Victorian adventure mash-up this time around.  Since that half-hearted 2003 film debacle, the likelihood of ever seeing something approximating the pure joy of reading Alan Moore's brilliant and classic version of the League has seemed more and more improbable.

Ultimately though, I broke down and gave Penny Dreadful a fair try.  And once I started watching, I found it far exceeded my admittedly low expectations.  It's fair to say PD succeeds in nearly every way the LXG movie fails, and ultimately embodies the best approximation I've seen yet of the Savage Worlds / Cthulhu by Gaslight / World of Darkness / Space: 1889 crossover game I've wanted so desperately to play in or run myself someday.

The term grand guignol seems tailor-made to describe a very particular genre of Victorian horror, and the first season of PD more than lives up to this designation.  Through its eight blood-spattered episodes of suspense and intrigue, it consistently dances frighteningly close to the edge of my personal horror tolerance.  It's a subtle line in the sand, but one which, say,American Horror Story gleefully waltzed over a few too many times, resulting in my ultimately walking away entirely from that series, unfinished.  While hard to stomach in certain moments though, PD never quite crosses that line for me, and so  I was still able to appreciate the greater story elements for what they were.  The cinematography and pacing both seemed to complement that brooding, misty aura of dread quite well.

The Victorian mash-up motif which seemed so natural in Moore's writing was fairly butchered in the movie version of LXG.  (Tom Sawyer, wtf?)  The danger inherent in a writer shoe-horning in every famous personage he or she can think of in a project like this is fraught with danger.  In the right hands, it can be a joy to an astute reader to pick apart.  In the wrong ones, it can be like all the worst episodes of Superfriends piled atop each other at once.  ("Eh-neeek-chock!")  PD succeeds where many other would fail though, and each character addition that rings a bell does not seem gratuitously out of place.  As well, I have to admit to always having had a weakness for vampire stories.  And while that trope may be overplayed in television and movies as a whole, PD brings to it a mix of the subtle menace inherent in a Victorian horror along the lines of Dracula, but also combined with the savage terror omnipresent in Salem's Lot, one of my favorite books of all time.  To use a trite and painful pun, PD - at least in its first season - has succeeded in putting together an old-school vampire epic with teeth.

The cast is well chosen, for the most part.  I have never been a big fan of Eva Green, honestly, but as Miss Ives here, her particular brand of creepy allure (which is to say, French) is put to perfect use, and - hate to say it though I do - between PD and the last Sin City film, I find her growing on me immensely.  I'm encouraged to go rent 300: Rise of an Empire now as soon as I can manage it.  Josh Hartnett does a great job in his role as the American gunslinger, Ethan Chandler.  While he does add a needed relatability and/or earthiness to the series, his presence never seems out of place or gratuitously colonial for the sake of contrast alone.  In my opinion, though, Timothy Dalton is the true jewel of this cast.  As Sir Malcom Murray, it is a joy to see him finally inhabiting a role full of the morally-ambiguous gravitas I feel like I've always known he was capable of, but am hard pressed to think of an actual example of from his past career.  The only real weak link in the cast, really, is Billie Piper's atrociously accented hooker-with-a-heart-of-TB Brona Croft.  I have heard and produced some horrible Irish accents in my years, but her brogue is like a Belfast version of an Irish Spring commercial.  Which is, trust me, every bit as horrible as it sounds, making it sadly impossible to properly judge anything else in her performance.  I have a feeling her career will do just fine in any event.

Beyond these, the remainder of the supporting cast does an admirable job of bringing the creepy and bringing the dread.  (David Warner's all too brief appearance as Dr. Van Helsing is especially welcome, as I've been a huge fan of seeing him turn up in things ever since Time Bandits.)  In eight short hours, I have been won over and gone from cautious ambivalence to eagerly anticipating a repeat viewing.  I can't wait to see what the creators come back with in Season Two.  

What's Geekin' Me Now - The Gamers: Hands of Fate

So yeah.  I'll be the first to admit that I was way, way out of the loop on this one.  The degree to which I have spent the last few years far from the pulse of geekdom and stuck in places only Brodie Bruce could surmise is at times astonishing even to me.

Back when the first Gamers movie, "The Gamers", came out in 2003, sure, I was there.  I watched some clips at the booth at GenCon and laughed my ass off.  The thing with the character just standing there whose player didn't show up that week?  Classic.  Of course, one didn't ask or expect much in terms of film quality or whatnot...  We hadn't been spoiled by years of web series on a level beyond anything that could have been anticipated then.  In many senses, it was kind of like The Blair Witch Project of gaming-dom and it did it well.  It was cool to see our particular brand of subculture up there on the screen and not just as the punchline for a sitcom "nerd" joke.

This is what happens to your universe
when you zone out for a few years.

Naturally I thought "it must be mine", brought the DVD home, and watched it again.  Still funny, but it moved a lot slower this time, and the sound was a lot harder to make out on my TV.  Of course, con swag must be shown off to friends, so we gathered our group to watch it en masse and there were chortles all around.  But on the third viewing it got progressively harder to sit still through the whole thing, and once it ended, the DVD went into a beloved place of honor on my shelf... where it hasn't been touched since, except perhaps by movers.

In the years that followed, "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising" came out, and sad to say, I never got around to seeing it. I always kind of figured I would at some point but it wasn't really a priority.  Naturally that means it never happened.

Even later, I was almost wholly oblivious when the third movie successfully completed a Kickstarter for funding and began shooting.  At GenCon no less.  While I was there.  And I had no idea.  (Cue Brodie please.)  Admittedly I had my hands full with "important" things at the time but I recognize that's no excuse in the food court of my peers. Whenever I did hear the term "hands of fate ", I assumed they were trying some MST3K tie-in to Manos and paid it no mind.  Fool that I was...

Remember Trin?  Yeah, she kicks ass...

This last spring, I went to Berserkon, and in my CVG coverage, I had the good fortune to stumble blindly into an interview with Trin Miller, who was there in relation to her work on the new movie.  During the course of our talk, she invited me to check out a test screening of footage from the film they were having there at the con. (I think I can legally say this now right?  If not, forward all SAG litigation to brian@chippewavalleygeek.com).  So of course, I went.  When you're at a stage of life where you're wondering if it's worth bothering getting out of bed in the morning and someone talented and smart asks you to check out some work that they're actually very proud of, you go and you look, dammit.

Now at this point, I suppose I shouldn't bemoan my state of having known next to nothing about the film before I went, considering I just spent several minutes in my last Up Front this month singing the praises of knowing nothing about a movie before you see it. In this case, there is no question I was blown away by what I saw.  The writing, the acting, the direction, the equipment were all light-years ahead of what I had known from that little DVD from several years before. Even in its unfinished state it far exceeded anything I had actually expected.  Fool that I was.  (Did I mention that already?)  Even the work-in-progress-ness helped add charm to the screening, as the filmmakers would from time to time shout out sound effects from the script for scenes that hadn't yet been completed in post...  Or descriptions of what was happening on the green screen that hadn't been added in yet.

After the showing was done - I hope it's not too over the top to say, but I honestly felt more proud on the whole to be a gamer and have some tangential life-connection to this thing I just watched.  I became fully convinced that "gaming cinema" had come full circle to a level where I could easily see this playing any indie film house in the country and being a success. (Of course there are probably good reasons why I never successfully got my film industry career off the ground, so who am I to say?  I mean, I'm still waiting for that Buckaroo Banzai sequel, yo.  (It's gonna happen!  Someday!  The end credits said so...). But nonetheless, I digress.)  In any event the planned GenCon release of the final cut went into my long-term calendar as a must-get-to, to pick up the DVD at a minimum.  And finally see what was really going on in the narrated green-screen footage.  And I also had half a hankering to try my hand at CCGs too, but my wallet responded with dismay and threats to leave me forever if I ever did try getting into MTG, which I understand would likely have had much the same effect anyway.

Now of course the sadness is, as referenced in this month's pod, I unfortunately won't be making this GenCon -- only the second year I have missed out of the last sixteen.  However, our friends at Dead Gentlemen and Zombie Orpheus must have heard my loud cries of silent inner anguish. (I know that makes no sense...  Just roll with it.) For lo, they hath created a webcast of the premiere screening at the con, so we poor homebound souls can watch alongside the viewing audience.  See below:

Berserkon shared a link.Thursday near Duluth, MN

Can't make it to Gen Con Indy this year?Bummed that you can't see the gorgeous finished version of The Gamers: Hands of Fate after checking out the rough cut at Berserkon?
Well then - "Good news, everyone!"; you're in luck!
www.watchthegamers.com will be streaming the premier of Gamers 3 along with the Gen Con showing. It's password locked now, but when showtime starts that lock will go away and all you have to do is grab some popcorn! Next best thing to being there in person.

Just another friendly service provided by your pals at Zombie Orpheus Entertainment/ Dead Gentlemen Productions!

So yeah.   Yes. Hell yes.  Fershizzle.  And twenty Chippewa Valley Geek points to Berserkon for the gratuitous Futurama reference.

If like me, you're stuck home this weekend… Do yourself a favor and tune into this little gem. I will definitely be there watching alongside you and can guarantee you'll be highly entertained.  Even better, once the big con goes down, I recommend you join me in ordering the DVD as soon as it's officially available.  I honestly haven't yet been able to figure out the right link for that yet, but will update as soon as I find something official.

Gamers represent!  By the way, here's the trailer:

PS:  Longtime friend of the CVG Erik Schweitzer is in the movie for about 3 seconds (± 2 seconds), obliviously rummaging through a box in the Dealer Hall.  No sh#t.

What's Geekin' Me Now - The One Ring from Cubicle 7

Like most folks of my generation, my first real exposure to fantasy literature was through the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.  In particular, I always connected in my youth with The Hobbit, the Rankin-Bass film version of which was shown regularly at events in my elementary school, and to this day it still probably remains my favorite book.  So I think like most, when I first encountered fantasy gaming through the red box Basic D&D in the early '80s, it was with a subconscious desire to try to play out the tropes and adventures I had seen my Baggins-y counterpart have for years.  And to some degree it worked...  My first significant character was a halfling after all who did pretty well for himself.  But for various reasons, some legal, some creative, the game, while totally fun, never quite gave me the same feeling deep down.  I was never able to immerse in a totally Middle Earthian experience.  Even later on when I learned of the Middle Earth Role Playing system from I.C.E., something was definitely lacking (though they've always had the best critical hit tables ever).  Whether the games used halflings or hobbits, paladins or Rohirrim, neither system really ever quite got the feel of Tolkien right, at least from a young fanboy's perspective, and I resigned myself early on to never really being able to go to there through rpg's.  Recently though, I have found myself being turned around on this entirely.

Back at GenCon 2012, I had a chance to demo the relatively new rpg The One Ring, written by Francesco Nepitello and published by Cubicle 7 Games, and it definitely went a lot further to capturing the essence of that world for me than any other attempt I had ever seen.  It stayed on my mind front and center in the many months that followed that session, and late last year, I finally scored my own copy of the core set for TOR, Adventures Over the Edge of the Wild.  

The first thing one notices when looking through these books is that they are utterly gorgeous. The artwork perfectly captures the feel of Middle Earth without feeling derivative of existing material/interpretations at all.  There are stunning landscapes and vistas that make you wistfully think back to certain passages from the books, as well as amazing character studies throughout, including the first interesting elves I've seen in a good long while, and totally bad-ass women in realistic looking armor (no really).  My only criticism of the books themselves is the lack of a good index, which would be especially useful here since the layout of some of the rules at times seems a bit counter-intuitive.

Descending the Misty Mountains by Jon Hodgson

The game system itself is one that can be overwhelming at first, just because it throws a lot of information at you right away.  But as usual, once you get a couple of core mechanics down, everything is really a lot simpler than it seems.  Basic task resolution starts with the feat die - a modified d12 which is numbered 1-10 and has two runes on the other faces (the Gandalf "G" and the Eye of Sauron).  Skills and abilities each have ranks from 0-5, very similar to World of Darkness, and each rank your PC has adds a d6 to your roll (which also have additional runes on the 6's).  Success is gauged by hitting a task's or foe's TN, and the combination of runes rolled can also result in automatic or critical successes or failures.

Combat uses an interesting mechanic which seems almost purposefully designed to be the exact opposite of the heavy tactical focus of OGL fantasy gaming.  Instead of moving minis around a battle-mat, characters in each round choose one of four combat stances, such as Forward or Defensive, and these determine the order of action and your options in the fight.  (Put simply, the more aggressive your stance, the more likely you are to strike a foe, but the easier you are to hit as well.)  Each stance also has a special action associated with it which makes use of a character's skills in the battle, from demoralizing your foes, to taking attacks meant for your companions.  Characters with extensive knowledge of tactics can use their savvy to earn bonus d6s at the beginning of each fight and add them to whatever rolls they want during the encounter, as they use their expertise to manipulate terrain or the flow of battle. Beyond the four stances though, combat flows in a pretty much free-form manner, and it would seem almost impossible to use miniatures with this system as written. (Though of course, I for one am sure as hell going to try, just to say I did.  I've been working on a custom "battle board" for TOR with the four stances broken out for players to move minis around into each round, and with all sorts of combat rules and cheats jotted in the margins.  Hopefully it eases the learning curve for new players a bit when we finally do get around to sitting down and trying this out at my table.)

A Work In Process...

In addition, there are little subsystems peppered throughout the game which capture the grander feel of Middle Earth perfectly, from playing through journeys and fellowships, to tracking hope and fatigue, or descents into shadow, corruption and madness.  As well, the game seems perfectly designed for long-term campaign play.  In fact, there is even a game phase/mechanic for players to spend XP to improve skills and abilities together at the table as a party.  I, for one, can't wait to put it all through its paces.

It now seems to me like such a stroke of brilliance to set the starting campaign material in the 20 years immediately following The Hobbit (To be clear, there is a 60 year gap between the Battle of Five Armies and the events of LotR.), and I wonder why no one seems to have thought of this before in previous renditions of Tolkien rpg's.  It always seemed a major stumbling block which impacts the playability of games like this (and those based on other licensed properties, like Robotech, or even Star Wars), having that limiting choice of playing either within the confines and time-frame of the established narrative arc (and thus limiting players' ability to affect the world and greater story around them,  unless you play in a alternate history of the game universe), or playing a game set after the established narrative, say in the Fourth Age of Middle Earth, when the world has already changed, and it takes a master GM to make the big bads not seem totally lame.  "Sure he's mean to kids and trips the elderly, but he's no Sauron, you know..."  Instead, setting a campaign in this interregnum allows the Loremaster total freedom and control of the plot.  Crucial events are proceeding in the background, but they are not dominating every waking thought of most Free Peoples, at least yet,  The Shadow is there, lurking, but not at full strength, and it can be as large or as small a part of the ultimate campaign as the Loremaster wishes It to be.

The only major drawback to the game as currently presented is a lack of expanded character options, resulting directly from the geographical focus on the Wilderlands in that 20 year span of time (i.e. - points directly east of the Misty Mountains).  Available cultural backgrounds include Bardings, Beornings, Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits and Woodmen (or Woodwomen if you want to be fair).  Thus, if a player wanted to take a crack at playing a wandering Rohirrim or Gondorian, the Loremaster would have no option but to either deny the request or put in some serious time adapting new culture traits and such from the options presented.  There are some who have the time or patience to do that themselves, but sadly not me.  That said I am led to understand that two large future expansions of the game are planned in the years ahead, each covering another 20-year period leading up to the War of the Ring,  I can only hope that these options would be fleshed out in the future expansions.  Fingers crossed.

Woodwoman of Mirkwood by Jon Hodgson

The other fantastic thing I have discovered in regards to TOR is the amount and quality of additional resources available out there.  The Cubicle 7 forums are awash with players and Loremasters offering advice and tips, from expanded rules, to recommendations on linking available adventures together into a longer campaign, and the C7 team has provided a number of additional free resources themselves, from a new master Index available for download, to a series of original TOR YouTube clips you can connect to and use for ambient background music on your game night.

And yeah, sure TOR takes special dice, which is usually a big obstacle to purchase for me.  You could always modify your existing dice for free at home in a pinch with some forethought and a Sharpie maybe.  But honestly the dice available are so gorgeous, I didn't begrudge the additional investment personally.  And it should be noted that you do get a free set in the core box.  You only really need to pony up extra if you want more to share at the table as a host/Loremaster or if you are maybe a player who doesn't want to buy the core set, but you still want your own private dice bag.

In any event, Cubicle 7 has a fantastic product on their hands, in my opinion.  Not they need me to tell them that.  I have been obsessed with this game for the last few months and can't wait to get started running a campaign for my group the next time we rotate and tag in or out of the GM chair.  My only worry is that, given my recent history running campaigns, it's likely I will get bored after a few sessions and instead get obsessed about the NEXT thing I want to run.  And that'd be a damn shame, but that's also a gripe for another blog.  For the moment, I just want to throw down with my new dice and show those ringwraith-ey bitches how we do things downtown...

You can help support the Geek by ordering your own pdf of The One Ring: Adventures over the Edge of the Wild here or here!