Geekery
Not actually a lot to write about this week. I'm in the middle of reading The Neutronium Alchemist, which has been a really enjoyable read so far. Its a thousand page book, though, so that's simply not going to happen overnight.
Wednesday night I had the character creation session for my new Star Wars game. I'm going to be playing with the Saga edition rules - I picked up the rulebook on a lark a few months ago. It turns out, the book is really good. In terms of production values, one of the best. They're using a non-standard size, but the book is full color inside and all the illustrations are nice. Every book in the line, so far in fact, has had similar production values.
The rules set is not bad either. The biggest problem with Wizard's first edition of Star Wars was that it, quite simply, felt entirely too much like D&D in space. Proceeding editions have slowly worked on fixing that issue with Saga, I believe, being the pinnacle. The number of classes has been reduced pretty drastically - there are now only five classes - Jedi, Noble, Scoundrel, Scout, and Soldier. Instead of this cutting down the amount of flexibility that you have with a character, however, they have actually managed to increase this. They do this via talents - trees of abilities that characters get access to gradually as they gain level. Talents turn out to be one of the primary ways they add new things into the system - every sourcebook has new talents for at least some of the classes. Two nobles can, therefore, look very, very different.
Skills have been drastically changed as well. There are fewer of them, I believe. There is also no concept of skill ranks - you do not get skill points each level. You are either trained in a skill (in which case you get a +5) or you aren't (in which case you don't get a bonus, and might not be able to make a check at all). You get an initial set of trained skills at character creation - additional trained skills come from taking a feat.
The combat system has been tuned a little - characters add 1/2 their level to damage pulls, for instance. Vitality and HP have again been combined, but a new condition track has been added to represent situations that HP doesn't model very well. Heroes (as Star Wars calls characters) are much more resilient - all characters can basically regenerate half their HP once a day, for instance. Heroes also get access to destiny points, which can drastically change a situation. Starship combat, as before, seems to work pretty much like character combat, with a few added wrinkles. They added a dogfighting system, for instance, that is really the equivalent of character grapples. A supplement (Starships of the Galaxy. Amazon link not included because it is literally impossible to find a copy of this book. I tried.) includes a system that gives PCs access to maneuvers that give them an edge in combat. It also provides the concept of linking your PC's destiny with their ship (ala Han Solo) and a ship modification system.
Jedi have, also, been revamped pretty extensively. Jedi do get talents which are based on the Force. They also have a Use the Force skill which gives them some abilities. The vast majority of their abilities, though, are going to come through Force Powers - these are the traditional abilities of the Jedi. The caveat being that a character can use a power once per encounter. I haven't checked to see if you can pick up a power twice.
All in all, I'm really happy with this game. The caveat being that I haven't actually run a game with the system yet - I'm eager to see how well it goes.
In addition to reading lots of Star Wars, new comics were also released this week.
Blackest Night: Titans #1 - I realized something about three pages into this book - most of the dead Titans stories that I was originally excited about when I first heard they were doing this mini-series aren't really possible at this point, or are being covered in entire books. Tim's story would belong in Blackest Night: Batman, Connor's will be told in Blackest Night: Superman, and I imagine that Bart's will be told in Blackest Night: Flash. That said, there were a few exceptions. And they duly covered them in this book, in as creepy a fashion as possible. Pairing Omen with Tara made her return as creepy and damaging to Beast Boy as it possibly could be. I'm looking forward to seeing where they take this. The book, also, worked with the new Hawk & Dove. I haven't been terrifically into these two, having seen them all of twice (once when they and the rest of the Teen Titans got p0wnd by Doctor Light, and then when they got p0wned by Trigon. I began to pick up on a pattern). There's definitely some interesting story behind Dove and why the Black Rings can't effect them. I'm actually interested in seeing where this goes. All in all, it was a good issue in that it made me want the second.
Green Lantern #45 - I find it amusing that, in a book titled Green Lantern, there was very little Green Lantern. That said, this was a good issue that dealt with the other Corps and their state at the start of the Blackest Night. The two-page spread of Larfleeze when the rings hit his planet is priceless and will likely be scanned and become a desktop background. The only minor complaint I have with this issue is that they jumped so fast from storyline to storyline that they couldn't go in depth on any of them.
Detective Comics #856 - Damn, this book is good. The artwork is stunning, the layouts brilliant. The plot is, admittedly, somewhat generic, but the presentation of that story is good enough to make me not really care. About the only real complain I have is that the side-story is so completely generic and blandly presented that its a huge letdown.
JSA #30 - A good wrap-up to the cliff-hanger they started the last issue. I picked that book up for the first time with JSA #29. I enjoyed that one and this one enough that I'll probably keep following the series.
Flash: Rebirth #4 - This was a really good book, which went in depths into what the Speed Force actually was and setup the main villain of the series. My only complaint is that I feel there was a lot of stepping in place before we got to this point - the false leads in the first three books didn't really help the pacing of this series.
Superman #691 - The end of the Codename: Patriot plotline. The lead-up was suspenseful and the reveal pretty dramatic. It was a fair ending of the arc, though having one of the characters die off-camera was rather poorly done.
Teen Titans #74 - The Titan I was expecting to die since the start of the arc successfully dies. The fight to get there was pretty good, though I don't entirely understand how, exactly, this ends with the Teen Titans loosing the trust of San Fransisco. What's being done with Kid Eternity, by the way, is so awesomely terrible. The Ravager co-feature pretty much boils down to "Ravager beats some guys up. Runs. Beats more guys up. Cliffhanger".
Gotham City Sirens #3 - Its not a great thing when your series is made better by the absence of the main characters. This issue was entirely Enigma focused, and it came off so well that I wish this series was about him and not Poison Ivy, Catwoman, and Harley. Alas, it appears that this will not be.
Wonder Woman #35 - Mad beat-downs. Why can't this cheery, confident, awesome Black Canary not exist in her own book?
Star Wars: Dark Times #2 - I actually liked this comic, though its been so long since #1 that it feels old and stale. Jennir's plot, a Jedi in the wake of Order 66, is very interesting and some compelling storytelling.
Star Wars: Legacy #39 - This could have been better. Luke trying to preach to Cade about why he stay good has its moments, and builds upwards, but then inflates every time he uses a tired line from the movies. Similarly, Cade and Gunner's interactions were pretty good until, in the course of a single page and for no reason, she goes from blaming the Jedi for the war to accepting the Sith were manipulating events. It seriously made no sense.
Wednesday night I had the character creation session for my new Star Wars game. I'm going to be playing with the Saga edition rules - I picked up the rulebook on a lark a few months ago. It turns out, the book is really good. In terms of production values, one of the best. They're using a non-standard size, but the book is full color inside and all the illustrations are nice. Every book in the line, so far in fact, has had similar production values.
The rules set is not bad either. The biggest problem with Wizard's first edition of Star Wars was that it, quite simply, felt entirely too much like D&D in space. Proceeding editions have slowly worked on fixing that issue with Saga, I believe, being the pinnacle. The number of classes has been reduced pretty drastically - there are now only five classes - Jedi, Noble, Scoundrel, Scout, and Soldier. Instead of this cutting down the amount of flexibility that you have with a character, however, they have actually managed to increase this. They do this via talents - trees of abilities that characters get access to gradually as they gain level. Talents turn out to be one of the primary ways they add new things into the system - every sourcebook has new talents for at least some of the classes. Two nobles can, therefore, look very, very different.
Skills have been drastically changed as well. There are fewer of them, I believe. There is also no concept of skill ranks - you do not get skill points each level. You are either trained in a skill (in which case you get a +5) or you aren't (in which case you don't get a bonus, and might not be able to make a check at all). You get an initial set of trained skills at character creation - additional trained skills come from taking a feat.
The combat system has been tuned a little - characters add 1/2 their level to damage pulls, for instance. Vitality and HP have again been combined, but a new condition track has been added to represent situations that HP doesn't model very well. Heroes (as Star Wars calls characters) are much more resilient - all characters can basically regenerate half their HP once a day, for instance. Heroes also get access to destiny points, which can drastically change a situation. Starship combat, as before, seems to work pretty much like character combat, with a few added wrinkles. They added a dogfighting system, for instance, that is really the equivalent of character grapples. A supplement (Starships of the Galaxy. Amazon link not included because it is literally impossible to find a copy of this book. I tried.) includes a system that gives PCs access to maneuvers that give them an edge in combat. It also provides the concept of linking your PC's destiny with their ship (ala Han Solo) and a ship modification system.
Jedi have, also, been revamped pretty extensively. Jedi do get talents which are based on the Force. They also have a Use the Force skill which gives them some abilities. The vast majority of their abilities, though, are going to come through Force Powers - these are the traditional abilities of the Jedi. The caveat being that a character can use a power once per encounter. I haven't checked to see if you can pick up a power twice.
All in all, I'm really happy with this game. The caveat being that I haven't actually run a game with the system yet - I'm eager to see how well it goes.
In addition to reading lots of Star Wars, new comics were also released this week.
Blackest Night: Titans #1 - I realized something about three pages into this book - most of the dead Titans stories that I was originally excited about when I first heard they were doing this mini-series aren't really possible at this point, or are being covered in entire books. Tim's story would belong in Blackest Night: Batman, Connor's will be told in Blackest Night: Superman, and I imagine that Bart's will be told in Blackest Night: Flash. That said, there were a few exceptions. And they duly covered them in this book, in as creepy a fashion as possible. Pairing Omen with Tara made her return as creepy and damaging to Beast Boy as it possibly could be. I'm looking forward to seeing where they take this. The book, also, worked with the new Hawk & Dove. I haven't been terrifically into these two, having seen them all of twice (once when they and the rest of the Teen Titans got p0wnd by Doctor Light, and then when they got p0wned by Trigon. I began to pick up on a pattern). There's definitely some interesting story behind Dove and why the Black Rings can't effect them. I'm actually interested in seeing where this goes. All in all, it was a good issue in that it made me want the second.
Green Lantern #45 - I find it amusing that, in a book titled Green Lantern, there was very little Green Lantern. That said, this was a good issue that dealt with the other Corps and their state at the start of the Blackest Night. The two-page spread of Larfleeze when the rings hit his planet is priceless and will likely be scanned and become a desktop background. The only minor complaint I have with this issue is that they jumped so fast from storyline to storyline that they couldn't go in depth on any of them.
Detective Comics #856 - Damn, this book is good. The artwork is stunning, the layouts brilliant. The plot is, admittedly, somewhat generic, but the presentation of that story is good enough to make me not really care. About the only real complain I have is that the side-story is so completely generic and blandly presented that its a huge letdown.
JSA #30 - A good wrap-up to the cliff-hanger they started the last issue. I picked that book up for the first time with JSA #29. I enjoyed that one and this one enough that I'll probably keep following the series.
Flash: Rebirth #4 - This was a really good book, which went in depths into what the Speed Force actually was and setup the main villain of the series. My only complaint is that I feel there was a lot of stepping in place before we got to this point - the false leads in the first three books didn't really help the pacing of this series.
Superman #691 - The end of the Codename: Patriot plotline. The lead-up was suspenseful and the reveal pretty dramatic. It was a fair ending of the arc, though having one of the characters die off-camera was rather poorly done.
Teen Titans #74 - The Titan I was expecting to die since the start of the arc successfully dies. The fight to get there was pretty good, though I don't entirely understand how, exactly, this ends with the Teen Titans loosing the trust of San Fransisco. What's being done with Kid Eternity, by the way, is so awesomely terrible. The Ravager co-feature pretty much boils down to "Ravager beats some guys up. Runs. Beats more guys up. Cliffhanger".
Gotham City Sirens #3 - Its not a great thing when your series is made better by the absence of the main characters. This issue was entirely Enigma focused, and it came off so well that I wish this series was about him and not Poison Ivy, Catwoman, and Harley. Alas, it appears that this will not be.
Wonder Woman #35 - Mad beat-downs. Why can't this cheery, confident, awesome Black Canary not exist in her own book?
Star Wars: Dark Times #2 - I actually liked this comic, though its been so long since #1 that it feels old and stale. Jennir's plot, a Jedi in the wake of Order 66, is very interesting and some compelling storytelling.
Star Wars: Legacy #39 - This could have been better. Luke trying to preach to Cade about why he stay good has its moments, and builds upwards, but then inflates every time he uses a tired line from the movies. Similarly, Cade and Gunner's interactions were pretty good until, in the course of a single page and for no reason, she goes from blaming the Jedi for the war to accepting the Sith were manipulating events. It seriously made no sense.