Salt VS. Wargames

* = If only I knew an artist to do some mock-ups of some of the Twin Cities characters...Hmmmm...

Twin Cities Marvel SAGA Issue Two was this Saturday, and although there was one missing cog it went incredibly well. Work Joe used the Tenebrae idea that Dave had concocted, expanded it, then allowed Boote, JB, and myself to make further additions. In the end we helped him create a bit of a monster. Tenebrae was a religious missionary who was sacrificed in Nova Roma to Selene, the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. However, instead of dying his soul was transported, due to a latent X-Gene to the Darkforce dimension. Being a highly religious man he found his idea of God shattered. Boote on the other hand created a character fully integrated into the X-Men portion of the Marvel Universe. His character and his sister were trained by a mutant mercenary to do a job for Mr. Sinister, namely to kidnap Jean Grey and Scott Summers. Eventually they realized that their benefactor was anything but benevolent and attempted to escape, in the process the sister died. Boote’s character then dubbed himself The Half in memoriam of his deceased sister. The interesting part is that both Work Joe & Boote separately yet simultaneously came up with characters that utilized the Darkforce dimension.

So we tied them together by having The Half while in the Savage Land hunting for Mr. Sinister in a heated battle with some Savage Land Mutates. In the process of blasting one of them with his Darkforce powers he freed the force of nature that is Tenebrae. The two finished off their enemies and decided to work in conjunction, The Half looking for the mysterious Mr. Blackwater who trained him and Mr. Sinister who paid Blackwater. Tenebrae on the other hand is waging a one-man war on religion.

As you can see both are bit on the ‘grim & gritty’ Anti-hero side. So it was good when Woody went with a scientist who accidently exposed himself to one of his own experiments and now can use his dead skin to form ‘objects’, he took the name Detritus. Is it a gross power? YUP! Is it inventive, yes it is. Woody also was gracious enough as to give me the framework of two characters from his past that I have insidiously fleshed out much to his and the rest of the group’s regret.

The first two hours or so where the set-up since we were sans David and Mike was off running the show at Hot Comics; Tenebrae & The Half dealt with getting into the U.S., Woody’s guy was doing job interviews, & JB’s Momentum Man dealt with his shady lawyer/publicity guy as well as had to find out he’s failing Accounting. These are the interactions that I was concerned about. Work Joe had stated he wanted NO part of Role Playing, Boote’s always been a great player but has always a been skittish with the Role Playing, and I’d never gamed with Woody. I was blown away by Boote & Work Joe’s enthusiasm and general attempt to Role Play. In fact they did a tremendous job. I was not shocked by how solid Woody was, I had heard tales and he did not disappoint. Much the same with JB, I’ve gamed with Jon since college and he is one of the finest role player’s I know. Saturday night he delivered with a fantastic moment where I had to play the part of Darla the distraught, possibly cheating girlfriend. I’m not much of a guy for doing the female voices, but I about blew a gasket trying not to giggle during our heated argument. It really set the tone for the rest of the night for me. From then on out I went all out giving Mr. Macmullen, the wheelchair bound ne’re-do-well into the bizarre auditory love child of Mr. Brisbee from Venture Brothers and Marlon Brando circa Godfather which the players seemed to love.

Anywho, once Mike arrived the group all ended up allied either with the sinister Baintronics group or Jonni Steele’s group as they headed up to the Space/Time Zeppelin. On board there were betrayals aplenty, revelations, side changing, A.I.M. agents, Work Joe killing off defenseless costumed villains, lost Kree technology, Hydra, an Ultron unit, and Mike’s Agent Orange almost dying. In the end the team had to use an experimental Kree ship to jump into the Negative Zone before they were ripped into the drift carrying the Space/Time Zeppelin further in the Multiverse. It was a hodge podge of insanity, that worked remarkable well together and pulled the players into the game. We played from 5pm to 12pm and not a single complaint about length was made. The ending was a bit of a cliff hanger and puts the group in a perfect position to possibly deal either with the 42 Prison OR with the Annihilation Event. Either way, besides Dave not being there, it went perfectly.

Sunday Jon and I watched cartoons, ALL DAY! We ended with me exposing him to Archer. The second season has started and it lives up to the ‘funny’ that the first season bludgeoned me with. We had had plans to play Gammaworld, but they never materialized, as we were both exhausted from watching Avengers episodes until almost 3am. It looks like March will be the next Issue, all in all a successful weekend.

With that I give unto thee

RANDOM CRAP!

- Work Joe had what I have deemed “Mary Syndrome”. This where someone who in their everyday real life is calm and rational, but the moment they get a dice or card in their hands in an imaginary world they become a somewhat bloodthirsty sociopath. Understand there is nothing wrong with having “Mary Syndrome”, I have suffered from this in the past. It’s just hard to explain to someone whose entire role playing experience has been a brief foray into D&D that superheroes don’t usually off helpless unconscious bad guys. It’s made me think of my moral stance on this as well as try to come up with an angle to give him pause.
- Chammps here we come! It’s a dinner tonight with M.C.M., ½ price burger night is never more fun.
- I think I’m going to buy Gammaworld eventually. The stuff JB and I looked into was fantastic. It would be something to play in short bursts. The crazy random character generation alone seems fun.
- I need to put some quality time and finish the two books I’m slogging through.
- It’s TRUE! REJOICE!

Mantic IS making a Dungeon Crawl board game & it’s coming out in March. Dwarf King’s Hold: Undead Rising is the FIRST, yup that’s right they have three games on tap already, that they’re releasing. It sounds like you’ll get printed tiles and a plethora of minis. I for one really like Mantic as a company, and both their dwarves and the undead are top notch. Now I just need to scrape together the scratch to purchase this.
- Charlie Sheen is the white talentless Rick James.
- Mighty Mike and I decreed that this Saturday will be the Italian Apocalyptic Movie-A-Thon.

I made some phone calls, sent out the Movie-A-Thon signal via the Facebook(s), so those who make it do. Those that don’t just miss out. No more begging.
- The basement paint looks really good.
- The Sunday after I’m giving Charlene a D&D presentation. She is sort of on the fence about playing in the quarterly D&D group. I think I can be pretty persuasive. I’m hoping that this will be a nice thing that her and Anthony can do together. Nothing brings folks closer like killing Orcs.
- I would really dig on some warm banana bread right now.

With that it’s time to call it quits for the day. I have to save my strength for the stupid shoveling…


“Meaningless
It's meaningless
It's meaningless
It's meaningless

I take the hold
I take the hold
I take the hold
I take the hold

It's mindlessness
It's mindlessness
It's mindlessness
It's mindlessness

I bled for days
I bled for days
I bled for days
I bled for days

Get to the race
(Hate)
The healing of it fucking with it
Conceal the scab you don't want to show
(Fate)
Into the hate
(No)
I channel all the negative and
I bled for days now I take the hold
(Break)

I don't believe it
Fuck me, read me, get me
(Bled for days)
Smile on my rage I'm scarred by age, I bled
(Bled for days)

Uselessness
It's uselessness
It's uselessness
It's uselessness

Make my weapons
Make my weapons
Make my weapons
Take the hold”


* = The Negative Zone is serious bidnizz.