fantasy – Page 16 – PopCult Reviews

Comic Book Review – Mae Volume 1

Mae Volume 1 (Dark Horse)
Writer: Gene Ha
Artist: Gene Ha

26832098 Narnia. Wonderland. Oz. These are some of the more well-known dimensions storybook heroines travel to, where they go to partake in great adventures against terrible evils. Comic creator Gene Ha (Top Ten) is building a world like this of his own, but instead of telling us the story of the main female protagonist we enter in the middle of the story and see it through the eyes of her estranged younger sister, Mae.

For most of her life, Mae failed to keep up with her older sister Abbie. It seemed that the older girl was always running away from home and getting into trouble. It’s been seven years now since anyone in their small midwestern town has seen Abbie, and Mae has gone on with her life. Then Abbie shows up suddenly, clad in strange military garb and being pursued by inhuman creatures. It turns out Abbie is a major hero in the land of Mňoukové, a world populated by magical creatures and Eastern Europeans immigrants that accidentally crossed over a century ago. This is a world where science is merely a more unusual form of magic and city-states are at constant war.

The first volume of the series feels very much like a setting up of the pieces. The first couple issues stay in the mundane world and let us get to know Mae and her family and friends, as well as flesh out the strained relationship between her and Abbie. There is also some nice mystery building but nothing that is stretched out for too long. The payoff and journey to Mňoukové happen briskly into the series. Once we’re in the other world, some nice strokes of worldbuilding are delivered, but as I said before nothing is actually resolved, it’s mostly set up for where the series is going to go.

I’ve been a big fan of Ha since reading his work with Alan Moore on Top Ten in 1999. More engrossing than Moore’s writing was the rich, detailed world Ha built in the book. Every panel of Top Ten was crammed with details, easter eggs, and bits of minor but rewarding world building. Mňoukové is beginning to be fleshed out, but I get the sense Ha is taking a much slower burn pace with plans to carefully reveal the corned of this place. That said, the momentum feels a little stifled, and it is hard to get a sense of where the series is going.

I liked that the factions in Mňoukové are much more complicated than your typical storybook fare. There is no obvious Wicked Witch or Queen of Hearts. This is shown through Mae’s sense of being overwhelmed as her sister confidently navigates the hierarchy of nobles, allies, and enemies. The core mission for these two is to rescue their father, and because of this web of characters, I found myself forgetting that’s why they were there. I know that’s simply the conceit to get the sisters together and in Mňoukové, but I hope that future volumes build that sense of momentum and keep going in one direction.

Scarlet Heroes – Character and World Creation

scarlet-heroes I decided recently to start a one on one tabletop roleplaying campaign with my wife and chose Scarlet Heroes as the system to use. Scarlet Heroes is an Old School roleplaying game designed specifically for one GM and one player. There is a premade setting that comes with the system, but I prefer to build something with my players, so we have a shared mutual vision of the world. Ariana and I sat down a couple weekends ago and used Ben Robbins’ Microscope to broadly build the world.

Microscope is a game that allows plays to collectively create the history of a world. You start by creating a concept for the world and starting and ending periods. From there, players rotate as the Lens, a role that allows a player to choose an aspect of the world and spend a round building it out through additional Periods, Events, or specific Scenes. Microscope is not about being comprehensive but about working at whatever level of detail you enjoy and interacting with a world that way.

Here are the results of our Microscope game.

The world we created is Muatera, a refuge for a large group of colonists from a world drained of its magic and left lifeless. Piling on board their planar shipwhales, around 350,000 refugees headed for a star that had been found by some of the last mages. They became lost on the way as the magic faded and found Muatera, a decently hospitable planet where a home could be made. Almost as soon as they landed, their shipwhales became stricken with a strange illness and the colonists realized they would be stuck here for the foreseeable
future. The races that made up the colonists were Humans, Elves, Halflings, and Orcs.

The Humans are pretty standard and hold many of the bureaucratic and political positions in the colony. Elves are more esoteric and alien and have developed their own technical magics, separate from the very elemental craft that drained and ruined the Old World. Halflings are the industrious agrarians doing the hard labor without seeking praise or reward beyond a good job done. Orcs are the roaming free spirits, moving in nomadic tribes and exploring Muatera in more detail that any other race.

eecb9967d852b7759d52ad659d98fa34 After about a century, the ruins of the Remnants were discovered buried beneath Muatera. These were the piece of a lost civilization, the details of whom are yet to be fleshed out. Their writings did lead to a cure that helped boost the shipwhale herds and allowed the colonists to visit the three neighboring planets in the system. Three additional races were discovered: The Goliath Tieflings, Hypogeal Elves, and Psionic Dwarves. Relations with each is complex and distinct, but no major conflicts have sprung up…yet.

Our campaign will take place 200 years after the colony began and Ariana decided she wanted to play as a Halfling came up with Estrella Pips, the daughter of a shipwhale rancher and the middle child of five. She has learned magic from some dusty tomes in her parents’ attic, and she uses her magic to midwife the shipwhales. We decided that once the shipwhales reach a certain size, possibly when they develop the capacity to hold their breath in the vacuum of space, they float up through the atmosphere and finish growing to their final massive ship size. Ariana established that Halflings are determined survivors who don’t think much of leisure time but are loyal to the death with their friends and allies. Estrella is the maturity equivalent of 15 human years in age and actually does like the idea of enjoying life and playing.

Some of the threads and hooks she gave me through my questions were:

Shipwhales escaped, Milo (Estrella’s eldest brother) thinks they were stolen by some Orc bandits.
Politicians from Kaphis, the capitol colony, wants to buy up or take land because of the Remnant ruins possibly buried beneath.
The worldscar left by a battle between a Magus and Remnant golems is barren and has caused the fertile land to increase in value and be fought over more violently.

This will be my first major delve into OSR/Dungeon Crawling since 2008 when I ran the dismal (IMO) D&D 4th. I am very excited about this and the world, fed mostly by details from Ariana has me intrigued. I’ve even purchased a halfling wizard mini for her to use. The first actual session will be Saturday, December 17th so look for a write-up after that.

TV Review – Atlanta: Season 1

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The city of Atlanta exists in a strange space geographically and culturally. Burnt to the ground during the American Civil War, rebuilt and exploded into a major hub in the Southeast for manufacturing and the civil rights movement, now a diverse and constantly shifting urban space. It’s one of the largest cities in America, but it’s surrounded by lush, verdant hills. It’s the place where the city meets the country. It’s a place where rappers hang out in the woods wearing their hunting camo. Donald Glover wasn’t born here, but he was raised in the contradiction that Atlanta is, and he understands the true wonder of that beautiful, messy conflict of ideas.

Earn (Glover) doesn’t so much as live in Atlanta, as he exists there. He dropped out of Princeton. He lives with the mother of his child, but their relationship is complicated, and she sees other men with no argument from Earn. He works a dead-end at the Atlanta airport. Even his parents won’t let him in the house because they know he’ll ask for money. When his cousin Alfred releases a regional hit as the rapper “Paper Boi,” Earn sees this as an opportunity to make something of his life as Alfred’s manager. But that’s not really what the show is about; Atlanta spends the next nine episodes challenges the viewer’s’ notions of just what the show is and what is it about.

Glover plays with traditional television structure, partially inspired by the work done by Aziz Ansari’s Master of None and Louis C.K. on his FX series. The success of the latter show has opened doors for creators like Glover and Pamela Adlon’s Better Things not to be forced into typical three-act sitcom structure. Atlanta has no loyalty to any one character and will allow the focus to meander depending on the interest of the moment. Sometimes we have Earn hustling for Alfred. Others we follow Alfred’s right-hand man, Darius as he goes through a series of deals and bartering for some unknown purpose. On the show’s most interesting episodes it highlights a day in the life of Vanessa, Earn’s on again/off again after she makes a career ending mistake. There’s also an entire episode framed as a local program on issues in the black community, where Alfred is confronted over transphobic comments.

The play between relationships is what makes Atlanta so engrossing. Earn and Alfred are arguably the show’s core relationship, and they don’t behave like a typical performer/manager. Their familial connection seeps into every aspect, and Alfred makes concessions that you would not see a performer do for someone that is going to take 5% of their paycheck. And Earn looks after Alfred in a more intimate way than most managers.

Even more interesting is the relationship between Earn and Vanessa. From their first scene together, waking up in bed and beginning their morning routine there is a palpable tension. As the series goes on, we get two spotlight episodes with just her and one crucial episode about the next stage of she and Earn’s relationship. Vanessa is a highly educated woman who has ended up sidetracked with a child and undefined relationship. We see her interact with peers from college who have made their living in possibly questionable ways and Vanessa ponders other paths.

What kept me coming back to Atlanta was the magical realism of the series. Smartly, Glover and company don’t go overboard in the first couple episodes, hinting at the less familiar elements of the series. Glover has described the series as “Twin Peaks with rappers, ” and this comes through during Earn’s encounter with a strangely stoic man on the bus offering him a Nutella sandwich before exiting the bus and wandering off. As episodes roll up, we find Justin Bieber played by a young black man, the quirky inhabitants of a police lock up; an opportunistic social media-driven pizza delivery man, a slimy club promoter who escapes through secret passages, and many more strange and interesting side characters. Glover believes Atlanta is a magical place and works to convince us of the same.

PopCult Book Club Review #2 – The Hike

The Hike by Drew Magary
2016, Viking

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The Hike wastes no time in jumping right into the journey down the path. Ben is a businessman on a trip to the hills of Pennsylvania. Before dinner with a client, he decides to take a hike behind the rural hotel. He quickly becomes lost and finds himself on a path, a path that he must stay on or die. Ben meets a series of strange and fantastic creatures and finds he is on a journey of redefining the perceptions of himself. The resolution of the story brings a huge revelation that reframes the context of the entire novel.

Author Drew Magary is an odd fellow. He wrote for the sports blog Deadspin and currently GQ, he authored a nonfiction book on what a terrible parent he is and won a Chopped amateur competition. This unique point of view makes the prose of The Hike stand out. It’s sparse in a very Hemingway-esque style at moments. This is an interesting counterpoint to the ridiculous encounters like a cursing crab, a giant control panel manipulating cricket, and a good-humored man-eating giantess.

Magary cites books and video games as his main influence for The Hike. Homer’s Odyssey is a primary reference throughout the structure of the novel, a man on a quest to get back to his wife. There’re threads of Grimm and other traditional folktales woven throughout, particularly with an elderly woman in a cottage in the middle of the forest who turns out to know much more than she first lets on. There’s also some outright horror, especially with the Doberman-masked madmen that pursue Ben throughout the story.

Magary stated in an interview that many of the elaborate and silly solutions to problems in the text are inspired by the illogical or irrational reasoning of many King’s Quest PC games. I remember the monster manual Ben comes across in the hotel, and it’s utterly ridiculous methods for killing the bizarre and strange creatures listed therein. In the same interview, he explains that impetus of the novel came from his similar experience of going out and getting so easily lost in the woods.

The novel felt fairly like some fun fluff and then when Ben learned about his fate from the crab and confronted the Producer I started to see a significant turn in what was happening in the subtext. The final scene where Ben sees his wife again after decades of being away, while only a few hours have passed in real world time, and also has the revelation about what happened to her years ago was the big change. The Hike is a story about how impossible it is to share the effects of trauma and life-changing experiences. Ben sees it in his wife’s eyes, realizing she lived through the same journey as him, but we are left in a place where we see they cannot connect on this. The journey was such a singularly personal one that even though they see it in each other’s eyes we know they will never be able to sit down and share anything about it.

Discussion Questions:

How do you successfully communicate personal trauma and life-altering experiences?

Ben goes through a major metamorphosis throughout the Hike. Is he the same person on a physical level at the end as he was when he started? What makes our physical form our self?

Movie Review – Tale of Tales (dir. Matteo Garrone)

Tale of Tales (2016, dir. Matteo Garrone)

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Tale of Tales is an adaptation of a few fairy tales collected by Italian folklorist Giambattista Basile in the 15th century. Basile’s work would later inspire the Brothers Grimm to publish their collections in the early 19th century. So in this film, there are stories very unfamiliar to American audiences and likely most moviegoers around the world. The stories are loosely interconnected the film cuts between them in simple acts, with all three coming together in the final scene.

The first tale concerns a queen (Salma Hayek) who desperately wants a child. Her husband, the king (John C. Reilly) follows the advice of a wise man and hunts down a sea monster so that the queen may eat its heart and bear a child. The king dies in the process, and the woman who prepares the heart for consumption becomes pregnant from its magic. The unexpected cross-pollination results in a pair of identical twins from two different mothers whose lives as adults become fatefully intertwined despite the queen’s protestations. The second tale tells about a lustful and hedonistic king (Vincent Cassel) who hears beautiful singing and tracks it down to a cottage in the village below his castle. He is unaware the voice belongs to an aged woman and enters into a dance of seduction with her. Magic becomes involved, and this story goes to some horrific places. The third and final story concerns a silly king (Toby Jones) who becomes enamored with raising a flea until it becomes the size of a large dog. His daughter is caught up in the romance of chivalrous stories and wants a husband. The king holds a contest, and she ends up with a less than desirable suitor.

The practical effects work in the film is stunning. The film is one of those where we see the craftsmanship of fields in film production that are a dying art. Very minimal computer-generated effects are used and instead we have magnificent puppetry and makeup work. The costume and set design is also at a remarkable level. The castles and buildings used in the film add the fairy tale nature of the whole piece. I was reminded by behind the scenes content I’ve read and seen in Fellini’s films and how he went out of his way to employ these craftsmen and women who grow smaller in number by the day. Garrone makes a major case for practical effect in film production.

There is little character development in each story, but that’s expected with the emphasis on creating a fairy tale tone and atmosphere. These are morality plays, so the characters are larger than life and representative of points of view rather than individuals. That said, I did find some character moments in the second tale, the story of the elderly woman, to be quite painful, especially its grotesque and heartbreaking conclusion. The one thematic thread tying all three stories together is that of “be careful what you wish for”. No handsome prince is coming to save the day and instead we have three prominent female figures struggling to deal with expectations placed on them and their personal desires.

Director Garrone has previously directed Gomorrah, a hyper-realist film that tells a slice of life, almost documentarian story, of the influence Italian organized crime, has on the life of the nation’s citizens. He brings that same non-judgemental eye to these fairy tales to create a type of film that is unique beyond the deluge of fairy tale revisionism that is quite popular these days.

Comic Book Review – Monstress Volume 1

Monstress Volume 1
Written by Marjorie Liu | Artist: Sana Takeda

monstress 1 At first glance, the protagonist on the cover of Monstress doesn’t look very monstrous at all. Maika is a beautiful young woman without horns or scales or anything denoting a monster nature. That’s sort of the point in this exploration of prejudice and feminism brought to us by writer Marjorie Liu and artist Sana Takeda. The beautiful art deco style cover is immediately given a counterpoint in the first full page panel: Maika naked, a chain collar around her neck, a riding crop under her chin, and the revelation that her right arm from the elbow down is missing. On her chest is a tattoo of a vertical eye. This rather ugly reveal presents what will be the theme of the series, a beautiful ornate baroque world that is hiding a society built on violence against the Other.

My initial reaction to Monstress was the same sort of disorientation I’ve felt watching most anime or reading manga. There is this push deep into the world where the reader is expected to catch themselves up as they go. Western media typically lays things out in a very deliberate fashion so it takes a little configuring of the brain to get involved. The world of Monstress is built on the divide between humans and the Arcanic. The Arcanic are a mixed race species between humans and a sort of interpretation of East Asian demons and animal spirits. Many Arcanic look perfectly human, they might be hiding a pair of wings or a foxtail, but if found out to not be fully human they lose all rights. Arcanic are part of a massive slave trade and some are even harvested for their essence called Illium.

Chief among the enemies of the Arcanic are The Cumea, a faction of female witches that are more like the Vatican than a coven. They have unlimited wealth and some even appear to be what I would consider Arcanic but avoid that label because they have power. An event occurred prior to the series, a great battle between the Arcanic and the Cumea that left some of these witches scarred by magic energies. They desperately want revenge for this transgression and it seems our hero, Maika is tied deeply to this past conflict.

There are very few male characters in the series and not a single one is in a position of power. All authority is held by women on both sides of the conflict. I particularly enjoyed how there is no sense of unity among the women of the two sides. They are truly human in that the concepts of tribalism and the Other are still going strong. How they choose to deal with problems comes from a different perspective but the hatred of the Cumea for the Arcanic is white hot and unflinching.

monstress 2 The growth of Maika is the focus of the series. She starts single-minded and willing to let the innocent die if it means she gets closer to her goal of revenge. As she spends time with other characters she has a conflict with her inner nature and by the end of the first arc, she has learned the value of compromise. Her two companions, Kippa, an Arcanic with fox like attributes and Master Ren, a clever and witty cat, feel like paper thin characters. I was reminded of some forgotten animes that featured characters just for the cuteness appeal. There are hints at deeper levels and a rich history to the villains in The Cumea but it’s not explored very deeply in this first arc.

The pace of the series is very quick. We jump right into the story and hit major plot points every issue. There’s never a point where things feel dull or we lose momentum. You wouldn’t be blamed if you start to lose focus on what the larger conflicts are. The politics are so dense it can be overwhelming at points and it would have been nice to have the history of the world disseminated in a little more palatable manner. Each issue ends with mini “lectures” on some point of history in the world but I never found myself interested in reading these long passages of text when I was more interested in the core story.

Monstress is a very enjoyable first chapter in what looks to be a long sprawling saga. I think in hindsight, once the complete story is published, going back and reading these early issues will feel less challenging. The artwork alone is a great reason to pick up the book, it is so full of detail and movement. If you’re interested in jumping head deep into a complex and complicated new world give Monstress a chance.

The BFG (2016, dir. Steven Spielberg)

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On a dark night, at the witching hour, an orphan named Sophie glimpses a strange shadow on the streets, quickly realizing it’s a giant. She rushes to hide under the blankets of her bed, but a massive hand reaches in through the window and carries her off to Giant Country where her adventure begins. There she learns that her abductor is big friendly giant and that his kin are the ones she needs to watch out for.

I have been a lover of Roald Dahl since I was very little and had Charlie and the Chocolate Factory read to me chapter by chapter at night. From there I remember books like The Twits, Matilda, and of course The BFG. Of Dahl’s children’s books The BFG is one I don’t think about often. I remembered the illustrations by Quentin Blake with the giant’s comically oversized ears, but as for the story I didn’t remember much of it. Steven Spielberg is another figure I remember vividly from my childhood. I can’t say what the first Spielberg movie I saw was, I have memories of a some scenes from E.T. early on, but I would guess the first one I watched in its entirety was Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg is known for the sentimentality he tries to weave into his work, which would seem to be in opposition to the sometimes caustic wit Dahl brings to his writing.

The acting in The BFG is pretty much perfect. Mark Rylance as the titular giant has captured every aspect of the character from his soft garbled understanding of language to his jumps from hunched shuffler around his cave to nimble leaper through the city streets. Ruby Barnhill as Sophie delivers a very confident performance, never coming across as an act-y kid, but feeling like an actual Dahl protagonist. The supporting cast doesn’t have much screen time, but they do their jobs adequately, the evil giants being the big standouts. The film lives or dies on the performances of Rylance and Barnhill and they are very strong.

The plot of The BFG is quite different than I think we’ve become accustomed to lately. This is an older style of Spielberg storytelling, where there is no epic battle between the forces of good and evil. The conflict is solved fairly quickly with a short exciting moment. The emphasis is on our two central characters and their relationship. An element of the Tim Burton directed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that irked me was the addition of backstory to Wonka. It felt like the most unnecessary and pointless addition to a story that didn’t need it. In the same way we got the backstory of the Grinch or prequels attempt to fill in the gaps, these choices miss the point. We don’t need to know the origin of Santa Claus to love Santa. We don’t need to know how the Easter Bunny got his eggs to love Easter.

Dahl understood the details children are truly concerned about and he knew that they would accept larger than life characters without questions about where they came from. This is where the film shines because it flows like a Dahl narrative more than any other adaptation of his work I’ve seen. The plot is a lovely mess and not much really happens. But the time we spend with these two characters as they learn about each other is action enough. I loved how long some conversation scenes were, just these two bantering and hearing The BFG transformation of the English language.

I enjoy the latest superhero beat ‘em up very much. But it is very heartening to see a film like this still being made. It’s a picture about kindness and understanding. The BFG loves to help other but is very insecure about his speech and what other might do to him if they discover his existence. Problems are not solved through violence, but through peaceful means. Yes, the mean bad giants get what’s coming to them but it’s not being blown away and destroyed. Even they have a place in the world. And in this current climate, learning to understand that even your enemies deserve life and place in the world is a refreshing idea.

Games for Two – Above and Below

Above and Below
Designed by Ryan Laukat
Published by Red Raven Games
Purchase here

Above and Below is the story of rebuilding after disaster. Your village was destroyed by barbarians and you’ve moved your people to a new place to start a new life. However, you find beneath the ground is an intricate series of tunnels and the opportunity to discover great treasure. You’ll need to build new buildings, recruit new villagers, harvest resources, and explore the world below to win.

You start the game with three villagers: one builder, one trainer, and one explorer. All are capable of going cave diving, the explorer just has the chance of rolling better. You can spend income to purchase new buildings, each of which have special actions, or purchase new villagers to train. If you choose to go into the caverns you take a cave card and roll one die. The pips correspond to a paragraph number in the adventure book. Another player reads and gives you options to choose from. Different options provide different rewards but you won’t know what those rewards are until after you roll. The game is played out over seven rounds and at the end you calculate points based on the number of buildings you have, how many of each resources you’ve accumulated, your reputation score, and any bonuses you get from specific cards.

My wife and I had a wonderful time playing Above and Below. Sometimes you come across games that say they are for two players, but as you play them you realize the experience would be more complex and interesting with at least a third. Above and Below works beautifully as a two player game and plays surprisingly fast. My wife actually commented that she wished there were a few more rounds. In total we played three full games. The first game was naturally a lot of figuring out the mechanics and making sure we were comprehensive in our actions. About halfway through that first session things began to click. By the third game, we were deep in the strategy and realizing what benefits delving into the caves beyond creating a very fun, light fantasy story.

Above-and-Below-board I was reminded a bit of IDW’s Machi Koro, a city building game, where certain cards are considered top shelf premium ones based on their cost and benefits. In Above and Below, there are six star buildings that provide multiple benefits if you can afford their large cost. There’s also four interchangeable star buildings that provide similar but less powerful benefits. Three pools replenish during your rounds of play: new villagers, regular buildings, and underground buildings. Each playthrough created vastly different villages for the both of us. Resources are harvested either from buildings or going into the caves. Once you have resources you can either stockpile them (which increases your income) or offer them up for sale to other players. At the end of the game you add up the resources you have stockpiled and multiply them by a point value based on where they were place on the stockpile track. So, selling resources can help the buyer increase that score while giving the seller a few quick gold pieces.

Above and Below is a game we would definitely play again. It takes a little more time to set up than the simple card games we had been playing, but nowhere near the set up time of games like Eldritch Horror and the like. If you are looking for a very deep, complex resource management game this is not for you. A perfect game to introduce someone to resource management without overwhelming them with too many actions and options. Because of the numerous building and variety of villagers, including special villagers that can only be recruited through going into the caves, there is a lot of replayability. Highly recommending this game.

Movie Review – Swiss Army Man

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Swiss Army Man (2016)
Written & Directed by Daniels

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This is the film that had people walking out of its Sundance screening. This is the film about the farting corpse with superpowers. This is also a musical. If you’re still there, let’s go a little more in depth with very unique film.

Hank is stranded on a desert island about to hang himself when he glimpses a body washed up on the shore. Hank names the corpse Manny and discovers that his new friend has an array of superpowers, from using his farts to act as a jet-ski to becoming a human water fountain and more. The duo begin an odyssey to return to civilization and reclaim the love they think is there’s. And things get even stranger.

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Origins 2016 – Dungeon World

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When you tell people you play roleplay games most of them envision Dungeons & Dragons. They imagine you must spend your nights hacking and slashing orcs, or casting magic missile at kobold hordes, or firing off a volley of arrows at your enemies from a prime vantage point. Well, that has never really appealed to me. My first experiences roleplaying were in 2008 when I ran (yes ran, not played in) a 4th Edition D&D campaign. The amount of planning eventually turned me off and that’s when I sought out something different. After playing a variety of different games I ended up falling in love with the Powered by the Apocalypse engine which happened to have its own variation on that old D&D genre of game: Dungeon World (Designed by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel, Published by Sage Kobold Productions).

Our Friday night choice at Games on Demand was a no brainer. We’d noticed last year one particular GM’s sessions would fill up almost as soon as the doors to the room opened. Additionally, we were told he ran a damn good game of Dungeon World. Hamish Cameron is the designer of The Sprawl, a cyberpunk themed PBtA game, but is also a man who loves to run and and play Dungeon World. Having run Dungeon World many many times but never having played in it, this was a perfect opportunity. And I have to say, Hamish was one of the most energetic, engaging GMs I’ve played with in a long time. He was incredibly invested in the world the players collectively created and kept the momentum of the dungeon crawl going with interesting twists and dangers.

Dungeon World has all the basic trappings of a PBtA game: Basic and Playbook Moves triggered by player actions in the fiction, rolling two 6 sided die plus a stat to determine the outcome, and player directed worldbuilding. It’s both old fashioned but refreshing at the same time. In this particular game, I chose to play a Cleric, a playbook that doesn’t get as much love as say the Fighter or Ranger. The world the table created was focused around The City of Glass, an outpost in the middle of desert whose air was poisonous gas. Traders traveled across the desert on the backs of giant snails. The city’s religion revolved around the performing arts and so masks held an important religious significance. The various religious sects liturgies came in the form of dramas. My Cleric, Dahlia the Voice, came from the church of The Sage. Her people believed knowledge should be preserved in the mind and would memorize texts before burning them in a holy fire. They would then share their knowledge through dramatic performance or recitations of the knowledge they accrued.

Hamish gave our party a choice of dungeons to explore and we went with the (I might get this wrong) The Temple of Third Eye. It was an old mine in the middle of the desert and rumors about it housing a fallen sun god deep in its bowels were getting around. Dahlia’s purpose for being there was to uncover an ancient scroll that detailed life in these lands 10,000 years in the past. A very valuable find for my sect. In the party was a gruff Dwarven Templar, an illusionist Mage, and two orphans: Vaxx the Thief and Lillaine the Bard. Things went as you might expect in any typical dungeon delve. Lots of monsters, mystery and a dark god rising up from beneath the earth. Almost a total party kill, expect Dahlia the Voice escaped to warn The City of Glass that this angry sun god had risen.

Dungeon World is great fun. And Hamish was able to keep that fun going for four hours which is quite an achievement after running games all day. If you are a traditional tabletop gamer or someone who used to play and is looking for a way back into the hobby, I highly recommend Dungeon World as a great introduction to Powered by the Apocalypse. There’s no complex math, no worrying about line of site or other tactical minutiae, the emphasis is on weaving an interesting and entertaining adventure. The world you play in the world the people at your table want to play in so you always end up with something unique and keyed into motivation you to play.

Dungeon World can be purchased here – http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/108028/Dungeon-World

And if you were to click on Dungeon World under Rules Systems on the right hand side, you’ll see there are myriad of resources available to add to your game if you like. My personal recommendation would be the playbooks and products produced by Awful Good Games – http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/5695/Awful-Good-Games