Megrim

The first bit of story practice using a random Magic the Gathering card. This one features Megrim -- a card that has some real flavor in its wording, art, and gameplay mechanics.

Fun fact: Megrim can be used for depression or migraines.

In magic, cards in hand, drawn, or discarded are often symbolized as memories or knowledge. So, having an opponent discard a card -- or lose memories -- ties the mechanics and flavor text (the italicized text) of this card together pretty well. Some other elements that stand out are the art and name of the card. Megrim can mean depression or migraines -- the art and the card mechanics most likely depict a migraine happening, which would explain the damage. That the card is an enchantment, and thus hangs around, could either mean a chronic migraine, a reference the depression angle, or some combination of the two.

Regardless, I chose a more modern setting for my (very) short story that may, or may not, be supernatural in nature.

Megrim

By Josh Thompson

    The cuts appeared at random. No pain. No memory. Zach would just look down and see thin lines of blood blossom through his clothes. His arms, legs, torso — they could appear any where at any time. And he never knew why. Should he go to a doctor? What would they think? That he was crazy. That he was self-harming. He wasn’t, but who would take his word for it? It all seemed insane, even to him.

    Despite all the wounds and the stress they were causing, there was more. He was forgetting things. Not small things — like his keys or where he left his wallet. He was forgetting entire days. Weeks. Long stretches of time were absent from his memory, but not all at once. It was always random. Or was it? Whenever he thought too deeply about his memory loss, the wounds he had, or got too close to… Something. Everything would just go away, leaving behind another injury.

    He tried not to think about it. How long had it taken for him to even gleam this much and to remember? Could it all be lost, like everything else? Could he ever stop it? 

    At the mere thought of defiance, he felt the darkness within his mind swarm over him. He tried to scream, to tear the darkness away, but it bound his arms and filled his lungs. He could only lay there, in his room, paralyzed as the grip it held him with cut into his chest and his arms. The darkness then went to work, clouding his thoughts, stripping them away until… No pain. No memory.

Mind the dust.

It's been quite a long while since I've been around this old blog. (I mean, just look below! Sheesh.) An outlet, once again, is needed -- for writing, thinking, and general sanity purposes. So, I'm back.

When I last posted, those books were still in print.

Why not a new blog and a fresh start? Well, I just really like the name of this blog. It's already setup. And I just need somewhere to dump words. What better place than an old, forgotten blog?

Coming up will, hopefully, be some short stories (some, likely, very short) for exercise and practice, using one of my favorite hobbies -- Magic the Gathering. The plan is to have one short story every day (or every other day, or every however-often-I-can day) that is prompted by the random card option on Gatherer. The stories may not be set in the MtG universe, but will try and have the card as a central theme or element. However that may occur. These stories will not be good, that I can promise. Hopefully they will have some amount of entertainment. At the least, I get practice out of it.

Any other posts that occur on this blog, from this point on (until I change my mind again, in some years' time), will be writing and MtG focused.

Why not Robot?

Coming off of last week's zombie post, I've been doing a little bit of thinking in my spare time. Other monsters, other threats, other themes. What can be done that, really, hasn't been done much or done to death yet?

Why not robot? That's the thought that occurred to me while I was playing Infinity Wars -- a digital TCG. The setting of Infinity Wars is one of a sci-fi nature, with robots and nanotechnology and other futuristic bits. The robotic faction in Infinity Wars is known as Genesis and they hold the key to some truly awesome, and terrifying, robots. If you've seen the show Stargate SG-1 and know about the Replicators, well, those are pretty close. And not just the Replicators, but the 'Borg of Star Trek, the Cylons of Battlestar Gallactica... There are tons of examples of robots or cyborgs that are potentially terrifying. Even more so when you consider that, unlike zombies, these robots could possibly happen. It's funny how we often attribute the most fear to things that can never happen, yet think little of the real horrors that could exist.

So, what makes a robot scary? Well, like zombies it's not 'a' robot but 'a horde' of robots. That can repair themselves. And create copies from who-knows-what. That similar zombie theme of being hard to kill and constantly growing can happen with robots. Not only that but robots can also upgrade in ways that zombies can't and learn from their mistakes. How cliched is an AI with the capabilities to learn? Well, those activities are happening now, in basic forms, so it's likely less cliche and just a standard feature. But this ability to learn, improve and upgrade brings robots to a whole new level -- a level that zombies haven't really reached. They could out-adapt humans. How scary is that?

And that's why I ask myself, why not robot? I think it's time to retire the zombie and replace it with a shiny little bundle of malleable steel death.

Zombies -- All About the Bite

Contagion

Zombies. We all know them. We all have re-deaded hundreds, if not thousands, of them. We all have a love and/or hate relationship with them. With all this experience, with all the popularity they've had, there is still one area of zombies that I rarely see done well (or at all) in gaming -- the infection. This is certainly going to be focused more towards the video game market than tabletop -- tabletop tends to do it fairly well, or just get it hacked in by the players. Video games, on the other hand, rarely introduce the infection to the players. Prime examples being the Left 4 Dead series or the Dead Island series where all of the player characters are inherently immune to the disease, or in any number of RPG that features hordes of zombies and no player infection. Now, the video games are not completely devoid of the infection -- two examples on PC right now are Contagion and the Source mod No More Room in Hell (both of which are the screenshots for this article).  Not only do these games feature the infection, but I would say No More Room in Hell features it in one of the best ways I've seen as it persists and any medication found will only buy you a bit more time.

Contagion

I'm harping on the infection here because I feel it is one of the most important aspects of a zombie setting. Zombies, by themselves, are really not that scary, nor are they terribly threatening (except in massive quantities, but then, isn't everything?). All they really have going for them is their relentless nature and resilience.  The infection, however, changes that. Knowing that only one stray bite, scratch, or spray of bodily fluid could infect you and turn you into a ticking time-bomb is far scarier than the zombies, themselves. It is this vulnerability and need to always be aware and careful that, when combined with the zombie's relentlessness and resilience, the whole package starts to come together. And that is what I want to see more in zombie games.

Many people would say that zombie games are past their prime and should be carted off to the morgue. I, however, think there is still room for improvement. That there is still at least one really good zombie game waiting to be made.  We just need one that truly distills the essence of the zombie apocalypse. And for that, it's gonna need some bite.

Prime-time TV Tabletop

This fall I've actually been keeping up with a few prime-time TV shows -- something I don't often do -- for a very particular reason: tabletop ideas. There is no better application for consumable media than gaming, I say, and there are some shows ripe for the picking. Since these shows are still on-going I won't be giving away any spoilers -- meaning this post will be vague. What should be here, though, is a bit of a spotlight for three shows to watch or look into (all of which you're likely already watching, if you've made your way here).

First up is Sleepy Hollow on Fox, which is going to be back on air in a few days. I will say that I enjoy the show quite a bit, but it does have a somewhat silly over-arching storyline. The real meat to dig into here, I feel, is the individual baddies or situations that occur each week. Most any of them that have occurred, so far, can be ported over to your favorite system as-is and they often have some interesting abilities or quirks that would allow for a nice, lengthy adventure (or more).

Second is Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC. This is a program that, I think, quite a few tabletop gamers and geeks are keeping up with, so it should be one of the more familiar titles on this post. One of the great aspects of it is how the shows plays out as a typical tabletop game experience. The team of agents feel quite similar to a band of PCs and the different episodes and events are reminiscent of adventures -- with the over-arching storyline being the central storyline of a campaign. What could be pulled from it? Just about anything, really. Though, I will say that I don't feel too strongly about any individual part -- they just kind of work as a whole.

Lastly, The Tomorrow People, on CW. This is likely the lesser-known show of the post, and, of the three, my least favorite so far. That said, it does have an interesting and useable setting and premise -- people being born with the potential for psychic abilities and a shady organization that hunts them. That might seem quite basic and familiar, but the details (possibly spoilery, so I won't mention them) in the show do help to flesh it out and make it more unique. It does have the fewest episodes out of the three, so I'm hoping the show will start to pick up more soon and pique my interest more.

And that's that. I'll likely have a more in-depth post about these series -- and the ideas they spawn -- in the future, when the shows have finished their seasons and I can feel better about being more spoilery. Until then, I definitely recommend checking them out -- you should be able to catch episodes, for free, on their network's websites. So, not much reason to miss them, really.

Steven Strange - The Strange(st) Scientist

Last Friday kicked off the start of +Stacy Dellorfano 's Perfect Dark hangout game. I went into it completely ignorant of the game or setting and, I have to say, it was quite easy to pick up. The character I cobbled together was Steven Strange -- a farmer and an academic. He lives to study the Strange -- some weird gas that, possibly, is a living entity.

From Wikimedia

To back up Steven, and keep him company/sane, is his cougar companion, Kane. One of the coolest parts of character creation, I felt, was the option to create a pet. And, by 'create', I do mean create -- the pets, should you invest enough points into them, have their own mini-character creation that
allows you to select various mutations and skills for them. Much like your own character has. This means that Kane is no ordinary cougar. Oh, no. Kane is a tentacled, web-spinning, sonar-using, sentient cougar that can also brew his own booze. Yeah, he's awesome.

But, enough of the cool cat and back to Steven. What went into his creation? What ideas inspired me? Honestly, since I knew so little about the setting at his creation, I just went with a farmer because it sounded entertaining. The initial idea of farming Strange snowballed into Steven being a hardcore researcher of the stuff. Completely dedicated to it, to an almost fanatical degree. This also plays well into his personality (which each character chooses, from a list) as he is The Creepy One. And what's creepier than an overly fanatical scientist, right?

Steven is still evolving, still coming into his own, as the game is just starting to get underway. The game play is actually quite fresh for me, as it lends itself to being pretty nonviolent (so far, at least). If I could describe it, I would consider it almost like Minecraft -- there is a lot of exploration, adventure, and resource gathering for what (I assume) will be a lot of crafting. Or building up of our little society. Either way, it's pretty darn awesome.

I'll toss on some more posts as the adventure continues and we see more of the rules. And more Strange. Always more Strange.

(To note: Perfect Dark is still in the development stage, so it will likely change.)

Skyrim and Hexcrawls

Recently, I've hopped back into The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to do some adventuring and have some fun. Like most Elder Scrolls games, Skyrim lets you really dig in and explore -- go completely off the rails and do whatever you feel like, within the limitations of the engine. And that's why I love it and the series, in general. Playing it, though, is bringing to mind another type of gaming that I also love -- hexcrawl adventures.

Overlooking Solstheim in Skyrim.

For those unfamiliar, a hexcrawl is a tabletop RPG campaign that has few, if any, strict storyline limits or focuses. It generally takes place in a sizable world that the GM has already roughly (or thoroughly) mapped out and placed various bits of content in. A lot like Skyrim, basically. The appeal of such game play, to me at least, is the exploration into the unknown and the discovery of what lies within it. Freedom of choice also plays a big part, as there is no (obvious) railroading adventure that you are forced to follow. Skyrim does differ in that aspect, as there is still a central storyline to the game, but that storyline is also easily ignored.

So, explanations out of the way, what does all of this have to do with anything? Well, while lightly pondering the subject I started to apply different aspects of Skyrim to a hexcrawl. Nothing terribly in-depth or detailed, as most of my ideas tend to be, but still potentially ripe for further ideas and picking.

One of the most important aspects that I believe both types of games share is that of exploration. In a hexcrawl you might bring your band of adventurers into an unexplored hex and be given a rough outline of what is there -- typically the geography, maybe some major land marks or towns -- and then require further searching (and maybe some skill checks) to root out the more exotic points of interest. While in Skyrim you have a compass that displays icons of nearby locations and a map of the world that highlights the geography, as well as major cities and any locations you have discovered.

The point here to highlight, and think about in a tabletop sense, is Skyrim's handling of nearby locations. This could be easily done on the tabletop by just having the party determine which direction they are heading in and then give them a rough description of locations within a certain radius -- possibly dependent on visibility. I really like the feel that such a style of exploration gives off. Not just heading in a random direction and going until they hit something, or just heading straight for a known city and picking up quests at the tavern, but really exploring out into the wilds and seeing what the world has to offer -- then deciding on what to check out.

Of course, tabletop has one more aspect that really helps with building immersion for the exploration -- the drawing of personal maps. Since Skyrim tends to handle all of the mapping for you, you don't really get to enjoy that aspect. On the tabletop, I would love to have a blown-up, simple map of the hex being crawled, allowing the party to then trace their current route and make their own icons and marks of potential sites to explore. It really does add to the experience.

There is one major downside, potentially, in the attempt to marry Skyrim-style exploration and hexcrawls. Work. Skyrim had a large team of developers and years of full-time work on it. Not many, if any, GM's have that type of manpower behind their campaigns. Coming up with enough locations to fill in each hex would take quite a bit of time and energy -- probably too much. But, with some of the random generation tables that some RPGs -- like the Adventurer Conqueror King System -- and some standalone products have, it may not be too difficult.

Definitely something to think about further.