Gaming... followed by Markus King.. a backstory.

I have an on again, off again like affair with table top role playing games.  Time plays a factor of course, as work and family eat up the majority of my time so I won't waste time with bad gaming or spend time dealing with any other sort of frustration.  Right now the only system I"m really interested in playing is Green Ronin's Mutant's and Masterminds not necessarily because of its four colored superhero nature, but because of its flexibility.  Right now  I'm prepping to run a  a modern mystery game that may owe a little of its tone to Oeming and Bendis' Powers series. 

I won't get into the meat of what the King's 7 series will be about, that may come later as I don't want to have some of the details floating anywhere but in my notes, but for now I thought I'd share what  John and I call an "Interlude" the pieces the written pieces we each do outside of game time to share with one another and other players.  today's piece  is a brief introduction to Markus King:

Hubris (an interlude)

I spent my youth expecting to elite.   I spent my middle age trying to be great in order to make up for the sins that were blamed on me and those I recruited.  

I failed on both accounts. 

The fame I wanted,  the good I felt I was destined to do destroyed by the stupidity of lesser men whom I had foolishly believed to be heroes.

I’ve spent the last 30 years taking the only sane course of action.  I’ve worked hard to be forgotten, to be nothing more than a footnote in a history book.   Letting my anonymous  donations  do what little good they can content with what measure of peace I can would surrounded by the fruits of my hubris.  

Until Now.

Give me the news Mathew.   His face tells the story before he even speaks.   It is worse than the initial reports. 
“Mr. King,  I visited the scene myself  under police escort of  Detective Lt. Chang.  It’s the old team Logo. This time the “revamped” 70s version  tagged on the walls around the victims in blood and branded on  their chests. 

Mathew tossed the pictures on the old man’s desk.  They sit untouched. 

Markus King stared out the window. “ and the other?”

“Markus, there are plasma burns and evidence of low level super speed throughout the alley” 

Markus King stood suddenly,  his exoskeleton whining almost inaudibly. “Still no arrests. No clues.  Someone is calling me out but why now?”

Matthew shrugged  “I don’t know , sir.  But if you believe that this is an attempt to “flush you out” then we can’t play to their tactical advantage.’

“You are correct of course.  But it does need dealt with.  Someone I can trust even after this time.  Someone who  carries some of the same wounds I do. “  He laughed ironically “Someone who hates me for the hubris that drove me into this position. “  Find me Lo Fat, the Jade Monkey. “

Chapter problems... and story dissections

I'm six chapters into my all time (so far) favorite project The Hunt and I'm currently struggling.  I can't seem to capture  the tone I picture in my head.  A big part of it is that I'm not  spending enough time living with my characters.  Not even an hour a day between work commitments and the time I spend with my family.  As for the rest of it I"m not sure.  Davis is vibrant and alive in my mind.  Most of  the other characters feel right, but I will admit to a nagging problem with one of the subplots (to the point of me scrapping it  after drafting it   in initally) and I really fear I am both under and over planning parts of the novella and not letting it flow.  Either way  I am in need of a serious rethinking as I really dig in to the meat of the story I want to tell. Anyone want to pull the vision in my head out for me and dissect it into what it should be? 

Web comics I like

I love comics.  I've loved them since my parents refused to buy them for me leaving me to lurk at the magazine rack in the local drugstore to read bits and pieces of the ARMOR WARS while they shopped.   I loved them even with the limited number of comic strips the small town local paper could cram in on Sundays.  Today though, while I still love some of what is out there in the print realm especially the work of such luminaries as Ellis and Kirkman, but these days for the most part, I enjoy web comics most of all.

Today's "Comic I like" is  a  a sarcastic and amusing look at  geedom and its concerns.  Joel Watson's Hijinks Ensues  What I love about this comic beyond Joel's point on sense of humor is its complete lack of any ongoing story or continuity. As a geek, or someone who follows the geek culture of games, books, comic books and movies, you can jump on almost any strip and  get it.

Fortunately  for his readers Joel's acid wit and twisted mind  fear nothing  whether he's mocking Westboro Baptist Church's (and their  hate mongering and attention whoring leader Fred Phelps) march on the San Diego Comic Con or making light of blockbuster movies  it is always a must read. 

Go read the strip, buy the books, pick up some merchandise.  It is too good not to support. 
C

We won't blow you up... though we can.

The U.S. has decided to change its policy for nuclear weapons.  Great.  I'm always glad when the people in charge decide that killing themselves with nuclear weapons isn't the best option for a foreign policy. 

Things I know about myself..... Part 1

One thing that I easily acknowledge about myself is that I'm not lucky when it comes to gambling.  I don't consider this a real problem because I don't gamble that often.  I do day dream about winning the lottery and retiring to a life of luxury, preferably without actually having to fork over the cash to play.  So these poker parties are a step well outside my norm, something I do more to socialize than anything else.  That being said, I'm am competitive to a fault and so I go in fully expecting to win once things get started.  It doesn't work that way.  How many people do you know that can repeatedly lose a hand on 3 of a kind Aces?   It frustrates me, but I figure it is a slight trade off for keeping in contact with a several good friends.

When the Kraken is the best actor in your movie... be afraid

So Amy and I decided to "celebrate" the end of our spring break with  a lunch and a movie date while daughter unit 2.0  was at a birthday party.  It started out perfectly.  Amy found a nice locally owned bistro( Brick Bistro 29 in Nampa).  that offered us something that we hadn't tried before.  I'll leave the bulk of the meal for another post, but it is sufficient to say it was a great start to our get away.  Then we made the mistake of going to the movie.  We were both looking forward to the Clash of the Titans remake right up to the point where it started.  It is a beautiful movie.  Great special effects (at times) sprawling vistas (at times), but it all to often spoiled by the use of embarrassing sound stage and green screen shots that are almost amateurishly bad. Add that to a script that seemed to have the emotional depth of your average Saturday morning cartoon that made even the capable Liam Neeson seem wooden and you have a below an extremely below average movie.  I have to say that the Kraken may have had the most logical emotional range of any of the characters (and all it did was roar). 


So my hopes for an outstanding popcorn movie dashed I find myself scanning Netflix Watch it Now looking for something with a greater depth of emotional resonance like maybe Beavis and Butthead do America

Five Years on the Abyss update (Writing update)

Five years is my obituary for what I dreamed the future might be.  It was an (incomplete) story I wrote about a year and a half ago.  Space Travel, grand adventures, a hope that mankind could move out to the stars by growing beyond the concerns that have very nearly destroyed us.  It was a story without a real ending, but rereading last night I found myself needing to revamp and finish this story.  I need to finish my Buck Rogers dreams because the stark reality of today puts even the moon beyond our humble grasp.