'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 14

March, Part Seven

Today marks the second-to-last stop on my Pride Month trek through a Mutants & Masterminds superhero tabletop role-playing game lens based on the original Pride Flag’s symbology. (If you missed this week, it starts here.) The next stripe of the original Pride Flag’s rainbow is indigo, and is a character very much inspired by Marsha P. Johnson.

March Indigo (later Decibelle)

Among the colours of the original pride flag, indigo represented serenity. When the light washed over the eight people in the 1978 San Francisco Pride Parade and transformed them into the superhero group that would be known as March, serenity was the last thing on Beau Wright’s mind—though that day he was walking as “Decibelle,” his loud-and-proud, southern belle drag queen alter-ego, alongside other drag queens and the local San Francisco S.T.A.R. group inspired by the 1970s organization of the same name in New York. After the flare of light, Bea found herself in possession of an empowered voice, and an unflappable nature, and set immediately to using both to ensure the violence didn’t harm those under her care.

Where March Pink/Pride earned scorn for his overtly sexual nature, and March Turquoise/Faerie angered those with rigid ideas of gender, March Indigo did both—backwards and in heels—without apology or regret, often loudly proclaiming her pride over all of who she—and he—was. As Bea or as Beau, March Indigo was already a well-known face and a force for sex workers, drag queens, and the gender nonconforming, and after gaining powers alongside the rest of March, March Indigo did everything possible to uplift and protect them. Sometimes this meant using her vocal powers to captivate those who might otherwise attack, and sometimes it meant violence done to those who would do the same in return. Either way, the scream of Decibelle ensured Beau Wright never had to be silent again.

Like the other members of March, at first March Indigo kept the true identity of the heroine secret, but as the AIDS crisis unfolded, Bea came out in all her identities publicly in order to garner attention and focus her activism efforts (most often alongside March Red/Zap and March Orange/Blood Sister). Upon the death of March Red/Zap in 1988, Decibelle grew even louder, oft repeating the truth of the Silence = Death project. After the torch passed from the original March in 1998, Decibelle joined Blood Sister in becoming very much a mentor to the new generation at March Tower, and remains a force for AIDS, sex workers, drag queens and any gender nonconforming people to the present day, despite her health being quite fragile now she is in her seventies.

March Indigo, 1978 (PL 8)
Identity: Bea Wright, aka “Decibelle” / Beau Wright (Drag name, stage name, birth name; originally secret, but soon public)
Genderqueer Male, 26, Height 1.8m, Weight 84kg, Brown Eyes, Black Hair
Group Affiliation: March, Base of Operations: San Francisco, later March Tower

Attributes: Str 0, Sta 1, Agi 2, Dex 2, Fgt 2, Int 2, Awe 6, Pre 6 (30 points)

Powers: Quick Change: Feature 1 (Transform into costume as a free action) (1 point); Serenity: Enhanced Advantages (Fearless, Trance, Uncanny Dodge), Enhanced Attributes (Awareness 3, Presence 3), Enhanced Defenses (Dodge 6, Parry 6, Will 6), Immunity 30 (All effects resisted by Will, Limited to Half-Effect) (48 points); Voice of the Unheard array with Scream: Cone Area Damage 6 (Sonic), AE: High Art: Cumulative Hearing Area Affliction 6 (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Entranced/Stunned), Concentration Duration, Instant Recovery, Limited Degree, and AE: Shatter: Ranged Weaken Toughness 6, Affects Only Objects (14 points)

Advantages: Connected, Contacts, Defensive Roll 2, Fearless, Trance, Uncanny Dodge, Well-informed (5 points)

Skills: Deception 3 (+9), Expertise—Streetwise 5 (+7), Insight 4 (+10), Investigation 3 (+5), Perception 4 (+10), Persuasion 5 (+11) (12 points)

Offense:
Initiative +2
High Art — (Cumulative Hearing Area Affliction 6)
Scream — (Cone Area Damage 5)
Unarmed +2 (Close, Damage 0)

Defense: Dodge 12, Parry 12, Fortitude 4, Toughness 2/4*, Will 12 (10 points)
* with Defensive Roll

Power Point Totals: Attributes 30 + Powers 63 + Advantages 5 + Skills 12 + Defenses 10 = 120.

Complications: Motivation—Responsibility: In any of March Indigo’s personas, March Indigo considers taking care of the queer, the gender non-conforming, the HIV+, and sex workers to be the most central responsibility of having these powers. March Indigo funnels most of their income into setting up safe houses for those under their charge, and threating or harming those under their protection is one of the few ways to truly unleash March Indigo’s temper. Prejudice: All the members of March are targeted for being queer, and March Indigo is also openly and visibly a Black drag queen, which leads to confrontation and anger or violence. Whether presenting male, as his drag queen persona Decibelle, or in any other presentation or playfulness of gender, March Indigo refuses to back down or be silenced, which often results in escalation. Reputation: March Indigo is open about the sex work they’ve done, and in supporting other sex workers, and this often leads to others having preconceived—and usually negative, puritanical, and hypocritical—opinions before they’ve so much as met.

March, Part Six

Today marks the sixth stop on my Pride Month trek through a Mutants & Masterminds superhero tabletop role-playing game lens. (If you are just joining, it starts here.) The next stripe of the original Pride Flag’s rainbow is turquoise, and, listen, I have been looking forward to this. Because two words.

Radical Faeries.

Don’t know what I mean? Click the link above, and, like, blow your mind, ma-a-a-an.

March Turquoise (later Faerie)

Among the colours of the original pride flag, turquoise represented magic and art. When the light washed over the eight people in the 1978 San Francisco Pride Parade and transformed them into the superhero group that would be known as March, it was different for Richard “Ricky” Bates. The other seven gained powers, but Ricky became magic. Where the others gained the trousers or skirts, boots, gloves, and their individual coloured masks and shirts, Ricky also gained bright purple butterfly wings, and flowing, diaphanous dress-like robe and sash, and he took to the air in awe of the magic in the world that had just become visible all around him. So distracting was his first brush with magic that he almost didn’t take part in the initial conflict that had sparked the change, though at the end he instinctively opened a portal to allow the newly empowered superheroes to escape the arrival of federal-level investigators.

Prior to becoming March Turquoise, Ricky was the oldest of the group at 36, a mostly self-taught student of psychology, a believer in secular and pagan spiritualism, and an enjoyer of mythology, fantasy, and science fiction, and effeminate, effete, and nelly, often drawing the attention (and ire) of those threatened by anything less than perfectly performed masculinity. Small, lean, bearded, and long-haired, his cheerful nature and intellect and wit served him well in the queer community, where he built a chosen family to replace the biological one he’d long ago lost to familial disowning. The moment he encountered what would eventually become the Radical Faerie movement, Ricky had found his calling. For all intents and purposes, Ricky had been out since he was a child, as everything about him projected his queerness from a young age, and in effect he never had the opportunity to be closeted. He worked multiple jobs to get by, often lived out of his van, and volunteered at crisis centres were he honed his understanding of the queer psyche.

Granted access to magic, Ricky threw himself into exploring the mystic arts, and found his power seemed to stem from the very aspects of his soul that had always caused him so much trouble: his feyness. Trickery and travel magics came easily to him, as did calling on the elements, and his approach to magic was usually through a pagan or fey lens. In the group, March Turquoise almost single-handedly gave the group its mobility and stealth, but also more than a dash of chaos. He often focused on minutia of magic and caused problems almost as often as he helped solve them. March Turquoise and March Green had an almost immediate attraction—Ricky saw the grace and art in Henry’s every movement, and Henry saw the joy and magic Ricky found in everything—and within the first weeks of March’s formation were dating, and their relationship was one of the few things that could easily draw Ricky away from his magic when he got caught up in his research or exploration, but he always shared what he learned with the rest of the group, and his ability to craft or discover new magics was often the very thing that the group needed to succeed in their darkest moments. As the years passed, Ricky stopped transforming back into his normal human form, preferring to exist with his wings and mantle full time, though they faded whenever he was asleep (or otherwise rendered unconscious).

Unfortunately, the creation of March’s greatest enemy was also due to March Turquoise, who had an almost single-minded desire to understand how the eight were given their abilities, and came to the realization that their transformation was entirely due to the collective unconscious of queerness given focus and direction through the symbol of the rainbow flag itself. March Turquoise spoke of this often, and in public, as an example of the power of queer people, as well as the reason their sexuality and gender were so feared. One listener, who had been one of the protestors on the very day the group had been changed, took note of every word, and began gathering a group of his own, determined to make others believe in him, through a symbol, to similar effect. This man, Father Light, would eventually cost March two of its members, and ultimately spawn a secular “Church” that plagues March to this day.

March Turquoise’s powers grew throughout his time with March, and his ability to affect and travel through magical dimensions eventually led to his creation of a pocket dimension of his own, “Sanctuary,” which at first was like a small multiple-cabin and tented commune in a forest, but over time would grow into a much larger and mystical dimension of its own. In 1979, after March Turquoise officially took the moniker of Faerie, and after the death of March Red/Zap in 1988, he began offering access to Sanctuary for any queer people who needed an escape—which the media most often referred to as “abduction” or “seduction” into a “cult”—and one of those rescued in the early 1990s was a younger man, Wéi Kyle, who formed an openly polyamorous relationship with Faerie and Silvanus, which caused even more negative press for the three lovers, though they never backed down or apologized in any way for their own happiness, which lasted until the tragedy of 1997.

March Turquoise, 1978 (PL 8)
Identity: Richard “Ricky” Bates (Secret/Public)
Cis Male, 36, Height 164 cm, Weight 41 kg, Brown Eyes, Auburn Hair
Group Affiliation: March, Base of Operations: San Francisco, later Sanctuary

Attributes: Str -1, Sta 0, Agi 2, Dex 2, Fgt 0, Int 4, Awe 8, Pre 2 (26 points)

Powers: Fae Senses: Enhanced Attribute (Awareness 4), Senses 3 (Mystic Awareness, Analytical, Radius); Faerie Mantle: Flight 3 (Wings, Activation—Standard Action) linked to Enhanced Defense (Dodge 6) and Protection 8, Impervious 8; Magic Spells: Array with Elemental Bolt (Ranged Damage 6, Penetrating 6, Precise, Variable 1—any elemental descriptor), AE: Door of the Danann: Teleport 5 (Portal, Easy, Extended, Limited to Extended), AE: Faerie Fingers: Perception Move Object 6 (Precise, Subtle), AE: Goodfellow’s Guise: Morph 3 (Humanoids, Affects Others), AE: Puck’s Passage: Movement 3 (Dimensional—any magical dimension, Burst Area, Increased Mass 8, Selective), and AE: Trickster’s Veil: Concealment 4 (All Visual Senses, Affects Others, Burst Area, Selective); Quick Change: Feature 1 (Transform into costume as a free action) (60 points)

Advantages: Artificer, Defensive Attack, Equipment 2 (Headquarters: Sanctuary), Evasion, Improved Initiative, Ritualist, Skill Mastery (Expertise—Magic) (8 points)

Sanctuary—Medium Headquarters, Toughness 6; Grounds, Dimensional Portal, Laboratory (magical), Library, Living Space, Sealed (pocket magical dimension), Self-Repairing, Temporal Limbo, Workshop (magical)

Skills: Deception 2 (+4), Expertise—Magic 8 (+12), Expertise—Psychology 4 (+6), Insight 4 (+12), Perception 4 (+12), Persuasion 2 (+4), Ranged Attack (Magic Spells) 4 (+6), Stealth 4 (+6) (16 points)

Offense:
Initiative +6
Elemental Bolt +6 (Ranged, Damage 6, Penetrating 6, Precise)
Unarmed +0 (Close, Damage -1)

Defense: Dodge 2/8* Parry 2, Fortitude 2, Toughness 0/8*, Will 14 (10 points)

*With Faerie Mantle

Power Point Totals: Attributes 26 + Powers 60 + Advantages 8 + Skills 16 + Defenses 10 = 120.

Complications: Motivation—Enlightenment: March Turquoise’s awareness of magic and secular and pagan spirituality and the power of the mind drive him to seek new perspectives on the world, and passing by any chance to expand or share his knowledge or awareness is extremely difficult for him, to the point of being a distraction, or a hyper-focus. Prejudice: All the members of March are targeted for being queer, and March Turquoise is very much openly and identifiably queer: unapologetically “fey” in speech and manner and dress. From snide comments to open violence, March Turquoise rarely backs down in the face of those who’d push him around. It’s a Kind of Magic: March Turquoise has been transformed into a magical being, and his spells require him to speak and be able to move his hands. More, his magic is “loud” and can attract the attention of other mystical beings or practitioners—who aren’t always pleased to be disturbed or, worse, outshined.

March, Part Five

We’re passing the half-way point now on my Pride Month trek with a Mutants & Masterminds lens. Our fifth stop brings us to the next stripe of the original Pride Flag’s rainbow: Green. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, this is me being nerdy, queer, and it starts back here.)

March Green (later, Silvanus)

Among the colours of the original pride flag, green represented nature, and even before the fateful Pride Parade of 1978 would change his life forever, Henry Diamond loved plants. The son of a farmer and a teacher, Henry Diamond came to San Francisco to study ecology with the notion of perhaps someday being a park ranger or some other career that might let him enjoy the outdoors. After the wash of light that transformed Diamond and the other seven members of March, Diamond found himself in possession of great powers over the plant-life he’d always loved, starting with the ability to shift into a tough, oak-like form with thick thorns, which allowed him to step forward and get between those bent on violence and those who’d come to march for equality.

Diamond had been inspired by Chris Dickerson, a Black bodybuilder (who was also gay). and in many ways followed a similar path upon learning about the man while he was on the rise through his career. Though Diamond didn’t become a professional bodybuilder, he exercised seriously, and attempted to emulate the grace and beauty he saw in the sport, and even took dancing lessons like Dickerson, believing it key to the man’s presence and grace. Physically strong, attractive, and definitely imposing—though not especially tall—Diamond did his best to use his hard-won strength for others, as his mother had always counselled him, and when he was ready to come out as gay, Diamond joined the local queer neighbourhood watches, and trained in self-defence.

After becoming empowered, March Green was one of the two “heavy hitters” of March, alongside March Yellow, especially through the use of his ability to grow and control mobile plants (most often large, animated Oak trees). That said, March Green tended toward defensive moves, using his plant growth powers to protect innocents, block villainous avenues of escape, and often putting himself directly in harm’s way to ensure those smaller or weaker than him would be okay. His romance with March Turquoise—the slim and gentle radical faerie—started mere weeks after March were empowered, and the two made no effort to hide their relationship, which earned them a great deal of attention from March’s fans and detractors both. This shifted in the mid-80s when March Green and March Turquoise (then calling themselves Silvanus and Faerie) added a third man to their relationship—an unpowered, younger man, at that—and their polycule often became a heated topic, though the three never backed down from the scrutiny, and certainly never denied their relationship.

After the death of March Red/Zap in 1988, Henry Diamond took off the mask, the last of the March group to do so. He and his lovers continued to fight the violence and intolerance even after the very public breakdown with March Pink/Pride at the funeral, with Diamond key to limiting the destruction that day. Henry Diamond continued to be a unifying force in the group thereafter, up to his transformation after the battle with Father Light and his people, and the resulting tragedy in 1997.

March Green, 1978 (PL 8)
Identity: Henry Diamond (At first secret, eventually public)
Cis Male, 31, Height 1.67m, Weight 87kg, Hazel Eyes, Black Hair
Group Affiliation: March, Base of Operations: San Francisco

Attributes: Str 3/6*, Sta 3/6*, Agi 1, Dex 1, Fgt 2, Int 1, Awe 1, Pre 3 (30 points)

Powers: Oakform: including Plantlike: Immunity 3 (Starvation, Sleep, Suffocation), Enhanced Advantage (Diehard), Enhanced Attributes (Strength 3, Stamina 3), Protection 6, Move Action to Activate; linked to Thornskin: Damage 3 (piercing), Reaction (to being touched or struck), with AE: Spray Thorns (Ranged Damage 4 (piercing), Multiattack); Plant Control array with Plant Growth: Create Plants 6, Permanent, Moveable (3/rank); with AE: Tanglevines: Ranged Burst Area Affliction 5 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Damage; Hindered and Vulnerable, Defenseless and Immobilized), Extra Condition, Indirect 3, Limited Degree; and AE: Animate Plants: Summon 4 (Animated Plant, Controlled, General Type, Multiple Minions 1); Quick Change: Feature 1 (Transform into costume as a free action) (56 points)

Advantages: Attractive, Diehard*, Defensive Attack, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Interpose (6 points)

Skills: Athletics 4 (+7/+10*), Close Combat (Unarmed) 4 (+6), Expertise—Activism 4 (+5), Expertise—Botany 5 (+6), Persuasion 4 (+7), Ranged Combat (Spray Thorns) 5 (+6), Vehicles 4 (+5) (15 Points)

Offense:
Initiative +5
Spray Thorns +6 (Ranged, Damage 4, piercing, Multiattack)
Thornskin — (Close, Reaction Damage 3, Piercing, when touched)
Unarmed Attack +6 (Close, Damage 3/6* plus potential Thornskin, above)

Defense: Dodge 4, Parry 4, Fortitude 6/9*, Toughness 3/12*, Will 7 (13 Points)

*While in Oakform.

Power Point Totals: Attributes 30 + Powers 56 + Advantages 6 + Skills 15 + Defenses 13 = 120.

Complications: Motivation—Responsibility: March Green was raised by parents who drilled into him that strength was a tool used to protect others, and even before he had powers, Henry Diamond took that to heart, looking out for the little guy. Upon gaining his abilities, Henry’s instincts always shifted towards looking out for the innocent and others who need protection, and villains know the easiest way to distract March Green is to place someone else in danger. Prejudice: All the members of March are targeted as openly queer, and March Green faces both queer hatred and racism. Later in life, his openly polyamorous relationship provided further fodder for the bigotry of others. Weakness—Plantlike: March Green is vulnerable to effects deleterious to plants, especially fire and extreme heat, suffering one additional degree of effect on any failed checks against them in his regular form, and two while in his oakform.

March, Part Four

Our fourth stop on my Pride Month walk through a Mutants & Masterminds lens brings us to the fourth stripe of the original Pride Flag’s rainbow: Yellow. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, this is me being nerdy, queer, and it starts back here.)

March Yellow (later, Lustre)

Among the colours of the original pride flag, yellow represented sunlight. In fact, among those closest to the eight people marching in the 1978 San Francisco Pride Parade who were transformed into the superhero group later known as March, many said the light that flared around them came started from Candice Mitchell, and when it receded, the glow didn’t completely fade away from around her. Instead, Mitchell, a Black paralegal who’d been walking with a group of other proud Black lesbians, found herself floating in the air a few inches off the ground, glowing and wearing a yellow masked outfit. When the initial surge of violence against the parade walkers happened, Mitchell found she could aim beams of light to either distracting or devastating effect, and she didn’t just float—she flew.

Inspired by Pauli Murray and other women like her, Mitchell had parlayed a track and field scholarship into a chance to pursue a legal education—training to be a paralegal—and finding a job with a small firm upon her graduation. She also met her first girlfriend in college, a fellow athlete, and the two helped each other navigate into the world of lesbian culture, and specifically Black lesbian culture, where for the first time Mitchell felt seen. Though her first girlfriend and her would go their separate ways after graduation, Mitchell never looked back, and her drive to excel in all things was no different when she aimed it towards activism.

Once she gained her sunlight-based powers, March Yellow was quite literally the single most visible member of March, as her powers made her shine if she used them in any way, and as one of only two of the group capable of flight, she was often at the forefront of their battles, offering air support or—if they were tangling with other flight-capable enemies—the key combatant in play. Of all the group, Mitchell was the first to apply her athletic regimen to hone her abilities the most, practicing and working to master them, and learning how to sacrifice power for accuracy (and vice-versa) and ensuring she was as difficult to hit as she was impossible not to spot.

Mitchell also knew she could parlay her position and power in March in another way, becoming one of the guest speakers at The First Black Lesbian Conference in 1980, where, as part of her speech, she officially removed her mask in the name of the conference’s theme: becoming visible. Another member’s comment on the sheer presence Mitchell had, “her incredible lustre,” soon translated to Mitchell taking that as her super-powered name, and Lustre’s light became a symbol for Black lesbians everywhere.

After the 1988 death of March Red/Zap, and the initial fracturing of March, it was Lustre who lifted the torch to keep the group as cohesive and organized as possible, and through her the group—minus March Pink/Pride—soldiered on in their fight for equality and visibility, right up to the 1998 end of the original March group.

March Yellow, 1978 (PL 8)
Identity: Candace Mitchell (At first secret, eventually public)
Cis Female, 29, Height 1.78m, Weight 60kg, Dark Brown Eyes, Black Hair
Group Affiliation: March, Base of Operations: San Francisco

Attributes: Str 2, Sta 3, Agi 2, Dex 3, Fgt 2, Int 2, Awe 3, Pre 3 (42 points)

Powers: Light Source: Array with Light Blast: Ranged Damage 8; AE: Dazzling Beam: Ranged Affliction 8 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Fortitude; Visually Impaired, Visually Disabled, Visually Unaware; Cumulative, Limited to Visual), AE: Daylight: Environment 4 (Light, equivalent of full daylight) (18 points); Quick Change: Feature 1 (Transform into costume as a free action) (1 point); Solar Powered: Immunity 2 (Sleep and Starvation, Source: sunlight) (1 point); Uplifting Light: Flight 4 (8 points)

Advantages: Accurate Attack, Favored Environment (Air), Great Endurance, Move-by-Action, Power Attack, Well Informed (6 points)

Skills: Athletics 6 (+8), Expertise—Law 6 (+8), Insight 4 (+7), Persuasion 4 (+7), Ranged Combat (Light Source) 6 (+8), Vehicles 4 (+6) (15 points)

Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +2 (Close, Damage 2)
Light Blast +8 (Ranged, Damage 8)
Dazzling Beam +8 (Ranged, Cumulative Affliction 8)

Defense: Dodge 11, Parry 11, Fortitude 8, Toughness 3, Will 8 (28 points)

Power Point Totals: Attributes 42 + Powers 28 + Advantages 6 + Skills 15 + Defenses 28 = 120.

Complications:
Motivation—Excellence in Everything: Even before she was empowered, March Yellow believed that being the best was a way of life, and has a very hard time accepting anything less than her own perfection. Prejudice: All the members of March are targeted as openly queer, and March Yellow also bears the reality of living in the intersections of queer hatred, misogyny, and racism. For March Yellow, this feeds into her decision to be as visible as possible, to make sure others know just what Black Lesbian Women face, as well as how much excellence they have always offered. Motivation—Justice: March Yellow knows full well the legal system routinely fails people like her, and has dedicated her non-heroic life to doing what she can as both a paralegal and an activist to overturn unfair rulings, shift laws, and to force the needle towards equality and justice one inch at a time.

March, Part Three

Today we’ll meet our third member of the original 1978 group of queer heroes empowered by the symbol of the original Pride Flag, March Orange. If you don’t know the story of the Blood Sisters, do check it out, as March Orange—or, as she later begins calling herself, Blood Sister—is inspired by those true events.

March Orange (later, Blood Sister)

Among the colours of the original pride flag, orange represented healing. Mariana Moreno marched in the 1978 parade despite the risk of losing her job as a nurse, and when the flare of light that transformed eight of the people walking in the parade into powered individuals, she found herself in possession of an inner life force, something she’d eventually call her “font of life,” that she could share with others by touch, or—with greater effort—everyone within a short range of her, in a kind of “burst” of healing energy. Her first use of her abilities happened almost the moment she was given them, as thrown objects had struck several of those marching, and when she touched one of the wounded and immediately knew the full extend of the injury on an instinctual level the power spilled out of her and healed the cut. When the fighting was over, her work began, and she wasted no time moving from injured to injured and marvelling at her newfound ability to heal.

In time, Moreno learned her font of life had all but ceased her aging, and even to this day she appears to be a woman in her early thirties, much as she was in 1978. Similarly, her own body heals itself, rejects poison and disease, and she doesn’t even need to sleep, eat, or drink, though she can do all three if she chooses to. At first, this all seemed like a blessing, though as time passed—and especially as she lost other members of March—she realized this aspect of her gift also left her with a greater opportunity for loss.

Of all the members of March, March Orange was the most involved “on the street,” moving through many communities in San Francisco and elsewhere where she could help others. Her healing ability for others is limited to physical trauma such as cuts, breaks, and bruises—she cannot heal disease, though she can often limit or reduce the effects of such on the body of the suffering—and this limitation was particularly painful during the worst of the AIDS crisis. In 1983, Moreno officially took off her mask and publicly took the moniker Blood Sister, in honour of the work being done in San Diego.

The 1988 death of March Red, and the many failures of the government to care for its most vulnerable people, was a turning point for Moreno, who shifted her focus thereafter, using her influence and declaring she would raise money to open up a free clinic in San Francisco, as well as her plans to return to medical school, this time studying to be a doctor. While it would take many years for both dreams to come to pass, she did achieve her plans, and by early 1997, March Tower—and the ground level free clinic—was already fully operational, with Doctor Moreno as the medical lead.

March Orange, 1978 (PL 8)
Identity: Mariana Moreno (At first secret, eventually public)
Cis Female, 32, 1.62m, 65kg, brown eyes, dark brown hair
Group Affiliation: March, Base of Operations: San Francisco, Later: March Tower

Attributes: Str 2, Sta 2, Agi 2, Dex 2, Fgt 2, Int 4, Awe 4, Pre 2 (40 points)

Powers: Font of Life: Immunity 5 (Aging, Disease, Poison, Sleep, Starvation & Thirst) (5 points); Healing Aura: Regeneration 8 linked to Toughness 8; AE: Healing Burst: Healing 4, Burst Area, Stabilize; AE: Healing Hands: Healing 5, Precise, Stabilize (18 points); Life Sense: Senses 2 (Mental Detect Life 2) (2 points); Quick Change: Feature 1 (Transform into costume as a free action) (1 point); Touch Diagnosis: Senses 3 (Detect Health, Acute, Analytical) (3 points)

Advantages: Attractive, Contacts, Great Endurance, Languages 2 (English, Mandarin, Spanish), Skill Mastery—Treatment, Well-Informed (7 points)

Skills: Expertise—Charitable Organizations 4 (+8), Expertise—Medicine 4 (+8), Expertise—Nursing 6 (+10), Insight 2 (+6), Intimidation 6 (+8), Investigation 2 (+6), Perception 4 (+8), Persuasion 6 (+8), Technology 2 (+4), Treatment 12 (+16), Vehicles 4 (+6) (22 points)

Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +2 (Close, Damage 2)

Defense: Dodge +4, Parry +4, Fortitude +8, Toughness +10, Will +8 (18 points)

Power Point Totals: Attributes 40 + Powers 29 + Advantages 7 + Skills 26 + Defenses 18 = 120.

Complications:
Motivation—Acceptance: Even before she was empowered, March Orange was a force for activism, especially within the health-care system, where she knows full well how the system falls short. Now she’s got powers, she works all the harder to make a difference in ways only she can. Prejudice: All the members of March are targeted as openly queer, and March Orange also bears the brunt of misogyny and racism, especially within the health-care profession. Motivation—Doing Good: March Orange has a strongly developed sense of morality, and her ability to quite literally heal the hurt of the world drives her to do the right thing whenever she can. Of the team, she is by far the most likely to be found active among “regular folk,” finding ways to use her abilities on behalf of anyone who needs them, and she knows people throughout San Francisco in many communities—many of whom know they can call on her for help in her non-heroic persona as well, which can lead to her being overextended, or easily drawn out into the crosshairs of a villan willing to use her compassion against her.

March, Part Two

If you missed it yesterday, I started a wee stroll through Pride Month from a Mutants & Masterminds lens, and today, we’re moving right along to the second stripe of the original Pride Flag’s rainbow, to Red.

March Red (later, Zap)

Among the colours of the original pride flag, red represented love. After the flare of light that transformed eight people marching in the 1978 San Francisco Pride Parade into the superhero group later known as March, twink Mick Kenny found himself aware of the presence of every single person around him in a way that he’d never experienced before—an empathic ability where every mind around him hummed almost audibly—and it nearly overwhelmed him, though the reality of suddenly wearing a red mask and a costume helped distract him from the odd new sensation.

A moment later, when the hateful bigots who’d shown up to try and stop the marching surged forward, Kenny found himself face-to-face with a much larger, and very angry man, and something pulsed from his mind and the man simply stopped, blinking in confusion at first, and then putting down the sign Kenny was fairly certain he’d intended to wield like a club. Kenny had reached into the man’s mind and placed compassion there, and as he turned and saw more angry, violent people, he closed his eyes and released a wave of empathy and understanding through the oncoming crowd, and most of them simply slid to their knees, then toppled over, curling up and closing their eyes, pleasant smiles on their faces.

It was a power he’d soon master, and one Kenny used to great effect for his political activism, most especially while taking part in zaps, which his small, and often easily overlooked presence was already an asset in moving people into position for the disruption of public media events.

March Red quickly became a central part of March in general owing to his ability to link all eight of them together into a telepathic network where they could speak to each other mentally, which sometimes put strain on his non-heroic life, as he became, in many ways, the “emergency line” all the members of March used to reach each other at any time. March Red—who’d later take the name of his favourite tactic, and rebrand himself as Zap by 1980—was often the one left in the position of speaking for the group as a whole, given his ability to dampen hostility. March Red didn’t mind that role, and rose to the challenge with empathy and charm, and while his preference for non-violent disruption and discourse aimed at educating and enlightening often rubbed March Pink the wrong way, the two gained much respect for each other over the years, though rumours of their involvement were never true.

After learning he was HIV positive in the mid-eighties, Zap removed his mask and came forward as a public face of the disease, continuing his fight to educate and enlighten in an effort to drive the government to act faster to find a cure and raise awareness of the disease, often praising the efforts of organizations like Aids Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). While this increased threats on him both in his heroic and non-heroic identity, Kenny’s refusal to back down was an inspiration to many. His passing at the age of thirty-four in 1988 signalled the first real fracturing of March as a whole after a decade of action, most especially for March Red/Pride, and without access to their mental connection to each other, the rest of the group often had to fight battles without immediate backup—a situation many of their enemies took as much advantage of as possible.

March Red, 1978 (PL 8)
Identity: Mick Kenny (At first secret, eventually public)
Cis Male, 24, 1.69m, 65kg, hazel eyes, light brown hair
Group Affiliation: March, Base of Operations: San Francisco

Attributes: Str 0, Sta 0, Agi 2, Dex 2, Fgt 1, Int 2, Awe 6, Pre 3 (32 points)

Powers: Empath: Mind Reading 6 (Limited to Emotions), Senses 2 (Detect Minds), Enhanced Advantages 4: Animal Empathy, Fascinate (Persuasion), Fearless, and Uncanny Dodge (quirk: limited to when facing living opponents with minds/emotions) (12 points); Empathic Link: Communication 3 (Mental, Limited to March members) (9 points); Quick Change: Feature 1 (Transform into costume as a free action) (1 point); Zap: Affliction 8 (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Dazed, Compelled, Controlled), Perception Ranged, Cumulative, Quirk: Limited to living beings with minds and emotions; control is limited via adjustment to their emotional state. AE: Pacifying Zap: Affliction 8 (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated), Close Burst Area, Cumulative, Selective, Quirk: Limited to living beings with minds and emotions (33 points)

Advantages: Animal Empathy, Connected, Contacts, Defensive Roll 4, Fascinate (Persuasion), Fearless, Uncanny Dodge (6 points)

Skills: Expertise—Mass Media 4 (+6), Insight 1 (+7), Investigation 4 (+6), Perception 1 (+7), Persuasion 3 (+6), Stealth 3 (+5) (8 points)

Offense:
Initiative +2
Zap — (Perception Range, Affliction 8)
Pacifying Zap — (Close, Burst Area Affliction 8)
Unarmed +1 (Close, Damage 0)

Defense: Dodge +6, Parry +6, Fortitude +4, Toughness +4/+0 without Defensive Roll, Will +12 (19 points)

Power Point Totals: Attributes 32 + Powers 55 + Advantages 6 + Skills 8 + Defenses 19 = 120.

Complications:
Motivation—Acceptance: Even before he was empowered, March Red was a force for activism, taking parts in “Zaps” and other demonstrations for the acknowledgement and advancement of gay rights movement. Now that he’s got powers, he works all the harder to make a difference in ways only he can. Prejudice: All the members of March are targeted as openly queer. Red March does his best to educate and de-escalate when confronted with homophobia (or queer hate of any kind), but sometimes even his patience runs out. After he openly discusses being HIV positive, Zap also faces further stigma and prejudice based on his status. Motivation—Justice: March Red has a strongly developed sense of right and wrong, and the injustices of the world, especially against queer people and those who are HIV+, drive him to make the world a better place. His methods tend to be nonviolent, educational and emotive, which often leads to arguments with the more militantly minded of the team, especially March Pink/Pride.

March

I’ve been really silent around here of late, and it’s mostly been because of the whole “rip a part of my face out, heal, and then put more into my face” surgery thing, but it’s Pride Month, and while I’m not sure I’ll have the power or energy levels (or spare time) to manage this every single day, I wanted to do something I’ve had brewing in my head ever since I first bumped into Mutants & Masterminds.

So, with no further ado, I give you what I hope will be a fun little ride of a Pride Month trip of superheroics (and maybe of use to any of you with an ongoing campaign where you might want to drop any or all of these characters or concepts).

(Also, check out the history of Queer Pride Flags.)

March

In San Francisco, on June 25th, in 1978, something incredible was unfurled: The original Pride flag, at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. The power of that symbol would spark something that continued ever since, with the eight coloured stripes—each of which had their own unique symbolism—but for eight individuals at the parade, the symbol did more than unite them. It would take them time to realize exactly how, but eight people were changed that day, and when violence confronted the parade, a flare of light surrounded them, and eight new heroes were born.

Over the first few weeks following the parade, these masked heroes gained the moniker of “March” as a group, and their individual colours became their names—March Pink, March Red, March Orange, March Yellow, March Green, March Turquoise, March Indigo, and March Violet—though those names would shift over time. Their masked and secret identities were similarly guarded, though in time each would come forward. They fought together on that first day, and a bond was formed that would carry them forward through the next decade, fighting for recognition, visibility, protection, and their very lives, as visible queer superheroes. Often scorned and lambasted by the media and the public alike, there was no denying their power, however, nor the flag, their symbol—which March Turquoise would later note was the source of their power, as a kind of collective unconscious focusing the desires and needs of queer people.

March Pink (later, Pride)

Among the colours of the original pride flag, hot pink represented sex. After the flare of light, Andrew “Andy” Parker found himself in a costume matching the others in style, though his bore a bright pink shirt and mask, and it didn’t take him long to realize the changes to his body and the powers he wielded. Previously handsome, Parker was now beyond alluring (at least to those who felt attraction to men), and supernaturally so when he touched someone. He’d become incredibly strong and durable, and his body mended itself from injuries—in short, he found himself suddenly everything people said gay men couldn’t or shouldn’t be, and he was happy to prove them wrong.

Also, his moustache was fucking perfect.

Though at the beginning he was careful to present a unified front when in public, Parker often found himself at odds with some of the others among their group—specifically with how radical he was willing to be, rejecting notions of being “tolerated” when he knew that actually meant changing who they were, or dialling back what made others uncomfortable until those who hated them were willing to overlook their existence for as long as they made no ripples. Loud and proud—and often angry—Parker was both the first of the 1978 March group to take off his mask and be publicly identified as a gay man and the superhero known as March Pink, and to change his superhero moniker to something else. By 1980, he was known as “Pride,” and had made appearances in popular adult films, the proceeds of which he funnelled into the group’s activism, despite pushback from some of the other members. His fame—and infamy—made him the most targeted of the group, but between his powers and the rest of the team, Pride continued to be loud, proud, and an outspoken, unwavering voice against respectability politics, until 1988, and the death of March Red, when everything changed, and Parker most of all.

March Pink, 1978 (PL 8)
Identity: Andrew “Andy” Parker (At first secret, eventually public)
Cis Male, 28, 1.83m tall, 84 kg, dark blue eyes, dark brown hair
Group Affiliation: March, Base of Operations: San Francisco

Attributes: Str 8, Sta 8, Agi 1, Dex 1, Fgt 4, Int 0, Awe 1, Pre 4

Powers: Alluring Touch: Affliction 8 (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Entranced, Stunned), Limited Degree, Reaction: Skin-to-skin touch, Selective, Limited: Only affects those who find men attractive. (24 points); Leaping: Leaping 4 (4 points); Perfect Body: Enhanced Advantage (Attractive 2), Enhanced Strength 7, Enhanced Stamina 7, Enhanced Fighting 3, Enhanced Presence 3, Immunity 1 (Aging), Protection 4 (Impervious 8), Regeneration 2 (57 points); Quick Change: Feature 1 (Transform into costume as a free action) (1 point)

Advantages: Attractive 2, Daze (Deception), Improved Disarm, Fast Grab, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Improved Trip (6 points)

Skills: Athletics 4 (+5), Close Combat—Unarmed 4 (+8), Deception 4 (+8), Expertise (Politics) 5 (+5), Intimidation 2 (+6), Perception 4 (+5), Persuasion 2 (+6), Ranged Combat—Thrown Object 3 (+4), Stealth 4 (+5), Vehicles 4 (+5) (18 points)

Offense:
Initiative +1
Alluring Touch +8 (Affliction 8)
Thrown Object +4 (Ranged, Damage 8)
Unarmed +8 (Close, Damage 8, plus potential Affliction 8)

Defense: Dodge +4, Parry +4, Fortitude +10, Toughness +12, Will +6 (10 points)

Power Point Totals: Attributes 14 + Powers 62 + Advantages 6 + Skills 18 + Defenses 10 = 120.

Complications:
Motivation—Acceptance: March Pink is entirely motivated by the desire for queer people to be allowed to exist equally, legally, and openly, without giving an inch to what he considers “the puritanical panic” of society, or the trap of “respectability politics.” Prejudice: All the members of March are targeted as openly queer. March Pink is particularly loud and proud, and refuses to back down even the slightest when confronted with homophobia (or queer hate of any kind), which often leads to escalation. Hey There, Handsome: March Pink is easily distracted by handsome men, and doesn’t always make good decisions when presented with the opportunity to spend time with someone he finds attractive.

Tabletop Tuesday — Throwing it Together (or… “I can barely keep awake…”)

So, as I mentioned last week, I am recovering from someone pulling old metal pieces of my face out and putting in the first new metal bits into my face—an ongoing process that will end in (deep breath) August. Until then, I’m eating yoghurt, Jell-O, applesauce, scrambled eggs, rice pudding… you get the idea. At least I got past the week of “nothing hot” and I can add very soft and small pieces of pasta, so… hello Kraft Dinner, I guess?

To say I’m dragging my butt around would not be doing it justice. I’m exhausted. I know healing is like that, and I’ve been through this before, but this time I’m in my forties, rather than my thirties, and that’s been quite the difference. Also, the launch of Stuck With You (in Canada) has meant I’ve had three engagements speaking to students in various local schools, and after one of those events, I’m not just wiped, I literally need to crash out and nap. It’s honestly a little embarrassing, but it is what it is.

So, as I’m getting by doing as little as I can, it occurred to me that makes for a great topic when it comes to Tabletop Role-Playing Games: what do I do when my gas tank is empty?

Previously, on Tabletop Tuesday…

I’ve already mentioned a few things I lean on when it’s time to game and I’m just not up to starting from scratch. Pre-published adventures are perfect for this. And if I’ve got oomph, but the idea well is dry, there’s the Story Engine Deck and the Deck of Worlds. But if I don’t have a pre-published adventure handy, and it’s time for a session, what do I do?

Narrator’s Log, Supplemental

When I went through my trip of favourite gaming supplements, I mentioned the Mutants & Masterminds Deluxe Gamemaster’s Guide, and I’m going to mention it again, because the example I’ve got of the most recent time I threw together something very much on the fly was when I was introducing some friends to Mutants & Masterminds, and I got hit by a (fairly common) thing for me: a massive migraine. It erased my prep time, and while I do have pre-printed adventures for Mutants & Masterminds, it was going to be a fairly short session—sort of a session zero-point-five—and the rough ideas the players had had for their characters all lined up with a very late 80s-vibe, and as this was a one-shot for four out of five of the players, I decided the time period would be fun, and that’s what they were expecting. The fifth player was interested in an ongoing campaign, whereas the others just wanted to try the system, and I’d already decided we could also put in some sort of Captain America-esque “frozen on ice” thing to bring them to the present day if they did end up joining my other ongoing game.

Anyway. I digress. It was the day of the session. I’d spent roughly a day in pain the day before instead of planning a session, and I had a few scraps of ideas, but nothing concrete. So now what?

I cracked that Gamemaster’s Guide, and used what I already had.

Skins

When it comes right down to it, all NPCs (or monsters, or creatures, or what-have-you) in Tabletop Gaming are just numbers with flavour text. That’s super over-simplifying, but I remember some advice I got when I was the DM for an ongoing Dungeons & Dragons game as a youngling, and I’d bumped into having a player who already read everything. He had the Fiend Folio memorized. Every monster stat. All their weaknesses. The thought of having to make up new things over-and-over again for him was overwhelming. But then the guy at the Comic Book store where we played took me aside and pointed out there was nothing stopping me from taking any old monster on any page, changing its name and how I described what it looked like, and running it with all the same statistics, knowing it was a balanced monster that would grant the right amount of experience points when the players defeated it. Basic changes—make it immune to cold instead of fire—could also be made easily on the fly.

That may sound like basic advice, but to kid-me it was like the angels were singing. That next session, I completely flummoxed Mr. I Know Everything About Every Monster by attacking with… gnolls and flinds. Only these weren’t hyena-like humanoids, they were completely furless, instead made up of lumpy flesh with odd mottling, and I think I made them gurgle instead of growl. The adventure didn’t take place in a desert, but a swamp. That player was convinced they might be bullwugs, or maybe they were lizardmen? Or…? Suddenly, his meta-knowledge wasn’t helpful, and honestly, I won’t lie: I enjoyed the heck out of it.

But that lesson stuck in another way. Every adventure I owned was already full of maps, creatures, and characters, and I could just… re-skin them.

Which brings me back to the Mutants & Masterminds Gamemaster’s Guide, and how I threw together a totally 80s episode on the fly.

Villains? Check. Map? Check. Motive? Ehhh….

So. I had a group of heroes arriving (er, virtually) in an hour or so, and the theme of an 80s vibe… and not much else. My post-migraine self landed on one piece of the 80s right off: neon. I decided the opening villains of the story would be “the Neon Gang,” a group of light-based villains who were doing… uh, something bad. I mentioned how much I loved “the Jobber” template from the Gamemaster’s Guide, and I decided to use it. One of the options is for “Energy Projection,” and so I created a team of four—Neon Pink, Neon Green, Neon Yellow, and Neon Orange.

Yes, because hi-lighters. Did I mention I had a migraine the day before and got, like, two hours of sleep?

The great thing about the Jobber template is I could absolutely stop right there with the villains and have functional villains, so I quickly put together a single version of one of the gang, then literally cut-and-pasted it three times for the rest of the team. If I had time, I’d customize them more than their names, but I did take a moment to decide their powers came from the suits they wore, and they basically looked like a Tron wannabes of their various colour.

For a location, I went with the Amusement Park (page 242), mostly because that also felt kind of 80s to me, but also because the thought of multiple energy-zapping/shape-creating villains running around an Amusement Park seemed like a great way to throw curveballs at the players, with lots of opportunities to have to rescue citizens from ferris wheels or other damaged rides. But how would I get the heroes there?

Well, one of the heroes was a tech-type, so I decided that character’s alter-ego was using the amusement park for a corporate event (which would add a lot of people said hero cared about), and also unveiling some of his latest tech, which gave the Neon Gang something to try and steal. There. That would do.

Why did they want it? Uh… it’s valuable? Whatever. It was a theft, it was tech, and they were tech-based heroes, so… good enough.

Not wanting to let myself lose speed, I pulled up the map, jotted notes for each of the rides, and quickly skimmed the Guide for example challenges that made sense for potentially damaged rides (mostly just picking Difficulty Challenge numbers and making notes like “Ferris Wheel gets damaged and stuck, fixing it is this difficult, getting people down is this difficult, and if things are going too well, maybe add in a slow bending/break that’s going to topple the whole thing over if they don’t hurry.”

No but really, why were they doing this?

By the time the players were logging in, I had a map, scenario, had skimmed the Guide for Civilian NPCs who’d do various things like get in the way, need rescuing, and even potentially help out in some ways (EMTs, park security), and had spent a few minutes making each of the Neon gang slightly different from each other. Specifically, I took away their 10 points of immunity and gave them each one a different power. One could fly, one could teleport, one could move fast, and one was strong, but since I only had 10 power points to play with, it wasn’t much work and easy enough to figure out quickly. Still, it meant Neon Pink was different than Neon Blue, at least from the player’s point of view. They didn’t need to know otherwise they were identical.

The game started, I had the players have a bit of fun, asked them if they brought anyone to the park that day—all but one brought someone special, so that really upgraded my ability to place important citizens in danger, which was nice—and it also added the complication for two of them needing a moment to “change” into their superhero counterpart, without their niece and nephew or significant other spotting them doing so.

The Neon Gang made their arrival in spectacular (and neon bright) fashion, the heroes had to scramble a bit to catch up, no lives were lost, and while the Neon Gang did get away with one or two examples of the technology the tech hero had brought, the players did what heroes do: they kept their main focus on making sure no one got hurt, and saved the day. That was awesome.

Then one of the heroes said, “There’s no way those four were clever enough to come up with this on their own. Someone must be bankrolling them.”

I grinned on my end of the screen, and on their end of the screen, the players congratulated themselves on seeing through my plot, and applauded how the way I’d played the four members of the Neon Gang as kind of not-so-bright-but-brightly-glowing punks was a great tip-off this couldn’t have been a simple robbery.

Players. They come up with the best plot points, don’t they?

Yes, Yes that was always the plan.

I always try to bring the attitude of “yes, and…” when I’m narrating a gaming session, but this time, I completely leaned into it for the rest of the scenario. Instead of tracking the Neon Gang down to their headquarters (I was going to use the abandoned subway on page 254) they instead started coming up with theories in between finding ways for their heroes to slip away from loved ones again to get back on the trail.

Ultimately, the players realized (read: I listened to their ideas and chose the theory that sounded coolest) that another tech dude supplied the Neon Gang with their power suits to steal some of the tech-hero’s new tech, likely for the profits for his own company if he reverse engineered it. So, they tracked the stolen tech down to a penthouse apartment (thank you Guide again, page 258, Skyscraper Penthouse), got past the basic security (Minions, pages 142-157) and had it out with the gang for a second time, alongside the CEO of said rival tech company, and his right-hand-man.

Having no stats ready for said CEO or the right-hand-man, I jumped to page 89 for the CEO—the Crime Lord template—and the right hand man became a highly trained assassin (page 78), and the more significant threat in the room. Ultimately the tech was recovered, the fight did a lot of damage to the CEO’s penthouse, but the CEO made it to his barricaded elevator to escape, and his lawyers spun it around that he was the second victim of the Neon Gang, and that the heroes had valiantly saved him—they hated that, but it felt very 80s to have media spin from a slick CEO get himself out of trouble—but all the players had fun and we had a solid adventure and a great time.

And unless they’re reading this now, they have no idea they basically wrote the adventure for me, and that I’d had almost no planning done beforehand.

Bless you, Deluxe Gamemaster’s Guide.

Tabletop Tuesday — Replayability (Or, “Second Verse, oh, hey wait, this is different…”)

I realize I’m late with this post today, but in my defence, I had a bunch of my face torn out (on purpose, part of my bionic jaw went “sproing!”) and I’m not eating solid foods yet and I also trucked my butt across the city to give a writing class a chat—via OC Transpo, which is not-so-affectionately called “No-See Transpo” by many locals, and lived up to its nickname by making me almost late via two buses that just didn’t show up. By the time I got home, I crashed, and honestly, as much as I know I’ll be fine in a few weeks, I’m not sure I can put a checkmark in the “enjoyed having part of my face ripped out” experience, really. Who knew?

On the one hand, I’ve learned I still like Jell-O and yoghurt. On the other hand, there are only so many flavours of Jell-O and yoghurt. And that got me to thinking about how the-same-thing-but-different also happens in games, and how sometimes, that’s one of the best parts of playing games.

So, let’s talk flavours of Jell-O. Or, wait, that’s not right. I mean replayability. Yeah. That.

Whatcha Buildin’ This Time?

One of the first games to occur to me when I started thinking about this was Kingdom Builder. It’s a placement game where you drop little monopoly-style houses as Settlements onto hexes depending on which card you draw each turn, and grow a Kingdom. The basic game-play is simple: you check your card, and you have to build three of those settlements on that terrain type. The terrain types are desert, flowers, grassland, forest, and chasm—and you can’t build on water or mountains—and the most important rule is how the Kingdom you’ve building has to spread to adjacent terrain types before you’re allowed to hop somewhere else.

What that means is if you’ve placed a Settlement somewhere on the board that’s beside a desert hex, and you draw the desert card, you have to fill in the desert hexes that touch where you’ve already placed a previous Settlement. Sometimes, the connected hexes don’t number a whole lot of one terrain type, sometimes they’re much larger in size, and this makes placing your initial Settlements something of a tactical move: you don’t want to be “trapped” into specific choices right away.

You also gain tokens that let you then choose to place (or move) Settlements if you place one beside a particular hex on the board—an Oasis, for example, lets you play one bonus Settlement on a dessert tile every turn—and the game goes until someone runs out of Settlements, and then that round completes.

Two things give the game its remarkable replayability: the boards, and the goals. The game map you play on is made up of four of the eight game boards—making for 8x7x6x5 (I’m not doing the math) possibilities of how the map is laid out—and then you draw three goals from the deck of goals to find out what scores—and all three things score. For example, in one game, every Settlement beside a mountain might earn you points (because Miners), as well as Settlements beside rivers (because Fishermen), and also you get points for each horizontal row in which you have a Settlement (because Explorers). There are ten different goal cards, meaning each game, you’ve got 10x9x8 (I’m still not doing the math) possibilities of how the game will be scored, and thus how you’ll want to change what it is you’re trying to do.

And there are also expansions, which add more maps, more ability tokens, and more goals. We really like playing this one, though it doesn’t quite land being as much fun in a two-player game, especially with certain goals.

How Much for that Barrel of Whisky?

Next up, there’s Isle of Skye. Isle of Skye has two major things going for it: speed and replayability, and while the former is done through a six round system, the latter is thanks to a similar mechanic as Kingdom Builder: shifting goals. The game itself has two sides to it: there’s a bidding/selling aspect, and a tile placement aspect. Each turn you get three tiles from the bag, choose one you’ll be tossing away, and then set prices on the two others. You have to manage your money carefully, because you both use it to set the price on what the tiles in front of you cost, but also how you buy tiles from others—so you can also attempt to set them out of the price range of what anyone else can afford by putting a lot of money down on your own tiles. If people buy your tiles, you get the money you set the price with and their purchase amount (doubling it, basically). If your for-sale tiles are particularly good, it’s possible to sell all your tiles, which means you’ll only the single tile you bought, with none of your own leftover, but at least you’ll have cash for next round, right?

The goals are all about placing the tiles in certain ways, or collecting the symbols on them. Most boats connected to anchors in the same body of water, or the most sheep, or the most barrels of whisky, or, or, or, but even more, the goals shift each round, and each of the four goals is counted twice throughout the game: one of them in the first round, then another the second, then two in the third and fourth rounds, then three in the fifth and sixth rounds. It builds, but it also means you’re looking at future round goals and a current round goals same time, and weighing your best options. You might focus on sheep, knowing you’ve got a great shot at maximizing the scoring from the little fellas, and then next game? You won’t care about sheep at all.

Once again, Isle of Skye doesn’t really land well as a two player game, even with a pretty clever built-in rubber-banding system whereby whoever is in the rear gets extra coins as the rounds go by, but for three to six players, we’ve really always enjoyed it.

Wait, I’m the Monster?

Betrayal at House on the Hill is a horror-survival game where a group of typical horror movie folk (the jock, the little girl who plays with dolls, that creepy priest, etc.) are all wandering around a house that won’t let them out, looking for a way to escape. As they explore the house, they pick up stuff, discover weird omens, and then—eventually—someone is revealed as being a traitor all along! (And, since you all start the game completely unaware of what’s going to happen, it could be you.)

The major replayability of the game comes from its many, many scenarios, which are activated depending on which order the Omens are discovered. One game might turn out to be the players against the jock—revealed to be a serial killer; the next it turns out the little girl who plays will dolls has hidden voodoo doll versions of the rest of the players in the house and they’ll all die in horrible ways if they can’t find them; and then the next game after that that creepy priest is actually a vampire, and as he bites the others, the survivors shrink one by one, hoping to make it to sunrise in time…

There’s also the character cards, each one can flip, so the miniatures represent not just one character but one of two choices. The creepy priest is also a scientist, there are two little girls, two little boys, etcetera. Their stats are a wee bit different, and often play into who the traitor is revealed to be in a given scenario. The bookstore owner found the evil book, for example, or the little boy who likes insects found the monster when it was in an egg and decided to keep his new “friend” well fed. We’ve played this one quite a few times, but have yet to repeat it. Oh, and if you do end up starting to repeat scenarios after a lot of play? There’s already an expansion out there.

The downside is, once again, the game needs at least three players—and honestly is best with four or more.

What about you? What are your go-to replayable games that don’t feel like the same game over and over?

Tabletop Tuesday — Supplemental… (Or, “Maybe if we bought a new bookshelf?”)

One of the built-in double-edged sword qualities of the tabletop role-playing game industry gig is how once you’ve released the books you need to play the game, you’ve given your players everything they need to play the game for… well, forever. They don’t have to ever pay you again and they’ve got everything they need to play that system for years and years to come. It’s a fantastic thing.

It’s also not the greatest sales model to, y’know, keep the lights on. One solution? Supplemental material. Sourcebooks. Player’s guides. Adventures. Settings. Spellbooks (or the equivalent in whatever setting, tech and psionics for sci-fi, superpowers for comic-book settings, etc). Those not only keep the lights on, they often breathe some fresh air into your game if you’re starting to stall out a bit, especially as the narrator.

Of course, there’s also the flip-side to that: the glut of… less than great that sometimes happens.

I’m pretty sure my pre-teen self took that original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set (mumble-mumble) years ago and played the game without any other material for at least three or four years. When AD&D 2nd Edition happened, I picked up multiple extra books (I definitely had some real stinkers, like the “Cardmaster” boxed set, which was… not good).

But I’d rather not dwell on awful releases that never should have made it to the shelves—(cough)Spelljammer(cough)—when I can instead talk about two of my favourite supplemental books.

Mutants & Masterminds Deluxe Gamemaster’s Guide

Okay, I could subtitle this one “I love the Jobber!” and be done with it, but the Mutants & Masterminds Deluxe Gamemaster’s Guide has way more than said template (though I swear I use all the freaking time in my M&M game). The M&MDGG has a lot of the usual bits you find in a narrator’s book for a tabletop roleplaying game: discussions of setting, breakdown of plots and trouble-shooting, and one of the best villain motivation chapters I’ve read in a TTRPG book. And, most importantly, none of it reads like generica. I mean, yes, you could translate the advice given here to most game settings, but the book itself is grounded in the comic-book game it represents. The settings discussion, for example, is framed around the various ages of comics (Gold, Silver, etc.) and the motivations align with comic book villainy, even when grounded in more-or-less real world psychology. Add to that the chapters on Challenges (everything from fires, avalanches, to that whole villainous death trap thing) and Adventure design (with multiple approaches described, for those of us who aren’t particularly linear, and those who are), and you’ve already got yourself a great sourcebook that’ll keep your Mutants & Masterminds ideas humming along.

But the two things I adore most about this book are the templates and the maps.

I’ve mentioned before about how the Mutants & Masterminds Deluxe Hero’s Handbook has what I consider the gold-seal standard of character creation, so I won’t go over it again, and you can absolutely use those charts to create villains à la carte, but Chapter 3 of the Deluxe Gamemaster’s Guide gives you a series of templates you can personalize with even less work than said character creation tables, and with varying power-levels so you don’t have to do the number-crunching thereafter to up- or down-size said villain. And there are minions! When something takes away my planning time—most often, in my case, a migraine—I know I can flip to Chapter 3 of this book during the game and have something I can play right off the page, and since the templates all have so much personalization to them, each villain feels completely different.

As I mentioned, the Jobber template alone is one I go back to over and over. “Jobbers” are one-note villains of not-quite-up-to-the-hero’s-power, with a single thing they do well—like an energy blaster, or leaper, or that guy who only uses bolas or boomerangs or javelins—and like all the templates in the book, it’s quick and easy to go from “rough idea” to a completed NPC in no time. Each template also comes with discussions of variations on said theme, their oft-used tactics, themes, and a few caper ideas to get the ideas flowing.

And the maps? Presented as Villainous Lairs, they run the gamut from Amusement Park to Skyscraper Penthouse, and I’ve used about half of them on the fly during adventures. Each one also has little ideas tucked into the description for how you might use them in a story, and things to consider about said location, or what might be cool to do there.

You know what? I’m totally going to do a post on how I’ve used the M&MDGG to make an adventure without a tonne of work. But you get the idea. And I should also note the book has two fully ready-to-play adventures in it, too, with great examples of all the various concepts discussed throughout the adventure-making part of the book. One is designed linearly, the other designed more open-world, and both are great.

Star Trek Adventures: Tricorder Collector’s Boxed Set

Okay, this might feel a little like cheating, but bear with me. The Star Trek Adventures game is an absolute favourite, and the Star Trek Adventures: Tricorder Collector’s Boxed Set is the single only other physical book beyond the core rulebook I’ve purchased—everything else I own in pdf, because shipping to Canada is painful—and while technically the Tricorder Boxed Set is a complete version of the game (albeit only including the information, starships, and character options from the TOS-era Star Trek), that’s not why I break this puppy out every single time my Star Trek Adventures gaming group gathers.

I do it because of what came with the book.

First, actual little red-alert tokens to use to track Threat (the game’s currency for me to spend as the narrator in order to make things more challenging for the players) and little United Federation of Planets blue tokens to track Determination (what the characters use to boost their own chances of success). Those are cute.

Second? Actual Star Trek Adventures dice. I didn’t really need the d20s—though it is cute that instead of a 1 there’s a Star Trek delta—and the fact they’re in Kirk’s command-wrap green is sort of amusing. The six-sided dice, on the other hand, I’m really happy to have, because while Star Trek Adventures does work fine with your regular d6, you have to “translate” them to Star Trek Adventures results, as STA d6s have 1, 2, blank, blank, delta, and delta results, and it’s just so much faster to roll dice with that actually printed on the faces, rather than rolling regular d6s and remembering that 1 is 1, 2 is 2, 3 and 4 are zero, and 5 and 6 are 1 but also potentially an effect of some sort.

Third—and most beloved—the cards. The Star Trek Adventures Tricorder Collector’s Boxed Set comes with cardboard sheets that denote two starships (the TOS era Enterprise and the USS Lexington, another Constitution-class ship from the same era) and their two crews—the TOS characters you know and love (to varying degrees) from the series, and a from-scratch crew you can use to plug-and-play for the Lexington. This new crew have biographies on the backs of their cards for ease of dropping into a game, but the reverse side of the TOS Enterprise crews has the various options you can take from their positions on the Bridge and… I’m not saying I let out a little squeak of pure gratitude when I realized I’d never have to look through the Core Rulebook to figure out what sort of Task beaming someone up was, but I’m not not saying it, either. There’s one card with combat actions, another with most common Momentum spends, and… look, basically these cards are like game mechanic cheat-sheets and they’re clearly labelled and just trust me, it’s brilliant.

That isn’t to say the book isn’t worth it, either. I love Star Trek Adventures, but to say that the organization of the core rulebook, and the index in the core rulebook is, uh, less than well organized and not very helpful would be… understating. I often can’t find things, the index is of zero help, and I’ve taken to post-its in my core rulebook for everything not on those wonderful cards that came with the boxed set. And like the M&M Deluxe Gamemaster’s Guide, there’s also a mini three-adventure campain included, which is always a bonus.

Also? It all packs away into a freaking TOS-era Tricoder box, with a strap and everything!

I feel like I could have gone on even longer about my deck of cards of Cleric spells I use when I play Tane, my Osprem-worshipping sea cleric for my author-group game of Saltmarsh in Dungeons and Dragons 5e, or how happy I am I have all those collectible miniatures—and a battle-map with washable markers—to use when we play Pathfinder 2e, but what about you? What are your go-to purchases beyond the basic rulebooks that you love for your Tabletop RPGs?