Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 9

Wyrd Street Odd Jobs: Dread Hunger

Odd Jobs is a series of short adventures prompts for my indie RPG Wyrd Street. You can incorporate these prompts into your Wyrd Street campaign or potentially adapt them to other RPG settings.

If you haven’t already tried Wyrd Street, don’t forget we have a free starter edition!

Dread Hunger:

From the job board in the Rose Garden common room:

“Seeking capable fighters and investigators for extremely dangerous mission. Innocent lives are at risk. Significant compensation available.”-Ten Obsidian Vulture, Grismal House, Wyrd Street.

There seems to be an unnatural chill in the air as the party departs the Rose Garden. Grismal House is just down the street. It’s a rambling old mansion of red brick, converted into an eccentric warren of tenements occupied by the local amateur practitioners of magic. Inside, the air is heavy with incense, and skulls, fetishes, and all manner of oddities decorate the maze-like interior.

Ten Obsidian Vulture is a short, middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair. The owner of Grismal House, he has great knowledge of the supernatural, especially its darker side.

He explains to the party that there has been a series of horrific murders among the city’s war refugees. Bodies have been found stripped of flesh, until little but bone remains. The Huskarls have turned a blind eye to this, as they have so many other goings-on in the slums, and people live in terror of the next attack.

Worse still, Ten suspects this is not the work of any ordinary killer. He recognizes the signs of a Wendigo, a dread spirit of hunger that often manifests among the hungry and desperate.

Wendigo can take on human form, and possess the bodies of ordinary folk, so the party must first find clues to identify the Wendigo’s false identity, then find a way to slay it. It will be a difficult and dangerous task, but unless the Wendigo is stopped, the body count will only continue to grow.

Tips for running the adventure:

Wendigo are extremely dangerous foes. This adventure is therefore best suited for parties of at least level seven or higher, and would still be a respectable challenge even at level ten.

Of course, with great challenge comes great reward. Ten would offer the party a significant sum of silver for such a task, perhaps in the range of 300-500 per party member. If the task is completed successfully, and particularly if the party has a high Renown score, Ten might even decide he can trust them with a magical artifact or two from his personal collection.

Alternatively, if your party is lower level, it could turn out Ten is wrong, and a Wendigo isn’t responsible for these grisly deaths. Of course, that does beg the question of what else could commit such abhorrent violence. Perhaps a pack of Feral Blood Dolls, or a Pain Demon…

Want more like this?

More adventures like this can be found in Wyrd Street’s Quicksilver War campaign, which includes five Jobs that can be run as part of its story arc or inserted into other campaigns. Available as part of the Wyrd Street complete bundle.

Song of the Month: Monowhales, The Hand That Feeds

I’ve always had a pretty strong dislike of the music of Nine Inch Nails, but lately I’m starting to wonder if it’s just Trent Treznor’s singing I don’t like, as I seem to enjoy covers of their stuff by other singers.

First there was the Johnny Cash version of Hurt, but of course everyone loves that, and it’s quite different from the original. But now we’ve also got this take on The Hand That Feeds by Monowhales, and honestly it’s not that different from the original aside from the fact it’s Sally Shaar singing. And I really like it.

Wyrd Street Odd Jobs: The Crumbling Tenement

Odd Jobs is a series of short adventures prompts for my indie RPG Wyrd Street. You can incorporate these prompts into your Wyrd Street campaign or potentially adapt them to other RPG settings.

If you haven’t already tried Wyrd Street, don’t forget we have a free starter edition!

The Crumbling Tenement:

From the job board in the Rose Garden common room:

“Looking for stern negotiators for dispute with a landlord. Situation intolerable.”-Residents of the Oak Street Tenements.

The sky is cloudy, and a faint drizzle falls as the party sets forth. The Oak Street Tenements are a large, rambling building located on a side street several blocks southeast of Wyrd Street. It looks like new floors and apartments have been built on top of older construction on more than one occasion.

As the party approaches, a deep rumble shudders through the street, and before their eyes, a large section of the tenement collapses, and a vast sinkhole opens up, swallowing the building. Screams can be heard.

Those who can get out flee the building. If approached by the party, they explain that their corrupt landlord has been neglecting the building’s maintenance for years, and repeatedly adding new and increasingly cheap construction on top. The unsteady ground of Morhold has now given way beneath the weight of this ill-advised sprawl.

Even as the dust settles, foul monsters begin to crawl up from the ruins, attacking anyone they can find. The party must venture into the ruins to rescue survivors and stop the flow of monsters from its source deep within the heart of the sinkhole.

Tips for running the adventure:

This is a versatile adventure that can be suitable for parties of many different levels, depending on what kind of monsters you want to have lurking below the tenement. A low level party might contend with lesser spirits like Rot Demons and Spooks, while a high level party could face undead like Aptrgangr and Draugr.

The issue of the landlord could also be a plot thread to explore for future adventures. The party is probably going to want to bring them to justice. If the landlord has gang connections or the money to hire mercenary protectors, that could be quite a challenge all its own…

Want more like this?

More adventures like this can be found in Wyrd Street’s Quicksilver War campaign, which includes five Jobs that can be run as part of its story arc or inserted into other campaigns. Available as part of the Wyrd Street complete bundle.

Song of the Month: Chvrches, Gun

I was once again having trouble picking a song this month, so I did “eenie meenie miny moe” on my computer’s music file (once to pick a band, and again to pick a song). Perhaps unsurprisingly, it landed on one of my favourite bands, whom I’ve already featured frequently, but at least on a song I haven’t posted before.

The video’s a bit silly, but Lauren’s eye-liner game is on-point (as always).

Wyrd Street Odd Jobs: A Solstice Gift

Welcome to the first installment of Odd Jobs, a series of short adventures prompts for my indie RPG Wyrd Street. You can incorporate these prompts into your Wyrd Street campaign or potentially adapt them to other RPG settings. I’ll be posting these for at least a few months while I celebrate Wyrd Street’s launch. Going to start us off with something seasonally appropriate.

If you haven’t already tried Wyrd Street, don’t forget we have a free starter edition!

A Solstice Gift:

From the job board in the Rose Garden common room:

“Need help with small personal task. Can’t afford to pay much, but it would mean a lot.-Subira Mbogo, the Clinic, Wyrd Street.”

It’s a cold but calm day as the party sets out. The wind has stopped blowing from the bay for once, and a few snowflakes drift down from a slate grey sky.

Subira can be found at the free clinic run by her father in the alleys behind the Rose Garden, Wyrd Street’s bordello. She’s tall but skinny girl of about eighteen years, with dark brown skin and dark hair braided into cornrows.

Subira explains that she wants to get a solstice gift for her sweetheart, Five Snow Blossom, another teen girl living on Wyrd Street. She’s picked a rare flower from the Vaulted Green — the homeland of Five’s people, the Bala — with beautiful violet petals, but she can’t afford to buy one. The Bala herbalist who grows them in this city has instead offered a trade: She’ll give Subira the flower if Subira can provide another rare plant in exchange.

Unfortunately, Subira doesn’t know where to find such a thing, so she’s looking for outside help to find it.

One likely option for a rare plant is Dao Lei, a wealthy merchant in the city’s Wharf District. Dao Lei is known to keep a garden of plants from his homeland of Tiahn. He is also the leader of the Azure Ring, a former merchant guild turned vigilante group protecting the Tiahnese people of the city from the racial violence that has broken out since Tiahn invaded the Free Holds. Dao Lei would likely expect the party to aid the Ring’s interests in some way before he gives up a plant.

The Plague Birds — a group of plague doctors who are part street gang, part corrupt charity, part secret society — may also have rare plants, but they offer nothing for free.

Tips for running the adventure:

Five Snow Blossom is an Iconic Character in Wyrd Street, meaning someone in your party may be playing as her. If so, you may wish to obfuscate Subira’s intentions. Perhaps Subira claims she needs the plant to make medicine for her father’s clinic, then surprises Five at the end of the adventure.

Subira doesn’t have much money, so she’ll have to compensate the party some other way. She might be able to spare some first aid kits from her father’s clinic, or perhaps she could offer to prepare a solstice dinner for the party, granting them the High Spirits Effect and/or restoring Vitality.

Your party will still need money to cover their Upkeep after the adventure, so make sure they find at least 50 silver during the events of the adventure.

Finally, this is a light holiday adventure, so probably don’t pit your party against anything too harrowing. Maybe Dao Lei needs them to chase off some mischievous spirits who’ve taken over one of his warehouses while his people are busy patrolling the streets.

Want more like this?

More adventures like this can be found in Wyrd Street’s Quicksilver War campaign, which includes five Jobs that can be run as part of its story arc or inserted into other campaigns. Available as part of the Wyrd Street complete bundle.

Warrior Nun Deserves Another Season

Thanks to the long gap between seasons and a total lack of promotion from Netflix, there’s been a bit of a pall hanging over the second season of Warrior Nun. There’s this perception that it’s a dead show walking, not helped by Netflix’s long history of cutting down its own shows in their prime.

Fans — and even some members of the cast — have been running a guerilla campaign to try and keep the show alive by spreading the word and streaming it as much as possible.

It’s a shame there’s this feeling of needing to fight for the show, because it puts a bit of a damper on a truly excellent season of television.

I’ve said in the past that I think the mark of true greatness is not a lack of any flaws, but when the strengths shine so bright as to drown out the flaws. Season two of Warrior Nun fits that description to a T.

Objectively, I can find many faults with this season. Most notably, it often feels rushed. I get the impression the writers wanted more than eight episodes, but this was all Netflix was willing to give them. Or perhaps it’s an over-correction to the criticism of season one’s slow-burn (a criticism I disagree with). Either way, a lot of things move too quickly. Most notably one character changes loyalties so often and so quickly that their arc ceased to make any sense at all.

There’s one side-plot that has the opposite problem — it feels too drawn out, especially given the outcome has pretty much been a foregone conclusion since last season. The resolution is very satisfying when it comes, though.

You also need to suspend your disbelief extra hard for a lot of things this season. The sci-fi elements are extremely implausible this time around, even by the standards of a show about “undercover tactical nuns.”

But you know what? I don’t really care about any of that. This season was just too damn enjoyable for any of that to get me down.

When I watched the original season the first time, I came away feeling that Ava and Beatrice were carrying the show. Not that I disliked the other characters, but they didn’t feel that memorable compared to Ava and Bea. When I rewatched season one, I found the supporting cast members a lot more compelling than I remembered, and in season two, Warrior Nun has established itself as a show where the entire ensemble is more than carrying their weight.

Sister Camilla is at least as lovable as before, if not more so. Jillian also puts on a strong performance, and there’s some new faces that hold their own admirably.

But the real breakout star this season is Mother Superion. She is a character I very much did not want to like because of how abusive she was to Ava when first introduced, but despite my best efforts, she won me over. She has a lot more screentime this time around, and across her various scenes, she gets to show pretty much the full range of human emotion, from righteous anger to sorrow and even some humorous scenes. And she kills it every time. Major respect to Sylvia De Fanti for an incredible performance.

All that’s not to say that Ava and Beatrice aren’t still great, because they absolutely are, both individually and in terms of their dynamic together. Their friendship gets a bit turbulent this season, and they often find themselves in conflict, but there’s always the sense that they maintain respect and affection for one another throughout. Characters who can handle conflict in a healthy way are depressingly rare in popular fiction, and it’s so refreshing to see it here.

While there are parts that feel rushed, as I’ve already noted, the fast pace of the season can also be quite exhilarating.

I initially gave Warrior Nun a try purely because I found out it was the work of Simon Barry, the mind behind Continuum, a strong contender for my favourite TV series of all time. I’m not sure I’m quite ready to say that Warrior Nun has yet reached Continuum’s quality level, but this season did give me the same brain-blasted, pleasantly overwhelmed feeling that Continuum’s later seasons did. So much happens so fast it feels almost supernatural that they’re able to fit so story in a relatively short run-time. It displays an incredible economy of story-telling that most writers can only aspire to.

Oh, yes, and this season also happens to feature some of the most inventive and beautifully shot action scenes I’ve had the pleasure to witness.

The second season ends on a pretty satisfying note, so if the series is to end here, it won’t be so jarring or heart-breaking as some shows that are left unfinished. But I still hope it does continue. There’s plenty of potential for more story in this universe, and it just plain deserves it. It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s moving, and while it’s subtle, there’s a maturity to the characters and their relationships that most popular media lacks.

Song of the Month: Efflo, Move Fast

I’ve frequently featured Winnipeg’s Efflo on this blog in the past. I had vague hopes that one day they would get big and I could be that obnoxious git who brags about liking them before they were cool. Sadly, the news has recently come down that the band has broken up.

This wasn’t entirely unexpected, as they had been silent on social media for a long time, but it’s sad all the same. I’ve adored pretty much everything they put out, and I was looking forward to seeing how they’d continue to evolve.

In theory the singer, Sayde Cage, has plans to launch a solo career, but so far there’s no movement on that front.

I wanted to feature them one more (last?) time, but even that proved harder than expected, as most of their music is no longer on YouTube. Aside from a few songs I’d already featured, all I could find was a few acoustic performances from the early days when they were still called SC Mira and didn’t yet have the line-up they’d have for most of the time I followed them.

Still a good song, at least.

Wyrd Street: Campaign and Bundle Now Available

As a quick addendum to yesterday’s post, The Quicksilver War campaign for Wyrd Street is now available. This is the main story of the game, and the seed from which the entire idea blossomed.

There is also now a bundle that allows you to get all three books for a discounted price.

Wyrd Street Is Live

The Divine Legion marches to war. The gangs plot and scheme. The cultists begin their rituals. The day is finally here!

Wyrd’s Street’s Core Rulebook and Game Master’s Guide PDFs are now live on Drive Thru RPG. There has been a slight delay with the campaign guide, but it will be released to the public tomorrow, and those who backed us here on IndieGoGo should begin receiving it today.

Now is your chance to experience this unique action-adventure RPG full of everyday heroes and personal stakes. Craft yourself a Fu of Warding, grab your Symbol of Hope, and get ready to bring hope and justice to the streets of Morhold!

Warrior Nun’s Ava Is a Hero for the Disabled

After a painfully long wait thanks to the pandemic, the second season of Warrior Nun is finally almost here, and I’m hyped. I’ve been rewatching season one to prepare, and I’m finding it at least as good as I remember, if not better, and I’m realizing this is a story that appeals to me in a very personal way.

Minor spoilers for season one to follow.

In contrast to my raves, overall reception for the first season of Warrior Nun seem to have been a little lukewarm, with particular criticism given to the first half of the season, where Ava is simply learning to adjust to her new life after being confined to a hospital bed since childhood.

A lot of people felt this was a waste of time before getting to the inevitable demon-slaying, but for me, this was probably the best part of the show. I’m starting to think maybe this is because most people lack the life experience to fully appreciate this arc.

As a disabled person, I can feel Ava’s palpable joy as she finds herself able-bodied once more. Now, granted, my disability is primarily mental rather than physical (though it does have physical effects, which people usually ignore when talking about autism), but it still holds me back all the same. I may not have the same set of challenges as Ava, but I still identify with her plight.

My disability has robbed me of an incredible amount of experiences other people take for granted, but there have been moments over the years where I got to truly live in a way that I don’t normally, and in those moments I felt the same joy you see in Ava when she runs on the beach for the first time.

The writers and directors really seemed to get what moments like these are like. Everything about the way these scenes are shot captures the experience. Ava looking up at the stars and seeing them in incredible detail, the way she throws herself into every sensory experience.

Now, in her case she literally couldn’t feel a lot of these things prior to her transformation, but even in my case, I feel like I’ve had similar experiences. If you live most of your life trapped by disability, feeling like you’ve overcome it, even briefly, changes your entire view of reality. Colours shine brighter, food tastes better, you find yourself awestruck by the beauty of sights you see every day.

Once again I also have to give major credit to Alba Baptista for her incredible performance. The childlike joy she exudes in these scenes is palpable.

I imagine some people might prefer a character who manages to be the hero while still fully affected by their disability (a la Professor Xavier, for instance), and that could also be good to see, but for my part at least I still very much see Ava as a disabled person, even now that she can walk and run. She just has a very powerful assistive device in the form of an angel’s halo.

At any rate, for my part, I feel represented by Ava, and I think that’s a large part of why I’m so excited to finally see new episodes of Warrior Nun on the horizon.