Underground Elemental Beastfighting -- The Video Game

(Although that's a really generous term for this...)

I found myself with some time to devote to geek projects on Monday, and while I intended to knock out something worthwhile in progressing People of Adventure (aka POA...my take on 3.75" action figure skirmish gaming), of course I ended up getting distracted by Pokémon.  In this case, it was because I had seen an article where a guy talked about using AI to code a simple video game (even though he had no coding experience), and so I wanted to take a quick look at what that process was like, and the next thing I knew, I'd been on my phone going back and forth with ChatGPT for a few hours trying to make it understand the direction I wanted it to take the game's programming (and to keep it from "deciding" on changes I didn't request at all).

I'm honestly not completely sure how I feel about the use of generative AI in creative pursuits (and my thinking gets even muddier when it comes to its use in the technical realization of human-generated ideas)...BUT I thought it'd be worth mentioning on here how crazy it is that a very averagely-technologically-savvy old dude like me can put together a functional "app" as quickly and easily as I did.  I know it really doesn't look like much, and it's just a simple HTML document, but man does this get my brain bouncing around among possible future projects to start and never finish.  Maybe I should work on this piece by piece and turn it into the fully realized version of Underground Elemental Beastfighting...?  Maybe I should use AI to finally get Ring Doctors into a completely playable form...?  Or maybe I should try to keep my focus on just one project at a time...but attempt to harness this newly tapped resource into improving it...?

Yeah...I dunno.

But...I'd be delighted if you wanted to take a moment to check out the direction I'm going with UEB.  You can click here if you'd like to see its humble opening scene.  You'll be asked to choose an element for your Beast...

...then given a randomly generated monster (with d20-ish stats) and the option to send them into the Beastfighting pits to find glory, misery, death, or some combination of the three.

There's not much more to the story at this point, but I can't really exaggerate how amazed I am that this thing works at all.  And now that I have a skeleton to build from, who knows...maybe it'll actually lead to me learning a thing or two about coding...?

Whoa whoa whoa...guess I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Anyway...if you have any ideas on this, please send 'em my way!

Aaron Burr, Sir

Hmm...maybe I should have deemed this a Musical Monday...?  Well...at a time when I'm hardly blogging at all, I guess the timing is just right for this one, even if it's just me posting about stuff that's been making me happy lately.  (It also puts me into an interesting -- to me, that is -- one-year cycle for posting about how much I like Broadway.  Maybe there's something about this Northeastern fall weather that makes me think we should all be singing all the time...perhaps to stave off the inevitable seasonal depression that the shortening daylight heralds...?)

Anyway...yeah, I've come to like Broadway musicals quite a bit, with much of that interest almost certainly attributable to the Hamilton phenomenon.  I've always enjoyed them and even daydreamed of incorporating elements into my own creative projects, but when I finally saw Hamilton (on Disney+ during Covid lockdowns), a whole new level of interest was unlocked.  There are a billion and one opinions of the show out there, so I won't bother with writing much in the way of specifics, but I will say that if you're reading this and you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to give it a solid shot sometime...maybe even if you don't like musicals at all.  It is likely the most complete and compelling work of art I've ever experienced, and I have a feeling I'll still be discovering new layers of storytelling within it after several more years of watching and listening to it.

Image from here

So, two things on Hamilton:  First, a couple of weeks ago, the very well-filmed presentation of the live show that has been on Disney+ since 2020 was released to movie theaters for the first time.  While I've read about some people having less-than-stellar experiences with raucous crowds singing and dancing along with the film enough to hamper others' enjoyment (writer and original Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, did post that fans should sing along), our experience was just awesome.  Pretty much everything hits a little different on a big screen with surround sound, and the shift in perspective and ability to catch little details had both Laura and me thinking that it was cut differently from the version we'd already seen many times.  (That doesn't seem to be the case.)  There's also a documentary-style intro that adds a bit to the experience, but the real draw for me was just getting to see the show in a (literally) different light, with the framing and camera angles often making it feel like we were sitting in the audience of a live theater.

Image from here

Anyway, we were pretty excited when we found out that was going to be happening, and it lived up to expectations.  Our reactions to it were nothing, however, when compared to our learning that Leslie Odom Jr. -- who originated the role of Aaron Burr in Hamilton's Broadway run (and won a Tony for his efforts) -- would be returning to his old part for 12 weeks this year.  Laura got in early for tickets (when we could still afford them), and we got to see him last week.  And I don't want to oversell how great it was, but...it was pretty much the best thing ever.  Obviously, everyone in Broadway shows is super-talented...but my gods can this man sing.  You could feel the anticipation in the room when his biggest numbers were about to start.  I think "The Room Where It Happens" is the one that really popped for me that night, but I'm probably most excited that I got to see him perform "Wait For It," which is such an incredibly moving song with him behind it...

So...that's pretty much what I've got today.  Just a nod to the genius of Hamilton and the transcendent talent of Leslie Odom Jr.  Because I'm always kind of thinking about how gaming weaves in and out of the things I enjoy, I'm certainly turning over some tabletop ideas in my head after all of this.  It got me thinking about rules for a duel with pistols (uh...spoiler alert, I guess, if you don't know much about Aaron Burr), and it really has me working through thoughts on how to bring the narrative artistry of Broadway into a tabletop RPG.  There has to be something there...I just have to figure out what tools are needed for a musical to emerge from a story about beating up goblins and taking their stuff...

Grozz keeps gettin' graphic...plus, a Soldier!

I hate to start out posts by just lamenting my lack of posts...

BUT...man, I'm really having a tough time working regular blogging back into my schedule, aren't I?

Luckily, Grozz has me covered!  If I can't post my own thoughts, I can at least update my buddy Art's graphic novel reviews every so often.  So...that's what I've done.  He led with Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness and has now added The Punisher: Born to the list.  Check out the Gettin' Graphic With Grozz page for the full (yet concise) reviews...!

Image link

And to celebrate the Punisher's appearance among the selections on that page, I though it'd be fun to stat out old Frank (or, more specifically, a rather young Frank) using the Soldier class I recently wrote about...

(More soldiers to come, I think...!)

----------

Frank Castle

(Francis G. Castle, born Castiglione)

Soldier, Level 2

Image from the Marvel Database.  Plus, check out Kelvin Green's excellent breakdown of this issue from his exploration of Marvel Comics' 1991 offerings.

Human, 25 years old

Affiliation: United States Marine Corps

STR       DEX        CON      INT       WIS      CHA
15 (+1)  13 (+1)   14 (+1)   14 (+1)    16 (+2)    13 (+1)

HP 12     Move 30 ft. (6 units)
Attack Bonuses: +3 melee, +3 ranged (+5 w/Two-handed Small Arms)
Additional notes: Effects of exhaustion treated as one level lower than usual

Proficiencies
Skills: Athletics, Perception, Religion, Survival
Languages: English, Italian, French, Russian, Dari, German, likely others

Saves: Strength, Dexterity
Weapons: All simple and martial weapons; expertise with Two-handed Small Arms
Armor: All armor, shields

----------

Rehashing a 5e-ish Soldier class...to get me rolling...

Man...I had a nice little blogging rhythm going for a brief span...which I guess was easy enough when I was just doing irregular work from home.  Now that I'm back to "the grind," I'm a bit disappointed in how easily I've let the million and one blog posts I want to write get repeatedly pushed off to another tomorrow.  (I do have kind of a cool job though...where I scan my fingerprint to get into the lab and have to unironically say, "I can't tell you that," when folks ask about some of the details of my work.  It's honestly nothing all that exciting, but it's fun to play important government contractor sometimes...maybe I'll work that into a post at some point...)

Image from Joepedia

So, I need to do something to give me a nudge back into action, to help me maintain my delusion that I'm getting closer and closer to finishing some of the projects I've started over the years, then left to barely keep a heartbeat through a trickle of attention here on Monstrous Matters.  I'm finding that, sometimes, I want to post about something specific, but then I think, "Wait, that'd be better if I ALSO posted this character with it..."  Which then leads to, "Oh, if I'm gonna post that character, I need to outline this class first..."  Which quickly devolves into "How can I write up this class without first finishing that other class I need to compare it to?"  And by that time, I'm well past thinking about whatever post idea prompted the whole chain of events, and the cycle gets to start all over again when I read a science article or see an action figure I want to pick up.

This is (hopefully) a post that's going to make it easier to write down the stuff I want to, when I want to, IF I actually have the will to.  Now that I've posted some thoughts on classes for my fantasy heartbreaker, I want to revisit the Soldier class that I scribbled down a couple years back (with action figures in mind) so that it'll fit the simplified, OSR-inspired, 5e-ish form of Monstrous Heartbreaker classes.  The basic fighting class for the game is The Warrior, which is essentially just a simple set of rules that boost a character's effectiveness in combat in different ways.  I think The Soldier should be similar but give a bit more of an impression of formal training in things besides dealing and taking damage.

As for balance...?  I definitely don't want to end up with comparisons that make one class better than another in every reasonably conceivable RPG scenario.  BUT...I'm also a believer that anything different about two similar components of a game is an opportunity for scenarios where either one can outshine the other.  So let's see where that puts me with...

----------

Image from Joepedia

The Soldier

Hit Points: [5 + CON] per level  (Hit Die: d10)

Proficiencies
Armor: All armor, shields
Weapons: All simple and martial weapons
Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity
Skills: Athletics, Survival

All characters have had a life leading up to becoming a 1st-level adventurer, and many have hobbies and interests outside of their main profession.  Decide on some of these details for your character, and select one additional Skill (from the Skill list) and two Tools and/or Talents to represent the proficiencies gained from these activities.

Equipment
Begin with a set of campaign-appropriate equipment (per DM).


Tireless
Beginning at 1st level, you treat the effects of exhaustion as one level lower than usual.


Military Specialty
You have trained for one specific role above others. At 2nd level, choose one or two of the specialties from the following list of items in bold. You gain the underlined items (skills, talents, tools, weapons, and/or languages) as proficiencies. If you already have the proficiency from another source, you gain expertise.

Asterisks (**) indicate the "cost" of each specialty. You may choose one ** specialty, two * specialties, or one * specialty taken at the level of expertise (does not stack with expertise otherwise gained).

Airborne (Athletics, Parachutes) **

Artillery *

Chaplain's Assistant (Perception, Persuasion) **

Cook *

Communications (equipment) *

Diving *

Dog Handler (Animal Handling, Dog Training) **

Electronics *

Hand-to-Hand Combat Instructor (Unarmed Combat, Perception) **

Heavy Weapons *

Intelligence (Perception, Deception) **

Interpreter (Choose four languages) **

[Biome] (Arctic, Desert, Jungle, etc.) Warfare (Nature, Survival) **

Medic (Medicine) *

Pilot (aircraft) (Flying, Aircraft Repair) **

PT Instructor (Athletics, Perception) **

Radar *

Rifle Instructor (Two-handed Small Arms, Perception) **

Sabotage (Insight, Demolitions) **

Small Arms Armorer *

Transportation (Driving, Ground Vehicle Repair) **

Action Surge

Starting at 3rd level, you can push yourself beyond your normal limits for a moment. On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible bonus action.

Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. Starting at 17th level (seriously? good luck to you...), you can use it twice before a rest, but only once on the same turn.


Ability Score Increase
When you reach 4th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1.


Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

----------

Image from Marvel.com

The idea with this class is definitely to have the skills of a "typical" member of an infantry as the core (so that many members of the Joe team fit the model, and to feed the mechanics of action figure campaign play), but I wouldn't mind having it flexible enough to also cover similar roles like those taken on by the drivers of the Wheeled Warriors' Lightning League, or MCU Sam Wilson's work in the Air Force. The list of options is definitely a work in progress...as I tried to get the ball rolling by looking through some early G.I. Joe file cards and adapting what I found there, but it's surely an effort that could use a deeper dive into that source material, and maybe even a little more reasoning around the balance of specialties (yeah, even after scoffing at the idea of balance up above).

But now that I'm "free" to stat up Soldiers to my heart's content, I suppose I'll see how that all works out...

Thanks for reading!

It's time to get graphic with Grozz...

And now, for something completely different...!

(Sort of.)

I've mentioned my good friend Art (AKA Grozz) before here on Monstrous Matters when I wrote a bit about the boxing microgame Ring Doctors that he inspired me to try creating.  Since then, I've learned that (1) his name is, indeed, Art, and (2) we share many interests beyond the tabletop sports sims that were at the center of our meeting back during Covid.  I'm not even completely sure what he knew about me that led him to take this specific approach, but it was somewhere around the time he left a random voice text that was just a selection from Rorschach's journal (read in character) that I was like, "Yeah, I think this dude is weird enough that we'll probably get along pretty well..."

Grozz

As we talked comics more, I realized that Art took the time...seemingly after every comic he read...to put together concise but detailed reviews of the work he had just made his way through.  As in...it seems to be part of his process...like a comic isn't fully digested until he has it summarized in review form.  And he was about to take a journey through a list he found of the top 100 graphic novels ever.  It's the kind of thing that I would want to share here on the blog if I were ever organized and methodical enough to do it for everything I read.  But, y'know.  I'm not.

BUT...I also thought it'd be cool to collect his reviews in one place.  And since I have a blog about nerd stuff...I have that power.  And so, today I introduce to you a new section of Monstrous Matters...Gettin' Graphic With Grozz.  There's a permalink up there on the menu bar below the header; I'll try to post when new entries are added.  The plan is for them to be collected on that page as long as Monstrous Matters is plugging along as an amorphous expression of my life and interests.  As a bonus (for me)...I've just started a new job and have fallen off of the blogging schedule I managed to build up for a little while there, so this gives me something to make me feel like I'm tending my little corner of cyberspace a little more than I actually am... ;)

I definitely appreciate Art "trusting" me with his reviews!  Obviously, this isn't exactly a hub of internet nerddom, so I'd be a little surprised if the overall number of eyeballs on his work is actually increased significantly by appearing here in addition to the other spots on the web where folks post reviews...

But, hey...you never know.  And to all of you readers/victims of the usual Monstrous Matters content, I hope you enjoy!  It's all definitely a work in progress...please let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions for making this feature worth even more of your time.

(Oh!  And in case it needs to be said:  Art's opinions, on comics or anything else, are not mine, nor do my opinions = Art's.  And the opinions expressed in "Gettin' Graphic With Grozz" are not the official stance of Monstrous Matters.  I suppose you could say that my opinions actually are the official stance of Monstrous Matters, but that view implies a level of perceived self-importance that makes me pretty uncomfortable, so I'm not gonna be the one who says it.)

Now...first up:  Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness!

Wheeled Wednesdays: Maybe, someday, in 1:18?

When I was growing up, 3.75" action figures (AKA 1:18, AKA God's scale) were understood to be the default size for any new toyline coming out, especially if the line included a fair number of vehicles.  This is thanks to G.I. Joe and Star Wars, of course...and while there were certainly some iconic action figure lines that deviated from this scale, if they were going to do so, they needed to have a reason.  It has been a lot of fun as a grown-up kid to see characters that weren't originally available in that size (or weren't originally available at all) make their way into 1:18 form through lines like Super7's ReAction Figures.  Several years back, Hasbro even released a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive set that featured characters from brands that spent the '80s in another scale (e.g. MASK, Rom, Visionaries) brought in line with the 4" G.I. Joe figures of the era.

Official product shot, found with this review at the Transformers Wiki Community

Much like MASK, the 1980s Wheeled Warriors toys were released in a much smaller scale than G.I. Joe and Star Wars (and even smaller than MASK, for that matter), which allowed for an extreme focus on cool vehicles without vaulting the toys out of the price range of their target audience.

Image from eBay

My renewed interest in these toys was spurred, at least in part, when I was thinking recently about what other lines or properties I would enjoy seeing with 3.75" figures, and I realized that Wheeled Warriors would be very close to the top of that list (if not at the very top).  I like the idea of having Joe-sized figures to represent the generic folks that came with the toys (like Drill Sergeant's driver above), but since Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors was a reasonably popular cartoon, some action figure customizers have naturally turned their attention to the series, and I'd also like to occasionally look at some examples of these creations here on Monstrous Matters.

The first set of awesome customs is from artist Chris Sizemore, who posts on Instagram as sizemore77customactionfigures and on the HissTank.com boards as Flint_rocks.  Four of the show's heroes, as well as main series baddie Saw Boss, are represented here in the updated (4") G.I. Joe scale.  I definitely recommend clicking over to this thread on the forum to see these in greater detail...!

From the HissTank.com forum

Wheeled Wednesdays: Let's go ahead and get this out of the way about Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors

Okay, after focusing last week on the greatest contribution of the Wheeled Warriors to 1980s pop culture (that theme song!), today we have to come to terms with some of the fundamental issues of the IP.  It's worth it to talk about these things now, so we can keep them in mind while evaluating aspects of the series and toys, and then set them aside as needed to get closer to fully appreciating the franchise.

Image from Wikipedia

#1 - The cartoon is remarkably disconnected from the toys.

This isn't completely out of line with 1980s standards.  With the onslaught of toy/cartoon one-two punches of the era, there were often discrepancies between the onscreen product and the items found on store shelves, especially if the toys included comics giving a glimpse into the world of the toys.  (See, for example, the early efforts of the Masters of the Universe toyline.)  With that said, there's a special kind of disconnect going on here.

The show is called Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, yet a Jayce figure was never released.  In fact, the figures that came with the toys weren't even given names and were essentially generic soldier-drivers onto which kids could paste whatever background they wanted.  Now, I actually think this is pretty cool.  I had tons of fun with my Wheeled Warriors (despite later trading them for a MASK Switchblade).  It's probably worth noting, though, that my little south Georgia town also didn't even have access to the syndicated show, so the only time I was able to see it (same with MASK, fwiw) is when we visited my grandmother in Florida.  My kid brain definitely conjured whatever version of WTF it was able to grasp when I did finally look through Grandma's TV listings and find this show about a dude named Jayce.

Image from the Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors Wiki

#2 - The cartoon's first episode...and arguably its entire premise...is a mess.

I really look back on the Wheeled Warriors fondly.  I like the idea of playing in that universe, especially in the form given to us by the toys, with a small army of freedom fighters who work to save the galaxy/universe from a cabal of evil plant-brains who are self-aware enough to call themselves the Monster Minds.  And I'd love for that form of the franchise to be tied closely to the cartoon that lots of kids presumably watched in the '80s.  And I've watched the first episode of the show multiple times, wanting to love it each time.

Unfortunately...it just has some issues that are so glaring it's practically impossible to ignore them.

Now...once you get past the first episode, if you just catch up later with where the characters are in their (sort-of) arcs, this isn't much of a problem.  The show is well known for the participation of J. Michael Straczynski in its writing (and world-building?), and that may be why it comes across as so much stronger after that introductory story.  In fact, the last couple of episodes are probably some of the best 1980s toy-cartoon tales I've ever watched.  (Seriously, just find out the basics of the universe and skip to the last couple of episodes if you want to start out enjoying the series...)

But that pilot...oh man...

There's no way I'm going to be able to do justice to this whole topic in one hastily-tapped-out blog post, so I'd like to direct you to some YouTube creators who have delivered excellent looks at the series.  First of all, the channel Secret Galaxy (formerly Toy Galaxy, and arguably the best channel on YouTube) has a really nice overview that you can find here.

Second...and I'll embed these here...the channel RetroBlasting produced a three-part series on the franchise that I would imagine has served as a pretty comprehensive introduction to the IP for many people in the nearly 12 years since its upload.  Let me note...and I'm not completely sure why I feel the need to note this...that I really became aware of the dude in RetroBlasting's pair of hosts when he had a weird online beef with another guy whose Masters of the Universe (and general toy industry) content I liked.  It gave me a weird view of the guy to start with (one that was potentially completely unfair, btw) and has kind of made me assume this fellow's general approach to...everything...is to act annoyed by it.  Well, whether that's the truth or not, that attitude is pretty perfect for looking at the Wheeled Warriors and dissecting the franchise's foibles.  (And either way, these folks know their stuff and make great videos...)

The first episode here is largely a skit (that's actually pretty funny and demonstrates some of the fundamental problems of the IP well).  Part 2 covers the cartoon, and Part 3 hits the toys.  If you think they're worth a bit of your time, I hope you enjoy...!

----------

I'm still going to game-ify the Wheeled Warriors on here.  Soon.  Just a reminder, I want to be able to make a character sheet for this guy:

Image from eBay