Clone Wars Campaign: Kylo-Vas, Small Group Dynamicist

Early on when the characters encountered the Sun Runners, one of the interesting wrinkles was the presence of Kylo-Vas, a Cerean female. Kylo-Vas was usually with the Sun Runners but didn't seem to belong--that is, she seemed to be recording everything they did and often interviewing them. Although it didn't come out in the game, Kylo-Vas was a "small group dynamicist" (a made-up name for a scholar who studies behavior and interaction at a micro-organizational level) from a major Cerean university. She used her family's great wealth to convince Jocasta to let her come along with the Sun Runners on many of their missions in order to gain fodder for her research. However, even academic pursuits can be deadly--Kylo-Vas died during the Separaist invasion of Duro, as detailed in the Last Voyage of the Sun Runner story.

Although she didn't have much of a role in the campaign, I thought she was a good example to the players of how a non-combat oriented character could be a member of an adventuring group.

Torchwood: End of Days (S1,E13)

"The first thing you learn when joining Torchwood is Don't Mess with the Rift. Now everything that's happened is down to you."

End of Days (Season 1, Episode 13)

("The rift has opened--and time is splintering. Can Captain Jack save the world?")

What I Liked

* The return of PC Andy--the actor really does have great comic timing and livens up every scene he is in.

* The visions the Torchwood team members experience--I always appreciate it when writers put in callbacks to previous episodes.

What I Didn't Like

* Abaddon. Inferior CGI, not enough set up or development, not the sort of threat Torchwood is designed around. I know the showrunners wanted to end Season 1 with a bang, but a creature like Abaddon really needs to be hinted at and developed through the whole season in order to be a convincing threat.

* The aftermath. After this massive betrayal by every single one of his teammates, Captain Jack basically just "hugs it out" with everyone? Even Owen, who shot him in the freakin' forehead? If the team is really this dysfunctional (cripes, Ianto shot Owen just an episode ago), why would Jack keep the same mix of personalities around for Season Two?

What I'm Not Sure About

* Bilis Manger. I love the character, but (even with the novel The Twilight Streets) he just doesn't seem like an ancient god-worshipping zealot. Bilis is too good a villain to be anyone's lackey.

Commentary

By: Richard Stokes (producer), Ashley Way (director), John Barrowman ("Captain Jack Harkness")

Interesting Bits:

* In the original script for this episode, Rhys dies.

* They got a real BBC News presenter and graphics for the "disaster around the world" segment.

* Burn Gorman lost a crown during one of the scenes, and had to mumble the rest of his part. They filled in both the tooth and the missing dialogue later.

Deleted Scenes

* Owen & Tosh going into the hospital.

* Tosh and Ianto trying to persuade Jack to use Emergency Protocol # 1 to open the rift.

* Jack explaining to Gwen that perhaps the reason he can't die is because he's meant to sacrifice his life to stop Abaddon.

* Gwen finding Jack's body.

Torchwood Declassified: "To the End"

* A feature on Bilis Manger--labelled variously as "creepy," "ambiguous," and (by John Barrowman) "an evil gay"

* Bits about the visions of past character sequences.

* The making of Abaddon.

Aunt May or a Lich?

Is the picture below either (a) Peter Parker's Aunt May as drawn by Erik Larsen or (b) An ancient evil undead sorceror lich from the D&D Monster Manual?

Huh. Believe it or not, the answer is (a).

Tatooine Ghost

This was an interesting Star Wars novel that served as a nice bridge between the early life of Anakin Skywalker depicted in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones and the legacy of Darth Vader as seen by his children in post-Return of the Jedi novels. Tatooine Ghost is set after The Courtship of Princess Leia (when Han and Leia get married) but before the Thrawn trilogy and subsequent novels where we learn the two have had children. The book takes place entirely on Tatooine, and intersects nicely with the past (Leia finds Shmi Skywalker's diary, the Tusken camp where she was killed, Obi-Wan's hut, etc.) and the future (Leia decides having children is something she wants to do after all, we get subtle hints that a certain Imperial officer is an expert in military tactics and will rapidly move through the ranks, etc.).

The paperback also includes a short story which depicts something I've never seen before: Chewbacca's dialogue in a comprehensible form, as he talks to his wife and kid (Yes, "Lumpy" from the much-derided Star Wars Holiday Special).

Daphne, American Valley Girl in London

A friend of mine is prepping a one-shot for next week using the new Doctor Who role-playing games. I want my character to be a surprise, so instead I'll share with you my wife's character.

Imagine Daphne from Scooby Doo in appearance and clumsiness (though with a valley girl accent). She's an American undergrad, majoring in psychology, who is taking a tour through Europe.

NAME: Daphne

Personal Goal: See Europe on a budget. Find cute new guy.

Personality: Like, such a total doll. Bit of a clutz though.

ATTRIBUTES

Awareness: 3

Coordination: 1

Ingenuity: 4

Presence: 5

Resolve: 3

Strength: 2

SKILLS

Athletics: 3

Convince: 5 (expertise in: Seduction, Bluff, Charm)

Fighting: 3 (expertise in: unarmed combat)

Knowledge: 3 (expertise in: psychology)

Medicine: 3 (expertise in: psychological trauma)

TRAITS

Attractive

Charming

Lucky

Clumsy

Distinctive

EQUIPMENT

Mace (the spray kind, not the medieval weapon!)

Make-up

Backpack

Walkman (with The Bengals cassette tape)

European Train Guide

Hairspray (the spray kind, not the musical)

Torchwood Magazine # 19

I'm finally able to review some of these when they actually come out--crazy, I know! (hey, I'm still writing reviews of Buffy books published eight years ago, so this is quite a feat for me) Issue # 19 of Torchwood Magazine features:

* News that Eve Myles has been named the seventh sexiest woman in Wales in a recent online contest. No offense to the Welsh, but . . . really? I just don't see it. A separate news blurb mentions that John Barrowman is performing in drag for a production of La Cage Aux Folles. Next year, he might just place higher on the list than Eve . . .

* Some extraordinarily cool and gross concept sketches for the 456 alien by Neill Gorton of Millenium FX. I'm too lazy to scan them in, but they're fantastic. I will blatantly plagiarize Gorton the next time I need a monster for a role-playing game and want the players to have nightmares.

* Interviews with the actors who played Ianto's sister and brother-in-law in Children of Earth. I rarely find these interviews with guest actors very interesting--they always loved doing the show, thought everyone was brilliant, would be stoked to return, etc. Now, if one of them said "I saw John Barrowman doing meth in his trailer while Eve Myles sacrificed goats in a Satanic ritual," then they would be interesting. In other words, supporting actors doing interviews for fan magazines: lie shamelessly! Readers and libel lawyers will thank you . . .

* A really good short story by Trevor Baxendale titled They Keep Killing Andy. PC Andy turns up dead with a knife in his back. Then his body disappears, and a couple of days later the same thing happens. And then again. It's a clever story, slightly marred by an ending that I'm not a 100% sure makes sense, but that's okay.

* The fifth and final installment of the Broken comic strip. It's not great, but it is better than some of the other strips the magazine has run. And, I'm a sucker for a dark ending.

* A short story titled Flotsam and Jetsam by Kate Orman. Giant starfish monsters rampaging through Cardiff? I'd like to visit, but I sure wouldn't want to live there. An interesting supporting character in scientist Morgan Ling--she knows all about Torchwood and doesn't get ret-conned at the end. And speaking of the end, it has a nice non-kill the alien resolution which was a surprise and much appreciated.

* A "Beyond the Hub" feature on fairies. It is interesting that today we think of fairies as very nice, Disney-like figures who are funny and helpful--whereas historically, fairies were baby-stealing monsters responsible for all sorts of foul deeds.

Clone Wars Campaign: Krevlax Mex, Anx Streetfighter

Krevlax Mex* was the alternate character for the player who runs Marpa/Daal in the Clone Wars campaign. Whereas Marpa/Daal is a very tech-oriented, deliberate character, Krevlax was a rough-and-tumble Anx streetfighter who specialized in unarmed combat and crushing his foes to death in his massive arms (the character had a Strength of 23!). I can't seem to find Krevlax's character background, but his primary motivation was revenge against Purity First, the xenophobic organization that had hunted or enslaved him in the past. He was a very laconic character, and it was therefore hard to get a real sense of his personality or interests.

Krevlax appeared in a couple of story arcs and was well-suited to the story arc which involved trying to overthrow Purity First on the planet Mongui. Krevlax participated in the final battle against Purity First's Grand Inquisitor and succeeded in squeezing his foe to death, but the Anx was killed shortly after when one of the Grand Inquisitor's guards rolled a critical hit with a vibro-bayonet.

* We may have been misspelling and mispronouncing his name the entire campaign, as his character sheet spells it as "Kravlex." Ah well, close enough!