Art, photos, and games
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Dryden of Conwall the Collector/Hunter, Averiela the Elf/Elven Elite, Lucia the Brave the Heir/Halfling Sheriff, Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre/Knight
Last time, Edna and Dryden investigated a magical chamber with three sealed doors, and solved a puzzle to open one. Edna also used Infinite Window to get her other friends to a safe place.
Dwarf Fortress is one of the most complicated simulation/management games ever made. It’s been accumlating systems and interactions over twenty years of development. Here’s an example from my own fortress.
When a fortress gains enough wealth and population, a mayor is elected. I’m not a fan of nobles. I have to build expensive quarters for them and they make demands that conflict with my designs for the fortress. What do these nobles contribute? The ideal fortress government is an invisible, unaccountable force inposing its whims from outside the universe! (That’s me.)
Here’s Id, the mayor. She’s defined by an overwhelming amount of information about her personality, desires, skills, health, memories, and so on. What’s important for our story is at the bottom: She absolutely detests snails.
So I built her a symbol of office: a crown made of cheap material with a humilating name and image.
Here she is wearing it. Note the tears in her eyes.
Soon after she put on the crown, she made a new decree!
The yearly trade caravan requested goblets (and thread) for next year. They were willing to pay double, and now I’m not allowed to sell any. The mayor scuttled my trade deal out of spite!
It’s fun to believe that I have beef with a fictional character, so that’s the story I’m telling. Is this story completely true? The only way to know for sure is to read the mayor’s thoughts.
Dwarf Fortress tracks the thoughts and memories of every character. Here are the mayor’s recent thoughts. She feels proud about being elected, and the tears in her eyes are probably from a recent meeting where an unhappy citizen cried on her and she felt empathy. She also likes goblets (see the first image) so it’s likely that she’s hoarding them for herself, not trying to spite me. There’s nothing about being ashamed or angry about her symbol of office. The motivations I invented for her are not supported by the evidence.
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The party: Buckle the Beast/Heart of Earth, Stella the Halfling/Hunter
Last time, the party lied so well that the lie became truth, and got a ride to Bertha, the giant flying turtle with an ice castle on her back
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre/Knight, Vestri the Dwarf, Yuri the Outlander
Last time, the Fellowship traveled to Saarland, an abandoned town split between Ents returning it to nature, and undead creatures who won’t move on.
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Dryden of Conwall the Collector/Hunter, Averiela the Elf/Elven Elite, Lucia the Brave the Heir/Halfling Sheriff, Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre/Knight
Last time, the Fellowship settled into the Forgotten Lands, Lucia figured out the regent situation, and Dryden found a hidden chamber with three locked doors.
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The party: Buckle the Beast/Heart of Earth, Stella the Halfling/Hunter
Last time, the Fellowship explored the Dwarven Waterways under the Treacherous Mountains and emerged in the Singing Hills and immediately gained the ire of Aku, the Sky Serpent.
The Debt is a grim spy thriller where a retired team of spies reflect on the most important day of their lives: the completion of a vital mission for which they are famous. Rachel (played by Jessica Chastain in the past) is attacked and permanently scarred during the mission.
The movie match-cuts from young Rachel to old Rachel (Helen Mirren). The scar is how the audience identifies the character.
Now look at the DVD cover…
The scar is gone! The mark that identifies the character! The constant, unavoidable, physical reminder of the most important event in the movie, and of the character’s life! They chose to put her right cheek in the center of the biggest image on the cover, and then removed the extremely important thing on that cheek. There are so many ways to not do this.
I trust this statement will be uncontroversial: Rachel McAdams is gorgeous!
Those cheekbones! The little creases she gets when she smiles! Her lower eylids are so expressive! So imagine my surprise when I see the cover of the DVD this image comes from.
All those features are gone! Removed to make her face smooth and perfect. Maybe some marketing person thought, “We need a conventionally attractive woman on the cover to attract viewers!” but the casting directors already had that covered because they hired Rachel McAdams! Why replace a specific beautiful face with a generic beautiful face?
I love people for being themselves. Specificity and uniqueness are delightful. Attempts to make people more normal and less distinct seem cruel to me. Especially in entertainment. Especially for women. Even a spectacular woman like Rachel McAdams isn’t good enough to advertise her own movie. Her face must be changed to be more acceptable. Even a vital detail like the scar on Helen Mirren’s face–which defines the character and emphasizes the grim, violent tone of the movie–is unacceptable. “Stop it,” I yell into the wind.
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre/Knight, Vestri the Dwarf, Yuri the Outlander
Last time, the Fellowship traveled to Saarland, a dead city where forgers claim they stashed the real version of the Redrock family dagger.
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Dryden of Conwall the Collector/Hunter, Averiela the Elf/Elven Elite, Lucia the Brave the Heir/Halfling Sheriff, Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre/Knight
Last time, the Fellowship arrived in the Forgotten Lands and traveled to the Bastion of Memory to meet Markus, Queen Lucia’s regent while she is off adventuring. Continue reading “Chasing the Sunset & Claudia”
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The party: Buckle the Beast/Heart of Earth, Stella the Halfling/Hunter
Last time, the Fellowship made a number of deals in Lichenton, then set out to find a flying turtle by exploring underground tunnels. Continue reading “Chasing the Sunset & retcon”