Friday, July 19, 2019

Praising or Burying The Scrap Pile

Not long ago, my long-running Icons campaign came to a good stopping place. I decided to run a D&D adventure and then have everybody come back with new characters. (Much as I love the original characters, their dynamic was getting a little stale, despite a few fun shake-ups.) The other day, I proposed that, before we start, I do a one-shot to test out my Defenders adventure for this year's Carnage convention. Some talk of spinning that into a whole campaign followed, after which a couple of players suggested that this would mean the death of The Scrap Pile.

I have some cool plans to kick off the next phase of the campaign but, if it is over, I'm okay with that. I'm really proud of what we did there and I'm satisfied with the ending we've got. There are a few things that were never resolved, of course. They never really found out much about Covenant, and some plans I had for The Unbeholden, one of the first villain groups they went up against, never really took shape. That's just how it goes, though. There are always gonna be loose ends. I tended to leave them on purpose, anyway, so I'd always have ideas for the next adventure.

The Scrap Pile came from a team Tom and I created on the City of Heroes MMO. Later, I wrote a couple of stories about characters from the group. Even later, when I started my Icons campaign, I set it in the same world and the group, at a loss for a name, decided to just go with Scrap Pile. The game took a new, somewhat appalling, direction with the addition of Disco, and off we went.

The Scrap Pile campaign survived at least two long breaks and the departure of one of its founding members. It gave us four giant-sized annuals, an anniversary crossover event, and a Christmas Special.

The team went to outer space, other dimensions, Atlantis, and even Canada.

They fought a bunch of villains I made up, but they also fought Deathbird, Blastaar, The Destroyer, The Headmen, Man-Wolf, and Baron Karza, among others.

One of the players is writing a novella about his character (I'd link to his web page if he had one).

So, will I pick this back up and return to Beta City with these guys if that's the way the wind blows? Hell yeah, in a heartbeat. If it's over, though, I'll celebrate its glorious end with the same enthusiasm.

Thursday, July 04, 2019

There's No Coke

I wanna see a commercial for Coca-Cola that starts with Gabriel Byrne frantically searching a ship for something. Everywhere he looks, there's just a bunch of Pepsi. Stephen Baldwin shows up.

Byrne: There's no Coke!

Baldwin: What?

Byrne: You heard me, you dumb fuck! I said there's no Coke! I've looked in every fucking fridge! I've looked in every fucking cabinet! THERE'S NO -- FUCKING -- COKE!

Baldwin: I'm outta here.

Cut to Kevin Spacey, daytime, walking down the street. Pete Postlethwaite shows up to offer him a ride and and an ice cold Coca-Cola. Spacey smiles as he pops the can open and takes a drink. He holds it up to the camera like he's proposing a toast.

Cut with the sound of a blaring boat horn to the harbor, where a charred corpse floats, surrounded by mangled Pepsi cans, which somehow also float. Coca-Cola logo appears.

Voiceover: If they don't have Coke, get the fuck out.

... but that might not be the image they're going for.

Wednesday, July 03, 2019

Carnage 2019 Events

I'll update this post as stuff develops. The Carnage registration page is:

Defenders Again
Icons Assembled
Friday 7PM
Event 91, Snowshed Ballroom, SBL13
For some crazy reason I haven't settled on yet, the street-level heroes from the Marvel Netflix shows end up fighting crime together again. I'll write up a bunch of characters from the shows (and a pre-X-Men Dazzler) and let you pick the ones you want. There may be opportunities to tag in unused ones, too. This version of Dazzler is more in line with the early issues of her own series, before she developed the ability to store the sound energy she absorbs or started doing the constant "solid light" blasts. She'll have to rely more on immediate sound sources. Here's the list of potential characters: Jessica Jones, Hellcat (Trish), Luke Cage, Daredevil, Iron Fist (Danny), Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, and Dazzler.

Mountain of Mirrors
Moldvay/Cook Dungeons & Dragons
Saturday 1PM
Event 93, Snowshed Ballroom, SBL13
The Pass of Shanafria -- the Mountain of Mirrors -- is cut off by forces unknown. Climb to the high mountain pass, put a stop to whatever malevolent forces are at work, and reopen the vital link to the lands beyond before it's too late. Inspired by the Endless Quest book of the same name. If you've already read it, don't worry, the adventure is mostly my own stuff. If I have the physical books in hand, I'll be using Old School Essentials to run this. The rules are the same so it won't really matter. Since the books aren't due out until October, though, there's a good chance I'll be using the originals instead.

Board Game
Saturday 7PM
Event 111, Oscar Wilde Ballroom, OW14
Play a Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, or Wizard searching for lost treasure in a dungeon filled with monsters. Wizards of the Coast edition of the classic TSR board game. This usually only takes an hour or so to finish. I'll be happy to stick around for two or three sessions to fill up the time if everybody's into it.