Shrine of the Nephilim

So, let's have a little talk about good and evil.  Most people have a pretty good understanding of 'good' and 'evil', but let's more look at it from a theological standpoint.  We'll start with Judaism and Christianity, then we can flip into Shinto a little bit. 

How would I do a Shinto-based fantasy campaign? Urban fantasy, high fantasy, whatever. Well a few ground rules would need to be put into play: The gods (kami) are everywhere. You have the celestial gods (amatsugami) , the terrestrial gods (kunitsugami), you have the little gods (mikogami). See a tree? It's god a kami in it.  A rock?  A sword?  A song?  All have their own spirit. Just in most cases, these spirits are quiescent unless you do something to get them going. None of these are Good or Evil. The universe and all it holds has a vested disinterest in you and what you're doing. Go about your life. The only thing that matters is that you're being spiritually pure (pure in thought, pure in word, pure in deed). If not, you annoy the kami. If you are, cool.  Good and Evil are mortal constructs, indicating what is good for harmony and society, and what is harmful, causing strife in society. All kami have two aspects: benevolent and wrathful. A kami in its benevo...

Perhaps the one thing that pisses us off about comic books is the whole 'back to zero' thing, and the most recent example is the 'fall of Krakoa' arc. Don't get us wrong - we hated it.  But it was good for the comics, and we acknowledged that. It was done too quickly, it was 'too perfect' at the start, but it was different , and where it was going was something we actually became interested in. That they crash and burned it after only a few years is a travesty.  Of course, this being comics, the people behind Marvel would want things to 'reset back to zero' - because, you know, there's no way they'd ever make anything with lasting impact. But with Krakoa, this is especially criminal, and here's why:  It would allow them to tell a story that would actually be at the very heart of the X-Men and what they stand for. "What if people of colour, minorities, and the LGBT+ community was given actual power and legitimacy, and how would peopl...

Some years ago, we were happy to hear a number of RPGs we liked were getting new editions. The games had been stagnant (or 'dead') for quite some time, so any chance to see them grow and inspire new campaigns was a good thing. For some, the initial engine had a few weak points, for others, the initial game was 'perfect' for our needs, and for some, they'd run through some iterations we were enjoying less and less. So, we were looking forward to seeing what was to come. The results were... mixed, to say the least. One game used an engine we'd had no interest in, but when we looked at it, it was incredible. It sold us on the game engine, and we'd backed it on KS, because it was a game we loved when it had first come out. The art was amazing, the feel of the game was awesome, we were quite happy to have it and run it. One game used an engine we'd had no interest in, and essentially killed the game for us. It had the same 'flaw' we'll mention in ...

General Brolynn looked out over the battlefield. The war had been a tough one, but the final battle was taking place, and he knew his unit was going to be key to victory. An ogre stepped out of the mass of fighting bodies and leered at Brolynn and his unit of soldiers. "Attack!" One of his knights rushed forward and began attacking the ogre.  The rest stood still. "I said, Attack!" Another knight rushed forward to begin swinging at the ogre.  Brolynn just stared at the others. "Uh, what did you want us to do, General?" asked one. "Attack!" "Oh, okay!"  A third knight rushed towards the ogre.  The ogre took a swipe at one of the knights. Brolynn looked at the other two knights under his command.  "Well?" "Hey, General?" asked the first one that had joined the fray.  "What did you want me to do again?" Epic storytelling at its finest, right? The mechanics of an RPG should help the characters to act in accorda...

One day, we were making a character for Silver Age Sentinels - a point-buy superhero RPG. We made a gadgeteer - someone who could craft stuff at incredible speeds.  They also had the means to create the component parts out of thin air, and even create whole items (like, say, an engine) the same way.  On top of this, they could communicate with any machine, and control said machines with a thought (a machine including things like wheels, levers, handles, etc). The character had more than a few flaws, but that's not the point.   The point is the game had a limiter built in.  "You need to have a certain amount of points set aside to create gadgets". This is, we guess, to represent the limited materials you might have, or the limited funds, or whatever.  What that didn't take into account was the character could make the parts out of thin air - and the 'I make stuff' power didn't come with a quantity limit. Now, maybe , we could have possibly accepted that if...

  Many There’s something wrong. Where are we? It’s dark. His eyes opened.  We looked out, and we saw a simple clay and thatch room. We were laying on simple quilts over a pile of straw. We could feel the panic welling up in the person we were with, as he heard our voices echo in his mind. “Who are you?” No need to worry. We won’t hurt you. This was an accident. We shouldn’t be here. The cacophony of voices did little to alleviate his fears, and he bolted upright, looking about the room. He had enough mind to grab clothes to put on, even as he stumbled about. “What do you want with me?” Nothing. Be not afraid. We are sorry. The man tripped over himself leaving his home and rushed out into the street outside. It was a simple village with only perhaps a few scores of people living there. A place where everyone knew everyone else. He’s going to hurt himself. We should stop him. He flailed. Too many of us, unable to guide his actions.  One of his hands lashed out and struck on...