Catalyst Castle

I just finished watching the series Noir, so here's my review:

The series follows the story of two young female assassins who embark together on a personal journey to seek answers about mysteries from their past. Yumura Kirika has no memory of her past. She awoke one day with only an identity she knows is fake, a gun, and a mysterious watch. Mireille Bouquet has repressed memories of her parents' unsolved murder, but Kirika's watch begins to bring those memories back.

During the course of the series, they are lured into more and more traps by a secret organization named Les Soldats ("The Soldiers" in French), and eventually find themselves caught up in a globe-spanning conspiracy.

The plot develops at a steady pace, gradually revealing more secrets and surprises until the very end. Amidst the danger and intrigue, they still find time for a good amount of character development. The conclusion of the series was as satisfying as the journey.

The anime is somewhat unique among serious anime stories in that it takes place squarely in the real modern world. The action takes place in various countries, mostly in Eastern Europe. The creators scouted locations just like they would for a live-action production, and scenes that take place in Paris and other real-world cities are based on actual locations. The guns and other props, and costumes, were likewise drawn from actual real-life sources. While a lot of these details will go unnoticed by most viewers, I think the effort put into it probably helped the show capture a realistic feel.

The animation wasn't as stunningly beautiful as some I've seen, but it was consistently good, and there was some clever use of lighting and camera angles that made it rather exceptional. The musical score was also very well chosen and conducted. It's cool to see various musical themes carried throughout the series, and some of the music they choose for the action scenes was great.

The action in the show was pretty well done. The fight scenes aren't especially flashy, but they're made interesting by Mireille and Kirika's clever tactics. Also, while the series did feature plenty of gun-play, there was very little blood and nothing gruesome. Actually, I thought the way they handled the violence and killing was rather mature. Rather than trying to justify the main characters' violent lifestyle, or trying to make it seem appealing, they made it obvious that the violence was actually quite pointless and tragic. While they didn't exactly shove that message in the viewers' faces, it was definitely a running theme throughout the whole series. This combined with Kirika's amnesia, and the extensive action scenes, actually reminded me a bit of the Bourne movies.

Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from Noir.

Amnesiac characters: Rather than having a player create a background story for their character, have them begin with no memory of their past, and let the GM fill it in as they go. I've done this once with my Times Forgotten campaign. It's worked out alright there, but not every player might be up for this idea.

Play Wushu Open: This show actually reminded me of a free generic RPG I read recently called Wushu Open. The show features numerous battles wherein the main characters mow down a large number of nameless evil minions, punctuated by more intense battles against a single more worthy foe. Wushu Open features rules for descriptive action of exactly this type.

Shadow Conspiracies sans Sci-Fi: Some time ago I was working on writing a sci-fi mystery/conspiracy/thriller RPG called Shadow Conspiracies (working title). This anime strikes me as a good example of what that RPG might be like if played without the sci-fi elements.

Gareth and I missed playing "Times Forgotten" campaign of the Mutants and Masterminds RPG last week, but we finally played out Issue #3 this morning. Issue #3 will be called "Battle in the Web of Darkness" because that's pretty much what it was about. It was a fairly short game, and it basically involved just a single fight scene.


In the last issue, Claas and Lynn were exploring the dungeons underneath Kingstown's massive cathedral. Issue #2 ended with them opening a door into a darker section of the dungeons where the ceilings, walls, and floor were covered in giant black spider webs. As Issue #3 begins, Claas and Lynn delve further into the darkness. Eventually they reach a place where the corridor splits. To the left, they hear the sounds of someone crying out. To the right, they hear the sounds of heavy machinery operating some ways away.

Claas and Lynn choose to go left, looking for Lynn's brother Larry. After traveling down another corridor, they arrive at a large open chamber. Pillars support a high ceiling. Across from the entrance they came in through there is another passageway, and there is a tunnel leading upwards through the ceiling. The chamber is covered in the same dark webs as the corridors, and littered with various medieval torture devices. On the far side of the room they spot Larry. His arms and legs are chained and he's held in a large water tank, with only his head above the water. The water boils around him as he tries in vain to use his powers, and he calls out for help.

Lynn immediately rushes to her brother's aid, but Claas takes a more careful approach, hiding behind a pillar and examining the chamber more carefully. He spots a shadowy figure descending through the tunnel in the ceiling, creeping along the dark spider webs. Claas grabs a couple of torches of the walls and uses his time-slowing run to move along the edges of the chamber, setting fire to the webs on the walls as he goes. Battle quickly ensues, as the shadowy figure on the ceiling moves towards Lynn and Larry, and three hounds come charging out of the other entrance to attack the intruders.

The shadowy figure can soon be identified as a man in black robes, bearing the same symbol that has been seen all over the cathedral, and also appears as the pendant on the necklace Claas wears. From his perch on the ceiling, this mysterious villain begins spraying black webbing at Lynn and Larry, threatening to entangle them. As Lynn struggles against the webbing to release her brother from the water tank, the man drops from the ceiling to inflict a venomous bite on her.

Meanwhile, the hounds chase Claas around the chamber until he comes to Lynn and Larry's aid. Lynn manages to drain the water from the tank Larry is in, allowing him to use his fiery powers. He begins hurling balls of fire at the hounds and their master, and engulfs his body in flames, frightening one of the hounds away. While Claas battles with the spidery villain, his fist begins to crackle with blue energy again. A final blow knocks the man prone, rendering him unconscious and dying with blue energy crackling across his chest where he received the hit.

Claas says that he believes there is more going on in this cathedral than is obvious, and wants to investigate things further, but Lynn and Larry just want to return to their own time. They begin to retreat towards the entrance. To be continued...


So, as you can see, the game basically consisted of one big boss battle. I was pleased that, in spite of this, Gareth said he still didn't get bored. I always worry that combat might become drawn out, but Gareth made things interesting by finding creative things for his character to do in combat. The only thing that disappointed me a little, was that I gave Gareth an opportunity to discover another one of Claas' powers, but he let the opportunity slip by. Oh well, all of his powers will come out eventually, it's just a matter of time.

I have to say that I'm a bit frustrated with how some of the characters' powers work in Mutants and Masterminds. Some of them just seem needlessly complicated. One power, for example, requires that the person using it roll to see if they aimed properly, then the target character must roll to see if they can minimize they effects of the power, and then the target character rolls again to see how much damage they take. It's hard to remember all of that. I practically need a flowchart just to make sense of it, and it seems like it ought to be able to be reduced to just a single die roll. Probably between now and the next time we play, I'll try to see if I can rework some of the powers so that they're more streamlined in how they function.

Gareth and I played our "Times Forgotten" campaign again today. I'm calling issue #2 "Inquisition". We picked up exactly where issue #1 ended; with Gareth's character Claas waking up in a medieval-looking room 1000 years in the past. As a reminder, this game isn't taking place in our world. It's an earth-like universe with its own history, though the progression of civilization in this world more-or-less resembles our own. Issue #2 seemed a little bit slower than #1, but I still had fun.


Claas woke up in a medieval-looking room 1000 years in the past. He's laying in a bed with a blanket thrown over him. No one else is there. Claas gets out of bed and opens a door that leads to another room. As soon as he does, his vision warps and he sees a medieval/renaissance-looking kitchen. The young woman and man that fought in the college gym are sitting at the table eating soup. A moment later, his vision returns to normal and the two people disappear, replaced by the same kitchen and an older man with long grey hair and old-timey spectacles.

The older man introduces himself as Prof. Christopher Parkas, and explains that he is the headmaster of the Great University here in Kingstown. He informs Claas that Claas and the other two appeared nearby an hour ago. He brought them back to his house on the campus of the university. The other two had woken up earlier, and after he fed them, they got into an argument and left. Claas says that he's going to go after them, but Prof. Parkas warns him to be careful. Knights of the Church are prowling the streets as agents of an inquisition against people who are "gifted". Parkas explains that the church feels that super-powers come from one of two sources. Those who serve the Church receive their gifts from god, but anyone else is guilty of practicing black magic. Claas asks Parkas where he thinks such gifts come from. Parkas is a renaissance man and says he believes there must be some scientific explanation for such powers.

Claas tells Parkas he'll be careful, and then leaves his house to pursue the other two. As he leaves the small building, his vision warps again, and he witnesses the young man and woman arguing in the street. The young red-headed man throws fire at the woman, before going his way. Then, Claas' vision returns to normal and he finds that the street is empty of people. It's the middle of the night, and everyone is shut in. Claas wanders off, looking for the other two people who traveled here from the present. The town is built entirely in an old renaissance era style, with coble-stone streets and oil lamps burning at roadside. In the distance, Claas spots a massive cathedral looming over the cityscape. Claas leaves the university campus and seeks out anyone who might be able to help him. Eventually he spots a beggar man and asks him about the presence of "gifted" people. The beggar informs him that those gifted by god serve at the cathedral, but he seems superstitiously reluctant to talk about those gifted by the devil.

As Claas continues to wander, he discovers a large iron building under guard. What looks like train rails can be seen passing through the building. When he asks the guards about it, one of them informs him that this is the Royal Steam Coach Station. The guard then asks Claas what he is doing out past curfew, and suggests that he go home. Claas continues to wander until he arrives at the cathedral. The massive building is under heavy guard. Emblazoned on the guards’ armor, and featured prominently on the building, is a symbol that closely resembles the one on Claas's pendant. Claas inquires about the building, but the guards tell him to come back during the day when the church is open to the public.

Claas decides that he will return to Prof. Parkas's home, but as he leaves the cathedral grounds, he notices that a couple of guards begin to follow him at a distance. As he heads towards the university, he sees two more knights on the road ahead of him. As he approaches, the two knights ahead of him draw their weapons and charge him. Claas slips into a side alley to escape, but discovers two more knights blocking that route. Class begins to climb up the side of a building to escape, as the knights draw bows and begin to bombard him with arrows. After a hard struggle, Claas reaches the roof of the building. As soon as he stands on the roof looking out over the city, his vision warps a third time. This time he sees an explosion erupt some ways away, and then as time seems to fly by in fast-forward, a fire sweeps across the city. After a moment, his vision returns to normal again. Meanwhile, the knights search for a way to get up to the roof, but Claas evades them by leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Eventually he shakes off their pursuit, and after resting for a bit, returns to Prof. Parkas.

When he arrives at Prof. Parkas's place, he finds that the young woman is there nursing some minor burns she has received. Claas officially meets her for the first time. Her name is Lynn Deyu, and she reveals that the young man she's been fighting is her younger brother, Larry. Agitated by being suddenly transported to another time, Larry took off to try to find a way back to the present. When Lynn tried to prevent him from doing anything reckless they fought again, and she lost track of him. Claas decides that it's too late to do anything else and Prof. Parkas offers him a bed for the night.

When Claas wakes up the next morning, Lynn and the Professor are already up. Claas leaves the house again and visits the university library. The library is a large, four story building, which occupies a quarter of a block. When Claas enters the building, he senses a large, but faint, "presence" like the one he felt in the college gym in the present. The "presence" seems as though it lies underneath the solid stone floor of the library. Claas finds a stairwell, and climbs up to roof of the building to survey the surroundings. From there he can see the cathedral and the steam coach station. He also notices a castle on the North end of the city. After this, Claas returns to Prof. Parkas's place and tells Lynn he's going to look for her brother, and a way for them to get back to the present. Lynn says she'll come along, because she doesn't think Claas could handle Larry if he decided to put up a fight.

The first place that Claas and Lynn visit is the Royal Steam Coach Station. Having come during the day this time, they find that it is bustling with activity. Inside there are four sets of train tracks. Two of them head south to other cities beyond Kingstown. One of the others goes north, straight to the cathedral, and the fourth one goes north to Ralaskas Castle. Tickets are being sold to ride the first two lines, but not the latter two. Claas and Lynn decided that Larry probably wouldn't have left by train, so they leave the station and head north on foot. They visit the castle briefly but find no leads.

The next obvious place to look is at the cathedral. When they visit during the day they find people going in and out freely. Inside the main hall of the cathedral, people sit in pews praying, while a priest goes through a series of rituals in front of the alter. The symbol from Claas pendant is featured prominently inside the church, and Claas asks Lynn if she knows anything about it. Lynn says that she’s seen it on a few old churches in the present, and that she knows it to be a common "holy symbol", but she doesn't know it's exact meaning or significance. Inside the cathedral, Claas senses many different "presences", but none of them seem to be emanating from anyone he can see.

Sneaking past knights of the Church, Claas and Lynn leave the main hall of the cathedral and begin to explore a network of rooms and hallways not open to the public. Eventually they find a stairwell, and climbing down a level, find themselves in an extensive dungeon where prisoners of the Church are held. Using Lynn's sonic blast power, they distract some guards and delve even deeper into the dungeon. Finally they reach a large set of double doors. Beyond these lies an even longer network of tunnels where the walls, ceilings and floors are covered in giant black spider webs. Echoing through the dark halls come the screams of those suffering at the hands of the inquisition. To be continued...


That was our second game. Overall, it was a pretty good session, though looking back I think it could have gone better if I had done a little more planning. I'm looking forward to playing again next week.

Yesterday I ran a new RPG campaign with Gareth using the Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition RPG. The campaign is called "Times Forgotten", and it is about an amnesiac man with super powers who travels through time in order to uncover his past and save the future. I've never kept a game log before, so I'm going to try to do it now. Let me know if this is interresting or not.

In the style of superhero comics, M&M refers to each game session as an "issue", so I'll discribe our first issue called "Awakening".


The game opened with Gareth's character waking up in an alley at exactly 5:37pm. He didn't know anything about himself or where he was, except that he remembered his name was Claas. Claas searched his pockets and even looked for tags or initials on his clothing, but found nothing. His clothes were custom. Nothing in his pockets but... well... lent. The only thing outstanding was a necklace with an odd metal pendant. It was Gareth's idea to play an amnesiac hero, so he had me actually create the character for him. He selected a few of the character's basic stats, but I designed his background and super powers, so Gareth actually knows nothing more than Claas does. After Claas was finished going through his clothing I informed him that it was exactly 5:40pm. Claas doesn't have a watch, but I continually informed Gareth of the exact time throughout the game. One of Claas' powers is a "time sense".

Claas quickly discovered another super-sense. He detected an odd "presence" emmenating from an apartment building across the street. As soon as he had crossed the street to investigate, an explosion on the top floor rocked the building. After a moment's hesitation, Claas rushed in to help save the occupants. After carrying two children out of the burning building, Claas ran back in to help more. Climbing an empty elevator shaft to bypass the burning stairs, Claas arived on the sixth floor where the explosion had occured. Claas could still sense an odd "presence" here on the top floor, but it was weaker than before. Diving into the raging inferno, he followed the beacon to an apartment where he found a young woman lying unconcious on the floor. Scooping her up in his arms, Claas ran for the stairwell. As he ran down the stairs, time seemed to slow around him. He dodged under burning rafters that fell unnaturally slow. When he stopped outside time returned to normal. Paramedics rushed the woman to the hospital with other burn victims, while someone treated Claas for smoke-enhalation and minor burns on the spot.

Claas slipped away from the crowd and took an hour to rest from his ordeal before seeking out the hospital. There he could sense the strange "presence" that seemed to be linked to the woman he rescued. Following a hunch, he followed discreetely as nurses finally brought her from the burn unit to a regular hospital room where she could recover from moderate injuries. Claas decided to wait around for the nurses to clear out before he would approached the woman, looking for answers. Before he could approach her, however, she appeared at the door to her hospital room. Glancing around to make sure she wasn't seen by the nurses or doctors, the young woman with emerald eyes and glasses snuck out of the hospital. Claas followed her outside and saw her get into a taxi. Not knowing how to follow her, he left off pursuing her and decided to wander around the city hoping that something might jog his memory. About this time Gareth began asking questions that led him to the knowledge that he was in a place called Central City, but Claas had no idea whether he was from here or not.

It grew late as Claas wandered around the city. Nothing he saw brought back any memories, but eventually he encountered two guys mugging a third man in an alley, and he sensed the "presence" he had felt before somewhere nearby. Deciding that he'd rather pursue this "presence" than help the hapless man in the ally, Claas went on his way. However, as he moved away from the alley the his sense of the "presense" grew weaker, so he decided to return to the alley. As he approached, he saw the victim fleeing out of the alley, and he saw a flickering light coming from between the buildings. Coming up to the alley he found the man's two attackers lying scorched on the ground, and he saw a figure walking away near the other end of the alley. Running to catch the departing figure, Claas found that time slowed again, allowing him to catch up to the person.

He was a young man, about 18, with red hair and green eyes, and he was giving off a detectable "presence" much like the young woman had. He greeted Claas gruffly, asking him what he wanted. Claas asked him why he saved that man, as the younger man walked towards his car parked in an adjacent ally. The young man asked why he wanted to know, and if he was a reporter. Claas replied that he wasn't a reporter, but that he was looking for answers. The young man said he didn't know anything, and told Claas to shove-off as he got into his car and began to drive away. Claas used his time-slowing run to catch up to the car as it stopped at the end of the alleyway. The young man saw him in his rearview mirror. Putting down his window so he could lean out a little bit, he told Claas again to shove-off, and then raised his hand and shot a ball of fire at him before pulling away. Not dettered, Claas tried to follow the red-headed man for several blocks, but eventually lost him near the vecinity of the city college.

Claas decided to explore the college. Although it was late now, the college was still open for night classes. As he wandered around, Claas became aware of two "presences" nearby, and also a third "presence" much like the others, but larger. As he explored, he found himself drawing nearer and nearer to the center of the much larger "presence", and also to the two smaller "presences". He finally arrived at the gym, which seemed to be the center of the larger "presence". As he peeked in through an open door, he found the gym empty except for the young woman he had rescued, and the young man he had met in the ally. They were ingaged in a heated argument and seemed ready to fight. The woman accused the man of killing people and putting other lives at risk. She told him that he needed to learn to contain his abilities. The young man acted like he didn't want to hear it. Before long, violence errupted with the young man hurling fire at the woman. Claas used his time-slowing run to rush in between them, trying to interrupt their battle and prevent them from fighting. The woman hit both Claas and the other man with a sonic blast. Claas discovered another of his powers when he went to shove the young man. His forearm crackled with blue energy, and he hit the man with tremendous force. Blows were exchanged by all three combatants, with Claas getting bombarded by both sides. Eventually, at the height of the battle, with the gym ingulfed in flames, Claas saw everything go white and then he blacked out.

When Claas came-to again, he was alone in a medieval-looking house. I informed Gareth that Claas was aware that it was exactly 9:15pm... 1000 years ago. To be continued...


So, that's how the game session went. Just to clarify a little further, this game isn't taking place in our world. It's an earth-like universe with its own history, though the progression of civilization in this world more-or-less resembles our own.

This is the first time I've played a game with the Mutants & Masterminds system. It's based on the d20 system used in D&D, Star Wars RPG, True20, and a few other games, but it has some of its own quirks. I like how many options you have for designing super powers. I'm not sure I like how some attacks work, however, and I'm a little iffy about the damage system. We'll see how it goes though.