SpaceGypsies

Is Olivia Wilde the next movie Tomb Raider?

Blastr’s “Rumor of the Day” last week gave the suggestion that Olivia Wilde (House, Tron: Legacy, Cowboys & Aliens) is being considered for a role as the new Lara Croft. After all, the last Tomb Raider film, Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life was released in 2003. That’s eight years ago folks. That means it’s time for a reboot, right? I mean, the Hulk didn’t even wait that long to be rebooted.

Back in December, details were leaked about Square Enix’s (Eidos) (the geniuses behind the Tomb Raider game franchise) reboot of the video game for today’s more sophisticated game systems. Wait, so does that mean no more finicky controls and smoother/more advanced game play? You guessed it! The plans for the new game are enough to make any fanboy or girl drool.

According to IGN.com:

“It seems ‘survival’ is the core theme this time with an inexperienced Lara needing to find food and water to stay alive, scavenging for tools and gear to augment her abilities, some of which can be created by combining materials at base camps around the game world.”

Weapons spotted in the new Tomb Raider concept art include a bow, shotgun and pistol. Sweet! The game will also employ motion capture technology (used in games like Uncharted 2) which means when Lara falls it’s going to look like it hurts and those classic death animations the game is known for are about to get a little more realistic. However, motion capture isn’t new to the Croft empire. Way back when the original game was released, the creators motioned captured Rhona Mitra as the daring tomb raider.Though motion capture has matured a lot over the years and we can guarantee this Lara won’t be as pixelated.

That's gotta hurt. Advancements in motion capture are about to make things a lot more realistic.

The new game will also get rid of the classic “lock on” targeting system in favor of  free-aim combat like you see in Uncharted. This can be both a bad and a good thing. It’s bad if you’re really bad at aiming, especially at a moving target, like I am. But it’s really good if you’re a gamer with mad hand-eye coordination. Needless to say, it’s unclear whether or not the new Tomb Raider will come with an “easy” mode so we better start practicing!

The new Tomb Raider game will focus on a young Lara Croft, younger and um *clears throat*…slightly less developed than we’ve seen before. (Sorry boys!) At 21, we’ll follow Lara through an emotional journey as she battles for survival on a mysterious island. Oooooo!

So what does this have to do with a film reboot? Easy. If you’re rebooting the game why not reboot the film? You give the franchise a double whammy boost that way.

According to FanCarpet:

A source close to the project said “This would be a far darker and more serious Tomb Raider movie, the idea is to get a top director and an intelligent script and make this an empowering character for women as well as a popular one with men. Olivia is just one of the names being suggested for the lead role. She would appear to be ideal.”

A darker movie to go along with a darker more realistic game? Sign me up! Olivia Wilde as Lara Croft? Sure, why not? Recasting Angelina Jolie in the role is already highly unlikely considering she garnered a reported $20 million for Salt. Do people even remember that movie? Still, the actress chosen needs to fit the Croft persona, have some mad acting skills and be able to carry herself in a fight scene. Jolie did that VERY well and it’s a skill that not many actresses are cut out for.

Who would be your pick to play Lara Croft in a Tomb Raider reboot?

Can anyone really do it better?

Card Game Published by Atlas Games

2-4  players

Ages 8+

Approximately $25

Some people believe that humor only comes at the expense of others.  While  some people think LOL Cats prove/disprove this theory, most of us still think it’s funny when someone gets hurt, regardless of whether the act was something common that went wrong or something derived from sheer stupidity.  The card game Gloom is a game inspired by Edward Gorey, in which you make horrible things happen to a family of five before killing them off.  That makes the game pretty hilarious.

This LOL cat is actually funny.

To go into a bit more detail, each player has five cards in front of him that represents five people, one family, in his control.  There’s no bonus or drawback for a particular family; me, I like to take charge of Castle Slogar, a family full of constructs and sick scientists (Everyone needs a hobby). Cards are dealt from a deck and then used to varying effects, either making your own family suffer or by bringing good karma upon the neighbors.  You can torture your family in all kinds of ways: they can “contract consumption” or be “beaten by beggars.” Or if your fellow players are feeling “generous” (read: don’t want you to win), your family members can find themselves “finding love on a lake” or “having picnics in the park.” All of these things will give the character either negative Pathos Points or positive Pathos Points. You want as many negative points as possible.

One of the neatest things about the game is the cards themselves. All of the cards are made of transparent plastic which you play on top of each other in order to change the character’s Pathos Points.  To demonstrate, Lord Slogar, your neighborhood Brain in a Box, is going to help us out by letting us ruin his life. Slogar’s card is on the left and a modifying card is on the right.

This is Lord Slogar. We are going to ruin his life.

I wish I could make the flavor text clearer for you since it’s one of the great things about this game, but we’ll focus just on mechanics for now. Lord Slogar is one of the five family member cards that I control. His card will remain in play until he dies a miserable death.

Galled By Gangrene: Who likes to lose a limb?

The card on the left is Lord Slogar. The card on the right says “Galled by Gangrene” and is the beginning of the end of his life. The circle at the upper left is a -15 (so negative Pathos Points; we like those). The icon at the lower right is a skull, but we’re not going to talk about those. The icons come into play when a card says something like, “if this card has the Skull icon, lose 10 Pathos Points.” Pretty basic and not nearly as exciting as cruelty.

To give Lord Slogar gangrene, we’re just going to place one card on top of the other…

Now he has gangrene. Poor brain in a box.

And there you have it: Lord Slogar has gangrene. Those negative Pathos Points will be added to his total when you score up in the end. But we’re not content just leaving him with rotting limbs. No, no, we’re meaner than that, aren’t we? So let’s say that he’s not only been galled by gangrene, but now he’s going to be cornered by cultists. By playing that card on top of his current stack, we can add more negative Pathos Points and make him more miserable.

R.I.P.

Whatever is showing on top, that’s the current rating, whether it’s adding a couple numbers together or not. Some cards will have a number that will cover up another number; the visible one is what is counted. By the time he dies, Lord Slogar will have been Galled by Gangrene and Cornered by Cultists. Then he was Shunned by Society and finally drowned in a bog. And as we see, he had negative 15(3) = 15 Pathos points.

Make all 5 of your family members miserable and kill them off before any one else murders his family and you win!

I’m sure you can see the blurry text at the bottom of each photo. That’s either flavor text or basic game directions like skipping a turn.

I love this game not only for the schadenfreude, but for the storytelling aspect. It’s not enough to say he was Galled by Gangrene; he’s a Brain in a Box, so how does he get gangrene? Well, “Although life in a box seemed to be simple and safe, Lord Slogar soon learned that being in a box is anything but safe. Some experience pain in phantom limbs but for Lord Slogar, even though they were not attached, those limbs were very, very real.  And so one night…” You fill in the rest. And isn’t that much better than saying, “I play Galled by Gangrene. Neg 15 points.”?

Notes on Gloom:

-Make sure you play on a small table (or other such area) so that you can all read the negative points of each other’s families.  It’s annoying to constantly ask, “Wait, how many negatives does the Grave Digger have?  Okay, how about the Brain in the Box?”

-Get into it!  It’s much more exciting to tell the story than to add up the points.

-The game gets more complex, but not more complicated, as you add more players.

-While each family has its own color, they all show red when the characters are killed. Differentiate them in some way from the rest of the family. We push them forward or sideways, just something to show that this person has kicked the bucket.

Enjoy! Happy gaming! Make Edward Gorey proud!

AND… off we go.  The SpaceGypsies have loaded their Gypsy wagons with all their goodies and headed out from all sectors of the universe to descend en masse in Atlanta, Georgia for Dragon*Con 2010.

Aside from trying to catch Michael Shanks and Lexi Doig,  we’re off hunting some Ghost Hunters… as in Steve and Tango – those Taps guys.

Next?   Ben Browder is on our list to get a gander at.   And this SpaceGypsy is really really going to search the Dragon*Con world over for Marina Sirtis… oh yeah, we certainly need some Counseling from  Troi!  We have plans to nab and gab this one, she’s one of our favorite TNG stars!

SpaceGypsies will be setting up camp with the RPGs, getting to some panels and filming for our readers!  We’ll be having that up for you soon as humanly and non-hunanly possible.

There are so many people, places and things to do that even with an entire camp of SpaceGypsies we are going to be on the run to get to everyone and everything.

Not only Michael Shanks, Lexa Doig, Ben Browder, Summer Glau!  Virginia Hey!  Jason Momoa,  and all the other StarGaters, StarTrekers, Ghost Hunters, StarWars-ers and partiers, but every thing in between will be right here for you – coming soon… It’s Dragon*Con 2010!

Board Game Published by Avalon Hill

3-6 players, ages 10+

Approximately $30.

8 on a d10

So you play a board game. You enjoy your game, you finish your game, and most likely you move on to a new game. It can get a bit old to play the same board game twice in a row. Unless you’re playing Betrayal at House on the Hill – then it’s never quite the same game.

Betrayal at House on the Hill keeps the game fresh and interesting through several games by introducing random   elements while leaving the rules consistent. Here are the basics of the game:

• The object of the game is to win. Before you roll your eyes, there are different ways to win the game depending on how the game goes. One person will become the Traitor and the rest of the players Good Guys, pitted against each other in some epic and awesome scenario. More on this later. For the beginning, just enjoy exploring a creepy mansion.
• Each player uses a figurine to move through the mansion represented on the board. The board is not pre-set; it consists of tiles depicting different rooms, which are randomly pulled from a stack of tiles as the players explore the mansion. Some of the rooms do need to stay on certain floors, but the actual layout changes with each playthrough.
• Each room asks the players to draw a card and follow the instructions on the card. These instructions have the character either cause an Event (that he has to deal with), collect an Item, or discover a mysterious and haunting Omen. Sometimes the card will ask the player to roll dice and deal with consequences of the result, sometimes not. These cards are shuffled before game (common to basically any game involving a deck of cards). Since each tile on the board asks the player to do the same thing, i.e. the player must always collect an Item in the larder, but since the tiles are randomized, there’s no telling when you’ll encounter said larder. In addition, since the cards are shuffled, it’s highly unlikely that the same Item will be found in the same room twice. You do not automatically gain a healing drink when you enter the larder. It’s exciting!
• Haunting Time!

The greatest strength in this game lies within what they call the Haunting. Once a certain number of Omens are discovered (meaning the Omen cards have been collected and a roll of the dice decrees it so), a certain thing the Haunting occurs.  There are 50 different Hauntings, each of which declares a Traitor in an original way and each with an original plot. After the Haunting, the players consult the rules to see which player is now the Traitor. The Traitor is not chosen before the game; I really do mean that one of 50 different plots emerges and there is no way of telling who the Traitor will be before the Haunting unfolds the plot. The Traitor and the Good Guys are then given their own separate rulebooks which explain the scenario and very clearly describing how to win the game. And so the real game begins, pitting the Good Guys against ghosts, zombies, giant amorphous blobs, sentient plants, giant cats, and other creepies while the Traitor skips through the mansion attempting to further his goals.

Your board could end up like this. occurs.

With all these random elements, it could be difficult to play the game, but once you understand the basics, it’s really not.  While every scenario changes, the basic system remains the same, allowing players to focus on the new and exciting parts rather than rearranging stats, sorting through different dice, etc.

I love this game. Playing either Traitor or Good Guy is a lot of fun and even though everyone is against the Traitor, you all explored the mansion together. Because of that previous team work, a sense of comradery continues through the game; rather than feeling like it’s Us versus Them, it’s more “Let’s do this!” The changing boards means the game can be played seven days a week and be different each time. Even if you find yourself playing the same scenario, the roles of the previous Good Guys and Traitor can be switched and the board will be different.

So why only an 8? For one thing, each of 50 different plots uses 50 different cardboard cutouts. These cutouts are very sturdy, very well made, and very hard to keep track of if you’re not careful. I recommend snack sized baggies or prescription bottles.

For another thing, while all of the plots are interesting, a few of them are grossly unbalanced. Either the Good Guys will need a compilation of items so specific that it’s impossible to collect them before the Traitor slaughters them all or the Traitor will be so hampered by his specific rule set that he won’t have a chance. Overall, they’re wonderful, but there have been a few times when we read the scenario and realized we didn’t have a chance. It’s rare, but still happens from time to time.

Overall, it’s a great game, worth buying and playing twice in a row. Later, you can take it out twice in a row again. Maybe this time you get to be the Vampire Bat Lord or the Doppleganger.

One of the plastic figures looks like Lara Croft.

Tips for this game

• Explore as much as possible before the Haunting starts; it’s beneficial for both Traitor and Good Guy.
• I’ve found it’s most fun with 4-5 players, but see what works for you and your friends.
• Bring snack baggies for the pieces.  Bring lots of snack baggies.
• Use a flat, even surface with room for an expanding board.  Dining room tables work well.
• Remember that the goal of the game may have nothing to do with your particular character (plastic figure, whatever) surviving.  Often the Good Guys only need one person standing at the end, so if you die, you can root your fellow Good Guys on, perhaps even win as a team and be lauded for your bold sacrifice.  If you’re the Traitor, often your evil minions or other baddies will continue your work after your piece is dead, so you can keep playing even if your particular piece is out of commission.
• When referring to the game, just call it Betrayal or Bathoth (Betrayal At [The] House On The Hill). Otherwise you’ll find that no one can remember the name of the game. Really, who wants to say Betrayal at House on the Hill over and over again?

Happy Gaming!

The service workers of Indianapolis absolutely love GenCon, “The Best Four Days in Gaming”, and they’ll tell you so every chance they get. (Well, everyone but the hotel staff that has to clean up the mess.) Our cab driver was elated, sharing stories on our entire trip of people he’d met, and how GenCon is the only convention he sees come into Indianapolis’ massive convention center with a crowd that is entirely happy to be there. Try getting that out of your National Association of Dental Hygienists. Our server at P.F. Chang’s gleefully told us on Sunday evening that gamers were such great tippers that he managed to score his entire semester of tuition in tips over the course of this four-day weekend. The people of Indy make all us weirdos feel very welcome.

This sums up more than you know…

While general scifi cons seem to offer a somewhat broader demographic, the GenCon demo is this: 30,000 introverts bursting out of their shells to call Indianapolis home for a long weekend of gaming into the wee hours, free from the ridicule we face from family, coworkers, and even sometimes friends. And GenCon *is* something like home. It’s a land that changes the status quo, where “cool” means something entirely different than it means in the outside world, where overheard restaurant conversations revolve around what that guy’s silver mage did in the heat of battle, or what the other dude plundered in his attack on the Nazis. It’s like nothing else.

Every year at GenCon @mythandros and I do something different. While last year was spent almost entirely in the board game room, playing an endless supply of new games with friends, this year it was time for roleplaying with friends.

On Thursday night I got to play the demo for the absolutely beautiful Dresden Files RPG by Evil Hat Productions. DFRPG utilizes Evil Hat’s brilliant Fate system for gaming which is, hands down, the easiest game system I have ever learned. DFRPG writer Clark Valentine was able to explain the system to me easily and we were up and gaming in minutes. It was a beautiful thing. The magic system is clever and versatile and, thanks to the incomparable universe created by Jim Butcher, the possibilities are simply endless.

We were also fortunate enough to play in a very fun Call of Cthulhu game called Snows of Early Winter, a standalone adventure run by its writer, Louis Agresta, that had me shrieking and flinching thanks to the GM’s mad skills and our fantastic group of roleplayers.

We left with a bagful of new games to play, including Zombie Dice and Cthulhu Dice from  Steve Jackson games, beautifully elegant pickup games with super easy rules (that will most likely be manipulated into drinking games for DragonCon this year), and the Ennie-Award-Winning Eclipse Phase RPG, a phenomenal game by Posthuman Studios that is best described by a trip to their website where, yes, you can download this game under the Creative Commons License. But, if you like it as much as we did, you’ll want to purchase the book or at least throw some money their way to thank them for developing an original universe that managed to best the powerhouses of Paizo and Wizards of the Coast to win the First Place Ennie for Writing. This is no small feat, mind you. And, of course, we picked up the Smallville Roleplaying Game from Margaret Weis Productions.

Once again, GenCon left us feeling out of sorts when we arrived home surrounded by people like our coworkers, not people like us. The return from conventions always makes home feel a little less like home, at least for a couple days. We’ll be back next year, of course, eager for another set of adventures.