Michael J. Tresca gave 4 stars to: Captain America

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Captain America: Civil War (Plus Bonus Features) Amazon Video ~ Chris Evans

Sorry Steve..., May 8, 2016

This review is from: Captain America: Civil War (Plus Bonus Features) (Amazon Video)

We've finally arrived at the point where supervillains fighting each other isn't nearly as enticing as superheroes, and the matchup between two titans that should never fight -- but that every kid in elementary school bet on who would win -- has finally come to pass. No, not Batman v. Superman -- Captain America: Civil War!

I have only a passing familiarity with the events in the comic series. Suffice it to say it involved Marvel facing the grim realities of superheroing: civilian casualties. In the comic, a bomb was set off in Stamford, CT (somebody in New York didn't like their northern neighbors, I suspect) on live television that precipitates a crackdown on superheroes by the government, with heroes taking sides. On one side is Tony Stark, a human who knows full well the dangers of uncontrolled abilities; on the other is Captain America, who values freedom and choice above all else.

In this third installment of Captain America, the scope has been broadened well beyond the U.S. -- instead, it's a diplomatic catastrophe in Lagos that triggers the Sokovia Accords, a reaction to the massive human casualties inflicted by Ultron in a fictional European country. As U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross so eloquently states, "heroes" like the Hulk are weapons of mass destruction. And oh yeah, nobody knows where Thor or the Hulk are (don't worry, they're just in another movie).

All this adds up to an epic conflict in which everybody's favorite heroes pick sides. This of course encourages the audience to pick sides as well, which requires a lot of exposition. In fact, there are so many characters in this movie that it barely has anything to do with Captain America.

Throughout the movie one thread winds through it all: personal accountability. The film makes a point of showing buildings collapsing from all the other Marvel universe super hero movies, but intentionally leaves out the death toll. Instead, each main character internalizes the damage on a deeply personal level. And almost all of them react with violence.

The special effects are amazing -- the most subtle being a younger Tony Stark -- with the exception of the Iron Man suit itself (sometimes, Stark's head seems to float on the suit's body). This is also the best representation of Spider-Man since Sam Raimi's movie over a decade ago. Too bad Web-Head feels like he was thrown in just to launch another franchise.

My wife is #TeamStark, but I tried to stay neutral until I saw the film. Civil War doesn't bother making the argument about what the Sokovia Accords mean for superheroes in general, it focuses almost exclusively on the Avengers. It doesn't even share what the rules mean to your average hero on the street. As a result, Cap's decision -- a decision that is based on a much broader argument about superhero rights in the comics -- seems somewhat selfish and petty. Cap may be fighting for freedom, but because Civil War doesn't explain itself much, he just comes off as fighting for himself. I didn't go in favoring Team Stark, but by the end of the film I had to agree with her.

Still, this was a lot of fun. The villain is more evil genius than super villain and he's motivated by surprisingly prosaic circumstances. Although it drags in parts, Civil Wars brings it all back down to one person's grief. And that makes a mediocre popcorn film a great one.

Michael J. Tresca gave 4 stars to: Empire of Imagination

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons by Michael Witwer

A fitting tribute to a complicated legacy, March 2, 2016

This review is from: Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons (Hardcover)

I first met Gary Gygax at I-CON in the early 90s. His work on Dungeons & Dragons had changed my life. I was so eager to meet him that I had purchased two of his books, Role-Playing Mastery and Master of the Game, in anticipation of getting him to sign them. I was in for a shock.

What I didn't know when I met Gygax was that he had left the company he founded, TSR, in a bitter dispute. It was quite a surprise to the audience when Gygax angrily refused to answer questions about the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I walked away from the encounter with my books unsigned (I was afraid to approach him out of offending him). Thanks to Michael Witwer's Empire of the Imagination, I finally have some closure.

In Empire of the Imagination we see Gygax in his early days as a humble insurance underwriter and passionate gamer and experience his transition to the spiritual leader of a new form of gaming. Gygax experienced several trials in his life, including the death of his friend Don Kaye, his dispute with D&D co-creator Dave Arneson and later TSR president Lorraine Williams, the death of his mother and his difficult divorce. After his divorce, Gygax switched to a hard-partying lifestyle that Witwer implies may have contributed to his ouster from the company. And yet, those efforts yielded the D&D cartoon that we know and love.

In short, Gygax was a human being: passionate, messy, and flawed. Speaking of flaws, Empire of Imagination doesn't delve deep enough. Gygax was a Jehovah's Witness but we're don't get much speculation as to how it influenced D&D -- given that religion was not included in the original Dungeons & Dragons game, it seems likely Gygax's faith had something to do with that decision. The mention of a cocaine habit and wild parties in Hollywood are mentioned only in passing -- I suspect that in order to get access to the Gygax family, there were probably some topics off limits.

It's unfortunate that I only saw a glimpse of Gyax during a tough time. I came to know him better on ENWorld and reconciled my past with his present when I began writing my own history of gaming. Gygax passed before I was able to interview him.

What I didn't realize was just how much of a group effort D&D really was. I had the opportunity to thank the man responsible for the first version of D&D I was exposed to, the Basic version, when I handed my finished book over to Frank Mentzer years later. Despite the focus on Gygax, Witwer's book makes it clear that D&D was truly a group effort. Gygax was to role-playing games what Stan Lee is to comic books: an elder statesman who is part-spokesman/part-raconteur for the hobby he loves so dearly. It's a fitting tribute to a complicated legacy.

Michael J. Tresca gave 3 stars to: Dear Luke, We Need to Talk, Darth

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Dear Luke, We Need to Talk, Darth: And Other Pop Culture Correspondences by John Moe

The cruelest joke of all..., February 6, 2016

This review is from: Dear Luke, We Need to Talk, Darth: And Other Pop Culture Correspondences (Paperback)

On the one hand, John Moe's book is filled with so many pop culture references that it's surprising it hasn't been written already. On the other hand, it's already been written, just not in book form -- it's called the Internet. Dear Luke, We Need to Talk, Darth would be much better as an instagram feed.

This book is filled with hilarious anecdotes that are hit or miss depending on your familiarity with the subject. Some of the essays are riffs on songs you might not have heard of -- funny to your uncle who's a Bon Jovi fan, not so funny to everyone else -- others are pieces of art unto themselves, scrawled on chalkboards or typed like message boards or written like a Captain's Log. It's a book that's meant to be shared, and in printed form it feels curiously outdated.

The humor ranges from really funny to really uncomfortable to surprisingly prescient. "Minutes from the meeting of Jurassic Park on how to open the facility" is even funnier because the absurdity of trying to reopen the park by a bunch of dinosaurs is just as ridiculous as the most recent installment in the franchise (cue park opening anyway, dinosaurs eat everybody).

"Bulletin Board notice of Muppets not invited to participate in movie and television projects" postulates Muppets that aren't fit for TV -- but now we have the new Muppets show in which they make drink booze and make sex jokes.

"E-mail from Fox Mulder to Dana Scully concerning the lost X-Files" is a rambling diatribe that encapsulates the current series: Mulder revisits the entire mythos of his past, doubts it all, and starts over with an equally ludicrous new set of theories.

"Harper Lee's letters to her editor after the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird" is uncomfortably close to the reality of the sequel, "Go Set a Watchman" that casts the original in a controversial new light.

Even "Darth Vader's unsent letters to Luke Skywalker as found in the trash can" echoes Kylo Ren's serious daddy issues with his father. It's funny and sad at the same time.

The rest of the entries are hit-or-miss. Sometimes what's supposed to be funny turns into a horror story: Dora the Explorer's mother and Charlie Brown's teacher are vaguely aware that something is horribly wrong in their own realities. Gilligan's Island is a sad story of a brilliant man driven slowly insane. The Popeye cartoons are a horrible tale of drug abuse and anorexia. The Pac-Man ghosts are trapped in their own special hell. That Home Alone kid is still at home and not doing well at ALL. And the Goofy/Pluto dog conundrum is just wrong on so many levels.

Sometimes, Moe just doesn't know when to stop beating a dead horse: the Superbowl proposals run out of steam fast, Jay Z's 99 problems stop being funny after the first 20, and the 25 rules of Fight Club are 24 too long.

There are moments of brilliance too. The tale of a henchman and his travails as each new employer/villain fails could easily be its own TV show. Gunther's theory about why Friends is so implausible would make a funny comic. The story of how the Batman TV show's theme song was created is a fine example of the frustrations of writing for hire.

For the most part, the song jokes fell flat. You really need to intimately know the lyrics to appreciate the humor, which drags on far too long to make a point. That sums up the book too: it's way too long at nearly 300 pages.

It's a shame. This is a book chock full of humorous anecdotes that would make excellent memes. The cruelest joke of all is that they're all locked in dead tree format.

Michael J. Tresca gave 3 stars to: Press Start to Play (A Vintage original)

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Press Start to Play (A Vintage original) by Daniel H. Wilson

[insert lame video game reference here], January 30, 2016

This review is from: Press Start to Play (A Vintage original) (Paperback)

I got Press Start to Play as an unsolicited review copy, presumably because I've read and reviewed Ready Player One, and reviewers who actually review anything they receive in the mail are rare these days. Ready Player One felt like crib notes to people who have actually played the games portrayed in the book (the D&D stuff Ernest Cline got wrong really rubbed me the wrong way), so I viewed this collection -- hyped as a spiritual successor to Ready Player One with a foreword by Cline -- with a skeptical eye.

Basically, writing a book about video games is a little bizarre in this day and age. It's a bit like writing a book about conversations over the telephone or about "shows on television." Back when video games were new in the 80s this was a valid excuse for a collection; now it looks like a lame cash grab to capitalize on 80s nostalgia. Okay fine, but are the stories any good? There are 26 of them. Take a deep breath, this will take awhile:

* "God Mode" by Daniel H. Wilson is about technology in gaming, where it's not clear what's real and what isn't. This is a common theme, because when you hit 26 stories about video games there's only so much you can write that has to do with the game. It's a little all over the place and feels disjointed, but the writing works for the story. 3 stars.
* "NPC" by Charles Yu is about the life of a video game character in a first-person shooter. It's about people stuck in routines and personal growth. 4 stars.
* "Respawn" by Hiroshi Sakurazaka is about a man who can jump bodies and, because he can't die, begins to treat violence like a video game. It's certainly interesting and well-written. 4 stars.
* "Desert Walk" by S.R. Mastrantone is a horror story about a video game that nobody can replicate, erases itself afterward, yadda yadda. The good news is it's actually good -- I can remember the plot easily after reading all 26 stories. 5 stars.
* "Rat Catcher's Yellows" by Charlie Jane Andrews is a story about socially-impaired people who dominate in a world of video games and how the two universes begin to blend. It doesn't really go anywhere, but it's very well-written. 4 stars.
* "1Up" by Holly Black is one of my favorites, a form of interactive fiction that is a coded murder mystery. Also, it actually uses video game mechanics (which with IF, can be portrayed in a book). 5 stars.
* "Survival Horror" by Seanan McGuire hits all my pet peeves: co-opting horror like high school shorthand (incubuses are just another race, like cuckoos, natch), Buffy-style chatter without enough character development to make us care, goth-stylings with a heavy dose of humor that's not that funny. I'm sure this is a fun novel, but as a short story it's just...twee. 1 star.
* "REAL" by Djano Wexler is another story about another video game that's secretly another gateway to another dimension with another Big Bad lurking behind it. 2 stars.
* "Outliers" by Nicole Feldringer is The Last Starfighter with an ecological bent and a sinister secret. 3 stars.
* "<end game>" by Chris Avellone is an interesting digression in a hellish, repetitive IF. If you've ever played Zork then you know the feeling. 4 stars.
* "Save Me Plz" by David Barr Kirtley is about a relationship trapped in a game, or is it the other way around? 3 stars.
* "The Relive Box" by T.C. Boyle is about how video games and memories can become an addiction. It's haunting and sad. 5 stars.
* "Roguelike" by Marc Laidlaw is another IF-style story with a touch of humor and a lot of murder. 3 stars.
* "All of the People In Your Party Have Died" by Robin Wasserman asks the question: What if Oregon Trail was real? It's about surviving your own life. 3 stars.
* "RECOIL!" by Micky Neilson is about another video game that's secretly another test that involves another bout of violence. 2 stars.
* "Anda's Game" by Cory Doctorow actually manages to challenge video game tropes without being tangentially about video games, or not about video games at all, or resorting to tired video game tropes. Should you care about social inequality when it affects games too? The answer is worth reading. 5 stars.
* "Coma Kings" by Jessica Barber is about another person in another video game that's much better at gaming than real life and another complicated family relationship. 3 stars.
* "Stats" by Marguerite K. Bennett is about how a video game turns some people into murderers. 2 stars.
* "Please Continue" by Chris Kluwe is a meta-discussion about gaming that uses football parallels (because Kluwe is a former NFL punter). It's confusing at best. 2 stars.
* "Creation Screen" by Rhianna Pratchett is about a video game creator from the view of one of his characters. Interesting stuff, but a little too brief to properly explore the topic. 4 stars.
* "The Fresh Prince of Gamma World" by Austin Grossman is about another romance in another video game universe. 3 stars.
* "Gamer's End" by Yoon Ha Lee is about another video game test that's actually a real life test involving absurd levels of violence. 2 stars.
* "The Clockwork Soldier" by Ken Liu is set in a sci-fi setting but it features an IF as a platform to discuss the legitimacy of artificial intelligence. 4 stars.
* "Killswitch" by Catherynne M. Valente is another video game that deletes itself and has a mystery at its center that nobody can beat. 2 stars.
* "Twarrior" by Andy Weir takes the concept of a Skynet-like computer taking over and actually does something different with it that's surprisingly upbeat -- and yet hilariously true-to-life. 5 stars.
* "Select Character" by Hugh Howey is another video game that's actually a test. The difference is that the test isn't, for once, about violence. 3 stars.

Overall, this is a wildly uneven collection that leans heavily on video game tropes so much that the stories start repeating each other. There's too many stories about too wide a topic, but there are some gems here worth reading. The odds that anyone today has played all the types of video games in this collection are slim, because video games are as varied as movies -- the medium is no longer relevant. The best stories remind you that video games reflect our lives; the worst remind you that even book publishers will prey on our nostalgia for a quick buck.

Michael J. Tresca gave 5 stars to: Rat on a Stick (Tunnels & Trolls)

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Rat on a Stick (Tunnels & Trolls) by George R. Paczolt

10 levels of McDonalds crossed with murder hobos, August 28, 2015

This review is from: Rat on a Stick (Tunnels & Trolls) (Paperback)

Ah, the 80s! This supplement was published in 1982 and is peppered with Judges Guild's trademark art, most of it by Kevin Siembedia before he launched Palladium. At heart, Rat On a Stick is 10-level dungeon. Designed by George R. Paczolt and Edward R.G. Mortimer, these two lovable scamps have put together a dungeon that's as randomly insane as it is fun.

Although it's nominally for Tunnels & Trolls or Monsters, Monsters rules, the adventure can "...easily be adapted to any other FRP rules. (No, don't ask me for the conversion factors. In our club, I handle he two mentioned above and leave the others alone.)" You got that? Don't ask for conversion rules, because George "leaves the other games" alone!

Also of note: This dungeon is (and the quotes are in the text itself) "just for fun." As a result, wandering monsters may occur repeatedly without worry of becoming extinct. Which is a good thing, because tigers roam the dungeon frequently.

It's also a good thing that this dungeon is just for fun, because instead of handwaving the rules for adventurers running a restaurant in a dungeon, there are two pages of rules for PCs running a rat-on-a-stick franchise. Only in this case, you literally kill the competition or it kills you.

Throughout the dungeon are adventurers just trying to get by. Some are on their way in, others are on their way out (in more ways than one), and some have set up shop. They all have porn names like Mighty Max, Wallopin' Willy, and Sabrina the Sumptuous.

The best part of the dungeon is Beast-Thing. This 500 Monster Rating critter secrets acid, is only slightly slower than the PCs, and is mindlessly aggressive. It lives on the 10th level but can show up on the 2nd in what can only be described as scaring the bejeezus out of low-level PCs.

There's really no rhyme or reason to what's going on in this dungeon, other than an excuse to kill stuff and maybe start a business. It's ten levels of McDonalds crossed with murder hobos and it is glorious.

Michael J. Tresca gave 4 stars to: Ancient Odysseys

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Ancient Odysseys: Treasure Awaits! Pocket Edition by Brett M. Bernstein

More thorough than the the OD&D boxed set, August 28, 2015

This review is from: Ancient Odysseys: Treasure Awaits! Pocket Edition (Paperback)

Precis Media provides an entire introductory booklet in the form of "Treasure Awaits," an introductory supplement for Ancient Odysseys.

"Treasure Awaits" is basically the Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, streamlined and winnowed down to its core components. It has four races (elves humans, dwarves, and "hoblings"), three vocations (rogues, wizards, and warriors), three attributes (fitness, awareness, and reasoning ranging from 1 to 5), and adventuring pursuits (skills, basically). This is not a game based on the Open Game License.

Ancient Odysseys is centered exclusively on dungeon crawling and as such does it very well. There's not a huge amount of math involved (tests are attribute plus pursuit plus a die roll) which makes it an ideal game for kids playing. As an introductory book, "Treasure Awaits" is surprisingly thorough, and certainly moreso than the original D&D boxed set.

Michael J. Tresca gave 2 stars to: The Red Mausoleum (Advanced Adventures)

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

The Red Mausoleum (Advanced Adventures) by James Boney

Very 10-foot pole-y, August 28, 2015

This review is from: The Red Mausoleum (Advanced Adventures) (Paperback)

Expeditious Retreat Press continues the OSR with "The Red Mausoleum," an adventure for 6 to 8 adventurers for levels 12 to 15.

For those unfamiliar with the Old School Reference and Index Compilation (OSRIC), it's a recreation of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons using the Open Game License. It's available for free and one of the most successful Old School Renaissance (OSR)-style initiatives, widely embraced by players who want that AD&D feel.

As someone who played AD&D for over a decade, I remember the game's flaws without the shine of nostalgia. And one of those is the Tomb of Horrors. The Tomb is frequently mentioned as a kind of "when I played D&D, we walked backwards in the snow!" rite of passage for adventurers. I ran it for my players and they were unhappy with me, with one character putting his arm in a sphere of annihilation. I ended up tweaking the adventure so that he only lost his arm (vs. being utterly annihilated), but it was an important lesson in how an adventure could be really wrong for my group -- who expected some basic fairness in how they approached the game. Author James C. Boney remembers the Tomb and he set out to resurrect it in OSRIC format.

The Red Mausoleum has a plot more than just grave robbing; the PCs are retaliating against undead raids originating from it. The PCs are rewarded 50 gp for the head of every undead creature. Which is weird, because I'm not entirely sure undead heads look different from dead heads. What's to stop an unscrupulous party from beheading a bunch of corpses and handing them over?

Also, clever PCs might decide that rather than going through the insane contortions to figure out how to get into the mausoleum by the front door by trailing one of the undead raiders back to a hidden cave that "reveals the edge of the Sistermoors within easy walking distance of the PC's base village." This will easily skip most of the levels of the dungeon, and given that the bad guys ride nightmares, having a highly accessible tunnel seems unnecessary -- just send incorporeal undead and flyers out of a difficult-to-reach access point.

There are other things that bug me too. A Hall of Honored Dead that was built for 24 knights contains a series of summoned guardians that get pumped out every three rounds, ranging from squirrels to a troll to black puddings. There are hordes of undead roaming the lower levels that don't pose a significant threat to the PCs, which means it's just a long slog of dice rolling. It feels like a pile of monsters is being thrown at the PCs to make up for the fact that 15th level characters can probably plow through most opponents.

Despite these flaws, the adventure works hard to include puzzles and riddles that unlock its secrets. As a DM my players would get frustrated and either leave or resort to destructive magic. In my experience this isn't much fun, but if you play hardcore where everything is out to kill the PCs and nobody dares move without poking the floor and ceiling with a 10-foot pole, The Red Mausoleum is for you!