“Haven for Goats” Part 1

The name of Gotham City was first identified as Batman’s home in 1940 (Batman #4). Over the years the city has evolved and taken elements from various different cities in the United States. Chicago and New York City are two of my favorite sources. Chicago for its rich criminal mafia background and New York City for obvious reasons as its been bearing the nickname since the early nineteenth century long before Batman’s creation.

While much of the Batman-mytho associated with Gotham comes from the modern nights, a number of authors have attempted to give the city a richer history and background. As one wants to give the city a realistic atmosphere it needs to have a foundation from which it grew. A major economic center such as Gotham did not become that way  over night.

Most recently with the reboot of the DC Universe and the New 52, Gotham has had Jonah Hex and Amadeus Arkham develling into the corrupt backhistory and cult of the Crime Bible. The opening arc of Batman has also had Bruce looking into a centuries old organization known as the Court of Owls which is deeply embedded into the very architecture and history of Gotham City. Alan Wayne, Bruce’s great, great-grandfather having apparently been a victim of the group.

Other notable history thats been put to pen for Gotham include comparisons to New York City’s founding by the Dutch.  Swamp Thing #53 states  a Norwegian mercenary founded Gotham City and the British later taking control of the city.  Gotham City was also noted for a major battle location of the American Revolutionary War.

More recent hardships before the current reboot which havent been defined as still being part of continuity include the city has been noted as facing have been the outbreak of a lethal disease called  The Clench that ended up having it quarantined. It’s also been victim of a massive earthquake that caused so much damage the federal government cut Gotham off from the rest of the United States for a time.

Hitting the Bricks

So the game ad continues to gather interest for the PbP. Seems to have gathered more interest this time around than the last two game ads combined. No complaints on that. Given though I made decent use of images and tables that I didnt do before. A professional look that looks like I know what I’m doing  I guess pays off.   I’m probably going to lock down a closing date for that after the new year. Way to much still going on to keep me distracted to focus 100% like I want on the game. It’s certainly better than it was a week ago with Christmas looming but its still not a forgiving work schedule.

In other none PbP news, LEGO is finally trying to get my love back. As many are probably aware several years back they released LEGO Batman both as a video game as well as a number of actual sets. Much to my anger and wrath they pulled the sets after only maybe a year or so on the shelves, maybe a little longer. Even when I’m making a ton of overtime, I have a mortgage payment and other bills so I couldn’t just slam down $80+ dollars on a set. So I wasn’t able to get them all.  Trying to find them on eBay or Amazon is nearly grounds for selling a kidney on the black market.  This month however kicked off the new Super Heroes line of LEGO toys. Batman of course being the dominate feature amid them. The licence now however seems to be a full DC Universe toy line, as it will now include Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern likely amid others. It also looks like LEGO has gotten a Marvel license as well as a Marvel line will be following later in the year of 2012. Personally I’m not overly impressed on the images I’ve seen on the Marvel ones yet that surfaced at Comic Con. I would imagine though there are still like 5-6 months before the Marvel release to get things cleaned up. As for the DC side of the coin, I think a large number of the minifigs are improved from before in design.  I’m not liking the change to my boy Two-Face though.

The black and white suit was great. Now its some weird ass purple/orange mix.  I know the image its taken from in the comics, that doesnt make it *good* though.  The new Robin design however makes up for it.  I might just have to try and find a old Two-Face mini that I can find cheap… …cheap on eBay seems to equal around 20-30 bucks.  bleck…  Hopefully they bring back all the original minifigs as well as some new ones.

Moving along

So the PbP stays strong, and I hope to fuel some new blood into it once again.  I’ve posted a new recruitment ad on Myth-Weavers, so we’ll see what I can rustle up in terms of quality players.  Hopefully I will be able to start posting in here a little more often as well too.  I’d like to dedicate some time to developing some things for others to do games for themselves in the Gotham City setting.  So besides the originally planned topics of Bruce and Gotham City itself that were planned oh so many months ago I’m likely going to invest some time into focusing on some of the other colorful characters of the Batman-Universe.

I also want to say that I just got a early Christmas present from my wife.  The Batman Files by by Mathew K. Manning. This book is beautiful and extremely in depth. Sadly a lot of the photos used inside it are reused from various other material, so the original images are a bit limited.  Still though as a collection of computer files, news articles, crime scene photos, blueprints, schematics, and actual maps taken to be done by the caped crusaded himself its a incredible piece.  If you can find it cheaper than the typically marked $100 price tag its worth the money as a incredible collector piece.

Like a phoenix from the ashes…

So I kinda let the blog fall to the way side a bit. Real life got in the way with more pressing concerns, as well as an attempt to run things via tabletop in addition to just online in the play-by-post format. Sadly people are people no matter what format you try and play things in and the tabletop experience was less that successful. People when they get older just don’t have the same priorities and well when you have four-fifths of your group putting other things before showing up to the game it tends to send things crashing down. Normally I would say I understand that things like work, family, and even other hobbies if you enjoy them more can come first. However when you don’t have players actually contact you to inform you they arent going to be showing up to your game session that night it tends to leave a bit of a sour taste in your mouth.

Now being a old war veteran when it comes to PbP and people dropping like flies in that environment  it doesn’t phase be as much as it likely would otherwise. Especially when my one reliable player tells me how much they enjoyed every session and how much fun they were having. However with the recent holiday season in the air I’m not going to try and recruit all over again for new table players. As such I let the game go and I’ll likely try things once again when the new year nonsense starts to calm down.  In the meantime I’ve found a D&D 3.5 group to waste some time with. D&D is of course far from my first choice in terms of systems but its something to do in the meantime and the people in the group are friendly. If anything after this module thats being run perhaps I can convince a few to play in a Storyteller based game.

Meanwhile my online game is still going strong. We’re moving a little slow because of the holidays but thats to be expected. I’ve lost two players since my last post here back in June but I still have a strong six-player group, and I’m likely to have at least one potential player to fill in the open slots come the new year.

I’d like to say I’m going to get this blog more active again, but I’m not going to make promises. I have a lot on my plate with my job until we get the new hires trained and certified. Once the holidays are over my stress level is likely to lower once again but as said I would like to give my tabletop another go at it. I’ve invested far to much time and effort over the last 2+ years to simply just let myself throw in the towel.

Still Alive

 Just a note that I’m still here and I havent forsaken this blog.  Work has been a bear with the dispatch office being short staffed. I’m pushing around 60-70 hours a week on average. Good more my bank account but not so good for my hobby or any of my side projects. 

I will also be kicking off my tabletop game coming up this Tuesday. A bit of a failure on the players contacting me via email to get concepts hashed out ahead of time. So it looks like the first session is going to be character creation and a bit of a round table on what they want to see from me as a ST and what I expect from them as players.  Got a hour worth of work on my Batman tattoo Last Tuesday afternoon as well.  Sadly work called and I had to leave a bit sooner than expected.

The Living Breathing City

Once my schedule here begins to calm down some, I am looking to delve into a bit more of a in depth look at Gotham City itself. As a character itself, as well as the characters that reside within its streets that make it what it is. With its gothic architecture and spanning skyline, Gotham City by itself is a entity all its own and like no other.  Combining that with characters like Bruce Wayne himself, James Gordon, and all the others that make the city and surrounding their home it truly becomes a creature all its own.

I’ll be using the City section of things to discuss various elements and locations around the city. Some of the most notable of course are locations like Arkham Asylum, which I will likely begin with, as the infamous insane asylum alone will likely serve to cover a number of articles all its own. On the character front I’ll likely take some time to discuss Bruce Wayne/Batman before moving into a few villains.

Bruce as a whole from my earlier posts has gone through some various chances in the way I’ve tried to utilize him in the game(s). Of course anyone that chooses to use him in their game as well will have to take a long consideration on how to do so.  The character of Batman is so dominating that he can quickly overshadow the PCs in a game if used to heavily. Removing him completely can also in turn dramatically change the atmosphere of the game. I’ll be discussing different scenarios over the course of the In-Depth look at Bruce Wayne.

Checking in

Quick small post at this point. Work has been keeping me rather busy with overtime lately.  As such my updates have been a little strained. However things still continue to move forward. Just probably a little slower than I’d care to admit.  June 7th is the scheduled start date for my tabletop game. Still have some time before things start up.  I have three possible applicants as things stand. Had email communication with one of them, and have had a physical conversation with two of them. We’ll see how things continue to pan out as the month progresses.