Who's Who In The CBU Update 2008

Who are... Park and Barb?

Barbara Lien-Cooper writes the comic GUN STREET GIRL at Panel 2 Panel, was an original founder of Sequential Tart, is the managing editrix of the 2004 Eisner award-winning print magazine COMIC BOOK ARTIST, and was named by Mark Millar (The Authority, Ultimates, Wanted) as one of the three most promising new talents in the next wave of comics writing.

Park Cooper started writing about comics at the now-defunct DC FANZINE website.

Of Dice And Men

By Park Cooper

Let’s catch up.

Dr. Park Cooper here, co-writer of this column and husband to Barb Lien-Cooper.

I’ve been busy for these last months and stuff being Editor-in-Chief over at http://www.mangalife.com (which continues to look for additional writers, let me know if you’re interested), but I think I can stop and take a break for a little bit and update here.

I’ve also been writing a monthly column for Septagon Studios, the other place I’m Editor-in-Chief, called The Septagon Briefing. http://news.septagonstudios.com/?p=228 Here’s one of them.

More vital news is that Gun Street Girl is being hosted over at Wicker Man Studios: http://www.wickermanstudios.com/comics/gsg/gsg-archives.html

It’s still over at Graphic Smash, too, but _all_ the archives are currently at WMS. I’ve mentioned this in at least one previous column, but let’s be super-clear about it today.

Oh, and Wicker Man Studios expanded, as is IN YOUR FACE obvious from the front page of WMS—added Josh Wagner, creator of Fiction Clemens from Ape Entertainment (which I edited) and Steven G. Saunders, whom some of you may remember from All The Rage. http://www.wickermanstudios.com/

Look how Steve’s slanted head perfectly fills that slanted panel. And how HAPPY Josh is. BOY he’s happy, ain’t he?

I still do the stuff I’ve been doing, too, lately, like teach college, edit and adapt manga, blah blah blah.

I tried to pick up a little work on the side recently— someone contacted me who wanted, since D&D 4th Edition is “open source” as far as supplemental materials goes, to put out a series of books dealing with gaming using D&D and various genres, such as say horror. Wanted me to write the introductory chapter to each book, and then he and his crew would work on the specific content to fill the book after that.

Fell apart when he went to a recent con and decided that the fan jury, particularly the hardcore old-school diehard gamer jury, is still very much out about 4th Edition... risky. Offered to pay me a little for our (I brought Barb in on it as a horror expert greater than myself) work, which was nice, but it seems quite a shame that the outline we worked on will never see the light of day.

So, I’m making said outline see the light of day here, since it’s fannish and pop-culture enough, being the intersection of Gamer and Horror Fan. Maybe someone else will see it and say “say, I think I’ll hire one or more Coopers to write some sort of fannish or popular-cultural thing for me; I like the cut or cuts of his, her, or their jib or jibs.”

Enjoy.



I. Boilerplate: Why do you want to add horror? Why is it for you?

A. When they’re onto you, when you’ve used to all your usual techniques and they find the game fun but too easy, not challenging enough

B. Boredom

C. Your gaming group is a relationship... even if they aren’t actually bored yet, you don’t want things to get routine

D. It can make for really memorable experiences
1. Imagine that, while exploring a dungeon, already wounded and seeking a place to rest and regroup, the PCs have encountered a dangerous monster in a small area which they feel will make it hard to fight. They retreat, running down an as-yet unexplored passageway. They enter a very large chamber with heavy iron doors that they realize might be closed in time to keep the monster out. But when they start to try to close the doors, they see the monster, back at the last intersection of corridors, glaring at them—it refuses to continue its chase. One of the PCs fires an arrow at it, and the monster leaves back the way it came, as if it’s now afraid to pursue them. Only then do the PCs take the time to look around them at just what sort of horrible place they’ve stumbled into now...
2. Adding horror to the game can help players feel more a part of it and improve their roleplaying skills.

II. Types of horror and how they can help improve your game

A. –Transformative
1. Definition
2. Examples – Ginger Snaps, most werewolf movies, Jekyll and Hyde
3. Incorporating it into your game: Have your team fight a lycanthrope, get bit, hand them all notes about if it’s them or not, keep playing regardless, try to find a cure
4. Considerations

B. --Killer monsters
1. Definition: This is actually the most typical problem in all of D&D—the horror comes from making the players feel in over their heads... and then thinking they’ve got it under control... and then showing them they’re wrong... etc. It’s not about sending wave after wake of bugbears to attack until the PCs are dead, it’s about feeling stalked by something cunning—but unnatural.
2. Examples: Alien/Aliens, The Howling
3. Incorporating it into your game.
4. Considerations

C. --Environmental
1. Definition: This is different from “Killer Monsters” in that this is “when normal-sized animals attack.” Rats chew through ropes (or saddle harnesses?) in the night, bees swarm, etc.
2. Examples—Phase IV, The Birds
3. Incorporating it into your game:
a. the local animals are freaked—the MONSTERS are freaked (see the example above, where the monster knew better than to follow the PCs down a certain path)
b. When your own animals attack: warsteeds, packmules, messenger birds, familiars, attack dogs, all seek to attack rather than let the PCs go where they MUST go... they’ll have to be left behind somewhere
4. Considerations -- risk of the game/threat getting too big for the players if there’s not a simple way to solve whatever’s going on.

D. --Slasher/Serial Killer
1. Definition: there’s one (or two?) killers on the loose—deadly, vicious, and very, very relentless.
2. Examples: Friday the 13th, Halloween
3. Incorporating it into your game: It’s a pretty simple set-up, but can be endlessly adapted for your needs. Perhaps, tired of grave-robbing, some necromancer has built a flesh golem to go bring in fresh bodies to experiment on, handed the thing a cleaver and some basic instructions, dressed it in a loose, hooded robe, and turned it loose. Watch the PCs yell “I know that that hit should have killed anything human—how can it keep coming back to attack us?”
4. Considerations: better for low-level characters, but there are ways to make it more challenging...

E. –Asian Horror
1. Definition: Someone dies with strong negative emotions against another person or thing, which leads to bad things happening to that other person (or thing)…
2. Examples: The Ring, The Grudge, Pulse, Dark Water, The Eye
3. Incorporating it into your game: Have some long-defeated villain now dead come back as a ghost and cause trouble, and the PCs must find out how to get rid of him/her and his/her grudge. Asian Horror is a supernatural mystery genre, so the players must think and reason as much as use their swords. Atmosphere is very important. This kind of horror lacks the “if only we could do _____, everything would be okay!” feeling, unlike western ghost stories. Until the ghost is dealt with, NOTHING will save the PCs from its wrath—not holy blessings, not leaving the area, not even a wish spell—they MUST deal with the ghost by its own rules, which usually involves a bit of research and information-gathering.
4. Considerations: Good for high-level characters—you can’t cut corners and “do it the easy way” when this type of ghost is after you.

F. --Curse/s
1. Definition: A bit like Asian Horror, except that instead of a dead person, there’s some sort of curse on the PCs, and they have a limited time to find out how to escape its full doom—often, it will start negatively affecting them as they get closer to a deadline—often, though, the knowledge of the deadline is frightening enough.
2. Examples: Curse of the Demon/Night of the Demon
3. Incorporating it into your game: One can have an NPC tell the PCs that they are under a curse, and that they have a time limit before it kicks in, or one can simply have bad things start happening to them that get worse as time goes on—they can grow older by a year every hour—or younger, with a change in their ability scores that increases as time passes. They can fail saves they’d normally make, fumble attacks, and so on.
4. Considerations: Good for PCs of any level.

G. --Demons and/or Angels
1. Definition: The party is caught up in the struggle between powerful good and evil other-dimensional beings... or just the evil ones.
2. Examples: Constantine
3. Incorporating it into your game. The battle between heaven and hell is one of the oldest in human culture, and a winning favorite for many fans of popular culture, and there’s no reason it can’t be done tastefully. There are certainly plenty of other-dimensional evil beings in the game, some with divine or infernal overtones, or, if your players love paladins and clerics, one can rework one’s game world and use the rules so as to drop all pantheism and just game in the world of Christian mythology, such as inspired paladins and clerics in the first place, although this would take a bit of homebrewing.
4. Considerations: probably best for high-level characters.

H. --Undead/Haunting
1. Definition
2. Examples: zombie movies, vampire movies, The Haunting, Changeling
3. Incorporating it into your game: for an easy challenge, an NPC, preferably one who the PCs are fond of, dies, and one of the PCs, perhaps outside of the mission, is haunted by the restless spirit, which requires a quest to help the spirit rest.
4. Considerations:

I. --Conspiracy/Betrayals/Dopplegangers
1. Definition: Someone is making elaborate plans behind the backs of the protagonists, and those plans are about to begin their endgame...
2. Examples: The Puppet Masters, Winter Kills, any movie where the main characters must expose which supporting character (or characters) is secretly a werewolf or other shapechanging monster
3. Incorporating it into your game: Do the PCs do a lot of missions for the local king or government or city elders? Or even tips from a local bartender? Perhaps the bartender, who disappears, isn’t who the players thought he was... they learn he’s only been working there since right before they first came to town… now he’s disappeared…and so have all their other usual contacts... and now it could happen to the PCs...
4. Considerations: Good for low-level characters, who don’t dare bash their way through a wall of guards when told that they don’t have the proper clearance to enter...


Gee, this is a lot of stuff. I think I’ll save the rest of it for next time. Please look forward to next time...