Play: Two Hander

 Guards at the Taj by Rajiv Joseph, Directed by Samip Raval, a co-production with Pratidhwani, Arts West, through October 6. 

And so it begins. The sun sets earlier. I awaken in darkness. There is more dark than day in Seattle. It has started raining. Theatre Season has begun. 

The Lovely Bride decamped to West Seattle, dined at Mashiko, our favorite high-end sushi place, and since we were early this time, I had a chance to grab an ice cream cone at the Husky Deli (which usually closes at 7). Also then discovered that right next to the Arts West Theatre a Top Pot donut has opened. Nice.  

Guards at the Taj is a dark and bloody comedy, leaning more towards the dark and the bloody. Humayun (Sumant Gupta) and Babar (Varun Kainth) are guards outside the the newly completed Taj Mahal (Agra, India, 1648). Babar is chaotic, human, and imaginative. Humayun is precise, lawful, and dedicated to both the government and his friend. They are on duty. They are not supposed to talk (they talk). They are not supposed to think (they philosophize) They are not supposed to look at the Taj in the first light of the dawn (they look). They have a crappy job assignment, and it is only going to get worse. Much worse.

The actors are excellent. Gupta's Humayan is tightly-wound, pragmatic and dedicated to his role in life, no matter how crappy it is. Kainth's Babur is an everyman, bubbling with ideas, fancies, and inventions. Their conversations are wide-ranging, but always circle back to the fact that they are little wheels within a much crueler machine. They banter, argue, and joke. They have an easy rapport and have to do horrible things, but are a matched pair. The framework is similar to other two-person plays like Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, but the play moves well and there is no lagging in the 90-minute production.

The set and presentation is well done, with rotating walls for scene changes, space on the main stage for those who want sit on pillows (the Lovely Bride and I are too old for such things), Dabbawalla containers (with gruesome contents) litter the perimeter. Musicians (Sampada Bhalerao on Sitar, Jayant Bhopatkar on drums) are tucked in a forward corner of the stage, providing the Greek chorus for the guards. 

The play is co-produced with Pratidhawani, a local non-profit dedicated to promoting South Asian culture in music, dance, and drama. A couple years ago, the theatre did a production with Pork Filled Productions, an Asian-American theater group. And I'm kind of grooving on these team-ups, in that it brings different flavors of theatre into the house. 

As I said, it very dark in its comedy. There is blood on the stage and body parts strewn about and horrible decisions and repercussions (I told you - it gets worse for both men). It is not one of those toe-tapping, feel-good plays that is standard playgoer fare (but next up at the Arts West, their Christmas musical). It left me more than a little stunned. Which I think is the purpose of theatre well-done.

More later, 

New Arrivals: Lull Before the Storm

 I picked up a lot of stuff at Gen Con (including Covid) back in August, but I want to deal with the stuff that came into the household before that. Because there's just so much stuff from Gen Con (including Covid).

There are a lot of independent RPGs in this collection, and one big chunk of D&D history. Let's take the tour:

Troika! Numinous Edition, by Daniel Sell, Melsonian Arts Council, 2023, 138-page Digest-sized softbound, Purchases from Mox Boarding House in Bellevue. I've seen some references to Troika and Troika-related projects elsewhere, but never has a clear line to purchase. So when I saw it a the Mox, I picked it up. And even by Roleplaying Game terms, Its a bit ... strange. Sort of two parts Jack Vance and two parts Doug Adams. Character creations is flavorful, and ranges from giants from a lost empire to trepanned Zoathrops that have abandoned sentience. The rules themselves are relatively straightforward, with a 2d6 to resolve most tasks. The provided adventure is to reach the top floor of a hotel. It is a delightfully weird little oddity that is a shining example of an independent RPG. I'm going to keep my eye out for related projects.

Mork Borg by Pelle Nilsson, Ockult Oktmastare Games/Stockholm Kartell/Free League, 90-page digest hardbound book, 2024, Purchased at The Game Shelf in Kent. Mork Bog (Swedish for Dark Fort, and pronounced Murk Boriy, like that helps) was one of those games that took the indy RPG field by storm a few years ago, winning a host of awards, and spinning off secondarty games right left and center. I had picked up Pirate Borg, and on Steve Winter's recommendation, went after the source. And Wow. The yellows. The horrible, pulsating yellows. Mork Borg is an art game where the presentation attempts to overwhelm that is presented (and sometimes succeeds). The rules are solid, with a very 3E sensibility (4 attributes, 3d6 rolls, but then convert to a table for the ability modifier). The world is serious heavy metal grimdark, and probably one of the most heroic versions of it I've seen.  That part is excellent. Good game, but oh god, the yellows.

Knave Second Edition by Ben Milton, published by Jacob Hurst and Swordfish Ilse, 2024,.80-page digest hardbound book, Kickstarter. This is a nifty little alt-OSR, which put original D&D in the blender, sieved out the crunchy bits, and then simplified those bits. A lot of old rules with altered effects (like Wisdom being used for ranged weapons, or Charisma Bonuses used for initiative checks) and a really nice way to bring encumbrance back on-line (which I'm seeing elsewhere). Milton pulls his inspiration from a lot of previous OSR material, and then credits accordingly. And in doing so, his alterations create an entirely new game system within an established set of expectations. That's nice. Worth checking out.

Deadpool Role-Plays the Marvel Universe, Cullen Bunn and Michael Shelier (Comic), Cullen Bunn and Matt Forbeck (Game adventure and stats). 48-page comic book, 2024, Purchased at Midgard Comics. This was a bit of surprise treat, spotted on the shelves of my Friendly Local Comic Store, And I think this sort of thing is important to get out there. My early Marvel Super Heroes carpet-bombed the hobby market with a lot of short, diverse modules that captured shelf-space and told the players that there was a big world out there to play in. In addition, DRAGON magazine regularly did The Marvel-Phile, which gave the stats for a slew of esoteric characters (Howard the Duck's Iron Man armor, for example). The comic-book format used here has the potential to do the same for the latest iteration of the license. The first 8 pages is a story is where Deadpool puts together a band of lesser-known mercenaries for a job, while the remaining pages is a starter adventure that sets the recruits into action. They need to find out what happened to the other mercenaries and henchmen being kidnapped. Told through Deadpool's voice and mannerisms, it is a light, fun adventure, and a good intro to the system. Marvel would be well-rewarded to do more of this, or even to put game stats in the back of their regular books, instead of a gimmicky QR-Code. Just sayin'.

Musketeers vs. Cthulhu by M. Bill Heron, Nightfall Games Ltd. 112-page Digest hardback 2020, Kickstarter. This is an amusing set of adventures (for 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu) based on a short story by actor Claudia Christian and Chris McAuley, who co-created the Stokerverse, which had its own RPG mentioned here. Set in the time of Louis XIII, the adventures are very sandboxy and setting based, but do not have to follow linearly from one another. The Court of Chaos, ultimately backed by Nyarlathotep, plans the overthrow of the King. Your job? Stop it from happening. The setting includes most of the characters from the first book, as well as such things as deep ones and werewolves. The Kickstarter had a collection of extremely useful maps. Plus the four musketeers as potential PCs. A tidy little package that I could throw my regular CoC crew into.

Moria: Through the Doors of Durin, By Gareth Hanrahan, Free League, 228-page Hardbound book + full-sized map, 2024, Kickstarter. Free League produces some wondrous-looking books, and this one is no exception. Tolkien himself never drew up maps of Moria, so all of this is "lateral development" and non-canonical, but it is so cool-looking. Set in the era of the One Ring RPG between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, it provides a variety of locations within (and nearby) the dwarven mines as the original dungeon delve.

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1979, Jason Tondo (Project Lead), Wizards of the Coast, 578 Page hardbound book, 2024, Gift from a colleague at Wizards. This is a massive tome that is a wondrous stroll through the original material of D&D. It is an upsized reprint of the first six small booklets of D&D, along with other material. I still have the (worn, coverless) originals downstairs, but these up-sized versions give folk fifty-years-later the idea of what we had as our original Burgess Shale of gaming. More importantly, there are reproductions from gaming 'zines of the pre-D&D 70s, internal correspondence, and most importantly the early drafts and notes on the game before production. All in all, and excellent dive of primary sources for the gaming historian.  

The Wildsea Expansion: Storm and Root, Felix Isaacs and others, Mythworks/Quillworks Studio, 304-page Landscape formatted  hardbound book, 2023, Kickstarter.  The Kickstarter included the scenario One-Armed Scissor,(30 pages) the expansion Ship-Gardens (38 pages), and the scenario Red Right Hand (46 pages), along with sent of six 6-sided "Cthonic Dice" (not shown, arrived at the house after the picture was taken - ah, the vagaries of  Kickstarters). I find Wildsea both interesting and challenging. It is set in a world where toxic vegetation has run wild, and players pilot chainsaw ships through the upper canopy of trees. As such, the world has some similarities to my ancient Storm Front proposal. But it is a complex, alien world, and uses a descendent of the Forged in the Dark and Powered by the Apocalypse systems, which makes it even more of a challenge to this venerable grognard. These expansions push the boundaries back, with both flying craft and submarines (sub-arboreals?), adding a lot more depth (sorry) to the world. In addition, it further helps with adventures and more detailed working. I don't know if I will get a chance to play Wildsea, but I find it fascinating in its creativity.

OK, that's it. Have to delve into the GenCon collection next. Stay tuned. More later.