Movie Mash up - Princes of Arabia

Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.

I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).

Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.

Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?

Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.

Today's game is Princes of Arabia, a submission by Aldo "Maledictus" Ojeda

Whoops. Both Rob and I missed this one, so I'm going to make sure this gets a review ASAP. First off, I'm going to say right now that I'm not really going to look at the language of the game unless it's really problematic. The reason is that this is someone not writing in his first language, and as someone who struggles with his written French I can sympathize.

What Aldo did was take Aladdin and Raiders of the Lost Ark and combine them to create an rollicking adventures to find treasure and gold. It's the second Raiders of the Lost Ark game, and it'll be interesting to see what's done with that.

As an aside, I think that might have been a problem with the contest. There were too many options to choose from so that we didn't get to see what a lot of people would do with the same film. It's hard because the wide selections of films created some games, like Droog Family Songbook, that were just amazingly off the hook.

Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
The game has this one sided mash-up feel to it that a lot of the earlier games did. When you have Disney's Aladdin and you reference the fourty thieves you're mixing your source materials. It's got a very 1001 Arabian Nights and Raiders of the Lost Ark feel to the game since you play some of the fourty thieves who have been hired by the various, nefarious, groups in "Arabia" to get treasure that has been 'lost' and needs to be 're-acquired.'

Everything is in scare quotes because really the people who hire you are as crooked as they come and are just stealing from each other. I do think that the best part of the background write up is the section on the Crusaders:

Crusaders – Crusaders, I hate this guys. They come from far away and claim Arabia as theirs. The only thing they care is money, they pillage towns and attack innocent people.

Crusaders. I hate those guys too. It's a lovely little moment in the text that really works. However, it's just one of those elements that points towards 1001 Arabian Nights, or Lawrence of Arabia, rather than Aladdin. I mean, if he had the Genie doing it with his Robin Williams voice then that's comedy gold. As it stands, just points towards the fact that while the sentiment is right on the target, the target that got hit was in the other lane.

Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?

Yes, it is a complete game. It's got a conflict resolution system, it's got the end of the scenario, everything you need is there to play it. Now, I feel that the conflicts might take too long because for every success you have, you only reduce the difficulty of the encounter by 1 and you only take damage when you roll a 1. I think there really isn't much tension if you fail a die roll, and there is little incentive to spend your Adventure Points to take damage for a friend.

The idea is that you roll a d6 and add your appropriate stat. If it's seven or greater then you reduce the encounter by 1. What I would like to see is that the higher rolls reduce the encounter strength even more. Say like a 10 reducing it by 4. Of course, to make the tension greater the flipside would be true as well. If you go lower than 7 then you would end up taking damage. A 6 would deal 1 damage, a 5 would deal 2 and so on and so forth on down.

I haven't played it, so this is just me speculating, but that's what came to my mind.


Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?

The PDF itself is easy to read, the the few sketches are a little on the cute and cartoony, which doesn't fit the theme too well but aren't distracting at all. The font is very readable, and it flows very well.

Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?

I think this has to have the nicest character sheets out of all the games. It's just a bunch of boxes, but it's an appropriate bunch of boxes. I like the fact that all of them can fit on a single sheet of paper too.

Would I play it?
Yes, I would. I'd like to play it as written, and then try it with the modification just to see if it speeds things up. It's a fun game, well executed as a game. It just didn't execute the rules of the contest.

Movie Mash Up - Droog Family Songbook

Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.

I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).

Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.

Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?

Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.

Today's game is Droog Family Songbook, a submission by Nathan Russell

Wow, A Clockwork Orange and Sound of Music? I'd love to see how Nathan's mind works the rest of the time, because that's a challenging combination of films to mash together. I mean, one of them is an ultra-violent dark future mashup where teenagers are hell bent on causing as much violence as they can for kicks while the other is a rollicking romp of a musical where you have a family that has to avoid the Nazis. At first blush this idea is full of head-scratching what-the-fuckery, but I think Nathan does an amazing job at mashing the two up into something pretty incredible.

Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
What if I told you that it was right up there with All the King's Men for getting the the two films together and keeping the main elements intact? It would be strange, right? Well, in this game it is the future 1995 to be exact, and there are Nazi's everywhere in Europe and you have to make your escape. However, you need to try to keep three of your favourite things from being destroyed so you can take them with you.

How do you protect them? Hopefully by just dealing with situation, but in case you can't you can resort to a little bit of the old ultraviolence me droogies. You have to describe the horrible things you do to the various characters to make sure that what you love isn't destroyed. Depending on how much you protect things without over-killing everything will determine how well you survive the Nazis.

The best part is, that there is singing in this game. Yes, you are forced into song and that's perhaps one of the better parts of the game.

Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
This game is 100% complete, in fact it's probably one of the most complete games out of all of the games in the competition. All you need is a single D6 and a D10 per player and some tokens. Because the game is GMless it's very easy to pick up and start running the game, because it does have a defined end game. The character creation process is just a lot of fun, with a bunch of random 90s fashion choices for your character to choose from.

Once you're done deciding what the character looks like, you pick your three favourite things and then you're ready to play. Then it becomes what kind of horrible situations you can put other player's favourite things in and hope that it turns ultra violent. Because there are three favourite things there are three chances at setting up scenes that cause people to have to defend them.

The only thing I'm not a super fan of is the random die roll to determine what's going on for the resolution of the scene if you leave it to Fate. What would have been nice is that there should be a vote to determine if Fate favours the player in the spotlight or another player. Each vote is a +1 to the die roll, that way it might encourage more storytelling, dramatic or entertaining, for personal benefit.

Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?

This is a very attractive PDF. Now I'm not a huge fan of the coloured backgrounds, and if this goes further Nathan should really consider putting out a printer friendly version of the PDF. That being said, this colouring is very, very appropriate. It's a faded paper with the water marked sheet music, just perfect. The only way it would be more perfect would be if the sheet music is the sheet music to "My Favourite Things" or something from the Sound of Music, or Beethoven because that's what Alex listened to all the time.

There are a couple of places where paragraphs are your friend, and they were totally ditched. Just a huge block of text like that kinda of hurt my head, and it was right at the beginning to which is never a good sign. Thankfully I was able to persevere and get to the rest of this book.


Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?

It's got a cover and a set of character sheets in the back. Truly, it doesn't need anything else since it's such a straightforward mechanic and rule system.


Would you play it?
Yes, I would. In fact, I want to play it right now. Anyone up for this? I have one more to read, but I'll tell you right now that this is my prediction for the winner. I can say that now that I'm almost done, but this is clearly the front runner.

Movie Mashup - All The King's Men

Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.

I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).

Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.

Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?

Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.

Today's game is All the King's Men, a submission by Geoff Lamb

I liked this game a lot. Theme makes me happy. If you've got a theme where you have people trying to understand what they're doing, and how they might be on the wrong side, then I'm there. I love playing out those kind of situations where you are full of that dreaded realization that you are part of the bad guys. I think it's one of the reasons why I'm not a huge fan of Vampire, because there's no slow reveal. It's *BAMF* you're a bad guy now.

So, say hello to the bad guy. That would be you.

Proximity: How close to the two films is it?

This is another example of an excellent mash up. You have the Robin Hood veneer, which allows you to pretty much tell the tale of Apocalypse Now. While I love mash-ups that take two elements and make something new, this one makes something new by being the most perfect balance of the two types of films that while you can see where one ends and the other begins, it's at the midway point.

While the setting is very much Robin Hood, though you are one of the faceless men of the Sheriff of Nottingham, allows for the Apocalypse Now type feel, the mechanic helps with the slow descent into madness. Failure slowly erodes at your self until you're either are killed, have snapped, or give up. I love entropy games mechanics because it is a slow fight that you are destined to lose.

Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
It is a complete game. As I mentioned above the mechanics fit perfectly into the style of game that the game wants you to play. It also really pushes that kind of war movie mentality where each platoon has their kind of specialist since once someone takes a focus, or a specialty no other character can take it. That way you kind of get that vibe, you know the one. You get Tex, and Sniper, and Gunner and all the stereotypes you get in that kind of film in the game, it's great.

It also has a really defined end game. You lose all of one stat and that's it. So if your lower stats get pushed then you're out really quickly, but I can see this game going on with a rotating set of mooks. One dies, or joins the other side and another comes to take his or her place. It is kind of needed since a quick succession of failures will end up with your character on the brink almost too fast, and there is never any fun to be found in sitting around watching others play a game you just technically lost.

Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?

As far as attractiveness, it's a pretty simple pdf. There's nothing big and fancy here. There is the appropriate Robin Hood imagery, but again that's probably the easiest to find.

There was a decision that I find a little odd. Instead of including all the material it takes to build a character in the character creation section, it's found in the appendix. You really want to put that stuff right where the people are going to see and use it rather than in the back. The back is where you put the summary so that people can reference what they want. That would be my only real gripe with the way the book is layed out.

Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?

Cover, character sheet and even an appendix all included!

Would I play it?
Absolutely. I wouldn't change anything either, I'd love to give this game a whirl and find my character coming to grips with their own bad decisions.

Adventures in Miniature Games!

I've just recently got into trying my hand at miniature painting. A friend of mine once said that miniatures aren't really games, as much as they are a hobby all on their own and I finally got it. I tried to get into it a long time ago, like 9 years ago and I just didn't have the wherewithal to turn it into a hobby. I think that might be different now. I picked up Bloodbowl and the first thing I did was want to repaint the minis, because they ... well ... look bad! I wanted to make sure that they looked good.

Anyway, it lead me to start looking at my old Warmachine stuff (and I do mean old, some of the sculpts I have were from 2002, not that they've changed them but more along the lines that they've been sitting being unpainted for that long) and deciding that I'd like to get started on painting those.

Eventually this is going to mean that I'm going to spend more money on games. Oh! No!

Well, I'm going to use the Mini Adventure label at the bottom to talk about the painting that I've done and am doing right now because I figure I'm old enough now that I actually feel like I can do it. I've stripped all the Mini's that I have and am now getting ready to paint a pile of them. If you're interested you can come check it out!

Movie Mashup 2011 - Ghost-Runner: The 9th Layer

Since I'm involved in a contest that doesn't end until June 1st, 2011, I figured that I would do what I did with Game Chef and do reviews for people who have put forth entries into the 1km1kt.net Movie Mashup 24 hour RPG competition. I put my game up already, but since I'm not really going to review my own stuff, I'd rather get feedback from other people, I turn my attention to those the other contestants.

I'm doing this because I know that feedback is important, and that it is rather notoriously hard to get. I offer free copies of a book to people who will do a review of the PDF and I still haven't gotten any reviews that fit the contest (though Ed at Robot Viking did one, which is always appreciated).

Anyway, I'll be doing this review using most of the criteria put out by the contest. Copying from the 1km1kt.net thread here are the criteria for judgement.

Poor you! Our panel of monkeys will be judging you on:
Must include an NPC called Keeton
Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?
Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?

Don't worry too much about the Keeton part. That's a running joke on the site.

Today's game is Ghost-Runner: The 9th Layer, submission number two by Shinobicow

Wow. A second one. I know that I want to do another one some time down the road, which might mean never, but doing two in quick succession is impressive even though I did slack a lot and get to this review this late.

Proximity: How close to the two films is it?
It's actually exactly what I'm looking for in regards to what a movie mash up should be. It's got the flavours of both, where you have people who are trying to catch escape ghosts while in a dystopian dark future, but is still its own game with it's own feel. Certainly that feel is slightly more in the path of Blade Runner than Ghostbusters, you are corporate working Ghostrunners whose job description includes hunting down rogue ghosts and demons and vengeful spirits all without raising the alarm to the intentionally ignorant populace.

What I think would have been a nice addition to the world is that instead of having a prophet come out and try to out what was going on, basically that they had discovered a way of bringing back the souls of the dead and putting them into robot bodies, would be that if the fact that this was a secret was of the utmost importance. I think it would add a layer of extra conflict with the players, how do they go about doing things so that the least people are aware of what's happening. What do they do with the people who they find out, do they recruit them or do they "deal" with them to save their own jobs.

Complete: Is it complete? Could you run it?
It's a little on the complicated side since it also mashed up two different rule sets (DOOM8 and FATE) so sometimes the rules get a little, murky. To be fair this may be my stumbling with FATE Aspects, which is what the game uses, rather than anything else.

I know it might be easy to some, I've just tried to work it out in my head and it makes sense but I've never played it so ...

Also, this does create a fair bit of legal text at the beginning of the book. It wasn't a huge problem, but it's still a little annoying when you want to get to the game.


Attractive: Is it attractive to look at?
Professional: How much effort went into layout and style?


It is a pretty attractive product, done up on the standard 8.5" x 11" letter (215.9 by 279.4 mm) format. It's got two columns, and readable fonts and appropriate pictures (which is always harder than people think). However, I'm gonna call Greg out on the Matrix-like green that he ended up using, every single dark future/cyberpunk/dystopic rpg uses that same green colour whenever they do anything now. I was greatly amused when Shadowrun changed to the same cyan that I had used for CyberGeneration because I think they get sick of it too.

The other thing is that there isn't an appendix, only a large ghost like figure that takes up the whole page. I can totally understand that there wasn't time to put something there, but when that's the case cut it completely rather than have an extra page that someone who might hit print will have to deal with. I'm also not a fan of the same image taking up a large part of the character sheet. It's just taking up space without really giving anything to the page.

Extras: Did they include actual cover, index, character sheet or any other cool things you get in a proper RPG?

Yup, there's a cover and a pretty extensive character sheet. The only problem with the sheet is that large ghost like image on the upper right of the first page. Beyond that, it's good!

Would I play it?
Yes, actually. I might not use the same system, I might just go with a straight FATE game rather than this mash up, but the world is totally compelling enough that I would adapt it to my own desires. Good job!

Previously Generated - Geasa Theme

Time to do a theme for Geasa. I feel like I should do something slightly off the wall and fun to commemorate the fact that the book is finally at the printers. I have been on a wrestling kick as of late, so I figured let's try to make a wrestling scene for Geasa.

Setting
Weird things happens when you're a group of people who end up traveling together, especially when your job consists of beating up on your co-workers. You are all members of a traveling independent wrestling promotion. You're good enough that people who are in the know are interested in seeing you, but not good enough that you can get a TV deal or anything like that. You just put in your time, collect your meager pay check and hope that someone who can pay you better notices you. It's not that bad, you're just risking life and limb to see the smaller cities of the North East. I mean, who wouldn't want to get stranded by a mechanical failure in picturesque Baldwinville, Massachusetts. Population 1,852, with a full functional high school gymnasium and about fifteen really bored people waiting for someone to finish fixing the bus so you could move on to the ever hopping Conant High School gymnasium in Jaffrey, New Hampshire.

It's a glamorous life. The only hope is that the next town has someone who can pick you up out of this pit and put you where you belong, on a pedestal.

Characters
* Dante "Freedom" Bell - You are the star of the show, for what that is worth. You know that there isn't anyone here who can match you for your actual skill in the ring and on the microphone, when there are microphones. You're also annoyed that no one else seems to recognize this. You just want what's yours, and that's the spotlight.

*Britney Myers - You're the one who does the actual work around here. You're the mechanic, the driver, the cook, the ring announcer, the therapist, and the mother to this group of grown up children. You don't complain, but you do feel the strain of having done this tour for a couple of years now. What you really want is everyone else to recognize that you contribute a hell of a lot, and maybe appreciate you for it.

*Loyd Henderson -- You own East Coast Wrestling Entertainment, or ECWE, and have been trying to find a way to make it big. You want the big television contract even though you've done nothing to deserve it. You've got a stable of wrestlers that are at best lack lustre, and at worst full of delusions of grandeur. That hasn't stopped you from bothering anyone who might have the slight odor of being associated with a TV station. You know that if you could just get that contract, everything else will fall into place.

* Holly Sharp -- As one of two women wrestlers in the promotion, you're both really good at working together and really bored with what's going on. Despite what other people believe, you are actually the best wrestler here but women's wrestling is still the domain of thin and plastic, and while you are athletic and fit you don't fall into either of those categories. That means you got looked over the few times anyone actually important showed up. You keep pushing that you can wrestle with the guys, but Loyd freaks out every time you mention it. You just want something to challenge you.

*Stanton "Rage" Lawson - You were burned while you were working, doing some sort of extreme stuff involving flaming tables, and as such you've got scarring on your face. That's when you changed your shtick to a mask wearing monster called Rage. You scream a lot, stomp a lot, and grab at your face whenever someone brings up your scars. You're happy with your lot in life, you're doing what you wanted to do with some people you like. There's a special someone inside the company that you wish you could approach and ask them out, but you're nervous because Loyd doesn't like "fraternizing" and you're worried about they will react to your scarring.


* Christi "Stacked" Stark -- You remember watching your first wrestling match as a kid and being enthralled. Then you looked at what it took to be a women's wrestler and then you bit the bullet and did what you thought would get you on TV with the lights, and the microphone and the accolades. It hasn't gotten you anywhere you really wanted to go, and while you may regret some of the decisions that you've made you're still pushing to make it to the top. Everyone may think you're an airhead, and again you play what you think the people want, but you've got the focus and dedication to beat anyone who gets in the way of what you want.


Fae

* Spartacus - An ancient Roman gladiator that shook off the shackles of slavery and attempted to lead an army of slaves to freedom. Now, as a spirit he wishes to free all those he believes to be in bondage.

* Competitiva - The spirit of competition, it believes that all competition is good, and if there is any chance that two people can be in conflict, it will support that. It believes very clearly that there are winners, and there are losers and only by conflict will the two be separated

* Lumi -- A spirit of light that's always looking for the brightest light and the shiningest star. It feels that by going to the light, lies and deception can't survive the exposing power of the light.

* Ignacio Nixon -- The Spirit of a Dead Wrestler who was killed while wrestling for ECWE, Loyd doesn't mention him to the other wrestlers and that has stuck in the craw of the dead Ignacio. He wants nothing more than to expose Loyd as a fraud, and a cruel task master. If he can destroy him then maybe he can rest.

* Letzul - A Gremlin that enjoys causing mechanical havoc. It's had a great time with this group, causing all sorts of problems with the truck, and the ring. So far the wrestlers have handled the failures, but Letzul hopes that one day he can match the previous Gremlin's achievement of getting someone killed through a mechanical failure.


Other People
If you want to not play with these characters, here are some other options for you. Roll a d6 and let random chance help you out.

1. The Principle of the School where the wrestling match is located
2. The Local Promoter who invited the company
3. The Worst Wrestler in the Promotion, looking for a fast way to the top
4. A Concerned Parent who doesn't want this trash in their town
5. Another technician, someone who works the lights or the sound
6. Someone who works in TV, who is looking for something to put on the air.

Idea on the Fae
If you're looking for other Fae to play, then what you really want to do is work with Fae that enjoy conflict and can't tell the difference between created conflict for entertainment purposes and real life and death struggles. Another option are Fae that enjoy causing mischief, mechanical mischief in particular, since a lot of things that go on in the show require some sort of machines for effect.

Critical!: Go Westerly - Why you should check it out

This is the part that I'm not good at, trying to hype up games that we're making that are awesome. I'll play the hell out of it, I'll run it again and again and again for people at a Convention, but I'm just not that good at talking about it in a public forum. The curse of the writer I guess.

This changes. Geasa got a lot of good reviews from Critics, but that's all well and good. I want Critical! to do really well, really really well. In order to do that, I've got to convince you, the reader, that you want to buy this game. I'm going to try to explain why you'd want to do that kind of thing.

TL;DR or more commonly known as the elevator pitch

Critical!: Go Westerly is a fun, humorous fantasy romp that doesn't rely on being self-referential for it's humour. It also has a mechanic that helps create a desire for more gold as well as critical situations where the players will find out that something good has happened, and so has something very, very bad.

The Longer Version
The Mechanic
The Critical! System is a Creative Commons licensed game. It isn't a BY-ND-NC license that's basically "you can share this with people" but it's a living breathing BY-SA license. That means you can take the Critical! system, modify it as you see fit and publish your own game. Everything that Firestorm Ink comes up with that's our own original material we want to share with people, because the more you share with people the more they tend to share back with you.

Beyond the fact that it's a open game, the Critical! system works like any normal system, where you want to beat a target number, but it plays on the age old question that all TN games tend to gloss over. What happens when you meet your target number? In Critical! you get one really good thing, and one really bad thing. That is unless you can bribe your bartender to let you have two really good things, but that price depends always on the mood of your Bartender, and how often you've asked for their favour before.

The World
I'm biased, but I think the world itself is pretty damned funny. It's so funny, that I'm also making it a CC license. It's going to be a BY-NC-SA. We want you to tell us all the stories you have when playing in Westerly. Character blurbs, short stories, poems, plays, actual play events, novels. You name it, we want it. If we like it enough, hell there's a good chance we'd publish it. We want to really push the world and let people explore and put out on the net what they'd like.

Back to what makes the world funny, it's a fantasy world that doesn't rely on being goofy or self-referential in order to be funny. Things happen that are rather serious: border wars, blood feuds, separation movements, mysterious dukes rules from behind a curtain, pirates. However, what makes it different is that each element has a certain twist that makes it funny. The border war is between who doesn't have to control a patch of land. The blood feuds are over a school, and who was named Gwendolyn first. Things like that which give the world it's humourous edge. What also helps is that everyone in the world takes everything very seriously, for the most part humour depends on characters being able to keep the wall up and accept things that we might find ridiculous or outlandish.

I think these two things really drive Critical!: Go Westerly and are two big reasons why you should check it out if you see it being played at a Con, or if it's on the shelf at your FLGS (eventually!).