Constantine, BRP ready?

[Bill the barbarian]

11 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

Non, non.  That's Ars Magica, pre-World of Darkness  Plenty of people were confused and/or disappointed that Mage: the Ascension wasn't a modern-day AM, but it was probably fortunate for both games in the end

 

M:tA, got me there, what you have said is about as much as I know. Why does this have the nuts and bolts to pull off a Constantine, or even better, a blond bloke from London from the Hellblazer comics?

6 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

Anyway, Constantine was also very much of that time, and thus the Hollywood treatment, the Americanisation, the demon gun, etc.  But that's not bad, really.  I mean, Tilda Swinton as Gabriel!  The tar dripping off Satan's feet!  It's just not the comic Hellblazer.  But it is very World o' Darkness.  And it's kind of John Wick, too -- I'm not kidding about that.  All the bits are there in BRP and it's many spawn to pull together an occult action game.

 

No, bottom line Constantine is no Hellblazer! Just not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Not as Wickian as I feared. And Tilda, have yet to see a bad performance from her.

[Ian Absentia]

8 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Why does this have the nuts and bolts to pull off a Constantine, or even better, a blond bloke from London from the Hellblazer comics?

So the ironic thing about John Constantine is that just as he threw shade at The Spectre in Neil Gaiman's The Books of Magic: He's been up and down the occult league tables faster than a whore's drawers.

Which version of Constantine do you want to model?  The canny con man in the know?  Or the occult Batman and most dangerous wizard alive?  Or the many version in between?  Me?  I want the first option, and I think you could do this with straight-from-the-bottle Call of Cthulhu.  Well, okay, Pulp Cthulhu.

!i!

[Baron Wulfraed]

4 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

No, bottom line Constantine is no Hellblazer! Just not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Not as Wickian as I feared. And Tilda, have yet to see a bad performance from her.

If you thought the movie was bad... Ever catch episodes of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_(TV_series)

 

[Joerg]

8 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

16 hours ago, Joerg said:

In part taking the blame for the activities of Peter's lay.

?

Read the books, don't make me spoil your fun.

[Akhôrahil]

On 7/11/2021 at 6:55 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

Just finished watching Constantine with Keanu Reeves <whoa>. And as bad as one might think it could be... my first 10 minutes looking at Keanu Reeves' Honolulu good looks and black hair had me thinking.

Have you read the comics it's based on (Hellblazer)? I think Constantine is pretty enjoyable, although it helps if you put aside what you would expect from the source material (even though it adapted an actual story arc). 

Also, absolutely everyone should strive to avoid being John Constantine's friend, or worse yet, love interest. That's certain doom.

Edited July 18, 2021 by Akhôrahil

[Bill the barbarian]

Pretty sure the first time I encountered John was in the pages of Swamp Thing back in the mid 80s.

[Ian Absentia]

Ah-hem.  This is why Constantine should not be paired with actual superheroes...

I'll take the holy shotgun over this any day.  As stated above -- whore's drawers.

!i!

[Bill the barbarian]

He works reasonably well with Deadman!

[Ian Absentia]

14 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

He works reasonably well with Deadman!

And Zatanna (at least when she's not throwing balls of flaming msalpotce), or even Batman (when he's just, you know, a man).  But again, how do you like your Constantine?  Hard boiled, well done, or à la mode?

!i!

Edited July 18, 2021 by Ian Absentia

[Akhôrahil]

2 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Pretty sure the first time I encountered John was in the pages of Swamp Thing back in the mid 80s.

That's when he was created, so very likely.

[Ian Absentia]

On 7/17/2021 at 2:07 AM, Baron Wulfraed said:

If you thought the movie was bad... Ever catch episodes of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_(TV_series)

As allowed previously, the movie was okay as it's own thing, even good in its own way.  Oof, but that TV show...I'd rather you hadn't reminded me.

But, hey, how 'bout that Pulp Cthulhu suggestion?  Among other virtues, it's a game I don't hear nearly enough about.  And, I have to admit, it's pretty much how my friends and I tended to play Call of Cthulhu in our day.

!i!

[Bill the barbarian]

6 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

As allowed previously, the movie was okay as it's own thing, even good in its own way.  Oof, but that TV show...I'd rather you hadn't reminded me.

 

Y’all trying to make me happy I quit watching boob tube in the late 70s?

5 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

But, hey, how 'bout that Pulp Cthulhu suggestion?  Among other virtues, it's a game I don't hear nearly enough about.  And, I have to admit, it's pretty much how my friends and I tended to play Call of Cthulhu in our day.

 

Now that sounds interesting.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Bill the barbarian

[Ian Absentia]

3 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Now that [Pulp Cthulhu] sounds interesting.

You could probably cobble the same effect together in generic BRP from the BGB, because these things aren't exactly rocket science, but Pulp Cthulhu has the character types ready to play.  Taking Constantine himself as an example:

• Archetype is either Harlequin or Rogue
• Talents draw heavily from the Mental table (Sharp Witted, Arcane Insight, maybe Resilient) and probably Smooth Talker from the Physical table
• Occupation is probably Occultist, but leaning into the overlap with Confidence Trickster
• Credit Rating is the low end of Average, just this side of Poor (almost always extended beyond his means)

The Mythos isn't exactly a proper fit for a Hellblazer-ish world, but it's not that far off and can probably accommodate much of the magical/demonic detail from Advanced Sorcery (I used to run vampire and werewolf games with CoC before the World of Darkness saw print).  And the Pulp version of the Sanity system and use of Luck points seems like a good fit for Constantine (survivable if you're a title character, still dismal if you're in a supporting role).  The background and adventures won't really help you out, but it's a good book all-around.

Assuming you're playing with just two or three player characters, you're looking at something akin to Blade: Trinity, but with the dial turned down from 11 to maybe 5 or 6.  Players would put their heads together like they would for a straight-up game of Pulp Cthulhu and choose their specialist roles on the team, then personalise from among the Archetypes and Talents -- I'd keep them more suggestively mystical than overtly magical.  Plots could be borrowed liberally from the first couple of years of the comic, and guest appearances could be made by some of the genuine magical talent from your game world.

I'd play the hell out of that game.  Pun most certainly intended.

!i!

[Bill the barbarian]

1 hour ago, Ian Absentia said:

I'd play the hell out of that game.  Pun most certainly intended.

 

Sigh, I hate when amateurs wield puns...

Yeah, while watching the movie, I thought to the Wicks BRP conversation of way back (woah)... that led me to think of the wonderful reads I have had... and I have seen many guises of John... John Constantine, but he was always disheveled, always smoking, almost always on the verge of one disaster or another as he careened through life sometimes being a fast talker, often being a con, mage, ne'er-do-well, usually being dishevelled (check, I think I got that one) always being cool except when he wasn’t. In other words the perfect characters (the many faces of Argrath, eat your heart out). In one taxi and out of one airport and... Those that wanted to run with him were doomed or mighty... yeah, ready to be BRPed in my honest opinion! Great see there are options for the adventurous!

I’d play the hell back into that game!

Cheers

Edited July 19, 2021 by Bill the barbarian

[Ian Absentia]

Okay, this player character team, for instance, is way over the top.

!i!

[Bill the barbarian]

2 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

Okay, this player character team, for instance, is way over the top.

That had to be the famous CoC cartoon I heard so much about but thankfully never watched, and tell me that pilgrim was not Kane with anther name... <woah>

[glassneedles]

11 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

As allowed previously, the movie was okay as it's own thing, even good in its own way.  Oof, but that TV show...I'd rather you hadn't reminded me.

You know the actor they had playing Constantine in that has been appearing as him in Legends of Tomorrow the arrowverse time traveling show. It's actually pretty good and just tries to have ridiculously stupid time traveling plots that are eminently watchable. There is one where they have to fix George Lucas dropping out of film school and becoming insurance salesman of the year. 

[Ian Absentia]

6 hours ago, glassneedles said:

You know the actor they had playing Constantine in that has been appearing as him in Legends of Tomorrow the arrowverse time traveling show.

I actually recall the actor (Matt Ryan) favorably in the role, but the show not so much.  And the "Arrowverse" is probably the best overall cinematic realisation of a DC universe (as long as they don't dip too deeply into the soap operatics), and I like how they've been able to cross characters over from other networks and unrelated series.  Constantine himself is at his best reserved as a guest star or one-shot, otherwise you end up circling the supernatural drain before long.

!i!

Edited July 19, 2021 by Ian Absentia