Movie Review: Ben-Hur (1959)

Happy Holidays!

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to arguably the most epic (in several senses of the word) movie of all time, "Ben-Hur":

A remake of the 1925 silent film of the same name, which in turn was adapted from General Lew Wallace's 1880 novel, Ben-Hur is an inspirational tale of betrayal, torment, vengeance and redemption.  A sweeping historical drama that also manages to be intensely personal (director William Wyler dubbed the movie "Hollywood's first intimate spectacle"), the film successfully combines period drama, action, politics, and romance.

Set in the time of Jesus Christ, Ben-Hur has a clever double narrative that begins with the birth of Jesus and follows the future messiah into young manhood before shifting to Judah Ben-Hur, a Prince of Judea.  The titular character is reunited with his childhood friend, Messala, who returns as the new commander of the Roman garrison in Jerusalem and who is second in authority only to the provincial governor.

Messala is eager to use his friendship with Judah to cement Roman authority, only to be rebuffed.  Later, the tables are turned after Judah's sister accidentally injures the governor and the spurned Messala sentences Judah to slavery on a galley and his sister and mother to the dungeon.  En route to the gallery, Judah nearly dies of thirst after being denied water by a cruel guard when a young carpenter gives the new slave a drink and stares down the guard.

After a twist of fate leads to Judah's freedom, he returns home and, believing his sister and mother are dead, challenges Messala to a brutal chariot race, where anything goes, including allowing the Roman to ride a scythed chariot!   The tribune's attempt to carve up Judah goes poorly and he ends up trampled to death by another racer.  However, before passing, Messala smugly tells Judah that "the race is not over" and informs him that his sister and mother are not dead, but rather lepers.

Judah brings his sister and mother to Jerusalem to see a young rabbi preaching peace, only to find that 1) the rabbi has been sentenced to crucifixion and 2) he is the man who gave Judah water years before.  Judah witnesses the crucifixion, learning to let go of his hate, while his sister and mother miraculously healed.

This is a monumental (in several senses of the word) film!  Not just worthy successor to the 1925 film, Ben-Hur was an enormous financial and critical success, the highest-grossing movie of the year that won a record 11 Academy Awards (Titanic (1997), tied the record nearly 40 years later)!

Intelligent, engaging, exciting, and dramatic, Ben-Hur has stood the test of time as a landmark film.  In the classic style, there's both an overture and an intermission, breaking up the running time of 212 minutes.  However, the movie never drags yet still allows scenes time to breathe.

Miklós Rózsa composed the longest ever film score, which remains influential.  However, there's no music in the dramatic parts (e.g., leprosy), relying on the strength of the acting and allowing the audience to reach their own conclusions, whereas a lesser film would use musical cues to tell the audience what to feel.

Ben-Hur also successfully treads a fine line.  The movie deals with intensely Christian subject matter, but director William Wyler succeeds in making a film that appeal to anyone.  Additionally, Wyler used Jesus sparingly and didn't show the face or voice of the messiah, only other people's reactions.  This allows the viewer's imagination to fill in the rest.

Ramming speed!

With MGM facing bankruptcy, the studio bet the house on this film!  This was most expensive movie in history at the time, with a final production budget of over $15 million (more than double what was planned).  It featured more crew and extras than any other film before it - over 10,000 extras alone for the stunning chariot race sequence.

MGM built over 300 sets (some of which took more than a year to complete), including the 2000 foot long Circus (i.e., racing stadium) and filled it with thousands of costumed extras, giving the film a verisimilitude that CGI simply cannot match.

Additionally, Ben-Hur was shot in 65mm, cutting edge technology for the time.  These wide shots, combined with the restrained use of close ups, added to the epic feel while also revealing a huge amount of detail, adding to the sense of realism.  The film also featured graphic violence for the time (e.g, dismemberment, trampled to death by horses, etc.)

It was a grueling shoot.  By the end of the production more than 1,000,000 pounds of plaster and 40,000 cubic feet of lumber were used.  With the fate of the studio on the line, producer Sam Zimbalist died of a heart attack from the constant and mounting pressure.

So, if you want to see thoughtful and eloquent storytelling that is both moving and uplifting, check out this all-time great flick!

RPG Design: Tactical Depth v. Complexity

Earlier, I discussed the importance of Tactical Depth to RPG Design.  This week, I wanted to talk about the trade off between a game's Tactical Depth and it's Complexity.

As I mentioned before, by "Tactical Depth," I mean the relative number and types of meaningfully different options available to PCs that can change the state of the game, both and out of combat.  However, the currency which with an RPG Designer buys Tactical Depth is Complexity (i.e., as a game becomes Deeper, it concurrently also become more Complex).  This is because as a game's Complexity increases, there are more rules to consider before reaching a resolution and, as a consequence, the game's pace slows down.

IMHO, ideally any RPG should have sufficient Tactical Depth to keep players interested.  However, this Tactical Depth, IMHO, should be bought with the least possible Complexity to keep the game's pace moving.

A great example of Complexity-efficient Tactical Depth is utilizing a universal Core Mechanic, such as the d20 System, the first iteration of which appeared in 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons.

To resolve an action in the d20 System, a player rolls a 20-sided die and adds modifiers based on the  ability modifier, if any, and the skill modifier, if any, as well as other, situational modifiers.  In Dungeons & Dragons, the d20 System replaced a host of different and usually unrelated subsystems in older editions, making the game easier to learn and quicker to play.

However, speed is not the be all and end all in RPG Design.  For example, in Original Dungeons & Dragons, there's no mechanical difference between weapons since all weapons do 1d6 damage.  This is certainly less Complex than variable weapon damage introduced in Supplement I: Greyhawk, but most people would consider non-variable weapon damage to be less fun.

Also, as mentioned above a game's Complexity increases every time a new rule is added, and rules are added for more than just Tactical Depth.  So, Complexity issues must be considered in other contexts as well.

For example, beginning with 1e AD&D, material spell components are required in order to successfully cast spells, such as:

Spider Climb (Alteration)

Level: 1     Components: V, S, M    Range: Touch     Casting Time: 1 segment    Duration: 1 round + 1 round/level     Saving Throw: None    Area of Effect: Creature touched

Explanation/Description: A Spider Climb spell enables the recipient to climb and travel upon vertical surfaces just as a giant spider is able to do, i.e. at 3" movement rate, or even hang upside down from ceilings. Note that the affected creature must have bare hands and feet in order to climb in this manner. During the course of the spell the recipient cannot handle objects which weigh less than 50 g.p., for such objects will stick to the creature's hands/feet, so a magic-user will find it virtually impossible to cast spells if under a Spider Climb dweomer. The material components of this spell are a drop of bitumen and a live spider, both of which must be eaten by the spell recipient.

As a result, material spell components adds a resource management element for casters and is also a way to address Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards, since, as a caster levels up, it is increasingly unlikely that they will happen to have all the material spell components that they would like for a particular today.

However, many (if not most) groups consider material spell components to be a poor purchase of Complexity since they consider the rule unnecessarily restrictive and too much of a drag on the game's pace.  Thus, material spell components are often hand waved or ignored outright.

Movie Review: "Ronal the Barbarian" (2011)

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to an interesting recent animated comedic Swords & Sorcery flick, "Ronal the Barbarian":

In "Ronal the Barbarian," our titular character is from the Barbarian tribe (yes, in this film, "Barbarian" is an ethnic identifier rather than a class), except, unlike all the other Barbarians, Ronal is weak, cowardly... and clever.  However, being an outlier proves to be a benefit when the evil Lord Volcazar, comes to kidnap the Barbarian tribe for a sorcerous ritual and mistakes Ronal for an average person rather than a Barbarian.

After Volcazar's men murder his uncle and raze his village, it's up to Ronal to save the surviving Barbarians with his new sidekick, the... amorous... Alibert the Bard.  Next, there's a putting the band together segment as Ronal "recruits" the rest of his adventuring party, Zandra the Shieldmaiden (which again is an ethnic identifier) and Elric the Elf.

Then, the party has to find the Sword of Kron (the only weapon able to defeat Volcazar) before time runs out.  Things end up pretty much as you might expect on this "definitely not a quest," although some tropes are inverted for comic purposes.

First off, I want to say that, while "Ronal the Barbarian" is animated in the style of a children's film (e.g., style, character design, etc.), this is an adult film.  Not pornographic, but definitely not for children, with copious amounts of foul language, T&A and sexual innuendo.  For example:

Elric: "My senses say that Ronal is in great dan-" 

Alibert: "We're fucked."

If they make a TV broadcast version, there will certainly be a lot of edits and/or bleeping!

This film is clearly influenced by Conan the Barbarian (1982) and is a parody or an homage of many other fantasy works and tropes.  It is also purportedly influenced by Heavy Metal, but evidence is scant (other than the movie being set in the world of Metalonia) and it lacks the awesome rock soundtrack of Korgoth of Barbarian.

Overall, "Ronal the Barbarian" is a solid but not spectacular movie.  Assuming one is the appropriate audience, this is a fun film, with plenty of slapstick, juvenile and sexually-based humor.  The animation is okay but not great, and the story is reasonably entertaining (there's an interesting face-heel turn that's unfortunately telegraphed from a mile away).

So, if you want to see an earnestly made animated Swords & Sorcery yarn that's heavy on comedy and fan service, check out this film!  

RPG Design: Spell Points

Last year, I discussed a hallmark of Dungeons & Dragons, Vancian Magic.  This week, I wanted to take a look at perhaps the most popular method of handling magic in role-playing games, Spell Points.

By "Spell Points," I mean a game mechanic whereby a Player Character's ability to use magic (or similar abilities) is denoted as magic points (or mana points, etc.) and where each use of magic has a certain magic point cost.  Different spells have different magic point costs and if a Player Character runs out of magic points, they must wait until the game's recovery mechanic kicks in before being able to use magic once more.

Spell Points have been around since almost the beginning of tabletop role-playing games.  For example, Warlock, a home-brewed variant of Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) that used Spell Points, was published in the Spartan Gaming Journal in August 1975.  No less a person than J. Eric Holmes, author of the Holmes Basic D&D Set (1977), was a fan of Warlock.  Indeed, Messr Holmes tried to convince Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, to include a spell point system in Holmes Basic.

However, Messr Gygax was famously not a fan of spell points.  For example, in The Dragon #16, he pontificated:

"Spell point systems are also currently in vogue amongst the fringe group which haunt the pages of “Amateur Press Association” publications. Now APAs are generally beneath contempt, for they typify the lowest form of vanity press. There one finds pages and pages of banal chatter and inept writing from persons incapable of creating anything which is publishable elsewhere. Therefore, they pay money to tout their sophomoric ideas, criticise those who are able to write and design, and generally make themselves obnoxious.* While there are notable exceptions, they are far too few to give any merit to the vehicles they appear in. From this morass rose the notion that a spell point system should be inserted into D&D. Strangely enough, “realism” was used as one of the principal reasons for use of spell points. These mutterings are not as widespread as the few proponents of such a system imagine. The D&D magic system is drawn directly from CHAINMAIL. It, in turn, was inspired by the superb writing of Jack Vance. This “Vancian” magic system works splendidly in the game. If it has any fault, it is towards making characters who are magic-users too powerful. This sort of fault is better corrected within the existing framework of the game — by requiring more time to cast spells, by making magic-users progress more slowly in experience levels. Spell points add nothing to D&D except more complication, more record keeping, more wasted time, and a precept which is totally foreign to the rest of the game."

The above is, of course, just one of many examples of Messr Gygax passing off his opinion as fact and a part of his epic flame wars with various West Coast gamers in the 1970s.

Other minds were more open, even in the early days of the hobby.  For example, Adventures in Fantasy (1978), the second fantasy RPG produced by Dave Arneson, the other co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, used a Spell Point system.  Of course, Adventures in Fantasy was a commercial failure, due in large part to the complete lack of marketing support.


Like Vancian Magic, a well-designed Spell Point system is simple, easy to understand and turns spells into a limited resource, adding Tactical Depth to a game.  In addition, if the number of Spell Points is correctly balanced, a Spell Point system can help address Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards.

Hands down, the biggest attraction of a Spell Point system is that they give magicians great flexibility.  However, that flexibility in a poorly-designed Spell Point system can exacerbate Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards, so due care must be taken to balance a game properly.