Babylon 5 is one of my favorite TV series. In the late-’90s, when the series was being rerun daily on TNT, I would set my VCR to record each new episode before leaving for my nightly shift at Hollywood Video. When I would get home, I would immediately head to the TV, rewind the tape, and watch the next episode. It was absolutely compelling television.

With that being said, I’ve found it very difficult to convince people to try to the show. The difficulty is that the first season is fairly dreadful. Unfortunately, the first season also establishes a lot of stuff that gets huge payoffs later on. B5’s ability to manage its meta-arc — setting up material that gets paid off years later — is one of the things that makes the show great. And so I’m always loathe to tell people to just “skip the 1st season”, because I think that actually does degrade the rest of the experience.

So what I used to tell people was, “Just try the first season. Its got some rough patches, but it’s worth it for the payoff. If you just can’t stomach it, then skip to the second season.”

But most of those people would hit the first season wall, bounce off, and not bother trying the second season. The result was like being stuck in the Kobyashi Maru when trying to get people to give this amazing show enough of a fair shake for it to blow them away.

To that end, I prepared a viewing guide for the first season. It worked for my wife, so I’m declaring it a complete and utter success.

• WATCH – Must watch to get essential arc developments. Some of these are mediocre, but it’ll be worth it for the pay-off. Trust me.
• SKIP – These are the episodes which will probably make your eyes bleed. For the love of god, don’t watch them.
• OPTIONAL – These episodes are decent or better. Some of them are very good.
• OPTIONAL (CLASS 1) – These episodes are recommended for arc reasons, but not required. Basically, there’s nothing essential here, but there may be a few minor developments that will heighten your appreciation of later material.

Some of the Optional and Skip episodes on the list below include some key exposition. This has been indicated with a note where appropriate.

So if you’ve bounced off Babylon 5 in the past — or know someone who has — give it another shot and let me know how it goes. (And, seriously, if the first season is completely intolerable give the second season a shot.)

EPISODE LIST

• The Gathering – WATCH
  
• Midnight on the Firing Line – WATCH
• Soul Hunter – Optional (Class 1)
• Born to the Purple – WATCH
• Infection – SKIP (1)
• The Parliament of Dreams – WATCH
• Mind War – WATCH
• The War Prayer – Optional (2)
• And the Sky Full of Stars – WATCH
• Deathwalker – Optional (Class 1)
• Believers – Optional
• Survivors – Optional (Class 1)
• By Any Means Necessary – Optional
• Signs and Portents – WATCH
• TKO – SKIP (3)
• Grail – Optional (4)
• Eyes – WATCH
• Legacies – WATCH
• A Voice in the Wilderness – WATCH
• A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 2 – WATCH
• Babylon Squared – WATCH
• The Quality of Mercy – WATCH
• Chrysalis – WATCH

NOTES

(1) – There is an organization known as Interplanetary Expeditions. They are reputedly a front organization for a bioweapons corporation.

(2) – Anti-alien sentiments on Earth are turning violent.

(3) The B-plot of this episode is good. If you’re feeling adventurous, skip any scene that doesn’t have Ivanova in it.

(4) There’s a ghetto called Down Below populated by Lurkers who came to the station looking for a better life and have fallen through the cracks.

(click for legible size)

I still can’t decide if it bugs me or not that alignment takes up something like 1/5th of the chapter on character creation (simply due to the bulk of information being conveyed). It was originally meant to be relegated to a sidebar, but it actually proved too large for that and ended up getting all of page 11 to itself.

Of course, that’s partly because the information on alignment needs to be entirely contained in Chapter 1, whereas the rest of Chapter 1 references players out to the more detailed descriptions of ability scores, classes, races, and the like found elsewhere in the rulebook.

A couple of other options I entertained:

(1) Removing alignment entirely. I would have left “good” and “evil” descriptors in for spells and extraplanar creatures, but the basic concept of PCs having an “alignment” would have been gone. Ultimately, I decided this was too radical a departure.

(2) Just describing the two axes of alignment — good vs. evil; law vs. chaos — in general terms and not discussing each combination in detail. (This might have included an old school, x-y axis chart of alignments.) A remnant of this remains in the sidebar on page 11, but what I discovered was that new players weren’t grokking the system. They were asking a lot of clarifying questions, and that’s usually an indication that the rulebook isn’t doing its job.

What do you think?

Check out this page purporting to be a list of Words That Don’t Exist in the English Language. It’s been making the rounds for awhile, so you may have seen it. And at least portions of it have possibly been debunked. But here are a couple of examples:

Waldeinsamkeit (German): The feeling of being alone in the woods.

Forelsket (Norwegian): The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.

Gheegle (Filipino): The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute.

What concepts would be so unique to a fantasy world that they might give rise to words which are, more-or-less, untranslatable to English?

Here’s a few thoughts:

The feeling of slight nausea and dizziness that happens when you teleport somewhere.

A color that can only be created by magic.

The soul-searing, howling noise created by adamantine when it’s shattered.

The sick giddiness left in the wake of a charm or domination effect.

What would be some good words for that? What other concepts would be evocative?

The Legends & Labyrinths 8-Bit Funding project has come to an end! And it’s been a huge success! To celebrate, my primary gaming group baked me a cake:

What happens next?

Sometime in the next 24-48 hours, I should be receiving a spreadsheet from 8-Bit Funding. Once I have that in hand, I’ll be able to organize it and start contacting funders to make the arrangements necessary for their perks. So, at some point in the next week, everyone should be receiving their copies of the Black Book Beta (ideally sooner rather than later).

If you’re a funder, keep an eye on the Updates page at 8-Bit Funding. That’s where I’ll be posting any kind of “house management” stuff regarding perk fulfillment (rather than cluttering up the Alexandrian).

Once that’s done, I’ll be able to continue the process of commissioning art, proofreading, and continued playtesting that will eventually culminate in the release of the final rulebook. My goal is for this to happen as quickly as possible, with the time table being largely dictated by when the artists can complete their work.

Here at the Alexandrian I’ll be continuing to post Black Book Beta Responses. Now that people have copies of the rulebooks in their hands, I’ll probably also be rolling out some Home Testing Kits. (Let me know in the comments if little test scenarios and endurance testing sounds interesting to you.) There will also, of course, be non-L&L content coming down the pike.

The adventure is just beginning!

THANK YOU!

P.S. We didn’t hit $4,000. But I’ve decided to go ahead and unlock the $4,000 landmark bonuses anyway. You guys have been great!

There’s less than an hour left for the Legends & Labyrinths 8-Bit Funding project. As I write this, we’re sitting at $3,796. That may be where we end up, but with us getting so close to the $4,000 landmark I thought I’d make one final push (with a cheesy music video) to put us over the top.

Here’s what gets unlocked at the $4,000 landmark:

Beta Warriors ($12+) will receive Mini-Adventure 1: Complex of Zombies.

Labyrinth Prowlers ($30+) will receive both mini-adventures.

Labyrinth Exemplars ($50+) will receive both mini-adventures and a City Supplement of their choice.

Lords of the Labyrinth ($150+) will receive both mini-adventures and all three City Supplements (Dweredell, Aerie, and Anyoc).

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!