The Art Of The Rise Of Skywalker

I look forward to getting The Art Of The Rise Of Skywalker in part because of the really weird bits like this headline illustration of a BB-Tank. The Starman pilot on the other hand, gimme.

This Book Contains No Geese

This Book Contains No Geese, a fiction collection from Stew Wilson.

Have a safe Trans Day of Visibility.

The Walther PPK...

A collection of prop guns from the James Bond films has been stolen. Ah, Blofeld.

Batwoman

Burnside!

If you’re up against a supervillain with an Alice In Wonderland theme, don’t trust someone called Dodgson.

Virtual|Horror Con

VirtualHorror Con, for tabletop horror games, April 4-5. Lots of interesting stuff a-coming. (Yes, it clashes with ScaledCon on Saturday.)

Koir

Want to listen to something streaming? Koir is a new platform to support digital performances.

ScaledCon pub quiz preparation

Answers redacted in case anyone can read my writing. Including me.

Earth Hour done.

Home is where the games are

A complete list of free and PWYW games at OneBookShelf.

Frostgrave

Free Frostgrave rulebook PDF.

Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts V-VI

Two new Nine Inch Nails instrumental Ghosts albums, free.

“Some of it kind of happy, some not so much.”

Star Witch

Following Star Wars: Jedi - Fallen Order, I’m imagining a Nightsister protagonist.

Or a space opera with witches in place of Jedi, with psychic-style powers presented as rare, weird and spooky.

Imagining everything else looking pretty SF-ish, but there’s this creepy-looking robed figure on the bridge of a starship.

Having a psychic in a Star Trek setup being spooky and weird could work too. (Babylon 5 kind of does this.)

The first issue of Challenge I bought had a Traveller article on isolated cultures thinking psionics was magic and the possibility of gifted characters leaning in to that.

Tolkien Reading Day.

Apparently this is Tolkien Reading Day. A good day for reminders.

“Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.”

So it’s the 25th and we had the family recipe soup and opened a box of chocolate biscuits. This is Backup Christmas.

CoNZealand - Virtual Worldcon

The 78th Worldcon, CoNZealand, will be happening online at the end of July.

Half price Trinity, Scion and Scarred Lands PDFs

Until the end of the month.

R. Talsorian are doing something similar.

Stuart Gordon

Stuart Gordon, director of Re-Animator and many more, has died.

Sounds Like Hell threads

IC
OOC

Let’s see how this goes...

Uderzo

Albert Uderzo, co-creator of Asterix, has died.

ScaledCon Pub Quiz

Yes, I am doing the ScaledCon pub quiz. Yes, I retired from doing the Conpulsion pub quiz in 2018. Yes, there will be a question about the Edinburgh sequence in Avengers Infinity War. And hopefully some more.

The Mandalorian

This is the Way.

Really leaning in to the Spaghetti Western style.

Jon Favreau, writer and director of Iron Man, wrote the first three episodes and they all involve hammering armour.

Werner Herzog in Star Wars is SO WEIRD.

Disney+

Everything on Disney+ on UK launch day.

Star Wars: All the films except The Rise Of Skywalker (special editions - Maclunky! - and The Last Jedi comes with commentary), The Mandalorian (although not all of it!) as well as Rebels and the newly-extended Clone Wars though not the original 2D series or the behind-the-scenes videos, and no Resistance, presumably showing somewhere else.

Marvel: The MCU up to Avengers Endgame apart from the MCU Spider-movies and The Incredible Hulk, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, The Inhumans and two seasons of Runaways but not Cloak & Dagger here as it’s currently exclusive on Prime.

Pixar up to Toy Story 4 and lots of shorts.

National Geographic: All of The World According To Jeff Goldblum among other things.

Disney things!

Hey, The Rocketeer! And watching it gets a recommendation for Tomorrowland... which then recommends The Rocketeer. And it doesn’t get a suggestion for Captain America from the same director. Boo.

No Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Kim Possible! Including the ending, and then the season after the ending. And... a live-action movie?

Gargoyles! Including the apparently decanonised third season!

Tips for remote gaming

Tips for remote gaming from Robin D. Laws on the Pelgrane site.

Happy birthday Cat!

Stay safe. I will endeavour to be mildly amusing as usual.

New Sounds Like Hell title card

Image, royalty free from Pexels on Pixabay.

I am doing something for ScaledCon

I am doing something for ScaledCon. I hope it will work. It isn’t anything terribly complicated, but it is a first time online-ing it.

The Avengers is on. Of course I am watching The Avengers.

Tabletop Audio Vampire Soundpad

Tabletop Audio Vampire Soundpad for all your creepy modern city game needs. Alleys and overpasses, hotel lobbies, stakes in the heart, John Wick like themes and mournful music.

Remote gaming

I have just successfully-ish played online, apart from my video falling off and Discord only offering audio when I got it back.

The Rise Of Skywalker secrets

Behind the scenes of The Rise Of Skywalker.

Nationals update

The Nationals has moved from late April to July. Dead By Dawn has also moved from that same weekend in late April to November. So I could now go to the Nationals if it still needs GMs, though the rescheduling may affect the numbers.

Final Destination at twenty

A look back at twenty years of Final Destination and how it could have been even grimmer.

(Fun fact: I once ran a Final Destination PBP, and remain proud of the second death, with a gravestone falling off the back of the masons’ truck at the funeral for the first, gaining momentum as it tumbled downhill... For a while there, “runaway gravestone” was a Googlewhack.)

ScaledCon

Come Conpulsion weekend, ScaledCon, an online event organised by some CP veterans. Details to follow.

This Time It’s Wargame

The influence of Aliens on computer and video games. Though I’d stress that the comparative lack of influence of Alien is in part due to the comparative lack of games! But yeah. I mean, I’ve played DOOM.

VtM audiobooks

Walk Among Us, three new Vampire: The Masquerade audio novels. coming soon.

Vampire: The Masquerade comics

A new Vampire: The Masquerade series from Vault Comics, starting in July.

Beowulf quickstart

Beowulf: Age Of Heroes - The Hermit’s Sanctuary, the free quickstart for the new 5E-based duet-play game from Handiwork Games.

Redshirts

Redshirts, John Scalzi looking sidelong at Star Trek, currently free in ebook.

St. Patrick’s Day

Have a good St. Patrick’s Day.

Gar Hanrahan provides seasonal adventure hooks for Pelgrane games!

World Of Darkness giveaways

Onyx Path are giving away free World Of Darkness 20 rulebook PDFs every day until Friday starting with V20 Dark Ages, roughly 10AM CST each day:

Tuesday: Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition

Wednesday: Mage: The Ascension 20

Thursday: Changeling: The Dreaming 20

Friday: Wraith: The Oblivion 20

Conpulsion news

Conpulsion will not be going ahead this April. A sound decision. With a P.S. to watch this space.

Tiny Supers Pay What You Want

From Gallant Knight Games, Be The Hero You Need Today.

Looking forward

Staying home, thinking ahead to games for summer.

I’d like to re-up my recent Buffy game if possible, and also do something with some regulars.

I want to actively roll some dice with Trinity.

I have various Star Wars related thoughts, though I may leave that till after The High Republic setting arrives and do something with that.

There be always the Vampire family and other flavours of Darkness.

Lockdown

Do what you can.

An argument for fudging rolls

Link thanks to B. Dave Walters. Based on Pixie And Brutus.

Comics School

Gail Simone is running a Comics School writing workshop on Twitter. Among other nice things, some of these pitches would make great adventure hooks!

Worldbuilding

I just created a record shop for an RPG and called it Vinyl Destination.

I am not ashamed.

(Of course now I check there are at least three real ones.)

Edit: this is apparently a big hit, with people on Twitter and Facebook planning to steal it. Fame at last!

Critical Role fifth anniversary

The RPG scene has changed a great deal since that fateful night, five years ago, when Critical Role began. Not the first video streaming Actual Play but certainly the biggest.

Legendlore

Legendlore RPG rulebook is now on Kickstarter. Portal fantasy, using D&D 5E as a base, adapted from a comics series.

“No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.”
Sir Terry Pratchett

My priorities for an NPC in the group

Should I add an NPC to the band’s support system? Maybe rhythm guitar. Possibly to drive the van, help with sound checks, let me join in the snarky asides and sometimes be kidnapped by monsters.

Me preparing to run a Buffy PBP

Vampire: The Masquerade - Vendetta

A new card game for Vampire: The Masquerade - Vendetta sees up to five players fighting over influence and territory in an attempt to become the next Prince of Chicago. Now Kickstarting with a print and play demo available free.

Buffy at 23

Buffy The Vampire Slayer first aired on The WB twenty-three years ago. Not the most dramatic of anniversaries, but hey.

Relics: A Game Of Angels

Relics: A Game Of Angels by Steve Dee is now out in PDF. Print copies are on their way.

I playtested Relics as well as backing it, and an adventure by me was in the unmet stretch goals, so here I am plugging this. And if you want to review it or stream a game, ping Steve for a free PDF.

Max Von Sydow

Max Von Sydow has died, aged 90.

My introduction to his work was in Flash Gordon, where he took archetypal villain Ming The Merciless and made him stand out because he was having so much fun.

International Women’s Day

Have a good International Women’s Day!

So the news from Easter Island sucks.

What is Weiland-Yutani up to now?

Ideas for what a morally questionable space megacorp might do to a planetary base accidentally or on purpose.

Innnndyyyyy!

Raiders Of The Lost Ark in AV Club’s The Popcorn Champs, Tom Breihan having already written about it briefly in A History Of Violence.

Skating Polly

If you told me Skating Polly were actual second-generation grunge kids I would believe you.

Noughts + Crosses

Noughts + Crosses, based on the novel by Malorie Blackman, a big BBC One alternate history series.

World Book Day

Read a book!

And click The Literacy Site to give free books!

GM’s Appreciation Day

It’s the 19th apparently annual GM’s Appreciation Day. Appreciate us! Please?

World Wildlife Day

Do some good on World Wildlife Day.

Artemis Fowl

Have they messed up Artemis Fowl? Hmph.

A birthday suggestion

Happy birthday to Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan! As he points out, The Gutter Prayer is actually Kindle Monthly Deal for the month of March in the US, and Hugo nominations are open. And further down, a response links to 5E D&D versions of some monsters from his novels.

March

It is March now. My calendar has a Tasmanian Devil. This is fine.