Midnight Mass

Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass feels very much like he was thinking of redoing a particular Stephen King book but King reminded him there’s another new version around.

My favourite detail is that Father Paul isn’t a great compelling speaker.

Cut for the reveal you will probably guess in twenty minutes.

New World

New World is the new MMO from Amazon, which basically boils down to the Fountain of Youth versus Zombies, with Conquistadors heavily featured though the PCs seem to be closer to Pilgrims, and a lot of classic Ultima style supply gathering.

How would I do Conquistadors and Pirates versus Zombies? Not sure. The Conquistadors are a tad problematic to present as protagonists, of course.

The Green Knight

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is one of the great Arthurian stories, tackled by many over the past centuries including Tolkien, and the new film from writer and director David Lowery goes all in on its sense of inevitable doom and the weight of expectations. In RPG terms I imagine this would be the Dragon Warriors version rather than the Pendragon version.

The Green Knight being literally green and of the woods is not new, but well presented.

Lots of pentacles, including on the floor in the hollow U of this Round Table.

Could the fox always talk, or (plot hook alert) was this a place where animals can talk?

Creepy first trailer

Less creepy second trailer

Choose Your Own Blair Witch Project

An open call for ideas for a Blair Witch CYOA-style app adventure based around going into the woods for a music festival.

Free Guy

Free Guy is now on Disney+ after a 45-day cinema exclusive, while still in some cinemas. It stars Ryan Reynolds as a glitching NPC in GTA Online by way of Fortnite (so basically Saints Row) and Jodie Comer as the real person he bumps into.

Sort of The Truman Show meets They Live with the sunglasses of secrets in a much sillier tone, and a reminder to treat your NPCs with more care, though in a more Wreck-It Ralph than Westworld way.

Director Shawn Levy has a hand in Stranger Things (hence one casting choice) but here is more in Night At The Museum mode.

Also for fellow old Buffy fans, music by Christophe Beck (who has since done the likes of Frozen and WandaVision) so always nice seeing him do something in our neck of the woods, and this score is sometimes bouncy and sometimes referencing fellow Disney-related stuck in a game movie TRON Legacy.

One thing D+ doesn’t have up is this pre-trailer bit.

What If.. Ultron Won?

What If... Ultron Won?

What If... 1.08

“Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton seek to destroy killer-robot Ultron after a cataclysmic event.”

The shortest episode yet by three minutes.

A wedding episode

Have you ever GMed a session of an ongoing game centred on a wedding? I never have. (Or a baptism, though I have featured a birth a couple of times. Quite a number of funerals though...)

I’ve done a one-shot based around a wedding between two NPCs the PCs didn’t know, but that doesn’t really count. I’m talking about one involving PCs or somebody else major.

This realisation follows an RPGnet help request for an urban fantasy wedding episode. Having run much urban fantasy and having been to weddings and receptions I could provide some ideas, on both the urban fantasy and wedding sides, with the two colliding in a couple of cases.

The closest I’ve come was inevitably in The Watch House, where William and Charlotte were planning to tie the knot at some point and then made a common law commitment in the hospital after one of the times he was nearly fatally injured. It went happier than the wedding episode of Buffy anyway!

But a ceremony like this that isn’t tiny can easily be the focus of a session, maybe with some run-up ahead of it as well.

There’s a lot to decide. It can look like setting up a formal party and a diplomatic meeting at the same time, which are both things I have done in games.

Of course how much happens on screen depends on how much you want to possibly go Horribly Wrong.

Venue, officiator, guests, cake, band...

Who sits together at which table? And who absolutely cannot sit together? Tactical mappers might come in handy!

Researching Cinderella for a writing gig led to watching Sleeping Beauty which is where the offended monster left off the guest list cursing the couple’s firstborn came from.

And to When In Rome, a cartoony modern fantasy rom-com involving various unfamiliar wedding traditions going wrong before the plot which is also about accidentally misused fairytale love magic actually kicks in.

It would probably have to be a pretty light game like that. Enemies like to target public occasions and I could easily do a horrible wedding episode in my current series and most of my recent games but that’s rather different.

Besides the character(s) who are getting married, what is everybody else up to? Are the other PCs involved in the ceremony, on the guest list or not? Fighting off some threat who wants to ruin the big day, retrieving the groom after the stag do / bachelor party, stopping the families feuding, getting the ring back after it was stolen by a confused dark rider, that kind of thing.

They could also be involved at one remove. Guests but not that close. Security for a high-profile event. The reception band.

I’m thinking about this one now. Players be ye warned.

Dungeons & Dragons 5+ in 2024

Sounds like Dungeons & Dragons is getting a 50th anniversary edition in 2024, intended to be fully backwards compatible with the big hit of 5th.

Of course the definition of editions in RPGs is always a bit wonky. The first two counted editions are actually Advanced D&D, ignoring the several editions of Basic, and 3.5 doesn’t count despite getting a full set of rulebooks.

Compare Vampire: The Masquerade second edition where IIRC the rules changes would fit in this post. Which is less than the revisions for each Doctor Who core since Tennant, but the big rules revamp for the new Whittaker book is labelled a second edition.

Thanks to Conrad Hubbard for the news.

Exorsisters

I was just reminded of Exorsisters by Ian Boothby and Gisèle Lagacé, and issue 1 is free to read online.

“Did you sign a deal with the Devil? Has your fiancé been dragged to Hell? Then Kate and Cate Harrow should be the first ones you call for timely soul retrieval at a reasonable rate!”

Bore to death

A vampire by Scythe creator Jakub Rozalski. (Thanks to Coyote's Own on RPGnet for sharing.)

Nocturne session zero

Session zero (mostly) done for Vampire: The Masquerade this academic year. Three players I know and know the game, one I know new to the game, three new to me and to the game. I think it’ll work.

Nocturne is a placeholder-y chronicle name, but I’ve made the logo now so it stays unless a much more thematic title comes along.

Netflix trailers including The Sandman and Cowboy Bebop

The Sandman teaser: Not going with the main character having galaxies for eyes is a sensible change for a live-action adaptation.

Cowboy Bebop title sequence. Something something adaptation accuracy something.

Also Witcher spinoffs, Stranger Things 4, a League Of Legends animated series called Arcane that looks more like Dishonored to this ignorant viewer, and some normal stuff too.

From a weekend reveal event called Tudum. Apparently I have been pronouncing the Netflix sound wrong. But so has Millie Bobby Brown, so nyah.

Vampire: The Last Supper LARP

The Last Supper four-day Vampire: The Masquerade LARP covering the rise of the Giovanni in the Renaissance. £600, with accommodation and catering provided. An impressively thorough site with safety and sensitivity rules.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Nocturne

Vampire: The Masquerade - Nocturne

Starting Sunday evenings at GEAS

My next chronicle may not have a definitive plot, or names for more than a couple of the SPCs... but it does have a logo.

Any familiarity with the title is not a coincidence alhough the club hook may not feature this time.

Logo thanks to Brandcrowd, who let you play with their neon sign generators for a while before the popup asking you to join to save your progress.

Dialogue note

Inspired by the 2011 Conan The Barbarian:

“Are you leading me into a trap?”

“No. I’m leading you to certain doom, but not a trap.”

Your GM catchphrase

“If you were a celebrity GM who people celebrated the catch-phrase of, what would people have on their shirts in honor of you?”

Mine is kind of niche, though it comes up a few times.

When someone does really well at a perception check and there’s nothing there:

“You’re really sure there’s nothing there.”

Happy birthday Mark!

Happy birthday to my brother, who was also my first GM (for one session) and sometimes wonders about what’s going on in this hobby. You may see a bit of his research in a forthcoming Relics sourcebook as well.

Send more GMs

Online RPGs are easier for players and not generally for GMs, so we have many players. Send more GMs.

Must not offer to GM two new-player-facing games online. Bad “the show must go on” instinct, stop that.

Night Teeth

Night Teeth (coming to Netflix October 20th) looks like Collateral with vampires instead of assassins, played a little lighter in tone. Could be fun. And shares a cast member as well as lighting style with John Wick, which is totally a Vampire: The Masquerade movie with assassins instead of vampires.

Person Of Interest

Person Of Interest premiered ten years ago.

Showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman look back at some of its key episodes.

“You are being watched. The government has a secret system - a Machine - that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because.. I built it.”

That’s an unusual way to start a primteime TV series.

The series handled a rise in Weird Level from an anonymised version of The Equalizer to cellphone cyberpunk with the question of how we react to the first emergence artificial intelligence.

“It was almost like we snuck in, in sheep’s clothing.” Greg Plageman

Not a bait and switch as it was strongly hinted in the pilot and confirmed by the end of the first season, though I know it lost some people on the way. But not me. And it sticks the landing.

And it has Finch and Reese’s awkward bond, Carter’s stand, Fusco’s long-suffering turn to heroism, Shaw and Root, casual kneecapping, some great montages set to music, a modernising crime story and a huge run on police corruption, and Bear.

Star Wars Visions

Star Wars Visions is a series of shorts from various writers and directors animated by a number of Japanese studios.

I can see why the put The Duel first, as a Kurosawa homage is the most obvious idea for this medium doing Star Wars.

Much less obviously, Tatooine Rhapsody is a cute sorta-grunge band comedy with the voice of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Which is a genre I like but not really my Star Wars thing. Bonus for non-evil Hutt.

The Twins has the first Star Destroyer opening, and the most anime series of the time of Star Wars look.

Overall, the series has Jedi and Force stuff in every episode (including the band comedy for no particular reason) with three featuring surprise lightsaber colour reveals, as well as a couple of plots revolving around Kyber crystals, and also features several medieval-ish village planets too. Maybe getting the studios to call dibs would have resulted in more variety. Maybe a space battle for one, something that I think Star Wars should have as well as lightsaber fights. The closest we get is a great speeder chase.

What If... Thor were an only child?

What If... Thor were an only child?

“Thor, who never learned to be a good hero, throws an out-of-control intergalactic party on Earth.”

And he shaved.

Save us, Darcy!

Autumn

The season I am most likely to misspell, as my fingers always want to make it Autuman.

New old Arthuriana

14th century Merlin story found on paper recycled in the 16th century.

Thanks to DMH on RPGnet for the news.

Werewolf: The Apocalyptic Record

The Apocalyptic Record is a collection of tales and the Big Book of Metaplot for Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition, now live on Kickstarter.

La Brea

La Brea is one of this season’s new genre shows on US network TV:

An epic adventure begins when a massive sinkhole opens in the middle of Los Angeles, pulling hundreds of people and buildings into its depths. Those who fell in find themselves in a mysterious and dangerous primeval land, where they have no choice but to band together to survive. Meanwhile, the rest of the world desperately seeks to understand what happened. In the search for answers, one family torn apart by this disaster will have to unlock the secrets of this inexplicable event to find a way back to each other. 

Trailer

First five minutes which gives away much less

So based on that... I get to use my Primeval tag! 

It looks like a one-big-event take on the anomaly idea. There may be a lot more going on Lost style.

The role of the dangerous land is played by Australia because of course it is.

Red Right Hand 2 overview

We didn’t get to touch on everything I would have liked with Vampire: The Masquerade - Red Right Hand 2 because it was short and had to be. In particular, some Touchstones never made an appearance, others not enough to register. That said, I did get good use out of a mortal NPC under another vampire’s protection, so the idea got a decent airing.

I got to upend an expectation regarding the first-time player’s personal plot, and also hopefully deliver an interesting long-term solution for it.

I had loads of fun with the flighty Tahani-esque harpy and the dour Dredd-style Sheriff.

I did briefly consider having Bruno the seeing eye dog save the day but decided that was too fannish even for me.

RRH 2.12

Ghoul and Thin-Blood watching a vampire burn as the sun rises.

Ghoul: I hate this f'in' job.

Thin-Blood: I concur.

Ghoul: So you going to that club thing tonight?

Vampire: The Masquerade contains a lot of story styles. Sometimes they happen on the same night.

DUNE

Dune (Part One) is coming, for real this time judging by trailers in cinemas. But this has happened twice before, once in miniseries and before that famously in 1984, when David Lynch produced a film that should never have had activity books, let alone pencil cases, lunchboxes, party hats and paper plates.

I doubt the new film will provide anything so hilarious, apart from the director griping about the MCU before his film starring MJ, Drax, Thanos, Erik Selvig and Moon Knight comes out.

At least this time the new RPG has been able to sell for longer than the duration of Gen Con.

Princess Of The Universe

Princess Of The Universe is upon us! Also on itchio! Rose Bailey on toyetic 1980s fantasy, with players creating the heroes and villains using FATE and a chance for the GM to do the Skeletor voice!

Hurricane Ida Relief Bundle

Hurricane Ida Relief Bundle on DriveThruRPG.

The inaccurate retelling of your series

Rogers: The Musical features in the Hawkeye trailer, an MCU reference to Cap’s time as a USO spokesman but also maybe to the time in the 80s that Marvel actually tried to put on a Captain America musical.

I remember the casting ad for this in comics at the time and it seemed like a strange idea then. Reading that plot description with Steve suffering a crisis of confidence and Sharon running for President and targeted for assassination by a major cosmetics company doesn’t make it seem any less so.

What would the book or stage version of your series look like, if the characters became famous enough in the setting to get one and weren’t consulted?

See also the Detective Comics story where someone in Gotham publishes a Batman comic.

Batman Day

I personally celebrate Orthodox Batman Day but hope you enjoy the festivities.

BIPOC Vamp Day

Behold! BIPOC Vamp Day is upon us!

I did not win the GEAS quiz.

Going in solo and running aground on both D&D and Things Young People Know. I did quite well in the Identify Bardcore Cover Intros round, although not only did I misidentify the intro to the bardcore version of I Want It That Way as Metallica, I said Sanitarium but it actually sounds more like Fade To Black.

Sir Clive Sinclair

Sir Clive Sinclair, creator of our first home computer the ZX Spectrum, has died. A proper eccentric inventor, as famous for the C5 electric pedal car as the computer series, he helped nudge me and many more into the future.

Haunted West

Haunted West now on Kickstarter from Darker Hue Studios.

What If... Killmonger rescued Tony Stark?

What If... Killmonger rescued Tony Stark?

A bit of a stretch for him to be there, but otherwise an interesting spin, and a big outing for one of the MCU’s best one-and-done villains.

Along the way, various redemptive lessons aren’t learned, many things go wrong, and we get a nice nod to star Michael B. Jordan’s own anime fandom.

The problem with updating The Ring

Sadako desperately trying to escape from a smartwatch.

Grendel

Matt Wagner’s Grendel is coming to Netflix, following The Umbrella Academy in the Dark Horse Comics deal. The main cast is already in place, with Abubakr Ali as the original title character Hunter Rose, the dashing criminal mastermind and utter bastard.

The comic series is a favourite of mine, although I came in much later when it had gone through several legacy characters to a Grendel conquering the world and having Samurai-style armies with lightsabres and a Lone Wolf And Cub story that might now look too much like The Mandalorian. It’s odd.

Thanks to Tim Knight for the link!

A bulletproof ball gown

Today in cyberpunk, a bulletproof ball gown. Thanks to tekrat on RPGnet for the link.

Hawkeye trailer

Hawkeye trailer - showing how much they’re leaning into the Matt Fraction and David Aja comics series, which is very much indeed. Lucky the Pizza Dog in the house!

It starts with but shoos off his lovely family to deal with MCU Clint Barton being a dad while the comics version was very single, and looks to be mining the “Yeah, something’s come up...” for the schlubby jokes to make up for it.

Also featuring yet another new Captain America. Sort of.

RRH 2.11

As session reviews go, I feel like “Thanks for making me shriek in terror at the sight of a mortal NPC!” is pretty good.

I take what I can get

My next Bloodhunt result so far, survivor 5 out of 43, by appearing in the cemetery at the edge of the map and hiding.

Do some good today.

Do some good today. Help the Florida Manatee. Support professional care in mental health crises.

Bloodhunt Hero Forge

Just spent too long making the starting Archetypes for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt in the Hero Forge miniature design program.

The Matrix Resurrections

The Matrix Resurrections probably can’t go too deep on “is this normal world real?” because, y’know, it’s The Matrix, but at least the machines got around to fixing the green colour balance issue.

Rubber Duckie...You're The One.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II appears in his second film released in late 2021 in which he plays someone with a mysterious connection to a main character in the original trilogy of which most people only like the 90s original and which involves people coming out of mirrors.

Do we get a new edition of There Is No Spoon?

Star Trek Day 2021

Star Trek Day this year celebrates fifty-five years of the five-year mission. 55 moments and the streaming event.

And new things in fives as well, with two new series joining the three already returning.

Counting all the series, it recently passed 800 episodes with Lower Decks. There’s a lot to enjoy, as well as all the good it’s done and continues to do - see Star Trek United Gives on Twitter.

What If... Zombies?!

Can I be excused if I have a note? This is one of my least favourite things in the Marvel Universe.

Bloodhunt

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt is out now on early access. And I am still terrible but now in a green jacket.

Michael K. Williams

Too gutted right now to say all that ought to be said. Michael was a fine man and a rare talent and on our journey together he always deserved the best words. And today those words won't come.

David Simon on Michael Kenneth Williams

Halsey, If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power

Halsey, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, with an accompanying IMAX film as the source of its lyric videos which look like Marie Antoinette by way of Rembrandt and also rather like Convention Of Thorns.

1121

Rock, electro, a wee Bauhaus reference, a country ballad, a very NIN whispery feedbacky ending, a lullaby...

Thanks to Shawn Gaston for the heads up.

RRH 2.10: Perspective

A dialogue moment from tonight’s Vampire: The Masquerade - Red Right Hand session:

“If I were murdered I’d want a chance to get back at my killer.”

“You were.”

“... Oh yeah.”

An average VtM game is just a bunch of murder victims being salty that they still have Responsibilities

-Faye

L.A. By Night season five

Vampire: The Masquerade - L.A. By Night season five episode one, Tower Of Glass is already on YouTube after premiering on Twitch at 8 p.m. L.A. time.

Starting with a thank you to the Vamily and an explanation of the decision not to feature current news directly, Jason Carl sets the scene with a reminder that the daytime world goes on without the vampires, an idea I’ve cheerfully lifted for my own games.

Brian Dechart as Vannevar makes me want to make my next Prince more prominent. Amelia Rose Blaire as Suzanne shows why she’s another of the chronicle’s great scary Toreador.

I started my first V5 chronicle with an attempt to capture and study a daywalking Thin-Blood, so I feel very smart when another game does it.

And halfway in we get a fine example of an action scene with very little fighting - with heavily armed Inquisitors and an escape by Soaring Leap and climbing away it could be an example of how something like Bloodhunt can come up occasionally in even the most low-key game.

No one ever warns ya

You’ll die in California

CHVRCHES, California

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings is, among other things, quite a title, especially after most MCU films introducing a new hero just go with their name. Liked, maybe not loved. More next week.

Star Trek series bibles

I had seen the Star Trek: The Next Generation bible before, as well as early pitches and development documents for series which were never made, but with Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise all in one place, worth a look at things that never happened, and some things that happened in later shows.

Thanks to Tor for the news.

Only Murders In The Building

Only Murders In The Building is funny, charming, sometimes melancholy. Like Knives Out we have an open mystery and a closed mystery. Also a block-sized fancy apartment is an interesting setting, allowing lots of space and suspects within a built-in constraint. (Is the map in episode one an encouragement to start our own?)

What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands?

Marvel’s What If...?

1.03: What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands?

The second What If...? story I ever read was also the first Doctor Strange story I ever read, in which he joins the bad guys after they heal his hands. (In this universe the TV pilot didn’t become a series.) It ends with basically What If...? Ending 2, as did the first I read. They all have the Watcher pontificate about what it all means.

Exalted TV development deal

Exalted TV, from the team also working on Scion.

September

Right then, back to proper months with an R in the name, no more of this “warm weather” nonsense!