Neuromancer trailer

I like how un-slick the Neuromancer trailer looks, streets that largely just look like advertising-saturated streets in a modern city.

In fact I now kind of wish they'd gone all in with that and made it a modern setting where the story-required cyberpunk elements are the only SF stuff present.

(Not an original idea - I remember William Gibson mentioning a plan to film one of his stories in Tokyo and just emphasise how cyberpunky it was anyway.)

Indiana Jones and the Sword of Pandemonium

Indiana Jones and the Sword of Pandemonium, the first miniseries from Marvel, set soon after Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Five issues starting in December, a reminder that news from San Diego Comic-Con is sometimes about comics.

The Alex Ross variant cover is an homage to issue 1 of The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones. And it’s getting a hardcover reprint set.

Batman: Caped Crusader

The nice people at DC (and I’m sure there are some nice people at Amazon Prime too) are putting up at least some of Batman: Caped Crusader season one on YouTube, starting here.

Inevitable comparisons to Batman: The Animated Series aside (Hamish Linklater eases up on the Kevin Conroy impression a little as he goes along) it’s a good time.

The Odyssey

The Odyssey (2026)

Big, Loud. Smart. Sad. Gloomy about the possible fall of civilisation but not hopeless. At times heckin creepy. Cuts the best joke in the original but has a couple of laughs along the way.

Matt Damon plays against type as the tricksy Odysseus, less so the troubled one. Momentarily distracted by knowing we can have a double bill of Jon Bernthal as a tetchy elder to Tom Holland next week.

Standout side trip to Hades.

The island of the Stormcast Eternals Laestrygonians was a bit much, but the behind the scenes story if hiring regular tall guys for the role and short buff women for the Ithacans is fantastic.

The Haunting Of Hill House on stage

A world premiere, no less, at the Lyceum. A couple weeks after Halloween. Announced a hundred days before it...

Universal licences Atari

Having been unable to make a cinematic universe based on their successful, er, cinematic universe of actual stories, Universal just licenced ten 1970s-80s Atari games, including the story-friendly Adventure and Asteroids and the... less so Pong.

I guess it’s cute that they keep trying.

Good Society second edition

Good Society has a second edition coming soon with a quickstart at the Kickstarter. Which reminds me I never got around to getting the first edition.

Cara action figure happening

Found the long-haired Black Widow head, looked at available bodies that might work, bought one - X-23 from Deadpool & Wolverine. Right sort of height, decent articulation, plain grey trousers, black T-shirt and combat boots. The head is a bit high on the neck, but probably fixable. Now to look out my bits box for a sword, and separate the fingers and thumb on the right ungloved hand to hold it. Might remove the vest and T-shirt decal and repaint the sleeves so the T-shirt matches. if I get really ambitious, might Milliput on cargo trouser side pockets.

I would like to get a leather jacket torso and arms for her signaure look, maybe keeping the legs I got here, but given the current Jessica Jones is (a) in a two-pack with Daredevil for 55 quid and (b) sold out that might have to wait.

There’s a reason I mostly did this for The Watch House during the run of Buffy and Angel figures.

Update update: found a Buffy figure jacket. Will see if the joints are at all compatible.

White Wolf Dev Diary #1

Text overview and video roundtable a week out from Gen Con.

Sating positive and negative things about Hunger Dice and Blood Points. Hmmmmm.

A commitment to human made art, good.

More black and white?

Tim Bradstreet portfolio mention!

Vampires will probably be able to light their own cigarettes.

“This community really likes to suffer.”

“It’s part of the fun!”

Blooper reel!

It took me FOUR takes to stop saying "flom"

Debbie

Leaving the house achieved.

Leaving the house achieved.

Getting the new Buffy issue 1 not achieved as delayed by a week and seeing The Odyssey not achieved as the three in the afternoon Wednesday IMAX screening was sold out.

But leaving the house achieved.

Witch of the Vale and Melanie, All The Pretty Little Horses

Witch of the Vale and Melanie, All The Pretty Little Horses. An eerie sad take on a lullaby

Chelsea Wolfe, Cold

Chelsea Wolfe, Cold

I want the melancholy ghost movie this would be the trailer and end credits song for right now.

Merryshire Detective Club

Merryshire Detective Club, a cosy fantasy mystery RPG from Pelgrane, Backerkitting now.

You play amateur detectives in a cosy-fantasy setting. Your band of plucky investigators solves mysteries (quite often, murder mysteries) that crop up with remarkable regularity in the lovely little halfling village you design together.

One of the General abilities is called Risky Nonsense.

Anne Rice's Immortal Universe RPG

Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe coming to Backerkit this autumn starting with Interview With The Vampire.

From Renegade, so... a move away from them working on World Of Darkness?

Create your own stories of vampires, witches, psychics, and ordinary humans whose lives become forever entwined through love, loyalty, ambition, and loss. Together, you'll build chronicles that span decades, or centuries, exploring the emotional consequences and impossible choices of immortality.

The focus on drama and time sounds interesting.

(Update: I know someone working on it at the say-hello-online level.)

The Prince Of The City

Big fan of the “subvert expectations” Princes. The Gangrel terror who sees the domain as a personal hunting ground and the Kindred as their wayward pride. The Malkavian who hears every whispered secret and is pulled apart by its needs. The Solomonic Brujah classicist willing to sunder the infant. Tremere collecting occult gewgaws to destroy them in a manic scheme to buttress power. Oily Toreador sleaze in the model of Wincott’s Top Dollar. Lasombra who keeps a Domesday Book of every bit of prestation proffered or owed in the domain.

Justin Achilli

BLADE

How hard is it to make Blade? Come on!

Tacit acknowledgment that they just can’t find the current equivalent of that New Order Pump Panel remix.

Justin Achilli

I'd be curious to know what people remember from Blade that isn't Blade in black leather killing vampires

Kyle Marquis

-1 to movement checks

Based on podiatry advice I’ll be shuffling for a while, possibly a few months, but going to try not become even more of a recluse than I already am. I will go out and do a thing Wednesday.

Avengers Doomsday trailer

Behold. Doom is full clunky.

Little bit o' politics

“What’s today, my fine fellow?”

“Today? Why, today is New Prime Minister Who Didn’t Win A General Election Day!”

“... Again?”

Maybe it’s just me but the seventh Prime Minister in ten years announcing a glorious ten year plan seems... optimistic.

(I would probably be less snarky if I wasn’t pissed off by three of the four things he’s already announced.)

Football

Congratulations to the winner of Football, and that means no Football until the Winter Football in two years’ time, right?

Mage: Sunset City update

Stopped an ancient primordial nightmare putting humanity into an eternal troubled sleep.

Saving the world is always a nice feeling.

AP by T, playing Didi the Hollow One

Next, a miniseries of some kind.

Oh, and, I just realised I have an action figure head that would make a pretty good Cara. Hm.

Now looking for a body.

A deluxe Buffy, long OOP. The new Jessica Jones would work if not for the most ripped jeans knees ever. Might be too tall though. A plain clothes Yelena would be a better fit but they’d have to make one. X-23 but bare armed...

This hobby was easier back in the day.

Would need a gladius or similar shortsword too, obviously.

Jennifer Finch

Jennifer Finch, bassist of L7, has died at just 59.

Tone can be very important

The X Files theme in a major key

I am experiencing an indescribable emotion

Death Wishbone

The heartwarming story of a 1950s London family making a new start in Australia, from the perspective of the teenage daughter who falls for a roguish but good-hearted local lad.

Me

(To be fair most aren’t as dramatic. The Raiders March in a minor key just sounds like Indy’s in trouble.)

Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter

Hammer just put Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter on YouTube in 4K free with ads!

And this is why I keep running Buffy

I have a terrible idea for a Sounds Like Hell episode. It must happen. If the player involved approves.

Ladytron, In Blood

Ladytron, In Blood, going for my Vampire playlist again.

The Peasants' Revolt

Wat Tyler and the Peasants’ Revolt getting a film, The Uprising, written and directed by Paul Greengrass. Looks dingy but otherwise interesting.

What I've Done

After this Oppenheimer edit, which Linkin Park song best fits the end of The Odyssey? In The End seems obvious but Leave Out All The Rest maybe?

Seven-Part Pact

Seven-Part Pact is now Kickstarting.

Up to seven play mighty wizards and each is also in charge of part of running the game in what is described as a GM-full game. And each gets a character-specific board game as part of play.

From Jay Dragon (Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast, Wanderhome).

Kieron Gillen and friends tried it and APed the results.

It’s about power, and hubris, and patriarchy/

As Gillen notes, big commitment RPGs are usually about time, long campaigns and the like, but his is intended for shortish games, with a one-shot design on the way, but about committing in that time, everybody prepping. He notes that his playtest group all GM games regularly.

I’d be curious to see if this encourages more formalised GM duty sharing games.

Mayday trailer

Mayday, a Cold War action comedy from the writers and directors of Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh.

Buffy's best Monsters of the Weeks

You can probably guess 1 and 2 of these 15 at Reactor but plenty of interesting notes on why the listed MOTWs work.

Telefantasy Time Jump: A Ghost Story For Christmas

Telefantasy Time Jump gets to 1971, and a few months ahead too, with A Ghost Story For Christmas, noting some of the style that stands out in the series, a thought on breaking perspective and more.

Caledonia By Night: Merchant City's Secret

A Vampire: The Masquerade V5 MET LARP group is starting in Glasgow. Interesting timing considering V5 might not be going much longer. Although the MET book only arrived in 2024, so a new official LARP could be a while coming. We’ll see.

Sam Neill

Sam Neill on dealing with rejection, depression and imposter syndrome.

Small celebrity encounter

I saw Alex Ward on the way to the gig. He was crossing the road going the other way so I did not intrude.

Garbage at Edinburgh Castle

Garbage were amazing. I feel ten years younger. Except in my feet.

Kids today.

Netflix admit that TV channels are a good idea.

Making a literal cat in the Buffy RPG

Making a literal cat in Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Starting after four minutes of preamble.

"Yeah ours won't talk" as they noted when I mentioned having tried with Mittens.

They are new to the system, and one new to the show.

Bonnie Tyler

Total Eclipse Of The Heart, her most famous song, started as a test for a musical of Nosferatu.

The sacred texts

Just used the Wayback Machine to share some LARP advice from 25 years ago. Normal behaviour.

Which reminded me of this page, from a mere fourteen years back. Do’s and dont’s, convention one-shots and series, and the like.

Today's argument for physical media

ITV has put the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series on YouTube free with ads. They’re a delight, as I’m sure most of you know.

But the ads do not sync up with the ad breaks.

It’s enough to make me go and get my DVD box set even though that would involve going all the way to the hall and using a second remote control. Can you imagine?

The Furious

The Furious delivers on its promises.

Very much a Furie, which is a localised Taken with a down-on-their-luck single parent.

Issue with the opening which sets up a badass who then disappears, but outweighed by outbursts of badassery from various characters, as well as lots of moments like (low end spoiler here) the bit where one of the mooks goes to kick Wang Wei and he tangles him mid-kick with his foot and makes him hop backwards forcing other mooks out of his way through bad guy keepy-uppy.

Player character exchange programme

Currently playing two Vampire: The Masquerade games and each of my PCs would probably be happier in the other one.

Paris the Toreador events promoter and true believer Anarch with one point of Occult skill would much rather be fighting a Camarilla cult with a decent chance of winning, and Sorensen the Tremere occult investigator would be quite well suited to hunting memories implanted by blood magic as an Anarch domain collapses in the background.

Okay, this week Sorensen had to crawl through a tunnel under a cemetery and defend the coterie against flying bone shards, but Paris has had worse there too.

GEAS 2026-7

Ten weeks to GEAS being back, depending what we do for Welcome Week. No need to make plans yet. So of course I am.

Vampire? Gotta show up. Though by then we’ll know more about the next... iteration, if not edition? And might even have someone else running it, so could even do something less 101.

Buffy? Somebody has to. (glares at that Hulu guy)

Doctor Who? Somebody has to. (stares at BBC)

Star Wars? Supers? Etc.?

The Pod Universe: War Of The Worlds

The Pod Universe reaches its phase one finale (part one, part two) with a big summer blockbuster cast reading audio drama.

Had Tex-Mex to mark the occasion. Got my hair cut, not to mark the occasion.

The United States Of America

July 4th 2026, 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, laying out promises and hopes for what a new nation could be.

The US has been so culturally dominant in my lifetime, and so welcoming when I’ve visited and lived there, that it feels normal to think of it as a place to go, and as a setting for modern games. And I’m sure it will be again.

The nation of Apollo 11, Hollywood and New York, superheroes and Westerns, the Blues and rock and roll and rap, Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King, and RPGs.

I hope to return there one day.

Titivillus Ex Machina

If Autocorrect was a man I would be in maximum security for what I’d done to him and all the other murderers would look at me with wary respect.

Greg Stolze

All the best

Haven’t done a wedding or other huge fancy party episode in a while. Hope it goes well!

SCHISM!

SCHISM!

Was not expecting one of those today.

Let alone one where the people being booted out are the bad guys.

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2026

The Film Festival brochure is up, Ewan McGregor and a Trainspotting reunion, some possibly interesting midnight movies, but most tempted by the Connery-induced juxtaposition of a retrospective screening of The Rock at Filmhouse.

No Chillo

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!

Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow!

Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!

Bombadilly dooly dillow

Bom de dillow hillow willow

Willow be dong dillow fillow

Tom be jugglin' an armadillo

Goldberry prefers a firm pillow

It's just her little pecadillo

Dong ding dong dillo dillo

Off we dance to Amarillo

Pillow dillo dee dong dillo

La dee dee dee willow pillow

Bong biddly bong bee hillo villo

Dongy ding dong dillo

By Bully The Little Stuffed Bull, after J.R.R. Tolkien

#RPGaDAY2026

#RPGaDAY2026 prompts are out, as as shared at Autocratik and FAQed at Runeslinger

Single words on the infographic but also an option for questions - I will likely do both.

And while some of the words suggest the glorious workers’ struggle, as the first word is Discipline and there are a few more like that I might well give the single word prompts to Vampire.

July

Happy Canada Day for one thing!

Dialogue note

Possibly influenced by a recent forum joiner

“You’re new here so I’ll give the benefit of fuck off.”

Another present

After the Photoshopped image of Cara and the resulting CGI toy pictures, a ’shop photo of the time she got sent into a Technicolor romance version of the 1950s as an attempt to get rid of her, and a CG figure pic too.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - 401K

Death cult megacorporation Pentex hits differently these days.

“Gotta serve the Wyrm, it’s inevitable, you don’t wanna get left behind do you?”

WoD Discord thoughts:

Sharkey: Pentex is so fascinating because in addition to it being a straight up evil corporate entity concerned with profits above all else, its board of directors are knowing actors. They are spiritually aware enough to understand the same cosmology the garou understand, and they choose to pledge themselves spiritually to the Wyrm for benefits and their goals. They are themselves animistic occultists they just do so in the boardroom rather than around the bonfire.

Weird corporate retreats where you hunt the most dangerous game, where you have the junior associates fight with rusty knives for the delight of the executive class, dark rituals deifying Fly and begging for his patronage. and endless, unceasing, paperwork.

Thanatos: Well maybe if the Werewolves offered at least Dental, we would help them instead

Me: I think if they did, werewolf dental would be pretty good. New teeth every lunar month.

Mel Brooks at 100

The creator of the 2000 Year Old Man is getting there.

Labyrinth at 40

Though it came out here the following December. I mean, not long at all...

Dark Shadows at 60

Dark Shadows began on this very day in 1966. The animated series reveal could have waited a day, if not for animation festival timing.

S is looking at the episodes daily on Bluesky.

Most startling bit of that article - the big format change followed a threat to cancel the show if ratings didn’t pick up significantly in six months’ time.

I presume the animated revival will follow every other one and go for the monster rally the show became after its first year, but redoing the original idea could be fun too.

Free RPG Day

Hoping to see some things in PDF as the UK was hit by shipping issues.

I found the map and someone was able to get a book as a result. Pleased, not at all jealous!

Buffy and Angel comics interview

kelly Thompson talks to Fangoria about the initial arc and further plans, with a little new interior art too.

Presents 2026

Ready or Not (2) Here I Come, Maxxxine and Superman on shiny disc

Doctor Who: Once Upon A Time Lord

Two books, Thirteen Storeys and Lost In The Garden

Pizza

Cake

Dark Shadows: The Animated Series

Yep! I'm afraid to say too much lol but they announced it at Annecy today <3 I hope I'll get to share some of the work I did on this project in the future :D

ABIGAIL LARSON

Birthday 2026

I am...

Editing out the blurb about being as addictive as any good TV series, not to brag.

Absolute Batman getting an animated series, following Ultimate Spider-Man, still waiting for Complete And Utter Spawn.

Fringe 2026

Edinburgh Fringe brochure acquired and -

Hamlet 5, Macbeth 1!

Both a fair number of deconstructions but we’re not doing penalties here.

Genndy Tartakovsky's Conan

Genndy Tartakovsky to adapt Conan: Queen Of The Black Coast into animation. Yes, I think that will work.

Ten years since I voted and can say I told you so

You ain’t shut them out, you just locked us in

Kid Kapichi ft. Bob Vylan, New England

Politician who sounds like minor character from Game Of Thrones falls on own sword but not literally.

Princess Of The Universe 3 live draft

Rose Bailey and divers hands at RPGnet look at Princess Of The Universe and a new update.

Father's Day

Happy Father’s Day to all who celebrate.

Summer Solstice

Summer should be kicking in any day now...

Pride 2026

In the time it took me to walk past the Pride stage I heard Espresso and It’s Raining Men so did not feel shortchanged.

Nationals 2027 - 9th-11th April

So for the first time since 2024, not clashing with the planned dates for Conpulsion!

The Cars That Ate Your RPG

Where Are All The Car Monsters? asks Lewd Beholder on RPGnet. Some interesting mechanical reasons - vehicle rules are different than monster rules in many games.

I’ve considered a haunted car but don’t think I’ve ever done it.

Vampire: The Masquerade for D&D

Bound By Blood, a licensed third party adaptation of the above.

Note:

“Bound by Blood is not the primary project we’re announcing at Gen Con. They’re two different projects.”

I hope people who would like that will be happy with it.

But I can say “ew” about Blood Points.

Hexed

Hexed, a new animaetd feature from Disney, about a girl (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) discovering she’s a witch and getting access to totally not the Witches’ Road and, based on the teaser trailer, I’m not sure what else.

The description mentions a bigger role for her mother than it shows.

I did like her freaking out about the talking book (Stephen Fry) and quill (Tracey Ullman) at the portal.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer

The MCU is old enough to vote, and has finally delivered the thing my Spider-Man and Hulk comic childhood self always wanted: Spider-Man versus the Hulk.

Tabletop Scotland 2026 RPG listings

RPG listings for Tabletop Scotland 2026 are now, booking opening on the 27th. Starting here on Friday afternoon.

Some fire the imagination with the games offered, titles and blurbs. (Gar Hanrahan is GMing Merryshire! I count at least three 1980s White Dwarf adventures for different systems from different GMs! There’s an ALIEN game with twenty spaces?! Somebody is running TOON!)

Others...

Am I running anything? No. But at least I can confirm that.

The fuzzy lines of genre

Rowan Lee asks what is folk horror and pokes at half a dozen definitions.

Thanks to Greg Stolze for the link.

Also her Bluesky handle is an all-timer. Sacrifice! At the Harvest Festival

Sarah Michelle Gellar is the Grim Reaper - in a romance with the Devil

Thud (not a Discworld adaptation) from director Mali Elfman pairs SMG with Rudy Pankow when the Grim Reaper and the Devil meet on the job at a destination wedding.

Pizza Hut being sold off

Has private equity ever not gutted a company?

Judging by the last three sessions...

Joke challenge to finish a current game before a new edition comes out may have cursed it.

Elf to play elf

Anya Taylor-Joy is playing an elf in The Hunt For Gollum. Obviously.

Bat Story Points

On seeing someone respond to this on Bluesky:

Okay. You have unfortunately been hit with the curse that makes you adapt a work you liked as a kid into a ttrpg.

What thing are you adapting?

Gar Hanrahan imagined GMless Knightmare.

I needed a moment to consider beloved childhood things we don’t already have RPGs for.

And I considered fairytales overall but I’ve looked at them here often enough around Christmas,

But the one I jumped to was:

Batman 1966, which needs a Story Point mechanic with a way to get them by getting caught in traps and making puns and use them to have just the right Bat-gadget.

And SpringtingOwl approved!

Really good gameflow! Needing to do the comedy to get through the action setpieces deeply understands the soul of Batman '66.

2026-7

Home for the evening and giving slightly mroe thought to games for the next academic year. (No summer game plan this year it seems.)

See how I feel about Vampire after the Gen Con playtests.

Buffy because who else is?

Doctor Who because currently who else is?

Other.

Yeah, New York is one of the places I would move to.

Hairy Soul Man, Dinosaur Opinions

“So won’t you please shut the fuck up so we can move on?”

John Wagner MBE

John Wagner has been awarded an MBE for his services to writing in comics.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark at 45

45 years ago my life changed, though I didn’t know it yet as I wouldn’t see Raiders Of The Lost Ark for another year or so. A rip-roaring adventure, a character study, a question of belief, a how-is-this-a-PG horror at times.

The Furious

The Furious (trailer) (not to be confused with serial killer hunting FBI show Furious which I also heard about this week) is one of those martial arts heavy action movies Like Kill Zone and Furie where human traffickers are shorthand for Bad People You Can Cheer Seeing Them Messed Up At Great Length.

And it has Yayan Ruhian, Mad Dog from The Raid, with a bow.

And a bit where one of the heroes climbs out of an MMA cage on top of the people he’s fighting..

Playing very normal people...

Going about your regular business and then, boom, aliens.

Good thing I have games for these

Adding Doctor Who to Buffy in the things I have to do myself for the foreseeable future.

I could add Star Trek but I’ve never seriously tried to run that as an RPG.

Disclosure Day

Disclosure Day, directed and from a story by Steven Spielberg, sees him returning to aliens and coverups and brave people trying to learn or share the truth.

The marketing conceals and obscures a lot, images that will only really make sense in context.

It has the roving camera including around moving vehicles as in his War of The Worlds, and the big action moment reminded me of Jurassic Park and a presumably autobiographical moment early in The Fabelmans.

But while he’s famously looked at this before, the project of his it actually made me think of most was the miniseries he executive produced, Taken.

Clue

Clue is on YouTube free with ads in the UK. Just saying.

RPG Trader

RPG Trader is a newe webstore for tabletop RPGs, with print on demand by LuLu.

A policy banning generative AI material

Revenue splitting for teams of creators

Print-on-Demand via LuLu

A review system which doesn't effect visibility where you have the choice to recommend something and... that's it. There's no downvotes.

A Sensitive Content Policy which says you can sell things featuring NSFW material so long as it's flagged, just don't put anything NSFW on the store page.

Aiming for an indie space, like itch.io which has always been secondary for it.

Morgue has put all his taleturn games up for one, including a new print version of Tell Me More, Tell Me More.

Chicago By Ludonarrative

Ludonarrative Dissidents look at Chicago By Night V5 and how it reflects changes to Vampire: The Masquerade. Positive on the content, concerns on layout decisions, thoughts on playability versus readability. Noting the Beckoning and how many old vampires are still around (which was always a bit much for Chicago, coming first will do that) and the use of the adventure.

Masters Of The Universe (2026)

Masters Of The Universe arrives after some unforced errors eclipsing the fact that it’s directed by Travis Knight of Kubo And The Two Strings and Bumblebee and is as colourful and well choreographed, a visual treat where you can tell what’s going on in the fights.

It’s very Guardians Of The Galaxy and even more Thor: Ragnarok, and that’s good. And fairly Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves but of course could have been that more.

The main credits include a rare mention of a specific musician - because it’s Brian May. Because of course it is!

And related to that the makers of the Highlander remake might be a bit annoyed.

Not even the weirdest needle drop.

Nicholas Galitzine’s exiled prince turned bored human resources guy getting to do some human resources fu was my favourite little runner.

Nice to see Camila Mendes following Riverdale with something much more grounded.

You can’t see the guy playing Skeletor, or really hear him recognisably, so that works out.

Start of credits, mid credits and end credits scenes. Hrmph.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Eternal Whispers

Vampire: The Masquerade - Eternal Whispers is an overhead rotaty CRPG, like Disco Elysium with the slow reveals or a presumably less violent Redemption, about, yes, a vampire awakened from a long time in torpor. In this case in post-Sabbat Montreal, as part of its vampire history.

Star Trek: Shadow Frontier

Star Trek: Shadow Frontier, a first person? horror??? Star Trek game! starring Ro Laren!!!

(Also announced a base building game,. Outposts Unknown.)

Moviedrome

The BFI looks back at Moviedrome, the BBC2 cult film strand that served as film school for 1988-2000 kids, with presenter director Alex Cox and show producer Nick Freand Jones.

A Giles moment

Giles Exposition Song custom figure, by me, September 2006

Anthony Head

Anthony Head has died, aged 72. I love his work, and his commitment to animal rights and causes.

The Power Of Pride Bundle 2026

The Power Of Pride Bundle 2026 “is a grassroots mutual aid bundle that showcases indie media from hundreds of queer creators across the globe and provides them with direct financial aid. The sales event begins on June 1, 2026 and runs until July 6, 2026.”

396 items from 284 creators, “contents include items such as digital games, physical games, zines, books, comics, ASMR, and even a book of song lyrics” and including NSFW items in solidarity with those affected by censorship of queer subject matter regardless of content.

$60 full donation or $10 pay-what-you-can

VTM GMT 0

Should I offer to run a VTM game for the VTM GMT 0 discord? Hmm.

As a hangout with mostly active fans and Storyteller types I would expect interest but also OPINIONS.

And if I did, what kind? Something straightforward for those who haven’t had a chance to try V5? Something offbeat to take advantage of the demographic? Probably something relatively normal for a first go...

John Blanche

Hugely sad. We've lost John Blanche. It's hard to know where to begin. He set fire to a generation's imagination, and those fires show no sign of stopping burning. His work very much illuminated the darkness.

Kieron Gillen

John Blanche, WFRP The Enemy Within Campaign cover

Blanche brought a riot of colour and Bosch-like strangeness to Games Workshop, Fighting Fantasy and beyond, and kept that energy through a career spanning decades.

Stargate

The new Stargate series is not going ahead at Amazon, Empire mentioning reports saying it was too fans-only. (Unlike, say, The Rings Of Power, where that fan owns the company.) Stargate being such an easy setup I would guess another one will be along sometime.

Darkness Emergent LA itself

With the natural focus on the V? announcement and related panels, a look at the Darkness Emergent LARP and related events from the POV of an immersive horror event fan which makes for interesting reading for those looking at running something big.

I was not expecting a giant puppet monster. Nice!

Onslaught by Adam Wingard

Onslaught trailer and talk at Empire. The director of The Guest is back on his supersoldier villain thing! Adria Arjona (Andor) is the big damn hero, and Michael Biehn adds extra Terminator cred.

Hey now, hey now now...

So this is quite a thing. Thanks S.

Quoting the source:

Hey do you love This Corrosion by the Sisters of Mercy? Do you wish it sounded exactly like Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head?  

Well then Lauryl Sulfate & Her Ladies of Leisure have you covered!

I mean, they started it.

(And the cover of She’s Lost Control by Joy Division on the same EP is much more on-model.)

V?????? playtest

The Gen Con listings for the new Vampire: The Masquerade project said 6th for edition, and now say playtest. Continue wild mass guessing.

June

Just checked and Edinburgh Pride is the 20th.

Aura Perception

Aura Perception from Vampire: The Masquerade 1-20 was basically “ST looks up what colour an emotion is, then player looks up what emotion a colour is” and so I don’t miss it. But I did manage to get a good jolt out of it a couple of times. Once when one of the PCs realised she was talking to an angel, and in another game when one of the PCs saw that a tree hated everything.

Electrician and Adventurer

Waiting on electrical workers, and so naturally pondering a game about this kind of job getting called in to fix things in houses and what you see as a result.

This could be played for humour, horror, or more. Ghostbusters is the closest I’ve done, and there you’re expecting weirdness when you answer the call. Also to a lesser extent Graveyard Shift, Buffy at a pizza place.

See also Bill Towner, Electrician and Adventurer from House II: The Second Story.

Or a serious take like Session 9.

Vampire: The Miniatures at Darkness Emergent

Josh at Strange Adventures was at the V6 (now listed as such in the Gen Con playtests) panel and also the mentioned in passing miniatures panel - which is about a forthcoming Dark Ages skirmish game. Video, timestamp to see concept video and art.

Christof?! Yes, it could be a different crusader but...
The creepy nun coukd be Serena too.
Though she seems to have a horde of severed hands.

So that looks interesting.

Marcia Lucas

Marcia Lucas has died. Former wife of George and editor of American Graffiti and Star Wars, who gave us the Death Star approaching ending out of edits and ADR, as well as Taxi Driver and New York, New York.

UK Games Expo was already too big for my comfort years ago. I wish it well.

The Maltese Falcon

Proof that remakes can be improvements even after just a few years.

A title can tell you a lot

Victorian Psycho (trailer and talk at Empire) indicates a very different vibe than calling it something like say The Governess.

Surprising Paddington 4 news

Armando Iannucci co-writing a Paddington film may seem strange if you consider what the likes of The Thick Of It and The Death Of Stalin are about, but makes perfect sense if you consider how they’re about it.

Jason Isaacs as Field Marshal Zhukov in The Death Of Stalin
making an entrance by shrugging off his coat in slow motion
to reveal enough medals on his jacket to count as mail armour

And Iannucci and Paddington both know Peter Capaldi.

The Tyrant Philosophers RPG

Coming this autumn from Handiwork Games, using the new a|State system, based on a fantasy novel series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

hahahayikes

Nothing like having someone come to check a broken electrical thing, say “that’s the worst I’ve seen” and call for backup for safely ground it.

World Dracula Day

Just as Star Wars opemed three wees after May the fourth, the publication anniversary of Dracula doesn’t quite line up with the May third opening.

Hammer announcing a 4K restoration of their classic version with restored cut footage to celebrate.

Spring?

Warm weather? Springwatch? Its my birthday in a month? Feels more like March.

Star Wars at 49

A merry Orthodox Star Wars Day to all who celebrate.

V? playtests planned

Vampire: The Masquerade new version playtests outside of con spaces are planned, not sure how yet.

V5 had an adventure anyone could run and report feedback on. Interesting as a historical document for how it featured specific Resonance victims in multiple scenes. (And how it was pretty much guaranteed to end with the PCs dying and encouraged the players to feel they deserved it.)

So probably a new or newish Vampire: The Masquerade core

The future of Vampire: The Masquerade

Panel 1

Panel 2

Thanks to Leticinios

Panel 2 on YouTube, with some wobbly camera but easier to jump in time. That last question from Leticinios here.

Pre-alpha mechanics, ahead of public playtests, stating theyre not sure if would be 5.5. or 6.

V5 wasn’t a surprise as a new company doing a heavy refresh, but was a surprise in being the biggest mechanical change between editions.

No idea where it goes from here.

Not panicking personally yet. (Plenty are.) Guess we’ll see.

Last time this happened I got an edition I liked more than the previous ones overall, so that can also happen.

I was on the whole happy with V5. Hunger issues can come up too often if you roll a lot but I like the constant thought of it. The greater variety of ways to keep to Humanity. Discipline power variety.

The core book itself could certainly use a refresh, even if it’s not a major change by comparison.

I haven’t considered running or felt like playing a previous edition since. But then I’ve always done that. I have plenty of other games where I’ve stuck with an edition after bouncing off a new one.

Guess we’ll see.

Elysium style

Vampire: The Masquerade Reddit question

What does your character wear to Elysium?

The three I’ve gotten to play rather than ST in the current edition all reflect their attitude to large formal vampire gatherings:

Paris, Toreador events promoter: look nice, blend in, dark dress, hair up, shoes she can run in just in case.

Michael Sorensen, Tremere occult investigator: black tie formal, saving full white tie for a special occasion like the winter solstice or being the target of a Blood Hunt.

Matthieu Lasalle, Brujah firebrand of the French Revolution: never went to Elysium but would have accessorised with a cavalry sword and an angry mob.

Vampire: The Masquerade - ?

Observing the wild mass guessing about the new Vampire: The Masquerade project to be announced at Gen Con, Thursday 30th July.

It has playtests during the con, as well as an Actual Play show at the end on the Sunday.

The new project is our love letter to the 30+ years of vampires that have led us here. We’re celebrating the connection between lore and mechanics, rules and storytelling. The design is focused on player agency, collaboration, and making the experience feel personal. The art direction is built around illustration, with a strong commitment to human-made work.

We’re also looking at how we want to work with the metaplot in future books. The sense that history is moving and your chronicle exists inside something larger matters to people. It matters to us too.

The AP show description:

Be there as we share a glimpse into the future of the World of Darkness. This is a live, in-progress TTRPG Actual Playtest where you’ll see brand-new ideas, evolving mechanics, and bold experiments play out in real time. It’s raw. It’s unpolished. It will change. That’s the point. What you’re watching isn’t the final product; it’s the game becoming what it’s meant to be.

So many people guessing other World Of Darkness gamelines which is one of the things it’s stated as not.

V6 seems unlikely at this point, but you never know.

V5 Revised is a popular guess, as a cleaned-up rulebook would be worth having. That feels big enough for an announcement about an announcement.

Dark Ages is known to be coming, which is at least in the ballpark.

My thinking based on the mentions of metaplot and feedback and reactions would be a toolkit like a Storytellers Handbook.

And the metaplot has me thinking something like Time Of Thin Blood, a “this is the new normal” book which throws in some big changes while keeping them optional? That seems likely-ish as a secondary release if this is a mechanical update?

A few words on the metaplot from the Darkness Emergent announcement video, thanks to Josh at Strange Adventures (warning for video motion)

Full panel thanks to Leticinios (audio pretty quiet)

New ankh. Even pointier.

UPDATE 9pmish after getting the full panel video and a second: too early to say as the plans are pre-alpha but it could be 5.5 or 6 depending how it goes. (!)

The Mandalorian And Grogu

The Mandalorian And Grogu is basically a great big episode of The Mandalorian. And I for one am cool with that!

Star Wars hasn’t had a life-changing movie for me since The Empire Strikes Back, so a largely fun movie is plenty.

Kinda bitty here and there, like including things like a space dogfight because it’s the first Star Wars movie this decade, but still a fun space dogfight.

While also having big damn hero action scenes like the opening give it a different feel.

And lots of bits gave me a big silly grin, like realising why the fighting match was named that, the gearing up montages, and the way a couple of the robots moved.

People who haven’t kept up with the show but know who Baby Yoda and More Likeable Boba Fett are will probably have enough information from the mini opening crawl.

No end credits scene but there is something fun if you stay to the end.

World Goth Day 2026

“What’s today?”

“Pardon?”

“What’s today, my fine fellow?”

“Today? Why, today is World Goth Day!”

“It’s World Goth Day? I haven’t missed it! The spirits did it all in one night! They can do anything they like! Of course they can. Of course they can!”

“Uh... of course they can...”

Choose Your Own Adventure Movie?

Via Deadline:

Radio Silence will direct a feature film adaptation of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure books for 20th Century Studios.

The classic books take an interactive approach to storytelling, allowing readers to make decisions that shape the story.

A film and not, say, an interactive streaming show? Hm.

One film for a series of books with no consistent setting? Hm.

(See also the Until Dawn film, which adapted the games multiple paths into a setting element by having the characters stuck in a time loop.)

I would guess something like Jumanji with more reading aloud.

And a bit where someone dies and the others flips back to the previous paragraph to undo it :)

The Mummy by genre

I probably won’t need to explain Nationals genre categories to anyone, but I want to get this down as I gave it too much thought. I can give an example of different versions of a media property fitting different categories by emphasis...

Okay, I could give a lot, but this is the one I thought about a month ago when a new film came out...

The Mummy.

The Mummy (1932) is definitely Horror, and would also fit in Call of Cthulhu with ease, Cthulhu has plenty of Egyptian adventures and the film starts with an investigator failing his Sanity check.

Boris Karloff’s performance informed fantasy mummies as well, if you meet one in Dungeons & Dragons or Open Fantasy in general it might be a take on him, or the shuffling bandaged type that followed in this series which get increasingly Action And Adventure until finally Abbot and Costello bring it into Humour.

He also influenced the Mummy PCs in World Of Darkness and Chronicles Of Darkness.

The Mummy (1959) - same deal. Now period Horror, could be Cthulhu-ish.

And then...

The Mummy (1999) is Action And Adventure. (As I’ve seen said before the American party is playing Call Of Cthulhu and the heroes are playing Adventure!) Higher Weird Level than the Indiana Jones movies but the setting still keeps it out of Open Fantasy for me, it has two scenes that would count as Horror, and the PCs are still heroic normals until the second film when they get retconned magic and it becomes Supers or maybe Myths And Legends.

The Mummy (2017) I would put in Urban Fantasy due to its modern setting and hefty worldbuilding. Could reasonably be Action And Adventure but Nick has some superpowers, and as such if the Dark Universe had happened it would also fit into Supers.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026) isn’t an adaptation of the same story dating back to 1932, with a different origin and motivation for the mummy curse. But it’s still called The Mummy and it’s what got me thinking here. Anyway it’s definitely Horror.

So across five films and their follow-ups we have Horror and/or Cthulhu, Action And Adventure, Urban Fantasy and Horror again, with arguments to be made for half a dozen more options and motifs appearing in several game-specific categories as well.

My favourite RPG classes

My favourite TTRPG classes:

N*zi-Puncher

Vampire Slayer

Moral Centre

Bodyguard

College Band Member

One-shots - how in theme and how weird?

Nothing like a quiet day soon after the Nationals announcement and someone I told about the Discord opening reupping the offer to GM (hello!) to encourage more thoughts.

Depending on how categories shake out, happy to be not very Noir at all in Buffy but would be very Noir in other options.

And as that offer would be for Vampire: The Masquerade and that was the last thing I did run I have OPINIONS on that too.

And category breadth and Weird Level in general.

I feel that at least one of the two days should be fairly normal for the category and/or the theme. Category ahead of theme because that’s what players choose, and some categories apply better to some themes than others, hence theme-specific categories.

Ideally GMs can coordinate across the category so there isn’t too much overlap and players don’t get two weird adventures in a row. Because yes, weird adventures are easy and fun to prep, but I want at least one day that’s in the ballpark of the category.

There are four kinds of RPG category and this applies in different ways to all of them.

Individual RPGs like D&D obviously have system expectations as well as their own culture, even if they can be quote broad - if you get Planescape one day and Dark Sun the next and no classic dungeoneering you might be miffed.

Specific settings like Star Wars that have some RPGs attached but could also go with unofficial games should still feel Star Wars.

Genre categories like Urban Fantasy free up system requirements but still have some expected feel. And I think should also exclude RPG and setting categories that fit, so I wouldn’t want Cthulhu games in generic Horror for example.

Finally system type categories which are mostly Homebrew, Indie (which is surely everything except D&D) and Systemless (and LARP) are grab-bags where anything goes except obvious examples of the previous categories.

Since the first year I attended that had a theme - 2001, where it was Monoliths - I’ve seen it ignored, give lip service, played with or played up across categories. IIRC in 2007 we didn’t have one.

(In 2001 I played Star Wars, one day we didn’t have a reference and the other it was the central MacGuffin and in Star Wars a shiny black rectangular thing is clearly of the Dark Side. So that set my expectations for themes early on.)

Chosen at 23

Buffy The Vampire Slayer consluded on this day in 2003.

Ghost Of The Robot, Civilized Man

Ghost Of The Robot, Civilized Man video, featuring lead signer James Marsters in full Spike style.

Nationals 2027: Noir

The Nationals 2027 theme is Noir.

(Themes are optional, some categories fit some themes better than others, so no need to. And in 2024 they went with Gothic and added Vampire: The Masquerade as a separate category from World Of Darkness and I ended up running that. With the PCs as members and hangers-on at a Goth band, as the other game was about a haunted space. So I feel like I’ve paid my dues there.)

Can I do that, at least a bit?

Probably, depending on category...

Can I do Noir in Urban Fantasy? Sure. City Of Mist for one. Bloodshadows but don’t be silly.

Can I do Noir in Buffy? Yes but don’t wanna.

Angel yes, Buffy no.

Let other GMs do the heavy lifting, maybe throw in a reference of some kind. A statuette of a bird.

Or a time warp back to the 40s.

But if I was going to do a time warp to the mid 20th century in Buffy it would be to a 50s high school monster movie.

Hmm...

--

World Of Darkness? Sure. Period or modern noir, could absolutely do neo-noir Vampire. Or a Memoriam sequence for both.

--

Action & Adventure? Ehh. Pulp and Noir both often have 30s-40s settings but they’re not the same. Maybe see what a full tilt Pulp Maltese Falcon looks like, with Templar s still around and all.

--

Horror? Val Lewton.

Nationals 2027

Nationals 2027 will be hosted by HUSSARS in Stirling.

Which is a surprise as they’ve often done well and passed on hosting due to lack of a good venue. Sounds like they have some plans in place though!

Dates TBC

Theme is Noir.

Can I do Noir in Urban Fantasy? Sure.

Can I do Noir in Buffy? Yes but don’t wanna.

Hope (2026 film)

Hope trailer and talk at Empire. An animlastic alien attack from Na Hong-jin, director of The Wailing.

Vampire: Stolen, for realsies

Since the art and antiquities theft setup for Dominion / Stolen became an orphaned idea, a Vampire chronicle about thieves and smugglers and black marketeers. Possibly set in a free port.

Yes I’m thinking Les Fantômes. But more horrible.

City Of Angels observation

Craig (Paris) — 4:13 PM

Also am I reading too much into lots of Kindred not remembering the Pack's names until we remind them?

Cameron (Storyteller) — 4:14 PM

(No ;) )

Craig (Paris) — 4:15 PM

Yay for observation! Yikes for implications!

Eurovision 2026

Nah.

Might watch Lordi doing Save All Your Kisses For Me in the voting break later.

V5: Stolen 2.07

Vampire: The Masquerade

Stolen

2.07

The Last Hope

Beck

Robin

Vince

Robin takes the driver to the hospital and leaves him to be found, sneaking away unnoticed. He calls Beck.

“What?”

“Did you get the scroll?”

“Yes, it’s safe. I, ah, may need some more help tonight.”

“What about Vince?”

“Not his help.”

“... What do I get out of it?”

“We can discuss that in person. My superiors can offer more than I can.”

--

Beck looks around the church, pausing at Alice, pressed against the wall so she can see the door.

Mother Melise lays the scroll out on the altar, presses a finger into a fang to draw blood and places it to a faded red mark in one corner. Blank areas on the scroll start to fill with writing in blood.

--

Happy birthday to George Lucas, who has probably been sick of May The Fourteenth jokes since 1978.

Erin LeCount

I have not missed going through to Glasgow for gigs. Oh well.

Live footage if someone posts. In the meantime, an official live video of I Believe from a previous show.

Morecambe and Wise

Eric Morecambe (John Eric Bartholomew) was born 100 years ago today. With Ernie Wise he brought a big dash of surreal non sequiturs to light entertainment.

Osprey Games board and card division up for sale

Osprey Games have just announced that their owners, Bloomsbury Publishing, has made the decision to sell the card and board game division.

Link via Angus Abranson, ‪Iain McAllister‬ and James Wallis.

RPGs and Wargames are not affected, they’re staying with Osprey Games. It’s only the board/card division.

Angus

Witch of the Vale, Lovesongs For The Damned

Witch of the Vale, Lovesongs For The Damned on Bandcamp. Three new songs, four alternate versions, their cover of Hurt.

(Fake) Happy After Laughter Day

All that I want is to wake up fine

Another idea?

Might do a Star War.

The Crows

I was playing The Crow soundtrack and wearing my Hangman’s Joke T-shirt while idly thinking of a summer game when someone on the World Of Darkness Discord server asked what Eric would equate to.

I know a sign when I see one.

I have naturally considered this before.

Of course I’d use another system, better for action and unstoppable-until-not characters. Hell 4 Leather for a one-shot, what for a miniseries...?

Also do I have it star Sophie Thatcher?

Victorian Age Vampire

Could totally do Victorian Age Vampire though.

It still loses the juxtaposition of the seemingly mundane world with the monsters and all, of course.

Victorian urchin monster hunters

Not running a game about poor kids in 19th Century London having to fight monsters.

Not doing this. No having plot ideas.

No plot about Spring Heeled Jack. Or about having to blag their way into a fancy party with fake accents and stolen clothes to fight a rich cult. Or about having to hop a train to get out into the country to stop something evil rising in a stone circle. Or...

In the Buffyverse the Watchers would probably be able to find a slayer in London and hopefully at least offer room and board in exchange for pressing her into service, so I’d need a way to avoid that undercutting the whole setup.

Looping back towards The Nevers.

Still not doing this.

One day since finishing a game...

Summer TTRPG ideas.

Absolutely should not be thinking of a Buffy or somesuch RPG in Artful Dodger style scruffy Victorian London. No. Stop.

(I blame time travel in the Mage game. And we haven’t even done Victorian times. Yet.)

Keep Banging On Your Drum

Keep banging on your drum and your day will come.

A reminder from Craig Ferguson.

V5: Stolen 2.07

After a delay, closure achieved. And a moral quandary which split the group, as they will.

Sir David Attenborough at 100

Many happy returns, Sir David!

Jelani Rose

Jelani Rose on Spotify, as suggested when I was looking at Vampire: The Masquerade on Bluesky and a string of posts mentioned having found someone who sounds like that through videos of him sitting on TikTok as an example of not needing slop marketing.

Voting Time

Voting time

Time for you to go out to the places you cast your votes

Our hero

Cara the Akashayana Vampire Slayer monster hunter as photomanipped by one of the other players in our current online not-too-serious-for-it Mage: The Ascension game.

She is beauty, she is grace
She will stab you in the face

As well as by me.

Attending the Tradition Halloween formal.
Of course she could fight in this.

And the results making me want to look for a head for a figure custom. Darn the lack of Teen Wolf series toys. Hair wise, the long haired Black Widow head from Captain America: The Winter Soldier... hmm...

PR0GR3SS!1

A couple of the buttons on the new TV’s remote control didn’t last as long as its first set of batteries.

Cool cool cool.

Sure, it’s the remote control equivalent of “return/enter” and a couple next to it, but that’s why keyboards have two of those.

V5: City Of Angels 39

Vampire: The Masquerade - City Of Angels session 39

Debts are repaid, suspicions are raised.

And Eve’s player waited till I came back from a break to make sure I’d heard about Eve planning to do something behind Paris’s back. Which was nice.

Interview With The Vampire at 50

Interview With The Vampire was first published fifty years ago, per Anne Rice’s diary. A seismic change for that monster as metaphor.

The Sheer, Unbridled Joy Of Star Wars

The Sheer, Unbridled Joy Of Star Wars by Emmet Asher-Perrin at Reactor.

“Star Wars: A New Hope is pure mythology, distilled down to some of its simplest forms. Good and evil. Life and death. Triumph and defeat. Light and dark.”

There’s a reason we still go back to it almost fifty years on.

Star Wars Day

And lo, Baby Yoda Day is upon us this very month!

Down By The Water

V5 Till Death has involved more diving than I was expecting.

Star Trek: Ariel 1.04a

Star Trek: Ariel

1.04a

We certainly annoyed the miners. But we got them off the planet that started to self-destruct after we looked at something, so hey.

Iron Man

Iron Man premiered in April but the wide release was eighteen years ago today. The MCU is old enough to vote.

It's a Banksy

Banksy steps up from wall art to install a statue in central London overnight.

A suited figure strides forward holding a flag which has blown around to cover his face,
about to walk right off the plinth.
Photo: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect

Which feels like full on V For Vendetta shit.

May

The sun has risen. Which was what, three to two odds tops this year?

May

Update pending the sun rising.

Description note rather than dialogue for later

I just described turning away disapprovingly as a full-body eyeroll.

SE!ZE

SE!ZE is a new boardgame “blending ideas from chess, draughts, tafl and Mariokart, with powerup spaces on the board” quoting designer James Wallis, created to advertise Chivas Regal whisky inspired by and with input from F1 driver Charles Leclerc.

Zach Cregger's Resident Evil

Zach Cregger (Barbarian, Weapons) rebooting Resident Evil films to somewhat resemble the games in tone? Teaser which amusingly starts rather like Barbarian.

Bring me the head of...

See a great suggestion for a head for a custom action figure, look on eBay, find the figure unusually cheap, and the seller notes they took the head for a custom. (Rose McIver as RPM Yellow Ranger for Olivia Holt.) I wonder if it’s the same person.

Summer games, 2026 edition

Vampires? Vampire Slayers? Something else?! Thoughts are forming.

Vampire: Straightforward plot, not an open city. Anarchs or outcasts, Camarilla peons. Doing some specific thing.

Buffy: One season. Graveyard Shift? Sounds Like Hell? Prepare?

Other?

A PC for NPCs

A computer I can be heard over in video chat could mean running games online again. Hmm.

Dawn over Prague

Just in time for the end of Bloodhunt. :/

Clean PC who this

Six years of dust can make a difference to a couple of small computer fans. Thanks to Alan!

ALIEN DAY

Also the 42nd of June.

Chernobyl at 40

One of those terrifying news stories I remember vividly.

Roleplay Ukraine 2026

Roleplay Ukraine 2026, May 1st-3rd with Ukrainian and international players and GMs raising money for support.

Thanks to James Wallis for the link.

Stranger Things: Tales From '85

This is, pun intended, a strange thing to have made.

Very much focused on the kids.

And also everybody seems strangely resistant to falling damage.

Does that Arcane thing where stuff like fire is more stylised.

The music budget may be too high. A comedy monster chase set to A Forest by The Cure?!

But I very much appreciate it addressing one of the historical accuracy issues of the original series.

Monster Manual II for ADVANCED Dungeons & Dragons!

Dustin goes on to mention Gamma World later in the same scene.

What would the Happy Meal friendly animated interquel of your series be like?

Can a conspiracy survive an idiot?

Greg Stolze plans out a Delta Green plot hook about recent government slash and burn tactics.

OK, my idea for DELTA GREEN, which someone else could definitely write or homebrew is, in short, DOGE found The Program.

The Buffy RPG history

Rascal looks at the history of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer RPG, some of which I heard through the same recent source but some also news to me.

Thanks to David Chapman. “As someone who worked for Eden, and worked on the Buffy RPG, there is a heap of info in the article even I didn't know. Really fantastic read.” And to Gar Hanrahan for reupping the link.

And sometimes you find just the right photo to edit

To pitch something that would rock.

Sophie Thatcher in a leather coat, edited to paint her face like Eric in The Crow.

Real love is forever.

Dialogue for a Western or something like it

“First shot’s a warning, Second shot’s a wound. Third shot’s a widow.”

St. George's Day

SLAY

Earth Day

Do some good.

Knutepunkt 2026

Seasons of Larp, the Knutepunkt 2026 book, is now online free, along with videos of a number of the conference talks.

Of most immediate interest to me is 10 Years of Reinventing Vampire Larp by Juhana Pettersson, which includes a look at End Of The Line and Enlightenment In Blood.

Gar Hanrahan on DIE: The Metadungeon

Gareth Hanrahan on the DIE RPG: Metadungeon at DIE creator Kieron Gillen’s RPG blog. “Declarations of conflict of interest are for lesser bloggers.”

“Possibly it’s all an attempt to justify the piles of RPG books I bought but never actually used. Exorcising the ghosts of games unplayed.”

Summer?

 Game?

OO7 First Light

The new James Bond game version gets a full on title sequence with song by Lana Del Rey and David Arnold.

Having it start with a massive explosion on an island is... a choice.

Robert Johnson, Cross Road Blues

A newly discovered recording lets you hear Delta Blues legend Robert Johnson in stunning clarity

Cross Road Blues, take 2 test pressing

Uncanny.

Buffy comics news

Buffy comics news!

Arriving July (22nd according to writer Kelly Thompson, not 27th) and this update includes a hint of where it is on the timeline and variant covers, not just the one shown at launch (that I always thought looks more like Anya Taylor-Joy) so progress of a sort, as well as a cast lineup by artist Stephen Byrne.

Season five adjacent I guess?

And of course Byrne previously made a pretty impressive bit of fanart in another style: A Buffy animated title sequence.

Dungeon Masters D&D AP

Wizards Of The Coast get into Actual Play streaming a tad late, but with Jasmine Bhullar as DM and Mayanna Berrin among the players so good call there.

Nationals 2027 - ?

Still not sure where the Nationals is going to be next year. I hear Glasgow won and said no...

Unfriended Cinematic Universe

Dylan and Dalton imagining an Unfriended Cinematic Universe with Pete Volk

Expanding on screenlife films, especially horror, on various screens.

Haunted social media could be a lot of fun but hard to do in an RPG around a table, though we have Discord games and tech-centric games at the table like Alice Is Missing run by text.

And a shoutout to Host, waiing on their interactive spinoff Ghosts.

Conpulsion 2026 quiz answers

Answers. Can you beat the winning team, that got 47 out of 66, 8 on audio so 39 out of 54?

Conpulsion 2026 quiz

Conpulsion quiz went alright, I think. Of the six teams actually trying, the lowest still got 31 of 66. (The team anti-trying got 1, to their chagrin.)

Questions below, apart from the audio round. (So 54 points available!) Answers soonish.

Conpulsion 2026 day two

Saw people, was nice.

Conpulsion 2026 day one

Met someone I’ve known for a couple of years, which was nice.

Josie And The Pussycats at 25

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER join the army

Artemis II returns

Artemis II crew down safe.

Tearing up.

Modern pirates part two

Thinking about freeports as TTRPG settings now has me thinking of a modern Trinity Continuum series fully leaning into the charming pirate tone.

Modern pirates and vampirates

Talk about hub ports as settings for Vampire games now has me thinking about a game set in a freeport.

Probably influenced by the charming rogue Ravnos smuggler featured in my current V5 game Stolen.

He was a background character in a previous game but became more prominent in this one as the plan was to focus on crime, more than actually happened, hence the title.

And Ravnos should be the pirates clan, not Lasombra.

Hmm.

Nationals 2026

Guess what.

Given that the venue for Conpulsion is closer than the train station it’s not a hard choice.

So I guess we’ll see who hosts next time and if these two groups can avoid making it three times in a row.

Feels a bit weird not to be having to think up questions for the quiz...

Conpulsion 2026 Quiz Update, again

I now hopefully have all the questions I need for the Conpulsion quiz apart from a possible backup round.

Update 9.55: Off to take advantage of endless university printing!

DIE: The Metadungeon

The Metadungeon for DIE, now on Backetkit, from Gar Hanrahan.

The internet: (sometimes) fun while it lasted

Internet has conked out for the second time in about six weeks, fun. (Phone internet still on.)

Onyx Path Convention, June 5-7 2026

Game listings are now live for the Onyx Path virtual gaming convention.

Maul: Shadow Lord

The artist formerly known as Darth Maul returns for an animated bridge between where he was in The Clone Wars and in Solo and then Rebels.

He really likes slicing up lots of goons in corridors.

He’s so much more English voiced by an American.

New characters introduced so that we aren’t just dealing with Evil Vs. Evil.

There’s a good cop. Weird these days. Also amusing that he’s the only human in the main cast.

I keep referring to the old Jedi as Reverse Splinter because he’s a wise old mentor living in the sewers who looks like a turtle.

Biggest stylistic shifts from previous series in the line, the lightsaber fights are really fast and the sabres themselves give off a lot of light so sometimes we have fights with half silhouettes lit in pink and blue.

The Masque Of The Red Death

The Masque Of The Red Death on the big screen for Roger Corman’s centenary!

And now I want to run Warhammer.

Easter

Welcome the bunny!

Summer games approaching?

No more GEAS sessions, Conpulsion next week...

Trying to dodge hail as I consider this makes it seems less imminent.

I do of course have at least one terrible idea. Hmm.

Hello, World

The Earth from Artemis II. This got me choked up.

NASA, Reid Wiseman

See the article for the much bigger version.

Good Friday

Sadly Father Brown ended last Friday.

Conpulsion Quiz 2026 Update

I have now done one of the two rounds I have to actually research.

I have a Buffy question and a Sarah Michelle Gellar question. So there.

Artemis II

Artemis II has launched. Going to be hopeful, and tense, for a while.

The Emperor Protects

The Emperor Protects: A Warhammer 40,000 Musical

Doing it RENT style really pushes it over the line.

April

Tread carefully.

Consider Halfway To Halloween as an alternative.

The Faculty

The Faculty was a particularly fun Screamalike as it applied a degree of Kevin Williamson script polish to an SF horror story, while still in high school, instead of a slasher.

The Pod Universe got a remake pitch from Taylor Ortega (spoilers for it, and Scream 4, and also White Nights) which got me to watch it again. And I now wonder if the final monster influenced the worst boss in Bloodlines.

Scream 8

Scream 7 did really well, unfortunately, so here we are. Scream 8 script order for Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, so yes, handing the keys to the big comedy slasher franchise to the writers of the Buffy: New Sunnydale pilot, which kinda seems validating after attempts to blame the script.

Ballad Hunters

Ballad Hunters, a GUMSHOE game of haunted folk songs and breaking the curse through ballad magic in 1813, Kickstarting now.

Conpulsion quiz update

Answer sheets off to be printed en masse.

Now to get enough questions.

Project Hail Mary

I loved The Martian and liked this.

Trying not to think about the science from a biology POV though.

Summer

Ah yes, British Summer Time, I can tell by the hailstones.

Manly Men With Uzis

Malcolm Craig on Delta Force and related 1980s action RPGs with the Historical Games Network.

The Airport

When a game creator is stuck in an airport... I think this is where Over The Edge began.

The Bunker Game is coming

The Bunker Games is a (mild) development of something I did with students on my Nuclear Cold War module at Edinburgh Uni between 2014 and 2016. You’re trapped in a bunker after a nuclear attack - who is allowed to survive?

This is not something I would run with students now, certainly not without considerably more preparation and buy-in.

However, it is an interesting artefact, if only from a personal POV, seeing how my pedagogical approach has evolved over a decade.

Malcolm Craig

Physical copies launching at Conpulsion!

Ryan Coogler's The X Files leads

Himesh Patel joins Danielle Deadwyler in the pilot for a new take on The X Files written and directed by Ryan Coogler.

For Hulu, so here’s hoping That Guy doesn’t get to decide if it goes ahead.

Hunter: The Reckoning - Deathwish

Trailer for an XBox game due next summer, from the makers of RoboCop: Rogue City who can certainly hit the vibe. Fingers crossed for a smooth development run.

The End Of Oak Street

It’s a pleasant surprise to get a trailer for an interesting movie I hadn’t heard of. The End Of Oak Street (trailer) (Empire talk) looks like a La Brea situation where a suburban street is transported to dinosaur times, stars Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway and is written and directed by It Follows creator David Robert Mitchell.

Late arriving horror heroes

An announcement for the new multiplayer game of John Carpenter’s Halloween has revealed that on the non-Michael side you can play Dr. Loomis or a deputy... after your first character dies.

Making a note of that idea for future horror games.

V5: Stolen 2.06

Vampire: The Masquerade

Stolen

2.06

Betrayal

Beck

Robin

Vince

Beverley holds the scroll case tightly. “This what you want? Back up.” She clenches her fingers and blood starts to drip out around her nails - and hisses and steams as it hits the floor, and she holds a hand over the case, ready to destroy it.

Vince takes a step back.

--

Outside, Robin knocks out Beverley’s driver with a single blow, then realises he’s concussed and needs medical help. He also pauses at the man’s exposed neck.

Making himself focus, he texts Beck that they’re at the dropoff point.

--