Wednesday, 12 July 2023

Cloak & Dagger

Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger (as discussed in 2021) is now on Disney+, having been on Amazon Prime since it came out about five years ago, before D+ started. (And S1 is still on Prime to buy.)

A few weeks after they pulled Runaways, which has a crossover episode. Not the best timing.

I wrote about it after the announcement that producer Christine Boylan was working on a World Of Darkness series, and in that lens it’s particularly interesting as a fairly grounded urban fantasy show. (Note also that it gets really grim in season two.)

Secret Invasion 1.04

Marvel’s Secret Invasion
1.04: Beloved

I continue to wonder if the episode titles are going to form a sentence.

V5 Last Dance feedback

Rick:

we have a big gig coming up, and were bouncing ideas for setlists. And I was recommended that CHVRCHES did a really good cover of Cry Little Sister, on a Netflix movie with Krysten Ritter called Nightbooks.

I might have earwormed myself badly for the last two days.

Tuesday, 11 July 2023

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is the longest of the series yet, even longer than its title! But it mostly rattled along quickly.

The Mission: Impossible film series went more team-based with MI:III being a big episode of Alias, this has all gone a bit...

Sunday, 9 July 2023

V5 Last Dance 2.03

Tonight in Vampire: The Masquerade - Last Dance, Preston the Toreador failed to make a Nosferatu feel bad on purpose and then succeeded by accident.

The question now is... will he figure out that she let him know she was there?

Saturday, 8 July 2023

Indiana Jones And The Four New Boardgames

Four Indiana Jones games appear! Do I need them? Will I ever play them? No.

But Sands of Adventure has miniatures of Indy, Marion, Marcus and Sallah. I would like to know the scale...

Update: about 40mm. And kinda long leggedy.

And Cryptic has handouts and floor tiles.

And Throw Me The Idol has a smallish safe to throw idol.

And there’s a Pops card game as well.

Friday, 7 July 2023

Taylor Swift, Castles Crumbling and I Can See You

Taylor Swift, Castles Crumbling (Taylor’s Version) featuring Hayley Williams

Released after news that Paramore will be supporting the Eras tour in Europe next summer.

Also, I Can See You video with heist action featuring The Princess star Joey King, who was in a Swift video as a kid, among other callbacks.

The Book Festival

The Edinburgh International Book Festival programma is out and online. Will have to take a look.

Thursday, 6 July 2023

The Film Festival

The wee holdover Edinburgh International Film Festival programme is out. It happening at all is nice.

And there's a thing I’d like to see. (The new version of Jekyll & Hyde.)

Wednesday, 5 July 2023

Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny spoiler post

Scheduled a week after writing, with a More cut, and still keeping some stuff vague.

The NHS

The NHS was founded 75 years ago today. Its core principle is that high quality healthcare should be available to everyone, regardless of their wealth. Thank you to everyone who has made this anniversary possible by working for, or contributing to, our National Health Service.

Secret Invasion 1.03

Marvel’s Secret Invasion
1.03: Betrayed

Talos continues to be great grumpy fun. Otherwise it’s mostly waiting for the next Skrull reveal or other twist.

Tuesday, 4 July 2023

City Of Angels 1.01

I just got to play V5. That was weird.

And imitation and flattery and all, I realised I swiped Paris’s first outfit from Faye in Nocturne.


Yes, she has the vampire superpower that lets her run in those shoes.

The 4th of July

I should like to visit the USA again sometime.

Monday, 3 July 2023

If you ever wonder if RPGs helped anyone...

The Critical Role Foundation’s senior girls’ dormitory at Shanti Bhavan home and school in Tamil Nadu, India, is now in use.

Sunday, 2 July 2023

Rain stops jousting

I decided not to go the jousting at Linlithgow Palace as the recent rain might hamper it. Rain stopping jousting is the kind of thing that would seem like oddly detailed worldbuilding in a historical or fantasy game.

Saturday, 1 July 2023

RPGaDay 2023 announcement

The prompts for the tenth anniversary #RPGaDAY2023 are up with a month to prepare.

Though I usually go in with a cursory look to see if I can spot a theme and improvise from there day to day, this year I’ll make an exception.


The bolded words in each question can also be used as single word prompts, as explained below!
Certain words in each prompt have been presented in caps/bold. Over the many incarnations of #RPGaDAY we've experimented with simple questions and single word prompts. This, much like the crew of the Enterprise experienced, is the best of both worlds. This presents you with THREE ways to approach each day in August -
1) If you've never taken part in #RPGaDAY before, or came to this more recently, simply look at the prompt for the day and use it to inspire a social media post to spread the word of everything cool and, above all, positive, about tabletop roleplaying games.
2) If the prompt doesn't inspire, look at the highlighted word and use that as the prompt. For example, day 4 asks 'Most RECENT game bought'. If you haven't bought a game for a while, or don't want to share what it was, you can use the word RECENT as the prompt and talk about a recent game you played, or actual play you watched.
3) The other way to do #RPGaDAY, and this is the one I'm very interested in, is to use the prompts to inspire a social media post as normal, but if you took part in the first #RPGaDAY (or have a very good memory of what you would have answered back then) compare your answers. It can reveal if your favourite character has changed, or favourite game system. It'll be interesting to see if your opinions have changed over the years. If you are doing this, some of the questions have '(this year)' added so you don't simply repeat the same answer.
Remember, this is about spreading the positivity. No moaning about anything, or saying something is bad. Tell us what you love, what you enjoy playing, great games you've experienced, and how these games have had a positive impact on you.
Remember also to tag everything #RPGaDAY2023. And also remember, this takes place in AUGUST. I always share the prompts a month in advance so that we can get translations shared to get as many people taking part as possible, and to give those vloggers and podcasters a chance to prepare their episodes in advance and take some of the strain off of trying to produce 31 posts in a month.
Thank you everyone again for taking part, I hope you have fun again this year seeing how things have changed.
So for my gotta-do-it-twice option, maybe do every option.

And yes, I was there in 2014, and I see the similarities...

This year it might well be on Mastodon, or the new thing if I can get on it.

Baby Storme, this city is a graveyard

I’m haunted by your love...

July

Happy Canada Day, among other things!