Looking ahead

This week sees the V? panel and playtest which we'll get to see at least some of online officially and no doubt all unofficially.

And with Do Us Part concluded, maybe a change to summer Sunday evenings for a while, ahead of probably returning to GEAS in a few weeks depending on when and where.

And I feel I should offer something online to a couple grops as I have time.

But also questioning continuing my one current play-by-post after something I saw today.

I shouldn’t make any decisions in this mood.

Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City

So for a summer special the PCs have been thrown back to the 1880s. I did this in The Watch House once so I suppose I deserve it :D

AP by Tanith

An action figure of Cara at this point would be tricky...

Vampire: The Masquerade - Till Death Do Us Part

Our summer game concluded with a possible victory over somebody worse than us. I didn’t get the righteous death this time, despite trying by going to an enemy to try to reason with her. Ah well, there’s always next time!

The only way D&D got my money in the last decade

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves co-director Jonathan Goldstein says the script for a sequel already exists, but he’s not expecting it to see the light of day any time soon.

IGN

“I’ve got a great campaign written, I just can’t get a group together” is the peak D&D experience.

Lee Casebolt

MCU update

Ryan Coogler (SINNERS) back on Black Panther III with David Jonsson (Alien Romulus) as T’Challa’s son.

Shawn Levy (Night At The Museum, Stranger Things) on Ghost Rider, not III, with Ryan Gosling (Barbie) as not Nicolas Cage.

Both of those could guest star Blade. But GR is more rebootable based on previous quality.

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.

Tell me about a complicated man. Shaft!

(Okay, recent translator Emily Wilson brought that on and considered changing the word when she realised.)

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