The Bride!

The Bride! written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal reimagines The Bride Of Frankenstein as Mary Shelley returning from Purgatory to run wild, possessing the Bride before and after her revival.

Jessie Buckley snaps between multiple characters and shows the chaos that causes her and the world, with Christian Bale as “Frank” as her straight man as they run amok in 1930s America. He’s an interesting take too, emotionally volatile, superhumanly strong but prone to pain and a sometimes collapsing lung (and I love the line he uses to get Annette Bening’s Dr. Euphronius to help) but most of the big scenes and ideas centre around her, some barely touched on like her ability to see what wrongs men have done to women - or just remember these things and say them out loud - one of the things that starts a revolution in her image.

Sketching a world where the monster alarms some but less so others and Frankenstein’s work is known only in scientific circles, some choppy editing shows through just how many ideas are involved, but it looks great and sounds fun as well.

Sometimes violent including sexual threat but most surprisingly only a 15 considering some of the language.

Post Streets Of Fire dialogue

Based on how badly McCoy and Fish got along, if he ever had to work with her again:

(false smile) “Oh, hey, great to see you!” (smile drops) “Guard the door.”

Streets Of Fire

Game was postponed so made pasta and watched Streets Of Fire (free with ads on YouTube) for the first time in about thirty-five years. It really is a glorious mess that could have worked with someone else in the male lead.

I still doubt it would have been big enough to get the trilogy to happen because it’s weird and dumb, but could have been fun.

(The making of seems weird and dumb too. The storming final track was written in two days after the original ending had to be scrapped because Bruce Springsteen decided not to let them use a cover of Streets Of Fire and they’d already filmed that version, Which seems like an oversight. Even before knowing they had to rebuild the set.)

“Another time, another place” is mostly the 50s but partially also very much the 80s specifically in Jim Steinman style, and a mythical city that seems to be enormous judging by how long it takes to get back sneakily from the raid. (The Warriors works to make the geography track, this absolutely doesn’t.) And as the cops try to discourage player character duelling in the streets then shrug it off you can add Wild West town to the mix of eras. RPGnet overthinking thread! It seems like a fun place to hang out.

Buffyversary

Happy 29th anniversary to Welcome To The Hellmouth.

And if you need to look up a line, Buffy transcript search by ao01_design

New kettle

Higher spout angle so I have to be careful not to overshoot when trying to pour.

Glasgow Central Station

Another historic building burned. This one might be saved, at least.

Tonight part of the session was set in a shop I passed on the way there.

Purge them.

Inspired by Marathon and one of my current PCs, thinking again about a villainous space opera game like House Of The Dying Sun. Sinister agents of a fallen empire charged with revenge against traitors and breakaway warlords, where at best the PCs can decide to do some good on their way down, and everybody has dark armour and conflicting agendas and scary-looking fighters.

Winter Paralympics 2026 opening ceremony

Nice for the Russian and Belarus athletes. Less so for others who could have had those wild card spaces.

Start with ninjas.

Theremin made of wood from migrant boats is quite a touch.

The ninjas have laser hands. I REPEAT, THE NINJAS HAVE LASER HANDS.

Dialogue for later

“How’s your brother? Feeling better? Could he run if he had to?”

World Book Day

Happy World Book Day!

Teviot

Teviot Union, the home of The Watch House officially reopens after two and a half years. I’ll have to go see what they've done.

Update: Wee video. Main thing which meant the delay, great big balconied bar at the back, way in where the front desk used to be. The Mezzanine has stopped being the New Amphion and is now the Gallery, while still being a mezzanine. Otherwise quite a lot of grey walls where the wood panelling was, though not entirely. Hrm.

GM's Day

Be nice.

D&D 2024 is now D&D 5.5e

Which is nice, not acting like it isn’t.

V5: Stolen 2.03

Vampire: The Masquerade

Stolen

2.03

Favours For Favours

Beck

Robin

Vince

Beck arranges a meeting with his sire Alva, a wine bar around the West End. He asks about concerns with the Tremere and the Sheriff, and about finding a rogue Banu Haqim. In exchange she asks for help with a small charitable event, something his position in the Church of England will help more than the Church of Caine.

The next night, she updates him to say that the Banu Haqim has done something for Joseph Milliner, the Hecata investor.

Bruce Campbell

All best wishes to Bruce Campbell. And fuck cancer.

When he came here to promote My Name Is Bruce the first screening with Q&A sold out, so they put on another and he said he’d do an introduction but then he stayed for a Q&A after anyway.

The Thunder Perfect Mind

The Thunder Perfect Mind has arrived.

Coming soon, the first supplement, Terrestrial Court, including LARP rules.

The Nevers

The Nevers is streaming free with ads on ITVx. The last thing Joss Whedon created and left unfinished when he was revealed as a creep, I’ve never had a chance to see it short of buying the discs. So here we go.

Nine minutes thirty and Mrs. True has kicked a guy out of a window.

Marathon

Marathon is a new multiplayer action game from the studio behind Halo and Destiny. On a failed colony planet, various corporate and other factions send Runners in machine bodies to collect artefacts, bring back data about some mysteries, and fight each other to loot the wreckage.

With no single-player campaign and fairly light narrative development elements it doesn’t feel so heavily suited to story focused versions like tabletop RPGs as Halo and particularly the “why isn’t this an RPG?” of Destiny, though it could be the basis for a West Marches raid game, and looks really Mork Borg and the in-character multiple lives are pretty Paranoia.

Getting Poppy in for the launch video song fits.

It takes its name from a first person adventure with plenty of plot, a precursor to Halo, but while that’s part of the new game’s history it doesn’t play the same way.

Ultimately everybody kinda looks like an Infinity figure or crash test dummy. Not my jam.

March

Yes, do that.