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 wont need to explains 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.

--

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