Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Tuesday, 30 January 2018
The Trinity Continuum Kickstarter
HOPE. SACRIFICE. UNITY.
Since you’re reading my blog, you may be mildly curious about my part in the books. I’m on the core book, with setting material, Allegiances and Storyguide advice for the contemporary setting.
And funded in 3 1/2 hours.
The first word of mine included, not counting art notes, is Sydney.
Monday, 29 January 2018
Vampires don't get colds. Bastards.
Update: Outsider hopefully starting next week when we are all healthy. Gives me time to plan things, name the major NPCs, that kind of thing, while not full of cold.
Sunday, 28 January 2018
Vampire: Outsiders
The game from this post hopefully starts tonight, and now has a title. More details to follow, one hopes.
Saturday, 27 January 2018
Transporting your team
Getting ready to play a Marvel SAGA game about the official superteam of Michigan, we find that our protectorate is... a bit larger than the UK. So Chris (hello Chris!) digs into looking for suitable carrier craft that can get a superteam (including a rock monster who probably weighs at least a ton) to non-Detroit issues reasonably promptly.
This is also why so many teams have teleporters these days.
Movement can be an issue once the team arrives as well.
We have four PCs and at least two can fly. I don’t really want to make the rock monster the only one who can’t.
This is also why so many teams have teleporters these days.
Movement can be an issue once the team arrives as well.
We have four PCs and at least two can fly. I don’t really want to make the rock monster the only one who can’t.
Friday, 26 January 2018
Age Of Heroes
Age of Heroes, an AV Club series on superhero movies year on year, from the author of the action movie series A History of Violence. There’s less material here than in action, but it should be interesting reading. Tonight: Superman.
Compare 4-Color to 35-Millimeter at Tor.
Compare 4-Color to 35-Millimeter at Tor.
Thursday, 25 January 2018
The Doomsday Clock
We now sit at two minutes to midnight. Think about what you can do in two minutes.
Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Ursula K. Le Guin
The creative adult is the child who has survived.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Like many, I found Le Guin’s Earthsea books in a school library, in unassuming little paperbacks. I read the original trilogy in a week.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Like many, I found Le Guin’s Earthsea books in a school library, in unassuming little paperbacks. I read the original trilogy in a week.
Tuesday, 23 January 2018
Naming your superhero team
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not great at naming superhero teams.
I often get stuck trying to find something alliterative, even though that’s actually not that common. For US city or regional teams, which superhero games often involve, the logical comparison would be in sports, and the NFL has just four alliterative teams out of thirty-two. More than one in twenty-six, but still not that common. (Only one, the Buffalo Bills, came from the AFL, fact fans. And the XFL had zero out of eight. The World League had four out of seventeen, however, counting either how the New York Knights sound or the Cologne Centurions read.)
Sense Of Right Alliance is an... interesting team but their name is not particularly thematic. Shrek isn’t a particularly righteous guy.
Maybe there just aren’t that many good names out there. It’s why I have stuff about two different properties called the Avengers.
I often get stuck trying to find something alliterative, even though that’s actually not that common. For US city or regional teams, which superhero games often involve, the logical comparison would be in sports, and the NFL has just four alliterative teams out of thirty-two. More than one in twenty-six, but still not that common. (Only one, the Buffalo Bills, came from the AFL, fact fans. And the XFL had zero out of eight. The World League had four out of seventeen, however, counting either how the New York Knights sound or the Cologne Centurions read.)
Sense Of Right Alliance is an... interesting team but their name is not particularly thematic. Shrek isn’t a particularly righteous guy.
Maybe there just aren’t that many good names out there. It’s why I have stuff about two different properties called the Avengers.
Monday, 22 January 2018
Anti-trope fantasy adventure hooks
As part of RPG.net’s new Creative Open subforum, 101 adventure hooks based on turning D&D standards on their heads.
My own contributions are fairly mild as twists go. Multiple competing parties raiding a newly-opened dungeon would be a smallish change. Although the party moving to stop an evil wizard building a dungeon would be more different.
My own contributions are fairly mild as twists go. Multiple competing parties raiding a newly-opened dungeon would be a smallish change. Although the party moving to stop an evil wizard building a dungeon would be more different.
Sunday, 21 January 2018
Coming soon:
Anarchs or Unbound, depending if I run V20 or Requiem Second.
Vampires at the bottom of the ladder, and the people they have more in common with than their supposed peers.
Now to choose a theme song.
Vampires at the bottom of the ladder, and the people they have more in common with than their supposed peers.
Now to choose a theme song.
I'm in the business of misery
After seeing Paramore I swing back to wanting to run Buffy. (And not just because of the woman with pink hair in the traditional Misery Business singalong.)
Saturday, 20 January 2018
January possible GMing update
Games start again tomorrow. I will be there, assuming I can get back from Glasgow after seeing Paramore tonight. (Which in turn assumes I can get to Glasgow tonight. The forecast suggests there may be snow early on.) But I have no particular GMing plans.
I do have Star Wars D6 and Vampire: The Masquerade character sheets ready to go, though. Sure I had Buffy sheets somewhere too...
And one-shots ready to go, though it looks like GEAS isn’t doing them this term.
The Star Wars one-shot is breaking into a giant prison ship...
I do have Star Wars D6 and Vampire: The Masquerade character sheets ready to go, though. Sure I had Buffy sheets somewhere too...
And one-shots ready to go, though it looks like GEAS isn’t doing them this term.
The Star Wars one-shot is breaking into a giant prison ship...
Friday, 19 January 2018
Supernatural's first list of plot hooks
Ahead of the latest attempt at a spinoff, the creator of Supernatural posted the list of plot hooks he started with thirteen years ago. Some are even still unused! So if you need a random list of urban fantasy or horror ideas...
They never did the Winchester Mystery House?
They never did the Winchester Mystery House?
Thursday, 18 January 2018
ArtStation goes Beneath The Waves
SF, fantasy and some horror art for aquatic environments, equipment, characters and creatures.
Ever used a random object as a toy spaceship?
Freelance artist Eric Geusz takes that tendency one step further. I first saw his can opener carrier in the ILM ArtStation Star Wars challenge, and he also draws and paints spaceships that aren’t based on household objects among other cool things.
Wednesday, 17 January 2018
JJ Abrams' Demimonde
Demimonde, a new SF series from JJ Abrams, in the offering pilot script to broadcasters phase. About:
Could be fun!
Since it sounds like Abrams wrote the first episode, I would expect mystery, but considering his last couple jobs I would also expect space and monsters and such. The father-daughter dynamic is an interesting choice too.
From the description, the show I’d create would be a lot like Joel and Ellie from The Last Of Us thrown into FarScape instead of a zombie apocalypse. Fairly light-hearted familial bickering in a spaceship. The feel depends on the daughter’s age and her and her parents’ casting, of course - a college-age-plus daughter and an older mentor-y dad would play differently again.
a family - consisting of a mother who works as a scientist, her husband and their young daughter - who all get into a terrible car crash. After the mother winds up in a coma, her daughter begins digging through her experiments in the basement and winds up transporting to another land amid a world’s battle against a monstrous, oppressive force. Her father then follows her into this new world.Portal SF or portal fantasy? (Fantasy suggested by another land rather than another world.)
Could be fun!
Since it sounds like Abrams wrote the first episode, I would expect mystery, but considering his last couple jobs I would also expect space and monsters and such. The father-daughter dynamic is an interesting choice too.
From the description, the show I’d create would be a lot like Joel and Ellie from The Last Of Us thrown into FarScape instead of a zombie apocalypse. Fairly light-hearted familial bickering in a spaceship. The feel depends on the daughter’s age and her and her parents’ casting, of course - a college-age-plus daughter and an older mentor-y dad would play differently again.
Tuesday, 16 January 2018
The boardgame renaissance has really arrived...
... because people are making and selling counterfeit boardgames. An unwitting buyer compares fake and real copies of Pandemic Legacy. Given that bootleg toys are often made with substandard and unsafe materials, this is a rather worrying development.
Thanks to Steve Dee for the link.
Thanks to Steve Dee for the link.
Monday, 15 January 2018
Trinity and Æon art
Three more pieces in the Onyx Path Monday Meeting post. The top piece is from Æon, showing the Æsculapian Order in action. The next pieces are from the Trinity core, and the first is called Planning A Heist, and I may have squeed audibly.
Star Wars matters
It’s been said before, but it does.
When I was a kid we had Star Wars wallpaper. Just now, thanks to Kiersten White on Twitter, I saw a link to a kids’ bedspread set with Rey wielding her lightsaber, Poe running with BB-8, and Finn with Rose, and I got a bit happy cry. These will be kids’ heroes growing up.
When I was a kid we had Star Wars wallpaper. Just now, thanks to Kiersten White on Twitter, I saw a link to a kids’ bedspread set with Rey wielding her lightsaber, Poe running with BB-8, and Finn with Rose, and I got a bit happy cry. These will be kids’ heroes growing up.
Sunday, 14 January 2018
Time for new games...?
GEAS starts again next week. That feels a week late, but never mind. No idea what to do really, if anything.
I seem to be thinking a lot about superheroes, though. The revival of a Marvel SAGA game from many years back may have spurred that. Probably back to the ICONS idea where the PCs are the Big Team and the rest of the universe follows.
I also kind of want to do another Vampire game, after the last one went... away from my idea. And Buffy for the same reason.
I seem to be thinking a lot about superheroes, though. The revival of a Marvel SAGA game from many years back may have spurred that. Probably back to the ICONS idea where the PCs are the Big Team and the rest of the universe follows.
I also kind of want to do another Vampire game, after the last one went... away from my idea. And Buffy for the same reason.
The Avengers (ITV's, not Marvel's)
Shane Black is spearheading a revival of the Steed and Peel Avengers, set in 60s Britain as the original show was... sort of. Depends on casting and other writing and so on, of course, as the basic premise is “spy show with a rather high Weird Level” and they might not get to keep the name.
Back in the day I thought ITV should bring it back to go up against Doctor Who. (And I would have called Colin Firth about playing Steed, pre The King’s Speech when he became too big and very pre Kingsman when he basically did that.)
Back in the day I thought ITV should bring it back to go up against Doctor Who. (And I would have called Colin Firth about playing Steed, pre The King’s Speech when he became too big and very pre Kingsman when he basically did that.)
Saturday, 13 January 2018
How to get a city you've never visited right
The A. V. Club looks at The Chi and other TV series set in Chicago, nominally or otherwise.
My own experience of Chicago can be summed up by adding “By Night” to the city’s name - and based on later reading, the classic Vampire: The Masquerade setting isn’t a very accurate representation either, though it does have nice historical touches like the Brujah being representatives of generations of radicals. You could lift a lot of it out and put it in another city like New York pretty easily - use CBGB’s for the Succubus Club and a lot of it fits.
My own experience of Chicago can be summed up by adding “By Night” to the city’s name - and based on later reading, the classic Vampire: The Masquerade setting isn’t a very accurate representation either, though it does have nice historical touches like the Brujah being representatives of generations of radicals. You could lift a lot of it out and put it in another city like New York pretty easily - use CBGB’s for the Succubus Club and a lot of it fits.
That time Snoopy joined the Apollo mission
Charles Schulz allowed NASA to use Snoopy as their safety program mascot, which resulted in silver Snoopy pins going into space and being given to flight safety staff for exceptional service.
I find this befuddling but lovely.
I find this befuddling but lovely.
Friday, 12 January 2018
Dystopia Rising: Evolution
The next Storypath game, to be developed by Eddy Webb, Dystopia Rising: Evolution brings the post-apocalypse horror LARP setting to the tabletop.
Thursday, 11 January 2018
Shall we play a game, Captain?
Modiphius have published official Star Trek Adventures stats for the original series and Next Generation crews and their Enterprises, and it looks like they’re in the starting character range. This is nice, for reasons I have ranted about before. Especially because starting STA characters feel pretty competent.
Wednesday, 10 January 2018
Giles gets a spinoff comic
CBR talks to Joss Whedon and co-writer Erika Alexander about the forthcoming Giles miniseries, which factors into the various things that have happened to the OG Watcher in the comic seasons.
(Short version: he died, and got better, but a bit wrong.)
“When we’re out of that phase we think we remember it, but the physical and mental taffy-stretching-machine of adolescence is something you have to be feeling to truly understand. We make it an origin story after the fact: how I came to be me. During... well, it is an origin story, but it’s the falling-in-a-vat-of-radioactive-acid kind.”
And the interview ends with the perennial ache of a Ripper TV miniseries mention.
(Short version: he died, and got better, but a bit wrong.)
“When we’re out of that phase we think we remember it, but the physical and mental taffy-stretching-machine of adolescence is something you have to be feeling to truly understand. We make it an origin story after the fact: how I came to be me. During... well, it is an origin story, but it’s the falling-in-a-vat-of-radioactive-acid kind.”
And the interview ends with the perennial ache of a Ripper TV miniseries mention.
Tuesday, 9 January 2018
New Gamemaster Month!
New Gamemaster Month
Granted, if you’re reading this blog you’re probably not a potential new GM... but you might know someone who could be interested!
Even if not, the suggested games - Trail Of Cthulhu, Unknown Armies and Numenera - may be new to you, and have some interesting tricks for the best way to run them.
Granted, if you’re reading this blog you’re probably not a potential new GM... but you might know someone who could be interested!
Even if not, the suggested games - Trail Of Cthulhu, Unknown Armies and Numenera - may be new to you, and have some interesting tricks for the best way to run them.
Monday, 8 January 2018
We Could Be Heroes (What do you say?)
Cycling back to superheroes, and idly including Ziggy Stardust in the list of previous heroes in a setting, running with this idea again as well as the Bowieverse running with something similar...
Many have speculated on the identity of the trickster hero Ziggy Stardust. Some claim he was lost British astronaut Major Tom, transformed by some cosmic power when he found life on Mars. No-one knows for sure, as the musician and master of disguise vanished after two of the five years he often spoke about.
Aladdin Sane looked very much like him, but claimed to be a different person entirely and evidenced different powers as a finder of lost things. In time he, too, vanished.
Some say that The Thin White Duke was another recipient of the same power, the “emotionless superman” using it to build a criminal empire before his ultimate defeat by Glass Spider.
Stardust’s legacy was taken up by heroes like the Scary Monsters, Tin Machine, Spaceboy and Earthling. And some say he returned as the wise but unpredictable Blackstar, last seen trying to save the prisoners of a cult in the villa of Orman...
Many have speculated on the identity of the trickster hero Ziggy Stardust. Some claim he was lost British astronaut Major Tom, transformed by some cosmic power when he found life on Mars. No-one knows for sure, as the musician and master of disguise vanished after two of the five years he often spoke about.
Aladdin Sane looked very much like him, but claimed to be a different person entirely and evidenced different powers as a finder of lost things. In time he, too, vanished.
Some say that The Thin White Duke was another recipient of the same power, the “emotionless superman” using it to build a criminal empire before his ultimate defeat by Glass Spider.
Stardust’s legacy was taken up by heroes like the Scary Monsters, Tin Machine, Spaceboy and Earthling. And some say he returned as the wise but unpredictable Blackstar, last seen trying to save the prisoners of a cult in the villa of Orman...
Long-term (superhero) campaign advice
15 points based on 150 sessions of a superhero game. Featuring two systems, pitch resets, genre conventions, vanishing plot threads, and Doom Squid.
I recognise some of these lessons from The Watch House, like point 3 about personal screentime and group numbers - it very much depended on how entertaining the rest of the group found the shenanigans, and fortunately the group generally had a lot of time for it.
I recognise some of these lessons from The Watch House, like point 3 about personal screentime and group numbers - it very much depended on how entertaining the rest of the group found the shenanigans, and fortunately the group generally had a lot of time for it.
Sunday, 7 January 2018
Make your monsters scarier than your traps
A belated idea for a line when threatening a D&D boss monster after a dungeon of easy fights and near-deadly traps:
“We’ve been right through your temple and the only things that gave us any trouble were the doors. And you don’t look like a door.”
“We’ve been right through your temple and the only things that gave us any trouble were the doors. And you don’t look like a door.”
Saturday, 6 January 2018
What was Blackbeard reading?
Or at least stuffing pages of into his cannons? Seagoing travelogues, apparently. Makes sense.
Friday, 5 January 2018
Routine
Burritos return. All is well.
What routines do your characters have? Favourite foods, places they like to hang out even when not picking up adventure hooks?
Thursday, 4 January 2018
"I only make eyes..."
A genetic cure for blindness, at just... $425,000 per eye.
I’m sure organleggers can compete with that.
I’m sure organleggers can compete with that.
Wednesday, 3 January 2018
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine began twenty-five years ago today, a new series for a new year.
The third live-action Trek show, and the first to come on while another was running, DS9 also moved away from the planet-of-the-week, literally, with the titular station sitting in orbit of one planet - while having a handy wormhole nearby to make it a waystation for aliens to come and go. This helped to mainstream heavily serialised genre TV, alongside the even-more-serialised other space station show Babylon 5.
It also went pretty dark pretty quickly, certainly by Trek standards and sometimes by regular TV standards. This started as early as Duet in season one, but really got going with the Dominion war and key episodes like In The Pale Moonlight. But it also delivered Far Beyond The Stars, about the power of hope for the future.
The third live-action Trek show, and the first to come on while another was running, DS9 also moved away from the planet-of-the-week, literally, with the titular station sitting in orbit of one planet - while having a handy wormhole nearby to make it a waystation for aliens to come and go. This helped to mainstream heavily serialised genre TV, alongside the even-more-serialised other space station show Babylon 5.
It also went pretty dark pretty quickly, certainly by Trek standards and sometimes by regular TV standards. This started as early as Duet in season one, but really got going with the Dominion war and key episodes like In The Pale Moonlight. But it also delivered Far Beyond The Stars, about the power of hope for the future.
Tuesday, 2 January 2018
Please Stand By
My new Australian calendar notes that this is a New Zealand holiday called... Day After New Year’s Day. That about sums it up really.
Monday, 1 January 2018
The Bicentenary Of Frankenstein
Frankenstein was first published two hundred years ago today.
(Among other things, this demonstrates that the Christmas book market wasn’t up and running yet. Jane Austen’s final novel Persuasion got its first limited print run out by December 17th 1817.)
The metaphorical weight of Frankenstein gave a catchy name to Mad Science, Science Gone Wrong, Messing With The Natural Order and a bunch of other ideas like it - though also failing to take responsibility for one’s mistakes, which is the real sin.
The last century of its fame was helped in no small part by Boris Karloff in James Whale’s film, but by that point it was already over a century old.
And it’s still running. The Dark Universe might not be getting a new version of The Bride Of Frankenstein next year, but in the last decade we’ve seen The Frankenstein Chronicles, Second Chance aka The Frankenstein Code,I, Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s Army, Frankenweenie, The National Theatre’s adaptation directed by Danny Boyle, Dark Harvest: Legacy Of Frankenstein, and the second edition of Promethean: The Created...
(Among other things, this demonstrates that the Christmas book market wasn’t up and running yet. Jane Austen’s final novel Persuasion got its first limited print run out by December 17th 1817.)
The metaphorical weight of Frankenstein gave a catchy name to Mad Science, Science Gone Wrong, Messing With The Natural Order and a bunch of other ideas like it - though also failing to take responsibility for one’s mistakes, which is the real sin.
The last century of its fame was helped in no small part by Boris Karloff in James Whale’s film, but by that point it was already over a century old.
And it’s still running. The Dark Universe might not be getting a new version of The Bride Of Frankenstein next year, but in the last decade we’ve seen The Frankenstein Chronicles, Second Chance aka The Frankenstein Code,I, Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s Army, Frankenweenie, The National Theatre’s adaptation directed by Danny Boyle, Dark Harvest: Legacy Of Frankenstein, and the second edition of Promethean: The Created...