A first look at Dan Mora’s character designs for the new day-one-is-now Buffy comics series. If you’ve been avoiding the news, this is in the realm of spoilers, notably how certain characters are around earlier than expected.
It feels slightly odd to see the likenesses of such familiar faces in a modernised reboot, but then redesigning their looks would take a lot more effort and put old fans off.
Also, as of today you can get all of Buffy, Angel and Firefly free on Facebook. Apparently Facebook has a streaming thing.
Friday 30 November 2018
Thursday 29 November 2018
Suspiria (2018)
The new Suspiria will probably be known as “the new Suspiria” until someone makes a third one. Which is a shame because it’s different enough to be interesting. Unlike every Argento film I’ve seen that isn’t Suspiria.
(Still not beating Black Swan as my favourite ballet troupe horror film, though.)
It uses 1970s Berlin as a setting much more than the original, which was set and partially shot in Germany for funding reasons - the Berlin Wall is right outside the school, and there’s the questionably tasteful choice to have the Baader-Meinhof group featured in the news throughout and used as an excuse to cover a character disappearing.
It also uses dance itself much more extensively too, as a ritual and occult thing.
Of course, being an hour longer than the original helps with the whole “coherence” thing.
And it never has a line of exposition like “And she founded the Tam academy, at first a sort of school of dance and occult sciences.”
(Still not beating Black Swan as my favourite ballet troupe horror film, though.)
It uses 1970s Berlin as a setting much more than the original, which was set and partially shot in Germany for funding reasons - the Berlin Wall is right outside the school, and there’s the questionably tasteful choice to have the Baader-Meinhof group featured in the news throughout and used as an excuse to cover a character disappearing.
It also uses dance itself much more extensively too, as a ritual and occult thing.
Of course, being an hour longer than the original helps with the whole “coherence” thing.
And it never has a line of exposition like “And she founded the Tam academy, at first a sort of school of dance and occult sciences.”
Things you people wouldn't believe...
In the last couple days, it has been announced that Netflix are planning a live-action Cowboy Bebop series, and the makers of Cowboy Bebop are planning a Blade Runner anime.
Is it too late to switch script folders?
Is it too late to switch script folders?
Wednesday 28 November 2018
Trinity approaching
The latest Trinity Continuum update on Kickstarter includes layout samples (including a bit that I wrote!) and character sheets!
Tuesday 27 November 2018
Monday 26 November 2018
Gail Simone's Call Of Cthulhu adventure
Gail Simone runs a brief Call of Cthulhu adventure on her Twitter. Which despite the jokes is really quite horrific by the end. :)
Sunday 25 November 2018
Cymera genre book festival
A literary festival for SF/F and horror, coming to Edinburgh in June. Announcement in the Herald (note that the website loves popups like something out of 2003)
Saturday 24 November 2018
The art of Battlefield V and Tomb Raider
Both of which will fit nicely into Trinity or Adventure! and in the former case that WWII supers game I’ve been thinking of running.
Shadow Of The Tomb Raider - some of this is a spoiler.
Friday 23 November 2018
Tales From Black Friday 2018
The iron gate opens with a shriek of rusted metal. The year has come full circle. Their time is upon us once more. The riders are abroad.
Once they were great captains of industry. If they still had faces, you would know them.
One of them turns a hollow hood towards you, giving you a glimpse of the nothingness within.
A voice that comes from no human lips echoes in your mind.
“Buyer... bargainsssssss...”
The figure unsheathes a pricing gun and advances, implacable as winter itself.
Your only hope, to defeat it with the truth of its own meaninglessness.
“The sales started a week ago!”
It stops and lets out a baleful shriek. You feel a year of your life drained away. And then it is gone, leaving only shreds of dark postage wrapping.
You are safe. For now. But you know the discounts will continue through the weekend.
And beyond.
Tales From Black Friday
Once they were great captains of industry. If they still had faces, you would know them.
One of them turns a hollow hood towards you, giving you a glimpse of the nothingness within.
A voice that comes from no human lips echoes in your mind.
“Buyer... bargainsssssss...”
The figure unsheathes a pricing gun and advances, implacable as winter itself.
Your only hope, to defeat it with the truth of its own meaninglessness.
“The sales started a week ago!”
It stops and lets out a baleful shriek. You feel a year of your life drained away. And then it is gone, leaving only shreds of dark postage wrapping.
You are safe. For now. But you know the discounts will continue through the weekend.
And beyond.
Tales From Black Friday
Wednesday 21 November 2018
WFRP 4 introductory adventure
Ubersreik Adventures: If Looks Could Kill, a free introductory adventure for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition.
Tuesday 20 November 2018
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Of Venice
A cooperative game with miniatures featuring Ezio, Leonardo da Vinci and his tank, Lucrezia Borgia and about a hundred more.
Monday 19 November 2018
L.A. By Night on Youtube
L.A. By Night Chapter 1: Mortal Stakes is up now. The first of eight chapters in season one, a V5 game run by Jason Carl.
I’ve borrowed the introduction narrating what happened during the day while the vampires were dead to the world, which quickly emphasises how isolated they are.
I’ve borrowed the introduction narrating what happened during the day while the vampires were dead to the world, which quickly emphasises how isolated they are.
Tonight in From The Dust...
... we were two out of six players down, and got moved at 7.30 and 9.20, so not much got done.
But I did attempt to describe Baby Chorus. Sooooort of like Faith No More circa The Real Thing when they were throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. Maybe.
But I did attempt to describe Baby Chorus. Sooooort of like Faith No More circa The Real Thing when they were throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. Maybe.
Sunday 18 November 2018
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme by John Williams
A preview of the new theme for the park attractions at starwars.com. Hearing it, I imagine new adventures beginning.
Saturday 17 November 2018
3333 posts!
RPG.net forum links fixed... I think.
And now it looks like the old links update themselves. Which is good for finding links in the existing posts. And probably good I consolidated my links.
And now it looks like the old links update themselves. Which is good for finding links in the existing posts. And probably good I consolidated my links.
Friday 16 November 2018
White Wolf news
A message from White Wolf.
Matthew Dawkins has said on Facebook that it will not affect the Chicago By Night book from Onyx Path, currently in Kickstarter funding.
Matthew Dawkins has said on Facebook that it will not affect the Chicago By Night book from Onyx Path, currently in Kickstarter funding.
Thursday 15 November 2018
Relinking APs
The RPG.net forums are back. It’s good to be home, even if home is now sort of blocky and defaults to 200 replies per page.
And all my Actual Play links are now edited, starting with TWH season one, and hopefully everything on my signature will work. I’ll tackle revising links in these blog posts tomorrow.
Have also remade the TWH icon in high-def, because I am me.
And all my Actual Play links are now edited, starting with TWH season one, and hopefully everything on my signature will work. I’ll tackle revising links in these blog posts tomorrow.
Have also remade the TWH icon in high-def, because I am me.
Wednesday 14 November 2018
The art of Castlevania
Characters, animation roughs, and matte paintings for all your stealing to show players needs, from the two seasons so far of Castlevania on Netflix.
Tuesday 13 November 2018
Stan Lee's legacy
Stan Lee did a lot to push superheroes back into the mainstream after the end of the Second World War, and to make them relevant to a much wider audience after years of being aimed straight at kids.
Chris Sims covered arguments over his creative claims and business well at Comics Alliance, though I would have mentioned the Atlas Seaboard fiasco as well. But all that aside, his writing and editing, along with collaborations with the likes of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, made ongoing serial storytelling a much stronger part of the business as well as starting with stronger worldbuilding as part of the Marvel brand. See also this AC on DC’s reaction, as well as this on the teen hero. And Quarter Bin on the Marvel Silver Age model, and on Spider-Man in particular.
He also used Stan’s Soapbox for a lot of good through the years, as well as creating characters who championed courage, kindness, and resistance to intolerance.
Chris Sims covered arguments over his creative claims and business well at Comics Alliance, though I would have mentioned the Atlas Seaboard fiasco as well. But all that aside, his writing and editing, along with collaborations with the likes of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, made ongoing serial storytelling a much stronger part of the business as well as starting with stronger worldbuilding as part of the Marvel brand. See also this AC on DC’s reaction, as well as this on the teen hero. And Quarter Bin on the Marvel Silver Age model, and on Spider-Man in particular.
He also used Stan’s Soapbox for a lot of good through the years, as well as creating characters who championed courage, kindness, and resistance to intolerance.
Monday 12 November 2018
Nosferatu-ing it up
Everything assembled for next Storytellers Vault project, which I admit is slightly insane... making and photographing busts of a variety of Nosferatu characters, so that I and other STs can use the pictures as visual cues when using photos for everybody else.
Last piece of the puzzle: toothpicks for, ironically, teeth.
Last piece of the puzzle: toothpicks for, ironically, teeth.
Sunday 11 November 2018
Armistice Day
The Great War officially ended a hundred years ago. Fighting stumbled on here and there as communication broke down, and then there were problems for many getting home.
Saturday 10 November 2018
The Classics
The Buffy episode Band Candy aired twenty years ago today, and the Angel episode Spin The Bottle sixteen years ago.
November 10th is Regress Adult Characters To Teenagers At The Worst Possible Time Day.
Mark your calendars.
November 10th is Regress Adult Characters To Teenagers At The Worst Possible Time Day.
Mark your calendars.
Widows
Widows was really good. And pretty much entirely outside of the genres I discuss here, apart from the heist part. But as reasons to bring together a party go, “you all lost someone you love to the same thing, and now have to deal with the fallout together” is a pretty strong one.
Friday 9 November 2018
An unfamiliar viewer on Serenity
“What’s a Reaver?” from the introduction.
“Aww, no!” at a certain plot point that those familiar with the film can likely guess.
“That was most enjoyable!” Which was a relief.
“Aww, no!” at a certain plot point that those familiar with the film can likely guess.
“That was most enjoyable!” Which was a relief.
Thursday 8 November 2018
Daredevil Season 3
Daredevil Season 3 uses the length of the season better than a lot of the other Marvel Netflix series (not least Daredevil S2) with several slow burn plots which pretty much all dovetail together rather than having a side plot taking up a chunk of the middle. I could have lost the imaginary conversations, but hey. It also managed to come back from S2 and The Defenders and go from Magic Ninja Apocalypse back to a straight-up crime story with one weird power on each side. And there was a moment that made me gasp.
Wednesday 7 November 2018
V5 Anarch and Camarilla
Congratulations to Roger de Camden on becoming Prince of Edinburgh! I’m sure the Toreador and Dunsirns are delighted.
Anarch addresses a lot of subjects mostly in-character, for a feel of the messy unlives of modern vampires all over the world.
Camarilla talks more out-of-character, and goes more into the structure and restructuring of the sect, as well as outside influences like the Church of Caine and a big section on the Second Inquisition. To me it feels like the more broadly useful of the two.
The Banu Haqim and the Ministry (nee Setites) don’t get entire unique Disciplines any more, though they do get special powers and styles. I am cool with this, it always bugged me that all the non-Camarilla clans got their own personal Disciplines.
(Edit: At the time of writing I hadn’t looked closely at the Chechnya section. I don’t think that was a good call.)
Anarch addresses a lot of subjects mostly in-character, for a feel of the messy unlives of modern vampires all over the world.
Camarilla talks more out-of-character, and goes more into the structure and restructuring of the sect, as well as outside influences like the Church of Caine and a big section on the Second Inquisition. To me it feels like the more broadly useful of the two.
The Banu Haqim and the Ministry (nee Setites) don’t get entire unique Disciplines any more, though they do get special powers and styles. I am cool with this, it always bugged me that all the non-Camarilla clans got their own personal Disciplines.
(Edit: At the time of writing I hadn’t looked closely at the Chechnya section. I don’t think that was a good call.)
Tuesday 6 November 2018
Star Trek with Michael Chabon
The latest Short Treks one-shot (starring Aldis Hodge) is written by Michael Chabon, who is also in the writers’ room for the new Picard series, like the original series featured episodes by Harlan Ellison and Robert Bloch as well as more TV-based writers. More recently we’ve seen the likes of Neil Gaiman writing Doctor Who.
Monday 5 November 2018
What means this... Camarilla?
The Anarch and Camarilla book PDFs for V5 are out to backers, and go on general sale on Wednesday. I will say more then.
And the award for spoiler of the year goes to...
And the award for spoiler of the year goes to... it would be a spoiler to say.
Sunday 4 November 2018
The Watch House 15th Anniversary!
Tonight is the fifteenth anniversary of the first Actual Play post for The Watch House, which I put up not long after the first session.
This game changed my life, and not just mine.
This is why this here RPG blog has such a baffling name.
This game changed my life, and not just mine.
This is why this here RPG blog has such a baffling name.
Saturday 3 November 2018
L.A. By More Nights
L.A. By Night will be back for season two in the new year, with one-on-one sessions starting at the end of this month.
And yes, it will be on Youtube as well. As a really good advertisement for Vampire and specifically V5, that seemed likely but confirmation is welcome.
And yes, it will be on Youtube as well. As a really good advertisement for Vampire and specifically V5, that seemed likely but confirmation is welcome.
Friday 2 November 2018
V5 The Stareturns to a grand tradition
Geek & Sundry Alpha is following L.A. By Night with another V5 game on Starter Kit. Starter Kit games are designed for interested new observers to show off the rules a bit more - the launch this time includes character generation videos as well as the first episode, which I think is a great idea. They normally run for six episodes, each being about forty minutes each rather than a full three-hour or longer as-live session. This time out Jasmine Bhullar is Storyteller, with regular Starter Kit GM Jason Charles Miller as one of the players, the other four being new to the setting.
Thursday 1 November 2018
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