Monday 31 January 2022

Star Wars: The Special Editions

Star Wars returned to cinemas twenty-five years ago, with the Special Editions and their assorted new features.

“Fans may have a complicated relationship with the Special Editions but the man who made them seemingly did not. They were his way to fix things in his life he wasn’t happy with. And he loved it.”

And that’s George Lucas’s call to make, of course. I for one bought the DVD box set with the originals as extras as soon as it came out, and would buy Blu-Rays or 4Ks or whatever, even if they came with the even more special edition now on Disney+ - Maclunky and all.

Character Creation Challenge 2022 overview

Character Creation Challenge 2022

The Challenge went big this year, the RPG.net thread is over 1200 replies with quite a few people logging 31 characters or even more. Tardis Captain’s AAR and feedback.

I created groups for three of my go-to games, Buffy, Vampire and Star Wars, as well as ICONS which would be a go-to if I did superheroes more, and two games I chose based on things I’ve been watching recently. I could run them all quite readily, maybe Scream-style Fear Itself as a miniseries but the rest ongoing. Likewise I could definitely play a lot of these characters if the right game came along.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer revised edition
I know this like the back of my hand, so can fiddle with Qualities and Drawbacks to create things like mostly corporeal ghosts and I think the results are reasonably fair.

Character generation for V5 is pretty straightforward, it’s just that there are a lot of steps. Still good to check which Attribute and Skill you’ll be rolling for common situations, though.

ICONS Assembled Edition
Non-random character generation is fast. Random generation could be a fun exercise, but I had a team idea ready to go so I built them instead.

Fear Itself second edition
Character generation itself is pretty simple, so I added questionnaire answers and the like to give myself more to do and make more interesting reading.

Star Wars D6 first edition
Simplicity itself. Though when I make templates I tend to go with full dice more than pips, as I always feel they’re better value.

Leverage
About five minutes per character, plus time creating Distinctions and Specialties as the game could do with more examples. I’ll also note that the example characters in the Companion all have Signature Assets so I could have added those, and the Companion adds Talents and they’re all pretty narrow so I would be tempted to give everybody three instead of two.

Roundup

Character Creation Challenge 2022 31f: Leverage

Character Creation Challenge 2022

31f: Leverage

27f: Lark, Grifter
28f: Finn, Hacker
29f: Mr. Burrell, Hitter
30f: Mihika, Mastermind

Lana
Thief
“Can we get this done? I wanna be home in time for She-Ra.”

The Thief is the main Role for breaking and entering, vital for heist episodes but often useful for research and for getting the other characters in and out where they aren’t supposed to be.

Background
Lana introduced herself to the Crew stating “you need a thief”. Mihika suggested that she needed to go back to school, but Lana pointed out that she’d gotten into their meeting and already lifted her car keys.

Emilia Jones

Hot Chocolate Day

Does hot chocolate need a day? It feels like something to celebrate days with. Oh well.

Sunday 30 January 2022

Nocturne 1.14

Vampire: The Masquerade - Nocturne
1.14

Tonight, the PCs met the girlfriend of the latest victim of a killer targeting people that Kindred drink from freely. Just another person’s life ruined by something done to inconvenience vampires in the short term.

Fun session out of character.

Character Creation Challenge 2022 30f: Leverage

Character Creation Challenge 2022

30f: Leverage

27f: Lark, Grifter
28f: Finn, Hacker
29f: Mr. Burrell, Hitter

Mihika
Mastermind
“We’re going to do this right first time.”

The Mastermind is often the Crew’s default “leader” but in power terms is a support Role with multiple Talents for aiding other PCs, until the end stage of a Job where they determine how well it goes.

Background
Mihika was an art trader until an international grey marketeer tanked her business and killed her partner. Turning her business mind and eye for detail to bringing him and people like him down.

Archie Panjabi

Yes, she’s an art dealer because of my own experience.

NPC, are you okay?

I cannot find anyone on the internet who has made a gaming joke using “Improved Critical” like “Smooth Criminal”. A pun unused? How can this be?

You’ve been hit by
You’ve been struck by
Improved Critical

Via James Hodden:
Annie, what’s your AC?

Saturday 29 January 2022

Character Creation Challenge 2022 29f: Leverage

Character Creation Challenge 2022

29f: Leverage

27f: Lark, Grifter
28f: Finn, Hacker

Mr. Burrell
Hitter
“I would strongly suggest you not do that.”

The Hitter is perhaps the most “optional” Role of the five, there if something goes wrong, and there are certainly episodes of Leverage where the creators quickly sketched in a reason to include a fight.

Background
Mr. Burrell is a privately contracted bodyguard, following a stint in the military, working with the Crew initially professionally but now because they actually seem to be helping people.

Jamie Dornan

Full Auto Crossbow

Full Auto Crossbow. To all Buffy players past present and future, NO.

Friday 28 January 2022

The Legend Of Vox Machina

The Critical Role animated series The Legend Of Vox Machina starts today. As the Red Band trailer makes clear, while it has the bright clean style of something like Avatar: The Last Airbender it is not suitable for kids.

The trailer also shows an interesting D&Dism of the series - that there are lots of adventuring parties out there. In this case it applies to the extent that Vox Machina is a team name, not something I’m used to seeing in the genre.

Character Creation Challenge 2022 28f: Leverage

Character Creation Challenge 2022

28f: Leverage

27f: Lark, Grifter

Finn
Hacker
“Rule one, I don’t exist.”

The Hacker is both the modern computer expert and the provider of equipment and forgeries, so often a support Role.

Background
Finn is a fixer as much as a hacker, ensuring the Crew’s jobs go relatively quietly. They scout out security features, search bins and provide aggravating running commentary over comms. They don’t do the parts that involve talking to people unless the Job has gone hilariously wrong.

Lola Petticrew

Thursday 27 January 2022

Light a candle.

The Super Bowl Halftime Show trailer introductions

The Super Bowl is February 13th, and the Halftime Show has its own trailer.

Dr. Dre is a godlike figure playing chess with Los Angeles.

Eminem is Iron Manning lyrics while up against the ghost of Slim Shady.

Snoop Dogg is out driving, and his U-turn gets a DO NOT ATTEMPT warning, unlike fighting the ghost of your former persona with flying words or turning the ocean into a piano.

Mary J. Blige is doing a photoshoot like a sensible recording artist.

“I’m suffering severe writer’s block in a garret with no roof, and then I show up on a kid’s bicycle.”
Kendrick Lamar at the pitch meeting, possibly.

Character Creation Challenge 2022 27f: Leverage

Character Creation Challenge 2022

27f: Leverage
(OOP due to its licence ending, but a new form of the system is available through Cortex Prime)

Finally, a Crew of the five character types for Leverage, the Cortex Plus con and heist game based on the recently revived TV series of the same name, whose creator John Rogers later wrote a largely systemless con and heist advice chapter for FATE Worlds.

(Bias note: I created the original Les Fantômes, the Worlds’ Greatest Thieves con and heist genre Allegiance for Trinity Continuum.)

Each character Role - Grifter, Hacker, Hitter, Mastermind, Thief - is a “statistic” in the game, rated D4 to D12, combined with general Attributes, specific “neat trick” Talents, Role Specialties and personality-based Distinctions which can be good or bad in different circumstances.

The players’ arsenal includes the ability to reveal the plan through flashbacks rather than having to come up with it in advance, emulating the genre and the series in particular.

The rulebook gives the option to create a complete character but the default is to stop until a Session Zero “Recruitment Job” where the group as a whole can pitch Distinctions and other details. To make ready-to-run characters for one-shots and the like I’ll fill them in completely.

The original series Crew has the five Roles called out in the intro, but other Crews don’t have to. The gang from BBC series Hustle is heavy on Grifters and light on Hitters. Steve Dee created the Wheelman (PDF) as an alternative Role, while the original Leverage series has hardly any car chases.

So without further ado, a Crew based in London...

Lark
Grifter
“This is a beautiful piece. I’d say it’s better crafted than the original. But some buyers insist antiques should be ‘real’ for some reason.”

The Grifter is the social con artist, so a key Role in con episodes.

Background
Lark is the son of a family of antique dealers, occasional thieves and forgers, who joined the Crew to take down the security company who ruined their plans to get out of the business, and stuck around because actually helping people seems quite nice. Years of charming his way into various social strata have made him an expert in what people want to hear.

Sam Claflin

A bit Lovejoy, not by accident.

BBC Three

BBC Three is coming back to TV, in some way, shape or form. So rejigging all the channels. And, as is traditional, putting the Channel 4 catchup station 4seven back on 47.

BBC Three was previously home to Being Human, Torchwood, Doctor Who Confidential, Heroes showing a week ahead of BBC Two, and... some non-genre stuff too, I think.

The Vimes Boots Index of the cost of living

Food writer and campaigner Jack Monroe has set up an index of the cost of living named after the Vimes Boots theory coined by Sir Terry Pratchett to highlight the cost of living rising.

Wednesday 26 January 2022

Conpulsion Homecoming postponed

Conpulsion Homecoming, the planned in-person return, has been postponed until next year. Plans are underway for a smaller Conpulsion Lite online this April.

Character Creation Challenge 2022 26e: Star Wars D6

Character Creation Challenge 2022

26e: Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game D6, first edition

22e: Lien, captain of the Whisper
23e: Drad, first mate
24e: Snaggletooth, saboteur
25e: Sergeant Sliss, marine

And finally for this band of Rebels:

Nadani Secar, child of the Force

Name: Nadani Secar

Template: Minor Jedi

Species: Human (Akira)

Force sensitive. Force Powers cost the same as Attributes.

Equipment: Lightsaber, Jedi text

Background: A survivor of the Empire’s hunt for children of the Force, on the run with Rebels for over a year.

Personality: Nervous, wistful, looking ahead with just a hint of hope.

A quote: “I’ll understand if you don’t believe me, but this is something I have to do.”

Connection To Other Characters: She doesn’t really know any of these people. But she has no choice but to trust them.

Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs


The Book Of Boba Fett 1.05

The Book Of Boba Fett
1.05: Return Of The Mandalorian

Snow sculpture animals

Snow sculpture animal gallery via the Animal Rescue Site at GreaterGood. Nicely done, and suggestive of magic, of snow and ice come to life.

Via unhelpfully vague Listal gallery circa 2015

I used a photo of ice sculpture wolves from the World Ice Art Championships as inspiration and a reference for one of my first Doctor Who RPG monsters.

Photo by Gary Whitton

Tuesday 25 January 2022

Character Creation Challenge 2022 25e: Star Wars D6

Character Creation Challenge 2022

25e: Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game D6, first edition

22e: Lien, captain of the Whisper
23e: Drad, first mate
24e: Snaggletooth, saboteur

Sergeant Sliss, Marine


Name: Sergeant Sliss

Template: Marine (DIY, adjusted from the Merc)

Species: Quarren

Not Force sensitive.

Equipment: Blaster carbine, blaster pistol, grenade, armoured vest (+1 pip damage resistance), comlink

Background: The Quarren and the Mon Calamari both suffered under the Empire and Sliss was among the first to join the newly-founded Rebel Alliance.

Personality: An encouraging lead-from-the-front fighter, always ready to spit ink on a Stormtrooper’s faceplate.

A quote: “Come on, mammals! Let’s see some of that backbone you’re so proud of having!”

Connection To Other Characters: Part of a team with Snaggletooth, travelling with the Whisper crew, and if Skywalker thinks this kid is important he’ll make sure she gets where she has to be.

The Quarren Heavy Trooper from Star Wars Battlefront, the inspiration for this idea

“You can do it, kid!”

Happy Holidays! (v.1.1)

It’s the 25th of a month in winter, so considering what the last one was like let’s have a do-over. Merry Happy Burns Night! If anyone needs me I shall be eating heartily and watching a big movie premiere.

Monday 24 January 2022

Character Creation Challenge 2022 24e: Star Wars D6

Character Creation Challenge 2022

24e: Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game D6, first edition

22e: Lien, captain of the Whisper
23e: Drad, first mate

Snaggletooth, saboteur

Name: Takeel, “Snaggletooth”

Template: Burglar (DIY)

Species: Snivvian

Not Force sensitive.

Equipment: Blaster pistol, grenade, thieves’ tools, comlink
1000 credits

Background: Part of the criminal element on Tatooine, Takeel joined the Rebellion after the crackdown that followed the destruction of the Death Star by some skinny local human.

Personality: Grumpy, not keen on the Rebellion’s chances but starting to enjoy sticking it to the Empire.

A quote: “It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it.”

Connection To Other Characters: Partnered with Sliss, riding with the Whisper crew, not sure about this kid they’ve picked up.

A legendary hero from the early action figures

Sunday 23 January 2022

Nocturne 1.13

Vampire: The Masquerade - Nocturne
1.13

The latest attack brings in a new character. A strike against mortals connected to the Church of Caine left a mortal bleeding to death and the Regent decided this would be a waste of an incisive mind. (It’s a familiar player and I wasn’t really prepared for a full Embrace sequence, so the coterie meet the new PC as he stirs and has a lot of questions.)

And the Salubri medical examiner helps the SPC Malkavian harpy’s vision-of-death-induced headache, which is nice of him.

Character Creation Challenge 2022 23e: Star Wars D6

Character Creation Challenge 2022

23e: Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game D6, first edition

22e: Lien, captain of the Whisper

Drad, first mate

Name: Drad

Template: Loyal Retainer

Species: Human (Alderaan)

Not Force sensitive.

Equipment: Holdout blaster, comlink
1000 credits

Background: A spacer with roots on Alderaan, he’d seen the Empire crack down on travel and add restrictions since its formation, strike at dissenters, and finally destroy his homeworld.

Personality: Gruff, quick to defend the captain to others and only question her decisions in private.

A quote: “I’m from Alderaan.”

Connection To Other Characters: Trusty first mate of the Whisper under Lien, wary of the Rebel agents, sees the pain in the kid’s eyes and feels protective towards her.

Clive Standen

Saturday 22 January 2022

Character Creation Challenge 2022 22e: Star Wars D6

Character Creation Challenge 2022

22e: Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game D6, first edition
(Celebrating its 35th anniversary, recently remastered and reprinted but no official PDF or quickstart, descendants like D6 Space and Mini Six should give you an idea though)

With a D6 dice pool system descended from Ghostbusters and which influenced the likes of Shadowrun and the Storyteller System in turn, D6 Star Wars also added a lot to the original Expanded Universe, and ideas and references appear in the current canon as well. Apart from Chopper due to the Droid rules being odd, you could make the cast of Rebels by picking templates straight from the book.

Some templates from the rulebook, some DIY.

Six Attributes, 18D to split between them. You can divide dice into pips which add +1 each to the collective roll, though you only get three per dice. Humans top out at 4D.

7D into Skills, which add dice to the Attribute roll. Starting characters can add up to two full dice, as well as dividing a die into three pips.

Lien, captain of the Whisper

Name: Lien

Template: Smuggler

Species: Human (Corellian)

Not Force sensitive.

Equipment: Stock light freighter, heavy blaster pistol, comlink
2000 credits, 25000 credit debt to a crime lord

Background: Lien has been working for the Alliance on the down-low for years, ferrying supplies along poorly patrolled routes. But now they need pilots for strike teams, and her ship’s a good fit. Sure, technically the ship still belongs to the Black Hammer Brothers, but they won’t miss it for a while.

Personality: Lien’s main issue with the Empire is that they’re no damn fun at all.

A quote: “In and out and nobody’ll know the difference.”

Connection To Other Characters: A reliable first mate, two Rebel agents she knows, and some nervy looking kid...

Katherine Barrell

Friday 21 January 2022

Meat Loaf

Singer and actor Meat Loaf has died, aged 74. Best known for the Bat Out Of Hell album trilogy and enormous singles like I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) - the trick is that he lists various things he won’t do which are against love - from Bat II, working with Jim Steinman on it and other musical concepts that led to some of the most operatic rock and roll songs produced.

He also acted in places as varied as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Fight Club.

(He also campaigned for people I would not vote for.)

(He was also the basis for an off-brand cartoon in the early 80s which I only know exists from adverts in comics. It aired a Christmas episode as well as a different episode actually at Christmas. Huh.)

Bat Out Of Hell, which started as part of Steinman’s unmade Peter Pan rock musical Neverland and Steinman later turned into a musical itself, is a gimme urban fantasy concept taken literally, someone escaping from Hell to be with the one they love. See Hell 4 Leather for one way to play it.

Character Creation Challenge 2022 21d: Fear Itself

Character Creation Challenge 2022
18d: Ashley Shelton, Supportive Friend...?
19d: Officer Derick Forrest, To Serve And Protect...?
20d: Ted Randall, Film Geek...?

And finally for Shiver...

Other options I considered include Perfect Boyfriend, Rival Filmmaker, and Suspicious Professor Played By A Well-Known Horror Character Actor.

Tilly Hayes
Crusading Reporter...?

Character Concept
A Journalism student writing for the school paper, she knows Ted and Officer Derick, and knows Jodie and Ashley by reputation (she’d love to get an interview) and tried to get into the crime scene. (Professional bond.)

Sources of Stability
The story matters!
Paper staff

Kiersey Clemons

Have you ever been into the old shuttered Delta Kappa house?
“I was... investigating a sound inside.”

Thursday 20 January 2022

He'll make you a vampire for pay

Blood Stained Teeth looks like it might be interesting, a new comic series about a vampire gangster who will give you eternal life for a large fee and a percentage of future earnings...

Young Frankenstein outtakes

Have fifteen minutes of extra Young Frankenstein.

Character Creation Challenge 2022 20d: Fear Itself

Character Creation Challenge 2022
18d: Ashley Shelton, Supportive Friend...?
19d: Officer Derick Forrest, To Serve And Protect...?

Ted Randall
Film Geek...?

Character Concept
Friend and film student, with a raft of horror and other trivia.
The Spiral is meant for a new branch after four PCs, but with five I’m going for two equal branches, so back to Jodie and Ashley. (Personal bond)

Sources of Stability
“This is like that scene...”
Gallows humour

Add one location - a store, a landmark, somewhere on campus you hang out, anything - to the map of town. Name someone associated with that place.
“The Lake Theater, has the best late night movies in town. Riley, the manager, really knows his stuff. Not sure why he didn’t finish his film course.”

Jordan Elsass

Wednesday 19 January 2022

Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power

Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, coming September 2022.

Not the most interesting subtitle, not sure about it being so much bigger than the main name in the logo, but the forging sequence in the teaser done with real molten metal overseen by Doug Trumbull is pretty damn cool.

Being James Bond

Daniel Craig talks about his time as James Bond, up to a certain point as this documentary premiered in advance of No Time To Die.

I remember the Blond Bond press storm. And I particularly appreciate the Quantum Of Solace talk.

How well did the arc work? Where do we go next with the character?
Happy birthday Buffy! Have a quiet one.

Character Creation Challenge 2022 19d: Fear Itself

Character Creation Challenge 2022
18d: Ashley Shelton, Supportive Friend...?

Officer Derick Forrest
To Serve And Protect...?

Character Concept
Campus police. Pretty new to the job, after a city posting. Knows Jodie due to alerts about possible security, and Ashley through occasional troublemaking, and they know to call on him if there’s a problem. (Professional bond.)

Sources of Stability
Duty as an officer
Department backing

Lamorne Morris


Who do you know on campus that you wouldn’t be at all surprised if they ended up dead or turned out to be the killer?
“There’s this BMOC type, rich family, basketball captain. And he’s dating Jodie Wells’s roommate...”

The Book Of Boba Fett 1.04

The Book Of Boba Fett
1.04: The Gathering Storm

Looks like a different group of Mods. (Captions confirm that they really are going with that pun.)

Our Flag Means Death trailer

Rhys Darby attempts to be a gentleman pirate in the first trailer for Our Flag Means Death. (NSFW language.) It does not look to be going well.

Tuesday 18 January 2022

Dun Dun DUUUUUN!

An investigation into the source of this musical sting. (Which is still with us! I for one was delighted by the Dun Dun DUUN when Thanos slammed the Hulk into the floor in Avengers: Infinity War.)
I wish my fave would stop being more problematic.

Moon Knight trailer

Marvel’s Moon Knight comes to Disney+ on March 30th, and this trailer would probably confuse people who don’t know the character, and as it is the accent confuses me.

Character Creation Challenge 2022 18d: Fear Itself

Character Creation Challenge 2022

Ashley Shelton
Supportive Friend...?

Character Concept
Confident and snarky. A friend to Jodie since they started at the college. (Emotional bond.)

Sources of Stability
Friends and boyfriend Thad
Withering snark

Maddie Hasson

What’s your favourite scary movie?
“One where the sassy friend lives.”

Monday 17 January 2022

Character Creation Challenge 2022 17d: Fear Itself

Character Creation Challenge 2022


A new Scream is in cinemas, and there are a lot of games that would work for one-shots and series in the ironic slasher mode, but the series is as much a whodunit as a slasher so I’ve gone for Fear Itself for the GUMSHOE system. It has specific rules for games of different lengths, and the later movies and TV series would fit the Miniseries category as characters actively investigate the threat as well as react to the danger.

As a GUMSHOE game, Abilities are divided into Investigative which give clues, and General which allow relevant dice rolls.

With 4+ characters, 10 Investigative points and 60 General, with 1 Health and 1 Stability free. You can also buy 1 Investigative with 3 General or vice versa.

“For every 3 points you invest in Stability, you must name one thing that keeps you sane when the terrors of the world threaten to shred your psyche.”

Abilities can be capped so that nobody can match the group’s designated expert in some area like combat. I’m thinking this group will be scrappy, though.

“If you’re having trouble spending all of your points, buy more Fleeing.”

No psychic abilities here as we’re going for a mundane horror, though the post-Scream genre includes alien invaders, super-science, ghosts and classic monsters all threatening its sardonic protagonists.

Miniseries characters also have a line of connections encouragingly named the Spiral of Misery. Let’s start with the centre, who may or may not be this movie’s Final Girl.

SHIVER

So let’s say... a masked killer in an isolated college town, and a group that isn’t particularly well equipped to deal with this but somebody has to. And what connects them to the killings...?

Jodie Wells
Final Girl...?

Character Concept
Reserved freshman with a relevant backstory. Her mother died under suspicious circumstances.

Sources of Stability
Drive to keep going
Fond memories of lost loved ones
Deadpan sense of humour

Virginia Gardner

Where were you when you heard your mother had died?
“I was home, we’d both gone out, separately, I’d just been back in about half an hour when I got the call.”

Sunday 16 January 2022

Nocturne 1.12

Vampire: The Masquerade - Nocturne
1.12

Investigating the latest attack, the coterie find the harpy Laurence and he reluctantly agrees to take them to see his beloved Colette, who is laid up with a severe headache despite being a vampire.

Character Creation Challenge 16c: ICONS Assembled

Character Creation Challenge 2022

And finally:

Naiad
Real name unknown

Daughter of the water

Naiad is an amphibious humanoid. She looks like a teen with greenish hair and complexion, black eyes, webbed fingers and toes. Found on the coast after a storm, she does not know where she comes from. Is she an Atlantean? A mutant? An Atlantean mutant? Found and helped by Guardsman and Compass, she has agreed to help the Stars out of gratitude and loyalty.

Kailee Morgue

Inspiration: Marrina, Alpha Flight.

Saturday 15 January 2022

Character Creation Challenge 15c: ICONS Assembled

Character Creation Challenge 2022

Spearpoint
Eric Dalton

Special agent with an alien weapon

A government agent and former Marine with years of experience in a superhuman-response agency. Armed with an alien weapon recovered from an attack which can fire energy bolts as well as adapt for use as a spear, staff or paired sticks in hand-to-hand combat. Agent Dalton is a newcomer to New Orleans and not tied to the empowering effect, assigned as the team’s federal liaison and tactical expert.

Josh Duhamel

Inspiration: Hawkeye (early MCU) and Black Axe (Marvel UK)

Friday 14 January 2022

Quantum Leap

A new Quantum Leap series gets a pilot order.

I have a lot of nostalgia for Quantum Leap, which arrived here in early 1990 with a primetime slot on BBC Two. It was mostly a sweet, kind show about trying to do right by people.

Will a sequel work? So much of the show depended on Sam and Al. There are many series formats like it but few shows with its charm.

Could you RPG it? Sure. PCs jumping into a new situation every session or so is easy and quite common. But a group of more than a couple players would need a format change as it would have to explain multiple time travellers working together, and probably encourage larger problems with less talking around them. It also has a much more limited playing field than the likes of Doctor Who, even before considering how much it stayed in the USA as shown on this map.

(Probably don’t change it as much as the 2002 attempt at a revival of The Time Tunnel, where it became about a team who went on missions and returned to the present. Which is a very game-friendly premise, as it’s basically Time Stargate, but at some point a reboot becomes a different thing.)

Having an insubstantial observer PC might be tricky too, though it could be interesting for a player who wants to try. But with the right group, a heartwarming upbeat low-key adventure can be a lot of fun.

Onyx Path News

Onyx Path News returns with tenth anniversary news, including a virtual convention aiming for June.

Character Creation Challenge 14c: ICONS Assembled

Character Creation Challenge 2022

The Beat
Olan Rydell

Sonic strike rapper

A new generation old-school rapper making a name in the city’s busy music scene when the mayor’s office put out a call to form an official team. Empowered with a sonic blast activated by his voice, he’s here mostly for the publicity but he does want to help.

Gary Carr
Usually wearing a New Orleans Saints cap backwards

Inspiration: Static Shock.

Thursday 13 January 2022

Character Creation Challenge 13c: ICONS Assembled

Character Creation Challenge 2022

Compass
Octavia Harris
pulse of the city

A history student gifted with a city-sense that allows her to find anyone in the city, predict and influence things, know just when and where to send emergency services, perfectly time a truck backing up to hit a killer robot.


Amandla Stenberg
Possibly with a 90s jacket-over-costume style

Inspiration: Jack Hawksmoor, StormWatch.

Wednesday 12 January 2022

Character Creation Challenge 12c: ICONS Assembled

Character Creation Challenge 2022

ICONS is a pretty light 2D6-based superhero RPG influenced by the original Marvel Super Heroes. Using the second Assembled Edition as the first edition PDF isn’t available separately.

It defaults to random character generation, though it has a points-based option. I created a character randomly last time, and this time I have an idea for a team, so using points to make them.

45 points each, 1 point per for Attributes, Powers and Specialties, Extras 1 per point of the base power, Limits countering that cost.

The New Orleans Stars, the city’s official superhero team. Running with the Fifty States Initiative idea from Marvel with carefully selected people being empowered among others.

Team Qualities
First Response Team
Like We Practiced
Public Identities

Starting with their team leader:

Guardsman
Laurence Dupre
Team leader and shield

A New Orleans native, former Navy officer and Coast Guard captain given an energy absorption power, so he can shrug off lasers as well as bullets. Strong, authoritative and fatherly.

Dennis Haysbert
Picture him in a dark blue Arrowverse style suit

Inspiration: Superman as of Superman & Lois.

The Book Of Boba Fett 1.03

The Book Of Boba Fett
1.03: The Streets Of Mos Espa

The cyberpunk Mods are a weird little clash of styles, with Sophie Thatcher in particular being very punk, though I appreciate their commitment to the bit that they came complete with extra mirrors on their hover-scooters.

And I also appreciate the chase’s dedication to destroying as many fruit carts as possible. And replacing the pane of glass somebody drives through with Ralph McQuarrie’s painting of Jabba.

I don’t want to do casting-based guesswork but I imagine we'll see Stephen Root again as he makes a great villain.

This must be what going mad feels like.

The balance of present and flashback sequences still feels off. The entire Previously On was from the present sequence, which as over a minute out of about fifteen...

I want to know what’s in the burrito. This is entirely down to not having had a burrito in months.

Tuesday 11 January 2022

Kolchak

The Night Stalker premiered fifty years ago tonight, adapted from The Kolchak Papers and introducing Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, a cynical reporter really not equipped to hunt vampires. The film was a classic, and the follow-up The Night Strangler worked, and the character still gets enough love to get a lineup like this for an anniversary anthology, while the series that followed was an inspiration for later supernatural investigations like The X Files, while also showing that a serious take on the monster-of-the-week genre with someone who keeps accidentally stumbling across the supernatural while looking for something else isn’t really sustainable.

New Paramore incoming

A new Paramore album, and to quote Hayley Williams:

“Our output has always been all over the place and with this project, it’s not that different. We’re still in the thick of it but some things have remained consistent from the start: 1. More emphasis back on the guitar, and 2. Zac should go as Animal as he wants with drum takes.”

Update: Reposting this may have solved the mystery of my vanishing After Laughter T-shirt. So that’s nice.

Final Destination 6

Final Destination 6 from the director of Spider-Man: No Way Home and a writer from Ready Or Not and Scream (2022). More than a decade after 5, and more than twenty years after the first.

Huh, okay, could be fun.

I say this as the GM of a play-by-post of it that included the phrase “runaway gravestone” which I’m still quite proud of.

Character Creation Challenge 11b: Vampire: The Masquerade

Character Creation Challenge 2022

Alice

Clan: none, dhampir (designed as Thin-Blood)
Concept: teenage runaway

Violet Brinson

Alice is alive. Her mother was close to it, closer than vampires are supposed to be. And someone hunted her down for this. They didn’t get along so she was out that night, and when she saw the house burned out she ran, and didn’t look back. She knew just enough about Anarchs to contact one in the city, who sent her to the relative safety of the club. It’s alright for now...

Scream

Scream (2022), which is Scream 5, comes out this weekend. Not a fan of that confusing definitive naming for sequels trend. But anyway. Final trailer discussion at Tor.

Neve Campbell as Sidney in Scream. Not 5.

This led to rewatching the series, including the solid (apart from the OTT Greek theatre stuff) 2 and 4 and my absolute least favourite 3 - with the commentary which is pretty interesting, explaining what went sideways.

See also this helpful and spoilericious guide at Empire. Or this Previously On recap video.

And I also just discovered that the TV series had a disconnected reboot, Scream: Resurrection (see, nice clear subtitling) on a different channel and with an entirely different cast, and the classic mask and voice after the original two-season run had a different design. It’s on Amazon here, not Netflix, to further explain the not knowing it existed. The first series starts badly but the mystery... more or less works.

There hasn’t been much game activity for the series. There have been no board games, surprisingly, despite Clue being an easy basis, a betrayal mechanic would work and so would a Werewolves style murderous deduction game. Ghostface masks not required but come on.

Even though the new film does have an official cereal.

And if you need a Ghostface miniature, there are plenty of cultists and wraiths that would work. HorrorClix never made an official one.


(Also edit: sadly, Black Site sells their 35mm scale killer in one pack with other villains, separate from the Survivors set.)


In video games a phone game where you play Ghostface, and the inevitable appearance in Dead By Daylight and a much less inevitable appearance in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The new film has Survive Scream House on browsers. (I didn’t!)


Scream is a slasher and a comedy deconstruction but also a mystery, so could be played though probably in a Dread kind of way.

Or Dead Of Night, or Shriek or Slasher Flick, or EPOCH, or the now-archive-only and at times crass Squeam minigames.

Maybe They Came From but the characters evoke the meta references on screen?

The sequels and TV series suggest a longer option with more investigation, maybe for something GUMSHOE-ish like Fear Itself with a cut-down skill list and possible teen options like Bubblegumshoe, by upping the number of suspects and NPC victims.

Followers like I Know What You Did Last Summer (which also got a series) and Urban Legend could provide extra models to work from.

Add monsters for more variety of threats to your genre-savvy young heroes and you get The Faculty... and of course also Buffy.

(Compare Scream creator Kevin Williamson’s own show Dawson’s Creek where the genre-savvy young heroes hardly ever faced serial killers.)

For the record, my favourite scary movie is The Haunting.

Monday 10 January 2022

Character Creation Challenge 10b: Vampire: The Masquerade

Character Creation Challenge 2022

Jonah

Clan: none, ghoul (Brujah blood)
Concept: club security

Full rules for mortals and ghouls are included in the free V5 Companion available on the World Of Darkness homepage. You could also make a character as standard and stop when you get to the vampire-specific steps, but the ghoul rules in particular would be helpful.

M-Production stock photo, model not named

Ghouls are living beings given a taste of vampire blood and its power. It stalls the aging process and gives them a little access to their other powers. But it’s addictive, easily burned through, and can affect their emotional and mental wellbeing too. So a ghoul who isn’t servile can make vampires nervous.

Jonah doesn’t answer to any of the coterie directly. His blood comes from Shane’s sire, a more experienced Anarch strategist. And Brujah blood sometimes makes for more free-willed ghouls than most. He’s been assigned to help with the club, and the vampires around are useful, not figures of worship.

Sunday 9 January 2022

Nocturne 1.11

Vampire: The Masquerade - Nocturne
1.11

After a few weeks in and out of character, a relatively low-key Christmas season for the vampires of Baltimore. Thoughtful gifts, villainous subtext being entirely missed, some hugs, a montage of what significant SPCs did over the holidays, and Bruno the Hecata seeing eye dog receiving a ghost squeaky toy.

Character Creation Challenge 9b: Vampire: The Masquerade

Character Creation Challenge 2022

Mercy

Clan: Caitiff
Concept: wait staff


Tasya Teles

(Idea borrowed from Judith, but much less sunny.)

Mercy was a diner waitress, and a little too good at listening to sob stories for her own good. Her sire was a Caitiff himself, as far as she can tell.

She works with the coterie because the club is a good base, and because they keep the hunting around it to the bare minimum unlike the Camarilla.

Saturday 8 January 2022

David Bowie at 75

David Bowie was born, under another name, 75 years ago today. The great chameleon of rock and pop, literally a roleplayer.

Carrying on my little tradition of song title plot gooks at the Who blog.

Character Creation Challenge 8b: Vampire: The Masquerade

Character Creation Challenge 2022

Shane

Clan: Brujah
Concept: student street teamer


Amadeus Serafini

Shane was used to student protests, raves, and the like before jumping in to help someone and taking a beating from security left him close to death.

He runs with the Anarchs by default, like his sire and his sire’s sire, but he’s seen the Camarilla reach out and dismissed their offers.

Friday 7 January 2022

Character Creation Challenge 7b: Vampire: The Masquerade

Character Creation Challenge 2022

Last year I created a V5 character with an idea for a chronicle about the silent partners of an alternative club, then for RPGaDay I came up with a month’s worth of plot hooks for it and sketched in a group of characters to give them to.

So this is an adaptation of the 2021 character to slightly emphasise the coterie and shared domain, with full sheets for the others to follow over the week.

It’s a straightforward process but has quite a few steps involved, which I explained in more detail in 2021.

I’m keeping with the core book character types, with the exception of a ghoul (a human empowered by vampire blood) using the rules from the free Companion.

With a full coterie, I can add Chronicle Tenets. For simplicity, use the rulebook’s Code of Justice.
Never kill the innocent
Be your own, never submit
Without a cause, you are nothing

Paris
Clan: Toreador
Concept: club promoter


Julia Almendra

Paris was already a skilled events promoter at university and starting to make a name for herself when she was Embraced for her potential.

She threw in with the Anarchs as the Camarilla seems to view all human sources of joy as ways to hunt. She hopes there really is a better way. If not, her sire’s older childe on the other side will be delighted to say he told her so.

Thursday 6 January 2022

Hunting monsters for pay

A thought spurred by In The Heart Of The Sea, Moby-Dick presents whaling like a monster hunt. Whalers didn’t stay heroic figures like cowboys due to society turning on whaling, the industrial version in particular now generally regarded as monstrous. I suppose the reverse now would be stopping industrial dragon slaughter.

Character Creation Challenge 6a: Buffy The Vampire Slayer


6a: Buffy The Vampire Slayer (revised edition)


Adding a second Hero for my 500th Buffy post on this blog here...

Having created a very classic Hero, one powered White Hat and three regular types, I figured I should show a bit more of the variety of the system. There are rules for revenant-style thinking zombies in Monster Smackdown, but for walking through walls I had to DIY something. (Part of a tradition for ghost PCs going back to my first Buffy PBP as Director.)

And I got a “Ha!” for Madison’s quote, which was nice.

Jerome Phineas “Jer” Endicott
Type: Hero, ghost

Description: Timelessly stylish, fortunately.
Example quote: “I died protecting the college once already, so it’s not as if I have anything pressing.”


Zain Hussain

Fenmore College has a long history of fairly odd occurrences, and nobody knows this better than Jerome Endicott, because he died fighting an ancient demon in 1912. His spirit remained, however, connected to the archives of the student magazine that preceded the Sentinel. And now a long-dead evil threatens to return, and he has awakened as well, able to touch and affect the world again.

Which is probably not a harbinger of an apocalyptic threat.

Right?