Ghost Rider at 50

Ghost Rider, the flaming skeletal motorbike stuntman version, first appeared in comics in May 1972 (dated August) and this escapee from a metalhead logo design has had a wild ride since.

Not least being played by Nicolas Cage.

(Who had to get his Ghost Rider tattoo covered to play him.)

(Later Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes got closer to the MCU with an arc in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season four.)

Confusingly a Rollins Band cover of a Suicide song about him appears on the soundtrack to The Crow, while the song in question never appears in either Cage film.

I was the right age for the 1990 version starring Danny Ketch instead of Johnny Blaze. This made Ghost Rider a legacy character, and brought Blaze in to introduce a rather involved backstory assorted empowering spirits and demons.

Ghost Rider has since become a retcon legacy character with Riders for previous eras being introduced as well.

But not this one by Mike Bear.

Slayerfest 98 takes on Angel

Slayerfest 98 the Buffy rewatch podcast has finished rewatching Buffy so goes on to Angel, starting with a preview Episode Zero.

Spotify.

Apple Pod.

YouTube.

Note: sweary words.

The a|state podcast

The a|state podcast with visuals on YouTube, beginning with a look at the second edition. Also on Spotify and Anchor without visuals.

Project Blacklight

Project Blacklight, a new V5 Vault adventure from Darker Days.

Spring

Spring is here, according to Springwatch. Seems like summer by the calendar. And late winter by the weather.

Whenever I watch it, I think I should include more birds in settings.

Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron Vehicles

And one more bit of game-relevant Star Wars Celebration news, the toy preview roundup at io9 includes Micro Galaxy Squadron, a successor to Micro Machines Action Fleet for Star Wars vehicles, with a consistent-ish scale (though the Millennium Falcon cockpit looks a bit big) and one-inch figures.

And the Razor Crest comes with a tiny Grogu.

So... about miniatures scale. So... yes please.

Star Wars Celebration London Easter 2023

Star Wars Celebration comes back to the ExCel Centre, April 7-10th 2023. (Which is the same weekend as the Nationals. And a reasonably handy hotel would be about £120 a night. So, eh.)

Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2 and more

Another Star Wars Celebration trailer, The Bad Batch season 2, coming this autumn.

Also Ahsoka news with a live-action Hera and Sabine, The Mandalorian panel, the Tales Of The Jedi animated series being prequel-era while the High Republic gets Young Jedi Adventures, Fallen Order game sequel Jedi Survivor, and documentary series Light & Magic...

Also interviews, like this one with Dave Filoni.

World Of Darkness interview

Justin Achilli guests on the Rookery with hosts Graeme Davis and Andy and Lyndsay Law, about the World Of Darkness brand and community, how the world feels, hitting Hunter: The Reckoning around the 30 minute mark, and a little Werewolf: The Apocalypse tease about whether we need Pentex around 49.

Do you want Second Inquisition? This is how you get Second Inquisition.

A new world record for people in vampire costumes set at Whitby for Dracula Day.

Would your vampire avoid this or take refuge in audacity?

Hero Rats

African giant pouched rats being trained to find earthquake survivors, wearing backpacks with radios to alert handlers.

Obi-Wan Kenobi Parts I and II

Obi-Wan Kenobi could have been a film, or rumoured to be a trilogy of films, before becoming the most close to the saga of the live-action Star Wars series so far, bringing back the prequel version of a key character from all the way to the original.

This is demonstrated by the “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...” title card introducing a recap of the prequel trilogy.

Empire review and io9 spoilery review of the first two parts, premiered three hours early to show at Celebration.

It’s ten years since the fall of the Republic and Obi-Wan has been on watch the whole time.

He’s gotten a day job, which felt weird to me as something for a mystical mentor in the wilderness, but it lets him interact with people to a small extent.

And then he refuses a couple of calls to adventure himself before agreeing to one...

Christopher Lee at 100

Happy 100th Sir Christopher Lee day! And 111th Vincent Price day! And day after 109th Peter Cushing day!

(And my 1000th events tag.)

Christopher Lee reading Number 13 by M. R. James.

Star Wars Celebration news

Star Wars Andor season one trailer and date (August 31st), Mandalorian season three teaser (not shared online yet) and date (February 2023), and the coming-of-age series from Jon Watts has a title and logo, Skeleton Crew, and is apparently not a kids’ show per se, though I presume it won’t go full Stranger Things.

Also a Willow trailer and date (November 30th) and an Indy poster and date (June 30th 2023).

Vampire bar beats

An instrumental playlist for country-fried rocking anarchs as opposed to Goth or techno Kindred.

Dracula Day 125

Dracula looms large over vampire stories, the big brand that they have to contend with. The Xerox of vampires. If Dracula is missing in an Earth-based setting with vampires you’re in an alternate world beyond having vampires around and have to figure out how much else to take out.

See my having massively overthought Dracula in Vampire settings where the book and the character both exist, and vampire fiction in general.

See also Dracula-specific gaming things like The Dracula Dossier, Dracula’s America and Fury Of Dracula.

And some I don’t have copies of for some reason.

He’s also the only vampire I ever battled in ice lolly form.

Star Wars at 45

Star Wars (latterly A new Hope) opened in the USA on May 25th 1977. Celebration will be marking it as well as twrnty years of Attack Of The Clones and Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres this weekend. Happy Orthodox Star Wars Day to all who celebrate!

Star Wars Rebels rewatch

I decided to rewatch Star Wars Rebels starting on May the 4th. A more straightforward series than The Clone Wars as it doesn’t hop around in time or perspective and just follows a small cast created for it.

And that small cast might look familiar to players of Star Wars RPGs, starting with the West End Games classic and its templates like the Kid, Minor Jedi, and Tough Native.

Not to mention concepts like Imperial Inquisitors - and direct shout-outs like the B-Wing being tested on a planet called Shantipole.

The main characters have official Imperial Assault miniatures, and have made appearances in art in FFG Star Wars books, but people have been statting them since the show started.

Imperial Assault Rebels by Barkoma on Reddit

And as a show - it’s a lot of fun, and could be surprisingly dramatic as well.

The visual style doesn’t 100% work for me, and it’s not entirely consistent as some secondary characters end up notably more realistic or more Muppety than the core cast, but it doesn’t generally get in the way.

It starts pretty small with Season One, pretty much all around one planet with a couple of recurring Imperial enemies. The end brings in a bigger picture, and connections to the wider setting and particularly The Clone Wars. Season Two expands things substantially, with some expectations of knowing one of the previous show’s plot points, making it less its own thing but it does lead to (for me) the emotional peak of the show. Season Three borrows some Legends - Thrawn isn’t an interesting visual but it uses him pretty well - and goes a bit deeper into the Force again as well as other parts of the setting like the state of the Mandalorians. Season Four goes big and goes home, though for me the Force-involved Weird Level gets too high at the end it mostly sticks the landing.

Overall it’s a good example of long-form classic Star Wars, not least the most traditional RPG setup.

The Gray Man trailer

The Gray Man trailer, Empire overview, a new spy action movie (based on a book series, and already talking about making more) directed by the Russo Brothers, with a dashing Ryan Gosling as a deniable asset does something to get himself denied, facing a decidedly non-dashing Chris Evans as the guy sent to take him out. Netflix spent so much on this that they’re showing it in cinemas too.

Summer RPGs

Summer RPGs GEAS-adjacent starting on June 12th. Now what to do...

More Thor

Thor: Love And Thunder big trailer with Jane and Gorr talking this time. Empire overview.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One trailer

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One trailer

Running! Crashing! Steam trains! Riding across the desert like the end of The Mummy! John Wick lighting! A sword fight on a bridge in Venice! Pom Klementieff as a scary punk lady! Hayley Atwell! A villain speech and no other dialogue!

And if I want to make a fake live-action trailer for Bloodhunt I have a suitably lit church-turned-nightclub scene!

LARPing Goes To Disney World

Neima Jahromi at The New Yorker takes a deep dive into amusement park rides, LARPs, and the increasing amount of the latter in the former, featuring the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser and talking to Disney creatives and LARP experts about involvement levels and alibis for activity.

Thanks to Johanna Koljonen, who appears in it, for the link.

Nocturne 1.26

Vampire: The Masquerade - Nocturne

1.26

Tonight, a finale, as the coterie make a plan and enact it in an unexpected way. Calling up the vengeful ghost of a vampire’s victim and keeping him there to make sure they can talk. With... every other ghost of vampire victims in the city also coming. Including victims of two of the coterie...

The Kid Who Would Be King

The Kid Who Would Be King interested me as the second film from Attack The Block director Joe Cornish (it has a family resemblance) and also because I wrote something quite similar a few years earlier and never did anything with it.

Mine was a YA take with a teenage girl finding the sword - yes I like Buffy shut up - and Merlin was a ghost.

This was much more aimed at kids, despite the actively creepy undead warriors, it has life lessons about unity and honesty and a very silly Merlin.

Bela Lugosi

It’s World Goth Day so it’s okay to post That Bauhaus Song.

My favourite Dracula Daily observation so far

The funniest implication of the reveal of the three vampire women living in Dracula’s castle that at some point Dracula probably had to explain to his roommates that he was going to have a human guest over and he needs to keep up the ruse that he has servants, that he doesn’t live alone here, and all three of them looked him in the eyes and said: “we’re not doing that.”

And all three of them just sat there watching as Dracula uses his superpowers pretending to be the entire wait staff.

queen shit.

myrskytuuli on Tumblr.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Everything Everywhere All At Once was quite something, somewhere, in this time.

Favourite bit, the callback to the wonky Pixar.

And the explanation of hot dog fingers.

And the conclusion was why it gets the Buffy tag.

World Goth Day

Tomorrow is World Goth Day. A very ironically merry World Goth Eve!

Or a merry All About Eve.

Mini Hollow Earth, anyone?

A giant sinkhole in China has preserved an ancient forest that could be home to species unknown to science. This sounds like a job for Player Characters!

Three Thousand Years Of Longing

Three Thousand Years Of Longing, the new film directed by George Miller, from the story The Djinn In The Nightingale’s Eye by A. S. Byatt, in which Tilda Swinton’s academic finds a lamp containing Idris Elba’s djinn. What would you do with three wishes in the present? Especially as someone who knows how this kind of thing goes?

Trailer and Empire article.

Empire preview and premise, with the nineteen-second trailer trailer, linking through to a big interview at Deadline.

“There’s no story about wishing that is not a cautionary tale.”

Six

Six, a short film from writer-director L. Gustavo Cooper on Dust, which could be a useful introduction to a certain Vampire: The Masquerade 5 plot strand. (The first I heard of Cooper was another short, The Home.) Thanks to John Modica on the V5 Facebook for the suggestion.

Vangelis

Vangelis, composer of Blade Runner, Chariots Of Fire and more, has died.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong launches today on PC and consoles. An Epic exclusive for the first year - and on sale with Epic on day one.

Launch trailer

Outstar plays the first chapter.

The Primogen Edition includes a three-month advance download of the tie-in Boston By Night sourcebook PDF.

An investigative game from the studio behind The Council, switching between three PCs as the look into an attack on the city’s blood source. Action is decided by character traits, with conversations having more moves and countermoves than fights.

The V5-based systems are somewhat adjusted in a way that’s actually quite LARP-friendly for opposed traits and minimised rolling, Humanity mostly bundled into Hunger, as well as traits reminiscent of Chronicles Of Darkness Conditions.

And I wonder about one of the twists...

Derry Girls

Derry Girls naturally made me nostalgic for where I was at that time, and glad I was here. The mix of the universal awkwardness of growing up, the comic exaggerations, the specifics of 90s culture that led to a tie-in issue of Smash Hits, and the harsher realities sometimes intruding made the series stand out.

Zola Jesus, The Fall

I will take the fall.

Only More Murders In The Building

Only Murders In The Building returns June 28th with various new suspects and complications. Not quite my birthday but it will do!

She-Hulk trailer

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, coming August 17th, very much leaning into the single-in-the-city comedy side.

Star Wars TV look ahead

Vanity Fair put their cover feature about Star Wars TV online. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Ahsoka and the return of The Mandalorian... Not too heavy with spoilers, but certainly some new info.

Star Wars, for kids

A little bit more Star Wars news ahead of Celebration - Spider-Man Home movies director Jon Watts and Homecoming writer Chris Ford are working on a series which is a coming-of-age adventure, like, er, quite a lot of Star Wars. Okay, casting 11-12 year olds so younger than Luke or Rey or even Ezra, though not starting Anakin.

TTRPG School

TTRPG School by Steve D, on Twitter for later collection. Inspired by Comics School by Gail Simone, a how-to with exercises for creating a small RPG over a week.

Amateur sleuths

Apart from the series creator, the writers of Sister Boniface Mysteries seem to have forgotten that she actually has an established reason for the police to call her in and they don’t have to have her on the scene in the pre-credits before the murder. Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries did this pretty often as well.

Board game word search

Due to the subject matter of the Guardian Saturday Kids’ Word search being board games, I once again very slightly challenge you!

I have been cloned on Facebook

As reported by several of my friends. And dismissed by Facebook. Take care.

Or, given the poor quality of the already gone copy, perhaps more a Fetch than a clone.

Eurovision 2022

Of course Ukraine won. But the UK coming second was a surprise. Especially with Banana Wolf as an option.

Bloodhunt for Children In Need

Which is cool.

A Eurovision reminder

With Eurovision on the way, a reminder of the most poorly researched song in its history:

“Vampires Are Alive”

I mean, I suppose it could have been worse. “Vampires Don’t Drink Blood” or “Vampires Tan Really Well” or “Werewolves Are Just Wolves Actually” or...

Onyx Path Convention panel schedule

Onyx Path Convention panel schedule for June 10th to 12th.

Rimshot

Mannequin On The Moon by Ian Boothby and Pia Guerra

V5 Orphans begins

One of the players wanted a subtitle.

Background image by Mark Billante on Unsplash.

Okay, for the fifth anniversary of the first public V5 playtest, gonna start that PBP. Fingers crossed.

IC thread.

OOC thread.

Discord at 7

Discord has been very useful for the past couple of years, so thanks and happy birthday.

Nationals 2023 Dundee

The Student National Gaming and Roleplaying Championships are hopefully back on, now planned to be hosted at Dundee in April 7-9 2023. A reasonably easy trip from Edinburgh, and no doubt they’ll need GMs.

First Kill first look

The daughter of a family of vampires and the daughter of a family of hunters fall in love in V. E. Schwab adaptation First Kill, coming soon to Netflix.

My Chemical Romance, The Foundations Of Decay

Very glad I could get My Chemical Romance back together to do a new song for the end credits of my current Vampire chronicle in a couple of weeks. Happy Friday the 13th!

DIE - the RPG of the comic of the worst RPG ever

DIE - The Roleplaying Game now live and very funded on Kickstarter.

Based on the comic of the same name and created by its author Kieron Gillen, about players getting pulled into an RPG and that not being a good time for them. It can work out better for your PCs than in the series. Which would not be hard.

The beta is also still available.

There is a time of Reckoning

There is a time of Reckoning. And that time is June 22nd, when Hunter: The Reckoning for World Of Darkness 5 comes out. Preview explaining Despair and how it affects Drive and Desperation Dice, and showing off the character sheet. With Redemption also therer and still unexplained...

Five years After Laughter

After Laughter by Paramroe came out five years ago.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness spoilers

Short version: I hated a major plotline which was successfully kept secret, so goes behind the cut here.

Free The Ocean

Free The Ocean, one of the daily click for charity sites, reaches 1000 days.

V5 at 5

World of Darkness Berlin started five years ago. And after panels and the central LARP gave a hint of some developments on the second day, the third day had the first public playtest of Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition. Now the new Hunter: The Reckoning is close, with Werewolf: The Apocalypse on the way too and a tie-in VR game for Wraith: The Oblivion hinting at more.

The Quest begins

Disney+ Uber-LARP reality show The Quest has begun, and from a game perspective it has a whole lot of NPCs talking in the setup before getting to the players.

RPGs for reproductive justice

A charity bundle at DriveThru for $25 for over $500 of PDFs for abortion rights.

Night Sky trailer

Night Sky, on Prime, stars Sissy Spacek and J. K. Simmons as a couple with... a portal to another planet in their shed? Which is just a nice thing to wonder about until someone turns up in the room the portal opens onto. From there it might go The X Files or E.T. depending on how scary the government types that take an interest are. The warmth of our heroes makes me hope for the latter.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Orphans PBP

Provisional title.

Cover photo by Luke Stackpoole at Unsplash, a very good site for free-to-use stock photos.

(I have already yoinked several chapter title photos. The fictional city of St. Charles will have a skyline oddly like Melbourne.)

800x640 thread version

Indie RPG grants

A series of grants for indie RPG creators, and how to apply.

Nocturne 1.25

Vampire: The Masquerade - Nocturne

1.25

Tonight the PCs didn’t think that including the murder victim in the meeting with the killer might evoke some emotional response.

(And it would have been a better time for a needle drop of Your Ghost by Kristin Hersh, but I did that a few weeks ago.)

Faye responds:

In our defence, we are not very smart. (Okay, maybe the professional therapist has less of an excuse, but the rest of us are either tactless or just vibing.)

George Perez

George Perez has died. Best known for his superhero comics work including massive crossovers - he was absolutely the master of making thirty superheroes fighting in one page work - his career as artist and writer spanned decades, and when his diagnosis was publicised some months ago, creators and fans showed their love for him.

GM style brag

So, GMs, I want you to brag on yourself for a second of something uniquely “you” about the games you run.

Me? I have an amazing ability to improv festivals, carnivals, circuses, and the like. Just did a three sessions-worth festival in our home game all improv, they loved it

Ellie Collins on Twitter

Me:

My fights may not be very tactical but they WILL provide chances to show off.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness

More to follow with spoilers in a week. Suffice to say I was not on the whole happy.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premieres tonight, although not in the UK for weeks.

You're a bloody puppet!

25 years ago today in Buffy history, we first met Principal Snyder who forced Giles to oversee the Sunnydale High talent show where students died and we met Sid the Dummy who was also a demon hunter and the season 1 episode “The Puppet Show” aired

Slayerfest 98

The Buffyverse has a longer history of heroes being turned into living puppets than it does of something like ghosts.

I feel bad about never doing it in The Watch House now. ;)

Vote. It annoys the right people.

Cinco de Mayo

Five years after considering Mexico as a setting, I still want to run a game set there.

A Star Wars world jam

A planet setting created aspect by aspect at RPGnet. Factions, mysteries, wonders and dangers. Use it all in a series like Rebels, or one or two aspects per planet in a more traditional travelling Star Wars setup.

Moon Knight 1.06

Marvel’s Moon Knight

1.06: Gods And Monsters

After the rapidly rising Weird Level of recent weeks, a decent emotional payoff and some quality kicking. And a thing or two confirmed. More would be welcome.

Bonus Tor overview by Leah Schnelbach featuring Paul Schrader comparison.

May The 4th Be With You

Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer

A preview of new art and exclusive posters and prints for Star Wars Celebration, which is still three weeks away (hitting May 25th, Orthodox Star Wars Day) but a preview is always nice.

V5 PBP building

St. Charles University, home of the Harriers, is the domain of the Tremere Regent Giana Hill, but the Oracle is hardly ever seen there. When she does appear it is as a rich benefactor at alumni events.

You are more likely to see the Nosferatu Eye, Mia, in the guise of a student attending a late class, appearing when she hears that you want to speak with her.

Off-campus housing is divided between two neonate coteries based on opposite sides of the main campus. Yours, and a coterie often found around 76, the most convenient nightclub nearby.

Their leader is a member of Alexander’s lineage who calls herself Ivy. Her lover Jefferson is a clanmate but of no close blood, having come to the city from back east. The Brujah Swan is a man of few words. Ivy’s right hand woman Loz and the group’s drug connection Denver haven’t felt the need to share their clans. They mostly keep to themselves, standoffish, but can be called on if someone else tries to poach in your overlapping domains.

Portishead for War Child

Portishead doing a five song set for War Child, their first performance since 2015.

Your Licensed Game Is Awesome!

Your Licensed Game Is Awesome! by Dave Chapman. Yes.

Project Sparrow

Coming this winter from Jax Romana and the world of podcast The Silt Verses, Project Sparrow is a LAOG (live-action online game) about an attempt to create gods for propaganda purposes in a nightmare fantasy Manhattan Project.

Onyx Path 10: Scion Month

Want the Scion second edition core rules and Hero PDFs at 90% off, and the quickstart and pegen characters too? This is the month!

Free RPG Day 2022

Free RPG Day(s) actually, June 25th in the US and July 23rd outside. Nice things to be announced.

Nocturne 1.24

Vampire: The Masquerade - Nocturne

1.24

A short session due to numbers and unhelpful internet, as some of the coterie broke into a family home looking for a link to the ghost of their lost daughter. Hence, a creepy folk song called The Room Nobody Lives In.

LEGO Muppets

LEGO introducing The Muppet Show minifigures. Not saying advert of the year yet, but...

Summer

Summer games probably starting next month, I reckon. Not sure what to run. I’d like to get back to Buffy for a while, though also not just for the summer. Need a break from Vampire to reset my Weird Level, and could if, as currently, I’m not the sole torchbearer. And of course there are too many other viable options.

May

Happy International Workers’ Day!