Trinity Continuum: Aether Serial

Chapter one: From the Depths of Space to the Heart of London, an introduction to Aether, the Victorian SF setting for the Trinity Continuum.

The chances of anything coming from Mars

are low but never zero

Almost two minutes of new to me Buffy!

Thanks to Whedonesque, adverts for Buffy The Vampire Slayer season six with the cast talking about the lack of Buffy and how bad that is.

Hunter as heist

During today’s World Of Darkness News, Justin Achilli mentioned Hunter: The Reckoning relating heist stories, with planning to take on powerful targets, and specifically Leverage for outsiders punching up. Which is an interesting approach for a less action-intensive monster hunting game.

(And naturally I started thinking which Leverage characters and types fit which Hunter creeds. They’re not one to one but Hitter to Martial obviously, maybe Hacker to Inquisitive, Thief and overall leaning into Underground. Not sure for Sophie. Harry Entrepreneurial? Nate could be Entrepreneurial but maybe his sense of justice is more Faithful?)

Alice Is Missing at the movies

Alice Is Missing, the text message based mystery RPG, has been optioned for film, with a script on the way. As a modern low-key one-shot game I imagine it could get a more accurate adaptation than most RPGs have. Though I doubt they’ll make a silent movie.

Ms. Marvel 1.04: Seeing Red

Ms. Marvel

1.04: Seeing Red

How to make Buffy fans nervous in one episode title.

Film Festival 2022

The Edinburgh International Film Festival is back in August and in person.

Only Murders In The Building season two

Steve Martin and John Hoffman’s comedy mystery Only Murders In The Building returns after season one which could have been self-contained apart from the first and last five minutes, and quickly gets the gang back together but now as murder suspects, which they handle about as well as you might expect.

“Second seasons are tough, you know?”

Oliver, not actually winking at the camera

Season two trailer which shows bits from episodes past the first two, which are now on Disney+ Star in the UK. I believe Hulu starts with both in the US as well, so we shouldn’t be too far off in releases.

The first episode “Persons Of Interest” introduces Cara Delavigne as a mysterious artist and Amy Schumer as Amy Schumer, taking over Sting’s apartment, while the second episode “Framed” brings in Shirley MacLaine as Bunny’s mother..

It’s consistently funny, charming, occasionally whimsical and sometimes naturally gloomy. I have no idea what’s going on yet, but I suspect the cliffhanger of episode two won’t provide all the answers because (a) it’s only episode two so too early for a witness to explain everything and (b)...

New York By Night starting Friday

Cast and intro, and hints of future plans. Start spreading the news...

Glastonbury

The Glastonbury festival came back after two years off, reminding me of ideas set in and around such big events.

In the decade since that post, someone has made a comedy movie set around a big music festival, proving my point somewhat. As well as cancelled plans for a festival with a LARP built in, and a LARP about a festival disaster.

And an event as big as Glastonbury could fuel a series by itself. Attending, working, getting lost and away with the fairies...

And popping a birthday request for festival hooks on RPGnet.

From Mannequin On The Moon

By Ian Boothby and Pia Guerra.

Birthday!

Plans: saying hello to people, pizza, getting Troy by Stephen Fry and Spider-Man: No Way Home, more Glastonbury on TV.

Glastonbury is nicer birthday TV accompaniment than the childhood tradition of Wimbledon. Still not as big a deal as Christmas TV, but I appreciate the effort on my behalf.

I'm human...

Today is the 40th anniversary of Blade Runner, and The Thing. Quite a day for films about not being sure who was human.

The news is hard to look at sometimes. Check in on people. March, sign petitions, vote locally and nationally.

Zola Jesus, Arkhon

Zola Jesus, Arkhon.

Bandcamp playlist.

Youtube playlist including videos.

RPGnet Membership Drive

RPGnet Membership Drive - 2022 Edition with free PDFs as well as on-site benefits.

What We Do, Season Four Trailer Two

What do we do next in the shadows? I’m sure Nandor having a genie resurrect his 37 wives won’t go badly at all.

125 years of filming events

Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee procession was held on June 22nd 1897, filmed by forty cameras from different companies (one example thanks to the BFI) and shown all around the world within days. An eighth of a millennium later the recent Platinum Jubilee was beamed in HD pretty much live, but this was the first mass media event a year after the first films were shown to the public.

(So if you want to do the plot where somebody spots a time traveller in an old movie, this is pretty much the first multi-camera event to do it.)

Ms. Marvel 1.03: Destined

Ms. Marvel

1.03: Destined

A big explain, a big fight, a big wedding reception!

Obi-Wan Kenobi Part VI

Obi-Wan Kenobi Part VI was a reasonably good ending to the main plot and a more iffy ending to what was expected to be the main plot.

Midsummer

Today is the longest day. A nice obvious seasonal marker for worlds that have those.

(Also the start of summer according to astronomy. Which should know better.)

The Quarry

The Quarry, a new playable horror movie from the makers of Until Dawn, with a great run of cameos from horror character actors.

Trailer, behind-the-scenes featurette, Empire review low on spoilers.

This one comes with Movie Mode so you can go get to the endings you want without the heavy gameplay. There are 186 endings, many variations on good and bad, which is obviously more than you could fit in a gamebook.

It would obviously make a good Dead Of Night or Slasher Flick or Fear Itself or They Came From game. (While Until Dawn had a very Dread moment near the end where you have to keep the controller still when you hide from danger, and this uses some of that too...)

Dead End: Paranormal Park

Dead End: Paranormal Park is a new PG-ish cartoon series on Netflix, based on a graphic novel series, based on a one-shot cartoon. It’s both a monster comedy and a coming-of-age story, about two teens taking a summer job at a theme park which is also maybe a portal to Hell.

Norma, Barney and Pugsley the talking dog.
Not pictured, Courtney the demon.

So yes it made me think of Buffy, having done the crappy first job as a setup there too. Though not in an Adventureland style theme park setting with most episodes being based around park and/or job features. Hmm...

The Weird Level cranks up fast.

Favourite background gag: Sandvvitches

And in the first episode Slender Man gets disintegrated.

And the third episode has Alan Cumming as a life coach and the fifth has Tom Lenk as the game show host from Hell.

Summertime, and the GMing is... easy?

Now to come up with a possible Buffy premise for two players that isn’t Supernatural.

The players are friends (hello!) and not heavy Buffy viewers.

So my first thought of a Slayer and Watcher doesn’t really fly. Watcher PCs really need to be able to drop lore.

Some kind of chosen one, or two...

Happy Father’s Day and Juneteenth.

Paul McCartney at 80

80 artists pick their favourite Paul McCartney songs for his 80th birthday.

Paramount+

All the Star Treks finally arrive here with Paramount+ next week, but Halo doesn’t come with them, instead going to Channel 5, which seems odd.

Update: only episode 1 as an advert. Oh.

Ziggy Stardust at 50

David Bowie released The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars fifty years ago today. A bold move for Bowie, the story of an alien saviour falling to his ego and destroyed by those who sent him, something he went back to in part when he starred in The Man Who Fell To Earth. A reminder of how we need to save ourselves.

Ziggy is the most famous of his many alter egos, though Aladdin Sane had the most famous look. As well as musical influences, it perhaps also gave us the title for Starman, just one of his direct and indirect effects on SFF.

And in gaming, not many concept albums get an unofficial RPG but Starchildren / Velvet Generation is an exception.

And naturally I riffed on the song titles for Doctor Who adventure hooks.

Ms. Marvel 1.02: Crushed

Ms. Marvel

1.02: Crushed

Aamir had a Goth phase!

The plot thickens but the charming remains charming.

I like the community being highlighted.

Obi-Wan Kenobi Part V

Obi-Wan Kenobi Part V was a nice normal episode after last week.

Diana Jones 2022 finalists

The Diana Jones Award 2022 finalists:

Across RPGSEA, a website and newsletter promoting Southeast Asian games

Ajit George, an activist advocating for a more representative hobby games industry

Haunted West, an epic weird west RPG with a focus on marginalized people

Mothership, a stunning space horror RPG fueled by its community of contributors

Glass Onion

The new Knives Out mystery has a title, Glass Onion - a reference to a Beatles song written to mess with fans who read too much into the lyrics.

Also announced yesterday, Paddington In Peru.

Saturnalia character selection

The Vampire: The Masquerade 5 Nordic LARP Saturnalia now has a preview level of its character selection system online.

Developing ideas used in Enlightenment In Blood, it builds by character type, major allegiance, specific faction, character idea within that group and goals. It’s a good example of a system for one-shot character creation for LARPs and the like.

It’s also a big pile of NPC and faction ideas.

Full coteries of half a dozen vampires with agendas and specific roles, Hunter cells and wild card werewolves too. Add some names and other details and you’ve got the makings of a city.

For example, I swiped the clashing Anarch factions from Enlightenment for later tabletop games, including one of the coterie concepts, as well as the first look at the Church of Caine.

I’m already tempted to use the vampire Krewe in a New Orleans based game.

Starfield

Starfield, the new space opera video game from the company behind Skyrim and Fallout, gets a longish preview ahead of its 2023 release.

The ships and bases mostly look sort of grottily industrial in an Alien or Firefly way with some shinier Alliance areas, with lots of shooting at alien creatures and pirates on the ground and space dogfights, while sounding more optimistic and Star Trek with hopeful music and a cooperative group looking at a plot involving Mysterious Alien Artefacts.

The standout visual moment for me was the Constellation group HQ being a library with wood paneling, comfy armchairs and portraits on the walls, a charming retro aesthetic for an explorers’ society compared to the shiny Starfleet areas elsewhere in the city. This says something about me as well as them, as someone who likes the Library at Teviot.

I’m very tempted to steal that for the Aeon Trinity.

Onyx Path Convention news

Trinity Continuum: Aegis, Infernal Exalted, helping the Bodhana Group with a game called Branch Riders, and a new Storypath fantasy game called The World Below.

Summer

I didn’t get zero players for summer, so that’s nice. Thanks Erich!

The only ones more than half full had reserved spaces.

there is a light at the end of the world

io9 talks to momatoes about a two-player game, rebuilding lighthouses and the Diana Jones Emerging Designer Award.

GEAS Summer pitches

Six games at current count (now seven), one mine, none D&D. No WoD either - I could help with that but I don’t really want to run two games a week and I need a break from it.

You may also notice my pitch has no premise. I have options.

Onyx Path Convention

Onyx Path Convention begins tonight. (Times Eastern, so add 5)

Ken And Robin Talk About Stuff 500

Ken And Robin Talk About Stuff for the 500th time.

The science of sleep

New mattress. Decent night’s sleep. Bloody enormous thing, though. No metal springs. Arrived in a roll.

In every generation there is a Chosen One...

Guess what I just offered to GM over the summer.

Zola Jesus, Into The Wild

How can love be misguided when your heart learns to beat?

The last bit starting around 2.53 is bluesier than I was expecting.

Unused JJ Abrams idea available

Demimonde, announced in 2018, is now officially not happening as a TV series. So if yuo want to do portal SF or fantasy with an awkward family dynamic, have at it.

Royal Witches Flying Corps

Royal Witches Flying Corps, a webcomic by Will Quinn of Daily Bunny fame, puts witches on broomsticks into a WWI-ish air war. Influenced by Ghibli style animation and with a YA cast. (And a special guest bunny.) Today it reaches the end of the prologue and the start of the main story.

Hunter: The Reckoning

Hunter: The Reckoning for World Of Darkness 5 is now available in PDF, free for hardback preorder buyers. Looking forward to hearing how it is.

6000 posts!

6000 posts here at TWH, and what do we have?

RPGs at 1058. Vampire at 1029. Events, a catchall for news and other stuff, at 1005. Films and TV nearly there are 984 and 964. Star Wars at 424, exactly double Star Trek at 212. This, perhaps aptly, putting The Watch House at 300.

Ms. Marvel 1.01: Generation Why

Ms. Marvel

1.01: Generation Why

That was adorable.

Very Scott Pilgrim-y and also fairly Turning Red.

Mid-credits scene!

Closest in tone to the MCU Spider-Man movies, complete with doodling on the credits but here it gets into the show as well.

Meet the Khans in this early early clip.

Bonus review from Malala Yousafzal

And an observation at the end of the episode...

Obi-Wan Kenobi Part IV

Obi-Wan Kenobi Part IV was exciting, weird, at one point ghoulish and at another hilarious.

World Oceans Day

World Ocean Day, 8th of June. Sign a petition!

World Of Darkness, Source Of Light

A feature on By Night Studios blog for Pride, How the World of Darkness has been a Source of Light.

What We Do In The Shadows season 4 trailer

What We Do In The Shadows season 4 trailer (which may give away the resolution of how season 3 ended) along with news confirming 5 and 6.

A vote of no confidence is never a good sign for the voted-at no matter how well they do in it. Which is nice.

Also on Geeked Week

Wednesday, more of Locke & Key and Shadow And Bone, and two different spooky series from Guillermo del Toro and Mike Flanagan.

The Sandman, August 5th

The Sandman on Netflix, with trailer and Geeked Week talk. This could work.

Disney's Strange World trailer

Strange World, a new CG animated feature from Disney and co-directors Don Hall and writer Qui Nguyen, about visiting a... strange world. While the title gives very very little away about how it’s going to go, the retro-pulpy intro has my attention. A little more at Tor.com.

Thanks to King Snarf on RPGnet for the link.

V5 Orphans visual references

Setting and characters

Spider-Man at 60

Amazing Fantasy 15 came out on this day in 1962, featuring the first appearance of Spider-Man.

One of the first superheroes I knew through the 70s TV series and UK reprint comics. One of the first I have sums him up perfectly, a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man 205 which opens with him staking out a museum in the winter after breaking a window to get in - shivering and joking about catching a cold.

Canon in crossovers

The Queen is canon for James Bond and Paddington, but it does not follow that James Bond and Paddington are canon to each other.

That's the Chicago way

Rewatching The Untouchables for its 35th anniversary... and I may just have an idea for Hunter: The Reckoning.

The Rookery at Cymera

Inside The Rookery talks writing and GMing at Cymera. I can be heard laughing and clapping.

Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan at 40

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is much admired in retrospect, but The Wrath Of Khan was loved from the outset.

The Next Generation owed more to TMP (from the reuse of the theme music to the two-tone outfits) but Khan was what made Star Trek viable in the 80s.

And for me, the FASA RPG adventures set in this era were important as well - even if the adventure supplements generally ran at more of a TOS speed and planet-of-the-week mode, and we moved on to the then-current TNG era quickly even though FASA lost the licence soon after. But part of me still wants big movie Trek, literary references, and a nice jacket.

The Platinum Jubilee

Nice for her, obviously.

Note

If you see beacons being lit across the UK tonight, it’s a jubilee thing, Gondor is not calling for aid.

Playing The Untouchables

As noted above, The Untouchables always makes me want to run something in the Prohibition era.

As I mentioned around the end of Peaky Blinders, there have been dedicated RPGs for this at least as far back as GangBusters first edition in 1982 which had rules for playing both sides, as well as reporters and private eyes.

Of course the main 20s-30s RPG has always been Call Of Cthulhu but it doesn’t cover this side of the era, and most others are pulps like Adventure!

Non-SFF-ish gangster gaming is more common with miniature skirmish wargames. Like one called The Chicago Way...

(One thing I would have for this is vehicles, having quite a few Lledo Days Gone toy cars which are about 25mm scale. One of these days I’ll actually do something with them.)

And the main Chicago-centric RPG is Vampire: The Masquerade where Capone was one of the city’s NPCs, so I’ve inevitably thought of doing Prohibition-era Vampire as well, with the gangster side being an obvious connection - I made a fake trailer for one using footage from Boardwalk Empire - but a Great Gatsby style high life game could work too.

The Untouchables

A happy half-platinum-jubilee 35th anniversary to the US premiere of The Untouchables (1987), one of my favourite crime movies.

That's the Chicago way.

A heroic take on the story of Eliot Ness and his team taking down Al Capone, inspired by Ness’s posthumously published book punched up by co-author Oscar Fraley and the TV series that followed, so it’s printing the legend of the legend of the legend. (And another series followed, the legend of...)

It made Kevin Costner a star and got Sean Connery a belated Oscar as well as cementing the cinematic version of Capone with Robert de Niro. It’s probably best known for the steps sequence inspired by The Battleship Potemkin. Spoiled here in a pretty fun A. V. Club location tour.

Of course it makes me want to run a game about super-cool Prohibition era agents and gangsters.

But what kind ...?

Onyx Path 10th Anniversary Sale

For the next twelve days, 412 PDFs at half price. Rulebooks! Sourcebooks! The map of Stygia which is normally 99 cents anyway! Not Chronicles Of Darkness but pretty much everything else.

RPGs at Cymera

RPGs at Cymera genre festival, including The Rookery live.

Obi-Wan Kenobi Part III

Obi-Wan Kenobi is already halfway through, and delivering the goods.

June

June, for Pride, Juneteenth, and more.