Nicholas Brendon

54 is no kind of age for this.

The hosts of Buffy RPG page shared a video from him just five days earlier, talking about art, the weather and coffee. He was in a good place.

V5: Stolen 2.05

Vampire: The Masquerade

Stolen

2.05

Who Can You Trust?

Beck

Robin

Vince

Beverley meets Beck as arranged.

Beck can see Robin hiding, and see him tense, ready to spring, giving him a warning look.

He asks her to steal the Book of Nod fragment from Astor, if he already has it and is looking or more buyers. Noting the urgency, she recalculates her fee for a strike tonight.

Robin forces himself to wait for her to go before joining Beck.

Vince strolls up to join them.

Beck narrows his eyes. “What are you doing her? I don’t want worming your way into this, unless you can actually help.”

“I can always find a way to help.”

“Sure you can, you slimy bastard.”

“Well, emotions seem high, perhaps a nice meal would help? I saw a couple of gentlemen at the pub shaking hands with their left hands?”

“I do not sully myself with the blood of inebriates.”

“I’m sure they were just having something light.”

“Perhaps you could do something for me instead?”

“Oh, I’m sure.”

“One of my bride is also helping our sire’s fundraiser. I don’t want to sabotage her, but I would like...”

“Revenge?”

“No, just to outshine her... a little.”

“I’ll see what I can do. But I’m just a little fish here, I’d never dream of crossing you.”

“Good.” Beck smiles thinly. “But there’s no need to be afraid of me. Well, besides the obvious.”

The three go their separate ways. Beck making sure the others aren’t following him this time.

Single Girl, nananananana Single Girl

Been a long time since I edited a fan vid, but I have just the song for Ready Or Not:

Lush, Single Girl

Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come

Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come (trailer) starts immediately after the original, embiggens the setting as lightly hinted at, retcons a minor detail to be a major plot point and - yes! - has Sarah Michelle Gellar getting stabby in horror-comedy action.

Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton bounce off each other nicely. The enemies this time aren’t all as inept as Grace’s inlaws in the first, Gellar’s Ursula and Shawn Hatosy as her brother Titus providing most of the serious threat. The funniest fight with a couple of standout gags (one referencing the Schwarzenegger oeuvre) is intercut with the most serious, which was an interesting choice but does deflate the fun one for me.

Since it can’t match the surprise of the original ending it plays that card a few times unexpectedly.

Lacking that surprise and not being so nicely self-contained means it doesn’t hit as well for me as the original, but it’s still big fun.

The creators compared the setting expansion to John Wick and this is pretty literal, but does mean I got something Wick failed to provide in four and a half movies.

I have been summoned

Someone just asked for ideas for low-level powers and sources characters could have in a Buffy RPG.

I typed quite quickly for a few minutes there.

Stranger Things on disc

Stranger Things is coming to physical media, in 4K and Blu-Ray box sets. Which is nice.

Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom trailer

Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom trailer, and talk at Empire, “a race against time to save Halloween” so the September 18th release date for half-term is a bit early.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer

Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer and talk at Empire.

These have been a pretty consistently fun part of the MCU, something the MCU needs.

The Punisher! Bruce Banner! A changing powers storyline! Dealing with his last choice! Ninjas! Dropping off high things and it not being reversed to soar like in Spider-Verse!

And is this really the first time we’ve gotten a live-action version of the Amazing Fantasy 15 cover? Huh. Seems so obvious now it’s there.

(Edit: Sam Raimi did it in passing as Jameson looks at photos, but not the exact pose.)

And for me...

Been a while. Time to run Buffy.

I know the official system well enough to run it in my sleep (just about, GMing while unconscious doesn’t really work) but could look at alternatives that are in print if I’m feeling nice.

Yeah there’s Monster Of The Week but I will never forgive it for stealing that term for its title.

Where next for Buffy?

Assuming Sarah doesn’t burn that man down and overthrow the Hulu gatekeepers (which, fingers crossed) what next?

I would imagine the next attempt would be a full reboot with no-one back in their original roles. It’s been tried before in the 2010 film script by Whit Anderson who went on to work with Buffy writing veterans on Daredevil, and the Boom! comics - and also the show itself, which is why I’m always fine with this when it potentially comes up.

The New Sunnydale screenplay

According to Slayerfest 98 “the script leak floating around is an early draft - not the shooting script” so I’ll work from there.

I’d say it largely works.

And not just because Nova wants to go to Cambridge.

(Early naming, later Rowan.)

One of the possible new Scoobies gets to spotlight the horror of the whole thing well.

“What are you?”

“You know.”

It does feel very much like part one of an intro two-parter. Basically a whole story but ending on an appeal to come back.

And it’s very much a sequel, which is cool for audiences like me but I can see concerns about getting new people. I’m sure they could have gotten the balance in time.

Sarah Michelle Gellar on New Sunnydale

Sarah Michelle Gellar talks to People about being sad for the cast and crew and fans, angry about when the announcement came, and suspicious of one of the execs involved and merciful not to name him.

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate!

Chloé Zhao on New Sunnydale

Chloé Zhao talked about Buffy on the red carpet at the Oscars, saying she was not surprised:

“I had an incredible, incredible time with Sarah, with all the cast and crew doing this. And we, first and foremost, see ourselves as the guardians of the original show. Our priority for Sarah and for us has always been to be truthful to the show, to be truthful to our fans. So, things happen for a reason, and we keep our hearts open and we welcome the mystery. And what this might lead us to.”

(She was all in black with a mourning veil, but says this was a themed look for her film Hamnet.)

Oscars 2026

Sinners did great, and I was sad but not really surprised it didn’t get everything

Most years, an action comedy state-of-the-nation piece about inept leftist terrorist heroes would be a very cool Best Picture win.

Best Supporting Actress going to Amy Madigan for a straight-up monster performance in Weapons is delightful.

Frankenstein getting the design awards, fair do’s.

K-Pop Demon Hunters getting Animated Feature and Song, cool too.

Yay for Jessie Buckley although it means for budgetary reasons I should stop fancasting her as the Doctor.

The Ides Of March

And Brutus is an honourable man.

Who would miss your alleged or actual villain?

Winter Paralympics 2026 closing ceremony

Closing ceremony starting rather TRON Legacy. No ninjas yet.

Now wanting a wheelchair using Jedi.

Danger danger snowglobe critical

Well, glad Brazil got a medal for the first time, after doing that at the Olympics too.

Firefly: The Animated Series

Firefly being pitched as an animated series, set between S1 and Serenity. Could work depending on style, if it happens.

That concept art looks realistic video game or Arcane ish. Could do okay.

If it can move, I guess?

Though I’m very aware it’s a decidedly grounded series considering the spaceship flying. Animation could tempt them to change it up - hopefully keeping no aliens but they could easily have more space action? Thinking of the Buffy animated presentation ending with fighting a dragon, as well as the canon comics not matching the live action series’s budgetary practicality.

But also Adam Baldwin is there. Can he keep his head down for a job?

Well, one of the showrunning couple worked on Agent Carter.

Panel video.

She is the slayer.

Ryan Kiera Armstrong sharing a costume test photo

I understand that this sort of thing requires ice cream of some kind.

Comfort food, episode, serious thought to running a Buffy game again.

Buffy: New Sunnydale not picked up

Sarah Michelle Gellar shares the news that Hulu has passed on the pilot.

Summary at Empire.

“If the apocalypse actually comes, you can still beep me.”

V5: Stolen 2.04

Vampire: The Masquerade

Stolen

2.04

Everything That I Love Will Destroy Me In The End

Beck

Robin

Beck joins Robin at a booth overlooking the dancefloor.

He confirms what he’s learned about Beaufoy having worked for Milliner, which Robin says is useful and asks if there’s more, Beck dangles the information about her hangout but Robin says they know that already.

“Guess I’ll be seeing her tomorrow by myself.”

“You’re meeting her? Where?”

“What would that be worth?”

 “I would like a chance to set a trap for her.”

“She’s nobody to me, just a means to an end. But it would be a shame if she found out you’re after her.”

“Are you blackmailing me?”

“Oh no, that’s such an ugly word. This is extortion.”

“What do you want?”

“One of the Tremere might have something I want.”

Robin agrees to check out Astor’s business.

Another year since lockdown.

The local wee rock club where we would sometimes go circa TWH is shutting down. Happy Friday the 13th...

Happy Friday the 13th! Again!

Second in a row due to last month being a non-leap February. And there’s another in November. Three is the maximum for a year.

The Bride!

The Bride! written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal reimagines The Bride Of Frankenstein as Mary Shelley returning from Purgatory to run wild, possessing the Bride before and after her revival.

Jessie Buckley snaps between multiple characters and shows the chaos that causes her and the world, with Christian Bale as “Frank” as her straight man as they run amok in 1930s America. He’s an interesting take too, emotionally volatile, superhumanly strong but prone to pain and a sometimes collapsing lung (and I love the line he uses to get Annette Bening’s Dr. Euphronius to help) but most of the big scenes and ideas centre around her, some barely touched on like her ability to see what wrongs men have done to women - or just remember these things and say them out loud - one of the things that starts a revolution in her image.

Sketching a world where the monster alarms some but less so others and Frankenstein’s work is known only in scientific circles, some choppy editing shows through just how many ideas are involved, but it looks great and sounds fun as well.

Sometimes violent including sexual threat but most surprisingly only a 15 considering some of the language.

Post Streets Of Fire dialogue

Based on how badly McCoy and Fish got along, if he ever had to work with her again:

(false smile) “Oh, hey, great to see you!” (smile drops) “Guard the door.”

Streets Of Fire

Game was postponed so made pasta and watched Streets Of Fire (free with ads on YouTube) for the first time in about thirty-five years. It really is a glorious mess that could have worked with someone else in the male lead.

I still doubt it would have been big enough to get the trilogy to happen because it’s weird and dumb, but could have been fun.

(The making of seems weird and dumb too. The storming final track was written in two days after the original ending had to be scrapped because Bruce Springsteen decided not to let them use a cover of Streets Of Fire and they’d already filmed that version, Which seems like an oversight. Even before knowing they had to rebuild the set.)

“Another time, another place” is mostly the 50s but partially also very much the 80s specifically in Jim Steinman style, and a mythical city that seems to be enormous judging by how long it takes to get back sneakily from the raid. (The Warriors works to make the geography track, this absolutely doesn’t.) And as the cops try to discourage player character duelling in the streets then shrug it off you can add Wild West town to the mix of eras. RPGnet overthinking thread! It seems like a fun place to hang out.

Buffyversary

Happy 29th anniversary to Welcome To The Hellmouth.

And if you need to look up a line, Buffy transcript search by ao01_design

New kettle

Higher spout angle so I have to be careful not to overshoot when trying to pour.

Glasgow Central Station

Another historic building burned. This one might be saved, at least.

Tonight part of the session was set in a shop I passed on the way there.

Purge them.

Inspired by Marathon and one of my current PCs, thinking again about a villainous space opera game like House Of The Dying Sun. Sinister agents of a fallen empire charged with revenge against traitors and breakaway warlords, where at best the PCs can decide to do some good on their way down, and everybody has dark armour and conflicting agendas and scary-looking fighters.

Winter Paralympics 2026 opening ceremony

Nice for the Russian and Belarus athletes. Less so for others who could have had those wild card spaces.

Start with ninjas.

Theremin made of wood from migrant boats is quite a touch.

The ninjas have laser hands. I REPEAT, THE NINJAS HAVE LASER HANDS.

Dialogue for later

“How’s your brother? Feeling better? Could he run if he had to?”

World Book Day

Happy World Book Day!

Teviot

Teviot Union, the home of The Watch House officially reopens after two and a half years. I’ll have to go see what they've done.

Update: Wee video. Main thing which meant the delay, great big balconied bar at the back, way in where the front desk used to be. The Mezzanine has stopped being the New Amphion and is now the Gallery, while still being a mezzanine. Otherwise quite a lot of grey walls where the wood panelling was, though not entirely. Hrm.

GM's Day

Be nice.

D&D 2024 is now D&D 5.5e

Which is nice, not acting like it isn’t.

V5: Stolen 2.03

Vampire: The Masquerade

Stolen

2.03

Favours For Favours

Beck

Robin

Vince

Beck arranges a meeting with his sire Alva, a wine bar around the West End. He asks about concerns with the Tremere and the Sheriff, and about finding a rogue Banu Haqim. In exchange she asks for help with a small charitable event, something his position in the Church of England will help more than the Church of Caine.

The next night, she updates him to say that the Banu Haqim has done something for Joseph Milliner, the Hecata investor.

Bruce Campbell

All best wishes to Bruce Campbell. And fuck cancer.

When he came here to promote My Name Is Bruce the first screening with Q&A sold out, so they put on another and he said he’d do an introduction but then he stayed for a Q&A after anyway.

The Thunder Perfect Mind

The Thunder Perfect Mind has arrived.

Coming soon, the first supplement, Terrestrial Court, including LARP rules.

The Nevers

The Nevers is streaming free with ads on ITVx. The last thing Joss Whedon created and left unfinished when he was revealed as a creep, I’ve never had a chance to see it short of buying the discs. So here we go.

Nine minutes thirty and Mrs. True has kicked a guy out of a window.

Marathon

Marathon is a new multiplayer action game from the studio behind Halo and Destiny. On a failed colony planet, various corporate and other factions send Runners in machine bodies to collect artefacts, bring back data about some mysteries, and fight each other to loot the wreckage.

With no single-player campaign and fairly light narrative development elements it doesn’t feel so heavily suited to story focused versions like tabletop RPGs as Halo and particularly the “why isn’t this an RPG?” of Destiny, though it could be the basis for a West Marches raid game, and looks really Mork Borg and the in-character multiple lives are pretty Paranoia.

Getting Poppy in for the launch video song fits.

It takes its name from a first person adventure with plenty of plot, a precursor to Halo, but while that’s part of the new game’s history it doesn’t play the same way.

Ultimately everybody kinda looks like an Infinity figure or crash test dummy. Not my jam.

March

Yes, do that.