Star Wars Episode VII, second trailer

The Force Awakens.

Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie... the mask of Kylo Ren... running and explosions and new and different Stormtroopers and more!

As if a million voices cried out, and suddenly squee-ed...

Excitement level - approximately original Episode I trailer. Probably slightly below due to, well, Episode I. But damn that was a good trailer it had...

And this was at the end of a Star Wars Celebration panel with old and new stars... including BB-8.

Transferable game design lessons from LARP

Tatiana Delgado on what she learned from designing LARPs and took into other forms of gaming.

Shared via Cat Tobin

The Spirit, the animated movie that never was

Ouch. Right in the what-I-always-wanted.

3D printable miniatures of every Monster in the Manual

From Tiamat to the Gazebo.

The WOD MMO, a year later

CCP shut down the World Of Darkness MMO a year ago today. Onyx Path has stepped in with tabletop books and support.

There’s a wealth of concept art and screenshots from test versions online - the cover of Invite Only started there, and I’ve swiped several of the locations and some of the specific plot hooks for my current Vampire: The Masquerade game, like the Gallows Tree that turns up in a lot of the art.

I’ve spoken about this before, of course, but here we are a year later and still wanting more.

Daredevil

So between Person Of Interest, Arrow and now Daredevil, Gotham isn’t even one of the three most Batman shows currently on TV any more. (Which shows up what a peculiar idea Gotham is, among other things.)

As arguments go for comparing him to Batman, Daredevil is an acrobatic avenging martial-arts-focused vigilante with the uncanny sonar-like hearing of... um... a bat. And this is before mentioning Frank Miller or Ben Affleck.

Happy Tabletop Day

Onyx Path, among others, have some crazy PDF deals going. Want the Mummy: The Curse rulebook for $4.99? Or each of the Trinity Universe rulebooks? Go for it.

Feed me!

Somewhat off-topic, but as it was home to ORC for over a year of Saturday afternoons and to board game evenings, I will mention the Kickstarter to bring back Illegal Jack’s anyway. A well-fed GM is a slightly less grouchy GM.

A player recap can give you a very different perspective

I made a point to have an editing round for The Watch House before posting the AP reports - especially useful when I couldn’t read my own transcriptions. One of the players (hello Rick!) recaps sessions of my current V20 game based on his notes, and it’s always interesting to note what does - and doesn’t - get flagged up. What is important to each player, what stands out for them?

And I can’t help but imagine how players would describe their rather different experiences in Game Of Thrones reflecting how the GM treats them...

Tyrion: I was denied any thanks for saving the city and my nephew plotted to have me killed.
Arya: I went on the run with one of our worst enemies, and arrived just in time to see my brother’s troops being murdered and fail to rescue him and our mother.
Jon: I had to kill one of my superiors to join the Wildlings, fell in love with one of them, and then when I got back I couldn’t kill an innocent to prove my loyalty so now she’s hunting me down.
Daenerys: I had the best knight in the world join my party, used my free point of Language: Old Valerian to get an army of slave ninjas to follow me, overthrew a dictatorship in one night and got a new boyfriend!
Everyone else: ...
Daenerys: What?

The Dirty Dozen IN SPAAAAACE. Again.

Star Trek: Renegades, among other things, has me thinking again about what to do with a space opera exploration kind of setting. I would want to keep the optimism. Which this doesn’t look like it does.

And it got me imagining the reverse - something like a Star Wars fan film about a big ship with a well-drilled and non-ragtag crew. (Who may or may not be lobster people.)

Ever wonder what was up with cyberpunk style?

Crazy assymetrical hair and makeup prevent facial recognition.

Adding new options can affect old ones

“The Lasombra are kind of like the evil Ventrue.”
“... I thought the Ventrue were the evil Ventrue.”

In the above, I’m being somewhat serious. The Sabbat on stage in Vampire: The Masquerade brought in some interesting ideas but definitely shifted the game’s focus.

Edit, quoting Bruce Baugh, author of Clanbook Lasombra Revised and the Lasombra Trilogy:

“The Lasombra are the extra-evil Ventrue.”

As he’s thought about what makes them cool a great deal, I bow to his superior knowledge. And back away to a well-lit area.

Conpulsion observations

Simon Burley discusses his games at Conpulsion and some other things from around it. He seems pretty happy all round, which is (of course) a relief!

I would have happily jumped in on a number of games, including his and especially All Of Space And Time, as well as Gregor Hutton’s demo of Darkest Moment and missing yet another chance to play Hell 4 Leather. I will freely admit that one reason I got Stuart Boon to put his Call Of Cthulhu adventure into the charity auction was so I could buy a space.

(Also, 1400th post here!)

Conpulsion Over And Out

Still... kinda tired...

Conpulsion Overboard Day Two

So very tired. Thank you GMs, guests, organisers, blueshirts, and attendees.

Also, got to play Quizmaster Bingo - questions got a collective laugh, a collective groan, an “ohhh, I know that!”, an “I said that!” and best of all an “I hate you, Craig!” from Stew Wilson. Quiz in play-it-here version to follow when less...zzzzz

Conpulsion Overboard Day One

Ran panel and survived. Yay for panel!

Played Sandcastles! Yay for Sandcastles!

Bought things at charity auction. Yay for things!

Died in Call Of Cthulhu as is only proper! Yay for Cthulhu!

Captain Cosmos!

George RR Martin is developing a new show at HBO called Captain Cosmos, in which:

“At the dawn of the age of TV in 1949, a visionary young writer creates a science fiction series that tells stories no one else will dare to tell.”.

It sounds a bit like the reasoning behind the social commentary episodes of The Twilight Zone and Star Trek - allegory hidden by genre.

Fingers crossed we get to see a fair chunk of the show within a show as well...

Lore Of The Clans

A combined Clanbook for V20, so I can inform my players and also probably knock them out.

The Tabletop RPG Show

Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop RPG spinoff to have its own setting, Titansgrave: The Ashes Of Valkana, to be published by Green Ronin using their AGE system.

Based on the title alone, it sounds fairly high fantasy...

April Fools

Trust nothing. Question everything.

And maybe check out the free Historical Angst supplement for The World Of Darkness. (Stats for Carnacki the Ghost Finder!)