Friday, 11 May 2018
Thursday, 10 May 2018
Storytellers Vault: Mind's Eye Theatre
The Storytellers Vault expands to include Mind’s Eye Theatre LARP resources, starting with in-character advice books and a ready-to-run adventure. From my scant experience in the field, I know some people who could come up with one-shot adventures that would work live...
Wednesday, 9 May 2018
The 100 Season Five
The 100 is back, and to celebrate E4 showed three minutes in the middle of it twice. Derp.
After the season four conclusion which felt to me more like a final wink to the audience than a real setup, tonight we got it expanded to a real setup. A time jump brings a new status quo on Earth and a new threat, a lot of the same problems in space, and underground... oh dear.
On the whole, the Weird Level feels a bit lower than the last two years.
The full-on Mad Max desert apocalypse sequence taking up most of the first half of the episode was a real highlight of the series.
After the season four conclusion which felt to me more like a final wink to the audience than a real setup, tonight we got it expanded to a real setup. A time jump brings a new status quo on Earth and a new threat, a lot of the same problems in space, and underground... oh dear.
On the whole, the Weird Level feels a bit lower than the last two years.
The full-on Mad Max desert apocalypse sequence taking up most of the first half of the episode was a real highlight of the series.
World Of Darkness Challenge 2018
Thirty days (starting on the ninth as it was revived tonight) and thirty questions.
1: How did you get started?
Vampire: The Masquerade wasn’t even out yet (and didn’t have its subtitle) and I saw an ad in an RPG magazine. I wrote about it here.
Yes, I’m old.
1: How did you get started?
Vampire: The Masquerade wasn’t even out yet (and didn’t have its subtitle) and I saw an ad in an RPG magazine. I wrote about it here.
Yes, I’m old.
Tuesday, 8 May 2018
Lost In Space (2018)
This is something of a placeholder post, as I intend to get to the new Lost In Space in due course (I haven’t finished Jessica Jones season two yet) but dang the licence holders for a Mass Effect show must be annoyed.
Although it may also be noted that blue uniforms, grey T-shirts and buzzcuts and holographic starmaps were a thing in the 1998 film before that...
The core concept of Space Family Robinson, plus pilot, shifty doctor and Robot remains intact. The dynamic of parents and kids really makes it stand out from other long-term SF concepts. (And as I have noted before, such family connections can make for tricky roleplaying. Everything else would work with an exploration-centric space opera setting.)
Although it may also be noted that blue uniforms, grey T-shirts and buzzcuts and holographic starmaps were a thing in the 1998 film before that...
The core concept of Space Family Robinson, plus pilot, shifty doctor and Robot remains intact. The dynamic of parents and kids really makes it stand out from other long-term SF concepts. (And as I have noted before, such family connections can make for tricky roleplaying. Everything else would work with an exploration-centric space opera setting.)
Monday, 7 May 2018
Yeah, that's a botch
This post typed on a brand new keyboard following the Milkshake Incident.
The new keyboard features spill protection. From what I can see this means it has little holes in the base.
The new keyboard features spill protection. From what I can see this means it has little holes in the base.
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season five part two
Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns after no hiatus at all here due to starting late and we’re back to regular Earth with regular problems like alien technology, buried secret plans and black ops agents hunting the team down. As Mac notes as soon as a potential apocalypse is announced, “Yeah, we’re back...”
Patrick Warburton (The Tick, A Series Of Unfortunate Events) joins us as the affable interactive instruction manual for a doosmday bunker, while Dove Cameron (Hairspray) plays very much against type as a surly teenage assassin.
Patrick Warburton (The Tick, A Series Of Unfortunate Events) joins us as the affable interactive instruction manual for a doosmday bunker, while Dove Cameron (Hairspray) plays very much against type as a surly teenage assassin.
Sunday, 6 May 2018
Not at all influenced by a particular new Robin Hood trailer...
One advantage Robin Hood has over other classic characters is that when a new adaptation is dismissed as “in name only” it shortens to RHINO.
Nosferatu underworlds: a ramble
A post on the biggest Vampire: The Masquerade Facebook group got me thinking about why Nosferatu often have underworld lairs linked to sewers.
It started pretty early in the line’s history, when the clans were starting to develop archetypes and stereotypes and this extended to typical backdrops and areas of the city they might have domain over.
It also received some coverage in both Clanbooks while other clan-specific locations like Tremere chantries didn’t get as much, so it got the official seal of approval as something Nosferatu vampires do.
The association doesn’t come from Nosferatu itself as it follows Dracula with the vampire in a ruined castle. It might have come in through The Phantom Of The Opera, who is a closer match for how the clan developed than Orlok himself with his fear of being rejected for his appearance and his hidden underworld lair. (Both Clanbooks also feature full-page illustrations of boating on underground rivers Phantom-style. This is the Revised edition.)
The 1980s TV version of Beauty And The Beast might have been an influence as well, with its friendly secret culture protected by a kind monster prone to riding to the rescue on top of subway cars. It’s certainly affected how I think about the clan.
Human(oid) monsters in the sewers and underground appear in the likes of C.H.U.D., Escape From New York, and to an extent the Morlocks from X-Men, themselves a reference to H.G. Wells, so there was plenty of precedent for them to borrow. A little later Batman Returns really ran with it, with the Penguin as a deathly pale mastermind using what gets flushed into the sewer as blackmail material - he even gets quotes in both of the Clanbooks.
Urban legends about sewers like mutant alligators are folded in with the idea that ghoul animals sometimes grow to monstrous sizes.
There could be a gaming influence as well, since sewer levels full of giant animals and hidden traps are pretty dungeon-crawl-ish.
And while the other clan-specific backdrops tended to fade out, more got written about the Nosferatu underworld which helped make it the norm perhaps because it’s a more fantastical location than, say, a Ventrue boardroom or a Brujah biker bar. The Succubus Club is the only building that ever got its own sourcebook, but it was pretty special.
Easy access to a lot of the city without being seen is certainly helpful. As noted in the second episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, “Vampires really jam on sewer systems. You can get anywhere in the entire town without catching any rays.” (Although Sunnydale vamps largely skip the sewers in favour of crypts and caves, while Angel uses them a lot more in Los Angeles, so maybe Buffy was basing her information on her time slaying back home.)
For my part, I’ve usually steered away from it. There might be vampires and other things skulking in subways and sewers, but they won’t necessarily be Nosferatu. My last major Nosferatu NPC was a deliberate throwback to Orlok, all elegant black coats and creepy stares and appearing from the shadows in Elysium, and I imagined his haven as a big old house with large enough grounds for privacy...
It started pretty early in the line’s history, when the clans were starting to develop archetypes and stereotypes and this extended to typical backdrops and areas of the city they might have domain over.
It also received some coverage in both Clanbooks while other clan-specific locations like Tremere chantries didn’t get as much, so it got the official seal of approval as something Nosferatu vampires do.
The association doesn’t come from Nosferatu itself as it follows Dracula with the vampire in a ruined castle. It might have come in through The Phantom Of The Opera, who is a closer match for how the clan developed than Orlok himself with his fear of being rejected for his appearance and his hidden underworld lair. (Both Clanbooks also feature full-page illustrations of boating on underground rivers Phantom-style. This is the Revised edition.)
The 1980s TV version of Beauty And The Beast might have been an influence as well, with its friendly secret culture protected by a kind monster prone to riding to the rescue on top of subway cars. It’s certainly affected how I think about the clan.
Human(oid) monsters in the sewers and underground appear in the likes of C.H.U.D., Escape From New York, and to an extent the Morlocks from X-Men, themselves a reference to H.G. Wells, so there was plenty of precedent for them to borrow. A little later Batman Returns really ran with it, with the Penguin as a deathly pale mastermind using what gets flushed into the sewer as blackmail material - he even gets quotes in both of the Clanbooks.
Urban legends about sewers like mutant alligators are folded in with the idea that ghoul animals sometimes grow to monstrous sizes.
There could be a gaming influence as well, since sewer levels full of giant animals and hidden traps are pretty dungeon-crawl-ish.
And while the other clan-specific backdrops tended to fade out, more got written about the Nosferatu underworld which helped make it the norm perhaps because it’s a more fantastical location than, say, a Ventrue boardroom or a Brujah biker bar. The Succubus Club is the only building that ever got its own sourcebook, but it was pretty special.
Easy access to a lot of the city without being seen is certainly helpful. As noted in the second episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, “Vampires really jam on sewer systems. You can get anywhere in the entire town without catching any rays.” (Although Sunnydale vamps largely skip the sewers in favour of crypts and caves, while Angel uses them a lot more in Los Angeles, so maybe Buffy was basing her information on her time slaying back home.)
For my part, I’ve usually steered away from it. There might be vampires and other things skulking in subways and sewers, but they won’t necessarily be Nosferatu. My last major Nosferatu NPC was a deliberate throwback to Orlok, all elegant black coats and creepy stares and appearing from the shadows in Elysium, and I imagined his haven as a big old house with large enough grounds for privacy...
Saturday, 5 May 2018
The Da Vinci Encoding
3,500 occult manuscripts to be scanned and released free online, thanks to a €300,000 donation by Dan Brown.
As long as none of them contain the demon Moloch that’s very nice.
Thanks to Monica Valentinelli for the link.
As long as none of them contain the demon Moloch that’s very nice.
Thanks to Monica Valentinelli for the link.
Free Comic Book Day
As is traditional, I will be eBaying for the 2000 A.D. special.
Karl Marx was born two hundred years ago today. The ideas he put forth - and some spectacular misinterpretations thereof - have had a huge effect on history, especially in the last century.
Friday, 4 May 2018
Dialogue note for future reference
“I can tell I’m making an expression. I may be cringing. Sorry if it’s not the most appropriate one but I’m mostly trying not to scream.”
Thursday, 3 May 2018
Avengers: Infinity War
Greetings from last week!
Thanos works great, the Black Order are pretty fun bad guys, the fights are cool, it was somewhat bitty, but really we’re here to talk about the end.
Thanos works great, the Black Order are pretty fun bad guys, the fights are cool, it was somewhat bitty, but really we’re here to talk about the end.
Wednesday, 2 May 2018
Into The Dark
Blumhouse to release a new movie... or movie-length thing... every month?
The AI still works...
Iron Man has aged really well in the ten years since it c-HE JUST REFERENCED MYSPACE
Tuesday, 1 May 2018
Summer Is A-Comin' In
And Crooked Dice celebrate May with a Kickstarter for folk horror miniatures. Spirits, cult leaders, fox hunters, Morris dancers, animal-masked countryfolk, crows, scarecrows, and, yes, a Wicker Man. No nervous Edward Woodward lookalike policemen though. And certainly no Nicolas Cage in a bear costume.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)