Take The High Road... morally, I guess?

Happy St. Andrew’s Day! The first of three roughly monthly Scottishness-based holidays we insist on having in the dead of winter.

Do something Scottish in a game maybe?

Willow

Willow, the one-off trad fantasy movie from George Lucas and Ron Howard, returns tomorrow as a Disney+ series, with Warwick Davis back in the title role. From the trailers it looks fun.

Edit: first episode establishes some stuff right away, has some nice D&D movie style touches, and goes with a small supervillain team instead of a horde of monsters for the opening attack.

Ending edit: Every episode (including the making of) had at least one WTF decision. Why so much denim? Why do two different “everybody acts out of character” bits, one during a bit where one character is already acting out of character? Why did they go with Skip from Angel as a model for the troll leader? Why is one of the Four Horseman types called the Dag?

Last Dance 1.02

Vampire: The Masquerade

Last Dance

1.02: Needs

Preston might have to help around the Met Gala...

Last Dance 1.02 preparation

Vampire: The Masquerade

Last Dance

“When people think of vampires, they think of us. Beautiful monsters terrible in our passion. And when vampires think of our clan they think of me. Devoted to my art, they think to the exclusion of everything else. Let them think that. Let them envy us. And let them overlook those of our blood who do not so closely match their preconceptions. The ones with no art to show and no pretty faces to dismiss.”

“My sire claimed that he Embraced six childer, and that I was the fourth. The first died quickly of his recklessness, The second threw herself into the rising sun after the night he turned her. The third went west, and after a handful of telegrams was never heard of again. I was selected to immortalise my voice, and my face, but chosen because of my ambition, to come as far as I had in that era. The fifth remains a dear friend. The sixth...”

“I was fortunate to live and die in a time when a kind of immortality was not available with the press of a shutter. I was one of the most celebrated sopranos of my time, but there are only a handful of recordings of my voice and photographs of my face from my lifetime, and I was able to be pronounced dead a few years later and fade into the dark without people recognising me on the street. Now it is quite easy to become too famous to disappear. The artists who die young tend to do so in the public eye, and we cannot save them. Victims of their own success twice over. Remembered forever but unable to see it.”

Elizabeth Lamont, elder of Clan Toreador

Marion Cotillard looking more vampiric than usual

Tutankhamun

On this day in 1922, Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Egyptology became a craze in the 20s and into the 30s, and mummies and curses became a horror staple.

We had a book from the 1972 touring exhibition in the house when I was growing up - I was born a couple years later - so the image of the golden mask has always been around for me.

NY By Night season two wraps

Jason Carl visits Club Auspex with host Ash Minnick to discuss Vampire: The Masquerade - New York By Night seasons one and two, Camarilla versus Anarch games, his Storytelling style, and running games for streaming.

The Traitors - BBC One does Werewolf

The Traitors (trailer) starts on Tuesday. Of course to fill sixteen episodes with mostly the same players there are more side games like a spookier The Crystal Maze or less spooky Release The Hounds and a reality show element where we get to know the contestants, but yeah, basically Mafia / Werewolf.

Glass Onion

Glass Onion (subtitled A Knives Out Mystery in the promotional material) brings back Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, and his accent, for another Christie-ish mystery, this time on a Greek island owned by a billionaire tech bro who invited his friends to a murder mystery weekend.

It’s more a comedy mystery than a mystery that is also funny, and gets to Blanc early as more of a viewpoint character this time, after introducing the suspects through the invitation, a game box which you can play virtually on the official site.

And speaking of games, the cast spent evenings during the shoot playing Mafia / Werewolf among other things. And in-character references to Clue and an appearance by Among Us. Someone needs to introduce Blanc to less kiddie mystery board games too.

Setting it in 2020 brings some downer reminders that don’t add much, but this is a quibble. I laughed quite a bit, not least at the recurring gags about automation with a security measure repeatedly going off in the background like the swearing fine in Demolition Man. The location, as well as the cast, definitely leans more absurd this time.

In cinemas for a week, starting yesterday, before going to funders Netflix in time for Christmas. Some small details may well be missed as a result.

Happy Thanksgiving, US friends!

Star Wars: Andor 1.12: Rix Road

Star Wars: Andor

1.12: Rix Road

“Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks.”

As a northern industrial town planet, of course Ferrix has a brass band.

Credits scene. Oh, har har.

Tokyo Vice

From director Michael Mann, who knows a thing or two about Location Vice, the miniseries Tokyo Vice about a local cop and an American reporter at the front line of a Yakuza war is... well, pretty slow.

Another big sport thing

The World Cup (for football, it being the one that can get away without saying that) is happening, controversially for various reasons.

There'll be bluebirds over...

Twitter archive downloaded, and out for the duration of this regime and/or the site.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Last Dance 1.01

Vampire: The Masquerade

Last Dance

1.01: Nightclubbing

Malice, a Ministry hacker, thief, bassist and DJ

Mo, a Caitiff brought to them for shelter, a drummer

Preston, a Toreador lead guitarist, perhaps not the most unwanted of his lineage but close

Vincent, a Malkavian singer, with connections to the Daughters of Cacophony?

Mo followed the stranger to a club called the Electric Room, where he called in an old marker with Vincent and left unseen.

Shazam!

I missed Shazam! in cinemas, and I’ve only read a couple of DC event comics the character appears in. I appreciate it as the logical second step in superhero wish-fulfilment, and know it’s pretty light in tone. Anyway, here’s the film on TV...

The Shazam reference in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man is the one word. The Spider-Man: Homecoming reference in Shazam! is the end credits. Not subtle.

(And like that, this shows a world where superheroes are a known thing kids can be fans of, as they are in our world.)

I liked the Big reference too.

And I loved the meta bit about his superhero name. (His longest-running one being Captain Marvel, which Marvel used and one can see why DC stopped fighting there, after a few decades.)

Shazam himself really needed to work on his Chosen One letdown procedure.

How many DC villains can John Glover be the father of? (Why not all?)

Do a good deed

I have given some money to Children In Need and can therefore watch the show with a clear conscience.

Character Creation Challenge 2023 announcement

January 2023: Character Creation Challenge

After the success of the 2021 and 2022 challenges, the Character Creation Challenge returns for a third year!

And... hmm. Having managed a different system every day in 2021 that ate through a lot of systems I know, and the 2022 groups covered a lot of the games I know really well. What to do...

Winky The Owl

An owl named Winky is breaking into and trashing fancy houses in British Columbia.

The hero we need.

Leverage: Redemption season two

Leverage: Redemption season two is back on Amazon Freevee and here the same time as the US, with the first three episodes on day one and another episode weekly, like a TV show or something.

2.01: The Debutante Job takes a well deserved sideswipe at Britain hosting Russian oligarchs. It also has a hilariously unconvincing New Orleans as London moment, but never mind.

2:02: The One Man’s Trash Job introduces several extra problems in fun ways. It also addresses how the Crew can’t solve all the world’s rich and powerful asshole problems.

2.03: The Tournament Job is about an evil E-sports guy.

Star Wars: Andor 1.11: Daughter Of Ferrix

Star Wars: Andor

1.11: Daughter Of Ferrix

You made B2-EMO be too emo!

The Mummerset alien fishermen were a bit Star Wars for this Star Wars.