a lighter note
We've watched a lot of TV and movies already this year. They've all been pretty excellent, though..
- Scream 3: better than people say
- As Above, So Below: great
- The Warriors: as good as expected and a fascinating time capsule of film
- The Strain: good in a very particular way I enjoy (vampires and disease peppered with history)
- Man in the High Castle: astoundingly good throughout
I watched It's a Wonderful Life over break and had to admit that it is both heartwarming and well made. Blast.
We watched an episode of Clone Wars too but it didn't grab me as much. I hear it gets really good around season 2-3 but the first episode is very much kids' show fare mixed with some things I didn't like from the prequels. So that makes it a tougher sell.
Quick RPG thoughts:
Team Rocket back to doing this, which is good because I get crazy when not running games. Next session will be a bit tricky structurally but I think I can pull it off.
Red Markets Hopefully going to finish up the first job sometime next week. Will maybe talk about a longer game then.
Star War!! Had a brief bout of convincing myself that all my games (owned and run) were terrible and that I should probably just start over with the Star Wars RPG. Maybe start a new identity, just to be sure. (I had a similar struggle with Double Cross for a bit.) I have for the moment shaken that off. That said, the game seems pretty neat - the custom dice manage to be both gimmicky and pretty interesting from a resolution standpoint.
I tried listening to a podcast with d20 SW and I don't like it at all. The characters in the podcast are a little goofy, but the mechanics are the least Star Wars thing.
Eclipse Phase AKA just shut about Eclipse Phase okay or "I got way too inebriated on my birthday and wouldn't stop muttering incoherently about EP."
... still. I really, really like it though it's so bizarre. I find its vaguely science-based, vaguely horror-tinged universe a lot easier to spitball stories in than Star Wars. The thing with SW (for me) is that the setting is fairly dark - something TFA gets right that neither the prequels nor most of the novels did, but the characters are extremely competent and heroic. Accordingly, they brighten up the universe around them through their heroic deeds.
In EP, well, things are bad and most people don't realize (or are actively avoiding thinking about) how close they could be to destruction. Your characters are maybe a little bit better than average or a little worse but are nonetheless committed to doing what must be done. It is Delta Green but with awesome (sometimes Futurama-esque) space chrome to offset the nihilism.
My brain still tries to trick me, sometimes - like "you don't really like this thing you thought you did." But brain, I listened to over 100 hours of Eclipse Phase and I'm up for more. It helped get me through ~70 workouts. I think... I might like it. It does seem intimidatingly complex at first, but I think it's possible to break it down - and that the complexity serves a purpose.
Trail of Cthulhu: I'd like to return to Ghouls of New York, but better. I've heard there are some good true crimes in the exact period which I missed in my quick initial research. I would like to return to that, possible read a historical fiction novel or two, and give this another shot.
Night's Black Agents and Unknown Armies I want to enjoy doing the research (Dracula Dossier or local history, respectively) for these. So they are a ways off.
Delta Green I want to do Night Floors. Actually, I want to do a whole series with the characters we've established.
- Scream 3: better than people say
- As Above, So Below: great
- The Warriors: as good as expected and a fascinating time capsule of film
- The Strain: good in a very particular way I enjoy (vampires and disease peppered with history)
- Man in the High Castle: astoundingly good throughout
I watched It's a Wonderful Life over break and had to admit that it is both heartwarming and well made. Blast.
We watched an episode of Clone Wars too but it didn't grab me as much. I hear it gets really good around season 2-3 but the first episode is very much kids' show fare mixed with some things I didn't like from the prequels. So that makes it a tougher sell.
Quick RPG thoughts:
Team Rocket back to doing this, which is good because I get crazy when not running games. Next session will be a bit tricky structurally but I think I can pull it off.
Red Markets Hopefully going to finish up the first job sometime next week. Will maybe talk about a longer game then.
Star War!! Had a brief bout of convincing myself that all my games (owned and run) were terrible and that I should probably just start over with the Star Wars RPG. Maybe start a new identity, just to be sure. (I had a similar struggle with Double Cross for a bit.) I have for the moment shaken that off. That said, the game seems pretty neat - the custom dice manage to be both gimmicky and pretty interesting from a resolution standpoint.
I tried listening to a podcast with d20 SW and I don't like it at all. The characters in the podcast are a little goofy, but the mechanics are the least Star Wars thing.
Eclipse Phase AKA just shut about Eclipse Phase okay or "I got way too inebriated on my birthday and wouldn't stop muttering incoherently about EP."
... still. I really, really like it though it's so bizarre. I find its vaguely science-based, vaguely horror-tinged universe a lot easier to spitball stories in than Star Wars. The thing with SW (for me) is that the setting is fairly dark - something TFA gets right that neither the prequels nor most of the novels did, but the characters are extremely competent and heroic. Accordingly, they brighten up the universe around them through their heroic deeds.
In EP, well, things are bad and most people don't realize (or are actively avoiding thinking about) how close they could be to destruction. Your characters are maybe a little bit better than average or a little worse but are nonetheless committed to doing what must be done. It is Delta Green but with awesome (sometimes Futurama-esque) space chrome to offset the nihilism.
My brain still tries to trick me, sometimes - like "you don't really like this thing you thought you did." But brain, I listened to over 100 hours of Eclipse Phase and I'm up for more. It helped get me through ~70 workouts. I think... I might like it. It does seem intimidatingly complex at first, but I think it's possible to break it down - and that the complexity serves a purpose.
Trail of Cthulhu: I'd like to return to Ghouls of New York, but better. I've heard there are some good true crimes in the exact period which I missed in my quick initial research. I would like to return to that, possible read a historical fiction novel or two, and give this another shot.
Night's Black Agents and Unknown Armies I want to enjoy doing the research (Dracula Dossier or local history, respectively) for these. So they are a ways off.
Delta Green I want to do Night Floors. Actually, I want to do a whole series with the characters we've established.