singedsun

If you're a table top rpg player or storyteller/GM/DM whatever you want to call it, there's a couple of great things that I've seen this week I thought I would share.

First, ragekagexrugger just put out this fun list of other ways for characters to meet than the simple "you meet in a tavern" kind of thing. You can find that here. They've been a bunch of different prompts from the RPG a Day list so if you like that check out their other blog posts there.

My friend CypherofTyr and a bunch of her friends have gotten together to create a brand new RPG called Into the Motherlands using the Codex system. This new game is still in development, so the playstyle and character traits might change over time as they run a live play on twitch on Tanya's channel. You can also get caught up on her YouTube channel. They've only posted a Session 0 as of this writing, but it's really interesting to get a look at the game in early development. It's also worth noting that the cast and development team are all POCs, which is very uncommon in the live play world. You can also follow the game news at MotherlandsRPG.

If you're a fan of old Christopher Pike or R.L. Stine horror novel stylings from the 90s, or early teen slasher movies from the 90s and 00s, you should check out summerhavenrpg There are currently two products up "Shank Shake" and "Knife to Meet You". They're kind of system agnostic, so you can take these plans and work them into any system, including D&D. I love the whole aesthetic of this and I know there's more coming so I'll be keeping my eye on this.

Lastly, if you like to make maps or even just need some creative prompts for November, there's this #Mapvember list here from miskasmaps.

I mentioned in my previous post that I've already watched all of Glow season 3 and Mindhunter season 2 in the time I've been home recovering. I don't have too much to say about either, other than that I really liked them both. I thought they were strong additions, although I'll admit that the choice for Mindhunter to more closely follow a single case for the majority of the season, leaving off a lot of the interviews like they did in the first season made it a little of a slower watch (for me) but I still enjoyed it. I'm also still getting a kick out of the small injects their doing of BTK, given the time period, and the link to the research that they're doing as they season progresses. I also like that they're picking cases that don't have these clear cut answers, so you get to see the application of their research and procedures, but that especially due to the time, there's no good way to have all the answers.

I've also caught up on a few movies that I hadn't been able to watch last year. I've seen Aquaman -- which I quite enjoyed. I really liked Jason Momoa's take on the character and despite the uncanny valley that is Amber Heard's wig throughout the movie, I liked it. I think DC does such a better job when they lay back from the super angsty hero take and have a bit of fun with the characters, it's certainly resulting in movies like Wonder Woman and Aquaman which are infinitely more fun to watch than Batman vs. Superman was.

I watched The Favourite, which I found... both interesting if a little boring. It was slower paced than I would've liked and without a satisfying ending. But I can see why it got such high praise for the acting and costumes because it was a beautiful watch with compelling characters. I don't know as much as I would like about Queen Anne's reign, but for what it was, it was enjoyable.

I've also just finished watching First Man, which while I finished it, I found boring af. Damien Chazelle managed to make Ryan Gosling a snooze to watch, and I get that's in part due to his role as Neil Armstrong. Of all the astronauts, Neil was not the interesting one, he was just the most reliable one. So centering the movie around him, makes it slow and disconnected and ...boring. I know not every movie about the beginning of the space program isn't going to be as exciting or as good as THe Right Stuff, or as compelling as Hidden Figures, but I'm not surprised at all this movie did so poorly in the theater. Mostly I kept it on as background noise tonight, so I don't feel like I wasted time specifically, but I'm glad I didn't actually spend money trying to see this in the theater. As an aside, I know a lot of people enjoy Claire Foy as an actress, I've only watched her in one thing before this and I can say that neither that or this has sold me on her. I really dislike her affected American accent in this but given how flat Ryan Gosling is playing Neil Armstrong, I'm willing to blame my dislike of her in this on the director/direction they had.

On my dad's recommendation during his own recent hospital stay, I picked up watching the show Black Summer on Netflix. From what he told me, it was an interesting and kind of scary, but low budget zombie show. Knowing it was low budget going in has helped me kind of keep my expectations low, but I'm about halfway through the first (and currently only) season so far and it's hard to keep with it. For one, I don't find any of the characters particularly compelling and for two, I really don't understand the sort of chapter-esque title breaks every few scenes. It makes it play out slower, especially when after the title break you continue following the same character/story line. Like I'm not sure what purpose they serve other than to slow down the action, which is NOT what I want in a zombie show. I know it's based on Z Nation, which I haven't watched or read, so I don't know if that's an aspect that's carried over from that or not.

Yesterday I finally picked up my copy of The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited graphic novel. It's a pretty quick read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it (as I expected I would). I love Carey Pietsch's artwork for these books and I like the way they've chosen to insert Griffin's GM asides. It definitely feels accurate to the podcast.

Today, I picked up Final Fantasy XV and started playing it for the first time since I got it for Christmas like two years ago. It's different that the Final Fantasy games I'm so used to, but I do like the way combat has changed. The story feels a little underwhelming, but what FF game doesn't leave something to be desired in the plot, really. It's a fun way to pass time, but I'm trying not to get too wrapped up in it for hours and hours at a time. I'm having to learn how to manage my time, especially since I get worn out so easily right now and I don't want to spend it all on video games. I might pick up another game at some point, a friend has been encouraging to pick up Hollow Knight and from what I've seen of that, it might be nice to have something that's kind of level based instead of open world to switch out with every day.

It's been more than a week and my knee is STILL in pain, although I think that finally my delicate treatment of it is finally paying off. Unfortunately, it's not quite better enough for the amount of walking I'm about to undertake in the rest of the week/end. In the morning we are taking off for GenCon in Indianapolis. I have at least two games scheduled for each day of the convention, and we are not staying in a hotel near to the convention this year so we'll be doing some parking and walking and then more walking between the convention center and Lucas Oil stadium.

If you're unaware, GenCon is a fifty year old four day gaming convention for board & table top games. Although these days they do have video games and a writer's track of panels and a variety of other activities. It's a lot of good fun, and this is my sixth or seventh year going I think? I've learned over time that I can't do everything there, but if I scheduled a game or two a day, I feel as though I've gotten my monies worth out of the event.

Of course the last three years, there's been a Critical Role show happening one night of the convention. It's an off-site theater you don't need convention badge to attend, so it's pretty well-attended by the fans. I didn't go the first year because I didn't have friends to go with, but last year I was able to go with a friend who had tickets through D&D themselves and it was SUCH a good time I had to buy tickets for the show this year. So Friday night, that's where I'll be: as part of one of the loudest theater audiences in attendance of any show, ever.

As far as games go, I've got a good variety of options. I'm doing both a Honey Heist & Crash Pandas game -- these are games with minimal rules and extremely crazy plots. In Honey Heist the characters play criminal bears in search of honey. And in Crash Pandas the characters play racing raccoons. These should be crazy games. I managed to nab one of the few games of Bluebeard's Bride that's being run, which I'm really interested in. I backed the Kickstarter a few years ago but haven't yet had the chance to play it. In Bluebeard's Bride everyone plays an aspect of the Bride and it's sounds twisted and dark and wonderful. The writing and art for the game is really special.

My husband and I both signed up for games of Illimat and Warhammer Fantasy, both games we own but haven't been able to play. I LOVE the older version of Warhammer Fantasy, it's one of my absolute favorite gaming settings, and I really miss not being able to play it these days. I've also signed up for a game of the Dragon Age RPG, which I've tried to play before but haven't been able to. Dragon Age is a setting I know VERY VERY well though, so I'm interested to see how the game plays. I have played other games with a similar rule set though, so I don't feel like there's much learning involved there. Illimat is a card game designed by a pretty famous game designer in conjunction with the band, The Decemberists. The design and layout is very reminiscent to me of a Tarot layout.

Then the other two games I have are Zweihander -- which is a very close love letter to Warhammer Fantasy. The creator actually lives here in Kansas City and was kind enough to give my husband a copy of the game. I've flipped through it several times looking for character ideas, but it is a THICK read so I would not even try to attempt a game in that setting on my own yet. And lastly (although not in the schedule, just in this list) a game of Masks, which is a superhero setting I've heard good things about. I used to play a lot of Aberrant which is the White Wolf superhero setting and I loved it. Masks is done by the same game company that did Bluebeard's Bride.

It's going to be a very busy weekend but hopefully a good one, despite my knee injury. I have lots of good meds and braces, I always take a cane with me to help when I get tired, so hopefully it won't be too bad. Once I get/stay up and moving, my knee doesn't hurt too bad and as long as I'm gentle with it at night, I think I've given myself plenty of time each night to recover for the next day.

Preparing for this vacation has been a little strange though, because I'll only be back for a few days before I have surgery. Today was my last day at work this week and then Tuesday morning I have my pre-op appointments before my surgery on the following Monday, the 12th. The new manager at work has been sitting with me, but I don't know how effective my time with her has been given that I've been preparing for both this vacation and covering for someone else who was out on vacation too. My stress about leaving my team for two months after my surgery is definitely increasing and I'm hoping to give myself a small break from that this weekend since I'll be so busy with fun things. Wish me luck.