Curse of Strahd is coming out on March 15. If you live near a Wizard's Premier store you can get your copy now. With this releaseWotC has also opened up Ravenloft to the DM's Guild.
I hadn't really considered doing anything for the DM's Guild. Not because of the pricing structure, but because it was more restrictive than the OGL, but this might make me change my mind really.
Back in college during the dawn of 2nd Ed I played the hell out of Ravenloft. For me really Ravenloft and Second Edition are synonymous. I know my experience is not entirely unique. Of course back then I was a poor college student; money could go for pizza, beer or D&D books. Guess which one usually lost.
The result was what we all did back then, we wrote our own material. Now I will admit that my writing from the late 80s and early 90s was not great. So maybe only 5% of things I did then would be worth publishing in any forum or form. But some of that stuff I really liked and would like to see it see the light of day. So to speak.
Time to dive into my archives and see what I have.
The new Ghostbusters trailer is out if you have not seen it.
I LOVED the first Ghostbusters. I got a Ph.D. in Psychology because I wanted to be just like Peter Venkman. (well....sorta). It is one of the few movies I consider to be "perfect". It hits every beat and there is not a wasted moment on screen.
I think this new movie looks great.
Here. Let me say that again. I think this new movie looks great.
I said as much on the Youtube site and I have been bombarded with so much ire that I can't quite get what the hell these people are thinking. I have been accused of being a.) a bot. b.) a Sony employee. c.) a Sony bot. d.) a woman e.) a lesbian but mostly f.) an idiot. In fact the comments got so bad that someone (either YouTube or Sony) deleted them all. I still have the emails though.
I have read some of the comments on this too and frankly, I am dumbfounded.
I am no fan of random off the cuff remakes...but this is that. This feels more like a sequel or reboot.
Plus it is also an idea I have been hearing about for 20+ years. Restarting with a new generation of Ghostbusters. It worked for Ghostbusters Extreme. Hell it worked great for the Next Generation. Seriously, what the hell is the problem here?
(Reads more comments). Oh. Seriously? People are bitching about an all female cast?
Seriously??
I really only have one thing to say about that.
Grow the fuck up people!
Your whining and bitching about this "ruining your childhood" makes you sound like whiny children.
Your complaining about this being some "feminist agenda" makes you sound like a neanderthal and a stupid one at that.
I am going to watch this movie. Likely I am going to enjoy it. But whether it is good or bad ultimately will depend on the script and the actors involved. NOT in the fact that it's a remake or an all female cast.
Lots of things going on today. So here are a list of links I have been reading or need to read in detail still. Thought I'd share.
Curse of Strahd is coming. Ravenloft was my all time favorite module to play and run. The Demiplane of Ravenloft was my world of choice during the 2nd Edition days. So I am finding it hard to wait till this new book comes out. Thankfully my FLGS is a Wizard's Premier store, so I should be picking up my copy this weekend. But until then here are some things to keep us all busy.
The Witch is out. The movie that is. I have been following this film for months, so I hope it lives up to the hype. So far I pleased with everything I read, though I am not trying to read to much to be honest. Some of my fellow bloggers have already seen it.
Is this the conveyance of some mad wizard? A collector from the future? A Gamma World/D&D crossover? No idea, but damn if I don't want to do something with this.
Here are some more links of information/pictures.
Need to learn a new language? Well there is a Chrome add-in that simulates language immersion by swapping out words you read with those of the chosen language. Which language? Any language in Google Translate's database. Trying it out now.
I have been blogging here for a while. Mostly about D&D and related clones, but some other games too. I was reading over some rule books for games I have not played yet or haven't played in a long while and I was thinking.
I really miss the modern supernatural genre. I have lost track of all the games I have played over the years since the early days of Chill and Call of Cthulhu. I have lost track of all the books I have read in this genre as well; has to be in the hundreds by now. But I also enjoy the over the top heroics of D&D and supers games too.
So imagine my surprise when I saw Eden Studios was finally publishing the long, long, long, awaited Beyond Human.
Years, a life time ago it seems, I helped with this book. I contributed quite a bit to the magic chapter. The magic system is based on my Ghosts of Albion game, which is based in turn on C.J. Carella's own magic systems in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (another game I worked on) and on the WitchCraft game.
I really would love to get something new for these games going again. Ideas are plentiful, time really isn't.
I know I am late (by a week) to the game here, but I just watched the last episode of the new Season 10 of X-Files. I want to start off by saying how phenomenally pleased I was with the entire season.
Now I was a huge X-Files fan back in the day. This was my favorite show. I was just moving up to Chicago. Had a new apartment in the heart of the Near West side after living in nothing but small Southern Illinois towns (under 20k people). I was working on my Ph.D., engaged and X-Files was my Friday night (later Sunday night). I loved the Myth-arc, the monster of the week episodes and getting on the internet on Monday to talk about it on alt.tv.x-files. No world had pulled me in so hard since Star Trek or Doctor Who.
Like Trek and Who, X-Files came back. But I was worried that so much of what had made it awesome was gone. Clinton wasn't in the White House anymore. The nascent internet is now ubiquitous. The paranoia of the 90s has turned into the .... whatever the hell this is we have now.
I was surprised and very, very pleased how the new X-Files picked right up.
Not only picked up, but made the intervening years part of the larger story. I was excited to see Mulder and Scully back in action. I loved the subtle changes made to their dynamic and even the addition of Miller and Einstien. I laughed out loud during Mulder's "Shroom" trip and the "blink and you'll miss them" cameo of the Lone Gunmen. X-Files was back and hitting all the notes in my book.
I'm not a geek. Not at all...
At first I thought 6 episodes were plenty, but very soon I wanted more. A lot more.
Maybe we will get more, Chris Carter certainly thinks so, but time will tell.
