Seek the Wolf in Thyself!
Gaming – RPGs, Board Games, more
Dates: 5/1/2013 to 5/8/2013 Where: Leminkainen A party is called to attend the funeral of a well known harkwood Baron on Leminkainen and his son. They were invited by his surviving son, Justinius. Justinius, a former Questing Knight, suspects his father was murdered and wishes the players to help him complete the work that might…
Another movie I remember very well from my childhood days of watching way too much TV was the Day of the Triffids. I will always remember the sounds the Triffids made. Only recently did I find out (thanks to Wikipedia) that it was based on a 1951 novel of the same name and there were also several TV series based on it. However, this movie stands out to me because of certain aspects of it that were not in the book or the TV series. Some may call it an Americanization of the film while others may write it up to the era of filmmaking, but there are some aspects that I really liked about this movie.
Human Diplomat from House Justinian, played by John Freeman
Coming across this in my Netflix list, and I thought “how bad could it be with Michael York?” Come on! Logan from Logan’s Run? 1997 was a time when CGI sci-fi flicks were coming out a dime a dozen and many of them had halfway decent effects. Babylon 5 was at its peak. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was hot also. Putting all that in perspective, I really thought this movie had potential.
Boy, was I wrong.
I have been trying to shorten my Netflix list this year and watch more of the lesser known movies to get them off my list. Some of those movies have been pretty bad and I can not believe I had them on my list for so long. Others had nuggets of coolness that got my mind thinking. Of course, my thoughts always go straight to gaming and what RPGs I can use these ideas in, but that’s just who I am.
Year 2604. After surviving a major global war, environmental collapse and an alien invasion, Earth is rule by aristocracy, at the top of which is the monarch King Thayone. Terran humans have returned to the stars using technology taken from their alien invaders, allowing them to build new interstellar capable exploratory ships. The HMS Icarus…
Ever since I have gotten back into Dark Conspiracy, I have felt conflicted about various things about the setting. One is the general dynamic of the game itself. It’s the “near future” where the whole economy has collapsed, corporations rule the day and governments are struggling to even exist. I get that. There is a…
Part of the reason I wanted to do this series was because it was old movies like this that inspired my childhood imagination more than anything else. Yea, I know, reading probably should have too, but I spent most of my reading time in novels based on screenplays of the movies my parents would not let me go see. I have vivid memories, though, of watching old 50s and 60s sci-fi and horror on Saturday or Sunday, and I was fascinated by some of them. This was one that stuck out in my mind.
Alfonso Brescia, Italian director and movie maker, churned out 4 movies between 1977 and 1978. I have seen two of them and these films could easily be connected directly as sequels. Both have similar sets, costuming, and themes, and some actors are in both films. They are also equally as bad. So bad that I felt they disserved to be lumped together in one article.
All four films in the series are Italian low budget films that were put out to capitalize on the Star Wars craze. They have all the great elements of a sci-fi B movie Star Wars rip-off – space ships, rogue pilots, robots, aliens and disco music. These two films were shot basically back to back, obviously.
I saw Planet Hulk the other day and am finding as I watch many of the Marvel and DC animated movies, there are some really cool ideas you can draw from for a sci-fi RPG. The best idea I got our of Planet Hulk was the Spikes. For most of the movie, you are told…