That’s right ~ for the first time in what seems like forever, I’m headed to a science fiction convention live and in person. Philcon is being held the weekend of November 19-21 this year, and they’re doing it in person. Thankfully, I still make the list of people they’ll tolerate as a guest.
PHILCON!
They have strict rules in place about vaccination and mask wearing, but they are not actually any different than where I work. I’m glad they’re serious about keeping their participants safe. They certainly don’t seem to be holding non-attendance against anyone that would normally be there either. It will definitely be an interesting journey.
While I’m there, my schedule so far includes 4 panels:
Start Time Duration Room Name Title Fri 7:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 2 Setting the Scene: Ambience for GMs Fri 9:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 2 Writing Branching Narratives for Game Play Sat 1:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 2 The Harry Potter Kids Have Grown Up Sat 7:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 2 Architecture in Worldbuilding
I’m very interested to hear what other things will be going on and hopefully reconnect with a number of friends while attending. I’m also looking forward to digging back into the writing business. I’ve allowed my writing to sit idle for far too long a time.
Star Wars is a cultural phenomenon. It has become part of the culture of media. The first film hit screens more than forty years ago. Lately the franchise has come under new ownership. These new owners have pushed forward with many, many new works in the universe of Star Wars. There’s a lot out there, even for fans. I have considered myself a fan for a very long time. I was exactly the right age when the first movie hit theaters. I scrambled to get action figures and play sets as a kid and spent seemingly endless hours pushing my imagination out to all the various places in the Star Wars universe. The movies are deeply entrenched in my personal nostalgia along with all the entwined media. I can effectively say that I’ve ‘always’ been a fan.
I’m also a fan that just doesn’t want or need to devour the seemingly unending supply of hot off the presses Star Wars stuff. Maybe I’ve outgrown certain aspects of the story telling. Maybe the abundance of available material has taken the shine off the whole thing. I could just be tired of seeing the same old thing. This ennui is at the very root of this recommendation.
Star Wars, only done as anime. Imagine taking a team of amazing story tellers and artists from an anime studio and saying, “Go – play in our universe. Make something great”. That is precisely what they’ve done. Now streaming on Disney+ (because I think they own everything?) Star Wars Visions gives us seven all original stories in the same galaxy, using the same background and the same legendary ‘Force’. The stories vary in style, but never lack in beauty. The art is amazing. The stories are fresh. The look of it all is straight up anime. They’re short, so you can sneak them in between other things, or you can easily binge them. I would suggest one at a time, to give each the attention it should have. I think this may even be a way to draw new fans in; fans that might not have given a tired old franchise a chance otherwise. You should be watching Visions.
This was originally published in the Watch The Skies fanzine, September 2021 issue.
What If…
When I’ve worked on my recommendations for this little column each month I’ve tried to find things that are bent toward the (potential) interests of this group, but also slightly off the beaten path. These things might not be your preference, but should certainly be worthy of consideration. I’ve tried not to go for the obvious, splashy things out there.
This month is a break in that trend. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is pervasive in pop culture. The series of movies and shows that have the common, unifying thread of a group of comic book super heroes has been with us for a solid decade now. The story lines, the characters, the massive tent pole films that seep into all the nooks and crannies of the genre are familiar. Perhaps they are familiar to the point of apathy. The MCU could be running the very serious risk of over saturation with the sheer number of films and shows it’s dumping forth for mass consumption. The omnipresent super hero genre has kept me away, until now.
The house of mouse has an animated show based around the stories of these well known super heroes called “What If…” that gets directly to the heart of the science fiction and fantasy genre. The title of the show is the very essence of what makes SF/F great. The best stories always ask that question. What if? Can we go back and change things? How would that have worked out if one tiny thing changed (butterfly effect anyone)? It’s a terrific mental exercise. The MCU has now combined that concept with stunning artwork to make a series of short animations. These stories give us the characters we’ve come to know viewed in very different lights. Asking the simple question “What if…” and following through with things like having the Ravagers pick up T’Challa rather than Peter Quill or having a serial killer remove Avengers before they start their journey to being a hero.
Yes, viewing these episodes does actually work out better if you’ve seen and / or are familiar with the films that have been put out in the long series from Marvel. The stories are short (averaging about a half hour each) and only give us glimpses of what might have been. It’s those glimpses that make it work. The animation is at exactly the level you’d expect from a world leader. There’s a lot of great stuff in there. This series is definitely one you should be watching.
The Dungeons and Dragons movie has wrapped up filming. Now I suspect they’re moving on to the ‘zillions of special effects bits that need to be created in order to make a world of fantasy come to life. Got the news from this article: https://gizmodo.com/the-dungeons-and-dragons-film-has-wrapped-production-1847535005 I’ve written about this before, but I think the author of this article sums up my fears in a single phrase,
“…but with the caliber of people involved, maybe this one will turn out to be watchable.”
Why is it so difficult to make a fantasy story on film that is both a good story and NOT some variation of King Arthur (there are at least 15 variations / versions I can come up with)? There’s so much good material out there. Let’s hope for a real fantasy boom. Think Avengers quality. I’d love to see so much more variety. Give me a wizard that is NOT Gandalf or Merlin. Please.
This was originally published in Watch The Skies fanzine, August 2021 issue.
Nestflix
It’s the dog days of summer. The doldrums. Media is scattered far and wide but people aren’t focused on sitting down and watching whatever they can scrounge. Folks are squeezing in one more beach trip or working hard at getting ready for back to school time. Reruns and re-watching old movies is the kind of relaxing thing that can fill gaps between all this summer activity. But when you do the re-watching, do you notice the world inside the world? Do you catch the shows that are on the screens in the background?
This is not a true “what to watch” in the sense that these shows don’t actually exist, except in an alternate world. When you’re going back to an old Futurama episode, do you recall anything about “The Scary Door”? How could you miss a show with a description like this;
“You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples; it could also be something much better. Prepare to enter: The Scary Door.”
There is a fun site out there that lists more than four hundred of these magical shows inside shows. Have you noticed a show within a show? Do you have a favorite? When you get a few minutes head on over to the Nestflix site and check out this crazy collection.
This was originally published in Watch The Skies Fanzine, July 2021 issue.
The Vast of Night – Amazon
Pick a night. Pick a slow night. Wait until it’s quiet out. Turn out the lights. Get cozy and flip this movie on. The Vast of Night is a small film that’s big on catching you at just the right time. There are bright, glaring action movies and soft filtered romances beside the raucous comedies. This movie pulls you back to the fifties in the American southwest. The story follows two people from the little New Mexico town of Cayuga as they track down a mysterious noise and more mysterious radio station callers. It’s the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else… until they dig a little deeper.
From the Amazon description:
“In the twilight of the 1950s, on one fateful night in New Mexico, a young, winsome switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) and charismatic radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) discover a strange audio frequency that could change their small town and the future forever. Dropped phone calls, AM radio signals, secret reels of tape forgotten in a library, switchboards, crossed patchlines and an anonymous phone call lead Fay and Everett on a scavenger hunt toward the unknown.”
This is definitely a movie that is all about the mood. It is quiet. It moves a little slow at the start. Give it a chance. As the story rolls, the speed and the tension build. If you take your time you will get to a place where you’ll be out staring up into the night. There are small things, inconsequential to the success of the story if you allow yourself to go along for the ride. Coming in at an hour and a half it’s definitely worth the time to catch up with the folks in this small town.
This was originally published in Watch The Skies Fanzine, June 2021
Oxygen
Oxygen is an intense little movie about a woman who wakes up with no memory of who she is or why she’s locked inside an automated pod. It wouldn’t be such a dilemma, except the level of oxygen in her single, tiny room is slowly running out. She needs to solve the puzzle of who she is, why she’s there and what she can do to fix her situation before she runs out of air to breathe.
This is a tense movie. The actress (Melanie Laurent) plays the main character. She’s stuck in this tiny pod. She doesn’t remember why. She doesn’t remember who she is. She’s got no place to go. This leaves all our focus on her as she runs through a monumental list of emotions. It’s a testament to this actor’s abilities that she can carry the whole thing off. There’s no scenery other than the pod. There’s barely any space for movement. You feel for her. You breathe with her.
Slowly, over the course of the movie memories and flashbacks give us tidbits. We rebuild all the various parts of a memory right along with the character. This is a smart lady. She figures out various ways to come at the problem even when one avenue or another runs up against a wall. She shifts and wiggles and carries the whole movie.
Were there things that didn’t work? Yes. There were one or two very small, very nit-picky things that I caught while I was along for the ride. I could very easily chalk them up to suspension of disbelief. This is a well done film that I don’t think is getting the attention it should. A locked room mystery that fits in the science fiction category. It’s a rare thing, but when it’s done well it’s a wonderful, terrible, memorable thing. This is definitely a film you should be watching!
This was originally published in Watch The Skies Fanzine, May 2021 issue.
Space Sweepers – Netflix
In the year 2092 the Earth is suffering. The planet is distressed to the point that humans are looking for a way out. Some lucky (or chosen) few get to ascend and become UTS citizens living in orbiting homes around the planet. The UTS corporation sets strict controls and financial arrangements for citizens and non-citizens alike. This is the where the crew of the salvage ship Victory scrounges out a living.
This movie is filled with action, suspense, comedy and even heart. It clocks in around two hours and fifteen minutes but it really didn’t feel that long. Watching the crew of misfit scavengers attempt to make ends meet while dealing with their own issues would have been interesting enough, but then Dorothy gets thrown into the mix. Dorothy looks and acts like a child, but the UTS has declared her a weapon of mass destruction and has set off an all out hunt to get her back. The Victory crew just happen to pick her up as part of one of their salvage missions.
As a South Korean film, I was fully prepared to read subtitles the entire time I watched this movie. I did, but not in the way I expected. I found it wonderful that the film makers included a quick bit about universal translators and then proceeded to allow everyone to speak in whatever language was their own. Space, and all the humans from all over the planet could just speak their own language. Yes, there were subtitles, but there was as much in English as there was in any other language. I could identify five different languages through the course of the film. This is wonderful and we need more of this in our science fiction. People will find a way to communicate, then language and background become less of an issue.
Beyond the language aspect, this film had well done special effects. I’m not going to claim they’ve got some kind of mastery or that the effects shots disappeared in a seamless way. You could tell there were special effects in this movie, but they didn’t get in the way. I never had a moment when I thought, ‘well that wasn’t very well done’. I just sat and enjoyed the action. The action likely works out the way you’d expect, but even that didn’t hurt the enjoyment of this story. This was a movie that has less of a dystopian downer feel and something a little more refreshing and hopeful.
If you’ve got access to Netflix, grab your popcorn and go check this movie out.
This was previously published in Watch The Skies fanzine – April 2021 issue.
Boss Level – Hulu
For folks that have loosely monitored things in the film industry over the past decade or so will know that Mel Gibson has had some rough sledding. Of course, when the “rough” is based on who you are and how you act toward your fellow humans it won’t garner a lot of sympathy. I have been just fine with Mr. Gibson dropping out of prominence and staying off the screens I watch for entertainment. Then I bumped into this Looper article that said he was having something of a resurgence to his career. I’m not a fan of that, but I wanted to listen to the reasoning. What I did not expect was praise, and was more shocked at the film that was being heralded as something positive for him. Boss Level is a Hulu original film – and yes, Mr. Gibson is in this movie. I decided based on this positive review that I needed to at least check out a science fiction/action film to see for myself.
In this movie Frank Grillo (you may remember him from his stint as Crossbones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) plays Roy Pulver, a former special operations soldier who is caught in a time loop. He wakes up every morning to the same thing. He moves through his day hitting the same beats and changing up little parts in order to see what happens. It is every bit the same concept as any other time loop movie ~ think Ground Hog Day (Bill Murray) or Edge of Tomorrow (Tom Cruise), just add more crazy violence. As the name implies there are a lot of video game like things going on in this movie. There are other notable characters (played by the likes of Michelle Yeoh and Ken Jeong) but Frank Grillo is the main focus. He carries the movie and does it well. This kind of action is exactly the sort of film somebody would expect to see him in. It was tight, the clues and keys to the loop were clever and the action just didn’t stop.
As for the previously mentioned Mr. Gibson, yes, he was in the movie. I won’t deliver any spoilers on the part he plays (it’s very obvious, very quickly) but it does seem to be a fitting part. It’s not a long acting stretch from the days when he starred in a movie called Payback, but he does it well. The reviewer from Looper seemed to indicate that he should have been given more to do or that his role should have been expanded. I disagree. I think we got just enough of him, and that might be too much as far as I’m concerned.
You know what else? I have to recommend this movie. There’s a ton of video game level crazy violence. Yes, it’s a time loop story. I still recommend it! If you have a way to connect with a friend on a Saturday night, grab a cold one, sit down and check out this film ~ you’ll have a good time!
I was super happy to be part of another Attack Of Opportunity! It was a great time taking a movie apart and turning it into an adventure for a D&D game. I had a number of things to say about it, and you can check out the video here:
When I was getting ready for this video I (maybe) went a little overboard with things. I had this feeling that we were telling people to be inspired by movies, but what precisely does that mean? I’m inspired, what do I do with that? So I sat down and really dove into doing what we were suggesting. I mean, we’re talking about a fantasy classic here – but can I actually use it?
Most of the time I wouldn’t lift whole plots, characters or concepts. I like having complete control over my creations and the ability to use them across multiple media formats. Stuff I’ve snatched from other people does NOT fit into that category. I will however be inspired by many and varied things, lifting bits and pieces out for my use. Even the things that get lifted are mashed, molded and ultimately adjusted to be a good fit with the story and the rules of the world I am working with.
If you’re grabbing parts from a movie be sure to tweak things just enough that the players don’t immediately recognize it. It can be a total bummer when one of the players recognizes exactly where you got something from. It’s a bummer, that is, IF you haven’t prepared. If you’ve prepared then you rejoice. Seriously. The player thinks they know and that’s a fantastic tool to use against them. If the player “just knows” that the lead villain keeps his pet monster in the pit and therefore they don’t climb down there, move the pet. It’s a super easy fix that will have them second guess choices like that. The can overhear the guards say something like, “Oh, it’s Reggie’s day out again…” or “I’m really glad I’m not on cleaning detail now that they’ve moved Reggie…”. Take that sort of knowledge and use it to your favor.
For folks that really wanted to dig in, here’s a short list of some of the things I thought needed some prep ahead of time.
NPCs: King (Osric), Doom, high level warrior/priests, witch/oracle
Political groups: religious cult, rival kingdom, slave market / pit fighters
Treasures: Atlantian Sword, cult gem (eye of the serpent), jade medallion, father’s sword, assassin’s dagger, snake arrows, random bowl of gems
Maps: City w/ cult location, cult tower interior, battleground near stone monuments, temple w/ great stair and fountain, and of course – cultist HQ with orgy room, kitchen and secret cave entrance.
The map part has always been something that has driven me in the past. I’m a very visual person. I really went after trying to create what I would need to make this an adventure. We didn’t have much of a chance to see these on screen during the video (and some weren’t really there at the time) so I wanted to post a few of them here. YOUR game does NOT need to have all this stuff. You should make the game your own and use your own talents to create the amazing world your party will adventure in.
Here are a few of the things I put together for maps / visualization.
Started with good old graph paper and just sketched stuff.
After the sketch I made the map “fancy”
Past what you see in the film, you’ll have to make some of the spaces up for the party
This is where I started to go off the rails. I modeled the whole tower in 3D
How’s the view from the top or YOUR cult’s tower?
Whatever level of detail you’re willing to dive into, make it yours. In the end your passion and joy for the story will make the game great. What other movies would you break down like this? What are the best concepts you’ve used in a game (or had used against you) before?
