Deranged - A Review

Y'know, who hasn't read an article somewhere about the zombie fungus that drives ants up trees, or other weird parasites that alter the behaviors of various and sundry critters and thought, what if something like that were to infect people?  To be honest, I'm surprised Syfy hasn't jumped on it already, starring Cyndi Lauper or something.  No, it was the Koreans who have successfully tapped that well for the first time, with an interesting little movie entitled, Deranged.

Taking a Dick Wolf-esque, "ripped from the headlines" approach, the movie takes the very real Horsehair Worm, specifically Spinochordodes tellinii and unleashes it upon mankind.  All Horsehair Worms are fundamentally atrocious, but Spinochordodes tellinii is especially so.  "Normal" Horsehair Worms are content to just grow inside different insects and sealife, leaching them of their nutrients and killing them as they hatch.  Spinochordodes tellinii  though, gives it's host the added bonus of releasing chemicals which drive the infected to seek out the nearest body of water and leap into it.  There the worms abandon the body via whatever orifice is handy, mate, deposit eggs in the water, and start the horrific circle of life all over again.

So what happens when these start to infect humans? 

PANIC!

Bodies start popping up in rivers and lakes, folks are downing bottled water like it's going out of style, and then drowning themselves in everything from bathtubs to fishtanks.  Things only get worse when it's discovered that this mutant strain kills the host when exposed to vermicide.  At first the medical community is puzzled, until it turns out that one particular brand of vermicide works.  Unfortunately, that brand was discontinued due to poor sales, leaving the protagonist to search with increasing desperation, and fail to obtain them due to increasingly improbable coincidences and turns of fate. 

The government becomes more and more authoritarian, going from "We're quarantining you for your own protection", to "We're taking away your cellphones because... um... we're concerned about public safety?"  Evil corporations get involved, and, well, to be honest the whole thing sorta goes off the rails a bit towards the end, and the SHOCK! last shot is just silly.

But at the core of all of this is a solid idea, and the first hour or so delivers a solid Robin Cook style medical thriller.  Definitely more Outbreak than Contagion, though. 

Papa Needs Some Gwar Tix!

So this is unprecedented, my third post today.  The cause is just, though.  See, I really want to meet Dave Brockie, aka Oderus Urungus.  I've kicked Jim Raggi $75 so I can get 2 tickets to the Gwar show here in Dallas in October, the opportunity to meet Mr. Urungus, a tour t-shirt, a signed poster, oh, and some adventure or something.

Raggi has even said that if this one gets to $5000, he'll kick the last $1000 in to fund it!  Currently, it's a mere $620 away from $5000, but there is only six hours left!  So send me to Gwar!  Contribute to the Two Towers Indiegogo campaign!

Link Here

You Take the Good You Take the Bad

Today has been a rollercoaster of emotion for me and the Kickstarters I support.  Hydra Dice's Necron Dice are poised to be a smashing success, having collected, with six hours to go, $16,000, despite only looking for $1000.   I'm very much looking forward to seeing those puppies roll around my table, if you know what I mean.

On the other hand, it is with a heavy heart that I must report that, with only three hours remaining, Synnibarr has only collected $4500 of it's $55,000 goal.  I hope that Raven c.s. McCracken can find some other way to raise the funds for what would have surely been the game of the year.

The Lull

I've been on a bit of gaming withdrawal of late.  Ark took ill recently, and another friend has been going through some stuff, which has left my Wednesdays and Saturdays oddly free.  My better half and I have taken advantage of the free time to rearrange the house, and the result has been quite satisfying.  The living room has been transformed into a dining room/library/game room hybrid, with all four of my Borders (RIP) bookcases lined up in a row, and another, smaller bookcase rounding out things.  Lots of room now - we can even put a leaf in the table so nobody has to rub elbows anymore, and there is even enough room for people to walk from one side of the table to the other without folks having to climb over each other to do so.  Very exciting.

This has also allowed us to engage in other delayed endeavors.  Much to my chagrin, I had never seen the Buffy TV show that everyone always raves about.  Now I know why.  We're almost done, and considering making the jump to Angel immediately following, although I've been jonesing to watch Deep Space Nine again, or perhaps Space: 1999.

The important bit, though, is that I've actually started working on From the Ashes in earnest.  After several years of poking at it idly when the mood struck me, I have been able to devote actual time to working through some of the issues that have stumped me, and I think I can see something semi-coherent taking shape by year's end.  Of course, between now and then, I'm getting married so between getting ready for that, the honeymoon, etc. all kinds of things can happen.  So, yeah.  Not much of an update, but a positive one.

President Palin vs. the Space Nazis

That's right, Iron Sky - the ONLY movie this year that promises you Nazis from the Moon is coming to the USA, and if you can get enough people to buy tickets in advance, they can come to YOUR town!  Iron Sky has struck a deal with Tugg, a sort of Kickstarter-type crowd funding program for movies.  You set up a page, you advertise it, and if enough people buy tickets by a week before the show, the movie plays in the theater of your choice!  A pretty awesome idea, I think, and especially so since it's bringing the most anticipated movie of 2012 to my back yard!!!

So if you're in the Dallas area, and you want to see the pinnacle of modern cinema, then go to this page and preorder your tickets to see Iron Sky at the Texas Theater in Dallas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The show is set for August 22nd, and only 38 more tickets are needed to be purchased by August 15th, so go!  Buy!  Schnell schnell!

What's that you say?  You haven't heard of this cinematic work of genius?  Well then let me introduce you to it, via one of the greatest trailers ever put together by human hands.

If you're not in the Dallas area, follow this link to find a show in your area, or set one up on your own!

Weird RPG Item Alert: Dice Gauntlet

From the Description: 

So much can be lost in the roll of a die. What better way to challenge and defy the iron grip of fate than with a defiant shake of your fist? Presenting the Dice Gauntlet, by Geekify Inc. Powered by an ATMega system, the Dice Gauntlet is a multi-purpose piece of gaming gear designed to turn your game sessions into an impressive display of dice-rolling prowess. Featuring two independent displays, the Gauntlet can roll two separate dice of any type at a time. Set the mode to whatever dice setting you need, shake your fist at destiny or defiantly pound the table, and watch as the bracer produces your digital dice roll.

Do away with your hoard of multi-sided dice - this bracer can do it all! Coin flips, d6, d8, d20, d100, and everything in between! Each display also features a counter mode to keep track of life and score, allowing you to track your character's status at any time, as well as an optional timer mode to keep track of time spent, or to count down in a race against time.

Conquer those Dungeons, slay those Dragons, and Blessings of Dia upon you. Epic gear isn't just for games any more.

**Note: our circuitboards are currently back-ordered, so please allow 2-3 weeks for shipping!**

Have any questions? Contact the shop owner.



Found on Etsy

FtA: Mutations

Crazy thought time.  I've been building a list of mutations for From the Ashes, basically because that's the way that Gamma World did it, and good for the orlen, good for the badder.

But as I'm thinking about it, the randomness doesn't seem to fit with the deliberate nature and theme of the game.  The idea that I"m trying to portray throughout the game is that everything matters.  So why make one of the core concepts random? 

So my thought is this - rather than a chart of random mutations and descriptions of those mutations, let the players pick their mutations, and work with the GM to determine the power levels associated with them.  Each mutation would have a score, like attributes, and the power of the effect generated by that mutation is based on that score.  So even if you say that you have the power to create nuclear explosions with your mind, if your score for that mutation is low, you can only create tiny nuclear explosions that do 1d8 points of damage.  If you have telepathy with the same score, it only operates within 1d8 feet.

Obviously, I need to work out some of the finer points of this to make it usable, but I think it allows some flexibility to the character creation, as well as investing the players in the creation of their characters.  I may still keep the list of mutations and charts, and use them for the levelling mutations - as the PCs increase in level, their cellular structure breaks down, creating new, random mutations as  they go.  I'll have to make sure there are a good number of worthless, negative mutations mixed in with the good ones for that chart.  Hmmm.

As I typing this, I'm realizing that I'm drifting farther and farther away from Gamma World.  Really, at this point the only core concept remaining is probably the post apocalyptic setting, and the mutations themselves, if not the manner in which they are initiallygenerated.  I dunno, though, the more I get into this, the less that seems to matter to me.  If this game turns out to be less a retroclone of Gamma World and more of a mutation, maybe that's in the spirit of things after all?