Arcane - Review - 10/10

 

Mean Face!

I just got done watching this one with my niece, Charles.

It's my show of the year. A high recommend for all people, not just SFF fans or animation fans. 

You don't need to have played the video game to enjoy it, I didn't, and it's the best thing I've seen all year. Hell, it beats any book I've read this year as well.

Dune 2021 Movie Review

 

An Incomplete Movie

I had no idea this wasn't a full movie. Was I supposed to surmise that from the "It Begins" bit on the poster? What a huge let down. The movie just ends, but the story does not. 

So I can't recommend this to anyone without watching the whole thing, but from what I saw, it's okay. Hopefully they can make the rest of it, if this first part does well. 

Jason Mamoa is great in it. I could watch an entire movie about his character. The Adventures of Duncan Idaho. Get on it, Hollywood.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation - Teela's Quest

This advertises a He-Man v. Skeletor show.

Despite being advertised as a He-Man show, this is a Teela show.

It's not even a good Teela show, as this Teela is a whiney child who runs away from responsibility.

I'm not sure I can recommend this to any audience. It's neither for Teela fans, nor He-Man fans. 

Hugely disappointing. Skip it. Watch Arcane. 

Lorna Shore - New Band I'm Liking

Holy crap look at these guys. They didn't have bands like this when I was a kid. Not that I ever heard anyway. Check out the last minute or so of this song to see what I'm so intrigued by.

Topical Tuesday - Kindle Vella

So it looks like Amazon is trying to start up a serialized fiction platform, call Vella. Basically, you get the first 3 episodes of a story for free, then you can use tokens to unlock later chapters.

It sounds interesting, and there's going to be a 50/50 royalty split with the authors. 

I don't know if it's going to be viable long term, but we'll see. I know some authors who are seriously considering jumping in. 

Who knows, I might put up a story or two. I've not put anything out in so long, it's well past time to jump back in. 

This article here delves more into the specifics:
https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/amazon-launches-kindle-vella-for-authors/

Caves and Candles

I've been mostly spending time this summer writing a table top RPG. I'm calling it Caves and Candles, for now. 

There are a couple of cool concepts that make my game unique:
-Simpler than D&D 5e, skewing younger and good for new people.
-2D6 based, with extra dice for advantage, traits, etc...
-Ability scores that make more sense, but aren't totally foreign to people familiar with other TTRPG systems. 
-A die drop dungeon creation system, for creating dungeons in real time, allowing more freedom for your characters to go off the rails as they please. 
-Roll up a beastman, void beast, or great fiend in real time as well. 

Oh, and my most difficult bit, 36 COMPLETE character classes, plus a classless 'Adventurer' as the default option to maintain simplicity. 

EDIT: And how could I forget my unarmed, arena, professional wrestling based combat extension!!! 

Reading My Stories Online

I thought I'd read my stories on Youtube, and I'm looking into uploading them as podcasts. Just in case anyone wants to listen and drive or something, or for whatever reason doesn't want to read them.

It's an idea I've had for awhile, but I'm just now getting to it. 

First up: Fire Flower