Replying to
@Bette@mstdn.social
My first idea was 'Caves of Steel' by Isaac Asimov which isn't set on the moon but I always think it was given it's doomed cities.
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mastodon 4.6.8Checking social media instead of writing.
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Joined December 16, 2022
Are there any good #SolarPunk #TTRPG or rather what would a good solar punk TTRPG look like?
It feels like a fairly conflict-lite genre, a peaceful, almost utopian aesthetic often used as a point of contrast with a story’s main setting. TTRPGs on the other hand tend to be very conflict focused.
I have seen vaguely solar punk board and video games that focused on exploration or construction “in harmony with nature” but I don’t know how well that transfers to the tabletop. I think I would like that (I always end up playing builders anyway) but I don’t know about other people.
If I were to spin up a “solar punk” game this week “punk” communities would be mere oasis in some sort of post-cataclysm world with the PCs delving into the wild for reasons (salvaging from the ruins, trading with other settlements, laying the foundation of a new town, et cetera). Part of building that sort of setting is working the nature of the cataclysm and pre-cataclysm world.
‘Island in the Sea of Time’ by S. M. Stirling is the first book in a trilogy and an entirely new sub-genre in the Alternate History sphere about an entire community, and all their stuff, (in this case Nantucket) being physically transported to a different point in time (the bronze age). I’m really glad that this idea inspired an entire sub-genre because it’s a good idea and this book sucks.
It might sound that many of the following criticisms boil down to the book being 600 pages but no, Alternate Histories tend to be bricks, it’s how those pages are filled. The three main threads of conflict are: the practical problem caused by being cut off from the modern supply-chain, which I would have enjoyed if we had actually seen any of the problems and not just the solutions, the internal conflict about how to approach the outside world, which comes to a head at possibly the worst point of the narrative, and dealing with that outside world which is always subservient to the other two.
There are other things I could comment on but they’re less problems and more things that make me assume things about the author (this fetishes katana the way only a white guy with long hair could (oh, look at that author’s photo)). The bottom line is I’m not reading the rest of the series and I’m not recommending this book.
‘The Blood Books’ by Tanya Huff (loosely adapted for television as ‘Blood Ties’) is a pretty solid Urban Fantasy series with an ending. Do you know how rare that is? Series that actually ends rather than just petering out? It even has a coda to make it clear that no the series can’t continue.
Even before it gets to that resolution I like what the series does; the vampire, that makes up the half of the detective team, is not guilt ridden, he’s not atoning for wicked past, he’s completely comfortable with his past (five stars, would vampire again). No, vampires in this universe are instinctively territorial so anything that could even be mistaken for another vampire in his city kicks him into action. Once the series gets going, once they’ve become friends, he’s mostly helping out the PI who makes the other half of the team but that initial motivation matters.
#Books #Reading #UrbanFantasy
It may sound weird but I think Tom King’s ‘Rorschach’ run might work because it has so little to do with ‘Watchmen’.
At its heart it’s a 70s style political thriller; the nameless protagonist investigates an attempted political candidate on behalf of the campaign that doesn’t trusts the FBI learning about the would be assassins lives and fringe beliefs. It’s just that those beliefs center around space squids and they chose to wear a Rorschach mask when doing the deed that narratively links it to ‘Watchmen’ and those would be easy details to swap out
Thematically it feels a lot like ‘Watchmen’, a cynical exploration of politics and the meaning of super-heroics. It feels like King gets it more than most people who quote Ozymandias.
#Reading #Comics
‘Nine Goblins’ by T. Kingfisher is about nine goblins (and a teddy bear) and is a very character forward story. It’s clear the author wanted to play around with these goblins (and teddy bear) and the plot was a secondary concern. Which I kind of wish they hadn’t bothered; the plot doesn’t give the book structure, there is no beginning middle end, there’s just goofing around then it ends. I would have been happy with just more goofing around, say in a series of episodic shorts, nine shorts, one per… wait no, that doesn’t work.
#Reading #Books #Fantasy
I keep thinking that I should sell my #TTRPG collection since it's been so long since I've used any of it but I don't want to.
I far too clearly remember selling and re-buying the same book repeatedly as teenager to get rid of anything when I don't have to.
On one level 'Predator: Badlands' is really straight forward on another it makes some really complicated choices which is in keeping with the franchise's roots.
Full ★★★★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dls3q1
#Movies #Action #ScienceFiction
I struggle to say anything other "it's good" about 'A Fistful of Dollars'.
Full ★★★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dibhi5
#Movies #Western
'Anna' has like one and a half good action sequences and that's it.
Full ★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dLOFfD
#Movies #Action
'Greaser's Palace' was such a disappointment.
Full ★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dBcsVb
#Movies #Western #Comedy
'ParaNorman' has strong 80s kid movie energy.
Full ★★★½ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dyetux
#Movies #Animation #Adventure
'Miracle Mile' doesn't quite fire on all cylinders but it hits most of them.
Full ★★★½ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dxjCez
#Movies #ScienceFiction #Drama #Comedy
At the time critics said 'Stargate' was riddled with cliches, which is kind of true, and in retrospect it's early evidence of Emmerich's conspiratorial mindset, which is also true, but I like it.
Full ★★½ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dxffuh
#Movies #ScienceFiction #Adventure
I dream of a society where I would be guillotined as a conservative.
-- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (Allegedly)
#Anarchism #Quote
'Anatomy of a Murder' is one of those movies that was shocking at the time in a way that it just isn't now. Thankfully it is still a solid drama.
Full ★★★½ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dffftB
#Movies #Drama
There is so much good about 'Blue Moon' but I can't see myself wanting to spending 90 minutes with Larry Hart ever again.
Full ★★★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dd1htx
#Movies #Drama
[Absentmindedly watching an mid 2000s procedural] Hey that's Oz Perkins... playing a serial killer who's "weirdly close" to his mother.
I hate to say it but AI colorization is blowing Ted Turner out of the water.
I'm not sure 'The In-Laws' is one of the 50 greatest comedies but I like the leads and there are some good supporting bits.
Full ★★½ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dAqqHF
#Movies #Comedy
Replying to
@shakespearenut@mastodon.nz
'Island' predates '1632' by two or three years and is one of Flint's stated inspirations (along with 'Connecticut Yankee'*)... that might have been clearer if I had included a publication date in my post.
*I had to look up how to spell "Connecticut".
'Invitation to a Murder' is a TV movie in all but name.
Full ★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dgkzVf
#Movies #Mystery
“Mr. Granger appears by arrangement with Samuel Goldwyn” is the type of credit that you should include in any parody or throwback feature you make that’s emulating the old studio look.
Have you seen the photo of Mamdani host Mahmoud Khalil at Gracie Mansion?
It looks like it was painted by a Dutch master.
'Strangers on a Train' had three brilliant and difficult talents shaping its story so of course it's great.
And if Highsmith had been obliged to attend a script meeting blood likely would have been drawn.
Full ★★★★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dI3FnB
#Movies #Thriller
'The Wrong Man' is like a high quality "ripped from the headlines' TV movie (forty years before that was thing) given a theatrical release.
Full ★★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dL6fEJ
#Movies #Drama
I like a good heist and making it a period film is clever but Demi Moore feels miscast in 'Flawless'.
Full ★½ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dFdVFJ
#Movies #Thriller #Drama
The group I gamed with the longest was very White Wolf/World of Darkness focused, mostly Mage and Werewolf before I joined, while I had more eclectic tastes. I always try something new, something different, whether as GM or player I tried to find some strange corner to explore.
I played an Artificer, a Mage that couldn’t before magic, and a Cannibal. I ran Mummies and Werewolves in the Wild West (and every flavor of Vampire other than the core).
That’s before we get to the non-World of Darkness, or even non-White Wolf games I got them to play. Did you know there’s a ‘Usagi Yojimbo Role-Playing Game’?
Through it all my quest for variety meant I was much more likely to pickup core book over a supplement giving my collection a strange shape.
It’s rude to comment on someone’s appearance unprompted but so much of this movie (I’m currently watching) is built around showing off the leads figure I feel safe in saying she doesn’t have one, she has the body of a malnourished twelve-year-old. She looks better the more clothes she wears, she looks best during the fight scenes when wearing clothes baggy enough to hide pads.
It gave me weird flashbacks to being a tween witnessing the disconnect between the anorexic bodies the fashion industry was promoting and the curves heterosexual men (as a rule) liked. The difference between the covers of Vogue and… say the SI Swimsuit issue was stark.
'Coraline' is a top five Laika movie (they've only made six but still).
Full ★★★★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dKkgvH
#Movies #Animation #Fantasy
Like most Corman productions 'Lords of the Deep' is a mixture of creativity and padding, add a little sleaze and you'd have the trifecta.
Full ★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dyepSF
#ScienceFiction #Movies
I have massive nostalgia for like three scenes in 'Hudson Hawk'.
Full ★★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dibnmd
#Movies #Comedy #Adventure
'Sisu: Road to Revenge' is a real step down from the first one.
Full ★★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dkoo4j
#Movies #Action
Random #MTG thought; how great would it be to have Infinite Obliteration in hand and realize your opponent was fielding a Relentless Rats deck?
Back on Monday I thought “wouldn’t it be funny if Trump’s stupid little war scuppered the Paramount/WB merger” but I didn’t post anything then because I didn’t have any details.
I knew that the Ellisons had been depending upon Middle Eastern money for like a third of the bid but I couldn’t remember if it was from a country currently being bombed, so if there was a risk of that money being pulled. I know the Ellisons were leveraging Oracle stock to raise the rest of the cash but I don’t know how healthy that stock is, so whether or not those loans can survive the war shock.
Yesterday a number of Gulf countries publicly threatened to pull their money out of the US which caused a lot of people to have same thought I had only they actually looked up the details I didn’t, details that lead to a lot of giggling.
I was underwhelmed by 'Treasure Planet'.
Full ★½ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dI3ILL
#Movies #ScienceFiction #Animation
Any strategist saying the DNC needs to get tougher on immigration is being stupid two ways.
The immediate, surface level stupid is that Trump’s immigration crackdown is deeply unpopular; no one telling you to emulate an unpopular policy of an unpopular president has your best interests at heart.
The deeper level of stupid comes from the fact that the entire argument is based on the lie that 2024 was about immigration; a lie pushed by people on the right to justify the actions of ICE and by people in the middle to… deny reality?
Polling shows that the economy was the number one issue for voters in ‘24 while immigration didn’t make the top five*. Any sane person would economic messaging first; Trump said it sucked while Harris said it was fine (for millionaires), more people thought is sucked than were millionaires so Trump won.
*Immigration was the no 2 for Trump voters but was like 11th for Harris voters which averages out to 6th overall.
My problem with James Talarico (in Texas) is that his names keeps reminding me of Tommy Tallarico who is not an association you'd want to make.
There is something very uncomfortable about lower-mid-budget shows lacking score (sometimes even foley).
They can afford the talent and equipment to make it look good and record clean dialogue but there’s nothing left for sound design. If it’s not an essential sound effect or one of three music cues things can get strangely silent.
'Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths' is an Epic story told over three movies the best being the most standalone.
Full #Review for on #Letterboxd
'Part One' ★★ : https://boxd.it/drgb4H
'Part Two' ★ : https://boxd.it/drgcHl
'Part Three' ★½ : https://boxd.it/drgeGJ
Clips from this one podcast keeps getting recommended to me captioned things like “[Actor] reveals truth about…” and then the clip proper is just the host interrupting and changing subject for five minutes straight.
The only positive thing about 'Carbon Copy' is that it's Denzel Washington's screen debut.
Full ★ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dFmoGx
#Movies #Comedy #Drama
I wondered if I posted about about this before let me check…
[Searches most likely keyword]
Huh, the mastodon search function only seems to goes back three months I’m going to have to manually scroll through four years of my home page.
'Mac and Me', a movie only worth remembering for the memes.
Full ½ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dpnqrR
#Movies #Family #Adventure
“People don’t know” is “I just learned” in arrogant idiot.
How many tech companies are going to try to hide the AI collapse in the war downturn?
'For a Few Dollars More' is the worst of the 'Dollars Trilogy'... which still might make it a top ten western.
Full ★★½ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/diM8Kj
#Movies #Western
The ‘Dr. Greta Helsing’ books by Vivian Shaw is an Urban Fantasy about Dr. Greta Helsing, a specialist in the treatment of those that go bump in the night, her friends, and patients. And a spectacle of escalation going from treating a vampire after an encounter with a hunter to angels, demons, and an accidental apocalypse in just a handful of installments which is a hard act to follow so it makes sense that the fourth book is the official end.
Actually having just read that book I think it’s possible that the author lost interest in their protagonist as the bureaucracy of heaven and hell got more screen time. And that’s not even considering the six year gap between the last two books.
I still like the series (more than the only other thing I’ve read by Shaw) and tentatively recommend it but part of that is because I like the idea of a Genre medical drama (even if these are only kind of that) and find the supporting cast likable.
So Jasmine Crockett (allegedly) had a reporter removed from an event, said she hadn’t and that the reporter had previously been sued for defamation (which would have made it okay?).
Only the reporter has never been sued and had recorded audio of being thrown out. Not that that has so far effected Crockett’s response to questions.
'The Boxtrolls' is something of a disappointment compared to the rest of Laika's output but that still makes it better than a lot of family films.
Full ★★½ #Review on #Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/dBcqy5
#Movies #Animation