Pandemic blogging

If you're here from DIY & Dragons, welcome, and thank you!

It has been a while since I updated here, even before the pandemic hit. I've been working from home normal hours since my library closed its doors and the campus went to online teaching only. Also during that time my face-to-face gaming groups took to Zoom and Roll20, and I've joined new online games. I'm trying to sneak in more movies when I can. We finished a re-watch of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings last week. I just got the first Hobbit movie on DVD in the mail from Netflix. My re/watch of John Carpenter movies continues, the latest being PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987).

Despite staying at home except for grocery trips, my days have been filled up. It reminds me of when retired folks say they are now busier than ever. My creativity was low before though and this medical emergency hasn't helped any, hence the lack of posts. I need to do some housekeeping here -- cleaning up old links, and maybe a new template and colors.

Put Kaijuville in your favorite feed reader and stay tuned for something to pop up. I never know when that spark will hit.

Still here, part 2

As mentioned in Part 1, I've been posting more elsewhere and I need to refresh this neglected blog.

Along with more gaming content, I want to update the Hammer horror movie list here, update links,  and provide some updates on what I've been watching.

Two months ago was Shawtember -- all Shaw Brothers kung fu movies, and following that was an October full of Hammer and Godzilla films. This month is Noirvember, a deep dive into the underbelly of crime films. Speaking of Godzilla, my look at the brand new Godzilla set from Criterion will be up soon.

At the beginning of the year I planned a John Carpenter retrospective re-watch over a few months, but I only got as far as DARK STAR. Now I'm thinking that the Christmas/New Year's break might be a good time for it.

Still here, part 1

I haven't had an update here in a while, posting what I might put here on Facebook, Twitter, and Discord. I hope to have some actual gaming content here soon, particularly my take on the "New New Crobuzon Challenge" in a few days.

Non-gaming content in Part 2!

Update, part 3 -- Board games

Forgot to mention in one of the previous posts -- I'd like to get in more board games this year. I have Monolith's Conan and Everything Epic's Big Trouble in Little China, and of those I've only played Conan once.

I'd also like to play some of the games that friends of mine own, like Rising Sun and the different flavors of Zombicide.

Update and what's next, Part 2

Part 1 is here.

Podcast Idea
Interviews and discussion linking two of my favorite things: games and movies.

Movie-watching Projects
This year, in an effort to keep more data and as reminders to myself, I started tracking each film I watch and creating a separate to-be-watched list. Right now the lists live in a notebook. I keep forgetting to sign up for Letterboxd, where I'll eventually post these for myself. So much good stuff is out there waiting to be seen, and I'm trying my best to carve out more viewing time to fit in as much as possible, especially over the holiday break and the rest of the winter.

With that in mind, a few themes are showing up in the watch lists:

John Carpenter -- Pure Cinema Podcast's fantastic two-part Carpenter retrospective, where they examined all the films and paired each with another film as a double-feature, gave me the idea to try a back-to-back watch of the catalog myself. It's an opportunity to revisit old favorites and discover some of his films that I've haven't seen yet.

Charles Bronson -- Over the last year or so, several Bronson movies have hit Blu-ray, either singles or in affordable multi-packs. A collector's edition Blu-ray of the action/thriller/slasher 10 TO MIDNIGHT is out early next year. All this recent attention has inspired me to take a deep-dive into his catalog of films. Bronson has always been a favorite of mine, but like Carpenter there are many that I missed. I might try watching chronologically if possible, but that might depend on availability. More likely I'll just pick and choose at random.

Spaghetti Westerns -- Like the recent Bronson releases, we've had a couple of good years for Euro-Westerns. The recent Blu-ray of Corbucci's THE GREAT SILENCE, Kino Lorber's releases of Leone films, Arrow's Ringo and Django films, along with their box set of Sartana movies, just to name a few highlights. This year I also picked up Mill Creek's 44-movie DVD box for a cheap sale price. It's an economical way to see many of the popular titles (a good hit/miss ratio) and it was the only way to get Monte Hellman's CHINA 9, LIBERTY 37 on disc. Over the holidays I'd like to dig into this set and The Complete Sartana box.

Cyberpunk movies -- Continuing my research for a cyberpunk RPG by moving down the list of cyberpunk and related near-future sci-fi movies. Next on my Netflix queue is RUNAWAY (1984) with Tom Selleck.


Thanks for reading this far. I hope that this gives some idea on what to expect here at the blog in the new year -- more gaming and movie reviews, more game setting and mechanics ideas -- and an incentive for me to keep it going.

End of the year update and what's next

I'm trying to write a catch-up post, and hardly knowing where to begin. With the death of Google+ being moved up closer, I think longer posts will end up here on the blog more often.

Game Ideas in the Works
I've got two game ideas that have been percolating for quite a while: first, a smaller kaiju-themed RPG code-named "The Kaiju Hack", and the second is a D&D 5e-based cyberpunk game -- my version of Shadowrun. I'll post more notes about those games here. It's time to stop thinking about them, and actually get something tangible done and completed. I thought that I'd work through these games in posts on G+, but alas... if you can't tell, I'm really bummed-out about the loss of G+ and its gaming scene.

The next month with 30 days is April, which might be a good opportunity to post something about one of these games everyday using the #DIY30 hashtag.

Secret Santicore
No Santicore this year, and we are still working though layout for Santicore 2017. A new layout designer is looking over the project, and I hope to have more to report about that soon. Eventually we will have a free PDF, entries posted to the blog, and (with luck) an at-cost print-on-demand book.

After the holidays, I'll send out some requests to get the band back together again for an early start to Santicore 2019, along with finding a new home for the G+ Santicore production community.

Folk Horror (gaming and movies)
I backed the Kickstarter for Howard Ingham's excellent book We Don't Go Back: A Watcher's Guide to Folk Horror, and I'm hoping to read it over the holiday break. It's an expanded version of his blog posts covering aspects of Folk Horror in movies and other media, and well-worth a look for gaming inspiration or for those interested in the subject on its own. I also have the more academically-minded Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange by Adam Scovell (a gift from Age of Ravens) which I have also started, and I need to finish.

More in Part 2 later today...

A quick word

Was my last post four months ago? Time moves quickly. Expect a longer post here soon to catch up on what has been happening, what to expect here in the future (More posts! A new look for the new year?), and so on.

I've been much more active on Google +, but of course the long-rumored demise of  The Plus was moved up in a dramatic way, so reviving the blog seems like a logical way to proceed. Game design ideas I would have posted on G+ will be here instead.

Age of Ravens nominated for Best Website ENnie Award

Lowell's site is full of campaign ideas, gaming tips discovered during actual play, and he's been doing a great service by producing a valuable ongoing resource of  histories of RPG genres. Take a look at some of his previous posts.

I will be voting Age of Ravens as my #1 choice for Best Website at the ENnies.

What to expect here in 2015

I have become wary of promising myself too much in these New Year "looking ahead" posts. Inevitably some crisis will knock me off track from what I've proposed, and I'll feel like I haven't been able to keep up. Even so, putting these ideas out here still seems like the best way to focus on projects.

I'm eager to run an RPG campaign again. We had a short test run of D&D 5e for three sessions, using the Starter Set adventure The Lost Mine of Phandelver. The players and I had fun, although I'm not sure it was enough time to really test the system. My takeaway -- based as much on other reviews I have read as on our playtest -- is that it delivers just what I want "D&D" to be. There will always be tweaks and house-ruling, but it works as written, and at the right balance for me between simplicity and complexity.

The campaign ideas foremost on my mind at the moment:

• D&D 5e, possibly starting with Phandelver and leading into Horde of the Dragon Queen (a heavily hacked and curtailed version) and The Rise of Tiamat (dragon cultists!). Or something completely different.
• A Red and Pleasant Land, using 5e for the rules system
• Shadowrun, perhaps using Savage Worlds.
• Night's Black Agents: Dracula Dossier (not out until August/September)
• Call of Cthulhu (a perennial favorite)
• Conan, using Barbarians of Lemuria (The Mythic Edition of the game is due any moment now)

I'm in the very preliminary research stages for my Golden Age of Ballooning RPG, and one of my main gaming goals for the year is continuous movement towards a fully-polished game for public release.

On the blog, I'd like to write more reviews -- both of games and gaming products, and of films, reviving the Cult Classic of the Week series.

Not going dark yet

This spring and summer have been challenging. The end of one school semester, the passing of a close family member, then the start of another semester with a changed curriculum, have sapped my creative energies and then months go by without any posts.

I have volunteered for several gaming-related events this fall, so maybe putting many irons into the fire will help kick up the creative spark I am missing at the moment. Expect a Gen Con post and more to come after.

Vornheim-ed Middenheim City Kit in a PDF

If you haven't been following Jeff Russell's posts on G+, he finished his Vornheim-style take on the Warhammer Fantasy city of Middenheim, and compiled all the tables into a final PDF. This is his project to distill all the gaming potential in one of the great cities in fantasy RPGs down to a set of guidelines and random tables, thus making it much easier to actually use at your table. Jeff also posted the plain text versions for anyone to compile and layout on their own, or to use for their own fantasy cities.

What to expect in 2014

Following on from my 2013 wrap-up, I've thought a bit about what I would like to do with my gaming this year and writing about it. I am a player in two face-to-face games, and the regular Weird Adventures G+ Hangout game I play in will be going on hiatus for a bit. I'd like to run something, even a short self-contained cycle of sessions, either face-to-face or over G+. Getting my schedule straightened out will be the main obstacle.

I don't want to make promises like I did this time last year. It was my goal to run Night's Black Agents sometime in 2013 and it didn't happen due to other real-life committments (I did get to play in two one-shot sessions). I will try to be more Zen-like about it and simply say "I'll do my best" this year.

With the new American Godzilla film out this May (and related DVD/Blu-ray releases) I'll have plenty to write about concerning giant monsters, along with the usual fantasy, sci-fi and horror topics.

I also want to get more gameable content posted. Often I feel as if something isn't thoroughly playtested and edited, it isn't worth posting, especially when I see all the great work done by other gaming bloggers. I need to get in the habit of posting work-in-progress, just so I can see some progress and move forward.

Areas of interest at the moment:

• Cyberpunk settings have been on my mind lately, so...
• converting rules-heavy settings like Shadowrun or Dark Heresy to rules-light systems: Fate Accelerated, Savage Worlds, or maybe the 2d6 system from Barbarians of Lemuria.
• Going into more detail about my Montgolfier Brothers alt-history setting, or one of the others in the back of my mind
• Getting Night's Black Agents, Hyborian Age/Conan, and/or a back-to-basics OSR game (Dungeon Crawl Classics, possibly) to the table or on G+
• At the very least, adding more links to my neglected NBA resources page.

Is it too late for a "2013 year in review"?

January and February seem to have flown by. Between work, the weather, and other real-life adventures, I haven't taken any time to reflect on the past year.

I didn't get to run as many games in 2013 as I would have liked. At a local games day in January, I ran a Call of Cthulhu session that was based partially on a rulebook intro scenario mixed with a con scenario I wrote up some years ago. It seemed to go over well, and after some additional work this one might become my go-to Cthulhu convention one-shot. I also ran one "episode" of Original Series Star Trek over G+ Hangouts using Starships and Spacemen 2nd. ed. in January, which was great fun.

As far as producing usable gaming content, my creativity was really low last year. Still, I'm proud of what I did accomplish. I contributed an article on medieval cooking to the first issue of Burgs & Bailiffs, and two campaign pitches for the RPG Blog Carnival in May. You'll find a few bits of mine in the crowdsourced hexcrawls for Hexenbracken and The Kraal, and I was one of Santicore's elves, each of us wrangling a group of writers and artists for the Secret Santicore 2013 project (Volume 1 and 2 of 3 available now).

I was invited to participate in three RPG convention panels last year -- the 2013 GM's Jam! advice panel at Gen Con in August, and two panels for RPGGeek's Virtuacon13 in October, Role-playing in the Digital Age and How to Handle Difficult Players. Each of these was a blast, and I hope to be on more panels and webcasts in the future.

Wednesday: What to expect here this year.

Rules in 52 Pages

Roger just posted a complete Version 1.0 of his 52 Pages Rules RPG for character levels 1-3. I've been following this for a while as he posted pages in progress to his blog. He has some neat little rules in there, but what I like most about this project is the design. No lengthy paragraphs of description here; everything is concise in quick blurbs and iconography. It's easy to understand and would be quick to reference at the table.

Finding time to be creative

Ben Gerber wrote a great article at Troll in the Corner about how to stay creative and focused while still dealing with life's challenges. His suggestions are all good points for GMs, game designers, and freelancers in general to keep in mind. I'm going to try and put some of these into practice. Real Life concerns and responsibilites have been draining my creative spark for quite a while now, as evidenced by my posting history here in the past few months. As we start bringing 2013 to a close, I want to get into a new routine that allows me to do everything that I need to do, while also having energy left for fun hobby projects.

What do you do to maintain your own level of creative output?

Resources for Night's Black Agents - links

A listing of web resources for Night's Black Agents, Ken Hite's RPG of burned spies versus the vampire conspiracy. I'll add more links as I find them.

• Pre-generated characters by Kevin Kulp
• Modified character sheet for paranormal spies by Chris Huth
• List of resources at Pelgrane Press 
• Updated standard character sheet by Chris Huth
• Demo game example (play-by-post)
• (more to follow as I sort through my list)

8th Blogiversary

This past weekend marked the eighth anniversary of this blog. It doesn't seem like so long, yet at the same time, it feels like a worn, comfortable old reading chair that has always been around.

I would like to thank everyone who takes time out of their schedule to read my crude scribblings here and post comments. Feedback is always welcome. With luck, I'm hoping to break out of the creative slump I'm in at the moment and post more original content soon. Two RPG-related reviews are still in the works, and reports from Gen Con will be on the way. I would also like to bring back the Cult Classic of the Week movie reviews.

Kaijuville started as a place to post just for myself and my local gaming groups, and I'm thrilled to have had readers from all over the world -- not counting the spambots. Regarding the statistics, I've had just over 40,700 page views since Blogger started keeping track internally, and closing in on 500 posts. I look forward to many, many more. Thank you!

"Keep watching the skies!"

2013 GM's Jam at Gen Con

16 days to Gen Con! I'm honored to be on the panel for the 2013 GM's Jam, hosted by Zachary Houghton of RPG Blog 2. This free event takes place on Saturday, August 17th from 11am to 12:30pm, in ICC 242. It's a fun opportunity for game masters of any system to talk shop -- discuss problems that happen in games, get advice on planning, and trade your best tips and tricks. I hope to see you there.

Still here

Between the end of one semester, the beginning of another and a vacation in-between (and overlapping), some time has gone by since my last post. I should get back to a more regular schedule soon.

Tomorrow, a look at some important upcoming DVD/Blu-ray releases, and I hope to have two RPG product reviews next week.

Ray Harryhausen was a Magician (including random tables)

(Part of the Ray Harryhausen Blogfest)

Ray Harryhausen was a magician. He took foam rubber and fur wrapped around a wire armature and made it come to life in dozens of feature films and short subjects.

Harryhausen's contributions to visual and photographic effects cannot be overestimated. His pioneering work in refining the art of stop-motion animation over the course of 50 years gave us defining moments in the history of science-fiction and fantasy films. His technical wizardry and attention to detail mark the work of a true professional of the craft. Several generations of film fans, filmmakers, and gamers have been inspired by his creations.

This should have been a story in honor of Ray Harryhausen's 93rd birthday in June. Instead, it is in memoriam for the filmmaker, artist and writer who passed away on Tuesday.

I don't remember the exact first Harryhausen movie that I saw. Many of my early memories of movies as a kid are mixed together. My best guess is that it was 20 Million Miles to Earth, about an alien creature loose in Rome; a late-night showing (9pm?) that my parents let me stay up to watch. I soon began to recognize his work in other movies over many more late nights and Saturday afternoons. They were known as "Harryhausen movies", as his special effects overshadowed the names of producers, directors, and often the actors. I wrote about one particular film, The First Men in the Moon, in this review.

To me, the battle with the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts represents the pinnacle of Harryhausen's talent, even if he would go on to create more intricate models and complicated effects in later films. He spent four months animating the skeleton models, and the amount of synchronization required to match up models to the live actors is still astounding.



Although we can create all manner of wondrous effects, creatures, and whole worlds through the use of computer animation, I feel that sometimes we lose a connection to the real objects, like stop-motion models and the physical sets they inhabit. Their lack of slick perfection make them less polished and more uneven, but more immediate and ultimately, real.



Bonus: Two d12 tables for random Harryhausen monsters in the fantasy role-playing game of your choice.

Small Creatures

1 -A Roc hatchling

2 - Skeletons

3 - Pterodactyl

4 - Giant bee

5 - Harpies

6 - Selenites

7 - A homunculus

8 - Animated ship's figurehead

9 - Centaur

10 - A chess-playing baboon

11 - A mechanical owl

12 - Medusa

Large Creatures

1 - Giant ape

2 - Rhedosaur

3 - Giant octopus

4 - Triceratops

5 - Cyclops

6 - Giant crab

7 - Talos

8 - Hydra

9 - The Avatar of Kali

10 - Griffin

11 - Troglodyte

12 - The Kraken