Fiendish Gamma World Folio

As I mentioned a little while back, I went through the AD&D Fiend Folio for creatures that might work well in a Gamma World game. I was not disappointed. There are a lot of weirdos in there that I would probably never use in D&D but fit right in a GW game. 

The list of creatures that made the cut are: 

Achaierai

Algoid

Babbler

Blindheim

Bloodworm, Giant

Bonesnapper

Caterwaul

Clubnek

Dire Corby

Doombat

Dragonfish

Eye Killer

Fire Newt

Fire Toad

Frost Man

Garbug

Gorillabear

Gryph

Hoarfox

Jaculi

Kamadan

Mantari

Needleman

Osquip

Pernicon

Quaggoth

Qullan

Skulk

Tentamort

Thork

Tirapheg

Volt

Witherstench

 

I also decided, since I was statting up GW creatures, to add Slow Mutants, lobstrosities, and taheen from Stephen King's Dark Tower books. 

 

There were a few FF creatures that almost made it. I originally put them on my list to convert, but on a closer reading (or just on a gut feeling) decided not to include after all. These were the: 

Crabman

Death Dog (I used these too often in my D&D games)

Dunestalker 

Giant Strider

Meenlock

Quipper

Rothe

Stunjelly

Throat Leech

Umpleby

Vodyanoi

Whipweed

Witherweed

Recent Viewing and Reading

 I've taken a bit of a break from running and playing RPGs. While I sort out how I want to begin my new game, which will be face to face instead of online, and my friend Denis preps for his new online Gamma World game, I haven't had much urge to run my West Marches or Star Wars games. I may not run WM again anyway (as I think I mentioned), but I will get some more SW gaming going once things settle down a bit. Anyway, it's summer vacation time. People have been going on vacations or are just busy with other stuff recently anyway (including me!). 

 I have been doing a lot of reading and viewing the past several weeks. Here's a little run-down of what I've been consuming and how well I liked it. 

Thor: Love and Thunder

I was going to do a proper review post, but it's been almost 2 weeks since I saw it already. So I'll start with that here. T:L&T is much more of a Taika Waititi film than Thor: Ragnarok was, if that makes sense. It's a bit goofier, a bit more rambling, and definitely off-beat. It's not quite as good as Ragnarok was. It's got good action sequences. Funny jokes (although many are forced or silly throw-away gags). Some emotional scenes. I think it falls a bit flat in that it could gotten much more emotional by investing more in Jane's and Gorr's story arcs, which were more interesting than Thor's. Thor is his own comedy relief in this movie, instead of letting Banner/Hulk and Korg take care of that. It's still a fun adventure movie, but I think it sacrificed some of the emotional strength it could have had for interesting but ultimately silly situations. 

That said, I am enjoying the recent trend in the MCU movies to let the directors put their stamp on their films. Eternals felt different. Black Widow felt different. Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness felt different. Shang Chi felt pretty typical, but it was full of cool magical martial arts action. Thor: L&T also felt different. I think that's a good thing for the MCU, even if it doesn't always work out.

The Boys Season 3 (Amazon Prime Video)

I semi binged the season. It continues to entertain, but something about this season felt like going through the motions. Sure, they introduced Soldier Boy and dealt with that plot thread by the end of the season. But almost all of the other continuing plot points were just punted down the line. I'm not sure how many seasons they're planning for this show, but if season 4 continues this trend, I may be done watching it. Unlike a monthly comic book, I don't think it's a good idea to have this sort of TV show go on forever. 

Stranger Things Season 4 (Netflix)

Oh my God! This season rocked. More prominent D&D! Some cool new characters, like Eddie Munson (the DM) and Argyle (the stoner) and Jason (the dickhead jock). Homages to Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, other mid to late 80s horror franchises. Kate Bush and Metallica!!! The Russia side plot was a bit silly, much like the Russians in Indiana side plot of season 3, but other than that it was gold. Looking forward for the series finale in Season 5.

 Ms. Marvel (Disney+)

This should be the future of the MCU! This show was so good. It had heart. It had charm. It had everything you'd want from a bildungsroman hero show. The actors made you feel not just like you were watching real people deal with real situations, they made you really love their (extended to include friends) family. The plot had its "save the world" bit, but it wasn't the primary conflict and wasn't hyped as some sort of DC style "Crisis." Best MCU Disney+ show to date.

Dune (2021)

My older boy, out of nowhere (probably something he saw on YouTube or heard from a friend in one of his Discord groups) suddenly asked me the other day if we could watch this. I missed it when it was in theaters in Korea (because of covid-19 and a full schedule, and because Flynn said he didn't want to see it when I asked him then). Anyway, we watched it together. It was pretty good. It's been quite a few years since I read the novel or seen the Lynch film or the Sci Fi mini-series versions, but it was close enough to what I remembered that I could explain the strange bits to him. I enjoyed it. We're looking forward to part 2 next year (and will see it in the theaters!), but I can't say it blew me away. Flynn loved it, though, saying he enjoyed it more than anything Star Wars. 

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+)

Speaking of Star Wars, this was a pretty cool little show. Yeah, it bent the established canon a bit, but it did its best to try and rectify things that happened in the prequels, the original trilogy, and in this show itself. And it was cool to see both Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen together again. And more Darth Vader is never a bad thing. There were a few weird things that didn't quite make sense, but it was definitely a step up from The Book of Boba Fett (which I also enjoyed). Decent quality Star Wars fare, and I really don't see what all the incel/racist types were complaining about. But then they'll complain about just about everything on this list no matter what, so screw them anyway.

Stephen King's The Dark Tower series

I've read this series through several times, and I'm currently re-reading it (in the middle of the final volume). If you've read it all the way to the end, well, what Roland the Gunslinger finds at the top of the Dark Tower pretty much demands that you re-read the series. Ka is a wheel, and it keeps on spinning. The impetus for this re-reading was that I finally picked up a copy of volume I The Gunslinger in hardback. I'd been lucky enough to score a limited 1st Edition hardback of Wizard and Glass back when it came out, and then got first editions of the final three books when they came out as well. A few months back I treated myself to a hardback copy of The Gunslinger (unfortunately not a first edition, it's the revised version, and sans the Whelan illustrations). Then I figured I might as well get hardback copies of The Drawing of the Three and The Waste Lands. Once I had all these hard copies (including The Wind Through the Keyhole), I figured it was time to read them again. And I'm enjoying it a lot, although I've been dreading a certain scene which I'm approaching quickly. When I finished reading this morning to come to work, the ka-tet were about to assault Algul Siento. This dread of re-reading this coming section of the work has been with me since my re-read of The Waste Lands, and it really puts a new spin on my take on the thing. Anyway, long story short (and without spoilers), this series still has what it takes to move me. 

Daredevil Season 1, Episode 1 (formerly Netflix, now Disney+)

All the former Netflix MCU "Defenders" related shows finally went up on Korean Disney+. They'd been off Netflix (and available to US D+ subscribers) for a while. Anyway, I noticed that they were finally up, so re-watched the first episode the other day to see if I'd want to revisit them. I really enjoyed Charlie Cox's take on Daredevil, and I'm glad they're keeping him (and Vincent D'onofrio as Kingpin) in the MCU. Flynn is interested in finally watching these shows, but Steven is still a bit young.  Maybe. Fururama is also now available on Korean Disney+, and that's a bit more family friendly!

A rose, a key, a door, a revolver (March Madness, Day 27)

27 What IP (=Intellectual Property, be it book, movie or comic) that doesn’t have an RPG deserves it? Why?

Stephen King's Dark Tower novels.

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”

How evocative is that? Add in vast tracts of desert, a tough kid from late 70's New York, succubi/incubi, slow mutants, a wise-ass heroin addict, lobstrosities, heroin kingpins, sadomasochistic psychopaths, a multiple personality disorder demure civil rights lawyer/foul-mouthed cracker-hating nymphomaniac, giant cyborg bears, irradiated wastelands, deranged AI trains, The Wizard of Oz, Marvel comics, Star Wars, vampires, an evil organization dedicated to using psychic slaves to destroy the world, robot banditos, references to many of King's earlier and subsequent works, universe-hopping doorways, cthuloid horrors, evil crystal balls, cowboy knights-errant, Randall Flagg, six-guns forged from Excalibur, IT, and at the end of the path, in End World, surrounded by a vast field of roses called Kan'-ka No Rey, that tall black twisting spire, the Dark Tower itself.

An abstract map of a world where time and space have come unglued

Talk about a kitchen sink RPG! It's a Western post-apocalyptic sci fi fantasy horror transdimensional setting.

I had plans way back when (when King was finally finishing up the series) of running it with a mishmash of d20 system source books. These days, if I were to run it, and there wasn't a dedicated game for the setting, I'd run a mishmash of OSR stuff (Labyrinth Lord, Stars Without Number, Go Fer Yer Gun, Mutant Future).

The game could definitely benefit from a dedicated system/rule book. Mr. King, are you reading this? Or your agent? You've successfully marketed the series in book and comic book format, with talk of TV and/or movie deals. How about an RPG?

And really, this seems to me like a great setting for an RPG. Got just about any sort of character concept? Well, there are doors between all sorts of worlds. And the ruined mess that is Mid-World is ripe with adventure.

Mid-World Adventures

My birthday present arrived a week early, so I've been reading Stephen King's addition to his Dark Tower series, The Wind Through the Keyhole the past few evenings.  The DT series is one of my favs, and really the only stuff by King I've read in the past decade has been those books and a few related works.

And since I'd always wanted to run a game set in the DT universe, my mental gears have been churning away at ideas. 

Many years ago, I thought of using d20Modern/Future/Past/Apocalypse to make it work.

Now, I think Labyrinth Lord as the base set, Go Fer Yer Gun for PC classes, and Mutant Future for additional monsters and artifacts.  It could work.

The man in black fled across the desert...

...and the gunslinger followed.

If you're like me, and you're a fan of Stephen King's Dark Tower books, you likely heard this news already. They're making it into a series of both films and TV series.

While they don't need me to tell them what to do, here's how I'd actually break it all down:

1st Feature Film: Cover events in The Gunslinger
1st Season TV: Cover The Drawing of the Three and The Waste Lands, plus the beginning of Wizard and Glass (up to the big palaver)
2nd Feature Film: Cover Roland's past from Wizard and Glass and the showdown with Flagg
2nd Season TV: Cover Wolves of the Calla, Song of Suzannah, and the first part of The Dark Tower (up to the raid on Algul Siento)
3rd Feature Film: Conclude The Dark Tower

That would cut and condense a lot of stuff, but it seems to me like a better way to break it up than what's suggested in the article I lined to above (which seems to say The Waste Lands would be the 2nd movie, and Wizard and Glass would be the 2nd TV season, with the final three books crammed into the final movie).

Anyway, if anyone working on this project happens to come across this blog, you're welcome to the idea.