Favourite video-game end music? Sure, Portal’s “Still Alive” is in everybody’s Top 3 (and mine too) but years before that, the amazing Homeworld ended with 9 minutes of brilliant epic prog-rock, courtesy of YES… my introduction to this legendary band’s discography. Love it.
The Stochastic Game
Ramblings of General Geekery
The last of the Harn kingdom books is out on Kickstarter! This is Evael, home to the Sindarin, aka the elves of Harn who (plot twist) used to be great allies of the dwarves, and that gives a funny in-world reason for having fairytale-looking castles there!
Since I received various messages about it, when I said the other day that RuneQuest is the “worst system to play in Glorantha”, I meant “worst design among the officially published Gloranthan games”. You can surely have very fun RQ games (I did). Do I need to write a “system matters” post?
My thoughts go to that house in my neighbourhood that, every morning for the past week, when I walk past it with the dog around 8AM, has a woodpecker perched on it, pecking happily and LOUDLY at the side wall.
“Conclave” would have benefited from more clever, intricate, and less predictable plot and dialogue, but what it lacks there it makes up in interesting points about religious faith, great acting, and gorgeous set design.
The Wailing makes rural South Korea look both beautiful and horrifying. It expertly goes through, like, 5 different film genres, comments on East-Asian folklore versus Catholic faith, all while being scary. I’m not a fan of the end twists but it’s still a great movie.
TTRPG about me (it’s hard to pick…)
- First: The Dark Eye
- Last: Pendragon
- Longest: Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green, or RuneQuest (not sure)
- Favourite game: Delta Green
- Favourite mechanics: GURPS, YZE, TOON, Amber
- Favourite setting: Glorantha, Harn
- Favourite art: MERP, Maskwitches, Petersen’s Field Guide to Creatures of the Dreamlands
My hot take on the current RuneQuest/Glorantha discourse is, of course, that RuneQuest is the worst system you can use to play in Glorantha, and that I don’t know why Chaosium sunk so much money into it when they have much better ones on hand.
Some Notes on Brindlewood Bay
When Brindlewood Bay came out it seemed to become an immediate darling of my TTRPG circles. Being a fan of both the Cthulhu Mythos and TV series like Murder She Wrote, Columbo, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and more, I figured that “old ladies investigating murders that lead into cosmic horror” sounded totally like my jam! Plus, there was some promise of a “novel take” on investigation games! So, as is tradition, I backed some Kickstarter, and waited to receive the books.
That’s how, back in 2024, I ran my Friday group through a handful of cozy mysteries from both the basic Brindlewood Bay book and the Nephews In Peril supplement. Here are some notes about how that went!
The Ugly Stepsister is a brilliant retelling of the Cinderella story, refocused on the titular stepsister and changed into a beautifully shot body-horror black comedy about living up to beauty standards in a patriarchal society. Loved it.
