[RPG] Infiltrating Spike Island...

The Tuesday Knights slipped back into James Bond mode last night, when we resumed Pete's 1980's Top Secret campaign.

As usual there was no hanging around once the gaming portion of our evening began. My character, Barry, got an off-camera bollocking for his trigger-happy role in our last debacle, then it was on to the next mission - Operation: Spike Island.

[Mucho kudos to Pete, our gamesmaster, for the abundance of A3 illustrations he had ready for us, as well as the "mind map" of our briefing (see below), to we could always recall key facts during the assignment.]

We were told how a mysterious woman, known only as Miss J Hollikoff, had purchased Spike Island, off the south coast of Eire (Southern Ireland), attracting the attention of Irish military intelligence G2, who had shared their concerns with our bosses in Orion.

Our briefing included reports of unmarked helicopters arriving and leaving from the island (once a monastery, then a fort, and finally a prison before being sold in 1987 - the year our campaign is set - to Miss Hollikoff), local fishermen being warned away, suspicious Russian-speaking workers from the island coming over to the mainland, strange lights in the buildings at night etc

The mission we were tasked with, as deniable assets, centred on infiltrating the island, investigating whatever was going on there, and if it was illegal - or connected to Web - we were to neutralise it and capture key personnel for further interrogation.

We planned our "assault" in great detail, got our designated equipment, and arrived at the coast for the quarter-of-an-hour journey - under the cover of night - to Spike Island.

Having come ashore, we hid our two rigid-hulled inflatable boats, then followed the route we had chosen on the many maps and images we had of the site.

Scuttling through the darkness we got to the trench around around the historic fort, climbed down, then up the other side (carefully avoiding a lone guard walking the perimeter with a sniffer dog), and got into the building complex.

We made our way round the edge of the derelict part of the old prison to edge of the main building where activity had been spotted.

A couple of Russians (guards?) were heard chatting behind the building, so we had to find an entrance near where we were.

I managed to pry open a window to the kitchen (I knew my criminal background would come in useful and I had a lot to prove after our last mission), then ease it wide enough for everyone to climb through.

[The window squeaked loudly at first, then I used a Luck Point to open it smoothly the rest of the way]

Spike Island Kitchen

Everything was going well until Hermione (Clare's character) slipped climbing through the window and crashed to the floor, alerting the pair of guards.

One walked round the edge of the building into a bullet from Ivy (Erica's character)'s silenced gun and was felled with a single shot.

The other tried the backdoor of the kitchen, near where I was hiding, but then heard his friend collapse and turned to investigate.

I stepped out and tried to shoot him in the back, hitting his gun hand instead.

To cut a long story short, he screamed a lot and it took three or four bullets from both Barry and, eventually, Ivy to take him out of the action.

Bruno (Kevin's character) and Big M (Simon's character) then joined us in helping drag the corpses into the kitchen and hide them in the kitchen cupboards.

To be continued...

The Gifted X-Youngsters Find Themselves In A Different World...

Weird Wednesday...

Weekly World News: This Is How The World Ends, Not With A Bang But A Giggle...

All superheroes (as well as vampire slayers, Time Lords, etc etc) save the world every now and again, so this latest selection of stories from the Weekly World News (and one from the Weekly World Spam, the WWN parody!), are the perfect fodder for creative gamesmasters looking to add a soupçon of next level danger to their campaigns.

Doctor Who Is On A Roll At The Moment...

Must confess, even though there have been some wobbles, this series of Doctor Who (Moffat and Capaldi's last) has really been picking up speed with this current story arc.

Although, is it just me, but I'm sure there have been elements of every story this year that have been definite echoes of events and characters from the Doctor's past - for instance, the upcoming Lie Of The Land looks very similar to the time the Master captured the Tenth Doctor and took over the world, while Martha roamed the planet building a resistance force.

The monks who have been central to this storyline remind me of the prophetess from the Fires Of Pompeii (supposedly where the Doctor 'chose' his current face), the wooden creature in Bill's student digs looked very familiar as well (I thinking of the creatures from The Doctor, The Widow, And The Wardrobe), there have also been cameos from daleks and Movellans, and we know John Simm's iteration of The Master is returning as well as the original cybermen.

But what does it all mean?

[RPG] For Tonight We Game...

Holidays, honeymoons, and business meetings meant this month's gathering of the Tuesday Knights had to be delayed until now.

Tonight, we return to Pete's Top Secret campaign for the aftermath of the unfortunately bloody and chaotic mess our last outing ended up as (mea culpa!).

Hopefully ORION will be willing to let our merry band out on another assignment...

Slowly Mortal Engines Lumbers Into View...

Hester Shaw looks over London

As Peter Jackson's adaptation of Philip Reeve's great book, Mortal Engines, slowly takes form, we are being drip-fed information about the production ahead of its December 14, 2018, premiere.

The latest nugget, from Mr Jackson himself, is this stunning piece of concept art (shown above), depicting Hester Shaw (who will be played by Hera Hilmar, best known to HeroPress readers as Vanessa in Da Vinci's Demons), in her trademark red scarf, looking out over the traction city of London as it (possibly) prepares to devour a small mining town.

The main cast has been confirmed as:

• Robert Sheehan as Tom Natsworthy;
• Hera Hilmar as Hester Shaw;
• Jihae as Anna Fang;
• Hugo Weaving as Thaddeus Valentine;
• Leila George as Katherine Valentine;
• Stephen Lang as Chrysler Peavy;
• Colin Salmon as Chudleigh Pomeroy.

Mortal Engines will be directed by Christian Rivers, from a script by Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, and Fran Walsh.

Celebrating Four Decades Of Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger...

While we are all, quite rightly, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, let's not forget that this year is also the 40th anniversary of another film that had a life-changing impact on 10-year-old me: Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger.

My favourite of the loose trilogy of Ray Harryhausen Sinbad movies (probably because it was the first I saw, and on the big screen), I have written several times in recent years about the major impact this movie had on my early roleplaying life.

While I don't remember whether I saw this before or after Star Wars, I do remember going, with my parents, to see Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger in a double-bill with Lost In The Desert, at a small cinema in Tonbridge that is sadly long gone.

Although I read the novelisation of this Sinbad tale (and still own my well-loved original copy of the book), I think it's fair to say that if this film had received the marketing and merchandising of George Lucas's little space story, Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger would have had an even bigger impact on my geeky life.

Four decades ago, my gaming primarily revolved around endless sessions of Dungeons & Dragons with my near-neighbour in Pembury, Andrew 'Gublin' Patterson.

The first campaign I ran, and played in, was heavily influenced by the voyages of Sinbad, as depicted in The Eye Of The Tiger (including not only my unimaginatively-named character, Sinbad, but also the characters sailing through the ice wall at the edge of the world to find a hidden temple).

When special effects genius Ray Harryhausen died in 2013, I took part in an old school blogfest to celebrate the impact his movies had on the gaming world, and wrote an article about Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger, adding in some Swords & Wizardry statistics for key monsters and magic items.

While, Ray's work - and the Sinbad movies - never directly touched my parallel love of comic books and superheroes at the time (it was many, many years later that I discovered comic book adaptations of the Sinbad stories), it's fair to say I wouldn't be the gamer I am today without the influence of Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger at such a tender, impressionable, age.

It laid the groundwork for all future fantasy games I either played in or ran, whether that influence ever overtly manifested itself at the table or not.

Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger's 40th anniversary is the subject of the latest Ray Harryhausen Podcast from The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation.

Foundation trustee John Walsh and collections manager Connor Heaney discuss the film and its legacy in depth, in an hour-and-a-quarter show that includes previously unreleased commentary clips of special effects gurus Ray Harryhausen and Colin Arthur discussing their behind-the-scenes memories.

The episode also includes reminiscences from Ray’s daughter, Vanessa Harryhausen, as she recalls her time spent on the set of the movie, and her feelings for it all these decades later.

Musical Monday: Wonder Woman Theme (Tina Guo)

Final Trailer For Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets...

Another Pair Of Amazing Spider-Man - Homecoming Trailers

A Little Bit Of Politics...

Rare Earth: Sengakuji - Where They Buried The Soul Of Japan...

The first instalment of a new online series, Rare Earth, documenting "the stories that aren't being told, but deserve to be seen", from "the chemical weapons of the Uzbek Aral Sea to the Buddhist untouchables of Japan".

"The first thing we wanted to focus on in Japan is found at Sengakuji, a temple in the south of Tokyo whose graveyard harbours a very important story: the 47 Ronin. In many ways, it is the foundational legend of Japan. If nothing else, it is a testament to sustaining one's duty in the face of hardship, illegality, and fear."

DVD Of The Week: Jupiter Ascending (2014)

Never listen to film critics! I was all poised to pick Jupiter Ascending up when it came out on Blu-Ray, but when the movie was released it was met with a tide of scathing reviews that made me reconsider my investment.

I finally purchased it the other week (admittedly a lot cheaper than on its original release) and discovered that the critics had been unnecessarily harsh on it.

Written and directed by the Wachowskis, I can see that Jupiter Ascending might be an acquired taste, with its shifting tones and episodic nature this is space opera with a heavy dose of fairy tale.

But it was a taste I very quickly acquired.

Mila Kunis stars as Jupiter Jones, the daughter of a Russian refugee, working in her impoverished family's cleaning business, who finds herself drawn into the grand machinations of a feuding family of super-rich extraterrestrial nobles fighting over the ownership of Earth.

Grand ideas, beautifully-realised alien races, starships, space stations etc all provide the backdrop for the fairy tale romance between the "princess" (Jupiter Jones) and "huntsman" (satyr-like Caine Wise, played by Channing Tatum) on their picaresque journey through this 'new' universe, like a spin on The Odyssey mixed in with a large serving of Ancient Aliens.

The layered script bombards its audience with brilliant ideas; as well as learning the true history of the human race, the film throws out explanations for crop circles, the importance of bees, and much more.

Each of the three alien sibling nobles tries to court Jupiter in their own segment of the story. This is interwoven with other sub-plots such as the Brazil-like stop at a bureaucratic space-station where Jupiter is put through an ordeal by red tape to claim her rightful inheritance (this sequence even features, rather knowingly, a cameo by Terry Gilliam).

Accentuating the alienness of the humanoid antagonists, there is a lot of very mannered delivery - such as Eddie Redmayne's whispering turn as the main villain of the piece, Balem Abrasax - but I loved it, simply because it was so odd.

Jupiter Ascending is weird and wonderful, overflowing with innovation, and highly stylised in a manner very akin to that found in the two Guardians Of The Galaxy movies (although, admittedly, darker and without the constant flow of humour).

I'd hoped I would - finally - like this film once I got to see it, I just didn't expect it to speak to me as it did, touching on so many concepts I love to have rattling round in my head as fodder for my gaming.

Even the denouement, which I initially found a bit peculiar given everything that had gone before, I eventually realised was simply adopting a well-worn comic book trope of the superhero's secret identity (this was Superman putting on the glasses and returning to his life as Clark Kent, the mild manner reporter).

The main fault I found with the film was a technical one - because of the huge variation in sound levels, between some of the dialogue and the bombastic effects, I kept having to reach for the volume control, alternating between ensuring I could hear what was going on and not annoying the neighbours too much with the sounds of massive space battles.

Faith Headlines Her Own Time-Travel Tale...

In my new-found love affair with Valiant Comics, one of the characters that has really stood out for me is the good-hearted geek Faith Herbert aka Zephyr.

I've been catching up on her exploits in her on-going title, but was delighted to hear she's also getting a self-contained, time travel-fuelled, mini-series, Faith And The Future Force.

This story kicks off in July and you can read more about it on the Valiant website here.

Gone & Forgotten Is Most Wanted...

Knowing my deep-felt love of Villains & Vigilantes, Internet Tomfoolery writer Al Bruno III (creator of The Night Blogger serial and podcast) has drawn to my attention a recent article on the Gone & Forgotten site, which  casts a wry eye over obscure items of superhero and comic book lore.

The site had decided to take a crass, but loving, look at several of the more outré characters created for Most Wanted, Vol 3, a Villains & Vigilantes source published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1985.

This old RPG supplement features some of the first published artwork by Patrick Zircher, before he went on to make his name illustrating comics for DC and Marvel.

Weekly World News: "I'm Not Saying It's Aliens, But It's Aliens!"

Alongside Bat Boy, aliens have been a popular fixture of the Weekly Worlds News since its inception and here's just a small serving of the wild stories about extraterrestrials that have graced its pages.

All of these are prime fodder for the enterprising gamesmaster of contemporary campaigns that happen to be open to a bit of outside interference.

Alien races, for instance, form a key part of the backstory to my own Knight City setting.

As a additional source of inspiration for those thinking of including aliens in their games, there's a recent article over on RPG.Net about this very subject, which provides a useful check-list of points to consider.

It Was Ten Years Ago Today That Rachel & I Tied The Knot...

My Favourite Family Portrait...

Ten years ago today, Rachel and I were married in a Star Wars-flavoured wedding at Salomons - a Victorian mansion in Southborough, between Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

There hasn't been a day since then that I haven't counted myself incredibly lucky to have found such an amazingly caring, loving, and patient person as Rachel, who continues to put up with (and even, occasionally, encourage) my various eccentricities.

We will be celebrating this landmark this week (as well as Alice's third birthday), so posting might be a bit light. for a few days.

Don't forget today is also, appropriately, Geek Pride Day - being the anniversary of the original release of Star Wars (as mentioned earlier) as well as international Towel Day (celebrating the life and works of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy author Douglas Adams).

Today Is The 40th Anniversary Of The Opening Of Star Wars...

Like many younglings of my generation, Star Wars spoke to me in ways other movies never did.

People often talk about being "blown away" the first time they saw the Imperial Star Destroyer rumble into shot during the opening sequence of Star Wars.

It didn't have that effect on me - for me it was totally normal; in my 10-year-old mind's eye that's what spaceships had always looked like. This was space stuff as it always should have been!

My dad took me to see Star Wars when it first came out and it was one of those rare films that really bridged the age gap.

From seeing Star Wars on the big screen, with my dad, in 1977 a fanboy was born.

I started a scrap book (cover pictured below) of Star Wars newspaper and magazine articles, along with the "Who's Who"s from the black-and-white British Star Wars comics, and a strange diagram of the Death Star trench.

As well as hordes of bubblegum cards and a handful of action figures (I mainly remember Han Solo and Darth Vader); my collecting mania had begun.

More importantly, I wrote voraciously.

Since primary school I'd filled spare exercise books with rambling Earth-centric science-fiction and action stories, but now they took on epic, space opera qualities, filled with alien planets and strange creatures, inspired by George Lucas and his masterpiece.

Somehow I knew, albeit subconsciously, that this was a film unlike any other. A phenomenon. And the world would never be the same again.

Almost four decades later and George Lucas' creation is still impacting my life.

Even though Rachel isn't a fan and it was actually a total co-incidence that we were married on May 25, 2007 (the 30th anniversary of the opening of Star Wars), we still had The Imperial March as Rachel's bridal music and she had secretly arranged for 'Darth Vader' to act as ring bearer.

At the time, Paul (my best man) was working as Assistant Editor of New Consumer magazine and so our wedding earned a mention in their promotional material for 'alternative' weddings (as a faux new report video).

The table names for the wedding breakfast were all planets from the Saga (the head table was Cosuscant) and our cake topper was this delightful tiny replica of myself as Han Solo and Rachel as Princess Leia. They still have pride-of-place in the dinning room cabinet display, along with a number of Star Wars-themed Mr Potato Heads (Darth Tater, Spudtrooper etc)!

In my world, Star Wars surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the Galaxy together; it is such a part of my life, of who I am, it connects me to my late father, it is woven into the fabric of my wedding and continues to be a major factor in fandom/collecting/gaming etc

Superhero DVD Of The Week: Teen Titans - The Judas Contract (2017)

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, while my beloved Fantastic Four introduced young me to the concept of superheroes and comics, it was the legendary Wolfman/Perez run on The New Teen Titans that turned me into a serious collector.

And The Judas Contract arc from that run was the first comic book tale to have a deeper emotional impact on me - beyond sheer, breathless, excitement. It was a genuinely upsetting read for teenage me.

So, I came to the latest DC Comics' animated movie, released this week over here and based on that powerful story, with a lot of baggage and a degree of trepidation as to whether it would live up to my high expectations.

But I needn't have fretted. Teen Titans: The Judas Contract is not only the finest of this range of animated films to date, but an incredible tribute to the Wolfman/Perez original classic.

Its backstory updated to fit into the animated movie continuity (e.g. the addition of Damien Wayne and the new Blue Beetle), the film is a marvellous character-driven examination of the interpersonal relationships of this group of young superheroes, the dynamics of family, and the importance of trust, as well as a cracking superhero yarn in its own right.

The Teen Titans are investigating a sinister cult, led by the immortal and deranged Brother Blood (voiced by Gregg Henry) and its links to the villainous H.I.V.E. organisation, little realising they - in turn - are being surveilled by Blood's agent, the mercenary Deathstroke (voiced by the late, great, Miguel Ferrer), for his own ends.

Even though his motivation isn't quite as layered as it was in the comics. Deathstroke stands out as a most amoral, manipulative, asshole, a disturbing and arrogant supervillain for the ages, thanks to Ferrer's performance; the super-assassin's relationship with his young protégé being particularly unnerving and despicable.

The film also boasts an incredible - and perfect - voice cast as the Titans themselves, including Wednesday Addams aka Christina Ricci as Tara Markov; Firefly's Sean Maher as Nightwing; From Dusk Til Dawn's Brandon Soo Hoo as Beast Boy; American Horror Story's Taissa Farmiga as Raven; and Kari Wahlgren as Starfire.

And yes, its climax - even though I knew it was coming - was almost as big an emotional gut punch as in the source material.

Teen Titans: The Judas Contract is a spectacular addition to DC Comics' growing animated canon (after a couple of less than impressive outings) that has, hopefully, set a new standard for their output.