Primetime Adventures – Critical Mass

The premise of this Primetime Adventure series is a group of super villains who escape from a maximum security facility. Because of the nature of the genre, theyknow they are going to be caught, but they have five episodes to resolve their conflicts before they are back in custody.

Pilot – Critical Mass

Cast
The Scarlet Killer – A villain with the ability to mesmerize his opponents with a cloud of red dust, his brutal methods quickly brought him to the attention of authorities
Stoneman – With a body of stone, not many normal methods could stop Stoneman from taking what he wanted, but with a little super help, he was quickly stopped
The Acrobat – Her supernatural agility allowed the Acrobat to accomplish what normal people could not, that included some spectacular burglaries
Hell’s Blade – Her ability to spontaneously produce blades of varying shapes and sizes meant that Hell’s Blade was a dangerous foe and was always armed

Opening Scene
Inner City: The four villains huddle in an abandoned warehouse, plotting their next move. Their escape hasn’t been discovered yet, but they know they don’t have much time.

Notes: I’m not overly fond of the opening scene, I think there is a better way to open the series, but it’s what I came up with off the top of my head. I’ll do a bit of brainstorming and come up with a better scene.

More Ninja Scroll

I’ve been watching a couple episodes of Ninja Scroll in a row now. I have to say that I love the animation. I’m honestly not quite sure what type of animation it is (I’m guessing it is CGI), but I really like the way they’ve implemented it. The colors and the lines are absolutely beautiful.

I don’t feel like the story telling is quite up to par with my enjoyment of the animation style. The story isn’t bad, but it doesn’t grip me from episode to episode. It seems like most of the episodes so far are mostly showcases for the crazy mutant ninjas. Which I also have to admit are quite inventive.

I think in a 13 episode series you have to get to the story right away and they have done that with Ninja Scroll, but the story isn’t that strong.

So far, I’m enjoying the series, but it’s unlikely to remain a long time favorite.

Ranma 1/2, Ninja Scroll, and other non-anime related stuff

I finished up the first season set of Ranma 1/2. It’s 18 episodes, and I found that I really enjoyed it. And when I reflected on it a bit, I realized that I wanted to see the entire series, even though I knew it didn’t have an ending and that there were some bad bits in there. I thought I would give it a whirl so I put the remainder of Ranma 1/2 on order through RightStuf. I can’t wait for it to arrive.

In the meantime, I thought I’d occupy my anime craving with a series I’ve had sitting on the shelf for a while, Ninja Scroll the TV Series. I’ve watched about 2.5 episodes and so far, so good. I don’t think it’s a series that I will keep around after I’m done watching it, but that serves me right for purchasing it.

Another series I’ve been looking forward to getting is Samurai Seven. One of these days I’ll spring for it and be done with it. I’d like to clear out some of the other stuff I have on my shelf first. I have enough anime at this time to keep me watching for the rest of the year non-stop.

I finished reading Primetime Adventures and even got a chance to explain it to some of my gaming group. It looks like a lot of fun, even thought it would be a big departure from our normal RPG stomping grounds, I think a couple of sessions and we’d all be into it. The game seems ripe for a lot of crazy ideas. I have a couple of ideas for series that would fit perfectly into the game at this time. My personal favorite is a reality show that has a serial killer stalking the cast in a reportedly haunted mansion.

We played another session of Warhammer Fantasy RPG. A cool game. There isn’t a lot of the crunch to the system, which I think is a good thing for our fledgling GM. The setting is quite vibrant and can really be brought to life if the players take the time to explore the world outside the game session. The novels and comic books all help to paint a very clear picture of a dark fantasy world.

I started reading the second novel in the Blackhearts trilogy set in the Warhammer universe. It’s good solid fantasy fiction. Some of the conceits in the story get stretched a bit thin (Franz’ story and the mythological ratmen), but beyond that, it’s fun stuff. It reads very fast and is easy to digest. I picked up two other Warhammer univer trilogies that could be a lot of fun. My only conflict at this time is whether or not to bring them with me to Austin and plow through them.

The Algebraist is kind of fizzling out for me. It’s a good novel, not the best written, but good enough. I think the revelation of a big secret in the first third of the novel might have interrupted the mood of the story. I am always waiting for the other shoe to drop on the secret and it just doesn’t quite deliver. I’m just over 1/3 of the way through it, but I don’t know if I’ll finish it. I’d like to struggle through, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. I might take another whack at it and see if I can finish up half of it. If it fails to capture me at that point, then I’ll give it up.

Poking Around

I was just poking around the Internet this morning and found what looks to be a very cool RPG. 1632 by Battlefield Press, Inc. This looks like a very cool RPG book tie-in that I can get behind. It’s entirely likely that this will be my next RPG purchase. The historical flavor of it has me intrigued enough to read the books.

I think there is a lot of potential out there for historcally-based RPGs. The downside is that they require a great deal of time and effort to actually pull off. There are several periods throughout history that would be fascinating to roleplay. I can think of a couple right now that I would be interested in:
- Cold War 1950s-1960s, this would be a game covering a couple of key cities in the Cold War, Berlin, London, Washington DC, Moscow, etc.
- 11th-12th century Europe around the time of the start of the First Crusades
- 5th-6th century Europe during the fall of the Roman Empire

Those are just a couple of examples that I think could make really interesting role playing games.

A first post, first information

My new personal blog. I’m going to update this every week with game stuff, possibly other media too. I won’t have a lot of pictures to post in here, but I may put some, along with some of my personal drawings.

First up, some fun stuff from Convergence 2009. I picked up three CDs from the convention.

“One More Round” and “Home Brew – Special Edition” from 3 Pints Gone. You can find them here:

“The Return of the Norfolk Regiment” by Lemming Malloy. You can find them at:

3 Pints Gone is a great Renaissance Festival music trio. They put on a great show.

Lemming Malloy was an interesting steampunk inspired alt-rock band. A good sound with some interesting flourishes that push them into the realm of unique. I don’t think they are for everyone, but if you think you might like alt-rock with a prominent keyboardist and unique song topics, they might be for you.

In my personal wargaming news, I’m putting in an order for This Terrible Sound (RSS series from the Gamers) and Burma (OCS series from The Gamers). This will top off my wargaming collection for the time being. I think I might give Halls of Montezuma another shot. I have a good idea of the strategy I want to adopt for each side, so that should help with some of the focus issues I’ve had in previous games.

My games of Three Battles of Manassas (CWB series from The Gamers) and A Fearful Slaughter (RSS series from The Gamers) are going well. We’re about to start in on the Second Battle of Manassas. Playing the Battle of Shiloh in A Fearful Slaughter is interesting. I’m playing the CSA and pushing hard on the Union, but as usual, some of my morale roles are proving to be more dangerous than any bullet.