The movie, huh? And TS&R Updates

So it's been 10 days since my last post. I figure I should put something up here on the old blog. But I don't have a lot to say about gaming at the moment. 

My last Star Wars session (on the 12th) went really well. They managed to avoid some of the complications and finish everything I'd prepped in just that one session. They did some pre-planning before the session started, and that allowed me to get some of the fiddly logistics out of the way (ship upgrades, droid purchases, trading the Inquisitor's shuttle for a Z-95 Headhunter to run escort for their YT-1300 freighter, etc.) before the session started. Then they managed to leverage their various skills to slip through an Imperial blockade, pick up a group of Mandalorians including an armorer who could forge the beskar steel they found in the previous game, and then run a con with the blockade just long enough to plot a course into hyperspace and jump out seconds before getting intercepted by TIE Fighters and engaged with by Star Destroyer long range guns. They got the Mandos to the 4th Moon of Bogden (where once upon a time Jango Fett was hired to be a clone donor), and after a run-in with a pair of pickpockets running a damsel in distress con, got their weapons/armor upgraded in thanks. Mandalore has been destroyed in the Night of 1000 Tears though, so that will have some ramifications going forward in the game. 

I've been watching The Mandalorian season 3, and liking it so far. It's a bit different feel than the previous two seasons, but so far I'm interested in what they'll do with the story now. Also, season 2 of the Bad Batch, which is not quite as interesting as season 1 was. Maybe it will pick up in the final few episodes? 

I had originally planned to wait and binge watch season 3 of Star Trek Picard. Season 2 was so-so, so I hadn't been too eager for it, despite knowing that most of the TNG cast would be appearing. But then I heard some good buzz from friends, so started in on it. It's definitely better than S1 or S2 so far, but the whole "dark and gritty" tone of modern Trek, and the emphasis on trying to tell cool stories rather than interesting (pseudo) scientific stories, just doesn't work as well for me. Maybe I should start in on Strange New Worlds. I haven't watched any of that yet, but I hear it's more like classic Trek. 

And on the movie side of things, Shazam 2 is out, but we haven't seen it yet. I really liked the first Shazam. It's the best DCEU film. But we were busy this past weekend with a lot of stuff, so it's still on the to-watch list. And the D&D movie seems to be out in the US, at least in some markets. I've seen people posting about it on Facebook. But it's not out in Korea yet. We'll definitely go see it. It looks fun, and from what I've been reading on social media, it's a decent adventure comedy film, although not so "D&D" other than a lot of fan service thrown in. 

Back to gaming, other than Star Wars, I'm still working on my TS&R Ruby books. The players book could be released as is, but I think I should read over it one more time. I always find a few small mistakes. Also, I don't have any equipment illustrations like the Jade book has, but then the Jade book's ones are my poorly hand-drawn efforts, so maybe it's just as well without it.

I'm almost done formatting the Ruby Bestiary & Treasury as well. It's got even more monsters than the Jade book (over 400, compared to 350+ in Jade), but more of them are familiar to D&D players. Still, I've managed, while formatting for space and illustrations, to find space to plug in a few more monsters, so there are some new things in there. Both of these books will also be pay-what-you-want titles when I get them ready. B&T just needs a reworking of the random encounter tables, as the ones I had before included a lot of monsters that are only in Jade, and I might want to put a few of the late entries in there as well. Once the random encounter tables are done, the book is ready. 

Editing/revising/formatting the Ruby books also helped me find a few mistakes in the Jade books, so I'll likely be updating those soon as well. I'll let everyone know here on the blog, and via DriveThru when the updated versions have been uploaded.

Coronacation Benefits

My university's semester started on Monday, two weeks late. We're teaching online only for the first month, maybe more. It depends on the COVID-19 epidemic. Korea seems to be getting it under control, but there could be more flare-ups. For the last two days, I've been working from home. And since I have this week's online lessons done, that means a bit of planning for next week's lessons, some paperwork, and answering student emails/checking assignments as they come in.

In the meantime, I've been doing some mini painting. I started up again at the end of last year. Since I've been back I've gotten a fair amount done. In fact, on Sunday I finished up the last of the minis I'd primed back in November. So yesterday I primed a bunch more.

These are all 22mm minis from Caesar. It's a mix of three of their sets, Adventurers, Elves, and Dwarves. I've already painted two of them, the fully armored knight and the most Legolas of the elves. Painted both to look more feminine, since I have plenty of females in my West Marches game, and never enough female minis (one of the other packs, of which half the figures were painted in round 1, is Amazons for this reason). I'll probably paint one or two more this evening.

In addition, my son has been doing an online learning program (since before the coronavirus outbreak hit the US) and started in on the high school science program. Learning about space, we've been talking a lot (the Big Bang, the size of the universe, Fermi's Paradox). While discussing Fermi's Paradox, I mentioned the Prime Directive. And that got him...both boys, actually...curious about Star Trek. I sent them to Netflix to start watching TOS.

That also got ME watching TOS again! I've watched three episodes today. It's curious to me how few of the 1st season episodes I remember. When I was in jr. high and high school, one of the local channels syndicated The Next Generation and aired it 10:30 on Saturday nights (and yes, there were often arguments about watching Trek or SNL!), and then the original series after it at 11:30. And for a while, the Friday the 13th The Series after that at 12:30. Unless the syndication system left out some episodes, I'm sure I've seen every one of them. But quite a few just don't jog my memory. I just watched "Miri" and I couldn't remember seeing that one before at all. Maybe I'm just getting old.

And I guess I should be watching some Star Wars, not Star Trek, because I plan to run d6 Star Wars again on Friday. :D

Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation

I finished Stranger Things season 3, and got back to watching old episodes of Star Trek on Netflix. I'd watched the first 3 (the 2-part pilot and the one where they all get 'drunk' and Data & Yar get it on) a few months ago, and for the past few days I've been watching more. It's interesting to see how in the first few episodes, the planet scenery was very evocative of TOS planet sets, but even just 7 episodes in, they've already improved the sets and effects.

The scripts are so far hit or miss. I think it probably will remain so for this season. I'd forgotten that the Ferengi were introduce so early in the series. Quark and family were such a big part of DS9 and I hadn't seen these older TNG episodes for so long that it had completely slipped my mind that they were an early addition to this series.

Tasha Yar's death should be coming up soon. It was a real shocker when the season first aired. She was one of my favorites back then. Yes, teenage me thought she was hot. Now, I'm really finding her to be not such the compelling character. She had potential, with her background as coming from a colony that had devolved into barbarism with rape gangs, which she escaped from. But it's not delved into deeply enough, and the character gets killed off before they really can.

It's not like they've really fleshed out ANY of the characters yet, other than Picard. It's forming, I can see it, but the writers were obviously working things out as they went, trying things to see what worked, and probably the actors were interpreting the scripts in interesting ways that the writers later picked up on and rolled with.

Still, despite a few wonky scripts and some cheesy sets/effects, these early episodes are holding up fairly well in my estimation.

Movie Review: Star Trek Beyond

I was turned off of Abrams Trek by Star Trek Into Darkness, but I'd heard some positive reviews about this newest film, so I decided to put off my dissertation writing yesterday morning and catch a cheap matinee showing.

Obligatory Question: Is there cursing in the film? Yes, Bones and Spock discuss the relevance of horse shit to their current situation at one point, and Bones has a few more weak swears he uses. Not much, really. Probably not enough to worry about letting your kids see it or not.

So, I"m going to give a quick capsule review without spoilers here, then a break, and then a full review with spoilers, as I don't think I can talk much about the movie without spoiling it.

Was it entertaining? Yes, but not amazingly so. The good thing was that this Abrams movie finally felt like honest-to-Q Star Trek. The initial movie went out of its way to be different. The second was bipolar, trying to be different while also trying to be like older Trek. This one was firmly in the traditional Trek zone.

The bad thing was that the plot was just a conventional generic action movie plot. Like, take any Lethal Weapon movie's basic plot, put it in space, bam, there's this movie.

Is it worth seeing? If you're a Trekkie, I'm sure you've already seen it (it released late in Korea). If you're Trekker like me, you'll also probably want to see it for completionist purposes. If you're just in the mood for some summer popcorn action movie fare, sure, why not? If you're looking for intense drama, or thoughtful science fiction, this isn't the movie for you.


BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!

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Is that enough of a break? OK, spoiler time.

There were some things that really bugged me about the movie, even though in the end I thought it was OK. I think if these things had been addressed, it could have been a much better Star Trek movie (although not as good as Wrath of Khan or Generations Whoops, meant First Contact. That was the good TNG movie.).

First of all, Spock. His motivations were clear, but every single significant choice he made in the movie was to choose the ILLOGICAL option. Or maybe, if you look at it a certain way, there was a warped personal logic to it, but considering Vulcan Logic, he was the most illogical he's ever been portrayed. Yes, he's got the hots for Uhura, and yes, BBEG had her close by so he could explain his evil plans to her (and us). But Spock's been wounded severely, could help Scotty just as well as Checkov, but has to go on the rescue mission because his girlfriend's in danger. Then he's got to pilot the stolen "bee" craft with Bones, except Bones does all the flying and Spock is there (still wounded, no medbay on the USS Franklin) for moral support? The only logical thing he did was consider leaving Star Fleet to help repopulate New Vulcan (and even that, in the end, gets overridden by the picture of Old Spock with Old Kirk, Old Scotty, Old Sulu, Old Uhura, etc. circa Star Trek 4?).

Next, I love Idris Elba, but could he have been playing a more generic villain? He's motivated by hate. Only hate. He hates the Federation. That's all he's got. Seriously boring. I was hoping he'd pull a last minute turn, and help Kirk shunt the alien bioweapon McGuffin into space. That would still have been cliche, but at least it would have shown something to motivate him besides hating the Federation for being soft. And the whole big reveal, that he was a former Star Fleet captain, was pretty much for nothing, character wise. It did explain why he was so familiar with English, Federation technology, etc. But it did nothing to affect his motives, actions, or development. Lame bad guy is lame, even with Elba behind the makeup.

Kirk actually had a decent (if predictable) character arc, but again, watch any Lethal Weapon movie and compare. "I'm getting too old for this shit." "One last mission." "Hey, you know what? I actually enjoy doing this after all and will continue."

Oh, and if I have to see that 'ship/airplane in freefall, dives down behind mountain between ship and camera, then zooms up from behind that mountain' scene again, I'm gonna puke. They really were taking all their cues from other movies plotting this one weren't they?

I did like how they set the film three years into the five year mission, implying that this crew may (or may not) have gone through events similar to the TOS episodes. There's even one point where Kirk jokes about how life on the ship is feeling "episodic." Well except for Space Seed, since they already mangled the Khan plotline in Into Darkness. But well, you can assume that this version of the crew tangled with Klingons, Gorn, Romulans, tribbles, and all that if you like. The film makers can do whatever they like from now on -- which was the promise of the first movie, which they reneged on in the second, and have now artfully bypassed the issue with a time jump.

So again, as I said above, it's not a bad movie, but it's not a great one, either. Unless you're a huge Trek fan, you won't miss much by waiting to see this on VOD or whatever cheaper option than seeing it in the theater, if that's your thing.

Yeah, I'm a lemming

Your results:
You are Geordi LaForge

Geordi LaForge 80% Mr. Scott 75% Chekov 65% Will Riker 60% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 60% Uhura 55% Jean-Luc Picard 50% James T. Kirk (Captain) 45% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 40% Data 40% Deanna Troi 40% Beverly Crusher 35% Spock 27% Worf 25% Mr. Sulu 15%

You work well with others and often   fix problems quickly. Your romantic   relationships are often bungled.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Quiz

It's worse than that, it's physics, Jim!

Thanks to Typhoon Bolaven, we had the day off.  Of course, it also meant we spent the majority of it indoors.  What to do? 

Well, first of all, in the morning my son wanted to listen to his new favorite song, Star Trekkin' by The Firm.  This is an old novelty song from the 80's that I included on a CD to use with my kindergarten students.

After listening to it about 5 times, I answered a few questions, and before you know it, we were watching an episode of TOS (Space Seed, the one where they find Khan in cryogenic sleep).  We also watched an episode of the D&D cartoon.

My son is now a big fan of James T. Kirk, mostly thanks to them sharing the name James.

Just before bed, we watched some Land of the Lost and a bit of Super Friends. 

Thank you, Typhoon Bolaven!

Nothing special gaming-wise to report, although Tenkar's Tavern is featuring my little contribution to the OSR, Flying Swordsmen, this week.  Thanks, Erik!