Joe Walsh

We finished a few Hulu series over the weekend. Dopesick: This was the hardest to watch, but it was the best of the bunch. It's hard to look directly at even one tiny aspect of our current reality. Nine Perfect Strangers: This one was by turns strange, funny, disturbing and silly. But overall, it was worth watching, and some of the characters were so well done that they deserve their own series. Marvel's Hit-Monkey: This animated series was well worth watching. Like NPS, above, it was strange, funny, disturbing, and silly. But also very well done, with some great plot twists.

How James Gunn and John Cena Made People Care About Peacemaker https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/peacemaker-james-gunn-john-cena-1235096206/#recipient_hashed=e27fb62ac3daab2d78d95129d6d509c3cbffcc749b394f27f8808383688bdda5

Finished S1 of Peacemaker. Great ending to the season! So far this series is comfortably in my top 10 supers shows. We'll see what S2 brings!

Yeah, not all of the characters are great all the time. I've busted a gut a few times watching writer/creator Laurence Rickard's portrayal of the headless noble and the caveman, but the Fanny and Kitty characters can be tiresome at times. Then it's on to the next thing, and all is well again.

Anyone who enjoys the US version of Ghosts may want to check out the original UK version. It's on HBOMax in the US. We liked both, and hope there are more episodes of both soon. (S1E1 of each series are almost the same, but after that they diverge and mostly go their own ways, as they should, based on the US and UK's different histories.)

That sounds a lot like what Steve Jackson Games did when they released the Dungeon Fantasy Role-Playing Game. It's "Powered by GURPS" but it's its own thing. No GURPS manuals needed or even encouraged. Just an option if you want it. They ran a Kickstarter for the initial boxed set. It was successful, but not successful enough for them to reprint it after the initial print run. They actually cut their planned initial print run based on expected sales. They offered the PDFs in their company store, but otherwise planned to let it lie dormant. Then a funny thing happened. Demand picked up, a GURPS licensee decided to support it with supplements, SJGames started producing supplements, etc. I'm not saying it was a huge hit, but I think in the long run it's done reasonably well for a mechanically heavy dungeon delving RPG. DFRPG (as it's known) plays to GURPS' strengths (namely, its granularity at the low end, and its melee combat system). At the time, I thought it was an excellent sign that a new Champions boxed set could be even more of a hit, if done right. I still think that could work, with a simplified ruleset and the right supporting supplements. DFRPG consists of 430 pages in 5 books: character creation, game rules, spells, monsters, and an adventure. Champions could have the first two, plus an enemies book, a setting book, and a first adventure. Hopefully keeping the rules stuff as minimal as possible, using most of whatever the page count would be toward enemies, setting, and adventure material. I know; mere pipe dreams. But still, since we're discussing the idea, it looks like a viable concept, even if DOJ's not ready to do that at the moment.

I sure hope the Netflix Marvel stuff ends up on D+ or Hulu or somewhere we can watch it. I'd hate to never be able to watch S1 of Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and Luke Cage again. Yesterday we watched Nobody on HBOMax. It's yet another movie in the John Wick subgenre. Unlike many of the imitators, this one was watchable. I like that it's somewhat realistic at the beginning, but I didn't like that as it goes on it gets more ridiculous until you end up with the bad guys' guns' narrative effect being the equivalent of shouting "I'm angry! I'm dangerous! I'm gonna get you!" as the bullets fly all around but never really threaten the hero. Still, there were funny bits throughout, and it was nice to see Christopher Lloyd being a badass.

If we were looking for basic a model for a Hero System 1 book rpg, we could do worse than PS238. The way the book opens with setting info, then sticks to simple writeups, is great. The rules section is cut down nicely, with the skills, powers, etc. lists just what's needed for the setting. A reasonable number of pre-built superpowers and gadgets are included, too. Writeups of everything keep it simple and straightforward. All in 180 pages. It needs an adventure, but otherwise a book like PS238 but for a setting built expressly for a popular subgenre of supers (rather than a marginal IP) seems like it could work well for a lot of people as an entry point to the system. Edited to add: I like the idea of simplifying further. Just stick to CV and MCV, no Skill Levels, etc. and it could be great for those curious to try something new w/o a major commitment.

The latest Peacemaker was very good. Someone elsewhere said it's a roller-coaster ride and, yeah, that's a good term for it.

I thought it was just me. I tried watching the an episode when it really started hitting big, but I just couldn't get through it. What a slog.

BoBF was just OK to me. It was so all over the place.

Same here. I haven't needed micro-skills in a long time. I like it! Just assume the character with a complimentary skill is able to contribute to the effort unless there's some reason to do otherwise, and base the impact of their assistance on their level of skill. Nice and quick! If anyone's running a big game and doesn't ever have to deal with that, I'd like to know how. 😅 Good to know! So, with this, we end up with a unified "conflict mechanic," but there are still other types of rolls for standard skill checks and (when needed) complimentary skill throws. It's at least a more logical division than the current way, where conflict is handled in two different ways. Thanks for elaborating on your method, Duke.

I'll have to give that a try! I've long wished HERO had been designed with a unified mechanic. How do you handle complementary skills? Do you use RAW for plain old ordinary skill throws (not skill vs. skill, not complementary)?

Meanwhile, on Boba Fett, the narrative wanders the Star Wars universe, slowly transforming itself into mush. Is Episode 7 going to be a musical titled, "We don't talk about Boba"?

Somebody Somewhere (HBOMax): We've watched S1 E1 and S1 E2, and so far it has its moments. It's a dramedy about a woman whose sister recently died and who doesn't seem to fit into her rural hometown. Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu): We finally decided to give this once-buzzy miniseries a try. Two episides in and it's juuuuuust interesting enough to keep going. There are some funny moments, but mostly it a kinda bland mystery. Dopesick (Hulu): A few episodes in, this is a pretty compelling watch. It's about how the Sackler family and Purdue Pharmaceutical drove the opioid epidemic for amazing profits at the cost of millions of lives. Good stuff from Danny Strong.

I agree, filling in the details of life on Tatooine is the most interesting thing about The Book of Boba Fett. The central story is a snooze so far.

Who'da thunk something that grew out of slave patrols would be bad? 🤷‍♂️

As if the spousal abuse and white supremacy weren't enough.

We finished S3 of After Life (Netflix). It wasn't quite as good as the previous seasons, but it was still very good. We also finished S3 of The Standups, Netflix's series of half-hour standup comedy sets. We found S1 mostly unwatchable, S2 was very good, and while S3 started very strong, it was about as good as S2 overall.

Back when I was a freelancer, I ran some T4/Marc Miller's Traveller sessions at GenCon. The sessions were full, I got good feedback...but I didn't really find any of it satisfying as a GM.

Finished S2 of The Great (Hulu). It's one of the rare series that has an S2 that's as good as S1. It's a very enjoyable dramedy. And like S1, S2's ending was simultaneously very satisfying and very good at whetting my appetite for the next season.

A friend was a fan, but I only read a couple of issues of Moon Knight. It never grabbed me. But I'm hoping the series will live up to the trailer.

Solar Opposites (Hulu). Animated series from Rick and Morty's Justin Roiland. Seemed promising, but we bailed 10 minutes into the first episode. Watching paint dry would be more fun. Marvel's Hit-Monkey (Hulu). Animated series from Marvel about a monkey who is seeking revenge. One episode in, it's OK.

Encanto (Disney+): Lone unmagical family member must figure out why the family's magic is dying. Worth watching. Book of Boba Fett (Disney+): After one episode, I've nearly lost all interest. The Great (Hulu): Four episodes in, S2 is just as good as S1. It's a really enjoyable show, hilarious at times. Pixar Popcorn (Disney+): A collection of ten short-shorts, each about 2 minutes long, starring a variety of Pixar characters. They're all worth watching, but of course some are better than others.