What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement?

[kabukiman]

I started watching straner things (first 4 episodes). It is screaming to be a delta green scenario.
I also the first episode of edgerunner.

[Mr. Handy]

I did win Escape from R'lyeh on my first try, having found a way to restore my Sanity in town, along with most of the items I needed to repair the boat. I also played through the Definitive Editions of Lone Wolf books 1-5 when I got them months ago. The changes to them are subtle but powerful, and they make the books so much better, eliminating the unavoidable instant deaths and providing more options and bonuses. I preordered the Collector's Edition of Book 28 a couple months ago, but it hasn't shipped yet. It should be soon, though. I've held off on reading Books 29-31, which I already have, until I read Book 28. The Freeway Warrior books that are now almost four years overdue still haven't arrived, and there's been no word from the Kickstarter creator for over four months now. As far as I know, nobody has received the final book yet.

I finished Deus Ex about a month ago, using my saved position so that I could see all three endings. The one I stuck with was New Dark Age, because it's the only one where mankind is free (but at a price). Then I started playing a bunch of games I created using Adventure Construction Set in the late eighties and early nineties. ACS is a powerful tool that's ahead of its time, allowing you to create all sorts of adventures of various genres, even to the point of allowing you to create your own graphics, things, and creatures to completely make an original game. It can also complete a partial game or even create one from scratch. It also allows from 1 to 4 players, and the players can split up and go anywhere in the game world. The graphics on my Apple IIc aren't that great, though there's an Amiga version that has much better graphics. I didn't remember the details of these games (or in some cases, the games themselves) after having not played them for decades, so I got to play them without prior knowledge and they were fresh and new to me. I noticed a bunch of design flaws and typos, but they're still fun. So far I've played:

• Secret Agent: A cheesy spy thriller set in New York, though you also visit London and Miami
• The Historian: Visit all sorts of times and places as you try to defeat the Time Wizard and stop him from changing history
• Trapped: A fantasy game where you have to defeat an evil wizard to return to your own land, where you must then defeat the warlord who took over in your absence
• Supercop: Play a New York cop battling against a crime wave and trying to shut down a drug smuggling operation
• Quest of the Gods: A game based on Greek mythology, where you have to rescue Hermes from the Underworld
• Superspy: Go on a series of missions against the terrorist organization SQUASH. You have to fly a helicopter through hostile airspace multiple times and battle enemy aircraft, as well as go on missions on the ground
• Lone Wolf: An adaptation of the first five books of the Lone Wolf series, with an ending tacked on which is similar to Book 12 (which I hadn't actually seen yet when I wrote the game) but far simpler
• Stranded on Volnar: A science fiction game where you get trapped on a hostile planet filled with space pirates, cannibals, and other dangers
• Swords and Sorcerers: A silly fantasy game set in a kingdom ruled by a five year old boy named Calvin that is threatened by the Evil One (and Calvin's treacherous Uncle Smedley). At the start of the game, you learn that Calvin has declared today "Stupid Day," and anyone found without a dunce cap can be executed
• Wasteland: Set in the aftermath of a nuclear war that President Dan Quayle accidentally started in 1997. I don't think I had actually played the 1987 game Wasteland yet at the time I wrote this one, but it ticks all the boxes. Ultimately, you have to find an experimental time machine in a government base guarded by robots and use it to go back to 1997 to prevent the war
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: A combat-heavy game where you battle your way through armies of Foot Soldiers and ninja to reach and defeat Shredder

Currently, I'm playing Star Traveller and am almost halfway done. It's set in 2490, and you start on Earth and have to acquire enough credits to buy a used starship, then go out and explore space, battling the Crotaxian invaders who are conquering outlying human colonies.

I finished watching Sliders and then watched the entire series of The Shield, a cop show starring Tony Chiklis as Vic Mackey. He had previously starred as Tony Scali in The Commish (which I also have on DVD), but this is a very different show and he plays a very different character. I'll let Vic tell you in his own words: "Good cop and bad cop left for the day. I'm a different kind of cop." All of the characters are flawed but with redeeming features. It's dark and gritty, and Vic and his strike team are antiheroes, corrupt but also trying to fight crime. I remembered the major plot twist at the end of season 5 as well as Vic's ultimate fate from when I had watched the show when it first aired, but I had forgotten much. Then I started watching Knight Rider, and I'm currently almost a third of the way through Season 2.

[kabukiman]

I saw the movie "ad astra". Not as good as "interstellar" but still very good. Also saw annihilation: I really loved it, it remembers be the story "The color of out of space" from Lovecraft. I watched the russian movie #Superdeep", it remembers me "the thing" and it was much better than I expected. Also finished to see the first season of "stranger things": I also liked, but I doubt I will se the other seasons, too much episodes.

[jp1885]

TV: currently binge watching Dark, a German time travel thriller with echoes of Stranger Things. It’s a very good show; three seasons in all. Just coming out on Netflix is 1899: a show by the makers of Dark; which looks pretty good.
Also just started SAS: Rogue Heroes on the BBC. Again, pretty good so far.

Gaming: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. We’ve embarked on the Enemy Within Campaign. Currently battling through Death on the Reik.
I’ve also joined the Kickstarter for the new edition of Paranoia. I did a lot of GMing with the old Red Clearance Edition last year, but it kinda fizzled out, so I’m hoping to get my mojo back with the new stuff.
Rivers of London (based on the BRP rules): waiting in anticipation for this to be released on 3rd December, as I love the books.
I took the Write Your First Adventure course in the summer and did a scenario for this game, so when the rules come out I can finally finish that off and playtest it!

[Mr. Handy]

I finally got Lone Wolf Book 28 on Saturday and have started playing it. My first few attempts ended in failure, but I rolled really badly for stats and often in combat, though I did get pretty far on my first try. I got much better Combat Skill for my fourth try, though very badly for Endurance, and I'm now entering uncharted territory, having gotten past the point that always killed me before. Once I get as far as I can with a new character, I'll risk bringing in my veteran character that completed Books 21-27.

I finished Star Traveller, which had some really tough boss fights, especially the final one. I ended up having to scour the galaxy for every healing item I could buy to max out my Life Force, and then I was able to win. Then I played Kwazy Kwest, another silly fantasy game where I had to defeat the evil wizard Zonkface, who had acquired magic that let him control all evil creatures. That was a tough battle too. Then I played Street Warrior, which I had made in the early 90s but set in October 2001 New York, where gangs ruled the streets. You play an ex-cop who was kicked off the NYPD for being too violent who becomes a vigilante. The game turned out to be unfinished, with only four areas done plus the world map, but it was a lot of fun and somewhat predictive of how things would actually develop in the 2020s. At one point, the police arrest you for your vigilante activities, and when you ask why they don't go after the real criminals, one said "We're just too darn scared." Then I played another unfinished game, Star Wars: Rebel Yell. I must have put Street Warrior on hold to work on it. I had had it all planned out, but I only completed the first area and the very beginning of the second. You play a cadet at the Academy learning to be a pilot with Rebel sympathies, and one of your classmates is arrested for aiding the Rebellion. While trying to help her and find a way to contact the Rebels, you run afoul of the authorities and have to escape from the Academy, stealing a captured X-Wing that they use in exercises. The TIE fighters stationed there lack hyperdrives, so they won't help you escape, but they can sure try to stop you. Then I found two of my older ACS games. Prisoner of War is set during World War Two, where you have to escape from Stalag 13 and then make your way across occupied Europe to England before being sent on a new mission in Germany. The characters from Hogan's Heroes are in the POW camp, and the silliness doesn't stop there. There was also a fantasy game called The Stone of Destiny, where your enemy the Deathlord is too well-protected to defeat in the present, so you have to find an artifact that will allow you to travel back in time and defeat him before he rises to power. Then I started playing Bioshock (Remastered), which is a lot of fun. I'm currently in the Smugglers' Hideout near the submarine, but I've put this on hold to read/play my Lone Wolf books.

I'm most of the way done watching the fourth and final season of Knight Rider, in the middle of "Deadly Knightshade" about a stage magician who moonlights as an assassin, which gives him a perfect alibi.

I saw Annihilation some time ago, but I don't remember it too well.

[Mephistophilis]

Annihilation, particularly the book, has a nice Lovecraftian vibe.

[Mr. Handy]

I rolled lousy stats for my first attempt at Lone Wolf 28, The Hunger of Sejanoz, but I got fairly far despite that. That was followed by eight more failures, where I had a lot of bad luck, usually in initial stats and often in combat. Some of the tough battles are avoidable, if you're lucky, but I wasn't. Early on there's a 50-50 chance of avoiding a really tough fight, and I missed it every single time. On the last of those tries, though, I didn't get too badly hurt in it, plus I started with maximum Endurance (though only middling Combat Skill), and I got to the final confrontation, only to get killed before it properly started due to running out of Endurance. I'm trying again, and this time I have decent Combat Skill, though minimum Endurance. I've still not rolled the maximum Combat Skill, or even one less than that, and whenever I rolled two less than the maximum (twice), I got the minimum Endurance. Still, I managed to avoid that tough early fight this time, though an unavoidable fight that should be much easier really drained my Endurance due to bad rolls. Hopefully I'll at least get a little further this time, even though I don't expect to be able to win the final fight.

I only have five episodes left of Knight Rider, including the one I'm in the middle of, called "Hills of Fire." Michael and K.I.T.T., and a drone named S.I.D., are trying to stop an arsonist starting wildfires.

[kabukiman]

So I saw the movies "event horizont" and "the cabin in the woods" both lovcraftian in different ways.
I have started to play "stellaris" as rogue servators: basically humans have retired to a life of leisure and utopia and let robots rule everything. That means as a robot I can have good relations with both organics and machines empires (the other 2 robot empire hate organics so they cannot have any comercial or scientific deals). The price is that I have to spend a lot of ressources to let the humans do, well, whateaver humans do. I am expanding and creating colonies in several planets (since I play robots, I can colonize even barren planets, no need to produce food!).

[jp1885]

Just two days before the Rivers of London rpg comes out. Tempted to run a game on here…

[Mr. Handy]

So I saw the movies "event horizont" and "the cabin in the woods" both lovcraftian in different ways.
I have started to play "stellaris" as rogue servators: basically humans have retired to a life of leisure and utopia and let robots rule everything. That means as a robot I can have good relations with both organics and machines empires (the other 2 robot empire hate organics so they cannot have any comercial or scientific deals). The price is that I have to spend a lot of ressources to let the humans do, well, whateaver humans do. I am expanding and creating colonies in several planets (since I play robots, I can colonize even barren planets, no need to produce food!).

I've seen both movies. I actually first saw Event Horizon in the movie theater when it was new. Both are great. I've never played Stellaris. I prefer turn-based strategies to real-time.

Just two days before the Rivers of London rpg comes out. Tempted to run a game on here…

If you run it, I'd like to play it!

The tenth time was the charm! I was insanely lucky with my rolls in The Hunger of Sejanoz. I avoided all of the avoidable fights, and I managed to have halfway decent Endurance left for the endgame and took a better route. I knew I couldn't take Sejanoz in a straight up fight, so I took a shot with the object I had that could destroy him. I actually rolled a 9 somehow, which is exactly what I needed to kill him instantly! Never even had to fight him, which was a very good thing, as I had 5 Endurance Points left at that point. Phew! Then I played the bonus adventure, and while I rolled awful stats, I was lucky and managed to complete it on my first attempt. In that one, you play a different character trying to survive the aftermath of Sejanoz's destruction and find his son, both of whom are vampires who had been turned and enslaved by Sejanoz (who was an extremely ancient vampire). Then I brought my veteran character through the main adventure, which was much easier. Now I'm getting ready to start Book 29, The Storms of Chai, which I've had for years but waited to get the new extended edition of Book 28 before playing. The original version of Book 28 was published in 1998, but Book 29 was first published in 2016. There's also a similar time jump in the book, which takes place 17 years after the last one, though in the same land as Book 28 (Chai has a culture analogous to China), where I begin an epic quest leading into the endgame for the entire series. I still have to finish reading all the frontmatter (there's a lot!) before I begin play.

I finished Knight Rider, and now I've started watching The Commish, which aired from 1991-6. It stars Michael Chiklis again, this time as Commissioner Tony Scali, a very different character than Vic Mackey from The Shield. So far I've watched the first episode, which was great. I probably missed a bunch of these episodes when they originally aired, as I didn't have a TV when I was in college.

[Mephistophilis]

Just two days before the Rivers of London rpg comes out. Tempted to run a game on here…

About a quarter of the way through so far. Looking like a stripped down CoC mechanically.

[jp1885]

Yeah, agreed. Just finished reading and summarising the rules into bullet points (helps me memorise the rules).
Going to start on Thursday with 3 players. Hopefully I can fit in a session zero and The Bookshop before Christmas.

[Mr. Handy]

I'm well into Lone Wolf Book 29, which is also set in Chai, but is very different than the previous book. I managed to get quite far with a new character (eventually, after many deaths). While I doubt I'll be able to get all the way through this time, I'll get as far as I can before I try it with my veteran character.

I'm almost halfway through the first season of The Commish and really enjoying it. I actually remembered some of the episodes.

[kabukiman]

So, I saw "the void", ok, but not great, "the endless" (very original approach about a cult and an eldrich deity) and I started watching "the cabinet of curiosities".

[Mr. Handy]

I completed Lone Wolf Books 29-31 early in the year (they were excellent), and I've also read the Definitive Editions of Books 1-10. The final book, 32, will be divided into two volumes, with the first due out next fall. I've also been reading the Autumn Snow series, having played the first five books, though only the first two of them have been published. The author is running adaptations of them as roleplaying games using the Lone Wolf Adventure Game on Discord and Roll20. and I'm one of the players. We're nearing the end of Book 6 (there are seven in all). I'm thinking of reading Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin next.

I also finished Bioshock earlier this year, and I've been playing Fallout: New Vegas on and off for the last seven months or so. Somehow I'd never gotten around to playing it, but it's excellent. I'm about halfway done, at level 26, currently trying to find the Legion spy in Camp McCarran after having explored Freeside and the New Vegas Strip. I've also completed the Honest Hearts DLC. I also played a game of Civilization Revolution on my PS3, which is basically Civilization Lite. It was a quick game, and very easy. I just won a cultural victory last weekend on Turn 90 (1710 AD).

I put The Commish on hold in the middle of Season 4 when I figured out how to get Blu-rays to play on my PC. It hadn't been working with the software that came with the Blu-ray drive, and my PS3 hadn't been able to show any videos on my TV, but I downloaded a free Blu-ray player that worked. I've watched a bunch of them, most recently several seasons of Doctor Who on Blu-ray collections. My TV died in the summer, but I got a new one pretty quickly, only to discover that my PS3 had died. I got another used one, which worked for a while, but then Blu-rays stopped working on it (though games still work), so I went back to watching them on my PC. I'm currently watching Sylvester McCoy's first season, going through the bonus materials for the awful Time and the Rani. Once I finish the season, I plan to go back to The Commish and finish watching it.

I played a few board games over the summer. Twilight Struggle: Red Sea is fun, but I couldn't win the tutorial yet (I came close the first time, but the next couple of times I was automatically defeated by drawing the wrong card at the wrong time). I also played Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which has Pandemic-like mechanics. It was a lot of fun, and my first game was very easy. I actually managed to complete my first mission right away, as I started with one of my Jedi on the planet, and the other was close enough to get there.