via Free as a Kickstarted Bird – DORK TOWER CLASSIC 04.20.17 – Dork Tower
1 Like
Alycia’s Favorite Action Movies
Not in any particular order, except my cogitating on the subject.
-
The Magnificent Seven (The Seven Samurai even more so, if that’s included in the subject. Actually, a lot of Kurosawa would appeal to her).
-
The Bourne Identity (super-agent mind-wiped by evil American intelligence agents? Sure.) (Probably more than La Femme Nikita.)
More to follow, I’m sure.
1 Like
If you have a fondness for classic scifi book covers, this gallery will fix that.
2 Likes
Saw this on Reddit this morning and the concept sounds interesting. Obviously don’t know anything about it outside of what’s presented here, but I’ll keep an eye out for it on Thursday to see if there’s something good here.
2 Likes
FEV eschews complicated mechanics. Instead of wasting your time mimicking the minutiae of a fantasy world, FEV is focused on story-based, narrative-first, dramatic game-play …
Sounds like the basic selling point for all PbtA games (and one reason I love them). 
1 Like
So I gave FEV a read and it’s fine. It takes a lot of influence from Masks and a few from Fellowship, none of which is surprising, but its derived-ness is definitely on display. Nothing looks egregious, but also nothing looks exciting. A very middle of the road PbtA hack. Wish it had more meat on the bone when it came to creating antagonists that were thematically appropriate to the genre, but I think Masks (and Bill in particular with Silver Seven) spoiled me there.
The one thing that caused the most head scratching was that starting on page two and going half way into page three there is a detailed breakdown of how the profits of the book were to be split between the contributors, referring to shares based on their contribution in both words and artwork. Very weird to see this and I don’t know why this would be on display to the world. To quote the youth, “weird flex but ok.”
2 Likes
So maybe …
- Easier than trying to lay it out in the credits, since they already presumably had it written up or something?
- Trying to model to other creators ways to split credit and earnings?
- Such disturbing lack of mutual trust that they put it out in public to hold each other accountable?
Yes, weird.
This was the most favorable reading I could imagine.
1 Like
An artist on Twitter recently shared some of her custom character sheets for her Monster of the Week game. Very cool for an in-person game and show character progression/development in a visual way. Make sure to scroll down for the latest version in the replies.
Another example of one she did for one of the other folks in that game.
Might give this a try next time I play a PBTA game (or something else with a similarly small character sheet).
2 Likes
Those are lovely.
Got recommended the game Hard Wired Island today and a brief skim through shows it to be surprisingly fun and topical for a tabletop cyberpunk RPG. Runs on a 2d6 system that is not PbtA but still in that wheelhouse (moves, player-facing choices, etc). Not rules-lite, but not overwhelming either (so far). Very beefy 400 page book which is surprising these days.
Also, have to share this section.
One of the apps is called HUNTR and is your typical “bounty hunters for cash” deal, but I could not help but smirk that this comment below the section commenting on it:
2 Likes
We talked about an accidental spy retirement village. Here’s an example of that sort of emergent behavior in the real world
1 Like
Russian betrayals!
Bond Movies
Okay, I could write on this for hours, but … if I were going to point to a couple to watch, these would be them:
- Dr. No - Actually, not a bad one, but I’m going to lean on the next for that early Bond flavor.
- From Russia with Love - Peak Cold War action, fine cast, one of the best Bond fights on record.
- Goldfinger - Quintessential “high concept” Bond.
- Thunderball - Another decent action film, complete with a massive underwater SCUBA battle.
- You Only Live Twice - This one has a lot to offer, but Sean Connery in yellowface is not part of the attraction.
- On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - Diana Rigg and an excellent main title sequence, but that’s about it. The only George Lazenby film.
- Diamonds Are Forever - Ugh.
- Live and Let Die - Roger Moore’s first outing actually shows why they picked him for the role. The last one where he was allowed to play things seriously. Some dodgy racial issues, albeit of the era.
- The Man with the Golden Gun - Not even Christopher Lee can make this work.
- The Spy Who Love Me - You Only Live Twice, only with submarines instead of space capsules.
- Moonraker - Peak post-Star Wars Roger Moore silliness.
- For Your Eyes Only - You’d think a film focusing on a Greek archaeologist would be better.
- Octopussy - Roger Moore in clown makeup. There is a completely legit plot reason for this, but it doesn’t make up for it being Roger Moore in clown makeup.
- A View to a Kill - First one I saw in a theater, and I have a guilty pleasure joy in it, but would not recommend it to anyone who is not a Grace Jones or Christopher Walken fan.
- The Living Daylights - The first and better of Timothy Dalton’s much more gritty outings; good intro sequence, great sound track, Bond gets to actually play assassin, somewhat embarrassing geopolitics, awful final villain.
- License to Kill - weird downshift to narcoterrorism doesn’t quite work, even if it has one of my favorite supporting villains in the series, a post-Family Ties Alex Keaton who serves as the harried finance manager for the main bad guy.
- GoldenEye - Probably my favorite Bond film. Brosnan is sharp and precise, and gets some of that world-weariness that Craig later used. Post-Soviet Russian shenanigans, computer geek villains, active role by another 00 agent.
- Tomorrow Never Dies - Probably worth watching for Michelle Yeoh, complete with an amusing trivia item about their motorcycle scene.
- The World Is Not Enough …
- Die Another Day … the other two Brosnan films never grabbed me, or the critics. The plotlines were increasingly ludicrous, Brosnan seems mopey, etc.
I have not included the Daniel Craig films because they are kind of a different beast. I appreciate them a lot (some more than others – Skyfall is probably my favorite), but in an understandable attempt to break from the past, it really all reads like a different movie series.
3 Likes
That’s quite the list. I picked up both the Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan collections and will try make time to watch the high points of those two series (TLD, Goldeneye) over the weekend (or at least before next Saturday).
2 Likes
Argh. Sorry – I meant these (bold italic) were the top ones I’d recommend. I just couldn’t let the list go without commenting on each.
Oh I understood the intent perfectly, it was just financially easier to pick up those two series as opposed to the individual movies due to bundled pricing. Eventually (assuming I find the movies entertaining) I’ll go back and pick up the earlier series to check out From Russia with Love and Goldfinger.