Roll a D10 - Things in a Solo's pockets.

 

Sometimes the gunman ends up going to the big rifle range in the sky. So it's up to everyone else to loot his body for goodies. Roll a D10 to see what you find. 

Things in a Solo’s pockets.

1 – A pack of imported cigarettes from some country on the other side of the world.

2 – Pair of shooting gloves.

3 – Pocket sized gun cleaning kit.

4 – Premium customer awards card for Johnny Automatics Gun Emporium.

5 – Extra wires for their smartlinked gear in case they need to go hardlined instead of wireless.

6 – Small pen sized laser distance finder.

7 – Palm sized derringer with a very large caliber round. The words “No Surrender” engraved on it.

8 – Caffeine in various forms; chewing gum, pills, gummies, etc.

9 – Hip flask filled with some really cheap, but strong, whiskey.

10 – A wallet with ID saying they are a police officer. Counterfeit of course.

Roll a d10 - What's in a street medias pockets

 

Sometimes you need to shuffle through the pockets of a street media who is... taking an extended rest. Here are ten things that you may find. 

Things in a street medias pockets.

1 – A taped up roll of hardline connectors for various camera types.

2 – Pocket radio with earbuds that is tuned into all the police radio channels.

3 – Several different ‘Press’ badges from different major media outlets, all counterfeit.

4 – A pocket first aid kit.

5 – Small armored packet containing fresh data slugs for their camera and other equipment.

6 – Extra power bank charger for their phone.

7 – An emergency switch that uploads all their media to their private cloud storage with one click.

8 – A fold-able face mask with filters and lenses that cover their eyes that seal.

9 – Burner cellphone loaded with emergency numbers.

10 – Back up hand held micro video recorder that looks like an ink pen.

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Movie Review - Mutant Chronicles

 

Mutant Chronicles (2008)

Watch it for free on Tubi.

Or buy it on Amazon. 

 Okay here we go. Heard several stories about this movie over the year, never gave it a viewing. At least this time it’s a movie with a budget unlike the last one I did. We get a quick overview of the base storyline, some shots of what happened something called the machine was sealed up long ago. Nice set up and it’s over.

Then we get futuristic steamtech trench warfare. Hey there’s Sean Pertwee, always nice to see him in a movie. Hey Thomas Jane, not complaining there either. Lots of bloody brutal fighting, then the thing that was sealed up breaks open and even more bloodshed comes along. This is where I was laughing for a bit. You ever see those old bad 3D movies where they have the fight scenes choreographed with people attacking at the camera? Yeah. They did that here. Why? Fuck I couldn’t tell you, it looks bad, thankfully they don’t continue with that.

Oh, damn, well goodbye Sean. Hey it’s Ron Perlman, things are looking up but I’m a fanboy. Oh hey there’s John Malkovich as well, that could go either way.

At 23 minutes in I was kind of digging the story. The bad guys are really one trick ponies with one long McStabby arm. They really could have hashed out some variety here, would have really helped. Instead they dish us out a never ending stream of bad guys who don’t like to die. Over and over again. We get the rest of the team lots of action scenes that sort of work… sometimes. Not going to spoil the ending for those who may want to watch this themselves.

Okay here are some pro’s for the movie. There are some cool shots, cities under siege, the general look of the technology, uniforms and weapons. That all kind of works believe it or not. The entire thing has some color adjustment giving it a colorless appearance most of the time. Everything looks like mud… and ash, which strangely fits for the story here. But they just overdid it most of the time. The inside of the machine near the end looks pretty nightmarish and alien, as it should.

Now the negatives. Bad writing in the dialogue area with some just dumbass lines of conversation going on. Some of the folks were either calling in their acting skills or were given terrible direction on how to act, probably both. They had a roleplaying and miniatures battle game that this was based off of. One with a very distinct look… that they almost completely fucking ignored. Borrowing some names, a few setting details and not much else. Kind of like having and IP and then not using what you paid for.

In the end well, honestly, I’ve seen much worse. It’s an interesting little sci-fi flick with some cool details and world building in there. Probably be a fun beer night movie viewing for a group of folks who like grim dark action fare. But I can very well see why it bombed at the box office.  

"Oh shit why am I stuck between these two assholes and their dumbass discussion?"

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Masters Workshop - Saying NO

 

For my first bit of GM advice that I’ve given in a while I’m going to be talking about a piece of advice that many often give. Something that I don’t agree with.

“Don’t say no”

Is absolutely terrible game advice to offer up to any GM before you know what kind of group they have. Especially to folks who are new to running the game or have players who aren’t very experienced. And yes I’m including adding in the “say ‘yes, but’ or ‘yes, and’” into this.

First let’s talk about not knowing what their group of players is like. Some of you all may be blessed with amazing groups who love to work together to tell great stories through the game. But trust me, you are a minority in that respect. I’ve seen enough to know this isn’t the case. You will run into folks who do crazy shit that makes zero sense, who do things just to make the rest of the other players mad, or just do what they think will help them ‘win’ at the game. To many times have entire games, or even campaigns, been derailed by one player doing whatever without the GM telling them to stop.

I’ve seen this from both sides of the screen countless times. The “but” or the “and” part don’t matter as long as they get to do the stupid inane action they want to. They don’t care about the story, or the other players having fun. Count on running into folks like this from time to time.

Also I’ve seen more new or beginner GM’s just give up after the players run roughshod over them. Imposing limits are important for a new person running a game for the first few times to be able to get their feet over them and get used to being in the head chair. Just saying “NO” can really help a lot. Even if it’s something as simple as saying “We are using stuff from the corebook only so NO you cannot play that class from another sourcebook”. Or to stop a situation from going in a direction they don’t know how to handle. It gives them a set of safety rails to hold onto. If a player can’t handle letting a new GM learn the ropes a little bit before going all out, then maybe they need to find a different group.

Not every group is an immersive shared narrative where each player is equally invested in telling the story. So this rule of “Don’t say no” sure as hell isn’t an amazing rule for all to follow. Feel free to toss it aside, maybe pick it up later if it you do get one of those groups going.

Jaded Gamer Diary - Personal Politics

Wrote this one a while back and never posted it. Now beginning with the new year I feel it's more relevant to me than ever before. Hell just a couple months ago I removed somebody from my game group for their personal politics and bringing them at the table. Then acted like he was the victim when his hate got people to turn their back on them. 

So here we go. One rant that should have been posted earlier on. 

--------------------------------------------

Been a while for a real Jaded Gamers and I need to vent a little. This time on the idea that "personal politics shouldn't matter as long as they aren't brought up at the game table". 

Yeah fuck that and I'll tell you why. 

I shouldn't have to deal with somebody, during my personal choice of entertainment, who supports things that I utterly despise. Even if they don't say it to my face (because most won't) or don't bring it up at the game table. If I know they are one of those who is perpetually spitting out hateful shit constantly online, or around others, then I don't want them around me.

Had a person I gamed with say they think all gay people should be rounded up and put into concentration camps. I absolutely refuse to game with that person anymore. 

Had a person who said all liberals should be subject to psychological evaluation by a set of standards determined by conservatives or be deported. I absolutely refuse to game with that person anymore. 

Had a person that said Covid was a culling that our world much needed. Yeah, guess what, won't game with that person anymore. 

I will simply stop inviting them to be at my games. Will unfollow them on social media. Will tell them no they cannot play in my group anymore. And I will tell them why. If they get butthurt, then they get butthurt. But since they obviously have a level of complete hate for others then they should expect to be treated the same way.

The same goes with buying gaming products. The politics that a person supports will strongly affect my decision of buying a game if they stand on the side with hate. Fuckers like Zak S, Jon Tarnowski, Mike Mearls, etc; will never see a dime of my money. 

You even begin to say this is gatekeeping then you are ignorant as to what that word even means. Go educate yourself if you are even capable of learning something. 

Also if my personal politics offend you that much then don't invite me over either. Don't buy my products. Hell I probably don't want to associate with you anyways. 

Rant over. 

Horror Six Pack - 6 nasty things to find in a storage shed

 

Sometimes people can do the most terrible things inside of a storage shed and you wouldn't ever know about it until somebody cracked that door open. Well it's time for that to happen, what will you have your players find?

Six horrible things to find in a storage shed.

1 – Filled full of sealed 55 gallon metal drums, about a dozen or so. Each one has a ziplock baggy taped to the top of it containing a persons ID and small personal affects they may carry around with them. If the barrels are opened they will find them full of a thick black liquid and the body of the person submerged inside of them. A sign on the wall says “Shed 4 of 6”.

2 – A large wooden table in the middle with various chains and restraints attached. A small rolling tray with several knives, corkscrews, needles, and other torture devices on it. Everything is coated in a layer of old dried blood. All the restraints are sized for somebody child sized.

3 – Several shelves crammed in close together, going from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. All of them complete filled with glass jars of various sized. Each filled with some sort of preservation fluid with a human organ inside. Each one is labeled with the organ name, age and sex of the person it came from.

4 – The shed is filled with rotting, stinking, mashed fur and meat. In the middle of the room, covered in gore is a large anvil attached to an even larger wooden block. Nearby is a sledge hammer. Probably the one that, whoever owns this place, used to beat many small animals into a paste with.

5 – Filled top to bottom with freshly dug up, and busted open, caskets. From the smell many of them most likely contained the bodies of those recently deceased. However none of the bodies are to be found inside the shed.

6 – A rough built lab that was apparently used to mix various amounts of poisons, acids and many other toxic components together and mix it into chocolate. From what you can find this was apparently made into bars and packaged into children's fund raising wrappers. But there are awful lot of empty boxes the wrappers were in but it appears that many were made and already shipped out someplace.

Roll a D10 - Smuggle this!

 

Some jobs are simple smuggling operation of very specific data. Here are ten special deliveries of the digital style. Can't risk sending these over the net, so it's a meat house special to be delivered via their own footwork. 

Things you may be asked to smuggle.

1 – High end educational videos that are for private schools only to underground educator groups.

2 – The actual report on how harmful the latest heavy corporate sponsored sports energy drink really is.

3 – Where the city is actually keeping political prisoners and what they do with the bodies afterwards.

4 – The name and home address of every citizen who turned over evidence to the police.

5 – Control commands for every AI being used by the military.

6 – The chemical compound that is a cure for most types of cancer.

7 – Criminal records of many high ranking politicians before they were either altered or erased.

8 – A list of private brothels and human trafficking locations owned by the city government.

9 – The list of police informants who are living among the human rights groups.

10 – Proof that some of the leading political figures in the city have been replaced by high end clones.