Jaded Gamer Diary - Paradigm Shift

 

The term "paradigm shift" has found uses in other contexts, representing the notion of a major change in a certain thought pattern—a radical change in personal beliefs, complex systems or organizations, replacing the former way of thinking or organizing with a radically different way of thinking or organizing.

That major change of thought pattern happened for me in regards to gaming. Not in gameplay, narrative designs, or anything else. But a complete readjustment in how I thought roleplaying games were perceived by the market at large. That sudden realization that things had truly changed.

I gamed through part of the Satanic Panic era. It actually lasted longer here in the rural backwater rural hells of Missouri than it did in some other places. I had to put up with people acting like I was some sort of devil worshipper if they found out I was playing those "evil games". So we hid it most of the time. Didn't break out the books in front of others (until near the end when some of us finally stopped giving a damn) and only played in our friends basements and anyplace else where people couldn't see us. Church leaders said it was bad, teachers said it was bad, hell my useless ass excuse of a step mother even gave me a few lame "warnings" about it. 

So I always figured it would be that way. The ostracized gaming community that everybody else shuns. Sure we had a few big break outs in popularity like Vampire the Masquerade but that quickly got shot to hell by a few idiots who were barely connected to the community did stupid violent things. Even with online popularity building rapidly it still felt like we were just the outsiders.

Then the shift happened for me. I was at Wal-Mart in Desloge Missouri. When I walked through the book section and saw the 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook on the shelf. It stunned me for a moment to see that sitting there, like three copies of it. At a local Wal-Mart. Like it was normal. 

Because it had become normal and more mainstream but I hadn't noticed. 

That right there was when I realized things had changed. Changed a lot since the days of my youth when I was rolling dice with my little group of friends in high school. Soon they were selling dice (called campaign dice) there as well, the DnD Starter Set was on the game shelf in the toy section. They even sell a dice tower there now. And I'll admit I bought the little box with three dice sets in it just for the sheer humor of buying them from fucking Wal-Mart. 

Now we even have a Time Magazine Special about Dungeons and Dragons and how it changed the gaming world. And it's a positive thing. 

Still I'm not sure why I didn't notice how mainstream it was going before that. Manga was going mainstream, anime as well, should have seen it coming. But I didn't and I'm kind of glad about that. Because I got that wonderful shock to the system when I did finally notice.

Is there a point to all this rambling? No, not this time. Just me thinking about how much things have changed and feeling like typing it all out.

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Jaded Gamer Diary - Things Change

 

Just some personal musing and such today. About gaming, but not about how to game or what to do, but about how I've seen the way I run games change over the last few years. 

I used to be really good at impromptu sessions. Would have a vague idea or two in my head and would toss out a couple ideas just to see where the players wanted to go and we would run with it. Then I would right some notes throughout the session, keeping track of new NPC names and the such. That was about the only reference I would use, notes about what popped up during these sessions that the players may come back around to.

This is how I ran games and it seemed to work really well.

Then we hit this thing called Covid-19. Not only did it just bring all my face to face gaming to a sudden screeching halt but it put it put me in the hospital as well. Spent some time in a drug induced coma hooked up to a ventilator. Things got scary for my wife as the doctors didn't think I was going to make it. Scary for me as well since I was locked in nightmare sleep mode and couldn't wake up from it. But my body bounced back and made it through.

The after affects of that is what changed things. Not the physical therapy, although that sucked, but the brain fog. That shit ain't no joke. At first I would not be able to come up with words every sentence or two and it took me a while to just say anything lengthy. Trying to remember stuff was hard as well. Initially the two big differences I noticed that a lot of peoples names, people I had known for years, were suddenly gone and I had to relearn them. Then it was my inability to do any sort of math in my head.

But a few months later after I was off the walker and crutches I sat down to try and run a game. That's when I noticed something else. My ability to run games off the cuff with no prep was greatly reduced. I just couldn't think quickly or would just go blank. Now since then it's gotten better but not by much.

So I've started using written adventures now. With my group I've ran the Land of the Free campaign for Cyberpunk 2020. Currently I'm running Tales of the Red: Street Stories for Cyberpunk RED. Been eyeballing Over the Edge once again since I own a bunch of the old adventures published for that. I still do some stuff of my own but I have to make notes beforehand or they turn out pretty badly. 

Things have changed and I've adapted. But I wish I didn't have to. But I'm still here and I'm still running games. Not the way I used to though. Just talking about what's been swimming around in my head for the last few months. 

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Masters Workshop - PC Death

 

There is a post over on BlueSky that got me thinking. I made a screenshot of it below. 

I've played in a few games where you will spend an insane amount of time making characters. Tons of fiddly bits and stuff to figure up or buying gear. Then just an hour into the game and one bad roll, all that is gone and the PC is dead. So you start all over again.

Needless to say after a few times with stuff like that happening I said "fuck this, not fun anymore" and left. This has probably been on of the main reason I soft ball the first few games of anything I run. So the players can get into the feel of the game a bit and so they don't have to do character creation all over again.

Now I've never played or read Tenra Bansho Zero but I remember some folks up in arms over this rule. I like it and I don't myself. Probably because I've dealt with my fair share of problem players over the years and if they figured out they couldn't die no matter what, well the amount of stupid shit they would attempt is something I don't even want to think about. But I get the general idea. Three hours of character creation and then the first chest you fail a trap check on and get a bad save, BANG you're dead. Now you sit there and crunch numbers why the rest of the table gets to play. No thanks.

A friend told me Colonial Gothic has a 'Coin' mechanic that allows you a one time 'cash in' if your character dies. It saves them from death but they may have recovery time, bad injuries, etc. But you get to keep on with that one PC and that sounds doable. 

But my main take away is that after hours of character generation a system with instant character death is a whole shit load of no fun. Simple systems where char gen is only five or ten minutes, that works. Hell something with mostly premade char gen with only a couple tweaks would be the best idea. At least for those who want to run high mortality games where one wrong roll ends things.

Personally I like more invested character creation. More personality is developed that way and you are more able to play what you want. This enables you to, y'know, have more fun. 

So I'm thinking of something akin to a mechanic where it gives you that second chance. But it doesn't shield you forever. But once it's used it's gone. Because I don't want to have the idiot squad doing stupid shit and never learning that there are better ways to do things besides leading with their face into combat. 

What are your thoughts?

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Flooding and a lull in my posts.

 

There will be a little lull in blog posts for a bit. We recently had our roof decide that it didn't want to stop water anymore. While it didn't collapse we had buckets of water coming into our bedroom and garage. Now I managed to save most of our stuff in the bedroom cause we acted before it got really bad. The garage we lost quite a bit but I'm not sure what all yet, haven't gotten to the clean up there because the sheet rock ceiling did collapse and I'm letting it dry up some. 

Total loss won't be known until for a bit. 

So now in various parts of our house we have piles of books stacked everywhere. Boxes of our clothes. All sorts of thing. So it's a mess. Not really in the mental space to work on writing right now. 

The landlord has been on top of things as best he can. But he can't seal the metal roof properly until it's above freezing. This is because the sealant won't properly set in these temperatures (it's 5F right now with wind chill in the negatives). Then once that's sealed and no longer leaking then he'll be replacing the ceiling in the garage. 

So just to let you all know what's going on and while my blog posting will be slow for a week or two.

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Roll a D10 - Cyberpunk Drinks

 

The big corps are always trying to come up with the next big thing. This is doubled for those making consumable products. So here are ten alcoholic drinks on the market in a cyberpunk future. Just don't ask how safe they are to consume because the FDA was disbanded long ago. 

Cyberpunk era alcoholic drinks

1 – Bud Neon. When you twist the top off it lights up in a random neon color.

2 – ClearBeer. Looks like water, hits you like a pilsner.

3 – Squeaker. A cocktail that makes your vocal cords tighten up making your voice high pitched.

4 – Frosty. Makes you exhale clouds of steam like you’re exhaling in a very cold environment.

5 – Clear Chaser. A nano infused drink that quickly (a few minutes) clears alcohol from your system.

6 – Fruity Freak. Each time you take a drink it makes you taste a different fruit flavor.

7 – Phantom Limb. Makes you feel a sensual tingle anywhere you have cyberware implanted.

8 – Extra Time. The alcohol is tailored to be time released after drinking so your buzz lasts longer.

9 – BUZZ. An orange drink that isn’t alcoholic until you hit it with an electrical charge.

10 – Rabid Dogg. A milky white drink that foams up in your mouth.

Six Pack - Things for a Techie to make

 

Sometimes a techie seems pretty useless in a game. Until you get creative with the things they can build. Here are six ideas for neat little devices your tech guru in the party can make that may prove useful. 

Six Things for a Techie to make in Cyberpunk

1 – A pocket universal ‘off switch’. What looks like a standard remote with only a few buttons sends out a signal that gives an off command to anything that accepts one wirelessly. Televisions, video cameras, cars, the list goes on.

2 – Decoder Headphones. They pick up nearby low distance radio signals, like squad communication gear, and focus in on that particular frequency, letting you listen in on the conversation.

3 – The Plastic Breaker. A sonic device that is suction cupped to either glass or plastic windows. It then goes through a series of vibration and high pitched sonic pulses until it finds the one that makes the surface break. Can be noisy and sometimes may take a few minutes.

4 – Fuel Worm. A small snake like device that is slid into a vehicles gas tank via the fuel port. It then filters the gas through a nozzle and breaks down the chemical compounds. Rendering it inert enough so that the vehicle cannot run.

5 – A pair of sunglasses where one lens is a small video screen showing the wearer what is going on behind them.

6 – Foam bombs. Four canisters of expanding foam spray hooked to a small explosive charge with various forms of detonation. Great for filling up small hallways, stairwells or killing people in ventilation shafts.

Review - Uncle Rays Chips

 

Don't eat these. 

Uncle Ray's Sweet Black Pepper Bacon potato chips. Yeah... that doesn't wasn't bacon. There was a smoking flavor there but it wasn't the good kind. There was a sweet flavor there, but again it wasn't the good kind. Black pepper, never tasted that at all. Plus these bad flavors coated your mouth and lingered for much longer than anyone would want. 

These are bad. 

Top 10 Sci Fi Cyberpunk Books

RPG Review - Demon Generator

 

Just a quick fast little review today. The Demon Generator from Piecewise Games over on DrivethruRPG. 

I'll be quite honest here, it's mostly just what it says on the tin. You pick the type of demon you want and then you roll on the charts for some various creative cues and pull them all together. It doesn't all magically lock into place and you have to do some creative thinking to pull it together. But what it comes up with really helps lock you into that flow. 

So like they said, no art, no filler, no bullshit. It's straight forward a list of table used for generating some details.

For only a single solitary dollar (US currency) I'd say it was worth the investment. I'll be using it to pull some odd entities for some of my modern and near modern day horror games I run on occasion. Should be fun. 

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Movie Review - Alone in the Dark (2005)

 

Alone in the Dark

Watch it on Tubi for free.

Or buy a copy on Amazon if you are a fool. 

God help me I’m watching another Uwe Boll movie. I swore I would never do this again, but here I am. It’s time for another terrible ‘adaption’ of a video game from the butcher of any IP he’s handed.

Let’s open with a stupidly long text scroll info dumping a lot of shit no one will ever remember. Not only is a text scroll they have somebody reading it as well. Because Puke Bowl thinks movie audiences are completely illiterate I’m assuming. Fucking hell.

Right off the bat I have to say the dialogue is so absolutely dreadful. Much of it really just makes no sense, disjointed, and delivered with all the effort of an elementary school play. They push in the exposition explaining what’s going on, which of course completely negates the need for that intro scrolling wall of text. They could have completely dropped that shit but instead they like telling you ahead of time what they are going to tell you later.

So very badly shot at almost every chance they could. Let’s walk away from the house just so we can turn back around and walk into the house. Just really dumb shots like this over and over again. Here’s a box with a gun and a bunch of bullets that hurt the creatures… so when one shows up at your house you get as far away from that gun as possible. Hey come over here and talk to me so I can then walk away and leave you where I just called you too. Over and fucking over again.

Tara Reid cannot act, she’s like a cardboard cutout of herself with the mouth rigged to move. Evidently there was a sex scene in the original release that’s not in the version I just watched. That scene is probably the only reason Uwe Balls had her in the film, he wanted to see her naked. Stephen Dorff comes along to basically play Stephen Dorff in every movie you’ve seen him in. Christian Slater as the main character Edward Carnby does the best he can do but with what he’s been given to work with, well nobody can make this shit sandwich work. Some of the other acting jobs are pretty dire as well. Probably due in part to complete and utter lack of any constructive direction what so ever.

People trash the special effects in this one. But, to be honest, I’ve seen worse being pumped out today. But it really is a sloppy mix of sloppy practical effects and CGI mixed together. With to much focus on the gore which really doesn’t help a damn thing because this is no where near a horror movie like the Uwe Bore thought he was making.

Every damn thing about the ‘story’ or the way scenes are shot feel like they’re trying to imitate other, much better, movies. Like Eww Boll couldn’t actually create a complete original thought and instead borrowed ideas from everyone else. Then mashed them all together while smiling like a blathering idiot.

Now this is better than House of the Dead or Bloodrayne… but that’s not saying much. This is very early 2000’s direct to bargain bin DVD fair at best. They spent 20 million on this absolute shit show, that’s like throwing stacks of cash into a wood chipper.

Blair Erickson wrote the early versions of the script and, well, you can pretty much tell what happened by what he said in this ‘Something Awful’ interview:

The original script took the Alone in the Dark premise and depicted it as if it were actually based on a true story of a private investigator in the northeastern U.S. whose missing persons cases begin to uncover a disturbing paranormal secret. It was told through the eyes of a writer following Edward Carnby and his co-worker for a novel and depicted them as real-life blue-collar folks who never expected to find hideous beings waiting for them in the dark. We tried to stick close to the H. P. Lovecraft style and the low-tech nature of the original game, always keeping the horror in the shadows so you never saw what was coming for them.

Thankfully Dr. Boll was able to hire his loyal team of hacks to crank out something much better than our crappy story and add in all sorts of terrifying horror movie essentials like opening gateways to alternate dimensions, bimbo blonde archaeologists, sex scenes, mad scientists, slimy dog monsters, special army forces designed to battle slimy CG dog monsters, Tara Reid, "Matrix" slow-motion gun battles, and car chases. Oh yeah, and a ten-minute opening back story scroll read aloud to the illiterate audience, the only people able to successfully miss all the negative reviews.

There were parts of that script apparently still in here. Where Carnby does the voice over bits, which vanish for long periods of times when the dumbass stuff is going on. This entire thing is a train wreck after the Uwe Bowel Movement got it’s fingers in there. Maybe that sex scene in the middle would have helped a little bit if just for the male gaze factor.

Don’t watch this dogshit of a movie. It’s not worth it.

"I hold here the last bit of my dignity that I pissed away by being in this film. But I got to rub up against Tara Reid so why not?"

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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.

Roll a D10 - Items in a dead corpos' pockets

 

So you found a dead corporate guy. I mean you stumbled across their dead body, you sure didn't make them dead or anything, completely by chance. Right? Right! Well here you can roll a D10 to find out what you find in the assholes pockets. 

Things found in a dead corpos' pockets

1 – A flash drive filled with illegal porn (underage, snuff, etc).

2 – Key to an old fashioned safe.

3 – An untraceable cred stick with over 100 grand on it.

4 – A case full of braindance chip of very questionable content.

5 – A financing chip with the details of how to skim charities they oversee for cash.

6 – Pocket holophoto album of their secretaries using the bathroom.

7 – A burner agent filled with sex hook up apps.

8 – An AI assistant with a full interactive hologram.

9 – A list of names, all politicians, each with a reference to a computer file in the corporate system.

10 – Small bottle of pills for enhanced erectile function.

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Movie Review - Binary Samurai

 

Binary Samurai

Watch it for free onTubi

Or pay to watch it on Amazon Prime

Over on YouTube you can watch the trailer for this one. It was put up by the guy responsible for the film. Wonder why he has the comments turned off?

Made in 2023 set in the dark future of 1999. Yeah the opening explanation of what’s going on really doesn’t fill in any of the blanks either. But okay here we go with something new. I’ll call is ‘Shiver Cam’. It’s like who ever is holding the camera, or the rig, is shaking and the whole thing has a slight bounce up and down. But somehow they are even managing to make the opening credits shiver as well. That’s not a positive way to start.

The movie proceeds to go straight down pretty quick. It’s a dystopian apocalyptic future but everybody seems to have some pretty clean clothes and they are hunting down abandoned object laying the dirt for years that are also perfectly clean. Amazing that. The costumes, man the costumes. I’ve seen much better cyberfuture/apocalyptic outfits at small game cons than this. Feels like this is what they filmed while they were doing the photo shots for the Digital Burn ttrpg. Don’t know what Digital Burn is? There’s a reason for that.

Props. Yeah they got some props. All secured from the bins at thrift stores and airsoft ranges. I actually recognized one airsoft pistol in particular that I used to own many long years ago. They just glued something extra on top of it. Coupled with special effect done with your instant special effects generator that you can pick up anywhere online. But hey, they at least use it to it’s full measure. I’ll give them that one. But one thing, one of the Samurai’s carries around a cyberdeck… that’s built on the deck of a skateboard. Guess they were trying to be clever.

Boy they love these abandoned buildings. Actually I think it’s just one big ass abandoned building, they just used every single damn inch of it.

Now let’s talk about their whole ‘cyberspace’ thing. HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT AM I WATCHING? It is, no I’m not shitting you, interpretive dance. ALL OF IT. The actors in a blue light dancing in a dark area with ones and zeros line up down the screen for the ‘cyber’ effect. They spend half that damned movie on this absolute trash. It goes on for several minutes at a time with little to no dialogue. Just dancing and some old Japanese type of music. I mean kudos for coming up with a new idea here, but it’s a fucking really shit idea. It’s worse than the action figure art of the 3^rd edition of the Cyberpunk ttrpg. I can't even begin to explain how absolutely dumb this looks. 

Now on with the overall feeling of the film. Is this supposed to be serious, or this badly done on purpose? I had to get up and walk away several times while watching this one. I NEVER have to do that. Zardoz is better than this. So many parts are painfully boring. Long glances and people just looking at things for ever. If they cut out all the nothing scenes and all the GOD AWFUL INTERPRETIVE DANCING this thing would only be about ten to fifteen minutes long.

I didn’t like interpretive dancing before, now I absolutely hate it. Not even going to talk about the AI generated cover image they use for this thing.

Plot? Oh yeah that's in there. Samurai guys stealing 'nodes' from tech worshippers and giving them to the Daimyo they serve. Other person in the net telling them "no don't do that". There you have it. 

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