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This is Audio EXP for the 2nd of March, and the episode title is “Unknown scares”
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #232]
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LunarShadow Designs won the March vote, and we’ll start the process of getting in touch.
I’m struggling to get my head around the fact it’s March already. My day job has been incredibly busy, and it’s eating time in that strange way that has time to pause and vanish at once.
I’m a bit regretful that I didn’t pack more into this Saturday, like going to see a movie and managing some better escapism. Perhaps that’s influenced the Geek Native articles in this highlight podcast because there’s some movie banter coming up.
I’m certainly not regretful for the shortlist in the April RPG Publisher Spotlight. Let’s hope, though, April doesn’t sneak up too quickly.
Geek Native patrons can vote, and you can find the link to the poll in the transcript or the RPG Publisher Spotlight page, both via the show notes.
The candidates are:
Bronwen has written up a review of Vindication Swim. It’s worked out well as our creative director is currently engaged on a project exploring our relationship with water, one which features wild swimmers.
Vindication Swim is set in the 20s, and tells the true and remarkable story of a woman who swims the English Channel, and then for reasons the movie gets into, has to do it again.
I think swimming out into the great unknown is a courageous thing to do. I’ve gone swimming, and this is humble bragging, off the reefs in Australia, and it’s both thrilling and spooky.
I very much remember swimming up to the reef, looking down into the darkness of the sea and seeing… something… move.
It was a dark and sinister shape. It cut through the water like a predator. What was it? Don’t ask me. I fled back to the shallows of the reef.
Bronwen has also been tracking Alien Romulus and I think you can see the connection. The darkness and strange creatures of the ocean are, hopefully, the closest we’ll get to the terror of the xenomorphs.
Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez is helming the movie, and one of the stars, David Jonsson, has stuck his neck out to say this movie will feel very different from the others in the franchise.
That’s a bit mysterious, isn’t it?
We have some sci-fi tabletop RPG news, too. Modiphius has confirmed they’ll be making a second edition of Star Trek Adventures.
The new edition expands from the 21st to the 32nd century and, from the get-go, includes Starfleet and the Klingon and Romulan Empires.
You don’t often hear of an IP RPG getting a second edition. Sure, it happens, I’m just saying it’s rarer and a vote of confidence for the publisher so well done Modiphius.
A movie that I’m working hard to be open-minded about and which I suspect Bronwen is very sceptical is the Crow reboot.
We’ve got the first image of Bill Skarsgard as The Crow. We’re told inspirations include the likes of Post Malone, while fans are suggesting it’s more like Jared Leto’s Joker. They’re not saying that to be kind.
There is a The Crow RPG, at least an official setting, and that’s managed by Evil Genius Games and powered by Everyday Heroes.
Evil Genius Games have not had it easy. They first lost the Rebel Moon TTRPG after a weird spat with Netflix and then lost staff. Trouble started last year at GAMA and when I heard CEO Dave Scott was taking the company backed to GAMA this year, I wanted to talk to him about it.
There’s now an interview live on Geek Native.
I hope I’ve not been too pushy, but I suspect people want to know what’s going on. For example, thousands backed Everyday Heroes expecting to get Cinematic Adventures in settings like The Crow, Kong: Skull Island and Highlander.
Will there be any more? I asked the question as buntly as that.
I also asked whether they, as a company, could have handled the last few months differently and, yes, mistakes had been made. I asked how badly the Netflix loss had hit the company. Badly. I asked whether Evil Genius was a tech company or a games publisher, and well, if you’re curious, it’s all there to read.
If Evil Genius and Netflix ended in divorce, then a partnership which seems to be gelling is Luke Gygax and Gooey Cube on The Tomb of Gyzaengaxx.
The Tomb of Gyzaengaxx is a box set mega-adventure and campaign setting. Yes, it’s for D&D’s 5e, but not exclusively so.
Yes, it’s also leaning deep into the Gygax family name, but it’s very much a lampoon. I think that’s the only way to do it.
I should do a second video on the production quality we’ve seen from Goeey Cube because it helps explain why the Kickstarter is doing so well. People are excited.
Before we get to the single bundle offer in our outro this week, though, I’ll highlight another project where I’m sure the production quality is superb but perhaps too high.
Matthew Lillard of Beadle & Grimm’s also has a drinks company called Find Familiar Spirits and they have a second character class of a whiskey coming out. It’s called Quest’s End: Rogue. This time, it’ll come to the UK.
However, it’s about £120 a bottle, and I drink whiskey, don’t collect. That’s an expensive dram. I can’t afford it. I guess some people can, or others will want to collect it.
Now, that bundle I told you bout is for one of the oldest RPGs out there – Chivalry and Sorcery. The bundle is Chivarly and Rising Sun.
The designer of the Rising Sun books is Lee Gold, an early female pioneer in tabletop RPGs and who, it is documented, had to hang up on Gary Gygax who apparently could not get over the fact Lee was a woman.
On that note, maybe go for a swim, and I’ll see you next week.
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