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 The PC's came against a medium enforcer of the The Crimsiki crime family who came in right after The Black Bat was enroute to the crime scene after the kids were saved. Firefight II was a huge pain in the arse for the party. And things got worse as the whole space lit on fire as the plasma bolts of the villain lit the space up. Fire Fight II thinks he's the only one true inheritorNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: 73 Yards, 2024 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Rivals are back for round two as David Tennant’s Lord Baddingham takes the gloves off

Few Doctors have had a post-Doctor Who career as varied and prolific as David Tennant. Now he’s back with another of his popular successes as Rivals returns for a second series. Based on the books by Jilly Cooper, the show stars Tennant as Tony Baddingham, the ruthless, wealthy, and womanizing head of Corinium Television. The epitome of 1980s excess, Baddingham will stop at nothing to maintain control of a lucrative regional television franchise. But then again, his greatest rival Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) will stop at nothing to conquer it himself. The result of their clash is an outlandish mix of corporate skullduggery, betrayal, and bed-hopping affairs.

Following Venturer’s unexpected success in the local TV world, Lord Baddingham is more determined than ever in Series Two to bring his enemies down, offering a glimpse into the murky tactics he resorts to now that the gloves are fully off. Meanwhile, the messy love lives of Rutshire’s residents are starting to cause even more problems than usual, and in this glossy 1980s world, private drama has a habit of going public.

Rivals co-stars Claire Rushbrook (The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit), Annabel Scholey (Flux), Brendan Patricks (The Crimson Horror), and Amanda Lawerence (The Doctor’s Wife). Also appearing are Milo Callaghan (Dot and Bubble), and Maxim Ays (Rogue). Outside of the world of Doctor Who, the cast includes Aiden Turner (Being Human, Poldark), Emily Atack (The Inbetweeners) and Danny Dyer (EastEnders.)

Series Two also introduces Olive Tennant, daughter of David and Georgia Tennant, and granddaughter of Fifth Doctor Peter Davison, as Baddingham’s daughter Camilla.

The first four episodes of series two are available now on Disney+, with the next two arriving on Thursdays, and the remaining six episodes of the season following later in the year.

The post Rivals is Back for Season Two! appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 Yes, Barrows & Borderlands (B&B) fits seamlessly into this mix—in fact, it provides the exact missing piece of the puzzle.This blog post picks right up from Integrating Adventurer Conqueror King System II (ACKS II) with the legendary, chaotic, and maximum-gonzo DNA of Dave Hargraves Arduin GrimoiresIf ACKS II provides the rigid macro-economics (the "Conqueror" and "King" phasesNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Title: Battle Beast # 9 Publisher: Image Comics Writer: Robert Kirkman Artist: Annalisa Leoni & Ryan Ottley Colorist: Annalisa Leoni Letterer: Rus Wooton Covers: Annalisa Leoni & Ryan Ottley, Mike…

The post RICH REVIEWS: Battle Beast # 9 appeared first on First Comics News.

Title: Birding Is My Favorite Video Game (GN) Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing Author/Illustrator: Rosemary Mosco Price: $ 18.99 US, $ 25.99 Can Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Website: http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com…

The post RICH REVIEWS: Birding Is My Favorite Video Game appeared first on First Comics News.

POISON IVY #47 Written by G. WILLOW WILSON Art by LEANDRO FERNANDEZ Cover by JESSICA FONG Variant covers by NOOBOVICH, KYUYONG EOM, and MANNY VINCENT CARBONILLA $3.99 US | 32 pages…

The post DC COMICS AUGUST 2026 SOLICITATIONS appeared first on First Comics News.

MIDNIGHT X-MEN #1 Jonathan Hickman (W) • Matteo Della Fonte (A) COVER BY DIKE RUAN • MOVIE HOMAGE VARIANT COVER BY Björn Barends VARIANT COVER BY Alessandro Cappuccio • VARIANT…

The post MARVEL COMICS AUGUST 2026 SOLICITATIONS appeared first on First Comics News.

The irresistible X-Men met the immovable Blob in their third issue. “The first two issues were notable for just how off-model the characters were, as Stan (Lee) had not yet…

The post JUST IMAGINE! January 1964: And Blobby Makes Three appeared first on First Comics News.

By Operant Game Lab
Self Published
OSR/Rovers & Riches
Level ??

Even the most ignorant children know the realm is divided by a massive, transparent wall. Everything outside the wall is “normal.” Everything that lies inside is “wrong.” The “wrong” lands are called Zu. Today, we take a field trip into strangest Zu…

This 35 page decently-sized hexcrawl adventure presents a bunch of hexes in Zu, a weirdo land full of bizarre things going on in a fantasy/post-apoc/PoMo mashup. The hexes can be interesting and are certainly creative, but they lack tension.

Let’s call this a farcical Rifts setting. A giant glass wall separates the Normal lands from the Weirdo place beyond the wall, which everyone calls Zu. There’s a break in the wall at Happy Town, to let you in. Tonally, a giant mecha made of junk is on the wanderers table and is described as “It powered by a dozen subjects running on human treadwheels. Six troopers (p. 24) with scoped rifles float from balloons lashed to the giant’s shoulders, poised to rain down leaden death.” 

This thing has a niche audience and it’s not me. And I mean this in two regards. First, the setting. It might be closest to that 4e D&D version of Gamma World, the Paranoia Zap of gamma worlds. Those things like Troika and Mork Borg come to mind as well.There is a strong element of absurdity here, maybe even Theater of the Absurd if I get a little meta. There’s an old school with a janitor in it and a teddy bear that needs stories read to it. Or, a water slide aqueduct trickling water to an empty pool where cleric chicks covered in sponge suits dole out the water to bedraggled people standing in line ala Fury Road. Happy Town itself is ruled by a little twilight zone Anthony with a wand of transmutation who turns people in to stuff if she doesn’t get her way, so the people there only make candy and cakes and force smiles here in Peaksville. Tonally, you’re going to have to be ok with this kind of content being your game if you want to use this, and I suspect the more niche sides of the OSR are where this is aimed. You not gonna be happy with this if you don’t like zaniness.

I’m struggling to find a way to frame this second point. There is, in my mind, a difference in game play in certain systems. D&D, of the classic OSR style, leans more towards a game. You are typing to stay alive and level. There’s an inherent tension in that, and staying alive and leveling is ‘winning’ at D&D. It lends itself to campaign play well since there is continuity, your character. This is one of the reasons that ‘museum adventures’ are so frustrating to me; you are actively discouraged to interact, which works against what you are playing. Other RPGs fall more in to an Activity. Baron Muchausen is the classic example. Your enjoyment comes from something different. And that, I think, is where this adventure lies.

The hexes in this have two general types of encounters. First there are some filler hexes, making up about half of the hexes. Short, with only two-three sentences, they provide some flavor. A hex full of wines, walking through them wakes them up, and they feel the party members and pat them on the back before opening up to allow them to pass. Freaky? Absolutely. But nothing else going on.

The second type of hex, representing the other half of the hexes, take about a page or so each. There is more text and whats happening is more involved. But, i would assert, to the same end. There’s nothing really TO DO. Oh, you can get involved, but why? Touching things and getting involved brings trouble. And there’s not really anything to exploit, as one might in a traditional hex crawl game. If you were just trying to interact to have a good time then you’re chill, yeah, freaky things will happen. But no one is going out out their way to gack you (other than perhaps the wanderers) and there’s not really treasure to loot to exploit, at least in a traditional sense. Some of the hooks DO send you on the hunt for something. Happy Town wants you to go get a candle. Ok, so, I guess we can explore and look for that. SOme hexes ARE mentioned in other hexes, but they are not really interconnected, either explicitly or, I would assert, implicitly, in that you can, say, break the dam in hex X to flood the orc caves in hex Y, or some other wacky scheme that the party were to come up with. You enter a hex, have a wacky encounter, and move on to repeat.

For the more Activity-based RPG”s this is going to be a great adventure. I think it serves everything they need to get in to wacky situations. But for a more campaign/game based game I’m not sure its overly useful. (Not that you can’t campaign Mork Borg or Troika or DCC, but I don’t think it works out that way in practice.) 

This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru with a suggested price of $5. PWYW and then preview is the entire thing, so good preview.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/483434/field-trip-to-zu?1892600

The post Video of the Day – Big Finish, 2026 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Papercutz Announces JANE AMERICAN A Young Girl Forever Changed by War Must Decide Whether to Hide Who She Is or Become the Hero the World Needs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY…

The post A wartime hero rises in a coming-of-age story about identity, loss, and finding the courage to be yourself appeared first on First Comics News.

 I am happy to announce the release of the Premium Color edition of Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms: The Northern Marches. Because of a mistake on my part, I wasn't able to enable this version of the Northern Marches during my public release on April 30th. For those wanting to purchase this version, I have attached a $5 off coupon valid until June 15th. 

Discount DriveThruRPG coupon

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discountId=9ceee3becb

Product Link

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/555490/into-the-majestic-fantasy-realms-the-northern-marches

Here are some examples of what the Premium color version looks like.

Note the shine on the image of the watchtower

 The Fog-Shrouded Sanctuary: Halloween TownLocation: Beneath the Abandoned Fleet Ditch Sewers, LondonEra: Victorian Steampunk / Supernatural (Victorious RPG)In the soot-stained heart of Victorian London, where the smog of the Industrial Revolution meets the ancient ley lines of Britain, lies a sanctuary for those deemed "unnatural." Halloween Town is not a myth to the monsters of the Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

An admission, dear readers: I had no idea who Awkward GM Corbin was until I started writing this post. Now I’ve discovered his YouTube Channel and know exactly who created the “About Me: Tabletop” template that inspired today’s entry. It really goes to show my age that I had no idea these were so popular in online fandoms! I might have seen a few floating around online spaces, but the trend didn’t truly catch my attention until Angel (aka Enyol) posted his About Me Tabletop RPG in the Puerto Rico Role Players Facebook group.

While searching online, I saw that the original Awkward GM post was made on Reddit about 20 days ago. You can get the template here.

The idea of completing the template challenged me, and I honestly thought I’d be done with it in no time. That was not the case. A few categories were easy to fill out, but others took real time, and I went back and forth on several of my responses. Surprisingly, only one answer is repeated!

I was originally going to just post the image and be done with it. But you know me: I can’t help but add details and explanations. If you just want the quick visual, here is the image on its own. Feel free to comment away here on the blog or on my socials—I’d be happy to engage!

However, if you want the deep dive into my choices, read on.

First, a quick caveat. These are my current thoughts as of late May 2026. Some of these might have been different in the past, or they may evolve in the future. It might be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: these are MY opinions, not the opinions of Michael (aka the titular Stargazer) or any of the other blog contributors. You may disagree with some of my takes. Good! Leave a comment, fill out your own “About Me: Tabletop RPG” form, and share it with us. I’d love to have that conversation.

Now that the housekeeping is out of the way, on to the categories!

Favorite Game: Savage Worlds

I recently posted about my two current favorite games on the blog, so this should be no surprise. The real challenge was picking which ONE to put in the top spot. This may just be a matter of what I’m currently planning and running, but it feels right.

• Runner-up: The Without Number series (Stars, Worlds, Cities, and Ashes)

Best Lore: Raiding the Obsidian Keep

There is a lot of fantastic lore content in TTRPGs. A LOT. Picking just one is incredibly hard. Do I go with the wonderfully convoluted and bizarre Torg? The setting I’m currently playing, Fading Suns? The brilliant Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death? The Whispering Vault? I ultimately went with Raiding the Obsidian Keep by Joseph R. Lewis.

Why? It is an incredibly succinct adventure with a highly imaginative story and setting, packed full of great details. It features engaging lore, a self-contained OSR structure, and clocks in at 72 marvelously illustrated pages in the Merry Mushmen edition (with an even shorter version, The Obsidian Keep, which is D&D 5e-compatible and self-published by Mr. Lewis). Of all the content I’ve read recently, this was just the most imaginative old-school adventure I’ve seen, and I simply could not put it down. I am usually not a big fan of pre-written adventures, but this one had it all.

• Runners-up: Fading Suns, The Whispering Vault, and Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death

Best Art: UVG 2E: Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City

This book is a work of art. It is a brilliant combination of rules and visuals that seamlessly tells a cohesive story. This pick might surprise some of my friends, as the art style isn’t what they typically think of as my favorite, but the book as a whole achieves something truly incredible.

• Runners-up: Symbaroum, Vaesen, Coriolis, and Dragonbane (all by Free League Publishing)

Best Mechanics: Call of Cthulhu

“But wait!” you’re saying. “Why not your favorite game?” Because I approached this category looking for the game where the mechanics perfectly mesh with the specific tone it is trying to achieve. Call of Cthulhu is an absolute masterclass in combining rules with genre. The Sanity rules and the skill system are all so seamless in bringing the feeling of Mythos to the table. It’s a classic for a reason.

• Runner-up: All variations of the d20 system. Yes, it is overdone, and no, it is not the perfect mechanical representation of varying skills or degrees of success. Regardless, it is a core mechanic common to millions of players, incredibly easy to understand, and acts as the lingua franca of TTRPGs. It is hard to beat that chassis.

Biggest Personal Impact: Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game

I am talking about the classic D6 version from West End Games. The dice pool system was entirely new to me as a young gamer. I had played other TTRPGs, but this was the first one that truly captured the cinematic feel of the movies. It pushed me to play in entirely new ways; for example, it was the first place I read about using cut-aways (jumping to action the characters aren’t even participating in) as a dramatic narrative tool. This game fundamentally changed how I run games at table.

• Runner-up: The Black Hack. It offers simple, succinct, player-facing combat. It is also where I first encountered the genius concept of the usage die.

Overhated: D&D 4th Edition

I was entirely guilty of this! I was so excited when this edition came out, but ultimately disappointed when we sat down to play it. Looking back, I think it got far too much flak. It is a very tight, highly functional application of rules. With just a few tweaks, it would have been a system I’d happily keep using, but it unfortunately became the whipping boy of D&D editions. Truthfully, 5e borrows heavily from it—it just reworded and reworked the presentation.

• Runner-up: None. This was one of the easiest picks on the list for me.

Underrated: Prime Time Adventures

A TTRPG designed specifically to run games in the structural vein of a TV show? What’s not to like! In a society where television shows range from influential art forms to daily escapist entertainment, I am genuinely surprised this game isn’t wildly popular. Almost everyone inherently understands the pacing and structure of a TV episode, making this incredibly easy to learn.

• Runner-up: The original Alternity. Doomed to come out right as TSR was being sold to WotC, this game had massive potential and an interesting dice mechanic that elegantly handled degrees of failure. It has its fans, but I am amazed there isn’t a massive retro-clone for it yet.

Overrated: Vampire: The Masquerade

This is probably my most controversial take! This game was all the rage in the 90s while I was in college. It has an undeniably interesting setting, and while I’m not a super fan of the rules, you don’t really play it for the mechanics. It absolutely brought a massive wave of new gamers into the hobby, and I certainly own my fair share of World of Darkness books. However, it is often talked about as the absolute pinnacle of gaming, and for me, that’s just a bit too much. It was a good game, but way overrated in my book.

• Runner-up: Mörk Borg! This is my category for controversy, clearly. I really like the ruleset and the wave of creativity it has inspired in the indie scene—I am a huge fan of Pirate Borg, for instance. But when I ordered Mörk Borg, I saw it as a beautiful, punk-metal artifact. It is a profound piece of art and a distinct mood, but ultimately, it’s just not a game I would run at my table using that book.

Criminally Overlooked: Legacy: Life Among the Ruins

This was my introduction to Powered by the Apocalypse games, and it caused a paradigm shift for me. It offers powerful tools for players and GMs, as well as richly realized worlds. I honestly thought this game was going to explode in popularity. More people need to be playing this.

• Runner-up: Psi*Run. This is my favorite simple indie game, ideal for a quick one-shot. I’ve raved about it before, and I highly recommend checking it out.

Has Aged Well: Traveller

The venerable sci-fi original. Traveller has had so many iterations, editions, and adaptations over the decades. Yet it continues to thrive, from the official Mongoose 2nd Edition to older rule sets, all the way to Traveller5. I am a massive fan and am so happy to see it continuing to find an audience.

• Runner-up: Dungeons & Dragons. From the new 5.5 edition to the endless sea of retro-clones and hacks, the granddaddy of TTRPGs is still doing the heavy lifting of introducing new generations to the hobby.

Needs a New Edition: Rifts

Yes, we have Savage Rifts (which is great!), but I would love to see a true, ground-up modern take on the original Palladium system. I’m talking about a complete system overhaul, modernization of the mechanics, and books with a clean, contemporary layout. I was a huge fan of the system back in high school, and I’d love to see what a modern design team could do with it today.

• Runner-up: The Whispering Vault. I want a sleek, modern take on this game’s mythology so badly.

Not Usually My Thing, But…: Ten Candles

Highly experimental indie games aren’t usually in my wheelhouse, but my friend José Garcia (aka SushiBacon) is always bringing fantastic new ideas to my gaming experience. I loved playing this and would love to run it myself sometime.

• Runner-up: Alice is Missing. I haven’t played it yet, but I’ve read through it, and I am champing at the bit to get it to the table.

Current Game: Savage Worlds

We’ve been playing it consistently for three years now, and I fully expect to be playing it for the remainder of 2026. It is my favorite game, after all!

What Am I Playing Next: Not Sure! Most likely a Savage Worlds superhero campaign, or perhaps diving into Worlds Without Number. I also really want to give TinyD6 a try!

First Game: D&D (Mentzer Red Box)

Just a simple, historical fact. This was easily the fastest category for me to complete.

Game Everyone Should Play: Shadowdark

Why? Because it emulates the hobby’s origins so perfectly while applying modern sensibilities and streamlined rules. It encapsulates the dungeon-crawling roots of tabletop gaming while using common, modern mechanics in an instantly understandable way. For players who have only ever experienced D&D 5e, it can be a massive eye-opener, showing them entirely new (and old) ways to play. It teaches the pure joy of early D&D without the mechanical clunkiness. It is incredibly fun, and I think every gamer should give it a try at least once.

So, what does your “About Me: Tabletop RPG” look like? I want to see it!

 One idea for my new campaign I'm working on that I'm borrowing from the Japanese rpg Sword World (or at least its unofficial translations into English) are Local Experience Tables. These show up in some of the setting books and are just random tables of events themed to varying degrees to specific locales. They don't typically provide any mechanical benefit (though I could see it in limited situations), but they are still potentially useful, and they certainly provide a roleplaying hook.

Here's one I came up with for Salvage:

Salvage and the Field of the Fallen Colossi

Roll

Experience

1

Swindle. You either suckered someone or got suckered.

2

Dust Up. You were involved in a violent altercation.

3

Busted. You were once down and out.

4

Scarred but Smarter. You got caught in a trap in a colossi, but now you know better.

5

New Part. A part of your body is Magitech.

6

Poisonville. You once lived in a pretty toxic area.

7

Bad Blood. You made an enemy, and someone is still after you.

8

Took a Bullet. You’ve been shot before and have the scar to prove it.

9

Lost Mine. You believe you know the location of treasure.

10

Tech Friends. You have a friend that is a construct or otherwise Magitech.

And here's one that covers the region outside the major cities:

General

Roll

Experience

1

Courier. You once delivered a sealed letter to an important person.

2

Marshlander. You’ve spent a good deal of time in the marshes.

3

Mad Season. You’ve experienced the mad ecstasy brought on by exposure to the pollen of the irrsin flowers in the scrublands

4

Rail journey. You’ve traveled by train.

5

Runaway Construct. You had a dangerous encounter with a magitech construct.

6

Under Strange Stars. You were once lost in the Stargazer’s Garden.

7

Fantastic fishing. You have fished in the Prismatic Lake

8

Captive. You were once captured by a Fomori (humanoid) raiding party.

9

Birthing. You witnessed a Mothernode produce a Mek.

10

Searcher. You are looking or have looked for a friend or relative lost in Berlaith.

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: The Masque of Mandragora, 1976 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 In Search of the Unknown (Module B1, written by Mike Carr in 1978) is arguably the foundational text of the dungeon crawl. As an introductory module, its most defining characteristic is that it is unstocked: the maps and descriptive text of the Caverns of Quasqueton are provided, but the placement of monsters and treasure is left entirely as an exercise for the Dungeon Master using providedNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

So now you're looking for free crochet lowercase letter patterns? The Moogly Crochet Lowercase Alphabet is here to help! This collection features all 26 lowercase crochet letters in an easy applique style that’s quick to stitch, beginner-friendly, and perfect for customizing blankets, baby gifts, pillows, totes, wall hangings, and more. Spell out names, create sweet […]

The post The Moogly Crochet Lowercase Alphabet appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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