Week in Geek

Hey, it's one of these again!

I had a fantastic weekend. Let me talk about three things. First! I saw two movies for the first time - Universal Soldier, and Treasure Planet. I liked Universal Soldier as a basic action movie, but Treasure Planet - wow. I loved it. It was one of those movies I really wanted to see in the theaters, but could never make time to go see. I probably should have, as it bombed pretty badly. But it's an awesome little movie.

Next! Video games - I've been working on Pokemon Ranger : Guardian Signs. I kinda don't like it. I mean, the gameplay isn't bad. In fact, everything's pretty good, except - every damn time you meet a new NPC, you are subjected to ten solid minutes of painfully tapping or button-pressing your way through insipid, useless conversation. It's annoying as hell. But I keep playing, because it will get me certain rare Pokemon I can transfer over into the real games.

Last! My Golden Age game. Every year, I do a special Halloween adventure in whatever game I'm running - I picked the Golden Age game of the two I'm currently doing. My idea for the adventure started as a loose notion about the old urban legend of Abraham Lincoln's death train, the spectral echo of which is said to roam the rails to this day. That morphed several time in my mind until I hit upon the crux - the PCs would be called upon to enter the spirit world, there to defuse a mystic missile - in the form of a train - aimed squarely at the President of the United States. The twist was that after projecting themselves there, they would not have access to their powers and memories at first, instead believing themselves to be some of the passengers on the train.

It went really well and I enjoyed it thoroughly, even if the atmosphere at the table was more Three Stooges than Twilight Zone.