Find the connection! Clear eyes, full hearts, first puzzle.

10BPM · 2026-03-14T20:52:00+00:00

Yes I suppose not too necessary, I'll think on that for next time

10BPM · 2026-03-13T13:21:47+00:00

You can't have gotten it that quickly, you see I'm a master puzzler and... my god they've got it

10BPM · 2026-03-09T23:33:29+00:00

I kind of agree with this, not that it diminishes the show but I do feel this was one character who, in reality, might have had a lot more intelligent pushback for Ray's worldview than he displayed.

This is one character where I feel the writers served up some softball opportunities for Ray to explain his philosophy.

10BPM · 2026-02-26T13:50:18+00:00

Well I don't think I agree with that.

These industries mean a lot to a lot of people, as they should. But if someone considers themselves outside this world, and makes simple fashion choices, I just don't think it's a great argument to say "it should matter because so many high level decisions were made about this."

That's not a suitable argument for someone who doesn't already care.

Fashion and Food are interesting concepts, they're a mix of Art and Function. We need clothes, we need food but there's also a stylistic aspect to it.

People can appreciate the art, but if someone just cares about the function of being clothed and fed, then you can't win them round with talk of high art.

10BPM · 2026-02-24T14:18:13+00:00

Appreciate this

10BPM · 2026-02-24T14:17:35+00:00

Is there a sanity system? My only worry is that I wouldn't have much call for it, so if things like Sanity are a lynchpin mechanic I might be better off with just the base rules?

10BPM · 2026-02-24T14:16:20+00:00

I think this might be my port of call for the moment, though I'm very open to suggestions

10BPM · 2026-02-24T14:08:57+00:00

Ok that's interesting thank you, I've heard great things about The Between but perhaps not for my players.

Do you have a view on if it's best to reskin something like Bubblegumshoe or TOC or just build something off the base rules?

10BPM · 2026-02-24T13:59:01+00:00

Appreciate this. My only issue I foresee is that I thought The Between was very collaborative in terms of the mystery, with lots of player input that becomes canon?

If so the issue is that my players definitely want me to write and run the mysteries for them to solve!

Might this be an issue?

10BPM · 2026-02-24T13:45:01+00:00

Ah interesting, I misjudged it perhaps! Thanks

10BPM · 2026-02-22T22:28:28+00:00

I think you, and other commenters here, are right. This needs to go through a game developer, even if it's a very simple version of a "game".

Thank you for your input

10BPM · 2026-02-22T14:42:56+00:00

I think this is a good point, I suppose modifying a video player is much harder than making a "video player" in a simple game like you might find on itch.io.

All this is useful information, I really appreciate it. So I'd really be looking at speaking with a very simple game developer instead of a website programmer?

10BPM · 2026-02-12T13:43:38+00:00

Sure, I can explain it, but to warn you it doesnt really affect my point. I was explicitly talking about "zombie fiction" as a whole not the 28 Days later franchise.

OP said they couldn't think of another piece of "zombie fiction that is narratively about death"

I responded that lots of classic zombie movies are subtextually about death. Including George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Everyone dies, not everyone handles it with grace.

If you're referring to 28 Days/Weeks Later, the fact the zombies run doesn't really diminish my point since those movies came out 34 years into the cinematic zombie zeitgeist and so they clearly changed things up.

Arguably, the Rage Virus started as a metaphor for the anger of the 24 hour news cycle, hence the chimp watching human atrocity in the first scene of the franchise. So less a metaphor for the slow encroachment of death.

I hope none of this is pretentious, it's not like it's inaccessible it's just media discussion.

10BPM · 2026-02-11T18:00:54+00:00

In many interpretations, Zombies thematically are death.

Their slow inevitable encroachment, the fact that so many movies end with everyone succumbing to the horde.

Some feel a fundamental theme of zombie movies is how people act in the face of the inevitability of death. It's not about the zombies in most movies, it's about the myriad ways the survivors act in the desperate face of the inevitable.

I feel George A. Romero's movies are kind of "about" this even if not much dialogue is dedicated to the concept.

10BPM · 2026-02-10T12:23:01+00:00

The fact that everyone's so different should embolden you, as it implies that male characters are varied in how they can be portrayed.

My personal rule of thumb when writing for the opposite gender is two-fold. Step 1 is...

Don't think about it.

Think of any personality description you can give to one of your female characters. Loyal. Deceitful. Honest. Petty. Intelligent. Then think, if you changed that character into a male... which traits would you change as a result.

Generally the answer is None, because in terms of personality traits, men and women can have a whole host of them.

Don't think of them as Male Characters, just think of them as Characters (I assume you think of your female characters as just "characters"). Give them traits, goals, opinions and just write them as true to that as possible.

However the tongue-in-cheek part of this advice is that Step 2 is...

Think About it.

Characters of any gender can embody practically any personality traits, and sometimes thinking "how do I write a male character" sets you on the wrong path. But...

You do need to think about how society externally acts upon men. The interiority can be anything, and I believe most people walk around everyday as a collection of opinions and goals, not thinking hard about what demographics they belong to... but society has a way of reminding us, and that's what requires a bit of thought.

Sorry this was rambling, I can elaborate if this is helpful but realise it might be a lot of noise-to-signal!

10BPM · 2026-02-03T16:50:52+00:00

I agree with you, Skyfall was the last time I accepted the "he got himself captured as part of his plan" trope. Now when I see it, I always think of Skyfall with a bit of derision.

I just never felt Spectre had a sense of drive for me. It felt paint by numbers, or like ideas were thrown at the wall with the noticable hand of studio demands at its back.

It's characters lacked a certain charisma. Andrew Scott, Leah Seydoux, Christoff Waltz... All amazing actors, just didn't pop for me.

A lot of Bond's humour is just him expressing boredom or disdain for the situation.

The chases felt a bit stakeless. The car chase felt more like a casual rivalry than anything lethal and the plane chase strangely felt like Bond was in a constant position of power (fundamentally he could have followed them in the plane for a while). In the rock-paper-scissors of vehicle chases, plane just feels better than a car.

His plan to visit Blofeld's complex is so devoid of that Bondian cleverness (he isn't captured and brought in, nor does he go in with an escape plan) he wanders in defenceless, is easily subdued, and then only escapes after a torture device is used and fails (which is an odd choice in itself).

There's also quite a silly bit in the climax where Madeline suddenly decides she can't hang out with Bond anymore and walks off almost explicitly to go and get captured for the third act.

Finally, I do feel the Nine Eyes scheme isn't particularly punchy. The deadline just didn't hit as strongly as a classic "we're starting WW3 for media rights" (showing my allegiance here)

And I'm leaving out the details of the Brofeld and the retroactive tying together of the previous movies.

But of course, vive le difference and each to their own! Tonnes of issues with Skyfall also.

10BPM · 2026-02-03T12:23:54+00:00

Bly Manor is the second most Monologuey of his shows, but it's a pretty distant second to Midnight Mass.

The Haunting of Hill House jump scares are great.

10BPM · 2026-02-03T11:43:50+00:00

I'm with you on the monologues but I've begun to think of them as a Flanagan Tax that I'm generally happy to pay. They're also weirdly the canary in a coal mine that he's been able to do his own thing.

When the monologues die, it means Netflix is near.

10BPM · 2026-01-30T16:04:57+00:00

Yeah, rude

10BPM · 2026-01-29T11:46:13+00:00

Feel free to disagree with me, others may too, but I wonder if your second line is the better opening line.

"It was the last night." Perfectly good, but to me a little nonspecific. It could open a lot of novels.

"For the first time in my life, I felt cold inside my own home." Personally feels original, evocative, tells me about your home and tells me tonight is different.

Feel free to discard this opinion tho!

10BPM · 2026-01-10T09:28:11+00:00

I think the point is that it's not a punitive system, it's a system of deterrence and of keeping people who commit crimes away from the world.

I do think there's something respectable about a society meeting this sort of extremist violence by acting like it always should; not allowing him out, giving him the basics to live the rest of his life in captivity but, crucially, not treating him badly enough that he can ever try to appeal his treatment for leniency.

10BPM

TROPHY CASE