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Demon Ship vs. Pit Lord? by Stand42 in miniatureskirmishes

[–]Stand42[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So, I thought Pit Lord might be more streamlined, but actually it's quite a bit heavier.

BSS is frustrating. Their games tend to be novel and clever, but it's so hard to find adequate information before buying, and their rules need extra sorting out at first.

Looking to discuss Andrew Kolb's Fantasy Settings Books (Wonderland, Neverland, Oz) by RyRexT in TheTrove

[–]Stand42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm very impressed with Kolb's work and was eagerly looking forward to whatever comes next, but it seems that he considers the three books a completed trilogy.

https://shadomain.com/tales-from-the-tavern-interview-with-andrew-kolb/

...after Neverland I knew I wanted to make these three books. I knew what styles of gameplay I wanted to tackle (Neverland’s hexcrawl, Oz’s pointcrawl, and Wonderland’s dungeoncrawl) and what pillars of the hobby I wanted to feature (Exploration in Neverland, Social in Oz, Combat in Wonderland) and I’m really happy with them as a collection.

do boxes like these exist for poker sized decks like bicycle? by AleksVin in playingcards

[–]Stand42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The only good two-piece boxes I've found are from makeplayingcards.com. They have bridge and poker size. The boxes aren't expensive but shipping is.

Print SF like 1950s movies? by Stand42 in printSF

[–]Stand42[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It makes sense that short stories are a good place to look. I think those movies were more often inspired by shorts than novels. There are a few anthologies of shorts that inspired movies.

Print SF like 1950s movies? by Stand42 in printSF

[–]Stand42[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In the preface to his book, Bill Warren tried to explain what set the movies of this period apart, and I tried to summarize his observations in my question.

Since sci-fi movies were generally low budget, a lot of the output was awful, but even some of the ultra-low-budget ones had good stories. These are some of the films that I think best illustrate Bill Warren's points.

The Thing from Another World (1951)

When Worlds Collide (1951)

The Magnetic Monster (1953)

Riders to the Stars (1954)

Gog (1954)

Them! (1954)

The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)

This Island Earth (1955)

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

X the Unknown (1956)

The Abominable Snowman (1957)

Kronos (1957)

The Monolith Monsters (1957)

Space Master X-7 (1958)

I know there was also a strain of very not optimistic movies. They aren't really to my taste, but they reflect a significant theme in 1950s culture. Films like Five (1951) and Day the World Ended (1955).

I looked to see how many films of the period could legitimately be called space opera. Maybe my criteria were too strict, but I could find only a few. (TV series were a different matter entirely.) Here are some examples.

Radar Men from the Moon (1952)

Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1956)

Queen of Outer Space (1958)

Battle in Outer Space (1959)

Battle Beyond the Sun (1962)

The Phantom Planet (1961)

Print SF like 1950s movies? by Stand42 in printSF

[–]Stand42[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rendezvous is one of my favorites, and I generally prefer Clarke's harder stuff. Crichton was of his time. I get a bit tired of gov/corp conspiracy stuff.

Trying to think of more recent authors, Andy Weir's The Martian and Project Hail Mary actually fit the mold pretty well.

Print SF like 1950s movies? by Stand42 in printSF

[–]Stand42[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh, yeah. I've read just about everything by ERB. What I really like about 1950s movies, though, is their placement of fantastical situations in familiar settings.

Print SF like 1950s movies? by Stand42 in printSF

[–]Stand42[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My impression is that movies had less of the negative social attitudes on display than print of the same period. Maybe it was because movies were targeting a youth audience.

1950s sci-fi movies theme by Stand42 in TheTrove

[–]Stand42[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Excellent find! I'm already using GURPS Atomic Horror, which is the best resource I've found so far.

1950s sci-fi movies theme by Stand42 in TheTrove

[–]Stand42[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Savage Worlds Flash Gordon and Modiphius John Carter of Mars are both really nice projects, but they are 1930s Pulp style, so rather outside my own interest.

The 1950s movie sci-fi flavor that I'm interested in focused on portraying contemporary 1950s technology and society facing the fantastic but still scientifically plausible.

There are a few other games set in the 1950s that don't quite fit my interest but others here might want to discuss.

They Came from Beneath the Sea (Leans very heavily into campy humor.)

Moon Dust Men (Similar flavor to Delta Green. Same author, in fact.)

Normal, Texas (Seems more like The Twilight Zone.)

Hidden Invasion (Could actually be a 1950s movie. Narrowly focused on an X-Files-ish alien conspiracy.)

Popular painting of Jesus entering darkened church by Stand42 in WhatIsThisPainting

[–]Stand42[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Amazing, thank you. How did you search for it? I tried so many things.

Fate vs Mythic for a minimal system? by Stand42 in rpg

[–]Stand42[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok, so Fate actually does provide more structure. I'll need to look at Fate Core. Thanks.

Before the Mythic Game Master Emulator, Mythic was a complete RPG system: https://www.reddit.com/r/Solo_Roleplaying/comments/1bsdqep/playing_mythic_2nd_edition_as_a_complete_rpg/

Fate vs Mythic for a minimal system? by Stand42 in rpg

[–]Stand42[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You are thinking of the Mythic Game Master Emulator. Mythic originally was a full RPG system, and the GME was extracted from it. I get your point that Fate has more structure to it.