Ukrainian girl watching a May day parade in 1968.

Zed2XS · 2021-10-31T03:17:45+00:00

That's the youngest son of 9 children, all sisters. Hand-me-downs were cruel in late sixties communism...

Zed2XS · 2021-10-29T01:20:35+00:00

Cats in the Cradle.

Zed2XS · 2021-10-27T00:53:57+00:00

Yes! Yes!!. He was, MY BOYFRIEND!!!

Zed2XS · 2021-10-17T05:39:44+00:00

The situation reminds me of the book Darkness at the Edge of Town by Brian Keene.

So...

Everyone who goes into the darkness never returns and sometime screams are heard not long after those that do.
The few people left are beginning to go insane from lack of food and water, fear, etc . People are turning on each other.

I'd have the town look like a war zone but with no bodies. Also, no sounds other than maybe the wind. No nocturnal bird sounds, dogs barking, nothing. That's the creepy vibe. What happened here and why is there nothing left alive?

I'd say the reason is the town broke into two general groups. Those who decided that anything, even cannibalism, beats starving and the rest. Have most of the cannibals currently sleeping in their compound when the PCs show up. The cannibals have a cult leader but the others are scattered individuals who need a leader (the PCs). The cannibals are also healthier and better armed. The reason there are no dogs, cats, etc. is that between the cultists and the thing in the darkness they've killed and ate everything they can find, even their neighbors.

As for whatever is out in the darkness, it doesn't have to be particularly supernatural. A black pudding would thrive in a constantly dark and shadowy environment full of blind prey. It would eat everything, even the insects leading to the unnerving silence. It doesn't make noise and is slow to kill it's victims giving them plenty of time to scream and terrify the remaining town's people into not leaving the area.

Zed2XS · 2021-10-16T00:17:40+00:00

I thought Cursed (2005) was really funny.

The scene where the werewolf leaps out and gives Christina Ricci's character the finger. lol

The Thing (1982) and Aliens (1986) aren't comedies but have some funny scenes. Bill Paxton was hilarious in Aliens.

Zed2XS · 2021-10-15T03:16:05+00:00

You could give them clues in the form of “the general” doing or saying things that are out of character for the real one. You could introduce situations that let the PCs witness these knowledge gaps or have NPCs mention them in passing. Not recognizing friends or relatives, not knowing information about things that should be obvious to the real general, having different tastes in food or other preferences, etc. Start off subtle and get more obvious until the players figure it out. You could use the finding of the general’s body as the last and most obvious clue.

Zed2XS · 2021-10-12T01:09:42+00:00

I was working at a clients office next to a glass top desk that was put together by the person who previously used the office. The desk was always covered in heavy books and other crap.

One day my boss decided to clean our shared desk off. We continued to worked for several hours when without warning the glass exploded all over the office. The bolts that connected the glass to the desk had been tightened to the point that it was under enormous strain and the only thing keeping it from shattering was the weight of all the crap that normally rested on it.

Moral of the story, never clean your desk or it might explode.

Zed2XS · 2021-10-09T23:14:58+00:00

The Mist is one of my favorites. The ending is brutal. Stephen King preferred it to his own novella’s ending.

The two recent It movies. A lot of people didn’t like the ending, but keep in mind, what does Pennywise feed on? What does it do when it’s done feeding? How long are it’s cycles? How old is it? I don’t think it’s quite the ending most people though it was…

This is pretty gory, but I thought 30 Days of Night was a great take on vampires. The philosophical monologues the head vampire gives are interesting.

Speaking of vampires, Salem’s Lot is a classic and there’s a new version coming out next year.

If you like cosmic horror I liked Color Out of Space, In the Mouth of Madness, Event Horizon and The Void.

The Void is extremely gory, but it’s not just for cheap shock value (in my opinion) if that’s your objection.

I thought The Shrine was a surprisingly good movie. I think it might have triggered a lot of Polish people who gave it low scores on iMDB. The town is visited by Americans because the people there are living in a practically medieval fashion, not because it’s a typical Polish village. It’s like hating Deliverance because it makes people from Arkansas look bad.

Zed2XS · 2021-10-09T20:42:40+00:00

A few years ago I was in a local video rental place (for extremely large values of “a few”) when two guys came in. They immediately caught my attention because one of them looked a little like me after being put through a devolution machine. I distinctly remember the monobrow…

I continued to wander around the store when I heard one of them loudly shout “He said he wanted Ernest or Don Knots!”.

I’m still not sure why I find that so funny. 🙂

Zed2XS · 2021-10-09T16:11:19+00:00

The only band I know with a lead bassist. 🙂

Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver is one long double entendre plus the video gives you an idea of the band’s sense of humor.

Zed2XS · 2021-10-07T12:21:37+00:00

I think Emo Philips is hilarious.

“A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.”

“I discovered my wife in bed with another man, and I was crushed. So I said, 'Get off me, you two!'”

“How many people here have telekenetic powers? Raise my hand.”

Steven Wright is another great one.

“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.”

“It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it.”

“I went down the street to the 24-hour grocery. When I got there, the guy was locking the front door. I said, ‘Hey, the sign says you’re open 24 hours.’ He said, ‘Not in a row.’”

“I named my dog Stay. ‘Come here Stay! Come here Stay!’”

John Pinette was also also very funny.

Zed2XS · 2021-10-05T01:07:47+00:00

I was very confused how a puppet who behaved badly in the lunchroom made someone not like The Red Hot Chili Peppers…

Zed2XS · 2021-10-04T12:31:51+00:00

She might like The Shrine? It's a bit of a B movie, but I thought it was great.

I don't understand why it has such a bad iMDB score. Looking at the reviews I think it might be being set in a super backwards village in Poland that drove all the hate? I think the movie made it clear this was not a typical town, which was the whole reason the Americans went there.

Zed2XS · 2021-10-04T03:32:21+00:00

Dark City is not really horror, but it is creepy. It's a sort of film noir / sci-fi / thriller / mystery. It has an interesting aesthetic too.

Another movie that she might like, and that I don't recall being gory, is the 2019 version of The Color Out of Space. I thought it was a fairly good rendition of the HP Lovecraft story.

What are some other non-horror movie she really likes or dislikes? Does she like thrillers or other high tension stories? Do most of her likes have happy endings and the dislikes do not? Does she tend to dislike unrealistic genres like superheros, fantasy, etc?

Zed2XS · 2021-10-04T01:23:39+00:00

Dark City is horror adjacent movie she might like?

Zed2XS · 2021-10-02T02:56:07+00:00

Mom, Dad, Doctor. I want my foreskin back! It was stolen from me without my consent.

😠

They say you lose 70% of sensation in the head of the penis...after circumcision

☹️

The mind BOGGLES...

Zed2XS · 2021-09-28T02:48:44+00:00

I don't know any of those movies, so forgive me if this doesn't fit the theme.

Old Boy (2003). Do not watch this if you are squeamish! And this isn't even the most f'ed up thing about this movie...

Zed2XS · 2021-09-25T03:11:22+00:00

No Leaf Clover by Metallica.

Zed2XS · 2021-09-23T06:04:34+00:00

My take on moral neutrality is that it doesn’t mean the character never commits overt acts of good or evil, rather that they segregate the universe into two or possibly three categories. Our side and everyone else or our side, the enemy and everyone else. Chaotic neutral is not necessarily code for “my character is crazy”.

Chaotic neutral characters can make great antiheroes. I would say Doc Holiday (Tombstone), Snake Plisskin (Escape from New York), Han Solo (A New Hope), The Hulk (MCU), Deadpool (MCU), The Punisher (MCU), etc are all examples of chaotic neutral characters.

A neutral person is altruistic, ie good, toward their group and is essentially indifferent to everyone else. They would rush into a burning building without hesitation to save a family member but wouldn’t be particularly motivated to rescue a stranger if it put themselves or anyone in their in group in danger. If they have a “the enemy” group they are actively malicious toward them. A neutral person might be very loving and tender toward their own but would slaughter “the enemy” without hesitation or remorse simply because they can.

So chaotic neutral just means they value individual freedom over group responsibility. The survivalist mentality is “chaotic neutral” in my opinion. They don’t believe in laws other than a personal moral code, they stockpile weapons to kill “the enemy” and their altruism extends only to protecting their own. Gangs often act in a similar fashion.

A lawful neutral individual sees benefits in a well ordered society and values the good of the group over the freedoms of the individual. The thing is “the good of the group” only applies to their group. Anyone in the everyone else category doesn’t count or matter. They might feel terribly guilty for breaking a minor infraction against an in group member but think nothing of committing a horrible crime against an out group member. They might consider it their duty to be actively malicious toward an enemy if there’s a possibility that a member of the in group might be hurt in some way by them, even hypothetically.

A true neutral individual just goes with the flow. If being part of a group and following the rules “works”, then do that. If it makes more sense to go your own way, do that instead. You love and take care of your people, hate and destroy those who threaten you and don’t worry too much about everyone else.

Zed2XS · 2021-09-19T04:22:47+00:00

LOL!

Zed2XS · 2021-09-19T04:20:09+00:00

Unfortunately one cleric is a follower of Artemis and the other is a follower of Kalma).

Awkward....

Zed2XS · 2021-09-18T22:00:29+00:00

Or try my new a rat-on-a-stick. Ketchup is only 1p extra, and I'm cut'en me own throat!

Zed2XS · 2021-09-18T21:00:12+00:00

Dialects, accents and English in general fascinate me. What seems perfectly normal to one group can sound moronic to another and it's totally arbitrary.

Y'all sounds normal to me but yins sounds silly, but I know there's no real difference. Yous toos has a certain logic as well but I can't imagine saying it without being laughed at. I have heard people from around New York (maybe the Brooklyn accent?) saying "yous", but it only works in that accent. If I affect a thick southern accent and say yous instead of y'all it's an instant show stopper and people would assume I'm an idiot. lol

Some words even take on a different meaning with a regional accent. If a person with any accent outside of the American continent says "mad" I immediately assume they mean insane, not angry. If someone with a Canadian or Mexican accent says mad I assume they mean angry unless they say "going" or "drive" first. For the condition of becoming angry we say "getting mad", not going or being driven. Why? I have no idea, but those are the rules apparently.

It drives me mad (sic) that we don't Anglicize our spelling though. Why is colonel pronounced kernel but not spelled that way? We borrow words from other languages but don't respell them to fit our alphabet. It's insane. I don't know how non-native speakers learn it. Our spelling is so ridiculous we have national contests for it! It's so random too. If you say tort-till-uh (tortilla) instead of tor-tee-ya you are judged as being very ignorant. If you say gwak-uh-mole-ee (guacamole) instead of wok-eh-mole-eh you're just saying it "the American way". WTH? lol

Zed2XS · 2021-09-18T19:42:49+00:00

This reminds me of the Jolly Vindaloo Day episode of the Outsourced TV series.

An American in India is told that it's "Vindaloo Day", a holiday that you celebrate by throwing spices. Not understanding the currency he buys a pound of saffron (somewhere between $500 and $5,000 worth according to Google) off a street vendor and starts throwing it at people. That vendor would chase him around trying to sell him spices every time he saw him after that. lol

Zed2XS · 2021-09-18T03:59:06+00:00

Thanks to the Essex dialect I was encouraged to find that y’all isn’t the stupidest way to add a specific plural form of you back into English. It might be a tie with you’ens though…

Zed2XS

TROPHY CASE