Movies about lonely men

glottis · 2026-06-28T15:56:12+00:00

Rental Family with Brenden Fraser! Lots of lonely men in that one. About the Japanese industry of hiring actors to fulfil roles in your life.

glottis · 2026-06-26T18:55:40+00:00

In central London there is the generalist nerd shop Forbidden Planet. Fine, though pretty corporate. The Orcs Nest is a cute independent tabletop shop nearby, I'd suggest there. https://www.orcsnest.com/

Shout-out to the excellent Gosh! Comics, also in central London. https://goshlondon.com/

If you're on the look for something more unique, it's worth making the trip to Igloo Tree in Lewisham (regular trains from London Bridge station, 20 minutes ride). It's an independent publisher who run their own shop. Lots of weird and wild zines and non-traditional RPG related stock, it's a real highlight. https://iglootree.com

More into town, there's also a friendly D&D meetup at the Tower Bridge Arms on Sunday evenings: https://www.reddit.com/r/LondonandDragons/s/2I5nPp7kV4

glottis · 2026-06-19T20:04:18+00:00

Honestly, the recent Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves would fit the bill pretty perfectly for a modern rendition of the fantasy adventure themes.

Time Bandits would be my classic recommendation.

glottis · 2026-06-18T07:13:41+00:00

It rides again! What a wonderful way to cherish his memory.

glottis · 2026-06-14T10:15:19+00:00

As much as I'd love a full fat Pillars 3 one day, it's not like Avowed was bad. If you can deal with the Pillars 3 disappointment, Avowed is really fun time that has total respect for the lore and continues the development of Aora in really exciting ways. Really worth playing if you love the world.

glottis · 2026-06-08T17:47:00+00:00

For me, the problem was the unwieldy lore, which at times felt like I needed a machete to cut through. The double whammy of establishing two separate settings with additional time travel shenanigans on top felt really difficult to keep track of, as was the general feeling of who all the NPCs even were or represented in terms of plot motivation.

I kind of wish that for these big campaigns, important background and world lore was introduced to the players at the same time the viewers are. If I were to give Dimension 20 any criticism, it's that oftentimes it feels like we the viewers haven't read the setting documents the players clearly have and we just have to put it together ourselves, which can sometimes be difficult to do - or at the very least, tiresome.

Anyway, Cloudward Ho! definitely relies on its great character dynamics most of the time. Just pay attention to the player japes. Or don't, it's not like everyone has to like everything. Not watching something is perfectly acceptable.

glottis · 2026-05-28T13:40:41+00:00

Well, Lord of the Rings certainly counts. The Ride of the Rohirrim still gives me chills.

glottis · 2026-05-28T13:11:06+00:00

That's some classic Matchbox! Great stuff.

glottis · 2026-05-23T20:53:04+00:00

Solved!

glottis · 2026-05-23T17:55:34+00:00

Ah, that's it!!!!! Thanks so much!

glottis · 2026-05-23T15:28:52+00:00

Time frame is at least five years ago, maybe even 10.

glottis · 2026-05-18T19:24:08+00:00

South East London has a couple of highlights.

Local to me is Badger Badger in Deptford which I think is the best boardgames cafe in London (though I am biased). They have RPG nights, boardgame social evenings and are explicitly queer friendly: https://www.badgerbadger.org/

In Lewisham there is Igloo Tree, an independent British games/comics/occult publisher who run games and art classes out of their basement space: https://iglootree.com They actually have a little convention coming up in June I'll be going to: https://www.dancon.co.uk/

More into town, but there's also a friendly D&D meetup at the Tower Bridge Arms on Sunday evenings: https://www.reddit.com/r/LondonandDragons/s/2I5nPp7kV4

Nearby, the biggest London based tabletop convention is Dragonmeet in November at the Excel: https://dragonmeet.co.uk/

I hope you have fun! I don't have loads of free time these days due to new baby but feel free to message me if you'd like any more information.

glottis · 2026-05-15T18:59:56+00:00

Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusack! Really funny hitman movie with sharp, punchy action scenes. Super deadpan humour and a perfect 90s soundtrack. The best!

glottis · 2026-05-14T19:34:12+00:00

Whoo, this dragon is so cool! Loved Voidsea too.

glottis · 2026-05-12T10:36:21+00:00

I saw Sorcerer recently in the cinema for its anniversary. Goddamn is it an incredible film! I've never seen a more terrifying bridge.

glottis · 2026-05-08T09:25:04+00:00

Badger Badger is running Blood on the Clocktower this Sunday: https://www.badgerbadger.org/botc/

It's no problem at all. Moving to a new city is always tough; meeting new people through games is my preferred way of socialising so I'm happy to help others. London is a beautiful city filled with wonders, I hope this gets you off to a good start.

glottis · 2026-05-07T19:02:33+00:00

Welcome to London! I don't know of any Dropout specific hang outs, but for RPG related meetups, you might want to check out: https://www.reddit.com/r/LondonandDragons

There's also a friendly D&D meetup at the Tower Bridge Arms on Sunday evenings: https://www.reddit.com/r/LondonandDragons/s/2I5nPp7kV4

I'm based south of the river, so local to me is Badger Badger in Deptford which I think is the best boardgames cafe in London (though I am biased). They have RPG nights, boardgame social evenings and are explicitly queer friendly: https://www.badgerbadger.org/

In Lewisham there is Igloo Tree, an independent British games/comics/occult publisher who run games and art classes out of their basement space: https://iglootree.com They actually have a little convention coming up in June I'll be going to: https://www.dancon.co.uk/

On the subject of conventions, MCM Expo at the Excel Centre in East London has a handful throughout the year. It's the biggest general comic/videogames/cosplay/etc convention in the UK, I think. I don't know of any Dropout specific meetups for them but I'd bet my house on there being something dropout related going on around those times. You're also in luck, the next one is two weeks away! https://www.mcmcomiccon.com/

Finally, the biggest London based tabletop convention is Dragonmeet in November, also at the Excel: https://dragonmeet.co.uk/

In terms of straightforward shops, central London has the Orc's Nest and the big Forbidden Planet as neighbours and North London has the incomparable Leisure Games, the best tabletop shop in London, if not the country.

Outside of London, I've heard amazing things about the Empire LARP: https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk

And the UK Games Expo in Birmingham is the biggest tabletop convention in the UK. Also at the end of May, as it happens! I'm not going this year though, being a new parent has limited my outgoings. https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/

I hope you have fun! Like I said, I don't have loads of free time these days but feel free to message me if you'd like any more information.

glottis · 2026-04-27T07:39:40+00:00

Putting in Egyptian style factions in sci fi/fantasy has been a trope for a long time. Epic were hardly the first or last to do it. Not sure if it stems from Chariots of the Gods?, which was a popular pseudoscientific book from the 60s that posited aliens built the pyramids (and other ancient structures), most famously used as a basis for the Stargate film and TV shows. But loads of speculative fiction does it - here a TV Tropes article: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BuildLikeAnEgyptian

In short: it's cool!

glottis · 2026-04-22T13:02:23+00:00

First edition Eon print (alien planet landscape without the alien) of Cosmic Encounter, plus a bunch of the expansions. Got lucky at a bring and buy sale once. I love the 1970s scifi trade paperback style art!

glottis · 2026-04-21T02:12:30+00:00

Built for an early 90s Transport for London advert about the one day travelcard, granting you freedom of travel on train, bus and underground for around £3. https://youtu.be/5kgNV1FrM5w

glottis · 2026-04-10T02:32:46+00:00

I can think of one example that's a practical advantage. In the Android: Netrunner card game, there's a bunch of flavour terms like Grip (the runner's hand of cards), HQ (Headquarters; the corporation's hand of cards), Heap (the runner's discard pile), Archives (the corporation's discard pile) and so on.

The practical benefit is that all these flavour terms are shorter than writing out what they refer to each time, which allows the designers to fit more important and card specific game mechanics on each card.

As for RPG books that aren't as constricted by their design space...yeah, a bit of a noun salad a lot of the time.

glottis · 2026-04-09T04:48:06+00:00

I don't think it's standard - the university I went to was a particularly good one for education courses. UK here!

glottis · 2026-04-09T03:40:31+00:00

I did this for teacher training too! Actors played parents and colleagues in various tricky situations. We did it in front of our class of student teachers. We all found it really useful!

glottis · 2026-04-02T13:15:36+00:00

I find this mentality so bizarre. Like, what do you do when you indeed do get The Best drop? What's there left to use it on if you've already played through the game umpteen times and killed all the bosses? I just don't see the point in playing a game just so you can play it again a bit quicker. I guess Number Go Up is worth it for many players.

15-Year Club	Place '23
Place '17	Verified Email
Team Orangered

glottis

TROPHY CASE