Ghost in the Shell: the Resurrection and Suffocation of a good Movie

When the Ghost in the Shell anime came out  I was in love with it. Back then, I was in love with everything cyberpunk in general: the attitude, the esprit of it, and the concept of cyberware in general. Guess it is safe to say that I am sucker for good prop. I also loved anime, adored Akira and was deeply impressed by the pictures that Ghost in the Shell delivered. The meanings of some of them I was able to realize only later on.

As I saw the trailer for the remake (I will not call it a re-visioning) it already gave me the feel that something was very wrong there. To some of my friends, I am the incarnation of nerd-rage when it comes to movies, and thereby my opinions are and were discarded as quickly as those of a person who is known to rage for rage´s sake is to be discarded by somebody with poise and rationality (thank you, Fall Out Boy).

As I saw the movie, I found my apprehensions to be justified, every single ounce. They took this beauty and drowned it, pushed it under the surface of mass-market-compatibility till everything of it that breathed stopped to do so. The still beautiful corpse I had seen on display, on a very wide movie theater screen: it moved with all the grace of the original husk and with all the skill that professional editors and filmmakers are known to deliver. And it is beautiful in its own right. But if you knew what it was, and are able to compare it to what it has is been turned to, if you felt anything for what it used to be, you have to have a strange taste in your mouth: embalming fluid and salt, for you danced with, embraced and kissed a mummy.

Creating OSR characters a little less randomly

OSR is „dicey“, OSR embraces randomness and character creation can be as quick and brutal as the brutal troll-child that is the sum of both. I have three player that want to return to Dunnsmouth so that there heroes my go on where they left of, but I was about to offer them to switch to new characters (if they like to). But I like to have a little balance (which my pre-generated characters usually show), something that the roll of the dice alone sometimes fails to provide. Yet, I want the quick, random dicey-ness of it so that creating a new character is not to much of a thing. And here is my untested brainchild…

Encounters for a Purple Island #2

[This NPC is fanwork for Islands of the Purple-Haunted Putrescence]

From the Koshi, the characters may learn about Ar´Ruga, also known as „Mad-Two-Head“. A long time ago, Ar´ Ruga was a Koshi like any other (perhaps a bit more courageous), until he found three blue glimmer stones in an old ruin. He loved them, loved how they glittered and gleamed and fashioned them into a necklace of leather strings and semi-hardened resin. He was so found and proud of his necklace that he then began to venture out into the jungle for days at a time to find more of them. Over time, he changed. He became dumb and careless, and even forgot to hide from the rain when it came, so he began to mutate. That was a year ago.

Good news and new titles

Hi everyone,

The OLD GoblinoidGames forums are up again! These news (at least, this is news to me!) is a reason to celebrate! I will thereby offer my Cavern of the Green Waterroot for 50 cents till 18th of June 2017.

By the by, I released a new titles: Alamanac of Animated Skeletons

If you want to know what this includes, read below. For as usually, I share some of content in this blog post for free.

[LotFP] The Many-Clawed Wind

It has been a while since I have released my last title, but I just changed THAT by publishing Examples of the Dark Arts Vol.03. As its predecessors, that I have now all bundled up, it was written to be compatible with Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and this times it is all about the Summon spell. But before you begin to yawn about my sales pitch, just click below to have a look at a freely available specimen that is not part of the preview at drivethrurpg.com.

Three men went to Dunnsmouth (S02/P06)

If you want to know what has happened before, read here.

Cormagh and Angus hacked through the boards that were used to nail the entrance shut. It did not took all to long, as the time and moisture had taken their toll on the wood already and most of the iron nails were rusty. All the while, Jasper had an eye on the captives who did not said a word but glared at the heroes in with anger and frustration. The sliding gate creaked awfully in its hanger assembly as Cormagh pushed it aside, and Angus kept his sword in hand while he held his torch inside to light the half-dark inside of the derelict sawmill. Little light fell inside from the still open latch in the roof and numerous little holes in the roof. They saw the old slight that was used to bring the trunks inside, the huge and now rusty saw blade that once turned the trunks into lumber, a large metal plate that had been used as a fire place and around it a number bedrolls, sacks and backpacks that gave testimony that this place had indeed been used as a hideout by the bandits. Just as they counted the sleeping place and try to assess the few belongings strewn around the old fire place they noted a movement up in the shadows under the roof…

Encounters for a Purple Island

 while ago I bought myself a copy of The Islands of the Purple-Haunted Putrescence. The name was dropped now and then at Eric´s blog and the reviews at drivethrurpg.com looked like one could give it a try. And of course, little me was curious and on my edge as there was a little flash-sale that allowed me to grab it for about $5.00 or so. All in all, it is still as gonzo as you have to expect when you deal with Kort´thalis Publishing. But if you cut something off here, file something of there and simply drown this or that in the next river before you present it to your players, you will have lots of fun with it (after you washed your hands clean and exchanged the sheets on your bed). It basically has the level of details I would have WISHED “Carcosa” to have: a little more text per hex.

But, this post is not about a review for the title, but about a little fan work: what I miss in the product are encounters where the characters may get their hands on crystals (one way or the other), so I wrote one such possible encounter. Feel free to use it anyway and anywhere you like, so some of the stuff that is mentioned in the text will not make much sense to you if you are not familiar with The Islands of the Purple-Haunted Putrescence…