Subplot Kudzu

93) Thunderball: as promised, I gave Ian Fleming one more try, and this one was better - it wasn't against American mobsters, so the espionage worked a little better. Plus I liked the facts that a) Bond spent a chunk of the book second guessing his instincts and not reporting up the chain for fear of looking like an idiot and b) that he was often utter exhausted from his activities. Both made him feel more human.

I have a strong urge to run a James Bond game, not just because I have several of Victory Games well done modules that haven't seen use in decades, but also because the opening single of the new Michael Buble album makes "Cry Me a River" sound like a JB movie title track and because I now have not one but two good names for Femme Fatale's in the Bond idiom. If I do pitch one I will likely give the player a choice between being a team of equals or a hero and backup - the former is more common in gaming, but I'm sure i could extrapolate parts of the Buffy rulebook to make the latter work. I might also ratchet up some of the scenarios to give things a bit more of a "Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD" sense, but I'm not sure if that would break the Bond idiom too much, or just enough to make the campaign distinct. 

94) Methuselah's Children: I was surprised by how little of the book's content matched the back cover text (which was all about the protagonists being forced to wander the starts; in actuality they don't leave Earth until about the final 3rd of the book and, in so doing, visit a total of 2 other planets). I have little issue with the content, which was classic Heinlein, just the ad copy. At least the image on the cover could be extrapolated to attach to concepts in the book, which puts it ahead of a lot of books produced around its publication date.

 I recently read about a paid of engineers who have manufactured instant concrete shelters (essentially their tents impregnated with concrete mix - you set up the test, wet it and give it 12 hours to dry into a permanent building), with an eye towards being able to use them in refugee crises. Since they only weigh a few thousand pounds (1000 for the smallest, 5000 for the largest) they can be quickly moved to situations where people need housing that is more secure than regular tents but where normal building materials would be too difficult and time consuming to deploy, such as earthquake zones. It's fascinating and useful stuff - the sort of engineering that seems obvious once someone does it. 

It's also the sort of thing that makes me think about modern-era treasure hunting games. OK, most things make me think about gaming one way or another, but this you knew. There's so much new, neat stuff available now that I'd have an urge to run a contemporary treasure hunt/dungeon crawl where the PCs have access to bleeding edge modern tech. (This would be instead of magic, in an urge to limit the wackiness.) The best example I can come up with is Tomb Raider, but perhaps with reasonably sized breasts. 

I figure the world would have to have a pre-ice age human history that produced advanced tech (to the nanotech levels) and many underground vaults for various purposes. Over the years the discovery of any vault would give the country that found it a massive technological edge - even if they couldn't figure out a fraction of what was in there. In the contemporary period there are corporations and nation states hunting for them - along with private reclamation companies like those that hunt for treasure-laden shipwrecks - combining research in dusty old archives with satellite imaging and GIS cartography to find them, and then teams of highly trained experts to enter them and uncover their secrets. Of course, if the location of a tomb is leaked it becomes a race to see who can claim it first. 

This may have to end up on my next prospectus, assuming that I can find a mechanic that captures the feel. Anyone have any experience with d20 Modern to let me know if it's worth considering?

Netflixed the classic "36th Chamber of Shaolin", and the new release contains trailers for several other Shaw Brothers movies. One title - Shaolin Mantis - caught my eye as Christina's Old Master is an expert in the Path of the Preying Mantis. I am disheartened that this trailer is not on Youtube (there is the classic trailer, but not this one), as it is very, very strange. Rather than discussing the movie or plot, the actors and director tell you about the various Kung Fu and weapon styles displayed in the movie, with their history and examples. The whole thing feels like one of those old Alcoa commercials that let you know all the wonderful things made possible by Aluminum. 

If anyone can find this on the web, please direct me. My Google Fu is weak, but I think the House of the Dragon players need to see it.

Thanks to ashacatI've finally finished the Harry Potter series, and have two thoughts:

One, now that she's rich beyond all imagining, do you ever wonder if Rowling's ex ever wanders by looking to borrow a couple of quid?