But its vague presence still wormed its way into my mind somehow, forming the basis of a rare adult nightmare about struggling to escape The Scariest Scene of All Time.
Thursday, 31 October 2024
The Abyss: Halloween Nightmare Creepypasta
I've never seen The Abyss, and probably never will. It sometimes rears its head on lists of classic sci-fi films, but not at enthusiastic enough placings to seem worth my time. It's probably about underwater, not space. Boring.
Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Alrightreads: Gamesmaster II
Ben Egloff and artists, The Game Master's Book of Astonishing Random Tables: 300+ Unique Roll Tables to Enhance Your Worldbuilding, Storytelling, Locations, Magic and More for 5th Edition RPG Adventures
*****
Even when not being unofficially D&D-specific, it's still generally based in the dark, violent fantasy realm, but there's still plenty that I can twist and sanitise to inject random encounters and inspiration into our friendly junior RPG. I don't know if I'll ever need to roll a whole pantheon of deities and system of government in quite this much detail, but I can't fault it for being excessively comprehensive.
2022 / Ebook / 174 pages
***
Collects various slim rip-offs into a more substantial prompts compendium that's almost worth paying for, if it was more relevant for our needs at present.
2023 / Ebook / 32 pages
***
More a creative writing rule system than a game, I might give its dice tables a go if I need more help cobbling together scenarios for real games.
****
One of the quirkiest episode guides out there, this is really an ambitious (sometimes overly so) mission in opening up every episode of the series thus made into a practically playable module. It has some useful pointers for the rapidly-approaching day when I run out of ideas and start awkwardly forcing Red Dwarf into my five-year-old's junior RPG. She may recognise some of them from bedtime stories.
2019 / Ebook / 120 pages
***
A nice idea for future activities, if a bit homeworky. Help them out with some RPG random dice tables if they get stuck.
Saturday, 26 October 2024
Alrightgames: Cartograph
2022 / Roleplaying map-making game / 1 player
****
Need a map for your story, but have cartographer's block? Just chuck some dice on the page and see where they land, then draw some playing cards if you want to make a game out of it.
Our ponies will be getting a boat and setting sail in their next adventure, so I thought this would be a fun way to create some new locations for further voyages, but the dangerous combination of prompts and my imagination ultimately made it too scary to reuse. At least I'm getting more use out of the excess dice of One Deck Dungeon.
Wednesday, 23 October 2024
Alrightgames: My Little Pony – Tails of Equestria – The Festival of Lights
My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – The Festival of Lights
2018 / Roleplaying game adventure / 2+ players
***
This wasn't included in our Amazon bundle, so we couldn't play it in the proper sequence and at the level intended. But then we ran out of those books (until her birthday) and I found a download, so we didn't have to miss out on the dingy underground one.
Whether it was the slow start or the player just wasn't feeling it, we ended up abandoning it when the more enticing birthday ones came along (we've got a boat!!!), but it'll be there, waiting in the dark, for future characters to explore. I didn't get what are no doubt delightful D&D references, but the Spellbound Dizzy vibes were strong.
Sunday, 20 October 2024
Alrightgames: My Little Pony – Tails of Equestria – Dungeon of the Diabolical Draconequus
***
I figured we were both experienced enough in the regular game to take this metafictional detour into a Dungeons & Dragons rip-off within a Dungeons & Dragons rip-off, and it made for a refreshingly straightforward session of beast busting without having to worry about motivations and trying to reform every errant villain. We generally forgot to use our new, story-specific abilities, so no change there.
Thursday, 17 October 2024
Alrightgames: The Wretched
The Wretched
2020 / Solo roleplaying game / 1 player
I hadn't checked in on the world of analogue solo RPGs since the era of adventure gamebooks, so I was more impressed by this one's (mostly) practical solutions of creating a modular story out of a pack of standard, dice-rolled playing cards than by the actual experience, which was a bit oppressively bleak for my tastes at this point. Then it turned out the cards thing wasn't original anyway.
Admittedly, by not wanting to wake up a child by recording daily logs or collapsing a spaceship-representing Jenga tower (as well as us not having one), I didn't commit to the full, immersive experience. Maybe if she's at school and I'm free from work, I might try the lonely, borderline-impossible, imminent sci-fi death simulator again, but there are likely jollier diversions out there.
Monday, 14 October 2024
Alrightgames: The Game Master's Book of Random Encounters – Variant Castles
The Game Master's Book of Random Encounters: Variant Castles
2020 / Roleplaying game mini adventure / 2+ players
Most of the suggested traps and denizens were too grim or mundane for our magical friendship pony game, but this helped me to come up with some rooms to expand our prefabricated module, and I loved the idea of letting the dice decide what was on the other side of each door, that's a keeper.
Friday, 11 October 2024
Alrightgames: My Little Pony – Tails of Equestria – The Haunting of Equestria
My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – The Haunting of Equestria
*****
This adjustably spooky instalment is the best one we've played so far. Its higher level requirement for the characters also gives GMs a chance to gain enough experience to not be terrified by its more flexible approach, rather than jumping straight into the one with the exciting cover.
The writer has professionally penned RPG modules for decades, so I tried not to feel too intimidated that some people can turn the blank document into all this. But we're nearly out of adventures, and the next saga may be all random tables and Story Cubes.
Tuesday, 8 October 2024
Babyliography CLXXXIII
2017 / School book / 16 pages
**
Not as captivating a wordless book as The Arrival, and she can already read up to five-letter words anyway, but they presumably know what they're doing.
2016 / School book / 48 pages
***
Nice craft design spruces up an otherwise bogstandard feelings discussion primer.
2024 / Library book / 32 pages
**
Has its sparkly rainbow cake and eats it. This generation's going to get so sick of meta.
2024 / Library book / 120 pages
***
The four-year-old reader identified the artist of one issue (another Amy) based on recognising her style. She insisted we read the Bloody Mare-y one despite my accurate protests that it would creep her out at bedtime.
2022 / School book / 16 pages
*
We have to "read" these wordless books three times a week and answer questions she already memorised in class before we're allowed to enjoy some proper reading.
Saturday, 5 October 2024
Babyliography CLXXXII
2006 / Library book / 72 pages
***
Lots of pain to come, it seems. But she likes the dresses, what can you do.
2019 / Library book / 96 pages
***
These reliably teach me a thing or two. Aren't goats' eyes weird?
2023 / Library book / 120 pages
**
The first time I've seen her get properly excited by fan service lore, outside of her own fanfic.
2011 / Library book / 152 pages
****
The movie she has on tap and can watch any time, now partially in screencap comic form. She enjoyed reading along anyway, once I remembered that manga reads from right to left.
2010 / School book / 32 pages
**
Polar bear friendship lesson. Her school books are a bit less adventurous than her usual stuff.
Wednesday, 2 October 2024
Babyliography CLXXXI: Receptionreads
I was planning to rename this increasingly insultingly-titled catalogue of my daughter's reading now that she's started proper school, but for the sake of big numbers, all the unicorn continuity, and not being able to think of a new title, she's stuck with it until she learns to read in secret.
2013-14 (collected 2016) / Paperback / 184 pages
***
Premature Christmas / culturally-irrelevant Thanksgiving special.
2024 / Library book / 128 pages
***
Recycles a plot that happened to other princess sisters in the previous generation, but she still wanted all five issues in a day. The kid loves comics, don't know where she gets it from.
2024 / Library book / 160 pages
***
She has no interest in the original books, but adapt an episode she's already seen and slap familiar imagery on, and she snaps it up. I was exactly the same. We skipped the frequent exposition digressions that are only there to expand a 45-minute episode to 160 pages.
1985 / Ebook / 259 pages
****
I gave this the parental screening earlier this year (for attention span, rather than content warnings), and its episodic chapters are already a favourite bedtime request, to be acted out the next day.
2019 / Library book / 120 pages
****
What the Pony Life show could have been, if it had actually been funny. Even if we don't get the meme references.
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