SHANE PLAYS

Shane takes a look at The Forgotten Catacombs of Osipitis, a 5E grimdark campaign for characters of levels 1-15 from J.K. Becker of the Unknown Archives. Why does he like the format so much?

Batman tapped Racer Motors for his newest Batmobile, and they overdelivered: the Mach 5 Mobile!! Turbines to speed, on Toy Tuesday!!

Video game developer Johnny Wood-Brooks discusses his career and No One Left To Die, his new quirky retro indie video game. An update on his Classic Ultima Online project. An overview of his 20+ year career in video games, including Midway, Turbine, Standing Stone, and ZeniMax. How he got into the industry (and what method he used to “cheat”). What programming language is still surprisingly dominant in video game development? The video game industry can be a tough biz. Johnny has been pleasantly surprised by the Godot game engine’s capacity for rapid game development. Multiplayer is still surprisingly hard to implement in games after all of this time. The process and challenges of getting your game on Steam (Johnny says the easy part was making the game!). The 8-bit / chiptune soundtrack for No One Left To Die is by Matthew Lister aka Cobra Commander. Shane compares his podcasting approach to Ed Wood.

June 6, 1944 Never, ever forget

Fellow movie buffs Chris Holmes and Stephen Clements join for an electrifying ambulation through the gothic corridors of over 30 Frankenstein movies, past and present. Chris and Shane disagree on the merits and content of the original Frankenstein novel. Shane has thoughts on spoilers and people expecting them to apply forever. There’s Iconic, and then there’s iconic. What Frankenstein movie was so bad that Stephen wished his heart would have stopped while watching it, and he begs all of humanity never to watch it? For you Mage: The Ascension fans out there, Dr. Frankenstein was a Son of Ether (and so were the Ghostbusters). Do Frankenstein movies play into our fear of being eaten? Stephen manages to invoke the old military urban legend of the Ether Bunny. Chris will sit through every second of a putrid, horrible movie that he despises at least twice. Chris saw a movie in the theater using Smell-O-Vision… in 2025. Stephen has super-strong (like, super-strong) opinions about Poor Things. Did we mention that Stephen has super-strong opinions about Poor Things?

Most of us remember Star Trek's 3D Chess, but do you remember 3D Checkers aka Space Checkers? This was an actual product on the market that Star Trek used as a prop and also adapted into parts of the 3D chess prop. Crown me in the Third Dimension… on Sci-Fi Saturday!!

Avon is a close second, but Vila was absolutely my favorite character in Blake's 7, and one of my favorite characters, period. RIP Michael Keating, and thank you for such a fine performance.

On today's exciting episode of lazy and jobless

The second of two interviews with game designer Ken St. Andre, this time focusing on his video game design history (see part one for discussion around his tabletop RPG design). Games discussed in this episode: Tunnels & Trolls: Crusaders of Khazan, Adventure Construction Set, Wasteland (without which there would be no Fallout), and Wasteland 2. Ken’s favorite Christopher Reeve Superman movie. One of Shane’s pet peeves with current superhero comic book stories (especially DC). The origins of storytelling. Did the Empire from Star Wars have a good side? What happened when Ken and Roberta Williams of Sierra On-Line offered Ken a job? What two classic 80s action flicks helped inspire Wasteland (one is sort of obvious, one might not be), and what does Daffy Duck have to do with it all? What does the Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes RPG have to do with Tunnels & Trolls, and what do they both have to do with Wasteland? Ken’s thoughts on being involved with Wasteland 2. Ken’s never-released superhero game version of Tunnels & Trolls called Power Trip. The most important rule in Tunnels & Trolls (as opposed to the most important principle). Watch out for snollygosters. Ken’s thoughts on power scale in superhero RPGs (think Batman and Superman in the same fight). Q&A with Ken based on questions submitted by Matt Barton of Matt Chat. Ken’s advice for game designers. What would Ken have done differently in his career? Cockroach population analysis. How Ken made it into the Hall of Fame.