The Scream series was famous for enumerating the rules of the slasher horror genre. The Creature Feature has its own rules, and the best movies play by them — or play off of them. Here’s my take on the rules of the genre; feel free to to add your own in the comments.
A recap of NuketownSF’s tweets for the week of January 31, 2021. Kickstarter’s annual #Zinequest is back! This month Nuketown will be promoting our favorite #Zinequest3 publications and resources, starting with the event’s homepage: https://www.kickstarter.com/zinequest ZINEQUEST | Zinequest 2021 @ Bone Box Chant – A huge list of all of the active and upcoming zines … Read more
There are certain animals that simply creep people out. Endless documentaries on the Discovery Channel and PBS have shown us that sharks, spiders, and snakes are misunderstood creatures, but that doesn’t stop up from secretly worrying about being strangled in our sleep by giant reptiles. Anaconda (1997) exploits those fears with a film that pits … Read more
The sun-blasted, magic-scarred campaign setting of Dark Sun is unlike any other published for Dungeons & Dragons. It inverts or eliminates many of the core concepts of D&D: arcane power is rare, psionic abilities are rampant; Halflings are cannibals, dwarves are slaves, and elves are opportunistic, lying traders. The world itself – known as Athas … Read more
The key to virtual play is crafting a online Dungeon Master’s Toolkit that works for you. Just like my physical dungeon master’s toolbox, the online one makes my life easier. It cuts down on prep time, creates robust visuals for battle maps and illustrations, and keeps me focused. Adventure Prep Battle Map Creation Virtual Tabletop … Read more
Mothership is a rules-lite, science fiction horror RPG inspired by the likes of Alien and similar creature features. I backed the 2021 kickstarter, and while I wait for the boxed set to arrive, I searched for introductory Mothership RPG adventures to run with my friends (or at my local convention, MEPACon). Thanks to the Mothership RPG Discord, I … Read more
We’re approaching the New Year, a traditional time for resolutions. But frak that – December is my birthday month, and I’ve got some goals for my 51st year. One of them is to play four new games, some of which have been on my gaming bookshelves for years because of the pandemic. Now that the … Read more
It’s February, which means snow, long days that are slowly getting shorter, and zines. So many zines. For the last three years, Kickstarter promoted ZineQuest, a celebration, and promotion of print and PDF zines for role-playing games. This year, Kickstarter moved ZineQuest to August to coincide with GenCon. That left a vacuum in February, which … Read more
Sometimes, you need to get a little weird … and Scales of Truth, my current lunchtime campaign, is a lot weird. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, Scales of Truth is a D&D 5e-powered game that relies heavily on the tropes of weird fantasy. It draws inspiration from Gamma World, Thundarr the Barbarian, and Numenera, though its still has a … Read more
Nuketown’s Summer Reading List for 2020 is in full swing. During my summer vacation at Lake Champlain, I finished up Fall (or Dodge in Hell) and knocked out The Last Emperox, The Dreaming Stars, and Auberon (an Expanse novella). I also launched into The Bohr Maker, which I completed when I got back from the … Read more