Meme-Free Zone

A repeat offer, again with a dark setting for Halloween:

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Last time I said:

This looks like a reasonable deal - it isn't one that particularly interests me, but I think the price is pretty good. As usual I need to point out that I get this free if I want it - in this case I don't particularly - so my impression of its value may be different from yours.

I can't really see a reason to change that.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2243910.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

More horror in the run-up to Halloween

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These are nicely presented, and could be very useful if you tend to run map-heavy adventures. If you do, and want lots of maps with coffins etc, they're well worth a look.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2243809.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Continuing my Harry Potter / DC crossover, previous parts on any of these archives:

On Fanfiction.net
On Archive of Our Own
On Twisting the Hellmouth


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I think this is the longest chapter so far, many apologies that it's taken me so long to update. Comments please before I post to archives!

Revised slightly - Sunday evening.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2243334.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

A big bundle of Ellen Datlow's "Best Horror of the Year" anthologies, presumably another offering in the run up to Halloween:
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I'm not a huge horror reader but there are writers I'm always willing to read whatever the genre, and a lot of them seem to be included here. It looks like a pretty good deal anyway, and well worth a look at these prices.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2243133.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

This is a Cthulhu game based on a system I don't think I've encountered before, The Black Hack:

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At a very quick look this seems to be a playable system, if a little gimmicky in places, with slimmed-down mechanics that should be fairly easy to learn. I'm not sure it has a huge amount to offer over other games that deal with the Cthulhu Mythos, but it's pretty cheap and looks like the adventure ideas can easily be adapted to other games, so probably worth taking a look if you're into Mythos roleplaying.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2242978.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

This is a new offer of the top-selling material for 5th edition D&D from independent publishers: everything in the offer is in the top 1.44% of products sold on the DriveThru RPG site:

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I don't play D&D any more but there seem to be some useful ideas here - alternatives to the racial stereotyping of D&D, adventures, material from different cultures, and so forth. Assuming that you use the system and haven't already bought a lot of this material this looks like a pretty  good deal.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2242596.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

This is an offer that really doesn't interest me at all, since I don't do streaming games. I have no idea if it's useful, so I'm simply passing on the information. One thing I should mention is that this offer ends earlier than usual, on the 29th of September:
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As I said, I really have no idea if this is a good offer or not, and can't comment since I don't use this tech at all. If you do it may be a godsend. Or not...

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2242436.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Another RPG bundle with mutants - it's apparently steam engine time - this time the system is Mutant Crawl Classics, which is an old-school style RPG with a post-apocalyptic setting reminiscent of Gamma World etc. It isn't one I know at all, and I haven't really had time to take a very close look tonight:


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This isn't an RPG genre I've played much, it's basically dungeon-bashing with science and mutants rather than magic and monsters, and I don't really do dungeon-bashing any more. Since I haven't been able to give this offering much of a look I'm not sure if it's a particularly playable system, but it's fairly cheap and $14.95 and up will get you a lot of stuff, so it may be worth taking a chance.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2242112.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

I visited the Italian Water Garden in Kensington Gardens to test a nice telephoto lens yesterday, and came away with some wildlife pics - a cooperative heron and some swans and ducks. Small versions of some behind the cut, the large ones are here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/150868539@N02/albums/72157719860593976
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Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2241898.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.

Two offers for Mutants and Masterminds, one of the better superhero RPGs - one is a re-run of the essential game stuff, the other is all new and (unusually for these bundles) doesn't ask you to spend more to get additional material.
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Last time the core bundle was offered I said

M&M compares reasonably well to other superhero RPGs; it's based on the Open Games License e.g. D&D so a lot of players will be able to pick it up fairly easily, and it plays about as well. I tend to prefer GURPS Supers or Champions if I'm playing, simply because they seem to be a slightly better fit to the genre, and if I'm running something I'd probably use homebrew rules based on Diana: Warrior Princess, but that's mainly because I wrote the system and know it backwards. For a newcomer with some familiarity with other OGL games this may well be a better fit, and as always you get a hell of a lot for the money. Recommended, subject to all the usual YMMV caveats.

I don't see any reason to change that.

Also posted at https://ffutures.dreamwidth.org/2241784.html, where there are comments. Please comment here or there using OpenID.