Meanwhile in Mega City 1 - Prog 4: Pet Food Shenanigans?

Meanwhile in Mega City One is a roleplaying game which takes place every Friday Night at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club in Chislehurst, South East London. 

Cast

• Judge Cully - A no-nonsense female street judge with a penchant for heavy weapons - Kat
• Judge Krush - A hard as nails street judge who goes by the book - Steve
• Judge Swiss - A rookie street Judge - Alex
  
• Psi Judge Pike - A Psi Division rookie Judge - Conor
  

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

The patrol spends the next two hours investigating the aftermath of the boinging attack.

Considering their possible leads in the Wildenstein murder case they:

1. Investigate Felix Pet Foods to see if there was a possible motive.
2. Go back to Sector House and
3. Go to The Jungle and interrogate the apes

Swiss contact Control and orders that Wildenstein's email accounts are sanctioned for evidence.  Felix Pet Foods is located in Elon Tusk Industrial Park A-235.  An unexpected hailstorm occurs at 15:30 lasting approximately 5 minutes. 

They arrive at the factory at 16:00 and are met by the Operations Director Victor Froome who proceeds to give them a tour.  When he hears that Miss Wildenstein is dead he is visibly moved.  Pike only reads his surface thoughts which seem to back up his body language.  When quizzed about the exact details of the prize contract, Froome confirms that the prize winner could purchase any felix cat food product for free with the presentation of an ID card for the lifetime of the cat.  The cat was subjected to a regular barrage of tests including a DNA test. 

Prof. Dexter Ose

He takes thenm up to the lab and introduces them to Prof. Dexter Ose who leads the companies R&D facilities.  Prof. Ose tells them that he personally conducted the tests on Mr.Blomfeldt.  Asked if the cat could have been cloned he says that's ridiculous, who would go to the trouble of having their pet cloned.  

Froome is excited to tell his team of crack lawyers of Miss Wildenstein's death and tells them to come up to the lab.  A few moments later a community of chimpannzees wearing suits and carrying typewriters bursts into the room.  The Judges leave but Pike and Scully suspect that Professor Ose has an ulterior motive.  

Pike contacts Control for a list of know cloners in the sector.  Moments later a list appears on his HUD.

1. Dr. Eff Rank - 571-49-Benny-Hill-Block
2. Dr. Steve Ein - 118-1-Stallone-Block
3. Prof. Xero X - Isocube
4. Dr. Hideki Pho - deceased
5. Danish Tokopi - Isocube

They decide to pay Dr. Rank a visit.

Benny Hill Block

An hour later the judges are knocking on Dr Rank's door.  They can hear multiple quiet voices inside.  Dr Rank unlocks the door but keeps it on the chain preferring to have a conversation through a two inch gap.

Dr Eff Rank

He tells them that he doesn't do cloning anymore and that he wouldn't waste his time on pets in any case.  That is the preserve of crazy people like his closest rival Dr Ein.  The fate of the human race hangs in the balance and if we don't solve the problems of human cloning then we will be unable to survive The Great Barrier and colonize the Galaxy.

His obsession with space colonisation is apparently the reason his wife and children left him when he returned from his time in the isocubes a few years ago.

After a short and frustrating conversation Krush kicks in the door smashing Rank in the face and making him stumble back into a glass topped table whihc shatters.

Rank is helped onto the sofa to recuperate whilst the Judges continue to blitz his apartment.  They find 8 toothbrushes in the bathroom, a pair of childrens shoes in a bedroom and food in the fridge labelled with the days of the week.

Professor Eff Rank's Apartment - 571-49 Benny Hill Block

Krush checks out Bedroom 3 and in passing switches off the TV which was advertising a live concert on Sunday by the latest Simon Powers girl group Kat Kitten and The Power Converters. 

Swiss discovers a secret hatch under the bed in the master bedroom and calls everyone to come and look.  Krush makes his way out of a bedroom and narrowly avoids being blown away by Rank who is wielding a sawed off stub gun.  Krush shoots a 3 shot burst and catches Rank in the guts.  Pike runs in and tries to psychic blast the scientist which stops him from reloading and Krush shoots him in the chest, dead.  

    "You all saw him, he had a gun"

The bed concealed a set of synthicrete steps leading down to a landing which doubles back and further down ending in a locked metal security door. She shoots off the lock with a High Explosive round and the door swings open revealing seven young girls aged about 8.  She asks them their names and they reply

"Monday... Tuesday... Wednesday... Thursday... Friday... Saturday... and Sunday."

You can read more about the game characters, NPCs and locations on it's Obsidian Portal page, please consider becoming a Fan.

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BACK ISSUES

• Prog 1 - Rolling With The Rookies 
• Prog 2 - Splat Goes The Ugly
• Prog 3 - Great Balls of Fire!!
  

Is Obsidian Portal Any Good?

I am a big fan of session blogging and I try my best to log each of the games I run here on my blog or if i am a player over at the Dragons Keep Roleplay Club website.  I stumbled across Obsidian Portal as an alternative to creating my own wiki/campaign website and thought I'd check it out. 

What is Obsidian Portal?

It's essentially a campaign logging tool which allows you to keep track and share your adventures, characters and NPCs, locations and maps.

What I like 

It's Free - anything which requires a subscription has really got to provide me with something special which I can't easily get elsewhere.

It's Easy - If you can use a webpage and are familiar with how hyperlinks work, then you can create your own campaign wiki.   

Google Maps Integration - The ability to quickly and easily generate your own campaign maps and populate them with markers which link to wiki entries is fantastic.  The interface is a little clunky but it works.  I can see this coming in very useful as my players explore their surroundings.

Campaign of the month - The Obsidian Portal official blog Words in the Dark regularly awards creators and it's a great way to showcase some of the excellent work which people are doing for their players.

What I Don't Like

Limited Functionality -  Many of the advanced features are understandably kept behind a paywall.  I understand that this is part of their business model and if you gave away the crown jewels for free you would limit your ability to generate revenue. 

Limited Formatting - I am not a fan of the markdown engine it uses which has difficulty with basic items such as italics and there is no ability to add tables.

Summary

This is a very early review of this tool as I am still getting to grips with it and populating my own campaigns for Judge Dredd.  It's value will only become apparent for me when I begin to use it in anger as a wiki during play.

Check out my Obsidian Portal Campaign page for Meanwhile in Mega City One and follow, favourite or just give it a thumbs up.

Movieweek 7 - The King's Man and 7 Secret Sisters

The King's Man (2021) - 8/10

Recent sequels have been accused by the MSM critics of including too much fan service in order to get favourable reviews.  However, I see this as giving the audience what they want and The King's Man is a perfect example of this.  Fans of the franchise are treated with respect and get exactly what they want, smart dialogue, world building, a ripsnorting plotline and plenty of great fight choreography.

Transported back in time to the Boer War we are introduced to the Duke of Oxford, his son and General Kitchener.  These are pivotal figures in the run up to World War I and the events which conspire to create the need for the secret organisation we have come to know and love.  The movie is more than just an action movie and it has a lot to say about the bloody business of war and does so with genuine pathos and tenderness.  Above all this is a movie about conflict and emotions, the conflict between a husband's promise to his dying wife and of his duty to King and Country. 

With regards to the cast, any film which stars Ralph Fiennes is worth the admission fee and you will be treated to a masterclass in emotional delivery, ably assisted by Charles Dance and Gemma Arterton, but the real stand out for me was Tom Hollander who managed to play all three royal cousins (King George, Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas ) with aplomb.  Rhys Ifans also did a bang up job as Rasputin and I loved how they managed to include the now legendary details of his death (poisoned, shot and drowned).

A great addition to a great franchise.

What Happened to Monday (2019) - 7/10

It seems apt that in my 7th movieweek I should write about seven secret sisters.  

This is a one of those strange movies which has a great premise, a great build up, great characters and acting, but ultimately fails to stick the landing.

Noomie Rapace shows why she is an actress in demand and manages to play septuplet sisters who all have different and distinct characters in this dystopian tale of life in a society struggling to deal with the ravages of overpopulation and dwindling resources.

In a world governed by a One Child policy, Scientist Willem Defoe defies the family planning laws and hides away his seven identical grand daughters (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc).  As adults they take turns to go out each day and play the role of successful banker Karen Settman.  They follow the rules that their grandfather taught them until one day Monday does not come home.

At it's heart this is a thrilling mystery in which we are drip fed tidbits of backstory and flashback which establish just how careful the sisters have been up to the moment when Tuesday must go out into the world and find out what happened to her sister and maintain her cover in full knowledge that their secret might be discovered at any moment.

A tense thriller with a twist in the tale which is well worth the wait.  I certainly didn't see it coming at all and I'm uusally quite good at spotting dropped hints and those contrarian expectation busting reveals.

Unfortunately for this movie, the final act is clumsily handled.  I would still recommend the movie, but it would be much lower down on my list of top 10 dystopian future films.    

Meanwhile in Mega CIty One - Prog 3: Great Balls Of Fire!!

Meanwhile in Mega City One is a roleplaying game which takes place every Friday Night at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club in Chislehurst, South East London.  Games Master is Tony

Cast

• Judge Cully - A no-nonsense female street judge with a penchant for heavy weapons - Kat
• Judge Krush - A hard as nails street judge who goes by the book - Steve
• Judge Swiss - A rookie street Judge - Alex
  
• Psi Judge Pike - A Psi Division rookie Judge - Conor
  

A Hot Chipped Cat

eaving Mr Draper's apartment it occurs to Cully and Krush that Mr. Blofeldt  is likely to have had a tracking chip installed and so Cully and Pike put in a call to the municipal computer, Barney, which contains a databaseof every license issued for a pet in MC1.  Unfortunately Barney seems to be overwhelmed with calls at the moment and both judges are put into a queue.

Perhaps there is evidence that thye missed in the apartment and so they return and begin a more thorough search.  Krush begins looking for a safe behibnd the many paintings, Cully searches the walk in closet and Pike the bedroom dresser.  Pike finds a desktop armoire filled with cat collars of every colour.  In the drawers below are stuffed receipts from a store called Cat Couture.  In the living room behind a large painting, Krush finds a safe with a combination keypad.  Pike suggests tying in Mr. Blofeldts birthday.  

They switch on the Tri-D TV and search the calendar.  Mr Blofeldts birthday is circled as an event on 04-11.  Krush punches in the numbers and is rewarded with a satisfying click, the key to cracking the case is almost in his hands.  Unfortunately, the safe contains only a large stock of human dehydrated food.  "Well that's one mystery solved" remarks Swiss.

Searching through Miss Wildensteins favourites they discover that she watched almost exclusively celebrity vids, cat vids and celebrity cat vids.  One channel is "Where's my Pussy?" which is a lost cat channel through which owners can report their lost stolen or otherwise errant feline friends .  It contains thousands of pictures of missing moggies and Cully decides to use it to list Mr. Blofeldt.  She fills out the online form.

Pike calls up the directory and dials the number for Cat Couture.  Two well dressed men answer the phone and immediately begin effervescing about how glad they are that Miss Wildenstein has called.  They are shocked and surprised to learn that Miss Wildenstein is deceased.  The pair are know to Judge Cully and she remembers that they were the owners of Zlooty Slute's Suits You, a gentlemens outfitters on Melania Boulevard.

Cat Couture

Following their recent close call with disaster Mr Slute and Mr Floot have gone into the cat accessory business.  Miss Wildenstein was one of their biggest customers and she had only recently purchased a stunning blue diamante collar for Mr. Blofeldt worth C10,000.  Mr Floot delicately enquires about the whereabouts of the collar and is dismayed to hear about the missing cat.  They suggest a personal visit to their store to see if they can be of assistance.  

Zlooty Slute	Whistler Floot	Jocelyn Wildenstein

30 minutes later the Judges walk through the door of Cat Couture and begin to interrogate Slute and Flute.  Cully demands a list of customers but they refuse citing client confidentiality.  Despite being threatened with 2 years in the cubes for withholding evidence they remain tight lipped.  Swiss suggests that perhaps if the pair were enrolled in the Informants Scheme they could carry out some investigations on their behalf.  Cully prints out an F17-C and signs the pair up.  Mr Floot comments that "He never liked Mr. Blofeldt #5, it was so sad to hear about the death of #4"

As they mount up outside they consider their possible lines of investigation:

1. Head to The Jungle and see if the Ape Mafia have anything to do with the stolen cat.

2. Pay a visit to Felix Pet Foods the source of the threatening emails to Miss Wildenstein.

3. Go back to sector house and see if the morgue has found anything out on the body.

Their musings are cut short by a scream and a cry "look out it's a boinger!"

What the Boing!

With a sickening crunch splat a boinger lands on a innocent passer-by killing them instantly.  

Judge Pike tries a psychic blast, but Boing is impervious to psychic energy as proven by Judge Anderson when she and Judge Death were entombed in boing many years ago.   Cully manages to shoot off an incendiary round turning the globe of plastic into a spicy hot flaming rubber ball before it bounces up into the air.  

As a second boinger lands, Swiss attempts to fire an HE round but is momentarily blinded by a falling piece of burning plastic landing on his visor.  He orders his bike to engage with it's cannon.  BUDDA, BUDDA, BUDDA go the cannon and three large calibre shells ricochet off the rubber ball.  2 come straight back at the lawmaster busting it up and a third kills a bystander who was making for the safety of the alleyway opposite.  

Boingers land outside Cat Couture on Melania Boulevarde

Ralf Loren, a member of Trump Towers Citi-Def, is buying lunch at the Munce Bar with his squad mates Dave and Suraya.  He instinctively opens up with his stub gun but misses the second boinger and peppers the front of the Sector 55 Bank with lead.  

Judge Krush spins his bike around and fires his Cyclops Laser Cannon at the Boinger.  It's beam cuts through the plastic like a hot knife through butter and punches through into Dave "Shagger" Williams disintegrating his lower torso.  The third citi-def member, Suraya, screams in agony "Who watches the Judges?"  

Ralph comforts his squad mate "It's not looking good Dave" whilst Suraya wave's Dave's legs in the air and tries to grab someone's attention shouting "Medic!"

Pike shoots an AP round at a third boinger who is about to land.  With a crunch it lands on a yellow saloon heading north crushing the plassteel canopy and causing it to crash into an orange car coming the other way.  The boinger ricochets off into the windows of Cat Couture.  Swiss shoots an incendiary at the ascending second boinger as the 1st boinger, now a mishapen blob of burning goo, reaches apogee.  Cully fires an HE at Boinger #2 sending it splatting into the wall of Joe Biden Block opposite.An orange compact hover car is showered with burning debris, swerves and smashes through  the windows of Kneepads R'You.

Krush fires an AP round at Boinger #3 as it ricochets off Cat Couture's armoured windows and flies across the road into the Kneepad Store.

Pike dives under the yellow saloon for cover as what is left of boinger heads for impact.  Cully fires off a HE round at #1 but misses blowing up an unsuspecting citizens apartment.  Boinger #1 lands with a splat on what is left of the yellow saloon.  Pike breathes a sigh of relief and hopes that Judge Belloch will be lenient under the circumstances.

In the Kneepad Store the burning orange compact explodes killing everyone in the store including those who ran inside to shelter from the chaos outside. 

NEXT PROG ->

BACK ISSUES

• Prog 1 - Rolling With The Rookies 
• Prog 2 - Splat Goes The Ugly
  

Movieweek 6 - Big Bug and Gangs of New York

Big Bug (2022) - 7/10

Jean-Pierre Jeunet is one of my favourite auteur directors so I jumped at the chance to watch his latest movie when it appeared in my Netflix notifications.

Visually this is a sumptuous movie and meticulous attention to detail went into its production and visual effects.  The characters are clearly defined and their motivations and mannerisms well expressed by an excellent cast.  However, the movie falls a bit flat.  This is clearly meant to be a stage play comedic farce in the style of a one room play.  

A cautionary tale of what might happen when an AI takes over the running of our everyday lives, the characters are completely at the mercy of the Yonyx AI which has developed some sort of human hating bug and has decided that humans are a lesser species.  The disturbing human baiting TV Shows increasingly become more brutal and humiliating as the Yonyx tightens its grip.Every attempt they make to escape or to thwart the Yonyx's tyranny only lands them in deeper water making the viewer feel like there is really no hope on the horizon.  

There are some genuinely humerous moments but these are few and far between in what could have been a much tighter piece.  Perhaps this movie suffered from production issues during the pandemic, I don't know, but I hope that Jeunet's next project returns to the form of Amelie, Mic Macs and The Young and Prodigious T.S.Spivet.

Gangs of New York (2002) - 7/10

It's been 20 years since I first saw Gangs of New York and I never really liked it the first time around.  I rarely enjoy fims that have been hyped to high heaven and this Scorcese epic was one of the biggest movies of its day. 

I was impressed by the cinematography from the get-go the sets were huge and complex and yet never drew the focus of attention away from the characters of the story.  The characters are everything to this movie, which, is essentially a tale of a son's revenge against the man who killed his father.   

The cast do an excellent job of portraying these brutal people from a brutal time clawing their way through life trying to make something of themselves.  Many die along the way, but a few become changed by history and opportunity.  This is one of John C Reilly's first "serious" movies and alongside some character acting greats like Brendon Gleason, Daniel Day Lewis and Jim Broadbent he does a great job.  Less convincing are the younger stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz whose portrayals seem so much less intense and captiviating.  Perhaps this is an intentional move on the part of the director as the road of their lives is so much less travelled and they are not world weary or burdened by their pasts.

I did enjoy this movie much more the second time around although I am still left feeling that this was very much a movie which didn't have much of a tale to tell and that there should have been much more interplay between the gangs of New York.