Citi-Block Floor Plans for Judge Dredd

In my A to Z of the 80s, D was for Dungeon Floors and I included an honourable mention of the Judge Dredd Slaughter Margin boxed set and the rarer Citi-Block floorplans.

Citi-Block Floorplans

I have never thought too much about them and to be honest I just thought that Citi-Block was just more floorplans in the style of Slaughter Margin (which I own) with some additional counters.  I never had the incentive to buy it. 

That was until I saw this excellent Youtube video which details so much more.

Having now learned that the box includes rules on generating your own city blocks I am utterly gutted that I never picked this up back in the day.  

Copies now command a princely sum on eBay!!

More Starblazer Comics

I blogged recently about Starblazer Comics the small format sci-fi stories from my childhood.  Thanks to eBay a few more dropped onto my doormat this week.

#50 - Moonsplitter - Out of the cosmic rim, one of the many Galactic wars raged. Only one thing stood between the Earth Galac-Squad as it swept triumphantly towards the Mease aggressors homeworld - An impregnable armoury on the barren planet known as Silicon IV.  General Larz Pluto (love it) readied his Earth forces for an invasion that would end the war.  

Issue 50 marks fearless Fighting-Scientist Hadron Halley's first appearance as he fights off the Mease to save some Galac-Squad soldiers on the planet Silicon IV.  Halley uses his gadgets and his knowledge of science to single handedly defeat the bald-headed Mease and get back to the safety of a Terran carrier only to find that General Larz Pluto has been captured.

Halley mounts a one-man rescue mission and infiltrates the Mease base, locates the Genral and makes a bid to escape.  The interior design of the Mease base is really interesting and features numerous psychedelic looking geometric patterns which wouldn't look out of place in a Zenith strip.  Curiously the Mease also seem to use the English alphabet, which is handy.  The titular moonsplitter device makes its debut and the Fi-Sci command use it to bombard the mease base with moon fragments utterly devastating the planet, but that's okay because they are the good guys... right?   

#51 Prisoners of Zorr - By the year 2382 Earth was the administrative centre of The Galactic Foundation.  The gigantic Sandpoint Military Academy trained a multi-planetary peace-keeping force and the highlight of each year was the passing out parade when only the best pupils qualified.  The planet Zorr had observers present... and they were interested in only the best.

Cadets Sol and Hammond are top of their class at Sandpoint (a potmanteau of Sandhurst and Westpoint) and due to graduate in a few days when thay are kidnapped by mysterious alien observers and transported to a prison compound on the planet Zorr.  

Along with cadets from other worldsthey are subjected to batteries of tests and arduous training exercises to turn them into the ace pilots that the planet's ruler Zorr needs to fly his Dragon Ships and conquer the galaxy.   Will they escape the prison and overthrow this evil dictator?  Will they ever see Earth again?

A typical Starblazer tale as our heroes dash from one death defying encounter to the next.  There is definitely a WWII vibe about this issue, the bad guy, Zorr, looks like a cut price Mussolini and the Zorr soldiers have a mild Nazi look to them.  I was most surprised to see Zorr and General Valcan ride in on a sci-fi version of the WWII manned torpedo known as The Chariot.    

#52 The Mask of Fear - By 3000AD Man had spread out and colonised worlds among the stars.  With men, went crime. Wealth and position were highly prized, and life was cheap.  Desperate men did desperate things to achieve wealth and position - even destroy entire worlds.

When a mysterious group of three criminals destroy the planet Deltan they murder millions of innocent inhabitants including the family of Special Agent Hart Tallis.  His mission is to bring the three to justice and to seek revenge.  A fairly simple galactic manhunt as Tallis follows the few clues he can piece together.  Fortunately for him he grew up on a heavy G world he is more than a match for most of his assailants.  One by one he tracks down the members of the group of three and uncovers more evidence of their intergalactic crimes until he finally comes face to face with The Mask.  

Only one question remains... Is the mysterious Mask someow related to Diktor Van Doomcock Future Ruler of Earth?

#54 The Torturer of Triton II - The Terran Galc-Squad were the prime fighting and exploration force of the year 2280, ready to space-warp to trouble spots anywhere within the star-systems of Federation space.  Galactic conflict was a complex business, and could involve forces beyond the experience and understanding of an ordinary galac-soldier.  To meet this challenge, a specialist unit was formed, men who had the brain power to understand science, combined with the strength and courage of a fighter.  They were called the fighting scientists and their outfit was called the Fi-Sci branch of Galac Squad.

Another Hadron Halley adventure, which opens with him deliberately crashing his shuttle into the docking bay.  What a joker!!  But wait, he survives certain death using a force-field shell he has invented.  That's going to be important later on.  The art in this issue is top notch although some of the spaceships look like they were inspired by legendary spaceship artist Chris Foss.  The one of page 31 bears an uncanny resemblance to the Jodorowsky's Dune spaceship.  The cover art depicts the evil Torturer of Triton and reminds me of Thundercats villain Mumm-Ra.  The evil aliens of the story look pretty good even if they are only wearing what look like silver underpants!     

#56 The Sleeping Legion - By the year 3500 Solar powered space craft had blazed man across the Galaxy.  Each passing star was an energy source, charging solar panels that fed unbelievably powerful engines.  Thus was the Milky Way explored until only the galaxies beyond remained a mystery.  Man was too busy forming the Galactic Commonwealth to take up this new challenge, so unmanned probes were sent outside the galaxy.  These reported the existence of strange, alien cultures, and armed forts were built around the galactic perimeter in case of need.  But when those forts were eventually attacked they proved useless against the might of the aliens, who at all costs had to be prevented from activating their sleeping legion.

Our heroes this week are Crane, an eyepatched wannabe Snake Plisken and his trusty droid UNGO or UMGO (The letterer seems to have had a bad day).  The aliens from the planet Largos bear a striking similarity to TMNTs Kang and once again seem to be dressed in nothing but metallic underpants.   

Crane has a real time of his life and ends up getting swallowed by a giant metal right off the cover of Judas Priests, Screaming for Vengeance. The alien art is really outta sight.  We have aliens in mobile guard towers that look like Wallace's wrong trouser's, Blobs that live in frozen craters, an alien spider that looks like it overdosed on H.R. Gieger's Biomechanics, but nothing quite prepares you for the sight of Crane in his space suit.

#57 Galactic Lawman (A Planet Tamer Story) - The Planet Tamer!  Throughout a lawless universe the name was spoken in whispers.  Just who was this mysterious instrument of justice.  Part man and part machine?  none could say for certain, but one thing was sure, wherever Evil went The Planet Tamer followed, and The Planet Tamer punished!

Our story opens on the prison ship Negril (which is also a resort town in Jamiaca) where the monosyllabic Molok, a being of pure Evil with the good looks of Brian Blessed, is none too pleased with being de-corticated.  Meanwhile in a cheap knock off Westworld the Planet Tamer arrives to arrest galactic fraudster Lorix.  With the crook swiftly apprehended and the entire pleasure dome time bombed until the space police can turn up, the Planet Tamer jets off on his space scooter towards Pados 12.  Enroute he encounters the wreckage of the Negril and learns that Molok and some convicts have escaped to the planet below.  

So begins a manhunt across the galaxy but we also discover much about our hero the Planet Tamer's history.  He was once a UPO Marshall called Jubal McKay before he was injured.  His paralysed body was rebuilt by a ceybernetics expert in some Robocop like experiment.  Catching up with Molok we discover that the de-corticator has somehow given the crook the power to manifest creatures made of ectoplasm.

This week's issue throws the kitchen sink of plot devices at our hero and then some.  How did it all turn out, well I;m not telling so you will just have to read it yourself.      

#58 Pyramid Power - After the Great Galactic War of 2482 an uneasy truce was established.  Many worlds joined a concordat to forge a lasting peace, but hte most powerful single nation, the Pugnarions, declined to take an active part.  They saw peacekeeping duties as an increased burden on their powerful spacefleet's patrolling capabilities.  Eventually, in 2492, the Pugnarions were persuaded to take part in the Amity Day celebrations.  In honour of this event they agreed to display their legendary symbol of power - the priceless ancient diamond - The Pyramid of Pugnaria.  A Concordat vessel was sent to transport the diamond along with other treasures to Centros, the Concordat capital.

The early 80s were the golden age of mysticism history authors like Eric von Daniker and this Starblazer's click bait (before click bait was a thing) title suckers us into a gripping tale of intergalactic heist whodunnit.

Investigator Petrie (he's a real dish) enlists the assistance of Professor Calegh as they track down the jewel thiefs before the Pugnarions lose their patience.  On the planet Kanthus they stop a mugging and with their new friend in tow hit the space pub (aka a fluid replenishment centre) and embark on a manhunt to find some aliens who never take off their spacesuits.  That's ruddy mysterious!

On Rogus they find an ancient egyptian tablet they return to earth to the egyptian museum to have it translated, the professor has seen the tablet before along with the spacesuited aliens and in a flash they are off to Sadalmelek.  Flitting from one planet to another is a trope within Starblazer stories.  If you haven't visited at least 4 alien worlds per issue then you feel a bit short changed.  The aliens (Xsilith) have been placing transmitters at strategic locations throughout the galaxy and use pyramid science to harness the energy of five suns energy creating a super weapon.  Surely it would have been easier to build a death star...

Movieweek 2022 - Week 2 - Flying Sharks, a Titanium Girl & some Eternals

I didn't watch as many movies this week as real life events got in the way a little.  I am now back to the grind after the long Christmas break and I had the small issue of finding a new car.  Hopefully my evenings will now be free to relax and watch some movies.

Sky Sharks (2020) - 3/10

Sometimess I say that I watch movies so that you don't have to and that adage has never been truer than in the case of Sky Sharks.  

Having seen the trailer for this movie about a year ago, I was honestly looking forward to seeing this and hoping that it would be another cult classic like Iron Sky, or Dead Snow.  It's not, it's an out and out exploitation movie more like Sharknado but with more sex gags, and not great ones either.

There are precious few moments in the movie which I thought were worthwhile and it seems to lumber from one set piece to another.  The characters are instantly forgettable as they try to end the Nazi Sky Shark threat once and for all but the only way to do that is to sacrifice a plane full of innocent people to lure out the Sharkwaffe.

Not content with having zombie nazis, there's a whole muddled section about zombie vietcong.  It makes precious little sense and should be avoided like the plague.

Titane (2021) - 5/10

Titane is a tough film to watch.  I'm no stranger to violent french films, I loved Doberman, I loved Man Bites Dog and I have watched Irreversible, but Titane just didn't grab me.  

The main character of Alexia is just a little bit too hard to watch in places and I had to take a break (of 2 months) before going back to complete watching it.  This is always a bad sign and either tells me that I am just not in the right mood for this movie or that it is really not a great movie.

This is an entirely different situation to that of movies like Fight Club and the TV Show Squid Game which I actively avoided thanks to the trailers.  However, having watched both, I can understand why I reacted negatively to the marketing.  

Titane should be right up my alley but the central premise to the film, that psycopathic murderer Alexia has been knocked up by an automobile, is a bit too far fetched for a movie which takes itself very seriously.  SFter a killing spree, she then runs away and gets taken in by a fireman who lost his son.  The relationship between Alexia and Vincent is a strange one full of confused sexual tension and paternal grief. 

There is a good amount of body horror in this movie and well done to whoever did the prostetics work and practical effects as they were flawless and utterly convincing.  It reminded me somewhat of the Tetsuo movies which were an awesome blend of cyberpunk and film noir with a similarly transhumanist motif running through them.  However, they are much simpler films which don't try to tell multiple stories full of complex human emotions.

Definitely one of the oddest films that I have seen in the last ten years.

Eternals (2021) - 4/10

The MCU lumbers on like a juggernaught in this latest release from the house of mouse and we are starting to to run out of really compelling stories to tell it seems.  Full disclosure, I am not a hardcore superhero movie fan and I prefer the way that DC Animated Universe treats the properties of Batman, The Justice League, Superman and Justice League Dark to the live action Marvel universe.

The Eternals promised a lot with its huge cast of A-List talent and I am so glad that Hollywood has recognised Gemma Chan as an actress who can headline a movie.  But, and it is as big bit, this movie had pacing problems from the beginning.  It chose to ponderously establish the emotional baggage that many of the characters had saddled themselves with over the course of 7,000 years spent watching over humanity and waiting for the Emergence.   

The real story was of them gradually wiping out the deviants until none remain.  Instead, against a backdrop of the fall of Tenoctitlan, we have Salma Hayak (Ajak) nonchalantly declare that the last deviant was dead.  Like a 60s supergroup, the band breaks up and they each go their seperate ways, but we don't get any montage of what they do with temselves in the intervening 500 years.  

This was a great opportunity to do some B-Roll of characters lives intertwined with famous pivotal historical events but instead we go straight into a Bollywood dance number so jarring that it rips you right out of the movie.  We don't really understand why, because in the few scenes that Kingo was in, there was literally no character development.  I cared much more about his valet than I did about him.  This is a big flaw in the build up of the movie because we struggle to bridge the gap between the Eternals as they were and what they have become.  We have little to no reference to what they have witnessed, the wars they have seen, the things they have done to hide their presence from humans as they openly live as literal Gods among men.

We then jet off to some desert hovel in Australia where Gilgamesh is living in relative squalor looking after Thena where Sersi is told by Arishem the Prime Celestial, the earth shattering truth (quite literally) behind their mission.  This was another wasted opportunity to dump some Celestials lore whihc would have driven Marvel fans wild.  For example, how many celestials are there?, who are they?, how long do they live? why do they need more celestials? what functions do they perform? what are their powers? why is Tiamut important? If celestials are so powerful why can't Arishem (The Judge) wipe out all the Deviants in a snap of his fingers?  Seems like Celestials are just a plot convenience to me.

From this point on you would think that the story would really pick up pace as we now know that there is a ticking clock.  As Tiamut's emergence draws near why aren't we seeing more of these global earthquakes and scenes of minor Deviants ravaging metropoli? 

Some of these characters were hard to love as in the case of Druig, and others you just felt were nothing more than an artists preliminary sketch (Makkari).  When we catch up with Druig he has become some sort of religious cult leader in the Amazonian jungle, controlling his followers with his mind.  This is not at all creepy behaviour and makes him really endearing to the viewer (irony).

There was precious little to like about some of the characters who clearly have been playing some background role in the evolution of humanity and then "check out" when the going gets tough.  The scene of Phastos in the ashes of Hiroshima was particularly trite and cliche without any other WWII scenes.  

What was Druig, a character who clearly had the deepest connection and concern for humanity doing while war raged across the globe?  It would have been great to see a character reading a newspaper about the exploits of Captain America fighting the Nazis.  It's as if this movie operates within an MCU vacuum, the story is selectively blind and deaf to what is going on in the world around it. 

The problem with this approach is that it ultimately dehumanises the Eternals as characters.  If they can comfortably sit back and spectate as the the Nazi onslaught kills 15 to 20 million people across Europe, how are we expected to empathise with them when they get upset at the killing of 130 to 226 thousand people at the end of the war?  We needed those historical reference points to establish the character's gradual descent into disillusionment, anger and guilt.

This was handled much better in the movie Highlander (1986) in just a couple of flashbacks we learn how Connor Mcleod stumbled through history doing what little he can as an immortal without any flashy superpowers. 

Eternals could have been a good movie but it suffered from terribly poor storytelling, too many characters and laborious exposition.          

Session Blogging - Why I Bother Recapping my RPG Sessions

I have mentioned before that I have been the defacto session writer for our group at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club for some time now.  It takes up a good portion of my weekend but here are a few reasons why I do it.

5 Reasons Why I Write Session Reports

1. It Engages Me - Yes, that's right, if I am scribbling notes througout the game I am completely focussed on what is happening at the table.  I've been roleplaying on and off for 40 years and it's easy to become blase and become distracted by the joking, camaraderie and snacking that usually fills up at least 50% of the game.

2. It Helps the GM - Most sessions begin with a recap of what happened in the previous week.  I have witnessed several instances of the GM logging onto the last session and skimming through their own game and pulling out the salient points.  It helps their worldbuilding consistency as there's always a reference to NPCs we have interacted with (especially those created on the fly).  It helps them to remember the important details of who said what and to whom.  

When I am the GM the session report is formed from my game notes and I get the players to read the report before we start the next session.  That way I don't have to do as much of a recap to the previous session and we start playing faster.

3. It Helps Players - Real-life happens and it is a more common occurence as we get older that we have to forgoe our game night to deal with other priorities.  Having a session blog helps missing players to pick up where they left and still feel like a valued member of the group.

4. Player Engagement - Players like to read about their exploits every week.  I know of at least one player in our group who loves to see their quotes in print.  They know that they can always send me an update or an amendment if they want to highlight something or heaven forbid if I got it wrong

5. Free Content for my Blog - A selfish reason, I know, but it hardly makes me a monster.  I love the fact that I have weeks worth of sessions on my blog which I reminisce about in my dotage.  I've also published session reports on RPGGeek, so if you are a member send me a gamebuddy request.

Why Don't You? 

It's surprisingly easy, why don't you have a go yourself, you just might like it.  If you are already blogging your sessions, stick a link in the comments below as I would love to share them with my readers.

The Scribe, by George Cattermole - Art UK

The Expanse Ends Today

The Epic Sci-fi series the Expanse ends its run on Amazon today.  I have followed the exploits of the crew of the Roscinante since day one and thoroughly enjoyed this series.

Game of Thrones in Space

I've always described The Expanse as Game of Thrones in Space as it has a similar blend of Politics, Fighting, Technology (Magic) and Monsters.  The series has had a troubled history having begun on the SyFy then jumped to Netflix and then finally Amazon.  

However, it has been a perfect bridge to span the yawning chasm that seperates Star Trek's far future Utopian view of the future from Star Wars gritty Space Opera. 

One of the central motifs of the show is it's commitment to realism, what we might otherwise refer to as Hard Sci-Fi.  This commitment is evident in their attention to detail depicting things like zero-g, and space flight physics, but also in their design aesthetic for things like the mobile data pads.

I for one hope that we will see the show get picked up in the future as I am sure that writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck will continue to write stories set in this universe.

Bon Voyage... sad face emoji

Spring Cleaning the Blog

It staggers me that I have been writing this blog since 21 August 2010. almost 12 years ago!

It is full of weird little articles which I have brain dumped ober the years and collected a huge number of tags, some of which only feature once, or I have multiple tags for the same thing.  

When We Begin, the Beguine

My first blog post was a plot idea for a Judge Dredd game. well nothing much has changed there, I'm still writing plot hooks for games and I am still running games of Judge Dredd.

Blog Stats By Label

My Top 20 Labels or Tags are:

Post Tag / Label	# Articles
Fluff/Inspiration	185
Fantasy	133
Sci-Fi	105
Miniatures	92
Judge Dredd	63
Painting	61
Advice/Tools	50
Movies	43
Session Report	40
Bones	39
Make:	39
Reaper	38
3D Printing	30
80s	29
Mapping	28
Monsters	27
D and D	26
Games Mastery	25
Boardgame	24
TV	24

Feel free to roam around inside my mind dump.  But, for me, it's time I did some spring cleaning.

Rosey! fetch the feather duster.  

 

Cat Theft - Not a Victimless Crime

For me 2022 went out with a bit of a Fuck You.  Some scumbags stole my Cat

Catalytic converter theft is a growing problem

According to farsight blog over 16,383 catalytic converter theft incidents were recorded in the first 7 months of the 2021, that's an average of 2,340 cats being pinched every month!  I am not one to play the victim and despite being fully insured, my car was written off as an uneconomic repair.  Which is all well and good, but there is still a financial impact to the unlucky owner in the unplanned purchase of a new vehicle.

Turn Adveristy into an RPG Plot Hook

I have to stay positive and think of a way I can turn this adversity into a positive.  How about a plot hook for a Judge Dredd game.  Enter nefarious music producer Simon Power.

He has been working on putting together a super-group girl band called Kat Kitten and the Power Converters and he just hasn't been able to get their sound right.  None of the band can sing worth a lick but he stumbled on a rare psychometric study which postulated that a cats meow at the right frequency has a psychotropic effect akin to mind control.  His plan is to add this mysterious M note to the band's song "Don't Stop By Me Now"  

His backroom boffins have isolated the particular cat's meow that he needs to fill his lineup and has despatched teams of audio analysts to track down the right cat for the job.  They have been prowling the streets of MC-1 secretly recording pet cats and passing on the owners details to a a gang of catnappers.

Catastrophe

These pet pinching perpetrators have been getting away scott free until one particular owner catches them in the act and tries to prevent her moggy from getting manhandled and she falls to her death from her apartment balcony.

Jocelyn Wildenstein / Mr. Blofeldt
Ugly Competitor / Pet Cat

The victim is one Jocelyn Wildenstein, a famous ugly pageant winner and the owner of a prize winning pedigree pussy named Mr. Blofelt who just so happens to have the magical meow that Simon Power is desperately searching for.  Needless to say the cat is missing.

Ms Wildenstein's death has escalated the case of the missing moggies to a capital crime and the Judges will need to enlist the aid of Tek Division best to trawl through the hundreds of cases and thousands of hours of video footage to find the connection between the victims.  Or MAC can do the same job in about 6 hours.

The cats are all different species but the one thing that they have in common is their meows are all within a particular frequency.  

Having a Psi judge in your patrol squad will be useful when reviewing any vid footage of the missing cats.

As a backdrop to this plot hook the holo ads have been running thick and fast in the last couple of days promoting the release of the debut single from Kat Kitten and the Power Converters.

Some Potential Encounters

Record Store Riots - If the Judges don't get the connection before the release of the single, it will be fairly obvious that something is untoward is going on when the record stores run out of copies of the single due to its immense popularity.  Riots break out between crazed fans of the band as they storm record stores.

Live Concert Catatonic Conversion - Kat Kitten are appearing at an open air concert playing the B-Side of their single "Stop the World I Wanna Get Off" when the crowd suddenly go catatonic.  Reports start coming in over the air waves of mass reports of muteness among the population.  

Pop Mogul Protection - A baying mob attacks Elton John Luxy Apts the home of Simon Power and he needs to be rescued.  Attending his apartment, eagle eyed members of the patrol will notice the odd white hair laying on the sofa.  A search of the apartment will find a stash of synthi-cat food (Mr Blofelt's favourite flavour Liver and Tripe) in his kitchen.  Power will of course claim that he doesn't have a cat at all and that this is part of his diet regimen and even eat the cat food to prove it.  

Power keeps his secret musical weapon close and caged in a secret closet in his bedroom.  A member of the patrol with an allergy flaw, exceptional hearing or a Psi Judge will be sensitive to the cat's presence.  Of course if Power is subjected to cross examination with a birdie lie detector he will eventually crack.

Rounding up the Catnappers - Powers will give up the name of the gang he hired to steal the cats.  The Eartha Kitt Krew are an all female gang of catburglers who specialise in high rise heists using jet packs, skysurf boards, bat-suits, climbing gear and sucker knee pads.  

Their turf is in the lower levels of Adam West Block. They won't come quietly and are particularly adept at Martial Arts and also protected by a contingent of well armed heavies from neighbouring gang the Robinhoods out of Burt Ward Block.