Posted on by slickdungeon

MaXXXine – Movie Review

Mia Goth stars in MaXXXine
Mia Goth stars in MaXXXine

Hello horror fans, Slick Dungeon here! I’m back to review the third film in the X horror series by Ti West. Once again this stars the living legend scream queen Mia Goth. This is her third turn in the series. While you don’t have to watch both of the other films to enjoy this one, it helps if you have at least seen X. If you want to get caught up quickly, check out my posts for X and Pearl. Do be warned there will be spoilers for all three films in this review. If that’s not your thing, pack up your bags, head out to Hollywood, make it as a star, screen the film in your huge living room, and then come on back here to read the review.

MaXXXine – The Chronology

Things are a little confusing with this series because of how they released. X is the first in the series to be released, but chronologically it comes second. Pearl is a prequel to X but it came out after X and before MaXXXine. While you don’t need to watch these in order, it does help to have seen the other two prior to watching MaXXXine.

In X we watched an aspiring actress named Maxine who wanted to be a sex symbol to the world. Unfortunately for her, there was a mass murder and huge debacle when she and her friends went to make their first adult film. This mass murder was committed by an elderly woman named Pearl and her elderly husband.

Pearl takes us back in time to see the origins of this deadly woman. MaXXXine catches us up to 1985 and focuses once again on Maxine.

Hooray for Hollywood

The film follows the story of Maxine Minx as she attempts to transition from adult film star to legitimate movie star. For her to do this, she has to land a part in a horror film. The film in the film is called The Puritan II and sure enough, Maxine is cast for the movie.

But her past is not far behind. There’s a private investigator, played by Kevin Bacon, named John Labat who knows what happened in Texas and has tracked Maxine down.

While this is happening, the Night Stalker killer is roaming free and has been murdering women in Los Angeles. Maxine and all her friends are in danger. Thankfully, Maxine knows how to take care of herself.

And speaking of Hollywood, this film is jam packed with references to other films, has loads of stars, and absolutely perfects the look of a film made in 1985.

We get shots of Maxine looking at and hiding in the Psycho house while on the the movie set. This echoes the call backs to Psycho we saw in X.

Kevin Bacon looks just like Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, bandaged nose and all. And there are even split screen shots recalling the work of Brian De Palma.

If you love film and film history, you’ll spot a call back in this movie for sure.

Satanic Panic

In the background of the movie we see signs of the so called Satanic Panic. This is when parents, the media, and religious groups all had a collective freak out, finding signs of satanism in everything from movies to music to Dungeons & Dragons.

Add to that the real fear people had of being killed by someone like the Night Stalker, things are boiling over in Hollywood at the time.

The actual news footage played in the film adds not only to the look and feel of MaXXXine but it effectively ratchets the tension up to an intense degree.

And, of course, Maxine is in a horror film which is already being accused of being satanic. She’s getting hatred from Hollywood itself, the people outside of it, and keeps turning up connected to dead bodies.

While all of this does get tied together in the end, I found myself having to guess more than once, which thread here was actually coming for Maxine. It’s a film that keeps you guessing, although, in the end the reveal is nothing earth shattering.

MaXXXine the Survivor

In X, Maxine went through some major trauma. She’s no lost and clueless actress here. She’s a full on badass who has learned to detach herself when necessary. And she’s willing to fight anyone who tries to mess with her.

It’s refreshing to see a character in a horror movie who takes no nonsense from anyone. And it’s a little disturbing to see how far Maxine is willing to go to protect herself, damn the consequences.

Maxine is in a tough world be she’s more than up to the challenge.

You’re a F*cking MOvie Star

I can’t finish out this review without mentioning Mia Goth and her unbelievably good performance. In X she plays a somewhat naive woman who’s looking for fame the best way she knows how. In Pearl she played a woman who was willing to fight the world, even though it was against her at every turn. But in MaXXXine, she plays a woman who will not back down, ever, for anyone. And she’s going to get what she wants.

Mia Goth is surrounded by huge stars. Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale play detectives in the film. Halsey plays Maxine’s friend and fellow adult film star. Giancarlo Esposito plays Maxine’s agent. And as mentioned above, 80’s icon and legendary actor Kevin Bacon plays the private investigator looking for Maxine.

While Kevin Bacon has some of his best acting in this film in years, no matter who is on screen with her, it’s Mia Goth who draws the eye. She puts in an incredible performance here and shows enormous range with these three films.

In Conclusion

If you’re a horror fan, you need to see this film. I know there are other, bigger budget films out to watch this weekend but as far as horror goes, this one knocks it out of the park.

MaXXXine is a fascinating portrayal, an excellent follow up, and the rare third part of a trilogy that may be the best one.

If you don’t like gore, do be cautioned there is a bit of that here but there are absolutely gorier films out there.

While this one has a different feel and quality from the previous two in the series, this strikes just the right tone and is a nearly perfect follow up.

Slashingly yours,

Slick Dungeon

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Horizon: An American Saga – A Bold Original Western Epic

Horizon: An American Saga Chapter One
Kevin Costner stars in and directs Horizon: An American Saga
Kevin Costner stars in and directs Horizon: An American Saga

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Hello out there film fans! It’s Slick Dungeon and I’m back to review yet another movie. This time we’re heading out west to talk about Kevin Costner’s highly ambitious project Horizon: An American Saga Chapter One. There will be some spoilers in this review so if that’s not your thing, head out into the sunset, watch the movie, and come on back here to read up. Got it? Okay good, then saddle up and let’s get riding into the review!

Manifest Destiny

I’ll admit I am not a huge fan of westerns. There’s only a few I really enjoy so I was skeptical about Horizon: An American Saga. Add to that, this is a film with a three hour run time and it’s part one, so I wasn’t sure what I was getting here. Before I go into the details of the movie, I will give a warning that this film is not for everyone.

If you don’t enjoy sweeping epics with a large cast of characters this film is not for you. Absolutely hate westerns? This is also not for you. Need a film to come to a complete conclusion at the end? This movie is not for you. And if you can’t handle a three hour run time, this will not be for you.

But, if you have the patience to sit through three hours, understand you are only seeing the first chapter, and can enjoy a western, this is for you.

As someone who enjoys really long fantasy films like The Lord of the Rings, I had no problem with the run time. Or following along with the cast and plot. I didn’t feel the need for it to complete since there are at least two more films coming.

There are plenty of reasons to see the film, even if you wouldn’t normally do so. This movie is not a sequel, prequel, remake, or even based on an existing property. If we want to encourage Hollywood to make more films that are original, you’d be wise to support this film.

Due to the sweeping cast, it can be hard to keep track of all the characters. There are at least three story threads going on at the same time. And all of those threads have a huge cast of characters. There are only a few main ones you need to focus on, and it’s easy enough to keep track if you don’t get wrapped up in trying to remember all their names.

That being said, the cast is full of stars you’ll likely recognize from Kevin Costner (obviously) to Michael Rooker and Sam Worthington to Luke Wilson and Sienna Miller.

At its core, the film is about the idea of westward expansion and manifest destiny. Back when there was a ton of wide open spaces in America and there was a fight going on between the Native American population and the pioneers who wanted to settle the land.

the storylines of HOrizon: An American Saga

The film starts quietly with three surveyors in the San Pedro Valley. They lay a foundation for houses or maybe a town. While they do this, they are being watched by two young Apaches. A war party approaches. In the next scene a traveling missionary arrives and looks out at the horizon. He has a flyer with him. At the top of the flyer is one word. Horizon. It promises a new place to settle and be free. The missionary is told he went past the town at the river and he needs to turn back. When he goes back, he finds the bodies of the three surveyors. He decides to bury the bodies and creates makeshift crosses to mark the graves. The missionary goes back across the river and begins his settlment.

This marks the end of the implied violence in the film. For the rest of the movie any time a fight or gunshots break out, we see all of it. This happens four years later as the Apache decimate the settlers who are not expecting an attack. Only a few survive and the rest of the film mostly ties into these people. We also follow a contingent of Union soldiers who are there to keep the peace.

Threads in different locations

We get a second storyline which starts in Montana. Here a woman shoots a man and grabs a baby. The payoff takes a while to arrive but it does set up the main villains of the film. And those villains are memorable. We have the unhinged Caleb Sykes played by Jamie Campbell Bower and the mountain of a man Ben Sykes played by Jon Beavers. Both of these guys give great performances and I wanted more screen time from the two of them.

Our third storyline is a wagon train moving along the Santa Fe trail towards Horizon. This focuses on the leader of the wagon train played by Luke Wilson. It’s a little hard to see him as a cowboy but ultimately he serves the film well.

Costner makes his appearance

If you’re wondering where Kevin Costner is in all this, other than behind the scenes, he does show up. But it’s surprisingly late in the film. He plays the most stereotypical kind of western hero here. He’s gruff but seems to have a good heart. And he’s mostly silent. When he takes action it happens fast and it’s lethal. His story is wrapped up in the Montana storyline but his role in it is not entirely clear. At least not in this film.

I won’t give away where all these storylines go but I will say, I can’t wait to see how exactly they tie together in the next chapters.

Directing and Cinematography

You might expect a film with the name Horizon to have a lot of shots of, well, the horizon. Yep, there’s plenty of that. But I will say the cinematography is more than that. The action sequences and the smooth transitions from storyline to storyline keep the viewer engaged. While this is good directing without question, I can’t say it is the best directing I have ever seen. Costner does a fine job laying out the story and he’s judicious enough not to put too much of himself in front of the camera. But there are times when there seem like there may be missed opportunities.

There are some scenes involving the Apaches which give us a deeper look into what is happening there but Costner could have focused more on them in my opinion. I’m hoping we’ll see more of that in further installments.

There are clearly huge set pieces and there is no question everything here was built for the film. There’s not really any CGI to be found which is refreshing. Things just look better when they are real. And in a western, that’s vital.

Score and Sound

The score is great and the sound does the job well here. I could see the potential for an Oscar nod for either of those. The sound is especially complex in the action scenes. Music here is ever prevalent but never distracting, even when we see empty landscapes. But I won’t go as far as saying the score is as good as anything John Williams might come up with.

Acting

There are some fantastic performances here. I enjoyed Michael Rooker more than I expected to. And Sam Worthington does a fine job in his role. While Kevin Costner does a good job, it still feels like vanity to see him be the hero in his own film. We’ll have to see if that keeps up in the next two films.

There were times I felt it a little hard to buy Luke Wilson. But I got over that after a few scenes of him dealing with the others in the wagon train. To me, the standout performances were with the villains. And with Abbey Lee who plays a town prostitute named Marigold.

I’m not sure there is any Oscar worthy performance here but the acting is good overall. I enjoyed the performances well enough to want more.

The biggest problem with Horizon: An American Saga

The one spot to criticize here is the end. The last three minutes is basically a trailer for the further installments. But it’s not played after the credits. This makes things confusing. There could have been a more definitive ending rather than a lead in to a next installment. A few places would have worked to cut off. If Costner had done that, audiences would want more. That’s only a small gripe though. The film is engaging, entertaining and worth the watch.

In conclusion

This is a great film. Lots of people disagree with me and that’s fine. I wasn’t expecting to like it but I did. I also think there is too much backlash against it. People keep comparing it to a TV miniseries. That’s a fair comparison. But people also love TV miniseries. I don’t have a problem with one being played out on the big screen. It’s an original film. It is ambitious. Costner should be lauded for having a vision. Most movie studios are not brave enough to do that anymore. The only way to get that back is to encourage films like this. Even if this isn’t your favorite, I suspect you’ll enjoy the experience if you give it a chance.

The box office has been poor but I suspect this will do much better on streaming as people actually see it. I know this is not for everyone but I also don’t think it deserves as low of a rating as it has on Rotten Tomatoes. I’m refreshed by the vision here and I want to know what happens next.

Want to see what I thought of another sweeping epic? Check out my post for Killers of the Flower Moon.

Posted on by slickdungeon

Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Character Profiles

Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game by Matt Forbeck

Marvel Multivers Role-Playing Game character profiles are essential to understand if you want to play the game. In this post, we’ll go over what they are, how to use them and why they are so important. If you want to follow along, you can download a character sheet for free right here.

If you want to see more about how to play the game, start here.

(Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through this post I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you)

What are Marvel multiverse Role-Playing Game Character Sheets?

Put simply, these are character sheets. They are the basic foundation for most role playing games. And while these are similar in many ways to other TTRPG character sheets, Marvel has added some unique features. We’ll go through the basics, focusing on each section and highlighting the most essential parts.

Character Data

This section is self explanatory for the most part. Here is where you can choose your character’s codename, real name, height, weight, gender, eyes, hair, size, distinguishing features, teams, base, origin, occupation, history and personality.

Identity and Notes sections for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Identity and Notes sections for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet

If you are using a currently existing Marvel character, obviously a lot of this will be chosen for you. But if you are creating your own character, these are up to you. There are a few that do have some mechanical effects such as size and origin but we’ll get to those in a bit.

Rank

You can think of rank in terms of levels for Dungeons & Dragons or even video games. Rank is based on power and training. Even with the utmost training, Spider-Man will never achieve the power level of Galactus. In this game, there are six ranks you can choose from, each expanding in power. It can be fun to play at any rank but there’s definitely a bit more math involved in the highest ranks. If you play an existing character from the Core rulebook, their character profile will tell you what rank they are. If you make your own character, you’ll need to decide what rank you want to play.

Codename and Rank sections for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Codename and Rank sections for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet

Ability Scores

Most TTRPG’s have some kind of ability scores and the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game is no exception. One of the things I love about this system is they made it easy to remember by spelling out the word Marvel to create the scores. You’ll use these scores when making checks in the game. Your character will be better at some of these than others. I’ll dive much further into these in a future post when I create a character but for now here’s the breakdown of the abilities.

Melee – This is for how well you hit or throw. On the defense side, it’s for how well you take a punch. Hulk is good at this.

Agility – This is for attacking at range, dodging and things like running. Spider-man and Daredevil are good at this.

Resilience – This is basically how tough you are and it helps to calculate your health. The Thing is good at this.

Vigilance – This is for situational awareness. It also affects your initiative modifier. Professor X is good at this.

Ego – This is what in D&D terms you might call charisma. It’s how much force of personality a character has and it can affect how intimidating a character is. It also affects psychic and magical powers if your character uses those. Dr. Strange is good at this.

Logic – This is basically your character’s intelligence. Mr. Fantastic is, well, fantastic at this.

Once you have your ability scores, you’ll be able to make ability checks. We’ll get more into this in the future but it’s safe to say the higher your score in an ability, the more likely you are to do well on a check using that score. I won’t go into the calculations here because we’ll do them in a future post where you can see how these calculations are adjusted as things like power sets are added.

Ability score section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Ability score section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet

Health

This one is pretty easy to figure out. Health is how healthy your character is. This is calculated by taking Resilience and multiplying it by 30. If you somehow have a Resilience of less than 1, you still get a minimum of 10 health. We’ll go over damage reduction in a future post when we go over combat.

Health section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Health section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet

Focus

This is for how well a character can concentrate. It’s also affected by psychic attacks. To calculate focus, multiply Vigilance by 30. And, just as with health, the minimum is 10 even if your character has a Vigilance score of less than 1.

Focus section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Focus section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet

Karma

Karma is one of the more unique things in the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing game. It’s basically a system that represents those clutch moments where everything seems to be going wrong for a hero but in an instant where the universe comes together, something happens to change the outcome to one more favorable to the hero.

Each character starts with Karma equal to their rank. Rank 1 heroes have 1 point of Karma, Rank 2 have 2 etc.

Mechanically Karma can be used in a few ways. A character can use a point of Karma to give themselves an Edge, give an enemy Trouble, recover Health or Focus, or even to help a teammate recover. You can’t spend more than one point of Karma on any check.

Karma points also regenerate up to the hero’s rank after a good night’s sleep. Narrators can also give out extra Karma points to players who do things like committing heroic acts, role playing their character well, or saying their catchphrase at just the right time. This is at Narrator discretion so it’s not guaranteed. If you have more Karma than your rank and don’t use it before going to sleep for the night, your excess Karma will disappear but you will regain your regular amount of Karma. In other words, it’s good to use Karma when you have it.

There is one restriction here, only characters with the Heroic tag can have Karma points.

If there was one thing I might want to change about this game, it’s that restriction but I won’t go too far into it here. Let’s just say, I can see instances and campaigns where characters without that tag might be able to use it.

Initiative Modifier

This is what helps determine when you get to act in combat. This is equal to the character’s Vigilance but can be increased if a character has an E next to it on their character sheet. For example, Quicksilver has Vigilance 4 but his Initiative modifier is +4E, meaning he has an Edge when it comes to initiative. This makes sense considering he has super human speed.

Speed

This is what it sounds like. It’s how fast your character can move. They have a run, climb, jump, and swim speed. If they can’t swim their speed for swim would be 0. This is affected by the character’s Agility and Size. We’ll get into those adjustments further when we make a character in a later post. If you’re wondering about flight speed for characters who can fly, this will come from the powers the characters have. I’ll do a whole separate post about powers and power sets in the future where we talk about that.

Karma, Speed and Initiative Modifier sections for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Karma, Speed and Initiative Modifier sections for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet

Damage

Damage is how much damage your character does in combat but the calculation does get just a little tricky here. Remembering that we use the d616 system where the middle die is the Marvel die, you take the result of the Marvel die on your attack role and multiply it by your rank. This can be affected by powers however, so we’ll get into that in a future post.

Damage section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Damage section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet

Size

Just a quick note about size. Basically, mechanically speaking the larger your character is, the faster your character moves but your character is an easier target to hit. The opposite is true for small characters. There are some characters who can change size and this comes into play most often in combat situations.

Power Sets and Powers

This section deserves it’s own post so I won’t go into them here. But the power sets and powers are what makes your hero into a superhero.

Powers section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Powers section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet

Backstory

This is one of the most fun parts of character creation where you get to figure out who your character is and what they are all about. There are some narrative things here and some mechanical things so it can get a bit messy. I’ll just highlight a few things here but I’ll have another post where we go into much further detail on backstories.

Origin – This is how your hero gained powers. It can be through training, a mutation, from high tech or a few other ways. For now, just think of it as how your character got their cool powers, whatever way that might be.

Occupation – This is what your character does for a living. This is as varied as you want as you can be a hero with any kind of a job just like you can be a person with any kind of a job.

Traits – These have a mechanical effect in the game and you typically get them from things like your origin and occupation. Some can be taken by anyone and others are restricted to characters who match certain criteria. How many traits you can have is restricted by your rank.

Tags – Characters can have any number of these and they don’t have a mechanical effect. But they do tell you more about who your character is.

Why are Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Character Sheets so Important?

In order to play the game, you’ll need to understand who your character is. Even if you are playing a familiar character and you know everything there is to know about that character from the comics, you’ll come upon situations where the character sheet is useful. It’s also a handy guide for knowing what math to do when it’s necessary for making checks and performing combat. The good news is, these character sheets are fairly readable as far as these things go. While there are still a few sections on the character sheet I didn’t go over in this post, we’ll talk about those in future posts.

In Conclusion

While understanding the character sheet is critically important, there are a lot more things to know about the game. Some of what is on these sheets makes more sense once you are playing. To get the best sense of how to use these sheets, in a later post I’ll create a character which can be used in a game.

For now, there are more rules to understand. My next post in this series will be an explanation of one of the vital aspects of the game – combat.

Thanks for reading and once again, if you want to grab ahold of the character sheet, you can download it for free right here!

Posted on by slickdungeon

Tress of the Emerald Sea – Book Review

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson with Illustrations by Howard Lyon

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Tress of the Emerald Sea – Summary

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson comes a rollicking, riveting tale set in the Cosmere universe―a standalone adventure perfect for fans of The Princess Bride.

The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?

(Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through this post I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you)

Review

To say Brandon Sanderson is a prolific writer would be an understatement. He writes novels the way most of us go to the movies. It’s constant. While COVID-19 had the world locked down, Sanderson took the initiative to write four different novels without telling his publishers or anyone else on his team. He then released them on a kickstarter campaign and broke the record for pledges there.

Tress of the Emerald Sea is the first of these novels. And now, it is widely available. This is one of the cosmere novels. If you are a longtime reader of Sanderson’s you’ll know what that means. But you do not need to have read his other books to enjoy this one. This story can stand alone. Although, you will get more out of it if you have read more of his books.

Tress loves two things. She loves cups of all kinds. And she loves Charlie. Charlie is expected to take a bride from far off, leaving Tress all alone. But when Tress discovers Charlie is in trouble, her life changes. She must take action and save Charlie before it’s too late.

The book is a bit more whimsical than a good portion of Sanderson’s books and reads a bit like The Princess Bride or Good Omens. It’s got some interesting mechanics as far as how the unique sea on this planet works. And it has a familiar character as the narrator here, adding a layer to the story for fans of the cosmere. The artwork is fantastic and worth the price of the book alone, with Howard Lyon evoking the scenes perfectly in the reader’s imagination.

Do I need to Read other Sanderson Books before Tress of the Emerald Sea?

While this does stand on its own, it does feel a bit like things are not fully revealed if you don’t know at least a bit about the cosmere. I certainly don’t know everything about the cosmere. There may be things I missed while reading. But there wasn’t so much that I couldn’t enjoy the book.

There’s a good bit of quirky humor so if that’s not your thing, this book may not be for you. The world building is as effective as ever and Sanderson continues to be a master of it.

This is a good book to start out on but don’t assume all of his writing is like this. There are some of his works much more serious and some less so.

If you do enjoy books like Good Omens, Discworld, or The Princess Bride, this is a great one to read if you want to find a fun, quick read.

In Conclusion

Brandon Sanderson has so much out there, it can be difficult to know where to start. Tress of the Emerald Sea provides a good beginning point if you are new. It also works as a nice distraction to those who are fully entangled in the cosmere already. While I won’t say this is his best book, it is largely enjoyable and a fun read. You may feel yourself left wanting just a little more. But the good news is, Sanderson has metric tons more for you to find.

Already read Tress of the Emerald Sea but want another stand alone book to read? Check out my review of Elantris!

Posted on by slickdungeon · 1 Comment

Marvel Multiverse Role Playing Game Core Mechanics Explained

Marvel Multiverse Role Playing Game Core Rulebook by Matt Forbeck

Hello Marvel fans and tabletop gamers! I have with me the Core Rulebook for the Marvel Multiverse Role Playing Game. I wanted to take a quick look at chapter two of the book. We’ll be going through chapter by chapter on this blog so if you want to, follow along. Some chapters I will take a much deeper look at than others but my goal here is to give you the basic information of what you need to know if you are considering playing this game.

If you want to see the review of chapter one, check it out here.

(Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through this post I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you)

CHAPTER 2 – Core Mechanics

This chapter is a short five pages but it gives us almost everything we need to know to play the game. I’ll give a short breakdown of the rules below but for full rules you’ll need to read the book.

There are only a few core concepts you need to know to get started. If you master these, the game flows fairly easily for the most part. There is going to be some addition and multiplication in this game. It’s nothing that should be too intimidating but if you are like me and can struggle with math at times, there’s no shame in using a calculator when needed.

Let’s take a look at the concepts.

The Action Check

The action check is the most basic check of the game. While roleplaying, there are plenty of things you should be able to do without making a check of any kind. For my examples in this post, I am going to use Matt Murdock, aka. Daredevil to demonstrate.

If Daredevil, dressed as Matt Murdock wants to walk into his law offices to talk to his partner Foggy Nelson, there is no check needed whatsoever, he just does it.

Now, let’s say Matt is walking into the law offices and sees Foggy is being held captive by Wilson Fisk, aka, The Kingpin. Matt is able to hear the commotion and knows his partner is in trouble. He needs to take action. But he also needs to do so without letting Foggy know he is, in fact, Daredevil. In this case, Matt wants to act like he is stumbling around and just so happens to knock out Fisk. To try that, whoever is playing Daredevil is going to need to make an action check.

To do that, you take 3d6’s and roll them. In this game this is called rolling the d616 (more about that in a minute). Once the total of the dice is added up, the player then adds any ability scores needed to the total. The player is trying to roll higher than a Target Number the Narrator has given them. (More on this later as well).

If the player rolls high enough, Daredevil is able to pull off his stunt. If not, something else happens, determined by the Narrator.

d616

In this game, the only dice you need are d6’s. But, it’s good to have one die a different color or size than the other two. The way rolls work is the two dice on the outside of the roll (the 6’s in d616) are added up like normal. But on the middle die, also called the Marvel die, both the 1 and the 6 are counted as a 6. We’ll get more into this in further posts but for now, suffice it to say, the higher you roll the better, and if you can get your dice to come up 616, that’s the best result you can get. Ability scores can add even more to this number but we’re not going to go into those in this post because they are better explained during character creation.

Target Numbers (TN)

If you play Dungeons & Dragons you would think of this as the DC of a roll. Basically there is a number the player needs to meet or exceed for success. Most of the time the Narrator sets this based on the circumstances of what is happening in the game. But there are some NPC and player stats that may cause this number to have to be adjusted.

The narrator also still has the freedom most of the time to determine if something is impossible. If it’s impossible it cannot happen. For example, if Daredevil wanted to fly to the moon unassisted, even though he has no flight powers, he can’t do that even with the best die roll result.

Fantastic Rolls

Any time the middle die comes up with a 1 it’s called a fantastic roll. If you roll a 1 on that die and you exceed the target number, you get a fantastic success. This means you do the thing you were trying and also something else good happens. What that thing is can be suggested by the player or the Narrator.

If you have a fantastic roll but your result adds up to less than the target number, you still fail at what you were trying to do but something good happens to mitigate the results a bit. This also is determined by the player or the Narrator. Ultimately, Narrators have final say but player suggestions are often welcome.

The absolute best result you can get is a roll of 616. This is called an Ultimate Fantastic roll. In D&D it would be a critical success. If you roll this, outside of checking against something the Narrator has deemed impossible, you automatically succeed. These rolls can often be the most fun part of the game and can turn the tide of a battle or the narrative in an instant.

Edges

Also like in Dungeons & Dragons there is what amounts to an advantage/disadvantage system in this game. If you are in special circumstances where your hero has an advantage, they get an edge. For example, if Daredevil is fighting someone and the lights are off, Daredevil has an advantage because he doesn’t need to see to fight.

This can stack as well. If Daredevil has and advantage because the lights are out, and he’s sneaking up on an unsuspecting thug, he’d have two edges.

What happens here is with each edge you get, you can re-roll one of your dice and take the higher result. So, with two edges you might have an initial result of 5, 3, 5. You can then decide to re-roll any two of the dice you want. And you get to keep the better result. So if you re-roll and you end up with 5, 1, 6, you’d want to keep the second result. Remember the 1 = 6 so the result on the second roll is 17 compared to the original result of 13.

Trouble

The flip side of edges is trouble. This works in the same way but in the opposite direction.

If Daredevil is trying to fight bad guys and suddenly loud music comes on, he has trouble due to his highly sensitive hearing.

This also stacks, so if Daredevil is not only in a spot with loud music but there is a crowd of people blocking his way, he’s got two instances of trouble.

In these cases you re-roll however many dice you have equal to the amount of trouble. This time, instead of taking the better result, you have to use the lower result.

Edges combined with Trouble

Where this gets really tricky is when you have circumstances which provide edges and trouble. You can have an instance where a character has three edges and two troubles. Or three troubles and two edges, etc.

In those cases, the edges and troubles cancel each other out and you have to take what is left.

If Daredevil has an edge because it’s dark and one because he is sneaking up on someone, but he has trouble because he has been awake for more than 18 hours, he’s got an edge.

If Daredevil has trouble because he’s in a noisy place, and he doesn’t have his weapons with him, but he’s sneaking up on his opponent, he has one trouble.

Hopefully that makes sense but if you play the game for a while, you’ll get used to quickly figuring out how many edges and troubles there are to deal with.

IN CONCLUSION

There’s a few key rules in this chapter. Once you’ve got them down, they become pretty easy to understand but it can take a few sessions to get the full hang of them. There’s a bit of math involved but it’s not anything overly complicated. There are definitely parallels to Dungeons & Dragons but these rules, ultimately, are a lot more streamlined than those.

Next time, we’ll be taking a look at character profiles. There’s quite a bit of info in that chapter but it’s one of the most fun parts of the game. In the meantime, if you are interested enough to buy the book, check out how to do that below. Otherwise, see you next time!

HOW TO BUY THE BOOK

If you have read enough to realize this is a game you want to try out there are a few things you can do to get it. The different methods have some pros and cons so I’ll go into that a bit as well.

And, I’m not trying to make the hard sell here but if you want to help out this blog, buying through the links below goes a long way and it won’t cost you any extra.

  1. You can pick up a copy at your local friendly gaming store. The books should run around $50-60 bucks and not only do you get to support a local business, you get to walk away with a copy in your hot little hands that day, no muss, no fuss.
  2. You can buy a hardcover copy on Amazon for $32. This is a great way to get the core book, although you will need to wait for it to be shipped to you. If you want to help this blog out buy your copy here.
  3. You can get a copy for Roll20 for $30 on drivethrurpg. However, a couple of warnings here. First off, you’re not getting a physical version of the book this way. Also, you need to have an account on the Roll20 Virtual Table Top in order to access the content. (This is a free account and there’s a link in the purchase description on the Drivethrurpg site if you don’t already have one) Finally, and this is my biggest complaint about this purchase method, if you buy this through Drivethrurpg you are not getting a PDF of the book. As far as I can tell, there is no way to get a PDF of this book at this point. If you do want to buy this version and use it on Roll20 it’s a great option. And if you want to help this blog out you can buy your copy here. You can still read the digital book on basically any web browser this way, you just don’t get a PDF.
  4. If you happen to have Marvel Unlimited, you can get the test version of the book by typing in Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Playtest Rulebook. This will be an earlier edition and some of the rules have changed but it’s got the basics.
  5. If you don’t have Marvel Unlimited and you are willing to shell out $17 to get the Playtest book, you can get it on Amazon. If you want to help out this blog buy it here. Again, it’s not the full current book but it does cover the basics and it gets you started at a lower price point.

Special Bundles

If you are all in on the game and have cash to spare you could really go all out in a couple of ways.

  1. You could buy the Core Rulebook, the adventure module MARVEL MULTIVERSE ROLE PLAYING GAME: THE CATACLYSM OF KANG and the upcoming MARVEL MULTIVERSE ROLE PLAYING GAME: X-MEN EXPANSION books. Getting all three at once will run you around $100. If you’d like to help out this blog just make your purchase through one of the linked titles above.
  2. If you are already big time into Roll20 anyway, the best value through drivethrurpg is to get the Marvel Multiverse RPG Roll20 Mega Bundle. This will give you the core rulebook, a short module made for the Roll20 system called Revenge of the Super-Skrull, and The Cataclysm of Kang. Just remember this is only for Roll20 and does not include PDF’s. To help out this blog, buy it here. Right now this is on sale for around $70 and is the best deal if you don’t need physical books and want to play on Roll20.
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Marvel 616 Review – Tales to Astonish #45

Photo Credit: Marvel, Writers: Stan Lee, Ernie Hart, Artist: Don Heck

Now that Henry Pym, aka Ant-Man has found a partner in his effort to fight crime, he’s got an advantage. For the most part, ol’ Hank has been able to defeat villains with very little trouble, mostly due to his ant allies. But, there is one person who came pretty darn close to defeating Ant-Man. We last saw Egghead “wanted by the police and hunted by the underworld as he holes up in a dingy bowery flophouse…” in Tales to Astonish #38. Ant-Man has since had a few adventures and met Janet Van Dyne who has now become The Wasp.

Will this duo be able to stop the nefarious plans of one of the smarter criminals in Marvel 616? Let’s find out.

While the cover of this issue, created by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers is great, I think in this issue they missed out by not putting the amazing teaser panel from the first page drawn by Don Heck on the cover. It’s got an ant-eater and Egghead looming over Ant-Man and the Wasp and it better illustrates the dire position our heroes are in. And it makes you wonder why no other villain has tried this yet.

Just look at that! I’ve never seen a more menacing ant-eater in my life.

The issue then goes on to give us some narration about how Ant-Man defeated Egghead in the past and Egghead is looking to wipe out that defeat.

We are then treated to a long recap of what happened before. This is extremely common in early Marvel 616 for a number of reasons. First, since comics were only ever sold as single issues at the time, if a new reader picked one up they might be lost if they had not read a previous issue. But it was also a way to save time and money for Marvel. There was no need to create new art when you could simply reuse existing art. Sometimes new captions or narrations are added but a lot of it is simply the same panels over and over again.

Rather than summarize this section for you here, I’ll just refer you to my review of the issue where these events took place, Tales to Astonish #38. If you don’t want to read that to refresh your memory, suffice it to say, Egghead assumed the ants were the unwilling slaves of Ant-Man when, in fact, they are his willing partners and friends. Egghead was too narcissistic to realize people (and ants) can work together.

When we finally catch up to the present, two thugs happen to be in the same brewery flophouse (I still love the way that is phrased here) where Eggman is staying. These two thugs are named Twister and Ape. And much to Eggman’s delight they are talking about how they were lucky to get away from Ant-Man and The Wasp.

Egghead is smart enough to spark up an alliance with the two men. First, he asks for them to tell him all about The Wasp. For the recap of that, we only get a single panel where Twister says, “…And that’s the whole story! Ant-Man and The Wasp are partners now!” To be fair, this did happen quite recently so it’s probably still fresh in most readers minds so less of a recap was needed. Twister remembers hearing about Egghead nearly defeating Ant-Man so he and Ape agree to the alliance.

Egghead decides to take on a new identity and he says, “Every man has his achilles heel! We will strike at Ant-Man through his… The Wasp!” Yes, Ant-Man’s The Wasp. Well spoken Egghead!

Egghead who has been thoroughly defeated and was living in a “brewery flophouse” then gets a bunch of scientific equipment from… somewhere I guess? Outside of Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four, the issue of money doesn’t come up a lot in early 616. Especially not for villains.

Egghead makes a machine that can intercept and scramble the signals from the ants to Ant-Man.

Next, he creates a disguise and establishes himself as Professor Carl Striker, Zoologist. He puts on brilliant lectures about insects, well attended by the public. I would think it would be easier to just go on faking you are a zoologist and making some money that way than going up against a super hero duo, but Egghead really wants that revenge.

And wouldn’t you know it? In attendance at the lecture are Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne. The zoologist seems kind of familiar to Henry Pym but he can’t quite place the guy.

And we get a fun panel telling any new readers who these two are.

Egghead’s next move is to lecture at the city zoo and build a fascinating exhibit about wasps. He figures Ant-Man and The Wasp won’t be able to resist showing up. But, as in all good villain team ups, signs of friction begin. Ape and Twister have been running around helping Egghead but not gotten much in return.

Egghead promises the crooks that once Ant-Man and The Wasp are out of the way, he’ll be able to cook up a bunch of perfect crimes that will make them all rich.

Construction on the exhibit begins and Egghead makes sure everything is as precisely detailed as it would be if a real zoologist did it. And we hear in the background a news item about a famous diamond which is about to be cut into a pendant for a priceless necklace.

Egghead plans to use this diamond as bait to capture The Wasp. As the zoo exhibit is being set up, a zoo attendant questions why the wasp exhibit is going into the reptile enclosure but Twister just snaps at the guy. Ape mentions the only thing he’s scared of is snakes.

As the professor Striker, Egghead has somehow obtained blueprints of the place where the diamond is going to be cut. Twister is supposed to take a “dewelding gun” which can cut the alarm wires while Ape is to bring along the insect message interceptor.

Sure enough, the crooks get inside and send out the scrambled insect messages. Hank Pym figures out there is something wrong with the messages and he immediately calls up Janet.

The messages suddenly clear up and Ant-Man is informed by the ants there is a robbery at the diamond cutter’s. Ant-Man uses his catapult and The Wasp flies over to the address. But, it’s too late, the diamond is missing. Henry can’t find any clues to the culprit but he figures they are smart and will strike again.

Twister and Ape want to fence the diamond but Egghead is only using it for bait. The tension between the three increase but they ultimately decide to go along with Egghead’s plan. They rig the reptile enclosure into an elaborate trap which can send electrical current through every crack an ant can crawl through.

Ape wants to know why they don’t just step on Ant-Man and Egghead just replies, “He’s not that easy to step on, my friend!” I know Egghead is smart, but I think Ape kind of has a point here.

They set up the display so The Wasp will notice the diamond and enter into a trap they have created. Janet sees the diamonds in an oversized replica of a wasp’s nest and has a moment where she thinks through what to do. And, she pines for Henry in the process.

That night, Janet returns as The Wasp. She goes into the nest, without realizing bad guys are watching her. And inside the nest is some sort of strange maze. Egghead has made special shoes which won’t allow ants to crawl up on the crooks. He also tells Ape to put the iguana in the aquarium. Egghead figures The Wasp will have to contact Ant-Man.

Sure enough, that’s exactly what happens. Henry is annoyed because he told her not to do any jobs alone but of course, he’s really worried some harm may come to her.

The crooks wear magnifying goggles so they can see Ant-Man and trap him into the aquarium with the iguana. Egghead did allow Ant-Man a fighting chance because he left a pin there. Ant-Man uses that to defeat the iguana off panel. I feel bad for the iguana though, it didn’t do anything wrong.

Ant-Man uses springs in his shoes to jump out of the glass case. Meanwhile, Janet has figured out where Hank fell through into the cage. She’s able to fly to that opening to escape. The two are reunited but now is when we finally get the ant-eater.

Egghead tells Ant-Man there is no escape and tells him about the electric wire which will, “electrocute any insect or insect-sized creature that attempts to pass over it!” Diabolical.

But Ant-Man has a tiny lasso he created from “strands of steel-strong synthetic fiber.” He loops that around the ant-eater’s snout and tosses the ant-eater into the crooks. Again, I feel bad for the animal here. The Wasp disables the electrical wire.

Egghead tells his fellow criminals to use their water pistols filled with liquid gas to stop the heroes. But, The Wasp has recovered the pin Ant-Man used to defeat the iguana. She sticks Egghead who drops his gun and realizes she has found her sting, “The one thing, as The Wasp, that I had lacked!” She makes the other crooks drop their weapons as well.

Ape is trapped in his worst nightmare, surrounded by snakes. Egghead has somehow fled the scene before Hank or Janet noticed.

Hank lectures Janet saying, “As for you, young lady, don’t you ever try anything like that again! We’re a team— and we’ll work as a team! Understand?!” And Janet just wishes Hank could realize how in love with him she is.

And once again, Egghead gets away but from the last panel we know, he is still a threat and will be back. Thus ends the issue.

Tales to Astonish is still, at this point, an anthology series. But with Ant-Man consistently taking over half of the pages, having repeat villains, and a partner who is beginning to be established as a love interest, it feels like there is not much point to the other stories. It will still be some time before Ant-Man is let loose from these pages but it will happen eventually.

While I think there are plenty of egg shaped holes in Egghead’s plan, he did come up with something much more elaborate than any other villain in this series has. And he’s not done yet. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Next up on the reading list, put on your best armor because we’ll be catching up with Tony Stark aka Iron Man himself in the pages of Tales of Suspense #43!

Posted on by slickdungeon · 5 Comments

The Acolyte Series: A Fresh Start for Star Wars Fans and Newcomers

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

If you are already a Star Wars fan, you know what The Acolyte is all about. And odds are, if you are reading this you happen to be a Star Wars fan. But, on the off chance there are a few of you out there who have not yet gone to a galaxy far, far away, this review is for you. For those of you who are hardcore Star Wars fans, I’ll be doing spoiler heavy reviews for each episode once the series is complete.

There are too many entry points to Star Wars to name. You can obviously watch the movies. There are so many Star Wars books and comics it’s hard to keep track of them. And, of course, there are video games and role playing games galore that could give you a taste of Star Wars. If you happen to have Disney+, there are also a bunch of TV shows you can choose from. If you’ve never watched any of these, it can be really confusing to know where to start.

The Acolyte is a Disney+ Star Wars show that takes place about a hundred years before the events of the earliest Star Wars film, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. While the films center around the Skywalker Saga, The Acolyte has none of the baggage of those films.

You do not need to be a Star Wars expert to enjoy the show. There aren’t going to be characters you have generally heard of, or seen clips of, appearing here.

Instead, this show focuses on a group of galactic peacekeepers known as Jedi. They are what you might consider to be a space faring police force, combined with a diplomatic delegation, trying to keep peace in the galaxy. They also have access to the Force, a power that allows them to do things that seem magical, like move objects without touching them, or getting someone to do something they wouldn’t normally do.

The galaxy depends on these people to uphold justice and fairness. However, there are some folks who oppose the Jedi. I won’t go too deeply into who they are in this post because that may give too much away. Suffice it to say, there are people who may have been wronged, or who simply have hate at their core and seek revenge on the Jedi.

This series starts with a fight between a Jedi and someone trained in the Jedi arts who seems to have a grudge against the Jedi.

This event leads to a mystery which begins to unfold in the first episode. There are definitely some surprises here, even for longtime Star Wars fans and there is a lot of fast paced action. While Star Wars can sometimes get deeply emotional, so far this series seems like it does keep more of the focus on the action. This could change in further episodes but the first one decided to deliver on the promise of intense fighting and cool visuals. There are a plethora of creatures, spaceships, and special effects to keep up the stunning visuals.

This first episode basically gets our premise rolling, sets up a bit of a mystery, delivers some action, and establishes all of the important characters. It mostly centers on a former Jedi named Osha, played by Amandla Stenberg and her former teacher/current Jedi Master Sol played by Lee Jung-Jae.

The first scene showcases some of the promise of the incredible action to come. And the end of the episode leaves the audience wanting more.

The acting is solid here and so far hasn’t devolved into some of the most melodramatic moments the films suffer from. The cast and the director clearly know what they are doing and have a solid direction for the series but it remains to be seen how well it all comes together.

While there are some characters here that serious Star Wars fans will recognize from printed material, in this show it’s hard to speculate on what may happen. Unlike prequels, there aren’t any characters we know have to survive. This makes for a more interesting watch than some of the other shows.

As with any Star Wars show or movie, the most memorable part is the incredible soundtrack and this show fully delivers there.

The production quality is top notch and this feels more like watching a film than a television show.

If you’ve never dipped your toes in the water of Star Wars, this is a great series to begin with. It feels very much like some of the most iconic things in Star Wars. It has not yet reached the level of greatness some of the shows and movies do but it’s not off to a bad start. I do recommend the show to both longtime fans and newcomers, at least so far.

Have you watched the first episode? If so, let me know what you thought of it in the comments! Just remember to keep it spoiler free!

May the Force be with you!

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Blood Red Sky: Fast-Paced Intense Thriller for Horror Film Fans

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Hello film fans, Slick Dungeon here! I’ve got a great movie to recommend to all of you horror fans. This will be very light on spoilers because it’s the kind of film that is way more effective if you don’t know the premise going in.

Blood Red Sky is a 2021 British-German action horror film. It starts off with a tense plane landing in a heavily armed Scottish air base. The movie then goes back in time to explain what happened on the flight. Giving much more away will spoil too much here. I don’t even recommend reading the description on Netflix if you want to fully enjoy the film.

From start to finish the movie is intense and the pressure just keeps building. What seems like a simple hijacking evolves into something full of intense horror as things take a surprising turn.

If you are the type of viewer who is averse to blood and gore, this one is probably not for you. However, it’s not nearly the bloodiest thing I’ve seen on film.

There are a few key characters we come to care about on the flight and the film is well acted. The cinematography may not be anything special but it gets the job done. There are definitely some scares in here but overall the film finds its best moments of fear by ratcheting up the intensity over and over again.

Knowing the basic premise will lower the effect of what happens here so I’m not going to go into much more. But I can say, if you are a horror film fan, and you like fast paced intense thrillers, and don’t mind a fair amount of gore, this one is worth watching.

Horrifically yours,

Slick Dungeon

Posted on by slickdungeon · 1 Comment

Marvel 616 Review – Journey Into Mystery #94

Photo Credit: Marvel, Writers: Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, Artist: Joe Sinnot, Cover Art: Jack Kirby

At this point in Marvel 616 stories, Thor is without doubt the mightiest of heroes. Perhaps The Hulk could give him a run for his money but that’s debatable. The closest comparison you can make is Thor is as close as you get to Superman in the Marvel comics at this point. He’s super strong, he can fly (with the assistance of his hammer), he can even call down lightning and thunder.

Because of this immense power level, it’s been somewhat frustrating to see stories where Thor bashes communists over and over and goes after bad guys who break into banks and things like that. Those are the types of crimes that seem better suited for Spider-Man and Ant-Man to deal with.

But there has been one standout in the Journey Into Mystery stories. Every time Loki shows up, we get a story that feels more worthy of the god of thunder. The relationship between the two cannot be overstated in the history of Marvel 616. Without Loki’s blind ambition, and Thor’s determination to stop him, we wouldn’t have teams like The Avengers and The Defenders. Those stories are still a ways off but this issue lays more of the groundwork to get us there.

While Thor uses his strength and character to stop evil, he is quite susceptible to the machinations of his evil half-brother. The way we get there in this story is a bit silly but it’s still nice to see this conflict brewing, adding more of the necessary tension needed to expand this universe.

From the cover you can see Loki is able to get Thor on his side in this issue but how does he get there? Let’s dive into the issue and find out.

The issue starts out with a bit of a teaser panel with Thor showing Loki how he can topple the Leaning Tower of Pisa with his little finger.

We then move into the main story where a U.S. bomb testing site in the pacific ocean is launching a test missile. This particular missile is armed with a nuclear warhead which will explode in space. For the moment we’ll ignore the ramifications of this idea but needless to say, this missile is important.

We move to the control room where they are alerted to the fact the missile has started to fly wild. This is a real problem. In the control room they try to hit the self destruct button but it’s non-functional. Thankfully, the people of earth have one person who can help.

Thinking fast, the men in the control room send out an s.o.s. to Thor. The message goes out worldwide. Apparently, Thor doesn’t have super hearing. But luckily, Dr. Donald Blake is listening to the radio in his office. His nurse and love interest, Jane Foster is off for the day, so the good doctor immediately changes to Thor.

The god of thunder rushes to… the phone. The message didn’t say why the Pentagon needed Thor but apparently they take calls and over the land line, they give Thor the position of the missile. Good thing that was not a prank caller.

Thor tosses his hammer and launches himself into space to stop the missile.

Up to this point, this was feeling like a story where Thor would yet again end up fighting communists but it takes a nice turn as we get to see the real bad guy in the next panel. The last we saw Loki, he was imprisoned and bound for his wrongdoing. But Loki’s strength is not in his body but in his mind and magic.

It turns out, Loki has manipulated the missile all the way from his prison. And he counted on Thor’s sense of responsibility to the human race in order to enact his plans. Thor, as anyone might predict, tosses his hammer to destroy the missile. This provides an opportunity for the god of mischief to distract Thor. Loki sends the image of a dragon to Thor, causing him to turn his head at just the right moment. This effort causes Loki to pass out but it also does something to Thor. Mjolnir is flying back and because Thor has his head turned, it hits him just right.

Apparently Asgardians have a chromosomatic gland which can change personalities. I bet you can guess where this is headed. Loki mentally contacts Thor who immediately heads to the bifrost bridge and knocks Heimdall out. Heimdall obviously knows this is unusual behavior so he goes directly to Odin.

In the meantime, Loki is able to convince Thor that it’s Odin who bound Loki when in fact it was Thor. Thor breaks Loki’s chains and frees the villain. Odin and the other gods of Asgard confront Thor but he is too far gone to be convinced of Loki’s wrongdoing. It even goes so far that Thor hits Odin. Loki is smart enough to realize that his wits combined with the strength of Thor are still not enough to overcome all of the Asgardian gods. Instead, he cooks up a scheme to threaten Earth until Odin lets Loki and Thor rule Asgard.

As Thor and Loki storm off to Earth, Odin realizes he needs to ponder over what has happened. Odin’s strength is undoubtedly in his wisdom.

On Earth, Thor and Loki go on a spree of destruction, toppling landmarks, causing earthquakes, moving monuments, and generally proving to be the immense threat they could be. And we do, indeed, see Thor topple the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Loki, for his part, causes fear and chaos by sending around illusions that make everyone run for their lives.

Finally, a group of people who Thor describes as, “strangely garbed” show up waving the white flag of surrender. These people explain they are a special committee from the United Nations. They say they are scholars who study the ancient Norse legends and are confused as to why the Asgardians are behaving this way. The scholars ask Loki and Thor to come to the U.N. building so they can send a request to Odin to let humanity surrender to Thor and Loki.

The two Asgardians are taken into the building. They ask Thor how they can contact Odin and Thor replies, “It will require a signal… and the most fitting signal of all will be the destruction of the U. N. emblem which stands behind me!”

Thor then tosses his hammer at the symbol which opens up a trap door. The hammer stays in the air as Thor falls and Loki is able to tell someone is controlling it. Sure enough, the hammer conks Thor right on the noggin again where his chromosomatic gland is.

Turns out, Odin and company had some tricks up their own sleeves. They faked being the U.N. representatives to cure Thor. Thor tosses his hammer at Loki and says, “Though you are my brother in name, my brother in fact, you shall always be my enemy in spirit!” If Thor wasn’t cross with Loki before, he sure is now.

The god of thunder then goes on to ask the people of Earth to forgive him. He also promises the gods of Asgard will repair all the damage that was done to the planet. And Odin says he will remove the memory of these events from the minds of men. Loki is taken back to Asgard and imprisoned once more.

But we end with a panel here that sets us up for a lot of the future of Marvel 616. It both teases us that further adventures are to come, and assures us that Thor will be triumphant. It’s the basic relationship of Thor and Loki for decades to come.

Not only that, this hints at what an epic level threat Loki could be. If even the strongest of the heroes on Earth may not be able to defeat Loki, what can be done? There’s an answer for that but it won’t come until we get the Avengers together.

All in all, this is a great issue not only for Thor and Loki but for the history of Marvel 616. Things are slowly starting to heat up, threats are getting bigger, and heroes are going to need to come together.

Next up on the reading list we’ll be getting micro again as we check in with Ant-Man in the pages of Tales to Astonish #45!

P.S. Want to check this issue out for yourself? You can find it in Thor Masterworks Volume 1 by clicking the image below or on Marvel Unlimited!

(Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through this post I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you)

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Top Cyberpunk TTRPG Core Rulebooks for Dark Future Adventures

Cyberpunk Red Core Rulebook

Listen up choombas! Do you want to find a table top role playing game that puts you in a dark future full of bold action, evil corporations, advanced weaponry, cybernetic implants, and a whole bunch of fun? If so, good news, you’re in the right place. I’m not going to waste any more time because you never know when the megacorps are listening so let’s get right to the list!

(Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through this post I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you)

5. Altered Carbon

Altered Carbon Core Rule book

Do you like your dystopian future mixed with a little neo-noir? Altered Carbon the Role Playing Game takes you into the world first created by Richard K. Morgan and then seen on the Netflix series of the same name. If you have enough wealth and influence you can re-sleeve your consciousness into any body you can afford. There are several Archetypes (classes in D&D terms) to choose from, a great setting in Bay City and a decent tech system going here. While it’s definitely got similarities to Cyberpunk Red and Cyberpunk 2020, there are enough differences here to make it a fun game with some new twists. You’ll especially enjoy it if you have watched the series or read the books.

It’s not a perfect role playing game and you don’t have to be too familiar with the source material in order to have a good time. There is a good mix of storytelling and combat action. If you love the books or the show this is a great one to pick up. Right now you can get it on drivethrurpg here for around $25.

4. Cyberpunk 2020

Cyberpunk 2.02.0 2nd Edition Core Rule Book

Without this game, there would be no Cyberpunk TTRPG’s. If you like an OG style to your gaming but still want to feel the edginess of lurking around a dark future, fighting megacorps and hacking your own biology with cyber tech, you can’t go wrong with this one. This game is a bit more crunchy than the latest version of Cyberpunk and it has the feel of something made in the 1980’s thinking about the future (because it was) but it’s still one of the best out there. The combat is fast paced and deadly and while you find advantages for altering yourself, if you go too far it will bring you to the edge and you may find yourself in cyberpsychosis, unable to control yourself.

This is an out and out classic and there’s good reason people still play this one today. You can get this a few ways on drivethrurpg, including getting the PDF, a softcover, or a PDF + softcover. They all have varying prices but right now the best deal for this game is to grab the Cyberpunk Essentials bundle which gets you the PDF plus five other supplemental titles to help you amp up your action in Night City. The bundle is on sale here for $40.85. Or you can just grab the core stuff you want here for between $15-$45 depending on what version you buy.

3. ShadowRun Sixth World

Shadowrun Sixth World Core Rule Book

Unlike most other Cyberpunk style TTRPG’s, Shadowrun has always had magic as part of its core premise. What if you took Lord of the Rings and mashed it up with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? You’d get something like Shadowrun Sixth World. There was magic at one time. The world changed and looked a lot like ours until megacorporations took over everything. And suddenly, magic returned. Now, there are a select few people, orcs, dwarves, etc. who resist the pull of the megacorps. These folks are called Shadowrunners and you can join their ranks.

This game is a good fun blend of fantasy and far future dystopian sci-fi. It’s definitely not for everyone and there are plenty of arguments over which edition is the best one. For plenty of players older editions may be better but I recommend Sixth simply because it is the most current and probably the easiest one to access if you have never played Shadowrun before.

if you just want to dip your toes in to this one and see if it is for you, they have a decent starter set here for $10. Or, if you are willing to pay just a bit more you can grab the core book here for $20. (On sale for $16 as of this writing)

2. Cities Without Number

Cities Without Number Core Rulebook by Kevin Crawford

From the absolute game design genius that is Kevin Crawford comes Cities Without Number. He has designed a space game called Stars Without Number, a fantasy game called Worlds Without Number and has now given us the kind of cyberpunk TTRPG you can expect from him. The first line of the description perfectly sets the mood here. “The world is neon and dust.”

This is a sandbox style game with lots of interesting old school mechanics and plenty of guidance on how to create missions for players. If you like to mix and match things and brew up your own kind of adventure this gives you a ton of tools to do so. Not to mention, this game is fully compatible with the other games in the Without Number series.

The best part? You can actually get almost all of this game for free! In the free version you get 227 pages of jam packed rules, setting and advice. You can grab the free version here.

But, for this game and any others that Kevin Crawford puts out, I highly recommend purchasing the books. Why? Because Crawford puts a ton of work into these books, they have great art, and you get even more goodies with the paid version. You can get the full version here for $25-$90 depending on if you want PDFs or physical hardcover versions. At any price, this game is a steal. And if you have all three of the Without Number books, you can homebrew one heck of an amazing campaign that takes you from the stars, to the world to the city and generates memories that will last a lifetime.

1. Cyberpunk Red

Cyberpunk Red Core Rule Book

The video game Cyberpunk 2077 had an absolute disaster of a launch, although I hear it’s pretty decent now. Cyberpunk Red, however, had no such trouble and delivers an excellent immersive experience if you want to get your hands dirty in a world where huge megacorporations have been shattered and everyone is scrambling to live their lives, make a living, seize opportunities, or plot some revenge. It’s a fun and fast paced game and if you like movies like Blade Runner or The Matrix series this one should be right up your neon lit alley.

With this one I recommend starting with the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit. This comes with a book of lore and adventures that take place in the setting and a book of rules to use for gameplay. You also get six pregenerated characters making getting started much faster. There are also some maps and standees here to use. Fair warning you may need to read the rules a couple of times to get the full feel for it as not everything is 100% clear on the first read.

The Jumpstart Kit retails for $30 on drivethrurpg but right at this moment you can get it for $10 which is a steal. To get the Jumpstart Kit click here.

If you’re convinced and want to just go all in on Cyberpunk Red you can get the core book for $30.

This version is just as bombastic and full of attitude as the original was but with a more streamlined rule system and some interesting moral questions. It’s a super fun game and without doubt one of the best Cyberpunk games you can get.

In Conclusion

A dark dystopian future with lots of cool tech is a great setting for a table top role playing game. I’m sure there are tons of others out there that I haven’t mentioned. Do you have a favorite? If so, feel free to shout it out in the comments below!

Cybernetically yours,

Slick Dungeon