I saw the movie Chappie today, and it was an interesting ride, but not great.  It was just a little too scattered and ambitious.  The special effects were outstanding.  The actors and acting was hit and miss.  I like Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver, even though Sigourney does not appear often enough.  After watching all these commercials about the movie, I suspected it was about a time when police robots go crazy and this collection of misfit people rally together and save the world with their super special robot, but it was not that at all.

This movie was written and directed by Neil Blomkamp, the same guy who directed District 9, which I really liked and Elysium, which I liked O.K.  This is probably the weakest of the three movies.

One thing that makes a movie great is the story and it jumps all over the place....quickly.  There seemed to be too many manufactured moments.  And I like a good twist or two, but the final chapter has several twists in quick order that caused me to think, "No way."  Movies that take you to a different place are appealing, but there are laws to reality like gravity and guidelines to character like consistency which are messed with too often.

I saw the movie in IMAX, but if you see it at the theater, I wouldn't say that it adds that much to the experience.  If you really like robot movies and books like the Berserker series (Fred Saberhagen, highly recommended), then maybe you'll want to see it in the theaters, otherwise, I'd wait until it shows on TV.  

Anyone familiar with Record of Lodoss War? I've been a fan of the OVA and TV episodes for years, but I now just found out that the novel from which those are based on is actually from actual D&D sessions. Everything from those sessions were transcribed onto the DM Ryo Mizuno's (the author) book and ended up becoming very successful.  Very cool.

So I bet none of y'all have one of these in your collection!

Ancient d20 die emerges from the ashes of time - CNET

I'd like to purchase some items from the UK but the seller doesn't ship to the US.  Is anyone from the UK willing to accept shipment of a couple of items and then forward them to the US?  

THANKS!!

IT'S A (financial) TRAP (at the Star Wars Celebration)!!!

How Much It Costs to Get Mark Hamill's Autograph at Star Wars Celebration - The Hollywood Reporter
(no, that's not Mark Hamill in the photo btw!)

Don't forget that today is FREE comic book day.  

benjoshua wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Don't forget that today is FREE comic book day.  

I didn't know anything about this and just happened to stop by the local comic book store with my 7yo.  He made out pretty good!  they had 5 people in costume and I found out they sell used RPG books     turned out to be a good visit, lol

Noted that the rapid "did not sell" is actually a "no longer available" on


** expired/removed eBay auction **


This, following on from;


** expired/removed eBay auction **


(albeit actually 25% off = $2,624.96)

I was just thinking:

How different would D&D be without the superhero comic influences? I mean the image on early OD&D prints were directly ripped off of an issue of Doc Strange and I think Gygax mentioned he was influenced by the super powers of heroes such as Doc Strange.

Furthermore, would the absence of superheroes largely impact the role-playing genre as a whole?

I don't mean just the original RPGs, but this extends to the digital interpretations of the genre as well. I ask the second question because I recall reading in another forum where people were asked to briefly define what a particular computer RPG series is to them. The replies had varying answers for the most part, but the only common factor among all of them was that people enjoyed playing as characters with cool or fantastic powers.