My Favorite RiffTrax Movies for Halloween

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of RiffTrax, the team (including some former members of Mystery Science Theater 3000) who turn bad movies good by making fun of them. I watch RiffTrax movies just about weekly. But today I want to tell you about my favorite Halloween-themed RiffTrax movies!

In no particular order, they are:

Tourist Trap. I find this one genuinely scary, and with a few actual actors, including Chuck Connors! Having said that, it definitely deserves some teasing, and RiffTrax has that covered.

Troll 2. It’s not a sequel to “Troll,” the creatures in the movie aren’t trolls (they’re goblins), and nobody in this thing is an actor. I came to appreciate this stinker after seeing Best Worst Movie, an excellent documentary about Troll 2’s cult following. Though the writing is bad and the acting is bad, Troll 2 is never boring.

Plan 9 From Outer Space. This is possibly my favorite riffed movie of all. Plan 9 is so entertainingly, over-the-top bad on its own that it’s fun to watch, but the RiffTrax crew adds another dimension. I watch this one several times a year. It’s also the first “RiffTrax Live” presentation, where the gang riffs films live in front of an audience and transmits it at the same time to theaters all over the US.

Night of the Living Dead. OK, I’ll admit it. As much of a fan as I am of the classic Night of the Living Dead, I prefer the RiffTrax Live version. I never feel that the Riffers are mean-spirited, so it doesn’t offend me when they riff actual good films like this one.

House on Haunted Hill. I love the RiffTrax Live presentation of this, the Vincent Price version of House on Haunted Hill. This, for me, is one of the things movie riffing is best at—taking a movie that on its own is charming but a little slow, and adding some more interest to it. Some of the effects in this film are amusingly bad, but Vincent Price is perfect as always.

Manos: the Hands of Fate. This was riffed before on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and then on RiffTrax, but my favorite is the RiffTrax Live presentation. I would fall asleep trying to watch this film on its own, but in the hands of RiffTrax, it’s wonderful. (Dance, Torgo, dance!)

Birdemic. This one is special in the same way Plan 9 is; it’s enjoyably horrible on its own, but the RiffTrax Live riffing takes it to a new level of fun. Bad (or should we say “non”) actors, bad story, and visual effects that will make your eyes bleed add up to a lot of laughs.

I’d love to hear YOUR favorite Halloween films, too—RiffTrax or otherwise!

Ghostbusters Props for Halloween 2018

I just got an email from the Spirit Halloween store showing some new Ghostbusters props they're selling this year. (I think they're new, anyway.) Check 'em out!

The props are a proton pack, a PKE meter, ecto goggles, and a ghost trap. They're fairly pricey, but they look pretty cool. Here's a link!

Ghostbusters Halloween Supplies at Spirit Halloween

Gen Con 2018

Another Gen Con is behind us, and I've finally caught my breath enough to present some highlights of what I did and saw this year.

System Mastery Seminar

I'm a fan of the System Mastery podcast, but this is the first time I had a chance to see the hosts in person. Better yet, it was at a live recording of the podcast. I bet I can hear myself laughing on the recording! I really wished I could have stayed to meet Jef and Jon, but had to rush off to another event before this one even ended because it was a 10 minute walk away. Such is Gen Con!

Plot Points Seminar

The Plot Points crew: Ben, Sarah, and Brad

Remember what I just said about System Mastery? Same deal. I'm a big fan, but never attended a recording before. (Though I was lucky enough to meet Ben last year and hang out for a while.) This year I got Sarah's business card and chatted with Brad for a few minutes. Wanna know who my favorite is? I'M NOT TELLING!

Monte Cook Games Seminar

This year Monte Cook Games tried something new for their seminar. Instead of sitting on stage and telling us what's coming up, they divided the attendees into small groups and let us talk to pairs of Monte Cook Games folks about whatever we liked. It was pretty cool, and I learned from Monte that they've got Invisible Sun books in the works covering more details about Satyrine as well as more creatures.

Invisible Sun Session

The only game I played at Gen Con this year was a session of Invisible Sun. I've been preparing to run the game for my home group, so I was looking forward to seeing what it's like to play the game. It was fun, though it was strange that none of us ever used our signature character-type abilities. The best thing about the session for me was that it demonstrated that this seemingly-bizarre and outside-the-box RPG is still just an RPG, and plays like one.

The "Strangest Things" Burger

A restaurant called Burger Study ran a Gen Con promotion where they were serving a monstrosity they called the Strangest Things burger. it was a burger with American cheese, peanut butter, and blueberry jam between two Eggo waffles. I am by no means an adventurous eater, but I wanted to try this thing.

Going in...

It was partially edible! I didn't like the blueberry jam (at all), and it rendered the meat inedible, but I STRANGEly liked the mix of cheese, peanut butter, and Eggo waffle.

Costume Parade

The costume parade on Saturday was an excellent showcase of costumes, as usual. Here I'm sharing my favorite costume of all because I've never seen it done before: Firestorm. He even had simulated flame hair, thanks to a lighted fan blowing a piece of flame-shaped gauzy cloth.

Dungeon Master Interactive Stage Adventure

This was pretty cool...a group of performers acted out a semi-improvised fantasy adventure with the help of volunteers from the audience.

Almost everyone on the right is a volunteer!

Goodman Games Seminar

Some of the things Joseph Goodman and crew talked about at this seminar were the upcoming DCC Lankhmar, the soon-to-launch DCC Dying Earth (now led by the excellent Marc Bruner), DCC module #100 by the also-excellent Harley Stroh, and the upcoming Cthulhu Alphabet book.

After-Hours DCC Gaming

This is the first year I caught a glimpse of the semi-organized off-the-books gaming hosted by Doug Kovacs and some of the other Goodman Games crew. I didn't have time to join a game (because it was late and I value sleep too much), but I loved the atmosphere here, and I hereby vow to game with this gang next year.

A sighting of the famous Judge Evie!

Exhibit Hall

As usual, I spent most of my time in the Exhibit Hall, though still didn't get to see it all. But I did see Ken & Robin at the Pelgrane booth, saw a lot of my game designer (and editor) friends, and bought too much stuff.

Speaking of buying too much stuff, I was proud to grab the latest Star Trek Adventures sourcebooks by Modiphius and, right next to them, the new Vampire 5th Edition.

That's It

If you'd like to see more of my Gen Con photos, go check out Gnome Stew's Gen Con 2018 roundup, featuring some of my many pictures. (My wife and son make fun of me for taking so many pictures--many of them things I already got pictures of in previous years--but I don't care! It's fun!)

Product Release: "Mutants in Toylands" for Mutant Crawl Classics

My first Mutant Crawl Classics adventure is now on sale! It's a zero-level funnel published by Purple Duck Games. Here's the sales pitch:

Well hey there, kids! I'm Sammy Squirrel! Gosh, it feels like I've slept for ages! Now that I'm awake again, I hope you'll come on down and check out Sammy Squirrel's Smart Toys! And by "down" I mean underground, through this mysterious hole! Because my toy store has been buried for centuries, and all the fun down here is just aching to get out again! We've got toys that talk, and toys that hug, and toys that sound so pleasant that you'll want to do whatever they say! We've even got toys that fight! Ha ha!

My Smart Toys are fun for kids of all ages. Why, you might even run into our youngest customer! And here at Sammy's, we don't mind at all if you have an extra arm or two or you have roots for feet or you're not quite housebroken. All kids are welcome, so long as you like having fun!

Sure, I'll admit that my store has seen better days. Some of the lights flicker, and a few walls have fallen down, and then there's that problem we have with some of the toys trying to murder people. But better days are coming, and lately we've been attracting customers from far away. Far away indeed.

So come on down. You know you want to. Come see the place where Sammy brings toys to life...

Buy Mutants in Toyland from RPGNow in print or PDF.

Midsouthcon 2018: Day 3

Midsouthcon 2018 continues! If you missed the previous posts, here they are:

• Day 1
• Day 2

Kaffeeklatsch with Mike Resnick

(A smart blogger would have thought to take a photo of this event.)

These informal breakfasts with individual guests of honor are common at Midsouthcon, though this is the first time I went to one. It was great, and I’ll be going to more in the future. The six of us eating with Mike grilled him about his career, how he got started editing (it was tabloids), his interest in Africa, the other places he’s visited, the ups and downs of dealing with Hollywood, and his working hours (he’s pretty much a night shift worker).

Panel: Short Story vs. Novel

with Bill Webb, Juanita Houston, Herica Raymer, Allan Gilbreath, and Mike Resnick.

This panel explored the differences between writing short stories and writing novels. A few of the items discussed:

• Mike prefers short stories (having written about 300, compared to about 70 novels). One reason is that he likes writing humor, and finds it hard to extend that into novel length without becoming unfunny.
• Bill writes novels by starting with the scenes he knows will happen, putting them in order later and adding the rest. He says he “writes the cool stuff first.” He also doesn’t edit until the writing is done, and likes using writing sprints.
• Juanita starts in the middle. She and Herica are pantsers rather than plotters. Herica says she visualizes her novel and “transcribes what she sees.”
• Bill sells short story collections on Amazon, and figures he earns more there than he would if he sold them traditionally.
• Mike said that when you read a bad story, one that makes you say “No, you idiot,” sit down and show that you can do it better. He says that some of his stories were efforts to do just that.
• Mike suggests being careful and clear with transitions between viewpoint characters. “Never make the reader work unless you want him to.”

• Regarding the need to target a reading level or age limit when writing, Mike said he never worries about that. “I assume I’m writing for grown-ups, and if they can’t understand it they probably shouldn’t be reading literature.”
• When asked about his work schedule, Mike said, “I write, and every now and then I sleep.” (He did elaborate that he writes every day.)
• Mike says he only takes a few days to write a story. “I’m running out of time.” He then admitted that “the mechanics come a little easier” now, after decades of practice.
• Mike talked about writing softcore porn when he was younger, as did plenty of other science fiction writers at the time, including Marion Zimmer Bradley. He said a book would take him 4 or 5 days and earn $700 to $1000, for an annual salary of $24,000 if he wrote 25—higher than the average salary of the day. This taught him to meet deadlines and how to differentiate characters, because the ones in these stories looked similar and did similar activities!
• Mike’s final advice: “Writers write, and those who aren’t gonna write talk about it."

As a side note unrelated to writing: if you’re on a panel at a con, I recommend you remember what year you’re living in before describing the state of California as “the land of fruits and nuts.” Not cool.

Gaming: New York Slice

How could a pizza-lover not try this game? I saw a lot of people playing it, and eventually got a few minutes to give it a shot. The challenge in this game is to divide up the randomized pizza in such a way that other players can't get too many of the slices they need to complete sets. The most exciting thing is that my friend Jenny ended up winning a copy in the raffle!

Gaming: KnitWit

I didn't know what to expect from this one, but it turned out to combine spools and loops of thread with a word game. It was pretty clever. I didn't win this one either, but I blame the noise level in the game room around raffle time. (If you think you see a pattern where I make excuses for not winning games, you are totally imagining things.)

Panel: Comic Book Scripting: From Plot to Page

with John Jackson Miller

John lived in Memphis when he was younger (like me) and has come to every Midsouthcon since the mid 80s (also like me), so it’s strange to me that I didn’t meet him until this year! I knew of him mostly as a novelist, so didn’t learn until this panel that he got his start in comics, in around 2003. John said that most kids’ mothers threw their comics away, but his mom—a librarian—made him put his in order.

John’s panel was a good one, demonstrating the basics of comic scripts. He talked about Marvel style vs full script, and what kind of things he likes to leave up to the artist, and how he breaks down what goes on which pages and different ways of dividing that into panels.

Final Costumes!

Let's end this with one last duo of cool costumes:

Did you go to Midsouthcon too? I want to hear about your adventures in the comments!

Midsouthcon 2018: Day 2

MidSouthCon 2018 continues! If you missed the previous post, here's a link: Day 1.

Day two of Midsouthcon, on Saturday, is always the biggest day—because it’s the only full day for this con. It’s also the day of the costume contest, which gives me more photos to show off.

Dealer’s Room

This is always a highlight of the show for me. Yes, I did buy some dice, but it didn’t count, because they were for my wife! (If I sound defensive, it’s because some unbalanced people have implied that I already own enough dice.) There weren’t many RPGs available for sale, and none I needed, but I did score a copy of the Necronomicon. I thought about buying The Captain is Dead or Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate, but snoozed too long and they sold out.

Panel: What Does an Editor Do?

Panelists (left to right): April Jones, Ellen Datlow, Toni Weisskopf, Mike Resnick, and Tommy Hancock.

A few tidbits from this panel:

• Toni (publisher of Baen Books, who has been there for 31 years) says that an editor’s job is to “protect readers from crap.”
• Ellen (editor at Omni for 17 years, anthology editor since around 1989, and currently editing for Tor) said that when she solicits stories for an anthology, she has had as many as a third of the writers end up dropping out.
• Mike (who is currently editing “Galaxy’s Edge” magazine and has edited 45 anthologies) suggests not sending query letters for short stories.
• Ellen gets questions about how she is an editor but not a writer. She used the analogy of a room decorator, and said that she can’t decorate the room, but she’s great at redecorating it.
• Mike said that it’s important for an editor to know what their audience is looking for.
• Toni said that in her mind every mark on a manuscript is a suggestion to the writer, and that sometimes suggestions are general (such as “My eyes glazed over here.”)
• Regarding getting started as an editor, the panel recommended starting as an assistant editor (Mike), volunteering to read slush (Ellen), and taking unpaid work for a while (Tommy). Tommy warned, though, “Don’t make a career of not being paid."

Game: Greek Gods

We got in some more time at the board game library today.

We tried playing this one but couldn’t figure out the rules in the time we had available. Next!

Game: The Captain is Dead

This was a fun one! It took a while to set it up and understand what we were doing, but once that was done we liked it. It’s a cooperative game where you’re the crew of a starship that’s been struck with disaster, and you have to work together to fight off enemies and hold the ship together long enough to fix the drive and escape. I had to get to my next game before we finished this one, but my fellow player Jenny said that even though they lost, she plans to buy the game.

Paranoia (2017 edition)

Kerry Jordan, my favorite Paranoia GM, ran an introductory game of the latest edition of Paranoia. I’ve read this version but this was my first time playing. It was a surprisingly low-lethality adventure, I think because we started it without mutant powers, secret societies, built-in rivalries, weapons, equipment, or team roles. So I can't really report on much of the game. (This was an adventure from the core box itself, so I hold Kerry blameless for the lack of clone churn.) I kinda liked the cards, and as usual my wife demonstrated that she was born to excel in a world like that of Paranoia. (Which is good news, considering the way our government is going!)

Costumes

Let's wrap this up with the best costume photos I took today...

Photo credit: Young Mr. Garrett

[ Back to Day 1 ]

Midsouthcon 2018: Day 1

As I do most years, I’m attending Midsouthcon again this weekend. (If you are too, let me know so I can say hi!) Mike Resnick is one of the guests of honor, and I really hope I get to meet him.

Here’s how the first day of the con went for me.

Masks

I kicked off the con by playing an RPG in the very first gaming slot (2pm Friday). The game was one I'd been wanting to try: Masks: A New Generation by Magpie Games. It uses the Apocalypse World engine that I liked so much in our Dungeon World adventure at last year's Midsouthcon.

My wife played her standard character type.

We spent at least half the time crafting our characters and their relationships and team dynamics, which seems in line with a lot of Powered by the Apocalypse games. I felt an affinity for the Janus playbook, the one our GM Jesse likened to a Spider-Man type, burdened with a lot of secret identity conflict. I used this to create Melting Pot, a political-minded (and patriotically-dressed) hero who is active in student government and has the ability to melt into a liquidy goo and also take on the properties of anything he touches. The last hour of our adventure happened at a place I chose--a women's rally--where the Greek god Dionysus showed up to turn things into a wild drunken party.

Board Game Library

We spend the rest of the evening checking out board games from the con's board game library. I like trying games I haven't played before, and usually find something I like enough to eventually add to our own collection.

Yes, that's Audrey II in the foreground.

This first one we tried was Macroscope. The goal is to be the first to identify a drawing through small holes that each player reveals in turn. I stunk at this game. It was still pretty fun, but I think I'd like this one better as a video game, because adding and removing the tokens covering the holes each round, and having to carefully slide out the drawing when it's revealed, were both tedious acts of manual dexterity.

Macroscope

Then we played Hoard, in which you compete to steal as much of a dragon's treasure as you can before he wakes up. I wasn't amazingly horrible at this game.

Hoard

That's it for day 1, though I want to show off how my wife was the star of the show with her new meeple earrings...

Watch for my Day 2 update tomorrow...