2023 – Page 6 – PopCult Reviews

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Dungeon World Part One

Of all the games under the banner of “Powered by the Apocalypse,” Dungeon World is probably the most well-known and played. It’s a variation of the classic dungeon-crawling tabletop rpg games that dominate the hobby. While games like Dungeons & Dragons rely on skill checks and rigid combat systems, Dungeon World takes a fiction-first approach, with all rolls being player-facing. Everything in the game happens as an extension of the player’s actions. There are no modules with structured adventures; instead, Dungeon World encourages improvisation and, at most, a simple dungeon starter outline. As with all the PBtA games, the focus is on playing to discover what happens without having all the steps written down beforehand.

TV Review – Paul T. Goldman

Paul T. Goldman (Peacock)
Written by Paul T. Goldman
Directed by Jason Woliner

The “reality television” genre has never been anywhere close to reality. The place you find reality on screen will always be in the documentary form, and even then, a director or editor can shape things to fit the narrative they want. We do the same in our lives every single day. We mentally emphasize & ignore various things because of how they make us, curating a perspective on the world that suits us. There is always a tension, though, between the perception & the real, cracks forming in our psyche as unpleasant things burrow their way in, eventually becoming undeniable. How you handle those unpleasant things defines you, whether you sink into despair or try to connect with others to process them. Paul T. Goldman, in the guise of a true crime series, is actually the exploration of these themes. How do we handle a lifetime of hurt and keep living? Do we hurt others? Do we invent stories that make us the hero?

Comic Book Review – Stargirl and The Lost Children

Stargirl and The Lost Children (2023)
Reprints Stargirl Spring Break Special & Stargirl and The Lost Children #1-6
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Todd Nauck

Geoff Johns is in his third act, and it’s not going great. Act one was his rise to prominence as one of DC Comics’ best writers in the 2000s. This was followed by a transition into DC’s films division, where he oversaw what I consider some of the worst superhero films of all time. He would still dabble in comics occasionally, but once he stepped down from his role in the movies, his output increased. The word that comes to mind when discussing this second shot at comics writing for Mr. Johns is “delays.” Not just a month, but multiple months on books that are already limited series. Why DC doesn’t require X number of issues in the bank before beginning publishing remains a mystery to me. It is an excellent strategy to ensure distribution goes smoothly and your readership stays happy.

November 2023 Posting Schedule

October saw my highest total views by far with over 12,500 views for the month. My new posts of Insidious: The Red Door, Exorcist II: The Heretic, and The Venture Brothers Season Four dominated the month for views, each clocking over 150 each. This meant year to year growth from October 2022 to October 2023 was 105%. Another way of looking at it is in 2022, I averaged 105 views a day for that month while in 2023 my average views per day was 406. It’s always nice to know people are at least seeing your work.

Fall 2023 Digest

Features
[Patron Pick] – Gran Turismo (Matt)
[Patron Pick] – Fences (Bekah)
[Patron Pick] – The Pledge (Matt)
[Patron Pick] – Like Crazy (Bekah)
Book Update – September/October
My Favorite Coen Brothers Supporting Performances

PopCult Podcast – The PopCult 2023 Halloween Spooktacular

It’s night of classic tricks & treats as our intrepid hosts dress up and go door to door. It seems like some of what they find is well worth the effort, but other things are getting some houses tp’ed.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Host: Until the Light Takes Us

Host: Until the Light Takes Us (Running from Skeletons)
Written by James Boychuk & Dylan Richardson
You can purchase this game here

Halloween means horror and there is no shortage of scary tabletop RPGs. This one is a very simple story generator centered around the end of the world & visions that predict its coming. I found this very similar to games like Alone Among the Stars where the mechanics simply provide a jumping off point for the player’s own imagination. This is not a game that takes you by the hand and guides your experience. Instead, it demands the player really dig deep and find an interesting story to tell from the inspiration given.

There’s not much more to say about it, so here’s my play through:

PopCult Podcast – Little Shop of Horrors/The Faculty

We continue our Halloween celebration with two creepy tales of invasions from beyond. In the first, our aliens strike in the form of flesh-eating plants. In the second they take on the role of authority figures in a high school.

TV Review – Reservation Dogs Season Three

Reservation Dogs Season Three (FX)
Written by Sterlin Harjo, Dallas Goldtooth, Tazbah Chavez, Erica Tremblay, Tommy Pico, Bobby Wilson, Migizi Pensoneau, Ryan RedCorn, Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, and Chad Charlie
Directed by Danis Goulet, Tazbah Chavez, Blackhorse Lowe, Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, and Erica Tremblay

Reservation Dogs was one of those rare shows that presented the life of poor people without pitying them. It didn’t dull the edges of poverty or how it feels to come from a marginalized group, but it never wallowed in misery. American Indigenous communities are composed of survivors, those who have endured horrific abuse over generations. This final season of the series centered on the effects of white-run boarding schools on generations removed from them but never made the white perspective anything more than an afterthought. That is the correct way to tell these stories because the Indigenous people carry the trauma of that treatment with them. I can tell that series creator and showrunner Sterlin Harjo wanted to connect two seemingly distant generations to show how history resonates through to the present.

Patron Exclusive: Screenplay Episode One

Our first episode of Screenplay is here, exclusively for our patrons. In this podcast, Ariana & Seth collaborative sketch out a world for our tabletop role playing experience, sharing tropes we like from media, building out NPCs with motivations & conflicts. Make sure to join PopCult Reviews’ Patreon now to listen to this and other exclusive podcasts.