2024 – Page 9 – PopCult Reviews

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – CY_Borg Part Three

CY_Borg (Free League Publishing)
Written and designed by Christian Sahlén and Johan Nohr

You can download the CY_litary De.file_ment solo rules here

Read how our last CY_Borg adventure ended here

For this playthrough of CY_Borg, I decided to go with one of the six classes in the core book. A d6 roll had me as an Orphaned Gearhead. Things are named very specifically in all the Borg games, but the text doesn’t define them. This evocative design makes it so that each player or group’s experience with CY_Borg will be very different while still following basic genre tropes. I interpreted “Orphaned” as someone who had been under the guardianship of a corporation and then dropped when that corp dissolved or was taken over.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Notorious: Outsiders Part Two

Notorious: Outsiders (Always Checkers Publishing)
Written and designed by Jason Price
Art by Torben Bokemeye

You can purchase Outsiders here

Read the first chapter in Korris’s trilogy here

The Nomads have let Korris know they are not happy with his performance on Oceron. Too much attention drawn to his activities makes the Guild vulnerable. As a result, Korris finds himself limited in contracts he can pick up, but he also gets a few more messages from other Nomads telling him they’re impressed he took down a Dreng warrior.

PopCult Podcast – Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World/Dad & Step-Dad

A whirlwind day in the life of a Romanian woman hustling & grinding to stay afloat. A lazy weekend with two men concerned with the upbringing of a son they share. These strange films make up the podcast this week.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – CY_Borg Part Two

CY_Borg (Free League Publishing)
Written and designed by Christian Sahlén and Johan Nohr

You can purchase CY_Borg here

You can download the CY_litary De.file_ment solo rules here

Read Part One of Bell’s journey here

Bell descends the rickety metal stairs hidden inside the holobox and emerges into quite an impressive lair. The space has been fine-tuned to suit the needs of its single inhabitant. A chair swivels around, and there she sits, Wick. “Saw you on the CCTV,” she says. “You look like a desperate one. What is it you need?”

Solo Tabletop Review & Actual Play – Notorious: Outsiders Part One

Notorious: Outsiders (Always Checkers Publishing)
Written and designed by Jason Price
Art by Torben Bokemeye

You can purchase Outsiders here

Notorious was one of my first solo tabletop RPGs I played here on the blog in 2023, so when I saw the expansion sequel Outsiders had come out it seemed natural to play. For the unfamiliar, this solo game series takes place in a universe that doesn’t hide its Star Wars influences. You play a nomad, a bounty hunter, who picks up contracts and hunts down their targets on a variety of planets. Much of the gameplay is the same with Outsiders adding more Nomad classes, planets, species, encounters and a Trilogy Mode that incorporates both game’s materials.

PopCult Podcast – Totem/La Chimera

These were two fantastic films made by two fantastic directing women. The first is an intimate study of a life changing day in a little girl’s life. The second is the mythic journey taken by a rogue British archaeologist in Italy.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – CY_Borg Part One

CY_Borg (Free League Publishing)
Written and designed by Christian Sahlén and Johan Nohr

You can purchase CY_Borg here

You can download the CY_litary De.file_ment solo rules here

Cyberpunk is a broader genre than I typically give it credit for. In literature, you can see cyberpunk’s roots form with authors like Phillip K. Dick and J.G. Ballard, and it came to fruition in the early 1990s with Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. Within film, some of the earliest examples are movies like Escape From New York, Tron, and Blade Runner – all wildly different takes on the idea of humanity, technology, and dystopian futures. This would eventually lead to movies like Robocop, Hackers, The Matrix, and more – again, such diverse takes on the same base genre. Cyberpunk has a strong presence in anime and manga. Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Battle Angel Alita are prominent examples. While cyberpunk is considered a subgenre of science fiction, it is even blended with other diverse subgenres. From my perspective, and I think this is the consensus, the cyberpunk element that puts it over the edge is a dystopian future world where capitalism has become an immensely oppressive force, where debt is used to make people into a new kind of slave.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Glide

Glide (Sleepy Sasquatch Games)
Written and designed by Cody Barr

You can purchase Glide here.

For the first time, we had an instance of a solo game that did not click for me at all. I had wanted to play something in the style of Dune. I’d seen the second half of the feature film adaptation and was reading Frank Herbert’s novel. Glide is based on the same source material, so it seemed a perfect fit. However, this is an excellent lesson in theme vs. gameplay. A game can be based on or inspired by something you enjoy, but the gameplay design might differ from what you were looking for. In my case, this was more about exploration & resource management and very little about developing a narrative.

May 2024 Posting Schedule

Film Series

[Meet Ernst Lubitsch – May 1st thru 16th]
Trouble in Paradise, Design For Living, The Merry Widow, Angel, Ninotchka, To Be Or Not To Be, Heaven Can Wait, Cluny Brown

[Sight & Sound Sampling – May 20th thru 30th] – some of the films voted by filmmakers & critics as the best of all-time, catching upon some movies I should definitely see
Do The Right Thing, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Au hasard Balthazar, M, The Piano, Sherlock Jr.

Spring 2024 Digest

Features
Patron Pick – Gaza Mon Amour [Bekah]
Patron Pick – The Zone of Interest [Matt]
Patron Pick – Betty Blue [Bekah]
Patron Pick – Late Night with the Devil [Matt]
Book Update – March/April