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TV Review – Foundation Season Two

Foundation Season Two (2023)
Written by David S. Goyer, Jane Espenson, Leigh Dana Jackson, Joelle Garfinkel, Eric Carrasco, David Kob, Liz Phang, Addie Manis, and Bob Oltra
Directed by Alex Graves, David S. Goyer, Mark Tonderai, and Roxann Dawson

I was a big fan of the first season of Foundation, but I saw that several critics and viewers found its structure confusing. There are definitely some time jumps that allow many changes to happen. I started to see the show as a mix of serialized storytelling and anthology. Each season would have some cast that would carry over because of cryosleep or cloning. The rest of the cast would rotate out at the end of each season as we jumped centuries ahead to see the Empire’s decline and the Foundation’s rise. Apparently, people liked season two even more, so we’ll have a third coming in the next few years. This second season focused on showing how flawed systems are where one figurehead is expected to lead millions or billions, or in the case of one locale, a few dozen.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Mothership 1e Part Four

You can purchase the Mothership 1e Core Set here.
You can purchase Dead Planet here.
You can read the rules for solo and wardenless play in Mothership 1e here.

Read the previous chapter here

Scene 1 – Starting in the Engines – Chaos Factor: 8

Jerome makes the decision to run as the creature’s snapping mandibles float closer

(Speed check – 35 vs. 32 – Success)

Turning tail, Jerome runs back out to the decimated cryochamber. He has to grab the locked military case, get to the boarding skiff, and return to the patrol ship. Navarro has to answer their questions. She has to explain this…this insanity.

Book Update – May/June 2024

A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews

Without a doubt, this was the best thing I read over these last two months. I found a scanned PDF of the Salon.Com Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Authors online. That book played a pivotal role in shaping my reading as an undergrad. It was published in 2000 and has never been updated, providing a snapshot of what was seen as prominent contemporary lit circa the turn of the century. Crews has a write-up in that book where his work is compared with Kafkas and described as presenting a parade of social misfits against a Gothic Southern backdrop. That explains A Feast of Snakes perfectly.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Sundered Isles Part Five

You can purchase Sundered Isles here.
You can purchase Starforged here.
You can purchase Sea of Sands here.

Read Jadyn’s previous chapter here

Interlude – Six Months Ago

A ship from the House Linnaeus fleet emerges from folded space, but something is amiss. Large sections of the vessel have been replaced with jagged, black metal. The ship is in Audun’s orbit. Inside the command bridge, a startling sight awaits. The crew members have undergone a bizarre transformation, with metal patches now adorning their once-fleshly bodies. A spider-like construct skitters across the ground, climbing onto the shoulders of a man who stands out from the rest. His artificial nature is evident, his flawless skin a telltale sign.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Sundered Isles Part Four

You can purchase Sundered Isles here.
You can purchase Starforged here.
You can purchase Sea of Sands here.

Read the previous chapter in Jadyn Farani’s journey here.

Oracle: Share Tool

Jadyn is roughly chucked into the torchlit basement cell by two of General Selima’s soldiers. The bar slams shut with a clink behind her. Standing up, dusting herself off, she notices a figure curled up in the corner – Qasim. The rest of the crew of The Erasmus has been split up into different parts of the dungeon. Jadyn rushes over to check on Qasim. He’s conscious but in poor health, his body continuing its transformation due to ingesting muqadas Essence over a year ago. Jadyn can tell he is not doing well and attempts to stabilize him.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Mothership Part Three

Read the previous chapter here

Jerome pilots the boarding skiff from the patrol ship to the freighter, telling Lowry to keep radio contact up. All they need to do is locate Navarro and make sure she’s safe from herself and not harming anyone else. Jerome will search the freighter to see if he can find what Navarro is desperate to get. He reckons it can be used to get her to comply with questioning. Also, will you remember to feed Princess for me in two hours? Kent says they will do it.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Sundered Isles Part Three

You can purchase Sundered Isles here.
You can purchase Starforged here.
You can purchase Sea of Sands here.

Read our previous chapter where Jadyn began her journey.

Oracle: Pillaged Enclosure

Jadyn wakes up to find her hand and arms bound behind her. She’s sitting on the hard ground of a courtyard in the center of the Haqiq monastery, which sits on the top of the Great Burrow, looking out over all of Jahar and the ocean beyond. However, her view at this moment is just of monks scattered through the courtyard, preparing weapons and barricading the doors of their home. The other two members of the Erasmus crew are similarly tied up but unconscious.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Mothership 1e Part Two

You can purchase the Mothership 1e Core Set here.

You can purchase Dead Planet here.

You can read the rules for solo and wardenless play in Mothership 1e here.

In our first part, I went over the basics of the system and chose Android as my class while also fleshing out the world’s backstory.

Each class in Mothership has different modifications in the character creation process. As an Android, I got to add an additional 20 to my Intellect, making it a total of 52. My Strength, Speed, and Combat scores are all in the low to mid-30s, so it may sound like Intellect will dominate. Remember, this is a d100 system, so while 52 is much larger, it doesn’t astronomically improve my chances of success. I also had to subtract 10 from another Stat of my choice, which I chose Combat for. Mothership is a game where Combat is typically deadly anyway, especially against the entities you’ll face, and I don’t see Jerome as someone programmed with combat in mind, more compliance to corporate policy.

TV Review – Outer Range Season Two

Outer Range Season Two (2024)
Written by Cameron Litvack, Glenise Mullins, Dagny Atencio Looper, Jenna Westover, Doug Petrie, Marilyn Thomas, Aïda Mashaka Croal, and Randy Redroad
Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Deborah Kampmeier, Blackhorse Lowe, Josh Brolin, and Catriona McKenzie

Outer Range was one of my most pleasant streaming TV surprises in 2022. This Amazon series was different from what I expected after seeing the promotional images of Josh Brolin in a cowboy hat standing in a field. My assumption was that this was some Yellowstone copycat. I could not have been more wrong. Instead, I found a complex and bizarre show about a man displaced in time & space and the odd ripples that seemed to have in his personal life and community. The end of season one dropped a significant twist (which I may have to talk about in this review, so beware if spoilers are a thing for you) that excited me to see where the show went next. Then news of strife behind the scenes came out, and I wondered if we would ever see season two. We have now, but not without dramatic changes, which have altered the original tone.

Solo Tabletop Review & Actual Play – Sundered Isles Part Two

You can purchase Sundered Isles here.
You can purchase Starforged here.
You can purchase Sea of Sands here.

Read Part One here to see what we rolled up to begin our worldbuilding

Now that I have roughly sketched out my character through some rolls and the settlement I’ll be visiting first, it is time to fill in the details. Before I do, here are the islands I rolled to generate The Crimson Gulf, this opening region to the game.