I Am Become Steve. Destroyer of Tacos.

Issue #56: Gaming Stuff and the Ahsoka Premiere

Hello readers.

Yeah, it’s been a really long time since I wrote one of these. A little over a month in fact. I just haven’t been feeling it. In fact, at one point over the month, I have thought about just quitting this newsletter altogether. But I figure I’ll keep this open in case I feel like I have something to say.

So we got some more Star Wars content on Disney Plus this week. The live action Ahsoka show premiered on Tuesday evening. This is a show that, like a lot of people, I have been anticipating quite a bit. I’m so glad that we are finally getting this. Tuesday, the first two episodes of the series were dropped. I really enjoyed it a lot. I’m optimistic that this is going to be a really great show. I loved seeing some of my favorite Rebels characters showing up in a live action format. Sabine, of course. Hera Syndulla. Chopper (love this little pain in the ass). Ezra kind of showed up too (watch the show and you will see what I mean by kind of). I thought that the live action version of the planet Lothal was done beautifully. And we got to see a live action Loth Cat. The show as a lot of fun to watch and I can’t wait to see more. I really hope that they explore the background of the antagonists more.

You might notice that the podcasting segment is missing from this issue. That is because I recently made the decision to step back from podcasting for a while and take a break. However, if there are any really cool episodes of other podcasts that I want to inform you about in the future, I’ll make sure and shoe horn them into this newsletter somewhere.

For instance, I’ll go ahead and mention that my RRR co-host did an episode of his podcast, Exegesis, last night and talked about the first two episode of the new Ahsoka show. You can check that one out on YouTube below.

Geez, where to begin? I’m still working at DM Daves. I spent a lot of time there just runnings games. The grand opening for the store actually still hasn’t happened. Dave is planning to do it over Labor Day weekend. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. The store runs games every night at this point. The schedule, thus far, is:

Monday - Mork Borg Monday. Mork Borg is a doom metal inspired dark fantasy. Great game. Rules light. Frequent character death.

Tuesday - Battletech. I don’t work on Tuesdays so I don’t attend this but I’ve heard it is doing pretty well. Battletech is a miniatures style war game. It is the only game of its type that the shop carries.

Wednesday - Right now, Dave is calling it Wild Card Wednesday because we play whatever we feel like running. This past week, I ran a game of Badge Quest. Badge Quest is a game that Dave himself created. The Kickstarter just ended. It’s fun. Another rules light game and a far cry from Dungeons and Dragons and other types of table top role playing games. In this game, you play as Blossoms (kind of like Girl Scouts) and the game is focused on your character selling cookies and solving mysteries. Kind of a Nancy Drew/Scooby Doo vibe. I think we might start running RIFTS on Wednesdays once we get the product in. I hope so. I’m really excited about having this game in the store and getting people interested in it.

Thursday - Cyberpunk Red. I do not work on Thursdays either so I haven’t gotten to check this one out. I might go check it out though since my Thursdays have been recently freed up (no live stream). I used to play the old Cyberpunk 2020 TTRPG and I own the Cyberpunk Red book. It’s a pretty cool looking game.

Friday AND Saturday - We run Dungeons and Dragons on both of these nights. In fact, on Saturday, we run two sessions: an afternoon session at 2:30 and an evening session at 6:30. There is quite a bit of participation on these nights. Understandable. D&D is, quite frankly, for a lot of people, the only TTRPG that they know about.

Let’s see……………what’s movies have I watched since I last wrote one of these………………

The Whale - I never saw this on in the theater but my wife and I watched it on one of the streaming channels. I don’t remember which one. If you’re not familiar, it is the story of a very obese college professor who knows he is doing to die soon and tries to reconnect with his daughter that he abandoned several years ago. It was a good one. Brandon Fraser certainly deserved his Oscar for playing the lead role.

The Last Emperor - As big a history buff as I am, I can’t believe that it took me so long to see this movie. I’m glad I did.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - Saw in the theater. I did not care for this movie. I thought the animation was not done well and I didn’t care for the story.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter - I saw this one in the theater as well with my son. We both enjoyed it. It is the story of the ship that brought Dracula from Transylvania to England. However, I don’t think this is going to be a huge money maker. I can see why a lot of people might not like this film. The one thing that bothered me about it is they way they made Dracula himself look. I think they were going for the whole Nosferatu version vibe but it could have been done better.

Barbie - I finally got around to seeing this one in the theater. I didn’t really have any desire to see it to be honest but my youngest wanted to go to the movies and wanted to see this one again. I was not into it. I thought the movie was kind of ridiculous. And that is probably what they were going for. Not my thing though.

Gran Turismo - I had not planned on going to see this one but the last time my wife and I went to see a movie, she mentioned that she was interested in watching it. She doesn’t get out and see a lot of movies so I took her to go see this one last night at the pre screening (or whatever they call the Thursday night viewings). I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It’s based on the true story of a gamer that becomes a race car driver. The actual race car driver did the driving/stunts for this film. Good one. Might want to check it out if you haven’t already.

I really haven’t been doing much reading lately outside of reading gaming books.

Here’s my pull list for this week:

• X-Force #43

• Realm of X #1

• Doctor Aphra #35

This one is from the Nashville, Tennessee-based band Winona Fighter. Good stuff.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for sticking around.