News The Boroughs The Boroughs, From the Creators of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Lines Up a Super Cast of Unlikely Heroes These retirees might just save the day By Molly Templeton | Published on November 22, 2024 Screenshot: Sony Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Sony In April of 2023, Netflix announced a series called The Boroughs, which is a sort of mild-mannered title for what sounds like a genre-hopping good time. Created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance; The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim), the series is about a group of retirees who “must band together to defeat an otherworldly threat from stealing the one thing they don’t have: time.” It’s set in the New Mexico desert, naturally; presumably that otherworldly threat is somehow alien. In September, Netflix announced the show’s stars: Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2, pictured above), Geena Davis (Blink Twice), Alfre Woodard (Luke Cage), Denis O’Hare (True Blood), Clarke Peters (The Wire), and Bill Pullman (Independence Day). Now, they’ve added six more stars, who are a mix of veteran actors and newer faces, and some of whom have been in basically everything over the years: Rafael Casal (Loki), Dee Wallace (Last Night on Earth, E. T.), Ed Begley Jr. (Better Call Saul, Arrested Development), Jane Kaczmarek (Malcom in the Middle, The Changeling), Eric Edelstein (We Bare Bears, Drunk History), and Mousa Hussein Kraish (American Gods). The Boroughs is produced by the Duffer Brothers, who seem to be expanding their horizons now that Stranger Things is finally nearing its end. No premiere date has been announced.[end-mark] The post <i>The Boroughs</i>, From the Creators of <i>The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance</i>, Lines Up a Super Cast of Unlikely Heroes appeared first on Reactor.

Books roleplaying games Five Fun, Extremely Distracting SFF Roleplaying Games Roll the dice and lose yourself in one of these expertly crafted adventures. By James Davis Nicoll | Published on November 22, 2024 Photo by Dark Elf Dice. (CC-BY-SA-4.0) Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by Dark Elf Dice. (CC-BY-SA-4.0) I suspect the vast majority of tabletop roleplaying games are labors of love. A few blockbusters aside, there’s just not a lot of money to be made in the field. Logic suggests that creators have to be motivated by something other than monetary returns1. Still, every once in a while, one encounters a game whose designers and game company have gone well beyond what even enthusiasm might be expected to inspire. Perhaps some examples are in order. Larry Niven’s Ringworld: Roleplaying Adventure Beneath the Great Arch by John Hewitt and John Hewitt (1984) Publisher Chaosium was no stranger to tie-in roleplaying games, having adapted properties from Elric to Elfquest2. Their Call of Cthulhu is one of the great success stories of the industry. However, their Ringworld game is a particular standout, at least for me. The box was deceptively light. Inside were four saddle-stitched books, into which were crammed a stupendous amount of information. Not only did Hewitt, Kahn, et al. opt for a microdot-sized font, they managed to provide more pages of material than there were technically pages on which to provide it. Additionally, the game had production values almost unheard of at the time. Lisa A. Free’s art was only one of the attractions. Although some material had to be deferred to the Ringworld Companion, the box contained material sufficient to run a Known Space game, not merely the Ringworld-focused campaign the title suggests. Alas, Chaosium only had time to produce the main game and the companion before they lost the rights. Ringworld is out of print and surviving copies are not cheap. Happily, readers may comfort themselves with the knowledge that I know where my copy is… Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game by Greg Costikyan (1987) Gosh, you say, perhaps a tie-in product for a movie whose prodigious sales arguably reshaped the film industry might have just the tiniest smidgen of profit motive. I freely grant that, but consider: in 1987, the most recent Star Wars movie was four years old and there was no prospect of a fourth movie on the horizon. Getting the rights to make this game was a big win for publisher West End Games, but not quite the mega-hit that modern readers might expect from the title. The core rulebook was a perfectly functional set of rules pitting virtuous Resistance against the Empire. Where Star Wars stood out was the prodigious quantity of authoritative material produced while WEG had the rights. Again, some readers might point out that profit might explain that as well, in that it’s hard to sell product that does not exist. However, WEG’s Star Wars source books were of sufficient quality that they provided the foundation of the late, lamented Star Wars Expanded Universe. Dragonbane: Mirth and Mayhem Roleplaying by Tomas Härenstam (2023) Dragonbane is the English language version of the most recent edition of the venerable Swedish tabletop fantasy roleplaying game, Drakar och Demoner (DoD). Originally a translation of Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying (BRP) and the Magic World setting from Worlds of Wonder, Drakar och Demoner evolved considerably over the decades, despite which it is possible to see the BRP bones under the DoD skin. The hefty box set contains an impressive assortment of books, cards, dice, and cardboard figures. While I assume publisher Free League would really appreciate it if you purchased the Bestiary and the campaign Paths of Glory as well, there is sufficient material in the set for a lengthy campaign. Gameplay combines the player-character fragility one expects from a BRP-derived games with heroic-level challenges. Good thing character generation is so fast. Brindlewood Bay by Jason Cordova (2022) Of all of the tabletop roleplaying games focused exclusively on retired women who solve murders in a small town whose mundane surface hides unspeakable secrets—well, Brindlewood Bay is the first I’ve ever encountered. Odd, given the popularity of crime-solving retirees, crime-solving women, and homicide-prone small towns3. Based on the popular Powered by the Apocalypse game system, Bridlewood Bay is essentially Murder, She Wrote meets Call of Cthulhu. The mystery element is engaging; the game mechanics encourage a wide assortment of characters4. I suspect the game would be fun even without the lurking unknown waiting in the shadows. Fabula Ultima by Emanuele Galletto (2023) Fabula Ultima is a lavishly illustrated homage to Japanese roleplaying games. The rules are straightforward, clearly presented5, and extremely flexible; there seem to be about five billion permutations possible for starting characters. Although the core rulebook and some dice are really all you need, the game is well supported by its publisher and has an avid online community. I am not a fan of character class and level-based games and yet Fabula Ultima, which is a class and level-based game, has eaten my brain since I first encountered it back in October. It is a good thing for me that it is so reasonably priced. Any fun, noteworthy tabletop RPGs I’ve overlooked? Feel free to mention them in comments.[end-mark] Could game designers have wildly misplaced expectations? As game designers are artists, and artists are renowned for their keen grasp of financial realities, I think we can rule out misplaced expectations. ︎There’s an ongoing Kickstarter campaign for a revival of Chaosium’s Elfquest. Just in case you would be interested. ︎A decade or so ago, all too many of the books I was sent for review featured widowed or divorced women protagonists who had left a big city career for a small town, where they worked in some small business, found a new guy better than the old guy, adopted or fostered a kid, and solved murders on the side. It was surprising how diverse the resulting books were. ︎For the record, my character Ruby did not murder her five late husbands. Each of them died of natural causes, illnesses, and tragic accidents, as proved by the coroner’s reports she can produce on a moment’s notice. Ruby is currently looking for lucky husband number six. Advanced age, heart conditions, or acute sensitivity to rare toxins found only in the mantle of a nearly extinct cephalopod native to Tuvalu are no impediment. ︎You’d think with so many RPGs being published as PDFs, the text would be formatted to facilitate reading. In practice, most companies like double-columns, which means lots of scrolling up and down. Fabula Ultima is laid out to be readable on a tablet or phone. ︎The post Five Fun, Extremely Distracting SFF Roleplaying Games appeared first on Reactor.

In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s historic electoral victory earlier this month, media pundits and talking heads have focused on his significant gains among traditionally Democratic voting blocs, such as young voters and both black and Hispanic men. But a new study is suggesting that it was Christian voters who were the decisive factor in Trump’s win. George Barna, senior research fellow for the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council and director of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, published his postelection report last week demonstrating that Christian voters “made the difference in the race.” Prior to the election, Barna had anticipated voter turnout among Christians would be low, with as many as 40 million Christians simply choosing not to vote. While Christians did vote in fewer numbers than they did in 2020, Barna noted that the “potentially devastating impact for the Trump campaign was blunted by the even lower levels of turnout among the Harris campaign’s target segments.” Overall, 56% of self-identified Christians voted in 2024, which Barna pointed out “was barely higher than the involvement among people aligned with non-Christian faiths (53%), but significantly higher than among voting-age Americans who have no religious faith (48%).” Interestingly, Catholic voters and Christians with a biblical worldview both outperformed their 2020 turnout by three points. “Trump was a heavy favorite among most of the three dozen Christian segments studied by the Cultural Research Center survey. The former president received a landslide 56% to 43% margin of victory among all self-identified Christians,” Barna observed. “Among the approximately 75 million votes Trump garnered in the election, more than three-quarters of them—78%—came from the Christian community.” Barna also noted that Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, scored low among almost all Christian denominations and demographics, with the exception of “mainline and traditionally black Protestant congregations.” Overall, less than two-thirds of Harris’ votes came from Christians. The majority of Christian voters also identified their religious beliefs, the differing party platforms, and the insight of their family as the biggest impacts on their choice of candidates. “Consistent with the patterns established, Trump voters were twice as likely as Harris voters to identify their religious faith as a major influence on their candidate of choice (30% vs. 14%, respectively),” Barna noted. In comments to The Washington Stand, Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, explained, “Religion gives people a worldview which, among other things, gives people a way to understand what’s wrong with the world and what the solution is. Elections are one way people indicate their understanding of what’s wrong and what we need to do to fix it.” Pointing to Barna’s study, he continued, “This survey is evidence that Christians think about these questions differently than people of other faiths or no religion at all, which really shouldn’t be surprising. If anything, it might be surprising that Christians aren’t more different, but elections never offer perfect choices, and this election was more complicated than others.” Backholm added, “Christians were always going to be a significant part of this election, either through what we did or did not do. In this case, tens of millions of Christians evaluated an admittedly tricky choice and reached the same conclusion, and as Robert Frost would say, that has made all the difference.” Appearing on Monday night’s episode of “Washington Watch,” Adam Rasmussen, who worked on the postelection report with Barna, explained just how decisive a role Christians played. “What we saw is that 72% of those who came out to vote were Christians, and they have values,” Rasmussen said. He continued, “And we saw that—probably because of the platform of the Republicans and Donald Trump—Christians gave a 17 million vote advantage or cushion to Donald Trump. And because the margin between the two of them was less than that, it was insurmountable.” Inflation and immigration were consistently ranked as top concerns among the general population heading into the election, and Barna’s postelection study found that Christian voters also placed the greatest emphasis on those issues. Overall, nearly 40% of Christian voters identified inflation as a major concern that determined who they voted for, and 34% rated immigration and border control as the same. Evangelical voters, however, placed a higher premium on immigration, with 40% identifying it as a major concern. Rasmussen said that this was likely linked to a concern over the breakdown of law. “That’s one of the major responsibilities of the federal government, is to have safe borders. How could it not? And that was a decisive factor for certain,” he said. Addressing the issue of the 44% of Christians who chose not to vote, Rasmussen recommended that pastors and church leaders should encourage their congregations to vote in accord with Christian principles. “We found that perhaps if there was a last-minute push, pastors and family members and churches could encourage those 32 million Christians we were calling to come out and vote,” he said. Rasmussen added, “And maybe that might push another 5 million into the voting polls. And we need to be more engaged in those things.” This piece originally appeared in The Washington Stand. The post Study: Christian Voters Responsible for Trump Victory appeared first on The Daily Signal.

NY Mag to Bragg: You Still Here? It's Over! Go Home! UPDATE: Sentencing Canceled

The cannon was brought to America by conquistadors seeking seven golden cities.

The Hollywood Reporter (THR) has long been a major publication in the entertainment industry, but that doesn’t appear to make them feel any responsibility for being fair and balanced. Over the years, they’ve made no secret of their disdain for President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party. A new article by their reporter James Hibberd on how to “digitally silence” Trump and “block (him) from all your screens” is a prime example. From the very first sentence, the TDS was strong. Hibberd wrote: Now that Donald Trump has been re-elected to a second (and perhaps final) term, some Americans are getting ready to Resist once again. Not just resisting, friends. They mean Resisting! With a capital R! And did you catch the not-so-subtle fear-baiting with the insinuation Trump might do away with elections? Yes, we’re laughing, too. Hibberd then goes on to point out that his article isn’t for those who are preparing to capital R resist again: This is for those of you who feel like: I already did all that! For four years! And he’s still back! Oh, no! Whatever shall they do?! Well, Hibberd wants to ensure they don’t cling to the hope that everything will be just fine because Trump was already president once. No, Hibberd claims that kind of logic is akin to playing Russian Roulette and thinking everything will go well because it did before. He also argues if you read about Trump’s “circus” or one of his quotes, then Trump is essentially “putting his voice in your brain.” He even goes so far as to call it “assault-y”: Look, we don’t want to overstate this, but it starts to feel vaguely assault-y when you cannot escape one man’s monologue no matter where you go or what you do. Trump’s random 2 a.m. ALL-CAPS thoughts become official public statements, which become media headlines, which pop up on your phone, which go into your mind and can cause — for some — anxiety, annoyance, anger and despair. This is Serious stuff, people! With a capital S! But those poor “undocumented immigrants” (meaning people who knowingly entered the country illegally and knew the risks involved in doing so), won’t have the luxury of following Hibberd’s tips, he points out. He follows that with another ominous warning: At some point, perhaps, a crisis might occur where none of us will have that luxury. Is it any wonder people are trying to kill Trump, and one woman even killed her father on election night with a pick axe after arguing with him about Trump, when publications like THR are pushing such complete Chicken Little nonsense? Included at the top of Hibberd’s guide is a “Trump blocker extension for Chrome.” Yes, that really exists. Too bad there isn’t a liberal propaganda blocker but then again, conservatives know how to be big boys and girls and not have emotional breakdowns when things don’t go their way. It’s called “Adulting.” THR would be doing their readers a much better service by reporting on how to do that instead.

The most ridiculous program title at National Public Radio is the one-sided evening newscast called All Things Considered. But Fresh Air is pretty close, since it also sounds like endlessly recycled left-wing bilge that we involuntarily subsidize with our tax dollars.  On Wednesday's Fresh Air, NPR host Terry Gross put on ex-Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron and New Yorker editor David Remnick for another.44-minute rehash of all the pompous talk about how Donald Trump hates "fact-based" journalism as it's published by these two propaganda organs for the left. Online, it was headlined "Veteran news editor expects Trump 'to go after the press in every conceivable way'." It was especially humorous when Baron complained "I would expect that he would deny funding to public radio, such as this" and would turn Voice of America into a "propaganda outlet." This hour of "public radio" only underlined how much NPR is a propaganda outlet against Trump and the Republican half of America. Gross began by asking "What are some of your biggest concerns about the type of retribution Trump will carry out against the news media?" Remnick turned right back to Stalin references:  REMNICK: I think when he says that the press is an enemy of the people, whether he's consciously or unconsciously quoting Joseph Stalin, which is where that phrase came from most recently - it goes all the way back even to the Jacobins in the aftermath of the French Revolution - the enemies of the people, I think we should take it seriously. Whether he will (laughter) put people in jail or have his Justice Department, possibly run by Matt Gaetz, or his FBI, possibly run by Kash Patel, really go after people and put them in prison, prosecute them or go after their taxes or whatever it might be, I think it should be taken deadly seriously. He also compared Trump to Putin: “The Putin regime shows us when there is no truth, everything is possible. Lying has come from White Houses for decades and decades. But Donald Trump has changed the game.” Remnick lives for these references. Gross pointed out he hosts The New Yorker Radio Hour, which naturally is syndicated across the country on "public radio" stations. An episode right before the election highlighted "Rachel Maddow on the Fascist Threat in America, Then and Now." Baron tried to claim they didn't "rig any election" with the Democrats, and he know there would be no follow-up on how it took the Post about two years to acknowledge the Hunter Biden laptop was real.  BARON: I do think he will use every tool in his toolbox, and there are a lot of tools. But first, I would say that there was no rigged election, and secondly, that we didn't conspire with the Democratic Party to rig any election. And the second thing I would say is that any attack on the free press is not - it's not just an attack on the free press. The intent is to suppress free expression overall. This is bizarre, considering the leftist media's fervent support for Big Tech censorship against the conservative media. But Baron kept insisting that they were the "fact-based" media and Trump hates free expression. The two journalists talked up how leftist groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists have turned their focus from reporters in danger abroad to reporters in America. Baron repeated his sermon:  BARON: Anybody who's studied authoritarianism elsewhere -- I've paid a lot of attention to it in Latin America -- sees that these are the kinds of measures that are put into place in order to consolidate power. And as I said before, the objective here is not just to go after the press. The reason they go after the institutional press is because they actually have some sway and have some resources and can do their job in a systematic and deep way. But the objective here is to suppress free expression by anyone. Defunding government-funded radio is "authoritarian." That's an interesting argument. 

What are the Dreamlight Valley critters' favorite food? To surround yourself with cute critters, you don’t have to have a singing voice like Snow White. Instead, the way to their hearts - like with most people - is through their bellies. We've spent hours in the valley learning how to befriend these creatures and their favorite foods, and feeding critters enough times even encourages them to join you as your valley companion. Like pets in your favorite MMO games, companions are an avatar customization option that lets you can choose an adorable animal to follow you around Dreamlight Valley. There's lots you can do with these critters, so we'll tell you how to feed Dreamlight Valley critters their favorite food, unlock them as companions, craft them their own home, and even take selfies with them. So dive into one of the best PC games of the last year, and get acquainted with all those adorable Dreamlight Valley animals. Continue reading All Disney Dreamlight Valley critters and their favorite foods MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best Disney games, What's the next Dreamlight Valley update?, Disney Dreamlight Valley guide

Black Friday PC shoppers beware, as a few fake listings are hitting Amazon. The mega online retailer has found itself with bad actors trying to take advantage of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D selling out by listing some fake chips well under the MSRP. The quick lesson here? If it’s too good to be true, it most likely is. The 9800X3D has quickly become one of the best gaming CPU upgrades for your PC. It offers excellent performance for its price and has quickly been swept off the shelves by avid PC gaming enthusiasts. Continue reading Fake AMD Ryzen 9800X3D listings pollute Amazon as gaming CPU sells out MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, Best gaming CPU, Radeon RX 7800 XT review

These days, it’s quite a challenge to find a decent budget gaming laptop. Almost all of them come with some severe caveat to the overall design, whether that’s a mismatched screen and GPU, poor battery life, meager RAM capacity, or middling CPU performance. The Acer Nitro V 15 (ANV15-41) very much bucks that trend, though, by sidestepping almost every common gaming laptop hiccup, resulting in a surprisingly capable laptop for the price. And it’s the price that’s the real driver behind all the love up there in that paragraph, that’s for sure. This edition of the Acer Nitro V 15 is listed at just under $900. For that, you get a radically well-balanced build, including an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS processor, along with 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a surprisingly potent Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, which performs admirably, despite being a 75W unit. That’s all bundled together with a super smooth 1080p IPS screen with a 165Hz IPS refresh rate, baked into a lovely, simple chassis, giving it an air of balance. It’s a treat to use. It’s not perfect; there are a few flaws in the overall spec sheet that hold it back from perfection, but it's otherwise the best gaming laptop you can buy at this price. Continue reading Acer Nitro V 15 review: A great 1080p budget gaming laptop with an amazing price MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best gaming monitor