Interesting News Bits

A few interesting news items have come up that involve RPGs. Of course, many came from Gen Con where news come fast and furious. These caught my eye:

D&D: THE NEXT MOVIE (MORE A THREAT THAN A PROMISE)

The lawsuit is over, and Warner Bros wins! They are already in pre-production, with a script ready to go. David Leslie Johnson is the screenwriter. His work includes The Conjuring 2 (due next year) and Wrath of the Titans. The bad news is that Wrath of the Titans was not good. It has a 25% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and a lot of the problems seem to be in the script. One audience comment hits him hard, "Some of that CGI money could've been spent on the writers, but noooo." I wrote a bit about what is needed to make a good movie version of D&D, and this review by Will Steich scares the hell out of me because if this is what the producers thought was a good script, the D&D movie is doomed: "Movies like this are often called "video game" movies, since they're basically a series of interstitial 'story' scenes plopped in to transition to and from the fighting scenes. But this is an insult to video games."

FLASH! 

As long as he doesn't play for the NY Jets.

Savage Worlds has always been a good system for pulp role-play. At Gen Con, Shane Hensley announced Pinnacle has the license to produce material for one of the classic pulp sci-fi: FLASH GORDON. It should hit in 2016.

Pinnacle Entertainment Group is on a roll with the licensed material. Lankhmar is a good example of the quality we should expect.

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE LIVES

Onyx Path is going full bore on the old World of Darkness. They announced the fourth edition of Vampire the Masquerade. The rules are updated (as they were in Vampire 20th Anniversary), and will have a new meta-plot. How will they explain the end of the world that ended the line?

I like this because I prefer the oWoD to the new one, of which I am not a fan, so this is great news. Hopefully, with their marketing plan (which I wrote about), it will be a success.

PATHFINDER MADNESS

Paizo announced the Strange Aeons adventure path. It brings the Cthulhu mythos to Golarion, and even has Abdul Alhazred, writer of the Necronomicon, in the adventure. Also, a horror source book will be released, including a sanity system, so expect your heroes to suffer some fun mental illness.

I look forward to the Pathfinder Battles miniatures for this. They will be useful for Call of Cthulhu.