Cliffhanger

So the group is on a two-masted cog, the good ship Empire of the Sunset, in the middle of a really furious storm. Sheets of rain and murderous squalls. Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening. About a quarter of the crew has already been swept overboard, which might be just as well, because the PCs are not well liked, after all that spitting into the communal stew (very public, too) and mouthing off to the first mate. In fact, there would probably be a mutiny under way by now, if the sailors weren't a bit preoccupied at the moment (or dead), because the captain keelhauled a full quarter of them, plus the first mate, on false charges. One mast has just been struck by lighting, and crashed on the deck, where it smashed open the cage of the mountain lion the Empire has been transporting. The mountain lion that has been poked with sharp sticks for entertainment purposes and was able to grievously wound a PC and a sailor while in the cage. Someone should have put up a warning sign.

This is also the moment where a fat tentacle appears at the ship's rail, belonging to God-knows-what kind of hellbeast. Maybe that's the reason the ghost ship that hounded us for the last quarter of an hour is suddenly gone.

It is also the moment where the game master says "Let's wrap up for tonight."

Well played, sir, well played.

Cry havoc and and let slip the Toyotas of war

Technicals from the Lybian revolution. Via the eXiled. The cars seem to deal rather well with all the added weight - but they seem to carry no armor at all (with the exception of the odd blast shield). They are also more colorful and cheery than the dour Mexican narcotanks.

Point Transit

Point Transit is the gateway to the Far West, or to the Desert Heart - depending on your perspective. A city of such importance has lots of secrets, which will not be spoiled in this short introduction, instead there will be a separate document taking a look at some of the dirt the people of this fine community have accumulated over the years. This will be stuff only the game master should know, or characters who spent an inordinate time digging in the backstreets, cracking safes and computers, or listening to pillow talk. An addition to the Scorched Earth materials post, with a map.

Polite society

A tool for the enforcement of nearly lost societal norms, via this isn't happiness. It's practical use is nearly zero (unless you want to get into a fight with an expectorator, and you are superfast with a marker and scissors), but it is a nice handy list concerning acceptable behavior in our urban centers. Alien infiltrators, take note!

Joss Whedon: The Avengers

Four superheroes for the price of one (plus the charge for 3D glasses, can we please stop this nonsense?), so what could go wrong? Indeed, this is a very amusing movie, even if you aren't a raving comic fan. It has a lot of Joss Whedon dialogue, so if you are a fan of Buffy and Firefly, you should have a good time on that count alone, although I found the characters unbelievably precious at some points. But it is genuinely funny, and they stopped the thing that made Ironman 2 nearly unbearable, where two characters are chattering away at the same time, so you needed to be a schizophrenic to get both parts of the dialogue.

The backstories and involvement of the heroes (Aryan Viking, Snide Toasterman, Green Butt-Naked Giant and Clean-Cut Protestant Guy, supported by the lesser heroes Sultry Temptress and Lotso Arrows, if you have been living under a stone) are deftly handled, meaning that I wasn't waiting for the big action pay-off, but really enjoying the slow bits of the movie. At 140 minutes this is a rather longish movie, but it does not feel that way.

And the action pay-off is grand, absolutely fantastic, I really think I won't see anything like it for the rest of the year. This includes the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises. No shaky cam here, but a clear sense of who is doing what where and why. I don't know if you should stay through the credits, because I didn't. If there is a "surprise", it will be on YouTube anyway.

4 of 5 chair fights

Like this

Your co-worker the next cubicle over will go on a shooting spree any day now? Jörg Sprave has you covered, but please note that all these weapons take a few minutes to construct. Be prepared - build them now. Right now. Via io9.

High speed shenanigans

Sundry buffoonery recorded via a Phantom Flex highspeed camera .Via panzer's telemetry feed.