Stormbringer #18

Ran my 18th week of Stormbringer today. We had an entirely full house, with Kevin bringing his brother, Chris, and Dave S. showing up too. Chris & Dave S. didn't really do much, but they were around.

So the goal today was to start bringing the chapter to an end. The players have to get a magic gem home, but I always wanted to tie up some other lose ends, including a final encounter with their nemeses for the chapter. Which I did. The players avoided a fight again and sent their enemies on a wild goose chase. And, as luck would have it, the players insisted on going back through Karlaak where they'd previously been attacked by some random demons, and so I got to tie up that thread too.

A big chunk of the adventure was a reveal of Dave P's uncle in a big, golden carnival boat of law, and then an extradimensional adventure as they stole something from the British Museum on this Earth. The idea of a million spheres has always been at the heart of Moorcock's books, so I wanted to try something out in another dimension. I think Dave P. was a bit non-plussed by being in modern-day Earth, but it overall went off well.

And now the idea is broached in a big way.

So now the players are on the boat with a promise with the object of their quest and a promise that they're heading home. But they also know the Island has been come under an evil spell well they were gone. The next session will definitely close up this chapter, and I'm actually going to need to figure out a subplot to go in because I've only got a couple of hours of material left and I'd like to end this set of adventures cleanly at the end of the session.

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Been lazing around since I got home. I have some writing work I want to do tomorrow (a Gone Gaming or two, and work on my Elf outline), but I figured today, after running, I'd just kick back.

The Sandbaggers

I've seen the first two episodes of The Sandbaggers now. It seems to be quite a good TV show (and surprisingly so for the 1978-1980 timeframe). It's British spy drama.

I knew it was an influence for Queen & Country, but I hadn't quite realized how much so. The comics & the TV show are each about a special service in SIS which has a crew of three elite agents called Sandbaggers in the TV show or Minders in the comic. They're led by a Director of Ops (D-Ops) who is a former Sandbagger/Minder. He works with a Deputy Chief and a Chief, one of which he's inevitably at odds with.

The TV show focuses on D-Ops, and rereading Q&C vol.1 I think that might have been Rucka's intention there, but he too quickly fell in love with Tara Chase.

I'm actually a bit disturbed by how identical some of the details are in the two media: how the agents are regularly spied upon by MI5; but how there are rules for who much be notified when this happens; how D-Ops brings a suitcase of materials back to the office every morning and it's promptly unlocked by his PA; and how the 3 Minder/Sandbaggers' desks are arranged, just as examples that leapt out in the first two eps. I'd guess that Rucka must have gotten some permissions to create such a nearly identical vision.

In any case, the first DVD should be winging its way back to Netflix after the holiday.