Real Housewives of Ravenloft Silver Best Seller!

When I released this book earlier this month, I did not expect the excitement this product would generate. This week, it became a Silver Best Seller! FOE's first one on the DM's Guild!

Thank you SO much

[Doctor Who Review] 12.8 The Haunting of Villa Diodati

Part Two of the Marathon that started with Can You Hear Me?. I was pretty sour when this one started and I expected this one to suck.

For most of the episode, we are plunged in a rather interesting mystery with the expected ending: Mary Shelley getting inspired to write Frankenstein.

The cast of NPCs is interesting. Heck the cast that was at the Villa in 1816 make for a great cast and they are presented here as we know them today. Byron is a promiscuous self-centered jerk and Mary is a hedonist.

The appearance of the Cyberman made me happy and excited to see returning. I love them because they have been a major threat since the 60s.

- This half-made Cyberman left me with many questions about what he is, who he is, where is he from, etc. This is something that will move on to the next episode(s).

- The crew is too big and each character vies for screentime when half their number would suffice

- Dumb moment when the Cyberman saves the baby. Why? Wtf? That just did not make any sense and pussified the Cybermen. I mean really. They are supposed to be cold and logical not emotional. In fact the whole side-plot with the baby served NO PURPOSE other than to take away time. If at least the Doctor used the TARDIS to save the baby OR SOMETHING. But instead all we get is a bunch of women running around the house for reason.

- When faced with the Cyberman, we are presented with a redo of the "Need of the Many". But again, this cowardly Doctor gives in. She has no boldness and gives in to the Cyberman's demand.

So the episode had a few problems but still this one was the most interesting and compelling one to watch. A good historical setting and the involvement of a classic monster. I gave it a 3.5 rounded up to a 4. Best episode of the season.

Would I re-watch? Yes.

Rating: 4/5

[Doctor Who Review] 12.7 Can you hear me?

I waited two weeks to see this one and give myself a mini-marathon.

This one starts with a scene in a hospital in Medieval Syria where the place is attacked by some werewolf-like creature. Made me think a little about the Van Gogh episode of the 11th Doctor. Intriguing start that got me to pay attention.

Then we move to "today" where the Doctor is bringing the crew for some appointments with their friends. Of course, all of them have some odd problem with a dude that appears in their room. Once again we end up with a bunch of extra NPCs crowding the plot particularly the now-distracting Syrian girl and Ryan's buddy.

The Dude is some god-like figure linked to previous villains. They are defeated by some "reason" and locked into some over-complicated plot device.

The Syria thing really served no purpose in the end... It could've been resolved with someone "today". The excitement of the opening turned out to be just fluff.

This episode is about isolation and mental illness. But as with the previous episode, the solving of the problem was done very quickly as if to move on for the moral of the story. The moral at the end fell flat.

Well let me expand on that. At the end, we see Yaz meet the cop that set her on the path to become a cop in a nice moment. Then Ryan's buddy speaks about his problem for like a minute to group therapy in something that really adds nothing to the episode.

But the worse of was the talk between the Doctor and Graham. In a genuinely good moment when Graham expresses to the Doctor that he is worried about his cancer coming back. He really hit it on the head and I felt for him really wanted for something to happen with that. In the cringiest scene I've yet to see on TV, the Doctor dismisses him completely. Telling him "this is where I say something nice." This shows how little the 13th Doctor cares about the crew and particularly Graham. So while the other two companions get a decent resolution, she dismisses him.

Weak.

Very Weak.

Until the final moments of the episode and the Graham scene, I was overall pretty excited and positive. Sure there were problem but comparing this to Orphan 55, this was pretty good. I was gonna go with a 3.5 (or 4) but that scene soured me immensely on this episode. It dropped down to a 2.

Would I re-watch? No (I was thinking "yes" until the moral section).

Rating: 2/5

[Doctor Who Review] 12.6 Praxeus

I sat down for this episode expecting a Gallifrey. What did I get? Something about Earth... Guh! I thought to myself "Hey! Maybe I will get to sleep for an hour". Then after two scenes, I was rolling my eyes and saying out loud "Oh no! Not another global warming episode this is gonna suck as bad as Orphan 55". But to my (very pleasant) surprise, the show moved on to a mystery that was way more than "just" a pollution episode. I kept watching, trying to guess where this was going and being surprised more than once. The episode starting with the companions and the Doctor starting separated from each other and looking into a mystery across the globe.

This episode has a few highlights

Splitting the companions was a good idea and it allowed each to interact with other characters. Of course that everyone of these subgroup end with more travelers into the Tardis makes travelling in the blue box less interesting.

For the first fifteen minutes of this episode, I felt I was watching an episode of Torchwood with humans investigating a mystery - like Miracle Day (before it went to crap). It was interesting to see and made me look into what is going on.

Now this episode suffers from a few things:

First, the massive cast crowds the episode. More added NPCs coming from each location. This gives us Doctor and 3 companions plus Brazilian girl, Aramu and Suki, the Astronaut and his husband = 9 characters each with something to do. Just crowded the plot.

When this group all gets together, they are all suddenly great friends. Making jokes with each other as if they knew each other. For example, Ryan meets the Brazilian gal and have an interesting interaction. Then later, they meet Yaz. The two girls head off together without any more than a passing introduction and enter a dangerous area. Makes sense for Yaz but not for the girl.

Second, one man's sacrifice rendered effectively meaningless due to just-in-time rescue. I get it, it is a time-travel show, but allowing one character to sacrifice himself saving the world in an action that provides him with a big bout of character development. The fallout of his death could've sparked changes in the gang and the Doctor, but NO. She saves him last minute making his character arc meaningless so he can live happily forever.

So an astronaut takes his cellphone into space...

I was relieved to hear the moral of the story at the end! At least this one was delivered - like everything in this episode - at breakneck speed in Jodie's girly babbletalk.

When the episode was done, I was left unfulfilled, as if there was something missing. To my surprise, the core issue of the episode: pollution, an issue that needs our attention, is rushed and almost dismissive. I felt they had much more material to investigate and deal with. This could easily have become a two-parter.

- A submarine disappearing: that should get the world governments accuse each other, create tension and a reason for all this to come together. Bring in UNIT (even if only as a phone call with Kate Stewart keeping the Doctor and us informed of what the outside world does/thinks)

- An astronaut disappears: sparking a search, conspiracy theories about aliens among us.

- Crazy bird attacking people and people just vanishing.

The elements are all there, if only you let these subplot grow and explore them. Even have a first part without any aliens! You can show people throwing out trash throughout the episode, bringing attention to what is going on and what you want to say.

When I thought back to the episode, I found that in spite of these issues, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would and that this one had surprised me in a positive way. Having to give it a review, I agreed on a 2.5 (okay) which I have to round up to 3.

Would I re-watch? Maybe (not a definite no).

Rating: 3/5

The Real Housewives are HOT!

Wow! The Real Housewives of Ravenloft have caught fire! They are trending on the DM's Guild. So much so that they have now been certified Copper! This is the first FOE title on the DM's Guild to reach that level (although Dreams of Dust is really close).

We even reached #12 on there (I think it is now "down" to #17).

I cannot thank everyone enough for this. A big thanks to TrustyPeaches on reddit, to the British Shark and James-W (Check out his Patreon James RPG Art).

[Release] Real Housewives of Ravenloft on DM's Guild

It is with great pride and joy that I announce the official release of my next DM's Guild release.

Real Housewives of Ravenloft is an expansion for Curse of Strahd where the PCs actually have dinner in Ravenloft and Strahd has a proposal for them. One that could benefit everyone involved.

The art by the British Shark really makes it all come alive and James' RPG art really makes it all come to life! Beautiful work!

The Master of Ravenloft is having guests for dinner – and you are invited. He has a proposal for you, one that could be highly beneficial for all involved. Even if this puts you in the center of the drama of the Real Housewives of Ravenloft?
Investigation, intrigue, and mystery with over 160 combinations of culprit. 
Each of the four named bride receives a new stat block with legendary actions - everything to create a memorable night in Ravenloft.
This 4-12 hours adventure of travel is best played with a group of 4-6 characters of level 3-11.

Available now on the DM's Guild

[Doctor Who Review] 12.05 Fugitive of the Judoon

This one I was looking forward to seeing. I liked the Judoon as they appeared in "Smith and Jones" way back when. This trigger-happy mercenary police force made for an intriguing set up.

So the episode begins with an embargo of earth with the Judoon looking for a fugitive. But without providing us with much details about the fugitive, as one would expect from the judoon.

The let down is the big reveal of the show where they try to re-write the Doctor's own history. It was bad. Not every actor should be used as action stars and seeing them go kungfu on a bunch of people really broke believability. From that point on, I just could not care and rolled my eyes. It would've been SO MUCH BETTER to provide us with a different character, perhaps the parent of Susan (from the first 1963 season)...

Again this episode suffered from too many characters. Captain Jack's appearance was a welcomed addition but his appearance in the blinking FORESHADOW HERE scene was made less impactful by the repetition of the scene "Oh! You are not that Doctor... Either!" made me smile but really did not work because of the cheap decor...

Again, the rest of the world remains completely still and takes no action as these aliens take over earth. The governments go "okay, we'll wait until you are done" and wait.

The Moral at the end was about the Companion telling the Doctor they were her friends and family. It would've been powerful if spoken by just one person - Graham was the right one to say this - but with three people standing there, it looked and felt more like an intervention. Then she promises to take the crew to Gallifrey and we end up...

Would I re-watch? No.

Rating: 2/5 (Started as a 3 then plummeted to a 1, so average of 2)

[Doctor Who Review] 12.04 Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror

Tesla is an interesting character for sure. A genius without business acumen. A man of ideas. In many ways, he embodies the little guy brutalized by the big man. As soon as I saw the teaser and title, my eyes rolled in exasperation. "This is gonna suck" I immediately thought.

To my surprise, this episode had some interesting ideas. The biggest problem was that it introduced the aliens too quickly and then with their 1988 CGI effect and terrible costumes (we only see the queen in super close-up), the story was an interesting romp that used historical elements pretty well.

One of the best element of the story were the companion asking each other "What did he invent?" and not being able to answer. He did come up with a number of ideas for technologies that we have today. My favorite is the death ray! Hummmm Death ray... So many uses for such a device.

Another highlight of the episode was Thomas Edison. I expected to see him as "evil corporate man", he did show some aspects of that (because he was a rather crummy individual) but one of his best lines was after Tesla accuses him of being a man of parts not a man of ideas to which Edison said something along the lines of "I make things people use". That exchange embodies the dichotomy between the two men: one makes, one thinks. When you get the two together, you can make awesome things. Problem is, both think themselves the most important.

The problem of the episode is very much like the rest of the season... Too many characters! Doctor + 3 companions + Tesla + Edison + Tesla's secretary... That's seven characters running around trying fighting for screen time. With one good companion, the three special characters could shine and do more. Here, they fight for lines and screen time.

The Moral section at the end was a bit of a let down as it details Tesla's life from this point on in a few sentences (it sucks).

Would I re-watch? Yes.

Rating: 3/5 (Best episode of the season so far)

[Doctor Who Review] 12.03 Orphan 55

Guh... Whu... Pfff...

No surprise here. I guessed the overall thing a few minutes in the episode. Re-hashed. Tired. Boring. Unimaginative mega-cast of NPCs going through the motion. The plot is old and has a lot of nothing going on.

But the worse is the preachy speech we get at the end about "Capitalism Bad. Global Warming Act Now." (I disagree with both of these ideas)

Guh...

Best part of the episode was the end credit.

Would I re-watch? Hell to the NO! NO! NO!

Rating: 1/5 (Because I limit myself to a 1-5 scale, or I would give it a 0).

[Doctor Who Review] 12.02 Spyfall Part 2

After a mostly positive feeling about the first part, I looked forward to the second episode to see where this would be going.

...And I was left holding a steaming pile of excrement. The goodwill from part 1 gave way to eye rolls almost from the start. I don't think I really followed what the glowy-things were as I must have dozed off.

And frankly by that time I flat out did not care. The Master's plot became so convoluted that I could not follow it. He acts like a simple bank robber rather than do things.

I want to thank Jesus for allowing me to doze through a significant portion of this episode (no I'm not watching it again).

And the presentation that "only the women are important" like Ada Lovelace being more important than Charles Babbage and that "Indian spy-chick" who no one knows about is more important than actual people who spied in occupied France. The Ada/Babbage particularly was rough with the flat-out dismissal of Babbage.

The final reveal failed to impress me. Not for the shock value - I did raise an eyebrows. But by how rushed and crammed almost matter of fact it was thrown in there. Rather than having the Master tease it through the episode for a payoff at the end, we have a massive cast fighting for screen time.

This is a show about time travel... So why do you cram so many things in there?

Would I re-watch? No

Rating: 1/5