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(Originally published 3/5/22 on Substack)
Time to do some housekeeping! Here’s some stuff that’s been happening at or around Against the ’70s lately.
Patreon! In case you weren’t aware, this newsletter now has a Patreon component, which you can find here1. All the newsletter posts will be there for free, with the only major difference being the photos won’t have the captions. (That’s a real bummer, as the captions allow me to include additional info about the movie and make dumb jokes, occasionally at the same time.) The Patreon has three tiers. The $2 tier includes poll voting privileges (see below), and free downloads of rpg products I create that are ~4,000 words or less. The $4 tier is the same, but the rpg product word count is ~8,000 words or less. The $5 tier includes poll voting privileges, downloads of rpg products of any word count, plus you can dictate one movie per month for me to review and create rpg material around. (First two picks are already in: The
Incredible Melting Man, one of the gooiest movies ever made2, and Silent Running, featuring Bruce Dern and li’l robots3. Look for them soon.) Please note that this newsletter has a single $5 subscription option, and selecting that gives you all the same benefits as the Patreon $5 tier.4
Products! So what are these rpg products I keep talking about? Well, I released my first one a few weeks ago. It’s called Owns the Road, and gives players the option of playing a sentient vehicle in the Cypher System. Anyone who’s ever wanted to play K.I.T.T or K.A.R.R. or The Car or even My Mother the Car5 should check it out. It’s free for all paid subscribers to download. It’s free for everyone to download; clilck here! Next month’s product is inspired by Saturday Night Fever, and after that there’ll be products inspired by Laserblast, Phantasm, and a secret one that’s, to my mind, a kind of companion to Owns the Road6. Stay tuned!
Poll! As previously announced, the Patreon now has a monthly poll to pick a movie for me to watch and create rpg material around. The winner for March is Zardoz, John Boorman’s bizarro SF/Fantasy about immortality, giant floating heads, and a leave-nothing-to-the-imagination Sean Connery. I haven’t seen this high school, so looking forward to it. Expect it in a few weeks.7
Steve Carlson! My good friend Steve has his own Patreon, called The Overdue Diligence Project, where he is going through his immense collection of dvds and blu rays, and writing reviews of each one. (You can see from the image above that Steve’s range of cinematic interests cover, well, almost everything.) If you’re a fan of tight, knowledgable, funny film criticism, I highly suggest you sign up. There’s already 59 posts on there, so lots to dig into. (I’ve started an “Overdue Diligence Project” Overdue Diligence Project, where each day I (re)read one of Steve’s reviews. Goes great with coffee!)8
The Getaway! Gone in 60 Seconds was terrible on several different levels. I didn’t offer anything in my game section for chases and whatnot, preferring to use that space to further malign deceased director H.B. Halicki. (Not necessarily proud of that, but I stand by every word nonetheless.) Anyway! Ken Lowery (whom you may know from Twitter9) has created a solo rpg called The Getaway to simulate cars and the people who chase them. I haven’t played it yet, but looks fun! Furthermore, I’m willing to go out on a limb and say it’s better than Gone in 60 Seconds. At the very least, no one will get hurt.
Blurred Lines! One of the key ’70s genres is giallo, and this Against the ’70s project is going to have to deal with it one way or another, sooner or later. (When I first read Damnation Decade, I was disappointed that in the survey of the world, Italy wasn’t turned into Giallo & Poliziotteschi Land. Now that I’m trying to do my own version, I see how difficult that is.) But until that day, designer Guilherme Gontijo has created Blurred Lines, a solo rpg about playing a crime photographer hunting down a serial killer.
Look at that Berberian Sound Studio-inspired cover! Look at that layout! (Insert “Jack Nicholson nodding maniacally” gif.)
(ETA 3/5/22: Steve Carlson — remember him above? — informs me that the cover is more likely an homage to the poster for Dario Argento’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet. I’m going to assume that the Berberian Sound Studio poster is playing off that as well.)
The obvious care and love that went into this book just blows me away. If I have one criticism, it’s that I feel a giallo rpg should have a melange of nouns, adjectives, and verbs for a title. (Which is barely a criticism, really.) Anyway, I have to get this. It’s too beautiful to not own. (Also, until March 10, if you buy the PDF, you’ll be able to get the physical version for only $5.)10
As of this writing (3/21/24), the Patreon is still there, but will be gone as soon as I upload all these old posts.↩︎
Coming up in post #22. (This is post #20.)↩︎
Coming up in post #26. (This is post #20.)↩︎
All this talk about tiers and pricing and perks and none of it mattered. I’m particularly sad that my awesome Patreon tier list is going into the garbage. The tier list reads “World Enterprises Corporation” (from The Man Who Fell to Earth) for $2, “The Parallax Corporation” (from The Parallax View) for $4, and “Energy Corporation” (from Rollerball) for $5. There was some text that went with these, and the bit for Energy Corporation was in my opinion pretty boss. Maybe I’ll revive all this in the future.↩︎
I now want to make something called My Mother the K.A.R.R.↩︎
Took me a moment to remember what this mystery product is! But I recall now. Still haven’t written it, or the Laserblast or Phantasm one, but aiming for this year.↩︎
Zardoz is coming up in post #25. (This is post #20)↩︎
Unfortunately, Steve put his Patreon on hold starting May 8, 2023, almost a year ago. (As I write this, it’s March 21, 2024.) I dearly, dearly hope Steve brings it back at some point. Reading it each morning over my coffee was truly a delight.↩︎
what’s a twitter↩︎
I did buy it and have read it, but still haven’t played it. For the last year I’ve been trying to get into solo ttrpg or ttrpg-like games, and it just hasn’t happened, and Blurred Lines is a victim of that. Still, the book is very cool and seems fun, and if you’re interested in both giallo and ttrpgs, you should probably pick it up. As of this writing (3/21/24) it’s only $9 on DriveThruRPG.↩︎
