I've been a big fan of author Ben Farthings "I Found" horror story series and
am excited to check out his latest, The 31st Trick-or-Treater.
Last Halloween, thirty trick-or-treaters vanished into the night. This
October, they’re coming back—one by one, each day of the month. But every
child carries the same chilling warning: something is returning on the 31st.
Bob has never stopped searching for his daughter. Now, as the shadows of
Halloween grow longer, he must face the darkness that stole her—before it
takes everything again.
The 31st Trick-or-Treater is a Halloween
advent novel: thirty-one nights, thirty-one chapters, and one final
nightmare waiting on Halloween.
The book is written so that you read a chapter every day in October leading up
to Halloween. I love the idea of this and wanted to spread the word about it.
The e-book releases on September 24th and is currently available for
pre-order on Amazon (affiliate link). Ben may have physical books up at
his website next week. While you're waiting, pick up any of the "I Found" books for a quick
spooky read.
Two months until Halloween! That means the blog will be going into
hibernation mode for the next month so I can prepare a post for every day in
October.
Linked titles will take you to a trailer and let's get on with the show...
I LOVE this show! It's been filling the hole in my heart left by SyFy's 2017 Blood Drive. Season 2 ended on a bit of a cliffhanger setting up a Season 3. If this doesn't happen I will NOT be happy! I know this is already based on a video game, but can we get a new video game based on the show?
Gatchaman Progress
Episodes watched this month: 8 Currently up to: 59
I guess you could call me a casual, enthusiastic fan of FF comics. I keep up
with them because I like the character dynamics and the sci-fi elements. This
movie delivered for me on both fronts and definitely had a human aspect to it
that made it more than just another superhero movie. I love the art direction
and that we're just dropped into it with enough backstory to skip the usual
"origin story" tropes. My biggest complaint is that Ben got the short straw in
the character development department.
Rating: 8/10
Clown in a Cornfield (2025, Shudder & VOD)
Yes, it's a silly title but the movie itself has a little humor to it. This
has actually been a book since 2020. I frequently see Amazon recommend it to
me and just never got around to it. The movie doesn't do anything really new
for the slasher genre but it doesn't have to because it's a near perfect
specimen with some fun (sometimes funny) kills.
Today, I'm going to be talking about The RPG video game. Which RPG video
game, you ask? The RPG video game. I was going to do a whole "Who's on First"
thing but then considered the effort it would take to type it out and decided
it wasn't worth it.
The RPG is a first-person, comedic fantasy RPG-lite game that just released on August 7th. It takes more than a few pages
from Skyrim's playbook. You don't need to have played Skyrim to enjoy The RPG
but you might miss some of the jokes. If "taking an arrow to the knee" means anything to you, you'll be just fine.
I tend to prefer more "crunchy" RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 where you build your
characters as they level and find the best items for them so I wasn't sure if an RPG-lite game was going to be up my alley. The simplicity of the game play, cartoony style, and the humor just make it very enjoyable for me.
It's got all the usual things that RPG lovers expect: breaking random things to look for loot, quests, killing
things, taking their stuff, leveling up and...picking mushrooms?
Any RPG worth its salt needs quests lay out the story and there no shortage of side quests. This is an open world game so you can explore the map however you want but there's plenty of wild beasties outside the village and you need to make sure you're not tackling something above your pay grade. Luckily, death only results in you respawning at the last bonfire you lit.
Like most RPGs, you get experience for completing quests and killing things. Leveling up is super easy. You get 3 points to spend on 12 skills such as: Tough Guy (take less damage), Coal Skin (resist fire damage), and Wolverine (health regen).
Everything you pick up from treasure to toilet paper to mushrooms adds to your Loot value. You can then find vendors that will turn your Loot into Gold which you can spend. In the main village there are three vending machines: weapon, armor, and various improvements for your mushroom gun. It's a gun that shoots mushrooms, it's not for shooting at mushrooms. But I'm not here to tell you how to play your game.
The weapon and armor machines only ever, in my experience, have one item in them. When you buy the item, it gets replaced with a better, more expensive item. This combined with the "everything becomes Loot" mechanic eliminates any sort of inventory management. When I play other RPGs I find myself having to run back to town frequently to unload items for cash so I can go get more items. Not here!
In addition to Loot, you can also find special powers like Double Jump and the secret of learning some Dragon language that gives you different magic shouts that can freeze mobs in place or slow time.
In the end, the lite aspect of the game and how it really streamlines the RPG experience makes it a lot of fun and easy to jump into for a quick session. The humor is more subversive than laugh out loud funny but as a veteran of decades of RPG playing, I definitely enjoy the game's take on things.
