Future Stories

Cover art from Monster of the Multiverse Image: Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragons actual play shows have been popular for years, but the phenomenon really kicked off seven years ago when the McElroy brothers started The Adventure Zone podcast using the newly released Fifth Edition (5e) of the incredibly popular role-playing game as a basis for their comedy storytelling . As the scope of the medium expanded to other games as well as YouTube and Twitch ( Critical Role and Friends at the Table are obvious mentions), actual plays have become an art all their own. New shows pop up all the time, and many have been going for years! It’s hard to know where to start as more and more people experiment with different ways to distribute and play games for an audience. But, to help you get into it, here are six APs where you can either catch up quickly or jump right into a season. Of Mice and Men and Monsters Image: Of Mice and Men and Monsters Of Mice and Men and Monsters

Oscar Isaac has Marvel in the palm of his hand. Image: Marvel Studios Marvel’s latest streaming show Moon Knight is only six episodes long, and though everyone expects the character to show up and showdown with the likes of Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man , there’s no guarantee that’s going to happen. In a profile by Variety , Moon Knight star Oscar Isaac revealed that unlike many of the actors that helped start the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he does not have a long-term contract in place to continue to appear in the films or shows. “I had heard of the golden handcuffs,” Isaac told the trade (with what’s described as “a nervous chuckle.”) “That was something that I was reticent about. And luckily, we all agreed that this [show] is what we’re going to focus on. This is the story. And if there’s any kind of future, I think it just depends on if people like it, if people want to see more, and if we find a story that’s worth telling.” Reading between the l

Master Chief is more than just a walking tank in Halo The Series . Image: Paramount We’ve known from the get-go that Halo The Series would split apart from the established lore of the beloved Microsoft gaming franchise to offer its own spin on familiar beats and ideas that have been touched upon in over 20 years of games, tie-in books and comics, and more. But one of its most fascinating differences so far is how it gives us a rather literal look at the humanity of its lead hero. Much of the runtime of “Contact,” the first episode of   the Halo TV series, is about how the Master Chief, played by Pablo Schreiber, is coming to terms with the idea that not only is the UNSC—the organization he was forged to fight for, no matter the cost—morally suspect, but that he is indeed capable of rebelling against the years of training, motivation, and a non-insignificant amount of mental programming to defy his relationship with it. The climax of episode saw two unprecedented things happen:

Image: Toho Co., Ltd. We can’t get over how cool this looks: a stage adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away with live actors, costumed creatures, and incredible puppets? While legions of Hayao Miyazaki fans will have to make do with these new glimpses of the production —since the Toho Co., Ltd. production is only touring Japan for now—we’re now even more excited to (hopefully) see the performance someday. Radish Spirit! Image: Toho Co.,Ltd. The show opened at the Imperial Theater in Tokyo to critical acclaim, and will continue its tour through the summer. If you’re lucky enough to be close to any of these tour stops, we’re not at all completely, totally, and utterly jealous. April 13-24, 2022 at Umeda Arts Theater (Osaka) May 1-28, 2022 at Hakataza Theater (Fukuoka) June 6-12, 2022 at Sapporo Cultural Arts Theater hitaru (Sapporo) June 22-July 4, 2022 at Misonoza Theater (Nagoya) Yubaba! Image: Toho Co., Ltd. Look at all the details! The costume and makeup on

Star Wars: Brotherhood Image: StarWars.com With Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi   rapidly approaching, interest in the character is running sky-high, with a new novel on the way that’ll examine another key period in the Jedi’s life. Mike Chen’s Star Wars:   Brotherhood will explore how Count Dooku ’s Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress first met Kenobi at the very beginning of the Clone Wars. Do I love a love-hate relationship? You bet. Do I admire noted sci-fi author Chen (who previously wrote for the franchise via a short story in the anthology From a Certain Point of View )? Absolutely. Am I entirely convinced that Kenobi is a legendary scoundrel who has made his way across seven systems by bed hopping? One hundred percent . And if the excerpt from Star Wars: Brotherhood shared by StarWars.com proves anything, it confirms that Obi-Wan thinks that everyone is flirting with him at all times. Even if they aren’t, he’s convinced everyone thinks he’s absolutely fine as hell, and you k

Image: Eiichiro Oda/SHUEISHA Inc Eiichiro Oda has been playing the long game. That’s not news to anyone reading One Piece , his globally popular manga, which has been dropping Easter eggs and seeding revelations for two and a half decades . The biggest one—and certainly the most divisive one among its many fans—was revealed this past weekend, and it has irrevocably changed one of the longest-running manga forever. If you’re not familiar with One Piece , here’s the short version of what happened: Luffy got the hair transformation. His normally black, tousled hair has become a half-smoky, half-gooey mess, and here’s why this is an extremely important turning point in the series. Luffy in his new Joyboy form, also known as his Gear Five power level, as seen in Chapter #1044. Image: Eiichiro Oda/SHUEISHA Inc It’s a time-honored trope in shonen manga, aka Japanese comics primarily targeted towards tween and early teen boys (although many of the readers who were tweens when One Pie

Arkansas physicists have successfully developed a circuit capable of capturing graphene’s thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current. This lab curiousity only needs to be millions of times to power tiny low voltage computer chips. If millions of these tiny circuits could be built on a 1-millimeter by 1-millimeter chip, they could serve ... Read more

Screenshot: Phil Tippett Fans of Oscar-winning visual effects artist Phil Tippett—whose many credits include RoboCop , Return of the Jedi , Jurassic Park , and Starship Troopers —will finally get a chance to see Mad God , his long-in-the-works stop-motion animated film. After its festival release, the film will hit Shudder (and a few theaters) this summer. When we say long-in-the-works, we mean literal decades. “It’s been over 30 years, but thanks to the team at Tippett Studio we finally made the dream a reality,” Tippett said in a Shudder press release. “I’m proud to partner with Shudder on the release of Mad God , and it’s an honor that my original vision can now be shared with audiences across the country.” Tippett is an animation pioneer whose work propelled the special effects seen in films like those listed above—as well as Willow , Dragonheart , Dragonslayer , Honey I Shrunk the Kids , the Twilight saga, and more. Most recently Tippett Studio, his animation and visual effe

Image: Ollie Upton/HBO The raven that flew in earlier today carrying news of Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon ’s August premiere date was swiftly followed by another bird laden with new images from the much-anticipated HBO Max series. We’ve had a few glimpses of a handful of characters before, but this is our best look yet, at least until we get a trailer. Scroll through for new peeks of the show’s ensemble cast, starting with the concerned-looking woman you see here. She’s Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, (played by Emma D’Arcy), a dragon rider who’s one of House of the Dragon ’s royal characters vying to sit on the Iron Throne. Hail to the King Image: Ollie Upton/HBO Here’s Paddy Considine as the kind-hearted King Viserys Targaryen, father of Rhaenyra Targaryen. Rhaenyra is his first-born daughter and Viserys has chosen her as his successor, even though she’s not technically next in line (and even though she’s, y’know, a woman). Alas, not everybody respects the ki

Russia has not created a stable front that can be held with sustainable losses. Russia cannot sustain 5000-10000 killed and wounded each week. Ukraine’s military is making efficient counter attacks. The longer it takes Putin to accept the reality on the ground then the more Russia will suffer more losses and smaller retreats are made ... Read more

Image: Mondadori Portfolio Editorial (Getty Images) Sharon Stone is in talks to play Victoria Kord, the main villain in DC Comics’ forthcoming film Blue Beetle , reports The Wrap . She joins a stacked cast that includes Cobra Kai ’s Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes /Blue Beetle, the also-just-announced Raoul Max Trujillo ( Mayans M.C., Apocalypto ) as Carapax the Indestructible Man, George Lopez as Uncle Rudy, and Harvey Guillén ( What We Do in The Shadows ). Stone is a veteran actor who broke out in 1992 with the erotic thriller Basic Instinct . Her work hasn’t really let up in the nearly 30 years she’s been on screen, and she’s garnered both Academy and Emmy nods along the way. I still fondly remember 2004's Catwoman as a campy classic; Stone plays opposite Halle Berry as the beauty HBIC Laurel Hedare, out for blood (and the secret to eternal youth). She’ll next be seen on the second season of HBO’s The Flight Attendant . Kord is a new character created for the film, and it

Iola Evans (The 100) and Asa Butterfield (Ender’s Game) in Choose or Die . Image: Netflix If the idea of Jumanji got combined with the violence from Saw , then filtered through a stand-up arcade machine , you’d have the new Netflix film Choose or Die . From director Toby Meakins and writer Simon Allen, Choose or Die stars Iola Evans ( The 100 ) and Asa Butterfield ( Ender’s Game ) as two people who stumble upon an old video game that’s not what it appears to be. First of all, winning can apparently result in an actual cash prize. But more urgently, what these two gamers don’t realize is that the stakes are deadly—and that’s where things take a turn for the worse. Check out the trailer to see for yourself. So hopefully you see what we mean. It’s like a video game sucks the characters in, a la Jumanji , with the violence (eating glass, poking needles into bad places) of Saw , but there’s also a healthy dose of creepypastas, such as the urban legend surrounding the game Polyb

Jobu Tupaki, a queer icon. Image: Allyson Riggs/Courtesy of A24 “Wait,” Everything Everywhere All at Once ’s Jobu Tupaki (an interdimensional being of unrivaled cosmic power and chaos , covered in blood and glitter, having just killed three men) says to her mother. “In this universe, you’re still hung up on the fact that I like girls?” This was the moment that struck me like a spear through my chest. I sat up straighter. My eyes widened and immediately welled up. How could I have prepared for this moment, when a young woman demands her mother see her as something other than just queer? Evelyn Wang (played by Michelle Yeoh ), who has watched someone who looks like her daughter—but is definitely not her daughter—commit a handful of murders, doesn’t respond, but continues to pull the unconscious body of her husband (Waymond Wang, played by Ke Huy Quan ) to safety. Jobu (or Joy Wang, depending on which universe we’re in; both are played by Stephanie Hsu) follows Evelyn, annoyed and

SpaceX has made launch costs per kilogram over three times lower with the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy but will make costs another 5 times lower with the SpaceX Super Heavy Starship. SOURCES- Visual Capitalist Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com

The delays in the FCC approval for the first SpaceX Super Heavy Starship orbital flight will give SpaceX the time to replace all of the old Raptor rocket engines with new 15% more powerful Raptor 2 engines. The first Starship orbital flight will be with Raptor 2 engines, as they are much more capable and ... Read more

Ford Mustang Mach-E sales in February, 2022 were 2,001, which is little over half (46.5% less than) than the same month in 2021. Ford has been averaging 2000-3000 mach-e each month. Ford halted Mach-e production for a week due to chip shortages. Ford suspended production at three assembly plants in Michigan, Illinois and Mexico throughout ... Read more

Death in Space Image: Free League/Death in Space Following a successful Kickstarter, the Death In Space   tabletop   roleplaying game is finally on its way. Free League announced a publishing partnership with Stockholm Kartell, aiming to bring Death in Space to a global audience. The PDF is available to purchase and the full physical game will be sent out in late April. The world of Death in Space is a gritty future that is less space opera and more space survival . As you and your crew venture into the dark void of the unregulated universe, you have an opportunity to win big or lose everything. This game follows in the footsteps of work like Tuesday Night Games’ Mothership and even Free League’s own Alien RPG . There’s a horror element inherent in the premise that makes the idea of being trapped on a ship feel cozy compared to the unknown that surrounds you. A lot of the tension in Death in Space will be based on salvaging, stealing, and building up your crew’s reputati