Geekerati Last Minute Holiday Recommendations
Product Recommendations from Christian and Readers
The Geekerati Holiday Gift Guide for 2024
In my never ending goal to be extremely topical and never late on anything resembling a deadline, I’d like to present to you this year’s list of gift recommendations for the Holiday Season. Because one of the main goals of the Geekerati Newsletter is to build a community of “geeks” who like to discuss all aspects of popular culture, I asked a couple members of the community to share their thoughts regarding gift ideas.
I was inspired to do this by
when he asked if I had any solo game recommendations. I was flattered and realized that Patrick’s request was a great way to build community and share ideas. One of the key aspects of Patrick’s request is that he allowed his respondents to recommend their own stuff and I followed suit and offered the same opportunity to those who answered my invitation.Four people answered my call for submissions and I’ll be including their recommendations before I get to mine. While I highly recommend checking out the contributor’s recommendations, I would also ask that you check out the contributor’s Substack’s as well and if you like them consider subscribing.
Mark Finn
Mark Finn is the author of Blood And Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard. I have both the MonkeyBrain edition from 2006 and the second edition from 2013 and I believe it is one of the best books on Robert E. Howard on the market. Mark didn’t add his book to a list of recommendations, but I’ll do it for him. I addition to his research on Robert E. Howard, Mark is a film critic, author, and podcaster. He lives in a small town in Texas that is a hop, skip, and a jump from Robert E. Howard’s home and he runs The North Texas Apocalypse Bunker Weekly Report Substack.
The Runes of Engagement by Tobias Buckell and Dave Klecha
This fast-paced romp is a mashup of near-future military SF and the AD&D Monster Manual. It's the perfect gift for fantasy readers, the geek who has everything, or your entire gaming group. — Mark Finn
Luke Y. Thompson
Luke’s a regular contributor of Film Reviews here at the Geekerati Newsletter, but he’s also started publishing his personal Substack LYT’s Substack where he shares his thoughts on a variety of topics and is performing personalized movie reviews for his paid subscribers. That’s not a bad idea, but I don’t know if that would work for me here at Geekerati. Luke’s recommendations combine his long time fandom of the Masters of the Universe franchise with his love of film.
For years, even decades, Mattel refused to pay for the rights to make new figures based on the Masters of the Universe live-action movie, retaining only the rights to do the same three they'd made in the '80s: Blade, Saurod, and Gwildor. With their recent relaunch and success with collectors, they're finally making these fan-requested figures, albeit at the snail's pace of one per year. This year brings a movie-styled Beast Man for the first time ever, available only at so-called "fan-channels," which basically means the higher-profile online toy retailers. He-Man and Skeletor are tougher to find, but movie Evfil-Lyn from last year is also still available.
Even people who never collected the original figures still have some love for the movie, right? — Luke Y. Thompson
Gregg Araki's Teen Apocalypse Trilogy - Criterion Collection
Gregg Araki is a divisive and extreme filmmaker, but this thematic trilogy -- mostly linked by star James Duval (full disclosure: a friend) -- is an incredible '90s time capsule about the genuinely different and disaffected youth of the era, launching the careers of Duval and Rose McGowan, among others. The Doom Generation and Nowhere are remastered in 4K; Totally F'ed Up was shot in 16mm and video, so the 2K remaster should suffice. Lots of new extras presumably offer current perspective.
Personal trivia: four of the actors in Nowhere -- Duval, Sarah Lassez, Devon Odessa, and Jaason Simmons -- were in a film that I also acted in and AD'ed for, called Mad Cowgirl. — Luke Y. Thompson
Sam Sparkman
is Sam’s personal Substack that he uses to communicate with fellow gamers, but he also runs the Wayside Games hand made terrain company which I highly recommend checking out. He’s got a lot of interesting stuff there, but I was particularly taken by his 2.5D Dungeon Terrain. It looks great and adds depth while still being highly storable.
This is high quality Dungeons & Dragons terrain handcrafted by an artist that wants to make your games better. Terrain brings physical life to combat encounters and enhances tactical play by giving players and Dungeon Masters an aligned understanding of combat environments. These pieces are highly versatile, making them the perfect gift for a Dungeon Master who wants to get the most out of all their combats. — Sam Sparkman
Richard Iorio II aka Rogue Games
Richard Iorio II is one of my favorite independent game designers. I first came across his work in the early 2000s when I bought the first edition of his Shadow, Sword, & Spell role playing game. He co-authored the game with James Maliszewski and I’ve long been a reader of James’ Grognardia blog. I didn’t always agree with James’ opinions, but I loved the way he wrote about older generations of games. The most recent version of Shadow, Sword, & Spell is available on Kindle Unlimited and as an e-book or paperback for purchase. I highly recommend it, but I also agree with Richard’s own recommendations.
Colonial Gothic is a supernatural historical horror roleplaying game set during the dawn of the American Revolution.
Revised, rewritten and redesigned Colonial Gothic Rulebook 3rd Edition provides players and Gamemasters what they need to run adventures during the American Revolution. Everything you need to run a historical supernatural horror game is found in this book: rules covering the use of magic and alchemy, in-depth information on the life and times of the colonies, a bestiary of monsters pulled straight from the period; the possibilities are endless. Using a fast and simple mechanic, setting up and running a game of Colonial Gothic has never been easier. Plus, this 3rd Edition Rulebook is fully compatible with all previous Colonial Gothic adventures and sourcebooks.
Richard’s Colonial Gothic Roleplaying game will be coming out in a new edition next year, but his designs are typically backward compatible so I recommend going out and getting these while you wait. He’s got a meticulous sense of history and a deep love for the Founding era.
My recommendations are going to be in a couple of different categories: Nostalgia, Movies, Roleplaying Games, and Books. While some of these, such as my nostalgia picks, are items I want but haven’t tested myself, most of these recommendations are things that I own and think that other geeks would love to add to their collections.
Nostalgia Choices
Clue: Giant Edition from Spin Master Games
Regular readers of the Geekerati Newsletter know that I am the world’s lone defender of Candyland. I’ve praised the game twice here and plan on writing a series of posts that provide 100 Ways to Play Candyland. It’s a classic game that accomplishes its intended goal. I was looking for a niche version of the game for the nostalgia pick and saw that Spin Master Games had done a “Giant Edition” of the game. I couldn’t quite make myself recommend it based on the marketing and rules. It’s a game I’ll have to play before I recommend it because I think that it will be very age limited. I did however find another game that piqued my interest.
That game is the Clue: Giant Edition from Spin Master Games. Like the Giant Candyland, this new Clue game has different rules from regular Clue and those rules include a spin wheel mechanic. The rest of the new game is an adaptation of Rummy that reminds me a little bit of the classic Mystery Rummy series of card games but simplified and with a couple of added interactive components.
The deductive reasoning in this version of Clue is in guessing how close your opponents are to completing there set and responding to that if you can. The movement rules are interesting and include a minor “screw your opponent” mechanic. I don’t normally like that kind of mechanic, but it looks like it might be fun here. I kind of like the idea of tapping my opponent with a rubber chicken in order to move into the Kitchen to find out if I can get the last match I need.
The Atari Corporation has seen a huge revival since the Indiegogo Campaign for the Linux based Atari VCS. I was one of the 11,000 or so backers for that project and have my console, but I’ve yet to really play around with it. It’s got some interesting capabilities that I want to explore, and is getting decent support, but what I really wanted was a true “Retro Atari” that works on modern televisions.
Atari released exactly that last year with the 2600+. It plays game from both the Atari 2600 and 7800 catalogs and allows you to use the original cartridges. Given that the electronics of the ancient system are getting harder and harder to replace if something goes wrong, although the retro computer community is working hard to change this, I think it’s fantastic that Atari has decided to make old game playable again. I’m not a big fan of waste and as much as I like retrosystems with ROMs, there’s a big part of me that prefers keeping old cartridges out of landfill and in use. Atari released an “upgrade” to the 2600+ this year with the 7800+. Both have similar capabilities, though reviewers like GenXGrownUp argue that the 7800 has better firmware and less latency on controllers. That’s probably true, but the 7800 controller isn’t the vibe I want for Christmas. I want the classic joystick and that’s what comes with the 2600+.
Movie Choices
The Infernal Affairs Trilogy (2002-2003)
While there are those who are critical of Martin Scorcese’s The Departed (2007), I think that it’s a brilliant film that deserves all of the accolades it received. It’s a fantastic film. It is, however, a remake and one that is even better when you watch the original film series. Scorsese’s film was inspired by the 2002-2003 Infernal Affairs Trilogy by Wai-Keung Lau (Andrew Lau) and Alan Mak starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau Tak-wah.
Both Tony Leung and Andy Lau are at the peak of their acting game and their charisma oozes from the screen. While a lot of early Hong Kong film critics argued that Chow Yun Fat was the “coolest man in all of cinema,” I’ve always thought that title better belonged to Tony Leung because he adds a depth of performance you rarely seen in Chow Yun Fat’s films. I love The Killer as much as the next guy, but it’s Tony Leung’s performance in Hardboiled that really makes the film pop. If you like noir films at all, this is the good stuff.
As good as the recent Godzilla entries have been, and with Godzilla Minus One that’s pretty damn amazing, the films are even better when viewed in the context of the Kaiju tradition. When Ishiro Honda’s film was released in 1954, it created an entire new genre of films with giant monsters battling against one another to determine the fate of humanity. Sure, Godzilla wasn’t the first giant monster, but the combination of belligerent protector of humanity combined with the not so subtle commentary on the Nuclear Age have connected with generation after generation of viewers. Like the Frankenstein story, the Godzilla films demonstrate the marvels of human ingenuity while also highlighting the potential catastrophe that can result from that ingenuity if it is applied haphazardly. This set includes 15 of the films that established Godzilla ad the true Monarch of All Monsters.
I’ve praised this classic Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer romantic comedy in the past, but it deserves special attention because it is often forgotten in the wake of a more recent film (An Affair to Remember) that is a remake of it. I’ve watched both films a dozen times each, at least, and it is Love Affair that consistently makes me cry. An Affair to Remember is charming and delightful, but Love Affair is more powerful. The key to that power is Irene Dunne who was the greatest Screwball Comedy actress to bless the screen. She is beautiful, witty, and didn’t make her big break until she was already in her 30s. Along with Barbara Stanwyck and Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne stands at the top of my Golden Era of Hollywood actresses and Love Affair is her at her most charming even if My Favorite Wife and The Awful Truth are her at her funniest.
Role Playing Game Recommendations
Welcome to the Mythic North – northern Europe of the nineteenth century, but not as we know it today. A land where the myths are real. A cold reach covered by vast forests, its few cities lonely beacons of industry and enlightenment – a new civilization dawning. But in the countryside, the old ways still hold sway. There, people know what lurks in the dark. They know to fear it.
Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is written by Nils Hintze and based on the work of Swedish illustrator and author Johan Egerkrans. Vaesen presents a dark Gothic setting steeped in Nordic folklore and the old myths of Scandinavia. The game mechanics utilize an adapted version of the awardwinning Year Zero Engine.
Powered by the TinyD6 engine, with streamlined mechanics that utilize only one to three single six-sided dice on every action, characters that can be written on a 3x5 notecard, and easy to understand and teach rules, Tiny Supers is great for all groups, ages, and experience levels who want to enjoy fast and accessible superheroics! Characters are created quickly, with a simple power selection system designed to be fast, inuitive, and easy to understand.
A wide range of innovations on the TinyD6 ruleset allow you to craft nearly any superhero you can imagine. Versatile Power Traits model comic book style powers, utilizing a 3-tier format to show the increasing potency of superpowers. Subtle changes to the combat system allow for quick, cinematic comic book action, while still remaining easy to resolve and understand!
Featuring the near-future comic-inspired GallantVerse (Gallant Knight Games’ first default TinyD6 setting!), as well as standalone micro-verses, Tiny Supers provides you with a toolbox approach and framework to create exciting and easy to run superhero stories at your table!
So grab some dice, some pencils, some friends, and get ready for some minimalist, straight-forward, super-heroic roleplaying!
Book Recommendations
Expert Political Judgment by Philip E. Tetlock is one of the most important books I’ve read in my lifetime. It is the book that made me want to study political science and eventually political polarization. While the book isn’t making an argument about the root causes of polarization it highlights an important phenomenon that happens during our polarized age. We trust the people the media put in front of us and call “political experts.” The thing is, they are bad at their jobs. Their predictions are wrong more often than not, or at best a coin flip, and there are no real consequences to them being wrong. They can just leverage that for more money as they do a “debrief” on what went wrong.
Joseph Schumpeter, in his classic Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy argued against the dangers of elites in a democratic system. While many credit him with being a seminal reading in Elite Theory who justifies “rule by the educated,” his chapter on The Classical Doctrine of Democracy eviscerates the argument that elites know more about “the decisions of daily life in the little field which the individual citizen’s mind encompasses with a full sense of its reality” (page 258). His real argument, and an argument that Tetlock demonstrates, is that if the crowd relies too much on Elites who don’t actually know more than the average person about a wide variety of topics it’s bad for democracy. Polarization amplifies this as we engage in Gell-Mann amnesia and trust those who agree with us instead of using the skills we apply to analyzing own day to day lives on the larger world.
For my money, I believe that David Drake was one of the most underrated authors in the Science Fiction and Fantasy field. I think that it was because he didn’t quite fit into the molds that other people wanted from their authors. He wrote excellent fantasy like his Lord of the Isles series and his Arthurian inspired Spark series, but he also wrote Military Science Fiction like Hammer’s Slammers which might turn off pure fantasists. His Military Science Fiction is some of the best and most honest ever written, which can turn off those who want their MilSF to be more gun porn and less examination of the psychological effects of war.
All of this conflict is explained by the simple fact that unlike Jerry Pournelle and the MilSF writers of an earlier generation, Drake was a veteran of the Vietnam War but that didn’t make him lose his faith in humanity. It did lead him to question his government and himself, even as he held deep love for those he served with and pride to have served with them. His views are complex, even as he was highly critical of the Vietnam War. There are no easy platitudes with David Drake, especially in Redliners. A “typical” MilSF fan might prefer Hammer’s Slammers, which is more in the Pournelle school, but for my money Redliners is where the real action is. This is a book about people who have seen the elephant and whose humanity has been eroded. It’s about rekindling that humanity and reconnecting these people with society at large.
It isn’t a book with answers and it’s a very sad book, but it’s also a great book if you are a fan of 40k’s Catachan Jungle Fighters, First Blood, or Predator. This is a book of survival on a Death World and human connection. Imagine 40k if the setting had love, humanity, and memory, that’s this book.
The Godzilla set is great. I hope they'll get to the other eras too, i.e. the ones I did not grow up seeing on TV, and thus have never seen, for the most part.
I wasn't expecting ANY paid subscribers, so when one just showed up, I figured I owed him something nice that was within my means.