Curated Content
Diving into curation challenges while enjoying 'The Flash' comics, as well as my latest professional news, and sharing thoughts on 'Sherlock Holmes Untold'.
Recently I read some fantastic comics of The Flash, and it got me thinking about curation and how I consume content.
Ugh, that phrase. “Consume content.” I can’t think of a better media-neutral way of saying “everything I read, watch, play, and listen to,” so I’m stuck with a phrase that’s useful but also indicative of the very problem I have with “content.” As the quote above indicates, there’s so much media, information, and what-have-you that swimming through the morass of options to get to something I might like is hard. And now that everything is “content” these days, it just keeps adding up.
But this isn’t just about me, an old man, yelling at clouds (which is, itself, a Simpsons reference that’s probably close to thirty years old now). A lot of the automated tools that were created to help us find the gems among the dross have, in the end, failed us, and many indie producers talk about how discoverability is a problem. You can tell Netflix about all the shows you love, but it’s going to keep recommending the same ten shows it produced and released this month. The books that people buy at online stores might help point me in the direction of others books like the ones I bought, but it doesn’t tell me if they actually read them. Reviews have gone the way of social media (which is to say, full of bots, bigots, and bullshit).
I was meeting up with a friend who occasionally comes to London to have dinner and watch a show with me. This time, they offered to bring some trade paperbacks for me to borrow, and I said “just bring whatever you’d think I like.” And they brought me three trade paperbacks of The Flash.
And I loved them.
What’s so striking about this is that not only am I pretty burned out on superhero media as a whole, but even when I’m not I tend to prefer Marvel over DC comics. Even of the DC comics I’ve read, The Flash isn’t one I generally pick up. But these three volumes were the back half of writer Jeremy Adams’ run, which would have been the last couple of years. That’s all to say that, if I had been left on my own to pick up comics, I probably would never have given these a second look.
Similarly, I got a free ticket to London Comic Con last month. I was only able to go for a few hours, but walking along the indie artists’ section shows me a lot of very cool things I had no idea existed (and yes, I ended up buying a few, particularly a self-published Sherlock Holmes steampunk comic I’m waiting to get into).
It’s not all great. Another friend recently got me a couple of books I was lukewarm on. Games people have recommended to me hit all over the place. But very few of them are things I would have picked up, or likely even heard of, if a friend didn’t curate it for me. I’m even in a group called the Slow Game Club that drip-feeds video games once a month, and I find it much more interesting than just buying a bundle of twelve games (even if I’ve only played about half of them).
I enjoy curating for others, too. Once in a while I get asked what Sherlock Holmes things to “consume,” and I enjoy the challenge of that. More than once shows my friends wouldn’t normally try they pick up on my suggestion and end up enjoying, and there’s a thrill in watching someone get excited about a thing I also enjoy.
So that’s something I’m going to do more often. Not push people to consume something I’m into, but be receptive to curation if asked. And rather than getting dragged into whatever social media-fuelled marketing thing gets pushed at me, instead I’ll ask my friends what they’re into that they think I might like.
News
Speaking of suggesting things people might like, here are some things I’ve worked on!
Earlier last month I once again sat down with Craig and Jess at RPG R&D, this time to talk about worldbuilding.
The Kickstarter for the Curseborne Player’s Guide has ended. We got over 1,000 backers and raised a bit over $65,000! I can’t wait to dig into the feedback we’ve gotten on the book.
Finally, we just hit 30 episodes of the Call of Cthulhu actual play I’m doing for Red Moon Roleplaying.
Finally, I did something fun on my Bluesky account: Realms of Pugmire stats for a certain fast blue hedgehog. I’ve since polished them up a bit. Check it out!
SONYC (OL 6; Legendary)
This mysterious blue stranger claims to come from a different world. Some dogs in Pugmire believe he's a demon of speed summoned to cause chaos, while others consider him a delusional crusader with a specific agenda against masterwork creations. Regardless, until he accomplishes his mission or returns to where he came from, Sonyc is a wild card zooming across the realms.
Defense: 20 (hard to hit due to extreme speed)
Stamina Points: 180
Speed: 50 ft.
Experience Bonus: +4
Attributes: Agility +5, Might +0, Vitality +0, Cunning +1, Intellect −1, Presence +0
Skills: Balance, Traverse
Attack: Spinning attack (+9 melee, 2d6 + 5 blunt)
Morale: Automatically succeed on morale tests
Tricks: Boon on all Agility tests; multiple attacks (3 spinning attacks)
• Perpetual Zoomies: Sonyc gains an additional action on each of his turns. The additional action can only be used to take the Disengage, Hide, or Use actions. Alternatively, this additional action can be converted to a move action. Further, Sonyc is immune to the effects of the Slow spell.
• I Hate Machines: Sonyc's spinning attack does double damage against enemies with the servitor tag.
• Running on Air: As long as Sonyc begins and ends his turn on normal terrain, Sonyc can ignore difficult terrain, water, barriers, and even missing ground. Magical effects will bar Sonyc as normal.
If you’d like me to do more of the little bits for Realms of Pugmire, let me know!
My Media
Normally I’m so far behind the curve on new media (see the start of this newsletter) that usually my media sections are “new to me,” or if it is new, I was lucky and stumbled across it. This time, I’m actually going to talk about something I’m into that isn’t even finished yet: Sherlock Holmes Untold.
I’ve been a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes full-cast audio adventures that Big Finish have been putting out for over a decade. But to be honest they tend to come out every few years, and once I get them I consume them quickly and then I wait.
The concept is fairly typical for the range: A conspiracy threads through several cases, although all the cases in this series are those mentioned in the original canon but never explained. This time, Big Finish are doing something different. They’ve made an eight-episode series that’s much more like a radio series: half-hour episodes released every Wednesday, with “previously on” and “next episode” stingers on each end.
There’s a touch of the classic radio drama around the whole structure, but it’s really more like a typical “prestige TV” show you’d find these days: all eight episodes are part of an overall plot, so you’re really listening to one long story. However, unlike typical prestige TV shows, there’s at least an attempt to make each episode stand more-or-less alone. It doesn’t always land — episode #3, to my mind, was a bit flat as an episode and it wasn’t until episode #4 that some context came to light on the previous episode’s events — but it works more than it doesn’t, and I’ve really enjoyed getting a small dose of well-made Holmes every week for five weeks now.
Once it’s done the whole thing will be released as a four CD set (which is the usual Big Finish box set structure), so even if you miss the week-to-week listening, you can always get the whole story. Plus, Big Finish tend to do sales on a regular basis, and you can get the digital version DRM-free, so you can download it and keep it forever. It’s definitely worth a listen if you like your Sherlock Holmes traditional with a smidge of modern drama.
And with that, I’m off to investigate my next freelance project. Happy sleuthing!