A behemoth interstellar freighter hauls its dangerous cargo, as well as it’s crew and their baggage.

The day “The Excerebrators” arrived and put your brain in a forklift was pretty traumatic. But even after they are overthrown, can you go home?

The phase “Untouchably Sexy Maglev Trains.”

Hench-men placement services and work place negotiation with super villains.

Episode Sixty Three – Donut Tax Outrage!

Chef Boyardee

RPG – Paranoia (the 6th edition from Mongoose Publishing)

Film Director – Mike Leigh

Dawili

Bonfire Night

Light Party

Broken Windows Theory

The Trader’s Tales Series, by Nathan Lowell

RPG – Hobomancer

Hobo Signs

Hobo Nickels

RPG – Bulldogs

Film  – Cargo (2009)

Film  – Pandorum (2009)

Card Game – Once Upon a  Time

RPG – The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Glory, Book One of The Goldenwing Cycle, by Alfred Coppel

TV – Steven Universe

TV – Buffy

RPG – Pilgrims of the Flying Temple

Counting To Infinity (rpg.net setting riff)

Video Game – Starship Titanic

Bog cycling Snorkling

RPG – Eclipse Phase

Bill English’s Pizza Crimes

Both the The Great Race of Yith  and the Fungi from Yuggoth indulged in non-standard abductions, the first using temporal body swapping from the distant past and the second employing the “brains in jars” principle to get fragile humans to their home on Pluto.  Fun times.

Film – Skyline (2010)

Film – The Matrix (1999)

RPG – Dark Conspiracy

Film – Tron (1982)

Book – The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey

Thomas the Tank Engine – and “The Repressive, Authoritarian Soul of “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends”

Film – Blade Runner (1982)

Untouchabley sexy maglev trains.

Film – Despicable Me (2010)

Book – Asterix in Britain

Flat Earthers from all around the world…

Henchmen On A Train

Sticking it to the Übermensch

The Supermanchurian Candidate

The Sidekicks Who Knew Too Much

New Zealand’s New Government

Sad Mike Hosking

I’m linking to the NZ Broadcaster Paul Henry solely to clarify that he is a different person to the British Actor Paul Henry ~ T. Jones

Eva Allen had this explanation of the NZ Electoral System

Allow me to explain MMP

There’s one mince and cheese pie left in the shop; it costs $5

I hope this helps explain things.

Throw Momma From The Train

Jared Leto

Starscream

Leverage (RPG)

Riddler

Leverage (TV)

Champions

The Venture Brothers

Runaways (Comic)

Rick Veitch

Masks

Doc Savage

Cerebus the Aardvark

The Americans

David Xanatos

Apocalypse World

Juan Bobo: Plot Monkey starts here on the Fear The Boot forums

Fear The Boot

The Jank Cast

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Buttons and Mindy

Doctor Who RPG

The Warriors

SCSI

The Gutter Skypes

One player, multiple GMs?  What chance does that protagonist have, unless they are the very stuff of fable?

Craig Destroys Democracy (at least according to Ben)

An inspiring yet incompetent captain and a resourceful and long-suffering crew.  Shenanigans ahoy!

Heroes don the mantle of the gods, attempting to change the very fabric of reality.

NASA Astronauts Provide A Perfect Response To B.o.B’s GoFundMe To Prove The Earth Is Flat

How to Care For Your Introvert by YouTuber “exurb1a”

Juan Bobo

Aesop’s Fables

2017 Hurricane Atlantic Season – Hurricane Maria

John Oliver – Puerto Rico’s Debt Issue from April 2016

Media Coverage Stats for Puerto Rico

Fireside Fiction’s Hurricane Relief Bookstore

Amelia Bedelia

The rules of 500 (the card game)

The Māui of Māori mythology – a name held common with several Polynesian cultural heroes (and of a recent Disney film).  The Māori incarnation was last of the original people created to be born, performed a plethora of amazing feats (largely for the good of those people), and died attempting defeat death in a rather alarming way.

Kagematsu

Agile Development

99% Invisible Podcast

NZ Election 2017  – still not over at time of release – please let it end!

MMP or Mixed-member proportional representation

Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, MP

Hon. Maggie Barry, MP

1080 Poison

Cenobite Scooby – BRC Episode 57

Monkeys Took My JetPack Podcast

RPG – The Zantabulous Zorcerer of Zo

Washington Park in Washington (the state) – I think this is the right one.  You Americanites have rather a lot of things with the name “Washington” ~ T. Jones 

Film – Bedtime for Bonzo (1951)

Curious George

Film –  “The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!” (2012)  AKA “The Pirates! Band of Misfits ” in the US – featuring Mister Bobo, Charles Darwin’s Bulter / “man-panzee”.

Baron Munchausen

RPG – The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen – a new version release by Fantasy Flight late last year

Mister Magoo

Captain Jack Sparrow

RPG – Lady Blackbird

RPG  – GURPS

RPG – Fate

RPG – Dresden Files

RPG – Buffy the Vampire Slayer + Angel

RPG – Doctor Who, Adventures in Space and Time 

RPG – Tales the Loop

Bond Behind the Scenes – BRC Epsiode 5

TV – Archer

RPG – Millennium’s End

RPG – Legend from Mongoose – based on Runequest II rules

Sumo Wrestling and it’s Shinto origins

TV – American Gods

Film – Howard the Duck

TV – Duck Tales (Reboot)

Every Person, or Group, or even Empire is made up of stories, those they’re told, and those they tell themselves; Change the story, and you change THEM.

What Terrible Secret Lurks In The Heart Of The Canadian Wilderness?

A group of friends journey through a crumbling MMORPG to fulfill one last Quest.

If your lives, actions, and very thoughts are being controlled by a bunch of ‘Players’ of an ‘RPG’, the very least they could do is PAY ATTENTION!!

Baker Street Irregulars

ESL/ESOL

Auckland Hospital

Shadowrun (wikipedia)

Doctor Who

Read Or Die

Deep Space 9

Log Horizon

Timewatch – Pelgrane Press

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure + Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey

Jim C Hines

Sapphire & Steel

Dewey Decimal System

TORG (wikipedia)

Stargate SG1

Aesop’s Fables

Canadian Mind Beams

Masks – Magpie Games

Overdrive Factor

Nickelback

Hollow Earth Expedition – Exile Game Studio

Steven Universe

Polybius Videogame Myth

Ahoy

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

Headspace – Green Hat Designs

Masquerade, by Kit Williams

Digimon

IT, by Stephen King

Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple – Evil Hat Productions

Tailor Tinker Soldier Barista

Mogworld and Jam, by Yahtzee Croshaw

GURPS – Steve Jackson Games

Redshirts, by John Scalzi

Better Angels – Arc Dream Publishing

“Big Red Couch at Gen Con 2018” posts on the Fear The Boot forum

Fear The Boot, Episode 457 – Gen Con 2017

The minimally-edited Big Red Couch Gen Con Report.

Gen Con (the event)

QAGS (Hex Games)

Monarchies of Mau, from Onyx Path Publishing (early access edition)

Cypher System, from Monte Cook Games

Masks, from Magpie Games

Trail of Cthulhu, from Pelgrane Press

Eclipse Phase, from Posthuman Studios

They Might Be Giants

Norse Foundry

IGDN – Indie Game Developer Network

Due to dwindling pool of traditional recruits, the job of reaping souls is given to mechanical replicas.  Results are…    ….mixed.

A relic of the before-fore times, a metal Goliath hunts those trapped in its deadly arena.  Is it a scourge to flee or the biggest score of a lifetime?

An aging mad scientist and a grizzled hero face each other for what seems like the millionth occasion.  Is it time for a truce…   …or the DEATH ROBOT once more.

The tireless machines re-terraforming the battered Old Earth are a daily hazard to those humans that remain.  Worse yet, they are smart enough they starting to get bored.

Roombas mapping homes

A rather fascinating BuzzFeed article  (~I know! T. Jones) about the coming wave of “Lethal Autonomous Weapons”.

Doomba – version 1.0 was knife enabled

Questionable Content

Nordic LARP

PodCast – Monkey’s Took My JetPack

Funkadelic Frankenstein on the Mean Streets of Monstertown 

Old Harry’s Game

Film – Big Hero Six

Asimov’s Three Laws of Robots

TV – Futurama’s  Deadly Santa-bot

TV – Reaper

TV – Dead Like Me

Judge Death from 2000 AD

Muscle March on the Wii

Episode Eighty Nine – The Rampant A.I. Was Surprisingly Helpful

Episode Eighty Eight – Our Listener, International Human of Mystery

Episode Fifty Four – Is There A Market For Soylent Bubba?

Film – Running Man

Damon Killian

Film – Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

TV – American Gladiators (1989–1997)

Escape or Die! – Podcast recording of a playtest, nearly a decade ago.

RPG – Zombie Cinema

Video Game – Wasted  ~ It’s actually Syndicate of BuzzKills, but “Sanctimonious Order of X” seems to covers both them and the Brotherhood of Steel from the FallOut franchise pretty well.

Film – The Hunger Games (2012)

Film – Battle Royale (2000)

Film – Megamind (2010)

Film – WALL·E (2008)

Comics – Metalzoic from 2000 AD

RPG – Deadlands

RPG – Reign

GenCon50

Total Solar Eclipse 2017

A specialised but oddly thematic team operates on the edges of a semi-collapsed future.

Extraterrestrial battle fleets we can deal with.

What are the different approaches to Secret Agenting?

“Well, yes, our scheme IS underhanded, but we never expected it to get out of hand in this manner.”

The Supervillain approach to removing young Superheroes from danger is meant well, but isn’t always that nice.

Penny Arcade – Football is a game

America’s Cup

Kings Head

Aylesbury Movies Meetup

Waddesdon

Bicester Village

Coombe Hill

North Berwick

Northland

Cosy Catastrophe

Kowloon Walled City

Split Second (movie)

Leverage (tv)

Eclipse Phase

Freeport

Apocalypse World

Land of the Dead

The Naked Lunch

Dark Matter

Hemp

The X-Files

K-Pax

Deadlands

Monkeys Took My Jetpack

Kingsmen

Episode Ninety Two – “Can We At Least Get Through This Without It Being In All The Papers?”

Star Trek: Deep Space 9

Deadshot

Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Episode Ninety Three – Do Not Miss A Visit To The Muse

Invader Zim

George R.R. Martin

A writer’s villain appears to have escaped into the real world, and is running for office.  Is it a direct consequence of their visit to a mysterious source of inspiration?

A powerful artist’s muse has been stolen.  Or have they actually been extracted and freed?

United Kingdom General Election 2017

Proportional Representation

MMP – The flavour of crazy voting New Zealand has used since 1993

Jonathan Pie – Ranting At It’s Finest

Mews – a very narrow street

Diagon Alley – From J.K. Rowling’s Harry  Potter books

Edinburgh

Novel – Needful Things by Stephen King

TV – Ricky and Morty – Something Ricked This Way Comes – And almost entirely absent of context, the catchy end of that episode

“Don’t blame me! I Voted for Voldemort.” bumper stickers

RPG – Whispering Vault

TV – Supernatural‘s – The French Mistake – A very meta episode in a very meta show.

TV – The X Files

Comics – The Sandman: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman  the story “Calliope”

Comics – Scott Pilgrim  by Bryan Lee O’Malley

TV – Deadwood

The Muses of the ancient Greek world

Dionysus – the God of the vine, grape harvest, winemaking, wine, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre.

Author – Charles de Lint – Someplace to be Flying

Oglaf’s Muse Problems  – Caution!  Almost Transcendentally Unsafe for Work ~  T. Jones

Years ago, a group of apocalyptically powerful super-heroes & super-villains decided that all they were doing was making things worse for themselves & the world in general, so they went into hiding. When a great threat emerges, they reluctantly team up to deal with it, but are trying to do it on the down-low, so that nobody knows that they’re back.

When you’ve spent your time writing stories about fantastical terrifying things to drum up sales for your newspaper, how do you get people to believe you when there really is a threat?

Can We At Least Get Through This Without It Being In All The Papers? : The game of ever diminishing expectations.

A supervillain tries to get someone, anyone, to intervene & stop a pre-teen superhero before they get themselves killed.

Pictsies making their home in a roadside diner in the desert scurry into action when criminals on the run take hostages and settle in for a stand-off with the Law

Investigating foul play in the crushing depths of the Jovian atmosphere requires a purpose-built body to protect you. But it’ll only protect you from the physical environment; The factional backstabbing can be just as fatal.

Manchester Bombing

Love Actually

X-Men

Silver Age Comics

Spirit of the Century

Rick Veich

Watchmen (comic)

The Flash (1990)

Fate Accelerated Edition

Tabloid

Fu Manchu

Penny Dreadful

Deadlands

Came A Hot Friday

The Young Protectors (NSFW)

The Great British Bake-Off

Wee Free Men

From Dusk Till Dawn

QAGS

A group find themselves unexpectedly deified, long before hitting the level when that’s supposed to occur.  What did they do to deserve this accolade, and can they live with their future selves?

The quarry of determined pan-dimensional agent tries to throw them off the scent by making them the focus of this reality’s premier religion.

A gaggle of cultists attempt to get their unwilling messiah to accept the mantle of “Eldritch Chosen One”.

Everyone knows the name of the savior of the world, but no-one knows what they did or how they accomplished it.  Dare you find out?  Has the world saving actually happened yet?

In the wasteland left behind after the collapse of civilisation, one deranged cult based upon a niche podcast thrives due a single important point of difference;  Not being arseholes.

Podcast – The Gutter Skypes

Jesus and Buddha manga –  Saint☆Oniisan

Happy God or Wrathful God – Simpsons

We have a FaceBook!

Television – Red Dwarf – Back To Reality AKA “The Despair Squid episode.”

Trope – “It was all just a dream…”

Television – Sliders

Television – Doctor Who

Mandelbrot Set

Film – Time After Time (1979)

Curse of Fatal Death – Full Episode on the Red Nose Day Charity Youtube channel

“Brogramming”

RPG – TimeWatch by Pelgrane Press

RPG – Fiasco

RPG – Invaderz: Pocket Edition  – by Postmortem Studios – Review by 6d6RPGs   ( I’ve got mixed feeling about this one guys.  Postmortem also does  (quite a number of ) Gorean supplements.  If you don’t  know what that is, please tread carefully, in the name of all that is Craig-ly   ~ T. Jones )

Television – The Stonecutters

RPG – Pugmire

Puppers and Doggos

TV – Monkey  – Theme Tunes

A Canticle for Leibowitz

Legend of Monkey remake made in NZ

Running out of names – VSauce

Novel – Jennifer Government by Max Barry

False Memories and the Mandela Effect – A website created by Fiona Broome who coined the term in 2010   ( Weird, I’m sure I’d heard it before then? ~ T. Jones )

TV – Angel  (It actually finished in 2004, but that’s still too close a guess for Ben to be trusted.  You will know the Anti-Craig by his signs!  ~ T. Jones )

TV – The Expanse

RPG – Everyone is John

John 3:16

Trope – Cosy Catastrophe

Music Video – Men Without Hats  – Safety Dance

( “Sadly” the literal lyrics version appears to have been purged from the YouTube and other versions have been degraded to the point of the Lost Scriptures Of Man – again, please tread carefully, there are some things you cannot unsee.  ~ T. Jones )

https://vimeo.com/133507501