RPG Spotlight: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

Have you ever wanted to roll up a character based on your favorite superhero? You're in luck! The long-awaited roleplaying system based on the Marvel Universe has been released courtesy of Margaret Weis Productions.

Margaret Weis Productions is responsible for RPGs based on television shows such as Leverage, Smallville, and Supernatural. The Marvel RPG basic game contains an "operations manual" which is essentially the player handbook and guide to allowing players to creating their own heroes. Contained within the basic game is Breakout, a campaign setting based on the acclaimed story arc from Brian Michael Bendis’ New Avengers, which includes a super villain prison break and a perilous journey to the Savage Land. If you actually want to play your favorite hero, character sheets for many favorite Marvel Super Heroes, from Captain America and Spider-Man to the X-Men and Fantastic Four, are included in the rulebook.

You can pick this game up at your Friendly Local Game Shop or download the electronic copy through Drive-Thru RPG. Select stores will be offering official gaming events that will coincide with the launch of supplementary products. In addition to the initial launch events, the 2012 events are as follows:

CIVIL WAR - March 2012
ANNIHILATION - June 2012
AGE OF APOCALYPSE - September 2012

Amazing Wonders in Lexington is a preferred store for Margaret Weis Productions, so check out their Facebook page for information on upcoming events. They're hosting a preview event for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, so be sure to RSVP! 

Be on the lookout for a review! Perhaps someone will be running this game at FORGE - Lexington's newest gaming convention!

Dexter Killer Cast in CBS Sherlock Holmes Pilot

CBS has been shopping a pilot for a new modern-day adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic Sherlock Holmes stories called Elementary. With the relative success of the Warner Brothers movie franchise starring Robert Downey, Jr. and the amazing, spectacular, freaking awesome BBC series Sherlock, apparently the network wants in on this action. The RDJ films, of course, have been set in Victorian London, while the BBC series, starting the swoon-worthy Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, are also a modern-day take on the storie of Holmes and his partner in awesome Watson. News broke today that the Sherlock that CBS wants has been cast. British actor Jonny Lee Miller, former husband of Angelina Jolie, has starred recently in an arc on Dexter, and has appeared in Eli Stone which ran on ABC in 2009.

CBS reported wants to "reboot" the Sherlock Holmes name and wants to do so very soon. Oh and the plot thickens. Miller recently had a run in Frankenstein and shared the stage with none other than Benedict Cumberbatch.  The series will feature Holmes solving crime in New York City - not sure whether Miller would portray Holmes as British or American. There's the possibility that Sherlock has just relocated so he could retain his British-ness. I'm not sure I could jive with an American Sherlock Holmes.

Cumberbatch is now filming Star Trek 2 on location in California. For a late 2012-early 2013 season 3 premiere for Sherlock, that would need to be shot this fall. Could there be two Sherlock Holmes series on television at the same time? I guess we'll know soon enough!

Share your thoughts on this news in the comments!

Video for Taylor Swift's "Safe and Sound" Premieres

Last night on the Twitter account for The Capitol, the fictitious city in Panem, which appears in The Hunger Games, there was an announcement that the video for Taylor Swift's video "Safe and Sound" was to premiere tonight. Viewing was mandatory, as all things are in Panem. The video for Swift's addition to film's soundtrack appeared on MTV tonight during First Look: Taylor Swift.

Check out the video after the cut