Closing weekend thoughts

So it's turned out to be quite a movie-filled weekend for me. Closing off the weekend was the movie Cube, which has been recommended to me by various people over the last few years. It was quite enjoyable--not a great movie, but a very good one; well worth the rental. It's basically another iteration of the "several-strong-personality-types-clash-under-circumstances-of-extreme-stress" genre, but it manages to be quite a bit more clever than your typical survival flick. A few of the characters were somewhat annoying and/or over the top, but those fiendishly cool traps more than made up for it. Overall the movie reminded me of a dungeon roleplaying session: a handful of characters, lots of traps, and a maze of twisting passages, all alike.

Speaking of roleplaying, I note that a roleplaying game based on Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is out. Looks fascinating--with its heavy philosophical bent and interesting environment, AC could be a unique roleplaying setting if done well. Too bad I'm not very familiar with the rules system it uses. Despite my enjoyment of sci-fi, I've never played or run a sci-fi RPG for more than a few sessions, with the exception of one extended campaign in the woefully underappreciated Spelljammer universe. Maybe it's time for me to branch out?

At any rate, it's been a great Christmas vacation, and a nice weekend of relaxing and getting the apartment in order. Tomorrow I plunge head-first back into the real world of jobs, war, and death. Carry on, then.