Protecting The Private Life

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The 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons is, for many people, the best edition of D&D to date. Similar to previous editions, the various systems that make up the rules are separate enough that creating house rules is fairly painless, with the possibility for unforeseen ramifications kept to a minimum. The Dungeon Master's Guide is, in many ways, an enormous collection of house rules, ready to be used or ignored to meet the needs of each play group. These house rules go by the name of "Variant Rules" in the DMG. While a great system, 5e is not without its shortcomings. One common complaint is that despite Inspiration being a good mechanic, the rules for actually gaining Inspiration are far too vague for players to feel that they can reliably recoup it once they spend it. This leads to players simply sitting on their Inspiration until they're at risk of death, and the rules for gaining Inspiration slowly fade into the background, forgotten. And lets be honest

The Theory of Everything was released at the same time as The Imitation Game, and a cursory glance would make them look very similar – they’re both basically biographies of genius scientists, right? This assumption somewhat dampened my experience of The Theory of Everything, because it’s very much focused on being a love story, based on a book written by Hawking’s first wife. It does what it aims to do very well, but don’t watch it expecting the same sort of drama or themes as The Imitation Game. One thing that cannot go unmentioned is the acting, specifically Eddie Redmayne playing Hawking. The number of times I found myself thinking “Wait, this guy isn't actually disabled is he? He’s just pretending right?” was incredible. Watching him trying to pull his body up a flight of stairs with fingers that don’t work… It’s incredibly powerful stuff and there’s no doubt he deserves his Oscar nomination. As much as the movie succeeds in portraying Hawking’s relationship with his wife

While nobody expects Wes Anderson to use anything other than his iconic style, it’s a style done by nobody else, and it really shows you the infinite creative potential of film-making. Merely by being so different, it begs the question – why are all the other movies coming out these days just so damn “same-y”? Once you move past similar directors like Quentin Tarantino, why does everyone else seem to insist on just churning out the same style, movie after movie? The same color palette, the same editing techniques, the same narrative structure, the same camera angles, the same music; the list goes on. It’s a real shame. The Grand Budapest Hotel doesn't really need any praise beyond that. You’ll know within the first 5 minutes whether it’s a movie for you, but try not to be put off by the initial oddness. From start to finish, I kept saying to myself, “this is so weird ”. Never did I do so without grinning like a Cheshire cat though. It’s been a long time since I've had such a