TWILIGHT SWORD: One Of 2026's Most Anticipated Games

Two Little Mice's Twilight Sword has ranked tenth in EN World's recent annual community vote to find the most eagerly-awaited games of the coming year.

The Italian games company is also responsible for the Outgunned range of action film roleplaying games, of which the Tuesday Knights are currently playing the pulp iteration Outgunned Adventures.

However, Twilight Sword is a game system I have a financial interest in, having backed its crowdsourcing campaign almost entirely on vibes.

To be honest very little has been revealed about the game, besides the fact that the original games engine (the Created at Twilight system) revolves around a central mechanic involving a 1d12 "roll under" check.

During the fundraising campaign, the designers shared glimpses of  monsters, character sheets, and gaming sub-systems - all of which seemed to optimise simplicity and gorgeous design.

There's a gorgeous, free introductory PDF as well, which is primarily about evoking the desired atmosphere of Twilight Sword with a broad overview of the rules mechanics, setting and the role of player-characters (Champions) in overcoming Despair and bringing Hope back to the conquered lands of Radia.

While this alone might not have been enough to lure me in, my experience with Outgunned told me these people know how to design games, so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.

At the end of last year I was toying with some ideas for an anime-inspired fantasy setting for my next campaign - having realised that I work best as a gamesmaster when running a fantasy campaign - and was looking at Break!! and Twilight Sword.

Both are beautifully-designed games, but while Break!! feels akin with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (or even Third Edition), Twilight Sword is giving off more BECMI or B/X "vibes" with its seeming simplicity. This better suits where I am at the moment with my approach to gaming and desire to run something where the rules aren't tripping everyone up every other round.

The EN World post points out that Twilight Sword "is inspired by classic video games like The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy", which makes my interest slightly perverse as I've only played Zelda once and have never played Final Fantasy. I'm just not a video gamer, but I find the worlds and mythologies created for these games fascinating.

I also love the fact that Twilight Sword is set on a world - seemingly - without humans, instead elf-like creatures are the dominant species along with anthropomorphic animals (you know I'll be bringing the ducks) and other fantastical races.

This is a million miles away from the human-centric fantasy world I have been pushing in recent years and I'm more than okay with that. I've definitely loosened up my ideas what makes a dynamic roleplaying game setting in the last 12 months or so... thanks, in large, part to watching a lot of Dungeons & Dragons-inspired anime.

Twilight Sword isn't released until the middle of 2026 (at the earliest), so that's when I'll be making my final decision on whether this is the new system I bring to the Tuesday Knights. But I'm very optimistic that this is a shoo-in.

I have a collection of ideas, names, atmospheric suggestions etc stored as notes on my phone for my, as yet undefined, Twilight Sword campaign but I won't know how applicable they are until more information about the game and its setting (the lands of Radia) comes out.

That also means I probably won't be talking much about Twilight Sword - as it is largely a mystery - either here or "in real life" until closer to the actual time it's likely to be in my hands.

THE RANCH GATES ARE OPEN, COME ON IN!

Photo by Gonzalo Acuña

Welcome to The Triple C Ranch*, for the official opening of the Cowboys, Capes, and Claws blog - my personal odyssey through the realms of horror movies, Westerns, and superheroes (not necessarily in that order).

Mosey on in and make yourself comfortable. There's plenty to read - and watch - from the get-go as I have postings dating back to January 1. Many of these are what I term "retro reviews" (it's in the tags under the post), which are reviews I've written over the years but were originally to be found on other sites (different blogs, Facebook etc).

However, you'll also find plenty of fresh material, encompassing my real life "adventures" and the various areas of geekdom that tickle my fancy (and hopefully yours).

I'm aiming for a laid-back, easy-going, approach here and welcome comments, opinions, and constructive criticism (even after almost two decades of blogging and a career in local and trade journalism, I'm still learning and honing my craft).

The blog was deliberately designed to be bright and cheerful and - as with all the blogs I create - is best viewed in "web format" (that is, on a laptop or PC) rather than in "mobile format". While it will, of course, be accessible in the latter format, I just feel you miss out on a lot of the bells and whistles that have come with the 'carefully crafted' appearance and features of the site.

Stetsons - and capes - are cool!

Yes, there will still be typos - even in the older material. My brain often zigs while my fingers zag - especially when I'm writing enthusiastically - and things go unnoticed because I inevitability proofread my posts "as I intended them to be" rather than "what is actually on the page".

There'll be some Doctor Who and roleplaying chatter along the way, between the comic book stuff and movie reviews.

Hopefully you'll also see a lot of wargaming-orientated material as I slowly pull together my Dead Man's Hand game and possibly a Judge Dredd one as well... before I turn 60 next year (aka PROJECT 60).

However, my recent (since July) health issues - with a diagnosis of osteoarthritis in my lumbar facet joints, and the attendant problems of major mobility issues and general weakness - have rather derailed my plans for both PROJECT 60 and my 20/20 Vision.

This has also contributed to a surprising loss of interest in roleplaying games (particularly the effort involved in running them), which I hope to dissect and analyse in due course. However, I am looking forward to playing in Pete's upcoming Outgunned game.

Contrarily - and unexpectedly at this late age - my interest in watching sports has increased dramatically, particularly Lucy Bronze and her colleagues in Chelsea Women's team.

But don't worry: this isn't going to become a sports blog - unless you count musings on Red Dwarf's Zero Gravity Football, 2000AD's Aeroball, or the awesome 1990 post-apocalyptic sports movie Salute of The Jugger.

If you've got this far, I'd be mighty pleased if you clicked on the "follow" tab down in the right-hand column (marked "posse"), to allow this humble offering to slide into your reading list - and give me some idea of how may of you fine folks are actually still interested in my twaddle.

Crack a cold one, pull up a chair, and sit a while... you've got 321 days of reading to catch up on.

* Please note, I will probably never refer to this site - or my home - as The Triple C Ranch ever again, but it worked for this welcome post.

Image by Xoán Carballo from Pixabay

Are You Ready To Meet The Players and "Finish It" When Mortal Kombat Returns For Round Two This October?

From New Line Cinema comes the latest high-stakes installment in the blockbuster video game franchise in all its brutal glory, Mortal Kombat II.

This time, the fan favourite champions - now joined by Johnny Cage himself - are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.

Karl Urban stars as Johnny Cage, alongside Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, with Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han, and Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion.

Director Simon McQuoid returns to helm the follow up to his explosive 2021 cinematic adventure, from a screenplay by Jeremy Slater, based on the videogame created by Ed Boon and John Tobias.

Mortal Kombat II – only in theaters and IMAX October 24.

Mortal Kombat (2021)

I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, a video game player, especially since my stroke left me without the requisite attention span or hand-eye co-ordination to be any good.

However, I'll admit to a fondness for fighting games and mashing some serious buttons in my university days playing Street Fighter (side note: I tried rewatching the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme movie the other week, and it has not aged well).

That said, as far as I recall, I never played Mortal Kombat, so have no real knowledge of the game's mythology or investment in  the characters.

It seems there's a supernatural martial arts tournament every century (it's not really clear how often) and if the Bad Guys of the Outworld plane win 10 tournaments in a row the Elder Gods will allow them to invade Earth (or something).

Outworld is a grey Zack Snyder-filmed Burning Man Festival kind of place, full of people in black pleather BDSM costumes.

Anyway, these guys and gals have already won nine tournaments in a row (just how rubbish are the Earth's champions?) and Outworld's Emperor Shang Tsung (Chin Han) wants to ensure victory in the 'final' tournament by sending assassins to Earth and killing our contenders before the tournament even begins.

But... if he can do that already, why are they even bothering with the tournament?

Because reasons, I guess.

There's an awful lot of hand-waving when it comes to spelling out the backstory and deep motivations of all involved, ultimately meaning the plot of Mortal Kombat has holes in it you could fly an Imperial Star Destroyer through.

The Emperor of Outworld's assassins are led by Sub-Zero (amazing martial artist Joe Taslim of The Raid fame) who has incredible ice-based superpowers to complement his martial arts moves.

In the pre-credits flashback to Ancient Japan, he sends the great ninja Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada) to Hell, establishing an enmity between the two men that spans time and space.

Back on modern-day Earth, unsuccessful cage fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) is drawn into these shenanigans because his bloodline marks him as a champion, and he ends up getting recruited by a pair of special forces operatives, Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and Jax (Supergirl's Mehcad Brooks), to protect him from Sub-Zero.

There's a quest to find a hidden temple, which gets resolved quick sharpish, and soon they are joining the forces of Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), Elder God and protector of 'Earthrealm', to stand against Shang Tsung's fighters.

Mortal Kombat is dumb and occasionally nonsensical but has enough superpowered beatdown chutzpah to power through.

One of the film's problems, on top of its logic-lacking narrative, is that by being all post-modern and having the Bad Guys trying to circumvent the titular Mortal Kombat tournament, there ends up being no actual Mortal Kombat in the movie at all.

That said, the film is at its strongest when there's fighting going on. And, unsurprisingly, there's a lot of amped-up fighting going on in its 110-minute duration.

It also, as befits the reputation of the Mortal Kombat gaming franchise, features a lot of brutally violent 'finishing moves'.

So, there's that.

Sadly, Cole and Sonya, the two nominal leads, are quite bland, but luckily they are initially teamed with the foul-mouthed Australian mercenary Kano (Josh Lawson), who pretty much steals every scene he is in. 

The lack of strong leads is countered by the sheer number of different fighters involved in the story.

This isn't one of those superhero movies where powered characters plough through hordes of faceless goons. 

Mortal Kombat is about small groups of unique combatants beating the shit out of each other.

And if that sounds like your sort of thing, then you'll probably enjoy Mortal Kombat.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: University

Two of the things that helped get me through uni: The Manic Street Preachers and Star Wars

It's hard to believe that I graduated from Bournemouth University at the end of the last century!

My degree course - which is no longer offered - was Scriptwriting for Film and Television, and while it helped hone my writing and broaden my knowledge of cinema, I never really pursued a career in the arts, instead simply returning to what I knew best: local journalism.

Of course if you need proof of how long ago this was just check out the 'modern' technology below - at my work station in the last house we all lived in: the slimline PC and the discrete music system!

You can just make out, next to the CDs, my collection of West End Games' Star Wars RPG books and fanzines - my only real acknowledgement during that era of my gaming hobby.

It struck me, years later, that I never really gave the idea of active gaming a serious thought during my time in Bournemouth, instead relegating it to the reading of old supplements, and occasionally as an outlet for creative writing. 

The picture below is of my VHS video collection - note the top shelf with the Star Trek movies at one end and Star Wars at the other. This was pre-Prequels, so there were only three Star Wars films then.

And talking of cutting edge technology, please be impressed by my ancient top-loading video recorder on the bottom shelf. I loved that machine!

And that portable TV (with the Bjork picture on top) stayed with me from my later years of living with my parents in Pembury, through my own house in Tunbridge Wells, then uni, back to my parents', then flats in Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells, and right up until the time I moved in with Rachel.

As there are no notices on my notice board in this picture, I suspect it was taken just after we'd moved into this house (which Paul and I shared with Gordon, John and a young girl from a different course whose name has slipped my mind completely).

And finally, a cheeky (staged) photo of me reading on the toilet! Just for the hell of it...

Wishing Myself A Super New Year!

How better to mark the start of "super" 2025 than with the unexpectedly speedy arrival of my 'New Year' present to myself: Superman - The Definitive History, by Edward Gross and Robert Greenberger?

The first thing that struck me wasn't just the surprisingly large size of the box the book arrived in, but the sheer weight of it (we're talking something like the weight of Superman's key to the Silver Age Fortress of Solitude).

I wasn't even sure I'd be able to lift it!

I honestly hadn't realised it was going to be such a hefty tome (although it explains the matching price tag).

But that was a pleasant surprise. The book, itself, is an artifact in the history of one of my all-time favourite superheroes.

Published this week by Insight Editions, Superman - The Definitive History comprehensively charts the history of the Man of Steel from his very first comic book appearance in 1938's Action Comics #1 right up to the modern day, covering all the media that he's appeared in (TV, film, radio, music, animation, public service announcements, and video games as well as - of course - comic books), as well as merchandising and the character's impact on the superhero landscape.

It's also packed with inserts: replicas of comics, correspondence, art work and so on.

Clearly a lot of love and attention has gone into the production of this giant 480-page book.

I suspect I might need a reading lectern to peruse it safely - I'm half-terrified that I'll damage it and half-terrified that it will fall on me and pin me to the ground!

Can't wait to dig into it, though.

The obligatory Alice size comparison