IT'S THE FINAL SHOWDOWN FOR THE BOYS

In the fifth and final season, it’s Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims.

Hughie, Mother’s Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a 'Freedom Camp'. Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found.

But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it. It’s the climax, people. Big stuff’s gonna happen.

Is This The Secret Sauce Recipe?

Player-characters from Adam's Star Trek Adventures campaign

A shared love of the specific setting (I.P.) is the secret sauce that turns a roleplaying campaign into a potential "forever campaign".

I had this Road to Damascus moment reading two brilliant pieces, just over a year ago, by my dear friend Adam Dickstein - on his Barking Alien blog - about the success of his on-going, decade-long (at least) Star Trek Adventures campaign: Why Star Trek: Prosperity Works and Command Crew To The Bridge.

Both articles are a great, inspirational, read, and helped coalesce a variety of random thoughts I've had over recent years about why ideas I've had for games haven't worked out.

Sharing Adam's attraction to licenced RPGs (or, at least, RPGs that use established media properties as potential settings), it struck me that the 'secret sauce' to the success of his long-running Star Trek game was the fact that all his players were not just sci-fi fans but dyed-in-the-wool Star Trek fans.

They know, and understand, what is expected of their characters to satisfactorily emulate the goings-on of the Star Trek universe, without the game devolving into a bunch of phaser-armed murderhobos raiding Klingon outposts for whatever loot they could find.

The players' Get Out of Jail Free card

Imagine unleashing a gaming group who weren't into Doctor Who on the Whoniverse of the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game... with their own TARDIS.

The chances are anarchy would ensue as they realised they could, at the bare minimum, dodge pretty much any set-up the gamesmaster threw at them (if they wanted to) because of their access to a magic box capable of travelling anywhere in space and time!

Let alone coming to terms with the "talk first, fight last" attitude of the game system!

Or picture a superhero campaign setting with a group of players that doesn't read comics or even, particularly, like the Marvel or DC movies!

Again, it would just become simply a power fantasy as the players would have no understanding of - or, necessarily, respect for - the tropes of the works that the gamesmaster was seeking to draw upon.

There's a good chance the game would soon, unintentionally, replicate Prime Video's The Boys, but with the players' characters being their world's answer to the villainous Seven.

Such set-ups might work for a few sessions, even a mini-campaign, because such weighty matters may not be of such great importance initially (except where they impact the specific adventure). But for a game to have legs everyone definitely needs to be on the same page.

Black Adam rips Terra-Man in half in DC's 52;
not the actions of a good guy!

Sure, the gamesmaster could write a lengthy introductory booklet to the setting (I know, I've done it MANY times), but there's no guarantee anyone will actually read it and take on board what you are trying to get across.

You could also have a "session zero" where you try and spell it all out, face-to-face with your players, but again, the chances are this will come across as a dull TED talk and the majority will zone out.

Some - even you, the gamesmaster - may also see this as a waste of precious gaming time, especially when you only have limited "gaming slots" in your calendar (not all of us have the luxury of biweekly campaign sessions, dotted around assorted other gaming escapades).

Even with the most "straight-forward" RPG setting (or so you perceive it) there's still an element of risk, a possible "breakdown in communication" between the heavily invested gamesmaster and the "just want to play a game" players.

You always run the risk of the old adage that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" and the players will not grok the atmosphere that the GM is aiming to create, and will instead take his toys and run amok.

Game setting or established IP, the more it veers from normality, everyday life and learned experience, the more the GM will have to explain and the more risk he runs that the players will get the wrong end of the stick or simply not pay attention.

The best way to motivate a player is to place their character in a setting they are already familiar with and invested in. 

Which is why so many of us default to games and settings where killing monsters and stealing their treasure is de rigueur. Because we all get it. As I've said many times before that's why Dungeons & Dragons-style games (although not necessarily just D&D) tend to be the lingua franca of gamers.

Whether you like those games or not, everyone has heard of them, has an opinion on them and knows what is expected in them. Get enough like-minded souls together - and there are more D&D players than any other setting, style or genre - and you have a game.

But what if you want something else? The easiest, most obvious, route to go is a licensed game or setting, because it has an inbuilt fanbase. And you hope, in the Venn diagram of fandoms, that your players fall into the precious overlap where they want to play your game in someone else's established setting.

And that is the secret sauce, my friend. It's not a great revelation, but it's my revelation.

No matter how much you - as the gamesmaster - love a setting, if the players don't share your passion, the game isn't going to last.

The Boys Goes Apocalyptic in April

This is the teaser trailer for The Boys Season 5.

It’s Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims.

Hughie, Mother’s Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a “Freedom Camp.” Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found. But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it.

It’s the climax, people. Big stuff’s gonna happen on the 8th of April on Prime.

Superman (2025)

On his own initiative, Superman (David Corenswet) has sought to prevent a war between an allied nation of the United States and its neighbour, much to the annoyance of the American government and tech billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult).

A social media campaign is orchestrated to turn the American people against Superman, and even his girlfriend, Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) starts to question him.

Superman is not another origin story, rather throwing readers into the non-stop action in media res. However, Superman's backstory is explained episodically throughout the movie as it's a central theme of the story.

This brand, spanking new iteration of the Man of The Steel unapologetically blends the wholesome positivity of the Christopher Reeve era of Superman movies with both Silver Age comic book zaniness and modern sensibilities.

It's clear from the get-go that writer/director James Gunn loves comic book superheroes and has a deep knowledge of his chosen universe, presenting deep cuts - such as Superman's robots and flying dog, Krypto; Metamorpho The Element Man (Anthony Carrigan); bowl-haircut-sporting Green Lantern Guy Gardener (Nathan Fillion); Mr Terrific (Edi Gathegi); and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) - in a matter-of-fact way, rather than tongue-in-cheek.

Superman isn't embarrassed to be a comic book movie, rather it dives headlong into the superhero genre tropes with relish, emerging as one of the finest and most accurate adaptations of the beloved source material that we've yet seen on the big screen.

Gunn's film captures the brightness and optimism of the best, most truthful, Superman stories, yet still manages to weave in the character's inherent "look after the little guy" political nature that has been part of the Last Son of Krypton's makeup since he was created by a pair of Jewish immigrants in the 1930s as a rebuttal to the rise of Adolf Hitler.

Launching the new DC Comics cinematic universe, Gunn brings his A-game to his iteration of Superman, meaning I was hooked from start to finish, and came away totally smitten by this work of art.

However, something I kept to myself until I actually saw this film: I actually wasn't sure if Superman was going to work under the character's current cinematic stewardship.

While I adored Gunn's Guardians of The Galaxy trilogy for Marvel, for embracing the wackiness of comics, his other recent superhero-related shows, such as Peacemaker, Suicide Squad and Creature Commandos, have left me cold. These attempts to force "mature themes" (ie. swearing, crass humour and graphic violence) onto DC characters just doesn't work for me.

These are attitudes I'll embrace on more independent  "superhero" worlds, such as Invincible and The Boys, because they are their own thing and their "edginess" is there for a reason, but for me the 90-year-old beating heart of the DC comics universe isn't like that at all, it's purer, family-friendly and more aspirational.

And that's exactly what Superman is.

Scream (2022)

Kicking off with an inventive reworking of the classic Scream opening (girl home alone, answers phone, ends up talking to stranger etc). the fifth entry in the franchise proclaims its creativity loudly but not smugly.

Full of meta-commentary on the nature of "requels" (films that aren't straight-forward sequels, but aren't complete reboots either, mixing in legacy characters with a crop of core characters), the self-awareness of the Scream franchise, and toxic fandom, 2022's Scream is a knowing thrill ride from start to finish (even its bland name gets a ribbing).

After Tara Carpenter (Jenna 'Wednesday' Ortega) is attacked by a new Ghostface, her estranged sister, Sam (Melissa Barrera) races back to Woodsboro with boyfriend Richie (The Boys' Jack Quaid).

It turns out most of Tara's friends have some kind of connection to the original attacks - as orchestrated by Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) - making them all potential suspects and potential victims.

As bodies start to mount up in a new wave of ultraviolence, Sam and Richie turn to retired deputy Dewey Riley (David Arquette) for assistance.

Initially reluctant, it ultimately doesn't take much to persuade Dewey that his job is to protect the imperilled next generation of Woodsboro.

The murders continue, attracting the attention of Dewey's ex-lover news reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and eventually even drawing professional 'final girl' Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) back home, reuniting the original surviving protagonists of the franchise.

Taking place 25 years after the original murders, it's not just technology that's moved on (and this certainly plays a role in the story) but so have special effects: several of the attacks are far more graphic and squirm-inducing than anything we've witnessed before in these films.

Scream is not a film for the squeamish or hemophobics.

Usually, I like a monster in my horror flicks, or some kind of supernatural aspect, but quality human antagonists - such as the ever-changing Ghostface - are able to pique my interest thanks to the elegance of James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick's screenplay, blending Scooby-Doo mystery with adrenaline-hyped action.

I thought I'd sussed out who the killer was early on, but the smart script continually wrong-footed me, proving my guess totally wrong as the film entered its blood-soaked final act, and making the eventual revelation of Ghostface's identity - and motivations - all the more satisfying.

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who gave us the wonderful Ready or Not, Scream is laden with Easter Eggs - including tributes to the late Wes Craven - and references to other horror movies and franchises, smartly woven into the metatextual observations about these films and the people who watch them, while still being a full-on shocking slasher picture.

I was slightly underwhelmed by 2011's Scream 4, but I still can't believe it took me so long to get round to watching this 'new' offering... because it turns out that it's probably my favourite entry in the franchise since Wes Craven's peerless original.

Scream - aka Scream 5 - is the perfect wrap-up for the franchise, which makes Scream 6's impending arrival on home video in the UK all the more intriguing, especially with its non-Woodsboro setting.