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I won't be picking this Prog up for a few weeks alas - what's the Rogue Trooper 'twist'?

I'll PM you Link, not sure what the deal is with spoilers on here nowdays.

That 2000 D&D film should not be watched under any circumstances!

I've got Pirate Borg and it is great. There can be a whiff of elitism sometimes about the OSR stuff but there's some very cool stuff there and it's good to see the underground (such as it is) thriving.

Another cool read and a very good review, thank you!

I went into this film with rock-bottom expectations so really enjoyed it. I found the first half of the film pretty disjointed but once the plot starts to focus on the actual heist it improves a lot and it's got plenty of charm. Definitely captures some of the TTRPG with its blend of drama and ridiculousness.

I enjoyed your comments on D&D vs WHFRP and other British systems as well. I've always found D&D to be a very bland setting that compared poorly to Warhammer but as time have passed I've come to appreciate it a lot more. The 90s was a decade of edgy, dark rpgs - SLA Industries, Vampire, various Cyberpunk games etc - with a trend towards damaged, sociopathic characters in grim, nihilistic settings - and now I'm older the sheer simplicity of 'an elf, a dwarf and a wizard go on a quest in a reasonably generic setting' is much more of a winner. Everyone knows broadly what's up and as you say there's less bumping into the furniture.

I don't play D&D, I play Pathfinder and WotC can do one but they made a winner with this movie. Hopefully it'll do good things for the hobby: it's great to see it being more acceptable and accessible for all.

Always enjoy reading your thoughts IP!

Reading your post I realise my review is actually perhaps a little harsh. I very much agree re. Ennis and I'm quite hopeful on Rogue. I don't want to spoil anything but it looks initially like this won't be the best use of the setting, and I think the setting is much more key to a good RT story than Rogue himself who is Blandy McBlandface.
Ennis and Goddard are a bit of a dream team though and there's obvious love for the strip: I was well impressed with the story calling back to Prog 327, almost 2000 issues ago.

I enjoyed the Durham Red reboot initially and want to like it still, hoping this run gives me a reason.

[Dredd]

Delighted to get a Monday Prog and whipped through it on my tea break. Based off a first reading, one that promised much but for me, but didn't really deliver.
All kicks off with a glorious cover from Cliff Robinson. I'm a real fan of cover art that incorporates the logo in new ways and this is a great striking image.

We get the cold and cruel authoritarian depection of Dredd from Niemand and Dyer. Great little story, I especially liked the last page which is almost dialogue free. Bleak stuff, in a good way.

Durham Red is a setup episode. I'm afraid the last series soured me hugely on this character. I guess we'll see where it goes. Some terrific art - page 3 and 4 with the static shots of red, and then the savage armbreaking scene - are ace.

The Order is another all action episode. This does feel like it's buidling to a conclusion, and its a shame that it seems to be ending with a giant robot battle - one of the less good aspects of the strip. Usually I'm all in favour of a giant robot battle but the stuff with the worms, and the various historical personages being in secret societies has long vanished and this was the more enjoyable incarnation of the strip for me. It's all still quite pulpy and fun, even though I don't care for Berg and have long forgotten the names of the other two guys with him and Clara.

I didn't realise Enemy Earth was back. I didn't enjoy the last series so unsurprisingly I didn't enjoy this episode either sadly.

Finally Rogue Trooper. I feel Rogue is one of those characters who is pretty much used up in terms of story and has been a case of diminishing returns for a good while now. However Ennis and Goddard seem to be the perfect team to change this. The Rogue / Biochip chatter is handled really well, and it looks fantastic, but this goes in a direction I really did not see coming and am not a fan of. Still got faith in the creative team so we'll see where this goes too.

This whole thread is usually depressing reading, but that feels especially bitter to read.

Even Alan Moore might like it

Steady on.

Welcome to the board!
Awesome to hear you're loving all that stuff. Enjoy catching up, there's some real wonders for ypu yet to read!

I've also emailed you Simon. That's a very lovely offer.

Hopefully when this strip sees print we can entertain ourselves guessing who is who.

Sharky - your legacy is everything you do mate. You may not see where the ripples of your words and actions end up, but they'll be there.

I really enjoyed this!

[Star Strider]

Star Strider

This was a totally new book to me. It was... not great. No playthrough writeup because (a) I'm pressed for time and (b) if there's one thing this book likes it's an arbitrary death. Several times I was asked to roll a dice or two, and certain results just killed me outright. The book also likes a surprise death eg left door or right door? One of them just kills you instantly, no clues or anything. I stopped counting these deaths after a while, because that's just terrible design, and flipped back whenever I encountered one.

The book charges you with finding the kidnapped president and takes you across 'an unimportant planet called Earth' - Madrid, Rome, Paris and London. This sounds like it could be cool, but there's no discernable difference between Rome and Paris and you're barely there anyway, and the London bit is basically just wandering the London Underground tunnels in a load of turn left or turn right choices (in fairness, there is a map). In Madrid you do fight a robot bull for an unexplained reason.
Combats are not tricky if you've at least got a Skill of 9. There's a number of math puzzles, but nothing too tricky for an adult. One thing that is interesting is that you only have 48 'time units' to finish the book and it periodically tells you to deduct time. This only really starts to pressure you at the end when you're wandering in the maze of tunnels.

The cover has nothing to do with the book, although it might be an encounter I missed (as per Demons of the Deep). The internal art is smart, if a bit unremarkable. The writing is alright - it's better than Space Assassin - but its still quite terse and doesn't bother telling you anything the author isn't interested in writing about - this is an excerpt from an actual paragraph from the book (for context I've just run into a gang of rogue androids and have been told I need to run away and can run left or right (I went left))

"You run fast, keeping close to the buildings and occasionally waving to avoid stun shots. Suddenly an arm grabs you, and you are halted in your tracks by another group. When they rob you, they come across your ID. This stops them and they take you back to the others. When you find out they detest the Groms, their creators, you explain your mission."

That's lazy writing in the extreme. No real attempt to go into any detail, and the rest of the paragraph just gives me a choice to go on somewhere without making reference to the sidequest I was on when I met these guys.

Overall, it lacks atmosphere. It does have a couple of jokes in it, like some cat Aliens being from Whiskas-4, and a slightly lighthearted tone, but it doesn't lean into being daft enough for this to be anything other than a distraction. I'm 27 books deep into the series and must be pushing 40 gamebooks played since I started now and I guess I've less tolerance for a bad book - it's not as bad as, say, Starship Traveller but I'd hesitate to recommend this one. Normally when I finish these I like to flick back through and see where different choices would have led me, but this time I couldn't be bothered. Next!

[Star Strider]

I'm currently reading the FF book Star Strider and the song Star Rider by Hallas is now constantly in my head.
For anyone that likes Hawkwind, Witchcraft, Blue Oyster Cult and beautiful 70s inspired music I give you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbfsALc7pPc

Maybe a puzzle page takes a lot of work, but I can imagine someone like Pye Parr doing something cool there. I've not got children so my observations are based off limited interactions with my brothers ones, but they love puzzles, jokes and daft stuff in comics. Mix a bit of that in with the adventure stuff?

I really don't know - I've always just kind of assumed I don't know what I'm talking about with regards these Progs, but seeing this issue fail to land with two posters whose opinion I really respect on this kind of stuff makes me also wonder who the target audience is for these.

With a page or two to fill, I'm still bewildered as to why someone like Lew Stringer doesn't get any space in Regened. The guy has been in kids comics forever.

[Dredd]

I'm not generally a fan of these, but I recognise the neccessity for them and I do try to look for the best stuff in these issues. Not easy this week. As ever I appreciate maybe I'm not just the target audience for this stuff.

Dredd Consistently the weakest part of Regened. This incarnation of Dredd is really boring and can't carry the strip imo. I thought the story was ok, but it lacks any kind of character or hook to be interesting. I did like the art but I'm not sure it had the clarity for a kids comic, based on what I've seen in other kids comics.

Lowborn High I thought this had potential when it first ran but 20 pages of this was a slog. Characters lack any real definition (but see below) and agency and the whole thing came off as very bland, not really leaning into the 'council house Hogwarts' theme in favour of a very generic adventure. The panda was the highlight and could have done with more focus on that maybe?
The magic Ofsted reference was sadly topical.
Great art, but I found it a bit off that the teachers and kids looked essentially identical.

Text story - baffling inclusion - a puzzle page or a quiz or bunch of three panel funnies would have been cool here.

Future Shock Agree with Colin and IP in that this was an odd choice for this issue. Not a good Shock either, not shocking or very interesting sadly.

Mayflies I also found this frustrating. The concept is really good but we haven't seen this for ages so it's robbed of all momentum as others have said. Everything's crammed in, so there's no room for the big cast to show any personality or real individuality: there's no moments to show what differentiates each character from the others apart from 'big one', 'tech one', etc. Thinking back to kids comics and cartoons of my youth each character ideally should have a defining personality trait as well as a more practical trait eg. Michealangelo is a goof and loves pizza, Eric from D&D is cowardly.
This could be really good but it needs the time and space to do it and it's got neither of these so it's a big disappointment.
Whilst I'm moaning about the best strip in this issue, I also think Si Coleby, who is amazing, may not be the best fit for Regened.

Duff Prog. Let's move on to next week.

Very cool insight from creators and biscuit innuendos all in one thread ftw