After 14 years, we’ve finally added a proper YouTube channel for Scriptnotes.
In addition to several of our most-loved episodes, we have shorter weekly videos drawn from past conversations. Here are the first two, focusing on Die Hard and Greta Gerwig’s approach to screenwriting.
In the obligatory parlance of YouTube, make sure to hit that like button and don’t forget to subscribe.
Over the weekend, friends and I played our first game of Free League’s Alien The Roleplaying Game. We had a blast. The game mechanics are fun, built around a Stress mechanic that basically ensures characters will freak out at some point.
Alien RPG can be played in campaign mode, where characters progress over many sessions like classic D&D, but it’s probably best suited to “cinematic mode,” which captures the experience of the movies. Most characters will die. That’s how we played it.
The rulebook comes with a scenario — a one-shot called Hadley’s Hope — but I was eager to design my own. The result is New Florida, which finds a crew on a routine, short-haul flight from a research station to Torin Prime.
Spoiler: things go very wrong.
The scenario is designed for 3-5 player characters, and should take about three hours to play. It’s heavy on role-playing, with appropriately terrifying bursts of combat.
The characters are pre-generated, and include:
Vivian Rook — Company executive. Sharp, polished, and dangerous. She rose through the Weyland-Yutani ranks with a mix of ruthlessness and charm.
Sgt. Elias Kane — Marine, Rook’s bodyguard. Professional to a fault — except with Vivian. Loyal, physically imposing, emotionally compartmentalized.
Jace Calder — Pilot. Roguish but competent. Thinks quick, acts quicker.
Milo “Gramps” Vech — Engineer. A long-timer nearing retirement.
Grizzled and grease-stained, he knows this ship better than anyone.
Corporal Dex Marrow — Marine. Sardonic, weary, smokes when he shouldn’t. Doesn’t trust many, but once he gives it, it’s for life. Good friend of Kane’s.
While it’s not a murder mystery, players know details about their characters (and crucial story points) that the others don’t. I gave each player a backstory sheet before we started playing.
I’ve packaged up all the maps, tokens, and other resources I used in a .zip file you can download here: New Florida – Alien RPG Scenario
If you play New Florida at your own table, please let me know!
Today, we’re launching Highland Pro. It’s the next generation of our flagship screenwriting app, now available on Mac, iPad and iPhone.
Here’s a video I made about it.
With Highland Pro, our mission is to keep you focused on your work. From its clean interface to innovative features like the shelf and /lookup, Highland is designed to help you avoid distractions and get things written.
I’m incredibly proud of Highland Pro and the tiny team who made it. Nima Yousefi does our coding. Dustin Bocks handles design. Chris Csont heads up support, while Daniel Sauvé-Rogan leads our marketing. Drew Marquardt and I tackle whatever else needs to be done, like the video above.
Highland Pro wouldn’t be nearly as good without our hundreds of beta testers. Thank you Team Highland!
Highland Pro is now available on the App Store worldwide, with a 30-day free trial. A single subscription covers all platforms. Try it today!
In my earlier explainer about recent AI developments, I linked out to a Wikipedia entry that ran through some of the environmental impacts of AI models, mostly in terms of energy and water usage.
Since that post, Andy Masley came out with a much more useful comparison of AI costs. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but the short version is these costs seem much less massive when you compare them to everyday things like hamburgers and leaking pipes.
Low costs are not zero costs. But if you’re making choices as an individual, there are many more effective steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint.
Masley’s whole article is worth reading, and a good reminder that big numbers (20,000 households!) and tangible metaphors (a bottle of water) can often lead to framing effects and vividness bias.