Crushing Krisis

The Newest Oldest Blog In New Zealand

D&D 5e-Compatible Kickstarter Round-Up: The Midnight Ball, GrymWyrd Tales, & TheoryCraft character journals!

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Image by ScalyDragon from Pixabay

It’s time to don your armor, because I’m back with another weekly review of Dungeons & Dragons and 5e-Compatible projects on Kickstarter – including the very ooky Midnight Ball and GrymWyrd Tales!

I’ve now covered every D&D project on Kickstarter for a whole month. In that time, I’ve figured out some things – including that it’s no fun to scour a campaign page only to discover it’s poorly-planned, badly-edited, unreadable in layout, or even covertly racist – and to then write about it.

I don’t want to punch down on first-time creators or highlight creators whose work I’d never endorse.

Starting with this post, I’m no longer reviewing every new project on Kickstarter each week – only the ones that look interesting to me or that I think are worth recommending!

This week there’s just five new projects, of which I review three below:

Also new on Kickstarter this week are:

For projects with a scope that extends beyond being a single adventure or specific topic like “wands”, I review them based on the 9-point criteria I established in “What makes a good Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition official release or 5e-Compatible supplement?”

Want to catch up on other currently-running campaigns? Here are all of the other 24 campaigns currently-running on Kickstarter, all of which I’ve covered in depth on past posts in this series.

Do you have an upcoming 5e-Compatible Kickstarter project? I’d be happy to check out your sample pages, give you comments on your planned campaign page, or highlight your project in a future post. Just leave me a comment below or reach out to me @CrushingComics on Twitter. [Read more…] about D&D 5e-Compatible Kickstarter Round-Up: The Midnight Ball, GrymWyrd Tales, & TheoryCraft character journals!

Music Monday: “Feeling So” – Shea Coulée

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I am a sucker for any song that uses layers of instrumental riffs to emphasize an insistent, galloping, every-quarter-note rhythm, and Shea Coulée’s “Feeling So” does that in the best possible way.

Every time I listened to “Feeling So,” the first thought that pops into my head is “wow, this is like an update of ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by Tears For Fears.” Every single time I think it is a new thought, and I am impressed with myself for noticing the reference, and then after a minute I think, “Hold on, surely this has occurred to me before…”

I think the the thing the two songs have in common is how they layer different instruments with slightly differing rhythms to achieve the net effect of emphasizing every beat. In “Rule The World,” it’s the way the insistent bassline marries to the back-and-forth step of the synth, later topped with the peal of of guitar picking from the intro.

“Feeling So” is built the same way. It has an opening synth riff that continues burbling in the background like a melodic fountain. It has the same driving gallop of bass. And, it has that same step-and-repeat of passing synth chords.

The difference is how “Feeling So” later breaks that that rhythm. When the staccato chords of the pre-chorus interrupt the bassline it feels like a change in temperature – as if we’re on the verge of a shock. But, the song eases us back into the familiar gallop with the reintroduction of the bubbling synth in the background of the next section.

I think it’s the continuous rhythm, break, and return that has encoded this song into my brain so deeply, tempering my neural pathways with every repeat of the cycle.

Also that it really does song like an update of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” with a hint of the sunny disposition of Madonna’s “Cherish” – and that’s a sonic lineage that I cannot resist.

Drag Race France Season 1 Episode 5 – Popstars & Night of 1,000 Mylène Farmers: Review & Power Ranking

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Welcome to my review and power rankings of the fifth episode of Drag Race France Season 1 – Popstars, the Drag Race France girl group challenge accompanied by a “Night of 1000 Mylène Farmers” runway celebrating one of France’s biggest pop stars.

Often, the biggest challenges of a pop music theme on Drag Race aren’t for the queens but for production. It’s not easy to effectively parody pop music without seeming too silly, and harder still to fabricate a credible pop song on demand for a reality show.

The American Drag Race franchise often absolves itself of this duty altogether by repurposing RuPaul songs for its many musical challenges. Ru produces a slew of charming dance music, but it doesn’t often line up with trends in pop.

I feel as though the success of “Break Up (Bye Bye)” for Drag Race UK in 2019 finally shook up this habit, showing that producing real, current pop music for the show could pay off in increased attention in other media. That worked in part because the UK has a voracious music market that celebrates TV pop stars more than America does, but it didn’t hurt that the song was damn good.

Since then, Drag Race has stepped up its musical game for its so-called “girl group” challenges – and, I’d say the two versions of “Boom Boom” on this episode are near the top of that staircase. This song songs exactly like the sort of high-tempo disco-influenced pop delivered by European girl groups (and even some K-pop).

Not only was the song good, but Drag Race France completely avoided the trope of having any artist singled out for her intense struggle as a newfound singer/songwriter and dancing queen. Even though Paloma did poorly in the challenge, at no point did the edit lean into a “I can’t sing at all” self-confidence spiral or a “I think I can sing, but I can’t” fit of delusion. While the queens had different levels of success in the challenge, none of them were an abject failure. The same is true for the “Night of 1000 Mylène Farmers” runway.

The strong performance from the queens this episode exposed that this season’s single weakness may be in its mercurial judging. We are now at the point of the season where all six of the queens are well-round professionals with an eye for detail. Yet, the judges are still finding minor – and often invisible – elements about them to critique. Nicky Doll seems to be giving the most practical and even-handed advice, but her companions Daphné Bürki and Kiddy Smile often seem to be critiquing a different competition entirely.

It can be hard to understand the nuance of Drag Race judging in a different language. Imagine trying to understand Michelle Visage’s pop culture references and promiscuity jokes in translation! Would we still understand that there is a layer of motherly warmth beneath her bitchy exterior if we were relying only on subtitles?

That’s the question I have about Daphné Bürki and Kiddy Smile. Daphné has given incisive critiques, but sometimes it feels as though she is expecting fashion modeling instead of drag. And, it is hard to tell if Kiddy Smile is naturally laconic or if he is holding back to make up for the extreme conflict of interest of La Grande Dame being his own drag daughter.

The inconsistent judging would be dragging this season down more if there wasn’t such a clear divide in the field of queens between the Top 3 and everyone else that has been evident since week one. Elips’ deep run into the competition might be the only true surprise of the season if things continue to play out as they have, which somewhat forgives the judges since the outcome will be the same regardless of what they say.

If you want to watch Drag Race France you can sign up for WowPresentsPlus to watch the many worldwide Drag Race franchises for $4.99 a month or $50 a year. (Note that if you’re in the US you will need to use a VPN to “visit” another country to see the US Franchise.)

Now it’s time to rank the queens, dissect their performances, and discuss their runways! This results in a shuffle of the top three from last week’s Episode 4 power rankings, as well as a continued joust for 4th place.

Lecteurs, start your engines. Et, que la meilleure Drag Queen gagne!

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RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7, Episode 11 – Drag Race Gives Back Variety Extravaganza recap & power ranking!

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Welcome to my recap of the eleventh episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7 – Drag Race Gives Back Variety Extravaganza, a talent show where everything is on the line since the pair of winners will get three Legendary Legend stars each!

I’ve been struggling with how to recap this episode for you for two different reasons – because of how it shook up the power rankings of the season due to its multiple-stars twist and because of the nature of “talent” on Drag Race.

After thinking about it for a while and reviewing my extended power ranking math from last week, I’ve come to realize that the only way to produce a satisfying ending was to award 3 stars to the winners.

I know that’s a radical proposal. I’ll explain more about it below. First, I want to talk about talent.

If you want, you can skip my pair of essays on stars and talent to get to how I’d rank the queens on their talents and rate their chances in the twin final Lip Sync tournaments:

As a reminder, here’s where 10 weeks of Power Ranking left the queens standing headed into this episode. Note that my power rankings are not necessarily based on how they performed in each episode, but where I thought they would place based on their performances and the teaser for the next challenge:

  1. Jinkx Monsoon – 4 Stars from 5 Wins, 2 Block (1.4 Avg. Rank, #1 Pre-Season Rank, 4-8 wins predicted)
  2. Trinity The Tuck – 3 stars from 4 Wins, 1 Block (3.3 Avg. Rank, #3 Pre-Season Rank, 2-6 wins predicted)
  3. Jaida Essence Hall – 3 stars from 2 Wins + 1 Bonus, 1 Block (3.9 Avg. Rank, #6 Pre-Season Rank, 1-3 wins predicted)
  4. Monét X Change – 2 stars from 2 Wins, 1 Block (4 Avg. Rank, #4 Pre-Season Rank, 2-7 wins predicted)
  5. Shea Coulée – 1 star from 1 Win, 1 Block (4.4 Avg Rank, #2 Pre-Season Rank, 3-6 wins predicted)
  6. The Vivienne – 2 stars from 3 Wins, 1 Block (5.7 Avg. Rank ,#7 Pre-Season Rank, 0-3 wins predicted)
  7. Yvie Oddly – 2 stars from 1 Win + 1 Bonus, 1 Block (6.3 Avg. Rank, #8 Pre-Season Rank, 0-3 wins predicted)
  8. Raja – 2 stars from 2 Wins, 1 Block (7.1 Avg. Rank, #5 Pre-Season Rank, 1-3 wins predicted)

Readers, start your engines! And, may the best drag queen… win!

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Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 Episode 2 – The Who-Knows: Review & Power Ranking

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Welcome to my review and power rankings of the second episode of Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 – The Who-Knows.

It’s an award-show presentation challenge whose title is a pun on Canada’s Juno Awards, widely referred to as “The Junos.” They’re the Canadian Grammy Awards, and if you live outside of Canada you’ve likely never heard of most of their winners or nominees.

One of the most consistent aspects of the first two seasons of Canada’s Drag Race has been the strength of their challenges. Even when they re-use a standard Drag Race challenge format, they’ve tended to do it with better music (“Sorry Aboot It” and “Under the Big Top”) or a better script (“Screech”) than we’ve seen on other franchises. They’ve also had fun ball concepts and two emotional makeover challenges that highlighted queer Canadians and their stories.

That’s why I was excited to see the show pick up this seemingly-forgotten Awards Show challenge theme from RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7‘s “The Despy Awards” but a little dismayed in how it turned out.

This episode wisely broke the queens into small groups so we could focus on them as individual characters. However, in her kindness in pairing queens who would work well together, Chelazon Leroux somewhat sabotaged the episode. I’m not saying I wanted more drama (and we got plenty from one pairing, in particular), but pairing queens who know each other already and queens with similar vibes meant we didn’t get to learn much about the cast as they prepped for their presentations.

Was their group work really as dull as what we saw in this episode, or did the Kimmy Couture vs. Fiercalicious drama simply suck all of the air out of the edit? It’s hard to tell.

In fact, the queens not mixing it up with one another not only made for a dull episode, but it hurt them in the awards challenge. The cast has had only one episode to get to know each other and to throw shade. The best of their barbs felt surface-level.

Votes for categories like “Frostiest Queen” felt like they were based on preconceptions, and it was no coincidence that 4-out-of-5 week one tops and bottoms won awards. A segment about them talking about who they would vote for and why felt conspicuously absent.

All of that meant that the awards felt stilted, and not nearly as shady and fun as they felt back on Season 7 in the US. Luckily, the episode was saved from obscurity by a strong, vivid “Goddesses” runway and some sensible judging, which sent home an obvious bottom queen and gave an early front-runner her first speed bump.

The most memorable moment of this episode to me was Chelazon Leroux and Bombae discussing how colonization erased the celebration of queer people in both of their indigenous cultures – a practice and a safe space they are now fighting to reclaim. It was a fascinating lesson in queer history perfectly articulated, and one that might not be so obvious to those of us who are white and/or who tend to benefit from the ongoing effects of colonization.

We’re left with 10 queens where their power in the ranking feels more closely tied to their screen time in the edit than their powers of drag. Did that shake up the rankings from my Episode One ranking? Read on to find out!

If you want to watch Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 outside of Canada and the UK you can sign up for WowPresentsPlus to watch the many worldwide Drag Race franchises for $4.99 a month or $50 a year. I don’t get any kind of cut off of that – I just want you to watch Drag Race! (Note that if you’re in the US you will need to use a VPN to “visit” another country to see the US Franchise.)

Readers, start your engines! And, may the best Queen (of the North) win!

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