Michael Hopcroft

Mark McKinnon owes me money. I have not picked up Absolute Power -- dropping the Silver Age concepts takes away the essential charm of the game. I did pick up BESM 4 against my better judgment, but can't even begin to figure out what I'm supposed ot do with it. BESM 2nd edition was fresh and exciting when it came out. Now BESM 4 feels a bit stale, like the field has passed it by. On an unrelated note, Jeff Dee, who co-created the second edition of V&V and turned it into a somewhat playable game, was strongly opposed to the OGL when it was introduced.

I just found out that the Virtual Tabletop Roll20 offers a compendium for Champions Complete. I'm not sure quite how much this makes for Hero, but it is there. Rather than a PDF, Roll20 Compendiums are non-downloadable and look more like old-fashioned, link-heavy websites. I only found out about it because I dropped some money on the recent (now expired) Roll20 Humble Bundle, which included things like Dragonbane and several of the Modiphus media tie-in games. (It also included a web version of Pathfinder Second Edition: Player Core). ( ran a couple of games on Roll20 in the past. I might do so again if I can find the time between work, writing, and trying to get some rest.

Given that Klatuu (the band) was itself a scam (Random musicians trying badly to sound like the Beatles so people would think they were the legendary group reunited), this fits the profile. The obvious denouement would, of course, be when the real aliens show up and the cultists' efforts to control them prove somewhat unconvincing...

Appropriate, since the song is inspired by a section of Ecclesiastes. which is one of the Old Testament's darker philosophical books, whose protagonist (claimed to be the legendary King Solomon, last rules of a united Israel) despairs of the purposeless of his life and how nothing he does can fill the hole in his heart. His conclusion is that meaning can only be supplied by God, without whom we are directionless and void. There are numerous problems with this, but I would need a more appropriate space if I wanted to discuss them further.

I'm thinking in terms of the villain who wields so much "mundane" power that he cannot be touched. He is nowhere near where anyone can even get at him if he does not wish them to. And he won;'t fight the heroes. He doesn't have to. He has more than enough loyal associates that he can ruin the lives of anyone who gets into his crosshairs, wittingly or otherwise. Not just agents or supervillains on retainer, but also lawyers, corrupt police, politicians, and judges, and so forth. You can catch up with his minions but never get enough on him to merit direct intervention. An example is Rupert Thorne, from Batman: The Animated Series. He was the one enemy Batman could never touch. One of the two principal bosses of Gotham's underworld, he was far too busy running an illicit empire of drugs, gambling, prostitution, and all the other things you didn't dare mention on a "family show" to have time for the sort of capers most of the Batman villains would try to pull. Batman was determined to pull him down, but never managed it. He was the master of half that was evil and all that was undetected in Gotham, and not even Batman could do a damn thing about it. Here's a real-world example. In the 1950s, my hometown of Portland was the Mos Eisley of the West Coast. The city had a crime lord who ran casinos and other "dens of iniquity" throughout downtown. If he saw someone heading into his territory, he would trick them into buying their equipment from him, letting him set up the operation and saying he would keep the police off his back. But he also had the press, cops, judiciary, and City Council in his pocket, and the trap would be sprung when his pet reporter ran a story on this terrible new cesspool of vice, which would inevitably prompt a raid. The mark would have no choice but to slink out of town with nothing, while the boss bought back his own equipment from the police at pennies on the dollar and get ready to run the game all over again. (At the time, it was the sort of city where a Jack Napier could accurately say "Decent people shouldn't live here. They'd be happier somewhere else.") The deadliest villain is the one you can never reach. You might not even know he exists until you're in his crosshairs.

The "Evil Vizir" trope used in films like Aladdin and The Thief of Baghdad tends to get cliched in "Arabian Knights" settings. They are motivated by jealousy -- they do all the hard work, and the idiot Sultan who spends all day cavorting in the harem gets all the credit. On the other hand, they wield all the real power in their realm, and by adding sorcery to the mix they become even more insidious and dangerous. You could also subvert that trope by having the Sultan be the sorcerer and the Vizir a loral servant of the Kingdom trying to restrain their lord's wilder impulses and keep him from being too destructive. In both cases, the Vizir character would assert love of the country as the justification for his actions. But in the first case, it would be because he sees the Kingdom as an extension of himself, while in the second case he is one of the few who can see where the threats really lie and still live (at least for now).

One common trait associated with Merlin is that he knew what was going to happen in the future because he experienced time in reverse -- the future was his past and vice versa. It must have made it difficult to interact with people who were not used to dealing with him. What warnings he chose to give and which future events he was going to let unfold were largely up to his whim and what he believed would benefit his friends most. That may be a reason Merlin never warned his King about Lancelot or Mordred.

I have not read the book in question, but I am assuming there is some sort of Merlin involved. He might well have been lured into the ice by now, or he might still be active. What sort of powers would he still have, though. Merlin has never been a Deus ex Machina on call to bail Arthur or Camelot out of trouble. He has always been playing his own game, with his own goals, and if they don't happen to coincide with Arthur's... Lancelot would have a few powers based on his "holiness" -- about which he might well become arrogant. These powers desert him when he begins his illicit affair with Guenevere. What happens next depends on his psyche and whether there are active attempts to corrupt the once-pure hero. Arthur might well know of the affair and look the other way, deliberately, to keep up appearances and to maintain a strong relationship with them. (In sufficiently "adult" campaigns he might involve himself directly, or perhaps he is just as much in love with Lancelot as Guenevere is...) There are also other entities in play. If you're going to do a grand campaign, you might want to include characters like Morgaine (Arthur's resentful sorceress half-sister) and the Green Knight. Perhaps the Green Knight is a humanization of the spirit of the forest itself, which is why he could survive decapitation -- you might have to kill every tree in England to get him to actually die. (Yes, I did see The Green Knight a few years back -- and I still can't make sense of any of it other than the vaguest notions of the nature of Gawain's quest and an appreciating of its visual beauty. I also watched Sword of the Valiant on home video years before -- it was clearly just another paycheck for Sean Connery, but he seemed determined to enjoy earning that check almost as much as he enjoyed cashing it.) And, most of all -- What's up with that **** Grail?

The cops call you to say they found your car smashed at the bottom of a cliff with the surprisingly uninjured cat. Turns out your cat can drive -- just not v ery well. NT: Unexpected consequences of teaching cats to pilot jet airliners.

Imagine for a moment what the poor guy whose blade slashed Adam Johnson's throat is going to face the rest of his life. Even if he never steps on the ice again, he will have to deal with the psychic scars of having taken a human life by accident. Years ago I asked a question on Quora about why NHL players don't get slashed with the razor-sharp blades on their feet more often. Protection is cited as the main reason, so neck guards are a good step to take. While Sergio Perez, the Mexican driver the home fans came to see, is knocked out of the race in the first lap to finish 20th out of 20 drivers.

The Texas Rangers -- the real Texas Rangers -- show up at the stadium and arrest the anthem singer on an outstanding warrant for taking barbecue across state lines. NT: Subtle signs your four-year-old is savvier than you are.

Some fool brings his cow to the game, and it escapes onto the field. I imagine you can guess what6 happens next...

Q: What did the Elves hand Santa Claus during the Depression? A: Gambling is better with life on the line! Not mine of course...

I finally, thirty years after its release, saw The Nightmare Before Christmas, and I saw it the right way -- in an actual theatre with fifty other people on a large, clear screen with a fantastic sound system. Which is the best way to see a film for the first time if you can be lucky enough to pull it off. And when the lights went up and it was time to head out into the night, one word and only one immediately came to mind. Masterpiece. The absolutely unique use of stop-motion with doses of CGI of a quality that matches more advanced modern technology, the exquisite craftsmanship, some of the best VA performances I've ever heard (the combined forces of Chris Sarandon and Danny Elfman bring the anti-hero Jack to life with style, grace, and even a bit of gravitas. Elfman's score is genius, from the various Jack soliloquies to the Fleischeresque Oogie Boogie (and the magnificent voice performance and singing by Ken Page). The film was a wild fantasy, whose completely bonkers premise because surprisingly reasonable. I can't think of anything Burton and Sellick got wrong. And I saw it for the first time in that manner in which it could be most appreciated. Heavens, I needed this.

Q: Why did DJT prove an abject failure when he tried to become a Major League umpire? A: Make up your minds on a Speaker already!

"Please Ignore this Sign!"

Because there's a giant plate of Fried Chicken on the other side. NT: Ways to game online with an immobilized hand.

Q: What are the additional condiments on a triple-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce? A: If you had all this money all this time, I shouldn't have to live in a van parked at the car wash. "

"Daddy is a huge liar. But he's a cool liar!" "Everyone has a side they don’t show anyone else. That is how the world keeps up the appearance of it’s temporary peace." "Marriage? Conventional happiness? I got rid of those aspirations as well as my identity, the day I became a spy"

They could easily put all this to rest. All they have to do is stop racing in Qatar. A lot of money was made, but the Association was incredibly lucky nobody died or was crippled for life. I watched that race. Drivers were going off the track right and left on turns, with a record number of penalties assessed as a result. The driving looked sloppy and there was a lot of minor contact between cars, which in F1 is potentially lethal. I'm sure the drivers were not the only ones suffering. Thousands of fans were packed into the stands, many of them foreigners just as unaccustomed to the heat and weather as the teams. How many heat-related injuries were there? Did people die? Was anything learned from the disastrous World Cup last year? Or does the lure of Petrodollars blind those who seek them? F1 should not race in Qatar again. Next time they may not be so lucky.

The long-awaited passing of the generational guard is just about complete, with the core of the last decade's greatest retired or virtually retired (I have a hard time imagining the Jets placing too much faith in Aaron Rodgers for 2024 right now). The room made by their departures is finally allowing a younger generation to show how they can compete.

Q: WOW! These dogs just exploded! Isn't this COOL? A: And this is an example of why ruthless alien invasion forces should never disguise themselves as canaries.

Q: Wait, what do you mean the universe will phase out of existence for exactly 24 hours? A: Welcome to our lovely little hotel. You won't be leaving. Ever.

"I know this is all kind of silly, I mean, we've been together for 5,750 years." "And 8 months." "Okay, nobody's gonna say it? She kinda looked like Mom. You noticed, I noticed, we all noticed. " "Oh. Ohhh! That's why you were acting like such a goon! Ha!" "No, no, that's not it. I'm done thinking about the past. Tonight, I'm all about the future. I'm going to a show. I'm a new Gem who loves socializing with humans." "That's what that was?"

You are aware that Enya's band Clannad performed the theme music for the 1980's British series Robin of Sherwood? WQhich even now is considered the best TVs take on Robin Hood and one of the best media takes as well (Heaven knows how long it's been since we've had a good Robin Hood movie, and no Men in Tights doesn't count.)