Michael Hopcroft

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat NT: Signs that Sailor Pluto (the Guardian of Time and Space) is trying to steal your boyfriend.

Re: lilo and stitch "Are you pndering what I'm pondering?" "I think so, Brain, but if Naga the Serpent were real wouldn't she have a lot of problems with gravity?"

No, I'm not talking about classes in the D&D sense. I'm talking about people's place in the social order, particularly when that place is settled based on factors outside the individual's control. Most fantasy worlds are pseudo-feudal. This means that there is a very small ruling class at the top, a soldier/warrior class that serves them, a small and barely-tolerated middle class, and a huge laboring class that is little better off than cattle but who do all the actual work in the society. In many worlds there is a class of "non-people" underneath that who perform neccesary but distasteful tasks such as handling the dead. the class you were born into usually dictates the entire course of your life. if you were born a poeasant, then by God you stayed a peasant until the end of your days. Doing anything to improve your own social standing was a capital offense, and your death was rarely swift and clean. And anyone of a higher class could do anything they wanted to to you with impunity. Life was an unbearable burden until you died a miserable death. If you were a ruler or a warrior, on the other hand, life was pretty good all things considered. You can do pretty much whatever you want to anybody of a lower class than you, because they exist solely for your benefit. And these are the "good guys" in a typical fantasy story! Are there ways around the feudal paradigm to make fantasy worlds a little bit better places to live in -- especially for non-priveledged types?

Re: Terra Fey Where can I find reprints of Fables? I am also wondering whether the new Guaridans of Order Tri-Stat release Dreaming Cities has anything that could be lifted for this purpose? Finally, I am wondering how you would re-cast some of the more infamous tales in modern terms. Perhaps there are ways around the spomewhat classist paradigm of many of the stories (where noble birth was just about all that mattered as far as what person's place was in society).

Re: [Humour]SciFi TV Quotes I don't know if it's a record, but Nation wrote every episode of Blakes 7's first season. Mind you that was 13 epsiodes, but still. It is traditional practice in Britain for one person to write an entire series, especially if it's short. Then again, the British tend to turn novels and the like into TV series more oftent han the Americans do (House of Cards and I, Claudius are two famous examples.)

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat The Tragical History of Richard Nixon

Re: "TaleSpin" as a pulp setting One of the things Disney did right on their "Disney Afternoon' syndicated block in the late '80s and early '90s was that they actually had writers. There were some really good shows in that clock. DuckTales adapted the classic Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge comics to the screen, and did it superbly. (it helped that Alan Young, who appeared in several George Pal films, did a formidable job of voicing Scrooge McDuck -- now there's a pulp character for you!). Aladdin was a pretty good fantasy series too -- particularly when it used villains such as Mozenrath. Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers was a concept that should have been awful, but was anything but -- rescued by good writing, a nice little world concept (animals are intelligent, and live in a sort of parallel society with humans -- and a lot of the tension involved when those societies crossed paths....) and two wonderful supporting characters. And what can you say about Darkwing Duck that hasn't been said dozens of times before? A superhero satire that wasn't afraid to get serious when called for that had some great takes on classic superhero tropes. (Such as the time when Goslyn was accidentally propelled into a future where Darkwing had become a vicious tyrant because of her disappearance, or any of the episodes with Negaduck.)

Re: "TaleSpin" as a pulp setting Other notes about Baloo: He has definitely learned all he knows by doing. Until recently he was only marginally literate, and he never graduated high school. His relationship with "Becky" is complciated to say the least. Because she owns his plane, Baloo is compelled to do as she wishes (which is party why he doesn't simply get another plane). She continually berates him on his easygoing attitude and tendency to show up for deliveries late. Yet Baloo does have a certain soft spot for his employer -- not neccesarily a romantic interest, but he is concerned for her welfare and that of her daughter.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

Re: Scooby Doo There was a popular series of GenCon adventures that pitted the cast of Scooby-Doo against the Cthulhu Mythos. It was apparently very weird. You could do some interesting things with Mysteries Inc.'s place in the world. How a group of college-age vagabonds has such good realtions with the polcie wherever they go is an interesting question. A lot fo people speculate about how they pay their bills -- I'm told the real answer is that Daphne has a rich father who supplies them with money. But what would really be interesting is how four people who really had nothing in common previously became traveling detectives together. How did they meet? What was their first investigation like?

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "And now, Bo Bice's stirring rendition of "She Bop"...." NT: Signs that the news director at CNN is out of his mind.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Kurt, I know you're trying really hard, but "Smells Like Pesto Sauce" just doesn't have the ring to it...."

Re: Blowing up the Earth Is your view of Venus that obstructed? I once tried to write up a Tales of the Floating Vagabond superweapon called the Wartoy Implosive Man-Portable Yargonizer (WIMPY for short) that the PCs would have had to recover. At first the PCs were told nothing about it: It turend out that "Yargos" were elemtnal partciles of reality and that "nizing" them put them out of alignment. Nizing the Yargos of an object or being would, to say the least, utterly ruin their day.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father." "He told me enough! He told me you killed him!" "Luke -- I am your father!"

Re: New-model Dalek In game terms, the weapon and the Dalek ignore facing altogether. it can see, fire and move in any direction. Terms like "front" and "back" are meaningless when dealign with it. A self-destruct is useful if you don't want your enemies stealing your technology. I'm not sure it would be used against targets other than the Dalek itself, though -- maybe "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways" will answer that question. Easy enough to do in system terms if you treat the entire Dalek as a character. It follows from what had happened to that Dallek in the past that it could also survivie not only exposure to hard vacuum but also atmospheric re-entry. (Although it took the Dalek some time to recoever from falling to Earth, and it was a hideously painful experience.

Re: Terra Fey Another idea (it may not be in your campaign, but it might be interesting) is to comine fairy-tale themes with urban fantasy. In other words, fairy-tale like events taking place today. A serial murderer ala Bluebeard. The Beast is a reclusive billioinaire whose curse has deformed him to the point that he believes he cannot interact with humans. Magic is everywhere, but keeps to itself when its aims are not threatened. And there is an ever-present threat to the world known as The Big Bad Wolf. If the innocent are careless, if they let their naivete get the better of them, if they let their guard down, the Wolf will devour their souls. He can take a nearly infinite variety of forms. His true nature and goals are a mystery. And even when you destroy him, he goes on. Some say he is Satan himself. Others say he is something far older and more alien.

With this week's reelase of my latest book, The Kevin & Kell Rroleplaying Game, I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on HERO conversions of the game, or on HERO roleplaying in Domain. I also wonder if there are fans of the comic strip that would have some insight on the subject.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat And now the hit from the Rocky soundtrack, "I'm a Loser".... NT: Signs that you bought your bootleg of Star Wars Episode III from the wrong pirate.

Re: [Humour]SciFi TV Quotes If this is the case, I feel sorry for Rose. She seems to really want to get the Doctor into the sack at least once. I don't know if the genetic loom bit is still considered canon, though, given the directions that Russell Davies has been taking both the series and the character. It implies that when the Doctor dies the speices will become extinct. And several one-shot characters have had interactions with the Doctor that would be interpreted as sexual overtures. Apparently hre's even going to be hit on my a man in one of the future episodes. (Don't forget that Davies produced the original UK version of Queer as Folk, the pioneering gay drama).

Re: Pulp TV Shows

Re: Pulp TV Shows

Re: [Humour]SciFi TV Quotes Why wouldn't Time Lords be sexual beings? They reproduce sexually, after all -- they aren't cloned or artifically bred. That the Doctor hasn't been shagging all his female companions has more to do with his sense of ethics than with a lack of sexual interest on his part.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat Montana -- We'd love for you to move here, unless of course you happen not to be white.

Now that the 2004-2005 TV season is over in the United States, people are going to argue over what the best new show was. In this country for broadcast, that is like arguing over the ideal number of fingers on a leper. Although i am not devoted to anything on broadcast, the one new series that has consistently entertained me the most is House. It is a medical drama about a Dr. House (played by Hugh Laurie, a British actor who did a lot of great stuff over there, particuarly with Stephen Fry) who tackles diseases and ailments that baffle everyone else. House is brilliant and mercurial but arrogant, misanthropic, callous and addicted to painkillers. He'll cure your ills, but his bedside manner may make death seem preferable. In short, he'd be a perfect HERO PC. So how to write him up?

Re: [Humour]SciFi TV Quotes Before the whole "Who is the Doctor anyway?" question was raised in Season 25, the Doctor said he was the same age as the Rani and they went to school together. which implied that she, the Master and the Doctor had a significant past pre-series. There might even have been a relationship that went horribly wrong. Then "Remembrance of the Daleks" and "Silver Nemesis" called into question the Doctor's true identity and nature, and a past connection to the Rani suddenly looked a lot less plausible. Back in the Pertwee era, when the producers planned to introduce the Master they originally thought of making the character a woman called the Controller, but backed off when they decided that audiences would not accept that level of evil from a woman. Then Terry Nation and Jaqueline Pearce went on to specuatularly prove them wrong in Blakes 7 with Servalan, one of the most memorable (and sensual) villains in SF TV history. I still think that if they ever bring the Master back, the Master should be a woman. I was planning just that for the "Sensei who" fanfic series, having the Doctor encounter a female Master in an alternative universe (whose Doctor has made himself the Dalek Emperor) and having her follow him into his universe. The sexual tnesion alone would be worth the price of admission.