Lord Liaden

Bottom line, between 4E and 5E I have more villains, NPCs, monsters, gadgets, weapons, spells, optional rules than I could ever possibly need. I wouldn't mind more in the way of adventures and maps, but 4E did better with that than 5E, and 3E and earlier adventures aren't hard to adapt, so I'm not hurting. TA in particular could really benefit from both, regarding specific locales in the world.

So, I got my first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday morning. Other people have been sharing their vaccine experiences here, and maybe that helps everyone get a better sense of what to expect, so I might as well join in. No pain, swelling or redness at the injection site or the rest of my arm. No discomfort at all for about twelve hours. Then I started to get the 'flu-like symptoms I'd been told to expect that indicate the vaccine is working: low-grade fever, chills, muscle aches all over, fatigue, mild headache. They peaked over two hours, although never severely, then gradually subsided. Now about thirty hours after the vaccination and eighteen hours after symptoms started, they seem to be pretty much gone. I will probably have to wait three to four months for my second dose. Here in Ontario they're trying to stretch out the followup vaccination to make sure they have enough vaccine to give everyone at least one dose. (Vaccine supply in Canada has not been as initially advertised.) The pharmacist who gave me the shot claimed that delay actually works to my benefit, because research suggests the AstraZeneca is more effective with a few months' delay between doses. I haven't found that research online yet, but I haven't had the time to really search for it. If it is just a line, at least it's a comforting one.

That's because it's not really about the eventual infinite benefit. That's just the justification to brag and gloat and lord it over the heathens.

[From "epelesker" on the Champions Online forums] Late with this one, sorry! Apparently we're not 100% out of the woods yet. I just caught an update from his sister on April 11th that 'Drax had a fall at home and ended up back in the hospital. So keep those fingers crossed and thoughts positive, please!

You really have to ask yourself what that bear was trying to accomplish.

One thing that Champions mystic lore repeatedly stresses is that occultists build whenever possible on sites of mystic significance and power, or else attempt to create such a site where other types of power exist or will exist. The occult history of Washington DC described in The Mystic World pp. 69-70 provides a very salient example: "The nascent Trismegistus Council and Circle of the Scarlet Moon each saw that the fledgling United States of America carried the potential for great mystical and temporal power. Both organizations set out to shape the new nation into their vision of an ideal state to dominate the world. The Trismegistans want to build a republic of the wise, where power defers to law and prosperity comes to all. The Scarlet Moon seeks a tyrannical Occult Empire, ruled by itself through magic and conspiracy, and ruling the rest of the world through armed terror and economic exploitation. The Circle always thinks it’s about to win, but never quite succeeds." "The nation’s capital became one of the chief battlegrounds. Not only do both conspiracies seek to influence government officials, they try to shape destiny itself by creating mystic power sites in alignment with the streets, utilities, and public buildings. As usual with magic of time and destiny, this involves calendar sites — from the star map of the Einstein Monument to the cut-glass zodiacs that surround light fixtures in the Federal Reserve Building. Each new site alters the city’s ley lines of power, focusing them to the advantage of one side or the other." "America’s prophecied mystical hegemony takes an unexpected form. In most parts of the world, the local mythology ordains (or was ordained by) a limited range of spirits and supernatural creatures. Djinn visit the deserts of the Middle East and Central Asia — not Australia. Satyrs stalk the forests of Greece — not Japan. Rakshasas stay in India; wereleopards stick to Africa. But any and all of them can appear in the USA (or nearby parts of Canada and Mexico), and some of them take up permanent residence. The Occult Republic attracted mortals from every culture in the world, and their spirits, gods, demons, and monsters came with them." I would submit that despite the brief reference to Australia above, that country's large and diverse immigrant population has created a dynamic similar to that of the United States, although still on a smaller scale. But if the Circle of the Scarlet Moon started the process (it dates from the late Eighteenth Century), the mystic sites of Canberra could have been seized from them by DEMON, which has a history of such "power grabs."

Big whoop... 😴

"White Lives Matter" is an attempt to start a movement with nothing to justify it but hurt feelings. This demographic don't experience any oppression remotely close to what others in American society have faced for generations. They're finally starting to be treated like everyone else instead of the normative, privileged group everyone is supposed to act like. When a privileged group loses those privileges, to them it feels like oppression. But when you ask them why they're upset, all they can give you is vague platitudes, or outright lies they've been fed by those who want to exploit them. The difference in what BLM and WLM stand for is -- yes, I'm going to go there -- like night and day.

Well, I think of Batman. He acts with a latitude that officers of the government don't have. But when he captures a villain, and has evidence of their wrongdoing, he turns them over to the authorities for disposition. No judge/jury/executioner, he accepts that society as a whole has to choose what penalties are appropriate to impose on a given criminal, and he can't set himself above it in that process. Same with Superman, Spider-Man, and many other heroes. There have also been multiple extended comic runs in which major superheroes, particularly teams, acted as agents of national or world governments. Avengers. Justice League. X-Force.

I heartily agree. I prefer 5E myself, although I borrow a few elements I like from 6E, and from 4E. I also have a huge whack of stuff for 4E, and the differences between 4E and 5E are so few and relatively minor, it's easy to use material written for either of them with the other, with almost no changes.

Do you mean, in 6E? An optional thing?

I think we're returning to a type of cold war. What we're seeing is the maneuvering of the major powers on the chessboard of the world. They're going to make threatening gestures, posture and push, to test the boundaries of what the others will let them get away with. Neither China, Russia, nor the United States want a "hot war" with any of the others (including their allies), because none of them could win without devastating costs to their own countries. They'll make every effort to avoid a precipitating incident, while trying to steal as much advantage as they can short of that. Sadly, as we learned from the last cold war, unintended consequences are a lot harder to avoid in the face of that much tension.

One of the interesting things about the superhero genre is that, for the most part, superheroes do not see themselves as elite. Being born as a concept from a country and society with a democratic ideal (let's leave aside how often reality falls short of that ideal), they treat less gifted people with equal respect. That respect also includes the societal norms, the system of law and government, that all other citizens submit to. They may sometimes work outside the system to deal with threats it's not adequate for, but in support of the same ideals. Those who clearly don't support those ideals are considered vigilantes at best, villains at worst. When superheroes become more proactive, they start setting themselves up as a separate, unaccountable authority. They begin to act like they have a right to take such action, that they truly are superior. That makes a lot of normal people very uneasy. Once they're outside the common restraints on behavior, how far will they go? These aren't just rebellious human beings, they have power that could cause great harm if out of control. Besides the inherent risk of corruption to the hero from such a situation, the instinct of the normal humans will be to try to impose restrictions on the heroes, which may push them toward even more extreme positions and behavior.

The present-day GOP has never removed the strain of the Tea Party, which fundamentally distrusts and fears all government, and wants to tear down the status quo that McConnell wants to return to. That faction of the party seems to be lining up with those personally loyal to Donald Trump. I don't see a hive-mind, I see a deeply fractured party with no sense of direction, which will be hard pressed to get enough people to vote for them to keep their jobs. All Joe Biden has to do is a good job -- get the populace vaccinated, clean up the immigration backlog, keep the economy strong, score a few international wins for prestige -- and the GOP's electoral appeal will grow even dimmer. If they can't get elected their corporate donors will see no point in continuing to fund them. At that point who's in the SCOTUS won't help them.

An attitude that's pervaded the whole comic industry, it seems.

Fred Rogers got a big boost in recent years due to his movie biography and the Tom Hanks film based on his life. You can find episodes of his show and other materials on YouTube. I think he'll be in the public consciousness for quite a while longer.

When the Resident Evil 2 video game was remade in 2019 (the original having come out in 1998), I noticed that saving the game still involved finding a typewriter within the game world. If played on the "Hardcore" mode, you also had to locate a typewriter ribbon before you could save a game. I wonder how many players had no clue what that was supposed to be.

I remember buying comics for $0.12. In fact I remember when typewriters had a key for the "cents" sign.

I don't believe the GOP understands how to clean up their act. They have no policies other than obstructionism and fear-mongering. They drove out all their members with independent thought and imagination. They're still kowtowing to Donald Trump to chase after his dwindling base of support. What remains of the Republican Party does not look to me to be capable of adapting to a changing reality. This move by corporate CEOs may be the final nail in the party's coffin. Of course the CEOs are no white hats. As archer points out, their ultimate motivation is self-interest. But I'm fine with the sharks devouring each other instead of the rest of us.

That's the default for the magic system, which you're of course free to ignore, but doing so will mess up the point balance for spell-casting NPCs. TBH when I used TA I ignored that and let PCs buy some spells in Multipowers.

Do you have a link? And if this official did say that, then yeah. Speaking truth to power doesn't go over well in China...

And his coworkers' heads sound like they're particularly thick.

As far as transitioning from 5E to 6E, as I mentioned earlier, if you have the relevant books in addition to TA almost your only chore would be recalculating the point cost of a few things. If you don't have those additional books you'll have a substantial task converting, mostly for spells. I've noticed variation among everyone's definition of "homebrewing," but I can tell you that the TA world book includes adventure "seeds" but no full adventures. It has quite a few geopolitical maps, but only one map of a narrow location (Aarn), and that's a little sketchy. There are a few additional sources for adventures and maps, as noted on this thread. TA has a fair scattering of statted NPCs, and the book, Nobles, Knights, And Necromancers contains many more, but they're spread over much of the world. Generally speaking, The Turakian Age is very broad in the range of places it covers, but rather shallow in detailing any one of them.

I think we need a new label for the form of government that's sweeping the world: "foolocracy."