DShomshak

Hm. How supernatural is the world? What seems ridiculous in a natural context can sometimes strengthen the sense of place if it is called out as explicitly magical. Like, all dwarves speak the same language because that's how the God of Dwarves made them. And the God of Dwarves is sufficiently accessible for this to be known. Context matters. For me, a common factor when something breaks my sense of a Fantasy world as a *world* is that context seems missing or inappropriate. As I have mentioned before in this thread, Pratchett's "Discworld" often has this effect on me. The stories can be witty and amusing, occasionally even profound, but the setting doesn't make sense on its own terms. So often it exists as commentary on our world, or as metafictional commentary on other stories. The author winks at me... and the spell of secondary creation is broken. Dean Shomshak

Oh, my. What a childlike faith Mr Fuentes shows in his fallen hero's former claims. You actually *believed" Trump when he said the elections was stolen? You did it because you wanted to seize power, of course. Which in turn was because you couldn't obtain it legitimately. Welcome to the Game of Thrones, where you win, or you die. I'd say Mr Fuentes got off lightly. Dean Shomshak

Head HERO honcho Jason Walters tells me The Sylvestri Family Reunion is now available "on all platforms." That includes the HERO store, in both pdf and dead tree. dean Shomshak

I heard on NPR that the Georgia shooter surrendered to police. Name withheld, at least at that time. Motive unknown. But they did say the shooter was 14. Prosecutor says he will be charged as an adult. I do not know enough to make a meaningful comment. Dean Shomshak

<Spreads hand over heart, bows> I live to serve. Dean Shomshak

Another look into the wackadoodle world of Christian Nationalism. This time, the "Bro" vbersion, with whiskey, cigars, and expensive boots. https://www.npr.org/2024/08/31/nx-s1-5077780/extremely-american-explores-the-christian-theocracy-movement-in-the-u-s My sister compares them to "Doomsday Preppers" and wonders if they are LARPing. These guys do seem to be having fun. It's just that their fun, if implemented IRL, would at the least reduce me to second-class citizenship and at worst see me burned at the stake. As far as the possibility that they seriously believe their dogma and aren't just really, really deep in make-believe, my sister wonders, "Do they not remember the 16th and 17th centuries?" Because Christian Nationalism has been tried, and it got ugly in Europe's Wars of Religion. The Founders had a *reason* for adding the 1st Amendment. Dean Shomshak

Today, Explained follows the trail from a meme of a crucified Minion to the post-Trump future of the Republican Party. Yeah, this one is loopy. But if we've learned anything about American politics in the last 8 years, it's not, "Is what you imagine crazy?" It's, "Is what you imagine crazy enough?" https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/Today-Explained-p1094789/?topicId=414616030 Dean Shomshak

I'll try to give it another watch sometime, because Miyazaki deserves it. It seemed disjointed because of the way things that seemed like they would be important got dropped, such as the fenced-off tomb, or where the tower came from. Possibly I am in the same position as the great-uncle stacking his blocks, trying to build a coherent world from fragments. It wouldn't be the first time -- I had the same difficulty with T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, until I realized the point of Eliot's dense (or turgid) literary allusions (with footnotes, gad) is that they do not add up to anything; they are another "heap of broken images," another expression of the poem's theme of a disillusioned and despairing mind at the end of its tether. So I will try to re-watch The Boy and the Heron with an eye toward, hm, unconventional ways of telling a story. Dean Shomshak

Gov. Kemp is no champion of voting rights, but as The Economist notes in a recent issue, it was not smart for Trump to pick a fight with him. Kemp is popular among Georgia Republicans; he does not need Trump; and he is not stupid. Economist doesn't go into this, but Kemp must realize that an Election Board that nullifies votes to hand a victory to Trump can also nullify votes to hand a victory to Kemp's next primary challenger. Dean Shomshak

Having Powers tied to a particular mythology -- whether a specific god, or a mythic tradition such as Egyptian magicians or Einherjar -- is a design limit players accept to participate in the campaign. *At most* it can be a Physical Complication, Infrequent and only Slightly impairing, in that it limits how characters can grow and develop new Powers. EG, "I want to spend my XP to get sneaky illusion Powers!" "Tough, you're a child of Ares. Sneaky you ain't. If you wanted to be a trickster with illusions, you should have written up a child of Hermes." But players do get new ideas in the course of play, and saying, "No, you can't until you buy off or replace that Complication" is kind of sucky. I do not recommend it. In the Scion game from White Wolf (or now, Onyx Path), which is effectively "Percy Jackson: the RPG," characters get a cost break on buying traits that echo the themes of their divine parents, but they are not actually barred from buying whatever Powers or other traits they want. You might offer some kind of cost break for sticking to a pre-chosen theme, or (conversely) a surcharge for going beyond it. Mostly, though, I would prefer urging players to keep the character themes in mind and not attempt any game-mechanics pressure to enforce it. Dean Shomshak

This article comes from the August 17, 2024, issue of The Economist. While that magazine chiefly deals in politics, business, finance and related subjects, it also sometimes reports on oddball events from around the world. This one could supply inspiration for a particularly twisted Dark Champions adventure... or maybe Horror HERO, if anyone actually played such a game. In brief, a Chinese online news source ran a story about a gang allegedly taking human bodies from crematoria and medical laboratories and dismembering them for making bone grafts. Last I checked, everything in The Economist online seemed to be paywalled. I hope they won't mind me posting the entire brief article, if I do so as an advertisement to encourage other people to read that magazine. So here it is: Dean Shomshak

Oklahoma teachers were told to use the Bible. There's resistance from schools as students return (msn.com) As one person notes in the article, there are opportunities here for malicious compliance. If anyone imagines having the Bible rammed down their throat will magically make children pious and virtuous, well, somehow I doubt they're remembering the adulteries, murders, usurpations, and other "Game of Thrones" content in the Old Testament. Dean Shomshak

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/23/nx-s1-5086838/robert-kennedy-future-plans-trump RFK Jr suspends his campaign in 10 battleground states and urges his supporters to vote for Trump instead. Now if only Green candidate Jill Stein would end her equally vain (in all senses of the word) campaign and urge Greens to vote for Harris... Dean Shomshak

Not at all. A place where the question will be seen is the right place. (Edit: Though any further discussion should probably go in the Sylvestri Family Reunion announcement thread, where other people can see it, too.) I've changed the underlying Power for Astral Projection because Steve Long changed it first. I noticed it in the writeups for Chatoyant and Eduard and Anais Vandaleur, in Champions Villains Vol. 3. Well, if that's the new standard for 6e, who am I to argue? (I just wish I'd noticed it before using the expensive Duplication version in my Spells of the Devachan supplement. Oh, well, it makes no difference to how an astral bpody operates.) Dean Shomshak

The Daily talks about the Republican plan to steal the election from Harris if voters fail to vote the way they want. Articles posted on this before, but this gives a little more detail. Could have had more discussion of how the endgame is to throw the election into the House of Representatives, where Republicans know they will win. Dean Shomshak