DShomshak

Incidentally, here are the characters I already finished, including the <Character> Facts and Story Seeds sections: * Caiman * Great Beast, including his pets (and one new extra-oogy creature) -- and each pet gets a story seed of its own * Ooze * Haunt * Four Eyes I've done the edition conversion for a few more -- that's the easy part. As a sample, here's the Story Seed for Flying Dogs, that I hope will take players straight from "Aww" to "Aw, S***": Dean Shomshak

I do indeed. Most of these characters were beyond the capabilities of basic pseudoplasm, but if the Great Beast was trying to patter it from mutants in attempts to port mutant powers into his "research sjubjects," why, anything becomes possible. I won't crib anyone else's characters, but a new character of such ilk is possible, And I will view the New Flesh as the bar I must meet. Dean Shomshak

I'm not settled on the form this will take: whether a complete book, or broken into smaller units about the same size as my old "Shared Origins" pdfs. For now, I'm grouping characters in tentative chapters: Body Horror: Caiman, Doctor Black, the Great Beast (and his pets), Ooze, Reverent Gil Purdue All In Your Head: Fearmonger (with Killer Appliances ported over from Supermage Enemies -- they were originally supposed to go with him), Four-Eyes, the Think Tank (renamed Mind-Master Complex, with its possessed proxies), Whisper Undead: Brother Bone (with Skeleton Monks), Dead Heat (from SMB), Decay, Haunt, Lady Twilight or vampire to be chosen later Diabolical: Apollyon (massively rewritten per an earlier discussion, to be a Satanist cult leader/con man), Brujo (from Ultimate Supermage), Gamygin, Razor Girl. The other demons from the Appendix don't get revised because In odd moments I'm also working on a Descending Hierarchy guidebook. It's doable because I don't need to buy illos or make them myself: The 19th century Dictionnaire Infernal supplies public-domain illos of dozens of demons, which the author of that book solemnly claimed were drawn "from life." But that's a discussion for another time and place. Which leaves Granny Hex, Shadowfire, and some miscellaneous solo characters. Apollyon, Granny Hex and Shadowfire are decoupled from the Devil's Advocates (though you could fit them back in if you wanted). Maze is now redundant after Tesseract (of the Paradigm Pirates) and Gyre. Plus he's a bit dated. I'm not revising the Totems. They were a late addition because I thought CotN needed another team, and they're a rather horribly superficial treatment of Native American themes. While I like the idea of some Native American force attempting ghastly genocidal revenge on the theory that turnabout is fair play, this isn't it. Possibly Tezcatlipoca (CV1) covers this well enough already. I am not sure about revising the Monad. Thus far I haven't felt the need to buy and read Book of the Machine, but it's possible that this explanded treatment of Mechanon makes the Monad redundant. Archimago has been made redundant by Takofanes. While there are aspects of Takky I dislike, I actually *do* rather like the idea of Archimago as the master villain whose plots keep running decades after his death. A supplement about Archimago's plot and catspaws could be interesting, but this is not it. Though Homonculus should be updated because Killer Dolls are such a classic trope. Kobold is probably the most straightforward supervillain of the old characters, but by that token I'm not sure he has much to interest GMs. It's possible other characters from USM and SMB could be ported in, if they fit the horror thime. Since writing CotN I've also written several villains for my games that turned out rather horrific. They're available if they're needed. We'll see. Dean Shomshak

That's fair. I never used published characters either, and regarded the Enemies books just as sources of ideas to field-strip and recombine. Dean Shomshak

So my front page newsfeed had a Newsweek article claiming "The Republican War on Taylor Swift Could Backfire." Not reading it because life is short but... Republicans hate Taylor Swift? Okay, that makes as much sense as deSantis' war on Disney. I guess? Because she hasn't pledged fealty to Trump or said anything wackadoodle enough to make the front page? If anyone cqan explain this in 100 words or less, I think that's about what the topic is worth. Dean Shomshak

Oh, hey. As a convenience for people who don't want to read through the whole article, here are the relevant paragraphs: Dean Shomshak

Several of the 4e characters I created in Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies were revised for later editions of Champions, ultimately making it to the Champions Villains trilogy. Most of them, however, did not. Tiger has expressed interest in updating selected characters for his Forgotten Enemies series (and used Lady Twilight with my blessing), but -- since I am still here -- I might like to do this myself. I've noodled around with Creatures of the Night Resurrected for the last several months, writing up 5e/CC versions of several characters. Before I go further, though, I have some important questions: Does anybody want this? Did you ever use them, back in the day? Would you use them if they were revised? Subsequent posts will discuss ways I plan to revise characters, but if they were never that useful in the first place I probably won't bother. Dean Shomshak

NPR, quite rightly, no longer reports every deranged thing Trump says, but this got mentioned in passing: Trump recently claimed he could design a better fighter jet than the Pentagon. Okay, given that the Pentagon is an extremely large office building and, as such, would not function well as a fighter jet, for once Trump is probably correct. But I'm also amused by the thought of a Trum-designed fighter jet. Literally gold-plated, for sure. Instrument panel of Carrera marble. Real leather or crushed velvet bucket seat for the pilot! Wet bar stocked with the most expensive single malt whiskeys! And most important of all, a big "TRUMP" sign on it! A great fighter jet! The best fighter jet ever! Ability to fly optional. Sorry, but the cheap shots are just so easy I couldn't resist. Dean Shomshak

News stories say the Osiris-Rex capsule landed safely and has been transported to the Jpohnson Space Center for study. No word yet of either origins or space plagues. (Though I suppose we could have both, a la Wild Cards.) Dean Shomshak

Asteroid material soon to be delivered to Earth... if all goes well. Also (as noted in Champions forum) an excellent "origin event." https://www.npr.org/2023/09/22/1200803124/nasa-osiris-rex-mission-bring-home-asteroid-rocks-returns-utah Dean Shomshak

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/22/1200803124/nasa-osiris-rex-mission-bring-home-asteroid-rocks-returns-utah The RL news story: On Sunday, the OSIRIS-REx space probe swings past Earth to drop off a capsure holding material collected from the asteroid Bennu. Pretty good origin material right there, but one of the scientists mentions a few odd dreams about the mission. One sounds straight out of a comic book, lacking only the super-powers one would inevitably gain as a result of the described object and action. (The text of the linked story gives more information, but the "listen" draws more attention to the dream.) Enjoy. And if you end up creating a character based on this for your game, you're welcome! Dean Shomshak Dean Shomshak

Today's "The Daily" gives some background on the dispute between Canada and India: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/21/podcasts/the-daily/canada-india-assassination.html Dean Shomshak

well, this is at least mildly hopeful: More Trump Cult Republicans losing to Democrats. Trumpism costs the GOP in a crucial election, again (msn.com) Dean Shomshak

Yesterday on the BBC, the host interviewed an Indian pundit and former member of Modi's government. He blustered: not only rejecting any possibility of Trudeau's accusation being correct, but treating every question from the interviewer as a neo-colonialist insult directed at India. He also suggested that Trudeau was just hustling for popularity with Canada's Sikh community because of his administration's political problems. (Not a great ingterview overall. The subject was not really in a position to know anything; but stock outrage atroutine questions doesn't make a case either.) Okay... Without evidence, we can't trust Trudeau's claim that much. After all, Colin Powell solemnly assured the UN that the Bush administration had ironclad evidence of Saddam Hussein's WMD program -- evidence that turned out to be circumstantial at best, filtered by motivated reasoning. On a matter this serious, "Trust us" doesn't fly from *any* government. Not anymore. But contrary to Mister Bluster, I find it entirely plausible that Modi's government would send a death squad after a leading Sikh separatist. The BJP is explicitly sectarian, and in a Hindu state non-Hindus become second-class citizens by definition. Modi himself first came to political prominence backing Hindu zealots that rioted and murdered Muslims in his home state. There's been heavy (and internationally condemned) repression of the Hindu majority in Jammu and Kashmire. Journalists are threatened; movies are censored to ensure they promote a Hindu nationalist view. "The World's Largest Democracy" looks less democratic every year. What's the truth in this case? I can't know. But if I'm not ready to trust Trudeau unconditionally, I am even less ready to trust Modi's government unconditionally. Dean Shomshak

I must now dedicate my life to making enough money that I can buy the rights to Warhammer 40k and MAKE THIS SO. Dean Shomshak

I just heard a story on this on BBC World Service, so I went looking for more. Here's what I found: A deeply depressing report on xenophobic violence in South Africa. It seems we Americans are not unique in this idiocy. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66808346 Dean Shomshak

No more Florida, for one thing. Which mneans all the deranged Floridians have to go somewhere else. Uh oh! Fortunately, this degree of ice melting and sea level rise is expected to take more than a c entury. Dean Shomshak

Heck, historians of totalitarianism, such as Timothy Snyder, have been shouting warnings from the rooftops for years. See, for instance, Snyder's On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century. Dean Shomshak

I don't know the totality of Tolkien's writings, including his commentary on his own work, so I can't say what he thought the final fate of orcs would be. (Narration in The Hobbit suggests Goblins were responsible for clever machines of torture and destruction unto the present day, but that's a toss-off and I'm reluctant to take it as definitive statement.) But Tolkien's Catholicism does emphasize free choice, both for sin and redemption, as well as Original Sin. I can only speculate what Tolkien might say, but I suspect that if we could ask him he might say that at any point, Sauron could have repented and turned back from his "ruinous path down to the Void." Though I could be wrong: Perhaps he'd say that by the time LotR starts, Sauron has made too many irrevocable choices and ruined himself too completely -- in effect, choosing to give up his free will to make new choices. Which makes him, I think, even more horrifying. I think it's also worth remembering that Sauron's armies weren't just orcs. There were also hordes of Men whom he'd duped to his cause. Another important distinction, I think, is how one approaches the battle against a presumed irredeemable evil. If it's reluctant resolve -- they're intelligent, they didn't ask to be what they are, it's them or us so the fight must be fought - that's heroic. If it's "Wahoo, let's go kill them sumbitches and take their stuff!" -- then the difference between Good and Evil seems that between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. (I recently read a book about the Just War doctrine developed by Medieval Catholics. It isn't called out as such, but nothing done by the heroes in LotR violates it.) Dean Shomshak

And did! But RL evil *is* often deeply stupid. I like a line Lois McMaster Bujold put in the mouth of her series hero Miles Vorkosigan: Monsters often are ordinary people, just a bit more confused in their thinking. Dean Shomshak

It may be worth remembering that Christian theology holds that humans are an "inherently evil" race. Everyone is born tainted by the Original Sin of Adam and Eve's disobedience to God. We can struggle against that evil taint, as individuals and as societies, but can never succeed completely. Fortunately, forgiveness is an option. Dean Shomshak

The Xenovores are a well-designed "evil" race because there is a reason and method to the horrible things they do. As LL said, they were genetically engineered. As Alien Wars describes, a nation created them to be the survivors of a nuclear war. That is the founding evil: Leaders who decided they could accept the mass death of a nuclear war as long as something of themselves survived afterward as a gotcha-last, right down to the Xenovores getting high from eating other sapients. They are the product of someone else's freely chosen evil. Not all Xenovores carry the genetic programming to get high from eating sapients. By the time of the Terran Empire, these recessives have become dominant genotype since most Xenovores got exterminated. They have a chance to break free of their creators' will. Though some still eat other people as a point of cultural tradition; but that is their choice. Dean Shomshak

It's unfortunate, Chris, that LotR has been "spoilered" so much, and so often imitated... badly. There's a lot going on below the surface that Tolkien's imitators don't get, to the extent that I'd argue LotR deconstructs the genre it so much inspired. But that is another discussion, for another place. For here, I'll simply note that I don't recall any point where Tolkien's heroes jingoistically cheer that yay, they're going to kill a bunch o' bad guys! There is courage and tragic resolve, but pity turns out to be just as important. Maybe more so. Dean Shomshak

Not so far as I know. In fact, this is the first I've heard of any Plane of Elemental Evil -- but I haven't followed every iteration of D&D. 5e keeps the wheel of Outer Planes that goes all the way back to AD&D (though a few have been renamed -- like the Happy Hunting Grounds are now the Beastlands, which I'm sure has *nothing* to do with recognition of offensive racial stereotyping...) But the structure of the Outer Planes makes Evil still a cosmological fact rather than a purely ethical quality. It's something entites can be, not just something they do. Honestly, I don't blame them for glossing over the philosophical Nature of Evil. It is, after all, a game rather than a philosophical treatise; and as I said, I do overthink. Dean Shomshak

Was StarLink scheduled to launch another cluster of satellites tonight? Or maybe Bezos' satellite constellation? Because I think I just saw them. At about 9:05 while I took a short walk, I looked up and saw a line of small lights moving across the sky from the WNW, crossing the handle of the Big Dipper, then winking out as they reached the zenith, no longer reflecting the sunlight. I'd guess they were, hm, two degrees apart? The last winked out about 5 minutes after I noti ced the procession. It was quite pretty. Dean Shomshak