DShomshak

I'd call that a warning. The crocodiles probably know something I don't. Dean Shomshak

Wise words. As a longtime gamer I'm prone to try, well, guessing the movie from a clip of the first scene, but I'll try not to. Also remembering those occasions when major media breathlessly reported on fast-breaking stories and had to eat their words later, like naming the wrong person as the Newtown shooter. At least All Things Considered was fairly upfront on Saturday. Their coverage amounted pretty much to, "Um, what just happened?" Dean Shomshak

If Mr. R doesn't mind me adding a bit of clarification based on his past design work on this setting... See the Norse myth about Thor and Loki visiting the giant Utgard-Loki. Or the arch-rakshasa Ravana from Hindu myth. Okay, these are titans who challenge gods; but scale them appropriately, and they can still be models for giants who are as terrifying for their magic and their cunning as for their physical strength. Dean Shomshak What did Solan Oranmar do before becoming mayor? Presumably he was already a person of some local prominence. Probably a fair bit of money, too, if he can sponsor private expeditions to salvage art treasures from a ruined city. Dean Shomshak

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/19/1183098037/washington-post-journalist-on-fbis-delayed-investigation-of-trumps-role-in-jan-6 WaPo journalist on why the Justice Dept in general, and the FBI in particular, waited 15 months before investigating whether Donald Trump himself, or anyone closely associated with him, played a role in organizing the Jan. 6 insurrection. Department leaders were overwhelmingly anxious not to be seen as "partisan" by investigating, and imagined that by holding back they might "restore public trust" in their apolitical impartiality. Jeez, had none of them been paying attention for the previous several years? Donald Trump had already established the pattern of condemning anyone who did not loudly and frequently proclaim their personal fealty to be part of the "Witch Hunt" against him. And his base had established the pattern of believing him. And the rest of the Republican Party, of backing him up. You're cops, guys. Don't expect the criminals to like you. Dean Shomshak

Okay, the strong force. Most powerful of the four fundamental forces, but very short range. Acts by the exchange of particles called "gluons" (because the strong force sticks atomic nuclei together, and gluons do the sticking), but "Gluon" is probably not a very good name for a character. "Binder," alas, is taken. But the particles thus glued are quarks, either in pairs (mesons, the best known of which is the pi meson or pion) or trios to make protons, neutrons, or heavier particles that for a while were called "hyperons." Now the preferred term for all such particles is "baryon," but Hyperon would still make an excellent name. "Quark" was a good name once, but now has other associations as well. Flying brick, sure, can't go wrong. But maybe with simultaneous Density Increase and Shrinking? Dean Shomshak

Possibly hopeful, in that at least a few members of the "Lower Uppers" are seeing their shared interest with the working class: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/13/1180389740/tax-rich-raise-wages-patriotic-millionaires-lobby-voters-inequality Dean Shomshak

Trophies of the giant penny ilk would come from battles against non-powered Theme Villains of the 1960s and '70s, though I suppose they could have continued in the CU. They did in my campaign, resulting in the Avant Guard team recieving these "trophies" for their base (salvaged from the bases of dead or captured villains by the professional HQ construction firm called the Landlady, which wil work for anyone): * The whiteboard of the Coach of Crime, still marked with the "game plan" for his last heist, and a few team jerseys from his thug minions. *A fake marble bust of Marcus Aurelius, with hidden compartment for knockout gas. Used by Caesar, a Classics professor who went mad and bacame a Master Criminal with a Roman theme. * Costume of the Rhinestone Cowboy, a villain of the 1970s. Shockingly gaudy, even with the laser jewels removed. * Oversized blue-ring octopus in a jar of formaldehyde, bred by a new-forgotten criminal biologist. * A giant credit card. C'mon, pennies aren't worth diddly anymore. Dean Shomshak

The Black Mask(s) of the 1920s and '30s would surely have clashed with sinister cults. Some cult leaders would use advanced (for the time) science and hypnosis to feign supernatural powers; others might have had real magic. The trophy room includes at least one set of hooded robes the Black Mask used to infiltrate a cult ceremony, and perhaps a few items of ritual paraphernalia such as an ornate dagger or a grotesque little idol. Possibly confiscated because they *did* have real power that the Black Mask didn't want falling into the wrong hands, whether amitious would-be magicians or disbelievers who wouldn't understand the danger. But they've sat in the trophy case for nearly 100 years. Time enough, perhaps, for the magic to recharge and reach out to ensnare an unwary guest or make the warning label disappear... Dean Shomshak

To paraphrased a maxim from the book Murphy's Law: Or, Why Things Go Wrong: "An expert is a person who avoids the small mistakes while sweeping on to the grand fallacy." Dean Shomshak

ADDENDUM: It's important to note that Clifton emphasizes that this emphasis or de-emphasis on ranked categories is itself a *tendency,* not itself an ironclad boundary or category! Even the most conservative person might see some boundaries as unimportant; even the most liberal can see some distinctions as vital and uncrossable. So, perhaps there's some hope in persuading at least some people to abandon Trumpian tribalism and status-paranoia by seeing different boundary lines and categories as the ones that matter. Dean Shomshak

I've speculated here before about the differing incentive structures between small towns and big cities, that create different worldviews. But the June '23 Scientific American has an article in the "Mind Matters" column about research finding differences in how liberals and conservatives see the world that are even deeper than I thought. It goes beyond morality all the way down to ontology -- what people believe the world fundamentally *is.* Psychologists Jer Clifton and Nick Kerry find the strongest correlate with conservatism is what they call "hierarchical world belief": that existence falls into clear, distinct, and ranked categories. A world of bold, black lines. And these distinctions and rankings are real, and terribly important. Liberals tend to score less in this worldview: categories are blurry; the lines are, metaphorically speaking, dotted or in shades of gray, and the distinctions are more likely to be seen as arbitrary or even silly. As Clifton and Kerry note, you can see why conservatives freak out so much about LGBTQ+ issues. If you see gender differences as innate, fundamental, ironclad and laid down by God before the beginning of the world, suggestions that the categories are just cultural accidents, a spectrum of possibilities, with overlap or movement between them -- well, you might as well be saying that up is sometimes down. Or abortions: If you think human life has a distinct and definite beginning, you see this very much unlike if you think humanness develops gradually with no distinct and definite threshold. And immigration, of course, involves literal lines as well as the all-important distinction between Us and Them. Several of these boundaries, long generally accepted in Western culture, are under assault at once -- politically, culturally, even scientifically. Clifton and Kerry hopefully imagine that recognizing this difference in worldview can help people communicate and persuade past those differences. Author Clifton's example is trying to persuade a conservative to take a more inclusive attitude to transgender issues by pointing out that "a small but consistent portion of babies are born with atypical genitalia and arbitrarily assigned a sex at birth, which suggests the line between male and female is not always perfectly clear." Persoanlly, I think the human tendency to respond to falsifying evidence by doubling down on beliefs makes this as counterproductive as calling the conservative stupid or bigoted. As the senator recently said, "I don't want reality!" Trump tells his followers what they most want to hear: that they are radically separate from other Americans (and potential Americans), superior for that separation, hated by their jealous and evil inferiors, and therefore justified in hating those rivals in return. That's a drug of the mind that few people ever kick -- or could ever want to. It doesn't help, though, that our two-party system plays into the hierarchical worldview. Even if a fair number of Republicans are tired of Trumpian antics and feel the paranoid nihilism of his movement, not many of them likely can bring themselves to vote for a party they see as a hive-mind trying to make their children into transgender Socialists who hate God, the white race, and the flag. Be cause it's not possible to imagine Democrats as a blurry, shifting coalition of diverse interests with all the party discipline of a herd of cats. Anyway, it's an interesting article. I recommend it. Dean Shomshak

Going the other direction chronologically, the various alien races that interacted with Earth in the Superheroic Era are still around at the time of the Terran Empire. The Terran Empire setting book includes package deals for Perseids, Hzeel, and even Malvans. A sidebar on pages 44 and 45 lists the various attempted invasions of Earth in the Superheroic Era, and what happened to those races afterward. There's also a Church of the Infinite Dark that worships certain Kings of Edom, though of course they do not truly understand what they worship. Some of this material might be useful if you want to send your Champions PCs out into the Galaxy, though Champions Beyond is the supplement that deals with this possibility most directly. Unofficially, IIRC the Digital Hero magazine published a STAR Hero scenario where the McGuffin was the Helmet of Doctor Destroyer -- still dangerous, centuries after his death. I don't remember Alien Wars well enough to say anything about that period's overlap with the Superheroic Era, though I presume the various aliens are all around and mentioned. Dean Shomshak

You could build a novel around that premise. Magic realism, perhaps. Or horror. Or even a superhero story. Dean Shomshak

Which is the part that gives me trouble. Guy doing Tae Kwon Do? Easy-peasy even for my extremely rudimentary artistic skills, I have plenty of pictures to work from. I can sorta-kinda do the goat legs for simple poses. But goat legs doing a high kick gets into perspective and anatomy that defeat me. As an example, here's a picture I lifted from a DC Who's Who and altered for my own use. Sorry the scan is so low-res, my home tech is all old and crappy. Even if an AI image couldn't be exactly what I wanted, I hoped for something that I could turn around and use as a guide for a hand-drawn image.

Actually, my hope is that our allies realize that America is too important to the world to be left in the hands of Americans. Dean Shomshak

All Things Considered today did a story about the first fight about raising the US debt limit and, well, not much has changed. https://www.npr.org/2023/06/01/1178919399/debt-ceiling-limit-default-eisenhower-biden-maccarthy Dean Shomshak

Okay, it's a petty cheap shot, but I'm tickled that a Republican Senator is on record saying, "I don't want reality." Many a truth is spoke when people say they "misspoke." Republican senator says ‘I don’t want reality’ in hearing on race and eduction (msn.com) Dean Shomshak

Browsing DeviantArt, I've seen some very pretty pieces that were supposedly generated by AI. Nothing I'd call moving, but that describes just about everything else I've seen on DeviantArt too, even the best. AI seems good enough at present to handle, say, RPG illustration. At least when partnered with someone who knows how to use it. Which is still something, I suppose. As Sociotard's examples show, the public systems still seem, hm, limited and erratic. Personbally, I made a brief attempt with Stable Diffusion to get an illustration of one of my favorite old characters. Morningstar was a demi-demon whose Hero ID form is a classic Fantasy satyr. He had some energy powers, but for close combat he used Tae Kwon Do. So I asked Stable Diffusion to give me "a satyr doing Tae Kwon Do." And it just gave me pictures of humans doing Tae Kwon Do... usually with extra arms or legs. I soon tired of trying different phrasings and quit. Like Sociotard, I would like to generate illustrations for the next World Creation Superdraft, 'cuz people like the purty pitchurs, but I doubt that will be possible. I'll just have to hope I can scrounge up something close to what I'd like to describe. Dean Shomshak

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/31/1179241499/what-nasa-talked-about-in-its-meeting-on-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena Dean Shomshak

A couple years ago I posted a thread about creating governments beyond the generic Fantasy monarchy. It may be useful here, too. Here's the link: Worldbuilding: Social Design and Social Forces - Fantasy Hero - HERO Games Dean Shomshak

I'd heard of the 'drop crocs' before. Dean Shomshak

I thought I had reached a nadir of political cynicism. I was wrong. You've probably received those calls from the guy fundraising to elect politicians who'll be pro-police, pro-firefighter, or pro-veteran? Starts with a dad joke like, "You're the first person I've reached this hour, and I'm pretty tall"? Aside from these being relatively high-quality robocalls, what actually happens to any money people give? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/podcasts/the-daily/republican-robocall-donors.html It's evil genius. The final stage of using the culture war as a cover for corporate interest. Except in this case, the corporate interest is... the three guys who run the whole scheme. Pure predation of upset people who want to be righteous. And it's all legal. Dean Shomshak

Well, she is nothing if not consistent in her denial of reality... Dean Shomshak

All Things Considered interviews DC Comics' new top honcho Jim Lee: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/24/1178020845/jim-lee-talks-about-his-journey-from-superhero-fan-to-dc-comics-president Dean Shomshak

Survey suggests US military veterans are less likely than the general population to embrace political extremism. https://www.npr.org/2023/05/23/1177773682/u-s-military-veterans-generally-dont-embrace-extremism-a-new-survey-shows Dean Shomshak