DShomshak

I am completely okay with zombie cars. My only question is whether the necromancers are cheaper than the local garage that keeps our ancient car running. Cumulated over the years, it would have been cheaper to buy a new car but we never have that much money at once. Dean Shomshak

Isaac Arthur's videos are, hm, uneven; some are just incoherent. But this one's pretty good: part of his "Megastructures" series, this time about building artificial planets, why one might wish to do so, and ending with the largest possible artificial habitat -- something that makes a Dyson sphere look puny. Dean Shomshak

This Sunday I heard the 3rd part of "We Don't Talk About Leonard," an investigative co-report by On the Media and Pro Publica. It's about Leonard Leo, mastermind of the Federalist Society, architect of the current SCOTUS and the Dobbs Decision, and much more. He's the most successful activist in the last 100 years of American history... whom most people have never heard of. Progressive activists, take note. Stop wasting your time marching in the street and chanting "Hey Hey Ho Ho." This is how you do it. But it takes a lot of time. This is a link to the first episode but has sub-links to the other two. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-we-dont-talk-about-leonard-episode-1 Dean Shomshak

No, because the President only nominates judges. The Senate confirms them and so is the actual appointing authority. As for lawyers making lunatic arguments... Even if they're disbarred (or maybe *especially* if), they can make a living as Heroic Victims of the Librul Establishment for years to come. And ithey may hope that if Trump gets back in office, he can appoint them to government jobs where they can cruh the people they feel wronged them. Since Trump seems to like people who are willing to be stupid on his behalf. Given that Presidential elections and control of Congress seem to be coin tosses, not actually a bad gamble. Dean Shomshak

All Thngs Considered ran a brief clip of Austin Scott, and he used LL's line: Some GOP members aren't in Congress to make law, they're there to make appearances on Fox and collect social media likes. So it's not just our colleague or outside pundits thinking this: Exasperated GOP members think so, too. (I have no idea what Austin Scott's own policy preferences are, but at least he has some? He He knows and accepts what his job is?) Dean Shomshak

Good news! Jason Walters tells me he's pretty sure HERO still owns the rights to the artwork in the original CotN, and sees no reason I can't re-use it for the revised book. Woohoo! I think Greg Smith and Storn Cook did *superb* work. (Greg even contacted me to ask for further details about character appearance. Which is when I wrote him, "Make Lamplighter look like Patrick Stewart. He looks and sounds totally like Patrick Stewart.") Dean Shomshak

Each of these provides filters you could use to re-imagine a less "busy" version of the CU. X-Men is easy. It's all mutants, or nearly all. Super-tech is created by "mutant super-geniuses." It might not even be "real" technology that other people can duplicate, but just a kind of prop for channeling intrinsic powers (an idea used in the Wild Cards series, IIRC). Magic likewise. Even ostensible supernatural creatures such as demons might be psychokinetic constructs created by a particular mutant. This might not be understood by mutant-hunting groups, who would be quite indignant to be told their super-sophisticated mutant-hunting robots are actually powered by the psychic power of the scientist who builds them -- who of course doesn't know he's a mutant. Fantastic Four offers a subtler filter. One of their big themes is exploration. They gained their powers from an experimental rocket flight. Many of their regular foes operate from strange or distant places -- the Mole Man in Subterranea, Galactus and the Super-Skrull from outer space, Rama-Tut/Scarlet Centurion/Kang a time traveler, Annihilus and Blastaar from the Negative Zone, and so on. An FF-inspired trim-down of the CU could similarly tie heroes and villains to Hidden Lands and Hidden Races such as Lemuria or the Empyreans, aliens, and a limited selection of other dimensions. For instance, Dr. Destroyer would have gotten his start in super-technology from a wrecked alien spaceship; his tendency to place his Bases in exotic locations such as a remote island, a hidden valley in the Himalayas, and an asteroid ties into the theme very well. Though you might prefer to have Xarriel (from Champions Beyond, IIRC) as your top villain, and draw of the aliens in that book for additional foes. Friendly Neighborhood Hero Team is an even subtler filter, in that it doesn't have to emphasize particular origin types. Actually, there are several ways you could do this. This might be a second-tier city that's a weirdness magnet, drawing in a bit of everything, like Vibora Bay. This could conceivably develop a monster/villain-of-the-week feel a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which the local heroes must deal with the latest threat to be drawn there. Or you could play up the localism by having a cadre of equally local villains who somehow can't be kept in jail for long, the way Batman has his crew of lunatics that cycle through Arkham Asylum. Or the heroes might come from a single shared origin, or closely linked origins, the way the Flash TV series has most characters tied to the Dark Matter eruption from STAR Labs. OK, that's probably more than enough for one post. I hope you find an approach that you like. I'll just add that the "magic-centric" campaigns I ran to playtest for Ultimate Supermage and Ultimate Mystic were the best Champions campaigns I ever ran. Heh, when it comes to campaign design sometimes Focus is an Advantage instead of a Limitation! Dean Shomshak

As it happens, today's episode of "Today Explained" went into the roots of Hamas' attack: One part that sttood out to me, though, is the co-dependency between Netanyhu and Hamas. For years, Netanyahu and his far-right affiliates have resisted a two-state solution with the Palestinians because they want all the territory of ancient Israel, but without the Palestinians who inconveniently live there. Or at least not granting them citizenship, which would mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state. So every attack from Hamas or similar groups is *very convenient* at forestalling any chance of peace. But conversely -- as Beau points out -- every military crackdown from Israel in response to those attacks is *very convenient* for Hamas, in generating another wave of recruits. Beau's reminder that Hamas' leaders are certainly *not* in Gaza also makes me realize that I was thinking too small in speculating that Hamas could have made a fatal miscalculation -- that Israel might attempt a, shall we say, "final solution" to the problem of Gaza. Hamas' leaders and backers may well think that sacrificing Gaza would be a good strategic move to re-isolate Israel. Maybe I wasn't paranoid enough. Or, you know, they really are just lashing out in blind rage and despair. Sometimes that happens, too. Dean Shomshak

From what the BBC said yesterday, it seems implausible that Israel's intelligence agency -- which watches Gza constantly using drones, has some of the world's best sigint and cyber, plus scads of Palestinian informants in Gaza -- could be taken so completely by surprise by such a massive operation. OTOH it also seems implausible to me that Netanyahu's government could keep secret that it knew and let it happen. Especially given how much of the military supposedly despises him, to the verge of threatening mass mutiny against his power-grabbing reforms. BBC and ATC reporting also suggests the attack isn't rallying the population behind Netanyahu as much as he might hope. Some of the people interviewed directly blamed his government for this appalling intelligence failure. As for Hamas: What were they thinking? Are the leaders crazy or fanatical enough to think they can win an actual victory against Israel? Perhaps they were overconfident given the internal strife around Netanyahu, but it takes *monumental* overconfidence not to see how an external attack could quell that dissent. One suggestion I heard: Hamas (or Iran, from which it gets aid) wants to block rapprochement between Israel and ?Saudi Arabia. They've supposedly done it before, but used smaller attacks to do so. Or maybe they think enough outside actors will come to their aid to defeat Israel, but it's been an awful long time since the multi-state alliance of the Six-Day War. I don't see Israel's neighbors allying for, well, anything. They have problems of their own. And threatening to kill hostages? Perhaps they confuse Israel with a Western government. I cannot imagine many things more likely to goad Israel's government into vowing the total destruction of Gaza. Forget the incredibly difficult and bloody urban warfare, just attempt a replay of the firebombing of Dresden... at least once Israel was sure it couldn't get its hostages back alive. And it's basic military doctrine that you *must not* let an enemy use human shields, even if they are your own people. All I know for sure is this will reach epic levels of ugliness, which is not exactly an original observation. And I suspect we will see additional brutal aggressions in the coming years, now that Putin broke the taboo against direct attempts to conquer other states. Dean Shomshak

I didn't want to reveal the Secret Masters. Now, if anyone wants a look at possibilities for the *really* far future vesions of humanity, read Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men, which portrays post-humanity through two billion years and three worlds. Dean Shomshak

My ideal candidate would be a Democratic analog to George H. W. Bush: Someone whose career in government is so long and diverse that President is nearly the only office they haven't held yet. Failing that, a governor. Dean Shomshak

Because the American people don't want a moderately competent (and competently moderate) politician. Biden offers no myth, no glamour (in either the modern or archaic senses of the word). He's neither an amusing entertainer, a rabble-rousing firebrand, nor the anointed prophet of God. There's no great story to "Guy beavers away for decades, finally works his way into the job he sought, and does okay at it." Donald Trump is supremely skilled at making people care about him, one way or another. He is an entertainer and firebrand, and convinced his cult he is the anointed prophet of God. Even if he is ruined in business and sent to jail for his crimes, the 2024 election may be a coin toss because it's hard to beat exciting with dull... at least for a populace that confuses politics with TV. Dean Shomshak

Even if differences based on inherited somatic difference ("race") blur away and we all become Niven's "flatlanders," the tribal impulse will make humans create artificial differences in appearance through makeup/dyes, tattoos, clothing, ornament, etc. And such differences will appear, whether by religion, political identity, or whether you crack open your soft-boiled egg at the big end or little end (as in the Lilliput section of Gulliver's Travels.) Thgough such visible differences might also be created by genetic engineering, whether for practical purposes (such as adjusting spacer genomes to prevent bone loss from prolonged microgravity -- or the more extreme modifications of quaddies, from Bujold's "Vorkosigan" setting), or various transhuman notions (such as Betan herms -- Bujold again), or if the technology becomes accessible enough, pure whimsy (we want to look like anime characters! With cat ears!). James Blish coined the term "pantropy" for genetic adaptation to new environments, but it doesn't have to be that rational. In a Star Hero setting I made, the ideology that humans should genetically fragment into new species was called "cladism." It had dire consequences because people were still people. Different approaches to cybernetic/bionic modification might happen, too. Analog to Mac vs PC tribalism, only for brain implants from different companies. Dean Shomshak

A few Powers already can carry Advantages that they act based on EGO rather than some other Characteristics, such as STR or BODY. Giving such an Advantage to Regeneration seems reasonable to me. Plus, Regeneration isn't on the Adjustment Power list but it acts like one in most ways. I don't see anything immediately abusive in applying standard Adjustment Power Advantages to it, such as altering which Characteristic it applies to, multiple Characteristics, etc. (Maybe there is, but I don't see it at the moment.) Dean Shomshak

No. Trump as Speaker would be two bullets away from regaining the White House, and I truly believe that thousands of Americans would like to try making the shot. (Plus an unknown number of Russian and Chinese agents.) And millions would cheer if it happened. Fortunately, it's hypothetical because I am also persuaded that aq sufficient number of Republican Reps now see Trump as a liability that the scenario could never happen. Dean Shomshak

I dare say that's what most GMs do in practice. There's too much CU to use in the average campaign; GMs must decide which sections and characters to use, and leave the rest in the background. But that's how comic books operate, too. (Or did, anyway.) Take the Marvel U, for instance. The Fantastic Four have their stable of regular and semi-regular villains like Dr Doom, Galactus, the Mole Man, assorted aliens, etc. Spider-Man and Daredevil have their street-level villains, which the X-Men seldom if ever encounter because they're fighting Sentinels, other mutant factions, and such ilk. None of them are likely to fight Nightmare, Dormammu, or Dr Strange's other mystical foes. And so on. Sure, change-of-pace stories happen: The X-Men go into space, Spider-Man fights a demon, or Thor fights robots. But that's the point: Change of pace. Heroes usually stick to their niches. So pick what style of heroes and team you want for your campaign and pick the set of villains and background to support it. Say the rest doesn't exist or just ignore it. Like, unless you're running a Mystic Masters campaign most of the mystical side of the CU effectively shouldn't exist. Unless you really want to make anti-mutant prejudice a big part of the campaign, you can (and probably should) ignore IHA and the MInuteman robots and, conversely, Kinematik and his mutant supremacists. And unless you want to actually run an alien invasion story arc or out-to-space story arc, the alien races might as well all not exist... jnless one of your players specifically wants to play an alien character. The same goes for the "thousands of supers around the world" issue. For decades, 90% of Marvel stories happened in the Greater NYC area. Heroes were more likely to visit the Kree Galaxy than, say, Nebraska. Or even major countries like India or France. DC spread things out further by at least giving different home cities to heroes, such as Metropolis, Gotham City, Star City, Central City, yadda yadda. But those heroes tended to have their own favored sets of villains, too. Dean Shomshak

Still my preferred word processing system... Dean Shomshak

At this moment I'm also working on revising Brother Bone. He'll still be a bugnuts-insane skeleton with a book of magic. His spells are powerful, but it's an important part of the character that he has only a limited set of them. OTOH one of those spells can be one to Summon demon minions (not just the succubus that helped corrupt him). The variety of demon minions can be arbitrarily large. Dean Shomshak

Vampires have accumulated so much lore (if you like it) or baggage (if you don't) that it would take at least a small supplement to do them justice -- even if you stick to pop culture "gothic" vampires. There are many others! It's tempting, given the amount of freelance work I did for White Wolf's Vampire: the Masquerade and Vampire: the Requiem, but I don't know that I will ever get a chance, for personal reasons that would take a while to explain. My own favorite choice for First Vampire master villain is Kastchai (or Kostchei, Koshchei, etc) the Deathless, from Russian fairy tales. Intermediate shadowy mastermind of worldwide, behind-the-scenes power, Agrippina (look her up). But like I say... not yet, maybe not ever. CotN Resurrected will have just one general-purpose supervillain vampire. ADDENDUM: I just finished my final revision of The Sylvestri Family Reunion (and it needed it). IIRC from what Jason Vester has said, it might be possible to publish it through Hall of Champions without needing an okay from Cryptic Studios. I will be looking into that possibility. That book will include a powerful specter and a vampire with a wide (probably too wide) array of powers. Dean Shomshak

Given the Pubs' slender majority, Dems might have been able top preserve McCarthy as Speaker so long as a fgew Pubs loathed the Freedom Caucus more than they loathe Dems. Not impossible, IMO, given how personally abrasive (as well as politically deranged) Gaetz et al are. At least minimal legislative functions might have been done. While it's rather horrible to say so, I also think McCarthy protected Biden and Harris from assassination. The same sort of lunatics who are not willing to accept that Biden was legitimately elected also, I hear, loathe McCarthy. While some of them might try putting an R in the White House by murder, they wouldn't do it to put *him* in the White House. As much as Dems dislike McCarthy -- the ATC report said none of them trust him -- removing him does open the possibility of someone even worse taking the job. And whatever is gained politically by letting the Pubs flail in chaos, there could also be gains from voters seeing an R Speaker dependent on D representatives for his office. I suspect some Dem voters would be heartened by seeing the party exercise raw political power more often. Dean Shomshak

In the same vein, yesterday Beau pointed out that whaddaya know, not only can Democrats stand firm, a majority of Republicans were willing to vote alongside them. Gosh, maybe that majority is getting as tired of the Berserker Caucus (as The Economist calls them) as everyone else is. As a result, Gaetz and his fellow maniacs are weaker, and McCarthy is stronger by comparison. I can only hope that at least some Republicans continue down this path to basic sanity in government. Deanb Shomshak

The Today Explained podcast just finished its 4-part series, "Blame Capitalism," on its history as an economic system and ideology, and current disappointments and challenges. Here they are from Google podcasts. Possibly of interest, though the whole series is nearly 2 hours long. "Souring on the System": Capitalism has entered its villain era. In a new series running Fridays this month, we look at how Americans came to blame it for just about everything. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL3RvZGF5LWV4cGxhaW5lZA/episode/YTgyNTg1ODYtMzM5Zi0xMWVkLWE1NTAtYWZmYzY4NGIxN2Jm?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwiw1KTvwNWBAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ "Profit Over Everything": Economist Milton Friedman published an essay in 1970 arguing that the job of a corporation was solely to make money for its shareholders. General Electric CEO Jack Welch pushed that idea about as far as it would go — and broke capitalism. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL3RvZGF5LWV4cGxhaW5lZA/episode/YTgzOWM1NzgtMzM5Zi0xMWVkLWE1NTAtMzM2ZDgyOTdhNWNj?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjIp5PawdWBAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ "The 99%": Two wildly different political movements — Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party — emerged from the Great Recession. They forever changed the way Americans think about capitalism and democracy. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL3RvZGF5LWV4cGxhaW5lZA/episode/YTg1MDRiZjQtMzM5Zi0xMWVkLWE1NTAtYTc2NjkyNmI5OGJl?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjIp5PawdWBAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ "Degrowing Pains": Capitalism isn’t natural, was never inevitable, and endless growth is killing Earth. The final episode of “Blame Capitalism” examines the degrowth movement, whose proponents call to end capitalism as we know it. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL3RvZGF5LWV4cGxhaW5lZA/episode/YTg2NmRmY2MtMzM5Zi0xMWVkLWE1NTAtOTcyOTcwMzM4ZjQ4?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjIp5PawdWBAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ Dean Shomshak

All Things Considered said the Senate passed the stopgap a little while ago. ATC mentioned that more Democrats than Republicans voted for the stopgap, so I guess McCarthy has broken the "Hastert Rule" of trying to pass bills with Republican votes alone. Dean Shomshak

All Things Considered had tributes for Sen. Feinstein, including this: https://www-cf.npr.org/2023/09/29/1202745293/former-rep-jane-harman-on-sen-dianne-feinsteins-trailblazing-legacy Best moment, I think, is the clip of her during the debates leading up to the assault weapons ban of 1994. A senator from Idaho apparently thought the li'l woman from California couldn't really understand guns the way a big strong man from Idaho could, and... ...She proceeds to rip him a new one without raising her voice. A moment when the Senate truly was a great debating body. Dean Shomshak

For classic sorcerer villains, you might take inspiration from Lin Carter's "Thongor of Lemuria" series. Yellow Druids of a flame cult, Red Druids of a blood cult, both practicing human sacrifice and holding cities in terrified submission... and then the Black Druids of the sinister city of Zaar, each one of them a unique and gaudy villain. For them, see Thongor in the City of Magicians. Short reads, second-rate Howard pastiche, but the series is pretty fun. Or, yeah, necromancers. You just can't go wrong with necromancers. Dean Shomshak