DShomshak

In my Supermage campaign, one of the PCs started killing villains on the grounds that it stopped them from causing more harm later. The first time, the team split up and I had to juggle the plot a bit to bring them back together and arrange a bit of temporal jiggery-pokery so the PC could undo his earlier actions. The third or fourth time this happened, as best I recall the other players (through their characters) said firmly that this was Not Right At All. The offending player got the message and accepted the revelation that in fact he'd been playing the PC's evil twin that a mystic dimension had created: When they thought the evil twin got sucked back, it had actually been the original, and they were able to set things right. Fortunately, the player in question is somewhat self-aware and so is able to handle it when people point out he's being a jerk. For Bolo's case, I think the best place to start might be to push the players on their characters' CvKs. If the "killer character" activity is unconscious, encouraging the other players to deal with it through roleplaying might help. Likewise, if the players in question are not aware of their characters' ruthlessness, it might be enough to point out that this is not the game you wanted to run. Conveniently, you've set up a mentalist Master Villain who might have been subtly nudging the heroes to act in less than heroic ways... Giving a chance to provide some positive reinforcement when the PCs, remembering that they are supposed to be heroes, confront Master Control and thwart his evil scheme to manipulate them -- and finally put him in a prison he can't escape. Virtue triumphs, evil not only defeated but humiliated! Dean Shomshak

That seems frighteningly plausible. Many people have been saying Mr. Chau was *incredibly* irresponsible in his attempt, precisely because he could bring diseases to which the islanders had no resistance. After all, this story has played out so many times before. Also, the people of the Andaman Islands are not stupid. (It takes brains to be a Stone Age hunter-gatherer.) I remember reading that no Andaman Islanders died in the huge Indian Ocean tsunami of, IIRC, 2005. On the islanders where outsiders do visit, the report is that when the islanders saw the ocean pulling back and back and back, the islanders ran for the hills and so saved themselves. I have never heard whether they have oral traditions about tsunamis, or whether they just figured that if the ocean is behaving strangely they should get away, but it showed good sense. So, I am inclined to believe the North Sentinel Islanders acted more rationally than did Mr. Chau. Dean Shomshak

In addition to the other interests the article lists, Anders Sandberg is (or at least was) a gamer. I encountered him way back when on Alt.Games.White-Wolf and Rec.Games.FRP.Storyteller, where he contributed the best stuff I've ever seen for Mage: the Ascension. A man of truly wide-ranging intellect and imagination. Dean Shomshak

On page 117 of Ultimate Mystic I proposed a few potential legal conundrums from the supernatural side of a superhero setting. Such as: Are summoned and bound spirits kidnapped and enslaved? If your spouse dies and comes back as a vampire, are you still married? ("'Til death do you part" suggests no, but a lawyer might argue that traditional working does not constitute a formal clause of a legally binding contract. OTOH American law does recognize the existence of common law.) Dean Shomshak

Eh, while the UN has its corruptions, ineptitudes and things it just can't do, it has its successes too. Only, they don't make the news. Nobody pays attention to the peacekeeping mission that successfully keeps peace or the vaccination campaign that doesn't rile up local crazies. Just like nobody reports on elections that happen without a hitch, or the neighboring ethnic groups that get along fine. The UN can't stop Russia's bad behavior, because Russia has a veto in the Security Council. But that doesn't make the UN worthless. (Though of course it could still be improved.) Dean Shomshak

All Things Considered just reported on InSight's apparently flawless landing. Woohoo! Dean Shomshak

I'd say the flash-freeze RKA covers the property damage. After all, do power lines have built-in heaters or insulation to give them LS: Cold? Not that I've heard. Even if you say the RKA has reduced effect against inanimate targets (a -0 Limitation, I'd say), that's enough to shut down the city. Lots of Foci breaking! Has your version of Deathstroke succeeded at mass death of civilians before? In my admittedly somewhat Iron Age-ish campaign, this is the sort of plot that results in governments deciding they want a villain dead, not captured, and they'll use their full military and intelligence resources to do this. Even other villains draw back -- or start Hunting the villain because they don't want to be caught up in a lethal dragnet. (See the movie M for inspiration.) Dean Shomshak

For me, Thanksgiving means tofurkey with my sister's vegetarian family. >shudder< But there's pie afterward, so that's good. In view of the warning about romaine lettuce contaminated with e. coli, I give thanks for the thousands of scorned and underpaid civil servants who keep us safe from more dangers than most of us can imagine. Gods bess the Deep State. Dean Shomshak

UNTIL makes a good general-purpose Policer of All Things Super, because that's its job. Whatever modes of power exist that can become a threat, it creates a branch that specializes in that mode. Especially dangerous if the various Projects have the basic good sense to talk to each other, so if Project Mind Game finds that the criminal hypnotist it investigates is using magic, it brings Project Hermes onto the case so the bad guy faces both groups. For other possible groups? Well, it depends. You might have a group of "Psi Cops" (self-appointed like Trismegistus, or state-supported) who hunt paranormal bad guys regardless of how they do their mind tricks, or they might specialize in mentalists of only one origin type. But in the latter case, keep in mind that it might not be obvious how or why a mentalist has powers. A mutant might pretend to e a mystic, a mystic might pretend to use high tech, etc. Dean Shomshak

Counterterrorism Expert Says He Thinks Trump Made A ... www.npr.org/2018/11/21/670142144/counterterrorism-expert... NPR's Audie Cornish talks with counterterrorism expert Daniel Benjamin, a Dartmouth researcher and former State Department official, about U.S.-Saudi relations, and which country needs the other more. From All Things Considered today. TL;DR: Saudi Arabia has very little leverage on the US; the US has a great deal of leverage over Saudi Arabia; and in his defense of Prince MBS, Trump projects weakness to Saudi and to the world. I also recommend the story after it, in which reporter John Itsty (sorry, I'm guessing at the spelling) analyzes the US-Saudi relationship from the petroleum perspective. For decades, Saudi has pressured the US by throttling back its oil production to raise prices. In 2014, however, the result was vast expansion of US shale oil production. If Sudi does this again, it makes shale oil profitable once more. So their great cudgel to use against the US... isn't. Dean Shomshak

Yeah, those arms sales. Which, I am assured on All Things Considered by someone who tracks these things, are not $100 billion. More like $14 billion. Still a big chunk o' change by a private citizen's standards, but, well, Trump can't help exaggerating. Or possibly including sales that were actually negotiated during the Obama administration (I've heard that as an explanation, too). It was also pointed out that Saudi Arabia can't just switch to other suppliers. Military hardware is not all interchangeable. You have to buy American parts for your American planes, and American missiles for your American launchers. Supposedly, if the US stopped the pipeline of materiel to Saudi, their war in Yemen would grind to a halt within a week. And they's be stuck for months, maybe years, while they replaced everything. I would enjoy seeing that happen. 1) The Saudi war in Yemen is an atrocity; even worse, an atrocity that cannot achieve its stated goal of blocking Iran. At least, it sure hasn't done so yet. 2) The Khashoggi case reminds me once more that Saudi Arabia is not a friend of the US or any other Western democracy. It may be an ally of convenience, but Saudi values are not the values we claim to uphold. Not among the royal family, anyway. And I haven't forgotten that most of the 9-11 hijackers were Saudi, and that Jihadism is largely a product of Wahhabist madrasas set up with Saudi and other Gulf Arab money. It would be good, I think, to remind these absolute monarchs that this alliance has limits, and they are not in a position to decide what those limits shall be. What can I say. I don't like despots, I don't like religious fanatics, and I really, really don't like false friends. Pretty strong issues, in fact. I should probably seek therapy. Dean Shomshak

"America loves a humbug." -- P. T. Barnum Dean Shomshak

Never mind, here's the thread link: https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/93554-ready-made-villain-bases/ LL's post with its own link is just a few posts in. DS

Also: More than a year ago, I started a thread on "Ready-Made Villain Lairs": Places a villain could move right into an adapt with minimal cost or effort. (Or heroes on a budget, for that matter.) I received many good suggestions, but the No-Prize went to Lord Liaden for his suggestion of a derelict ship. Several of these are just floating around on the ocean, apparently abandoned. Perhaps LL still has the link handy to the article about these ships? Dean Shomshak

One might find inspiration in Megalomania: Too Much is Never Enough, by Philippe Tretiak. A book-length photo essay on modern excess, from artificial islands in Dubai to the diamond-encrusted Rolls-Royce of a Russian oligarch/mafioski. Lots of inspiration for Master Villains, not just architecture. A sequel called Megalomania: The Madness of Builders is probably more apropos, but I haven't seen it. Dean Shomshak

I forget where I read about it, but in Berlin (IIRC) there's a huge, windowless, cylindrical concrete building. It started as a storage tank for keeping natural gas or coal gas under high pressure. In WW2 the Nazis converted it into an office building because its incredibly thick walls of reinforced concrete made it bomb-proof. Later it was turned into apartments. Perhaps a new buyer could find other uses. Dean Shomshak

Even the present Imperial system is just a fraction of the farrago of weights and measures that once existed. Isaac Asimove devoted an essay to this called, IIRC, "Forget it!" He'd obtained a Colonial-era math textbook. A large section in it was devoted to weights and measures. For instance, back then liquid measure went far beyond cup, pint, quart and gallon. There were also measurements such as gills, tuns, puncheons and firkins. Actually, three firkins: "A firkin of ale in London," "A firkin of beer in London," and "A firkin of ale or beer" -- presumably, Asimov speculated, for the less-discriminating provinces. Or, cloth wasn't measured in yards, it was measured in ells -- but you had to specify whether you meant an English ell, a Dutch ell, a Flemish ell... The joke about "getting the ell out of business" was obvious but irresistible. So just remember that things were once much worse. Dean Shomshak

It was also a question in the "Ask Doctor Science National Science Quiz" TV special. And Doctor Science gave the answer: Your headlights come off the car and chase you down the road. Much better than one of the other suggested answers, "The universe ends." Ah, Doctor Science. I learned so much from him, including the thin line between intelligence and arrogance. Just remember: He's not a real doctor. He has a Master's degree... in Science! Dean Shomshak

If you use Marvel as a model, Norse gods have some degree of super-strength and resilience, so STR and CON can be on the high end for humans, or even superhuman. Exact degree is impossible to recommend without knowing more about the campaign. But it might not be as high as might be suggested from a search through Asgardian characters in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, because the character is still a teen. OTOH, becoming a Valkyrie might make up for that. So... we go back to the nature of the campaign: whether this is supposed to be a Standard Power campaign, Low Power, or even a teen "hero in training" campaign. The character might also inherit some powers from her divine parent. For instance, Samirah from the Magnus Chase books (your inspiration for the character?) can do shapeshifting because her father is Loki, while Magnus himself can heal and impose peace like his father Frey. Dean Shomshak

Incidentally: When you find current events too depressing (or infuriating), I recommend you take a break with Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. Humanity actually has made life much better than it used to be, by methods that we can continue using to make life better still. And it's not just in the developed world: The rest of the world is catching up fast, from increasing life expectancy to declining bigotry. There's also plenty to offend people on both the left and the right. I consider that a further ground for recommendation. Dean Shomshak

The Economist suggested that Trump's frequent staff shake-ups come from his experience as star of The Apprentice. Lots of twists and turnover to keep viewers interested. So he runs his administration like a TV show. The horrible thing is, this possibly shows deep insight into American culture and character. Dean Shomshak

Be consoled, say the Vishanti: For Eternity has gathered in the great chronicler, and he has become One with the Universe. And even the Dread Dormammu bows his head and whispers, "Excelsior." RIP to the creator of Doctor Strange. I owe him more than I can say. Dean Shomshak

And here they are. Mechanics of Rage. A brilliant but embittered engineer builds a powerful vehicle and uses it to attack the company that wronged him. [The vehicle-based gadgeteer is a character type you occasionally saw in the Silver Age but I don’t recall seeing in the CU.] Mars Needs Beanie Babies. [Okay, the name shows how long ago I ran this one.] Everyone wants the hot new fad toy. They sell for 5 or even 10 times retail price on eBay and other secondary markets. A group of second-string techno-villains concoct a Master Plan to exploit the situation. First they drive the price up even further by hijacking shipments of the toy, courtesy of a vehicle-based villain. [When I ran this, one of the villains was Invader, whose schtick is that she built a flying saucer. So, planes carrying shipments of Beanie Babies appeared to be hijacked in flight by aliens.] But they don’t just sell the stolen toys on black markets and online. One of the villains can build Hypnno-Ray widgets. They plant Hypno-Ray devices in the toys so the buyers can be hypnotized into sending all their money to the villains’ Cayman Islands bank account! Can the heroes track the villains to their lair, stop the evil scheme and save Christmas for America’s retailers? Autocracy. A powerful new techno-villain called the Autocrat is giving second- or third-string villains a power boost by giving them battlesuits. Maybe the Autocrat gathers them into a new villain team; maybe he’s just a power vendor, selling the suits for a share of the villains’ ill-gotten gains. Either way, the villains are considerably more powerful and dangerous. Ah, but there’s more. The battlesuits slowly take over the wearer’s minds. The Autocrat is building an army of super-villains! And a further twist: The climactic battle against the Autocrat and his enslaved villains reveals that the Autocrat isn’t a person in a battlesuit; he’s an android in a battlesuit. Who did not know he’s an android. The Autocrat himself is just a front for someone else. But who? Telethon of Terror. A super-scientist villain creates a big, powerful monster. (Kaiju or giant killer robot, as you prefer.) The villain posts a video showing the monster’s destructive power and nigh-indestructibility and issues a demand: One billion dollars sent to his offshore bank account within a certain span of time, or he sets the monster to rampage in a major city of the targeted country. Anyone can contribute. For a variation, the villain holds an auction. Governments (or other people) can submit bids either to have their country spared, or for the monster to be released on another country. Skyfall. Every few years, a comet or asteroid passes relatively near the Earth. Space is very big, though, so there’s little chance of a major impact; and once astronomers know a body exists, they can forecast its orbit decades in advance. So, not much chance of dino-killer-scale impacts taking humanity by surprise. Except one such object has changed course. It’s going to hit in a month. A technological Master Villain takes credit, saying he built a Gravitron powerful enough to shift the body’s orbit. [When I ran the adventure, the object was comet ISON-Something.] The villain has decided that if he can’t rule the world, he’ll destroy it, or at least destroy humanity. Or the human race can save itself by surrendering to him. But people had better make up their minds quickly, because soon the impactor will be too close even for the Gravitron to push it back on a safe path. As a further complication, once the heroes find the villain’s base a techno-hero can see that they must defeat the villain without ever striking the Gravitron. The core of the machine is a neutronium torus spinning at near the speed of light, with the mass of a mountain. If the machine is disturbed, the neutronium core either decompresses and explodes, destroying everything in hundreds of kilometers, or it collapses into a black hole that sinks into the Earth’s core and starts eating. Important safety tip, yes? Kludge. Governments, and a few other people and organizations, salvage wrecked super-tech and try to repair or reverse-engineer it. This does not always go well. At a facility for such research, a damaged super-robot reactivates and tries to repair itself with all the other super-tech on hand… including the battlesuit worn by a super-agent guard… without taking the guard out of it first. The result is a powerful, crazed cyborg on a rampage. The heroes want to stop the rampage; other people might get involved for other reasons. Smash the Machine. A villain attacks a research facility that tries to reverse-engineer alien or other super-tech. Only, the villain isn’t trying to steal super-tech; he’s trying to destroy a specific bit of tech. It isn’t even an obvious weapon or power boost; it’s a bit of general-purpose technology that could create whole new industries. Think room-temperature superconductors, antigravity or <insert technobabble>. So why is the villain trying to destroy it? Variation: The New Luddites. There’s a whole team of villains dedicated to obstructing technological progress. Maybe each of them was harmed by advanced tech in some way… or maybe there’s a deeper agenda such as industrial espionage (a government or megacorporation is trying to hold back competitors in hopes of gaining a technological edge), or the leader is a time traveler from a country that loses out in the super-tech future. Dean Shomshak

Washington state's carbon tax initiative lost. I guess creating a slush fund to buy off Native American tribes and "social justice" groups (whatever that means) is a net negative for voters. The initiative to ban soda taxes (under cover of banning taxes on milk and eggs) passed handily. Once again, giving legislative power directly to voters turns out to be an excellent tool for big-money corporate interests. Dean Shomshak

Let me expand on that. Here's how Washingtonian vote-by-mail works. You get your ballot by mail. This can be a problem for people who don't have mailboxes, but there are ways around this. The other day my local public radio station aired a story about a Seattle homeless man who gets his ballot through a homeless shelter. (And if anyone tells you that "voting is too much trouble," this gentleman's example calls bullpucky on them.) If you don't get your ballot on time, call the county auditor's office to request one. You fill out your ballot. Your ballot comes with an unmarked security envelope and another pre-addressed, postage-paid envelope. Put your ballot in the security envelope, then put that in the pre-addressed envelope. seal it and sign the affirmation that you are a legal voter and rightful recipient. Put it in the mail or the drop box. It is important that you do this early enough that it gets postmarked by Election Day, or it won't be counted. When the ballot is received, your signature is checked against the voter rolls. Then the ballot is removed from the outer envelope, and from this point it's secret. I suppose a zealous postal delivery person could rip up ballots from anyone who has a yard sign of the party she doesn't like, or he could remove a percentage of ballots from a drop box in a neighborhood with a known political preference. But the effect would be quite local. Unless an election is already known to be very tight, I can think of better ways to interfere. I also suppose that a statistical analysis would show if voter turnout in a particular preceinct dropped more than normal, and election officials could call registered voters to find if they actually had voted, aqs a way to detect tampering; but I don't know if there is any such plan for this. It's just my supposition that this could be done if tampering were suspected. I also presume that if anyone anted to know if their ballot arrived, they could contact the election office and ask if your name was checked off. All in all, though, it sounds like a great effort for an uncertain result, and IIRC the federal penalties for interfering with the mail are pretty severe. Dean Shomshak