bigdamnhero

Close-up of the PCs' ship. You can see where Abida's "oopsie" has set the ship on fire, but it hasn't started to spread yet; Abida and the Welshmen are trying to put it out, but with no luck. Aeddan, Father Edmondo, and a squad of Swedes stand amidships, waiting for a clear space to jump across to Olaf's ship. At the bow, three squads of the PCs' Swedes just polished off an opposing squad and are getting ready to also jump forward.

Zooming out, here's a view of the 4 lashed-together longships that formed the PCs' battlefield. And yes, in hindsight I should've folded the edges so the ships were actually adjacent, but you get the idea. This is just about in the middle of the battle described above. The PCs' ship is at the bottom; above it is King Olaf's larger ship; above that is the Danish ship; and at the top, a smaller ship of Olaf's men has come to reinforce.

This picture shows how we labeled the disks to represent different squads. The colors represent whose forces they are: Red, orange, blue, purple & green are Swedish troops controlled by the 5 Players Black represents the freed Welsh slaves, also controlled by the Players Brown and tan represent friendly Danish troops controlled by the GM. White and grey represent Olaf's troops, aka The Bad Guys. Whites are "normal" troops, whereas Grey means the squad has Berserkified. Written in the center of the disk is "Sw" to indicate sword-and-shield troops or "Axe" to identify battleaxe troops. (For a few of them I forgot and wrote "Olf" for Olaf's forces." The number at the top represents the squad's current Readiness Level, +1 for Full, 0 for Shaken, or -1 for Disrupted. The tick marks on the bottom represent how much BODY damage the Squad has taken. So you can see the blue disk in the top right is a squad of the PCs' Swedes, wielding sword & shield; they've taken 10 points of Body (out of 15), and their Readiness has fallen to -1/Disrupted. By contrast the purple disk in the lower left hasn't taken any hits yer, and it's Readiness if at +1/Full.

I promised pictures. This first one is "fleet scale." We mostly narrated their way through this part of the battle, so we could get to the main action. Ships labelled with a red O and a number are Olaf's forces, a mix of Norse, Russians, Slavs, a few Turks, and whoever else he could recruit. Ships with a blue D are Danish forces under King Sweyn Ships with a yellow J are Jomsvikings. The PCs' ship can be seen right-center with a blue circle with a 2 on it. It is lashed to King Olaf's ship (O1 with a star), which is in turn lashed to a Danish ship D4. On the far side of D4, another of Olaf's ships (O24) has just come to reinforce. You can also see the PCs' other ship bottom-center, where it was stopped and engaged by O18. To be clear, we didn't fight out the results of any of these other battles; just the one the PCs were in.

Battle Report: When Our Heroes arrive, the battle has already been going on for some time, with losses on both sides. The Danes and Jomsvikings are having difficulty coordinating their forces, and some of them were even fighting each other. (As a result of the Horseman Of War's mind control ability.) Olaf's forces, on the other hand, fight with single-minded determination and many of the men around him have gone Berserk. Spotting Olaf’s red longship in the middle of things, Our Heroes make their way past the outer ships, most of whom are too busy fighting other enemies to worry about it. When a couple ships get too close, Abida drives one away with an alchemical Cocktail of Molotov. Not to be outdone, Geralt calls down The Fire Of Heaven on the other enemy ship. The Heroes' 2nd longship is rammed by an enemy ship and drawn into a separate fight, but the main ship (with all 5 PCs) makes it through taking nothing worse than a handful of arrows. They reach Olaf's ship, which is already engaged with a Danish ship; they come alongside and lash their ship to Olaf's. Thyri & Geralt lead their ship’s complement across to engage the enemy warriors. Aeddan stays on their ship with three squads of archers, shooting into the fray with deadly effect. Aeddan's trained falcon even joins the fray, harassing and distracting opponents - until it gets too close to King Olaf, who cuts the bird in half. [Sad Aeddan Is Sad] Father Edmondo's prayers help to strengthen and heal their own troops, while Abida lobs more alchemical concoctions at the enemy troops. Things are go well at first, until Thyri is blinded by her own hair in her eyes (later revealed to be the result of a rune spell), another longship of Olaf's men join the fight, and Abida rolls a natural 18 with one of her Cocktails of Molotov, setting their own ship on fire! Unable to extinguish the fire, Our Heroes jump onto Olaf's ship, and cut their old ship loose. Thyri shakes off the blinding spell, and Father Edmondo blesses her with the Strength of Sampson, which she uses to charge ahead and engage King Olaf himself. Meanwhile, Geralt and Aeddan take down a number of Olaf's men including the sorcerer Tarkan, and Prince Yaroslav (who fortunately survives). Thyri receives several minor injuries courtesy of King Olaf, but is able to hold her own until her companions can force their way through the remaining troops to join her. Surrounded, Olaf stands with his back to the mast and fights on...until a well-placed arrow from Aeddan pins his kidney to the mast, and Thyri cuts his head off. With Olaf’s death - and the end of his Inspire Fighting effect - the fighting quickly peters out. Our Heroes have won the day for Danish King Sveyn, who showers them with rewards at a huge feast in Jomsborg!

Ah, I hadn't caught that was your chapter. Well thanks for writing it - we're all enjoying the heck out of it!

Scenario: the Battle of Jomsborg The year is 1001, the setting is the "real" medieval Europe, plus some low magic & a few monsters. Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvason, a larger-than-life living legend even by Viking standards, was believed to have died in last year's Battle of Svolder, when the mercenary Jomsvikings betrayed him to his enemy, King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark - tho no body was ever found. For more backstory, and an amusing look at Viking era politics (at least as portrayed in the sagas), see this post. Anyway, the PCs were in Kiev recently when they learned King Olaf is alive and has fallen in with the evil Prince Kor, a steppes nomad leader who may or may not be the literal Antichrist. In fact, they suspect Olaf may have become the embodiment of the Horseman Of War. ("Why yes, his horse did have a reddish coat now that you mention it...") Olaf passed through Kiev a month before the PCs, heading north and recruiting every warrior he could. The PCs have been furiously racing to catch up. In Gotland, they learn that two weeks ago King Olaf and his forces attacked and destroyed the Swedish capital Sigtuna, killed the Swedish King, and burned down the pagan religious center at Uppsala. Olaf then passed through here, hired all the warriors & ships he could, and departed 4 days ago with 30 ships and around 2000 men. They deduce that he's headed for Jomsburg, the fortress of the Jomsvikings. July 24th: Our Heroes reach Jomsborg to find a fierce battle taking place in the bay outside the fortress: King Olaf’s forces: 25 ships, 1700 warriors, including a large number of berserks (due to Olaf's powers as the Horseman Of War), plus King Olaf Bayan Tarkan, a Turkish sorcerer (demonologist) Prince Yaroslav, 13-year-old son of Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev, sent off to learn The Ways Of War; Vladimir has asked the PCs to try not to kill him A couple of other Individual Bad-Ass Viking Captains Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard: 30 ships, 2000 warriors Jomsvikings (allied with the Danes): 20 ships, 1300 warriors Our Heroes: 2 ships, 120 warriors plus 10 freed Welsh slaves (marginal fighters), and 5 PCs Thyri: Swedish Viking shieldmaiden Geralt: Irish holy warrior Aeddan: Welsh ranger/archer Abida: Muslim alchemist Edmondo: Roman Catholic priest [BTW, Olaf Tryggvason, Sweyn Forkbeard and Prince Yaroslav (later known as Yaroslav The Wise) are actual historical (or at least legendary) people. Same for the Jomsvikings - basically Pagan Viking Templers, which is as awesome as it sounds. The Battle of Svolder I took straight out of the Icelandic sagas; King Olaf's body was in fact never found, and rumors that he had survived persisted for years. But this Battle of Jomsborg is completely fictitious.] LET THE BATTLE COMMENCE!! (When I have more time to post...)

Yeah, it's a fair point. When asked, all my players said they really enjoyed it as a nice change of pace. But when it came time for the next battle scene, they said they'd prefer to just focus on their characters and have me narrate what's going on around them. Lesson 1: Talk To Your Players. (Which is never bad advice.)

Here's an example of a character sheet for a unit, in this case a squad of five Swedish Vikings. For simplicity, there were only two types of this unit, both of whom use the same sheet: Broadsword & Shield or Great Axe (better offense, lower Defense) Both types were also assumed to have bows (or at least had some available on the ship) Note that on the Attack table: "Atk Roll" is OCV+11+modifiers for that attack Under DCV, the higher number represents units with shields As noted above, we use Hit Locations and Sectional Armor in this campaign, but for simplicity all hits on squads were treated as being against torso (9-11). Swedes.pdf

I meant to post this awhile ago, but honestly forgot all about it. Last year in my Revelations 1001 historical fantasy campaign Our Heroes got involved in a massive Viking naval battle. (Viking "naval battles" mostly consisted of pulling the longships alongside each other and then fighting hand-to-hand, so it's really more of a melee battle that happens to take place onboard ships.) While I didn't want to wargame out the entire battle, just the number of fighters on the PCs' ship alone would be too many to handle individually. So I grouped most of the warriors on both sides together into squads of 5 and used a simplified version of the mass melee rules from FH. I thought it worked out pretty well, so I thought I'd post my results here. Rules: Individuals (PCs and major NPCs) were represented by their own paper minis. Squads were represented by counters. To simplify, all squads started out with 5 warriors. Each squad adds +4 to its starting BODY for unit size (see FH mass melee rules for further discussion) To simplify, I started all squads with 15 BODY (11 Base +4) just to make the breakpoints easier, but it would work with different BODY scores All other Characteristics were basically the same as the individuals' While we're using Hit Locations and sectional armor in this campaign, for squads we just treated all hits as being vs. Torso (9-11) Rather than increasing the damage that units do (as per FH), I represented that by giving squads Autofire attacks: Attacks against other squads hit on 1-for-1 Attacks against individuals hit on 1-for-2, as normal Each squad has a Readiness Level: which is affected by both Casualties and Morale: Full: +1 OCV, +1 DCV, +1 Morale, Autofire x5 Shaken: +0 OCV, +0 DCV, +0 Morale, Autofire x3 Disrupted: -1 OCV, -1 DCV, -1 Morale, No Autofire Routed/Destroyed: Unit is removed from play Most squads started as Full, but a few went in Shaken due to various reasons Casualties: Squads start with 15 BODY Units that have lost 5 BODY cannot be above Shaken (+0) Units that have lost 10 BODY cannot be above Disrupted (-1) Morale Check: Each squad has a Morale Roll, which is based on EGO with certain modifiers Squads must make a roll when a Unit takes damage > 1/3 its current (not starting) BODY, or when directed by GM. Failed Morale Check drops the Unit one Readiness Level. Rallying: A successful Rally raises a Unit’s Readiness Level, but it cannot exceed that indicated by its Casualties. Units get a free Rally (Morale Roll) post-Phase 12, or may take it as a Full Phase action per Recovery rules. Individual Characters may make Oratory Rolls or PRE Attacks to give bonuses/penalties to Rally Rolls. For each unit type, I gave the players a 1/2 page character sheet, along with a 1/2 page rules reference. I used Alea disks to represent each squad because they're awesome and you can write on them with dry erase markers. Each PC got a color to represent the troops they were controlling to make it easier to keep track of them, and the enemy troops were similarly color-coded. Written on each disk were 3 things: Unit type (mainly axes vs. sword & shield) Readiness Level Body damage taken, represented by hash marks I'll post some pics further down so you can see what it looked like. The beauty of this was that Body Damage and Readiness were the only characteristics that changed, so writing them on the disk eliminated the need to keep track of "Wait, how many body does this squad have left?" and so forth. That's the basics. I'll post the scenario and how the battle went in follow-on posts, along with some pictures, and end with my thoughts and observations.

While I'm at it, I had meant to post my interpretation of an interesting race of creatures from Welsh myth called the Coraniaid: Coraniaid Val Char Cost Roll Notes 12 STR 2 11- Lift 132.0kg; 2d6+1 [2] 12 DEX 4 11- OCV: 6/8/DCV: 6/9 14 CON 4 12- 10 INT 0 11- PER Roll 11-/16- 12 EGO 2 11- ECV: 3 - 3 12 PRE 2 11- PRE Attack: 2d6 6+2 OCV 5 6+3 DCV 5 3 OMCV 0 3 DMCV 0 3 SPD 10 Phases: 4, 8, 12 12+2 PD 2 Total: 12/14 PD (8/10 rPD) 12+2 ED 2 Total: 12/14 ED (8/10 rED) 5 REC 1 25 END 1 11 BODY 1 25 STUN 3 Total Characteristic Cost: 39 Movement: Running: 10m/20m Leaping: 2m/4m Swimming: 1m/2m Cost Powers END Hearing-Based Abilities, all slots Hearing-Based (-½) 7 1) Accuracy: +2 OCV (10 Active Points); Hearing-Based (-½) 4 2) Accuracy: +2 OCV (10 Active Points); Only vs. Ranged Attacks (-1), Hearing-Based (-½) 7 3) Attack Tracking: +2 DCV (10 Active Points); Hearing-Based (-½) 6 4) Ranged Attack Tracking: +3 DCV (15 Active Points); Only Vs. Ranged Attacks (-1), Hearing-Based (-½) 7 5) Anticipation: Lightning Reflexes (+10 DEX to act first with All Attacks) (10 Active Points); Hearing-Based (-½) 21 6) Alertness: Danger Sense (immediate vicinity, out of combat, Function as a Sense) (32 Active Points); Hearing-Based (-½) 16- 11 7) Danger Sense Dodging: Resistant Protection (8 PD/8 ED), Hardened (+¼) (30 Active Points); Requires A Roll (Danger Sense Roll; -½), Instant (-½), Hearing-Based (-½), Nonpersistent (-¼) 0 2 8) Absolute Range Sense (3 Active Points); Hearing-Based (-½) 10 9) They Know Of Any Plans Made Against Them: Deduction 16- (15 Active Points); Hearing-Based (-½) Can Hear Any Sound Carried By The Wind 10 1) Enhanced Hearing: +5 PER with Hearing Group 0 20 2) Combat Hearing: Targeting with Hearing Group 0 18 3) Parabolic Hearing: +12 versus Range Modifier for Hearing Group 0 7 4) Discriminatory Hearing: Detect Respiration 11-/16- (Hearing Group), Discriminatory 0 30 5) True Awareness: Spatial Awareness (Hearing Group), Discriminatory, Analyze 0 81 6) Clairsentience (Hearing Group), Mobile Perception Point (can move up to 12m per Phase), Persistent (+¼), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½), MegaScale (1m = 100 km; +1 ½) (81 Active Points) 0 1 Long-Lived: Life Support (Longevity: 200 Years) 0 Skills 4 WF: Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons 3 Defense Maneuver I 7 Analyze: Sounds 13- 3 Climbing 11- 7 Shadowing 13- 7 Stealth 13- 2 AK: Cymru (Wales) 11- 0 Language: Coranaid (idiomatic) (4 Active Points) 3 Language: Welsh (completely fluent) 2 Language: English (fluent conversation) 1 Language: Irish (fluent conversation; Similar to Welsh) Total Powers & Skill Cost: 281 Total Cost: 320 225+ Matching Complications 10 Negative Reputation: "The First Plague", Frequently (Extreme; Known Only To A Small Group) 5 Physical Complication: Small (4-5') (Infrequently; Barely Impairing) 15 Psychological Complication: Hates Humans (Common; Strong) 10 Social Complication: Mean, Nasty & Ornery Frequently, Minor 5 Susceptibility: Extremely Loud Noises 1d6 damage Instant (Uncommon) 30 Susceptibility: The crushed dust from a certain insect 3d6 damage per Segment (Uncommon) 95 Experience Points Total Complications Points: 320 TYPICAL EQUIPMENT CARRIED Spear, Medium Club Axe, Small Bow, Medium Sling Heavy Leather Armor Background/History: The First Plague that beset the reign of Lludd Llaw Eraint were the Coraniaid, a stunted race of beings who came to Britain and could not be forced out because their hearing was so acute that they could hear any sound the wind touches. Thus did they instantly know of any plans made against them. Indeed it is said their ears were so sharp they could hear arrows and other blows as they moved through the air and thus avoid all harm. Much woe did they cause among the Britons and all action against them seemed impossible. Thus did Lludd cross the water to Gaul and seek aid and advice from his brother Llefelys who was King there. And they did craft a long trumpet that muffled their conversation so that the Coraniaid could not hear their speech. And thus did Llefelys tells Lludd of a certain insect that when crushed up and mixed with water was deadly to the Coraniaid, but harmless to the Britons. Lludd returned to the country with many of the insects and did crush them up and mix them with water. And Lludd called a meeting of all his people and all the Coraniaid, and when all had gathered he threw the mix over the whole crowd, thereby killing the Coraniaid without harming his own people. Thus were the Coraniaid destroyed, but King Lludd did save some of the insects for breeding in the event the plague ever returned to Britain. Personality/Motivation: Mean, nasty & ornery, the Coranaid hate humans and wish to displace them from the land. Powers/Tactics: The Coranaid's main ability is their unnaturally-acute hearing. The primary narrative effect of their superior hearing is that they can hear any plans being amde against them, making them nearly impossible to surprise. It also allows them to "hear" attacks coming, making them hard to hit in combat, especially at range. They typically wear leather armor and carry a mix of spears, clubs and axes, although they prefer to fight at range with bows and slings. Campaign Use: Force your players to get creative in figuring out how to deal with them. Appearance: A dwarvish race of beings who average between 4' to 5' in height and stout. Their faces are misshapen and asymmetrical. Their hair ranges in color from dark brown and dark blue to black, and is usually worn long and stringy. Coraniaid.hdc

BTW, here's how I ran the whole "Tortured by the Antichrist" session. Basically during the day they were either force-marched in chains along with the army, or held in coffin-sized boxes designed to make it impossible to get any rest. Oh, and they's also been slipped a tiny potion that made them all sick with diarrhea, so that was fun - especially since the poison was one their own alchemist had created. I handled the poison as a Drain vs CON, REC, END & STUN. Each day, each Hero had to make a CON Roll to keep going in the face of sickness, starvation, and sleep deprivation. Each night, Kor's daughter would bring the exhausted PCs into her wagon one at a time to question them. Since she was basically asking them all the same questions, I ran the interrogations simultaneously even tho in game time they were sequential. I handled this as a series of cumulative Interrogation Rolls opposed by the PCs' EGO Rolls; PCs with Interrogation or Faith (Power Skill) could use that as Complimentary. If the Interrogation Roll succeeded, then the PCs talked, although PCs could use Acting, etc to try and lie. The problem was because they had no way to coordinate their stories, even their lies weren't very effective. I mainly left it up to the players to determine what information they gave and how. (My players are awesome, so I knew they would roleplay the hell out of it.) Also the PCs had to make CON Rolls each torture session to avoid taking damage. My favorite bits: Edmondo the priest totally broke down on like Day 2 and told them everything he knew, but by that point he was pretty delirious and wasn't making a lot of sense. And Thyri the Viking made all her CON Rolls (of course) but failed a couple of EGO Rolls, so she told them everything she knew about Byzantine politics...which was basically jack-all! After 3 days of this, they managed to escape. I had been more than a little nervous about how the players would react to this session. But it turned out the LOVED it for the great roleplaying opportunity it was!

Really well; thanks for asking! I stopped posting recaps because it didn't seem like anyone was actually reading them, but in summary: From Constantinople, they headed East over the Caucasus, and met up with Kor's army near Rey. (Current-day Tehran.) They infiltrated the army and were getting good intel, but they slipped up and got captured. They spent a session getting tortured by Kor's daughter, before eventually managing to escape. I was surprised at how much the players loved this session! While hiding from Kor's army, they stumbled onto a portal to Faerie and spent a few days there. (See above post.) They left Faerie through another portal and found themselves outside of Kiev. Grand Prince Vladimir had fallen under Kor's influence, but the Heroes were able to free him. They learned that Othar Trygvasson, the King of Norway who was thought to have died last year, had headed through here several weeks earlier gathering warriors as he went. Having reason to suspect Trygvasson is also the Horseman of War, they decided to go after him. They caught up with Trygvasson as he was attacking the fleet of Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard and the mercenary Jomsvikings. Trygvasson's forces seemed to be winning, partly due to his inhuman strength. The Heroes joined the battle, engaging Trygvasson and his chief retainers on the deck of his own longship. After a long, fierce battle, Aeddan pinned Trygvasson's kidney to the mast with an arrow, and Thyri cut off his head. One Horseman down! In the aftermath, Thyri fought a duel with her nemesis, the Jarl who killed her family, etc. Thyri killed her enemy, but not before he nicked her with a poisoned blade. With Thyri dying, they called on their Fey friends to take her off to Faerie/Avalon/Whatever until she could be healed. [The player was moving out of town.] The Heroes got information that the two Fey swords they had promised to recover were somewhere in Ireland, so they headed that way. They stopped off in Aeddan's homeland of Wales first, defeated a plot to destabilize Wales by turning Aeddan against his King, and defeated an ancient Welsh enemy called the Coraniaid. (Who are really cool and you should totally Google them!) Hopping over to Ireland, where Brian Boru is challenging the rule of High King Mael Sechnail. The heroes pick up a new PC, a semi-crazy pilgrim carrying a ton of Holy Relics (most of which are completely bogus...), and succeed in recovering the two Fey swords from a dungeon that may have been built by Odin? Afterwards, having figured out that High King Mael is going blind, the alchemist and the herbalist try to restore his sight...rolling not one buy two natural 3s in a row! They not only restore Mael's eyesight to 20-20, but he now also can see into the future! Mael realizes that Brian Boru is the leader Ireland truly needs right now, and abdicates in his favor, ending the civil war and reuniting Ireland. The crowning of the new High King at Tara is interrupted by an army of wicked Fae, led by several monstrous Fomorians. With the Heroes holding the center of the line, they are able to kill or drive off all the wicked Fey. About that time, a messenger arrives from Rome, announcing that Emperor Otto and Pope Sylvester have called a great Council of the Kings of Christendom, to be held in the City of Venice, to discus the threat posed by Kor. But the Heroes don't have the time to reach Italy by normal travel, so they decide to take a shortcut through Faerie. Unfortunately, they lose their way (due to some mischievous illusions cast by one of the wicked Fey who survived the battle). They wind up at the castle of a gigantic Fomorian named Cathaoir, formerly their fiercest warrior, but who has taken an oath of peace out of love for his "improbably beautiful wife" who may be the goddess Bridgit and/or the Irish Saint Bridget of Kildare. Unfortunately they are told that by using the Fey swords to kill Fomorians at Tara, they accidentally violated an ancient treaty and started a war between the Fomorians and the Fey. (Whoops!) They convince Cathaoir and Brigit to go try to persuade the Fomorians not to wipe out the Fey. [Results TBD] Leaving Faerie, they find themselves outside of Rome, which is in revolt against Emperor Otto (who is German). They find Otto camped with his army outside the walls of Rome, desperately in need of both a military and a moral victory here to solidify his credibility as Roman Emperor. But it seems the City's defenders have some supernatural help. Sneaking inside the walls, the Heroes find the leader of the opposition is their old frenemy Count Gregory (from way back in episode 1), along with some demonic forces sent by Kor. The Heroes manage to kill Gregory and the demons, and do so in such a way that the Senate sees the light, throws open the gates, and welcomes Otto in begging his forgiveness. The heroes grab a quick couple hours of sleep, because in the morning they have to ride like hell to get Otto to Venice in time for the Council he called. Whew! And that's where we're paused at the moment. 33 bi-weekly game sessions, 6 months game time. I'm seeing the Venetian Council as the end of Act 2 and start of Act 3, as the Heroes gather together the allies they've made for the final battle against Kor...

I loved Wynn's geek-out Especially since I had just finished telling almost those exact same words out loud. And hey, did anyone else catch Wynn dropping that I don't know if that was a studio-mandated concession or what; didn't bother me much, but I could hear the howls of nerd outrage even offline.

You’re also more likely to get a good performance out of them if it’s a direction that resonates with them and one they feel they had input into.

Yeah, the technobabble this week was less-plausible than normal, and that’s saying something. But honestly, who cares when it’s this much fun!

Hi Steve. I'm trying to reconcile how Damage Over Time works with Extra Time in effects built as multiple- stage powers. Specially I'm looking at the Bubonic Plague write-up in the Bestiary and the Equipment Guide. Each of the four stages of the disease has Damage Over Time with X damage increments, one per day for X days. (X=5 days for Second & Final Stages; X=3 for Third Stage.) No problem. The First Stage has Extra Time, starts 1 hour after exposure. Again, no problem. But the Second and Third Stages both have Extra Time "begins to affect victim one day after First Stage takes full effect, -3." The Final Stage similarly has Extra Time "begins to affect victim one day after Second Stage takes full effect, -3." The part I'm tripping over is what does "takes full effect" mean in this context? Normally I would assume it means once the power has run its course and gone through all its damage increments. But that makes the plague last an inordinately long amount of time... (starting 1 hour after exposure) Day 1: Drain 1d6 CON Day 2: Drain 1d6 CON Day 3: Drain 1d6 CON Day 4: Drain 1d6 CON Day 5: Drain 1d6 CON Day 6: Drain 1d6 STR & 1d6 Striking Appearance Day 7: Drain 1d6 STR & 1d6 Striking Appearance Day 8: Drain 1d6 STR & 1d6 Striking Appearance Day 9: Drain 1d6 STR Day 10: Drain 1d6 STR Day 11: Drain 1d6 BODY Day 12: Drain 1d6 BODY Day 13: Drain 1d6 BODY Day 14: Drain 1d6 BODY Day 15: Drain 1d6 BODY See what I mean? The other possible interpretation I can think of is "takes full effect" simply means once the power has activated and begun its first damage increment. But that would mean the 2nd & 3rd stages kick in when the 1st Stage does, ie 1 hour after exposure; and the Final stage kicks in at the same time as the 2nd Stage, again 1 hour after exposure? (starting 1 hour after exposure) Day 1: Drain 1d6 CON, 1d6 STR, 1d6 Striking Appearance, & Drain 1d6 BODY Day 2: Drain 1d6 CON, 1d6 STR, 1d6 Striking Appearance, & Drain 1d6 BODY Day 3: Drain 1d6 CON, 1d6 STR, 1d6 Striking Appearance, & Drain 1d6 BODY Day 4: Drain 1d6 CON, STR, & Drain 1d6 BODY Day 5: Drain 1d6 CON, STR, & Drain 1d6 BODY That seems to match up a bit better with the disease's normal progression as I understand it. But then it's not really four different stages; it's just Drain that affects 3 Characteristics, with Extra Time starts 1 hour after exposure. ...or am I missing something? EDIT: I think I figured it out after I hit post. Is the below right? (starting 1 hour after exposure) Day 1: Drain 1d6 CON Day 2: Drain 1d6 CON, 1d6 STR, 1d6 Striking Appearance Day 3: Drain 1d6 CON, 1d6 STR, 1d6 Striking Appearance, 1d6 BODY Day 4: Drain 1d6 CON, 1d6 STR, 1d6 Striking Appearance, 1d6 BODY Day 5: Drain 1d6 CON, 1d6 STR, 1d6 BODY Day 6: Drain 1d6 STR, 1d6 BODY Day 7: Drain 1d6 BODY

Agreed. First Class and Days Of Future Passed were pretty good tho, and Logan and Deadpool were both amazing; throw in shows like The Gifted, Legion and they've definitely had more hits than misses. But I think the author was mainly talking about Fox's newfound penchant for variety over formula; again, Logan, Deadpool, Legion, and now New Mutants were all pretty bold breaks from the superhero norm. I also liked the author's point that Marvel was forced to be clever about how they built their early movies, because they had licensed off all their best-known characters. I agree with you there.

I didn't mind Brainy's color; it just looked patchy to me. But that's a minor nitpick in my book. (Hmm...I wonder if they avoided making him green because it interacts poorly with the green screen?) I will admit being a little disappointed with the costumes. Not because I have any particular affection for the original comics; let's face it, everything about the original LSH was goofy as hell even by Silver-Age standards. But if ever there was an opportunity to go completely nuts in the costuming department, surely a team of superheroes from the 31st Century is that opportunity; and they went with... X-Men black leather? I was a little underwhelmed by their big fight scene too. I get that that the Legionnaires were way out of their weight class. And I'm sure the show blew half their sfx budget for the season in the previous episode. But still. After all the build-up, Saturn Girl gets in one (ineffective) attack, Mon-El gets to run 10 feet, and Braniac just plays spaceship gunner. Bit of an anticlimax, especially after the DEO did reasonably well in their own fight.

Oh, for those of who like me have had struggles with depression, the book that has had the biggest impact on my life this last year was The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression One Small Change at a Time by Dr. Alex Korb. I don't typically read many self-help books, and calling any book “life-changing” is usually such a hyperbolic cliché, but in this case I feel it’s justified. Unlike so many self-help books, this one starts from "Here's what the latest, best research says about how your brain works" and proceeds from there to "...so here are some concrete things you can do about it."

Just finished Thanks Obama: My Hopey Changey White House Years by former White House Speech Writer David Litt. Absolutely hysterical, and a great look at what's it's actually like to work in the White House. (Or at least, in the Executive Office Building across the street...) Highly recommended. I also recently finished Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O'Neil. A very informative look at how corporations, government, etc are increasingly using algorithms to make decisions about our lives, and how badly flawed many of those algorithms are.

First up: YAY! Hysterical, tho I think that clip is actually a couple years old. (The "Coming in 2016" was a clue.) But was I the only one thinking "C'mon, we know Ultron is in love with the Wasp! He'd never abandon Janet for Natasha!" ... Just me then? OK. You underestimate the pop-culture fu of your average Millennial. Moose & Squirrel is part of common knowledge now, even among people who've never seen an actual Bullwinkle episode. It doesn't mean this specific script is the one that will get filmed, sure. But it means they're serious about making a BW movie. I wouldn't call it a done deal, but after all these years of "maybe, some day, love to but reasons..." this is a huge step forward. The twit in this case being Ike Perlmutter, from all accounts. Who Disney pushed out of the way in 2015. I wouldn't say it was unnecessary, personally. But like a lot of things in AoU, it just wasn't handled as well as it could've been.

That's what it was reminding me of! I couldn't quite put my finger on it! Tho fortunately (my childhood crush on Joan Severance notwithstanding) Annable is both a better actress, and a much more convincing athlete. (And/or has better stunt double and better fight choreography.) And Brany's hair didn't bug me so much as his makeup job. I'm sure it was done that way on purpose, but to me the uneven coloration just made it look like...well, a bad makeup job.

I am running a GAC game at GenghisCon next month, and will make sure to wave the book around prominently!

We’re used to equating “oppressed peoples” with “minorities” because that’s been our history. But there are plenty of historical counter-examples; South Africa, et al. So whether the orcs are numerically in the minority, they were being treated the way we treat minorities. Semantics