bigdamnhero

CAN SHE ACT!!!!!
 
 
Jesus.

Oh I get it. (And I do get that you're defending someone else's position, not arguing your own.)
 
Nothing wrong with having a preference, nor with expressing one. And if that's the most important thing in a Wonder Woman movie for you, ok fine. But then be up front about that being about your tastes, rather than pretending it has anything to do with age or some deficiency on the part of the actress or filmmakers.
 
To put it another way, if an athletic 30-year-old woman looks to you like she "still has some physical maturing to do," the problem is yours not hers. Don't find her attractive? Fine - no one says you have to. But that doesn't make her a child or childlike or immature or any other BS euphemism.

9 Sessions in, here are some random thoughts/observations on how things are going, some specific to this campaign, and some applicable to fantasy gaming more generally:
 
Tl:dr - everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. After last week's game, two players were debating whether that session was the Best Game Session Ever, or only in their personal Top 10. So I'll take that as a win! (Who knew being captured and tortured by the Antichrist wound be such a crowd-pleaser?)
 
One challenge has been that roughly half the PCs are outdoorsey types with poor social skills, and the other half are urban-social characters with poor outdoorsey skills. So when we're in the city doing political intrigue, half the players are bored/useless, and when we're on the road/wilderness, the other half are bored/useless. So I'm working harder to bridge that gap and keep everyone engaged at the same time.
 
As I've alluded to elsewhere, the lack of a common tongue has been more of a pain in the butt than I expected. Aside from several info-dumps almost getting completely missed due to language differences, I think it's made some of the players feel a step removed from the action when they can't talk to the NPCs directly. So I've gained a new appreciation for that RPG trope.
 
The thing about low-fantasy games is: once you let the PCs have magic, they're going to expect to use it regularly. As well they should - they paid points for them, after all. But it's harder to maintain the feel of "magic is this really rare thing" when literally every combat includes at least one verifiable miracle. I'm moving into acceptance on this one - nothing I can do about it now without nerfing entire character concepts.
 
Along similar lines, in hindsight I kinda wish I'd been more restrictive about the use of magical Healing. Harder to keep things gritty when the Priest heals everybody's wounds as soon as the battle is over. But the idea was to use Biblical miracles as the basis, and particularly in the NT 90% of them were some form of healing.
 
Another thing about low fantasy games is it can be really hard to work in things from a PC's backstory - family dynamics, clan politics, etc - when they're all 2000+ miles from home. I thought of that in terms of whether or not something is worth a Complication, but it also has I think made it harder for a couple players to get into character because their backstories just don't come up as often.
 
The problem with prophecies (like the Book of Revelation and its equivalent passages in the Quoran): if things play out exactly as prophesied, then there are no surprises. And if things don't follow the script exactly, then you have subverted/nullified the prophecy. "As It Was Foretold" has always been my least-favorite literary device, and frankly this has only reinforced that for me.
 
Google Earth and the Internet generally are a godsend for historical games! "So what does the terrain north of us look like?" "I dunno, let's take a look..." (Mostly doing that between games, not actually at the table.) Similarly, being able to pull up paintings of what 11th Century Constantinople actually looked like really makes things feel more real and lived in.
 
For someone whose knowledge of medieval history has been very Europe-centric, researching what's going on east of the Bosporus has been highly educational. I mean I knew 11th century Europe was basically a backwater, but I hadn't fully appreciated just how much. The further east they travel it's like moving forward in time several centuries. And I keep looking into areas that in my mind were blank spots on the map, and finding out actually it's been highly settled and developed for 2000 years at this point. Sobering to realize just how selective my education has been.
 
And after struggling to pronounce actual Arabic names like Mahmud bin Sebuktigin, and Abol-Hasan Qābūs ibn Wušmagīr ibn Ziyar Sams al-maʿālī, I will never again make fun of fantasy authors for their unpronounceable names.

One the subject of Amazon's removal of one of their breasts for combat:
 
 
So it seems that this is an "old wives tale" and didn't happen in real life. 

I think the standard of less hip and breast than Linda Carter being 'waif-like' makes almost all the women in the world waifs.
 
Further, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest the radical idea that the producers of the TV show were not looking at certain of Linda Carter's aspects and then looking at the costume and saying, "Man, this is totally going to sell, because of the fan sensibilities and the keen understanding by the viewer of Amazonian features based on classical sources that may or may not actually describe them this way." And the depiction in comics, not much different.
 
Where is the outcry over her not having one breast removed for more effective combat skills like the amazons were said to have done?
 
Honestly, Linda Carter never, in a million years, could pull off the physical aspects needed to actually do the action that wasn't done in the old show ONLY because special effects were limited back then. If they could have, they would have. We all know that for decades, super hero shows and movies simply could not capture the comic book fights.
 
This is not anything against Linda Carter, but Gadot can pull off the action. Linda Carter has never given the impression of someone who could look threatening with sword, spear, or shield. I'm pretty sure she'd agree with this statement. Gadot did just fine doing so. Summarizing them as both having skinny limbs is meaningless. Not all skinny is the same. Some skinny is athletic. And some athleticism has more carryover to actually pulling off the warrior thing.
 
There is no way that MOST beauty queens, Linda Carter included, could pull off the role of a modern action hero for film. And that depiction, as far as the action, is far closer to the source material, comic books, than it ever was before, whatever our opinions of where the movies digress from the source material.
 
Not to mention she's a gorgeous woman who looks Greek. And looks like a grown woman.
 
Now, Michael Keaton, totally wrong casting. I always pictured Beetlejuice as taller.

Okay, when I made my original comment about Lynda vs. Gal, I was kind of joking. I did not intend to start some sort of body shaming flame war. If this discussion stops being civil I will start posting nudes of myself in all my wrinkly, spotted glory. You have been warned.

Oh I get it. (And I do get that you're defending someone else's position, not arguing your own.)
 
Nothing wrong with having a preference, nor with expressing one. And if that's the most important thing in a Wonder Woman movie for you, ok fine. But then be up front about that being about your tastes, rather than pretending it has anything to do with age or some deficiency on the part of the actress or filmmakers.
 
To put it another way, if an athletic 30-year-old woman looks to you like she "still has some physical maturing to do," the problem is yours not hers. Don't find her attractive? Fine - no one says you have to. But that doesn't make her a child or childlike or immature or any other BS euphemism.

Lynda Carter was 24 when she first put on the tiara, 6 years younger than Gadot in BvS. Of all the things we can blame DC/Warner for - and they are Legion - "too young" doesn't seem like a valid one.
 
Honestly I don't even thing we can compare the two. Lynda Carter was the definitive Silver Age Wonder Woman, much like Christopher Reeves was the definitive Silver Age Superman. It was the 70s; that was all we were allowed. Lynda's biggest strength was her ability to keep a straight face amidst all the campy silliness and always take the character seriously even when the writers didn't. Certainly Gadot is more athletic, now that women are actually allowed to have muscle tone outside of martial arts movies. And it goes without saying the stunt/fight choreography is going to be way better now even without allowing for movie-vs-TV budgets. But I don't really feel like we've seen enough of Gadot to say based on her minimal screen time in BvS. I liked her in BvS, but let's face it she also looked better just in comparison to everyone else in that awful festering turd of a movie. And yeah the WW trailer looks good, but trailers lie. Ask me again in June and I'll have an actual opinion.
 
I suspect which version you prefer will come down to Silver Age vs Iron/Modern Age more than anything to do with the actresses themselves.

Just a radical thought here: Could we judge the movie after it comes out? It probably will suck (it was made way too late for Warner's to accurately judge the backlash against BvS), but we won't know for sure until the movie's released. Right now it exists in a state of quantum uncertainty.
 
(Apologies to all the physicists on the board. High school physics bored the sh** out of me.)
 
Also, why are people picking on Gal Gadot because of her figure? Has anyone gone after Hugh Jackman for not being short or Christopher Reeve for not looking like a '60s Curt Swan drawing?

Lynda Carter was 24 when she first put on the tiara, 6 years younger than Gadot in BvS. Of all the things we can blame DC/Warner for - and they are Legion - "too young" doesn't seem like a valid one.
 
Honestly I don't even thing we can compare the two. Lynda Carter was the definitive Silver Age Wonder Woman, much like Christopher Reeves was the definitive Silver Age Superman. It was the 70s; that was all we were allowed. Lynda's biggest strength was her ability to keep a straight face amidst all the campy silliness and always take the character seriously even when the writers didn't. Certainly Gadot is more athletic, now that women are actually allowed to have muscle tone outside of martial arts movies. And it goes without saying the stunt/fight choreography is going to be way better now even without allowing for movie-vs-TV budgets. But I don't really feel like we've seen enough of Gadot to say based on her minimal screen time in BvS. I liked her in BvS, but let's face it she also looked better just in comparison to everyone else in that awful festering turd of a movie. And yeah the WW trailer looks good, but trailers lie. Ask me again in June and I'll have an actual opinion.
 
I suspect which version you prefer will come down to Silver Age vs Iron/Modern Age more than anything to do with the actresses themselves.

Yes I was.

It was really Avengers 2.5.

[shrug] It's also quite possible they made twice as much money as they could have if they'd more closely followed comic book tropes instead of action movie tropes. I mean I get your point, but given the orders-of-magnitude difference in audience sizes we're talking about, I can't really get too mad at the studio for not throwing away all the lessons they've learned from decades of making movies that are backed up by an ocean of (flawed but extensive) research and focus-grouping, in favor of tropes favored by a relative handful of nerds just because I happen to be one of the latter. And as for taking half measures, don't forget they already took a huge number of risks that many people at the time didn't expect to pay off. They only look safe now in hindsight because we know they paid off.
 
As for the CW shows, I love Supergirl, really like Flash, enjoy Arrow in spite of its flaws, and thought Legends was a complete train wreck. (Haven't seen any of this season's premieres yet.)
 
Agents of SHIELD I gave up on after I realized that each week I couldn't remember the previous week's episode until the "Previously on..." recaps; at least the CW shows are seldom boring.

Rolling Stones' 25 Best Movie Performances of 2016
 
From killer comedic turns to Oscar-worthy emoting – these were the actors who gave us the greatest movie moments of the year
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/25-best-movie-performances-of-2016-w452454/tom-holland-captain-america-civil-war-w454102
 
 
   
Rewatching that scene again, I tend to agree, that is Peter Parker talking. 

I don't necessarily need a more inclusive, fun-loving movie, I just want them to stop picking the gloomiest and darkest stories imaginable and I just want the characters to act like the characters.  I want Superman to be Superman, not the Sentry.  I want Batman to be Batman, not the Punisher.  I want Lex Luthor to be Lex Luthor, not the Joker....
 
 
I also want to Doomsday to be Doomsday...not a cave troll from LOTR.

Riiiiiight.  Hope all you like, but you'll pardon me if I don't hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

tldr - The triumph of optimism over evidence and experience, aka "I Want To Believe."

tldr - The triumph of optimism over evidence and experience, aka "I Want To Believe."

Some gems from last night's FH game, only some of which were because one of our players just had surgery and was on major pain meds....
 
The Fey are telling our Heroes about two legendary swords:
Fey: "They have been known by many names, but in the legends of your people they are sometimes called Fragarach & Moralltach*"
Thyri: "Wait, Fraggle Rock and More Talk?" (OOC) "Shut up, I'm on pain meds!"
 
Later...
Thyri: OK, so we find these swords, Latitude and Longitude or whatever..." (OOC) "Shut up, I'm on pain meds!"
 
 
A few episodes ago, Father Edmondo got poisoned, tortured and generally mistreated, and was hallucinating. The others are giving him a hard time about it.
Thyri: "You got into a theological debate with a lamp..."
Edmondo: "It was a good discussion."
Thyri: "...and you lost."
Edmondo: "In my defense, that lamp made some surprisingly good points about the nature of God that I hadn't considered before."
Aeddan: "What kind of lamp? Just curious."
Edmondo: "An oil lamp. Of course. No mere kerosene lamp could match my intellect!"
 
 
Aeddan the Ranger gets into an archery challenge with a Fey woman named Aletcien. There's some mutual flirting as they head off:
Edmondo: "Have fun. Be sure to empty your quiver."
[cue juvenile snickering that cannot be fully blamed on pain meds]
Edmondo: "What?"
 
With some lucky rolls, Aeddan manages to win the contest. Aletcien is so impressed she jumps his bones there and then.
Thyri: (to Edmondo) "You did tell him to empty his quiver."
Edmondo: "Yeah, my bad."
 
Afterwards...
Aletcien: "So are all the men of your land so skilled with their...arrows?"
Aeddan: "Yeah, pretty much."
Thyri: (OOC) "Dude, seriously? That is not the right answer!"
 
 
* Actual sword names from Celtic myth that the GM did not make up.

Alternately, Firestorm's player is the guy who's perpetually distracted and never remembers what's on his character sheet.
 
GM: "Firestorm, you're up."
Player: [looks up from phone] "Who, me? Oh, um...I Blast him I guess."
GM: [sighs] "Whatever. Roll it."
 
I've actually had exactly that happen in one convention game I ran. An experienced gamer I knew and had gamed with before but had never played Champions before sat down at my table and picked the Mystic Master PC, the one who was built to be the versatile Swiss Army Knife character. The dude literally used the same RKA spell every Phase for the entire game.

Superheros know, there is no such thing as 'topic', only crime which needs to be foiled.

To get back on topic:
"Sometimes being super also means, being super confused how your powers even fit together."

Alternately, Firestorm's player is the guy who's perpetually distracted and never remembers what's on his character sheet.
 
GM: "Firestorm, you're up."
Player: [looks up from phone] "Who, me? Oh, um...I Blast him I guess."
GM: [sighs] "Whatever. Roll it."
 
I've actually had exactly that happen in one convention game I ran. An experienced gamer I knew and had gamed with before but had never played Champions before sat down at my table and picked the Mystic Master PC, the one who was built to be the versatile Swiss Army Knife character. The dude literally used the same RKA spell every Phase for the entire game.

Agreed.
Tho the shot of Sppidey swinging alongside Iron Man did make me squee. A little.

No Conscious Control - half level, player picks when to use it, GM determines effect.