Tjack

11 hours ago, Steve said:

Where’s the challenge?

Well, there are all those rebels out there who unimaginably dislike V’han’s New World Order being imposed on their society. Welcome to V’han’s version of the SS, only your conscience won’t bother you very much because you are bettering society. Really.

 

But what if your enlightened reforms run up against V’han’s rules? Congratulations! You’re now a traitorous rebel, and one of V’han’s jackbooted minions will be along to teach you the error of your ways any minute now. Perhaps some telepathic reconditioning of your errant neurons will bring you back into the fold, comrade.

   Wow, what comic books are you reading?  I can get behind a less sunny take on things.  More of a shades of gray style like in Marvel’s Imperial Guard or the run of Alien Legion, but what you’ve just described is more of a Villians campaign and I’ve never enjoyed those.  If that’s what you want to run, and you have players willing to give it a go then best of luck to you.

“Woodrow Crashes the Scooter” was the name of a band listed in Dark Champions (I think) as part of a city nightlife section.  It became a tag line every time my friends and I heard a bizarre Alternative Rock band name.   Alice In Chains, Jane’s Addiction, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Hootie & the Blowfish etc.

9 hours ago, Pariah said:

"Drinking with Khonsu" sounds like the name of a band. I just can't decide which genre.

Xxxxx

2 hours ago, tkdguy said:

 

Did the chicken talk back?

  Depends on the quality of the booze.

2 hours ago, Bazza said:

Love the scorpion bit him one, and I presume the guy drinking with Khonsu is Moon Knight. 

   Or the guy was so hammered he didn’t realize he spent the entire night talking to a chicken.

I think the archetypal Hero Henchman would have to be Alfred Pennyworth.  Not a sidekick because he doesn’t as a rule go into combat but provides an incredible support system for the hero.  Too many useful skills and doesn’t get into enough danger to be a DNPC either

Is there anybody at that level of wealth who ISN’T a complete nut job?   Musk, Bezos, the Coke brothers....all wack-a-doos

 The Surbrook site came instantly to my mind as well. Everybody else just got there first.

1 hour ago, death tribble said:

One of my mother's cousin's grandsons came up to give my mother flowers and brought us both Kentucky Fried Chicken for tea.

    You’re mistaken.  When you dunk the chicken in hot water you get soup, not tea.😜
     (Sorry, but when I read your post I got the image of a lovely delicate china tea cup with a chicken leg in it.)

  An unexpected silver lining during the height of the mask wearing/everybody obsessively washing their hands days was that the incidents of ordinary colds and flu plummeted. Now that people (including myself) have been slacking off they are returning to normal levels.

   I mention this because I currently have a bitca of a cold, and with my respiratory problems it’s a real pain in the a$$.

Keep wearing your masks, friends. 

While the IG were definitely part of the military, the LSH were deputized by the Science Police. The SP operated like a cross between U.N.T.I.L. and Starfleet.  All depending on the writer and whether it was the Silver or Bronze Age.

34 minutes ago, AlgaeNymph said:

In that I'm talking about scenarios outside of military service.

1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

   .....CHOMP!!  (muffled) “Needed hot sauce.”

In what ways would this differ from a Legion of Superheroes or Imperial Guard (same thing) type campaign?

45 minutes ago, Spence said:

Another really great series is the Howdunit series of writers guides.

They are basically writers guides in multiple disciplines. 

 

Here are the titles I have.

Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit) Mactire, Sean P.

Police Procedural: A Writer's Guide to the Police and How They Work (Howdunit) Bintliff, Russell

Armed and Dangerous: A Writer's Guide to Weapons (Howdunit Series) Newton, Michael

Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries (Howdunit Series) Page, David W.

Scene of the Crime: A Writer's Guide to Crime Scene Investigation (Howdunit Series) Wingate, Anne

Police Procedure & Investigation: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit) Lofland, Lee

Cause of Death : A Writer's Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine (Howdunit Series) Wilson, Keith D.

Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons (Howdunit Series) Stevens, Serita Deborah

Howdunit Forensics, Lyle, D P

Book of Poisons: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit Series) Stevens, Serita and Bannon, Anne

 

I mostly run investigative style games so these were fantastic resources to give things a gloss of believablity. 

 

 

 

23 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

I have all these books...Hubby side-eyes them all the time.

    I would find it hard to believe that you two aren’t on a few lists somewhere.

51 minutes ago, Pattern Ghost said:

I'm just going to say that you aren't considering the totality of the situation. That's a bit simplistic. I'm going to bow out before I get moderated out. That said, I know you aren't speaking from ill intent, and just ask you consider the whole situation. "Teach them well" hardly ever garnishes the intended results, for so, so many reasons that are beyond the control of the person attempting to do said teaching.

    I agree with you that my viewpoints are only as a small part in what must be a total re-education for men and women as well as boys and girls about how we treat one another in this world. But just because an idea isn’t a solution in and of itself doesn’t mean that it can’t have some value as part of a whole.  
       Peace & Long Life to you,  Ghost of the Pattern.

1 hour ago, Pattern Ghost said:

I think there's a difference between acting surprised and demanding accountability. This has been going on since the start of the industry, as you said. Nobody's surprised. The thing that is different is that modern communication, especially through the internet and social media, makes it possible for all of the little voices to stand up and equal that one rich, powerful voice in the room, and demand accountability. What we're seeing is a shift in the power dynamic.

 

The rest of your post is victim blaming. You don't know what was going on in any of those starlet's heads. And Paltrow was a starlet at the time, regardless of her parents' past accomplishments. Emma is what launched her. From what I know of the situation, she handled Weinstein's advances in the moment. Then, Brad Pitt, who was in a position where he wouldn't face consequences, had a "talk" with Weinstein to ensure his future good conduct with Paltrow, as she had two more movies to make with Weinstein at that point. You're criticizing the actions of a 22 year old without actually knowing what was going on in her head, not the actions of a 49 year old Hollywood elite.

 

"Why did you put yourself in that situation?" may be a valid question, strongly depending on the context. "You shouldn't have put yourself in that situation," is a completely BS attack on a victim.

   While I may not agree with everything you’ve said, I respect your opinion and would defend your right to say it.

I’m not blaming the victims of an assault, I am insisting that we as concerned people teach our daughters to be aware of their surroundings, to understand that there are people in the world who would do them harm and to always be ready to fight back when some bastard tries to hurt them. We teach kids not to drive drunk, and the possible consequences if they do. How is this different?

   We have in the past raised generations who kept their heads in the sand and hoped it would all just go away.  That is on us, not them. When I was younger I remember there was a news story about a co-ed who was assaulted in the room of a college jock when she walked him alone back to his dorm because he was too drunk to walk, went upstairs, got him undressed to sleep and was attacked. He had no memory of doing it and would probably never done so of his own conscious volition.

  No modern young woman would put herself into such a dangerous situation anymore. This education must not only continue but go further. If we teach them not to climb into the lion’s cage, we can at least help alleviate some of the pain.

   Getting back to the digression....  Hasn’t the Trope/Cliche about Hollywood Producers, Directors and Actors ALWAYS been that they were screaming louts, bully’s and sexual predators?  This stuff goes all the way back to the Black & White era. The stories about Jack Warner of Warner Bros. alone have filled books. 
   Isn’t it a little disingenuous of society to say “Oh how horrible” now like it’s such a big surprise that rich & powerful men with the control over somebody’s livelihood would act this way?  
  And to take an unpopular viewpoint...I’m getting a little tired of the story of how some seemingly intelligent young actress puts herself into a dangerous situation with a known a$$hole and seems amazed when something awful happens.  This is like the many stories where someone climbs into the cage at the zoo with a large wild animal and gets mauled. The animal gets destroyed and said idiot goes on the morning news.

  At some point there has to be some level of personal responsibility.  If I’m driving down the road at night and someone dressed in black leaps in front of my car making a Tik-Tok video about scaring drivers then if they get hurt I’m the one charged and paying their hospital bills.  Gwynith Paltrow was the child of a movie director and an accomplished actress. Shouldn’t she have been clued in enough to to know that taking a late night meeting with Harvey Weinstein was a REALLY BAD IDEA!   Yes he’s a swine, but there’s somethings a smart person just doesn’t do.

  I agree that these behaviors must be dragged into the light, protested against, legal charges filled against....but please just stop acting surprised.

  One of the better remembered bad ripoffs was “Battle Beyond the Stars”.  A jump on the bandwagon Sci-Fi epic starring Richard Thomas (John-Boy from TV’s Waltons) looking for space mercenaries that included...Sybil Danning, George Peppard (pre A-Team) as Cowboy and most notably Robert Vaughn playing pretty much the same character as he did in Magnificent Seven.

Is it my imagination or does The Spectre look a little Alex Ross-ish?

That’s not editing. That his wife tossing his a$$ to the curb for being romantic with that waitress at the bar.

   This is more about them out there than us in here.  “Is calling it an Arena Game really a bad thing for them?”

  For a very long time I’ve been noticing/complaining to friends about/ranting about the glacier slow change from games that were about interacting with friends around a table pizza & beer style with a game that had human (Elf, Orc, Dragon, Alien, etc.) emotional responses built into it.

   From the first time someone tried to get me interested in World of Warcraft, I looked at it and said “I go gaming to be with people.” Talking through a headset to strangers and thinking it’s a relationship is like calling the people on FaceBook your friends. I had seen Magic:The Gathering start to come up but everyone still had to sit around the same table for it back then.  All I see now are new ways to keep yourself amused while you’re alone at home. Even what’s called RPG’s now like Arkham Asylum contain no actual roleplay. Only chasing around on a preplanned story you can only win or lose at.   Try having your Batman call a temporary truce with Penguin and Two-Face so the three of you can go after the Joker. It can’t be done. The human element has been eliminated.

   Marvel’s new game could do very well with players who only want to match up stats and not have to/get to portray the characters they are representing.

    I feel like a dinosaur looking up at the pretty comet about to hit and wondering how much time there is left.

On 4/11/2022 at 10:31 PM, Pariah said:

 "You know, I could have been in the NSA, but they found out my parents were married."

On 4/12/2022 at 1:03 PM, BoloOfEarth said:

 

"Hey, Abby, Abby, come on, now, the FBI'd give him twins!"

   “You know cow mutilations are up 10%.”

              **********************
 “What do you want?”

   “Peace on earth, good will towards men.”

”We’re the United States Government....WE DON’T DO THAT!!”

   ”Tell him you’ll try.”

       ************************************

”You could have anything in the world, and you’re asking for my phone number?”

  “Yes.”

”555-1234”     (I couldn’t remember the number, what do you expect at 3:43 am?)

58 minutes ago, Certified said:

     There’s quite a few of these wonderful offers out there in the the net’verse.

1 hour ago, Logan.1179 said:

The Batman movie we deserve...

 

    This looks like one of those “translated from English into X and then translated back again” kind of deals.

57 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

@Tjackdid you know that the Magnificent Seven is a remake of the classic Samurai film Seven Samurai?

 
     Yes and it was also the basis of many, many other remakes on both TV episodes and Motion Pictures.

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

Ah'm a gonna cast Cloud of Lead Pellets!  Ala- kaBLAM!

 

   X number of RKA dice w/ Y number of charges is all the same whether it’s called Fireball or shotgun.

   At what point does a “post-apocalypse” campaign start to look like a D&D campaign with no magic but with guns?
”Our band of wandering adventurers travel from town to village to occasional city in search of bad guys to kill, treasure to fill our pockets and fair maidens to woo.”

   Just for grins & giggles I once came up with a list of D&D adventures stolen specifically from old Westerns.

1) Your group must protect a traveling caravan of squabbling passengers thru hostile Orc territory.  (Stagecoach)

2) Your group has taken refuge in a military fort under Orc siege and commanded by an incompetent   (Fort Apache)

3) Your group has been hired by poor farmers to drive away bandits.   (Magnificent Seven)    And many others.

  There are no truly new ideas, just new flourishes and locations.