Tjack

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.

Mildly NSFW...
 
 

As far as I'm concerned, the Game Master has one job and one job only: To make sure that everyone in the group including (him or herself) is having fun. That's it. Nothing about building a sophisticated world or setting, nothing about leading (or railroading) players through tricks and traps, nothing about constructing clever puzzles for the players to solve. It's just about having fun.
 
I think the common comparison of Game Master = Deity is misguided. I don't think the GM has to know everything about the setting, and they certainly don't have to plan for every eventuality. It's fruitless to think that you could even do so. If the players are even half as clever as you - and in my case, that's not a particularly high bar to clear - they're going to come up with things that you couldn't predict in a hundred years. And that's fine. You just have to be able to roll with it.
 
Rather than a Divine figure, I think of the Game Master as a tour guide. Lead the players through an interesting, challenging, and fun experience. Yes, set things up to make the experience interesting and challenging, but also realize that the players are going to do something completely out of left field from time to time and be willing to be okay with that. It is said that no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, and while the players are not the enemy of the Game Master, experience tells me that this is true for Game Masters as well. Because the successful RPG isn't just the GM's story, it's everyone's story.

Damn Spellcheck!
 
    “God help us if the Ukrainian people start getting proper weapons and training.”
    “ I don’t think we’re allowed to believe in God.”
     “Oh......Then we’re screwed.”
     

[Cop on his first day]: "Suspect is dancing naked through the downtown."
 
[Dispatch]: "Copy that."
 
[Cop]: "Well, I can try, but I'm not a very good dancer..."

From our old friend bunneh:
 
Two Russians are talking about the "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine. "So what is this all about?" asks the first.
 
"Well, basically it's a proxy war between Russia and NATO," says the other.
 
"Wow," says the first. "How's it going?"
 
"So far we've lost a flagship, 15,000 troops, 8 generals, 500 tanks, and 100 planes."
 
"Geez, that's a lot," says the first guy. "How about NATO?"
 
The second guy shakes his head. "They haven't shown up yet."

I always go back to the comics for inspiration.  Didn’t the Hulk work with and later lead an organization like this during the Peter David “Professor Hulk” run?
     Also as an organization I like the Blood.  It’s a nice bit of backround for a campaign. It introduces Heroes, Villians and NPC’s with interesting history’s and motivations. And if you’re running for newish players a good low impact mysterious situation to unravel. They require very little updating and with the MCU’s version of the Inhumans and Eternals there’s already a precedent for that kind of thing in the players minds.

Because the Empire is not unequivocally Evil. Istvatha V'han genuinely wants to govern well and improve the lot of all her subjects. In most of the dimensions she's conquered, the quality of life has markedly improved for their inhabitants. Taxation is not onerous, justice is administered even-handedly, war is abolished, crime and corruption are vigorously rooted out. The benefits of advanced technology are shared with all in education, medical care, communication, transportation. The opportunities for increased trade with other dimensions in the Empire bolster conquered worlds' economies, and V'han makes sure the profits are spread around equitably. The vast majority of the Empire's citizens approve of and support her rule, and in time most conquered worlds come around to that viewpoint. Istvatha herself is ageless, with the power to move herself across time and dimensions; so she has plenty of patience.

Me in 2008: ‘psychic chicken’ #bandName 

If we had a President who truly believed in and spoke the way Aaron Sorkin writes I’d follow him thru the gates of Hell.

This will be a little off topic, but I heard some yahoo going on about this miracle at some length today.
Rather than some mystical ability to produce food doesn’t it make sense that Jesus said something like...
     “We’re going to be talking for a while here today and we have a lot of hungry people here and only five loaves and two fish here.  So we’re going to pass around some baskets and if you’re hungry take just what you need, and if you have some food with you, please put whatever you can spare in the basket for someone else.”  And there was food enough for all with many baskets worth left over.
   Simple kindness.  Everything he was preaching about.  Such a basic concept that it didn’t even make it into the written remarks afterward.  And when you think about the usual course of human nature isn’t that the greater miracle.
***********Sorry folks, we return you now to your topic.*****************

Depends on the quality of the booze.

At least you gave them a payoff.
    I was in an episode once where the players were Supers searching a castle that was the fortress of a person calling himself Drake.   We weren’t sure if he was a Vampire lord or maybe a dragon  (Dracula literally means “Son of the Dragon and Firedrake being another word for dragon) or if he was “just” a powerful sorcerer.  We also didn’t know who’s side he was on, so the paranoia was in full bloom. We spent an entire SIX HOUR SESSION searching his library/study and found nothing out of the ordinary.  Which of course lead the more crazed players to search even further. 
    After the night was done, and we were packing up to go home somebody finally beseeched the GM to let them know what they missed.......he said “There was nothing there.”
We almost murdered him.  Instead of saying “You search as many hours of game time as you want but find nothing,  what do you do next?”  He amused himself by watching us chase our tails for an entire night.  This was not Games Mastering.  This was pulling the legs off of one side of an insect so you can watch it crawl in circles.

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

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.)

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

I intend to keep wearing my mask and sanitizing my hands in every public gathering place. I haven't had a cold or 'flu in two years, and I'd like to keep it that way.
 
Here in Canada, during the first COVID lockdown period in 2020, hospitalizations due to influenza were only 4% of what they were the previous 'flu season.