Pattern Ghost

Hit 9000

Finished Ben Tennyson Studies Magic. Ben and Levin arrest Marty Hacks for parole violation and lets the ADA set up a plea deal which Ben sweetens by telling Hacks that he knows who really killed his sister and he had went around and killed five innocent men for nothing. Hacks agrees to the deal for that information.
CES   

Today, we let our dog pass out of pain and out of this world. So I've not gotten any real writing done and not sure I will today.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker had some pulpy elements.
 
The Serpent and the Rainbow, while not pulp, I could see being used for inspiration.
 
 

Yow.  1700 words so far today and I haven't even started on the gore porn I promised myself this morning that I'd get to today.

Up to 6000 today. Which is good. Back on track.
 

Hit the 3000 mark. I need to up my game a bit

Sounds about right. Juggernaut is notoriously hard to turn around.

Hygiene is often overlooked in fantasy fiction. It's always a good idea to start your adventure fresh, and with clean underwear.

First writing session done: 1 hr 17 minutes / 1150 words. Wanted to get some words in before bed. I'm going to try to get some writing in before bed and first thing in the morning each day.

Working title: Crow the Agnostic
 
I'll probably change the protagonist's name and thus the title at some point, but I'm feeling lazy about naming tonight.
 

Nah, I already have him in a shallow grave. That's enough near death to start off with.

Midjourney seems to have no concept of what a turkey looks like. Ended up making my new avatar with DALLE-3, which seems to do great at cartoony stuff.

Hygiene is often overlooked in fantasy fiction. It's always a good idea to start your adventure fresh, and with clean underwear.

First Day, I'm 2000 words in as of this post.
 
The Adventures of Fish Guy’s Friends: The Wedding Edition* begins with Pinprick's short story. Where he tries to find the perfect gift for the soon to be married couple. We'll see how it goes.
 
* working title

First writing session done: 1 hr 17 minutes / 1150 words. Wanted to get some words in before bed. I'm going to try to get some writing in before bed and first thing in the morning each day.

Working title: Crow the Agnostic
 
I'll probably change the protagonist's name and thus the title at some point, but I'm feeling lazy about naming tonight.
 

Watched Disney's Haunted Mansion remake today on Disney Plus. It was better than I expected. It had a solid cast and was pretty fun overall. Definitely aimed at a younger/family audience.

Watched Disney's Haunted Mansion remake today on Disney Plus. It was better than I expected. It had a solid cast and was pretty fun overall. Definitely aimed at a younger/family audience.

What's-a matter you? Hey! Gotta no respect?
What-a you t'ink you do, why you look-a so sad?
It's-a not so bad, it's-a nice-a place
Ah shaddap-a you face!

It's been weird and disappointing that the mainstreaming of superheroes and D&D hasn't translated into a resurgence of superhero TTRPGs (if not Champions in particular).  Near as I can tell the supers RPG landscape suffers from fracturing--or maybe pulverization is a better word.  Just glancing at /r/rpg some RPG options are:
 
Marvel Multiverse RPG (2023) aka D616
Marvel Heroic (2012) (literally never heard of this until today, seems to be well received)
Marvel Super Heroes aka MSH aka FASERIP (1984)
Marvel Superhero Adventure Game aka SAGA ("uses cards")
Sentinel Comics RPG
Masks
Mutants and Masterminds 2e
Mutants and Masterminds 3e (seems like there's a feud between the 2e/3e players)
ICONS
Worlds in Peril
GURPS (seriously there are some folks out there using this for supers)
Prowler & Paragon
Cypher
Four Color Heroics from Spectrum Games
Supers! Revised
DC Heroes
Ascendant. (EDIT--it appears the author/publisher of this game is some kind of alt right agitator, proceed with caution)
Heroes Unlimited (Palladium)
Villains & Vigilantes
Spectaculars
...and Hero.
 
Work is bugging me so I don't have time to google these, bring back a report if you do. 

The first thing to understand is that the state of Role Playing Games in general is awful.  People prefer video games, card games, miniature war games, board games, etc far more than role playing games.  Even D&D, the industry leader, is in rocky shape right now -- partly self induced but overall just a symptom of the times.  The biggest local gaming shop has only a small corner of the shop devoted to RPGs, the rest to miniatures, card games, and board games.
 
Super Hero RPGs, a small segment of the RPG industry is doing even worse.  Modern people have small attention spans, don't read much beyond texts, want flashy high definition moving imagery, and have starved and atrophied imaginations because all their entertainment is played out and spoon fed to them.
 
I hate to be the bearer of bad news like this.  I desperately wish it was not so.

Having the formerly-fragmented Mjolnir be able to separate into guided shrapnel is a pretty cool visual, though, and expands its tactical uses.

The Economist has of course run editorials urging Israel, Middle Eastern leaders, and American government to be reasonable and seek a long-term, peaceful solution that will make the Middle East better for everyone. Unfortunately, none of those parties are prone to be reasonable.
 
I could go on to discuss Israel's foundation, history, and exaltation of 3,000-year-old mythology at the expense of real, present people, but many people cannot distinguish between criticism of Zionism (a political program) and anti-Semitism (hatred of a people and religion). So I'll stop now\, and merely say that modern Israel's history has been a graphic demonstration that two wrongs still don't make a right.
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 

I think that ideal solution requires a degree of rational detachment that simply doesn't exist in any of the parties involved. I also suspect that HAMAS and their allies intended their attack to provoke exactly this kind of response from Israel, to damage their standing on the global stage. I think this conflict is less about waging asymmetrical warfare in the military sense, so much as in the political sense, bolstered by the proven effectiveness of disinformation campaigns.