Sociotard

http://www.blenio.com/Data/luzzone%202.jpg[/img] That's a 500 foot tall dam in Switzerland, with those gym climbing pegs attached to it.

My biggest problem with her is that she does not just want men and women treated the same. She also wants to get rid of the action oriented games that I like. It isn't enough to make games like the recent Tomb Raider, because while the protagonist is a woman (and not nearly as overly-sexualized as she was in earlier games), she still walks around killing people with little or no remorse. In short, I'd really like to watch a moderated debate between her and Olivia Munn. Oh, and one other Anita-issue. I understand her points about how we need to use less of women as objects, such as in the damsels-in-distress video. However, watching her other "tropes vs women" videos, I get the feeling she goes to far in some, like the manic-pixie dream girl. If the story is primarily focused on one character, most of the other characters will be props. I'm not sure where the line between offensive and inoffensive types of props is. My mental model of Anita (Straw!Anita) responds "Can't we make complex stories of many richly developed characters." I say, that's hard, and sometimes I like simple stories.

What, you don't like it when the GM keeps you constantly on the edge of a TPK?

Given what he said when he last left Elan behind, I doubt good father figure will survive this encounter.

Bacchus - Roman god of wine, wild parties, and unconstrained frenzied violence. He always goes in the nude and, while clearly male, is still sort of androgynous. He carries a wand called a thyrsus, wound with Ivy and dripping with honey. While he has the typical godly nigh-invulnerability and strength, he really shines as the teams VPP and Multipower guy, using shapeshift and madness induction, among others. His main goal is the destruction of inhibitions, in forcing off the civilized constraints of the modern world and fomenting raw passion. His left arm is withered and skeletal. Some say that 2000 years ago he was taking a nap in the guise of a fruitless fig tree (for Bacchus was often associated with figs), when he was cursed and nearly destroyed by some wandering holy man from Nazereth, and some say that this has tuned his ambitions toward revenge as well. And after all . . . humility? Forgiveness? Brotherly love? Aren't those all just constraints? No, not today. Let your true selves out. Let the Bacchanalia begin!

I stayed up late to finish the new Brandon Sanderson book "Steelheart" (link goes to a free chapter sampler). It had an interesting premise: A magic thingy appeared in the sky and some people got superpowers. But with great power came great arrogance, lack of empathy, and an overweening desire to rule the merely human. Everyone with superpowers is a supervillain. The novel follows a terrorist cell that finds their weaknesses and kills them. The action flows really well. I could easily follow it and it looked really cool in my head. Lots of good descriptive prose about the city and assorted special effects. The characters were really weak, especially the main character, who just feels like a generic 20something dude. The guy with the Tennessee drawl who uses phrases reserved for Scottish stereotypes (lad) is annoying to read, because I just couldn't get the words and the accent to 'play' right in my head. The Quebecois true believer (still thinks superheroes will come eventually) and the Prof character were both much more interesting, but they don't quite make up for the boring lead or the lack of interesting character relationships. I'd still recommend this as the book equivalent of a summer special effects film. I especially kept thinking it was a really fun idea for a champions game. It has to be worth at least a one-shot.

I stayed up super late to read "Steelheart" by Brandon Sanderson.. I recommend it. It had a nice fast pace, and the premise was novel. This is a world with supervillains, but no superheroes. They're all bad guys, and only the protagonist terrorists are standing up to take them down.

I'm wondering if we'll see a Backstory book for Tarquin, Laurin, Miron, Malack, et al. I have to say, they look like they'd be a fun campaign to play in.

What if somebody made a DnD movie that was actually good? I especially like how his women look respectable. From Nathan Hallinan

There is a blond guy in the pile, just below the soldiers. What are the chance that this is Nale? I dunno. That was the LE inbox. I thought Nale was CE.

"The safety of the world is meaningless if everyone is going to run around doing whatever they feel like, without regard for proper story structure. There must be some sense of order - personal, political, or dramatic - and if no one else is going to bring it to this world, I will." That has to be one of the best Lawful Evil quotes I've come across.

I suspect this is going to end in a TPK, isn't it?

Now I'm all confused about Tarquin's intent. What does he actually want? Because at first he seemed to want the Order on the road as soon as possible, and even offered to get them a little magical transportation assistance. But then he intentionally set up this side quest with Hailey's Dad. They can't rush off to stop Xykon. They have to spend at least a day looking for the old man before the bounty hunters get him.

Not sure if this has been posted, but Eric Guzman has some very nice amalgams of DC and Marvel characters. http://ericguzman.deviantart.com/gallery/44112069

And now for something happy re: fangirls.

I particularly like the roach in the fedora jumping out of the fridge. And, dangit Roy, not again!

Heh, I wonder if Monster in the Dark might lose his umbrella. Other than that, I'd guess not much.

"Ready Player One". Very predictable. The writing wasn't terrible. Lots of pop culture references. Read it if you like "Big Bang Theory".

Violinist Lindsey Stirling and Pianist William Joseph do a "Halo" medley. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaR3GCZIBiU

Ah, so Xycon was never there at all. That explains why Belkar was dead and then just hypnotized. And why the bird isn't with V. But, why did Redcloak appear with the eyepatch? Nobody present has seen him like that.

A really fun article on how some Nasa engineers wanted to brush up on their knowledge of liquid fueled rockets. So, they went to the Smithsonian, "borrowed" one of the F1 Rockets from a scuttled Apollo mission, and took it apart to scan it. Once it was back together, they decided to light that 40-year-old candle. http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/how-nasa-brought-the-monstrous-f-1-moon-rocket-back-to-life/ (caveat, from the article, it looks like they only ran the generator portion of the F1. Still awesome)

This week I got a little photobug in me and decided to do some painting with light, using my small foreign coin collection and some flaming toilet paper. I just took the same shot over and over with 1 second aperture, with the only variation coming in how I applied light (flaming toilet paper)

I don't know how you got anything to post without text included in the box. Or did you just post as a link, not a img link thing?

Worth watching. She makes some valid points.

Anybody know if Durkon still goes on to an afterlife? I'm rusty on my D&D.