Doc Democracy

You know, my biggest concern is that somehow it has become accepted that we should consider all, or oven most, politicians to be venal and/or corrupt.  It is a dangerous situation and it means that politicians have very little incentive to strive to be better, noone would believe them.
 
If all our politicians are venal and/or corrupt then who is to blame?  In a democracy the ultimate blame must rest with the electorate, it is they, after all, who elect these venal and corrupt people.  The problem is that we cannot be bothered to actually engage with the process, we want a vote or two every five years to be enough.  It is not.
 
I think there is also the problem that we flock to rumour and half-truths about our politicians, holding them to higher standards than we hold ourselves, feeding a scandal hungry media more ready to challenge personal failings than with policy failings.
 
the biggest problem with an acceptance that all politicians lie is that when one really does simply say whatever is most personally beneficial then there is not the outrage there should be about a politician that blatantly lies to the electorate.
 
It would behove us all to demand our politicians are truthful, that they are held to account for lying and that we are more circumspect about what we call a lie.  We all need to accept that we get the politicians we deserve and that simply sounding off on the internet is not engaging with the political process and does not strengthen democracy...
 
Doc

You know, my biggest concern is that somehow it has become accepted that we should consider all, or oven most, politicians to be venal and/or corrupt.  It is a dangerous situation and it means that politicians have very little incentive to strive to be better, noone would believe them.
 
If all our politicians are venal and/or corrupt then who is to blame?  In a democracy the ultimate blame must rest with the electorate, it is they, after all, who elect these venal and corrupt people.  The problem is that we cannot be bothered to actually engage with the process, we want a vote or two every five years to be enough.  It is not.
 
I think there is also the problem that we flock to rumour and half-truths about our politicians, holding them to higher standards than we hold ourselves, feeding a scandal hungry media more ready to challenge personal failings than with policy failings.
 
the biggest problem with an acceptance that all politicians lie is that when one really does simply say whatever is most personally beneficial then there is not the outrage there should be about a politician that blatantly lies to the electorate.
 
It would behove us all to demand our politicians are truthful, that they are held to account for lying and that we are more circumspect about what we call a lie.  We all need to accept that we get the politicians we deserve and that simply sounding off on the internet is not engaging with the political process and does not strengthen democracy...
 
Doc

You know, my biggest concern is that somehow it has become accepted that we should consider all, or oven most, politicians to be venal and/or corrupt.  It is a dangerous situation and it means that politicians have very little incentive to strive to be better, noone would believe them.
 
If all our politicians are venal and/or corrupt then who is to blame?  In a democracy the ultimate blame must rest with the electorate, it is they, after all, who elect these venal and corrupt people.  The problem is that we cannot be bothered to actually engage with the process, we want a vote or two every five years to be enough.  It is not.
 
I think there is also the problem that we flock to rumour and half-truths about our politicians, holding them to higher standards than we hold ourselves, feeding a scandal hungry media more ready to challenge personal failings than with policy failings.
 
the biggest problem with an acceptance that all politicians lie is that when one really does simply say whatever is most personally beneficial then there is not the outrage there should be about a politician that blatantly lies to the electorate.
 
It would behove us all to demand our politicians are truthful, that they are held to account for lying and that we are more circumspect about what we call a lie.  We all need to accept that we get the politicians we deserve and that simply sounding off on the internet is not engaging with the political process and does not strengthen democracy...
 
Doc

I do love how people talking comics take on quasi-scientific stuff, apply what may be real world scientific principles and then provide quasi-authoritative responses for the quasi science.
 
When my son asks me that kind of stuff my stock response is, it depends on what the writer thinks makes for a better story...
 
It is a great response and often a decent principle when ruling in an RPG...
 
Doc

Once upon a time, there was something called the Fairness Doctrine, which basically gave the FCC the power to regulate coverage of important issues, and make sure that opposing views were adequately represented. The rules were eliminated by the FCC in 1987, and the language to implement formally removed in 2011.
 
Media companies are now free to be as "fair and balanced" as they want, and most cable news outlets here consist of large blocks of "surrogates" and "experts" talking at each other, and media personalities explaining how the viewer should feel about an issue or event. There is, unsurprisingly, very little actual news gathering, as that represents work on the part of a reporter and money on the part of the organization. Most "news" now consists in large parts of video news releases *, or video sourced from Twitter and Youtube.
 
 
*Popular especially with local news programs on broadcast stations, a VNR is essentially a prepackaged video piece that is provided by various organizations to influence public opinion, sell products, or promote a person or brand. They often include a script for the reporter to personalize the piece, by performing video inserts or voice-overs.

There have been a few threads talking about using Roll20 to play Hero games.
 
It is a lot of work to get things looking decent. I have created a sandbox over on Roll20. I will make anyone who joins a GM so that we can all work on generating resources that we can bring back here to share.
 
:-)
 
If you want to go look at the sandbox I have been playing with, you would be more than welcome. You can join the sandbox at https://app.roll20.net/join/1628298/KcEqwA and I will give you GM rights so that you can look at the guts of everything.
 
 
 
 
 
Doc

I was having problems in creating a list of manoeuvre macros.  I have worked it through and produced a guidance document that might prove useful to others.
 
You can see that document here.

My American friends did an official tour of the Houses of Parliament yesterday which was set up by Doc Democracy. They enjoyed it. So yes the overseas mafia of Hero posters can and will work together.......
And thanks again to Doc for setting this up at short notice.

On this day, 17 years ago, the moon was torn out of Earth's orbit and the brave personnel on Moonbase Alpha were lost to us forever...after 2 series and 48 episodes...
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wr41gaM_ow

On this day, 17 years ago, the moon was torn out of Earth's orbit and the brave personnel on Moonbase Alpha were lost to us forever...after 2 series and 48 episodes...
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wr41gaM_ow

On this day, 17 years ago, the moon was torn out of Earth's orbit and the brave personnel on Moonbase Alpha were lost to us forever...after 2 series and 48 episodes...
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wr41gaM_ow

On this day in 1642, King Charles I raised his standard in Nottingham, effectively firing the starting gun on the English Civil Wars.
http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/civilwar/
 
Important date for us as it meant we made decisions on how to run our country that are extant today...
 
Doc

I feel much the same way.
 
 
 

What I hate about it is that even if he had to make it, the writers allowed the Batman (did you hear that THE BATMAN) to be outmanoeuvred by the Joker.
 
The whole superpower of Batman is that he always knows what is going down.  I loved the fact that the villains my have appeared to have Batman in an impossible situation but the Batman's preparation and attention to detail means that he sees a flaw or has pre-prepared stuff that allows him to turn the tables at the last minute.
 
It distressed me that they think that having Batman make a decision to choose between girlfriend and political necessity is a relevant story for Batman.  I was waiting after he saved one to show why he knew the other was safe all along...
 
 
Doc
 
...similarly distressed by writers thinking that making Captain Jack sacrifice his grandson to save the Children of Earth was a suitable outcome for a hero in the Doctor Who universe...  :-( 

It's a sacrifice he doesn't have to make. Just say the joker killed those cops. And that lady cop survived, so at least she knows that it was really Dent.

Probably so. But the superhero genre isn't primarily about what would happen, but about what we want to happen. It isn't the way the world is, but it's the world the way it should be. And it inspires us to try to make our world more like that.

Who says I want originality??  There are scads of excellent stories in a multitude of comic books, written by folk who understand (and love) the caracters and comic book tropes, begging to be adapted for a different medium....

I liked Suicide Squad. Went with my wife - the first superhero movie she has actually wanted to see in a decade - and she liked it.
 
I have avoided BvS simply because I know how I want the film to play out and I know the versions of Batman and Superman I need to make that happen. I know it will not. The Superman I know and love is bright, optimistic and intrinsically good. So good that other people dont even need to ask if he is a hero. The Batman I know and love inhabits a dark world without participating in that world. He is dark and grim to the denizens of the underworld which makes others question his position in society but, at the core, he is just as much a hero as Superman. For them to fight there has to be some kind of mismatch of their world views. Batman is not stupid, he can see Superman is a hero just as much as anyone else, he can see that he would never do harm intentionally to anyone else and would try to avoid that harm even at his own expense but he knows that even that kind of hero draws risks. He would not go after Superman because Superman 'might' turn bad but because he represented a threat that Superman was unaware of and incapable of mitigating. Superman would only fight Batman in self-defence and be the one constantly looking to find a way to convince him they were on the same side.
 
The difference between BvS and SS is that in the former you have two heroes. In the latter you have a squad of villains with, at best, a couple of anti-heroes. They need a different approach.
 
I fear that Marvel may take Captain America to the same dark place DC took Superman. Both of them should be the shining lights of hope and optimism in their universes.
 
Doc
 
PS: sorry - didn't mean to write so much - obviously this means more to me than I thought!!

I liked Suicide Squad. Went with my wife - the first superhero movie she has actually wanted to see in a decade - and she liked it.
 
I have avoided BvS simply because I know how I want the film to play out and I know the versions of Batman and Superman I need to make that happen. I know it will not. The Superman I know and love is bright, optimistic and intrinsically good. So good that other people dont even need to ask if he is a hero. The Batman I know and love inhabits a dark world without participating in that world. He is dark and grim to the denizens of the underworld which makes others question his position in society but, at the core, he is just as much a hero as Superman. For them to fight there has to be some kind of mismatch of their world views. Batman is not stupid, he can see Superman is a hero just as much as anyone else, he can see that he would never do harm intentionally to anyone else and would try to avoid that harm even at his own expense but he knows that even that kind of hero draws risks. He would not go after Superman because Superman 'might' turn bad but because he represented a threat that Superman was unaware of and incapable of mitigating. Superman would only fight Batman in self-defence and be the one constantly looking to find a way to convince him they were on the same side.
 
The difference between BvS and SS is that in the former you have two heroes. In the latter you have a squad of villains with, at best, a couple of anti-heroes. They need a different approach.
 
I fear that Marvel may take Captain America to the same dark place DC took Superman. Both of them should be the shining lights of hope and optimism in their universes.
 
Doc
 
PS: sorry - didn't mean to write so much - obviously this means more to me than I thought!!

I liked Suicide Squad. Went with my wife - the first superhero movie she has actually wanted to see in a decade - and she liked it.
 
I have avoided BvS simply because I know how I want the film to play out and I know the versions of Batman and Superman I need to make that happen. I know it will not. The Superman I know and love is bright, optimistic and intrinsically good. So good that other people dont even need to ask if he is a hero. The Batman I know and love inhabits a dark world without participating in that world. He is dark and grim to the denizens of the underworld which makes others question his position in society but, at the core, he is just as much a hero as Superman. For them to fight there has to be some kind of mismatch of their world views. Batman is not stupid, he can see Superman is a hero just as much as anyone else, he can see that he would never do harm intentionally to anyone else and would try to avoid that harm even at his own expense but he knows that even that kind of hero draws risks. He would not go after Superman because Superman 'might' turn bad but because he represented a threat that Superman was unaware of and incapable of mitigating. Superman would only fight Batman in self-defence and be the one constantly looking to find a way to convince him they were on the same side.
 
The difference between BvS and SS is that in the former you have two heroes. In the latter you have a squad of villains with, at best, a couple of anti-heroes. They need a different approach.
 
I fear that Marvel may take Captain America to the same dark place DC took Superman. Both of them should be the shining lights of hope and optimism in their universes.
 
Doc
 
PS: sorry - didn't mean to write so much - obviously this means more to me than I thought!!

Managed to see SS this afternoon.  Theater was packed.  Movie exceeded expectations a bit, though it wasn't on the level of a Winter Soldier or Civil War.  Random thoughts:
 
 
 

I have uploaded a cut and paste version.  Could not find any of the physical ones to scan.  I have a box of the scutters somewhere unless my wife has been motivated to "tidy up" my gaming stuff.  :-)
 
Link here

You are right. People like stuff. They like good-looking stuff better, and good-looking stuff that evokes the genre being played is liked best if all.
 
I have begun to look at providing what the games companies do not.
 
I now rarely use official character sheets, provide counters for END and cards for powers with key information such as dice to roll and END cost on them. Players play powers in front of them and power them up with their END counters. At post 12 recoveries I deal END back to them.
 
It us visual, it is tactile bureaucracy and the cards give a visual representation of what is happening. The cards are a mishmash of scenes and powers ripped off from my comic collection and customised for each player.
 
That kind of thing gives players a very different view of the game they are playing. It is surprising to think that Champions probably started this kind of thing when it issued character sheets with silhouettes on them to encourage players to imagine what their heroes would look like...
 
Doc

You are right. People like stuff. They like good-looking stuff better, and good-looking stuff that evokes the genre being played is liked best if all.
 
I have begun to look at providing what the games companies do not.
 
I now rarely use official character sheets, provide counters for END and cards for powers with key information such as dice to roll and END cost on them. Players play powers in front of them and power them up with their END counters. At post 12 recoveries I deal END back to them.
 
It us visual, it is tactile bureaucracy and the cards give a visual representation of what is happening. The cards are a mishmash of scenes and powers ripped off from my comic collection and customised for each player.
 
That kind of thing gives players a very different view of the game they are playing. It is surprising to think that Champions probably started this kind of thing when it issued character sheets with silhouettes on them to encourage players to imagine what their heroes would look like...
 
Doc

My biggest epiphany in teaching people to play HERO has been treating the provided character sheet simply as a building sheet and designing a sheet that hides most of the numbers not needed often in gameplay, that uses words to describe powers rather than game terms, and has some design features that tie the sheet into the genre being played (even if that was simply a decent font).
 
This is a long-standing rant of mine.  game designers spend forever thinking of the mechanics and getting the rule book right and then seem to ruch out whatever black and white set of boxes with numbers in it that will suffice to hold the details the GM requires.
 
The character sheet is the players window to the system and the game.  The character sheet is the primary way in which the game designers must hook the players with the system and genre they are peddling.  We deserve better!  
 
I would say the first sheet that put me on this loop was Justice Inc - it screamed pulp to me.  That was pre-cheap printing and PC design tools...so much could be done now.