How far we’ve come in political discussions on the merits of science – this is from an anonymous 1833 pamphlet, an…

How far we’ve come in political discussions on the merits of science – this is from an anonymous 1833 pamphlet, an apology for English ship-builders: showing that it is not necessary the country should look to the navy for naval architects, written in response to the appointment of an ignorant amateur to an important government office…

This might be the worst idea I’ve ever had…

This might be the worst idea I’ve ever had…

Lewis & Clarkson

Daniel Day Lewis and Jeremy Clarkson set off west from St. Louis with nothing but 18th century technology and a variety of racial minority local guides. Find out how long it takes for Jeremy to insult each guide to the point of quitting and for Daniel to go Daniel Day Lewis on Jeremy.

I predict 5 episodes.

Even while I try to imagine an “honest” (whatever that means) biopic about Marston, part of me is thinking about the…

Even while I try to imagine an “honest” (whatever that means) biopic about Marston, part of me is thinking about the current conventions of superhero movies – the tragic backstory, the spur to determination, the tension between fantasies of power and the search for audience relatability – and whether it’s possible or even desirable to make a film about a comic writer that doesn’t rely on/play with them.

And then there’s the much bigger question of whether “America is ready” at all to talk about bondage, in these days of consent anxiety.*

In short, I could not be trusted to make this film – I would either turn out something anodyne that skirts around the mark or it would be unsuitable for multiplex distribution, especially in the wake of the latest Wonder Woman movie. So yeah, conventional biopic cinematography aside, I’m intrigued.

Originally shared by Emily “Syreene” Vitori

I’m going to have to check this out when it comes out…..

http://www.cinemablend.com/news/1682499/the-first-trailer-for-professor-marston-and-the-wonder-women-is-intriguing-and-powerful//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Murderhobo ethics, from Commander Semmes of the Confederate States Navy, commanding the steamer C.

Murderhobo ethics, from Commander Semmes of the Confederate States Navy, commanding the steamer C. S. S. Sumter, 1861:

“With reference to my proposition to sell the [captive ship] Maxwell before she had been regularly condemned by a prize court, perhaps it is as well that I should remark that this irregularity seemed forced upon me by the course determined upon by the principal European powers, whose example the smaller powers on both sides of the water were likely to follow.

“As our own ports were blockaded, if I could not send my prizes into neutral ports I could not send them anywhere. But they were nevertheless my prizes by right of lawful capture and firm possession. I might destroy them if I could not send them into port, and it would seem, therefore, a fortiori, that I might sell them. The only question which could arise upon such sale would be between the purchaser and captors as to the sufficiency of the latter’s title. No question could arise as to any neutral who was not the purchaser, and certainly none as between the captor and the enemy, for the possession of the captor was a sufficient title as against him. The captor’s bill of sale to the purchaser would be good against all the world except only the enemy, in case the prize should come within his jurisdiction during the war and before condemnation, in which case he might restore to the original owner. But if a condemnation took place, or a peace ensued, either event would quiet the purchasers title, so that, as I said before, such a sale could raise no question between any other parties than the captor and the purchaser, and if they could agree upon terms it was nobody else’s business.”

It was the Europeans’ fault and their damned prize courts, you see. Getting in the way of a man selling ship’s he’d rightfully plundered, trying to prevent piracy and all that.

Aliens show up.

Aliens show up.

Based on early radio broadcasts, they expect London to be the center of the world system.

Based on their last data-gathering mission a thousand years ago, they learn Arabic as the best single method to reach the most Earthlings.

They don’t want to deal with any fleeting pirate empire bullshit – just people who’ve been dominant for at least a thousand years. They learn Chinese.

Patrick Stuart gives me a timely reminder that liberal counterblasts are a big thing these days.

Patrick Stuart gives me a timely reminder that liberal counterblasts are a big thing these days.

I don’t want to be part of that.

But here’s a thought. I know there’s more than enough old fashioned sexism around to explain any gender-based freakouts….

And I know that the internet gives a voice to people who will be disgruntled no matter what, so the fact that somebody is disgruntled is not news…

And I know there’s been a rising hysterical tone online about the shame of nerds not being markedly more progressive than the rest of the population…

…but is it also a factor that The Doctor has become a sort of atheist’s Space Jesus? Is some of the reaction to a female doctor actually about contradictions in the character that people choose to ignore until they can’t?

Because what we have here is a quintessentially English, upper-middle-class, Cambridge-educated, liberal humanist space alien in a self-consciously dated time machine. The number of highly specific social markers The Doctor embodies is kind of staggering – the James Bond comparisons are really very apt.

So… a female doctor? At last! A black or Asian one? One that isn’t British (Egyptian? Polish? Yemeni?)? One that’s evidently the child of New Age travellers or refugees or just presents like someone from a poor background?

A Cornish doctor, complete with comedy West Country accent? A northside Dubliner who didn’t go to Trinity?

A dog or parrot? (it’s a time-traveling alien, yo, who has expressed a desire to experience a wide variety of things… so far The Doctor isn’t doing so well at the Buddha game – (s)he may function as a Boddhisattva in the stories but the aspect presented is remarkably consistent).

Some kinds of fantasy are acceptable. Some kinds of progressive action, too.

Still I’m glad. It was already an issue when Capaldi took the role. Fantasy’s a surprisingly fraught politicsl business.

The Intolerable Hulks

The Intolerable Hulks

Model of a Napoleonic warship (74-gun HMS York, 1807) reworked as a prison hulk, by Peter Heriz-Smith.

Prison hulks were anchored on the Thames during the first half of the 19th century – with no ready water supply or sewage plumbing they were considered significantly worse than other London prisons. They were notably more prone to outbreaks of typhus or “gaol fever.”

Collection of the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Carcosans of Carcassonne is the game nobody needs.

Carcosans of Carcassonne is the game nobody needs.

I’m tempted to take it Completely Seriously one day – do meticulous research on the Cathar heresy, absolutely accurate period equipment for non-Carcosans, and give the Church of 1208 something to really worry about.

http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/carcassonne-falls-albigensian-crusade//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

“Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Endorses Robert Schoch’s Lost Ice Age Civilization; Plus: A Medieval Account of the Sphinx’s…

“Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Endorses Robert Schoch’s Lost Ice Age Civilization; Plus: A Medieval Account of the Sphinx’s Secret Chamber”

http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/gwyneth-paltrows-goop-endorses-robert-schochs-lost-ice-age-civilization-plus-a-medieval-account-of-the-sphinxs-secret-chamber//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

So I need to tighten up the game system for Counter-colonial Heistcrawl (especially magic/voodoo-Pokemon wrangling,…

So I need to tighten up the game system for Counter-colonial Heistcrawl (especially magic/voodoo-Pokemon wrangling, which is becoming an issue – posts on this to come before next Wednesday). I have reasons for wanting to try to run LotFP.

But the closest I can get to that is a loose 2-martini* misreading of LotFP that runs more like Paolo Greco’s Mageblade! (only less coherent). And I’d like either to move to actual Mageblade! OR get some better informal skill system/perception check system into LotFP (or find a way to wean myself off using those checks, which might be best).

But while I was noodling around Mageblade! I stumbled across William Altman’s Krendel, which ties the blackjack style “roll as high as your skill but no higher” to a one-roll system for success and degree of success (also known as damage) and now my reptilian system design brain has its teeth engaged and can’t pull loose.

What I like about William’s approach is

1. what he says – high attack roll, low damage result is frustrating for players (although when it happens to monsters everyone loves it);

2. it builds defensive fighting or sneak/notice contests right into the system – you can roll to put a negative mod on the opponent’s effectiveness.

But it also seems massively swingy – I foresee a broad middle ground of results where the attacker’s attack is (nearly?) completely countered by the target’s defense until one of the participants rolls over their skill at which point damage/notice/suspicion/whatever goes up sharply.

Maybe that’s OK. Or maybe I’d rather run a faster game where you’re more likely to kill or be killed every round. Several things about CCH are not working out as I anticipated (which is fine) – troupe play is one of them. The PCs have ditched a lot of their funnel-mates and nobody’s died yet after 3 sessions. Maybe a system with some broad middle ground is just what I need to offer the players a round or two of leeway in order to feel out their chances, in a world that is unfamiliar in many ways.

…I’ve always liked the way Pokemon gives you that round or two of attrition before the kill, in order to understand the tactical stakes and decide if you’re really going ahead with your approach.

http://krendel.net/authors-blog/2016/3/16/krendel-core//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Sometimes it’s in the lists – from Home Journal, 1854, New York:

Sometimes it’s in the lists – from Home Journal, 1854, New York:

LESSER GOSSIP.: How does it go:- The young mother:- Just two inches of a hero’s face Mutton-chops and whiskers:- “Beard’s position on the English countenance.” Where Women outdo us. Lesson of Beards, Lord Byron’s stealing a silver pencilcase! Life aboard slave-ships:- An African interior capital

a return shot for Braden Proulx – At least Appleton and Wray are both Jamaican rums!

a return shot for Braden Proulx – At least Appleton and Wray are both Jamaican rums! This one’s just not fair – the two blue labels on the left are Guyana rum (a highly distinctive style and maybe product of the same national co-operative that makes Lemon Hart on the far right) but the black label and red label in the middle are Barbados rums (much closer to an international “standard” like Captain Morgan or Cockspur), so if you’re worried about getting rum that tastes the way you want… you’d better read those labels carefully. And all the Pusser’s Rums are labeled “Navy style” and bottled in the British Virgin Islands. Because maybe the Royal Navy wasn’t particular about rum styles.

Frankly I’m not inclined to buy it to find out what’s inside.

…would you in fact mind taking a look at the sea supplement I’ve been writing for LotFP and commenting on it?

…would you in fact mind taking a look at the sea supplement I’ve been writing for LotFP and commenting on it?

I could really do with some tough love advice about making it more readable/gameable/exciting.

The goal (a historical ships supplement) demands difficult research and a certain restraint in creative decisions about what differences design should make to the ships. I’ve been doing what I think only I can do – trying to make “historically true” ships – but I need help remembering what’s cool about them so it all gets in there to make the book people want to read.

I’ve been hunting in my usual sources for Jaffa and not coming up with all that much, I think because it was used as…

I’ve been hunting in my usual sources for Jaffa and not coming up with all that much, I think because it was used as a fairly straightforward port under the thumb of Ramle, the inland admin capital. Which is a useful hint, because these very workmanlike ports tend to be controlled by port authorities who don’t feel like they need to report what they’re doing to higher authorities (rather like Naples or Bari, which are famously controlled by the ‘Ndràngheta and Camorra, respectively).

1. as with the whole eastern Med, nobody sets sail November-March because the sea is dangerous and winds contrary (same in N Atlantic, BTW). Even in the 17th century most of the traffic is feluccas and booms – fairly shallow ships, not well-adapted to high waves, with xebecs for war/raiding

http://www.muslimheritage.com/uploads/Fig_3_Chebec_ship_famous_for_speed_maneuverability.JPG

2. being poorly policed it’s a convenient port of exit – easier to get into and out of than Acre, but it doesn’t displace Acre, so it’s a definitely second-string port, probably because of the reefs that make landing difficult. People often take caravans to it just to get onto the water but they don’t stay and trade there, they just pass through.

3. in the 12th-15th centuries, nobody wants to go there – it’s mentioned in divorce papers – male merchants go there to pursue trade opportunities, their Egyptian wives refuse to join them. Then the men divorce, marry local girls, leave on trade trips and never return, leaving their kids in Jaffa. I’m picturing hordes of young ruffians resentfully stevedoring goods out past the shallows.

The Cairo Geniza documents translated and studied by S D Goitein and his many students and colleagues are so full of…

The Cairo Geniza documents translated and studied by S D Goitein and his many students and colleagues are so full of weird gameable incident that I really think they deserve their own supplement separate from any other agenda. In this game you play Cairo merchants. It is enough.

In the middle of looking for references for Sam Mameli (and Sam, you should totally just get vol. 1 of A Mediterranean Society, as should everyone) I find:

Joseph b. Furqan (a rare name) is designated here by his family name Sha’rani. Mr. Hairy

writing for an encyclopedia is weird.

writing for an encyclopedia is weird.

The notes shall only include literature and printed sources. Thus, no reference is to be made to archival material. Explanatory notes should be kept to a minimum.

Hmm. That might seriously limit what I can say about this subject. I need to publish the research somewhere before I can use it in this essay……

I’ve been enjoying the #myspacebastard meme and, like everyone else, marveling at the emergent worldbuilding that…

I’ve been enjoying the #myspacebastard meme and, like everyone else, marveling at the emergent worldbuilding that comes from a character, like Bobby Martin’s, that serves 12 years in the merchant marine, is finally refused re-enlistment, and has apparently been using his more-than-a-decade to learn broadsword 3 and Jack-of-all-Trades 1.

I’m guessing either he spent that time as a trader-gladiator in the Sword Worlds where all negotiation is done with show fights or he found a sinecure deep in the bureaucracy and mined it to pursue his hobby until an audit flushed him out.

These emergent worlds are more compelling than any gazetteer to the Empire could possibly be because we write them ourselves.

The trick here is we don’t have to be responsible to any big structures you need to build a campaign world. We have the license to indulge a single person’s story and everything we invent is true. There’s no need for the emergent world to obey any other directive than our whim.

I’ve been trying to write some emergent tables for real world port cities and mariners and it’s hard because trying to guide that emergence toward historical verisimilitude seems like it kills the fun.

So let’s imagine you’ve bought a historical supplement. Do you want it to just tell you how it is, straight up prose gazetteer, or do you want to piece it together out of random tables (both together will be long, expensive and probably not as fun as it sounds)?

modern Sherlock, steampunk Batman…

modern Sherlock, steampunk Batman…

I want Acropolis Hulk.

And Ayutthaya Spiderman. He’s a funerary architect-acrobat. He can only solve crimes that coincide with cremations.

Originally shared by Emily “Syreene” Vitori

Oooo!

http://www.cbr.com/batman-gotham-by-gaslight-animated-movie-announced/?utm_source=CBR-FB-P&utm_medium=Social-Distribution&utm_campaign=CBR-FB-P&view=list//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

would you mind looking over / commenting on / playtesting the ship rules I’ve been writing?

would you mind looking over / commenting on / playtesting the ship rules I’ve been writing? I can email them to you (1.3mb for the version mostly without pictures, 22mb for the one where all the sample ships have a little illo swiped off the internet).

They’re the ships I’m using for cch…. Raggi asked for Europe and I was already thinking SeAsia so I wound up doing the world.

I’m also thinking of getting my eldest to write a ship generator in java. Your mention of a Trav chargen program reminded me.

“and if I’m seeming particularly left it might be cuz an unelected heiress to a money laundering hotel chain…

“and if I’m seeming particularly left it might be cuz an unelected heiress to a money laundering hotel chain represented a “democracy” today.”

https://twitter.com/ZeddRebel/status/883723053666062343?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https://www.balloon-juice.com///cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Hi Sam

Hi Sam

my email address is richard john guy (without spaces) on this here service.

…I don’t have a totally clear image of 17th century Jaffa in my mind right now but I’m happy to talk about ports, 17th c Ottoman Empire and so on. They’re still doing quite well in the 17th c and the glory days of Suleiman are not that long ago…. palace culture is kinda weird but the regional governors are still going strong. But it really depends how you want to play it – I’d be inclined to make it all about the local personalities – the shahbandar of the market, the governor, figures in the vizierate, representatives of the Jewish and Christian communities etc.

There’s a really nice study by Nancy Um of merchant life in Mocha in the late 17th c

http://rorotoko.com/interview/20091120_um_nancy_merchant_houses_mocha_trade_architecture_indian_ocean/

but it may be more than you need and probably isn’t focused exactly where you want.

….is this for LotFP? It happens I’m working on early 17th c ship rules right now… if you’re dealing with ports would you be willing to playtest the rules? And/or do you have a request list for things DMs would need to know about port cities?

http://rorotoko.com/interview/20091120_um_nancy_merchant_houses_mocha_trade_architecture_indian_ocean///cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

This was the first RPG I ever owned, but I had to start playing a friend’s Moldvay Basic before I twigged that it…

This was the first RPG I ever owned, but I had to start playing a friend’s Moldvay Basic before I twigged that it was the same sort of game.

Looking at this again after all these decades, I feel a bit more tolerant of my 10 year old self, who had no idea what to do with those three black books, even with Book 0 in hand. A whole book dedicated to explaining the other three, that still didn’t tell me really how to play.

Dammit, Jim!

Dammit, Jim!

BTW, has anyone ever tried to run an actual original Traveller starship combat, with the planet gravitational field discs and the adding vectors? It seems to me you’d need a really big unimpeded space but it could be chaotic fun.

Just made this: it’s way too sweet – I’ll be stepping the sugar syrup back to 1:1 for the next batch.

Just made this: it’s way too sweet – I’ll be stepping the sugar syrup back to 1:1 for the next batch. Mixing notes later.

Base rum: Wray overproof works nicely for this sort of thing – the high alcohol content is good for steeping, the strong esters and whatnot come through in the syrup.

……I have a sneaking suspicion that if I oak aged Wray & Nephew Overproof I might end up with something like Smith and Cross. According to their website Smith and Cross rum is a mix of “heavier bodied Wedderburn {aged less than a year in oak] and medium bodied [18 month aged] Plummer [distillates] made with a combination of the molasses, skimmings, cane juice, and syrup bottoms from sugar production, and the dunder of the previous rum production,” fementation being done with “indigenous wild yeasts.” The Wedderburn is aged less than a year, the Plummer is half aged 18 months and half aged 3 years.

………….do I need another barrel? Will I be totally happy just buying S&C for my barrel-aged Jamaican rums?

https://www.chowhound.com/recipes/paul-clarkes-falernum-9-28427//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

I’m thinking vaguely of starting a Rogue’s Gallery for this thing I’m writing…

I’m thinking vaguely of starting a Rogue’s Gallery for this thing I’m writing…

Here’s Turgut Reis, “the greatest pirate warrior of all time.”

Vicissitudes of the murderhobo life: after more than 10 years working his way up to one of the most senior positions in the Ottoman navy…

Taken by surprise in the Battle of Girolata while repairing his ships… Turgut Reis was captured and was forced to work as a galley slave in the ship of Giannettino Doria for nearly four years before being imprisoned in Genoa. Barbarossa offered to pay ransom for his release but it was rejected.

Doria was smart to refuse… but when France allied with Turkey against Spain, the equations changed:

Barbarossa was invited by Andrea Doria to discuss the issue in his palace at Fassolo, and the two admirals reached an agreement for the release of Turgut Reis in exchange of 3,500 gold ducats.

Barbarossa gave Turgut his spare flagship and the command of several other vessels, and in that same year Turgut Reis landed at Bonifacio in Corsica and captured the city

…and then he raided Gozo, Sicily, Capraia, Liguria, Manarola and Riomaggiore, sacked Monterosso and Corniglia, and captured Rapallo, Pegli, Levanto, Mahdia, Sfax, Sousse, Al Munastir in Tunisia, Laigueglia, and Andora.

There he and his troops rested for a brief period, before resuming their assault on the Italian Riviera and landing at San Lorenzo al Mare. He also destroyed the village of Civezza. From there he once again sailed towards Malta and laid siege to the island of Gozo.

And that’s how he wound up C in C of the whole Ottoman fleet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragut//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

http://www.paperspencils.com/2017/07/02/space-ships-for-dd/

Originally shared by Beloch Shrike

http://www.paperspencils.com/2017/07/02/space-ships-for-dd/

None of the space games I’ve read will work for me. The majority seem to have drastically different design goals from classic D&D. The few games which do attempt “D&D in space” range in quality from “not what I’m looking for,” to “fucking awful.” There are useful tidbits here and there, but to get what I want, I’m going to need to stitch things together myself.

This shouldn’t be terribly difficult. Most elements of Science Fiction can be modeled by processes I’m already using. Aliens are just monsters, and planets are just hexes. The one big sticking point is space travel. Nothing in my D&D experience has really prepared me for dealing with that.

http://www.paperspencils.com/2017/07/02/space-ships-for-dd///cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

I just realised I’ve never said this out loud and it’s probably important, given this here campaign and its content.

I just realised I’ve never said this out loud and it’s probably important, given this here campaign and its content.

I don’t draw any line between “fun” monsters that it’s safe to play games about about and “real” monsters that might trigger people or that people might feel upset about. As far as I’m concerned, it’s actions that are harmful not classes of people/creatures, and anyone can commit those acts and feel however they feel about them. But also prejudice against groups of people exists, and one or another character might well express that. Views of charscters are not the same as those of their players etc.

It’s really horrible to be on the wrong end of Conquistadors (or even on the”right” end) and they’re in the game as a problem to be addressed. I’m here to explore issues and see what happens in play, how people handle the situations – first tactically, also emotionally because I think that’s inevitable. There’s no right answer, only advantage and disadvantage for different people.

And even if people regret what happens in play after the fact, I’d like to think we’d talk about that and why it was upsetting and try to fix it/find out why it happened. It’s still a game, we’re still here to have fun with the situations, even if they involve conflict.

God damn it

God damn it

Why is it so hard for me to send out this playtest packet for the ship rules? It’s been basically ready for a month and I keep finding something that’s obviously wrong, something incomplete, some excuse not to send it yet.

If I send it to you guys, will you test it? Can we organise a session?

We had some keris-sy stuff last session, so here’s a page from Edward Frey’s “The Kris – Mystic Weapon of the Malay…

We had some keris-sy stuff last session, so here’s a page from Edward Frey’s “The Kris – Mystic Weapon of the Malay World”, which is a decent primer. It’s got one of my favourite quotes re: the blase-ness with which magic is treated in the region. That kraton attendant, waving off the shenanigans of the kerises under his care:

“They (the krises) fly all around the palace but they are no problem – mostly it’s the magic spears that we have trouble with.”

(Also note that dig about “civilised parts of the world” at the end of the passage.)

Maps of the known world as of end of session 2.

Maps of the known world as of end of session 2. Sea-level cave leads to mysteriously-lit croc cave with skulls in niches leads up to frankincense grove with druid people.

Crocs have so far eaten 4 druid people but cannot enter frankincense grove because they disassemble if they do so, into a headless dead human and a croc skull.

PCs have so far not tried to speak with druid people, just knocked down one of their rice-drying houses. Druid people have clustered by the cliff and winch. There’s about a dozen of them, plus 2 babies, plus an Orang Utan wearing an elaborate turban.

Misremembered Men

Originally shared by Dunkey Halton

Misremembered Men

In the Destruction of the Philosophers,  Al-Ghazali teaches us that all things in the material universe exist only as information in the mind of God, much as all things in a video game exist only as information in the mind of a computer.

CCH session 2 report: Spirits On the Mountain

CCH session 2 report: Spirits On the Mountain

The PCs escaped in their canoe and found a cliffside cave. They rowed gingerly inside to find a big cave system and a lighted tunnel deep in the interior. A chamber with 3 mummified crocodiles and a very expensive incense fire led to passages curling up and down. They went up…and up… and got into a conversation with a croc skull. The croc was relieved that they didn’t smell of rice (they haven’t eaten in days) and demanded they bring it meat. They found another croc skull and two “druids” farther on in the cave. They killed the druids to feed the croc skulls. Now they have 2 undead croc allies. One of these puzzled the PCs by giving them a vampiric sea cucumber.

At the top of the passage they emerged onto the mountaintop. There a bunch of druid people were camped around a fire with a couple of rice-drying houses, in a little grove of “frankincense” trees. The incense disassembled their croc allies, so they took the component parts back to the cave where they could be reassembled. They knocked down a rice house and shouted to get the druid people to investigate the cave, where the crocs dealt with them. Now the druid people are all awake and bunched up outside their camp, waiting for another attack. Spirit vision tells the elderly Padre Antonio that there’s a pool with crocs nearby waiting to be liberated from encircling incense trees, while normal vision tells the mercenary that among the druid people there’s at least one orang utan. Apparently it’s good with kids.

So: the PCs have sided with dead crocodiles against live tree-tenders. They’ve escaped both Timawa slavers and Chinese soldiers (for now) and they’ve picked a fight with some kind of frankincense/croc cult. I have to confess I haven’t figured out what happens if they take crocs on as crew members.

All in a day’s work.

I hope you enjoyed your first CCH experience – I know it’s confusing. Feedback welcome, no matter how brutal!

I hope you enjoyed your first CCH experience – I know it’s confusing. Feedback welcome, no matter how brutal!

Things are still coming together with how I’m going to run this – the magic system in particular is more fluff than crunch right now but I’m pretty close to a mechanical system for it. Are you interested to carry on next week?

Wonder Woman fridge thoughts (with spoilers):

Wonder Woman fridge thoughts (with spoilers):

Was the Big Bad’s amazing metal assembly power really all about binding WW so she could be “freed” to resolve her inner conflict? Is that the Marston memorial feature?

Did Kirk fly that Fokker Eindecker from Turkey to… within one night’s steam-tug journey of London? Is this the Jersey we always dreamed of? Do the rest of the Amazons now join human society and get rich off the tourism?

Is this film actually all about cargo cult misunderstandings? People take bullets for the bulletproof goddess; she shelters behind a shield but apparently “can only be killed by a god;” Kirk goes off to sacrifice himself in a flying ship (?!?) but Diana could’ve survived the explosion just fine (or simply breathed in all the gas maybe, I dunno how far it goes when you finally “trust your power”)?

…is that the point? We are all victims of our assumptions, the biggest one being that freedom of physical movement corresponds to mental/spiritual freedom?

The lampshade culty moment – the one that started me thinking this – is when our 3 musketeers risk their lives to give her a 5 foot “shield” boost on a 90 foot jump into the sniper’s bell tower because Kirk saw her teacher need one for a 300 style slo-mo jump back at the beach. He obviously doesn’t get it yet, but he really wants to help.

It’s nice that Paris gets its own goddess-avenger, though. Makes a change from New York again. I wonder who Milan’s crusader will be.

RPGs are silly but fun. Everyone can play them.

RPGs are silly but fun. Everyone can play them.

In fact, everyone is welcome to play them at my table, if they leave their intolerance at the door.

Originally shared by Andy Action

So many folks freaking out about the official WotC D&D page’s image for Pride Week. On what planet is diversity, inclusiveness and equality controversial? On Planet Bigot, that’s where!

Fuck the haters. Love the lovers. Game on.

Even when the rest of an Osprey book isn’t that useful, the pictures are still invaluable.

Even when the rest of an Osprey book isn’t that useful, the pictures are still invaluable.

Why do so few history texts make any serious use of pictures, dammit? Why are historians generally so blind?

Same point from another side: reconstruction images are incredibly demanding to make and inevitably mix reliable and unreliable information. Providing the background on where the various bits of information come from, and the varying kinds of confidence with which they are presented, can easily exceed the thousand words that the picture is supposed to save. And images are powerful: people absorb an impression from them that has no necessary relation to their quality or reliability as documents – or even the information they’re intended to convey.

Why are historians generally so uncritical of primary source images? If they weren’t so timid about making their own pictures, would they have more of a sense of how the demands of image-making inevitably distort the information conveyed?