@BESW Regarding superheroes, I'll agree at least that there are some problems (and they include a lot of important ones) that can only be solved by a lot of boots on the ground, and whether there are lightning bolts on one of the pairs of boots makes very little difference.
Have you ever read the webcomic called "Strong Female Protagonist"?
The Pact of the Tome warlock is able to learn ritual spells of any kind and record them in their book of spells. Wizards also can learn new spells and record them in their spell book-- but the PHB explicitly requires them to pay a cost in gold and time to record the spells (i.e. 50 GP per spell l...
@BESW definitely. what's missing is structures that enable that community follow-through rather than restrain it, but that's probably a discussion that should be taken to a different venue :)
Aye, and that's a big issue with even the most "inspirational" versions of superheroing. It's like charity: charity is good, it helps people in immediate need, but it should never be considered a replacement of systemic support.
(One of the best things about The Dark Knight was its accidental admission that Batman can never improve Gotham; the best he can ever hope to do is keep it from getting worse.)
@BESW Yeah, superhero stories are traditionally usually (though they probably don't have to be) about total strangers swooping in from stage left.
Reminds me of something I heard someone say to the effect that by ancient American tradition in action movies the world can only be saved by random unaccountable people who have no business to be there.
Yeah, it's okay to like flawed stuff; otherwise we wouldn't be allowed to like anything because humans are all exceedingly messy. It's what we do with the liking, how our expression of it can improve the world or fail to do so, that's the big reflection.
I stand by my opinions of 5e as a haphazard unhappy compromise on overweening ambitions until I'm convinced otherwise, but a thing being flawed does not, itself, make it bad to find joy in the thing. Otherwise we'd all be completely miserable.
Nothing is perfect in this world, and so it's not only okay but necessary to like imperfect things. I just advocate liking them critically, which means staring their flaws in the face without flinching.
That's an extreme reaction. It's reasonable, in the context of social media's polarization of nuance, to reach a point where "thing has problems" looks like "thing should not exist," because a lot of discourse does work at that level and that's bad.
But people like Hodes, and a lot of people in this chat, try very hard to keep the nuance in. Notice, for example, that instead of saying superhero stories shouldn't exist, I actually mentioned a few things I think have been done right, and some things I'd like to see in the future. That's the opposite of disallowing fun.
I mentioned Black Panther and Thor: Ragnarok as examples of good scripting dealing with nuanced theme, only compromised by their sign-offs into the next segment of the franchise.
And if the conversation had continued, I'd've mentioned Miles Morales, Jaime Reyes, Captain America, and Superman as characters who at their best are figures that inspire non-superpowered people to take action and rise to serve others according to their own capacities.
They still struggle within the DC/MC pantheon's worship of the status quo, so those themes are often frustrated and undermined, but they're there.
I'd really like to see the shared universes disentangled so that there's more potential for growth in each character.
@BESW I seem to remember that quote I was working on beginning with something about the standard model being a villain trying to change the status quo.
Pre-52 Jaime is probably one of my favorite DC/MC heroes, because he's always thinking about his role as a member of his local community rather than thinking his powers elevate him over his community.
@A.B. This is absolutely a common trope, even outside the superhero genre. When stories are written by people who are comfortable in the status quo, antagonists are the people with vision and heroes are the people who stop that vision.
That's why a story like Broken Earth, which is about the necessity of destroying broken systems, shakes people up.
Oh, I think it was talking about action movies, not superhero stories as such. I'm not telling it right, either. Don't know what the actual version was or who said it.
The villains are the people who want things and take action to achieve their goals, they're proactive. The heroes in those stories are reactive.
> Well, some worlds are built on a fault line of pain, held up by nightmares. Don't lament when those worlds fall. Rage that they were built doomed in the first place. - NK Jemisin, The Stone Sky
@A.B. It's really really obvious in "classic" era Disney films. Cinderella's virtue is being content with abuse.
Aurora barely even has a personality, much less a desire, which means Maleficent gets to stand out as memorable despite having no clearly stated reason or motive beyond "evil."
Contentment in trials, perseverance and patience in tests, are very important virtues. But Disney struggled to show that kindness and compassion to your tormentors is more than just being a passive, permissive doormat.
@bobble The direct remakes are unnecessary and tend toward the grotesque because they're transliterations rather than adaptations and the conventions of animation don't work in live action.
The "prequel" stuff is a bit more interesting, sometimes. Maleficent would've been better if it had been an independent story rather than a prequel to an existing one, it would've had more opportunities to [ahem] stretch its wings.
Lots of promise, but too restrained by expectations--on the other hand, probably wouldn't have been made at all if it hadn't been part of an existing franchise, because that's how movies work these days.
The Indigenous genocide theming of the second Maleficent film was.... well-meaning but painful. Again, might've had more of a chance if it hadn't been saddled with a Legacy.
I really like seeing different writers get to play in the same sandbox, it's one of my favorite things about Doctor Who and I will watch just about any adaptation of Hamlet or Alice in Wonderland.
But when we get caught up in continuity and marketability and bRaNd LoNgEvItY, well. We get Thorgnarok being allowed to walk right up to an absolutely scathing takedown of colonialism in general and Disney in particular, but then the teeth are pulled at the last minute.
I will say, "everything is sequels" is not new. There were 8 Frankenstein movies in 17 years from 1931 to 1948. That's Spider-Man film numbers.
But the nature of the sequel-making business has changed dramatically and that can be a problem.
Sethix the Swashbuckler has been Swallowed Whole by a T-Rex. In order to help cut his way out, Sethix wants to Feint to gain Panache, since he is a Fencer Swashbuckler. Is this something Sethix can do? I'm aware the flat-footed condition would be redundant, but that's not the point here, perhaps ...
Aquatic elves are mentioned under the sahuagin entry in the Monster Manual, and also in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, but I don't see them defined anywhere. Is there a stat block or other description of them anywhere beyond the sahuagin entry?
BESW or anybody else who happens to be here: please give me one example of anything that is allowed, or at least not too unallowed, in any role-playing game?
@A.B. You do realise that different people will have wildly different views on it, ranging from very limited options, all the way to 'whatever so long as the party is fine going along with this'?
"Any" game? Aside from "the table is always allowed to override the text," I'd say it can't be done, precisely because nobody here should be able to force people to allow something at somebody else's table.
I can say things that I'd expect to be allowed at any table I sat down to, and are likely deal-breakers if they aren't there. Like being allowed to interrupt the game at any time to share needs, requests, concerns.
(I built that into my Goblin Court game as a mechanic.)
Oh, my, that is definitely a thing that should happen. :-)
Basically I'm just having one of my incidents of not believing that anything of any kind could ever be OK or even more OK than any definable other thing in any circumstances.
Like I say, for a bit I was posting a diamond emoji in the music bot channel of a Discord server I'm in whenever I couldn't hold it all in any longer. I got up to nine, and then somebody deleted them and asked me what I was playing at, so here I am.
@A.B. Old Larp system I played 'banned' horses, or more like it, reasoned it out of the world. Because it would make more sense to have them, but they're hard to represent without actual horses.
A School of Necromancy Wizard at 6th level gains the Undead Thralls ability, which reads:
At 6th level, you add the animate dead spell to your spellbook if it is not there already. When you cast animate dead, you can target one additional corpse or pile of bones, creating another zombie or skele...
I was wondering this based of the new Tasha's Cauldron update for Dnd 5e. I was flicking through the Warlock section and found that 9th level offers the spell wish for the Genie patron.
Since Warlocks have Mystic Arcanum's at that level instead of an actual spell slot at 9th level (functions as a...
Operation Plumbbob was a series of nuclear tests conducted between May 28 and October 7, 1957, at the Nevada Test Site, following Project 57, and preceding Project 58/58A.
== Background ==
The operation consisted of 29 explosions, of which only two did not produce any nuclear yield. Twenty-one laboratories and government agencies were involved. While most Operation Plumbbob tests contributed to the development of warheads for intercontinental and intermediate range missiles, they also tested air defense and anti-submarine warheads with smaller yields. They included forty-three military effects...
@HotRPGQuestions I love when a question phrased similar to "Can I do this busted thing if I squint and cross my fingers" gets a very reasonable upvoted answer without the question getting too much praise
@Shalvenay surely thats what created the Tarrasque...
@Yuuki yeah, the issue isn't the explosion or being bludgeoned -- I suspect that the Tarrasque would accelerate to high velocity along with the cap, and then its troubles would start