Adventure Action Boredom

I just hit me why the sequels to The Curse of the Black Pearl fell flat for me.

The complicated fight sequence is a pause in the plot.  The longer that runs, the longer I have to wait before the story starts moving again.

Especially since the story doesn't depend on that fight being there.

Especially since it's obvious that the fight with deadly weapons will not result in any bloodshed, let alone a death, because all of the principals are essential to the plot.

A plot on hold while they have their flashy little tiff. 

Pyrates

Chugging away at George MacDonald Fraiser's Pyrates.

I am enjoying this so much more than the Flashman books I've attempted.

I knew he could write something I'd like!  Because I'd enjoyed "Quartered Safe Out Here."

But it was striking me as familiar...

Then it hit me!  Nick Pollotta used a style very similar to this in his Bureau 13 books.

It's fun.

Comics Bankrupt

THE distributor for comic books, Diamond, has declared bankruptcy.

That's a bummer because I have so many fond memories of comic books.

But I haven't actually bought a comic book for a very long time.

Just a graphic novel here and there.

I have, in my box, the start of several new titles.  Maybe 10 or 12 issues that just... stop.

I see books on the shelf that look interesting and see that we're on issue 150 and realize that I need 149 back issues so I put it back.

I've been burned on buying  based on the cover (and thanks to those baggies you can't look inside pre-purchase) and finding I didn't like the art inside or the story wasn't related to the cover.

It's the culmination of small things that led me to stop spending my hard earned on comic books.

It would appear that I am not the only person who'd gradually tapered off their purchases.

It makes me sad.

Especially with the gaming side of the comic shop being in upheaval as the companies who make the games seem determined to drive off over half of their customers by virtue signalling an ever more fractured side.

I really hope that both industries survive and recover, but they're going to have to do something they, presently, hate:  Return to mass appeal.

It occurs to me, after seeing the combat wheelchair for a Pathfinder mini, that since GURPS has "no-legs" listed as a disadvantage it could not be written in the current political environment.  How dare you abilists declare that having no legs is a disadvantage!  Prepare the effigy of Steve Jackson for burning!

Gutting It Out

I am pecking away at "Flashman and the Redskins."

The style has something I've noticed before.

It's hard to read, and I struggle then something clicks and I suddenly can parse the flow.

Then I put it down and can't read it again.

It's like I can only speak the dialect easily if I use it often, except with reading.

This is definitely a book from another time.

Racial, ethnic and gender slurs abound in Harry Flashman's language.

I'm a little surprised the cancel culture warriors haven't come for him.

Sage Advice

Coincidence I Swear

I've been doing a rewatch of The Marvel Universe movies in order.

Today the movie will be Thor from 2011.

On a Thursday.

[giggle like a school girl]

Racist Lord Of The Rings

The thing that bugs me most about an elf that played by an African descended actor is that it blatantly forgets that racial characteristics exist for reasons.

There's an evolutionary reason for Scandinavians and Europeans having pale skin.

There's an evolutionary reason for Africans to have dark skin.

A people from a given location tend to look the same.

The reason that we have people who look different in modern society is because we have insanely efficient and fast transportation and communication.

Prior to this, people from elsewhere didn't venture far from where they were born.

The new LOTR show is going to have to explain some stuff they can't explain.

Not that there CAN'T be an explanation for a dark skinned dwarf, it's that they cannot fathom an explanation is necessary.

Having mixed race... uh... races means you need even more explanations.

Having done it in a couple settings, I know it's possible.  It's not even particularly difficult to come up with plausible explanations.  My players seemed happy with them, and we had an anthropology student rules-lawyer playing for a while.

Oh Mr Dinklage...

The truth be told, I was "over it" until you brought it back up again.

The Game of Thrones series ending sucked.  The entire last season sucked.  Your character changed drastically in the last three seasons for no apparent reason.

It did not end as well as it started.

But I wanna address something you talked about.

It happened with another HBO series too, and it sucked.

"Subverting expectations."

This is Hollywierd for, "plot twist that doesn't make sense but the fans figured out where things should logically go and we didn't have a good twist so we did this to show ourselves that we're smarter than the fans."

If Danerys' slide into villainy had been gradual, as you allude, and not all of a sudden, as was shown on screen, people wouldn't be near as critical about it.

Especially since her devastating King's Landing happened after the place had surrendered except for the palace.

"Cersei is holding out?  Better kill everyone then!" is what we got.  It was jarring and it made no sense because the incompetent writers didn't give us anything to show that Danerys had become so insane.

As for moving on?

I have.  I noted that we got a season of nothing happening because the showrunners were hoping that George Martin would get off his pompous ass and finish the series before they got too far ahead of him, then two seasons of rush to an ending that was just scraps of flesh hanging from a plot outline skeleton.

It was bad story telling and just because a single dancing monkey is satisfied with their performance doesn't change that.

The fans are correct to criticize works they don't like.

HBO executives:  That criticism is your customer base giving you market feedback.  Pay attention.  Repeat business comes from satisfied customers.

Subject Before The Predicate Put

I've started reading "The War" over at Chant du Départ.

Because I didn't start reading the serial as it came, I'm in the odd position of scrolling down to the bottom, back to the top of the entry, reading it to the bottom then scrolling back up to the next entry.

That will learn me to get over there more often and actually read the fiction section!

Doing Story Right Compared With Doing It Wrong

 It's long, but worth your time.

11

Nugatory Revolvers

As a cavalry mage, my character would be issued some sort of .38 Revolver.

Most likely a Colt M1894...

Or an M1892 upgraded to M1894 standards.

Those are the most common, issue, sidearms in 1899.

.38 Long Colt fired from one of these does 2d-1 pi to ranges of 110/1,200 and weighs 2.5/0.2; RoF is 3 and 6 shots take 2i to reload.

Knowing about reports from The Philippines and the presence of megafauna on the other side of a spookhole...

What if he wants something heavier duty?

There are sufficient quantities of M1873 revolvers and stocks of .45 S&W to be issued this instead.

The normal 7" cavalry model does 2d-1 pi+ to ranges of 120/1,300 and weighs 2.8/0.3; RoF is 1 and six shots take 3i to reload.  Loading real .45 Colt ups the damage to 3d-2 pi+, but he'd have to come up with that out of pocket.

If he has to buy ammo out of pocket, why not the whole gun?

The Colt New Service is available in .45 Colt.  It does 3d-2 pi+ to ranges of 120/1,300 and weighs 2.8/0.3; RoF is 3 and six shots take 2i to reload.

I doubt that an andrewsarchus is going to be much intimidated by any of the three above choices.

A big one will have 27 hit points with DR of 2.  2,500 pounds of screaming carnivore, the largest meat eating mammal to walk the earth.

Max damage, hit to the vitals with .38 Long Colt...  27 points.  A major wound, to be sure, but hardly fatal.

Full load .45 Colt?  42 points!  At least a death roll and a consciousness roll.  With a HT of 13, don't count on this dropping it.

Might be better off with the carbine.

An average hit to the vitals will deal 57 points of damage, and a max roll 102.

The carbine also has a fair chance to get past the 4 DR of the skull for a brain hit, with an average damage of 68.  A max damage roll from .38 Long Colt to the brain is a mere 28, .45 Colt getting 48.

Hmmmmm, I wonder what a 37mm Hotchkiss does...

Solid does 5dx2 pi++.  Average to the BODY does 66.  Vitals would be 99.  Brain would be 124.

Lack Of Interest

I was looking forward to doing some gaming here in Iowa.

I nominally have two players.

One of whom seems to want me to do everything for them.

Dude, if I'm doing the player job and the NPC jobs, that's not gaming; that's writing fiction.

If I'm writing fiction, I don't need other participants.

Animated Monitor

The artist at Archer are constantly surprising in their attention to details.

Know Your Wizards

Gandalf the Gray:  Gray robes.  Elm staff.  Pointed hat.  Unruly beard.

Angus The Evil Magic User:  Impeccably tailored, finest silk embroidered robes.  Rakishly groomed van-dyke.  Flaming ebony staff.  Colt Dragoon.

Grand Vizier Jafar:  Impeccably tailored, finest silk clothing and cape.  Turban with powerstone.  Understated van-dyke.  Snake staff.

Albus Dumbledore:  Light blue robes.  Sambucus wand.  Pill-box hat.  Well kept beard.

Living In The Future

I've been curious to read the original Robert E Howard Conan stories for a long time.

My dad read them and got me a subscription to the comics from Marvel.  Both Conan and Savage Sword of Conan.

I've always liked the world and setting.

The problem is there's a lot of copycat material out there (like the comics).

There's also ton of books labeled "Robert E Howard's" but are by another author and it's sometimes hard to tell if it's his or simply his world and characters.

But Amazon has the complete Robert E Howard Conan: The Barbarian for a mere 99¢ if you are willing to have it on Kindle.

Shut up and take my money.

Not Being Replaced

The death of Harlan Ellison underscores something in science fiction for me.

With the current social justice warrior gatekeepers forcing authors to toe the line or publishing, awards, recognition and publicity will be withheld.

With this structure in place, that means we won't get stories which challenge or assault the established way of thinking of things...

My generation isn't going to have a Stranger In A Strange Land moment.

Black Panther

I just realized why my first viewing of Marvel's Black Panther was, "meh".

It was from all of the reviews by conservatives who see SJW everywhere they look.

I think we need to remember that it's a comic book movie.

Based on a Marvel character from the late '60s created and fleshed out by a Jewish author living in New York City.

Can't get more multi-culti than that, can it?  Amiright?

The "we see SJW all around us!" crowd really didn't sit back and watch the movie.

There are certainly better entries into the Marvel Universe.  There are also worse.

The very idea of Wakanda and how it does or doesn't make sense is also a problem, or not, in the comic.  It stems from hence it came and that was an attempt to be jarring about how dismal post-colonial Africa was.

A "what if" where an African nation hadn't been colonized and its leaders were able to thrive without European influence and assistance.  Then the convolutions that make that outcome plausible show exactly how implausible the idea really is.  Part of the "what if" was giving the nation of Wakanda a decidedly American cultural perspective, and making them isolationist racists!  Showing American faults through this negative image proxy.

But it really starts with, "we want a super-hero from Africa," then, "What's his back-story?"

I liked Black Panther, the comic.  He was a neat character.

I recall his powers being more training and heart-shaped-herb-magic than technological though.  The vibranium angle wasn't as fleshed out when I was reading, and it was fleshed out in books I typically didn't read.

But I gave the film a rewatch.

It's not near as bad as my first time through thought it was.  Because I stopped looking to be offended and just let it be at face value.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

There's a couple of issues that do stand out that bug me.

Killmonger is the son of a Prince of Wakanda and an unnamed American woman.  He puts on the oppressed African-American mantle, but...  There's no Wakandan descended African-Americans who are descendants of slaves.  Remember that technological superiority, isolation, racism and lack of colonization?  No Wakandan ever had to make the choice between death and chains.

The melange of styles appropriated for the various sub-tribes of Wakanda come from all over Africa.  Distinct and UNIQUE styles from other parts of Africa.  It was over-simplistic of the people doing the costuming and set-design to just lift these "African" stylistic elements and plop them into Wakanda.  Remember, isolation?  Wakanda should be distinct from the neighbors.

Need To Kill Five Hours

This is a really thorough analysis of character creation and storytelling.

Something I've been part of as a roleplayer and gamemaster.

I was struck by a realization that if I'd played my character or my NPC's in such a slip-shod manner, the players would have revolted or stopped playing.

Yes, I said it, a multimillion dollar movie failed to live up to the standards of a table-top role playing game played by college and high school students.

Do Not Fret

If you're being all maudlin about whom died or didn't die in Avengers Infinity War...

Just remember that unless your name is Ben Parker or Gwen Stacy you've an excellent chance of being resurrected.

One Rogue Plot Hole

I wonder why Galen Erso sends Jyn to Scarif to steal what's obviously the off-site back-up of the Death Star plans.

Shouldn't the original plans be right there on Eadu?

"Jyn, go to my office... in the upper left-hand desk drawer..."