Quiver

I am a bad impulse buyer. I currently own a copy of the MAG, all three supplements, and the Game of Thrones tabletop RPG. My bank account is displeased.

I am a bad impulse buyer. I currently own a copy of the MAG, all three supplements, and the Game of Thrones tabletop RPG. My bank account is displeased.

I was bugging Twi about this since I was curious, but figured I should ask you guys, in general. Obviously, this game is about what happened in Oregon. But the Wastelands are set in Australia. So I'm curious...how much world building have you guys done out of state? Any headcanon or set down guidelines for places yet?

Twi. Twi.You do not understand her vision. Understandably so, because this is one of those American-British culture divides. The article is incorrect in identifying Thunderbird House as native American. It's clearly named after Gerry Anderson's seminal marionette show, Thunderbirds. Obviously, Rowling is taking the brave choice of canonising the Harry Potter Puppet Pals series. That's why there's such a comedic tone pervading everything.

Very much this. And if a Christian were to express that kind of thing, there wouldn't be so much of an issue. Because there are 50 bajillion Christians in fiction, and we know this one guys view is different from the others and not representative, and doens't actualy say anything about that religion or culture as a whole. ...It's just that whenever you have fewer characters representing something (like a racial heritage, or a sexuality, or whatever), they get interpreted on, and stand for, a larger scale. The one gay character in a book? He's representative of gay men, in general. It's not fair. And the solution is to simply include more gay men (in this example), but it is a pitfall that's present until the representational scales start to be balanced, so to speak.

I have tried to write a post about the issues invovled in changing a characters race, gender or sexuality about three or four times now, and I can't phrase things the way I want it to. Short answer: more diversity is the best thing, and an area I will give Marvel major props for. Long answer: I think people worry about how much weight to attach to non-WASP characteristics, which causes the whole thing to get..messy. For instance, suppose you introduce a gay Latino Spider-Man. Do you downplay those two particular traits? After all, just because he's gay, and Latino, doesn't mean he isn't a normal guy, and isn't showing a normal guy who just also happens to be gay and latino a better way of "normalising"* those traits than drawing attention to them? But on the other hand... being gay comes with it's own, very specific, issues. Same for a Latino background, which carries with it it's own heritages and traditions. If you do just ignore those -even if it's well-meaning, even if it's emant to show the character as a CHARACTER first, not a political piece- someone, somewhere, will get bothered that you appear to be whitewashing or ignoring parts of their heritage. So... like I say. Complicated. *I hate to use that word, but I can't think of any other way to put it... what I mean is, making it so that a character doesn't stand out just because they aren't white. Or gay, or female for that matter. Actually, on the issue of sexuality... pet peeve. I am forever bothered by the lack of presentation of male bisexuality in stuff. Granted, bisexuality tends to get the shaft representation-wise to begin with, but still. I can think of a number of female bisexual characters, but for males? All that springs to mind is Jack Harkness... and he's... I dunno what Jack is. 21st Century sexuality labels are woefully inadaquete when it comes to describing how awesome he is. But it means that my go-to guy as a symbol of male bisexuality in fiction isn't actually bisexual, which seems... somewhat dishonest on my part. And, fifth time ain't exactly the charm, because I still hate how this post turned out. Apologies; I've said before, I am not socially literate. Well-meaning... but not exactly the best at parsing ideas. So apologies if I offended anyone.

There was a conversation in another thread about people of colour and fiction, and I think this sort of falls under the same category; considering these are American films, featuring American heroes, with a largely American cast, and with virtually the entirety of SHIELD's speaking characters (Fury, Coulson, Hill) featuring Amercian accents at the least... Well, there's a reason why one might default to "SHIELD is an American organisation". (And yes, Natasha is Russian... but then, she doesn't actually have a Russian accent, and she's a defector anyway. So she still fits into the tropes of US Spy fiction)

No. They don't. Honestly, nothing about these first three episodes have surprised me... but then, I've been following the books. That's my problem; I keep waiting for the moment when the show ruins a huge, book-related reveal, and watching the show is the only way to minimize the chance of that happening.

Ya know, this was part of my problem with SHIELD in the MCU. I could never tell if it was meant to be an American organisation, or United Nations one; it's been both in the comics, but the films seem to flip on whether or not it was exclusively a US club or not...

I'm more bothered about spoilers., The sheer popularity of the show has outright forced me to watch it as soon as it airs (which is the middle of the orning here), simply because if I don't, I have to avoid the internet all day. Otherwise I can expect to see a dozen posts about THAT INCREDIBLE PLOT TWIST or whatever.

No problem? I'm sure my opinion is invaluable : P But I like how...deliberate your Koschei post sounds. I get a sense of detachment and calculation from the narrative, and I like how you're able to write his perspective and keep him menacing. Because Koschei is Oregon!Satan. It's important he be terrifying, but too much of him could dilute that. And I'm glad that you haven't. At the same time, it helps build up Remington. Which is cool.

You want Donald Trump to go down in history as the Last President of the United States? Don't get me wrong. If he wins, he's going into the books either way. But "Last President" is a title just romantic enough to make people forget what a chull he is.

I could have sworn I'd seen a topic about this once before... or maybe I just thought there was. In either case, if this is duplicating something-already-said... mea culpa. Please feel free to delete or merge as appropriate. Anyway. On topic. Anyone read any webcomics? There's a few I follow which I'm a big fan of -Order of the Stick making the top of the list- but I'm always looking for new material, and I'm curious what other people read.

I liked the Koeschei post. (I was actually considering doing a "post" here as "Lyla reading and reacting to it".... but that would take too much effort, and I am nothing if not excessively lazy) ...Though it does make me want to revisit that old Vanillain idea I had. Someone "inspired" by Remington, and going the absolute wrong way about it with regards militancy, extremism, etc. Because not all folk-heroes inspired good followings.

A roleplaying game which doesn't actually invovle dice (or, presumably, fire), but come on. The pun was too obvious not to use. Where was I? Ah, yes! So, we've got RP's starting up for Wheel of Time, Harry Potter, the Reckoners... in that context I figured, "Hey! Why not try and start an RP based around a hit TV show and book series which is wildly inappropriate for most of the 17th Shard's audience!" ...I assure you, it made sense at the time. Anyway. Anyone interested in maybe doing a Game of Thrones rpg? What I was thinking was, setting the game in an alternate version of Westeros where one of the Blackfyre Rebellions actually succeeded. As you might imagine, this has significant repurcussions for the rest of the continent, with some Great Houses being dethroned by their vassals, others maintaining their status, some actually ending up in more favorable positions... and Westeros being ruled by House Blackfyre, rather than House Targaryen. Why the change? Well, because Martin's plots are pretty damnation plotted, and don't exactly leave a lot of wiggle room if you aren't trying to violate canon. Blowing the side of that ship out from the start seems like the easiest option; from the Blackfyre Rebellion onwards, canon is different, and we can make up what happens without having to worry about how it fits in with X or Y, or what about character Z. Anyone interested?

I got referenced in the post! I suddenly feel like a real roleplayer!

Ouch. I'm hurt you would describe me that wa- Oh, right. Babaji. Nevermind. Huzzah! Twiapproval! It would actually really fit a socialist, Green Arrow type character...

Good news everyone! I'm starting a patreon, where you can all donate to help me fund my one-man war on crime! Donations start at $5. $10 and I'll use the catchphrase of your choice when taking down people with my trusty bow and arrow. ...Actually, huh. Crowdsourcing superhero. That... might be an idea to file away for later.

So... has anyone watched Love Live? I'm checking it out on recommendation from a friend of mine, and... Well, I found season one to be kind of a mixed bag. It was... okay, neither amazing nor terrible. The fact that the show: a ) doesn't gloss over the physical exertion involved in it's premise and show's the characters practicing constantly, and b ) has an exclusively female cast without degenerating into fanservice* interested me, as did some of the characters... but it wasn't fantastic, and I didn't feel like the characters developed all that much, all things considered. (Sure, there was development for some of them... but not enough, and a lot of the girls, like Rin and Nozomi, didn't really get any.) ...Having said that. I'm about half-way through season two, and there has been a big improvement. The show is funnier, and the characters are getting more fleshed out. I don't know if I'd call them complex, but they feel like more than the broad typecasting they were in season one. Every character is getting to do more and, overall, I'm enjoying it a lot more. I'm hoping to get season two finished this week, while I'm off-work, but so far, I'm really liking it.

WoR Spoilers

At this point, I'm almost hoping Donald Trump wins the Presidential Election. Not because I support his policies, you understand. I think he is one of the most annoying, loudmouthed, crass, politically inept blowhards I have ever seen on teleivison. And I used to watch Jeremy Kyle. But. Donald Trump is basically a cartoon character. In fact, he's a mad, xenophobic billionaire with a bad haircut running for president. Sounds familiar. So, if we live in a world where Lex Luthor Donald Trump can become president, we live in a comic book universe. Which could be awesome. ...You know, so long as we don't all die in the fires of nuclear war first. That's the worst way to get super powers.

I'ms till playing catch-up, so this is more about the Arrowverse as a fandom. Would anyone be itnerested in some MCUCW crossover fiction? Been thinking about it in the wake of the latest film and... kinda have some scenes./ideas I'd like to write. Just curious if there's an audience for that type of thing.

"The bar? Now, wait-" Except Abaddon didn't wait. He hung up, almost before Sentry had had time to process what he had said. It was almost a novel experience. After all, Sentry's powerset relied on being able to process what she saw from her pictures. Playing catch-up might have made for an interesting change of pace, if it wasn't so utterly terrifying. Sparks, sparks, sparks. She stared at the piece of plastic and electronics in her hand as if it were the one responsibility for her situation, torn between pocketing it and throwing it away in a rage... Except Sentry did not rage. At least, she did not do so in public, for all to see. Not that that did anything to change what she was feeling beneath her strained smile. That slontze, she repeated. He breezes into town, right when someone starts flouting my-she caught herself- start's flouting Soulcasters laws. Then he calls about it, and arranges for an exchange? She was starting to pace on the street, ignoring any of the looks it was receiving. She was an epic, after all. "No," she muttered. "No, no, no. That is far too coincidental. Taking 'Vandal' to a public place..." The idea that it was to make the exchange as 'safe' as possible was laughable. No doubt what was intended to happen was that Senty would walk through the barroom doors, Abaddon would put a 'pain bolt' through her head, and declare himself the new de facto powerhouse of Salem. Yes, she thought darkly. That was a far more likely situation than him actually doing what he was supposed to do. After all, at the end of the day, Abaddon was just like Soulcaster. He was another one of those epic's who had been cursed with more powers than brains, and thought that they could get what they want just by flexing their muscles. No doubt vandalising Sentry's posters, then blaming it on 'Sandal' to lure her out passed for his idea of cunning. Unfortunatly for Abaddon, Sentry was not an idiot. Even if, apparently, she had been getting soft. She folded her phone shut, slipped it into her pocket, and started to consider her options. The one thing she absolutely would not be doing would be going to that bar.

...But seriously, I'll, uh. Try and get that done asap. Sorry for the delays! EDIT So, for Salem.. My thought is that she's been very smug, very secure. She's known everything that's been going on, so she's been able to afford to be magnanimous. Having her rules flouted to begin with? That was bad. Having one of the most powerful epics in that location call up and say "Hey, I totes caught the guy responsible"? Time for the paranoia.

...can...can I see your Batfic? That would be great. Honestly, I need to write more fanfiction. I mean, there's a lot of MLP stuff I wanna write, but I've found a few other shows and stuff I want to do... (And I still wanna do an Arrow/Shield crossover...) Any recommendations for sites to find quality fiction?