General Inspiration Thread

This is totally not about Otto. Except for the parts where it is. http://www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-40a-tank-by-john-wiswell/

*** Dave H. said:

This is totally not about Otto. Except for the parts where it is. http://www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-40a-tank-by-john-wiswell/

Very nice.  And, as someone who has read many of Max Gladstone's books, I am not at all surprised that he helped foster the creation of this story.

Tanks for posting that.

For whatever one might want to consider it inspirational toward, Margie and I binge-watched the newly dropped Netflix The Dragon Prince series. And we liked it a lot.

The creative team includes a number of folk who were involved in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and it has a lot of tonal similarities to that while being something quite new. (Alas, it also means that all the news stories about it have headlines of either "TDP is a worthy successor to Avatar" or "TDP is good, but it's not Avatar".)

It actually does some interesting things with people being on the "bad side" who are not clearly bad. As well as people on the "good side" who are not clearly good. Which is kind of a nice nuance, even though there's plenty of clear black and white morality playing, too.

Anyway, recommended. I see it in particular as something the Testerman household would be particularly interested in.

The most Summer of shoes.

Those look amazing.

I looked more closely. This whole Tumblr is a shopping wish list for her. Some of it might be a bit much (money or fashion wise) but yeah, neat stuff all around.

At the risk of dragging too much realism into the game, a potential issue for Summer and her coworkers: Overdoses in public bathrooms are turning baristas and other service workers into unwitting first responders

Edit: it's clear to me how I'd use it but I should elaborate. There's multiple GM moves relevant here:

• Bring their obligations to bear: Blintzkrieg staff are required to take first aid/CPR training (on a miss, Summer didn't take it, or to keep her secret had to make herself look bad at the training)
• Endanger someone from either life: someone's in there and sick, and Summer could fly them to a hospital in time, but can she avoid giving herself away to someone?
• Make their lives cross over: someone known to a local teen hero gets sick, or a new hero actually got their powers (or controls them) with drugs, perhaps supplied by Rook, and takes too much (or too little).

Lots of good possibilities there.

Makeup for men: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/24/17851190/makeup-chanel-queer-eye-maybelline-men

In-universe, Leo did plenty that we haven't seen on camera, to help Pneuma out before actually creating her: reading "magazines for girls", looking at dresses, even buying (or trying) makeup, all so that she'd have pre-creation memories to get her started. And I consider Leo pretty god damn masculine.

In reality, comic book movies have highlighted (ha ha) a truth that comic books get to gloss (hohoho) over: that these cowls and masks and stuff don't just turn your eyes into blank white patches. You actually have to wear something underneath to make it work. In addition...

• Here's Stephen Amell without his mask: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFm-AD6lxP0
• Someone follows Jeremy "Hawkeye" Renner's makeup advice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEsOg59Kk5A
• Dave Grayson, who's done makeup for John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, and Bruce Willis: http://www.davidandmaddie.com/chem-grayson-pbs.htm
• Gene Simmons and his daughter (!) do KISS makeup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1cC15UrKi4

So basically, if our action stars and superheroes and the hardest rockin' mofos in the world are okay with makeup, what kinds of "real men" can't be caught dead wearing it again?

I've always preferred the "polarized/mirrored lenses inside the mask" approach (to create that "blank white patches" effect), thus providing:

• Eye protection against light attacks, shrapnel, dust, acid spray, etc.
• Security protection from folk checking out a hero's eye color (or even retinal pattern).
• Simplicity for comic book artists.
• Intimidating soulless stares.
• Ease in actually slipping off the mask and slipping back into a civilian identity without people staring at your raccoon makeup.

Or, y'know, you can go Full Wonder Man and actually have blank glowing eyes -- but at that point you stop worrying about the mask.

https://comicbook.com/marvel/amp/2018/09/28/marvel-comics-thor-storm-daughter-thunderstorm-exiles/

Oh, that's fun. I can understand why they went with Valkyrie first, instead -- but I hold out hope we'll see her eventually (hell, I could see the two of them together, as far as that goes ...)

Another NY Comic Con and another Voltron poster.  Still a couple seasons behind the show, so we're missing some more recent characters.  As, as before, someone did connect it with all the previous posters to make a nice panorama.

Mike said:

Another NY Comic Con and another Voltron poster.  Still a couple seasons behind the show, so we're missing some more recent characters.  As, as before, someone did connect it with all the previous posters to make a nice panorama.

Very cool.

I've talked space as a destination for Concord-centric stories before, but you don't need to be Jack Kirby to envision some of the crazy things that can be found there. A small sampling for today: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-strangest-exoplanet-out-there/answer/Anthony-Hackett-1?share=5f9e9a09&srid=htfzZ

An inspiring (?) story for Alycia and all other direct activists out there.

https://imgur.com/gallery/PheK1ro

Alycia nods with a firm, satisfied expression. "We should all wish for so dedicated a fate."

Especially after spending the last session sitting around a table (or leaning, rebelliously, against the wall), talking, this seemed particularly appopriate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fXV_T_IrXo

(h/t James)

I think we found the perfect introductory RPG for Jordan.

http://www.briecs.com/2018/10/five-or-so-questions-on-dinosaur-princesses.html

Hearts of Wulin creator talks about the game for a bit. 

http://traffic.libsyn.com/gauntletpodcast/Episode20137.mp3?dest-id=236407

Your Halloween dad joke, bring on any challengers. https://imgur.com/gallery/yYQblor

Bill G. said:

I think we found the perfect introductory RPG for Jordan.

http://www.briecs.com/2018/10/five-or-so-questions-on-dinosaur-princesses.html

I mentioned this to Doyce the other day, but I'll bring it up here, too. Probably not for Jordan, but maybe for ... team members who babysit Jordan?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/381911690/nighty-knights-the-rpg

Jordan needs a new t-shirt. (https://www.teeturtle.com/products/dinosaurs-are-cool)

Another 'palate cleanser' thought: Apocalypse World, set in the Sepiaverse. :)  I have a real good idea what the Maelstrom would be.

Doyce T. said:

Another 'palate cleanser' thought: Apocalypse World, set in the Sepiaverse. :)  I have a real good idea what the Maelstrom would be.

My immediate thought was, "Oh, but then we could play the Sepiaverse!Menagerie. Then I realize most of us are known dead, and the rest presumed. :-)

https://www.newsarama.com/42661-nightwing-director-hired-for-live-action-jonny-quest-movie-report.html

Bill G. said:

https://www.newsarama.com/42661-nightwing-director-hired-for-live-action-jonny-quest-movie-report.html

Yyyeah, I'll believe it when I see it. This project (or others for the property) have been around a lot.

Of course, I'm always afraid they're going to do it for laughs, or be "ironic" with it, too. 

So the End of Session move got brought up on the Masks G+ group and apparently we missed a bit of text.  Probably not going to make too much of a difference in the final days of the game, but I imagine James--having been the target of many a post-game Condition--is going to be miffed to find this out.

As the recipient of more than a few of those, I gotta say that receiving conditions was half the fun. If you had a label maxed out, and you just kept pushing that play style, you'd wind up paying for it. But I'm glad this was brought up anyway, should it become relevant in any other game I'm in.

I mean, it's the rules as written, and I'd certainly respect that, but the same time I think of how many Comics I've read where, on the last page, one character says something completely harmless - they think - to another character and the last panel is that second character looking stricken. It just seems like ending the game on someone shifting your labels and causing you a condition is entirely on brand for the genre. :) 

I  can see it both ways, but by and large I think I'd rather see "Plus Super, Minus Mundane." "My Superior's already 3." "Okay, let's make it Danger instead" and have that be effectual, rather than triggering a condition from it. I understand the genre verisimilitude, but, esp. if we change to doing  those End of Session items at the ends of plot segments, rather than each night, that might make more sense.

Absolutely. I'm totally down with doing it correctly, just voicing why I don't mind that we weren't doing it right for a while. :-)

I can totally see why they set it up this way.  Imagine this scenario...

• During the course of a game, PC picks up Insecure Condition.
• End of session, PC picks "grow closer to the team" to chose "clear a condition" option.
• PC clears Insecure.
• Teammate shifts labels, pushing them past -2/+3.
• PC checks Insecure.
• Shout in frustration.

Didn't happen in our game that I'm aware, but I could see it making someone upset and that should never be the point of game design (unless that's the point of the game, but that's a whole different discussion).

That DEFINITELY happened a couple times, that I'm aware of. 

We can just tell people we were playing on hard mode.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it happened. 

Thing is, while conditions have an effect, it's not a crippling effect. It's just a different thing to deal with in the character. So clearing a condition then having it come back? That's just RP gold.

One of the reasons I love Masks.

On reading the thread, this stands out: "Growing closer to the team is supposed to be a positive thing." I can imagine story reasons for getting closer to someone on the team who's been welcoming, and having their expectations for you, from already being influential in your life, be a mixed blessing. But I think, in this case, it's probably not what's needed.

O HAI ALYCIA!

_{(Discovered at random on the Internet)}

Mike said:

So Comixology does this own line of comics and one of the first ones is a series called SuperFreaks.  Sidekicks of heroes who disappeared having to grow up in a hurry when a crisis shows up.  It's good, pokes a lot of fun at superhero tropes, and is like $7 for the five issue collection.  The story's fun, the characters are enjoyable, and while some of things may be eye rolling at times, I'd recommend it for someone who wants a contained story.  A solid book.

I finally got around to reading this and I just want to second the recommendation. Enjoyed it immensely.