Home and Back Again, Digging in the Geekbox, The Good Old Hockey Game, etc

[thebitterguy]

Busy weekend, as always. Cynra & I went down to K-Town for Easter. Pater & Mater went to the Orthodox Easter celebration, with a ceremony that lasted four hours and was followed by dinner. We joined Uday & Qusay for dinner along with Uday's GF and an old roommate's of Qusay's.

The game, as mentioned previously, was a good one, with the leafs going from winning to losing back to winning. Definitely not a goalie's game. Of course, since New York won yesterday, it turned out to be for naught. What a game the NY/NJ one was; NJ scored with .7 seconds left, only to lose in a shootout.

Didn't get to finish reading The Ultimate Mentalist yet, but it's good so far. A lot of use of transforms for mind control stuff. Man, I hate Aid, Transform and Drain with a passion. They just feel like cheating.

While down there, I picked up a box of comics. Nice selection; got an Alpha Flight one shot (the preflight checkup, as it were, larf larf), the Thing/Sasquatch MTIO (with the on going slow death of Bill Foster, LSH 300 (neat What If kinda issue with a bunch of artists) and a 100 page JLA issue, which has a JSA crossover, a JSA story, The Story of the Freedom Train and a dumb story where they fight a guy with a killer organ (a rather turgid piece, har har har). The crowning piece of the stuff was, of course, my Mighty Marvel Workout Book.

God. I thought I'd been hallucinating it, but no, it was real. A book with warm up exercises by the Human Torch, slimming exercised by the Invisible Girl (including a calorie guide), stretching exercises by Mr. Fantastic and butt toning exercises by The Thing. Okay, yeah, they aren't 100% logical. Thor does strength workouts (jump rope! Jump AGAIN, Mortal!) and at least twice the characters say "You'll never see Superman/A DC character doing this!" Which I guess is true, as I never have.

Got home in time to watch TAR last night. What a pisser. Uchenna and Joyce got royally messed up by their transfer, and ended up very VERY behind. The evil midget and her even MORE evil sister did not get eliminated.

They also did another clue in a haystack challenge, with 600 boxes of cookies, with one cookie containing a licorice centre that would get them the clue. Danny & Oswald nearly had a meltdown doing it.

I got both my choices wrong; I assumed Danielle's challenge issues forecast in the trailer would mean trouble for her n' Eric, but no luck. At this point, I'm cheering for cha cha cha and E&D by default.

Comments

[tfbretz.livejournal.com]

"Man, I hate Aid, Transform and Drain with a passion. They just feel like cheating. "

Word.

Add in the (mis)use of Desolidification to mimic true invulnerability while you're at it.

[thebitterguy]

Yeah, for some reason it sometimes feels like the system is just too Effect driven these days. Maybe I'm just nuts.

Desolid to mimic invulneability would work, but it just feels... wrong.

[tfbretz.livejournal.com]

I think it has a lot to do with the Hero System's deep-seated loathing of absolutes. See also: Steve Long's amazingly convoluted attempt to reproduce D&D's Magic Missile.

[thebitterguy]

Oh, lord. Where was that? Was there an issue with the fact that MM always hits?

[tfbretz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the "Never misses, always does damage" aspect of it plays havoc with Hero's "everything is relative" approach. To model something as reliable as MM created something ridiculously expensive.

(It was in an early issue of Digital Hero. Maybe #1 )

[thebitterguy]

Yeah, he seems to have gotten over that with the FH Grimoire; it seems to just have standard RKAs instead of an 'always hits' type spell.

[tfbretz.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair to Steve (who's a nice guy who I like a lot), I think the point of his article was to illustrate why the FH spells didn't try to follow the MM model.

[thebitterguy]

Oh, yeah, Much Love to SL. And they are completely different games.

[easyalchemy.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I can't stand Charla and Mirna. That fake accent they do whenever they're around someone who they think doesn't speak English makes my blood boil - They are excellent examples of why so many people in other countries hate Americans.

I'm totally cheering for Danny and Oswald. I was glad when Uchenna and Joyce won their race, but I figure they had their chance, and it's somebody else's turn.

[troy-duffy.livejournal.com]

I think hatred for Charla & Mirna is pretty universal(though, let's be honest, and this isn't political correctness, it's mostly Mirna). And that stupid fake put-on accent just drives me NUTS too. The classic "Ugly American" as you point out. It's even worse than the "speak English slowly and loudly so the foreigners can understand you" stupidity.
I don't think Uchenna & Joyce were as sharp, or as fun to watch, as they were on their last race so I was ok with their going. I love Danny and Oswald, though they take a close 2nd to Dustin and Kandace for me. Go Beauty Queens! Or really, go Anyone Who Isn't Charla & Mirna!

[thebitterguy]

The one thing is that if someone speaks a little of a language, they're more likely to understand if you speak slowly and enunciate. Yelling is not that useful, and the fake-a accent-a is a whole new world of retarded.

I got hosed in my TAR pool because I put faith in Joe & Bill.

[thebitterguy]

Danny and Oswald are pretty much my choice at this point. I was going for Guido, but they went the way of all flesh.

[troy-duffy.livejournal.com]

Didn't get to finish reading The Ultimate Mentalist yet, but it's good so far. A lot of use of transforms for mind control stuff. Man, I hate Aid, Transform and Drain with a passion. They just feel like cheating.

What game is that from? Heroclix? Why do Aid, Transform and Drain feel like cheating?

...where they fight a guy with a killer organ...

Yeah, I gotcher killer organ right here buddy...

Yeah, I dunno either.

Danny & Oswald nearly had a meltdown doing it.

Oh I know! And how about that argument over whether you had to bite every cookie in the box? I wish we had found out who was right. I think you did have to bite every cookie, otherwise it seems too easy (and every cookie in that particular box would have to have the licorice). But man, talk about talking past each other. That was a ugly argument right there.

At this point, I'm cheering for cha cha cha and E&D by default.

Who is cha cha cha? Me, I'm rooting for, and have been since the start, well the start of last season actually, are the Beauty Queens, Dustin & Kandace, and not just because they are easy on the eyes but because they are smart, crafty and cool-headed racers. They have made screwups (skipping a clue!) that would have made SO many racers just give up, but they just calmly go back and correct their mistake. And they are mostly polite, at least in comparison to the average racer. I just really like them. Oswald & Danny are my 2nd choice as they too are just fun to watch. Eric & Danielle would be my consolation winners as their winning literally for me means "Charla & Mirna didn't win", which is very important, but hardly a compliment to Eric & Danielle.

I talk about Champions in this reply

[thebitterguy]

What game is that from? Heroclix? Why do Aid, Transform and Drain feel like cheating?

Nah, Champions/Hero System. Aid, Transform and Drain get used to simulate the effects of certain powers. Brainwashing someone, for example, is a Transform to "The same person who believes something else", probably with Basted on ECV.

It usually works and stuff, but it just doesn't feel right for some reason. It may just be me.

I talk about TAR in this reply

[thebitterguy]

Oh I know! And how about that argument over whether you had to bite every cookie in the box? I wish we had found out who was right. I think you did have to bite every cookie, otherwise it seems too easy (and every cookie in that particular box would have to have the licorice). But man, talk about talking past each other. That was a ugly argument right there.

I suspect it was every cookie, because if it was one cookie per box, why not just have a bunch of cookies instead of boxing them? It does seem suspicious.

Danny & Oswald are team Cha Cha Cha.

Dustin and Candace just grate on me. I don't like beauty queens, I guess.

Didn't CHarla & Mirna break the rules twice this week, too? They took a cab when they instructions were to walk. Now, theoretically they may have been penalized offscreen (since it was irrelevant) but I would have liked to have seen it have some effect.

I want Phil to lay down the law, dammit!

[rbowspryte.livejournal.com]

Mentioning Alpha Flight. You of course have seen the new Omega Flight I guess? WTF! When will they stop wrecking the Flight strip(s)? I mean Super Patriot? Beta Ray? CSIS and Shield? C'mon!

The only good element was the superheroes fleeing the registration act that made sense that chimed real and inventive.

Omega Flight is horrid. I think at this point Marvel should be told "step away from the Flight, do not return to it until you are certain you have a half decent team working on this project and a good idea for a story"

Such a crying shame. Is it so hard Canadian cultural references, a cast of Canadian superheroes, a decent story and not such an american-centric plot. It's been done before we all know.

[thebitterguy]

I'm reading it. But I ain't loving it.

My main problem isn't that there are American heroes, but that they're actually second rate American heroes. Like, we get the guy who wasn't good enough to be Captain America, the horse who wasn't good enough to be Thor, and the chick who wasn't good enough to be Spider-Woman.

Aaaaawesome.

I just hope at one point one of the characters tells a Yank to just fuck off. If anything, they're even worse in the MU than in the real world.

[rbowspryte.livejournal.com]

Yes second rate heroes for sure. Agreed.

I just hope at one point one of the characters tells a Yank to just fuck off. If anything, they're even worse in the MU than in the real world.

*snicker* that would be rich.

[papajoemambo.livejournal.com]

my Mighty Marvel Workout Book

I SO TOTALLY HAVE TO SEE THAT, MAN!!!!


I started my post D&D Boxed Set gaming geekery with the first paperback saddle-stapled edition of CHAMPIONS - Sweet Jesus on a Moped, but I loved that game.

[thebitterguy]

Oy. Game's cancelled for tonight, so I won't be able to bring it by.

Oh: Do you guys have a good example of Infantino Flash for sale? A single issue or even a Showcase reprint? I wanna get a signature for a buddy in the states at the show this weekend.

[papajoemambo.livejournal.com]

We have plenty of pre-Crisis Infantino FLASH (from around the time of "trial-of-the") and I think there are a couple of issues on the wall that have some of his 1960's stuff.

A good cheap "this is how Carmine drew Barry" issue is #300 of which we have plenty.