Wednesday, August 24, 2011

New Comics Day

Couple of things damaged in shipment, will have to pick them up later. Here's what I did get :

  • DC Retroactive : Superman 1990's
  • DC Retroactive : Green Lantern 1990's
  • DC Retroactive : Justice League 1990's
  • Knights of the Dinner Table #177
  • Incorruptible #21
  • FF #8
  • Gotham City Sirens #26
  • Batman : Gates of Gotham #5
  • Brightest Day Aftermath : Search for Swamp Thing #3 - Well, that was pointless.
  • Superman Beyond #0
  • Green Lantern : Emerald Warriors #13 - It's filler, but it's awesome filler.
  • Wonder Woman #614
  • Batman Incorporated #8
  • Action Comics #904
  • Flashpoint : Hal Jordan #3
  • Flashpoint : Lois Lane #3
  • Flashpoint : Project Superman #3
  • Flashpoint : Kid Flash Lost #3 - Well, that was a crappy ending.

Sigh. Next week - Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

New Comics Day

Lots of last issues before the relaunch..

  • DC Retroactive : Wonder Woman 1990's
  • DC Retroactive : Batman 1990's
  • DC Retroactive : Flash 1990's
  • Darkwing Duck #15
  • Gladstone's School for World Conquerors #4
  • Fables #108
  • Superman / Batman #87
  • Batman #713
  • Supergirl #67
  • Superboy #11
  • Green Lantern Corps #63
  • Zatanna #16
  • Justice League of America #60
  • Power Girl #27
  • Legion of Super-Heroes #16
  • Flashpoint : Abin Sur #3
  • Flashpoint : Legion of Doom #3
  • Flashpoint : The Outsider #3
  • Flashpoint : Wonder Woman #3

That's all!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

New Comics Day

This week's haul!

  • Mega Man #3 and #4 - I'd forgotten to put it on my pull-list. Corrected that oversight.
  • DC Retroactive : Green Lantern 80's
  • DC Retroactive : Superman 80's
  • DC Retroactive : Justice League of America 80's
  • Teen Titans #99
  • Birds of Prey #15
  • Batman 80 Page Giant 2011 #1
  • Batgirl #24
  • Red Robin #26
  • Batman and Robin #26
  • Detective Comics #881
  • War of the Green Lanterns : Aftermath #2
  • Booster Gold #47
  • Flashpoint : Emperor Aquaman #3
  • Flashpoint : Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown #3
  • Flashpoint : Deadman and the Flying Graysons #3
  • Flashpoint : Citizen Cold #3

That's all.

Eldritch Abomination-at-Law

My gaming group is pretty inclined towards going off on tangents. I would suppose that most groups are, in fact - maybe mine isn't special in that regard. Of course, I probably should do more as GM to keep things on track - rather than initiating many of these tangents myself.

A few weeks back, my D&D group encountered some Illithids on the surface, looking for assistance against encroaching Drow forces. If you're not familiar with illithids, they are the blue-purple octopus-faced brain-eating creatures also known as Mind Flayers, one of Dungeons and Dragons' 'iconic' monsters. In my campaign, a population explosion amongst the Drow has started putting intense pressure on the other races of the Underdark, driving them to desperate moves.

The PCs are understandably skeptical. They've fought mind flayers before. They know they eat the brains of sentient creatures. On the other hand, they like the Drow even less after an incident earlier in the game that saw the party taken captive. The flayers promise that no harm will befall the players at their hands or tentacles.

Player : "But can we trust them?"
Me : "Well, they're LAWFUL Evil.."

I love that line. Most of the party is on board for a wary and temporary alliance with the creatures, but there's still one skeptic - Katie, our newest player. She's got an ex-pirate rogue, and her character comes from a large merchant family, so she's thinking in terms of her character for ways to ease the trust issues.

Katie : "Can we get them to sign a contract?"
Me : "They don't really use contracts, per se - they do most of their writing on stone, because paper doesn't easily survive the damp conditions. Since it's not as portable or compactable a medium, they don't use it for things they see as unimportant. Besides, they're a telepathic society - they generally know when not to trust one another."
Katie : "But we could make a contract for them."
Me : "Sure, they'll sign it. But.. you want to introduce one of the most evil races in the universe to the concept of Contract Law?"

That exchange sparked one of those tangents of mine : Mind Flawyers. Two evil tastes that tastes evil together! Rather than sucking out your brains, they can just initiate a hostile takeover proceeding to gain custody.

And woe betide your next-of-kin who might try to recover it for you, because - in the words of famed Illithid attorney Br'xssth Grmbl, Esquid :

"Possession is nine tentacles of the law."

Monday, August 8, 2011

Origins 2011, Day Four (and Five)

The final chapter! Till next year, anyway.

Schedule for Saturday, June 25th was :

11AM - 1PM : Advanced Tips and Tricks for Miniatures
2PM - 4PM : Building Terrain : Abyssal Gate
7PM - 11PM : Twilight of the Gods (Mutants and Masterminds)

I'd very nearly decided to make it a full day of miniatures events, but at the last moment, I decided I needed one more RPG event as a capper. I left myself plenty of time in the morning so I could sleep in after having done the Smithees the night before.

The Tips and Tricks class was excellent, and after the convention, it's inspired more purchases of craft materials for me than anything else in recent memory. The tips about miniature 'basing' were particularly cool and helpful. I haven't started using most of the things I learned, but I'm preparing to do so.

The Terrain class was also cool, but sparsely attended. We had three, out of a potential class size of eight - but this meant he gave us each an extra 'kit' to take home and work with later. The kit includes some pre-cut foam in the rough shapes needed, to speed the class along. I was pretty pleased with my Abyssal Gate when the class was done - less pleased when a careless bellhop ignored my instructions about the bag it was in and crushed it, though. I should be able to fix it, but sheesh - when I tell you the bag has something fragile in it, don't toss it on the cart on its side. Dumbass.

Twilight of the Gods was a fun adventure of the 'The world is lost - can the heroes beat the villain and allow reality to snap back to its normal shape?' variety. (Though it wasn't immediately clear that things could go back to the way they were.) It was set in the default universe of Mutants and Masterminds, and the players each took on the role of one of the Freedom League. I had some issues with the portrayals of some of the other players, because they seemed to be trying their damnedest to fail the scenario, but I had fun playing the role of the Freedom League's resident city elemental, Dr. Metropolis.

Now, I have no idea what his personality is supposed to be like, but I was playing him as a Spectre type - aloof, mysterious, that kind of thing. This led to some hilarity.

(The FL's female Batman type - Raven - has shown up to rescue us all from the forced labor camps we were held in. She begins working on Lady Liberty's power nullifier collar.)
Me (to GM) : "Hey, I have Disable Device. Can I do my own?"
GM : "Sure, roll it."
Me (to GM) : "28."
GM (amused) : "Dr. Metropolis removes his own power inhibitor..."
Captain Thunder : "Why didn't you do that before??"
Me (as Dr. M) : "It wasn't time, yet."

Once free, Captain Thunder runs off on his own to start an intimidation campaign against the interdimensional conqueror who kicked our asses in the backstory, and Lady Liberty goes to mess with his troops at his stronghold, leading to her ass getting kicked again, and a haphazard regroup is staged, leaving Raven VERY annoyed with the level of unit cohesion. Her player starts ranting at me, about Captain Thunder running off on his own.

Me (as Dr. M) : "There's no need to take that tone with me. I am here, where I am required. I understand you are very upset. There, There." (delivered with a near-monotone, and a patting hand gesture at the end)

Got a hero point for that, and a belly-laugh from Raven's player.

All in all, I had great fun in that session. Especially once Captain Thunder got his act together.

Sunday morning, I went back to the exhibit hall once more to look for some particular miniatures, and had no luck - finally packing it in and checking out of the hotel to start my drive home.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Origins 2011, Day Three

I'm a bad, bad blogger. It's been almost a month since my last installment of this summary.

For the third day of the convention - Friday - I'd only scheduled three events. In part, this was to leave me some time for the exhibit hall. But also, they were large events. They were :

9AM-1PM : Clash of Heroes - DC (Mutants and Masterminds)
1PM-5PM : Space 1935 : Zeppelins Over Jupiter (Champions)
7PM-Midnight : The 20th Annual Smithee Awards

Clash of Heroes wasn't bad, but it was kind of predictable. See, I'd noticed there was a Clash of Heroes - Marvel on the schedule at the exact same time, and since my brain is capable of adding two and two, I realized there was only one way this could possibly go down. The two sessions would end up fighting one another in the end.

I got to play Batman, which was awesome, and the guy playing Plastic Man was hysterical. Plus, the players of Green Arrow and Black Canary were bickering in-character about Ollie's philandering. The whole thing turned out to be a joint interdimensional plot by Darkseid and Dr. Doom. Both groups of heroes arrived at the same time to confront the bad guys - the OBVIOUS bad guys - one of whom each team would RECOGNIZE as bad guys - and still the tween playing Spider-Man decided to take a potshot at me because "we don't know they're not villains". Well, you see me attacking Dr. Doom, genius. What do you think is happening? But then Ollie hit on Ms. Marvel and Tony Stark tried to pick up on Black Canary, so it was funny again.

Space 1935 was fantastic pulp sci-fi, and not just because I got to pick the character whose sheet had him represented by Mike Nelson of MST3K. No, our ship had an AI, Huckleberry, who had somewhat specific interpretations of the laws of robotics that allowed him to pre-emptively murder some beastmen that MIGHT EVENTUALLY attack humans. And the player gave him a sort of effeminate, Southern accent - like a slightly higher pitched, soft-spoken Huckleberry Hound, in fact. I couldn't help but laugh.

And then, of course, the Smithees - my favorite part of the con, every year. Unfortunately, this year, Man-Mountain McGurk decided to sit in front of me, so it was sometimes a challenge to see the screen around his 7 foot frame and double-wide head. Sigh. But I managed to see most of it.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

New Comics Day

Another big week.

  • Warlord of Mars : Dejah Thoris #5
  • Marineman #6
  • Irredeemable #28
  • Herc #6
  • DC Universe Online Legends #13
  • DC Retroactive : Batman 1980s
  • DC Retroactive : Flash 1980s
  • DC Retroactive : Wonder Woman 1980s
  • Batman : Gates of Gotham #4
  • Superboy #10
  • Batman Beyond #8
  • Superman #714
  • Adventure Comics #529
  • Secret Six #36
  • Flashpoint : Deathstroke #3
  • Flashpoint : Secret Seven #3
  • World of Flashpoint #3
  • Flashpoint : Batman - Knight of Vengeance #3
  • Flashpoint #4

Plus some new action figures.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Heroes Rebored : Ray of Hope?

Or something akin to it.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/08/01/dc-relaunch-nicola-scott-and-james-robinsons-jsa-1/

Rumors of James Robinson and Nicola Scott on a relaunched JSA title. Given the continuity issues that DC has laid out - namely, Superman as the first super-hero - my money is that the JSA will be back on Earth 2. Assuming this pans out.