Amentep

Well Jean Grey is popular... ...BUT she's died several times already. It always seems like characters who've died die a lot more if they come back. And in fact there's some belief that she's already come back... For anyone who hasn't seen them: http://rss.warnerbros.com/watchmen/

What does that even mean? Even without some external/man caused catastrophe (giant asteroid, magnetic poles reversing, atomic war, minature black hole being created in a particle accelerator, etc) the solar system will only last so long; if we stay on earth (and assuming we're still there for the event) we'd be vaporized when the sun turns into a red giant (and frankly if we were just in the solar system we might still have some issues).

I think...for whatever reason it seems like very few actors (or perhaps its the writers problem?) seem to be able to pull off emotionless anymore (this used to kill me all the time on Star Trek shows with the Vulcans going around and emoting all over the place). As far as T:tSCC is concerned, I got to say while I liked some of the concepts in the show, and I liked some of the cast, I just couldn't get into it. A lot of it just seemed...silly to me. A bunch of running around and gun pointing and posturing and not a lot of plot or character development. Mind you I didn't watch every episode, but nothing in the episodes I saw really wowed me.

Did not know that. Just remembered there was a comic thread, searched for the name, found a thread and responded to it with some new stuff. Guess I've spent too much time on boards where they don't want you to start a new thread if an old one exists... *** Anyhow I'm not really worried they'll kill Mystique; I guess its possible but she's such a hugely popular character it seems to be the kind of thing that would really agitate fans and such (mind you maybe that's why they do it; agitating fans seems to be the only reason most companies kill characters anymore).

There's not a lot of information about Goners that I recall other than it being a supernatural thriller he was working on. Universal has the option on it and AFAIK has yet to see a draft they liked enough to green-light it (Joss has been - movie wise - in draft hell with this and the now dead attempt to do Wonder Woman). Tim's not had a lot of success with non-Joss shows, it seems, having had several cancelled (Wonder Falls, The Inside, Drive) without filling out their run.

Joss and Eliza Dushku are doing a new series called Dollhouse next season on FOX. Tim Minear and a few other people who worked on other Whedon shows have come on board, but I'm blanking on names atm. Shows plot revolves around Echo (Dushku) an agent (known as a Doll) for a group that wipes the minds of its agents and programs them with new memories/skills particular to each mission. Echo, however, begins remembering things despite the mind wipes... ObTopic: I actually like Atlantis better than SG-1 to be honest (but watch them in syndication so am a year or half-year behind at least). Not wild about some of the upcoming spoilers I've heard for Atlantis either. Any word about the 3 Stargate series? Last I'd heard planning for it was scuttled by the strike...

I haven't read All-Star Superman (which much like All-Star Squadron has an inappropriate acronym... ) but reviews and people I've known all seem to think its really well done. Its supposed to be a modern take on the Silver Age Superman stories, as seen by Grant Morrison. I know a lot of people who read Berserk too, but I just don't have the money to follow a lot of manga anymore (the translations of Junji Ito's work is about all I'm getting anymore).

Yeah I read half of Sinestro Corp (as I'm reading trades for GL, but was buying GLC by issues...why I don't know). Justice League relaunch started good but the current Kingdom Come storyline is *really* taking its time to build to anything. I keep hearing good things about the current Captain America run, and probably should break down and check it out.

You know, I don't think any our old P&P games ever really got into flight (we tended to run a bunch of low level campaigns with um...frequent character turn-over >_ But we tended to fudge the rules all over the place anyhow, so even if it had come up, I'm sure we'd have fudged it.

Yeah I loved Bubba-Ho-Tep. Mind you, as you might be able to guess, I'm a sucker for mummy movies. Too bad about the sequel, Bubba Nosferatu not getting made. >_

Yeah the "dynasty" aspect of Clinton is a bit worrying to me. If she wins the presidency that would mean a period of 24-28 years where the US was run by 2 families...

There were claims against comics (led by Dr. Fredrick Wertham) as early as 1940 (William Moulton Marston was one of a group of psychologists hired to attest that National Periodical Publications aka DC Comics before creating Wonder Woman). The publication of Wetham's Seduction of the Innocent in 1954 led to congressional hearings about the comic industry. While SotI took on superheroes - notably, Batman (suggesting a homosexual relationship between Bruce Wayne and his ward, Richard Grayson) and Wonder Woman (lesbians and bondage) - it was mostly railing against crime comics and horror comics (which were generally aimed at older and adult audiences). At the Senate Subcommittee for Juvenile Delinquency hearings led by Estes Kefauver, an ill William Gaines, publisher of EC comics whose horror titles - Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror and so on - are still talked about today, testified. Unfortunately he was on medication that made his presentation a disaster. At the same time the "kid friendly" comics companies, National/DC, Timely/Marvel, MLJ/Archie, Harvey, and Dell (IIRC) basically used the scare and congressional hearings to build the Comics Code Authority. The Code had guidelines for "acceptable" material for what could be in a comic book, and most of their provisions were directly aimed at taking out EC Comics and Lev Gleason (whose crime comics had drawn the ire of Wertham) who were then dominating comics. With the CCA in place EC ended up unable to publish comics formated books, dropped their horror line for a failed "new initiative" of code approved books and moved MAD into magazine format where it could avoid code regulations. Lev Gleason got of the business in 1955 with no real alternative for him. Wertham actually thought the CCA was a paper tiger, unable to protect children from the evils of comics. He also thought TV was evil as well. **** The "cat woman" who beat up Wonder Woman in Alex Ross' Justice series is a version of Cheetah, one of her oldest advesaries. **** So the real reason I'm posting is to see what everyone is buying & reading. What's interesting out there? I'm still getting a lot of books but am seriously considering switching to trade paperbacks as I'm no longer able to get to the shops regularly anymore. Major superhero publishers DC and Marvel in the US are gearing up for more "major storylines" again. DC is giving us Final Crisis from Grant Morrison and J. G. Jones with very little actually coming out about what the series is going to be about. Grant, no stranger to hyperbole, has said the series will be "The Lord of the Rings of the DCU". Marvel's entry is Secret Invasion by Brian Michael Bendis and Leniel Yu, with the Skrulls having infiltrated the earth's government and heroes in a bid to take what they believe is theres after the destruction of the Skrull Empire in Annhilation. At the moment I have no plans to buy either... Nonsuperhero titles seem to be making some headway in the market (westerns seem to be doing okay, and horror related comics still seem to be selling well). Translated Manga are still selling like hotcakes to comic fans and non-fans alike. Translated Eurpean comics seem to have lost steam ever since the disasterous DC/Humanoids deal. But Marvel is pairing with French publisher Soleil, so maybe things will right on that front. So anyhow, whatcha reading?

Rectangular rooms don't map well on hexagonal grids. They cut across hexagons and thus force the adjudicator of the game to deal with half hexagons... It is not an insurmountable problem, since it is possible to create rules for half-hexagons, but it is there. Hmmm, okay. I guess I wasn't really seeing creating half-hexagon rules being that big of an issue. My bathroom has hexagonal tiles on the floor, and I've never had trouble moving in it... This is because it is impossible to create a flat surface made of octagons (unless it is only one octagon, he he ). It is a law of geometry. Only triangles, squares and hexagons can be used to create uniform grids on flat/Euclidean surfaces. If you try to create a grid out of octagons, you will be left with square shaped spaces between them - it will thus be a combined octagonal/square grid... Dangit, you know I actually knew this answer if I'd thought about it a moment I'd have remembered that. mmm, triangles. I guess you could cheat and use right-triangles. To save on money you can use pre-existing square paper to achieve it! Thanks for the answers!

When I played high school soccer, we had a 2-20-2 average... I've never felt like I could identify with the developers as much as I do now!

Maybe I'm just stupid, but what's the problem with hexagons and rectangular rooms? Also why wouldn't octagons be used over squares or even hexagons? I admit I've only ever used squares when needed and never put much thought into it, so I'm sure I'm missing something!

Wow, I know he looked like he wasn't in the best of health last I saw pictures of him, but I gotta admit this is pretty surprising. RIP Gary; my thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

Same before I made Era of Kingdoms. With massive tweaking and serious devotion I could likely interest a smaller game company in it, though. If you have any spare time you should go for it [making yours]. Its certainly one of the things on my "to do" list. But right now spare time is pretty sparse for me, I'm afraid.

Not that the Doctor ever actually does himself. And frankly, the one instance often cited for regenerational choice is, to my mind, a case of Romana using an image inducer as opposed to really burning off regenerations to "try on bodies" (or even the other pet fan theory, that she was using "forward" projections like Cho-Je or The Watcher)

Better than me, I just figured Chris was his middle name (or a derivative thereof, like Christopher) and his first name began with "M" (something like "Malcolm" or "Mandlebrot"), hence MCA.

I have an idea for one, but sadly its not gone further than the back of my mind.

Oh sure, it doesn't need to be elaborate, I'm sure. I seriously doubt if/when I get 4e manuals I'll be buying a bunch of props. Heck I don't have room for my old school lead figures (with real lead!) much less newfangled plastic doo-hickeys. I'm just saying its not surprising its more physical representational and not abstract as it seems like the minature stuff is what's really selling (but I could always be wrong).

To be fair in regards to the importance of maps and minatures, that seems to be where game players have been going (as far as I know the main reason WotC abandoned the P&P Star Wars line was because they found that the minatures were selling better, and concentrated on that). So kinda not surprising 4e is built to favor maps and minatures to me.

I guess you never know when you'll be cornered in a back-alley by a gunman wanting to know if Obsidian is doing an expansion pack to NWN2 or not...

I really enjoyed that; personally I'm waiting for the release of the FES expansion.

I'm not really sure how open ended any game could be; I'd be happy if they took the Covenants and made sure that whichever ones they implement have a solid story built around that choice. But even that will be limited; I'm reminded of how in V:tM:R if you decide to state your intention to side against teh Camirilla with the free vampires your mission is...to keep working with the Camirila "undercover", basically keeping you on the rails for the game (not that I minded, its a fun game. Just gave me a laugh is all).