Editor’s Note #56

Recorded a week earlier than usual so they didn’t know voting results yet The Letters Page: Editor's Note #56

Upcoming Schedule:

• Tuesday, July 5th: Episode #218: Writers’ Room: La Capitan & the Sliver of Creation
• Tuesday, July 12th: Episode #219: Creative Process: Scholar Villains
• Tuesday, July 19st: Editor’s Note #57
• Tuesday, July 26th: Episode #220: Writers’ Room: A minor villain gets a major triumph

Expected Recording Schedule:

• Friday, July 1st: Episode #218: Writers’ Room: La Capitan & the Sliver of Creation
• Friday, July 8th: Episode #219: Creative Process: Scholar Villains
• Friday, July 15th: Editor’s Note #57
• Friday, July 22nd: Episode #220: Writers’ Room: A minor villain gets a major triumph

Light mode is the right mode! Light mode is the right mode!

Christopher wasn’t lying, this is good radio.

“You could make a character with 13 hit points who feels incredibly tanky.” You could, his name is Lantern Jack.

I hope there’ll be Freedom Four variants, especially including Haka.

I definitely missed the start of this letter and was confused about the history of eye-beams for a while.

Man, Southwest Sentinels got min-maxed to hell!

Hah, that was a good bit.

I was going to say that the one power set that Tachyon definitely couldn’t do well with Setback’s powers, but C&A realized it first.

One thing that maybe I’m misremembering - I could have sworn that the “singular Oblivaeon shard” question came up before, and the answer was that Oblivaeon shards, unlike Oblivaeon are not singular, they’re just rare. It came up in particular for both Captain Cosmic and for the Void Guard, who kept their Oblivaeon shards in both Universe 1 and the Vertex timeline.

Ahh, this was a fun Editor’s Note to be involved in.

Also, re: DE as a BLT - while I agree it’s a higher quality BLT, I think saying it’s still a BLT implies that there’s only refined stuff & not new content. I propose, alongside having better ingredients, this BLT also has guacacomole, because that always improves things.

I feel like the most dangerous power set combo is Parse with Visionary’s powers. Cosmic awareness plus psychic abilities to include mind control? That’s basically asking to be a Scion. I don’t know that you even need influence from Dark Mind at that point.

As to the BLT, keeping it in-universe: I think we’ve got bacon glazed with Void Jelly, along with fresh lettuce and tomato from Grover Greene’s farm. This sandwich is THE BOMB!

Or Haunted Fantatic.

My own brain was like “Did you mean Void Guard Writhe”.

This was a fun episode. Regards the D&D thing, tho, I question Argent having a high Charisma since we know he’s rather aloof, anti-social, and unempathetic to the point it’s a character flaw. The LP server folks half-joked he might have high CHA but just pumps all his skill points into Perform and doesn’t do anything for the other CHA skills.

Funnily, the moment they asked that question, my immediate thought was “BLTA”.

He could also have high CHA, but is constantly being played by someone that doesn’t want to role play.

I’ve always called Charisma “offensive willpower,” contrasting Wisdom’s more traditional “defensive” willpower. Given that AA seems to just will stuff into happening (so does Fanatic, in her way), I can see that. He just doesn’t have any “social” skills.

Isn’t Constitution “defensive” willpower?

The Will save is WIS-based. You’re thinking the Fort save that’s CON-based.

I argued for Fanatic as Highest Charisma, just for force of personality reasons - she may not have any Charisma skills (well, with the possible exception of Intimidate), but goddamn does she have a lotta force of personality.

I would argue Parse does not have high wisdom. she has “Awareness” and “Intuition”, but it is not from a “gut feeling but” from logic and math.

Ahh, the classic 9 stat game systems with acting, effecting, and resisting stats for mental, physical, and social. Mayfair DC, Shadowrun, modern Vampire…

Yeah, I have issues with those break-downs, but overall yeah.

Also, I am a fan of the “gamer types” lists that split “real roleplayer” into “brains” and “thespians.” So…

I mean, Intimidation is a Charisma-based skill, and she has plenty of that!

Parse has maxed Perception (Wisdom-based skill, and one of the most rolled) even if she’s not “wise” in the traditional sense. Of course she’s also got some Ranger traits - Precise Shot, Pinpoint Targeting, etc.

I guess if Orbo has that many necks, that explains how KNYFE added him to her body count. They were just NECKING.

“Ambuscade with Fanatic powers” - he’s called Solipsist, he is literally his own God, and he believes in himself.

I really want a golden age Haka panel, when they had no respect for Maori culture and were just treating him as a savage, where he just yells “HAKA IS STRONGEST THERE IS!!!”

Fanatic has enormous Charisma; she’s not interested in getting people to like her or even agree with her, but she’s great at aweing and terrifying people with no more than a self righteous lecture.

Taking the Dreamer to the domain of the Nightmare Weaver seems like a very very bad idea.

The big reason why intelligence counts against your powerset is magic; the more you know about how reality works, the less effective magic should be in your presence, because you know why it can’t possibly work. Science is power through knowledge, magic is power from lack of knowledge.

Flight of Dragons (1982) Final Showdown

You doing okay there, buddy?

what? that scene is a great example of science dampening magic.

Flight of Dragons (a movie combining a book of that name and the book The Dragon and the George) was circulated around the people I played D&D with in the 80’s.
even the minor characters are voice actors you have heard before. Here we hear James Earl Jones and John Ritter.