Thursday, March 24, 2005

BUT I SURE DO LOVE TO LISTEN TO YOU LIE

Let’s see. Nothing much going on around here. Sorry about that. The unexamined life, and all that.

While I finished watching Deadwood several weeks ago, I haven’t commented on it, and I suppose that’s remiss of me. It’s an extraordinarily good piece of fiction for any genre. I went into it more or less expecting Unforgiven: The TV Series, and that’s a fair enough assessment, in its way, just as referring to FX’s The Shield as Training Day: The Continuing Series is accurate, if limited. You can see where each movie has acted as something of a template for each show, although, given how hard the creators of Deadwood worked to keep everyone in all the behind the scenes interviews from saying the name Unforgiven, it would seem David Milch has to be a little self conscious about the footsteps he’s following in. Milch’s own interviews, in which he insists that Deadwood originally grew from an idea about exploring law enforcement in Nero’s Rome (according to Milch, the idea had to be changed because HBO told him “they were already doing a show like that”… right), seem to reinforce, to those of us listening for even the remotest, most casual side reference to Unforgiven, that, yes, while it’s fairly obvious from the emphases we’re seeing in this show that that’s where the seeds of it lie, it’s worth your life, or at least your job, to even hint at that within Milch’s sphere of influence.

I think Milch’s thought policing, if such there be, is a little unnecessary. A trained and experienced deconstructionist may be able to analyze the celluloid DNA of Milch’s Al Swearingen character and trace it back, in certain important thematic ways, to Gene Hackman’s Little Bill in Unforgiven, but to the casual eye there is little resemblance. (Both characters are the local centers of order without law in their frontier communities; both men are ruthless enforcers and defenders of the local peace, both men are remarkably intelligent and competent even against their frontier backdrops, where the stupid and inept rarely survived long, and both men, beneath genial exteriors, are corrupt and wicked and lost and, most likely, doomed.) The central position of the local house of prostitution, and its inhabitants, is common to both Unforgiven and Deadwood. The fascination with the difference between dime novel heroics and the reality they are based on is a common theme, along with, in general, the examination of the reality of the Old West, as opposed to its mythology.

What mostly points it out to me, though, this very conscious (and somewhat shamefaced) taking of Deadwood’s inspiration from Unforgiven, are the story bits here and there in which it seems obvious that Milch is trying to stack the perceptual deck with eventual arguments against any such observation. Deadwood opens with a scene that establishes real historical character Seth Bullock as a marshal in Montana, and goes out of its way to show the difference between him, a genuinely compassionate man, and Little Bill Daggett, a genial, mostly uncaring sociopath. Yet both men are devoted to the concept of order enforced by violence committed under cover of authority; Bullock is just more reluctant to take that to the extreme than Daggett was.

There are other moments in Deadwood’s first 12 episodes that, when they came up, impressed themselves on me as showing Milch very consciously installing them so he could point to them as ways his show is very different from Unforgiven, in much the same way every time something in Robert McCammon’s They Thirst varies from the original template of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, it just makes McCammon’s derivational effort all the more obvious. “This isn’t Salem’s Lot! That vampire novel is set in a small town in New England! This vampire novel is set in Los Angeles! And we got a stand up comic in our cast of characters! Stephen King doesn’t have a stand up comic! It’s a totally different book!” Yeah… right…

Nonetheless, there’s little point in an endless list of such items, because simply put, Deadwood is its own entity that transcends its obvious inspiration. Milch, if he is indeed self conscious about where Deadwood sprang from, shouldn’t be. Deadwood is far more than a fast, cheap knock off of someone else’s production, just as The Shield, while obviously directly inspired by the movie Training Day, has its own individual vitality. (To that extent, the comparison between McCammon, who made most of his career out of rehashing Stephen King’s work, and Milch is a grievously unfair one.)

Deadwood ultimately struck me as an extraordinary portrayal of life in the Old West. Milch and his production crew, as well as his cast of gifted actors, seem to spare no expense to create this world and then draw you into it; you can nearly smell the horse shit in the streets as the camera pans through them.

Much attention has been paid to Ian McShane’s astonishing evocation of Al Swearingen, and Keith Carradine has gotten many props elsewhere for his interestingly nuanced performance as Wild Bill Hickock. Everyone cast in Deadwood has acting talent; I myself took special delight in watching old favorite supporting actors like William Sanderson, who has appeared in endless movies and TV shows (probably his most memorable role before this was as a socially maladroit genetics engineer in Blade Runner, and Jeffrey Jones (most famous as Ferris Bueller’s hapless foil, Principal Skinner) deftly portray vividly three dimensional supporting roles on this show. I also enjoyed Molly Parker’s very low key, very understated performance as Alma Garrett, one of the few fully fictional characters in the series.

Tim Olyphant, who portrays the character that is the arguable moral center of the show, Seth Bullock, is always a lot of fun for me to watch, mostly because he is, in so many scenes, such a dead ringer for Keanu Reeves… he’s just, kind of, a Keanu Reeves who can actually act with some intensity, which is very odd to see. And I’d be remiss in not pointing out how delightful Robin Weigert, as Calamity Jane, Dayton Callie, as Charlie Udder, and John Hawkes, as Sol Starr, were to watch in their parts. And Brad Dourif as the drunken local sawbones was always a revelation; he’s come a long way since That Thing You Do.

Interestingly, Blade Runner’s screenplay is co-credited to a David Peoples, and Unforgiven was authored by David Webb Peoples, creating a potential tentative link (along with William Sanderson) between Blade Runner and Deadwood. Now, when Harrison Ford shows up as a Pinkerton man hunting runaway slaves, or some such…

Overall, I’m happy to own Deadwood, as I can see it’s the sort of work that will richly repay many repeat viewings.

AND THEY’RE HERE TO SAVE THE DAY

I desperately need JSA #s 59, 60, and 61. I’ve been rereading my run and I’m just about to get into BLACK REIGN and I don’t want to start it without the three concluding chapters. It’s driving me maaaaaaaaad.

Rereading JSA has led me into the clix battle I’ve just concluded, which I found interesting for many reasons. This will be one of those blog entries that only Mike Norton bothers to read all the way through, but that’s okay, at least it will baffle the Portal of Evil gerbils. Here’s what happened:

This battle I’m about to give you a play by play on is between the Justice Society of America (and one friend, who came along because her other two crimefighting partners are legitimate members) and a very strange version of the Injustice Society, or the Secret Society of Supervillains, or something.

On the one side, we have Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Black Canary, Power Girl, Mr. Terrific, Huntress, Hourman, Dr. Fate, the Flash (Jay Garrick), Captain Marvel, Stargirl, Wonder Woman, and Dr. Midnite, as played for this engagement only by Red Robin (who looks alarmingly like him, and whose dial works fine for that purpose). Our guest star is Oracle, and with 1100 points of hero on the hoof already on the board, I didn’t flinch from adding another 130 points to put them all In Contact With Oracle.

On the other side, we have the Ultra-Humanite, Silver Swan (I still don’t know who she is, but I guess she’s villainous), the new 100 point Joker from Legacy, Solomon Grundy, R’as al Ghul, Persuader (no idea why he’s hanging with these mooks, but he’s probably just hoping for a ride home), Mordru (that’s probably the guy Persuader is hoping for a ride home from), Superwoman (bored, thinks R’as is cute), Obsidian, Prometheus, Jinx, and, well, I really don’t know what he’s doing there but he’s evil and I wanted to try the fig out – Ares.

The bad guys get no Feat Cards, they’re just too mean (and their points, even down two figs total from the JSA, add up to nearly 100 more than the JSA). With 100 extra points to spend on Feat Cards, the JSA is pretty tricked out. Stargirl and Wonder Woman have Damage Shield, Captain Marvel and Power Girl have Fortitude, Dr. Midnite (Red Robin) and Black Canary both have Stunning Blow, and the Flash has Armor Piercing. (I only got one AP card, otherwise Stargirl would have it, too, for her Energy Explosion.) And of course, they’re all In Touch With Oracle, which means any of them that take Action Tokens at the very least can raise their Defense Values, if nothing else.

The card combo I think will be the most effective (under my House Rules) is Armor Piercing on Jay Garrick. HSS combined with his Speed of 20 gives him a lot of potential attacks, and a 10 attack means most of them will hit, for a guaranteed one damage per hit. Assuming he gets 7 or 8 hits in on a target, he’ll be pounding a lot of people down to gruel in short order.

I’m not invoking my house rule that would allow me to make everyone in the team use the JSA TA, mostly because I want to try out the Red Robin click as he’d actually play, so I don’t want to give up his KC TA. But I also don’t want to give up Black Canary’s Batman TA, and the Vet Huntress has a JLA TA on her, and a free move with this many figs out there is not to be sneered at. Still, it means I can’t give Jay the JSA TA, and it would be nice if he had it, so he could share that defense with others who aren’t so fleet of foot.

In all honesty, I actually could not apply the JSA TA to everyone on this team under that house rule, anyway, as Oracle has never been a JSA member, the rule specifies that all figs in play have to be legitimate members of the TA in question. I don’t think it’s out of continuity to have her help the JSA out on this mission, though.

The map is an odd one from one of the Adventure Kits, an indoor map featuring weird looking big machines on one half of it and office space on the other half. I started the villains off in the offices, figuring the JSA had just smashed their way into the other side of an underground HQ or abandoned warehouse or something.

Hopefully the only other important thing to note, because it’s never mentioned explicitly in my House Rules: I play with two other ‘house rules’. One is that no attacks are allowed on the first turn. This will, in most cases, have two salubrious effects: it lets people move out onto the board without fearing a devastating opening turn blitz from another opponent who hasn’t moved yet, which is one of the least fun, and near constant, occurrences in games that do not use such a rule. Second, it tends to discourage ‘turtling’, which is, one or more players simply staying in their starting positions and refusing to move until other players are moved out onto the board and engaged in such a way as to be vulnerable, again, to that extremely unpleasant opening blitzkrieg coming out of nowhere.

The second rule I use to keep big games moving along fast is a 5 action limit per turn. In addition to keeping things moving, this makes Leadership extremely effective in large games.

And heeeeeeere we go…

Turn 1:

JSA - Oracle provides Mr. Terrific with Leadership, which gives him an Action token. He makes successful roll. Dr. Fate carries Hourman, Hawkman carries Flash (using In Touch With Oracle modifier to increase his damage so he can carry Flash full distance under my House Rules), Stargirl carries Wonder Woman out to row 10 (near the middle of the board). Dr. Fate and Stargirl both use Oracle modifier to increase their DV. Stargirl and Wonder Woman are on normal terrain, Wonder Woman behind the 3-D dumpster. Dr. Fate, Hourman, Hawkman, and Flash are on elevated terrain, on top of some large machines. Billy Batson runs out 5, takes an action token. Dr. Midnight (RR) moves to row 10, off to the left side of the board, and hides on a generator. Vet Huntress, with JLA TA, moves for free, out to the right side of the board, and takes up an elevated position on top of one of the big machines there. Mr. Terrific, Dr. Fate, Hawkman, Stargirl, Dr. Midnight (RR), Billy Batson and Huntress all have action tokens. Wonder Woman, Flash, Hourman, are in forward positions without action tokens.

Mistakes – none I can see. With the SSV in the office side of the map, protected by layers of walls, it is hard to get into position to strike on them.

Notes – Hypersonic Speed under my House Rules ignores elevated and hindering terrain modifiers; Flash can run down any time he likes. House Rules allow clix to jump off elevated terrain and take two clicks of damage; so Hourman can also get down any time he likes, and this will get him off that annoying activation click, at the cost of having him skip his best click, his second.

SSV – The bad guys are in the office complex, protected by three layers of walls; Ares, Prometheus, Obsidian, Jinx, and Mordru all have Phasing. My House Rules prohibit attacks on the first turn, so there is nothing to be gained by moving out and taking position against the JSA, and much to be gained by staying inside cover. Nobody moves.

Mistakes – None I can see. Moving out would only have let the JSA take shots first next turn. Staying under cover denies them this opportunity.

Turn 2:

JSA - Billy Batson moves to row 10, takes position next to Stargirl. He is now pushed, moves to his second click at end of turn, is now Captain Marvel. Hourman jumps down from top of the machine, takes 2 clicks, moves to his third click. Takes an action token. Everyone else pulls their tokens.

Mistake – forgot to roll for Leadership. No biggie, as hardly anyone is moving. Considered taking a couple of shots – could have moved Flash in, maybe got Dr. Fate into range. Such moves effectively would have sacrificed both pieces, though. Decided to let SSV come out to JSA, knowing this will probably cost JSA at least one fig when Ares attacks.

SSV – Ares, carrying Mordru, moves out to row 11, adjacent to Wonder Woman and 3-D dumpster. Successfully rolls to Outwit her Invulnerability, hits her with dumpster for 7. Puts 3-D dumpster down adjacent to Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman has Damage Shield, but this does nothing to Ares as he is Impervious. Prometheus moves out to row 11 adjacent to Wonder Woman, successfully rolls to Outwit her Toughness, hits her for 3. Wonder Woman is KOed. Silver Swan carries Joker, Superwoman carries R’as al Ghul out to the end of the access hallway leading into the office complex, just short of the area where the JSA is, within range to shoot at some JSA members. Jinx moves out, but has insufficient movement to get all the way to the enclosed area where the JSA is fighting her teammates. Ares, Silver Swan, Superwoman, Jinx, Prometheus all have action tokens.

Mistake - Prometheus should take one click from WW’s Damage Shield. I forgot.

Body count – Wonder Woman

Turn 3:

JSA - Mr. Terrific successfully uses Leadership. Hourman moves over adjacent to Prometheus, picks up 3-D dumpster, swings it at Prometheus. He should hit, but Prometheus rolls it off with Super Senses, dodging at the last minute. Hourman is now pushed onto his 4th click, where Probability Control will come up. No use now, of course, as the push damage happens at the end of the turn. Power Girl, carrying Mr. Terrific, charges in, clocks Prometheus for 6 (by my House Rules, she can only pick up and use an object if she does not move more than half her speed that turn. She did, so she can’t use the dumpster. Charge adds 1 to Damage, though). Had Prometheus taken his Damage Shield click from Wonder Feat Card, he would be out now. Dr. Fate blasts Mordru for 3, needing to utilize his Probability Control to hit. Hawkman flies down and swings at Mordru, misses. Stargirl finishes Prometheus off with a blast. Prometheus is now KOed. Dr. Midnite (RR) leaves cover, moves over to get line of sight on both Joker and R’as al Ghul. Uses two targets to successfully Outwit both of them, removing their Outwit. (This was very important; Joker also had two Outwit attacks next turn, with a decent range and good Attack Value.) Dr. Midnite then successfully Incapacitates both of them. Neither had an action token, though, and as R’as has Willpower, and the Joker is crazy, both will most likely attack, probably Midnight (RR) next turn.

All JSA who took actions have raised their defense (Oracle modifier). Hourman is now pushed. Captain Marvel loses his tokens at end of turn. Power Girl, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Stargirl, Dr. Midnite all have action tokens. Dr. Midnite is not on hindering terrain, Joker and R’as al Ghul have line of sight on him and he is within their range. He has Outwitted their Outwit, however.

Mistakes - Charge, under my House Rules, allows characters to move their full movement, pick up an object, and use it in the same turn as they move. I forgot this; chain of reasoning in above paragraph re: Power Girl is therefore incorrect. However, Power Girl would not have gotten CCE if she’d used the dumpster, so it’s a wash. Exposing Dr. Midnite by moving him off his Hindering Terrain is a careful tactical decision; it will probably end up sacrificing the click, but the Joker and R’as Al Ghul had to be neutralized as Outwitters.

SSV – R’as al Ghul opens fire on Dr. Midnite (RR), hitting him for 2, dropping that much needed 11 AV to 9 and getting rid of Midnite’s Outwit. Dr. Midnite fails his Super Senses roll. (R’as potentially could have done much more damage moving up and swinging his sword, but under my House Rules, Kingdom Come Team Ability causes an opponent who rolls a 1-2 when moving adjacent to move to a non-adjacent square and end their turn. R’as chose to take the ranged shot.) R’as is now pushed, but takes no damage as he has Willpower. Joker moves up one square so he is adjacent to R’as and can use his 10 AV. Shoots at Dr. Midnite, misses. Joker is now pushed, takes one click of damage. Joker now shows Leadership on his dial, which could be significant next turn. Jinx moves out 4, Psionic Blasts Flash for 2, dropping his 10 AV to 8. Jinx is now pushed, takes 1 damage. Mordru Psionic Blasts Hawkman, as he will never hit Dr. Fate’s Energy Shield enhanced DV of 19. Misses anyway. Mordru now has an action token. Ares decides to swing on Captain Marvel. He hits, but Captain Marvel rolls a 6 on Impervious, takes no damage. Jinx attempts to use PC to force him to reroll this. By my House Rules, an opposing Probability Control piece that can use its powers can nullify an enemy PC attempt, protecting a good roll. Dr. Fate cancels Jinx’s Probability Control, keeping Captain Marvel’s 6 in place. Ares is now pushed, takes one click of Damage. Ares Outwits Dr. Fate’s Probability Control.

Mistakes – Should have moved Jinx first to let her use her Probability Control for the Joker’s attack on Dr. Midnite. Ares should have Outwitted Dr. Fate’s Probability Control before he swung. This last was extremely significant; Dr. Fate could have either given Captain Marvel another chance to activate his Impervious, or done what he did and protected a successful Impervious roll. Significant errors. Ares, in retrospect, should also have simply disengaged this turn and moved back behind the wall to his rear. Captain Marvel, with a reasonably high attack, Hypersonic Speed, and Exploit Weakness, is the only hero on the board who has a chance of damaging Ares significantly, and Ares is currently adjacent to him. If Ares is going to push anyway, he should simply retreat (he has Phasing; he can do it at will). However, I try to play with characterization in mind – not something one would ever do in a tournament environment – and Ares would not retreat, in character. This will cost him.

Hard won wisdom – Ares is a bastard to hit. The 19 Defense and the Impervious make him very tough, especially on my House Rules where an Outwitter has to hit to have an effect. Dr. Midnite (RR) had an 11 attack, 12 with Oracle modifier to AV, and thus had the best chance of hitting Ares, and also had Outwit. R’as al Ghul was smart enough to know all this; this is why he and the Joker attacked Dr. Midnite. Bad luck that Hawkman missed Mordru; just a lousy roll. With Charge, Hawkman would have done 5 clicks total to Mordru and probably taken him out. Mordru has at least lost his Outwit due to Fate’s attack, which since Mordru has 2 range attacks, is very good for the JSA.

Strategy of chipping away seems extremely effective for SSV, with Ares on their side. Dropping Flash to an 8 AV and Dr. Midnite to a 9 makes hitting Ares very very difficult, even with mods from Oracle. On the other hand, In Contact With Oracle is an enormous boon.

Charge providing free mobility (when one is Charging into Close Combat) and especially +1 to Damage is extremely effective; something that has been amply demonstrated in several previous games to this one and that continues to be shown here. Both Charge and Running Shot remain very significant powers under my House Rules.

Body count – Wonder Woman, Prometheus

Turn 4:

JSA – Mr. Terrific fails a Leadership roll. Captain Marvel launches a Hypersonic Speed barrage of Exploit Weakness blows (driven by the Wisdom of Solomon, no doubt) at Ares. Although Exploit Weakness caps damage at 3 under my House Rules, Marvel is adjacent to Ares with a speed value of 11, giving him 5 attacks (each HyperSonic Speed Close Combat attacks costs 2 movement points under my House Rules). Cap uses Oracle modifier to add to AV. He misses twice and hits 3 times, for a total of 9 clicks of damage, all of which pass through Ares’ Impervious. Ares is KOed, but his Mystics TA causes Captain Marvel to take 3 clicks of damage, 1 per successful attack. Cap also has an action token. Dr. Fate gets his Probability Control back. Mr. Terrific moves up adjacent to Mordru, giving him line of sight on Mordru and Jinx. He Outwits Mordru’s Psionic Blast and Jinx’s Probability Control, then Incapacitates Mordru (Jinx is already pushed). Mordru is now pushed, but has Willpower and takes no damage. Mr. Terrific has an action token. The Huntress pegs a shot at R’as al Ghul and misses, even with Fate using his PC to give her a second chance. She takes an action token. Hawkgirl swoops in from row 2 and swings on R’as al Ghul and misses, taking an action token. The Flash, fed up with R’as, races down from on top of the machine where Hawkman had placed him and hammers R’as a total of 7 times, for 7 clicks of Armor Piercing damage. He takes an action token. Every JSA member who attacked this turn used Oracle’s modifier to add 1 to Attack.

SSV – Half the remaining team is pushed: R’as al Ghul, the Joker, Mordru, Jinx. Joker makes a successful Leadership roll. Superwoman moves into square with 3-D Soda Machine, which is adjacent to Flash. Picks up Soda Machine, belts Flash with it for 7 (Soda Machine adds 1 to Superwoman’s damage value, making it a 5, Soda Machine is a Heavy Object, adding 2 clicks of damage when used in Close Combat attack). Flash is out like a light. Silver Swan swoops in and rakes Captain Marvel with her claws, misses. Ultra-Humanite TKs Solomon Grundy up to just behind R’as Al Ghul, due to No Action After Taxi or Telekinesis (NAATOT), Grundy cannot move further. Persuader moves over adjacent to Obsidian. Obsidian, carrying Persuader, moves out to floor where JSA is, sets Persuader down adjacent to Hawkman.

Mistakes – none I am aware of on either side. Either Persuader or Obsidian are about to get their clocks cleaned by Power Girl and/or Hourman, but it was the most direct way to bring them into the fight, and neither of them would worry overly about taking damage.

Hard won wisdom - JSA had some bad rolls, but taking Ares out is huge. Under my House Rules, Captain Marvel’s combination of Hyper Sonic Speed and Exploit Weakness makes him a fabulously powerful character, but, well, he should be. Him taking out Ares is… acceptable, in terms of relative power levels. Ares shouldn’t have put himself adjacent to Captain Marvel, or should have done a better job when he had a free shot on him. Had Ares hit Marvel for some damage in the previous turn, this could all have gone very differently. It’s also useful to consider that Captain Marvel (JSA version) would probably be a 200+ fig if he didn’t have an initial activation click. This is a very unrealistic limitation… how long does it take to say “Shazam”? Not the three full turns it takes Cap to get into effective action the way he’s set up now, that’s for sure. The Flash being able to move from elevated terrain down to non-elevated at will is also very consistent with his comic book portrayal, as is his being able to unleash a barrage of punches on an opponent. Overall, I’m satisfied with how my House Rules on HyperSonic Speed and Exploit Weakness function.

It’s disappointing that an all out blitz attack by Jay Garrick failed to take out R’as al Ghul, but R’as is very tough, and he is now on his last click of life. Superwoman hammering Jay into the cement when he was no doubt tired and had momentarily slowed down makes perfect sense. Other than that, SSV had a bad round this time, but most of it was due to good tactical deployment by the JSA on their previous turn, with judicious use of Incapacitate and Outwit to paralyze half the enemy team.

After many games of playtesting, my Outwit rules seem to work fine to me. Mike Norton has made objections to how end dial Outwit for many Marvel heroes is crippled by tying Outwit to AV and range limitations, and these objections are both sage and valid. Still, in my opinion, this is more than made up for by many Outwitters gaining multiple Outwit opportunities per turn due to multiple range attacks. The House Rules giveth, and the House rules taketh away. This, to me, ‘plays’ more like a comic book battle should.

JSA would definitely benefit from an Alan Scott fig, even the KC Green Lantern.

Body count – Wonder Woman, Prometheus, Ares, Flash

Turn 5:

JSA – Mr. Terrific forgets to make a Leadership roll. Power Girl picks up 3-D Computer Console, smacks Persuader for 3 past his Invulnerability, takes an action token. Hourman picks up 3-D dumpster, misses Persuader, misses again with re-roll from Dr. Fate, finally hits using his own PC, for 4 past Persuader’s Toughness, takes an action token. Hawkgirl swings and misses on R’as al Ghul. She is now pushed, but has Willpower and does not take damage. Dr. Midnight jumps to top of machine, throws at both Jinx and R’as al Ghul. Hits, Jinx makes him re-roll. With plus to AV from Oracle, he hits both again, takes an action token. R’as is KOed, Jinx takes one click of damage, loses Psionic Blast and Probability Control (gains Pulse Wave, ulp). Captain Marvel weighs advantages and disadvantages in split second, realizes Silver Swan is too dangerous to leave on the board with her claws, pushes himself to launch a Hyper Sonic Speed attack on her, knowing it will burn out his HSS. Hits her 3 times for 9 clicks, KOs her. Pushes himself, loses his HSS, picks up Outwit with 0 (thus, 4) range.

Mistakes – Forgot to make Leadership roll. One more action would have been very handy, could have attacked Mordru with either Dr. Fate or Hawkman. Five turns in, I’ve just realized I have consistently forgotten to have Dr. Midnite use Stunning Blow. This is a serious mistake; Jinx should be considerably more damaged by now than she is, and R’as might have dropped a round earlier.

SSV – Joker failed his Leadership roll. Jinx let loose a Pulse Wave attack, rolled a 2. Superwoman declined to use CSA TA to reroll it, as a successful Pulse Wave would have damaged her. Jinx took an action token and 1 click of damage. Joker successfully shot Dr. Midnite for 2, bringing up Energy Explosion on Midnite’s dial, taking an action token. Superwoman had an action token on her and was engaged by Hawkgirl, decided not to push simply to make a breakaway roll. Mordru launched a Psionic Blast against Hawkman and missed, taking an action token. Obsidian successfully Psionic Blasted Hourman for 3 damage, even when Hourman made him reroll it. Obsidian pushed himself, took one click of damage. Solomon Grundy moved forward one and beat Hawkgirl about the head and shoulders for 3 clicks, taking an action token.

Mistakes – none I can see, but a generally bad turn for the Secret Society.

Hard won wisdom – It must always be remembered that playing against an opponent other than myself would be very different from this. An opponent would likely not share my concern for characterization and would almost certainly have rerolled Jinx’s Pulse Wave attack, which could have done many things by shifting a lot of dials over one. On the other hand, an opponent would not know what I was planning for the next turn with either team.

Body count – Wonder Woman, Prometheus, Ares, Flash, R’as al Ghul, Silver Swan

Turn 6:

JSA - Mr. Terrific makes a successful Leadership roll. Oracle then gives him Perplex and an Action token. Hawkman attacks Mordru and misses; Dr. Fate uses Probability Control and Hawkman hits, taking Mordru out, giving Mr. Terrific line of sight on Superwoman. Hawkman now has an action token, takes a click of damage from Mordru’s Mystics TA. Mr. Terrific Perplexes Superwoman’s Defense Value down to 16 and successfully Outwits her Impervious (all free actions he can take even with an Action token on him). Stargirl successfully range strikes Superwoman for 5 damage, taking an action token. Dr. Fate Psionic Blasts Superwoman for 3, knocking her through the wall behind her and doing one more damage to her in the process. Dr. Fate takes an action token. Dr. Midnite attempts to hit Solomon Grundy and Jinx with Energy Explosion, misses. He is now pushed, but has Willpower and does not take damage. Huntress fires at Superwoman, hits her for 3, KOing her. She takes an action token. Captain Marvel, Hourman, Power Girl, Hawkgirl all pull their action tokens.

SSV – Joker makes a successful Leadership roll. Ultra-Humanite moves up to just behind Joker, taking an action token. Solomon Grundy hits Hawkgirl again, KOing her, and takes an action token. Jinx does a Pulse Wave attack, hitting everyone around her, doing one damage to Solomon Grundy, Joker, Ultra Humanite, Dr. Midnite, Dr. Fate, and Captain Marvel. Jinx has two action tokens, takes a click of damage. Joker, now with an 11 attack and 3 damage, machine guns Dr. Midnite, taking him out. Joker has an action token. Persuader swings at Hawkman, hits him for 2, takes an action token. Obsidian pulls his action tokens.

Mistakes: none I can see, for either team.

Hard won wisdom – In Contact With Oracle just rocks, even if every other turn you forget to give agents their +1 to a stat when they take an action. Superwoman didn’t seem all that impressive, although she sure did squish Jay Garrick like a bug. She would probably do well with Fortitude on her, though.

Body count – Wonder Woman, Prometheus, Ares, Flash, R’as al Ghul, Silver Swan, Mordru, Superwoman, Dr. Midnite (Red Robin), Hawkgirl

Still in the game – Joker, Solomon Grundy, Obsidian, Ultra-Humanite, all near the start of their dials. Jinx and Persuader have to be on their last legs. For the JSA, Dr. Fate, Mr. Terrific, Stargirl, Power Girl, Huntress are all at or near the start of their dials. Black Canary hasn’t even left her starting position yet. Hourman, Captain Marvel, and Hawkman are feelin’ the burn, though.

Turn 7:

JSA – Captain Marvel flew to the 3-D dumpster, picked it up, flew over to Solomon Grundy, successfully Outwitted Grundy’s Toughness, and hit Grundy for 4 damage with the dumpster. Took an action token. Mr. Terrific Perplexed Dr. Fate’s damage up to 3. Dr. Fate used his Oracle modifier to make his damage 4. Psionic Blasted the Joker for 4. Joker KOed, Dr. Fate took an action token. Mr. Terrific attempted to Outwit Jinx’s Energy Explosion, rolled a 2. Dr. Fate let him reroll, he succeeded in Outwitting Jinx’s Energy Explosion. Power Girl pummeled Persuader for 5 clicks of damage, taking an action token. Persuader would have smashed through the wall behind him except that he was KOed. Stargirl moved 5 with Running Shot, added Oracle mod to her attack value, lit up Obsidian for 5 clicks of damage. Obsidian failed Super Senses roll. Hourman punched Obsidian for 4, KOed him. Hourman and Stargirl both took action tokens, clicks of damage from Mystics TA. Stargirl took additional click from being pushed.

Mistakes - Jinx was pushed this turn. Mr. Terrific Outwitting her Energy Explosion was an error of judgement that cost the JSA Dr. Fate’s Probability Control this turn. Fortunately, the JSA rolled and didn’t need it further.

SSV – Clearly outmatched at this point, the Secret Society of Supervillains surrenders. Which is to say, the Ultra-Humanite runs away, Solomon Grundy is eventually blasted into bits (again) and Jinx gives up, only to teleport herself out of her holding cell once she rests for a while.

The Justice Society wins again! Fairly overwhelmingly, in fact, and Black Canary may as well have stayed home. (Having just read most of the series to date again, I have little doubt the new Dr. Midnite would truculently agree with that assessment. And perhaps throw in a “bitch” under his breath, too.) I guess that’s what you get when you park 275 points worth of eggs in one big basket, and then the basket gets run over by a moving van with the speed of Mercury and the power of Zeus.

Hard won wisdom – don’t park Ares next to a HyperSonic Speed guy who does 3 points of Exploit Weakness damage with every punch. At least, not when playing with my House Rules.

Hard won wisdom, the sequel – Ares with Fortitude slapped on him might be an entirely different kettle of fish …in fact, replaying this battle with Feat Cards dispensed to the villains rather than the heroes might see an entirely different outcome…

IN THE NEWS

Mike Norton has been generous enough with his time and energy to set up some HeroClix auctions for me, to raise some much needed cash while I’m in transit between one job and another. Tim Tjarks, someone I know from the Legends amateur press alliance, is bidding on several of the pieces, for which I thank him. The auctions have six days left to run, and while I have very little experience with this (and none from this side of the bidding), early activity on a few of the items seems to be promising. Head on out there if you really need a complete REV of Supergirl, or a spare Hush, Ares, Kilowog, Red Robin, Red Hood, WWII era Wonder Woman, etc, etc. Or, if you prefer your generosity unadulterated with artificial additives, there’s a PayPal link at the top right of this page, I believe. And as I thank Mike Norton and Tim Tjarks, so too do I thank all other contributors… directly by name on this h’yar page, if you like, when and if you become one.

I got email tonight from my mom (she’ll be in town to help my little brother Paul and his odious girlfriend Dawn move next week; I’d help, despite my feelings for Dawn, but Dawn has a damn big snake somewhere in that pile of rubbish, and I’m not going anywhere near that mess), from my brother Sean (the second opinion chest cutter gave him the same song and dance as the first one… surgery would be extremely dangerous, this type of injury can take up to a year to heal, be patient… so, since he can’t do anything physical, including lay down in bed with his wife, and he’s on morphine due to constant pain, he’s a little stressed out right now) and, of all damn people, Sean’s ex wife, my former sister in law Dana. Dana can’t stand me (the feeling is mostly mutual) so for her to send me a shout-out reeks of some kind of subterfuge. I imagine she’s probing for inside dope on Sean’s condition, since Hunter, the son she and Sean adopted, is heading up to Sean’s place for the spring. I’m not in the mood to be hypocritical right now, and see no reason to be cruel (other than here, where hopefully Dana won’t read it, so it’s not cruel, I guess), so I probably just won’t answer her.

While I desperately wish I had a Paula’s Purple Ray flashlight to send to Sean, or some other magical/advanced technology regenerating radiation lamp, the best I can seem to do for him is to ask my buddy Nate to pass along the HeroClix package I sent him (which he seems to have gotten no use from) to Sean instead. Sean badly needs distraction, and he has quite a few kids in the right age range to enjoy the game, and he’s complaining he can’t do anything with them right now (he’s very much a ‘hands on’ dad; it’s one of the joys of his life) so I’m hoping the clix will help. At least, if he gets interested in them, they will provide a competing addiction with the morphine…

I've finished playing Knights of the Old Republic II, at least, once. I was very disappointed with how boring and anti-climactic this game seems to be in comparison to the first one; it's almost as if, rather than try to accept and surmount the challenges posed by the first one's terrific story and wonderful plot twists, the programmers just kind of gave up. However, I was told by the guy who sold it to me that the evil storyline is much better than the good one, so I will probably create another character and go through it again as a rotter.

I'm re-reading Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise novel The Silver Mistress right now. In the past week or so, I've re-read Sabre-Tooth and The Impossible Virgin, and discovered I liked each of them even more than I remembered. I still have a couple of Modesty Blaise books on order at Amazon.com; once I have them, I'll... well, I'll start collecting the newspaper strip, I guess.

I really think that’s it, and I should probably try to sleep sometime tonight, so, off I go.

RULES OF THE ROAD

In one of his many invaluable essays on life in Hollywood, Mark Evanier described his first meeting with legendary TV comic and icon Milton Berle. Upon being introduced to Uncle Miltie and shaking hands with him, Mark, who is a pretty witty guy, blurted out without even thinking about it, "Wow, I didn't recognize you in men's clothing". According to Mark, this soured Uncle Miltie on him from that point forward, because Mark had broken Rule Number One When Hanging With Milton Berle, namely, Never Be Funnier Than Milton Berle.

I'm reminded of that anecdote now.

Recent experiences at Electrolite being pretty much entirely similar if not completely identical to my previous experiences at Uppity-Negro.com and TampaTantrum.com, I thought I'd take the time to extrapolate whatever wisdom there is to find in the whole mess. Here's The Deal, as far as I can see:

If you want to make friends and influence people when you head out onto the blogging trail, at least, as regards your posting comments on other people's blogs, you MUST NOT:

Rule E comes mostly out of my experiences with Aaron Hawkin's Uppity-Negro blog. He gets a lot of female posters and like any of us male geeks would be in that admirable position, he is thoroughly whipped by them. If a new reader comes along and does anything whatsoever to offend the babes on Aaron's blog, that new reader can expect a cold shoulder from Aaron roughly the size of the Greenland glacier. I don't really blame Aaron for this; for a male geek, positive female attention is a jewel beyond price, and if I ever had any women posting to my blog who weren't related to me by marriage, I'd most likely dance and sing like a puppet on a string when they cracked the lash, too.

I should add to this that I've learned, from Electrolite, that one Must Not Be Whimsical, Oblique, or Overly Geeky When Posting To A Big Important Political Marketplace of Ideas Type Blog, because those guys just have no time for Theodore Marley Brooks or Cornelus van Lunt references, regardless of how amusing or entertaining you and some others may find them.

Now, I am posting this to point out that while these may be the universal Rules of the Road on other blogs (and as far as I can see, they are, indeed, pretty much universal) you can ignore them here. I don't care if you:

Oh, and I like geeky references and would just adore whimsical, cleverly elliptical posts to my comment threads, although I suspect I'd get annoyed if someone started posting a whole lot of Harry Potter-speak here, just for one example.

If there is a universal rule on this blog, it is quite simply, Do Not Be A Bigger Asshole Than The Blogger. In fact, if you can avoid it (and most of my small number of regular posters avoid it with style and panache) Don't Be An Asshole At All. I am quite a big enough asshole myself to supply all the assholiness necessary for any blog, and I will continue to keep this blog well furnished with stupid remarks, doltish mistakes, whiney rationalizations, and defensive recriminations by the ton lot, there can be no doubt. You need bring none of your own asshole nature with you, I have plenty and am always willing to share.

THE INEVITABLE DISCLAIMER

By generally accepted social standards, I'm not a likable guy. I'm not saying that to get cheap reassurances. It's simply the truth. I regard many social conventions in radically different ways than most people do, I have many many controversial opinions, and I tend to state them pretty forthrightly. This is not a formula for popularity in any social continuum I've ever experienced.

In my prior blogs, I took the fairly standard attitude: if you don't like my opinions or my blog, don't read the fucking thing.

Having given that some more thought, though, I'm not going to say that this time around, because I've realized that what this is basically saying is, 'if you don't like what I have to say, tough, I don't want to hear it, don't even bother to tell me, just go away'.

And that's actually a pretty worthless attitude. It's basically saying, 'I don't want to hear anything except unconditional agreement and approval'. And that's nonsense. This is still a free country... for a little while longer, anyway... and if you really feel you just gotta send me a flame, or post one on my comment threads (assuming they actually work, which I cannot in any way guarantee) then by all means, knock yourself out.

Unless your flame is exceptionally cogent, witty, or stylish, though, I will most likely ignore it. You do have a right to say anything you want (although I'm not sure that's a right when you're doing it in my comment threads, but hey, you can certainly send all the emails you want). However, I have an equal right not to read anything I don't feel like reading... and I'm really quick with the delete key... as various angry folks have found in the past, when they decided they just had to do their absolute level best to make me as miserable as possible.

So, if you don't like my opinions, feel free to say so. However, if I find absolutely nothing worthwhile in your commentary, I will almost certainly not respond to it in any way.

Stupidity, ignorance, intolerance... these things are only worth my time and attention if they're entertaining. So unless you can be stupid, ignorant, and/or intolerant with enough wit, style, and/or panache to amuse me... try to be smart, informed, and broad minded when you write me.