Iteration 203 - The Superhero with a Thousand Faces

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We start this week's discussion off with our thoughts on the new trailer for the Justice League movie. Josh reports on Being John Malkovich, Harmonquest, and a documentary called Marwencol. Ryan reports on the Fantastic Four movie, and speculates whether it needed the particular IP, or whether it would have been a better movie if it had been a standalone movie with its own unique characters. From there we just talk about superhero stories. And veer into Hitler toward the end, just because.

References and Recommendations:

Justice League (2017 film): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/

Being John Malkovich (1999 film): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120601/

Marwencol (film and book): http://marwencol.com/

Venger Satanis (RPG books): http://vengersatanis.blogspot.ca/

Iteration 202 - Omniscience and Large Numbers

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We start by talking a bit about Ghostbusters, and then take a swerve into theology for some reason, and about what it would mean to be omniscient. Dwarf Fortress gets an update. And we talk about the real-world events going on in Turkey, and translating coups to a role-playing world. Zoey brings us a review of Ghostbusters. And for our main topic, we talk about the concept of large numbers, omniscience, and managing information in a role-playing game.

References and Recommendations:

Epic Rap Battles of History: Ivan the Terrible vs Alexander the Great https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbH1BVXywY

History Bites: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0231028/

Iteration 201 - How and Why to Change a Battlefield

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We start with a discussion about Pokemon Go! Ryan watches the Emperor's New Groove again. Ryan plays more of the Secret World. And for our main topic, we were inspired by boss fights from MMORPGs and we ponder the question of how to make big battles more dynamic and interesting and awesome over time.

References and Recommendations:

Beyond the Pale RPG: http://beyondthepalerpg.tumblr.com/

The Secret World (MMORPG): http://www.thesecretworld.com/

Iteration 200 - Magic with Personality

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We start with a discussion about why we think movies bomb at the box office. Then Ryan and Zoey review Finding Dory (2016 film). Josh reports on Love and Friendship (2016 film). Then Ryan points out all the plot holes in Men in Black 3.

Then we talk about how summoning monsters from other planes works, on a technical level, and the variants in which you can summon the same version of the monster every time. And we conclude with a discussion about intelligent or semi-intelligent magic items, and how to deal with them as players, DMs, and storytellers.

References and Recommendations:

Finding Dory (2016 film): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2277860/

Love and Friendship (2016 film): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3068194/

Lindybeige: https://www.youtube.com/user/lindybeige