Thematic Map of BattleTech

I don't remember how many years ago I threw this map together. Last week(?) I tried to comment the most important fixes (my full list wasn't handy) onto that 2013 post but blogspot ate the comment. Trying again now after seeing these guys. 

Is "The Last Jedi" worth talking about?

I don't mind if Luke plays the part of a whiny farm boy while he sounds Rey out, and I enjoy the meta-ness of having a little green troll burn the Star Wars canon while the old guard watches in anguish; but Yoda's lesson is hollow. In the theater it felt to me like an Ewok moment aimed at the youngest attendees. 

Lessons in Being Alive

Enemies homing in on a beacon you (needlessly?) lit for a lost friend, headstrong underlings haring off on their own, and under-informed lieutenants instigating a mutiny are all pretty standard story wrinkles. 

Trying to fit a whole story into the span of a single chase is unusual. It's also out of character for a Star Wars story to care about logistics like food or ammo or fuel; when the scenario was discussed on ye olde BattleTech forums (back around Revenge of the Sith, maybe) someone proposed instead that the rebel ships could be burning their engines out to stay ahead of more capable Imperial ships.

"Direct Competition to Rogue One"

"As direct competition to Rogue One, we release, Light Up The Night!
We'll just see how well you do at the box office now, Mr. Disney..."

I love how their newsletter over-hypes things.

Also...

Rogue One

Am I jaded for finding Rogue One ham-handed and mediocre? Don't get me wrong, there's things to enjoy about it, but it feels like a rejected alternate to Episode VII, and like the script doctors only got 40% of the way through. 

It'll be successful, of course, because it follows the same plot formula all the other Star Wars movies do; but I would think that these side-story movies would be trying to break from that formula.

[Edit, Jan 7: I am not alone! A kind soul pointed me to a couple articles posted on tor.com. /Edit]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posting three times a week was interesting. My human readership seemed to rise steadily, and American bots even started to outnumber Russian bots. But I am my own primary audience, and I don't want to put stuff out half-baked; so--as I'm sure you've already noticed--I'm slowing down to one post a week, at least through the New Year's.

Ancient History

I wouldn't describe myself as a particular fan of Star Trek, but I have watched an awful lot of it, so I want to give a very belated thanks to Real Life Comics for posting this strip and then hiding my forum post to preserve this gag. It still tickles me.

I'd acknowledge other people who've read me or who I read, but it's late, and I don't have many meaningful things to say which aren't better off being rolled into more topical gaming posts. 

No gaming content today.

I will say I'm amused at how my comment about setting a guard and fighting wargs was followed a week later by commentary here about setting watch and being attacked by dire wolves. Because that's the true meaning of Thanksgiving--not being eaten by wolves.

(One session I played in high school involved a large fraction of the party being eaten by random wolves (there was a recurring chorus of "allll, eaten by wollllllves"), due largely to poor spell casting on my part. I generally choose spells badly and time them badly, which is why I rarely play mages.)

Dejarik Holochess

Such a gorgeous game! But phantasmic as well as phantasmagoric. Non-existence makes the heart grow fonder?

art by PJ McQuade