Reactions to The Avengers

Hubby and I went to see the Avengers. Once I got past the Joss fangirl giddiness, I realized it served as a perfect example of an issue I have noticed since I started running games.

Everyone wants to be a superhero.

I don't mean it in a literal 'superhero with powers and such' way, but in a 'everyone is obsessed with getting stronger and better' way. Call it powergaming or munchkinism or whatever, it's frustrating (I'm guilty of it too, don't call me a hypocrite).

Don't get me wrong, growth is healthy, but it seems like everyone wants to skip over the origin story and get straight to the supreme bad-assness.

I loved the heroes of the movie (Stark is hilarious), but... want to know who I thought was the coolest person in the movie?

This guy.

Just an average person who did something incredibly brave and kinda stupid. No super-soldier serum, no souped-up tech (well sort of, but I don't think it counts). He took what he had and used it. His death scene was more poignant than Stark's risking his life to save the ship moment or the Hulk being more than mindless destruction and saving his friend.



And in his final moments, he got one over on a demi-god.

Swords and Sabres

Who doesn't love sharp pointies?

As part of the complete customizability goal for my game I started looking up different kinds of weapons. I never found a source that really suited what I was looking for until one day when I was browsing through the bargain books at Borders.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Swords and Sabres by Harvey JS Withers is awesome.

It provides a description of the weapons, an explanation of how they were used, and variations of design. On top of all that, there is fun historical information and lots of cool pictures.

I was able to find interesting new weapons to add to the list I got from open source materials and I also have plans to include weapon modifications that have function as well as fluff.



I don't have Knives, Daggers and Bayonets yet but I took a peek at it while I was killing some time at Half Price Books and it looks like it will be just as useful.