Podcasts/Episode I-66

The Letters Page: Editor's Note 66

Original Source

Libsyn Audio

Intro

A note! From Editors! For Editors? BY Editors?! Who can say!

Show Notes:

Run Time: 1:43:49

There was a lot of great interaction from the chat on this one, which means that even though we recorded for over 2 hours, Trevor cut a lot of Bad Radio and this episode is a reasonable length. Whew!

Upcoming schedule!

Tuesday, May 2nd: Episode #247 - Creative Process: Fashion Foes
Tuesday, May 9th: Episode #248 - Creative Process: Lifeline Supporting Cast
Tuesday, May 16th: Episode #249 - Creative Process: Rambler Foes
Tuesday, May 23rd: Editor’s Note #67
Tuesday, May 30th: Episode #250 - Writers’ Room: Scavenger Unity

When we finally get into letters, we acknowledge that we were wrong to do rules rulings on the air. Whoops! We'll still take letters about rules questions, but we'll answer them with more care and oversight. Thanks!

We still have lots of Rook City Renegades stuff to talk about, and we do! Listen and find out!

Catch you next time for Episode #246 about the Citizen Dawn event with an alien artifact on Insula Primalis! Get your questions in now!

Characters Mentioned

Summary

Questions

[A very long letter detailing the various ways in which they answer/decline to answer lore questions that basically boils down to how their processes of answering questions on the podcast are actually very poorly-suited for answering rules questions as spur-of-the-moment explanations might turn out to be wrong in the broader context of the design space. Beyond that, rulings then wind up spread across places on the internet that might not all be easily referenced or corrected when later rulings are made.] This letter was actually suggested by Christopher based on conversation that was happening on Discord. The point here that’s being taken to heart is that they will no longer be answering rules questions on the podcast. Still write in your rules questions - it’s just that Christopher will then take them and discuss them with the design and development team (currently just him and Chris Burton) to hash things out and then present those decisions to the playtesters to stress test them. They will then periodically post/update an FAQ document regarding them. If something is noteworthy enough, it’ll likely even wind up being included specifically in the rule book for whatever the next DE set is. They want the answers to be easily referenced rather than the “hashing things out” process that we tend to get in the podcasts which are much more confusing when all you’re looking for is “how does this work?”
Why add the additional decks that you’ve introduced in DE? Most of the stuff they’ve been adding were created after OblivAeon was done being designed, but before Definitive Edition was planned. All of the OblivAeon content creation had wrapped up by the end of 2016 and the Letters Page podcast began in January 2017. The “easy” answer for why they added new stuff is just the podcast existing. In the process of making the podcast they expanded the characters and story of Sentinel Comics. They started off just telling us all of the lore that they’d worked out for the game setting, but the tale grew in the telling. Some of the stuff they invented they decided deserved a place in the published content. The podcast gave them excuses to really expand the history of the comics company - through the EE content they had an unrealistically low number of regular ongoing comics titles (plus a lot of limited series and one-shots) and the podcast gave them reasons to fill in the corners a lot.
Who/what is the demon guy on Harpy’s “Siege of Herons”? That’s the Jeans Demon, aka Garuun. It’s funny that they say “Jeans Demon” when “Denim Demon” is right there.
What’s the deal with the smoking (as in, currently-on-fire) demon on Expatriette’s “Thermite Rounds”? That’s a NightMist and Expatriette crossover story involving a cult to a dead god that makes a massive effigy to their long-lost deity. They steal a bunch of stuff and make deals with a crime syndicate to get resources, which is what gets Expat’s attention. The cult does some magic with disrupts the normal flow of arcane energy, which is what gets NightMist’s attention. The heroes team up, but have very different methods and so butt heads a bit as they get in each others’ way. Given the heroes’ difficulty working together, the cultists succeed in building their god’s new body and then sacrifice themselves to bring it to life. It’s resistant to both magical and physical damage so the heroes have to work together to take it down. So, the demon thing in that art is the successfully-revived body of a long-dead god.
Who’s the guy with glowing hands that Mr. Fixer is clocking on “Full Throttle”? That’s Agitator [see the Dark Watch Foes episode]. It’s a few years after his first appearance in the comics, but is probably his first appearance in the game.
Who is NightMist lashing heedlessly on “Tendril of Talontus”? What was he about to do before she stopped him? That’s the Seer. This was a story before the Host existed as a concept. He was doing some super-powerful “changing reality” stuff and NightMist, in the course of fighting him, disconnects him from his source of magic, leaving him in a stupor. This leads to later Seer plots where he’s seeking alternative power sources.
Given the quote on Alpha’s “Furious Slash” I would assume that the figure behind Alpha is Hexterminator, is that correct? Yes [there is an aside between them to decide if that’s “regular” Hexterminator or the one from the 2000 series and it’s “regular” - I’m now very curious as to what the Alpha 2000 version of Hexterminator looks like].
What’s the massive monstrosity on “Attack of the Direwolf”? That’s just some one-off giant undead thing that somebody summoned. The issue also has a fair bit of werewolf lore in it.
Who’s they guy hunting/being hunted on “Thrill of the Chase”? That’s Lord Wolfhunt!
Where did the robot that Ambuscade’s dispatching on “Steal the Spotlight” come from? Why is he turning his back on the hero? That’s an Entertainer robot. The Entertainer had set up a competitive “hunt” scenario with a bunch of people he’s captured/coerced into participating (plus there’s a bunch of robots under his control). Alpha and Ambuscade were both involved in the hunt as hunters trying to win the hunt, not fight each other.
Looking at the Core DE box and RCR stacked on top, were the card arts chosen for the sides intentionally picked to be similar (that is: glowing hands for both Argent Adept and around the tool that Setback’s grabbing, NightMist and Unity both making an AoE attack, Legacy and Expat swinging into their panels with a respective “thwack” and “pop pop”, but it breaks down a bit for Mr. Fixer and Captain Cosmic)? If not intentional, how have you decided which characters/art get featured? For the core game they wanted the four sides of the box to feature art from four different decades of comics to showcase the evolution of the art styles. However, which actual arts get picked is actually up to their graphic design team rather than Christopher and Adam personally making the choices. The one note Christopher had was to change out the art for Expat to be one where she isn’t smoking since that could run afoul of various stores/jurisdictions’ rules for product packaging that might be aimed at children. It’s okay to have in the game itself since it’s explicitly called out on the box that it’s not a toy for children, but it’s still better to not have smoking depictions on the packaging.
What is Captain Cosmic actually doing on “Dynamic Siphon”? Most of his constructs are specific, identifiable things (a ray-gun, a shield, even the Vitality Conduit is a distinct thing that’s on Parse’s arm), so what is the actual construct here? Are those “ribbons” physical or does this one just represent Captain Cosmic’s power as just glowing energy? The comic book “reason” here is that Captain Cosmic is amplifying Argent Adept’s powers. The ribbons are the “construct” that are basically a type of raiment for AA much like the bangle he made for Parse. Different comic artists/creators have different takes on how Captain Cosmic’s powers work - most of them stick to a “here is a physical thing made from his power” paradigm, but a few make things more vague.
When is the point in Sentinel Comics History where clearly non-human characters would no longer have to disguise themselves in public if they didn’t want to? Was that point OblivAeon? This is kind of handwavy. Alpha always hides her identity, even in RPG times - it’s core to the character that she doesn’t want people to know that she’s a werewolf. Tempest becomes less worried about it around the time Plavu’Col is established as that’s about the time the general populace starts to really be aware of Maerynians. It’s also a conceit of the setting to revert to the status quo. If there had been a real alien invasion back in the ’80s the world would be irrevocably changed, but comics need to go back to “normal” after that story, and so things did. This implies that the general populace is pretty oblivious to things - they know that superheroes deal with problems, but they must not pay attention to the fine details and/or wave it off as “some kind of stunt” or actually a bunch of superpowered humans rather than aliens, etc. The turning point was probably somewhere in the ’00s. OblivAeon is a turning point in the public perception of heroes given the details of that story in particular.
What is the vehicle that Bunker is inside of on “Climb Along the Outside”. Stolen Terrorform tech? A transforming suit? That’s a Bunker suit - the Bunker-mobile. Bunker has so many different suits - he’s the most toyetic character they have.
So the Entertainer has to have done a Battle Royale game right? When would he do this and would it be [classic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale_(novel)), tween dystopian, or popular with kids? What heroes would he try to trick/force to play? There’s definitely something - there might be some non-canonical limited series that tried to cash in on the popularity of Hunger Games or something. The trick is that Cosmic Contest, while different in the style of competition involved, kind of fills the narrative slot for this kind of thing. The difficulty for doing one of these stories in-continuity is that it is necessary that the characters die. Maybe it could get dropped into a Disparation issue. They can also see that being ill-received since the Entertainer is “lighter than this”.
I really enjoyed the recent Grimm and Silver Gulch episodes and noted that both of those had unusual team lineups; I like seeing this kind of team up but, as a Patreon person, I’m never sure how to word an unusual team lineup as a topic suggestion without giving a specific one like Wraith and Fanatic, because I would not know which ones ever happened unless it is mentioned in an episode, so how should I go about doing so? They like unusual team-ups too. The problem with specifying a weird team is that it really pigeonholes them in terms of what’s even possible and so it’s unlikely to make it to voting. Conversely, if you suggest something with a set team in the prompt, you’re likely to get just that team. The best way to get weird lineups is to suggest weird story prompts such that the “right” heroes to deal with it wind up being an odd group.
What’s the deal with Imprisoned Rogue (aka Hatch)? Who is he? Why is he in there? Who put him there? Does he get out before the end of the Multiverse Timeline? He’s in the Block because he was doing dimension-hopping thievery of some sort and F.I.L.T.E.R. can’t be having with that. Adam’s initial thought is “small time thief who gets big time powers”. He does “enjoy” his time in the Block since he spends so much of his time out of lockdown. He can more or less go around doing what he wants and lives like an “underground king”. They don’t know if he’s still there when OblivAeon happens and/or if he gets out before the end. He is a character they’ve had on their radar for a while.
What do the industry’s stuntmen and women think of Ansel G. Moreau? We all know he’s the most amazing and skilled stunt actor in the world, truly peerless in his fearlessness and ability, but I have to wonder… does his showboating and pride rub other, lesser-known stunt actors the wrong way? Or, do they respect his hard work and confidence in his skills? Do they see him on a magazine cover and roll their eyes, or do they nod to each other with a grin going “yeah– that’s our boy”? It runs the gamut in the industry. People like his dedication to his craft and everything, but then you meet him and “man, that guy’s a bit much.” There’s a lot of begrudging respect for him in the industry because he puts in the work and is good at what he does, but he’s just got so much ego. He’s not necessarily hard to work with, but that doesn’t mean it’s not work.
Besides OblivAeon who is the most dangerous singular entity? Wager Master because he has a willingness to interact with regular people and a disregard for the way things “should be”. Most others don’t really interact with people often.
Did Guise ever point out the Contract’s unmoving plaid? If he did, they enjoy the idea of that exchange happening. They don’t think they did, though.
In the new Plague Rat deck, there are a couple different types of infections now. Are these different symptoms of the Plague Rat virus, or are they different strains of viruses? Since the art comes from different times, it could suggest different, mutating strains, but as they can all be in the same game, it might be symptoms. Also have we seen different versions of the Plague Rat virus in comics? I assume they mostly have the same goal - turn person to rat - but were there some notable different ones? Different levels of humanity during transformation and or how sick someone gets beforehand? The Plague Rat plague is a bunch of weird viruses etc. mixed together and so people have different reactions to it. Sometimes they develop rat features and then die. Sometimes they become secondary rat people. Sometimes it’s a werewolf kind of thing where somebody has it and changes back and forth.
When the weird mix of Akash energy and science caused the Terrorform Mk III to start phasing through realities, were the crew on it just like “Alright, let’s go on a merry jaunt through realities and clear a bunch of land!”? Seeing as multiple types of Revokers are cited from that arc, I have to assume the crew are still present, was the “giant robot blorping through time and dimensions” not at all concerning for them? The crew is still necessary, but were kind of just along for the ride since they couldn’t exactly abandon ship safely. They might not be trained well enough (they’re just RevoCorp goons) to understand what’s going on.
Was there, in Sentinels world, video games? 90s style platformers? K.N.Y.F.E. in a spooky Resident Evil/Parasite Eve style game? Certainly. They’ve talked about some and there were definitely more. What there wasn’t was a successful cooperative card game (although plenty of vs. card games).
How much do you think about the Critical Event mechanics when initially developing a villain deck? Not none. Mainly it’s stuff like “okay, if we’re doing a thing where the character card accumulates tokens we need to address what then happens with them in the Critical Event too.” They know what the CE is going to be in terms of story when they’re making the deck, but they did have some that changed as a result of story things. They keep it in mind, but they don’t let it prescribe what they can do in the base version.
Terrorform Mk III has a sword. Mechs with swords are cool, but they don’t typically have runes inscribed on them. Did Terrorform inscribe them with the nature energy mentioned in the event? Or, is the sword from something or someone else? The sword was constructed by RevoCorp, but the runes are a result of its passage through realities. We really should have a Creative Process where they talk about all of the Terrorforms or a Writers’ Room for a specific story at some point where they can fill us in on everything.
To both Adam and Christopher, what American superhero comic character first got you into comic books? What era of the character was it? ’90s X-Men. Adam thinks the first actual comic he got was Spider-Man, but the gateway was the cartoons on Fox. Christopher wasn’t really into comics for a long time, but he visited a relative’s house and read his older cousin’s comics and the early ’90s X-Men issues in there caught his eye. The Chris Claremont and Scott Lobdell runs on X-Men are classics and the Jim Lee designs are possibly the most iconic in existence.
I wanted to restate a question I asked about episode 240, to clarify what I was asking. Why does placing a MacGuffin in the same location in two different timelines cause them to separate? It seems like making two timelines more similar would could cause a rift to appear, because they start to overlap. Obviously doesn’t happen with everything, but MacGuffin might cause this. Is this a case of meta-verse writers gonna write? Or is it indicative of realities somehow reacting to being similar to each other, and as a general rule, distancing themselves. In other words, does any specific timeline generally try to separate itself from becoming too similar to other timelines, or is there a separate force, like the MacGuffin in the story that can cause timelines to separate/close rifts? Writers gonna write. There wasn’t any kind of editorial mandate about how this stuff worked. The writer of that story just came up with this particular set of explanations for how to set up the story. An important philosophical point to have in your head regarding comics is “rules matter until they don’t”. Rules are broken/changed as necessary for a story, but then get strictly adhered to other times.
A rules-adjacent question: To what extent do you think the (H) mechanism balances the game? As in, do you think in practice there’s a big variance in difficulty between facing a villain with 3 vs 5 heroes, or is the (H) mechanism successfully balancing that out? There’s a play difference, but it also matters which heroes. Christopher’s pretty happy with the balance overall.
Why is Setback's FA art so scary? Did they just not quite know the character or was it a deliberate fake-out for the golden retriever ball of sunshine or what? An intentional bait-and-switch.
How in the world can Ambuscade hope to fight the entire Prime Wardens with a rock spear and knife as depicted in his Critical Event? He doesn’t even seem to have his metal arm and other gadgets. Wouldn’t the Prime Wardens overpower him with a simple glare? That’s why it’s a challenge! Seems like that might be a good Writers’ Room. He writes the Prime Wardens an impeccably-penned letter about how he’s going to defeat them, and then he does so.
What is the silliest Fixed Point in the multiverse? There’s this particular alley that there’s a Fixed Point such that a tuna sandwich will be dropped in it. Some universe’s versions of what that alley (or even what “tuna sandwich”) looks like might be pretty out there, but that’s what happens.
What is the weirdest stray that Pete Risk has brought back to Darkwatch’s HQ? A three-legged turtle.
What are Grimm’s powers? Is it illusory? Psychic/hypnotic? Reality warping? All of the above. The trick with Grimm is that he crafts a story and then everyone is a player in that story.
What does Soothsayer Carmichael think about the Diamond Diva? This is how you’re supposed to do it. He is a bit aghast at her living in the Void, though. “She’s so cool.”
Do any of the new villains from RCR have enough yet-unknown story to warrant a character overview episode? They could see doing that, but at this point they really prefer doing Writers’ Rooms and Creative Processes that wind up answering a lot of the same questions. Look how they handled Grimm: they did a Writers’ Room but then covered a lot of the ground that an old-style episode would have.
What’s the deal with every single issue listed on every single environment card in Rook City Renegades? What was happening, who was there, why was it important enough to quote and/or feature in the artwork (I understand this could take some time; it’s okay, I’ll wait)? They’re all there because they wanted to put them there.
First Appearance Mr. Fixer’s base power deals 1 target 1 melee damage and then let’s and an ally draw two cards. Who was this ally within his first appearance? Was it a specific person or is it more to represent him being a pillar of the community? It’s modeling him being a “teacher”. This sort of “rules informing a story” is fine for being answered.
Since Gun Rat is not a character, what did K.N.Y.F.E. see in Freedom Tower? An escaped lab rat, crawling on a Bunker suit? A really cute Mechanical Golem? It was a joke that’s just taken a life of its own.
Will there ever be Villain targets outside of Villain decks (just asking for Ruler of Æternus reasons)? They don’t want to say never-ever. With their current knowledge, no, but who can say.
One of the rewards for “The Fabric of Despair” is The Fang of Taranerach. How important is this object? Does it make a notable comic appearance related to it being discovered in the ruins of this Cult of Gloom encounter? It’s certainly an item in the comics at some point. It carries some connection to the Void and arcane power.
As an opposite to a question asking last month: Are there any things you meant to be hidden Easter Eggs that the entire community seemed to figure out right away? Basically the whole OblivAeon ARG. Everything they do has little hidden stuff like that, but they don’t plan on them being hard or easy. Back in EE they did that more. They have such a breadth of stuff to work with that they don’t need to hint at future things as much.
The art on Serendipity is Dark Watch (sans Harpy) chilling out together in a garage with the flavor text having NightMist praise Setback’s heroism. Was this the end of an issue where Setback’s heroism was being questioned or is she just praising her teammate? The intention is that it’s after a defeat (at the end of the first arc of Volume 2 of Dark Watch). It’s an Organization story where the Organization is better than they’ve been and Dark Watch loses. It’s 6 issues of them barely surviving before bringing it together in the end. Setback is just bringing pizza and they’ll regroup and move forward. The quote is a dig between friends.
You’ve said in the past that the Golden Age was your weakest era of knowledge between the two of you. Was the inclusion of a horror comics host character something suggested/inspired by your Golden Age historian friend, the late, great Darren Watts? Yes, absolutely. That was from Darren for sure. They created it after EE OblivAeon was done being designed, but well before DE Disparation was becoming a thing. They took his original suggestion of the “horror comic presenter” and turned it into something that then came back to run through modern day. Man, the naming process took forever… “You could call him Mr. Revenant.” “We’ve already got a Revenant.” They eventually landed on Grimm from Grimm’s Fairy Tales (“The Brothers Grimm” was a front! [unsure if joking]).
You’ve said that Huginn and Muninn aren’t related to Odin, but are they connected to somebody else, say, The Morrigan!? Are they spies keeping tabs on the new bearer of the Mask of Sky and Shroud? If not, what makes them so special? If they are spies of the Fey-Court it’s not something that’s ever come up in the pages of Sentinel Comics. All indication is that they’re just birds that she has a special affinity with. They are “ride or die” with her - and corvids are really smart; you can befriend crows and ravens. In their first incarnation in her Matriarch days they were just a few birds that she gave names to. By the time she was becoming a hero they decided to push the birds in more interesting directions than just “loyal birds”.
Adam, have you ever considered updating the Letters Page art for promotional purposes (included on boxes and stuff)? Yeah, that’s something they should do regarding a lot of the branding. He’d also like to go back and do covers for the “Writers’ Rooms before Writers’ Rooms were a thing” episodes like for Road Warriors.
Why is the Fence so much older in DE than he was in EE? Multiple people have held some of the Underboss positions over the years.
Is Ronwe the Cursed the same guy as EE’s Cursed Acolyte? This is a retcon - same person but drawn “correctly” for the position in the comics.
Where did Gumbo get his name? He’s Cajun and loves gumbo, what’s not to get?
Bruce Watkins - no question, I’m just waiting for his hair to catch on fire. Yeah, he’s a jerk and his hair is pretty oily.
I recognize Grandpa Legacy and Vernon Carter, but who are the other two figures on “Ghostly Images”? La Louve and Tommy Atkins [previously appearing in in the RPG core book on a banner in a museum]. They’re also World War II heroes. More on them in the future.
Kudos on really nailing the nemesis relationship between Setback and Kismet in DE - it felt like they were sharing a deck. They are also thrilled with the new stuff and that they were well-received.
Which Setback card art had a happy accident during production that ultimately made it better? Adam doesn’t think there is one. The closest was where he had to adjust some detail on “Turn of Events” so it wouldn’t be covered by the card frame, but that didn’t suddenly make it amazing or something. He doesn’t really have a lot of surprises as he’s going about these. They make the plans on what’s going to be in the arts during the planning-the-deck phase of development.
In episode 220 you mentioned that Ambuscade had his metal arm fused to his flesh and that we got to see it on Alpha 2000’s incap; when/how did that happen? Was “actual cyborg” Ambuscade only a thing in Alpha 2000? If it carried over into other books, how long was it like that? Was it just retconned away or was there an explanation for how it goes back to normal? It has to go back to normal by the time he beats up the Prime Wardens. It was pretty much just in Alpha 2000, but there might be some handwavy one-line explanation about how he’s glad that RevoCorp gave him his arm back. Either that or somebody asks about it and he brushes it off with an “I got better.” It was a big plot point for him in Alpha 2000, but everything in that book gets undone.
Are any of the following RCR-appearing people noteworthy characters?
- The woman in green on “Insatiable Hunger”: No, just a victim from when Wolf Woman was a horror character.
- The man on “Powerful Frame”: Just some Organization goon.
- The figure in the background on “Double Barrel Shotgun”: Citizen Shock (partner: Citizen Awe - invented on the spot, it’s crazy that they hadn’t used that pair before now. Awe likely does emotional manipulation and Presence).
- The person speaking at the podium on “Anti-Hero Sentiment”: Initial thought maybe Kovak, but he was 1) killed and 2) a good guy (thus why he had to go). The issue was the first appearance of Bruce Watkins, but that’s not him. They don’t have a name for this guy.
Is there a storyline with Mr Fixer and the Grey, based on his Grumpy I’m undead and horrible or when he becomes Mantra and is “fixed” but still dealing with the loss of inner peace? They could see doing a story where Fixer is the one who’s unaffected by the Grey and saves everyone else. Jonathan Banks’ character Mike from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul is a good “done with everything” style comparison. Extremely competent, not here to talk about it. Strong force of personality, not much on people skills.
In the Grimm Writers’ Room story you mentioned a Wizard of Oz-esque situation and all I could think of was Dark Watch. I know they hadn’t formed by that point but is there a Wizard of Oz riff where I get to see Setback as the Scare Crow and Expatriette Dorothy, Mr Fixer as the Tin Man and Nightmist needing courage? Grimm’s got all kinds of stories and a major late run, so who knows. They’re not going to say that it definitely did or didn’t happen at this time.
This Bunker-mobile reveal raises the question, I imagine there was almost certainly action-figures of Bunker’s various suits. Which Sentinels characters would have had the most licensed merch in the Metaverse? Wraith moves the most merch and is the most-marketed character (Legacy’s the most iconic, but he doesn’t move the merchandise like Wraith does). Unity has a fair shake given the number of bots, but that’s likely within a single toy line. Despite Legacy being the one who “everyone knows” and Wraith being marketed so strongly, most comics readers likely have a favorite that’s neither of them.
Would you ever consider a Gun Rat environment? With just arts with Gun Rat hidden on them? Absolutely not.
Which heroes have visited Clarity? They don’t want to give a definitive list. The related “who had a notable incident there?” gets us a likely suspects list of NightMist, Scholar, maybe Fanatic. There’s a lot of useful ground there. Putting Benchmark there could be fun.
What is your favorite way a game mechanic or power alludes to a story beat/aspect/theme? Christopher can think of examples in any given deck - “Keen Vision” for Legacy comes to mind. They don’t have favorites.
Before he became really started his Stuntman turn, do we see Ambuscade unmasked while he is actively a villain? Yes, the moment of him having his face revealed and he tries to keep anyone from seeing his horribly disfigured face. That’s just the card game perspective, though. Ansel G. Moreau is known in the comics and the readers know who he is.
Since the chat seems to be on a bit of an Ambuscade roll at the moment, I have a quick question about where the moniker “Stuntman” first showed up. We know that Action Hero Stuntman is the Inversiverse version of Ambuscade, and therefore likely existed while he was still a villain. Was the Stuntman name first given to this version of the character and then later brought into Universe 1 once Ansel made his heroic swap, or was the name given to Universe 1 Ansel first and then retroactively applied to the Inversiverse version? “Stuntman” was first used in the Inversiverse story. We call him “Inversiverse Stuntman” just because there is a Universe 1 Stuntman in the game by the time the variant becomes a thing. People really responded well to that Inversiverse story.
Do we ever see Ambuscade’s past catch up with him while he is Ambuscade? Like an old director recognize him? Or a stalker that figures out who he is? Not as Ambuscade, maybe during Stuntman era.
In my campaign things happened and players stole the Pink Lady from Greazer. Which prompted the question how far would he be willing to go to get her back? He’s someone who would kill for less. For that story, Greazer is a fun and funny character and a story where somebody steals the Pink Lady is one where we get scary Greazer. This is serious times.
In Editor’s Note 65 Christopher said that nobody in chat could defeat him in a sword fight, so we need to set some parameters:
- What is your sword of choice? If he gets no “scenario” knowledge, a dead simple long sword is probably the way to go. Having the option to go one or two-handed with it is nice versatility. He loves a rapier and likes a Viking sword or a later period broadsword. He likes basket-hilt Scottish swords. He likes all sorts of swords, but the long sword is what he’ll say for our purposes here. If it’s something like a duel where his opponent picks time and place and he picks weapons: rapiers. Let’s do this. But if he doesn’t know what the opponent will have, a 14th century German long sword.
- How do you know that Demoncat isn’t an Olympic silver medalist in Epee? He doesn’t. If that’s the case, please bring your Epee.
- Can you create a Patreon tier to test the efficacy of your assertion? What, like a tier where you get to pay a bunch of money and then get stabbed a bunch? How about we reverse it: what would listeners pay to get stabbed by Christopher? Man this is getting weird.
- How about archery? That’s tricky since for a long time he figured he’d just be terrible at it since he only has one functional eye and no depth perception. He did archery for a short time (specifically Mongolian horse bow archery) and got pretty decent, but the aiming had to be very mechanical. He enjoyed going from “bad at archery” to “passable at archery.”
- Wait, you only have one eye? That’s a good story for another time. [They have mentioned at least in passing a few times Christopher’s lack of depth perception, including a previous note on the Mongolian horse bow stuff.]
- What Patreon tier do we need for you to train us? That gets into a fun bit about Christopher’s Sword School and Adam’s Art School (and the much less prestigious Adam’s Sword School and Christopher’s Art School - choose wisely).