Make Better Encounter Tables

Pokemon is 30 years old this week! It's also probably the 28th or 27th anniversary of a girl in my class giving me a Valentine's card that said "you're cool even though you talk about Pokemon all the time." 

But you know what isn't cool? Bad encounter tables! And Pokemon is loaded with them. I'm not going to wade into whether or not Pokemon is or isn't OSR - but both of these posts made think about a specific area that Pokemon has been lacking in for most of its existence. 

 

RIP Super Sentai

After 50 years, Super Sentai is officially over.

I'll be honest, I'm not exactly shedding any tears. Me and Sentai - hell, me and Tokusatsu as a whole - never really clicked. It's one of those things people generally assume I would be into because of how much superhero slop I consume.  I've tried - Sentai, Kamen Rider, Ultra Man, Garo - I really have attempted to give various series a shot at one point or another. It just doesn't work for me unless it's tickling my specific childhood nostalgia for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

But that doesn't mean seeing a pillar of the genre come to an end isn't a bit weird. It's like if DC said they were really gonna cancel Batman. It's just one of those things that is kind of hard to believe. But by all accounts it does seem like Super Sentai will return. Some day. I think it's admirable that they are willing to put the franchise on the back burner while they figure out how to make it relevant again. 

And I do think it's interesting that Super Sentai and Dungeons & Dragons are both facing public crises of relevancy as they hit their 50th anniversaries. 50 years is a long time to expect people to care about anything, much less something that has been kind of forced into walking a very specific tightrope.

Dungeon Weapons

Hello dungeoneers and other assorted nerds. Back at you today with a musing of sorts. 

Finally started up a new job that gives me a lot of time for vibing out to music and podcasts, so I've been indulging in the absolutely fantastic BLOOD WORK. For those not in the know, it's a podcast about the economy of violence. There's a two part episode on the history of the car bomb that is particularly fascinating and was the impetus for this post. 

In the episode, the car bomb is described as "a weapon that evolved to thrive in the urban environment." And because I'm a huge fucking nerd I immediately wondered 

"Is there a type of weapon that specifically thrives in the dungeon environment?"