TheOtherTed

In the original Candyman, saying his name five times in a mirror is supposed to make him appear and kill you. At the time it struck me as a weird number to pick. I figured the writers wanted to avoid the number 3 because it was too much of a trope, and 7 (the next "magic" number in Western superstition) was too many times to say "Candyman." So they settled on 5, and I rolled my eyes when I was of an age where an eyeroll was sufficient for a hard pass. No pentaphobia here, though. I like 5. It's the number 8 that must be stopped.

I never saw the original film because of the number 5. Is that crazy? Does that make me crazy?

I was never good at Monopoly. The only time I enjoyed playing it was in the early 90s. I installed a computerized version of the game on my old 8088 (four whole colors?! Wow!!), and my roommate stumbled across it while perusing my games directory. He'd never played it before, never even heard of it, but when I described it to him, he had to play. He was a dual physics and math major, and I think he thought that would give him an edge. It did not. He amassed more properties than me, but after an unlucky die roll he fell into the trap of mortgaging properties that I'd already passed in order to unmortgage properties in my path. He was counting on a big pay-off that would end the game, even after I explained that 1) such a pay-off wouldn't happen if he didn't have houses on his properties, 2) he was losing 10% extra with every unmortgaging, and 3) my cash reserves were staying steady while his were slowly declining. After that, it became a social experiment to see if the Man of Math would ever actually, you know, do the math.

Got a random not-quite-a-request for you all. I really like the Microbial aura. It's got this Lovecraftian weirdness to it that reminds me of his short story "From Beyond." I'd love to make a character around it, or at least an alternate costume for one of my weirder characters, but I could use a kick of inspiration. If you've used the aura before, would you be willing to share an image? No special constraints - I just want to get some brain wheels rolling.

I don't disagree, but all my Doms end up getting re-created as Controllers. There's something to be said for playing with your food before you kill it.

Nearly any powerset with "Dark" in the name solos well. Attacks (both ranged and melee) often debuff your enemies' To-Hit, armor and defender sets include a powerful self-heal, and fear is always a good time - especially solo. I'm at the point where I have to force myself not to play dark sets. It's a real problem. I'm also a fan of controllers - sure, the damage is low, but once I got into the mindset of controlling the fight and playing the attrition game, I became convinced that they're the safest AT to play.

I can't believe I got the name "Earl Slick"! Unfortunately, within minutes of making a placeholder character, I found out it's the stage name of a famous guitarist. I know I've said it before, but we really do need a "sad trombone" emoji.

Today I learned that Hubris Comics in "Fallout 4" is probably a shout-out to "The Tick" comics. Minor spoiler - one of the characters in the original comics is named Barry Hubris, and he goes insane when the Tick steals his schtick.

Mid-fifties. And I say that without irony - I stopped keeping track years ago. I have to do the math these days when I'm called up on to state my actual age. However, I do know that I was 40 (plus a handful of months) when I started playing CoH, mainly due to life-changing events that happened when I was 40 (plus a handful of months).

Also, Baldur's Gate 3 again, with a woefully underpowered computer.

...ouch on the Mahjong. Though it does bring back memories of my first and last office job back in the '90s. Anyway, back in Lord of the Rings Online after feeling a bit of shameful joy at Amazon's cancellation of their LotR game. If you're ever on Landroval and see Vafri the Mennonite Dwarf, give a wave!

Can I say it? Can I? I'm gonna say it. Ahem... "I remember when Giga Pengu used to be impossible to kill." - BitterVet, 2021

Breakout offers the "Jail bird" badge, and the Praetoria tutorial offers "Avid Reader". Of the three, Outbreak is the "hardest" to get (and by "hardest," I mean most tedious). For the other two, you just do a little stair-climbing, or a little talking, respectively. Edited to add - the Galaxy City tutorial also has a badge, but, to be honest, the badge ticked me off so much on Live that I never bothered with the GC tutorial again.

...hrm. Maybe this thread should be renamed "Reveal hidden contents."

Bewitched spin-offs? Do you mean the series about their daughter that lasted for about a day? Or the movie that made some nostalgic nods to the series? The Dr. Who / Torchwood thing tracks, but, much as true Whoovians might get angry, the only thing consistent about that universe is that the Daleks make a surprise return and need to be destroyed once and for all every third episode.

Nearly all of my characters had at least an "elevator pitch" bio in my brain before I even started creating them, and that bio is pretty much the reason they got created. A nifty idea hits me, and I hit the character creator with it. The two exceptions are my Archer/Martial Training blaster - I wanted to try the powersets together - and my Darkness Control/Nature Affinity controller who started out with a particular look in mind, and I picked the power sets to complement that look. Both have bios now, but only after several levels and name changes. So I guess I'm kind of the inverse of the OP. There's nothing inherently better or worse about either approach, IMO. There's nothing to "justify" or "explain," really - if the bio muse strikes, more power to ya. Otherwise, you do you, as the kids probably no longer say. AFAIC, most name and costume combos speak for themselves just fine. All that said, I do have a favorite "placeholder bio" template: "<character name> is merely a gifted <whatever>, and nothing more."

One caveat (also Latin!) about Google Translate - if you translate from English to another language, be sure to reverse the translation. For example, 'flagellum rubrum' back-translates as 'red whip' in English, which may not mean what you want it to mean.

Take the many "real" names of those who posed as Red Skull, and mix-and-match until you get something that you like. Johann Malik, for example, or Sin Maxon. Throw in the names of authors who wrote for the character, or actors who played him, and you've got an open field. If you really want to keep the "red" and "skull" parts intact somehow, I'd recommend playing around with those words in Wiktionary.org or Google Translate.

To butcher the Chuck Yeager quote, if a PUG can finish a TF, it's a good PUG. If you get a story or two out of it, it's an outstanding PUG. On Live I was picked up by a SG team who didn't have enough people online to do a thing. The difficulty was set at full max, and though we weren't doing a TF, it was some mission that I remember as being pretty darn tough. On the one hand, I was absolutely amazed at how efficient the team was - they steamrolled everything in their path, and the final Arch-Villain went down almost before I got to see him. On the other hand, I was completely bored out of my mind. No emergency situations, no tactical adjustments, no "oops" moments, no pauses, no banter. At the end, we parted on friendly terms, but I swore I'd never run with them again. Gimme a free-wheeling, barely competent PUG any day.

When I ignore anyone, I always clear my ignore list before logging off again. Boom, infinite ignore slots.

Count me in for the Struldbrugg mouse club. Two buttons, a scroll wheel, some sort of wire connection to my computer, and I'm good. If a game requires more mouse buttons to play, I'm probably not interested. The only bit of fancy I require is a quiet mouse - got tired of feeling like a telegraph operator years ago. That said, I've noticed a general decline in the quality of pretty much anything over the past year, no doubt due to the pandemic. Food quality, clothing, electronics, everything. Feels like the bar was set low just to get stuff to market, and I fear it might stay low because people accept it as the "new normal."

Ironically, I've seen exactly this when squishies ask the melee line "who's tanking?"

I dropped out early in Season 9 - a lot farther than I expected, TBH. I never considered it "binge worthy," but once they stopped treating Daniel Jackson as comic relief, I did get a bit more invested in the story. I was kind of already on the ropes when Vala showed up, though. The cast changes were a bit rough, and the whole "The Next Big Bad" trope had gotten old. Ah, well. I figure I've watched enough to keep at least some of my nerd cred, so it's all good.

Welp, I'm out. The character Vala completely killed my interest in the series. Friendly advice for any potential writers or film makers out there - lovable rogues just aren't.

But which Rowan Atkinson? If you're talking about Mr. Bean, sure, but 4th season Blackadder (excuse me - series, not season) would just be a slightly more ironic and sarcastic Robert Downey Jr.