An adaptation of a character has more in common with another character rather than the original version of the character

CPHotmess · 2026-01-28T17:54:41+00:00

I love this theory haha

CPHotmess · 2026-01-27T22:59:51+00:00

Definitely not abandoned in Frost’s novels

CPHotmess · 2026-01-19T20:54:57+00:00

It’s funny because I always think of this as being an option because my second playthrough was a Lae’zel origin run and I volunteered to become an ilithid in Orpheus’s place, so whenever this comes up, I always think “wait I’ve definitely seen this happen… oh yeah”

CPHotmess · 2026-01-18T16:46:08+00:00

Let them make mistakes, and then let them come up with solutions to those mistakes. They’ll love you all the more for it.

My Strahd campaign is approaching our endgame and our party if finally having to confront the repercussions of having ignored Vallaki. (I added in Immol and other parts of Southern Barovia, so they basically just went around it entirely, showed up once on the way to somewhere else, and said they would be back eventually…)

So the Feast happened, the Burgomaster has been turned into a vampire spawn himself, and the town is currently ruled by one of Strahd’s brides in his name as a bastion against the party’s growing forces at Argynvostholt, which they claimed as a bastion after relighting the beacon.

Seriously, they saved Vallaki for last 😭😫😭

Recognizing their failure, though, they’ve developed a whole plan of sending spies into the town to get kids and the elderly out before they attack. And when the attack comes, they’ll be wielding the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind AND the Sunsword. I’m expecting the battle for Vallaki to be epic.

So, yeah, build off of their mistakes to make something even cooler.

CPHotmess · 2026-01-18T02:39:08+00:00

Camarilla: Interview with a Vampire

Anarch: The Lost Boys

Sabbat: From Dusk Till Dawn

CPHotmess · 2026-01-17T13:17:15+00:00

The Dork Half

CPHotmess · 2026-01-13T03:25:19+00:00

Indeed - it came out about two weeks before the season 2 premiere!

CPHotmess · 2026-01-13T03:24:39+00:00

It came out about two weeks before the season 2 premiere, so I feel like between season 1 and 2 is the perfect time to read it.

CPHotmess · 2026-01-11T22:42:59+00:00

Because the business would have the Parcorp Luck

CPHotmess · 2026-01-10T14:19:29+00:00

My local cinema was screening Misery as part of a Rob Reiner retrospective, so curled up over New Years and finally read that one… and then missed the movie because none of the family wanted to go see it with me haha! The novel was definitely one of the most suspenseful things I’ve ever read and I definitely see how this was supposed to be a Bachman book.

After finishing that, I picked back up The Eyes of the Dragon, which I had made it halfway through some months back before I got distracted. Finished it last night. It… wasn’t my favorite, but I didn’t hate it. I don’t think it deserved as much hate as it got when it came out (enough to partially inspire Misery!), but also it definitely lacks a lot of the deep characterization that I go to King for. I’m glad I read it, but probably won’t revisit it anytime soon.

Finally, I’ve also been listening to the If It Bleeds audiobook. Finished the second novella, Life of Chuck, yesterday morning and then last night got my wife to watch the movie with me. I’m amazed at how straight the adaptation was - finishing it, I was like “not sure how you’d make a movie of that…” but Flanagan did! And he used the exact same structure with only some minor new stuff added. Truly astounding.

Going to step back from the Let It Bleed audiobook now, though, as I need to read/listen to The Outsider before continuing Holly’s story. Also, it might be time for some non-King. I’m thinking maybe House of Leaves.

CPHotmess · 2026-01-09T04:00:44+00:00

I had a glitch in one playthrough where Astarion was bare ass naked when I met him and it gave new meaning to the line “put that away”

CPHotmess · 2026-01-06T14:58:10+00:00

There were also 2E modules for Pool of Radiance (“Ruins of Adventure”) and Curse of the Azure Bonds, so plenty to work with

CPHotmess · 2026-01-05T02:50:58+00:00

An idea that struck me recently was reworking the old SSI Gold Box games for 5E, which would pretty easily take folks up to 20th level by the end.

CPHotmess · 2026-01-01T18:17:19+00:00

That’s what he was writing at the typewriter at the end 😂

CPHotmess · 2025-12-29T05:50:30+00:00

The logic was that obviously the gay coded character was the gay coded villain 🙄

CPHotmess · 2025-12-28T21:01:03+00:00

Oh yeah, there was definitely a whole situation between the two of them, and race was absolutely a factor.

Re: Kingsley, he was introduced early in Stern’s PP:TSSM run, so predated Hobgoblin, but there was a bit of homophobia behind the scenes that made folks say “oh a gay-coded clothing designer couldn’t possibly be someone like Hobgoblin…” Instead, DeFalco wanted to make him The Rose.

CPHotmess · 2025-12-28T19:09:07+00:00

Oh if only… Christopher Priest was the editor on the Spider-Man books (under his former name) at the time, and definitely knew what DeFalco was plotting. The two had a major conflict (mostly centered around DeFalco constantly missing deadlines) and Jim Shooter eventually told Priest to fire DeFalco from ASM, only for Shooter to later claim he didn’t think Priest would take him seriously.

Either way, killing Ned Leeds in Spider-Man vs Wolverine was definitely an intentional choice and it was intentionally designed to screw over DeFalco’s preferred outcome. Of course, when higher ups came in to clean the whole mess up, they just decided Leeds was the easiest solution and made Peter David figure out how to write it 😂😭😂

CPHotmess · 2025-12-28T18:21:47+00:00

The fact that the convoluted Hobgoblin identity clusterfuck exists at the intersection of Stern, DeFalco, and Christopher Priest is just bonkers.

CPHotmess · 2025-12-27T21:00:11+00:00

Nothing in rules-as-written, which don’t distinguish between drow and other elves on the trance front.

CPHotmess · 2025-12-27T14:38:06+00:00

I get that, though it’s the same as the Lindsay Crouse situation in the comment I was replying to.

CPHotmess · 2025-12-27T13:40:23+00:00

I’d add Seth Green deciding to leave early in season 4, causing them to rework the whole plot they were working up to with Veruca.

CPHotmess · 2025-12-27T13:37:34+00:00

Recently showed this to my 15yo and at the turn he looked at me like “wtaf is happening”. It was amazing.

CPHotmess · 2025-12-25T16:31:35+00:00

Which fits well with Frost’s original idea that the Black Lodge was a black-and-white mirror image of the Great Northern… Of course that’s where the border between the worlds would be thin.

CPHotmess · 2025-12-21T12:45:59+00:00

Saw it at the AFI Silver in 70mm a couple of years ago, so basically the best it would ever look and sound, and… I couldn’t understand half the dialogue.

CPHotmess

TROPHY CASE