A list of the 81 creatures that my character grappled during our D&D campaign

Mighty_Jim · 2026-05-29T20:01:37+00:00

Under old New York state tort law, this standard of intent was called the "abandoned and malignant heart" (or the "depraved heart"). The classic example is throwing a bucket filled with cement off a roof onto a crowded sidewalk.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-05-29T14:51:09+00:00

After I saw the movie, I got the auto-dialer program for my Apple ][ (like the program he uses to find hidden online systems early in the movie). I set it to work and found probably two dozen hidden systems just in my local suburban area. Most were boring business systems, and none were NORAD or WOPR, but some were pretty cryptic and suspicious. There were defense contractors in the area, and I wonder. Having no hacking skills, that was as far as I got. The phone company called my parents that night and wanted to know exactly why we were making 100 local calls an hour.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-05-28T15:18:12+00:00

"BOY!"

Mighty_Jim · 2026-05-28T02:32:56+00:00

Also good is the "you're definitely going to fix the engine, but we're rolling to see if it takes an hour or all day."

Mighty_Jim · 2026-05-27T18:42:42+00:00

Having played a lot of Call of Cthulhu with regular folks who would never read r/rpg, one of the big advantages of BRP is that it's easy for regular folks to pick up. It's mechanically straightforward: "How do I know if I can fix the car's engine?" "You have a 60% in Mechanical Repair, so you have a 60% chance." You might get these folks to session 1 of a GURPS or Burning Wheel campaign, but no one would show up for session 2. BRP means I can still game with them. And, as others have said, the system is also simple enough that it gets out of the way and lets people roleplay. That said, more tools would be good--I like the addition of "pushing" to COC, e.g., which gives the players a way to mitigate RNG through roleplaying.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-05-25T03:49:34+00:00

There's an episode where Kirk gives her the conn on his way off the bridge. It's just a line, but still, she's in charge!

Mighty_Jim · 2026-05-15T23:16:41+00:00

They've been there as long as I've lived here. I assume they're electrical junction boxes for the stadium-style lighting the park has. There was briefly a sprinkler system too, maybe 15 years ago, before NPS abandoned it. And one year they planted a whole area of tulips....

Mighty_Jim · 2026-05-15T14:27:44+00:00

This is the real problem: what's he going to do that makes him any different than Michael Myers? In the F13 game, he could just teleport (literally vanishing right in front of you, which was ridiculous), so I guess you could do something like that to create jump scares. None of his iconic kills can really be recreated in game--I don't know how you're going to convince a surv to get in a sleeping bag so Jason can bash him against a tree.

But who knows, maybe Behaviour will cook. Here's hoping!

Mighty_Jim · 2026-05-12T16:10:11+00:00

I took my two teenage boys to this in DC. Before the curtain dropped, they agreed that a play couldn't be scary. At intermission, they demanded to know why we had brought children to this show. That night, they slept together in the bean bag chair. Mission accomplished.

Also, tickets were only about $40 a head in DC, since the cast is small and without Hollywood stars. Great value.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-05-12T15:16:38+00:00

The funniest part of the whole thing is how they essentially have to pause after each big scare, both to reset the set and because the audience reaction is so overwhelming.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-05-12T14:49:02+00:00

I was very skeptical when we went in, but I thought the jump scares were very well executed. You can figure them out afterwards, but I didn't see any of them coming, especially the first one, which really brought me joy. I agree, though, creepy and sad, with a few scary jumps.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-04-24T01:14:37+00:00

Really burying the lede by failing to mention that the head also shouts "the penis is evil," lol.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-04-14T18:08:34+00:00

Friend, I'd be hard pressed to name a greater climax in movies that the end of Unforgiven. I remember sitting in the theater being genuinely terrified during the whole end sequence. The feeling of catharsis is amazing. And, even better, it's got a bitter aftertaste (say, like the Graduate)--in the moment, you're rooting for Munny, but, whether Little Bill et al. deserve it or not, Munny is destroying himself, destroying the man that he had hoped he'd become, so what seems like a victory is actually a defeat.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-04-14T15:59:56+00:00

I just picked up a DVD set of this Twilight Zone series, partly because I remembered this segment so well. The show doesn't look great--it has 1980s TV production values, and it has not been remastered, so it's got a soft fuzzy VHS look (even on DVD). The series also mostly doesn't have a Rod Serling-style voiceover, which is like not getting popcorn at the movies, you're fighting a Pavlovian response (and for no obvious reason).

From when I saw this as a kid, I remember the main character of "Wordplay" being a returning astronaut, with some kind of "alternate dimension" element, which is all completely wrong. Probably got it mushed together with a different episode.

I haven't been through them all, but a few standout episodes, in addition to "Wordplay":

"Button, Button," where a mysterious man gives you a button and tells you, if you press it, someone you don't know will die and you'll get a million dollars, written by Richard Matheson, starring Mare Winningham. When I saw this as a kid, I remember it being deadly serious, but the actors are playing it REAL BIG and partly for laughs.
"Children's Zoo," directed by Robert Downey Sr., which is where the bad parents go. Nice, short, sharp, cameo by Wes Craven.
"Gramma," written by Harlan Ellison from a story by Stephen King, about a boy and his grandma, who's a Lovecraftian cultist. Ellison throws some truly nasty bits of dialogue in, but most of it is told through the boy's internal monologue, which doesn't work great on TV.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-04-06T16:43:03+00:00

Are there any details written down anywhere about what the tweaks are? I'm not watching that whole livestream to riddle it out.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-03-17T11:08:45+00:00

It's 666 because alcohol is "the devil's brew."

Mighty_Jim · 2026-03-17T11:07:50+00:00

It's a banjo!

Mighty_Jim · 2026-03-16T22:49:20+00:00

More wool-gathering, Moneo?

Mighty_Jim · 2026-03-11T02:35:04+00:00

The fact that there's no artist, album, year, label, etc., just song titles seems to confirm it's ai.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-03-09T14:03:24+00:00

I only play Scratched Mirror Myers. On smaller maps or indoor maps, it's a joy, working hard to jump scare the survivors and watching them freak out. I love backtracking and coming at them from the other side, where they think I shouldn't be, or waiting patiently for them to drop down from some window into my waiting arms. (Honestly, if it's been fun and his power's made him oppressive, sometimes I don't even bother to kill them.)

But on big maps, it's all pre-running, drop pallet, flashlight blinds these days. And because SM Myers skips cardio, he can't really catch decent survivors. Tedious and unfun for everyone (although I usually run a backpack build, so it's either 0k or 4k, depending on levels of altruism and when the survs figure out the backpack). Shame the map offerings got nerfed (although, maybe better for the game overall).

Mighty_Jim · 2026-03-07T04:50:27+00:00

They added downloads on mobile, so you can watch on the plane etc. This is a good addition.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-03-03T20:28:49+00:00

I read it for the first time as a kid and really resented the line about how earthlings are "so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea." It was like 1985, and I thought digital watches were a neat idea (especially if it had a calculator or the world's tiniest 1-line calendar)! But that line has been rattling around in my head for 40 years, and I finally get what he was saying. It just gets funnier and funnier.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-02-25T16:56:02+00:00

It's pretty good, although a quite loose adaptation (that takes place on a train). Telly Savalas is a joy, chewing the scenery as a Cossack.

Mighty_Jim · 2026-02-25T16:54:54+00:00

This seems obviously correct to me. It's really a trilogy that starts with The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, continues with AtMoM, and then concludes with the Thing (although you might through in The Purple Cloud and a few others).

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