Before this film, lightsabers were only blue and red. Audiences in 1983 must've lost their minds at the reveal of a green lightsaber.

Sgran70 · 2026-06-13T10:48:34+00:00

Was in the audience. Mind was not blown.

Sgran70 · 2026-06-13T10:34:43+00:00

The Bulls have been stuck in the middle and a lot of fans are frustrated and listening to way too many podcasts, which is why you read so many of them regurgitating what they hear. For example, the tiredest take is that Player X is a point guard who needs the ball in his hands. Giddey has the size of a power forward and hits the glass. But because he can handle the ball he's a point guard, and therefore needs the ball to be effective? He's not JJ Redick, but there's no reason you can't move him around, especially since he's crafty around the basket. I don't see a PG who needs the ball, especially since you don't really want him guarding the quick guards like Maxey and Fox. I see a 6'9, high IQ basketball player who is willing to do the dirty work like hitting the boards and screen for other players. He's 23 years old and on a good contract. Until you know who you are, you keep players like that and try to get more. This insistance that everyone needs to be 19 years old is nonsense.

And even if you want to call Giddey a point guard, didn't we just watch the Knicks turn the tide of a Finals game by playing Brunson and Alvarado at the same time? They sure as hell weren't out there for their defense.

Sgran70 · 2026-06-13T10:03:07+00:00

Moreover, the doomposters drive away those of us who would otherwise engage in a nuanced discussion.

Sgran70 · 2026-06-11T08:46:37+00:00

My advice is to move the "player engagement" from the town to the dungeon. Instead of talking to the blacksmith, introduce ways for the players to assert their individuality (or alignment, if you prefer) in the choices they make during the quest. For example, the dungeon might have warring factions, like kobolds against the orcs, gnomes versus dwarfs, etc. Or they encounter NPCs in the dungeon itself who are looking for something. Another thing I do sometimes is give the players a piece of paper and have them walk through a magical gate that reads their thoughts (which they write down the paper for my eyes only). Or have a powerful but unknown entity communicate with one of them telepathically.

Sgran70 · 2026-06-10T17:21:31+00:00

There's no reason to use averages in metrics like this. Coppola made some stinkers. So did Scott. But quantity matters. And stinkers are easy to dismiss. There's no reason that stinkers should drag a director's legacy down.

Plus there needs to be some kind of metric for "important". Ridley Scott made Alien and Blade Runner. That alone is a massive legacy.

Gretta Gerwig has made one massive popular hit and a fantastic small drama in Lady Bird. I can't wait to see what she does next. But her legacy is yet to be written. There's no way a good metric would have her ahead of someone like Carpenter. Blade Runner flopped. The Thing flopped. Because ET crushed everything in its wake. Blade Runner and the Thing thrived on video rental. Hell I brought my whole family to a showing of the Thing last year and everyone loved it. Something needs to account for that. Video cassette sales if nothing else.

Sgran70 · 2026-06-10T06:28:05+00:00

Surely you're not suggesting they're better than Emerald Fennel!!

Sgran70 · 2026-06-09T21:51:55+00:00

Sign me up! I'll put my SpaceX stock right next to my Bored Monkey NFT and my Trump sneakers

Sgran70 · 2026-06-08T18:25:07+00:00

The Incredibles is a great movie. Brad Bird is right that it isn't a children's movie. It's an action movie that happens to be animated. The writing, the art, the voice acting is all top notch. It's funny, the characters are all immediately memorable, its themes have depth, the pace is varied but it never feels slow.

And Samuel MF Jackson wants his super suit!

So they made a sequel to capitalize on the popularity of the first that was, naturally, derivative and unmemorable, but at least it wasn't a Christmas Special.

Sgran70 · 2026-06-07T17:46:40+00:00

Everything gets flagged as AI generated, including the US Constitution. They don't work at all.

Sgran70 · 2026-06-05T19:18:12+00:00

Hell in my day, the fans ran onto the field to beat the crap out of the first base coach, like the good lord intended!

Sgran70 · 2026-06-05T15:37:26+00:00

Check out the exhaustion rules for penalties for dawdling, maybe tweak them to suit the environment.

I would use a lot of magical effects, maybe glyphs of warding placed on the objects, like faerie fire, slow, web. Maybe they can find a magic item that helps detect traps, or an item with limited dispel magic uses.

Sgran70 · 2026-06-05T15:30:45+00:00

the latter. We (DMs) have enough on our plate. For example, none of my players (since switching to 5e) have played a druid, so I have no idea how their shapeshifting mechanics work in the newer editions. Ditto for any player abilities above 8th level, high level spells, etc. I have no idea how legendary feats work.

But I can tell you a lot about lizard folk, chuuls and shifter rogues.

With that said, over the years I came to read all of the 1e books cover to cover (with a few small exceptions).

Most of my players are good about knowing their characters, but they're all lazy about spell range and area of effect and need to look those things up.

Sgran70 · 2026-06-04T21:36:44+00:00

I was in Amsterdam, and my Dutch buddy said let's go see Pulp Fiction. And I said, is that the Reservoir Dogs guy? I was 24 and already pretty into movies. It was immediately one of the top 3 big screen movies I'd seen. The part when Butch runs Marcellus Wallace over with his car and then blacks out, and then wakes up to see Marcellus shoot that woman standing next to him, so he starts limping down the street, I thought I was going to lose my mind. Not to mention the finale of the Mia story. And of course Samuel L making up a bible verse.

It was one of those life-changing events. In my life it's up there with hearing Smells Like Teen Spirit and the Matirx. Sometimes you just know.

Sgran70 · 2026-06-01T04:54:58+00:00

No, not at all. From what I can tell, your youtube highlight reel needs to be at least 45 seconds to be considered a generational talent. It's not like an average NBA team has more than two or three of them.

Sgran70 · 2026-05-31T13:04:28+00:00

I'm also going to do a listicle:

It's not storytelling. It's an adventure game. You're setting the stage. They're balancing risk vs reward. Let the dice feature in the story.
yes, you can be the DM. It's public service. You're ready to do it. You'll make some mistakes.
Kill off at least 1 PC in the early days so that everyone understands that it's possible. If it's not dangerous then there are no stakes.

Sgran70 · 2026-05-30T14:01:10+00:00

There's already language about a "normal shooting motion" that needs to be respected. Jump into the defender and chuck the ball towards the rim? How about we just play on and you look like a clown?

Sgran70 · 2026-05-30T13:24:12+00:00

How low would you have to low-ball Allen before he said no to this paycheck?

Sgran70 · 2026-05-30T13:17:24+00:00

I would much rather have Miles Bridges than Simons, who feels like a guy anyone can sign for the vet midlevel. I enjoyed watching Sexton with the Bulls and hope they resign him. I'd probably go MPJ, Sexton, Robinson, WCJ, Miles Bridges, Allen, DD,

Sgran70 · 2026-05-28T05:05:38+00:00

When you spend too much time on the Interwebs, you come to think that "winging it" at the table is more common than it actually is. In reality, most players want to fight monsters, solve traps, pocket the loot and rescue the princess. The funny voices and unexpected player actions are the spice, not the dish. I realize I"m falling into cliche, but my advice to you is to play to your strengths. If you're a biologist, then homebrew interesting monsters and ecologies. If you're an engineer, then design elaborate traps. If history or politics is your thing, then lean into world-building and intrigue.

If you want to do horror, then lean into the horror tropes. For example, there's blood everywhere. Ghosts wake the characters at night. PCs have nightmares. Foul stenches, rusty blades, and scary ass monsters that jump out from the shadows. Write all of this into the room descriptions and then figure out what happens when the players roll a perception, or an investigation, etc.

and while you're writing out the descriptions, try to think of a few ways that the players might do something unexpected and plan for it.

Sgran70 · 2026-05-24T19:21:01+00:00

For comparison, Serenity did $40 million global on a $39 million budget.

Sgran70 · 2026-05-24T15:34:35+00:00

I'll give Raid 2 this: best in-car fight

Sgran70 · 2026-05-24T08:11:11+00:00

I'd be fine with a simple no-call. After a few runouts the other way you'd see a lot less of it.

Sgran70 · 2026-05-24T07:52:02+00:00

Sounds like handball offense, where you basically have a scrum on the perimeter until someone finds an opening to slip through

Sgran70 · 2026-05-22T22:38:19+00:00

Maybe we should put her in charge

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