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Alaska is a beautiful state. Some days I look out by back yard, gaze up at the mountains towering above, and I think about just how lucky I am to live here. Though, if it's the Northern Lights are what you want to see, you'll have to come for the winter, and a lot of the cool, tourist things to do are closed, on account of three feet of snow and ice accumulation. However, you have far better chances of seeing Denali! And I have to admit, Alaska with a coating of snow on it is just breathtaking.

Come up! Say hi! I can show you around my city, even give you some tips on where to go and how to do it/get there.

Professor Kadabra: "You have my wand."

(Oh, come on. As if I wouldn't come up with a wizard cape :P)

I myself have... some... experience with RPGs, and this is going to be my first time running a campaign.

I'm not sure how often the game would progress, but I'd expect the characters would be advancing at least five Power Levels, which means a total of forty-five Power Points to be gained. Each session gives one Power Point, two if the heroes pull off something truly spectacular. So, assuming that, say, each Power Level has one session granting two Power Points, that's still a total of forty sessions, and each session is, I'm pretty sure, equivalent to a few hours of gaming. This would be a long haul. ... Good bunnies, what have I gotten myself into?

Needs more bookshelves!



I totally hear you on the paper-versus-electronic books, though. I have a Nook that I take with me on long trips (otherwise I'd be lugging half my library around with me) but otherwise, I'll stick to the shelves I have at home. I desperately need more shelves since I've resorted to double-layering books and stacking them on top of each other. Kinda like this:



Needs more bookshelves.

Something is bugging me about the writing samples, and I can't really pin down what. I think it might be a combination of little things, but I can't quite tease it out. Some of the dialogue feels off, I know that, and the flow of events can be a bit... jarring. Look back at the first sample; I think Shiny and Arden have four different conversations with barely a link between them. And the "suddenly illusion which solves everything" moment is very abrupt.

I don't know. Permission hat is off because I can't figure out what's bothering me.

(Also: "my card had grass and then I was transformed, therefore the RC that's just been assigned to us has grass" is, like, the worst chain of logic ever I think?)

hS

So, let's get down to it right away. Here are the agents:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ftZO67N6e-ahNyMNJBrgGrnGELQUzEZ5-ZTdAdLj87Q/edit

And here are the writing prompts:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_uBK4M4IuJ4xbL0AKd8bOuD2oWbawNltM4DK8EO4YG8/edit

Enjoy!

Of course, a trillion thanks to my betas: Granz and Silenthunder.

The fanfiction that I think would make a good first mission can be found here:
https://www.quotev.com/story/2552674/How-to-Thank-You-A-Lord-of-the-Rings-Love-Story
It's a Sue-fic about a second daughter of Elrond, and a Legomance to boot. Thranduil is stepping down from the throne for some reason (he acts very creepy to the Sue, which she takes as a compliment), Legolas is crowned king, and Gimli is passive aggressively bashed. While this Sue is by far not the worst one I've seen, she's definitely bad enough to be assassinated.

Theoretically we live far enough north that they'll occasionally reach us, but pfft yeah right not in a million years.

hS

(And that doesn't count the three I still haven't cleared out at my parents' house... OH or the two the children have. ^^ ^^)

hS

I don't really have specific dreams like that. Partly because I sort of passively want it all. ^_^; So I'm gonna cheat. Behold, CNN's Seven Natural Wonders of the World. If I had to pick just one... uh... the Northern Lights, I guess. I'd like to visit Alaska sometime. (Sweden or Norway, too, but Alaska is maybe a bit more feasible for me.)

That's a good start. There's also, um, pretty much everything on this site, which is kind of janky and doesn't have nearly enough pictures, but still.

I've actually been to Yellowstone National Park! It's really incredible. A lot of it smells like overcooked eggs, but it's so worth it. Oh, and Niagara Falls, too! The surroundings are a bit too tourist-trappy for my liking, at least on the New York side, but the falls are still awesome.

~Neshomeh

Books are not something that should require battery power. Electricity < paper.

—doctorlit kills trees

This'll be a right laugh. Also, I miiiiiiight have named everyone on my team after the House Robots. I'm not obsessed, you're obsessed, I'VE NOT DOWNLOADED A CAD PROGRAM TO BUILD AN ANGRY BREADBIN WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP ASKING THAT? =]

I think I've got an answer to the individual Pokémon on Team Worst Swordsman, but not the moves. Obviously. Either way up, it'll be a ton of fun to fight. =]

I can't believe I forgot Alolan Golem! So dumb of me. I've just got this massive blind spot when it comes to that Pokémon, and I have no idea why. Anyway, apropos Alola, there's another couple of abilities that could fit right in - Alolan Muk and Passimian. Their abilities allow them to take on the ability of a dead target or teammate respectively, which is surprisingly useful. =]

Unless there's a really solid set of four moves that you can't get anywhere else, I don't think I'd want it on the team. Though, that said, the Soak-F'Curse-ToT-Metronome setup would be suitably hilarious. Sure, Smeargle couldn't take advantage of it, but it'd be worth it to see the look on their faces! Maybe. Sorta.

I did debate between Protean and Colour Change for Kecleon, but Protean looks too much like it might be useful. It's far funnier to shove Colour Change on the opponent than to boost my own attacks. And this conversation is alll about fun.

I will gleefully offer to fight your tournament team with Team Worst Swordsman.

hS

PS: Apropos the start of this conversation: in addition to Mega-Glalie's Refrigerate Explosion, it seems Alolan Golem can use Galvanize to make an electric-type Explosion. Sadly it can't learn Metronome, otherwise I would absolutely have used it here.

That is, if anyone has patience to coach a complete newb who had to encounter with RPG games what-so-friggen-ever.

When it comes to building weird sets, there's no better mon for the job than Smeargle. Sure, its stats are fairly garbage, but through Sketch it can learn almost ANY move (there are some exceptions, but I forget precisely what they are). You can get a few moves that change the opponent's type - Soak, Forest's Curse, and Trick Or Treat all change the opponent's type rather than your own, and since your objective with this is to keep them off-balance and off their guard, these moves are very definitely your friends. Well, maybe not Trick Or Treat, but wevs. =]

As you rightly attest, Kecleon's abilities make it really fit in with the theme, but it's not the only person to get them - Greninja is a really cool Pokémon and popular in OU for exactly this reason. Access to Protean allows you to constantly deal extra damage from your attacks, switching it up constantly. It's a really powerful ability and I think you could do a lot worse than have a Protean user on your team, though there isn't one that learns Metronome apart from top kek. =]

This has been really enlightening discussion - thinking about battling ideas that are weird and unexpected is good for both of us! =]

Quite how you'd even try to work around a team that can literally throw any move in the game* at you, I'm not sure...

*Minus a few, I know.

See, now you're making me want to revamp it so that they both Metronome you out the door, and randomly change various at will. Togekiss can learn Roost and stop being flying... and that Telekinesis is a sort of pseudo-Flying-imparter... but wow, the type-changing moves are really restricted.

Kecleon can learn both Metronome and Reflect Type, plus of course its Abilities would make it the mascot for that team... tell you what, let's add a seventh member:

KECLEON (Normal, Colour Change)
-Metronome
-Reflect Type
-Skill Swap
-Synchronise

What type are you? Oh, looks like I'm the same now! SYNCHRONISE TO THE FACE.

(Attack pattern is Skill Swap > Metronome until the target is weak to Psychic > Reflect Type > SYNCHRONISE TO THE FACE.)

hS

There aren't that many ways around it. It's just such a shame Arcanine or Typhlosion doesn't learn Metronome; if it did, you could use Burn Up, a very powerful and highly accurate move that makes Fire-type Pokémon lose their Fire typing. Which is pretty cool.

These day's it's known as Benin City, but Edo was once the capital of the Empire of Benin (most of which is now in modern-day Nigeria, none of which is in modern-day Benin). A prosperous, mighty, and well-organized African empire is, you'll all be shocked to note, right up my street; I'm not sure whether it'd be more learning experience or pilgrimage, or if there's even a difference.

HYPNO (Psychic)
-Metronome
-Assist
-Skill Swap
-Future Sight

GOLEM (Rock/Ground)
-Metronome
-Explosion
-Hidden Power (Electric)
-Magnitude

TOGEKISS (Fairy/Flying)
-Metronome
-Fling
-Covet
-Telekinesis

SPINDA (Normal)
-Metronome
-Teeter Dance
-Hidden Power (Ghost)
-Last Resort

HITMONCHAN (Fighting)
-Metronome
-Mega Kick
-Role Play
-Mimic

LUDICOLO (Grass/Water)
-Metronome
-Knock Off
-Attract
-Snore

The theme here, of course, is 'I have no idea what's happening'. All six Pokemon lean heavily on Metronome, but also have other specialities/reasons they're bewildering:

-Hypno will nick your Ability, chuck another monster's move at you, and then you get hit out of nowhere by the attack you were too confused to remember it used.
-Golem will hit you with the RNG of attack strength, then suddenly lightning - and then it explodes, probably while you're a Ghost-type and can't be hit by it.
-Togekiss will chuck its item at you, nick yours to replace it, then levitate you into the air and hit you with Metronome three times for mostly-guaranteed hits.
-Spinda will literally confuse you, turn into a ghost to hit you, and then out of nowhere hit you with massive power.
-Hitmonchan will copy your moves and your ability - and then kick you, because it's also roleplaying as Hitmonlee today.
-Ludicolo will make you love it, throw your item away, and come after you if you try to put it to sleep.

They say the world's greatest swordsman doesn't fear the world's second-greatest swordsman - he fears the world's worst, because he has no idea what the idiot will do.

Well, this is Team Worst Swordsman. They could be anything.

hS

Are we talking a commitment of days, weeks, months?

hS

Real place, I mean - heaven knows if we allow fictional places everyone will have a list as long as their arm. :D As well it should be! But this is about places that are physically accessible on Earth. (Include pictures! Pictures make everything better. If you stick them up on Photobucket or some other image host you can show them directly in your post with <img src="Image URL here"/>)

---

For me, my number one single dream destination has to be Petra:



The famous "rose-red city half as old as time" is just... well, it's beautiful.



And it's fascinating, too, for someone who regularly turns business trips into opportunities to visit Roman archaeology. More than two thousand years ago, the traders of the middle-east carved this gorgeous city out of solid rock. For all the centuries in between, it's remained basically intact.



You've probably run across Petra in popular culture at some point - it's appeared in the last two Civilisation games, and was the hiding place of the Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, among other appearances. It's located in Jordan, which makes the chances of my ever visiting rather low. But I can dream!



Your turn. What've you got?

hS

it's impossible to read the latest version in physical book form. ^_^ The timeline for the Young Wizards books is famously messed up (well, y'know, famously if you read them), with computing technology jumping from '80s Apples to iPods in what, internally, should be a couple of years.

So before the release of the most recent book, Diane sat down and did a comprehensive reworking of the early books to synch things up (and fix a few other problems along the way). The New Millenium Editions are available as e-books... but not as printed ones. Which is annoying if you care about continuity, but the stories themselves don't change, and are still cool.

hS