The Old Hack

A few comments about characters and power level. Relative power level of characters is mainly relevant in a heavily action-oriented comic. This is not what EGS is. EGS is a sort of supernatural slice of life where characters, their development and the social challenges they face are of far greater importance than any action scene. In both 'Sister' stories, the villain (Goo, Abraham) was backdrop to the character development. In Painted Black, Damien's near invincibility was mainly important because of the effect it and his sociopathy had on the other characters. More recently, the power levels of the characters proved completely irrelevant when Ashley settled the conflict by use of a well-aimed football and a few well chosen words. EGS is an intelligent comic. It is not Liefeld-esque action where power level acts as a substitute for plot and characterisation. Again and again we see how thinking wins out over raw power. There is no danger of power levels ever shoving a character aside as long as it is inspiration and cleverness that ends up saving the day. And even Lord of the Rings, with Gandalf chosen as example of someone 'overpowered', ended up having the day saved not by power but by two acts of mercy and the simple dedication of hobbits, the true everymen of Middle-Earth. Comics and stories that let power level dominate them are of a completely different breed. I am not saying that they are necessarily bad, mind you. They can be, but this is most often due to lazy writing or the author falling too much in love with their Mary Sues/Marty Stus. In order for power levels to truly get out of control, the individuals in question must not only have vast power but also unusual reach in time and space as well as at least semi-omniscient knowledge. A Superman is not a problem as long as he can be distracted or mistaken. But if you give him the ability to go anywhere in no time as well as full and constant knowledge of what is happening, he becomes impossible to compensate for in any way that makes sense. A good example of this was the Forgotten Realms as marketed by TSR. They had a bunch of NPCs called the Seven Sisters as well as Elminster himself. All of them were, individually or together, near or completely invincible. They could all teleport and several of them had impossibly powerful divination spells. TSR's stated purpose was to make a world where 'good always won' so as to not worry parents about what sort of game their children were playing. What they created was a world where no action taken had any meaning whatsoever because even if the world were coming to an end, Superelminster and his Super Friends would always swoop in to save the day. By removing evil's ability to pose a threat, the Gods of Evil themselves held all the menace of Team Rocket or possibly of Ellen back when she thought she was evil. And at the end of the day, any actions the player characters might take would at best be viewed with indulgent amusement by the TSR-driven Mary Sues of the Realms because the PCs had saved them like thirty seconds of light work by saving the world. But this is not EGS, and arguing about 'overpowered' characters makes about as much sense in Dan's stories as it does to discuss character development in a Liefeld comic.

You could try marmalade jars instead of Canopic jars?

I've heard of this. It's called mummification.

You mean it used to be west of you.

Probably your dishwasher finally succeeded in summoning an Elder God and you just haven't noticed yet. You will when it has finished eating Sand Springs.

Bah. Go Chocolate Chip Cookie Team NABISCO!

The bottling spell of the Good Magician in Piers Anthony's Xanth series. I've loved that spell since I was a kid. You cast a spell at any object in touch range and not in the possession of another person and it gets magically stored in a bottle. To retrieve it, you just open the bottle. And the bottles could be really small, too. (In the series, it was also possible to trap demons in the bottles, but to do that, you needed pentagrams and an either cooperative or helpless target.)

Look, couldn't you put an Elder Sign on that thing? It's starting to make me seriously concerned.

Can do.

While on the surface a reasonable proposition, I plain don't dare to. Gomer Pyle might be stationed there, and then where would I and my Vikings be?

I reiterate, France is full of Frenchmen, and worse still, Paris is full of Parisians. And the closer you get to Paris, the more provincial the locals become. It's a nonstarter.

I despise this sort of regulation. Not to mention the people who take advantage of it.

Avistew! I didn't notice you were back! <3

It's a matter of principle. If I start letting my posters randomly demolish parts of the Earth's surface, all the other moderators will laugh at me.

Hush you. You are not a moderator. As long as it is a first offence and not too large tracts of land are involved, only one warning point.

Last I heard they were busy working on a rocket powered pyramid. I understand installing the engines in the Cheops Pyramid is presenting a bit of a challenge.

I don't care if you are a time traveller. NO summoning Elder Gods, you hear? Not by you and not by your hardware. If I wake up to news headlines that OK has been consumed by an awakening nightmare from beyond time and space, I am SO giving your ass a warning point.

Compromise. Dan is being a magnificent tapping troll.

I blame the cauliflower shortage in Lower Moldavia.

The Moderator: I would like to remind everyone here that personal insults, ad hominems and snide comments aimed at other posters are not welcome on these forums. Please avoid it. ~tOH.

A typical mistake. A grammar is ultimately a model of how a language works. And then some idiots enter and insist that the model takes precedence over the reality.

I am very disappointed. I thought Florida would have manatee voting.

The human eye is very good at pattern and facial recognition. However, it is easy to posit various alien species where we cannot readily tell individuals apart. Insectoids are one such category, protoplasmic blobs are another popular example, floating fields of energy that constantly shift in size, shape and colour would be a third. (And how about Vorlons who actually project specific appearances to individual species?)

Obviously someone did ask, or this would have been a Non-Questions & Answers.

Near as I can tell, they are telekinetic tapeworms.