Cool Stuff Sunday: "The Atrocity of Snyder"

Getting real sick of Bandai Namco's shenanigans with Dark Souls 3's release date. It's like they're trying to kill all the hype I keep building up. Still. Dark Souls 3. Anyway. Cool stuff. Online. On Sunday. 

Zack Snyder is adapting Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead for...reasons? 

Trading games don't understand how trade works. 

Rowan Zorilla is a pro skater now, and dropped a suitably sick part. 

Remember Zack Synder? He's awful, and he killed a beloved Superman character, one you probably didn't realize. 

The combat in Dark Souls is more realistic than most, but could still be better. 

Out-of-context D&D quotes are the best. 

This Batman short comic is excellent. 

Medieval armor is probably not what you think it was. 

Wanted posters if Voldemort had won. 

First Bandai Namco wants people to stream Dark Souls 3, now they don't. 

Reddit has deleted its warrant canary. That means that the government has requested access to Reddit's servers, up to and including the IP address of every post by every user.

A juicer that can't juice things? Why? 

Shadow of Mordor 2 is going to be a thing, which I am 100% down with. 

Zack Snyder is still awful. And Batman Vs Superman ticket sales dropped 65% from one weekend to the next. 

Worm Fodder: Aengus Fanaiochtla

Aengus was a great character. Shame I didn't get to play him longer. He was only a oneshot character, though. The oneshot's premise and setting was great, but no continuations have come to fruition. Alas. Might-have-beens aren't worth weeping about. Except for Elise. COME BACK, ELISE! Ahem.

NAME: Aengus Fanaiochtla

SYSTEM: DnD 5e

LIFESPAN: Oneshot

ABOUT: Government scribe with delusions of poetic grandeur. Assigned to a supernatural-investigation task force. Speaker with the dead.

NOTABLE FEATS: Helping cover up the death of the local mayor, which was caused by another member of the investigation task force; investigating a series of supernatural deaths; speaking with several corpses; surviving an attack by a separate investigation party; helping unleash an extraplanar monster; cutting off an elf's fingers to help banish the extraplanar monster.

CAUSE OF DEATH: Shot by a fellow investigator who blamed him for the monster's escape.

Worm Fodder: The Right Reverend Bhagwhan Rhaneesh

Ah, the Right Reverend. He was... Interesting. You'd think a charlatan like him would have been better at pretending to be a religious figure. But he wasn't. Instead he was very clearly a sleazeball. And so much fun to play. (Also, I'm skipping Aloysius the Sane for now since he is--technically--still an active character). 

NAME: The Right Reverend Bhagwhan Rhaneesh

SYSTEM: D&D 5e

ABOUT: A charlatan who, while pretending to be a Reverend of the Path of the Golden Rays, accidentally made a pact with the King In Yellow, an Outer Being with decidedly devious leanings. This turned him from a common charlatan into a warlock-posing-as-preacher. He possessed a terrible, unfounded hatred of dwarves. (When your life revolves around conning people out of their money, a race of Scottish misers is a nightmare). 

GREATEST FEATS: Surviving as long as he did in a party half-filled with dwarves; managing to keep his warlock class hidden for a surprisingly long time despite casting "agonizing blast" repeatedly; causing multiple civilian casualties after casting an illusion which made a massive fire appear to have been quenched; surviving a zombie outbreak (which he helped start) and orc warband; being half-eaten by a door mimic; being slowly team-killed across multiple sessions due to "accidents" triggered by anti-dwarf racism. 

CAUSE OF DEATH: Stumbled into river canyon and drowned after being tripped by the dwarf paladin. 

Worm Fodder: Quincy Sweetleaf

Ah, Quincy Sweetleaf. By far one of my favorite characters to play as. If I felt like goofing off, I had him partake in some opium. If I felt like playing the hero, I had him abstain. If we needed some comic relief, in came the perennially-renamed manservant. He did a little bit of everything, if not well. (Seriously, his contributions to combat were...limited. Blackpowder guns are not all that great... But I wanted a Colonial British "Great White Hunter" style feel to him, so... Guns it was.)

NAME: Quincy Sweetleaf

SYSTEM: D&D 3.5e

LIFESPAN: 10+ sessions, and into the sunset.

ABOUT: A moderately-wealthy half-elf urban ranger with severe parental abandonment issues, an opium addiction, racial superiority complex, and an invisible manservant named "Geoffrey," "Luke," "Nibblesworth," "Jeeves," "Nigel," "Alfred," and many many more. 

NOTABLE FEATS: Quitting opium during a fever dream involving melting goblins and an ace of spades; facing down a mechanical dragon; surviving the Great Yellow Flood of '78; instigating the overthrow of an elven racial purity program (if only because he didn't think it went far enough...); joining a resistance movement against an expansionist king; learning societal norms; helping save the universe, I guess.

CAUSE OF DEATH: Survived campaign, although he probably died in a bar fight after implying elves were superior one too many times. 

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Scraping the Barrel"

This was a busy week. Meaning that I didn't find a whole lot of cool stuff on the internet. Meaning that Cool Stuff Sunday is a little bare today. (At least it's not a little bear, huh? HUH?)

D&D is now on Steam. Yep.

Gwendoline Christie will be back in Star Wars VIII, meaning that Captain Phasma survived... YES.

Original D&D was meant to be much bigger than many people remember.

The presidential candidates, as ranked by their ability in a fight.

You can listen to J.R.R. Tolkien read songs and poems from The Lord of the Rings.

Rumor has it that EA will release Star Wars: Imperial Commando in 2017... YERS.

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Feast"

Some weeks, there's three entries in Cool Stuff Sunday. Other weeks, there's more than that. I can't count. Anyway, let's get down to business (to defeat the Huns)...

"Kara" is an unofficial Star Wars short film. 

31 days of Dark Souls art. 

The three-clue rule is a good way to run investigations in RPGs. And wandering adventures are underused. 

More Dark Souls III screens. 

Peter Capaldi is leaving Dr. Who.

A "more violent" Darth Vader could be cool...

Looking for some horror comics? Here's some. 

What We Do In the Shadows was great, and now it's getting a sequel. 

Ravenloft and Tarokka are coming back!

The voice of Ahsoka Tano makes a pretty good Ahsoka Tano... 

And Janet Varney seems to have a hard time separating herself from Avatar Korra... 

Rumors say that there's going to be an Obi-Wan Kenobi trilogy, and it might include Darth Maul... 

Oh, and J.K. Rowling has named some of the non-UK wizarding schools. 

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Luke and Leia Are Siblings"

So this Cool Stuff Sunday is going to have a decided lean towards two franchises in particular. You should be able to guess at least one of them. What that means is: Minor spoilers ahoy. 

Some of the less-acknowledged inspirations for Dark Souls. Berserk always gets mentioned, but what about others? 

Miyazaki himself says that Dark Souls has been mined of all new content. Time to move on to Dark Souls II, people! 

A dude I play pen-and-paper RPGs with has retooled the various D&D races. 

Sawney Bean is probably fictional, but horrifying all the same. 

Want to listen to MORE than just the same 20 songs in Fallout 4? So do I. 

Who is Supreme Leader Snoke? Mild-to-moderate Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers within. 

Luke Skywalker was a terrorist. 

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Ketchup Time"

Well hai there. I haz computer again, which means I haz interesting stuff to share again. Glorious, innit? Some quite varied stuff on the platter, so let's take a look. 

The art of editing in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. 

Awesome Legend of Zelda posters. 

Are you a replicant? Take the test. 

Here's a map of the Commonwealth of Fallout 4. Stay out of the red. 

Viking clothing is surprisingly colorful. 

An exploration of "Gorgo, Mormo" in Lovecraft's "The Horror at Red Hook." 

Do you love your cat enough to write a poem about it? 

These guys are reading through original D&D's Appendix N. 

Dark Souls III in-game footage hypeeee!

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Beowulf Does the Uptown Funk"

Ohhaithere! I just woke up from a pleasant and incredibly cozy sleep. Now I've opened my windows, donned a jacket, and am sitting in a cool breeze. Why? Because I like the fresh (freezing) air. Also I am an idiot. Anyway. Let's talk about cool stuff from the internet. 

These Star Wars: The Force Awakens character posters. 

Do you want to print your own D&D 5e spellbook? This site is for you. 

100 movies dancing to "Uptown Funk." 

I disagree 99% with this article about the PMRC and "extreme" music but it's still interesting. 

The Daily Bestiary has invented adventures based around EVERY monster in the D&D 3.5/Pathfinder Monster Manuals. 

This Pip-Boy 3000 is hype as hype can be. The 10th can't come too soon!

Beowulf is available to read online! (The medieval manuscript, that is!)

Noel Gallagher is a very angry person. And also very funny. 

You're doing familiars in games wrong, sez this article. 

The making of Fallout 4 is pretty dang cool. 

There's a new Mass Effect: Andromeda teaser as of N7 Day yesterday. Goosebumps.

On a 16-speed turntable, the Chipmunks actually sound pretty cool. 

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Spooky Scary Steve Lichman..."

Some really scary stuff this week. I mean, it is Halloween weekend. So that's to be expected. But this first one? Oh lordy. Scared the pantsu right off of me.

Jar-Jar Binks is a Sith Lord.

The full Fallout 4 skill tree.

A history of rock and roll in 100 riffs.

The Ryckoning.

Slipknot's not-really-that-new but new-to-me music video for "The Devil In I."

The West Marches is a really cool RPG setting/world/idea.

A brief history of haunted houses in literature.

Steve Lichman looks hilarious.

Micro-reviews of some lesser-known RPGs.

Cool Stuff Sunday: The Three D's (Dungeons, Dragons, and...Devourers?)

It is Sunday. I have eaten delicious pizza from a local pizza place, followed by delicious pie from a local Target SuperStore. Let's talk about what stuff this week was super cool.

A 3D-printed portable railgun. 

The Gorillaz are releasing new music in 2016. 

Characters in Mad Max: Fury Road have really cool names.

Folklore inspirations for monsters in Witcher 3.

A dungeon generator for you role-playing game types. 

3D-printable dungeon terrain, also for you role-playing game types. 

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Watashi Wa Taitoru o Motte Imasen"

It's Sunday, I'm hungry for Chinese food, and I'm too lazy to actually go get Chinese food. Let's talk about stuff on the internet instead.

I don't know why this mashup amuses me.

Apparently Far Cry Primal is going to be a thing. This makes me happy.

This dude is an awesome skater.

Kender suck. Seriously. If someone you know likes kender, stop associating with them. And no, I don't mean Kinder Surprise.

Don't trust used armor salesmen.

This site lets you build and print dungeon maps. All you PnP gamers, you're welcome.

Dungeon Robber is essentially a one-person dungeon crawl, in Flash. It's pretty fun.

Marceline the Vampire Queen is finally getting her whole story told on Adventure Time. Woo! Sadness incoming!

I keep watching this Star Wars: Battlefront video, and it gets funnier every time. The only good thing to come out of the Star Wars: Battlefront beta.

This video contains the most important Japanese phrases you will ever need to know, minus one: "Watashi wa baka gaikoku hitodesu. Sore wa kawaīde wanaidesu ka?"

Bird Boy is a really cool webcomic now becoming a physical comic.