#I wish that Matt would use them in current campaigns cause I want to see more of them | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-big-nope · 4 years

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While I’m certainly nowhere near ready for the story of the Mighty Nein to come to an end, I am also a D&D nerd and there’s a new sourcebook coming out soon with a bunch of new subclasses in it. By the time Campaign 3 of Critical Role gets underway, that book will be published, leaving a wealth of new options for the cast members to choose from, so why not entertain myself by making barely justified predictions of what the cast is most likely to pick for their next characters! (Disclaimer: Some of the new subclasses have been confirmed and some haven’t, so for a few of these picks I’m just going off of what I think is going to be in the book).

Travis

Cleric (Tempest Domain): Travis has been playing lowkey EMT since campaign one, and Laura’s already confirmed that Travis almost went cleric for campaign two. Between Grog with his barb-boosted movement speed to get around the battlefield so he could shove healing potions into his squishier teammates, and Fjord multiclassing into paladin and lovingly tapping his friends with single hit points to get them back up, it would be delightful to see him fully jump in and embrace the classical healer role. Of course, this is Travis, so I don’t see him picking a cleric domain that doesn’t allow for at least some whoop-ass, and Tempest Domain brings plenty of it. You get proficiency with all armor and weapons, Divine Strike at level 8 for boosted melee damage, you can use a reaction to inflict lightning or thunder damage against any enemy within melee range that’s hit you. And if you climb up high enough in levels, you gain a flying speed equal to your walking one whenever you’re outdoors. Pretty nifty, and makes for a fitting subclass for a guy that’s voiced Thor on multiple occasions.

Blood Hunter (Order of the Lycan): I mean, come on. The only reason it isn’t number one is that it was already widely assumed this would be Travis’s pick for campaign two, and I wouldn’t put it past him to surprise us again. But still, we saw him get a taste in Liam’s one shot and he was clearly having the time of his life. Besides, we lost Molly far too early to really see the blood hunter’s potential come to life; it would be damn cool to see someone else take a crack at it, and Travis is enough of a D&D gambler to not shy away from the class’s riskier features.

Artificer (Armorer): Speaking of Marvel connections, if Travis doesn’t lean toward fantasy Thor, then fantasy Iron Man might catch his attention instead. Artificer is an official class now, and since it’ll be reprinted in TCoE by the time campaign 3 gets underway, it’ll be a lot more visible as an option. The Armorer sits in almost a perfect middle ground of what Travis has done before: tanky and a frontliner, but also still has spells and tricks to help the party. Plus, you get a badass suit of power armor out of it. What’s not to like?

Marisha

Bard (College of Creation): After Hazel Copperpot, we all saw the pure magic that was Marisha Ray playing a bard. I know she implied that Hazel was supposed to be her campaign two backup character, but I hope this doesn’t discourage her from making another one. There are quite a few bard subclasses, a number of which I could see her being drawn to (Lore, Glamour, maybe even Swords), but I really vibe with the idea of Creation. I can’t exactly say why; maybe the idea of the ‘dancing object’ feature in Marisha’s hands is very funny to me (remember Keyleth’s adorable “Be Our Guest” moment? That, but this time it’s a walking wardrobe beating the shit out of the enemy).

Paladin (Oath of Vengeance/Conquest): As of yet, no one on Critical Role has ever played a paladin from the start, only multiclassed later down the line. I think this would be a cool departure for Marisha. Both campaigns she’s played characters that were either suspicious or at least indifferent to faith and the gods. Paladins are typically associated with deities, but they’re not tied quite so closely to them as clerics are. It would be fascinating to see what she did with it. As for the subclass, I just think Marisha’s earned her turn on the Goth Character Carousel, and while I know Conquest paladin is very unlikely given its moral grayness by default which might cause undue conflict and that Vengeance is a much more likely and acceptable pick, I just think it would be a sexy character choice.

Wizard (Bladesinger/Graviturgist): This is a much more pie-in-the-sky, wishful thinking pick on my end, but not impossible imo. Marisha has experience with heavy spellcasting already, so she probably wouldn’t shy away from a wizard, but like Travis I suspect she likes a bit of oomph to her characters, and probably wouldn’t play as support heavy as Caleb does. To that end, Bladesingers get a bit more survivability and some modicum of physical prowess alongside their spells, while Graviturgists are definitely on the more aggressive side of the spectrum for wizard subclasses, with unique dunamancy spells to boot. I’m not sure how restrictive Matt would be about Xhorhassian characters in the next campaign if it takes place on another continent, but hey, you never know. Plus, she picked one of Matt’s homebrew subclasses for the current campaign; it would be cute if it happened again.

Liam

Druid (Circle of the Shepherd): At some point before Critical Role comes to end (hopefully far in the future), I know Liam’s gonna play a druid, I can feel it in my bones. He's too big of a Kiki fan not to. However, while Circle of the Moon might feel obvious given the potential for homage and how much he likes turning into animals, I feel like he might regard it as getting too close to old territory (also, I don’t know if Circle of the Moon is like an exclusive thing to the Ashari tribes, and if it is that would be rather restrictive for building a backstory). If that’s the case, Circle of the Shepherd feels like the next best bet. It has some great support options via the totems you can put down, and rather than becoming badass animals, you instead just get really good at summoning a fuck ton of them. It’s like Frumpkin, but ten of him. And they’re bears. (Honorable mention: If Circle of the Moon would feel like treading old territory then I’m certain Circle of Wildfire would too, but I’d bet my dice collection it would at least be tempting).

Cleric (Unity Domain): Listen. The pure sap potential that would be at Mr. O’Brien’s fingertips with this subclass is incredible. The domain all about strengthening and protecting the bonds between friends and loved ones?? The domain with the Channel Divinity that can spread damage taken by one creature across the party however the cleric chooses to distribute it to lessen the blow to the individual??? The domain that used to be called the Love Domain???? I’m practically gagging on the soft moments and unspoken devotion conveyed through spellcasting already.

Fighter (Rune Knight/Psi Knight): Liam has yet to play a tank in a long-term campaign, and while I’m more enamored with the potential of the above classes, it would be novel to see him play a character with an actually respectable amount of hit points. However, I feel like if he was gonna commit to a straight frontliner, he’d probably want something a little more unique than a Champion or Battle Master (especially since he’s played those already for one-shots). Rune Knight has some fun options and built-in flavor, and with Psi Knight you can basically be a Jedi. Not bad options at all if you ask me.

Taliesin

Warlock (Fiend): Yeah, it might be expected, or Percy might have been too close to warlock anyway to feel like there’s new ground to cover, but hear me out. Both Percy (who, let’s face it, was a warlock multiclass in all but the actual mechanics) and Fjord were the classic reluctants. They got in over their heads without really knowing what was going on, and once they did they wanted out, cutting ties with their patrons and getting clear with only the scars remaining. I want to see Taliesin commit to a warlock in a way I imagine only he could manage to pull off. How fun would that balancing act be, to have a character that has no intentions of breaking their pact, who’s here for the powers, and is willing to work that delicate balancing act between keeping what he’s got and not letting his contract holder get the better of him? Give it to meeeeee.

Sorcerer (Psionic Soul): Psionic Soul has a bit of that eldritch flavor that vibes with Taliesin so much, with the added interest of introducing a brand new feature to 5E, the Psi Die (with this subclass, using them can do things like letting a sorcerer learn a spell they don’t already know for a few hours, allow you to cast spells without needing verbal, somatic, or material components, and can give you telepathy). Taking both Percy and Molly into account, it seems Tal likes to lean into those unique additional mechanics, and while Psi Die aren’t as risk-heavy as Gunslinger or Bloodhunter, they do add a layer of variability and unpredictability that seems to match his style.

Rogue (Swashbuckler): We only got a little bit of time with Molly, and so missed out on the opportunity to see Tal play a more cavalier character this time around. If he feels like leaning away from spells next time and back toward martial, I think a high-charisma, high-swinging swashbuckler from Tal would be a delight to watch.

Laura

Barbarian (Path of the Ancestral Guardian): Laura deserves to hit things, okay? Yes, spellcasting is great and comes in clutch frequently and Jester’s amazing, but you can tell Laura misses doing fat stacks of damage to the enemy in a single round. I personally think it would be amazing to watch her just cut loose and go full rage machine. As for the subclass, I’m not glued to the idea, but Ancestral Guardians are pretty kickass, have decent support capabilities for a barb without detracting from their DPS at all, and it doesn’t tread on any previous characters’ toes or their aesthetics.

Rogue (Scout/Soulknife): Laura deserves to play her favorite class at last, okay? She’s been class poached two campaigns in a row, and though that resulted in both Vex and Jester and I wouldn’t trade them for the world, Laura has earned first pick. Seeing as she already dipped into Assassin as Vex and Sam took Arcane Trickster, I could see Scout being a viable subclass choice. It’s in the classic sneaky vein, relatively simple in concept, but comes with features that grant easy-to-understand benefits that you can never turn your nose up at (boosts to movement, advantage on initiative, giving advantage against a target to everyone else in the party, etc.). If she’s looking for something a bit flashier, Soulknife has the benefit of retroactively dunking on Vax by taking the basic knife-rogue and making it better, with psionic knives that you can manifest with a thought, that can teleport you around Whisper style, and cranking up that stealth to ridiculous levels by just being able to turn invisible for ten minutes, no concentration or spell needed. The psionic die mechanics are a little funky of course, but I don’t imagine it’s any trickier than learning to manage all those cleric spells.

Monk (Way of the Open Hand): Between Beau just being super cool and her brief stint as Farriwen Breeze, monk wouldn’t be a surprising pick from Laura. An Open Hand monk might be the definitive version everyone knows, but you can’t deny it’s a solid subclass, and between previous overlap and the concepts of the other subclasses just not seeming to fit, I could see the classic being what she went with. But hey, it’s Laura Bailey. She could surprise us with Way of the Drunken Master or something.

Sam

Ranger (Monster Slayer): Let’s be real, I don’t think this would be his actual first pick for a Campaign 3 character, but the amount of shit-stirring he could achieve by making a character with the aim of pissing off Laura Bailey specifically would be hilarious (and since Matt isn’t completely opposed to UA and acknowledges that PHB ranger has a lot of issues, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went Revised Ranger this time).

Warlock (Genie): Actual first pick here, Pact of the Genie Warlock is confirmed by now, and the potential of a warlock in the hands of Sam Riegel is pretty vast (for some reason I’m imagining he would go the ‘spoiled sugar baby’ route). The subclass doesn’t matter as much, but the Genie one is nice in that, depending on the type of genie patron you pick, you can get a wide variety of extra spells, you get a container like a classic lamp or lantern that you can bamf into for short rests, and you get a limited Wish ability for your capstone, all features I feel like would especially appeal to Sam.

Barbarian (Path of the Wild Soul): I want to see Sam play a fairy barbarian. ‘Nough said.

Ashley

Fighter (Eldritch/Echo Knight): Ashley really seems to vibe with the crushing power of martial classes (she does love her brutal kill descriptions), so I could see her sticking with it rather than going back to full caster. However, I do see her picking one of the magical subclasses for some variety after Yasha. Eldritch Knight is a classic and reasonably easy to manage, but tbh I’d LOVE for it to be Echo Knight. And think, if my wishful thinking came true, with Ashley picking an Echo Knight and Marisha playing a Graviturgist wizard, they could link up their backstories and be a traveling Kryn battle duo that left their homeland behind to explore the world!

Sorcerer (Draconic): If she does want to go back to full-time casting, Sorcerer doesn’t require near as much bookkeeping as a cleric, druid, or wizard while still having decent variety, and the Draconic subclass is a bit beefier than the other subclasses. Also, it would be the third campaign in a row where Ashley Johnson’s character eventually got wings, soooo...

And tbh I have no idea what a third pick might be for Ashley, so I’m just gonna throw a dart or two at the board and say either College of Whispers Bard or Way of Mercy Monk *Shrug* We can only wait and see!

#critical role #if anyone else has thoughts i'd love to hear your guesses!

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chaos-burst · 4 years

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Various comments on my question about campaign starts a while back! I finally got around to answer them! I’ll try to see if I can get to some of the asks I’ve gotten as well.

@bi-vexual If the characters are the typical hero type something spontaneously attacking wherever they're at is cool imo! That immediately makes them work together and then they might try to find out why that attack happened

-> They are indeed not the typical hero types :’D The most hero-type character is a grumpy cleric. So that will not be a solution for them.

@im-your-spacedad-now One of my players tried to steal something and one by one the rest joined in a chase across the town

-> Actually something that might happen, but I feel like depending on the characters you have it might misfire and stop them from actually forming a group. But it sounds like a nice creative start of a campaign!

@canaryfeather I like the characters to start out knowing each other. That way you don't have the awkward getting to know you stuff and can go straight to having them walking into a town or getting attacked or whatever. That said, the first game I was in, we met on the road when a few were attacked by wolves, others stopped to help, and a cleric happened by to heal them.

-> Yeah, I like when characters know each other as well! Won’t work for me, but I will have two of them meet beforehand at least :)

@weissschnee-tm In one campaign I dmed, made an npc that I had all the pcs know, then had her gather them to ask for their help with something. Party tie, first quest, and a bit of insurance all in one! In the other, I helped the pcs build back stories that put them all in the same place at the same time in a really interesting and thematic city. I sort of figured they'd stumble across each other as they explored it, but I was ready to stage a small attack on the city to bring then together if necessary

-> That thing with the NPC everyone knows is really really awesome :D I will keep that in mind for any future campaigns I might do!

@artisticarperture One of the campaigns I was I started similarly to the force awakens where there was a riot and my character was a soldier who was supposed to silence it, but gained morals halfway through. The rest of the players were all either rioters or bystanders. It was interesting cause we started the campaign in initiative

-> I like that, because it’s customized so much for the individual characters :) And starting in initiative must be very exciting :D

@dark-as-night-sweet-as-sin One of my campaigns, all the pcs got a letter from an npc they all knew, asking them to meet and go on a quest for them Also you could have a session zero where all the players get used to rping their characters, and the group could come up with why their characters know each other organically

-> That is already out of the window, because they all have wildy differing backstories, so they won’t really know each other beforehand, bc reasons ^^ But generally that is a very nice idea!

@phirephox666 In jail

@lionsfairytale In one of our summer campaigns, my friend started us in a tournament scenario, which gave us a chance to get back into the swing of things and play with our character’s abilities before we were attacked for real. For the next one he did give us a hint he wants us all to start by being woken up from literal death by some sort of entity.

-> Waking up from death sounds very badass. The tournament was something I considered, but had to dismiss bc of one of the player’s backstories ^^ But I might get back to it later in the campaign.

@tiefling-queer I introduced my players to each other by putting them all in the hotel California and making their first encounter be the lot of them trying to escape and fighting off goons. in one campaign I'm in, we all started in prison and were broken out by rebels. in several I've been in, we were all just separate schmucks who happened to answer a job put out by a village. setting/campaign plot can play a big role in the meetup - the prison break scenario was a fun setup for us becoming rebel fighters (sort of), and in a sailing campaign I was in the party was just assigned bunkmates/on the same watch. i enjoy throwing the party right into some sort of immediate problem since it gives them a moment to think "oh these guys know what they're doing I could roll with

-> Breaking out of jail was one of my initial ideas, when one of my players said “don’t traumatize my poor boy” and I was like “fair enough” :’D But throwing the party into an immediate problem sounds very reasonable!

@wytch-lyghts Each of my players were being inducted into a thieves guild — each knew a friend of a friend type scenario who told them to be at the same place at the same time, they show up, it’s not the guild. It’s where they met a recruiter who started them off on their first task to prove themselves capable/worthy: find the guild via a long trek through the city sewers. I figure this design could work for joining any group really, but it was fun

-> Ha, that reminds me of the start of the thieves’ guild quest in TES Oblivion :D it’s pretty cool, as long as your characters all fit that kind of thing (which mine do not)

@squirrel-saloli my friends and I recently started a d&d club, and we got a lot of new players. we started out as one big group with three of us dming. because a really personal beginning was impossible with so many people, we had them start out in a guild that would pay them to complete tasks that regular citizens commission them for.

-> I have a series of oneshots i do for the same group of friends and that has them in a guild as well! it’s a pretty nice starting point and i like it, but i enjoy it mostly for the oneshots! for a whole campaign i will do it differently :)

@kneesntoess we met in a tavern, but we met in a tavern after the three of us had been accidentally plane shifted by a death cult, so

-> Oh wow :o That surely is a beginning :’D

@pixeljam45 My current crew met over an ad that they all saw, but we have plans that in the next campaign, they're going to all wake up after a night if drinking too hard and be on the run for a crime they can't remember committing that night because it was nickel-shot-night at the bar.

-> Something like that seems to be very popular! I wish I were better at creating mysteries, bc I would totally love for them to solve some puzzles/crimes along the way. Let’s see if my brain will let me :D

@captainclovey in one campaign I was a player of, we all met at a festival for a big event in the city we were in, cue something goes wrong and we're ones who get pulled into helping out before all being branded with something magical that meant we couldnt back out

-> Yep, I considered cursing two of my players with magical objects so they couldn’t leave the other’s vicinity without taking damage. I hope it won’t be necessary :D

@faecallie In the drow campaign my sister made for us the party had been kidnapped by drow to be slaves, but the caravan had been attacked by a drow dissenter to free us. But as part of the terror tactics the drow used to break slaves, we woke up naked in coffins. Really set the tone for a campaign where the drow were nearly done conquering the surface for Lothe.

-> I’m not a fan of the classic d&d drow concept *cough* And I don’t want to make my campaign too grimdark. But if that’s your sort of thing, I hope it was lots of fun :D

@dontdropthejam I started my players on a train, in the same car as each other. Some plot relevant NPCs joined them, and then the train had to stop for repairs, leaving them stranded in a remote mountain hotel, where train car passengers were sorted into hotel rooms with each other. Then a kid got kidnapped and the plot began!

-> Kidnappings/Jails seem to be very popular :D

@sandssavvy Well, in one campaign I was in they all met because they were all arrested (mostly separately) and had to escape from the same cell. It wasn't done that well by the dm cause he tended to shoehorn moments. But if it was done well by a dm who knew a lot about the pcs and their weaknesses/what could get them into trouble, it could be cool. In snother campaign, we were each sent a summons into a meeting for an investigation they wanted us to do cause of our different talents.

-> I think many concepts for campaign starts depend on how well the DM does it. I mean, we saw Matt doing a very lovely tavern-meeting-campaign-start! And my first campaign started like that as well. But yeah, the jail idea is really great and I love it a lot :D

@genderliquid If you’re overwhelmed: make them decide, but RP it - give them enough context on their world and whatever mini arc you want to start with and make the players tell you where they’re meeting, what they’re doing there (as much as they want to say to the others) and how they got hooked in.

-> I mean, being overwhelmed is part of my nature, but I won’t do it like this for the campaign. I do want to have a plan and give them directions. But it’s something to bear in mind for potential future campaigns when the backstories are not all done yet ^^

@seventeenhealingpotions One really nice beginning is: You all wake up on the shore. There's parts of a shipwreck all around you. You see *other party members*. You don't remember them, or anything that happened before. But if these people are here, then that means they're part of your crew or other passengers. Maybe they are your group? It's only logical to stick with them for now. It's a good beginning, since you don't have that tavern trope, and you give them a reason to form a party.

-> Memory loss is pretty cool and a nice tool for a campaign start, but it’s nothing that fits my characters for the moment. I really like this idea for a oneshot or mini-adventure tho! :)

@deathdefyinglifeleaps So what if the Rogue and the Wizard stowed away on the sky pirate’s ship and the cleric is busy tending to one of the other pirates when Something happens that causes the sky ship to take off too quickly for any of them to leave? Maybe the rogue is just there to steal something?

-> Thanks for the specific suggestions, but I do have very detailed character backgrounds already and for various reasons all those solutions are not doable ^^

@hgr-ros Try the old voyage trick: they just arrived in the starting city and they vaguely know and like each other enougj to stuck around. I use it a lot evem though my players usually create very social characters

-> City, yes. Social characters and knowing each other will be a no :’D

@pokidragon My campaign is very homebrew so the game started with my players waking up an a prison after each of their characters died- it’s very dark souls themed :)

-> That sounds very badass and also very ominous :D

@asdeclaredbythedeptofawesome One thing I will say is that my dm has written up a questions sheet. And then asked who would have done what. This allowed us to have already met and have some small back story together. They were mostly fun things like who got drunk and had to be carried home and who started the bar fight. Or who accidentally started a revolution and stuff. These all ended up having minor or major plot hooks later. It also meant that we established some of the party dynamics And relationships easily without having the first couple of sessions being awkward. Highly recommend if you want everyone to have already met. The other is tell everyone they need a reason to follow something and ask them to come up with reasons why they would follow the initial plot hook. Having built in character reasons makes things a lot simpler

-> Oh, yeah, I have all my characters’ motivations down, that’s not the problem at all. And I will have two of them meet beforehand, but they will not be friends by any means. And questions like that I had for my series of oneshots, but for various background reasons those four would not really have known each other beforehand.

Thanks for all the input! It’s really interesting to see how differently people start their campaigns ^-^

#d&d #dungeons and questions #screeching into the void #text

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newagesispage · 5 years

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MARCH 2019

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***** And the men who hold high places must be the ones to start, to mold a new reality closer to the heart. -RUSH

*****The most heroic word in all languages is revolution. – Eugene Debs

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***** Virginia seems to be in a lot of trouble when it comes to racism, sexual harassment and politics.

***** Subpoena’s show that all parts of Trumps life, business, personal, charity, campaign, are now under investigation.

***** The National debt has topped $22 trillion for the first time.** It is all such a show. This administration is like when I used to go to the Pentecostal church where they speak in tongues or like calling a psychic , believing a televangelist even after there is proof he is stealing their money or reading a National Enquirer. It is a show built to entertain with no substance and filled with lies. The flock holds signs that say’ build the wall’ until he tells them to hold signs that say ‘finish the wall’ and they do. I mean, do they really believe him or do they just love a dictator because they can’t think for themselves?? It is impossible to figure these people out. Scary Clown is easy to figure but the followers?? How do we relate to these people?? He declares a national emergency for something he has screamed about since day one and only now is it bad enough to declare and yet he signs a deal which Rand Paul called, “massive, bloated and secretive.” The deal gave him 1.375 mil for ‘fences’ and an increase in spending for homeland security. His signature does keep the government open. Why didn’t they give him his money when they had the house and the Senate and Paul Ryan was in charge?? It seems he and Mitch would rather throw shade at the Dems and show that he can throw his weight around. It was unforgiveable to see the damage that caused. The Lincoln home national historic site is taking steps to keep the home open next time, just in case. What we have here is a giant smokescreen for all his nefarious wrongdoing.** The true emergency is taking place in his skull. -Stephen Colbert

***** Pelosi warns that a declaration of emergency could start things down a dangerous road. She warns as an example that a Democratic Pres may use it to get guns under control or something. I am sure Mitch and the boys are not worried. They probably think (and perhaps rightly) that Dems wouldn’t go that far because they have a conscious and follow the rules.

***** Of course, it is probably icing on the cake for the wallers but it is fucking with the butterfly habitat. They are already clearing spots to put up this wall and it is messing up the natural butterfly migration.** Ted Cruz says that El Chapo should pay for the wall.

***** GO NON SEQUITUR!!!!!!! Go Wiley Miller!!!

***** Governor Cuomo signed the child victims act into law. Victims of sexual abuse will have until age 55 to file civil lawsuits and seek criminal charges until age 28.

***** Matt Whitaker went to congress to testify. He agreed to talk but only if he weren’t subpoenaed. Whitaker dodged and weaved the whole time. He did say that he never denied funds to Mueller and that he never spoke to Trump about the investigation.

***** Calling a black POTUS married 25 years to 1 wife with 2 children, no mistresses, affairs or scandals, ‘the antichrist’ but a white POTUS married thrice, 5 kids by 3 women, mistresses, affairs and scandals, “God’s anointed, proves your religion is white supremecy. –Bishop Talbert Swan.

***** Former Fox news talking head, Lea Gabrielle has been appointed special envoy and coordinator of global engagement to counter foreign propaganda disinformation.

***** Andrew McCabe has a new book, The Threat: How the FBI protects America in the age of terror and Trump.

***** Trumps El Paso rally was a bit more raucus than usual. We all know these things are just gonna get worse. BBC photojournalist Ron Sleans was attacked by a man yelling, “enemy of the people.”

***** The latest in sexual harassment news: A report found at least 700 victims of Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers. And people wonder why members are leaving religion.** Ryan Adams is being looked at for sexually inappropriate behavior with a minor that involves skype and texts. Several women have accused him in a Times article. Technology gets ‘em everytime.

***** Illinois is headed toward a $15 minimum wage by 2025. It will kick off with a $1 bump in January.

***** This can’t be right: 1.6 million Americans don’t have indoor plumbing.

***** Oh how I wish the original cast of Cuckoo could all get back together.

***** Check out George Takei’s new graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy. The story is about his experience in the internment camps.

***** Modern Family will end after the 11th season.

***** Jeff Bezos wrote an essay about the despicable way that the Enquirer threatened to blackmail him. He put it right out there like Letterman. It really does show how guys like Trump and Pecker do business. Is this all some elaborate plan by God to weed out all these selfish, soulless fuckers?? I mean why do so many men feel so worthless that they have to assert themselves so forcefully? Why do they bully women and hide their inadequacies? Why do they impose their beliefs with a vengeance by calling it the will of God or the will of the people?? ** Ronan Farrow and other journalists are coming forward to tell tales of how the Enquirer threatened them as well. Surprise! More bullies!** AMI is broke with a net worth of negative $200 million. Why did it take so long? **Amazon made $11 billion and it seems they don’t have to pay any taxes.

***** The Iowa caucuses are just 1 year away.

***** Candace Payne is a beautiful soul who has now started a whole new movement for the homeless. She bought 30 rooms for the homeless when the cold plunged below zero. The word went out and before it was all over, with the help of others, they assisted 122 people. It got Candace to thinking that she could use her job in real estate to flip houses to start housing the homeless.

***** I find myself getting excited about the Lion King coming this summer.

***** The house is working on the issues of guns which may get lost in the shuffle of all the other news. Go Go Go!!

***** The Grammys went wild for women this year with a record number of wins. I was so excited to see Jimmy Carter win his third for his audiobook, Faith: A Journey for all. Dave Chapelle and Weird Al both won. Buddy Guy won for best Trad Blues and Willie won for best Trad pop vocal. And hooray for Greta Van Fleet for best rock album. The best song in years to me was awarded Best rap/sung performance to Childish Gambino for This is America. Joy Villa had a MAGA purse and Rebel wore a Trump jacket.** Best dressed, to me, were Fred Armisen, Angela Aquilal, Saint Heart, Maren Morris, Jameel Jamil, James Blake, Cardi B and Lady Gaga. The WTF goes to Andrea Echeverri .

***** The BAFTA’s happened the same night as the Grammys. Roma wins the top prize and grabs director too. The Favourite won big. Olivia Colman and Rami Malek took home prizes. Black Panther was awarded for visual effects. I was so happy to see Blackkklansman get the nod for adapted screenplay. ** I thought the best dressed were Timothee Chalamet, Regina King, Yalitza Apamcio and Duchess Kate. The WTF goes to Margot Robbie

***** Judd Apatow is producing 2 new projects. We will have a gay rom com with Billy Eichner and a semi -autobiographical comedy from Pete Davidson.

***** Payless Shoe Source will be a thing of the past.

***** So yes, we have 4% unemployment and 69% feel good about the economy but credit card debt is bigger than ever and those making late payments are at a record high.

***** Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has yet to set up a district office.

***** Everyone is talking about a Golden Girls cruise that will set sail next year.

***** CNN has hired Michael Caputo and Corey Lewandowski.

***** Tulsi Gabbard is running for President.

***** Bernie Sanders is running for President.

***** This Jussie Smollett thing gets stranger all the time. He was arrested for his lies and charged with paying people to beat him. He allegedly wanted more pay at Empire and some publicity. He got the publicity but was written off Empire. We will see how things play out.

***** Studies show that blueberries may be as effective as some meds for high blood pressure.

***** R Kelly was arrested finally. I think Chicago PD is tired of messing around.

***** Insulin prices have more than doubled in the last few years. In the first 2 days of 2019, 286 drug prices went up in price. Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill to cut drug costs by cutting out special interests.

***** The 91st Oscars went off without a host. Queen with Adam Lambert opened the show in probably the best Oscar opening I have ever seen. It seemed to make everybody happy!! My best dressed were Billy Porter, Willem Dafoe, Adam Lambert, Melissa McCarthy, Helen Mirren, Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Chadwick Boseman, Kelly Ripa, Jordan Peele, Lay Gaga, Leslie Bibb, Chelsea Peretti, Bette Midler, my Adams, Regina King and Dana Guirira. The WTF was Gemma Chan. I did not think Brian Tyree Henry was all that best dressed but he is so fucking talented and so fucking hot. Give this guy some awards!! Rami Malek won best actor and fell off the stage. Olivia Colman was the only real surprise. It was great to see Spike Lee win for writing and I am glad he made a statement but what about the other guys with you? I was really pulling for BlacKkKlansman or Black Panther for best pic but it went to Green Book. A lot of people grumbled about that. It really does seem that Tina, Amy and Mia should just host everything, no controversy there.

***** So, Michael Cohen testified 2 days behind closed doors and 1 day for the public. That was a thing! Why did all the southern republicans behave as if we are all idiots and not worth a thought from their fine selves? Besides Trump and his family and cohorts, I never saw humans so righteous, so smug. How dare they call this Cohen testimony a circus after the circus we have all been subject to from this scary clown 45. Carol Miller did not even seem to care that our President is a crook. She just wanted to denigrate Cohen. She was concerned that they couldn’t be looking into real issues like child separation. Are you fucking kidding me? Ya’ll created this problem and now you are concerned? The weirdest was questioning from Kelly Armstrong, I mean what was wrong with him, he was shaking like he needed a fix or he was on a coke binge. Jamie Raskin called him “frantic and unhinged”. I thought it was just my tv until I heard that. How do we take these people seriously? They actually printed a sign for the occasion that read’ liar, liar, pants on fire.’ They are talking about BIG, REAL problems with our leader. Don’t get me wrong, Cohen is a liar and deserves to go to prison but it should not just be him. There are many complicit in these dastardly deeds. Cohen claims he has threatened people aprox. 500 times for his former boss, Donald J. Trump. Russian collusion was not really cleared up for he did not have any direct info just speculation. Cohen did however feel that Trump would have never hit his wife or had a love child. He looked into it and found nothing to support these claims which, in my mind, made him believable. It also sounds like CFO Allen Weisselberg and the Trump children are just as guilty as Trump himself. It looks like they will now have to testify as well. And how can we believe anything from the President when his ego allows him to fuck with charity money just to jack up the price of his own portrait and manipulates polls so he looks good? There was much more to see and I suggest you look it all up on C-span if you missed it. There is more to come as Cohen tells us there are many things being investigated that he can’t even comment on. The highlights to me were his opening statement, the financial questioning from Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and chairman of the oversight committee’s Elijah Cummings closing. It’s not like we haven’t heard this stuff before. All roads lead to this al making sense. Anybody who paid attention before Trump was President would know his character.** Republican congressman Matt Gaetz tweeted a threat to Michael Cohen about his alleged girlfriend. The President and his thugs sure are open about their intimidation, no shame at all.

***** The prototypes of the wall were demolished. An owl flew out of one of them.

***** Wal Mart is eliminating the greeter position. It was about the only thing I admired about them. The elderly and disabled are fucked out of another job. Way to go.

***** Isreal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being indicted for bribery and fraud.

***** I will never understand this obsession with money.

***** Farmers are finding it tough. They do not want welfare and many of their loans have become delinquent. The tariffs and low crop prices are really hurting our farmers.

***** If you ever watch Seth Meyers, the wrap up of the Oscars from’ Amber says what’ was her best yet. Check it out!

***** Days alert: More Adrienne please, give her a story!**

***** The trailer for Jordan Peele’s new Twilight Zone looks fucking amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

***** R.I.P. Alsa Mashzoub, Kristoff St. John, Julie Adams, Albert Finney, James Ingram, Frank Robinson, John Dingee , the Aurora shooting victims, Lee Radziwill, David Horowitz, Karl Lagerfeld, those lost in the Bangladesh fire, Fred Foster, Stanley Donen, Mark Hollis, Jackie Shane, Peter Tork and Gail Reynolds.

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makingscipub · 7 years

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Turning bacteria into passwords

A few days ago, I had the pleasure to meet two enthusiastic members of the first Nottingham iGEM team: Vikram Chhapwale, who specialises in computer science and AI, and Chris Graham, an emerging expert in biochemistry and genetics. Both are undergraduates studying at the University of Nottingham.

Chris and Vikram are part of a seven-member team which is made up of Jake, Ellie, Georgette, Matt, Natalia, Vikram and Chri. Together, they have backgrounds in biotechnology, biochemistry, genetics, chemical engineering and computer science – a great interdisciplinary mix. They get advice from international science, engineering and computer experts, such as Maria Zygouropoulou, Daphne Groothuis, Luca Rossoni, Sophie Vaud, Ines Canadas and Jamie Twycross, as well as from Louise Dynes, our outreach officer. You can find out more about their project here on the website of the Synthetic Biology Research Centre Nottingham, led by Nigel Minton, Alex Conradie and others.

I won’t provide more general background information on iGEM itself, as I have done that elsewhere. Let’s just say that iGEM is a student synthetic biology competition which aims to bring together young scientists from around the world, addressing global challenges through the engineering of biological parts.

Vikram, Chris and I had a great chat and I tried to learn about what they want to do for the upcoming iGEM competition. The operative word here is ‘tried’. Not being a maths, genetics and/or computer buff (rather the opposite), most of what they said went slightly over my head. In the following I’ll nevertheless try to give you a flavour of what the Nottingham iGEM project is all about – and in this case ‘all’ is the operative word. Entering the iGEM competition involves so much more than just ‘doing a science’ as the Sarcastic Rover would put it.

In the following, I’ll first talk about all that goes into ‘doing an iGEM’; then I’ll give you a flavour of Nottingham’s project and then I’ll say something about the personal journey on which the members of our team have embarked.

iGEM – life, the universe and everything

The undergrads involved in the iGEM competition have a lot of work to do over the summer, in preparation for the big ‘jamboree’ in Boston in November. They not only have to come up with a juicy science idea, they also have to produce a website, think about good ways of doing public engagement/human practices, get sponsors (in this case, for example, Eppendorff, Biolabs, SnapGene and, of course the University of Nottingham’s own Impact campaign), consult people on intellectual property issues, talk to potential investors and much more. As this is all happening for the first time for our team, this is a giant experiment, of which the little experiments in the lab are only a small part.

The team came up with a snappy title (“Key.coli”) for their project, which is looking at how biological systems can be used to overcome the limitations of current passwords; they set up a facebook page, a twitter account, a wiki, produced a Vlog, and created a catchy logo (which references Robin Hood – see featured image).

In order to stimulate public engagement with the project, they created two games that you can play and through which you can learn about the project. There is a 2D retro adventure game, inspired by current non-biological keys called THE KEY – which is also available on mobile and a game called FLUORESCENT ARCADE, both similar to Pac-Man games of the past; as well as a game called NOTTPORTAL, a 3D game inspired by the video game PORTAL, to be released at the jamboree in November.

iGEM – the key idea

When trying to come up with an idea for the scientific part of the iGEM competition, the team discussed the rise in cyberattacks and hacking which have recently been much in the news. In this context, ‘keys’, be they physical, digital and/or biometric, are of great importance and they have to be safe and secure. This poses problems, as physical keys can be ‘copied’ from a photo using 3D printing for example; digital codes can be hacked and ‘broken’ (and quantum computers are only just emerging as a remedy); fingerprints can be faked, and so on. So the team thought that it might be worth exploring the advantages (and possible disadvantages) of a ‘biosynthetic key’ or ‘password’ using bacteria, in this case E.coli.

The key idea for this new type of password that can be used to open accounts or safes is the use of a unique bacterium, indeed a bacterial password system (Key.coli). To achieve this, each bacterium is given a unique fluorescent property that is modularly created by a set of specific set of promoters and jellyfish fluorescent genes. In the key device, these bacteria are freeze-dried for storage and when the user needs to use it by “clicking” the metal case together, another vial filled with hydrating medium pours in, re-activating the bacteria and causes the key’s unique fluorescence to show. If this fluorescent spectrum matches (as decided by a similarity algorithm) the spectrum in the ‘lock’ or mother colony held within the scanning device, the safe or account can be opened. If the system is stolen, the bacteria die over the course of a week and the key becomes unusable.

This is the short version! The long version of the story involves proteins, plasmids, promoters, terminators, dead CRISPR Cas9, gene expression, ….. and quite a complicated way of ensuring randomness in the way genetic elements are assorted. So if you want to know more read on here.

iGEM – the journey

We all know that life is a journey. In the case of iGEM. the journey begins in Nottingham in the summer and ends in Boston in November (although ‘ends’ is the wrong word, as the students will probably carry iGEM with them throughout their whole life journeys). On the way, there is science to be done, which is a journey from an idea to an outcome and beyond, with lots of ups and downs; but there are also real journeys involved.

For example, the team went to a meeting in Edinburgh and enjoyed getting together up with other iGEM teams. They also went up the Shard in London, and so on. On the way they met lots of people and had all sorts of unexpected adventures. After an iGEM meeting in Nottingham, Vikram, for example, was invited to play the guitar at the Canalhouse Bar; Jake acquired skills in web design; Matt became a baker, and other members of the team have probably many more stories to tell.

iGEM – the excitement

Working with bacteria is difficult. They don’t always do what you want them to do. But when they do, that’s very exciting. The day I was interviewing Chris and Vikram, Chris had just come out of the lab and found, what I heard in our conversation as ‘different shades of red’.

Here is Chris’s explanation of what that means: “When you spend every waking moment working with DNA, which can only be read from devices and screens, redesigning, retrying and theorising what you have designed will work, you can get nervous. This morning we saw the first colonies of our ‘Promoter Library’. They were all different shades of red and it meant that our modular design and use of promoters with alternate powers to express RFP [red fluorescent protein] was right. The fact we had a predictable array of red colour meant that we didn’t get everything wrong, the device is in our sights and finally… the cloning worked. I couldn’t be happier.”

I hope all goes well for the team and their bacteria in the autumn and I wish them all good luck inBoston, and lots of fun on the way!

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vitalmindandbody · 7 years

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Blockbusters assemble: can the mega movie endure the digital age?

From Star Wars sequels to superhero dealerships, blockbusters still govern the film industry. But with Amazon and Netflix tearing up the liberate planneds, are they on iffy floor?

Is the blockbuster in hardship? On the surface, to propose such a thing might seem as foolish as siding out the incorrect envelope at the biggest happen of the film docket because you were busy tweeting pictures of Emma Stone. This is the blockbuster were talking about. Its Luke Skywalker, Jurassic World, Disney, The Avengers, Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Pixar. Its the Rock perforating his fist through a build. Its the effects-driven culture juggernaut that powers the entire film industry. Does it look as if its in tribulation?

A glance at the balance sheet for the year to appointment would cement the view that the blockbuster is in insulting health. Total grosses are higher at this stage than any of the past five years. Logan, the Lego Batman Movie and Kong: Skull Island have already been gathered in big audiences globally. And then theres Beauty and the Beast, a true-life cultural phenomenon, currently hastening its course up the all-time rankings. All this and theres still a brand-new Star Wars instalment, another Spider-Man reboot, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Alien: Agreement, Blade Runner 2049, plus sequels of (* deep breather *) Guardians of the Galaxy, Cars, World War Z, Kingsman, Transformers, Fast and the Furious, Planet of the Apes, Despicable Me, Thor and Pirates of the Caribbean still to come. Hardly the signs of a crisis, it would be fair to say.

Dig a little deeper though and the foundations that blockbusters are built on start to look shaky. Last-place month, Variety wrote a legend that covered a picture of an manufacture scared to death by its own future, as buyer preferences adapt with changes in engineering. Increased pressure from Netflix and Amazon, those digital-disruption barbarians, has caused the large-scale studios to consider changing the road they liberate movies. The theatrical opening, the 90 -day cushion between a films debut in cinema and its liberate on DVD or streaming, is set to be reduced to as little as 3 weeks in an attempt to bolster diminishing dwelling entertainment auctions. Its a move that the industry sees as necessary, as younger witness develop more adaptable, portable deeming techniques, and surely many smaller yields have begun to liberate their movies on-demand on the same day as in cinemas it was one of the reasons that Shia LaBeoufs Man Down grossed a much-mocked 7 in cinema.

Ana De Armas and Ryan Gosling in Blade Runner 2049. Photograph: Allstar/ WARNER BROS.

At the same time, investors from China long thought to be Hollywoods saviour have suddenly chilled their interest, cancelling major studio treats as the Chinese box office sustains growing tenderness( with domestic ticket sales exclusively increasing 2.4% in 2016 against a 49% rise its first year before)and the governments crackdown on overseas investment starts to bite. Add to that a couple of high-profile recent duds Scarlett Johanssons Ghost in the Shell, Matt Damons The Great Wall, the unintentionally creepy Chris Pratt/ Jennifer Lawerence sci-fi Passengers, Jake Gyllenhaals Alien knock-off Life and you have an manufacture thats not as expanding as the blockbuster bluster might suggest.

Hollywoods response to this instability has been to double down, places great importance on blockbusters to the exclusion of just about everything else. In the past few decades the summer blockbuster season has mission-crept its way well into spring, a phenomenon that has been worded cultural global warming; this year, Logan was released a merely three days after the Oscars objective. The developing impression is of a full calendar year of blockbusters, with a small drop-off for Oscars season in January and February and even in that period this year we are continuing envisioned the liberates of The Lego Batman Movie, The Great Wall, John Wick 2 and the regrettable Monster Trucks.

Meanwhile, the mid-budget cinema that hardy perennial that used to help prop up the industry by expensing relatively little and often deserving mass( recollect Sophies Choice or LA Confidential) has significantly been abandoned by the major studios, its full potential profit margins seen as insufficiently high when the cost of things such as commerce is factored in. Which isnt to say that mid-budget movies dont subsist, its merely that theyre being made by smaller, independent studios understand Arrival and Get Out for recent successful precedents or most commonly as TV sequence.( Theres that Netflix, interrupting situations again .)

In essence, what this all means for the industry is the fact that it blockbuster or bust. Studios have looked at the altering scenery and decided to react by replenishing it with superheroes, act stellars and CGI beasts, realise more blockbusters than they used to, but fewer films in total. The old-time tentpole formula, where a few large-scale movies would shelter the mid-range and low-budget material, has largely been abandoned. The blockbusters are about reducing the cinemas these studios grow down to a minimum, read Steven Gaydos, vice-president and executive editor at Variety. They represent nothing but large-hearted gambles. You have to keep building a bigger and more efficient spaceship.

Its a high-risk strategy and one that, in accordance with the arrangements of Disney and their Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar dealerships, has brought big-hearted wages. But this sudden ratcheting up of the stakes means that the cost of outage has become far more pronounced. Last-place time Viacom was forced to take a $ 115 m( 92 m) writedown on Monster Trucks, while Sony took a writedown of practically$ 1bn on their entire film division after a faltering couple of years.

Hugh Jackman in Logan. Photo: Allstar/ 20 TH CENTURY FOX

While those losses might be explained away as research results of bad bets on bad cinemas Monster Trucks was infamously based on an idea by an managers five-year-old son they hint at the apocalypse that could ensue if a broader, industry-wide trouble were to present itself. Namely, what if the public loses its appetite for the blockbuster?

Its not entirely without precedent: in the late 1950 s, as television threatened to plagiarized a march on cinema, studios responded by starting large-hearted. Spectacle was seen as the key: westerns, musicals and sword-and-sandal epics predominated. But audiences soon ripened tired of these hackneyed genres and ticket marketings continued to diminish. That occasion the industry existed, thanks first to the insertion of vitality provided for under the jumpy, arty New Hollywood films, then later with the early blockbusters such as Jaws and Star Wars.

Could such a mass tuning-out happen again? Certainly, theres an creepy echo in accordance with the rules that Hollywood has reacted to changing experiences with length and spectacle, but also in their narrow focus. Once an sexual thriller such as Fatal Attraction or a musical drama such as Footloose might have reasonably been considered a blockbuster. Nowadays the blockbuster almost exclusively resides in the action, fantasy, minors film or superhero genres.

The superhero film including with regard to looms big over the industry, as every studio tries to repeat the formula to be prepared by Marvel. Ever-more niche caped campaigners are being given their own cinemas Batgirl, Aquaman, the Gotham City Sirens in an attempt to exhume a new Deadpool. Spider-Man and Batman have once again been rebooted by seeking to freshen up the respective dealerships. And, of course, everyone wants their own cinematic cosmo a vast galaxy of characters that together can generate a seemingly infinite number of spin-offs, sequels and prequels. At this very time, the creators of Call of Duty are actively seeking to turn their terrifying shoot-em-ups into a series of interlocking cinemas, while James Cameron a director whose preferred method of cracking a nut is with a sledgehammer, you suppose is creating a cosmo around his smash-hit Avatar, rife with five sequels, graphic novels, actual romances and, most bewilderingly, a Cirque du Soleil show.

These shared universes actively court the sort of audiences who will turn up to every movie, buy the action anatomies, don the cosplay outfits and gobble the branded breakfast cereal in other words, teenage boys. The dominant ideology is fanboy culture, suggests Gaydos. It is adolescent. It is conflict resolution by violence. It is wish-fulfillment, spectacle and recreation tone and feeling, if we are seeking to get Shakespearean.

Truly, the geeks have inherited the earth. But what about the rest of us? How many have the time, intensity or inclination to sit through, enunciate, all the cinemas in the forthcoming Universal Monsters shared universe, which begins this year with a reboot of The Mummy and has resurgences of Wolf Man, Van Helsing and the Invisible Guy in pre-production? Greenlighting this line of cinemas without be seen whether anyone is going to bother to watch even the first of them looks like a risky struggle, and the recent situation of the Divergent YA cinema dealership, whose latest cinema is being exhausted as a TV movie due to lack of interest, offers up a cautionary narration that studios should perhaps be paying attention to.

Cars 3. Photo: Allstar/ WALT DISNEY PICTURES

But whats striking about all these blockbusters is how youth-skewed they are, at a time when a one-third of cinemagoers in the US are over the age of 50. Older audiences can enjoy The Avengers as much as everybody else, of course, but sloping your sell primarily towards young people is a risky programme. Young beings tend to be the most fickle audience, one whose attention is split in thousands and thousands of plazas, pronounces Gaydos. Theyre too the gathering least able to splash out on cinema tickets. And of course theyre an audience who are becoming increasingly accustomed to watching material on their telephones, laptops and smart TVs.

In other words, theyre the ones likely to force through the seismic change the industry is currently fretting over. If they lose interest in the modern blockbuster in accordance with the rules that younger audiences turned away from the westerns, musicals and historic epics in the 1960 s, the studios will have to find something lustrou and brand-new to brandish in their faces and this time they wont have something akin to the New Hollywood to courtroom them with, as that sort of transgressive, jumpy, groundbreaking price is increasingly growing up on the small screen.

Perhaps the best event the studios can do in the face of this new world is to demonstrate some imagery in how they develop and present their blockbusters and there are signs that this is already happening. Producer Stephen Woolley, who has worked on movies such as The Crying Game and the forthcoming adaptation of On Chesil Beach, quotes Deadpool as a cinema that has subtly managed to change the perception of the superhero movie. Its taking a much more sophisticated consider of that world-wide and humiliating it, while at the same strengthening it. It was a ingenious have-your-cake-and-eat-it from the ones who caused it.

Meanwhile, Disneys successful live-action reimaginings of their inspired undertakings most notably Beauty and the Beast and The Jungle Book suggests that its possible to play the sequels and remakes recreation without it detecting like a retread over old-time dirt. Most remarkably of all, the musical think this is making a comeback with the success of La La Land, that rare mid-budget movie to have crossed over into blockbuster status, grossing more than $400 m at a fund of $37 m.

Woolley is aware of the risks twirling around the blockbuster, but feels that mass extinguishing is still some method away, if it ever arises. The peril you have is that gatherings are fickle, and we are able to abruptly turn off, he alleges. Something happens for them to say: Actually, we dont like those movies any more. And theres always this inkling that is likely to happen. But every time it seems to happen on the blockbuster figurehead, another movie comes out to prove you wrong.

Ultimately, though, what might keep the blockbuster safe for the time being is not the films themselves but all the stuff around them. The thought that the studios are seeing is something akin to a hypermovie or a supermovie, alleges Gaydos. Its a whole other thing. Its a toy-delivery arrangement. A Cars movie will gross $500 m or $600 m but the Cars products will sell$ 4bn. Ultimately the movie is designed to be a giant sell implement for merchandise and theme park that generate billions and billions.

As Hollywood agonises over its own future, it might be that the best lane for the blockbuster to survive is to subsume itself into big, more secure revenue streams: dolls, competitions, merchandise, live attractions. So if you want to keep the blockbuster around for a little while longer, you should get your Superman costume on and spout yourself a container of that branded cereal.