HokieStone

His transformation from beloved to hated in Blacksburg has been astonishing. He was on track to be the 2nd most celebrated coach in VT history, behind Frank Beamer - hell, he was probably already there. It's not only that he left, but the manner in which he did - didn't put out the obligatory "Thank you to the fans, I'll always cherish my time" message...he was just *gone* the day after we lost in the tourny. Very strange for a guy who spent his whole life in the Shenandoah Valley, and constantly preached about "family".

I hope Kentucky pours all their NIL money into men's basketball and leaves nothing for the women's team.

My son goes to Kent State University, in NE Ohio, and I made the plans ~8 months ago to visit him this past weekend and experience the eclipse. For 2017, I didn't travel to see the totality, and I'm very glad I did this time. I was expecting it to be really neat...but it was honestly one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. It's just incredibly surreal how you go from full daylight to twilight in a matter of a minute or two, and the temperature drops very noticeably. And then you look to the sky, and there is a black hole hanging there, and it's on fire. My big regret is that I didn't bring my SLR camera with me. Just never crossed my mind, as I thought special equipment would be needed to take photos. But during totality, you can just look directly at it, take pictures, etc. with no need for glasses or filters. Of course, you better be ready when the sun starts to peak back out! And besides that, on Sunday we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, which was pretty cool in its own right.

Well, this seems relevant to folks in this thread, on this particular message board: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coe/tiny-epic-game-of-thrones I haven't played many of the Tiny Epic games. I think the original, Tiny Epic Galaxies is still generally considered the best. I played the western one a time or two. And maybe Kingdoms and Quest...but tbh, I don't remember much about them. This one looks very interesting to me,though...

Wait...there's trees in the Mad Max setting?

Don't you mean "Rely on it, you may"?

What era is this show supposed to be set in? Pre-prequels, I guess? But like hundreds of years prior, or just a bit prior? I know the comics have a series set a few hundred years prior to ANH. "High Republic" or something... ETA: I looked it up myself. Apparently about 100 years before The Phantom Menace. Odds there will be a Yoda cameo?

So many yellow lightsabers.

Been making my way through the latest season of "What If..." I still have one more to go, but overall I've found it to be kind of underwhelming. Boy, they sure fell in love with the Captain Carter character, and now that seems to mean that these stories are crossing over. I was particularly disappointed in the 1602 story. I was intrigued by the idea of an Avengers story set in that timeframe...but why were Hela and Thor the monarchs of England? Why is Happy Hogan some sort of weird Hulk spin-off (is this a cross-over from the earlier episode)? That idea seems like needed a lot more fleshing out, and instead is just seems like they were all their modern characters transported to that timeframe. And we have Dr. Strange popping up in several episodes (again, the crossover stuff). I just kind of wish they were standalone stories in their own settings.

Just started Act III, and it seems I've run into a few glitches: - Got the quest about the murdered priest, and was doing different parts of it...only to discover it's not in my quest log. So, not sure I'll get any credit for it. - Been working on romancing Shadowheart. By the end of Act II, it certainly seemed like we were a thing. And then talking to her about something else, this dialogue option comes up...something like "Seems like we had a chance for a relationship, but I think that time has passed", and her response was "maybe in another life". Wait...what?! What did I say?!?!

I rescued Halsin...never saw his confrontation with Kahga, she was gone. Then later found the whole Shadow Druid thing. So...my head canon is that she heard Halsin was free, and she just bugged out before he got back. shrug

I have not respecced anyone or tried any kind of multi-class stuff. I guess that's what the magic mirror in camp is for?

I'm towards the end of Act II (at least I think it's near the end), and I've never used a single fire barrel intentionally. I'll repeat what a few people have said...it seems like you have 3 tanks in your preferred party - you, Lae'zel and Karlach. That's a lot of redundancy. My party is typically me (ranger), Shadowheart, Lae'zel/Karlach, Gale/Wyll. Lae'zel and Karlach are kind of a tossup for me, but I think Gale is the much better wizard type. But I throw in Wyll for story purposes. I was never using Astarion because my character was good enough at picking locks...but I just started bringing him in more, and wow is he so much better at lockpicking. I just recently got access to the druid (Harsin?), but I haven't found much of a use for him. Mostly, I think I do ok in the fights because I'm over-leveled. I tend to go around and find every little side quest, and do those, so I *think* I'm levelling up faster than anticipated. I'm level 9 at the end of Act II. You can also do things ahead of time to make fights easier. At the end of Act II, there's a big fight in a castle. Instead of waiting for that big fight to be triggered and fight them all at once, I went around room-to-room and did a bunch of easier little fights (It's amazing that the guards didn't hear me fighting it out with their buddies in the next room over...)

Just saw that Carl Weathers has passed away at age 76.

My daughter and I hadn't yet gone to see this. First Marvel movie in a long time that we hadn't seen within a week of release. Looked to go see it on Friday...and couldn't find it in any of our local theaters. Decided that we could wait until Disney+

I don't think you can just drop the Kang "plot" and pretend it never happened. But...you could make the first 15-20 minutes of the next Avengers movie about it. Show the Avengers (whoever the "Avengers" are at this point) going into the Quantum realm to face off with Kang. They find him, with a recast actor...have some cheesy dialogue - "Is that him?" "Yeah....sometimes he looks the same, sometimes different, but that's Kang Prime (or whatever), alright..." The fight him, defeat him...some mumbo jumbo about how that's killed ALL the Kangs, and the multiverse starts separating permanently. Maybe even have some big cameos. Tony Stark and Cap from other timelines back for the big battle, etc. But then the multiverse closes. That's it...no more Kang, no more multiverse stuff...which I honestly think people are just tired of. Then you move into the main plot of the movie, which introduces Dr. Doom or whoever as the next big bad. Or maybe that's all the next Dr. Strange movie (which would be a pseudo-Avengers movie, like Civil War was). <shrug>

They tell me that the Europe link will work for UK as well...

So, this initial print run is not going to be available in retailers. Right now, it's just available from Elf Creek's website, and at conventions. Next year there will be a retail release. I know the UK is no longer in the EU, but here is Elf Creek's EU page for ordering: https://europe.elfcreekgames.com/collections/santas-workshop I'll see if I can get more details about UK availability...

Cool! Thanks for posting that, I hadn't seen it.

So, if anyone is interested in the new edition of my game, Santa's Workshop, it is available for pre-order at Elf Creek Games website: https://www.elfcreekgames.com/collections/santas-workshop It is finishing up production this week, and Elf Creek is air-shipping it from China in order to send out to customers who pre-order, and to have it at the PAX Unplugged convention in Philadelphia the first weekend of December. Unfortunately, it won't be in stores this year. Pre-orders are available for US/Canada and the EU. This printing is a special "First Christmas Edition", which will be numbered editions and have foil printing, as well as come with the first promo pack, which includes some extra toy cards and alternate reindeer cards. Apologies if shilling my own game is not appropriate here...

USA - Fairfax, Virginia

That would be weird if they had CGI Mark Hammill and Carrie Fisher...but then had Alden Ehrenriech and Donald Glover in the Han and Lando roles. You either have to CGI them all, or get new actors for them all. And then it would be weird if it's a new actor for Luke, since CGI Hammill has shown up a few times now. One way I can kind of see it is if they have a new Luke actor (I know everyone wants Sebastian Shaw) grow a beard (since Luke is sporting a beard in the sequels). That might help the transition to a new actor - kind of obscuring the entirely new face on the character. It's a tough spot. If they have a movie where Thrawn presents a major threat to the New Republic, there's no way Luke and Leia sit on the sidelines (I would think).

I guess this was all explained in The Clone Wars cartoon? I watched Rebels, but never made it through Clone Wars.

What's the explanation?

My feeling is that Filoni is doing his Filoni thing and using this series (and the next several series/movies?) to give a plausible reason as to how we ended up with the "First Order" and the state of events at the start of the sequel trilogy. It seems that he's going to do that by making Thrawn the "savior" of the Imperial remnants. So, I expect Thrawn to be around a while, and this series may even end with Ahsoka's death - and pehaps Ezra's as well. Got to explain somehow why they aren't around in the timeframe of the sequels, and make Thrawn appear uber-competent. Maybe Ezra's death comes in the next series...I dunno...or maybe he dies down the line as he takes out Thrawn for good (but the path to the "First Order" has been achieved). But I wonder if he was setting up Baylan to take the role of Joruus C'baoth from Zahn's original books. Hell, maybe even reveal that "Baylan Skoll" is a pseudonym he used to hide during the purge of Jedi, and his real name is Jorus C'baoth. Anyway, that's all pure conjecture on my part, and would certainly be complicated by Ray Stevenson's death. But, I imagine the character can be recast - I mean, if Dumbledore can be recast in the Harry Potter movies, surely just about any role can be recast (although it would be really really really weird to see other actors taking on the parts of Han, Leia and Luke...)