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This is one of those bits where I’m using Popone as a scratchpad. Be warned.

Brant kicked off his Paridon game the other night with character creation. Since I don’t know what’s good for me, I went for one of those PCs who can be a terrible idea in the wrong hands. Hopefully mine aren’t.

Amelia “Andy” Wellstone is an orphan, who grew up with her twin brother Alistair. Her private belief, which is undoubtedly false, is that their mother was an unwed noblewoman who was afraid to claim them as her own. She is bitter about this; almost as bitter as she is about Alistair’s death at the hands of Isle Bassington — the half-elven ruler of the Paridonesian underworld.

She has dark hair and dark eyes, and a sarcastic mouth. She is 5’8”. She is nineteen years old. She spends most of her time in drag, passing as a male both in underworld circles (which she is infiltrating, with the intent of exacting revenge on Bassington) and in noble circles (which she is robbing blind, choosing her targets at the parties she brazenly crashes). Think Raffles crossed with the popular myth of the Chevalier d’Eon crossed with La Maupin.

Stats follow.

More...

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Yeah, Danny’s pretty serious about running this team. I think it’s kind of sneaking up on us. During the glory years of the 80s, Danny was clearly the least talented starter. Mind you, on a team with Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, and Dennis Johnson that leaves plenty of room to be pretty damned good — and he was — but he was still the least talented starter and in a lot of ways he was the kid on the team. I think that Boston fans, on occasion, have trouble thinking of Danny as a hard-nosed GM. Look at me; I’m still calling him Danny. Everyone does.

But you know, he’s kinda creeping up on us. Today he pointed out that no Celtic is untouchable. If there’s a good enough trade involving Pierce, he’ll take it. Good for him. And even more interesting:

Ainge said he will not balk at taking a step back from the Celts’ current standing or going with very young (read: no immediate impact) talent to achieve the greater good down the line.

“Sure, if I think it’s worth the risk, I’m patient enough,” he said, adding, “Are you patient enough? Are the Boston fans patient enough? How patient is Jim O’Brien? Those are all questions you have to weigh.”

The money quote from that excerpt is “How patient is Jim O’Brien?” O’Brien hasn’t shown a lot of signs of patience with young players, and many (including myself) would argue that it’s getting to be a serious flaw. There was clearly a gulf between O’Brien and Chris Wallace; Wallace was drafting players that O’Brien didn’t really want to play. Part of that was O’Brien’s tendency to expect players to produce from day one. At this point, I think it’s clear that Ainge isn’t going to put up with that, and since Ainge is O’Brien’s boss he won’t have to put up with it.

Good times.

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CafePress sez:

Books are closer than ever to completion! We are currently running a beta test to make sure that we present the best product possible. As soon as we tally the results and make improvements where necessary, books will go live! For our first release we will be offering the following size and binding combinations.

Wire-O binding (like a journal):
4.18” x 6.88” mass trade paperback
5” x 8” tradeback
6.625” x 10.25” comic
7.5” x 9.25” manual
8.5” x 11” the standard

Saddle-stitched binding (like a comic book)
5” x 8” tradeback
6.625” x 10.25” comic
7.5” x 9.25” manual
8.5” x 11” the standard

This is not as exciting as the perfect-bound stuff they’ll be doing later. If the saddle-stitched versions are cheap enough, there are interesting possibilities, though. I can actually see doing something like Into The Sunset in a saddle-stitched version for Gencon.

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Now, that’s a truck.