Media overload and whiny b.s.

So one of my co-workers loaned me more copies of "Naruto Shippuden" and "Bleach" for my viewing pleasure. He's gotten me hooked on those anime offerings like a crack fiend.

"Naruto" is in filler-mode right now (more or less). While immeasurably better than past filler offerings, I'm still somewhat disappointed that they're backsliding the title character. With the "Shippuden" restart, they built up Naruto to be more cunning and skilled, then suddenly decided that just wasn't working and went back to making him an utter idiot again. Kind of sad.

"Bleach" however... gaah! I LOVE this anime! Watching the title character, Ichigo, throw down with his latest foe, Grimmjaw, and lay a smackdown worthy of a title character just made me happy. Happy, happy, happy.

I hate powergaming, but I'd be briefly tempted to game in a session themed like "Bleach". It would get old really quick, though.

I'm almost done with "The Lies of Locke Lamora". The anime distractions kept me from finishing the book, but the plot is heading to the conclusion already. I'm curious what the Grey King's scheme is and if Locke will revenge himself upon the Bondsmage known as the Falconer, and how he'll do it against such an obviously-overpowering foe.

Given that this is book one in a planned seven book series, I'm confident he'll lay the smackdown on everyone in his path and be home in time for dinner. I'm going to try to get book two this afternoon (albeit in hardback... *sigh*).

And I finally got book three of the "Least I Could Do" compliations. It's only been a month and a half with two screwed-up orders. Still, I got a nice mousepad thrown in for free. I guess I don't really hold a grudge. Their customer service was pretty responsive and the mouse pad is worth about ten bucks.

It was kind of like a late Xmas yesterday 'cause a lot of my orders came in. I got a DVD I ordered from Japan (the latest of my "Eko Eko Azarak" collection... I have a serious problem) and an "all edges brownie pan" I got from Amazon.

Mmm... brownies. Alas, I have to be good for a couple more weeks.

The "Eko Eko Azarak" DVD is weird, even by standards of so-called "anime" and this series (which is really weird). I haven't finished it yet because I really wanted to watch the anime...

Thus overload.

[Gaming-related rant follows... just in case you don't care about RPG-related whining]

At some point I need to start working more on my prep for the June game. I left things in a cliffhanger and the group is so over-powered that it takes a lot of planning to come up with something that's even a mild challenge.

No, that's not precisely true. It's easy for most of the group. For the spellcasters, it's damn hard. The spellcasters alone can take out the entire group of PCs and a couple of small armies for good measure.

And then there's the NPCs.

The purpose of the NPCs is mainly support and to be plot motivations to keep the PCs trying to protect someone/something. Pretty straightforward.

The problem is that two of my NPCs and nine of the other GM's NPCs are disturbingly overpowered. Admittedly, one of mine is a deus ex machina kind of NPC and he's severely limited by not being able to kill, or even shed blood, of others. The second is his bodyguard who exists only to protect this guy.

That leaves the nine Magery 3 NPCs. They are difficult to deal with. I find myself looking at their stats and getting a mite frustrated, truth be told. I mean, I can get that an Elf's entourage would have mages and badasses. It only makes sense that an Elven kingdom would send some of their best to protect one of their more famous and important guys.

I get that.

But NINE people with MAGERY THREE??? In GURPS that's insanely rare, or it's supposed to be. Further, one of the characters is carting around a blade that's intrinsically more valuable and powerful than anything any of the player characters are carrying.

And the sad thing is that the group is carrying so much crap right now that it's just crazy. Sure, they'll need a lot of it in the planned parts ahead, but it does sort of make some of the planned encounters sort of unnecessary and stupid.

Ah well. I guess it's not that big of a deal. Everyone else seems to enjoy the overpowered playing. I can just breeze through this, not put too much effort into it, and let this go the way it goes. It will hasten the end of the campaign and open the way to other, less-munchkiny, campaigns that are more interesting to me.

Or they'll just get me to stop whining and write my own damn stories so I don't have to worry about what others do.