Keep Track of Your Supervillains

Opening paragraph, from Reuters:

The United States has said its failure to find Saddam Hussein may be emboldening the fallen leader's Baath party supporters to attack U.S. forces in Iraq.

Well, of course. This, I'd like to say, is one reason why I never wanted Saddam Hussein "taken out" with a bomb; I wanted him found, captured, and taken into custody. It wasn't a moral issue -- I always felt Saddam was a monster, even before he invaded Kuwait -- it was a practical one. I wanted to know where Saddam was, and know that he wasn't up to any mischief.

I felt the same way, and even more strongly, about Osama bin Laden. I didn't blame people for wanting him dead, but if he was blown to pieces in a cave in Tora Bora we'd never be sure what's happened to the man. This should obvious to anyone who's seen a movie or read a comic book. Find the body, or you can be sure the supervillain will come back for a sequel.

Roleplaying Miscellany

It's been about three months since I bought anything on eBay. May not seem like a big deal to most of you, but I was a serious addict. I didn't stop until I'd bought just about every RPG and every RPG magazine published before 1990. There are a handful of items I'm still looking for, such as Realm of Yolmi, Uuhraah! (the first caveman RPG) and Simian Combat (the Planet of the Apes game), but they're so rare and hard-to-find I've pretty much given up on them.

Meanwhile, according to the Daily Illuminator, Steve Jackson will not be publishing a collection of Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society articles. I'm disappointed, since it was supposed to include my "Government in Traveller" articles. (My articles explained what a "charismatic dictator" and a "feudal technocracy" was, what kind of party systems your worlds have, how to create a random religion, stuff like that.)

Ah well. Such is the life of an amateur freelance RPG designer...