Recently I’ve gotten into Table Titans, which is an official webcomic for Dungeons & Dragons. The story so far basically revolves around a single group and their current campaign. It’s a fun comic, and the story makes me pine for the days where I would play tabletop RPGs with my friends. I’d submit a story for the site (they’ve asked for funny stories of campaigns or game times), but the problem comes from the fact that almost all of my tabletop RPG experience is from playing World of Darkness games as opposed to Dungeons & Dragons.

These days, though, I’ve pretty much actively given up on playing actual tabletop RPGs and have settled for fantasy board games instead. The reason for that is because with the board games, the game gets wrapped up in a single session. I only have two friends who I do tabletop gaming with, and we only get to meet once every month or so. One friend lives on the other side of the city from me and the other friend, and the other friend has a very busy post-work schedule. We’ve played Dungeons & Dragons twice, and each time we played a different campaign. Neither was followed up on, so it felt like a TV series with an overarching plot line that is cancelled an episode or two in. At least with the fantasy board games we get some semblance of closure, if only through actual victory or defeat. :-)

This past weekend, we had a game night at my house… or should I say, a “game weekend” as one friend (George) stayed Friday and Saturday night. On Friday night, we decided to finally break out my copy of Space Hulk and give it a whirl. For those not familiar, it’s a two-player game based on Warhammer 40,000, where one player controls a contingent of Space Marines, and the other controls a group of aliens known as “Genestealers”. The game itself borrows very heavily from the setting and theme of the movie Aliens. When looking over the rules and the pieces, we realized the miniatures needed gluing together, and I didn’t have any model glue or paint. We then opted to play later, once the miniatures have been assembled; Jennifer wants to paint the Genestealers in Hello Kitty colors, so once I get her some paints she’ll have some fun. :-)

On Saturday, we went ahead and picked up Arkham Horror from Montag’s Games, a gaming store local to my house. Arkham Horror is a board game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, where the players are characters in the fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts in the 1920’s, investigating otherworldly activity and aiming to prevent an utterly alien and godlike Ancient One from manifesting on Earth. The players work with each other to beat the game; either everyone wins, or everyone loses. George and I played for a while until Chris arrived; once Chris arrived, we decided to move on to our favorite game: Talisman.

Playing Talisman this time was something of a challenge. For my birthday, Jennifer had gotten me two expansions for the game: The Reaper, and The Dragon. Now, when we first played Talisman (second edition) back in our high school years, Games Workshop had made several expansions for the game, but other than adding extra boards and extra cards, they tended not to change the game too much. The expansions made by Fantasy Flight Games for this version (revised fourth edition) changed things up quite a bit. In The Reaper, for example, Death was a non-player character who stalked the players and could do anything from permanently killing them to giving them boons. The Dragon took things one step further, and had the characters deal with three dragon lords fighting amongst themselves to become the Dragon King, all while said dragon lords’ servants (human and dragon alike) make their presence known throughout the land. Even the endgame is changed, where the winning player is the one who slays the Dragon King as opposed to the one who uses the Crown of Command to kill his enemies. We had a blast with the new rules, making the game even more fun. I may end up looking to get other expansions later, like The Frostmarch.

All in all, it was a good weekend. I’m thinking that Arkham Horror may be one of the featured games at the next game night, as it’s something new that Chris hasn’t played before, plus it’s a good “everybody work together” game. I’m also pondering getting a copy of DungeonQuest, provided I (or my parents) don’t find my long lost copy from my high school days. That would provide a challenge; it’s a dungeon-crawl game, with a time limit and the players all fending for themselves. My original copy’s instruction manual says players have a 15% survival rate. ;-) In any event, I’m looking forward to the next game night. It’s just too bad it’ll be in a month or so…

Jennifer had a thing she was going to tonight, so we decided that we would meet for dinner right after work. After a bit of discussion, we decided on a place that had recently opened near her office called Bone Daddy’s House of Smoke. She had been there for lunch this past Friday, and not only did she love the food there, she knew I would enjoy it as well. Considering how well she knows me, I was looking forward to it.

The best way I can describe Bone Daddy’s is that it’s a barbecue joint that employs scantily-clad beautiful waitresses, a la Hooter’s or Twin Peaks. Jennifer hadn’t told me about the latter part, so I admit I was surprised when we walked in. The nice thing is that the outfits, while definitely meant to be sexy, are tasteful and not crass. Customer service was terrific, too, with our waitress not only giving numerous suggestions as far as food selections, she delivered hot towels to our table after our meal to clean our hands with. The hot towel thing was a new one for me, and I have to say it was very welcome considering how messy barbecue can get.

As for the food itself, well… wow. We started off with their “Hoot N’ Hooty’s Cheese Dip”, which is some of the best queso I’ve had in a while. The queso was filled with bacon and peppers, which gave it a kick… and the seasoned tortilla chips complemented it well. Jennifer had their brisket slider basket for her dinner, while I had the “Flying Pig” (pulled pork, link sausage, glazed ham, and bacon on a burger bun). The meat was especially juicy and tasty, and we were given a side bottle of barbecue sauce that was delicious. Her meal came with some damn good cole slaw (I’m not usually a fan of cole slaw, but this was good), and mine came with the best baked beans I’ve gotten from a barbecue joint in a LONG time. While the waitress recommended their banana pudding for dessert, we went with their brownie sundae instead. Dear God, the brownie was moist and rich, and the vanilla ice cream was great too. Of course, I had to have a beer with my meal, and they did not disappoint with their choices; not only did they have the standards on draft, they even had St. Arnold’s (a local brewery) selections available as well.

Jennifer actually just said it best: “This place covers the four Bs of men: beer, boobs, barbecue, and basketball.” The latter one was a reference to the fact that the place is covered with widescreen TVs, all set to sports channels. All in all, we had a great dining experience and I would love to go back. The only thing preventing me from doing so on a regular basis is the fact that I’m rarely at Jennifer’s office, as it’s the same distance from our house as my office, but in the exact opposite direction. I’m hoping the parent company decides to open more locations in the Houston area, as I would love to go to a Pearland-based location. Still, we’ll definitely be back, as this was most certainly worth having again.

It’s not a secret at all that I’m a huge Batman fan. What’s a little less obvious is that I’m a huge Superman fan as well.

I’ve always enjoyed watching Superman TV shows and films (animated or live-action), and while I don’t have as many Superman comics or novels at home as I do Batman ones, it’s rare that I come across a Superman story I don’t like. I suppose the reason is that while Batman is the epitome of human training both physical and mental, Superman is more defined by the example he sets for others. He’s capable of incredible feats, but at his core, he’s a man who wants to do right by everyone.

Earlier today I was having a Twitter conversation with John Vogel (story/animation guru for NetherRealm Studios, developers of Mortal Kombat and Injustice: Gods Among Us), Tom Taylor (writer for the Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel comic), and Patrick McCarron (webmaster for MK fansite TRMK), where I made a snarky comment about a fantasy about Superman starting his day actually originated with Hitman. I then suddenly remembered one of my favorite Superman moments, and it in fact involved Hitman.

“Hitman” (who almost always went by his real name, Tommy Monaghan) had his own comic in the 1990’s; he was a contract killer living in Gotham City who decided to specialize in killing criminals (especially metahumans) after surviving an alien attack. In issue #34, Tommy was sitting on a rooftop when he gets the shock of his life: Superman is there, too. The two talk, and Superman explains that he’s feeling down because he failed to save one astronaut’s life while rescuing his comrades. Superman is having a moment where he doesn’t feel he can live up to everyone’s expectations. In response, Tommy gives his explanation of what he finds best about Superman… and it gets me because it’s so true, yet so seldom discussed.

Tommy: You can’t help what people are gonna believe about you…

Superman: No, but I have to live with it.

Tommy: An’ you’re really gonna beat yourself up about that? You’re gonna chase this ideal you know is garbage? This thing you can never live up to? Jeez. You’re everything that’s great about this country an’ you don’t even know it.

Superman: Come again…?

Tommy: Hey, let me tell you the problem with America, okay?

This could be the greatest country on Earth. It really could. You got all these different people comin’ here to get away from oppression an’ poverty, all lookin’ for a better life. But what do they do? They hang on to all of the things that got ’em in trouble in the first place. They wanna go on fightin’ the same wars an’ hatin’ the same people they did in the old world. They all wanna be Italian or Greek, or Irish or Polish or Russian, or African or Vietnamese or Cambodian or whatever… so they hang onto alla that. They stick to their own kind, an’ everyone stays suspicious of everyone else an’ for what? Culture? History? What the hell is that, a bunch of stuff your folks said you hadda believe in all your life? Does that make it real?

But you, man, you showed ’em how it’s done. You’re the classic immigrant guy who comes to the States an’ joins the melting pot. It’s like you’re sayin’ — okay, I’m from planet Krypton or wherever, but that’s all in the past. I’m startin’ over.

I’m American. What can I do to help?

This issue of Hitman ended winning its author, Garth Ennis, an Eisner Award. It’s well-deserved, in my opinion, because this is the first time I can think of where someone directly referenced the fact that Superman is the epitome of the American Dream: someone whose roots are from somewhere else, coming to America to make a new life for himself, and working to better himself and his fellow man.

What makes Superman interesting to me isn’t so much what damage he can do or how well he fights, but how he serves as an optimistic example and that his stories invite discussion about what makes him tick and what effect he has on others. It’s been a while since I read this story, but it resonates with me like it did when I first read it; just like all of the good Superman stories, it makes me feel better about us as a people.