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90s (H)ero (guest post)
An invited guest post by Steven S. Long! Ron asked me if I wouldn't mind taking the baton and continuing the journey forward to look at how Champions/the HERO System developed in the Nineties, and I said I'd be glad to give it a shot. But before I do, allow me to issue a few caveats, just so the commenters have something to ignore. 😉
This is entirely a personal recollection. I'm speaking only for myself personally — not for Ron, not from my current position as part owner of the HERO System, nothing like that. It's just me talkin' about "how things was way back when."
It's been twenty-plus years since a lot of this stuff happened, and it's not like I took detailed notes along the way during what were often some complex goings-on. So please forgive me if I get a date wrong or don't arrange events in the precisely correct sequence. And as always, if you have knowledge of what I'm talking about, feel free to chime in with a comment.
I'm writing entirely from my own perspective. This isn't an attempt to write an objective history of Hero Games/the HERO System in the 1990s. All I'm doing is offering my own opinions, as someone who was involved (directly or indirectly), about what was going on and how the game developed. Reasonable minds may differ, as Internet folk are fond of saying.
So then, on to the meat of the thing. The 1989 release of the 4th Edition of Champions, both as Champions itself (the "Big Blue Book," or BBB as fans often called it) and as a stand-alone HERO System Rulebook, combined with the resources Iron Crown Enterprises could muster, really invigorated the game, and an ambitious publishing schedule followed. The latter half of 1989 saw the issuance of such supplements as Scott Bennie's Classic Enemies, Scott Heine's Mind Games, and Allen Varney's Mystic Masters. The latter, as an exploration of a specific "sub-genre" of Superhero stories/gaming, was particularly influential on me (and the cool Bill Willingham cover didn't hurt).
But it was 1990 where I think things took off in a serious way for the HERO System, not because of Champions supplements (though plenty of those appeared) but because of the arrival of two highly-regarded, and for me influential, sourcebooks: Aaron Allston's superb Ninja Hero and the 4th Edition version of Fantasy Hero, compiled by ace Line Developer Rob Bell. These were both what I as Line Developer ten years later would call a "genre book" — an RPG supplement that examines a specific genre (or sub-genre) for gaming and shows how to implement its common character types, tropes, and abilities using the HERO System rules.
Ninja Hero And Its Influence. It would be difficult for me to over-emphasize the importance that Ninja Hero had on the development of the HERO System going forward. When HERO gamers talk nostalgically about Aaron Allston's work, they're more likely to refer to Strike Force or other great supplements he did than "NH." But the truth is that while Aaron's Champions supplements were tons of fun, it's Ninja Hero that truly left his mark upon the rules and affected how they'd develop for the next twenty years.
Ninja Hero was a "genre book" devoted to Martial Arts adventure, and Aaron's love of kung fu movies comes through on every page. It had some significant rules material (primarily rules for creating new Martial Maneuvers, and additional explanations for some combat rules), but that's not what makes it so important. Its influence lies in the fact that it was the first book to really show how to take the elements of the HERO System — the Skills, Powers, Advantages, and so forth — and use them to simulate various abilities and aspects of the genre. These included things like crafting a Limited form of Gliding to represent walking across the ground without leaving tracks, an elaborate construct using Drain to build the infamous dim mak "death touch," and buying Damage Resistance to create the "iron skin" ability to withstand weapon attacks.
All of this hit me like a bolt out of the blue. When I first started playing Champions back in 1982 or so, it had immediately appealed to me because of the creative freedom and versatility it offered. No longer did I have to use whatever powers or spells the D&D books, the Traveler books, or the rulebooks for any other RPG I was trying back then told me I had to use. I could create powers and abilities that worked the way I wanted them to. I wasn't restricted any longer. It was like being let out of a cage.
Ninja Hero was the first HERO System book to really grasp what that freedom meant and show gamers how to employ it to emulate — or simulate, if you prefer 🙂 — a genre and its elements. This was like taking my existing love of and fascination with HERO's potential and turning the dial up to 13. I'd already been let out of the cage; now Aaron had thrown open the door to the prison and shown me the wide world beyond, full of infinite possibilities.
Ninja Hero had one other thing that really resonated with me: a wealth of real world information translated into HERO System terms. Plenty of books had done this with guns, vehicles, and the like, but NH did it with martial arts styles and other such things. Like most great RPG supplements, it taught me something I didn't know while providing me with endless hours of fun.
Why is all of this so important? Because, at the risk of sounding like an immodest jackass,* I soon became the most productive freelancer working for Hero Games. That influence became even more central when I ponied up most of my life savings and, with my business partners, bought the Hero Games assets in 2001. Anything that had a strong influence over my views of how to use and develop the HERO System rules thus had strong influence over how the game evolved.
(Lest you think I'm exaggerating or puffing myself up, from 1993-2013 Hero Games published about 145 Champions/HERO System books, including the 5th and 6th editions of the rules. By my rough estimate I'd say that I personally wrote about 70% of those books, and pretty much 100% of the books that significantly developed or contributed to the HERO System rules set. From 2002-2012 I also edited — which often meant significantly rewriting or reworking — any Hero Games book I didn't write, and as HERO System Line Developer my philosophy about the rules and how to present them held absolute sway. So based on numbers alone, I think I've had a bit of an effect on things. 😉 )
I began writing for Hero Games about a year after NH appeared, when they put out a call for martial arts articles for the latest issue of Adventurer's Club, the company magazine. That led to more articles and a bit of work on one supplement. Based on that, I said, "Hey, I could write a whole book!" And I did.
That book, released in early 1993, was Dark Champions: Heroes Of Vengeance. I'd originally pitched it as a genre book like Ninja Hero, using the subtitle as the title. But the company, knowing how its bread was buttered and what most appealed to its fans, had me rework it as more of a Champions supplement.
If memory serves, I was told to look at Allen Varney's superb Mystic Masters, a Champions sub-genre book published in 1989, for inspiration and guidance. As much as I love Mystic Masters, I largely ignored that advice and looked to Ninja Hero for what I wanted to do. And that dictated the end result: long descriptions of how to emulate action-adventure genre conventions and abilties using the HERO System rules; lots of information about real-world subjects like organized crime and guns. In the years since I've been told by several people I admire that Dark Champions affected them much the same way Ninja Hero affected me, and it's one of the best compliments I've ever gotten about my writing.
(To give Mystic Masters its due, I do remember it introducing me to a HERO System concept that had never occurred to me before: using a Multipower to represent one power a character could employ in multiple ways. Prior to that I'd just used Multipowers for collections of powers, usually attacks, of different types. MM represented many of its Doctor Strange-like spells, such as the Lights of Luathon, with Multipowers to reflect the many ways a mystic could cast them. In time I adapted that methodology to guns and other abilities, but MM's what gave me that idea.)
(Department of Irony Department: my inspiration for writing Dark Champions was that I was currently playing a gun-toting vigilante character in the local ongoing Champions campaign, and I was frustrated by the fact that (a) there was basically no material in print regarding those sorts of characters and style of play, and (b) that my knowledge of crime, law, and related subjects kept tripping me up because the GM didn't share it. I wrote Dark Champions in large part to get gamers to run more of the types of games I wanted to play in. But in the 22 years since then I've never gotten to play in a Dark Champions campaign. In fact it's been far too long since I got to gun down any criminals, and the withdrawal symptoms are settin' in….)
Dark Champions was an immediate success. It sold out its first print run and earned a second (unusual for RPG supplements, even back then). The company asked me if I had any more material for the genre (I did — two books' worth, in fact), and began rebranding a lot of Champions supplements for Dark Champions. In some cases (as with Chris Avellone's brilliant Underworld Enemies [1993] or Ed Carmien's excellent adventure Hudson City Blues [1994]) this worked out well. But choppy editing quality and a lack of vision about what Dark Champions was resulted in a rather… uneven… product line.
(Gaming Industry Aside: by the time I started working on Dark Champions, Rob Bell had vacated the HERO System Line Developer seat to go to law school. So my editor was the new Line Developer, a fellow named Monte Cook whom some of you may have heard of. Years later, when I went to work for WotC and met him in person, I mentioned that he'd been my first editor in the RPG industry. He jokingly replied, "I'm sorry.")
Fantasy Hero And "Genre Books"
Besides Ninja Hero, the other 4th Edition book that really exerted an influence over me was Fantasy Hero. A quantum leap of an improvement over the first Fantasy Hero (1985), which was a stand-alone game with its own tweaked version of the HERO System rules included, FH was the first genre book I really took notice of as such. (NH was a genre book, but since no one in my group had any interest in running Martial Arts games it became "a book of cool abilities to buy for my Champions characters"). The way it discussed the different types of Fantasy and how they'd function in gaming/HERO System terms affected not only my gaming writing, but the way I tend to analyze genre fiction. Its influence is more subtle, and less rules-oriented than NH's, but still plays in to my view of "simulating" genre elements and real world information using the HERO System.
The Ultimate Line, And Beyond. Heading into the mid-Nineties, the main vehicle for general Champions/HERO System rules development was the "Ultimate" line of supplements. Around this time TSR began publishing a series of class-specific guides for D&D 2nd Edition — The Complete Fighter, The Complete Cleric, and so on. Aaron Allston wrote some of these, and he suggested to the Hero Games guys that they do something similar for superhero archetypes. The idea had appeal, and the company planned an ambitious product line. It assigned most of the titles to freelancers who (as far as I know) had never written any RPG books before but had good ideas on a given subject. In the end, though, during the Nineties the company only published three Ultimate books — The Ultimate Martial Artist (1994) and The Ultimate Mentalist (1995), both by me, and Dean Shomshak's The Ultimate Super-Mage (1996; PDF only). Numerous problems (briefly discussed below) prevented the others from seeing the light of day. It wasn't until I took over as HERO System Line Developer in the 2000s that they finally got published (though often in very different form than originally envisioned, and I never got around to one or two concepts, such as The Ultimate Gadgeteer, for various reasons not pertinent to this discussion).
Eventually — around 1996 or 1997, I think, I don't recall for sure — the decision was made that enough material had been generated since 1989, and the owners wanted to make enough changes to the rules, that it was time for a new edition — the Fifth. Given the amount of writing I'd done for them over the past several years, especially on rules-related issues, I guess I was a natural choice for the task of writing the book, so they offered me the job, and I jumped at the chance. After a lengthy meeting or two with Steve Peterson to discuss the outline and various rules issues, I got to work and had a final manuscript ready a few months later.
But there was something else going on — something, I think, that ultimately not only failed, but contributed to Hero's slide into a moribund state during the mid-late Nineties. That was the Fuzion system, the rules behind the "Champions: New Millennium" product line that attempted to reboot the entire Champions Universe to be more like the Image comics that were so popular at the time. Fuzion began as "Instant Hero," an attempt to boil the HERO System down into a very short, simple rules set that gamers could use to introduce other players to HERO. (Somewhere along the way one of us who was involved in the initial reviewing of Instant Hero joked that the idea was "cheesy," and as a result Instant Hero quickly earned the in-house nickname "Mozarella.") In theory the idea wasn't a bad one, but I thought it diverged from the core strength of the HERO System and wasn't particularly in favor of it (though I certainly didn't hate it; if nothing else it showed some interesting game design work).
Instant Hero by itself never saw publication because in 1996 Hero Games severed its publication/distribution arrangement with Iron Crown Enterprises and formed a similar deal with R. Talsorian Games. The Hero and RTal guys, who'd been good friends for a long time, noticed a lot of similarities between Instant Hero and RTal's "Interlock" system and decided to merge them to form a distinct rules set — Fuzion. While Fuzion's roots in the HERO System are obvious, it very much was not the HERO System. (Among other things, the Champions: The New Millennium rulebook included a simpler character creation system that offered little of the flexibility and freedom the HERO System did.) That, combined with the fans' misperception that "this was the HERO System 5th Edition," made it a no-go as far as most long-time Champions fans were concerned. Hero Games produced three or four Fuzion-based books before various factors precluded any further use of Fuzion for Champions.
Hero's financial difficulties eventually resulted in the sale of the company to a company called Cybergames. Despite extensive plans, Cybergames never published anything, and in late 2001 my partners and I bought the Hero Games assets from it. The rest, as they say, is history. 😉
*: "At the risk??!? What do you think you've been doing for the past twenty years, Long?" — the entire Internet. 😉
Next: The book that wasn't there
Posted on July 16, 2015, in Guest posts, Supers role-playing and tagged Champions RPG, Steven S. Long. Bookmark the permalink.	16 Comments.
jeffro | July 16, 2015 at 5:30 am
I have a question about Fantasy Hero for 4th Edition. Did it breakdown of fantasy genres in a way that would make more casual readers care? I've seen chapter long treatments of the subject… and there are so many– and it's so hard to explain some of this stuff to people that haven't already read it– I was wondering how the supplement could pull it off.
Another question: was there anything special about its advice for creating fantasy settings?
Steven S. Long | July 16, 2015 at 8:08 am
I think it did a good job of providing short breakdowns that differentiated each subgenre (or "type") of Fantasy so that a casual reader could make an informed choice. (Assuming, of course, the editors writing the back-of-book copy for novels properly describe a book's subgenre, which they often don't).
Of course, I think that Fantasy Hero for 5E/6E does a *much* better job, but I are biased. 🙂 The text of that section of 6E, slightly updated, is available for free on my website, along with the FH bibliography of "Fantasy that Steve recommends": http://www.stevenslong.com/articles/2011/12/28/defining-fantasy.html
Thank you! This is extremely helpful.
D'oh! I forgot the second question.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by "special." I think it does a solid, basic job of providing advice about setting creation, and given that it's a Hero supplement it approaches the subject in a logical, systematic way.
Again, I think FH for 5E and 6E do a much better job — but if so, it's because I was standing on the shoulders of giants when I wrote it.
A book I'm currently planning, my Worldbuilder's Guidebook, based on the methodology I use in the "worldbuilding workshops" I frequently run at conventions, will make them both look anemic — but it's not available yet and may very well provide more detail and information than you want. 😉
mcmaenza | July 16, 2015 at 5:42 am
Ron, I enjoyed Steve's guest post.
James Nostack | July 16, 2015 at 9:13 am
Steve, thank you for this – I've never played any version of Hero, but you help me see the appeal.
Correct me if I'm wrong on this: back in the day, in games like Dungeons & Dragons or Marvel Super Heroes, you basically selected your magic p0werz from a menu. Whereas with Champions / Hero, the game basically let you go back into the kitchen and whip something up for yourself. In effect, the player became a mini-game-designer, at least for the purposes of super power stuff. Is that fair to say?
I think that's generally fair to say, yes. Of course there were some games that provided greater freedom than the standard D&D "here are your powers, pick from this limited list" method. But without going back to review a bunch of history, I think CHAMPIONS was the first popular, high-selling game to really bring that philosophy front and center.
Ron Edwards | July 18, 2015 at 1:23 pm
My take on this one is that "back in the day" needs some revision. Point-buy came in very early, with Melee in 1977 if not before, and by 1980 was evident in very sophisticated form in the complete Fantasy Trip. There was no period when the "D&D way" ruled the roost and a whole generation of play went by with nothing but. Champions was available. A very great part of RPG rules-concepts diversity was in place right from the start.
It's maybe most useful to contrast Villains & Vigilantes, which was built on more of a D&D template (or maybe Gamma World), with the idea not being that it was "old" and Champions was "new," but that very similar topics were being addressed via equally-available rules concepts pretty much at the same time. V&V was published first, but the two games' adventure supplements shared space on the racks basically as one big line for a long time.
I'm not diminishing the importance of the new design, though. Among other things, what Champions absolutely rocked the world with was the valuation of character problems.
David Benson | July 17, 2015 at 9:26 pm
Steven, Dark Champions is what I played almost exclusively! It really struck a chord with me and I spent the next 10 years or so playing in that bullet-riddled playground. In fact, I have such fond memories of it that I submitted my group's Dark Champions group, The Vigil, for publication in one of the Icons Hero books.
Thanx, David! That's great to hear. There's nothing better than knowing that one of my books helped some gamers have fun. 😉
Hey Steve! Thanks again for contributing this. Here's my question to you: how about any of this as a more personal experience? I know you have good reasons not to get too critical even by implication, but that's not what I'm asking for – more of a question, what moments of observed value informed your play-experience, then served as powerful design urges?
I know which bit I'm homing in on. I'm talking about Dark Champions in particular, especially the part about making "ordinary" abilities and powers more dramatic and effective via the powers rules. So you can buy Invisibility without saying Bat-Guy actually goes invisible, just that he's effectively, dare I say narratively invisible just because his stealth and timing are that good. Transcending the already-in-place rules for stealth and timing, you see.
It's really a mere extension, or even just an application, of the existing special effects concept that goes all the way back to 1st edition, but it takes a genuinely personal angle of perspective, of understanding through play and rules-use, to get it and to articulate it as you did – and to make it as explicit as you did, when you had the chance. How did that happen?
OK, but don't forget — you asked for this. 😉
Dark Champions was inspired and informed largely by my Champions play experiences in the mid-to-late Eighties and early Nineties, primarily under the GMing stewardship of my good friend John "The Mad GM" Grigni, with other friends like Tim Binford, Steve Stone, Jon and Kelley Ferrante, John Losey, and the late Andy Mathews as players. For quite a few years I'd struggled to come up with a Punisher-like "ruthless vigilante" character I could enjoy playing. This was partly because I'd never played such a character (nor had anyone else in my gaming group, as far as I can recall), and partly because I wanted to explore the morality of vigilantism. That topic fascinates me but is usually glossed over in comics and RPGs (for obvious reasons).
My first effort was a pretty much straight-up Punisher clone called Captain X (for the bandoliers of bullets across his chest, of course). I played him a few times and he never really "clicked" with me. Then two comics events provided me with the inspiration I needed. The first was the character Rorschach, about whom you've written previously. 😉 The second, much stronger, influence occurred when Mark Gruenwald started the "Scourge of the Underworld" story arc in Captain America. The subtlety and attitude shown by these characters, as opposed to the Punisher's more brute force militaristic approach to crimefighting, gave me the imagination fuel I needed.
The result was the Harbinger of Justice, who ultimately appeared in a couple of my HERO System books and could in many ways be said to be responsible for my career as an RPG writer/designer. I first played him on March 15, 1986, and I remember it like it was yesterday. (In fact, after playing the character for a couple years I realized our gaming group was creating some great stories but letting the memories of most of them fade away. So I began recording the games with a microrecorder and taking notes, and then wrote each one up journal-style in Harbinger's voice. I still have many, many notebooks filled with the group's adventures, each one carefully noting who played, what character they played, and how many XP I earned. I also have a few last tapes I never got around to transcribing.)
Harbinger quickly became my favorite PC of all time, bar none. His ruthless methods of dispensing Justice meant the other PCs, burdened by their Codes Versus Killing, not only wouldn't work with him but actively tried to capture him (and even succeeded, briefly, on a couple occasions). So the cops were against me, the villains were against me, and the heroes were against me.
And I loved it. To this day it remains the most intense and fulfilling roleplaying experience I think I've ever had. I'd drive to the game each Thursday with my hands shaking on the wheel in anticipation of what would happen: the risks Harbinger would face; the opportunities to make the city a better place that would come his way that he could not fail to take advantage of; the machinations of the other PCs that I'd have to oppose but without inflicting any harm on them; the GM's attempts to trip me up by getting me to execute (not kill, as I frequently pointed out to the other PCs) an innocent or undeserving person. (I'm proud to say that as far as I know, he never got me.) So as not to disrupt the game I basically only got five or ten minutes of the GM's time per hour of play, but given my methods and skills I got just as much done in that time as the other heroes did with their time (or so I like to think).
Every game, every action I took, every interaction with an NPC, every time I had Harbinger pull the trigger, was a moral test. Is this the right thing to do? Does this person deserve execution — or if not, what punishment? How can I convince others to agree with my point of view? It was utterly intoxicating. I enjoyed playing Harbinger so much that in the summer of 1991 the gaming group banded together and for about a month and a half absolutely refused to let me do any gaming so I could focus on studying for the North Carolina bar exam. It's one of those odd things that friends sometimes do for each other, and I've always been grateful that they cared so much (though I don't actually think such an extreme step was necessary — I can quit anytime I want to, sure, that's the ticket…).
Over the course of years of play, Harbinger went from a very simple character (trained normal Characteristics, one gun, a bunch of Skills) to a highly, complex detailed one. I earned well over 900 Experience Points playing him, each one verrrry carefully spent to flesh out the character as I saw him developing. Drawing on Ninja Hero's method of using Powers to represent skills and trained abilities characters could have, I began paying close attention to "street-level crimefighting" comics characters (Batman, Daredevil, most of the Watchmen, the Punisher, the Vigilante, and so on) and to action movies (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Hard Boiled, Bond films, Predator, ad infinitum) and studying what those sorts of characters did. Then I would try to figure out how I could represent that in HERO System terms. Was that just a good roll with some Skill — or was it a separate ability built with a Power to make it easier to achieve?
I ended up with a long list of such abilities (not all of which Harbinger bought, of course — even 900+ XP only goes so far, alas). I think my favorites were: "Disappearing Act" (a.k.a. Vanishing Teleport, using Teleportation to represent Batman's ability to "vanish" when no one's looking, or a character's ability to get into a surprise attack position in far less time than it would actually take); "Rapid Fire" (applying Autofire to any handgun to represent John Woo-style multi-firing — my first use of the "naked Advantage" concept, which caused considerable argument with some members of my gaming group); and "It's Somewhere In These Files" (using the Speed Reading Talent, cranked way up, to represent how characters quickly find just the right piece of paper amidst a room full of disorganized files). Had a book like The Ultimate Skill existed at the time, I probably could've done most of this with expanded Skill rules — but thankfully for my career, the rules writers had largely ignored the Skills element of the HERO System as a subject for analysis and evolution.
All of that's a long introduction to an observation I made after several years playing Harbinger: there were no RPG books for characters like him. All the Champions books to date assumed traditional, four-color play with superpowered heroes who didn't kill their enemies. Indeed, the rules were set up to enforce that view, with STUN damage and combat mechanics that made killing anyone damn difficult. But we were in (or swiftly approaching) the Iron Age of comics, which meant that "greater realism" and more intense violence were becoming a significant part of the superhero comics landscape. Someone needed to speak up on behalf of all of us gun-toting vigilantes!
(I had a couple other motivations as well. One was to encourage more people to run the sort of games I wanted to play in. The other was that I wanted to provide GMs with more information on "street-level play" and related subjects. My knowledge of organized crime, law, criminology, and other such subjects was constantly tripping me up because I knew more than the GMs did, so my assumptions and actions didn't always square with their plots. I distinctly remember a game where the GM set up a "white slavery" plot that the Mafia was behind. As soon as he said "white slavery," I said "I head to Chinatown!," knowing that was a yakuza gig. Kind of threw the whole plot into a cocked hat….)
After I started writing magazine articles for Hero Games, I decided, "Hey, I could write a book!" And I instantly realized what I wanted to write about: the RPG supplement on vigilante crimefighting. I pitched the book to then-Line Developer Monte Cook as Heroes Of Vengeance, since I saw it more as a stand-alone genre like Ninja Hero at the time. The Powers That Be wisely realized this worked better as a Champions supplement and devised the title "Dark Champions." And from there I think you know the rest. 😉
I miss playing Harbinger. It's been years since I got to execute a criminal or supervillain, and the withdrawal symptoms remain as intense as ever….
Thanks Steve! That really humanizes the article for me and explains some of my favorite things about your work. You sound like that you might have been a "that guy" at the table once in while, which is sometimes a doorway into great things – especially with Champions. I might like to try a vigilante game with you one day.
Gordon Landis | July 20, 2015 at 2:24 pm
Thank for that, Steve – great to read! And thanks Ron for prompting him.
Killer Shrike | August 20, 2015 at 3:16 am
Great read. This was the era I was getting into the HERO System, so it hits home.
Ah yes, Ninja Hero; what an awesome book. Still got mine, and I always considered it (and later Ultimate Martial Artist, the Surbrook Ninja HERO and finally Hero System Martial Arts) to be the only "must have" supplement to the core rule book. Ultimate Skill later earned that stature as well.
I also had Ninjas & Superspies, and some other gaming material from that period, plus lots of issues of Black Belt magazine. Loved that stuff back then. The differences between various martial arts styles fascinated me to no end, fed by Run Run Shaw and Golden Harvest movies.
I always considered the HERO System's detailed coverage of martial arts and the compact genius of the "maneuver" concept to be one of the most interesting and compelling in any game, and I always enjoyed using them heavily to give PC's and NPC's alike distinctive combat styles.
The sheer variety of gritty and very tactical melees that could be simulated using the martial maneuvers made for some real nail biting fights, but also from a role playing perspective knowing that the rules could back me up if necessary gave me the confidence to portray practitioners of various styles very differently from each other.
One of my all time favorite PC's was FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeff Chen, from my playgroup's original Demon Hunter: FBI campaign (which much later in the 6e era was morphed into a collaboratively designed urban fantasy campaign known as Here There Be Monsters). Jeff Chen was a practitioner of the "Insidious Snake Style" martial arts, learned from his family's patriarch "Grandpa" Chen (really an immortal master and a much more distant predecessor). I put together a custom style based around nerve strike and some other suitably sneaky / evasive maneuvers and anchored my character's persona around how I envisioned a student of that (imaginary) secretive art might act. Well, that plus bits lifted from various Kung Fu movie tropes. Very memorable character; one of those rare ones for whom the roleplaying and the mechanics gelled perfectly from the first scene of the campaign to the last.
Ninja Hero was definitely a classic and remains an all time great, IMO.
Really, that whole Rob Bell era was something special, at least in my memory. Solid trade dress, very approachable books (by HERO System standards). And while almost all of them had something to offer, they also tended to have what I perceived as obvious gaps or even flaws that often compelled me to write up my own takes on things.
They thus sucked me in to the deep end of the HERO System as surely as a blackhole, and I spent many hours revising, rewriting, replacing, and adding on my own characters to the published supplements. To my ultimate betterment as a gamer and a HERO System player and GM.
I'm proud to say I still own many of the books from that era. Many of them look very anemic and woefully incomplete after the avatar of prolific and thoroughness known as Steve Long took over and put out massively detailed and ultra-consistent mega-tomes like clockwork, but they still have an endearing quaintness to them. Or maybe it's just my own nostalgia. Regardless, those were good times.
Thanks for sharing this, Steve. You, as always, rock.
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text:
Against Apathy: Criticism That Sucks
When I used to read reviews like this one, I'd just be like, ennh whatever.
But now they are beginning to get me mad.
Not just because they're overly self-conscious, indulgently snarky dismissals of artists, musicians, and writers I love–and full disclosure, who sometimes are, in fact, some of my closest friends or even me–but because they reflect a growing trend among young writers, the emergence of a new aesthetic that leads nowhere.
To me, being a critic means championing an alternative. The great critics became great not simply because they knew how to skewer a subject elegantly, but because they could make you believe that something new, urgent, and life-changing was arriving or had arrived. They championed a rebel aesthetic, and ideas like independence, difference, novelty, fun, antiauthoritarianism, you know, good shit.
These days, with the dot-com crash and a lot of alt-weeklies gone corporate, too many of us critics write like cubicle schmucks unlucky enough to not to land a job at Entertainment Weekly.
But it's not the ambition that's bothers me, it's the lack of imagination.
There is no blood or fire. There's just an unearned jaded-ness with the world. There isn't a Johnny-Thunders-with-cigarette-and-guitar detachment, to be all Lester Bangs on folks, there is simply an utter lack of conviction masquerading as an outsider stance.
Which is ridiculous.
Because the one thing that so many of these critics don't seem to appreciate at all is the desire for an alternative.
They're basically engaged in creating an alternative to the alternative, which may not scan like "Laguna Beach" or "Extra!" at first, but sure isn't challenging that kind of stuff at all.
Do you want the opposite of "conscious" aesthetics (a term I don't believe in but let's just make this point)? Here it is. Unconscious aesthetics–it isn't self-aware in the remotest sense.
In fact, these unconscious critics get most rankled by folks who are still about being self-critical and trying to make a difference. At its most basic, it's a knee-jerk remote-control reactionary aesthetics.
Really, you can't trust their very definitions. Kenny Loggins=cool. Blackalicious=bland. 'Nuff said.
The biggest struggle in their writing is a personal battle against boredom. (For the poor reader, it's a battle to simply stay awake 500-word or even 100-word count.) The sum of it all is a thinly disguised effort to preserve the status quo–in politics, in art, in culture, in society.
Which is fine.
Let's just call it what it is. A celebration of sameness. An indulgence of apathy. A reaction against change. A critical dead-end.
2 Responses to "Against Apathy: Criticism That Sucks"
The dilemma faced by a weekly magazine is this.
1. They are required to write about music to stay in business.
2. 99% of music writing sucks.
3. The only alternative to opionated writing about music is writing about music in a historical context.
4. A historical piece is the antithesis of a weekly magazine.
Conclusion: weekly magazines = shitty articles about music.
_eric
I don't know Jeff. I mean, I appreciate where you're coming from but seriously, I just don't know why it's worth beating the war drum on this review. Garrett found the album boring and mediocre and he communicated this fairly well – I don't think he did it maliciously and it seems like he took pains to note what worked and what didn't.
In my book, that's decent music criticism. Is it the best I've ever read? Not really, but given the choice between 1) outright sycophantry (too many examples to note but why not start with The Source and work from there), 2) straight up ignorant hate masquerading as high-minded criticism (see Pitchfork and dozens of other WWW sites) and 3) an honest review lacking in "fire" or "passion", I'm not really mad at #3.
The way I see it, Garrett – bucking the New Times trend towards standarizing the same reviews in every fucking satellite paper – decided to write on a local group with a new album out. He didn't happen to like the album but wasn't about to go Bang-ian ape shit over it.
And for this, he gets compared to Kogan? They're not in the same ballpark, remotely. I'm not even sure they're in the same sport.
Sorry dude but there's 1001 other reasons to be mad at the SF Weekly. Expressing boredom over a Blackalacious album which was, in my humble opinion, extraordinarily bland in all the ways (and more) that Garrett expresses…that's not one of them.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


It was indeed a great afternoon. Looks like you had a very sweet moment. Thanks for visiting!
oh, this just looks so good: knitting, grass and blue skies. what else would you want??
Just lovely! An that's the first? Please continue!
Thanks, Fiona! Cambodia really is a special place and, though I couldn't be there this week, I'm glad that Christopher was able to experience it. I'm eager for him to return this weekend and write a post or two about it. Thanks for following – I look forward to reading through your blog, too!
Thanks! Great Seattle blog – one of our favorite cities.
Yay! Welcome. This friday ritual is habit forming.


text:
breaking topical top story
Joshua Wolfson , Brandon Foster , Camille Erickson
In this Dec. 17, 2019 file photo, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington. Cheney was among three House Republicans who announced they would vote to impeach President Donald Trump.
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rep. Liz Cheney said Tuesday she will vote to impeach President Donald Trump following last week's attack at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the president.
In a statement, Cheney said the president incited the mob that attacked the Capitol on Wednesday. Afterward, he could have "immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence," but didn't, she said.
"There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution," she said in a statement.
Cheney becomes the highest-profile Republican to announce that she would support impeachment. She is the third-ranking Republican in the House.
Cheney has sided with Trump in the vast majority of her votes during his presidency. Still, she has publicly broken with Trump in numerous instances in the past — never more prominently than last week, when she vehemently condemned Trump's role in the Capitol riot, calling it "a part of his legacy."
"Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough," she said in her statement Tuesday. "The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President."
Cheney condemns Trump for D.C violence: "This will be his legacy"
The lawmaker, who was elected in 2016, had previously criticized the president for failing to produce evidence to back his claims of widespread voter fraud.
Trump had struck back at Cheney after her comments ahead of last week's congressional certification of the Electoral Vote. In his speech before the riot began, Trump called on his supporters to "get rid of the weak congress people" who declined to back his baseless allegations of rampant voter fraud.
"The Liz Cheneys of the world. We have to get rid of them," Trump said, while encouraging primary challenges against Republicans who opposed him.
Cheney's father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, also condemned the president's attempts to overturn the election, joining all other living former defense secretaries in a Washington Post op-ed cautioning against military action in support of Trump's efforts.
Liz Cheney was the member of Wyoming's delegation most vocally opposed to protesting the results of the Electoral College. Sen. John Barrasso also voted to certify the votes but was not as outspoken about the situation. Newly elected Sen. Cynthia Lummis was one of eight senators who voted not to certify Pennsylvania's results, though she did vote in favor of certifying Arizona's.
In a statement, Lummis told the Star-Tribune she opposed impeaching the president.
"We will witness, once again, the peaceful transition of power on January 20th," Lummis said in a written statement on Tuesday. "Moving forward with impeachment at this juncture will only further divide our already hurting nation. I respect the right of all of my colleagues to vote their conscience, but we need to calm the rhetoric and start finding ways to work together as Americans. I look forward to working with my colleagues to address the most pressing issues we face today."
The Star-Tribune also reached out to Barrasso for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Trump conceded the election on Thursday, saying that President-elect Joe Biden's "administration will be inaugurated on January 20" and that his "focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power."
The president, however, has since defended his speech at the rally that preceded the siege of the Capitol.
Wyoming delegation condemns Capitol riot after being evacuated
Nick Reynolds , Brandon Foster
Meanwhile, fellow House Republicans John Katko of New York and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois backed Cheney's position. Both issued statements supporting the impeachment of the president on Tuesday.
The New York Times has reported that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell "believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses" and "is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party," citing "people familiar with his thinking."
Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, called the decision by high-profile Republicans to support the impeachment of the president "shocking." But the insurrection at the Capitol last week likely threw Republicans over the edge, he said.
Tobias anticipates more Republicans will follow suit.
"I think the breach (of the party) has been made, just like they breached the Capitol," he said.
"I think (the insurrection) has really fractured the Republican party and the party reflects that," he added.
When the House of Representatives voted in December 2019 to impeach Trump the first time, a 230-197-1 decision passed the abuse of power article and a 229-198-1 vote decided the obstruction of Congress article. No Republicans voted in favor of either. Democrats now control the House of Representatives by a slimmer majority: 222 to 212.
Tobias anticipates more Republicans will support the latest article of impeachment. Not only is the allegation easier for the public to understand, it also hits closer to home.
Five House Democrats voted in 1998 to impeach Democratic President Bill Clinton, the most recent president to be impeached before Trump. Like Trump, Clinton was acquitted by the Senate.
Star-Tribune staff writer Nick Reynolds and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Photos: Scenes of violence at U.S. Capitol shock world
Rep. Liz Cheney's statement on impeachment
"On January 6, 2021 a violent mob attacked the United States Capitol to obstruct the process of our democracy and stop the counting of presidential electoral votes. This insurrection caused injury, death and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic.
"Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough. The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.
"I will vote to impeach the President."
Joshua Wolfson
Joshua Wolfson joined the Star-Tribune in 2007, covering crime and health before taking over the arts section in 2013. He also served as managing editor before being named editor in June 2017. He lives in Casper with his wife and their two kids.
Follow Joshua Wolfson
Brandon Foster is the Star-Tribune's managing editor. He joined the Star-Tribune in 2016 as the University of Wyoming sports reporter after graduating from the University of Missouri and covering Mizzou athletics for two years.
Follow Brandon Foster
A mob invading the U.S. Capitol. Police officers with guns drawn inside the House of Representatives. Lawmakers hiding from intruders seeking …
Trump: 'The Liz Cheneys of the world. We have to get rid of them.'
President Donald Trump took direct aim at Wyoming's Rep. Liz Cheney in a speech today.
Some Trump loyalists in Congress have demanded Rep. Liz Cheney be removed from her leadership position in the House.
"I will continue to talk to and hear from my constituents all over Wyoming," Cheney told the Wyoming press corps Wednesday. "But when it came down to it, the president the United States incited a mob to attack and interrupt the democratic process."


text:
More layoffs at SoftBank-backed companies, Salesforce faces questions, and another alt-data shakeup
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~3/qRT1Vhz3MdU/top-business-news-this-week-zume-salesforce-vista-equity-partners-2020-1
Hello! I'm advertising/media editor Lucia Moses, filling in for Matt Turner while he's on paternity leave. Welcome to your weekly roundup of our hottest and most insightful stories of the past week.
First, if you're into ads and media coverage, sign up for my Advertising & Media Insider newsletter here or my colleague Amanda Perelli's Influencer Dashboard newsletter here.
Now, on to the news: SoftBank has a big problem, and WeWork was just the tip of the iceberg. In the first week of 2020, four SoftBank-backed companies laid off 2,600 people in total as they struggle to get to profitability. As Megan Hernbroth has been reporting, startups from robot pizza-maker Zume to discount hotelier Oyo have swelled with backing from the Japanese investor, only to slash their workforces. And those layoffs don't include the contractors that many of these companies rely on and who have fewer protections than full-time employees do.
Salesforce swirls with questions
And after a big year, Salesforce is at a pivotal time as this is the year Wall Street will want to see results from its $15.7 billion Tableau acquisition and how it makes good on lofty sales targets. Analysts are predicting everything from Salesforce doing more acquisitions to Google acquiring it to compete with Amazon and Microsoft and Marc Benioff stepping back from his co-CEO role to focus on advocacy.
PE shop Vista Equity Partners paid $100 million for 7Park to get in on the alt-data craze. Insiders describe the management turnover, amped up sales pressure, and change in strategy that followed.
Alternative data's breakout year in 2018 brought interest from deep-pocketed investors hoping to cash in on the gold rush. But with new funding comes high expectations.
Construction tech is looking to disrupt an industry that's been notoriously slow to embrace change — insiders say these are the 10 contech startups to watch in 2020
Demand for cheaper construction has led to the application of new tech like machine learning, robotics, and drones.
Goldman Sachs lost at least 36 partners last year. Here's a list of all the names we know — and details from insiders about how the exits are being celebrated
They've being feted with marching bands, celebratory dinners, and video montages, to name a few.
'High earner, not rich yet': How to tell if you're a 'Henry,' based on your salary, savings, and lifestyle
They earn over $100,000, are in their early 30s, and struggle to balance their lifestyle while still saving for the future, the experts say.
Online brokers like Robinhood are hyping fractional share trading — here's why they want to get you hooked on $1 slices of stocks
They're marketing the offering as a way for average customers to own popular but pricey stocks like Amazon and Alphabet.
Tech, Media, and Telecoms
Jeff Bezos said Amazon's third-party sellers are 'kicking butt' — these are the 7 most important issues for Amazon marketplace merchants in 2020, according to experts
They include first-party suppliers moving to the third-party marketplace and more big brands ending their relationship with the retailer.
With Grubhub reportedly looking to throw in the towel, SoftBank may finally have a winner in the food delivery market. But it may have a loser too.
Grubhub has been profitable, but it's duplicated some of the unprofitable practices of its rivals as growth has slowed.
Silicon Valley is facing an exodus of young employees. Here's why one tech investor is betting on Pittsburgh to take up the mantle.
"We like to say, 'If it's good enough for Google to go to Pittsburgh, isn't it good enough for XYZ?'" tech investor Patrick McKenna said.
The president of Marc Benioff's Time reveals how he plans to restore the neglected title and make it a billion-dollar business
It plans to expand the title to verticals like health and business and is even eyeing acquisitions.
Netflix insiders describe how movie boss Scott Stuber made Hollywood stop worrying and love the streaming giant
He's one of the streamer's most important executives.
How Hearst's effort to modernize its antiquated magazine business stressed out employees and led them to unionize
In a jittery media climate, many people want more certainty around pay raises and career paths.
Healthcare, Retail, and Transportation
Respira raised over $2 million to disrupt the embattled vape industry with a heat-free vaporizer. Here's the pitch deck that made it happen.
It claims to be safer than traditional vaporizers.
$2.2 billion Bright Health just struck a deal to buy a health plan and gain a big foothold in the lucrative Medicare Advantage market
The acquisition would substantially increase Bright Health's Medicare Advantage business.
Only 18% of the trucking industry's governing boards are women and Morgan Stanley just highlighted it as a potential industry risk
The average trucking company had a corporate governance board gender-inclusivity rate of 18%, lagging other public firms.
Inside the sneaker empire of Urban Necessities, which brought in nearly $21 million in sales last year and has plans to expand globally
The multimillion-dollar company combines consignment with traditional buying.
'We didn't ask for a meditation app, we want to be able to pay our rent': Starbucks is offering new mental health benefits, but employees are demanding different kinds of support
Some say free subscriptions for the mindfulness app Headspace don't cut it.
NOW WATCH: WeWork went from a $47 billion valuation to a failed IPO. Here's how the company makes money.
Previous Real-world photos confirm Samsung's next flagship phone is called the Galaxy S20
Next A 50-year-old built a lucrative business on YouTube by posting videos about the snakes, geckos, and alligator he owns


A fellow blogger, the author of ABC of Spirit Talk w/Carolyn Page, lives in Australia. She loves to dance with her husband. They dance International Ballroom and Latin as well as New Vogue style. New Vogue style is very popular in her country.
Exactly what is New Vogue style dancing?
The discipline of New Vogue style is also known as sequence dancing. It consists of 16 or 32 bars of choreography, danced in partnership and repeated. The interesting thing about New Vogue style is that everyone dances the same sequence at the same time to the same music. The result is the appearance of a well-rehearsed formation.
History tells us that the New Vogue style began in the 1930s in Australia and New Zealand where to this day it remains popular. It's performed socially and competitively, along with International Ballroom and Latin. It's danced throughout Europe and parts of Canada, as well. Here's a link to watch competitors doing the Australian New Vogue Dance, 'The Carousel'.
Here are 4 reasons why we like the New Vogue style.
Aside from the name (looking at you, Madonna), dancing the set patterns of New Vogue is a great way to quickly get people up on the dance floor.
Because everyone does the same routine, leaders don't have to create their own steps or variations.
Safely getting around on a crowded dance floor becomes easier because you already know where the other couples are going.
If you forget a step, look around you. Your partner and the other dancers will remind you about what comes next.
Since everyone does the same choreography at the same time, participating is easy. To join the dance, simply pick up the choreography at the spot that's being danced when you get up on the floor. The music and your muscle memory will make it a breeze.
How might we implement New Vogue style dancing in the American style?
Your instructors want to get you dancing as quickly as possible and this certainly appears to be one way to do that.
Start with a series of New Vogue style group classes once or twice a week featuring one dance.
Foxtrot would be ideal. Many instructors encourage their students to learn it because it teaches movement, timing, and good partnership skills. Here's a Dance Safari post about the benefits of learning the Foxtrot. Finding a classic or modern song to use would be a piece of cake as there's much to choose from.
After a few lessons, add some practice parties after class.
When the material starts to stick, every so often invite your students to stay after class. Give them a chance to dance their routine in a social setting.
After the last New Vogue style dancing class is complete, offer a mini-competition along with a graduation ball for the participants.
As the students conclude the series, a graduation party is a great way to recognize their accomplishments. But first, a small, friendly competition is a fun way to encourage your students to practice and remember their moves.
This proposal in no way reflects the history, provisions, and procedure of actual New Vogue style dance. However, why not apply some small part of the techniques that these dancers have mastered over the years. What do you think? Interesting, no?
If you enjoyed this post, please LIKE, TWEET, SHARE and FOLLOW below. Thanks!
Previous Post Learn How to Dance…Yea or Nay?
You chose a beautiful video of our young Aussies dancing The Carousel. I know some of them and they are spectacular dancers in all disciplines.
I didn't know, Barbara, that New Vogue is danced throughout Europe and in some parts of Canada; I'll have to check this out; I'm sure they will be just as wonderful.
And, Thank You for the link and mention.
You inspired me to learn more about this style and I think it's wonderful. That clip of The Carousel was awesome to watch. How fun that you know some of them.
I've spent the last hour watching our New Vogue on Youtube – the best of the best, of course. It is quite enchanting, indeed.
However, as you've mentioned, it is a wonderful way to 'get on the floor' quickly.
At our dance socials we see many, who can't dance the ballroom standards, learning, very quickly, the joy of dance in the New Vogue style.
I would like to see them hear, but that may also require a cultural shift because I think learning sequences starts at an early age.
Thanks for the comments, Frank.


text:
Q: Ionic, Node Sass does not yet support your current environment I switched my OS from windows to Mac, after copying my previous app from windows to Mac while serving my app it's generating an error:
app-scripts] /Volumes/D Drive/Work/Trisquard/carExpense/node_modules/node-sass/lib/binding.js:13
[app-scripts]       throw new Error(errors.unsupportedEnvironment());
[app-scripts]       ^
[app-scripts] Error: Node Sass does not yet support your current environment: OS X 64-bit with Unsupported runtime (72)
[app-scripts] For more information on which environments are supported please see:
[app-scripts] https://github.com/sass/node-sass/releases/tag/v4.9.0
[app-scripts]     at module.exports (/Volumes/D Drive/Work/Trisquard/carExpense/node_modules/node-sass/lib/binding.js:13:13)
[app-scripts]     at Object.<anonymous> (/Volumes/D Drive/Work/Trisquard/carExpense/node_modules/node-sass/lib/index.js:14:35)
[app-scripts]     at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:936:30)
[app-scripts]     at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:947:10)
[app-scripts]     at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:790:32)
[app-scripts]     at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:703:12)
[app-scripts]     at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:830:19)
[app-scripts]     at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:68:18)
[app-scripts]     at Object.<anonymous> (/Volumes/D Drive/Work/Trisquard/carExpense/node_modules/@ionic/app-scripts/dist/core/bundle-components.js:6:16)
[app-scripts]     at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:936:30)

[ERROR] ionic-app-scripts has unexpectedly closed (exit code 1).

    The Ionic CLI will exit. Please check any output above for error details.

My Mac Node.js version (12.9.1) my windows node.js version(8.9.1).
Can anyone tell me how to fix this.
Have already added node version 8.9.1 in Mac but its giving error:
ERR: Your Node.js version is v8.9.1. Please update to the latest Node LTS version.

Thank you.

A: Have you tried running npm rebuild node-sass ?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Through November 18th, Shutterfly is offering up FREE shipping on all card orders of $1 or more when you use the promo code SHIPCARDS at checkout – this is a super rare offer!
In addition, score 50% off Holiday cards with prices as marked. Note that the price of cards will decrease depending on how many you order. All cards can be customized with photos and text and come with white blank envelopes.
Does this apply to Tinyprints as well?
Hi Kathryn! I just tested and this offer is valid for Shutterfly orders only.
Kathryn – I have a $20 off Tiny Prints codes I could send you if that helps. It is from chickfila, so if you already had a code from chickfila you won't be able to use my extra. If you need it just post your email and I will send it to you.
Will the free shipping include other items on the same order?
Hi Haley! I tried adding a non-holiday card item and it did add a shipping charge. Hope that helps!
Nope, free shipping is only on cards.
I e been waiting for free shipping! Hooray!!
I know! Such a great offer to grab! Happy it popped up today!
Has anyone gotten free card offers this year? Last year I had free shutterfly cards/shipping from Gymboree and other stores this year I've received nothing. Just wondering if the offers stopped.
I haven't I am thinking they aren't doing it this year. This is about the time we would be getting them.
I am bummed about it. I really look forward to the cool stuff I have gotten in the past.
In the past couple years, I got mine on November 17th. I am still holding out hope!!
I checked and the cheapest I could find was .96 with ordering 50 cards so that is $48 on holiday cards which seems like a lot. I looked back and I spent $16 on 50 cards with an amazon print deal last year (with return address on the envelopes too). I am going to hold out for a better deal….hopefully.
The Staples groupon for cards is a good deal if you have a local Staples and can pick them up. They have various quantities. I usually buy 100 cards for $25.
I do the Staples Groupon as well. I was very pleased last year. The only downside is having to pick them up since I don't want to pay for shipping. But I'm just lazy. 😉 It's so much easier to just do that deal and get it taken care of than chasing down freebie deals from several places.
Thanks for sharing, Amanda! That's a great deal too!
I'd love to save this and use! Thanks!
Thanks! Will have to try that later!
Thanks so much Sherri! I entered these codes and was able to get 10 6×8 cards with custom envelopes for $3.87. Much cheaper than before I entered the other codes you provided!
Once I found 6×8 sized cards I was able to get this to work! 10 cards for $1.50 shipped! Thank you!
Thank you SO MUCH FOR THIS! Worked for me and my total was $1.52. God bless you!!!!
Yay! I was able to get 10 free cards. Thank you. I had to choose the non-foiled ones but 10 free 5×7 cards is awesome! I also took advantage of the free set of address labels offer using code LABELS.
Got 10 cards for $1.49 through the app with APP10FREE and SHIP CARDS! Thank you!
How did you get both code to work…mine said conflict code…so 10 cards free but shipping of 5…woth tax is about 7.
Ah ok. Gotcha. I will try that. Thank u so much for this!!!
I did it!!!! 1.54!!! Thank u.
Omg thanks so much!!!! I got 10 really nice, addressed cards for $3!!!!!
Thank you! Saved me $20 on 10 cards. I even splurged and got the fancy lined envelopes and upgraded the cards! My Holiday cards will be super fancy thanks to you Sherri!
OMG!! You are the best!! I was about to place an order for $25 after using what I think are tons of codes, but I use your codes, and it's now less than $5!! Thanks so much, Sherri!!
This one was already used, but thanks anyway!
You could cash in Kellogg family rewards points on their website for 20 4×8 cards… that should work fine with the free shipping!
If anyone has a free 8×11 calendar code they are not using I would love it-I make one for the in-laws of the kids.
I got the catalog today so I have two codes I can give anyone for the 50% off and 40% off Tinyprints but I think everyone got that.
Any suggestions on where to find a free calendar code? I always make one for the in laws and for my family for Christmas. Thank you!
Will it let you combine a $25/dollar amount coupon code with this?
In my experience, they do not combine. You will know when you enter promo codes at checkout.
Any thoughts on where is a good place to get cheaper save-the-date magnets?
Just a suggestion, but my cousin recently sent hers out as a 4×6 photo with thin magnets applied to each side on the back and they looked great! Much cheaper than a full photo magnet and I wouldn't have even known the difference had I not turned it over!
Yay! Took a bit of doing, but I was able to get 10 trifold 5×7 cards (Christmas), a set of 12 3×5 thank you cards, and 1 5×7 thank you card for $1.43 shipped! Christmas cards done with a few extras to spare–woot woot!! Thank you to the Hip2Save community for sharing all these great ideas for getting even better deals. You are the best!!!
How did you get this to work??
I didn't get the Black Friday shutterfly mailer with a unique free card code. If someone got one and isn't going to use it, I would love to have and use it. My email is jrlryder@aol.com. Thanks so much for sharing if you can.
While I'm not getting such a great deal as a lot of the other posters, using a 50% off your order code from a Kohl's purchase actually worked out better than the 50% off that the Shutterfly site was offering. Weird, but it would have been $13 with their deal, but I paid $8 for 12 cards with the Kohl's code I had. I love that there was free shipping though!!! Thank you!!!
I'm a little confused why everyone is excited about 10 Christmas cards. I mean that with no judgement, just simply trying to figure it out 🙂 Do most of you only send out 10 cards, or are you able to do the deal multiple times to cover all of your Christmas cards? Thanks!
I actually have 3 separate Shutterfly accounts which has helped. I only need about 30 cards for family and our few friends. I did 3 separate orders, not sure if u can do multiple 10 cards on one order. And I did labels same time too. I still want to thank the lady who shared all the codes. I was freaking I was going to have to pay $45 for mine.
Just a follow up to previous comment. I've just been adding coupon codes from my emails to Shutterfly without paying attention – get a lot from baby sites like BabyCenter (I had a baby this year and signed up for a lot of Websites). I had a total of 20 free cards I didn't realize. It allowed those coupon codes to be combined (it added them automatically) with this deal!!! I only paid $2.26 shipped for 20 cards. This is our first year doing cards like this so thinking/hoping 20 might be enough. Love these deals!
Does anyone have a $25 Shutterfly code that they are not going to use? I would love one! Thank you in advance!


text:
Q: Python virtualenv showing environment's name but working with main Python I am using Ubuntu 16 with python 2.7 and virtualenv.
I am running the env using source bin/activate, and the environment's name is showing in the terminal, which should say that it's active now.
But, when using pip freeze, I get the same packages that I installed in the main python on the machine. In addition I can't install using pip install without the --user flag, due to access denied error, which means that I am in fact not inside the new env.
What am I missing here?


3.0-liter TwinPower Turbo inline 6-cylinder, 24-valve 315-hp engine -inc: twin-scroll turbocharger w/variable valve control (Double-VANOS & Valvetronic) & high-precision direct injection.
18" x 8.0" star-spoke light alloy wheels (style 365) -inc: P245/45R18 run-flat all-season tires.
Adaptive brakelights -inc: 3rd brakelight in upper roof.
9-speaker hi-fidelity sound system -inc: 205-watt multi-channel digital amplifier, vehicle-specific equalizer, (2) tweeters, (5) midrange speakers, (2) subwoofers.
Fine line oak wood interior trim.
Dakota leather upholstery -inc: door trim, seat surfaces, armrests in center console & doors, headrests for front & rear seats, gear shift lever boot.
10-way power-adjustable front bucket seats -inc: driver seat memory, active head restraints.