thebitterguy

I got the new Champions of the North on Friday from Hairy T.

Two things:

A) Hairy T is in very good shape these days. Although it could use more floor space, it feels a lot more open than it has in the past. They've put the previously-wasted-on-gaming space to good use for storage.

Leon and the staff member he had there took good care of me, and helped me find everything I needed at the shop.

B) Champions of the North just felt so much better than the 4E version. I still have some standard issues with it (some sloppy layout and more art repitition), but overall it's much better.

There are two particularly (and personally) interesting bits in the book. This is the first, which is annoying:

The Swedish superhero Potenstorm was recruited to take Foreknight's place, but he met local resistance. Torontonians felt that a Swedish superhero (though powerful and exceptionally skilled) didn't possess the "fighting spirit" and "toughness" that was a trademark of Canadian superheroes. After a tumultuous year serving as Toronto's guardian, Potenstorm resigned and returned to his homeland.

It's a lousy cheap shot. For the foreigners in the house, Hockey is Canada's (unofficial) national game. When new players from European countries started to be brought in to play in the NHL, there was some resistance, mostly in the form of national loudmouth Don Cherry, saying that foreign players didn't have the same "heart" or "hustle" as native players.

Thankfully, this doesn't really hold much water in a country where a significant percentage of the population was born ashore. In fact, Toronto has wholeheartedly embraced Mats Sundin, the Maple Leafs' Swedish born captain.

I am annoyed by this. This is not a country, and Toronto is not a town, to turn someone away because they weren't born here. That shit may play in Calgary, buddy!

The other bit, that I liked, is the description of DEMON in Canada:

DEMON has a presence in Canada, but it's relatively small. DEMON's leader in Canada, the Dread MacKinnon, lives in Guelph, Ontario near Toronto. Recent setbacks have forced him to abandon his cover as a publishing business, and he has retreated to an unknown location. DEMON's followers in the Great White North now take orders from ten disembodied spirits known as Adam's Jury (a.k.a. The Jury of the Damned, named after its foreman, Leighton Adams). The Jury can be summoned in an abandoned courthouse used by teh Family Compact (the wealthy, Anglican, elite) in the 1830s. A few Compact members belgonging to various sorcerous conspiracies, and some of their most enduring magicks have essentially transferred their "allegiance" to DEMON.

Cute. A reference to The Family Compact and adamjury. This is much less annoying.