Insane Mages and other Crazy Characters

This is something of a trope with my gaming group.  It started with one specific member and has sort of spread out from there.  The basic idea is that the character is so far outside of what is a normal experience that while everything they do works and make legitimate, if somewhat "other", sense, that they just seem bizarre and, well, crazy to outsiders.  At some point recently, one of us made the comment that my character, the insane mage of the game in question, seemed to be getting crazier.  To which the person who more commonly plays the type responded that all her characters seemed to get crazier as they went along.  This has led me to thinking about this seeming trend toward apparent flanderization.

Trained Psychics versus Talents

Talents are people born with specific psychic abilities.  Some people have more than one Talent, others have rather broad Talents and others have limited Talents.  These abilities work through a combination of biology and instinct encoded on a genetic level.  For most, they do not have to learn how to perform the action so much as they have to learn how control it. 

Stuff about Japan

I have lived in Japan for a little over two years now and I’ve been meaning to get to this discussion for a while now. There are a number of things about Japan that some Americans might be surprised about. Granted, some of this stuff is stuff that applies to much of the world, but still, given the fact that most people grow up in the general area, or at least country, where they were raised, it would still be a bit of a surprise.

What's Wrong with DC fans?

I am not a fan of DC comics. I am not a fan of Marvel comics. Both of them lost me sometime around the turn of the century.

I find them boring, predictable and absolutely unwilling to disrupt the status quo. The storylines are so full of conflicting nonsense that it's hard to get interested in the parts that attracted me in the first place.

Transhumanism

Does anybody else get tired of the trend for most movies smacking of transhumanism to be some sort of horror-fest where transhumanism turns out to be the big threat of the movie. The concept of the digital uploaded mind is under attack in the upcoming Johnny Depp movie. Admittedly, it's not my favorite branch of transhumanism, because I'd want us to know more about the way the human mind works and have much better computers first. Ideally, I'd like a true AI to occur before we even think about trying it.

That and I'm fond of my flesh.

Faith Manages 10: Voices from the Afterlife

Faith Manages 10: Voices from the Afterlife

Faith Manages 9: Traditions are Important...

Faith Manages 9: Traditions are Important...

Faith Manages 8: If I ignore it, it will go away.

Faith Manages 8: If I ignore it, it will go away.

Faith Manages 8: It's Always Paranoia

Faith Manages 8: It's Always Paranoia

Faith Manages 7: Could Always Be Worse

Faith Manages 7: Could Always Be Worse

Faith Manages 6: You are not the main character

Faith Manages 6: You are not the main character