Modesto California

[rbezold]

Im moving to Modesto in May, and i hope to start a Champions campaign there. Anyone who wants to be ready to go when I get there (or anyone who just wants to do a little impromptu PBEM) should send an email telling me about your character (rbezold@turbonet.com). Character design is:

Base points: 225
Disadvantages: 225 (60 max/catagory)
Characteristics: 15-60
Speed: Based on the active point total of your largest power 8(40) 7(50) 6(60) 5(70) 4(90) 3(110) 2(130) 1(up to 150 max)
CV: 8-14
DC: 8-30 (see speed)
Active points: 40-150 (see speed)
Non-combat skills/perks/talents/bases/vehicles/followers: 50-100
Skill Roll: 11-16
Def/RDef: 30/20

The world is basicly our own. There was a brief golden age of heroes in the '40s followed by a long dearth of heroes until 5 years ago. More details when you email me...

[AndyM]

Will this game concentrate on finding young women? And dealing with corrupt politicians? Or will this game be set in a nicer Modesto, Ca?

:)
Andy

[Cool_Manchu]

Have you ever been to Modesto? I feel very sorry for you. I wish you the best.

Hey, George Lucas is from there, so it can't be all bad can it?

Uh...well...hmmm....scratch that....

[rbezold]

Let me put it this way...

1) The campaign will be set in the mythical city of New York (Metropolis, Gotham, whatever..)

2) Why am I going to Modesto? A) They offered to double my pay. B) It's close proximity to San Francisco. C) You've obviously never been to the backwoods of Idaho.

But then again, I've never been to Modesto. What I know about the place stems from the City's website. So what's it like?

Bob

[keithcurtis]

Speaking as a resident of the Central valley, It's like Fresno, only smaller, or Merced, only larger.:)
You're about an hour and a half from the Bay Area, depending on how you drive and your ultimate destination.
There is at least one large comic store (might sell game stuff. It's been ten years since I did any shopping there.
It is flat. The whole Central Valley is flat as a board with GIANT farms. Uncomfortably hot in the summer, foggy in the winter. The air isn't as bad as other parts of the valley, but you won't be happy if you have asthma or allergies. It gets progressively worse the farther you get south until you hit Bakersfield where they have to cut out chunks of it with blowtorches.

Keith "Fresnan" Curtis

[Cool_Manchu]

Keith said it pretty well and even if I was offered triple what I make now, I wouldn't move to Modesto...but then again, I don't live in Idaho, but I picture that its not much different than Modesto.

Now, back to Keith, considering he lives in the city with the name that says it all, FresNO, and he is dissin' Modesto, it gives you an idea of how bad it is...

He did leave out one major thing, how windy it gets but he is right about the wonderful new allergies you will get from living there.

But hey, it gets you out of Idaho...

And to get to SF in an hour and half from Modesto, you will have to drive like a bat out of Hell....well I guess you are driving out of Hell, but are you a Bat? :D

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by Cool_Manchu
And to get to SF in an hour and half from Modesto, you will have to drive like a bat out of Hell....well I guess you are driving out of Hell, but are you a Bat? :D
True, but I said the Bay Area, not quite the same thing as getting into the City.

Keith "Mr. Nit-Picky" Curtis

[Toadmaster]

On the plus side you can still get a house for $100,000 try that in Santa Cruz, if you're lucky you might get a refrigerator box. You can get to Oakland in 1 1/2 hours easy except for commute hours, Monterey (the ocean) or San Jose in a little over 2 hours and Yosemite in about 3 hours. Its really not that bad, the area is growing fast, decent malls with Barnes & Noble and Borders. Good game stores in Berkeley, Oakland and Castro Valley (Games of Berkeley, End game and Epic Worlds), about an hour from Dundra Con. Fresno has a good game store in the tower district great for old games but I can't remember the name.

Sure California has some nicer places if you can afford them but I'm considering moving to Tracy (about 1/2 hour away) so I can get out of an apartment and back into a house and at least its not Bakersfield, I lived there for two years talk about a wasteland.

[tgaptte]

Hey rzebold,

Are you willing to travel to game? How far? Oakland is ~1 to 1.5 hours away...we have a regular group and would welcome another GM. I live in San Jose (~1.5 hour from Modesto) and it's about an hour for me to drive to Oakland.

Tim

[AndyM]

Dude ... let's all move there. We can have a big hippie-style Hero commune. Free games and Mountain Dew!

That's what I'm talking about. Modesto Ma'ma ... I'm writing songs already.

It's late here on the east coast. I assume that that's coloring this entire thing.

Andy

Free games and Mountain Dew! Rock on ... Modesto Ma'ma ... Rock on ... (fade gituars, like an Eagles song)

[Mightybec]

Hey, the Fresno area's not all bad. We've got some cool bums, and the roaches downtown are the size of turtles. :D

Mightybec

[Cool_Manchu]

Hey now, I never said that Santa Cruz was the land of milk and honey. Hell, I pay $1350 for an apartment, granted, its huge and has a great view of downtown, its still $1350 a month!

You are right about the house prices as well, a two-bedroom will run you around $375,000 for a fixer upper in Santa Cruz, but to be honest, I would rather rent for the rest of my life than have to live in that God forsaken place known as the San Joaquin valley ever again.

If I had a single wish, I would wish for Pachecho Pass to end in Mariposa and the whole land inbetween be sent to another dimension. Sorry to all your crank addicts out there, I know all the meth labs will dissapear in California, but think of it this way...you will be in the other dimension with them, so no need to worry...

This true confession is from a former Tracy resident, so I know what I am talking about here and not just flaming some place I never lived, I hate the San Joaquin valley and have many reason to do so.

Also, please note that this is all in good fun....

And, to the guy in San Jose, I would love to hear about your game if you have any open spots, as I live right over the hill from you...

[MarkusDark]

The game in Oakland/Fremont/San Jose area is one that is more or less filled right now. Game size is optimum at 6 players and we have a tentative 8. Usually one or two don't make it (Friday nights and all) so it usually is balanced.

However, we would be willin' to let another join on in if he was willing to GM. Our current GM (me) suffers from occasional burnout due to other areas of his hectic life.

[Cool_Manchu]

To be completely honest, I am suffering from GM burnout. I have only played in one campaign in the 20 years that I have been playing this game and ran countless campaigns and don't have the energy to do it right now...

My current group needs a GM and we play in Santa Cruz, our current DM is leaving in May, but to be honest, one of the players has talked about taking over the game, so we will need new players, let me know if you are interested or if you know anyone who is...

And Oakland is really too far for me to drive for a regular game...

[Toadmaster]

I know exactly what you mean, if there was a way I could I would be living in 1/2 moon bay, Santa Cruz, Monterey, the East Bay, Tahoe etc, almost anyplace else, I'm not a huge fan of the Central valley either but there are much worse places to live I know I've lived in them. At least Modesto, Tracy Stockton area are close to real civilization and affordable. I also realize most of this has been in fun, but wasn't sure if rbezold knows that he (she?) is not actually moving to Hell, just a suburb of it.

[rbezold]

To be honest, from what I've learned from all of you, the place sounds like Spokane (yuck), only with better weather. Normally I would be reluctant, but I wasn't kidding when I said my wage was being doubled. For THAT kind of money, I'll take that walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And who knows? Once I'm established here, there's nothing to prevent me from job hunting in San Francisco...

Would love to GM for your Oakland(?) group, but I don't have a vehicle. I've seen so much grief that comes with owning a car, I would rather not. If a commute is possible via public transport or kind person, I'm up for it, but it does sound like a bit of a trip.

You could come up to Modesto though. We could race cockroaches...;)

[keithcurtis]

Public Transportation?
This is like, Califorrnia, Dude. You can't go to the bathroom without a car of your own. And one for each member of your family.

Keith "and maybe the dog" Curtis

[Toadmaster]

Originally posted by rbezold
Would love to GM for your Oakland(?) group, but I don't have a vehicle. I've seen so much grief that comes with owning a car, I would rather not. If a commute is possible via public transport or kind person, I'm up for it, but it does sound like a bit of a trip.

I think you're going to have a problem, I'm pretty sure it is now illegal not to own at least one SUV for each person in your household, including underage children. :rolleyes:

[Killer Shrike]

Heh. Not too long ago (4 years ago or so) I worked for a software company that develops & sells "community development" software. The City of Tracy was one of our customers, and I had the sad task of a site-visit on one occasion to do some data conversions and apply a major versioning change for our software. So I flew into Oakland from San Diego, grabbed a rental, and headed out to the client site. Only 3 words in the English language can capture my initial impression of Tracy........
OH
MY
GOD
!

What a $#!% hole. All due apologies to anyone proud of thier home town, etc, but I wouldnt live there if it were the last inhabitable place on Earth.


Re: Not owning a car in California. Hehe. Thats a good one. Public Transportation in California. Haha. Thats an even better one.


Re: Moving to Modesto because they doubled your pay: not to rain on your parade, but they doubled your pay because everything is about twice as expensive here in California. The average household income in San Diego is currently around $55,000 per year, which would mean that you are comfortably poor. :D

[tgaptte]

Hey rbezold,

Don't be discouraged, California is a great place to live and Modesto's not that bad. My cousin just moved there from Ventura, Ca and he likes it just fine. I've visited him a few times and I really don't see the problem with it. No car, eh? That's a hard one in California. I don't think public transportation will work for you, but you could try some combination of the ACE train and BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to get to Oakland/Fremont where we play. Like MarkusDark said, we could certainly use another GM, but we're full up on players.

Tim

[tgaptte]

Hey Cool,

As MarkusDark said, our game in Fremont/Oakland is full for additional players, but we'd be interested in another GM so he doesn't get burned out. Since I actually live in Willow Glen (Near Cambrian/Southern San Jose), a trip to Santa Cruz isn't that bad for me at all. I'd be interested in hearing more about your game (style, days/times you play, etc). I'd be willing to be a player, but don't currently have the time to GM.

I've played HERO since about 1983 and been roleplaying for over 21 years.

Tim

[rbezold]

Let's see. Without going into lengthy detail here, I've taken some advice from page 20 of Champions: Create a history.

Mine goes like this: Between 1938 and 1948 there were 9 known superheroes (Batman, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Flash, Green Lantern, Human Torch, Submariner, Superman, Wonder Woman) Virtually all disappeared rather than cooperate with the HUAC led by Sen. Joe McCarthy. Between 1949 and 1994 there are few, if any heroes or villains. Starting in 1995 many of the villains in CCK start showing up, as do your characters. At present, the major forces in the world are:

Eurostar- Fiacho no longer feels the need to unite Europe (the Euro and the Chunnel brought him around) and now uses his group as an unofficial mercenary group to further European interests.

Yooso- Japan's equivilant to Eurostar.

Dr. Destroyer- Still trying to take over the world.

Mechannon- Still trying to destroy same.

Warlord- Trying to start a war, any war.

Dr. Menton- The "helpless" prisoner of the President( brusselsprouts cancel his powers. Just ask anyone around him), Dr. Menton is forced to identify other ESPers so that they can be eliminated. Congress has no problem with this, as the thought of having their minds read/controlled keeps a lot of congressmen up at night.

HOUSE RULES: There are two. Find Weakness is only to be used with Martial Arts, and only once/combat. End use is 1 end/ 5 active points, unless you have Reduced Endurance, then it's as per the HERO rules (ie 1 end / 20 active points).

Campaign style- Tends to be Silver Age in execution. There are serious stories, long story arcs, and a bit of satire here and there. The campaign city is NYC. Certain areas have had their name changed (Manhatten becomes Metropolis, Old Gotham/Lower East Side becomes Gotham City). The technology level is same as real world.

What I want to see in characters- I have no problem with wide variances in power levels. Two of the best teams ever made (JLA, Avengers) had people with no superhuman abilities (Batman, Captain America) working alongside people with godlike abilities (Superman, Thor). I maintain play balance by not allowing the truly powerful to act very often (low speeds) and by reducing experience earned if there was nothing to challenge that character. I am willing to allow almost any combination of powers, as long as they don't ruin play for everyone else.

(Somewhere in a modest apartment, washroom attendant Albert Oppenheimer reads about a string of burglaries in Campaign City. "This looks like a job for...ATOM BOMB MAN!!" Changing into costume he says "ATOM BOMB MAN AWAAAY!!" and explodes.
150 activepoints: 15d6 explosion, personal immunity, megascale
After the city is destroyed, the crime rate goes down.)

You get the idea. Let me know what you think.

[tgaptte]

Hey rbezold,

Nice writeup! Let me know if you are able to get over to the Oakland/Fremont area for a regular Friday game. As MarkusDark mentioned, it would be nice to have another GM to split the load.

Tim
tgaptte@yahoo.com

[Nolgroth]

How is it that the FRESNO area has more Hero gamers than the Sacramento area. This is definately a communist plot!

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by nolgroth
How is it that the FRESNO area has more Hero gamers than the Sacramento area. This is definately a communist plot!

Apparently we have nothing better to do...

Keith "Fresno, smile when you say that*" Curtis

*Our honest-to-God city motto.

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike
Re: Moving to Modesto because they doubled your pay: not to rain on your parade, but they doubled your pay because everything is about twice as expensive here in California. The average household income in San Diego is currently around $55,000 per year, which would mean that you are comfortably poor. :D

Sorry, you can't compare the cost of living in Modesto to that of San Diego...

Keith "You can't even see the beach..." Curtis

[Ranxerox]

Hi, I live in Stockton, CA and commute daily to Modesto to work. Modesto has a decent game store named "The Guantlet", but it does not currently carry much HERO stuff which leads me to believe Modesto probably does not have much of Champions community.

Personally, I don't think Modesto is such a bad place but I was born and raised in Bakersfield so my standards may be low. Modesto has a good mall, a nice downtown, a cinema that specializes in art/foreign films, a number of good ethnic restuartants, and some ok coffee houses.

Unfortunately, the guy who said you could get a house there for $100k was way behind the times. The bursting of the dotcom bubble has caused a flood of bay area refugees to enter the more affordable valley and this has driven up home prices. Good luck finding a house for under $200k.

I would like to be part of your game if it happens in Modesto and not in Oakland. I will email you some character ideas, and you can tell me which one to do a full write-up.

[Toadmaster]

Originally posted by Ranxerox
Unfortunately, the guy who said you could get a house there for $100k was way behind the times. The bursting of the dotcom bubble has caused a flood of bay area refugees to enter the more affordable valley and this has driven up home prices. Good luck finding a house for under $200k.

Hey I didn't say you could get a nice house for $100,000 but some came up on a real estae search when I was looking out that way, I even saw a few in the $90,000 range. Might be a shack on swamp land but after looking in the east bay, I was pleasantly surprised. Now you've burst my bubble :(

[SuperPheemy]

There are a couple of us who live in/near the Big Tomato. Heck, my dear ol'Dad lives in Modesto (he's building the 10th Street Joint Government Complex). Sadly, with a wife and two kids, I have to cajole gamers to come to me. After all, if Mohammed cannot come to the Mountain, the Mountain must come to Mohammed, and all that.

[Ranxerox]

Originally posted by Toadmaster
Hey I didn't say you could get a nice house for $100,000 but some came up on a real estae search when I was looking out that way, I even saw a few in the $90,000 range. Might be a shack on swamp land but after looking in the east bay, I was pleasantly surprised. Now you've burst my bubble :(

You might be right about there being houses for around $100k, but when we went house hunting a year ago my wife wouldn't let me look at anything even close to that range. Hey, rbezold, are you married?

[Pattern Ghost]

Modesto... good luck. The place is a hole. The comparison to Spokane is an insult to Spokane. If you have any allergies or breathing problems whatsoever, I strongly advise you to stay put. You won't get around well in Modesto without a vehicle, as what little public transportation there is, is inadequate. If you go over to Dublin/Pleasanton, you can catch the BART into the Bay Area, though.

Given all that, there is the Gauntlet, and when they were at their old location (they changed locations after I moved out of town), they had a good sized area with gaming tables, snack and soda machines, and clean restrooms. I'm sure if people ordered Hero products from them, they'd have no problems getting them, but the store tends to keep a low inventory level on most things, which is probably why they're still in business in an industry that's so prone to fads. They used to track your purchases and give you a discount after you bought a certain amount, which is cool. The mall has Krier's Comics, and there's another comic shop on McHenry, the main drive. They've rennovated some of the downtown area, and there's now a pretty new movie theatre there. There's also an even nicer one up in Oakdale.

Hmm... Modesto sucks. The favorite weekend activity in Modesto is leaving Modesto. You've got a pretty fair split between going to the Bay Area, Reno/Tahoe, or the foothills/Jackson/Sonora. Oh, you're not too far from the state parks to get abducted into one, either. Nice bonus.

OH! I almost forgot the nice slaughterhouse smell from Ceres, which is pretty much just an extension of Modesto. If you like the smell of carcass, Modesto's also got that.

[Taliesan]

Man, all you guys don't know how good he's got it in Modesto. I'm originally from Porterville, Black Hole of the Valley and general armpit of the Universe, where the CITY GOVERNMENT ran the only two stores that carried RPG's OUT OF BUISINESS! Luckilly I now live in the more progressive-minded Bay Area, where game stores abound. Not to mention that here in the BA, every other station is NOT Country/Western or Bandera music.:D

[rbezold]

OH MY GOD!!! The worst mistake I have ever made in my entire life was moving to Modesto. I had to toss everything I owned because I couldn't get out of there fast enough. After a trying 6 months I now reside in Honolulu. Next time I pay more attention to warnings in this forum.

[lemming]

Originally posted by rbezold
OH MY GOD!!! The worst mistake I have ever made in my entire life was moving to Modesto. I had to toss everything I owned because I couldn't get out of there fast enough. After a trying 6 months I now reside in Honolulu. Next time I pay more attention to warnings in this forum.
Heh. I grew up in the Bay Area, but had a job that made me go to Modesto and other lovely areas. At least Modesto is close enough to get away to desirable areas. Try that with El Centro. Thankfully I never had to spend more than a week in any of these places. :)

[tgaptte]

Bummer you're no longer in the area, but I understand...how could you pass up Hawaii?

Still, it would've been nice to have another GM in our group and I really liked the game outline you provided for your world.

Drop me a line if you're ever back in the area and want to run a game! ;D

Tim

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by tgaptte
Bummer you're no longer in the area, but I understand...how could you pass up Hawaii?

Still, it would've been nice to have another GM in our group and I really liked the game outline you provided for your world.

Drop me a line if you're ever back in the area and want to run a game! ;D

Tim

Actually, I had a friend who turned down a job in Hawaii to continue living in Fresno. It wasn't blind ignorance. He had lived in Hawaii for two years previously, so it was a reasoned decision. Now he lives in Iceland. Go fig.

Keith "Good living is where you make it" Curtis

[lemming]

Originally posted by keithcurtis
Actually, I had a friend who turned down a job in Hawaii to continue living in Fresno. It wasn't blind ignorance. He had lived in Hawaii for two years previously, so it was a reasoned decision. Now he lives in Iceland. Go fig.

Keith "Good living is where you make it" Curtis
Of the three, I'd pick Iceland. But then, I've always been a more northern coastal type.

[SuperKlaus]

Ho - lee crap, this was an amazing read. It's just fascinating to see the hate rain down from all around. Here I was thinking I was the only one who couldn't stand this tumor of a town.

Sorry I'm so late to the party. If there's anybody still around in Modesto I'd like to know, cuz misery loves company. Also for general information the Gauntlet is pretty much dead, but Krier's has a new location and does better than the little G ever did RPG-wise.

[Ranxerox]

Ho - lee crap, this was an amazing read. It's just fascinating to see the hate rain down from all around. Here I was thinking I was the only one who couldn't stand this tumor of a town.

Sorry I'm so late to the party. If there's anybody still around in Modesto I'd like to know, cuz misery loves company. Also for general information the Gauntlet is pretty much dead, but Krier's has a new location and does better than the little G ever did RPG-wise.

Still, coming to work in this town 5 days out of 7. I checked out Krier's and it does seem to have a fair amount of RPG stuff but not too much HERO (though it did have the revised rulebook). There are a couple gaming stores up here in Stockton with better supplies of HERO merchandise.

It did have gaming tables which is good thing. Now if I could only find some players ...

[SuperKlaus]

Hmhmhmhm, you can thank me for the fact that Krier's stocks some HERO. I'll convert these heathens yet.

[JmOz]

Have you ever been to Modesto? I feel very sorry for you. I wish you the best.

Hey, George Lucas is from there, so it can't be all bad can it?

Uh...well...hmmm....scratch that....


Modesto is not that bad, Grew up there...but I perfer the arctic wastes of ND, so I might be a little bit crazy...

[JmOz]

Hey now, I never said that Santa Cruz was the land of milk and honey. Hell, I pay $1350 for an apartment, granted, its huge and has a great view of downtown, its still $1350 a month!

You are right about the house prices as well, a two-bedroom will run you around $375,000 for a fixer upper in Santa Cruz, but to be honest, I would rather rent for the rest of my life than have to live in that God forsaken place known as the San Joaquin valley ever again.

If I had a single wish, I would wish for Pachecho Pass to end in Mariposa and the whole land inbetween be sent to another dimension. Sorry to all your crank addicts out there, I know all the meth labs will dissapear in California, but think of it this way...you will be in the other dimension with them, so no need to worry...

This true confession is from a former Tracy resident, so I know what I am talking about here and not just flaming some place I never lived, I hate the San Joaquin valley and have many reason to do so.

Also, please note that this is all in good fun....

And, to the guy in San Jose, I would love to hear about your game if you have any open spots, as I live right over the hill from you...


Rent $400 (Includes water, heat, garbage)
Cable $100 (Includes Internet, DVR, Digital, Starz Package)
Natural Gas: $60 (annual Average)
Car Insurrance: $120
Car Payment: $260
Electricity: $50 (average)
Cell Phone: $80
Total -------
per month $1070

Now I hope you all see why I like ND

[JmOz]

Funny, did not look at date stamps, so is Guantlet still around? I'm going to have lived in ND 10 years this november, so am a little out of date...

[SuperKlaus]

The Gauntlet does technically exist. A friend of mine astutely compared it to the lich of D&D fame after its third relocating: "The banks keep trying to slay The Gauntlet but they just don't seem to find its phylactery." It's been getting a little more pathetic with each reincarnation (I blame level loss). My opinion is that it only exists so the owners have a private clubhouse and a way to buy stuff cheap.

Honestly if they'd sell it I'd consider taking over, but man that's one uphill battle.