Desert

Re: Pulp Lovecraft Well it looks like it's not on DVD at this time. It was released on Video Cassette about ten years ago though.

Re: Pulp Lovecraft I'm torn on this. On one hand, it looks like something I would be bored with. On the other, it's so odd, I feel the need to know what else happens.

Re: The Pretender I know the story concept would not work well being taken straight out of the series, but a majority of the character could. A lot of it can be put in a game, such as the hunted, sense of justice, and code versus killing. Instead of a vpp, I think it would be the cramming skill, though with the option that at the end of the adventure, he can put some experience points in it to be able to use the skill some later on. Instead of being an individual adventure, he could be used as a spy, going into a place where the others need to, and getting advance information and scouting out. He could also be a "what do you need?" character. Whenever the group needs a certain type of specialist for a mission, they let him know, and he fills it. But seeing as it's more about how to make it, I guess no one has ever actually tried to create or play a Pretender character

Alright, so I used to watch The Pretender on tv, and recently bought the third season, so the show is a bit on my mind, and after trying to make a pulp version for the Pulperize It thread, I've been thinking about him in game terms. Has anyone created a game version of him, or a similar type character to play out? I mean, it does seem like an interesting concept to play, and could be lots of fun. Any additional thoughts on the matter? Played the concept, have unique ideas on the concept, let's hear about it.

Re: A campaign idea I dreamed up Villain? Hey, you could expand this to a pc character "hero?" if you wanted. A so called superhero finds himself being sued and having financial troubles, so in desperation, he creates a supervillain costume and persona, which he uses to rob banks and steal money. When he gets sued, uses money he stole to pay it off, then steals more. Just imagine how mad people would be when they find out what he's doing, especially the other superheroes he's worked with.

Re: A campaign idea I dreamed up The villains fought each other. With no heroes in the way, it left the world open for the conquering. Problem is, they all wanted it, so they have to fight each other. Tends to destroy a lot of equipment, and since both are villains, neither really has anything holding them back from killing each other. (This is of course ignoring the obvious point that despite being illegal, there would still be people in costume fighting crime. Just being a lot more difficult)

Re: How Do You Handle Machine-Class Mental Powers? Actually CrosshairCollie is right. The machine has to have something that can be used as a mind, in order for the character to use his powers on it. If it doesn't have something that can be considered a mind, then he can't affect it.

Re: How Do You Handle Machine-Class Mental Powers? Well, you could use the machines intelligence score, which the main book says their supposed to have to be able to perform programs. Or you could have it be that they have to overcome some of the programs, like firewalls or anti-hacking programs. He basically is mentally hacking it in a way.

Re: Fantasy Art Thread I'm afraid I lost the original of this at the moment, so I can't attach and thumbnail. http://d.furaffinity.net/art/desertmutt/1153790305.desertmutt_marissa.jpg An old character of mine. One I might resurrect and if I start to draw again, will recreate. That's a giant hammer she's wielding by the way.

Re: Pulparize It! If you think that the mere mention of my saying Radio was all I would change, then I'm afraid you are mistaken. Jarod would be kidnapped before or during World War I, growing up in isolation, where his skills would be tested and start to be used. While being told that what he was working on was to help create radio programs for civilian entertainment, it is not actually true. While some of what Jarod works on does get used for such programs as Superman and the Shadow, more of his work is of a military or business application. Among his work would be working on strategies of attack for the allies, new weaponry, and trying to figure out the cause of the assassination as well as why. Jarod is able to foretell the depression, giving the people who have kidnapped him the chance to sell their stock before it crashes and save their money. During the depression, his abilities are used to try and come up with ways to help the economy recover. During a reading of numerous newspaper articles, he reads of Hitler in Germany and tries to warn of the pending reich. Although warned, no one does anything, believing that the actions of Germany starting a new war will help the U.S economy. With some mysterious help, Jarod finally escapes, just in time for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Blaming himself for part of the events of what led up to World War II and the deaths at the Harbor, Jarod now tries to set things right. Unknowingly, he accidentally left something behind. In his work area are forgotten notes and parts of a story where a villain attempts to create an "Atomic Bomb," which will eventually find their way to the U.S. Government and a scientist named Albert Einstein. Meanwhile, Jarod is trying to find the family he lost all those years ago as well. He believes he's out there, he just doesn't know anything about them. It has been so long, he can't even remember their names. As he travels, he finds small bits of things in the world that he missed during his containment, which he finds quite intersting (If anyone knows any toys or such that came out in such time, all the better. I unfortunately do not)

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Pulptender And so, as I was looking at my DVDs, it suddenly came to me. The Pretender:king:: A young man, known only as Jarod, was kidnapped from his parents when he was a child. He was taken because of his genius IQ and ability to take on the personality and aspects of a person and say and do what the person could or should. Believing his abilities were being used to help write the stories for various radio programs, Jarod finds out that what he is doing is actually being used in actual events. Jarod managed to escape, though how is not entirely known. Now he travels the country, trying to set right some problems that he can while trying to find his lost family. The people who kidnapped him are not happy with his escape however. Jarod is now also on being hunted so that he can be recaptured and returned to continue his work. (On a side note, you have to admit that the cramming skill is absolutely perfect for a character like this )

Re: The fall of your character Maybe I can give a better example and get people a little more inspired. I unfortunately don't have a champion character I can actually use (I'm the one who plans on running the game and am just finishing up reading the core book before even creating characters for the players), so I'm going use a character I played the past two weeks who happens to be a sorcerer. Now my current plan is to have him learn to make constructs and various other items. So if he gets killed, let it be as he tries to get one last key ingredient for his amazing construct. However, the last time I played, I got two critical failures on two separate attacks, I took ten, then got knocked out by the enemy:mad:. So most likely, the character is going to die from a critical failure on my part, followed by a critical success by the gm for the npc

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Okay. Can't remember character's names, so will just be using Initials. D&D game. I was GMing. Little bit of background. J: Swashbuckler. About it. K: Rogue. Has a family that creates potions. Now the quotes K: I go to a tavern since they tend to have live rabbits for food some times K's Character: Do you have any live rabbits? Npc: Yes *Chopping sound* ...Sorry, fresh out. Me: Fine. To get the story moving again, you got the live rabbit. K: I use my easter potion on it. *Proceeds to describe the effects* J's character: This goblin is pretty smart. K: (Desert) is pretty good at playing a stupid goblin.

Re: Pulparize It! Woo. Actual historical reference This gets interesting

Alright, so everyone who plays hopes that their character will last until the point that it can be retired, and there are times where that does not happen. A bad roll, a bad choice, an act of sacrifice that is in character, a cruel gm; these are all events that can cause a character to die. And so, I place it to the player to see what will be the death of your character. How will it all end? This is actually a two part one in a matter. One would be "what would be preferred." If you had it your way, that's how your character would die. The other is "what is most likely to happen." This is what seems like what will probably happen based on as much of the above as possible is considered. In example: I have a friend who likes to play fast agile characters. In many cases, he tends to go toward martial arts, and is planning on playing a saiyan style character. Now if I asked him, most likely he would say that he would want his character to die sacrificing himself to destroy a villain. (This is hypothetically. I have not actually asked him). However, my friend tends to make his characters very curious. If there is something there, he just canNOT leave it alone no matter how dangerous it is. As such, my being in an irritable mood combined with a bad roll on his part will probably more than likely be killed by messing with something he should not. It's quite interesting when you present someone with a large button that says "Do NOT touch" and they can't help but push it.

Pulp Monster Vs. Aliens / Mentalist and Psych I saw Monsters Vs. Aliens the other days. Enjoyed it myself. Anyway, I think it could make an interesting pulp era adventure. For the aliens, simply replace it with the Marians. Not quite sure how to do the monsters though. Meanwhile: The Mentalist: After the death of his family at the hands of a serial killer, Patrick Jane, famed for playing a psychic investigator on his radio show (Which we could tie in by having it called The Mentalist ), quits. He decides to join a California law enforcement agency and use his skills to help bring various killers to justice. Someday, he hopes one of them will be the man resposible for the death of his family. Psych: Shawn Spencer lacks direction in his life. His father, a skilled and talented cop, has left him with an acute sense of observation and finely honed deductive reasoning, making him capable of solving radio mysteries before they are over. Shawn does not want to be a police officer. However, after helping to solve a case, Shawn finds himself having to come up with an excuse as to how, and claims to be psychic. Now he is helping solve cases for the police, but must keep them believing that it is with his psychic powers, or else he will be arrested or worse.

Re: Harassing the GM, your stories! This second would get me more and make me more inclined to leave though. I mean it seems like the GM is under the impression it is some sort of competition. If there was a problem where a player seemed to think in that terms and the GM was reacting due to that, I could understand. If he was just such a person... Doesn't sound like it would be much fun.

Re: The Reason Behind Teleios Okay. Definately have to get that one then. He seems like a perfect villain for my group. (they are quite a strange set of players.)

Re: The Reason Behind Teleios From what I've heard about Foxbat, this does not bode well. (what book is he in by the way?). What possible reason could he have for this? Whatever it is, it's going to be quite strange. Woo. The DaVinci Code reference. (I actually read that book) That would explain why Teleios is so egotistical

Okay the Champions Universe book has Teleios in it, as I'm sure most of you are aware. In the book it says that Teleios, then Jakob Stroessen fell asleep from exhaustion while working on his plan for nearly three days straight. When he came to, he found a sheet of paper filled with notes and formulas. From this, Jakob managed to complete his formulas and was able to become Teleios . Now here's the questions I put to you, which I'm sure some have wondered already. Who, or what, wrote down the formula for Jakob so he could complete his work, and why? If you have a theory, share it. If you explored the concept in one of the games, talk about it. I'll even start: Initially, when I first read the character, when I read how he forgot about finding the formulas and thought he did it all himself, I figured "maybe he did." Maybe he somehow ended up traveling through time, and his future self wrote down the notes that would let him be who he now is. Last night however, I came up with a different reason, which would be a more interesting plot. Teleios is a part of a greater plot. Some malevolant being wishes to take over the earth, and to do so it needs a physical vessel here on earth. The being somehow came across Jakob, and created the formula so Jakob could become "perfect" and thus would be what the being would be the perfect vessel to use for his planetary invasion.

Pulparama Pulp Futurama: a young delivery boy in the 1820's is accidently put into suspended animation. He wakes up one hundred years later in a new world he knows little about.

Re: Your takes on a magician detective Hm. I originally had not put much thought into it other than a vague general notion when I was working on Pulp version of Harry Dresden for Pulparize it, and decided to come up with a version where he had no magic powers. On the most basic level, what I have is someone who knows the tricks of trade. He was raised by a magician and learned how the tricks were done. Much of that, such as the escaping hand cuffs or distracting a person, he figured out how to use it while trying to solve crime. Were I to actually create the character, I suppose he would be influenced by the characters of Shawn Spencer from Psych, and Patrick Jane from The Mentalist. He would not pretend to have powers, but he would be quite skilled. Were I able, I would try to play it so that it was uncertain. As though, even though he says he does not, there is still something about it that leaves others wondering. You know, he would probably have Hunted (watched): Magician's Guild. They would not want him to reveal their secrets after all. If I end up thinking about it too much though, then instead of simply being highly skilled, he ends up more of a gadgeteer with numerous inobvious, inaccessible foci that he would have concealed on him at various points

Small misunderstanding While I seem to be getting some interesting answers and quite a bit of help, there seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding. I am not trying to create a pulp era stage magician style detective. I am merely curious as to how others would create such a thing if they were. It's an open interpretation to see how others would and maybe compare the differences in between designs. I have put a little thought in it myself, and have a bit of an idea. For the most part, were I to make such a character, he would have specially altered clothing that allowed him to hide various magician accessories and equipment on him. I have figured out about two so far. One would be pockets hidden on the sleeves of his shirt or jacket around the cuffs. It could be used as a hiding spot for some items. It would also be of use to hold flash paper. That way he could pull out a sheet and create a small flash for a distraction or to temporarily blind. The other would be small lock picks. I originally thought of having them hidden in the metal of his belt buckle, but they could also be made as part of a tie tack.

Re: Your takes on a magician detective I'm not actively looking, just being curious on other people's ideas and such. I'm somewhat new to this all though, and only have about two books other than the core book. Quite a lot I need to learn. Well the idea is that it's supposed to be a bit more open to interpretation to see what all people come up with. Since you're asking though, the idea is more like: The character is a pulp era detective (chicago since it's Dresden inspired ), however he was raised by a stage magician, or among magicians. For the most part, it is set up around the use of stage magician skills in solving his cases. It's a realistic style world so no one really believes in magic. As for the "real magick" question, he could have it, he could NOT, or he could be so skilled, that no one is sure one way or the other