Vanguard00

Re: Filthy Rich Burghers I'll see what I can find out, if anything.

Re: Liefeld's Titans It's your own damn fault. When I got home last night I got out my book and read along. I'm still chuckling

Re: Liefeld's Titans

Re: Liefeld's Titans

Re: Liefeld's Titans Ditto that. Funny as all get out, man.

Re: Pulp Stargate! On ABCFamily, starring Dakota Fanning and Rory Culkin. Your local PBS, or perhaps Nickelodean. Starring Selma Blair and Mark Hamill, and voices by Frank Oz and Jim Carey. Regular guest star Morgan Freeman. Fox, or maybe Cinemax late night. Starring...well, who cares? I wouldn't say endless... Stargate: The Blue Collar Years, on WB. starring Randy Quaid and Diedrich Bader. Survivor: Stargate, on Fox. Sixteen cast members are sent to a variety of worlds with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. They must complete a variety of trials and tests, with regular voting to eliminate one member per episode. The eliminated member doesn't get to come back through the Stargate. The Real Stargate, MTV. "This is the true story of seven strangers, picked to be thrust through a galactic wormhole and have their lives taped, and find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting REAL. The Real Stargate World!" Stargate: The Game Show, Game Show Network. Hosted by Chuck Woolery, four contestants answer questions and solve puzzles to try and be the first to unlock the Stargate's address. Consolation prizes include Goa'uld symbiotes and having your head shaved and a funky hood ornament welded to your forehead.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat OT: Is that spelling intentional, by chance? Cuz it's still kinda funny....

Re: Villain Summary Charts/Tables In Books

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat 1) "Pat", or maybe Mightybec 2) Making the other two sexes that much more appealing 3) Recycled food containers and lederhosen.

Re: Villain Summary Charts/Tables In Books I'd have to say I use them 'occasionally', usually when I'm looking for a new villain to throw at PCs, or perhaps trying to put together some sort of pattern/team in my mind and need quick reference information. I enjoy having them and would be bummed if they went away. That being said, if Steve quit putting 'em in the books I think we all know that someone else would put 'em on a website. I'd certainly consider doing it. And think of the cost savings! A couple less pages per book adds up, kiddies! DoJ could pass that savings on to us! Hey, Steve...speaking of: would it be permissable if I (or someone) created a similar reference chart to the ones of which you speak and put them on a site? Or would you prefer that didn't happen?

Re: Character Art What's the difference between "The Algernon Files" and the "Algernon Files (2nd Edition)"? Is it the same book with revisions or two different books? There doesn't appear to be a Hero System version of the 1st one so I'm not sure it matters, but I thought I'd ask.

Re: Filthy Rich Burghers I would think a hamlet as being no more than 100 or so people, give or take. A village would be larger, perhaps up to 500 or so. A town would be larger still, from 500-1000 people, maybe more. Anything larger than 1000 people is likely considered a city. Please note that strictly speaking, population numbers are not always the only determining factor. Importance to region/realm and overall status might also change the definitions. For example, a small but vitally important trade center of only 1000 souls might be a city to some, whereas a collection of migrant farmers and rural residents number over 2000 might still be considered a town. Just my thoughts on how you define it...though I should also note that this is straying mightily from the initial question.

Re: Skill Sponge Actually, that's not bad... How 'bout a VPP Mimic Pool that only allows Familiarity with skills within range? Give it enough points that SpongeBoy can use 10 or so skills, then buy some CSLs only to raise the skills from the VPP. You could even put the 'Concentrate' limitation on the CSLs--i.e. he has to think about the skills to get the full effect from them. Just throwin' stuff out there...

Re: Skill Sponge Sounds like a small VPP only for skills with some other limitations i'm too tired to think about. Does the person being sponged from need to be thinking about the skill for it to be used? For example, if the chess player is also a mechanic, would Skill-Sponge Boy still know mechanics at the base level? If the answer is 'yes', then you'll want/need low-level telepathy. If not, then just the VPP should do the trick.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Now, David, remember the words of Shakespeare when he said..." "Wait. Who?" "Shakespeare. You know, The Bard. Romeo and Juliet? Hamlet?" "Mom, you're from Alabama. You thought 'Hamlet' was a baby ham..." <<>> "Um, Mr. Wagner...did you get a perm?"

Re: Name Help Allbright - Could be Scottish, Irish or English, and it means "glorious". I believe the Germanic version is "Ulbricht", but I could be wrong.

Re: No Levels for Familiarities I usually follow this line of reasoning myself. If it makes sense, I think a Familiarity roll is very appropriate as a prequal for a full-blown skill. I also include a touch fo the following for RP purposes:

Re: Filthy Rich Burghers Well, in medieval times the peasantry made up 90% of the population, and that's a highly conservative estimate (you could say 95% and not be contradicted). Assume clergy, artisans, craftsmen, military officers and merchants made up the vast majority of the so-called 'middle class'. A very low percentage, probably less than 1%, made up almost exclusively from the aristocracy, titular and hereditary nobles. Breaking that down further, you'll have a couple of wealthy churchmen (of various levels of integrity, I'm sure), one or two well-to-do artisans and/or craftsmen (the best in their trade, with noble or even royal patronages), and a handful of wealthy merchants as I mentioned before. You might even have a high-ranking and highly-favored military officer in that list. Among the aristocracy, you might have as many as 100 titled nobles, but some of them are going to be 'working nobles', those without hereditary wealth and thus necessitating the need to work. Many of these nobles were indeed merchants, or entrepreneurs at the least, but also landlords, military officers and the like. A fraction of that number will hold obvious wealth. They have investments all over the city and sometimes abroad, and 'factors' working their money to parlay it into additional material wealth through investment, speculation, and banking. They live the life of leisure, but even in the Middle Ages many nobles maintained their lifestyle by going heavily into debt, leaving their descendents little or nothing but a title (the proverbial 'Baron of Nothing'). Of the thirty thousand folks in your city, it would not be too speculative to suppose that there were indeed only 30 or so truly 'filthy rich' people, including merchants, clergy and nobles (nobles would make up the majority of this number). As many as 300 people could be at least 'well off', if not actually 'wealthy'.

Re: Champions Universe Plot Hole Plugging I disagree here (and agree with others who have said essentially the same thing). Magic doesn't necessarily mean you can do anything. It simply provides for possibilities not normally governed by existing physics. To turn-of-the-millennium people, picking up a small device and talking to someone on the other side of the world is magic. Flipping a little switch and having music, or moving pictures, suddenly emit is magic. Heck, using certain herbs to cure whatailsya was magic at some point. In my mind (in relation to the game), "magic" is simply an as-yet-undefined source of energy with mutable laws of governing science. It is the as-yet-unknown and as-yet-undefined something that permeates the known universe, much like we can't explain the universe expanding (into what?) or how life really started, or why David Hasselhoff had any sort of musical career at all. Unexplained and/or unknown does not mean impossible.

Re: Disadvantage

Re: "Hudson City" like graphic novels While not as dark as some, I thought "Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters" had much to offer the Dark Champions genre. Some great characterization and a nice story. Joe-Bob says check it out.

Re: Filthy Rich Burghers I say you have as many as you need to make things realistic. For example, the perks themselves are subject to whatever constitutes wealth in your campaign. Honestly, in a city of the size you describe in the environment given (good port city with lots of trade), I'd think half a dozen merchants are wealthy, with one or two of those being filthy rich. Remember, too, that many merchants are 'well off' but have good connections. Nobles often sponsored merchants in their trade, outfitting overland caravans and merchant fleets for a (lion's share) of the profits. So, while a merchant may be highly successful, much of his gross income is going into overhead, and a large portion of the net income is going to his sponsors. It's unlikely you'll have very many truly wealthy merchants of any type, but you should always have a few. Fortunes will reverse quickly, however, as some merchants suffer devastating losses (an entire merchant fleet wiped out by a hurricane, for example) and others find themselves blessed with "right place right time" luck (a merchant with WAY too many barrels of grain is suddenly in a position to sell said grain to a region experiencing blight/drought/etc). Just my thoughts on the matter.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Well, I tested out the archery stuff this weekend. Not bad. I'll probably keep one of the characters (Jafa, a blaster tech/archery); I also played my fire/fire tanker (9th now), my broad/regen scrapper, and my fire/fire blaster. So far I see nothing that would make me think "dayumm! I done been nerfed!" Perhaps I play a tad cautiously but I've never had my tanker go up against reds and purples before, so picking and choosing my fights with whites and occasional yellows (or small groups of yellows with an orange) went well enough. Haven't tried the sonic stuff yet, and I haven't seen much of the new content, but thus far I'm cool with the new version.

Re: Disadvantage I disagree, and I think my example earlier helps illustrate why. If the GM is unable or unwilling to use a Hunted as an effective disadvantage, then it's the fault of the GM and not the rules. Hunteds aren't just known wandering monsters--they're effective tools for creating obstacles for PCs to overcome. Let's say you're Hunted by VIPER, as many heroes seem to be. Big deal, right? VIPER hunts all heroes more or less. That's all well and good until VIPER drops a dime on your character just before he takes on DEMON. Heck, VIPER doesn't even like DEMON, but to get rid of the PC they're probably willing to mention the fact that they've had good luck using electricity against him (assuming a vulnerability to electricity; substitute whatever works). Perhaps you're hunted by Ripper. Right in the middle of a good fight between the PC team and the Ultimates, word reaches the PC that Ripper is on the loose and wreaking havoc. 'Well,' you think, 'someone else will just have to handle it.' Where is Ripper, by the way? Oh, that's right--he's right by where your DNPC works, not too far from where you are now (thus ensuring that the PC is the closest response to that threat). Wham! Two disads used, and if the PC bails on the current fight to go after his hunted and save his DNPC, his team might lose against the Ultimates. Sounds like a disad to me. Use intelligence, imagination and forethought when dealing with disadvantages and a GM can always get full value out of 'em. If you're going after your PCs' disads with the proverbial 'vengeance' then you're doing yourself and your players a disservice (and I use 'you' to mean any GM, not just Ura-Maru). Point variation of Disads required is probably the best method I've seen for dealing with abused and abusive disads in general, but again, even with 150 pts of required Disads I usually find myself having to trim a couple of rolls here and there to bring the total UNDER the cap. I've also been known to add disads for no points, simply because they're appropriate. Not often, but it has been done.

Re: Dinosaur Planet Just for clarification, my comparison to sauropods was for size relevancy only. The earliest whales came about after the so-called "age of dinosaurs" (the Cretaceous period, some 100+ million years ago), roughly 50 million years ago, and have had much longer to develop to their current size because, as you indirectly pointed out, they didn't have homo sapiens to contend with. Thus, they've had more time to evolve than, say, the mammoths of the Pleistocene era, which is only 1 million to 10,000 years ago. Basically, as is the case today, homo sapiens can be blamed for a lot.