Vanguard00

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept? The more I think about it the more I realize that the PCs in my campaigns are usually the "gray areas" in my story. They are the elements I can't really control. I provide a compare and contrast element (the "good guys" and the "bad guys") and let them find their way in between. Of course, I lean towards epic and high fantasy where this is easier, but even in "low fantasy" games I've generally had an "evil empire" of some sort. If I want a complication I simply make the main antagonist a likeable fellow, or lure one of the PCs into a personal relationship with a "bad guy". And thus ends my attempt to answer the question honestly while ignoring the trollish undertones...

Re: "Grond smash!" and other Grond plots I ran a variation of this many years ago. We had Grond get his mind back following a serious mental whammy. Basically over the course of several encounters it was noted that Grond was getting smarter and more articulate. Finally he quit appearing in public, but his "hide out" (I don't remember where I had him stashed) was accidentally discovered. Grond was catching up on decades worth of art and literature. He was somehow brought out for a major clash, teaming up with the heroes to take on a major villain (after which he promised to turn himself in to the authorities on the condition he could continue pursuing his new love of literature, art and science). He was played most excellently by a newcomer who wanted to learn the rules. He really managed to bring some personality to the monster. The PCs were already trying to figure out how to get him on the team, or at least keep him from prison. During the climatic battle Grond was trapped in an electrical barrier and had his mind fried--again. He turned himself in as promised, already having trouble understanding the philosophies he was currently reading. The last image the heroes had of him was of a very despondent Grond trying vainly to read through the Greek classics before he completely lost his mind. A month later an angry and unintelligent Grond broke out of Stronghold to return to his life of villainy. The heroes never did look at him the same way after that.

Re: The cranky thread At what age does it cease to be funny to say "Got your ears lowered!" when someone gets a haircut. There's a guy at work who says that to just about everyone. Any dumba$$ remark like that, really. I'm 34 years old, and the average age of my immediate group of coworkers is about the same, but there's always one nuckfut who seems to think that pointing it out is still funny. It's not particularly shorter than I wore it before, so why even mention it? Gawd, he makes my teeth itch...

Re: The NGD at 28/6/04 ?

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Entered a bet with a bunch of folks from work to see who can lose the most weight in three months. Everyone's weighed in and it ranges from 198 to 396. Fourteen people are in it. Weight loss will be calculated by percentage. The bet? Everyone's in for a hunnerd. Second place gets their money back. First place gets the rest but has to take everyone out for lunch. In all honesty I don't really care if I win or not. I'm hoping it'll be incentive enough to lose some serious poundage, though. That means diet sodas, a helluva lot less beer, no junk food (ack!), and regular exercise. So far I'm good with the diet sodas.

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept? My first thought was "Of course it's racist! That's the point!" Fantasy in the Tolkien-inspired sense is about black and white, good and evil. The morally ambiguous or socially complex doesn't have a place there. You're either a good guy or a bad guy, so why not have an entire race of bad guys? It's an escapist cliche that lets us get away from the burdening questions of morality and trying to separate intent from action, and personally I'm all for it. I wouldn't use Jews or Aryans or anything else as an "evil" race because it's way too real-world for me. I'd have to work too hard to overcome all my years of acceptance coupled with a serious lack of PC behavior, and that'd be too much effort for fun. That's not why I play RPGs. I would not presume to oppose or condone such game play, though. It ain't my game so it ain't my place to say. If it works for you, go for it. YMMV, of course, but them's my two pennies.

Has anyone ever put together a character that's essentially a "nemesis" of whomever s/he may be fighting? I was wondering what the feasibility of this would be from a GM's point of view, as well as how to actually construct it. For the first part, having a character (hero or villain) who can adapt to the person s/he is facing could be highly unbalancing, but it'd be a decent idea for a team-oriented encounter. I'm not sure if I'd let such a character into my campaign as a PC, but I'm interested in trying to play one The second part is what throws me. How to construct it? I thought about making a decent "super norm" type character, good stats but nothing truly "super", and then giving that person a VPP to represent the powers s/he can have. Each power in the VPP would have "No conscious control", "1 continuous charge (character must keep power during fight)", and similar limitations, but I can't seem to wrap my mind around how to do it. The key to it would be an Analyse ability that allowed the character (instinctively, no conscious control) to develop the power necessary to defending against or defeating his opponent. That might mean developing a power that the opponent has a vulnerability to, or developing a good defense against whatever is being used against him. All the powers would fade within a minute or so of the fight ending. It only works against a person (or maybe people, if that's doable), so it won't help the guy if he falls off a building or sinks to the bottom of the ocean. It just occured to me this morning and I've been kicking it around without a book handy, so I thought I'd drop it here for y'all to mull or null as appropriate.

Re: Answers & Questions

Re: The NGD at 28/6/04 ? While I honestly appreciate the sentiment, now I'm all depressed. It totally bums me out when I think about how many posts y'all log on a regular basis. Sometimes I think I'm just going to dedicate a few days/weeks/months to catching up... ...then I remember I have a life. Heh.

Re: Questions about StrikeForce Allston...spare time...why do those words not wanna seem to go together?

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Please let it be a sock...

Received my eBay-purchased copy of "Strike Force" in the mail this week. A little scuffing on the cover but otherwise it's in great shape. A mere $26 later and I think I have a complete Hero Games collection (well, everything I want, anyway). This is good stuff, too. Much of it I recognize from earlier editions of Champions (III, I think it was), but it's still a great read, and it gave me a few ideas I can incorporate into my existing campaign. Just had to share.

Re: Team Shuttle Help?

Re: Subplots Real TV During the course of the heroes' current adventures it becomes clear that they are being followed. Any investigation/confrontation will reveal that it's a news crew documenting their exploits for an in-depth "Who's Watching the Watchmen?" type of exposé. Will this help or hurt the heroes? Have they revealed anything about themselves that they shouldn't have? Will anyone use the footage to more nefarious ends? How will the heroes react to being "public domain", similar to celebrities? Will any of this set a precedent that might have even more far-reaching repurcussions?

Re: Answers & Questions Q: It's absolute chaos out there. Fire and brimstone raining from the sky, rivers and seas boiling, the dead rising from the grave, dogs and cats living in sin...how do you feel about that? A: That's why the lady is a tramp.

Re: Answers & Questions Q: I think we're lost--it was a right at Albuquerque, correct? A: It's better than the last time.

Re: Champions fans on COH, read up! Replied to here: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=364205#post364205

Re: Champions fans on COH, read up! I WANNA JOIN THE JUSTICE SQUAD!!!! Ahem I mean, um, I'll look for you guys, if you think you might have need of a lvl 12 tanker on occasion... [EDIT] Rats. This ain't the board I thought it was. Oh, well...

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER I've already adapted one or two ideas from the "From little plot seeds..." thread here: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3046

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Wow. For a short time there after I logged off yesterday until this morning, this thread was almost turning into a political thread...

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Had fondu for the first time ever this past weekend. The girlfriend and I headed over to a place called "The Melting Pot". A friend of ours is a waiter there and we finagled a reservation on relatively short notice. My g/f brought a bottle of wine, too, which I don't drink, but that's neither here nor there. We laughed with the waiter about how we knew nothing about anything related to fondu except that usually cheese was involved, and we let him take over. First course involved small chunks of bread, apple cubes, and bite-sized veggies dipped in a spinach-garlic-swiss cheese combo (the g/f added artichoke, which I don't like). Absolutely grubbin'. You forget that it's just an appetizer and not a main course. Salad came next. Salad is salad. Movin' on. Main course. The tray of meats we chose included lobster, salmon, beef (two cuts--center rib-eye, I think, and something else), pork, chicken, and mushrooms (portobello, I think...I don't eat 'em). Into the fondu pot went some cooking wine, a variety of herbs and spices, some mushrooms (shittake, maybe?), and it just rocked. Oh, and they provided something like ten different dipping sauces, ranging from a garlic-herb thing like pesto to teriyaki to something that made the horseradish seem awfully tame. We dumped a variety of veggies in and let 'em cook a bit (spuds, broccoli, squash--blech), then got to eatin'. Absolutely wonderful. Desert. A chocolate-Baileys Irish Cream mix, into which we dipped bananas, apples, strawberries, pineapple (not as good), a brownie-like cake, angelfood cake (I think it was), and...um...something else. Cheesecake, maybe. All good. Sheer heaven. Total cost including beer for me (our waiter friend didn't charge us a cork fee for the wine), was $98 and change. I tipped $25, and we left him the remaining wine for later. Probably one of the best dinners out I've ever had. Not something we'll do often, but I'll definitely be back. I never knew fondu was such a cuisine. Just thought I'd share.

Re: Updated Shamrock Thanks, LL.

Re: Updated Shamrock Nevermind. Found it.