sinanju

15 hours ago, Ragitsu said:

 

Mike Lindell: "God gave us Trump".

 

Me: "Why can't we have frogs?"

We could have, but we voted against her.

I threw out my idea (for dealing with multiple fantasy races) on another thread. They're all the creation of some ancient civilization (elder gods, traditional gods, ultra-tech/magical mortal civilization, whatever), and effectively different breeds of humanoid. Humans are what you get when any of the other races don't carefully police their bloodlines, i.e., mutts. The elves (and dwarves and goblins and et cetera) have specific appearances (as opposed to humans, who can vary widely) because that appearance is *the definition* of an "elf" or "dwarf" or whatever (again, like breeds of dog). Vary from it by too much, and you're considered a "half-elf" (etc). Vary even farther, and you're just another mutt (i.e., human). Some cultures practice infanticide on those who don't meet the criteria, others will simply banish you, or just view you as definitely a second-class citizen or worse, and would never let you marry their daughters. In this world, humans are more numerous than the other races (they can breed like rabbits and nobody cares--other races have to police such things, so tend to be fewer in number), but also the least respected--albeit, to quote the News Monster from Futurama, "numerous and belligerant."

This is *why* elves are graceful and beautiful (they were playthings). Dwarves were bred to labor in mines and other enclosed places. Halflings were intended as quiet,  unobtrusive servants). Giants, goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, and the like were bred as cannon fodder. More exotic forms ( minotaurs, for instance) were bred to be hunted for sport. 

This rationale satisfies my desire to explain how and why so many different intelligent races co-exist.

Slaying Monsters for the Feeble, by Annette Marie. Second book in a series (the third drops on Thursday). The heroine, Robin, has accidentally become a Contractor (i.e., someone who holds a demon in thrall based on a contract). Contracting is a thing in her world, where magic is common and widely practiced (in secret), and demon summoning is well known and regulated by the magical authorities. Demons are bound by lengthy, detailed contracts in return for the summoner's soul when he/she dies. Except for Robin's demon. They made a very hasty verbal agreement to avoid both being killed by bad guys trying to bind the demon, and using her as their sacrifice. her demon is bound to "protect her" (as HE defines protecting her, since she didn't specify) in return for...cookies she bakes. (He likes her cookies, and she refused to part with her soul, and they were under severe pressure, so....) Unlike most bound demons, he retains free will and his magic, and if anyone finds out they'll both be put to death because an unbound (or loosely bound) demon is insanely dangerous.

I like this series, which is a spin-off series of another set in the same world, following the adventures of Tori, a human (i.e. non-magical) bartender for one of the magical guilds, along with the three powerful (and hot, of course) mages she hangs out with.

7 hours ago, Tywyll said:

This is why I never got into MMOs...

Well, see, I'm not opposed to paying for access to an ongoing game like that. Sometimes. I've done so in the past, though I so seldom play computer games (especially online games) anymore that it wouldn't be worth the money now.

It's discrete software packages (Office, Excel, publishing software, and so forth) that I refuse to pay for on an ongoing basis. Either I own it or I don't.

1 hour ago, pbemguy said:

 

There was a point in LOST when I realized (honestly) "Oh my God, they're just going to leave it this big unexplained mess." But I realized that I was okay with that. My favorite parts of LOST were how Jack grew as a leader, how he dealt with the crap that was thrown at him, how he looked out for his people. I didn't love the ending, but I was fine and I still love the show. The early tip-off for me was that a lot of the same people working on LOST were the people who did The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., and that show was a spiraling mess but with a helluva charismatic lead, so I kind of knew it was just going to end as kind of a shaggy dog story sorta thing.

Yeah, that point for me was the end of S1 of LOST, and I did care. A lot. Because it meant a lot of the stuff we saw--the polar bear, the smoke monster, the hatch...ultimately meant nothing. And I didn't care much for the characters because they were (in my opinion) too stupid to live in most cases. Same reason I never got into The Walking Dead. I can't care about characters (and their conflicts, growth, relationships, etc) if I find them to be ignorant morons who would all have long since been eaten by walkers if they weren't wearing plot armor. On the other hand, I'll forgive wooden acting, laughable SFX, and cheap sets...if the writing is tight, and the characters are smart.

I like Brisco County, Jr. I'm a big fan of Bruce Campbell. But I thought the main bad guy (whose name I can't even recall now) was horribly miscast and/or a horrible actor. I thought several of his minions were FAR more entertaining to watch. "You touched Pete's piece! Nobody touches Pete's piece!"

46 minutes ago, Greywind said:

 

I got the same impression with Fringe.

Yeah, and The X-Files (Chris Carter, not Abrams). I was a big fan of that show---until I realized there was no master plot of The Conspiracy (tm) above Chris Carter's desk, that he was just making **** up as he went. I continued watching the show, but only really cared about the "Monster of the Week" episodes that had nothing to do with the overarching "plot".

1 hour ago, pbemguy said:

 

I have a love/hate thing for him, so I get it.

I don't hate JJ Abrams. I don't allot him that much brain space. But I have no use for him. I watched the first season of LOST, but gave up after that because it became clear me at that point that there was no "there" there. That he was happy to create an endless series of mysteries, but there was no answer forthcoming--well, other than an ass-pull at the eleventh hour, if that. Life is too short for that kind of crap.

I like Classic, but while I still have a bunch of classic Traveller books and a bunch of supplements and JTAS supplements, I only have my original Book 3. The first two basic books have gotten lost in the last 40 years and umpteen moves. Funny how that happens.

I *have* the Hero Traveller books, but they don't appeal to me. I'd run GURPS Traveller if my gaming crew were up for it, but they don't like GURPS. Plus, with either one I'd end up doing a lot building/conversions of weapons and equipment.

So I'm going to go with Mongoose 2nd Edition Traveller. I have the Core Rules, Companion, High Guard, and Central Supply Catalog. That's pretty much everything I need all in one ruleset. Plus, if I'm gonna play a game from my personal Golden Age of Gaming, I want to use essentially the same game. So there I am.

5 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

[Re: My working on a Traveller game]

 

Consider running it on HERO legs; Traveller HERO is a 5e product that formalized what a lot of us had been doing for some time. 

 

Take your training charts and your mustering out charts and put them in HERO terms.   It might make it taste better to your Champions group. 

 

Nope. Not gonna happen. I considered that. I considered running GURPS Traveller. In both cases, it's too much work for too little return. When/if I run my Traveller game, it's gonna be straight-up Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition flavor). If my Champions group don't want to try it, I'll find another group somewhere for it. (Maybe online, at this point....)

1 minute ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

To be fair, subscription model software is often both product and service.  Your initial purchase is paying for the product, the software.  Every dollar after that is paying for the service, the steady flow of updates and patches. 

The alternatives are rolling versions that require repurchases "FIFA 2020 is out!  FIFA 2019 is obsolete!  Buy FIFA!  Again!", donation funding "Please please please have you considered donating to Wikipedia?", in-software advertisements "Your game will start shortly, after this two minute message from our sponsors.", or discontinued support "Yes, we know the program crashes when you make the right pane blue.  We can't do anything about that.  We have no money.".  Or worse, there's actually some nastier alternatives that I refuse to mention in polite company. 

Or FOSS.  FOSS is pretty great. 

Nope. No subscriptions. It's nothing but a money grab.

If I buy Software 1.0, and it serves my purposes, I don't need or want anything more. IF and when I find it lacking, I can *choose* to pay for an upgrade (Software 1.1 now with flavor!) or a whole new iteration (Software 2.0). But I'm NOT going to pay a monthly or annual subscription just to maintain access to a product I bought.

2 hours ago, Asperion said:

The way that I have always seen the Transform \Multiform argument is that they are effectively the same thing. Transform targeted at self would be multiform and multiform UAA (or any of its various forms) would be transform. Shapeshift is effectively a form of multiform that allows one to shift while maintaining the same form.

Except that it's not. I agree with Duke Bushido on this. Transform *actually* turns you into [whatever]. Multi-form *actually* turns you into [whatever]. Shapeshift only presents the ILLUSION that you have turned into someone or something else. And illusion that, unless you buy every sense group in existence, will always be seen thru eventually.

Next time I want to play a shapeshifter, I'm going to use Transform vs Self.

Working on a Traveller game. I've been working on it in fits and starts for a couple of years now, but now that my Champions game is on hiatus, I'm spending all my game-prep time working on Traveller so I can eventually run it. I don't know when that'll happen. My gaming group is pretty much a dedicated Champions group. But I guess we'll see.

Just got back from a short 20-minute walk outside. First time I've been out of my apartment in several days. There's very little traffic on the street, and I saw...two other pedestrians? One waiting at a bus stop, one pushing a shopping cart (too far away to see if it was a homeless person or someone policing carts from the nearby Albertsons). 

In a bit of good news, I videoed(?) my girlfriend while on my walk. She sent a video back--she got to tell one of her patients that he tested negative for COVID, so he gets to go home tomorrow. So there's that.

I was, at one time, interested in InDesign for doing covers and layout for my books, but that was before they went to a subscription model. To hell with that. If I can't *own* the software, I'm not interested. I ended up learning GIMP for doing book covers, and I used Jutoh for formatting ebooks for a long while. Now I'm using Draft2Digital's website to format my ebooks. They have a pretty decent system, it's free, and Amazon accepts them. I might eventually look into Vellum, but not yet. I'm not sure I'm really interested in publishing anymore.

1 hour ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

Is she going in on the assumption that at some point she will contract the virus, sooner or later? And will she need the treatment for herself that she is providing for patients?

No, I think it's more just taking care that IF she catches the virus, she won't spread it.

She described the laborious, time-consuming, detailed procedure for masking, gowning, and gloving up before entering a patient's room, and then the even more laborious procedure for de-gloving/masking/gowning, and sterilizing the area where this happens when between patients. Also, each nurse is assigned four patient rooms and that nurse and ONLY THAT NURSE enters those rooms. And they have to do this procedure every time they go into or out of the room to do anything. The time-consuming nature of these precautions is why they're each only handling four patients.

4 hours ago, segerge said:

 

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?

I was (am, I suppose) a big fan of the Destroyer novels. They're about the adventures of Chiun, Master of Sinanju (Emeritus), and Remo Williams, reigning master of Sinanju as they murder trainloads of bad guys over the course of well over 100 novels...

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you played?
Original D&D...by about about four months. I discovered D&D (and role-playing games) as a college freshman in 1977. After Christmas break, I came back ready to explore more dungeons...only to discover that the group had moved on to Traveller (and we never looked back).

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

D&D

 

What are you currently playing/GMing?

GM: Champions (Hudson City Wild Cards), Player: Champions (rotating GM/campaigns set in Gotham, Evergreen City, Zion City (FL), and elsewhere.)

 

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4 hours ago, segerge said:

When did you start to play Hero?

May 1982, between the end of my sophomore year at college and reporting to USAF field training.

My girlfriend, an RN, sent me a Marco Polo video last night. As of last night, she's officially caring for Covid patients--so she's quarantined. She won't be able to visit for a while. Bummer. At least we can send videos back and forth.

Meanwhile, I am now officially under house arrest by Governor Brown, so my Hudson City Wild Cards campaign is on hiatus for a while. Unless we figure out how to play online....

Duke Bushido is a man after my own heart. I love shapeshifting characters (like Mystique), but 6ED Shapeshift sucks for that. I transform into a Schwarzenegger-sized thug or a slinky asian female. If I want it to be convincing, it's gotta cover sight, hearing ,smell, taste, touch--and those are just the basic senses. If you to want to cover *everything*? It's ridiculous. And as DB points out, you never *really* turn into whatever it is, you just pretend to.

There's gotta be a better way.

5 hours ago, Spence said:

Yeah, I kinda figured it would be YouTube.

I miss the days of a concise written document.  There are a lot of things I'd look into if I had hours of free time to watch videos and listen to pod babble. 

 

Darn those whippersnappers.....

 

You and me both. I hate it when I follow a link to some news item and I get a video instead of text. I want TEXT. A transcript I can skim to see if it's worth my time to read more closely, or to actually watch the video. Usually, I just hit the BACK button and move on. Life is too short to watch a 10 minute video that turns out to be pointless.

I work at a hospital (in the liver transplant clinic offices, not dealing with patients). I'm in a group of four, two pre-transplant, two post-transplant. Last Friday they had us begin working from home 4 days a week, each of us coming in on a different day to do the tasks we can't do from home (printing and mailing letters, scanning documents, etc). Today they announced that starting next week only ONE of us will come in each week to handle all of that for the whole group. So my next trip to the office will be April 9th. The game store where I play in a twice-monthly game has suspended hosting games there til at least mid-April (though they're still open for business). My gym closed too. Fun fun fun.

3 hours ago, Brian Stanfield said:

Secret from the GM as well? Or just the other players? Mystery is fun and all, but as was pointed out earlier, the players have to have at least some kind of rationale for being together. That's hard to do with complete secrecy. Revelations are fun, but my players have a tendency to resort to soliloquy to "reveal" what shouldn't actually be revealed. This just sounds like a lot of extra work for the GM. 

 

Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding the situation. Wouldn't be the first time. . .

Secret from the other players, not the GM. We use a Google group to email one another about the game(s), and discuss characters. He doesn't want his character sheet posted, or for anything more than the bare minimum about his character to be revealed until the game begins. His rationale is that PCs should learn about one another by interacting in the game, which I understand, but it does make it harder to create a cohesive group--especially beforehand.

9 hours ago, greysword said:

 

 

I suggested that beforehand, and we sort of had that, especially when the group decided to move the team to Florida.  The players just seem to like to *surprise* each other with their character's traits (hence the lone wolf marker).  One player especially likes to even surprise me (the GM) while we play.

 

I like session Zero's, but even then, the characters seem to deviate from the agreed format.  I suggested we switch to (the aforementioned) vigilante (or antihero) team format instead of a straight laced team, but that isn't what everyone wanted.  It's okay, just fits in with the conversation we're having.  I can't really compete with the depth of possibilities and min/maxing available with 6E.

 

 

Yeah, I'd be happy to do a Session Zero character building session before a new campaign, but many players in our group--John, in particular--really likes keeping his character concept/powers/build a secret until the game starts.

Yeah, I got in (I created an account years ago)--but then the software demands that I "claim" my account before I can do anything, but it won't send the verification email so I can do it.

Well, I finally found the mod in my TTS and got it launched. As for talking to you--or anyone--on the Discord server, I can't verify my email address because their idiotic software won't send me the email I need.

How the **** do I get INTO the Hero mod for Tabletop Simulator? I can't find anything to download.