Spence

Re: Build a Vanship?

Re: The Wild Hunt I forget where I saw it but I know this has been written up somewhere. I'm sure someone will pop out the link/location in a day or so. Maybe sooner.

Re: Dark Champions the Anime Series And? The review man, the review!

Re: Build a Vanship? Except for #3, think of them as a WW1 biplanes. A wrench and a screwdriver fixes anything

Re: Dark Champions the Anime Series So does this make you officially a lecher or old goat

Re: Build a Vanship? http://www.lastexiledvd.com/ It's a pretty good series. Ariel Battleships and all.

Re: Build a Vanship?

Re: Build a Vanship? Actually they name the stuff in the show, when he was repairing the Vanship after the crash. I'll have to look through the show again.

Re: Build a Vanship? That weird bubbly stuff in the bubbly stuff tubes of course

Re: Sam Rami to do a Pulp Film? While I know for a fact any movie by Hollywood will not meet the my vision of them based on the books. I did enjoy the Shadow a lot, even if Alec Baldwin is low on my list of actors. Raimi does have a good list of great shows to his credit. I think this could be done, and be good.

Re: Magic Martial Arts For me I would either make it a SFX or an inner energy like Chi, that augments the MA.

Re: HERO System 1/4-page damage tracker sheet handout looks handy

Re: Near-future space timeline Not from my section of the peanut gallery Most of the tie-ins could be ignored in a game until the GM actually needed them, if he did. Some of it wouldn't be general knowledge and the PC's would even know about it until it was "discovered" at a suitably dramatic moment. Plus even players who lived under a rock would be familiar with most of the tie-in's. Great timeline. I'd love to play a character in this gameworld.

Re: Good animated supers flicks? I liked animated "Teen Titans" in addition to the already mentioned ones.

Re: The Future of Small Arms But in the end "lack of interest" is what controls weapons development. Many of our existing "break-through's" in weaponry occurred years after the first discovery or invention. No only does it have to work. But the chain of command must be convinced it is readily available, easy to maintain or rugged enough to not need extensive maintenance and ammunition also must be readily available. Currently most militaries have "standardized" their ammunition. The weapon could be incredible, but unless I replace every weapon in my military I uncork a logistics nightmare. "Sorry sir, the 134th needs to be pulled out of the line". "What, they just kicked some major butt." "Yes sir, but they were in the process of shifting North, not West. Their logistic tail is 300 miles north of here and the SuperWeap Type 1's go through a lot of ammo. I checked just in case, and they are the only unit in theater with the new weapon." "Cr*p" No matter how well planned, the more possible problems that can occur, the more will occur. I don't forsee a major move away from the bullet, they will be refined yes, but they will remain for many years until the cost becomes less important than effectivness. Or the cost is reduced enough to acheive the same effect.

Re: Populate a 17th century galleon Yes, but they were not Galleons. They came after. The biggest Galleon I can find record of was ~1000 tons, with most being less. The Ark Royal of 1588 against the Spanish Armada was 800 tons with a total of ~450 crew to include officers, gunners, sailors and soldiers. I am probably off, but is was after James I and during Charles I reign that they adopted the "rate" system. A 1st rate (1745 reckoning) of ~100 guns had an establishment of 780 crew ~1706-1719 and jumps to 850 crew through 1783. A large 74 crewed form 640-650 while a common 74 crewed 590-650. Of course there was a tendency to vary greatly from "establishment" depending on the Captain and his resources. For myself using the smaller Galleon of the 1500's (or a small frigate in the 16-1700's) is a lot more useful choice for a RPG campaign. A major ship of the line won't have any flexibility. It would be tied to the "fleet" under an admiral or sealord unlike a small ship that could act independently. Of course a Galleon in the 1500's IS the major man of war. If you want a ship with operational flexibility but still smaller, try a Sloop of War, a Brig or perhaps a small Frigate.

Re: The Future of Small Arms I believe that while the fancy tech items will be developed and even deployed, gauss, laser etc. In the end the old current firearm will remain a mainstay. With all the experiments, such as bombless EMP, the breakthroughs will come. If, and this is a major IF, they finally develop a reliable way to damp/stop electric impulses in a localized area then most of the high tech options will be toast, at least until countered. But a chemical fastburning propellant is pretty reliable. Plus it can be fixed/maintained in the field. And as Publius said you can reload without high tech training.

Re: Populate a 17th century galleon The Harn supplement "Pilots Almanac" is fantastic for RPG sailing ship details. Just indepth enough to have a great feel and color, but simple enough to be useful in a game. Worth a look.

Re: Populate a 17th century galleon didn't mean to give the impression I knew more than I did. It just sounded good to me. Good plot hook.

Re: Populate a 17th century galleon The figurehead was happy until the Captain ditched her for a "newer" ship. Now she is pissed. Hell hath no fury and all that

Re: Dark Champions the Anime Series

Re: Dark Champions the Anime Series I didn't know about that, some of the prices dropping I mean. I'll have to try a new search. Any suggestions?

Re: Dark Champions the Anime Series I am not really a big Manga person. I have read a few and they are good, but they are way too expensive for me to actually read on a regular bases. $11-15 dollars for a book that has a 30-60 minute read time is just too expensive. I read a lot and unfortunately that has driven up my reading speed with retention. Right now for a standard paperback if I stretch it out and only allow myself a short period each night I finish them off in 4-5 days. For manga I blink and it is done. I have checked the discount books store in the area and manga is virtually non-existant or it consists of #'s 2, 7 and 15 or some such. I still think $7-8 for a book is getting high, and $25-30 for hardback has severly cut back those purchases. If the cost went down to $5 I could see forking out the cash, but I don't see that happening anytime in the future since I am pretty sure the start to publication costs of a graphic novel is much higher than a straight text publication. Maybe if they went back and published combined volume editions like the mavel essentials line. I had picked up a copy of FMP #1 at half price books and decided I would get the rest (9 books total I think). I looked through all of the discount/used stores without success, sdo I tried a book store. $12 a piece making the 8 books out to be $96 before taxes. I finished off #1 over my morning cup of coffee. $96 before taxes for about 3-4 hours of reading doesn't work for me. Manga is actually working out to be more expensive than Anime, renting via netflix or buying complete collections actually cost less per hour. Since TV doesn't really have anything on, I've been averaging 3 DVD's a week for $20 a month. Some titles I don't make it through episode #1, but it does allow me to sample at a low cost.

Re: Dark Champions the Anime Series I think one of the things I like so much about Anime, is the "doesn't fit into just one genre" thing most have going for them. I only "discovered" Anime a couple of years ago, before that is was "kiddy cartoons". I find I really like the different approaches to story lines taken by the series, and being an avid and long time reader of SciFi/Fantasy, the majority of books seem to be stogy and conservative when speaking about "mixing" genre's. Only in the last few years (IMO) have we really seen any genre benders in pure print. Don't get me wrong I still read a lot. But the Japanese perspective which is then translated adds some real interesting things especially in the mixing of Tech and Magic. I tend to lean toward more tech, less or no magic. But all the stories/shows are great and very very very handy in sparking RPG plots. {rambling babble mode off}

Re: Dark Champions the Anime Series Don't get me wrong. The comedy parts are just fine in the anime. I was just thinking of a grittier DC game along the lines of Madlax or Noir. If you like to keep a bit of humor in the games more power to you. I like to toss the occasional bit into my games too. But I have to admit my games tend to lean to a more serious feel.