Spence

21 hours ago, MrAgdesh said:

Closely followed by the 5th Element.

8 hours ago, Psybolt said:

The Fifth Element is a classic.

6 hours ago, Starlord said:

Yeah, Fifth Element is great.

 

 

I actually enjoyed 5th Element.  It was a campy over the top type of movie that I would categorize with Hitchhikers Guide. 

Not a fantastic film, but at least it wasn't a...

"Bait and Switch"

"We are lying about what we made"

"Oh, we'll claim it was satire "

kind if movie.....

The exact text from the book is:

"6d6 Drain (½ from CON, ½ from PD), ½ END, Must Grab"

and

"If he's forced to fight, Black Mamba will use his power drain at first (note that the effect of the PD drain is halved), then punch when he feels his opponent's defenses are sufficiently weakened". 

Since he must grab I don't think I would go with poison at first glance.  If it was contact poison all he would need is contact, not a Grab.

But then I have nothing else that would work as an explanation to offer either

Sounders won their game against Charlotte, though at time they seemed determined to lose.  

Brings them up to 10th in the West at 16 points.  May sound a bit grim, but then they have only played 12 games this season with most of the league at 14. 

After the Puma game (where they won 3-0) they had three days to roll right into a match against Dallas for a loss.  But after a rest and a return to a regular schedule they seem to be getting back into form winning three of the last four games. 

Last night was a bit troubling, but still a win.  They will have a good two weeks until the next match, but that will be in a string of games that have three or four days between games again before settling to one a week.  But being able to concentrate on a single league schedule instead of three should allow them to regain ranking.

Watched the 1986 miniseries Shaka Zulu on blu-ray.

Unsurprisingly my memory of the show was different from what actually happened. 

The part I remembered and enjoyed was Shakas story from birth to becoming the ruler of the empire.  That part ( eps 4 through 7ish??) was great.  The rest of the show was not bad. 

The plus the Zulu parts were filmed using actual Zulu's.  All in all great parts of the show.  I'd love to see something similar made with modern cinema tech.

On 3/7/2022 at 11:07 AM, L. Marcus said:

Battlefield Earth. 

On 3/7/2022 at 6:36 PM, Spence said:

 

oh

oh....

oh.......

 

Curse you L. Marcus! 

 

I had finally forgotten that steaming pile and now you have restored every painful moment to my memory

 

The only movie worse than Starship Troopers on earth.... 

Gah!

Double curse you L. Marcus! 

I had completely forgotten about this thread and was browsing and then this abomination happened AGAIN!

Will I NEVER be able cleanse my mind from these two horrific movies?

3 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

Watching the "documentary" now, I believe that she made the correct decision.

Well actual documentaries ceased to exist back in the 90s, so......

I actually enjoyed Chariots and some of the other programs.  Great place to mine ideas for games. 

2 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

 

Of all the GMs I have played with, only L.D. Garrett was capable of running "Space Mystery", and  Exploration. My only in depth science education is Geology (because it doesn't have a lot of "math" in it). I surely can't do it and make it a compelling story. It would end up of "orbit the planet, roll dice on sensors", then give then the results of their sensor skill rolls, from the tables in the various books.  Then they land and put cameras out in the various biomes and record the animals, and to me that is a "job", more than an adventure. (I have a couple of relatives that are Park Rangers, and they definitely love the job, but it's a job.) Then again I have to talk to my players about what they expect, but even so I have to play to my strengths, and that is not science.

Wow. 

My early scifi gaming was all exploration. 

To say you can't do that if you aren't a scientific genius is like saying you cannot play D&D unless you are a expert in martial arts, both armed and unarmed. 

It's just....

I can understand just not liking it.  Or it not being your thing, like soap opera games are not mine. 

But eliminating an entire long lived genre that has been and is actually being played because apparently it can only be done by intellectual giants? 

Umm.... I actually have nothing.

2 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

All Vargr game

 I do follow your points, but I think the big thing I miss which was the corner stone of all our Traveller (or Space Opera or etc.) was the lack of an "all Vargr" or any aliens in the core game.  The players characters were the one "discovering" the aliens and making first contact. 

The settings removed all the excitement and wonder by filling in all the blanks.  Boring.

On 4/14/2022 at 5:49 PM, Steve said:

I think a Western Hero/Champions/Dark Champions crossover book of characters is a wonderful idea.

 

Publish it and take my money, please.

I'd also like to see the ever evasive Victorian Hero too.  There is a lot of crossover.

16 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

Does anyone pay attention to the FIFA Club World Cup? Obviously not me, since this is the firstr I've heard of it.

 

Whenever it is held the Qatar WC should be a PR Disaster. But if there's one thing Oligarchs in general is good at, so people will flock to Qatar's new stadiums and hotels - never mind who actually did the work, or how much (or whether) the hotel housekeeping stafs are paid.

 

Bitter? Moi?.

If generally I have be aware of the CWC for several years, but never spent much time on it because none of the teams I follow ever made it past the zone championship.  I was never a big follower of other country professional league.  I may watch some EPL or Bund.  But I don't follow it.

I personally think this WC will be a failure attendance'wise.  From the articles I have seen, the current ticket and ticket package sales are far behind any previous WC.  To the point the stadiums will be partially empty without a concerted local effort to fill the gaps.  The only person I know that seriously looked into it decided not to because his wife and daughter would not be able sit in the same section of the stadium because women were restricted to a woman's section.  Plus the stadium is dry, though you can drink in your hotel.  While they may have changed some of the restrictions and not judging anything as good or bad, Qatar is not a "western" nation and its ways are not what someone from the US, Canada or Mexico would see as "normal".

I personally have spent far too much time in the region, including Qatar.  And it is far too easy to do something that violates the law without realizing it is even a law. 

While I am not a seer, I am fairly sure the attendance will not be what they hope for.

2 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

So it really is a case of GMs and the interactions with certain players is what tends the flavor the games IMO.

Totally agree. 

For myself while I acknowledge that the style of game exists and has a following.  But I also know the style of game I can run and the style I do well as a player.  And melodrama/interpersonal political talking isn't it

6 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

But in games, in my experience, the more women in the game, the more "socially" focused it got.

Not more socially focused with more melodrama.  Rather, having more social interaction within the adventure.  The best games IMO are in the 50/50 range.  It didn't change the types of adventures I ran, instead it changes (for the better IMO) the way the players play out the encounters.

There is a difference, a big one, between the adding more social interactions into a action adventure and ditching the adventure entirely to pursue a melodramatic romance.  There are RPGs out there for playing out the social infighting on who has the most fashionable attire at the ball.  But that is not the intent or purpose of an action adventure game like D&D or Champions. 

And because it hit my "button" and is not directed at you personally......

I have also found a decided lack of care for people who cry railroad.  Have there been bad examples? Sure, but the vast majority are not.  Instead it is petulant blubbering by idiots that agreed to one thing and then discovered the GM expected them to own up to their part. 

I still remember they whinny little a$${bleep} that ran around bad mouthing people until he got himself kicked out.  The GM built a adventure that was a pretty straight forward "rescue the princess" plot.  And the "railroading" was because the players were supposed to rescue the princess. 

To every person who was traumatized because the GM didn't bend over to their every whim. 

If the game doesn't interest you, then don't waste everyones time, don't play. 

If you cannot find any games that you like and "everyone" always "railroads" you, the issue may be you and not the game or the GM.

@Ninja-Bear

As Scott said, generally normal Traveller regardless of version, most ships can locate and "refine" their fuel as needed. 

@Scott Ruggels

The groups I played with leaned more toward universes based on 50/60s style scifi such as the world's of Heinlein, Norton and Morressey.  Ships were tailsitting and rocket like.  Ships were small, space was large and the universe was unknown. 

The Expanse is the closest of the modern shows to the feel of those early games.  I think back and we may have lost interest when the feel of the game eliminated the unknown but added in alien of the week and more politics than adventure.  Instead of action adventure you got, well, something like the SW prequels. 

I know there is a market for it, but I prefer to run or play in an adventure far more than melodrama such as As the Stomach Turns....

27 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

IIRC Jerry Pournelle's stories use jump points like this, though I haven't read much of them. Bujold's "Vorkosigan" series also uses jump points, and makes them an important source of drama. So I agree, it's an excellent serup for SF adventure.

 

The tech-frying aspect of jump drive is intriguing as well -- if only so advances in real tech don't make your "futuristic" technology seem antiquated 10 years later! It also preserves genuine mystery, in that people can't just consult their super-advanced omni-sensors and have their super-advanced computer analyze the results and tell them everything. EG: There's a vault door set in the surface of the asteroid. What's behind it? Somebody needs to go and look, they can't just analyze the bogon scattering to find out everything. (Or the GM has to invent some handwavium to explain why Bogon Scattering Tomography doesn't work.)

 

Dean Shomshak

Yep, there are a lot of books that had jump points, both ones that just sent you through the other end if you hit it and the ones that you had to trigger.   Weber and Whites Starfire novels did this and the game as well.  And they are the ones I have read most recently. 

As for the tech killing aspect.  Expansion would be slow even if you brought technology knowledge through.  You would have to build up the technology base to a point that you could build the tech needed to build the tech. 

Starship weapons would have to rely on near-WW2 technology and a starship missile's on board computers would be huge in comparison to today.   Not a huge number on the magazine.

Many thoughts here.... 

Maybe even a good reason for boarding parties and using that blade....

A couple of threads that were talking about Traveller hero made me think back to the old games a traveler that I used to really enjoy and the new games that frankly just aren’t as fun. When I played the old games the universe was an unknown, exploration was the big thing and even a small starship could have an impact. In the new traveler, not really new but super developed, the unknown is not really a thing it feels more like playing in a Star Trek Star Wars setting rather than a frontier setting. I think the issue is that technology is far too available and travel between the stars is far too easy. So I started thinking about what exactly changed and I decided to go back and try to figure out exactly what the differences were. First I opened up my PDF copies of Traveller in this case it was Mongoose Traveller and the starship rules and set up seemed off. So I went back and looked at my classic little black book and that is where I noticed a big difference in starships.

The first thing I notice right off the bat is computers. In Mongoose Traveller a ships computer as a tech level rating and cost but no basic size or mass because they are thought to be distributed throughout the ship rather than being one device. The available programs are still somewhat limited (I believe to simplify play) and they chose speak off of using rating. Those programs are much more versatile than the old ones. Now Classic Traveller presents the computers differently. Instead of simply having a price and a rating, the classic traveler computer not only has a cost but it occupies space defined by tonnage as well as a program capacity. For instance a Model One computer takes 1 ton and can run a capacity of 2 in programs and with a stowage of 4.  A model for computer takes 4 tons and can run a capacity of 8 in programs with the stowage of 15. A hard point which is necessary to mount weapons as a requirement for 1 ton of computer space attached to each for fire control.

Now for a computer to take tons of space/mass and only run one maybe two programs at a time seems very very dated. But in the 1970s when this game was written that would actually been a fairly small computer considering it was being used to run programs for traveling between the stars.

That got me thinking, one of the issues with the science fiction campaign and exploring the universe is if your star drive can let you go literally anywhere, with the big issue being how long it takes. Then it becomes very difficult for a GM to not only build that universe but stay one step ahead of the players. In my mind that’s probably why so many games are run within established universes. If the Empire already exists then it’s easier for the players to have to interact within that Empire. But at the same time it makes it much harder to introduce unexpected changes. In an established universe first contact is not really a thing instead you get “yet another first contact”. 

In the past I had read a really great book by an author named John Morressey called “A Law for the Stars” which was part of his Del Whitby series. The unique thing about that series was that the jump field a starship used destroyed advanced electronics. Mechanically based computing devices and tube driven electronics and large electronic components such as resistors, capacitors, coils and so on were fine. But any of the more advanced electronics were basically hashed. That meant starships were required to be built as low-tech as possible with only the jump coils being considered high-tech. But even they were built using “low-tech” components. This comes to mind because a computer occupying 1 ton of space/mass on a starship could easily be low-tech, and with the programs being single-purpose simple ones such as jump, maneuver, predict and so on. You could easily see this kind of constraint existing in the early traveler universe, or a version thereof.

Another thing will be how we map the universe. How do we make it so that it’s explorable and yet constrained to make the GM’s life easier? While still being exciting? What if instead of a starship simply being able to jump in any direction based on how much it’s jump drive can reach, or just having a warp engine that zips off in the direction? What if we use jump points? Let us say that like the old Starfire universe a star system would have a limited number of jump/warp points that allow starship to travel between two locations. Each jump point would connect to another jump point in another star system and a starship could enter one end and jump to the other. Then let us say that different jump points have different sizes and capacities that regulate how large a ship can be and how fast the passage is. With all warp points being "pre-existing" a starship would either use "mapped" points to jump to known destinations or when a new warp point is discovered, make a blind jump to see what is there.  Explorers would map new systems and locate new Warp Points.

With that in mind you could take the classic travel ship construction and carry it right across with the concept that is starship would use its jump drive to initiate a pre-existing warp point and thus travel between the stars. Bigger and better jump drives would allow larger ships to enter the war point or smaller ships with higher jump drives to travel faster. But the cargoes of those vessels would have to be basically low-tech. Because a modern laptop PC or a modern military computing suite would not survive the jump. That would mean humanity would spread slowly. A colony would have to make do with technology that does not use a chip or any of the other high technologies such as solid-state hard drives or even old-fashioned hard drives. Magnetic tape would probably be considered high-tech on board an operational starship.

Now I would not want to rewrite or convert this to the Hero System since I don’t really see the need to convert the already super simple Classic Traveller starship system.  I’ve never liked the idea of trying to build up ships, vehicles, buildings and so on in Hero. It’s not that we can’t it’s just kind of pointless. I look at a ship just like I look at a tavern or an inn. It is a location for the player characters to do stuff in. Not a thing whose own movement and actions are super important. I really don’t feel the need to move counters around on a map of starships or other ships to play out a battle, except for something to allow a player or players to keep the situation in mind so their PCs can make decisions and do cool stuff. I actually prefer a “map” that consists of a center point where the PCs ship is, surrounded by rings where you place markers indicating targets or items around the ship. The rings would represent applicable range bands based on what the system is. If the PCs maneuver the ship the “targets” would rotate around to indicate their relative location from the PCs ship. I got that idea from a guy who built it for the Slipstream Savage Worlds setting and I like to use it for many of my space-based games. Now the thing that’s important is a good deck plan so the PCs have an idea of where they are at and what they’re trying to do.

Just some rambling thoughts triggered by some of the Traveller Hero discussions

4 hours ago, Cancer said:

There is supposedly another higher level tournament, something like one among various federation champions and other high-level winners.  In looking around about that, I have seen several news items, all of which seem to say, "No one knows at this point." 

 

In my rather jaundiced view of how international sports events get run, I think that means that FIFA honchos haven't had enough money tossed at them for them to grant anyone the official permission to host the next-level tournament.

I think it is something different.  But maybe related. 

Qatar getting the World Cup was the straw that broke the camels back and restructured FIFA, sent a lot of the old guard to jail and changed the way the countries are selected from a small committee to the current open vote by all the members.  The only thing was they left the last decision by the old guard, Qatar in place. 

The World Cup usually happens across two months in the Jun/Jul time-frame every four years, but this year it will be in Nov/Dec. 

The FIFA Club World Cup is annual is one month long and is normally held in Dec, though the last two were shifted to Feb.

There is no way they can schedule two large international tournaments a month apart, so the FIFA Club World Cup is probably being rescheduled.  Personally I would have canceled the Qatar deal since the trials showed it was pure bribery or at least made them stick to the traditional schedule.

But I'm not in charge. 

Western Hero is a resource that can be useful. 

On 5/5/2022 at 6:41 AM, Cancer said:

 

Sounders crush Pumas in Seattle 3-0 (after having held serve in Mexico City with a 2-2 draw last week), becoming the first US team to win the CONCACAF Champions League.

 

Seattle history recap

 

EDIT: some highlights on this page

From what I can tell this qualifies the Sounders to play in another upper level international tournament.  But I can't seem to find details.  Do you know anything about this?

4 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

Live entertainment event: Wicked, in Seattle. Great show. The girl playing Glinda was amazingly talented and funny.

 

Concert: Bruce Springsteen in Berlin. I don't even like his music that much, but the guy played encores a couple of hours past the event end time, in the rain. The Stones (different event, Steel Wheels tour, East Berlin) wouldn't start until an hour late due to a very light mist. Springsteen seems to really appreciate his fans, and I liked that.

I saw a lot of Bruce Springsteen and Joan Jett when they were on USO tours.  

Both would play past the scheduled time and then hang out and talk afterwards.  But that isn't unusual for the artists and comedians on the USO tours.  Great people.

Started Supers with V&V. 

Then Champs 1e entered our neck of the world we quickly changed over. 

Played a little DC Heroes and really tried to play M&M but it's power/combat resolution system never clicked for me.

So if Champs never existed it would probably be V&V.  Early edition V&V.

17 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Especially after watching Street Fighter 3, I was wondering how to incentivize players to have more movement when playing martial arts. My last game still came down to players not really moving on the map. 

You could make the threat more mobile or more threat at range.  Force the players to engage. 

Not really much more to say without knowing what genre/setting

Tonight is the final.

Should be a good game with a great crowd

7 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

@Spence, you make some good points. My bigger point is that D&D does have to have the boring, I roll and either hit or miss. I just use Hero’ sfx and mechanics rule. Hero I believe is the first game to come up with sfx separate from mechanics but that doesn’t mean it can’t be imported to other games. (Iirc we were describing near hits (miss by one on AC) in the D&D game as scraping off the armor or shield. And I think (since we weren’t looting every one) great damage rolls were breaking a shield to breaking a weapon.

100% agree.  My mind was running down the track and didn't notice the spur

So Hudson City has that great high detail hi res city map.

Vibora Bay only has the maps in the book, one small lo res image of the overall city.

Does anyone know of a larger or more complete map?

On 5/2/2022 at 5:36 AM, Ninja-Bear said:

D&D can do this as well even using the 10 second per round. The key is if you present combat as the rationale that you are only rolling one important roll in those 10 seconds and the rest is the swipes, blocks and evades and such and present that as fun it works.  I did it with my kids and nephew. Man we’re they getting into it even if they whiffed a roll. 

Not the same thing.  Early D&D already was that way with the combat round being all kinds of action and the roll only to determine the possibility of inflicting damage.  I really can't remember when it changed.  Just like Hit Points are an aggregate of damage/stun/fatigue.  But I can present any RPG's combat as exciting via narrative.  Especially if the players are new or younger.  But Hero actually has it baked into its' bones. 

In D&D a 3 foot hobbit fighter getting hit by a 15 foot troll wielding a club that masses 5 times the hobbit will result in "you take 15 damage, the elf is up".   No getting knocked across the room and taking more damage as you hit the wall.  Heck most of what passes for Knockback in D&D is an ability in a creature write-up that pushes someone back a square.  Or maybe two. 

Yes you can use the narrative to "describe" the combat with glowing cinematic action terms.  But in Hero the game actually creates the cinematic action as part of its flow. 

I know that the use of Knockback. Knockdown or neither is supposedly tied to the genre with most "fantasy" settings using Knockdown and most pundants saying that Knockback is a supers thing.  But I completely disagree.  Knockback or Knockdown is part of the type of game. 

If all the PC's, NPC's and encounters stay within normal human ranges, then yes Knockdown.  But with the reservation that if the threat is big enough (elephant, crane, car) than Knockback will be used. 

But for a Fantasy (D&Dish) Game I definitely use Knockback as a core rule.  If you are a human and get hit by a giants club you will most likely go flying, well unless the giant smashed you into the ground to go splat.  Or your PC is tough enough to take the hit.

Don't get me wrong, D&D and PF are fine games and I enjoyed years of playing.  But after playing several other systems, including Hero, they just don't have that pizazz any more. At least for me. 

Hero does cinematic action in combat by default.  No big reason to "describe" it up. 

It just doesn't spend much time on the non-combat part.  But then not too many games do.