Spence

Ouch! Phoenix Command. Haven't heard that title in a while. I've wondered if a modified hit location chart could be based on the target silhouettes. Hand gun accuracy was notoriously bad and rolling a hit "could" actually mean you get to roll on the silhouette to see if you hit the person, their gear or just missed. Just a thought that I haven't really thought too hard on.

Now I am bit out of date here, but in broad strokes this is fast overview of how things work. In Basic training every sailor receives a very basic introduction to the overall Navy. This includes basic structure as well as an intro to shipboard life and very basic critical skills such as general shipboard firefighting and damage control. From basic most sailors will then go on to their Rating’s A School. Ratings are how the Navy defines a person’s job. The list of ratings has changed over time as technology has changed. Some Ratings have been retired and some are “new”. Over time some have even been combined. But for our purposes think of the Rating as a person’s career field. After A School a sailor will either go directly to their assignment or they will go to a C School. A C School addresses a specific specialty. A particular aircraft type, ship type or system depending. DC (Damage Controlman) is a Rate as is HT (Hull Technician). Both utilize welding as a skill, but with different emphasis. And then there are a laundry list of specialized training schools. Shipboard Firefighting and Aircraft Firefighting are two specialized schools that concentrate on, well firefighting. I don’t see your templates as being for someone out of boot, but rather someone that has spent a few years in.

No problem, feel free. I would change the term "metal working" to "Structures". It's a little more accurate since they do more than just the metal parts and are responsible for the entire structure.

It's really a shocker when discussing supers. But I employ the trope in any genre as appropriate. By appropriate I mean when it follows the story and serves a purpose in the story. It's hard for heroes to stage a dramatic rescue or equally dramatic escape if the concept of capture is off the table.

I never have gotten to actually play Ace & Eights but it has some neat ideas. I really liked the concept of the shot clock and the determining where a shot hits. But I have no real idea of how the game actually plays.

I use the Marines in their traditional roles as specialized shipboard and amphibious (but from space) combat troops. Since firing normal weapons can be as deadly to themselves as the enemy, they are also proficient with blades suitable for confined spaces (Cutlass, Short Sword, etc.) and non-penetrating weapons such as shotguns and other firearms with frangible rounds.

Well I blame it on general lack of reading (and reading comprehension) plus the overwhelming contamination of RPG’s by computer gaming’s so called CRPG’s and their “cheat codes” and “walk throughs”. Game’dom is rife with “discussions” of how the purpose of a GM/DM is simply player fulfillment and to basically let them run wild with lots of don’ts. As a DM/GM you can NEVER have the PC’s face capture or defeat. You should never actually have a storyline or even imagine that the players stick to the game they agreed to play. Basically GM/DMs are servant drudges for the munchkins of gaming and one I simply reject as idiocy. It is really sad and a real blow to RPG’s. I only game with a small circle of players now and my demo/con games had really fallen off even before Covid. I had planned to restart demo’s this year, but that kinda stalled….

Just realized no one answered this. KS does have a process and generally you can get your money back. You do not pay in until they project actually funds, and then you automatically get it back if the project does not actually get the pledged funds. You would be surprised (or maybe not) how many people pledge and then do not actually pay. But once the KS is funded and underway many of them run long, especially if it is someones first time KS project. There is more to creating and fulfilling a project than most people realize. I have seen projects delayed months for veteran game makers due to circumstances they were unaware of or simple had no control of. For the main part I have backed 116 and have only seen eight fail to be delivered, with at least 20+ being late, sometimes very late. Three of which they are trying to complete and deliver even if late, they have issued refunds to all that requested it, I have chosen to wait for the product. Two I received a full refund for. One where the author/maker passed away and two where the creators simply disappeared. I have found that for the most part KS creators are honest hardworking folks that want to bring their vision to life. Unfortunately, the task is sometimes greater than they anticipated and it takes far more time that they thought it would to deliver it. I generally wait it out and have found some makers follow on projects become exceptional through the experience.

Yes, it is pretty much laid out in the rules "If the character takes damage from or is adversely affected by any power that requires an Attack Roll or ECV Attack Roll while he’s Gesturing, the power doesn’t activate or immediately turns off ." Now at a suitably dramatic time in the game I may allow a Hero to try and push through and get the spell off. But if they do they run the risk of not just the spell failing but having it misfire or backlash. It was always the players choice to try, but nothing is free

I have years ago and we had a great time. We had all read the books such as Howard Pyle's Men of Iron and Mary Stewart’s trilogy (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment) as well as the classics about King Arthur and the Round Table. And most importantly we saw the movies like MGM’s 1952 Ivanhoe, Universals 1952 The Black Shield of Falworth and the Warner Brothers 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood. They may not have been “realistic” and portrayed a cinematic Hollywood adventure take on it, but they were a lot of fun clicked right into roleplaying adventure. Great times. We tried again in the early 2000’s and it was a disaster. No one had even heard of the source material and of course reading is just not done today, especially “novels”. Everyone was all about “da loot’in” and “da a’kill’in”. Oh, well I can remember the good times….

Hey there. As an American and retired Navy man I can say that is not true. I have been all over the world and can swear to the truth that we could successfully order beer and booze in every country we made port. So there

OK, so I have lost many hours of my life to a remarkable conclusion. Apparently the only thing a "RPG" podcast DOES NOT discuss is RPG's. Oh, they talk around them, but in the end you will have exactly zero information on the actual game they are "discussing". I have heard a lot of unexplained opinions such as "It was hard!" or "I might have had more fun playing Star Trek if I had ever seen the show". Oh and the never ending compliment fest of the participants perfectly framed glowing descriptions of peoples cats and even recipes. Woo Hoo! Not to mention the thinly disguised politics being inserted into many of them, I guess they do not realize pandering doesn't really help anything if the core program sucks. But a description of an actual RPG with a rudimentary description of the rules and why anyone would want to play it is apparently a forbidden topic. Well, back to audio books. Now I have discovered a couple Podcasts for other subjects that are actually worth listening to.

For the Navy the ships security force gets the "combat" training as well as station security. I also tried to stay RPG generic instead of too much detail. Broad strokes for playing the game. Spec Ops types like the SEALs are their own category and should, IMO not be lumped into the conventional templates. I really don't know how much the various team skill sets blur together these days, SEALs, Raiders, Rangers etc. Or if they even use the same names for the Army and Marines. Out of my wheelhouse you could say.

I spent a tour in the Army as an 11B and then went Navy where I retired as an ATC. I would suggest renaming the Basic Military Template to Basic Army/Marine Template. Then create two new templates called Basic Navy Template and Basic Airforce Template. For the Basic Navy Template I’d suggest something like 3 Climbing 3 Paramedic 2 Survival 3 Electronics/Mechanics/Navigation/Systems Operation (pick one) 2 KS: Enemy Forces 8- 2 KS: Theater Operations 11- 2 KS: Military Procedure 11- 2 PS: Damage Control 11- 2 PS: Fire Fighting 11- 2 PS: Soldier/Sailor/Airman/Marine (pick one) 11- 2 PS: Welder/Metal Working/Electrician/Electronics/Seamanship (pick one) 11- 2 WF: Small Arms Total Cost: 27 I’m a 5th ed players so that is where I grabbed the costs. Someone familiar with the Airforce would need to speak to that template. But what the Navy needs is a large step away from what the Army or Marines need, especially combat arms. And one last thing, the Navy doesn’t use the term MOS (Military Occupational Specialty), they use Rates (a descriptive occupational designation such as AT = Aviation Electronics Technician, ET = Electronics Technician, MM = Machinist Mate which are then narrowed into sub-specialties by the NEC (Navy Enlisted Classification). An AT works on aircraft electronics (radios, radar, acoustic, etc) and an AT’s NEC identifies exactly which type of aircraft or system they specialize in.

And another great episode. I'm just a guy that has listened to Explain This on my commute and not any kind of expert, but I'd say it is on pretty solid ground. I love to see what you could do with a series abut various RPG's. I can easily imagine an informative show about various companies and their histories in developing RPG's. But what I'd really like to see is a show that is actually about the various games. I just got done suffering through yet another "RPG Podcast" that supposedly discussed one of the newer RPG's out. All I was able to glean from 47 minutes of wasted life was they thought it was "hard" and they didn't really "have fun." Beyond that I couldn't tell you anything about the game, the game mechanics or even what dice if any are used. How is that possible? Oh, but most importantly, they think their cats antics are hilarious....... But back to your show. The only thing I think would make them better would be if they came out faster

There is no good or evil There is only pie.

Maayyybeee? 🤔 I thought it was based on a graphic novel. But I never looked into it so l'm guessing.

Time Travel. When no one has any ideas for a plot or storyline and the contract has to be fulfilled in two days. I really enjoyed S1. I had never read the source material, so my opinion was totally based on the show. I still haven't made it all the way through the first episode of S2. It just doesn't hold my attention.

I watched GoT on Blu-ray. And with what is available via Amazon Prime I don't really need too many streaming services. I have two streams I subscribe to. When one of those runs dry I may shift to another. But I only will if you do not have to go month to month. My current 2 streams allow you to pay an annual fee. I will never do another ongoing monthly fee again. They are virtually impossible to turn off without extended calls and complaints.

Splintering badly may be an understatement. I am actually a bit happy with it. I mean I am a little sad that am missing shows that sounded good, but the extra time I have picked up by not being able to see them means I am catching up on my reading. I haven't seen anything in the last ten fifteen years that was so great it impacted my life. Even the "good" shows are OK, not something that makes me want to watch them over and over like movies used to. I will not subscribe to a zillion different streams. I will "rent" or "buy" a movie through a common service if I think it is really good. But all it means when they place a show exclusively on a service like Disney+ or CBS All Access is that I will not see it. You don't miss what you can't see.

The long and short of it is that in any fantasy setting, high or low, someone has to decide how magic works in that world. Games like D&D build the restrictions into the rules by pre-designing spell lists and class restrictions that lock in their worlds magic. For a Hero based game the GM is required to set those boundaries. And I am not talking about anything in the build rules. I am talking about world restrictions. If the GM says all magic in this world is inward, a mage can only influence their own body. Then anything like D&D spell slinging and magic items do not exist and cannot be built. If a GM says all magic in the world is enchanted items. Then everything will center around magic weapons and magic items. Once the "theory" of magic has been defined, then everyone can build to met those parameters. If the GM says the world has no spirits or undead, then no one will be able to build a Necromancer no matter how cool a player thinks it would be. He could build some form of charlatan masquerading as a Necromancer, but not actually be one. Once you define "magic", then you can assign limitations and other rule'centric requirements. But unlike most of the class/level games out there, core Hero does not have a prebuilt magic system.

I never liked D&D style alignments myself. But they were simply their attempt to codify a PCs moral compass which I understand. They used good/evil and order/chaos but that is not a requirement. You are using terms such as Pure, Kind and Logical. On the face of it that sound like common terms, but the framework you have plugged them into is not standard. The definition of Pure is very subjective. As is Kind. One persons kind act is anothers insufferable meddling. I really don't see enough of where you are heading to give any kind of useful input. To me you are setting up an alignment system without solidly defining the key terms.

Ooops...

I've read through it a couple times and I have to say I'm not tracking this. None of this has anything to do with archetypes as I understand and use the term. To me it sounds like you are trying to codify D&D style alignments without defining good and evil. I am probably off point, but that is what it sounds like to me.

Another great cast. You should give classes on how to podcast. Skipping live play podcasts (Which I have no interest in) the so called RPG podcasts I have listened to recently are embarrassingly painful. I have no idea of how much time it takes to prepare and produce this podcast, but I really wish you'd also do one on RPGs.