Spence

Actually the military was the least used path and the MI was really looked down on as a "useless" vestige of an earlier era. Federal Service could be anything. The "navy" was a actually mostly consisting of cargo ships to supply the colonies. The only reason that the book features the military is because the central character was in the MI. In the book it pointed out that "what" you did to gain you franchise of citizenship and the vote wasn't important. What was important was you committed and completed service period of two years. “Why, the purpose is,” he answered, hauling off and hitting me in the knee with a hammer (I kicked him, but not hard), “to find out what duties you are physically able to perform. But if you came in here in a wheel chair and blind in both eyes and were silly enough to insist on enrolling, they would find something silly enough to match. Counting the fuzz on a caterpillar by touch, maybe. The only way you can fail is by having the psychiatrists decide that you are not able to understand the oath.” Heinlein, Robert A.. Starship Troopers (p. 33). Penguin Publishing Group. IIRC the MI only had two brigades in total and the only military starships were the Fleet Transport Corvettes used to move the MI. The entire "military" was essentially seed stock in case there ever arose a need to defend humanity. The entire first part of the book was the MC going through MI training while literally everyone he knew, including his family, thought he was throwing his future away. And the MI was constantly trying to get them to quit and go do something else. The after the Bug War started was humanity getting is collective a$$ kicked and having to throw its very few combat troops into hit and run raids as they lost colony after colony. Things didn't start turning around until the last few chapters as they started cranking out actual warships as well as getting trained troops to flesh out the MI. But the big thing is that Federal Service could be military, but 99% of it wasn't. The concept was that in order to be a full citizen and uphold the responsibility of the vote, you demonstrated a minimum ability to be reliable and complete a beneficial function. Be it cleaning bedpans at a hospital or driving a delivery truck. More of a Meritocracy than anything else. None of that is in any way reflected in the movie. Instead we get bugs and a cheap image of fascism. By cheap I mean is makes light humor about a seriously screwed up reality. Extremely sad....

In addition I would argue that Hero (any version) needs guidance/limits. Hero the game system gives the players and GM's unlimited ability to build stuff. To an RPG player from virtually any other system and any new to RPG beginners, unlimited options breaks the game for them. There is a thing called option overload. A set of guidelines or "rules" defining how things are bought and various limits would give the new player a definitive starting point. A reference to base decisions on. Once they get the hang of it, then they can easily ignore them and build their own world.

It depends on the version of the book you read. The actual book as written, or the various "corrected" versions edited after he died. Most of the times I hear people talk about the book I know they didn't actually read it. Especially if they say that the government in the book was a militaristic one with only veterans being able to vote or hold office. But the movie was a complete miss if it was trying to resemble the book. Or any topics in the book. The saddest thing is the so called movie dumbed down or simply erased significant parts. Instead of the bugs being an advanced civilization with starships and hi tech weaponry, they became mindless insects and farted starships out of the sky. A "bug-hunt"? Sure. Starship Troopers, not. The maybe good news is that there is a movie in work. I don't remember the name of the guy that will be making it, I very seldom remember anyone in Follywood anymore. But it the short clip I watched he has actually read the book and wasn't impressed with the fiasco that was made before. He actually touched on several of the key points that were central themes to the actual book and completely ignored by V'dumba$$. While I have come to believe that Follywood is incapable of actually producing entertainment anymore. There have been a small microscopic number of films that against all reason or hope were actually entertaining and well made. Dune is one and I understand the last Spiderman as well. One day when it releases, I plan to watch it. The last Ghostbusters wasn't as strong as Dune IMO, but it was definitely a great and entertaining movie. One of the better movies in the last year or so. But for Starship Troopers it could be a fantastic movie especially if they hired an actual combat veteran to "translate" the concepts and avoid the preconceptions by head in the sand Follywood. Thanks, I didn't see that one and for some reason my Hero Forums Search-Fu failed Wow! I had even responded in the other thread a while ago. They say the mind is the first thing to go.......

All I can say is "Yep, nailed it". Green Hornet and Starship Troopers......

Well yes. Not just before D+, but from the very beginning of supers movies. Heck the X-Men movies pushed it to ridicules with Last Stand a couple years before the MCU kickoff. I just noted the MCU because people tend to just focus on what they did right and simply ignore the hole they dug. But for me the movies about the heroes before they overpowered are better. Of the MCU movies I liked IM1, CAP1 and Thor1 far better than the part 2's. And even though Batman is NOT a Hero (still one of my favorite characters) I liked the first in each movie incarnation far better than the follow on movies. The sequels seem to be just trying to shovel more cr*p into the sack rather than try to tell a compelling story. The movies that just try to increase the number of villains are really bad. Back in the 80's I liked Marvel better than DC because their characters were lower in power and their stories had more risk and grittiness than DC. DC heroes were all godlike and invulnerable and seemed to lean gimmicky. Superman had some enemies that were just sad like Mister Mxyzptlk. I pretty much stopped reading comics in the early 90's because they got so bad they made me embarrassing to myself to read. I'd love for them to make some of the 80's storylines. They had some great arcs that could be three or four movies, all without dead ending the title.

You can. I have taken villains and such from various editions and used them in other edition games without taking time to "convert" them.

So apparently JMS will be making a new Babylon 5 universe show. Not a lot of details except it will not be a "reboot" and it will not include characters from the original B5. JMS has said that it will allow him to make the story that he originally wanted to. But it will be on the CW. I don't really know what to think. The B5 universe has a lot of great stories to tell, but will it be a solid show where the story was the priority like the original? Or will it be yet another modern production where identity politics is everything and story is a distant afterthought which has become the CW standard? From what I have read JMS is supposed to have complete control and according to a message (maybe twitter) his script has has been approved and he is only waiting for the final green light. If he is still the JMS that made the original and actually has control this might be good. After all Star Trek spawned TNG, DS9 and ENT. But CW...........

That has been the problem with all the lines. Even the MCU from the beginning. Yes, the MCU in the first few phases was awesome, but they still painted themselves into a corner. In the headlong rush for the epic universe save they skipped right by years of fantastic stories. TV series or movies, Hollywood thinks every show has to be a EPIC! Instead of entertaining. But they don't seem to realize that they always leave themselves with nowhere to go.

I am a completionist and a collecta'holic so I have pretty much everything available in PDF and hard-copies of everything 3rd through 6th. I have most of 1st and 2nd, but there are some holes I can't fill. For me I had the most fun with 4th, but have actually played more 5th, well...5thR hybrid . While I can't really point at exactly the reason I never was able to enjoy 6th. Too many game traits that I found very useful and comfortable were dropped. I am not opening the great debate again, but one of the changes was the loss of figured stats. That and other changes fundamentally changed the "feel" and "approach" of playing the game for me. A change I could never get past. Objectively, there is very little difference in the play of various versions of the game. Most of the differences in the versions aimed at the build rules, or at least the ones that stand out to me. Right now I am concentrating on using 5thR. I was able to load up on many 5th edition books including 6 copies each of the 5thR Character Creation Handbook, Combat Handbook and the Resource Kit. This means that we are not shackled to share one or two rules books during character creation or during play. Of course I have recently located two like new 5thR core rulebooks bringing me up to 6 there too. I only have 2 Sidekick Revised. I'd like to find enough for a full set of 6, but not having any luck. 6 is my magic number. I find my sweet spot for running a game is 3-5 players. So 6 copies means everyone, including me, can have a book during play. I don't run a table if there are devices at it. Through all the excuses all device means is that we will be continually wasting time because of distractions. From texting to typing "something important" into the laptop.

Maybe they will go back to just making fun entertainment instead concentrating on agenda. Maybe, but who knows.

A lot of truth here. The biggest reason I normally do not allow VPP's isn't the VPP. It is most of the time the Hero games I have been involved with were with beginners and had not mastered the basic game, let alone an ever changing VPP.

OK all, you saw the news post about Champions Begins: An Introduction to the Hero System. If you haven't grabbed a copy yet you need to now. This is brilliant and exactly the tool to intro a Champions game.

Is it that Karate Kid thingy?

Watched the new Ghostbusters last night. I liked it. It was another one of the recent movies made to actually entertain. Between this, Dune and what I have heard about the new Spiderman it is just possible that Hollywood may has started to make entertainment the priority again. I certainly hope so.

Cool. I am not a big follower of the franchise and don't really play video games so most of my knowledge is fifth or sixth hand plus the series. Thanks.

And? I can make a case and "prove" you (who I have never met and know nothing about) has committed any number of hideous acts. As long as I don't bother to look too deep. I have seen dozens of pictures of characters that look like Elric. They popped up like weeds as soon as the Elric novels became popular and the first covers and art works dropped. The entire season 1 of Elric and what I have watched so far and it has ZERO in common with any of the actual Elric novels. The plot isn't even similar. At all. Where is the Witchers' demonic soul devouring sword? I have yet to see him cast one spell or summon on otherworldly demonic creature/creatures. Where is the need to drink sorcererous concoctions just to be able to normally walk? Where are the Dragons? Where are the massive and awe inspiring Melnibone Battle Barges? Where is all the world lore of Elric? OMG! We must end all Star Wars shows and properties!!!! The rebellion pilots were wearing costumes similar to that 1950 scifi movie!!!! Arrrgggghhhhhh plagiarism. AAAAAHHHHHHH!!! Oh. I know. Every WW2 movie or show made after the very first one needs to be banned. How dare they steal WW2!!! The outrage. No.....Witcher is a show based on books that were based on a video game that used extremely common imagery. These videos are made by people that have far too much time to waste. If you actually read Moorcock's books you will find they are not even close to what the Witcher is. If you have read them and are still reaching......well. Whatever floats your boat.

This is something I have never understood. They are fantasy RPG's so everything has to be whimpy. One of the reasons I stopped playing a lot D&D, C&C, etc. was the built in nerf factor that IMO plagues the fantasy roleplaying TTRPG. I have read many books as well manga and watched anime where the fantasy hero was actually bad a$$ed. Being hurled through stone walls, betting cratered into the ground complete with newly made hole. Fantasy player: errrr wizards can't use warrior weapons! Fantasy reader: Gandalf?? Sure, if you want to recreate everything that the traditional FRPG's did wrong, you are there. But if you want to actually use a system like hero to build a great fantasy game with HEROES! Than why the devotion to nerf? There are some great anime with epic characters wielding combinations of weapons and magic. From augmenting their personal abilities to casters invoking massive spells. There are a lot Isekai shows that center around players in games and they show how different types of casters and warriors can work together in a "party". I just don't get the whole need to intentionally destroy a game just to reflect earlier disappointments.

I am another one that has no idea how they are conflating anything Witcher with the Elric novels. with or without connections to the Eternal Warrior. I am not as familiar with the Witcher, but from what I've read and seen it is not nearly at the epic power level that Elric operates at. Especially when he unleashes Stormbringer or casts one of the greater spells/summonings. If itvis based on the term "White Wolf" I have a dozen scifi/fantasy books that have a "White Wolf". I'd love to see an Elric movie or series. Just watched Suicide Squad 2. They should have led with #2. SS#1 was horrible. SS#2 was a rollicking action adventure with super-powered people. They are definitely NOT superHeroes. But the show was fun.

Before anyone can give a really good answer you may need to clarify your question. I get hit by and electrical bolt and immediately reflect an electrical bolt back at my attacker. Is very different than I grab onto a power source, absorb energy and then convert it into an electrical bolt to shoot at someone.

I went to a scaled-down Dragonflight across last Halloween. They had much the same policy about proof of vaccine. The policy is not about the prevention of any possibility, it is about the Con being able to establish that they took reasonable precautions. The con had a much smaller turnout than most years, but I had a fantastic time. I ran two games that went fantastically and was able to play in one that was a blast. The rest of the time I got to reconnect with a lot of the old gamer crowd and do a fair amount of old fashioned chewing the fat. I actually think that the event was better than usual because everyone that showed up was there to game without any side agendas. For me the quality and fun of a game con decreases the bigger the number of attendees. If you can I would definitely attend your local cons right now.

I have been looking for much the same thing. But I guess to an even greater extent. I prefer a fillable form with zero, none, nada built in calculations. As in just blanks that you can type a number or word into. I have been sidetracked by life the last few months, but I will look to see if I can find one of my old experiments. I just never seem to complete them. If you have a copy of the sheet you prefer, it is actually fairly easy to create a pdf fillable if you have a full pdf editor. If you have a blank character sheet I could see about inserting basic fill fields. This might motivate me to actually finish one

Me too. I don't think we will ever see an actual Elric movie or series because no one in Hollywood can possibly do anything like bring a book to the screen without reinventing or reinterpreting everything for their own personal agenda and all the old pulp writers have already been condemned as the 'ist of the minute. Other books we will never see that they could make today. Beyond the Mountains of Madness Starship Troopers Amber Chronicles

I also never read or played anything Witcher related so for me it was all new. I am 3 episodes into season 2 and generally like it. But there are things that just don't seem like they connect(?) right. More a feeling than anything I can directly point to, but some of the characters don't seem to fit as well as others. Or do things that don't seem likely. Like I am missing pieces or something was changed but they didn't locate and adjust everything else that was affected. All in all, I like it. It is just not pegging the fantastic meter.

At the time it was what was expected from scifi and fantasy. Both genres were "obviously" only for a very small audience and/or kids. Most trended to have skimpy or tight costumes to pull the "teen boy" demo which was where they belived 99% of the interest laid. It took Star Wars to make film consider scifi/fantasy as a viable non-matinee box office draw. Even after Star Wars it took a little time to get the good stuff. But once Alien and such started scoring things got great for the genre crowd. Heck the vast majority of pre-Star Wars that wasn't plain bad was generally Disney doing a classic like 20,000 Leagues. Barbarella was one of the better ones, sort of.