Publius

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

*shrug*

 

I liked 'em.

Re: Signs your Champions GM is now (fill in the blank)

3)Turns out magic is now based on small bacteria in your blood cells. Who knew?

Re: Chimpira's Art Dump

Really wonderful work

Re: Prisoner Transport Vehicle

I wasn't necessarily looking for rep btw (although it is very much appreciated and very nice to get, thank you), but I am trying to gauge interest in these sort of maps and I was wondering if people knew they were floorplans. I was sort of trying to prompt that second look for those that hadn't become aware of it from the title (which in retrospect doesn't really convey that the file is of a floorplan does it?)

In looking at the thread stats at the time I posted that, I noticed that only 18 or so had done so out of the sixty some who viewed it at the time that had downloaded the file. That could be because I wasn't very specific when I named it I think, maybe I should have done a gif and therefore put a thumbnail under the description: so that folks would know what it was.

With regards to the size and fact that it houses multiple villains: pickups for superteams and the like are one possibility, but also prisoner transports from Prison to prison are another. Lastly, there very well could be more "individualized" transports, probably converted planes or somesuch, which might be used in an ad hoc fashion. That is something I should probably look into as well, excellent suggestion.

Re: Prisoner Transport Vehicle

Gee, I honestly thought floorplans would get more interest.

Re: Flash Gordon Series News

I try to give folks the benefit of the doubt, but I notice from that release it was the folks that did Earthsea.

Bad.

Bad. Bad.

Of course a lot of that pulp stuff was racially insensitive too, maybe they are the folks to do it. More seriously, I'm thinking with those yahoos it will be a hip, tatooed 20-ish Flash with multiple romantic interests, a boyband linkage and a (C-)rap soundtrack.

Re: Prisoner Transport Vehicle

Very glad I could help. Floorplans are always nice to have, even if it doesn't come down to breaking out figures.

BTW, I don't know if anyone noticed, but those are to the 1"= 2m scale, that was why I included the 1" square box in the corner. Measure it out to make certain it printed correctly (sometimes you have to play with the "shrink to fit") and it is fig-ready.

Re: Grond, underpowered pansy?

3) Some skyscrapers actually DO rely on their outer walls for support. The WTC was a prime example. Something like the Empire State Building is a heck of a lot more sturdy - it's a million tons of concrete and steel' date=' and can take a pounding.[/quote']Absolutely, which was why I said...

...any building that has "Hardened glass" as an exterior wall is a "Curtain Wall" style building...

Because the post I was responding to was about the mountain of damage done to a 2/2 wall. I still think the visual would be cool and the flying glass and whatnot to be a real headache (and heartache) for the PCs. Curtain walls btw were very popular after Lever House in the early 1950s up to the present and are seen worldwide, but you are absolutely right that they are not all skyscrapers.

 

The rest of the comment about Skyscrapers didn't rely on that either btw, those were the rules straight out of the book.

In response to an earlier thread which called for a PRIMUS prisoner Transport I give you the...

HANDLER 2000 SUX

Basics: The PRIMUS Handler 2000 SUX (Superhuman Utility & eXtraction) is a Hovervehicle designed to transport prisoners to Stronghold. The basic interior shape of the PRIMUS Handler 2000 SUX is an octagon, with the belly for storage and the technical equipment (I'm assuming they have "borrowed/"liberated" some of Dr. D's Hover technology for the lift). The raised platform is for the guard's to walk up and down during the flight it has a ceiling height of 1.95m (the seat in the front section of the prisoner area is for the guards to rest in rotation, as is the seat opposite the main access).

In the pilot section both pilot and co-pilot step down into the well where their seats are located. There is a track system which the chairs use, you push back and away from the controls to exit, and move forward and towards the controls after being seated (co-pilot's seat is sown in the "control hot position"). The pilot/co-pilot area has a bulkhead which is shut off at all times during the flight. Opposite that bulkhead is the Main entry section. Here there is likewise a well for the "jump seat" where a spare guard is seated across from the main access of the vehicle. This is also where the hatch to the belly of the vehicle is located. Beyond this aftward is the main prisoner section, with the raised platform running the entire length for guard monitoring (see containment below for further details). The rear section holds two coffins and is generally occupied by a guard crosstrained as a medical technician to monitor their status in-flight.

Please note that for security reasons, the Handler 2000 SUX doesn't have a bathroom. (The flight should be zippy with hovertech. Just don't drink that Big Gulp before you go )

Containment: As well as large prisoner chairs that have arm and feet restraints built in (with suppression equipment in the Belly) there are Hotsleep "coffins" that are used as needed. While certainly "roomy" with a 24" wide seat (and a 1m wide coffin), neither are sufficient in size for some of the truly massive (10' and taller) superhumans which would require other means of transport (this is what I am most unhappy about as a designer btw, ).

Modular: With a few hours work for a several man team (with minimal equipment and the proper supplies), the PRIMUS 2000 SUX can be fitted from the Multicontainment option (seven standard prisoner restraints, 2 hotsleep coffins) to the 4-coffin option (with 2 additional standard prisoner restraints and extra seating for the guard-techs that monitor the equipment) or any of the other available options. Please note that the 4 coffin option uses up extra power such that the speed of the vehicle is reduced.

If anyone wants to stat it or produce a picture of the exterior you are welcome.

p.s. I also stuck a mundane example of a prioner transport vehicle. The Prisoner Bus is based off a commercial design so I do not claim it as my own in anyway, shape or form. Looks mighty tight to me, but I measured it off just as they had it on the schematics.

Re: Anybody got a map/floorplan?

I'll post this as it's own thread, better visibility

Re: Anybody got a map/floorplan?

You could use Skymaster's Skyfortress for the Flying Fortress (Masterminds and Madmen). The interior is basically a square, so there is no reason it could not be SHEILD Style Helicarrier.

I'll see what I can do about a prisoner transport.

Re: Paging Dr. Fein, Dr Howard, Dr Muerte...

Professor is sort of an honorary title, conferred upon him by the high order powers of the universe, he actually has a Masters in Communication from an online program and a bachelor of General Studies from State.

And nice writeup.

Re: How does a world die?

i did wonder what long-term effect that superflare would have had on the climate - especially when everything flammable on half the planet just went up in smoke. The phytoplankton over the same area would have been cooked alive' date=' too...[/quote']Off the top of my head, bad. Oxygen reduction alone would be interesting, and wouldn;t like huge portions of the sea have boiled? Of course,there are a lot fewer people/plants/animals needing both the oxygen and the water. I read somewhere that this sort of cooking will increase some kind of nasty chemical (some dioxide, Nitrogen? I dunno) in the atmosphere which will lead to dimming, welcome nuclear winter.

 

Pretty much instant post-apoc. Get fitted for your chaps.

Re: Hero 'I.D' for those who refuse to register

Super Hero Name: Jack Malleus, Public Dick. By which of course I mean a investigator doing work in the interest of the public. What?

Other Names: Sir. Mister. I'll even respond to "Hey you"

Race: Do I look like I have horns and a tail? Probably not a steer then eh?

Secret Identity: If I told you it wouldn't be a secret would it?

Area of Activity: Wherever else adventure takes me. That's pretty much, um, everywhere. But only one place at a time of course.

Family: None extant.

Political Status: Dissatisfied. Cynical. A bit peeved actually because no one really represents my own interests.

Marital Status: Before I was a dude, then a sub-dude, now Liberated.

Allies: Well, I didn't fight for the Axis now did I?

Enemies: None thanks, have all I need.

Any other info we should know about?: I'm the guy every gal wants and every other guy wants to be.

Re: How does a world die?

Actually, that exitmundi site is cool (I wish the links were a bit more clear than "Twist" "Flash" and "****". I was going to post a couple of ideas but they are all there I think.

Well, just a few maybe... I presume you want to make it suck to be on Earth without a total wipeout.

To build on Trebuchet's post, the loss of magnetic field: say hello doses of radiation, loss of communication (even hardwired) etc. which nicely creates a postapocalyptic setting (or maybe not, as the exitmundi site says, there is a debate over how much effect this will actually have -- to me that means you have a free hand, go for it).

Megavolcanoes, several here have mentioned them, are always great for diaster fare, I just DVR'd a show that went into detail what would happen if Yellowstone went all "Marvel's Civil War" on us (what? I couldn't think of anything worse). Short answer: Ere'We Uck'Feyed as the Porcine Latinus would say. Long answer: devestation in the middle of the country, choking layer of ash through most of the rest, Nuclear Winter chaser worldwide. That's enough to leave most us survivors in leather chaps combing the highways for juice (only like, with snow).

Solarflare (or a distant Gamma Ray Burst) would cook one side of the planet, strip the ozone (and maybe some atmosphere too) and make life nasty for the other side. Read Niven's "Inconstant Moon" or the Outer Limits episode of the same name that Niven himself wrote the screenplay for.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

The Mating game, from Bitter:Sweet. Very cool 60's-esque sound, kinda jazzy, the same folks from Supreme Beings of Leisure (who btw, will have a new album coming up sometime this year)

Re: Grond, underpowered pansy?

Since the Sears' Towers exterior walls are only hardened glass [around 2/2] you should be able to take out about 18 miles when you hit it. That just goes to show you how stupid that rule is. The rule in Champions make much more sense.

Plus (since I presume you are not in favor of this first method you mention with the 2/2 wall), any building that has "Hardened glass" as an exterior wall is a "Curtain Wall" style building. The sort where the exterior walls are not actually holding anything up. (like this) Taking a cubic buttload of damage might indeed cause the whole side of the building to ripple out (like the wave effect seen in some movies, I think the Matrix used this for one scene with the helicopter explosion) and rain down all sorts of nastiness but leave the interior of the building just fine since it is only "hung" there like a curtain. In other words, the titanic blow rips off the facade taking all that wonderful kinetic energy with it. But it would look very cool.

I've reviewed the rules for Breaking Buildings in The Ultimate Brick, pp113-114, and they seem to handle things quite well (although I frankly have never tested them since I usually run a low-powered super game. Sometimes something that looks good on paper doesn't work as smoothly on the table, but I'm more than willing to give the benefit of the doubt). Using that system an "average" building (reinforced concrete walls) has been compromised at 50 Body points, but that only means that there is a chance that it will fall down (per an activation roll) over a given amount of time (starting at 1 day). The activation roll gets lower and the timespan gets shorter for each multiple of this 50 Body. We are talking about 350 points of BODY damage (not Stun) for a 1 turn 8- activation roll. Grond would actually take a while to level a Skyscraper at 90 STR 18 Body on average/swing. Not a LONG while maybe, but a number of hits.

BTW, Did I do that right under those rules?

Re: What's Your Favorite PH Campaign Power Level?

Last time around I was running Pulp Hero on 150+100.

 

The Pulp characters I'm interested in simulating (Doc Savage, Tarzan, the Shadow, the Spider, G-8, the Green Hornet, Jon Carter, etc) are a pain to fit into 75+75 without feeling like you're throwing away half the cool stuff they manage to do. Some of them are easily 500+ point characters in HERO terms. 250 points makes it easier to build a Jungle Lord, Man of the City, or Master of Eastern Mysteries who really feels in play like the character he's a homage to.

Re: '45 Psychobilly Retropocalypse

Bought it, like it, I'm thinking of a convention game maybe

Re: What's Your Favorite PH Campaign Power Level?

My last Pulp game was 75+75; had some neat characters. No one was particularly superpowered or too weak at that level.

Has anyone experimented with giving characters a pool of points to be used solely for superskills? I was wondering the next time I did a more heroic level game if that might work. Like 75+75 or even 50+50 for the standard character and then 50 points just for neat stuff that they can do that sets them apart.

Re: Character: Buckaroo Banzai

Buckeroo's "oscillation overthruster" device was sighted as a "spectral analyzer" in Pen Pals, a 1987 the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode. By the 24th century, the Oscillation Overthruster is still evading the minions of Lord Whorfin. Actually, the props and such for Next Gen have all sorts of BB referrences in them, like the Excelsior dedication "No matter where you go, there you are" (apparently, many of the folks behind-the-scenes worked on both projects).

Interesting, this weekend I and a friend of mine will be ironing out the details for a Buckeroo Banzai adventure we will be running at an upcoming Con (but we will be using Diceless rules since it is for Ambercon).

Character is what you are in the dark.

-Lord Whorfin (it was actually Dwight Moody, 19th century Evangelist)

Boo-TAY! Boo-Tay!

-The last words of John Bigboote

Re: my setting (in progress)

Sounds very cool. I like the blending of concepts into a unique combination. Very few ideas are totally new, and those that are can be too difficult to wrap our heads around, but the way we put things together -- as I think you have done here -- makes them unique and fresh.

Question 1: are all cities like this or just the larger ones/one?

Question 2A: how are the resources brought into the city? Food and water and power specifically.

Question 2B: What kind of population are we talking? Take a look at some of the arcology literature, you can really pack folks into a single building constructed like this, imagine the city. Linking this to Question 1, maybe the population is being jammed into that space because it has to, survivors from the Earth's dwindling biosphere thus allowing/forcing a fantastic variety of cultures in the same space.

Question 3: Other infrastructure points. How is transportation handled in the city? Communications? information technology? Any one of these could be an amazing source of uniqueness to your setting.

Example: say communications are all but shut down by the cacophany of radiowave saturation (or a byproduct of some kind, say your Numi-whatever), hard-lines are the only way to communicate over distance, that means messengers and old telephones are the order of the day. The messengers may form a guild of sorts, with very strict policies toward those who have harmed messengers, making the Guild Messengers sacrosanct in the upper reaches which are so dependent on them and opening the door to 'rogues' who do that sort of work outside of the Messenger Guild and at great peril from both messengers and outsiders.

Question/Suggestion: Are there different names used for different parts of the "city" (see below)? Example: The Above, the Below, the Betwixt (middle, closer to the upper levels), the Between (middle), the Shade (lower middle). And the Depths (below Below).

Suggestion: replace the word "city". This is as to a city that a city is as to a few shacks clustered together off of a foot path in the middle of BFE. Arcology, sounds like a bit more...

I love the basics of this, it has a great feel. May I steal it ruthlessly? I mean that.

Re: Sam Rami to do a Pulp Film?

Sign me up for heresy, I liked the Shadow (ironically I am watching it now on Cable) and despite the huge gaping plotholes and awful script, I liked The Phantom as well. I recall the Doc Savage movie from the 70s, and I thought it was a mess, but it is the only Doc on film that we have. If were to do Doc for laughs (which I wouldn't to be honest) I'd have Doc embrace his homoerotic side. Bronzed skin, perfect physical condition, avoids women like the plague and hangs out with a bunch of guys who are totally superfluous (since he can do anything and everything far better than they can anyway). Embrace your inner metrosexual Big Guy!

Re: Hex map for a railyard

I'll see whgat I can come up with' date=' although if you want to do one of your great re-renderings to Hero scale afterwards that'd be really cool. I think it might be useful in a number of genres..[/quote']Ditto, and yes, that was precisely what I was thinking of. The problem isn't the drawing, I can do that easily, it is getting the proper proportions and whatnot. That can be devilishly hard to do wth any verisimilitude. Which is why I like it when folks with real-life experience chip in here.

Probably take me a week or so since it's not high on the priority list.

No problem, I am a busy bee this time of the year myself.

Re: Hex map for a railyard

How much time before your next game session? I used to work in a railyard; I could probably whip up a quick sketch of the general layout of one which would pass muster with the typical gamer (if not a railroad employee).