Susano

In 2016, I was lead writer for Aaron Allston’s Strike Force. It is one of the highlights of my game writer career. I had hoped to be able to continue work in Aaron's world by developing something I wanted to call "Strike Force Organizations." And now, I can.
 
Note: This product will be dedicated to Aaron (of course), but also Darren Watts, as when I first discussed this, he wanted to develop the section on the Circle.

In 2016, I was lead writer for Aaron Allston’s Strike Force. It is one of the highlights of my game writer career. I had hoped to be able to continue work in Aaron's world by developing something I wanted to call "Strike Force Organizations." And now, I can.
 
Note: This product will be dedicated to Aaron (of course), but also Darren Watts, as when I first discussed this, he wanted to develop the section on the Circle.

In 2016, I was lead writer for Aaron Allston’s Strike Force. It is one of the highlights of my game writer career. I had hoped to be able to continue work in Aaron's world by developing something I wanted to call "Strike Force Organizations." And now, I can. Note: This product will be dedicated to Aaron (of course), but also Darren Watts, as when I first discussed this, he wanted to develop the section on the Circle.

In 2016, I was lead writer for Aaron Allston’s Strike Force. It is one of the highlights of my game writer career. I had hoped to be able to continue work in Aaron's world by developing something I wanted to call "Strike Force Organizations." And now, I can. Note: This product will be dedicated to Aaron (of course), but also Darren Watts, as when I first discussed this, he wanted to develop the section on the Circle.

In 2016, I was lead writer for Aaron Allston’s Strike Force. It is one of the highlights of my game writer career. I had hoped to be able to continue work in Aaron's world by developing something I wanted to call "Strike Force Organizations." And now, I can. Note: This product will be dedicated to Aaron (of course), but also Darren Watts, as when I first discussed this, he wanted to develop the section on the Circle.

In 2016, I was lead writer for Aaron Allston’s Strike Force. It is one of the highlights of my game writer career. I had hoped to be able to continue work in Aaron's world by developing something I wanted to call "Strike Force Organizations." And now, I can. Note: This product will be dedicated to Aaron (of course), but also Darren Watts, as when I first discussed this, he wanted to develop the section on the Circle.

What he said.

For Hero System stuff for the period, I recommend @Susano's book Larger Than Life. He's got "pirates and soldiers, lumberjacks and steel drivers, mountain men and lawmen, cowboys, Indians, inventors, and eccentrics," including sample characters for each type; for instance, the sample lumberjack is, of course, Paul Bunyan. Among the archetypes, he has several appropriate for colonial games, each with a package deal and a discussion of the archetype. It doesn't exactly have a magic system in it, but a lot of the folkloric or "Tall Tales" abilities are basically magic.

When it came to Genetic Upgrades and Replicated Humans, the book was big enough that I just didn't have the energy to go into the sort of detail. I did supply several example Replicated Humans (Domestic, Escort, Lynx, Puma) which showed the range of models possible. What things Replicates have over Genetic Upgrades is increased stat maximum (STR, DEX, CON and so on). They are tough, stronger, faster, and harder to kill then a genetic upgrade. Also, increased Perception bonuses due to things like cat or dog ears and so on.

As for why play one over the other, it comes down to a matter of character concept. In addition, I think I noted that PC replicated humans won't have "Must Obey Owner’s Commands" which is why they are PCs now.

These need to be migrated to 6e, but here you go, this may help:
 
http://surbrook.devermore.net/worldbooks/kazei5/k5char/k5char.html

When it came to Genetic Upgrades and Replicated Humans, the book was big enough that I just didn't have the energy to go into the sort of detail. I did supply several example Replicated Humans (Domestic, Escort, Lynx, Puma) which showed the range of models possible. What things Replicates have over Genetic Upgrades is increased stat maximum (STR, DEX, CON and so on). They are tough, stronger, faster, and harder to kill then a genetic upgrade. Also, increased Perception bonuses due to things like cat or dog ears and so on.

As for why play one over the other, it comes down to a matter of character concept. In addition, I think I noted that PC replicated humans won't have "Must Obey Owner’s Commands" which is why they are PCs now.

This exchange occured in last night's Feng Shui game:
 
GM: "It's a topless bar..."
Tasha: "Is this where I interviewed eariler?"
Cassie: Excuse me?"

For a while I was running an anime-inspired ghost-hunters game (and hope to restart it real-soon-now![tm]). Think HELLBOY mixed with HELLSING.
 
Anyway, the cast was a mixed bag of characters, including Lin Foo Wong the ghost, Mack Williams ex-NYPD, Yuki Hari the ghost-hunter, and Alexander Maxamillian the sorcerer.
 
Some lines I noted down as amusing:
 
Lin Foo Wong: "I'm glad I'm not a superstitious ghost."
 
Yuki's player, responding to unwanted comments: "Shut up! I'm being cinematic!"
 
Uncredited (but about a villian I think...): "Special, as in 'mommy thinks I'm special'."
 
Agent Thompson [indicating blue-skinned and white-haired Lin]: "Who is she?"
Mack: "One of our agents."
Agent Thompson: "*What* is she?"
Belinda: "And acrobat from Peking."
 
Mack also made me break up by telling a talking corpse: "You're dead! What do you need treasure for?" Which just so happened to be virtually Hellboy's same exact line in the HELLBOY story I swiped the plot from. He got +1 EXP for that.

Just in case fighting crime with a chainsaw wasn't enough.
 
 

Re: "Neat" Pictures
 
Mars Rover Opportunity at Victoria Crater as seen from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

 
 
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Opportunity_at_Victoria_Crater_from_Mars_reconnaissance_orbiter.jpg

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?
 
Let's see... over the past few days I've seen:
 
Alice in Wonderland -- Not bad. Visually stunning with amazing green-screen sets and the like. Captures the inherent weirdness of Underland/Wonderland quite well.
 
Brave -- I liked this a lot. While the trailers made me expect something far more action-heavy, what I did get was just fine. Oh, and visually? Just amazing. The landscapes, lighting, and other effects show Pixar at it's best.
 
Conan the Barbarian -- Wow, this film was... was... not good. I never felt like I was watching something set in Conan's world... in fact, if you told me it was Scorpion King II or something, I'd have believed you. The costuming was pretty enh... there were plot holes galore... the fight choreography was kind silly (way too much sword spinning)... I could go on for a while.
 
Dredd -- Starring Karl Urban as Judge Dredd. Okay, I'll admit, the Stallone film captured the visual style of the comics far better, but this movie really felt like a day in the life of Dredd. Urban never takes the helmet off, scowls through the whole film, states "I am the law", and generally acts a lot like you'd expect Dredd to act.
 
The Princess and the Frog -- Disney returns to its 2-D animation roots and does it with a fun story as well as some nice, catchy music.

I just finished viewing Dog Soldiers, a soldiers versus werewolves movie. I found it liked it at lot, parts made me laugh, parts made me shudder, and parts made me say "that's not right...." I highly recommend it.
 
I also watched The Wizard of Oz over the weekend, for the first time. Rather fun, with some highly enjoyable sequences -- the flying monkeys were great! -- and the musical numbers are catchy. I also found it amusing to sort of "count" all the lines that have remained in popular use.
 
What have you seen recently?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 

 
Uhm... is that supposed to be "ambush"?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 

 
"Cosby, you're this piece of glass."
 
"I don't want to be the piece of glass."
 
"Okay, what do you want to be?"
 
"I wanna be the Coke bottle top."
 
"Fine."

Assorted martial arts resources:

http://surbrook.devermore.net/herosource/herosource.html#NH

Assorted orginal martial arts characters: 

http://surbrook.devermore.net/original/originalchar.html#NH

Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste.

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)? "Susano" was my first email address (susano@digex.com) and I've used Susano ever since. Susano was selected since I was a huge fan of the manga Orion, and my friend who created the account used the name of one of the main characters for my handle. I've used "Susano" for my net handle ever since.
What was the first tabletop RPG you played? Basic Dungeons and Dragons (i.e. the original blue book)
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
What are you currently playing/GMing? Friday Group - Dungeons and Dragons 5E 
Saturday Group - Shadows Angelus (HERO System 6E)
Sunday Group - The Well of the Worlds (HERO System 6E)
 
I am playing in Friday and Saturday and am GMing Sunday.

Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste.

Played in a Savage Rifts game at Genghis Con where my character informed a Coalition officer that the PCs were "just simple traders." He dubiously noted we didn't look like merchants, at which point I noted "that is because we deal in lead, my friend." 

Played in a Savage Rifts game at Genghis Con where my character informed a Coalition officer that the PCs were "just simple traders." He dubiously noted we didn't look like merchants, at which point I noted "that is because we deal in lead, my friend."