archermoo

Re: My character building technique (How to build Hero System Characters)

I have played with GMs who haven't considered the kind of campaign they are going to run and/or can't articulate what their expectations are. If you have gamed with the GM, you may be able to get a clue from the kind of player they are.

 

For instance, the unrepentant butt-kicker type player is unlikely to run a campaign where intrigue is important, where there are multiple levels of story arc, or where knowledge, investigatory, or negotiation skills matter.

I'm less concerned with someone who doesn't do a very good job of explaining what the campaign is going to be like than I am with someone who purposefully lies about what the campaign will be.

What annoys me is the people who present a well planned campaign setting, and then part of the way through one of the first play sessions spring a catastrophic change of some kind. A change in how the reality works, one way time travel, one way dimension shift, etc. Generally something that will make all of our characters no longer useful, but certainly makes the campaign no longer resemble in any way what we as players were told to expect.

I'm a great role player. I've been doing it a long time. I am perfectly capable of keeping player knowledge and character knowledge separate. I don't at all mind playing in a game designed to start as one type of campaign and then suddenly transform into something else. But I as the player want to know this from the beginning. I don't want to be lied to because the Ref will enjoy things more if he gets to spring that kind of change on us.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

Something like that' date=' but involving the word "delicious", was once an advertising tag for some product. A candy bar, I think, but I can't dredge it out now.[/quote']

 

"Magically delicious", the (at least one time) advertising slogan for Lucky Charms.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

The question is: did they intentionally feed us an untruth, or did they just make up (or heard from someone who made it up) something they thought sounded good and didn't bother checking facts?

 

Coin toss, I think.

I usually try to stick with "Never assign to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity". Though I'll certainly admit that I don't always succeed...

Re: Musings on Random Musings

COLD: Chronic obstructive lung disease. Basically' date=' the alveolae in your lungs melt together to form large cavities -- emphysemas. Nowadays mostly happens to smokers. As if there was a need for yet another incentive for folks to quit t'baccy![/quote']

 

I've generally heard that called COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

Re: Musings on Random Musings

This is the first and last time I shall ever allow a smoker to stay in my room. Even when I know for a fact they didn't smoke cigarettes in my room' date=' it still smells like they did. How? My guess is the residue from the luggage and clothing.[/quote']

 

Likely so. Cigarette smoke is nasty and pervasive stuff.

Re: My character building technique (How to build Hero System Characters)

Agreed. I find that this kind of GM behavior usually comes from a GM who is a frustrated writer and wants a captive audience for the story they want to tell.

Or someone stuck in the "Ref vs Players" mindset.

Re: Figured Char and increasing Main Char (5ed)

In 5th edition, 15 Dex and 3 SPD costs 20 points. 17 Dex and 3 SPD costs 24 points. There isn't any difference in Hero between how much something costs when you first purchase the character and how much it costs after the game starts.

Re: My character building technique (How to build Hero System Characters)

IF (and that's a big IF) the GM is A. willing to provide the above information (beyond point levels - that's always given) and B. not planning a bait-and-switch campaign.

My solution to that is simple. Once the "switch" part happens I stop playing. I don't generally have much interest in gaming with people who I cannot trust. Nor for that matter with people who trust so little in my ability to separate my knowledge from my character's knowledge that they don't feel like they trust me enough to tell me what the game is about.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

I can't stand tipping. I hate to be uncool' date=' but I'm supposed to give a guy money for moving my suitcase in and out of the shuttle? Without asking?[/quote']

 

Not a big fan of tipping either. The idea that I, as the customer, am expected to directly compensate someone else's employees rather than their employer doing so rankles.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

I have an electric razor' date=' but I hardly use it. There's something about using a brush to lather soap and spread it across my face that I find therapeutic.[/quote']

 

I have both an electric and a bladed razor. I use both depending on a variety of factors, which mostly boils down to me using the electric if I'm pressed for time, but want to shave.

 

The bladed razor is a double edged razor. My beard is tough enough that I generally replace the blade every time I shave. I use a brush and shaving soap, and I've found that getting the soap into the brush and making the lather on my face works better than making the lather in the cup and spreading that. It is more time consuming than the electric, but gives a better shave, and is more comfortable. On the down side, I'm more likely to end up bleeding after shaving with a blade.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Is the original lyric "in which we live in" or "in which we're living"? Not that it's any less irritating. Especially since it's otherwise such an awesome song.

I'm pretty sure the original is "in which we live in".

Re: The cranky thread

I can smile at the Old Days, I was beautiful then.

 

I remember a time I knew what happiness was. Let the memory live again.

 

Cats.

One of the few song that I tear up at whenever I hear it. The tune seems to strike something directly in my brain, as it had that effect on me from the first time I heard it, and I heard it as an instrumental before I ever heard the lyrics...

Re: Which tools from the toolkit can be dropped in a low powered game?

Start with the Basic Rulebook.

Re: The cranky thread

Once upon a time, travel was considered glamorous and fun. Hard to believe nowadays.

I don't know about glamorous, but I generally have fun when I travel. I don't generally even mind the security floorshow, though I'd be happier if it were a bit more useful. My experiences at SFO have been pretty positive in general. We'll see if that is different in March, but I don't expect that it will be.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

"But in this ever-changing world in which we live in" has got to be the most annoying lyric ever written. Dude' date=' it's "In which we live" or "Which we live in," NOT BOTH!!! [/quote']

 

Yeah, that one has bothered me since I first heard it. Normally he does so much better...

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

And when I click on the picture to get a closer look at the ingredients' date=' the lower half of the image (with the ingredients) doesn't show.[/quote']

 

It showed for me. The main problems with their list are a) leaving off the main ingredient (beef) and not noting that the vast majority of those ingredients are a breakdown of "seasonings".

 

The actual ingredient list is: Beef, water, seasoning, salt, sodium phosphate, less than 2% of beef broth, potassium phosphate, and potassium lactate.

 

The label also shows what "seasoning" contains. Isolated oat product, salt, chili pepper, onion powder, tomato powder, oats (wheat), soy lecithin, sugar, spices, maltodextrin, soybean oil (anti-dusting agent), garlic powder, autolyzed yeast extract, citric acid, caramel color, cocoa powder, silicon dioxide (anti-caking agent), natural flavors, yeast, modified corn starch, natural smoke flavor.

 

For that matter it also notes that it contains soy and wheat.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

This Is What Really Hides in Taco Bell's "Beef"

Hmm...gizmodo. First flag for me. Not as big a flag as it would be were Apple to be involved, but still a flag. Their list of ingredients in the article not matching what is on the label that they show the photograph of is flag #2. And then putting forth the claim that it is only 36% beef based solely on the claim of the people suing Taco Bell, with no substantiation of any kind offered. That's flag #3. If we ever get to the point of any actual information showing up, please let me know.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

They don't do expulsions for cheating here (at least for first offenses' date=' but I've never heard of one at all); I catch about one person a year at it. But yeah, there's people who try hard at it, if stupidly.[/quote']

 

I have no idea the background of the student in question, but it would really surprise me if that was the first time he was caught cheating. Though as I recall in theory you could get expelled from OU (University of Oklahoma) for cheating once, at least when I was there in the mid to late 80s. Though I think it was more commonly done after they've given up on getting the cheater to stop cheating.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

It'll be more difficult than that in practice' date=' but yeah.[/quote']

 

It is amazing both how inventive cheaters can be, and how stupid they can be. My Physics for Life Science Majors professor gave quizzes for which he would use the same 10 questions on all forms, but they would be in a different order depending on which color coded form you had. Unsurprisingly enough while the idea behind having different forms with the questions in a different order was to make it harder to cheat, since they were color coded people still managed it. So one test the professor gave out quizzes that were all the same color, though they were indeed different forms. And at least one guy managed to get only 1 or 2 questions on a 10 question multiple choice quiz right. Though it was a perfect score on a different form. I never saw the guy in class again, and I'm pretty sure he was expelled.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

I live in Israel. Trust me' date=' I share your peeve. Its culturally normative for people to call anyone and everyone by their first names. It drives me crazy when children call me by my first name. I would have been hung out to dry if I'd call my parents friends by their first names. I've seen privates call officers by their first names in semi-informal circumstances. And, people who don't know me often walk up and call me "Gabby." Excuse me, what? My [u']wife[/u] doesn't call me that. Gavriel, David, Mr. Queenann are all acceptable. If you are under eighteen, let's stick with "Mr." I've had to tell one of our radio techs, when calling members of the knesset to put them on the air, not to call them by nicknames or their first name. Its "Hevre Knesset [surname]," not "Tzipi." If you are dealing with someone in their professional capacity its good manners to use their titles and I advocate it. Outside of those circumstances, I am generally opposed to all forms of pretense. If the cultural norm is first names, use the entire first name until you know otherwise. If the cultural norm is Mr./Ms. use that. There is a healthy and polite realm between puffy punctiliousness and insouciant informality. It is the golden mean people should strive for.

I mostly agree with you. The only exception I might make would be in regards to children. As I said, I don't agree with cases that one person is on a first name basis when the reverse isn't true. If it isn't okay for a child to call me "Gary", then it isn't okay for me to call them by their first name either. If I have to be Mr. Denney, then they should be Mr. {Surname} too.

Re: Toolkitting: Relative versus Absolute

That was the idea. You would have a basic design idea and be able to switch power levels as and when you need to.

 

 

 

I think that we need to be thinking of how technology can help with the player interface to RPGs. The character sheet is a tool that was fit for purpose when D&D came out in the 1970's. It is astounding that all we have done with respect to the GUI for roleplay games in 40 years is add a few pages.

 

For a game like HERO there is a crying need for technology to make things easy. One of the reasons many people recommend Hero Designer to newcomers so enthusiastically. Personally, I think HD is a tool for experienced people who have done the hard work on paper and understand the rules, with newcomers it hides stuff that they really should read before they play.

 

For all games I think that we should have a little more technology and design devoted to the player/game interface. This idea is something that would work better if technology could handle the background details...

 

 

Doc

Never really saw the character sheet as the GUI for an RPG. To me it is more a reminder of the mechanics of the character I'm playing.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Fortunately' date=' I have not run across that since high school...college if you count calling the professor "Professor" instead of John. It was a little strange at first to make the adjustment to call the people I have known as adults since I was a child by their first names but they all preferred that and I got used to it.[/quote']

 

I never really went through that. Mostly because I moved so often there really aren't any people other than family members that I have known as adults since I was a child. And I've always called family members either by their first name (generally prefaced with the relation, i.e. Aunt Paula), or just by the relation (i.e. granddad).

 

Even as a child I was never comfortable with adults calling me by my first name, but insisting I call them Mr. or Mrs. Lastname. As I recall, for the most part the schools I went to the standard policy seemed to be for the teachers to call students by their last name, which worked just fine for me with the requirement that we call the teachers by their last name. One exception was a school that students and teachers were on a first name basis with each other. I don't think I even knew the last names of any of those teachers. One of the better schools I went to.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

One would hope not.

I've known a lot more academics that insisted on people calling them "Doctor", even if you were interacting with them outside of their field, than military personnel that insisted on proper forms of address from non-military personnel.

And feeding the random nature of the thread, one of my pet peeves in addressing people is people who feel that it is reasonable for them to be on a first name basis with you without you also being on a first name basis with them. I.e. people that feel that it is okay to call me Gary, but insist I call them "Mr. Whatever" or "Dr. Whatever" or somesuch.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

If humans become truly "evil" without electricity/civilization' date=' what is there to ultimately live for, if we can't be "good", on average, without significant cultural/social intervention?[/quote']

 

Not quite sure what you are talking about, but humans were civilized long before we had harnessed electricity. And I'm pretty sure that if you have people able to interact with each other, a civilization will develop fairly quickly.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Mythbusters tonight includes the scene from Kiss The Girls where Morgan shot though a carton of milk to suppress muzzle flash to prevent a room full of gas from a gas stove from igniting.

 

They kept referring to the type of gas "that people cook with" as Methane. WTF? I know of no place around that uses that instead of either Butane or Propane.

Actually, I bet you do. They just call it "natural gas", or possibly just "gas". But the gas provided by your local power company is methane.

Which contrary to popular belief is an odorless, colorless gas. There is an additive that they put in it so that people can smell it when their gas leaks.