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Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Musings on Random Musings Salsa. Use salsa. Even some Mexican recipes are made up of unidentifiable organ meats and that is why salsa rules.

Re: Hunted Questions I disagree, Mags. Just because the Rivalry is only one sided doesn't mean it can't be disadvantageous to the PC. Timing, as they say, is everything.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Dude, its the pants.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings The political posts are so back on next week. Fair warning.

Re: Power Defence... Ugg Pre-zactly. Concerns based on distateful special effect may require some broadening of the SFX application or execution rather than narrowing of the effect concept perception, i.e. molecular structure that physically moves molecules out of the way of the adjustment attack, regardless of SFX, rather than just calling it "magic" or "radiation" because of the power origin. Concentrate your definition on what it does rather than why or how it does something justifies power defense just fine in most cases.

Re: Eliminating Killing Attacks In a multi genre system, I think both normal and killing attacks are appropriate. I like Champions supers being able to send one another flying through brick walls, dust themselves off and get back into the fray, all the while suspending reality as to what the real damage would be. Likewise, my first western game served notice to players and GM alike that being shot meant weeks of recovery at best and therefore one engaged in gunpaly as a last resort. Bullets don't care if you are a Marine, Ranger, Ninja or Spetsnaz. The damage is the same and it is bad and some game genres should recognize that. If a hero in our Champions universe uses killing attacks for the stun lottery and they aren't on a giant robot, the ramifications from the rest of the team, world governments and public opinion would be overwhelming. IMO, roleplaying and assertive GMing is the solution for killing attack abuse, or any other game abuse rather than a change of rules.

Re: What Would Your Character Do? #68 CYBERKNIGHT; This completely idealistic power armored scientist/billionaire would wait to see what kind of ruler the world leaders had agreed to. If the result was a reign of terror, then the legitemacy of the government would be considered over and Cyberknight would be starting the revolution. PRODIGY; is an ancient Atlantean who among his past deeds was the formation of the Knights Templar and a leading role in the Crusades. As a result of the terrible slaughter in which he had such a prominent leading role, he has renounced killing completely and is a staunch opponent of any evil and despotism. Prodigy could therefore be expected to quote the peasant in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" by stating, "I didn't vote for him."

Re: Questions about Hero from a DnD GM I guess I will be the oddball. I recommend that you go for FREd which is the full fifth edition rulebook. Why? Glad you asked. As someone who also started this bizarre hobby with D&D, but some twenty five years ago, I feel that you will be experienced enough a gamer to want to reproduce some of the higher level abilities, some of the campaign depth possibilities, and some of the esoteric device functions for any genre which FREd will supply. I am a big fan of Sidekick for a player just starting out, but I do believe that an aspiring judge will soon find it wanting for design detail. Welcome to Hero. The sysytem really is superior, Steve Long and company are extremely responsive and down to Earth, and the quantity and quality of friendly help you can get from the members on these boards is astounding.

Re: Crime and Punishment I have explored the idea of "reprogramming" villains, especially given that one of my PCs is a mentalist. My version constists of an aversion to action rather than permanent mind control definition. In other words, the villain can still conceive of and think about doing evil, but cannot carry the thoughts into action. This eliminates the whole "killing the soul" arguement as the personality is not eliminated but the body's ability to commit the evil deed is prevented through psychic rather than physical incarceration. Obviously, some will not see the distinction.

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

Re: The Global Guardians on September 11, 2001 I am so impressed with the absolute emotional honesty and compassion in these stories while still keeping in character. Thanks to everyone who shared these stories. Thanks for doing this, Jack.

Re: abstract wealth as a power

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Ron Jeremy? He was never any of those things!

Re: The cranky thread I have never fed a kitten through a tube. That might make a difference. Does a vet have to do it or can regular people? Virg' is afraid if we take it to the vet, they will just put it down.

Re: The cranky thread My stepmother is an unofficial cat rescuer. She has like 150 cats on my Dad's 8 acre farm. She spends most of her days catching them, neutering them, and trying to find them homes. One of the kittens from a litter she didn't prevent has developed a respitory infection and she called my wife Virginia to come and get it, STAT. We "only" have five, so are able to spend more time nursing the critters individually. Anyway, the problem is, the kitten doesn't look like it will pull through, and as Virginia said, since Rachel (my stepmother) doesn't want to watch it die, we get to. Hopefully the antbiotics will allow the little guy to tart eating, but i rate its survvival at 70/30 against. I hope I'm wrong.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I first read a short story version of Flying Sorcerers in a magazine like Fantasy and Science Fiction in the seventies, as a kid. Later I read the book and was old enough to know who Niven was and who Purple was, I really was able to appreciate it. I have read Burning City, but not Rainbow Mars. I didn't even know there was a follow up to Inferno, so I owe you big time, Hyper-Man.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I have all of his solo stuff. The Man Kzin Wars was really uneven and I stopped after the third or fourth one. Lately I have heard raves about some of the stuff in the more recent volumes. Otherwise, Niven/Pournelle, Niven/Barnes etc., I have read almost everything.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Larry Niven's new book, Ringworlds Children, was a perfect example of how jaded and spoiled one gets after four books of gigantic scale and nearly miraculous technology. All of the elements of the three previous forays to the Ringworld were present and then some. Yet the experience was realtively blase until I considered the whole big picture involved. I highly recommend it to any fan of Niven's "Known Space' and Ringworld fans in particular.

Re: What sort of benefits do Fringe Benefits confer? As one of the GMs in the campaign Trebuchet is running the PC in, I consider it one of my jobs to make sure all these background skills and perks are anything but useless. Our other GMs, Treb included, have the same philosophy of GMing. Often they only come up in the roleplaying aspect of the narrative, but when you need them you REALLY need them. If a player spends points on somethng, the GM is honor bound to put the ability in play.

Re: Do you allow Find Weakness in games using Hit Locations? Good points all, but abuse or overuse of any such power construction would likely result in lots of flyers or lots of Lack of Weakness use in villains. Balance, balance, balance.

Re: Do you allow Find Weakness in games using Hit Locations? Find weakness and hit locations both rarely come up in our campaign, mostly for called shots for the latter. I can see a number of explanations other than hit location for find weakness, however. Here are a few other things find weakness might simulate; 1. How hard to hit a given opponent. 2. The ability to distract them from being able to completely defend themselves. 3. What kind of attack; ie. open hand, closed fist, elbow smash, etc. 4. Catching the opponent slightly overconfident. 5. Timing the shot or strike just right. While all of these might be simulated by other game play rules and mechanisms, having a catch all attack advantage controlled by the player seems to me to preclude any one, such as hit location, being the only definition. Just my 2 cents.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings There may be nothing sweeter than the voice of the Dr. telling me, "Your wife shows negative for breast cancer."

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Beautiful family you have there, David.

Re: Lack of Power coverage