tkdguy

Oh no! I've gone space crazy!

Update: I got to do both yesterday. I found my VHS copy of Hawk the Slayer and watched in with my friends. Yes, I still have a VHS.
 
Then I ran a Rolemaster game for my friends. Incredibly, the game ended with NO fatalities on either side, although the elven mystic came close.
 
It was 1980 all over again.

I always give the players the option of floating contacts. That is, the contact isn't defined until the player needs one. Then they get to say, "Luckily I know someone in Casablanca. He knows everything that's going on there." Or "My old army buddy now works for British Intelligence." You can take it further and allow them to spend spare XP to buy a contact as and when they need them. This alleviates some of the problems you've mentioned. They only spend points on Contacts their going to use at least once.
 
You can give them more points to spend on contacts and AK.
 
There's also Skill Enhancers (Well Connected reduces the cost of Contacts, I'm sure there's an equivalent for AK.)
 
As the GM you can make sure their contacts are worth the points they've spent on them. But it occurs to me that it can be difficult to make it believable with a Globe Trotting campaign... "Buddy! What are doing Kinshasa? Didn't I just see you in Shanghai last week?"
 
Oh, there's always a VPP (which I guess is how resource points work anyway) for Contacts that represents an ability to make friends wherever you go. You can call it Makes Friends Easily. Say 15 points with limitations like requires a conversation skill roll. Something similar for AK. Call it a Collection of maps and Baedekers, has a bulky focus, takes a little Extra Time.
 
Not that I mind the players spending their points on these things. I'm pretty generous with the XP (3 pts per session isn't uncommon (1 for showing up, 1 for role play, 1 for danger)) and the XP has gotta be spent on something.

Rocky+Boxing Helena....

Scott Manley has a good breakdown of the week’s space news:
 
 

Give him a +1 bonus during the day, and a -1 penalty at night.  Don't charge any points for it, since it cancels out.

First African-American Woman To Graduate From Ranger School

https://www.boredpanda.com/giant-scrap-wood-sculptures-thomas-dambo/?utm_source=pinterest&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic

Found a good present for my Mother's birthday which is today. A blanket with Gibb's rules (from NCIS). Really quite soft as well. And I managed to get it delivered on time for the event.

A friend of my mother was getting rid of some DVDs. I got first crack at them and got 30 plus films that i did not have already. These included ones I had seen like the Negotiator and 28 Days Later and ones I had not seen though knew about like Jet Li's Fist of Legend. Then got a second batch which was TV series so I have seasons 1-3 of Peaky Blinders and half of seasons 1 through 6 of CSI, season 1 of the Following and season 1 of the Americans.

I start my vacation in 50 minutes.

10k rep....wow.
 
Seriously, guys...I'm humbled here.  Thank you for accepting me and my posts for all these years.

Just got through with a couple of new pics tonight -- an updated one of The Arc's mystic academy characters*, and a somewhat
nicer one from Enforcer84 (from about ten years ago, for which I didn't have a pic due to the lack of the appropriate tools at the
time.
 
First up is my take on a renegade teacher of the Dark Arts -- especially if he'd chosen to embrace the Darkness in its entirety:
 

Shadowmaster (a.k.a. Zacharius Darkmoor)
 
(*At least, I think the original was one of The Arc's; it's possible this was one of my contributions to his thread)
 
 
Major Tom 2009 
 
 

And here's the nicer one of the two:

The Candy Striper (complete with her Ice Cream Cone of Smiting)
 
And it's even peppermint, too (😁)...
 
 
Major Tom 2009 😎

Heard about the old time sailor men
They'd eat the same thing again and again
Warm beer and bread they said could raise the dead
Well it reminds me of a menu at a Holiday Inn....