Steven Smithen

Re: Pole Arm Quiz 7 out of 22. Gotta love some of the names that they give those things...

Re: ...If I End Up In an Urban Fantasy Novel

Re: Favorite Real Scientist Sci Fi writers, and stuff you have cribbed from them. Carl Sagan and Nikola Tesla are two of my favorites. I have also enjoyed reading L. Ron Hubbard, Elisabeth Moon, E.E. Knight and who can leave out Gene Roddenberry.

Was thinking on using the world that Brent Weeks created in his "Night Angel Trilogy" for my Fantasy Hero campaign setting. Has anyone else done this or used elements from his books. Just looking to see how you worked out the magic in the world. Any comments would be helpful.

Re: New to running a Fantasy Hero game That one is the easiest. You just get stingy with the experience you award. You scale it down from your Champions campaign. When I run a 125-200 pt campaign I usually award no more than 10 exp pts per game night and to earn 10 you had better have done a lot. Usually is more like 2-5 pts per game night at best. The thing to remember is that most characters are going to level up skills and characteristics. Unless your some kind of spellcaster who would be improving powers or buying new spells.

Re: Would you marry a near-human alien? In the spirit of my favorite starship captian James T. Kirk. Hell Yes!

Re: Your "2011" Pet Gaming Projects I have begun a campaign on Hero Central. Haven't run anything in a couple of years. It's the combo of Delta Green/Conspiracy X using the Dark Champions rules. It's called Task Force Omega. So far so good.

Re: Steampunk - Source Material There is an Xbox 360 game called "Damnation". It is a steampunk based game in the wild west alternate timeline. It has a wide arrangement of weapons and some vehicles. I found it a great source for my own research into running a Steampunk game.

Re: From the Tesla files... While it appears that Tesla was a patent whore that is what they (Edison, Marconi, U.S. Gov) wanted you to believe. He was known as the Wizard of the West and had numerous inventions and late in life even worked with Einstien. The primary reason for everyone's misunderstanding of him came when he developed his "Death Ray" and its successful test for the US Army so scarred them that they didn't want anything to do with it. Tesla then shopped it around the world causing the US to buy the prototype and all plans for it and then shelved it. I read a biography about him that had interviews with his descendants and they believe he was killed by the US Gov and didn't die because of heart attack. I think all this adds to his mysterious legacy.