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Michael Hopcroft

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Everything posted by Michael Hopcroft

  1. Re: Still walkin' the beat, 25,000 years later... Does 0 EGO for the Herdstones mean that they have no free will? Are they simply following their programming endlessly, without the capacity to be aware that their masters are gone and the laws they enforce no longer exist? Assuming they do not have the sort of minds that are susceptible to control, is it still possible to trick or persuade a Herdstone into leaving you alone? Is it possible to destroy one with a sufficiently powerful attack?
  2. Re: Terra Fey Well, I was lucky enough to find a copy of Fables at Powell's (on the same day I picked up some other goodies like Yotsuba&! and a couple of classic Doctor Who DVDs). It is a very strong piece of work -- combining some good character bits with a lovely little bit of alternate history. I wonder if Willingham actually meant to create any parallels between the Fables and any of the real-life refugee communities in America (the Cuban exiles come to mind -- the mysterious Adversary does seem to bear some resembalnce to the way the Cuban exiles view Castro -- as evil incarnate).
  3. Re: Person of Steel, Significant Other of Tissue paper I haven't seen Smallville. Evidently this is an alternate version of the Superman universe. the msot notable thing about the series is that ti has generated more "slash" fanfiction than any english-langauge series since Blakes 7 (which was notoriosu for it). A lot of fans see homoerotic tension in the Clark/Lex dyanmic, and intensely dislike Lana because they feel she's a third wheel.
  4. Re: Person of Steel, Significant Other of Tissue paper Intentionally looking like a fanboy moron is not as funny as it looks. Getting back on topic, wouldn't Amazon DNA be just as incompatible with Kryptonian DNA as Humans would be? The Amazons aren't alien -- they're human warrior maidens who had their physical prowess enhanced through direct contact with the Gods IIRC. The typical Amaxon will never die naturally, doesn't age, etc. That's how the Amazons can survive as a uni-gender civilization. The origins of Diana/WW are, I understand, even more magical than that -- she might be completely sterile. And if the Amazons have any sexuality at all in their makeup, then they are probably almost universally lesbian. (Yes, there is a supicious refernce to her in the non-DC Graviton City universe of Project A-ko, but then you can't get more non-canonical than a satiric anime that was originally intended to be lesbian porn).
  5. Re: Person of Steel, Significant Other of Tissue paper I thought most people on this board at least tried to post in English. This guy seems to forget that, at least originally, the Dragonball universe was a comedy. So naturally things happen in it that are not particularly logical, like having one of the most powerful beings in the Universe be so utterly naive that he gets married in the belief that he's just going to be fed. So logic and Toriyama don't mix. And if you don't believe me, read Dr. Slump.
  6. Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat No problem. We'll just answer each other's topics. "Nike: for when you absoltuely, positively must get into the fortress without being overheard. Now in trendy black!"
  7. Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Uses our Casula Fridays policy to full advantage, particularly on Tuesdays." NT: Signs that the Japanese exchange student staying at your house learned all her English from Yukari-sensei (the homeroom teacher of the girls fo Azumanga Daioh).
  8. Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Make an admirable success of a numebr of tasks he had not been instructed to do, and is always willing to follow his own initative in spite of all pressures concerning assigned tasks." Translation: He does a lot of things, but none of them have anythign whatsoever to do with what we hired him to do.
  9. Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions If they thanked you for it, it was all worthwhile. Chiyo is the Goddess of Kawaii. Resistance is futile. You will put on the penguin suit.
  10. Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions Tomo with sonci powers. What a frightening throught. Poor Yomi!
  11. Re: Person of Steel, Significant Other of Tissue paper Rumiko Takahashi (whom Netflix seems to stubbonrly insist is a man) was posed this infamous question and refused to give any hints. "I never think about these things -- and neither should you." was what she said.
  12. Re: Person of Steel, Significant Other of Tissue paper Which brings up the whole question of supers and children. Marvel took the approach that if two altered-huamn supers, two mutants, or any combiantion of the above had children, the children would be supers but their powers might not be at all realted to thsoe of the parents. Franklin Richards has neither stretching, invidibility or force fields, but he is a super. Brad Bird also used that approach for the powers of the Parr children in The Incredibles. A brick and a stretcher have children, and they turn out to be an invisble force-field projecter, a speedster, and a metamorph. Whether powers get passed on when only one parent is a super has been theorized in a few instances. In the alternative future universe of Spider-Girl, Peter Parker and MJ's daughter inherited her father's specific powers. We have equivalent speculation in anime fandom -- not as often because very few anime characters have inborn superpowers, but it does happen. Charatcers who might well bear or sire childern with a normal human and who have superhuman natural (or endowed) abilities include (theoretically) Lum the Invader, Zelgadis Greywards, and the heroines of Tokyo Mew Mew. Apparently in the CLAMP universe magic potential runs along bloodlines (the Li are a partoicualrly powerful clan of mages, and anyone with any sort of a genetic tie to Clow Read or Yuuko would probably have great potential). The most notorious anime super of all, A-ko, inherited her powers, but they are not a direct carbon copy of the powers of her parents. There is also a variant of the notorious "Pregannt Ranma Problem" which poses the question of whether a Jusenkyo curse can be passed on through inheritance. (The geenral belief is that no, you actually have to get dunked yourself).
  13. Re: Alternate Marverlverses When I saw the title I immediately thought of a fanfic series people keep doing with various anime characters inserted into an alternative Marvel Universe. It's pretty weird. Akane Tendo (Miss Uncute Nerima) gets to be the alter ego for Thor in that one (only an anime fan would get the in-joke), Dr. Doom is overthrown as dictator of Latveria by Chii (I knew CLAMP was going to conquer the comics universe, but this was not the way I had in mind for them to do it), etc. The weirdest stories are the ones in which Ami Mizuno (aka Sailor Mercury) is the one who got bitten by the radioactive spider. Some people have too much on their hands, or should try roleplaying games.
  14. Re: New-model Dalek Well, the final two-episode story of the season ("Bad Wolf"/"The Parting of the Ways") is going to feature an enormous fleet and army of new-style Daleks. Now we will get to see how these Daleks, with all their new and powerful abailties, operate in a group. It should be utterly cool. "We'll rent you the whole flat, but you'll only need the sofa -- to hide behind...."
  15. Re: Cybermen By the way, I just rented the old black & white episode Tomb of the Cybermen from the Troughton era. Those Cybermen are very cool, depsite the obvious cheapness of their costumes. Their voices, which sound like old-style computer-generated speech, are especailly unnerving (although, like the Daleks, a human actor provided the speech which was then processed). Showing that time changes persepctives, apparently in that story the Cybermen had been gone for about five hundred years and there were actually humans who admired them. The episode is a textbook example of how to take a non-existent production budget and end up with effective television. There were only about four sets and one external location in the entire 85-minute episode -- which resulted in a wonderful claustrophobic effect to the entire piece.
  16. Re: Person of Steel, Significant Other of Tissue paper I don't know why Ellison was broguht up, unless he wrote a story about this subject. The poster may ahve meant Larry Niven, who wrote an essay on Sueprman's sexuality called "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" that seems to have been read by everybody in fandom who does not write for Supermain in any of the official media. The postulated theory was that Superman had numerous physical chaarcterstics that would kill a human sex partner. DC did not read this apparently, as Clark Kent and Lois Lane have been married in the comics continuity for quite some time. There were such issues addressed in Lois & Clark, although I didn't see the episodes in question so I'm not sure how they were handled. The series ended with Lois and Clark having to raise an infant of uncertain origin -- apparently Superman's alien genetics prevented natural conception with Lois (either that or they were using the above-mentioned super-condoms). As for other comic-book characters, fans have speculated that Reed and Sue Richards are a very hot couple. The combined erotic possibilties of total elatsiticyt of all body parts and the ability to create and control invisible force fields boggle the mind. Peter Parker might have a less intense version of the Superman problem. other potential issues include force fields over which a character does not have very good control (making contact difficult), anything that is transmitted through the skin or by bodily fluids, or anything that affects body temperature in either direction. The Flash TV series made what at first appeared to be a joke reference to the harmful effects of superspeed on someone's sex life, but it turned out to be a boxing reference. Another character who has a severe potential problem is Scott Summers, aka Cyclops. If whatever Ruby Quartz eyewear he is wearing gets knocked off in the heat of passion, he is in a world of trouble until he gets it back on.
  17. Re: Person of Steel, Significant Other of Tissue paper Not kryptonite (that would be poisonous, not to mention potentially carcinogenic, to a Kryptonian), but in the DC Universe STAR Labs probably helped the Kents develop a condom-suitable material that would take the force of -- well, you know -- without coming off or breaking. With proper care, the genetic material can then be collected for storage and later insemination should they desire to have a natural child (and possibly engineered slightly to ENABLE fertilization). The other problem is solved either by Tantric muscle control or by avoiding penetration altogether.
  18. Re: Powers of the BLUE BEETLE Electric Company version: a fat guy in a T-shirt, domino mask, and deely-bobs on his head with no appreciable abilties (super or otherwise). Never did any actual superheroing. (Apparently the Children's Television Workshop was either unaware of the comic book character or just liked the name -- although they had a deal with Marvel for the use of Spider-Man, the Blue Beetle has never been a Marvel character.) The original Blue Beetle was with a comic book publisher that was actually shut down druing WWII, ostensibly because of paper shortages. The more likely reason is that he, along with Samson and the Flame, was featured in an anthology book called Big 3 -- which was also the 'group name" given to wartime leaders Franklin roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin by the media. There seemed to be enough paper for National Perodicals, Timely and all the other publishers who were churning out superhero comics to fuel the wartime prooaganda machine....
  19. For the anime fans on the board, a little thought experiement in character design and storytelling: the girls of Azumanga Daioh -- with superpowers! The setup is that the gang has gone to a theme park to unwind, only to have a dimensional rift open only for them. Suddenly the girls are supers. The first stage of the experiment is to write up the girls as they appear in the anime. The second stage is to give them enough powers, enhanced Characteristics and super-equipemtn to bring them up to standard Champions starting characters (200+150). The rules: 1. The Stage 1 writeup should not give the girls any talents they did not posess in the anime/manga. 2. The Stage 2 writeups should not contain anything that would signficantly alter the personality of the character. No fair giving powers to Tomo that would cause her to be angst-ridden and moody, for example. You should be especially careful about altering mental characteristics -- turning one of the "blockheads" into an uber-genius would not work, for example, or making Chiyo stupid. The base characters for the experiment: Chiyo Mihama (Chiyo-chan): Precocious eleven-year-old genius going to hgih school instead of the fifth grade. Smart, incredibly cute, extremely rich, too naive and trsuting for her own good. No one person has the right to be this adorable. Yomi: An intelligent, bespectacled girl who is more attractive than she believes herself to be. She cannot shake her "best friend", tomo, no matter how hard she tries. Always trying to drop a few pounds. Tomo Takino: "the Wildcat High School Girl", an electric little ball of energy whose enthusasm for new tasks is matched only by her utter incomeptence at them. Always challenging people to contests she has no chance of winning. Alarmingly proud of her own stupidity. Sticks to Yomi like a bad penny. Sakaki-san: She's never told anyone her first name. Sakaki is quiet and cool, but would much rather be cute. She adores animals, but animals (particualrly cats) are usually violently hostile to her. Very athletic and smart, but doesn't belong to any school sports clubs. likes hanging around Chiyo, partly because Chiyo's dog (a huge good-natured Pyranees names Mr. Tadakichi) actually seems to like her. Kagura: A good all-round athlete who competes on the school swim team, Kagura insists that she is Sakaki's rival, even though Sakaki doesn't really care. Likes hanging around with Tomo and competing with her to see who can get the poorest grade. Kaorin: A plain, quiet and painfully shy girl who has a massive and unnoticed crush on Sakaki. the bane of her exostence is Kimura-sensei, a Classics teacher who is in the profession because he likes being around high school girls and who has for some reason become fixated on Kaorin. Ayumu Kasuga (Osaka): She seems to be in tune with the Universe -- it just happens not to be the universe anyone else happens to live in. A transfer student from Osaka, she is the opposite of the typical Osakan by being quiet, shy and not at all fond of spicy foods. Unfocused and somewhat scattered, Osaka-chan tends to take naps in class. She is prone to wild fantasies, particualrly concenring Chiyo-chan and her "detachable pigtails" and "Chiyo-tachi" -- an enormous and near-omnipotent cat-like creature that she dreams is Chiyo's father. Any thoughts?
  20. Re: Summoner This whole concent reminds me of the "duellists" in Yu-Gi-Oh!, who fight with monsters that are stored in a very large deck of cards and seem to have an uncanny ability to always draw exactly the card they need. Originally the monsters only existed in the "arena", a sort of holographic playing field, but later in the series the monsters developed a real existence and could be brought out anywhere in the world -- and could affect real objects and people, which they couldn't do before.
  21. If a wizard or super can replenish or supercharge his END pool from the surrounding "mana" or a smilar universal energy source, how do you model that ability? And since END cost is one of the most potent balancign measures for strong magic of extreme superpowers, how would a character with the ability to do so be controlled in a campaign context, so they don't run amuck using extreemly magic at whim?
  22. Re: Okay A question about posting Conversions to Hero I guess Satan isn't going to be making an appearance on the HERO boards right away then. Or Quantum Cop.
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