Michael Hopcroft

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Where are the lungs again?"

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat After you were born, your obstetrician became a fullt-ime abortionist. NT: Signs that the head writer of your favorite TV show is out of his mind.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat Yo' momma is soooo ugly that she turned Medusa to stone!

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "I'm sorry, I was wondering what cup size you were. I guess i shouldn't ask that on the first date." "No problem. Just let me know what cup size you want and I'll go in for the surgery in the morning." NT: Signs your mother used to be a porn star

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Daling, what's that perfume? it's so spicy, so intoxicating, so... metallic...." "Thanks for noticing, dear. It's this new stuff I picked up called Eau de Mechanon. Like it?" "Like it? Makes me want to reach for my screwdriver." "Come here, big boy!" NT: Signs you have unwittingly married a full-conversion cyborg.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "To be irresistible to women, all you need is a little touch of Foxbat." WHAT?

Re: [Humour]SciFi TV Quotes More Doctor Who: Countess Scarlioni: I brought you here to find out why you stole my braclet. The Doctor: Well, that's my job, you see. I'm a thief. Romana here is my accomplcie, and that's Duggan. He's the detectvie who was kind enough to catch me. That's his job. Our lines of work dovetail nicely, don't you think? Countess: I was under the impression that Duggan was watching me. The Doctor; well, you are a very beautiful woman. Duggan here was probably gathering up the courage to ask you out to dinner. Countess Scarlioni: The more you try to convince me you're a fool, the more likely I am to believe otherwise. Jabe: This is the latest Alpha-class station, fully automated. Nothing can go wrong. The Doctor: Unsinkable, you mean? Jabe: You could say that. The nautical metaphor is appropriate. The Doctor: I was on a ship that was called "unsinkable" once. Ended up clinging to an iceberg. Wasn't half cold. Rose: You smell chips? The Doctor: Yes! Rose: All right, then, we'll get chips. You're buying. The Doctor: No money. Rose: Some date you are! All right, tightwad, chips are on me. We've only got five billion years before the shops close! Rose: Doctor, it's coming! The Doctor: The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door. Believe me, they've tried. Davros: We shall become all -- The Doctor: POWERFUL! CRUSH THE LESSER RACES! CONQUER THE GALAXY! UNIMAGINABLE POWER! UNLIMITED RICE PUDDING! ET CETERA! ET CETERA!

Re: Building a Time Lord Has anyone done stats for a new-style Dalek? the things may look ridiculous, but they are deadly as all hell. the Doctor believed that one Dalek was capable to depopulating a city the size of Salt Lake, despite any opposition the 2012 humans could throw at it.

Re: Martial Arts/Film Noir Campaign If you're willing to use guns, one of the obvious resources for a campaign like this is anime series such as Noir and Madlax, in which the characters are young, apparently helpless, but actually not only capable but incredibly so. This is also a great sort of campaign for the "assassin with a consscience" type of character, someone who has no compunctions about committing murder (even cold-blooded murder) but has standards concering who he or she kills. A hit man who only kills crime figures or those connected to them willingly (such as cops or poltiicans who are int he pocket of the mob) would be one such example. The "noble criminal" is another archetype that would work in this style of campaign -- someone who is a criminal or associates with criminals but whose own personal belifs or code of honor puts him in conflict with his peers. Walter Hill's controversial masterpiece The Warriors is a perfect example -- the gang at the center of the story may be ruthless and brutal, but they defend their own, take care of each other, and seem to have some sense of worth beyond their own petty interests. This especially true in environemnts that are so grim and poverty-ridden that breaking the law is the only way for a person to obtain a decent life for themselves 9such as the Coney island of The Warriors).

Re: Building a Time Lord

Re: Building a Time Lord I'd make a remark about Time Lords that relfects the new series, but that would be a spoiler. Although ti might not have much of a game effect, you might want to address the problem of inter-fertility as a campaign matter. In other words, is it possible for a Time Lord to have a child with someone of another race?

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Hi, Dad." NT: Signs your country has accidentally elected Zaphod Beeblebrox to the highest office in the land.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat To clean up after private time with Trillian.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat How to Speak Pirate NT: Signs your eccentirc uncle is really a necromancer

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat 101 Things to Do with a Dead Mouse

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Ladies and Gentlemen, I thought I should let you know that there has been a change in plans. i just decided i want to defect, and we are now flying to Cuba." NT: Signs the principal at your high school is out of his mind.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "You're thinking I'm the sexiest thing on two legs, aren't you?" "Dave, I'm a PRIEST." NT: Signs your signficant other is a refugee from a video game.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "OK, from now on everybody is going to work 14-hour days seven days a week -- and did we mention that we're not actually going to pay you?" NT: Signs that your superior at work has betrayed Mankind to the Daleks.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat .... The UPS man delivers seventy paper shredders, a whole bunch of magnets, and tickets to Panama for the CEO.

Re: The Akane Tendo Culinary Institute

Re: Tsubasa Chronicle HERO Some thoughts now that I've seen more of the anime: 1. The dimension-hopping seems to be under the complete control of Mokona Midori, the fluffy rabbity-thing Yuuko gives the group. So none of the core group needs Extra-Dimensional Movement. However, it does mean that to get between worlds they all have to be in the same place when Mokona does the world-jump. the advanatge is that the most expeisnve abilties of the group can be in the hands on a plot-device NPC. 2. Two of the characters (Syaoran and Kurogane) are gifted with "Kudan", beings which grant them protection and attack power. I don't know for sure yet whetehr the Kudan go between worlds with the group, as they are still on their first world at the point in the series to which I have seen. 3. Kurogane has a curse that makes him weaker with every person he "murders". The reason Tomoyo-hime sent him on his quest, in fact, was so that he could disocver what "true stregnth" meant. (Kurogane believed he was the strongest man in his world, so Tomoyo-hime sent him away to show him how wrong he was). The deleterious side-effects of him killing someone in cold blood would evidently be permanent -- a characteristic Drain that never recovers, perhaps? it would probably be a weak Drain, as Tomoyo is trying to teach him a lesson rather than kill him outright (if she'd wanted to kill him she could probably have done so easily -- in fact she could have simply ordered him to commit suicide and he probably would have done it -- complaining all the way, of course....) 4. Social disadvantages would be difficult to handle in a dimension travel game where different worlds have different rules. However, I would think that such a disadvantage that drvies a character's actions even when spearated from their own world might be playable (although it may be better modeled aas a Psych Lim). An expample of such a Social Lim would be the class distinction between Syaoran and Sakura-hime -- she may not crae, but he painfully aware of the problems involved in being a commoner in love with a princess. which brings me to...... 5. Syaoran's Price, which gives the series much of its impact. To save Sakura's life, Syaoran had to accept as a condition that her love for him would be gone forever. It is unclear how this would come into play, but it lends an air of tragedy to the entire enterprise. Syaoran has sacrificed EVERYTHING -- his world, his future, his only hope for happiness -- because he would rather see Sakura-hime live without him than watch her die.

How do you model in HERO a character who is spectacularly, unbelievably BAD at a skill? Like Akane Tendo's cooking, which fails in amazing, spectacular and outright dangerous ways and is a menace to anyone who eats it (inlcuding herself)? And how do you model the fact that the character, despite their abysmal skills, keeps on trying and forcing their friends and loved ones to ednure their efforts? There are other examples of such spectacular incompetence, such as putting Azumanga Daioh's Yukari Tanazkui-sensei behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Twist that neck! All the way back! Now, all the way forwards! GOOD! Now do that a million more times...." NT: Signs you've been transported to a paralell universe.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "I just won a trip for two to Las Vegas!" NT: Signs your girlfriend was once a companion of the Doctor (Doctor Who)

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat You type in "How to Summon Cthulhu" and three seconds later your monitor explodes. NT: Signs that you're dating Supergirl.