Michael Hopcroft

Re: A Bat-ty Campaign Idea I just thought of something else -- Batgirl would be involved in a lust-hate relationship with the notorious burglar Catman. they're both gorgeous and wildly attractive, but Catman has a tendency to break the law in spectacular ways for his own profit and Batgirl has had to throw him in jail more than once. Catman hasn't decided whether he wants to take Batgirl into the sack or put her in a coffin....

Re: A Bat-ty Campaign Idea Not a bad idea. The batmobile would probably be built around a Corvette or something similarly sleek and powerful, but with additional features like complete bulletproofing (including headlights), a full sensor suite so she can drive blind without the headlights, an On-Star-like link to Marie back in the Batcave, and so forth. Barbara Wayne would also have a normal car (wth marie as the chauffer) as she ran Wayne Enterprises and maintains an active social life. Were it not for her obsession with crimefighting, she would be the most eligikble bachelorette in Gotham City, and even with that a lot fo wealthy and powerful men desire her(and, in a supreme act of underestimation, her fortune). She doesn;t put on a "dumb girl" act, though -- anyone who deals with her in a business matter knows she;s extremely sharp and can look through you like she had X-ray vision into your soul. Barbara Wayne may eventually get a steady boyfirend, from whom she'll keep her Batgirl identity secret unbtil the last possible moment. She trained externisevly in kung=fu, jodu, aikido, kenjutsu, ninjustsu, svaate, and caporeia. There is very little she can;lt do in terms of martial arts. And her costume is bulletproof latex that looks like black leather, with a cape that looks like coth but can also double as armor. The Joker would be a woman too, but just as insane and murderous as her DC Universe counterpart. She commits crimes and laucnhes vast schemes that make sense only to herself, but which can unleash untold destruction if alowed to come to fruition. Physically the Joker is not a match for Batgirl, but she usually lets her minions let the fists fly for her. One other thing -- Barbara has trained herself to require only three hours of sleep a day. She usually gets them in between six and nine ion the morning. Those three hours, though, are usuaully filled with intense nightmares of the death of her parents or whatever villain is plaguing her existence at the moment.

Re: Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu Face it -- there's nothing Guu CAN'T do. One time she grew to such an enormous height that an orbiting satellite collided with her head and fell to Earth without her even noticing. Her principal function in life is to challenge the sanity of one character -- Hale. Just why a character with all the power and morals of Cthulhu has taken an interest in a little boy in the jungle is never answered in the series. her actions do have a few good beenfits -- they help Hale's mother reconcile with her own mother -- but mostly she's trouble. There are people who not only live in Guu's stomach but actually like it there. This gives you an indication of how big Guu's pocket dimension is. She also accidentally swallows a suicidal woman who hates every man in the universe except Hale, with whom she becomes fixated. Guu also has the ability to turn on the cute whenever she wants to. She can fool any adult and most children into believing she's a normal, extreemly cute little girl. As a result, only Hale knows the truth about Guu, which really interferes with his dealins with Mari, the normal little girl (if you can call lviing at school normal) who he truly loves. Using Guu-like powerrs in a campaign would probably result in the most powerful, evil little-girl villain you could think of, who doesn;t even see herself as doing any harm. Oh yes, did I mention that Guu can turn into an adult beauty at will? She just doesn;t like to let anyone see her that way.

Re: Daleks?? Still, there is the numeber-one rule when fighting a Dalek -- "AIM FOR THE EYEPIECE!" Shoot off that stalk and you blind the Dalek. I always wpondered how the Daleks aimed their guns with only the one eye -- wouldn;t that be about as hard as firing a psitol if you had only one eye 9and thus not have depth perception)? perhaps the spheres compensate by calculating distance between the Dalek and various objects, inlcuding targets. I wouldn't limit the Dalek guns to organic targets, because every so often the Dlaeks have to fight mechanical enemeies or even other Daleks. (The final Dlake story, the classic Sylvester McCoy "Rememebrance of the Daleks", centered around a Dalek civil war that had spread to Earth.) The mutant Dalek inside the suit is dangerous on its own. It' has poisonous fans that tend to infect those they bite with mindless obedience to the Daleks (perfect for crreating disposable tools). The classic view of Daleks, of course, can be found in their origin story, 'Genesis of the Dalkes", which displayed it was the mindset they represetned that was both their true power and their true danger. Now if onyl Davros had had the good sense to stay dead.... BTW, you will not see Dalkes in the new season of Doctor Who, scheduled for 2005 and being produced by BBC Wales. the BBC and the Terry Nation estate could not agree on terms. Ina ddition, there is rumors the Nation estate is preparing to sue Warner Borthers for an unauthorized appearance of the Daleks in the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

How does one go about a spell that either undoes the Luck of a lucky character (Dispel Luck?) or makes a character inclucky (Unluckk, UAO?) for the duration of the spell? The catser's onbivous hope is that the bungling target will not survive the duration of the spell, or will be more vulnerable to the user's attacks. Spewaking of which, how does one use magic to give characters temporary disadvatnages such as Unluck or Social Disadvantages (I can't think of a worse Social Disadavnateg than reeking of corpse without the ability to wash it off until the necromancer takes off the spell)? Can one use a spell to cause a character to become Huinted by someone who would not nromally hunt them (by doing something like altering their face to look like an infamous bandit, or platser fake wanted posters for the character all over the kingdom where they will attract the attention of powerful bounty hunters)?

The one advanatge of the d20 boom is that it has produced a ton of characer concepts that are cool additions to fantasy agmes, even if kept very rare for whatever reason. "Splatbooks"of all varieties are full of classes that you can build a character coincept around. What I'm wondering is what it would take to convert some of these classes to FH paakage deals, like some of the classes in the new Complete Warrior and Complete Devine books (i own the first but not the second), not to mention books like Oriental Adventures and the various worldbooks. besdies, I;'ve always wanted to set a FH campaign on one of the really popular fantasy worlds and see how the different rules would affect how things went on there. (WotC's new fantasy-pulp book Eberron comes to mind, and when I can afford to buy a copy I'll tell you what I think of it.)

Re: "Magic" Through Scientific Laws? The "Lord Darcy" seroies of fantasy/mystery/alternate history stories postulates magic as a Chruich-approved science that is superior to all other forms of technolgoy, but is more subtle and, when misused, affects the user. Black Magoic can cuase great harm but evenrtually destroys the minds of its users, in addition to being a felony in and of itself. "Black mgaic is a matter of symbolism and intent" -- so if you attempt to harm someone with magic, you are also harming yourself. Honest practitioners are licensed with the Catholic Church. Givne that priests really could cure illnesses in their parishoners by laying on of hands, the education of priests and lay healers imrpoved, the Chruch became less corrupt, and the Reformation was averted. Sinc emagic is a science with teachable laws 9if you have the talent to use them), Jewish rabbis and Islamic clerics can also use these powers to minister to their flocks. Some things you still need a "chiurgeon" for, though -- before the pirest closes the wound in your leg, you might want to ahve that bullet taken out.

Re: Case Closed aka Detective Conan I'd tack on a few more skills. Shinichi Kudou had a ton of Knowledge Skills, spoke fluent English, and knew all about things like poisons and firearms. He can;t display that knowledge as Conan, but it's in his arsenal. I'd say 20 points just in knowledge skills. I'd also consider buying Ran as a Follower (she is very useful and is a kick-ass karate babe) with the limitation "Only cooperates when it suits her" (-1). If you want a DNPS group, the Child Detective Corps (his three school friends) would make a good one -- they're constantly getting their noses into trouble and sometimes have poveractive iomaginations that lead Conan astray (Ayumi once had COnan convinced a theatre prop was really the severed head of a murder victim). Also, take the group to which Gin and Tonic belong as a Hunted. They haven;t made the connection yet between Shinich Kudou and Conan Edogawa, but Conan has been a thorn in their side at every opportunity that presents itself and believes that breaking up that organization is his only hope for a cure. You haevn't met them yet, but Conan has a couple fo rivals. One is a tennage detective genuis from OSaka whose name I forget who figured out his secret right away -- they often find themselves working on the same cases and always try to outdo each other. The other is the kaitou Kid, a flamboyant thief who has challenged Conan on sveeral occasions. Finally, Conan has a vulnaerability to alcohol. To me more spefcific, the combination of strong drink and the common cold changes him baclk to Shinich Kudou at what usually does not turn out to be an opportune time. MUCH later in the series, if Funimation releases it that far, we will encounter Ai, a scientist who had been working for that organization who took the same drug Conan was fed expecting it to be a deadly poison. Turned her into a girl Conan's age, leading to no end of trouble. I've been watching Detective Conan for years, and the series has run a very long time. It's always had one lead writer in charge and he comes up with an amazing number of puzzles, some of them incredibly difficult. Worthy of a master detective!

Re: How many ways can you do this? One of the classic speedster tircks is to catch a bullet in mid-air. I've always wondered how you would write this up in such a way that a character like Kinetik could stop the assassination by catching the bullet a fraction of a second before it hit's the dignriaty's head (then uses his Running to get right next to the assassin, drop the bullet at his feet, and say "I think you dropped this...." Then punch his lights out, of course....

Re: Miko of the Morning Mist You're welcome. I can't wait for writeups of characters like Yuzu (a pheonomenally powerful but immature miko who gets embarassed really easily when something everyone knows -- that's she's been head-voer-heels in love with Hiro for years -- is mentioned.) and Hiro (a boy whose left eye can see into the spirit world and has a vital role to play in the impending destruction of the world).

Has anyone based their Fantasy HERO games around feudal Japan as a a setting? There are all sorts of interesting things you could do with it. The samurai mindest is ideal for fantasy, and samurai make ideal adventuring characters 9especialoly wandering ronin who could be called upon to face viturally any situation. Magic could be provided by the powers of Shinto priests and miko (shrine maidens) who are in tunr with the spirit world, by Buddhist mionks and priests. jaoansese mythology is full of monsters and creatures who could be thrown into a game, from demonic oni to their unique varieties of vampires and shapeshifters. Many japanese fantasy campaigns may verge into horror territory is the supernbatural becomes a major factor. Then there are the daimyos and their near-constant intrigue and warfare. Everyone, it seems, wants to be shogun or military dictator, but since the post is occupied this can lead to no end of trouble. PCs who are elite agents of the shogun could face interesting times -- and if you've attracted the shogun's unfavroable attention, where do you run on an island?

Re: Sword Masters Ah, the Gourry effect. oAF, easily replaceable (just pick up another sword or buy one at the nearest swordsmith), I'd call that a -1/4 Limitation on extra dice of HKA. Question: If you did get a really special sword (such as en enchanted blade that does extra damage already), would the bonuses stack? And what about skill? Wouldn;t it be locical for this character to buy OCV levels in Sword, or even a sword-based matiral Arts style, to reflect extraordinary talent with blades? Might the MA style even supplent the extra dice of HKA (as a manuver would give extra dice of damage and generally be cheaper in addition?) I'm wondering if you might accomplish the same effect by making him a master of a weapons-based MA like Kenjutsu or your world's equivalent.

Re: Case Closed aka Detective Conan One misnor correction -- Conan's glasses do nothing to correct his vision, which is 20/20. The lenses are just clear plastic. The only reason he wears them is as apart of a disc\guise, so he doesn;t look so much like a young Shinichi Kudou. Rememeber, Conan wants everybody but Ran to believe Shinichi Kudou is dead. He fears Ran and the oihers he cares about will become a target if his secret is discovered -- those were some pretty nasth\y customers who slipped hi that shrinking drug. The only people who know ShninchinKudoud is still alive are his gadgeteer friend who rpovides him with those wonderful toys and ran; he will occasionally keep in touch with her (even though he's living in the same house) by finding a pay phone and using the tie to call her up and reassure her he's OK, because he knows it would break her heart if she didn't know that. Yes, among the people he can impersonate is his teenage self. .

Re: Is anyone gaming the Iraq war? Well, for one thing, it would fly with veterans of the war. They;ve already been through it once -- why would they want to go back? The other problem is thta none of us who haven't been in the war would really know what it is like to be in that situation. Some things simply cannot be explained or simulkated on the gaming table. Finally there is the matter of potential prejudice. RPG campaigns set in wartime tend to run along the lines of "Kill them all, le the GM sort them out". This may work for some people with Orcs and Goblins (although i disagree with that approach), but it would definitely not fly when a real population is involved.

Re: Run! Live Action Sailor Moon! You've seen father along than I have. waa.

Re: Case Closed aka Detective Conan To give you some idea of the weird ideas fanfic writers get, someone posted a fiction in which Shinichi Kudou (the guy Conan was transformed from) turned out tpo be the grandson of Lupin III. The story baffled everybody.

Re: Run! Live Action Sailor Moon! If it's any conslation, the Senchi's transofrmations also change their hair color. So while Usagi has black hair. Sailor Moon is still blonde. And Rei dyes her hair light brown, but goes black when she transofrms into Sailor Mars. Ami doesn;t dye her hair, and wears it long (and wears glasses!) but when she transforms she loses the glasses and gains a blue hairdo that defies description.

Re: Miko of the Morning Mist

Re: MH Press acquires two HERO licences! I have applied for two additional titles to be added to my HERO license collection. When and whether that will happen I don't know. these will probably be eBooks as well.

Earlier this week I finally got a complete set of an anime series that has not yet been released here called Asagiri no Miko ("Miko of the Morning Mist"), about a group of Shbinto priestesses battling a dark god trying to envelop the world into a 'twighlitght mist" of nothingness. I highly recommend this series to anyone why\o has even the slightest interest in incorporating Japanese mysticism into their game. It shows some character who take iot very sreiously and are powerful, some who take it lightly and are still powerful, and characters who have fallen into the dark corners of the struggles among the gods. There is a lot of comedy, but there is also a lot of tragedy involved as well. Even the bad guys are capable of both sacrifice and love. (the twilight Miko are fascinating characters in their own right). There is also one lesson here for gamemasters in any genre -- save the best for last. The series ends in a sotry-arc that runs six episodes that nearly ends in the destruction of the world, and the final redemption is not through shamanic powers but through a force that can best be described as the power of pure, unselfish love. Difficult to game, true, but it makes for an extreley satisfying conclusion to a story, which is fatre all what a campaign is. The lesson? When it's time to bring your campaign to an end, come up with an ending that will tug at the heartstrings as well as the powers of the characters. Make your final challenge a test of loyalty, hope and courage as much as a test of power. Save the best for last!

Re: Run! Live Action Sailor Moon! Ami has always been cute, from the manga days on down. There's just something about these girls that makes me want to like them, though. (Though that doesn;t neccesaily mean sexual interest -- after all, they would be underage and I do have standards when it comes to my sex-symbols).

Is there anyone here who can draw a good "fantasy-style" map of western North America, with the Rocky Mountains as an impassible (possible magical) barrier? How much should i expect to have to pay for a map like that, and would how much creative freedom IO gave the map-maker affect the cost?

Re: Run! Live Action Sailor Moon!

Re: Run! Live Action Sailor Moon! This is not entirely impossivble. Remember Caperoia, the Braziliam martial arts whose practioners disgused it as dance moves so their slave-owner masters wouldn;t discover that their slaves were learning how to fight? Something like that is entirely possible here. Build a style full of Acrobatic Didges, Leaps, and a few leg Sweeps (that somehow rarely connect -- maybe -2 OCV, +2 DCV?)

Re: Run! Live Action Sailor Moon! I'd take the trip out if I could afrford it -- but I say the same thing about GenCon. And that's entirely unlikely. On my income, I'm lucky I can get to local club meetings.