Michael Hopcroft

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.

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept? The problem with games in which such black-and-white concepts as 'evil races of Gnolls" exist is that, in the end, they are not as challenging ascampaigns in which morality in in the sorts of shades of grey you find in real people. Say a being was created with the direct purpose of destroying the world, and other beings were created with the purpose of opposing that being. Is the destoryer evil? Are the protectors good? On the destoryer: the destoryer is a force of nature that happens to be capable fo senient planning. In a sense it is like a hurricane, an earthquake, or a tornado that just happens to be able to think. We don't call natural disasters evil desptie the great havoc they wreak. On the protector: There was once a group of people who felt a force of great evil was out to destory the world. To fight it, they rooted out all knowledge that defied the established ways of order and harshly punished, and even killed, those who posessed it. You have have heards of these guys; they were called the Inquisition. To serve what they saw as the cause of justice, they committed terrible atrocities. Historical hindsight shows that just about everything they did turned out to be based on some fals\ehood or mis-interpretation; they punished Galileo for seeing moons around Jupiter, when we all know there actually are moons around Jupiter. The protectors in this fantasy environemtn might very well act like the inquiosition, but that doesn;t mean that as a GM or player I have to go along with their excesses in the name of some absoilute good. Finally, there is the force that crated this universe deliberately with these opposing forces. How do you describe that force? It created a universe, which is a benevolent act. Then it set in motion the means of its destruction, which is a malevolent one. THEN it decided to create an opposing force to mitigate the efefcts of the destoryer. This suggests an interest in a balance between the concepts of creation and destruction. Neither concept is any more good or evil than the other -- you can create a terrible weapon. You might as well attribute it to elemental evil that all things that live must eventually die.

My local anime club is wtaching the TV seires of Read or Die, which 9at the poiint we are watching) has finally corssed over fully with the OVAs -- and turned my opinions of the PVAs comnpleteley on their ear. Remeber how we thought the people who ran the Spcieal Investigations Unit at the British library were benevolent protectors of the world? Well, it seems they engaged in a massive betrayal of one of their former agents, taking her child away in the hopes that he would (TO SAY WHAT THEY WANTED FROM HIM WOULD BE A SPOILER), leading to the rather explosive "resignation" of Yumiko Readman. The TV series follows the adventures of three paper-mainulator sisters from Hong Kong who run across one of Yumiko's friends and end up as her bodyguard. They each have a specialty, and they are going to need it when Joker comes after them.... Have you ever run a camapuign this way, when you ahve the supposedly heroic agency your characters work for turn out to be evil incarnate? And what do your characters do?

Someone in japan actually did a live=action series based on the classic manga and anime Pretty Solider Sailor Moon. YOu would think this would be a recipie for disaster, and a lot of fans originally saw it as a joke, but the end result has turned out so far to be quite watchable. However, the characters are sturning out to be wuite differnet, the plot does not follow the anime storyline, and some fot characters do not behave ion the ways we are used to them behaving. Tuxedo kame, for example, is first seen trying to rob a jewelry store only to be thwarted by Sailor V, who is apparently active in Tokyo. The youma are abbit cheesier than in tiem anime, but what do you exiect from a combination of CGI and guys in suits. Both USagi and Ami change hair color when they transform. When someone has seen a few more episodes, I am hoping to find some live-action specific writeups. The characters seem capable of doing things they are not able to do in the anime (Sailor Mercury at one point opens a protal into subspace to get Sailor Moon an escape route) and there are a few neat tricks like the secret headquarters hidden inside an all-ages karaoke club (When usagi shows the manager her all-year pass and meririly walks by, the manager asks himslef "Do we have all-year passes?") Oh, and Luna is a living plushie. Which actually makes it easier for her because Usagi can just carry her everywhere without arousing suspicion.

Cringe in terror! There is indeed a live-=action series of Pretty Solider Sailor Moon! And it's watchable! And it has a power construct that made me very curious. In the new version, Usagi and Ami both carrry multi-function cellphones. It doesn;t look suspciious because every japanese schoolgirl worth her salt carries a cellphone. The tricks are these: 1. They can apparently instantly reach one another and theoir coordnator,Luna, with it. 2. The calls cannot be intercepted (they can talk about secret stuff and nobody can listen it. 3. Here's the tricky one: The cell-phones have cameras in them. When you take a picutre of someone with that cell-phone, YOUR clothing (complete with lewelry) beomes an exact dupliacte of that of the person who just photographed. For example, if you took a picutre of a soldier with it you'd look like you were wearing the solider's uniform and equipment. (It's not clear whether thecnolgocial devices the subject was carrying would work for you). How do you write up these cell-phones?

Re: What's the Benefit of Having Same Power Twice? You may as well ask why a mage would buy mutliple attack spells. The quick answer is versatility -- one power may have limitations that prevent its use in certain situations, while another power's limitations and/or advantages make it ideal. For example, you almost never buy a "naked" Egenry Blast. It has little style and is no fun to play. So when you define your power, some limitations and advantages come with it. Like an Eb that shoots gouts of flame can have advanatges like Continuing (it causes things to catch on fire) and Area effect 9it covers an area). But there will be times when the ability to be a human flamethhrower is ueless. Maybe you;re in a building full of anicent tomes that you don't want to damage, or your foe may have bought Damage Resistance against fire-based attacks. If you had bought a second EB with a different special effect, you;d have an attack you could use in that situation. The consturction si scene in the source material of just about every genre; blasters that have different 'settings" for different needs, the super-archer with an arrow for every occasion, the battle-mage with many different attack spells tobe used based on the situation, Another reason to buy two atacks that are VERY similar, such as a pair of swords, is if you have a Martial Arts technique that enables you to use them simultaneously or a WF: like "Two-Weapon Fighting". This woudl mainly apply to martial artists in superheroic games where you have to buy everything with points. In a sup-erheo game, if you want to flash around two blades at once, you have to pay for both blades as if each were independent. It also comes in handy if you lose one of your blades. (One thing this would not apply to is multiple instances of the same attack that you can only use one at a time, such as a brace of trhrowing knives. These would be bought as one attack with Charges to reflect that you can only carry around so many at a time. And you can construct throwing knoives in such a way that you can throw two at once, one in each hand.)

Re: Finally...HERO is on it's way! I picked up Sidekick as soon as I saw it. it's great for when you don;t want to carrt FRED along to your games, when you want to show a newcomer that the system really is manageable, and when you want to try out a concept and see if a novice player can grasp playing it. I recommend that everyone who expects to run a convention game of HERO for beginners, evenm if they pre-generate characters, bring along a copy of Sidekick for the players to refer to -- then get ready to buy another when it inevitably disappears into the hands of an eager neophyte.

Re: MH Press acquires two HERO licences! Here's a preview of the Hero writeup for one pof the characters in Cute Fighters, courtesy of Mike Surbrook: CUTE FIGHTER SAGITTARIUS Val CHA Cost Roll Notes 8+5 STR 2* 11- (12-) Lift 75 kg (200 kg); 1 1/2d6 (3d6) HTH damage [1] 13+10 DEX 33* 12- (14-) OCV: 4 (8)/DCV: 4 (8) 8+7 CON 6* 11- (12-) 8 BODY -4 11- 13 INT 3 12- PER Roll 11- 15 EGO 10 12- ECV: 5 8+10 PRE 6* 11- (13-) PRE Attack: 1 1/2d6 (3 1/2d6) 14 COM 2 12- 2+6 PD 2* Total: 11 PD (3 rPD) 2+6 ED 2* Total: 11 ED (3 rED) 3+1 SPD 7 Phases: 4, 8, 12 (3, 6, 9, 12) 4+2 REC 0 16+10 END 0 16+14 STUN 6* Total Characteristics Cost: 75 *: OIHID (-1/4) Movement: Running: 6â€/12†Leaping: 10 1/2â€/21†Swimming: 2â€/4†Cost Powers END 2 Archer’s Strength: +5 STR; Only To Draw Bows (-1) 0 52 Golden Bow: RKA 2d6, Indirect (only to go through Cancer’s Force Walls; +1/2), No Range Modifier (+1/2), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2); Beam (-1/4), OIHID (-1/4), Restrainable (-1/2) and +1d6 RKA, Indirect (only to go through Cancer’s Force Walls; +1/2), No Range Modifier (+1/2), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2); Beam (-1/4), OIHID (-1/4), Restrainable (-1/2), Only Versus Magical Creatures (-1/2) 0 Martial Arts: Kyuujutsu Maneuver OCV DCV RNG Notes 4 Basic Shot +0 +0 +2 Weapon +2 DC Strike 3 Defensive Shot -1 +2 +0 Weapon Strike 4 Dodge -- +5 -- Dodge All Attacks, Abort 5 Far Shot +1 -1 +4 Weapon Strike 4 Quick Shot +1 +0 +0 Weapon +2 DC Strike 4 Ranged Disarm +0 +0 +0 Disarm, +15 STR 10 Anime Leap!: Leaping +8†(10 1/2†forward, 5†upward), Accurate; OIHID (-1/4) 1 5 Cute Fighter Transformation Sequence: Cosmetic Transform 2d6 (clothing into Cute Fighter uniform and back); Extra Time (Full Phase; -1/2), Limited Target (clothes; -1/2) 1 4 Sharp Eyes: +2 PER with Sight Group Talents 5 Cute Fighter Toughness: Combat Luck (3 PD/3 ED); OIHID (-1/4) 3 Environmental Movement: Supreme Balance (no penalties on narrow surfaces) 3 Lighting Reflexes: +3 DEX to act first with Golden Bow Skills 9 +3 with Bows 4 +2 OCV with Golden Bow; OIHD (-0) 3 +1 with Leadership Skills (Oratory, Persuasion, Tactics) 3 Acrobatics 12- (14-) 3 Conversation 11- (13-) 3 Fast Draw (Bows) 12- (14-) 2 AK: Tokyo 11- 2 KS: Itari 11- 2 KS: Kyuujutsu 11- 3 Oratory 11- (13-) 3 Persuasion 11- (13-) 3 Power: Cute Fighter Powers 12- 0 PS: First Year High School Student 8- 3 Tactics 12- 3 Teamwork 12- (14-) 0 TF: Two-Wheeled Muscle-Powered Ground Vehicles 1 WF: Yumi (Bow) Total Powers & Skills Cost: 155 Total Cost: 230 125+ Disadvantages 10 Distinctive Features: Cute Fighters Uniform (Concealable, Noticed And Recognizable) 20 Hunted: Itari 14- (As Pow, Kill) 5 Hunted: Wato-sensi 8- (As Pow, NCI, Watching) 10 Physical Limitation: Nearsighted (Infrequent, Greatly) 15 Psychological Limitation: In Love With Red Mantle (Common, Strong) 15 Psychological Limitation: Overly Trusting Of Others (Common, Strong) 10 Psychological Limitation: Quiet And Withdrawn (Common, Moderate) 10 Rivals: Romantic, other Cute Fighters and/or girls for Red Mantle’s attention and affection (Rival Is More Powerful, Rival Is A PCs, Seeks To Outdo Rival, Rival Is Unaware Of The Rivalry) 15 Social Limitation: Secret ID (Frequently, Major [if discovered, the character will be inconvenienced and exposed to great danger]) (Hiroko Suzuke) Total Disadvantage Points: 230

Re: Generic Matrix Hovercraft That segment was shown at my local anime club (I believe it was done by Square picutres) and it blew everybody away with sheer amazement on the big screen of the meeting hall. The details on the simulated humans was astonding, the movement so fluid, you could easily be fooled into think you were watching lvie actors. It was everything Final fantasy: The Spirits Within (which I walked out on, having had enough after sitting through twnety minutes of commercials to have to watch such a cliche-ridden film) should have been but wasn't. I hope someday, someone will make a film that only CGI can tell that not only looks and feels like a real movie, but has characters (not neccesarily human ones) that you come to love and care about. The Shrek series is almost there.

Re: Mecha Modeling Advice I;ve never understood why BattleTech has never ackowledged its anime roots (down to stealing some mecha designs from Superdimensional Fortress Macross that they later had to remove). Was anime a dirty word to FASA? That's almost as bad as what they doid to the Doctor Who license. I bet the people who wrote that game didn;t even like the show.

Re: New to HERO and looking for advice on some issues... Instead of thinking of 11 INT as a watsed point, try thinking of it as a stepping-stone. You generally earn experience points at the rate of 1-3 at a time. By an INT 10 character spending one of his expedrince points on INT, raising it to 11, you are showing that the character is making an effort to develop and exercise his mind. Evenbtually his INT will reach 13 and he'll get that coveted +1 on his INT and INT-based skill rolls. You may be used to a system where you accumulate large quanbitites of separate "expoerience points' and then, when you have enough, "level up" and gain new abilities. That's not hoew HERO works.

Re: What the heck is BODY anyways? HERO without dervied characteristics would simply not be HERO. The use of dervied characteristics and the abiloity to spend points to improve them 9and use Powers to augment them) was one of HERO"S great innovations back in the '80s. Sure they add math, but if you ahe HD it figured it out for you, and HERO has always been math=heavy in comparison with many other titles. Some characteristics are indeed combiantions of other factors within the character. That's hoiw ti works. I'm sure you can build characters where everything is indpeendent of everything else, but they would frequently lack internal logic. Better to enforce some degree of internal logic in character design than to ignore it completely. In addition, it is always possible yo but down figured charactersuiistics if you want to use the points elsewhere. You won't get vvery many points by buying down END, but if you want a character who is that easily winded you can do it.

Re: SF Novels for Star Hero? The Stainless Steel Rat is as much a great character as a setting. Jim Digriz is a master of rationalization, who really does believe he is helping socity by comitting crimes in a nearly crime-free world. why hire copes iof there are no criminals? Never mind that he regularly makes a fool out of eveyrone he encounters, even his boss. I will never forget the scene in the second novel where Jim goads Inskipp for his prudishness in being unable to use the word "pregnant" to describe Jim's wife.

Re: MH Press acquires two HERO licences! I have a quick question: I have been advuised that I would make more money per copy selling the books as PDFs than as a combined print volume due to the terms of the HERO lciense. Steve Long himself has suggested I go PDF. Which brings me to the Question of the Day: Do I lose my entire audience by publishing to PDF? Would any of you buy the books if they were published as PDFs? Or is the format so disliked that I might as well not publish at all?

I got the idea for acampaign setting: in the 1980's, President regan got to build his space defense shield. the cover story was that it was targeted at Soviet nuclear missles. the truth was far more sinister -- they were aimed OUT.... You see, just before he becamse Presdient, Reagan got a visit from an alien. It was obviously an alien -- there was no way to dispute it. There was also no way to stop it from approaching the President-elect. Thank goodness it was friendly. However, it had come as an advance scount from the civilization at Sirius, and bore a message -- they had intercepted Earth's Tv transmissions and, hbaving seen too amny bad '50s sci-=fi mvoies, determied that Humnas were so inherently aggressive and itnolerant that the Sirians had no choice but to wipe out the species for our own good. So, with the kowledge of only a few key people in the administration, Reagan prepared his defenses. having reached an understanding with the advance scout that humans weren't so bad after all, the cout lent his assistance (because the enemy fleet was only a year behind him and there was no way he could convince them to change their minds). With the technology the liane lent to the scret agency reagan founded, which reported directly to him, a defense shield over the entire planet was contructed without the knowledge of the population at large, and an elite group of pilots trained to fly speical aerospace craft that nobody knew about but the pilots, the mechanics, and the people who buuilt them. It is now 1982, and the Sirians have arrived. They think all they have to do is nuke the planet from orbit and the job will be done. Reagan's Space Force is about to rpove them wrong....

Re: megas XLR Question

Re: MH Press acquires two HERO licences! Zool? that's apop-culture reference I missed. I wouldn;t be from Zardoz (I don't think anyone realy understands that film). But I do want to see it again...

Re: MH Press acquires two HERO licences! Not quite Sailor Moon. Cute Fighters has its own flavor, including a heroine who is rathe prone to fits of jealousy. It is also the most diverse three-team you can get -- Cute fighter Saguttarius is a bespectacles master archer, Cute Fighter Scorpio is a bbad-girl katare expert, and Cute Fighter Cancer is an African-American army brat whose family is startined in Japan. I'm sure you can get good use out of the Bestairy, but we're going to be incluidng our own monsters too. FInally, one of the things we are trying to decide inwhether we should print these books on paper or release them as PDFs. The question is based on towe issues -- that these are going to be small books in terms of size and page count (there's a certain lower limit beyond which a print job becomes near-pointless -- you'll nvere make back enough to make back your costs) and the availability issue (PDFs are not as popular as pirnt books, but can be done in full color much more cheaply). I need to consult with Ste and Darren anyway -- maybe I should ask them about this. Michael Hopcroft