Michael Hopcroft

Re: Mecha Modeling Advice Someone wrote a fan story about how Relena finally had to ORDER Heero to marry her to be an obedient solider. he ended up follwing Relena's orders explicitly in all areas, but training their daughter in commando tactics....

Re: Vehicle: USS Monitor Unfortunately thre Minotor did not prove all that seaworthy. It was sunk less than six months later in a storm off Cape hatteras that many older ships could have survived. Also, the battle of Hampton Roads, in which the Monitor fought the Virginia, was a tactical draw -- neither ship could damage the other, so int he end the Virginia withdrew. (It did count as a strategic victory for the Uniion because the Virgiina never again threatened Union ships). Thje Monitor was the first step in the evolution of steel-contructed, armored warships. Concepts used in its deisgn, such as the rotating gun turret, are used to this day.

The contracts are going to drawn up when Steve Long gets back froim wherever he is, but Michael Hopcroft Press owner Michael Hopcroft (the guy poosting this message if you must know) and Hero games Presdient darren Watts have agreed in principal to license the HERO system to MH Press for two books -- Cute Fighters, a campaign about a magical heroine team that tajkes a lot of inspiration fron anime classics like Pretty Solider Sailormoon and Wedding Peach , and The Grand Defiance, a camapign setting set on the fringes of the oppressive Humanic Imperium where freebooting space priates represent the Friges' best hope for freedom. Mh press has tenatative signed Michael Surbbrook (Ninja HERO, Kazei 5) to create the HERO stats, which will appear in an appendix in each book. I am extremely proud to be working with mr. Surbrook, who is something of a legend among anime gamers. You can see brief outlines of the supplements at The Michael Hopcroft Press Website and leave your comments on the site's forums. Weare also taking sponsoships on all our books if anyone wants to help get them into PDF/Print. A print book seems liekly, and there is a chance the two settings may be combined into one volume.

Re: Generation Ship Campaigns If basic human nature is any indication, no.

Re: Codename: Kids Next Door I've been thinking more about actually putting together the team for convention adventures. I don't know how I;d do it restricting myself to Sidekick 9as SuperPheemy seems to suggest) but I have a few ideas of what the characters should look like: #1: High INT, VERY high PRE, Leadership skills up the wazoo, Tactics at at least 14-. Good but not spectacular comnat skills. #2: The tech geius par excellence. Very high INT, the biggest Gadget Pool on the team (although all five should have a gadegt Pool), frequently used for one of the many vehicles he pilots for the team. Nobody is better with computers or inventing than #2 -- an adult with his skills would be a multi-millionaire from patent royalties alone. The ultimate master of two-by-four technology. #3: High INT, high COM (she's REALLY cute). Irrationally attracted to anything cute and plushie. She is the pilot of Hippity-Hop, a giant robot that looks and in some ways acts like a bunny rabb0t -- the kind that hunts down, kills and eats bears. She would have put a lot of hger own points into Hippity-Hop and as a result Hippity=Hop always returns after being destroyed. Smart but incredibly naive. #4: The male half of the pair of combat specialists. High STR, High DEX, at least two Combat Skill levels, and a hard-style martial art (possibly Karate) he'd have Weapons Element: Imrpovised Weapons for his marital arts. Has Social Limitation: In love with #3 but Refuses to Admit It. #5: The female combat specialist on the team. Highest DEX on the team. Multiple Combat Skill Levels; a good selection of soft-styler martial arts manuvers such as Aikido with a few hard=style manuevrs thrown in for good measure. Her big sisterm a former KND operative who taught her all her best moves, is one of the KND's deadliest enemies. Othger characters worth modeling are The Delightful Children from Dwon the lane, who are more like a gestalt than indivual characters; #86, the girl in cahrge of decomissioning retiring agents, and #273, "the Greatest KND Operative Ever", who betrays the team and the organization when his 13th birthday is revealed.

Re: Mecha Modeling Advice Relena would be interesting to write up -- she is Hunting Lady Yune at one point in the series, later on she takes on the Social Limitation: In Love with Heero Yuy (which by the time of Endless Waltz might be reciprocated, although given Heero's upbringing he is not used to expressing positive emotions and may need considerable "lightening up"). No series has caused more non-canonical yaoi fanfiction to sport than Gundam Wing. The combination of extremely attractive male leads and some relatively weak female foils for some of them has led many writers and artists to assume that several, if not all, of the Gundam pilots are actually homosexual. There are other imterpretations, but the idea seems to have caught on. (There is reason to believe that one of the Gundam poilots, Quarte (who pilots the Sandrock Gundam) was actually meant to be gay by the series' creators.) It is also inetersting to note that many characters change "sides" over the course of the series. The above-mentioned Maly Une is the most prominent exampole,m beginning the series as a ruthless staretgist and assassin for Oz and ending up an advocate for peace. Charatcer who should be mortal enemeis often find themselves aiding each other.

Re: Homo Sapiens Draculis No can;t say I've seen that one. What's Adrian Paul doing these days, anyway? He must be going through a terrible bout of typecasting. A variation of draculis might be appearing in one of the books Michael Hopcroft Press will be publishing if I can get the first few books out the door, get my other ideas organized properly, and figure out what systems I want to use. (I;'ve made a strong personal commitment to multi-system books after seeing how good Omlevex was, and I'm waiting to hear back from Darren on the HERO license for a couple of my current books. It's going to be a campaign bpook about a high school where several misunderstood and hunted supernatural creatures dwell, and find themselves fighting a dual-pronged battle against the forces of Hell (some of the characters are actually "defectors" from Hell who want to experience the true joys of human life -- there's going to be a hevay CLAMP influence in this book, and if you haven;'t read their manga Wish yet you're missing out on one of the best comcis ever made -- I guaruntee you'll go through an entire box of kleenex at the end) and intolerant humans who see anything supernatural or magical as evil and meriting painful death. one of the characters will be a teenage girl who happens to have recently matured to the pioint that she is a vampire -- thankfully she already had a steady boyfriend when she made this disocovery, and he is niow her confidant and weekly "dinner guest" with the approval of her mother (her father, who passed o his vapiric genes, got staked by a vampire-hunter when she was a little girl). Valerie practices "a safe relationship" with her boyfriend -- she chooses where to sink her fangs in carefully, has a supply of gauze handy ont he scene to staunch the bleeding immediately when she's done, and always banadages him up afterwards. They always "have dinner" on a Firday so he has the full weekend to heal, but his friends wonder what those strange marks on his chest are when he takes a shower in P.E. class. Her classmates include a witch who was actually an escapee from the Salem withchunts of 1692 (the real witches, benevolent protectors of the Earth, got away before the hunters cpould get them by dispersing themselves throughout time and space), a were-creature (haven;'t decided which type yet), and an ex-demon. Their homeroom teacher is an immortal who has been faking her own death every twenty years since 1722 to keep the hunters off her trail. But the forces of darkenss are convering on new Salem (California) High School from all sides, and all the msytics of the school may have to work together for their own survival, as they overcome their own prejudices and (hopefully) save the world from everlasting doom.

Re: Mecha Modeling Advice I wish I had a Hero Designer file for that Gundam laid out here. I'm sure it would help. Of course, one interesting question is whether you make Amuro Rey pay all those points for the Gundam. In point-based systems, one of the big bugaboos for me has been when a character has to pay points for the mecha he is issued by the govnewrment or organization he is fighting for and when he doesn;t. For example, Heero Yuy starts out Gundam Wing (try showing that one on television today) with a very powerful mecha, the Wing Gundam. There is only one of its kind. Eventually Heero self-destriucts it to keep it fromf alling into the hands of Oz but evertually gets his hands on other mecha, which turn out to be just as powerful (and one of which, when armed with thre Zero System targeting device, nearly drives him mad). As i siad, just try showing Gundam Wing on American television today. the heroes are fighting for a just 9in their eyes cause), but many of their actions are remeniscent of terrorists. Their intial goal was to come to Earth at random points and detsroy military targets of the Earth government -- which were not easily distringuishable from civilian targets. Later on they attempt a decaptiation strike againstv the leadership of Oz, the organization they have sworn to defeta, but end up killing the only people in the Earth government who wanted peace with the Colonies due to an Oz deception. The moral abiguities range from the obvious to the subtle, bbut it's hard to find heroes or villains in GW -- just gifted idnivuals caught in a targic cycle of hatred and revenge.

Re: Stretching Power: Need Suggestions I don't know if I'd allow any power I've seen in Mucha Lucha. The bowling-ball charactre may be effective in some circusmatnces, but he;s just asking to be kiced out of the way and sent into orbit?

I was wondering how many different Champions powers and/or skills can be used to stop a bullet in mid-flight. Let's say your a metahuman guarding a visitng head of state and Thunderbolt (or some other gun-using villian) just took s shot at him. Since the dignitary is almost certainly unaware of the attack, he'll take a 2d6 RKS straight to the head unless YOU do somewthing. But what? What powers could you use to stop, in mid-flight, a bullet that isn't aimed at you? And how would that change depending on what type of super you are? And what would you do if you were a hero like Nighthawk who didn't have inborn powers at all?

Re: Slayers 5E Writeups Magic throws a lot of those things out the window. A fertilioty mage or shrine0-maiden can extend the feric\ticle cycle almost indefinitely if she wnats to (hoipefully this would be with the subjec't; consent!).Or the forces of magic themsevles may have an effect on fertility. Maybe LON (the Lord of Nightmares, the capricious and inexplicble creatrix of the Slyers multiverse) wnats Lina Inverse to have a large family -- if so, she can certainly arrange it. Theat Lina is one of the few beings who really understand LON moight make her feel somewhat protective of the sorceress. Of course,, fertility is a two-way street. You'd need a mate who continues to produce good, fertile sperm for many years. Again, beings who have had a close association with magic may be even stronger.

I was wondering if anyone had any luck modeling decent mecha for anime-stylre HERO games? I'm trying to figure out how to do a Gundam-style spaceworthy combat mecha that wouldn't be outrageously abusive to the system.

Re: men in turakian age A better way to do it would be to give out page references. You;d still need the book to see it, but it would helkp you know where to look.

Re: Where toi start Got a page refernece so i can look up that particular region? I'd like to see what's going on in the area. Also, how well does news carry? Will people know about events in far distant lands, even threatening ones like the rise of the Darkspire?

What sort of campaign could one have aboard a generation ship? Admittedly it wouldn't be the sort of camapign you could get in an FTL environment, but being aboard a generation ship could prove quite intreresting, especially is the ship is large enough that it comes a world unto itself. What happens to the society that developes after six or seven hundren uniterrupted years in space with no contact with the outside universe?

Re: Codename: Kids Next Door The newest episode, "operation: e.n.d.", prvovides some more details about the organization when Number 1 and his friends are scheduled for premature decomissioning. This process wipes from the subject's memory all knowledge of their involvement with the Kids Next Doior, to the piont that the rest of the team 9who went through it) believe #1 (who hasn;t) is utterly insane even though they're on a huge treehouse on the moon at the time! It turns out to be a massive betrayal -- the equivalent of M defecting to SPECTRE. A great, exciting, and thoroughly wicked episode.

Re: Case Closed aka Detective Conan If they had relocated the series to Hong Kong, then the name changes would have made sense, as many Chinese natives of Hong Kong adopt Western given names (I don;t know for sure whether they keep Chinese given names as well). Probablky part of Hong Kong's legacy as a Crown Colony of the United Kingdom up until 1999. No such tradition emerged in japan, because Japan was never anyone's colony. A resdietn of japan with a Western given name might be a foreigner, might have a foreign parent, or might have been named in honor of a Western figure the parents admired. The last case is extrenmely rare, although it has been seen in anime. Many of the names in Saint Tail are Japanese renditions of such popular Wetsern names as Mamie and Sarah, which is appropate since most of the cast pays at least lip service to Roman Catholocism (and one of them is actually in training to be a nun, which given how pretty Seria is represents a crying shame in the eyes of most of the male student body.)

Re: TUB and Anime/Manga Another character who might benefit from a reading of TUB is Mink, of Dragon Half. As a half-dragon., she does have incredible strength, as well as the ability to breathe fire. I've only seen the anime and not the manga, so io don't know if she can fly with those cute little wings of hers. Oddly enough, Mink wants to give up her powers and become fully human so she can marry the man who has sworn to kill her, Dick Saucer. Hey, she's a love-struck teenager! What can you expect? Mink with some "brick trick" powers could be truly devastating.

DVD Pricing The general perspective among the anime fans i deal with on a daily basis is that if you bought it at Suncoast, you probably paid too muhc. Online sources like DVD planet usually offer substantial discounts on all mvoies, including anime DVDs. And if I had the URL for the Fred Meyer site, I'd pass that along too as their prices are as much as 33% off MSRP. They get thieir profit from volume. DVD Planet makes you pay shoipping, but Fred Meyer waives it if you spend a specific amount.

Re: Gundam SEED You can get it legally for less. The grocery store Fred Meyher (most of their stores are in the Pacific Northwest) has a greatg online store for music and video. I got my copy of Staoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers for only $19.95, and because I ordered another DVD along with it I didn;t even have to pay shipping.

Re: The Slayers (anime)

Re: Now that I've seen Reality Storm I haven't gone oiver the Guard's Champions writups in fine detail but iN SAS terms their point levels really do vary that wildly. Sentinel is 300 points in SAS. caliburn is only 125 points -- yet, in his envirronment, he kicks ass and takes names. he is a superb tactician, the epitome of training that a human can achieve without resorting to mutagens, and has a neary indomitable force of will (something Champions, by linking EGO to mental powers, doesn;t always model very well). In many respects he IS the batman of the ECU, and he can do a lot of things that he doesn;t neccesarily even have to pay points for. In Champs tersm, Claiburn has a +4 modifier of ALL combat. combine that with his good 9if not overwhelming) GAdget Pool and you have a street-level super who can survive in a four-color world. Most of the time he WILL hit you. Most of the time you can't hit him. And he;s smart and craftyy, knwoing better than to hit something he knows he can;t hurt unless he has some other reason. If any villain in a universe Caliburn is in has a Susepticlity of Vulenrability, Caliburn will know, and exploit it ruthlessly. And part os his job on the Guard is to teach the rest of the team hbow to fight smart and effectively with everything at their disposal. This guy is as seriously badass as Nighthawk, if not more so.

Re: Slayers 5E Writeups I'm still waiting to see someone try their hand at those writeups. I'm temptred to do it yself through conversion, but I expect it to be a long. awkward and potentially painful process.

Re: The Slayers (anime)

Re: Homo Sapiens Draculis Here's the better-looking version: STR +8 (8) DEX +5 (15) PRE +5 (10) COM +6 (3) Powers Blood Binding: 3d6 Minor Transform (Normal person into person who enjoys and seeks out being fed upon by user, cured by death of user), Linked to Blood Entrallment ; 4d6 Mind Control, based on CON, Set effect (Enjoy this bite,-1/2), Speical Effect (produces mental effect like a good orgasm, 0); Linked to Bite and Blood Drain; 1 point HKA modified by STR; 55 Active Points; Real Cost 42 Vampiric Enduance: Life Support (does not eat, does not sleep, Logevity 200 years); 7 Active points; Real Cost 7 Disadvantages: Social Lim: Must keep vampirism secret -- 15 points Vulnerabilty: 2x BODY from blood-borne pathogens; Uncommon -- 10 points Dependence on Human Blood; once per week, difficult to obtain, 3d6 damage -- 5 points Total cost of template: 50 points