bcholmes

Re: 7 heroes summoned through time: who are they? Marie Laveau or Dutty Boukman would provide some nice mystical help.

Re: Horror Hero: What would you have liked to have seen? I must confess that I'm of mixed minds regarding Sanity. The 1/3 page blurb in FREd suggests that a new Figured Characteristic, SAN, could be added (EGO + PRE/2 + CON/2). Does every scary encounter challenge SAN? Or do some unnameable entities have an Always On, AOE, Transform (sane person to insane person), Based on SAN power?

The Horror Hero rulebook was bumped from the schedule because the author was no longer available. Nonetheless, this was a book I (and, it seems, others) were really looking forward to. I've been thinking about starting my players in a Horror Hero campaign, and have been brushing up on Horror Hero 4th edition as well as GURPS Horror. And while doing so, my imagination has been fired about what might have been. What would you have really liked to have seen if Horror Hero had come out in 2006?

Re: CHAMPIONS OF THE NORTH -- What Would You Like To See? 1. Amazing artwork that really catches the feel of Canada 2. Sections covering some of the major cities of Canada -- Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal -- perhaps like mini "city books". Some reference to mob leaders, viper lairs, magical who's who, etc. 3. A major Canada-specific plot element -- something that various elements of the Canadian super-history can tap into and exploit (I'm thinking something like Byrne's great ancient spirits that the original Alpha Flight battled over the course of several issues) 4. Trudeau forming the first Northern Guard. Brian Mulroney disbanding the second Northern Guard team. A reproduction of Yousef Karsh's famous photo of Forceknight. 5. An FLQ super-terrorist 6. Amazing artwork. Artwork to cry over. A Mountie on horseback trying to take down a super villain. Images of the CN Tower, the ROM, the Ottawa Parliament buildings, West Edmonton Mall, Montreal's Olympic stadium, and other. And city maps of major locations. And a Storn wrap-around cover. With a Canadian Flagsuit on the cover. And colour artwork. (Okay, I can dream, can't I?) 7. A Canadian super with interesting and well-defined friction with an American super (that's a metonym for Canadian-US differences in outlook). 8. An answer to the question: is Celine Dion Canada's foremost criminal mastermind?

Re: An A-team for the 21st Century Hannibal: Anthony Hopkins ("I love it when a plan comes together... with some fava beans and a nice Chianti") B.A.: Ving Rhames is definitely a great choice. Face: George Clooney Murdoch: Gary Oldman Although there's a huge part of me tempted to propose Katee Sackoff for Murdoch -- she does a great "Exceptional pilot who's pretty damaged."

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Wow. I really like both of them, but the winged character is amazing.

Re: I need a team name The Dune Patrol

Re: I need a team name The Beachcombers!

Re: Comics that I miss. Miracleman. "11010000: The And/Oroids use this term to denote the sorrow that is felt on realizing that sorrow is a thing one can no longer truly feel. "One one, oh one, oh oh, oh oh."

Re: Favorite Marvel 'What If?' Oooo. I'm torn. "What If the Fantastic Four didn't Get Super Powers" or "What if Spider-Man stopped the Criminal before He Killed Uncle Ben".

Re: Homages you would like to see officially

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I commissioned him from Storn. Sadly, I've never written him up; I'd also be interested in anyone's write-up. He was part of the background of my Northern Guard campaign.

Re: Character: The Man With No Name Wow. Love this write-up. I especially like the style of using quotations to explain inspirations for the abilities. It helps gel your design, and gives me great trips down memory lane.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Re: Planet Generation Here's a map screen that I've built for my sector generator utility: It's loosely based on the Star Sector form from the "free stuff" link. I've been mulling over a few thoughts: 1) I've been thinking that it'd be neat to support both a Traveller version (which generally has a 10x8 hex grid, rather than a 10x10 hex grid) and the Star Hero version. 2) I'm mapping this out using 2 light-year hexes. Under the standard system generation rules, this image is typical of the number of stars in a system. Seems relatively empty compared to the Traveller 1 Parsec hexes. 3) I kinda find the numbering scheme counter-intuitive. Traveller numbers (left, down) and the Star Sector form numbers (down, left).

I've started working on a star system/planet generation utility to make it easier for me to generate systems. (I've checked out Heaven and Earth, and while I like the tool, I find it very Traveller-oriented. And I want more functions than are available in the Sector Generator). Anyway, I've been having some difficulty parsing some of the rules, and I'm wondering if anybody has any experience, here. Here are the rules that I'm currently a bit confused by: 1. Zones Any idea how you can interpolate the zone table to include things like Earth's sun (a G2V star)? 2. Density Only rock-ice and rock-iron planets have rolls for density, and the latter formula seems off to me. 1d6 / 20 + .8 doesn't look like it'll generate a range that includes 1.5 (it looks like .85 to 1.1). Other ranges seem to vary only by about .1, so I'm using a 2d6/10 - .2 roll to randomize the density a bit. 3. Atmospheric Density As I read it, Earth (at a mass of 1, in the Green Zone) should have a Dense atmosphere. Is that right? Also, the first two rows of the Atmospheric Density table are the same, and I wonder if there's a bit of a glitch, there.

Re: Comments on sexism and racism at the outset of Pulp Hero Um. So you think it's hypocritical for me (a gamer) to generalize my own personal experiences about other gamers when I'm criticizing the representation of women in a company run by men and talking about how that representation feeds into the overall social apparatus that discriminates against women. You think those situations are comparable. That's... kinda noteworthy. I think that you're reducing issues of sexism, racism, etc. to actions. Again, that's pretty typical of a certain subject position in this kind of argument. I think there are pretty compelling arguments that say such things as: - the speaker/do-er is significant - the speaker's subject position is significant - the cultural context is significant - the intention is significant These things work together to imbue actions with meanings. And in this case, I would assert that the meanings aren't the same. To use a crude analogy, it's like you're saying, "It's just as bad for a mouse to step on an elephant's foot as it is for an elephant to step on a mouse's foot." One of those things is quite a bit more fraught, no? Anyway, your arguments seem to be based on a thesis that my choices and the choices that I'm criticizing are somehow equivalent. I'm sorry, but you're mistaken. And I don't mean to be crass, but I think that you'd need more background knowledge before you could really understand why you're mistaken.

Re: Comments on sexism and racism at the outset of Pulp Hero

Re: Comments on sexism and racism at the outset of Pulp Hero I hesistate to even begin, because (in my experience) male gamers have little to no background with feminism or gender theory. What's worse, because gamers tend to view themselves as smarter-than-average and more-creative-than-average, they're less than truthful with themselves about that area of ignorance. But you asked, so I'll answer. I could start with the writer's guidelines: Or the way that the successor to _Normals Unbound_ has become _Everyman_? Or that the race of humans became "Men" in the Turakian Age. I think that the use of sexist language is sexist. And I am unsympathetic to the tired old canard: "well, English is sexist; it's not our fault." It amazes me that gamers are able to ignore 30 years of discourse about this very topic. Just about every other industry has evolved its use of language. But not Hero Games. I could also talk about the obsession that some of the artists have with big-breasted women? Fantasy Hero p. 376 is a rather glaring example. Most of that artist's work is pretty tiring in that way. The constant presentation of women as titilation really grates on me. The standard defense seems to be that scantily-clad women is "in genre" -- in the fantasy genre, the supers genre, etc. And yet, I think that Peter Jackson did a fairly good job of having a trilogy of fantasy movies without needing to put anyone in chainmail bikinis. Turakian Age was a turning point for me. I just found the repeated sexism too irritating. ("In Khoria, Thun, Indushara, Vuran and Talarshand, women are essentially regarded as property." An old, old issue of _Dragon_ magazine satirized the gamer's defense: "But ancient, magical, fantasy societies really were sexist!") Prior to that, I had purchased every print product that Hero Games had produced. I had purchased 30 issues of Digital Hero, and two different versions of Hero Designer. I've even done the CBLDF thing. Because, really, I love love love the Hero system, and think that it's the best gaming system I've ever used. I GM and I've had a number of my players get into the system. But this year I bought three products, and I'm not all that interested in many more. My perception is that Steve doesn't see the sexism as a problem. Heck, I don't even think he sees it at all. Steve has repeatedly said, in the past, that he doesn't think he can please everyone and that he isn't going to try. Fine. That's his prerogative. As part owner of Hero Games, he gets to make those calls because it's his business that's on the line. But I'm glad that Hero Games has enough other customers.

Re: Comments on sexism and racism at the outset of Pulp Hero

Re: New Crobuzon to HERO Wow. Great collection. China's a fascinating guy. I got to hear him at a convention a few years ago. I've only ever read _Perdido Street Station_, though.

Re: Your "Character Sheet Resources" Here's the Hero Designer export template that I use for my current campaign. It can be viewed in a browser, but it was designed to be opened in Microsoft Word, and printed from there.

Re: Comments on sexism and racism at the outset of Pulp Hero

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman From my Northern Guard campaign: Captain Sorted and other members of the Northern Guard investigated a series of break-ins at Multicorp and (after following the wrong leads for a while), discovered that the crook in question was a Multicorp employee named Jane Windship (or Locust, from _Champions of the North_). Locust escaped capture and was on the run for a while, and then, later, after the Northern Guard discovered that Multicorp was evil, Captain Sorted met up with Locust again: GM: Locust says, "Look, you have to believe me. Some members of the Multicorp board of directors have ties to DEMON. I have some information about an upcoming plot of theirs." Captain Sorted: Yes, we've had reason to be suspicious of them lately. GM: Locust looks at you pleadingly and says, "Then, you're not going to turn me in?" Captain Sorted: No. You're officially a wanted fugitive, but I think that Multicorp is the greater enemy. GM: Locust breathes a sigh of relief and says, "Well then... I really need a place to stay. I've been on the run for a while." Captain Sorted: Okay. I've got a good-sized apartment (funded by the British Government, who loaned the good Captain to Canada). You can stay at my place. GM: So... do you put the moves on Locust? Captain Sorted: Heck, yes. I've got 14- in Seduction. (rolls dice). Yup. I get lucky. Unfortunately, the game went on hiatus shortly after that, and we haven't had a chance to play with the implications of an unlikely superhero having a relationship with a wanted fugitive.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Another great piece, Storn. Jeez, do you ever turn in a flop? I commissioned this pic to put on my website, to accompany a description of a character archetype: The Fanatic Who Lost Someone to Those... Things. "I had a normal life, once. I had a job with an advertising agency, a husband who loved me. My biggest priority in life was retiring at age 55. I thought that saving the world meant... y'know, recycling. Then it happened. I lost everything. Not just the job and the husband. I lost my innocence. I lost my belief that the world was a fair and just place. "This is a scary world. A world where all kinds of creepy things happen, and the people in charge just let it happen. The system doesn't work. People like you and me have to take up the slack. Arm ourselves and be prepared to fight. And don't give me any of that sexist crap; I've fought more uglies than you've probably even seen. "Things weren't easy at first. I didn't know anything about anything. I couldn't shoot. I couldn't build things. School of hard knocks changed that, let me tell you." Comments: The Fanatic is sitting on the bleeding edge of sanity. Sure, she's seen a lot, but sometimes people like her start seeing monsters everywhere. The Fanatic works out vigorously, sleeps in a chair with a shotgun on her lap, and always checks her own gear. Some say she's obsessive-compulsive but, hey, it keeps her alive. Special Abilities: The Fanatic provides both combat firepower and logistical support. She's taught herself important tools of fighting the UnSeen enemy, as well as the skills that she needs to build weapons, fix her equipment, and combat driving. Identifying Quote: "Oooo-kay. Let's see how these uglies deal with Mr. Chainsaw."