OddHat

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Magicians, with David Mitchell & Robert Webb. This was good. Worth renting or watching on YouTube. Also stars some of the comedians from Spaced (the crew that went on to do Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, etc). A low key comedy, with a few familiar Mitchell & Webb bits and themes worked pretty smoothly into a film about failure and attempted redemption.

Re: Golden Age Supers from my Wold Newton campaign Not exactly. The player wanted a weather controller, and the closest I could find by looking at Golden Age and pulp sources were a few characters with some of Thor's paraphenalia, the Captain Marvel family, and some supernatural monsters from Pulp and Victoriana that looked like they could call up storms or lightning strikes. So, we built a region and era appropriate back story and didn't give a specific source for her powers in the write up. Her deep back story was that she was a daughter of Wotan.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Cinematic Titanic: East Meets Watts. This was actually a fair 70s Fusploitation film, and worked well with the MST3k / Cinematic Titanic treatment.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Cinematic Titanic: Doomsday Machine A classic cheap 1960s Space Race movie, with commentary by most of the cast of MST3k. I loved MST3k, and all of the follow up teams (Cinematic Titanic, Rifftrax, Film Crew) are still worth watching. I miss the old MST3k skits and set up, but the gang is if anything just getting funnier. If you're an MST3k fan, you'll still love the new stuff.

Re: Enforcer84's Occasional HERO Content Depository Love these guys, Enforcer! Great back stories, and I like the period theme and the homage elements.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? 6e Heroic Trio!?! That Is Awesome! One of my favorite Superhero movies. Didn't really like Executioners as much, but still a great example of HK Superheroics.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Brisco County was fun, but not a knock it out of the park kind of fun. Not even (imo) a Brisco Marathon kind of fun. It was a good show to have on in the background while you hung out with friends or did your exercises. YMMV, of course.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore A true Vegan burger would have to be made without butter, cheese or any other animal products. Of course, considering how much of what burger chains pass off as food is flavored and colored corn syrup, that might not be a problem. Or, a Vegan burger could be made of Vegans. That might be OK. Or it could be imported from Vega, or Vegas, but that would just start to get silly.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Just watched the live action version of Cutie Honey. From the Cinema point of view, it was so-so. From the Gamer Movie point of view, it was entertaining. There's not much nudity in this movie, which will disapoint fans of the Anime. However, there is lots of cheesecake. Cutie Honey (the movie version) is a transforming heroine with (from a Champions pov) Shape Shift vs Sight & Touch; a small VPP or MP for transformation attacks, healing and gadgets (all of them trivial); regeneration; a fair number of super speed related tricks, including a Force Wall with the special effect of blocking, Flying Dodge, and Missile Deflection with Reflection; higher than normal but not Super strength and resistance to harm; life support; a fair Martial Arts package; and a big honking sword. Most of her powers count as Only in Hero ID, and there are a number of ways to prevent her from taking her Hero ID that come into play in the movie. The Villain Group would fit right into one of my Champions games. A huge army of non-powered minions, four High Powered Super level lieutenants (and their rivalries), and a Big Bad with a poorly thought out plan for ascension to godhood. Throw in a Secret Base under a major landmark and city-smashing colatoral damage. We even get to see two contacts (or lower powered PCs) and a DNPC in action. This isn't a movie like Darkman or even Masked Rider the First that you can watch just for the story value, but it should give you something to lift for your next Supers game if anything will.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore Serving that meal to your kids would win you the Coolest Dad Ever award.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Planetary #27 is out, the end of one of the great post-modern Comic Book series, and I find myself not caring all that much. I'll pick up the graphic novel sooner or later. It was a great series, one of the few I've really enjoyed in the last decade. Still, there was a time when I'd rush out to the comic book store, or at least pop up to Amazon to snatch this up. Now, maybe because I'm old, maybe because the book is three years or so over due, I just don't feel enthusiastic.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Lots of old MST3ks. Some great stuff here. I still pick up the Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic DVDs when they come out, but I'd love to get a new show weekly again. Also some odd Japanese Superhero stuff. Not much to say on this, except that it's a fine line between campy nostalgia and deeply creepy.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Zombieland, Sean of the Dead, Zombie Nightmare. It's sort of a theme.

Re: Order of the Stick As is so often the case, go Belkar.

Re: The Dysfunctional Super Team! Flesh Gordon: "Hey there, team, we all need to sharpen up or the baddies will have us for breakfast! Remember, there is an I in this team, and that I is Me, Flesh, and you'd better listen up! Yes, I do realize that means it's spelled Teim, but that's what makes us special!" "No need to fight, ladies. There's plenty of Flesh for everyone." "Of course I let her sleep with me; I'm not cruel. Yes, and her. Her too, but I was drunk. Yes, them as well, but be fair, that was a mind control laser." "Why are you all looking at me like that?" [Teim opens fire] [Flesh runs away] [Teim learns teamwork and loyalty by hunting Flesh across three states]

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? An Angel crossover might work very well, as the main Big Evil Organization is a sort of cross between The Initiative and Wolfram & Hart. The series could also be merged pretty easily into the world of Kolchak or Dark Shadows. The SciFi view of the Supernatural in this series doesn't quite click with the Whedonverse, but that doesn't much bug me; I'd just go with "they're using different terms to describe the same phenomena" in equal portions with "they're wrong", just like Wold Newton fans have always done.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? It's one of his best. He's also working on another Monkey film as producer / director for 2011, "Journey to the West". Don't know if he'll take the lead again. I think his Lawyer films were also made in that 1992-1997 period, with that cast. Justice My Foot, Hail to the Judge, Lawyer Lawyer. Not great stuff, but entertaining period martial arts comedies with an emphasis on the legal system. As I've said, you could do a pretty good Chowverse Wuxia campaign setting.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Yup, they're not everyone's cup of tea, but they're still favorites of mine. Chow and most of the same cast (and using the same costumes and some of the same sets) did a couple more Wuxia parodies around that time, some before and some after, including King of Beggars, Mad Monk, Flirting Scholar, Forbidden City Cop and Chinese Odyssey 1 & 2. Probably more, but those are all I can remember right now. All have their good moments, with Chinese Odyssey as the stand out (imo) as a genuinely first tier Wuxia comedy. King of Beggars was disturbing in places but a pretty good Wuxia for all that, Mad Monk & Flirting Scholar were weak but still had a bit in each to make you grin, and Forbidden City Cop had a strong first and second act and a weak third. If I ever do a Wuxia campaign, it will mostly be in the Chowverse.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? The TV series? If it's that, then yes, saw it via Netflix. Enjoyed it, especially the last few episodes. Very much a gamers TV show, "All myths are rooted in truth, monsters are out there" with a thin sci-fi overlay and a touch of LoEG / Wold Newton.

Re: Well, we haven't talked about Killing Attacks in a while... I will be. It works fine. Now when you make the choice of Hit Locations vs No Hit Locations, you snap very smoothly from Cinematic game play where a fist or improvised weapon is just as good as a knife or gun, to a "grittier" game where the wise man gets his hands on a knife or gun as soon as he can. I always nerfed Real Weapons in Superhero and Kaiju games in one way or another anyway in order to avoid the Stun Lotto or Hit Locations breaking genre conventions. This isn't the nerf I used, but it works well enough. Want a game where your Superman Homage can take a bullet to the eye with only an rPD of 36? Don't use hit locations. Want to force him to use Damage Negation or go up to an rPD of 60 (120 for surprise attacks)? Use Hit Locations. It puts the call more clearly in the GM's court.

Re: How to build MMA Style Martial Arts In a predatory attack, you're likely to face two or more attackers who will come at you by surprise. If one or both of them are armed, you're likely to already be stabbed or shot before you know you're in a fight, at which point you soon won't be. Monkey dancing (posturing and threats for social position) is also a different story. Of course there are all sorts of scenarios, and of course good training can make a significant difference. I've survived muggings and armed attacks without serious injury, mostly by good luck and quick feet; I acknowledge that it happens. Still, dojo tales of invincibility tend to ring hollow. You are not living in an action movie. No matter what your training, when you see the street gang, leave. You have not spent points on knocking bullets out of the air.

Re: How to build MMA Style Martial Arts That's why there's no level given; it's optional.