OddHat

Re: Kamen Rider / Masked Rider the First

Built for my GenCon Hong Kong Cinematic Superheroes game.

Re: A Dark Golden Age game

Re: A Dark Golden Age game You could check out Godlike. It's a gritty WWII Supers setting, one of the best I've seen. Disliked the mechanics, but it's a great world for "dark" WWII adventures. The Algernon Files: Fires of War is a fantastic resource for villain and NPC write ups from the period, and a darn good setting in a more traditional Comic Book mode. You could also look at the real history of the period. Racism, bigotry, gross injustice, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, terrorism, mass slaughter of civilians, genocide. All sides were guilty of at least six of the eight. It's only clean and bright in nostalgia. A game set in the 1930s - 1950s that follows what was actually going on at the time can be as dark as you could possibly ask. In my own Golden Age game, I used Jess Nevins Pages to find actual pulp and comic strip characters from various countries to use as starting points for NPCs and villains.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Re: Order of the Stick

Re: Order of the Stick In the OotS game world, I'm sure Xykon can just choose the Epic Teleport spell the next time he levels up. He's a Sorcerer, so researching it and adding it to his spell book without leveling up isn't an option anyway unless he has some really funky feats. Remember the skit where Elan was considering becoming a Wizard? It could just be "assumed" that Xykon had done the required research, without him actually having to bother with it.

Re: Vampire Cop Ricky Glad to, and thanks! Final re-writes will (fingers crossed) be done by Sunday. Only Kamen Rider to go.

Re: Hollow Earth --Not! It's part of my Wold Newton Superhero Universe setting. Lost tribes etc are covered by having an Amber-touched explorer discover them, thus establishing a path that can be followed back and forth until it fades (i.e. as long as it fits the campaign). Also note that some of the German Pulp and Victorian heroes (Jan Mayan, Sun Koh, Captain Mors) were pretty clearly dimension travellers, leaving plenty of chances for Nazis hiding in a lost world, ready to return.

Re: Hollow Earth --Not!

Re: Hollow Earth --Not! Those who discover "Lost Worlds" are often descended from Corwin of Amber, a member of a race of dimension travellers who spent many centuries on Earth. His descendents included Alice Little, Lemuel Gulliver, John Carter of Virginia (and many more in the extended Carter clan), and many others. Corwin and other true "Amberites" had the power (with training) to travel from dimension to dimension at will, escorting as many as he chose. His mixed blood, untrained descendants are more limited; they generally only find their way into one alternate world, or a small number of connected worlds. They rarely realize just how and why they made the transition. Because they are often exceptionally competent individuals (being part Amberite), they tend to rise to positions of leadership in adventurous professions. Like their full Amberite ancestor, they are able to lead others to the worlds they discover. This also explains why planets such as Venus and Mars appeared to some early explorers to sport thriving eco-systems and civilizations, while later explorers (lacking a group member with the Blood of Amber) found nothing.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Oh! My Zombie Mermaid Not as entertaining as I'd expected. Too much Japanese Pro Wrestling face-heel stuff, and an American bad guy that reminded me just how strong the resentment remains in a certain part of the Japanese zeitgeist. El Santo vs the Martians Better than I'd expected, a good choice for Lucha fans and newbies to the genre.

A work in progress for my Gen Con game. Feedback appreciated.

Re: Musings on Random Musings Still makes more sense than Civil War, the Clone Saga, or the Gwen Stacy - Norman Osborn kids.

Re: Ultraman Well, that does work, but in the end 3-5 minutes on a TV show is very different from 3-5 minutes in a HERO System fight. I'll look over the limits again and think it over.

Re: Ultraman Presenting Deputy Captain Shin Hayata, SSSP

Re: Musings on Random Musings Lucky! Last time someone other than Satinkitty told me they saw me in their dreams, they were having nightmares.

Re: Order of the Stick He got some hefty quest and role playing rewards. One for surviving, one for "turning" the monster in the darkness, another for delivering the info, probably one or two more. They add up fast.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: A Thread for Random Musings The whole "We can't acomplish anything" / "The best we can hope for is basic survival" meme in modern Sci Fi and comics is pathetic. Yes, the UK lost its empire. Yes, the American Empire is in decline. Yes, the Western standard of living may be at risk as globalization takes hold. So the frack what? Sci Fi managed to tell stories of adventure and hope (and horror and despair) in the middle of two world wars and the Great Depression. It managed stories that inspired in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, times we get misty eyed and nostalgic about now but that were actually every bit as grim as our times now, or grimmer. But no, we have to roll about whinging pathetically in our fantasy lives now, with "heroes" who can barely survive, let alone win the day. We've mistaken weak and damaged character for moral complexity, and self pity for insight. I take comfort in the knowledge that not all that's being produced now is pure crap, but the percentages are not making me happy.

Re: Fastest man alive I'm never all that concerned about the DC or Marvel timelines. Both settings reboot, retcon, feature alternate universes and imaginary stories (cue "They're all imaginary stories"), screw up, and most importantly multiple writers who don't pay any more attention to continuity than they feel like at the moment. Barry was My Flash. So, he's the fastest Flash, unless I really like a storyline that says otherwise.

Re: On the emergence of the paranormal, including superpowers No worries, tastes be tastes. I haven't seen Paragons yet, but I've heard good things about it. Personally I loved Godlike and Wild Talents as setting and (in the case of WT) world creation books, but didn't much like the mechanics. Still, some good ideas there for "realistic" world design. I don't agree that Gestalt is exceptionally dark in play, but I can see how it could be. And, again, no point in arguing tastes.

Re: Champion's Universe or your own I use my own setting, inspired by all sorts of things. Mostly I draw on the Wold Newton Universe, plus LoEG, classic DC and Marvel (with many changes), TV, Movies, favorite books, and anything else that fits. The core idea is that writers are reporters, not creators; anything in Fantastic Fiction was inspired by real events. The reports may be wildly exagerated, often people lie, but there's at least a kernel of truth to every story. It's a lot of fun once you start going with it. Here's my Timeline: http://surbrook.devermore.net/herosource/wold_newton.html

Re: On the emergence of the paranormal, including superpowers I'd very highly recommend Gestalt, published by Black Wyrm Games for Hero 5th. It's a great example of how to add a full "Supernatural" side to a previously "Mundane" world, complete with in-setting reasons for things developing in a costumed heroes and villains direction. Godlike and Aberrant / Aeon are also pretty good examples of Then Things Got Strange worlds. Personally, I prefer the Hidden Revealed approach of Wold Newton and similar settings (Planetary, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc). The Paranormal has always been with us, but for whatever reason(s) has remained mostly hidden from the public. Your characters can have all sorts of fun figuring out who has been hiding the Truth, how and why.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? El Santo vs the Martians. This is a fun movie. Like the best Lucha films, it's a perfectly respectable example of a B Movie (in this case, a Sci Fi Invasion film), plus Masked Wrestlers. It's available with English subtitles as well, a plus for those of us who don't speak Spanish. I was expecting the Martian's weapons to just not work on El Santo, and was pleasantly surprised by the in-story reasons given for not just killing him. The Martians are also pretty well done Enlightened but Misguided enemies, which again fits the film's base genre.