OddHat

Re: Order of the Stick

Never have I seen American electoral politics summed up so well in web comic format.

Re: The 20 Henchmen of the Sinister Skull

Number 10: Andrew "The Irish Giant" Law. Some natural giants are kind and gentle. Some, like Andrew, are unambitious, unimaginative, and unsympathetic. At 34 years of age, Andrew is over seven feet tall and still slowly growing. He weighs in excess of 400 pounds, very little of it fat. Even for his height, his bones are freakishly thick. Had he pursued a career in sports or showmanship, his strength and toughness would have made him a legend. Instead, he drifted into crime. He tries not to think about the path not taken. Andrew, while not much of a thinker, has an excellent memory for numbers, faces, debts and geography. In the way of the career criminal, when it comes to deals made, Andrew is scrupulously reliable. Unlike many giants, Andrew does not under value guns or back up; demands that he "settle this like a man" will most likely result in Andrew signalling a sniper to open fire.

The Sinister Skull trusts Andrew to run numbers and various collection operations. The Irish Giant does so with grim honesty, taking only the agreed upon cut and collecting what is owed no matter what. Physical threats mean nothing to him at all; he has never met a man who is a danger to him in hand to hand combat, and has been both shot and stabbed before with no lasting ill effects. He can, however, on occasion be bargained with; The Irish Giant will take the easiest path to completing a job, and takes no special pleasure in unnecissary violence (and a certain workmanlike satisfaction in necissary violence).

Andrew is often called on by less physically gifted henchmen. He never goes anywhere without at least two or three of his own crewmen.

Re: Cheap Supers

I usually use the following numbers:

1 in 1,000 with the potential to get any Superpowers whatsoever. This allows some faint hope of recruitment programs working while keeping the pool small.

1 in 100,000 manifesting Superpowers at some point.

1 in 10,000,000 high power Supers (which give you about 30 high powered Supers in the US, or more if you go with the idea that high power Supers will be drawn to wealth and one another)

1 in 1,000,000,000 with Cosmic levels of power (giving you 6 or 7 Cosmic Supers on Earth; enough that the PCs can run into more than one in a campaign, not so many that you as GM can't keep track of them)

Of course in any story or campaign the real number of Supers is the number the author / GM wants, and the real reason they don't destroy the world off screen is that then most stories would be over.

Re: The Theory of Intersteller Trade by Paul Krugman

Choices on the individual level are far from consistently rational. Expecting them to be rational at the group level is pretty damn optimistic.

Re: Narf's Star Hero Stuff

Now that's a knife. Repped.

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

The Thanksgiving Cake is another kind of Shepards Pie. Looks fine. Calling it a "cake" makes it sound much worse than it probably is.

Re: Caelum Imperium: A Space Opera Science Fantasy Setting

Terracide preview? Absolutely!

Re: Caelum Imperium (Cross Posted from Star Hero)

Lucius Casca Carolinus tested his pilum’s weight. It felt good in his hand. Comforting. Not like the Chi bows; this was a Roman weapon. A man’s weapon.

“Legionaries! Formation!” The Centurion’s voice boomed inside Carolinus’ helmet. The young legionary checked his face plate one last time before rushing to his place in the second row on the bridge.

The Helios’ Spirit Stone blazed, supporting the trireme as it plowed silently through the void. From Luna’s cratered surface a Qin Junk rose defiantly, the ship’s main Chi Bow charging. The Jade Emperor’s knights, looking insect like at this distance, moved into their own formation.

Carolinus smiled. The junk was swifter, and more skillfully built than the Roman trireme. The Jade Knights were fine individual combatants. But they chose now to face the full power of the 23rd Legion above Luna’s ancient ruins.

The legionary hefted his spear, and waited for the command to throw.

One thousand five hundred years after the founding of the city of Rome, the legions of the Eternal Emperor have mastered more than a fifth of the world and the sky beyond. Through blood-fueled Spirit Stones the Empire’s power extends to Luna and Mars, and to Heavenly Fortresses bridging the sky between Three Worlds of Empire.

Welcome to a world where ancient empires reach out to the stars. A world where men can become like unto gods. A world of traders and soldiers; Demigods and Heroes; God Emperors and Myths made Flesh. This is the world of Caelum Imperium.

Caelum Imperium, from Blackwyrm Publishing, coming August, 2011. Ready your spears.

War! Blood! Magic! Poorly Done Brian Blessed Impersonations!

In August, Blackwyrm will be releasing my first setting book for Hero, Caelum Imperium.

In this thread I'll be posting some teasers, including links to the upcoming Caelum Imperium Podcast.

And so, please welcome the very first Caelum Imperium Teaser!

Brian Blessed in no way associated with Caelum Imperium, but he's a good sport and probably wouldn't mind.

Re: Caelum Imperium Promo Thread

Lucius Casca Carolinus tested his pilum’s weight. It felt good in his hand. Comforting. Not like the Chi bows; this was a Roman weapon. A man’s weapon.

“Legionaries! Formation!” The Centurion’s voice boomed inside Carolinus’ helmet. The young legionary checked his face plate one last time before rushing to his place in the second row on the bridge.

The Helios’ Spirit Stone blazed, supporting the trireme as it plowed silently through the void. From Luna’s cratered surface a Qin Junk rose defiantly, the ship’s main Chi Bow charging. The Jade Emperor’s knights, looking insect like at this distance, moved into their own formation.

Carolinus smiled. The junk was swifter, and more skillfully built than the Roman trireme. The Jade Knights were fine individual combatants. But they chose now to face the full power of the 23rd Legion above Luna’s ancient ruins.

The legionary hefted his spear, and waited for the command to throw.

One thousand five hundred years after the founding of the city of Rome, the legions of the Eternal Emperor have mastered more than a fifth of the world and the sky beyond. Through blood-fueled Spirit Stones the Empire’s power extends to Luna and Mars, and to Heavenly Fortresses bridging the sky between Three Worlds of Empire.

Welcome to a world where ancient empires reach out to the stars. A world where men can become like unto gods. A world of traders and soldiers; Demigods and Heroes; God Emperors and Myths made Flesh. This is the world of Caelum Imperium.

Caelum Imperium, from Blackwyrm Publishing, coming August, 2011. Ready your spears.

Re: A Culture Hero Myth

Enjoyed reading that a lot. Thanks for sharing it.

War! Blood! Magic! Poorly Done Brian Blessed Impersonations!

In August, Blackwyrm will be releasing my first setting book for Hero, Caelum Imperium.

In this thread I'll be posting some teasers, including links to the upcoming Caelum Imperium Podcast.

And so, please welcome the very first Caelum Imperium Teaser!

Brian Blessed in no way associated with Caelum Imperium, but he's a good sport and probably wouldn't mind.

Re: The 20 Henchmen of the Sinister Skull

Number 8 - Newton Fink, the Accountant of Crime! Sure, anybody can rob a bank, but someone has to be trusted to divy up the loot and keep the books. In a violent world of madman and murder, someone has to be absolutely trustworthy. That man is Newton Fink. His loyalty to his employer is absoulute, and his mastery of mathamatics the equal of any Nobel winner. No one knows how to move and hide money as well, and no one is as trusted. Some people think Newton has no emotions whatsoever; certainly he never shows fear, desire, joy, or more than an alert interest in what's going on around him. Why a man who could make fortunes legally chooses to work for a lunatic is an open question, but not one you'd be wise to ask in front of the Sinister Skull. Newton can't shoot a gun, but he can destroy your life with a phone call.

Re: You are unappreciated when . . .

- The public holds a memorial march for the giant monster you stopped from destroying the city

- The news drops your press conference in favor of doing an "interview" with a piano playing cat

- The cops arrest you for false imprisonment and assorted other charges when you try to drop off captured criminals in front of the police station.

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

You can spin Supervillain storage all sorts of ways.

My real world with powers setting has a long timeline, with fluctuations in the Super population, but a standard idea is that Supers are quickly incorporated into the government when they don't actually become the government. "Work for the Government and be rewarded, go your own way and be punished" becomes standard for any Supers who can't hide who and what they are, which gives a reason for masks, secret identities, and even hidden lairs and secret cities. All of those Pulp Era hidden cities of Superbeings? Well, it was better than working for the governments of the times.

And in the Ancient World, God Emperors sometimes were.

Re: The Classic Justice League starting members on 350 points

Rep me again? Sorry..I'm a newbie and I'm still learning the abbreviated lingo. Rep=reply? Is it kosher to give out one's email on this board? It beats having to reply back and forth here. Just asking.

To "rep" a post is to give the user reputation by hitting the star icon at the bottom of the post.

Re: The Classic Justice League starting members on 350 points

Here's an output with the limitations showing on the individual powers:

A very well done 400 point Supes, one that could actually grow into his Silver Age power levels (or something like them) over the course of a campaign. Can't rep you again, yet.

Re: The Classic Justice League starting members on 350 points

Take a look at the PDF attachment of this post. Superman's super characteristic values are highlighted in red. He can increase his STR even further via his VPP.

 

edit: I just noticed that the Kryptonian Physiology List is not showing the common Limitations in the PDF output. If you have Hero Designer I highly recommend downloading the HDC files of the characters to get a better look at how they are constructed.

I like the 350 point version a lot. The stun seems low, even with his potential defenses maxed out (as 5thER has the dark specter of the stun multiple) but it's still a really good job of getting Supes into a starting format.

Re: You are unappreciated when . . .

- When the bad guys are more worried about that dog and those nosy kids.

- When your team's corporate sponsor only agrees to keep funding you if you agree to never reveal your connection to them again.

- When teens start using your team as an ironic Internet meme.

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

Power level, imo, is much less of an issue than being in a position to effectively use force. Batman can defeat any bad guy Superman can handle. So can Squirrel Girl with the writers on her side.

There are probably a few thousand people in the USA (our population is over 300 million now) who could have stopped the 9/11 hijackers had they been on the planes in question. But life isn't an action movie, and in 2 out of 3 cases there was no one both in a position to act and aware that action was needed.

The most useful Superpower is to be in the right place at the right time.

Re: Cheap Supers

With those numbers (10% high powered, something like 1% cosmic), your talking potentially just over 3 million Cosmic Supers just in the USA. Call it 1 million Cosmic Supers if only 1 in 3 people try it. With normal demographics, that's 20,000 cosmically powerful sociopaths. Call it a bare minimum of 200 people, just in the USA, who would both destroy the world for the hell of it and have the power to do so.

Earth goes boom. Everyone not space worthy dies. Re-roll your characters.

Re: The 20 Henchmen of the Sinister Skull

Scruffy the Plumber. He's a plumber. He's also an electrician, and a carpenter. He's pretty good with locks; not breaking and entering, installing and repairing. He shovels well, very well. He's a fair mechanic. He can do surprising things with tape and wire, like repairing your car or keeping the water heaters running.

His job of maintaining the base doesn't always look important.

When Mister Blue & Mister Black once bullied him for sport, Scruffy took a week's vacation. When he came back, none of the death traps worked, the cars wouldn't start, the incinerator had broken down, the base had no hot water, and the toilets were all clogged. Mister Blue and Mister Black both formally apologized, and have been very polite to him ever since.

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

I've never used the "Supers can't change the world" trope, and usually try to strike a balance between Vast Historical Forces and actual Supermen. So, groovy and rep to you for trying a game without it.

If Supers (in a world without known Supers) stopped one plane from crashing on 9/11, the narative would be substantially changed. The Super would become an instant international figure and a major hero in the US, we'd have an even stronger story of how individuals could fight back, and we would probably see that Super used politically. I'm not sure stopping one or both planes would have changed anything as far as the wars we've been in since 9/11 are concerned, or the paranoia and loss of civil rights. Having real Supers around is if anything scarier (as a shift in world view) than the fear inspired by terrorism. The administration would have still had to strike back, and would have still wanted to make a point to Iran by invading Iraq. The loss of civil liberties might have been even worse as the government tried to protect themselves from potential Super threats. "Mutants" could become the new scapegoats instead of Muslims.

A Super protecting people during the Tsunami would be a near-mythic figure to millions in the parts of the world where the Tsunami struck. He'd also probably get hit with even worse paranoia from local authoritarian governments. We might write the whole thing off as a hoax in the west until given rock solid evidence.

Re: You are unappreciated when . . .

... J Johnah Jameson can't be bothered to rant against you

... Wolverine refuses to join your team, and actually means it

... You're a character in the Marvel Universe

Re: Order of the Stick

Perhaps my D&D Lore is rusty but I thought

 

You become a Vampire, you turn evil. End of story ? Or am I wrong?

Nope, you're right. I just don't see Rich doing that without dropping more hints. We've seen major character work done with all of the Order, and I agree that it's more than time for a Durkon arc (though I did like his time with Loki girl). I just think Rich would give us more build up for that.