OddHat

Re: Stats And Hero Purity

Re: Order of the Stick I think he gets only the minimum number of skill points per level (his INT seems to be about 8), and he spends points on cross class skills. His Lore might be very low for his level.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Who knew that once a year, Witchcraft turned Naughty and Talisman turned Nice?"

Re: WWYCD: Harem Comedy from Hell Flesh Gordon - "Whoa. Tuesday?"

Re: WWYCD: King Arthur is back Style: "King Arthur is back from the dead and wasting time on dating? Dating a Ninja, who's daughter is a vampire slayer? What the hell, did I wander into a Matt Wagner / Joss Wheedon crossover issue?" As there's no actual crisis, Style doesn't care much. Flesh Gordon: Hits on Fujiko, Fujiko's daughter, and probably Ellen.

Re: Musings on Random Musings And this, too, is the way of the Tao.

Re: to whom it may concern Hegel, on the other hand, should definitely have been hit over the head with a bamboo rod. Of course it isn't; on the other hand, it won't make much difference to an oncoming train.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat Mary the girl. When she turns into her mother, things will only get better.

Re: Stats And Hero Purity

Re: to whom it may concern Reality is what it is, whether I'm sure or not. If this were a Zen story, this would be the point where I'd hit you over the head with a bamboo rod. Not that I ever actually would, of course.

Re: Stats And Hero Purity This is definitely part of the issue. If we wanted to be "realistic" (not really a major system goal for Hero), we could break STR down into: Explosive Strength Support Strength Strength-Endurance Strength-Relative Strength-Neural Efficiency Upper / Lower Body Strength Left / Right Strength Grip (Crushing) Strength Grip (Pinch) Strength Grip (Support) Strength Grip (Extensor) Strength Movement Specific Strength etc. We could add rules to reflect the drops in STR from de-training or over-extending, drops and peaks caused by stage in the training cycle, drops and peaks caused by rest, hydration and nutrition, etc. Which would be really complicated and not add anything to game play for most players. So, we call it Strength, and leave the option of buying limited STR, extra leaping. Martial Maneuvers and DCs to reflect characters who are particularly good at one thing or another. I don't particularly mind separating Lifting from Leaping and Damage as a mechanical concept in game, but "more realistic" it isn't.

Re: Stats And Hero Purity

Re: Stats And Hero Purity Let's step away from weight training for a moment. Assuming both have no training whatsoever in any martial art, an eight year old does not hit as hard as that same human at twenty. The change, in Hero terms, is reflected in the fact that the twenty year old has gained "Strength". 100 pounds of added muscle and bone, greater intra-muscular coordination, and a greater ability to recruit muscle fibers makes a difference. It doesn't much matter if those changes come from physical maturation or training. And, of course, more specific training causes even greater improvements. In Hero, this is reflected by the fact that you can buy extra inches of jumping and extra DCs of damage on top of what you gain from Strength. The jumpers relative (i.e. pound for pound) lower body and core explosive strength is every bit as great as the weight lifters, if not greater. After all, they do many of the same exercises. Body builders do not train primarily for strength; they train for size. Pound for pound, the martial artist (assuming he practices an external style) likely has greater explosive strength, and generally relies on his well trained legs and hips for much of the force of his strikes. His training in performing the movement finishes off his ability to hit (much) harder than the bodybuilder. The body builder, meanwhile, still hits harder after having lifted weights for a few years than before he started. Merely increasing Strength does in fact increase how hard you can hit and (if we're talking about relative, pound for pound strength in your core and lower body) how far you can leap. General strength training alone does not increase performance as much as training to perform specific movements (such as delivering a punch or performing a long jump). Skill increases help. So do base strength increases. Gaining relative (pound for pound) lower body and core strength will in fact let you jump farther. And that bit is true.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat The Bush administration / the Hillary candidacy.

Re: Musings on Random Musings The bits that splatter onto you may be the first clue. And even if you fail to perceive them, they're still in your hair.

Re: to whom it may concern

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Stats And Hero Purity

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Stats And Hero Purity Sorry if I'm being pedantic. I'd stress that, from a Game point of view, I think you have a good point. It's in the area of real world strength training (one of my hobbies, which is why I'm nit picking) where I don't agree. That said, if I take a trainee and have him do the correct exercises for three to four months (squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, maybe others), and I feed him so as to keep him from adding excessive weight, he is going to leap further than he would have before he started. His gains would be less than if a good coach just taught him how to perform a given jump, but his jumping ability would still increase, just from increasing his base strength. If he were taught how to perform a specific jump correctly, and also trained with the right combination of exercises, his jumping ability would increase even more. The huge steroid goon almost certainly hits harder than he did before he became a huge steroid goon (and I'd add that many bodybuilders are deficient in explosive, relative and absolute strength,* as their training focuses on adding muscle rather than increasing strength). Train him in how to throw a punch, and he'll hit far harder still. The idea of people becoming "Muscle Bound" is mostly a myth, stemming from the fact that many trainees who focus on adding muscle don't spend enough time working on flexibility or sports specific movements. *when compared to other athletes with similar muscle mass

Re: Stats And Hero Purity From a philosophical point of view, I agree with the point of view that you don't need characteristics, the SPD chart, or skills. You could model everything with a list of basic Elements (Move, Act, Target, Avoid, Damage, Sense, Change, etc). It would work fine. As a longtime Hero fan (like you and most people still playing), I wouldn't want to see a version of Hero that drops Characteristics, SPD and Skills, even if they're then rebuilt from the ground up. It wouldn't be the game I've been playing for the last two and a half decades, and I'm not convinced it would be an improvement. As to the much more modest proposal of just separating Damage, PD, REC, STUN and Jumping from Lifting, I have nothing philosophically against it. It could work fine, and I expect some of it to happen eventually. I don't think it makes the game more playable, and I don't like the idea, but mechanically it works well enough.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: A Thread for Random Musings When someone is sticking to an entirely factually incorrect assertion, there's not much I can do past pointing out the facts. I can't make him accept those facts, and I certainly can't make him admit that he's full of dren. Yet I keep trying, which is clearly a character flaw. Cancer said it better in my sig.

Re: Stats And Hero Purity

Re: Reconciling Manga & Batman The Qi Gong practitioners who can pull trucks with a crotch harness or tie 300+ pounds to their privates and stand are not fictional; it just takes a lot of training.