BlackCobra

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Some quotes from my Dragons R Us campaign (all the PCs are dragons): How trigonometry saved the day! Players are trying to figure out if the warlock's eldritch blast (max range: 250 feet) can hit the flying air elemental. It's 150 feet up and 170 away from the warlock. PC OOC: "So it's 150 squared plus 170 squared, result square-rooted: 226 feet. Blast him!" --------------------- AJ (OOC): "If there's enough room in this cavern for his ego [pointing to the Prince], there's enough room for the kraken AND the whale." .

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I can't help but post a response to this, with a little perspective from the other side. I'm running a campaign where every player character is a dragon --- a very young dragon, as it turns out (D&D can do dragons, but only if you're basically still pulling shell bits off your scales). So they're in class, and the dragon teacher's current topic? "What not to eat." Teacher: "When you're big enough, you must be very careful what you swallow whole. Some things are simply too dangerous." He then went on with some examples of Things Not to Eat. I can't recall the list clearly (it was incidental to the main plot), but it did include: acid-resistant creatures (don't digest), and adventurers (no matter how big the temptation).

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Another batch of quotes from our Ancient Greek Heroes. Callisto (OOC): I'm here with a crazy person! GM: You're always with a crazy person. Callisto (OOC): Hey! ----------------------- Various players are discussing the sorceress floating over the water, talking to us and giving us attitude, with an army at her back. Pelorious (OOC): "We shouldn't take that from some watery tart..." ----------------------- We're discussing how nearly every fight has included guys stronger than Pelorious (who's are strongest team member). Critias (OOC): "But you're only about 3/4 as strong as the max of the campaign." Pelorious (OOC): "Yes, but I'm an advanced, tool-using creature." ----------------------- Bad guy sucks air out of Callisto's lungs. It's an END transfer. GM: "He's TAKING a recovery." [rimshot] ----------------------- Water witch (previously mentioned sorceress) rises out of the water as a 6 hex (40') tall water elemental. Sea-serpent-slaying Pelorious, currently fighting a rock monster guy, looks over and says: Pelorious: "Be right with you." She blasts him angrily with a jet of water, which he largely laughs off. Pelorious: "Wait your turn!" ----------------------- Xander (OOC): "I stand there and hope no one notices me." [while he takes a recovery] Xander is currently shapeshifted into a giant magma elemental the same size as the water elemental. But he NEEDS a recovery. And it works. ----------------------- Lydos asks a guy if he wants to surrender, but doesn't really pause before blasting him with lightning. Callisto's player calls him on it. Lydos (OOC): "I did mention I'm a bastard, right?" Callisto (OOC): "Oh I know, I spoke with your [character's] wife, remember?" ----------------------- GM is complaining that his END-transferring villain has gotten jack all combat long (4-5 turns worth), mostly because nearly everyone is running out of endurance really quickly. Critias (OOC): "We don't use END here! We use STUN!" This campaign has seen MANY instances of characters spending STUN as END, especially Critias.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... More fun quotes from our Ancient Greek Heroes campaign: Player, glancing at the 9d6 damage roll the GM just made (OOC): "I don't see anything lower than a 4!" GM: "There's a 3!" (Final outcome: 11 body, 41 stun, 7" kb) ---------------------- Villain: "You, Lydos, shoot me again!" (The evil man has electrical absorption and Lydos throws lightning bolts.) ---------------------- Hector is strapped to a table and has leeches up and down his arms (bad guys wanted to steel Herculadae blood). He has just commanded one of the nearby cultist/agents to release him. Hector (OOC): "Did he release me?" GM: "No." Hector (OOC): "I blast him." Player 1 (OOC): "He hasn't had a chance to go!" Hector (OOC): "Then the next guy will jump to it." ----------------------- Lydos talks to his student, who has just been released from being captured & tortured for information by the Okia. Lydos: "And what did you learn from them?" Student (NPC): "Talk sooner?" -----------------------

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Another quote from our Ancient Greek Heroes. Super-soldier Critias, complaining to Lydos (my character, energy projector) after he BARELY survived a fight with a really tough bad guy (basically by running away): Critias: "For future reference, if you and Hector are having that much trouble, you come get reinforcements!" Lydos: "I was flying to get you, and he hit me WITH Hector!"

Re: My Superhero Universe Wow, sounds like a fun world.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... (FINALLY, I can post some quotes from an actual Hero session!) A few choice quotes from our new game: Ancient Greek Heroes! (Super-heroes). The name of the campaign is "Heracles' Children: the First Age". Basically, each character is a Hero descended from Heracles*, and thus possessing Great Powers. Game is 450 points (300/150 disads). ------------ Priestesses of Aphrodite have just performed a sacred dance at a party as part of some sort of yearly ritual, and come walking over to the revelers (PCs). Player immediately says (OOC): Anybody got a buck? ------------ There's a message scrawled in chalk on a wall. Player says her character only reads Greek. GM: It's all Greek to you! ------------ Male character (PC) has escorted a female character (PC) into the Temple of Aphrodite. Player 1: What am I doing here? GM: You know first-hand the information she's going to relay to the priestesses second-hand. Player 1: So what's she doing here? ------------- "Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Aphrodite!" * In case anyone is confused on this point: Heracles is the Greek spelling of Hercules.

Re: Teleport Tactics I've played a couple of teleporters, one Galactic scale and the other Earth-scale (couldn't reach the moon, though, darn it). Couple of things you want to do for yourself: Have several Floating Locations (they can be DARN useful), and a list of permanent ones. Remember, not only can you have a person for a location, you can also have the inside of a vehicle for a location -- it can be really handy, but unless your teleportation negates velocity (which I'd recommend), it can be tricky to use. Some suggested locations (assuming Earth-scale teleport): - the closet of your apartment/house (which you know SHOULD be empty) - holding cell of your super-base (or local precinct), for dropping off bad-guys - that donut place that makes the BEST donuts (roof, probably, for emptiness) - if you have contacts, make sure they have a teleport-in spot for you; it's cheaper than calling them long distance from Brazil when you need them to identify that strange writing - Eiffel tower observation deck 3 (the high one), for all sorts of reasons (romantic, get-away, the view) - a bunker setup with anti-teleport fields that can be turned on (when you're having trouble with another teleporting villain); can also be used as a holding cell for them - space station (orbit is REALLY close in raw kilometers, even low-end porters can sometimes reach that high) - broom closet in your super-base - permanent location for EVERY team member (obviously the GM will have wiley ways around this if they're captured, like teleport-proof rooms or having them out of your range, but it's still TOTALLY worth it). If you can negate velocity, this makes it a lot easier to rescue knocked-unconscious falling guys - remember spidey-tracers? or bat-tracers? CRAP! Have a handful of items you've permanently memorized that you can tag someone with, or their vehicle, and just wait until they return to their Lair --- then BING, there you and your team are. Good fun ensues! That's all I can think of at the moment, I'm sure there are more.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From our fantasy game: Character currently in the form of a cat, on seeing a jolly, rather corpulent merchant casually knock out 3 city guards in one swing of his mace: "Meeow??" [player mimed cat with an "excuse me?" expression] ------------ Our heroes are all dragons, in a fairly bizarre dimension-hopping fantasy campaign. You have no idea how arrogant a group of dragons can be: GM (me): Who speaks goblin? Gold dragon player (vaguely OOC, certainly in-character): That language is SO beneath me.

Re: Steampunk/Victorian fantasy setting questions Yes, it's D&D, but I would highly recommend taking a look at the Eberron Campaign world setting by Wizards. It's "traditional" D&D that feels like the 1920's. World War just ended, lots of Noir and spies, a "Dark Continent" full of adventure, and techno-magic. They have trains that run on "lightning rails", which basically small pylons that float the train along. They have airships that use bound elementals to propel them. It may definitely give you some interesting ideas. And using magic to create alloys is probably your best bet. But brass is definitely VERY Victorian SteamPunk. I also second the Doc-Sidhe books by Aaron Allston. Good stuff! Here's some inspirational websites (for visuals, anyway): http://www.brassgoggles.co.uk/brassgoggles/ http://www.datamancer.net/steampunklaptop/steampunklaptop.htm http://www.becausewecan.org/Office_interior_with_custom_desks http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/steampunk http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/steampunk Oh! There's also GURPS Steampunk, no foolin'. It's probably out of print, but I think Steve Jackson Games sells almost all their back-catalog stuff as PDFs.

Re: Sell me on "Galactic Champions"? Galactic Champions doesn't HAVE to be Cosmic-scale. You could easily have a campaign where you played 350pt supers in a space-opera universe. It might even be more interesting that way, since compared to the Cosmic supers, you'd end up feeling more like a Super Agent. I can see a lot of interesting potential stories there; everyone loves the underdog. Now, that idea aside, the Cosmic level of Supers in a Galactic campaign can make for some really Epic Stories. How about that time the teleporter moved several million aliens to another planet in their home system right before their original home exploded? Or when the Mind Witch sent out a distress call heard by every sentient within a 1000 light-years? Or when my time-traveling super nearly unraveled time & space trying to break an entire solar system out of a time loop? [actually happened in game] I ran a fairly successful sci-fi hero campaign where the characters were all psionic. It amounted to a low-level Champions campaign; heck, several of the characters even had alternate code-named identities. I think the best way that Space Opera works is if there's a fairly comprehensive background and set of "special effects" -- like psionics being the source of "super powers", or only having 5 or 6 alien species with several defined cultures. Anyway, hope that helped!

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... [From a Fantasy game] Dwarven rations are really tough. (Please shout "How tough are they?" here) Dwarven rations are so tough, you can layer them together and make armor. Dwarven Rat Armor*. ---------------------- After looking over the loot from a band of mis-guided bugbears: "Crappy morningstars, crappy wooden shields. You know what that is? Firewood." * Please don't expose Dwarven Rat Armor to water --- Dwarven rations expand in water....

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Pun Warning! (This pun is assisted by having a certain Peter Gabriel song from the early 80s stuck in your head when saying it) *********** So, we're playing D&D, fighting Savage Monkeys and discussing mid-fight tactics. It's my turn and I'm told: "Flank the Monkey!"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From our latest fantasy game. Party teleports aboard an enemy airship (ship to ship from their airship). They're contemplating how to deal with the 30+ orcs and 1 Lich immediately surrounding them on deck and one player suggests a fireball. Korso's player instantly says (OOC): "You definitely DON'T want to use a fireball! You don't want to damage our new ship!"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Fantasy setting. (Current game system is Ye Olde Rolemaster; please hold your boos until the end.) We know that there is a very large Bad Guy organization out there that we're here to stop. So, after our first fight trying to rescue some people from local hoodlums (ok, harpies and minotaurs), we find these cute little amulets on the bad guys. Our magic runes expert decides that they're a form of communication device, except that what's spoken by one wearer of an amulet is heard by all others who have one. Or as one player put it "World Wide Evil Net"! --- Same campaign. The GM did something very interesting going from chapter to chapter. We reached the Climactic Ending (chapter 1), and the Creator of Worlds stopped by. Apparently our characters live in a multiverse, and he (yes, in this instance, the Creator was a he) was having troubles in a few of his other universes. If we signed on, he'd translate us into one of those other universes. (In meta-game terms, our GM said, pick a game system.) Same character personalities, in new bodies and somewhat new professions. So our mage is talking to a big bad NPC (a cyclops), negotiating his "surrender", shortly after our arrival in the new universe. Galen (formerly elf, now human mage): Oh, come on, you think we were--- Aramil (still an elf, monk, me): OMIGOD, we were born yesterday!

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From my fantasy campaign. Our heroes are battling Wights*, and the paladin-esque Annoited Knight wades through them like warm butter. Then, a fireball goes off in the largest cluster of the Wights, leaving many smoldering (un)dead bodies. Immediately, our rogue quips (OOC): Hahaha, Wight Out! (If you aren't hearing the Beach Boys while reading that, not my fault.) I would like to note for the record that there is almost NO end to the number of puns you can make with Wights. *Intelligent undead capable of killing by their life-draining touch and raising their kills as fellow Wights in short order.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From our fantasy game: One character had just been swallowed by a dire shark. Another character is fighting the shark, and is also swallowed. As soon as he sees the other character in the shark's gullet, he says: "I'm here to rescue you!" ------ Discussion comes up in our D&D game about the lack of a cleric in our group. One person immediately points to our fighter with the Storm Giant strength and says: "He has Turn Living!" Later, in a nasty fight, the fighter throws a dagger and does more damage in one attack than any other person can do in three or four (good roll, plus that whole Giant Strength thing). One of the players immediatley turns to him and says: "Please tell me that's at least a magic dagger!" [it wasn't]

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Eberron-based campaign world: Half-orc woman commenting on the "slinky" dress purchased by a party member for a party held by gnomes: "You must be this tall to ride." After being shown into the Royal Mage's sanctum, from his apprentice to another party member: "There's no giggling in the wizard's tower." In response to the flavor-text description of the decorations at an Embassy party: "There's crepe everywhere!" In the middle of a massive fight in a lightning rail (i.e. train) station, where the train is about to leave, our wizard-type steps up to the ticket booth and completely deadpan goes (as if the huge brawl behind him isn't even happening): "I'd like 7 tickets to Karnath." Later in the same fight, when the bat swarms show up and engulf the half-orc: "I have bat lighting!" From party member, after it was pointed out how they weren't supposed to tell anyone about the job they just finished for a secret society: "Aw, but we already had the t-shirts made!"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From our Eberron fantasy game. "There's crepe everywhere!" (referring to party decorations and the bad situation, what with trying to subdue a vampire) "There is no giggling in the Wizard's tower!"

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech Friend of mine back in college had a super-prison set in Antarctica. It was deep in the heart of the continent. This was for an IST world (based on GURPS Supers International Supers Teams setting, but using Hero, of course), as I recall, which was popular with our gaming group at the time. The place was fairly fortified, but not overly so. Basically the only villains sent there were folks who wouldn't survive the thousand mile trek to one of the other research bases on the continent. Food and other supplies were flown in monthly and air-dropped; the plan never landed. Power was from a fusion plant located 50 miles away (and underground). There were water-spraying system located on the outside of the base in case someone made a break for it, just to be sure. I think the guards were all PhD psychologists, trained in some martial arts but completely without weapons. There must have been more to this, otherwise how long would they live? But locating a prison in such a place has a LOT of advantages: - don't need to worry about pressurizing it - don't need to armor it much - as long as heat is maintained, everything is good The key is only sending those prisoners who aren't immune to cold, or who can make a reasonable break for it.

Re: Unstoppable Tunneling, schmunneling --- I say, do everything with Casual Strength. Just make sure Juggernaut has enough raw strength (he's supposed to be super-duper strong, right?) to simply bull through walls without stopping. If you can go through it with your casual strength, you don't have to stop.

Re: Advice on character requested Because the Old General (in my previous post) held off a horde of thugee with just a small garrison of british troops (all of whom had +2 to combat). It's amazing what a difference that can make, it really is.

Re: Advice on character requested My suggestion fits your requirements perfectly, but it comes with a warning. Be careful with it. It can get fairly disgusting. I was running a Victorian heroes campaign, and someone made the Old General. The guy could not only inspire troops, he could direct them effortlessly. +1 Overall Combat level, usable by others, x256 others, at range, incantations (-1/2). You might want to tack on "requires an oratory roll" and/or "extra time: 1 phase" in order to make that less disgusting. With a little luck, you can hold off marauding thugee hordes with just a simple garrison. Ask me how I know. For your guy, since he's more used to directing superheroes, you might want to make it more like +2 or +3, and bring the numbers down to like 8 people.

Re: Must-Have Books of 2004? If you plan on doing anything with animals (companions, alternate forms, summonings, etc) in a Superhero settings or are planning to run Fantasy Hero, the Bestiary is essential. I found the UNTIL Superpowers Database to be really handy, especially for getting power and/or character ideas and helping the lest Hero-system savvy folks up-and-running. Sidekick, if you have players who aren't that familiar with the rules. Fantasy Hero, if you're going to run a fantasy game. The Grimoire is cool, and is good for some ideas, but it's largely high-end magics. Really, I haven't been dissappointed with any of my Hero Games purchases -- I've found uses for everything.