KawangaKid

Re: Announcing Kazei 5, Second Edition Looks good! I look forward to February (sure I hope I have enough cash saved to order it)!

Re: Announcing Kazei 5, Second Edition How many pages is the book?

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See?: More on Anting-anting I've heard this last one -- it's supposed to be the puso ng saging ("heart of the banana [tree]"). Makes you undeafeatable in battle -- supposedly? I dunno exactly what it does either.

Re: Terran Empire changes I agree, am cobbling together a campaign with these guys as one of the major villains!

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Ah, another thing! Under the UMA coverage of Arnis / Escrima / Kali, it mentions the anting-anting, but is just a bit off. An anting-anting or agimat is not an 'internal' ability. Rather it is tied to an amulet or a charm. Local folklore says that it can only work on certain days, or it won't work on certain days, or not against certain things, or has different effects. Also, some folks say that they can't be bought, but must be received as a gift for them to work.

Re: So how did you guys learn the system? Started with the 3rd edition rules, my first character was actually pre-built for me by my gaming group then... he had everything focused into his staff. Then I eventually shifted gaming groups to another gaming group that actually played Champions most of the time (in Beresford Rec Center in San Mateo) and they took apart my character, but invited me to build a new one. I bought my own Champions rulebook from a guy at high school (who said it was his, but really just stole it from someone who was in the group I was joining) who said he didn't play no more, learned how to build characters on my own, and tried 'em out at a game. It helps not only to build characters, but to look at other folks characters and learn about their builds, their philopsophies, etc.

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Sorry, but I cannot currently view the video. HOWEVER, I must politely correct you: Yaw Yan is a Filipino Martial Art, not a Muay Thai substyle. Sayaw ng Kamatayan is "Dance of Death" in Tagalog (the dialect which became Filipino), not Thai. It IS a form of kickboxing, different from another Filipino kicking style, which is Sikaran. I know some practitioners of Sikaran and will try to see what moves are appropriate. Like most kicking styles, it seems to requires a certain limberness in the leg area. All I know is that most of the combo kicks start with kicks to the head, then hit some other part of the body (one of my faves being the kick to the head followed up by a downward angle sweep to the legs -- "after you kill him, you kick the leg out from under him"). I also like the maneuver where -- when face-to-face with you opponent (about an inch or so) -- you somehow kick your opponent in the back of the head. I've seen it, and it requires, speed, flexibility, and guts -- which the woman certainly had. As far as the original topic, at very least I can recommend local books and journals on various local martial arts (and the local flavors of Chinese martial arts practiced here -- we've had Filipino Chinese communities over here for a LONG time) and try to make my comments on my copy of the UMA for Philippine Arts.

Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Bit late to the party, but picked up an electronic copy for myself today. Unlikely that I'll run it, but I always find these genre books useful for my writing.

Re: 4th Edition Image Help Was it a superhero in a parade?

Re: If you Had to Pick, ONE (already) Setting, to Run in, What is it? Technically, Doctor Who's current series of stuff matches that description. The older stuff normally dealt a new 'mini-setting' every 6 episodes or so.

Re: Lovelace -- The Origin @ Rex: Considering I studied programming in Ada, which was named after her, I found it AWESOME to read this comic strip. @ Kristopher: check out the other strips on the blog -- very well researched and annotated too!

Re: YACttTOR (Yet Another Challenge to the Theory of Relativity): Space-Time no More See, this is why there should be Science Fiction RPG play in schools. You learn so much stuff from an INTERESTING framework. Actually, the same argument could be made for super-hero games...

Re: Mutant City Blues Somewhat late to the party, but... ...one of the more interesting elements of this game is the Quade diagram. While most RPGs involving super-powers make a big deal out of being able to replicate any power in the comic books, Mutant City Blues imposes limits and definite patterns to metahuman abilities. In game terms, abilities connected to other abilities with a solid line are free; abilities connected to other abilities with a dotted line cost 2 points for each ability traversed; and abilities not connected cannot be purchased (you have to trace the web of lines to get to the ability you want). This intriguing part of the game has two immediately obvious effects: (1) it suggests that in this particular setting, there is a predictability to meta-human powers, making professional crime-solving more about investigation, research, and deduction rather than a brainstorming / argument session about what weird combination of abilities was most likely to have been used to perpetrate the crime; (2) it makes certain combinations of abilities more desirable and other combinations of abilities too damn expensive to build -- at least in this system. If this intrigues you, you may want to take a look at it in order to make some of your investigation-oriented supers campaign settings interesting...

Hello All, I don't know if anyone else has posted this (I did a search for Ada and Ada Lovelace and didn't get any results, but got a ton or results in non-pulp hero threads for 'Lovelace') but I thought you might like this tongue-in-cheek (but very well researched) take on Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage -- Pulp Crimefighters. It's by Sydney Padua. Click on the image to see the rest of the origin!

Re: Dynamite Entertainment: Zorro, the Lone Ranger, Buck Rogers, Sherlock Holmes comi So far, I'm very happy with Lone Ranger, Zorro, Sherlock Holmes, and Buck Rogers. Looking forward to Matt Wagner's take on the Green Hornet and Kato.

Re: Dynamite Entertainment: Zorro, the Lone Ranger, Buck Rogers, Sherlock Holmes comi Well, maybe they need all that advertising to stay profitable, haha! Fantastic Invaders vs. Avengers? Dammit, missed that!

It seems that Dynamite Entertainment has been doing really well with their pulp characters. The Lone Ranger is a critically-acclaimed series and has gone past the one year mark; Zorro has also gone past the one year mark -- both are good reads and expand the normally very cursory treatment of their origins. I enjoyed the origin of the Lone Ranger -- very gritty and a strong western feel. I like the darkness of the character (particularly the bit about the bullet holes and the mask he wears). I like the pseudo-mystical elements brought about by Tonto and the the silver mine as well. Zorro has great historical depth and surprising elements -- the secret organization that young Diego de la Vega joins in Spain where he first takes on his nom de guerre El Zorro, the mention of La Destreza (the Spanish school of fencing), and the short cameo of author Arturo Perez y Reverte are among my favorites. I don't know if there's a current series out for the Green Hornet. I like the Buck Rogers series, though it seems less pulp and more a space opera comic (with homages to its pulp origins) and probably better for Star Hero. The Sherlock Holmes series (The Trial of Sherlock Holmes) is aptly highly cerebral, but is rich with the characters from the short stories. Useful Resources on the Site regarding the histories of the various incarnations of the character can be found here: The Lone Ranger Tonto Zorro Buck Rogers Sherlock Holmes The Green Hornet

Re: First Known Binary Star Is Discovered to Be a Triplet, Quadruplet, Quintuplet, Se

Re: Terran Empire and TvTropes.org Wow, really? That was kinda frightening, actually.

Re: Eeep! Buck Rogers!!! Well, I like the current comic book series out.

Re: Beginner's Martial Arts Maneuvers I recommend adding in a special +1 skill level in OCV on an Activation Roll to indicate the difficulty that some "experienced" martial artists have in fighting beginners because they sometimes misread their crappy stances and awkward moves.

Re: Terran Empire and TvTropes org Um, what? I think this must belong somewhere else. I've decided to put together a campaign with this as the basis, but I'm gonna harvest some Fantasy and Superhero tropes as well. To show off the strengths of the Hero system. The epic fantasy genre element storyline is so similar to the Epic Space opera one that it seems that it can be combined with some tweaking. Also, superheroes are the cornerstone of Hero, so I'm putting together a spin on a Fantasy-Superhero set of characters for the setting. Only question is: where do I put the thread? I think I may just blog it, then post specific issues in the relevant boards (Star Hero, Fantasy Hero, Champions).

Re: 7 Sci-Fi Series Ripe for Movie Reboots

Re: 7 Sci-Fi Series Ripe for Movie Reboots And let's not forget in Season Two when the device comes back the first time in order to bring back Mr. Garibaldi from a PPG-induced coma -- to help establish how deadly the PPGs were and hint that the device would come back again.

Re: The Chicxulub impact Urizen: "Ooh, I don't like those dinosaurs. They're all so cold-blooded. And they don't have opposable thumbs. Let's give the mammals a chance to screw up the world."