Bloodstone

Re: X Ray-ted Vision Chimera - Vin would do it in heroic or secret ID. He has no problem with nudity. In his normal human form, he looks like a smoking hot Brazilian underwear model already. His transformations frequently shred his clothes, so it's not like he's not used to running around half naked anyhow. However, his heroic ID is a human/animal hybrid that blends the features of monkeys, cats and bats, so there might not be too much demand for that sort of thing. Robin Fletcher - Robin's handsome, buff and not at all shy, but he's also something of a classic southern gentlemen, try as he might to be a proper scoundrel from time to time. He could probably be convinced to do it for a good cause... or if he thought it would tick off his old man! But it's not something he would actively seek out, that's for sure. Ultimately, I doubt it would happen unless he kept it a secret though. He'd absolutely never get the OK from headquarters, since his "stage persona" is one of the public faces of the mercenary group Heroes For Hire. Coldfront and Heatwave, the Tempest Twins - They both have some body image issues due to the nature of their physical mutations (ash gray skin, snow white hair, pupiless blue/red eyes, slightly pointed ears, fangs) and so would probably find the idea that someone wanted to see them naked strange, but flattering. However, they both work as agents for a transdimensional organization that would probably not approve, so even if they were willing, they would not get permission. Besides, in that campaign, such a magazine could only really exist on War World anyhow, since post humans are kept secret on Earth Prime and hunted on Red Earth. Coldfront would likely be disowned (and then quietly murdered in her sleep) if her family found out she had posed nude for such a rag... she's kind of a part of the post-Nazi German "royal" family (complex alternate Earth history stuff). Michael could probably get away with it, since he's not from War World and his family and friends back home rarely find out what goes on there (despite the nick name, they are not actually twins). However, both Agents are only 17 as of this writing, so this is currently a non issue... Speed Demon and Belladonna - Chad might be willing to do something like this in his super powered alter ego, assuming anyone wanted to see 7' tall demon naked. Not sure if there would be any demand for it in his human form though. He's famous as the former college football player that became a rock star after the accident that cost him use of his legs. His girlfriend uses her potions to make herself look unearthly beautiful. She really tries to play up the seductive vixen role, but at heart she's still an awkward, slightly overweight bookworm of a hedgewizard that wares glasses and has overly large front teeth. Chad thinks she's amazing and sexy, potions or not, but try telling her that.... so yeah, not without the magic brew that increases her looks and her confidence... Detective Jack Ellis/Oliver Kale/The Beast Within - Jack is way to shy and skittish. Oliver would do it in a heart beat, and the more hardcore the better. The Beast Within is a massive demonic/gargoyle looking creature that has no taboos about nudity. But he's practically a force of nature and could not be contained long enough to do a photo shoot... unless the photo shoot involved lots of SMASH!

Re: Very flashy, acrobatic martial arts styles? No... there was no TKD to keep up with when Gigo started changing Shotokan in the 30's.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos This one always sticks with me...

Re: Very flashy, acrobatic martial arts styles? Dude, wrong Funakoshi You're thinking of Gichin. If you reread what I wrote, I was talking about his son, Gigo.

Re: Adult Entertainment

Re: Very flashy, acrobatic martial arts styles? Karate's drawn a lot of influence from other arts in the last 40 years or so. Back in the day (were' talking 1850-1940 or so), Karate didn't even have kicks above the belt. The dramatic changes are attributed to Gigo Funakoshi influence on Shotokan, sparring rules (because no one with any sense of self preservation kicks high when the groin is an legal full contact target) as well as the influence of other arts. It's one of the things that made Shotokan so different from the older Okinawan styles. Shotokan is also the source of Tae Kwon Do, though few Korean martial artists wish to acknowledge that... Things eventually came full circle though. The arts changed dramtically due to contact with one another in various open style competitions that started in the 60's and 70's. The forms circuit changed dramatically, especially in the 80's and 90's when people were allowed to get MUCH more creative with their forms and started liberally borrowing flashy moves form gymnastics and other martial arts like Kung Fu, Wu Shu, Capoeira and TKD. End result is you see things like this from Sport Karate guys: As I said, the Tricking movement grew out of the forms circles in the late 90's...

Re: A skill to estimate value? Trading, with various skills related to the goods acting as complimentary skills. See Ultimate Skill p339 Not sure if it's been reprinted/updated in a source for 6E yet

Re: Very flashy, acrobatic martial arts styles? OP asked for non fictional.

Re: Very flashy, acrobatic martial arts styles? You missed Climbing and Acrobatics. KS: Parkour could be included for those that know the history and terminology, CK or those that know their city well. Possibly French as a second language. Frankly, I mostly just use Flight, No Turn Mode, with a very well defined -1/4 limitation "Parkour" It's basically a variation of Only In Contact With A Surface. The character can use it for normall running, though they can't run on water, straight up a kite string or balance on things that couldn't realistically hold his weight like a speedster might be able to. They can make perfectly aimed leaps, even changing direction in mid leap if they have something to bounce off of. Normal human characters can only buy a max of 20m of Flight with Parkour and can only use half of their meters of Flight on any single uninterrupted Leap. This ability allows them to balance on just about anything that can actually bear their weight, so they can perch on ledges and run across narrow beams or high wires. They can of course still use it to run straight up or along walls, though they have to end their movement on a flat surface or otherwise have something to hold on to. I also let them use it to reduce falling velocity prior to making a Breakfall roll, to simulate (slower) climbing along ceilings, up treacherous surfaces or even to perform brachiation/swinging in an appropriate environment. I sometimes add RSR for a bit of extra realism

Re: Very flashy, acrobatic martial arts styles? Oh, I can go on for quite some time here... I'll include some choice clips from youtube Traditional Capoeira (known as Capoeira Angola these days) isn't really all that flashy and actually spends a lot of time low to the ground. It's slower and tricky. The more modern stuff is highly acrobatic and does a ton of fancy spinning and jumping kicks, handstands and showy flips. A lot of movements have been exchanged with gymnastics, breakdancing and other kicking arts, like Wu Shu and Tae Kwon Do. The modern form is the sort of stuff most people think of when you say capoeira. This clip starts with some more traditional stufff and get higher and fancier as it goes... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-TKPVrW3pI&feature=related Wu Shu is the artsy post-Communist version of several blended kung fu styles. It integrates movements from dance and acrobatics, focusing heavily on high kicks, fancy low spinning kicks, leaping kicks and hand strikes that are typically wide and circular or delivered in lighting fast sequences. Lots of very fancy weapon forms as well, with tons of leaps, spins and fancy flourishes. Speed and form are supreme here (though various "internal" style performances are done slowly and emphasize balance and flexibility). Kung Fu in general has a large variety of styles that have amazingly showy elements, though keep in mind what you see in the movies is often completely made up. For example, Jackie Chan actually made up most of the movements in Drunken Master 2 and they have nothing to do with the much less spectacular movements of actual Drunken kung fu forms (of which there are several). Silat has a number of forms that feature very flashy techniques, though not all of them are high flying . Harimau hand trapping techniques are particularly complex and can be quite amazing to see, though they are also known for their fancy ground based take downs. Lots of fancy weapon forms as well, though the movements tend to be tighter and shorter range. Sportive Silat sparring tends to look like Tae Kwon Do with takedowns, while the paired forms resemble kung fu and pro wrestling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjC32EY0gm0 Speaking of Tae Kwon Do started off many years ago looking very much like traditional Karate, but has since grown into an entirely divergent art that emphasizes kicking above all else. High kicks, spinning kicks and jumping variations there of are what the style is known for and they actually invented many of the fanciest modern kicks, like the 540 and the 720. Many schools teach very acrobatic breaking demonstrations and creative forms. And here's some Olympic style matches, which practically look like a different art Muay Boran is traditional Muay Thai and features many fancy, risky moves that fighters would rarely try in an actual ring fight (like the climbing knees, bounce kicks and spin kicks). Also, the Cobra Punch (known as the Superman Punch in MMA) is an actual jumping punch that comes from Muay Thai. Due to the influence of Tony Jaa's films, many people expect even more fancy and acrobatic movements out of Muay Boran practitioners (Jaa draws techniques and influence from several other arts, but dresses things up with a Thai flavor to sell to the home audience): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8u_mMsALo8 Tricking is a highly acrobatic modern form that developed on the American Karate Forms circuit in the 90's. It blends martial arts moves from various styles (Tae Kwon do, Capoeira, Wu Shu) with acrobatics also from various sources (Gymnaztics, Breakdancing, Capoeira, Wu Shu). The "martial" aspect is often underplayed a bit as people try to one up one another, for example executing as many aerial spins as possible in the process of delivering a jumping spin kick. In term of grappling arts, Sport SAMBO has an incredible repertoire of fancy throws, including many leaping and rolling entries into submissions like the flying armbar or Victor's Roll. Some of those fling and rolling techniques: And here's an actual demo: There are a variety of grappling styles that use very complex and fancy sweeeps, reversals and submissions. One noteworthy example would be Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu. Dave Camarillo is well known for his successful competitive use of flying takedowns and invented this one: Then you have things like this: Also, Parkour is not seen as a martial arts style by it's founder, but as a compliment to martial arts, as it's the flight portion of fight or flight. Parkour focuses on moving from point a to point b as quickly and efficiently as possible. Freerunning is similar, but more acrobatic. It tends to focus on beautiful movement and showing off more than on pure efficiency of motion. While many traceurs do know some martial arts, it's not really a part of the curriculum. I suppose I should stop now...

Re: Adult Entertainment

Re: Ranger Choke Hold? Here, check it out from about 4:10 on. Not sure why video won't actually start at the 4m10s mark as I have indicated

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? Not exactly my favorite mechanic when you have to change it in mid combat. The Speed chart isn't exactly the most intuitive thing to learn. I remember the first time one of my fellow player spent XP and bumped up from a 4 SPD to a 5, expecting to just get 1 more phase to act on. They were not expecting the middle phases they acted on to actually change. I also remember there was quite a lot of confusion with held actions and aborting when we first started playing...

Re: Ranger Choke Hold? You taking about the move from Scent of a Woman?

Re: A Thread for Random Videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7KPZrv7JWE

Re: I've got you

Re: Rings of Power This thread reminds me... I have a Mandarin homage character that I should really update to 6E so I can use him in my latest campaign...

Re: I've got you The benefit of not being shot while trying to break out of an entangle while at 0 DCV more than compensates for my reduced number of actions in a turn. It's not uncommon to see Speedster/Martial Artist types have less PD/ED and STR than other characters, so being stuck in an entangle sometimes means being stuck for a while and being incredibly vulnerable while doing so. So it's often better to grab some cover (if you can) while you work out of it. Didn't used to be quite so bad, but the reduced cost of AoE in 6E means stronger AoE Entangles...

Re: Creepy Pics. Oh, I'm sure we'll get there eventually... [ATTACH=CONFIG]41072[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]41073[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]41074[/ATTACH]

Re: Creepy Pics. Not at my house! Spiders welcome. Cats get shown the business end of a broom. (I actually rather like cats, but allergies make them dangerous...) Back on topic...

Re: I've got you I don't know about that. Controlling the battlefield is tactically significant. In addition, I play a lot of speedsters and other characters that have significant of points invested in movement abilities, so it's not a minor thing to such characters... Not always a bad idea. Zip away a good safe distance, focus on breaking out of the entangle without having to worry about being shot at your reduced DCV, come back like nothing happened. Even the running away parts isn't that risky if the GM is using Velocity based DCV.

Re: Are Overall Skill Levels overpowered? Most of my veteran heroes have one or two of them, just to represent their experience and versatility. My super lucky and hyper-competent characters often have many more. There are many situation where you don't need to make multiple rolls in the same phase anyhow, so the ability to focus on any one specific task can be a major boon and be particularly fitting for certain character concepts. In general, I don't know that they are overpowered, but they are incredibly powerful in the right hands and I have had two separate GM's underestimate two of my characters abilities because they forgot about their Overall levels... It's my feeling that if the character is already good without them, then he will be amazing with them.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos

Re: Only Breathe's Through Skin

Re: Creepy Pics. And if you do, you probably shouldn't be in this thread in the first place...