Supreme Serpent

Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles

Great game.

I've enjoyed the Starfleet Command series of computer games. I've got Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires at War and Starfleet Command Orion Pirates. They do a really good job of simulating the SFB rules with a big bonus - the computer takes care of the details. No more tracking a ton of plasmas and drones, no more checking five weapon charts for a round of firing followed by damage charts - which can be fun, granted, but it's certainly faster with the computer doing it.

Tractors, converting shuttles, t-bombs, HETs, boarding actions/hit&run raids, shield facings - it's all there. I heartily recommend it to any SFB fan.

Re: Top 5 Champs books of all time

Champions

Champions II

Deathstroke

Enemies

Enemies II

Basics, building blocks, and bad guys.

Re: Order of the Stick

But will V be grateful for this rescue/probable sacrifice?

I'm thinking that one of the possible courses of action for O'Chul is to actually kill V.

- He has no real chance against Xykon

- The teleport restrictions mean no backup for V

Killing V should be pretty easy at this point, she's bound to have lost a lot of HP. It spares her the tortures that she would undoubtedly be subjected to, and wouldn't be able to stand up to them as well as O'Chul has. With V dead, hercompanions could True Res. her and get her back into action.

Of course, O'Chul isn't aware of the contract.

Re: Order of the Stick

Xykon is a grade-A bad***, no doubt about it. Amazing that Roy held up so well against him. Certainly shows that the OotS has a long way to go before they can take him down directly. On the plus side, that means lots more strips for us!

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

I'm wondering when my heroes get to be super. So far the thugs are close to forcing my hand as far as what I do.

Yeah, that's a bit frustrating in CoH.

One thing to check that's easy to miss starting out is the difficulty level. When I first started playing, I looked at the titles and figured that the "Invincible" AtomAnt sounded better than the other options. Six levels later I found out that I might want to change that before tackling Frostfire again...

Re: Storn Art from idea to Full Picture Year 6

Scrapyard

Armor as a result of powers, not power armor. Artist who did scrap-metal sculptures got caught in an accident involving a junkyard magnet and a lightning bolt while looking for parts, wound up with magnetic powers. Rather than run around in spandex and hope there was metal nearby, decided to bring a good bit with him to manipulate.

Suit is built from scrap parts, some significantly tooled, others just stuck on. Bottom layer is more finished and set, though is still inconsistent in regards to color and texture it is largely an interlocking set of armor. On top of that various bits and parts are hooked on or adhered magnetically - chains, a stop sign, pipes and metal tubing leading to cans full of ball bearings, etc. Gauntlets/forearms are oversized. Show one hand dangling from a chain leading to the forearm, for scale purposes the real flesh hand of the wearer is inside the oversized forearm but not visible. Boots oversized as well, have groove in bottom that could fit snugly on standard railway lines.

Grolm the All-Seeing

Extradimensional gorilla sorceror. Three eyes, set equidistant around head (one facing forward, might look like cyclops from straight-on), four arms (set 'normally' from torso), two legs. Purplish tinge to fur, mystic sigils inscribed upon chest, various pouches and doo-dads around waist and strapped to his various arms. Posed floating with legs in lotus position, arms performing some spell.

Monsterbuster Agent

Agent set to take on typical monsters and things that go bump in the night, like from a Bureau 13 or Vatican strike force. Festooned with gear and weapons like shotgun with various ammo types, body armor and goggles to see in the dark, wooden stakes, flask of holy water, torch, UV lamp, big cold iron knife/machette, crucifix/other holy symbols, garland of garlic, etc.

Re: Order of the Stick

I wonder what might be a suitable host body for the necromancer...a bone golem perhaps?

Re: Order of the Stick

Dangit. I haven't been able to get on the GITP site in over a week. Is it me?

Their pr0n filters are keeping you out.

Re: Order of the Stick

I'd be very careful about entering into a time-based deal with beings who've shown they can stop time.

Re: Order of the Stick

Of course there's no guarantee that "other parent" is a pushover. They could have already reached the pinnacle in their chosen field and 'retired' to raise the kids while V went out to build a career. The Dragon might be unpleasantly surprised especially having already expended a number of spells.

"Foolish drake. My mate - a mage - has been travelling for years, did you really think I would not have a way to detect being scryed upon should they wish to contact me? Or that I would not be able to detect such a foul smelling acidic mass such as yourself even though invisible to sight? Did you think the mass of squashed vegetation outside our home would go unnoticed? I did nothing at the time to avoid upsetting the children, but I did prepare for your return." *rapidshots multiple arrows of dragonslaying*

Could be especially nasty if any of the Grandparents happen to be handy.

Re: Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers

Hero Games put out a supplement specificaly of this type of pulpish sci fi, IIRC it was called Solar Smith and the space pirates or some such (Would have to look it up to be sure)

 

It was one of their no thrill E-book's steve did, $5 or so, definatly worth checking out...

Hopefully that's no frill, not no thrill. Would be pretty disappointing if it was a no-thrill e-book!

Re: Order of the Stick

Could always just be a custom Feat.

Re: Order of the Stick

If I was playing in this campaign' date=' I would have quit already. Roy's been dead for a year or more, V's about to die, Hayley has to give all her money to the Thieves' Guild and can't rescue her dad. There's been damn few wins and a whole lot of losses lately.[/quote']

 

Obviously it's a story, not a campaign. Where the needs of the story override those of the 'it's a game' idea, the story wins out. And even some real campaigns don't have 'Guantlet' type restrictions on PC proximity.

 

If it were a real life campaign, maybe:

 

*Roy's player is at college/otherwise out of town for an extended period/working on game nights and can't attend for a while. So the GM fills him in on what his spirit-self can see in the meantime until he can come back to the game full-time, at which point since this GM is a master of timing, they'll be at a point where they can raise him. The group being split up like this long-term could also be an online game or a "Haley and Belkar can do Tuesdays, Durkon, Elan and V can do Fridays" type of deal for a while. Rather than put the campaign on hold for six months, the GM splits them up accordingly and keeps trucking.

 

*Well, V ran off on his own and abandoned the party. C'est la mort.

 

*Lots of losses/few wins - perhaps this is the "Empire Strikes Back" part of the story. And it also demonstrates pretty well that the longer the OotS is split apart, the worse things generally go for them. Once they overcome their current obstacles and get back together they'll start kicking tail again.

Re: So what concepts are you tempted to play on the MMORPG anyway?

Well we don't really know yet what concepts are 'unworkable' in game play do we?

That said, what I fear won't be too effective but would like to play would be the thugbuster, the street level guy with martial arts and some gadgets/weapons. Hell on wheels vs. thugs and agents, but can struggle one-on-one vs. a single solid super. "Gee, my 6d6 explosion doesn't seem to affect Ogre much..."

I think pretty much everyone (here) will first of all try to recreate their various Champions characters in one form or another. I know I will, especially if a flaming pumpkin-head is one of the costume options. May also try to convert some old COH characters too.

Other than that, the game itself may lead me to make some characters. May try to make someone like an Empyrean to fit in with the CU stuff, maybe will come up with a good idea for a nemesis villain and base the hero around that, and maybe the costume creator will spark ideas.

Re: Order of the Stick

I wonder if Rich plans to actually wrap up some of this stuff, heading for a series-ending 1000th (regular) strip?

Re: The Monster As Hero thread

What are most people afraid of ? Sharks

What else are most people afraid of? Fire.

Make it a flying, flaming shark. Maybe a Great White Phosphorous.

If you want to go the extra mile, have it done up in clown makeup.

During his time with humans he came to realize that a flaming shark was disturbing to some, so he added the (fireproof, of course) clown getup to make people more comfortable. No one has had the nerve to tell him it actually makes it worse. Thus Bernie the Flying Shark, the Meat-eor of Might, the Flaming Fin of Fury, the Jaws of Justice patrols the city stopping crimes and giving villains a new mixed bag of phobias.

Quotes:

"If you want a job done well, make it well done."

"Can you give me a hand? Maybe an arm too?"

"Want to see me pop a balloon? You get to be the balloon."

"Do you want to tell me what I need to know, or do I have to grill you?"

Re: The Monster As Hero thread

Sasquatch/Bigfoot/Wendigo in a classic RCMP uniform (Mounties).

Why are the oceans always protected by tiny little guys like Aquaman or Namor? Why not a heroic Sea Serpent, Kraken or other such appropriately sized critter worthy of the vastness of the seas?

Re: The De Construction Krewe

Years ago I had Bulldozer as part of a team with Sledge and Piledriver from the old Enemies books and a homebrew "Jackhammer" who has pretty similar to those two - jackhammer for a hand (AP instead of just more dice).

Re: The Monster As Hero thread

Captain Chupacabra! Getting evil's goat!

Going for more of a monsters of the 50's vibe:

*Bug-eyed alien, preferably with big brain-looking head and claw-pincer hands, mandibles or mass of tentacles mouth.

*Robot with scary exterior but a mechanical heart of gold.

*Man-sized or larger atomic-powered creature, preferably insectoid.

Re: The Monster As Hero thread

A possessed monster...TRUCK! Fighting for truth, justice, and the chance to crush the bad guys' cars under his gigantic tires of righteousness!

Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play?

Another 'pet peeve' in terms of archtypes is the PA with no background justification/support. The Warlord makes sense to me: he's a wealthy arms merchant with access to alien tech and an extensive support base. He can maintain a high-tech tin can. Ankylosaur makes no sense at all. It took him 'months' to figure out how to pronounce the name' date=' saying the suit's controls must be [b']extremely[/b] intuitive is something of an understatement. How he keeps it running, and why he hasn't been tricked out of it, is a complete mystery to me...

For this sort of guy to work you have to assume or introduce something in the setting like the Tinkerer in Marvel. With the Tinkerer to supply tech support to lower-tier villains, AIM to provide it to higher-tier ones and Taskmaster's thug academies Marvel set up a decent supervillain support network.

Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play?

I've even dealt with one who used a gun that was SIGNIFICANTLY less damaging than his actual super-powers' date=' but insisted on using it despite the fact that it almost invariably plinked off his opponents.[/quote']

 

 

Long time ago, back in the days when the guns list was a single small table with damages in both normal and killing examples, played in a game where another player bought ALL of them. Had a pistol, a rifle, a carbine, an autocannon, etc. The max any of them did was like 9d6 normal damage.

 

Plinked away at the bad guys through most of the fight with them, ran out of ammo/guns got trashed/disarmed/whatever...eventually had to resort to hand-to-hand combat...and promptly whalloped the villain with his 65 STR and finished him off.

Re: Star Frontiers: The Ethics of Needlers

*Safe weapon for hunting. Everybody goes out in the suits that stop it - if accidentally shoot fellow hunter, no harm done.

*For ordinary self-defense use, I'd think that the tranq-needles would generally be used.

Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play?

Plot destruction characters. Can be mentalists (depending upon powers/personality), effective precogs/retrocogs, or 'do anything' type of characters, like a magic VPP without significant restrictions. Professor X, Oracle, and Dr. Fate work much better in fiction than they do in a game.

If either I or the GM have to seriously inhibit the character's abilities all the time, it's not a fun character.

Re: Super-Frankenstein!

Depends on the universe. In DC there's not much reason to not just reanimate Superman instead of going for a patchwork. Unless of course there's not enough Kryptonian parts available to make a full creature.