Steve

Going to share my comments from Twitter on this, and a pair of videos of his that I found. 
 
 
 
 

I just heard about this on All Things Considered. Here's their appreciation.
Actor Kevin Conroy, best known as the voice of Batman, died Friday at age 66 : NPR
 
RIP, sir.
 
Dean Shomshak
 

Clearly Foxbat wanted to supply his own Burger Franchise
 
 

I guess I’m an old school grognard, but I far prefer interacting with people face to face at a table rather than playing by text/email. I’ve tried it in the past, and it’s glacially slow in getting anything done that way.

While I have used photos for specific campaigns, I prefer using illustrations when I have time to work on them. Many of my supervillains are drawn up in some form or another, and have been used in a variety of games.

Also, it turns out that The Devil’s Simulare manuscript  was uncatalogued, and if they hadn't asked the librarians at the Biblioteca Marciana to hunt it down for them, they probably could have smuggled it out of the library with no-one being any the wiser. On the other hand, our investigators see no reason to steal the document. 
 
Florence Braxton-Hicks: It’s not as though books can hurt anybody.
GM: I'm sure the Russian royal family would say otherwise, at least as far as Das Kapital

When asking a friendly pharmacist for his recommendations regarding Venetian food-
 
"Tourist food or real food?"
 
The little out-of-the-way venue does indeed supply mouth-watering real food in generous quantities. Flo will of course spoil things by recommending it in her articles back home. 

I guess I’m an old school grognard, but I far prefer interacting with people face to face at a table rather than playing by text/email. I’ve tried it in the past, and it’s glacially slow in getting anything done that way.

I might be art ludit (the best I can do is beefy stick figure people), but I do prefer artwork over photos. Especially when talking about cartoon/comic book/anime/manga inspired characters or settings.
 
If I'm playing a spy or a gun fighter or film noir detective, then it is ok to find a character photo.

It all depends on how I see the character.

I prefer in-person games to VTT games and VTT-games over no-games at all. I like telling stories with dice where I can see the effects of our choices in real time, and where I can interact with multiple people simultaneously. Can you have that experience in play-by-mail? Maybe, probably, I just long ago gave up on that method of game play for other more immediate modes that better feed my addiction.

Not ashamed of my vote:  I have never liked using photos of real people.  I am imagining a world that looks a certain way- let's say comic books, with latern-jawed heroes with their mighty seven-heads proportions-!
 
I do _not_ want to pop open Iron Man's helmet and go "Holy Hell!  That's Dennis Franz!"
 
More subtley:  I find the use of photos of real people and places (with the wxceprion of fantastic landscapes) to be extremely off-putting and it does hard damage to my suspension of disbelief-- and I am typically the GM!  It is like the _one_ thing that I just can't roll with.  I also accept that I am probably the only person on the planet for whom this is as big a deal as it is, and it stem,from the fact that I am an old fossil who has been gaming since before we could screenshot someone from the internet so art feels more "right" in the context.  Alternatively, it could be that I do not want that exact and detailed a face or body type; I have no idea.
 
If you can't draw- I know I can't- and dont know anyone who will whip something up for you-  screenshot a drawing off the 'net and show that to me.  Give me a stick figure done in crayon.  _Describe_ the character to me and I will block in a 2e character mannequin (badly) for you!
 
Just do not give me an actual photo of an actual person or an actual animal,or an actual car.....
 
Etc.
 

I guess I’m an old school grognard, but I far prefer interacting with people face to face at a table rather than playing by text/email. I’ve tried it in the past, and it’s glacially slow in getting anything done that way.

Short Answer:
My group did this many, many years ago. (Some time in the late 1980s) We came up with 5 points is 200 Joules.
 
Caveats:
I’m just relying on memory here. Since I’m pretty sure all our calculations disappeared over two decades ago.
We did not use the Strength, Lifting or Throwing tables. They are geometric progressions. 
We decided to work with Strengths of 5 to 25. 
We got pretty good agreement with stabbing, gunfire, fire, electricity, and flight.
We had no way to calculate Mental Powers.

Long Term Effects:
Eventually we dropped using Hero points for spaceships and just used the 200J as a standard.
We ended up using two systems. Hero System for people and aliens and personal weapons. 200J for ships. 
The two very rarely crossed paths.
I think one time we had a boarding party cutting through a ship’s hull. At which point the GM said, “Your ship’s engineer calibrated the explosives for this type of hull. You’re inside.”

By the way,
We were playing Klingons v Klingons using the Hero System.
That’s when I knew that Hero could do just about anything. 

Years ago our forum colleague "Bartman" posted his table converting Hero System Damage Classes to joules, foot-pounds, and amounts of TNT, along with examples of famous explosions for comparison, and a summary of his methodology. I saved that post as a Document file and have attached it below for anyone who might find it a useful reference.
DC Conversion (Bartman).doc

It is funny you took this tack.  Way back in the 2 and 3e days, our group had decided, based on results and effect on the campaign world through the various publishwd items that we shared between that VIPER was very much doing mankind a  service, as they were cranking out superheroes left and right, and actively hunting down supervillains. Sure, they wanted do control and harness the villains, but they were better at nabbing them than UNTIL was.
 
In fact UNTIL, by the books of that era, was responsible for creating or driving more existing supers toward villainy that VIPER even dreamed of achieving themselves, and UNTIL worked harder to tie the hands of superheroes than any secret agency, and did so with the full support of the law (which they could evidently override or recreate at will).
 
UNTIL was the most dangerous-to-the-public organization there was in the early editions; only VIPER stood a chance of stopping them.
 
 

HORROR ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS - Venice - Love (and Death) in a Gondola Pt.3
 
Feb 1923
 
In Which The Investigators Dig Themselves Deeper Into A Hole
 
   The Investigators are certainly seeing a lot of Venice while they’re in town, if by ‘a lot’ you mean the inside of the city’s libraries and archives, and the inside of the San Marco Basilica during a heist that nearly gets them arrested as Communist Arms Smugglers. Smugglers that they, in fact, invented. 
 
  This probably requires some explanation.  
 
  Having already assisted local communist Georgio Gasparetti’s attempts to get into the pants of Maria Stagliani (hopefully he’ll wait till they’re actually married), Huxley and company have finally returned their attention to the search for the pieces of the Sedefkar Simulacrum. Delving deeply into the archives turns up the official reports and diaries of the French officers during Napoleon’s occupation of the city, and The Devil’s Simulare, an illuminated manuscript about certain events in Constantinople during its looting by the Fourth Crusade. Hopefully it’s not entirely historical, because among other things it includes knights fighting a dragon. But they can read it all properly later, because the reports and diary reveal the hiding place of the Simulacrum’s Leg!
 
Inside one of the richest and well-guarded churches in Christendom.
 
This presents a few problems, and that’s not even counting the giant fish with human arms that have been seen in the canals. 
 
Huxley: Could be a surviving amphibian from the Devonian.
GM: Given the increasingly noxious state of the canals, they probably won’t be surviving for long.
 
The water is certainly getting pretty bad - black as the breast of a raven - and increasingly excited rumors claim that it’s certain death to touch it. 
 
The Left Leg was apparently buried under the floor of the Chapel of St Isidore - not the St Isidore of Seville who invented the comma, but the Isidore of Chios who got torn apart by horses. It's the latter who got interred at St Mark's, presumably not in one piece. And the investigators will be lucky if they remain in one piece if they get caught vandalizing the church. Maybe they should just tell the church authorities they had an evil artifact under the pavers and they should just be glad it’s being taken off their hands?
 
GM: It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
 
Antonio Masiero, the Italian airman who did most of the legwork for them in Venice, has a suggestion - i.e. get the fascists to do it, by telling them that communist arms smugglers were using the chapel as a letter drop, then intercept them and get the leg off them afterwards with the help of the local communists.

It’s certainly a … bold… plan.
 
Antonio: A shipment of arms
Florence: Heheh
Antonio: OK, or a shipment of legs
 
So all they have to do is convince Gasparetti to use his contacts among the local unionists and left-leaning students to pass on information to the blackshirts. He’s a bit reluctant, at first. Among other other things the fascists will crack down even harder on the local communists if they dig up the chapel to find the letter drop or not, but he does get more enthusiastic about it when it’s framed as an excuse to string up the blackshirts for vandalizing the Basilica. 
 
Gasparetti: This could be the start of the OVERTHROW OF MUSSOLINI! *slaps his hand over his mouth when he realises he just said that aloud in a cafe*
Florence: Geniuses, lower your voices -You keep out of trouble, and you double your choices. I'm with you, but the situation is fraught. You've got to be carefully taught: If you talk, you're gonna get shot!
 
Fortunately, it was already a fairly left-wing cafe, although people are now paying a LOT of attention to the investigators.
 
They decide to pass on the false information that the communist arms smugglers will be leaving instructions under the flagstone in the chapel after the last mass of the day, and Gasparetti and his friends will be waiting out in the plaza to raise hell the moment the Fascists start tearing up the flagstones. Huxley, Florence and Antonio will be lurking among the congregation to see how it plays out. 
 
Of course, it doesn’t go according to plan, because in hindsight it was never going to. The blackshirts naturally planted a few plainsclothed officers among the congregation, all watching closely for these imaginary arms smugglers. Which left Huxley and Antonio to try and hide in the Basilica as the crowd streamed out, and the officers explain to the priests why they’re there.
 
Priest: Communists?! In MY Church!
GM: It’s more likely than you think. 
 
And of course the blackshirts spot Huxley hiding - they were expecting somebody to linger in the church after mass, after all. He legs it, closely pursued by the fascists, to the consternation of Florence, Gasparetti and his friends. At least that gives Antonio a chance to pry up the flagstone with a votive candlestick, while everybody is busy.
 
There’s no Leg. 
 
There is, instead, a letter in a sealed envelope. Antonio grabs it and talks his way out past the priests - after giving the address to his hotel, his actual name, a promise of numerous Hail Marys and a large donation. Huxley manages to lose himself in the crowd of churchgoers - he certainly seems to be becoming quite an accomplished sprinter, at least in the vicinity of Italian landmarks. The investigators meet up at the flat, where Gasparetti tries to wrap his head around the fact that there actually WAS a letter under the flagstone. At least he can identify the seal of the letter - the Gremancis, once Princes of Venice, now famous dollmakers and providers of prosthetic limbs to the veterans of the Great War. 
 
The name is not entirely a surprise - the investigators had been told by Professor Smith that reputed sorcerer Alvise de Gremanci was somehow involved with the Simulacrum, and one Alvise de Gremanci was recorded as one of the ringleaders of the riots that took place when the Leg was first brought to the city, and all quietly released after the French officer discovered they were absolutely right to be protesting. Antonio had been asking every branch of the family if they knew anything about an evil leg. Apparently none did - perhaps the letter will reveal the truth?
 

entangles normally use OCV against DCV, so the first part is taken care of without you needing to do anything.  Yes, you can take the advantages "takes no damage from normal attacks" and "works against EGO not STR"

For the God of Commerce, folklore and literature already provide the Goblin Market: the place where you can buy and sell anything. It is always dangerous. For the foolish or greedy, the price that seems right always turns out to be very, very wrong. But sometimes the pure of heart or quick of wit can buy miracles.
 
(You probably don't want to call it the Goblin Market unless your goblyns, for all they seem to be a significant threat to several societies, bear a special connection to the God of Commerce.)
 
Tales differ about the location of the Market. Some say it's an oasis in a desert beyond five mountain ranges. Others say an island surrounded by five whirlpools, and only a blind steersman can find the way. Some say if you toss a coin into a certain well at the dark of the moon, the path to the Market opens before you. And there are many other tales. Are you clever enough to unriddle the clues, or savvy enough to buy the secret from one who truly knows and not be cheated?
 
Dean Shomshak

Actually, I have a floating location like that on a lot of my campaigns (inspired by a line or two in one of May favorite guilty pleasure movies).
 
"Between the Joshua trees." 
 
Moon's up, so you'd best mind the path.  After about thirty minutes, you'll round a bend that carries you near a lone Joshua tree.  Whatever you do, don't stop, and don't leave the path until either you're standing in sunlight or you pass the second Joshua tree a short piece later.  Just don't do it, Son.  Stay on the path, and keep moving.
 
And of course, things conspire to make the Players seriously consider doing both. 
 
 

I just realized that if we go comical with the giant turkey then it was created by the…Gweenies! And they are dressed up as Pilgrims instead of Mobsters.

For Teleios that would be child's play, but I had to think for a minute about why he would even bother. I believe Professor Paradigm might hire him to do it. I could see Paradigm wanting to provoke people to question the ritual and symbolism of Thanksgiving.
 
Moving away from genetics, as the CU's analogue to Mr. Mxyzptlk, I could absolutely accept the Incubus pulling such a ridiculous and potentially tragic "joke" in response to the holiday.
 
(Teleios and PP are both in CV Vol. 1, while the Incubus is in Vol. 3.)

The original Starships and Spacemen.
 
To this day, I have no idea how they got away with it. 
 
Expendables was way better than it should have been; there was one idea from it that I still use to this day in my most-commonly-used Traveller universe.
 
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-- okay, not a fan of the soource material.  I enjiyes Eastman and Laird's original concept in the short-lived independant comics, but  after the Archie comics group reinvented it as teenage nerf suit surfer turtles....  A bit too kiddie for me.  Anyway, the RPG was built on quite possibly the best reinvention od the Palladium system.
 
The Street Fighter RPG was better than it should have been.  I received it as a gag gift, but found it to be totally playable.
 
True gems, though-  that game that makes you say this is more fun thanbit has any right to be!  A game that you never heard if until it was in front of you and you couldn't play it enough?  A game that you wait thirty years to meet someone from a different group who also played it?
 
I can come up with the trilogy of game,booklets that xombine to be Macho Women with Guns-  ignore all the sexism, all the cheesecake, all the black leather- that game,was a hoot!
 
Bushido fits that mould.  It was a _great_ game, and I think Scott Rugles on this boaed isbthe first person I have encountered outside of my old group who has also played it.
 
Magical Kitties Save the Day.
 
Yeah- forget everything you are thinking, because that is not what it is.  (Except Scott; Scott is probably right).  This game more than any other I have pkayed emphasises role-playing above all else: the way stats are assigned, and the facr that your odds can only,be improved by chits that can only,be earned through role-playing....
 
Dependinf on your play style, you can play severalnsessions and never enter anythinf resembling combat-- all of which makes this a great family game, even with really young kids...
 
 
And I am sure that wveryone is foinf to choke,on this, but 1st edition Vampire: the Masquerade was enchanting- the dice pool system,I had only encountered once before, and this game did it better.  The production values were at that time three steps above everything else on the market, the world was fresh, original, and tantalizing.  White Wolf killed my joy simply with over-exposure; every game that made was VTM reskinned, and they coylsnt be both we ed to create a new feel, either.  Way, way, -way- too much of a good thing turns it sour in a hurry.
 
 

2nding Magical Kitties Save the Day!  Demo'ed it at Origins this year.  The two kids at our table were the most bloodthirsty of the bunch.  And illusion powers are fun if you know how to target outside the visual senses.
 
My suggestion: Killer Ratings.
 
You are playing as the cast & crew of a paranormal hunting show and you're all terrible people trying to survive when the crap finally hits the fan.  Ergo, you are more than willing (and it's encouraged!) to throw each other under the bus in order for your PC to live.  Zero-prep game, high on improv.  I ran it for 8 people this summer.