ZootSoot

Re: Ultimate Brick -- What Things Weigh

Re: What character concepts make you cringe?

Re: Cross-gender roleplaying Women, in general, are better at playing men than men, in general, are at playing women. In the real world, women's understanding of men is more vital to their prosperity than men's understanding of women is to theirs. Now my advice, for what it's worth, for men playing women, don't have any advice for the other side. Know the character. When you are playing a guy you can get away without worrying too much about this, because you can always play him as yourself or quickly generate some generic "guy" traits when it comes up. Playing a woman is always going to be a role-playing intensive effort, you have to know the character. Two, if you are playing the only female inthe group, make sure your character is aware of that fact. She can be concerned about it, amused by it, exploiting it, etc, but she really cannot be oblivious to it; think about all the real life social situations you have been in where there was only one female and a group of guys and you will see what I mean. I prefer to run female characters only when there is at least one other female character in the group. This allows for more realistic social interactions (whether friendly or not with the other female) and gives me something explicit to contrast my female character with, thus making sure that all women in the game are not wearing the exact same personality to the party.

Re: What superhero character concepts are you tired of seeing? I don't know if this is a concept so much as a lack o concept, but I am tired of character who do too many unrelated things. Not so much "my character can do everyting!" but more "why in the world are these powers together in the same character?" I want simpler powers and more complex characters.

Re: I Need an Arkham Asylum Clone You can always borrow another Lovecraft place name and go with Innsmouth or Dunwich or Ubar or something . . .

Wow, looks like I stumped the Hero community.

I put this on the Star Hero board by mistake. I need biographical information on George Bergstrom, the architect of the Pentagon, for a historical campaign. Print and web based information are equally desirable, but all I have found so far is that he designed the Pentagon (which I, kinda, already knew I need info about the person!).

Strangely enough, I need biographical information on George Bergstrom, the architect who designed the Pentagon for a historical game. Online or paper sources are equally good, but so far I can't find anything except that he designed the Pentagon.

1. The player who, when GMing, insists that the story happens as planned. 2. Ignoring the rules to make something "kewl" happen. 3. Players who cannot develop a personality for the characters. 4. Players who play the same character over and over and over (occasionally bringing back a favoured character is good, but to always play the same character . . .) 5. The player, as GM, who says "I never kill a character unless the player has the character do something stupid" which really means "if yopu play your character differently than I would in the same situation, I will kill your character. 6. Players who insist on the stupidest aspect of the genre being the norm for the game. 7. The player, as a gm, who is so caught up in the created environment that s/he ignores the players' inputs and actions while describing them.

Why should they get anything for free? Make 'em pay for their one native language and forget this everyman skill crap! You don't pay the points, you don't have the ability . . .

Re: Re: Re: Re: Genocide? Whoops! I was thinking Aryan Brotherhood not Aryan Nation, nevermind . . .

Re: Re: Genocide? Uh, no. The Aryan Nation is a criminal organization along the lines of a crime syndicate. It began as a prison gang with racist overtones, but really does not follow a racist agenda now being more concerned with its criminal enterprises. A better analogy would be Christian Identity.

Arrgh! Every time this comes up people give write-up after write-up of the explosion that includes the "affects desolid" advantage. Why? Other than a sense that Desolidification is too cheap of a defense, I can't think of any reason at all. (On the other hand, I don't really think "affects desolid" should be allowed since every desolidification alrady includes a special effect that will affect the character using it.)

"I am a hero who never fails, I can't be bothered with such small details . . ."

Re: Speed of Lightning, Power of Thunder! That's roar of thunder!

This is pretty much the only origin that builds upon real science. Water composed of tritium isotopes of hydrogen really did speed up a number of chemical reactions, I don't believe experiments were ever done to see its effect on human reflexes (the radioactive decay and probable posioning are serious ethical concerns). This was infinitely more sensible than Barry Allen and the cascade of electrically charged random chemicals

If the players have their characters take Secret IDs I prefer them to keep those secret. The distrust and uncertainty this engenders and the role-playing of ignorance and deception is one of the things that makes the game fun.

To accurately represent Pittsburg in the Marvel universe, it should be a village of about a hundred souls a half mile southwest of of the Hudson river and maybe ten miles east of the Pacific ocean . . .

Point totals in my games can be staggeringly high, but I suspect most of the characters could not keep up with many of the Standard level campaigns elsewhere when it comes to combat. In my games you pay for everything and concept is the most important element.

This is an overstatement. Well established immigrant groups, such as the Germans, were not particularly hated by those of English/Dutch descent. Irish-Italian conflicts belong to a later period for the most part. Eastern Europeans, while widely distrusted by earlier immigrant groups, did not have particular hotilities towards each other. Jews, Asians, Blacks, and American Indians were widely distrusted, scapegoated, and exploited, of course, but Blacks and Amerinds had long historical ties and Jews were widely regarded as quite acceptable in their proper place.

Re: Early NYC Vigilantes Five Corners. Watch Gangs of New York for ideas. Many of these groups were essentially vigilantes, just mix-rm up a bit and add some color. Bowery Boys, Plug-Uglies, Dead Rabbits, there's a whole mythology there for you to plug into.

Stupidity will get a character killed, but not because I say they must die. They will die if the dice say their tactics result in death. I don't hammer my players into line (I also ignore many genre conventions, my villains have workable plans and comprehensible goals, never use death traps and never refuse to believe the obvious).

Re: Killing Characters I am an extremist on these boards. I don't use death to force players to play my way (punishing them for being stupid) and I don't protect them from failure and death. If the characters would die according to the situation and the dice, they die.

Armando: has the regeneration schtick going for him. Sword Dancer: Will still have her hand in her civvies (completely different bodies). Once she realizes this, she will soldier on. But she will also probably begin her search for a successor, as she would feel that this is a sign of her mortality. Gangway: Is a temporal anomaly. She can get her hand back, but it will be a story. Luna: Unlikely that this could happen, but if it did she would get herself a scary prosthesis (maybe a moyel's knife or a livestock castrating device, or just something with lots of sharp edges and points) and enjoy its impact . . . Crimson Tide: Ooh, more angst! I don't precisely know its effect but it would be fun to deal with . . .

My favorite episodes (after the original kids in his class graduated the show really started to stink) were the ones where he met the first guy to have the alien suit and his sidekick. In this one it was revealed that the power of the suit eventually corrupted the original hero and they decided that Ralph having lost the manual was the only thing that might save him from the same fate. The other one was when the FBI character had a run in with a biker gang and git his ass handed to him, but then went and got his old bike out of storage and went after them. The FBI guy was tough and I always liked the interaction with the supporting cast. And yes, I know the lyrics to the theme song . . .