Black Rose

Re: Music To Raise The Dead First, let me thank you all - again - for giving me your thoughts on this topic. I'll be looking for all the songs mentioned in the near future. Now for me.... I have to be honest, when I think of Necromancy, there's a whole lot of other sorcerous concepts mixed in; it pretty much epitomizes dark "forbidden" magic IMO. So often, my necromancers will also have an element of demon summoning and the flashier magics mixed in, because it looks cool in my mind's eye. That said, this is my list of music; I feel I should add that if I don't mention someone or some song that seems obvious to you, I may very well have never heard it, so bring it up. 3 Doors Down -- Dangerous Game Adrian Alexis -- I Want To Be A Vampire Aerosmith -- Take Me To The Other Side Alan Parsons Project -- Can't Take It With You Alan Parsons Project -- Cask Of Amontillado Alannah Myles -- Black Velvet Alice Cooper -- Gimme Alice Cooper -- Feed My Frankenstein Alice Cooper -- Nothing's Free Ayreon -- Abbey of Synn Ayreon -- Isis and Osiris Ayreon -- Valley of the Queens Ayreon -- Temple of the Cat Blue Oyster Cult -- Don't Fear The Reaper Boston -- Higher Power Chris de Burgh -- Don't Pay the Ferryman David Draiman -- Forsaken Depeche Mode -- Sea Of Sin Depeche Mode -- Stripped Depeche Mode -- World In My Eyes Depeche Mode -- In Your Room Diamond Rio -- One More Day With You Dido -- Resting Here With Me Disturbed -- Down With The Sickness Drowning Pool -- Let The Bodies Hit The Floor Evanescence -- Going Under Evanescence -- Bring Me To Life Evanescence -- My Last Breath Fuel -- Innocent Jezebel Red -- Ever and All Kamelot -- Lost and Damned Kamelot -- The Spell Kamelot -- Elizabeth I: Mirror Mirror Kamelot -- Elizabeth II: Requiem for the Innocent Kamelot -- The Haunting Kamelot -- Soul Society Kamelot -- Nothing Ever Dies Kansas -- Dust In The Wind Lordi -- Last Kiss Goodbye Lordi -- The Deadite Girls Gone Wild Lordi -- The Kids Who Wanna Play With The Dead Meatloaf -- Original Sin Metallica -- Sad But True Metallica -- Through The Never Metallica -- Fixxxer Oingo Boingo -- Weird Science Oingo Boingo -- Don't Fear The Reaper Oingo Boingo -- No One Lives Forever Oingo Boingo -- Pictures of You Most of the Lost Boys Soundtrack, especially Cry Little Sister Queensryche -- Slient Lucidity RA -- Crazy Little Voices Rasputina -- Transylvanian Concubine Rob Zombie -- Living Dead Girl Lots from Sarah McLachlan, especially Building A Mystery and Possession Sting -- Wrapped Around Your Finger Sting -- Mon Over Bourbon Street Tool -- AEnima Transformers soundtrack -- Hunger Voltaire -- Dead Girls Within Temptation -- the whole album The Silent Force, especially Forsaken, Angels, It's The Fear

Re: Music To Raise The Dead (FH version) I'm thinking less "glory to G-d, yay yippie Jesus is risen!" and more spooky creepy Voodoo woo-woo stuff.

Completely aside from any other ways this title could be used, I'm making a request both here and on the Champions sub-board. I'm looking for music that either references (by lyric choices) necromantic concepts and images or evokes the feel of necromancy. I have several songs to which I listen to put me in the proper mood, but I'd love to hear what y'all recommend. Note that I'm posting this at three in the morning, so I'll save making a list of my own until I'm more conscious. As Fantasy has always seemed, to me, to make people pull out the movie soundtrack discs, please keep in mind that I may or may not have seen the movie in question, and that for some reason, background scores rarely do it for me (except for the Superman theme, which always makes me tear up, but that's neither here nor there...) Thanks to all of you in advance, and for those of you who have good ideas and don't post them

Completely aside from any other ways this title could be used, I'm making a request both here and on the Fantasy Hero sub-board. I'm looking for music that either references (by lyric choices) necromantic concepts and images or evokes the feel of necromancy. I have several songs to which I listen to put me in the proper mood, but I'd love to hear what y'all recommend. Note that I'm posting this at three in the morning, so I'll save making a list of my own until I'm more conscious. Thanks to all of you in advance, and for those of you who have good ideas and don't post them

Re: Superhero Images

Re: Sliding bars measuring each spell's "energy" I think you'd want to go with something like individual END Reserves for each spell (or possibly spell grouping, whatever). For ease of tracking, I'd recommend using those glass baubles they have at craft stores (or Wal-Mart -- you can buy darn near anything there!). An odd - and probably irritatingly difficult to track - idea occurs to me; base REC for certain types of spells on how often you've used them. This works out so that, if you're sparing with certain spells, you can cast them again and again. But if you fire off a number of them in quick succession, you'll be unable to use the spell until you "recover". Sort of like redlining your heat sink in some mecha combat games (I'm looking at you, Armored Core) means you can't do much of anything until you're topped off. Anyway, this is a cool idea, and I look forward to seeing what you (and others) do with it.

Re: Character: Nieh Hsiao Tsing (Chinese ghost) One of my favorite write-ups of yours, Susano, for all that I've never seen the film (but oh, I want to). I've been working on some variations using this as a template. Any chance of you doing up the Bride With White Hair and her little group? I especially think the various clan champions from BWWH II would make cool write-ups.

Re: Random musing of the week I liked the one in the Champions source book. It offered enough variation to keep things interesting, at least for a few games - more if you're into various character types. You could have fun with it if you're not too into the tinkering end of things. And it's fun for ideas, you know?

Re: Newish to the game, have a question. Just from a "point break" perspective, you should either drop your INT to 13 or raise it to 18. Since you didn't bump up any of your INT-based skills, I'd go for the drop. If you're really attached to the idea of a bright Squidimus, just remember that the base for norms isn't 10 - that's for heroic types - it's 8; that means you're already pretty darn sharp. Consider having most of these in an EC with GM's Permission, since several don't have END costs. I'd make Ink Cloud work only in water, and then see if I could buy an in-air Flash version, but that's my own vision leaking onto this. Possibly make Active Sonar work only in water, too. Distinctive Features: possibly go for Extreme reaction - or not. Dependence: you probably won't know this, but you can make a power build that negates a Disadvantage, in this case a 5 point "power" that serves as a "dry suit", allowing Squidimus to remain wet at all times, if a tad snug. Other than what I mentioned above, it looks a decent, somewhat vanilla build. Nice work dude.

Re: [Worst Ever...] Reasons to be a superhero This is scarily close to Penumbra's quasi-origin; he had (minor) mystical powers before, but when he found his grandfather's uniform (lotsa black and shiny leather), it put him on another level.

Re: Two Silly Questions

Re: Invisible Misses This is an insidiously beautiful idea, especially if you the GM roll the damage dice beind a screen: "The Amazing Sham-Man effortlessly smites you with yet another Faux-ton Blast, doing... [rolls dice] what's your Energy Defence again?" "20, 14 resistant." "Thanks. Okay, that means... hmm, looks like none got through on this blast." "Whew, sweet!"

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting Totally in agreement on the magic Shaft. I could see cases where the mutant abilities wouldn't make it over, due to the vamp being, well, dead, but I could see a lot of them crossing over.

Re: WWYCD? Culture Shock 2 Penumbra would wonder at a religious movement that would have a lecherous shadow-wielding grandson-of-an-Axis-SS-meta as anything other than a walking example of "don't be like this" - but then again, that may well be what he does. His usual MO of hanging out in strip clubs until the wierdness comes to him would probably not work here - his informers might even be acolytes. I wonder how such a thing would affect crime levels; "Boss, the Great Lord of Lightning and His Consort, the Sublime Mistress of Chaos, are trashing our smuggling operation! Whadda we do?!" As for the assassination attempt, if Pen found out about it, he'd try to stop it, if only because there's a good chance innocents would get caught up in the post-martyrdom turmoil and there'd be death and pain. Last he checked, those were bad. Kodachi, OTOH, would love such a situation, at least a little. Finding new girls for her coterie would no longer be a problem; winnowing through the applications, now.... She has a (slow but effective) power that will let her turn even the ugliest duckling into a beautiful swan... her swan. It helps to start with some decent raw materials, but it's not entirely necessary*. There would be loooong conversations with her alternate, covering everything from power tricks the other didn't have to organization and management of a cult this size. Skimming the OP again, made me think of a truly twisted thing; what if the "powerful and good-natured metahuman who declared himself effectively a god" had been... Happosai? He's got power, and aside from the panties and groping thing, he's only mean to his students - and that's just a martial arts master's perogative. Re: the assassination; Kodachi would have to give that some thought. If it were the situation mentioned above, she does have some fondness for Happi - he helped make her what she is today, or so she thinks - but at the same time, she knows he's survived things that "should've killed him"; if it were a sham martyrdom, she'd probably back the play. Otherwise, she'd feel pretty strongly about stopping it. * It occurs to me that, if you had demonstrated the ability to make someone over into a "superior" form - admittedly of a rather specific type - in the manner similar to a vampire, there would be a small but strong cult following just for that alone. Maybe the size of "fans of [specific major supporting actor]" or something. If Kodachi could figure out how to give others the ability to convert girls like she does, she might even take on a much more dangerous aspect to the fundies: "She's a succubus! She remakes these poor girls into her image, perverts them into lesbians (fundies don't "get" bisexuality), and lets them loose to find more victims. She must be stopped!" The fact that Kodachi is influenced by "Eastern" holy symbols would only hammer the point home.

Re: Class systems -- is there no escape? Just wanted to chime in, since it was my post used. In the thread in question, the question was how does one keep non-magic-using characters viable when you've already given them: So, your MU-ing types basically get an MP without paying for the base, and don't knock themselves unconscious using it. Not good for Gavin Swordswinger, is it? The main reason I used the icky-bad "classes" was because: I, too, started out with D&D and 1st edition AD&D, and the class concept is still in my head. Doesn't mean I don't ever make guys outside the box, but I am aware of how such would look in a class-based format. I think certain abilities would naturally lead one down certain paths; if you can poison with a touch - or a kiss - it's almost a cliche that you'd become an assassin. If you can meld into the shadows, it seems a bit odd that you wouldn't choose a field that let you make the most of your natural talents, like thieving, or assassination, or bodyguard work. See? There's an out-of-the-box idea, right? I really can't see very many people saying to themselves "You know, I seem to be near impervious to fire, I think I'll become a gardener." without a really good explanation. Anyway, that was what I wanted to say. Another thing I should point out is I was a bit tired when I posted that.

Re: Balancing Magic Use Possible things to limit magic overpowering the game: Make sure to have interesting non-magical abilities for the other guys to play with. Thief-y types need cool dodges and skulking tricks, maybe some nifty knife moves. Fighters need spiffy combat tricks. Everyone can use cool side bits, like animal followers, or lotsa contacts. Remember too, it's not all fighting; depending on the setting, you can give the "other guys" perks (not necessarily "Perks") that will shine just as brightly as any spell. Don't let the mages have spells willy-nilly, and definitely don't let them "have" anything more powerful than anyone else; that sort of thing is always carefully given at your discretion. I could be wrong, but I'd say the best bet is to make sure that, in every direct one-to-one comparison of mage-to-"other guys", the mage comes up just a little bit short. It doesn't have to be in total power, but the mage shouldn't do as much damage as the fighter unless it costs him somewhere else (time, END, Skill Roll, material components, whatever), nor should he be able to skulk as well as the thief, etc etc etc. Remember, the mage is (usually) the toolbox guy, the generalist; fighters whale on the baddies, thieves backstab and pick locks, and clerics heal. Mages do what they can't do, or help them do their jobs a little easier.

Re: One Hero System Karate Cop

Re: Another JKeown Speculation Thread... Consider this stol... ah, is "homaged" a word? Regardless, I'll be nicking this and making some tweaks for my own setting. Once it sparkles all purty-like, I'll let you see.

Re: Genres HERO GAMES may want to avoid (intended to be humorous) Now, if only we could get enough HERO and RHPS fans in the same place to do this....

Re: Genre Conventions 2: What is Cool? Um, 'cause it's a quest? Seriously, though, take a look at The Rivan Codex. It's a collection of all his notes and details regarding the Belgariad, and it explains why the books read like that; he's writing in the style of the romantic quest stories which were popularized by Eleanor of Aquitaign (sp?), who both had the cash and the desire to have people tell her stories she wanted to hear. One of the greatest drawbacks for tabletop gaming is the strong lack of visual effects. I absolutely love kung fu flicks, but the real reason I love them has much more to do with the incredible visuals (oftentimes the less realistic the better!) than the story line, good though it may be.

Re: Help with power idea - inertia thingies When I came up with this SFX it was mostly to allow the character to do the "hand walking up a pipe" thing that Mystique did in X-Men I. I liked the visual and wanted to steal it. Part of how I see the "pivot point" effect working also involves the idea that the character can... well, how do I describe this... shift her effective center of gravity and weight distribution. Ex: she could improve her balance by making all of the unbalancing parts of her body (legs, arms, whatever) weigh little more than a feather. Alternately, she could make a "pivot point" and increase her spin by pulling all her "weight" closer to the "pivot point"; or slow down by doing the reverse. Anyway, enough about my weird thought processes. One thing that will not change about the quasi-Flight ability that she could someday develop from this is that she will always need to either be holding onto something or be constantly spinning and pivoting in order to hover. There's no way for her to make a "pivot point" and simply stand on it in midair. Stand on something she shouldn't be able to easily, sure, but not nothing. Mostly I see it being used as a freaky Dodge ability (done as a DCV bonus) and a weird looking roof-to-roof movement ability; I doubt she's going to be flying across the Tokyo skies.

Re: Help with power idea - inertia thingies Re: the discussion between Robyn and Dust Raven Initially a strong velocity shift should be a bad thing; probably go with KB or a Move-Thru to express it. Later she would learn to deal with it. Her big trick in this is the "redirecting and 'inviting to emptiness'" of momentum; she's also gonna get a couple "storing and releasing momentum" moves, but those will be later. In any case, most of the time her "pivot points" will be in relation to her; and how she relates to the rest of the world is up to her.

Re: Help with power idea - inertia thingies I actually hadn't given it much thought until you brought this up. Before I would have said the Earth, because the situations in which I envision the character rarely involve vehicles. But upon consideration, I'd say it's more "stationary to arbitrary point, usually the Earth, but can also be in relation to moving things of a certain size, subject to GM's permission". This allows for the power's use on top of a train or a boat, but not necessarily a big-ass youma.

Re: Help with power idea - inertia thingies I pretty much intend them to be a personal thing. She's got some momentum redirection abilities I'm still trying to flesh out, and those definitely affect others (to their pain), but not this.

Re: Help with power idea - inertia thingies I think I'm going to try for that Naked Power Adder thing for Position Shift, Relative Velocity, and No Velocity (not sure about the names, IDHMBIFOM). It fits the feel of the power - being thrown hard and simply whipping around hard and coming back with the same speed. The "pivot points" aren't actually tangible to anyone other than the character - they aren't things themselves. Yeah, like I said above, the "pivot points" aren't "real", exactly. And I was engaging in some poetic license here - when I said "hanging in empty space", I meant being able to float with no support of any kind. Though I have changed my mind on that one; aside from using a "pivot point" while in motion, this specific ability doesn't let you "hang around" like that. She does have another ability that lets her do a nice wall-climbing effect. Yet another case of me being poetic and it getting in the way of a good description. What I was trying to say is that you can't basically use a pivot point to fly around by standing on it. The pivot point is stationary; you can make one, pivot on it, and dismiss it in an instant. Do this enough times and it might seem as if it's moving around, but really it's just a good excuse for disgusting acrobatics and freaky tai chi moves. Except their really only there for her, and I've kinda adjusted my vision of that move - less walking on air, more leaping and flipping around uneven bars that aren't really there. The best way I can describe this visually is, imagine you have an immobile point inside your body; it can't leave your body, but it can move around anywhere inside you, and if it chooses to, it can "stop", and you have to move around it. I hit you with a fire hose, and you fly back...until you try to move beyond the point. That's when you'll be diverted in whatever direction is easiest. Think of a weathervane in the wind. Or that "boneless woman" game thingie.