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keithcurtis

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Posts posted by keithcurtis

  3. Superhero Podcasts

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Superhero Podcasts

     

    Thanks UltraManRob. I wasn't aware of the X-Men podcast. What's the general tone? Is it four-color? Iron? Rust? Is it generally accessible, or do you need to be a dedicated X-Fan to get the plots?

     

    Keith "Pendant Production's Bibbo, next heard serving coffee in Episodes 28 & 32" Curtis

  5. Top 10 Action Hero One-Liners

    in Dark Champions

    Posted

    Re: Top 10 Action Hero One-Liners

     

    Hm' date=' this one makes me curious. Where is it from?[/quote']

     

    The Adventures of Robin Hood?

     

    I looked it up' date=' and you are correct.[/quote']

     

    It's a sad old world when people have to look this one up. Of course, I've probably seen this movie a jillion times.

     

    Keith "excellent swordplay" Curtis

  6. Fantasy Travel Question

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: Fantasy Travel Question

     

    Two minutes of research shows that the suggestions in FH are not too bad. The definitive work that most authors seem to quote is "Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army."

    I would guess that 20 miles a day is sustained travel with a fully packed traveling horse. For shorter distances, and less heavily encumbered, you could travel much farther.

     

    Keith "On a road, take a bicycle" Curtis

  8. FH Gripes

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: FH Gripes

     

    Not quite. I've posted this before, but it bears repeating:

    Susan and I met at a renaissance faire in 1989. I was on stage doing a show (a 25-minute play with singing, fencing and stuntwork) and she was helping a friend with a merchant booth that backed the stage. During the production, I received a stage kick that went awry. I was supposed to take the flat of the actor's foot against my stomach muscles. Due to some misplaced blocking, I took the point of his boot about six inches lower. This was about five minutes into the show. I had been kicked soundly in the groin and was barely able to speak, but I had all kinds of stuntwork and fencing to do. I couldn't even breathe. Somehow I managed to finish the show, ending by diving through a window to get off-stage. I crawled around back and finally was able to give voice to my discomfort.

    Unknown to me, I was being watched. The woman who would one day be my wife heard some terrible keening noise, like a wounded animal (me). Not knowing if she could put it out of its misery, she advanced toward the source of the sound until she saw me. She was going to speak when suddenly, the man writhing on the ground in front of her leapt up and ran around the stage. She was intensely curious why someone would behave this way (I had suddenly remembered I had a curtain call). She was unable to find out more until she saw me at the cast party and asked what in the world had happened. We like to say that when we met, it was pain at first sight!

     

    Keith "And yes, I perpetrated song in the show" Curtis

  9. DM of the Rings

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: DM of the Rings

     

    For a guy with a general IQ of six outside of anything not related to cutting large things into smaller things with a piece of metal, John Carter could occasionally come up with an awesome turn of phrase.

     

    "I understand your words, Dotar Sojat," she replied, "but you I do not understand. You are a queer mixture of child and man, of brute and noble. I only wish that I might read your heart."

     

    "Look down at your feet, Dejah Thoris; it lies there now where it has lain since that other night at Korad, and where it will ever lie beating alone for you until death stills it forever."

     

    Keith "Man if could talk like that, I would be swimming in chicks" Curtis

  10. Order of the Stick

    in General Roleplaying

    Posted

    Re: Order of the Stick

     

    "I'm a sexy' date=' shoeless god of war!" will no doubt appear on many, many sig files from here on out. :)[/quote']

    Funny, that's exactly the thought that went through my mind while reading it.

     

    Keith "Sexy god of war... with shoes!" Curtis

  11. Top 10 Action Hero One-Liners

    in Dark Champions

    Posted

    Re: Top 10 Action Hero One-Liners

     

    To be fair, that's not a movie quote.

     

    Keith "Giving credit to Herodotus" Curtis

     

    It is now.

     

    This is the sort of thinking that makes Tolkein's work into a novelization of the movie trilogy. I can't count it if it wasn't original to the movie. YMM, of course, V. :)

     

    Keith " 'You speak Treason!' -- 'Fluently.' " Curtis

  13. DM of the Rings

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: DM of the Rings

     

    Thanks for the info. You know' date=' I actually would have used a banth in a Middle Earth campaign, since I hadn't read Burrough's series then.[/quote']

    All stories are improved by the sudden appearance of a banth.

     

    Keith "Chapter 7 needs a little more action..." Curtis

  14. Steampunk keyboard

    in Pulp Hero

    Posted

    Re: Steampunk keyboard

     

    I couldn't see Keith's posts so I'm glad it was posted again. Great!

    I also liked the Steam Punk Strat.

    Guy! Take me off your ignore list!

     

    Keith "jumping up and down and waving my arms" Curtis

  16. Making paperminiatures

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Making paperminiatures

     

    I draw all my own artwork. Fronts and fully rendered backs. Then I color and highlight them in Photoshop.

     

    THAT takes time.

    True. I do all the artwork for primary PCs and NPCs, but I gladly lift things off the internet for hordes and mooks.

     

    Keith "Hordes and Mooks sounds like a buddy cop movie" Curtis

  17. DM of the Rings

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: DM of the Rings

     

    The original rules were kinda funky. IIRC' date=' Elves could progress as fighters and magic-users, but could only play one class in each adventure. So if you chose you play your elf PC as a fighter, then you couldn't cast spells in that session.[/quote']

     

    I just broke them out and looked. This is true, though the class is called Fighting Man. Hobbits can be 4th level Fighting Men, and Dwarves are limited to 6th. No problems with munchkinism, here.

     

    Keith "Loves all the Barsoom creatures in the encounter tables--Lookout Frodo--a banth!" Curtis

  18. FH Gripes

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: FH Gripes

     

    It is almost funny that only women have done this to me.

    It is funny that the majority of times this has happened to me have been on stage, during a live show.

    Both times doing the same basic maneuver. You'd think I would learn.

     

    Keith "Ah well, if it hadn't happened, I wouldn't have met Susan" Curtis

  19. DM of the Rings

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: DM of the Rings

     

    Also' date=' thieves were not included in the first printings of D&D. The only classes available were fighting-men, magic-users, and clerics. Elves, dwarves, and hobbits were included as optional classes, but I'm not sure if they were in the earliest edition.[/quote']

     

    Elves were a class, but I believe dwarves and hobbits were races and could be fighters.

     

    Keith "I'll dig out my three brown books, if need be. They're still mint" Curtis

  23. Top 10 Action Hero One-Liners

    in Dark Champions

    Posted

    Re: Top 10 Action Hero One-Liners

     

    "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!" Jules, Pulp Fiction

     

    Keith "OK, maybe not exactly a hero..." Curtis

  25. FH Gripes

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: FH Gripes

     

    I don't allow Combat Luck to stack with armor. TO me, it's a way of simulating the genre convention of the lightly armed fighter who doesn't get hacked to bits in their first combat (Conan, Red Sonja, John Carter, etc.)

    I use a very abstract armor system in which the pieces worn are entirely special effect. You reference the DEF and Activation on a table, and that gives you a set penalty to DCV and Dex-based rolls. If you have a DEF 6 on and ACT of 12-, but are only wearing a pair of bracers, then you are just really good at blocking blows with them.

     

    Deadly Blow should be reserved for very specific classes, not broad ones. "Evil" is so generic, it's pointless. Most opponents will be evil. "Trolls" would be much better. "Giant sized creatures" is too broad. "Storm Giants" is better. Further, I would never let it be taken with a class of weapon, unless it was something like "knife" or another piddly weapon that seems to be especially deadly in the hands of a character from books or movies.

     

    I rarely track muscle-powered END, but try to design characters who are reasonably END efficient. If fatigue is critical to an encounter, I track it. But I certainly don't mark down the END use for 20 mooks and don't require my players to either. END use for magic is something else entirely. That's one of the standard controls I use. So far, it hasn't been a problem.

     

    For the record, atlascott, I never found your tone to be confrontational or unreasonable. You came off as someone having trouble with the system and seeking aid. The solutions being suggested give you problems because implementing rule-changes mid-campaign is always difficult. Obviously you will need to explain to your players the problem and take a hard stance. If you don't feel your players are the type who would take a re-design well, you'll probably need to re-design the campaign to a higher-fantasy style and increase the level of opposition.

     

    Keith "my 2¢" Curtis

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