ThothAmon

Re: Is "Way Station" a suitable addition for a superhero campaign?

I'd buy into it from GM POV. Think of the fun you can have with intergalactic villains stepping off the train, Western stylee, for a holiday in the backwater.

Re: Plot Seed: Six Places to Nuke When You’re Serious

Six one megaton nukes detonated in a precise sequence on the surface of the moon in order to knock it into decaying orbit. Target: Earth.

It is rubber science (I hope) but us master villains love to think BIG

Re: The things I learned playing a ninja!

Don't mess with the ninja who looks like a spaghetti-western villain

Re: Pulparize It!

Organized crime is running out of control in the USA and President Coolidge has decided to go for a drastic CURE.

Heroic Great War veteran turned policeman Remo Williams is framed by the Mob and sentenced to death. Spirited away from the gas chamber, Remo is trained in the lethal mysteries of the Orient by a wizened Korean sadist named Chiun. First stage of training complete, Remo is targeted on corrupt US Defence contractors who are bribing Senators, selling defective arms and supplying good weapons to a bunch of Reds who plan on overthrowing the US Government.

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

You might want to give some time to Dr Herbert West (AKA The Reanimator) and his experiments on soldiers during WWI

"At times he actually did perform marvels of surgery for the soldiers, but his chief delights were of a less public and philanthropic kind, requiring many sounds which seemed peculiar even amidst that babel of the damned. Among these sounds were frequent revolver shots - surely not uncommon on a battlefield, but distinctly uncommon in a hospital."

His reanimation experiments might prove useful as background ambience for those unkillable supersoldier types

And there's also the plotline from the PC game 'Return To Castle Wolfenstein' if you want to have a German Super Soldier equivalent

Re: WWYD: The Perfect Partner (potentially controversial)

A dildo or vibrator isn't a Perfect Partner. It doesn't represent any new problems, and it doesn't do anything other than make masturbation easier. Men and women who masturbate have been managing to have normal relationships as long as humans have been human.

 

For an interesting new problem, you have to include an AI able to fill the more difficult needs in relationships; companionship, emotional and financial support, entertainment. Orgasms, for most people, are not a major relationship problem.

I think you misread my post re vibrators and relationship issues I stated simply that an AI wouldn't necessarily be required and that people would probably buy a non-AI version (as they do currently). Then I discussed problems associated with an AI version, as per the original poster's request.

Re: WWYD: The Perfect Partner (potentially controversial)

I probably wouldn't buy one - for all my realism / cynicism I'm something of a humanist.

I could see something like this working if marketed correctly, human nature being what it is. I don't agree with the idea that a complex AI would be required - there is a thriving market for dildoesque and vibratory devices now, never mind in the future.

I'd be concerned about the consequences of mass uptake of these Perfect Partners. Birth rates may fall, humans may become even more self-centred and sociopathic, the laws of economics may have to be rewritten. Running towards a theoretical endpoint you could posit an entire world with very few real humans enjoying a technologically utopian lifestyle

I could also perceive a socio-religious backlash against these devices, of the sort that is currently extant against genetic engineering and a woman's right to abort a foetus. I could also understand certain people (e.g. myself) using programming skills to hack a Perfect Partner, either for comedic or criminal purposes - "...it's the wrong trousers Grommit!"

And the issue of AI programming is a big one. If your AI capability is as good as the Perfect Partner, you don't actually need a Perfect Partner - the AI can be built into your home, your car, and so on. Within two or three human generations you will have AI-explored worlds on multiple solar systems and massive advances in the sciences.

Sounds like you are angling towards The Culture from the Ian Banks SF novels...

Re: Greatest Post-Apoc Film of All Time

My vote for 'The Ultimate Warrior'

Re: Serial Villany

One such villain suitable for Pulp-ing is the master villain Card Shark from 4th Edition Dark Champions. The Card Shark identity (used by multiple people over the years) would be a perfect foil for a Shadow-esque hero.

I have used a homegrown recurring pulp villain but not quite in the form you describe. The mastermind / evil sorceror had extended his life by sucking the life from others (5 years drained = 1 year extension) but eventually died in a climactic battle. His evil spirit (or soul) later returned to possess a PC mortal enemy in Manitou / Sleepwalker fashion, attempting to complete a ritual that would swap his soul and the PC's soul on the Demonic accounting books

Defeated yet again the sorceror then became a phantasmal figure that only the one specific PC could perceive. Whilst he was a useful source of information he was also attempting to corrupt that PC, tempting him to the 'Dark Side'

Re: Stonehenge in South America

Bosnian BS

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

Audioslave - Out Of Exile

Re: Lovecraft Stuff

Good HPL scenario stuff here

http://www.talesofterror.net/index.html

Re: The Inconceivables!

Enjoyable post. I like Abolex

There are a few additional archetypes that might fit

• the super-suave criminal mastermind (e.g. Lex Luthor? Blofeld?)
  
• the death-on-legs uber-killing-machine (e.g. Kai fromm Lexx? the Predator?)
  
• the snivelling sneaky sidekick (e.g. Villa from Blakes Seven?)

Re: Nothing says "Pulp" like a flying wing...or five.

I like the flying boat idea. And yes, stabilizers would definitely have been required. Rep to you sir!

Re: Mechanical Elephant in London

Check the weight of the elephant

Think of it as theatre in the same vein as that provided at Pleasure Island in Disneyworld Florida. Anyone else been to the pulp-era Adventurers Club and enjoyed it?

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

Only just got round to 'Excession' by Ian M Banks. Funny novel, much to enjoy.

Read 'Anansi Boys' a few months back. Entertaining. Good stuff to be mined there. Hope we get more.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

"Stone" by Adam Roberts.

Leftfield SF concerning the one and only psychopathic killer out of billions of humans in a future Utopia civilization. Killer gets busted from jail by mysterious employers and given the task of killing an entire planet of 60+ million people without destroying the planet. Some great ideas welding philosophy to space opera but overall not a stellar book. Having said that, kudos for a very clever method of achieving the central task (rates highly on the Unique WMD scale). 7 out of 10.

Re: There's Gonna be a Chase Scene!

Old Champs 2 had a lovely table for generating chase terrain 'on the fly' - simply allow players to declare their intentions then bring out the next turn-worth of terrain for them to blaze through

Re: There's Gonna be a Chase Scene!

Old Champs 2 had a lovely table for generating chase terrain 'on the fly' - simply allow players to declare their intentions then bring out the next turn-worth of terrain for them to blaze through

Re: Collateral damage from missed attacks

After a supers fight the terrain really should look like post-conflict Bosnia or Afghanistan. Such results also give the lawyers an opportunity to feed :E

Re: Need a seventh character

Female dark avenger type who wears a long cloak and packs twin .45 automatics. Power suite revolves around Desolidification (affected by mental, radiation and nuclear-type attacks), Flight (only when Desolid), RKA Affects Physical World (the .45 autos - bullets solidify when they leave the barrel), STR Affects Physical World (normal level STR) and basic Commando Training. Various sneaking, detective and science type skills. Powers came about as a result of an accident in a particle physics lab.

Yes, it's a sort of tribute character but it's a bit obscure for the average gamer

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

Player: We need to discuss this 'Riding' skill and the Transport Familiarities.

GM: Yes? What do you have in mind?

Player: My characters 'Riding' should have 'Transport Familiarity - Women'

Re: Supernatural Special Forces

I would at least raise that question in a game. What makes it holy... and what makes it effective vs. a creature of the night?

Belief and accuracy... respectively

Re: Name That Band Hero!

Inflammator - pyrokinetic / emotion controller

Virus - duplicating brick with absorption to duplicates!

Shutdown - power sink

WYSIWYG - illusionist

Triad - triple form martial artist

Deviant - mind controller

Re: Martial Arts: Disco Fu (Help!)

• I Feel Love - Crush vs location 13
  
• I Will Survive - Martial Block
  
• Le Freak - Offensive Strike
  
• I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper - Killing Strike
  
• Never Can Say Goodbye - Martial Grab
  
• Daddy Cool - Defensive Strike
  
• Jive Talkin' - Nerve Strike
  
• Yes Sir, I Can Boogie - Martial Dodge
  
• Nightflight To Venus - Martial Throw