AmadanNaBriona

Re: Resource Pools in Star Hero

That makes sense. In Traveller Hero' date=' it's hard to spell "firepower" without [i']FGMP-15[/i].

 

I've noticed that Active Point limits do not play well with many "realistic" builds for equipment of the Ultra Tech variety. Try to compromise by fitting the Ultimate Weapon into your oh-so-finely-tuned-for-proper-game-balance AP limit, and you end up with an Anti-Matter Rifle that does the same damage as a Browning M2HB. Because, you know... point totals.

 

For my game, I just build the weapons as they should be, and if their Active Cost is 90 points, or 900 points, so be it. Resource Pools make it all better: the players need only spend 1/5th of the Real Cost if it's "off the shelf."

 

But then there's:

 

Weapon Familiarity

Weapon Permits

Equipment Availability

Police Powers (Local or Interstellar)

Heavy Weapon Permits

License to Practice a Profession (Mercenary, Bounty Hunter, etc.)

Exactly, there are a lot of ways to make your players sink points for the privilege of having mil-spec weapons and gear

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Guess what things are changing. It's the nature of the world. Sorry that some women treated you badly. If you turn off that anger some and start to treat women like people you might find some geek woman who is your match.

Virtually every woman I've been in in LTR with has been a geek of some sort, and in every case our relationship started on a geek level before it morphed into something more physical/emotional, and every exception has ended once the New Relationship Energy has worn off, so Yeah... what she said...

Most of the women gamers I know of actually know how to play. They want to have fun in the rpg too. You may be surprised at how many of them enjoy a rampage across the continent. She doesn't know the girls who called you "Stinky Mortimer" (though hopefully you take showers and wear deodorant so the stinky part doesn't apply). To her you are just another player at the table. She wants to play her bad ass Half Ogre Ranger who shoots arrows the size of small trees out of her Longbow and one shots T-Rexes at 1000 yards. She doesn't care about your issues or history, unless you do something to make her aware of it. She also isn't there to pick up guys. She also hopes that the guy who plays Skull Assassin would respect that rape isn't a good subject. esp since She probably has friends who have been raped or worse (or perhaps she has been a victim of that crime herself).

 

Most game stores and Comic Stores that I shop in and have shopped in smell like a regular store. Perhaps with a more book and ink smell, but still just a store. Most store owners treat me quite well. esp once they talk to me and realize that I have been a gamer for a VERY long time. That I not only have money, but I will spend it if they treat me well. That I am a loyal customer that tells her friends what stores are good places to shop and what ones aren't so good. It's been awhile since I have run into the stereotypical Geek who seems to think that Hygiene is for other people.

 

Oh and I know lots of nerdy guys that found true love and have regular relationships with Women (or whomever they are attracted to). There's a bunch of great guys here on the boards that are married and some of them have kids. They found the magic formula that attracted that other person. I would imagine that part of it was letting go of any anger toward women(If they had any). Beyond that, I'll let them chime in if they want to supply you with pointers.

 

Also with the exception of Spaces for Abused women, women's spaces tend to be pretty open to guys too. I know of many activities that tend to be women dominated are actually really open to guys who want to learn. Like everything YMMV and there are definitely groups of women who don't want men around, but the great majority are open. Bridal Showers can be as open as the bride wants them to be. I have seen coed Bridal Showers.

Again, what She Said. I've always been into costuming, from a very early age. As it happens, according to our dominant cultural paradigm, playing dress up with girls shoulda made me 'gay' or something. Instead, it gave me a topic of conversation I could share with many of the geek girls I've ever met, and led me to decisions like "Do I watch the game and drink beer with the guys, or go get naked and take pictures with the girls?", which is really a no-brainer in my book.

I have never regretted my choices on that behalf, obviously.

Women are people. Just as weird, just as screwed up, just as conflicted, as any geek. More common ground than not.

All it takes is to let go of the hurt.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Dang. It wont let me rep Tasha again yet.

yup

Re: Resource Pools in Star Hero

We used a variation of a Resource pool in our SH game.

Found that the accessability perks worked well, but the active point limits sometimes became kinda wonky, especially when combined with the higher tech ger, which often tended towards high AP totals.

FWIW, I did spend the mass of points for Advanced Military, but I was playing the Captain of a Broadsword class mercenary cruiser with full compliment of crew and vehicles.

Re: Who you include in your Magical Harem of Fictional Characters?

I should have stayed out of this. My reaction to the OP was that this was more sad than villainous' date=' displaying his masturbation aids in public. As described, this is closer to slash fan fiction than rape. Do you have this same reaction to pornographic fanfic?[/quote']

 

That was also my initial hungover/pre-coffee reaction. Then as my neurons started firing I realized this was a perfect example of the kind of situation the other thread discusses, and about how our feeling don't have any real bearing on how women feel about the topic due to the general lack of frame of reference, any more than I have a true frame of reference about growing up, say, black, or gay. I didn't, so at best my perspective is at a step of removal.

Re: Who you include in your Magical Harem of Fictional Characters?

Were did I ever said I would play in a game with such a villain? Or even such a tone? I also never said it was okay on any level.

As I clearly pointed out Tasha playing a "murderous supervillaines" is as far beyond possible and understandable for me, as playing in the campaign the OP described is for her (and yes, I am sure about this comparsion).

 

But I usually react by simply not participating in those threads/games, except when the question comes how to make it "less imoral". Like I did with the Mr. Wicked Thread: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/90307-Mister-Wicked-6ed-Version Wich as I understand has a lot worser premise than what the OP ever approaches.

Sorry if you took my words as a direct shot against you, m'man. Just a posting position coincidence.

They were generally aimed at the whole thread.

I tend to agree with you on most topics, after all, and you'd literally just stated your dislike of Villain PC games

Re: Who you include in your Magical Harem of Fictional Characters?

Stop. Take a breath.

Then ask yourself "Am I defending this premise for any good reason, or am I engaging in exactly the sort of "makes girls so uncomfortable they abandon gaming" BS and think that by putting in a "But they're not REAL girls it's OK." justification is going to change how creepy the whole thing feels.

Objectification. It's OK I'm using these woman surrogates because they're actually literally objects.

Great idea, sure, yeah.

Not in my game

Re: Who you include in your Magical Harem of Fictional Characters?

As he only summons fictional characers and they are slavishly loyal it is likely they are not real persons. Propably more on the side of a well programmed holodeck creation or purpose built robot.

So it's alright that he's dedicating so much run-time of the game to sex puppets he uses to troll people with, Great, much more progressive.

Re: Who you include in your Magical Harem of Fictional Characters?

This whole thread makes me uneasy. Unless he finds/befriends alternates of the women who then become totally loyal (unlikely). The implication is that the women in his Harem are being Mind Controlled in some fashion. Which makes their participation in anything physical with the villain against their will' date=' which is really just rape dressed up in happy terms. Which raises the squick value to maximum for me.[/quote']

 

Yeah, since I saw this this morning, I've been contemplating to the "Intersting Commentary on Sexisim in Geek communities".

Is this really such a great idea, y'all?

I mean, I'm bent as a pewter ducat, deep in the S&M community, and not a particularly nice guy, and if a player in one of my campaigns wanted to do this I'd probably hint nicely that it won't end well, then smash him for it utterly. Just to make my point first in a context he might understand before the tongue lashing and possible exile from the folk I call my friends.

The times they are a 'changing

Re: "Neat" Pictures

I was gonna post that if it wasn't already up.

in a similar vein...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]45044[/ATTACH]

Re: More space news!

Would we want there to be?

If we'd detected the appropriate Gamma pulses it'd be pretty clear evidence of intelligent life fairly close to us.

36 days to reach 0.1c is pretty good. What are we doing for deceleration at the far end? Solar sail?

Yeah, it's a pretty zippy drive system. There are a lot of issues that'd need to be worked out, but the payload and speed of an Orion ship makes it worth contemplation

Edit: with a second glance, I mighta missed some nuance in your question there, Old Man. I guess no signs of NPP in nearby space means very little chance of us getting Footfalled, on the brighter side of the coin

Re: More space news!

Technologically' date=' or politically?[/quote']

 

Orion drives are all politics and Environmental Impact Reports. The physics are comparatively simple (after all, it's the space program equivalent of putting a firecracker under a can), it's all those pesky atmospheric nuclear detonations that have folk worried about Orion

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

I haven't been able to get the Rains of Castamere out of my head...

Re: Analysis of the Red-Shirt Phenomenon in Star Trek

As my ex just returned a stack of ancient materials to me, she had hidden away in a box somewhere, I happen to have my original Starfleet Technical Manualat hand. Turning to the section on Uniforms, letsee... Command:Tenne, Sciences:Blue, Engineering and Support Services: Red

Interesting. Yep, division insignia confirms the same.

Security does gets mentioned in the Org charts, tho.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos

My brother in law is doing video tech work for some mad pagan genius puppeteers, and they've launched a kickstarter to fund a webseries in hopes of eventually producing a TV series

http://kck.st/SVd9Yh

kickstarter link, if you're interested in checking it out. I know these folk, and think the world probably needs more kids shows like these.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

A friend of mine (Theoretical math grad student... crazy smart geek girl) just had eye surgery to correct a congential defect that messed with her eyes ability to aim together.

So, in her mid twenties, at the full height of her rational adulthood, she is suddenly getting to experience the third dimension visually for the first time.

Reading her blogs arises echos of authors like Lovecraft struggling to describe the sudden wonder at perceiving a previously unperceived dimension.

They just wrote it, and she's living it.

Blows my mind, it does. I keep thinking of artists she should revisit with her new perspective.

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

As to Fringeworthy, You'd prolly REALLY like it.

There's a good reason there have long been accusations against the Stargate franchise for plagiarism. The Gate systems have a LOT of similarities, but the Fringeworthy gates end up working in a very plot friendly fashion... the gates take you to sort of a pocket dimension/roadspace, and you can navigate the system to travel to different times, alternate dimensions, you name it, fairly easily. Just try not to stumble across the shapeshifting, all-consuming, self-replicating monsters that destroyed the Gatebuilders who created them.

Stargate plus Sliders about covers it.

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

R.Tal's Cyberpunk 2020 would be a nice world for Hero. Also things shouldn't be that hard to translate to Hero Stats. I know that Mike Pondsmith is a Hero fan. That's how FUZION was created by his desire to have the best of both worlds. I also heard that he used to run a really fun game of Champions back in the day. (Gaming in the Bay Area back in the 80's and 90's was a pretty small circle that had people that moved between many gaming circles)

I know it well... The Elder members of my H/S HERO group who headed off to UC Santa Cruz were, I'm pretty sure, the guys who really got him hooked on Hero. I know they mostly ended up working as production staff at R. Tas

I distinctly remember that Arisaka Industries was a badguy corp from our proto-Star Hero game long before Cyberpunk was written.

It both amused and amazed me when I opened up Cyberpunk and found them playing a prominent role.

Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy

How about adding inhabited bridges to your cities?

very cool link. Making some bridges like that is one of my "Someday maybe" projects for tabletop terrain building. Because they'd be great for Mordheim.

I might just have to use the idea in Minecraft to get it out of my head

Re: After The Magic

Artifacts and tomes were smuggled over from Faerie to Earth during the escape of the Sidhe, so I would imagine some human kingdoms have national treasures that contain a spark of Fae magic. Having them only usable by someone with Sidhe blood is an interesting idea.

 

I would imagine that the Sidhe spread throughout Europe since their first arrival, also mingling with different tribes, from wandering gypsy bands to viking jarldoms. They would become part of the feudal structure. Perhaps their diminishment into a mortal race after the gates to Faerie were sealed shut also reduced or maybe even eliminated traditional Fae weaknesses, such as to cold iron.

I was specifically thinking about The Four Treasures of the Tuatha De Danann that became the core of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain. A lot of the Age of Magic stuff like the Chessboard that plays by itself would fade, but the four treasures were originally from The Many Colored Land and would probably act as their own magical power sources to those that can touch their Fae spirit.

There are a bazillion interpretations of them, but I'd probably go for the Slaine approach, to whit (at full mythical strength):

The Cauldron of Inspiration: Returns the dead as undead, feeds the hungry, gives visions, acts as a gate to the Otherworld. Quenches the Spear. Associated with Wales

The Spear of the Sun: Always hits what it's thrown at. Always kills. Always red hot, drips blood. sings with it's own battle mad voice. The Cauldron can calm it down. Associated with Ireland

The Sword of the Moon: Silver sword that cuts anything. If sheathed within the Stone of Kingship, only the King may withdraw it. Associated with Britain

The Stone of Kingship: Graven stone that embodies the link between land and king. Sings when the true king stands upon it. Associated with Scotland.

Uther conquered the North, and joined Sword and Stone for his son before dying, but Arthur barely completed his quest for the Cauldron, and never won the Spear

Just the random thoughts bouncing around my head tonight...

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

Of course Brust's Dragaera novels, Edding's Belgariad, George RR Martin's WildCards were all based either entirely or partially on PnP Gaming done by the writers.

 

The World that the Belgariad take place in has been at least partially published by Midkemia Press (There have been issues with IP ownership between Eddings and the other Midkemia Press folk).

Really? Hadn't heard anything about a Midkema/Eddings connection. I know Feist's Riftwar series is set in Midkema, and is basically "D&D campaign versus Empire of The Petal Throne:Fight!".

I've used Dragaera and Newhon for FH games before, and enjoyed both, but if if HERO were to go after licenses I'd actually prefer to see them do licensed conversions of some other game settings, especially some of the ones that had great potential but are now mostly defunct, often due to poor rules holding them back. I know I've wanted to do both Fringeworthy and The Morrow Project using HERO, did use The Mechanoid Invasion as the basis for a SH campaign, and I thought that Traveller Hero was a natural fit and I'm still annoyed about the shenanigans that got pulled. I think Glorantha Hero could be epic, and Harn Hero seems to have a solid following already...

Re: After The Magic

The Fae integrating into medieval societies offers some explanations for certain fantastic elements to remain.

 

I might borrow from White Wolf's Changeling series for explanations on the origins of vampires and were-creatures, that they are a type of Fae refugees. Vampires are a product of Unseelie magics, able to make more of themselves on Earth by feeding victims some of their own blood. It is a form of Fae curse carried in their blood. Were-creatures could be a race of Fae, analogs of normal humans that are able to turn into animals. If they aren't too powerful, both vampires and werewolves would work pretty well in a swords & sorcery Europe.

 

The largest immigrant population might be the Sidhe, and both nobles and commoners could have fled from the Dark Lord, millions of them escaping to Earth through the portals. They integrated into feudal society over decades, knowing they needed humans as allies if the Dark Lord tracked them down to Earth. After losing the bulk of their Fae abilities when the gates sealed shut and becoming a 'mortal' race, their transition as another immigrant population in Europe has continued.

 

I'm contemplating having the presence of the Sidhe extend the life of the Merovingian Dynasty. Perhaps some Sidhe nobility married into the feudal structure.

"Blue bloods", heh. Actually, if some of the more mythical national treasures still retain some power from Faerie, but they can only be accessed/activated by those with sidhe blood, it'd promote a lot of the royal house inbreeding we actually saw in history

Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please?

Hi guys' date=' yeah, your points here are exactly why I asked the question in the 1st place. Takofanes, immortal and patient as he may be, should be trying something different now. I'm reading up on the Draugr now...I had thought the concept of the way zombies spread was just George Romero's interpretation that become a trope, so I really like how the concept has roots in traditional folklore. My favourite thing right now was the cited example on dealing with them: kill 'em, burn 'em, then kill and burn the guys what done that. So grimdark.[/quote']

Yeah, traditional northern folktales largely tend towards the grimdark (I blame the LONG nights midwinter) and I like how the heroes (like Grettir) who face draugr are more or less considered crazy to do so.

Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please?

Makin' more Draugr, generally, much like zombies. Generally if they wounded you, you were doomed, if they goo-ed on you, you were doomed, if they hung around you too long, you were doomed... Depends on the story, really, but the worst one I can recall was considered almost like a natural disaster rather than a foe, kinda like the orignial folkloric basilisk

D&D wights are one of their direct gaming descendants, but dialed way down

Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please?

on the traditional lore front, proper Norse Draugr are zombies turned up to 11. The White Walkers from Game of Thrones are a pretty good depiction of Draugr, actually. Infectious as all heck according to some stories, as in "Burn the bodies, kill the vermin escaping the fire and toss them back in, then kill anyone who inhaled the smoke and throw them in" to clear them out. Nasty boogers.