Dholcrist

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

I watched Casshern last night. It had two pretty good superhero fights' date=' a lot of flashbacks, a lot of stylized coloring and camera work so that at times it was like watching a live action video game. At one point the movie did go black and white for long enough that I thought they had made a mistake in editing. The ending was, well there was confusion and then credits.[/quote']

 

I've been wanting to see that movie ever since I saw a trailer for it like 3 years ago. I'll have to track it down now that it's finally been released in the states. And I hear that the US version is actually an edited down, somewhat more watchable version story-wise.

Re: [Review] Alien Wars

I really enjoyed this book, the detail they get into for the history of the war is pretty great.

One of my biggest complaints was the miniscule GM's Vault section. Didn't add more than a few random facts to the history, which is one thing I love reading in the setting books. Also, I would have liked an expanded technology section (slightly, this isn't a big complaint, but as usual it focuses on military, I'd like to see a broader scope, though I do understand it's a military focused book), especially with the Xenovores. They've got some interesting stuff, but I'd like to see even more specifics, especially in vehicles/weapons. From this, it sounds like they have 1 fighter (or 2?), a capital ship, and a "tank".

Also, I am not a fan of the Xenovore's origin, but I believe that was discussed in detail in another thread.

Otherwise, really awesome stuff. And I'm loving the idea of having a campaign start out at the break-out with fresh recruit PC's, and following them in their military careers the full length of the war to its conclusion. Terrifying to plan, but damn cool if it worked.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Watched The Prestige for the first time last night (and in Blu-Ray!), then watched Chicago (also in BR) tonight with the gf.

Think I'm going to put on The Film Crew: Giant of Marathon until I fall asleep.

Re: Favorite Sci-Fi Weapon

I hate putting this one up, but can't resist it. If you haven't read Snow Crash, spoilers ahead.

Reason- a railgun configured in a minigun setup, it fired 3mm depleted uranium rounds. The case it was stored in also cared the ammo, and wieghed about 300 lbs (though became considerably lighter during use), had an onboard targeting computer, and a nuclear isotope energy source that was towed behing it (and preferably submerged in water for cooling).

In the readme file that it came with, the last line was "ULTIMA RATIO REGUM" (The Last Argument of Kings). "Yeah, they'll listen to Reason."

/end spoilers

Re: Pre-Interstellar Terran Empire History

Wait' date=' where is this in Alien Wars? I compiled a list of the important dates from AW, and don't recall most of these...[/quote']

 

Alright, I know this is a rather late response/correction, but I was looking over my typed notes just now and had decided on actually writing out my version of the Xenovore Wars for the players to refer to (previously I had just had a brief outline) when I noticed that you're absolutely right, it's not in there. It's actually in the Galactic Champions supplement, they go into a brief overview of all preceding periods before establishing the current universe.

 

Sorry for the mixup, I was way off.

Re: Campaign Idea: "Weapons Of Fate"

Wow, never heard of this movie, but hot damn, I can't wait for it. I think I've seen the trade aond considered getting it before (it had pretty cool covers), but something about it always turned me off about it. Never knew it was about super-skilled assassins though. Might have to check it out after all.

Very cool setting for a campaign though.

Re: What I Learned Playing a Robot

The big problem with The 6th Day was the fact that they had memories from after the point where their minds were scanned. They wouldn't remember any of those events.

That was the big problem with the 6th Day? I thought it was terrible writing/sets/effects/acting/story/action/writing/etc.

I just remember sitting in the theater on the day it came out and saying to my friend "He's going to say something like 'why don't you go clone yourself so you can f*** yourself', just watch"

One hour later... he did it. He actually said it.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

Overture (Black Hole) - John Barry

In all seriousness, that is my favorite movie soundtrack of all time. I can't tell you how long I've been looking for it on cd. I was so, so happy when they released it on iTunes.

Currently listening to "Hope Rides Alone" by the Protomen. Love me some Megaman rock bands.

Re: Building A Vulcan Shuttles Warp Sled

I believe that the illustrious Fitz already did a write-up for this, but he did it as its own ship I believe, a 3 person freighter. Here's the link, I'd look through it to see if it had the pertinent information, but I'm so tired I don't know why I'm even online.

Here you go: http://www.jsr.com/~fitz/roleplay/hero/sci-fi/terranempire/campaign_notes/campaignindex.html

Re: from little plot seeds, mighty games do grow: Share you ideas!

Hey everyone,

 

I took the liberty of, hopefully, collecting all the plots in this thread and putting them into workable sheets. I did this all in word, so I hope you can all use it. I broke things up into Solo, groups and organizations, team-up and/or versus, CHS plots (for Teen Champions), and a miscellaneous file for things that didn't fit in anywhere else. I really didn't do a lot of grammar checking, but I did correct the major spelling issues. This took longer than expected which is why I gave up on the grammar. Hope you all like it. let me know if i missed something or if there is trouble with the upload.

Very cool. My only problem? For some reason I can't open it. When I try to extract from the folder I get a message saying it's empty, and when I try opening it it just says that it's an incorrect file name. Are you sure that you uploaded the right file?

Re: Pre-Interstellar Terran Empire History

In the Hero Universe document, under Solar Hero.

 

"An alien invasion in 2153 throws this into even deeper turmoil."

 

That's all the reference there is to it so far, but it's there.

Huh, interesting. I wonder why there's no mention of anything like that anywhere else. Are there any plans to further publish anything in the Cyberhero and Solar Hero settings?

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

Well, the standard way is to arrange things so that the forward acceleration creates gravity, the decks are arrange to take advantage of that, and the crew chairs can "recline" so that one can lie on their back when high acceleration is required. The controls might be on the chair arms and on a "lap board" that is positioned across one's lap.

 

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3f.html#blastoff

 

If the acceleration is going to be on for more than a few hours, it might be good to have a "relief tube" (i.e., a rudimentary urinal) built into the chair.

Of course, I don't know why I didn't think of doing that at all. I actually read that orientation in that story you had posted ("Humanist Inheritence"?), and must have glossed over any kind of reclining portion. *smacks forehead*

Once again, rep!

Re: PAH: Campaign Working Idea

Few questions come to mind, and I know you don't have cemented answers for a lot, so not a problem if you don't.

1. Did the humans come here before, or after the Apocalypse?

2. Why and how?

3. Isn't 1000 years a little long? I'd think that with that much time to rebuild on a world that is habitable and still has a decent amount of interstellar tech still usable that things would at least be made workable. So how destroyed is everything still? Or has it basically become a medieval environment that has high technology available to it? Perhaps this is how you're making it into a high fantasy PAH game? (medieval civilization built from the ruins of an interstellar colony, "wizards" using "magic items" i.e. incredibly rare pre-Apoc. techs.)

If you're not wanting this to also be the fantasy game, then you might want to revise your time frame unless you have a reason for it. Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep has a lot of examples of PA human colonized worlds in it that, due to slower than light travel and humanities innate habit to destroy itself given enough time, so all human colonies eventually blow themselves up, usually resulting in a "dark ages" where they take a few hundred years to rediscover all their lost tech from the remnants. Not sure if that's what you're looking for or not though.

Either way, cool idea.

Re: Pre-Interstellar Terran Empire History

The official CU timeline mentions an alien invasion in the Solar Hero era. Probably the Hzeel.

 

I believe Alien Wars says the Hzeel got f'ed up by some other interstellar society. I don't remember if it was the Xenovores or not.

Hm, I don't remember reading anywhere about an alien invasion in the Solar Era. Where'd you see that?

And I think in Terran Empire they state that the Hzeel, after trying to invade Earth during the Superhero Age and having their fleet destroyed by Earth's heroes, were immediately invaded by the Perseids, who destroyed their homeworld and killed billions. Which is why in the Terran Empire setting there are only about 20 million.

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

To this day no trace of Automated Mining Facility DGF-145 or explanation for the disappearance has ever been found.

I love it.

Re: Pre-Interstellar Terran Empire History

Wait' date=' where is this in Alien Wars? I compiled a list of the important dates from AW, and don't recall most of these...[/quote']

 

I believe they were spread out throughout the book, most of the Cyberpunk era is from the introduction area of the book, others are from the pre-war years sections that I compiled. I'd have to dig up my copy and look around, I'll be sure to find them and get back to you.

 

Kinda funny that Earth loses contact with the two or three dozen alien races they met during the Superhero era...

 

Yeah, well with the downfall of supertech most alien races probably lost where Earth even was, and the few aliens here either left or died (I can't imagine the Ironside could survive being made from metal when there were no powers). Remember, the "Superhero Age" becomes a myth pretty quickly, with most evidence being chalked up as special effects.

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

There should probably be a few lost spacecraft. A couple would have known causes (fuel-tank explosion kills everyone aboard; collision with a 3-meter meteoroid en route; solar storm fried the control computer' date=' which commanded sudden decompression), others would be unknown and the spacecraft as yet unrecovered with no clue what happened.[/quote']

 

I like the lost spacecraft idea, gives you a ready made backup adventure or plot device. Could be very cool.

Re: Pre-Interstellar Terran Empire History

I believe there's supposed to be two "eras" in that time frame' date=' the "cyberpunk era" of roughly 2020-2080 or so, then the "Solar Hero" era of 2080-2200 or so.[/quote']

 

Correct, here's the official history that they had in the Alien Wars book up until first contact with the Perseid Empire:

 

PRE-IMPERIAL HISTORY

2020: The final battle against Tyrannon, resulting in the Universal power level dropping, ending the Age of Superheroes.

2021: Dr. Destroyer dies in a final bid to take over the world.

2075: Solar Age begins with establishment of the first Lunar City.

2093: First Martian colony established.

2094: United Nations is dissolved, and replaced by the United Earth Senate.

2104: Colony Act is initiated.

2143: First Spacer is created, and over the next few years becomes mass-produced.

2149: First portable fusion plants created.

2175: Scientist quantifiably measure human psionic abilities for the first time.

2203: Solar Age ends with the development of the first Hyperdrive.

2214: First extra-solar colony established on Alpha Centauri IV.

2253: Firt formal contact made with an extra-terrestrial civilization, dubbed the Perseids.

 

All that's really said about the Cyberpunk era is that people get depressed and scared of each other, and so turn to the 'Net to interact. I don't blame them for not embellishing this or the Solar Era at all, just curious as to what political/economic/technological changes would have happened in this time period that would fit in with the Terran Empire setting. I'm really trying to fill this all in before I start my TE campaign so that the players have a complete history that they can fall back on, making it a bit more "real". I'm a perfectionist when it comes to world building I guess.

 

I've been working on some stuff, but really just curious as to what others have to say on the subject.

 

And clsage, thanks! Anything you have would be greatly appreciated.

Alright, I've looked around the forums a bit and have been unable to find anything really. But my question is thus: has anyone run/played/written anything set in the post-Supers 2020 era and pre-Xenovore War era (early Interstellar Age).

According to the sourcebooks, that's 2020-2200's (Interstellar Age begins with invention of the Hyperdrive in 2203). While the timeline has a very general description of important events for humanity, this 200 year period is rather sparse for information, and I'd like to see if anyone has either a semi-official or even just completely made up history that fills in the blanks (politically, economically, technologically, etc.)

Interested in seeing what others have done, and if this is addressed elsewhere or has been posted before, my apologies, I'm way too tired to do any more searching for it.

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

Thanks for the input. Having been an airline brat as a kid' date=' I was familiar with an airline cockpit. But I have no experience with Naval ship layouts. I didn't want to copy the Star Trek bridge, and the shows that have starships don't have practical layouts, since there's no artificial gravity on the ships except when accelerating.[/quote']

 

If you decide to go the Naval route, I think the new BSG's layout for a capital ship bridge is pretty practical, but instead of an arena like setup, perhaps spherical? Then again, since they're going to have to deal with a lot of G-Forces, perhaps acceleration couches arranged with your backs to the engines would be best. There was a story posted on here a few months ago that had near future starships that were arranged so forward acceleration created enough G force to simulate gravity, so that decks were arranged to take advantage of that. The only real problem with that would be in combat situations, when you might deal with G's far in excess of 1, and having it so you're being pressed down from your head doesn't sound like the best way of doing that. What do I know though?

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

I have considered turning the US Air Force into the US Aerospace Force (while still keeping the USAF acronym). It would be advised by the Navy in the operation of maintaining a fleet-like structure. The current ranks would be unchanged, however. The commanding officer of the spacecraft would refer to himself as "The C. O." rather than "The Captain." Likewise, his second in command would be called the X. O.

 

Thoughts on this one?

I've always liked keeping future military structure (especially in regards to the US Military) very recognizable, but different enough so that you know changes have been made. Space: Above and Beyond was a good example of using the US Marine Corps as an interstellar fighting force, that while recognizable, was pretty different from the modern usage.

And I just liked their catchphrase: "In space, no one can hear you scream unless it is the battlecry of the United States Marine Corps! Hoorah!

To answer your question: looks good to me.

Re: Pulp/Steampunk SF Ideas

I can go with aether being breathable. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

As for Jupiter, I was thinking of having it and the other gas giants have a solid surface under their thick clouds. There is a Polyhedron mini-game called "The Iron Lords" that has this setting. I will use some of those elements.

 

The moons of the gas giants would likely be inhabited as well, as would the Martian moons.

Cool, sounds good to me. Thanks for clearing that up.

But as an aside, since they're a technologically advanced society anyways, I think them having floating cities and/or floating palaces with "rocketcycles" and the like would be awesome.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Viktor: "I think I'll name my grenade launcher 'Reason.' People always listen to Reason."

Oh how I love Snow Crash. A mini-gatling gun that shoots depleted uranium rounds from a briefcase named Reason? Just unbelievably cool.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Dolby (To Prisoners): "Okay fellows, I have a couple of questions for you and, well, we only need one of you alive."

 

He activates the VibroClaw.

 

They give Dolby the answer.

Genius!

In our Cyberpunk 2020 game a few weeks ago, after a long and arduous game of stealing a little under a dozen cars, each getting blown to bits, and scraping by the skin of our teeth to somehow actually achieve our mission (we really should've died multiple times, and the GM loves killing CP chars., so it really was complete luck), we return to our boss. Also, at the beginning of the game, we had just arrived in Vegas, and my character ended up going to the tables to make a bit of money. Unfortunately, he blew all but 10 Euros on Blackjack. It was a really unlucky night for gambling.

Crimeboss: "Well, here's a check, you can cash it in at the cashiers desk in my casino right over there. Thanks a lot boys, we'll be doing business again real soon."

We both walk to the desk with the cash.

Cashier: "Would you like that in cash, or chips?"

Both Our Characters look at each other and without hesitation yell: "Chips!"

Credits roll.

Re: SFX Question... What's in those blaster clips?

Power is power is power is power.

 

A decent mechanic specializes in converting power from one form to another.

 

While I might increase the difficulty of the roll for the case of converting from one wildly improbable form of storage to another wildly unrealistic application of energy, I'd be hard pressed to explicitly rule against it on principal.

 

(Unless the tone of your game is purely Realistic, the clip or the appliance had the Real limitation, or the mechanic lacked KS applicable to both the appliance and the weapon, I suppose. And even then, I might allow the attempt, with Backfire or Side Effects as the result.)

 

Sure, you can't shoot a Mauser into the gas tank of a Volkswagen to make it go.. Well, you can, but that would get us to Backfire and Side Effects really fast.. but why not let the electricity stored in the plaser magazine as contained ions be used to power the base refridgerator for an hour?

While I certainly agree with most of what you said, the one problem with allowing them to use it is that the power pack is only good for 32 shots. While I'm sure each shot is a large expenditure of energy, it doesn't sound like the battery itself is made for an extended period of use. So yes, I agree, by all means allow them to do that. But I would personally say 1. make it a very difficult roll with pretty serious failure consequences, and 2. don't let it power anything bigger than a cell phone for more than a few minutes. That should keep them from abusing it, and make it an "emergency only" use. And maybe provide them with the ability to actually get "emergency battery packs" of some sort that are actually made for powering another object over a longer period of time more efficiently.

Just my .02