Southern Cross

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "I Got You" by Split Enz.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I've been collecting the various volumes of the Star Trek Remastered series.A considerable improvement upon the previous DVD releases in ever respect.I've only gotten as far as Disc Five out of Season Two ("The Trouble with Tribbles" disc ) but the remastered episodes are a joy to watch.

Re: Why the dislike for Find Weakness? An idea I had about balancing Find Weakness was this:adding it's cost to the characters DC when determining damage maximums. Example: Ironclad has a 60 STR and Find Weakness with Punch on 11-. For Rule of DC purposes,he is considered to have 14DCs for his main attack (his Punch).

Re: Golden Age resources: whatever you can think of. I've got the 4e Golden Age Champions book.Great resource,but it wasn't properly edited,especially the character sheets.

Re: The Greatest American Hero The suit had Megascale Flight-Ralph was able to catch up to an experimental missile designed to travel at Mach Six,despite it having a considerable head start-which could be done with 12"Flight with one level of Megascale.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I went to see the new Star Trek movie on Sunday.Great movie. I also watched Disc Two of Star Trek Remastered-Season Two today.

Re: Ultraman Actually,I personally think that the Hero System military armor & weapons writeups are too powerful.Here's my houserule for making them less effective: REAL WEAPON (-1/4): A weapon with this Limitation not only requires regular maintenance,but also is less effective against superbeings.Note that if an item is bought with money,not with Character Points,it automatically has this Limitation. In game terms,if an attack is bought with this Limitation,it is considered to have the Reduced Penetration Limitation when applied to super defenses (i.e. Defence Powers bought with CPs,and not with the Real Defenses Limitation). If the attack already has Reduced Penetration,the damage is quartered against super defences. REAL DEFENSES (-1/4) Against super attacks (i.e. attacks without the Real Weapon Limitation) the item's defenses are halved.If the defense is Hardened,or the target has no STUN,the item is considered to be Vulnerable (x2 Effect) to this attack.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" from the two-CD collecton of Andrew Lloyd Webber's version of The Phantom of The Opera.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I've actually read the following books this week:Claws That Catch by John Ringo and Travis E. Taylor.It's the third book in their "Dreen Wars" series and is well worth reading.I give it four and a half out of five,because the authors don't seem to be Queen fans.(The Vorpal Blade Two (the first Vorpal Blade was trashed by a Dreen battleship in the previous book) found what they called the TumTum Tree,which turned out to be an interstellar concert stadium that used the energy of a blue giant star to ionise the atmosphere of four Jovians to produce systemwide lighting effects and to resonate starships in order to produce sound for anybody watching in said starships.Since they were using the TumTum Tree to damage the Dreen ships with sonic resonance,why they didn't use We Will Rock You by Queen?)(The other half star is because they also printed the entirety of The Jabberwock by Lewis Carroll in the front of the book.) The other book I read was Skulduggery Pleasant The Faceless Ones by derek Landy.The third in the series,it's a children's urban fantasy series featuring Skulduggery Pleasant,the wisecracking skeletal magical detective and his fourteen-year old girl apprentice,Valkyrie Cain.This time they are trying to stop the Faceless Ones,a pack of Love craftian horrors,from destroying the world.They succeed,but at a great cost.I rank it as four out of five.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Scream,Blacula,Scream starring William Marshall and Pam Grier. A worthy sequel to the original Blacula.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Thunderbirds from Cult Files Reopened.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The last SF book I finished was Witches Incorporated by K.E. Mills.It's the second book in The Rogue Wizard series. For those who came in late,the series is about a mage called Gerald Dunwoody (NOT Dunnywood,as the chief plonker in the series calls him),who becomes the most powerful mage in the world after an accident at Stuttleys,the country's most famous magic staff factory. After the events in the previous book,Gerald is now a junior secret agent for his country's secret service,and is now investigating the worlds foremost airship company,after several transport portals have been sabotaged. (Note:In this world,most transport is now done via magical teleport portals,with dire consequences for other means of transport.Matters are not helped by the fact that the company's leader is a sexist idiot). The Witches Incorporated of the title is made up of Monk's sister (who is as brilliant and careless as he is),Princess Melisande (trying to work incognito),and Reg,the annoying talking bird/former princess.Due to the country's sexism,business is poor,until they take a job from the sister of the aforementioned sexist idiot.With the help of a sprite (summoned by Monk's new dimensional portal) the cheating cook is exposed ,and Witches Inc. take a job exposing a biscuit thief,which gets them mixed up in Gerald's case...

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine The Hawk God,I hate to point this out,but Aid being an 0 END power,isn't supposed to be put into Elemental Controls.Wouldn't two Succors,both bought to 0 END,be a better representation of the character? Furthermore,you can't have a 50 point Power (the second Aid) in a EC with a 35 point base.

Re: Planets of SF Author Hats here are some examples of Japanese authors: Planet Kikuchi:The world was until recently ruled by a bunch of superscientific vampires,some of which still survive.The result is an unholy cross between TSR's Gamma World,Hammer movies,and Italian spaghetti westerns,with a touch of The Outer Limits. Planet Takahashi:Currently late twentieth century level,with limited contact with more advanced species.(Though such species are often quite primitive emotionally,which generally results in madcap things happening).People here tend to the obssessional,especially over matters of romance.Magic is common here,but its use tends to have unforseen consequences,especially as it is often used to make people fall in love with someone who doesn't love them back. This world is,however,mainly known for its martial artists,who,while not at Dragonball level,can still use ki attacks.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The last Fantasy/Sci-fi book I read was Myth-Fortune by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye.An enjoyable romp set in a world blatantly based on ancient Eygpt.However with Asprin's death in 2008,it seems that Jody Lynn Nye will be the sole writer on any more books in the series.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Personally,I much preferred 'Allo 'Allo to Hogan's Heroes ( & have 8 of the 9 series of 'Allo 'Allo on DVD).

Re: Urban Fantasy Recommendations As would I. I'd also recommend Twilight Watch,the last book in the original trilogy.Also there is the first of a new trilogy by the same author.The title is The Last Watch,and I haven't started reading it yet. Another title I'd recommend is The Accidental Sorceror by K.E.Mills.The story is about a minor sorceror who's doing a long-overdue inspection of the premier staff-making factory in the country.Despite all his attempts to prevent a catastrophe (the new owner is a greedy miser) the factory goes up and he is unfairly blamed for the disaster,forcing him to take a job as a court wizard in a foreign country. It turns out he's jumped from the frying pan into the fire.The kingdom is a mess,and the king is a deranged sociopath who has been meddling in black magic.(He's stolen the magic from the previous court wizards,which kills the wizard in question).Even with his few allies and his greatly increased powers,it comes down to a duel between dragons.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "She's Always A Woman" from Piano Man:The Very Best of Billy Joel.

Re: Order of the Stick Actually,I think Varsuvius is a transmuter-the elf took Conjuration as an opposition school after all,and disintegrate is a transmutation spell. That would mean V's 14th-16th level.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I've been rewatching several of my old DVD's(mostly Battle of The Planets.The last new DVD I remember watching was Horrors From Space a compilation DVD featuring the following 50's "Atomic Horror" movies:Teenagers From Outer Space,Phantom From Space and Killers From Space. (Though only "Killers From Space" counts as a true "atomic horror" movie.)My reviews of these film are as follows: (1)Teenagers From Outer Space:Unfairly described as "The worst movie ever made".I actually thought it could have made a decent B-movie,given better dialogue and acting (and budget!).Unfortunately when your lead actor is a worse actor than Keanu Reeves,small chance of that. (2)Phantom from Space:A minor sci-fi film.Some good ideas,unfortunately the script & budget weren't enough. (3)Killers From Space:Another pleasant surprise.While I had seen this film on VHS,I had thought it a pure B &W film,like the others.I thought the eerie green glow given the scenes with the aliens was a neat touch.

Re: New Mechanic: Adjustment Power (Overhauled) Energy Blast does both STUN and BODY damage-in general though,a CHAMPION character's standard defenses are high enough to block the BODY damage.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Bright Eyes" from The Best Of Art Garfunkel.

Re: Build Question: Quick Learner And Linguist too....

Re: Build Question: Quick Learner I'd also recommend a few Skill Enhancers as well,say Scholar & Jack of All Trades at a bare minimum.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Into Temptation" by Crowded House.