Southern Cross

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? I've been listening to Side 1 of Simply The Best Songwriters 2.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Finished rewatching the first season of Batman:The Animated Series yesterday. Well worth watching,and miles better than the cartoon series that followed it. I also saw Back To The Future II and III for the first time ,and I was amazed at how-ADVANCED it was.We certainly don't have hover technology yet,much less any type of practical fusion reactor,but what really bothered me was the fact that lawyers have been abolished in that future.If things are as totalitarian as they seemed,how come that future is so advanced?

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Going Home by Mark Knopfler from The BEST Of DIRE STRAITS & MARK KNOPFLER.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Same here.Hulk was seriously flawed,but it wasn't as bad as most people seem to think.I really WILL have to watch it again......

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? So L.Marcus,what did you think of the Ang Lee version of the Hulk? It seems that people who hated the Ang Lee version hated this one,and vice versa. I guess I'll have to watch Hulk again...

Re: Bladesingers (A Jolting Epiphany Just Before Bed) [Long, I think] Or you could use the mageblades from the D20 Variant Players Handbook Arcana Evolved.....

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I would as well.I can see Bruce Willis playing Major Might (if they ever make a film adaptation of it).

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I recently finished reading the entire trilogy,and I have to warn you-the second movie in the trilogy,Day Watch, is really just a continuation of the first film,not a actual adaptation of the novel,as it ignores at least two major plot points in the second book,plus the Chalk of Fate doesn't operate in the same way in the movie as it does in the novel.It's still a major artifact,though... And the movie is still worth watching,especially for a certain impressive stunt involving a car....

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... This is true.The movie Lifeforce wasn't H.P. Love craft on speed,it was Clark Aston Smith on speed.

Re: Jedi Ghosts and fade-to-deaths? This is true.I can't help wondering if Darth Siddeous was actually Anakin's biological father..

Re: US Government's reaction to superhumans For your edification:Veritas.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I've watched the anime series Casshan Robot Hunter and R.O.D recently.Despite the fact that Casshan is an older series,and I adore Yomiko Readman,I think i preferred Casshan.Not only does it seem more plausible (Yomiko's powers,are,let's face it, downright magical),but the bad guys in Casshan actually have a more plausible motivation-the Black King is programmed to save the Earth's ecosystem,and the only way he thinks he can do this is to conquer the Earth and destroy humanity.Plus,seeing Casshan chop a Neoroid in half is just plain cool.

Re: Jedi Ghosts and fade-to-deaths? Not if it had only one charge,which never recovers...

Re: Jedi Ghosts and fade-to-deaths? Actually,I'd write up the "Jedi Ghost' ability as a limited (but high active points) type of Multiform.Transform isn't supposed to affect the user,after all......

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Having seen The Dark Knight,I have to agree with Sundog.The only actor I can think of who could play the Joker after this would be Johnny Depp,and it looks like he might be playing another role in the series. I'm half-way through (and enjoying) Slayers NEXT.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I watched my DVD of Danger:Diabolik yesterday.Great film (though as it was directed by Mario Bava,that's not surprising).It is probably the first great supervillain film.That's right,the main character is a ruthless thief and terrorist,who makes Al-Queda look like pansies. Here's a link to the review on the Mario Bava Web Page:http://members.tripod.com/mariobava/diabolik.htm.

Re: Doctrine for beginning vampire slayers? Another thing I forgot to mention was the Vampire Hunter D novels.The first ten have been translated into English from the author's native Japanese,and that's not taking into account the comics & movie adaptations (The latter which are,IMO somewhat imprecise translations of the source material). They are well worth reading for the setting alone (which can be best described as a fusion of Hammer vampire movies (especially Captain Kronos,Vampire Hunter),Italian spaghetti Westerns and TSR's Gamma World).

Re: Doctrine for beginning vampire slayers? Well,for one thing,the wafers wouldn't last long on the grave earth inside a vampire's coffin.Also,a Roman Catholic would probably object to the use of "the body of Christ" in such a manner.

Re: Doctrine for beginning vampire slayers? My own recommendations are as follows: (1)Your slayer should read Dracula by Bram Stoker.Preferably the annotated version,as it points out the mistakes that Stoker made in writing it.(Why,for example did Stoker have his vampire hunters put wafers in the coffins.Wouldn't crucifixes have been more suitable?) (2)Get Lee Killough's Bloodhunt & Bloodlinks (probably from secondhand bookshops).Not only is it invaluable from the point of understanding your enemy,the villain in the second book is actually a vampire hunter.He makes a perfect example of what NOT to become.Remember the point of being a vampire hunter is to protect humans from vampires. (3)The kid should go out and purchase (or rent) as many Hammer movies as possible.Not just vampire movies-if there are other types of monsters out there,the kid will need to know how to deal with those as well. (4)He should also read P.N.Elrod's The Vampire Files.Not only are they good sources of info,they're also good mystery stories in their own right. (5)He should get Nosferatu.Preferably the latest (digitally restored) version. (6)He should read Matheson's The Last Man On Earth.He should also watch the movie version (The Vincent Price version,natch). (7)He should also get Chill Vampires (either the original Pacesetter version or the Mayfair updated version).He should probably also get the version Of Chill that goes with the book in question.It might be hard to find a copy of even the latest version,but it would be well worth it.

Re: Skrull vs. Avengers Because Marvel is controlled by accountants?

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Sorry about that.When I first looked at them the last illo (Moonsilver, I presume?) was still not up.Frigging dial-up internet access.... When I looked at the page again I saw all five illos..

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Oh,Chris-M,I've noticed that you've only given us FOUR illos-where's the fifth?

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine You do know that Roy Thomas created a character called Living Lightning for the West Coast Avengers,right?

Re: EC's cannot have non-END powers!!!! Well,if your Life Support is due to your personal Force Field,then draining the Force Field would logically weaken your Life Support.

Re: EC's cannot have non-END powers!!!! Of course ,a GM could just state that "Powers that are innately Always On may not be placed in Power Frameworks" instead.