StGrimblefig

Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity" I would say that the state of having neither a Secret Identity nor a Public Identity is called "Unknown" -- nobody knows you, yet. This is the state of the vast majority of the "normal" populace. As soon as you do something noteworthy, causing others to care who you are, you will have one or the other -- and you may not get to choose which.

Re: Picking a codename that, like, a million other characters haven't already used.

Re: Picking a codename that, like, a million other characters haven't already used. Don't make me pull out my Nevinyrral's Disk.

Re: Urban Fantasy Recommendations Elizabeth Bear, anyone? The Promethean Age books, specifically.

Re: Star HERO given boost by small furry mammal! I have been looking. I have seen them in Australian bookshop websites, and one that ships only to India. btw, if ComStar cannot sell any of them, but still has some copies they need to get rid of, I am starting up an innovative new "book recycling service" that they could take advantage of. ;) Just ship them to me and I will "recycle" them free of charge. :D (No? Okay, it was worth a shot.)

Re: Star HERO given boost by small furry mammal! If only Mongoose's deal with FFE hadn't killed Traveller Hero. When it was available, I didn't have the money to buy it. Now that I have some money from Christmas and a year-end bonus, you cannot get it anywhere. I am intrigued by Mongoose's Traveller, but I am kind of pissed off about the Traveller Hero thing, so I am "morally conflicted" about buying it.

Re: Mystery Roar from Faraway Space Detected Or perhaps it is "...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced." ?? Since it is from "the distant cosmos," and it would have taken quite some time to travel to our little corner of the universe, I think this qualifies as having come from "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."

Re: Wizkids closing Catalyst Game Labs (publisher of the Classic BattleTech and Shadowrun RPGs licensed from Wizkids) has also made an offer for the Wizkids IPs.

Re: Social Conflict Agreed. It is a little more abstract that I had envisioned, but I think that it has the essence of what I said. I would also think that the target level ("succeed by 4 or more") would be dependent upon the chosen goal, but you get a similar effect by assessing bonuses or penalties to each combatant based on their goal.

Re: Social Conflict I didn't mean to imply that the character would be forced to use violence. It would depend upon the character in question, of course. Just that, having lost his Composure, it would be difficult for the character to maintain his cool in a stressful situation (i.e. it would probably be obvious to anyone observing that the character had lost the exchange). What "losing your cool" means depends on the character and the situation.

Re: Social Conflict

Re: Social Conflict Hmm. Good question. If you are doing something like the above balance or lead concept, you could set the target number based on the level of effect. With the social combat model, though, I think that, as an analogue of physical combat, it is probably not so straightforward, mechanically. It is more of a question of how much to "loser" is willing to lose. For example, if I am a police officer interrogating a suspect, and it is becoming obvious that my target is losing Composure quickly, he is going to have to find a way to get out of this "social combat" without losing all of his composure and telling me everything while weeping like a baby. Perhaps he gives me some information he knows that I want, while withholding some other information that is more valuable, but which I do not yet know that I want. Or, flipping it about, if I am dropping Composure like hot rocks, I will have to try not to lose it all, which might result in my using physical violence and having to deal with the consequences. Perhaps I need to leave the room for a while, to recover Composure (and think up some new tactics) before continuing. In either case there is a roleplaying aspect to the combat, but your success or failure is not totally dependent upon the player's ability (or lack thereof) to roleplay a given situation. If the dice are not going your way, there should be a way to "escape" (figuratively, if not physically) the situation. I suppose there could be something like "pulling your punches" for social combat, so that complete loss of composure is less likely.

Re: Social Conflict In one of my blog postings here, I use three Primary characteristics: Presence (PRE) - Social Power. The social analogue of strength. Presense determines how much Composure your opponent loses in a social exchange (i.e. attack). Manipulation (MAN) - Social Agility. The social analogue of dexterity. Manipulation represents a character's ability to react to changing social situations, read people/crowds and talk fast. Composure (COM) - Social Structure. The social analogue of body. Composure represents how much social damage (embarassment, bad vibes, etc) a character can take before losing control and making an a$$ of himself. Along with these come the obvious Figured Characteristics: Social Combat Value (SCV) Social Combat Value represents a character's innate ability to put people off their guard and manipulate social situations. This may be supplimented by complimentary skills (Conversation, Seduction, etc). Social Defense (SD) A character with Social Defense is more adept at deflecting Social Attacks - he can ignore some of the effects of Social Powers. I didn't really consider a social analogue for Stun, as I didn't think there really was one. Of course, to implement social conflict using the physical combat model, we need a number of social combat maneuvers. These I have not yet got figured out. but I have some promising maneuver names: general maneuvers Sharp Retort Witty Comeback Scathing Insult for an Interrogation Head Fake Moment of Crisis Waiting Game "We're Done Here" Bad Cop [attacker only] Goad [attacker only] Good Cop [attacker only] Worse Cop [attacker only] The 5th [defender only] "I'm No Rat" [defender only] "Nothing to Say" [defender only] Story Time [defender only] for a Seduction "Call Me" Love Is Blind Show of Good Faith Compromising Position [attacker only] Extra Incentive [attacker only] Hard Sell [attacker only] Seal The Deal [attacker only] "We Had Some Good Times" [attacker only] Wine and Dine [attacker only] "I Just Can't" [defender only] In Too Deep [defender only] "It's Not Right" [defender only] "It's Not You, It's Me" [defender only] "People Will Talk" [defender only] "Tell Me More" [defender only] Each maneuver would need to have defined a duration, OSCV and DSCV modifiers, and a clear statement of the results of successfully executing that maneuver.

Re: Planets of SF Author Hats Bradbury: Most of this planet's cities look like small towns. Odd things happen on Bradbury, but they are mostly isolated incidents. The population is almost all human, with the addition of some very-human-looking robots. Space travel is possible, although the rockets all look like those from 1930s-40s era science fiction magazine covers. Civilization has achieved an almost Utopian ideal, based on the reports of a scientist that traveled to the future and returned safely. They began exploration of their nearest planetary neighbor, and early reports of an abandoned civilization sparked excitement, but contact has been lost with the expedition.

Re: Posleen? I have only read one of the books (Gust Front) so far, but it seems to me that the numbers that they usually bring to any engagement would make it prohibitive to track each individual Posleen soldier. The god-kings are the only really smart ones, with decent sensors and heavy weapons. The soldiers will stay near to their god-king, and concentrate their fire on whatever he shoots at. I would almost suggest modeling a god-king and his oolt as a single "creature," or at least abstracting them as "followers" of the god-king. Since they tend to concentrate fire, you can simulate the loss of a certain percentage of the soldiers as a reduction in DC for the whole.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game I went through the Midnight Club arc last night with my lvl 50 magic defender (emp/psy/dark) -- solo. I must say that I was very aggravated about the enemy mix -- there were lots of times that there was 1 (or 2) comm officers hanging out with a chief mentalist/mesmerist. Luckily, debt means little to me now that I am lvl 50, or I would be writing angry letters to the devs. Once I earned access to the Midnight Club, I went to Cimerora. I was slightly annoyed that the first couple of missions after the "Senator's tour" were timed, but I was not made aware of this fact until after I had accepted the mission. I seem to remember that being a problem that annoyed a lot of people sometime before, and they fixed it by making sure that you always knew that a mission was timed before you accepted it.

Re: The Guitar Hero Yeah, but for those you have a different focus: 1982 Tour belt buckle. Assuming you can get it from the Mooninites.

Re: The Guitar Hero Sounds kind of like the "Valhallen" character from the Justice Friends cartoons, except that he didn't use specific songs. How about: Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple): Darkness. The Weapon (Rush): Ego attack ("the things that they fear, are a weapon to be used against them") Radar Love (Golden Earring): some sort of detect, or maybe Danger Sense. Jump (Van Halen): Leaping Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd): Teleport, usable on others, only to transport someone else to your location I would use Iron Man (Black Sabbath?) for the armor, myself, but that's just a personal preference. That brings up a question: Are the powers only 'on' while he is playing the relevant song? That would mean that he could have armor OR an attack, but not both at the same time. Or does he only have to play the song to turn on the power, and it stays on (if it is a continuous power) after that?

Re: Music from out of this World Stevie Ray Vaughan -- which brings up the possibility of making a trade between this world and the one where SRV did not get on that helicopter, but Eric Clapton did. Give them a lot of "new" EC, and bring back lots of "new" SRV.

Re: Odd Costume Designs As was stated in John Gabriel's Greater Internet <>-wad Theory: Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total <>-wad That being said, I have been lucky enough to be involved in some very good pick-up groups in CoH (and some awful ones). It seems to me that the more mature the player is away from the game, the more likely it is that they will be nice inside the game. Obligatory On-Topic Reference: Cloaks (different from capes) with big, funky collars, so my mystic alter-ego will look like a master of mysterious powers, rather than just another hero who just happens to get his powers from magical sources.

Re: Information for HERO/Champions Fans About The Champions Online MMO Go read his "Villain Profile" at the COMMO web site. The last couple of paragraphs might give some insight. I think the consept art looks better than the screenshots, though.

Re: Double The Hero Excitement!

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game According to the devs, people were hitting the portal once, then leaving it alone to fight others, and when the portal timed out and went away (something like two minutes iirc), they got free XP. So they removed the XP completely from the portals, and buffed the XP for the Communications Officers. At least, that is what they said on the CoH boards recently.

Re: CyberHero Hacked Okay, after a quick scan of the posts, I still have a question: which version of Shadowrun are you trying to convert? Third edition and earlier use the older-style "Neuromancer" version of cyberspace, in which the decker must replace his normal senses with the view of cyberspace. This is great for stories and movies, but doesn't work as well for roleplaying games. Fourth edition changed to a more "Ghost In The Shell" version, which is wireless, and allows anyone with a cybercom and cybereyes (or a pair of special glasses) to have almost constant access via visual overlays. The full-immersion access is still available, and has its advantages, but is less useful to the average person. Second, regarding Cyber Hero: Put the book down. Step away from the book. Now, if you don't already have it, go get the Kazei Five PDF from the Hero Online Store. It is much better, and covers several options for accessing and hacking whatever kind of cyberspace you want to use. If it is a wireless interface (as I think the IIF implies -- wouldn't a cable connection make it obvious?) then I would think that some limitation dealing with strong EM fields or other interference would be appropriate -- oh, wait; that's what the restrainable limitation is for, cool. I hadn't thought of doing it that way before. I tend to prefer to think of the DNI as similar to the clairsentience version of astral projection presented in the old Mystic Masters suppliment (and also in TUMystic). That is because I see the ultimate effect of all of the hardware is to allow the user to see things on computer systems far away. The only problem I see with this is that it assumes that you have to buy a power to have a visible representation of yourself in cyberspace. That implies that you can access the net without having said representation if you do not pay those points. I have always seen the "avatar" as merely a visual representation of the processes (i.e. programs) that the user is running on that system. A very basic access to the system runs only a basic shell, with a default avatar. A more privileged user of the system (or a hacked account with forged privileges) can define their avatar to look however they want -- but the visual representation itself does not necessarily imply capability. Just because you look like a dragon on that Chinese server does not give you any dragon abilities. You would have to write/buy/otherwise obtain a program to do that -- with an appropriately customized animation. It makes sense to me to define a set of "everyman avatars" and "default visualizations" for programs, so that if a user does not customize them, they know what they/their programs will look like. Just like you said, the DNI allows you to see the illusion -- but never forget that it is just an illusion. In my opinion, memory would be a limiting factor in how many (and how complex) programs you can run on your own deck, whereas storage would limit how much data and/or programs you can carry in that deck. Memory doesn't really limit throughput in our world, so I cannot see how it would in Shadowrun. Both memory and storage are cheap right now, but you can also watch the available programs and data getting larger to take advantage of that extra capability. Text-only gave way to text with pictures, gave way to text with pictures and sound, gave way to video, and on, and on.

Re: Designing Sword Schools So, it is like Yoda's fight in AotC, without all the Force-jumping?