casualplayer

Re: Destroy Your Geek Cred!!

Re: Destroy Your Geek Cred!!

Re: Destroy Your Geek Cred!! I actually haven't read any of The Dresden Chronicles, which is especially damaging to my cred as my house is full of them because my wife loves Harry. She actually came at it backwards though, watching the SciFi show first on Hulu, ranting loudly about its short life and then reading the books to scratch the itch. I read Harry Potter because my wife is such a fan (woman seems to have a Harry thing) and they only take about 3-4 hours to read. They're ok but Harry is the least interesting character of the series by far.

Re: Destroy Your Geek Cred!! The moment anything is labeled geeky I instantly love it. I find it saves time. The biggest blow to my geek cred I can think of is that I've never watched a whole episode of The Big Bang Theory, which is supposedly a love letter to geek chic. I do own the movie Free Enterprise, which is virtually the same thing.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? Curse you for making me have to find another book to prop up the corner of that crooked table of mine and then relive the horror of TUS.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Angry Bird would so tag me with that flaming whip while I'm staring slackjawed at her plumage.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? It ain't that tricky, Hugh. You even mentioned the idea of mentalists buying SPD Only for using Mental Powers. Works the same way; SPD Only versus Studied Opponents is only usable against studied opponents, and segments in common can be used for either generic actions or versus studied opponents. Just like every other conditional SPD build. I guess if you made it SPD versus studied terrain as well then movement on the additional phases would make sense. A 4 or 5 SPD boosted to 8 works smoothest because there's complete or nearly so overlap in segments. I use conditional SPD a lot. Pilots and drivers that have conditional SPD when behind the wheel, fliers that have conditional SPD for acceleration and turning, power armor guys who are norms outside the suit but have faster reactions while wearing it, gunfighters quick on the draw but not so quick on their feet. Heck, most of the real people I know have conditional SPD only for playing video games. It's not as simple as just topping off the tank but I like the nuance and feel of it. I don't really want to talk about NCM anymore because it's turning the SPD thread into casualplayer's house rules thread. It does make for a balancing act to make sure it doesn't nerf or advantage the character unjustly, but I've found so does everything else. It's part of the joy of GMing.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? I know it's key. I included it because it's key. I leave out the things I determine are "off-key." Everything I put up here is my opinion, most often game-tested. Sadly I have to periodically remind people that what I put up here is In My Opinion because otherwise they get all persnickety about some perceived implied criticism of their game. It's the GM's responsibility, if they are going to run a pot-luck game, to make the people bringing a dish aware of the tastes of the table and the theme of the party. If I'm hosting a wine tasting party don't bring scotch. If I'm hosting a Fourth of July party don't bring a cheese log in the shape of a giant upraised finger, not if you expect to stay. If I leave it open-invite I should politely welcome whoever and whatever shows up. It's the players' responsibility to pay attention to those expressed guidelines and try not to bring a dish poisonous or offensive to the host or other guests. Whenever I put a house rule out there, I'm talking about "my house," my game. If I came to your house, I expect to play by your rules. I might make some suggestions along the way but I wouldn't be offended if you said "No" and I would try to stay on the right side of polite. I wouldn't try to sneak one past you or only comply when you're paying close attention. If I'm not comfortable or happy there, I'll think of somewhere else to be the next time I get an invite. It's all relative. I've stepped into con games where the mean SPD was 7 and the 6 SPD Martial Artist I brought was a plodding fool. I've heard of games that loop the Speed chart allowing SPDs past 12. In a fantasy realm the serfs have a 2 SPD and the agile rogues have a 4. We probably should start talking Mean -2 to represent "slow" and Mean +2 to represent "cat-like reflexes" and leave determining Mean as an exercise for the student. So anyway, I mentioned before that I use Normal Characteristic Maxima as a distinguishing feature in my games. It means that you have a likely range of capabilities, that you certainly can exceed but if someone witnesses you doing so is likely going to say "That thing's not human!" or "Unbelievable!" and will react accordingly. It also means that the average doctor who might be stumped entirely by your alien teammate's triple hearts will however be able to fix you up and have a good idea how you will react to most drugs. It also means that the power dampening technology that exists in my world fizzles entirely against you because you have no powers. Remember when the X-Men were trapped on Magneto's Island in X-Men #150 and think about how much even more badass Robin would have been if he would have been along for the ride. It's a feature and a flaw, a combination of Non-distinct Features, Physical Limitation and Prevalence, Social Limitation and Freedom. It's only for those who want to triumph over even greater odds than the other players because they are willingly forgoing the option of point build efficiency. It's not for everyone. Even among my players very few have opted for it: some superagents, some martial artists, some power armor guys. I have found that if you let people both have all the benefits of being human, unrestricted interaction with the world, and free rein to play whatever they want that the humans disappear. Just like most fantasy groups, with maybe, grudgingly one unadulterated human (and they are usually some god's pet Paladin!) So I both play up the drawbacks of being non-human on Earth and ask my non-human players to have some complications related to their non-humanity. Being Kryptonian comes with a nasty allergy to an otherwise harmless rock. But back to Speed. If you want, and I allow, your Green Arrow homage to have a flat 8 SPD, how is a kid with a switchblade ever a threat? Do I give the kid some PCP or Venom and ratchet his SPD up to 9? Do I attack you with 64 kids with switchblades? Do I look at you incredulously when you complain that you don't get enough street-level adventures? Sorry, but you have made yourself too high-class for the street. If you insist and make your Batman homage with a flat 7 SPD then I have to make my Joker homage with a SPD like Spider-Man, and suddenly my Joker can run a 1 minute mile. "Sorry boys, I'm giving up crime to play wide receiver for the Raiders." It's

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? I would be fine with this horrible hammer of handwavium if characters using it had to buy Transdimensional for all the abilities they plan to use on the real world when they are in The Speed Zone. But then it might actually be costed equivalent to utility.... There's not many things I out-and-out oppose in HERO but this is one. It makes about as much sense as creating a power Enter the Krypton Zone, because I really want to play Superman but he costs too many points to emulate. An imaginative speedster usually has a MP or VPP of Speed Tricks. Want to search a whole building in a second for the McGuffin? Detect McGuffin or Clairsentience, and lost things are always in the last place you look. Type on multiple keyboards? Indirect TK, Stretching that does not cross intervening space, Extra Limbs, many possibilities. Lots of speedster schticks are just levels to move things down the Time Chart. Anyone could disassemble the MegaCannon in 2 seconds, at -16 to their skill roll, and Hyperdrive does it without batting an eye.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? I'm a much bigger fan of the 4 SPD Batman who has Aided SPD against anyone whose style he has studied. It's why he's always parked in front of the Batcomputer or skulks a fight before he jumps in IMO. It's also why random mook swarms can sometimes give him a good workout, why he doesn't do as well against things that surprise him, why unpredictable unpowered lunatics challenge him successfully and why he keeps files on everyone including his friends. Against the unknown Bats is a 4 SPD, against the known maybe a 6 or even up to an 8. Again IMO. Daredevil is a "normal human" who got hit in the face with a chunk of radioactive material and suddenly got much more agile and could taste how many grains of salt were on a cracker. I don't think he's operating under any NCM constraints on SPD. A whole lot of characters that profess to be "normal humans" have a transitive event in their backstory that is pretty analogous to being belted by gamma rays. But anyway one way I address one of the complaints about SPD, the predictability and repetitiveness, is that I don't start conflicts on Phase 12. I start them on Phase 2d6, meaning most often on Phase 7 but not predictably so. Not a lot of people go on Segment 7 (but SPD 7 does!) but a whole lot of commonly occurring SPDs go immediately afterwards on Segment 8: SPDs 3, 5, 6, 8 on up. It makes it harder for people to game the Post-12 REC, a game that usually looks something like no evasion and an alpha strike then use whatever END/STUN they have left for the rest of the battle. It means the person who invested a lot of character points into SPD likely goes first but doesn't assuredly go first, while still meaning that they will almost always get more actions/Turn than characters with lower SPD. Anytime there's a major resetting of the scene I reroll the starting Segment. If I'm able to get together a group comfortable with trimming the SPDs back to nearer-superagent levels I might start using 2d6/2 or 2d6-3. Don't know just yet.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular?

Re: Order of the Stick I thought the unwritten rule was for carrion crawlers, although everyone of a certain gaming vintage seems to have a Roper tale from the Poop Rivers of the Slave Lords module.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? No GM is under any compulsion to allow every character sheet submitted. Ideally the GM does give some guidelines, advance warning and forethought so that the the players don't have to squander their creation effort but still.... I once played in a game where no intrinsic energy projectors were allowed. The GM let us know in advance that the government would co-opt any metahumans capable of generating biological energy greater than they took in, and were busy being studied off in some lab somewhere. It made for a oddly but interestingly tweaked superworld. We knew in advance, there were options (energy weapons were commercially available,) and no one showed up to the game with his freshly created Human Torch homage. For my sake, in my games, if you want to be considered an unaltered human you have to take Normal Characteristic Maxima, which I guess is similar to shiva13's SPD4 soft cap. There's lots of work arounds, there's also the pride of excelling even under a handicap and there's lots of stuff in my world that keys both off the presence and absence of NCM. Power Supressors don't work on people "without powers." Medical treatment for normal humans is readily available; medical treatment for non-humans not so much. My prospective players know in advance, they know why and they are expected to understand that if they submit a character that is "just a normal human that got a dragon blood transfusion" that they are playing a normal human that got a dragon blood transfusion and pretty much left normality behind. If the GM lets you create in the blind and seems to be vetoing your character on a whim, then walk. But if the very first thing you attempt to do in their game is try to circumvent communicated restrictions, what else can that GM expect you to continue to do throughout the game?

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? Why is Speed unpopular? Well, it has a confusing name. It probably should be called Actions or Reaction or even Face Time. The name Speed makes people confuse it with Initiative if they are crossing over from another system and that's not what it does. It's how many times in a 12 second window your character can majorly change what they are doing. It should be divested from being a movement multiplier because that drives people crazy and causes way too many problems. It should be able to be Pushed (how's that for making it less predictable.) It should probably default to a higher base value, say 6, so that +/- 1 isn't such a major capability swing. It doesn't always have to run 12, post-12, 1, etc, etc as Turns could start on any phase. Anyone who says that Speed is too predictable has not spent enough time reading the Block rules. I have had a player who didn't realize what it meant to have a Speed 2 when the other players had Speeds of 3-4. She was the powerhouse but was very unhappy with the amount of screentime she got. So we tweaked her character because if the rules get in the way of fun, change them.

Re: Adult Entertainment A couple of thoughts for magazine titles, that could go high-end to low depending on production value and subject matter: Costume Party Vigilante Domino Skintight Sidekick Hardbodies Fit Identity Bodyguard Brutal

Re: Superheroic Miniatures/Minions Kickstarter Project Nice find, Tasha. Welcome, Fergal. Constructing and painting minis is one of the big draws for my kids to gaming, and they are already super-genre fans. Fergal, if you're not already set up with ACD drop me a note and I could probably put you in touch with the buyer.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I agree. The allure of that material is the soft focus effect that this overlay technique seems to do really well. I like the way it lets you blend your character into the world rather than be entirely contained within a line, Storn.

Re: Order of the Stick Did you just make a call based on a stick figure's body language? Tarquin knows. He's practically a GMPC.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Much gentler line, more organic. Is that shading or an insignia tattoo on the face?

Re: No magic? Kinda the inverse of the Mage RPG, where technology is only viable because of consensus reality and marketing. But sure, you could do everything from ruling Magic out entirely as a source of power to having vast cosmic entities veto any hocus pocus access to skeptical inquirers refusing to acknowledge Magic as Magic. Honestly most empowered people don't, and probably shouldn't, know exactly where their power stems from anyway. Most people don't get clear cut origin stories. Set up your game's premise. If player doesn't want to abide by those premises, then say "Thanks for playing" and send them packing.

Re: Order of the Stick Malack is really starting to grow on me. Nice guy, for a priest of Nergal.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I'm working on Neal Stephenson's latest, REAMDE, and it might be his best. If you would be interested in a globe-hopping hacker thriller with a MMORPG backstory, check it out.

Re: Order of the Stick I feel it would have been more impressive if Roy had dodged rather than be knockedback through the pillars. Save some HP for the final battle!

Re: Just saw 6th Edition and got a chance to leaf through it... I think there should be two powers: Do or Do Not. Do blah damage to target, Do Not be harmed by less than blah damage. Do move blah meters, Do Not move past Go, Do Not collect $200. You might wonder about emulating powers with varying effects or efficacy. Pheh. Do or Do Not, there is no Try. Killing Attacks could go away and I wouldn't shed a tear. I'm not a big fan of using Teleport to emulate mysterious movement but the EDM method could work. I would rejoice to have DEF take over. Most of the powers that were created just to accommodate a small subgroup of genre references could be excised and instead demonstrated how to be created using more versatile powers. Steps have already been taken this direction but just baby steps IMO. But, my taste in games is eclectic, eccentric and erratic. I frequently adore the book that tanks in the marketplace. So I'm going to trust in the wisdom of Long and Watts to put out a game that will appeal to many and I'll file and sand it to fit my needs. Toolkit. And as long as they don't mandate I read every page they can make it as big as they like.

Re: Do opposed skill rolls work?