Hyper-Man

Right, but it seems as though people are telling Centriped that it's wrong to want the book he wants, when the thread is explicitly about dreaming as big as you like.

That is in fact what I do, and I assume everyone else does as well. But it doesn't change the fact that the 6e Vehicles book is referenced by other 6e books, and here we are many years later and it still doesn't exist (and is likely never to exist). It's just a less than ideal situation. And the question was, which books would you like to see published, and this is a logical one to choose.

At this point I would be happy with just getting Hero System Vehicle (for 6th Edition), even if it were only published in PDF format.
To this day one of my biggest frustrations with the 6th Edition line is that numerous books cite a sourcebook that doesn't exist. It simply is not acceptable to make reference to a book, by title, that you haven't published yet. If they had wanted to make reference to it in Fantasy Hero and other books, they should have published Hero System Vehicle first!

Inspired by a thread on RPG.net (How would you stat out John Wick?).
 

 
Enjoy!
 
Click button to view character
 
 
Click button to view updated Chapter 2 character
 

Yes. But Hero actually has some good Campaign Settings. They just stopped at the initial reference/world boiks and never actually put out any actual campaigns.
 
D&D rules (the rules)
Adventures on the Sword Coast. (Campaign Setting)
Storm King's Thunder (Playable Campaign)
 
Fantasy Hero (the rules)
Tuala Morn (Campaign Setting)
?????? (playable campaign)
 
Unless you learn Hero from another experienced Hero player/GM, it is a difficult system to conceptualize compared to pretty much anything else out there. Easy once it clicks. But not so much without a fully realized example.

X Products Multi Use Launcher
 
For all your grappling hook, net, harpoon, beer can launching needs.
 

Heard this week on the radio, and read about in The Economist: LIGO has detected a third pulse of gravity waves. As The Economist notes, gravitational wave detection is transitioning from physics experiment -- just proving that the waves exist -- to astronomy, as a technique to observe events not observable in other ways.
 
Dean Shomshak

I am sure Gygax and company read the Legends of Charlemagne. However, the paladin class was based on Holger Carlsen, the hero of Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions. Incidentally, D&D trolls were modelled after Anderson's model rather than Tolkien's.

RPG authors picking out words or names for special significance from foreign cultures is a goldmine of hillarity. I don't think anything quite tops White Wolf naming a Vampire clan the "Giovanni", though. I suppose they thought it sounded sinister and urbane. But for those of you not from Italy, imagine if you will a vampire clan titled the "The Smiths".
 
Actually no, that one works! That band might actually be vampires. Okay, how about "The Joneses". Sound scary now?
 
Mind you, this is White Wolf - the company that also had gypsies with magic stealing powers, so what do we expect? :D

Yay!

In the June issue of Scientific American, theoretical physicist Yasunori Nomura discusses an idea he's had to resolve one of the big problems with the Cosmological Inflation theory. I hope that I understand him well enough to adequately summarize his argument.
 
The starting point is that a fraction of a second after the Big Bang singularity, the nascent universe experiences a moment of incredibly fast expansion that flattens out space-time, accounting for the near-perfect flatness of space seen today. The problem is that the phase change from the inflation phase to normal expansion can't be perfect: Parts of space keep inflating, almost instantly becoming bigger than the "normal" universe. Bits of space-time keep bubbling out of the perpetual inflation, creating new universes in a "multiverse."
 
Unfortunately, it follows that in such an endlessly multiplying Multiverse, anything imaginable -- no matter how improbable it may seem -- not only happens, it happens an infinite number of times. This makes the whole notions of probability and prediction meaningless.
 
Nomura, however, tries to link inflation with another theory that seems to predict everything: the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this interpretation, every possible outcome of a quantum mechanical event actually happens, in an endlessly splitting "tree" of diverging universes. The math works; it's just hard to imagine the universe actually functioning this way.
 
Nomura also draws on a similarity he sees between the event horizon of a black hole and the "event horizon" of the observable universe. Just as no matter or energy can pass from the interior of a black hole to the outside (but information possibly can), nothing beyond a particular distance can ever affect us because it's receding faster than the speed of light.
 
Nomura thinks the bubbling multiple universes of inflation theory do not exist in a super-energetic but otherwise ordinary, larger space-time. Rather, he thinks they exist in the probability "space" of Many Worlds quantum mechanics. Even if every possible outcome in some sense occurs, they still have different mathematical probabilities. (How, I don't know. I just take mathematicians' word for it.)
 
Now, I tend to roll my eyes when another theoretical physicist says his Great Idea will Revolutionize Everything if the math pans out. Nomura, however, says his theory has produced a testable prediction: The universe should include observable areas of negatively curved space. (He doesn't spell out how one detects negatively curved space, but I presume the effect would resemble that of a negative gravitational field. Perhaps "gravitational" lensing, but the lens is concave instead of convex?) If the "conventional" inflation theory is correct and all the multiple universes exist in a wider space, any instances of negative special curvature can still exist, but the curvature should be much less -- so much less that Nomura doubts they could be detected at all.
 
So, that's one more thing for the deep-space astronomers to look for. Kudos to Nomura for producing a theory that can be tested.
 
Also, unrelated: I just heard that LIGO detected another pulse of gravitational waves.
 
Dean Shomshak

I wonder if he meant Oriental Adventures.

Sounds like a great excu...er, reason...to me!

Another limitation of the 1e monk class is that the starting at level 7 or so, the character had to fight another monk of that level in order to advance. The loser (if he survives) loses enough xp to put him in the middle of the next lower level.
 
Like 1e magic-users, monks were weak at low levels. However, they became quite powerful at higher levels. The main challenge was being able to survive that long.
 
The monk presented in Dragon # 53 (also in Best of Dragon v. 3) made the monk a little more powerful; some say the class became overpowered. However, the character didn't have to fight to gain levels until reaching level 12.

Monk's effectiveness was inversely proportional to the number of magic items available.
 
HM

I decided to make some adjustments to my collection. I am now 100% PDF-only for the old sixth edition line (not for the CC/FC line). I came to the realization that it is simply occasional reference material for me, yet people will pay good money for it. So I decided to take the money and allow someone else to more fully enjoy it.
 
Also, earlier this year I reversed my policy on third-party books from the 1e-4e era and have begun purchasing them when I can find them in great condition for an inexpensive price. Many of those books are quite good, as was said upthread. I'm enjoying them immensely.
 
I realize that the above two statements are somewhat at odds, but I never claimed to be consistent.

Good to know, GM Joe!  According to http://towerofzenopus.blogspot.com/2012/08/old-school-champions-1st-edition-2nd.html, a similar situation exists for Adventure 1: The Island of Dr. Destroyer.  There also seem to have been multiple versions of 1e Champions itself (see this older thread that I started: http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/88322-different-printings-of-champions-1st-edition/).

Are you talking about this thread?  http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/94103-damage-negation-vs-other-defenses
 
Most probably Killer Shrike's take on it located here.  http://www.killershrike.com/GeneralHero/GeneralThoughtsOnDamageNegation.aspx

Latest I have found on the Lightweight Small Arms Technology program. Panel that is lighter more Compact and longer range than the 308, and also may be more accurate than standard ammo
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/?s=Lsat

Here's a curious thing I just noticed. My three BBBs are all different, but all claim to be first printing!
 
The one on the left is the one I've always had. I bought it as soon as it arrived at my FLGS back in '89. I believe it is a true first print run book. It has held up extremely well over the years (tho I do take good care of my books).  The other two are additional copies I acquired over the years.  Notice the middle and left-hand ones have different positioning of the stock number (400) in the stripe at the top. Unseen in the photo is the difference between the middle and last volumes: the last one has significantly thicker pages.
 
They must have gone through several print runs, perhaps with different print houses, but never did get around to incorporating the errata (all show Climbing as being 9+(STR/5), for example).
 

I try to keep as small of an amount of serious stuff in my brain as possible at all times!
 
HM

This is still my favorite awesome sci fi seeming gun of all time, the HK G-11 caseless
 

The bullets load in sideways and are rotated into position, they are caseless for less weight, the gun just looks cool, and its been around since the late 60s, steadily under development.
 

As you can see, about half of the gun is actually the ammo (slides in on top) and the system to rotate it into place.  It has smaller bullets; 4.73×33mm in square blocks of propellant.  Despite its somewhat complex appearance and concept, the gun actually is simpler in action than the standard rifle, with only 6 steps rather than 8 for each bullet firing (no extraction and ejection).
 

​
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Its interesting to me that most of the rifle is actually empty, just there to give it shape and size.  Its light for its size and type, but the ammo is expensive and non standard, which makes it difficult to fit into any military.

.

Lots of great in-character quotes this week, which of course I didn't write down and have since forgotten. But this out-of-character exchange will be remembered a long time...
 
Several of us had been having a lengthy discussion about using shields with spears, pikes, etc...
Female Player: "OK guys, are you done talking about Handling Your Spears so we can get back to the game?"

Okay, I couldn't stand it anymore.  Power Crusher got a makeover!  I know, I know, it messes with the character's mojo.  But hey, the guy was a mess.  Not that this is much better but at least the colors match.  Unless of course they don't.  I really AM color-blind after all.
 
Power Crusher (Makeover)