Jump to content

AlHazred

HERO Member
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation Activity

  1. Haha
    AlHazred reacted to mattingly in Darren Watts In Hospital   
    The first time I met Darren Watts, I was in the middle of a game at Gen Con. He gave me his DOJ business card and wanted to talk to me after. He respected my work on fanzines such as Haymaker, Rogues Gallery, and The Clobberin' Times. He and Steven S. Long later offered me a job writing and editing at Hero Games. The timing wasn't right for me, sadly, but I did get to manage/edit the in-house magazine Digital Hero for its full run. 
     
    We always had a blast together, hanging out at the booth, running or playing games together, or otherwise just shooting the breeze. I usually acted as the GM Assistant in Darren's "Build & Brawl" Champions games, in which players started with a blank character sheet and dozens of books spread around the table, with Darren and I as rules experts to help players get going. I was surprised at how many first-timers we'd get, and they'd always come up with great ideas:
    a first-time player made a superhero who would push her opponents into a different dimension with no way back the planet Earth, who apparently had a secret ID, and would occasionally fight other superbeings a brain in a jar who wore a domino mask to protect his secret identity as another brain in a different jar  
    I helped run the special Champions 30th anniversary game along with Rod Currie, in which Foxbat had somehow changed the timeline and made himself an honest-to-gosh superhero, admired by millions (Foxbat and His Amazing Friends). Darren, Steven, and Jason Walters were the VIP players, along with several lucky other gamers, who went back in time to prevent him from kidnapping Steve Peterson, George MacDonald, Raymond Greer, and Bruce Harlick and forcing them to change his character origin in the original source material.
     
    For the past three years, I've loved listening to his Explain This, Comics Guys podcast, where he'd take us all on a behind-the-scenes tour of the early days of the comic book industry. Every episode I'd learn a dozen things that I didn't know, despite being a lifelong nerd myself. 
     
    Darren's passing will leave a hole in the industry and in my circle of friends. Darren was a hero.
     
  2. Like
    Wow. Talk about your blasts from the past. I'd have to check my desktop, as it has my archive on it. Next time I'm on it, I'll try to remember to look for it.
  3. Like
    AlHazred got a reaction from DentArthurDent in Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU)   
    A little thread necromancy here, but I was trying to find my Hero Designer file for this, and came up short. I looked in the Files section and didn't find it, so I probably never uploaded it. I wanted it for a Traveller Hero game I'm running, as an example of Tech Level 7 space technology. So, I rebuilt it from this description, and uploaded it.
     
     
  4. Like
    AlHazred reacted to BigJackBrass in Traveller HERO conversion to 6th edition   
    Touchdown in the UK! That’s pretty quick shipping and the books look wonderful.
     

  5. Like
    AlHazred reacted to Joe Walsh in Traveller HERO conversion to 6th edition   
    I received my Traveller HERO books yesterday and I'm over the moon! 😁
  6. Like
    AlHazred got a reaction from Duke Bushido in Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU)   
    A little thread necromancy here, but I was trying to find my Hero Designer file for this, and came up short. I looked in the Files section and didn't find it, so I probably never uploaded it. I wanted it for a Traveller Hero game I'm running, as an example of Tech Level 7 space technology. So, I rebuilt it from this description, and uploaded it.
     
     
  7. Like
    AlHazred got a reaction from Cancer in Regency HERO Resources   
    Did my own update. Linkrot has infected a lot of the links in the OP, here's what's salvageable, with a few additions that came up as I was googling around:
     
    Horatio Hornblower - The Complete Adventures (2003) (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006FD8S/103-4498404-4964630?v=glance
     
    Horatio Hornblower(1951) (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043379/
     
    Horatio Hornblower - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Hornblower
     
    Victorian Roleplaying Themes (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://web.archive.org/web/20071009211046/http://www.codepoet.org/~markw/gurps/
     
    Napoleonic Wars (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Wars
     
    Napoleonic Era (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_era
     
    Age of Sail - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Sail
     
    "Nelson's Navy" (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.nelsonsnavy.co.uk/
     
    Bryan Lavery's Books (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.napoleonguide.com/books_nelsonnavy.htm
     
    GURPS Victorian Archetypes in a Steampunk World - Pyramid Online July 19, 2002
    https://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=2892
     
    19th Century - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Century
     
    Alternate History - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_history#19th_century
     
    Boer War - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War
     
    Castle Falkenstein - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Falkenstein_(role-playing_game)
     
    Deadlands - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlands
     
    Discworld - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld#Role-playing_games
     
    English Regency - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Regency
     
    20 novels that shaped the Victorian era
    https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2021/08/best-victorian-books-era-novels-classics
     
    Gothic Novel - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction
     
    GURPS 1793: The League of Adventurers (Thanks @ShelleyCM)
    GURPS 1793 is a face-to-face and PBEM roleplaying campaign set in the England of Horatio Hornblower, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Jack Aubrey, and Jane Austen's novels. It is both historical and fantastic.
    https://mactyre.net/archives/1793/
     
    GURPS by Gaslight (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://bill-barton-games.iwarp.com/custom4.html
     
    GURPS Discworld (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.byenighte.com/
     
    Victorian RPG Resources (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.geocities.com/markdoc.geo/links/linksandsuch.html#Gaming
     
    Edo Period (1603 - 1868) - Japanese History (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2128.html
     
    The Meiji Constitution - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Constitution
     
    Lord Darcy (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Darcy
     
    Regency HERO (Thanks @ShelleyCM)
    https://www.mactyre.net/archives/regency/
     
    Metropolitan Railway (Victorian British Railways Resources)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Railway
     
    Metropolitan & Great Central Railway Joint Committee Survey
    https://www.rickmansworthherts.com/metro-link.htm
     
    Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides - Metropolitan Line
    http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/metropolitan.html
     
    The Ottoman Empire - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
     
    Romilly's Castle Falkenstein
    http://castlefalkensteinfan.blogspot.com/p/castle-falkenstein-links.html
     
    Scientific Romance - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_romance
     
    Sherlock Holmes - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes
     
    Space 1889 (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.heliograph.com/space1889/ (Heliograph's Space 1889 Resource Site)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1889
     
    Steampunk (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
     
    Voyages Extraordinaires - Steampunk Victorian Adventure
    https://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com/
     
    The Great Game - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game
     
    Victorian Society in the Americas (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.victoriansociety.org/ (Check out their magazine, Nineteenth Century)
     
    Sid Meier's Pirates (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://www.piratesahoy.net/
     
    The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess Nevins
    http://jessnevins.com/victoriana/introduction.html
     
    Myths for the Modern Age:Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (Thanks @Agent 13)
    http://www.monkeybrainbooks.com/Myths_for_the_Modern_Age.html
     
    THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES By SABINE BARING-GOULD (Thanks @yamamura)
    https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5324
     
    Swashbuckling Women of Movies, TV, Theatre, etc. (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://eldacur.com/~brons/Maupin/Maupin-Like.html
     
    The Mask of Zorro (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://web.archive.org/web/20091018194230/http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4072/zorro.html
     
    The Lady Cavaliers (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://web.archive.org/web/20050830123052/http://www.ladycavaliers.com/gallery.htm
     
    The Art of Terese Neilson (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://tnielsen.com/gallery/
     
    The Century That Made Us (Thanks @BigJackBrass)
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/01_january/25/four_century.shtml
     
    HMS Surprise - a frigate* simulator for Windows (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://web.archive.org/web/20090720081900/home.wxs.nl/~pdavis/ (.ZIP file link still works!)
     
    Gaelen Foley - Historical and Dress Novelist (Thanks @Vondy)
    https://www.gaelenfoley.com/history-buffs.html
  8. Like
    AlHazred got a reaction from BigJackBrass in Regency HERO Resources   
    No problem! Now, how about Regency Hero? Huh, nudge, nudge...
  9. Thanks
    AlHazred got a reaction from Khymeria in Regency HERO Resources   
    No problem! Now, how about Regency Hero? Huh, nudge, nudge...
  10. Like
    AlHazred reacted to Khymeria in Regency HERO Resources   
    @AlHazred
    Thanks for the plug on Victorian Hero. In the back in the resources section is a pile of links for Victorian Era info. 
  11. Thanks
    AlHazred got a reaction from Khymeria in Regency HERO Resources   
    To add to the list some important additions:
     
    Victorian Web (this should maybe be your first stop when building your campaign, it has a lot of resources!)
    https://victorianweb.org/victorian/vn/index.html
     
    English Heritage - Victorians
    https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/victorian/
     
    Leagues of Adventure - Triple Ace Games (a roleplaying game of thrilling exploration and fantastic feats of derring-do set in the late Victorian Age, using UBIQUITY engine from Hollow Earth Expedition)
    https://tripleacegames.net/en-us/collections/leagues-of-adventure
     
    Baker Street: Roleplaying in the World of Sherlock Holmes - Fearlight Games (a Role Playing Game in which the players attempt to solve some of the most baffling crimes in history)
    http://www.fearlightgames.com/bakerstreet.html
     
    Victorian Hero: Heroic Roleplaying in the Victorian Era - Hero Games
    www.herogames.com/store/product/1074-victorian-hero-heroic-roleplaying-in-the-victorian-era-bookpdfcp
     
  12. Like
    AlHazred reacted to drunkonduty in The Transmogrifier - Threat or Menace?   
    Pretty sure Calvin and Hobbes had a transmogrifying box on a few occasions.
  13. Like
    AlHazred reacted to Stanley T in The Transmogrifier - Threat or Menace?   
    True, but originally it was a two way wrist radio.
  14. Like
    AlHazred got a reaction from DentArthurDent in The Transmogrifier - Threat or Menace?   
    Even earlier, Dick Tracy carried his on his wrist!
  15. Haha
    My engineering students loved projects where they could design shoes with multiple uses.
    Jumping shoes, flying shoes, shoes that walk themselves to your destination so you can think about other things, shoes that always run the correct wide receiver patterns, shoes that vibrate when danger is near, shoes that give you inspiration, …
     
    side note:
    They became very excited when I told them about the Maxwell Smart shoe-phone. They wanted to know where the screen was.
     
     
  16. Like
    AlHazred got a reaction from Quackhell in The Transmogrifier - Threat or Menace?   
    I blame @Susano! He shared this video on Bluesky, which is a stop-motion animation done by Kevin Parry; it took 440 photos over 10 days. That inspired me to make this vehicle:
    Then I got to thinking about a character whose power is to transform mundane item into more useful items: an office chair into a racing vehicle, for example, to get away from the bad guys. Or the good guys, I don't judge, whatever makes the best story. What would be more transformations such a character could do, following the constraint introduced in the video: the item doesn't actually change shape, just gains additional functions, relevant to the item itself. Potted houseplants into animated vegetable minions? I mean, the quintessential example is the paper-towel tube that is actually a sword or lightsaber...
  17. Like
    AlHazred got a reaction from Susano in The Transmogrifier - Threat or Menace?   
    I blame @Susano! He shared this video on Bluesky, which is a stop-motion animation done by Kevin Parry; it took 440 photos over 10 days. That inspired me to make this vehicle:
    Then I got to thinking about a character whose power is to transform mundane item into more useful items: an office chair into a racing vehicle, for example, to get away from the bad guys. Or the good guys, I don't judge, whatever makes the best story. What would be more transformations such a character could do, following the constraint introduced in the video: the item doesn't actually change shape, just gains additional functions, relevant to the item itself. Potted houseplants into animated vegetable minions? I mean, the quintessential example is the paper-towel tube that is actually a sword or lightsaber...
  18. Like
    The TV remote that controls other things. 
     
    Toy versions of vehicles, weapons, animals, and so on, that act like the real things.
     
    A cardboard box into a transmogrifying box.
  19. Like
    AlHazred got a reaction from BigJackBrass in Regency HERO Resources   
    Did my own update. Linkrot has infected a lot of the links in the OP, here's what's salvageable, with a few additions that came up as I was googling around:
     
    Horatio Hornblower - The Complete Adventures (2003) (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006FD8S/103-4498404-4964630?v=glance
     
    Horatio Hornblower(1951) (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043379/
     
    Horatio Hornblower - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Hornblower
     
    Victorian Roleplaying Themes (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://web.archive.org/web/20071009211046/http://www.codepoet.org/~markw/gurps/
     
    Napoleonic Wars (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Wars
     
    Napoleonic Era (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_era
     
    Age of Sail - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Sail
     
    "Nelson's Navy" (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.nelsonsnavy.co.uk/
     
    Bryan Lavery's Books (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.napoleonguide.com/books_nelsonnavy.htm
     
    GURPS Victorian Archetypes in a Steampunk World - Pyramid Online July 19, 2002
    https://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=2892
     
    19th Century - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Century
     
    Alternate History - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_history#19th_century
     
    Boer War - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War
     
    Castle Falkenstein - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Falkenstein_(role-playing_game)
     
    Deadlands - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlands
     
    Discworld - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld#Role-playing_games
     
    English Regency - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Regency
     
    20 novels that shaped the Victorian era
    https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2021/08/best-victorian-books-era-novels-classics
     
    Gothic Novel - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction
     
    GURPS 1793: The League of Adventurers (Thanks @ShelleyCM)
    GURPS 1793 is a face-to-face and PBEM roleplaying campaign set in the England of Horatio Hornblower, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Jack Aubrey, and Jane Austen's novels. It is both historical and fantastic.
    https://mactyre.net/archives/1793/
     
    GURPS by Gaslight (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://bill-barton-games.iwarp.com/custom4.html
     
    GURPS Discworld (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.byenighte.com/
     
    Victorian RPG Resources (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.geocities.com/markdoc.geo/links/linksandsuch.html#Gaming
     
    Edo Period (1603 - 1868) - Japanese History (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2128.html
     
    The Meiji Constitution - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Constitution
     
    Lord Darcy (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Darcy
     
    Regency HERO (Thanks @ShelleyCM)
    https://www.mactyre.net/archives/regency/
     
    Metropolitan Railway (Victorian British Railways Resources)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Railway
     
    Metropolitan & Great Central Railway Joint Committee Survey
    https://www.rickmansworthherts.com/metro-link.htm
     
    Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides - Metropolitan Line
    http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/metropolitan.html
     
    The Ottoman Empire - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
     
    Romilly's Castle Falkenstein
    http://castlefalkensteinfan.blogspot.com/p/castle-falkenstein-links.html
     
    Scientific Romance - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_romance
     
    Sherlock Holmes - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes
     
    Space 1889 (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.heliograph.com/space1889/ (Heliograph's Space 1889 Resource Site)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1889
     
    Steampunk (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
     
    Voyages Extraordinaires - Steampunk Victorian Adventure
    https://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com/
     
    The Great Game - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game
     
    Victorian Society in the Americas (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    http://www.victoriansociety.org/ (Check out their magazine, Nineteenth Century)
     
    Sid Meier's Pirates (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://www.piratesahoy.net/
     
    The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess Nevins
    http://jessnevins.com/victoriana/introduction.html
     
    Myths for the Modern Age:Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (Thanks @Agent 13)
    http://www.monkeybrainbooks.com/Myths_for_the_Modern_Age.html
     
    THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES By SABINE BARING-GOULD (Thanks @yamamura)
    https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5324
     
    Swashbuckling Women of Movies, TV, Theatre, etc. (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://eldacur.com/~brons/Maupin/Maupin-Like.html
     
    The Mask of Zorro (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://web.archive.org/web/20091018194230/http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4072/zorro.html
     
    The Lady Cavaliers (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://web.archive.org/web/20050830123052/http://www.ladycavaliers.com/gallery.htm
     
    The Art of Terese Neilson (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://tnielsen.com/gallery/
     
    The Century That Made Us (Thanks @BigJackBrass)
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/01_january/25/four_century.shtml
     
    HMS Surprise - a frigate* simulator for Windows (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
    https://web.archive.org/web/20090720081900/home.wxs.nl/~pdavis/ (.ZIP file link still works!)
     
    Gaelen Foley - Historical and Dress Novelist (Thanks @Vondy)
    https://www.gaelenfoley.com/history-buffs.html
  20. Like
    AlHazred reacted to csyphrett in RIP Lisa Nadazdy   
    I'm sorry about this, Alhazred.
    CES
  21. Like
    AlHazred reacted to Blue in RIP Lisa Nadazdy   
    Hello from the ether.  I don't visit the boards all that much anymore but I remember all of you, including Lisa.  I felt a disturbance in the force.  Sad news.
  22. Like
    AlHazred reacted to death tribble in RIP Lisa Nadazdy   
    Some people you remember by their avatar. Lisa used Stephanie from Lazytown. So if you recall the picture of the girl with pink hair, that was Lisa
  23. Sad
    AlHazred got a reaction from Christopher R Taylor in RIP Lisa Nadazdy   
    Long-time posters will remember @Lisa Nadazdy who often started threads that provoked interesting conversations. I regret to report that Lisa left us just after Christmas last year, after a difficult battle with cancer. The world seems a little quieter and less interesting today. If you wish to do so, in lieu of flowers, their spouse requests donations to the Cancer Society, the Heart Society, to your local food bank, or to any organization that works with abused children.
  24. Like
    AlHazred got a reaction from BigJackBrass in RIP Lisa Nadazdy   
    Long-time posters will remember @Lisa Nadazdy who often started threads that provoked interesting conversations. I regret to report that Lisa left us just after Christmas last year, after a difficult battle with cancer. The world seems a little quieter and less interesting today. If you wish to do so, in lieu of flowers, their spouse requests donations to the Cancer Society, the Heart Society, to your local food bank, or to any organization that works with abused children.
  25. Like
    AlHazred got a reaction from Lawnmower Boy in RIP Lisa Nadazdy   
    Long-time posters will remember @Lisa Nadazdy who often started threads that provoked interesting conversations. I regret to report that Lisa left us just after Christmas last year, after a difficult battle with cancer. The world seems a little quieter and less interesting today. If you wish to do so, in lieu of flowers, their spouse requests donations to the Cancer Society, the Heart Society, to your local food bank, or to any organization that works with abused children.