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bobadventures

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  3. The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

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    Posted

    Re: The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

     

    Howdy! Well, I'm glad you liked the beginning, at least. As for

    Molly's bad behavior... I've made an earnest effort to make my characters three dimensional without falling into the trap of "Cerebus Syndrome" (when a humor comic starts to take itself too seriously). And in the name of realism, I'm afraid I have far too often observed that otherwise decent, kind people will act like shockingly thoughtless jerks when courting one another. This is true of mature adults who should know better, let alone a naive young kid like Molly. (The usual rationalization they feed themselves is that standing someone up is kinder than "rejecting them" by properly canceling the date, when in fact the real reason they don't call is simple cowardice.) Molly is quite immature, so I don't think it's at all surprising that she chickened out, or that she handled it badly. Oddly, getting stood up is a fairly common bit of human jerkishness that I don't recall seeing addressed much in popular fiction (at least not where the reader gets to see both sides of it), so decided to write about it.

     

    (Btw, I have to admit I agree with Bob and Jean that Rocko is simply too old for her; but I don't think that excuses her for not at least letting him know she was canceling.)

     

    Aaaanyway, if you read ahead to the end of that story, (spoiler), you'll see that she does get called out on it and scolded a little bit.

     

    So, I hope that explains my thinking on the matter, and I hope you like the rest of the comic better. Thanks for the feedback!

  6. The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

    in Other Genres

    Posted

    Re: The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

     

    A detail I just thought of: I suppose that using a shape-shifting unit to change your size would affect your DEX and speed.

     

    Turning into a midget would make your movements slower, and turning into a tall person would make your movements faster, because the outer envelope is tracking itself to your real body's movements. This is why the CG version of the Incredible Hulk in the first "Hulk" movie seems so weirdly frenetic in his movements--director Ang Lee insisted on doing the motion-capture acting himself, and he's only 5'7", so his normal movements looked weirdly fast on the giant CG character.

     

    That's not really relevant to Voluptua, since her height stays about the same in both forms, but it's something to bear in mind for how the machine works.

     

    Turning yourself into a giant might also put you in significant danger of blowing away in a strong breeze. :)

  7. The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

    in Other Genres

    Posted

    Re: The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

     

    A few questions on the Voluptua writeup that maybe someone can help me with: the way I ready it Voluptua's "human" form is only illusory. Her real body is fragile in comparison, and it is what you would strike were you to hit her. The question I have is would the Voluptua still look human were she to be drugged, asleep or unconscious. That would help me determine whether it's Mental Illusions (Self-Only) or something else.

     

    (For Jim's benefit, Mental Illusions is the power to make people see things as something different than what they are. It's usually purely mental, although you can achieve the same effect chemically or holographically -- I suspect holography is what Voluptua uses because she's a high-tech kind of gal. The more dice in it you have the more convincing the illusion is. Voluptua's disguise is very convincing, even giving the appearance of being able to touch the human form. Well, it would probably even more convincing were it not for the proportions thing, but that's a different Complication.)

     

    Ah, I see you posted again while I was writing my response to your other post. Yep, as should be clear from my description in the other post, the disguise stays in place until she turns the gizmo off.

     

    (Hm, I just realized, I did show her human form taking her boots and gloves off once. Well, I guess she can wear actual clothing over the disguise if she wants to.)

  8. The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

    in Other Genres

    Posted

    Re: The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

     

    [

    I'll send you an RTF sheet for Molly. Hero/Champions uses a different set of assumptions than D&D' date=' but shouldn't be that difficult to understand.[/quote]

     

    Hi, I looked over the RTF sheet. It's very cool! And I'm glad you included her speed.

     

    I don't recall ever mentioning that she had absolute time sense, though. If I did, could you let me know where? Maybe I did and then forgot.

     

    It's very helpful. SOunds like it's still Mental Illusions' date=' with a Focus (the holographic device), a minor Advantage (works while asleep or unconscious, or until she decides to turn it off).[/quote']

     

    Well strictly speaking it's not a hologram (unlike Golly's holographic beret)--Voluptua literally does change shape, so as a human she has no wings and can't fly.

     

    I feel a little funny describing it here because I've never given the mechanics of it in the strip yet (so its status as canon feels nebulous to me until I've done that), and this is probably more detail than you need anyway, but: a shape-shifter unit is basically a portable version of the space curvature manipulating tech that makes the bigger-inside-than-outside buildings possible. It creates an envelope of distorted spacetime around the wearer, which can be shaped however you program it, but inside that envelope, your real anatomy is unchanged. The first time Bob saw Riboflavin in human form, he wondered how he could be in space without a spacesuit; when Riboflavin dropped the disguise, we saw he WAS wearing a spacesuit, but he and it had been tucked inside a dude-shaped envelope of distorted spacetime. (I'd figure the TARDIS's chameleon circuit on Dr. Who works kinda like this.) As with the buildings, the disguise can be smaller than the wearer, so you can turn into a midget, or in Volly's case, conceal your enormous wings inside it. (And as long as your disguise's mouth tracks roughly onto your real real mouth, you can eat and breathe okay.)

     

    Aaaanyway, so using it does not boost her armor class, hit dice, con, or strength (pardon the D&D-isms).

     

    Oh, and I just realized, I suppose her DEX would be higher in Nemesite form, because she has two extra arms.

     

    Sorry for being so longwinded!

  9. The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

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    Posted

    Re: The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

     

    Sure, you can send that. Do you need my actual email address? It's posted at the bottom of the comic page if you need it.

     

    I'd figure my two cents with Voluptua, if you want them, is that (in D&D terms) she has very high intelligence, wisdom, and charisma, and enormous resources; but as a Nemesite she is physically very fragile, and she does not have Riboflavin's fighting skills to compensate for that physical vulnerability--and making herself look human does not actually make her any more durable. The shapeshifting is done via a gizmo, it is not an inherent ability. And, of course, in her natural form she can fly. (I hope that was helpful and not intrusive).

     

    Thanks again! I'm really stoked that you're doing this and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

  11. The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

    in Other Genres

    Posted

    Re: The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

     

    Howdy! I'm Jim Cleaveland, the author of "The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!" I discovered your post through my stat tracker that showed some visitors coming from this site. This is neat! Thanks for making up stats for Molly!

     

    I'm not familiar with this particular RPG system, but by all means, if you'd like any additional help or information on my characters or their world, please let me know. I'd love to have people role-playing my characters.

     

    -----

    The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!

    http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com

    "Zounds and jeepers!"

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