Hadn't listened to this album in a while.  It still holds up

Condolences to you and your family, Cancer.

Yikes, if that doesn't call for a MacReady-Ripley flamethrower team-up then I don't know what does!

16 hours ago, Gauntlet said:

Question, how in the hell did someone come up with an Owlbear??? I know it's from D&D but just wondering what the purpose of it would be.

Gygax had said that a cheap plastic toy was the inspiration for the owlbear.  (The URL I'd saved in reference to this and some other D&D monster origins no longer works, but it was from Enworld forums, a Q&A thread with Gary Gygax.)

4 hours ago, Chris Goodwin said:

(And I'll note that back in the 80's we didn't have software for building characters with; we had to scrawl them out on cave walls by lamplight from a lamp made out of a rock and animal fat.)

...and don't forget the trip uphill through the snow to just GET to the cave!

22 minutes ago, Doc Democracy said:

On 10/28/2023 at 8:24 AM, Starlord said:

 

Who is 'hunt demons' and 'eat your soul'?

 

Hunt Demons is Vera Farmiga from the Conjuring films.  No idea about the eat your soul but she looks familiar...

I think that's Rebecca Ferguson?

15 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

16 hours ago, unclevlad said:

OTOH, I'm generally fine with the notion of allowing a more flexible interpretation of what characteristic to use.  For 3 points, you get 9-, plus the characteristic bonus that fits what you're trying to do the best.  

 

 

If I actually did implement any of this, that's what I'd probably do, and just leave the rest alone.

This is pretty much what "Skill Rolls Based On Alternate Characteristics" (6E1 55-56) suggests.  If a particular situation calls for a different Characteristic to come into play than the normal one used for the Skill Roll, then do a quick recalc of the character's Skill Roll based on the different Characteristic.  Makes a lot of sense to me.  (Not that I've actually played in multiple dog's ages, but...)

Your guess that it's like a Haymaker is correct: maneuvers listed as 1+1 "require a Full Phase plus one Segment and land at the end of the Segment after they’re begun."  (HSMA p.6).

3 hours ago, death tribble said:

The Phantom Empire

This a Gene Autry serial with a central conceit. Gene has a radio show which he must broadcast every day from radio ranch so with the events that happen he has to get back to the ranch and broadcast each day or lose the ranch. Now there are scientists who will stop at nothing looking for radium which is nearby and the hidden realm of Murrania which is underground and uses radium. The Queen will stop at nothing to ensure no-one discovers the realm. Gene is helped by two bumbling sidekicks and the Junior Thunderriders Club. The club is named after a mythical local bunch of riders whose riders sound like Thunder when they ride. Actually they are from Murrania and the Queen uses them to get rid of anyone who gets too close to the realm. The scientists kill the owner of the ranch but the children of said owner believe in Gene and help him escape. Meanwhile the Queen tries to capture Gene while a treacherous councillor tries to seize control of the realm. This was made in 1934 and was one of the first things Autry did. it is not bad.

I'd nearly forgotten about that one - not sure if I saw the whole thing or not, but a local UHF station broadcast this serial when I was a teenager many decades ago, and I remember getting a kick out of it at the time.

Glad you're starting to get better, Duke, and I hope you really do recover fully!  I know someone who has been suffering from long-term brain fog, and it has not been fun for them.

Poor Sned...

2 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

7d6/9d6 would reflect a "whole dice only" approach.  When did half dice become official?

Half-dice and "+1" were present even back in 1st edition, although they were not explained very clearly there (they could be extrapolated to Powers from usage in the STR table and the "Weapons" section).  2E really made it clearer, however, offering specific explanations of half-dice in the "Determining Damage" section.

19 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

I am sure, that "Ultra" was the old term for "fixed slot"

Yep, exactly right.  In old character writeups, "m" denoted a normal Multipower slot, while "u" denoted an "ultra" fixed slot.  (2E Howler and Pulsar are examples of both.)

For the example of a right-handed shooter firing around a corner to their left, let's assume they are facing north, so they are firing to the west.  In my mind's eye I picture it as the shooter keeping most of their body behind the corner, still facing north, and only leaning their torso and head out enough so that their right arm (holding the gun - which I see as being a handgun) is pointing west, to the left, and can make the shot.  Their head is turned to the left (west) as well.  So their target would see the gun just clearing the corner, along with the attacker's shoulder and head.  (This is unlike your first photo above, where the shooter is using their left hand.)

For the example of the right-handed shooter firing around a corner to their right, they're now firing to the east.  I picture this (again, using a handgun), as the shooter at the very least having to lean out their torso and head much further so their whole right arm can point to the right (to the east), and probably also expose some of their left leg for added stability.  This is closer to your second photo, but I'm picturing the shooter as being a little less exposed than that.

Does that help?

I'm assuming a handgun here because Espionage! is spy-centered, and most spy characters would presumably be running around with handguns (because they're more concealable, etc.)

On 5/8/2023 at 7:37 AM, GM Joe said:

So, do the questionable-to-me items from page 35 qualify? I'm not sure. What do you think? This is repeated verbatim in all subsequent 3e games, which makes me think it's right. But to me it gets the left/right corners backwards. Or am I thinking about it wrong?

 

Quote

A character performing a Snap Shot takes a -1 OCV, and he gets his full DCV plus a concealment modifier. 
A right-handed character firing around a corner to his left will be exposed head and shoulders only, and thus get a +4 DCV. 
The same character firing around a corner to his right would have to expose more of his body, and would only get +2 DCV for being half concealed (see the Hit Location Charts)

I think the text as written in the book makes sense.  Think of the way the elbow naturally works.  One's right arm can very easily point to the left while essentially laying flat across one's torso, meaning that it doesn't have to stick out much past the wall which covers the rest of the character (excluding the head, which has to be exposed as well in order to see!).  To point to the right, however, more of a person's body needs to stick out past the cover in order to aim at those targets around that corner to the right.  (Hopefully that makes sense.  Just stand against a corner and try it and you'll see what I mean.)

Since Duke's 1200 DPI files aren't accessible, I have some 300 DPI scans I made about 10 years ago.  I'll send you a link in a message, Jason.

19 hours ago, unclevlad said:

He had...gee, thinking back...not a great voice, but he used it superbly to tell stories.

I think he tended to use more formal vocal techniques during the 60s, but then seemed to relax and just be more natural as the 70s progressed.  A distinctive voice, in my mind, and one that will sorely be missed.  (And for anyone who knows him mostly from "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", go check out the earlier "Ballad of Yarmouth Castle" from his Sunday Concert album - a different nautical disaster.)

Pariah, I didn't know that about "Come Monday", but now that you've shared that tidbit, I can't unhear Gordon Lightfoot singing it

I should have been doing something else 😅 but I went ahead and added the firearms from Justice Inc.  I put them on a new sheet, and while I double-checked the entries, you should probably take a pass over them yourself just to make sure no typos/OCR errors crept in.  There is one entry which is inconsistent but which I kept as-is from the book: the Nambu Type 11 (pg 62) lists OCV as "+2/1", and while that's probably supposed to be "+2/+1" like some of the other weapons, I didn't want to assume that it wasn't supposed to be "+2/-1".  I also left space for "Made In" info for the shotguns, although the book doesn't provide that.

Hope that's helpful!

Firearms for Hero System 2e - JI ADDED.xlsx

6 hours ago, GM Joe said:

20 hours ago, rravenwood said:

Take a look at Danger International, pp 55-56 "Special Shells".  (As a side note, I recall being inspired by that and making a selection of different arrowhead types for my Fantasy Hero campaign decades ago.)

 

Thanks! That'd slipped my mind yesterday. It's in Espionage!, too, of course. I even have a note to update the first sentence's description of AP bullets to something like, "This includes bullets with high-density penetrator cores jacketed by copper or a copper alloy." rather than the existing sentence that's (quite naturally) stuck in the early 80s.

 

A hollow-point category could be added these days, of course. I'm not sure about doing that, but it's on my list for consideration. How would you address that issue -- or would you feel a need to address it?

LOL!  Espionage! also having that slipped my mind - but then again, I only purchased a used copy of Espionage! within the past decade, and never actually played it.  We played Danger International back in the day, so that's a little more burned into memory.

As far as hollow-point ammo, I'm no weapons expert, so I don't really know myself.  Looking at 5E Dark Champions, that book suggests that such rounds do added damage (from +1 BODY pip to +1D6 depending on the caliber) as well as +1 STUNx.

11 hours ago, Cygnia said:

Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot dies at 84

Nooo!!  I was raised on his 70s albums... 

1 hour ago, GM Joe said:

Edited to add: That said, when writing up the above bare-bones system for firearm design, I was tempted to separate the weapons from the rounds, and offer stats for standard, hollow point, etc., mix and match as long as the caliber is the same, etc. Still am, kinda, but I'm not sure the extra detail would be worth it. What do you think?

Take a look at Danger International, pp 55-56 "Special Shells".  (As a side note, I recall being inspired by that and making a selection of different arrowhead types for my Fantasy Hero campaign decades ago.)

17 hours ago, GM Joe said:

 

Aha! Very interesting. So that newsletter likely came out after Espionage!

 

I guess that makes sense.

Yeah, actually HGN vol 1 no 1 mentions the availability of some dinged-up stock including copies of Espionage!, so it was definitely after the release of that game.

11 hours ago, GM Joe said:

13 hours ago, Tech said:

If Espionage had rules for using polyhedral dice with HERO system, it most likely came from an Adventurer's Club newsletter, as shown below for you.

 

Wow, I'd forgotten about that newsletter! Such an interesting take on the idea.

 

Do you happen to know when that issue of the newsletter came out?

It's from Hero Games' Newsletter vol 1 no 2, which doesn't contain a publication date, but by taking clues from things mentioned within, can roughly be placed to late 1983 or early 1984.  (It mentions Gencon '83 in the past tense, and asks readers hold off on mailing in "orders for Champions III till June first.")

8 hours ago, L. Marcus said:

stealthy Zeppelins

Is that a cover band who begins their set with James Taylor only to suddenly detour into "Kashmir"?