Maelstrom

Re: shadowcats vehicular Insanity Shop: P-3C Orion

Wow. I miss the Orions, when they used to overfly 101 out of Moffett. It was nice having an NAS in your back yard.

Re: Old Immortal RPG

I still have a copy of Immortal: The Invisible War. I liked the idea that you could play a person with another human being as his spirit animal. Never actually tried to PLAY it -- like Nephilim, I picked it up mostly for the source material.

How would you model synchronicity in a DC game? I have this image of a sniper waiting on a rooftop waiting for the proper time for his shot, and then a highlight around a falling leaf -- suddenly the leaf falls nearly straight down, and he takes the shot.

What do you think?

Re: Cool Guns for your Games

I hate the fact that in California I can only have 10-round magazines.

So I got a .45. Nothing better than 10 rounds of .45.

Re: CthulhuTech?

And their poor telepaths keep telling them, "The humans are unarmed! The humans are unarmed!"

Re: How to Build: A Timelord

Stats for the sonic screwdriver?

Re: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

I liked Maria Bello better than Ms. Weisz.

Re: Spider Monkey

In re: Spider Monkey -- does he do enough damage to stay afloat in your game? If not, you're asking to be frustrated.

Re: New HERO GM, Fantasy Campaign Advice

This isn't a HERO tip, but a DitV one: Say yes, unless you have to say no. And build the social map of the area -- for RP purposes, it's more important than the physical map.

Ok, two.

Re: Fantasy Art Thread

Love the curved swords. Hate the straight ones. Nice paladin, Storn

Re: A Multiform Power Suit

I built this once for a high-powered game. Intense skill-base to powered suit. More suits would just be gilding the lily, I think. Spending that many points on an "outer space suit" when Life Support is so cheap? Unless you want a Hulkbuster, with all points into armor, STR and CON with nothing left over for extras. Scout suit, with all the senses and high speed? Marauder, with the big guns? Could get expensive without necessarily being allowed as overpowered.

Re: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Brendan Fraser seems custom-built for pulp. That pose he pulled halfway through opening the sarcophagus is a classic. And of course he uses two guns, why not?

Re: Cool Guns for your Games

Here's a nice one:

http://bastardsinc.blogs.com/bastardsinc/2004/05/vss_vintorez_si.html

Re: Bold crooks...

Germany deserves a better class of criminal . . .

Re: Genetic Engineering?

Y'know, when the first TRAINS were invented, it was thought that people would DIE if they went faster than 30 mph. 'Strue. Can't make this stuff up.

So, at first, genetic engineering is feared and hated, until ONE PERSON goes forward and does it and survives. Then the rich take it over. Then, eventually, everybody gets into it.

And then . . . something better (such as nanotech or even picotech) comes along and acts like the automobile or the plane acted on the trains -- reducing their use to that which is the most common and makes the most money (like freight hauling) while PEOPLE go by cheaper and more-convenient private transport.

Then, gas goes through the roof, and private transport doesn't look so good. Nano-tech might show problems at the most basic level, or what have you. Good ol' tried-and-true genetic engineering to the rescue!

Or, they're both replaced by Picotech, which is a concept I completely stole from Freefall (http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01395.htm), a fantastic webcomic.

"Maybe for now, but one day building with natural atoms will seem as quaint as living in log cabins."

Re: The Practice Effect

They didn't always revert; there were certain special practitioners who could "put something of themselves into it" to permanently improve an object. An application of the Independent limitation?

Yeah, the L'Toff could do this, by sacrificing portions of their lives. Days, weeks, years for high-level things. Maybe a combination of aid and a portion of earned xp. But . . . more complicated . . . getting woozy . . .

Re: The Death Note and How To Stop It

Forgot about Rem's book. Forget me own head next.

Re: Hudson City as Gotham

"And now, a magic trick. I'm . . . going to make this pencil . . . disappear."

yeesh.

Re: Cool Guns for your Games

No worries, not offended. I'ma go shooting again this weekend. I wish I could go every day, but ammo costs and other logistic problems . . .

Re: Cool Guns for your Games

Except that it feels like a toy, shoots like a toy, and comes only somewhat assembled... like a toy. Gaps in the body, sights belonged on a cheap airsoft gun, and it only takes their stupid pistol mags. If you want it to have higher capacity than the normal pistol mag, you have to buy iffy after-market mags and hope for the best.

 

I shot one, I wasn't impressed. This was several years ago, maybe they're better now, but I didn't like it when I tried it. Getting it in .45 made for some pretty pathetic choices in mags as well, which is what I'd prefer.

Sorry. I'd hoped it would be a solution for you. I saw some of the H&Ks at the show yesterday. Wasn't interested in a carbine, since I had just bought my XD (.45) and found it very easy to shoot, both by me and my oldest daughter.

I had looked at carbines originally to enable my daughters to fire a major pistol-caliber round. My XD was easier to fire than I thought. It's really an awesome gun, and I can only say -- XD XD XD!

Re: Is this Dark Champions or Regular Champions?

Moon Knight? DC

Cap? C

Iron Fist and Power Man? I'd say Champs -- almost no deaths in the comic, and they both act pretty Silver Age about it. Orson Randall . . . he's DC.

Re: Let's Do Lunch

Maelstrom -- Aaron Eckhardt would be perfect. And repairs cost money.

Re: The Practice Effect

That was my first thought, CT, but the effect . . . um . . . affected . . . everything that someone used, from their houses to their clothes, shoes, backpacks, and so forth, which is a lot of points. After something is not used, the effect slowly fades until the object returns to how it was made in the beginning, which was usually pretty crappy.

Re: The Practice Effect

Other disadvantages: "Same physique as the Baron" -- more likely to be enslaved

"L'Toff" -- better at *practice* but more likely to be etc.

Aid would be easier to manage, because a partially-transformed item would most likely be worse than the original. Also, the gun that the hero brought only got marginally better -- possibly the minor aid the new owner had couldn't add much to an already high point value.

Re: Modern Swordsmithing

I have.

 

Seriously? You're advocating blocking with the EDGE, the thinnest and most delicate part of the blade? That's a good way to notch your sword. The only way you can get away with this is if your sword is considerably harder in the edge than your opponent's sword.

 

Examination of recovered medieval swords (you know, swords that were owned by people who were professionally trained to fight with them, as a then-current weapon of war) shows that they routinely blocked with the flat.

Problem is, of course, that Japanese swords were very sharp, but brittle in the cross-section. Blocking with the flat would break it. The deal with bokken is that, being wood and fairly tough, they could easily break your katana, if you tried blocking with the flat. Modern steel might change that, of course.