BNakagawa

Re: Sky High the movie, now with Extra Vitamin "S" (spoilers) Not crazy at all...perhaps a little psychotic, though. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that whoever has complete control over the education of the young pretty much has a stranglehold on their loyalty. Nutball dictators ranging from Hitler to Stalin to Mao to Pol Pot to Kim Jong Il have reaped the rewards of basically brainwashing generation(s) of their citizens. Try getting a straight answer about their history from a Cambodian in Cambodia or a North Korean in North Korea if you don't believe me.

Re: Anthropomorphic races Intelligence doesn't change things as much as you might think. Historically, the japanese population allowed a small percentage of the population to rule with an iron fist with the ability to kill any commoner they felt like killing. The samurai were never more than a small percentage of the overall populace, and yet they held their position for centuries. The Spartans also dominated many times their number of subjugated peoples and made their lives pretty miserable. (granted they also made their own children's lives pretty miserable, too) Mythologically, the Thebans sacrificed 20 youths a year to the minotaur, didn't they? Was it the Mayans or the Aztecs who cut the hearts out of prisoners of war to their sun god? I don't remember. Tribute and appeasement has been a solution for a majority to deal with a predatory minority for a long time. I doubt things would change if they had different colored fur or different shaped heads.

Re: Damage Reduction

Re: Damage Reduction I've never liked damage reduction much. The only way I've ever liked it is when it's tied strongly to a condition or a sfx. Stuff like damage reduction to fire or damage reduction to martial maneuvers (RSR analyze style) On the other hand, I wouldn't mind there being some sort of immunity mechanism (as long as you could only buy one form of it and it was also linked to a limited sfx or condition). It shouldn't be so difficult to make a fire god invulnerable to fire damage....

Re: What's in a Name? I first encountered the name "Mittens" as a result of a very long story. I had a friend who was an editor at Antarctic Press. They received unsolicited scripts from time to time and it fell on her shoulders to review them because you never knew if one of them wasn't going to be publishable. Well, this one wasn't. First of all, the writer, who we'll call "Ben" (his name wasn't Ben) declined to name his hero. So he literally wrote "we'll call him Ben for lack of a better name" and so during dramatic readings (they would often bring along funny stuff to cons to share at room parties) they would replace all references to the hero with "Ben for lack of a better name". It was amusing. Anyhow, the female lead, whose name I can't remember, was so memorable that evidently the author couldn't remember her either. The first three times her name appeared in print, there were three different spellings. So, in a fit of exasperation, my friend replaced all references to the female lead with "Mittens". (My friend is a big Beatrix Potter fan) Ever since, I had a Name in search of a character. Eventually I ended up with the ludicrous character that proudly bears the name of Mittens.

Re: Old School Hero Newsletters I remember a game that Mike Gray ran called BARFH, which stood for Bay ARea Fantasy Hero. He took a map of the bay area and ran a fantasy hero game set here. There were two competing schools of magic, one set in Palo Alto and one set in Berkeley. It was pretty strange.

Re: Prone Problems Prone: 1/2 DCV X2 range mod penalty to hit Hitting prone people is easy when you're standing right next to them. Not so easy when you're 100 yards away.

Re: Anthropomorphic races Not all herd animals are into protecting their fellow herd members. The vast majority actually seem to avoid helping their fellows when under attack by predators, taking a 'better him than me' approach. The typical overall strategy for herd animal survival is to breed more than the predators kill and eat.

Re: What's the most useless supplement you'd actually like to see? I just want another excuse to draw catgirls.

Re: Anthropomorphic races Bear in mind that the Chinese were backed up with Soviet supplied Jet fighters, trainers and support personnel. Just focussing on the human wave misses out on some critical elements. Compare and contrast how the Iranians fared against another Soviet supplied force (the Iraqis) and how well their human waves did without a proper air force. The answer is - poorly.

Re: Dudes, I need help building a city. Something I like to do is to peel a city like an onion and see what it looked like one, two or a dozen generations ago. As somebody pointed out, a city that is as old (or even older) than our country tends to have a very confused, organic feel to it as it has sort of happened rather than been planned. Boston = happened. Washington DC = planned. First thing you need to do is figure out which one your city is more like. Then it's just like making a character background. Figure out how the city started. Did it start out as a Spanish Mission? (most cities in California and the Southwest) Did it start out as a frontier army post? (Numerous midwestern cities) A port that was founded even before our nation? (most of the eastern seaboard) or maybe a recent development or technology (Las Vegas, others) Then figure out the most important events in the development of your city. Did it figure into something like the industrial revolution like Pittsburg? Did it get a huge influx of people as a result of WWII? Did it wither like the bulk of the rust belt during the recession? Etc. Stuff like this gives your city a little depth and history to play with. I like cities that have that lived-in feeling to them. This sort of approach almost guarantees such an atmosphere if you use these details to flavor current events and attitudes.

Re: Power Build: Speak with Animals? I do this all the time. I have a character with three points of language: cat. It isn't as useful as say another level with EB...for the most part they only want to talk about food and sleeping.

Re: Superhero Football You can't field a marvel Super-Football team without the Red 9! (he was a football player in his civilian ID IIRC) I just don't know which team he'd end up on...

Re: Your character's theme song would be? I forgot this one JadeWing - That song from NFL films that they always play when spotlighting the Steel Curtain or Doomsday or other footage of dominant defensive line play demolishing people. The one with the ominous, ponderous driving baseline....the perfect background music for a very slow, but nearly unstoppable brick.

Re: Pop Culture Hero? The Blues Brothers. For an even more painful time, Try KISS from KISS meets the Phantom of the Park.

Re: Found something today.... Oh, god. It's that article from Steve "I am a Champions Guru" Maurer. That's a name I have not heard since...

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage Berserk. Nobody around here wants to lose control of their character.

Re: Fumbled Seduction Roll catastrophic failure on interpersonal skill rolls? Take a cue from our best scriptwriters - have the other party completely misinterpet the attempt and come to a firmly held belief and entirely wrong belief that will cause the fumbler the most embarassment and/or grief. Oh, you were trying to set me up on a date with your teammate? (the fumbler's rival?) or whatever floats your boat. Fumbled seduction rolls ought to cause grief for months and months, IMO.

Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions it's actually Chiyo-chichi. Chichi is the familiar form for father. Chiyo has to be able to fly, using the power of the detachable pigtails. (also usable by others, she has spares)

Re: Introducing player to the HERO System My advice on a group introduction to the HERO system is to take as many variables out of the equation as possible. Write up some characters that the group knows well. Good candidates are the Teen Titans, the Incredibles, and so on. Write them up in simple straightforward versions with no VPPs, a multipower of ultra slots for attacks and limited levels. Balance them against a bunch of generic opponents and a master baddie. Set up a simple plotline and let them all beat on the mooks in their own styles. Allow them to play a little loose with the rules, but explain how the system would handle odd requests. Then let them face off with the master villain. Let the villain gloat and let them know that individually, they can't just blast or punch him into KOville the way they mauled the mooks. Then explain how support characters can set up targets for a coordinated attack, move through or haymaker. The good guys win, high fives all around the table. Then let them know they can write up just about any character they can imagine... as a special bonus, you can probably find some cool little figurines for such high-profile characters. Using them as figures adds a lot of visual appeal to the game. Using characters that are well known allows your players to instantly get into character and know their relative strengths and weaknesses. They'll immediately gravitate towards tactics that suit their writeups and avoid a lot of the growing pains associated with a game system that makes it possible for any character to attempt almost any maneuver, no matter how tactically unsound it might end up... use short sentences when explaining the game system. Not like me and my irritating run-on sentences... smile a lot. Let the brick get in a move through or a haymaker on some mooks. Let them roll a buttload of dice. Let the quick guys trip an entire row of mooks. Let the sneaky guys get the drop on somebody attempting to activate a massive weapon. Make sure knockback does something funny at least once. Teach them the little tricks to counting up a bunch of d6s. insist on soliloquys! $0.02

Re: Anthropomorphic/Furry HERO Resources every time I see UY, I always think of Urusei Yatsura. (It predates Usagi Yojimbo)

Re: Armor Piercing on normal attacks: Is it useful? 8d6 ap eb is a better attack than 12d6 eb when: body matters and your target doesn't have hardened defenses. Examples: knocking down force walls, breaking foci, damaging non hardened vehicles and automata. and when your target has good (over 28) defenses that aren't hardened. and when you're whittling down a really big (bigger than 8/8) entangle

Re: Combat Skill Levels....how many should you have? It's all context sensitive. If your teammates and opponents are featuring CVs below 10, then you need enough to function in a manner that fits your character concept. If your teammates and opponents are featuring CVs in the high teens, then you need enough to function in a manner that fits your character concept. Without a good fix on what the CV ranges are really like in your game, no benchmarks are of any use. $0.02

Re: Demo Game I think that using the media for leverage is always a good thing in demonstrating Champions/the Hero System. If the audience is fairly diverse, you might use the Incredibles. If the audience is teenaged, you might go with the Teen Titans If they're a little older, maybe The FF or X Men. All of these offer fairly balanced teams with clearly defined personalities that are widely known. This allows new players to jump right into their roles so the only new thing at the table is the game mechanics. If you use unusual or unfamiliar subjects, then you have a lot more explaining to do... Also, if you go with current/recent big media subjects, then you can use happy meal prizes or whatnot as your playing pieces. Using toys in demos adds a lot of eye candy which is a great way to attract attention!

Re: More Strength for Martial Artists? True, but even a 60 STR brick with 0 end on all of his STR costs less than a 20 STR martial artist with martial strike and 6 damage classes who buys up his PD to 12, rec to 12 + con/5 and 20 additional points of Stun... (50 for the STR and 30 for 0 end on 60 STR vs 10 for a 20 STR, 10 points minimum for martial arts, 24 for 6 DC and 8 points of PD, 8 points of REC and 20 points of STUN for a total cost of 80 vs 88) This brick also lifts more, jumps farther and spends less END throwing a punch than the martial artist does...