Xavier Onassiss

Re: Another Successful Playtest

Re: Another Successful Playtest Yeah -- later in May/June I'll be returning to Armored Gopher for another session to playtest the Kazei 5 GenCon adventure.

Re: "Ode to Tito" - songs to play Star Hero to. Submitted without comment:

Re: Really, Hero Games? Two Rulebooks? I just checked out the new Dresden Files RPG: vol 1 & 2 are about $90.00 together. Yes, the 'buy-in' for a new RPG system/setting has gone up in price. Overall, the industry's production values have gone up over the years as well. Sure, the first Champions book I purchased in 1980-something only cost about $15.00 (in 1980-something dollars, of course!) but it had no color artwork except on the cover, and I'd swear the print quality looked like it had been mimeographed.... Yes, you do get what you pay for.

This past Saturday, I road-tripped to Armored Gopher Games in Urbana, IL and playtested my Star Hero/Terracide scenario for GenCon. A total of five players turned out for "Memetics of Treason", most of them Hero System noobs. I know of at least one forum member who's signed up for this event at GenCon, so I won't post any spoilers here -- I'll just say that the playtest went quite well. The players found their characters interesting; always a good sign. The story kept them engaged (one said he was on the edge of his seat through the whole thing. ) and the pacing was just about right -- I had a couple of optional encounters I didn't need. Hopefully at GenCon I'll step things up a bit and fit them in. I did find a few things which are going to need minor adjustments, but that's exactly what playtesting is for, so this is not a problem. Overall, it was a very good four hours of gaming -- and I'm really looking forward to running this scenario again at GenCon! Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread Come on now, be honest...who doesn't like a good wardrobe malfunction?

Re: As A Hero Gamer, Do You Use The Surbrook's Stuff Website? I'll admit my opinion is biased, but since you asked; I use the World Books section on a regular basis. (And you're hosting a ton of my stuff there, so...yeah.) I've also made good use of many other sections.

Re: Total NEWB question - Throwing Badger I'm curious about the Throwing Badger power construction. Please, do tell.

Re: Weapons/equipment out of nowhere I've occasionally used a +1/4 advantage: invisible to normal sight when not in use, for small weapons which were easily hidden. If you've got a special effect which will hide any weapon regardless of size, you could expand that to include more senses. But it would still only apply when the weapons aren't in use, so the value of advantage would be lower than normal -- GM's call.

Re: Character that keeps on going, even if in pieces... If it's not under the character's control, I'd go with a trigger advantage. If you want extra attacks for the "pieces", buy Autofire as a naked advantage linked to the Stretching.

Re: Character that keeps on going, even if in pieces...

Re: Character that keeps on going, even if in pieces... Having a limb removed but still able to act, under the control of the player (if not the actual character) is similar in some ways to having Stretching with the 'Does not cross intervening space' advantage. Make it Persistent and Inherent, possibly megascale it so range isn't a factor, and throw in some Automaton powers, and... it's really late and I might not be making sense. Does that make any sense?

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread Computer viruses: 0 Xavier Onassiss: 1

Re: Humor: Duct Tape Character Don't forget 3pt Skill levels with Mechanics, Survival and Weaponsmith (aka the Duct Tape skill group). And PS: Redneck!

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Heh. He reminds me of Tony Donuts from Callahan's Lady. Very nice.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Because a few of you liked the first version of Chainsaw Bunny, here's the "new and improved" version: I shall now find another disturbing project to waste my time. Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

There's a very cool (pun intended) photo essay in Wired today about various countries' Antarctic stations. Most of them are beautiful, except for the American south pole station, which is so butt-ugly they photographed it with a lovely aurora overhead, apparently hoping to avoid breaking the camera. IMHO, however, nothing in Antarctica can top the ugliness McMurdo Station. There's a fascinating book called Big Dead Place about the Dilbert-esque, Catch-22 shenanigans at McMurdo. If you want to run a Star Hero campaign with 'dark humor' about exploring alien worlds, check it out.

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread I'm just gonna skip ahead to the part where it says you suck, okay? That's the generic "you." Not anyone in particular. Sheesh.

Re: "Ode to Tito" - songs to play Star Hero to.

Re: International Everything is a Spaceship Day OH YEAH I GOT TO GET ME ONE A THOSE!!! I like it.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine The masking feature isn't 100% perfect. It works better with the back of the hand facing the viewer. I'll most likely change the weapon's color in the next version. Something about the proportion/positioning of the arms doesn't look quite right. And possibly change the pose so the hand/weapon masking looks better!

Re: Strength Minimum

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Koyotie shouldn't be a problem. The one I'm gritting my teeth over is Chrysine. That'll be an interesting challenge. And BTW, I finally have a good pic of Chainsaw Bunny!!!

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine