Midas

Re: The Lost Room Hero

Re: Gargoyles HERO Interesting variant. Note canon of course, but hey, if it works... How much of gargoyle biology and culture was kept? His wings keep him aloft with Handwavium, I presume. Does he gain mass when stone? Sounds like an interesting hobby. Does he have a psych lim or something on it? Which brings me to my next "How to run a garg campaign" question. Wiseman took a cop out on garg religion, of course he didn't want to provoke the fen, their parents, the Professionally Outraged... So he just made an off the cuff remark about "Gargoyles don't think about religion much." First thought: How could any intelligent creature living in 10th century Europe not think about religion? Secondly: This makes the gargolyes much more alien -less human- than they have been shown to be. It was suggested that a supposed gargoyle religion would be similar to Druidism, with rituals of renewal, due to their own sleep/regen biology. Another possibility would be something similar to Eastern Philosophies like Bhuddism or Taoism. Or perhaps Diabolism? "We look like Demons, we are called Demons, we are persecuted as if we were demons..." I s'pect Demona's outlook would be much more common than what was shown. Midas

Re: Gargoyles HERO Hey lurker! UNTRUE! The Hero system can accurately simulate any invironment or mythos! Thou shalt not question the abilities of Hero! Which did Thomas write? Midas

Re: Gargoyles HERO OK, lets use Thailog for the hunted, and let us presume his "SI" (his very existance) is known the the PC gargs. Thailog has a good PRE roll and a fair number of PRE skills; Bureaucracy, st wise, that would give adds to his detective skill. One rule book somewhere talks about someone with a high enough detective skill cracking an SI. Another suggests that any successful roll not always be a yes/no: For instance, making the roll by zero or one would merely give a small clue: "It is significant that the Gargs hang out with a police detective" not "They are nesting above the cop shop." That would be making the roll by 10 (that would be using the impossible roll rules). So say Thailog is rolled as a hunted, and makes his detective roll by 3. He notices that there is a pattern to the "demonic crime busters." The busts that take place minutes before dawn are all located within a nine block square. The Trio is patrolling one night in one direction, and Goliath and Hudson the other. They see "Goliath" perched on a rooftop nearby, and swoop over to see what he wants. Thailog, not wanting a fight right now, sprints for cover, to lose the Trio. Later, Brooklyn braces Goliath about what he wanted, and Goliath denies ever being where he was "seen." The gargs make a basic deduction, and realise that Thailog is up to something. But only on a good roll do they realize that he is scouting to locate them. Not quite sure what you are talking about here. Could you expand?' Midas

Re: The Lost Room Hero Re #1, though the tropes would matter: Mundane Fantasy with Horror Metagenre would make it even *more* like Friday the 13th. While a Superhero comedy would have an entirely different vibe. The first would call for lots of angst, no good choices -merely the best of the bad, etc. The second would pretty much rule out having to stat the objects: If it is funny, it works. For ex, The Crayon: Makes a hole anywhere a circle can be drawn. Obviously it works best on suspension bridges high over gorges... #2: Aren't we all? Seriously, even if you are runing a game in an "approved" universe (MERP, EPT, etc), following canon as best you can, it is still not going to be an exact duplicate of the original campaign. Why not introduce ideas appropriated from whatever works? #3: Unless possibly one of the Objects themselves is similar to the glasses: "Supress any other Object's power within 20' ". That doesn't seem like something the Lost Room would have, but hey...somebody could prolly come up with a dynamite scenario using that exact Object. Midas

Re: The Lost Room Hero

Re: The Lost Room Hero

Re: Gargoyles HERO Mythologically, sure. Zeus beat up his father, who had beat up *his* father. And in Hero or Runequest terms, it is certainly possible to round up experiece points beyond what dad ever did. Well, according to fanon, and perhaps canon, Oberon refers to the others as his "children" in the regal sense, not the literally paternal. I'm not sure which way I would go. Are the others merely younger, or less powerful, or perhaps Oberon and Titania togather have enough strength to make everybody else sit down and behave? OTOH, Interesting idea if Oberon is the literal father. He and Titania can quote the Bible at the others: "Respect your Father and Mother!" Midas

Re: Gargoyles HERO Well, 1st Season is on DVD for $23. If you want to watch the show on Disney, start with the five part "Awakenings" premiere. It gives you a good scorecard about Black Hats and White Hats (Though the creator made a specific point about all the characters having some shades of grey). Here's the Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargoyles_%28tv%29 Here's the annotated ep list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gargoyles_episodes (There be spoilers there, Matey) After Awakenings, I'd go with Temptation, Deadly Force, and Long Way to Morning. Deadly force might not even be available over the air, it was a controversial episode: The gargs sneak into a theatre and watch a horse opera, then one of them visit's Elisa afterwards. He tries to live out the action, putting Elisa in the hospital. If you ever catch Enter MacBeth (the next episode), now you know why Elisa is on crutches in that ep. Second Season: Definately see Mirror. Leader of the Pack is good, and the City of Stone mini (four parts). There are two "breaks" in the series, where things changed behind the scenes. Not too long after City of Stone, the "Avalon World Tour" began. Three of the characters disappeared and were taken willy nilly around the world for the next TWENTY TWO episodes. It drastically expanded the size of Gargverse, introducing a horde of new characters. Personally, only two or three of the eps in that arc are worth watching (IMNSHO): Heritage, and Ill Met by Moonlight. I personally enjoy Cloud Fathers, but that is just for fun. After the World Tour, Gathering Parts I & II should be watched. I personally enjoy Turf, for the comic scenes, and Vandettas. The latter is usually considered one of the poorer eps, so YMMV. Season three: Um...yeah. In a nutshell what happened with ST:TOS and Andromeda happened to Gargoyles. Creative differences led to all the intelligent, imaginative people behind the scenes leaving, and a bunch of hacks writing an unintentional parody. I would say not to see any of them unless you are hooked on the series, but if you want to have one to avoid the most, don't watch Ransom. The others in season 3 at least have some interesting scenes between the dreck, but Ransom...prolly the worst ep of the entire series. Midas

Re: The Lost Room Hero OK, following up: Who why how? How would someone in the Lost Room mythos know about the map or notes? The Hero McGuffins are too new to be on the list of either of the Object Dealers' lists, for example: And would they be interested in branching out? Is there even a market for simple McGuffins as opposed to the weird Lost Room Objects? Why would the Keyholder want the map or notes? Just coincedence, or is he someone involved in the Hero Conspiracy? What would having someone swipe the items gain? Not arguing, just asking for expansion. Midas

Re: Santa Claus is coming (and man, is he ever pissed!)

Re: Here Comes Santa Claus? I go with "Quantum Claus." On December 25, the Sleigh et al appears wherever it is expected, and doesn't where it is not, at the same time. Midas

Re: Gargoyles HERO I think the two questions go together: for that size, they would need to have hollow bones and be quite fragile inside to "realistically" fly at all, much less glide, and I still think that's pushing "realism" quite a bit But they are, obviously, quite durable; and, so, I think it appropriate to refer all questioners to the same SFX that justifies nonhuman creatures who turn to stone during the day and revert each night (usually) - magic For the PD question, I think that's simply "tough as stone" regular (resistant?) PD (or Armor) with the SFX "attacks that deal no damage, bounce". I think I'd just leave it as a deflect. If the deflect fails, then they take damage as normal. So you're saying that gargoyle shed stone is high grade Handwavium ore? I think the amount of realism depends on whether you are running a heroic or superheroic campaign. Gargs to me was a standard low power Champions world: The basic gargoyle template would be a flying (Glide, dammit GLIDE!) low end brick, and if you go that route, "It works because it does, that's all." pretty well pure handwavium battlesuits etc. If you go the heroic route, whether DC or FH, then it might matter a bit more. For Ex: Who, exactly, does Xanatos own in NYC to be allowed to have his own militarily armed followers? In an SH campaign, it wouldn't matter that much, the megolamaniac villian *always* has a personal army. But Heroic characters could either try to root out the corruption, or buy permission for a personal army themselves. Here's one for you, who (what?) are the Children of Oberon? They are much more than your generic elves, in effect they are/were gods. Anubis for example has the power to kill anyone with a wave of his hand: RKA, personal immunity, based on ego, does damage, area effect: horizon? And Oberon is the strongest of all. And he personally laid siege to Xanator/Manhatton. Midas PS: Prolly a good idea to make Brooklyn the only time traveller, and let it go at that...

Re: The Lost Room Hero I'm a sucker for crossovers, always have been, but I don't see where the two plotlines would overlap. For example, there is a fanfic where Nick Knight (U. S. Army Medical Corps) meets Duncan McLeod (Underground Railroad conductor) during the Civil War. Then they meet again in the 1990s. Both do a double take: Knight {He isn't a vampire...} Duncan {He isn't an immortal...} And both try to figure out how the other has lived so long. Where would you have the Heroes cross paths with the mystery of the Lost Room? Midas

Re: The Lost Room Hero At first blush, it looked like Comb Dude had rounded up some exp and actually bought off the disad. However, in spite of my earlier off the cuff reply, I think that awarding "negative exp" is against the spirit of Hero system. I think I would go with an IND focus, built however, with the cumulative transform (sane to obsessed) side effect. Each time it was used, the user must save vs EGO or take say, one point in DV/transform. The transform would go from minor to strong to total as the Object was used. The lead character made all his saves because the Key was really a distraction to his overridding psy dv. To reverse the transform, one would need to save vs the cumulative transform, with all the negative modifiers, to give the object away. Thus Comb Dude was effectively cured when he gave away the Comb, freely. Midas

Re: Gargoyles HERO Though I have to admit that I got a laugh out of one ep where they changed the animation so that Elisa was guest played by Jessica Rabbit. Re the OP, there are some problems with GargHero: The Hero System warns against taking Phy Limits that make a character powerful in certain situations, helpless in others (They specifically used the example "Powerful at night helpless by day". I think they were thinking of Vampires, but it applies to Gargoyles as well.) Elisa would be pretty helpless by herself in the clock tower if say, Xanatos in his evil incarnation, were to drop by the clock tower With a dozen robots. That is, if she wasn't home asleep in the first place. Another problem is that in Gargverse, the Timeline is unchangeable. You can go back in time, but only to start a sequence of events that has already happened. IMO, this is very hard to ref ("OK, you are now in the past: All characters are NPC's, this is what you do...") How much Handwavium do you want to have available? I personally prefer to us it as little as possible, but of course tastes differ. The ref can simply declare, "That's the way it is. Don't worry about it" or some answers can be spelled out, at least in the ref notes. For example, how much do Gargs weigh? Their wings ("We don't fly, we glide") aren't much bigger than their bodies, implying they weigh almost nothing, else they would fall like... stone. Do they weigh the same during their day phase? If so, they should have been able to be carried around like balsa models. If they gain weight to become stone, where does that extra mass come from? What kind of PD do those wings have, anyway? In Hero terms, they have "Deflect, All" but watching bullets bounce off them... A few other questions (remember, the AFDG newsgroup really was active when the show was on, many questions were chewed over), but I'll save them for another post. Midas PS: Thanks, now I have the Theme running through my head: Lah la la la la la la laaaaaa lalala Ever notice how sim that theme is to the original BSG theme?

Re: The Lost Room Hero Yep. That was the show I was thinking of when I saw Lost Room. However, TLR is better written (as a mini series -YMMV if it becomes a series), and the Objects aren't the obvious Monkey Paws of F13: Only one, for example, is a direct weapon (the microwaving pen). The objects seem to develop an obsessive quality the more one uses them, almost a "Ring Lust." Three characters off the top of my head had a definate "Mine! MINE!" outlook. One, The Weasle (Likely to be forever known as George the Pharmacist), even points out a group of desperate derelicts as "Object Losers." At first I thought that he was mispronouncing "abject" then I caught on. In Hero terms, anybody who "owns" an Object gets a Psy Crock based on possession of an Independant focus: And gets to keep the Psy DV after the IND focus goes bye-bye. Quite a bit more subtle than the "You can use the Antique as long as you are willing to be a spree murderer" vibe of F13. Midas

Re: Gargoyles HERO Indeed. Let us file the 3rd season with ST:TAS, all those HL movies that came out after the first, etc. Gargs was an interesting universe. I am on record that the show went downhill -not at the third season- but when the "Avalon World Tour" started. It went from being a small enclosed SH universe to something of a bad Marvel clone. IMHO of course. Midas

Re: Cylon Resurrection In fourth edition, there was a clunky new set of "spirit" rules, where the spirit was kind of an astral duplicate that went anywhere needed. Thankfully that odd set of additional rules was dropped in 5th edition. What was done then, and you can still do now, is buy the entire body as an IAF, personal, indestructable. Just like any other focus, when the focus is distroyed (I'll get back to the indestrutable in a mo), it is out of play until the conditions of its replacement are fulfilled. In this case (DMO time later) the new "focus" is in the activation tub on a regen ship/home planet/etc. It is FX wise, more like the focus is unusable rather than "distroyed" thus the indestructable, since the character can always come back: The "Mt Doom" of the focus is either being out of range of a Holy Jello Tub, or being totally distroyed instantly (like Gina-Six). I would rule that to be negative body in an instant. Just reaching negative body (like the Six that Starbuck fought) won't do it. This enforces the focus concept, and also -via metagaming- discourages Gina stunts. The "focus" sitting on the Regen ship is out of play (as is the player) until the ref decides the character can get back with the group. As a side note, the idea of "personal focus" allows something similar to the Boomer/Athena effect. They have similar memories, and effectively identical "foci." So if somehow a "midswap" occured, they could use the other's "focus" without problems -exept for the sudden change in locations, they might not even realize that a mindswap had occured. However if a glitch occurred, say an 8 was misdirected to the body of a 6, she would have to learn to deal with a far different sized focus. It might not be as hard as learning to walk on 6" stilts, but she isn't going to jump out of the jello tub and straight to the pilots seat of a Raptor, either. Shaft. Some interesting ideas, but a bit more complicated than I would go. YMMV Midas

Re: Genres HERO GAMES may want to avoid (intended to be humorous) Warez Haero

Re: Populate a 17th century galleon Nice, Al Hazred. Wonder where you came up with that idea. ;D Since we're on the subject: The First Mate has always had a strange look about him, bulging eyes, receeding chin and hairline and such. Now he has taken to his quarters, keeps himself comepletely covered and hooded when out, and has constant nightmares. The rest of the crew can only understand one word "IA!" Midas

Re: Pulp Comic Books http://www.bigheadpress.com/roswell?page=1 Roswell is set in an alterate 1947, where Texas is an independant republic. The Saucer Crash landed in Texas (because New Mexico is still part of Texas). Americomics did a lot of reprints and continuations of late 40's "normal" comics (as opposed to their superheroine stuff). Sky Girl, etc. Midas

Re: (Character) "Dakota Joe" Anders Interesting character. It might be interesting to have him fall in love with a spitfire (think Mareen O'hara's character from McClintock, or Molly from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), and let the PC's handle the "they are hopelessly in love, but to stubborn to admit it" situation. Midas

Re: Time travel Dr. Who style - Hero Universe This leads to a very interesting scenario idea: Posit two friendly Timelords. Timelord 1: Say, would you mind going to Earth, year 2005, Christian reckoning, and look around for a bit? TL2: Not at all. Why? TL1: I'd rather not say. TL2: Ah, one of those situations, eh? TL1: ermmm... TL2: OK, I'll see what I can do. So Timelord 2 (head of the gang of PC's) rounds up her friends, heads off to 2005, to see what TL1 screwed up, carefully without checking ahead and thus "setting" the events. Midas

Re: Genres HERO GAMES may want to avoid (intended to be humorous) The Ultimate Silly Thread (Someone had to say it)