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Midas

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Everything posted by Midas

  1. Re: Source for Comstar Traveller Hero books? Just to cover the bases, http://www.farfuture.net/ Have no idea what products they have, but they do own traveler, so I'd start there.
  2. Re: Looks more dangerous than he really is.
  3. I was thumbing through an old RQ module (Duck Tower) and one of the encounters is a chaotic with the ability to seem deadly in combat (90% about a 12CV by my guess). When the characters really fight him they discover that his CV is really a 3 (25%). A general "look dangerous" is easy enough in the traditional "Lotsa PRE or a minor mind control build" but this is too specific for that. Maybe a small mental illusion?
  4. Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America) Oh, I agree. It's just that keeping your brilliant but erratic student where you can keep an eye on him doesn't work so well either (ref: Riddle, Tom). When the inevitable Victor Frankenstein or Herbert West kicks off a story arc, Good Ol' Miskatonic (Go 'Pods!) is going to be explaining to all the other schools of wizardry just how much it isn't their fault. I can see at several problems even with "ethical" necromancy. (I'm not raining on the parade here, I'm just making sure the campaign developer has considered the implications). 1) Are there intelligent undead, or just the zombies Voltimort used to guard his horcruxes? Is having your faithful watchdog Shep still guarding the home a good idea? 2) If ghosts can be resummoned even if not resurrected, how much of a market will there be for "Expanded will and testament" interviews, etc? 3) If someone can be resurrected, what does this do to estate law? 4) If someone can be resurrected and put back on whim, what is to stop a kind of Charles Dexter Ward set up? Having say, Gregory House, sitting in a jar at in the medical research wing, available for consults, and then put away when he gets too annoying* is a possibility. *I know, I'm trying to see the downside of a "dispel House" spell myself... Hmnn, just had a vision of House as a character similar to the TV version of Harry Dresden's "Bob". Hmnn again: Having Washington Irving, Poe, Lovecraft and a host of others on call at the Lit Department...
  5. Re: Campaign Input Requested
  6. Re: Campaign Input Requested A couple of metagaming questions: Do the players know this is really a horror campaign, or is it a surprise? It depends on your players whether they will go along with the later, or rebel, but it helps for us to know. Second, how much coincidence is there in the campaign? IOW, When the ship is attacked, and then the body found, are there reasons for these two events beyond "Well, the story wouldn't work if it didn't happen that way." I was once in a campaign where we drove the Referee crazy, because he kept leaving clues out, but we assumed that the events were happening only because otherwise there would be no plot. He gave up, and we only found out at the game postmortem - big mutual facepalm at this.
  7. Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America) Are you sure you want an overt College of Necromancy? Even if you take a Defense of the Dark Arts/Know thy Enemy approach, there are still going to be Expressions of Concern from around the world. College of Alchemical Pharmacology Sheldon Cooper: "This pill is to Viagra what Viagra is to green M&Ms."
  8. Re: Horror Hero I don't really care for the Horror Hero SB, but they did have one interesting point: The difference between fantasy and horror demons. In fantasy (or superherodom) a demon is a big dangerous brick/killer. In Horror, a demon is probably a possessor. So your best hero, with his cosmic level power punch is helpless to stop a demon inhabiting an innocent body with a BOD of six. Sure, you can kill the meatsack, but they demon just laughs and grabs another ride, and gives the "hero" a nice helpling of negative karma in the bargain.
  9. Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Care to expand on how that came about? @Vimes: The first World War has been referred to as "The greatest family squabble in history." Cousin Willy vs Cousin Nicky vs Cousin George.
  10. Re: Weird Adventures -- A Different Kind of Pulp Setting Yes, that was EttBP, but you might want to take a longer look at Blackmoor. The Blackmoor Big Bad was an alien who chose the "rather than serve in heaven" option. IOW: He chose to be Emperor Stephen The Rock, medieval world ruler, than Lieutenant Petro, serving on board the nearby crashed star ship. The campaign had a bit more of a sword and blaster feel than Gygax's stuff. However, are you looking more at an early 20th century "urban fantasy" a la Hamilton, Butcher, or Lackey?
  11. Re: Dungeons, suitable for crawling or delving?
  12. Re: 5th Edition; the correct application of the Independent power limitation Compare IND items to non IND items. Say Captain America's shield. It's an OAF. Somebody can take it away from him in combat. He can lose it. His sponsors can demand that he no longer carry it. But, somehow, mystically, it always finds him again. OTOH, take Sauron's One Ring. That -2 limitation really allowed him to pump some points into all kinds of architecture spells etc. But when Gollum took the high dive, Sauron didn't get any points back, and a lot of worse things happened. Very few people would consider pumping so much of their points into an IND focus after taking a hard look at that example. I never ran a player with the IND limit, but if I had, I would have pointed out the -2 and reminded them that such a severe limitation would have major consequences.
  13. Re: Dungeons, suitable for crawling or delving? Well, to build the best dungeons, a dwarf engineer and crew is the best. They are also the most expensive. Gobbos are a lot cheaper, and almost as good: You just have to expect a few secret doors and passages for their own personal use later to be installed. Oh. Try going to WOTC archives. They have free mini dungeons in one folder, and free floorplans and encounter areas in another. For example one free dungeon has iirc seven rooms, with a minor demon, rats, a giant spider, the big bad is a super-zombie or minor wight, and you encounter scouts from an invading army as a long term plot hook. The encounter areas are just a collection of rooms that you can decorate and populate. Also, at DriveThru, look for 0one products. They do encounter areas (pretty good ones) and Drivethru has some free samples.
  14. Re: Fear Itself: How do you handle it in your campaigns? I need to add, in retrospect, that the group is probably right. I confused a psych limit with a physical complication. If it had been a physical complication, then my example would work better. People take not of this, somebody retracting an internet argument.
  15. Re: Fear Itself: How do you handle it in your campaigns? Looks like a case of miss-communication here. I have to agree with Pattern Ghost's character on the "Fearless" concept. To me, it means exactly what it says. Assuming he took Total Commitment, then someone using a PRE attack on him would be like trying to intimidate Mr. Data. "Interesting. You have great physical strength. I believe melee combat with you would be an unwise decision." Gravity affecting the internal balance of the character is another item entirely. What the GM said is literally "Your stomach is doing flip flops." What the player heard was "You are scared."
  16. Re: The Sanity Stat It's a cruel choice. Either take a SAN hit, or pay the parents to keep them.
  17. Re: Star Fleet Battles Starships
  18. Re: Star Fleet Battles Starships So, first off, how about setting the scale to one inch equals 300,000 km, and one turn equals one second? This gets rid of the Scalosians being the only effective crew for a starship problem. Keep the turn mechanism of SFB, or use SPD to change directions? Should we keep the maximum flight per turn at 30 (or 31 or 32*) inches, or can we go ahead and scale up to whatever warp the ship is capable of? *BTW, I wank this to say that 30 is .99c, 31 is .999c, and 32 is 1c. Just different enough to give a race at near light speed.
  19. Re: Star Fleet Battles Starships Heh, like plinking away at oncoming missiles. My fave in the inefficient category was when a ship had to release a type R plasma, and the only target was a hapless shuttlecraft! A year or two ago, a CSI NY ep took place at a Not!trek convention (right down to a green dancing girl. They even managed to get in a "He's dead, Jim" and "I'm a Doctor!"). At the end of the ep, the POV character asked an ethnic Greek character whether she had enjoyed science fiction when she was growing up. "Oh, yes! I particularly liked the one about the talking horse." " Mr. Ed? That's FANTASY!" "Erm? Well, an alternate history where horses developed intelligence and the ability to talk is quite possible. Now, Faster Than Light travel? Now, That's fantasy!"
  20. Re: Star Fleet Battles Starships Haven't replied to this yet, because I am just dug up my old SO about an hour ago. Lots of stuff I had forgotten. Combat is STL. The STL drive is the FTL drive crippled: If you accelerate to LS, you enter warp, so ships' speeds are rated in light seconds per five minute turn, with some kind of nerfing max speed based on ship's class. Range is measured in light seconds, haven't read beyond that.
  21. Re: Bard villain/mastermind: how?
  22. Re: Star Fleet Battles Starships Your scenario implies that the Enterprise dropped out of warp to duel with the Orion. This only works if 1) Shields do not work at FTL, or were to weak to withstand shots from the Orion, & 2) There was no maneuver in FTL. Else, why would Kirk bother to go sublight? Just make a basic evasive maneuver, then "floor it" and scoot away leaving the Orion firing forward, with the effect you talk about up thread. Re the transporter. Even as a kid watching the show first run, I said "They made a mistake going with a replicator concept. They should have used the gate idea for their transporters." Transporters are short range so there isn't a "We're short of fuel, beam in another load from Star Fleet Command" option. On the other hand, I warned the TV (it didn't listen) that people were going to ask "Why don't you just send duplicates? Why do you need to destroy the original to make a copy?" And the big one "Do you realize all the mayhem involved once somebody figures out the implications of mix n match transporter tech?" (OK, for story telling, this isn't exactly a bad thing). BTW, I never really hated Wesley Crusher. I always considered William T. Ryker to be the poster child for future Planned Parenthood. But I really liked W. Thomas Ryder. Go fig.
  23. Re: Bard villain/mastermind: how? Oh, certainly. We're just pointing out that while a few dice of mind control with the invisible advantage are the bard's most obvious powers, they aren't his only ones, and outside of tactical considerations, might not even be his best ones.
  24. Re: Star Fleet Battles Starships
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