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Midas

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Everything posted by Midas

  1. Re: Bushido Hero I'll add that the original TYR games version was a "build" rather than a "level" system. It was rather similar to Champions I, IIRC. I much prefered it to the FGU version. No, other than mine gathering mold in the shed, I haven't any idea where you can get a copy. (But they say you can find anything on the 'net, if you look hard enough)
  2. Re: The Profession Of Piracy? IAF focus rum bottle. Now, going with the theatre pirate, I'd say a high DEX and a skill suite to match: HTH combat (rapier for ex nobles, cutlass for lower social types), swinging, martial dodge. Also a PRE suite: Charm, seduction, leadership, etc. Hunted (Royal or Spanish navy) of course, PSY comp/Hunted "Past catches up with him" DNPC "Governer's daughter of the week" (Is that a trope or a cliche by this point?) Perk? Looks good in tight pants.
  3. Re: Science: Particles seen moving at FTL speeds (CERN)
  4. I've considered a modern fantasy where the villains are malicious "trolls" (or ogres, or bigfoot, whatever you call them locally, same critters) who are psychic and can persuade normals that the huge ape creature they see is just a man. It works well enough that few people see the real creature, but they never quite have the act down, and keep tripping the uncanny valley reflex. Our Heroes would be people who get roped into foiling the plots of the trolls. Then these two posts show up... So maybe a couple of skunk apes have gotten the gaming bug?
  5. Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? Thanks guys. It really does me good to see serious replies to my serious posts. Rep to all (except Vondy - repped him a few days ago). My guess as well. In the Traveller universe it works like that, just like bloody deaths are bedrock in WH40K.
  6. Re: Converting adventures from other systems for fantasy hero You also have to consider campaign specific conversions: For ex: "Always take a cleric." Standard advice for any D20 adventure. You *will* face undead at some point, and the cleric can shoo them away. If your world doesn't have undead, your required cleric has become a weak fighter with a few heal spells, lost half his power. More, what if *your* campaign has undead, but is closer to Call of Cthulhu Dark Ages, where religion is at best a morale prop? Are your elves long lived but mortal? Is magic rare? Big problem if you are trying to convert a Middle Earth module (particularly an ICE module).
  7. Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? Indeed. We even have nine high priests who regularly hold seances to determine the will of The Founding Fathers. On the topic: How does the rest of the group feel about the Traveller world generation system that weighted religiously dominated systems as repressive hell holes, and technocracies as bastions of freedom and light?
  8. Re: Augmented Reality Start-Up Ready to Disrupt Business Am I the only one the think Eyes of the Overworld on reading this thread?
  9. Re: More cosmic weirdness: diamond planet Repped: That works. I'd suggest the "shadow planet" from the other thread would be a good Durin's Bane. (wouldn't work cosmicly, but still...)
  10. Re: Religion in Science-Fiction?
  11. Re: Historical Games Or the option of Free Will. For reasons too long to go into here, I detest perdetermination in either the religious or the temporal form. For example, in the "genres I hate" thread, someone mentioned a player who wouldn't play in a Star Wars campaign, because "We already know how it comes out." Uh uh. First rule of every game I've ever mastered: "You (the PCs) have an open future. Only the NPC's have pre-ordained roles, and only as long as nothing has changed. Rick will always have Paris, and the girl will always get on the plane - unless you change her mind." (No, I wouldn't change the ending, myself but the players would have that option in a spy vs Nazi campaign). After the PCs change history, everything is open. "For ex, If you kidnap Bilbo before Gandalf and his dwarven press gang show up, then thngs will get *very* interesting over the next couple of centuries, but there is no Angel of Predestination keeping the plot on course: I'm as curious as you are to see how that comes out."
  12. Re: Summoning Question Heh. Hadn't really realized there was a dif. TY. Yes, the problem with XD move lets go with useable BY others, is that there is no limit on who you can summon, assuming you have the spell. It costs no more to summon say Mab The Winter Queen than it does to summon General Toot-toot. Plug in the points and go. done. OTOH, summoning Mab, if one were insane enough to do such a thing (OK, Dresden summoned the roughly as powerful Erlking, but nobody, including HD himself, says he's all that sane), would cost a huge amount of points, more than it would be conceivable that a character would be willing to pay. Going with pre 6e Independent, and getting a 67% rebate would be point crack. Cheap and feels good, but costs more than you can pay, in the long run. Rather than mind control, I was considering having any summoner invest in some diplomacy skill. Find a reason why the entity being summoned would be willing to answer: "Want some pizza?" "OK, OK, Winter Knight it is, 'for the rest of my life' ". Midas (who hasn't read Ghost yet) PS: Not sure I follow on the continent busting idea you finished with.
  13. Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? I've been considering this for the last few months. See, John Campbell had three rules: 1) No technobabble - If you need your space ship to get to Alpha Centauri in two days, *bam* you're there in two days. Lose the pages of "How hyperdrive works." 2) No sex (That one got blown away in the sixties) 3) No religion. IMO, three wasn't a bad thing, because religion wasn't relevant to most stories: Here's a standard scenario: The on-the-ropes Federation of Progressive Planets is making a last ditch, daring attack to cripple the all conquering Dark Empire Fleet. Two Space Marines are suiting up. SM1: "So, do you think the Day of Rest is a Friday, a Saturday, or a Sunday? SM2: "Heh, hadn't really thought about it." The ship shudders suddenly, from incoming fire. SM2: "What I wonder is whether the archetect of the universe can split himself into three parts or if he's stuck as a single entity." Claxons sound. "ATTENTION ALL HANDS! STAND BY TO REPEL BOARDERS!" SM1: "Hmn. That's a good question. What I really wonder about is whether circumcision is mandatory..." Ad Absurdum. See? it's irrelevant and distracting. Star Wars, and more the original BSG (Mormons in SPAAAACE!), made the question relevant to the story. "As worshipers of the Lords of Kobol, what do They expect of us?" The question of religion has practical aplications in SF stories/games - especially ones with time travel. Chronoarcheology should be a viable topic. Most religions have special events in their scriptures. Christianity is the most vulnerable: Either the Great Organizer and Director took time off to wander around Roman era Judea for three decades, or He didn't. Very wisely, everyone from Campbell forward has avoided that problem, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, just that answering the question is a story breaker, either way. Bit of a thread jack here, but how would world buiders handle such inquiries. The simplest, and cheesiest, way is to say that "Nobody knows why, but time travel to the classical era of Earth doesn't work. And no, neither does travelling to the same year on Alpha Centauri then FTL to Earth."
  14. http://atlasobscura.com/place/blood-falls I'm probably the last person on the forum to not know about this, but I thought it was cool enough to post. I particularly like the origin: 2 million year old "Primordial Ooze".
  15. Re: Aliens in Dark Champions Actually, Special Unit 2 specifically denied the existance of aliens. I always snarked "You guys don't talk to SU ONE much, do you?" Weird story: I was watching SU2 re runs while the Dresden Files show was on. Kept expecting the SU2 cops to show up and chase Murphy away...
  16. Re: Summoning Question I've been considering this concept for a few years now (back in 5e, using independant foci - something similar to Amberite Trumps) and I've never been able to decide if "summon" or "Teleport, use on others, with Interdimensional" is the more appro choice. To me, a "summon" would be more of a fictional creature (like CHC suggested) while tport presumes the prior existance of the target.
  17. Re: Russian Flying Fortress Translated directly Russkie from is? (Midas thinks the "Japanese Robot" is distinctly based on Summer Glau. What?)
  18. Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Book of Power: the Blood Qur'an Now if that isn't a Cthulhu Now scenario waiting to happen!
  19. Re: Genre-crossover nightmares A musical with Stallone in the role of The Leprechaun... "Take MY guld, will ya!"
  20. Re: Space the final frontier Slight threadjack (or major canon shift) here. But IMO, NuTrek will never happen. Because Spock Prime will put his Katra into Spock Sylar, who will go on to become the galaxy's formost expert on The Butterfly Effect. Over the next century, he'll play around with what happens when this or that event is tampered with, until Romulus is about to blow up. Then, having forewarning, he'll save many more lives, and prevent the distruction of Vulcan by a revenge crazed Romulan (what, you don't think he'd save Mom?) And then he'd go back into the past -again- because if he didn't, he'd reset the universe to the original sequence of events, rinse, repeat. But now Spock would have two lifetimes of experience, the tech would be advanced still further, and you'd have a another, different clean slate to work with. Now consider this: The players can mega-rollplay all they want: Heck, Spock could even play oracle and *tell* people what happened the last two times (I doubt he would, but he could): "OK, we're to pick up Not!Methos and bring him back to Earth so he won't die of old age - let's be more careful of how he reacts this time. And 'Just Say No' to 'droid sex." Midas
  21. Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Synchronicity? I was just thumbing through an old White Dwarf* with a review of the Heechee series. (all together: EUUUUWW)
  22. Re: Eyes up here, soldier! Actually, it would be rare, but possible. What was the Li'l Abner character's name "Stupefyin' Wilson" or some such? "Stupefying" is the approriate adjective here. But now we're getting into Xanthian Panty Flash territory, which is more of a stun effect. So let's go there. Zero end, Fully invisible NND, defense is the somewhat nebulous "immune to distraction." Limited: max stun is equal to target's CON. Short range, side effect (NCC 8-, so that it sometimes affects allies and bystanders). Make it say 4d6eb, so it will affect mooks, but a boss just shrugs it off (unless he has the lech complication).
  23. Re: All ghosts evil? According to Navaho belief, death is almost The End. When someone dies, the good part ceases to exist. The evil part lingers on to torment the living as a haunt/poltergeist until it too, vanishes into oblivion.
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