Lord Mhoram

Re: I made the GM cry....

You ignore that not only were the players playing teenagers' date=' but that this scenario was played years ago and that therefore the players themselves may have been teenagers with limited life experience.[/quote']

 

 

Well that I'll comment on. We were mid-late 30s at the time this was played.

 

We mostly play for escapism. So in a serious "every choice has a consequence" kind of game where the worry and concern over things might have gone into Balabanto's approach is not what we are after- We tend to be a more "summer popcorn movie" game. The kind with classic tropes about lots of property destruction which the heroes give not much thought to (aside from using reward money to help rebuild), where secret identities can be had with a change of manner and a pair of glasses. Where the sea monster shows up as an extra menace to get bopped on the nose to retreat - and worrying where it came from, was it an endangered species or following it back to it's lair - isn't the point.

 

We've had some dark stories (the introduction of Genocide for one) - but they were clearly noted as such by the GM beforehand.

Re: I made the GM cry....

The solution is to locate the mentalist and punch him in the face, and then force him to free the people under whatever form of duress the heroes feel is necessary, or to find a more powerful mentalist that can easily un-do what this guy did, not to flick a switch and hit a reset button.

 

The situation irritates me because the catch-22 is supposed to be a moral dilemma. "How do we stop this guy without causing any harm to his innocent victims?"

Now I understand where you come from.

I don't agree. What happened fit the tone of the game. And the GM and players were fine with that.

As for the Mentalist himself- we never found him, and never laid eyes on him. He was our Dr Doom, Lex Luthor - evil behind the scenes mastermind who's schemes we stopped.

Re: I made the GM cry....

ant kid.

 

It really depends on the length of the campaign. The reason why I say this solution is generally BS is because people don't think about consequences before they do them, and most campaigns don't really last long enough for consequences like this to come into play. It's what I refer to as "I know the campaign is only going to last six months to a year, so I don't reasonably expect any fallout from taking this action."

Game is 7 years on, and going strong.

As I se it, the solution fit the campaign tone, and the GM was okay with it - that is all that matters.

We did some rehab (all the money we captured during the op went to the people who got mindwiped - both for counseling, and as sort of a "weirgild" for the lost memory paid by us for the bad guy in absentee ). The drug itself was causing up-powering of supers and when they got it they went berserk (or normals got is and went low level super and same reaction)- and we had just hours until city distribution - so we had to stop it right away of the city would have gone up in flames.

Re: I made the GM cry....

The situation is described as having occurred in a Teen Champions game (or at least' date=' with teen-age characters). When was the last time you observed a teenager making a decision on adequate information but inadequate experience? As an NCO in the Air Force, I have seen teen-aged Airmen do things that I, as an experienced troop would not. If the results aren't perfect, well, after all, they're teenagers. They'll learn. Eventually. [/quote']

 

Yeah. We were the "New Champions" and all teens and as I recall (after all these years) it was one of our first adventures... if not the first period. It was in the first three for sure.

Re: I made the GM cry....

I'm not sure this qualifies as a creative solution. Sure the guy loses his entire cartel' date=' but you also create a situation where in the long run, some of these people might be very angry at you. As much as this guy tampered with their minds, there's also their psychological well being to consider. If they don't remember anything before working for the drug dealer, is that really any better than rehabilitative therapy and deprogramming? See, I wouldn't award any addtional XP for this, because a few years down the road, when one of these guys becomes a supervillain, YOU'RE the guy he's gonna remember, and you'll be the one who's the target of an unexpected and terrible revenge in a couple of years.[/quote']

 

True in an Iron Age or Gilden Iron Age, but the tone of the game is very 4 color, where this kind of thing isn't always addressed. Everyone blamed the bad guy. The solution was well within campaign tone.

Re: I made the GM cry....

It might be a original way, but is it the Heroic way?

 

I and my characters would consider a 6 week mindwipe a serrious damage to innocents, let alone for dozen of innocents....

When the heroes have anything like "code of the hero" or "protective of innocents" I would remember them to act upon it and not go the easy way.

Also, who says a Mind Wipe would affect the Minds Enslaving/Controll? Just because I alter your memory to "you have been mind controlled until now" does not means you are under my mind controll right now... (unless that is the SFX for a Midn Controll and it archives the nessesary effect of course)

It was clear that the mind wipe also erased the control. Mostly the bad guy didn't want anyone to see the lackey's memories of him. It was clear from the people that had the mindwipe by accident that there were no afteraffects - so having the decision we did was a heroic one. The game is very 4 color (innocents are no longer mind controlled, or doing bad things - a win. Followup from heroes to help - a win.)

And re-intigration was handled by the team, and their extended help (money, connections etc.)

Re: The Last Action (Super) Hero

For Cat - Written recently by Johns/Busiek with Art from George Perez.

For the movie- probably somebody Asian, because she is a martial artist (likely one the geek hate things) Michelle Yoah or Zhang Ziyi - because honestly the martial arts is more important than look for her movie.

Re: The Last Action (Super) Hero

I read this to the wife (Black Cat's GM) and she said "save this" - this plot looks like it was designed for my character, and now she wants to run it for me.

Re: The Last Action (Super) Hero

Black Cat would heal the child first (Healing, Transform, whatever was needed) - then after she recovered would go after the villains. If the youngster was interested, she'd train the girl in martial arts and ch'i* while she did so. She'd also find the villain causing the problem and stop them. 'Cat having retired as a senior member of the world's equivalent of the JLA/AVengers retired to become an agent for an inter-dimensional agency. - this is exactly the sort of thing that her normal missions are on. If it took years, she'd do it.

* part of her schtick is that anyone can learn to do what she does, so she trains people all the time.

Re: I made the GM cry....

No' date=' he didn't because it [b']would not have worked[/b] as I've pointed out before.

 

Snip awesomesauce

 

Repost

Fantastic.

Re: I made the GM cry....

Wow.

I noticed I got a rep for a post that was 7 years old and wondered what?

Never had a thread resurrected from so long ago before.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Love Best of the Best.

What I like about it is that it turns most martial arts movies (especially American ones) on their ear. Martial arts are for defense - this is stated time after time in movies. Then the hero goes and kicks butt and has a victorious ending. In this one the main character held off on revenge.. lost the match, and won a huge personal victory.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Jet Li versus Billy Chow in Fist of Legend. Also' date=' Jet Li versus Jackie Chan in [i']Forbidden Kingdom[/i]. Or, Jackie Chan versus Benny "the Jet" Urquidez in Wheels in Meals.

For pure technical ability and choreography the opening of the fight between Phillip Rhee and Simon Rhee in Best of the Best - which is still my favorite martial arts movie of all time.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

watching (well rewatching) some old favorites - my WWII trifecta - Kelley's Heroes, Dirty Dozen and Great Escape (and there are 2 actors that are in both Kelley's and Dirty Dozen, and one common to Dirty Dozen and Escape.... no one in Kelleys in is Great Escape sadly....)

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Jonah Hex.

Inception (finally)

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

"Caught Somewhere in Time" - Iron Maiden

Re: "Neat" Pictures

This from the girl driving an SUV? Reminds me of the young lady who said to me the world would be better off if all humanity died. I offered her a knife and said 'You first."

That is my reaction to anyone calling for a decrease in population by drastic means. "You first"

I took a test about carbon footprints that was on a eco friendly board - My score was 3 1/2 earths - i.e. if everyone lived like me it would take 3 1/2 planets to support the whole population. My first comment was "Time to start looking at colonization then" That went over really well.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

Last week I read 1632 by Eric Flint. One of the best books I've read in years - it's going on my "Shelf of renown" with the Donaldson, Tolkien, Harry Potter, F Paul Wilson and Jim Butcher.

It's a little over 10 years old, and I was only prepherially aware of it. The wife and I went used book hunting and I picked it up. Read it in one day, and bought the next 5 books.

The story is this - a West Virginia town (about 7 miles in diameter) gets transported to Germany smack in the middle of the 30 years war. It's about them trying to survive, and trying to make life better for those around them. The characters are interesting and the tone is great. The author wanted to have regular people in this situation, and does a good job. With an entire town (including the local power plant and high school) coming along they have a strong base to operate from. The characters are very down to earth American - and that really shows through the book - it's a West Virginia Mining town, and very down to earth characters.

Being a sucker for both transworld fantasy and alternate history I was hooked.

The other really interesting thing about this setting is that he initially intended for it to be a stand alone novel, but it got a lot of response on the Baen boards. So he decided to do a sequel (co written with David Weber) - and while that was going on the community on the boards were analyzing things, and doing fan fiction. Some of it really good - so he published a short story collection - half from established authors (David Weber and Mercedes Lackey among them) and the other half being the stuff that came up on the boards.

Then he started publishing an e-magazine of the stuff on the boards (fiction, and some analytical bits). And the stories that came up there (and from published authors) began influencing the novels. He created the world, and co writes most of the novels, and created the bible for anyone who wants to write in that universe - and now he says he is much a co-ordinator as author.

The setup has so many possible characters this really works. And as he said in an authors note - alternate histories run the risk of the author getting hung up on a specific thing that as time goes on pulls the quality down, but real history is messy - so by having a community to use, it alleviates that risk.

Overall the story was really good, characterization was amazing, the hook concept was fantastic, and I really enjoyed the tone.

Re: Looking for conversion material

I looked over some Exalted books - the Charms there are interesting. Likely pick some of that up when I get paid.

Re: Looking for conversion material

http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/FantasyHERO.aspx

I always point folks to this page, plenty of ideas and inspirations on all manner of Fantasy Hero stuff

Yeah I know about the site. I find the spell layout somewhat hard to read, so I don't look there that much.

Re: Looking for conversion material

Another idea from the D&D world is the Book of 9 Swords (also called Bo9S, or Book of Weeanboo Fightin' Magic ). It was basically the D&D sourcebook for anime-style super swordsmen, but the "powers" they have are basically spells, and most would fit well with martial magicians or Ki-powered warriors.

 

cheers, Mark

I have that one. Thanks for the recomend it works. I have a bunch of talents converted from D&D feats and Rolemaster Background options and talents. A good bunch of stuff in that book (and 4E powers) work well that way.

Historically Bo9S is interesting as it was the testing ground for Encounter and Daily powers that became the basis for 4E.

Re: Looking for conversion material

Thanks. I can't believe I didn't think of the Arduin Grimoire. And Pathfinder is a good idea, I have a bunch from 3rd D&D, so I didn't even think of what might have developed over there.

As for getting stuff that is already converted, I'm not actually looking to keep the spells as they work in the original systems, more using them as inspiration for the same effect using my magic system. So even the FH Grimoire spells I am rewriting to fit my world. The mechanics are not difficult for me. I'm mostly looking for ideas of spells that make me go "Ohhh coool idea"

Also Posted in General Roleplaying

I love to build and tinker with Hero. Most of us do I suspect. I'm also a collector I like lots of stuff from other games, that I read, or buy for fun or conversion.

I have a fantasy game I've been running off and on (and putting together off an on) for 4 to 5 years. I will likely be adding stuff for decades to come. It's a pleasant pastime for me to sit down and build spells and talents and such for the game. I do have a very specific set of magic systems for the world, so I pretty much build all the spells (The players are fine with that).

I have about 100 pages of spells built (no art, average but not large font.).

A lot of said spells are conversions from other systems - Rolemaster, D&D 1st - 3rd edition spells, D&D 4E Rituals, the FH Grimoires of course, Gurps Magic, Mythus.

What I am looking for is advise on what books in other systems that have a good laundry list of spells or abilities for PCs that I can convert. I don't have a good used game shop around here to be able to flip through to see what I need; so I need advice on which books are good as I have to get them online.

I know there are tons of Charms in the various Exalted books, and I would suspect Runequest would have a bunch, but I don't know which books specifically to get.

What other resources are there?

Re: The Last Daredevil asks for your help

Blackcat would go and help in transition, and train in tactics and combat the new recruits.

Ballistic after doing some checking would help some financially

Meeb would go for the fun of it, and to go over the falls. Repeatedly. For the tourists.

Terminal Velocity might go, but is busy with his own team. however he is a speedster, so being on two teams isn't all that unusual.

Sift would like to help out, when things calm down. She just accidentally activated the artifact that will allow the kings of Edom to escape, so she is busy straightening that out.

Re: Jokes

How do you know it's a drummer knocking on your door?

The Beat Speeds up.