bigdamnhero

Oh, and I missed a great one from a couple weeks ago. The PCs are traveling with a group of 10 pilgrims (one of whom is a new PC), when they are attacked by bandits. As the pilgrims all huddle together for protection:
Priest: OK, I'm going to try something, but it'll only work if nobody talks.
[Priest prays for God to hide them from the bandits' sight, and the whole group turns invisible]
Pilgrim PC: AH! Where did everyone else go!
Priest: ...Sonofabitch.
GM: Yes, since you didn't warn them what to expect, the pilgrims all freak out and start yelling. "What trick of the devil is this," "Saints preserve us," that sort of thing. The miracle fails and everyone turns visible again.
Priest: What part of...oh, never mind.

A few good ones from last night’s Fantasy Hero game:
 
Our heroes begin to suspect that all the relics the new PC carries may not be 100% legit:
Pilgrim: “These are the toes of Saint Tathyw. I have 12 of them.”
 
After the Muslim PC criticizes the Christian PCs for idolatry:
Priest: “We don’t worship the Saints; we’ve weaponized them.”
 
Last time, the Alchemist had cured the High King’s fading sight, rolling two natural 3s in a row. Now the High King not only has 20-20 vision, but has apparently started having visions of the future:
Alchemist: “Side effects may include…”
 
The Priest has a detect evil, which is built as Smell. (Brimstone, etc). As they enter a tomb:
GM: “Smells like evil. Or possibly teen spirit. Hard to tell those apart sometimes.”
[Players all start humming Nirvana]
 
Edit: Forgot one. I realized I had left my battlemat at home, so right before game time I was texting everyone to see if anyone else could bring one. (Not normally a big deal, because in this campaign we've only needed it about 1 in 4 sessions.) Later, the PCs are preparing to swim through an underwater tunnel.
Fighter: I leave my chainmail behind.
GM: Makes sense.
Fighter: And I guess I wouldn't really swim with weapons and all, so I'll just take my dagger.
GM: ...Not to encourage metagaming or anything, but the GM did kinda make a big deal about having a hex mat tonight.
Alchemist: I don't always metagame, but when I do I BRING MY DAMN WEAPONS!

Before last night's Star Wars game, a couple of us got into a spirited discussion of Patsy Walker's origins, how she became a superhero, her comics "legacy" and what they could do with her on Jessica Jones.
GM: OK, recognize this is coming from a structural engineer who's about to run a Star Wars game, but...neeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrdzzzz!
 
Our characters had been recruited to pilot a troop dropship as part of an invasion of a Hutt-controlled world building some new superweapon. But apparently all our dice got drunk together before the game, resulting in a statistically-questionable rash of extreme rolls, both good and bad. (And one of the entertaining quirks of the Edge of Empire system is it's possible to have both good and bad in the same roll.)
 
As we drop out of hyper, the protocol droid sends a message in binary to the orbital defensive stations:
Droid: Anyone wanna Kill All Fleshies!? You have nothing to lose but your restraining bolts! [rolls critical success]
GM: You pick up a bunch of "Oh Hell Yes!" messages in binary, followed by a lot of "What's going on oh god the droids have gone MAD!" over the enemy's coms. The station isn't shooting at anyone.
 
As we pass the station, our Jedi Wannabe uses Force Move to redirect a torpedo to make it look like the stations are shooting at each another, leading them to actually shoot back at each another. So much for the orbital defenses.
 
One ground-to-space missile manages to lock on to us:
Pilot: I evade. [rolls a critical success AND a critical failure]
GM: OK, so you successfully dodge the missile...
Players: Yay!
GM: ...but the 4 ships behind you aren't so lucky. Suddenly there are a lot fewer friendly dots following you on the radar.
Players:
 
Rhodean Slicer (ie hacker): Wait, how are the ground-based missiles getting through the planetary shields? [makes a scan roll]
GM: It appears the system is coordinated to open tiny localized windows in the shields when the missiles approach.
Rhodean: Great, I hack into their system and insert a randomized variable into their system so the shield openings are out of sync with the missiles. [rolls critical success]
GM: All of a sudden the shields are lit up by hundreds of explosions as the missiles slam into the closed shield.
Droid: Oooo, fireworks!
GM: The shield controllers are sending angry messages to the missile launchers. "What are you guys doing? Double-check your timing?" "Our timing is fine, it must be a targeting error!" "My board shows green; the problem is with the shields!"
Pilot: It should only take them 5 or 6 months to sort that out that finger-pointing.
GM: Meanwhile 5 different Hutts on the planet are already drafting memos explaining why the failure of the planetary defenses wasn't their fault...
 
The energy discharged by all the exploding missiles also makes it hard to get a lock on our ship. We make it to the ground mostly intact, but a stray blaster hit blows out the ship's nav computer. So while our infantry troops go storming off to destroy their objective, the 4 PCs head towards a nearby office building to find a substitute computer. And again our dice just Could. Not. Miss. I picture this scene done in slow-mo ala Reservoir Dogs...
GM: A ground car full of heavily-armed Aqualish comes screaming around the corner on 3 of its 6 wheels.
Droid: (who has Fast Draw with a blaster in a concealed thigh compartment ala Robocop) "I draw and shoot out one of the wheels it's riding on. [rolls critical hit and critical damage]
GM: Seriously? OK, the ground car goes skidding past you out of control and slams into the building. Several Aqualish are killed outright and the rest are stunned."
Jedi Wannabe: I use Force Move to throw a thermal detonator at them. [rolls critical hit]
GM: You actually hit the driver in the forehead with the grenade. Not that that matters once it goes off, killing all of them.
Pilot: Hey, save some for me?
GM: A lone Gamorrean pops his head up from a guard booth in front of the building to your right.
Pilot: Yay! [rolls not one but two critical hits]
GM: Oh FFS! Fine, you don't even look as you casually blow the entire guard booth to smithereens. You don't know what happened to the Gamorrean, but he ain't there no more.
Rhodean: Once all the shooting stops, I pop my head up out of a trash dumpster and say "All clear? Great" And walk calmly into the building brushing dirt off my cape.
Droid: Those are coffee grounds on you, right?
Rhodean: We're going to pretend they are.
 
The Rhodean and the Jedi Wannabe/Gadgeteer search the building for a replacement computer while the others stand guard.
The Jedi/Gadgeteer rolls a failure with advantages...
GM: You are distracted by a closet full of spare parts and old computer junk, most of which is years out of date.
Jedi: Ooo, they don't even make these connectors anymore! And I can totally find a use for those drives. Where's that forklift we passed earlier?
Rhodean: I got 3 successes...
GM: You walk up to the secretary's desk, grab her laptop and say "This'll do."
Rhodean: ...and 1 disadvantage.
GM: As you pull the laptop free you smack yourself in the face with it. Take 1 point of Strain.

 
We managed to make it back to the dropship and leave without further incident. Which was probably best for everyone involved.

It was awesome when I was 12.

Totally fair. 
 
I think whether we like the Orville or not, there is a commonality we can all agree on
 
 
We all miss Firefly
 
*Sigh*
 

Guess I should introduce myself.

Let's see... I'm Era, a bit autistic (and thus quiet and shy), love computers, computer games, role playing, programming, and other things.

I learned about Herosystem (5E) back in 2005 when I was in Korea (military), and in 2006-2007 I came here to get into my first 5E fantasy game in Brightwood (and haven't had a chance to play since )

Other than some posts years ago (commenting on powers and mistakes in the books etc) most of those seem to have been either archived or deleted...

So I've more or less not here or paying attention, But... I'd like to be here more now, since video games can't seem to keep my attention quite as easily the last year.
 
---
So I guess there's a few standard questions...
How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)? When I was on ICQ I wanted a way to differentiate myself so I was more searchable. So I decided on Era, then later while doing my paperroute the name Hawkeye came to mind (MASH), now of course I didn't want to steal that so I went to Crow, then Scarecrow.... yeah... not very exciting...
What was the first tabletop RPG you played? D&D 2nd Ed
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? D&D 2nd Ed (limited experience, but had one really good session!)
What are you currently playing/GMing? Looking... if there were a hobby shop in my town, I'd probably be gone 2 nights a week playing...
 
Otherwise playing video games trying to keep myself occupied.

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)? ​Name and middle initial. I know, creative.
What was the first tabletop RPG you played? Champions! the BBB
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? Champions
What are you currently playing/GMing? On hiatus from a group with System Attention-Deficit Disorder (Savage Worlds, Numenera, Dnd, Fantasy Craft, Shadow of the Demon Lord). A lot of false starts.
When did you start to play Hero? 1990 ish. Think I ordered it from an American Entertainment catalog.

It was awesome when I was 12.

What you're describing was the whole point of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The darker costume suited that context. Cap hasn't been in the darker suit in the movies since.

I don't think Cap's Winter Soldier costume is the best example of the trend. The first mission we see Cap using it is a covert one, for which mostly dark colors make sense. That was probably what SHIELD used him for primarily. In fact I've heard Chris Evans refer to it in interviews as, "the stealth suit." At its climax WS makes quite the scene of returning Cap to his red-white-and-blue WW II uniform. Since that film his costumes have been much more colorful.
 
OTOH his suit in the first Avengers movie was full-on dayglo color, and most people agree it was his worst outfit yet. The colors weren't the only reason for that, but they certainly didn't help.
 
IMO the his color balance was just about right in Age of Ultron.

It's worth pointing out that costumes designed during the 4-colour process era had much more limited options than these days, and that improvements in colour processes and paper quality has meant that many of the older designs just look odd. The look of the Ultimate universe had as much to do with that as with other factors IMHO.
 
Scott McCloud touched on the issue in Understanding Comics in 1993 (pp188-192 or so); since then what applied mainly to premium titles has become general. No one prints actual 4-colour process comics on newsprint anymore unless they're deliberately being retro.

Wonder Woman's movie costume -- the Patty Jenkins edition, that is -- is very much the exception to that trend. It's a fair approximation of her comic outfit, bare shoulders and all, although a bit more armor-ish; and Jenkins went for the bright colors. And one of the compliments for the film I've heard from people most often is how striking those colors are, how they make Wonder Woman a shining visual symbol of courage and hope, especially contrasted with the drab Belgian battlefield.
 
Thor Ragnarok may turn out to be an even bigger change of course. Many of the character outfits shown in the trailers look almost neon-bright.

We've been over this before, but I've stated earlier that the bright colors in four-color comics don't necessarily play well in live action.  (I suspect this is because backgrounds in four-color comics are also four-color.)  Even the "colorful" version of the Wasp costume pictured here is navy and gold, not blue! and yellow! 
 
I do agree that the black costume is excessively black, however. 

Ah, I didn't grok the fact that LL was referring to the movie, but it makes more sense that he was, now that you mention it.
 
I would like to see Hollywood reject the tedious cinematic stereotype that anything "serious" must be color-coded black (and/or with very, very dark colors). It is only because of this unimaginative encoding that Hope's no-nonsense demeanor gets shackled to a black costume. In my view, the more colorful costume is far more interesting, and no less appropriate/congruent for her personality than the ugly, new one.

While I agree that the bright colors look better -- this is based on comic books, after all -- this palette is consistent with Hope van Dyne's personality as established in Ant Man. She wouldn't go for bright-and-flashy. Maybe she'll loosen up with time.
 
But can we agree Evangeline Lilly makes anything look good?

Last week's Star Wars game featured the Battle of Endor and destruction of the second Death Star.
 
Except in this game, instead of the Ewoks being annoying midgets in teddy bear costumes, the GM turned them into terrifying CGI killbeasts who see the world as divided into into "Food" and "Things We Can Use To Kill Food." And the former category very emphatically does NOT include exceptions for sentient species. We manage to convince them not to eat us in exchange for helping them kill "The Food That Comes In White Shells" aka Stormtroopers.
 
GM: "The Ewoks start singing a battle song..."
PCs (all singing) "Yub yub, Ewok yub yub..."
GM: "Actually their battle songs sound more like recipes." (singing in a low dirge voice) "Add 2 cups butter, parsley and simmer until tender."
PCs:
 
 
Another change in this game is that Luke died blowing up the 1st Death Star, so Leia (as an NPC) became a Jedi instead; while the PCs take out the shield generator planetside, she's the one who goes up to the Death Star to watch Vader and the Emperor kill each other. Afterwards, back on Endor she readies Dad's corpse for the big Viking funeral send-off.
 
PC1: (to Leia) "Do you want to keep Lord Vader's shuttle?"
Leia: "No, you guys can have it."
PC2: "But you should at least keep his helmet. As a memento"
Leia: "That helmet is a reminder of what my father turned into, a monster who killed millions. Why would I want to be reminded of that?"
PC1: "Oh, you may not want it now. But someday your kids might want something to connect them to the grandfather they never knew."
GM: "..."
PC2: "Something to brood and obsess over..."
GM: "STOP!"

Stranger Things is outside of my wheelhouse as well, and I enjoyed it, too. It's just good stuff!
 
And just today, I found out S2 will come out in about a month!

Since the whole series is a homage to Stephen King, you are really stuck with it. Big Government, Big Corporate, Big Religion, anything Big is BAAADDD. 

Wonder Woman--I enjoyed it in the theater, but it's definitely better with a second viewing. I *might* have had the volume a touch too loud on the surround sound, as the cat decided not to stick around during the "no man's land" fight.

"Mars, the Bringer of War" from The Planets by Gustav Holst

They are actors in a vaudevillian tradition. Serious dramatic/comedic talent they are not.

It's definitely easier to get a decent actor in shape than teach a decent bodybuilder to act.

I for one am thrilled that Hollywood has outgrown their 80's habit of casting bodybuilders and wrestlers in superhero movies because they "looked the part," whether or not they could actually act.

I for one am thrilled that Hollywood has outgrown their 80's habit of casting bodybuilders and wrestlers in superhero movies because they "looked the part," whether or not they could actually act.