massey

As of this morning, I've lost 28 lbs since starting the keto diet 2 months ago. I'm very pleased with it so far. That's even with me taking a few breaks from it during that time.

This is the best scene in the movie. Gives you an idea of what power level he is.

Beginning (as far as I know) in Grant Morrison's run on JLA in the late 1990s, Batman experienced a power-up. Many fans referred to this version of the character as the "Batgod", because of what appeared to be clear favoritism towards the character. During this series, Batman pulled off seemingly impossible feats on a regular basis. It was during this time that Batman defeated 4 White Martians by himself. He had a high enough PRE to intimidate both Green Lantern and the Flash. He had plans to take down every member of the Justice League, prepped and ready to go. He was so smart that he knew every plot as it developed. Batman was always the person to tell the rest of the team what was happening. He was stealthy enough to sneak up on Superman. He has whatever gadget he needs, whenever he needs it (from batarangs that are low-yield nukes to teleportation equipment). Much of the book is basically The Batman Show.

I played in one of those, almost exactly as you describe. I bought my guy so that all of his senses Cost End to use. The GM ruled that he couldn't be Flashed unless he was actively using the sense. He had 75% Damage Reduction for Physical, Energy, and Mental. He had a decent amount of double hardened resistant PD and ED, a lot of Power Defense and Mental Defense, and a huge Affects Desolid RKA with like +50 OCV. He would have been the winner, except some guy brought out a character who used.the Spirit Rules from Hero Almanac/Hero Almanac 2 (I forget which one).

Who is Steve George?

No, we aren't talking about cinematic levels. We are talking about a superhero RPG. Batfleck performed feats that no human could even remotely accomplish. He threw guys 30 feet through the air with one hand. He threw guys through brick walls. That's not possible. But it looked cool and it's definitely one interpretation of Batman. If somebody says "I wanna play Batman just like in that movie", I'm supposed to tell him that he can't? Somehow that's not allowed?

Really liked the movie. I'm still processing it. Just saw it after work today. My prediction for bringing people back is that Cap and maybe Tony are going to have to sacrifice themselves. What did they say in the movie? The Soul Gem has a price. One soul for another. I don't think they're going to just be bringing everybody back with the Time Gem. It's going to require somebody to give up their life. I think it's Cap. He'll get the gauntlet at the end, and make the conscious decision to undo everything Thanos did. But he does it knowing that he'll die. And he does it anyway, because he's Cap. I also noticed that Vision takes on a gray look after he died. I think they repair him, and now we get cold robotic gray Vision.

I disagree. The Infinity Stones in the movie are not the Infinity Gems of the comics. Witness Thanos' hand after he snaps his fingers. The gauntlet is a ruin. Comic book Thanos with all the gems is the Supreme Being of that reality. He becomes capital-G God. As in "Let there be light" level power. While the Movie Thanos with all the stones is very powerful, there's nothing to indicate that he's the same tier as his comic book counterpart. Creating infinite resources may be beyond his power. They never say that he achieves omnipotence.

Watch an Arnold movie. Most of the strength related things that he does in them are impossible in real life. Arnold in the best shape of his life can't flip over a car. But some of his characters can. It doesn't matter what the real world restrictions are, because we are modeling fiction. Batman is the same. While the Michael Keaton or Adam West (straight 15s) versions of the character are legitimate, so is the late 90s JLA Batgod.

The most that the NCM crowd can do is point out that Batman is not realistic. I think we all accept that. So what? Batman isn't limited by what is realistic.

Because there wasn't any traffic in the cartoon. I'm talking about specific scenes, not just something generic. Generally the car would drive off down an empty street, the camera would pan up to rooftop level, and there would be Batman running just as fast as the car. Usually they would travel 5 or 6 blocks and then make a turn, and Batman would jump down on top of the car as it went down the new street, but sometimes he'd just catch up to it. Some people don't want to duplicate those kinds of scenes. That's fine, for their games. But if I want to play a Batman who can do that, it's certainly a valid version of the character.

In Batman: TAS, there were a number of occasions where the bad guy would drive off in a car, and Batman goes running along the rooftops and manages to keep up with them. Realistically, it's nutty to think that Batman can run at 60+ mph. Visually, in the cartoon it works just fine. He has enough movement to catch the guys in the car, as long as they don't have a big lead on him. If the bad guys hop in the car and drive away, while Batman is rescuing a civilian or something, then they get away. But if they jump in the car and Bats is in hot pursuit, he's going to be able to land on the roof of the car, or otherwise make it in front of them, before they get too far away. It's the "head them off at the pass" trick from westerns. Such an ability would be clearly superhuman in real life. In comics and animation it happens all the time. I think it's safe to say that "human limits" in superhero fiction are different from "human limits" in our world.

From the 4th edition Hero Rules, page 169 (not the Big Blue Book, the other one): How big a bonus (or minus) do you think you should get because you want to move your washing machine? How much of a penalty to your STR score should the GM apply because the washing machine is awkwardly shaped? This Christmas, I was getting our tree out of the attic. A Christmas tree doesn't weigh that much, even in the box. I'm not sure exactly how much is weighs, but it's probably less than 50 lbs. But it was really hard to maneuver down the little folding stairs thing that leads to the attic. The box slipped as I had it in my hands, and it started to fall. I grabbed it at a really weird angle and sprained my wrist trying to keep it from falling. Even if I have an 8 Str (I bet I have more, I'm a big guy), I can't properly use all my strength on this large box when I don't have a good handle on it. I pick up objects that are heavier than that tree all the time. But the awkward shape of it made it way harder than it would have otherwise been.

If you think our discussions here get heated, you should go over to a weapons forum and see the arguments there. People in real life can't agree what type of weapon is best versus what type of armor, or how certain weapons were used historically. The biggest problem is that we don't really have a lot of answers for some of this stuff. Even if you see weapon tests on the internet, it's hard to know if the people are using real stuff or just some piece of junk they bought at the mall. A gambeson (the traditional D&D "padded armor") is actually fairly effective against slashing attacks. It has multiple layers of wool or linen. The edge of a sharp blade may cut the thing it's in contact with, but it doesn't cut through multiple separate layers that well. Now, if you get the sword really sharp, you might be able to slice through the padding. But if you hit a really sharp sword against a hard surface (like metal armor or a shield), it isn't going to remain really sharp for very long. You're much more likely to roll the edge of the blade or chip it, compared to a sword that isn't razor blade sharp. I'm not an expert by any means, I know just enough to know that I'm basically clueless. There was a 20th century British guy named Ewart Oakeshott who created a classification system for medieval swords. He identified 13 types of sword, each one with different characteristics. In D&D, all of these would be considered longswords, bastard swords, and maybe great swords. His classification system didn't take into account sabres, broadswords, short swords, katanas, rapiers, scimitars, or anything else like that. He found 13 types of basically medieval knight-looking swords. Honestly they all look the same to me. But some have a narrower blade, so the tip can fit between the rings of a suit of mail. The wider blades are going to be a little more forgiving when you are cutting, but the tip may be too fat to fit through the small rings. Do you or your players really want to have a noticeable difference between an Oakeshott Type XII and an Oakeshott Type XVIIIc? That's not even getting into fake armor, like dragon scale or a magic ring of protection. Historically, people were trained to use all parts of their weapon. There are medieval illustrations showing people half-swording and using pommel strikes. That appears to have been a standard thing. So if you were using a sword, instead of just stabbing and slashing, you might grab the blade with your other hand (the part closer to the cross-guard that you intentionally didn't sharpen), spin it around and smash the other dude in the face with the big metal knob on the end of the handle. If you really want to do the work, you can come up with bonuses and penalties to take into account every kind of medieval weapon and armor. I don't think most people are gonna enjoy that, or know enough about it to really care. I think most players want Lord of the Rings, Conan, or Braveheart instead.

You can have characters of differing power levels on the same team. You just have to be liberal with how you define those characters and their abilities. In other words, you can't be a stickler for the idea that Batman has a 20 Dex, 4 Spd, and 8 PD. Adhering to NCM makes things harder. Batman is a lot of things, but normal isn't one of them. Superman is going to hit harder than Batman, and he can take more damage. That doesn't mean he's always more useful to the adventure. In a no-points-limit scenario, Batman is a fast martial artist with a skill list a mile long and a monstrous VPP through his utility belt. He might as well be a Green Lantern who can't fly and who isn't vulnerable to yellow. I've built literally dozens of Batman writeups over the years, same with Supes. You can pretty easily get some good representatives of the characters, in a way where neither shows up the other, if you want to.

I can honestly say, even as a nerd, I'm not sure how many more superhero movies I'm going to see. I'm starting to suffer from a bit of burnout. I'm excited about Infinity War and everything, and want to see Ant Man and the Wasp, but I don't think I've got too many new franchises left in me. I'm gonna pass on Venom, haven't seen most of the DC movies, haven't seen the last few Wolverine/X-Men movies, didn't see the new FF, and I really don't care about Captain Marvel or the inevitable Spider-Man and Black Panther sequels. This criticism isn't limited to superheroes, of course. I've missed the last few Alien and Terminator movies, and I'm not on board with more Avatar movies either. Last Jedi cured me of my love of Star Wars. Huge budget sci-fi action just gets overwhelming after a while. I need a break.

Is there much difference between a warrior buying "Deadly Strike" (or whatever it's called) to add +1D6 HKA to all swords, and a wizard buying "Fire Magic Expert" to add +1D6 RKA to all fire spells?

Put a limitation on your electrical powers that they have increased End use. 12D6 Energy Blast (fire) -- 6 End 12D6 Energy Blast (electricity), Increased End x2 -- 12 End Your electrical powers will now take twice as long to recharge. If you really want to get more complicated, you can buy some of your Endurance Reserve on a limitation "only for electrical powers". That way you don't run out of End any faster, it just takes longer to recover it. This will save bookkeeping. So... Endurance Reserve: 100 End, 10 Rec plus Endurance Reserve: +100 End, only for electrical powers. This means when you use your fire blast, you spend 6 End from the 100 in the main reserve. It recovers at 10 per turn. When you use your lightning blast, you spend 6 from the main reserve and 6 from the electrical reserve (in actuality it's the same End Reserve, it's just partially limited). So you won't run out of End any faster, it just takes longer to recover it (twice as long, actually).

Sweet tea is awesome. Unsweet iced tea sucks.

I disagree on this. Banks are insured. Supervillains who rob bank vaults would be rare enough that it isn't worth the cost to prepare against them. How many teleporters are really jumping inside bank vaults?

I've started a keto diet the last month and a half. I was always tall and skinny, but as I approach the big 4-oh I've gained a lot of weight. I hit 240 lbs and decided that was enough for me. Since going on the diet (ultra low carbs, no sugar, moderate protein and high fat) I've lost over 20 lbs. I'm going to stay on it until I'm under 200. Since going on this diet, I've really changed how I eat. It used to be that I'd cook maybe twice a week, we'd go out to eat at a sit-down restaurant maybe twice a week, and the rest was fast food. My eating habits were strictly in the "meat and potatoes" region. We ate a lot of Mexican food, and Chinese take out, and burgers and fries. There was a deep dish pizza place nearby as well, but sadly it closed down a couple months ago. I've basically eaten like a college student for the past 20+ years. On the diet, I cook at least 50% of my meals. The other 50% I will grab a salad or something from a nearby place. Lots of meals are now a piece of meat with lots of veggies cooked in olive oil and butter. I'm actually a pretty darn good cook (and I make kickass steaks, Pittsburgh style -- charred on the outside and rare on the inside). I'm definitely the cook in the house. My girlfriend is kitchenly-challenged. She's actually not that bad at it, but I'm significantly better. No weird prohibitions. Except I can't let my food touch, not anything that could transfer juices or stick to each other anyway. That's just vomit-inducing. Many meals in my home are eaten with sides on individual plates.

Breaking away from the D&D standard (which I think is a decent goal for Fantasy Hero — if you want to play D&D, just play D&D) requires coming up with your own game balance. It’s a weightier question than you might think at first, because you have to decide how your world works and what effect characters should have. Some fantasy mages are like super-fighters. The wizard is not only an awesome swordsman, he’s also got all sorts of screw-you powers that normal people can’t get. If you want to simulate this kind of fantasy story, you’ll make different decisions than if you are duplicating a different story. Some wizards don’t have access to the full D&D wizard suite. Thulsa Doom (in the movie anyway) was a warrior who could turn into a big snake. He also had a lot of followers and he could shoot a snake from a bow. Huh? And I think he had some sort of hypnotic vision. He basically had two or three good tricks that nobody knew he could do. Definitely not a normal D&D wizard. You could have some sort of zombie lord who can build a mighty army by animating the dead, but otherwise he has no spell magic at all. That’s his one magic power. For someone like that, it isn’t important for him to have all the blasty stuff, he’s just a normal adventurer type who happens to command an army. He doesn’t even need a spell. You could make him a “sorcerer” by buying undead followers just as easily. Most of these won’t be appropriate for whatever game you run. But they may be great for somebody’s game. You have to decide how you want your world to look.

I was just using Knowledge Skill because you had mentioned it upthread. Power Skill would work just as well. I'd suggest building some characters and experimenting with it to see which one you preferred. See what strikes the best balance. Another thing you might want to do, for spells that are found in game, you might require a 1 point purchase price for each one. Like buying a Program for a computer in Hero. This is a pretty cheap price, and it would give you some way to differentiate between characters who had found cool spells and those who had not. So Bob the Wizard has: 7 pts -- Power Skill: Magic 13- 6 pts -- KS: Fire Magic 14- 1 pt -- Flame Strike 1 pt -- Wall of Fire 1 pt -- Summon Fire Elemental (minor) They have to spend a nominal amount to get access to those spells, but they can't buy them until they actually encounter them (or maybe they can start with a few with GM permission). This gives them something to write on their character sheet and makes it seem like it's really "theirs". You might also consider some magic items that can boost the mage's power. A Tome of Fire Magic might look something like this: +30 End, fire magic only, OAF +3 to KS: Fire Magic, OAF the book also contains 3 new higher tier fire magic spells, and the bearer can use them without paying any points to learn them as long as he has the book and the book maybe replaces some of the spell components (no more carrying around bat guano for your fireball) A character who has possession of this book is definitely more powerful, but it's not overwhelming.

As far as our guy becoming a total badass by buying his "raise army of the dead" spell, that's for you and your campaign group to decide. You may just say "no, a spell like that is not available". But even if you buy the thing with points, you're probably spending at least 30+ points, even with a lot of limitations. It's an expensive spell. Sometimes its a staple of fantasy fiction to have these enormous world-affecting spells, so I wanted to leave that as an option. It's up to you exactly how you want to do it. If I ever run a Fantasy Hero game, I may try my system. I like the idea of people getting the starter spells, and anything beyond that is something that you encounter during the game. So yes, maybe Cloudkill is an Air Magic spell, but you have to find it in play to add it to your spellbook. It's like finding some rare weapon type. The warrior can't use a blunderbuss, even though he has the weapon familiarity, because he can't find one.

As far as the use for Power Skill: Magic, my post was kind of stream-of-consciousness and I changed my mind on things a bit as I was typing. At first I was thinking that Power Skill: Magic would just let you do basic stuff. As the post developed, I thought that maybe it should be more important. Maybe you can use it as a complementary skill for your more specialized magics? Or maybe the Knowledge Skill spell fields are far more limited in spell selection? With 19 points, let's say Bob has 30 spells. But a warrior could nearly take +4 OCV with everything for that price. And the spells are as balanced as you want to make them. Let's take a look at some standard D&D style spells. I'm going to assign some random skill roll penalties (I'm not going to stat out each spell in Hero, this is total guesstimating). I don't think having access to these would be overpowered. KS: Magic 13- Detect Magic, -0; Detect Poison, -0; Dancing Lights, -0; Mage Hand, -1; Prestidigitation, -1; Obscuring Mist, -2; Comprehend Languages, -2; Detect Secret Doors, -1; Detect Undead, -1; Sleep, -3; Magic Aura, -1; Silent Image, -2; Feather Fall, -1; Magic Missile, -2; Protection from Evil, -3; Web, -3; Detect Thoughts, -3; See Invisibility, -2; Blur, -2; Knock, -3; Spider Climb, -2 There you go. There are 21 starting spells that a mage could know that let him do obviously magical things that aren't too unbalancing. Most of these are utility spells that will only get used in rare situations. Now let's say he buys fire magic because so far he's a little light on offensive abilities. KS: Fire Magic 14- Light, -0; Flare, -1; Spark, -0; Scorching Ray, -3; Flame Blade, -3; Burning Hands, -2; Fireball, -4; That's 7 more spells and it gives him some more versatility and more offense. There's a little bit of overlap with stuff he can already do, but he's not doing too much that will have a really big effect. Most of what he gets just changes the special effect, or changes the area on what he can already do. In Hero, Scorching Ray and Magic Missile are going to be pretty similar. A minor change in special effect, a little more damage, but that's about it. This version has 28 spells total, for a grand total of 13 points (so far). But again, most of these are only useful in special situations. As far as real combat goes, he's got Sleep, Magic Missile, Scorching Ray, Burning Hands, Flame Blade, and Fireball. Which really just means he's got a few different RKAs with different advantages on them, and an HKA. Plus Sleep.