Duke Bushido

Oh, Dude! Tell me about-- I mean, yeah, you're probably right...

Honestly, I _love_ that! Don't think I can talk the wife into understanding why we need it... . Also don't know the size of the honeycomb (honeycomb big? Yeah-yeah yeah!. Oh man... I am so _deeply_ sorry for that....) But it's not quite as portable as a lot of us need it to be.

Oh my. Didn't go well?

You're timing, Sir, is amazing. I was just this very afternoon wondering if that was ever going to see print.

Hello, Phil! Lord, it's been _ages_ since I've seen something from you! Let's establish the hated fact up front, so we can all get the boo-ing and hissing out of the way and go straight to the pitchforks and torches: Martial Arts in the HERO system is flippin' _pointless_. It is absolutely _nothing_ more than the allocation of Skill Levels and damage elements. The newer the edition, the more pointless it actually becomes: between hardwiring concepts like naked advantages, extra damage with links and triggers and yadda-yadda- and even making penalty skill levels a real book-approved thing, Martial Arts has even less place in the system then it ever has before. Sure: it's cool to say "I use my held action to do a double flying piñata smasher then use my phase to do a triple ultra-sault and bring my heel down in my trademark Gopher Divot maneuver!" At least, I'm told it's cool. Martial arts in the HERO system, from it's inception, has been nothing more than paying points for special effect, and it flies in the face of everything else in the entire system. Maybe it was popular when it was introduced because "Oh sweet! Now I can build a Ninja!" or maybe it was taken as inviolable because it was yet another Gospel according to Allston. I don't know. But it's unnecessary and overpriced, and always has been. Buy ten maneuvers, half with some CV adjustment, half with some extra damage elements. Compare that to a couple of skill levels with H-t-H and a couple of dice of STR "Not for lifting." The entire thing is screwy, yet we are unable to let it go. The mechanic is applying skill levels and PSLs and some extra damage: the same thing you do if you _don't_ have a martial artist or a martial maneuver; the difference being you didn't pay by the trick.

Well, I had a second shot with the brand, a tape measure, etc. But it seems the photos are too big. I'll resize and repost later.

More on-the-cheap hex maps. I happened into a Dollar General a couple nights ago (needed a couple straw brooms cheap enough to be disposable). As I looked about for the brooms, I stumbled across a couple of rolls of shelf paper (I know they're marked at 2 bucks, but they rang up at a buck and a half, so....) Did a 3x5 piece of a material we're just going to call extra-thick, super-dense pasteboard, and ended up with this. Still have a roll left. The hexes are 1 inch plus a tiny bit (though the white borders make them look larger). It was the cheap, extra-thin stuff, and as an added bonus, it came with a pair of wrinkles already installed, but they were pretty minor. Going to run it through a couple of youth group games and see how it holds up. Depending on how well it holds up, I may make a version on poster board or similar so I can roll it up for transport; not sure. I definitely like it for "stone floor" situations, and I'm strongly considering making an assortment of shaped map tiles out of it for quick-and-easy castle plans; depends on if I can find more of it. At any rate, a myltiple-use item that's cheap enough to throw away--always a plus in the gaming hobby!

Right. I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that there were some 4e paper dolls out there along that style. I preferred them for durability (though it was hard to tape them on the inside if you didn't want tape wrapped around your character ). Unfortunately, customs on that style were completely out of reach, as I can't-- and I can't stress this enough --- _CAN'T_ draw. At all. In spite of decades of wanting to, and practicing every day since grade school. (I'm fifty-nine now, if that gives you an idea of the uselessness of practice when there is no hint of innate ability. I'm not entirely sure why I still practice, except that it's just a habit now....) I'm afraid not. The SJG ones (the ones I use when I have to make my own) are a simple A-frame or "fold-over. Essentially, the front side is your character portrait. Copy the portrait, flip it feet-up, then affix it head-to-head just above the portrait, black it out (to indicate the character's back, and maybe put a name, initials, or a symbol to somehow ID it, if the silhouette isn't unique), fold it over between the heads, make a "tent" style stand-up. Properly, you'll have bits at the bottom to fold under and tape together to make a "base." affix your weight (if desired) atop this base. Tell you what: This is not one of the old 4e sets (not the 4e-era ones that I distinctly remember as three-sided; they didn't survive long enough to make it into the affordably-priced home scanner and printer age, I'm afraid. I don't remember who put out those three-sided jobbies; it might have been Marvel, now that you mention it), but similar to the Steve Jackson style ones. Took a while to find one that said it was okay to use (the bottom of the text says "use as you will" at least so long as you don't claim it's your work. I'm just going to link the page, not the piece itself (because it's not mine, either ). https://www.deviantart.com/crimsonguard477/art/Suikoden-II-Paper-Minis-Page-1-385675179 As you can see, these can be folded up tent -style, or folded flat an inserted into one of those plastic clip-type bases we remember from our first game of Chutes and Ladders or Candy Land. Or some fashionably black ones for us slightly-older folks: https://www.amazon.com/Litko-Game-Accessories-Miniature-Circle/dp/B00RKJV5BW/ref=sr_1_12?gclid=Cj0KCQjwpPHoBRC3ARIsALfx-_IwDjUBoM3JAr38E2kIJkLGDsYHlCmZb21k_EQP_aaDCOXQhhwrLVMaAo69EALw_wcB&hvadid=174259819422&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1015545&hvnetw=g&hvpos=2o1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=3036463514201656653&hvtargid=kwd-11701253684&hydadcr=4094_9338726&keywords=paper+miniatures&qid=1562168523&s=gateway&sr=8-12 Though while I was searching for usable examples, I stumbled across these: Metal bases, thick plastic plates one inch high. I may get a set or two of those for commonly-used (player character) paper dolls to promote longevity, and maybe make a nice "souvenir" after the game for new players (FEH! The youth group and my own kids are the first "new players" I've had in over a decade! ) Both of those things are-- well, they're just awesome; that's what they are! And be aware, as the current arc for my youth group involves an invisible assassin, _that_ idea is getting _stolen_, Dude. Duke

Ohhhhhh.... _That_ might be the problem.....

Call of Caligula.

You know, I'm going to tell this story. I haven't told to many people since the days it was going on, but I'm going to tell it now. Many years ago, I lived in Savannah (can't recommend it). I won't tell you his name, but at the time, he was THE FREAKIN' MAYOR OF SAVANNAH! He was, in the most proper of respectful southern speech, a big man. I mean he was a _real_ big man. Getting less respectful, he was about five-foot-eight. In every possible way you could measure him. I mean (another true story), the day he got elected a morning DJ got fired for playing the Fat Albert theme music and voicing over with "Hey-hey-hey! It's Fiiiiiiiiirrrssst Last name...." (it helped that the syllabic rhythm was identical) When I was single, after I got out of the house-moving business, I was so used to being on the road and working long hours that I found myself with "too much" time on my hands, so I took a part-time night job working at a Home Depot. I worked three nights a week doing tool maintenance. Liked it okay: nice and quiet and I was left to myself. The mayor came in four or five mornings every week. At first, I'm thinking "Oh cool. The mayor hangs out at my second job. Neat." Eventually I noticed the way the faces of the "normal" employees would have that "oh, no!" look on them. So here he was, the grand poobah of the Jewel of the Coastal Empire, and people hated to see him come in. Turns out he was an early riser. He liked to get breakfast at the god-awful locally-revered twenty-four restaurant across the street from Home Depot. Then he came across the street to Home Depot. Why? Because we (at least in this store at that time) had a nearly-full-time custodial staff that did nothing but spend the day cleaning the restrooms, the break room, and the kitchen cabinets and countertop display area. I mean seriously: they'd finish one, move on, move on again-- it was all day. The restrooms got cleaned almost exactly every four hours starting at 5 AM (an hour before opening at that location) and going on until closing time at 9 pm. They came in about an hour before the mayor did, and they were finished with the men's room just about the time he came in. It was like having a brand-new twelve-seater all to himself. And every single morning, when he left, there was a clogged toilet. Every _time_. He wasn't shoving in plastic bottles or anything that wasn't his own byproduct, either. He just had way, _way_ more byproduct than a commercial high-pressure flush toilet could handle. My mind _still_ boggles at the idea of that (and no: it's _not_ something I ever considered double-checking!), but I have never felt more sorry for a group of guys in my life than the morning cleaning staff....

Name me one other planet with gummy bears. I dare you.

Crap, I totally forgot the best one of that night! That'll teach me to try to save it for last, won't it? In an attempt to deceive the would-be assassins, the team has hatch a plan to make the assassins _think_ they have taken their charge to the Lockdown super-prison for the ultimate in protective custody. Half the team and their charge load up onto a well-guarded and armored boat and head for Lockdown. Once beyond the horizon, Kinetica, carrying the target, leaps off the boat and runs across the water back to the mainland. As she approaches, a voice on her coms yells "Inconspicuous! You're headed straight back to the marina! How do you expect to hide the fact that you're carrying him right back to shore?!" Kinetica: "Uhm... drag him between my knees and make jet ski noises?" Took _several_ minutes to recover from that.... Duke

Wow! Thanks, guys. This seems to be the most popular thing I've ever said......

Don't blame you a bit. The price is _right_ for ultra-smooth pre-painted (pre-primed, if you're going to paint your own) metal minis. I don't have a lot of them (maybe 40 or so?), but I take a peek every few weeks when I hit a store that might have them. If you're going to paint them anyway (and I haven't yet, but some players have painted the ones I've given them), then all that really matters is more poses, right?

As far as stand-ups or tokens: Some years (cough cough cough decades cough cough) back, we grew tired of using dice and coins for counters and started using the actual movers from board games. Turns out nowadays you can order those things in bags from Amazon and eBay, if you're interested in a low-cost thing. Eventually someone got the bright idea hang a paper flag on them with character's names on them, and a sharpie "dot" on the base to indicate orientation. That led to running to the library to make miniaturized copies of character sheets then coloring in the character, cutting out the portrait blocks (the early editions-- up to 4e, actually) had character sheets that included mannequins upon which you could draw your character. Actually, there was a 5e product of grey-scaled "3d" mannequins for the same use, but the grey scale made it a bit awkward. But I digress... (Not like me at all, is it?) ) Anyway, we used rubber cement to tack the miniaturized portraits to the game piece movers and we had our "miniatures," or as we took to calling them, "Paper Dolls." It wasn't too long after that we stumbled across the Steve Jackson line of paper miniatures ( "Pasteboard Heroes," I think they were called? ) and thought "Hell, we can make those." By then, our library had a color copier. We'd miniaturize the character sheet, cut out the portrait and either cut the sheet across the center and fold them into triangular stand-ups (a model the the 4e stand ups used, as I recall) or cut the portrait and a strip straight up and fold them into A-frames, following the Steve Jackson model. For what it's worth, while the 4e triangular model was sturdier (we weren't using card stock, after all-- at least not until home inkjet printers became a thing), we found it easier to weight the Steve Jackson-style guys: a dab of rubber cement and a small hex nut worked great!. At any rate, to this day I endorse the paper dolls simply because you can have as many as you need, and when you are really frustrated, to can "smash puny human!" with impunity. The best part, of course, is that your mini looks _exactly_ like your character, every time! I actually have a blank photoshop template I keep just for scanning in characters sheets and moving the image onto the template. I've got a couple hundred of them on tap now. I've even scanned in some from other games and moved them onto my template, just to have them on tap as well. Now I have heard (and seen) Hero Clicks being used as minis since their inception (in fact, I don't know anyone who has the things that actually plays the game they are supposed to have been: they're all used for gaming minis), and I've looked into it and found them to be surprisingly expensive. Recently-- and I've only got my youth group and one other group using them-- I discovered a line of metal figurines sold in regular retail stores at extremely reasonable prices. They are metal (huge plus: a bit of weight helps a lot when moving them around) and have large bases that make them very stable. Best of all is that the majority of them are superhero characters (listened famous ones, to be sure, but that means they are already "spandex-clad," so not a lot of "wrong clothing" to deal with. Further, there are product lines that feature more "normal" people-- characters from movies (keep your dremel handy to lop off all those damned Harry Potter wands), sports figures, etc, and they are all extremely paintable: This is Magnificent, who started life as the Vision (from, I think, the Avengers?) Sorry about the painting, but let's be honest-- this was done by a twelve-year-old boy, who had a great time with it. He's also slammed him around a bit, it seems by the paint chipping. I snapped that shot in a dark room, so forgive the colors as well: the gloves and boots are a red-orange; not the pinkish color they look like in the picture They are roughly approximate in size to Hero Clix, maybe a bit bigger or a bit smaller; I'm not sure. They are inexpensive enough that I told the players in the youth group that they were welcome to keep the figures when the game was over, if they wanted. Magnificent's player took me up on it right away and asked if it was okay to paint it. "It's _yours_, Son. You can his head off and glue it to his feet if you want." No one else has painted theirs yet, but I keep hoping. (the Comissioner Gordon miniature makes a great "thirty-years-on-the-force police detective, too. Just sayin'...... And some of the WWF guys make excellent bare-chested bricks and martial artists (once you glue on some of those discarded Harry Potter wa uh, nunchaku. I don't own stock in the company or anything, it's just that plastic is a PITA to paint if you want custom minis, and shedding unwanted details can scar them up badly, where as metal? Just rub it with an ignition file and poof-- no more wrong detail. I don't own stock in the company or anything-- I've also used Lego dudes and green plastic army men (where I learned that painting cheap plastic is a PITA, for what it's worth) and who-can-remember-what-else over the years when I wanted a bit of eye candy, but I have to be honest with you: I keep coming back to the paper dolls. They're just too perfect-- especially if you have a growth guy Just make four or five at differing sizes, and boom! Oh, that, and unlike an eclectic collection of variously-sourced minis and Lego dudes, they all scale with each other. That's nice, too. They don't take up much room (especially if you fold them flat: you can carry an army in an envelope) I hope some of that helps.

You, Sir, are my hero. Thank you. Duke

That, Sir, is precisely why I like retired / heroic deaths for favored heroes that have seen "too much" play: i.e., "I have done everything I have ever wanted to do with this character; I have explored him as fully as I ever wanted to. I want to stop playing him before he becomes a godlike mockery of the conception I once had." After being more-or-less blackmailed into playing the same character for twenty years (off-and-on for the last five of those, to be fair), I almost _enjoy_ a noble death for a character I have thoroughly enjoyed. (on a related note: have you ever noticed that the same people who _insist_ that all fifty years is canon _refuse_ to let the character be ninety years old? I hate cannon. I detest canon. Canon geeks have done more to ruin my enjoyment of serialized fiction than any author ever could have. No personal insult meant to _anyone_ by that; it's just a vent that thirty years overdue. ) Duke

Red Cloak, attempting to lecture an NPC on the history that lead to the current problem: "... and they did this sort of thing portentously, even when they knew they were under constant surveyance, (sic), which lead to this sort of geese / gander die costomy (sic)--" Feral's player, OOC: "Dude! It would hurt a _lot_ less if you just rolled Conversation, Man...." ------------------------- Kinetica, witnessing an angelic woman in a long flowing white robe walking barefoot across the bay: "Holy crap! I think it's She-zus!" ------------------------ Firefly is coming in hot for a rooftop landing just as Magnificent (below) uses his Energy Eye to cut a precision escape hatch through the roof. A flubbed unluck roll (Magnificent) and a flubbed Dex roll (Firefly) gives them the same target area-- Firefly makes a hard landing and tumble twelve feet lower than he planned on. Firefly: "Okay, this roof isn't going to hold all of us." ------------------------- Red Cloak begins chanting his levitation spell as he steps from the helicopter. He refuses advice to secure his cloak against the rotor wash, concerned about the loss of his clothes earlier (given to a victim of a sinking boat: "He can have my dry clothes; I've got my cloak, right?") another flubbed Unluck and his flapping robe snags the chopper skid, jerking his arm back (interrupting his gestures) and starling him (failed EGO roll means he was distracted enough to interrupted his incantation; he immediately begins to drop, cloak billowing up about his head as one would expect it to. Feral, from the copter, on the coms: "Well, bums away!" ------------------------------ Red Cloak recovers in the nick of time, joining the ground fight with two of his comrades. The thugs outnumber them and have them surrounded, and are beginning to tighten the circle. Red Cloak, grasping his silver sun pendant: "I Flash them!" Kinetica: "Nope; had enough of that, thanks." Very, _very_ long session with the youth group yesterday, but I think they're finally starting to come alive with spontaneous in-character interaction. It's fun to be part of.

RE: Endurance tracking: My current youth group is the only time I've _ever_ had issues getting someone to comprehend tracking END, and even then it's just the younger ones. I mean, players have no problem tracking STUN, BODY, and until this one group, track END. It's not like it's totally foreign if you can track the other two, right? My suspicion is the "youth" part: they're in a hurry to do amazing things in their magical new world. My solution was this: Combined with this: Yes, as an American deep in rural farm country, I was startled to find a dozen 45 cm plastic rulers in my local office supply store (I mean local; the nearest chain place is ninety miles from me). The ones I found were wider and thinner than the one pictured, and they had a narrow little slot running down almost the full length (presumably some sort of cutting guide?) At any rate, I tucked A paper rivet through each slot and folded one tab one toward the center and the other tab toward and up around the edge of the centimeter side, making something of a pointer. I explained to them that they put the pointer on their starting END (mercifully, the highest END was dead-on 45) and when they did anything, they slid the pointer down to indicate their current END score. Not only did it work, but they want one for tracking STUN, too. I don't think the math bothered them; I don't think that they were unaware that things cost END. I think they got wrapped up and forgot to stop and do it. This, being a bit more in-your-face, seems to have stopped the problem cold. They have taken to moving the counter as if it were the most important part of the game. Unexpected bonus: I can tell at a casual glance about where anyone's END is at any given moment.

I can't stress that hard enough! Two different GMs before the guys from my first-ever Champions group drug me away to their group taught me, even before I was a GM-- to _never_ do that. It was like ignoring the characters and slapping the players' faces directly. Then Jim (my first Champions GM) taught me how to use it _well_. Eh... maybe I should say "how to use it better." I don't think there's a _great_ way to use it, honestly, but there is a way to do it without stealing the player's spotlight. The experienced character can yell "look out!" when someone really flubs a roll. The experienced character offer paramedic to a downed player, or whisk them away to medical treatment _if_ no one else on the team is able to provide it. Your players have sat through nine sessions without picking up on a blatantly obvious thing that you have spelled out in fluorescent graffiti across every setting and clue? (not that they're stupid: this happens to all of us once in a while) and you're approaching the moment when they _really_ need to know that? On the fly, you've added two extra scenes just for the extra chance to make the connection, and you're running thin on ideas or in-game time? The veteran might have a half-thought: "say... you guys think this might be the same guy who....?" Use them as personalities more than characters: they are a great way to demonstrate actual role-playing to newer players who may not be comfortable with it yet. You can use them to demonstrate in-character conversation and world-building through expounding on the life of this character. They can be a small hint when everything else has completely failed to work, but they should never be facilitators, short-cuts, or combat machines. This is an ideal way to do it, if you have to do it: The veteran is in a position where the players can come to him when they're ready: when they have exhausted every idea they've had, and they're ready for a hint. Just don't let that hint be a cheat code. Ideal. Again, if you _have_ to have a GMPC, that is. I just want you to know that I am now absolutely _compelled_ to do something with this word. Something truly, truly awful and goofy and lots of fun, but I _must_ do it; there was never a choice. A better idea? No. It sounds like you've given this plenty of thought as it is. You've noticed the "downsides" to everything else: Transform means "break it here" (which leaves evidence) and "recreate it here" which is likely going to take longer than regurgitating it. Additionally, you've got other issues: suppose a charm on some item lasted until that item was destroyed? You broke it. Your recreation won't have that charm. How long do you have to study and object to recreate an _exact_ duplicate, anyway? Things like that. Shrinking means there is still a chance of it being found, seen, taken, or even just flat-out lost. EDM-- part of the Trifecta of Cobble-- is a permanent burr under my saddle, but in this case, it really seems to be the simplest (and most appropriate fix). You don't need multiple "levels" of it and it's as instantaneous as you want it to be. It delivers the actual item and not a copy. Mechanically, EDM seems to do what you want it to do. Sorry, Amigo: I ain't touchin' that one. I'm one of the minority (smaller with each edition, it seems) that believes the value of a limitation or advantage varies based upon the campaign in which it's being used, and that "doesn't work underwater" should be worth a hell of a lot more when you're the emissary to Atlantis, and a hell of a lot less when you're tasked with patrolling Death Valley. But I have no doubt you will get some solid advice shortly. Gotta run: youth group game starts in thirty minutes, and I've got to prep the room. Duke

Well good luck to you, Sir!

You never know, Scott-- you might have one copy of each printing. The first printing cover art for the campaign book featured smaller characters and the back cover had Peterson and Alston as characters dead-center. The second printing used a different artist and featured larger characters (making the "real" characters more easily identifiable: I always thought the first printing cover art was more concerned with skirting possible legal issues ). Can't tell you about the rules book, though. For some reason, the Justice Inc I have (picked up at a yard sale) had one of each campaign book in it. Kind of neat to see side by side. And while we're at it: Chalk me up for missing boxes: nothing like a little box for organization. And of course, making for thinner rules books, as "rules" and "theme" could be split into two books. you could toss in a couple of folders for NPCs, villains, what-have-you... And a map! It was so much easier to provide maps when you had a box-- or even a saddle-stiched rules book (the way Autoduel Champions did it). But this is getting me nowhere, so....

Agreed. Bugs me to find a listing of "softcover" and find out it's a POD. Honestly, it bugs me that PODs are black and white, somehow almost (_almost_ is still a lot in this case) as much as it rankled me the 5e PDFs were coverless and black and white. Us poor people like the pretty colors, too, ya know....

Well, that same ambiguity exists in the Role Master version as well. Though there's a couple of nifty charts in an appendix that the HERO version doesn't have: conversion char acts from Role Master to Western HERO to all three (at that time) versions of Boot Hill, covering Characteristics and even Skills. Wish I'd had that; I'd have stuck in a couple pages at the end. (No; likely I wouldn't. I think some guy in South Carolina has the copyrights for Role Master right now).