Duke Bushido

Scratch and sniff was under-utilized. They never did tattoos....

Let me correct that: We'll discuss it tomorrow, most likely: I have to get up in four hours for work. I gotta turn in. But do let me know what you want for it.

Call me a fossil. While I've been buying PDFs here and there to fill in gaps in my 4e collection, I will _always_ prefer to hold a book, to feel a book, to smell a book..... Are you certain it's a first edition? No speed chart on the back? Just a collection of characters flying in way-too-low to assist the guy on the front cover? If so, what do you want for it? There are a few things on there I'm interested in, but I most desire a copy of first edition Champions I can hold in my hands.... Shoot me a PM and we'll discuss it, if it's an actual first edition. Thank you; thank you very much. Duke

Thank you, Todd, for the kind words-- sincerely; I thank you. And thank you particularly for the permission to use those beautiful covers! Oh-- I was going to make an art recommendation, and totally forgot it. unfortunately, this one is going to be hard to find. It's the art from Talisorian's _original_ CyberPunk game. _NOT_ from CyberPunk 2020, mind you. (The re-naming is not a new game; it's a revised edition, and for whatever reason-- possibly the approach of the original timeline, they added "2020" to the title.) For what it's worth, I don't like the art in 2020 much at all; it was gleaned from the European release of the original CyberPunk. I wish I could tell you that I still had my original books, but I gave away pretty much everything that wasn't HERO after realizing I had been using HERO for every single genre I played since picking up Champions back in the 80s. Mostly it was line art, and often times reminiscent of Nagel and that other guy who's stuff looked like Nagel, but it had _style_. While the 2020 art varies in quality and theme (but is overall pretty good), the art in the original books had _style_. Every image screamed "Cyberpunk" and level-headed, chrome-plated bleeding-edge _cool_. Ive never seen it PDF (though 2020 is pretty easy to pick up), but you might get lucky with eBay or a book finder or someone. At any rate, if I had to litter a custom-made CyberPunk book with art, I would include as much of that as I could. On a personal note, I'd probably try to hunt down some high-quality (like maybe copies of the original cells or something) images from the original (80s series; not the turn-of-the-century remake) BubbleGum Crisis, or AD Police. Don't get me wrong: the remake was good, and was clearly done by a team that had a real appreciation for the original, but as I mentioned in a recent post elsewhere, there was a feeling to CyberPunk that younger folks just don't quite get. Not that they're stupid or ignorant-- it's no fault of their own at all. They just didn't live through the things that _caused_ CyberPunk, and so they key on what the see more than the feelings those things evoke. The new series has lots of happy people, doing lots of sunny things. It just doesn't have quite the same feel. I don't do it myself, simply because they are so radically different in theme and execution, but a great number of CyberPunk fans used to refer to the original BubbleGum Crisis as the the Japanese Bladerunner, in terms of the phenomenon it was. Oh, that's probably another thing right there: Try not to use screenshots from BladeRunner. Not because they're bad, but because 1) they're screen shots, and I've _rarely_ seen a good blend of screen shots and artwork. 2) It's _way_ too recognizable. Artwork in a sourcebook should reinforce the genre; make you want more-more-more. Screenshots of Bladerunner make you go "Cool! BladeRunner! Let's watch Bladerunner!" or "Cool! Bladerunner! Let's play Bladerunner!" Not an undesirable thing, mind you, but you want to keep the reactions focused on the whole genre. At least, you know: until you write the BladeRunner Supplement.

I can't tell you if it's right or not, but I'd love to know (via PM, just in case it's not kosher on the board) from fourth edition backwards to first edition.

Yes. A very important one, I think. For Western HERO, as much as I love the 4e sourcebook, there is a sourcebook that outdoes it. Well, let me rephrase that: it doesn't out-do it; as a sourcebook, Western HERO had everything: background, genre tips, discussion of breakdowns within the genre.... Sample characters, historical figures, stated out and read to use, maps and maps and maps, a full-fledged town, broken down and visited, a second, roughly-explained "ghost town" that could be fleshed out to be any other town you wanted.... a couple of sample scenarios, one of which was multi-session and a _great_ kick-off to a campaign... In my own opinion, it really was the _best_ 4e genre book ever published. However, there is a book of equal quality, researched and laid out equally-well, that covers things that Western HERO, solely because of its scope, could not: lots of maps-- maps of the whole country at various points in history. Great heaping helpings of historical data, and day-to-day information on the lives of the people in the early days of expansion westward, from fur trappers (and a nicely-detailed and historically-acurate summarization of the history of fur trading that runs pretty much up to modern times), railway men-- everything handled with equal care, and presented in scrupulous detail, all the while being a wonderful and easy read; it never feels like a textbook and never feels "dry" to read. And that sourcebook was called The Old West, and it was published for Third Edition GURPS. If you are going to actually build yourself a massive single tome, complete with densely-packed information that add all the details you can handle about the westward-expansion days of yore, then this book is a _must_ include, to the point that if you asked which _one_ book (other than Western HERO) you should include, I would have only GURPS Old West, 3e, as my suggestion. Now then, on two other notes, related to your post: Is the fan-made Cyberpunk something for distribution (as in, is it something I can find on the author's website or something? Because I'm interested!) and can I use your cover art for my own personal reprinting of Western HERO? I envy you. I have considered doing something like this for _years_ with 2e Champions-- to include notable characters from various play groups over the years, etc and with Western HERO, from the time years ago I thought I might write a supplement for it (I posted on that some time back. During my research, I stumbled across GURPS Old West 3e, and realized I could _never_ do the job as well as the authors of that book had already done), but never could find the time to actually do it. Actually, can I use the cover for your Cyber HERO as well? (Seriously, Man: those are _beautiful!_)

Thank you, Old Man. I appreciate that. As I've mentioned before, I have done some writing, here and there, and thought I might one day make a regular part of my living at it, but fact is-- well, life happens, and time goes away. For the last few decades, I sate my hunger to tell stories by being the GM.

This is pretty much what we've done for years: We split "additional PRE" into a power and a Characteristic: the power is called "Presence Attack" (because I'm not always creative) and costs 2.5 / die. It adds to your additional PRE attack. It's priced at essentially Presence: -1 Limitation. Same with FD (presence defense, the characteristic), which we price at 2FD/1CP-- again, Presence at a -1 Limitation. Not only does it simplify things for the newer players (when that happens), it saves a lot of room on the character sheet as well. (we also made Mental Defense (or EGO defense, depending on which you prefer to call it ) a Characteristic, but that's pretty straight forward, really)

13cp, and not one EP more!

I tend to lean toward T-form, simply because the "banished to the ethereal plane" thing as more SFX than anything else. Actually, it's not even that: replacing the object with stones is the SFX; the ethereal plane is just a bit of backstory. Though I do agree with Doc that in HERO terms, you have more than one power. However, I don't think it's necessarily a compound power, unless compound powers allow you to use one (teleport that thingy to me) or the other (turn that thingy into stones). I personally think the easiest way out of this is two separate spells. If you want to stay hardcore D&D, they are available as a pair, as though you picked the _one_ spell in D&D. Though I could buy into Doc's multipower idea, too: one slot T-port, one slot T-form. Then you have "one thing" to represent "one spell."

Seriously?! Oh, DUDE! That is _awesome_!!!

I will, but not tonight. I've got to start running kids through the tub in a few minutes, and I have a few more posts to read still. But I will. I promise. Duke

"Go, go, Gadget whatevertheheckyousaid!"

One thing I cannot stress enough is to consider the character's reputation. If a character has a well-known reputation for "unpleasant behavior," and the person he is trying to intimidate is aware of that reputation... well, that's a plus. What's the current situation? If the character being intimidated is at a clear disadvantage, even if it's just in this moment--- for example, even a military general, when caught alone and dragged into an alley, is just a well-disciplined old man being held captive and threatened by someone else-- well that's a plus, too. What's the character's motivation to intimidate the target? If there is some established bad blood there, well that's a plus. So what's that thing I can't stress enough? The thing for which there is no hard math, no power to buy, no points to spend: the actual situation, and the role (with an "e" ) playing aspect of the game. Hope something there helps! Duke

Thank you, Sir. I need one more volunteer, if no one minds.

If I may address one possibility that hasn't been mentioned: The workload will vary considerably depending on a selection of things: How involved are the players in creating and maintaining the universe? Do they enjoy fleshing out their own backgrounds, their own Hunteds or other bits of their history that will fall into the campaign universe? Are they allowed to? Do they create a few villains or other NPCs for the world at large? Are they willing to bounce around some ideas of the technology or scope of the game universe? And as for the GM who creates the world: each GM is as different, ultimately, as any two people. Some like the growth of the world to be organic, developing with the history the players are creating, allowing the world to grow and unfold as fits the needs of the story. Which personally, I think is great, because it saves me a _lot_ of front-loading. Why design eighteen alien races and thirty-five populated worlds for those stars a few parsecs spinward, just to have the party head the other way and never look back? Of course, this has the side-effect of making sure that everything gets recorded, because you're making cannon as you go. It's not really a big deal-- well, I'm really tired of typing, but let's say that there are ways to make this lighter on you, too. If they work in your group. Also, there are those GMs who _hate_ letting the story spin on wherever, or who aren't comfortable having to make up something appropriate and remember it forever. There are also those guys for whom the _best_ fun is from planning and mapping and designing every single aspect of the world, right down to the political situations on a thousand planets. They want to map all the continents, design all the ships, and place every city and plant in the entire universe before the game begins. They want a thousand years worth of established lore, and want the players to ooh and aaah over a marvelous and complete and ready-to-be-explored world. For those guys, starting a new campaign is a _huge_ job that takes time not just to do, but to research in order to do. I should know: I used to be one. Players being what they are, I realized that less than half of a percent of my efforts were _not_ wasted, and eventually just resorted to plotting out a few things "local" to the players, some crib notes on where they are and where they could be, plopped up a short list of characters, races, whatever, and places, and designed the "must have" and "will always be x" (such as magic be this" or "FTL work so" or "country X hate you and your guts" )points into a bullet list. I could plop what I wanted where it needed to be as we went along. Either way, the players still saw what they were going to see, and I saved months of prep work. A little heartbreaking, but I found I really enjoyed the side-effect of the world becoming something that we _all_ created. And then there are the players. How do you craft something they will be interested it? What happens if they _aren't_ interested, or at least aren't intrigued by the "right" parts of your universe? You've got to make contingencies. A few scenarios, a few different scenarios, and a few more scenarios that can change one to another. Etc. Either way, a lot of it comes right down to the kind of GM you actually _are_, and what you, as the GM, enjoy doing as part of your campaign planning. If someone is happy being one type of world builder, I wouldn't ask them to change for anything. I mean, we play because we like it, right?

Excellent points, Scott! I can find easy support for this in the "death" of cyberpunk related to the demise of the 80s. Yes: Cyberpunk is around today. Much like the Westerns of today, Cyberpunk is _not_ what it was. And honestly, I don't think we can ever get that feeling back: a _huge_ part of cyberpunk was the absolute reality of the futility of struggle, since no one got anywhere that he wasn't more or less born into, and that human life had lost a lot of what made it somehow significant: life was cheap, death was easy, and there was no future for anyone. That wasn't the only theme, of course: the wild and crazy over-the-top integration of technology-- not the way we think of it today, now that we are living in that "dark future," but what we expected it to be. So where did those themes originate? They came from the culture, or course. Us old farts remember the fallout of the Cuban Missile Crisis; we remember the cold war _vividly_, and we remember the wild fashions, the ridiculous subcultures, and the obsession with absolutely _nothing_ substantial: we wanted pretty things, fun things, and brightly-colored things. We didn't want _anything_ that might lead to speculation about our future; we didn't want anything that depended on hope. Why? Because every single one of us _knew_, no matter how deep down we kept it hidden, that the missiles were coming. Every day. Every hour. Every minute. Every super-sonic rumble in the sky. Was this it? Is that them? The news was filled with nothing but the power struggle of super-powered nations, each so afraid of looking like they might be backing down that they kept escalating. Troop movements and war games dominated headlines, as did skirmishes between the proxies of "us" and "them." And behind it all was the very real threat of unleashing the world-ending man made Hell. The threats were being made, the ultimatums, and no one wanted to be caught being the second country to jump over every single line in the sand. Every sixth-grade student _knew_ where the bombs would land land first, where the retaliations where coming from, and just how far away from a major target they were living. We knew intimately the foolishness of bomb shelters, and the half-life of strontium 90. It has an effect on you. Not just the "Hey, let's have fun while it lasts" culture that developed, but that unshakeable _certainty_ that you would live to see fire in the skies, but not your own children. That feeling: that unshakeable doom, brought on through no fault of your own-- out of your hands, and out of your power to prevent no matter how loudly you screamed, how fast your heart raced, or how deep the blisters from the heat of the outraged tears on your cheeks. Your leaders were deaf to your sobs, and too busy preparing to kill each other, it seemed, to realize that they weren't killing each other: they were only killing you and almost four billion people like you: four billion helpless, voiceless, powerless puppets, soon to live forever as shadows on whatever bits of wall happened to survive. _That_ was the _feeling_ behind cyberpunk. The look? Chrome and glitz and pink-and-black tiger striped trench coats? Mirrored sunglasses inside a poorly-lit nightclub? That was us in the real world, too: LOOK! LOOK AT ME! I AM REAL! I AM _ALIVE_, DAMN IT, AND SOMEONE IS GOING TO _KNOW_ IT! Even if it was-- you know-- other people caught in the same desperate act, looking for any kind of validation, even from a total stranger. The colossal over-sized weapons, chromed and wrapped in glowing tubes? That was what we wanted: we wanted power. We wanted something massive that we could cradle in our arms and our souls and know that when the bad things came, we could destroy them. We wanted the power to control our destinies, to defend ourselves, to MAKE PEOPLE SEE US and _FORCE_ them to admit that we had voices, and we were prepared to force them to listen to us. The drugs? Didn't see a lot of characters addicted to stims. Sure, lots of them were used for combat reasons, game reasons-- but the characters with addictions, what did they want? Depressants, as many and as strong as possible. Dull the senses, block out the world, slip through time peacefully, and in the space of a thought: forget this world, block it out. Skate to the end, and it won't matter anymore. You can get through it without suffering, if you let it slip right through your mind.... The tech? Think of the era: we were _all_ of us, in some ways, suffering from techno-shock, or what we used to call "future shock." For the first time in human history, technology was becoming outdated before it even became affordable. Sure, we're used to it now. But then-- then, we were so close to all the eras before us, those years when Dad was still driving Grampa's old truck, because why not? When those things that worked for your great-grandmother and your grandmother and your mother-- the things she had taught you-- were being replaced. Faster, more disposable. More modern. There were people (not many, mind you, but we were made aware of it daily) walking around with plastic hearts. There were regular news reports of how smaller and newer computers were going to let amputees walk, and it was all just around the corner. There were cameras _hundreds_ of miles over our head that could read the book we were holding. Print media was still the best way to get news, and the news had begun to outrun it. Stories were left unfinished, and every single place you went someone was talking about something you'd never heard of. Credit cards were becoming more and more used for daily convenience rather than emergency purchases-- technology had just overnight sprung out of the ground and surrounded us. It replaced the plants we admired and the air that we breathed. How did we see it going? Mechanical limbs. Mechanical organs. Hover cars. That's what we being pitched, and more than ever, it really seemed right around the corner. But hey-- if you can make a mechanical arm, then how hard is it to make a _stronger_ mechanical arm? Or faster legs? Or better eyes? And we had already seen just how all-pervasive and suddenly "normal" technology was becoming. If you could get a better eye, would you? Stronger legs? How about a reinforced skull? Or the brain! Computers were still scary: while they were large and cumbersome, they kept telling us how they would replace us at every job, outthink us at every thought. How do we normalize that? We internalize it: we make it part of us. We compete with it, and we create a world where it can't beat us because we joined it. Chipped brains, neurological interfaces! It was all there; it was all right around the next block! Granted, this is because, at that time, the "staggering-majority-that-was-almost-all-of-us" - sized majority had absolutely no idea (then) how any of this worked. We were using things every day-- were suddenly expected to; in some cases, we flatly _had_ to!-- that we had not even a hint of understanding as to how it worked. It was some sort of magic, and those-who-should-know kept telling us how much more was on the very cusp of happening. And how do humans deal with their fears? Some through rational thought, though that's not as successful as they pretend. As I've noted elsewhere, it had been my dream to one day be a psychiatrist, but it was not to be. As I continued futile studies over the years, I learned something really disappointing: psychiatry and it's step children psychology and sociology cure _nothing_. They simply teach you how to repress. How to "act normal." If you can act normal, there's nothing wrong with you that isn't wrong with anyone else. Remember, the important part is being able to act unaffected, and _state_ that you are unaffected. You just have to learn to not show your fears, and most of all, to not bother the rest of the world with them. So while it helps a lot of people figure out how to continue being a part of society, it doesn't do much to help you really understand anything. The human mind learns best when it plays. We, in general, find that things aren't so scary when we are convinced we are familiar with them, and that we understand them (even if we really have no clue). Look what we've done to all the classic monsters that haunted us as children. Dracula was a terror to us all, alone in our dark rooms, Halloween fast approaching. Look what we've done to him. Anne Rice did more to take the teeth out of that tiger than anyone before, and as others followed, they became less scary. Today they are just ridiculous iridescent fairies that are irresistibly drawn to emo chicks. Then we tore down werewolves (having grown up in a mountain forrest, I really enjoyed werewolf stories as a kid: the monster that lived right were I did! ) and Disney themselves now have a TV show about zombies. Disney! Zombies! Zombies used to be the most terrifying thing _ever_! Ten guys versus ten zombies. Then it's nine guys versus eleven zombies. Then eight to twelve.... That's right: to force ourselves to get a handle on something truly horrifying, we play. We tell stories; we write books. Now as long as everything I've said so far actually is to read, it must _all_ be held in mind when considering the initial works of cyberpunk. It was that secret fear of imminent death, that need to be noticed, that urgent longing for a way to take control of our lives back into our own hands, combined with the futility of our, as we believed, forsaken futures and the cutting-edge world we had been trained to believe was just around the corner-- that was the look and feel of early cyberpunk. It's gone now, and I don't think it will ever really come back, any more than pulp or the western, at least not as we know them. Sure, cyberpunk is still around: I think Gibson tosses something out every now and again, even today. Or maybe he doesn't; I don't know, because I never got into Gibson, because he came later-- he came on what, for sanity's sake, I have to call the "right end of the cold war." But for getting that hardcore feel of what we once knew the genre to be, he was too late. The futility, the fear, the desperate needs-- they were going away. All that was really left was the technology, and hey-- that's still fun to play with. But I can't bring myself to call it "cyberpunk" any more than I call Django a "western." The feeling is gone. The world has changed again. Sure: that initial wave was one _Hell_ of a ride, and it must have been great breeding stock, because look at the children it birthed: Shadowrun-type stuff (which I guess is sort of cyber urban fantasy?) urban fantasy, high-tech industrial espionage thrillers, steampunk -- all sorts of things I'm not going to go into because frankly, my friend, I'm done typing. But yes: i believe I can _totally_ see your point about how society affected the western just as much as the western affected it. oh-- and in the words of Old Man: to pay the thread tax: these are all important things to consider if you're going to attempt creating a cyberpunk setting.

As do I. When _buulding_ Porous, I use Desolid as the base power.

And I treat it similar to solid for purposes of being attacked. The thinking there (if it helps) is that if it were Desolid, it would be Desolid. By definition, porous implies something with holes (of whatever size) through it. The holes aren't special if the rest of it isn't solid, right?

Fantasy HERO, in every incarnation, ever. Except possibly 6. I'll have to re-read 6 to say for certain.

Oh man, that was _painful_.... Not just the five reasons; that wasn't too terribly bad. It was all the "how we use this on-the-fly stuff to build your unique driving force, etc, etc, etc-- Gad! I was having flashbacks to Motobushido. Oooh, Man; that was awful, too, and for the same sort of pompous meta chess master reasons. So I thank you, Assault. Going only from the first link, I might have considered reading that one day.

By the same token, why change underwear? You just have to do it again tomorrow. Seriously, though: it's just a fun thing to do for a lot of us. If it's not fun for someone else, then I encourage them not to do it.

Traditionally, the first one (how does my secret ID not get drafted?) is done by one of two methods: 1) the character's alter ego is in an essential line of work: developing weapons technology, Civil Defense, etc. 2) the government knows who he is. This has two parts. A) The character has come forward,wanting to enlist to fight the good fight, and has exposed his identity to one or two high-ranking officials thinking it will assure that he goes to the Front to fight the evil enemy. B ) the government has gone to great lengths to learn who the supers are so as to train them in important in-country jobs, or "draft" them into the military and place them on military bases in MOSes that will keep them here stateside, figuring that will so many of the prime fighting men gone, the super heroes are a key asset at home shoring up thinned-out police or emergency departments, civil defense, or to ease the need for so many soldiers and spies to stay here fighting fifth column invasions and spies. The second one is most easily dealt with by placing the secret ID into the military in a "just barely qualified" position:something like a 2B or whatever "third round pick" was for the draft in that era (it's late, and I don't remember). They are still "contributing as best they can," serving in the motor pool, or supply and procurement, etc. Civil Defense and Corp of Engineers were respectable positions for candidates below 1A, and still allowed them to visibly contribute, as were DIs and civilian educators and news correspondents. (Those last two were better served by older characters, however.) Other honorable exemptions included "only son" (or, sadly, "last surviving son" ) and family farm, particularly if the parents were nearing retirement or suffering disabilities. If I remember correctly-- and please, don't take my word for it, as not only was I not a comic book guy, but these comics were a bit before my time; my "comic knowledge" all comes from various people I've gamed with over the years, and recently, from the movies), Clark Kent was exempted on one or more of these grounds, and thus served the country fighting spies, secret invaders, gangsters, etc. Don't get me wrong: I can _totally_ see the temptation to have a character whose secret ID is a perfect physical specimen dealing with the contempt and derision of other folks who really want join the war, but are genuinely unable to do so. However, this casts a bit of dark that I personally find out of place for a genuine Golden Age type game, though it is entirely fitting to have a stay-at-home character be absolutely _miserable_ about not being allowed to serve at the front. Anyway, I hope something there helps get the creative wheels turning. Duke

Okay, folks, thank you for your patience. It _looks_ like I will be done with Western HERO technically late next weekend. Forgive me, but when I started this, I hadn't given any thought to holidays and festivities, etc-- and it was right at the beginning of the holiday-est part of the year. With all of that behind us now, the big limiting factors are a 12-hour a day job and kids getting old enough to develop extra-curricular activities, a wife that works nights and likes to nap in such places as make hearing the computer totally unacceptable, and of course my own gaming schedule. Some of that will dry up shortly, as my monthly should conclude by mid-summer. Whatever the players decide to do: new campaign, new arc for the current campaign, or new game entirely, they will have to do without me. That's 30 or so hours a month (drive time, play time, drive back) that I just can't give if I want to get this project moving. However, the Youth Group I picked up a few months ago shows no signs of petering out, and we've even added a new player. Still, that's a play time of roughly three, sometimes four, hours. However, it _is_ every Sunday, which means my weekends are roughly one day long until these kids lose interest. I honestly don't want them to, but man would it help me out right now. At any rate, I say I will "technically" be done late next weekend. I still want to take a week or so to go through the final PDF as best I can looking for things that bug me: remember, I'm shooting for archival quality. Remember, though: if you want to actually print your legally-entitled "back-up copy," you will need for either you or your print shop of choice to set your bleed levels. I am sorry, but in all the years i've spent goofing around with scanners and photoshop-type stuff, none of it was deeply involved (it was almost exclusively, in one way or another, for gaming, save the time I printed up some seriously sweet wedding invitations and birthday party invitations back when my kids were still young enough to "share" a party). At any rate, I've never developed the knack for setting bleed levels and just knowing that they're perfect. Sure, these will print beautifully, but you're going to use a _lot_ more ink than you need to, and of course, too much ink means seeing it from both sides of the page. It's okay, though: if you don't know how to set bleeds, Kinko's (I have learned) usually does. When the PDF is review ready, I'd like to have a couple of people willing to help me go through it looking for problems. As Brian, in addition to following this thread from the beginning, more or less (whether he knows it or not) inspired me to get off my butt and finally follow this dream, I'm offering him first refusal. That leaves the need for one more volunteer; two if Brian declines. If, through some astounding miracle, we end up with more than two volunteers, I'll roll some dice to see where it goes. Here's the thing: I know I've said it before, but I feel it bears repeating, if only because I know it's gets said falsely far more often than it does with integrity: I don't pirate. I don't want pirates involved. If you already know about yourself that you cannot delete this after giving it an honest check for imaging problems, don't volunteer. I don't mean that to be snide, insulting, haughty, or derisive. I have worked very hard on this project, and have legally purchased (You know: like with actually money I pulled from my budget) these originals solely to be shredded into source material. The upshot of that is that in order to do this with honesty and integrity, I have literally been throwing away money: buy a book; wreck that book) to make sure that this all above-board. Further, I have done it for all of us: all the fans today, and those who may come in the future. I am _not_ asking for any sort of recompense for my expenses or my efforts, nor have any been offered. I will offer these works, as they are completed, to the current copyright holder (Jason) to be distributed as he sees fit. If he sees fit to not distribute them-- which I very much doubt--- I reckon I'll have to back up and punt. At any rate, that's the "news you can use:" the end of the first book is in sight. In other news, I have paused slicing Horror HERO (which turned back up yet again) so that I might put a priority on Adventurer's Club 01. I have to put a priority on this, as I never could find one for sale, but one of our own has very graciously loaned me his own copy (which obviously, I will not destroy!) for this project. To honor his contribution, I would like to go ahead and make that A-1 priority. I'm sure there aren't a lot of folks following along, but if you are, _please_ take just a moment to follow the link to the most recent post by rravenwood and hand him a trophy of thanks! Seriously: let's see if we can get him a record score for "won the day," because clearly, no one who didn't already own that book would be able to see the Awesome Exoskeleton Man without him. Thanks, rravenwood! Now then, here is the link to his most recent post: As it's pretty late on this coast, I'm going to wait until Monday to hit him with a thank-you trophy; I suggest of you night owls to do the same, just so we can get him a solid run at a record-setting "won the day." Yeah; it's a little weak, but it's really the most solid thing I could think of to thank him. Thanks to all who pitch in on this!

Gotta level with you: Our house was originally built to be a multi-generational house. Think "farmhouse" but twisted and re-arranged to become a suburban three-story thing. It's _not_ the house I would have chosen for myself (had a nice house on twenty six acres, with a large pond, a barn, etc... But when this house came up, my wife just _had_ to have it. Turns out it was the house she was raised in. So we sold my little piece of perfect and swapped over to a one-acre lot (that is almost completely filled with house) and the extensive forest around us for neighbors. Man that sucks. Anyway--) Because of the size of the house and the odd layout, there are rooms and closets that just don't get used, including a massive second pantry in the dining room (I think it's called a "butler's pantry," but what do I know?). Third year we lived here, I put casters on the tree stand (artificial tree). Now on the first weekend in July, I unplug it, wrap the whole thing in a couple of sheets, and wheel it into the unused pantry until next December. Best stupid thing I have ever done.