Duke Bushido

Less fertilizer than you'd expect: if you've got a Killing Attack, getting a new focus is remarkably easy.

Don't sweat it, Brian. I don't mind spell colleges when there is actually a different focus: healing magic; killing magic; social engineering magic-- That makes sense to me. What happened to me was that 4e supplements and such just kept throwing out "college" after "college" that were quite literally the exact same thing: magic worked the same, the spells were identical, etc. The _only_ difference was special effects: the leaf college: a blast of vines and leaves doing 4d6 AOE: Cone.... Ice college: a blast of ice and snow doing 4d6 AOE: Cone.... Desert College: a blast of wind and sand doing 4d6 AOE: Cone.... Pioneer College: a blast of wagon wheels doing 4d6 AOE: Cone..... Music College: a blast of sheet music doing 4d6 AIE: Cone..... And on and on and on..... Esentially, Fantasy HERO gave us an interesting idea, the company-approved supplemental material turned it into a complete joke.

Agreed. In terms of "threat level," perhaps something more generic like "solo villain: gadgeteer; 650 pts". Or "ten agents totalling 3000 pts." Or "villain team: 5 members, diverse archetypes, totalling 4000 pts" Or "villain team: three members Speedsters and Bricks totalling 800 pts." Or whatever the current trendy comparison method is, if AP have fallen out of favor. I think I'm trying to say is "generic enough to fit any campaign, but just enough suggestion to inspire." You know: "make it like, forty percent cooler."

HKA, UBO (if desired) Focus of Opportunity: suitable amount of metal. "turning it into a sword" is just the SFX of the Focus of Opportunity-based HKA. UBO and Focus are _not_ mutually exclusive. They are certainly _different_, as Scott suggests above, and may even both be relevant to your concept. Want the chance of having it taken away? Make it a focus. Want to make it absolutely dependant on having enough metal nearby? Focus of Opportunity. Granted, if your playing in a modern environment, this will really drop the value of the FoO, but it also means you will have an easier time recovering it when taken away. Want to be able to lose it and have a hard time replacing it? Go with a regular Focus. Want to hand them out like camel-covered onions? UBO. Want to really hammer the idea that you're transforming some bit of metal? Extra Time to activate or something similar. It's not too difficult to build (though it may be pricey), so long as you _first_ decide exactly - - and I mean _exactly_ how you see it working in-game. Slightly off my point, but within the bounds of the discussion: I have _never_ had a hard time ignoring the vast majority of the rules restricting T-form. Given that you can spend the same points to make a Killing Attack, I figure a minor T-form is anything at least as useful as a dead body. Scale up from there.

Just an idea, but an option to sort of weight the results to produce something generally short like a single-session confrontation (for when you need a break) or something that is more likely to run on a bit (something more complicated, for when you just don't have your planned adventure together, and need more time or some inspiration). And a way to weight threat level.

No one knows his name. They can't bear to hear it. They only remember the 17d6 RKA NND Does BODY that is his voice.

Not entirely true. This despicable human being is Rudolph Hess. You may recognize the name as the man who edited Mien Kampf, if you're old enough that it was required reading in school. That means that this man has the distinct honor of being the world's first Grammar Nazi. Why do so many people want to be like Rudolph?

Awesome. Thanks, DT!

Holy smoke. I've always interpreted "lawful good" and "lawful evil" not as having anything to do with the law, but as being unable to violate the nature of "good" or "evil." Rather like an inability to something "bad", or an inability to do anything that isn't completely self-serving. Wow. Been missing that one for a generation or two. Finding out it's about adherence to the actual law doesn't make it better.

The guy who has spent months filing complaints and periodically watching people "correct" the problem in various parts of the system and who is _still_ driving forty-five miles one way twice a week to get his mail... in me--- can't help but notice the truth to it. Facts can be fun, boring, interesting, or even downright unpleasant. However, they have no personality. They can't be hateful, loving, racist, or arrogant. And why are space wizards worried about a database?

Did 4e continue with the package bonus? And why do I always forget that Espionage existed? Never mind that last; I know the answer: it never landed at my local hobby shop. We we straight from Justice Inc to Danger, International, and were happy enough with Justice, Inc that we never actually picked up DI. (Thanks to the BOH, though, I finally have DI _and_ Espionage. I should probably get around to reading them)

Wow! An entire _herd_ of miniature brontosaurs.... Nice find!

Anyone remember the song "The ABCs of Dead Russian Leaders?" No? Just me? Too bad. It was funny, and all these years later, an almost-relevant parallel. Oh well.

I think-- I am not certain, as I don't use a lot of the stuff after 2e other than skills, powers, etc-- but I _think_ that 3e was the only edition that gave price breaks. As always, I am probably extremely wrong.

Archer, the problem has become so bad we have exchanged phone numbers. We now live 90 miles apart. A couple times a week we meet halfway and swap mail.

Well folks it looks like the next 4e book is going to be Cyber HERO. I wanted to do Horror next, as I have been told there aren't even bootlegs of it, but my donor copy seems to have been borrowed or something. Scanning won't begin immediately as I have to finish the tweaking on Western and the tweaking on 2e Champions, but book disassembly will begin shortly after I scan the covers.

This is very much like my issue with getting my mail the last few months since a neighbor down the road with the same last name moved out of town. He filed a change of address card. Guess who's mail is getting re-directed? No amount of complaining, verifying, even flat out yelling is getting the problem solved. While it makes me feel all Dale Gribble to say it, once something gets into a computer database, it stays there, period.

You are welcome, Sir. And thank you, DS, for piquing my curiosity enough to get me experimenting.

Nothing to appologize for, Scott. You've been nothing but an exemplary human being in the brief period of time I have.... Well, it's not acuurate to say "known," under the circumstances of a semi-anonymous internet discussion board. Let's go with "in any conversation I have seen you involved in." Seriously. You're a great guy. I suspect you couldnt be otherwise if you really wanted to be. I, Sir, appologize to you for the poor structure that led to that misunderstanding.

Okay, back in action. I know: I've been on the board a bit, here and there, and I've certainly been to work, but I've not done any work on the scans: I've had the flu for almost a week, and I have to tell you, it wiped me out with regard to energy to do anything more than shiver once I got home, and it got way worse after sunset. But I'm sure you all know how the flu works. Thought I'd get a little bit of stuff done today, but today was spent mostly dealing with wife and kids (who seem to have caught the flu, somehow. ) and doing a full brake job on the Leviathan, affectionately known as Big Ugly. That pretty well wiped out my first "good" day. I feel great, but I really haven't gotten back up to full energy yet, no matter what my brain thinks. Tomorrow-- and likely most weekend days from here on-- will be filled with Holiday-related stuff-- some of it possibly even pleasant. That leaves me pretty much the weeknights that my wife is working and I get in with a little bit of time. The nature of my job means that the later the sun comes up, the later I get home in the evening. But I promise you all that I will do all I can to make up for lost time, and it is my _hope_ to get this to Jason in time for him (I hope) to slip it into the store just in time for a yuletide download, if you happen to be looking for that odd gift for yourself. With so much time lost to my own flu, and looking forward to so much time playing nurse to the entire family (though, to be fair, they all took excellent care of me, so it just seems proper. Plus, you know: they _are_ the people that I care about more than you lot of random strangers. Thank you, Scott. I'm lookong forward to reading them, as I can acquire them, building up the "official" selection of non-bootleg PDF material myself, even if it's only useful to five people in the known universe. (EDIT: Long and unnecessary defense for not having any clue what _The Gilt Complex_ is removed for unnecessary antagonism, excessive disclosure of personal information, and for the obvious accusatory confusion it seems to have caused. _Mea culpa_, my friends. I hope you can forgive me.)

Oh, Sweet! It worked. Okay: Put the word "QUOTE" inside of brackets. Immediately type whatever it is than you want, then open a bracket ("["), then forward slash, then the word "QUOTE" again, and close the bracket. At least, it worked up there.

If neither of them works, well then we know two things that don't work.

I don't know hiw to change the font, I'm afraid, but let me share with you what we used to do back when manuscripts were typed onto paper, put into an envelope, and mailed physically to your publisher: _this_. Surely you have noticed just how _much_ I do this. That's what it means: it was letting the typesttera know that _this_ word or phrase was to be set in italics. I'm not sure when that stopped being. Ommon knowledge, but I know that at leas up until Windows 95, if you did that in a Word document it would automatically italicized it. My new machine doesn't. At this point though, it's a habit I've had for pushing fifty years, so it's likely to continue.

Well, I _do_ like that it's not D&D "memorize and forget" magic.... That's just not right.

Excellent. Truly excellent.