Duke Bushido

And here's one I'd like to see that likely won't happen: How about a Low Fantasy Setting? Or a Sci-Fant setting like Barsoom? No idea why, but unless your actual rulebook is specifically for Low Fantasy (like Conan), players want absolutely nothing to do with it.

In original print order: 171, 173, 172, 174, 175. You know, seeing it written down it doesn't seem to terrible: 173 is out of place. Reading it, though-- yech!

Second on the Pulp setting! However, since someone sold the Champions setting off, and let's face it: Millennium City gives some us of flashbacks of PTSD, maybe the flagship should have some water in which to float?

Actually, Joe-- it had the _biggest_ 4e editing error ever: It had four pages printed completely out of order. Not reverse order or anything with logical progression, but just pulled out and shuffled. Archival original or not, I _did_ fix that. I just couldn't justify _not_ fixing it. But hey-- if you ever see a print one for sale, now you'll know if it's a bootleg or not.

Thanks, Mallet! Very kind of you to share that with us. Duke

Okay, _almost_ all original scans of Champions 2e found. I can't find the original cover scan, only the "corrected" one I posted before (the one without Titan's fingers. Much nicer, but not exactly "archive quality original" stuff). I did find the scan of the greyscale cover, and have _halfway_ considered scanning the black-and-white cover my counterfeit came with, just for historical value (there are people counterfeiting this stuff! Can't find the box scans, either. I guess I should specifically say I have found the scans of the entire 2e book (and converted them to PNG and moved them to a single location), but not the box, Viper's Nest, the map (which was done in pieces, and I don't know that I ever put it together, as I never used the map anyway). I have also found the scan (both sides) of the included comment card and the "1983 catalogue" that were packed in. Got to finish Western HERO before taking on another project, but honestly, I _had_ to stop and find them, just because I was getting worried. Still haven't found the PDF I made of the "cleaned and corrected" scans, but as long as I've got the scans, I can make another PDF. [EDIT: never mind; I was mis-informed. It's not there. Oh well.]

I rather fancy the idea that they speak barcode, personally. Binary is my choice as well. I mean, they communicate primarily to coordinate with each other, right? It would all be ones and zeroes or fluctuations in the patterns of radio waves or something like that. It almost (almost; all comics need dialogue) stands to reason that they wouldn't talk-- or at least speak english or anything else that wasn't just a data squirt-- simply because of how incredibly inefficient it is compared to the speed at which they could compile data. It would be analogous to english-speaking humans that, instead of talking, stopped to write everything down in calligraphy and then handed it over to be read in order to communicate.

I'd love to help you, but I've got no idea how the cards are even set up (for example: is there _one_ card that has THREE categories of Damage Reduction?!), so input I could offer is pretty well useless.

Hey Mallet: Absolutely not wanting to get into the whole discussion again, but just to satisfy my curiosity, what was your final ruling on the one-armed character? (you were the OP, were you not?)

It's all good; I found what you're talking about. I have a friend who has been an afrtemath GM since the eighties; I remember he had that book way back when. I'll have to see if he still has it. Thanks for the heads-up. You don't happen to know if someone offers a pdf, would you?

The link doesn't go anywhere, Sir.

Thank you, Scott. That was well-thought-out, and insightful. An excellent addition to the commentary on the value of the western overall. As it comes directly from someone seeing the genre for the first time, and already well-acquainted with what has replaced it, I find it particularly poignant. For what it's worth, "Paladin" was a favorite from my youth, as was Have Gun; Will Travel (you can almost see the underpinnings of the A-Team and Knight Rider concepts in that show's story mechanics). If you have the chance to watch a few, I'd recommend it. Wagon Train was hit-or-miss on greatness, but was always pretty solid. And while in recent years Louis L'amour has taken a beating in pop culture, the fact that his books _still sell_ says a lot about the appeal of basic themes of the western. Obviously I can't just pass out copies of a GURPS book, but if I get some time, I may start writing up some conversions for things from Old West. Does anyone know where I might start reading some Characteristics / Skill levels / damage class type conversion material for research? Thanks again, Scott. Duke

I've used them when coaxed to do fantasy (twice. In my life). I make them more a thinly forested or rocky plains herd animal. Relatively harmless unless cornered or the herd is frightened. Focusing more on the "elope" part seems to tickle the players when they're expecting the focus on the "jack" part. And it's really, really hard to _not_ include them in Westerns. Did manage to include them in an western / occult thing we were doing. Magic creatures, don't ya know.

My apologies; that came out totally wrong. The scan of 2e in the BOH was a decent scan. When I say "get a better copy out there," I mean of _everything_, and by better I mean "archival quality," : something worth preserving for years and years; something from which new books could be printed. I did _not_ mean to imply any insult toward any of the folks who went to the work to scan their own material so that those without any copies could now have one. Upon re-reading my post, I realized immediately that it did not sound exactly the same to the eye as it did to the pleading in my heart. I am seriously, whole-heatedly sorry if anyone took it that way. Duke

What can I say? The more I typed, the longer my "break" was from cleaning up scans! Let's face it, while the end goal and the final results are awesome things, the work leading up to that is tedious beyond measure. See? I tell everyone that it really is one of _the_ books to have if you're using the HERO system-- though likely that doesn't matter as much, now that 5 and 6 have happened. but even then: the campaign stuff alone is totally worth a read. It's the single best genre book HERO ever put out, and one of their finest sourcebooks overall. But most people, they here "Western" and their eyes just start to glaze over, waiting for you to finish speaking so they can change the subject. Seriously, though: if you can get it cheap, pick up GURPS Old West for 3e. You can't not need a sourcebook with write-ups for jackelopes! (I can't explain it, but since I was a kid, I love a well-constructed jackelop. Not the "stick the horns in the ears" cop-outs, but a really well done one. I was absolutely crushed as a child when I realized that they weren't real). On another note, While taking a break the other day to follow Joe's recommendation about submitting a better-quality PDF of 2e to Jason, I took some time to try to find that thing. Haven't found it yet (again, the bulk of my personal time I want to spend on WH until it's done),but I did find a lot of the original scans upon which that PDF was built. I've been taking periods of time to short to do anything constructive on WH to move them from the various diskettes and minidisks upon which they were stashed and move them to a flash drive (and convert them from jpg to PNG. I wish I had known more about that sort of thing when I first did them. Man, do jpegs just _grow_ noise in storage? I'm not really cleaning them up much (yet), just getting any glaring issues. If I can't find the original PDF, I'll clean them up and compile them to make another one. But (if this works; I screwed up the other day) I'd like to offer a couple samples for comparison to what was in the BOH, just so folks know _why_ I want to get a better copy out there:

Thanks, Chris! Yeah, my eyes finally tanked for the night (don't get old; it's bad for you!) so I quit cleaning scans just a few minutes ago and went to the book shelf before I went totally blind. It was indeed for GURPS 3e and was titled GURPS OLD WEST: Roleplaying on the American Frontier. It was written by Ann Dupuis, Liz Tornabene, Lynda Manning-Schwartz, and Rob Smith. Published by Steve Jackson games in 1991. If you want a western source book, I can't recommend it enough.

It may well have been the single-best western source book ever written (remember above I mentioned how Western HERO was _almost_ the best source book ever written on the subject? I don't remember which edition it was (I own it, and will check when I'm done working on the scans tonight), but anyone--and I mean _anyone_ wanting to seriously create a relatively accurate old west campaign needs this book. I originally bought it and two other game-related source books with the intention writing a supplemental western book with more history, more lifestyle information, expanded weapons lists, various jobs and delving deeper into the tropes- even splintering into types of Western from high cinema to trapping furs in the swamps. I figured with three actual gamebooks as guides for style (keep it brief, and full of information; layout and packaging is key; include maps and pictures, etc) and my local library and the nearby college library (which was, at that time, also open to the public), I could in six to eight months create a supplement to western HERO that would really fill in the gaps. Turns out, after about two months of research and copious note-taking, that such a book was already available. It was the third game-centric book I bought, on the recommendation of two players from a group at the college. It was written by a woman whose name I _almost_ remember, and it was written for, I _think_ third edition GURPS. It was titled simply enough GURPS: Old West. And that, my friends, is _the_ premiere western genre book. If your serious about gaming in a frontier-type setting, and you can only afford one source book, I would suggest that one even over Western HERO. Ideally, you'd have both, but that GURPS one has been the standard by which I judge all source books since the day I finished reading it.

Okay, folks-- for the two or three of you who were watching, I have started a new thread, primarily as a courtesy to those folks who kept seeing the "Fantasy HERO" section show new posts, only to be disappointed that it was yet another update on the scanning of Western HERO-- which, if you are one of the two or three who actually cared, is going quite well. All pages are scanned, and about sixty of them have been fully corrected. It won't be too long before I will be able to send Jason a decent PDF of the original book, for legal dispersal as he sees fit. Hopefully, it will be offered as inexpensively as the other 4e books. When that's done, I intend (doesn't mean it will happen soon, but it will happen eventually) to give Horror HERO the same treatment, as I have a donor copy of that as well. "Why Western first?" you might ask if you didn't grow up watching cowboy movies in the second-run theater, or throwing yourself into your chores with wild abandon with the desperate hope that you might get done in time to watch Gunsmoke after supper? Or maybe you didn't think Chuck Conners was all that cool making machine-gun fast deadly-accurate hip shots with with custom-cut Winchester repeater? Well because wether you're a western fan or not, you're a HERO gamer, and Western HERO is not just a part of HERO's history, it's an extremely important part of HERO's history. We all know that in third edition, there were actually a number of different games all using what was essentially Champions, rubbed smooth here, chiseled a bit there, re-named or re-worked a tiny bit to give each Power, each Skill-- each Advantage and Limitation that we know today as "HERO System" a bit of genre-inspired flavor. Most of the five Children of Champions even had additional rules or brand-new Skills or Modifiers unique to their particular title. Then Fourth Edition-- even I, a dyed-in-the-wool 2e player-- recognize what an amazing feat Fourth Edition was. Fourth edition took everything from everywhere-- everything found in previous editions, previous Champions-rules games, and all the previously published material, re-polished and re-chiseled and re-named and re-branded everything until it worked into one cohesive system (except EDM. That's just a bugbear no matter what you do with it) in which everything worked with everything else. It was incredible! Most incredible? It was _completely_ backwards compatible! Change END costs back to 1/5; change Range Modifiers back to what they were (usually 1/4) and bam! old school could use all the new stuff, too. It was a Golden Age for HERO, and one that I confess to missing terribly. But life goes on until it doesn't! Or, as my grandfather would tell me when I felt crushed, "it either kills you or it don't. If it didn't, you can either keep going, or waste a hell of a lot of time and effort pretending that it did." With the combining of all the rules into one book, HERO had, perhaps unintentionally; until I meet Bruce Harlick, I'll never know for sure, created a vacuum for those folks who played those Champions-based games that were not actually Champions. Thus, the genre book was born-- there was a need for more specificity: how do I use the rules in this kind of game? What are the core themes that make this genre a unique environment in which to play? And all that room! Those big, vast 200-page and more books! Not only were there notes on the genre, but details and, when appropriate, histories of the genre, typical recurring themes of the genre, example characters, suggestions for running games over-all and your favorite genre in particular. (Oddly, the closest we ever got to Justice, Inc was Dark Champions, and frankly-- that ain't real close.) Still, as talented people set out to write these books, they would realize that the conventions of many genres required additional rules not in the new Fourth Edition rules. Why not? Well, when players opened a box labeled "Espionage!," they instinctively knew what the them was-- what the conventions were, and their mindset slipped into that with ease. The rules had been custom-tailored to keep that feel all the way from learning to play to closing a ten-year campaign. It was much harder to get that feel if you _knew_ that you were using a flavor book to recolor a set of rules for a superhero game. How to get that genre feel? In addition to all the above-mentioned things, writers of these books often discovered things unique to that genre-- well, perhaps "unique" is too-strong a word. They discovered things that were taken for granted in the main rules, but that were important to the flavor of a particular setting-- adding new Characteristics is an excellent example, as is Quick Draw and Hip Shot. So these things were added as additional rules, right there in your genre book. New Skills, new rules, new ideas-- all designed to custom build your unique genre-themed experience. Steve Long would again, many years later, do what Harlick had done before him, and compile everything into one vast tome. But even then, there were genre books. The 5e genre books were full of exposition, and full of examples and ideas.... But they just didn't have the same feel as the 4e books. The tiny print, the pages crammed with information overload, the general "sameness" of each book. In spite of all the new genre books-- most of them larger than the entire Fourth Edition!-- they simply didn't have the same feel as those old books. At the end of the day, they were exhaustive setting books. There were a few new things here and there-- a new modifier or two, that sort of thing. But there was just a bit of flavor missing. Not the fault of Mr. Long, to be sure. It felt more like his desire to cram in as much information as he could, as much finite detail as possible, was simply... overwhelming. There was just too much to make for fun light reading. To be completely fair, they are _all_ far and above what I could have done; I lack the Speed Reading and Speed Writing perks that Mr. Long is blessed with, and they perfectly suit his "Research: 23-- " Skill Rolls. I will also say, that in spite of my less-than-love for Fantasy, Tuala Morn was probably the most perfect support book written for 5e. (I know: it's not a genre book; I hold it up as an example because, if I remember correctly, Mr. Long wrote it, and it was wonderful. I want it to be abundantly clear that I am _not_ criticizing the most over-worked man in the gaming industry. He's awesome! We just have different tastes in books. Period.) But much like my Rule Books, I want my genre books punchy and easy to read, with suggestions and ideas taking a more even portion of the book with new rules, historical information, character examples, and campaign suggestions. A nice even mixture, leaving plenty And that is one of the reasons I wanted to track down and permanently preserve the 4e genre books. They are, to me and many other fans of the older editions, about as perfect as a genre book can be. Not perfect (more on that in a minute), but very close. So why did I decide to do Western HERO first? Inspiration, I suppose. It has always been my favorite genre book; I used it for almost any genre. Why? Well let's face it: whether it's "cool and trendy" or not in this day of "everything should be dark and cold and we political intrigue and morose and somber themes, the western is _still_ the quintessential format for American entertainment. We don't see it as such, but even Tom Selleck in a loud Hawaiian shirt in an Italian sportscar was a cowboy sort of character, bucking the rules, using suave and charm to achieve his goals, and living how he wanted, when he wanted. He saved poor damsels every week from the oppression of the big ranchers uh, powerful men who would seek to crush them. We like the strong-willed independent-- often downright hard-headed hero who triumphs because he is brave and tough and refuses to backdown; who wins simply because he is right, and that, my friends, is justice. We like watching Charles Bronson go out into the mean streets and take on the bad guys, man-to-man, gun to gun. No matter what the flavor of the movie is, we still crave the westerns. Second, and most importantly: Western HERO, hands-down, was the single best genre book of 4e, period. No; not because it's a western. Frankly, that, I think, is why it was so under-circulated. People had already moved into the "westerns are dead" mindset, refusing to accept that a large chunk of what they really enjoyed was westerns with ray guns, or westerns with talking cars. I say that Western HERO was the best because not only did it follow the formula that I dearly love: equal mixes of important information like settings, history, tropes, and themes, combined with GMing advice, playing advice and a few new ideas thrown in that we use to this day: Quick Draw, for example. More than that, it contained what we now call "Adventure Seeds." Sturdy ones, too. Not the two-sentence things we call by that name, but full paragraphs for each one, helping a new GM really get a grip on the idea, and just how he can use it for his current story, and modify it for recycling later. There is an example adventure included that has maps-- not a map or two, but MAPS! Lots of them! Even a few smaller topographical maps (which, if you've never actually war-gamed, are really nice to gain that feel of range, isolation, cover, etc, when the shooting starts) There is an _entire_ train in this book! An entire town! And, for good measure, a smaller nearly-ghost town. The story is simple, but still lots of fun, and has tailoring suggestions for keeping it more-or-less on rails for newer players, or turning it into a full-fledged campaign. It follows nearly all the tropes of a good western book or movie without making you feel like you are being "forced" into the setting. Seriously, folks (at least, the two of you still reading at this point), this "sample adventure" is full enough and rich enough to have been marketed as a stand-alone adventure module (do we still call them that?)! And if that wasn't enough, there's a campaign setting, too. A starter campaign, set in the real historical town of Deadwood, complete with write-ups of many, many NPCs and real historical figures from the period. HERO games, under any publisher, has never produced another genre book anywhere near the caliber of this book, and for reasons I don't even understand, I very much wanted to make sure that not only would I have a permanent archive of this book (after my shock to discover my own copy had walked away), I wanted to find a way to share it with everyone who never had a chance to at least decide for themselves wether or not they wanted it. And that, friends and fellow fans, is why I'm doing Western HERO first. I've got a couple of images of "progress so far" posted in the Fantasy HERO forums, under the thread "browsing through the HERO store," if you want to take a peek at my quality goals for this and other projects. I was going to do an update, but I've done quite a bit of typing at this point. Time to get back to work! Duke EDIT LIST: Edit list has been cleared in preparation for Round 2

For what it's worth, Steve-- Foxes are physically weaker than other canids of similar size. However, their tendon strength is notably better, allowing them to leap higher and run further and longer than most other dogs of similar size. Perhaps 1/2 END on a few extra inches of running, a bit of leaping (wouldn't that be a surprise when you think your villain is cornered? ) Honestly, as far as strength versus size versus leaping and running, they are much more like house cats than dogs. Now to be certain, they are canids and not cats, but they are better at cat things than they are at dog things.

I have a corkboard I use. Just a five-dollar cheapo. I packed the back of the plastic frame with some old strips of high density foam cut from roofing closure strips to both muffle that heinous rattle unique to cheap plastic and to prevent the tray from scuffing someone's table. It's nice, very quiet, cheap, doubles as a coaster, and protects the various tables I play on. Except mine. My gaming table is the very same table my kids learned to eat at, learned how to do fun crafty projects, from drawing and painting to light repair and woodwork. I am rather ambivalent about putting more dents in that table. Unless you actually crack it, no one's going to notice.

Hello, Z, and happy Thanksgiving! I love my new job: never got off early for a Holiday before, and in my entire adult life, I've never had a four-day weekend! Not being funny: I really don't know how to enjoy it yet, and I've been feeling "wrong" just by being at home this early in the evening. Anyway, I popped over to scroll through to see if there were any new developments (seems there really aren't ). We may have exhausted the discussion entirely. It might be time to "agree to disagree" before we get to that ugly place where we stop listening to each other entirely. I enjoyed the entire thread, though; I really did. I just wanted to mention something about your last couple of examples. The first one above-- the problems with casting magic: This goes directly back to the freedom-inside-a-locked-room thing I mentioned: It's only a problem if the character had any intention of using magic. By some as-yet-unidentifiable bit of meta-gaming, the vast majority of every fantasy party I've ever seen had _one_ magic specialist. If the party was large enough, there was some sort of healer with a lesser bits of magic. And that's it. One magic specialist per party. So our one-armed man is to be penalized because he _can't_ do something, even if he didn't want to in the first place? "What do you do for a living?" "I'm a trapper who trades in furs. Occasionally, I let myself out as a guide for strangers in these parts on interesting adventures." "You can't use magic, can you?" "Why would I want to? The traps are pretty easy to set, I know my way around the woods, I'm a fair hand with sword and dagger, and there's nothing lives here that's difficult to skin. Why do I need to spend years studying magic when I can be adventuring now?" "Just sayin'. You're never going to be able to use magic." "I don't want to use magic." "Fine. But you're never going to be able to. You're going to have to suffer some penalty to your life because you can't use magic." "I don't use magic; I don't _want_ to use magic; no one in my entire village uses magic! Are we all to be punished because we don't want to use magic?" "No; of course not. Just you. You're the only one getting punished. The rest of them have the only acceptable number of hands." "What about Traveling Mike, of the Spider Folk? He comes through these parts every third moon and mends kettles and blades. Like all Spider Folk, he possesses six arms! Though I confess, I would be happy for him to see a substantial boon fall his way. He may be able to stop traveling and keep a true shop for once, with a real bed in which to rest. I would be delighted for him, indeed!' "Why would he get a boon?" "Well, he has six arms. If I am to be penalized because my single limb, well-thewn though it may be, is one short of the two required to wield magic, in spite of neither needing nor desiring such, then is Traveling Mike not to receive a boon upon his life? For he has not one, but three pairs of arms, each more skilled than a seamstress who dabbles with nunchuks. Surely this is worth bequeathing him a gift! He could work magic at least three times as deftly as you, Sir." "No. He'll have to take a penalty, too..." "Why is that, Sir?" "He's not got two arms. It's just not natural." Fine; so a bit of fun, because at this point, it's just time for it. But going right back to the "Disadvantage that doesn't limit is worthless (yes; it's an old saw, but frankly, it _is_ a major pillar upon which character creation is based)," "Can't use magic" is absolutely not a limitation for a character who _doesn't_ use magic. At that point, you are quite pointedly and undeniably penalizing the _player_, and not the character, and that's just a total Nixon move. You can do that second one all you want, but why don't we all take just a minute, step back, and examine that. Why would I have all these illustrious and powerful family connections and _not_ take a Disadvantage related to having powerful and illustrious family connections? I ran away so I could live on my own? What makes a DNPC a limitation-- a liability, to use a more reality-oriented word? Generally it's emotion: you have a powerful emotional interest (be it love, duty, or a sense of obligation-- it might even be genuine concern or a over-active compassion gland. Call what you like, in the end, it is that you care. Why wouldn't they be a limitation? Well, they're rich and powerful-- possibly even more than I am! They are so capable of providing for their own care that I don't really much bother myself wondering about their well-being. I have twenty powerful relatives that I may or may not mooch off (depending on the character conception I pitched). Why wouldn't I take some sort of Limitation based on that? Well for that, if you'll watch your head on the door-- it sags a bit; it's hard to find pneumatic struts for DeLoreans these days-- I'm going to take you back to 1983: the scene of one of the earliest Champions-based not-Champions games we head ever tried. Davien was running (worst GM _ever_, and serial rules rapist as a player) and the campaign was set around his favorite game: Dungeons and Geiger Counters. I mean, uh, Gamma World. I actually _was_ the player you postulate: I was heir to one of the mid-level Eastern Kingdoms, and I had abandon that and headed west to seek my own destiny. I had _no_ Disadvantages like DNPC or Reputation: heir to the throne. Nothing. You know why? It was just _backstory_. In game terms, we were adventuring over a month's ride from my birthplace, far enough that no one knew of the Easter Kingdoms, so that I might make a name of my own. Yet Davien still kept trying to use it against me: getting me kidnapped for ransom, etc. It didn't work well, because any single time I thought about throwing it back at him and tossing out "well I'm heir to the Kindgom of the Ashen Villages (which I would _never_ have done if Davien hadn't kept literally rail-roading me into it)", the response from every single person within ten-days march would say "who?" and be all unimpressed. Then something would happen to me because of who I was born from. I wrecked it for him by never varying from the idea that I was cast out from the family (I wasn't, but I ended up changing my backstory to make this complete horse-puckey stop! ). Near the middle of the campaign, he turned the tables: he decided he would kidnap my _parents_ (totally unbelievable, considering that the four guys who seem to have done it had no chance against the small army they would have had to wade through, but hey-- he was a total Nixon, and this was a _total_ Nixon move in a long, long line of total Nixon moves. He thrived on it. He thought TPK was some kind of desirable goal as GM. But I digress. I -- no; not quite right. The other players and I had amassed impressive (but not staggering) wealth by this point, and were working on building a fortified keep of sorts, from which to to begin building a fortified city. In our youth, we had plenty of time to game; we could be very long-view oriented like that. Then I get a messenger who tells me if I want to see my parents alive, I (and the party) would vacate the fortified keep, convert our wealth (technology, metals, jewels, etc)-- into Ingots, and bring them to X on day Y. So the party and I (having hatched an off-table plan) carry large sacks on carts to location Y, leave, and watch from a vantage point. After days of watching (we knew Davien: we knew his goal was to simply "bully the party" and he had no actual plan for the next events. We threw it in his court), two men creep out from under cover, dance excitedly, and run up amongst the carts. At which point the player who had restored the tech set off the remote, and a massive fireball consumed these two men. Two days later, another messenger, telling me that the kidnappers are going to forgive my stupidity, but if I don't do it for real, they will kill my parents. So I let the new day y pass. By like a week. Another messenger, same threat, to which I replied "what? They're not dead yet?" as annoyed as I possibly could. I ignored the next day y, and got-- yet another messenger! Who'd'a thunk?! This time he has brought me a finger with a royal ring upon it as proof. Fine. This has gone on long enough. I shot the messenger. Two days later-- another messenger! Different guy this time, though. He tells me day Y has been moved up because of my uncooperativeness and the deaths of three of his associates. He tells me this from behind, across the weapon in my back. I don't actually carry all my wealth with me all the time, I explain. No matter, it seems, I am to be hostage, along with my parents. Oh, goody. So they're still alive? Oh yes. So you're just incompetent, then? That's the problem? I get stabbed a bit in the backal region. We arrive at the cave behind the scrubs and cover, where we had first blown up his other two associates. By torchlight, we make our way into the cave, and eventually come to a well-lit room, where I see my parents tied to posts in the center of the cave. My guide had replaced the weapon in my back with a torch, so I took a chance! I grabbed my hold-out weapon from inside my clothing, putting all my skill levels into pistol, and shoot both of my parents dead, turn to the last remaining kidnapper and ask him "THERE, DAMN IT! Was that so damned hard?!" This served as enough of a presence attack (we _all_ insisted) that I managed to take him down, too. Then I-- me, not the character-- stood up and gathered my things. Four of the other players stood up and gathered their things. Davien and two players remained. The five of us standing told him flat out: this is a total Nixon move, and you know it. Or maybe you don't. Maybe you've been a Nixon yourself for so long you can't recognize it anymore. At any rate, we're done. Only we didn't say "Nixon," of course. For some reason, we could only remember his tricky nick name. A long story to remind you that you can do whatever you want. But there is _nothing_ you can do to make a player actually give a sh(oo)t about those people he doesn't not take as Disadvantages. Sure; you can call it "bad roleplaying" if you want. I'll even agree with you. I just might not agree with you about who's doing it. And that third example? That military salute "must" "only" "super-special ulitmato-importante?" "doing it one handed is treason and rape of the general's children all rolled into one?" I actually have more trouble accepting that in any way shape form or fashion than I have trouble accepting a small party of adventurers killed an evil sorcerer and overthrew a tyrant. I have more trouble believing that than "four-month-old prodigy kills dragon." Seriously: I will accept that your world contains the story of Burpulese, the Infant of Might, before I accept it has a sane military commander who created this salute. As someone else pointed out: Was there _any_ chance of this happening _prior_ to the one-handed-man discussion? Anyway, I'm gonna run. I've got a holiday weekend to learn how to enjoy! I hope you folks enjoy your holiday as well! Duke

It was paramilitary Espionage kind of thing, in the early days of pdf, etc. So essentially it was "yet another" in a then-saturated market, offered exclusively in media that no one was really sure about and most people weren't set up for (downloading books? On dial up? No way! :lol:) So I'm not sure it circulated very far, but surely someone somewhere has it. They just may not be on this board.

Oh man; I responded to this question once before, in another thread. Unfortunately, that reply was bit lengthy and lost and now I'm on a touch screen, creation of all that is evil, so I can't really get into it as well. However, I _generally_ roll disads during the pregame chit-chat and catching up that invariably happens in face-to-face groups. Not all of them, but let's say the "social" ones: hunted, hunting, dnpc: the ones that can kind of knock something off the rails if you don't know it's coming. Then I have to decide _how_ they appear. Sure; when I was a young, niave new GM, the only understanding I had was "your hunter shows up, and here he is! Phase 12!" But that's been a long time ago. Sometimes, he doesn't actually show up, but he has begun to put something in motion, something that I will keep track of as the time passes: something bad, and aimed straight at you. Then I have to decide if I am going to leave clues in this session, or start that the next one. Same if he actually shows up, to: are we at a dramatic point that could be lessened by a side quest? Is the word outside the game on kind of a tight schedule this session? If yes, then I will spend time after the game working whatever is relevant into the very next session. Similar with Secret ID issues (I know: no roll, but if you treat it as one, it's easier to plan around) I have, I admit, cruised vulnerabilities and succeptabilities pre-game and made slight adjustments to the session accordingly: sometimes adding a trigger so a player gets a little extra look-at-me time, or removing something that may affect the flow of that session (more than the actual players do, mind you ;)) Sometimes it's as simple as changing the villain in your planned session from Baddie-of-the-week to Dr Hatesmyguts. Or maybe the guy your trying to catch is part of the good doctor's plan. Change the hiest from mcguffin Ray to cutting-edge computer chip set, and change "so I will have a better ranged attack!" to "Dr. Hatesmyguts will feed me my children!" If they thwart him, toss out a clue or two. Don't push it. The hunted has come into play, and you have a seed for another story. Dnpcs may actually show up, in story mode or mid-battle, dramatic appropriateness decides. Sometimes they don't actually show up; sometimes they get in trouble (super bad guy kind, or small claims court kind) One of my favorite uses of a dnpc involved a boyfriend who was dating a private-identity pc. He had been arrested for D&D and was loudly proclaiming to the entire precinct house that they should treat him better because he was dating Scimitar, so he was kind of a big deal, and if they'd just let him have his phone, he'd show some pictures to prove it. Worse? In her private life, she was one of the many lesser lawyers in the da's office. Guess who's job called mid-battle telling her she was up, and telling her the whole deal? That was a fun one. But it's not easy to come with on the fly; roll before the game starts, and take a minute or two to think it through while everyone else thinks you're just neutralizing the dice.

Teleport, ranged, UAA. (is UAA still a thing in 6?)

Christopher, you're an extremely intelligent guy, and it's really unusual that I find myself this far away from your position (and I can't figure out how to turn alerts off, os that little chime keeps pulling me back over here :lol:) I will accept your counterpoint the moment someone convinces me (and I am malleable, if loud) that every single clearly-more-capable-because-they-aren't-handicapped two-handed dissenter in this discussion can do the same thing these people are doing, only far, far better, because they aren't "disabled". (please! Someone shoot me a PM on turning off notifications!)