Duke Bushido

Ah. I have ten times as many quesrions now. Did Mongoose just copy Wizard's OGL and say "we have one, too, in reference to what we created," or were they somehow claiming that wizard's own DnD related OGL applied to modernized Classic Traveller?

I heard a rumor that this OGL nonsense might somehow affect Cephus Engine- essentially the guts of Classic Traveller. Can any more knowledable about such things enlighten me as to just how? Clearly there are no d20 elements in the Classic Traveller engine. Is it the slight possibility that Miller might use a potential succes by Wizards to knock down folks publishing for the rules ser he created? (Which, no lie, would seriously disappoint me: he seems like a pretty decent guy overall.) I only ask because, since Traveller is my fismrat RPG love affair, is still a go-to game for me, and wobbles back and forth with Champions as my favorite RPG, and will always be my favorite engine for running westerns or anything "gritty" (I have said it before, and it will always be true: you have to bend Champions until the metal breaks to get the lethality that comes standard with the majority of not-HERO games out there), I had considered pickinf up a Cephus book or two, just to see what it is all about.

Folks, if there are any D20 print books you've been wanting to buy, now might be a good time to pick them up. I have waffled about T-20 for a year or two now, and went ahead and bit the bullet on a used copy- paid ten dollars and postage for a near-mint just over a month ago. (Not related to this DnD thing; I just happened to have some mad money at that moment). That same seller had four copies (still has two), and the price is now seventy bucks. Even poor or ungraded copies are fetching stupid prices from some sellers. Sellers that six months ago had them for 40 bucks and under (to explain: I am not cheap, per se, but for 40 bucks, I can buy the disk with the entire product line in PDF. Since all I wanted was the rule book to add to my Traveller collection, I decided I would pay up to half the price of that disk for a reasonably crisp physical copy of just the rules) suddenly have those same books for 55 bucks _and up_. I think this whole fiasco has them expecting a surge in demand for copies of these various d20 OGL games before wizards either republishes them as their own or scares original publishers from doing reprints. And of course, the nuts that think wizards can somehow sieze or prevent the sale of extant used copies are panicky enough to buy eight copies od somethinf at an inflated prive that they wouldn't have bought a single copy of a year ago. I also think I will not be able to replace my D20 Silver Age Sentinels hardback (don't know what happened to it: just suddenly didn't own it anymore), as they were rare and pricey before all this started (seems,most people bought Tri-Stat, and most who bought d20 versions bought softcovers). Though to be honest, I will never _play_ T20 any more than I _played_ SAS. As someone pointed out above, DnD didn't blow up huge because of the mechanics; the mechanics are the biggest pile of crap ever published, and will always be the worst part of the "system." Saving throws _exist_ because the mechanics are so awful. But SAS was gorgeous to look at, and had a lot of inspirational material. And T20... Well, I am just a Traveller nut, at least so long as it wasn't written by (or too-heavily influenced by Fugate). Getting back to the sellers preparing for misguided panic buying of d20 material: Do not think for a minute that people aren't that stupid when they get worried! Anybody else have to _travel_ to buy toilet paper a couple of years ago?

Agreed wholeheartedly. Thw difference between a player who _will_ is spend a weekend or two hitting that Print Screen button and onw who won't is not in their desire for breadth of access, but comes exclusively from the depth of the burn they suffered.

Be a lot more pressure on them if the guys addicted to Magic: the Crack Habit threw in with a boycott of sorts.

That guy again.... Subscription model? Print screen. Print screen. Print screen. Print screen. Many years ago, I _bought_ a pdf of a repair manual for an old Royal Enfield; I had a buddy that owned one and was absolutely terrified of bending his own wrenches, so.... He'd need something done to the bike (because it was a Royal Enfield), and he'd swing by. I'd pull up the site, the PDF, search a bit, and take notes (torque specs and the like), shut it a down and get to work. About four years later, they adopted a subscription model, and suddenly I couldnt access the book I had _paid_ forty-eight buck for! The message said that my subscription had run out, but for only eight bucks a month (yeah; do the math), I could access an entire library of repair manuals. So I chipped in eight bucks for a "thirty-day trial," and spent the next Saturday night hitting "print to PDF" repeatedly, Just sayin. Now you know I actively work against piracy. I had _bought and paid for_ that book. That Extra eight bucks to access a book I paid for in full was, from where I sit, simple robbery.

I confess: I am at work, and so can only skim, but is there a reason this cannot be done with a minor t-form? Assuming That heating the metal is the whole purpose of the build, I mean, and not an SFX-related incidental side-effect.

Bah-! Think nothing of it. Best thing that happened for you was that Hugh replied so early: you are always on good hands with Hugh. He will always be as thoughtful or as curious as you are, and always as polite and mannerly as you are (take that as both a compliment to his patience and a warning to you, Sir. ). Also, the way he can just spit out numbers, I am pretty sure he is actually an AI, which makes him quite qualified for suggestions on this character. Ha! Depending on how you want to approach this, that actually males it easier for you: there is no need for a special build to represent this character as anything other than what he appears to be. He is as solid (the forcefield thing) and as mobile as any other character, so you simply take your blank sheet and declare that he is a mobile and solid hologram. You have already worked out how "damage" is modeled for him; that is a huge step, and again: it costs nothing, and more appealingly, it works well to reinforce your character concept. I quite like it. The only potential complaints you may hear from the "you can't just declare that he is a hologram!" argument would relate _most likely_ to the following: Movement. The light bee obviously hovers; why can't the character? You can adress this two ways: you can go ahead and buy him some interesting movement powers. Alternately, you can state that since "adventuring" was never part of the original goals for the project; perfectly simulating a person was the goal. He has thousands of subroutines that analyze his sourroundins and his animations and they will forbid him to do anything a normal human cannot: he can't float up a ladder rather than climb it, and he cannot climb it if it is not within his animated reach- that sort of thing. Either was is _fine_, and it is your character; pick the choice that you like best and check with your GM to see if he approves; he might not be keen on having a party member who can fly, for example. Life Support. There is a potential argument that you _must_ buy life support as you do not breathe or eat and likely are unaffected by vacuum. Again: it is _your_ choice (pending GM approval, of course), and not ours, but as above: there is _no_ mandate for this. Perhaps you buy one or more forms of life support, or perhaps the light bee is air-cooled and takes damage akin to a human when deprived of atmosphere, or suffers internal damage from exotic gasses in the atmosphere. As his "solidity" is essentially only for human interaction, there may be large areas where, for energy conservation, there is no forcefield until his subroutine sensors determine there is about to be a need for one. How often does someone rub his head or touch his face? His entire forcefield "skull" may not be put in place until his systems tell him a contact is immenent. This allows air exchange (as might tiny "nostrils," but without fan forcing, they wouldn't be terribly effective). It may also mean issues with vacuum: a sudden depressurization might draw air out of his center with such force as to tear loose components in or on the light bee- doing real "damage" to him just like any other character. Remember that the rules do not _mandate_ that you justify the special effects for your existence: he is a human; he is an Andoran; he is a robot; he is a tangible hologram. They are all the same. It is _only_ when you _actively desire_ some aspect of the universe to interact with him differently than it does with a standard human character that you either need to buy an ability or take a disadvantage, and not one moment sooner. You do not have to buy "need not eat." You _can_, of course, but you are not required to. You can even justify that he is prgrammed to take holographic meals to help put people at ease, and under the illusion of the hologram, he is actually recharging the hologram and forcefield projectors inside of him- perhaps there is a bit of transporter and replicator tech inside him that converts actual food to raw energy which recharges his mobile systems! But the best part? The best part is that even though you _can_ justify his need to "eat," you do not ever actually,_have to_! If you did not buy the correct Life support, then you must periodically eat (in some form or fashion), period. Same with buying END and REC: you are never mandated to buy a fuel a charge, ever. Just stick with the standard characteristics and he is able to generate, store, and use his own personal energy the same as any other character. This is good to know. I would still respect the permission enough to not abuse it too much. Also, be aware that coming in considerably points-heavier than the other Pcs may cause some grudges or grumbling at the table. Toward the goal of respecting both of those issues, every point I spent over the limit would have _at least_ one point of disadvantages /complications to go with it. I say at least one, because, again, nothing in the rules mandate that you spend every disad point you earn; there are even zero-point disadvantages that some players take just because they want them. To be fair, they don't come up much in discussion here, but we are all aware of them. Oh! A zero-point disadvantage is a regular, worth-points disadvantage that either for GM requirement or the player's personal reasons, zero character building points are awarded for use in building the character. Sometimes they develop over play, such as picking up a negative reputation for consistent undesireable behavior. With this character concept, though, you should have no trouble finding more than enough disadvantages to build your characyer and maybe toss in a pair of three of zero-pointers just to be a bit graceful about going over the limit. And if you want to go over just a bit, I like the idea of 1 hex of flight. I just have this amusing Wile E. Coyote moment where the party encounters a trap door and his processors are so busy tracking movement and determing the best reaction behavior that for just a moment, it forgets to fall. It could also come in handy for moving up smooth vertical surfaces or crossing impossible gaps. I. Suggest only a single hex as in a party of normals, this is _enough_. He can climb the wall that no one else can, and he can airwalk across the river. Why so slow? Well, he isn't designed to do this, and it takes considerable and constant internal overriding of automated and self-correcting subroutines designed to prevent it from happening. You might even consider an increased END cost and periodic EGO rolls to represent the need to keep his attention on his progrwmming and the strain to his floating bits to go from a meter off the floor to thirty meters off the floor. You might take a limitation on your standard Swimming: cannot dive / go underwater. Thus, your holodoctor "swims" by simply walking across the top of the water. You can also do the classic "Flight: must be touching a surface," and sell back your initial 'free' swimming, but be aware that this means you can walk up walls and stand on ceilings as well, and the increased Knockback rules apply. Also, you can't do the hover gag or airwalk; you will need a separate flight for that. When I posted it, I was thinking about the sensors guiding the projectors as being the location of your actual perception point, and their telescopic sight and hearing etc, being lumped into Clairsentience focused on this location (where the sensors actually are), but with the mobile projectors, there is no need: we simply declare the sensors are there, too. _However_, why not use Clairsentience this way: Surely the light bee cannot carry enough processsing capability to meet the needs of completely simulating every aspect of a human being in a convincing way. Perhaps the ship's computer does the bulk of the heavy lifting, and there is a constant communication signal back and forth. His Ckairsentience is nothing more that Star Trek's famously fickle ships's sensors, which in one episode can observe activity in an underground chamber as if a camera had been placed there, and in another cannot find life on a densely-populated planted because it is too foggy. This connection lends itself to either a character disadvantage: cannot exist where communication with the ship is not possible (sorry, team. I cannot go with you on the elevator to the center of this iron asteroid. I will just wait out here) or perhaps a limitation on individual abilities: perhaps certain skills are not stored internally but are handled by the ship's computer. These skills or abilities (maybe those last five points of his intelligence, or his ability to override his local programming (meaning he cannot use his Flight without communication with the ship) requires access to the ship's processing power. Maybe his default language is binary-- or worse! Cockney!-- and his universal translator ability he uses to speak all languages know to the Federation is a ship-board data pool. Without it, he can only speak the language of a people who refuse to acknowledge nearly half of all consonant letters! These are individual limitations on the character's abilities, but a second possible disadvantage for the character is that he is "shiny" in electromagnetic or radio frequency scans because of the non-stop radio chatter between him and the ship. Remember, though, that these are all _optional_! You can simply declare that yes: his brain is split between a few local processors and the ship (or even that he is entirely self-contained, but that doesn't really fit in with what I remember of Star Trek computing power) and that there is a constant stream of data passing back and forth, but these limitations aren't there. Remember always that Limitations and Disadvantages are _never_ mandated! Not in the first edition; not in the final edition; not in any edition in between or off to the side (New Millennium, Now, and LARP). Unless the player or the GM say the flaw exists, it does _not_ exist, and it does not have to. Somehow, it works in spite of all the reasons that it shouldn't. Dumb luck is real, after all. Yeah, I had to do some googling. I was banned from watching Voyager at my brother's house because it was too much fun to get under his skin by calling Tuvac "Tupac," and braking into Tupac lyrics by starting with "Captain, my Homie, " then just charging right in. (Turns out Jayson doesn't like Tupac. Who knew? Other than me, I mean?) I was bannned from watching it at the house because I have a type, and if Kate Mulgrew started powerlifting, she'd be right there. (I wasnt allowed to watch Murphy Brown, either, but that was ridulous. Candace Bergen just didn't have the frame to get farm girl strong.) Well that fits nicely into the "most of me is in the ship's computer" model I used as an example above: this is the new prototype; the biggest investment in modeling, AI, animation, skills etc- all of that is safe inside a couple thousand tons of military vessel, while a small contragrav unit and some projectors are all that actually leave the ship. Focus first on what it most importsnt to you- what you see as the core competencies of this character- his signature abilities, if you will. Also, talk with your GM about everyman skills and about "freebie' gear. If he is going to declare that everyone can grab a universal translator and a communicator at zero cost, he may allow you to simply declare that you have one built in at zero points, though it will be subject to whatever restrictions apply to the carried ones. Remember that limitations on abilities- even tiny ones- lower the cost of those abiliities. For instance, if communication to the ship can be lost or interfered with, and your skills require that communication, those skills can cost slightly less. Do keep in mind, though, that you most likely _will_ periodically be denied one or more of those skills because of those limitations being triggered: it wouldn't be fair to players who paid full price for your limitations to not come up now and again. Discuss this with your GM, as skills-with-limitations is a GM-approval option, and not the default. Remember also that Overall skill levels are a thing that exists, and can really make a difference for a skill-heavy character. An Activation on certain abilities, perhaps? It _sounds_ like you are talking about some sort of disadvantage /complication, which don't save points, per se, but they _do_ create character-building points that you can spend to add abilities to your character. Reducing the effectiveness of your abilities saves points by creating a weaker or less-reliable version of the ability in question. But keep in mind- and I nearly addressed this above- that it is not necessary to buy every single ability the character has. Buy those that you believe to be the most character-defining skills (I have a hunch that the Star trek holographic doctor probably wasn't terribly handy with a gun, right?) Also, you don't necessarily have to buy them to the level that think they should be. You can continue to improve them via experience. Sure, it is slow-going, but it is progress. And for skills- well, we discussed over-all skill levels. If you have twelve skills, all of which cost two points to each to get a plus one to the skill level, that is twenty four points. For twenty points, you can get a plus two to all of them, just remember that they have to be allocated. For skills based on Characterisitcs- and this is quite common for INT-based skills- consider adding five points to the base characterisitc- bumping INT up five points gets a plus one on all INT-based skills, which I am betting covers a lot of ground for the doctor. Even better: if you are going the constant-communication-to-the-ship to use skills, you can consider making those extra five points of INT dependent on the ship as well, and depending on what the GM assigns as the value here (I would call it -1/4, unless I planned for this to be a common trope across the campaign), then those 5 pts of INT only cost 4 pts. I would _strongly_ caution you to not make all of his INT or any other characteristic completely dependent on that communication. There is little more terrifying than a doctor with INT:0. But any special amount of it- let's say you want an INT of 17. You decide that the doctor will always have a 12 INT, (costing either 2 or 12 pts, depending on what edition you are playing), and plus 5 INT when in touch with the ship, which costs 4 pts (assuming your GM agrees that -1/4 is appropriate. If he goes for -1/2 (remember that he knows more about what he has in mind that do the player's), then that last 5 points only costs three points. Honestly, even if the GM suggests a -1/4, you can request a -1/2 with the request that it be a more feequent problem than the GM already expects. I wouldn't do it (again), but it _is_ a valid approach. Took several minutes to fight the urge to jump on the obvious joke here , but my coming here very quickly was a fluke: I just hspoe2ned to already be here. Still, if it helps, you are welcome. I rather think this plays well into the idea that the bulk of him is stored in the ship's computers, and regeneration is nothing more than beaming down a new projector/sensor set. There is Regeneration for self-healing technology as Hugh suggests, but there is also a very precise Duplication build that works, and an old-old-_old_ offshoot that I almost never discuss (anymore) in spite of the fact that I use it myself. It was a power suggested in an old Dragon Magazine called "Extra Life," which provided exactly that: an extra life. A one-up. A plus-one mushroom. It cost to or three points (it is late here, and my mind is foggy). You do not come back immediately; it is recommended that you not come back in the current scenario or adventure, and maybe not even until the next camqaign, but you do come back, full and intact and with all your stuff. The caveat is that these points are _gone_. Burned.,,you can't get them back; you can't rebate them and use them for something else. The huge outcry against the idea that the points are gone forever being so terrible and so un-HERO made me think that not as many people as believe they do actually remember Fantasy HERO's first edition. At any rate, I have to be up in just over four hours and go to work. 'Night, all.

To be fair, though, that particular assumption was placed by the very first edition with examples of custom limitations, and has never really been re-adressed. Nor, personally, do I think needs to be, rules-wise, but it _is_ something I keep in mind as a GM, and encourage others to do the same: If, in your game (or, more realistically, your semi-sketched campaign, you allow a -1/2 for WD only versus electrical damage, take a quick scan of how many electrical attacks there are amongst the villains of this worls (or campaign, if this campaign is a closed series of its own) and how many scenarios you have planned for electrical explosions. Yes; there are always those things you don't plan on that the PCs bring on themselves: Captain Rocket, you have failed your PER check and as you wave goodbye and streak toward the heavens, you fly stright through the high tension lines. Also, I need you to hand me another dozen dice. Don't bother worrying about that sort of thing: just a quick rough look at what is planned is sufficient to give you the value of a limitation. Remeber That a -1/2 yields a final cost of 2/3 (roughly) of the full retail. At that level, I would expect my defense to apply to roughly 2/3 of the energy damage I will likely experience. If I look over my notes and see that the player has selected a limitation that means his defense will apply in perhaps 1/4 of the planned "potential energy damage exposures," then I don't have a serious problem with assigning this a -3 limitation; I just _don't_. Now, for ongoing games or ongoing settings, the potential to face "that sort of thing" cannot be determined with any kind of accuracy, obviously, so a default value is assigned: from the first edition to the today, that default has been -1/2. And I think _that_ has a lot to do with why. This concern is the single biggest running feature of the "how would you build X" and "rate my build" threads on this board: 'the potential for abuse!'-- even when the person saying it can't provide a potential situation in which it could be abused- is as big a rallying cry in these threads as is my own "I need a minute to tank up!" when my brother asks if I am up for a ride. The other reason, I think, is a zealous adherence to select parts of the written word: we pay lip servive to and then completely ignore the Word when it says "make changes to the rules as improves the gaming experience," and when it says that situations and conditions affect the values of advantages and limitations, but compile and recite lists of every book example, and declare that "the value of this limitation is _that_," but without discussion of what might change that. More than anything, I think _that_ needs to change.

Being a hologram is a special effect, just like being an alien, a robot, or a fire golem. Do as you said: just build the character with whatever powers and abilities you want him to have and declare that he is a hologram. Now this: Do not fall into the most common group think trap on the boards: because something _can_ apply, then it _must_ apply: A hologram is intangible; he _must_ have Desolidification! No. If you don't want him to have Desolid, then he doesn't have it. A hologram is made of light; he should be unable to be stealthy in the dark because he is essentially a man-sized beacon! Not if you don't want that, he isn't. A hologram is essentially a projection from a remote system; all of his senses should percieve as if his point of perception is actually twenty miles away! He should have serious penalties to his senses! Or worse: he should pay points for his disadvantages / complications! In the above case: he must buy Clairsentience, with a fixed location point (the source projector and it's sensors), and take a disadvantage that this is his _only_ perception point, full-time, and he is going to need to buy lots of modifiers to his senses in order to be effective at perceiving if he moves a great distance away- You'd _think_ that was exaggerating, but do be prepared for it. Remember: just because your guy is made of fire doesn't mean that everything he touches _must_ catch fire. There is no _must_ anything based on your character's SFX for simply _existing_. Now those SFX can easily _suggest_ other interesting abilities of the same effect-- Desolid, Takes No STUN, Teleport, whatever. Equally, they can _suggest_ limitations appropriate for the character: cannot interact with physical world, cannot exceed X distance from projection point, glitches / freezes when stressed. And so on and so forth. They will, however, _never_ mandate any of them, period. There are lots and lots of Appropriate Things. There are absolutely _never_ any Must Things, and don't let anyone convince you otherwise. That will turn you off to the boards (and guite possibly the game) faster than anything else.

I have to assume that in one way or another, _most_ GMs do this. I mean, Hackler has now written two books that specify that their exact purpose is doing precisely this.

I _already know_ that I _am "that guy." It doesn't make,me happy to _be_ that guy; it just means I am at least slightly self-aware. But from about 2:00 to 2:30, it seems,this guy and I shaee a similar turn-off. I mean, his comments here apply to more latest editions that just DnD.

Wont lie: I used to play a _lot_ of GW stuff over the years; I thoroughly enjoyed a great deal of it, to include the original Warhammer FRPG. Then they came along with Warhammer 40k-- or as my wife calls it: "Catholic Traveller"-- and I didnt much like it. The lore was the biggest turn off, honestly, official or otherwise. Then the board game- him, I mean, tactical miniatures far-future science fiction warfare simulation game (the "Crusades" for Catholic Traveller), and I liked that even less. I kept thinking "well, let's see what they come up with next." That turned out to be lore up on lore upon lore, and they essentially put all their eggs in that one basket, and I have come to the point that I just dont like eggs anymore. I don't expect that to change: it is clearly making money for them, as the fans love to buy, assemble, paint, and battle their yugi-o fight--uh, miniatures, and let's face it: if you want a gloriously-painted mini, you take it to a warhammer guy, period. still, I do miss seeing Games Workshop printed on a box and that excitement it used to bring me, and how quickly I would snap up the box to read the back. Now I am happiest that the logo is so bold and vibrant: it's like a caution sign telling me to leave it alone. now when I hear someone menrion them at a game store I like to ask "Oh-- aren't they the guys that killed White Dwarf?" The very rare chuckle from someone in the shelves is always worth it.

Up-front: I ain't no expert. _However_, if you want an unprofessional opinion: This boils down to special effect: if your mind scan works,by searching out conscious minds or active thoughts, you couldn't locate an unconscious person. However, as the rules do not mandate this effevt (ie, do not state that the person must be awake and /or active), I would think such an SFX might even be worth a small limitation on the Mind Scan. As it is, there is nothing that says you arent searching for a particular set if brain engrams or the id or thw super-ego or even the hypothalamus ("lizard brain") or even the very sense of self each person possesses- maybe your cleric's mind scan has the SFX of exactly that, defining the sense of self as "the soul" or something similar. But again: that's just the opinion of one ignoranus (it's like an ignoramus, but he's also kind of a butt). If nothing else, I hope that gets your juices flowing.

In addition to vanquishing the Christmas Treant with the youth group, I managed to get in a few hours of Classic Traveller during the shutdown at Job 1. Briefly: simple scenario: hey, the guys workinf on the beanstalk (it is still under construction; not being repaired) are striking! Some of the more radical have taken hostages! They threaten to shoot on site any law enfircement or any corporate negotiator they don't recognize! hey! You scruffy-looking out-of-town guys can blend in and rescue the suits and the two nobles they have captured!" Skipping ahead: We have found the hostages after lots of stealth, helping a few strikers who know this is out of hand sneak out to safety, and minimal firefighting. We manage to override the door to the dormitory the hostages are being kept in and start to slip inside, identifying ourselves. Our off-world attire, accents, and illegal-on-this-world weaponry, along with the fact that the weapons also look well-used and not-ideally maintained combine to give us away instantly to one of the nobles, who, before we have managed to close rhe door behind us and start discussing the situation and making plans, blurts in obnoxious contempt (and loudly) "well! I see they have had to lower themselves to hiring troublemakers to rescue us!" Unbeknownst to us, rhe outburst has piqued rhe curiosity of a striker roaming the halls, who starts stealthing his way towards us. The engineer, who is wound tight and nervous (three war zones in his background; the player has decided he is jittery under stress and wrestles with PTSD. He is wearing a backpack for a plasma welder, which actually powers his laser rifle, which he has slightly tweaked before mission to look like a heavy plasma cutter. It is currently tipped up and resting on his shoulder. "Oh, thank the Emporer! " exclaims a corporate underling who got nabbed with her boss. "Please tell me you guys are the good guys!" Just then "what the Hell-?!" And we all turn to the open door (the steward had the best computer skills; he has stopped working on closing the door to 'shush' the hostages). We all spin towaed the door and see a metalworker with an armband (all the steickees were wearing one in solidarity) fumbling with the safety on his unfamiliar-to-him automatic. Reflexively, the engineer snaps his weapon down and fires his laser rifle. Referee looks at the map, the minis, makes a few judgement calls and rolls dice twice. The engineer has delivered 4d directly to the unarmored face of the striker, literally burning his head completely off (and nicely cauterizinging the neck. Win / win...?) My character (yo, Chris! I got to give Sheyen a try! Very happy!) Turns back to the young Secretary / gopher / low functionary and without missing a beat: "let's just settle on "protagonists" for right now, shall we?"

Well, I spent a few hours cruising the net and it was definitely Dietrick. Though Caswell is indeed superb. I think I like Dietrick"s peple and faces, and Farwell"s ships and panoramas. Just incredible.

Unpopular comment coming: Preface: I also own Darren's update of GAH, and it is a wonderful book, no doubt about it. However, I don't think you need it for what you have in mind. Maybe. From your clarification, it sounds like you have a definite idea of what the sorts of things you are looking for- powers, personalities, costumes, etc. Just run with it and have a good time. Now if I have misunderstood your comments and your desire is to learn about and explore golden age superheroes, then you cannot find a better resource.

Yes; Sir! Thank you, Sir! May I have another, Sir?

But those of us who prefer our humor dry....

Thanks, Amigo! Now I am going to have to crawl the web a bit...

Wow. This is hard. I have had rhis oulled up for a couple of hours, and while Sci-Fi is my absolute favorite genre, I don't have a favorite this or that, except possibly artist, and I dont even know his name! He seems to have done the largest percentage (but not a majority) of the line art from the Traveller Book, the Starter Set, etc- technically 'the 3e' of Classic Traveller. What can I say? You all know that good clean line art moves me in an almost spiritual way...

That second one, if I remember correctly (I didnt pay much attention when the kids were explaining it- not that I didnt want to, but I was trying to cook, repair a supply line to the kitchen faucet, and help my niece diagnose a car problem over the phone-- and they weren't talking to me, any way, but were explaining it to each other. There may have been something involving points and feats, but that may have been wishful thinking on their part. As for those opposed it... Well, regardless of what they say, I think it is the same mislaid belief that causes some people to root for billionaires: that insane notion that it is almost their turn to be one. Similarly, if pressed (not by me, as I haven't any to give about DnD, but the conversations appear all over the net, and are free to read) At any rate, those willing to discuss their reasons for not wanting to use the points-buy option, while generally denying it, still manage to give the impression that it is because of how incredibly likely it is that the very next character they roll up in front of the DM will have straight 18s- you know: because of how common that is. Wont lie, though: all this talk of Iron Array has made me a but nostalgic for some truly old school And- just a night or two, I mean: Iron Array, four classes, four races. Go!

I would love to tell you that, but as my computer slowly dies, the Pulpomizer, like thes boards, have become another in a series of websites the computer no longer recognizes.

Regarding the Golden Girls dice: The picture loaded wierd- like the early 90s were it would be giant color blocks and then keep re-rendering until it focused. For whatever reason, the picture started loading before even the framew dor the boars loaded (the plant is in the boondoggle: you get signal, but show zero bars. The data is _slow_ here if you aren't wired) As the image started to clear up, I was aghast! My first thought was what kind of weirdo would want _these_ condoms! Then it snapped into focus and I felt so much better. Not entirely, but so, so very much...

If no one else chimes in, I will try to remember to check that when I get home. If rhe link on my sifnature still works, it will take you to a pet project; check page 2 for rhe "almost done" data.