Duke Bushido

Was Does Knockback from 5e? Seems we have been using it (or, if it ia from 5e, aomething _like_ it, apparently) since well before it, though admittedly, on a case-by-case basis.

Was it the Harbinger of cheese? I should be asleep, so I am not thinking clearly, but there exists at least one official example of Tunnelling representing picking a lock on a door and moving into the next room, and using the 'dont leave a hole' option to represent locking the door behind them after passing through it. With that, I would suppose the official answer would lean toward 'pristine,' but at the same time, I swear I can absolutely taste having read ' even with the no hole option, passer'a by will ge able to tell the earth has been disturbed; the earth is not pristine." And if both od those memories are legitimate, then I personally would say "Dealer's choice."

How much? You have to pick a hex in which to land or have a memorized location. There is no location at the base of the cliff that isny full of the thicket, no way to tell that, and no way to gauge the distance to the nase of the cliff.

Space Opera and Aftermath are the first things I think of when I hear complaint that refer to Champions as "recreational math." Space Opera was a product of the moment, though- even TSR gor in on the "math means realism" wave with Star Frontiers- sure, it is the least complex of the math-heavy games, but for TSR, it was a departure from all that had gone before. I am told that Pheonix Command was the high-water mark of over-math, but I never played it, so I can't say with certainty. In my experience, BTRC's Armory books combined with Aftermath led to a series of calculations to determine damage based on projectile weight and shape and muzzle velocity, meaning that if you were ever mad at someone and wanted to bring the game to a screeching halt, all you had to do was grab a different gun.... Eventually, my players talked me into doing what you are talking about, though- moving the Space Opera campaign onto Champions running gear. My Traveller players waffle between HERO and Traveller systems: the prefer the quickness of Traveller, but they also prefer the significantly reduced lethality of HERO. It tends to vary depending on their desire to be violent. Ha!

Woo-hoo! Another Space Opera player! Howdy, Neighbor! as for the questions regarding timeline: sometime after Mythic HERO, I expect. (for what it's worth, Mythic HERO is the local version of Duke Nukem Forever, save that when the fateful does come, and my grandson buys himself a copy to share with his kids, I expect it will actually be _good_ ) the following is not intended to be insulting or detrimental in any way: HERO Games is all but functionally dead. There was talk a few months back about using Kickstarter to get bigger projects sone every once in a while, but I don't know id the overall fanbase is much larger than the membership roster for these forums. the bulk of the meager output of late has been primarily fan-based works using HERO's version of OGL (which is not OGL, but allows you to write stuff for them, so long as you follow a not-too-terribly-long list of rules. all that being said, I woyldnt expect to see any Ultimates books updated to 6e, at least not for a very long time. Considerinf the only significant changes from 5 to 6 were the loss of "freebie" figured characteristics and splitting the hex down to 1m per, pretty much everything in the Ultimates books is still perfectly valid from one to the other (movement might be a bit wonky in Ultimate Vehicle, but that is just a guess). The ninja stuff will still be fine, as martial arts and there rules didn't change. (having read the 5e Ultimate Skill in 5e ans HERO System Skills in 6e, I am one-hundred percent they are the exact same book)

Specific examples: A wicked and twisted magus knows his subjects look daily for a chance to revolt. He also knows that the weakest part of his keep's defenses is the cliff that drops a thousand feet to the riverbank below- as the centuries rolled by, the eiver slowly changed course and no longer races along the cliff, but is now a few hundred feet away from the base od the cliff. To prevent anyon from trying his hand at scaling the cliff to gain access to the keep, he has seeded the entire bank with tanglesnare briars, a notoriously difficult vine that grows very tightly xoiled and twisted and filled with both long needle-like thorns and stout (but sharp!) claw-like hooking broads, such that anyone attempting to pass through will literally becone ensnared in the thick brush- at least until the tanglesnare grows high and dense enough to consume him. Tanglenare briars are known to create thickets up to 20 feet high if they are well-enough fed, and are dense enough that it is impossible to see more than a few feet into an established thicket. Standing in the shallow waters of the river's edge, one can clearly see the thicket before them, and a cliff rising beyond that. How far beyond that? Given the lines of sight available, the cliff could be a hundred feet away; it could be a hundred yards away; it could be a quarter mile away; who knows? You cannot see the far side of the thicket, so how far do you teleport? Safe blind teleport won't help, since there is room for you to be anywhere in the thicket without harm. It is attempting to move through the thicket that causes ensnarement and damage. Safe blind teleport will not avoid the thicket. If you do not have SBT, you can always take a chance on merging with the cliff..... So how far do you teleport?

Gotta get me a short sleeve white button down and a black tie....

Because of the rain. Hence the thunder.

Thanks. Doesnt help at all, But thanks.

I dont think I can wash the vomit out of throat...

This is not just a delightful option that allows some barriers to be more or ess effective that other barriers, you can also find this "alternate" version of Desolidification in any of the first 3 editions of Champions, if you happen to have access to one of those, as this is the "alternate Desolid" presented,in APG 1. Desolid was originally a movement power with interesting side-benefits. APG 1's alternate option simply returns it to being a movement power.

Congratulations to you, Sir (I assume; sincere apologies if I am wrong). The wierd thing is that way back when, I used do rather like Papa Jihns pizza. Then social media appeared, and he started talking. Then he started sharing his views on things outside of pizza, and it just wasnt good any more. I will philosophize on Champions, Traveller, construction, wrench bending, motorcycles, fishing, wood craft, and a few other things. Not politics, not social engineering, not a million other things. I figure if I am going to present myself as someone familiar enough with a topic to have a strong and valid opinion, I should probably stick with things with which I am actually well-grounded in.

Ar first blush, given that the current mechanic for PC developement is XP, like offerinf the chance to burn XP to re-roll a die or similar "luck" mechanic, which will ultimately stunt PC development (or perhaps "slow it down a bit," which isnt necessarily a bad thing in a heroic-level long-running campaign. Alternatively, it means double-develooment rewards by providing both XP and "luck points" for the same in-game benchmarks and achievements. Which, as I understand it, isnt too terribly far from the Hero Points thing that is already extant for 6e. Overall- at least for the Hero Points thing- I personally am not a fan: I rather enjoy having to cope with the whims of the dice as a representative model for a fickle universe, but there are a lot of folks here who welcomed the shoehorning in of the mechanic.

My daughter tells,me that she can't wait to dight Doctor Two Brains.

Oh, Good. I thought I might be the only one.

Robbie Coltraine has passed today. I always envied him a bit: it is hard to be an actor with his physical,size and not get type cast (at least, it is hard in the US). I knew him from Nuns on the Run; my kids knew him from Harry Potter. I dont ususally do the "a famous guy has died" threads- it is the pilrice or living, after all, and none of us are getting out any way but the same, but he always seemed like such a vibrant person. RIP, Hagrid.

That right there; that is precisely what I would do. We use it for Vampires: susceptible to sunlight. We use it for werewolves: vulnerable to silver. We use it for monsters: double damage from luchadores. We use it repeatedly for individual characters, but we rarely consider that its broad-spectrum use on an entire type of being (all witches are susceptible to water) is not just a points-saving measure, and not just a restriction on a particular set of characters, but one of the foundation stones upon which your universe is built. You are not just defining a character, but a world. "All gargoyles turn to stone in the sunlight" is something we have trained ourselves to look at as a weakness in gargoyles. With the _mandate_ that gargoyles must all take that exact limitation, what have done is not weaken gargoyles, per se, but instead you have given the sun the power to petrify gargoyles! You have established a universal law of "how this world works." As this incredibly expensive power construct you are pursuing.... Well is what it does _worth_ what it costs? Only you can answer that, of course: what is the value of being able to see pixies as opposed to the value of not being able to see them? If the cost is unjustified, or this is something that you want to be relatively attainable, it makes more sense to choose the "the world works thusly" route and all pixies are mandated to have the disadvantage "visible in the presence of X magic" (cost to taste) then create a simple spell- maybe a change environment (where the change is that Pixies are visible in this area; and it has built-in AOE, so..) as opposed to a penalty skill level or whatever- Side note: while I am cool with the fact that Change Environment can now grant skill levels or impose PSLs, I feel this has caused too many to absolutely throw away the memory of Change Environment's chief purpose: altering a given area specifically to take advantage of someone's power build, and specifically to trigger Disadvantages and Power Limitations: "if I create a wind vortex, your gliding should be strong enough and fast enough to carry all three of us to safety!" Or "don't worry! I know that Camenbert Man gets too soft and runny to fight when he overheats! I will use my "create a zone of intense dry heat" power!" Though honestly, given the number of threads over the years asking if CE had a real purpose, of how to model what it does, etc- I suspect a fair number of people never actually figured that out to start with. Oof-- especially the discussions about pinning down the "mechanics" of CE. The mechanics were chosen by the player of the affected character when he selected the Disadvantage or Limitation. That is where you look to see what happens when CE is used. I expect it stems from the need of many to know "exactly how." "I _know_ that Pyrojet's cone of incineration doesnt work in a vacuum, but _how_ doesnt it work? _Why_ doesnt it work?! Points, levels, penalties, shades, degrees!" Well, the various characters and creatures were effected exactly,as it said they were affected on the character sheet. Yes; I agree that a grassy slope covered in ice should _probably_ have an effect on everyone, at least to some extent. I already confessed to having no beef with that. I am regularly incensed, however, over the complete forgetting of it's baseline ability in favor of specific numbers and "affects everyone exactly like this and in no other way" mechanics. But back to the point: if, in your universe, all members of X should equally and infallibly suffer Y when exposed to Z, well this is precisely the Limitation / change environment Schtick we used for what? Thirty-odd years? Before someone decided it just didnt work and needed to be "fixed." A mandatory So sad: "member of X, so exposure to Y causes Z." Then simulate X with judisciuos use of Change Environment. And that is how I _would_ handle it, personally.

Apply BODY damage to CON and STUN Damage to END. Then we go explore the Spinward Marches.

For eating a tiger?! Or for something else? [/pedant]

No doubt; no game is immutable, particularly if something stands in way of enjoying the game. I hit me as I was reading your reply that the most likely reason I never got into the old school revival is that, between Champions 2e and Traveller LBBs and pocket box Car Wars (and Truck Stop) as my go-to games even today, there is no "revival" for me. I didnt leave the Old School. Help! I'm stuck out here with John Connely!

Agreed completely. It was simply that my earliest experience with D and D- to include my second try a couple of years later, with a DM who used every published module he could get his hands on- boiled down to kill it and take its gold. Ultimately, those were the only ways to gain XP. much like I always felt a random "encounter" could be "you see tracks" or "you see two cubs playing on a distant meadow," I always felt that "defeat" was not necessarily a synonym for "kill." unfortunately, nothing in the early material backed the idea up. once PCs could,be given an XP value, it got really ugly with certain players.

Agreed. Perhaps,it is the brand,of adventure fiction that I grew up on (five you a hint: as a kid, I really,thought isometrecs were going to be _the_ key to body-building ), but even as a player way back when, I always thought the "heroes" should be upstanding and definite (though not necesarrily clear-cut) "good guys" who were simply incapable of murder hobo-ing or randomly plundering for days on end; people who would gladly take on a quest slightly more noble than "jump into this cavern. Kill everytjing in it, and take its gold." I expect that the early patterns of D and D are one of the (several) reasons I do not like D and D tonthis day.

Agreed. I lost a good sip of an excellent coffee over that one. Well, I didnt lose it, but it is far more satisfying in the tummy than it is in the lungs.... Sometimes, humor has an almost divine inspiration.

Ditto. It was suggested to me by a GURPS player (a year or two before I had read GURPS myself) who had joined our Atomic Rockets campaign to incorporate the idea; I had no real objection to the idea (remember I am the guy who openly mocks the mythical "perfect balancing" of points; it wasn't hard to convince me). That was during the first or second edition ot GURPS, and I have yet to find it unbalancing, and quite often find it delightful. Perhaps it is just the name "Quirks," but I find that in general, Players who will periodically forget their Character's dependence on anti-muto medications or their crippling agoraphobia will never forget to lean into their little one-point Quirks. I have found it so not-unbalancing that for a while, I allowed up to ten Quirks, but the Players going overboard (playing them,up as if they were 20-point Psych Lims- while consistently forgetting their 20-pt Psych Lims!)) that I backed off of that eventually. I find 3 or 4 works best with my group of Players, and 5 doesn't really slow things down, so that is my own cap. Frankly, they are perfect for those "but if only I had two more points!" moments. I recall the preface of the first GURPS book I bought (Basic- 3e, I think) where SJ specifically named Champions as one of his inspirations. There is a lot of overlap in style of the two systems; it only seems right to borrow a little bit in return.

It's a shame that even if they saw this joke, they wouldn't get it.