Duke Bushido

After which, you just handwave that "we all talked and we understand each other (because I have no hair left to tear out) or demand they buy a common language on loaned experience points against their next EP earnings. Remember That this common tongue dowsnt have to be the universal common tongue understood by a few people in every major city, either. If you prefer it, it can be just some simple regional language that they all happen to have in common, meaning they can still get value for any language that they spent points on. As for language charts? I mean, umm... No; I don't bother working that out. I am not the oldest guy here, and I started gaming with Traveller in '77. To this day, no player has ever actually cared how many points of similarity his language has compared to another. It boils down to "well, I can speak X, Y, and some Z. Is his langaue similar enough to one od those that maybe we can kind of get some simple quesrions and were?" at which point I can make a quick dexision based on the needs of the moment, make a note, and move on. I dont even use the one 4e gave us, doe just the same reason: no player has ever fone out of his way to put 3 pts into Click or,any other language without knowing what might have some overlap anyway, even then, he has precious little clue how much, so I end up having to make that quick decision anyway. So, briefly: standing rule: all PCs have a common tongue, and that is the default against which they call other languages 'additional.' A language chart has never once proven to be of any value (other than slowing the game down repeatedly) in any game I have ever played.

What they said. The novelty of PCs having to communicate one at a time or through interpreters wears off about eight or nine minutes into the game. 😈

Yep- remember that for all the flak we give them, these guys are nor the thugs we dismiss them as; they were meant to take down supers in three-man teams, and War Boar learned a vakuabke lesson in underestimating hia opponents. though, touch screen or not, your character's name reminded me of aomething from my dauggtwr's toddlerhood. Pardon the digression: after an all-night windstorm, I was walking the yard checkibg for damage, my young daughter following along., I picked up a branch; she picked up a twig. I kicked down a pile of leaves to ket rainwater flow, she kicked at whatwver leaf was closest to her. after about forty minutes, we were walking near,the treeline at the creek and she _jumped_ back away from thw shade- "carefully, Daddy! Careful!" "what's the matter?" She keot a cautionary finger Ilup and leaned into the green one with big eyes and exaggerated stealth while pointing with her other hand. "Spidel, Daddy. A real big spidel. Be careful." By then, I had caught up to her. "'Spider, Honey. That's a spider." "Yes!" She agrees heartily, her vigorous nods making her only tails jump and flop. "A big spidel!" "That one won't hurt you, Kiddo." "My Nana says stay away from spidels!" Well, your Nana also says that Eisenhower better not touch her Social Security or she'll vote him out, but let's just stick with this situation.... "Most spiders are helpful, not bad. That one is an orb weaver, and eats a lot of the bugs we don't want." "My Nana says that's a nanana...na...na. spidel!" Yes, lot's of people around here call them banana spiders because they are big and bright yellow, but since we don't live in Asia, those people are wrong. That is called a golden silk orb weaver. They are very pretty, they are not venomous enough to hurt people, and you'd have to slap it around a bit bedore it xonsidered trting to bite you anyway." "Ol deefer?" "Orb weaver. It is a category od spiders named for how they build their send." We atudied it a bit more, played a little, it, and went back in the house. "Where have you two new?" Her mother called from the coffee pot. "We been outside, and we cleaned up sticks, and I helped, and Mamm, we saw a War Beaver!" It was peobably juat the imagery that popped,in my head, but I had a stout feeling what sort od aliens my travellers were going to encounter very soon...

I am with you there, Sir. Alas, my,most "local" store is two hours one-way, and I would have to tear gas the Magik and Pokemon guys to clear out some seats. (Does that stuff come in alternate fragrances? Might as try to make the place smell less like "no one in here has bathed more recently than two weeks ago.") Honestly, I don't know how you can have that much Dorito'a dust on your fingers and staining your beard and not have orange cards 😕 To the question: yes; HERO is still one of my two drugs of choice. Primarily 2e, with a tiny smattering of things pulled from 4e. We pulled in a few things from 5e that we thought we would like (mostly modifiers), but eventually decided that we didn't need or want them, so while they are still on the table, so to speak, we haven't found any real utility to them. We didn't find any of the "new" stuff in 6e interesting enough to try at all. In all fairness to Steve, after watching that youtube cast (thanks to the outstanding human being who put up the youtube link), I think I may have been right in my earlier claims that the bulk of the last two editions "new stuff" was little more than addressing or codifying corner cases and edge items that just aren't likely to come up for most people. Based on comments Steve made in that video, I suspect this really was the case (the "file of questions from over the years," etc). As we have been playing since 1e, we have adresswd pretty much any edge case that we were likely to have encountered long before the rules did, and we just havent had that many. Yes; I have just as much fun as everyone else picking at things that _could_ cause an issue, or noting how _this_ might interfere with _that_, but it is like getting killed by a tiger: I _could_ get mauled to death by a tiger. If I encounter a wild and hungry tiger, I probably _will_ get killed by a tiger. Since I live in central Georgia, USA, in spite of all the potential to lose my life in a Duke / tiger encounter, I can one-hundred percent say that I am most certainly _not_ going to get killed by a tiger, and don't really need to invest much time or money preparing for that. In fact, I have made it to the ripe old age of 62 with absolutely _no_ preparations for tiger attack, and- as I suspect is the case for all but possibly one HERO player out there, I will never be in a position to regret not,being better prepared for random,tiger attacks. anyway: Champions 2e is one of my two systems of choice, tied quite nicely with Classic Traveller (as much as I love my LBBs, my players tend to prefer the 3e Traveller Book for its slightly simplified combat and range bands and ship movement, so that is the one we use the most.) Now realistically, we play way more games built on Champions, but that is because most of my players prefer the reduced lethality of that system, and even those with no preference have more experience with Champions. (Oddly enough, we dont play a lot of superheroes).

[Edit: Okay, this is wierd: I wrote this days ago, but apparently it didnt post. Because the phone doesnt have a click and drag to clear the editor in an instant (is there _nothing_ good about a touch screen?!), I have opted to leave it here for historical value. ;D ] Math errors,,spelling errors, typos, and random omissions. I didnt look that closely at 6e (I spent a couple of months of my very limited "spare time" just reading it, so I wasn't going to go back for any recreational pedantry), but if it doesn't have any, then it would be the first edition not to. This has been one of the longest-rumming fan in-jokes ever. It predates Seeker-smashing by three editions. _________ In response to your noticing the increased cost and therefore increased points caps that go along with the increased complexity (and ultimately, a lot of that complexity comes from the perception of "increased options" that has been brought about by the increased codification of how various thing 'must' be done, etc- a sort of self-propagating complexity increaser. ), the end result is that today's adventurer is yesterday's superhero.

Okay, I popped over there and checked that out, and thwre were some interesting things, but I have to say that you, Sir (presumed; apaologies if I have erred), seem to picking on the lawyers a bit. Well, nit pikcing on, as such, but I am reminded of the George Carlin skit about Sunday School questions: "... Suppes that you sosnt make... Your Easter duty. -- and you"re on a ship at sea! And the chaplain has fallen into a coma.,. But then you cross the international waterline, and it's Monday; too late! But you _wanted_ to recieve...!..woukd that then be a sin then, Faddaah...?"

Like a barbecue!

Honestly, I can think of a handful of justifications right off the top of the head for skeletons that take STUN and can be stunned just as I can for why they could not be stunned. Equally honestly. I think the last couple of editions already have enough "have to" and "must" to keep me disinterested. No real reason I can think of to add another have to on the pile.

To give "personal" reactions from favorite characters over the years (briefly, and one at a time- I hate that I can only acees this board via phone): Maximum is a hyped up "max human potential" fake ninja with a strong sense of justice and a poor sense of how the word works:I. Left without guidance, he would likely pursue as best he was able, argue passionately (and battle as necessary) with anyone he had to in order to free her. If he managed to secure her person and was able to determine the nature of the problem (fifty-fifty. He's not stupid, but he is on the low side of the education slope), he is intelligent enough to know who could help, and has connections via his origin story that very much could help; he would get in touch with them immediately- if he figured out what the problem was. Otherwise, he would let her "lay low" at his apartment (again: a bit naive and not known for intelligence) and spend a lot of time wrangling her against her recall directive until either she stopped asking for help or he figured out what the nature of the problem actually is. Panther would tag her with a locator, determine her destination, and upon learning it, she would go through her files (she's a part-time corporate spy- long story) to see what she could learn that she didnt already know. If she figured it out, she would first week out advice from savvy-in-the-fiwld contacts, rig up a jammer or disabler (and find the disabler extremely distasteful, no matter how necessary, and pull together anyone with the skills she lacks (that she finds necessary for this mission) and pull off a stealth abduction, all whike copying everything Edge E has in any computer her software can crack remotely. She wouldnt do anything with it unless,necessary, and if not forced to release it, would use it as leverage against future behavior. Done for now.

I remember that one! That was inarguably,my,fisrt expoaure to "dark" humor. Not only did I laugh like a maniac for far longer than I should have, but I tried do show it to everyone, none of whom reacted with anything less than quiet distaste and most with overt contempt. I learned a lot about my sense of humor that afternoon. Another one I remember reall enjoying a few years later was a Don Martin cartoon where Batman walked into a public toilet and "took a seat." Then there is a "FLOOOSH! Panel, then chocking noises, and we pan into the stall to see him choking as the toilet tries to swallow his cape (Cue Edna Mode if you must, but this was maybe three devades before The Incredibles).

Three points can defeat Galactus. You just have to spend them exactly the right way...,.

Eh... Well, I popped back up. Maybe I should have showered first.

They weren't. We,didnt realize it at the time, but Gygax was also creating the "survival horror" genre.

Evryone in my universe would oppose,this, as it is, in my universe, slavery or at the very least abduction. I am not trying to break the paradigm you presented, Sir, but in my universe- owing to aliens, robots, Super-science, etc- the definition of "person" is no longer tied to "made of meat" and hasn't been since.... Mid-nineties, real time? Anyway, it stems from a legal case involving a co-GM's pet villain (super-intelligent computer network, humans are rhe source of all evil, blah-blah; heaed it before) during which it was setermined as a matter of precedent that there is intelligence and self-determination, period. There is no such thing as "artificial" intelligence. It is either genuine intelligence, or a crafty simulation. If it is intelligence, then it doesnt matter where that intelligence resides. (Untelated note: rhis made many ghost and spirit and undead types legal people, too, and entitled to all that pwrsonhood encompasses). So in short: either a trap, or an abduction, period. They would treat this at the very least as an abduction in progress. At the woelrst: trafficking or slavery.

I prefer the term "seasonal vegetables," but whatever floats your boat.

Temple of Elemental Evil, anyone? that thing might as well have been a Paranoia adventure; at least yoy'd have five back-up characters. 40k or FRP? I only ask because I have some faitly fond memories of the few times I played Warhammer FRP.

Lookin' at _you_, Aftermath.....

You, Sir, are a hero. Thank you,

The best thing I did with Super Agents was to take the map and scenario from the old Judge's Guild (boo! Hiss! Seriously: racism is wrong, period!) v and V adventure "three kilometer island" and change the parametes of the adventure a bit. Ultimately, using the suggestions from,Super Agents, I tuned it into a tactical wargamer of five villains versus 18 agents (lots of playtesting to get the balance right. Villains victory conditions were siezing the radioactives, with extra points for all villains escaping and for removing individual agents from combat. Agent conditions were defending the radioactives, with bonuses for no civilain casualilties, capture of individual villains, and capture of the escape vehicle. If there is no clear Victor, the villains are routed in sixty turns, and escape: game is a draw. About two hours of playtime for players who went full-bore frontal assault (which creates heavy casualties for agents, with agents winning one out of five games), four to four-and-a-half hours for a pair strategists, with fifty/fifty win/loss ratio. Most games featured a combination of the two- strategize to get your super or your 3-man team into advantageous position then charge. Also a 50/50 ratio. Anyway, I was pretty happy about it (though I had to rename it "Kilowatt Island," just because. Started doing a formal recreation of the adventure, conisdered approaching JG about either then selling it or lerrinf me distribute it for free, but then the racism scandal came to light, and I lost interest (actually, it was Jason who told me it was going on (it was literally "happening right now" when I was talking to him about it), and I totally lost interest in doing anything to boost their brand, even if it was for HERO fans. One of the more common pieces of advice I offer when the "how do I teach /introduce HERO" queation arrises is to start with an older edition- not just for the decreased complexity, but also because the "dials" are already adjusted. Sorry; I may not have been as clear as I intended (the computer no longer recognizes the board, so I am condemned to visit here using the phone, and touchscreens are such torture to me that I skip a lot of details just to get done. Ha!) I was not complaining about min-maxing. For the record, it is not my thing- I do a little, like anyone, but I don't delve as deep as I could. My point was that in a player group, some players will be better at it than will others. Thus, two hundred points spent by two random Players have two different limits on their purchasing power: one Player will likely get a good bit more for his money than will the guy who do3snt clip coupons. In short, one of the reasons I don't care if the powers are exactly "equally coated" is because the purchasing points aren't immutably and precisely valued beyond "one point equals one point." For one Player, 5 points equals one die of Energy Blast. For another, five points equals one die of Killing Attack. That was where I was going with that. Sorry I wasn't more clear.

No. The "abusiveness" of EC seems to be just assumed at this point, since it is kind of a freebie. It is not as much of a freebie as many folks think it is, given the spending requirements. Also given that the game evolved so that ECs were affected by drains and such as "drain one; drain the all," and the existence of "unified," which does _not_ (as far as I can recall; I may be off here, as I haven't read the new stuff in quite some time at this point) have soending requirements, the problems with EC can be boiled down to "he got fifteen points and I didn't!" or somethibg along those lines. However, to _genuinely_ find this as a flaw in the rules one has to accept both that all things upon which points can be spent are one-hundred percent equal in utility and "usage costs" such as END and how many times it may be used ib the game and other things, And accept that all players given a certain number of points will make equally cost-effective and equally effective characters. With the number of conversations over the years about min-maxing, rules-lawyering, and when something should coat points or not coat points, I have to suggest that anyone claiming those last two actually _are_ true -- well, he may not be lying, but he is certainly rememvering something incorrectly. However, I have been beating that horse since 5e, and it has garnered nothing but vehement disagreement, so I am going to say "welcome aboard" and bow out.

Pain Reduction, OIF: meth.

I know this doesn't really offer data up in which you make your decision, but for me it is entirely up to the campaign. Long-established relationships between human and alien? They will speak _something_ in common, be it English, alienese, or some tradespeak pidgin third language. In such a campaign, the interaction between the two races may be so common as to make not being able to communicate the more unusual thing. For the Most part, no. Oossible problems of speaking apparatus or hearing aparatus or other things may make it difficult or impossible to lean or converse with one or more different races. The biggest deal to me is present right here on earth, amongst humans: different cultural assumptions and references lead to entirely different ways of looking at things (not every earth language has a single word for "throw something or someone directly out of the window." They may have the concept, but how ingrained must it be before you decide "this would be easier with a dedicated word?" Then shadenfreude-- again: English speakers dont have a singke word for this because culturally, we pretend to feel sympathy for the victim- going so far as to emphatically express that verbally- all the while dying of laughter on the inside, and feeling guilty about that, because we just heard everyone else tell us how their heart went out to that poor, poor man....) Other issues, too: English has a tendency to do a complete about face based on common usage as opposed to the actual definition. We are living through this very thing happening to "irony" and "ironic." Think I am wrong? Did you know that at one point "a moot point" meant one of or the most important points being made? It also meant "the most poignant thing." What changed it? A couol3 hundred years of sarcasm. Remember when "ain't" weren't a word? I bet few people remember when "weren't" used with a singular noun _was_ a word (because we'd all be at least eighty years older than we are now). And all of that comes down to not just the language, and not just the whims of the culture, but the rukes goeverning the effects that are and are not allowed to happen because of the whims od the culture. At least on earth, we all sort of have the shared environment and human experience to build upon. I don't know that aliens would be able to truly speak casual conversational English or Spanish or any other earth language even with identical speaking systems. Further, I dont know that we could speak their lanvuage, either. This is actually why so many of my campaigns (that arent straight space opera) have a trade language or a common tongue, and this language is usually built scientifically- based upon concrete concepts and expanded outward. It also has limited numbers of adverbs and adjectives, relying more on repetition and stress to indicate degree. Kind of, A little, a bit, some, a fair amount, yes, a good bit, considerably, quite a lot, a lot, damn right, oh yes, more than you think, with every fiber of my being- most of thise arent even adjectives, but are all answers to "do you hate that guy or something?" Worse, they are graduated levels of "Yes" or "this quality exists." Scientifically, such a question _should_ be answered yes or no. In our interspecies made up language, it _must_ be answered yes or no. In English, Spanish, or French, there is no such requirement- we go right straight to the commentary on our hatred. In the tradespeak, the actual question must be answered as concisely as possible before expansion on the thought. Certainly the respondenr is free to add his own colorful commentary (with reason; to keep communication clear, no more than two adjectives or adverbs may be used to describe any one noun- which helps push speakers to using inflection and stress to show degree). This is because either party May be considerably less fluent or be from a species with no concept of "dragging his screaming corpulent butt with me into the first pits of Hell," but still gets an understandable answer to his question. As an amteur etymologist, I love this topic, and could go on for hours about translation and communication problems based on life concepts and even longer on purposely-constructed languages, but I am pretty sure 99.972457 percent of the population finds it slightly more boring than sloth racing. (See? An alien from a planet without sloths wouldn't know if I was being wise or cracking wise, would he?)

That! That part right there! You rolled "something happens," in the broader sense. If the characters or the players have just gone through a massive combat slog, it might not be the beat time to throw another one at them. Insert something, but not,necessarily what you rolled: They make camp and one of the characters discovers his purse has been cut. Maybe a rider approaches with bad news (or good news), or one or more characters has activates a trap- perhaps an ancient and rickety forgotten about trap; perhaps it was set specifically for one or more members of the party. There really are inappropriate times for a fight, either for played, characters, or both.

Clearly, we are the same person. So how come only one of us got the World Traveler hair? And Thanks for the compliment, Sir. I just got burnt out on the boards. It happens. I wont say "I am back" in any sense of my prior level of participation, but in small doses, it is quite pleasant to return.

Explain to videogame developers that quicktime events-- the digital doppelganger of the saving throw-- are just as awful: Man, what a great game! I have enjiyed the puzzles, and have gotten really involved in the story. I have got to get this NPC back to his village, and I need to make sure to find that meteor so I can create the Cursebreaker amulet, but I don't PRESS X TO NOT DIE! X AGAIN! CIRCLE! L3! ..." Etc, etc, ad infinitum.