Duke Bushido

Because they named _after_ they watches it. Ron Howard asked "well, what d'ya think?" And there was a unanimous voice from hundreds of throats..... Though I just had a lot of fun with the wife. I showed her the Twitter clipping, and she didn't quite get it, so I handed her the phone and suggested she turn it upside down. After she turned the phone over about four times, she shoved it back at me and proclaimed "Dammit! It's been a long day, okay?!"

Thank you, Scott. Would have loved to have seen it....

Only in Robot Warriors, I'm afraid. I _wanted_ Battletech, but as the only person I knew who was interested, I couldnt really justify the expenditure back then; Robot Warriors I could justify, having accidentally bought Robot Gladiators first. At that point,I obviously _had_ to have the game, or the supplement was wasted money, right? I liked Robot Warriors well enough, but the overall genericness of it (game-build and mech-wise) was always just a bit disappointing. it's like you really wanted to see the Jovian Chronicles anime but your parents bought you Robot Jox instead: you liked it, but it didn't quite scratch that itch.....

Such an elegant way to solve the "but my cute little chihuahua wouldn't harm anyone! He doesn't need to be on a leash....! (While I do everything I can to make sure my ninety-pound boxer mix (who, for reasons I have never been able to train out of her- _yet_ - is small-dog aggressive. Okay with large dogs; okay with cats. Hates small dogs.) from choking to death on the foul-smelling bastard child of a seagull and a rat)

Thanks, sincerely, but I am quite familiar with the American uswage of whipper-snapper; i digured Australiqn might be different, since it will apparently keep you from parking near them.

Martin Power had an ongoing schlep with his clothes getting wrecked. He was one of a very few supers in our world who _did_ the hero thing but did _not_ do the super-suit (the usual gripe being because he was hard to fit, but realistically, having a costume didn't jibe with his 'reluctant hero' shtick (I am not an ass; as a player, I understood it was _my_ job to find a justification to motivate him; the griping and complaining in the early parts of the adventure where a part of who he was. Once he was resigned to the fact that it wasn't going to be over quickly, he was full-on team player. Typically, he wore work pants or jeans, work boots, a button down shirt, and a leather field jacket or gentleman's coat. There was a running bit about his clothes getting wrecked, the expense of tailoring to fit him, the wait time, etc. One of his teammates (a player with who I got along particularly well) would often poke fun at him: "Who's your tailor? Doc Savage? James Kirk? The freakin' _Hulk_?!" And yes, with one exception (using himself to shield the citizens of an island community from a suitcase nuke), he never ended up naked- kind of like how the Hulk and Banner have the same sizes hips, butt, upper thighs, and marital tackle.... Somehow.... Same teammate: Be safer just to spray tan, don't you think? More even coverage, too....

That's.... Odd.... I can't speak for all Americans,obviously, but I don't personally know any that don't know what witches hats and nature strips are. That other thing- some sort,of cop?

Bingo.

I swear I am not doing this to you on purpose, but fantasy, sci-fi, or western? Yes. Yes; exactly that. It is my preferred take in all three of thise genres.

That outfit just _screams_ "waiting for the police to arrive and tell me that my wealthy husband has died under mysterious circumstances...."

You can go longhand: Shape shift, regeneration, maybe some personal defense that doesn't help the guy in the costume-- Or you could claim "instant change", only into one outfit- _this_ outfit, and handwave the altered shaoes of stretchy people and morphy people. Or you can do what I do and declare it sfx of havibg a super suit, available if you want it.

For what it is worth,I liked the lethality. It encouraged role play over gun play when things started going south.

I hope so! I'm told you will savor it on your tongue for the rest of your life.

Though I confess, that part can apply to me as well, particularly when I am working at the builsing supply house. After all, it is no coincidence that you can rearrange "customers" into "store scum." I hope it was better than those editions of Traveller that used d6 and d10. Those were _awful_.

So much information I never, ever wanted.... Kudos to you all..... Gotta check the kettle. My hemlock tea should be ready now....

Our _country_, Sir. Our entire country.

It's spelled Denali, and we keep it in Alaska.

The BMW Alpha:

Never even heard of dangerous journeys. What was that?

There are two Kentuckys, two Tennesees; illinois has been split in half; there is a Great Lake shoved into the east coast Etc, etc.

Let me put this in perspective: Five hours, forty-seven minutes. It was effectively six hours one-way from my house to what was back in the day the only "permanent" game store in the state. They popped up all the time, here and there, and sometimes I could make it before they folded, but none of them lasted more than a few months except the one in Atlanta that lasted eight or nine years before it, too, folded. I didn't try a lot. Most of what I owned was bought from adds in the back of gaming magazines (which also dried up eventually), but even that I didn't do a lot of, because the cost became cost-plus-postage (and there was never a sale price via mail order) plus post insurance, and I was loathe to risk it on stuff I knew nothing about, so.... The only thing I tried related to the Star Vikings era was.... Oh, crap... Well, yeah, it _was_ crap, but I can't remember the name of it. It was during the Fugate Era of Traveller, and it was.... I can't remember what they were called, but it was also the name of the game. "Battle Sleds" or some such thing. Anyway, one side had Battle Sleds- massive ships that had traded Drives and fuel allowances for additional weapons, while the other side had small nimble ships with one or two weapons. _Allegedly_, it was extensively Battle Riders! That was it! Man, what a completely-untested bit of,absolute crap _that_ was! It was sort of like playing chess, except the guy playing the traditional fighter craft got to use his pieces _and_ a framing hammer. Every other turn, he was allowed to randomly pick one of your chess pieces and smash it with a hammer. Continue playing. At any rate, it proved to me that it wasn't even safe to spend money on a company known for excellent games.

Just the Pocket Boxes, Sir: Car Wars, Truck Stop; Sunday Drivers. All others are apocryphal cash grabs. Never! I own it. I understand its historical significance. I love most of Allston's stuff for any game and from any magazine. And it is my belief that Autoduel Champions was one of the worst things to ever come from the hobby. (Yeah; I understand what opinion means and fully expect that no one should heed the unsolicited opinion of another, and likely two-thirds of the solicicted opiniona, either. I also believe it was a solid execution of an absolutely _horrible_ idea.) As players aged and moved on, and younger and younger people replaced them. I found less and less people who played SFB. Hell, my local game store stopped carrying it completely about the time Champions entered the ICE Age. When I asked Fred (the owner) about it, he said he hadn't sold a copy in three or four years, so he cut a deal on his remaining inventory to some guy who was still buying things (mostly minis), and never looked back. Over the years, four moves, and one house fire since then, I dont even have my meager collection of SFB stuff, either. (Though I always preferred replaceable-via-Xerox pasteboard counters to actual minis) I only ever played Starfire solo, and mostly because I enjoyed the "mapping a universe" expansion stuff for it. It did not survive the immediately post-wedding move; haven't seen it in almost thirty years. Until I met our friend Chris Goodwin, I was the only person I knew into mechs. (Do remember I live in rural Georgia). Thus, while I enjoyed reading articles related to it on the various gaming magazines, I never owned or even played it. If I had the slightest ability to paint beyond spray cans, I might have collected the minis, but with no such talent, I couldn't even justify the cost of just that. No. Just no. I am not into historical recreation nor do I enjoy that level of meticulous planning. SFB was great (and Car Wars still is) because these are more-or-less "you are in the captain's chair, making snap seat-of-the-pants decisions based on a very small handful of options" and usually play out in an hour or so. That has always been my sweet spot for tactical games. Besides, from what I recall of wargamming conventions. I don't own enough horizontal surfaces to get get into anything from Avalon Hill-- I might not even own enough floor! The fact that I cannot think of a single tactical game from SPI tells me pretty much what I need to know: if it didn't catch my interest in the shops (when there still shops), I doubt I would be more interested now. I own Imperium and ... Was it Belt Strike? Strikers? Both? Anyway, I own three GDW Traveller-esque games that saw so much use they exist now as manilla folders of Xeroxes of the original pages; some pages as Xeroxes of earlier Xeroxes. That is how much use those games saw- we litterally _wore the booklets out_ (and the maps, and the counters, and even the dice look kind of sketchy). And I haven't found another soul in the last twenty years who was interested in taking a stab at them. For what it's worth, they just don't have an enjoyable solataire aspect the was Starfire did. Played them all. Didn't really enjoy them save for one particular group that made Ogre more fun than it was with other groups, but even then, they eventually scattered to the winds. Still, though, they weren't really "my thing." The thing is people who don't enjoy tactical games in general tend to think all tactical games are kind of the same. The reality is that this is like saying all superhero RPGs or sci-fi RPGs are equally interchangeable when they really aren't. Anyone who has played both Universe and Space Opera or Star Frontiers and Traveller can vouch for that. I have a very limited enjoyment of tactical games myself, but I do have a sweet spot: simple rules, quick decisions, limited options, playtime of not more (and preferably less) than two hours, and little to no "historical recreation." There just isnt much of that out there anymore, and no reasonably local people who play.

It is. And since i don't want it to be, I have disqualified it. That and checkers are my last bits of tactical gaming joy, and I am not going to sully the tactical,beauty with a three-hit-points RPG.

Well, that took me way too long.....

While I apreciate the humor of death suring character generation- it even got a mention in Murphy's Rules, back in the day (I really miss Murphy's rules. I could have an absolute ball posting absolutely broken modern End builds, but I guess that's what Tick Tock is for these days. ) But it always bugged me how Fugate and company- and by extension, pretty much the bulk of the fandom back then- missed that the whole reason was so that the universe wasn't filled with nonogenarian adventurers with tons of the skills that Miller felt should be rare- like the "lifetime,specialties" of a character as opposed to a list of everything that character had ever learned how to do. 😕 the idea was that the risk if having to start all over might discourage players from trying for forty-year (or more) careers. even Wiseman seemed to miss that, but in his defense: he was writinf his adaptation for a points-build system; such systems make the lifepath /career choice thing more a narrative thing than a necessary part of character building. though- for anyone who has not read GURPS: Traveller- he did make a nod to it (though I can't remember if it was in the introduction or the character generation sections): long time players may remember the survival roll from the classic Traveller rules of long ago. GURPS Traveller does not by default require such a roll. Those wishing to include such a mechanic should, upon completion of their character, roll a D6. On a 6, they should wad up their character sheet and start over. (Or words to this effect) Yes....,,sort of You can add an extra roll to the mix- hit location- and hope you get one of.... Eh; I can't remember! (I don't generally use it, mostly because of the extra roll) was it... Two? Three locations that give a significant damage multiplier? And adding bleeding (something else I don't generally use because it adds more tracking). Wven then- you've got to deal twenty BODY to Joe Average to kill him, meaning that, given STUN multipliers, etc, you're got one party member (PC ir NPC party; either one) dedicated to "double-tapping all the unconscious foes lying about, because KA is pretty good for CON Stunning and KO'ing opponents in a hurry. Short version is yes; you can throw more and more steps into the mix to make Champions sort of as lethal as something else, with the sacrifice of experience, but if you want lethality without added complication, well there is always-- Well, pretty much everything else, really. Though honestly, even with CoC on the table, I think Boot Hill was probably the most lethal RPG ever written. I would have played it more, I think, if everything else hadnt been such a mess with it. I am not knocking Champions by any means, mind you: it is one of the four games I always come back to (I guess technically 3, since one of them is pocket box Car Wars). But because of it's superhero roots, it was designed from the get-go to minimize lethality, and making it more so by adding extra steps is still adding extra steps to one of the more sluggish combat systems out there. Traveller: you hit! Roll damage, and toss in that green die iver there so we can see what Characteristic it applies to.... Endurance for eleven points! Jeff; what's your END? Nine. Okay, Raymond Duqenesque lies dead, sprawled across his desk; the electric scent of laser fire and unsettling smell of burned flesh begun to fill the office....