Duke Bushido

Well, as pictured, that one is a Hardtail, meaning it will absolutely suck off-road: handling goes to crap and top speed drops to somewhere in the thirties for any sort of intense maneuvers as it is unreliable in all but a straight or near-straight trajectory at speed when not on pavement.
 
Additionally, road hazards have a much larger impact on a hardtail than on other bikes.
 
 
 
 
 
 
I would take it off road sooner than that Air Head above: the X-H bikes that did not feature full swingarms (and this prototype likely did not; that rear cowling would not allow for the required range of motion to make a full swingarm practical) had a sprung rear axle to help control bounce, loft, and rear wheel traction even under rough conditions.
 
To be fair, though, the steering and ground clearance are limited, and the body work would likely take a beating in an off-road race of any sort.
 
And of course, there is considerable weight added for the body work, as platics were not used for such a thing (we didnt have ABS or PVC, and Bakelite was too brittle for such a use).  If it is a production machine, it would follow the route that Harley Davidson still follows today, and make the panels from boat anchors- I mean, steel, then just pretend they are fast.
 
If it is a unique machine created by a technological genius or the vehicle of choice for the minions of a mad scientist, they would be aluminum-  considerably lighter, but more difficult and more expensive to work during the pulp era--  no; not because humans were stupid, but because we had been practicing with iron for a thousand years or so, and aluminum extraction from the earth was such a bother that--  well, we generally _didn't_ bother at all.
 
Still, it was used in the era (at great expense) for high-tech low-weight applications and anywhere that we wanted a metal that could be polished to a shine and left alone for weeks without showing serious tarnish.
 
Additionally, if you are keeping any realism, that X-H should be your choice, as that Air Head wouldn't exist for another twenty-odd years.
 
I cannot tell you _crap_ about computers or software (which is why I do not use HERO Designer--  I don't even understand _the words inside the questions and answers_, let alone the thoughts being relayed by any particular combination of them--
 
But if you want to know old bikes, I can help you. 
 
 
 

It's cool alright. But for pulpy goodness, I think I'll go with the Henderson KJ Streamline 😍
 
YMMV

Well there is an interesting factoid I did not know.
 
However- and well-aware it makes me odd man out, I personally feel that "it inspired Bob Dylan" reinforces my belief.
 
 
 

If I remember correctly (and I havent done the math since I had to hastily prove a point in the 80s), if one rolls 3d6 and then d100, the percentage of those rolls that yield 18/00 is something like .00015 percent, which makes all of extremely suspect, and the number of them I have seen on character mathematically impossible (okay, "ridiculously improbable," as even one-in-ten-trillion is _possible_), at least using Iron Array.  There is no way to peovide odds if any sort of house rules are in play, obviously.
 
  Still, props for the survival of the sheet, and thanks for the serious flashback!
 

 

Cincinnati, when the turkeys fell. 

Thanks again, Sir; i have a better feel for where you are coming from.
 
 
 
 
 
I do not know if this helps; I am pretty sure it isnt exaclty what you are wondering, but it is the beat answer I can give, considering that I can really only answer for me:
 
There is another axis to your chart.  That axis is where I feel GMs should be working.  Admittedly, it isnt easy, but I fins it is where my greatest pleasure as a GM comes from-- sort of a "this is where the GM gets to play" thing.
 
That axis is framing.  What did I do to show off the character against thw backdrop of his world?  How did I allow him his moment of brilliance; how did he shine?
 
Did I design a scenario such that, even though he may be lowly and under-powered, he still came across as capable, heroic, and larger than life?  Did he stand out amongst the NPCs, and was he clearly "the only man for the job"?
 
See, too often, we think "and then they stopped walking and rode aoke giant eagles" is "the sort of thing from which epics are made!", but we never ask why that is.
 
I do.  And most of that "epic' stuff feels incredible because it is unique and because it is the pinnacle of power -or knowledge or ability or whatever- in the game universe, making it feel super and amazing, etc.  And when that thing is gone, the feeling deflates and may never come back.
 
That extra axis I mentioned-  that measures how well the GM did of creating that feeling in each player at least once each session.   Maybe the most powerful weapon in your game is a nuclear warhead or a wand of fireballs or a laser sword--
 
But if the scenario is framed correctly, that half-spent .38 with the sticky firing pin can feel that same way--  the ultimate, most powerful weapon in the world, and the tool the hero will use to do something amazing.
 
 
 
 
Yes; this can lead to--  what was the more popular term here?  Power creep?   Anyway, yes: that is the simplest and most-obvious method of keeping that feeling, but it isnt the only method.
 
Though I would like to touch on that:  I have mentioned that from the earliest days we prefer to start out with low-powered heroes and "grow" them.  Player Characters earn experience.  Players spend that experience.  Characters become more powerful.  It is actually _hard_ to spend fifty points of Experience and _not_ get more powerful.
 
To that end, the villains get more powerful, the scale of the stories and settings  go up.  They have to, or the player does not get that heroic "work to overcome" sensation.  In that regard, power creep is not always a bad thing.  However, this is a digression,so I reckon i am done. 
 
 
 

Make that a PM, _please_!
 
No one else wants to kniw if he has pubes in his nose.
I promise.
 
 

 
 

To me role-playing skill has two facets that are essentially independent of each other.
 
The first is about evoking a character consistently, to the point your fellow players remember the character in situations rather than the player.
 
The second is about playing nice with others in the game. Seeking immersion when everyone else is just playing a game, or opposite to that, always playing to tactical advantage when everyone else is resolutely in-character.
 
It is too easy to focus on being dramatic or "winning" instead of making sure you and your friends have fun.
 
Doc

I couldn’t hazard a guess and here’s why. When I got invited to do roleplaying, I got to belly with a GM who does plays for fun. Now he never ever made me feel less because I couldn’t convinces right or come up with a solioquy to save my life. Years later I gamed briefly with few people from college . I still don’t think of myself as a great role player but Inused some of the stuff I picked up from my first group. Sometime after that a buddy of mine, who’s a relation with the first GM, somehow got to talking to one of the kids from college. Once they realized who they were talking about, the college friend said that they thought I was a great role player! So TLR; I think it’s highly subjective.

--pation!
 
 

Funny.
 
I think about Danger Man every time I hear the Peter Gunn theme.  Well, that, and the Three Legged Man routine.  And the Spyhunter video game.  And the PlayStation remake.
 
 
Busy song, that Peter Gunn theme
...
 
 
 

Sometimes it's good to reread books you've had for years but haven't looked at in a while. I was watching a video about GURPS 4e character creation that had a screen shot of the elf template. I remembered I have GURPS Fantasy (3e) and pulled it off a shelf. Aside from the racial templates, the book includes a section on life in the Middle Ages. While I have books on the subject, the GURPS book neatly summarizes what I need for a game. I also have the RM/HERO Robin Hood sourcebook, which complements the info in GURPS Fantasy. And I have a magazine of historical maps to complete my toolkit for building a Medieval campaign.
 
TLDR: While we all like looking at new products, we may already have what we need.

--pation!
 
 

hmmm, probably pounding it to a pulp won't work either. This requires some study. Find "it's weak spot" exploit it, then shoot it twice.

Ehhhhh....
 
It's not especially great, but brothers are famous for it, especially in larger families.  It is part of the unconscious dominance play in male sibling rivalry that has for centuries been dismissed as "just messin' with ya--!"
 
It really is only the current generation and the one prior that brought this sort of thing into focus for us old jackasses to be aware of.  Unfortunately,most of our responses are built along the "I suffered for no reason and I turned out okay, so my kids ahould have to suffer for no reason, too!"  (To which I try to _always_ point out that justifying your kinds suffering when they don't have to suggests that   maybe you did not turn out anywhere _near_ "okay....").
 
At any rate, having been raised in it and never having stepped outside to make a study of it, your husband, like most men with more than one brother, is genuinely unaware of the deeper effects of the horseplay between him and his siblings.  (For what it'a worth, the "rough housing" between me and my own brothers involved hurling chunks of stovewood  at each other.  Several shed walls and one door in the house suffered greatly at our early throwing and swinging inaccuracies.    "While it seems like a viscious battle to the death, these early games help the primative redneck develop hunting and avoidance skills that will serve him well as he no es off to start his own pride... " [/Attenborough] ). 
 
I cannot tell you a solution; every family--  your husband and his people; even you and your husband-- all have different dynamics at play.
 
But I can recommend that you strongly emphasize to your husband that the stress to which his family subjects you is damaging to you.  Point out--  without belaboring it- that you both avoid your family for very similar reasons to those for which you would like to avoid his.
 
At extremes- and again, without any malice or anger-  refuse to go.  Tell him- sincerely-  that he is _welcome_ to go, and that you genuinely want him to enjoy it, but that you have been through that misery enough to last you a lifetime.
 
You _will_ hurt his feelings, so be prepared for that, and acknowledge that it happened, and that you are regretful of it.  However, there is a chance that this "poke in the chest" might it might move him to look at your situation more carefully-  can't promise that, as- despite what the romance movies suggests, that takes an unusually sensitive and perceptive man in the real world.
 
Most importantly, let him know that your motivation ia not control; that this is not a me-or-them situation and that you are perfectly okay with him going along without you, that this is entirely about you taking care of your health, and your not going means that you will be much happier when he gets back. 
 
 

Agreed, but the Goodman School of Cost Effectiveness wasn't about reason so much as finding mechanics that could be lightly abused. 
 
Lightly. 
 
 

True, but ultimately, if I have a held action and act in Phase 4, and decide to use my held action in Phase 3 so I can recover on Phase 4, what is the effective difference? 
 

Ma'am (presumed; apologies if in error), I have a brother I haven't spoken to since '86, and a sister I havent spoken to since '91.  I love exactly one-third of my in-laws and make no bones about or excuses for detesting the rest.
 
Yet somehow, I have far more brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles than I was ever born with.  Hell, I have buried a father, but I still have (the wrong) one left! (All three mothers are doing fine; thanks for asking!)
 
Family is where you find it, not what surname it has.  Blood is not love.  Love is so much more that it makes blood irrelevant.
 
I told my wife when we got married I would never expect her to be with anyone who made her uncomfortable, even if they were "blood kin" to one of us.  To this day, I have kept my word.  Typically, visits to my surviving father's house (like the one coming up today) are a lot like that Eddie Murphy routine about black people and haunted houses:
 
Me:
"Hi, Dad!  We brought the kids!"
 
Wife:
"And we are really looking forward to spending the--"
 
Father:
Says pretty much _any_ of the things he is prone to say
 
Me:
"Well, too bad we can't stay longer.  Got lots of folks to see and plenty of things to do, and would you look at that?  I think the girl broke her leg again.  Anyway, gotta run; let's do this again in a few years!"
 
I used to put up with all kinds of crap, right up until Thumper crossed a line in '86.  At that point I realized "I am _not_ immortal.  I have only so many years ahead of me.  I will be _damned_ if I waste them enduring hateful people."
 
And I have not.
 
It _seems_ difficult at first; I understand that.  But really?  It absolutely is _not_, after the first one.  Once you make a break, that source of stress is gone _forever_  (and if you are the vengeful type, like me  , it brings a sort of contentment to hear later just how much that person is harping on it, and being eaten up with their own hate).  Once you feel that small amount of peace, it gwt2s easier and easier to eliminate problem people from your life, amd ypur life becomes much better for it.
 
Bonus: sometimes people you and the problem person know in common will unite in anti-you solidarity.  Not only does this mean that problem people you _thought_ were okay are helping you out by self-identifying, they are _also_ taking the steps to remove themselves from your life.  _they_ tend to think it is some sort  of punishment (because problem people have a massive over-estimation of their importance to your well-being), but in reality, it some sort of insane triple win situation!
 
Enjoy it!
 
Family schmamily.
 
Or, as I had to tell me wife a few years ago:  "I married _you_; I love you.  I want to spend every moment left in my life with you.  Your sister is _not_ you, and drives me to rage and is very bad for my over all contentment.  In short, your sister can go /=;_;€lx herself.  Or, you and the kids can to her house without me.  Either way is good."
 
 
 
 

Simple, shoot the little b_gg_er, twice.

Wrapping things up with the pumpkin pie, and a strong, festival coffee...15% less water than usual, counterbalanced with some half and half and Kahlua.  Medium-dark Hawaiian coffee, French press, a dollop of stevia and cinnamon tossed onto the grounds before brewing.  

The day to rediscover all the racists, mysogonists, and political wackos in your family.
 
Let's not forget the traditional holiday songs!
 
 
 
 

Ma'am (presumed; apologies if in error), I have a brother I haven't spoken to since '86, and a sister I havent spoken to since '91.  I love exactly one-third of my in-laws and make no bones about or excuses for detesting the rest.
 
Yet somehow, I have far more brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles than I was ever born with.  Hell, I have buried a father, but I still have (the wrong) one left! (All three mothers are doing fine; thanks for asking!)
 
Family is where you find it, not what surname it has.  Blood is not love.  Love is so much more that it makes blood irrelevant.
 
I told my wife when we got married I would never expect her to be with anyone who made her uncomfortable, even if they were "blood kin" to one of us.  To this day, I have kept my word.  Typically, visits to my surviving father's house (like the one coming up today) are a lot like that Eddie Murphy routine about black people and haunted houses:
 
Me:
"Hi, Dad!  We brought the kids!"
 
Wife:
"And we are really looking forward to spending the--"
 
Father:
Says pretty much _any_ of the things he is prone to say
 
Me:
"Well, too bad we can't stay longer.  Got lots of folks to see and plenty of things to do, and would you look at that?  I think the girl broke her leg again.  Anyway, gotta run; let's do this again in a few years!"
 
I used to put up with all kinds of crap, right up until Thumper crossed a line in '86.  At that point I realized "I am _not_ immortal.  I have only so many years ahead of me.  I will be _damned_ if I waste them enduring hateful people."
 
And I have not.
 
It _seems_ difficult at first; I understand that.  But really?  It absolutely is _not_, after the first one.  Once you make a break, that source of stress is gone _forever_  (and if you are the vengeful type, like me  , it brings a sort of contentment to hear later just how much that person is harping on it, and being eaten up with their own hate).  Once you feel that small amount of peace, it gwt2s easier and easier to eliminate problem people from your life, amd ypur life becomes much better for it.
 
Bonus: sometimes people you and the problem person know in common will unite in anti-you solidarity.  Not only does this mean that problem people you _thought_ were okay are helping you out by self-identifying, they are _also_ taking the steps to remove themselves from your life.  _they_ tend to think it is some sort  of punishment (because problem people have a massive over-estimation of their importance to your well-being), but in reality, it some sort of insane triple win situation!
 
Enjoy it!
 
Family schmamily.
 
Or, as I had to tell me wife a few years ago:  "I married _you_; I love you.  I want to spend every moment left in my life with you.  Your sister is _not_ you, and drives me to rage and is very bad for my over all contentment.  In short, your sister can go /=;_;€lx herself.  Or, you and the kids can to her house without me.  Either way is good."
 
 
 
 

Ma'am (presumed; apologies if in error), I have a brother I haven't spoken to since '86, and a sister I havent spoken to since '91.  I love exactly one-third of my in-laws and make no bones about or excuses for detesting the rest.
 
Yet somehow, I have far more brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles than I was ever born with.  Hell, I have buried a father, but I still have (the wrong) one left! (All three mothers are doing fine; thanks for asking!)
 
Family is where you find it, not what surname it has.  Blood is not love.  Love is so much more that it makes blood irrelevant.
 
I told my wife when we got married I would never expect her to be with anyone who made her uncomfortable, even if they were "blood kin" to one of us.  To this day, I have kept my word.  Typically, visits to my surviving father's house (like the one coming up today) are a lot like that Eddie Murphy routine about black people and haunted houses:
 
Me:
"Hi, Dad!  We brought the kids!"
 
Wife:
"And we are really looking forward to spending the--"
 
Father:
Says pretty much _any_ of the things he is prone to say
 
Me:
"Well, too bad we can't stay longer.  Got lots of folks to see and plenty of things to do, and would you look at that?  I think the girl broke her leg again.  Anyway, gotta run; let's do this again in a few years!"
 
I used to put up with all kinds of crap, right up until Thumper crossed a line in '86.  At that point I realized "I am _not_ immortal.  I have only so many years ahead of me.  I will be _damned_ if I waste them enduring hateful people."
 
And I have not.
 
It _seems_ difficult at first; I understand that.  But really?  It absolutely is _not_, after the first one.  Once you make a break, that source of stress is gone _forever_  (and if you are the vengeful type, like me  , it brings a sort of contentment to hear later just how much that person is harping on it, and being eaten up with their own hate).  Once you feel that small amount of peace, it gwt2s easier and easier to eliminate problem people from your life, amd ypur life becomes much better for it.
 
Bonus: sometimes people you and the problem person know in common will unite in anti-you solidarity.  Not only does this mean that problem people you _thought_ were okay are helping you out by self-identifying, they are _also_ taking the steps to remove themselves from your life.  _they_ tend to think it is some sort  of punishment (because problem people have a massive over-estimation of their importance to your well-being), but in reality, it some sort of insane triple win situation!
 
Enjoy it!
 
Family schmamily.
 
Or, as I had to tell me wife a few years ago:  "I married _you_; I love you.  I want to spend every moment left in my life with you.  Your sister is _not_ you, and drives me to rage and is very bad for my over all contentment.  In short, your sister can go /=;_;€lx herself.  Or, you and the kids can to her house without me.  Either way is good."
 
 
 
 

A little over a dollar thirty.
 
 
No.
 
Not"people" the way you generally mean it.