Rigel

First DoctorWell, when they're right, they're right. It may not be too flattering, but it's not too inaccurate. You are the First Doctor: Irascible, brusque, and occasionally condescending and rude. You do not suffer fools gladly, nor do you harbor any false modesty about your capabilities. You have a sharp tongue, though you're first-class company when you're in a good mood. Which Incarnation of the Doctor Are You? brought to you by Quizilla

Actually, yes In all honesty, after the unit conversion fiasco of four years ago, one of the things NASA did was add in more oversight and more "double checking" procedures. So, in effect, they spent money to hire more mathematicians (though they probably call themselves engineers or physicists). That being said, wishing failure on NASA seems a bit harsh to me. I agree that the occasional failures (of both unmanned and trgaically manned missions) do reinforce the perception that rocket science and astrophysics is still an emerging and imperfect process. Instead of proving NASA is not above the rest of us, it proves to me that the universe IS above all of us. Even with some of our best and brightest minds working on these missions, we still have failures. Failures in scientific experimentation are normal and helpful when we can learn from our mistakes. With NASA, these failures are on CNN, the NBC Nightly News and the front page of your local newspaper. When Enrst Rutherford or Thomas Edison had an experiment fail in their labs, they didn't do in front of the international press.

I don't know about a whole Sports HERO book, but I would think this could be viable for a DH run. Do one sport a month (or every other month) and examine the character templates, equipment, and rules for each sport one at a time. Someone needs to volunteer to write this and submit it to Dave.

I admit that I am excited about this summer's lineup on the SciFi Channel. A new season of Stargate SG-1, the new spinoff series STARGATE ATLANTIS, and a new weekly Battlestar Galactica series. The days of Xena and Hercules reruns on the SciFi Channel may be finally coming to an end.

Steve, I hope that hasn't been asked before, so here goes. I have a character buying the Multiform power to have 4 alternate forms: all humanoids representing the four elements (earth, air, water, and fire). It's kinda a trite concept, yes, but there it is nevertheless. My question is does multiform confer any kind of Instant Change power with it? Since the forms differ in height (from 5' to over 8') any "normal" clothes would never withstand the shifting forms. To avoid being naked atfer shifting forms, would Elemtnal Dude have to buy an Instant Change cosmetic transform? Thanks much.

Apparently, this was a business decision and a story decision. Ronald D. Moore (the TNG/DS9 producer behind the new BSG pilot) said they made that decision to make the projected series feasible. A weekly series simply couldn't afford to have CGI bad guys each and every week and he thought the more savvy TV audiences today would not buy the old bulky cylon suits form the original series. If you're interested to hear more from Ron Moore, check out his extensive interview over at IGN's Film Force.

Wallpaper Here is a very simple and very creatively-challenged AW wallpaper for anyone interested. The file is about 3.7 MB in size. This one is in 1280x1024 resolution, but Windows can stretch it to fit other screen sizes. If any resolution would really benefit someone, I can easily resize it and post it again. Enjoy.

Thanks for the tip. My local comic shop (which is often my not-so-friendly gaming store) did not have FH today, but Game Chest in Dallas did. I called. They held it. I borrowed my friend's pickup so I could carry the tome home, and now I have it. It looks great so far!

Re: Running at cons? Just email the guy and ask him. JMS -- J. Michael Staczynski, the creator of B5 -- is very approachable on the internet and he has been for years, ever since the pilot of B5. Well, back then you had to be on CompuServe. His email address is jmsatb5@aol.com You can also post on his moderated B5 USENET newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Thanks for the advice. I have ordered some HERO stuff online, but if I wait for HERO Games to sell it themselves, I can take advantage of the "damaged" books. As an added bonus, I can request the autograph of the author.

Re: Spacers Tool Kit Ben, do you know what date (I know you guys wait a month now) that ST will be on sale here? My FLGS is not so HERO friendly or really even much of a gaming store; it's more like a comics shop with a bookshelf for RPGs. Thanks.

Tarmin I am just set to begin GM'ing a TE game, and so far, the PCs are all human with one Tarmin, the rat-faced race mentioned on TE page 21. The Tarmin character is a modern-day thief with electronics, mechanics, security systems, system ops, stealth, sleight of hand, and the like. The PCs are part of a private eye/bounty hunter security firm, so they may need to get into places that someone else considers secure.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. This book puts a very interesting spin on the classic space battle by training child geniuses through a series of games so they can lead the human fleets. Ender Wiggins is one of these young students and it is essentially his story. There are severl Ender novels out now, but I must admit I haven't read them. There was also an athology of sci-fi war stories called Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow published back in 1987 or so. I bought it as a member of the SciFi Book Club. I have seen used copies around at bookstores and online from time to time. It's a great source of scifi war short stories, from authors such as Orson Scott Card (the original Ender's Game short story btw), Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Herbert, Jack Vance and so on. It's a great book for people like me that love the novella or short story format. I found a complete listing of the included stories online.

Celsius - heat/cold powers (a character name I have used several times) Whether Which - weather manipulation powers

I just noticed that the cover of the USPD in my grubby paws does not match the picture of the USPD cover in the "Our Products" section of the HERO web site (here). Did the more UN-like design go away out of fear of copyright infringements or did Andy/Steve decide they like the triangle look better? Inquiring minds want to know....

I'll chime in with one of my personal favorite series of novels, The Heeche Saga (or the Gateway Saga) by Frederick Pohl. The four novels (in order) are Gateway, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, Heechee Rendezvous, and The Annals of the Heechee. Pohl also published a collection of short stories and illustrations about the Heechee called The Gateway Trip: Tales and Vignettes of the Heechee. All in all, great books and a great story about the beginnings of man's journeys into space. P.S. Based on my own signature, I should add Doctor Who, the longest-running science fiction series on televison.

Resource Kit I think the closest thing to what you are looking for is in the HERO System Resource Kit. It includes a "48-page booklet with a summary of the character creation rules". I have used it when creating characters at a table and away from a PC. When near a PC, Hero Designer is my friend.

Steve, I agree. I have downloaded your starship recognition manuals and there's a lot of great stuff in them. Now, I'm just waiting for you to translate them into HERO stats so I can compare them to the TE ships. BTW, for whatever reason, the TrekRPG URL has changed recently. It is www.trek-rpg.net now.

If you're interested in a more detailed breakdown of warp speeds, check out the warp speed chart from startreksite.com. This data is from the printed Star Trek Encyclopedia.

New RPG If you're looking for more source info, there is going to be a Stargate RPG coming out this August. AEG is going to be publishing the 400-page core book which will be compatible with their Spycraft d20 books (whatever they are). There is some more info on the GateWorld web site at this link. This is the same company that made the L5R, 7th Sea, and Farscape RPGs. I, personally, don't want to learn a new game system, but I do look forward to more Stargate and SGC info.

Steve, if a character has desolidifcation, but it is turned off at the moment. He also has an "Enraged in Combat" disad as described on 5E 217. When combat breaks out, he rolls and goes enraged and begins attacking. Can he activate his Desol or would that be considered "defending himself"? Thanks as always.

27 pages in TE In the print TE (yes, I have my copy) pages 21-48 are devoted to the alien speicies both in and around the Empire. For what it's worth, there's 2-3 pages on the humans too.

I am about to start a new SH Star Trek campaign and I was wondering if you guys had any ideas how best to simulate the telepathic abilities of Vulcans and Betazoids in SH? In addition to full Betazoids like Lwaxana, we will also have a half-Betazoid empath like Deanna Troi. Thanks in advance for the ideas.