Lumbering Ox

Re: Player problem - opinions .... One thing I don't understand is how a vow of chastity if really a disad. In many many years of roleplayings I can think of perhaps 2 or 3 characters who have actually had sex, and in all cases it was more as a side point between adventures and not a must have... and in one case the character would of been better off being chaste If a disad dosen't hurt the character, yadda yadda yadda. Perhaps I've had GM's who don't push the sexuality thing. As for SirWilliam, I can buy perhaps the fact that you were not trying to nail the character, but it boggles me that you can't see that you did do so. That does reflect badly on yourself. It is difficult to do when under attack, but perhaps there is something you can take from the negitive comments to improve yourself. Regardless of if you are a meanie, you acted as such and seem more concerned with not comming across as a meanie then fixing the situation. Boot to the head!

Re: Player problem - opinions .... Well you did rape his character. As in you the player, not you the character. Not litterally but in the broader sence. "But your Honour, we were in the house for 4 hours, but we only spent 20 minutes ***** slapping Grandma" "Oh well in that case, I must instruct the jury to find you non guilty" Personally I would of had the character walk out. To blame the seducer is like those idiots on Jerry who when they get cheated on blame not their partner but the skank the partner did. If you break your vows, the number one person to blame [ignoring idiotic use of skill rolls] is yourself. Unless you are under magic or power compulsion. That being said I can't seem him every being on good terms with your character again. However Your screwing with his character >> his responding in an extreme manner To sum up. 1:He could of probably reacted better roleplaying wise, but was prob placed in a hightened emotional context by the BS that happened to his character. 2:Considering his temper problem, one should avoid at all costs working against a *players* psych disads. 3:Your GM needs to learn how to use the rules better and avoid railroading. 4:You should avoid makeing character that screw with other PCs unless you have cleared it with the other player BEFORE the game starts. If you can't walk away from this having learned these three points then there is no hope for you.

Re: Player problem - opinions .... 1: I am suprised that none of the experienced players questioned the lack of a seriously bad modifier on this. And even then. Breaking your vows should be on several orders of magnitude harder then seducing a MOTAS when you are attractive and they are inclined. One would have a minus the other a plus. Even with rolls of 3 or 18 for both seduction and ego I would question just allowing it to happen. THis is more a 30, 50+ point mind control, or similar points into seduction. If it were me, I would get rid of the Paladin, and show up with someone with a high persuasion skill and talk the rouge character into having sex with animals and children, and joining racist organizations who hate his own race untill you guys got the point and started not just following the rules but thinking about the implications of said rules. 2: It wasen't rape, in so far that such a result should never of happened. 3: Unless I take a punching bag character, I have a very low tolerance of being the target of abuse. If I want to be subject to abuse, I will talk to my brother, or go out and talk to females ["Hey I'm 36, morbidly obese, unemployed, and live with my parents, want to shag?"] . I don't need that sort of treatment in my recreational activities. For that matter I also have no tolerance for practical jokes in real life either. 4: Friends understand what friends can put up with and not put up with. If I knew someone who made a vow, I wouldn't go about testing them except in the most minor way which I knew they would pass and only if I knew they wouldn't mind. 4a: What your character did was similar to offering a recovering alcoholic a drink. The moment the seduction role failed, you should of said something to the DM as events were quickly exceeding what your character [and you] thought should have happened. 5: I usually employ the long time friends/flashing PC light rule. Adventuring with people you don't trust is usually pretty irrational. I insist on either a friends or a flashing PC light. I dispise people who take characters that say rob other characters and do things to betray trust, or do the backstabbing. If you screw over a player character, and it is my caimpaign, your flashing PC light goes off. Sure it isn't proper roleplaying, but I don't care. It isn't fun, to be screwed over. Take characters that can get along or don't bother. 6: Characters with widely differening personalities are fine and good, but there should be some basic respect both ways. It might take a few sessions to work out these comprimises which in reality friends would already have. I've modified player personality for playability.

Re: WWYCD - a deal with the devil It dosen't change the fact that based on current theories, the exsistance of mankind is limited, eventually if a large object dosen't wipe everyone out before space travel, then the sun will go out. Even if we avoid that it seems the Universe will end in one of several possible ways. For that matter humanity might evolve to ways where I just could not relate to them. So either way I am takeing a risk of trillions of years in hell for at most, say 10 to 20 billion years of life, and forgoing a chance at heaven which thanks to Mr Evil I now know is possible. I would assume not helping Mr Evil take out the G man should earn me my 72 virgins Also assumeing he speaks the truth, it also wouldn't be an act of charity for everyone else either. Sure you get rid of evil on earth, but then you also deprive everyone of a decent afterlife. I would rather live 80 years in a cesspit [or Cornwall, same diff] and have a forever of happy happy joy joy, then 80 years of pleasent followed by a forever of the gah with the pain and hte men with pitchforks moiven flaven.

Re: WWYCD - a deal with the devil For myself I would be more worried about the implications of immortality. What if I get trapped underwater for thousands of years unable to breathe, or suppose humanity gets wiped out via some large object from space, or Alien Space Bats, or the Universe ends via some method or another. Odds are eventually the best case scenerio is that I am utterly alone on a dead planet, which had to drive a person batty after a period of time. Which means eventually I will end my life and suffer for even longer then the "immortality" would have let me live. Also, knowing there is an afterlife, and knowing the way to make it a good one, the offer of immortality, not so great. It is my Agnositc Atheism that would make extending my life span worth so much.

Re: Military Size 7 or 8 per 1000 seems to the the rule of thumb for pre industrial unless you are looking at a tribal thing. This is for a proper standing army. You could call up almost everyone if you don't mind untrained, unarmoured people with knives or pointy sticks but you couldn't keep them on the field for long.

Re: Irksome players I knew a player who wanted to take a Ninja even though the oriental type worlds were very very far away, and meant as a future mega exploration caimpiagn for the PC's in the future. When told of the distance issues, he says, "how about if he came over on a boat", as if rowing yourself across an ocean in a dory is an easy and sane thing to do. I've noticed that when I roll characters and consider the statisics involved that the about 90% of people bring in characters whose stats are above the statisical probablility and generally much so. It is to the point that normally rolled characters just seem a bit weak and plain. Again, maybe god just hates me, but it seems most players cheat to some degree or another.

Re: Want to look at my new Map? We used Corel Draw for our stuff. We used layers all the time. As for mountains/hills, so basiclly you drew something in and then used the same image over and over again? I would have tried something like that when I did a map for a buddy, but alas I can hardly spell art with a spellchecker, let alone draw something. One thing I find is that even after 3 courses, which was really one course, then another that had a 90% overlap and a third which again 90% of prvious work + a major project, the weird thing is that if people take a bit of care [and Roleplayers who make maps do] can generally do just as well as the trained, with only minor details that only a trained and anal eye would notice Dispite my comments, it was a good map.

Re: Want to look at my new Map? 1: Those lines that go from the compas add no information and distract and should be removed. A longitude/latitude might be subsitites if you wish. 2: The Last Dominion lable and the scale should be put together in a legend box with further info. You use three symbols for places, a square and a circled circle, what is Gorgoros and Ravenswood. Also if you add more cities, borders etc, that information should be there also. Although your symbology is pretty obvious, so the need for further info of this partiular map is not so great. 3: If you keep the white lines going from the compass then Lower the Mareduin Seaway text a bit and move the Myr Isil to the left. 4: There is one city far to the right which is non labeled. 5: Your use of blue for regional names should be changed as it has nautical connetations. Save a dark blue for lakes, rivers et al, if you don't use black. Perhaps red? Also the legend could speify if these are regional names, country names etc. Write the text with the same colour and font and then identfy. 6: Borders? 7: Some of the city and other names should be shifted ever so slightly so the rivers don't run through a letter but between letters if at all possible. It is however a nice looking map, and although a Geologist might pick at details, I not being such a person like the general shape and placement of landforms. Also it looks like you used layering which is good. As someone who did 3 courses in Cartography, I must ask two things. 1: What program did you use. 2: How did you do those mountains. It is truely sad how little we actually learned in terms of actual computer use.

Re: Irksome players I am reminded of another player in a Call of Cuthulu caimpaign. I took an old Rabbi with the whole knowledge/education/wisdom thing, he took a hick farmer. Any time we came across some old texts, his farmer would grab for them and make a claim with no intentions of ever letting someone else have them. This was strictly for the spells he could get to power up the character. My character wasen't so much into the spells, but rather the knowledge of what we were facing. So here is my *character* designed to basiclly do one thing, and unable to do it because antoher *player* is a hog. Then there was the palidin who with no warning switched to anti palidin when the DM said he couldn't torture someone. My biggest problem with players are those who is no way ever get even remotely into character. There seems to be this 25% who play roleplaying games as a strict wargamming idea of win at any cost. Minmaxing, rampent cheating, no personality, totally unable to seperate game from real life. Another 50% roleplay a bit but never to the point of sacrificing, and seem a bit weak on the person vs character divide. Then you get that 25% who look at things from the character concept first, and udnerstand that a player and a character can be very different. But then I sometimes suspect I've been cursed with more then my fair share of subpar and horrid players.

Re: Irksome players Had a player who would always attack another player for any reason, if you "burned" him in real life, he would take it out on your character. Always took it back when the DM asked if he really meant it. Then the DM said no take backs. I pissed him off during a game in real life, he did the threat. Pretty much convinced the DM to allow the take back anyways. By that time I was so pissed off with is bad roleplaying, bad attitude and general ickyness that I called him a wimp and knowing my style probably questioned his sexuality [this was over 10 years ago]. So he took back his take back and started to swing his 50 cal sniper rifle around. DM rules [iIRC with a dice roll] that I could nail him with my 40 mm granade launcher first as it was a smaller handier weapon. I got a hit to the head. It was sweet. However shapnel killed a beloved NPC who was priviously woulded. Another player who said he would kill anyone who shot at anyone [because of players past BS] gunned me down. Then he was shot at by another player who in turn.... but that is another issue.

Re: one year to change the world I think I would start a thread on Herogames.com Perhaps call it "one year to change the world" and get some ideas Then.... oh crap.

Re: What's in a Name? Willie McRoberts was a dirty little pervert. His favorate activity was to call up various females and breathe heavily on the phone. Although he was carefull enough to use pay phones and moved around enough not to get caught, the gods of Mt Olympus were watching. More as a joke then anything, they gave him powers that worked via breath. He could suck the life out of people by breathing in, and breathe out with such force as to knock people down. Willie decided to use such powers for good to help others, he might be a dirty little pervert, but it didn't mean he was evil. In the process of thinking about others rather then himself and working for the common good, he didn't have time to follow his previous lifestyle. In time he ended up being able to attract a real female and develop an actual relationship with her, so his life is full, fighting evil, solid relationship, that now he dosen't need nor desire to use his previous talents. His current talents however strike fear in the hearts of evil doers, who recoil from the name.... The Breather! Next one Dog Food Man And I am serious, there was a super hero in a caimpaign, whom we all named dog food boy because of his powers. Just wondering how close the next description will be to the hero in question

Re: Buying up Char in FH Str from 8 to 16 is brutally hard, and takes a few years, getting beyond 15 or 16 without chemical enhacements is brutally rare. It isn't a matter of adventuring for a few weeks then boom. But then I guess neither is developing an 11- skill in something.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Nothing

Re: Sharing the Campaign ideas you can't use... yet How about a James Bondish type caimpaign it would have to be solo, but still. Either in Champs, or FH.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... It was a QLO a quote like object

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Thats odd, because DM plays with 2 others who DM, and it seems both caimpaigns are overloaded with brutal character races, half dragons, celestrials etc. In hero terms it is as if da b'ys could not see those stop signs. The books [d20 that is] do explain the dangers of say taking a Half Hill Gaint Half Dragon, as does a bit of basic thought, but I guess it is not enough. Here is an example of the total lack of care, or reading ability. In D20 3.5, you can apprach someone and give them a wack, but if you move from a threatened square to another threatened square, or withdraw in certain manners, you generate an attack of oppurtunity. All three of them read it as, if you also step into a square, you also generate an attack of oppurtunity. So basicly the way they read the rules, if you move to attack someone, they get a free wack at you. So I ask, why would anyone ever approach anyone else, you are better to stick back and wait, and if both do it then no combat will happen. Response is that the monsters always attack. Missing the point, that any slightly intellegent monster will realise the world physics make attacking first a bad thing if you can avoid it. Of course, response to these issues, ...eh? and a shurg. I had to crack his book open, point out the explaination in the rules, then go over it a few times till he figured it out.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I was hanging with someone who is starting a new caimpaign, in a D20 system, just last week. Keep in mind, I've never played 3.5 ed, only played 3.0 ed about 4 or 5 sessions although I've skimmed the books. He has played quite a bit I don't have a quote however. I seem to know the rules a lot better then he does or his players who have also DMed. I don't know how much of it is an inability to read or a total disintrest. I am not talking house rules here either. Hell sometimes not only did he not know the exact rule he didn't have any exact rule when one was needed, and would reply with a shurgged shoulder and a eh. When I would look it up and explain the book, he would understand it, but I lack confidence in his abilities. Picture being told in Hero that there is a limit to how much max DC you could do, say about 10 or 12 DC, and when you ask, is it 10, 11 or 12, not being able to get an actual answer. Even though they claim to use the rules as in the book which clearly states max DC is say 9. Makes me wonder if I should join although it would be the first caimpain in several years, and the second in about 10, so I am rather hard up. I just don't have the tolerance for willfull ignorence that I used to. I half suspect by shock was not very well hidden and I might not get an invite to the first session

Re: Sharing the Campaign ideas you can't use... yet Have the players make either normal characters, or themselves in hero format. Don't set a point limit, tell them balance won't really matter much, it will all even out in the end. Normal 2005 characters in a normal world. Then give them superpowers based on what you think the player might like/like his character to have, don't tell them any details though. It will require you to do much more paperwork and rolling. Let them discover what they can. How they get the powers, up to you. Toss something weird at them. 1: Leave them as the only supers in the real world. 2: Toss them into another reality, Twilight 2000, Call of Cuthulhu, Price of Freedom, Star Trek, LOTR whatever floats your and their boats. 3: They got powers by aliens to fight other aliens 4: Send them back into real world history [more interesting if they are playing themselves] what do they do. Ignore paradoxes. 4a: Have being who gave them powers give them a choise of missions in the past real world, their job is to change history, for whatever reason. 5: One of a bunch of supers who woke up with powers in the real world. I had the design normal people, give them unknown powers thing done to me, only lasted one session, but it was rather neat. Could go anywhere with it really.

Re: Highest level Champions game you could play? It's all fun and games untill someone shows up with a 1 million point character. On a more serious note. 1: More points mean normals become less relevant. Pump the points high enough and even energy types and mentalists can laugh off rifle shots unless they totally pro from dover it. 2: The higher the point level, the more dominating one character can be vs another. Low power brick can have a chance of hitting low power dex man but will not flatten most heros even non bricks, however a 2000 point brick would be hard pressed to ever hit a 2000 point dex man, and would flatten say a mentalist with one hit 2a: Yes 5d6 vs ED5 is the same as 150d6 vs 150 ED, however said person might not have 150 PD but even a fantasy hero character would have a 5 pd. 2b: I would guess that a high level caimpaign would see more one shot kills, unless regardless of character concept, every super buys up all the defences.

Re: What's in a Name? Lance Grandy was a steelworking in Hamilton during the day and active in the dance scene both in Hamilton and Toronto during the evenings and weekends, both teaching and performing, and he was pretty good. One night while leaving a gay bar [Come on everyone knows the steel industry is gay, dont you people watch the Simpsons?] he was abducted with a friend by some gay bashers, roughed up severly and dumped into the extremely poluted harbour in Hamilton. Somehow he managed to live, and got himself ashore where in the morning was discovered and brought to the hospital. After a fairly quick recovery and discharge, he discovered his speed and agility went through the roof. Claiming PTSD from the attack he took a month of work to figure out his new abilities and what he should do with them. He figured he would go public and fight crime in the region, putting in his resignation at Stelco. He is noted for an unusual fighting style in which not knowing any martial arts, combining dance with speed to form almost a new martial art. As he is now public he is known as Gandydancer. WTH, Sweaty Betty a song title worked amazingly well, lets try another song title Rocky Top

Re: Too many points? How would going from a 40 str 40 dex 10 speed to a 50 50 12 kill a character concept. Thats 50 points right there. Within any concept there should be lots of wiggle room, Just pump 10% more points into everything you got.

Re: XP idea How about instead of XP, you give the player a hug The world needs more hugs. Yes I am kidding.

Re: Filthy Rich Burghers That is only true in theory. As long as the vassil does all his obligations there isn't sfa the King can do to the land, either in use or to take it away, unless he dies without heir, in which case, there are still usually some law in place like the King choses the widow's next hubby. Much like if you were a landlord, yet could not increase or decrease the rent, boot out the tenet and had minimal ability to tell him what to do with the property. Hell I don't think a king could even pass the vassil relationship to another king.