BonHed

When you start breaking skills down into too many subcategories, you're basically playing GURPS.

Re: PBEM - RDU: The Mavericks - Example & Discussion Holy cow, 16d6 Mind Control on a normal AFTER 2 EGO drains? Man, that is hardcore. He must have been at 0 EGO or lower, and with an average of 56 on 16d6... man, 4 more points and he could have ordered the guy to die That tops just about anything I did as Locke, except maybe the 3 I rolled when Mind Controlling Leo ("Of course Taurus will forgive you")...

Re: PBEM - RDU: The Mavericks - Example & Discussion Whew! Man, I forgot so much of what happened during these games, re-reading them has been a total and complete blast. I had remembered the big fire-fight in the sewers, but forgot about the way that Cowboy delt with "Flechette". Way, way over the top, but then, that's Cowboy for ya. The plotlines that spread out from these games... the whole thing with DragonMist, I completely forgot. Someday the sword will again have to be found. And hopefully this time the dice won't hate the wielder...

Re: Secret Worlds: Book 4 Ep 1 cont'd Oh boy oh boy! Almost to the ninja-y goodness!

Re: Archery Ballistics They do not back up the point with which I had contention, and that was his statement that I quoted. Technically, I didn't break my promise.

Re: Archery Ballistics "Platelets clump by binding to collagen that becomes exposed following rupture of the endothelial lining of vessels. Upon activation, platelets release adenosine-5'-diphosphate, ADP and TXA2 (which activate additional platelets), serotonin, phospholipids, lipoproteins, and other proteins important for the coagulation cascade. " (Source, http://web.indstate.edu/thcme/mwking/blood-coagulation.html) "...at sites of vascular injury, endothelial cells are damaged or removed. This exposes collagen fibrils, to which platelets adhere with help from von Willebrand factor, a blood protein synthesized by endothelial cells." (Source: http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:dHOmZhr86RQJ:www.pik-potsdam.de/~stefan/Publications/Nature/paillardn%26v.pdf+collagen+platelet+activator&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=10) "Collagen and the GpVI-specific platelet activator collagen-related peptide (CRP-XL) stimulated NO synthesis, as evidenced by increased [(3)H]L-citrulline production, and cyclic GMP (cGMP) formation. After platelet activation by collagen and CRP-XL was normalised,..." (Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16113831&dopt=Abstract) God, I love the internet. I'm sure I can come up with some more sources, but I think three is an acceptable number for corroboration (Google came up with about 342,000 entries for "collagen platelet activator"). Perhaps "sticky" was not the best word to describe platelets, but I couldn't think of a better way to describe something that adheres to the surface of another thing. Plus, I saw it used in reference to platelets, so I figured it was safe.

Re: Secret Worlds: Reboot write-ups

Re: Archery Ballistics

Re: Archery Ballistics There is something to be said for the sharpness of the object doing the cutting. A ragged wound caused by a dull blade will clot faster than a clean cut caused by a razor sharp blade. The platelettes in the blood stream are better able to adhere to the more ragged edges of a wound caused by a dull blade. The sharper the blade, such as a razor or scalple, the longer it takes the platelettes to start congregating and forming the clot. That's why when one cuts ones' self shaving with a razor, it bleeds for a good long time. I would imagine, however, that this is going to be more of a long term, rather than an immediate effect. Long term being a matter of minutes, rather than seconds. And the brain certainly does play a role. Blunt trauma causes more shock to the body, which the brain has different methods for handling. Muscles will clamp down around severed blood vessels, and can prevent or lessen the blood flowing from a severed limb (this is, of course, only a very temporary effect; one had better get a tourniquette around that severed limb pretty quick). This happens automatically when the brain registers the shock of the cut. A particularly sharp blade may cut so cleanly as to produce less shock to the body; the brain may not register the wound correctly, and the proper signals may not be sent to the muscles around the wound to force them to clamp down. Now this is all subjective. Lots of different factors can contribute to this scenario, and it doesn't always happen the same way for everyone, everytime. But there are different kinds of wounds, all of which affect the body in different ways.

Re: Secret Worlds: Reboot write-ups Hey, Neil, no worries, man. I was not frustrated by the battle between Ryu and the Silent Woman. It played out really just the way a straight-up fight with Ryu should have. He's not that great of a fighter (okay, his DEX does give him quite an edge, but not that many levels - being corrected with XP, of course). I liked the flow. Just wish I had gotten the chance to try out Ryu's "secret weapon". I play in this game, and I didn't even know who Charlie Petroni was. =)

Re: Dark Champions: Secret Worlds I will play either as well. I like playing Ryu, but it's been harder for me than I thought it would to find his "voice". I've seen Neil struggle with SW, and I know some of the other players struggle with it as well. It needs time, of course, as any good campaign does. Even it will become as memorable to the players as the RDU.

Re: Help with Ego powers, please. I don't think that's quite right. The victim would know that he/she was attacked, and would react as appropriate for the special effect of the EGO blast (it doesn't have to be pain, it can be "sleepiness" or anything that renders the target unconscious/incapable of action; pain is just the easiest). But I don't see any reason to assume the victim has full knowledge of what the attacker looks/sounds like. It should be noted, however, that I don't have the book in front of me. If one was hit by a sniper's bullet, fired from a clock tower a couple hundred meters away, one wouldn't know anything about the attacker, other than he/she was a good shot...

Man, what a night that was. I still find it hard to believe that Ryu walked out of there, after confronting 9 armed individuals, essentially alone. Terry's sniper work was simply amazing, and Jones' hacking was perfect. An extremely well executed but poorly designed plan. Sorry that Joe (Damien) didn't have as much action or face time. Kudos to all of us! In hindsight, I thought of a better statement for Ryu to have said before he attacked. He should have looked at Samsano and said, with no hint of emotion, "Your men? Why, I killed them, of course. And now I am going to kill 9 more. Starting with you." In that half-second of stunned silence when everyone stares at him in disbelief (how could this mid-level programmer type, with glasses, be capable of such action?), he would have struck. Doesn't change anything, just thought it might have sounded better. Oh, Neil, I think that I am going to be buying Combat Luck for Ryu...

Definitely. I am looking forward to the next game; it's just been a matter of timing. We'll get back on track. As for gunfights, I have no idea how Ryu will react to this kind of thing. It really depends upon the situation, and how Ryu fits into the events. He's got a lot of conflicting things going on inside his head, which will, of course, all end badly... =)

Hitoshi Ryu Hi. I'm BonHed. You might remember me from such posts as "When Mentalists Attack..." I've been playing in Neil's games for some time now (jeez, 6 or 7 years now, I think), and while I love the previous "RDU", I think "Secret Worlds" has the potential to totally blow away the RDU. Four Colour Spandex Wearing supers has never been my genre of choice. My characters almost never wear a "costume," at least not the standard style (to harken back to another long running Storn post, my characters have pockets). Usually I do the overcoat kinda thing. I also usually take on the role of the Combat Monster. Storn is filling this role in the new campaign, playing what is normally an "Eric Character." I think I surprised everyone by playing a sneaky type. It was really funny, though. All through the beginning of the game, everyone thought that I was going to be the vigilante. All were very surprised when the lights went out, and it wasn't caused by my character! And I kept saying, "It's not me! I have nothing to do with this!" It's been a long time since I was thinking all day about what kind of cool things my character will/can do. The day of the game I was coming up with all sorts of cool "Ninja" tricks; like keeping at least one clip of blanks that I can sleight-of-hand swap should I need to hand anyone my gun, and have squibbs and blood packets about my body, you know, just in case... I had a lot of fun sneaking about the garage, totally throwing the other players for a loop. Wheee! And this bit with my character's sister. Man! Neil, you are evil. (It was a total fluke... I used the name Hitoshi, which Neil used as McGreggor's bodyguard. Neither of us knew it at the time, and Neil ran with it. Very cool!) As for a character sheet, no-can-do. My characters are a part of me; make up your own Ninja!