BishopofB&W

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

Swing Out Sister

Re: The Lemurian Secret is out!

Then there's the picture of the Mandragalore. Were the Lemurians compensating for something?

Re: Sky High The Movie

In the commentary on Big Trouble In Little China, John Carpenter told Russell that one of the things he admired about him was that, unlike a lot of other actors, he wasn't afraid of looking foolish in a movie. I think that comes from doing all those early Disney movies(The Strongest Man in the World, The Computer Wore Wingtips, etc.). He probably realized that looking goofy( ) doesn't matter if the movie is supposed to be an all-round fun movie.

Re: The Algernon Files come to Hero!!!

Which are you wanting' date=' the M&M version or the HERO? Your comment is a little confusing.[/quote']

 

I asked specifically for 2nd edition and he didn't have it and had no plans to order it unless it was a special order. That's when he told me about D20 sales.

Re: The Algernon Files come to Hero!!!

I asked my FLGS about this yesterday and he said D20 isn't moving like it used to some of the main companies are having trouble. He said he could get it but it would have to be a special order.

Re: Belief in magic by normals.

 

I also think there'd be a more powerful societal role for churches than is currently the case in the US.

I agree. In a world where there are powerful mystics, some would probably be closely identified with particular denominations. Their powers might be their own personal "faith-based initiatives".

Re: My Star Wars Force Powers

If you're using anything from New Jedi Order, later in the series Jacen Solo discovers Light Side Jedi can project a green force lightning that can only stun. Luke just reaches out and puts a little shock to the nervous system to knock out dangerous animals.

Re: Athlete HERO

I remember seeing, years ago, a cartoon where about 6 college football players got magically transported to a fantasy world where they became knights (naturally,the team captain was named Arthur). It tried to incorporate football maneuvers into their fighting.

Re: The Batman Handbook

The forward is pretty funny. The rest is more tongue-in-cheek. It tells how to aim and throw a batarang(with illustrations), rappelling, most useful martial arts, how to swing around a flagpoles, dusting for prints, and other useful skills. It also explains the more mundane aspects like netting to catch bat droppings and installing an industrial dehumidifier to protect electronics in the Batcave.

An excellent companion to How To Be A Superhero.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1594740240/qid=1116271766/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-8239538-6073443?v=glance&s=books

Re: Are there Amazons in the Champions Universe?

I know Hidden Lands is coming out soon, so I'm wondering if it has anything akin to DC's Thermiscara aka Paradise Island, or even its own version of an "Amazon" Culture (suitably altered with comic book touches)?

 

I have two ladies in my group, and with Wonder Woman old TV show being out on DVD now, I get the feeling they're eyeing the "First lady of superheroes" as a potential source of inspiration. Just in case they do, if there is such a culture in 'official' 5th Ed Universe already, I'd like to know before starting on my own variation.

There are if you wish really hard! (And create it yourself)

Re: Something we should all look into..

This one's very good, actually.

 

She's still far too busty (but I don't know if your software even allows you to alter that characteristic), and the long hair on the first one was closer so far as length goes. (It hangs to mid thigh.)

 

But overall it's a great picture! Thank you very much!

 

Rep for you!

Pshaw! If Image Comics taught us anything, it that superheroines can never be too busty and characters can never have too many spikes, chains, scars, grotuesquely bulging muscles...what was my point again?

Re: Something we should all look into..

I'm at work, so I haven't downloaded anything yet but I registered and looked at the freebies. All I can say is

I think this will help me decide if I ever want to get into Poser or not.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

Frankenstein Bk 1: Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz. Victor Frankenstein discovered a rejuvenation treatment and is now trying to make Huxley's Brave New World a reality. He is opposed by The Monster. Dean Koontz is always a very engaging writer, but I think you can also get some ideas for fleshing out the personality of the Champions character Teleios. It's one thing to say he has no regard for life, but Koontz really explores that attitude and shows how it affects Frankenstein in his daily life, especially in regard to his vat-grown creations.

Re: Villainy Amok

Woohoo! My FLGS called.

Re: Villainy Amok

My FLGS has had problems getting things in on time because the owner lost a supplier. It seems that Have-It-To-You-One-Week-After-The-Printer-Ships was a sole propietor (I should have guessed from the excellent service). He died and his family closed it all down. Now my FLGS guy is working to get things back to speed, but I'm not holding any hope that the new supplier will match the previous one's speed.

Re: Superhero Pope: Ridiculous or Sublime?

Ranks up there with those battle nuns from... uhm... where ever they were created (what was her name again? Arella?).

 

And then there is Section 13 in HELLING, made up of warrior-priests and the like who go around doing all the Vatican's dirty work.

Warrior Nun Areala, which started out as an interesting (I'm not Catholic so you'll have to pardon me for not being sensitive about magic-priests. They did change the costume to be more modest after a New York order of martial artist nuns complained about it.) anime-like take on dark fantasy with the Catholic church as the main defense against demonic hordes.

Re: Superhero Pope: Ridiculous or Sublime?

There's already a comic book with a superhero pope.

Tacky.

Re: Golden Age Guardians of Liberty!

Good job on Math the Magician. It makes me think of some advertising art from the '20s I've seen.

Re: Hero Designer...

You know how video game combat usually goes faster than tabletop gaming because the rules are automated? It's kind of the same way with HD. You don't have to keep flipping pages in your books (unless you're looking for something really specific in the description) and you don't have to keep re-adding point totals because it does it for you.

From Knights of the Dinner Table #101, page 80.

YOU KNOW THE d20 WELL HAS RUN DRY WHEN...

1. You keep hearing rumors that AEG and Eden Studios are fighting over the rights to do Desperate House Wives d20.

2. WotC lays off an employee and for the first time that individual DOESN'T turn around and start up a d20 publishing company of his own and compete. The d20 community is shaken to its core as to the implications.

3. d20: Blackpowder Era comes out and siphons sales from D20: Modern Era products. 3.5 d20 Modern is upgraded to d20 Modern 3.5: Postmodern.

4. News finally leaks that d20 wonder boy, Monte Cooke is just that — an 11 year old boy who lives with his parents and has a curfew. The secret is revealed when his parents GROUND him and take away his iMac after his mother finds a copy of the d20 Big Damn Book of Erotica in his room. She ignores his pleas of it being ''art†and ''research material".

5. In the wake of a veritable flood of d20 product, the movie license, DodgeBall: A Tale of Underdogs wins Best Game of 2005.

7. When ads start appearing that proclaim "The dlO System: It's the new d20". Investors in the d30 System immediately file suit.

8. When you begin hearing gamers yearn for the "Good ol' d20 4.6 days".

9. You decide to stop making your monthly payments on the Self Storage Unit you rented to hold all your d20 product.

10. It occurs to you as you are standing in line waiting to purchase Volume 24 of the D20 Big Damn Book of Elves that you never got around to reading volumes 19 thru 23.

11. d20 Designers finally realize that Hit-Points have no practical use in the game and eliminate them altogether. From now on Players are allowed to keep fighting until they feel carpal tunnel syndrome kick in or need to call time out for a snack run. Monsters however have to fall down when hit and not move for 6 rounds while they are properly looted.

12. Despite high hopes and a lot of hype, d20: The McKinley Years is released and suffers from poor sales. The book is later re-released under the title, "Anarchists and Battleships" but quickly pulled from shelves.

13. Thomas Marley, a lowly shipping boy at a third tier gaming company announces, "Every subject that could be possibly applied to the d20 system has already been taken." Two weeks later he has to retract the statement when just to prove him wrong, KenzerCo releases, "THRASHER: The d20 RPG of Combine Wars in Rural Indiana."

14. In order to attract a more diverse reading audience, d20 Quarterly announces they'll be running a Women of Gaming Swimsuit Issue later this year.

15. d20 joke lists like this begin to get old.

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Trust me, folx, there'll be a generous selection of lingo and slang.

 

Sorry, LL, but textual descriptions of guns is generally something I regard as a waste of space in time in a project already cramped on both. I'll include as many illos as I can, believe me, but that's the best I can do.

Just give me names, general stats, and a few illos, please.

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Suggestions on how to deal with the unfortunate realities of race relations in the period. For example, WW's Adventure! pointed out that if you have a black man and a white woman as PCs and they are traveling cross-country together, they're going to get hassled. People assumed that The Avenger's mechanical engineer was just dumb muscle, but how do you get the guy some respect if you don't want to play him that way?

Lots of Mcguffins. What do you call your valuable artifact when the Maltese Falcon name is already taken? What were common names for people, places, and things back then, meaning how do you take something from now and fix it in the pulp style?

What real people have you used as inspiration for characters in your game?

To start the ball rolling, here’s a man I just read about this morning. You want to talk about unpowered powers? This guy was an unpowered precog with mind scan and psychic invisibility!.

Re: Ultimate Mystic Review

Tomorrow' date=' I'll try to post something I came up with while trying to shoehorn some of TMW into my preferences.[/quote']

I never liked the idea the The Slug could force a soul Transform on a person. (Besides, I think it would be more horrific to be a prisoner in your own body and forced to watch yourself do terrible things than to have no indication that you weren’t really an Elder Worm. Think of Hellraiser II where we discover that Pinhead was transformed from a victim of the Lament Configuration box and rebelled against Leviathan after he was reminded who he really was.) Nor did I care for the Essailes and Demon-handed from the Turakian Age snatching souls from each other because it seemed to me this negated the whole point of free will. I didn’t like the cosmology presented in TMW, but got it to mine for ideas. So starting from the premise that Heaven and Hell are real and independent of Earth, I had to figure out a scheme in which I could have magic, psionics, spirits, gods, God, the Devil, aliens, etc. I drew a lot of ideas from In Nomine and a handful from The Adept series by Kurtz and Harris and threw in some as they came to me.

 

Excerpt from Researches of Forgotten Lore, a tome by wizard and scholar Cyria Nendramro of Mykar, circa 230 Million B.C.

 

In beginning, the One created a seed from which grew the multiverse. As it grew further and further away from the One, its substance became less and less fine until, at last, the outermost shells became the Material Realms. The One saw that it was good and was pleased. The One’s goal was to create a grand tapestry of life where possibility after possibility could be explored. Paramount to its goal was to allow free choice to every living thing yet provide gentle guidance to each being as it made its way to its place in the Creation Symphony.

The One knew, however, that direct intervention on its part would overwhelm its creations. The One solved this by creating two servants: Ul and Rin. Their purpose was to watch over the One’s creation in keeping with the One’s goals. Ul decided that the best method was to teach beings to govern themselves and gently, subtly guide them to their ultimate place in the perfection of the Symphony. If they stumbled on the way, Ul reasoned that with help even mistakes could spur them onward. Rin had other ideas. Rin’s believed that by exerting more control and eliminating unnecessary random elements, each being could speedily reach its place in the Symphony without all the inevitable suffering that would result from mistakes. Ul and Rin could not reconcile their disagreements and finally brought the matter before the One. The One favored Ul’s plan.

Rin could not accept the seeming paradox that imperfection could be a component of perfection. To prove the point, Rin arranged cataclysms that destroyed several universes.

Ul recoiled in horror at the act and the One banished Rin from it’s presence until Rin learned humility. This was The Sundering. Not only was Rin cut off from the One and the glory of the Creation Symphony, but it was also cut off from its twin, Ul. From one dominion came two, for Ul and Rin not only shared the realm of Anshara, these two beings were this foundational realm.

Rin remained convinced that it was right and made plans to try again to show the One the error of allowing imperfection into Creation. Grieving, Ul continued its work without its twin. In time, both realized that they also existed on too high a level of reality to interact meaningfully in any way with the inhabitants of the lower realms. Both hit upon the idea of dividing their consciousness into multiple beings. Ul became both the Celestial Realm and its personification, the Celestine. Rin became both the Infernal Realm and its personification, The Dragon. From Ul’s consciousness came angels, daevas and kindly spirits. From Rin’s consciousness came demons, devils, and imps. Thus began a hidden war with the multiverse as the prize. Rin, now The Dragon, discovered that it could capture living souls and harvest their energies to make up for losing the sustaining power of the Creation Symphony. The Dragon’s corruption was complete, even to the point that it forgot why it rebelled and simply embraced corruption as a means of feeding its power forever and ever.

 

From Archmage Sun Haifeng to his apprentice, Harrison White:

 

My son, I sense a question burning inside you, one that you fear to ask. You have studied the accounts of ancient gods and the men who dealt with them. In your youth, you were taught that there is only one True God and all others are the false, vain imaginings of men. It troubles you to discover that there is some truth behind the ancient tales because it makes you question everything upon which you base your life. Let me assure you that by the definition you were taught, there is only one originator of the multiverse. None of the gods that dwell in the Astral Realms can even begin to approach that level of power. However, they are spirit beings strengthened by the devotions of their worshippers and can empower a select few of their followers with favors and mystical gifts. But this is not the answer you seek. Let us say that insofar as religions lead people into the Light, they are true. This is not a satisfying answer, I know, but it is the best you will find before you pass, I hope, beyond the Cradle of Harmony. Some of the gods have allied themselves with the Infernals in exchange for a portion of power that comes from trafficking in souls. Others have found some common causes with the Celestials. Most prefer to remain aloof and look for ways to re-establish their old dominions.

There is a rumor that during the Dark Ages, the god Odin was bitter that the Christian religion did not collapse with Rome. He was so bitter that he did not even attempt to curb the worst dishonorable excesses of his followers during their raids on the rest of Europe. Indeed, he stood by while the Infernals and the fomori goaded them on. One lone valkyrie became so disgusted that she left the halls of Valhalla and petitioned the Celestials for entrance into their service. She was accepted and became a patroness of those who protect the innocent. This is only a rumor, but I cannot discount it out of hand.