pbemguy

On 5/10/2020 at 3:41 PM, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

 

This leads to the suggestion to analyze the vehicle movement rules.  See what you can re-work to either eliminate certain skill rolls or to require very specific ones.  Pick up Car Wars, if you haven't already gotten it.  Use that when it's time for on-the-streets action.  I do.  It works fine-- it actually works better than HERO, because nothing is shoe-horned into the rules; the Car Wars rules were written specifically for this sort of stuff.  Even if you don't use it outright, use it as a guide to modify the HERO rules to make the car chase game that you want to play.

 

 

 

Yeah, I kept thinking that Car Wars was also the answer. When I saw the first Fast and Furious movies I considered using Car Wars to build a campaign. Like, use the Car Wars rules, the Fast and Furious storylines, move the game world about 20 years into the future, throw in a dash of Death Race and some James Bond vehicle mods...

I've run a few recently.

Definitely don't give one to a newbie. What happens is the GM ends up figuring everything, at least in my most recent experience.

I really like the idea of a time limit at the table: set a stopwatch for one minute, and if nothing is said in that minute then nothing comes out of the VPP!

I think it's best for experienced players, and with a tight SFX restriction, as has already been mentioned. (e.g. "fire powers")

This has kind of already been said, but yeah, go through every skill and every power and think of it from a Driving angle.

Lonewolf mentioned Shadowing. Exactly. I'd recommend that the players buy skills "on foot" and skills "in car" separately.

Shadowing on foot is very different than by vehicle. Imagine a guy who is good at Shadowing on foot having to do it in a car instead, or vice versa. Like, I can see Vin Diesel ninja-ing his car under a tractor trailer to avoid being spotted in a rear view, but I can also see him tripping over a hot dog stand when trying to do this on foot. In this campaign, they could be two different skills.

I see Acrobatics working the same way: character can flip a car, do a full rotation to jump from the bridge to the underpass, but as a person can't do a somersault.

"Acting" : can duplicate another driver's style, make it look like she did the heist when the video footage is reviewed. Or she can make it look like there's something wrong with the car. "The way she's driving, I'd say she blew her engine..." Surprise!

Breakfall: Can slow down by hitting things without taking too much Body off the car.

Contortionist: "No way you can fit between those two cars...wait! Don't!!"

Demolitions: Know where to hit another car to do extra damage....maybe Find Weakness fits this better....

Tactics/Teamwork

On 4/3/2020 at 7:12 PM, Duke Bushido said:

Pbemguy:

 

Will you be doing a daily digest?  I only ask because in the last couple of years, Google has forced so many changes on G-mail that it's nearly impossible to track multiple conversations, etc-- it's impossible to turn off that damned auto-sorting, for example, and crap just ends up _anywhere_, particularly multiple mails from the same sender  / group-- it's maddening.  For example, I think my very first in-game was done completely wrong (I "replied" instead of "reply all") and now the damned thing has filed itself somewhere secret and unknowable.....

 

 

a daily digest would help at least one person, but only if it's not too much trouble....

 

 

 

Sorry, Duke. I missed this question! 

We didn't do a daily digest but I occasionally did recap threads (saying this for posterity--in case anyone is perusing this thread for how we did it). You're absolutely right about Gmail. We had a lot of problems with the players using Gmail. Strangely enough, Yahoo is perfect for PBEM. You have to make sure to set it up so that your messages are NOT kept in "conversation" groups. I'm not sure if that's an option in Gmail.

Anyway, to sum up, the Gmail users had trouble: threads were hard to follow after multiple replies. But as I said, Yahoo seems to maneuver well. I would recommend using Yahoo for a PBEM, even if it's the only time you ever use Yahoo mail.

Polar on Netflix.

I didn't read any of the reviews; I just watched it cold.

Many of the reviews I read after watching said it was really horrible. I disagree. Mads Mikkelsen was great. The villain was over-the-top, but in a good way.

I think a lot of people were turned off by the opening, which features a crew of really unlikeable young assassins. As I was watching the opening I was considering shutting off the film...but then it occurred to me that we (the audience) were supposed to find them repellent. Once I considered that, the whole movie was very enjoyable. 

On 6/13/2020 at 11:13 AM, death tribble said:

 

 

The Extra Day

After a roll of film is lost the cast and extras have to be rounded up by the crew to refilm the last day.

Thanks for this. This is the kind of thing I look for and watch.

Probably you've already seen it, but I recommend Ice Station Zebra (1968).

Jack Stauber, Buttercup

GM update: The game finished! We completed the module by PBEM! This was an amazing group. The experiment was: Take a Top Secret module and play it with Champions rules, set in the era (in this case 1981).

Success! Thank you to everyone who participated! Highly recommended concept!

2 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

I’ve seen this but didn’t know that it could build Supers. I picked up D6 Powers which uses the D6 System. I never got to play it though. (It still has the wonky Stun rules from the original D6).

Oops, yeah, I think I meant D6 Powers. I mostly used D6 Adventure because I was building a Punisher clone, but the rest of the group used this:

19 hours ago, Spence said:

Not quite.  A good step forward, but no really a full transition. 6th Ed Fantasy Hero was IMO the best spiffed up Hero books.  But it, and the other 6th Ed books, were more 1970's textbooks upgraded to a better paper and a few color pics inserted.  M&M books are fully realized and originally designed as full color books, from paper to borders (including colored chapter tagging) to text to art.

 

When I flip through my M&M books it is cooler throughout.  When I flip through a Hero 6th book, it is a sea of black and white text with the island of color.

 

Don't get me wrong, I still think it the books like Fantasy Hero 6th (and 5th) are some of the best RPG supplements for for content out there.  But there has not been an official Hero product to date ( that I have seen) that escapes the text book vibe.

This is what I was trying to put my finger on, and you nailed it. The textbook vibe. Could it be that players who like textbooks are drawn to Hero, but that it repels most people? Because I like textbooks. But I couldn't see that Hero was mostly textbooks. I'm too "in" it to see that. This was a huge revelation to me.

Over on another thread I was discussing the outdated design of the Hero books, and that any new things published by Hero should, IMO, get rid of that. Now I have a better understanding of what makes Hero seem outdated and unlovable to some people (not me!).

I just remembered: I played a supers game using the d6 system--the same one used for the Star Wars rpg, what's it called?

D6 Adventure.

It was actually really fun, we played about ten sessions, and the system worked well for superheroing. I can't vouch for how it built superpowers--I had a Punisher-type guy so it was an easy build, but the other players had quite a range of powers.

Anyone else play a supers game in this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D6_Adventure

EDIT: I just remembered why we stopped after 10 sessions. The GM wanted to play, and I wanted to GM, and so we switched, but I converted everyone to Champions 5e. LOL. We went another 10 sessions and it was also good.

Speaking of 60's bombshells, I also watch Gilligan's Island over and over. I used to be a Maryann fan but now I watch it for Ginger. The Eva Grubb episode...ah, don't get me started! 

14 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Get Smart (1965-1970). Brilliant satire of the super-spy genre, with Don Adams playing somewhere between James Bond and Jacques Clouseau; and Barbara Feldon as many a young man's fantasy girl.   Fans always looked forward to the recurring practical gags: the multiple doors and 'phone-booth elevator in the credits, the shoe 'phone, the Cone of Silence, Agent 44 hiding inside some inanimate object. And absolutely everyone in the mid-Sixties was using the show's catch phrases:

"Would you believe...?"

"Missed it by That. Much."

"And... loving it!"

"This is KAOS! We don't ____ here!"

 

IMO none of the movies based on that property, with or without Don Adams, recaptured that magic.

 

One of my favorites. I'm currently running a Top Secret module with Hero rules--I'll have to throw in some Maxwell Smart-isms!

Barbara Feldon...amazing. She's half the reason I re-watch these. 

I played the original Marvel Superheroes (FASERIP) very briefly. I started Champions and this game at the same time, GMing both.

I ended up using the ranking system (and the Handbook to the Marvel Universe) to improve my Champions game, and I used some of the Marvel modules to spice up my Champions campaign. (The Marvel RPG and the Official Handbooks made me a much better character designer, period.)

Marvel Superheroes wasn't as good as Champions, but it really boosted my Champions game, and I only have fond memories of Marvel Superheroes.

On 4/1/2020 at 12:07 PM, Tom Cowan said:

Add TK to the list of ways to do it.  TK only to toss the target...  -1 1/2?

This is how I would do it. 

6 minutes ago, Badger said:

 

1 equals 1 damn it.  I'm not listening anymore.

No, I'm not trolling. What I'm saying is, I looked at the diagram and the first thing I said when I saw it was, "Why does that have to be a 1? Isn't the 1 arbitrary?" 

Like, it would be more profound if that had to be a 1, but it could literally be any number, so for me the diagram is less "wow" and more "ah."

6 minutes ago, Cancer said:

 

If you just do the Pythagorean theorem, a^2 + b^2 = c^2, and a = 1 and b = i, if you do this in the straightforward way, then 1^2 = 1, i^2 = -1, and then the sum is zero.

That's why I'm saying the "1" could be any number. Like, if the 1 was a 5, then the "i" would be an imaginary number that, when squared, makes -5.

Amirightoramiright?

Isn't the "i" just an imaginary number, and then couldn't the "1" leg be any number then?

'Splain it to me.

You mean the cartoon characters with giant eyes?

They're revamping the zodiac?

Mostly in the game we use OOC when we are making a comment out of character, like:

OOC: This plotline reminds me of that episode of Moonlighting where they have a leprechaun as a client.

In the PBEM I also sometimes use AFK: "I'm going to be AFK (Away From Keyboard) for the next 24 hours"

I scrolled through a bunch of my game threads and those were the only two that jumped out at me. Of course we say things like NPC and GM--there are some Hero abbreviations to watch for (SPD, Rec, Disads, etc.)

Wait, I just spotted an IIRC (If I Remember Correctly) and IG (In Game, which means we're back to talking in game)

Smashing! We have five players and the game is underway.

What system are we talking about?

No, wasn't that the lion?