Matt Frisbee

Re: Pimp My Stardrive! I can think of a way to get around that -- say, for example that an inertialess ship can only cancel inertia in line of flight (acceleration and deceleration). Anything that comes in from another direction can still slap the ship around. Also, just because its Lensman-based, doesn't mean the top speed has to be 90 parsecs an hour. To my mind, a parsec a week is cooking with gas, so to speak. Of course, introducing an inertial cancelor would imply other vehicles with the same technology, and I'm not sure I want that kind of trickle down... I'm probably going to go with the hyperspace entry points near protostar masses thing, if I can suss out an explanation that makes any sense. I also imagine that only a select infintesimal of the population can actually juggle the numbers for a hyperspace transit since the calculations have a number of variables / delta functions that don't yield hard numbers, so a navigator with a head for advanced mathematics is essential to check the computer outputs to see if they "feel" right. How's that for a start? Matt "Fuzzy-logic-esque" Frisbee

Re: Heist Hero The issue with Caper Hero games is motive. Sure, money is a great incentive for most of these things, but the whole thing gets old after the first couple of heists. What makes these more fun is playing out the aftermath of a heist, where the horked off parties come looking to shiv the blokes who absconded with their property. Another Caper Hero problem is that they tend to be very tech heavy affairs -- not necessarily high tech, but unusual applications of existing technology. The thing that makes Heist, Heat and the Ocean's films so appealing is that these people are smart. And not all groups can do that kind of smart. You really need a group that can be anal-retentive on the details, and yet not get bogged down by minutae, and not have just one person in the group with all the ideas and the rest of the characters playing off of his or her lead. On top of that, you have to be laboriously detailed so far as the target is concerned so that you know exactly what is going to happen when the characters do X or Y or even Z. Plus, if the characters neglect even one detail, they'll either have to fight or abort the attempt which typically means a blown adventure with no fall back and plenty of potential for team disintegration. If you've got the time for a one shot, great. If you want to make it a campaign, you'll need to devote serious time to it. But it does sound like fun. Matt "Played-my-fair-share-of-Danger-International" Frisbee

Re: Pimp My Stardrive! Hmmmm...interesting ideas, all. I had forgotten about the Babylon 5 version of FTL, but now that I think about it, it was fairly impressive. First time I heard about star gates was Buck Rogers with Gil Gerard. At one point I toyed with ideas related to The Black Hole universe (which was some serious homage to the old 50's space flicks) but my crew is not quite up to the demands of melodrama just yet. I liked the ideas behind the space fold technology presented in Macross when the SDF-1 accidentally transported part of an island, city and a chunk of the ocean with it to Pluto, and may run with that. If anyone is more familiar with the series than I, please feel free to enlighten me as to limitations with the technology. Also, how fast could ships of that series move in normal space? I'm also partial to the inertia-cancelling FTL drive from the Lensmen series, although the speeds possible (as mentioned in the article on wikipedia.org) are a little fast for my liking. I've also grappled with the idea that access points to hyperspace could be found near protostar masses (i.e. Jovian worlds like Jupiter and Saturn) which have probabilities of connecting to other starsystems on a cyclical basis, but the traveling vessel has to hit the right volume of space at the right speed and angle to get it right. (I reasoned that such entry points could be found around stellar masses too, but were too close to the star for a ship to survive the approach.) The primary reason I haven't picked up the ball and run on these is I have a hard time explaining the rubber science in such a way that sounds convincing, so any help with that (provided I ever get around to settling on an idea) would also be a wonderful thing. Once again, thanks for the help so far. Matt "Still-looking-for-a-phat-hyperdrive" Frisbee

Hi, I'm looking for inspiration for my next epic interstellar campaign, so I hope the seriously creative types out there can help me out. Since getting around the universe figures to be a big issue, I'm hoping someone can slide an interesting FTL concept under the door that'll get my creative wheels rolling. Ordinarily, I'd run Traveller (or Traveller Hero) but I'm wanting something a little different this time around. So, come at this from the standpoint of a player -- what's pimp when it comes to that sweet FTL locomotion? Thanks in advance for the assistance. Matt "Kinda-tapped-out" Frisbee

Re: Altered Reality (making yourself) Hmmm...I do remember doing this for a Chill campaign (a horror game based on the old TimeMaster system from way back when) when I decided to play myself (I really wasn't into the genre, but my friends were). As I remember, the game was a mostly "in-the-headspace" thing, so my lack of physical abilities didn't make much of a difference. If memory serves, mine was the only character of the original group to survive to the end of the campaign. In retrospect, playing myself really wasn't much fun, but if whatever flips your switch. I may try this on a group of players in a Traveller game in the near future (if they're game for it) -- say a bunch that have just awakened from an extended cryosleep? Matt "My-stats-are-probably-pathetic-but-I-would-have-an-impressive-set-of-completely-useless-skills-by-now" Frisbee

Re: Sonof Secret Origins! When did you start reading superhero comics? My first comics were a pile of used up Marvel titles that I rescued from the neighbor's trash following a garage sale. My favorites out of the stack were Daredevil (issue numbers in the low 40's when he's battling the Terminator and kills off one of his alternate identities -- Mike Murdock) and Spiderman (starting with the one where Dr. Octopus marries Aunt May -- "My Uncle, My Enemy?!" I think). One of my brother's girlfriends got him a subscription to The Incredible Hulk a year or two later as a gag gift, which found its way into my hands (stories about him battling the Constrictor, Stingray, and the Circus of Fear -- plus his brief affair with Miriam, the mermaid). And much of my money went into Dazzler, Cloak & Dagger and Moon Knight when I was laid up in junior high with a wicked lung infection. I found Champions a few years later, and started avidly reading The Uncanny X-Men around the time they got involved with the Shi'ar and the Starjammers, then battled The Brood. I drifted away from comics for a few years, then got back into them when I met Brandon Peterson -- a former Marvel and Image comics penciler -- as he was working on the Spiderman Annual that featured The New Warriors, and started collecting that series. Matt "All-over-the-board" Frisbee

Re: Traveller-era guns I dunno about that -- but it was fun having my players trying to wire up automotive batteries to power their laser rifles in the middle of a firefight when all of their power packs went flat... Matt "The-slightly-evil-GM" Frisbee

Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." TRUE STORY: Back when I started playing Champions I had to cut up a square dowel rod for dice in the junior high wood shop and claim I was making a set of doll house sized blocks for my sister for Christmas. (My budget was limited, but the shop had free materials back in those days.) I had to make that story up because the principal was convinced that people with dice were gambling. I took them home and put the pips on with a marker. After my parents saw me using those at a session in the basement, I got two dozen regular ones for Christmas that year. Matt "The-Do-It-Yourself-Gamer" Frisbee

Re: Traveller-era guns That is so very true. It's so very true, I wish I'd said it. Maybe you should quote yourself! Matt "Still-looking-for-a-good-catch-phrase" Frisbee

Re: Richest Man in the World Disease Back at the 250-point level (4th Ed.), a 15 point perk was a significant chunk (about 6%) of the total points available. With the 350-point standard, a 15-point perk is much less so (slightly over 4%). The old school games I ran had a few characters with deep pockets, but they were the exception rather than the rule. Most players take this perk just to get out of the complication of having to work or explain their background. GM: So you're rich, huh? Great! How did your character get his money? Player: Um...he inherited it. GM: Cool. So your character had a rich relative. So how did the relative get his money before your character inherited it? Player: He inherited it. GM: Um, okay. Look, I'm just trying to get a handle on what your family did or is doing to earn a fortune. Got any ideas? Player: Um... That was an actual conversation I had with a (young) player. Fortunately, we eventually settled on his family having a long history of land speculation. Most of my characters bought a five-point perk that was "Doesn't have to work for a living." My characters were still solidly middle-class types, but they had free-lance occupations, lottery wins or rich relatives to pay the bills. Matt "Feeding-my-inner-freeloader" Frisbee

Re: Traveller-era guns Don't forget the FGMP (Fusion Gun, Man-Portable) or PGMP (Plasma Gun, Man-Portable -- though both are very strictly Imperial military weapons which can only be carried around by troopers in Battle Dress or as crew-served weaponry. Matt "Recovering-Striker-addict" Frisbee

Re: Ray Guns Lasers are nice, but I prefer mass drivers. 50 grams of mass moving at 8000m per second is a hell of a lot of kinetic kill. Just don't let China play with the pretty toys or we're going to have a serious arms race... Matt "Still-pulling-down-the-shade" Frisbee

Re: [Warming Rant] GM feeling uninspired QM, Your books got lucky in comparison to a very ugly afternoon in October of 2001 that I put my gaming collection through. Understand, three months of failed attempts at maintaining a gaming group (people were moving too far away to game regularly at the time), the tragic death of one of my brothers over the summer, plus the constant drum beat of 9/11 over-exposure had put me in a particularly nasty frame of mind. Up to that point I had collected most science-fiction and superhero games that had been on the market for the past two decades. On that afternoon, after being informed that the last two members of the former group would be moving out within a week, I proceeded to destroy them all by brute force. I cursed, I swore, I raged in frustration and the objects of twenty years' worth of passion were methodically shredded in my bare hands and hurled the length of my apartment hallway to the living room. Binders full of notes from previous campaigns were unceremoniously pulverized and hurled into a growing heap of cellulose. Dice fell victim to a claw hammer, their shards becoming projectiles as I hurled them away from me (one piece actually stuck into the wall -- yeah, I was seriously unhinged that day). When I had finished with the gaming shelves, I invaded the closet and systematically dismantled the miniatures I kept there. After I finished there, I charged through the rest of the apartment tearing down posters and campaign maps and finally busting up the 8' x 4' plywood handipanel that had been my gaming table for years. I spent the rest of the afternoon scooping up the detris and chucking it all into the dumpster. I only just fought down the urge to buy a gallon of gasoline and put it all to the torch. After that was done, I went back upstairs and threw up. The rest of the day was spent staring at the walls inbetween several bouts of very unmanly sobbing. I was depressed, frustrated, angry, grieving and just plain sad -- at that moment, living as I was in a small town, I thought that all my gaming days were done. Thankfully, I was wrong, but six months went by before I purchased another gaming book. And that first replacement was the Core Rules for 4th Edition Hero System. So, QM, at least your collection will get some use in other hands. My former collection (including the irreplacable collection of Digest Group Publications supplements for MegaTraveller and the entire run of Traveller's Digest which contained my first and so far only professionally written articles) is gone now, rotting in some landfill west of town. If you are getting seriously burned out, by all means take a break, otherwise you might do something seriously stupid like I did. Matt "I-got-better-eventually" Frisbee

Re: [Warming Rant] GM feeling uninspired On GM burnout: Yeah, I used to fall in love with the wonderful worlds I used to create, but unlike my players, I'm with it everyday as opposed to their once a week or less exposure. That's why I've learned to spend the bulk of my efforts on detailing the world and its primary characters rather than the scenarios. Most of my adventures are simply a well defined situation for the player characters to get involved rather than a tightly scripted plot. My players rarely pick up good plot hooks, so I just let the situation I want them in develop around them until they have no choice but to react to it. QuestionMan, if you and your players are still having fun, then it's no problem that you aren't putting as much work into the game as you used to. It has taken me three decades to get used to the idea that I don't have to think about my campaign every single waking minute. Enjoy the fact that you can take some time to get away from the game and perhaps accidentally find that next great source of inspiration. If you're not having fun, though, perhaps you need a break. I do on occasion, and surprisingly, my friends understand that I get burned out from time to time. It never hurts to bring your concerns and feelings to the table, either -- players are people, too, and are sure to understand. If the players are agreeable you might want to schedule in a "mask off" night (sometimes called 'blue booking') where the characters are developing their backgrounds and personal lives without a major baddie to fight. Even heroes need some down time -- one of my old champions campaigns included such sessions as part of the play, which gave me as a GM to add color and flavor to their four-color world, as well as show them what else was going on in the world. Here's hoping you get out of the funk sooner rather than later, Matt "Still-a-GM-after-all-these-years" Frisbee

Re: The Benchwarmers: Semi-super heroes Here's another couple of would-be supervillains -- Paisley -- This light manipulating metahuman was completely human in every other way, except for his power to permanently change the color of any (human sized or smaller) object. Paisley also had a streak of nasty in his soul and would use his power to create potentially lethal situations that would attract the attention of heroes while he would do a smash and grab robbery nearby... Mistress Moron -- This villainess had the power to make people around her stupid (via an AE INT drain) to the point that stealing things was pretty easy. After a few highly embarassing incidents with political figures in the campaign city, the police no longer let her near city officials or other VIP's.... Matt "Filling-in-the-corners-of-the-super-universe" Frisbee

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread Normally I don't do nice and happy, but with my crazy work schedule, I'm over the hump for the week -- just two more nights of work and I'm on vacation for nine days! Plus, today is payday! Yay! Now I can pay my doctor bill from my bout with the flu after New Years! Matt "Don't-call-me-Mr.-Sniffles" Frisbee

Re: Idiocracy Hero as a Post Apoc Kinda like a marathon session of Futurama, huh?

Re: Idiocracy Hero as a Post Apoc I've always been of the opinion that while the vast majority of the current population of planet earth are unable to do more than eat, sleep, breed, work a simple job and watch television. But after the wave of intellectual snobbery washed over me, it left behind a nugget for thought. How much does any individual person know about how the world around him or her works? How much does one need to know to survive? Most post-apoc scenarios revolve around a group of people who collectively possess a subset of interdependent skills necessary for survival of whatever calamity has befallen them. However, there is another way to survive a calamity -- and that is being tough to kill and lucky enough to find the necessary resources to survive. The former condition is rare while the latter is also rare. The point is that stupidity can survive under the right conditions, just as well as intelligence can, at least in the short term. Each era produces its own subset of essential skills for survival. Less than two centuries ago, equestrian and teamster skills could have been considered essential, but in America, have become non-essential. If enough technology was self-sustaining (barring some natural disaster), how much would human society really need to know in order to survive? And what would it truly need to know? To continue the extrapolation, think back to what life was like in 1507. There was virtually no civilized medicine, the New World was just being discovered and science was a hobby of monks and the very rich. The cannon was the terror weapon of the time, sailing ships were the largest vehicles around and horses were the only source of power besides human muscles to get things done. There was no formalized education, most people were illiterate, and yet nearly all of them could labor a farm well enough to survive. I think we just seem smarter these days because we have retained and have access to so much more verifiable information, and have learned how to verify the new pieces of information so that we can feel confident that they are true as well. However, if you are trained from birth not to value information from all but a few sources that are controlled by others who encourage non-interest in things outside of one's very limited experience, you get the perfect consumer: a person who buys things because some advertisement or some highly valued representative of popular culture encourages it. A stupid society is a reality when people are encouraged to not think for themselves, are rewarded for activities which take little mental or physical effort, are given things they desire instead of working for them, are taught to disrespect those who excell and belittle their achievements, who learn to glorify violence and disconnect immoral behavior from punishment, have never been forced to face the full consequences of their actions because they have been taught that everything bad that happens to them is somebody else's fault and is subverted by the popular media into embracing unrealistic goals and expectations that can be attained by the expenditure of capital. That doesn't sound familiar, does it? Matt "Ax-to-the-grindstone" Frisbee

Re: Super-Hero Provided Patient Transportation This was a problem confronted by Sky, my paramedic-turned-superhero, who wound up being a supporting-cast type for one of my high school campaigns. His primary ability was to fly very fast and he typically carried a backpack medical kit (bonus to paramedic skill) that included a web harness he could fasten around a patient and quickly fly him or her to the nearest trauma center (bought as a x2 mass increment on the flight with a focus limitation). He would occasionally run into a patient who was too injured to move, but it was more dramatic to race a victim to the hospital than wait for an ambulance and a crew to neck brace and back board a victim... Matt "Former-Emergency!-fan" Frisbee

Re: The Benchwarmers: Semi-super heroes Another couple of low-powered annoyances from my campaigns... Scrapyard -- At the start of a fight, he was barely superhuman brick with a home-built set of combat armor for a costume. Problem was, he had absorption power which fed into his Strength. Players eventually learned that they had to dog pile on this guy to the exclusion of everything else to take him out of the fight before he became a major problem. He started avoiding this problem by jumping off of moderately high buildings to pump his Strength... Frizbee -- A disc tossing pain in the butt who contracted out to every criminal organization in the game universe. One of his discs was a teleportation against others at range that would "vorp" the unlucky target 15 game inches straight up... Matt "The-twisted-GM" Frisbee

Re: Running jokes in your campaign The running gag for the last Traveller campaign I ran featured three old men who seemed to be everywhere the characters went. Problem was, each and every time the characters were about to get into trouble, the three old men would be noticed playing cards or talking or something in a secluded corner somewhere in the vicinity. One time, the group saw the elderly trio boarding a starship they intended to travel on, and they intentionally avoided boarding it! It was ripped whole cloth from Cowboy Bebop, but nobody in the group ever caught on... Matt "My-head's-in-jumpspace" Frisbee

Re: Fast combat? Don't get me wrong, I love Hero System rules, for the most part, but the combat calculus business and tactical miniatures are a lot of work for a GM. Future incarnations of the game should address this and allow for a "quick combat" set of rules, especially for mass combats and beginning players. (Yeah, I have Sidekick rules, but no, that's not what I'm looking for.) Matt "Getting-too-lazy-to-deal-with-combat-calculus" Frisbee

Re: Slumming it: Champions/Dark Champions Game Characters for this particular thread: Low Rent -- A brawler of a hero with a few points of damage resistance (can shrug off a knife but not most bullets), slightly superhuman abilities for running and leaping, slow regeneration power (stepped down to every hour for time interval), UV vision and some home-built thrash armor for added protection. Carries a few low tech gadgets (like ball bearings to throw, brass knuckles for brawling and a hook and line for swinging) and has personal knowledge of the criminal underworld and the area he protects (Lower Downtown in Bay City). The Thorn -- Another low tech brawler who has a superhuman skills set for acting, disguise and stealth. His trick was getting inside a criminal organization and turning its members upon each other, then mopping up the survivors. Had a habit of leaving rose thorns on the people he dealt with personally. Crystal -- An adaptation of the Claire Vosser character from Normals Unbound (4th Ed.) that employed street magic and a few low-powered magical weapons and relics to fight crime. Her favorite tactic was to toss flash powder into a gang of baddies and use the covering smoke to smite the crooks with a magical staff. Lifeforce -- One of my favorite street-level supers with the ability to manipulate the life energies of himself and others. His most feared attack was the ability to inflict debilitating pain with his touch, though he could also heal people and cause spontaneous plant growth. One of his battles ended when he caused spontaneous growth of mold to which the villain was allergic. Man-Cat -- Yeah, a multiform type along the lines of Jaguar (4th Ed. Champions), but he could also communicate and command the legions of stray cats in the city, so he literally had eyes and ears everywhere... Matt "Fuzzy-memories" Frisbee

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log Sympathy about the weather, Edsel -- it has claimed a couple of sessions of my regular group as well, which is the first time that's happened around here in three years -- of course, things have changed a bit now that I have a rear-wheel drive pickup truck instead of my front-wheel drive hatchback... As an Iowa native, I remember getting a laugh about two inches of snow bringing Oklahoma to a complete halt back when I was stationed at Ft. Sill in 1985. The shoe was on the other foot a year later when my unit got caught in a wicked snow storm while in the field at Graffenwoir (sp?) in West Germany. We were stuck out there for four days, unable to move because the tank trails had literally disappeared under two feet of snow -- they air-dropped us MRE's and fuel because we had already been out there for a week when the snow hit. Luckily, it didn't get seriously cold while we were out there, and on the fifth day, they had managed to force open the trail so we could get back to "civilization." They should have dropped cigarettes, too, because some of the crew were nicking so bad that they couldn't sleep... Matt "Done-with-the-flashback-now" Frisbee

Re: Anime series as a campaign Um, yeah, you're probably right. ooops. I guess I was distracted by Yuuna's cuteness... Matt "Yeah-she's-that-kawaii" Frisbee