Gary Miles

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill

This is one of those statements that seems axiomatic initially, but which is actually subject to many fact-specific exceptions when given more scrutiny.

 

One fictional example of such an exception would be Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star at the conclusion of Star Wars. That act was presented as heroic in the film. But, as been pointed out endlessly over the years, Luke doubtlessly would've killed many "unconscious" (if only sleeping) and "defenseless" people as well in the process. Maybe tens of thousands of them.

Except it's nothing like that.

The Death Star was a MILITARY installation/ship. Which means all on board are considered part of the MILITARY. The ENEMY military.

Whether they were sleeping, or running the PX, or doing the dishes, they were still inhabiting a military installation/ship.

Re: Gods with Off Switches vs. Loaded Guns. DC vs. Marvel in Character Design.

That brings up another excellent point. In the real world, the Joker would be lucky to escape Arkham even once, Wilson Fisk would be serving 12 consecutive life sentences in some maximum security hell hole, and Bruce Wayne and Frank Castle would be chairing some Victims' Rights organization, not beating up muggers.

 

Realism makes every aspect of superhero comics impossible, not just the powers, secret identities, and costumes. Either way, who cares? I don't read superhero comics to see the real world. I read superhero comics to see a highly romanticized version of the real world. One in which Superman's moral code does work, where Batman doesn't get killed by a random thug with a 9mm, where some guy dressed in an American flag can stop alien invasions. Strict realism has no place here, just like it has no place on ER, Law & Order: SVU, Community, Charles Dickens's novels, Shakespeare's plays or any other form of fiction.

 

I think the criticisms are valid, but they are misplaced.

Re: House rules: speed, height advantage, gang up bonus, facing, dodging?

let me reword that for you...

 

In hero games we have SPEED, which translates to multiple attacks in 12 segments.

 

In TFT there were only 1 attack per turn except for the fellow with high dex and a bow. He got a second bow shot.

 

We are not playing TFT any more but I would like to trim down the speed difference between characters.

 

If players are speed 2, 3 and 4, which i hope they are not, i could reduce all attacks by one so that:

2 of the players gets 1 attack per turn, another gets 2 attacks per turn and the last gets 3 attacks per turn...

 

now if i could further change that to something like... each subsequent attack would be a half action or a static action must attack where you were standing from, or do up to a full move.

 

How does that sound?

Not good.

Too much changing from base HERO rules.

There's nothing wrong with characters that vary in SPD. It's part of what differentiates characters from each other. If they paid 10 points per point of that SPD, they NEED to "get their money's worth".

Otherwise, you (as GM) can just flat-out say, "Guys, I only want you to make SPD 3 and 4 characters". Or, "Guys, I only want you to make SPD 2 characters".

Re: Announcement: The Monster Hunter International RPG!

I was going to be getting this, because it sounded interesting.

Then I took a look at Correia's blog.

I've now decided he's going to get none of my money.

Sorry, Hero Games folks.

Re: Cyber Hero (4thEd) any good?

I thought it was pretty decent.

It was during the period when Iron Crown was publishing, though, and a lot of the stuff appeared to be converted from I.C.E.'s "Cyberspace" game.

Not bad.

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete

Ohhh. But it does contain the complete 6E HERO rules, yeah?

 

And yes, Gary, Rachel can be very, very particular.

But she does seem to be a good kid (I think I can call her a kid- I'm 51).

By the way, over there, I'm nightwind1.

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete

Well, this product looks like it will be pretty perfect for me. I am new to HERO and it can be a big task getting into it. I love all the descriptions and detail in the rules, and I do understand that HERO is largely front-loaded, and that it's not some super-complex beast in play. But there's a lot to learn, those rulebooks are dense. I also am getting into Champions Online and the Champions setting does interest me, so this hits some key areas for me: it's got the full HERO rules and the Champions setting, but trimmed down, which will make it easier to digest.

 

I have 6E1, but was never able to acquire a copy of 6E2. Since from what I understand, CC will have the full HERO 6E rules but minus a lot of the detailed examples and such, I can always reference 6E1 if I have a question on a power that I can't figure out on my own. Otherwise, I can have all the rules in the one book along with a good superhero setting.

 

My darling Rachel, who wants to play certain types of games, is a bit intimidated by HERO, as well, since I am looking at using that for the games she wants. This will be much easier for her, too.

Yeah. Plus, I've noticed on RPGNet that Rachel can be verrrryy particular about her characters and their capabilities and such.

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete

I've always been of the opinion that rulebooks, being manuals, don't need color.

Color is great in my comic books, but I don't need it in a book full of rules.

That said, I did color every villain in my 4th Edition Classic Enemies book with colored pencils.

I'm growing older, I refuse to grow up.

Re: And now, for your daily dose of cute...

You know those little boxes that new checks for your checkbook come in?

My Maine Coon used to like to sit in those.

Yup. A Maine Coon. Only his feet would fit in the box, but he didn't give a damn.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

It's considered patronizing because the onus and blame shouldn't be placed on the victim to prevent it -- it should be on the rapist to NOT RAPE IN THE FIRST PLACE .

Why, yes, it should be. That's pretty frakkin' obvious. But that doesn't mean a person can't take steps to maybe, possibly present less of an opportunity for said rapist- who shouldn't be raping any way- to get away with it.

You know, be with a group, walk in well-lit areas, maybe learn some self-defense techniques.

Because we already KNOW that a rapist shouldn't be raping in the first place.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

On the other hand' date=' more times than I can remember, when a guy has tried have a discussion on sexism in RPGs, there will be instances where any seemingly rational argument he makes gets shot down by "white male privilege" or "privilege". It is almost like the term is used a trump card of sorts.[/quote']

Especially on certain gaming sites (which won't be named, but has a predominantly purple color scheme).

 

I'm a male, who's very much a feminist, but some of those arguments piss me off. Like a recent discussion of sexual assault, where any suggestion that a woman can take certain precautions (such as self-defense training and such) is shot down as patronizing.

Re: Hero-D&D system merge?

I am not familiar with such a rule, and certainly we never played with it. (For that matter you couldn't even stop someone from passing through your own hex.)

That could certainly help re-establish some zone of control, though it's very conditional.. so if I make an attack against that character vs DCV (not an AOE, not a mental attack, etc) that hits only because of the half-DCV then it makes a difference, and if the enemy is doing something that would halve their DCV anyways then it's suddenly costless to walk past?

It's something, though I do personally prefer the simple effectiveness of a decent OA. You're welcome to different preferences of course.

Found it! (I knew I wasn't THAT crazy!)

Fifth Edition Ultimate Martial Artist, Page 160.

IGNORING OPPONENTS/!\:In the Hero System, it's possible to run right past and ignore an opponent standing in your way, even if he's delaying to hit you, and you won't suffer any sort of penalty. But that's inappropriate for many martial arts campaigns.

 

If one character moves right past (i.e., through the same or an adjacent hex) a foe using a Held Action to strike at him, the moving character has on 1/2 his DCV against the attack)

So, apparently, it was in "Special Cases and Optional Rules" in Ultimate Martial Artist.

But I know we've used it in non-martial arts games as well, because it makes sense.

Re: Hero-D&D system merge?

Okay. That's more fitting with my experiences. Going from D&D to HERO was kind of immersion killing for me because of the absence of AoOs.. what' date=' [b']you can just walk around/past someone and there's nothing they can do about it[/b]? no zone of control, no threat from the big brick.

I believe (don't have FREd in front of me) that in 4th and 5th Edition Hero, if your character passed through a hex that was directly adjacent to another characters hex (as part of your guy's movement), then your guy is considered 1/2 DCV versus the other character.

To me, that sounds like the equivalent of "zone-of-control" and "Attack Of Opportunity".

I could be wrong, though. I rarely play D&D.

Re: Tactics

"Watch where you throw that grenade: the casualty radius is larger than you think"

"Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend."

Re: Tactics

Ignoring in-game chain of command. In most other kinds of campaigns, who is leader and how much power that leader has is negotiable between the players. But if we're a SWAT or SpecOps team, and my character is specifically in charge, then I expect my players to follow orders. And they don't (or do so rarely). It's very frustrating the few times we play such games (mostly Battletech), and I can't find a solution to the problem. Any punishment of the character is completely ignored, and any punishment of the player just draws the "But I'm playing in character" response. No, you're not. You're a member of a military unit and you're disobeying or ignoring direct orders.

 

The funny thing is, the one time I managed to enforce my authority and carry a planned tactic all the way out, everyone was surprised by how effectively we defeated our opponents. The only casualty we had was from a freak critical shot to the head and a couple of damaged mechs. I still don't think anyone has made the connection.

I had this problem once.

We were playing FASA's "Star Trek", and all of the other players elected me captain of the ship.

However, the first ship-to-ship encounter we had, my captain started giving orders, and the players started getting pissed that I didn't ask them for their input first.

This was set during the TOS era, so there was no reason for them to expect my character to call a huddle like TNG in its worst moments.

Re: GM vs Player narrative authority

Here's another example of GM vs Player authority, from my own Fantasy HERO campaign this time.

For the very first time, instead of requiring individual spells, or Multipower spell pools, I allowed one guy to use a Variable Power Pool for his spells.

Things were going great, until after one battle, he went to heal another PC.

Now, in my world, the highest amount of Healing Aid available- without being a cleric or paladin of Chrylisti, the Goddess of Light, Healing and Knowledge- is 2d6. ONLY a cleric or paladin of Chrylisti can have higher than 2d6. That's her in her portfolio, so that's the way it works.

The wizards VPP was enough, rules-wise, that he COULD do 4d6, if I allowed him. But I told him it wasn't possible- he wasn't a cleric or paladin of Chrylisti. So no more than 2d6.

Player argued with me for almost 30 minutes.

Was I being a dick? Or was I right?

PS: I got into it over this on RPGNet one time. When I ran a D&D version of this same world, I stated that only a cleric or paladin of Chrylisti had could take Cure Heavy Wounds or greater. The most anyone else could do was Cure Light Wounds. One guy argued with me for over a dozen posts that I was doing it wrong.

Re: GM vs Player narrative authority

This is my opinion:

HERO System is specifically a GAME DESIGN TOOLKIT. It's a kit for the DM and/or players to tailor the game to THEIR specifications, and it SPECIFICALLY lays a lot of the game on the GM. Many, many things in the HERO System rules are listed "GM's Discretion", and even if some rules AREN'T labeled "GM's Discretion", the official assumption is the GM is allowed and encouraged to make judgement calls.

That's what GM's do- they make JUDGEMENT CALLS.

Re: GM vs Player narrative authority

I have noticed that most people that hate GMs came from a school where the GM/Player relationship was very adversarial. This is especially' date=' IMO, the case with D&D and the ilk. For many years, the Gygax school of thought was prevalent in that community.[/quote']

The way it looks to me (especially as evidenced by that discussion on That Other Board) is that they dislike the GM having power because their PCs are Special Little Snowflakes, and the player wants COMPLETE control over what happens to them. (Take a look at the discussion in the D&D/D20 subforum on Rolling For Hit Points for more evidence of this.)

 

That and the player in the original Post sounded like a munchkinny Rules Lawyer.

Re: GM vs Player narrative authority

On the GMs side, Player said Epic, player gets Epic.

 

He's lucky I wouldn't smash a full -5 in Hero Terms on him for Skill Rolls and a full 1/2 OCV, 1/2 DCV for CVs. That's Epic, that's like the video passed around years ago of the man so drunk he could barely walk through the liquor store, and that with help of the furniture.

 

Epic. Means above and beyond.

That's pretty much the way I would GM it.

The player says Epic, that doesn't mean he gets the basic Mod, it means EPIC.

Also, so many of the people in that thread seem to have a major HATE-on against GMs. Especially this quote:

Every time someone talks about the GM being "within their rights" I shudder involuntarily.

Gary (nightwind1 on RPGNet)

Re: Earlier version of the Champions Superteam

Oh, yeah. Forgot about them. I kind of liked that version of Defender.

Re: How to balance mages in high fnatasy.

We're talking epic fantasy here. So he throws his crummy little 10d6 fireball, and it goes "poot" on the city's defence shield. Laughing boy has just made 40 or 50 powerful wizards and warriors very angry. It makes no sense to think of epic fantasy like a mundane game: it doesn't play the same.

 

When I think epic fantasy, I think of things like Lord of light where one character uses his fireblast to write his name on the moon!

That was in "THE TICK", and the villain was Chairface Chippendale.

Re: Earlier version of the Champions Superteam

Fifth Edition had: The Champions- Defender, Sapphire, Ironclad, Nighthawk and Witchcraft.

Fourth Edition was: The Champions- Defender, Jaguar, Seeker, Solitaire, Quantum and Obsidian.

First through Third Editions had: The Guardians- Marksman, Flare, Giant, Rose and Icestar.

Re: Creepy Pics.

I got nothin'. But I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it was a pic of the helicopter made from a stuffed dead cat, that I've seen on a couple of other forums today.

Am I right?

Re: Rogues...and Soldiers...and Assassins...and...Gallery (Dark Champions Art)

The superheavy lifter VTOL I can buy' date=' but why does the attack chopper have contrarotating blades AND a tail rotor?[/quote']

Rule of Cool?

Re: Make Your Own Motivational Poster

Nice! I think I have a candidate for changing my FB avatar which is currently Picard's facepalm.

Here are a few you might be interested in (none were done by me):