Roter Baron

Re: Complicate the Person Above L. Marcus - The man who gave ice-cream headaches!!! (or is that a "creamache" then?)

Re: New Millennium: Worth mining? We I bought C: tNM "back in the days" I was excited to see a new version of the game becuas eit was advertised as an easier, more accessible version of HERO (had no problems with it, but heck - A NEW VERSION OF MY FAVOURITE GAME - WHOOHOOO!). Wasn't impressed with the system. Did not get the reason to have Body and Stun at the same level and with no connection between the two stats. Everything was "same, but slightly different", but not as accessible as the old 4th edition. The artwork was great though, and I wonder why this is not possible with todays Hero products. In that case I a see a regression which is now underway to get reduced - but layout- nad artwise New Millenium is still ahead of todays 5th edition. That's a shame.

Re: Complicate the Person Above Cancer has cookbooks in kitchen for all species on this planet - even for some that still have to be discovered. Some are still in the works of evolution, even!

Re: Complicate the Person Above And Enforcer84 ate all them doves - roasted over the dying fire of the Olympic Flame!

Re: Complicate the Person Above While sitting in the absolute Centre of the Universe and listening to insane gods and godlings playing the flute death tribble is thinking of altering human past - AGAIN!

Re: Complicate the Person Above Enforcer84 did also turn down Kirk - but only because the had a wonderful and healthy affair with Spock!

Re: Complicate the Person Above Not even the Pentagon knows exactly which operations Enforcer84 actually supervises and for what strange reasons he has this incredible 70ish beard and sideburns. I once heard a guy saying that it has something to do with a ultra-secret fashion conspiracy and a revival of disco. I never saw the man again - vanished!

Re: Complicate the Person Above L. Marcus is asleep in R'ley under the ocean waters and dreams while being dead and thus cannot die at all. HPL got the spelling wrong!

Re: I'm gone Nice! I am looking forward to hearing from you. Can give you a tour of my cozy little town (three castles, medieval houses, industrial museum, THE IRISH PUB ...) - mi casa, tu casa (yeah, my Spanish sucks).

Re: Euro-Villain Charater Challenge Thread I AM A EURO-VILLAIN! Nuff said ... no! Wait! My ten most favourite quotes: 1) "Ve haff vays of make you talk!" 2) "Oh, how pathetic - you whimper like your little sister before I shot her ..." [bLAM!] 3) "My admiration! I never imagined that somebody could endure such torture and live! Honestly, you are the first - but all things go stale after a while, don't they? ..." [bLAM!] 4) "My secret plan? There is nothing secret about it - I am going to kill you." 5) "Death by electrocution is too good for you." 6) "If you cooperate I will spare you and your friends from a slow and painful death - I'll make it a swift one!" 7) "I thought you were tougher than that!" 8) "NOBODY can withstand my POWER! NOT EVEN YOU!" 9) "I guess you consider yourself my "Nemesis". I can assure you that you are not - or did your wanting Greek tell you that "Nemesis" means "pest"?" 10) So you want to thwart my masterplan? Tell me, with a voice most soft: How do you do that with two smashed knees and a knife in your back?"

Re: I'm gone Sure its is a serious location. I am living in Hattingen, near Essen and Bochum at the heart of the Ruhr Area in Northrhine-Westphalia. That's unfortunatey not very near to Nuremberg (about 600 km = 450 miles) away, so no good for a night at the pub. But anyway - if you happen to be in Germany again, send me a message - maybe we can figure something out. What's your business in the Fatherland?

Re: 4th Edition supplements?? Hmmm, in retrospective I had more fun with Western Hero than with Horror Hero and cyber Hero combined. The background material was nicely done, the included adventure played out very nicely and a had almost everything you wanted to have (train robbers, Indians, a final shoot-out) and some short adventures that gave you more for your campaign. The Deadwood setting was excellent - if only the map had been better it would have been superb. There is a good list of equipment including prices - okay, some stats of Wild West legends might be a little bit high, and you can argue that a scorpion does not nee a Dex of 28, Speed 5 and Running 7", but that is minor to all the good things in the book. Definately worth the money. Horror Hero and Cyber Hero left me wanteing for some good stuff: Cyberhero feels like converted I.C.E.Cyberspace (which it is), Horror Hero has no feeling of it's own and is second or third (even forth) to other horror games on the market (be it CoC, Chill, Kult, Unknown Armies).

Re: Moden Ruins I also love the site for the Steel Mill part. I have been 5 times to pittsburgh and still have many friends and aquaintances there. And I do really love that city! Besides, my own home town is a former steel town and my late grandfather used to work there, so there is also a big interest in the industrial heritage of my area and the Pittsburgh area. Great site!

Re: Genres HERO GAMES may want to avoid (intended to be humorous) What about Anatomy Hero - the Game of Super Body Parts?

Re: I'm gone They always come back ... Hey, I did! It happens!! I am the living proof of it!!! See the light! See the LIIIIIIIIGHT!!! Anyway - all the best. And best regards to Pittsburgh. Have been there 5 times since 1994 and I just LOVE the city!

Re: Complicate the Person Above Cancer's avatar shows a caleidoscope of colors that only he can see with his eyes closed during a dark night on top of the Brocken Mountain in the Harz during Walpurgisnacht when the witches hold Unholy Sabbath with Satan and his Legion of Evil Wizards.

Re: How things have changed! I must say I agree. I have been a Hero enthusiast since 1988 and infected my whole group which is still enjoying the system for its flexibility in crating any kind of genre in the game (mostly FH and in the future Star Wars Hero). I am less enchanted. The good points balance out the bad ones pretty much and especially comabt is not that exciting actually. I think of it like some kind of chess - lots of tactics, lots of strategy, all based on the knowledge of the rules "Move here with your half move, ypu only get a minus 4 for range then!" - "He attacked on Phase 3 and 5, so he is a Speed 5 character. Let's see ...!" This is not the characters thinking about how to move or to wonder why their enmy is so fast - it's gamer's knowledge put to work. And drama goes away for me in the meantime. STUN and BODY is nice. END is a waste of time with most heroic characters The LUCK talent is a waste of points - buy levels and you won't need it. But what is most disenchnating to me is that there is a certain lack of "feeling" to Hero. Ten years ago it was there. The mechanics were basically the same, but CHAMPIONS felt like THE super game. Now it's a complicated engine - a TOOLBOX! But I don't want to play with tools, I want to play a game, a sexy game that inspires me to run it. Toolboxes seldom do that. I do also agree with Storn that STR is too cheap, especially in Fantasy campaigns. Yes, I know: "Charge more points!" Sure, I can take any game and change the rules - use a die 10 in D20 games to make it harder. But I don't like to have to change things to mak ethem more or less work. I'm German - I go by the book! I think waht is missing is the level of uncertainty with fantasy spells - and there is basically no difference in feel to superpowers. You usually only rolll less dice. Anyhow - will probably take a while till I run another Hero game. Will see how Stars Wars Hero does next week ...

Re: How things have changed! One thing I generally don't like with games is hwen new options or even whole new classes, rules, essentials are added on in later suplements. Some of you have already mentioned D20 which has also the "problem" that with OGL you can now play different kinds of classes that all shrea the same concept, the same name - but are different character classes. There is more than one "Sniper" class in the various books I own for D 20 Modern. Well, all you have to do is decide so the problem is not a big one, but I am more for clarity here. I think Palladium was the first company that really got into this "let's add some new classes" thing which was/is really, REALLY annoying for players because the new classes usually ROCK like in TOTALLY ROCK!!! and you got to stick with some lame 5th level what-not who still has to get 5 more levels to be on par with the newly created über-class character. Generally I prefer for some time easy rules games, and not too many options in combat. That is what I like about the basic combat concept of GURPS. Hero has a tendency to turn into "roleplayer's chess" as soon as combat starts - at least in my group with one player. It does not kill but hinders the gm sometimes to build up the exciting atmosphere of combat when everybody can break down every tiny little aspect of fightig into rule terms and judge the future outcome accordingly. One of Hero's strength sometimes turns out as a weak point. I am not advocation a "rock & scissors"-system, but a system that addresses the genre best - sometimes less is more and add-ons are not always neccessary.

Re: Patriotic Heroes Hmmm ... when I hear "Barbariossa I either think of (a) Friedrich Barbarossa, the historic Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation who died during the 3. Crusade ( the same guy, but now sitting in the Kyffhäuser Mountain with this red beard grown through a table (he has been sitting there for QUITE A WHILE) waiting for his come-back when Germany is in big trouble (must have been on vacation during WW 1 and 2 and is still taking a nap) © the German offensive agaisnt the Soviet Union during WW2 The first is an okay image but boring for a superhero (to historic, not heroic enough), the second is justt boring (you could the also call him "Old Man Napping") and the third is unheroic. So I'd say - NAAAH! Hauptmann Deutschland does not sound nearly as well to German ears as Captain America sound s to American ears. Too militaristic perhaps - dunno. Maybe just the word Hauptmann does not have the same ring. And Kapitän is a no go - that's the captain of a ship.

Re: Patriotic Heroes What about Feldwebel Freiheit (Sgt. Freedom)? Deutsche Einheit (German Unity)? Der Bundesadler (Federal Eagle)? Or just Der Adler (The Eagle)? Schwarz-Rot-Gold (Black-Red-Yellow - The Teutonic Triblings)? Vaterland (Fatherland)? Hauptmann Hoffnung (Captain Hope)? Einigkeit (Unity), Recht (Justice) and Freiheit (Freedom) [three heroes]? Hauptmann Schwarz-Rot-Gold (Capt. Black-Red-Gold]? Just in case anybody out there needs German Patriotic herioes that are not neo-nazis or reactionary to boot.

Re: Wunderwaffen!!! - Secret German Warmachines of WW 2 Has anybody any more bogus wunderwaffen for me to write bogus background stories for? I am bored here!!!

Re: Wunderwaffen!!! - Secret German Warmachines of WW 2 Basically? Yeah.

Re: Wunderwaffen!!! - Secret German Warmachines of WW 2

Re: Wunderwaffen!!! - Secret German Warmachines of WW 2 This is a recording of an impromptu hearing on the loss of app. 413 Allied bombers and fighter planes during an air raid on January 31st, 1945. Participants are Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, all members of the war government of the UK, the Generals De Gaulle and Eisenhower and William D. Donovan, head of the O.S.S. - several other secret service or military personell were also present but remain unlisted. The audio-recording is to be stored as a TOP SECRET document in the vaults of the Ministry of War. It is not no be disclosed till February 1st, 2046. "Mr. Prime Minister, Members of his Majesty's Government, Generals, Gentlemen! It seems that the rumours about a new German fighter plane are true. As you all know we lost about 50% of our bombers during last Friday's offensive over Düsseldorf and Hamburg - and only one plane reached the outskirts of Berlin and came back! We are supposed to have air superiority! That is - until two days ago. On the picture that I are about to show you we see one of the new squadrons that attacked our planes - the German propaganda refers to their new "wunderwaffe" as the MESSERSCHMIDT ME- 666 Strahlenflieger "Fledermaus". The Plane seems to have two modes of flying - regular and - as you see with the middle plane - dive-attack mode. According to rough estimation by Spitfire and Hurricane crews who got away from what can only be described as a massacer in the sky these "Bats" are with regular flying mode as fast as our fighter planes going top speed and in dive-attack mode about twice as fast. All these facts are undeniable and I know that you and your nations now want an answer to the question: How can we cancel this threat? The situation is indeed a dire one. At the moment the R.A.F. and American planes defend the British capital against these newly appeared flying machines from hell, but how long can they prevent London to turn into ashes by this New Blitz ...?" - [voices of Churchill and Eisenhower, several others - incomprehensible] "Yes, gentlemen. YES! I said from HELL! And I mean it! Look: two weeks ago the Germans had hardly any fuel to lift a dozen planes from the ground and keep them in the air for 30 minutes - let alone capable pilots. And now, all the sudden, they have about 50 of these machines, gasoline without limit and enough highly trained pilots to man and fly these machines for hours and hours. We have reports on our hand that suggest that some of these machines were involved in ACTIVE FIGHTING for 8 hours without refueling, fighting first above Düsseldorf, then Hamburg and then they wiped out our bombers - or what was left of them - while they were trying to retreat to the U.K." "You and I, we are all rational men. And because of that we have to take into account all the information about German mystical research. You all thought, and I hoped faithfully, that this was all part of Himmler's mumbo-jumbo believes or - in my case - that the Allied military advances would destroy the Nazi dreams of a new supernatural miracle weapon. Alas, we were wrong. But not all is lost: I offer you my help! And Mr. Donovan has already second my idea to set up a circle of mystics and psychics to find ways to keep the hellish "Fledermaus"-Planes away from British cities and to work on a counter-spell. Mr. Donovan has all my proposals for the needed personell and resources for this most important enterprise. Please allow me to leave you now and to await the results of your considerations." (End of recording) The voice of the speaker was later identified as that of the famous mystic-psychic Dr. Harold van Helsing-Brown, called "The Sorceror in Scarlet"

Re: Wunderwaffen!!! - Secret German Warmachines of WW 2