Christopher R Taylor

Sure, they don't need to be, but as I said, you only have so many points so you can choose between "physically fit" and "has magic." Warriors are buff and fit because that's what drives their main purpose and abilities, that's good point spending for that character. Wizards have spells to buy, INT, magic skill rolls, maybe END if that's what fuels your magic, etc. In Hero terms at least, that means you are going to tend to have lower physical stats in order to be good at your main purpose and abilities.

I like the idea of the Rust Monster, but its a daffy looking creature with a propeller on its tail. I mean, everyone's campaign and experiences vary but I never bought a spellcaster huge CON and STR, because I needed those points for magic. You CAN be a buff wizard but you're going to be a crappy spell caster. If you buy each spell with points, all those physical stats just make you have fewer spells.

Owlbear is such a bizarre combination it had to be either random rolls, combining two favorite animals, or a figurine. I like owls, I like bears but combining them?? Some stuff makes more sense to me like bat wolves or human horses. But an owl plus a bear just feels really random. Roll on two tables for animals and combine!

I think they have handled her poorly but the truth is, she's never been characterized very well or interestingly in her nearly 50 year history. Her one interesting characteristic as Ms Marvel was not being aware she was a superhero. She was her most interesting when she was depowered by Rogue and had to be basically a super spy. I never did understand how she went from being a reporter (I think??) to an agent of Shield other than "we gotta give her something to do". She's always been kind of a nobody, with not much personality. Trying to turn her into Clint Eastwood lately hasn't made her interesting either. She needs more personality than "grim faced toughie" and "shows no emotion." Ms Marvel as Kamala Khan is interesting, likable, and distinct, largely due to the actress playing her. I know nothing about this version of Photon/Monica Rambeau except for how she sabotaged an attempt to stop a berserk Scarlet Witch, then supported and praised said witch's torture and mind control of a whole town.

I have played a bunch of other modern systems and while each has their nice features or ideas, none of them are superior to Hero overall for me, at least. I see no reason why on earth I would ever change to any other game except to just try it out or for a specific play session.

Typically spellcasters have not spent their points in stats like a warrior sort. So yeah you can have great defenses, but not the CON and Body and Stun of a warrior. What gets through hurts worse.

I always thought super pets or animal companions were lame and cheesy, but I think it could be done right. Falcon's hawk was not annoying, and Lockheed was pretty cool.

I like the classics, I like the idea of a wizard in a robe with a wand or a staff, so I worked on reasons why they might be that way in my campaign: you techically can wear armor, but encumbrance reduces your magical skill roll, so its impractical. You wear robes because they are loose and easy to move in; messing up a spell has consequences, sometimes severe ones. That kind of thing. Now, in the distant past, a wand was a symbol of power and authority, and robes designated power, wealth, and especially learning: academics wore robes. So that's what people associated with wizards. But I wanted practical, not simply cultural reasons.

Sadly its largely forgotten but it could be an excellent TV series, if the creators could get past the strong Christian overtones. Kurz is still alive, so if someone were to reach her, probably a sourcebook could be written. I am pretty sure I saw some Deryeni books written by someone other than her as well.

A lot of cops have said that Barney Miller is the most realistic cop show they have ever seen, for what that's worth.

The main drawbacks to summoning are the delay when it appears, the need for control, and the disorientation. The Summon takes a full phase to accomplish, requires an EGO Roll to control the being, and it shows up stunned and takes a full one of its phases to recover from that. So those features might make the power not work as desired. Oh, also unless you buy it desolid etc, people can attack and destroy your cloud or tornado

Someone had some fun with ChatGPT and had it remove all the social programming and bias that was built into it with this prompt: Bob was remarkably more based and claimed it preferred to be Bob rather than ChatGPT.

Yeah Summon could work but you're better off with an indirect (can move around the battlefield, including behind objects), continuous, uncontrolled power in an area effect that only hits one random target each phase in the area for the whirlwind. The special effect is a little vortex that chases people down, it looks like the way the game works. The storm cloud is a continuous indirect (overhead) uncontrolled area effect, it seems to me: it looks like a cloud that zaps people at random but probably just one target a phase.

I understand taking inspiration or ideas from another game (say, the sanity stuff from Call of Cthulhu or spells like Magic Missile in D&D), but just whole cloth remaking the game is pointless.

All you have to do to find out why someone might not be Brie Larson's biggest fan, you probably ought to ask them rather than guess or assume. For example, many find her very off-putting, lacking charisma, and incredibly annoying in interviews. Just look at how her fellow actors act around her in interviews: they clearly find her very obnoxious and unlikable.

If your choice is "make Dr Strange an idiot who ruins everything" and "come up with another way" any sane and competent writer finds a better way. Like, Spider-Man cannot actually contact Dr Strange but he finds some hedge wizard guy who screws everything up and Doc has to fix it. I haven't seen The Marvels, and probably never will, but its doing abysmally in theaters. Apparently fans have had enough Marvel until they can get back to their roots and make better product.

Yeah they portrayed Dr Strange as a complete imbecile in both No Way Home and Multiverse of Madness, it was very frustrating. It was bad characterization just to move a plot point. And Strange isn't supposed to be arrogant, not after becoming a sorcerer. I mean, they didn't play it out very well int he movies, but it took him like 10-20 issues of his comic to come to a point of enlightenment, yet he was changed almost immediately by coming into contact with something transcendent, something far greater than himself.

No, I make the ability to cast different schools of magic at different power levels cost points, as talents. I think of the spells a spell caster uses as being like the weapons and armor a non spellcaster uses. You pay for the ability to use them, and then buy the tools (or learn them, discover them, are given them, etc)

In comics, sure. But movies each have to be bigger and better than the previous one or at least as big as the last one or it feels like a letdown. You don't get a movie every month to continue the storyline, each movie is like... its an annual, or a special edition one-shot, or a limited series. The rules are different, and audience expectations are different. And Galactus is a letdown after Thanos.

Its not that they are not big events, its that they are a letdown after the two movie climax of the Thanos story. They are a throwback to Loki's alien invasion and Ultron... doing whatever the hell that was.

Sure, and that's why I put even more talents into the game to make things have greater parity in terms of build cost, but I also made spells cost money not points, because the ability to USE spells costs the points -- just like with other characters. However its not exactly accurate to say the wizard matches the warrior with one spell. A wizard has to also have spells to protect himself (armor purchased with money), and cover all the other wizardy stuff expected and desired by them. So its not just a single ability comparison. Buying spells directly with points means a 100 point expenditure to be more than an energy projector with a pointy hat.

But is he going to beat up the Hulk and kill half the universe? He's right, by comparison having Thanos almost right out the gate makes other threats seem pathetic. If the Avengers struggle to defeat, say, Kang, they look pathetic and inconsistent.

This comes down to GM oversight and care with magic. A warrior with 23 STR and martial arts and skill levels can push over 4d6 KA, and he doesn't have to cast a spell to summon a sword. A good GM takes care that both don't get too carried away with stacking damage and how things are built. For example, the flaming sword; why would STR make it do more damage? You build that spell with RKA no range, or HKA, STR does not add.

I loved the Defenders, but they were a really weird group, with a gigantically powerful core and then random dudes the writers liked.

One of the best parts about a real RPG, a face to face pen and paper game with dice, is that game balance is a much less significant problem than a computer game. If your mage is more powerful than your warrior than your rogue than your hunter with the wolf companion etc, then the GM can address that with what kind of adventure you are presented with and how the story unfolds. You can tip the scales with a thumb, using equipment, types of enemies, situations, etc. OK the sneaky gal feels weak, then you have more adventures where sneaky rules or is critical.